Land Development
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The oil & gas and livestock industries continue to feel the pressure from land use agencies as the evidence piles up indicating that these extractive uses of our public lands are significantly contributing to the precipitous decline in sage grouse numbers. Sage grouse are described as the “spotted owl” of the ranching industry in the…
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Yesterday I posted an article about the bankruptcy of ultra luxury mountain communities — Yelllowstone Club, Promontory, and Tamarack. Here is one of a number still unbuilt, and now being canceled. “An ambitious plan to turn the mostly empty land around Bridger Bowl’s base area into a high-class, king-sized ski, recreation and residential village has…
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This is from the Jackson Hole News and Guide. It’s about how 100 bighorn sheep struggle to survive in the heights of the Tetons. It is a marginal existence, but the destruction of the bighorns of the Snake River Range and other mountain chains to the south and southeast, which would provide better habitat is…
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Plum Creek timber is the largest private landholder in Montana, and now since timbering no longer pays as much as remote subdivisions do, they are planning, asking and building a lot of them. Many are located in expensive-to-service, forest fire prone country. Most county commissions seem to think that they have to let developers do…
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This unique and controversial subdivision is being planned for the edge of Paradise Valley, between Livingston and Yellowstone Park. It is being built on Wineglass (Canyon Mountain) where a number of wolf packs have formed in the past. Its design is far superior to the development that is already going on in the Paradise Valley.…
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Cows or Condos? Neither! By George Wuerthner. New West. It must have been 15 years ago when I was visiting Wuerthner at his place in Livingston that he outlined to me the argument he makes in the New West guest opinion above. I’ve been thinking about it ever since, especially when I am out on…
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As Logging Fades, Rich Carve Up Open Land in West. New York Times. By Kirk Johnson. This is something that needs to be slowed or stopped if possible. Hardly any existing residents seem to like this trend, but hardly anyone suggests anything effective in stopping it. Repealing regulations protecting the environment from logging and grazing…
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This is from the WWP blog. What the story in the WWP blog does not mention, is that the very same thing goes on in Idaho to the harm of wildlife and revenue to the counties that allow it — trophy homes are built on an acreage and should generate a fair amount of property…