With the confusion over Bundy, a book by Dennis McLane is suddenly very relevant- Below is a history of grazing and the BLM the public needs to know. When Bundy cattle trespass situation came to a head this month, there was great media interest and a mass of confusion too. Now the situation is clearing a bit. More…
Sign the petition: Petition | 2-Day Holiday Idaho Killing “Derby” Targets Wolves & Coyotes, Federal Agencies Ignore Laws re: Killing Contests on Federal Lands | Change.org. For Immediate Release: December 23, 2013 Conservationists Sue to Stop Wolf and Coyote Killing Contest on Public Lands Groups Challenge Federal Agency’s Failure to Regulate Highly Controversial Contest Pocatello,…
Two-hundred and fifty million acres of public lands need your help. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resourcesis poised to move the so-calledGrazing Improvement Act of 2013 (S. 258) out to the floor, legitimizing this bad idea that is nothing more than an attempt to exclude conservation interests from public lands grazing management. If enacted, this…
On September 1, 2013, The Sagebrush Habitat Conservation Fund completed the permanent retirement from livestock grazing of over 130,000 acres of public land in the former 45 and Tent Creek grazing allotments in Owyhee County, Idaho. This permanently closes over 200 square miles of public lands to livestock grazing, ensuring habitat improvements for sage-grouse, California bighorn sheep,…
Parks, wildlife refuges, national forests closed due to failure to pass a budget- (This story has the shutdown rules for 4 land management agencies) There was no last minute deal for a temporary budget extension passed at midnight. The federal government will now partially shut down. “Essential services” will continue without a budget. However, the…
The recently released Department of Interior Fiscal Year 2012 Economic Report shows that Grazing on BLM Public Lands Accounts for only 0.41% of the nation’s livestock receipts and only 17,000 jobs. In contrast, recreation accounts for 372,000 jobs and contributes $45 billion to the economy. According to the report, the BLM permits 12.4 million animal unit…
Last week Rep. Ken Ivory, R of West Jordan, Utah, came north to Idaho, up out of the smog (worst in the country), to tell Idaho’s lawmakers that they should make a play to take over the U.S. public lands like Utah has proposed to do. We predicted this would happen because Utah’s legislature gets…
Past efforts to grab national forests, parks, wildlife refuges led by livestock industry. Now it will be Koch Bros, oil, GOP- Some call our public lands “American’s common treasure,” but the love of our land expressed in many forms, and the freedom they provide, have not stopped what are sometimes called “sagebrush rebellions” every decade…
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.