Outdoors Notebook: Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever names Felege to board of directors

GRAND FORKS — Susan Felege, a UND associate professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management, has been named to the board of directors of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever.

In an email, Felege said the appointment resulted from reaching out to Pheasants Forever staff about ways to create internships and collaborations between UND and the conservation group.

Felege said she also contacted Marilyn Vetter, a UND alumna with a communications and journalism background who also serves on the PF/QF board.

“We clicked and she thought I would be a great addition to the board since the current board does not have any biologists or PhDs on it,” Felege said. “Due to some prior commitments, I kicked the can on a nomination to the board down the road about a year.”

Late summer/early fall, they reached out again and asked if she was ready, Felege says.

The process required an interview with several board members, as well as CEO/President Howard Vincent, Felege said, and she then received a unanimous vote to join the board.

This past fall, Vincent joined Felege’s Wildlife Management class for a discussion on "Wildlife Management in Practice Lesson – Perspectives of a not-for-profit organization.”

Previously, Felege said she did a similar session with Terry Steinwand, who retired last summer as director of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department and spoke to students from a state agency perspective.

The sessions, she said, were “super fun days in the classroom where reality was brought front and center on how conservation is done.”

– Brad Dokken

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday, Jan.19, voted to advance the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act with a bipartisan 29-15 vote.

“Right now, more than one-third of all wildlife species in the United States are at heightened risk of extinction – and demand immediate conservation action,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “The bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act is the most significant piece of wildlife legislation since the Endangered Species Act passed in 1973.”

A few bill highlights:

• The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act will provide nearly $1.4 billion in dedicated annual funding for proactive, collaborative efforts by the states and tribes to recover wildlife species at risk. 
• At least 15% of the resources would be used to recover species listed as threatened or endangered. 
• State agencies have identified 12,000 species of wildlife and plants in need of conservation assistance in their federally approved State Wildlife Action Plans. These plans would guide spending from the bill. 
• Tribal Nations would receive $97.5 million annually to fund proactive wildlife conservation efforts on the tens of millions of acres of land they manage. Many Tribal Nations have pioneered wildlife conservation efforts for decades without a consistent source of funding.

– National Wildlife Federation

• The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, a founding member and sponsor of the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance, provided $100,000 in grant funding to assist three research projects promoting the scientific understanding of CWD. The funding will benefit research at Cornell University, along with research in Wyoming and Arkansas. CWD is a fatal nervous system disease found in deer, elk, moose and other cervids. Scientists have confirmed its presence in 29 states, including North Dakota and Minnesota, and four Canadian provinces.
• The Red Lake Band of Chippewa recently denied a request to provide access to 48 miles of tribal-owned land on the Northwest Angle for snowmobile trails. The Northwest Angle Edge Riders Snowmobile Club on its Facebook page said it met with the Red Lake Tribal Council earlier this month to renew land trail access that had been granted in 2002, but the request was denied. To accommodate the loss of land trails, the club said it has added 48 miles of trails on Lake of the Woods to retain state funding and continue providing snowmobiling opportunities for Northwest Angle visitors and residents. “Trail Closed” signs were set to be posted on the closed land trails, the club said in its Facebook post. More info: nwaedgeriders.org .
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture this week announced up to $225 million in available funding for conservation partners through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program . RCPP is a partner-driven program that leverages resources to establish conservation practices on working lands. More info: usda.gov.
• The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is offering 7,647 licenses for the 2022 spring wild turkey season, an increase of 635 from last year. The spring turkey season opens April 9 and continues through May 15, and the deadline to apply is Wednesday, Feb. 16. One noteworthy change from last year is handguns are no longer a legal firearm. Only shotguns, including muzzleloading shotguns, no larger than 10 gauge are legal. More info: gf.nd.gov. 
• Tree stands, blinds, steps, and other personal items such as cameras, must be removed from all North Dakota wildlife management areas by Jan. 31, the Game and Fish Department said. Items not removed by Jan. 31 are considered abandoned property and are subject to removal and confiscation by the Game and Fish Department.

– compiled by Brad Dokken