Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow (CLfT)?a program to inform nonhunting university students with majors in wildlife and other natural resources about the role and values of recreational hunting?will continue to be underwritten in part by the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation. At the conclusion of its second and final pilot-year workshops this fall at the McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Dundee, Illinois, the program will look to establish satellite facilities and workshops in other parts of the country, reports the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI).

CLfT was prompted mainly by state wildlife agency officials concerned that fewer and fewer professional-level hirees are hunters or have any direct familiarity with hunting. Inasmuch as these agencies are responsible for harvest management programs, the officials' concern is that new staff will not be adequately attuned with the importance of hunting to agency mission, public trust responsibility and obligation to a significant constituency. Nationally, more than 50 percent of college students with wildlife and other natural resource majors and graduate students?the next generation of private as well as public resource managers and administrators?have had no experience with or exposure to hunting.

The McGraw Foundation underwrote the two-year pilot program, administered by WMI. After two more workshops this October, more than 70 students will have completed the program. The workshops are three-day events that feature a dozen roundtable discussion topics and nearly a dozen field exercises, including mentored hunting for those students who meet the requirements for hunter certification. The program is neither designed nor intended to recruit the students as hunters.

The workshops are conducted by a number of instructors, who are experienced hunters and veteran natural resource professionals. Instructors go through separate, annual three-day training and orientation sessions.

Based on the success of the workshops in 2005 (video, photos and more can be seen at www.clft.org) and continued refinements of the program for 2006, the McGraw Foundation Board of Directors generously approved continuation of the program at least through 2008. The Foundation will remain as the flagship of the program for instructor training and several annual workshops, but development of satellite facilities in other states will be a priority for 2007. CLfT will continue to be administered by WMI, but with the hire of a part-time national coordinator.

Three universities have been involved in the CLfT pilot years. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Penn State University and U. W.-Stevens Point have enrolled students and have faculty advisors involved since the program's inception. In 2007, other universities will be invited to participate, based on faculty involvement and satellite facility location. State agencies, hunting/conservation organizations and businesses also will be invited to provide logistical support and other input.

CLfT investment by the McGraw Foundation beyond 2008 will depend on the continued success of the program workshops this fall and of involvement of satellites facilities, universities and others. Charlie Potter, President and CEO of the McGraw Foundation, stated: "Our Board has enthusiastically endorsed the CLfT concept, its implementation and momentum. The extended underwriting commitment reflects our sincere desire to make sure that future wildlife managers and other natural resource professionals understand and appreciate that hunting is an essential element of responsible and successful conservation. The McGraw Foundation and WMI have responded positively to the clearly expressed desire of wildlife agencies. We have taken the initiative to address their concern, and we look forward to working with those agencies, with universities and others to see that all students going into the natural resource profession have opportunity to learn directly the role of hunting and to appreciate why it is so important to hunters and to the management of wildlife in North America."

Dick McCabe, WMI executive vice president and the CLfT chair, noted: "The McGraw Foundation provided the wherewithal and enthusiasm to create the program. The dedication of support through 2008 is further testimony to its foresight and generosity. But if CLfT is to meet wildlife agency needs and expectations for its future professionals, those agencies and other conservation interests will need to step to the plate as well. Given the workshop model that has developed, I can't imagine that all hunting and resource management interests won't want Oin' with this program."