The once gin clear Deschutes River near Bend, Oregon is now a pea-green or dirty blonde due to irrigation degradation of the river. Photo George Wuerthner
This past week I hiked along the Upper Deschutes River. It was a pea-green color, or maybe you might say dirty blonde. Whatever adjective you like, […]
Continue Reading →Upper Deschutes River is essentially an irrigation cancel for irrigators. Photo George Wuerthner
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will soon decide whether to approve a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for the Deschutes River Basin. The HCP was initiated by local irrigators and the city of Prineville who want to maintain their privilege […]
Continue Reading →Endangered Oregon spotted frog habitat dried up by changes in river flow to accommodate the irrigation district. Photo George Wuerthner
I took a run along the Deschutes River in Bend’s Riverbend Park the other day. The one thing I noticed is that the river is nearly opaque. You can see down maybe […]
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The Fish and Wildlife Service will soon be reviewing a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for Oregon’s Deschutes River written by contractors working for the Central Oregon irrigators. The HCP will dictate the future of the river.
The goal of the irrigators is to obtain a “get out of jail free” […]
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HAILEY, Ida. – Western Watersheds Project yesterday entered into a settlement agreement with the Forest Service that gives salmon, steelhead, and bull trout spawning habitats in the upper East Fork of the Salmon River a chance to recover from the impacts of livestock grazing. The settlement resolves litigation challenging violations of Endangered Species Act requirements […]
Continue Reading →WWP Intends to Sue if Grazing Continues to Harm Bull Trout in the Little Lost River Watershed-
Boise, Idaho — Today, Western Watersheds Project (WWP) gave the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) a 60-day Notice of Intent to sue for the agency’s failure to protect a federally protected species from livestock grazing impacts on eight […]
Continue Reading →The bull trout, a char, is listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened in the lower 48 states. It has been extirpated from about 60 percent of its natural range. Worse, like many native salmonids, it is primarily found in headwater streams with little connectivity to larger river systems. The bull trout is a top apex predator, and as a […]
Continue Reading →Salmon-Challis National Forest said to not enforce grazing laws-
Boise. ID. When you drive or hike into this east central Idaho high country (Idaho’s highest mountains), you would expect to see pristine creeks. On the Salmon-Challis NF, however, one is usually disappointed. The creeks are sacrificed to appease local ranchers with tiny amounts of extra grass […]
Continue Reading →A disgrace for the Salmon Challis National Forest
Basin Creek is a headwater tributary of the Little Lost River drainage in Idaho. It was home to bull trout and had a series of wet meadows which are in the process of eroding away and becoming biological wastelands.
Western Watersheds Project staff and supporters visited this […]
Continue Reading →Total victory for Western Watersheds Project and Advocates for the West in four grazing allotments-
Idaho’ federal judge Ed Lodge rarely rules in favor of conservation groups, but the defective job the BLM did on these 4 grazing allotments provoked a complete victory for WWP and an strong rebuke to the manager of the BLM’s […]
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