The Alberta Wildlifer
	Winter 1998, Vol. 9, No. 1
	Editors: Laurie Hunt and Daniel Farr

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President’s Message

Ian Ross

The Year in Review; The Decade in Perspective

This issue is my last as President of the Alberta Chapter. The year has been a good one for me and, I think, the Chapter. We continue to grow, and can be proud of our large and active membership. In 1997 we were involved in a number of issues, including:

· the establishment of a working committee on Endangered Species in Alberta;

· continued review of a development strategy for the Bow Valley;

· encouragement of effective federal Endangered Species legislation;

· review of Provincial policy towards public lands; and

· enhanced liaison between the Chapter and provincial academic institutions.

We continued our liaison with the parent society and the Northwest Section. At times these connections have seemed a bit distant, since many of their issues are specific to federal or regional issues within the United States. Still, we benefit from their strength of voice, and have much to offer them in terms of our international perspective and our own strength. We are one of only 3 international chapters in The Wildlife Society, and the largest of these.

The experience of fronting the Alberta Chapter for a year has been an exceptional one. If you are considering running for executive office with the Chapter, I can only encourage you strongly. There are challenges and demands on one’s time, but the rewards are unbeatable. First, organizing and chairing the Annual Meeting is a hugely satisfying experience that everybody should try. As Past-President Ron Bjorge advised me, prophetically, "You’ll never look at another conference the same way again". It was a pleasure to be a part of reviewing so many high-quality papers, and meeting the stars of wildlife research and management in Alberta. Because of the enthusiasm and dedication of the executive panel in their committee roles, day-to-day supervision of the Chapter is a piece of cake.

Your Chapter is blessed with committee chairs who freely give of their time and skills to offer expertise and guidance to issues of concern to the membership, as well as to the organization and operation of the Chapter. Similarly, the newsletter editors enthusiastically offer their time and imaginations to the vital task of maintaining communication links with our 300-some members. I encourage you to acknowledge the contributions of all these dedicated wildlifers next time you see them.

The Alberta Chapter was launched 10 years ago. It was initiated by forward-looking, dedicated wildlifers who thought an organized voice could better represent professional concerns with wildlife issues in Alberta. We can be proud of the past decade and our involvement in wildlife conservation. No other group effectively speaks for such a large group of Alberta wildlife professionals and students. We have addressed some critical wildlife issues and continue to do so. In addition, and just as important, we have helped to establish strong communication links among wildlife professionals within the province. There can be no doubt that the result has been positive for wildlife. We have also demonstrated a commitment to the development of quality professionals, through our student support programs. We offer scholarships to exceptional candidates, and we reward student presenters at our Annual Meeting.

Despite these accomplishments, we can go further. I hope you will consider standing for nomination in our next election, in order to add your own perspective, voice, and skill, and to take our Chapter into its second decade. Share your thoughts with the membership by contributing to our newsletter. And join us at the Annual Meeting in Calgary in March.

* * * * *

The following is a draft agenda for the Annual Meeting in Calgary at the Best Western Hospitality Inn, 135 Southland Drive SE. All sessions will be held in the Bonavista Ballroom. The Saturday lunch will be held in the Nakiska Ballroom.

Friday March 13 All Day: Silent auction items on display

11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Registration, Posters Setup Bonavista Ballroom

Dr. Daryll Hebert Forest Industry representative

Chair: to be announced (4 speakers @ 20 min)

5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Break - Dinner on Your Own

7:00 - 8:00 p.m. Guest Speaker: Gordon Court Bonavista Ballroom

8:00 - 12:00 p.m. Cash Bar/Social/Auction Colleagues, friends, live and silent auction

8:00 - 9:20 a.m. Session 2 Caribou Biology Bonavista Ballroom

Chair: Dr. Margo Pybus (4 speakers @ 20 min)

9:20 - 9:40 a.m. Break Poster presenters in attendance

9:40 - 11:00 a.m. Session 3 Habitat Management Bonavista Ballroom

Chair: Steve Brechtel (4 speakers @ 20 min)

11:00 - 12:00 a.m. ACTWS Business Meeting Bonavista Ballroom

12:00 - 1:30 p.m. ACTWS Lunch and Awards Presentation Nakiska Ballroom

Chair: Lorne Fitch (6 speakers@ 20 min)

POSTER PRESENTATIONS

ALBERTA CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION DISPLAY

BIGHORN SHEEP INTERACTION WITH ALPINE HABITAT AND RECLAIMED LANDS IN ALBERTA’S ROCKY MOUNTAINS. MacCallum, B., Mark Bugera, and B. Godsalve. Bighorn Environmental Design Ltd. on behalf of the Nikanassin Range Bighorn Sheep Study

STATUS OF SPORT FISHERIES FOR NORTHERN PIKE - NORTHEAST BOREAL REGION. Sullivan, M. G. and Dee Ryerson. Fisheries, Northeast Boreal Region, Natural Resources Service and the Alberta Conservation Association, Edmonton

CROAKS AND TRILLS, ALBERTA’S AMPHIBIAN MONITORING PROGRAM. Takats, D. L., S. Brechtel, and B. Treichel. Alberta Conservation Association and Alberta Environmental Protection, Wildlife Management Division, Edmonton

THE ALBERTA RAPTOR MONITORING PROGRAM. Takats, D. L. Beaverhill Bird Observatory, Edmonton

The Alberta Chapter offers a subsidy to students travelling to the Annual Meeting. Grants will be in the amount of $15.00 per student, to a maximum of $1,500.00, available on a first-come, first-served basis. To be eligible, you must be enrolled as a student in an educational institution in Alberta, outside of the Calgary area. Coordinate your applications through a student or faculty representative and contact Ian Ross at 283-9085.

The Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society will hold a live and silent auction to raise funds for our student scholarships. The auction is planned for Friday night at 8:00 p.m. There will be a cash bar available. Members attending the Annual Meeting are asked to bring along a "wildlife related"

item that we can put up for auction. Those intending to bring an auction item are asked to contact Ken Crutchfield @ 427-7763 or email: kcrutchf@env.gov.ab.ca so that we can recognize your donation. Please bring your auction items to the registration desk on arrival at the Best Western Hospitality Inn.

There are numerous students who could benefit from the scholarship fund. Let's help them out and have some fun doing it. Your assistance with providing and purchasing auction items is greatly appreciated!!

At the auction payment may be made by cash or cheque to the Chapter Treasurer (we haven't the capability to process credit cards).

Or should I say Natural Resources Services? Anyway we have a couple of things on the go here. Steve Brechtel is in the process of having the Species Status Reports written up. Reports for swift fox, Peregrine Falcon, leopard frog, Sprague’s Pipit, Burrowing Owl, wolverine, northern long-eared bat, Ord’s kangaroo rat, short-horned lizard, and prairie rattlesnake have been completed and are available from Fish and Wildlife.

Out on the Northern East Slopes we are, once again, starting a new caribou study (what else is new!). With cooperation from the Foothills Model Forest, Parks Canada, Weldwood, Weyerhaueser, and Nova (assistance from other companies anticipated), 21 caribou of the A La Peche herd were collared with help from the Krazy Kiwi’s. This study is being designed to look at winter range use for this herd and we anxiously waited for their move onto winter range. Our first survey on 21 November found all collars in the headwaters of the Wildhay and Berland Rivers ready to move out of the mountains when the big snowfall hits. No snow by 5 December and no change in the caribou locations. By 17 December 4 of the collared caribou had moved back over the Persimmons and into the Rock Creek drainage. Our last survey on 6 January found 8 collared caribou in the South Sulphur drainage and 7 at the headwaters of Rock Creek and Sulphur River while only 6 remained in the Wildhay and Berland drainages. It seems that, to the caribou, winter is over and they’re heading back to their summer range. As of yet, there still hasn’t been a big snowfall.

Photo by Karen Graham

Amphibian Monitoring Participants… it's not too late. If you have not already submitted your 1997 data, please fill out the datasheets included in the back of your manuals and send them to us so that we can enter them into our database. Thank you for participating in this year's data collection.

Herpetologically, Lisa Takats, Non-game Biologist, Amphibian Monitoring

Phone 403-422-9536, fax 403-422-9685

New service now available to register private conservation/outdoor recreation lands.

Operated by the Land Stewardship Centre of Canada (an independent, non-profit organization based in St. Albert, Alberta), the Conservation Lands Registry is a comprehensive, data-base screening service for "special case" lands. It’s designed to act as a one-call screening centre for oil, gas and other resource development companies to check for conservation interests or concerns on lands they may be developing.

"From conservation management agreements and private woodlots, to nestbox programs and outdoor recreation trails, thousands of conservation sites and other designations recognized by private landowners and conservation/outdoor organizations do not show up on Land Titles," explains Ernie Ewaschuk, executive director of the Land Stewardship Centre. "We set this service up in response to concerns by several conservation groups that there was no way to efficiently flag these lands for developers."

The risk of overlooking non-titled conservation interests became apparent last fall, when changes by the Alberta Energy Utilities Board (EUB) to the oil and gas well site/facility application guidelines instructed developers to check for any "environmental considerations and local sensitivities known to exist" on or adjacent to proposed well sites/facilities. (This was a service partly performed by the EUB in the past.)

"Now the onus is on industry, but it’s important to note that these are guidelines, not legislated requirements," says Ewaschuk. "If a conservation interest does not show up on a land titles search or has a well-known designation, chances are a developer won’t know about it. The Conservation Lands Registry is an effective method for both the company and conservation organization or outdoor recreation group to keep informed and work together to maintain conservation values when a site is being developed."

The following answers some key questions conservation/outdoor recreation organizations and private landowners may have about the Registry:

1. How does the Registry work?

• The Conservation Lands Registry acts as a one-call screening centre to allow developers to easily check for any conservation lands in one search request.

• Conservation organizations and individuals with their lands entered on the Registry’s database will be searched when requests come in from natural resource developers.

• Searches are requested by specific legal land descriptions (LLD) of quarter sections the developer would like searched. All matches to a search request are flagged and a contact name and number (for the appropriate organization) is provided for the developer to contact the organization directly for more details.

2. Are any sensitive details given out about the property?

• No. All that is provided is confirmation that the property searched and matched by LLD has some kind of conservation/ environmental interest and that it is recommended to contact the appropriate agency. No details are divulged about wildlife sensitivities, private ownership or any other facts or notes. Each conservation organization supplies only the pertinent information required for the Registry’s search engines (i.e. LLD and your organization’s appropriate contact, phone number, address).

3. What about security . . . who has access to the database?

The data of each conservation organization or individual is held in strict confidence. There is security access and storage.

Each organization’s data is not available or accessible, in whole or in part, to any other conservation organization, company, individual or group except the source organization that provided its own data. You retain all rights and ownership of your data.

4. What sites can be included in the Registry and can any organization, group or individual register

their lands?

Any organization or citizen with a formal interest in the conservation of a particular site can register. (This is not always the holder of the land title.) The decision on which sites to register are at the judgement and discretion of the registrant. Typically, the land location has values, enhancements or uses where the conservation and management of natural or cultural features are important. Registered sites can be on private as well as public lands. Examples include: wildlife habitat/wetlands and project sites, enhanced areas (e.g. tree plantings or other habitat improvements), managed woodlots, areas with sensitive plant and animal species or topographic concerns, family heritage sites, outdoor recreation uses and trails.

5. Is there a charge to register?

No. We only ask that you keep the status of your lands on the Registry updated.

REGISTRATION FORM

For more information please call:

Ernie Ewaschuk or Ken Gurr

Land Stewardship Centre of Canada, Suite 1140, 13 Mission Avenue, St. Albert, Alberta, T8N 1H6

Phone: (403) 458-5700, Fax: (403) 458-5708, E-mail: lsc@compusmart.ab.ca

Plantwatch '98 !

In Memoriam

On August 14, 1997 Gerry Wilde succumbed to an illness that he had fought hard with for 9 years and died in Saskatoon. He will be sorely missed. Gerry was a consistent presence in the wildlife field in West-central Alberta since he moved to Hinton in the early 70’s. He came here from his native Saskatchewan to take up the post of Wildlife Instructor at the Forest Technology School (now the Environmental Training Centre). It was here that I first met him when I attended 2^nd year Forest Technology with N.A.I.T. in 1975. I was immediately swept up in his enthusiasm for wildlife and fish and I suspect that my career path was set from then on. Gerry loved being out in the bush and he loved dragging people like me out with him to show where a bear had climbed a tree or an elk thrashed a sapling. He also loved to trap and became a nationally renown trapping instructor. Gerry was a free thinker and could be a thorn in the side of the government or companies like Weldwood, asking hard questions and demanding straight answers. For this he earned a great deal of respect from people in government, industry and in the academic world. Bill Samuel gave a moving eulogy at Gerry’s funeral on behalf of the wildlife community.

For me, an experience that I cherish is when in 1991 Gerry and I rappelled into a cave in Jasper which a student had apparently found the year before. We were excited, thinking that we would be the first to enter the cave. However, we found survey ribbon in the cave and Gerry’s face dropped. Despite his illness, the opportunity to explore and learn something new propelled Gerry up that long 3 hour difficult climb to the cave. We did learn something new, we discovered that the cave, Procrastination Pot, is a bat hibernaculum which has led to it’s protection by Parks Canada.

When Gerry died, the wildlife community lost a colleague and I lost a friend and a mentor.

By Dave Hobson

Please complete the ballot, below, by circling the nominees of your choice, and return to Arlen Todd (in an envelope labeled Personal/confidential) by February 26, 1998. Arlen’s address follows:

Arlen Todd

Chariperson, nominations Committee

C/O Alberta Natural Resources Service

Provincial Building

5020 –52 Avenue

Whitecourt AB T7S 1N2

• Mike Dorrance
• Kirby Smith

• Jon Jorgenson

• Steve Brechtel
• Doug Collister
• Lorne Fitch
• Ed Telfer

Mike Dorrance – for President-Elect

Mike is a charter member of the Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society and served as a director on the first executive. He also served as the secretary-treasurer during 1993-94 and 1994-95. He has been a member of The Wildlife Society since 1961. "I have always been impressed with the quality of the annual meetings of the Chapter and the papers that have been presented. Alberta has many outstanding wildlife professionals who are making exceptionally contributions to wildlife and wildlife management. The Chapter has proven to be very useful for promoting communication among its members. It has also served as a vehicle to introduce wildlife students to professionals and visa versa. We can be proud of our past achievements. I will be happy to continue to ‘pay my dues’ to the profession and will do my best to build on the accomplishments that we have achieved to date."

Mike grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and obtained a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in wildlife management at Colorado State University and a Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He was a research fellow at the University of Minnesota, before immigrating to Canada in 1974. He is a citizen of the United States and Canada. Since 1974, Mike has spent 17 years with Alberta Agriculture and 4 years with the environmental centre at Vegreville. As a specialist in the prevention of wildlife damage to agricultural crops, he has managed predator and rodent control programs, conducted research and provided extension information on many different facets of depredation management including coyote and wolf predation of livestock, bear damage to bee yards, blackbird problems with field corn, control of skunk rabies and a host of other real and imaginary problems. During the last 3-4 years, Mike has also been involved in the licensing and regulation of deer and elk farms in Alberta.

Mike is an avid hunter. He and his wife, Gail, also enjoy many other outdoor activities including hiking, backpacking, cross-country skiing, bird watching and canoeing. Mike is a volunteer advisor with CESO, an organization that provides advice to aboriginal businesses.

Kirby Smith – for President-Elect

Kirby Smith has been a member of the Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society since it was created and has served on the Executive Board as a Director from 1995-97. He also prepared the Canadian contribution to The Wildlife Society Publication "Wildlife Management in North American Wilderness". Kirby was born and raised in Claresholm, Alberta and attended the University of Alberta where he completed a BSc. in Zoology in 1976. Following graduation, he worked on the Ram Mountain bighorn sheep study for Alberta Fish and Wildlife. In 1978, he transferred to the Edson office and has since been stationed there as an Area Wildlife Biologist. Kirby lives with his wife Katherine in the country northwest of Edson.

Since the Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society was created Jon has been an active member serving as Secretary/Treasurer for 2 years (1990-1991). He graduated from the University of Calgary and has worked for the Department of Environmental Protections since 1978. The first 9 years were spent with the Research Section of Alberta Fish and Wildlife in Edmonton where he acquired experience and a keen interest in bighorn sheep ecology while working on a long-term research project at Ram Mountain, which he continues to this day. Prior to that, Jon worked in northern Alberta on the AOSERP research efforts studying wolves, moose, woodland caribou, and bears. With the dissolution of the Research Section, Jon was transferred to Calgary to assume the duties of an area wildlife biologist and an opportunity to become more involved in much broader aspects of wildlife management. In 1995, Jon moved to the Canmore area office as area wildlife biologist. Jon continues to live in Bragg Creek and is enjoying the challenges of raising his 4 year old son, Erik.

Steven Brechtel – for Director

Originally born in Denver, Steve split his early years between Alberta and Colorado - a child of the oil patch. In 1972, he became a Canadian citizen and has lived and worked in Alberta ever since. After completing a BSc in Environmental Biology from the University of Calgary in 1974, he spent several years working with the Habitat Branch of Alberta Fish and Wildlife. Between 1979 and 1982 he completed a MSc program at the University of Alberta, studying the reproductive ecology of Double-crested Cormorants. From ‘82 to ‘88 he worked with the Habitat Branch on a variety of programs including the incorporation of wildlife values into the design of grazing developments in the boreal mixed-wood and habitat retention on private land in Red Deer.

In 1988, Steve accepted a position with the Wildlife Branch as senior biologist responsible for the nongame and endangered species programs in Alberta, and after 10 years, he says he is still having fun. Over the past decade, Steve has focused on developing and implementing recovery programs for threatened and endangered species including everything from Leopard Frogs to Peregrine Falcons. He has also been responsible for broad scale investigations of the provincial status of species in Alberta (the Status of Alberta Wildlife document), and coordinating Alberta involvement in parallel National programs (ie he is the Alberta representative on the COSEWIC committee).

In the long term, Steve plans to continue to encourage wildlife agencies and professionals to broaden the scope of their expertise and involvement to include all species and the systems that support them...."Plants are wildlife too".

Douglas M. Collister – for Director

Doug is president of URSUS Ecosystem Management Ltd. a wildlife consulting firm based in Calgary. He holds an M.E.Des. from the University of Calgary and his research constitutes the only scientific investigation, to date, into the ecology of the Loggerhead Shrike in Alberta. Doug is also deeply involved in two volunteer initiatives - monitoring of neotropical migrant birds at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary in Calgary (since 1992) and population ecology of forest owls in the foothills west of Calgary (since 1985). His association with the ACTWS has benefited him professionally and he would consider it a privilege to serve as a director in return. Doug would bring a balanced approach to wildlife issues along with strong organizational skills and a reputation for getting things done.

Lorne Fitch – for Director

A native Albertan, educated at University of Calgary, joined the Alberta Fish and Wildlife Division in 1971. He began his career in fisheries and spent 10 years pursuing fisheries management goals in both Central and Southern Alberta. In 1981 he joined the Habitat Branch as the Regional Habitat Biologist for Southern Alberta. In 1993 he rejoined the Fisheries Branch and currently is the Regional Fisheries Biologist for the Prairie Region. As part of a regime of protection, development and planning activities he has worked on cooperative wetland agreements, extensive negotiations for fisheries and wildlife mitigation (including the entrenchment of processes and standards) and cooperative range/wildlife applied research activities. In his spare time he watches wildlife, photographs it and occasionally eats some of it. He is a member of the Wildlife Society and Alberta Society of Professional Biologists.

Edmund S. Telfer – for Director

Ed comes from Nova Scotia. He obtained a BSc in Forestry from the University of New Brunswick in 1953, a BEd in Science Teaching in 1961 from Acadia University and an MSc in Wildlife Biology in 1965, from Acadia. Ed worked in forestry until he joined the Canadian Wildlife Service in 1965 to study ungulate habitat in the Maritimes. In 1969 he transferred to the Edmonton with CWS to work on watershed management and ungulates. From 1978 to 1983 he managed CWS studies for Parks Canada in the prairie and mountain Parks. For several years Ed coordinated studies of Loggerhead Shrikes. From 1988 until 1996 he was worked on migratory songbirds and forestry. Ed retired in 1996 and is now an emeritus with CWS, an adjunct in the U. of A. Renewable Resources Department and a private consultant.

The William Rowan Distinguished Service Award is presented to an Alberta wildlife biologist who has made outstanding contributions to the management and conservation of wildlife and their habitats. These contributions might involve excellence in research, teaching, public allocation (hunting, nonconsumptive use), habitat protection and development, land use planning, impact assessment, endangered species management, work in professional associations or any other area of the wildlife management profession.

The awards committee is asking for nominations from the membership for this prestigious award. A nomination involves a letter of support from a Chapter member along with the candidate’s curriculum vitae/resume. The letter should explain the value of the nominee’s contributions in the areas outlined above. Please submit your nominations to:

Eldon Bruns

Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society Dedicated Service Award is granted to an ACTWS member in recognition of exceptional individual dedication to the Chapter and Chapter activities. The awards committee is asking for nominations from the membership for this very special award. Send nominations to Eldon Bruns at the address listed above.

The Arthur S. Einarsen Award was established in 1966 to recognize outstanding service to the wildlife profession by individuals residing in the area encompassed by the Northwest Section of The Wildlife Society. The Wildlife Administrator Award was designed to recognize and reward excellence in the areas of wildlife program development and administration. The Awards Committee encourages nominations from the membership of the Section by 15 February 1998. Nominations benefit from supporting documentation so please contact Lowell Suring, Committee Chair, for more details if you have deserving candidates in mind. Lowell Suring, Chugach National Forest, 3301 C Street, Suite 300, Anchorage, Alaska 99503; telephone: 907-271-2836; FAX: 907-271-3992; email: suring@customcpu.com

Application Deadline

Send Application to

The successful candidate will be notified by the end of March and will receive the award upon confirmation of registration at their educational institution in the following fall.

Alberta Bird Banding Workshop

February 27 to March 1, 1998.

• Sponsored by the Beaverhill Bird Observatory, the Edmonton Natural History Club, and the Edmonton Bird Club.
• Lecture Theatre 1, Humanities Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton.
• Admission: $2.00 members, $5.00 non-members or become a member of one of the clubs and get free admission.
• To submit a title for a talk, call Jason at 430-1694 or Lisa at 422-9536 or email to dtakats@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca

March 13-14, 1998, Calgary, Alberta

• Contact: Beth MacCallum, 110 Seabolt Dr., Hinton AB, T7V 1K2, bighorn @ycs.ab.ca

March 14-15, 1998, Northern Forestry Centre, 5320-122 Street, Edmonton, Alberta

• To register: Phone 453-8629 or Mail FAN workshop, Box 1472, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 2N5

March 17-21, 1998, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.

• Contact: Kevin Gutzwiller, Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7388; 817/755-2911; FAX 817/755-3409; iale98@Baylor.edu.

March 20-24, 1998, Orlando, Florida.

• Contact: Richard McCabe, Wildlife Management Institute; 1101 14th Street NW, Suite 801; Washington, DC 20005; 202/371-1808; FAX 202/408-5059

April 6 -10, 1998, Spokane, Washington

• Several sessions, and 3 workshops, including:
• Fire and Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest: Research, Policy and Management (April 6-8)
• Integrated Riparian Management for Wildlife and Fish (April 7-8)
• Sampling Design and Statistics for Field Folks (April 7-8)

• Registration by February 21, 1998, contact Ed Arnett at (541) 741-5536.

April 19-24, 1998, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

• Contact: Michael R. Vaughan, Dept. Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, 148 Cheatum Hall, VA Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24061-0321, USA

April 20-24, 1998, Whitehorse, Yukon

• Contact: Rick Farnell, Chair/Workshop Organizing Committee, Ph. (403) 667-5465, Fax (403) 393-6263, E-Mail rfarnell@yknet.yk.ca

April 25-26, 1998, Beaverhill Lake, Tofield, Alberta.

• Bus tours around Beaverhill Lake with experienced guides to view spring migration.
• Contact: Vanita Eglauer or Jackie Kallal at 662-3269 or Jim Lange at 455-7021.
• Snow Goose Festival Express needs help with organizing. If you can help, please call Stan Gosche at 489-6289.

April 26-30, 1998, Whitefish Montana

• First Call for Papers. Abstract deadline is January 31, 1998. Abstracts should be sent to: Quentin Kujala, Mt. Fish Wildlife & Parks, P.O. Box 291, Fairfield, Mt 59436. Ph. (406) 467-2488.
• All papers must be submitted in Journal of Wildlife Management format for inclusion in the proceedings of the meeting by April 26, 1998. Please limit presentations to 25 minutes.
• Contact: John McCarthy, Mt. Fish Wildlife and Parks, POB 200701, Helena Mt. 59620-0701. Ph. (406) 444-2612. E-Mail jmccarthy@mt.gov

May 27-31, 1998, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri

• Contact: Charlie Nilon, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, University of Missouri, 112 Stephens Hall, Columbia, MO 65211; 573/882-3738; FAX 573/882-5070; snrnilon@showme.missouri.edu.

5th Annual Conference of The Wildlife Society
September 22-26, 1998, Buffalo, New York

• The meeting will include professional development workshops, symposia, and contributed papers and posters. We invite submission of technical papers and posters on topics of wildlife science, management, education, or policy within the broad theme of Excellence in Wildlife Stewardship through Science and Education.

• Deadline for contributed papers and posters: February 10, 1998
• Contact: The Wildlife Society office, (301) 897-9770, fax: (301) 530-2471, tws@wildlife.org