Conservationists issue Western energy agenda. By Judith Kohler. Associated Press writer. We know the agenda for the West from the Republicans — fossil fuel development forever, but the Western governors, especially the Democrats have had a lot to say lately about a new kind of energy development, and it could be pretty unfriendly to the…
Finally some aid may be coming to Yellowstone’s bison, artificially constrained to Yellowstone Park. The GAO, the investigatory arm of Congress, is looking into a number of bison issues, including the failure of CUT, the Church Universal and Triumphant, a land-owning cult immediately north of the Yellowstone boundary, to allow bison to cross its land.…
Here is the latest report from the Buffalo Field Campaign. The political idiocy that keeps bison inside the Park is at a background level — that’s my interpretation. However, here are the details from BFC. Dear Buffalo Friends, Things remain quiet here along Yellowstone’s western boundary. Not a single buffalo has stepped foot into Montana…
Here is a shocking report about the damn Canadian gold pits in northern Nevada and movement of neurotoxic mercury toward and into Idaho. RENO, Nev. – Startlingly high concentrations of mercury in ambient air were found near at least three northern Nevada mines, according to a January study by researchers at the University of Nevada,…
The Forest Service and other land management agencies are charging more and more access fees. They say the money is put to work for underfunded recreation programs, but it is now apparent that they actually using the money for other purposes including closing recreational facilities. Bill Schneider exposes them in New West. Now We Know…
Conflicting bids over state land leases, and whether prior lease holders should get preferential treatment at the expense of public education revenues has spilled over into the Wyoming Legislature. House Bill 318 would generally point away from conservation groups willing to pay two-to-three times as much for state land leases than the livestock producers who…
Once upon a time it was the Idaho Watersheds Project. Now on the occasion of her losing battle with breast cancer, in the honor of the late Molly Ivins, here is her 1998 article as to how the Idaho Watersheds Projects was born (with colorful characterizations of Idaho politicians present and past . . .…
As ePluribus Media says “There’s got to be more to this story.” We see the head of the largest of the national lands systems resign, and there’s just a tiny story on a slow media day, heading into New Year’s weekend. Clarke was in the dig-it-up, tear-it-up-mould of Gale Norton; and like Norton, left a…
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.