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Governor Bullock recently created the Montana Forest Action Advisory Council that is biased towards logging and is dominated by timber industry interests and supporters to “reduce wildfire risk.” I don’t expect the Governor to be an expert on wildfire or forest ecology, but it is clear from the makeup of his council that its primary…
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by DAVID MATTSON Reprinted from Counterpunch with permission of the author — As a scholar and social scientist I get annoyed when concepts are deployed for partisan purposes without regard for intellectual integrity. Having said that, I suspect that most politicians would find my distress silly, which is to be expected of a breed that exists…
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The article “Rancher Promotes ‘New Paradigm’ On The Rangeland” appeared in the May 10 Mountain Express.https://www.mtexpress.com/news/environment/rancher-promotes-new-paradigm-on-the-rangeland/article_bd8c4ab2-728d-11e9-86c2-af41ed665afe.html The views expressed by rancher Glen Elzinga deserves some perspective. I acknowledge that rancher Glenn Elzinga is trying his best to improve his livestock grazing through intensive management of his cattle herd. However, there is no right way to…
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Bob Marshall, Aldo Leopold, and Olaus Murie, legendary biologists and founders of The Wilderness Society (TWS), must be crying in their graves. When Marshall founded the Wilderness Society, he wrote: “We do not want those whose first impulse is to compromise. We want no (fence) straddlers for in the past they have surrendered too much…
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We live in an age of Orwellian Doublespeak. Such doublespeak is exemplified by the euphemistically named “Resilient Federal Forests Act” (RFFA) sponsored by Rep. Westerman. Like previous versions, Westerman asserts RFFA will reduce massive wildfires and smoke, and promote more “resilient” forests. In the name of fire reduction, RFFA is a Trojan Horse designed to…
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Point Reyes National Seashore was established in the 1960s by the purchase of private ranches. The public paid fair market value for these lands. Livestock operations were to be removed over a 25-grace period. But time and again the ranchers refused to leave OUR property. Surprisingly Representative Jared Huffman, ordinarily good on environmental issues, has…
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Recently the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MDFWP) Commission voted to permit cattle grazing on the Spotted Dog Wildlife Management Area (WMA). Approval of livestock grazing on the WMA is based on the theory that a quid pro quo allowing ranchers to graze their cattle on public land will reduce animosity towards wildlife…
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The April 25th article in the Yakima Herald “Fewer low-intensity fires means more severe fires” quotes Ryan Haugo, director of conservation science at The Nature Conservancy and contained many misstatements that lack context about wildfires. https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/study-low-intensity-fires-way-down-in-northwest-s-dry/article_aef38135-95ca-5689-aaab-5fc9906c3818.html It is possible that Haugo stated more ideas and simply wasn’t quoted in the article, but since he more…
