Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

During the meeting opening remarks on November 8, 2005, Dr. David Thawley announced that the Western Coordinating Committee (WCC-95) - Vertebrate Pests of Agriculture, Forestry and Public Lands has been assigned a new code to reflect the integrated nature of the committee, as part of a regional restructuring of nomenclature. WCC-95 has been replaced by WERA-95. WERA is an acronym for Western Extension and Research Administrative Committee. Business meeting call to order: tHE Business meeting was called to order at 8:35 a.m. November 9, 2005 by John Eisemann, WERA-95 Vice-Chair. Minutes from the 2004 WCC-95 meeting were unanimously accepted as written. Budget Report: The budget report was prepared and submitted by John O'Brien following the conclusion of the meeting when all expenses had been accrued. Twenty-seven scientists, students and private business representatives attended the meeting. The meeting registration fees were $20 for students as decided at the 2004 meeting. The fee for all other attendees was set at $40. The budget report follows: Balance from 2004 meeting $156.48 Income from the 2005 meeting * $980.00 Reimbursement from the VPC ** $249.94 Circus Circus Hotel Expenses for the 2005 meeting <$1157.68> Other expenses (receipt book) <$7.94> Balance from 2005 $220.80 * Five students attended the meeting. The $20 registration fee for students generated $100. Twenty-two non-students were in attendance and generated $880 at the registration fee of $40. ** John O'Brien reserved the meeting room at Circus Circus for three days: Tuesday, November 8, 2005; Wednesday, November 9, 2005; and Thursday, November 10, 2005. The WERA-95 meeting began at 1:00 p.m. on November 8. The Vertebrate Pest Council met in the Circus Circus facilities during the morning of November 8 and subsequently reimbursed the WERA-95 $249.94 for the use of the room. Officer Elections: Nominations - Scott Beckerman was nominated by Robert Schmidt to serve as WERA-95 secretary. The nomination was seconded, and no other candidates were nominated. Election - Scott Beckerman was unanimously elected by verbal vote. Generation of Additional Participation: John Eisemann opened a discussion on how to generate more participation in the WERA-95. At last year's meeting, it was decided organize the meeting presentations around the theme of "Human Dimensions of Wildlife Damage Management." However that did not materialize. Several comments, questions and ideas were presented. Symposium/Workshop: Robert Timm informed the committee that the VPC had discussed conducting a symposium/workshop on secondary hazards of rodenticides. Following up on Robert Timm's comment, John Eisemann suggested a symposium on secondary hazards of pesticides as a project for the WERA-95. The idea generated significant discussion from attendees with ideas and questions on how to proceed. Topics included symposium/workshop goals, possible dates and locations, and other symposium/workshop considerations. Because of the need for planning and acquisition of funding, it was decided to hold the symposium in early 2007. Robert Schmidt motioned to form a symposium planning committee. The motion was seconded and unanimously agreed upon by verbal vote. The volunteers were John Eisemann, Kathy Fagerstone, Dale Nolte, Terry Salmon and Robert Timm. Date and Location for the 2006 WERA-95 Annual Meeting: The date and location for the 2006 WERA-95 annual meeting were selected. The dates are November 7-9, 2006 and the meeting will be held at the Circus Circus Hotel in Reno, Nevada. The meeting will start at 1:00 p.m. on November 7, 2006 and end at 12:00 p.m. on November 9, 2006. Topic for 2006 WERA-95 Annual Meeting: John Eisemann asked the attendees if they would like to identify a theme or topic for the next meeting. After several suggestions discussed, Robert Timm put forward a motion to have the theme for the 2006 meeting be "Impacts of Wildlife Damage, and Damage Assessment Techniques." The motion was seconded and unanimously agreed upon by verbal vote. It was also decided the 2006 annual meeting will be good timing to finalizing plans for the symposium. Announcements: John Eisemann announced the Larry Sullivan is requesting articles for The Probe, a newsletter of the National Animal Damage Association. The meeting minutes and most up to date mailing list of WERA-95 attendees for this and recent years will be posted on the "Collaborative Tools" website at http://collaborate.ucanr.org. New attendees will also be added to the WERA-95 (WCC-95) group. If anyone is having problems accessing the site they should contact Terry Salmon. Review of last year's action items: A top priority for the 2005 annual meeting was to increase the participation. Attendance was increased from 22 in 2004 to 27 participants this year (2005). Student participation was also increased. Five students from Utah State University and the Berryman Institute were in attendance and contributed presentations on their research. Travel for the students was provided by the Berryman Institute. The reduce registration of $20 for students will continue. The "Collaborative Tools" mailing list was updated, although a few people were unable to access the WERA-95 (WCC-95) group. Bruce Menzel did pass along the 2005 meeting announcement, although he received the information on short notice. Personal invitations by regular attendees is an effective way to increase attendance. Several new participants attending the year's meeting had been encouraged to attend by current and previous participants. ACTION ITEMS FOR FY06: John Eisemann will draft a one or two paragraphs explaining the role of WERA-95 in an effort to communicate our mission to potential stakeholders, students, and other interested parties. Steven Vantassel will be contacted to update the website, including the addition of the explanation of the committee's role. The newly formed symposium committee (John Eisemann, Kathy Fagerstone, Dale Nolte, Terry Salmon and Robert Timm) will plan a symposium/workshop on secondary hazards of vertebrate pesticides. The symposium is tentatively scheduled for early in 2007.

The WERA-95 meeting continues to provide an effective and unique tool for information sharing among cooperative extension specialists and agents, university researchers, Federal and State government researches and operational biologists, industry representatives, students, and others in the field of wildlife damage management. As with last years meeting, there was reduced emphasis on formal presentations and an increase in discussion time. This provides more time to develop potential collaboration and/or coordinate assistance on current issues facing participants. The annual meeting is an important means to familiarize wildlife management students with a variety of wildlife damage issues, provide them the opportunity to network with other professionals working in the field, and to promote the field which has an increasing need for qualified specialists to address increasing wildlife conflicts. The successful student participation from Utah State University and the Berryman Institute demonstrates that WERA-95 can play a role in the professional development of future wildlife damage specialists as well as established specialists. WERA-95 should follow-up on this success by reaching out to college and university students in other western states. During the business meeting there was further discussion on ways to increase participation in the committee by established professionals, while maintaining the current format which is conducive to group interaction. The Committee has agreed to cooperate in planning a symposium/workshop on the secondary hazard of rodenticides to nontarget species. The event is planned for early 2007. The topic is timely as EPA is reviewing potential risks of rodenticides. The outcome of this review will have impacts for managing rodents in agriculture and forestry, on public lands, and in potential disease outbreaks. In July 2004, EPA issued the second draft of "Potential Risks of Nine Rodenticides to Birds and Nontarget Mammals: A Comparative Approach." EPA will likely require certain mitigation measures based on the outcome of the final review. Thus far, the review process revealed the lack of data to adequately ascertain the potential hazard to wildlife and domestic animals from secondary exposure to rodenticides. To date, EPA has not announced their intentions regarding what if any mitigation measures will be required, or a timeline for making any such determinations. The symposium/workshop will focus on the status of existing data, identify research needs, risk assessment techniques, and address issues related to regulation of rodenticides. Formal updates or project reports were provided by participants on eighteen topics at the meeting. In addition, each participant was given an opportunity to provide a brief summary of their current research or outreach activities, and solicited help or discussion from meeting participants. Participant response to this format remains very positive as a mechanism to foster collaborative efforts for rodenticide research, and will be continued at the next meeting.

No publications were produced from the WERA-095 during the past year.