The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (Association) established its Legal Strategy program in 2014 with the goal of building awareness of the constitutional, statutory, and jurisprudential sources of state authority to manage wildlife, to create opportunities for students and practitioners of natural resources law to learn about state management and the conservation successes of the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson Acts, and to support state authority to address longstanding and emerging threats to fish and wildlife under this time-tested conservation framework. Methods of accomplishing these objectives have included, but are not limited to:

• Publication of materials on the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (“Model”), public trust doctrine, and other foundational elements of wildlife law and policy
• Placement of wildlife law and policy courses with secondary educational institutions including undergraduate and law schools
• Field placements / internships / clerkships with agencies and nongovernmental organizations
• Development of continuing legal education programs for state fish and wildlife agency and non- governmental partner attorneys
• Establishment of the Association’s Legal Strategy Advisory Council (a.k.a. “Think Tank”) to advise the Association’s Executive Committee, Legal Committee, and others on emerging developments and to perform detailed analyses of issues relevant to a majority of, or all, states for their voluntary use
• Organization and sponsorship of special symposia at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, or at other professional conference events (e.g., The Wildlife Society) After a full decade of activity, the Legal Strategy program—and all fifty states—will benefit from a comprehensive review. This review will be executed by the Principal Investigator in cooperation with the Think Tank as well as an external coordinator (see: Key Personnel), and will take the form of a report containing the following elements:
• Narrative history of the program, its conception and establishment, and relationship with other programs • Detailed review of all Legal Strategy sub-programs, projects, and deliverables, as well as funding sources • Qualitative surveys of program collaborators and partners
• Assessment of program priorities, success in meeting those priorities, and what if any shifts are merited as the Legal Strategy moves into its next decade
• Assessment of effective approaches to engaging governmental members and nongovernmental conservation partners in “horizon scanning,” efforts to foresee emerging issues and problems facing conservation professionals, and to strategize initiatives to deal with those problems
• Development of best practices applicable to AFWA’s work to forecast emerging issues and problems, and to develop strategies in response to them.