Do Elk Feedgrounds Violate Public Trust? By Deb Donahue.* Wyomingfile.com This is a fine legal analysis of Wyoming’s elk feedlots. ” Litigation is generally an ineffective way to manage wildlife. But litigation over the feedgrounds seems inevitable, and it may be the only way to ensure that western Wyoming’s wildlife get a fair shake.” –…
We could see it in the Idaho wolf population management plan, and now we see in the rules the Forest Service is developing regarding allocation of recreation on public lands. Story in the Casper Star Tribune. Sweet deal for outfitters? By Brodie Farquhar. Ever since the Pombo-Gibbons bill to give away our public lands to…
This is a link to an article by Mcjoan in the Daily Kos. It is about the importance of public land, and the need for the Democrats to be smart about this issue, which they often were not over the last 20 years. A stance defending the public lands can be a winner for them,…
Outdoor writer Ted Williams has weighed on the “RAT” in a Writers on the Range piece. Writers on the Range: Fees have become a public lands shakedown. By Ted Williams. A search of this blog will bring many more stories how a not very good demonstration project has become much worse as it was made…
This is an essay by Dave Foreman of the Rewilding Institute. It appeared in New West. Landscalping: The Arrogance of Modern Resourcism Foreman is correct, I think that some conservation groups have given into resourcism, with the Nature Conservancy being a prime example. To quote Foreman, the principles of resourcism are: 1) Professionalism—Trained experts are…
I thought folks would be interested in this because of the focus on the Southwest. I know a lot of people are celbrating the recent victory keeping oil and gas out of the famed Valles Caldera in northern New Mexico, but what they don’t know it that the public is excluded and this exclusionary semi-public…
About a month ago, the Western Watersheds Project and other groups won an injunction from Idaho federal district court judge Lynn Winmill on the BLM’s new grazing regulations. The victory enjoined the public participation party of the new regulations (new regs greatly restricted meaningful public input on grazing). Now the second shoe has dropped, with…
The Washington County [Utah] Growth and Conservation Act would designate over 200,000 acres of very scenic public lands as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System, but the guts of the act is the part that sells 25,000 acres of US public land near booming St. George, Utah to developers. The money would finance a…
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.