Climate change, declining budgets, and a shortage of experienced pilots and aircraft are among the top reasons moose managers in Alaska are finding it harder to track the status and trends of this important species. On April 24^th and 25^th, the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI) collaborated with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the National Park Service (NPS) to convene the Alaska Moose Monitoring Workshop in Anchorage. The workshop brought together over 70 managers, researchers, and biometricians, to address the challenges to monitoring moose populations.

In February, the Outdoor News Bulletin reported on the excise tax revenues returned in the first quarter of fiscal year 2018 for the Wildlife and Sportfish Restoration accounts. The trends at the time were troubling and now that second quarter revenues have been reported, the concern continues to grow. When looking at the combined revenues for first and second quarters of the Federal Fiscal Year 2018 (October 1, 2017 thru March 31, 2018), the Sport Fish Restoration account has enjoyed a modest 9 percent increase over the collections of the first six months of last year. However, the Wildlife Restoration account has dropped significantly (30 percent) from the collections of the same period a year ago. Here’s a look at the revenues as provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based on reporting by the two collection agencies, the Internal Revenue Service and the Tax and Trade Bureau.

The House Natural Resources Committee recently passed two bills that would make changes to the Pittman-Robertson Act improving public shooting opportunity and increasing flexibility for funds to be used for the recruitment of hunters and shooters. The Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act (H.R. 788) passed by voice vote on April 18, while the Modernizing the Pittman-Robertson Fund for Tomorrow’s Needs Act (H.R. 2591) was approved by unanimous consent on May 8.

The 84th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference will be held March 4 to 8, 2019, at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel in Denver, Colorado. The Conference Steering Committee is seeking ideas and participation from professional conservation interests to help develop the conference agenda. In particular, proposals for the four conference Special Sessions are invited. Ideas for prospective plenary keynote speakers are also welcome.

Over the past 50 years, golden-winged warbler populations in the eastern portion of their North American breeding distribution have experienced some of the steepest declines of any Neotropical-Nearctic migratory songbird and until recently the cause of these declines has been a mystery. Recent research by the USGS Minnesota Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and the West Virginia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, collaborators at the University of Toledo and the University of Tennessee, and partners at 22 study sites across eastern North America has shed light on the probable cause of these declines.