Yellowstone National Park
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Big W, or designated wilderness as prescribed under the 1964 Wilderness Act, is one of the most biocentric pieces of legislation ever passed by Congress. Under the Act’s mandate, federal lands that meet the essential criteria of roadless character and “untrammeled” by human influence will be protected from resource exploitation so that natural evolutionary and…
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A recent article in the Bozeman Chronicle described the Yellowstone “Bison Conservation” Transfer Program. The federal government is transferring public bison that belong to all Americans to tribal reservations, which is essentially a privatization of public wildlife. In the process, they are accelerating the domestication of wild bison from Yellowstone National Park. Restoration and conservation…
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One continuously hears that “common sense” dictates that logging the forest to decrease “fuels” will eliminate or reduce large wildfires. Common sense also suggests the sun circles the earth, as anyone can quickly determine by watching it rise in the east and set in the west. However, as most of us know, the earth circles…
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In 2022, when private timber lands adjacent to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument (KWWNM) became available, a member of Maine’s Congressional delegation introduced legislation to authorize the National Park Service to acquire nearly 43,000 acres of land to add it to the national monument. President Barack Obama created Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument…
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Winter weather frequently drives wild Yellowstone bison out of the park seeking forage, where they are captured or killed at the park border. Photo George Wuerthner Recently news media announced the transfer of 141 of Yellowstone’s bison to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Most of the media and many conservation groups hailed this as…
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Yellowstone bison are part of the global wildlife heritage. Photo George Wuerthner A week ago, 116 bison captured in Yellowstone National Park were transferred to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation as part of the Bison Relocation Program. Since 2019, 414 Yellowstone bison have been transferred to the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes at Fort Peck. Many…
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Bison and Tetons, Grand Teton NP, Wyoming. Photo George Wuerthner In a recent New York Times commentary, author Dayton Duncan celebrated what he termed as the ongoing restoration of bison across the West. Hundreds of thousands of bison reside in the US on ranches, Indian reservations, and state and federal lands. That may sound like…
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Wildness in bison is maintained by evolutionary agents like harsh weather, native predators, competition for forage and mating. Photo George Wuerthner Many bison advocates assert that bison have been “saved” from extinction because approximately half a million animals are now found in zoos, ranches, tribal reservations, state parks, national parks, and other public lands. Bison…
