Public Lands
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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…
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Plans to combine the Caribou-Targhee and the Bridger-Teton spark criticism- Once there was the Teton National Forest and the Bridger National Forest in Wyoming. Next door in Idaho their was the Caribou National Forest and the Targhee National Forest. Seeking efficiency, and perhaps other goals, a generation ago the U.S. Forest Service combined the Bridger…
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by George Wuerthner Introduction Livestock production is a contributing factor in the decline of many western species, including birds (Wuerthner and Matteson 2002). This is not surprising given the amount of land utilized for animal agriculture, including public and private lands. Approximately 578 million out of 1.9 billion acres in the West are grassland pasture…
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Yesterday the Desert Independent reported that on Election Day, after being asked about the treatment of wild horses and allegations made in a recent ProPublica article about the illegal sale of wild horses to a slaughter facility in Mexico, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar turned to the reporter and said “If you set me up like this again,…
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An article in the Idaho Statesman today says some opponents of the the proposed Idaho constitutional amendment to make trapping, fishing and hunting protected rights in Idaho could be used to harm wildlife habitat in Idaho, especially water. Ned Horner, who is the retired Idaho Fish and Game fish manager for northern Idaho, told reporter…
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Is this amendment to Idaho Constitution needed? If there is any state where the abstract legal ability for people to hunt, fish and trap is guaranteed and there is no political threat, it is Idaho. Nevertheless, the Idaho Legislature has proposed and put on the November ballot a measure that would amend the Idaho Constitution…
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Hunter lockout underscores the privatization danger to our public lands- As if to underscore the value of our national public lands, this time for hunters, NE Montana ranchers have locked hunters out of their ranchland to protest and put pressure on Montana FWP because they didn’t get their way on keeping bison strictly restricted to…
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Past efforts to grab national forests, parks, wildlife refuges led by livestock industry. Now it will be Koch Bros, oil, GOP- Some call our public lands “American’s common treasure,” but the love of our land expressed in many forms, and the freedom they provide, have not stopped what are sometimes called “sagebrush rebellions” every decade…