June 2014
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Increase in State-permitted Fur Trapping Leads to Illegal Trapping of Wild Cats BOISE, Idaho— Five conservation groups filed a lawsuit today against the governor of Idaho and other state officials to halt trapping that harms and often kills Canada lynx, one of the rarest cats in the United States. The lawsuit charges Gov. Butch Otter,…
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Bighorn sheep, and much other wildlife will benefit- In a big surprise, including to the now unhappy Idaho congressionals, Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack has told Congress he will close the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station (USSES) near Dubois, Idaho. The station covers 16-thousand acres of summer grazing in the Centennial Mountains — on the Continental Divide…
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Environmental groups have asked a federal court in Montana to stop domestic sheep grazing this summer at the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in southwest Montana. On June 23, 2014, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians and Gallatin Wildlife Association filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Biological Opinion for…
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Bison allowed to wander Jackson Hole, WY at will- We have written about bison in Wyoming versus inside Montana a number of times, but not for a couple years. Because of the constant public hostility of Montana’s Department of Livestock (the DOL) and the less-than-in-depth reporting by Montana traditional media, folks probably forget that Montana’s…
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Action taken to nip the drone problem in the bud- Yesterday the National Park Service banned the use of private drones in all the parks. The ban is temporary while a permanent policy is set in place, but there is little reason to think the ban will be reversed. Earlier we did a story on…
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Gardiner- A weekend long event titled, Speak for Wolves: Yellowstone 2014 is scheduled to take place in Gardiner, Montana from June 27-29, 2014. Organizers are describing it as an opportunity for the American people to unite and demand wildlife management reform and take steps toward restoring our national heritage. The festivities include prominent speakers, live…
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Recently I received an alert from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) asking me to send a letter to the Montana Dept of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MDFWP) requesting a slight reduction in their wolf killing/trapping quota outside of Yellowstone Park. The main rationale of the alert was that wolves were important to the local economy…
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The Western Governors’ Association met earlier this month in Colorado to discuss, among other things, plans to oppose federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection for Greater sage-grouse and undermine federal conservation laws. The sage-grouse is in grave decline across its range in the western United States, but rather than spend time developing ways to restore…
