Delaware Wildlife Action Plan

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has given formal approval to Delaware’s 2025 Wildlife Action Plan (DEWAP), which will be the State’s conservation blueprint for wildlife diversity for the next 10 years – through 2035. The Plan is required for Delaware to remain eligible for the USFWS’s State Wildlife Grant Program funding.

2025 Delaware Wildlife Action Plan

The 2025 Delaware Wildlife Action Plan replaces and builds on the 2015 Wildlife Action Plan, after a three-year update process. The Division of Fish and Wildlife and DNREC’s conservation partners worked with wildlife experts, other key stakeholders and the public throughout the state and region gathering input to develop and revise the plan.

Like past plans, the 2025 Plan directs the Division of Fish and Wildlife to plan effectively for wildlife diversity now and prepare to adapt to future dynamic wildlife populations, habitats, threats and actions.

The 2025 – 2035 Delaware Wildlife Action Plan

A small bird with a white belly, mottled dark upper body and black beak, stands on a beach at the edge of the water.

Delaware’s Wildlife Action Plan charts a path toward a thriving future for fish, wildlife and the habitats they depend on. Rooted in science and shaped by collaboration, it focuses conservation where it matters most to protect the natural legacy we share.

At the heart of the 2025 revision is an effort to make the plan more accessible, by web-enabling its contents, providing public access to a searchable database, and displaying maps of important habitats. This revision makes the plan easy to reach for and use by DNREC’s conservation partners, planners, state and local agencies, and the public.

Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN)

Working with stakeholders, DNREC has identified and prioritized the fish, wildlife and associated habitats most in need of conservation. Each state determines its own SGCN list, based on criteria such as global and state rarity, endangered status at the state or federal level, and designation as a Northeast Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need. (Delaware is classified as belonging to the USFWS’s Northeast Region.) Each species is further categorized into Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3, with the tiers reflecting the urgency and level of conservation need.

A key 2025 update to the list is the inclusion of 326 plants, bringing the total number of SGCN to 1,019 species. In addition to addressing the conservation needs of rare and uncommon species, the plan also identifies actions to keep common species common by recommending conservation efforts throughout Delaware that can be undertaken by public and private partners over the next decade.

State-Level Wildlife Planning

The federal State Wildlife Grants (SWG) program assists state fish and wildlife agencies with conservation of wildlife species of greatest conservation need and the habitats they rely on.

Federal funding for state wildlife programs requires comprehensive wildlife conservation planning at the state level through Wildlife Action Plans.

States must update their plans every 10 years and include all species and habitats.

2015 – 2025 Delaware Wildlife Action Plan

Cover of the Delaware Wildlife Action Plan for 2015 to 2025.

The Department published a Wildlife Action Plan for 2015 to 2025 after a nearly three-year public process involving various stakeholders and species experts.

The 2015 plan is available in full as a downloadable ZIP file (Note: this file is about 30 MB), a Fact Sheet, an Executive Summary or as individual chapters and appendices.

Chapter 1: Delaware’s Wildlife Species of Greatest Conservation Need

Chapter 2: Delaware’s Wildlife Habitats

Chapter 3: Issues Affecting SGCN and Key Habitats in Delaware

Chapter 4: Conservation Actions to Address the Key Issues Facing Delaware’s SGCN and their Habitats

Chapter 5: Monitoring, Review and Revision

Chapter 6: Outreach and Coordination

Appendix 1.A: SGCN List by Ecological Group

Appendix 1.B: SGCN List, Alphabetical with Criteria Met

Appendix 1.C: Additions and Removals to SGCN List

Appendix 1.D: Data Sources Consulted

Appendix 2.A: Delaware Wildlife Habitat Classification

Appendix 2.B: Habitat Crosswalk, 2007-2015