CONCORD, NH - Are you "wild about New Hampshire"? That's a question the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department is asking people around the state as part of the ten-year revision of the state's Wildlife Action Plan. Since 2005, the original Wildlife Action Plan has guided statewide efforts to protect threatened wildlife and their habitats so species don't become endangered. The ten-year revision is required by states in order for them to qualify for State Wildlife Grant funds from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which sustain wildlife conservation throughout the country. The revised plan will guide ecologists, private landowners and decision-makers from statewide agencies, municipalities and non-profit organizations as they tackle the threats facing New Hampshire's wildlife through 2026.

On May 15, NH Fish and Game will launch an online survey to get public input on priorities, concerns and actions that will help inform the mandatory update of the Wildlife Action Plan. All those who care about wildlife and their habitats are urged to make their voices heard by taking the online survey between May 15 and May 29 at http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/wildlife/wap-input.html.

Glenn Normandeau, Executive Director of NH Fish and Game, says the Wildlife Action Plan is one of the most cost-effective tools the state has to protect important wildlife and the habitats they need to survive. "The Wildlife Action Plan helps us coordinate efforts to both protect threatened and endangered species, as well as to keep common species common," says Normandeau. "It's far less expensive to protect the land and water that wildlife needs to thrive than it is to restore species and habitat once they've been lost."

The Wildlife Action Plan does many things, such as providing detailed maps of priority habitats that state agencies, towns, regional planning departments and conservation organizations can use to establish land protection and management priorities. In the last ten years, an additional 230,000 acres of land has been conserved in New Hampshire, much of which was identified as important habitat in the Wildlife Action Plan. "It's been an extremely crucial blueprint for us," says Brian Hart, Executive Director of the Southeast New Hampshire Land Trust. "We have to be very strategic about where we focus our limited conservation dollars. The Wildlife Action Plan is instrumental in helping us make these difficult decisions."

"New Hampshire has made some exciting progress in ten years," says John Kanter, Supervisor of NH's Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program. "For example, we have made substantial progress toward the recovery of the state and federally endangered Karner blue butterfly, and we have played a leading role in the effort to prevent the need for federal protection of the New England cottontail by restoring hundreds of acres of habitat and contributing to a successful captive breeding program. New research and survey efforts have laid the foundation for conserving Blanding's turtle and other endangered and threatened reptiles."

But not all the news is good. The number of species on the list of greatest concern has increased from 118 in 2005 to 177 now, and the kinds of threats to wildlife are changing. "Ten years ago, no one anticipated a fungus would decimate the state's bat population," says Kanter. "The revised list of Species of Greatest Conservation Need now includes three species of bats that have been all but wiped out by a disease that has spread from the Northeast through the Midwest and south and infected the caves and mines where bats hibernate all winter."

The 2015 Wildlife Action Plan is slated for completion in September. It will include dozens of recommendations for actions at the local and state level.

For more information about the revision of New Hampshire's Wildlife Action Plan, please visit http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/wildlife/wap-input.html