Agriculture and Ecosystem Degradation
The other day I had a meal at the Coop in Bozeman. Outside was a huge banner that proclaimed “Support Farmers and Ranchers.” Such proclamations demonstrate the disconnect or mindless acceptance of...
View ArticleBook Recommendations
Two book recommendations have come in: SAGEBRUSH EMPIRE: How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands by Jonathan P. Thompson San Juan County, Utah, contains some of the...
View ArticleIt’s The Wind Stupid
During the 1992 Presidential Election cycle, political advisor James Carvel devised a brief and successful mantra that helped Bill Clinton win the election: “It’s the economy, stupid.” A similar mantra...
View ArticleTribal Co-Managment of Federal Lands– A Questionable Proposal.
The federal agencies including the National Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service have all been directed to find ways to engage tribal people...
View ArticleStepping 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...
View ArticleA Cabinet Yaak National Park?
George Wuerthner and Michael Kellett The Cabinet-Yaak region of northwest Montana along the Idaho border is little known outside of the region. The area contains the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness, plus...
View ArticleLIVESTOCK PRODUCTION AND REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
INTRODUCTION Throughout this report, I will refer to livestock grazing and production. The inclusion of production is critical because many livestock operations’ impacts involve more than cattle...
View ArticleHow Not to be Cowed!
In late May, Sage Steppe Wild convened a training workshop lead by a wide range of experts in western ecology, with a focus on how citizens can be more effective advocates for our public lands. The How...
View ArticleThe Forest Service Gets a Slap on Their Prairie Dog Killing Plan
On the Thunder Basin National Grassland of northeastern Wyoming, the livestock industry has been pursuing an aggressive campaign to expand poisoning and shooting of prairie dogs. And in 2020, the...
View ArticleQuestions About Jemez Pueblo Lawsuit at Valles Caldera Preserve, New Mexico
Below is a news item from Caldera Action, an advocacy group for the Valles Caldera Preserve in New Mexico. The Jemez Pueblo won a lawsuit that, among other things, gives them “aboriginal title” to a...
View ArticleA Funeral for a Dearly Beloved
The American Experiment had a pretty good run of two and a half centuries. It was far from perfect but despite its flaws it was a model here and around the world. Obama said something about 20 years...
View ArticleConservation Efforts In The Trump Era
After Donald Trump’s election, many wildlands advocates have become depressed and disheartened and feel that conservation efforts are over. The Trump administration will no doubt try to eliminate,...
View ArticlePreservation is Bold: The Environmental Movement Loses With Conservation Ethic
Semantic is implied meaningful difference among words, sometimes lost to those who use and identify with them. A word’s semantic contains deep difference and are often co-opted to benefit those who use...
View ArticleThe Weight of a Single Species
The folks at Population Balance have a lot of resources on the fundamental issue facing humans, every other species and the planet itself. While it is no longer ‘acceptable’ within the environmental...
View ArticleLast Stand for Headwater Lahontan Cutthroat Trout – Part 1
Part 1 – History and Importance The sage steppe country of Nevada had always been a comfortable place for me because as children we were brought up to visit relatives in an old mining town in Elko...
View ArticleBiden Administration Attack On Wilderness Preservation: The Izembek...
The Biden Administration and Secretary of Interior Haaland are ready to destroy one of the primary protections of the 1964 Wilderness Act. The Biden Administration, with the apparent support of...
View ArticleThe Meaning of Virginia Park
NOTE: Written in 2018, I offer this as a response to a TWN reader curious about “fortress preservation”. Once a year the NPS offers a guided tour so you, too, can experience a preserved piece of public...
View ArticleWTF Now?
Top Line: Many bitter lemons can make quite fine lemonade, but only if the conservation community reinvents itself. As I sat down the morning after the election to pen some thoughts about the...
View ArticleDon’t Mourn. Organize!
A phrase attributed to labor organizer Joe Hill is fitting for this moment: “Don’t Mourn. Organize.” Or in the words of writer Ed Abbey,: “Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” During the...
View ArticleClimate Breakdown – Losing Aspen Forests in the West
The Aspen Decline What will our forests in the west be like in fall without those golden yellow leaves shining in the sun? Aspen forests in the Intermountain West support levels of biodiversity only...
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