Wildlife News

  • Juniper and grasslands–How Cattle Grazing Impacts Ecosystems

    George Wuerthner

    Ungrazed juniper and grass in Sutton Mountain Proposed Wilderness, Oregon. Photo George Wuerthner  One of the most common assertions from the livestock industry and range managers is that juniper is “invading” landscapes, sucking up water that would sustain grasses, and harming wildlife. Of course, these assertions are seldom challenged. Given that grass seems absent from…

  • Anthropocene Boosters: The Attack On Parks And Wilderness

    George Wuerthner

      Anthropocene boosters who criticize parks and wilderness as “colonialism, ‘imperialism,” and other pejorative terms that threaten conservation goals. Photo George Wuerthner  A growing debate has serious consequences for our collective relationship to Nature. Beginning perhaps twenty years ago, a number of academics in disciplines such as history, anthropology, and geography, began to question whether…

  • Yellowstone Bison DEIS Comments

    George Wuerthner

    Yellowstone National Park has produced an DEIS on bison management. The Park Service is accepting comments until October 10th. You can read the DEIS and make your own comment here:  Attached are the detailed comments of the Wild Bison Restoration Council, however, if you want to make your own comments here are some brief points.…

  • Logging Creates “Unhealthy” Forests With Less Resilence

    George Wuerthner

      “Thinning” project on the Wallowa Whitman NF in Oregon. The removal of trees by chainsaw medicine eliminates evolutionary agents that would otherwise naturally “thin” the forest. Photo George Wuerthner  The Forest Service and Forestry School researchers (funded by the Forest Service) continue to promote the idea that our forests are “unhealthy.” It is an…

  • How Thinning Impacts Fuels

    George Wuerthner

    A few years ago, the Custer Gallatin National Forest thinned the area on Kirk Hill by Bozeman to reduce fuels. As has been reported, one of the problems with any fuel reduction is that the probably that a fire will encounter it during the period when it’s potentially effective is very small–usually around 1%. A…

  • The Proposed Ambler Mine and Road–Implications For The Kobuk River Ecosystem And People.

    George Wuerthner

      The word Kobuk means “Big River” in the local native language.  Photo George Wuerthner  I just returned from floating the Kobuk River in Alaska’s Brooks Range. The Kobuk headwaters are north of the Arctic Circle in the Gates of the Arctic National Park and flow west to the Bering Sea near Kotzebue, Alaska. The…

  • The Social Carbon Cost of Public Land Livestock Grazing

    George Wuerthner

    Public land livestock grazing has a significant social cost in terms of carbon emissions contributing to climate warming. Grand Staircase-Escalante NM Utah.  Photo George Wuerthner  An important paper was published in Environmental Management about the social carbon costs of public land livestock grazing. The paper Climate, Ecological, and Social Costs of Livestock Grazing on Western…

  • Logging Road Impacts

    George Wuerthner

    Logging roads are a major negative impact on ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner  The latest attempt by the Forest Service to make timber cutting palatable is using the terms “temporary” and “closed” to describe logging roads. The implied message is that road impacts are magically eliminated if they are temporary or closed. Roads, temporary, “closed,” or…

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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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