Appendix 3
INTRODUCTION In areas where humans exist, wildlife and fisheries managers encounter design challenges when creating comprehensive plans to protect animals and their ecosystems. To address challenges for protecting biodiversity, congress facilitated funding and an organized strategy for managers of states and territories to develop Wildlife Action Plans (WAPs). These WAPs identify species in greatest conservation need while addressing a full array of game and non- game wildlife and wildlife-related issues on state lands. These state plans often prioritize top down human control over populations and ecosystems without consideration of feedback-loops to people. Federal land management agencies also have unique planning frameworks based upon agency missions and the application of federal laws and statutes. Federal land management focus is most often on limiting human influence on natural processes based on agency-centric conservation goals. However, the organizational structure of state and federal plans may not be transferrable to federally recognized tribal territories because management policies for sovereign tribal governments are very different from that of federal, state, and territorial lands. Tribal governments have a unique legal relationship with the United States and can exercise inherent sovereign governmental powers over their natural resources and tribal members. The United States is a legal trustee for lands and resources held in trust for the benefit of tribal communities and have a fiduciary duty to protect the health and productivity tribal resources. The first people of the American continent were the original environmental stewards. These native people continue to sustain their cultures and economies today by acting as interdependent components of the natural world. Conserving natural resources on sovereign tribal lands poses a unique challenge where managers must consider balancing the maintenance of a unique culture and a productive economy with complex natural resource management challenges. In addition, because the federal government maintains a fiduciary relationship with tribes, obtaining federal funding and permitting often poses additional complexities related to the application of federal environmental laws (i.e. Endangered Species Act of 1973 and National Environmental Policy Act), which is especially challenging within a human inhabited landscape. Compliance with federal regulations also potentially supplants tribal priorities as tribes may recognize other species or ecosystems outside of federal protection as deserving primary conservation focus.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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