Public Lands
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Recently we were informed of a new effort by two conservation groups, a Native American tribe and livestock interests “to secure $25 million from the upcoming 2012 Farm Bill to help livestock producers reduce the risk of livestock losses to grizzly bears, wolves, black bears and mountain lions.” This taxpayer money is meant to “reduce…
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Typical recent rancher activities underscores their extremism- Recently we reported on Arizona/Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy who thinks he doesn’t have to pay grazing fees because he thinks the federal government does not own the U.S. public lands where his grazing allotment (now rescinded) lies. He threatens force to prevent his illegal cattle from being impounded.…
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The headline story of the Idaho Statesman investigates the whining of Idaho’s elite about how they can’t get migrant workers through the H2A migrant visa program fast enough. There is a serious problem with the article, which features a woolgrower who complains that the process is too onerous. It doesn’t even mention the wages offered…
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Resource Management Plans Won’t Affect Already Permitted Activities With a decision by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) about whether sage grouse should receive Endangered Species Act protection due by 2015, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has begun a process to revise the Resource Management Plans (RMP’s) which dictate how resources are managed…
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A disgrace for the Salmon Challis National Forest Basin Creek is a headwater tributary of the Little Lost River drainage in Idaho. It was home to bull trout and had a series of wet meadows which are in the process of eroding away and becoming biological wastelands. Western Watersheds Project staff and supporters visited this…
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Numerous wind turbines now erected in Spring Valley, Nevada- The project to install 66, 275 foot tall wind turbines directly below the heights of Great Basin National Park, Nevada is now well underway as the April 22, 2012 photo shows. Nevada’s first wind farm, which will disturb almost 15 square miles, was approved by the…
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Forest Service agrees to remove livestock corrals that impede the pronghorn’s migration. Cheyenne, WY- Conservationists and the US Forest Service today signed a settlement agreement that will protect a 6,000-year-old, critical migratory corridor necessary for the survival of North America’s fastest land animal, the pronghorn. The Path of the Pronghorn is the longest remaining migration…
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In December 2012, we added an update to the story below. The last story is July 4, 2012. A Forest Service cabin near a wilderness hot spring is filled with frozen dead cattle and the Forest Service doesn’t know quite what to do. Worried that the cattle carcasses will pollute the hot springs the Forest…