CONTACT:
Mickayla Johnston: 603-271-6544
Michael Marchand: 603-271-2461
March 7, 2024

Concord, NH – Every 10 years, a revision of New Hampshire’s Wildlife Action Plan is required, and the process has formally started to ensure completion in 2025. Since 2005, the NH Wildlife Action Plan has guided statewide efforts to protect threatened wildlife and their habitats in order to prevent at-risk species from becoming endangered. This update at the 10-year mark is obligatory for states in order to qualify for State Wildlife Action Grant funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which helps to sustain wildlife conservation throughout the country. The revised plan will guide ecologists, private landowners, and decision makers from Granite State agencies, municipalities, and non-profit organizations as they strive to minimize the threats facing New Hampshire’s diverse wildlife populations.

Fish and Game, in partnership with dozens of organizations, agencies, universities, and municipalities from across the state, are guided by the NH Wildlife Action Plan during land use planning and decision making, landscape conservation planning, and species and habitat management and conservation.

The first step in the revision process calls for NH Fish and Game biologists and wildlife experts from across the Northeast to determine what New Hampshire wildlife should be classified as Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN). This list the foundation of the NH Wildlife Action Plan—they are the Granite State’s species that are most vulnerable because of declining numbers, loss of habitat, and a variety of other threats. The primary goal of this revision process and the NH Wildlife Action Plan is recovering rare species and keeping common species common. By protecting SGCNs, all of New Hampshire’s 500+ wildlife species can benefit.

Once the list of SGCNs has been compiled, NH Fish and Game will collaborate with ecologists and biologists from many agencies and conservation groups to examine and rank threats to species and their habitats with the objective of developing strategies to protect them. The NH Wildlife Action Plan will afford information, data, and maps to state and federal agencies, municipalities, regional planners, universities, and conservation organizations to help make decisions regarding land use, development, and conservation.

The 2025 proposed list of SGCNs is now available. To view the list or to learn more about the NH Wildlife Action Plan and its revision visit www.wildlife.nh.gov/wildlife-and-habitat/nh-wildlife-action-plan.