Mountain Ranges

  • Given to Texas as a Gift, the State wants to sell off the Christmas Mountains to highest bidder

    Ralph Maughan

    The Dallas News doesn’t like the idea. Keep Mountains Public. Dallas News. Neither does the San Antonio Express. Christmas Mountains sale should be delayed. Proponents of the sale have drummed up a phony Second Amendment argument to justify not selling the mountains to the National Park Service to add to Big Bend National Park. Of…

  • Senaror Barrasso brings bill to protect Wyoming Range

    Ralph Maughan

    Wyoming’s new US senator John Barrasso has picked up one of the priorities of the late Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo. It would stop oil and gas leasing in all of the 100 mile long Wyoming Range and buy back those leases already issued. Senaror Barrasso brings bill to protect Wyoming Range. By Noelle Straub. Billings…

  • Lost River Range: Pass Creek, Pine Creek, Wet Creek

    Ralph Maughan

    This is from the WWP blog about a range inspection tour we went on back in early October on the Lost River Ranger District. That is in the Lost River Mountains. We looked at conditions at the end of the grazing season in Pass Creek, Pine Creek, and Wet Creek. The Forest Service district ranger…

  • Lost River Mountains sure are pretty except . . .

    Ralph Maughan

    . . . . when you look down at your feet in the meadows. We went on a range inspection tour Oct. 2, 2007. We inspected the Pass Creek Grazing Allotment. The photo below shows a headwaters tributary of Wet Creek, an important Bull Trout stream. The little stream (Pine Creek) gradually gained water —…

  • I visited the Mitchell Fire

    Ralph Maughan

    I did go visit the Mitchell fire burning in the Deep Creek Mountains of SE Idaho yesterday. Earlier story (which prompted my visit). A violent thunderstorm came up just about as I arrived. I ate a lot of dust and smoke. The storm redistributed the fire, which was burning in heavy fuels up the west…

  • Mitchell Fire burns Deep Creek Mountains of SE Idaho

    Ralph Maughan

    This fire has been dumping a bit of ash on Pocatello, but the major threat is to wildlife habitat (sage grouse) and a steep scenic mountain range if they use bulldozers. It’s another fire where there might be contention over grazing and rehabilitation methods subsequent to the fire (a BLM mountain range). Part of the…

  • New Wyoming Senator may favor buyout of gas leases in the Wyoming Range

    Ralph Maughan

    As folks may recall, Wyoming’s US Senator Craig Thomas died recently. Thomas was moving to protect the Wyoming Range mountains from oil and gas leasing and development. His replacement is appointed Republican John Barrasso. Barrasso responds in the article below, saying that he too wants to protect the area, but worries about the oil companies…

  • Horse Creek fire has been contained.

    Ralph Maughan

    I was reporting on this major fire in the Wyoming Range before I went to Central Idaho for five days — The Horse Creek Fire in the Wyoming Range. Since then, it has doubled in size, but containment is now 100%. Containment does not mean a fire is out. It means the fire’s spread to…

Subscribe to get new posts right in your Inbox

‎”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

“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.”

Jim Fowler

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”

Raveena Tandon

Latest Posts

×