The world needs “ambitious, systemic and sustained efforts to address the full range of direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity change.” We are well into a sixth mass extinction, with untold numbers of species each year permanently leaving the planet in what environmental historian and author Bathsheba Demuth poignantly refers to as “quiet, unsung extinctions.” A new report by an expert panel of more than 50 researchers from 23 countries examined current... Read More The post “Transformative” Change Needed to Protect Biodiversity: B.C. Falling Short appeared first on Landscapes & Lette ..read more

It is spring wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) season throughout much of Canada and the United States. Hunters throughout the continent live for this time of year, with its sunrise glows, dewy morning fields, fragrant sunny days, and forests screaming with the gobbles of male turkeys. Some recent research has given us more insight into turkey habitat preferences, use, and what we might expect for the future of wild turkey range in the... Read More The post The Impacts of Fire and Climate Change on Wild Turkeys appeared first on Landscapes & Letters ..read more

This post is essentially an unedited transcript of my discussion from Episode 13 of the Hunt To Eat Show covering recent initiatives to suspend black bear hunting in California. You can listen to that episode wherever you get podcasts or at this link here. California has had a busy year with bear hunting. In February 2021, State Senator Scott Wiener proposed Senate Bill 252 (SB-252), which was sponsored by the Humane Society... Read More The post Overview of Efforts to Suspend Black Bear Hunting in California appeared first on Landscapes & Letters ..read more

“The North American model of wildlife conservation has seven components that collectively form a foundation that yields its distinct structure: 1. Wildlife as public trust resources 2. Elimination of markets for wildlife 3. Allocation of wildlife by law 4. Wildlife can only be killed for a legitimate purpose 5. Wildlife are considered an international resource 6. Science is the proper tool for discharge of wildlife policy 7. Democracy of hunting It is... Read More The post The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation appeared first on Landscapes & Letters ..read more

Most people have at least a passing familiarity with the history of bison (Bison bison) in North America. More specifically, people have probably heard about the almost complete eradication of the species from the continent due to a complete lack of management. Perhaps fewer people are familiar with the bison as a success story, the one that is ongoing and will hopefully have a happier ending. The bison is colloquially known in North America as buffalo.... Read More The post Genetically Pure Bison in North America appeared first on Landscapes & Letters ..read more

Conservation involves complicated layers that must be navigated. It involves a diverse set of voices, nuanced motivations, and vastly different ideas about the best types of programs and policies. Inevitably, there is a great deal of push and pull and disagreement about the right kinds of decision-making in conservation and what constitutes a morally right way to approach conservation. Bounties and killing contests occupy a contradictory space in the North American conservation... Read More The post Are Bounties and Killing Contests Conservation? appeared first on Landscapes & Letters ..read more

My identity as a hunter is inseparable from my identity as a conservationist. My understanding of being a conservationist includes everything one associates with the concept of conservation: naturalist, animal lover, environmentalist, manager, activist. Here, I want to articulate how I conceptualize the relationship between my motivation to hunt and my role in conservation. In other words, how can hunting be enacted as land ethic? Land Ethic The term “land ethic” was coined... Read More The post Hunting as Land Ethic appeared first on Landscapes & Letters ..read more

Among the many things that draw hunters into the field to pursue new species, curiosity is perhaps one of the simplest and most ancient. There is an exciting sense of curiosity that drives hunters to want to continue to experience new landscapes, natural phenomena, and species. While we are certainly driven but such primordial motivations to hunt, we also commonly express less practical, but equally human, reflections about the many considerations that... Read More The post Are There Species We Shouldn’t Hunt? appeared first on Landscapes & Letters ..read more

There is no question that two centuries of rapid expansion of human settlement and industrial development on this continent have been tough on grizzly bears. They continue to face declining habitat and the impacts of policy decisions that are polluted by human interest and partisan priorities. The British Columbia government made two announcements in 2017 concerning grizzly bear management in the province. In August 2017, the B.C. government announced that it would... Read More The post British Columbia Ends the Grizzly Bear Hunt: The Right Decision? appeared first on Landscapes & Letters ..read more

“Buffler!” exclaimed Boone Caudill, A.B. Guthrie’s iconic character in his 1947 novel, The Big Sky. Guthrie’s story gives us glimpses into both the beauty of the landscape and the mindset that led to some of the biggest mistakes we made on it. Guthrie writes, Already autumn was coming to the upper Missouri, the short northern autumn that was here and gone like a bird flying. Flecked in the green of the cottonwood... Read More The post Boone, Ishmael, and the Politics of Moose Management appeared first on Landscapes & Letters ..read more