Politics
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Oh, the many effects of extracting the world’s dirtiest oil! Despite the huge PR offensive by big oil, Alberta, and Canada’s right wing government, it is hard to overwhelm the public into thinking digging big holes to get out the bitumen is a great idea. Scientists, bloggers, conservation groups, and even segments of the Democratic…
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Withdrawal of a cattle association from a wolf restoration program hardly a sign of failure- If we look at the history of land use in the Western United States, we find many different political interests. Some are ideological, some economic, some are both. Historically the various statewide cattle associations and stockgrower associations have been the…
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Grazing Improvement [Entrenchment] Act Gains Legs, Threatens Hundreds of Millions of Acres of YOUR Public Land The public land ranching industry is up to it again. They’re looking to further obstruct the proper administration of grazing on federal public lands by eroding public participation and further tying down the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service’s…
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ATV interest groups wanted legislature to prevent Idaho Fish and Game from closing any areas to ATVs during hunting season- This is been a very contentions issue in Idaho and elsewhere — hunters who walk to find and stalk big game versus those who ride around hoping to see an elk or whatever they can…
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Slogan might sway elections, has no effect on gasoline prices- Whenever the price of gasoline rises, we hear what is by now a coordinated shout that there needs to be more domestic oil drilling and “damn, the damn bunnies” and the rest of the wildlife too. Thirty seconds thought tells a person that a short…
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Testimony heavily against current hunt levels, but commissioners completely reject suggestions- Boise, ID. Wednesday night (March 21) the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Commission met at its headquarters. In attendance were approximately 40 wolf advocates and a handful who were on the opposite side. 39 people testified. Over 30 were against continuing the wolf…
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This past September my colleagues (S.A. Enzler & A. Treves) and I published an article arguing that the public trust doctrine could provide a legal means to force protection of wolves were state policies found lacking (Bruskotter et al., 30 Sept. 2011, p. 1828). This article prompted two recent replies published by Science last month…
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Earthquakes, water pollution, political pollution, and now toxic chemicals in the air near fracking wells- It seems every day the news about the negative side effects of fracking gets worse (and the TV ads run by the American Petroleum Institute and others more manipulative). Aside from the methane in the natural gas, a number of…