October 2011

Ten of the 21 Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) being developed by the U.S. Department of the Interior extend across international borders, with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. For several of these LCCs, significant portions fall outside the jurisdiction of the United States. For example, 47 percent of the Great Northern LCC covers lands in British Columbia and Alberta. If these trans-boundary LCCs are to fulfill their potential to conserve species and ecosystem function across large landscapes and provide the opportunity for species to adapt to the impacts of climate...

In response to the Budget Control Act of 2011, the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry recommended to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction a reduction of $23 billion across all U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs over the next 10 years, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

Despite the fact that USDA conservation programs were cut by more than $3 billion over the past five years, it is difficult to imagine that they will escape the next round of budget cuts. The agriculture committees...

On October 5, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that nine federal agencies would be expediting the review and approval of seven electricity transmission projects across the country including five in the West. The new transmission lines, when completed, will support Department of the Interior (DOI) approval of 22 major renewable energy projects on public lands in the western United States. However, according to the Wildlife Management Institute, there are questions about expediting an approval process that can take up to 15 years, and some of the projects face local opposition...

An annual elk hunt in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and a volunteer-based "elk reduction" project in western North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt National Park got underway this month amid public criticism, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The issue is developing across several national parks as elk populations continue to grow. It mirrors similar issues seen with deer populations in the East. Critics contend that the culling programs are counter to the National Park Service (NPS) mission to preserve wildlife within its units. However, the agency contends that damage to...

To date, most discussions concerning climate change have focused on the role of mitigation or ways to limit the potential scale of change. However, as some degree of climate change is becoming inevitable and the ability to limit it is becoming apparent, a new focus on climate change adaptation?"climate smart conservation"?is rapidly gaining interest and acceptance. This new approach to managing natural resources in a shifting environment places emphasis on anticipating and preparing for change by ensuring that existing and new conservation efforts are designed to be effective and relevant...