Great Memories from the Waterfowl Season at McGraw
McGraw Photos
The 2016-2017 waterfowl season at the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation was one of the best on our records. More participation by members and refined management techniques - plus some help from Mother Nature - added up to some of the highest success rates in years.
Roy Raupp, McGraw's director of outdoor experiences, attributes much of the success to a new plan in which duck-blind usage was staggered throughout the season. As individual blinds became less productive, new areas were flooded and opened to hunting and the ducks responded.
"I have to give the guides credit for coming up with the plan," Roy said, adding that the guides' passion and dedication is crucial to success. They manage spring planting, ensure that the blinds and equipment function properly, and frequently scout the Foundation property to make sure members have the best possible opportunities the next day. "When the hunt ends on one day, preparation for the next begins," Roy said.
Also contributing to the overall waterfowl experience was a new goose pit in the Bluffs hunting area, paid for with member contributions to the Above & Beyond campaign.
|
Bill Would Permanently Authorize Crucial Conservation Fund
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers
Photo by Luke Detwiler/flickr
Bipartisan legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would permanently reauthorize the
Land and Water Conservation Fund
, the nation's most popular and successful access program.
Introduced by Patrick Meehan, a Republican from Pennsylvania, and Raul Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, the bill mirrors legislation from the 114th Congress that was widely supported by more than 200 lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Congress's enthusiastic response to this bill in 2015 - and its alacrity in reintroducing it now - evidences the broad support for the program and the commonsense, beneficial results it achieves.
Established more than a half-century ago, the LWCF has enabled conservation and enhanced public access to millions of acres in the United States. After Congress allowed the LWCF to briefly lapse in the fall of 2015, an omnibus budget deal released in December 2015 reauthorized the program - but for only three years. The Grijalva-Meehan bill would permanently reauthorize the LWCF and annually dedicate 1.5 percent of monies in the fund (or $10 million) to securing public access to inaccessible public lands, addressing longtime sportsmen priorities.
|
|
Good News Department: USDA Invests in Conservation
TRCP.org
Photo by USDA/flickr
- In December, the USDA announced $225 million for 88 new Regional Conservation Partnership Program projects designed and submitted by state, local, and NGO partners. These government and organizational partners also contributed an additional $500 million to the projects. More than half of these projects will improve the nation's water quality or combat drought, a quarter will enhance fish and wildlife habitat conditions, and the remainder will boost soil health and tackle other resource concerns. Read More
|
GOP Can Undo Some Obama Regulations, But it Won't be Easy
By Chelsea Harvey/The Washington Post
As a new Congress convenes, regulatory reform is the rage, and the upshot seems to be that at least a few of President Obama's environmental regulations could be dismantled quickly by the Republican Congress, with President-elect Donald Trump's approval.
Two bills under consideration in Congress, each expected to go to a swift vote, could help expedite the process of undoing recent regulations - or even make it more difficult to pass them in the first place.
The Midnight Rules Relief Act would allow multiple rules to be considered for repeal under a single resolution. And the REINS Act - which stands for Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act - would require any new rules to be approved by a joint resolution in Congress before they could take effect at all. Both bills have previously passed in the House, but it's unclear whether resistance from Democrats in the Senate would allow either to make it to the president's desk - and it's also unclear whether Trump would sign them if they got there.
But these aren't actually the likeliest way for regulatory reform to happen. Rather, the most surefire approach at the moment involves a rarely invoked law that could spell a quick demise for any of 150 or so late-breaking regulations effected in the past six months, including several major environmental rules finalized this year.
|
Why Do Zebras Have Stripes? Scientist Dressed Up to Find Out
By Karin Brulliard/The Washington Post
Photo by snarglebarf/flickr
Most mammals, Tim Caro says, are "rather boringly colored, drab browns and grays."
But zebras? Far from it. Their stripes are stark, beautiful and decidedly strange, the sort of markings found elsewhere in the animal kingdom typically only on fish and snakes. Which is why Caro, a wildlife biologist, spent 10 years toiling under the Tanzanian sun - and, ultimately, holed up in a library - to find out why zebras evolved to look the way they do.
The purpose of zebra stripes has perplexed science at least since Charles Darwin debated the matter with fellow Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. Today, according to Caro, no fewer than four groups of researchers study the question.
They do not lack for hypotheses: In Caro's new
book, "Zebra Stripes,"
he outlines nearly 20 of them. Among the most commonly tossed around - and accepted by the general public, not to mention safari guides - are that the stripes serve as camouflage or confuse predators.
|
|
|
|
|
|
