From the monthly archives: July 2013

Pocatello, Idaho. Thirteen months ago residents at the south end of Pocatello suffered from the Charlotte Fire, just off of Mink Creek. Sixty-six homes burned. On 27th this year, smoke erupted from near the same area, causing some brief concern. It turned out instead to be a burn in Continue Reading

A new study by Dr. Bill Ripple and his colleagues, “Trophic cascades from wolves to grizzly bears in Yellowstone” in the Journal of Animal Ecology suggests a second way the return of wolves has helped the Yellowstone grizzly bears.

Grizzlies have thrived in Yellowstone Park in recent years despite the destruction of the cutthroat trout fishery, […]

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Montana Wilderness Study areas finally protected from vehicles until Congress acts-

The Montana Wilderness Study Act passed in 1977.  It required that the Forest Service protect the “wilderness quality” of a number of roadless areas in Western Montana until Congress decided to make a final decision as to whether the areas should be designed as […]

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Early wildfire starts in central Idaho bode for fire until October-

Stanley, ID.  Forest fire season in Idaho used to be August and September with many years with no forest fires of note. Now the fires begin in mid-July and burn until mid-October. Like last year, fires have already broken out, such as the Road […]

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It is time for a new “wildlife news” thread.  Please put  your news, links and comments below in comments (“Leave a reply”)  

Here is the link to the old thread now being retired (June 24, 2013).

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Suspected to have come from a domestic goat-

The entire population of bighorn sheep in the Mohave National Preserve could die from pneumonia transmitted, probably, by a lone domestic Angora goat found in the desert near where the outbreak originated.

The number of bighorn near Old Dad Mountain (200 to 300) has clearly declined and […]

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Put down for eating too many cattle-

Grizzly bear 399’s next to last adult cub 587M has been killed by Wyoming officials for killing cattle in the upper Green River 40 miles southeast of Jackson, Wyoming. That leaves only 399’s equally famous adult cub, bear 610F alive.

For those who have been in the upper […]

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Result is typical split between those who benefit from tourists versus agricultural traditions-

With wolf sightings on the decline in Yellowstone, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana as their populations are decimated as a matter of policy, it is hardly a surprise that those who want to see wolves are now beginning to seek out Eastern Oregon […]

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Bozeman, Montana. Last Sunday the Bozeman Chronicle ran an editorial about wolves based on the standard barroom biology that informs so much of the state’s policy on wolf management. Today MSU’s noted wolf biologist, Dr. Scott Creel corrected them on their most fundamental fact, which they got flatout wrong — the wolf population in Montana […]

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In early June, Katie Fite and I visited southeast Nevada to examine the results of past vegetation treatments meant to “restore” sage grouse habitat in the Schell Field Office of the Ely District BLM. What we found was quite astonishing. Rather than restoring sage grouse habitat, the BLM targeted the best sage grouse habitat, near […]

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Quote

‎"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