Wildlife Management Institute

With congressional leadership signaling their support for getting a new farm bill in place within the next several months, activity has begun in earnest to develop legislation that can be enacted this year. The 2008 Farm Bill expired on September 30, 2012, though many of its provisions were extended for one year in legislation that was passed in January to avoid the looming fiscal cliff. The Senate and House Agriculture Committees released their bills on May 9 and 10 respectively and debated the bills in committee this week, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

The Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GCP LCC), one of 22 LCCs across North America, was established to advance the efforts of federal, state, tribal and non-government entities to conserve the natural and cultural resources of the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico and the Oaks and Prairies, Edwards Plateau, and Tamaulipan Brushlands regions of Texas, Oklahoma, and northern Mexico. The GCP LCC initiated six science projects in 2011 and 2012 to provide critical information needed by agencies to protect fish, wildlife, and habitats across this region. With support from the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI), the GCP LCC is now soliciting statements of interest for four additional projects to further enhance conservation.

Lakes and wetlands in Alaskan National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) provide habitat diversity in boreal forests and critical breeding habitats for millions of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds in North America. Widespread reports of lake drying in the current warming climate suggest that breeding habitats may decline. Any loss of these breeding habitats may have local effects on biodiversity and on subsistence and sport hunting economies as well as far-reaching effects along migratory routes that extend to more southerly parts of North America, South America, Asia, and Australia. In 2006, the Alaska Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit began a research program to investigate the magnitude, mechanisms, and biological implications of lake drying in Alaskan refuges. Three research objectives have been met, while work is in progress to meet the other two study objectives.