The Wildlife News

Sage Grouse

  • Greater Yellowstone Coalition: Wildlife Friendly or Rancher Friendly?

    George Wuerthner

    Stream dried up for irrigation of livestock forage. Photo by George Wuerthner Recently the Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) announced they were working to reduce the wildlife impacts of fences. Not by removing the fences, but by changing the wire on them to facilitate easier wildlife passage. Fences, as GYC, noted hinder wildlife migrations, and in…

  • Juniper Removal Red Herring

    George Wuerthner

    The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has launched a massive juniper removal project in Idaho and plans to expand it throughout the Great Basin. For instance, the BLM is also planning to destroy juniper woodlands in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Juniper is a common native species that grows in arid landscapes along with sagebrush…

  • Undue political influence on grazing decisions in eastern Oregon.

    Ralph Maughan

    Western Watersheds Project (the organization that I am the Executive Director of), WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity are fighting the reinstatement of grazing on four allotments in eastern Oregon that are permitted to Hammond Ranches. In part, we argue that the Hammonds don’t have a great track record and are thus undeserving…

  • BLM Grazing Decision Will Harm Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness

    George Wuerthner

    This past December 2018 the Bureau Field office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a final Environmental Assessment for the Battle Creek, East Castle Creek, and Owens Allotments Grazing Permit Renewal, at least partially within the Little Jacks Creek Wilderness, part of the stunningly beautiful Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness Complex in Idaho. The BLM…

  • Political shell game imperils iconic bird of the American West

    Reprinted from Waco Tribune-Herald March 9, 2019 By Steve Holmer, American Bird Conservancy Wildlife experts concluded in 2015 that the Greater Sage-Grouse, an iconic bird of the West, did not require listing under the Endangered Species Act, thanks to then-new federal management plans with added conservation requirements. Many conservation groups, including American Bird Conservancy, supported…

  • BLM to rip, tear, and burn huge area of public lands in southwest Idaho

    Ralph Maughan

    Newly approved vegetation “treatment” project is questionable, expensive News release. Western Watersheds Project BOISE, Idaho — Today, the Bureau of Land Management approved a plan to log off or tear out native juniper trees from 617,000 acres of public land in Idaho. The agency will cut, shred, and burn juniper trees under the guise of…

  • BLM to destroy sagegrouse habitat in the name of cows

    George Wuerthner

    The Challis and Salmon BLM of central Idaho appear to be ready to destroy much of the sage grouse habitat in the Lemhi, Pahsimeroi, and Lost River valleys, ironically in the name of protecting sage grouse. As an ecologist, and someone who has studied both sagebrush and sage-grouse ecology, I find the proposal to crush…

  • Dr. Naugle’s biased testimony on livestock impacts

    George Wuerthner

    I wrote this letter to Dr. Naugle more than 10 days ago and have not received a response. It is worth noting that Dr. Naugle has gotten more than $4.5 million in grants to study sage grouse in the past few years. Could this influence his testimony? Dear Dr. Naugle: I just read your July…

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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

“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.”

Jim Fowler

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”

Raveena Tandon

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