Intermountain West Joint Venture

Strategic Habitat Conservation

Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) is a science-based framework used to make efficient conservation delivery decisions to achieve specific biological outcomes. SHC moves wildlife conservation beyond the opportunistic and into the strategic realm. The document entitled "Strategic Habitat Conservation: Final Report of the Ecological Assessment Team” , published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey in July 2006, suggests that habitat conservation for all species builds on the outstanding model of migratory bird conservation pioneered by the North American Waterfowl Management Plan and the Joint Ventures.

Committed to the SHC, the IWJV is actively working in partnership with scientists across the West to establish habitat objectives and decision-support tools for avian conservation. Our conservation partnerships then use these tools and objectives use these tools and objectives to implement conservation delivery and achieve habitat objectives in order to sustain avian populations throughout the Intermountain West.