Wildlife Summit Regional Workgroup Meeting Set

Idaho Fish and Game's southeast regional office has scheduled the first meeting of the Wildlife Summit Regional Workgroup for Wednesday, March 6. The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. at the Idaho Fish and Game office at 1345 Barton Rd., Pocatello. Wildlife Summit Regional Workgroups will be convening all over the state in the next couple of months for the purpose of continuing the conversation that was started last August during the statewide Wildlife Summit. And it will be the task of the workgroups to address those wildlife conservation and management challenges that were identified during the Wildlife Summit. The first of many challenges to be addressed at the first Regional Workgroup meeting will be identifying strategies to boost funding for the Wildlife Diversity Program. The role of the Wildlife Diversity program is to work with Idaho residents and conservation partners to maintain natural, self-sustaining populations of native "nongame" wildlife species to benefit Idaho residents and our visitors. The Wildlife Diversity Program receives no funding from the sale of hunting or fishing licenses. It operates on a budget funded through the sale of wildlife license plates, voluntary state tax check-offs, and other donations. This income is then used to leverage matching federal funds through state wildlife grants and challenge cost shares. Fish and Game and the Idaho Fish and Game Commission are eager to build on the momentum of the Wildlife Summit with the meeting of the regional workgroups. Just as with the Wildlife Summit, the Idaho regional workgroup participants will represent a diversity of wildlife interests and viewpoints and will work to prioritize action items they feel will best help meet the public's needs, desires, and expectations for wildlife management in Idaho. The public is encouraged to attend and participate in next week's regional workgroup meeting in Pocatello. For more information about this meeting or how to contribute to this process, please contact Mark Gamblin or Jennifer Jackson with Fish and Game at 208-232-4703.