WCC95: Vertebrate Pests of Agriculture, Forestry, and Public Lands
(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)
Status: Inactive/Terminating
WCC95: Vertebrate Pests of Agriculture, Forestry, and Public Lands
Duration: 10/01/1999 to 09/30/2004
Administrative Advisor(s):
NIFA Reps:
Non-Technical Summary
Statement of Issues and Justification
Vertebrate species (birds and mammals) cause significant economic damage to a diversity of agricultural crops, structures, and natural resources throughout the United States. Losses due to wildlife damage are estimated to exceed $12 billion per year. Additional costs are associated with the impacts of wildlife-vectored diseases on public health, and the loss of native biodiversity due to species overabundance. Wildlife conflicts and damage are expected to continue as a result of expanding human populations and intensified land-use practices. At the same time, public attitudes and environmental regulations make it especially challenging to manage wildlife damage. Agencies and individuals working in this field are being more carefully scrutinized to ensure that any control actions taken are justified, environmentally safe, and in the public interest. Traditional control strategies that use traps or toxicants are not as socially or politically acceptable as in the past. Federal and state regulations and guidelines, and public pressure demand that alternative, non-lethal strategies be identified and utilized. Costs of obtaining data to support re-registration of the few remaining rodenticides and other vertebrate pesticides are high. Trapping restrictions imposed in some states as a result of ballot initiatives are already having implications for wildlife damage management. Other changes in practices of controlling vertebrate pest damage have occurred and will continue to occur because of the presence of sensitive or protected species.
WCC-95 serves as a coordinating and information-sharing group for University researchers, Cooperative Extension Specialists and Agents, Federal researchers, State biologists, industry representatives, and individuals working or interested in the field of wildlife damage management. There is no other meeting of this type available for participants to share needs, research goals, research in progress, product registration issues, and information on current or proposed management strategies in a setting that provides opportunity for discussion and feedback. As such, it is an efficient way to meet these needs, to eliminate unnecessary and unintentional duplication of effort, and to address new and emerging issues in wildlife damage management.
Objectives
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To identify and evaluate research and educational needs including damage assessment, integrated management strategies and materials, new target-specific wildlife management practices, studies of relationships between wildlife pests and endangered species, development of new non-lethal approaches to wildlife damage management, and trends in social attitudes affecting the use of technologies.
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To coordinate efforts between governments, universities, and private industry in gathering data for registrations of chemicals for repelling, mitigating, or controlling vertebrate pests to make it cost-effective to register the essential management materials.
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To identify resources to accomplish the committee's goals, and to disseminate information and educational materials to researchers, teachers, stakeholders, and other interested parties.
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Procedures and Activities
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Identify critical/key research and educational issues for wildlife damage management.
- Evaluate techniques for the development of improved research protocols.
- Allow the exchange of ideas and information, and to generate interest in a specific research area through sponsoring symposia or workshops.
- Result in publication of joint research articles and/or review articles on a common issue.
- Coordinate specific research programs in priority areas on a regional basis.
- Use invited speakers to inform and update committee attendees and others of regional issues and research efforts, and distribute annual meeting minutes and presentation abstracts.
- Facilitate interactions between state and federal regulatory personnel with research, management, and industry personnel.
Projected Participation
View Appendix E: ParticipationEducational Plan
The WCC-95 educational program:
Provides information for extension personnel to utilize in their workshops, publications and other programs.
Facilitates involvement of graduate and undergraduate students in research.
Updates committee members, and other interested parties and agencies, on recent legal, regulatory, management and research issues and progress related to wildlife damage management.
Facilitates arrangement of guest specialists to speak on topics of interest, providing information needed by researchers.
Allows committee members to present ideas for research and management for review before a group of peers and interested parties in an informal setting.
Facilitates the development of consortia to provide research data and encourages interaction between interested parties on specific aspects of wildlife damage management.
Provides a forum for discussing ways and materials for better informing citizens, teachers, and students, of wildlife impacts and approaches for reducing these impacts on agriculture, natural resources, threatened/endangered species, and public health.
Organization/Governance
There are 3 elected offices in WCC-95:
Chair presides over current years activities and conducts the annual meeting; ensures that meeting announcement and minutes are distributed; maintains mailing list; arranges and moderates program and guest speakers for annual meeting.
Vice-chair assists chair in all activities; functions as chair in absence of chair; usually advances to chair in next election.
Secretary takes notes at annual meeting and provides meeting minutes to chair; assembles abstracts of presentations for inclusion in minutes; assists chair and vice-chair as needed.
Literature Cited