The Wildlife Society, Wildlife Damage Management Working Group Newsletter.
Spring 2003 – Volume 10(1)
Forward
Greetings! Thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers,
the first major meeting organized by the Working Group was a resounding
success. The 10th Wildlife
Damage Management Conference (the successor to the Great Plains and Eastern Conferences) was held in Hot Springs Arkansas from April 6-9, 2003. There were
238 people in attendance! General
session presentations covered bird, mammal, and rodent topics, while
specialized session presentations covered aquaculture, wildlife diseases, and
college curricula. Bob Warren, the TWS
president, gave an excellent keynote address about the history of wildlife
damage management in the United States. The
conference was concluded with a field trip highlighting the aquaculture
industry. Proceedings from the
conference will be published within eight months.
The
Working Group is beginning to make plans for the next conference, to be held in
the spring of 2005, likely in the Great Lakes Region. Rich Chipman and
Art Smith are heading a Site Selection Committee. Two locations have been suggested thus far,
The Sawmill Creek Resort on Lake
Erie near Cleveland, Ohio, and The Grand Traverse Resort and Spa in Traverse City, Michigan. Jim
Armstrong and Frank Boyd will head the Program Committee. They are looking for ideas for symposia, so
if you have an idea you would like to propose, please contact them. If you would like to help with any aspect of
organizing the next meeting, please let me know!
I
am sorry to report that the Working Group’s proposals for symposia were not
accepted for the 10th Annual TWS Conference in Burlington, Vermont. The Working
Group submitted two proposals for half-day symposia, including “The Raccoon
Resource: Conservation, Conflict, and Disease Management”, and “Impacts of
Double-Crested Cormorants on Natural Resources in the Northern U.S and
Canada”. However, the meeting will have
a general session on Wildlife Damage Management and many relevant papers and I
encourage Working Group members to attend the meeting. Our Working Group will hold its annual
meeting in Burlington at the conference.
Our
Working Group did receive approval to hold two symposia at the 3rd
International Wildlife Management Congress, which will be held December 1-5, 2003 in Christchurch, New Zealand. This international conference will include a
major emphasis on wildlife-human interactions and wildlife damage
management. The two symposia sponsored
by the WDMWG are “Wildlife Damage Management in the United States” and “Diseases at the
Wildlife–Human Interface”.
- Kathy Fagerstone, Chair
kathleen.a.fagerstone@aphis.usda.gov
10th Wildlife Damage Conference–A Profitable
Venture
By
now, most of you have gathered that the 10th WDM Conference in Hot Springs was both a professional and financial success. Total registered attendance equaled 238, with
50 of these also electing to take part in the 1-day aquaculture field
trip. Providing an accurate accounting
statement of the virtually hundreds of transactions that comprised this event
is not trivial. I will make an official
accounting statement in my year-end report, but I thought you may be interested
to know in general how the conference did financially.
We
obtained contributions from 7 groups that totaled $10,700. These contributors were: USDA/APHIS Wildlife
Services, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, The Wildlife Society, California
Vertebrate Pest Council, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, State of Arizona Game and Fish Department, Missouri Department of Conservation, and the
Tennessee Chapter of TWS. We sincerely
thank each of these contributors for their monetary contribution, which helped
defray costs of the event. We would also
like to thank the Arkansas Game and Fish Department for donating and preparing
the wonderful catfish fillets served at the end of the field trip.
Exhibitors provided an additional $2,700 in
revenues (including the Reed-Joseph International Company, Becker Underwood,
Margo Supplies Inc., Wildlife Control Technologies, Deer Stopper, Bird-X,
Electrobraid Fence Ltd., and Sutton Ag Enterprises).
We appreciate their patronage.
Registrants
contributed the bulk of the monies, totaling $30,525 with adjustments for
student, early, and late charges. The
field trip brought in another $2,250.
Main
costs were $12,369.43 (hotel/food), $2,070.26 (programs and mailing), $705.20
(registration gift–rulers), $700 (field trip bus), $664.28
(credit card fees). Of course, a major
cost remaining involves publication of the Proceedings, estimated projected
cost of $5,000-$10,000.
If
you do the math, the 10th Wildlife Damage Management Conference
generated approximately $20,000-25,000 in revenues for the Working Group. Currently, the cash balance in our account is
$39,684.91 (4/25/03), with payments for the hotel/food, one invited speaker, and The
Proceedings still unpaid. Not too
shabby, huh? This should be a sufficient
“cushion” for continued, bi-annual scheduling of this type of conference.
- Ray Sterner,
Secretary/Treasurer
New Urban Wildlife Stakeholder Group Formed
in L.A.
County, California
The
Los Angeles County Urban Wildlife Management Association (UWMA) was formed in
April 2003. The mission of the new
Association is: “to attempt to find ways to reduce human/wildlife conflicts in Los Angeles County through increased cooperation, education, outreach, and research”. The UWMA currently consists of stakeholders
from Federal, state, county, and city government agencies, as well as humane
organizations, land managers, and private groups. Those interested in future meetings and/or
more information about the UWMA can contact:
Ray
Smith
L.A.
Co. Dept. Ag. Comm./Weights & Measures
ray@acwm.co.la.ca.us
D. Martin 1999
10th
Wildlife Damage Management Conference Evaluation FINDINGS
The
following list includes highlights from the evaluation forms filled out by
those who attended the 10th Wildlife Damage Management Conference in
Hot Springs, Arkansas (6-9 April
2003):
1) Conference
rating: 3.45 out of 4
2) Best thing
about conference: Networking,
presentation content/concurrent sessions, and diversity of
topics/expertise
3) Things to
change: More room for posters/presentation room size/larger meeting facility
4) Technical
session rating: 3.41 out of 4
5) Facility
rating: 2.92 out of 4
Paul Curtis
discusses development of a curriculum for the nuisance wildlife control
industry in New York during the
Opening Session at the 10th Wildlife Damage Management Conference, 7 April 2003
(photo by D. Martin).
Proceedings Available
Proceedings
and abstracts of the 2002 meeting of the Vertebrate Pests of Agriculture,
Forestry, and Public Lands are now
available at the WCC-95 website:
http://wcc-95.unl.edu/abstracts.html
Proceedings
from previous meetings are also archived on this web site.
Daniel
Martin
Dept.
of Biological Sciences, MSU
242
Trafton Science Center S.
Mankato, MN 56001
APPLICATION
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WORKING
GROUP DUES ($5.00 each)
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02
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03
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