State Natural Areas Programs

State Natural Areas Program Roundtables

State Natural Areas Programs were among the first entities to protect natural areas in North America. Almost 50 years ago, these programs came together and addressed a need for a unifying voice and community where practitioners and academics could share information, techniques, methodologies, good science and even moral support. Hence the formation of NAA. Since those days, our community has grown to include other natural areas professionals that work at the federal, regional and non-profit level.

Register for notifications regarding future SNAP meetings.

The State Natural Areas Program meets quarterly at 12:00 pm ET. Mark your calendar for future meeting dates in 2023:

November 17


*Public versions of state report recordings now available!


SNAP Roundtable

The Natural Areas Association hosts Roundtables as a way for individuals to come together in a structured, yet informal way, to openly discuss and share information about their work in natural areas conservation. NAA hosted the first State Natural Areas Program (SNAP) Roundtable at the 2006 Natural Areas Conference in Flagstaff, Arizona. Today this gathering is a quarterly, virtual meeting, and all state and local natural areas professionals are invited to attend.

SNAP Roundtable held remotely on June 26th, 2020.

SNAP Report

The NAA published the first Status of State Natural Area Programs report in 2005.This report provides an overview of the nations State Natural Area Programs, and is a baseline for comparison of current programs. The report is intended to foster networking among states natural area program staff as well as to document opportunities to expand, improve, or initiate state natural area programs.

Below is the most recent SNAP report from 2015 and an example of a state report from our partners at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. These reports contains survey results that include statistics on goals, statutes, natural area dedications and designations, land ownership types, and average acreage.

2015 Status of SNAP Report

2018-19 Missouri Natural Areas Inspection Report

2016 SNAP Meeting in Davis, CA
2016 SNAP Meeting in Davis, CA

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