Native American Fish & Wildlife Society (NAFWS)

For nearly 40 years, the Native American Fish & Wildlife Society (nafws), an intertribal non-profit 501(c)3, has strived to meet the needs of its members and member tribes; directly, through conferences, training, youth education, and indirectly; through ongoing support of, and providing venues for government consultations, discussions, and by participating with innovative projects and initiatives in indian country. These included the 40th annual national conference sponsored by the Alaska region and hosted by the chugach regional resources commission in anchorage, ak april 24-27, 2023. In attendance were 352 people representing 77 tribes from all 7 nafws regions. We also hosted 6 regional conferences with a total of 576 participants from 95 tribal nations.membershipin 2023, nafws saw an increase in membership. There were 110 active member tribe memberships and 866 active individual memberships with memberships renewed on a rolling basis. Conferences in all seven regions and a strong social media presence contributed to membership growth.

Educationnational summer youth practicum: sixteen students representing 13 tribes from all seven nafws regions attended the 2023 national syp which took place at both the Colorado state university mountain campus and main campus. Students heard from 20 guest lecturers and participated in team building activities. Students utilized the knowledge gained throughout the week for a Wildlife management challenge and staff selected a student group to attend the 2024 nafws national conference to present their plan. Alaska summer youth practicum: nine Alaska Native youth from seven tribes and six different schools participated in the inaugural Alaska syp. The six-day program took place in anchorage, ak on the Alaska pacific university campus. Participants spent time in lectures, in the field, doing hands-on activities, group work, and team building exercises. The chickaloon village traditional council, hosted the syp for a day in the field observing their stream and salmon restoration project. Internships: nafws welcomed ashley miles, a citizen of hopi and pueblo of santa ana and a student at university of Colorado denver, as a summer intern. Ashley assisted with the national syp and attended the tribal Wildlife connectivity workshop.scholarships: nafws awarded scholarships to 11 Native scholars. The great lakes region awarded two scholarships, great plains region awarded one, and the southwest region awarded two scholarships. Six national scholarships were awarded. In an effort to increase student attendance at the national conference, nafws awarded five college students' travel expenses to attend the national conference. Additionally, we awarded travel support to four high school students and their chaperones as part of the 2023 national syp Wildlife management challenge. Native emerging professionals: nafws hosted the third national tribal poster session and professional mixer during the national conference in april. Eighteen poster presenters including nine students presented at the "top of the world" in the hilton anchorage. First place was awarded to colin glass who presented on using dragonfly larvae as bioindicators of methylmercury for the red lakes in northern Minnesota.

Trainings, workshops & technical assistancewe offered over 70 trainings, workshops & webinars throughout the year on topics such as climate resilience, electrofishing, nepa, Wildlife chemical immobilization, threatened and endangered species, grant writing and Wildlife disease sampling. In total, we had over 1,700 attendees. Tribal conservation law enforcement: throughout 2023, nafws provided tribal conservation law enforcement officers (cleos) trainings to supplement and/or achieve annual training requirements or to provide officers with advanced law enforcement training to safely and successfully carry out their duties as sworn peace officers. Trainings topics included waterfowl identification, hunt safe, human/wildlife conflict management, tactical medical training, defense tactics, legal updates, and firearm training.habitat connectivity: the goal of the habitat connectivity initiative is to assist Wildlife movement between habitats while minimizing mortality risk and human encounters. At times, it is necessary for tribal communities to collaborate with federal, state, or other tribal entities, to address corridor concerns on tribal lands. Nafws hosted habitat connectivity workshops in the southwest and pacific regions and held meetings for a tribal-only working group. The Wildlife connectivity coordinator provided technical assistance to 47 tribes across 17 states on Wildlife migration issues. Invasive species: led by mitzi reed, invasive species coordinator, nafws hired three invasive species technicians to help build tribal capacity to manage invasive species and implement early detection and rapid response (edrr) and management capabilities. The invasive species team hosted four invasive species webinars attended by 101 participants and provided technical assistance for grant proposal reviews, letters of support, inquiries on funding activities and species identificationfish & Wildlife biologists: biologists provided technical assistance and training to Native American and Alaska Native tribes to identify invasive species, monitor Wildlife disease changes, support endangered species programming, develop partnerships, and develop a resource bank to assist tribes in protection of their environmental resources and populations. Some examples of our Fish & Wildlife workshops include: fundamentals of r programming endangered species act pacific northwest bat workshop tribal Wildlife crossing workshop climate change.huntsafe program: the nafws huntsafe program was officially certified through the international hunter's education association in november 2022. This year, the hunt safe instructor course training plan was implemented, and courses were conducted in six of the seven regions with 94 attendees representing 41 tribes completing the instructor courses. Alaska tribal climate resilience: the Alaska tribal climate resilience liaison (tcrl) team was completed with the addition of a senior tcrl and two additional assistant tcrls. We also hosted an Alaska Native intern focused on climate resilience in ak. At the 2023 nafws annual national conference in anchorage, ak, the trcls held a climate adaptation workshop. A second workshop for the strengthening resilience today (srt) project was held in fairbanks attended by 23 participants from six Alaska Native villages. Additional opportunities for tribal members to learn about and develop climate adaptation strategies for their communities are planned for 2024. Research and publications committee: the nafws research and publication committee (rpc) was established in 2021 due to concerns regarding research on and about tribal lands, resources, and people. The purpose of the rpc is to aid tribal Fish and Wildlife professionals to navigate, pursue, and apply the different aspects of contemporary research-related issues including research guidance, data sovereignty, professional growth, funding, publications, and academia involvement. Grants team: in 2023, nafws established a grants team, with one grants coordinator (funded by doris duke conservation fund) and two america the beautiful challenge field liaisons (funded by national Fish and Wildlife fund) hired to support tribal grant applications and remove barriers to access funding. The team provides direct technical assistance and can help seek out and apply for funding opportunities, aiming to get more dollars directed towards tribal Fish and Wildlife programin 2023, nafws staff provided direct technical assistance (includes one on one communication, trainings, webinars, workshops, conferences and events) to 260 federally recognized tribes, 21 government agencies, 28 tribal organizations, 35 academic institutions (including 4 tribal colleges), 64 non-governmental organizations, and seven private companies. Assistance varied greatly but the majority of direct requests were assistance identifying and accessing funding, hunter education course development, program implementation, trainings requests, and research methods.