Shane P. Mahoney

Clearly there is a recognized need for leadership in conservation. One of the great challenges facing our professional agencies and conservation groups is to decide who comprises the constituency we seek to lead. In short, what is our constituency? In many jurisdictions only a fraction of the public is even aware that a specific state agency for wildlife conservation exists. Even a large majority of hunters, long recognized as perhaps the constituency, do not look to professional agencies for leadership . . . at least not with respect to issues dealing specifically with hunting. One of the...

Great challenges face wildlife and fish conservation in North America. Fundamental changes that are moving rapidly through our society are mirrored to a certain extent by a virtual epidemic of reorganizations within conservation agencies continentwide. These attempts appear too often as cosmetic alterations that do not deal with the fundamental problems, and despite our good intentions, we have not been able to reduce sufficiently the distance between challenge and response. I suggest that we must rediscover our own history and reaffirm our own principles and commitments to successfully...