Thirteen ranchers won a sweeping victory this week, defeating the interests of three million annual visitors to Point Reyes National Seashore, by securing a plan amendment that extends their commercial livestock operations on Park lands for at least 20 years. The plan amendment – the first epic public lands fail by the nascent Biden administration […]
Continue Reading →Is this kind of damage from private livestock the kind of impact the National Park Service should permit? Photo George Wuerthner
The final Record of Decision (ROD) on livestock operations management at Point Reyes National Seashore was released this […]
Continue Reading →Chapter 3:
Rewilding on a Global Scale: a
Crucial Element in Addressing
the Biodiversity Crisis
George Wuerthner
30
Rewilding on a Global Scale
According to the report, the average abundance of native species
has declined by 20% since 1900. Other groups have suffered
significant declines, including […]
Bison herd. Photo George Wuerthner
Many authors today suggest that Indigenous people somehow behaved differently from other humans, particularly western culture that now dominates the globe in their relationship and exploitation of natural lands. The general theme is that while the human influence pre-European contact was significant, human exploitation was tempered […]
Continue Reading →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 […]
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Concentrations of elk by artificial feeding at Wyoming Feedgrounds is spreading diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease. Photo George Wuerthner
Wyoming Fish and Game Department has 22 elk feed grounds scattered around the western part of the state and feeds as many as 17,000 elk every winter. The agency currently has eight […]
Continue Reading →“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”
What should we call the diverse, wild, inspiring but scarred peninsula sliding very slowly past us, jurisdictionally in West Marin County, California, but geologically across the San Andreas Fault, on the Pacific Plate, going steadily its own […]
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Cattle grazing in designated wilderness at the Mojave National Preserve, California. Photo George Wuerthner
Cows in designated wilderness areas? Does that seem like an oxymoron? Wilderness Areas are supposed to be places where natural processes and native species are given priority. With the election of the Biden administration, it may be […]
Continue Reading →Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Photo by George Wuerthner
George Wuerthner and Lee Whittlesey
Smithsonian Magazine recently published an article titled, “The Lost History of Yellowstone,” which features the work and opinions of archeologist Doug MacDonald. MacDonald is the author of Before Yellowstone: Native American Archaeology […]
Continue Reading →Peaks in the Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska. Photo George Wuerthner
While most Americans were focused on the seditious events in Washington DC, the Trump Administration approved the right of way for the 211 Mile Ambler road across Alaska’s Brooks Range southern edge. The route will access mineral deposits near […]
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