The Montana State Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission is considering a possible ban on lead ammunition.  The recent discovery of lead in the blood of the state’s bald eagle population have called into question the safety of lead ammunition, especially given its known effects on human and wildlife health.  Many supporters of lead ammunition, such as the Montana Shooting Sports Association and National Rifle Association are characterizing the call to ban lead as an attack on hunting and the right to bear arms. However, The Wildife Society (TWS), a professional and scientific society that strongly supports legal and ethical hunting has also called for an eventual phasing out of lead ammunition, based on the results of a detailed technical review on the known effects of lead on wildlife and humans.  TWS believes that some aspects of modern hunting are in opposition to the (Aldo) Leopoldian traditions of fair chase and ecological compatability, and need to be challenged if the important tradition is to persist in our society.

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Michael Hutchins Environmental toxicants, Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management and Conservation, hunting, wildlife conservation

Wyoming ranchers and conservationists have collaborated to develop the second longest pronghorn antelope migration route in the Western Hemisphere.  The easement now protects 2,400 acres of the Carney Ranch, which lies along the migration path of hundreds of pronghorn.

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Michael Hutchins Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management and Conservation, Migration corridors, wildlife conservation

A new study by Harvard University  scientists (including TWS’ Wildlife Phenology Program Coordinator Abe Miller-Rushing) suggests that climate change will exasperate our current battle with invasive species.  As I’ve pointed out in many recent blogs, this will make it even more important that effective control and/or eradication programs be implemented as soon as possible for the more destructive of these ecological interloppers. In addition, stricter regulations must be put into place to prevent further introductions from occurring.

In the future, conservation will require more, not less, intensive management of non-native animal and plant poulations. This will include the development of new technologies for control and eradication, both lethal and non-lethal. Animal rights proponents are unlikely to be happy about this rapidly approaching future, but stark reality is upon us and a failure to act will mean that many native species will be relegated to the dustbin of extinction.  We cannot afford to let that happen.

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Michael Hutchins Animal rights, Wildlife management, invasive species, wildlife conservation

If you are in Reno and attending the Wild Sheep Show at the Reno/Sparks Convention Center, please stop by The Wildlife Society booth #115 and say hello. We are giving free issues of The Wildlife Professional.

If you are a wildlife professional, make sure to join or renew your TWS membership; when you join or renew TWS at the Wild Sheep Show, you’ll receive a free TWS shirt.

Also, a Wyoming Commissioner’s License is being auctioned off on Saturday afternoon at the show and TWS is the benefactor of the proceeds raised from this auction.

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Darryl Walter Membership, Wildlife professionals Wildlife Society member

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack have announced the creation of a special advisory committee, the Wildife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council. Secretary Salazar stated: “Theodore Roosevelt understood the vital role that hunting plays in American life, as well as the importance of protecting lands and wildlife to sustain that tradition…The early efforts of America’s hunters and anglers to preserve our nation’s wildlife heritage fueled the modern conservation movement and left us the natural bounty we are now entrusted with protecting.”  

Having been to two direct meetings with Secretary Salazar in the past few weeks, I believe that he is sincere in his support of wildlife and habitat conservation, and in his dedication to and support of America’s sportsmen and women.   It is clear that he believes that conservation should be a non-partisan issue that appeals to politicians on both sides of the aisle.  In that, he is very much in line with TWS’ core policies and beliefs.  TWS is currently working on technical reports on the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and the Public Trust Doctrine and is also planning on developing a supplemental issue of The Wildife Professional focused on the role of hunting in wildlife and habitat conservation. 

TWS has also, in the best Leopoldian tradition, challenged some aspects of modern hunting, based on science, including some aspects of baiting and feeding, and the use of lead ammunition.  It is currently working on a technical report on predator control to artificially augment ungulate populations. 

Strengthening North America’s proud hunting heritage will not only involve promotion of the rich tradition, but also its ethics and conservation role.  Modern hunting practices should be compatible with conservation, animal welfare, ecological principles, and ethics of fair chase.  However, hunting has become critical in controlling numbers of some over-abundant species, such as deer and snow geese and destructive invasive species, such as nutria and feral pigs.  Perhaps most important is its role as a source of essential funding to support conservation of both game and non-game species, especially at the state and provincial level.

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Michael Hutchins Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management and Conservation, hunting, wildlife conservation

The previous post to this blog shows a video on how Wyoming Game and Fish Department moved bighorn sheep to supplement the wild sheep herd.  Read the attached article from the Casper Star Tribune that details the effort that is involved with this procedure.

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Darryl Walter Wildlife management, Wildlife professionals

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Darryl Walter Wildlife management wildlife conservation

Wired.com recently featured the results of a study on the behavior of “problem” bears published in TWS’ The Journal of Wildlife Management.  The study, which represents the growing influence of JWM, focuses on which management techniques have been useful for thwarting bear habituation, and the resulting human-wildlife conflicts that can ensue.

Most important, of course, is making trash and food inaccessable. However, after that, wildlife managers report some success using adversive conditioning techniques, such as throwing rocks, and using slingshots and rubber slugs. The effects of such attempts at behavioral modification varied depending on the bear’s previous experiences. The techniques were far less effective for bears that had already developed a taste for the forbidden foods.

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Michael Hutchins Animal behavior, Human-wildlife conflict, Wildlife management

As a recent article in the New York Times reported, the endangered spray toad no longer has a home. The species once lived in the spray created by a waterfall on the Kihansi River in Tanzania. Courtesy of the World Bank, that river has now been dammed, thus also damning the toad to conservation pergatory. The only known specimens now reside in zoos.

While efforts to save this species are extraordinary, its last and final hope appears to be captive breeding. But to what end?  Certainly the species’ captive population may allow scientists to learn everything they can before the inevitable end, but the species’ natural habitat appears to have been irretrievably destroyed. 

Is a species really a species in the absence of the habitat in which it evolved?  These are philosophical questions we are going to have to begin asking ourselves as we hammer nails in the coffins of more and more unique organisms.  What bothers me about this situation is that in paying for this last ditch rescue effort, the World Bank was able to avoid the responsibility of causing a unique species to go extinct.  The zoos, although their intentions are good, and perhaps even necessary, are now holding the bag.  If the species blinks out, it will ultimately be their responsibility, not the World Bank’s. 

This is analogous to the U.S. government’s dumping of the endangered guam rail and Micronesian kingfisher on zoos, when their wild populations were threatened by the invasive brown tree snake.  Zoos took on this responsibility with no financial support for maintaining the birds or conducting the needed research on captive management. 

In the future, society will likely have to make more and more decisions pitting human needs against the fate of entire species.  If and when that occurs, let’s let those in power take full responsibility for their actions.  Perhaps then they may think twice about it.  No matter what the justification, I sincerely hope it keeps them up at night. Comments welcome.

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Michael Hutchins Environmental ethics, Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management and Conservation, endangered species, wildlife conservation

A new article in the Washington Post emphasizes that tough choices are ahead when it comes to managing destructive invasive species.  As I have mentioned in many previous blogs, our government is finally getting serious about invasive species prevention and control, a growing problem that is costing this country billions of dollars annually to combat.  For example, the U.S. Government is spending $55 million in efforts to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. It will likely spend millions more in its attempt to eradicate or control Burmese pythons and other large constrictors in Everglades National Park. 

Nationwide, invasive species are causing an estimated $120 billion dollars of environmental damage annually.  Sam Hamilton, current director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, called invasive species “probably the single greatest threat in our country to our native wildlife.” 

Why then, do radical animal rights groups, such as the Humane Society of the United States and their allies continue to fight efforts to control populations of feral cats, pythons, mute swans, nutria, feral horses, cattle  and goats, and other invasive species nation-wide?  Its either invasive species or our native wildlife and their habitats. We can’t have both.  In addition, the deleterious effects of invasive animals, when combined with other environmental stressors, including pollution, climate change, and habitat loss, alteration, and fragmentation, will surely push many native species over the brink.   

The 40th anniversary of Earth Day is approaching. Is there a better time to redouble our efforts to control or eradicate selected existing exotics, and most importantly, prevent any further introductions from occurring? Some invasive species must be managed intensively; otherwise, we will lose the conservation battle. Comments welcome.

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Michael Hutchins Animal rights organizations, Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management and Conservation, invasive species, wildlife conservation