The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) received laboratory confirmation on January 19, 2010, that a white-tailed deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD). This is the first confirmed case of CWD in Virginia. The deer was killed by a hunter in Frederick County less than one mile from the West Virginia line. With this case, Virginia now joins 17 other states and Canadian provinces with CWD, five of which are east of the Mississippi River.

“This was not unexpected,” stated VDGIF Executive Director Bob Duncan. “Our wildlife professionals have been preparing for this for some time. The surveillance efforts have been critical and we appreciate the hunters, check station operators, and other cooperators who have supported our efforts.”

CWD is a disease of deer and has not been found to be transmitted to humans or other animals.

This is the first positive test sample out of nearly 5,000 deer tested in the Commonwealth since 2001. VDGIF has been sampling hunter-killed and road-killed deer from the Active Surveillance Area in western Frederick and Shenandoah counties since 2005, when CWD was first detected near Slanesville, West Virginia, within ten miles of the state line. Between 2005 and 2009, CWD has been detected in 62 deer in Hampshire County, West Virginia, out of nearly 10,000 total deer sampled during that time. Several have been found within five miles of the Virginia line.

To learn more about CWD in Virginia and about the agency’s CWD Response Plan visit the VDGIF web site: www.dgif.virginia.gov/cwd -- Jay Cassell

WASHINGTON – Jim Range, a preeminent American sportsman-conservationist whose lifetime of accomplishments included co-founding and leading the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, has been posthumously honored as the 2010 Budweiser Conservationist of the Year Award, the TRCP announced today.



The Conservationist of the Year Award, presented last week by Budweiser and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation at the 2010 Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show, recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to perpetuating the American outdoor way of life. The winner receives $50,000 to direct to his or her conservation organization of choice. In addition, the award can be matched, and its value could reach as much as $200,000. Range’s family has designated the TRCP to receive the proceeds from this honor.



“The TRCP is proud to be guided by the vision and legacy of Jim Range, one of the country’s greatest sportsmen-conservationists,” said TRCP Chairman Jim Martin, “and we are profoundly honored to have this legacy recognized through his selection as Budweiser Conservationist of the Year.



“In the 12 months since Jim was so suddenly taken from us, the thousands who knew him and supported his conservation work have struggled to find ways to express our sorrow at his loss – and sought ways to pay tribute to his tireless efforts to ensure responsible management of our natural resources,” Martin continued. “Budweiser and NFWF have given us the means to acknowledge all that Jim has done to uphold our outdoor way of life.”



In addition to his leadership in establishing and chairing the TRCP, Range served on the boards of directors for numerous organizations, including Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, the Wetlands America Trust, the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, the American Sportfishing Association, the American Bird Conservancy, the Pacific Forest Trust, the Yellowstone Park Foundation and the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust. He also was an original NFWF board member and worked directly with many other hunting, fishing and conservation groups to advance conservation and sportsmen’s interests in Washington and around the country.

To learn more about Jim Range and his many accomplishments, please go to trcp.org. To learn more about Anheuser-Busch's many conservation efforts and commitments, please go to anheuser-busch.com -- Jay Cassell

More than 29,000 acres of prime fish and wildlife habitat on the Rocky Mountain Front
to be permanently removed from oil and gas development



WASHINGTON – Following an industry decision to relinquish oil and gas leases on approximately 29,000 acres of federal public lands on Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership today praised the action as a positive move toward conserving important fish and wildlife habitat and sustaining hunting and fishing opportunities for American citizens.



In announcing the news earlier this afternoon, Montana Sen. Max Baucus referred to the lands encompassed by the leases as “a crown jewel of the West and a sportsmen’s paradise.” Adjacent to Glacier National Park, the leases are located in the Badger-Two Medicine area of Lewis and Clark National Forest and provide crucial habitat for a range of species important to hunters and anglers, including bighorn sheep and cutthroat trout.



Sale of federal leases on the Front has been prohibited since 2006 by a congressional ban, which Baucus helped enact, although existing lease holders retain rights to develop the region.



“The TRCP applauds Senator Baucus’s dedication to safeguarding lands important to sportsmen along the Rocky Mountain Front,” said William Geer, director of the TRCP Center for Western Lands and a Montana resident, “and we join the senator in thanking the companies for their decision to help conserve of some of our nation’s most valuable fish and wildlife habitat, unique landscapes and prized hunting and fishing opportunities.”

Please go to trcp.org for the complete story. -- Jay Cassell

Ventura, CA (January 12, 2010) Patagonia, Inc, the outdoor gear and technical apparel company announced today their World Trout initiative has issued eight grants totaling $75,000 to global grassroots groups whose diverse efforts to protect and enhance fish and their habitat around the world exemplify the philosophy of World Trout.

Grant recipients include the Wild Salmon Center at $10,00 for their Koppi River Salmon Diversity project; Pacific Rivers Council at $8,000 for their Umpqua River Legacy Program; Truckee River Watershed Council, who’s efforts on Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Restoration received $15,000; Takshanuk Watershed council was allocated $10,000 for completion of their water rights reservations initiatives; Bahamian-based Friends of the Environment was the recipient of $8,000 for their sustainable crawfish campaign, Henry’s Fork Foundation’s film, Watershed, which is about impressive hands-on projects completed over the past 25 years, was allotted $3,000 to help distribute this informative film to anglers and other grassroots groups in the hopes these efforts can be replicated; Bonefish and Tarpon Trust’s research on critical tarpon habitat received $15,000 and Italian group Societa Valsesiana Pescatori Sportivi was sent $8,000 for enhancement of their threatened grayling habitat.

World Trout was founded by Patagonia owner Yvon Chouinard and author/artist James Prosek, who believed that immediate, hands-on action through local grassroots groups can begin to address multiple threats facing our fish and their habitat. Educating the public about these groups’ efforts and raising money to support their vitally important activities was the goal. As a result, original artwork by such renowned artists as James Prosek, Tim Borski and Alan James Robinson, has been used to create unique t-shirts, with $5 from the sales of each shirt set aside to fund these groups. Since 2005, World Trout has successfully generated over $400,000 that has been allocated to 30 local grassroots groups.

To learn more about Patagonia's environmental grants program, please go to www.patagonia.com/worldtrout -- Jay Cassell

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Gray wolf hunting and killings in response to livestock attacks have pushed the number of dead wolves to a record of more than 500 this year in the Northern Rockies -- just months after their removal from the endangered species list.

Officials said it's too early to know if the overall population will suffer. It will be months before they can gauge if wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho are curbing the predators' hunger for livestock.

As biologists prepare their 2009 population tally, the results will be closely watched -- both by environmentalists seeking to restore wolves to the endangered species list and ranchers who resent the predators chewing into their livelihood.

The regional wolf count was 1,650 at the beginning of the year. Since September, hunters in Montana and Idaho have claimed at least 203 of the animals, with Idaho's hunting season slated to continue through March. Almost 300 more have been killed by government wildlife agents, ranchers defending their livestock, poachers and natural causes.

That figure includes deaths in Wyoming, where hunting remains banned.

Wolves are prolific breeders that have expanded their numbers in recent years even as federal officials extracted a heavy toll from marauding packs. Wolf attacks on livestock have continued at a steady pace, with more than 375 domestic animals killed in Idaho and more than 200 in Montana through November.

For more on this controversial topic, please go to http://www.trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_15116fb8-c3e2-58af-838b-0aa28a89badd.html

-- Jay Cassell

WASHINGTON – Led by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, members of a coalition of prominent conservation groups emphatically seconded dramatic reforms to the federal government’s minerals-leasing policy announced today by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.



The TRCP Fish, Wildlife and Energy Working Group for years has urged federal leaders and policymakers to prioritize revision of the federal energy leasing and development process on Western public lands so that fish and wildlife resources and sporting opportunities can be sustained.



In a long-anticipated press conference, Secretary Salazar yesterday heralded several significant changes that the Bureau of Land Management will undertake to better conserve public-lands resources and reduce potential conflicts over federal leasing decisions. The secretary also announced creation of an “energy reform team” that will be tasked with identifying and implementing energy management revisions.



“America’s sportsmen are deeply invested in ensuring the responsible management of our federal public lands and have welcomed past opportunities to work with Secretary Salazar and the Department of the Interior to develop administrative policy promoting the outcome presented today,” said Dr. Rollin Sparrowe, working group co-chair and TRCP board member. “The secretary’s announcement comes not a moment too soon for our nation’s shared natural resources and cherished outdoor heritage.”



“Today, the Department of the Interior acknowledged that it ‘can do better’ in fulfilling its federal charge and mandate,” said Leah Elwell, conservation coordinator for the Federation of Fly Fishers and working group co-chair. “The steps outlined by Secretary Salazar should result in more effective conservation of important fish and wildlife habitat and sustaining our fishing and hunting opportunities.”

For the complete story, please go to www.trcp.org/issues/energy-- Jay Cassell

Here's a piece I found in the Anchorage Daily News over the holidays. Check it out - is it possible the Tongass timber wars may actually end? (You can get the full story on the Trout Unlimited website -- www.tu.org - Jay Cassell)

This holiday season brings the prospect of peace on a battlefront in one of Alaska's long-running resource development wars. In the Tongass National Forest, some conservation groups and a Southeast Alaska timber operator have joined forces to pursue a new style of forest management that repairs damage inflicted by clearcutting decades ago. Pacific Log and Lumber owner Steve Seley is the operator in question. He has a mill in Ketchikan that has been shut for more than a year. It's a casualty of the Tongass timber wars. Like most of the Tongass industry, the mill relied on logging Southeast Alaska's huge old-growth trees -- a hotly contested practice, especially since it required big federal subsidies to build logging roads and provide appropriate environmental oversight.

"The timber sales the Forest Service has been pursuing are no longer socially or politically palatable," says the Wilderness Society's Karen Hardigg, one of the conservationists supporting the new management approach for the Tongass.

NEW REALITY

Seley recognizes the new political reality. He notes there's a conservation-friendly administration in Washington, D.C., and Ted Stevens is gone from the U.S. Senate. Seley has worked with Hardigg and others in the Tongass Futures Roundtable, a stakeholder group that aims to get beyond the conflicts of the past and pursue a common economic and environmental vision for the forest.

The group believes there is great potential in restoring areas chewed up by industrial logging that fed the region's two giant pulp mills from the 1950s to the 1990s.

When those clear-cut areas grow back, they fill with dense stands of "second-growth" trees -- so dense that sunlight can't reach the floor, forest plants can't grow and wildlife can't move around.

"Deer in particular take a hammering," Seley says.

Thinning out second growth can be good for the forest and its wildlife, while providing wood for a smaller-scale timber industry.