A Special Session of the 75^th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference will focus on one of the most pressing current issues in wildlife management ? the ecological impacts of renewable energy development. Across North America, political, economic, and public pressures are driving biofuels, solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies.

Climate change, conversion of native prairie to cropland and reduction of acreage enrolled in the USDA's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) appear to be converging and impact substantially the numbers of wetland- and grassland-dependent wildlife in the country's prairie pothole region, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

Four bighorn herds in western Montana have been plagued by a deadly pneumonia outbreak this winter, with impact of the latest herd being discovered earlier this month, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. There is no vaccine or effective treatment for pneumonia in wild sheep and Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) Department has culled almost 200 animals in an effort to limit spread of the disease. Pneumonia is fatal to 70 to 90 percent of wild sheep that get contract it.

The Program Committee for the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference invites and encourages interested persons and parties to submit ideas for the 76^th Conference, to be held March 14-19, 2011, at the Westin Crown Center Hotel, in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Program Committee welcomes recommendations for workshops and Special Session topics, cochairs and presenters, and plenary session keynote speakers.

The Atlantic Coast region stretches from southwestern Maine to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Although urbanization has chewed up many thousands of acres, this great expanse of land remains critically important to a range of resident and migratory wildlife, including many species that need young-forest habitat. Recently, conservationists in the region have joined forces and funding to launch the Atlantic Coast Regional Woodcock Initiative, reports the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI).

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee on his department's efforts to fast track solar energy development on federal public lands. The hearing in late January was part of the Green Jobs and the New Economy Subcommittee's examination of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create jobs by expanding the use of solar energy, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. Representatives from the solar industry and the senior scholar at the Institute for Energy Research also testified.

Late last month, a white-tailed deer harvested in Frederick County, Virginia, tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD), reports the Wildlife Management Institute. Taken by a hunter less than a mile from the border of West Virginia's CWD-positive Hampshire County, the two-year-old doe is Virginia's first documented case of CWD.

In partial response to Congress's unprecedented $400 million appropriation to the Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, USDA Forest Service and the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) convened the second Conservation Leadership Forum, a two-day workshop on climate change adaptation.

On February 4, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced formation of a new Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council (WHHCC) to help promote and preserve America's hunting heritage for future generations. The new federal advisory group will replace the Sporting Conservation Council (SCC) and will add representatives from the archery, hunting and shooting sport industries as well as broader representation from the nation's major hunting organizations, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.