Grazing and Livestock
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How many “predator killed” cattle were actually stolen? We all know the story — the “horrible wolves killed the cattle. They were so hungry that not even a piece of bone was left as evidence.” The same has been said of cougar and bear. In the many years I have roamed the range, I often…
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In Idaho Wildlife Services has historically received most of its funding from the federal government but this year those funds were cut by $247,000. To make up for the shortfall guess where the Idaho livestock industry is going to go. Yup, you guessed it. They are going to the Idaho Legislature with their hands out.…
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Larry Zuckerman and I recently wrote about a visit to the US Experiment Sheep Station (USSES) operated by the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in eastern Idaho near Dubois and talked about some of the conflicts which are occurring because of the presence domestic sheep in this area which is critical for many sensitive species.…
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In an implicit acknowledgement that public lands ranching is often incompatible with native species viability on public lands, Margaret Soulen Hinson provides more hyperbolic rhetoric at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands: Public Lands Council Press Release: RANCHERS WARN U.S. FOREST POLICIES THREATEN LIVESTOCK GRAZING Nov. 16, 2011…
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REVA (H.R. 3432) Would Provide Cash Option for Grazing Permittees Conservationists hailed the introduction of the Rural Economic Vitalization Act (H.R. 3432) in Congress, a bill that would allow federal grazing permittees to voluntarily relinquish their grazing permits back to the managing federal agency in exchange for compensation paid by a third party. The bill…
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Unlike deer and pronghorn, are elk trapped forever in the high mountain valley? The big mountain valley of Jackson Hole, Wyoming is so high and cold that elk did not winter there before Euro-American settlement blocked the late fall migration routes out and settlers eventually began to feed elk at what became the National Elk…
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Once thought extinct, reintroduction to Utah just one of a growing number- The black-footed ferret, closely related to the weasel, but a predatory specialist that eats prairie dogs almost exclusively (about 92% of their diet), was thought to be extinct back in the 1970s. Amazingly a pet dog discovered a colony near Meeteetse, Wyoming in…
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It is rare that bighorn are actually documented commingling with sheep or cattle because it usually goes undetected. However, this is typical behavior of bighorn rams around the breeding season and it illustrates the concerns of bighorn advocates. This bighorn was 33 miles from the nearest known population of bighorn sheep in the South Hills…