Cooperative Management
Biologists from state, federal, and provincial wildlife and land-management agencies, university students and faculty, and others develop management plans for the cooperative management of migratory game bird populations in the Pacific Flyway. Biologists from the Central Flyway, Canada, Mexico, and Russia contribute to these plans.

Management Plans Available
The Pacific Flyway Council has prepared 26 management plans to date in either draft or final form. The Pacific Flyway Representative of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland, Oregon has copies of all management plans. You may request a copy of a plan by contacting the Service representative. Some management plans are available electronically in PDF format and may be obtained by clicking on the plan listed in the sidebar.

What Is a Management Plan?
Flyway management plans are products of the Council, developed and adopted to help state and federal agencies cooperatively manage migratory game birds under common goals. Management strategies are recommendations and do not commit agencies to specific actions or schedules. Fiscal, legislative, and priority constraints influence the level and timing of management activities.

Management plans serve multiple purposes:

• Identify common goals.
• Establish priority of management actions and responsibility for them.
• Coordinate collection and analysis of biological data.
• Emphasize research needed to improve management.

Management plans typically focus on populations, which are the primary unit of management, but may be specific to a species or subspecies. Management of some migratory birds requires coordinated action by more than one flyway (e.g., Rocky Mountain Population of Greater Sandhill Cranes, Four Corners Population of Band-tailed Pigeons).

Development Process
Subcommittees of the Study Committee develop and update management plans. Once a subcommittee has developed an acceptable draft plan or plan revision, the Study Committee reviews it. After necessary revisions and editing, the Study Committee adopts a formal recommendation approving the plan and forwards it to the Council for review.

The Study Committee usually works on management plans during the winter (January) meeting, and sends them to the council for review during the spring (March) meeting. The Council usually votes on plans at the following summer (July) meeting. The Council adopts management plans, making them formal documents. Multi-flyway plans require concerted and concurrent review and approval.

In the Pacific Flyway, management plans generally have a 5-year planning horizon with revisions as necessary to provide current guidance.