Writing refuge management goals and objectives: a handbook

Goals and objectives are the unifying elements of successful refuge management.
They identify and focus management priorities, provide a context for resolving issues,
guide specific projects, provide rationale for decisions, and offer a defensible link
among management actions, refuge purpose(s), Service policy, and the National
Wildlife Refuge System (Refuge System) mission. Pursuant to Refuge Planning
Policy (602 FW 1, 3, 4), this handbook offers guidance on how to write goals and
objectives for national wildlife refuges and provides counsel on their development.
While the handbook specifically addresses biology and visitor services, you can also
utilize this guidance when developing goals and objectives for other refuge programs.

Several assumptions are basic to this handbook. The handbook focuses on the
mechanics of writing sound goals and objectives. Detailed guidance on what
information to consider, collect, interpret, and synthesize into goals and objectives is
beyond the scope of this handbook. It views a vision statement as the synthesis of a
refuge’s purpose(s), the Refuge System mission and goals, and other biological, legal,
and social concerns in which the refuge has a role. It also assumes a familiarity with
the hierarchical nature of planning and where, within a planning process, the writing
of goals and objectives occurs.

This guidance applies to conceptual management plans, comprehensive conservation
plans (CCPs), step-down management plans (e.g., habitat management, visitor
services, fire management), or any other planning document incorporating goals
and objectives, including strategic documents developed under the Government
Performance and Results Act. We intend this guidance for use by an internal
audience tasked with writing refuge goals and objectives, primarily refuge managers,
biologists, visitor services specialists, planners, and other members of refuge
planning teams. Still, it recognizes that we should write goals and objectives so that
interested members of the public can understand them, to the extent this does not
jeopardize the technical accuracy or reduce the inclusion of necessary information.
The terminology and definitions used in this handbook are widely accepted in the
planning field and are not inconsistent with more recent application in strategic
planning. Perhaps most important, the handbook presumes all goals and objectives
must further the specific purpose(s) of the refuge and the broader mission of the
Refuge System, as well as be consistent with Refuge Planning Policy and any other
relevant Service policy and directives.