The Wildlife News

A Project of Sage Steppe Wild

drought

  • Grayling Headed To Extinction

    George Wuerthner

    Grayling possess a large dorsal fin, and depend on cold, clear water for survival. Photo George Wuerthner  In 1991, I, with the help of Jasper Carlton at the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to list the Arctic Grayling (sometimes called Montana Grayling) under the Endangered Species Act. My petition…

  • Why Fewer Acres burned in the California 2022 Fire Season

    George Wuerthner

      The Dixie Fire charred 900,000 acre plus acres in 2021. The fire burned through numerous portions of the forest that had been thinned or even clearcut as seen in this photo. Photo George Wuerthner  A December 20th article in the New York Times declared California had a quiet fire season. The report explained why…

  • Hermit Peak Blaze, New Mexico’s Largest Wildfire, Goes Out With A Whimper

    George Wuerthner

    Fuel reductions are a major part of the Forest Service’s wildfire reduction plan. Photo George Wuerthner Recently the Federal government released its Confronting Wildfire Crisis plan to control wildfires in the West. As with all previous programs, it focuses on removing “fuels” as its solution and calls for escalating fuel reductions (read logging) up to…

  • Montana’s Bitterroot Front Project More FS Snake Oil

    George Wuerthner

    The Bitterroot Mountains rise up above the Bitterroot Valley in western Montana. Photo George Wuerthner  Montana’s Bitterroot National Forest is proposing the Bitterroot Front Project (BFP), encompassing 144,000 acres. This action will impact an area more than four times the size of the 34,000-acre Rattlesnake Wilderness north of Missoula. The Bitterroot Front Project will impact…

  • Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Proposes to Sell Out Wildlife During Drought

    George Wuerthner

    Fleecer Mountain Wildlife Management Area is one of the places MDFWP proposes “emergency livestock grazing.”  The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MDFWP) announced that due to the extreme drought conditions across Montana, it would open up some wildlife management areas (WMA) to livestock grazing and haying. And it will keep any WMA currently…

  • The 99-Year Old Grandmother Argument–The Bias of Forestry Advocates

    George Wuerthner

      To many foresters and others who advocate for “active forest management,” a fire that results in high tree mortality is considered evidence of an “unhealthy” forest. Photo George Wuerthner  This past week I was invited to present my views on forest health and fire ecology to a group of Washington State residents and legislators…

  • Despite the big Western drought, cattle continue to take majority of West’s water

    Ralph Maughan

    Biggest water user is most definitely not the cities of the West- When we look at biggest use of water in the Western United States, livestock, meaning cattle, stands alone. It’s February 2015 and most of the West remains locked in a great drought. It covers all of the West except Montana, Wyoming and about…

  • Drought: Some Utah ranchers want elk dead for cows

    Ralph Maughan

    Group asks increase in elk permits so public land cows can continue during drought- Even though cattle graze for just $1.35 an animal unit month (an AUM) on Forest Service land, a group of central Utah livestock operators has asked the Utah Wildlife Board for an increase in elk permits because there isn’t enough forage…

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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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