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BOZEMAN, Mont.— Animal protection and conservation groups filed a lawsuit last week challenging the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission’s illegal, fast-tracked adoption of grizzly bear hunting regulations that open the door for trophy hunting once the bears are stripped of Endangered Species Act protections. A final rule removing Yellowstone grizzly bears from the endangered species list…
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Wildlife Services Challenged In early June environmental groups filed a law suit against the euphemistically named “Wildlife Services” WS (formerly Animal Damage Control) to halt its killing of wolves in Idaho. Last year the federal agency killed 72 Idaho wolves at the behest of ranchers, and sometimes hunters as well. In the past decade, WS…
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February 2, 2016 Dear Mr. Kornze, During last month’s armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, several articles reported that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) – the agency you lead– was in negotiations to restore a grazing permit of the convicted criminals whose mandatory minimum sentencing was ostensibly the spark that ignited the…
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Dwight Hammond and his son Steve, the ranchers who sparked the recent Harney County protests, were characterized as “responsible ranchers” by Congressman Greg Walden in a speech before Congress. Walden sought to minimize the crimes the Hammonds have committed by suggesting they merely burned a bit more than a hundred acres, something that he tried…
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2015 mortality figure casts a dark shadow on wisdom of delisting- Early 2016 is expected to be the time when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service once again proposes delisting the grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem (GYE) in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. Back in 2007 the Yellowstone grizzly was actually delisted, but a federal district…
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Court resentences the Hammonds saying the original judge let them off easy — so easy it was against the law- Back in 2010 to 2012 it was a big story, an Eastern Oregon ranch family, Dwight and Stephen Hammond were believed to have set fires to illegally burn public land, cover up poaching crimes, and perhaps…
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Stephen Corry is the founder and director of Survival International, an organization that seeks to protect tribal people’s rights. While a worthy goal, Corry, unfortunately, seeks to blame conservation for many of the ills facing tribal people, rather than recognizing that conservation is ultimately the best way to retain and protect native culture from the…
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A number of states have banned use of drones- Whether by passing a new law or the state wildlife agency making a new rule, the use of drones in hunting is being shot down in the states. Low cost drones continue to infiltrate our lives and the economy, and hunting is no exception. A common…
Author
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.