By Erik Molvar President Donald Trump has made a point of invoking Theodore Roosevelt, one of our nation’s leading conservation icons, as his guiding light on environmental issues. His Secretary of Interior designee, Ryan Zinke, has done the same. Those are pretty big boasts. Teddy Roosevelt was president around the turn of 20th Century, an era…
I regularly hear or read arguments from agencies compromising our natural heritage that such and such studies support their management decisions. However, often the agencies overlook or ignore contrary science that does not support the policy or management decision. To give them a break, the average district ranger or even specialists like wildlife biologists,…
The recent designation of Bears Ear National Monument in southern Utah by President Obama engendered a predictable storm of rhetorical protest from Utah’s politicians. Yet a review of their comments and those made historically by western politicians when earlier Presidents had unilaterally created public reserves shows surprisingly consistent responses. In 1887, two weeks before leaving…
In response to a guest editorial I published in the Missoulian on the shameful slaughter of Yellowstone’s bison, a group of three retired USDA range managers wrote a commentary that was published in the Missoulian on December 30th on Yellowstone’s bison. They argue that bison numbers must be reduced, and thus implicitly supporting the Dept.…
Several years ago, I published a book on motorized recreation and its impacts on public lands. In doing the research for that book, one of the statistics that I found interesting is the demographic profile of the “average” motorized ORV user. They tended to be male, between the ages of 20 and 40, and had…
The proposal to kill another 900-1000 of Yellowstone Park’s bison this winter is a national disgrace and tragedy. The continued butchery of Yellowstone’s genetically unique wild bison is a crime against the world’s global heritage. It reflects badly on the people of Montana that tolerate and allow this annual killing to go on. It also…
McMorris Rodgers pick for Interior Secretary Raises Major Environmental Red Flags Contact: Erik Molvar, Executive Director, Western Watersheds Project, (307) 399-7910 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today’s announcement that President-elect Donald Trump may tap Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) to lead the Department of the Interior has fed conservationists’ concerns that the next administration is likely…
The Chief Joseph Highway that leads from Cody to the Northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park is one of the most scenic drives in the West. I have camped, hiked, and skied the public lands along this ribbon of blacktop many times over the decades, including as recently as this past summer. Yet the Shoshone…