The Wildlife Management Institute (WMI) is the recipient of the Boone and Crockett Club's fourth Conservation and Stewardship Award. The award is given annually to the organization or entity that best exemplifies excellence in conservation and wildlife and land stewardship - core values of the Boone and Crockett Club and its founder, Theodore Roosevelt.

The Institute's president, Steve Williams, was also recognized at a dinner hosted by the Club in Norfolk, Virginia, as part of the 83rd North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference.

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. These American sportsmen and businessmen saw a need for an independent, scientific voice dedicated to restoring and ensuring wild populations and their habitats. Today, WMI continues to meet this challenge, advancing both the profession of wildlife management and the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

"The Wildlife Management Institute is the reservoir which feeds one of the seven principles of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation," said Tom Price, chairman of the Club's Habitat and Multiple Use/Sharing Committee. "This principle being, wildlife is to be managed by science. Our founder, Theodore Roosevelt, insisted that wildlife be managed by the best science available, not opinion or conjecture. WMI has been the conservation and wildlife management community's go-to source for the best science for over a century. It's time they were recognized for their tireless effort in supplying real science for real solutions."

The Club's Conservation and Stewardship Award is presented to the individual or organization that best exemplifies the core values of the Boone and Crockett Club and its founder, Theodore Roosevelt: Conservation--acts of guarding, protecting, developing, and using natural resources wisely and sustainably, and Stewardship--planning for and managing natural resources responsibly.

"On behalf of all the WMI staff, past and present, I thank the Boone and Crockett Club for this very significant award," said Steve Williams.  "WMI's history has been intertwined with the Club for more than a century.  It was a distinct honor for WMI to be recognized for embodying the core values of the prestigious Boone and Crockett Club."