A recent article about the low flow on the Yellowstone River (Oct.6h) missed an opportunity to inform Montana citizens about water in Montana. http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/low-flows-high-temps-the-new-normal-on-yellowstone/article_85a816c3-3b81-50e1-9734-d9e733662f80.html#utm_source=bozemandailychronicle.com&utm_campaign=morning-headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline
What is not well-known is that water in Montana (as in the rest the West) is public property owned by the state’s citizens. Like the air, water is considered a […]
Continue Reading →The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department just closed the Yellowstone River to all water borne recreation in response to a growing epidemic that has killed thousands of fish. The culprit is Proliferative Kidney Disease which can cause up to 100 percent mortality.
The disease is exacerbated by low water flows and high temperatures.
Governor […]
Continue Reading →Grayling are one of the unique fish species found in Montana, and part of its natural heritage. Occupying less than 10% of its former historic habitat, the fish is in jeopardy of extinction. Political interference and agency intransigence are the major obstacles for reversing the fish’s fortune. As such, the grayling is case study in […]
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The standoff in Harney County Oregon highlights one of the great ironies of the rural West. More than any other people, western rural residents are more heavily dependent on government (read taxpayer) largesse than any other part of America. Yet the average rural resident sees himself/herself as a “rugged and independent” individual and by […]
Continue Reading →WWP Intends to Sue if Grazing Continues to Harm Bull Trout in the Little Lost River Watershed-
Boise, Idaho — Today, Western Watersheds Project (WWP) gave the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) a 60-day Notice of Intent to sue for the agency’s failure to protect a federally protected species from livestock grazing impacts on eight […]
Continue Reading →Wyoming government continues its quest to make the state’s creeks legally safe for unlimited amounts of pathogenic cow flops.
With no notice to the general public or to nonagricultural or nonindustrial special publics, the DEQ has adopted new rules permitting 5 times more e. coli in almost 90,000 miles of Wyoming headwaters creeks. This is […]
Continue Reading →Wildlife management reform objective two-
Recently we discussed the first objective in reforming the broken system of wildlife management we see in America today. That was to restructure the state fish and game departments. Here is the second:
2. Remove Grazing From All Federal Public Lands
Grazing […]
Continue Reading →Biggest water user is most definitely not the cities of the West-
When we look at biggest use of water in the Western United States, livestock, meaning cattle, stands alone.
It’s February 2015 and most of the West remains locked in a great drought. It covers all of the West except Montana, Wyoming and about […]
Continue Reading →Was it trespass, or is it really punishing WWP for exposing that truth?
In the matter of Frank Ranches, et al. (more ranches) versus Johnathan Ratner, individually and in his capacity in Western Watersheds Project and Western Watersheds Project (WWP), there have been a number of motions: a […]
Continue Reading →The bull trout, a char, is listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened in the lower 48 states. It has been extirpated from about 60 percent of its natural range. Worse, like many native salmonids, it is primarily found in headwater streams with little connectivity to larger river systems. The bull trout is a top apex predator, and as a […]
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