Wildlife Management Institute

Chair: Jeff Crane ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

North America is blessed with an abundance of wildlife unimaginable 100 years ago, following several centuries of wanton exploitation. The restoration and recovery of desirable wildlife habitats and populations in the 20th century were the result of visionary thinking and activism, populous support, an evolving wildlife management profession and collaborative efforts. Those investments were supported by effective laws, regulations and policies, as well as by the trial, error and acceleration of resource management as a science. Even so, many people today, including some within the wildlife conservation profession, do not know how the current wildlife abundance came to be. Unfortunately, too many do not recognize that threats to the North American Model may undermine future abundance.

This Special Session will summarize recent efforts to highlight the importance of the North American Model and its future relevance, as well as explore additional, as yet untapped, collaborative efforts needed to ensure coordinated, effective conservation programs that build on the existing foundation laid by the North American Model.

Co-Chairs:
Keith Aune, Wildlife Conservation Society
Matt Hogan, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

In an historic milestone for wildlife conservation, every state fish and wildlife agency completed a wildlife action plan in 2005. The wildlife action plans complement existing management programs for abundant (game) species and endangered species by outlining the actions needed to prevent wildlife from declining to the point of becoming endangered. Because they focus on broad habitat conservation and were completed by every state, territory, and the District of Columbia, the wildlife action plans represent an unprecedented exercise in landscape-scale conservation planning.

Co-Chairs
Phil Seng, D.J. Case & Associates ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Tim Zink, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

Increasingly, public opinion about environmental issues and perceptions of conservation are being driven by the news media’s treatment (print, broadcast and electronic) and characterization in documentaries, feature films, ads, cartoons, sitcoms, nature shows, hunting and fishing segments, and social media such as blogs and YouTube. At the very least, media has contributed to a blurring of the meaning and perceived role and status of the conservationist, sportsman/woman and environmentalist. It is not enough or particularly constructive to decry unfavorable media bias. Rather, it is necessary to consider how media might be “reprogrammed” to greater understanding, sensitivity and accuracy about conservation-related information and issues.

This Special Session will examine the ways in which media can and does influence natural resource management by the force, accuracy and diversity of its coverage. It will address the need for the resource management community to manage its own direct and indirect messages better in order to improve public understanding and perceptions; to identify and correct outreach shortcomings; and, more importantly, to take advantage of opportunities to use media more effectively to benefit the resource and its management and user opportunities.

Chair: Steve McMullin ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Universities that offer wildlife-oriented curricula are caught in a dilemma. They recognize that traditional wildlife management curricula laid the groundwork for wildlife science and that many of today's conservation leaders were well educated through the land grant university system and the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit Program. This successful partnership among universities, the federal government, and the Wildlife Management Institute has served the nation, its people and wildlife resources well from its inception to recent times. However, the backgrounds and interests of many current students have shifted from a formerly rural orientation with strong interest in hunting to a more urban/suburban, protectionist perspective. At the same time, changing public concerns about the increasing impact of human activities on all species and habitats are redirecting the attention of funding entities to grants that focus on broad conservation theory rather than active wildlife management. Additionally, there has been a somewhat progressive decrease in appropriated funding of traditional wildlife management research that forces faculty to scramble annually for nontraditional research support that is primarily available from private sector and corporate grant sources with directed research objectives and interests.

This Special Session will explore whether or how well university curricula are meeting the needs of wildlife agencies for skilled, informed and effective new employees. It will examine an apparent disconnect between what professionalism requires and what academia is able to deliver.