Category: Law
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Northwest Forest Plan Revision Advocates More Logging
The Forest Service is proposing to amend the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). The NWFP was created to protect old-growth forests and wildlife.The new plan proposals would weaken the protection of public forests. The NWFP was implemented in response to excessive logging ravaging many acres of public patrimony with massive clearcuts that turned public forests…
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California Wolf Restoration: A Look Back, Today And The Future.
Back in 2000, I wrote a piece for California Wild about the prospects for wolf restoration in the state. At that time, there had not been any wolves reported in the Golden State in decades. Nevertheless, I felt the state could easily support a wolf populaiton. In my article, I pretended that it was 2020…
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Comb Wash – Check It Out Before A Quarter of a Century of Recovery is Destroyed
The Comb Wash allotment and the adjacent Cottonwood allotment within what, at the time of this writing, is still within the Bear’s Ears National Monument features prominently within the annals of litigation against the abuses of livestock grazing on our public lands. For decades after the passage of The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) the…
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Conservation Efforts In The Trump Era
After Donald Trump’s election, many wildlands advocates have become depressed and disheartened and feel that conservation efforts are over. The Trump administration will no doubt try to eliminate, thwart, or dismantle conservation laws and policies. It is important to remember this is nothing new. The old phrase “two steps forward and one step back” often…
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Last Stand for Headwater Lahontan Cutthroat Trout – Part 1
Part 1 – History and Importance The sage steppe country of Nevada had always been a comfortable place for me because as children we were brought up to visit relatives in an old mining town in Elko County. A great place for kids to run around wild while the adults sat inside and talked. But…
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Old Growth Logging Challenged in Bitterroot National Forest
The Gold Butterfly logging and burning project, east of Corvallis, Montana, is in wolverine and grizzly bear habitat and bull trout critical habitat in the Sapphire Mountains on the Bitterroot National Forest. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit on September 9th against the Bitterroot National Forest seeking to stop the Gold Butterfly logging and…
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Another Attempt To List Montana Grayling Under The Endangered Species Act
On August 30, 2024, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (MDFWP) closed the Big Hole River to fishing due to high water temperatures. When water temperatures rise, cold-water fish like trout are stressed and more susceptible to disease and even being caught due to low water concentrating fish in the remaining holes. One…
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Yellowstone Bison Plan Favors Tribal Culture Over Preserving Wild Bison
Yellowstone National Park recently released its Final Bison Management Plan. It arbitrarily limits bison numbers through tribal hunting outside of the park and the transfer of public Yellowstone bison to Indian reservations. The NPS Preferred Alternative 2 is better than the existing bison management but will continue the degradation of wild bison. Alt. 3 is…