Public Lands
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The Chief Joseph Highway that leads from Cody to the Northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park is one of the most scenic drives in the West. I have camped, hiked, and skied the public lands along this ribbon of blacktop many times over the decades, including as recently as this past summer. Yet the Shoshone…
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Contact: WWP Statement on the Election of Donald Trump Erik Molvar, Executive Director, (307) 399-7910, emolvar@westernwatersheds.org LARAMIE, Wyo. – These are dark days for public lands and environmental conservation, with Donald Trump set to assume the presidency of the United States. President-elect Trump will have the power to assign political appointees to oversee all of…
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The Department of Interior recently released its Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy whose goal is to reduce range fires in sagebrush ecosystems critical to sage grouse. The plan correctly identifies that cheatgrass is a major threat to the bird, as well as the sagebrush ecosystems. Cheatgrass is an exotic annual plant that greens up early,…
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I want to respond to misinformation about wildfire by Nick Smith’s editorial on the proposed East Reservoir Project which appears in the Flathead Beacon November 3rd. In that piece, Smith promotes many misconceptions about wildfire. http://flatheadbeacon.com/2016/11/03/federal-forest-management-broken/ The proposed timber sale would create over 8000 acres of new clearcuts, miles of new logging roads, within a…
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The Bridger Teton National Forest (BTNF) missed a chance to promote the public interest over private businesses when it decided in its draft management plan for the Upper Green Allotment to continue to allow ranchers to run livestock without any significant changes to protect the public’s wildlife and other values. The Upper Green is…
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LARAMIE, Wyo. – In response to the “not guilty” verdict in the trial of the seven militants charged with federal conspiracy and weapons charges associated with the month-long takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Western Watersheds Project releases the following statement from Executive Director Erik Molvar: “Today’s verdict is a disappointment, and the failure…
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Forest Service does nothing to clean up awful grazing in spectacular Wilderness- Boise, ID – More than a decade after a federal court ordered the Sawtooth National Forest to create a plan to improve grazing management on the Upper and Lower East Fork public grazing allotments in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Advocates for the West has filed…
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By Franz Camenzind Originally published in the bullseye https://thebullseye.media/how-why-greater-yellowstone-matters/ 12 minutes (3070 words) It Takes More Than A Park, Even The Mother Of All Parks, To Protect The Grizzly Bear And Other Animals. It Takes AnEcosystem SOME PEOPLE MAY BELIEVE OTHERWISE OR WALLOW in the nonsense that ignorance is bliss, but history matters. Today, we dwell near ground zero for…