Club Honors Wildlife Management Institute

The Boone and Crockett Club has presented its Theodore Roosevelt Legacy Award to an organization commemorating 100 years of conservation leadership and partnership, the venerable Wildlife Management Institute (WMI).

WMI received the award and recognition during the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, March 16, in Kansas City, Mo.

Boone and Crockett Club created the award in 2008 to honor the collaborative spirit of America’s greatest conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt.

B&C President Ben Wallace presents the Theodore Roosevelt Legacy Award to Steve Williams, president of the Wildlife Management Institute
“Cooperative partnerships have always been a key to good conservation, and they’re going to be even more important going forward,” said Ben Wallace, president of the Club. “WMI has spent many decades developing key partners in state and federal government resource agencies, universities, businesses and organizations—and the results have benefitted every American who appreciates sound, science-based wildlife management.”

WMI was established in 1911 by a coalition of conservationists, including a number of Boone and Crockett Club members, who were gravely concerned about dramatic declines in many wildlife populations. Its founders saw a need for an independent, scientific voice dedicated to restoring and ensuring wild populations and their habitats.

Steve Williams, right, with B&C President Ben Wallace

Although WMI’s methods and locations of operation have changed since 1911, it remains a small, nonprofit, scientific and educational organization. WMI works mostly on request with federal and provincial agencies, Congress, college and university researchers and educators, other private conservation organizations and professional associations. It advises, testifies and provides educational services on timely wildlife and related issues. WMI personnel are highly educated and experienced wildlife science and management professionals who work, typically away from the limelight, to catalyze and facilitate strategies, actions, decisions and programs to benefit wildlife.

Steve Williams, WMI president, said, “This award is a major recognition of our long history, and of the many individuals who served on our staff and worked tirelessly behind the scenes to advance wildlife management and conservation. Anyone who values wildlife would be honored to be mentioned alongside Theodore Roosevelt. There isn’t a more prestigious acknowledgement that WMI remains a critical, collaborative resource for conservation today—and tomorrow.”