The Association Honors Mexico's Wildlife Director and News of the Annual Trilateral Committee Meeting

The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies presented a special conservation award to Dr. Felipe Ramírez Ruiz de Velasco, Mexico's Wildlife Director General, at the annual meeting of the Trilateral Committee for Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation and Management held in San Diego May 15-19.

Mike Berger (USA) and Cameron Mack (Canada), co-chairs of the Association's International Relations Committee, presented the award.

“Dr. Felipe Ramírez has championed binational collaboration, including participation in the Flyway System,” said Berger. “On the domestic front, Dr. Ramírez modernized conservation on private lands by developing a wildlife management system.”

Thanks to this work, as of January 2006, the system had 24.13 million acres of land under wildlife management plans.

During his first term as Director General, Dr. Ramírez helped enact legislation to decentralize to the states the management of resident wildlife species.

“In his second administration, Dr. Ramírez implemented decentralization agreements with the states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora and Baja California,” said Don MacLauchlan, the Association's International Resource Director. “Dr. Ramirez is especially commended for his work in the institutional and professional development of the new state wildlife agencies.”

Dr. Ramírez holds a degree in veterinary medicine from “Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México” (UNAM) and has specializations in game ranch administration and range management.

States' participation in the Trilateral Committee meeting

Gary Myers, Tennessee Wildlife Director, and Bruce Morrison, Nebraska Game & Fish, participated in the Trilateral Committee meeting for a second year and reaffirmed that the Trilateral meeting is not just the border states. The issues that the Migratory Birds Work Table addresses are of special interest to states and provinces along the flyways. This year, the Migratory Birds Work Table focused on the conservation issues of song birds.

Trilateral's plenary session

“Conservation on Private Lands” was the theme of the Trilateral's plenary session. The session, organized by Texas, opened with a national overview by each country. State and provincial programs were presented by Cameron Mack, Ontario Wildlife Chief, Eugenio Peterson, wildlife consultant in Mexico, and Mike Berger, Texas Wildlife Director. Two binational conservation initiatives were discussed. Rox Rogers, USFWS, presented the Kootenai River Watershed Initiative on the U.S./Canada border and Carlos Manterola, Agrupación Sierra Madre, presented the El Carmen/Big Bend Conservation Corridor on the Mexico/U.S. border. Hubert Thummler and Sezaneh Seymour of Safari Club International led the discussion on challenges and opportunities to develop cooperative projects.

Next year's theme for the plenary session is “Marine Fisheries.” NOOA will coordinate the session in conjunction with its counterparts in Mexico and Canada.

24th Border Governors' Conference

Nuevo León and Texas co-chair the Wildlife Committee of the Border Governors' Conference. René Hernández, Nuevo León natural resources director, is hosting a committee meeting in June to review accomplishments and propose activities for next year. This cycle, the border states have been identifying and prioritizing species of common concern to develop binational conservation projects. Arizona is developing terms of reference for the committee, which was created 2004 at the behest of New Mexico. This year, the governors will meet in Austin, Texas, August 24-25. Governor William P. Clements, former Texas governor, organized the first Border Governors' Conference in the 80s.

Binational white-tailed deer management workshop

The Kerr Wildlife Management Area in Texas hosted a white-tailed deer management workshop for the new state wildlife agencies in Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila. Non-governmental organizations also attended. As a result of the workshop, the states in northeast Mexico agreed to pool resources to hold a training workshop on distance sampling for deer census. Other workshops were discussed to continue to standardize wildlife surveys.