January 2007

With unprecedented growth in demand for corn to produce ethanol and for soybeans to produce biodiesel fuel, prices being paid for both commodities are approaching record levels. High demand and prices for these row crops could result in the reduction of farmland acres devoted to wildlife habitat, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that the amount of corn used to make ethanol will increase 34 percent, to 2.15 billion bushels, in the marketing year that began September 1, 2006. In addition, the agency predicted a 17-...

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has released a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) that would allow year-round drilling for energy resources on the Pinedale Anticline Project Area (PAPA) in Wyoming, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

The SEIS is supplemental to a 2000 plan that addressed expected drilling on the area. PAPA is located southeast of the city of Pinedale and, according to BLM, contains an estimated 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The number of wells on public lands in the 12,278-acre area is expected to total about 4,399. Also,...

The Westin Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, will host the 76th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, officially from March 15 to 18, 2011.

The 76th Conference will feature celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Wildlife Management Institute, founded in 1911 (first, as the American Game Protective and Propagation Association), and the administrator of the annual North American Conference since its inception in 1915.

The North American was last held in Kansas City in March 1983. It is indelibly remembered by veteran attendees for its...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is reviewing public comments on a proposal that would permit the development of a private ski resort on lands overlapping valuable lynx habitat on and around Battle Mountain near Minturn, Colorado, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

The Ginn Company, a private Florida-based real estate developer, plans to construct a luxury resort, skiing area and 1,700 housing units on recently purchased lands that include several thousand acres of mature spruce and fir forest plus shoreline along both sides of the Eagle River. The development...

I normally don't pay much attention to testimonial puffery on the covers of books, but of John Vaillant's The Golden Spruce (2005), one reviewer wrote: "Absolutely spellbinding." I can't improve on that assessment. If you so much as peruse the Prologue, you will finish the book soon thereafter.

Also on the jacket of this book is the subtitle: "A Story of Myth, Madness and Greed." That's overblown. This book actually is a story of theft.

The protagonist of this masterfully knitted work is a 300-year-old, 165-foot tall, infertile, one-in-a-billion, improbably...

After three years of work by more than 50 natural resource professionals in the United States and Canada, the Ruffed Grouse Conservation Plan for North America has been completed, reports the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI). The Plan is designed to provide wildlife and habitat managers' with guidance on how much grouse habitat is needed within ruffed grouse range to stabilize grouse numbers at 1980 levels. The Plan complements the other bird conservation planning efforts accomplished under the North American Bird Conservation Initiative.

"The ruffed grouse is one of North...

Just 18 days after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) terminated its controversial agreement with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) to conduct management actions on Montana's National Bison Range Complex, Department of the Interior officials announced their intention to "reestablish a working relationship" between the two parties, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

Following the requirements of the Tribal Self-Governance Act, the Service had entered into an Annual Funding Agreement (AFA) with the CSKT in 2005-2006 that turned over roughly half...