Conservation News

In November 1959, 56 pronghorn were captured in the plains of Montana. Their final destination being the tropical island of Lanai, Hawaii. This bizarre plan stemmed from a discerning biologist who identified 35 square miles of grassland on Lānaʻi. The open expanse resembled the grasslands of the...

Ever wanted to hunt a hippo? It’s probably not something you’ve considered. But if Teddy Roosevelt had gotten his way in 1910, hippo tags would have been available to American hunters from Florida to Texas–not to mention, as the New York Times put it, “lake cow bacon.” Here’s what happened. A...

On November 5th, Colorado voters delivered a victory for science-based wildlife management by rejecting Proposition 127, which sought to ban mountain lion hunting. But this wasn’t just about mountain lions; it was an attempt to politicize wildlife management and shift control from scientists to...

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Sergeant Alexander was patrolling during deer season when he encountered some unexpected law violators. According to a press release from WDFW, two males were in a vehicle, and when the sergeant asked what they were up to, stated that they were “just...

Everything was going according to plan when Devin Simpson shot a doe on opening day of this year’s rifle season in Arkansas. Two deer had walked into the shooting lane as he and his wife, Daelyn, sat in the tree stand. Daelyn advised him to take the larger one on the left, which he dropped with a...

On a Forest Service all-employee phone call in mid-September, it was clear that bad news was imminent as agency chief Randy Moore rambled on about recent budget challenges and the employee-first mentality of the Forest Service. Then he dropped the bombshell: the agency wouldn’t be bringing on any...

It’s not “weights in fish,” but it’s pretty close. A 27-year-old Arkansas man named Andrew Riels has been cited by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) for poaching a buck and then entering it into a big buck contest. Louisiana officials first got a tip from the Arkansas Game...

Bad ideas aren’t so bad until they start to get contagious. That appears to be what’s happening with one of the worst public land viruses infecting our nation today. Four western states have thrown their support behind a Utah lawsuit that could transfer millions of acres of public land into private...

Colorado voters have rejected by a wide margin a ballot measure that would have banned mountain lion hunting in the state. Only 72% of the vote has been reported as of Wednesday morning, but the current 11-point spread is wide enough that the New York Times and local media have declared victory for...

“We can’t eat beaver? That’s just ridiculous,” Minnesota Sen. Nathan Wesenberg said during the Senate floor debate on May 17. “I eat beaver. It’s fine, no one is going to get in trouble for doing it…I don’t know why this is in the bill.” Well, you’re not alone in wondering that, Senator. Minnesota...

An elk hunter is lucky to be alive today after he was forced to use his own hunting rifle to defend himself from an adult grizzly in a remote portion of eastern Idaho. Dylyn Carter, 27, told MeatEater that he didn't doubt the bear's intentions when it appeared in front of him just a few yards away...

A Washington State man will spend nearly four years in federal lockup and be forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and restitution for hunting bald and golden eagles and selling their feathers on the black market. Travis John Branson, 49, of Cusick, Washington, pleaded guilty in...