The Policy Committee of the Society for Conservation Biology North America (SCBNA) is hosting a five-part webinar series discussing contemporary issues of U.S. state wildlife agencies. The idea is to initiate a process to develop a set of “guiding principles” when the Committee recommends endorsing (or not) wildlife conservation and management policies, regulations, or actions of state wildlife agencies. The Committee anticipates in coming months and years an increasing number of SCBNA member requests to comment on issues that involve state wildlife agencies. The webinar series will review current agency characteristics; agency reform efforts; the “North American Model of Wildlife Conservation”; and controversial key issues surrounding purpose, changing public wildlife values, funding, governance, protecting the public wildlife trust, and ethical decision making.