The East Shell Rock fire in the Jarbidge Wilderness of extreme northern Nevada was allowed to burn for “ecological benefits,”* but it burned well outside the Wilderness, destroying some of the last sagebrush stands suitable for sage grouse in the area. There is suspicion that was done to help powerful ranchers, who want more grass…
Joan McCarter looks at some of Wyoming’s recent strategies to protect sage grouse, avoid ESA listing of Sage grouse to keep Oil & Gas happy. Grousing Around Is the sage grouse the 21st century’s spotted owl? – NewWest
The Casper Star Tribune highlights an important threat to wildlife habitat – weeds: Waging war on weeds The article gives a pretty good indication of the extent to which different weeds threaten wildlife habitat and are an economic scourge – but I will take issue with one statement made in the article : Native plants…
Resistance to the scientific consensus of the existence of climate change is waning ~ politicized prescriptions for inaction and for the relaxation of public environmental laws takes its place. Last week, federal and state wildlife and public land managers gathered to talk about global warming and the effects it will have on western land and…
Plans are underway begin developing public lands to accommodate big energy, a move which promises to further fragment already diminishing wildlife habitat : Feds begin scoping for Gateway West transmission project – Casper Star Tribute Many of these areas are some of the last best habitat for wildlife such as sage grouse, pygmy rabbit, and…
Last summer, the Murphy fire burned a huge swatch of the Owyhee country in SW Idaho (and northern Nevada). Ever since the BLM has been under intense pressure to do the wrong things such as graze lands that burned rather than let them recover. Some of the ranchers here have very high political connections. The…
This is from Slate Magazine. Listing polar bears under the Endangered Species Act won’t do much good, but we should do it anyway. By Holly Doremus Update (more). Here is more on the Administration’s footdragging on listing the polar bear. The Latest Environmental Victims: The Polar Bear and the Sage Grouse. The Board, a blog…
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.