Category: Water

  • Livestock Influence On Soil Carbon Storage

    Cattle congregating in the riparian area, Chama, New Mexico. Photo George Wuerthner SOIL CARBON AND LIVESTOCK Rangelands make up a large proportion of the Earth’s surface, and the soils hold a significant amount of sequestered carbon (Schuman,G.E et al.  2001). Rangelands are estimated to contain more than one-third of the world’s above and below ground…

  • Antidote For Rural Sprawl–Land Use Zoning

    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 to live so…

  • Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act Introduced

    The Gallatin Range south of Bozeman is one of the many wildlands that would receive wilderness designation in NREPA. Photo George Wuerthner On March 10th, Representative Maloney of New York reintroduced the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) legislation into Congress. NREPA is visionary. The legislation is big—it would protect 23 million acres as designated…

  • Wilderness and Cows-Time to Send the Cows Home

      Cattle grazing in designated wilderness at the Mojave National Preserve, California. Photo George Wuerthner  Cows in designated wilderness areas? Does that seem like an oxymoron? Wilderness Areas are supposed to be places where natural processes and native species are given priority. With the election of the Biden administration, it may be time to reconsider…

  • Does Cattle Grazing Preclude Large Blazes?

    If cattle graze to bare soil, it is true that fires are slowed under such conditions, but the ecological impacts are enormous. Photo George Wuerthner  When I worked for the BLM, us “ologists” (hydrologist, ecologists, biologists, archaeologists, geologists, and botanists) used to refer to Range Conservationists as Range “Cons” because they conned the public into…

  • Deschutes River Habitat Conservation Plan Fails to Address Climate Change

    Upper Deschutes River is essentially an irrigation cancel for irrigators. Photo George Wuerthner The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will soon decide whether to approve a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for the Deschutes River Basin. The HCP was initiated by local irrigators and the city of Prineville who want to maintain their privilege of using…

  • Ag is the Biggest Threat to Biodiversity and Ecosystems

    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…

  • Targeted Livestock Grazing Won’t Preclude Large Wildfires

    Senators Steve Daines of Montana and Diane Feinstein of California have once again introduced legislation, the “Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act of 2020” that is based upon misguided assumptions that fuel reductions will preclude the large blazes occurring as the West. Never mind that climate change is the driving force in all these fires…

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