Cattle

  • Nebraska Senate race suddenly close. Low grazing fees an issue in the race. Update

    Ralph Maughan

    Deb Fisher, tea party, public land rancher versus Bob Kerry, former Nebraska senator- This was a race Republicans thought they would not have to worry about because the state has become quite red, and the retiring Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, offers Republicans a chance to pick up a seat and win the U.S. Senate. Bob…

  • Massively redacted wolf documents show Mexican wolves about as sensitive a nuclear weapons

    Ralph Maughan

    Not really, but why were 80% of released documents on Mexican wolf capture plans  redacted? Last August the conservation group WildEarth Guardians requested the documents about a planned removal of a female Mexican wolf whose pack might have killed up to six cattle near the SW corner of New Mexico. Folks are often suspicious of…

  • The end of another grazing season in the West

    Ralph Maughan

    Badly managed cattle devastate the most remote public lands- “Till the cows come home” . . . that phase usually means a long time. That’s how it is on most of public lands of the Western United States.  The cattle are put out before the grass and forbs (perennial flowers) are sturdy and ready for…

  • SAGE GROUSE: PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE CAUSES

    George Wuerthner

    SAGE GROUSE:  PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE CAUSES When I was in college, one of my favorite courses was animal behavior.  One of the more memorable lessons I learned was the difference between proximate and ultimate causes of behavior. Proximate and ultimate causes of events are important to distinguish. For instance, say a researcher finds that sedimentation…

  • Wyoming elk herds have grown too large

    Ralph Maughan

    Wyoming Game and Fish Department offers extra elk licenses- Now that Wyoming has gained the authority to manage wolves and will soon have a wolf hunt, the much lamented lack of elk due to those “insatiable packs of killing machines” — wolves — has suddenly turned around and there are said to be too many…

  • Montana cow, trying to escape her fate, causes mayhem in downtown Billings

    Ralph Maughan

    Billings, Montana. She’s dead a bit earlier than planned, felled by a sniper to prevent more folks from getting injured.  The cow escaped while being unloaded to be sent to the auction yards. This rarely happens, but every once and a while cattle prove they have not yet had all the fight bred out of…

  • Wyoming ranchers asked to leave water for wildlife

    Ralph Maughan

    They now have access to fragile CRP lands, but will they help wildlife in return- Farmers and ranchers have been allowed into the Conservation Reserve Program lands (CRP) because of the drought.  This unfortunate decision is hardly unique. As George Wuerthner wrote today in The Wildlife News, “. . . Conservation Reserve Program lands are supposed…

  • Livestock partially responsible for drought conditions

    George Wuerthner

    With severe drought gripping much of the Mid-West and West, the federal government is promising relief from this “natural disaster” for agricultural producers.  Soon federal funds will be flowing for “disaster relief” in the farm belt.  Already farmers are permitted to graze and hay Conservation Reserve Program lands which are supposed to be, among other…

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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

“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

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