"Regulations Force USDA to Halt Elk Transfer"
WKRN
21 Feb 2007
Area: Tennessee
A move to bring more elk to Tennessee has been put on hold. Wildlife officials had hoped to nearly double the size of elk already in Tennessee this winter but the USDA has to put a stop to the plan . Greg Wathen is the Chief of Wildlife for the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency. He and others in the agency are disappointed to hear the USDA will not let them bring more elk to Tennessee. The agency had hoped to import more than 150 elk from Canada, something it did in 2000 when more than 50 elk came to Tennessee from Elk Island in Alberta.
Wathen said, “Back in 2000 and 2001 we had gotten elk from Elk Island National Park under an agreement we had with agriculture so we asked them to extend that agreement so we could bring elk in from that location.” According to Wathen, the agreement was made and the plan was put into motion. He said, right now, there are more than 130 elk in Canada waiting to come to Tennessee. Due to new regulations regarding transmission of disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the elk in Canada could not come because they were not from a captive herd.
With Wolves, Wyoming Keeps Shooting Self in Foot
New West
21 Feb 2007
Todd Wilkinson
Area: Wyoming
It was during the latter half of the 1980s in a conference room at Snow King Resort in Jackson Hole. The topic was restoring gray wolves to the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and to a wider swath of the intermountain West. Ronald Reagan was in the White House and William Penn Mott,Jr., Reagan’s director of the National Park Service, made a trip to Wyoming to talk about why wolves deserved a second chance. Western lawmakers didn’t know what to do about the elderly Mr. Mott who proved to be more wiley than themselves.
Privately, behind the scenes, they furiously made calls to the president’s staff, demanding that Reagan fire the small old man with snow-white hair for speaking what they claimed was cultural blasphemy. Part of the (short) oral tradition of their kin folk in the West was based upon demonizing wolves; it united them against a common bogeyman. Reagan refused to capitulate to those who wanted Mott muzzled or ushered down the road into a nursing home, in part because he knew Mott from their days working together in California. Reagan tapped Mott to look after the country’s national parks because he trusted Mott would speak the FACTS.
Calgary Bird Deaths Prompt Investigation
Sun Media (Posted by cnews.canoe.ca)
21 Feb 2007
Tarina White
Area: Alberta
Wildlife experts are examining another 50 ducks found dead along the Bow River on Wednesday, bringing the total number of dead birds discovered this week to 115. Test results won’t be available to confirm the cause of death until later this week, but the likely culprit is a bacteria or viral infection, said Alberta Fish and Wildlife officer Paul Lypyczuk. He stressed it’s not likely the H5N1 strain of avian bird flu that’s been responsible for bird deaths and mass culls in other parts of the world. “There’s no reason for the public to be concerned,” Lypyczuk said.
Robyn Roper, a wildlife biologist with the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation, said the dead ducks and some dead Canadian geese have been spotted along the Bow River from Nose Hill to the off-leash dog park at Southland Dr. The public reported 65 dead ducks — mostly of the Mallard variety — on Monday. Lypyczuk said the rapid spread of disease isn’t uncommon among birds during the winter months when large areas of their habitat freezes, forcing them to live in closer proximity. “When we have concentrated groups of animals, it’s a breeding ground for diseases, infections (and) bacteria,” he said.
Stowaway Shellfish Could Damage Delta: Boaters Key to Keeping Tiny Quagga Out of California WatersContra Costa Times (Posted by insidebayarea.com)
20 Feb 2007
Denis Cuff
Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Herod, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Area: California
SOS to California boaters: Watch for a stowaway shellfish that could wreak havoc to the state's environment and economy if you let it sneak aboard. The health of California's Delta environment and water delivery system could be in jeopardy. A month after California detected its first quagga mussels in Lake Havasu near the Arizona border, state officials said they need recreational boaters' help to prevent the species from spreading throughout fresh waters statewide. An unsuspecting boater likely delivered the non-native mussel to California after failing to adequately clean and dry a boat that had visited the infested Great Lakes.
"It's not the state of California that can keep the quagga out," said Troy Swauger, a spokesman for a new state emergency task force on the quagga. "It's the boaters that are key to stopping it from spreading further than it already has." Quagga can attach to boat hulls and survive for days out of water. The shellfish may survive longer if they are in water in a boat compartment.
Fish and Game Votes Against Bill to Eliminate Deer Baiting
UnionLeader.com
22 Feb 2007
Paula Tracy
Area: New Hampshire
Fish and Game Commission voted to enter into rule making and public hearings yesterday on a number of proposed changes to the state's deer hunting season for 2007. It voted 7-2 to oppose a bill which would eliminate deer baiting. Steve Weber, director of the wildlife division, put forth a series of ideas and proposals from the staff and from groups. They included the creation of a youth hunt in Wildlife Management Unit M in the southeast, reducing the length of the deer hunt in the far northern part of the state and dividing Wildlife Management Unit D into two deer management districts.
Unit D is from Orford north along the Connecticut River to Groveton. Rockingham County Commissioner Steve Nottonson suggested the month of January to introduce new hunters to the sport and to winter survival skills in the southeast, where not much snow is on the ground. Weber said he doesn't think it's a good idea to have a buck and doe hunt simultaneously during that period and noted a concern for a decline in population and pregnant does if it is to be either-sex hunting. Commissioner Sharon Guaraldi asked Weber if the commission were to go out to public hearing on a proposed month-long youth hunt and if it found public sentiment against such a long length, would it be easier to reduce it than hold a hearing on a week and expand it?
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