LAS VEGAS— Conservation groups have called on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to round up and remove the cattle of rancher Cliven Bundy, who has been illegally grazing his livestock on public lands for two and a half decades. U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro on Monday dismissed all charges against Cliven Bundy and his sons…
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…
Bundys go free again: scoflaw rancher wins, sort of. Federal prosecutors fail to bring justice again. Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro of Nevada has dismissed the federal government’s criminal case against Cliven Bundy, his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy, plus militia journalist Ryan Payne. She had recently declared a mistrial in the ongoing trial…
by Erik Molvar, Western Watersheds Project The Trump administration has just launched a process to dismantle the greater sage-grouse land-use plan amendments that were put in place in 2015 to avert an Endangered Species listing for the bird. The emerging consensus is that this move undermines wildlife conservation, and represents yet another attack on science,…
by Erik Molvar, Western Watersheds Project On Monday, President Trump took his first trip to Utah to sign a proclamation gutting the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments to make way for drilling, mining, and other commercial exploitation fundamentally incompatible with protecting fragile and priceless treasures. In his speech before an invitation-only crowd of…
With the final recommendations by Secretary Zinke and Congressional Greg Walden asking Donald Trump to reduce the size of the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument to facilitate more logging, it behooves Oregonians to work towards increasing the protection of this unique area. It is well established that many national monuments designated by Presidential proclamation eventually…
Among the many threats to our public lands now before Congress is House Bill HR 1349 which would amend the Wilderness Act to allow mountain biking throughout the nation’s wilderness preservation system. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate. The legislation is being promoted by a mountain biking group with the happy sound inclusive…
https://www.fs.usda.gov/projects/shoshone/landmanagement/projects It is with dismay that I find the Shoshone National Forest is continuing with its plans to log about 2000 acres along nine miles of the scenic Chief Joseph Highway between Cody, Wyoming and Cooke City, Montana, including part of a roadless area. Mind you an acre is about the size of a football…