Grazing and Livestock

  • “What changes the landscape?” BLM asks scientists,”but be sure to ignore the biggest cause!”

    Ken Cole

    A year after Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a complaint with the BLM for intentionally excluding livestock grazing impacts from “Rapid Ecoregional Assessments” which were supposed to look at “change agents” for BLM landscapes, the BLM has put the $40 million assessments on hold and remained silent about charges of political interference. Even…

  • 18 years of trespass and BLM still hasn’t removed the cattle

    Ken Cole

    In 1994 the BLM cancelled the grazing permit of Cliven Bundy, 4 years later a federal court required the removal of cattle from the Bunkerville allotment in southern Nevada, the BLM is still struggling to get them removed. We reported on this ongoing case of trespass last May, shortly after the BLM decided not to…

  • Sun Valley area wolf and sheep project shows sheep predation can be greatly reduced without killing wolves

    Ralph Maughan

    Project has a successful sixth year- In Idaho when a wolf kills a lamb or is even suspected of doing so, the solution today is nearly the same as a hundred years ago — kill the wolf and maybe all the wolves you can find in the area with the costs of operation be damned.…

  • BIRDS AND LIVESTOCK GRAZING-A REVIEW

    George Wuerthner

    by George Wuerthner Introduction Livestock production is a contributing factor in the decline of many western species, including birds (Wuerthner and Matteson 2002). This is not surprising given the amount of land utilized for animal agriculture, including public and private lands. Approximately 578 million out of 1.9 billion acres in the West are grassland pasture…

  • 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…

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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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