The Wildlife News

Public Lands

  • Huge court victory for Wilderness in Montana roadless areas

    Ralph Maughan

    Montana Wilderness Study areas finally protected from vehicles until Congress acts- The Montana Wilderness Study Act passed in 1977.  It required that the Forest Service protect the “wilderness quality” of a number of roadless areas in Western Montana until Congress decided to make a final decision as to whether the areas should be designed as…

  • Western Watersheds Project Litigates 145,000 Acre Vegetation Treatment Project in Nevada

    Ken Cole

    In early June, Katie Fite and I visited southeast Nevada to examine the results of past vegetation treatments meant to “restore” sage grouse habitat in the Schell Field Office of the Ely District BLM. What we found was quite astonishing. Rather than restoring sage grouse habitat, the BLM targeted the best sage grouse habitat, near…

  • Use of scenic U.S. 12 for megaloads across north central Idaho likely dead

    Ralph Maughan

    Orofino, Idaho. The Clearwater National Forest has denied  the use of U.S. Highway 12 along the famed Lochsa River for the transport of megaloads bound for what some call the “tar sands hell” of south central Alberta. While the bulk of this battle was successfully fought a couple years ago by opponents  of the transport…

  • Will billionaires save America’s wildlife?

    Ralph Maughan

    Wildlife conservation needs big money to beat back militant ignorance- Over the years those favoring wildlife conservation found a strategy that worked to build up both the number and diversity of wildlife in the United States. Until recently those who saw wildlife only as (1) pests or potential pests or (2) animals waiting to become…

  • Bill would allow ranchers to voluntarily end their grazing allotments in exchange for private compensation

    Ralph Maughan

    Rural Economic Vitalization Act reintroduced- The Rural Economic Vitalization Act (REVA) would allow private parties to pay willing ranchers to relinquish their grazing permits on public lands, and then the grazing allotment would then be permanently closed to livestock grazing.  U.S. Representative Adam Smith of Washington State has just reintroduced this legislation. Conservationists and economists…

  • BLM Abuse of its Public Trust Duty – Conservationists Win Duck Creek Case

    Ken Cole

    Western Watersheds Project and Wild Utah Project had a significant win this week on the Duck Creek allotment of Utah.  In the longest running administrative grazing appeal hearing in the history of the Department of the Interior, including 12 weeks of hearings and a record of 15,000 pages, WWP demonstrated that BLM’s rangeland health assessments…

  • US Fish and Wildlife Service sued by Western Watersheds over the legal implication of grizzly bear disappearance

    Ralph Maughan

    USFWS called “wrong” to say no grizzlies had been killed on Sheep Experiment Station on Idaho/Montana border, Continental Divide Area Boise, ID.  On May 17, 2013 the Western Watersheds Project, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, Native Ecosystems Council and Yellowstone Buffalo Foundation filed a suit in federal district court to challenge domestic sheep grazing that has been…

  • Worry over dead bison found north of Yellowstone Park

    Ralph Maughan

    Montana is said to be investigating- Gardiner, MT. Given the frequent stories of wildlife killing and hate that emanate from the Gardiner, Montana area, the latest find of 2 to 4 bison carcasses north of Yellowstone Park is raising worry about more illegal and legal wildlife killing in the area and/or the spread of domestic or wildlife…

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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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