Reader generated wildlife news. Starting on Dec. 29, 2019

By On December 29, 2019 · 237 Comments · In Wildlife News

Reader generated wildlife news beginning on Dec. 29, 2019

It is time to create a new page of “Reader Generated Wildlife News.” Do not post copyrighted material.

Here is the link to the “old” wildlife news page that began on July 25, 2019 From there you can access links to the many older pages […]

Continue Reading →

Regional Web Cams

By On November 28, 2015 · Leave a Comment · In Wildlife News

We have made links to web cams in Idaho, Western Montana and Western Wyoming-.

Alpine, ID/WY web cam. Located on the Idaho-Wyoming border looking east to the mouth of the Snake River Canyon.

Big Piney, WY air quality cam. Near Big Piney looking ENE across the desert to the Wind River […]

Continue Reading →

Custer Gallatin Forest Plan Limits Wilderness For Gallatin Range

By On July 10, 2020 · Leave a Comment · In Advocacy, Forest Service, Montana, Public Lands, Wilderness/Roadless

The recently released Custer Gallatin National Forest Service plan shrinks interim wilderness protections for the 155,000-acre Hyalite Porcupine Buffalohorn Wilderness Study Area (HPBH WSA).

The HPBH WSA was established by Senate bill S. 393 in 1977. Among the mandates in the Act: SEC. 3. (a) says: “Except as otherwise provided by this section, and subject […]

Continue Reading →

Fire and Fish (Aquatic Ecosystems)

By On July 1, 2020 · Leave a Comment · In Department of Interior, Fish, National Parks, Native Trout, Water, Wildfire, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park

Looking down Cache Creek from Republic Pass, Yellowstone NP, WY

 

One of the many excuses used to justify “thinning” and logging today is to preclude massive wildfires. Notwithstanding, there is considerable evidence that such actions do not impede large fires, which only occur during extreme fire weather; people still use this as an […]

Continue Reading →

Missouri River Breaks–BLM Neglect

By On June 25, 2020 · 4 Comments · In B.L.M., Cattle, Grazing and Livestock, Invasive Species, Montana, Public Lands, Western Watersheds Project

 

Relict “historic” cottonwood along Missouri River. Photo by George Wuerthner

One hundred forty-nine miles of the Missouri River in Montana is a designated Wild and Scenic River. It is also within the 375,000 acres Missouri River Breaks National Monument, which includes the Lewis and Clark and Nez Perce National Historic Trails. […]

Continue Reading →

Wilderness and Cows

On June 16, 2020 By

Cattle grazing Mojave National Preserve, CA. Photo by George Wuerthner

The 1964 Wilderness Act requires federal agencies to protect and manage designated wilderness areas “to preserve its natural conditions.” Given that all domestic livestock are exotic alien animals and hardly contribute to “natural conditions,” one might assume that livestock production would be […]

Continue Reading →
Little Fir Creek after grazing 2019

The “restoration grazing” concepts that fell flat in court

On June 9, 2020 By

Ed. note: An earlier draft version of this post was inadvertently posted before final review. Please replace all prior copies with this final draft. 

 

Last summer, in a remote corner of the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, in the one spot with just a little cell reception, I sat in my car listening by phone to […]

Continue Reading →

Blocking livestock-related reprisals against grizzlies on public lands

On June 9, 2020 By

Western Watersheds Project,  Alliance for the Rockies, and the Yellowstone to Uintas Connection are seeking to block the killing of up to 72 grizzly bears over the next 10 years on national forest land in the headwaters of the Green River. With the Yellowstone grizzly listed as a ‘threatened species’ under […]

Continue Reading →

Forest Restoration or Forest Degradaton?

On June 6, 2020 By

Note the lack of plant diversity on the left side of the path which was “treated” to “restore” the forest. Photos by George Wuerthner

These two images display a recent example of a forest “restoration” project designed to improve the “health” of a ponderosa pine forest. The area to the […]

Continue Reading →

Response to Upper Green River Allotment Rancher Complaints

On June 3, 2020 By

Pronghorn in Upper Green River Allotment, Bridger Teton NF, Wyoming. Photo by George Wuerthner

A recent article in Wyofile by Argus Thuermer was full of quotes from the ranchers grazing the Upper Green River allotment on the Bridger Teton National Forest in Wyoming.

https://www.wyofile.com/ranchers-grizzly-suit-imperils-rights-wildlife-migrations/

The Upper Green River grazing Allotment at 170,000 […]

Continue Reading →

Removing 21-inch Protection For Large Trees Isn’t Restoration

On June 1, 2020 By

Large old growth grand fir like this pictured could be cut if the 21-inch rule is discarded. Photo by George Wuerthner

Old-growth fir trees in the Lookout Mountain Proposed Wilderness, Ochoco National Forest, Photo by George Wuerthner

The Forest Service is proposing to remove the prohibition […]

Continue Reading →

BLM Fuels Reduction and Restoration: License to Destroy Sagebrush Ecosystems

On May 27, 2020 By

Juniper removal below Abert Rim, Oregon Photo by George Wuerthner

 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is now taking comments on a massive vegetation project for the Great Basin and adjacent areas of the Colorado Plateau. The PEIS for Fuels Reduction and Rangeland Restoration in the Great Basin (the Fuels Reduction and […]

Continue Reading →

Calendar

July 2020
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  

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