Advocacy
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Stream dried up for irrigation of livestock forage. Photo by George Wuerthner Recently the Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) announced they were working to reduce the wildlife impacts of fences. Not by removing the fences, but by changing the wire on them to facilitate easier wildlife passage. Fences, as GYC, noted hinder wildlife migrations, and in…
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Recently there has been a spate of commentaries advocating collaboration as a means of resolving issues surrounding which public lands should be given the “Gold Standard” of wilderness protection under the 1964 Wilderness Act. Advocates of collaboration, including some representatives of Montana’s various conservation organizations, argue that only collaboration can “resolve” the issues in today’s…
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(Written by Talasi Brooks) I recently testified before the Idaho Fish and Game Commission opposing proposals to increase wolf-killing and allow glorified wolf baiting in Idaho. I pointed out that since the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) does not have a wolf population estimate based on radio collar data and aerial surveys, increasing…
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State, federal and tribal representatives voted again to slaughter 600-900 Yellowstone Park bison this winter. The agencies and tribes use the less offensive sounding euphemism “cull”. But let’s be honest, what happens is nothing more than butchery done to appease the livestock industry. It is shameful that these agencies and tribes legitimize the annual butchery…
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Western Watersheds Project sued the Arizona Bureau of Land Management today for bringing a long-dead grazing permit back to life and handing it off to a new permittee without any public process. WWP’s press release with a link to the complaint is online here. After nearly thirty years of no authorized grazing (but plenty of…
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For Immediate Release: November 14, 2019 Contact: Scott Lake, Western Watersheds Project, (208) 429-1679; scott@westernwatersheds.org Proposed Malheur legislation sacrifices land heath, elevates livestock above other land uses BURNS, Ore. – On November 7th, Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley introduced legislation that prioritizes economic development in Malheur County while also designating some public lands as wilderness.…
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The Fish and Wildlife Service will soon be reviewing a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for Oregon’s Deschutes River written by contractors working for the Central Oregon irrigators. The HCP will dictate the future of the river. The goal of the irrigators is to obtain a “get out of jail free” pass for their impacts on…
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Collaboration on environmental issues is pushed by big funders and by consulting groups, but so far has borne only bitter fruit for conservationists. Favored by shrewd industrial interests who recognize collaboration as a means to greenwash environmentally harmful activities, this practice undermines the enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. Commercial interests often engage in…
