Advocacy
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I attended the Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolverine listing hearings in Helena. Opponents, including a number of Montana state legislators as well as MDFWP, argued that wolverine populations were “stable” or even “increasing” and therefore did not warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act. While the ill-informed state legislators who testified could be forgiven for…
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The Supreme Court recently ruled in an 7-1 vote (Justice Stephen Breyer recused himself) that the EPA regulations about water pollution as mandated by the Clean Water Act did not apply to sediment and other pollution from logging operations. The timber industry is rejoicing over the ruling. But citizens should be less sanguine than industry.…
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Tonight, if you are in Boise, you have a chance to give the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Commission a piece of your mind when they take public comment on fish and wildlife management. The Commission will set seasons for deer, elk, pronghorn, bear, mountain lion, and wolves tomorrow and this is your chance…
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The Owyhee BLM has finally issued a Proposed Decision on the so-called “Group 1” allotments but, unfortunately, the BLM really doesn’t go far enough to reverse damage caused by decades of abusive livestock grazing and they didn’t collect enough information to rationalize their decision even though the Environmental Assessment (EA) consists of a whopping 556 pages…
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By George Wuerthner State Fish and Game agencies are in the midst of a funding and mission crisis. They appear unable to adapt to shifting political and demographic changes much as the Republican Party is failing to adjust to new voter realities. The crisis is nowhere more evident than in their attitudes towards predators like…
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A very happy development? Drones are in the news a lot all of a sudden. Welcome to the new world where they can help you or kill you. Poachers of African rhinos, elephants, etc. are often organized in semi-military units and more than a match for Park rangers. Now in some places, Kenya in the…
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A group of 238 environmental and social justice groups, with a combined membership of many millions, have sent a letter to President Obama asking him to replace departing Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar with Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva. The letter, originally sent to President Obama on December 10, 2012, was re-sent after Secretary of Interior Ken…
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I came across a blog posting this morning that I thought the readers of The Wildlife News would be interested in. Bob Ferris of Cascadia Wildlands has written a great and fascinating piece about some of the more recognizable anti-wolf figures in the Northern Rockies. Some, probably most, of these people have tried to post…