July 2025

We live in a truly amazing age. Anytime we have questions or debates, assuming we have a cell signal, we can promptly summon an answer. “Just Google it,” we so often say. We have the power of the internet right in our hands! It seems so inefficient and wasteful to spend time in rigorous debate when you can simply “just Google it.” Gestational period of bighorn sheep, distributional maps of timber rattlers, average clutch size of bobwhite quail, sunrise, sunset, navigation, weather, and so many infinitely more uses readily available at our fingertips. And with Siri and AI you don’t even have to type it—just say a few words and let the results roll in. Yes. Welcome to the age of information.

Adapted from Lane Kisonak’s remarks during the Special Session “The Foundation of Conservation is Cracked – Now What?” at the 90th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in March 2025

Let me start with a quick update on a little fish many of us may know: Percina tanasi, better known as the snail darter.

Early in the new year I came across an article in the New York Timesthat added a new wrinkle to the story. What else is there to tell, you might wonder, nearly 50 years after the snail darter made history as the subject of a landmark decision from the U.S. Supreme Court? Let’s try the money quote, from fish biologist Thomas Near, summing up his team’s new study: “There is, technically, no snail darter.”

The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) spans 23 U.S. states and Canadian territories, covering nearly 2.7 billion acres—almost 45% of North America. From rugged mountains to sweeping prairies, deserts to wetlands, this landscape is home to more than 1,500 wildlife species and some of the most iconic ecosystems on the continent.

Theileria orientalis is a protozoal organism that is relatively new in the United States. This organism primarily affects cattle and was first discovered in a cow-calf herd in Virginia in 2017. It has since been detected in 23 states, including most recently Iowa and Michigan in 2025. The disease is carried by a new invasive tick, the Asian Longhorned Tick (ALHT), whose native range includes eastern China, Japan, the Russian Far East, and Korea. The ALHT and Theileria orientalis have also been previously found in SE Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and South America. The initial finding of the ALHT in North America was in New Jersey in 2017, although a reexamination of tick specimens from 2010 showed that ALHT was present at least from 2010.

USGS researchers at the Arkansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit are leading efforts to monitor how wildlife responds to features in residential yards. This research assists Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in sharing information with the public regarding wildlife habitats in backyards.