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War on Trees: Harry Reid, Ag Extension Agents, and Chinese biomass companies...
Pinyon and juniper trees, demonized by ranchers, miners and water mining entities, are being eyed by Chinese “biomass” companies with the backing of politicians. Recently the Nevada Pinyon-Juniper...
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WWP, CBD and 3 Tribes fight Spring Valley Wind Project
Suit Filed to Protect One of Nevada’s Largest Bat Roosts, National Park For immediate release – January 25, 2011 Contacts: Jon Marvel, Executive Director Western Watersheds Project, 208.788.2290 Rob...
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Judge overturns BLM grazing decision
This is what WWP calls “low hanging fruit” Ely Sheep Grazing Allotments. The orange polygons represent bighorn sheep distribution and the red polygon represents the Warm Springs sheep trail. Click for...
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U.S Sheep Experiment Station – An Alternative View
The USDA Agricultural Research Service’s US Sheep Experiment Station (USSES) near Dubois, Idaho has been in existence since Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding started to withdraw land from...
View ArticleSage Grouse hunting in decline for similar reasons as elk declines
The sage grouse population of Idaho has been in steep decline for years. It is now getting to the point where hunting has declined to a one-week season where hunters are limited to one bird a day. It...
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The Cowboy Plan to Save Sage Grouse….. Making Things Worse
On December 1st, at a presentation given by Bob Budd about the Wyoming Core Habitat Plan for sage grouse, it was pretty obvious that the livestock industry has things pretty much locked up with the...
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Collaboration, Idaho Style
Extractive Industry Determines the Fate of Sage Grouse in Idaho. On Monday, March 12, 2011, the Idaho Governor Butch Otter’s Sage Grouse Task Force had its first formal meeting. Originally the meeting...
View ArticleBLM Protections for Sage Grouse may not hit the ground for 10, possibly 20...
Resource Management Plans Won’t Affect Already Permitted Activities With a decision by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) about whether sage grouse should receive Endangered Species Act...
View ArticleSAGE GROUSE: PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE CAUSES
SAGE GROUSE: PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE CAUSES When I was in college, one of my favorite courses was animal behavior. One of the more memorable lessons I learned was the difference between proximate and...
View ArticleIdaho ranchers want more taxpayer money for grazing “studies”
While Idaho taxpayers are facing budget cuts to public education and health care, ranchers are busy writing self-serving bills to provide money for “studies” that will paper over destructive impacts of...
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Western Watersheds Project Litigates 145,000 Acre Vegetation Treatment...
In early June, Katie Fite and I visited southeast Nevada to examine the results of past vegetation treatments meant to “restore” sage grouse habitat in the Schell Field Office of the Ely District BLM....
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Sage Grouse, Livestock Grazing, and the Bovine Curtain
There is a lot in the news about the potential listing of sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act. Western politicians are using heated rhetoric about how a listing would destroy their economies,...
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Don’t Let Idaho Wolf Management Become a Distraction from Idaho’s Sage Grouse...
With all of the horrible things happening in Idaho’s wolf management, it is hard to focus on other, perhaps more, important issues facing Idaho wildlife. With a deadline of 2015 bearing down for the...
View ArticleThe Role of Livestock in Sage Grouse Decline
The Greater Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is the largest grouse in North America. The grouse is found in sagebrush steppe from Alberta to New Mexico and throughout the Great Basin region of...
View ArticleReview of Public Broadcasting Nature film The Sagebrush Sea
This past week, Public Broadcasting’s Nature film series featured the Sagebrush Sea. The film’s main focus was on the Greater Sage Grouse which is the emblematic creature found in this vast landscape...
View ArticleWhy Targeted Grazing Cannot Stop Large Rangefires and Recover Sage Grouse
The Department of Interior recently released its Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy whose goal is to reduce range fires in sagebrush ecosystems critical to sage grouse. The plan correctly...
View ArticleSage Grouse Funding Priorities are Misplaced.
With much fanfare, as reported in the Great Falls Tribune, the Montana Sage Grouse Oversight Team announced that it will bequeath more than $1.5 million for a 18,033-acre conservation easement on the...
View ArticleIdaho BLM Juniper Removal For Sage Grouse Recovery Questioned
The Idaho BLM is proposing to remove juniper from over 600,000 acres of land in the Owyhee River area of southern Idaho ostensibly to benefit nesting sage grouse. Sage grouse avoid treed areas, so the...
View ArticleProposed BLM Fuel Breaks Likely To Fail
This past winter, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began preparing two Environmental Impact Statements to review the environmental of consequences creating a region-wide series of “fuel breaks” that...
View ArticleCheatgrass and the Bovine Curtain
The Western Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies released a report declaring that invasive plants, especially cheatgrass, is an enormous threat to the sagebrush ecosystem and sage grouse....
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