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The threat from House Bill 132 By Jim Bailey A proposed apparently minor addition to the legal definition of “wild bison” in Montana could eliminate all possibilities for restoring public, wild bison to the state. This seemingly innocent change exists in House Bill 132 which, as of this writing, has passed the Montana House and…
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Recently Donald Trump used his executive authority to mandate increased logging of our public lands with the goal of reducing wildfire threat to communities. His order instructs land managers to treat (read log) 8.45 million acres of land and cut 4.4 million board feet of timber ostensibly to reduce fire hazard. Unfortunately, the mandate ignores…
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Newly approved vegetation “treatment” project is questionable, expensive News release. Western Watersheds Project BOISE, Idaho — Today, the Bureau of Land Management approved a plan to log off or tear out native juniper trees from 617,000 acres of public land in Idaho. The agency will cut, shred, and burn juniper trees under the guise of…
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Reader generated wildlife news- It is time to create a new page of “Reader Generated Wildlife News.” Do not post copyrighted material. Here is the link to the “old” wildlife news page that began on Nov. 25, 2018. From there you can access links to the many older pages of wildlife news readers created. Please…
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In his recent commentary “Stop the Blame Game” in the Reno Gazette-Journal, Dennis Golden reveals the dangers of pop culture solutions that lack scientific scrutiny. In his piece, Mr. Golden has many misleading or inaccurate assumptions about livestock production and climate change. https://www.rgj.com/story/opinion/voices/2019/02/07/stop-blame-game-lets-find-climate-change-solutions-golden/2807017002/ First, he rhetorically asks if it really matters whether global heating is…
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I’ve visited Wendell State Forest in Massachusetts to explore the area the state proposes logging for “forest health”. In a recent article in the Greenfield Recorder, Leo Roy, State Department of Conservation & Recreation has argued that he fears the forest will become too homogenous and healthiest in the long run. As a forest ecologist,…
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Recently the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission approved new smoke rules that relax air quality standards to permit more prescribed burning. The assumption behind the new standards is that greater prescribed burning in spring and fall will reduce smoke from wildfires in the summer. Prior to the new regulations, agencies doing prescribed burning had minimal windows…
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In a recent commentary “Working to Improve Forest Health” posted by James Cummings of the Boone and Crockett Club mistakenly assumes that current wildfires are somehow “abnormal” and a sign of unhealthy forests. Then, since he creates a problem where none exist, he prescribes more active management in the form of logging/thinning as the means…
