Opening Remarks by Steve Williams at North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference Welcome to the 79th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference. WMI thanks you and all the conference co-sponsors, exhibitors, state agency contributors, and special session organizers who are critical to help make this conference successful. I would like to offer special thanks to Bob Broscheid for welcoming us to Colorado and Jim Kurth and Ed Cantu who also join me this morning in the plenary session. It is great to see the increased attendance this year. Our federal partners are still suffering from travel restrictions but this is a great turnout and I am glad to... Read The Article
Does the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program Need a Tune-up? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program, or WSFR Program, is the umbrella for funds collected under the authority of Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson Acts and continues to be the backbone of conservation in this country. However technological advances, inconsistent regional application and enforcement, and procedural loopholes in the laws that didn't even exist when they were passed are now threatening to cripple this vital source of state-level conservation revenue. The Wildlife Management Institute, with funding through a Multi-State... Read The Article
Administration Proposes Clean Water Act Protection for Streams and Wetlands The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) are seeking comments on a proposed rule that would define the scope of waters protected under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The new "Waters of the United States" rule,... Read The Article
John Organ Receives WMI Grinnell Award John Organ, past president of The Wildlife Society, champion of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, current Division Chief of the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and internationally respected biologist was presented with the Wildlife Management Institute's 2014 George Bird Grinnell Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to Natural Resource Conservation. The award was conferred on Wednesday, March 12, during the 79th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Denver, Colorado. "Over the course of... Read The Article
Conservation Briefs Conservation Briefs is a compilation of short news stories of interest to Outdoor News Bulletin readers. The stories cover a number of issues that have developed in the past month or provide updates on issues that were featured in previous ONB editions. Each story includes links to online resources for more details on each topic. This month: DOI Releases Landscape-Scale Mitigation Proposal ... Read The Article
Prairie Conservation Campaign Launched A group of conservation organizations has joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department and the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks to launch the "Prairies Conservation Campaign." The Campaign's objective is to bring attention to the dramatic conversion of grasslands and wetlands to cropland in the prairie pothole region, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. High agricultural commodity prices in recent years have provided economic incentive for... Read The Article
WMI Landscapes White Mountains to Moosehead Lake Initiative, a NALCC Demonstration Project The White Mountains to Moosehead Lake Initiative (the Initiative) is a project recently completed by the Trust for Public Land (TPL) through funding from the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC) Demonstration Projects. The NALCC seeks Demonstration Projects that show how existing conservation tools developed... Read The Article
USGS Cooperative Research Unit Corner Transboundary Seabird Research in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico By their very nature, seabirds embody the complexity of wildlife ecology and conservation in the 21st century. They cross distinct ecological boundaries on a regular basis to forage and transit through international waters on a daily, weekly, or monthly time frame. The wide-ranging and transboundary nature of seabird ecology exposes these species to various environmental and anthropogenic forces such as contamination, commercial fishing, and climate forcing that also are transboundary in nature. As such, seabirds represent a unique research and management challenge that require large-scale... Read The Article
