From the monthly archives: August 2013

Season generally runs August 30 to March 31-

Idaho’s wolf-hostile, general hunting season opens again tomorrow.  The season is six months long except for parts of the state where it is ten months long.

While normal hunts for elk, deer, ducks, and the like, strive to maintain sustainable and nearly stable populations of the game […]

Continue Reading

One of the often repeated remarks used to explain the large fires we are experiencing around the West is that a hundred years of fire suppression has led to unnatural accumulations of fuels.

Yet such assertions assume that fire suppression was always efficient and effective—a […]

Continue Reading

We now know the true story of the recently deceased 176 sheep near Fogg Hill in Eastern Idaho — frightened into stampede, but not killed by wolves.  We have to ask ourselves, have past wolf “massacre of sheep” stories been similarly misreported?

Back in 2009 near Dillon, Montana, there was much outrage, but few facts […]

Continue Reading

Little Queens fire a new worry-

With in incredible 1714 people assigned to fighting the Beaver Creek fire which has slowly grown to 108,000 acres, good progress has been made securing its long east flank, greatly reducing the threat to burning these towns. The fire is rated at 30% contained.

Matt Leidecker Photography has a  Continue Reading

Big pile of dead sheep in remote Idaho mountains-

While uncommon, this sort of thing has happened before in Eastern Idaho/Western Wyoming.  It’s not a pretty picture.  One hundred seventy-six sheep lie dead below a rocky slope near Fogg Hill, […]

Continue Reading

New York Times and others condemn Agency actions. Wolf delisting temporarily halts-

Before a species can be removed from the endangered or threatened species list a panel of qualified scientists  (“peers”) need to review the proposal to see if a delisting as proposed is justified — will not result in the species becoming in need […]

Continue Reading

As large fires have spread across the West in recent decades, we hear increasing demands to reduce fuels—typically through logging. But logging won’t reduce the large fires we are experiencing because fuels do not drive large fires.

You can have tons of fuel per acre as occurs in Oregon’s Coast Range or the Olympic Mountains […]

Continue Reading

Beaver Creek Fire descends onto Idaho resorts towns from the west-

Talking with  Hailey resident Jon Marvel early last week about the huge Elk Creek and Pony wildfires blazing northeast of Boise, Idaho, he said “Watch the Beaver Creek Fire, especially as the weekend arrives.” The weekend came with the predicted winds and a stampeding […]

Continue Reading

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 (July 23, 2013).

 

Continue Reading

The recently released Department of Interior Fiscal Year 2012 Economic Report shows that Grazing on BLM Public Lands Accounts for only 0.41% of the nation’s livestock receipts and only 17,000 jobs.  In contrast, recreation accounts for 372,000 jobs and contributes $45 billion to the economy.

According to the report, the BLM permits […]

Continue Reading

Calendar

August 2013
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

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