Wildlife News
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Fish and Wildlife Service Deschutes River Habitat Conservation Plan comments The following are comments on the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) are submitted on behalf of Restore Our Deschutes (ROD). The main problem with the HCP is that its starting assumptions are backward. The plan is designed primarily to protect the economic interests of…
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Ranchers seeking to extend grazing leases at Point Reyes National Seashore have found a new ally in Donald Trump. At a signing ceremony for two Executive Orders at the White House earlier this month, Point Reyes rancher Kevin Lunny was a featured speaker. He used his 30 seconds of broadcast fame to complain about the…
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MYTH: FUEL BUILD UP IS RESPONSIBLE FOR LARGE BLAZES? A conventional narrative is that wildfires in the western U.S. are unprecedented and more extensive than in the past. This increase in fire acreage is attributed to “fuel build-up,” presumed to be the result of successful fire suppression. However, such assertions lack context. Compared to the…
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Recently the Bridger Teton National Forest (BTNF) released its final record of decision on livestock grazing on the 170,641 acres Upper Green River Allotment. The allotment includes the headwaters of the Green River north of Pinedale, Wyoming.The Upper Green River allotment contains the most superlative wildlife habitat in the entire Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), yet…
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Just above the northern reaches of the Phoenix megalopolis lies the Agua Fria National Monument, named for the river that runs through it and known for its rich archeological history and the refuge it provides for a broad range of wildlife species, including the imperiled Gila chub, yellow-billed cuckoo and northern Mexican garter snake. It’s a…
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The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest is proposing to log the Lostine Wild and Scenic River corridor. The basic justification is to reduce the potential for large wildfires. Yet according to the Oregon Department of Forestry, in 2019 only acres 67,795 acres burned in the state, compared to 846,411 acres burned last year. Why the big difference?…
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The New Yorker recently published an article titled Trailblazing plan to fight California Wildfires https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/26/a-trailblazing-plan-to-fight-california-wildfires that contain misinformation. I’ve had many people ask me what I thought of the piece. Given the influential nature of the New Yorker itself, I decided to respond here. The writing is good. There is much that is accurate about…
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The Tim Ferriss Show just released a two-hour podcast this week, interviewing Mike Phillips, one of the biologists who spearheaded the successful wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park in the early 1990s, a long-serving Montana legislator, and currently a professional conservationist leading efforts to get gray wolves restored to the mountains of western Colorado. According…
