A Government Accounting Office (GAO) report released in late September informed Congress that, at its current level of funding and pace of acquisitions, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will not achieve its migratory bird habitat-protection goals in the Prairie Pothole Region, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. The report suggests Congress consider several funding alternatives for habitat protection and recommends that the FWS focus on acquiring the least expensive, high-priority habitat.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) canceled its November oil and gas lease sale in Utah this month, the first time in 20 years that a sale in the state has been postponed, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The cancellation is intended to provide more time for agency review of the potential impacts of these sales on wildlife. It followed receipt of information from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources indicating that 139,000 of the 141,000 acres available for lease were important summer wildlife habitat.

A recent assessment by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed that federal farm subsidy payments are contributing to the conversion of native grasslands to croplands, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

Managers of the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming, working with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department have authorized new hunts for bison and elk on the refuge this fall, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

By combining financial resources, the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA) has created an efficient and effective mechanism to address landscape-scale or regionally applicable issues through the Northeast Regional Conservation Needs (RCN) Grant Program, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

The Wildlife Management Institute invites exhibitors to display their services and products at the 73rd North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, from March 26 to 28, 2008, in Phoenix, Arizona. As usual, space at the hotel (the Hyatt Regency Phoenix) is limited because the Wildlife Management Institute locates its exhibitors in walkways and atria in close proximity to primary meeting rooms. Doing so maximizes traffic but constrains availability. Assignment is on a first-come first-served basis. Booth prices range from $300 to $600.

Moose populations continue to expand in the Northeast, and states are learning, sometimes on the fly, how to accommodate the animals, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

Maine has the most experience with moose because, unlike in other states, its herds were not extirpated in the 1800s. Experts generally believe moose have reoccupied former ranges through westward movement from Maine, first into New Hampshire, followed by Vermont, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut.