Grazing and Livestock

  • 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…

  • Montana plans to let bison roam outside Yellowstone Park year-round in two areas

    Ralph Maughan

    Continuing enlightenment from state in this long controversy- Final outcome will depend on 2012 election- The state of Montana continues to lessen restrictions on the movements of Yellowstone Park bison that try to live outside the Park. Now they will be allowed to live there year-round in two areas, the Gardiner Basin just north of…

  • The Politics Behind Montana’s Wolf Hunt Decision

    George Wuerthner

    Understanding Montana’s Wolf Policy Decision George Wuerthner On July 12, 2012, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MDFWP) Commissioners voted 4-0 to increase wolf hunting in the state, expanding the hunting season and permitting the trapping of wolves for the first time as well. The goal is to reduce wolf numbers across the…

  • Dr. Robert Crabtree – Little scientific basis to justify control programs that indiscriminately target adult coyotes

    Ralph Maughan

    Famous scientist tells USDA Wildlife Services their age old coyote killing program actually increases number of coyotes and depredations- USDA Wildlife Services and its prior incarnations such as Animal Damage Control and Predator and Rodent Control has been indiscriminately killing coyotes for as long as the agency existed. This practice has often irritated a diffuse…

  • Bighorn sheep rider has been withdrawn by Mike Simpson.

    Ken Cole

    The Idaho Statesman reports that Mike Simpson has withdrawn the rider which would have prevented the BLM and US Forest Service from addressing the ongoing issue of disease transmission from domestic sheep to bighorn sheep and would have bypassed years of analysis and a long public process which generated 15,000 public comments. The rider would…

  • Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Nebraska called “welfare rancher” by Democratic Opponent

    Ralph Maughan

    Democrat Bob Kerrey uses increasingly popular term to attack rancher/politician who utilizes low federal grazing fees- Republican Deb Fischer, like others who graze cattle or sheep on federal public lands, pays almost nothing in return to the U.S. treasury. Politics has held down the fee paid to graze public lands so that now the fee…

  • Cronyism: Mike Simpson renews Bighorn Sheep Disease rider in 2013 Interior Appropriations Bill.

    Ken Cole

    Update: June 27, 2012 Congressman Mike Simpson has withdrawn his proposed new rider which the story below is about. He said he is going to try to bring people together in a roundtable soon. He also said his new rider had amplified the rhetoric on the issue which was not what he wanted. Ralph Maughan…

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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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