Concentrations of elk by artificial feeding at Wyoming Feedgrounds is spreading diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease. Photo George Wuerthner
Wyoming Fish and Game Department has 22 elk feed grounds scattered around the western part of the state and feeds as many as 17,000 elk every winter. The agency currently has eight […]
Continue Reading →
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 […]
Continue Reading →The threat from House Bill 132
By Jim Bailey
A proposed apparently minor addition to the legal definition of “wild bison” in Montana could eliminate all possibilities for restoring public, wild bison to the state. This seemingly innocent change exists in House Bill 132 which, as of this writing, has passed the Montana House and […]
Continue Reading →By Erik Molvar
Rocky Mountain elk are one of the stars of the show at Yellowstone National Park, a world-famous destination for wildlife viewing. Elk are a defining species for the natural and human communities surrounding Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Summer tourism is the primary engine of local economies, and the prospect of […]
Continue Reading →Conservation groups challenge disease-breeding feedground on public lands
JACKSON, Wyoming –– Four conservation groups filed a lawsuit today to challenge the U.S. Forest Service’s authorization of the Alkali Creek elk feedground on the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The high-risk feedlot, run by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, baits and unnaturally concentrates wild Jackson […]
A number of environmental organizations, Western Watersheds Project, The Buffalo Field Campaign, and Friends of Animals, have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Yellowstone bison under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Some may be baffled why any bison deserve listing under the ESA when there are at least 500,000 bison found […]
Continue Reading →The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department just closed the Yellowstone River to all water borne recreation in response to a growing epidemic that has killed thousands of fish. The culprit is Proliferative Kidney Disease which can cause up to 100 percent mortality.
The disease is exacerbated by low water flows and high temperatures.
Governor […]
Continue Reading →
Appeals Court Affirms Forest Service Closures that Protect Bighorn from Domestic Livestock
Boise, IDAHO – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today affirmed the Payette National Forest’s decision to close 70 percent of the domestic sheep grazing allotments on the Idaho forest, despite the self-serving protests of the sheep industry. Conservation groups intervened in the proceedings in support […]
Continue Reading →
On Sunday and Monday, February 14-15, 2016, USDA Wildlife Services took to the skies and shot the remaining 24 bighorn sheep in the Montana Mountains of northwest Nevada at the request of Nevada Department of Wildlife. These were important sheep because they were once healthy and over 60 had been translocated from there to […]
Continue Reading →Up to 900 to soon die-
Today the annual cull of Yellowstone bison got underway. It is plenty contentious. I have been ranting about this nearly annual slaughter since 1996 on The Wildlife News and its previous incarnations.
In recent years it has been mostly out of sight just north of the Park’s northern boundary. […]
Continue Reading →
