Politics

  • Efforts to sell or give away federal public lands is a freedom issue

    Ralph Maughan

    Privatization or transfer to states would be a massive loss of personal freedom- In politics, it is common to hear that adoption of this or that policy would be a great loss (or gain) for freedom or liberty. Very often such policies do involve economic liberty for some group or business. Other times the policy…

  • The Self Preservation of Land and Wildlife Managers

    Ken Cole

    The art of land and wildlife management has fallen into the hands of political actors who are beholden to powerful interests who only care about how much money they can squeeze out of our wildlife and public lands. When faced with making tough decisions, these professional bureaucrats have learned special skills to move up through…

  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service abandons plan to give ESA protection to bi-state sage grouse

    Ralph Maughan

    Was it political expediency? News release RENO, Nev. – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today abandoned its plan to give Endangered Species Act protection to Mono Basin sage grouse, a small and isolated population of prairie birds in Nevada and California that remain under threat from grazing, habitat loss and mining development. The agency’s decision…

  • Cougar in Bend did not need to be killed

    George Wuerthner

    While this describes a single incident in Bend, the basic principle is the same everywhere. Indiscriminate killing of predators creates more conflicts with humans. State wildlife agencies argue that hunting/trapping will reduce human conflicts when in fact it often exacerbates them. The recent killing of yet another cougar in Bend represents a tragic and unnecessary…

  • Cruz tries to win the West by taking our public lands

    Ralph Maughan

    Koch Bros. will smile at his attempt to auction off our lands- Ted Cruz has jumped on the billionaire’s land grab wagon by offering a bill requiring the federal government to give away or sell off what he terms “excess lands,” whether they be our national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges or BLM lands.…

  • Idaho Legislature considers joining interstate compact designed to make the great land grab. UPDATED

    Ralph Maughan

    Bill on interstate compact on federal lands transfer dies in committee in Senate. Spokesman-Review. By Betsy Z. Russell. Earlier . . . Critical vote in state senate committee probably on April Fool’s- It has already passed the Idaho House with plenty of room to spare. April Fool’s Day is the likely day the Idaho State…

  • Just north of Yellowstone, bighorn fall to pneumonia

    Ralph Maughan

    Is arrogant ranching to blame? After many articles here in TWN this year, and elsewhere, about the growing pneumonia epidemic in the bighorn sheep herd just north of Yellowstone Park continues, now 40% of the bighorn are dead. More bighorn are sick. Details in Yellowstone Gate. Now, there is little to stop the disease from…

  • Speak for Wolves 2015: Wildlife management reform objective number 2

    Brett Haverstick

    Wildlife management reform objective two- Recently we discussed the first objective in reforming the broken system of wildlife management we see in America today.  That was to restructure the state fish and game departments.  Here is the second: 2. Remove Grazing From All Federal Public Lands Grazing is the most ecologically damaging form of land…

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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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