In the late 1980’s, the Portland Audubon Society and their partners put together a proposal to create a "Metropolitan Wildlife Refuge System" throughout the four-county, bi-state Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington region to help sustain the area’s natural heritage and connect people with nature.  In response to their efforts to solicit Federal support through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), Congress and the President approved fiscal year 1991 funding to initiate the Metropolitan Greenspaces Program that was used to help launch and sustain their efforts through 2004.  A variety of innovative, cost effective and partnership-based strategies were used in the areas of environmental education, public outreach, fish and wildlife habitat restoration, environmental planning, greenspaces protection and management, and urban ecological research.  The Service shared administrative responsibilities with Metro, the only directly elected regional government in the U.S.   The program supported the Service’s fish and wildlife conservation mission, Metro’s roles in environmental education, land use planning and management of an extensive network of regional parks and open spaces, and the work of numerous local partners engaged in conservation.  Federal involvement was also used to promote bi-state partnerships between ecologically-connected, but politically-separated metropolitan areas.  Although it no longer receives Federal support, the Metropolitan Greenspaces Program provides a proven case study for a successful conservation partnership between the Service and the local community that could be used as a model for similar efforts in the future.  In addition, the on-going work of local partners continues to build off of past successes.