MISSOULA, Mont. -- When Theodore Roosevelt called the first White House conference on conservation in 1908, America craved wild game but many species were dwindling.

A century later, wild game is abundant but now the craving is beginning to subside.

This reversal, says Boone and Crockett Club President Lowell E. Baier, is no less dangerous to the future of wildlife.

In his address to over 500 conservation leaders at last week's White House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy, Baier warned, "Diminishing participation in hunting and waning interest and demand for wild game will continue to create complex challenges--including financial, political and judicial setbacks--for all wildlife."

The conference, held Oct. 1-3 in Reno, Nev., was the first White House-convened major summit on conservation since Roosevelt. Though a hundred years apart, both conferences were well represented by one organization: the Boone and Crockett Club.

Roosevelt founded the Club in 1887 to guide wildlife restoration and management. In 1908, members like Gifford Pinchot and George Bird Grinnell helped Roosevelt and White House conferees understand and begin to address conservation issues of their day.