Wildlife Summit Draws a Diverse Crowd

People from around the state participated in person and online in the Idaho Wildlife Summit over the weekend of August 24-26. The list of those tuning in online spanned the globe, with people logging in from across the United States and in countries that included the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Hungary. "It went better than I could have expected," Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore said. "I am encouraged that such a diverse group expressed such a strong consensus on conservation values." Featured speaker Shane Mahoney of Newfoundland, Canada, praised Fish and Game for taking on the challenge of bringing together diverse interests in wildlife conservation - people who have a passion for wildlife and conservation in common. "I'd much sooner have a world filled with people who are so vitally concerned with wildlife that they fight all the time about it, than a world in which nobody gives a damn," Mahoney said during his presentation Saturday, August 25. More than 800 people had signed up to participate. Many others participated online; more than 3,000 logged on the Internet to watch the streaming video. Over the next few days and weeks, staff members will be poring over more than 20 hours of video tape, reading reams of comments and combing through hundreds of poll responses. The entire three-day event was recorded. Video will be available on the Fish and Game website as soon as it has been transferred into an online format and arranged into sections by presentations and activities, such as individual speakers and the Idaho CafŽ group discussion session. That will take several days to a week. But it is too early to characterize what those reviews will look like, what format they might be in, or when they will be available. That depends, at least in part, on the nature and volume of comments. Stay tuned for more of what Fish and Game learned about Idahoans' attitudes about wildlife, and about Fish and Game. And perhaps more important, what Fish and Game plans to do next. Results will be made available on the Fish and Game website, through news releases and other media.