• The Deschutes River in Bend during the summer is downstream from irrigation removal of the water is little more than a creek.  Photo George Wuerthner  In October, irrigators began the annual drawing down of the Deschutes River to the point where fish and other wildlife die or are threatened. Good people have tried to save…

  • Protecting the Brooks Range of Alaska by giving some kind of permanent protection to the National  Petroleum Reserve. Photo George Wuerthner  The Center for American Progress (CAP) recently published a report on how President Biden could reach his goal of protecting 30 percent of America’s land and water by 2030. It is an ambitious goal…

  • Clearcuts below Grizzly Creek in the Upper Yaak Drainage. Photo George Wuerthner  The Kootenai National Forest proposes a massive logging project in Northwest Montana known as the Black Ram “Vegetation” treatment. The Black Ram project area includes Northwest Yaak from the Canadian border west to the Idaho border, south to the ridge line between Pete…

  •   Cattle grazing in riparian zone on the Bridger Teton National Forest. Photo George Wuerthner When I was in graduate school, required reading was a slim book titled “How to Lie with Statistics.” It opened my eyes to the multiple ways you can misuse statistics to “prove” a point. A new report published by Wyoming…

  • Even the extensive pavement (totally without fuel), extensive clearcutting, and hazardous fuel reductions on public lands did not save this Safeway Store when the Camp Fire burned through Paradise, California. Photo George Wuerthner  Recently Bend residents were treated to the wildfire documentary Elemental at the Tower Theater. The movie produced by Trip Jennings and Ralph…

  • Domestic sheep grazing in the Gravelly Range, Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, Montana. Photo George Wuerthner  A recent article on the Helle family and their domestic sheep grazing operations on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest was published In a November Bozeman Daily Chronicle. The piece was a puff piece on the sheep grazing practices of the Helle family…

  • Narvak-Lake-headwaters-of-Kobuk-River-Gates-of-Arctic-NP-Alaska-Brooks-Range. Photo George-Wuerthner While much conservation and political attention have focused on whether to allow oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, another project, the Ambler Mining Project, and road construction proposal may pose even greater threats to the Arctic’s wildlife and wildlands. Despite this threat, The Ambler project has thus far received far…

  • Twin Lakes on the Bridgeport Ranger District. Photo George Wuerthner  A recent final decision to keep cattle grazing out of vacant allotments on the Bridgeport District Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest is good news for the public and many endangered species. The district lies on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada just east and north…

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