A small part of a herd of 300 or so elk on Ayers Meadow in the Frank Church Wilderness in July, Central Idaho. This has always been great elk country, but several years ago cattle grazing in the drainage was bought out, so now these public lands have more elk than ever. Idaho –mule and white-tailed deer, moose, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, lynx, wolverine, pronghorn antetope, wolves, cougar , bobcats, black and grizzly bears, and a state where the public owns more than 60% of the land.
Don’t let the privatizers, the political dividers, or the industrial interests ever take it away from you. 
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project.
Grizzly bears in central Idaho’s Frank Church wilderness? Curious, has this been confirmed?
No I was writing about Idaho in general. The grizzlies are north in the Selkirks and just west and SW of Yellowstone Park. Ralph
Brings back memories of four great days spent at the Fir Creek Campground near Bruce Meadows in June 2004. We watched 150-or-so head feeding behind the airstrip and even thought for a moment we were watching a wolf (which turned out to be a sandhill crane).
Don’t let the privatizers, the political dividers, or the industrial interests ever take it away from you.
Amen.
But what about the beetles? Who is going to protect us from the beetles?
Are you serious? Perhaps. If not, good joke!
The dead trees in the background were perfectly green and died in a forest fire in 1988.
Tongue firmly planted in cheek.