HELENA, Mont. -- Conservation groups are urging grizzly bear and habitat managers to take up stronger protections for the species in the Yellowstone region.

Several groups, including the Western Watersheds Project, Sierra Club and Friends of the Bitterroot, sent a letter to the Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee (YES) of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC), which released a report in July on how to reduce conflicts between humans and bears. The YES Subcommittee also held a meeting on conflict reduction in October.

Jocelyn Leroux, Washington and Montana director for the Western Watersheds Project, expressed concern.

"We really think that the report relies very heavily on voluntary measures, and it's important to incorporate new tactics as conflicts increase and grizzly mortalities increase," Leroux cautioned.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported 48 grizzly bear deaths in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem this year. The YES Subcommittee did not respond to a request for comment.

The groups say managers need better tactics for addressing livestock conflicts, which is a major source of bear mortality. Leroux noted few livestock remain in the species' primary conservation area, or recovery zone, because third parties have compensated folks to waive their grazing permits there.

"That is a very concrete tactic that has been used and has proven to reduce livestock-grizzly conflict and grizzly mortality," Leroux contended. "Yet that wasn't seen anywhere as a recommendation to pursue more of that outside of the recovery zone."

The groups also claim the use of food storage, portable electric fences and bear spray is useful. Leroux suggested there should be more requirements for this equipment across the region.

"There's kind of haphazard implementation of regulations as it is," Leroux remarked. "So certain things are required of outfitters in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks but are absent throughout the rest of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem."

The IGBC executive committee will hold its winter meeting this week.

Wildlife biologists are warning Iowa hunters to have their deer tested for a deadly condition known to attack the animal's brain.

Chronic Wasting Disease has been on the rise. It causes spongelike holes to appear in the brain, and is present in up to half of the deer herds in parts of Wisconsin, which does not bode well for other Midwestern states.

Jace Elliott, state deer biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said the disease is 100% fatal and has the potential to alter the density and gender balance of the deer population in Iowa.

"More importantly, perhaps, really alter the deer quality that we have in Iowa," Elliott pointed out. "Iowa is known as a trophy whitetail destination, and there's really a lot of interest in out-of-state hunters coming here to hunt deer just because of our well-managed deer herd."

Elliott said Chronic Wasting Disease is on the rise in Iowa and since there is no known cure, it will continue to grow. He stressed it is important for hunters to get their harvested deer tested by game officials, free of charge.

While there have only been a few cases of the disease confirmed in Iowa so far, Elliott noted officials know it spreads quickly. If part of the herd becomes infected, the disease will grow exponentially among the animals in a specific geographic area.

"The disease is spreading, and we don't expect it to stop spreading," Elliott acknowledged. "What we're really just trying to do is slow the spread as long as we can, until science can catch up and give us some other options for managing the disease."

Chronic Wasting Disease has not been proven to be a threat to humans if people consume infected venison. But out of an abundance of caution, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns against eating the meat before it has been proven free of the disease.

After receiving input from stakeholders earlier this year, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has released a list of priorities guiding its initial draft of a management plan for the controversial practice of feeding wild elk at winter feedgrounds.

Kristin Combs - executive director of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates - agreed with much on the list, but said she worries the emphasis on maintaining unnaturally large big-game populations could compromise herd health.

She said it's important to make space in the plan for elk's natural predators.

"The one thing we don't see in the list," said Combs, "is having a robust suite of predators and large carnivores on the landscape that can really offer free services to provide for healthy elk herds."

She said allowing predators to kill off animals that fall sick to chronic wasting and other communicable diseases will limit the risk of hunters harvesting diseased meat, and strengthen biodiversity and the region's ecosystems.

Some hunters support using feedgrounds to maintain large elk populations, and outfitters see the practice as a proven way to keep doors open for business.

Game and Fish says it expects to publish the proposal after internal review, and will accept public comments in coming weeks.

The powerful ranching lobby has urged the agency to limit conflicts between cattle and elk, in part over fears of disease transmission, and that priority made the list.

Combs noted that other western states including Colorado, Idaho and Montana that do not use feedgrounds place part of the burden of limiting conflict on ranchers.

"Fencing out elk is a requirement, or fencing in your hay stores," said Combs. "Keeping your herd separated from elk is a part of the responsibility of raising cattle, versus having the government do this for you."

Another priority is to modify feedground management to minimize disease transmission. Combs said the very nature of feedgrounds, where animals are packed together in close quarters, practically invites large-scale infections.

But she agreed with the agency's goal of helping elk transition to natural winter ranges.

"There's already a bunch of really good wild foraging areas," said Combs, "especially on the national forests, even on some private lands that are available."

Environmental groups are calling efforts over the past half-century to restore the wild turkey population from the brink of extinction one of America's greatest wildlife success stories.

Conservationists are now calling on Congress to pass pending legislation which would help states, territories and tribes duplicate those efforts to save hundreds of threatened species. The bipartisan Recovering America's Wildlife Act would allocate $1.4 billion annually to protect fish, wildlife and plants for future generations.

John Kanter, senior biologist for the National Wildlife Federation, said it is a matter of scaling up current efforts to protect more species.

"What we're doing here is using this tremendous conservation success story as a springboard to talk about the next generation of conservation success stories," Kanter explained.

By 1910, there were no more wild turkeys in Illinois because of overhunting and a loss of habitat. But starting in 1950, an Illinois Department of Natural Resources program to reintroduce the birds succeeded in restoring the population to every county in the state.

The Recovering America's Wildlife Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year and is awaiting action by the Senate, where there are more than 40 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.

Kanter emphasized lawmakers urgently need to approve the bill before the current session closes at the end of the year.

"A third of species -- known plants and animals in the U.S. -- are at increased risk of extinction," Kanter pointed out. "It's time for us to address this biodiversity crisis, and let's get ahead of it."

He noted in the 1950s, there were only about 30,000 wild turkeys left in the country, but a concerted effort by government agencies and conservation groups between 1970 and the early 2000s restored habitat and reintroduced turkeys to places where they had been eliminated. There are currently an estimated 7 million wild turkeys across the U.S.