Western Watersheds Project and Wild Utah Project had a significant win this week on the Duck Creek allotment of Utah. In the longest running administrative grazing appeal hearing in the history of the Department of the Interior, including 12 weeks of hearings and a record of 15,000 pages, WWP demonstrated that BLM’s rangeland health assessments…
The Owyhee BLM has finally issued a Proposed Decision on the so-called “Group 1” allotments but, unfortunately, the BLM really doesn’t go far enough to reverse damage caused by decades of abusive livestock grazing and they didn’t collect enough information to rationalize their decision even though the Environmental Assessment (EA) consists of a whopping 556 pages…
While Idaho taxpayers are facing budget cuts to public education and health care, ranchers are busy writing self-serving bills to provide money for “studies” that will paper over destructive impacts of livestock grazing on sage grouse. Last year saw thousands of people marching on the grounds of the Idaho Capital in Boise. People were marching…
I’ve been reading about the world’s economic woes quite a bit recently and the arguments between between those who support austerity to fight some looming “deficit crisis” and those who support deficit spending to stimulate the economy. In these arguments I am starting to believe that those who argue for austerity cuts to reduced the…
Ancient petroglyphs stolen from California site recovered. Reuters Important petroglyphs that were stolen from a site in California were cut out of the rocks using power tools. They have been recovered but the thieves have not been identified. Critics: Nevada wildlife director’s ouster could endanger effort to prevent sage grouse listing. Reno Gazette-Journal Those who…
Some recent stories about wildlife certainly deserve to be mentioned, and with a link if possible. Trap set for wolf gets a cougar instead, then a Park employee- It was set on the Glacier National Park boundary, and a cougar stepped on it and was found caught by a Park Service employee. The cougar was…
by George Wuerthner Introduction Livestock production is a contributing factor in the decline of many western species, including birds (Wuerthner and Matteson 2002). This is not surprising given the amount of land utilized for animal agriculture, including public and private lands. Approximately 578 million out of 1.9 billion acres in the West are grassland pasture…
The usual biggest Idaho wildfire month does not disappoint- Pocatello, ID. As we reported earlier, more and more wildfires are breaking out in Idaho. It is August and most are due to lightning torching the dry forests and brushlands. The smoke generally blows eastward across the state over into Wyoming, Montana, and northern Utah. Here…
Ken Cole is a 5th generation Idahoan, an avid fly fisherman, wildlife enthusiast, and photographer. He is the interim Idaho Director for Western Watersheds Project.
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