OutdoorNebraska

11 TOWARD COMPREHENSIVE MANAGEMENT Despite the many successes of the FOP program, pheasant abundance con nues to decline in some regions. Losses of CRP and other grasslands over the last five years, par cularly in eastern Nebraska, spurred renewed interest in conduc ng another thorough examina on of all our pheasant management programs and approaches to ensure they were as effec ve as possible. Mee ngs were held with NGPC Commissioners, administra on, staff and partners to assess the strengths and weaknesses of exis ng programs, and to assess the opportuni es for new ac ons and threats to exis ng programs (SWOT analysis). The group also be er defined precisely what new or exis ng programs should try to accomplish, and how to carry them out. As a result of this work, the following objec ve and guiding principles were adopted, and this plan was constructed around them: Objective: • Produce the best pheasant hun ng experiences for the largest number of people possible over the next five year Guiding Principles: • We will consider all manageable aspects of the pheasant hun ng experience, with habitat and hunter access(par cularly for youth) remaining our cornerstone ac vi es • We will concentrate work where it will be most effec ve (i.e., where habitat, hunter access, and community support come together) based on sound science • We will set realis c management targets and expecta ons, and use our financial and human resources as efficiently as possible to meet them • We will foster strong partnerships with other public en es, private conserva on organiza ons, and local communi es in reaching our shared goals To define what "all manageable aspects of the pheasant hun ng experience" were in rela on to the objec ve, we constructed a conceptual model to iden fy factors that impact Nebraska's pheasant hunters' percep on of their experiences (Figure 1). The model proposes four primary driving factors ("drivers") that influence those experiences, each working within a policy and funding environment, and further iden fies a suite of factors that can impact each. Strategies and tac cs were then iden fied for each factor that was deemed amenable to management in some way by NGPC or our partners. This resulted in a comprehensive plan that seeks to improve the en rety of the pheasant hun ng experience in the state. Finally, we es mated the resources that would be needed to implement the habitat and hunter access recommenda ons in the plan, as those composed our cornerstone ac vi es. Those results are detailed in Appendices A and B. We also compiled all the research and informa on needs iden fied in the tac cs; those are listed in Appendix C. Drivers, Strategies and Tactics Tactic Key: Con nue… = Tac c that is currently employed and should con nue Begin… = Tac c that is not currently employed but should begin Assess… = Tac c that requires more analysis before proceeding

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