Hunters and wildlife managers eager to hear the promise of a vaccine to rid North America's deer and elk herds of chronic wasting disease (CWD) were met with a shot of reality at a recent Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WI DNR) meeting, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

A petition to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the use of lead in fishing tackle under the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) is being vehemently opposed by sporting groups, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. A similar proposal that would have banned lead ammunition was denied last month, inasmuch as "Bullets and shot, and any lead within them, are contained in shells and cartridges and are therefore excluded from the chemical substance definition," according to EPA.??

Five western states have faced outbreaks of pneumonia in 11 separate bighorn sheep herds since late 2009,? with nearly 1,000 having been killed or died due to the disease, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The die-offs come at the same time that researchers at Washington State University in Pullman were able to document direct transmission of one strain of pneumonia-causing bacteria, Mannheimia haemolytica, between domestic sheep and bighorn sheep in a controlled environment.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently conducted the first opportunity for enrollment of lands in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) under a general sign-up since 2006. There were more than 50,000 offers from landowners on 4.8 million acres. USDA accepted offers on 4.3 million acres for enrollment into the program. This will keep the acreage enrolled in CRP at 31.2 million acres, close to the statutory cap of 32 million acres established in the 2008 Farm Bill, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced on October 6 that it is distributing nearly $1.6 million in grants to learn more about and manage the spread of white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats. More than a million bats have died due to the disease since it was positively identified in 2007. The six approved grants include detailed studies on Geomyces destructens, the fungus linked to the syndrome, how the fungus moves between caves, its persistence in the environment, population evaluations to determine which bats may be most susceptible and if there is any resistance.

Negotiations were recently completed for the 79^th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference to be held March 11-15, 2014, at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel in Denver, Colorado.