Grazing and Livestock
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Rarely given more than minimal herding, Bundy’s cattle seem now to be on their own- Many people argue that Nevada, the driest state, is really no place for cattle, grass-loving creatures that they are. Nonetheless, herds of widely spaced cattle have pummeled the landscape there for over a hundred years. For a generation Cliven Bundy…
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Boise, IDAHO – Today, Western Watersheds Project filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada over its approval of new fences in important sage-grouse habitat on the Argenta allotment. Fences harm sage-grouse in a variety of ways. The decision to build the fences along six sections of streams on public lands was…
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When Adrian Sewell of New Mexico made a big show of traveling to the besieged Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in January to tear up his grazing permit and denounce the Forest Service, it was apparently just a big show. The “renegade rancher” has signed the Annual Operating Instructions (AOIs) and reportedly paid his 2016 grazing bill for…
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Boise, IDAHO – Conservation groups voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit against high-elevation domestic sheep grazing in the “Summer West Range of Centennial Mountains because the government has agreed not to graze again until it completes a full environmental review of the potential impacts of the activity. It has previously committed not to grazing in Summer East Range or on an adjacent Forest Service…
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Point Reyes National Seashore, a national park unit, is one of the most iconic sections of the California coast. Lying just north of San Francisco, Point Reyes is a dynamic slice of the California landmass moving northwards along the San Andres Fault relative to the mainland. The National Seashore includes isolated beaches, cliffs, flowery…
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An important study released today concludes that the presence of cattle in important sage grouse habitats increases the number of ravens that prey on sage grouse and their nests by 45.8% in the Curlew Valley of southeast Idaho. The study found that anthropogenic subsidies were increased in areas where livestock grazing occurred and raven populations increased…
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Appeals Court Affirms Forest Service Closures that Protect Bighorn from Domestic Livestock Boise, IDAHO – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today affirmed the Payette National Forest’s decision to close 70 percent of the domestic sheep grazing allotments on the Idaho forest, despite the self-serving protests of the sheep industry. Conservation groups intervened in the proceedings in support of…
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Conservation Groups seek to restore science-based habitat protections on public lands BOISE, Idaho— Conservation groups today filed a lawsuit over more than a dozen greater sage- grouse plans produced by federal agencies that fail to protect this iconic western bird from a series of threats, including fossil fuel development, grazing and mining. The plans cover about 70 million…