George Wuerthner
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Last year when the Profanity Wolf Pack was killed in Washington after depredation on cattle, Washington State University predator researcher Robert Wielgus suggested in several articles that the livestock losses were preventable, and thus, so was the killing of the Profanity Pack. Wielgus was subsequently punished by the university who placed a gag order on…
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Our public heritage is at risk from a lawless logging bill that effectively eliminates all reasonable checks on the timber industry. The threat comes from House Natural Resources Committee passed out of committee H.R. 2936 known euphemistically as the “Resilient Federal Forest Act” or as the Westerman bill for short after its chief sponsor. The…
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NASA just reported the drought in eastern Montana is so severe it is a once in a century event. Not surprisingly, despite livestock grazing that some suggest could preclude large blazes, the drought in Eastern Montana has spawned some recent blazes including the 270,000-acre Lodgepole fire. The fire raced across grazed public and private pasture…
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NASA just reported the drought in eastern Montana is so severe it is a once in a century event. Not surprisingly, despite livestock grazing that some suggest could preclude large blazes, the drought in eastern Montana has spawned some recent blazes including the 270,000-acre Lodgepole Fire. The fire raced across grazed public and private pasture…
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The shooting of the Profanity Pack last year and now a kill order for the Smackout Pack in Northeast Washington clearly demonstrated the failure of the current strategy of many conservation groups who are involved in wolf recovery efforts. In this case, a number of organizations, including Wolf Haven International, Conservation Northwest, Defenders of Wildlife,…
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During the 1992 election campaign, Bill Clinton famously coined the phrase: It’s the “economy, stupid” to admonish George H.W. Bush for his failure to understand the real problem facing voters. Today the timber industry and Forest Service continuously advocate logging to reduce fuels and assert that this will reduce large wildfires. But fuels don’t drive…
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Dr. Hessburg’s wildfire presentation has some good points that are worth reiterating, however, he also misrepresents some finer points of fire ecology. Basically, he promotes the notion that fuels are what drives large wildfires which he pejoratively calls “mega-fires”. The pejorative language is found throughout his presentation with terms like “destructive wildfires” “unhealthy” forests,…
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A recent article in Wood River Journal titled Wolf Project Enters 10th year detailed how private livestock producers have successfully harassed public wildlife on public lands to reduce losses to native predators. http://www.mtexpress.com/news/environment/wood-river-wolf-project-enters-th-year/article_1b4d8faa-629e-11e7-85c6-4339db44b9f9.html It details how Defenders of Wildlife, working with wealthy millionaire ranchers like the Lava Lake and Land Company, have joined together to…