June 2018

Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (MFWP) is caught between a rock and a hard spot – or perhaps more accurately between an immovable object and an irresistible force. The immoveable object is resistance from the Montana Legislature and some in the livestock industry to the restoration of wild, free-ranging bison. The irresistible force is the ongoing efforts of several Native American Tribes and the American Prairie Reserve (APR) to restore bison’s ecological, cultural, and spiritual roles in Montana. Only one thing is certain about the future of bison in Montana, the species will continue to stir passion and controversy.

As the number of states facing Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in both free-ranging deer and on deer farms keeps increasing, individual states are looking more closely at regulations to restrict movement of CWD through both live deer and deer carcasses. There is no rapid test for CWD infection and diseased animals are slow to show symptoms; both live animals and carcasses that are infected with the disease can be moved from one location to another. Both Michigan and Wisconsin have made recent changes intended to help slow the spread of the disease.

A USGS Georgia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit student is among 211 students from across the nation to be recognized as Barry Goldwater Scholars, earning the highest undergraduate award of its type for the fields of the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering.

Guy Eroh, one of the winners, is a junior from Portland, Oregon, who is majoring in ecology. But he’s also earning a master’s degree in forest resources from the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Eroh is working under Dr. Cecil Jennings, Unit Leader at...