The effort to list the Greater Sage-grouse via the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been an uphill battle. However, even as the end-game has yet to be realized, the effort itself has been remarkably successful at prompting bureaucratic backflips and a whole lot of paper-shuffling to accommodate consideration of the species. Unfortunately, many of the existing and developing [...]
Continue Reading →Not just these animals and birds are being hurt, but we are too-
For those who pay attention, there are many stories about increasing blockage of long seasonal migrations by wildlife. These changes are accompanied by the spread of disease, and the growth of “pest” species which are normally eaten or disrupted by these [...]
Continue Reading →Another Solar Development, Another Lost Landscape ?
Chris Clarke gives a remarkable account of another landscape that has found its way into the cross-hairs of Solar Developers and Big Green, and of the locals’ abiding love for the land:
Solar Energy Development in the Carrizo Plain Draws Lawsuits – KCET – The Back Forty
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Continue Reading →Big Energy companies with criminal records given billions in stimulus funds to wreak havoc on our public lands and wildlife.
The Center for Public Integrity has issued a stinging report on how the Obama Administration has bypassed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when issuing permits for energy and other projects which involve federal lands [...]
Continue Reading →Salazar Strikes Again, Denying Meaningful Protection for Imperiled Tiny Bunny of the Sagebrush Sea
The declining condition of the Sagebrush Sea has been highlighted on a couple of occasions over the past couple of weeks. In recent Washington state news we learned that jackrabbits in sagebrush habitats are diminishing. Pygmy rabbits were rejected [...]
Continue Reading →Michael J. Connor, Ph.D.
California Director
Western Watersheds Project
Secretary of the Interior Salazar is about to initial a series of major giveaways of public lands in California to industrial-scale solar power producers. These “fast-tracked” power plant projects have had truncated environmental reviews in the current administration’s rush to place huge chunks [...]
Continue Reading →Brian Peck Excoriates Senator Tester’s “Wilderness” Bill And The “Environmental” Groups Who Support It.
He explains that the “bill would set aside just over 600,000 acres of Wilderness, withdraw current protection from nearly 250,000 acres, and require that 100,000 acres be made available for logging and roading in an already fractured landscape.”
Continue Reading →Groups Applaud Finding for Rapidly Declining Desert Icon
Desert tortoise advocates have been waiting for this good news for a very long time. Should a listing take place, many human intrusions into the desert tortoise’s southwest desert habitat, including livestock grazing and excessive development, will be largely halted. The benefit of such will [...]
Continue Reading →A lot of ecologically important land is going to be put under the bulldozer with this.
Secretary Salazar, Senator Reid Announce ‘Fast-Track’ Initiatives for Solar Energy Development on Western Lands - Department of Interior News Release 6/29/09
And some comment :
Interior fast-tracks Big Solar on public lands - Chris Clarke, The Clade
Note the [...]
Continue Reading →Animal kills by federal agency more than double
By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press Writer
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The number of animals poisoned, shot or snared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture more than doubled last year, and environmentalists who are critical of the killings renewed their effort Tuesday to limit the [...]
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