The Wildlife News

July 2007

  • Yellowstone's Owl Fire now over 2000 acres

    Ralph Maughan

    The one big fire in Yellowstone keeps growing, and now at over 2000 acres has burned out the middle of Specimen Creek, a major drainage in the NW Corner of the Park. My earlier stories on the Owl Fire. Update, from Inciweb on Saturday, July 28. Today 12 handcrews were assigned to the fire line…

  • Rocky Barker's blog: Nampa man blows up dam in Oregon to aid salmon

    Ralph Maughan

    Rocky Barker’s blog: Nampa man blows up dam in Oregon to aid salmon. Idaho Statesman. Although I don’t write prolifically about salmon and steelhead (prized NW anadromous fish), their management and fate is one of the longest and divisive wildlife controversies in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. One of the major points of contention is the…

  • Craig, Otter criticize BLM fire management

    Ralph Maughan

    Oh boy, these Idaho politicians acted fast to try to define what caused the fires, protect their butts, and try to get a bit extra for their good buddies out there. It’s quite a scene — the BLM and 1000 of their staff diverted to help fight fires in Idaho caused not by the Clinton…

  • Charred and scarred: Ranchers blame grazing rules for fire's huge size

    Ralph Maughan

    Charred and scarred. Ranchers blame grazing rules for fire’s huge size. By Matt Christensen. Times-News writer. This story features none other than Idaho State House of Representatives Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, of whom KT has written. Brackett is correct that the grazing rules led to the size of the fire, but in exactly the wrong way.…

  • Idaho declared brucellosis-free

    Ralph Maughan

    The largely non-story (in Idaho) about Idaho losing its brucellosis free status has now ended. Idaho has been declared “brucellosis free” again. Idaho cattle had been infected by Wyoming elk near the Wyoming border in, naturally, a winter elk feeding operation close to cattle. Idaho media barely covered the story, and, of course, Wyoming the…

  • Increased humidity keeps Idaho fires from growing

    Ralph Maughan

    A relatively new forest fire, Trapper Ridge, is pumping a lot of smoke into Stanley Basin. There will be a big controversy over grazing when the Murphy Complex and other range fires are out. Burned areas should be rested a good while and seeded with native grass, forbs, and brush to reduce the liklihood of…

  • Oregon too heads for wildlife dark ages

    Ralph Maughan

    In Idaho and Wyoming it’s wolves, but in Oregon the state legislature has focused on cougars (oh, they’ll do that in Idaho too, soon enough). Here is the sad story as told by George Wuerthner. Oregon’s Cougar Slaughter: A Return to the Dark Ages. New West. Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildfire is using the…

  • Sheep in wolves clothing (editorial cartoon)

    Ralph Maughan

    At the Western Watersheds Project blog.

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‎”At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour.”

Edward Abbey

“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.”

Jim Fowler

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”

Raveena Tandon

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