The vision of the Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) Network is to conserve landscapes capable of sustaining natural and cultural resources for current and future generations. To move the LCC Network's vision forward, a strategic plan was released in late October. The plan was developed over the past six months with input from across the 22 LCCs including states, provinces, tribes, federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities, and others.

According to research from Purdue University, enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has been steadily declining since 2007. One of the primary drivers of this are the high commodity prices through last year that encourage farmers to plant or rent their agricultural lands, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

An International Sage-Grouse Forum sponsored by the Jack H. Berryman Institute for Wildlife Damage Management at Utah State University (USU), state and federal management agencies, and industry was held in Salt Lake City, Utah on November 13 and 14.

Through funding from the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC), The Nature Conservancy has completed the Lakes and Ponds Classification System, an addition to the Northeastern Aquatic Habitat Classification System (

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:

From March 23 to 27, 2015, the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at Colorado State University is running its annual Wildlife Management Short Course on the campus in Fort Collins, Colorado. This popular course was developed for laypersons and agency personnel with non-wildlife training. A number of agencies have sent administrators, commissioners, planners, information and environmental education personnel, legislators, and other staff to this course to obtain a broad exposure to wildlife conservation, management and issues.

Bat conservation and management is a tricky business. Hard to catch, count and track, most species' life history aspects, including those "relatively" well studied such as the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), remain a mystery. For land managers in the eastern United States tasked with a myriad of stewardship responsibilities and multiple-use outputs, finding the right strategies to balance resource management needs with the needs of forest-roosting bats has been difficult.