Scoflaw ranchers turn out livestock on parched public lands- Battle Mountain, Nevada – Following in Cliven Bundy’s lead, ranchers in Battle Mountain, Nevada have defied drought closure orders and yesterday turned livestock onto the North Buffalo allotment managed by the Battle Mountain District of the Bureau of Land Management. Despite ongoing good faith negotiations by the agency and…
Livestock grazing harm to the imperiled bird ignored- The U. S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) just released the final environmental reviews for proposed land use plans. These, it says, “will help conserve greater sage-grouse habitat and support sustainable economic development on portions of public lands in 10 states across the…
Both the article Range of Possibilities by Kelly Cash, followed up by the pro-livestock piece Public Lands Need Cattle to Meet Conservation Goals by Sheila Barry which appeared in Bay Nature Magazine imply that livestock production is an overall positive activity for California public lands and wildlife. The pro livestock articles can be found here: https://baynature.org/articles/pro-public-lands-need-cattle-to-meet-conservation-goals/ and…
A growing debate has serious consequences for our collective relationship to Nature. Beginning perhaps twenty years ago, a number of academics in disciplines such as history, anthropology, and geography, began to question whether there was any tangible wilderness or wild lands left on Earth. These academics, and others, have argued that humans have so completely…
Litigation Cited in Decision The University of Idaho will forgo sheep grazing at a controversial research station on federal lands in Montana this summer due to an ongoing lawsuit. The University’s general counsel has stated that the school will “await further guidance through the outcome of the litigation and from the federal agencies over the…
http://www.americanprairie.org/news/spring-2015-newsletter/#wildsky Dear APR I am very disappointed to learn about the American Prairie Reserve’s promotion of beef. This images says it all. What is the American Prairie Foundation about? It would appear you are about preserving cows and cowboys. That surely is not what I thought you were doing. I had high hopes for the…
The paper Commentary: A critical assessment of the policy endorsement for holistic management published by David Briske and colleagues challenges proponents of Holistic Management advocated by Allan Savory. You can find the paper at this link. This paper by Briske et al. 2014 confirms and reiterates many of the observations and conclusions I’ve made about Savory…
The art of land and wildlife management has fallen into the hands of political actors who are beholden to powerful interests who only care about how much money they can squeeze out of our wildlife and public lands. When faced with making tough decisions, these professional bureaucrats have learned special skills to move up through…
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.