December 2015

Sustaining and, better yet, growing public support for wildlife management is a high priority on state and national wildlife conservation agendas. Without such support, nothing of much significance is likely to happen; with it, much is possible. Yet how do we grow public support for state wildlife agencies? The answer starts with fundamentals of the approach taken to public wildlife resource governance. A Special Session at the 81st North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference will elaborate on a set of ideas drawn from public trust thinking and good governance that should...

The 46th general sign-up for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is underway.  The enrollment period opened on December 1st and will continue until February 26th of 2016, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the program. Enrollment in CRP peaked in 2007 with 36.8 million acres. In the 2014 Farm Bill, Congress downsized the program by nearly one-third to 24 million acres by 2017. Current enrollment in the program is between 23 and 24 million acres with contracts on another 1.6 million acres due to expire next...

The U.S. Geological Survey Mississippi Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit surveyed habitat impairment in U.S. reservoirs and developed a tool for rating reservoirs relative to fish habitat status. The habitat ratings provide a measure of the overall habitat impairment status of a reservoir and can be used for rapid assessment and for comparing reservoirs. The ratings provide a method to quickly identify high-quality reservoirs for protection and degraded reservoirs for rehabilitation. Comparison of ratings among reservoirs facilitates prioritization of restoration activities....