Conservation

On June 12, Boone and Crockett Club CEO Tony A. Schoonen participated in an event in Missoula, Montana, where Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue directed the U.S. Forest Service to establish vision, priorities and direction to improve management of the nation’s national forests.

By Valerius Geist, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, The University of Calgary; Boone and Crockett Club Professional Member "Managing with the rifle", a conception which arose in Europe at the turn of the 20th century, contained the notion that the culling of the "unfit" was a genetic...

Current efforts to conserve big game migration corridors and seasonal ranges is emblematic of the critical role that Boone and Crockett Club members play in conservation action. Excerpt from Winter 2021 Fair Chase Magazine What does it take to create and successfully implement conservation policy?...

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Excerpt from Fall 2016 issue of Fair Chase My column in the Summer 2016 issue of Fair Chase talked about the importance of the Boone and Crockett Quantitative Wildlife Center directed by Professor Bill Porter at Michigan State University...

The Boone and Crockett Club has completed its work for year ending June 30, 2021, in its conservation policy area. With all the divisiveness that permeates Washington D.C., it’s often difficult for people to recognize, or even believe, that important bipartisan work still gets done resulting in effective legislation. And while the COVID-19 pandemic has presented many obstacles, we have some extremely significant gains with our policy efforts. The 116th Congress has established itself as one of the most productive Congresses that we have worked with in the past 25 years on enacting important bipartisan conservation legislation and significant progress has been made to date during the 117th Congress.

A complete collection of articles about conservation, hunting, and wildlife research by John Organ, Director Emeritus of the USGS Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units, and current B&C professional member.

By Steve Côté In most instances, a confrontation between a white-tailed deer and a black bear would be decided in favor of the bear. Dr. Steve Côté , a scientist with the Université Laval in Quebec, has indentified a situation which defies this conventional wisdom. Dr. Côté and his colleagues have...

First Adopted March 12, 2014 - Revised: 8/19/2014 - Reviewed 7/11/2014 Situational Overview Conservation and preservation are two different philosophies. Since the early 20th century, conservation has meant the wise and prudent use of natural resources without waste. Preservation means protection...

By John Organ — Polygamous species include those we are quite familiar with: whitetail and mule deer, elk, and moose, where one male may breed several females. Polygamous cervid species display what biologists term sexual dimorphism, meaning the two sexes exhibit differences in some physical features. In the case of cervids, this is represented by males typically having larger body size than females. This is true of many species of mammals that are polygamous.

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Excerpt from Summer 2017 issue of Fair Chase Those of us in the hunting community take great pride in the fact the dollars we spend on hunting licenses, firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment are the financial backbone of state-...

Much debate has occurred through the years over the value and purpose of maintaining records of “trophy” big game animals killed by hunters. This has become magnified in recent years with a focus on trophy hunting in general, spawned in part by the Cecil the Lion episode, and in conflicting reports on the genetic impacts of trophy hunting to big game populations in particular.

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Drs. Dave Wattles and Steve DeStefano of the Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit attach a GPS collar to a bull moose in west-central Massachusetts. Excerpt from Spring 2016 issue of Fair Chase The distribution of the...

By John Organ — Nearly 100 years ago Aldo Leopold, the father of game management, coined the term “harvestable surplus.” The intended meaning of the term is that some wildlife species and populations may produce more young in a given year than can survive to the following year. Those individuals doomed to die over the winter, for example, represent the “surplus” in the population. Leopold observed that those surplus animals could be killed by hunters during the fall, instead of succumbing to winter mortality, and there would be little impact on the population. So, in theory, hunting would be sustainable because the population would not change.

By John Organ — The issue of lead versus non-lead ammunition has been a divisive factor within the hunting and wildlife conservation community for decades. Consider this statement: “The accounts of the destruction of ducks, geese, and swans by lead-poisoning which are printed on another page bring to public attention a new element of danger to our wildfowl, and one for which a remedy will be hard to find.” This was written by George Bird Grinnell, co-founder of the Boone and Crockett Club in 1894.

By David Hewitt, B&C Professional Member The distribution of elk in North America is primarily in mountains, northern parklands, prairies, and high deserts where winter can be severe. Deep snows, poor quality forage, and cold temperatures can be a hardship for elk, especially when elk are...

By Vernon C. Bleich Steep, rocky terrain is widely recognized as an important component of bighorn sheep habitat. Visual openness, however, also is important because it enhances the probability that bighorn sheep can detect and evade predators. In southern California, some populations of bighorn...

By David Hewitt - Boone and Crockett Club Professional Member Trophy animals represent many things. For hunters who harvest an exceptional animal, trophies are the culmination of planning, dedication, and hard work. A trophy is a reminder of all the experiences enjoyed, and sometimes tolerated,...

Kelley M. Stewart, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada Reno R. Terry Bowyer,Professional Member Boone and Crockett Club Big game animals have more complex interactions with their environments than many of us realize and large mammals, such as elk, have far reaching effects on ecosystems. Both...

Aaron Foley - Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville Randy DeYoung - Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville From a tree-stand, a hunter observes a 10-point, 130-inch Boone and Crockett score white-tailed deer walking...

By Carl D. Mitchell (Wildlife Biologist, retired) and R. Terry Bowyer (Professional Member, Boone and Crockett Club) Managing game populations subject to predation has long been a topic of research, discussion, and dissension. Predation and predator-prey relationships are complex ecological...

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Excerpt from Fall 2017 issue of Fair Chase It’s pretty common knowledge these days that black and grizzly bears are very efficient predators of ungulate fawns and calves. Some of the earliest published accounts of black bear predation on...

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member © Mark Mesenko Excerpt from Fall 2018 issue of Fair Chase In the Spring 2015 issue of Fair Chase ( “A Little Help From Our Friends” ), I wrote about the Western Elk Research Collaborative and the promise it held for a greater...

Wildlife for the 21st Century: Volume V is the fifth in a series of recommendations from the American Wildlife Conservation Partners ( AWCP ) beginning in 2001. AWCP is a consortium of 45 organizations that represent the interests of America’s millions of dedicated hunter conservationists,...

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Excerpt from Summer 2018 issue of Fair Chase A pillar of wildlife management in North America is the notion that it is science-based or science-driven. Indeed, Aldo Leopold, the father of wildlife management, laid the groundwork for this...