October 2008

In an effort to reach its congressionally mandated self-sufficiency of the Valles Caldera Preserve in New Mexico by 2015, managers of the preserve are considering a substantial increase in access fees for about 25 percent of elk tags, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. Currently, bull elk permits are $25 and cow tags are $15. Under the proposal being discussed with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, access fees could jump to $5,000 to $7,000.

The natural resource coordinator for the Preserve, Marie Rodriguez, says that only a small percentage of the permits...

Two late September actions put gray wolves in the continental United States back on the Endangered Species List, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. On September 23, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) reinstated protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies following the July decision by a federal court to place an injunction on the delisting.

A week later, a federal judge reversed the FWS 2007 decision to delist wolves in the western Great Lakes region based on their designation as a "distinct population segment." The series of setbacks calls into question efforts...

In response to two laws passed by the Colorado state legislature in 2007, the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) tentatively approved rules aimed at reducing the impacts of energy development on fish and wildlife. House Bills 1298 and 1341 charged the Commission with balancing drilling with wildlife and public health and safety and to include the state Division of Wildlife and Department of Public Health and Environment in its planning.

The COGCC has adopted nearly 90 new rules or changes to existing rules in the past three months setting a model for other...

The October 2-3 White House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy, held in Reno, Nevada, brought about 500 participants to discuss some of the most important issues confronting wildlife conservation and the continent's hunting heritage.

Prescribed in an August 2007 Presidential Executive Order, the conference focused on issues identified in a series of white papers prepared by the Sporting Conservation Council (SCC), members of organizations affiliated with the American Wildlife Conservation Partners (AWCP), and other individuals. The Executive Order also called for...

The Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) was founded by the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA) and its technical arm, the Southeast Quail Study Group Technical Committee, to restore declining quail populations to 1980 levels. After six successful years as an upstart regional movement, the NBCI is laying a permanent foundation for growth and going rangewide, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

?The original NBCI was produced mostly by and for southeastern states. Implementation was shepherded and supported predominately at that...

A recently completed study of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) has quantified and documented a number of environmental benefits of these two programs in the Prairie Pothole Region of the United States, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

Research scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Services Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service evaluated a number of factors associated with lands enrolled in CRP and WRP at a number of sites in Iowa,...

National Wildlife Refuges along the Gulf of Mexico were hit hard by hurricanes this September, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. The 20-foot storm surge that hit the Texas Coast in front of Hurricane Ike inundated wetlands in the Texas Chenier Plain National Wildlife Refuge Complex with saltwater that killed vegetation and littered the ground with debris.

Two of the refuges in the complex, Anahuac and McFaddin, also are contending with oil spills from drilling equipment in the Gulf. Beyond ecological damage, the four refuges in the Complex (Anahuac, Texas Point,...

If David McCullough wrote it, it's worth reading. His books read like front-page news, but with detail, trustworthy accuracy and interior-page sidebars that add scope and clarity to the setting, circumstance and players. It isn't possible not to be drawn into the time and place of his historical investigations. Just try to remain detached from the shock, awe and carnage of The Johnstown Flood (Simon and Schuster 1987).

On May 28, 1889, fueled by storm clouds that had gathered on the Central Plains, rain began falling in the Conemaugh Valley of southwestern Pennsylvania....