The ability to manage land in difficult times, through extended dry periods and economic downturns, is the hallmark of a good land steward. This year’s recipients of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Lone Star Land Steward Awards are prime examples.

Texas quail hunters should not expect substantive changes for the 2012-13 season after the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission urged biologists to intensify quail conservation efforts, while minimizing the use of regulations as a means to address declining bobwhite populations.

A lifelong passion for preserving prairie land seeded by a high school summer job that didn’t turn out quite like he expected has earned Panhandle rancher Jim Bill Anderson the 2010 Leopold Conservation Award for Texas, a prestigious recognition conferred by Sand County Foundation and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as part of its Lone Star Land Steward Awards program.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary, Tom Vilsack, recently announced that USDA will offer an opportunity for general enrollment of lands in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) later this year.

Today at Pheasants Forever’s National Pheasant Fest, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced plans for a new Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general signup. Secretary Vilsack also announced increased acreage allotments for three CRP practices significant to wildlife, and then signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Pheasants Forever.