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"Conservation"
I attended the Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolverine listing hearings in Helena. Opponents, including a number of Montana state legislators as well as MDFWP, argued that wolverine populations were “stable” or even “increasing” and therefore did not warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act.
While the ill-informed state legislators who testified could be forgiven for [...]
Continue Reading →The Supreme Court recently ruled in an 7-1 vote (Justice Stephen Breyer recused himself) that the EPA regulations about water pollution as mandated by the Clean Water Act did not apply to sediment and other pollution from logging operations. The timber industry is rejoicing over the ruling. But citizens should be less sanguine than industry. [...]
Continue Reading →By George Wuerthner
State Fish and Game agencies are in the midst of a funding and mission crisis. They appear unable to adapt to shifting political and demographic changes much as the Republican Party is failing to adjust to new voter realities. The crisis is nowhere more evident than in their attitudes towards predators like [...]
Continue Reading →A very happy development?
Drones are in the news a lot all of a sudden. Welcome to the new world where they can help you or kill you.
Poachers of African rhinos, elephants, etc. are often organized in semi-military units and more than a match for Park rangers. Now in some places, Kenya in the [...]
Continue Reading →In their December 29th editorial in the Billings Gazette, Scott Talbott of the Wyoming Game and Fish and Harv Forsgren of the U.S. Forest Service wrote that hunting was another step towards grizzly bear recovery.
To read their editorial, go to this link: Guest opinion: Hunting another step toward grizzly bear recovery.
Specifically, the [...]
Continue Reading →Growing movement said not to work, resulting in disappearance of wildlife and spread of disease-
There is a new movement of sorts that does not believe that feral animals, primarily feral domestic cats and dogs should not be killed . . . at all. The “no-kill” movement has made surprising advances in cities and towns. [...]
Continue Reading →SAGE GROUSE: PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE CAUSES
When I was in college, one of my favorite courses was animal behavior. One of the more memorable lessons I learned was the difference between proximate and ultimate causes of behavior. Proximate and ultimate causes of events are important to distinguish.
For instance, say a researcher finds that sedimentation [...]
Continue Reading →Montana Dept of Fish, Wildlife and Parks maintains wolverine trapping.
At their August 2, 2012 Commission meeting, the Montana Dept of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MDFWP) commissioners voted to continue trapping wolverine, despite a petition from eight environmental groups and one individual George Wuerthner (me) to halt trapping. The groups– which included Friends of the [...]
Continue Reading →Agreement ending 100 years of fighting over the uses of the Klamath River’s waters falls to a group of local malcontents-
After many years of fighting over salmon, dams, irrigation water, tribal treaty rights and ocean fishing matters came to an unpleasant head in 2001-2 when VP Dick Cheney sided with irrigators and let 70,000 [...]
Continue Reading →Famous family of conservationists says change policy or give up the Olaus Murie Award-
Olaus Murie is often called the “father of modern elk management.” His seminal scientific study of elk and many other kinds of wildlife such as caribou, which he learned about for 6 years in the field with has brother Adolf, was coupled with [...]
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