2025 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

Pre-registration and additional fees are required for participation. If you signed up online, you will receive a ticket in your registration materials.

HALF DAY AM- 9AM-12PM
Fee: Student - $10; Professional $20
Contact: Brielle Thompson, Postdoc fellow, University of Missouri, brielle.thompson@missouri.edu
Co-Organizer: Mike Colvin, US Geological Survey, Columbia Environmental Research Center

Overview:
Fish and wildlife management involves making difficult decisions concerning natural resource problems. Familiar natural resource problems may include decisions on how many acres of land must be protected, how an endangered species should be reintroduced, whether an agency should conduct more monitoring of an invasive species, etc. The field of decision analysis offers tools such as Structured Decision Making (SDM) to help frame, structure, and identify solutions for such problems. Various Federal and State fish and wildlife agencies are increasingly using SDM to ensure a streamlined, fair, unbiased, and organized decision-making process. This workshop will provide an introduction to SDM and its key components: framing the natural resource management problem; articulating objectives; developing management actions and alternatives; using forecasting tools to evaluate the consequences, or outcomes, of alternatives; and using tradeoff methods to identify management alternatives when decisions involve multiple competing objectives. Throughout the workshop the instructors will provide real world case study examples and offer opportunities for participatory discussion. The workshop will end with a hands-on protype experience of a SDM process.

Intended Audience: Students and Professionals; beginner to advanced material covered

Pre-registration and additional fees are required for participation. If you signed up online, you will receive a ticket in your registration materials.

Fee: $10
Contact: David Hoffman, Natural Resource Tech, IA DNR, David.Hoffman@dnr.iowa.gov

Overview:
The workshop would cover varies wildlife techniques from capturing waterfowl, pheasants, trumpeter swans, otters, bobcats, gray fox, sandhill cranes and whitetail deer. It would cover past and proven techniques as well as some new out of the box ideas to spark new innovative ideas. Techniques from bait traps, to leg snares, to camera traps and everything in between.

Intended Audience: Students and Professionals; Beginner to advanced levels covered. The workshop would allow flexibility to meet the needs of the audience level attending

Many conservation foundations focus on special events to provide funding for their agencies. Is this the best way to utilize your time? During this roundtable discussion, we'll explore with foundation executives and conservation leaders creative and strategic opportunities to fund projects and programming through annual giving, major and planned gifts, foundations and government funding. We will look at individuals, businesses, foundations, NGOs, and government models that have worked and can be used to make your fundraising operation more successful and support your most important conservation programs.

Agenda
1:00 - 2:00 p.m. : Update from Midwest participants of fundraising and programming successes in 2024 into 2025.
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.: Fundraising for conservation programs.

• Special Events
• Annual Giving
• Major and planned gifts
• Foundations
• Cause related fundraising
• local Government
• State Government
• Federal Government
• Funding of Programs
• Capital Campaigns

Models:

• Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation: Capital Campaign for Johnny Morris Institute for Fisheries, Wetlands, and Aquatic Systems.
• Midway Foundation and Arkansas Impact Fund.
• University of Memphis/Arkansas State University Groundwater Partnership.
• Missouri Mitigation Programs: Stream Stewardship Trust Fund and Bat Habitat Program.
• Tennessee's model for Capital Projects for Higher Education: S-3: Students, Supporters, State.
• Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries, Parks, Marine Foundation Heritage 100 program.