A Blueprint for Biodiversity

By Molly Kirk/DWR

“At dusk, you can stand here next to this pond and hear 10 different types of frogs calling,” said J.D. Kleopfer, Statewide Herpetologist for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) as he gazed out over an expanse of water that some industrious beavers had created at the Big Woods Wildlife Management Area (WMA).

“Some of the frogs that are out here now were rare here 10 years ago,” Kleopfer continued. “And now they’re extraordinarily abundant—oak toads, barking treefrog, little grass frogs. Once [DWR] started prescribed burning and opening up all this pine savanna, they just exploded out here. Decades ago, we thought the barking treefrog was here, but nobody had really seen one here. Then somebody documented one on a population survey, and I hired some field techs to start finding them, and they were here. Now, there are some really good populations of the species here.”

The wildlife habitat management work that’s been done at Big Woods WMA has been mostly focused on restoring an open-canopy, longleaf pine forest for the federally and state-endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. Prescribed fire, selective timbering, herbicide application, and longleaf pine planting have helped remove the dense forest understory and create an open pine savanna that’s excellent habitat for not only the red-cockaded woodpecker, but also a host of other nongame and game species, who have thrived in a trickle-down effect.

“Before, Big Woods was what I would call a biological desert, really. It was a typical loblolly pine plantation—thick loblolly pine growth, very closed in,” said Kleopfer. “But now that it’s managed, it’s a night and day difference. There were tiny populations of these nongame species hanging on and struggling. But when the tree canopy started opening up and the early successional habitat came back, the place absolutely blew up with populations.”

The positive results of the habitat work at Big Woods WMA—for both game and nongame species—highlight what can result from an intentional plan for conserving wildlife species. Fortunately, DWR and its partners in these efforts have a bit of a blueprint for this work—the Virginia Wildlife Action Plan.

Big Plans

The red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) shows up on the Wildlife Action Plan, as does the barking treefrog (Hyla gratiosa). They’re among more than 1,900 species of animals and plants listed in the plan as imperiled, or declining in numbers due to habitat loss or other threats. These species are labeled Species of Greatest Conservation Need, or SGCN. In the plan, each species is assigned a Tier number describing the relative urgency of conservation need and a Conservation Opportunity Ranking, which defines the status of any conservation actions that could benefit the species.

“In the Wildlife Action Plan, we not only determine which species are imperiled, but we also determine what are the actual conservation actions on the ground that can benefit that species,” said Amy Martin, Nongame and Endangered Species Program Manager at DWR. “And then it’s the job of DWR’s nongame program to take the highest priorities in that action plan and make sure that they are fulfilled. It really serves as a plan for conservation work for imperiled species in Virginia.”

At the heart of the Wildlife Action Plan is a massive spreadsheet of data, with information on each of the species listed, including their conservation status, ranges, habitat types, identified threats, and conservation actions that would benefit them. But just how is that data translated into conservation work?

The answer is three-fold.

First, staff at DWR and their partners at various other state agencies and non-governmental organizations use the Action Plan as a guide for on-the-ground conservation actions. “We can use it as road map that shows us where we can get the biggest bang for our buck, or where we can make the most significant impacts,” said DWR Wildlife Action Plan Manager Jeff Trollinger. “Then you can pull the partners and the money together and actually get those things done on the ground. It’s a good framework for defining the best way to use the limited resources we all have.”

It also enhances DWR’s ability to cooperate with other state wildlife agencies in conservation work. “We can coordinate our research with all of the other Northeast states so that we can do regional things, because animals don’t recognize state boundaries,” said Trollinger. “This is the first time that our Wildlife Action Plan has used a set lexicon that was put together by the Northeast states. We have a set way of coding our habitats, coding our threats, coding our conservation actions, so all of our state wildlife action plans will be loaded into the Northeast Wildlife Action Plan database, enabling us to work together much more easily.”

And, the main purpose of the Action Plan is to provide the basis for securing State and Tribal Wildlife Grants (STWG) from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). In 2000, Congress created the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants program to help state and tribal wildlife agencies work with at-risk species and prevent endangered species listings. As a condition for receiving STWG funding, Congress mandated that each state and territory develop a Wildlife Action Plan, which is required to be updated every 10 years.

DWR and partners can use the data collected and organized in the Wildlife Action Plan to qualify for STWG funding for certain projects, proving they align with conservation priorities.

Important Partnerships

The Wildlife Action Plan has come a long way since its inception in 2005. Trollinger laughed when he recalled that the 2005 version was delivered to USFWS offices in three thick, threering binders. “The second one [in 2015] was still a thousand pages, but it was a PDF document. This third one is just 225 printed pages, while most of it’s going to be part of an online tool. The technology obviously has changed immensely in terms of how we’re delivering the plan.”

That shift isn’t just cosmetic. The online tool portion of the newest version of the plan allows users to zoom into specific watersheds and see which SGCN live there, what threats they face, and what actions can help. “You can pull up a specific place and instantly see which species are at risk, their habitat needs, and even conservation steps you can take,” Trollinger noted.

This new version is the most ambitious yet. The species list has more than doubled—from 883 to over 1,900—thanks to a major expansion that includes plants, invertebrates, and marine species, as well as a new category: assessment priority species, which are species that are potentially vulnerable but so little is known about them that they can’t be assigned a ranking.

New chapters on Virginia’s changing environmental conditions, wildlife health, and education broaden the plan’s reach even further. And extensive collaboration with tribes, including Virginia’s seven now federally recognized nations, has enriched its cultural and ecological scope.

DWR staff worked with 25 state and federal agencies, 63 nongovernmental organizations, and 18 tribes and sovereign nations during the development of the 2025 Virginia Wildlife Action Plan. Altogether, the update took more than 20,000 hours to assemble.

“At each step of the development plan, we sent it out to the stakeholders and said, ‘Have we hit the mark? Have we missed the mark? Is there something you want us to add?’ Getting that input as you’re going through the development process adds to the depth and richness of the plan,” said Trollinger. The final draft version was also subject to a public comment period by the general public.

One dramatic evolution of the Action Plan is the inclusion of plants and expansion of invertebrates and marine animals, which resulted in the doubling of species listed. DWR worked closely with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR)-Natural Heritage Program on the plant and invertebrate selections and with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)-Coastal Zone Management Program, Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) on the marine animals.

DCR keeps their own data set in their Rare Species and Natural Communities Lists, but they were thrilled to be able to add their information to the Virginia Wildlife Action Plan to help create a big picture view of Virginia’s conservation needs. “For a lot of invertebrates in particular—but also a lot of plants—we know so little about just basic life history. We know they’re in decline, but not much research has been done with them,” said Anne Chazal of DCR. “The Wildlife Action Plan will help to inform a broad audience—such as government agencies, universities, and private groups—to help make decisions that are as informed as possible. We are never going to have perfect data or perfect information, but this plan is a great way to get a lot of information out quickly and efficiently.”

“DWR did a really great job of pulling a lot of subject matter experts into one room around the marine mammal and sea turtle conservation space to talk through what kind of actions need to be put in place and what needs to go in that plan,” said Ryan Green of DEQ.

A Tool For Conservation

Comprehensive as it is, the Wildlife Action Plan isn’t meant to just be a static repository of information. It’s intended to be a dynamic foundation on which meaningful wildlife and habitat conservation actions can be based.

“As wildlife managers, it gives us the tools we need to do the job we do, and for our partners, the Wildlife Action Plan and the data that supports it give them the information they need to make good decisions about land use in their localities,” said Martin. “It helps define where the conservation opportunities in Virginia are if they want to really engage in them.”

Work that’s been informed by previous versions of the Wildlife Action Plan, coordinated regionally, and funded by STWG grants includes habitat work at Big Woods WMA for the red-cockaded woodpecker that helped boost not only that species but also a multitude of others, such as the barking treefrog, wild turkey, and northern bobwhite quail. Federally endangered freshwater mussels included on the plan have been propagated and restored into Virginia rivers and streams thanks mostly in part to STWG grants. Habitat restoration that was funded in part with STWG grants has helped bring golden-winged warblers back to Virginia fields. Lots of good conservation work has happened in the 20 years since the first Wildlife Action Plan, as wildlife managers are looking forward to seeing how the fresh look at the data will inform future work.

“The interactive online tool that’s in this version of the Wildlife Action Plan is different from other data that we have,” Martin said. “It allows people access to not only figure out what species are in a specific location, but also what the threats are to those species, what the habitats are that those species need, and what the conservation actions are that we as the wildlife community have determined are necessary to conserve that species. They’re really getting the best information to inform their land use decisions, whether it’s on private land or public land. Between the expanded species that are included and the type of stakeholder engagement that we’ve done, this plan, I think, is head and shoulders above what we’ve done in the past.”

“There’s something in the plan for everybody,” said Trollinger. “If you’re a fish person, a bird person, a hunter, there’s something in the plan that can help you learn more. The only way that the Action Plan will work is if we’re all working together. This data just gives a structure for that work.”

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Molly Kirk is the DWR creative content manager.