-
Forest Service Increases Rogue Rancher’s Use by 70% for 2016
When Adrian Sewell of New Mexico made a big show of traveling to the besieged Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in January to tear up his grazing permit and denounce the Forest Service, it was apparently just a big show. The “renegade rancher” has signed the Annual Operating Instructions (AOIs) and reportedly paid his 2016 grazing bill for…
-
Lawsuit Challenges End to Federal Monitoring for Northern Rocky Wolves
MEDIA RELEASE For Immediate Release, March 9, 2016 Aggressive State-sanctioned Hunting, Trapping Should Trigger Ongoing Federal Oversight of Idaho, Montana Wolves VICTOR, Idaho— The Center for Biological Diversity and four other conservation organizations today filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend the federal monitoring period for wolves…
-
An Open Letter to BLM Director Neil Kornze
February 2, 2016 Dear Mr. Kornze, During last month’s armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, several articles reported that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) – the agency you lead– was in negotiations to restore a grazing permit of the convicted criminals whose mandatory minimum sentencing was ostensibly the spark that ignited the…
-
It’s the ecology, stupid
Because of the current open comment period on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the Proposed Rule Changes for Mexican Wolf Reintroduction and the recent hearings on the same, I’ve been spending a bit of time with the DEIS and trying to wade through all 467 pages of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s new plans…
-
The future of Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) with revisions to the reintroduction program for the Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) in Arizona and New Mexico. Notwithstanding the fact that this should have been a full recovery plan, and that FWS has to divorce the highly imperiled lobos from…
-
Three Ways to Reform the Public Lands Grazing Program
The dust has settled on the Cliven Bundy debacle and the media has moved onto the next spectacle. The Obama Administration should take this opportunity to do a little housekeeping on its privately-grazed public lands. The example of the Nevada scofflaw’s failure to pay his grazing fees and his refusal to adhere to environmental laws – as…
-
Cliven Bundy’s Shell Game: Why it Matters to the Tortoise that BLM Finishes what it Started
Many of Cliven Bundy’s supporters in the Bunkerville showdown last weekend were saying things like, “It’s not about the tortoise,” and making the issue of long term trespass into a sign that the U.S. is headed towards fascism under a overreaching regime. But, see, it kind of is about the tortoise. The threatened Mojave desert…
-
The taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for grazing either.
Let’s talk a bit about the public lands grazing fee that Cliven Bundy refused to pay. The Forest Service (FS) has been charging fees to graze private livestock on federal lands since 1906 and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been charging fees since 1936. In 1978, Congress established a fee formula in the…