California
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In June the BLM released a draft EIS Programmatic EIS for Fuel Breaks in the Great Basin. The proposal would authorize the creation of 11,000 miles of fuel breaks primarily in sagebrush ecosystems across parts of Nevada, California, Utah, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/nepa/71149/175534/213852/FuelBreaksDraftPEIS_Bulletin.pdf This plan is a government boondoggle that will cost a significant…
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Sometimes a “win” is the fight you don’t have to have. Instead of victories proclaimed from the steps of the courthouse, some wins are the quiet kind which involve not having to go back to court at all. Western Watersheds Project and our allies recently had such a win, in a case over Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs, the…
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Point Reyes National Seashore was established in the 1960s by the purchase of private ranches. The public paid fair market value for these lands. Livestock operations were to be removed over a 25-grace period. But time and again the ranchers refused to leave OUR property. Surprisingly Representative Jared Huffman, ordinarily good on environmental issues, has…
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Across the West, livestock grazing is one of the most destructive land uses. Some 250 million acres of public lands are grazed by domestic livestock including those administered by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, as well as national wildlife refuges and even some national park units. This use is not benign.…
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The recent wildfires in California make me feel even more worried about the fate of anyone whose homes are built in the woods. California has experienced the 9 of the largest fires in its history in the past two decades, but large fires have occurred in many other western states during the same period. What…
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They are attempting an incredible public land grab By Erik Molvar Point Reyes is about as far west as you can go in the lower 48 states. Here, where coastal prairies meet the sea, Congress established a National Seashore “to save and preserve, for the purposes of public recreation, benefit, and inspiration.” That 1962 legislation…
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By Laura Cunningham, California Director Western Watersheds Project An environmentally harmful bill is swiftly moving through the House of Representatives. HR 6687 would change the enabling legislation of Point Reyes National Seashore to extend the leases of commercial for-profit dairies and ranches, with no environmental review of cattle grazing impacts. The bill, introduced by Jared…
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Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA, 2nd Dist.) has joined Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), notable anti-wildlife anti-public lands radical, to make dairies the goal of the national seashore where they exist inside this popular unit of the National Parks System. Point Reyes National Seashore, CA – This week, Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA, 2nd Dist.) joined Rep. Rob Bishop…
