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Conservation groups have long been saying that cross-fostering of Mexican wolf pups into wild dens won’t work as the only tool for the necessary genetic rescue of the wild population. We want adult, well-bonded pairs released from captivity with their pups, if possible, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been balking at this option.…
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Hoback Peak in the Wyoming Range, Bridger Teton NF, Wyoming. Photo George Wuerthner A recent proposal by the Bridger Teton National Forest threatens the ability to retire grazing allotments on public lands through permit buyout. Grazing on public lands is a privilege, not a right. Nevertheless, the political power of the livestock industry makes it…
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Dairy and beef cattle are grazed at Point Reyes National Seashore sixty years after the properties were purchased by American citizens. Photo George Wuerthner Fences. Everywhere I went during a recent trip to Point Reyes, I encountered fences. Why are there fences in a national park unit? They exist to facilitate the private use of…
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Guest opinion by Adam Bronstein, Western Watersheds Project‘s Idaho Director In a painful example of why states can’t be trusted to manage gray wolves, the Idaho Legislature seems to be fast-tracking Senate Bill S.1211, which aims to slash Idaho’s wolf population by as much as 90 percent. The bill would inappropriately transfer the traditional roles…
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Cattle congregating in the riparian area, Chama, New Mexico. Photo George Wuerthner SOIL CARBON AND LIVESTOCK Rangelands make up a large proportion of the Earth’s surface, and the soils hold a significant amount of sequestered carbon (Schuman,G.E et al. 2001). Rangelands are estimated to contain more than one-third of the world’s above and below ground…
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Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Ram. Photo George Wuerthner Bighorn sheep acquired their name for the large circular horns of the mature rams. They are strongly associated with mountain terrain, particularly steep hills and cliffs, which protect them against predators. They graze upon grasses and other plants. In general, bighorns are associated with drier parts of…
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“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” What should we call the diverse, wild, inspiring but scarred peninsula sliding very slowly past us, jurisdictionally in West Marin County, California, but geologically across the San Andreas Fault, on the Pacific Plate, going steadily its own…
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The dawn breaks each morning on a hundred different mountain ranges in the Great Basin, with few human eyes to see it. Many of these mountain chains will be unfamiliar to most – the Toquimas, the Wah Wahs, the Goshutes, the Sheeprocks, the Fox Range – but the one thing they all have in common…
