William I. Spencer Conservation Grants

INVESTING IN EXCELLENCE

SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW KNOWLEDGE IS AN IMPORTANT ELEMENT OF THE BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB’S MISSION.

The Boone and Crockett Club’s Conservation Grants Program, supported by endowments honoring conservation leaders William I. Spencer and Tim Hixon, contributes to this goal by assisting researchers or graduate students who have chosen to pursue careers in the wildlife profession. New knowledge, applied in creative ways by competent and committed professionals, is essential to the future of wildlife conservation and management.

Wolves holding a moose at bay. The pack harassed the animal for 5 minutes, then left. From The Wolves of Isle Royale by L. David Mech, Ph.d.

Since 1948, the Boone and Crockett Club has been investing in research and career development through its Conservation Grants Program. The early careers of some of the wildlife profession’s brightest and best were assisted by B&C conservation grants. Examples include David Mech’s early wolf and moose studies on Isle Royale, Lynn Rogers’ landmark work on black bears in Minnesota, and Maurice Hornocker’s pioneering research on mountain lions in Idaho. Today, as then, conservation grants serve the dual purpose of developing new scientific information and seeding the early careers of aspiring wildlife professionals. It does this through modest grants (usually $15,000 or less) toward selected research projects. Typically, the grants are leveraged by additional resources that the graduate students and researchers develop to support the overall program of study.

The Conservation Grants Program (formerly called Grants-in-Aid) was the Club’s sole research instrument until the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch was established in 1986 and the Boone and Crockett Club’s Professorships were established about five years later. The Conservation Grants Program complements these other programs, but remains unique in its wide solicitation of proposals from graduate students across the U.S. and Canada.

The Boone and Crockett Club’s Strategic Plan recognizes a 3-part goal for the program:

• Support the Club’s mission to promote the guardianship and provident management of big game and associated wildlife in North America by funding research that will be of benefit to managers and policy-makers.
• Complement the Club’s other research programs (Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch, Boone and Crockett Professorships) by supporting the work of others at diverse locations across North America.
• Assist and encourage promising graduate students who have chosen careers in the wildlife profession

The Boone and Crockett Club was founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887 for the primary purposes of halting the decline of North American big game populations and conserving their habitats. Accordingly, proposed investigations must generally be concerned with native North American big game and/or their habitat relationships. In most recent years, the Club selects a high-priority research theme and invites proposals from universities in the U.S. and Canada that have graduate programs in wildlife science or management.

Current Grant Research

B&C is currently using our dollars to address research needs surrounding Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).  There are several considerations that moved us in this direction (1) CWD remains an important topic with the Club and there is interest in using our grant funds for CWD research.  (2) We want to maximally leverage our grant program dollars. (3) CWD research is expensive and the pursuit of several key issues requires more funds than we have available.  (4) We want to make a meaningful impact. Therefore, forming partnerships and leveraging dollars was appropriate.

Priorities for this funding opportunity were developed through working groups coordinated by the CWD Alliance and its partnering organizations. Research priorities were reviewed and edited by members of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Fish and Wildlife Health Committee as well as state CWD researchers and managers.  Special recognition should be given to Dr. Mike Miller, Dr. John Fischer, Dr. Kelly Straka, and Dr. Colin Gillin.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation agreed to match our $50,000 contribution with $50,000. We are requesting funds from other sources as well and expect applicants to further leverage these dollars.

There were three topics that are part of a Request for Proposals (RFP) document administered by the CWD Alliance that was distributed on June 14, 2019. 

These include the following:

Topic 1: Retrospective analyses to identify beneficial or ill-advised harvest strategies. 

Topic 2: Prospective comparisons of alternative harvest management approaches for suppressing CWD. 

Topic 3: Improved prion detection in environmental samples such as soil, water, and in situ crop and forage plants.