Public Lands

  • A recent commentary in the Addison Independent supported logging a portion of the Worcester Range in Vermont, arguing that it would “improve” the forest“health” and “resilience.” As a former Vermont resident and an ecologist, I suggest the commentary’s signatories are promoting an anthropocentric, not a biocentric perspective. Ironically, the title of their commentary is “Science-based”…

  • I recently received a comment on my The Wildlife News article, Audubon Society Embraces Ranching. The commentator suggested if we don’t accept ranching, we will have subdivisions everywhere. I’ve written a lot about this. It is one of the oldest arguments from livestock proponents and most mainstream conservation groups like The Nature Conservancy and others…

  • Some years back one supposed expert named Allan Savory did a TED Talk [the ultra-processed McDonald’s of information] claiming that he was able to make deserts verdant and reverse climate change through livestock grazing. His absurd claims racked up nearly 6 million views and was enthusiastically welcomed by both livestock industry supporters and people who…

  • The National Audubon Society has a program called “Conservation Ranching,” which promotes individual ranchers who practice what Audubon calls “bird-friendly” ranching. One must assume that Audubon is garnering some big bucks from individual wealthy landowners by promoting ranching or is just brain-dead. Livestock production is the most significant factor in Species Endangerment in the West.While…

  • Chaparral is one of the least appreciated natural communities in the West. Yet this shrubland assemblage occupies 9-10% of California’s land area and is one of the most abundant vegetative communities in the state. Wildfire is a significant feature of this community. High-severity fire is the dominant fire regime. However, there are substantial myths about…

  • NOTE: Written in 2018, I offer this as a response to a TWN reader curious about “fortress preservation”. Once a year the NPS offers a guided tour so you, too, can experience a preserved piece of public lands [w/o citation & monetary fine].) In the 1990s I worked at Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park. I…

  • The Comb Wash allotment and the adjacent Cottonwood allotment within what, at the time of this writing, is still within the Bear’s Ears National Monument features prominently within the annals of litigation against the abuses of livestock grazing on our public lands. For decades after the passage of The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) the…

  • The Biden Administration and Secretary of Interior Haaland are ready to destroy one of the primary protections of the 1964 Wilderness Act. The Biden Administration, with the apparent support of Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, has sided with some Alaskan Natives and the previous Trump administration to approve the construction of a road through the…

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