Jury rules that public land arson was committed- The trial of two East Oregon ranchers, a father/son duo, has ended with their conviction by a jury in Pendleton, Oregon. . Dwight L. Hammond Jr. and son Steven D. Hammond were found guilty of setting range fires on public lands. One was in 2001 near Steens…
A new federal assessment of rangelands in the West finds a disturbingly large portion fails to meet range health standards principally due to commercial livestock operations. In the last decade as more land has been assessed, estimates of damaged lands have doubled in the 13-state Western area where the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM)…
Meanwhile, the BLM sues rancher rather than remove trespass cattle from the Gold Butte allotment- Last month it was reported that the BLM cancelled a roundup of trespass cattle on the Gold Butte/Bunkerville Allotment because they perceived a threat from Cliven Bundy who wrote to the company contracted to roundup and remove the trespass cattle saying “Cliven…
State parks have huge economic value but the states are closing them, cutting them, raising fees- Republican legislators and governors in the interior Western United States are saying we will manage the public lands, the national forest and parks, much better than far off Washington D. C.. Indeed the Framers of the Constitution argued the…
Candidates use that word, “public lands” because they can’t say they “have no use for national forests, national parks, or national wildlife refuges’ Most westerners love the public lands of the United States and most of the outdoor recreation that does not use special facilities like stadiums takes place on them. Romney and Santorum, who…
Federal Court Decision Holds That Protecting Sage-Grouse Must Take Priority Over Livestock Grazing in Owyhee Canyonlands and beyond in Southwest Idaho Early last week the federal district court of Idaho affirmed Western Watersheds Project’s challenge to five Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grazing decisions in southwest Idaho’s Owyhee Canyonlands that harmed Greater sage-grouse. Judge rules…
Wants to sell them back to the state- In Nevada he said he didn’t know their purpose, “I don’t know the reason that the federal government owns such a large share of Nevada.” Of course this man who never got his hands dirty doesn’t know about the public lands. Does he know anything except that…
Should public land and wildlife advocates stand in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street movement ? The Occupy Wall Street (#OWS) movement is growing across the country and world despite the Mainstream Media’s best executed attempts to ignore, minimize, and obscure its common voice. Similarly, messaging from the powers-that-be continues to suggest that the demonstrators aren’t…
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.