UPDATE: Since I wrote this piece, the number of bison killed near Gardiner and elsewhere from all sources has exceeded 1024 animals. You can read the report here.
Yellowstone bison are used to being photographed not shot. Photo […]
Continue Reading →The Gallatin Range south of Bozeman deserves to be preserved as wilderness. Photo George Wuerthner
Recently I skied into a Forest Service cabin in the Gallatin Range. Looking out on a meadow with glaciated peaks beyond gave me a chance to reflect on how lucky I was to have public lands available […]
Continue Reading →In Bend in the fall, irrigators draw down of the Deschutes River to the point where fish and other wildlife die or are threatened GEORGE WUERTHNER JANUARY 27, 2023 5:50 AM
The Deschutes River narrows after irrigators draw off water in Bend. […]
Continue Reading →With the cultural appropriation of the horse, Indians became effective predators of the West’s bison herds.
INTRODUCTION
It’s often repeated over and over that commercial hunting by white sharp shooters led to the demise of the large western bison herds.
However, there is plenty of evidence that Indian bison […]
Continue Reading →Sandstone outcrops and chaparral along Hurricane Deck, San Rafael Wilderness, Los Padres NF, California. Photo George Wuerthner
Chaparral is one of California’s most widespread vegetation communities due to the state’s Mediterranean climate of winter precipitation and summer drought. Chaparral is particularly common in the Coast Range, Traverse Ranges, and western slopes of […]
Continue Reading →New road was created for a forest thinning project. Roads are a major location for human ignition. Photo George Wuerthner
The Biden administration announced it would spend nearly $930 million fighting wildfire in the West. While the plan includes money for everything from hardening homes to paying for more firefighters, the main […]
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High-severity blazes are critical to healthy forest ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner
I read yet another study circulated by UC Davis and doggedly promoted by the national media, encouraging more prescribed burning, thinning, and forest manipulation to reduce large high-severity blazes characterized as “bad.”
The headline from UC Davis proclaims that […]
Continue Reading →ABSTRACT: Livestock production occurs in all deserts (except polar deserts). In many desert areas, it is the single most significant human impact. Livestock production includes grazing plants and all associated activities to produce domestic animals. This consists of the dewatering rivers for irrigated forage crops, killing of predators and “pest” species, forage competition between native […]
Continue Reading →Air view of Pedro Bay area on Illiamna Lake, Alaska. Photo George Wuerthner
In December, the Pedro Bay Native Corporation (PBC) in Alaska placed 44,000 acres of its property under a $20 million conservation easement that may be the nail in the coffin for the proposed Pebble Gold and Copper Mine […]
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When Deb Haaland was nominated for the position of Secretary of Interior, I received dozens of emails from nearly every large conservation organization to support her nomination. She was appointed without having any particular experience or background in public lands issues and limited executive experience in running major federal land management agencies […]
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