Department of Interior
-
Debate over immigration and enforcement attracts major effort to savage environmental laws within 100 miles of the borders- OPINION Americans are having a heated debate over illegal immigration, cross border drug smuggling and what to do about it. This has attracted some very contentious legislation at the state and federal levels. The President, various state…
-
The Idaho Statesman reports that Mike Simpson has withdrawn the rider which would have prevented the BLM and US Forest Service from addressing the ongoing issue of disease transmission from domestic sheep to bighorn sheep and would have bypassed years of analysis and a long public process which generated 15,000 public comments. The rider would…
-
Farm bill being debated will not permit votes on savage anti-conservation amendments- The Farm Bill in the Senate originally had over 300 proposed amendments, including several that would be real outdoors wreckers such as deliberately misnamed “Sportsmens Heritage Act“. . A few beneficial amendments that would have truly helped conserve our land and water were…
-
Senator Ben Nelson is retiring from the US Senate at the end of his term and he is trying to help former Senator Bob Kerrey take his place after he leaves by pointing out the hypocrisy of Kerrey’s opponent Tea Party/Republican Deb Fischer. Fischer is a public lands rancher who only pays a pittance to…
-
This week there have been two significant developments for bighorn sheep in Idaho that relate to the closing of domestic sheep grazing in occupied bighorn habitat. Payette Decision Moves Forward First, in an unusual ruling from the bench, Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled that the closing of three domestic sheep allotments on the Payette National…
-
Trial of the accused Hammond family arsonists is now underway in Pendleton, Oregon– We have been following this amazing story since it broke two years ago. On the first day of the Pendelton, Oregon trial, young Dusty Hammond told the court how his uncle Steve Hammond had passed out boxes of Diamond (wooden) matches during…
-
A new federal assessment of rangelands in the West finds a disturbingly large portion fails to meet range health standards principally due to commercial livestock operations. In the last decade as more land has been assessed, estimates of damaged lands have doubled in the 13-state Western area where the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM)…
-
Resource Management Plans Won’t Affect Already Permitted Activities With a decision by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) about whether sage grouse should receive Endangered Species Act protection due by 2015, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has begun a process to revise the Resource Management Plans (RMP’s) which dictate how resources are managed…