A quick update

I've been neglectful of my blog in recent, uhm, weeks, as I've been busy with work. Last week, for example, I was in West Virginia at the National Conservation Training Center, or what I like to call my dream place as an eight-year-old. It is a gorgeous center, and one I'll write about soon.

Some things are coming fast down the pike: Climate change regulations are going to be enacted soon in California, raising a schism within the environmental community, separating some of the more well-known and pro cap-&-trade folks from the environmental justice groups.

The new administration at the federal level will bring some interesting and major changes, many of them related to the split between the hunting-conservation groups and the environmentalists, but more as a result of other politics bleeding into these conversations than of real differences in habitat management. Don't get me wrong, there are management distinctions, but they are much smaller than the divide that other politics (liberal vs. conservative) has created between these two groups, the largest being the 2nd Amendment. High Country News has a great opinion piece on why and how this issue should get moved out of politics. In the meantime, now is a great moment for the more traditional conservation groups and the environmental organizations to get together and fight for habitat protections, responsible access, and youth opportunities in the outdoors.

In the tiny circle of blogs I read, Phillip Loughlin over at HogBlog has a great piece on the concept of "fair" chase. Trust me, it will make you think long and hard - Phillip has a tendancy to do that. So does Holly Heyser at NorCalCazadora, whose last two blog entries, on the NRA radio show and Barack Obama and guns, are important pieces for people to read, regardless of political affiliation. Especially the Obama piece, unless you are particularly partial to cats.