livestock grazing

  • Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Legislation Introduced

    George Wuerthner

    Livestock grazing in the arid West has a disproportionate impact on ecosystems. but especially on public lands which are to be managed for other values. Photo George Wuerthner  Representatives Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) introduced the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act of 2022. The Act would give federal grazing permit holders the chance…

  • Follow The Money

    George Wuerthner

      Biologist radio tracking wolves in Montana. Photo George Wuerthner  Years ago, I was in a graduate wildlife biology seminar where we discussed major issues of the day. At one of the meetings, the topic was finding work in wildlife research. There were three wildlife biology professors presenting that day. After they each gave a…

  • Biocrusts-Key To Ecosystem Health

    George Wuerthner

    Biocrusts are important in arid ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner Biological soil crusts, known as biocrusts, are lichens, algae, mosses, fungi, and cyanobacteria common on the soil surface.[i]They are critical to arid ecosystems, where they help to reduce soil erosion and maintain stability. They assist in water retention and act like soil mulch. They also create…

  • Livestock Grazing Impacts To Canyon of the Ancients National Monument

    George Wuerthner

    Lowery Ruins, part of the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. Photo George Wuerthner  Livestock grazing threatens the integrity of Colorado’s Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. Located in SW Colorado near Cortez,  President Clinton established the 176,000 acre Monument in 2000 to protect one of the highest concentrations of archeological sites in the West…

  • Paradise Lost? Custer Gallatin NF Approves Expansion of Grazing by Yellowstone

    George Wuerthner

      Emigrant Peak and Yellowstone River in Paradise Valley. The East Paradise Grazing Decision will increase grazing by livestock on Emigrant Peak and adjacent areas of the Six Mile Creek drainage, an important area for wildlife. Photo George Wuerthner  The Custer Gallatin National Forest (CGNF) recently released its decision on the future of six East…

  • Protecting the Greater Gila Ecosystem

    George Wuerthner

      The Mogollon Mountains of the Gila Wilderness, New Mexico is the heart of the Greater Gila Ecosystem. Photo George Wuerthner   I have spent most of my adult life living within, exploring, learning about, and trying to protect the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. It is one of the premier wildlands in the nation and deserves…

  • Riparian Zone Amnesia

    George Wuerthner

    Cattle tend to congregate in riparian zones because they provide food, water, and shade. Photo George Wuerthner  One of the biggest problems in conservation is that people do not miss what they don’t know. How many people really miss the Ivory-Billed woodpecker or Stellar’s sea lion? And I’ve found that people living in the eastern…

  • Rancher Vandalism on the Dixie National Forest Utah

    George Wuerthner

      The nearly complete annihilation of vegetation by livestock vandelism seen here should result in the termination of any grazing privileges. Photo George Wuerthner  I recently spent a few days on the Dixie National Forest in southern Utah. One of the defining characteristics of the forest is that nearly all the acreage that is not…

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‎”At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour.”

Edward Abbey

“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.”

Jim Fowler

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”

Raveena Tandon

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