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 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 and the creator of The Wildlife News.
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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.