Late in May 2020, the Arizona Daily Star ran an article titled, “Advocates question investigations used to target ‘problem’ wolves,” detailing some of the work that Western Watersheds Project has been doing to review and assess Wildlife Services’ work on livestock killed by Mexican wolves in New Mexico. Together with my colleague – WWP’s […]
Continue Reading →Paradise Valley, Montana. Photo by George Wuerthner
Paradise Valley, Montana, is aptly named. The Yellowstone River flows north to Livingston, Montana, framed by the Absaroka Mountains on the east and the Gallatin Range on the West. It’s one of the most stunning landscapes in the entire West.
Due to its location […]
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Smith River, Little Belt Mountains, Helena Lewis and Clark NF. The FS could not find a single acre in the Little Belt Mountains worthy of wilderness recommendation. Photo by George Wuerthner
The recently released Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest Service (HLCNF) plan is a huge disappointment by recommending only 153,000 acres out […]
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The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is America’s environmental charter. Signed into law by Richard Nixon, it has three central tenets. First, federal agencies must look before they leap and examine the full environmental impacts of most major actions that receive federal funding, including the direct, indirect, and cumulative effects those actions will have. Second, […]
Continue Reading →The Ecological Citizen Vol 4 No 1 2020: epub-033 [online first]
First published: 23 July 2020
Like many people throughout the world, I am deeply saddened by the murder of George Floyd and by the ignorance and callousness that led to his death. One upshot, however, is that Mr Floyd’s death […]
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*** The following letter by Sarah Killingsworth was originally published in the Point Reyes Light. It is reprinted here with the permission of the author.
Dear Editors –
In their opinion piece supporting ranches in the Point Reyes National Seashore (Point Reyes Light, July 9, 2020), […]
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By Tim Whitehouse and Erik Molvar
Amid the COVID-19 crisis and the uprisings against police brutality and systemic racism, it is understandable if many Americans overlooked the Trump administration’s continued attacks on the management of public lands and the Constitution’s mandates about how our leaders are appointed.
The most recent attack of this type came […]
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There’s an old saying about the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. In the West, this could easily apply to public lands ranching and predator management. Ranchers want the predators gone to protect their bottom line but predators are a key part of ecosystem health and are […]
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A week ago, I was touring Montana public lands with my 13-year-old daughter. As we approached Yellowstone National Park, I explained how the slaughter of bison was largely to appease the livestock industry, pushed by a handful of ranchers who didn’t want bison migrating out of the Park. Bison, as it turns out, eat […]
Continue Reading →This is a “destroyed” forest “devastated” by a high severity blaze. But the abundance of flowers, aspen and shrubs makes this burn incredibly important for wildlife. Photo by George Wuerthner
I am again reading about a forest service plan for logging/thinning based on the idea that wildfires “destroy” the forest. Whether the agency […]
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