Trump Taps Quail Hunter to Run Agriculture
TRCP.org
Photo by Peter Miller/flickr
The hunting and fishing community recognizes the potential for collaboration and compromise in President-elect Trump's pick for Secretary of Agriculture. An avid sportsman, former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue has the kind of personal and policy experience that is likely to benefit the nation's farmers and ranchers, as well as fish and wildlife habitat on private and public lands.
In Georgia, Perdue implemented the first comprehensive statewide land conservation plan, which included policy provisions aimed at improving wildlife habitat and boosting outdoor recreation opportunities, but his response to a major drought in 2007 was somewhat controversial. He also established a trust fund for the state to purchase conservation lands and encouraged the donation of perpetual conservation easements through a new tax credit that successfully conserved more than 185,000 acres in just four years.
"We're happy to see that a true sportsman is a candidate for this position, especially one who worked to create a culture of conservation during his tenure as governor," says Whit Fosburgh, president and CEO of the
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
. "It's clear to us that, where private lands dominate the landscape, local hunters and anglers track and care deeply about ag policy and its impacts on fish, wildlife, and water quality. They can feel optimistic that Perdue is up to the task of serving rural communities and our natural resources well."
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What to Expect from New Interior Secretary
By Herman K. Trabish/Utility Dive
Photo by Gage Skidmore/flickr
Among Donald Trump's controversial cabinet picks, U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke appears to have some amount of bipartisan accord. Nominated for Department of Interior Secretary, Zinke hails from Montana, a state with
37 percent of its lands
under some kind of public management.
Conversely, Zinke's biggest bipartisan appeal lies in his open support of keeping federal lands in the hands of government agencies as several of his House colleagues push for state control. Environmentalists and climate activists are more skeptical of his stance over climate change mitigation and his pro-fossil fuel interests. But his Republican allies and conservation groups speak highly of his track record dealing with public lands.
Environmentalists in Zinke's home state are more dubious.
"He started as a moderate Republican but turned sharply right and has voted against the environment and for pipeline and coal development projects ever since," said Anne Hedges, deputy director of the
Montana Environmental Information Center
. "This is not the person we want in charge of our public lands."
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Salopek Update: Four Years, 10 Million Footsteps
By Paul Salopek/Out of Eden Walk
Four years ago I set out on a global storytelling project called the
Out of Eden Walk. I am now overwintering in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, waiting for the mountain snows to melt enough to resume walking east, into western China. This photo gallery highlights the sweep of human dramas I've encountered so far-across two continents, 1,460 days, and more than 10 million footsteps-as I follow our species' ancestral trail of Stone Age migrations from Africa to the tip of South America.
Paul Salopek will join McGraw members in a satellite conversation on March 9, 2017 as part of the McGraw Speaker Series. Please save the date!
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Will Wildlife Viewing Replace Hunting In America?
By Edward Putnam/Backcountry Journal
Photo by Chris Jones/flickr
"Click." It's not the sound of a misfire, but of a shutter snapping closed. "Click, click, click."
Armed with only a tripod and a camera, he's a new generation of outdoorsman. There's a mountain bike on the back of his car and a kayak mounted to the roof rack. He's one of millions of Americans who access public lands for hiking, camping, biking, jogging, and viewing wildlife and scenery. One thing he doesn't do, however, is hunt. And in that he represents a growing trend toward "non-consumptive" outdoor recreation.
In 1960, the US Fish and Wildlife Service counted almost 14 million hunting license holders in the US, making the sport one of the most popular outdoor activities in America. But that popularity has not kept pace with changing demographics. There's nearly 140 million more Americans today, but almost the same number of hunters.
Interest in wildlife has not stagnated in the same way. According to a U.S. Census report, 22 million people identified as wildlife viewers in 2011, compared to 13.7 million hunters. From 2000 through 2007, four out of the five most popular outdoor activities had to do with photographing or observing nature (the other activity was motorized off-roading). Hunting didn't even make the list.
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Lessons from
30 Years of Watching
Bird Feeders
By Gustave Axelson/Living Bird
McGraw Photo by Clark Ganshirt
Since 1987, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada have partnered on Project FeederWatch to mobilize thousands of citizen scientists across North America to count birds in their backyards over the winter.
Three decades of data provide a comprehensive look at continental wintertime populations of feeder birds over the late 20th and early 21st centuries-including some compelling stories of range expansions and contractions, populations in flux, and birds adapting to changing environments.
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