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Halstead Fire threatens all the Salmon River Mountains NE and East of Stanley- Trinity Ridge Fire’s advance prompts immediate full evacuation of Featherville area- Air quality in Idaho right now is the worst in a generation in many places, and we’re not even speaking of places immediate to the fires. Three fires in particular the…
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In Nevada nowadays it is all the rage to blame predators for habitat problems created by overgrazing by livestock. That is clearly illustrated in an article published in the Elko Daily News which describes the efforts that the State of Nevada has undertaken under pressure from livestock groups cleverly disguised as hunting groups. Rather than…
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With the exception of the Yellowstone population and a few other small herds of bison which came from Yellowstone, virtually all of the buffalo in in the U.S. are hybrids with cattle genes. The amount of genetic material from cattle may be small but there has been debate about whether it can affect the fitness…
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They now have access to fragile CRP lands, but will they help wildlife in return- Farmers and ranchers have been allowed into the Conservation Reserve Program lands (CRP) because of the drought. This unfortunate decision is hardly unique. As George Wuerthner wrote today in The Wildlife News, “. . . Conservation Reserve Program lands are supposed…
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With severe drought gripping much of the Mid-West and West, the federal government is promising relief from this “natural disaster” for agricultural producers. Soon federal funds will be flowing for “disaster relief” in the farm belt. Already farmers are permitted to graze and hay Conservation Reserve Program lands which are supposed to be, among other…
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Our popular, small, non-native predator kills billions of small animals a year directly and indirectly by disease- There are close to 80-million pet cats in the United States and over 50-million feral cats — felis domesticus. Unlike other pets that eat meat, cats are pure carnivores. Fortunately, the meat for most the pets comes from…
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This fire was started just a few days ago (Aug 6), in mountains east of obscure Denio Junction in Nevada — the Trout Creek Mountains. It quickly spread north into Oregon, southward and eastward. Now it is over 270,000 acres, and a major source of interstate smoke. These are dry, mostly sagebrush and grass covered…
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One sub-adult female removed from the NE Washington Wedge pack- Wolf numbers are growing slowly in Washington State as they migrate in from intense persecution in Idaho and down from British Columbia. Due to topography a fair number end up in NE Washington, though a surprising number have not, contrary to early expectations. There are…