water pollution

  • 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…

  • Freighter Spring–Livestock Vandalism On Challis National Forest

    George Wuerthner

    Mount Boarh, Idaho’s highest peak rises above the riparian exclosure that is supposed to be ungrazed.  Freighter Spring, Challis National Forest, Idaho. Photo George Wuerthner I recently spent some time hiking in Central Idaho. At the base of Mount Borah just off the Doublesprings Road, I decided to check out a large riparian enclosure surrounding…

  • Key Impacts of Livestock Production (not just grazing) Upon the Land.

    George Wuerthner

    The ecological impacts of livestock production is significant and there is seldom a full accounting of these costs. Photo George Wuerthner  Livestock is responsible for more ecological damage to the western landscape than any other human activity. However, few accounting of these impacts is ever compiled. One source is my book Welfare Ranching–the Subsidized Destruction…

  • California Coastal Commission On Point Reyes Ranching

    George Wuerthner

    Dairy and beef cattle are grazed at Point Reyes National Seashore sixty years after the properties were purchased by American citizens. Photo George Wuerthner  Fences. Everywhere I went during a recent trip to Point Reyes, I encountered fences. Why are there fences in a national park unit? They exist to facilitate the private use of…

  • Point Reyes–Time to Remove Cows

    George Wuerthner

    Point Reyes National Seashore was established in the 1960s by the purchase of private ranches. The public paid fair market value for these lands. Livestock operations were to be removed over a 25-grace period. But time and again the ranchers refused to leave OUR property. Surprisingly Representative Jared Huffman, ordinarily good on environmental issues, has…

  • Diesel Use in Gas Drilling Cited as Violation of Safe-Water Law

    Ken Cole

    The practice of fracking, or hydraulic fracture drilling has been a highly damaging practice wherever it is used and now Congress is asking the EPA to take a harder look. Diesel Use in Gas Drilling Cited as Violation of Safe-Water Law. New York Times

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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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