A Project of Sage Steppe Wild
Currently Chronic Wasting Disease does not infect humans, but . . . Chronic wasting disease is spreading more and more widely. Our anti-conservation friends in the Department of Livestock and the various anti-wolf groups worry about brucellosis and dog tapeworms, but here is something that would be truly terrifying. Prions jumped from sheep probably to…
“The grazing of livestock, where established prior to the effective date of this Act, shall be permitted to continue subject to such reasonable regulations as are deemed necessary by the Secretary of Agriculture.” The Wilderness Act of 1964, Section 4(d)(4)(2) Cattle grazing designaed wilderness in the Sonoran Desert National Monument, Arizona. Photo George Wuerthner No…
Mule deer buck in Wyoming. Photo George Wuerthner Recently the Wyoming Game and Fish reported that between 2016 and 2020, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was found in over 60% of the mule deer tested in Central Wyoming. Recent testing suggests it may be as high as 78% of all deer evaluated. A map shows the…
Concentrations of elk by artificial feeding at Wyoming Feedgrounds is spreading diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease. Photo George Wuerthner Wyoming Fish and Game Department has 22 elk feed grounds scattered around the western part of the state and feeds as many as 17,000 elk every winter. The agency currently has eight of its 22…
This is a provocative essay by Michael Vandeman written almost two decades ago, but given the increasing demand that various recreationalists as well as industry is demanding of our wildlands, it is worth considering some of the ideas that he articulates. Wildlife Need Habitat Off-Limits to Humans! Michael J. Vandeman, Ph.D. October 12, 1997“Of what…
Elk breeders push to relax rules. Legislature close to rejecting the breeders- White-tailed deer and the parasitic meningeal worm (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis) coexist fairly well. They have fought each other to a near standstill in evolutionary conflict spanning perhaps a million years. The whitetails rarely get sick from these adult nematode type worms that live in…
B-T Forest renews elk feedground while admitting it will spread brucellosis, parasites and chronic wasting disease- Acting Bridger-Teton National Forest supervisor Kathryn Conant is going to renew the special use permit for Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Alkali Creek winter elk feedlot which is up the Gros Ventre River, sandwiched between the gravel road and…
How much longer before the feedlots are hit? Nightmare “mad elk” or “mad deer” disease, the always lethal malady spread by prions (infectious proteins), keeps creeping ever closer the the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem in Wyoming and to the massive elk winter feedlots. In these, it is expected to spread like wildfire in cheatgrass. According to…
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.