Public Lands
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Due to petitions of a number of environmental groups, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) appears likely to list the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Once found across much of the West and northern-tier states from Minnesota to Maine, wolverine are now limited to a few isolated populations in the western United…
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(update) Judge says emergency closure by Montana wildlife commissioners with no public hearing might offend Montana’s Constitution and might deprive the public of the legal right to harvest wolves- In a shock to wolf conservationists and to people who think Yellowstone Park is a special place, an American icon, local Montana Nels Swandal reopened hunting and…
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Hunt will probably end below quota; but many more wolves killed in state’s wolves-are-just-vermin-zone- Wyoming first wolf hunt ends Dec. 31. 2012. Wyoming opted for a much less ambitious/less-destructive-to-wolves hunt compared to neighboring Idaho and Montana. Unlike its neighbors, Wyoming has a wolf maximum kill quota and a relatively short hunt. However, Wyoming also has…
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Lawsuit aims to take back majority of marsh land used to create the Refuge- A lawsuit by landowners who helped create the Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge in 1965, now threatens is dismemberment. One of the best known features of the obscure country between the eastern edge of the Snake River Plain and the Wyoming…
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Washington Governor Christine Gregoire is rumored to be a front-runner for nomination as Secretary of the Interior, where she would oversee millions of acres of public land. But a livestock “pilot” program she instituted in Washington, which fast-tracked the introduction of livestock grazing on Washington Wildlife Areas free of charge to ranchers, while running roughshod…
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A year after Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a complaint with the BLM for intentionally excluding livestock grazing impacts from “Rapid Ecoregional Assessments” which were supposed to look at “change agents” for BLM landscapes, the BLM has put the $40 million assessments on hold and remained silent about charges of political interference. Even…
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In 1994 the BLM cancelled the grazing permit of Cliven Bundy, 4 years later a federal court required the removal of cattle from the Bunkerville allotment in southern Nevada, the BLM is still struggling to get them removed. We reported on this ongoing case of trespass last May, shortly after the BLM decided not to…
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Conservatives kill controversial bill- The Sportsmen’s Heritage Act passed the House last April, and the Senate version sponsored by Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana seemed poised to win Senate approval after beating back a number of filibuster attempts, a success that has become increasingly rare. Nevertheless, the bill would have still had to survive…