Law
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VICTOR, Idaho— In response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the Northern Rockies fisher, a rare and vanishing species, may warrant federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Fishers are cat-like, medium-sized members of the weasel family with slender, brown bodies and long,…
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The standoff in Harney County Oregon highlights one of the great ironies of the rural West. More than any other people, western rural residents are more heavily dependent on government (read taxpayer) largesse than any other part of America. Yet the average rural resident sees himself/herself as a “rugged and independent” individual and by…
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New Study: Hunting Likely Spurring Harmful Declines in Northern Rocky Wolves VICTOR, Idaho— Five conservation groups filed a petition today requesting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continue monitoring northern Rocky Mountains gray wolves for another five years. The existing monitoring program, which is required by the Endangered Species Act after protections are removed…
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They were almost charged with a felony in 1994- Today Dwight and Steve Hammond are said to be reporting back to prison to finish their resentenced terms. There is a debate in the media whether their two convicted arsons were all that serious. It turns out that is not the entire history of the Hammonds…
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I recently wrote about the reinhabitation of grizzly bears in Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole. There, two female bears and their families have really caught folk’s attention for about the last decade. The book is about them. Grizzly bear 399 and her daughter 610, both of whom have now had many cubs, and…
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The State of Wyoming has officially responded to the suit by conservationists, photographers, and food safety advocates against their “data trespass law.” That law criminalizes data collection by private parties on open lands in Wyoming if their intent is to present the data to the government. The state has “move[ed] to dismiss Plaintiffs’ Complaint for…
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We have run a number of stories this year about bears, especially grizzly bears, getting in trouble in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Since then the berry crop failed and the whitebark pine nut crop is mostly just fair. The number of known dead grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone this year is approaching 50 (46 as…
