In 2006, Congress banned leasing federal lands on the Front, but many leases had already been given-
The effort to protect Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front from natural gas development has been and continues to be pretty successful. These oil, gas leases along the Front were the work of two NGOs, The Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front and Trout Unlimited.
The leases were bought from Donald Curry of Curry & Thornton of Ft. Worth, Texas.
This is very important grizzly bear habitat and deer, elk and moose spring, fall and winter range.
Leases Retired. By Karl Puckett. Great Falls Tribune Staff Writer
More on this. Added July 8, 2009. New lease arrangement advances preservation of Front. Great Falls Tribune.
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.
One step forward, one step backward….
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12674661
jdubya wrote: on June 24, 2009 at 9:07 AM
One step forward, one step backward….
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12674661.
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There’s more to this story. Feds suspend sale of Utah drilling leases. By PAUL FOY Associated Press Writer
America is now the 3rd most populated country in the world, only China & India have more humans. Unlimited human growth is neither desirable or practical and until we deal with this reality, habitat and quality of life will continue to decline. Currently our population is in excess of 300 million w/an annual increase of about 3 million. It would be interesting to conduct a survey to determine what the majority would believe is an excess of humans in this country: one billion, 10 billion or more? Depending on the country, every living human has an “ecological foot print” that can be measured in terms of water consumption, living space, pollution, crime rates, crowded highways, etc. Scientists who “busy” themselves with esoteric measurements assert that, currently, humans consume 40 perecnt of the sun’s energy leaving the remaing 60 percent for the remaing life forms. There are about 9 ways to control human numbers and 8 of them are unpleasant.
A couple of hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson, after learning about the immense empty continent that was west of the Mississippi River made the statement: “it will take a hundred American generations to fill this continent”, he was wrong, it only took five.