The Wildlife Professional

SOCIETY NEWS

A Working Retreat

In mid-July TWS’s Council and senior staff met at the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Dundee, Illinois, to review the Society’s strategic plan and determine its top priorities for the next five years. Meeting for nearly 15 hours over two days, the leaders discussed many of the critical challenges facing the Society and the wildlife profession and discussed how TWS can best serve its members and promote its mission and the goals of science-based wildlife management and conservation.

The bulk of the meeting focused on evaluating and prioritizing 31
specific objectives described in the strategic plan, with an empha-
sis on how to allocate limited resources in order to achieve the
greatest benefits. Among the most
highly ranked objectives: Demon-
strate “progressively increasing
influence on wildlife manage-
ment and conservation policy”
at all levels of government, help
TWS members learn about and
solve their most pressing wildlife
management and conservation
challenges, and work collab-
oratively with state and federal
agencies and universities to help
“build and nurture the next gen-
eration of leaders in the wildlife
profession.” TWS headquarters
staff is now revising action strate-
gies to focus on these issues, and will present them to Council for
consideration at the Annual Conference in Monterey.

credit: lisa Moore

TWS council President Tom franklin (foreground) and Vice President Tom

Ryder (in red) prioritize objectives at the strategic-planning retreat.

Phenology Pilot Program

This summer a host of professional and citizen scientists participated in a pilot program to monitor wildlife phenology in the northeastern United States. The USA National Phenology Network (NPN), The Wildlife Society (TWS), and the National Park Service (NPS) developed the monitoring methods, which were tested along part of the Appalachian Trail and in four other national parks including Acadia in Maine and the Boston Harbor Islands. Abraham Miller-Rushing, wildlife phenology program coordinator for TWS, oversaw groups of five to 10 volunteers at six to 10 sites in each of the five parks. The trained volunteers visited their sites once or twice a week to record observations about species and “phenophases,” or behaviors, such as birds singing, mating, nesting, feeding, and fledging. “By doing this year after year, we’ll see changes in the timing of animal lifecycles and see how they vary over time,” says Miller-Rushing. Data from the pilot program will

eventually become available through the NPS’s Northeast Temperate Inventory and Monitoring Network and the USA-NPN.

New Horizons

Philippa J. Benson, Ph.D., arrived at The Wildlife Society (TWS) in 2006 to serve as director of Publishing and Information Resources, tasked with overseeing and enhancing TWS’s publications and online resources as well as creating and launching a new member magazine. In the spring of 2007

the debut edition of The Wildlife Professional rolled off the press-es—and promptly won an EXCEL award for excellence. From that notable start the magazine has continued to grow, with articles by and for TWS members. In May of 2009, Benson accepted a job as director of strategic and business development for The Charles-worth Group, a publishing-services firm that is expanding into China, where Benson has lived and worked. TWS is grateful for Benson’s many contributions and wishes her all the best.

credit: Ruxandra Giura

In Memoriam

Richard D. Teague After a long and distinguished career as a wildlife biologist, educator, and university administrator, Richard D. “Dick” Teague died in March 2009 at the age of 84. Born and raised in Colorado,

Teague enlisted in the U.S. Navy during

World War II. Following his honorable discharge in 1946, he earned his bachelor’s degree in zoology at Colorado State University and acquired his first job in wildlife with the Colorado Department of Fish and Game, where he eventually became a regional research biologist and manager working on elk, bear, and deer habitat and population management. In 1963 Teague joined the University of California at Davis as an extension wildlife specialist. During a sabbatical at Colorado State, he earned his master’s degree in wildlife, developing a valuable reference book, A Manual of Wildlife Conservation, which was published by The Wildlife Society. He remained active in TWS, serving on various committees, as president of the Western Section, and later as Western Section Representative to TWS Council. In 1989 Teague retired as regional director for cooperative extension in northern California. His personal and professional impact on his colleagues and friends will be sorely missed.