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Popular Lake Mead/BLM desert area to be closed in portions to secure cattle of scofflaw rancher- See updates at the bottom of the article. “Public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Clark County, Nevada, within the Gold Butte, Mormon Mesa, Bunkerville Flats Areas will see temporary closures to the public beginning…
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Just a week and a half after hearing arguments in a case brought by Idaho Wool Growers Association; American Sheep Industry Association; Public Lands Council; Wyoming Wool Growers Association; Carlson Company, Inc.; Shirts Brothers Sheep; and Colorado Wool Growers Association, against the Payette National Forest’s decision to close 70% of the domestic sheep grazing on the…
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Some of the checkerboard landscape(s) across the western US can be attributed to the Congressional land grants made to the railroad barons in the 1800’s. While some lands were eventually developed for railroads, others never were. Unfortunately, instead of these unused lands being returned to the public domain, some were sold off to timber barons,…
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Citizen Sacrifices Self to Draw Attention to, and Stop Wild Bison Slaughter FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 6, 2014 Contacts: Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign, 406-646-0071 Mike Mease, Buffalo Field Campaign, 406-640-0109 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, GARDINER BASIN, MT: This morning, Comfrey Jacobs, a twenty-year old citizen concerned for wild bison, placed life, limb and freedom on…
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Many hunter organizations like to promote the idea that hunters were the first and most important conservation advocates. They rest on their laurels of early hunter/wildlife activist like Teddy Roosevelt, and George Bird Grinnell who, among other things, were founding members of the Boone and Crocket Club. But in addition to being hunter advocates, these…
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S.1337 goes far beyond criminalizing videos of Idaho CAFOs- It’s a threat to outdoor travel and recreation- By now readers might have received some alerts about S. 1337 which is before the Idaho legislature. It is being portrayed as a threat to documenting what goes on in concentrated animal feeding operations in Idaho. It is…
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5 Keys to Reforming Wildlife Management in America- Over the years, I have come to realize that the current wildlife management model in America, at the federal level, and particularly, the state level, is broken. The system is such, in which, politics trumps the best-available science, the special interest-minority overwhelms the democratic-majority and the almighty…
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Much of the current political discussion about forest thinning and many of the efforts being implemented or proposed for federal forest lands are aimed at reducing large severe wildfires. It seems intuitively obvious to most people that reducing fuels will eliminate or minimize large fires that burn across large swaths of the West and occasionally…
Author
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.