Record funding highlights strong outdoor recreation economy, underscores importance of fishing, hunting, and shooting sports to conservation efforts

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced a record $1.5 billion in annual funding through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration (WSFR) Program to support state and local outdoor recreational opportunities, and wildlife and habitat conservation efforts. The WSFR Program contains two funding sources: the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, which was reauthorized as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the Wildlife Restoration Program.

“Hunters, anglers, and sportsmen and women have some of the deepest connections to nature. For 85 years, this program has been foundational to wildlife and habitat conservation and outdoor recreation throughout the country,” said Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau, who will highlight the historic disbursements in remarks at the Mule Deer Foundation’s Inaugural Summit today. “With the historic investments from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and opportunities through the Great American Outdoors Act, these grants will make significant progress in our work to protect our cherished wild treasures.” Read more

Over the last two years, the Mule Deer Foundation has invested $9.9 million that was matched by $35.8 million in agency and partner funds as well as volunteer in-kind hours to implement 200 conservation projects across the West. This overall investment of $45.7 million resulted in 264,685 acres being improved through wildlife research, habitat conservation and restoration, water improvements, and more. In addition, 115 miles of fencing was removed or converted to wildlife-friendly designs to help reduce barriers to wildlife movement. These significant results show the organization’s strong emphasis on achieving its mission of “ensuring the conservation of mule deer, black-tailed deer, and their habitat.” A new video released today entitled “Ensuring the Future” shows these conservation efforts and MDF’s vision for the future of mule deer and black-tailed deer conservation.??

“Even in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mule Deer Foundation continued to increase our conservation footprint to make a difference for deer across the West. When tallied up, our $9.9 million investment was matched 3.6 to 1 by our partners and through our volunteers’ hard work,” commented Mule Deer Foundation President/CEO Joel Pedersen. “Moving forward, MDF will continue to use science to identify the priority landscapes where deer need the most help. This will allow us to focus on doing the right work, in the right place, at the right scale to ensure that we have healthy, sustainable populations of deer that can be enjoyed by future generations.” Read more

A return trip to the one of America’s best cold weather birding “hotspots” provided another opportunity to photograph at a variety of feeders and feeding stations. The Sax-Zim Bog offers birders what seems like unlimited feeding stations for us to photograph at – at least more than I have been able to visit in a single day. But I had my sights set on photographing at 4 primo feeding stations, and they kept me plenty busy, especially because I bounced back and forth between what turned out to be my 2 favorites of the day – the Admiral Road feeding station and Mary Lou’s feeding station – and these 2 sites are very different.

Admiral is a rather primitive feeding station, set up at what seems like a random wooded location along a backwoods road. It includes a few suet feeders, a couple extra-large sunflower tube feeders, and a couple hanging wooden platform feeders – all nestled along the edge of a dense woodland. It’s normal to park on the edge of the road there, picking a preferred location with the direction of sunlight and the birds in mind – morning provides the best sunlight direction at the Admiral feeders. Almost all vehicles on this road are birders, and even they are few and far between, making this a nice feeding station to spend some time photographing birds that visit.

Pine Grosbeaks and Canada Jays were the stars at the Admiral Road feeding station, although you were just as likely to photograph these birds on perches away from feeders as at the feeders themselves – and to have that option was a plus. This particular feeding station is also considered to be the best location to see Boreal Chickadees in Minnesota, and hence, the best place to photograph them. But alas, no Boreals for me during either of this winter’s visits. There were plenty of Black-capped Chickadees though, and nearly as my Common Redpolls. I also appreciated a Hoary Redpoll in 1 flock, and there was almost always 1 to 5 woodpeckers in sight – Downys and Hairys.

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BATON ROUGE—The Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab (LADDL) in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries (LDWF) detected Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer at the Mississippi/Louisiana border. CWD had not been detected in deer in Louisiana as of February 1, 2022, though it has been detected in 26 states, including three states bordering Louisiana. On February 4, LADDL reported a confirmed CWD case in a deer from Louisiana to LDWF. The specimen for testing came from a hunter-harvested adult buck taken on private land in Tensas Parish. After initial testing by LADDL, the specimen was sent to the National Veterinary Services Laboratories, (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa, which further confirmed the diagnosis.

LADDL received a grant of more than $380,000 entitled “Increase Capacity for Testing for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)” from the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) USDA Farm Bill for 2022. The purpose of this grant from NAHLN is to increase the CWD testing capacity in Louisiana. In the event CWD is detected in Louisiana, regional sampling rates will be dramatically expanded in an effort to determine prevalence of the disease in the affected area. Statewide CWD surveillance will increase as well. The NAHLN USDA Farm Bill funding will be used to expand LADDL’s immunohistochemistry (IHC) testing capabilities through automation and additional equipment for IHC staining to accommodate future CWD testing needs of LDWF. Read more