Thirteen ranchers won a sweeping victory this week, defeating the interests of three million annual visitors to Point Reyes National Seashore, by securing a plan amendment that extends their commercial livestock operations on Park lands for at least 20 years. The plan amendment – the first epic public lands fail by the nascent Biden administration […]
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Recent news stories focus on how a conservation easement on a large ranch in northwest Colorado is blocking a major new transmission line, and therefore stalling the enormous Chokecherry-Sierra Madre wind farm in southcentral Wyoming. While these articles make some valid points about the need for renewable energy, they gloss over the reality that […]
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By Jocelyn Leroux, Washington and Montana Director, Western Watersheds Project
This year has proven deadly for many of Montana’s wildlife species. From outrageously regressive rules governing gray wolf management to opening numerous Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) to livestock operations free of charge, the priorities of Montana’s decision makers have been on full display. Wildlife […]
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In July, the Bureau of Land Management rounded up the vast majority of Utah’s Onaqui wild horse herd. Pressed by a lawsuit, the Bureau’s Salt Lake Field Manager testified under oath that an emergency roundup was necessary because wild horses were in poor and declining health and would need to be euthanized if left […]
Continue Reading →Restoration of wild bison will require large landscapes. Photo George Wuerthner
Bison were critical ecosystem influences on grasslands of North America, particularly in the Great Plains “bison belt.” They provided prey or carrion for wolves, grizzlies, other smaller predators and scavengers, and food for humans. In addition, bison grazing patterns influenced vegetation […]
Continue Reading →The Upper Green River Valley and Wind River Range from the Elk Ridge grazing complex in the Gros Ventre Range. Photo George Wuerthner.
In a breach of trust and faith, the Bridger Teton National Forest (BTNF) proposes to stock 30,577 acres with cattle in the Elk Ridge area of the Gros Ventre […]
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A letter from Richard Spotts, retired Bureau of Land Management employee RE: Cliven Bundy’s chronic trespass grazing must end and how to do it Dear Secretary Haaland and other DOI officials:
Cliven Bundy’s more than a quarter century of blatant and destructive trespass livestock grazing on federal lands must come to an end. Enough […]
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J.T. Romatzke, Colorado Parks and Wildlife Regional Manager for northwest Colorado, has been caught red-handed conspiring with anti-wildlife lobbyists to undermine the state Parks and Wildlife Commission. Its scandalous and improper, and Romatzke should have been immediately relieved of his position. Instead, even after substantiating the allegations, the state government stood by Romatzke and then […]
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Bison herd. Photo George Wuerthner
Many authors today suggest that Indigenous people somehow behaved differently from other humans, particularly western culture that now dominates the globe in their relationship and exploitation of natural lands. The general theme is that while the human influence pre-European contact was significant, human exploitation was tempered […]
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The Catron County fearmongers are at it again, complaining to the State Land Commissioner of New Mexico that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s cross-fostering of wolf pups somehow puts residents at risk and, “jeopardizes the lives” of New Mexicans.
Representative Yvette Herrell cried wolf to New Mexico State Land Commissioner in early May, […]
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