Bird feeding tips, birdhouse basics and landscaping ideas have been brought together in an online guide, with the goal of helping Oklahomans better enjoy their backyard birds.

“This guide was created to help the hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans who watch birds around their home attract even more birds to their backyards,” said Jena Donnell, information specialist with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. “We want to help a beginner choose a feeder, or give longtime bird watchers ideas for updating their backyard landscape.” Read more

EDGEFIELD, S.C. — The National Wild Turkey Federation recently opened six nature trails to the general public on the Outdoor Education Center portion of its 700-acre campus.The trailhead, and accompanying trails kiosk, is located at NWTF headquarters. Here, visitors log on to trails.nwtf.org from their mobile device to sign in to use the trail systems or access maps and view notifications of trail closings. Rest assured, there are trails for everyone.

If fitness is the goal, the Whitetail Walk or the Jakes Jog trail will provide a challenge for the beginner to the advanced user. Whitetail Walk takes users alongside various types of habitats from hardwood creek bottoms to food plots and along the pollinator garden in 1.6 miles. Jakes Jog trail is shorter at 0.8 miles but offers glances at a variety of habitats. Read more

Michigan DNR and Audubon Great Lakes working together for conservationBy HOLLY VAUGHN
Michigan Department of Natural Resources

This holiday season tens of thousands of Americans will fan out across the country with one goal in mind: finding and counting as many species of birds as they can find.

These observations will add to a large data set going back 117 years to Dec. 25, 1900, when the Christmas Bird Count, known then as the Christmas Bird Census, was first established.

The Christmas count remains one of the most important citizen science datasets today, helping scientists understand population declines and range shifts in North American birds.

“From beginning birdwatchers to experts, participants in Christmas counts gather to identify and census birds within 15-mile diameter count circles,” said John Pepin, DNR deputy public information officer. “The Christmas counts are a great opportunity to learn more about the winter birdlife of a particular area, and for beginners to gain experience birding alongside experts. Some participants count for an hour or so, some birdwatch for the whole day, some count at their bird feeders at home.” Read more

Additional deer suspected to be positive for chronic wasting disease identified throughout the firearm season

30 deer from Clinton, Ingham, Kent and Montcalm counties have been identified either as CWD positive or CWD suspect since 2015

With the firearm deer season complete, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has now identified a total of 30 free-ranging white-tailed deer that are confirmed or suspected to have chronic wasting disease. Several thousand additional samples are awaiting testing by Michigan State University, so numbers for this deer season could still change. Read more

MISSOULA, Mont. (December 6, 2017) – The Boone and Crockett Club today released a comprehensive essay on conservation and preservation, which was approved by its board of directors during the Club’s 130th annual meeting atSavannah, Georgia. Club members gather the first Saturday each December to commemorate the founding of the organization by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887.

“Even during Roosevelt’s time, there was a debate about the roles conservation and preservation should play in the use of natural resources and the recovery of decimated wildlife populations,” said Boone and Crockett Club President Ben Hollingsworth Jr. “Today, more people are engaging in and having a greater influence on natural resource issues than ever before. Unfortunately, it appears far too many people are confusing the terms or not understanding what they mean.  Most want to do what’s best, but many mistakenly believe they are supporting conservation when in fact they are supporting actions that stop conservation from happening. Having over a century’s worth of experience applying both conservation and preservation, the Club thought it was time to share what it has learned.”

The new essay explores the results preservation and conservation can produce and their relative effectiveness against inescapable forces such as climate change, invasive species, human population growth, and use of natural resource. It explains the important role of science and why the notion of “letting nature takes its course,” which is a phrase associated with preservation, will never result in the outcomes people really want in the vast majority of our landscapes, ecosystems, and economies.

Conservation and preservation are both concerned with protection of the environment, but they are based on different philosophies and management strategies that produce different results. Conservation is based on wise use and active management, and recognizes that people are part of nature and depend on natural resources; preservation views people as a negative influence on nature and seeks to eliminate their influence.
Despite their dissimilarities, however, the Club has never viewed conservation and preservation as opposing schools of thought. Conservation is the overarching concept with preservation being one of many management options within a broad conservation approach. Hollingsworth Jr. noted, “The Club has always believed preservation has value in the right place at the right time but not as a substitute for conservation in all instances. History proves this has been the correct approach.”

“If you read this essay, not only will you acquire a working knowledge of conservation and preservation, it will bring to light the widespread misuse of the terms conservation and conservationist by the media and some organizations,” Hollingsworth Jr. continued. “The challenges facing our wild places and wild things today are serious and complex. Whether it be intentional or out of ignorance, leading people to believe that locking up our natural resources is the only way to protect those resources and then calling it conservation is a major problem these resources cannot afford.

The Club is encouraging everyone, from journalists to educators to concerned citizens, to read this essay in order to develop a common understanding of conservation and preservation and what each can achieve.”What we need to be doing is advancing natural resource polices to achieve socially acceptable and ecologically beneficial results,” Hollingsworth Jr. concluded. “This has been made more difficult by the confusion and misinformation circulating today about historically proven best practices. We hope this essay will help clear up a few things so conservation can continue to thrive.”
The full essay can be read here. Read more

No evidence of human infection from eating properly cooked gameFor the first time, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources recently confirmed the presence of West Nile Virus in the state’s ruffed grouse population.

Five birds collected from August through October, including two found dead and three that were shot by hunters, were submitted for testing to the DNR’s Wildlife Disease Laboratory in Lansing, where the confirmation of West Nile Virus was made.

West Nile Virus is primarily transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes. Most people infected with the virus do not show symptoms. Read more

WASHINGTON – The following may be attributed to American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall:

“Today’s reduction in the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments marks a return of common sense to environmental stewardship.

“The 1906 Antiquities Act was clear in its purpose, even if the government has not always been. It was designed to stop theft and destruction of archaeological sites and other federal lands of historic or scientific interest. The act requires the president to reserve ‘the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.’ Unfortunately, that law has been abused to quarantine millions of acres of already-scarce grazing land, harming farmers, ranchers and struggling small towns across the West. Read more

I was catching up on some news at my local coffee shop the other day. When it was time for a refill of my coffee, the server asked me to say “when” my cup was full enough. At the time, I was reading about how the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Advisory Council was recommending new strategies for the reduction in the number of feral horses and burros on federal public land. The same thought occurred to me. It was time to say “when.” It’s time for the BLM to take action and get this problem under control.

As a member of the Boone and Crockett Club, the oldest wildlife conservation organization in North America, I was quite familiar with the feral horse and burro issue. This has been growing and contentious environmental issue for quite some time. In 2011, the Club published a position statement encouraging a new strategy so that the law we already have in place is followed, which is exactly what the BLM Advisory Council is now proposing. This issue has been growing because feral horse numbers on public land and held in special holding facilities have exploded from 25,000 in 1971 to 118,000 this year. The feral horse problem is contentious because some want to see these animals left alone without any management. Others agree their numbers must be controlled but disagree on how—nonlethal (meaning capture, sterilization and adoption) versus lethal (euthanasia) when all else fails.

Feral horse and burro populations have the ability to double in size in four to five years. Unchecked, they have been wreaking havoc on sensitive, arid rangeland ecosystems and limited water resources. The population levels thought by the BLM to achieve ecological balance is currently being exceeded by about 47,000 free-roaming animals, making it impossible for the BLM to satisfy its conflicting dual mandate to both protect feral horses and protect wildlife habitat from deterioration. Read more