The Wildlife News

A Project of Sage Steppe Wild

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  • Another Self Serving Livestock Study Championing Targeted Grazing To Reduce Wildfire

    George Wuerthner

    Livestock grazing in the Great Basin has increased cheatgrass, a highly flammable annual grass. Livestock advocates allege targeted grazing can reduce large wildfires. Photo George Wuerthner A recent publication in the Journal of Rangeland Ecology and Management, “Evaluating the efficacy of targeted cattle grazing for fuel break creation and maintenance,” perpetuates the myth that livestock…

  • More Hype On Fuel Breaks

    George Wuerthner

      Targeted grazing seeks to create vegetation free zones, which advocates suggest will assist firefighters in controlling blazes. However, the collateral damage from grazing vastly exceeds any benefits. Photo George Wuerthner  A recent article in the Post Register described the research that the University of Idaho Range Department conducted on fuel breaks, especially those resulting…

  • Livestock Impacts To Desert Regions

    George Wuerthner

    ABSTRACT: Livestock production occurs in all deserts (except polar deserts). In many desert areas, it is the single most significant human impact. Livestock production includes grazing plants and all associated activities to produce domestic animals. This consists of the dewatering rivers for irrigated forage crops, killing of predators and “pest” species, forage competition between native…

  • Key Impacts of Livestock Production (not just grazing) Upon the Land.

    George Wuerthner

    The ecological impacts of livestock production is significant and there is seldom a full accounting of these costs. Photo George Wuerthner  Livestock is responsible for more ecological damage to the western landscape than any other human activity. However, few accounting of these impacts is ever compiled. One source is my book Welfare Ranching–the Subsidized Destruction…

  • Scientists Critique BLM Tri-State Fuel Breaks Proposal

    George Wuerthner

    A week ago, eight prominent scientists sent a letter to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) declaring that the agency’s proposed Tri-State Fuel Break (TSFB) is flawed and will endanger sagebrush ecosystems. The Final Environmental Impact Statement (“FEIS”) and other project documents are available on the agency’s website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/42341/510. To quote the scientists: “If…

  • Fuels Breaks Fuel Fires

    George Wuerthner

    Caption: Above Cheatgrass invades fuel break cleared along road in Oregon. Bottom: Fuel break created in Idaho’s Snake River Plain. Photos by George Wuerthner The Department of Interior released a final decision to created 11,000 miles of linear cheatgrass corridors, which they are euphemistically calling “fuel breaks.” Think about that figure. Eleven thousand miles is…

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‎”At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour.”

Edward Abbey

“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.”

Jim Fowler

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”

Raveena Tandon

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