Public Lands
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They were almost charged with a felony in 1994- Today Dwight and Steve Hammond are said to be reporting back to prison to finish their resentenced terms. There is a debate in the media whether their two convicted arsons were all that serious. It turns out that is not the entire history of the Hammonds…
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Irregular militia followers claim to be supporting the prison-bound Hammonds- They began to filter into Burns, Oregon about a week ago. Participants in what was to become a protest parade through Burns and later seizure of a national wildlife refuge headquarters, numbered from about 150 to 300, according to several reports and statements on Saturday.…
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Lawsuit will continue now that state’s motion to dismiss is dead- On Tuesday, Dec. 28, the U.S. Federal District Court of Wyoming denied the State of Wyoming’s attempt to throw out challenges to the state’s Data Censorship Statutes (also referred to as the Data Trespass Laws). Instead, Western Watersheds Project and a coalition of nonprofit…
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By Thomas M. Power and George Wuerthner “A national park will not save the area. Rather, the restrictions and red tape that come with federal control would inhibit growth. Survival requires economic development, but a national park will limit our options.” Kathy Gagnon editorial opposing a national park in Maine published in Bangor Daily News…
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When President Obama signs the 2016 Omnibus budget bill as he’s expected to do later this week, he’ll be signing off on a lot more than hard-fought spending agreements. In what appears as a victory for conservation, he’ll be approving funding for the new west-wide management plans for sage-grouse habitat, approved by the Bureau of…
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Once, years ago, I was hanging out with Doug Tompkins at his home in Chile, sipping tea and sitting by the fire, when Doug began telling me tales of his early climbing days with his first climbing partner, Johnny. I asked what became of Johnny, and Doug told me he had died in a climbing…
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Land and Water Conservation Fund reauthorized- Wildlife and Earth-trashing riders were deleted- There is some good news in the massive spending bill to fund the government. A months long battle to prevent a rider that would delist wolves in the Great Lakes and Wyoming was successful. The wolves will remain on the endangered species list…
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Lawsuit to the Supreme Court being prepared- Responding to a report from a New Orleans law firm hired by the Utah Legislature to do a legal analysis of Utah taking away the public lands of the United States, the legislature has ordered the preparation of a lawsuit to do that. In the past several years…