Fish and Wildlife Management

Describe the meaning and purposes of fish and wildlife conservation and management.
List and discuss at least three major problems that continue to threaten your state's fish and wildlife resources.
Describe some practical ways in which everyone can help with the fish and wildlife effort.
List and describe five major fish and wildlife management practices used by managers in your state.
Do ONE of the following:
1. Construct, erect, and check regularly at least two artificial nest boxes (wood duck, bluebird, squirrel, etc.) and keep written records for one nesting season.
2. Construct, erect, and check regularly bird feeders and keep written records of the kinds of birds visiting the feeders in the wintertime.
3. Design and implement a back-yard wildlife habitat improvement project and report the results.
4. Design and construct a wildlife blind near a game trail, waterhole, salt lick, bird feeder, or birdbath and take good photographs or make sketches from the blind of any combination of 10 wild birds, mammals, reptiles, or amphibians.
Do ONE of the following:
1. Observe and record 25 species of wildlife. Your list may include mammals, birds, reptiles, or fish. Write down when and where each animal was seen.
2. List the wildlife species in your state that are classified as endangered, threatened, exotic, game species, furbearers, or migratory game birds.
3. Start a scrapbook of North American wildlife. Insert markers to divide the book into separate parts for mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish. Collect articles on such subjects as life histories, habitat, behavior, and feeding habits on all four categories and place them in your notebook accordingly. Articles and pictures may be cut from old discarded newspapers; science, nature and outdoor magazines; or can be photocopied from other sources. Enter at least 10 articles on mammals, 10 on birds, 5 on reptiles, and 5 on fish. Put each animal on a separate sheet in alphabetical order. Include pictures whenever possible.
Do ONE of the following:
1. Determine the age of five species of fish from scale samples or identify various age classes of one species in a lake and report the results.
2. Conduct a creel census on a small lake to estimate catch per unit effort.
3. Examine the stomach contents of three species of fish and record the findings.
4. Make a freshwater aquarium. Include at least four species of native plants and four species of animal life, such as whirligig beetles, freshwater shrimp, tadpoles, water snails, and golden shiners. After 60 days of observation, discuss with your counselor the life cycles, food chains, and management needs you have recognized.