Conservation
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After receiving a groundswell of public comments prompted by Western Watersheds Project and local wolf advocates’ tireless effort the Blaine County Commission voted to require the Flat Top Ranch and The Nature Conservancy to provide a predator management plan emphasizing non-lethal protection of livestock prior to the Commission’s final approval of the ranch’s conservation easement…
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The Elwha River, on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, flows out of Olympic National Park. It was dammed in the early part of the last century in violation of an 1890 law which required fish passage facilities on dams “wherever food fish are wont to ascend”. The logging companies were so powerful that the fisheries commissioner allowed…
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Last week, Katie Fite and I travelled to Nevada to inspect several grazing allotments and attend a BLM meeting in Winnemucca and a BLM field trip in the Ely District. While passing through the Union Mountain Allotment in the Elko District we came across a series of water troughs which didn’t have the required wildlife…
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Twin Falls Ranger District’s Trout Creek, habitat for the Yellowstone cutthroat trout, was among the locations found damaged by livestock grazing when Don Oman became the district ranger in 1986. In this video, Mr. Oman describes the dramatic environmental improvement that occurred after livestock were excluded from a short segment of the creek. Don Oman…
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Another Solar Development, Another Lost Landscape ? Chris Clarke gives a remarkable account of another landscape that has found its way into the cross-hairs of Solar Developers and Big Green, and of the locals’ abiding love for the land: Solar Energy Development in the Carrizo Plain Draws Lawsuits – KCET – The Back Forty It’s…
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A compact disc features an interview Ed Abbey did with his friend Jack Loeffler. Two clips are featured on the web: Jack Loeffler in Conversations with Edward Abbey – El Palacio Magazine Recorded January 1983 ”Some of us are beginning to catch on to something. Government does not exist to ease, facilitate, moderate, and preside…
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Trevor Butterworth takes a look at the double-standard for wildlife protections Wind Developers are allowed to play by as compared to other energy industries. Regulations to prevent huge impacts to birds and wildlife are “voluntary” and often written by the Wind Industry itself. Op-Ed: A mighty wind – Trevor Butterworth – The Daily Imagine the U.S.…
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The National Wildlife Federation published a report demonstrating that Pronghorn and Mule Deer look to be in appreciable decline in Wyoming and Colorado. Looks like Sage-grouse are plummeting as well. Habitat concerns, as well as Oil & Gas impacts, look to be among the culprits but I find it particularly interesting that the report does…