Message from the President/CEO
2009 Annual Report
The highlight of the Club’s FY 2009 year was undoubtedly the White House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy, hosted by the White House and the presidentially appointed Sporting Conservation Council (a 12-member federal advisory committee of which 11 appointees are Club members). The October 2-3, 2008, conference culminated in a 10-year action plan setting the management agenda for wildlife conservation and hunting opportunities on all public lands in America. The first conference on this subject occurred in 1908 hosted by President Theodore Roosevelt, our Club’s founder. Club members orchestrated related conferences in 1930 and 1973. These successful achievements at the national political level validate the Club’s mission and reinforce the Club’s reputation as a key leader in American conservation, making FY 2009 a banner year for the Boone and Crockett Club.
Conservation research, education and demonstration has been a major focus during the Club’s renaissance over the past quarter century. The Lee and Penny Anderson Conservation Education Program develops curriculum for science teachers to utilize in conservation and natural resource education in our public, secondary schools. The curriculum aims to connect students to the world of nature by improving their understanding of animals, healthy habitats and enhanced stewardship of our natural resources. The Montana High Adventure Base program created for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is now fully accredited by the BSA for use by all BSA councils across America for their resident summer camps and programs. This and other educational and research programs are all based at the Club’s Elmer E. Rasmuson Wildlife Conservation Center located at the Club’s 6,000-acre Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch in Dupuyer, Montana. In addition to providing the critical land-base for education and research efforts, the ranch itself demonstrates that through careful management of land, water and livestock, commercial ranching operations can coexist with sustainable wildlife populations and remain financially viable. The majority of diverse species of flora and fauna found on the Rocky Mountain Front are present at any given time of year on the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch.
The Club’s postgraduate programs for master’s and doctorate degrees in wildlife conservation management and policy are fully operational in three universities—University of Montana, Texas A&M, and Oregon State University. Michigan State University is currently doing a national search for a Ph.D. to manage its new B&C postgraduate program. The Club has fully endowed a Ph.D. program at Colorado State University and is awaiting matched funding from that university to initiate its operations. The National Conservation Leadership Institute initiated by the Club in 2004 is in its fourth year of classes training more than 140 mid-career state and federal wildlife managers in leadership skills to fill a growing deficit in the senior ranks of public agency management personnel.
The Club’s grants-in-aid research during FY 2009 concluded three separate ongoing genetic differentiation studies of more than 2,700 deer tissue samples. One study clarifies genetic relationships amongst mule and black-tailed deer subspecies throughout their North American ranges. A second study is developing nuclear DNA markers that differentiate hybrids of whitetail and mule deer from pure individuals of both species. The third study is of genetic differentiation of Coues’ deer in 10 states in northern and central Mexico.
The Club’s big-game records-keeping program has been a continuing barometer of wildlife management and health of our game species across the country since its inception in 1932. For the 27th Awards Program, which will be celebrated June 24-26, 2010, in Reno, Nevada, 4,980 trophies have already been accepted as of June 30, 2009. That compares to 3,960 for the same time period during the 26th Awards Program—1,020 more entries than three years ago, which is indicative of the health and quality of our wildlife and habitat in North America. In 1980, records were kept for 31 categories; today there are 38 game categories. State and federal game management biologists rely heavily upon these records to measure animal health and related habitat conditions in developing conservation techniques and practices across America, which was the fundamental premise of the Club when the records system was initiated in 1932.
The Club’s Leupold Big Game Profiles TV series, now into its fourth year on-air, further buttresses the Club’s focus on big game and their habitats. The series’ focus is similar to a National Geographic program where the lifecycle, diet, habitats, reproduction, family and/or social dynamics of animals being pursued are as relevant as the pursuit itself. Next year, the series’ name will be changed to Boone and Crockett Country, again sponsored by Leupold, but solely produced by the Club.
Our Fair Chase magazine continues to reinforce the Club’s focus on science in its resolve to tackle the tough issues that challenge the management of wildlife in North America. The editors led FY 2008 by chronicling the issues of wildlife adaptation and habitat mitigation posed by climate change. In FY 2009, the challenges posed by the natural population expansion of gray wolves and their reintroduction in America’s northern habitats compelled our editors to address the science and conservation interface where sportsmen/conservationists and private landowners are in the middle of the debate. One of several books produced by our Publications Division this past year, Hunting the American West by Richard C. Rattenbury, has received national attention and accolades and has now won five national awards, including the 2009 Spur Award presented by the Western Writers of America for the year’s best non-fiction historical book.
During FY 2009, our Club’s revenues and expenses virtually balanced with 14 of the Club’s 22 different departments beating their budgets. The Club’s endowment suffered from the precipitous decline of the stock market, realizing a net erosion of nine percent, supported by an asset split of approximately 50/50 between equity and fixed income securities. Notwithstanding the travails of the economy, the members of the 122-year-old venerable Boone and Crockett Club continue to strive mightily in pursuit of a vision the Club’s founder Theodore Roosevelt established in 1887.
Sincerely,
Lowell E. Baier
President
Boone and Crockett Club
The following Boone and Crockett Club Annual Reports are available for download in PDF format: