This northeast regional fish and wildlife conservation hub strategically builds upon the nationally recognized foundation of regional state wildlife action plan (swap) collaboration and products of 14…

The Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 5 awarded the Northeast Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, Inc. $325,278 on January 1, 2026, under the State Wildlife Grants program (CFDA 15.634) to establish the Northeast Regional Fish and Wildlife Conservation Hub.

The hub integrates multiple complementary but previously disconnected wildlife datasets from 14 northeastern states into a centralized, accessible online platform. Deliverables include a conservation information hub that consolidates the 2025 State Wildlife Action Plans through the Northeast SWAP database, the Northeast Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Needs database, and State Wildlife Grant-funded grant products in a single location with cross-referenced public access. The project also creates an online taxa team engagement portal to streamline data collection and review processes for 20 or more taxonomic teams comprising over 200 regional taxonomic experts, reducing administrative workload on state staff during regional coordination. Hub development includes a public interface with data displays and applications designed within a SWAP element framework and communication products and tools for the Northeast Fish and Wildlife Diversity Technical Committee website.

Performance takes place in New York from January 1, 2026, through December 31, 2028. The Wildlife Management Institute, Incorporated serves as a sub-recipient providing personnel support to develop and sustain the centralized hub and conservation data coordination infrastructure.

This northeast regional fish and wildlife conservation hub strategically builds upon the nationally recognized foundation of regional state wildlife action plan (swap) collaboration and products of 14 states by making conservation tools and datasets available to a broader audience and further enhancing regional landscape and watershed data sharing and conservation collaboration of the 14 states and their partners. Decades of regional conservation in the northeast, successive state wildlife grant (SWG) funded regional conservation needs (RCN) grants, multiple competitive state wildlife grant (SWG) awards, and the laborious process of collecting new data from 200+ state experts during regional species of greatest conservation needs (rsgcn) updates have generated multiple complementary but unconnected databases for the highest priority fish and wildlife in the region. This critical information remains underutilized and, to some extent, inaccessible to states and key partners, highlighting an urgent need for an integrated online hub to centralize and enhance access and use of these critical datasets. To address these issues, we propose creating a conservation information hub to integrate the 2025 state wildlife action plans through the northeast swap database, the northeast rsgcn database, and swgfunded grant products all in one place, accessible and cross-referenced for partners and the public. Additionally, we propose to create an online taxa team engagement portal to streamline the intensive data collection and review process for the 20+ taxonomic teams of more than 200 taxonomic experts across the region, reducing the workload on state staff during regional coordination. Hub development will include creating a public interface with data displays and applications designed within a swap element framework and producing communication products and tools on the northeast fish and wildlife diversity technical committee (nefwdtc) website. Strategic outreach and communication will include presentations at professional conferences and outreach to federal, regional, state, and conservation organization partners to increase awareness, accessibility, and use of the new hub. This project will create an enhanced suite of web interfaces on the newly updated website, connecting data from the rsgcn and swap databases with 20 years of RCN project data, allowing user-driven queries and data analysis on demand. Ultimately, this project will streamline and expand priority conservation action implementation across the northeast and beyond, supporting expanded landscape-level conservation by states and additional partners across the northeast region.