Law

  • Forest Service sneaks away sage-grouse protections in FEISs

    The five long versions of everything the agency did wrong with the Final Environmental Impact Statements “amending” the existing Obama-era sage-grouse land use plans can be found by state on WWP’s website:  Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. The short version is this: The agency didn’t just take away over 200,000 acres of protected areas (mostly in Wyoming) and rearrange…

  • Mexican wolf killer has no problem getting job with Mexican wolf recovery program

    On Friday afternoon, this came across my desk: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, Region 2, intends to issue a sole source award utilizing Simplified Acquisition Procedures to William Bennett Nelson dba Bill Nelson Wildlife Control (DUNS# 117125795) Datil, New Mexico for trapping, capturing and radio collaring of wolves. The contract…

  • A quiet victory in defense of three of California’s rare amphibians.

    Sometimes a “win” is the fight you don’t have to have. Instead of victories proclaimed from the steps of the courthouse, some wins are the quiet kind which involve not having to go back to court at all. Western Watersheds Project and our allies recently had such a win, in a case over Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs, the…

  • Undue political influence on grazing decisions in eastern Oregon.

    Ralph Maughan

    Western Watersheds Project (the organization that I am the Executive Director of), WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity are fighting the reinstatement of grazing on four allotments in eastern Oregon that are permitted to Hammond Ranches. In part, we argue that the Hammonds don’t have a great track record and are thus undeserving…

  • Potential For Wolf Restoration In Oregon

    George Wuerthner

    I wrote this review of the potential for wolf restoration in Oregon back in 1998. It is interesting to see that many of the predictions I made have materialized. Author: George Wuerthner ABSTRACT: Wolves (Canis lupus) were native to Oregon, and reported from throughout the state. Like much of the West, wolves were persecuted and…

  • Oregon Spotted Frog Threatened by Grazing

    George Wuerthner

    The Oregon spotted frog was originally found throughout wetlands in Oregon and Washington. It is the most aquatic of all native frogs. It is always located near perennial water sources. Draining of these wetlands, livestock grazing, and dams have significantly reduced its habitat. For instance, 95% of the wetlands in the Willamette Valley and Klamath…

  • Idaho Wolf Bounty A Step Backwards

    George Wuerthner

    I sometimes feel like I am going back in time when I visit Idaho. The attitudes of Idaho lawmakers and some citizens seems like a time warp. A step backward to the “good old days” is represented by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission who voted to spend $23,069 to help fund a $1000 wolf…

  • Political shell game imperils iconic bird of the American West

    Reprinted from Waco Tribune-Herald March 9, 2019 By Steve Holmer, American Bird Conservancy Wildlife experts concluded in 2015 that the Greater Sage-Grouse, an iconic bird of the West, did not require listing under the Endangered Species Act, thanks to then-new federal management plans with added conservation requirements. Many conservation groups, including American Bird Conservancy, supported…

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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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