A rally honoring the dead from the Idaho 2011-12 hunting season set as the unlimited 2012-13 seasons nears- Surveys show that there are many people, maybe a plurality, in Idaho who favor wolves. Some favor a reasonable wolf hunt, which the planned hunt arguably is not. Others are completely opposed to wolf hunting. The Idaho political establishment…
David Stalling worked for Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for a number of years. For 10 years he was conservation editor of Bugle, their magazine. He was also President for two terms of the Montana Wildlife Federation and presently is a grassroots organizer for Trout Unlimited. In view of the current controversy over the family of…
Less than a year after Flat Top Ranch was awarded $600,000 for a conservation easement – half of which was paid for by a Blaine County levy assessed to protect wildlife – Flat Top Ranch has run into more conflicts with wolves: Jerome Hansen, supervisor of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s Magic Valley Region,…
I recently attended the wolf hearings held by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission in Helena. The commission is considering initiation of a trapping season, as well as eliminating quotas on the number of wolves that may be killed. The goal is to significantly reduce the state’s wolf population which currently numbers…
Last week I sent a letter to Idaho Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Tony McDermott asking him to explain the assertions he made it the Commission meeting held in Boise on the 21st of March. I have still not heard back from him or anyone else other than a form email from the PR…
Grazing Improvement [Entrenchment] Act Gains Legs, Threatens Hundreds of Millions of Acres of YOUR Public Land The public land ranching industry is up to it again. They’re looking to further obstruct the proper administration of grazing on federal public lands by eroding public participation and further tying down the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service’s…
In reading some of the comments posted in response to stories run on The Wildlife News this week, I was interested to see a few very heated exchanges concerning humans’ role in determining how animals die. These comments reminded me of a presentation I saw this past November at the annual meeting of the Wildlife…
With the arrival of the first wolf in California since the 1920s, no doubt the California Department of Game and Fish is receiving many comments from the public. The quality of this support, opposition and advice probably varies all over the map (the maps in our heads). Norman Bishop, who played a key role as…
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.