By Josh Osher and Andy Kerr The Sheriff of Harney County, OR met with the leader of the armed occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and offered a way to end the takeover fiasco. The Sheriff offered a “safe escort” out of the increasingly untenable situation. Congress should follow the Sheriff’s pragmatic gesture and offer…
Boise, ID – Western Watersheds Project is disappointed that the government’s acquiescence to ongoing law-breaking on public lands across the West has led to the armed occupation of one of America’s premier bird sanctuaries. This weekend’s militia takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is another battle in the “War on the West” that extractive industries…
Court resentences the Hammonds saying the original judge let them off easy — so easy it was against the law- Back in 2010 to 2012 it was a big story, an Eastern Oregon ranch family, Dwight and Stephen Hammond were believed to have set fires to illegally burn public land, cover up poaching crimes, and perhaps…
Stephen Corry is the founder and director of Survival International, an organization that seeks to protect tribal people’s rights. While a worthy goal, Corry, unfortunately, seeks to blame conservation for many of the ills facing tribal people, rather than recognizing that conservation is ultimately the best way to retain and protect native culture from the…
Livestock grazing has fanned summer’s fires in Idaho and the West- Livestock grazing in southwestern Idaho and across the West has contributed significantly to intensity, severity, and enormity of fires this summer. Important habitat for sage-grouse, redband trout, other wildlife species is now ablaze. Despite the livestock industry’s claims to the contrary, the Idaho fires…
As much as 700,000 acres in and adjacent to the new designated wildernesses could possibly be retired from livestock grazing- Many people are celebrating the establishment of the three new wilderness areas in the Boulder and White Clouds mountains of south central Idaho. About 275,000 acres of very scenic mountain ridges with alpine and sub-alpine lakes…
This past week, Public Broadcasting’s Nature film series featured the Sagebrush Sea. The film’s main focus was on the Greater Sage Grouse which is the emblematic creature found in this vast landscape that covers the bulk of many western states including substantial parts of New Mexico Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, California, Montana and Idaho.…
Federal Court Finds the BLM Broke the Law in Permitting Desert Grazing- News release Contacts: Greta Anderson, Western Watersheds Project (520)623-1878 Sandy Bahr, Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club (602)253-8633 Laurie Rule, Advocates for the West (503)914-6388 – – – Phoenix, AZ. Two conservation groups have won their legal claims against the Bureau of Land…