After 18 years as the President of the Wildlife Management Institute, Steve Williams is announcing that he has decided to retire from the organization on March 31, 2023. The WMI Board of Directors will be searching for a new WMI President starting this fall with an anticipated selection being made on or before February 2023. A position announcement will be circulated prior to the AFWA meeting in September. Following is a statement from Williams about his retirement.

A coalition of 27 wolf advocacy groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) petitioned the U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (DOI/FWS) on August 4, 2022 to develop a rule that would find the states of Idaho and Montana ineligible for funding under the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (Pittman-Robertson (PR) Act). The petition argues that to be eligible to receive federal aid the PR Act requires states to have laws in place that assent to the provisions of the Act. In response to a letter from the CBD to the DOI/FWS that made the same request (but only for Idaho) in May 2021, the FWS said the requirement for assent language only requires that hunting and fishing license revenue collected by the states was used exclusively for fish and wildlife conservation. By filing a formal petition, the coalition may be laying the basis to challenge the FWS’ interpretation of the PR Act in court.

Following more than two years of consumer research and planning, the State of Illinois unveiled “Copi,” the new name for Asian carp. The new name and brand are designed to address public misconceptions about this delicious top-feeding fish, which is overrunning Midwest waterways.

The 88th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources 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.

The Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, USGS Ecosystems Mission Area, located at Kansas State University, is working with conservation decision-makers, farmers, non-farmers, and other stakeholders to understand their values and beliefs about environmental quality (water, land, wildlife, habitat, and aquatic biodiversity) in the Smoky Hill River watershed in central and western Kansas.