DNREC Works to Revise 2025 Delaware Wildlife Action Plan

One focus of the revised 2025-2035 Delaware Wildlife Action Plan is on the state’s Species of Greatest Conservation Need, including (clockwise from left) several species of shorebirds, the bog turtle, and the Monarch butterfly seen in its larval stage as a caterpillar. /DNREC collage

 

Focus on Keeping Today’s Wildlife from Becoming Tomorrow’s Memories

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is beginning an update of the Delaware Wildlife Action Plan for the next 10 years, kicking off a process that will include federal, state and non-government conservation partners, along with wildlife experts, key stakeholders and the public. The theme of the plan focuses on keeping today’s wildlife from becoming tomorrow’s memories.

Despite being the country’s second smallest state, Delaware is home to a wide range of wildlife. The state has diverse habitats, from the Atlantic Ocean coast to the Piedmont border with Pennsylvania and Maryland. More than 2,800 fish and wildlife species call Delaware home. In 2015, 689 of the state’s species were listed as Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) in the 2015 Wildlife Action Plan.

This 10-year conservation plan, produced by the DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife, guides the management of the state’s wildlife and their habitats. Over the next six months, the 2025 revision will reassess the status of all Delaware fish, wildlife and plant species. It will update the SGCN list, evaluate their key habitats, identify current and future threats these species face, and outline conservation actions needed to keep these species from becoming rarer and more costly to conserve.

The wildlife action plan provides a template for helping Delaware fulfill its responsibility to conserve varied fish and wildlife species and their natural habitats for future generations. It helps protect endangered, threatened or rare wildlife and those that are common.

Delaware’s revised wildlife action plan also fulfills a federal mandate that enables the state to receive conservation management funding under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s State Wildlife Grant program. Each state must revise their wildlife action plan every 10 years to maintain eligibility for the funding – which in Delaware’s case provides an historic opportunity to reverse the decline of many important wildlife populations and the loss of key habitats.

To aid in this effort, the Division of Fish and Wildlife will use data from surveys, monitoring, and research collected over the last 10 years to evaluate and update species and habitat distribution, abundance, and population status, as recommended in the 2015 wildlife action plan. This information will be used to identify limiting factors, habitat requirements, and other key SGCN data to address emerging threats – such as new diseases or invasive species, or the long-term impacts from climate change expected to pose threats in the coming years.

Although the Division of Fish and Wildlife leads the project, the plan is meant for anyone interested in the state’s wildlife species and habitat conservation and management. The plan presents an opportunity to collaborate with leading scientists, conservationists and private landowners. Together, they can help ensure that Delaware’s wildlife populations continue to thrive or bounce back from environmental threats that might have displaced them or put them at risk, such as loss of habitat from climate change and sea level rise.

DNREC will seek input for the plan through a series of public information sessions planned for late July and early August, with the dates soon to be determined. Until then, comments are welcomed throughout the plan’s revision process and can be made to DEWAP2025@delaware.gov. Later this summer, draft versions of the revised plan also will be available for review as they are completed ahead of the plan’s publication in early fall.

For more information on the Delaware Wildlife Action Plan, and to stay up to date on the revision process, including the upcoming information sessions, visit de.gov/dewap.

About DNREC
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control protects and manages the state’s natural resources, protects public health, provides outdoor recreational opportunities and educates Delawareans about the environment. The DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife conserves and manages Delaware’s fish and wildlife and their habitats, and provides fishing, hunting, wildlife viewing and boating access on more than 68,000 acres of public land. For more information, visit the website and connect with @DelawareDNREC on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter) or LinkedIn.

Media contacts: Michael Globetti, michael.globetti@delaware.gov; Nikki Lavoie, nikki.lavoie@delaware.gov 

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