Threats
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News on wind and solar farms keeps getting worse- It doesn’t have to be that solar and wind power alternative energy has to be hard on people and animals. However, the way they are being rolled out is damaging. For example, the SW desert solar farms seem to be spreading the debilitating fungal disease, coccidioidomycosis…
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Human activities tearing up the Mojave and Sonoran deserts set loose potentially lethal spores- Residents of the desert areas of Arizona, California, Utah and New Mexico generally become aware that they could get a nasty fungal disease called coccidioidomycosis (kok-sid-e-oy-doh-my-KOH-sis). 99% of the cases come from these 4 states. It is informally called Valley Fever, which…
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With no predators, high reproduction rate, millions of hungry hogs tear up American landscape- Like most omnivores, pigs are smart. In addition, they are big, requiring a lot of food, and are physiologically similar enough to humans to share and transmit many of our diseases. Pigs have been escaping from farms for a very long…
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I recently visited Yellowstone National Park and, while there, my father and I used a friend’s place as a base camp in Gardiner, Montana. From there we would drive about 10 miles to the Park where we watched wildlife, took photographs, and just enjoyed some of the solitude that Yellowstone provides during this part of…
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EPA Continues its Critique of State Department analysis of controversial pipeline from the Alberta tar sands- A million objections were sent to the State Department’s Draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement analysis (SEIS) of the environmental effects of the Keystone XL pipeline. Perhaps it was portentous that the due date for comments about the SEIS was…
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Salmon-Challis National Forest said to not enforce grazing laws- Boise. ID. When you drive or hike into this east central Idaho high country (Idaho’s highest mountains), you would expect to see pristine creeks. On the Salmon-Challis NF, however, one is usually disappointed. The creeks are sacrificed to appease local ranchers with tiny amounts of extra grass…
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Are ranchers stupid? You might think so if you watch their behavior towards predators. For decades ranchers have declared war on coyotes. Despite their best efforts, coyotes not only survive, but thrive. Even with taxpayer subsidies to America’s welfare ranchers in the form of Animal Damage Control agents, and the slaughter of tens of…
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I’ve been studying fire ecology for decades, an interest which led to the publication in 2006 of my book WIldfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy. My interest in wildfire did not end with the book and I have continued to read and digest the fire-related literature, attend conferences, and most importantly visit and observe…