WESTERN ASSOCIATION OF FISH AND WILDLIFE

Conferences & workshopsthe western association of fish and wildlife agencies hosts two annual conferences: the annual summer meeting and the executive leadership meeting where wafwa supports information exchange to help facilitate effective partnerships and capabilities of members and the broader community to address important emerging issues across the west. The annual summer meeting connects member agency leaders and technical staff with one another, federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and partners. Many of our 24 committees (including the nongame and endangered fish & wildlife committee and the wildlife health committee) and take the opportunity to meet during the annual summer meeting. The executive leadership meeting provides a platform for our member agency directors, deputies, and commissioners to discuss emerging western issues and strategically move tasks forward to the annual summer meeting.wafwa hosts workshops, summits, and other one-off events to provide our member agencies to communicate with each another on new research, management, enforcement, and administrative practices and to use this information to promote better management of species or administration of member agencies. Wafwa hosts both species-specific workshops like the pronghorn workshop (held biennially), western states/provinces deer and elk workshop (held biennially), and mountain lion workshop (held triennially) as well as topic-based workshops such as conservation business managers association workshop (held annually) and the wafwa r3 symposium (held annually). In any given year, wafwa hosts between 5 to 8 of these events.