Department of Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, announced on January 14 the 115 projects in all 50 states and Puerto Rico that were selected to receive a total of $370 million through the new Regional Conservation Partnership Program

"We must hang together or we will surely hang separately." Those words, spoken by Ben Franklin, were meant to remind America's founding fathers of the importance of unity as they worked together to form a new nation in spite of their deep philosophical differences. As we face the daunting challenges of climate change, rising sea levels, and a global population careening toward nine billion whose demands for water, land, food, energy and resources seems insatiable, the conservation community can ill afford to allow our differences to dilute our efforts.

Conservation of natural resources has become increasingly complex and diverse during the past century. In the early years, fisheries and wildlife professionals often dealt with science needs that focused on a single species of importance to the state fish and wildlife agency or national wildlife refuge, for example. Current conservation challenges often require scientific inquiry at scales that involve multiple stakeholders, suites of species, and entire landscapes.

The New York Natural Heritage Program and fellow contributors recently completed a region-wide conservation assessment of Odonata that was funded by the Regional Conservation Needs Grants program.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) spends over $5 billion per year on conservation programs. Most of these programs are voluntary for landowners, and participants in these programs are paid to apply conservation to lands they own. In most cases, demand for conservation program participation exceeds available funding, so a form of auctions is used to select which offers for conservation will be the most cost-effective.

The Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GCP LCC) is seeking Statements of Interest by January 31 for funding to conduct priority science projects.

Conservation Briefs is a compilation of short news stories of interest to Outdoor News Bulletin readers. The stories cover a number of issues that have developed in the past month or provide updates on issues that were featured in previous ONB editions. Each story includes links to online resources for more details on each topic.

This Month:

As human populations and associated development increase, human-wildlife conflicts are occurring with greater frequency. How human activity affects wildlife, particularly species with declining populations, is of great interest to ecologists, land managers, and natural resource policymakers. The American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus), a species of federal and state management concern, nests on coastal beaches where they are subject to various forms of anthropogenic disturbance.