April 2008

The Northern Forest Woodcock Initiative (NFWI) has been selected as a recipient of the 2008 Secretary of the Interior's Cooperative Conservation Award, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The NFWI was one of 21 award recipients for 2008 and was nominated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

The Cooperative Conservation Award recognizes cooperative conservation achievements that involve collaborative activity among a diverse range of entities that may include federal, state, local and tribal governments, private for-profit and nonprofit institutions, other...

The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate continue to struggle to reach agreement on a new Farm Bill, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The level of funding for a disaster package and the source of funds to replace revenues lost through tax breaks for some of the conservation programs appear to be sticking points. Those involved in the negotiations report progress is being made but there "is still work to do."

The 2002 Farm Bill has already been extended twice in an effort for Congress to buy time to agree on new legislation. The current extension is set to...

Four Against the Arctic is not Dave Roberts' best work, but it certainly is worth reading. For one thing, the main plot is over in the first quarter of the work. The subplot, a plodding effort to confirm the plot, is what this book really is about. Finding a needle in a very large haystack is how Roberts characterized it.

The book centers on four Pomori ("seacoast dwellers") from Mezen, Russia, reportedly marooned from May 1743 to August 1749 on a small island of the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. They were told to have sailed in a small, indigenous boat ("...

The Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance (CWDA) and American Outdoor Productions (AOP) have partnered to provide a free, on-line chronic wasting disease (CWD) education video, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. Titled "Shedding Light on CWD," the video presents current and comprehensive status information on CWD and shows proper field-processing techniques for deer, elk and moose harvested in CWD-positive areas.

Nearly 35 minutes in length and offered at two connection speeds, the video contains 19 chapters such as "CWD Facts," "State Regulations," "Field Dressing Precautions...

One of the longest serving leaders of a state conservation organization in U.S. history, Gary T. Myers, was honored with the Wildlife Management Institute's (WMI's) 2008 George Bird Grinnell Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to Natural Resource Conservation.

The Grinnell Award salutes a person whose career in conservation has been exemplified by integrity, leadership, foresight and achievement. Its honorees have been individuals who, sometimes at personal and occupational risk, invariably made decisions in the interest of progressive resource management. "Gary has been...

In a move unprecedented in scale, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received congressional authority to waive numerous cultural and environmental resource laws and regulations to facilitate construction of a 370-mile portion of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The fence is intended to pose a barrier to thousands of illegal immigrants along a course of about 670 miles of the border. It consists of pedestrian and vehicle barriers, roads, guard stations, cameras and lighting. This waiver of authority pertaining to the Fence Security...

At a meeting in West Virginia's Canaan Valley, the Appalachian Mountain Woodcock Initiative (AMWI) was launched in early April. The objective of AMWI is to halt the decline of American woodcock populations in the Appalachian Mountain region. Meeting participants included representatives from the state wildlife agencies in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Wildlife Management Institute, and several other partners on the effort.

The AMWI is to be accomplished by implementing best management practices to establish...

During the 73rd North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, held last month in Phoenix, Arizona, Wildlife Management Institute (WMI) President Steve Williams announced that Bob Carmichael was the recipient of WMI's 2008 Presidents Award. Our recipient is a wildlife biologist, whose career has spanned six decades.

Carmichael began as a field worker and only recently retired after more than 20 years as a wildlife agency administrator. In those capacities and others, he proved to be accomplished and, in the process, earned the respect and admiration of those with whom...