Wyoming wolf population is stable and depredations of livestock low- Mike Jimenez manages the wolves in Wyoming outside of Yellowstone National Park. He works for the federal government. This is because Wyoming wolves are not yet delisted from the protection of the endangered species act. Jimenez has just released the latest statistics and details of…
Arizona and New Mexico might be calming down a bit as the multitude of wildfires are now igniting to the north- May and June are almost always the peak months of wildfires in the southwest — Arizona and New Mexico. By late June monsoonal rains usually dampen these fires. In the meantime, the cooler and…
Jury rules that public land arson was committed- The trial of two East Oregon ranchers, a father/son duo, has ended with their conviction by a jury in Pendleton, Oregon. . Dwight L. Hammond Jr. and son Steven D. Hammond were found guilty of setting range fires on public lands. One was in 2001 near Steens…
Trial of the accused Hammond family arsonists is now underway in Pendleton, Oregon– We have been following this amazing story since it broke two years ago. On the first day of the Pendelton, Oregon trial, young Dusty Hammond told the court how his uncle Steve Hammond had passed out boxes of Diamond (wooden) matches during…
On December 1st, at a presentation given by Bob Budd about the Wyoming Core Habitat Plan for sage grouse, it was pretty obvious that the livestock industry has things pretty much locked up with the agencies and politicians. The presentation was given in one of the big, new hearing rooms in the basement of the…
Despite long wet spring, cool summer rangefires take hold- Pocatello, Idaho. Unlike the U.S. Southwest, Idaho has had a very cool and wet last 6 months in most parts. The result has been almost no wildfires, especially forest fires; but the rangelands are now dry in many places, especially where too many livestock have degraded…
Strange May blazes burn a third of Slave Lake, Alberta, and threaten to cook the tar sands area- It’s only mid-May, and it still struggles to get much above 60 degrees here in Eastern Idaho, but forest fires are torching northern Alberta, not all that far from the Arctic Circle. A third of the town…
Both prescribed and wildfires are burning- I think the Antelope Fire on Mt. Washburn is reburning the burn from 1988 or at least some spots immediately nearby that were missed by the big fire. I took many photos of the 1988 burn on the mountain, during and after. Fires grab attention. Jackson Hole Daily. By…
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.