The 76^th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, which will be held next week (March 14-19) at the Westin Crown Center, in Kansas City, Missouri, will feature four speakers at the event plenary. Robert Ziehmer, Director of the Missouri Department of Conservation, will provide the welcoming address. Steve Williams, President of the Wildlife Management Institute, will present opening remarks. Ken Salazar, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, will be the next keynoter.

The U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate are in a standoff over funding the federal government for the current fiscal year, with funding for natural resource-related programs in the crosshairs, the Wildlife Management Institute. The chambers are struggling with managing the ballooning budget deficit, but at odds on how budget cuts should be made. Congress is now working to reconcile a House-passed resolution that makes dramatic cuts to natural resource programs; a Senate alternative that would be less damaging to those programs but still would bring deep cuts.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Economic Research Service recently released a report projecting impacts of higher crop prices on enrollment of lands in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The report, "The Influence of Rising Commodity Prices on the Conservation Reserve Program," concludes that, if the unusually high crop prices in place in 2008 become the norm, CRP rental payments will be required to roughly double to maintain the acreage and environmental benefits currently provided by the program, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

As the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate grapple with funding levels for Fiscal Year 2011, President Obama released his budget request for FY 2012. Federal agencies and programs responsible for managing and conserving natural resources are slated to be beneficiaries of the proposal, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

On February 24, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) was seeking comments on a new draft vision plan for the National Wildlife Refuge System. According to the Wildlife Management Institute, the plan, entitled "Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation," offers nearly 100 draft recommendations to guide the growth and management of the Refuge System over the next 10 years.

The Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow program is seeking a full-time National Coordinator to work directly with the program's Director, Zach Lowe, to manage program operations and delivery of its education workshops and training.