WMI Celebrates Its Centennial with a Limited Edition of An American Crusade for Wildlife To commemorate its 100th Anniversary, the Wildlife Management Institute has produced a new, numbered, limited-edition of the classic book An American Crusade for Wildlife by James B. Trefethen. The book is a Boone & Crockett Club title, but has been out of print for a number of years. Reprised by WMI with the Club's permission and solely for a limited-edition run of 500 copies, the book is being made available to persons who contribute $100 or more to the Institute's natural resource management programs. An American Crusade for Wildlife is widely considered... Read The Article
Oil and Gas Development Drills the American Serengeti When the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) first introduced the Pinedale Anticline Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Project on the mesa near Pinedale, Wyoming, in 2000, the agency was applauded for its progressive venture "to showcase adaptive management and its potential to mitigate environmental concerns while facilitating development." Now, more than a decade later, the project may have more to offer as a "case study focusing on barriers to adaptive management," than as a flagship example of flexible, science-based decision making, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.... Read The Article
Conservation Programs Dodge Major Cuts in FY'11 Budget Agreement The final negotiations on spending levels for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 proved to be less devastating to conservation programs than proposed in earlier versions of the bill, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. Programs such as the North American Wetland Conservation Act (NAWCA) fund and the Land and Water Conservation Fund were recommended for elimination or massive reductions (see March 2011 ONB) in the House-passed H... Read The Article
Alan Wentz Receives the George Bird Grinnell Award Wildlife biologist, educator, policy maker and administrator, Alan Wentz is the recipient of the Wildlife Management Institute's 2011 George Bird Grinnell Award for Distinguished Service to Natural Resource Conservation. The honor was conferred during the 76th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference last month in Kansas City, Missouri. Wentz, recently retired as Chief Operations Officer for Ducks Unlimited, Inc., has had a 40-year career of dedicated and progressively influential leadership in the professional conservation community. Presenting the... Read The Article
Fiscal Constraints Prompt Discussion of Agency Reorganization in the West Declining revenues have prompted at least three western states to consider consolidating their fish and wildlife agencies with other parts of government, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. While aimed at reducing costs, some proposals also could affect how wildlife policies, including hunting and fishing regulations, are set by changing the role or make up of citizen commissions. In New Mexico, a Government Reorganization Task Force recommended eliminating the Game and Fish Commission and converting the Game and Fish Department from a stand-alone agency to a division... Read The Article
America's Great Outdoors Has Lofty, but Essential Priorities for Conservation and Better Connecting More Americans to the Landscape On the opening day of the 76th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, a Special Session was dedicated to assessing the potential opportunities outlined in the Obama Administration's new natural resource conservation initiative. The America's Great Outdoors: A Promise to Future Generations report, released on February 16, is the result of a national dialogue initiated by the Administration to identify priorities for conservation and for engaging future generations in natural resource management. Rather than an end result, the report is... Read The Article
