Public Lands

  • Interesting wildlife news (reader generated) It is time to create a new page of “Interesting Wildlife News.” It has been a long time since we have had a new page. The page and comment loading time has become slow.  Do not post copyrighted material. Here is the link to the “old” wildlife news of April 6,…

  • “What but the wolf’s tooth whittled so fine the fleet limbs of the antelope?” wrote the poet Robinson Jeffers. Jeffers encapsulated the idea that evolutionary processes shape all plants and animals.  Unfortunately, far too many in the Forest Service and the collaboratives that work with them fail to understand this basic idea—a “healthy” forest is…

  • Recently Colorado U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton was quoted during a congressional hearing of the House Natural Resource Committee recommending the government enlist ranchers and farmers to better protect federal lands. “Some of the best custodians for public lands happen to be our ranchers,” Tipton, R- Cortez, said. Tipton is ignoring the full impacts of livestock…

  • Tree fire scars are used to reconstruct past fire occurrence. These historical reconstructions are often used to guide current forest management on federal lands. Trees charred but not killed by past fires often form scars where the cambium and inner layers were burnt by fires.  A researcher can count the growth rings between scars and…

  • President Trump pardoned Oregon ranchers Dwight Hammond and his son Steve. The pair were jailed for arson and were the inspiration for the take-over of Malheur NWR by the Bundy mob. Trump’s pardon was based on lobbying by Oregon Congressman Greg Walden who characterized the Hammonds as “responsible ranchers” and portrayed them as victims of…

  • I wrote this in response to an editorial by Mr. Oberueller in Wyoming File.  You can see the original editorial at https://www.wyofile.com/public-lands-initiative-deserves-praise-for-collaboration/ The WPLI is an attempt to garner local agreement on the fate of federal BLM and Forest Service Wilderness Study Areas. These federal lands are managed to retain their potential suitability for future designation…

  • The Proposed Plan of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area is Announced The Bureau of Land Management intends to reopen much of the protected area to cattle grazing TUCSON, Arizona— This morning, the Bureau of Land Management released a long-awaited draft plan for managing the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (SPRNCA), signaling its…

  • One of the biggest impacts resulting from logging our forests that is largely ignored by public land management agencies is the contribution that timber harvest makes to Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. Increasingly it is clear that the greatest value of our public forests might be to end all thinning/logging and protect them as carbon…

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