Another big win for Western Watersheds Project and Advocates for the West in conserving and restoring Idaho’s wildlife heritage.
Story in the Magic Valley Times-News. By Keith Ridler. Unfortunately the link to this story on the great victory is dead.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Well, how about that? Judge Winmill ruled that, “losing genetic diversity of bighorn sheep outweighed the $75,000 financial loss to the sheep rancher….”. Now that is news. A win for wildlife over livestock interests, particularly in Idaho, is really pretty novel. I don’t know if this is precedent setting or not, but it will surely be used in citations in future wildlife v ranching issues.
My feeling is the livestock industry has had it’s way with the politicians for so many years it is time they had a defeat in court. I have seen some of Judge Winmill’s rulings in the past. It is my opinion that, “he calls ’em as he sees ’em.” In other words, he is an unbiased and fair federal jurist.