Wilderness/Roadless

  • New Idaho Wilderness Areas also offer a new way to retire grazing permits

    Ralph Maughan

    As much as 700,000 acres in and adjacent to the new designated wildernesses could possibly be retired from livestock grazing- Many people are celebrating the establishment of the three new wilderness areas in the Boulder and White Clouds mountains of south central Idaho.  About 275,000 acres of very scenic mountain ridges with alpine and sub-alpine lakes…

  • Congress establishes a new Wilderness area, and in Idaho!!

    Ralph Maughan

    Wilderness in the Boulder and White Clouds mountains after 40 years of trying! Yesterday the U.S. Senate, just like the U.S. House did earlier this summer, passed a 275,000 acre wilderness bill for the scenic Boulder and White Clouds mountains. They rise on the east side of the famous Sawtooth Valley in central Idaho.  Of…

  • Anthropocene Boosters and the Attack on Wilderness Conservation

    George Wuerthner

    A growing debate has serious consequences for our collective relationship to Nature. Beginning perhaps twenty years ago, a number of academics in disciplines such as history, anthropology, and geography, began to question whether there was any tangible wilderness or wild lands left on Earth. These academics, and others, have argued that humans have so completely…

  • Federal judge rules that Clearwater National Forest Travel Plan is illegal

    Brett Haverstick

    MOSCOW, ID-Yesterday afternoon, the honorable Judge Edward Lodge ruled on the legal challenge brought forth by Friends of the Clearwater, Palouse Group-Sierra Club and Alliance for the Wild Rockies on the Clearwater National Forest Travel Plan. The plaintiffs challenged the sufficiency of the federal agencies’ analysis and the lack of compliance with executive orders on…

  • Public land takers advance in Western State Legislatures

    Ralph Maughan

    The collapse in oil prices has not dampened their interest or what many call their “outlandish” economic claims. Despite grassroots public support, those who want to take the public lands are now very active in the many new Republican dominated state legislatures. In Wyoming a land transfer study bill has just passed the state senate. This bill commissions a…

  • Defense Bill Wilderness Ornaments on Poison Package

    George Wuerthner

    “The middle of the road is where the white line is – and that’s the worst place to drive.” Robert Frost The recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA H.R. 3979): signed into law by President Obama is being hailed by many green groups as a big win for conservation. Some suggest it…

  • Wildlife, fear, and real life

    Ralph Maughan

    Politicians play to the incoherent fears of wimpy folks. This is bad for protecting the planet and its wildlife- Just two months ago many Americans feared they would soon be stricken by dread Ebola and those who survived would have their heads lopped off by ISIS. Fortunately a cure was deployed for both Ebola and…

  • “Wilderness America’s Heritage” conference to be held Sunday, Monday in Boise

    Ralph Maughan

    The annual Frank Church Conference on Public Affairs this year, this weekend, will be in Boise, Idaho.  This year the conference is entitled Wilderness, America’s Heritage.” The conference will discuss How did the Wilderness Act of 1964 become public law? What kind of framework did the Wilderness Act establish? How has the Wilderness Act functioned during the past fifty…

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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

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