Politics

  • Idaho ranchers want more taxpayer money for grazing “studies”

    Ken Cole

    While Idaho taxpayers are facing budget cuts to public education and health care, ranchers are busy writing self-serving bills to provide money for “studies” that will paper over destructive impacts of livestock grazing on sage grouse. Last year saw thousands of people marching on the grounds of the Idaho Capital in Boise. People were marching…

  • “What changes the landscape?” BLM asks scientists,”but be sure to ignore the biggest cause!”

    Ken Cole

    A year after Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a complaint with the BLM for intentionally excluding livestock grazing impacts from “Rapid Ecoregional Assessments” which were supposed to look at “change agents” for BLM landscapes, the BLM has put the $40 million assessments on hold and remained silent about charges of political interference. Even…

  • Woolgrowers have no shame. Wyoming state Senator proposes to move or kill bighorn sheep to protect domestic sheep.

    Ken Cole

    Because of litigation by the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance challenging the US Forest Service over its decision to allow domestic sheep grazing in occupied bighorn sheep habitat in Wyoming, state Senator Larry Hicks has proposed a plan to remove or kill bighorn sheep to protect domestic sheep grazing. This shows the stunning depths that woolgrowers are…

  • Why are the Woolgrowers Litigating the Payette Sheep Decision 2 Years Later?

    Ken Cole

    With little hope that they will prevail in Idaho District Court people are asking why the Idaho Wool Growers Association, American Sheep Industry Association, Public Lands Council, and sheep ranchers from Wyoming and Colorado have begun litigation now.  According to the latest gossip, the woolgrowers hope for a Romney Administration in 2013. The woolgrowers think that,…

  • The Politics Behind Montana’s Wolf Hunt Decision

    George Wuerthner

    Understanding Montana’s Wolf Policy Decision George Wuerthner On July 12, 2012, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MDFWP) Commissioners voted 4-0 to increase wolf hunting in the state, expanding the hunting season and permitting the trapping of wolves for the first time as well. The goal is to reduce wolf numbers across the…

  • Baucus Beetle Amendment To Farm Bill Bad For Forest Ecosystems

    George Wuerthner

    Despite the ecological reality that beetle-kill is part of healthy functioning forest ecosystem, Montana Senator Max Baucus successfully added an amendment to the Farm Bill that would provide additional funds to log beetle killed trees as well as “stream line” the process of getting out timber sales. Baucus stated this would be “good news” to…

  • Conservation Groups and Livestock Interests Work to Create a New $25 Million Rancher Slush Fund

    Brian Ertz

    Recently we were informed of a new effort by two conservation groups, a Native American tribe and livestock interests “to secure $25 million from the upcoming 2012 Farm Bill to help livestock producers reduce the risk of livestock losses to grizzly bears, wolves, black bears and mountain lions.” This taxpayer money is meant to “reduce…

  • Wolves to the Slaughter

    Ken Cole

    Christopher Ketcham has been writing about many of the issues we write about here and has just published a very long and clear-eyed article about the ongoing wolf issue in The American Prospect. Ketcham interviews many people here in Idaho including our own Brian Ertz and his sister Natalie, he also got some great quotes…

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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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