December 2018

December 2018

Inside the December 2018 Edition

As previously reported in the Outdoor News Bulletin, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and WMI convened a workshop last August to explore the value of developing a “Relevancy Roadmap” for state fish and wildlife agencies. The Relevancy Roadmap will be a practical guide that state and provincial fish and wildlife conservation agencies can use to overcome barriers to broader relevance, public engagement, and support. It will provide multiple pathways to respond to the diverse social, economic, demographic, political, and environmental changes that states and provinces face. Following endorsement of this concept by the state agency directors at their annual meeting in September, five diverse teams with representation from state and federal agencies, conservation organizations, and private industry were formed to construct the roadmap.

In the Northeast United States, there are 245 species of land snails, and many of these are listed as Species of Greatest Conservation Need in the northeastern State Wildlife Action Plans. However, data is lacking on the snails that states could use to conserve the species. This data gap was addressed through a recent Regional Conservation Needs Grant (RCN) to Appalachian Conservation Biology. The completed project added information on northeastern land snails to the existing Land Snails and Slugs of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States website hosted by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. More than 300 species profiles for the region were added to the site, including specimen records and regional maps for each profile.

Declining populations of mule deer and other species in Kansas and the Great Plains are of concern to state fish and wildlife management agencies. Researchers at the USGS Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit are tracking white-tailed deer and mule deer to understand how the deer are moving throughout the state. The information is important for hunting, disease control, and farming. Mule deer populations in Kansas are declining and contracting to the west while populations of white-tailed deer are increasing and expanding. Limited research is available to understand why two similar species are exhibiting vastly different population trends.

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