In the arid southwestern United States and northern Mexico, riparian corridors have long served as key wildlife habitat. The wetlands and naturally sub-irrigated uplands adjacent to rivers and streams provide vital food, water, and cover for hundreds of species of breeding and migratory birds. However, these corridors were also the most attractive for development leading to significant loss of riparian habitat.

In addition to providing power to 4.4 million customers throughout their service area (the southeastern United States), the Southern Company puts their money where it counts when it comes to conservation. Their primary stewardship focus is on building collaborative partnerships to conserve habitat, protect wildlife, and educate children, among other services.

Conservation Briefs is a compilation of short news stories of interest to Outdoor News Bulletin readers. The stories cover a number of issues that have developed in the past month or provide updates on issues that were featured in previous ONB editions. Each story includes links to online resources for more details on each topic.

This Month:

A significant loss of grassland habitat has been documented recently, likely as a result of high agricultural commodity prices. A study recently released by the University of Wisconsin indicates that 7.3 million acres of non-cropland was converted to cropland in the conterminous United States from 2008 to 2012, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. Slightly over 5.6 million (77 percent) of those acres were grasslands prior to conversion. That total includes 1.6 million acres of native prairie lands.

Gordon Batcheller, Chief Wildlife Biologist for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) was honored with the Wildlife Management Institute's (WMI) 2015 George Bird Grinnell Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to Natural Resource Conservation. The award was conferred last month during the annual Conservation Administrators Luncheon at the 80th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit (CRU) has been providing science support to Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (MFWP), the Nez Perce Tribe, and Idaho Fish and Game on gray wolf populations since 2006. Most of this research focuses on the monitoring of wolves over large spatial scales. Over the past 10 years, the growing wolf population of the northern Rockies exceeds the capacity of traditional monitoring methods (capturing and collaring wolves, radio-tracking) to provide reliable estimates.