Building a Conservation Ethic in the New Outdoor Economy 2019 Annual Meeting

Authors

  • Liz Bradley President Elect 2018-19

Abstract

Our Greetings! This conference has always been a highlight of the year for me as a wildlife professional. It’s an opportunity for all of us to get together in one place, catch up, and share what we’ve been learning. Whether we are current professionals, retirees seasoned with wisdom or the future generation of wildlifers, it’s a great time to visit and celebrate one another’s research and accomplishments. We all have something to learn from and help cultivate in each other. I’m honored to be your incoming president and to work with an amazing team to carry on The Wildlife Society tradition by helping put together this conference. I hope you will all enjoy it and ideally, draw a little inspiration from it, too.

Our conference theme this year is “Building a Conservation Ethic in the New Outdoor Economy.” It has been 20 years since we explored recreation as a conference topic. I believe it is more relevant now than ever, with a growing recreation economy in Montana. Most of us are outdoor enthusiasts and were likely drawn to wildlife work because of our love of the outdoors. If you’re like me, you are happiest with the stars as a roof over your heads.

Here’s a little more about the theme: The outdoor recreation industry is growing faster than ever in Montana. More people are flocking to parts of Montana because of our incredible natural beauty and outdoor opportunities. Wild places that may have been a secret a decade ago are more accessible to people than ever from information sharing through social media and new technologies that make it easier to get there and people are recreating in new and diverse ways. As growing pressures on wildlife and habitat continue to build, we need to foster and grow our constituencies. On the one hand we need more people to get outside and care about wildlife and wild places. But are we adequately connecting and helping build a conservation ethic in this growing sector of the public that are already out there? This conference will explore the changing face of recreation as it relates to conservation and the challenges and opportunities therein.

I was drawn to this topic not only because of its impacts on wildlife conservation but also its relevance to our Montana culture and our own outdoor ethics. We have five outstanding plenary speakers and an excellent banquet speaker who will explore this topic. On Tuesday evening after the welcome reception we will have Movie Night and show four films that explore the wildlife/recreation interface.

The Board has worked hard this year to encourage student participation in the conference by providing more grants for student travel for more colleges, continuing to support our MSU and UM student chapters, and running a student artwork contest (see cover!). Overall, we have a great selection of workshops, talks, speakers, awards, raffles, student participation and social opportunities. Welcome to the 57th Annual Conference!

Published

2019-12-31

Issue

Section

Montana Chapter of The Wildlife Society [Abstracts]