Western Watersheds Project

  • Public Land Livestock Fees Hit Rock-Bottom

    Ralph Maughan

    Rancher subsidy for using public grass reaches greatest amount allowed by law- News from Western Watersheds Project WASHINGTON―The U.S. Interior Department has reduced fees for grazing cattle and sheep on federal public lands to the minimum allowed under federal law, $1.35 an animal-month. Yesterday’s announcement applies to grazing in national forests and on public lands administered by…

  • BLM to rip, tear, and burn huge area of public lands in southwest Idaho

    Ralph Maughan

    Newly approved vegetation “treatment” project is questionable, expensive News release. Western Watersheds Project BOISE, Idaho — Today, the Bureau of Land Management approved a plan to log off or tear out native juniper trees from 617,000 acres of public land in Idaho. The agency will cut, shred, and burn juniper trees under the guise of…

  • Trump Administration to Auction Off 900,000 Acres for Fracking in Nevada

    Press Release

    Massive Lease Sale Includes Public Land Near National Park, Wildlife Refuge RENO, Nev — The Trump administration plans to auction more than 900,000 acres for oil and gas extraction on the doorstep of Nevada’s only national park and other protected public lands. It would be the largest single lease sale of public lands in the…

  • House votes to strip ESA wolf protections, & block judicial oversight

    Ralph Maughan

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives voted 196 to 180 along heavily partisan lines to approve a bill (H.R. 6784) to de-list the gray wolf nationwide under the Endangered Species Act, and to block courts from considering violations of federal law for wolves under the Endangered Species Act. The Mexican wolf subspecies is…

  • Federal Court Strikes Down Wyoming’s “Data Trespass” Laws as Unconstitutional

    Ralph Maughan

    Editor’s note: many articles were written about this back in 2015-16. It was one of the most serious attempts in Utah, Idaho or Wyoming commonly know as “ag-gag bills,” to make it very hard for public interest groups to collect data about possible illegal practices against consumers and the environment in the agricultural sector, especially…

  • Livestock’s impact on wilderness

    George Wuerthner

    “The grazing of livestock, where established prior to the effective date of this Act, shall be permitted to continue subject to such reasonable regulations as are deemed necessary by the Secretary of Agriculture.” The Wilderness Act of 1964, Section 4(d)(4)(2) Livestock grazing occurs on some 260 million acres of federal lands, including lands administered by the Forest…

  • Congressional Bill Short-Circuits Public Process at Point Reyes National Seashore

    By Laura Cunningham, California Director Western Watersheds Project An environmentally harmful bill is swiftly moving through the House of Representatives. HR 6687 would change the enabling legislation of Point Reyes National Seashore to extend the leases of commercial for-profit dairies and ranches, with no environmental review of cattle grazing impacts. The bill, introduced by Jared…

  • Wildlife Services A Failed Agency

    George Wuerthner

    The euphemistically named federal killing agency known as Wildlife Services was sued and won in Idaho US District Court by environmental groups that include Western Watersheds Project, Predator Defense, Wild Earth Guardians, and the Center for Biological Diversity. The plaintiffs assert that Wildlife Services’ lethal control of coyotes and other predators at the behest of…

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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

“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.”

Jim Fowler

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”

Raveena Tandon

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