targeted grazing

  • Voluntary Grazing Retirement Could Reduce Wildfire In The West

    George Wuerthner

    Livestock is one of the major factors in cheatgrass invasion across the West. Photo George Wuerthner  Wildfire is a big issue in Western states. As climate warming has increased temperatures, created severe drought, and increased winds, wildfire has become more challenging to control, and the annual acreage burned is growing over the recent past (…

  • More Hype On Fuel Breaks

    George Wuerthner

      Targeted grazing seeks to create vegetation free zones, which advocates suggest will assist firefighters in controlling blazes. However, the collateral damage from grazing vastly exceeds any benefits. Photo George Wuerthner  A recent article in the Post Register described the research that the University of Idaho Range Department conducted on fuel breaks, especially those resulting…

  • Targeted Grazing–The Latest Magical Solution To Improve Rangeland Health

    George Wuerthner

      No chance of fires here–remove all vegetation and your problem with wildfire is solved. Photo George Wuerthner  A recent article in the Capitol Press titled: “New game plan: How targeted grazing on public lands is changing” describes how targeted grazing can fix any problems on public lands. Not unlike how logging is often described…

  • Targeted Livestock Grazing Won’t Preclude Large Wildfires

    George Wuerthner

    Senators Steve Daines of Montana and Diane Feinstein of California have once again introduced legislation, the “Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act of 2020” that is based upon misguided assumptions that fuel reductions will preclude the large blazes occurring as the West. Never mind that climate change is the driving force in all these fires…

  • Targeted Grazing Scam

    George Wuerthner

    THE TARGETED GRAZING SCAM The Idaho BLM is implementing what is sometimes called “targeted grazing” with livestock in an effort to reduce large wildfires. The theory is that if livestock graze enough of the “fuel”, then large wildfires like the 600,000 Murphy Complex or the Soda Fire which burned across southern Idaho in recent years…

  • Why Targeted Grazing Cannot Stop Large Rangefires and Recover Sage Grouse

    George Wuerthner

    The Department of Interior recently released its Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy whose goal is to reduce range fires in sagebrush ecosystems critical to sage grouse. The plan correctly identifies that cheatgrass is a major threat to the bird, as well as the sagebrush ecosystems.  Cheatgrass is an exotic annual plant that greens up early,…

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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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