The Annual Director’s Meeting is for senior level management of natural resources professionals in the fields of wildlife and fisheries management, information and education, licensing and administration, law enforcement, and conservation engineering.
Join us and engage in:
- - A forum for state and provincial fish and wildlife agencies to share ideas and information, pool resources, and initiate action to benefitthe management and conservation of fish and wildlife resources in the Midwest.
- - Sessions to jointly tackle issues and develop effective regional solutions.
- - Discussions to ensure a healthy future for conservation of fish and wildlife resources
Click here for complete conference information: Midwest Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Annual Directors Meeting
Lichens found to degrade chronic wasting's prions
Deadly brain illness troubles Wisconsin's deer
By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel
May 17, 2011 |(18) Comments
A laboratory study has found that lichens on Wisconsin's landscape break down the infectious proteins that are responsible for causing chronic wasting disease, or CWD - the devastating neurological disorder that was discovered in Wisconsin's wild deer population in 2002.
Click here for full story CWD story 5-17-11
Lane Appointed Chief of the ODNR Division of Wildlife
COLUMBUS, OH – David B. Lane has been appointed chief of the state’s Division of Wildlife by Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Director David Mustine. Lane has served as acting District Manager for the division’s District One Wildlife Office in central Ohio since October of 2009. He replaces David M. Graham who retired from the position earlier this year.
As chief of the Division of Wildlife, Lane will oversee Ohio's fish and wildlife management programs, as well as management of more than 170,000 acres of state wildlife areas, 2.25 million acres of Lake Erie and 451 miles of the Ohio River.
“David’s career reflects a diverse background in conservation and business, as well as experience with law enforcement and proven leadership within the Division,” said Mustine. “He will be an asset helping the division fulfill its core mission as well as strengthening our internal and external partnerships to promote outdoor recreation opportunities and management of public lands.”
A native of West Virginia, Lane was hired by the Division of Wildlife in 2002 as a wildlife officer in Fayette County; he was promoted to Wildlife Officer Supervisor in 2005 and named as acting District One manager. For 14 years, he worked for Appalachian Timber Services, Inc. in West Virginia. As vice president of the company he oversaw all aspects of marketing and product development, sales training, established budgets and evaluated financial statements.
Lane earned an Associate of Science degree in Forest Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Glenville State College in West Virginia. In 1987, he earned his Masters of Science in Forestry from West Virginia University.
Lane and his family reside in Washington Court House.
Fungus strikes but doesn't kill European bats
Raging North American epidemic continues to be highly lethal
By Janet Raloff
Web edition: Friday, May 6th, 2011
White-nose syndrome, a fungus spreading like wildfire through hibernating North American bats, has just been reported in 12 European countries. But unlike the American epidemic, which typically kills 75 percent or more of exposed bats, the European infection has not been associated with mortality.
This suggests that Geomyces destructans, the fungus responsible, has been in Europe a long time, says biologist Sébastien Puechmaille of University College Dublin. “And when I say a long time, I mean thousands — if not tens of thousands — of years,” he says. “Our bats have likely coevolved with this fungus.”
White-nose syndrome first appeared four years ago in a hibernating colony of bats in New York state. Since then, it has wiped out an estimated million more at winter roosting sites across eastern Canada and the eastern United States. Tentative sightings — ones not confirmed by genetic analyses — turned up last year as far west as Missouri and Oklahoma, notes wildlife pathologist Carol Meteyer of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis.
Two years ago, Puechmaille’s group reported the first European sighting of G. destructans, in a French bat. Shortly thereafter, the fungus was spotted in three more countries. The new survey by Puechmaille and other European scientists in the April 27 PLoS ONE reports genetic confirmation of the infection in a total of eight countries and “compelling photographic evidence for its presence” in an additional four, including Romania and Turkey.
Infections were spotted from Denmark and the Netherlands to Estonia. The fungus’ southern range extends from western France through Germany and the Czech Republic to Ukraine. Of 107 bats examined, only two were dead. “And we’re pretty convinced that they died from completely unrelated causes,” Puechmaille says, “because we did not find the fungus in them.” Their surface infection appears to have occurred only after death.
“We have also, for the first time ever, isolated viable fungal spores from cave walls,” Puechmaille says. That suggests bats may become infected as they stir up spores while entering caves and mines for winter roosting.
In a Nov. 11 paper in BMC Biology, Meteyer and her colleagues outline how G. destructans appears to kill American bats. Although white-nose syndrome gets its name from the cottony fibers typically covering the muzzle of infected bats, the fungus can grow on any part of the animal.
Its wings now appear to be the portal of entry. G. destructans drives through paper-thin wing tissue “like a bulldozer,” Meteyer says. The fungus digests the skin, then rootlike fungal hyphae — the active tissue — migrate in and begin replacing all bat tissue in their path. Along the way, the hyphae kill blood vessels, leading to the sudden and complete death of downstream tissues.
This wing damage probably fosters dehydration, Meteyer says, causing intensely thirsty bats to rouse from hibernation. It takes a lot of energy to wake, and hibernating bats have little to spare. Identifying why the fungus is not eating through the wings of European bats “is probably one of our best hopes to understanding the dynamics of this disease,” says Meteyer.
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