The Wildlife News

Public Lands

  • A closer look at “sagebrush rebel” Ken Ivory of Utah

    Ralph Maughan

    SL Tribune raises a question about his motives- Whenever public officials in the West gather to talk about “taking back” (transferring) the U.S. public lands to state ownership, the name Ken Ivory is likely to show up. We first first heard of this Utah state legislator about two years ago. He has been traveling to…

  • Idaho Primary: Wildlife foe Lenore Barrett finally bites the dust

    Ralph Maughan

    Rangeland steward of the year takes out Barrett in Republican primary- Political analysis and opinion. By Ralph Maughan Any Idahoan concerned about wildlife, grazing, mining, or just a state representative who listens, will bolt upright when they learn the Idaho State Representative Lenore Barrett of Challis has, after years, bitten the political dust. Although she…

  • Wildfire and Forest Health: Myths And Reality

    George Wuerthner

    There are widely held assumptions that logging will reduce or preclude large wildfires and beetle outbreaks. The recent adoption of the Farm Bill categorical exclusion that will permit logging up to 45 million acres of national forests is based on flawed assumptions about forest health and wildfire. LARGE WILDFIRE CLIMATE DRIVEN Large fires are driven…

  • President Obama declares a big Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument

    Ralph Maughan

    It is almost 500,000 acres near Las Cruces, NM- President Obama began to make good on a State of the Union address promise today announcing that he will use his  authority under the Antiquities Act to declare the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. This is the largest national monument he has declared. All Presidents since Theodore…

  • Drought: Some Utah ranchers want elk dead for cows

    Ralph Maughan

    Group asks increase in elk permits so public land cows can continue during drought- Even though cattle graze for just $1.35 an animal unit month (an AUM) on Forest Service land, a group of central Utah livestock operators has asked the Utah Wildlife Board for an increase in elk permits because there isn’t enough forage…

  • It’s always the rural counties in the West that are nasty

    Ralph Maughan

    A rural minority rules the urban majority in the West, Why? We read that Westerners are moving to take back the federal lands, or Westerners are upset about too much environmental protection. We watch Old West  Cliven Bundy get away with stealing grass and his supporters massing to maybe gun down BLM law enforcement in…

  • Federal public land equals freedom to roam

    Ralph Maughan

    Land transfer to states would mean less land access for typical American- The idea that the states are really the constitutional, legal, rightful owner of the U.S. public lands is without merit. Origin of U.S. public lands The United States owns 650-million acres of land. That is about 30 per cent of the land area of…

  • Groups File Notice of Intent to Sue Over Sheep Experiment Station.

    Press Release

    Bozeman, MT. Today five conservation groups Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, Gallatin Wildlife Association and Yellowstone Buffalo Foundation sent the U.S. Department of Agriculture a notice of intent to sue for its failure to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the effects of sheep grazing on the U.S. Sheep Experiment…

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‎”At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour.”

Edward Abbey

“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.”

Jim Fowler

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”

Raveena Tandon

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