Politics
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A massive forest fire and sudden right-wing politics makes survival of the rarest wolf slimmer still- New Mexico had a pretty good governor, Bill Richardson, in terms of wildlife, but he retired and was replaced by Susana Martinez of the far right. She replaced four members of the New Mexico State Game Commission, and they…
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ExxonMobil pipeline under the Yellowstone River releases 30,000 – 50,000 gallons of crude into world famous river- It’s another one of those things they claimed was too unlikely to worry about. Now there is a large oil slick drifting down the Yellowstone River toward the Missouri, ruining riverside property, and polluting not just the river…
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Serving as his own attorney, Rammell is convicted by a jury of his peers- After many months and after getting charged with jury tampering (yet to go to trial), former Republican gubernatorial candidate Rex Rammell was convicted of poaching an elk. He was fined $1000 (after the judge suspended $500) and will serve 5 days…
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Career professional in agency to assume duties immediately after a long series of Republican “holds” on his nomination- The Fish and Wildlife Service has been led since January 2009 Acting Director Rowan Gould. “Holds” in the U.S. Senate on bills and nominations have become a kind of one-person filibuster. It is becoming difficult for any…
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No quotas (limits) are expected for hunt except along part of the Idaho/Montana border- Idaho to offer looser wolf hunt rules. By John Miller and Matthew Brown. Associated Press Ever since Butch Otter became Idaho’s governor, it was clear to me and the conservation groups that understand Idaho politics that at some point this would…
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Here is an editorial from the Idaho Statesman on the failure of license fees and game tags to generate enough revenue to manage fish and wildlife in Idaho, especially with the coming cuts in federal aid. Brian Ertz earlier posted a related article and there has already been quite a bit of discussion in this…
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Lines between Livestock, Sporting and Gun Groups Continue to Blur John Campbell (R-CA), Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Gary Peters (D-MI) co-sponsored the bipartisan Lethal Predator Control Amendment, an amendment t0 H.R. 2112 (the Agriculture appropriations bill), which would have cut Wildlife Service’s $11 million appropriation used for a program that kills predators on behalf of…
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The Campbell-DeFazio amendment, which would have cut Wildlife Services’ “Livestock Protection” program by $11 Million, failed 132-287. Only 30 Republican’s voted for it.