Currently viewing the category: "Land Development"

Rural subdivision in Gallatin County, Montana. Photo George Wuerthner

Back when I was a student at the University of Montana in Missoula, I had a girlfriend who managed to rent a house adjacent to the Bitterroot Mountains near Hamilton. All of us were very jealous of her luck in obtaining a place […]

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Most land trusts and many conservation groups frequently ignore the impacts of Agriculture and focus on urbanization and sprawl as the main threat to biodiversity and ecosystems.

A good example is the Teton Land Trust, Idaho. A recent story about their board president, John Nedrow, a farmer, talks about how he put a conservation easement […]

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The Wilderness Society just teamed up with Yale University to release a report promoting renewable energy development on public lands, and like the recent Michael Moore documentary Planet of the Humans, it’s stirring up controversy. The report suggests we should ramp up utility-scale renewable production on federal public lands, with a particular focus […]

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CAPTION: Open space is not the same as good wildlife habitat. The hayfield shown here has limited wildlife value. The willows and other shrubs on the left are along a creek protected from livestock by a rural subdivision. The right side of the photo dominated by grasses and an entrenched […]

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The Forest Service is currently seeking public comments regarding the development of alternatives for the Forest Plan Revision on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests in North Central Idaho. The deadline is February 28. The new forest plan will guide management direction over the next 10 – 30 years. A Draft Environmental Impact […]

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This is a big laugh, but does have important info about Bundy’s rangeland harm-

For those who don’t want to discuss rangeland, wildlife, trespassing cattle, rare animals like tortoises, or Cliven Bundy’s damage to the public land, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is an impossible to ignore target. After all Senator Reid lives in Nevada […]

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Did militant unlimited property-rights firebrand die in Oso landslide?

Many speculate why there was so little action to prevent building below an obvious landslide area near Oso, Washington, where now 25 bodies have been recovered. A likely contributing factor has just emerged in the news.

Living in the path of the landslide was Thom Satterlee, 65, and […]

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With all of the horrible things happening in Idaho’s wolf management, it is hard to focus on other, perhaps more, important issues facing Idaho wildlife.  With a deadline of 2015 bearing down for the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to make a decision about whether the greater sage grouse should receive protection under the […]

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Crosshairs on Yellowstone

On February 5, 2013 By

Decaying Management In America’s National Park System-

Yellowstone Park is loved by millions of Americans and many more around the world. It is the original model for not just America’s National Park System, but for national parks in other countries.  By “system,” it is meant the national parks are established and managed by a common […]

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Building the huge Interstate cut a swath through the wildlife rich mountains and foothills, and over time the wildlife impact of I-90 has grown-

Interstate 90 is a vital transportation corridor from the Seattle area eastward across the northern Cascade mountains, but the magnitude of the gash has served to bisect wildlife populations and cause […]

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Quote

‎"At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour."

~ Edward Abbey