Politics
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Finally, some Yellowstone bison moved to form the basis of a second (or more) herds- Genetically pure bison were released in northeast Montana on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation today. The sudden move came after years of delay and after state officials signed an agreement with Assiniboine and Sioux tribal leaders. While there are many…
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Resources chair pushes through oil and gas legislation that may make his oil and gas leases valuable- Part of Idaho is like so many other places in America where a tsunami of fracking is about to hit. Five years ago this seemed very unlikely. Idaho has always been regarded as an unlikely place for oil…
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Effort underway in Congress to repeal the Montana Wilderness Study Act of 1977- Back in 1977 when Montana had a much greener congressional delegation, Montana senator Lee Metcalf got a bill passed and signed into law giving semi-Wilderness protection to about 700-thousand acres of scenic and wildlife rich Montana mountains. The roadless areas protected until Congress…
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Christopher Ketcham has been writing about many of the issues we write about here and has just published a very long and clear-eyed article about the ongoing wolf issue in The American Prospect. Ketcham interviews many people here in Idaho including our own Brian Ertz and his sister Natalie, he also got some great quotes…
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Extractive Industry Determines the Fate of Sage Grouse in Idaho. On Monday, March 12, 2011, the Idaho Governor Butch Otter’s Sage Grouse Task Force had its first formal meeting. Originally the meeting was to be organized by the Idaho Governor’s Office of Species Conservation (OSC) but something happened and rather than have OSC organize the…
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State parks have huge economic value but the states are closing them, cutting them, raising fees- Republican legislators and governors in the interior Western United States are saying we will manage the public lands, the national forest and parks, much better than far off Washington D. C.. Indeed the Framers of the Constitution argued the…
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Candidates use that word, “public lands” because they can’t say they “have no use for national forests, national parks, or national wildlife refuges’ Most westerners love the public lands of the United States and most of the outdoor recreation that does not use special facilities like stadiums takes place on them. Romney and Santorum, who…
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The Payette National Forest has announced its decision to capitulate to the domestic sheep industry and interpret the Bighorn Sheep Rider passed via the 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act in a way contrary to the clear language of the statute, halting implementation of it’s Payette Decision which would have removed domestic sheep use from the Forest in…