In recent years it has become fashionable for conservationists to substitute and promote other land classification in place of wilderness designation. Wilderness is “passé” so we are told, even though it is the “gold standard” for land protection.
In a recent white paper, The Wilderness Society outlined some of these alternatives such as National Recreation […]
Continue Reading →The spectacularly glaciated Gallatin Range stretches south from Bozeman into Yellowstone National Park. The 250,000-acre roadless area is the largest unprotected wildlands left in the northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
WILDLIFE VALUES
The Buffalohorn and Porcupine drainages (BHP) that drain into the Gallatin River near Big Sky, Montana are a miniature ecological equivalent of the Lamar […]
Continue Reading →Billings, Montana has seen a steady increase in population and economic diversity. In all likelihood, Billings will continue to grow. At a modest average growth of 1.5 percent a year, Billing’s population will increase by more than 40,000 people in 20 years.
At the same time, Billing’s economy has greatly diversified. […]
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Buffalo Horn drainage
The Gallatin Range that lies south of Bozeman, Montana is the largest unprotected wildlands in the northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). The Gallatin Range is highly scenic with glaciated cirques, grassy meadows, and subalpine lakes.
Biologically it is one of the more diverse […]
Continue Reading →“We’re basically playing chicken with the feds. It’s basically more like extortion, . . .”
Rep. Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne)-
This session of the Wyoming legislature has been one to nurse grudges when it comes to livestock and efforts to curb its harmful side effects.
The legislature passed a bill to criminalize the gathering of […]
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 →Release seemed to briefly stall, but now the goats are raising kids and expanding territory-
In 2010 45 mountain goats were released on the east slopes of Mt. Jefferson, a tall volcano in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. Soon 3 of them slipped to their death or were killed by predators. Most survived, however, and last July […]
Continue Reading →Ten photos of jaguar near at site of 6,990-acre Rosemont mine project area-
Arizona is pockmarked with abandoned copper pit after pit and associated toxic tailings. There are also some active pits and old ones starting back up. Finally there are plans for another new giant pit on the north end of the Santa Rita Mountains […]
Continue Reading →Disease ridden domestic sheep killed off the bighorn in early 1900s and pose the same disease barrier today-
As has been written so many times, domestic sheep are full of diseases that are fatal to their wild cousin, the bighorn. Now plans to restore the mighty bighorn to the rugged Bridger Mountains to the northeast […]
Continue Reading →Ravalli Republic publishes photos of 4-member cougar family in Sapphire Mountains-
The Sapphire Mountains are the range on the east side of the Bitterroot Valley. Outside of the immediate area the mountains on the west of the Valley, the Bitterroot Mountains, are better known. The Sapphires are much more gentle and have a lot of […]
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