Elena Campbell
What is the value of a dollar spent or an experienced lived? Sometimes stories and reports quantify and convey the tangible, beneficial value generated when state fish and wildlife agencies put dollars on the ground through the Wildlife Sport Fish Restoration (WSFR) program.
Onancock, Va., has been welcoming every kind of boater, from steamship crews and watermen to cruisers, since its founding in 1680. The place is only about a square mile in size and home to around 400 families, but it’s a great location, a couple of miles from Chesapeake Bay by way of Onancock Creek.
To learn more about how brook trout fare over a long span of time in the presence of brown trout, biologists John Odenkirk and Mike Isel with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (VDWR) examined a large amount of data—nearly 25 years’ worth of information—on brook and brown trout in the Rapidan and Conway rivers of northern Virginia.
The nēnē, sometimes called the Hawaiian goose, is an endemic species found only on the Hawaiian Islands and is the official state bird. Once common, the species declined to only 30 individuals by 1957 due primarily to habitat destruction, introduction of predators, and historic hunting pressure.
The same source of conservation funding—excise taxes paid by tackle manufacturers via the Sport Fish Restoration Act—that pays for scientific fisheries research and management, boat ramps, aquatic education, and fish population surveys has righted an upside down trout stream.
To get a more accurate count of the state’s moose population, researchers, along with state officials, will use drones and trail cams as part of a new moose surveillance program, which started last week and will continue for three years.
The lesser prairie-chicken is a prairie grouse found in New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Today, the population in southeastern Colorado is rebounding thanks to a conservation partnership between Colorado and Kansas stakeholders and funding support through the State Wildlife Grant Program.
Each June marks both National Fishing and Boating Week and Great Outdoors Month. Like many other outdoor recreation activities, boating ownership has increased in recent years giving the boating industry many reasons to celebrate.
“I spent some time in Charleston over this past weekend. I know, crazy. I was there for client work – a kids camp that I’ll tell you more about later. I was amazed at the work they are doing in wildlife conservation and many don’t know it exists.” -Michelle Scheuermann
Funds from the State Wildlife Grant Program (SWG) are used by state and U.S. territory fish and wildlife agencies to develop and implement programs that benefit wildlife and their habitats. Grant funds support a variety of conservation needs including research, species restoration, and habitat management.
April can be a cruel time of year in northern-tier states; it’s not quite spring, not quite winter. But it brings with it opening day of fishing seasons.
In a recent CBS Saturday Morning News segment U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Williams discussed the important conservation work funded through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program (WSFR).
