Tag: public lands grazing
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Public Lands Welfare Ranchers Again Subsidized By Taxpayers
Livestock are grazed on all federal lands, including national parks and wildlife refuges. Still, most livestock grazing occurs on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service. Even specially protected landscapes that are supposed to be managed for natural conditions, like designated Wilderness areas, are grazed by domestic animals.…
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Stepping Lightly In The Sage — More Bovine Curtain Propaganda
If you pay attention to livestock grazing issues on public lands, you invariably will see research promoting cattle grazing as the magic elixir that can repair damaged riparian areas, eliminate cheatgrass and other weeds, reduce wildfires, increase soil carbon storage, and improve habitat for endangered species like sage grouse. If you think this is too…
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The Origins of Western Watersheds Project
George Wuerthner and Jon Marvel in Hailey, Idaho. Western Watersheds Project is the only NGO whose mission is to educate the public about the numerous environmental impacts of livestock production and works to reduce livestock grazing on public lands. WWP is one of the most influential environmental groups because it successfully uses the courts…
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How Livestock Impacts Ecosystems
Cattle grazing Grand Staircase Escalante NM, Utah. Photo by George Wuerthner Livestock production is one of the most ubiquitous human activities around the globe. It is particularly detrimental to arid lands, and much of the western public lands are arid. Typically most livestock advocates, which also includes far too many conservation organizations, focus on one…
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Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson offers amendmen to hike grazing fees UPDATED
Senator Ben Nelson is retiring from the US Senate at the end of his term and he is trying to help former Senator Bob Kerrey take his place after he leaves by pointing out the hypocrisy of Kerrey’s opponent Tea Party/Republican Deb Fischer. Fischer is a public lands rancher who only pays a pittance to…
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Mike Simpson Believes his Bighorn and Grazing Riders will Pass.
Yesterday it was reported by Rocky Barker that Idaho Representative Mike Simpson believes that the bighorn and grazing riders are likely to make it into law. The riders, attached to the Fiscal Year 2012 – House Interior-Environment Appropriations Bill, would essentially do two things. First, the Bighorn Rider would shut down any process that the BLM…
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BLM won't fight grazing ban on Idaho allotment
Domestic sheep will not return to allotment in bighorn sheep habitat. The Partridge Creek allotment in the Salmon River Canyon near Riggins is closed to domestic sheep grazing after Western Watersheds Project, The Wilderness Society, and Hells Canyon Preservation Council filed suit in Federal Court. This is a huge victory for bighorn sheep which have…