Leaders of the nation's top hunting and other wildlife conservation organizations celebrated the visionary leadership of President Theodore Roosevelt at the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on May 15, and they laid the groundwork for a plan to carry conservation efforts forward in the 21st century, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

Together with the Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Secretaries of the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the organizations reflected on Roosevelt's 1908 Conference of Governors, which marked a turning point in natural resource conservation in this nation. More importantly, the centennial celebration set the stage for a fall conference on wildlife policy that will establish a plan to enhance wildlife conservation and will perpetuate the tradition of hunting in this nation.

At the turn of the last century, rapid industrialization of the United States hastened the exploitation and depletion of what had long been perceived as the nation's inexhaustible natural resources. To stem the tide of losses and to focus on the benefits of sustainable resource use, Roosevelt summoned the nation's governors, members of his Cabinet and the Supreme Court, members of Congress, scientists, industrial leaders and pioneering conservationists. Never before had such a broad group of individuals been convened by a president to consider issues affecting the nation. Roosevelt brought them together, "because the enormous consumption of these resources, and the threat of imminent exhaustion of some of them, due to reckless and wasteful use, once more calls for common effort, common action." He implored the assemblage to "handle the water, the wood, the grasses, so that we will hand them to our children and our children's children in better not worse shape than we got them."

That such a diverse group met to address natural resource shortfalls shows how fundamental Roosevelt believed the issue of conservation to be. On May 15, 1908, the governors adopted a declaration supporting conservation, leading to the appointment of 38 state conservation committees and ultimately launching an entire conservation movement. While the primary focus of the 1908 conference was the use of forests, minerals, soils and water, the interconnectedness of those resources ensured that fish and wildlife would benefit as well.

What followed was a model that brought many fish and game populations back from the brink of disaster and that placed hunters and anglers at the forefront of the fledgling conservation effort. Focusing as it has, among other things, on public ownership of wildlife, democratic rule of law and hunting opportunities for all, the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation sets North America apart in the world. Supported over the past century by sound public policies, this model has proven its many benefits to society.

Today, however, it faces many new challenges that are seriously hampering wildlife conservation and hunting opportunity. It is the recognition of these challenges and the desire to enhance and resolidify the foundation on which natural resource conservation was built that has led to the centennial North American Wildlife Policy Conference planned for fall 2008.

The centennial conference looks to draw from lessons learned and values accrued from a century of conservation efforts. It stems directly from President George W. Bush's Executive Order, The Facilitation of Hunting Heritage and Wildlife Conservation, signed in August 2007. It called for the federal agencies to facilitate the expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities and the management of game species and their habitat. Specifically, DOI and USDA were tasked to evaluate the effects of their actions on trends in hunting participation, to consider the economic and recreational values of hunting, to manage wildlife and wildlife habitats to expand and enhance hunting opportunities, and to work collaboratively with state and tribal wildlife managers to foster healthy and productive wildlife populations. In addition the Executive Order called for the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the federal agencies, in collaboration with the Sporting Conservation Council, to convene a wildlife policy conference within one year, which would be the foundation for a 10-year Recreational Hunting and Wildlife Resource Conservation Plan.

Members of the Sporting Conservation Council (SCC), a federal advisory committee created to advise the DOI and USDA on resource conservation issues of interest to the hunting community, worked with the American Wildlife Conservation Partners to develop the policy recommendations that will be considered during the 2008 conference. The SCC delivered five primary topics that have been accepted by the Administration as the focus of the conference: discussion on the North American Conservation Model; state, federal and tribal wildlife management; habitat conservation and management; funding for wildlife conservation; and perpetuating hunting traditions. Working groups were established to flesh out these topics and to develop attainable policy objectives for recommended inclusion in the 10-year plan. In early April, the working groups met at a technical meeting in Denver, Colorado. The reports from the working groups were presented to the CEQ Chairman and the DOI and USDA Secretaries prior to the centennial celebration on May 15. Through the summer the working group and other conservation partners will continue to fine tune the proposals for adoption as a blueprint for the future of hunting and wildlife conservation.