Darryl Walter TWS Annual Conference, Wildlife professionals, Wildlife tourism annual conference, wildlife biologists, Wildlife Careers, Wildlife Society member

The White House is hosting a conference today to launch the new America’s Great Outdoors initiative, a new plan to update U.S. conservation policy — in this era of severe environmental threats and tightened government budgets. Four administration officials, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, and Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley are spearheading the effort.

The conference is being attended by approximately 600 leaders from ranching, sporting, and recreation groups, state, local and tribal governments, and NGOs and it is intended to be a forum for discussion of new policy ideas. Currently, the Presidential memo to launch the initiative doesn’t offer many policy details, but officials in the administration have are hoping to see more coalitions of state and local governments and the private sector that are aimed at encouraging outdoor recreation by Americans, connecting wildlife migration corridors, and encouraging the sustainable use of private land. Do you have thoughts on how they could do this? How do we get Americans to renew their love of the amazing outdoor opportunities in this country, and how do we get agencies to cooperate to improve environmental and wildlife policies?

See the full story covered in the Washington Post.

jenna_jadin Earth Day, Policy, Wildlife tourism, climate change

The sea lions that have made Pier 39 in San Francisco their home since 1990 have all but disappeared over the last month. Where there were once 1700 sea lions, there now appears to be only 20.

Read the entire story here and feel free to comment on it.

Darryl Walter Animal behavior, Wildlife tourism

Last week, while on a visit to Madison, WI, I traveled 45 minutes out of town and visited the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center.  The Legacy Center is a beautiful building built of wood from pine trees planted by Leopold.  The building has the highest LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating in the United States and It is the first carbon neutral building certified by LEED—meaning annual operations account for no net gain in carbon dioxide emissions.

Buddy Huffaker, the Executive Director of The Aldo Leopold Foundation, took me on a tour of the center.  We then went over to the Leopold Shack and I had the opportunity to see this famous landmark.  Buddy described the set-up of the Shack and showed me old photographs of the Leopold family and students at the Shack.  This short trip from Madison was well worth it.

I recommend a visit to the Leopold Center and Shack.  For additional information, please visit here.

Darryl Walter Wildlife tourism Aldo Leopold

An article by David Adam in UK’s Guardian summarized recent research on the animal attractions of  ”Stingray City” in the Cayman Islands, a dive-tourism hotspot.  The studies, led by Christina Semeniuk, an ecologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada,  indicate that the rays are suffering from their frequent, apparently stressful contact with tourists.  Blood tests found direct physiological effects, including  weaker immune systems and poorer health in animals at the tourist site when compared with those in less distrubed areas, perhaps making the former population more susceptible to disease or violent storms. 

People today seem to have an insatiable need to get close to,  interact with and touch wild animals, as opposed to admiring them from afar.  Of course, such close encounters can be risky for people. The unpredictablity of animal behavior  is what got misguided animal lover Timothy Treadwell of Grizzly Man fame and the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, and many an adventurous, but foolish, wildlife tourist killed.  But now it looks like such interactions aren’t good for the wildlife involved either. 

The lesson to be learned is that if you are not a trained wildlife student or professional studying or working to manage or conserve wildlife and have no need to get close to or to touch wild animals, don’t do it!  Wild animals are not domesticated and their behavior can be unpredictable and sometimes dangerous.  In addition, if you truely care about wildlife, do it a favor and keep your distance.  Much more can be learned from observing from a safe distance, where the animal’s behavior is less influenced by the presence of humans. 

In light of these findings, modern zoos and aquariums that encourage physical contact or close interaction between people and wildlife in order to increase visitation need to carefully reconsider such practices.  While such experiences are often safe (but not always) and may engender a love for animals, people also potentially carry their newfound perceptions of friendly, docile wildlife with them when they visit national parks and equivalent reserves, thus potentially placing themselves and wild animals in danger.

Michael Hutchins Animal behavior, Environmental ethics, Wildlife management, Wildlife tourism, Zoos and Aquariums, wildlife conservation