Addressing Threats through Conservation Actions

Conservation Actions are the measures taken to eliminate, minimize, or mitigate the impacts of the issues facing Delaware’s Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) and their habitats. This chapter addresses Element 4 and presents the actions the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Division of Fish and Wildlife (DNREC DFW) and its partners developed and prioritized to address Elements 1, 2, and 3.  

The Delaware Wildlife Action Plan Revision conservation planning process began with the 2015 plan as the foundation and updated it using the best, most current, local, state, regional, and national information on threats and actions. This draft list was refined through a process of input involving partners and stakeholders to identify the highest priority actions recommended over the next decade. The DEWAP process applied standardized “taxonomies” for organizing information and actions (primarily the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP) system), coordinated with the 13 Northeast states and D.C. in the development of the Northeast Lexicon (Crisfield and NEFWDTC 2022). Delaware’s conservation actions and research, survey, and monitoring needs are presented using these terms and categories in this chapter and are organized by the key issue they address. 

Regional Context and Priority Actions Identified by Northeast Wildlife Action Plans 

The fourteen 2015 Northeast State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) identified and prioritized conservation actions for each state in the region. Those actions served as a framework for the development of priority actions for addressing top regional threats to priority species and their key habitats at the landscape, watershed, and seascape level across the Northeast. These actions ranged from broad, overarching regional steps to be taken across state boundaries over large landscapes, watersheds, or seascapes and affecting multiple taxa (as recommended by the Landscape Conservation Report (AFWA 2021), to finer-scale actions that address individual species, habitats, or locations.  

Information was compiled from the 2015 SWAPs, the Regional Conservation Needs (RCN) program, other key regional partners, and data sources that have become available since the 2015 SWAPs. The Northeast Fish and Wildlife Diversity Technical Committee (NEFWDTC) Technical Services project used the NE SWAP Database version 1.0 (TCI and NEFWDTC 2015) to analyze and synthesize this information in its 2017 SWAP Synthesis (TCI and NEFWDTC 2017). With additional input from its Taxonomic Teams, SWAP Coordinators, and Threat Working Groups, the NEFWDTC developed seven overarching regional conservation action themes. These broad regional actions call for developing and providing information on Northeast conservation priorities (Elements 1 and 2), addressing the top regional threats to these priority species and habitats (Elements 3 and 4), then evaluation of those actions to deliver the most effective regional conservation across the region (Elements 5, 6) with coordination and communication interwoven in all elements, but specifically addressed in Elements 7 and 8. 

These priority regional actions are:  

1. Develop science-based information and tools to conserve RSGCN and key habitats in the Northeast. 
2. Conserve Northeast RSGCN and their habitats from habitat loss and degradation by addressing development, natural systems modification, and biological resource use.  
3. Protect native species and habitats from the introduction and spread of disease and invasive species in the Northeast.  
4. Conserve aquatic habitats by addressing pollution and aquatic connectivity in Northeast waters.  
5. Address climate change impacts to Northeast RSGCN and their habitats.  
6. Coordinate inclusively across state boundaries to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of fish and wildlife diversity conservation in the Northeast. 
7. Develop and implement effective regional scale monitoring to inform adaptive management of regional priorities and conservation in the Northeast.

Conservation Action Prioritization 

The 2025 Delaware Wildlife Action Plan simplifies the action prioritization system relative to previous versions. In this Plan, we consider the highest priority actions those linked to Tier 1 SGCN, followed by those linked to Tier 2 SGCN, and Tier 3 SGCN. For each SGCN, each associated actions can be viewed in the DEWAP database. In addition, statewide actions should be considered the highest priority habitat actions, as they are likely to have the greatest impact to all SGCN and habitats. 

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