92 



FlSHEiOES AND WiLDUFE ASSESSMENT 



THE Foundation's Fisheries and 

 Wildlife Assessment is pub- 

 lished annually for U.S. 

 Congressional members and 

 their staff, for the Executive Branch, and 

 for conservation organizations. It pro- 

 vides the only nongovernmental, line- 

 item by line-item budget analysis of 

 major federal agencies that have signifi- 

 cant natural resource management and 

 stewardship responsibilities. Since its 

 inception in 1987, this annual study has 

 become an influential guide to Congres- 

 sional appropriations for these agencies 



Land Management, the Department of 

 Agriculture, and the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service. 



In addition to providing indices of the 

 success of existing federal natural 

 resource programs, the assessment is 

 designed to offer an analysis of budget- 

 ary shortfalls and the adequacy of 

 current policy directions. The assessment 

 documents are used extensively by key 

 Congressional staff on both the authoriz- 

 ing and appropriating committees, in 

 particular, they have had a major impact 

 .in I oiv^n-ssi.in.il deliberations in the 



The inspiration for the assessment came 

 from Members of Congress, particularly 

 those on the Appropriations Commit- 

 tees, who were seeking nonbiased, 

 comprehensive information for their 

 analyses of the effectiveness of federal 

 natural resource programs. 



The assessment also represents the 

 Foundation's policy analysis arm. It 

 enables the Foundation to produce 

 detailed line-item analyses of the annual 

 budgets of the six federal natural 

 resource agencies: the U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service, USDA-Forest Service, 

 the National Park Service, the Bureau of 



past several fiscal years' budgets, which 

 contained unprecedented allocations for 

 important conservation work. 



The Fisheries and Wildlife Assessment 

 is successful in part because of its scope; 

 it is the only nonfederal analysis that 

 covers an agency's entire budget and the 

 range of issues with which each agency 

 must cope Its success may also be 

 attributed to its attempt to show pro- 

 gram accomplishments so that Congres- 

 sional staff will have a clear concept of 

 how appropriated monies are spent. 

 Finally, the assessment does not hesitate 

 to criticize an agency's performance if 



criticism is warranted. However, judg- 

 ments are made in a constructive 

 fashion, seeking instead to fmd the root 

 causes of failure and to propose altema- 

 tive solutions. The assessment has often 

 caused federal agencies to alter policies 

 so as to address criticisms. 



The Foundation is recognized for its 

 ability to develop innovative public ' 

 policy solutions to natural resource 

 problems. These policy solutions, 

 buoyed by the conservation projects the 

 Foundation funds, ha\e the potential to 

 become prototypes for national pro- 

 grams because they are provided 

 through the Fisheries and Wildlife 

 Assessment to Congress and the Execu- 

 tive Branch. 



Funding for natural resource agencies 

 has been traditionally a low priority for 

 decades. Nevertheless, the Foundation 

 has been exceedingly successful in 

 helping increase agency budgets. For 

 example, between 1982 and 1986, 

 ftinding for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service rose by 34 percent. Following 

 the initiation of the Fisheries and 

 Wildlife Assessment in 1987. the budget 

 for that agency has increased by 63 

 percent. This translates into an addi- 

 tional $226 million for the Service's 

 operating budget. Between 1982 and 

 1986. allocations to the U.S. Forest 

 Service's Wildlife and Fish Management 

 program rose by only 12 percent. 

 However, from 1987 to 1992, funding 

 for these high-priority programs in- 

 creased by a dramatic 170 percent. 



Greater funding for these agencies 

 means increased and enhanced conser- 

 vation programs to save our nation's 

 dwindling wildlife and fisheries, habitats 

 and ecosystems. 



Major Foundation donors to the 

 Fisheries and Wildlife Assessment Pro- 

 gram in 1992 include Tudor Farms, the 

 George Gund Foundation, the Curtis 

 and Edith Munson Foundation. Inc., The 

 McKnight Foundation. The Joyce Foun- 

 dation, and the Surdna Foundation, Inc. 



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