August 2012

  • Wyoming ranchers asked to leave water for wildlife

    Ralph Maughan

    They now have access to fragile CRP lands, but will they help wildlife in return- Farmers and ranchers have been allowed into the Conservation Reserve Program lands (CRP) because of the drought.  This unfortunate decision is hardly unique. As George Wuerthner wrote today in The Wildlife News, “. . . Conservation Reserve Program lands are supposed…

  • Livestock partially responsible for drought conditions

    George Wuerthner

    With severe drought gripping much of the Mid-West and West, the federal government is promising relief from this “natural disaster” for agricultural producers.  Soon federal funds will be flowing for “disaster relief” in the farm belt.  Already farmers are permitted to graze and hay Conservation Reserve Program lands which are supposed to be, among other…

  • Domestic cats are a huge destroyer of wildlife

    Ralph Maughan

    Our popular, small, non-native predator kills billions of small animals a year directly and indirectly by disease- There are close to 80-million pet cats in the United States and over 50-million feral cats — felis domesticus.  Unlike other pets that eat meat, cats are pure carnivores.  Fortunately, the meat for most the pets comes from…

  • The huge Holloway range fire on the Nevada-Oregon border (updated)

    Ralph Maughan

    This fire was started just a few days ago (Aug 6), in mountains east of obscure Denio Junction in Nevada — the Trout Creek Mountains. It quickly spread north into Oregon, southward and eastward.  Now it is over 270,000 acres, and a major source of interstate smoke. These are dry, mostly sagebrush and grass covered…

  • Washington state kills a wolf for livestock depredations

    Ralph Maughan

    One sub-adult female removed from the NE Washington Wedge pack- Wolf numbers are growing slowly in Washington State as they migrate in from intense persecution in Idaho and down from British Columbia.  Due to topography a fair number end up in NE Washington, though a surprising number have not, contrary to early expectations.  There are…

  • Numerous wildfires smoke up much of Idaho’s air and eastward

    Ralph Maughan

    The usual biggest Idaho wildfire month does not disappoint- Pocatello, ID. As we reported earlier, more and more wildfires are breaking out in Idaho. It is August and most are due to lightning torching the dry forests and brushlands.  The smoke generally blows eastward across the state over into Wyoming, Montana, and northern Utah. Here…

  • Wolf manager for YNP, Doug Smith, says “first phase of wolf restoration is over”

    Ralph Maughan

    Dr. Smith takes makes 17 year retrospective on wolf restoration- There haven’t been as many stories quoting the tall, affable Yellowstone Park wolf manager in the last several years, but on Aug. 2 at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, he give a talk that was covered quite well by the Cody Enterprise. Here…

  • Wolves and bald eagles poisoned in the Bob Marshall Wilderness

    Ralph Maughan

    Six of America’s symbolic bird and four wolves fall to poison in vicinity of the Big Prairie Ranger Station- Last May six bald eagles and four wolves were found dead in the general area of the Big Prairie Ranger Station inside the Bob Marshall Wilderness of NW Montana. This is far up the South Fork…

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‎”At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour.”

Edward Abbey

“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.”

Jim Fowler

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”

Raveena Tandon

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