Department of Interior
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Utah and Arizona trying to seize national parks, forests, BLM land- The self-styled “sagebrush rebels” have never won any important victory in court. They have been repeatedly put down, but the idea that ownership of a fair portion of the West by the U.S. government is wrong or unconstitutional keeps coming back as soon as…
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A Wind developer in southern Idaho has hit a two-year road-block that casts significant doubt on whether the wind project sited in pristine sage grouse habitat along the border of Nevada will ever be developed at all. BLM defers China Mountain decision for two years – Elko Daily Free Press “stupid bird.” We’ve covered the…
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Increased Fees to Graze On Public Land Still Doesn’t Cover Costs President Obama’s proposed 2013 budget for the Department of the Interior includes a tiny bit of good news for western public lands: a $1 increase in the fee charged for livestock grazing on Bureau of Land Management lands. The fee, which is required of each public…
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Federal Court Decision Holds That Protecting Sage-Grouse Must Take Priority Over Livestock Grazing in Owyhee Canyonlands and beyond in Southwest Idaho Early last week the federal district court of Idaho affirmed Western Watersheds Project’s challenge to five Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grazing decisions in southwest Idaho’s Owyhee Canyonlands that harmed Greater sage-grouse. Judge rules…
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On December 1st, at a presentation given by Bob Budd about the Wyoming Core Habitat Plan for sage grouse, it was pretty obvious that the livestock industry has things pretty much locked up with the agencies and politicians. The presentation was given in one of the big, new hearing rooms in the basement of the…
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Note: A number of updates have been added to this story as other news media picked this up. Lots of egg on the BLMs face! RM For these scroll to the bottom. – – – – Nov. 30, 2011. This morning Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a scientific misconduct complaint with the Department…
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Latest chapter in a thick book of controversy over hunt is being written- The inclusion of most of the area inside Grand Teton National Park (the valley portion) happened after a long and bitter controversy. The present boundary of the Park was established in 1950 after significant concessions to the usual opponents of change in…
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Denial of Livestock Industry’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari seals the fate of Bush era grazing regulations on 160,000,000 acres of public land On Monday, October 3rd the United States Supreme Court denied consideration of an appeal by the Public Lands Council of prior federal court decisions won by Western Watersheds Project that overturned the…