-
The Gallatin Range runs from Bozeman into Yellowstone National Park. The Custer Gallatin National Forest (CGNF) segment contains a 230,000-acre roadless area. Currently, the CGNF is considering which parts of the forest to recommend for wilderness in its Forest Plan. The FS recommends about 85,000 acres in two segments as wilderness. The Gallatin Forest Partnership…
-
Wyoming counties are currently involved the Public Lands Initiative. Ostensibly the purpose is to determine which Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) should be designated as wilderness and which areas will be released to other land exploitation. Across Wyoming, there are 42 WSAs on BLM lands and three WSAs on Forest Service lands, totaling over 700,000 acres.…
-
For thousands of years, humans have been reliant and aware that we are all dependent upon other life to support us. If the caribou or bison herd didn’t come near the village or the salmon failed to materialize in the streams, people starved. We humans intuitively understood that we had an obligation and responsibility to…
-
One of the only good things about the failure of Congress to agree upon the future of DACA recipients (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is that Trump’s fantasy about a border wall was not funded yet (which you may remember Mexico was going to pay for). Many see the Border Wall controversy as a humanitarian…
-
The Forest Service is currently seeking public comments regarding the development of alternatives for the Forest Plan Revision on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests in North Central Idaho. The deadline is February 28. The new forest plan will guide management direction over the next 10 – 30 years. A Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for…
-
The Custer Gallatin National Forest is revising its Forest Plan, and among other things, is reexamining its roadless lands and making recommendations for future wilderness. This is critical because lands deemed worthy of the potential wilderness by the Forest are managed to retain their wilderness qualities. Not surprisingly the Forest has produced an anemic recommendation given…
-
Most of environmental/conservation groups in the West are participants in various public land collaboratives. The majority are forest-oriented like the Northwest Forestry Collaborative https://www.conservationnw.org/our-work/wildlands/forest-collaboration/ or the Deschutes Forest Collaborative in Oregon http://deschutescollaborativeforest.org/ or the Southwest Crown Collaborative in Montana https://www.swcrown.org/. Though there are others like the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative https://wcca.wygisc.org/wpli/homepage/index.html which focuses primarily…
-
Oregon Public Radio had a story about the Deschutes River and its water flow problems. The Deschutes River which historically had one of the most constant flows of any river in the United States due to the abundance of springs that form its headwaters. The annual difference in high and low flows was about 6…
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.