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A recent modeling study that looked at livestock grazing and sage grouse has been getting a lot of play in the media with headlines like “Livestock Grazing Can Benefit Sage Grouse, Study Says.” http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/study-says-some-livestock-grazing-could-benefit-struggling-sage-grouse/article_1d49f8a5-6e59-5954-9a55-9026961a44cf.html And not surprisingly, representatives of the livestock industry are quick to pounce on the study as evidence that livestock grazing is…
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PORTLAND, Ore. – Western Watersheds Project, a nonprofit environmental group, has launched a legal challenge to a management plan for five National Wildlife Refuges in the Klamath Basin of Oregon and California. The lawsuit, filed last week in Oregon, cites failures by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect sage grouse and rare native…
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With much fanfare, as reported in the Great Falls Tribune, the Montana Sage Grouse Oversight Team announced that it will bequeath more than $1.5 million for a 18,033-acre conservation easement on the 44 Ranch west of Winnett in Fergus and Petroleum Counties. Ostensibly, the state money, as well as additional private and federal government…
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The Department of Interior recently released its Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy whose goal is to reduce range fires in sagebrush ecosystems critical to sage grouse. The plan correctly identifies that cheatgrass is a major threat to the bird, as well as the sagebrush ecosystems. Cheatgrass is an exotic annual plant that greens up early,…
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Here is a positive editorial authored by Ted Koch, US Fish and Wildlife Service Nevada Field Supervisor and signed by three other state US Fish and Wildlife Service managers that recently appeared in the Elko Daily Free Press apparently in response to an editorial I wrote about how livestock grazing was harmful to sage grouse…
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An important study released today concludes that the presence of cattle in important sage grouse habitats increases the number of ravens that prey on sage grouse and their nests by 45.8% in the Curlew Valley of southeast Idaho. The study found that anthropogenic subsidies were increased in areas where livestock grazing occurred and raven populations increased…
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Nature Notes: Explaining the new land rules. Elko Daily Free Press. Oct. 10, 2015 SNIP: “Well-managed livestock grazing is compatible with sage-grouse conservation. The plan amendment did not close any grazing allotments or cut any AUMs. During the 10-year grazing permit renewals, management objectives will be put in place to protect habitat and rangeland health…
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With the recent decision not to list the Greater Sage Grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and given the overall weak measures in various Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service (FS) conservation plans, it behooves activists to consider measures that will protect the sage grouse, and its habitat, along with the more…
Author
George Wuerthner is an ecologist and writer who has published 38 books on various topics related to environmental and natural history. He has visited over 400 designated wilderness areas and over 200 national park units.