Just as spring weather created a challenging season to get agricultural crops planted this year, a host of political storms have challenged agricultural policy makers to get anything done. Political wrangling over immigration policy and work requirements for SNAP recipients caused a defeat of a proposed Farm Bill in the U.S. House of Representatives in late May. However, on June 8 leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee reached agreement on a bipartisan Farm Bill that would keep the 2014 farm law largely intact while avoiding a partisan fight over food stamps. Given the differences in the bill and partisan politics, there appears to be fertile ground for drama as the legislative process continues to develop this summer.

Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (MFWP) is caught between a rock and a hard spot – or perhaps more accurately between an immovable object and an irresistible force. The immoveable object is resistance from the Montana Legislature and some in the livestock industry to the restoration of wild, free-ranging bison. The irresistible force is the ongoing efforts of several Native American Tribes and the American Prairie Reserve (APR) to restore bison’s ecological, cultural, and spiritual roles in Montana. Only one thing is certain about the future of bison in Montana, the species will continue to stir passion and controversy.

As the number of states facing Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in both free-ranging deer and on deer farms keeps increasing, individual states are looking more closely at regulations to restrict movement of CWD through both live deer and deer carcasses. There is no rapid test for CWD infection and diseased animals are slow to show symptoms; both live animals and carcasses that are infected with the disease can be moved from one location to another. Both Michigan and Wisconsin have made recent changes intended to help slow the spread of the disease.

White-nose syndrome is a disease affecting hibernating bats, named for the white fungus that appears on the muzzle and other parts of the bats. In eastern North America, bats have been found sick and dying in unprecedented numbers in and around caves and mines. In some hibernacula, 90 to 100 percent of bats have died. WNS has killed more than 5.7 million bats in the eastern states. The disease has rapidly spread across the United States; since its first documentation in New York in 2006 it has now been confirmed on bats in 32 states. The fungus is now found in some western states, and a new video is seeking help from climbers and hikers in locating bats to limit the spread in the western United States.

A USGS Georgia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit student is among 211 students from across the nation to be recognized as Barry Goldwater Scholars, earning the highest undergraduate award of its type for the fields of the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering.