State Wildlife Action Plan

2025 State Wildlife Action Plan

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved the North Dakota State Wildlife Action Plan on February 5, 2026.

A key step in the SWAP revision process was reviewing the species list. Department staff worked with partners and species experts to identify the Species of Greatest Conservation Need.

A secondary list has been developed and will be referred to as Species of Greatest Information Need. While SGCNs are known to be at-risk or in decline, SGINs face uncertainty in terms of their status, range, or level of risk.

North Dakota Wildlife Action Plan Contacts

For more information on this plan, contact the Department's conservation division.

SWAP Reviews and Revisions: Each state is required to update the SWAP at least every 10 years. To meet the 2025 SWAP deadline, Department staff initiated the revision process in 2023. Over the next 18 to 20 months, substantial time was devoted to extensive scoping, communicating with our partners and the public, amalgamating new information, reviewing documents and a host of other tasks associated with revising a larger strategic level planning document. Based on our experience with this process, and the level of satisfaction from our partners and the public, we do not believe that the benefits of revising the SWAP more frequently (e.g. every 5 years) is justified. Should an emerging issue arise that requires a revision to the SWAP, such as adding SGCNs, the Department will conduct a Minor Revision. The Department commits to a Major Revision of the SWAP in 2035.