Wildlife Management Institute

The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate continue to struggle to reach agreement on a new Farm Bill, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The level of funding for a disaster package and the source of funds to replace revenues lost through tax breaks for some of the conservation programs appear to be sticking points. Those involved in the negotiations report progress is being made but there "is still work to do."

The 2002 Farm Bill has already been extended twice in an effort for Congress to buy time to agree on new legislation. The current extension is set to expire on April 18. The White House is on record in support of a longer extension of one to two years of the 2002 Farm Bill if no agreement can be reached by the expiration date, rather than additional short-term extensions with the intent of getting new legislation in place soon. An extension of a year or longer would entail starting over the whole process of Farm Bill development, with the seating of a new Congress and President next January. (pmr)

One of the longest serving leaders of a state conservation organization in U.S. history, Gary T. Myers, was honored with the Wildlife Management Institute’s (WMI’s) 2008 George Bird Grinnell Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to Natural Resource Conservation.

The Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance (CWDA) and American Outdoor Productions (AOP) have partnered to provide a free, on-line chronic wasting disease (CWD) education video, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. Titled "Shedding Light on CWD," the video presents current and comprehensive status information on CWD and shows proper field-processing techniques for deer, elk and moose harvested in CWD-positive areas.

Nearly 35 minutes in length and offered at two connection speeds, the video contains 19 chapters such as "CWD Facts," "State Regulations," "Field Dressing Precautions" and "CWD Testing." Each chapter can be viewed independently to allow users to access targeted information that pertains to their specific question or concern.

Four Against the Arctic is not Dave Roberts’ best work, but it certainly is worth reading. For one thing, the main plot is over in the first quarter of the work. The subplot, a plodding effort to confirm the plot, is what this book really is about. Finding a needle in a very large haystack is how Roberts characterized it.

The book centers on four Pomori ("seacoast dwellers") from Mezen, Russia, reportedly marooned from May 1743 to August 1749 on a small island of the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. They were told to have sailed in a small, indigenous boat ("kotch") across the Barents Sea from Mezen toward Spitsbergen, to hunt for walrus. Blown off course, the vessel was caught in pack ice off the island of Edgeøya. Four of the men left the boat to go ashore in search of a prefabricated hut in which other Mezen Pomori had overwintered some years earlier.