The Board of Natural Resources adopted the Resolution regarding "Partnering for a Prosperous Future: A 10-Year Strategic Plan for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources," during a regular meeting in Atlanta, March 28.

This strategic plan focuses on ways in which DNR can improve efficiency through better internal coordination and communications; expand public-private partnerships to address critical natural and cultural resources issues; and provide high quality customer service to the citizens of Georgia. Its foundation lies in the department’s three overarching goals:

1. to sustain natural resources;
2. to build a conservation ethic among the state’s citizens; and
3. to create organizational excellence

The plan builds on ongoing departmental activities and offers new ways of addressing the challenges and objectives that are at the heart of DNR’s mission. It suggests ways of dissolving boundaries among the six different divisions of this agency and recommends ways that they can more effectively work together. It addresses five crossfunctional areas that were identified by the strategic planning team as the most critical:

1. Resource Inventory and Monitoring
2. Natural and Cultural Resource Management
3. Public Use and Access
4. Public Education, Outreach and Communications
5. Regulatory and Non-Regulatory Integration

These five areas serve as the basis for the objectives and actions that will guide DNR’s activities in the coming decade. Three implementation teams will oversee this process, recommending methods and procedures for putting ideas into action.

This long-range strategic plan provides a path to improving our understanding of Georgia’s natural systems and the impact we have on them. It offers recommendations for managing our natural and cultural resources, for providing public access, for building a conservation ethic by educating the citizens of this state, and for continuing to leverage our accomplishments through partnerships with a variety of organizations. An annual review will evaluate progress and ensure that the plan remains relevant. The end product is a dynamic document that provides a vision and strategy to guide the Department of Natural Resources for the next decade.