RESTON, VA (April 25, 2019) — The National Wildlife Federation has made critical progress in implementing its strategic plan and undertaking critical organizational steps to become an even more effective, resilient, diverse, inclusive and equitable conservation organization. The organization’s progress, outlined in its Action Report 2018: Advancing a Common Agenda for Wildlife, highlights work on each of the National Wildlife Federation’s 13 goals as well as its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice principles.

“The National Wildlife Federation has worked tirelessly to transform our strategic plan from mere words on a page into collaborative action on the ground, building on our existing body of work, and initiating bold new efforts to align the scale of our conservation work with the challenges confronting wildlife, habitats and people,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “At a time when some doubt whether our nation still has the ability to enact solutions of the magnitude of the problems we face, the National Wildlife Federation is proving that we can rise to meet these challenges and achieve conservation victories in any political environment.

“The Action Report summarizes our progress in year-one of the strategic plan and underscores how the National Wildlife Federation is evolving as an organization to best position itself for increasing its impact and achieving its ambitious vision for conservation. This includes changes designed to make the Federation an even more effective, resilient, equitable and collaborative organization.”

Key accomplishments include:

• Working with lawmakers across the aisle to include a federal wildfire funding fix as part of the spending bill passed in March 2018. The reform will dramatically increase funding for forest and wildland restoration and enhance wildlife habitat on nearly 193 million acres of public lands.
• Working with lawmakers to pass a strong, bipartisan Farm Bill with strong conservation provisions, which will ensure America’s farmers and ranchers can continue to play a leading role in wildlife conservation and in the stewardship of our land, water and natural resources.
• Building support for and working with lawmakers of both parties to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund and achieve dozens of important conservation designations and program authorizations, as part of the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act.
• Supporting the passage of the bipartisan 2018 Water Resources Development Act, which included the largest expansion of drinking water investments in a generation and will help advance the Corps of Engineers’ use of natural features, like wetlands and floodplains, for improving community resilience of flood- and storm-damage.
• Working with communities and lawmakers to build support for the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which ended 2018 with more than 115+ bipartisan House co-sponsors.
• Developing and implementing one of the strongest codes of conduct in the conservation sector — based on the organization’s staff- and board-adopted core values of collaboration, empowerment, inclusivity, mindfulness, and mission focus — including mandatory workplace conduct and anti-harassment training.
• Reaching our four-year goal of 400 cities, counties, and towns participating in the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge.
• Encouraging the continuous improvement of staff and managers by creating new leadership trainings, including a module on addressing unconscious bias.
• Supporting environmental literacy and education programming for more than 4.8 million children via our Eco-Schools USA and Schoolyard Habitats® programs.
• Supporting the Choose Clean Water Coalition, which the National Wildlife Federation hosts, secured $73 million for the Chesapeake Bay Program, including $6 million for Small Watershed Grants and $6 million for Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants — resources that will lead to projects that return clean water and healthy habitats to the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
• Promoting responsibly developed offshore wind as a clean energy source has paid off with over 15,000 megawatts (MW) now committed by Atlantic states, nearly 2,000 MW of specific projects under contract, and new federal lease areas auctioned with more in process. Many of these wins are due to partnerships with state affiliates in New Jersey (a commitment of 3,500 MW by 2030), New York (a commitment of 9,000 MW by 2035), and Massachusetts (an authorization increasing the state’s commitment to 3,200 MW).
• Reaching more than 6,000 farmers with our Cover Crop Champions program, which uses a peer-to-peer model to promote adoption of this sustainable farming practice.