Senators Steve Daines of Montana and Diane Feinstein of California have once again introduced legislation, the “Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act of 2020” that is based upon misguided assumptions that fuel reductions will preclude the large blazes occurring as the West.
Never mind that climate change is the driving force in all these fires […]
Continue Reading →
Due to gross similarities in size, food preference, and appearance, it is often asserted that bison and domestic cattle are ecological analogs. However, a review of their evolutionary history demonstrates that they have significant differences in evolutionary pressures that manifest themselves in strikingly different modes of resource exploitation.
Compared to domestic cattle, bison wander […]
Continue Reading →Cattle grazing in the Mojave Desert, California. Photo by George Wuerthner
Livestock advocates often state that cattle and sheep have merely “replaced” the native herbivores. And since plants are “adapted” to herbivory from native grazers, then “obviously” livestock grazing is compatible with ecosystem preservation. Some even go so far to claim that […]
Continue Reading →Paradise Valley, Montana. Photo by George Wuerthner
Paradise Valley, Montana, is aptly named. The Yellowstone River flows north to Livingston, Montana, framed by the Absaroka Mountains on the east and the Gallatin Range on the West. It’s one of the most stunning landscapes in the entire West.
Due to its location […]
Continue Reading →Looking down Cache Creek from Republic Pass, Yellowstone NP, WY
One of the many excuses used to justify “thinning” and logging today is to preclude massive wildfires. Notwithstanding, there is considerable evidence that such actions do not impede large fires, which only occur during extreme fire weather; people still use this as an […]
Continue Reading →
Ed. note: An earlier draft version of this post was inadvertently posted before final review. Please replace all prior copies with this final draft.
Last summer, in a remote corner of the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, in the one spot with just a little cell reception, I sat in my car listening by phone to […]
Continue Reading →
Western Watersheds Project, Alliance for the Rockies, and the Yellowstone to Uintas Connection are seeking to block the killing of up to 72 grizzly bears over the next 10 years on national forest land in the headwaters of the Green River. With the Yellowstone grizzly listed as a ‘threatened species’ under […]
Continue Reading →
Agreement with USDA’s Wildlife Services curbs killing of grizzles, wolves, other native wildlife
Sarah McMillan, WildEarth Guardians, (406) 549-3895, SMcMillan@wildearthguardians.org
Missoula, Montana—In a major win for Montana’s wildlife, WildEarth Guardians settled its lawsuit against USDA’s Wildlife Services (“Wildlife Services”) today, after the federal program agreed to severely curtail its […]
Continue Reading →When it comes to wild carnivores these lawmakers look to their gut instead of their brain-
A couple months ago I went to the Utah Capitol to oppose House Bill 228 (the brainchild of state Rep. Casey Snyder), otherwise known as the Livestock Predators […]
Continue Reading →Forest on the Ochoco National Forest. Photo by George Wuerthner
Hurray for Central Oregon Land Watch and Oregon Wild for suing the Ochoco National Forest over its proposed Black Mountain Vegetation Management Project near Big Prairie.
As is typical of the Forest Service today, they use euphemisms to conceal what they […]
Continue Reading →
