Category: Grazing and Livestock
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Rewilding a Mountain
How removing cattle led to a massive ecological recovery
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Public Lands Welfare Ranchers Again Subsidized By Taxpayers
Livestock are grazed on all federal lands, including national parks and wildlife refuges. Still, most livestock grazing occurs on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service. Even specially protected landscapes that are supposed to be managed for natural conditions, like designated Wilderness areas, are grazed by domestic animals.…
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Irrigation for Livestock–Destroying Western Rivers
A recent newspaper article noted that a large resort ranch along the base of Montana’s Crazy Mountains was using water for irrigation on a golf course. Worse, according to the news account, the ranch did not have water “rights” to use this water. Many people are outraged. While we can debate whether using scarce water…
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Oregon Wolf Update
In the late 1990s, I was traveling across the Blue Mountains of Oregon with my wife, Mollie, and my children en route to Montana. Both Mollie and I had been involved in wolf restoration politics in Montana. At the time, there were no wolves in Oregon. However, as we passed mile upon mile of rolling…
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Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act Reintroduced
The Beartooth Mountains contain some of the most extensive alpine terrain in the Rockies. Photo by George Wuerthner The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) is the most comprehensive and ecologically defensible legislation currently before Congress. The Act was first introduced in 1993. NREPA was reintroduced by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Madeleine Dean, who…
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Upper Green River Allotment Grizzly Mortality Sink
The Upper Green River headwaters are in the Wind River Range. Photo by George Wuerthner The 170,000-acre Upper Green River Allotment, located on the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, is the largest grazing allotment under Forest Service administration. It is also one of the best wildlife habitats in the West, and it is easily comparable…
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Grass-fed Beef: Climate Destroyer
For many years, I’ve been a critic of cattle production. I have mainly focused on public land grazing because that is one area where citizens can have a voice in management. More recently, concern about livestock’s contribution to climate warming has garnered more attention. The punch line is that any kind of beef is bad…
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Another Trojan Horse To Expedite Livestock Grazing Of Public Lands
Here we go again. Yet another article “Bill plans to use livestock grazing to lower wildfire risk” about how livestock grazing can reduce wildfires. It seems that every month or so, someone (without much knowledge of fire ecology or even grazing impacts) rediscovers the fairy tale that fuel reduction by grazing will preclude large wildfires.…