The 87^th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference (NAWNRC) will be held in-person at the Davenport Grand in Spokane, Washington on the week of March 14, 2022, and will offer various virtual hybrid options to related meeting coordinators. These options may include Zoom-style virtual-only meetings, 2-way streaming of in-person meetings (allowing virtual attendees to see and interact with in-person attendees), and one-way streaming (online viewing in real-time).

The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) recently updated the business plan for its Lesser Prairie Chicken (LPC) Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA). The CCAA was developed by WAFWA as part of a Range-wide Conservation Plan approved in 2013 by the five states that share LPC range (CO, NM, OK, KS, and TX). The CCAA provides incentives to avoid, minimize and mitigate impacts of development to LPC habitat in exchange for certainty that no further action will be required if the LPC is listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. An independent programmatic review of WAFWA’s LPC program in 2019 found the CCAA was highly successful in terms of habitat conservation during its first five years with over 99,000 acres of habitat conserved or enhanced in contrast to less than 8,000 acres impacted. The review also identified a number of issues related to program reporting, financing, and administration that warranted attention. In response, WAFWA added clarity to the management of the CCAA program to assure long-term financial sustainability, adopted revised reporting and accounting practices to increase transparency to participating agencies and stakeholders, and updated its business plan for the CCAA. The updated business plan establishes governance structure and roles for the CCAA’s stakeholders and outlines the specific criteria that will be used to ensure additional habitat conservation. WAFWA recently hosted a webinar that provides a comprehensive overview of the program’s history, updated business plan, and ongoing efforts to enhance LPC conservation.

Ann Forstchen will be joining the Wildlife Management Institute as Relevancy Specialist in early January after retiring from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) where she worked for 32 years. Forstchen was instrumental in developing awareness and increased application of social science in FWC including a recent focus on increasing the relevancy of state fish and wildlife agencies.

For the fiscal year that ended in September, Wildlife Restoration (WR) receipts in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program were up 65.71% from the previous year at just over $1.1 billion dollars. All WR archery equipment receipts were up 72.47% from the previous year. In contrast, Sportfish Restoration receipts were down 3.6% to $715 million. Of greatest interest, fourth quarter receipts were stronger than the first quarter of FY2020. The total receipts will be used to calculate the FY 2022 grants to state fish and wildlife agencies. The recipient state wildlife agencies will match these funds with other state funds, primarily through hunting and fishing license revenues.

Researchers at the Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, the University of Idaho, and the USGS Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center are investigating how warmer winters in the interior Pacific Northwest are affecting wildlife populations.