Grazing and Livestock
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Increased Fees to Graze On Public Land Still Doesn’t Cover Costs President Obama’s proposed 2013 budget for the Department of the Interior includes a tiny bit of good news for western public lands: a $1 increase in the fee charged for livestock grazing on Bureau of Land Management lands. The fee, which is required of each public…
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Federal Court Decision Holds That Protecting Sage-Grouse Must Take Priority Over Livestock Grazing in Owyhee Canyonlands and beyond in Southwest Idaho Early last week the federal district court of Idaho affirmed Western Watersheds Project’s challenge to five Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grazing decisions in southwest Idaho’s Owyhee Canyonlands that harmed Greater sage-grouse. Judge rules…
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Senator Jeff Siddoway also pushes amendment to turn Land Owner Appreciation bill into a no access gravy train- Idaho rancher and State Senator Jeff Siddoway has introduced a bill (S1305) in the Idaho statehouse that would authorize the slaughter of wolves involved in molesting or killing livestock by any number of creative ways. Senator Siddoway…
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NCBA complains about the use of “best available science” and the mandate to protect sensitive species. In a news release published yesterday, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) complained that the new proposed US Forest Planning Rule is too onerous to public lands ranching. In their press release they imply that science does not support…
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The effort to list the Greater Sage-grouse via the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been an uphill battle. However, even as the end-game has yet to be realized, the effort itself has been remarkably successful at prompting bureaucratic backflips and a whole lot of paper-shuffling to accommodate consideration of the species. Unfortunately, many of the existing and developing…
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Years of legal pressure prompts favorable policy change Public land domestic sheep grazers and bighorn advocates have been clashing for decades over land-use conflicts which place bighorn sheep populations at risk of deadly disease. With the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012, favorable policy change promises new avenues of conflict resolution that may…
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The Associated Press is reporting that a bighorn sheep lamb in Yellowstone National Park has pneumonia. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks has been tracking sheep in the Gardiner area just north of Yellowstone National Park since reports of coughing bighorn were given to them in early December. In response FWP has killed 5 sheep but…
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Oregon governor is told county failed to include at least two pro-wolf voices as required by state law- This year the Oregon legislature passed a law authorizing each county to set up a committee to handle livestock interest claims for wolf damage. The claims will be paid by Oregon taxpayers. The idea behind the law…