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WHY FIRE SUPPRESSION HAS HAD LITTLE INFLUENCE ON WILDFIRES A common assertion, oft repeated by the timber industry, the Forest Service, and even far too many conservation groups (like The Nature Conservancy) is that a hundred years of fire suppression has contributed to the large wildfires we are seeing around the West. The logic goes like this.…
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http://www.nature.org/magazine/archives/new-life-in-the-badlands.xml The above link is to an article published by The Nature Conservancy exalting the Malpai Borderlands group in Arizona and New Mexico. You can read the article for a little background on the Malpai group, but the basic story is relatively simple. A very large ranch called the Gray’s Ranch lying along the Mexican…
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Nature Notes: Explaining the new land rules. Elko Daily Free Press. Oct. 10, 2015 SNIP: “Well-managed livestock grazing is compatible with sage-grouse conservation. The plan amendment did not close any grazing allotments or cut any AUMs. During the 10-year grazing permit renewals, management objectives will be put in place to protect habitat and rangeland health…
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With the recent decision not to list the Greater Sage Grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and given the overall weak measures in various Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service (FS) conservation plans, it behooves activists to consider measures that will protect the sage grouse, and its habitat, along with the more…
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The decision by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) not to list the Greater Sage Grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was an adroit dance of politics. The plan to “save’ the sage grouse has no clothes. The government proposed solution to the bird’s decline includes 14 new sage-grouse recovery plans—consolidated from 98…
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A recent article in the Science section of the New York Times seemed to reiterate some of the common misunderstandings about wildfire. While there are parts of the article that I certainly agree with, the implicit message that large wildfires are ecologically destructive and that thinning forests will save them is questionable. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/as-fires-grow-a-new-landscape-appears-in-the-west.html?emc=eta1&_r=0 AFTERMATH OF…
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NEWS RELEASE Western Watersheds Project Lander, WY – The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has revised the state’s water quality standards on 76 percent of the state’s stream mileage to allow five times more fecal coliform bacteria in the water. The new standards allow 630 colony-forming units of Escherichia coli (“E. coli”) per 100 milliliters of…
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Huge Nevada monument riles Republican extremists- President Obama has added over a million acres to the national parks system by designating three new national monuments on U.S. public lands. They are in Texas, California, and Nevada. They are Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, 331,000 acres in Northern California, Waco Mammoth National Monument in Texas and the big (704,000…
Author
George Wuerthner is an ecologist and writer who has published 38 books on various topics related to environmental and natural history. He has visited over 400 designated wilderness areas and over 200 national park units.