Whether you are searching for books about major wildlife species, past or recent North American Conference Transactions, or pamphlets covering a range of conservation topics, the recently opened WMI Store is now the one-stop shop for many of your literature needs.

WMI books available for purchase include:

The light goose conservation hunting season currently is underway in a number of states. From the 1970s through the 1990s, the populations of light geese, comprised of greater and lesser snow geese and Ross's geese irrupted. They increased to such an extent that their fragile breeding and nesting habitat in the Arctic sustained serious damage as a result of the birds' overgrazing and excessive grubbing for food.

On March 10, by a margin of 62 to 35, the U.S. Senate passed an omnibus appropriations bill, providing fiscal year 2009 (FY09) funding for the majority of federal government agencies. The House passed the bill on February 25 and President Obama signed it into law on March 11. Agencies had been operating under a continuing resolution since the start of the fiscal year last October, after Congress was unable to reach agreement on spending levels for 9 of the 12 appropriations bills. The final tally on the bill was over $410 billion ?

A bill aimed at restoring the authority of the citizen-based Wisconsin Natural Resource Board to appoint the state's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary was introduced to the Wisconsin legislature on March 9. Backed by a pledged majority support in both the Senate and Assembly, the bill's odds of passing are perhaps the best they have been in the last 13 years, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

The long-awaited Transactions of the 72nd North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, held in March 2007 in Portland, Oregon, is available from the Wildlife Management Institute. It can be ordered from the WMI Store as a hard copy ($33) or downloaded in PDF format ($25).

On March 3, President Obama requested that the Departments of the Interior and Commerce review regulations impacting the consultation process for the Endangered Species Act (ESA), to determine if a new rule-making process should be undertaken, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The Presidential Memorandum also requested that agencies resume the traditional consultation process during the review, effectively overriding the regulations that became final on January 15, 2009.

The Steering Committee for the 75th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference is soliciting ideas for the Conference theme and topic suggestions for the four concurrent Special Sessions. Recommendations for plenary session keynoters also are invited. The 75th North American will be held March 22-27, 2010, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

An omnibus public land bill (S. 22) that cleared the U.S. Senate on January 14 failed to pass the House of Representatives on March 11, calling the measure's future into question, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.