Safari Club International elects new leadership

June 6, 2007


Washington, D.C. – Safari Club International, leader in protecting the freedom to hunt, has elected Dennis Anderson of Anaheim, California as its new president. His one-year term as head of the 50,000-member organization runs from July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008.

Anderson was previously an SCI Vice President serving on the Executive Committee for three years. He has been the SCI California Chapters Legislative Coordinator since 1996 and was instrumental in originating the California Youth Outdoor Safari Day in 1999.

Anderson has hunted in Asia, Africa, Europe, the South Pacific and throughout North America, completing the North American 29 in 2003.

Anderson is founder and owner of a successful seafood processing and distribution business in Southern California that he operates with his wife, Leean.

Merle Shepard, from Allen Park, Michigan was elected as President-Elect and will begin his term on July 1, 2008.

Shepard has been Chairman of SCI’s Governmental Affairs Committee for five years. Shepard learned to hunt with his grandfather in Michigan and has enjoyed hunting big game with a bow ever since.

Shepard is a founding member of the Michigan Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, the American Wildlife Conservation Partners and the Ballot Issues Coalition.

Outgoing SCI President Ralph Cunningham, of Houston, Texas said “the future of SCI is in brilliant hands. I am more than confident that Dennis and Merle will take SCI to new heights and I wish them nothing but the best in their efforts.”

The other newly elected members of SCI’s Executive Committee include:

Treasurer, Ron Arendt resides in the Sacramento Valley, California, and hunts with his children and grandchildren as the seasons permit.

Secretary, Kevin Anderson is an attorney engaged in private practice in Harrisonville, Missouri for 26 years. He has hunted big game on five continents.

Vice President, Bruce Eavenson has been an SCI member for 31 years. He works in the insurance industry and currently resides in Ortonville, Michigan.

Vice President, Joe Hosmer enters his fourth term on the Executive Committee and has pursued big game and upland birds on a worldwide level. Joe is a successful business leader and entrepreneur, who divides his residence between Maine''s coast and the Texas Hill Country.

Vice President, Sven Lindquist is an avid international hunter and currently resides in Spring Lake Park, Minnesota

Vice President, John W. Nelson recently retired as a successful attorney, judge and volunteer Deputy Sheriff in Phoenix, Arizona. He currently resides in the hills outside of Montrose, Colorado.

Vice President, Larry Rudolph will be starting his third year on SCI''s executive committee. Dr. Rudolph owns a large dental services company in Pittsburgh, is an avid hunter and is a Weatherby Award nominee.

Vice President, Mary Lynn West is the Sables representative for the Orange County Chapter, California and has hunted with her rifle and shotgun on four continents.

Vice President, John Whipple is President of the Orange County Chapter, Life member of SCI, Sables and SCI-PAC, and lives in Orange County, California.

Alternate Vice President, Cheri Eby has degrees in business and cost accounting and has worked in the mining/construction industries. She has enjoyed hunting on several continents and currently lives in Gunnison, Colorado.

SCIF Director, Lance Norris is a Past President of SCI and has served on the board since 1986. Lance has hunted Africa 15 times, three times with his grandkids, and currently resides in Nunica, Michigan.

Contact:
Ken Schwartz
Governmental Affairs and
Communications Manager

kschwartz@sci-dc.org
(202) 543-8733



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SCI-First For Hunters is the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and in promoting wildlife conservation worldwide. SCI’s 179 Chapters represent all 50 of the United States as well as 13 other countries. SCI’s proactive leadership in a host of cooperative wildlife conservation, outdoor education and humanitarian programs, with the SCI Foundation and other conservation groups, research institutions and government agencies, empowers sportsmen to be contributing community members and participants in sound wildlife management and conservation. Visit the home page www.safariclub.org or call (520) 620-1220 for more information.

Victory for Sustainable Use of Elephants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Safari Club

June 14, 2007

The Hague, Netherlands – The commercial sales of elephant ivory stocks will be allowed after a compromise was reached following nearly two weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations at the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES).

The 170 nation CITES treaty will also allow sportsmen to ship their elephant ivory hunting trophies from range states. Commercial trade in elephant hair, hide and certain carved ivory items was also approved.

Safari Club International’s chief of delegation, John Monson, said that “the result was recognition of the good management of elephants in southern Africa and the dramatic increase in those populations.”

Rick Parsons, SCI’s Director of Governmental Affairs, added that “the CITES parties have moved a long way in recognizing that the sustainable use of wildlife, including sport hunting, can have substantial benefits for wildlife conservation.”

The day prior to the two-week meeting, the executive body of CITES, the Standing Committee, agreed that the final conditions had been met for the sale of varying amount of ivory in governmental stocks that had been agreed in principle at the CITES meeting in Chile five years earlier. These stocks are held by Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.

As a result of the compromise reached last night, those three countries, plus Zimbabwe, received approval to sell governmental ivory stocks that had accumulated through January 2007. This trade in the “Chile-approved” stocks and the stocks accumulated through January 2007 can be suspended if it is shown that there has been non-compliance with the many conditions attached to the trade, or “in the case of proven detrimental impacts of the trade on other elephant populations.”

The governmental stocks come from elephants that died of natural causes or from elephants taken to protect local communities. The proceeds from these sales must go entirely to elephant conservation and to development of the local communities that live with the elephants.

Once the sale of the “Chile-approved” stocks occurs, there will follow a nine-year period in which no sale of ivory stocks can occur. The Standing Committee was charged with coming up with a “decision-making mechanism for a process of trade in ivory…” by the time the parties have their 16th meeting.

Contact:
Ken Schwartz
Governmental Affairs and Communications Manager
kschwartz@sci-dc.org
(202) 543-8733

SCI - In the Crosshairs Newsletter

SCI - First For Hunters

In the Crosshairs -- e-news from SCI 's Washington Office
The latest and hottest news on federal, state, and international

political and conservation events

March 9, 2007

SCI DC Meets With CITES Secretariat General

The staff of SCI’s Washington D.C. office were recently visited by Willem Wijnstekers, the Secretary General of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Wijnstekers and Programme Officer Marcel Van Nijnatten were in Washington for meetings with government agencies and came to SCI to discuss several issues. There will be a meeting of the CITES Conference of the Parties in The Hague, Netherlands, so Wijnstekers’ trip was timely. Topics of discussion included trophy issues, wildlife trafficking, budgetary constraints, and future action plans. Additionally, there was discussion on the controversial proposals scheduled to be heard in The Hague, such as Kenya’s proposal to ban all sales of ivory throughout southern Africa. SCI has been involved with CITES since its inception. CITES is an international agreement between governments that aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. You can find more information on CITES and the upcoming COP at www.cites.org.

SCI To Appear on Canadian Radio Show to Discuss Polar Bears

SCI has been interviewed once again on the polar bear issue – this time by a station in Whitehorse, Canada. If you would like, you can listen to Doug Burdin, Litigation Counsel for SCI, tonight, March 9, on the station's newscast at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. (Pacific time) on Northern Native Broadcasting Yukon Chan FM 98.1. This station broadcasts in the Yukon and in parts of the Northwest Territories and British Columbia. You can also listen at www.nnby.net . There is a "Listen Live" button on the left side of the screen.

SCI Comments on Wood Bison Facility

SCI has sent comments to the USDA Forest Service in support of expanding the existing wood bison pasture at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC) in Portage, AK. Approximately 27 acres of the Chugach National Forest have been proposed to temporarily house wood bison stock prior to their reintroduction into the wild. Currently, there are no wild populations of wood bison in Alaska and only 22 wood bison exist at the AWCC. Any restoration efforts will rely on additional wood bison stock imported from disease-free populations in Canada. These animals will be quarantined on the expanded pasture at the AWCC. SCI's Alaska Chapters and SCIF have helped develop the AWCC facilities for this purpose and continue to assist the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in a long-term effort to restore wood bison to its historic range.

New Jersey Courts Put a Tight Rein on Agency’s Bear Management Policy Efforts

A New Jersey Appellate Court gave the State’s Department of Environmental Protection until August 10 to develop a new black bear management policy. In November of 2006, the agency abruptly revoked the state’s existing black bear management policy in an attempt to delete hunting from the state’s arsenal of management tools. Safari Club International, together with the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs Inc. and U. S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, sued the agency and has been battling in the state courts since then in an attempt to restore the illegally repealed policy and the annual bear hunt. The State, instead of answering the SCI’s legal challenges, asked the Court to give it time to develop a new black bear management policy. SCI opposed an open-ended delay and the Court gave the agency five months only to try to develop these new strategies. Under the Court’s tight schedule, the agency will not be able to delay until the last minute determinations about whether the State will hold a 2007 black bear season. SCI will continue to pressure the agency to comply with the Court’s schedule and to include harvests as part of the state’s comprehensive management scheme.

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