After more than three years of work, scientists have published the Continental Conservation Plan for Spruce Grouse, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The plan resulted from a collaboration of spruce grouse researchers and managers, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Resident Game Bird Working Group, Wildlife Management Institute, and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Are universities adequately preparing the next generation of wildlife professionals? Do today's students get enough hands-on field exposure or is their education too theory focused? How has the academic preparation of natural resource management professionals changed over the years and is it headed in the right direction? If it is not headed in the right direction, what should be done to change it?

Missouri's determined efforts to implement the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) have paid off again, reports the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI). On the heels of the first official NBCI success in Scott County, Missouri, the nation's second success story has been documented in Cass County, just south of Kansas City.

During the week of March 30-April 3, 2009, Colorado State University will again offer the annual Wildlife Management Short Course mainly for laypersons and agency personnel without wildlife training.

Changes of ownership of large tracts of industrial forestlands have been quietly underway in the United States during the past several decades. This has resulted, just as quietly, in reduced wildlife management capability and public recreational opportunities on those lands, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

Agencies, organizations, businesses and individuals interested in gaining exposure for their conservation programs, projects, products and other outputs are invited to apply to exhibit at the 74th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference. The Conference will be held March 16-21, 2009, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. Exhibitors will be able to display from March 18-20 in high-traffic walkways and close proximity to primary meeting rooms.

The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) charges that the U.S. Forest Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) quietly penned a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) this fall that would usurp state wildlife management authority, according to a December 1 letter WAFWA sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), reports the Wildlife Management Institute.