Field & Stream is proud to announce the six finalists for the 2009 Heroes Of Conservation awards. Each finalist will receive $5000 and be honored at the annual HOC gala, to be held in Washington, D.C. on October 21. The Hero of the Year, who will be announced at that banquet, will also receive a Toyota truck.

For the past three weeks, our televisions crews have been following the six finalists as they go about their work. Starting this week, you can see all of our heroes in action, doing the hard work that has earned them so many accolades. Watch them as they plant trees in burned-out forests, pick up trash that’s washed ashore, repair trails, count and study fish and fish habitat, and much, much more.

The six finalists are:

William Edwards II of Oden, Arkansas
William Edwards has spent his life practicing and teaching conservation through Oden High School’s Woods and Water Club. The club’s president as a student, he is now its leader as Oden’s principal. Under his leadership, more than one quarter of Oden’s high school students have joined. Members maintain a stretch of highway and the local rifle range, build bird boxes for the public, and raise catfish for a local derby, where they help young contestant bait hooks and handle fish. “We’re a school of natural conservationists,” Edwards say. “Our best fisherman is like our star athlete.

Derek Fong of Santa Clarita, California
The vice chairman for the Santa Clarita Valley Chapter of Quail Unlimited, Fong has helped to raise more than $12 million for habitat restoration projects in the Los Padres and Angeles National Forests. These include erecting concrete guzzlers to ensure that animals have water to drink and planting trees in areas destroyed by fire. “I beat on the doors and ask for money,” he says. “I’m the whip.” During his tenure, turkeys and quail in the area have flourished. He also raises funds for the Boy Scouts and has been nominated for president of the Hunter Education Instructor Association of California.

Jon Hillmer of Baraboo, Wisconsin
Hillmer, the president of an equipment rental company and vice president of the Sauk County Chapter of Pheasants Forever, helped start KAMO—Kids And Mentors Outdoors—where the slogan is “Tradition Forward” (KAMOkids.org). Volunteers from four KAMO chapters in Wisconsin hunt and fish with children who might not do so otherwise, and teach them about preserving the land—similar to what Hillmer’s father, Bud, did with him and other local kids during his 43 years as a hunter safety instructor. Hillmer teaches youths to make duck calls from scratch, and they have planted hundreds of trees and created a stocked pond for kid fishing derbies. “The simplest things can mean the most to them,” he says.

Howard Kern of Westlake Village, California
When the Orvis Company, working with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, selected the California golden trout as its imperiled trout species for 2004, and offered a matching grant of $100,00 if groups such as Trout Unlimited, the Federation of Fly Fishers, and California Trout supplied the manpower to do fish counts and work on habitat restoration in the California Golden Trout Wilderness, Howard Kern jumped right in, and hasn’t stopped since.

Billy Sandifer of Corpus Christi, Texas
Known as the caretaker of Padre Island National Seashore, Sandifer got fed up with the garbage that was washing up on the island’s beaches, so he organized a trash cleanup 14 years ago that to date has removed 1.8 million pounds of garbage. He founded a group, the Friends of Padre Island, that has raised thousands upon thousands of dollars to help continue with the cleanups. Sandifer has also been instrumental in raising funds to study and protect the endangered Kemp’s Ridley turtle, which nests on the island; and he has, in conjunction with the Texas Ornithological Association, compiled quarterly birding reports that have resulted in protection of a number of area species.

Mark Taylor of Snoqualmie, Washington
To help a rare subspecies of kokanee salmon in Lake Sammamish, 8 miles west of Seattle, Taylor helped whip a Trout Unlimited chapter into a frenzy, got a bunch of Boy Scouts and local high school students involved in grass-roots projects such as trapping and counting kokanee fry and fingerlings in one of the lake’s tributaries, then came up with a unique Adopt-A-Kokanee program that has helped fund the research.

If you ask outdoorsmen to list the country's important laws for fish and wildlife, they probably would not mention the Farm Bill. Similarly, they might not immediately think of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers Farm Bill programs, as a powerhouse of conservation.

The past three Farm Bills, however, have shaped more conservation programs for a longer period of time - and put more funding behind those programs - than any other legislation. The more than $5 billion the USDA spends on conservation each year is two-and-a-half times larger than the entire U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service budget. And the USDA is proving everyday that it can balance the goals of maintaining a stable food and fiber supply while sustaining fish and wildlife populations...

Want to learn more? The Farm Bill Booklet will give you all the information you need, to see what the Farm Bill has done for conservation. Click on Farm Bill Booklet, and check it out. – Jay Cassell

Thirteen counties in Pennsylvania are slated for conservation education and wildlife habitat projects using $146,996 in new grants from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

The 2009 RMEF grants will affect Armstrong, Blair, Clarion, Elk, Erie, Fayette, Jefferson, Lehigh, Lycoming, Mercer, Potter, Sullivan and Washington counties.

Three additional projects have statewide interest.

“Our volunteers across Pennsylvania helped drive the 2008 fundraisers that made these grants possible. This is where Elk Foundation banquets, auctions and other events transform into on-the-ground conservation work, and it’s part of the payday for supporters who are passionate about giving something back to the outdoors,” said David Allen, Elk Foundation president and CEO.

To see what’s slated for each county, check out www.rmef.org. – Jay Cassell

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service joined with Fisheries Friends Groups in the official establishment of a National Fisheries Friends Partnership (NFFP). From across the United States, representatives of Fisheries Friends Groups gathered this past spring in the nation’s capital to formalize this new partnership.

Fisheries Friends Groups are non-profit organizations that work in partnership with the Service at National Fish Hatcheries, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Offices and Fish Health and Fish Technology Centers. The NFFP will provide a citizen voice and volunteer assistance with the protection and conservation of national aquatic resources for the benefit of present and future generations at Fisheries Program field stations.

“In the years to come, we will look back at the actions of this dedicated group of citizens and see this as a truly defining moment in our history, where a stronger foundation was laid to assure a bright future for the nation’s fisheries,” said Dr. Stuart Leon, Chief, Division of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Conservation.

For more information about the Fisheries Program and Fisheries Friends Groups, please go to www.fws.gov/fisheries – Jay Cassell

A bi-partisan group of lawmakers is calling for an extension of a popular habitat conservation program that saves taxpayer’s money. Members of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus held a briefing yesterday to promote conservation easements on private land.

“The majority of undeveloped lands for wildlife habitat – including more than 75% of the remaining wetlands in the United States – are privately held,” said Barton James, Director of Public Policy for Ducks Unlimited. “Conservation easements are a win-win solution for landowners that want to protect their land – their land is conserved and they receive a break on their taxes.”

Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus co-chairman Rep. Dan Boren (Okla.) spoke about how he personally used an easement to protect 150 acres of his family’s ranch in Oklahoma. "My family decided to place a conservation easement on our family farm to ensure that future generations would still be able to use the land for hunting and recreation,” said Boren. “It is a decision that I hope other Americans will make so that we protect an important part if our way of life.”

The legislation that allows landowners to protect their land by donating easements to conservation groups like Ducks Unlimited expires at the end of the year, prompting the briefing and subsequent letter to the entire Caucus, urging them to support extending the life of the provision.

To learn more about conservation easement donations, go to ducks.org. – Jay Cassell

Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC, an energy company that is conducting natural gas drilling throughout the Marcellus Shale region in Pennsylvania, is requesting a permit to use up to one
million gallons of water per day for hydraulic fracturing, the process by which natural gas is extracted from the Marcellus shale formation, deep underground. The withdrawal is proposed for the West Branch of the Delaware River just above the East Branch in Buckingham Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania.


The West Branch of the Delaware River is an extremely valuable Wild trout fishery that would be adversely affected by a water withdrawal of this size. Trout Unlimited and other advocates for fisheries conservation have argued for years that the Upper Delaware River, including the West Branch Delaware River, suffers from inadequate flows. The Delaware River Basin Committee is currently studying ways to better manage reservoir releases and river levels. Removing one million gallons a day from an already stressed system could potentially ruin what many people say is the finest trout fishing in the East.

The Commission is considering Chesapeake Appalachia's request today, July 15. For more information on what you can do about this, today, please go to tu.org. – Jay Cassell

Trout Unlimited Alaska is partnering for the third consecutive year with New Seasons Market stores in Portland, Oregon, to promote Bristol Bay sockeye salmon and to raise awareness about the potential threat the proposed Pebble Mine could have to the area.

The Bristol Bay fishery employs more than 4000 people each year, grossing around $300 million per year, making it Alaska’s and the nation’s most valuable wild salmon fishery. With wild salmon stocks declining worldwide, Bristol Bay is one of the last remaining strongholds for these fish.

In the heart of Bristol Bays headwaters, foreign mining companies are proposing to develop North America’s largest open-pit and underground mine, which would produce more than 3 billion tons of toxic waster of the course of its lifetime. The chemical-laden waster would be kept onsite in perpetuity, and contained by what would be the world’s largest dam in a seismically active zone.

For the latest updates on area salmon, please go to Trout Unlimited’s website (tu.org) and check out the article in the ‘Bristol Bay Times.’ Go to savebristolbay.org for more info on the proposed mine. – Jay Cassell

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation yesterday announced a new partnership with Perdue, the East Coast’s leading poultry provider, to help restore the Chesapeake Bay.

Perdue has committed a total of $35,000 to the Foundation’s Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund to support habitat restoration and water quality improvement projects on the Delmarva Peninsula. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and its federal partners will provide matching funds of at least dollar-for-dollar to further leverage the investment.
For the whole story, please go to nfwf.org – Jay Cassell

Last week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released its preliminary report on mid-continent breeding ducks and habitats, based on surveys conducted in May and early June. Total duck populations were estimated at 42 million breeding ducks on the surveyed area. This estimate represents a 13% increase over last year's estimate of 37.3 million birds and is 25 percent above the 1955-2008 long-term average!
In addition to extensive grassland cover, one of the most important elements in duck breeding success is the amount of water present in portions of prairie and parkland Canada and north-central United States. Total pond counts for the United States and Canada combined showed 6.4 million ponds, a 45 percent increase from last year’s estimate, and 31 percent above the long-term average. Habitat conditions in 2009 were mostly a good news scenario. Conditions across the southern portions of the Canadian and U.S prairies improved considerably from 2008.
For the whole story, please go to www.ducks. org. For details of trends in duck breeding populations, check the FWS Migratory Bird website at:http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/

I just got this link from contributing editor Thomas McIntyre. Whether you believe in global warming or not, it seems odd that a major conservation conference is choosing to omit certain research. Here’s how the article, from the Telegraph, begins. The link to the rest of the story is below. It will be interesting to see how all this pans out. – Jay Cassell

Over the coming days a curiously revealing event will be taking place in Copenhagen. Top of the agenda at a meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group (set up under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature/Species Survival Commission) will be the need to produce a suitably scary report on how polar bears are being threatened with extinction by man-made global warming.

This is one of a steady drizzle of events planned to stoke up alarm in the run-up to the UN's major conference on climate change in Copenhagen next December. But one of the world's leading experts on polar bears has been told to stay away from this week's meeting, specifically because his views on global warming do not accord with those of the rest of the group.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/5664069/Polar-bear-expert-barred-by-global-warmists.html