On June 20, the U.S. House of Representatives voted down their version of the Farm Bill by a vote of 195 to 234, largely due to a conflict over inclusion of funding for nutrition programs that was added to the bill, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. As a result, House Republican leadership separated the "farm" portion of the bill from the nutrition language and voted on the "farm only" provisions (H.R. 2642), on July 11 passing it by a partisan vote of 216-208.

The 2013-2014 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp ? better known as the Duck Stamp ? went on sale on June 28. This year's stamp, painted by Robert Steiner of San Francisco, California, depicts a drake common goldeneye and is available for purchase for $15 at many sporting goods and retail stores, at some post offices and national wildlife refuges, and online. While electronic stamps are available through a pilot program, a bill passed by the U.S.

The latest State of the Birds report was released on July 2 with the 2013 edition focusing on the importance of private lands for birds, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The report is the fourth in a series released through a collaborative effort between the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and the Interior as well as state wildlife agencies and science and conservation organizations as part of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative.

Many in the wildlife management community recognize the vital role hunting has played in the "North American Model of Wildlife Conservation" and acknowledge hunters as the foundation of efforts to restore species and habitats depleted by unregulated commercial slaughter in the 1800's. Yet with the increasing focus on endangered species, environmental impacts from events like the Gulf oil spill, and the effects of climate change, that legacy is easy to overlook.

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) (often popularly referred to as "drones"), are well known as military and intelligence gathering tools. Their use in natural resource management and science, however is only just beginning to be recognized and developed. The potential for these devices to gather high quality spatially based information fits squarely in an unfilled niche between ground observation and satellite systems.