Conservation

  • Book Review: The Other Public Lands: Preservation, Extraction, and Politics on the Fifty States’ Natural Resource Lands

    Andy Kerr

    Both a need and opportunities exist to elevate the conservation status of state public lands.

  • Gallatin Range Deserves Wilderness

    George Wuerthner

    The Gallatin Range, which runs south from Bozeman into Yellowstone National Park, is the largest unprotected roadless area in the northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). The range contains some of the best wildlife habitat in Montana. In particular, the Buffalo Horn and Porcupine drainages are critical lands for elk migration, grizzly bears, and numerous other…

  • Join the Healthy Public Lands Conference: May 28-30th

    Jonathan Ratner

    Public lands belong to all of us, and protecting them requires collaboration, strategy, and action. That’s why we want to share an important event happening May 28-30, 2025 The Healthy Public Lands Conference is a gathering of advocates, experts, and community members working to address the challenges facing our public lands. From overgrazing and habitat…

  • Leaked federal roadmap for public land called ‘industry wish list’

    Jonathan Ratner

    From the good folks at WyoFile by Angus M. Thuermer Jr. As the Department of the Interior develops a plan to “restore American prosperity” by exploiting Western natural resources, a Wyoming attorney who has steeled rural communities against federal policies is atop the hierarchy that will marshal the effort. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum…

  • Big Old Trees Are a Big Deal, Part 1: Busting a Myth and Discovering Microhabitats

    Andy Kerr

    Top Line: Big old trees play out-sized roles in a forest stand in terms of biodiversity, carbon storage, and carbon sequestration. This is the first in a series of two Public Lands Blog posts on big old trees. Part 1 explodes the myth that their rate of growth slows as they age and also introduces the concept…

  • Point Reyes Settlement Offers Massive Public and Ecological Benefits

    Ken Bouley

    The January 2025 Point Reyes National Seashore settlement agreement ended decades of conflict over management of cattle ranching and wildlife on public lands. The departure of most of the commercial ranches from our National Park along with the Revised Record of Decision and new management approach by the National Park Service will provide significant public…

  • The Demise of the Northwest Forest Plan

    Andy Kerr

    Top Line: Like bankruptcy, the death of the Northwest Forest Plan has proceeded slowly and might end quickly. Figure 1. An old-growth forest of Douglas-fir and western redcedar. Source: Sandy Lonsdale (first appeared in Oregon Wild: Endangered Forest Wilderness). Note: I wrote the following without considering President Trump’s recent executive order pertaining to federal forestlands. I didn’t want the…

  • Wild Bison, Victim of Politics and Political Correctness

    George Wuerthner

    Ghost Bull, named for his ability to avoid tribal hunters outside of Yellowstone National Park. Photo by George Wuerthner I watched Ghost Bull grazing just outside of Yellowstone National Park’s northern border. Ghost Bull is a name given to the bison by wildlife advocates because he seems to come and go, eluding tribal shooters who…

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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

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