Impacts of giant oil machinery on roadside business and emergency medical care on Highway 12 questioned- Imagine you live on Highway12 and have a medical emergency. It’s night. If you can get to Lewiston or Orofino for care, you will live. Your spouse gets you into the pickup and pulls out onto Highway12, but a…
Forest Service failed to enforce their regulations on megaloads- News release- BOISE — Idaho Rivers United and the Nez Perce Tribe filed a joint lawsuit in federal court in Boise late this afternoon in order to stop the movement of megaloads along U.S. Highway 12 through tribal lands and the Clearwater-Lochsa Wild and Scenic River…
What do you do when transport company is breaking federal law with state protection to haul giant machinery through Idaho to tar sands hell? It seems as though the Idaho and Montana state governments are working for Canada and the oil companies. Idaho citizens and the Nez Perce Tribe protests but they get arrested, rather…
People just won’t be quiet about this oil company slash at the planet and America- Developing the Alberta tar sands keeps getting more and more controversial. First it was the pits and the megaloads, but now the anger has shifted to the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring the said-to-be toxic syncrude from Alberta to…
Judge stops transport of megaloads through Western Montana- Great news! Especially after all the elected U. S. officials from governors to the White House seem to have sold out. Montana judge rules against transport of giant oilfield equipment. Victory for campaigners as decision delivers a new setback to the efforts of Alberta tar sands. By…
Closed Process Highlights Need For Meaningful State Environmental Review, Public Involvement With the recent discovery of natural gas in southwest Idaho many residents are concerned about their local watersheds. They should be, fracking is an ugly business : Before 2005, regulation of fracking took place under the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA was responsible for…
Another roadblock to the use of Idaho Highway 12 and Montana highways as corridors for moving Alberta bound tar sand equipment- This is good news, although likely temporary. The turnouts constructed on the Montana side of Lolo Pass appear to be larger than the oil giant said and closer to Lolo Creek which already suffers…
My question: Isn’t that the true plan? For the Butch Otters, Mike Crapos, and Jim Risches of the world, Idaho is just a place to get the elected. They don’t really see their job as representing the people in their geographic constituency. They are simply a problem for manipulation every couple of years. Meanwhile bring…
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.