Washington, DC - America’s premier sportsmen’s rights organization testified before U.S. Senators yesterday on the key connection between hunting and successful wildlife conservation.

United States Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) Director of Federal Affairs William P. Horn testified before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and why the proposed listing of polar bears as threatened throughout its range will prove detrimental to healthy and presently sustainable polar bear populations.

Horn was invited to testify by Senator Barbara Boxer, Chairman of the Committee and Senator James Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the Committee. Horn served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the agency responsible for the ESA, from 1985 to 1988, before joining USSA. He is considered one of America’s top lawyers on endangered species law, and also serves on the Board of Environmental Sciences and Toxicology of the National Academy of Sciences.

Environmental organizations want polar bears listed as threatened because of projections that Arctic sea ice will diminish in 50-plus years as a result of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

In his testimony Horn pointed out that listing polar bears as threatened based on a 50-year prediction would produce adverse consequences, not only for polar bears, but for all wildlife. Environmentalists plan to use the listing as a means to force reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and power plants among other things. The groups will likely bring lawsuits to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to enforce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions regulations. The enormous costs of overhauling and fundamentally changing the FWS mission will leave little if any money for actual endangered species or other traditional fish and wildlife programs.

“The USSA is committed to making sure that lawmakers are aware that sportsmen continue to be the key element in the conservation of wildlife,” said USSA president Bud Pidgeon. “Listing the polar bear as threatened will stop limited hunting, and cut off key revenues that fund vital polar bear research. We are proud to represent sportsmen before Congress on this critical issue.”

Science shows that many polar bear populations are at historic highs and that there are no imminent threats to the healthy, huntable populations.

It is well established that many polar bear populations are at or near record highs, have increased substantially since the 1960s, and sustain carefully managed subsistence and sport hunting programs. The latter programs, conducted primarily in Canada, generate important local income and ensure that Native communities are vested in polar bear conservation. The partnership between these communities and Canadian wildlife officials has yielded effective scientific bear conservation and management resulting in improved sustainability of 11 of 13 polar bear populations in Canada.

American sportsmen comprise approximately 90 percent of the foreign hunting clientele in Canada, pouring millions of dollars into polar bear conservation and management, not to mention the financial benefits to the local communities. American hunters are the primary source of essential funding for conservation and research that allows for continued success of the populations.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is a national association of sportsmen and sportsmen’s organization that protects the rights of hunters, anglers and trappers in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress and through public education programs. For more information about the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and its work, call (614) 888-4868 or visit its website, www.ussportsmen.org.

Washington, DC - Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) and member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, presented a sportsmen’s group letter during a Committee Hearing today that opposes the listing of the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The letter was signed by twenty national hunting organizations, members of the American Wildlife Conservation Partnership (AWCP).

The sportsmen’s letter points out that, through sound conservation and management practices, the estimated polar bear population has rebounded to three times the level of the population in the 1960s and ‘70s. The letter concludes, “An import ban arising from an ESA/MMPA listing will not reduce polar bear mortality in Canada, will harm current successful polar bear conservation and management, and will harm cash-strapped native communities in Canada. For all these reasons, the undersigned sporting and conservation groups oppose a polar bear import ban.”

In his opening statement, Senator Inhofe said, “The fact that we have had two hearings on a single listing decision reinforces my belief that listing the polar bear is not about protecting the bear…….. I worry that we have spent, and will continue to spend, too much time and money examining a healthy species and manufacturing ways to predict its demise, when there are hundreds of species legitimately on the list that need these scarce department resources. ”

James J. Baker, Chairman of the Board of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation said, “The outdoors community came together today to address this threat to the heritage and traditions of hunting and the future of the polar bear. We applaud the AWCP for their continuing diligence on the future of North America’s largest predator.”

This is not the first time that the sportsmen’s community has asked leaders of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus to stand in opposition to animal rights efforts to ban the importation of legally hunted polar bear trophies. Last summer, the House of Representatives voted 242-188 against an amendment that attempted to withhold funds for the issuance of US import permits for sport-hunted polar bears from viable populations in Canada. Again in the fall, Sportsmen’s Caucus leaders saw to it that language that would have limited the importation of polar bear parts was removed from the ‘omnibus’ appropriations bill.

About the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF)
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation is the most respected and trusted proponent for hunters and fishermen in the political arena. With support from every major hunting and fishing organization, CSF is the leader in promoting sportsmen’s issues with elected officials. CSF works directly with the bi-partisan, bi-cameral Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus in the U.S. Congress, as well as affiliated state sportsmen’s caucuses in state legislatures around the country. For additional information, visitwww.sportsmenslink.org or call 202-543-6850.

MISSOULA, Montana—The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, an international conservation group focused on habitat protection and enhancement, has announced its 2008 project grants for Washington.

Grants will affect Asotin, Baker, Clallam, Cowlitz, Ferry, Kittitas, Lewis, Pierce, Skamania, Stevens and Yakima counties. An additional project has statewide interest.

“This is all about ensuring the future of elk, other wildlife and their habitat in Washington,” said David Allen, Elk Foundation president and CEO. “Grants are based on revenues from Elk Foundation fundraising banquets in Washington, as well as worthy project proposals.”

For 2008, 19 grants totaling $174,111 will help fund the following Washington conservation projects, listed by county:

Asotin County—Treat noxious weeds to enhance elk habitat in Montgomery Ridge area and on 960 acres in the lower Grande Ronde River area, and assist with an early weed detection and rapid response program in Asotin Creek and Chief Joseph wildlife areas (nine new weed species have been identified in past two years), prescribed burn 1,316 acres to enhance forage in Umatilla National Forest; till, treat weeds and reseed grasses on 30 acres in Blue Mountains Wildlife Area; mow and fertilize 255 acres to enhance habitat in Blue Mountain Wildlife Area (also affects Garfield County); aerially treat weeds and reseed native grasses on 90 acres in George Creek area.

Baker County—Prescribed burn, treat weeds and re-seed 80 acres to enhance forage for elk in Joseph Creek Wildlife Area.
Clallam County—Treat weeds, reseed and fertilize 15 acres to enhance elk habitat in Bogachiel River area.

Cowlitz County—Prescribed burn 1,400 acres to enhance forage for elk in Coyote Creek area; reseed grasses on 60 acres in Mt. Saint Helens Wildlife Area.

Ferry County—Prescribed burn 1,400 acres to enhance elk habitat in Colville National Forest.

Kittitas County—Assist with communication and education materials for Washington Department of Natural Resources’ Green Dot Access Management Program to enhance elk habitat in Ahtanum State Forest (also affects Yakima County); research project to study new planting techniques for shrubs and grasses in wildfire area in Colockum Wildlife Area.

Lewis County—Thin 716 acres of trees to enhance elk habitat in Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Pierce County—Relocate exclosure fence to open 27 acres of habitat for deer and elk in Snoqualmie National Forest.

Skamania County—Thin trees on 413 acres to enhance habitat for elk in Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Statewide (all counties)—Multi-state research project to study elk calf survival and mortality related to climate, wolves and habitat quality.

Stevens County—Prescribed burn 300 acres to enhance forage on elk winter range in Colville National Forest.

Since 1984, the Elk Foundation and its partners have completed more than 378 conservation projects in Washington with a value of more than $37.8 million. Partners for 2008 projects in Washington include Asotin County Conservation District, Bureau of Land Management, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Washington Department of Natural Resources, University of Montana, U.S. Forest Service, other agencies, corporations, landowners, organizations and universities.

About the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Missoula, Mont., the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the future of elk, other wildlife and their habitat. The Elk Foundation and its partners have permanently protected or enhanced over 5.2 million acres, a land area larger than Connecticut, Delaware and District of Columbia combined. More than 500,000 acres previously closed to public access are now open for hunting, fishing and other recreation. To help protect wild elk country or learn more about the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, visit www.elkfoundation.org or call 800-CALL-ELK.

LAS VEGAS — Executives from America’s leading firearms and ammunition manufacturers gathered this evening at the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show to mark an important milestone in the firearms and ammunition industry’s longstanding support of wildlife conservation. Manufacturers have since 1991 contributed more than $3 billion dollars to fund wildlife conservation through the payment of a federal excise tax on the sale of their products. The excise tax is a primary source of wildlife conservation funding in the United States. Since the inception of the excise tax in 1937, more than $5 billion dollars has been collected.

In recognition of this milestone, a commemorative check for $3 billion dollars was presented to H. Dale Hall, the director of U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and Matt Hogan, the executive director of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), from key firearms industry leaders at the annual membership meeting of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) ? the industry’s trade association.

“Our industry is proud of its leading role in financially supporting wildlife conservation and protecting habitat,” said Doug Painter, NSSF president and chief executive officer. “We are especially proud that our industry stepped up to the plate for America’s wildlife and natural resources decades before ‘environmentalism’ became a popular movement.”

The federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition products (11 percent on long guns and ammunition and 10 percent on handguns), is collected by the U.S. Treasury, Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and given to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) where it is deposited into the Wildlife Restoration Trust Fund, commonly referred to as the Pittman-Robertson Trust Fund. These taxes are the major source of conservation funding in the United States.

“The federal excise taxes paid by manufacturers of firearms and ammunition through the Wildlife Restoration program provide state wildlife agencies this critical funding necessary to help maintain wildlife resources, educate hunters and fund sport shooting ranges nationwide,” said Hall. “For example, my home state of Kentucky used these funds to restore elk populations to sustainable levels. Now, for the first time in hundreds of years, sportsmen and women have the opportunity to hunt elk east of the Mississippi River.”

In just the past 12 months, the firearms and ammunition industry has contributed more than $280 million to conservation via the Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax (FAET). This amount of money demonstrates a 41 percent increase over the last five years. The complete amount collected through federal excise tax payments, a number which includes payments from the archery and fishing industries, tops $1 billion a year.

“For over 70 years, state fish and wildlife agencies have used the revenue from the Pittman-Robertson program to build the most successful wildlife conservation model the world has ever known,” said Hogan. “One needs only look at the return of species like the whitetail deer, wild turkey, pronghorn antelope and the wood duck, to name a few, to see that this money has been well spent for the benefit of all Americans.”

Industry Introduces Plan to Supplement NAWCA

Demonstrating its continued support for conservation, industry announced a plan to supplement congressional funding (currently $75 million dollars) of the North American Wetland Conservation Act — a grant program providing federal cost-share funding to support the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. “NSSF is proud to announce a new multi-pronged three-year initiative to support wetlands conservation,” commented Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel.

As part of the NSSF proposal, the trade association has promised to use staff resources to work with its partners in the shooting, hunting and outdoor communities to better promote NAWCA at industry events. NSSF will also advocate for stronger congressional funding for NAWCA during the appropriations process and will contribute $150,000 annually for the next three fiscal years to a mutually agreed upon NAWCA project.

“We understand the value of wildlife conservation and preserving migratory bird habitat, and we are fully vested in ensuring that the hunters and sportsmen who use our products have game to hunt and places to go hunting so that they can enjoy this important national heritage and pass it onto the next generation,” concluded Painter.
To learn how Pittman-Robertson Funds are used in your state, please contact your state fish and wildlife agency.

For your one-stop resource on all hunting and shooting matters, please visit the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Web site, HuntandShoot.org.

Oil and gas development in southwestern Colorado could limit future actions to protect state’s mule deer herd, already eakened by extreme winter weather
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) has formally protested the inclusion of big-game winter range and sage grouse habitat in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) February 14 energy sale. The conservation group’s protest covers 31 parcels that encompass more than 24,000 acres, primarily in the Dolores River area of southwestern Colorado. This region is heavily used by mule deer and other big-game species.

As proven in recent, peer-reviewed scientific studies, the mule deer is one of many species seriously affected by energy development. The TRCP lease protest attempts to conserve the winter range on which this species depends. Heavy snowfall, thick ice crusts and frigid temperatures in western Colorado, combined with habitat loss due to development, are currently preventing the state’s mule deer from accessing normal food sources. The Colorado Division of Wildlife has commenced emergency feeding plans to protect the herd and fend off a potentially catastrophic die-off.

“The TRCP has been protesting energy leases in big-game winter range for more than a year, and the extreme weather conditions in Colorado right now demonstrate precisely why this habitat is so critical,” said Dwayne Meadows, a TRCP field representative based in Laramie, Wyo. “Access means survival to big-game species. When winter range is fragmented by oil and gas development, these animals have no place to go.”

“Energy leases are managed by BLM as a contractual obligation for development, and development in the Dolores River region can increase impacts on the winter ranges that are so important to big game,” said Steve Belinda, energy initiative manager for the TRCP. “Entering into these leasing contracts now, when Colorado’s mule deer are being fed and all access is closed to activity, seems counterproductive.

“Mule deer epitomize the best of the American West,” continued Belinda. “If we want to guarantee a future for this vital part of our country’s conservation legacy, we must develop strategies to guide energy development on places like the Dolores River region. Only then will the fish and wildlife that depend on these public lands be sustained and flourish.”

Concerns about sage grouse also provoked the TRCP’s protest. A recent decision by the U.S. District Court in Idaho reversed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “not warranted” listing decision, issued in 2005, and called on the agency to review the potential listing of the species as endangered. If the sage grouse is listed under the Endangered Species Act, sage grouse hunters would be the first of many stakeholders to experience negative impacts. Recent scientific studies have linked energy development and declining sage grouse populations.

“We know that sage grouse avoid winter range and breeding grounds where energy development occurs,” said Meadows. “An endangered listing for the species would have far-reaching impacts - and hunters would bear the brunt of this outcome. These concerns drove the TRCP’s recent protest of energy leases in Wyoming, and they”re prompting our actions in Colorado. The BLM should logically refrain from pursuing development until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service renders a final decision on the bird’s future.”

The TRCP believes that to better balance the concerns of fish and wildlife in the face of accelerating energy development, federal land management agencies must follow the conservation tenets outlined in the FACTS for Fish and Wildlife.

Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.

Sportsmen’s grassroots action is needed to ensure that recently-proposed federal conservation funding will not be diverted from habitat-improvement programs.
 
The 2007 Farm Bill, provisions of which will provide funding for important wildlife programs that benefit sportsmen and wildlife, faces an uphill battle in the Senate Agriculture Committee. The U.S House of Representatives approved a version of the bill that will provide $4.5 billion in new conservation monies, but Senate Agriculture Committee members want to divert the funding away from conservation to other priorities.
 
Sportsmen view the House proposal as a strong starting point, and are advocating that the Senate equal the House level on the conservation programs. Sportsmen should contact their U.S. senators and ask that they fully fund and support Farm Bill conservation programs. Encourage them to leave all funding associated with conservation within the Conservation Title so that programs such as Conservation Reserve Program and Wetlands Reserve Program remain viable.
 
The Conservation Reserve Program helps farmers and ranchers protect valuable wildlife habitat and enhance forest and wetland resources. It promotes the conservation of vegetative cover, wildlife plantings, and riparian buffers. Similarly, the Wetlands Reserve Program helps landowners with wetland restoration efforts. It offers opportunities to establish long-term conservation and wildlife practices and protection.
 
The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is supporting the efforts of conservation organizations to ensure support for key elements of the Farm Bill that are critical to improving wildlife habitat and hunting opportunities.
 
Take action! Your help is needed to secure vital conservation funding from the federal government. Contact your senators and ask them to fully fund and support Farm Bill conservation programs. Call (202) 224-3121 or use the Legislative Action Center at www.ussportsmen.org.

In its ongoing effort to ensure responsible development of America’s energy resources, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) today announced that it has filed a formal protest of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to lease areas of critical wildlife habitat in Colorado. The national conservation coalition’s protest covers 131 parcels encompassing 165,000 acres, currently slated for auction on Nov. 8.

Only weeks earlier, the BLM cancelled a similar sale in Utah, which would have opened vast tracts of that state’s fabled mule deer habitat to oil and gas development. The Utah sale was cancelled, according to the state BLM office, so that the agency could “consider new wildlife habitat information available from the State of Utah, Division of Wildlife Resources.” It was the first time in 25 years that the BLM had cancelled a lease sale. Over the summer, the agency withdrew thousands of acres from leasing in Utah and Montana following protests by the TRCP and other sportsmen’s groups.

“The TRCP supports energy development but wants to make sure it’s done right,” said Dwayne Meadows, field representative for the TRCP’s Energy Initiative. “The fact that the Colorado Division of Wildlife has expressed serious concerns about this particular sale should be a wake-up call to the BLM.

“The areas proposed for lease are located on prime habitat and migration routes for big-game animals, including elk, mule deer, pronghorn and moose,” continued Meadows. “In Utah, concern over the impacts of energy development on habitat caused the BLM to cancel a lease sale. The agency should exercise similar discretion in Colorado.”

“We’ve already protested two lease sales in Colorado this year and have yet to receive a response from the BLM regarding either of them,” said TRCP President and CEO George Cooper. “In this case, the agency wants to lease the headwaters of both the Colorado and the North Platte rivers. Energy development in these areas is not proven to be compatible with current uses. Without further analysis and resource protections, it could severely impact fish and wildlife resources and, consequently, both Colorado’s sporting traditions and its economy. The BLM’s actions are not consistent with its multiple-use mandate.”

“The BLM is basing plans for this sale on a resource assessment that’s 15 years out of date,” said Steve Belinda, manager of TRCP’s energy initiative. “Leases entail a contractual obligation for development, so the time to plan for that development - using current, peer-reviewed science - is before the lands are auctioned.

“The BLM is currently conducting an updated assessment of the region. Delaying this lease sale until it has been completed will enable our country to develop our energy resources responsibly, in a way that considers the needs of fish and wildlife,” Belinda concluded.

Recent research concluded that energy development has an immediate and significant effect on mule deer use of winter ranges and overall populations. The TRCP believes that to better balance the concerns of fish and wildlife in the face of accelerating energy development, federal land management agencies must follow the conservation tenets outlined in the FACTS for Fish and Wildlife.

Media Contact:
Dwayne Meadows (307) 760-6802 or dmeadows@trcp.org

Native prairie destruction up 40 percent - Sodsaver needed

The amount of native prairie destroyed in the Prairie Pothole Region has skyrocketed by at least 40 percent in the last year. Ducks Unlimited says this increase validates concerns that duck populations and the viability of ranching operations are threatened.

New statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture show the amount of grassland being converted to cropland in North Dakota and Montana is 6,000 acres higher this year than it was in 2006. Landowners in the two states plowed up 30,000 acres of native prairie in 2007. More than 20,000 of those acres were in the Prairie Pothole Region.

“Loss figures this high for these two states are not a good sign when we haven’t yet seen South Dakota’s data,” said Scott Stephens, DU’s director of conservation planning for the Great Plains Region. In recent years, South Dakota has shown the largest annual losses.

The Prairie Pothole Region includes the eastern Dakotas as well as portions of Montana, Minnesota and Iowa. Abundant with wetlands and grassland, the region is widely known as North America’s “duck factory.” Most ducks nest in grass so a significant loss of grass will mean fewer ducks produced in the spring. Converting grassland to cropland also threatens small wetlands on the land.

“Research shows for every one percent loss of grassland, we can expect 25,000 fewer ducks in the fall flight,” Stephens said. “If we lose just two percent a year, half of the grasslands will be gone in 35 years.”

According to DU Executive Vice President Don Young, this significant loss in nesting habitat is further evidence of the need for a strong Sodsaver provision in the 2007 Farm Bill. The Sodsaver provision will remove federal farm payments from converted native prairie where there is no previous cropping history.

“It’s clear native prairie loss is continuing. This is bad news for duck production,” Young said. “Some current farm programs, like crop insurance, only encourage more cultivation on land not well-suited for crops. Sodsaver will fix this problem and focus government incentives on our best farmland to help keep farming and ranching viable. It will help us fulfill the idea of ‘Farm the best, conserve the rest’.”

Young says this new information is timely as the U.S. Senate is currently deliberating its version of the farm bill.

“The latest proof of an increase in the destruction of native prairie provides Congress with further evidence of an ongoing problem,” Young said. “The House has already included a provision to slow grassland conversion. We expect the Senate will build upon these efforts and include a stronger Sodsaver provision in its farm bill.”

Young encourages people who enjoy seeing or hunting ducks to contact their Senators about the importance of conservation provisions like Sodsaver in the farm bill. For information on contacting your Senator go to: www.ducks.org/TakeAction/FarmBill

With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with almost 12 million acres conserved. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands - nature’s most productive ecosystem - and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year.

Media Contact:
Becky Jones Mahlum, Ducks Unlimited (701) 426-5171 bjonesmahlum@ducks.org

New Mission Campaign Features Strategic Land Protection Fund, Elk Country Endowment and New Communication Programs
Orlando, Florida - The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation announced today “Be the Future of Elk Country” — a new campaign aimed at protecting and enhancing elk country and raising the bar on the Foundation’s future contributions to conservation.
Peter J. Dart, President and CEO of the Elk Foundation, briefed news media and business partners on the new strategy at a luncheon at SHOT Show in Orlando, Florida.
“There is no truer statement in land conservation than ‘Once it’s gone, it’s gone,’” said Dart. “Elk country is vanishing as rapidly as a bull elk that just caught your scent. Our new campaign and strategy is aimed at reducing the loss of critical habitat across North America. But we can’t do this alone. We will need the help of our volunteers, our business partners and a continuation of the great relationships we have with state and federal wildlife and land management agencies to make this happen.”
Under its “Be the Future of Elk Country” mission campaign, the Elk Foundation has named its strategy to achieve its conservation objectives “Five for the Future.” The strategy has identified the following five priorities:
Permanent Land Protection Program — preserving large tracts of the most important and imperiled habitat.
Conservation Education and Hunting Heritage Program — passing on the passion for conservation and our hunting heritage to future generations.
Elk Restoration Program — restoring elk herds across their historic range through reintroduction and habitat improvement.
Elk Country Endowment — ensuring a future for elk country by ensuring a future for the Elk Foundation.
The Elk Country Endowment has been established to ensure the Elk Foundation’s conservation work continues forever. As the endowment grows, the Elk Foundation will become self-sustaining and will be able to put more of the money generated annually through donations, memberships and banquets directly into work on the ground.
One of the key components of the Elk Foundations new marketing and communication strategy is Team Elk — a program in which celebrities who also are Elk Foundation members have supported the organization through a series of national print and broadcast public service announcements and advertising. Members of Team Elk who have participated in the marketing blitz to date are: New York Yankees pitcher and baseball legend Goose Gossage, NASCAR legends Richard Childress and Ward Burton, and the amazing Jack Nicklaus from the golfing world.
“We greatly appreciated the time and commitment members of this important program have devoted to raising public awareness of the need to conserve wildlife habitat,” said David Parcell, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at the Elk Foundation.
“Their leadership and the example they’ve set is an effective way to get the message out that we’re doing great work and we need others to join our efforts.”
Team Elk advertising and PSAs represent the most recent component of the Elk Foundation’s public outreach efforts. The Foundation also reaches out through Bugle magazine and the television series, Elk Country Journal, to celebrate the thrill of the hunt while reinforcing its responsibility to wildlife conservation. In the weeks ahead, the Elk Foundation also will be distributing Opportunity for All, a new DVD about the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation — a landmark educational video that reinforces the fact that hunters were the first conservationists.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s new Strategic Land Protection Fund aims to identify and permanently protect the most critical habitat across the continent.
Once the lands are identified, the Elk Foundation will protect the areas by creating partnerships with public agencies and private landowners, and by using a variety of land conservation tools, such as voluntary conservation easements, cooperative land exchanges, and land purchases.
The growing demand for land, coupled with dwindling financial return for traditional agricultural uses, is forcing many agricultural families to sell their land. Land conversion often means the loss of wildlife habitat. By creating and growing its Strategic Land Protection Fund, the Elk Foundation will not only protect the best of elk country from Alaska to Pennsylvania, it will also conserve irreplaceable open spaces and scenic views, traditional working landscapes and clean water sources. Additionally, it will increase public access and opportunities for hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreation.
In 2006, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation funded more than 457 new conservation projects in 37 states. But with 2,500 acres of wildlife habitat lost to development and urban sprawl every day, much remains to be done.
Charter members and supporters of “Be the Future of Elk Country” are Bass Pro Shops, North American Hunter and Browning. The Elk Foundation is encouraging all of its business sponsors and partners to support the campaign and join its newest commitment to enhance and protect wildlife habitat.
“In the face of population growth and increased demand for open space, our mission programs, endowment and new public outreach efforts will help us ensure a future for elk and elk country,” Dart said.
“We invite you to join the Elk Foundation, support our mission programs and help build our endowment,” Dart said. “Together, we can be the future of elk country.”
About the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Missoula, Montana, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the future of elk, other wildlife and their habitat. The Elk Foundation and its partners have permanently protected or enhanced 5 million acres, a land area nearly twice as large as Yellowstone National Park. Nearly 500,000 acres previously closed to public access are now open for hunting, fishing and other recreation. The Elk Foundation has more than 150,000 members, a staff of 150 and 11,000 active volunteers. To help protect wild elk country or learn more about the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, visit www.elkfoundation.org or call 800-CALL-ELK.

You did not have to listen very carefully, earlier this week, to hear the resounding “thwack” of a Northern California federal court swatting down baseless challenges made by the Humane Society of the United States and other animal rights groups in a case concerning conservation of three endangered antelope species. Hunters and those who support sustainable use conservation are celebrating a huge victory in a case brought by these animal rights groups to challenge a regulation providing special conservation tools for scimitar-horned oryx, dama gazelle and addax. The California court threw out HSUS’s claims that the trade and limited hunting of members of these species in captive herds in the United States causes harm to populations of these animals in the wild in North Africa.
The Court also granted intervention to Safari Club International and the Exotic Wildlife Association, groups whose efforts have been responsible for successful conservation of thriving herds of these animals on ranches in Texas and other states. The Court’s ruling left the animal rights groups’ case in shambles, with only a single informational right claim surviving.
“HSUS likes to paint SCI as some kind of villain, but in truth it is groups like SCI and EWA and the sustainable use conservation methods that we support that are making all the significant progress in the conservation of species like scimitar-horned oryx, dama gazelle and addax. HSUS can call us all the names they like, but they cannot refute our successes in the conservation of these species. It is time that the animal rights groups start recognizing that there are many forms of conservation and their restrictive, individual animal approach is neither the only nor the most effective method for many species.” Offered Ralph Cunningham, SCI President.
SCI Vice President and Legal Task Force Chairman Kevin Anderson added: “HSUS may be good at sound bites, pretty pictures and raising money, but when it comes to real conservation, SCI and the EWA are the groups that make things happen. If it were not for our efforts, there would be no scimitar-horned oryx dama gazelle and addax increasing in numbers in the United States and providing the seed populations for future return of the species to their home ranges. Get out of our way, HSUS! We are going to succeed in conserving these and other species regardless of the senseless obstacles you place in our way.”
SCI-First For Hunters is the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and in promoting wildlife conservation worldwide. SCI’s 173 Chapters represent all 50 United States as well as 13 other countries. SCI’s proactive leadership in a host of cooperative wildlife conservation, outdoor education and humanitarian programs, with the SCI Foundation and other conservation groups, research institutions and government agencies, empowers sportsmen to be contributing community members and participants in sound wildlife management and conservation. Visit www.safariclub.org or call 520-620-1220 for more information.

Alberta’s provincial Ministry of Sustainable Resource Development has announced a suspension of its spring grizzly bear hunt while DNA census data is collected, which will continue “over the next few years.”
Minister Dave Coutts said, “While we pursue better grizzly bear population estimates, Alberta will take the most precautionary approach possible with the spring hunt.” Two experts from Montana universities will provide scientific peer review of the provincial Draft Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan.

The Women’s Policies Committee of the NRA has established a renewable, one-year, $1,000 scholarship for full-time college juniors or seniors majoring in wildlife management/conservation who maintain a minimum 3.0 grade point average.
“The Women of the NRA are absolutely committed to wildlife conservation and to expanding the role of women, not only in the shooting sports, but in the conservation of wildlife for generations to come,” said Sue King, chair of the committee. Applications and other information are available online or from Sandy Elkin, 703-267-1131, e-mail selkin@nrahq.org.

The state DNR announced an ambitious plan that calls for restoring 2 million acres of habitat and protecting an additional 1,800 shallow lakes to “restore high-quality duck hunting opportunities,” reports the Associated Press.
Change, however, will come slowly, and Ray Norrgard, the report compiler, says there is no quick fix.

Confronting the fact that many wildlife management students these days are not hunters, a Pennsylvania State University professor is seeing to it that students are educated on the major role hunters play in wildlife management. Gary San Julian has established a program at Penn State and the University of Wisconsin that teaches future wildlife managers a comprehensive classroom and in-the-field introduction to hunting.
“I was never really against [hunting],” said one student. “But I was uninformed. I realize now that I was at a disadvantage not knowing what hunting was all about. I plan to work in wildlife management, so I think this will help me in my career. The course taught me a lot, and it was a great experience.”

Hunters are being credited with the reemergence of the ivory-billed woodpecker–presumed to be extinct for 60 years–in the Big Woods section of Arkansas, reports Reuters.
Scott Simon of The Nature Conservancy said hunters and others helped save the bird in large part by buying Duck Stamps. Funding generated from the stamps added up to $41 million to reclaim much of the habitat of the bird.

The Star-Ledger reported that the New Jersey Chapter of the Nature Conservancy has opened up one of its preserves to hunting for the first time in its 50-year history because “the deer are destroying every possible food source below 5 feet in the forest.”
If post-bow-and-gun-season evaluation of the success of the program at 485-acre Blair Creek Preserve shows the desired results, the chapter will consider, on a preserve-by-preserve basis, allowing hunting next year on its other 14 northern N.J. preserves, which total about 5,000 acres.

A number of sportsmen’s groups, including NSSF, have signed a letter urging that a percentage of revenues from oil and gas production on federal lands and the Outer Continental Shelf be directed to impacted areas. This would provide adequate resources to state governments, state wildlife management agencies and federal land management agencies so they can perform environmental work required by law while sustaining multiple uses of public lands, including energy development.
The letter, which was presented jointly with several oil companies, is addressed to Richard Pombo, chairman of the House Committee on Resources, and would add such language to the Budget Reconciliation Bill being considered by the House of Representatives.

More than $112,000 was paid to a California petition management firm to obtain signatures to put a ban on dove hunting on Michigan’s ballot this fall, reports the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance .
The report states that the Humane Society of the United States has contributed more than $153,000 to this anti-dove hunting campaign. In response, Michigan sportsmen have formed the Citizens for Wildlife Conservation Committee to protect the state’s hunting tradition and to raise funds and awareness toward defeating the proposed ban.
Partners include USSA, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the National Rifle Association and Safari Club International. The committee faces a “no-contribution limit for ballot-question committee” and the knowledge that anti-hunters pumped $800,000 into a 2004 anti-hunting ballot issue campaign in Maine, even before the HSUS established its lobbying division.

It’s been a big week for predators in the news. Bears mauled people in Manitoba, Alberta and Alaska, plus two more in Montana. New York implemented new rules to reduce bear-human conflicts. New Jersey’s well-publicized attempt to control its burgeoning bear population continued to make headlines.
A fox entered a London, England-area home and bit a little girl as she slept. And a federal judge ordered the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to restore wolves to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.

Pheasants Forever, which has grown from its founding in 1982 to 110,000 members and 600 chapters, has announced plans to extend its successful organizational model for habitat development by forming Quail Forever.
The new group will be dedicated to quail conservation and education. To learn more about the fledgling organization, call 45-QUAIL or contact Jim Wooley, who will be overseeing Quail Forever biologists, at 774-2238, e-mail jwooley@lisco.com.