Currently viewing the tag: "Public Lands"

Public land livestock grazing has a significant social cost in terms of carbon emissions contributing to climate warming. Grand Staircase-Escalante NM Utah.  Photo George Wuerthner 

An important paper was published in Environmental Management about the social carbon costs of public land livestock grazing. The paper Climate, Ecological, and Social Costs of […]

Continue Reading

Changes in the riparian vegetation along the San Pedro River before and after livestock removal from the main river corridor. 

The Bureau of Land Management released its Environmental Assessment for livestock grazing in the San Pedro National Conservation Area (SPNCA) in Arizona.

The BLM has decided that the […]

Continue Reading

Domestic sheep grazing in the Gravelly Range, Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, Montana. Photo George Wuerthner 

A recent article on the Helle family and their domestic sheep grazing operations on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest was published In a November Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

The piece was a puff piece on the sheep grazing practices […]

Continue Reading

Mount Boarh, Idaho’s highest peak rises above the riparian exclosure that is supposed to be ungrazed.  Freighter Spring, Challis National Forest, Idaho. Photo George Wuerthner

I recently spent some time hiking in Central Idaho. At the base of Mount Borah just off the Doublesprings Road, I decided to check out a large […]

Continue Reading

Restoration of wolves in the Western Rewilding Network would help “heal” the West. Photo George Wuerthner 

A new study published in Bioscience proposes rewilding the West with a system of wildland reserves to restore the ecological integrity of the landscape. The proposal follows President Biden’s plan to manage 30 percent of […]

Continue Reading

Biocrusts are important in arid ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner

Biological soil crusts, known as biocrusts, are lichens, algae, mosses, fungi, and cyanobacteria common on the soil surface.[i]They are critical to arid ecosystems, where they help to reduce soil erosion and maintain stability. They assist in water retention and act like […]

Continue Reading

 

The Richfield Ranger District of the Fish Lake National Forest in Utah released its draft reauthorization for grazing the Southern Monroe Mountain allotments in Sevier and Piute Counties.

The economic analysis of its reauthorization document is typical of many Forest Service and BLM grazing decisions, whereby the agency emphasizes livestock grazing as an […]

Continue Reading

The cost of a hamburger does not reflect the cost of this cowbombed land in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Photo George Wuerthner 

Do you know what a Big Mac costs? If you say $4.50 or whatever the current price posted at the McDonald’s restaurant may be, you are vastly under-estimating the […]

Continue Reading

Riparian Zone Amnesia

On November 10, 2021 By

Cattle tend to congregate in riparian zones because they provide food, water, and shade. Photo George Wuerthner 

One of the biggest problems in conservation is that people do not miss what they don’t know. How many people really miss the Ivory-Billed woodpecker or Stellar’s sea lion? And I’ve found that people living […]

Continue Reading

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, […]

Continue Reading

Calendar

September 2023
S M T W T F S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930

Quote

‎"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