By Jim Shepherd…

When you think of our national parks during and post-pandemic, you immediately start thinking of the crowds of vacationers who jammed into them in order to enjoy some time outdoors. And you’d be mostly correct. Like other countries, our national public lands have been crowded to the point that many longtime visitors have complained.

In most, it’s not an unfair description. In some, traffic jams looked more like rush hour in a major city than a chance to get outdoors and commune with Mother Nature. In California, however, our public lands have suffered from more natural disasters than crowding. Between wildfires and flooding, national areas in California have suffered disastrous breakdowns in service and infrastructure.

That’s why I headed to California last week with more than a little trepidation. A long-anticipated photography class in Death Valley National Park has been something I’d looked forward to like a nine-year old looks forward to Christmas. Read more

Everywhere, USA. –– Field Ethos recently interviewed U.S. Congressman Andrew Clyde on their podcast to discuss his controversial bill the RETURN Act, which would eliminate the excise tax on firearms and ammunition that currently fund conservation and land access efforts of state wildlife agencies.

The RETURN act stands for “Repealing Excise Tax on Unalienable Right Now” and has received both criticism and praise from member of the hunting and shooting community.

In a move that some have called revolutionary, Field Ethos decided to actually talk to the person who wrote the bill and ask questions. Although it is much easier to read a press release and pass off an opinion as news, Field Ethos decide to do the moderately inconvenient work of talking to the author.

“When counting in dog years, Field Ethos has long been known for taking a different approach.”, said Jason Vincent, Field Ethos CEO. “In keeping with that tradition, we decided to interview Representative Clyde and have him address his bill and the concerns it generated.”

A rep for Andrew Clyde confirmed that none of the entities who had written articles opposing the bill had reached out for comment.

To see the interview in its entirety and form your own opinion, watch it for free on MOTV. Read more

The Need for the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act

Washington D.C. )- Wednesday, the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) published the State of the Birds 2022 Report, highlighting two important trends and revealing an important message. The report reveals that birds are declining overall in every habitat except in wetlands, where decades of investment have resulted in dramatic gains. Comebacks of waterfowl show the power of dedicated conservation funding and policy investments. Passage of proactive conservation legislation, such as the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, is essential to reverse this trend and bring birds back.

“Over 3 billion birds have been lost since 1970- more than a quarter of our birds in the U.S. and Canada. These dramatic bird losses demonstrate the urgent need for increased funding for their conservation,” said Curt Melcher, Director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. “The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act is a solution to this critical problem.”

Findings included in the report:

• More than half of U.S. bird species are declining.
• U.S. grassland birds are among the fastest declining with a 34% loss since 1970.
• Waterbirds and ducks in the U.S. have increased by 18% and 34% respectively during the same period.
• 70 newly identified Tipping Point species have each lost 50% or more of their populations in the past 50 years, and are on a track to lose another half in the next 50 years if nothing changes. They include beloved gems such as Rufous Hummingbirds, songsters such as Golden-winged Warblers, and oceanic travelers such as Black-footed Albatrosses.

Read more

Bozeman, Montana – The Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) has allocated over $1.22 million in conservation grants, most of which will be used to capture, test, GPS collar, and release nearly 600 wild sheep for its fiscal year 2022-23. Some of these captured sheep will be translocated to new habitats.

“We’re upping the game,” said Gray N. Thornton, President and CEO of the Wild Sheep Foundation. “Active management is the only way to put and keep more wild sheep on the mountain. With the threat of disease transmission, abundant predators, and low natural reproductive rates, there is too much stacked against our wild sheep to let the chips fall where they may.”

Between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, wild sheep projects in eight states and provinces will take place with several objectives, all aimed at maintaining the health of current populations and, where possible, moving surplus animals to augment struggling herds. One project is a three-state initiative in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington that will capture and sample 275 sheep.

“This is a multi-year, multi-jurisdictional adaptive management project to investigate further “test and remove” as a strategy to clear M.ovi from bighorn sheep populations,” explained Kevin Hurley, WSF’s VP of Conservation. In winter 2021-22, 249 bighorns in four populations were captured and tested in this tri-state project; during winter 2022-23, 275 sheep in seven populations will be tested.

M.ovi is a deadly respiratory pathogen inflicting wild sheep transferred by animal-to-animal contact with domestic sheep or other infected bighorns. Those wild sheep testing positive for the pathogen are often pro-actively euthanized. Read more

Watch for Evening Grosbeaks at feeders along our border states and from southern Ontario to Nova Scotia this fall.

Pine Siskins are fairly common feeder visitors that prefer thistle seeds provided in a tube feeder.

Birders are excited to learn that this fall and winter will produce an active finch migration south, which has actually already begun. The new Finch Forecast describes in impressive detail the species by species potential of seeing such exciting finches as Pine Grosbeaks and Evening Grosbeaks, White-winged Crossbills and Red Crossbills, Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, Common Redpolls, along with popular non-finches such as Red-breasted Nuthatches, Blue Jays, and Bohemian Waxwings. Many should push southward from northern forests to grace backyard feeders and wooded neighborhood settings in southern provinces and northern states soon.

The best information available about migrating finches and selected other boreal birds is provided each fall by the Finch Research Network, produced by Tyler Hoar as the annual Winter Finch Forecast. After considerable research and consultation with biologists and birders across Canada and the northern United States including Alaska, Tyler creates an exciting description of what we can expect, and here we share some of the highlights of his Winter Finch Forecast.

From eastern North America west to northwest Ontario and the Upper Midwest States, there should be a good flight year for several species. In eastern North America, there is good food production along the coastal areas of the Maritime Provinces south into New England, which should hold many finches this fall and winter. Inland from this region to habitat west of Lake Superior, pine cone and berry production is generally poor, with scattered pockets of good production. Read more

Feather River, Middle Fork, on Plumas National Forest in California. National forests supply drinking water to almost 90% of the people served by public surface water systems in the West. (USDA Forest Service photo by Tim Palmer.)

Location, Date – Access to high-quality water will be a defining feature of the 21st century. Record heat waves and drought are not only leading to more frequent and intense wildfires but are also putting one of life’s most valuable resources at risk: the water we drink.

A new Forest Service research report describes how extensively public drinking water systems rely on national forests and grasslands. Read more