Public Lands

  • Why Tribal Co-Management Is A Threat to Our Public Lands

    George Wuerthner

    Given the wrecking ball the Trump administration is taking to our public lands and public values, it might seem trivial to worry about tribal co-management. Our public lands are among the most democratic of American institutions. Every American has a right to voice their opinion about public lands management, but no group should be elevated…

  • Another Trojan Horse To Expedite Livestock Grazing Of Public Lands

    George Wuerthner

    Here we go again. Yet another article “Bill plans to use livestock grazing to lower wildfire risk” about how livestock grazing can reduce wildfires. It seems that every month or so, someone (without much knowledge of fire ecology or even grazing impacts) rediscovers the fairy tale that fuel reduction by grazing will preclude large wildfires.…

  • WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE, PRESERVATIONISTS DON’T NEED ENEMIES (Feral Horses and Cascade Siskiyou NM)

    George Wuerthner

    On April 24th, 2024, the Vermont Law and Graduate School and Wild Horse Fire Brigade sent a letter to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) District office in Medford, Oregon, proposing a collaboration between the Wild Horse (feral) Fire Brigade and the BLM to reduce wildfire threat through feral horse grazing on the Cascade-Siskiyou National…

  • Welfare Ranching

    Welfare Ranching – The Subsidized Destruction of the American West Now available for download

    Jonathan Ratner

    The seminal work on public lands livestock grazing and its web of impacts, Welfare Ranching – The Subsidized Destruction of the American West is now available for download.

  • Livestock Grazing in the West–A full accounting of costs

    George Wuerthner

    Attached is a Zoom talk I gave to the Massachusetts Sierra Club on the ecological costs of livestock grazing in the West, but I also provide evidence that livestock production has a serious global impact.  

  • Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act

    George Wuerthner

    Cattle grazing in the Blue Range Wilderness of New Mexico. Photo George Wuerthner Anyone who has ever worked on public lands livestock issues knows that modifying the negative impacts of ranching operations, much less eliminating them, is nearly impossible. Domestic livestock grazing even occurs in national parks, national monuments, wilderness areas, and other public lands…

  • The Social Carbon Cost of Public Land Livestock Grazing

    George Wuerthner

    Public land livestock grazing has a significant social cost in terms of carbon emissions contributing to climate warming. Grand Staircase-Escalante NM Utah.  Photo George Wuerthner  An important paper was published in Environmental Management about the social carbon costs of public land livestock grazing. The paper Climate, Ecological, and Social Costs of Livestock Grazing on Western…

  • BLM To Continue To Permit Livestock Degradation to San Pedro National Conservation Area

    George Wuerthner

    Changes in the riparian vegetation along the San Pedro River before and after livestock removal from the main river corridor.  The Bureau of Land Management released its Environmental Assessment for livestock grazing in the San Pedro National Conservation Area (SPNCA) in Arizona. The BLM has decided that the rancher’s interests trump the public interest in…

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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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