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Upper Mississippi and Great Lakes Region JV Joint Venture Management Board The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service definition for joint venture is “a self-directed partnership of agencies, organizations, corporations, tribes, or individuals that has formally accepted the responsibility of implementing national or international bird conservation plans within a specific geographic area or for a specific taxonomic group, and has received general acceptance in the bird conservation community for such responsibility” (USFWS 2002). Working both collectively and independently, JV partners conduct activities in support of bird conservation goals cooperatively developed by the partnership. Upper Mississippi and Great Lakes Region JV
At 260 million acres (104 million ha) the Upper Mississippi River and Great Lakes is one of the largest and most diverse JV regions in the U. S. The UMRGL JV administrative region has been unchanged since 1998, encompassing all or portions of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Waterfowl Foundation The original Implementation Plan for the Upper Mississippi River and Great Lakes Region JV was finalized in 1993 and updated in 1998. At that time JV partners mutually agreed to safeguard the waterfowl habitats of the nation's only inland coastal area – the Great Lakes – plus interior wetlands, including the floodplains of four of the country's major river systems – the lower Missouri, upper Mississippi, the Illinois, and Ohio. JV habitat conservation objectives included protection, restoration, and enhancement of 590,000 acres of waterfowl breeding habitat and 165,000 acres of migration habitat. The 1998 JV update also included provisions for protecting or increasing habitat for upland wildlife species that are associated with wetland habitats, and that of declining non-waterfowl migratory birds, as long as the efforts were consistent with waterfowl objectives. All-Bird Evolution Subsequently, continental conservation plans were developed for landbirds, shorebirds, and waterbirds (colonial nesting waterbirds, wading birds and secretive marsh birds), and the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) evolved to help provide coordination between continental plans. In the spirit of cooperation and partnership, the UMGL JV Management Board pledged in a 2001 Resolution to conduct all-bird conservation, accommodating other bird groups while implementing the NAWMP. Joint Venture Management Board Bird conservation activities of the JV partnership are coordinated by the JV Management Board, a self-directed group of individuals interested in furthering the JV mission. Joint Venture Management Board Charter and By-laws (46.3KB Word doc)
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