BLM and Forest Service Announce 2009 Grazing Fee

The Subsidized Destruction of the American West Continues. $1.35 per AUM

The Federal grazing fee for 2009 will be $1.35 per animal unit month (AUM) for public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management and $1.35 per head month (HM) for lands managed by the Forest Service. The grazing fee for 2009 is the same as it was in 2008.

This seems to contrast with President Obama’s campaign promise to go line-by-line through the Federal budget to eliminate plans that don’t work.

Ted Williams: On second thought, Mr. Cheney

Cheney to be guest of honor at American Museum of Fly Fishing-

Outdoor writer not happy about honoring the fish killer, former VP. On second thought, Mr. Cheney. By Ted Williams. Writers on the Range, High Country News.

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In fact, Cheney loves to fly cast. I’ve always thought a Wyoming stream could be reserved for him alone, if it’s the right stream. I propose he be given sole use of Spread Creek in Grand Teton National Park.*

*Likely only folks that live in Jackson Hole or fish there will get this.

Major oil terminal beneath Redoubt Volcano could result in huge oil spill

Status of Drift River terminal is not known due to homeland security secrecy-

Will a natural disaster trigger an oil spill disaster? We don’t know because of lingering secrecy from the Bush Administration.

Story: “Drift River Oil Terminal sits in harm’s way of volcano. SECRECY: Citing homeland security, officials give out little information about the plant’s status.”  By Tom Kizzia. Anchorage Daily News.

Bison advocates speak their mind in Helena

“Having the Department of Livestock manage wildlife is a direct conflict of interest.”

Here is the Bozeman newspaper’s take on the hearing to make bison “wildlife” in Montana. Note they have the bill number wrong. It is HB253, not 243.

Montana FWP did not support the bill.

Bison advocates speak their mind in Helena. By Daniel Person. Bozeman Chronicle.

Environmentalists setting up anti-oilsands training camp in Calgary

There is going to be a big fight over this rapidly growing development as its external costs become more widely known-

Environmentalists setting up anti-oilsands training camp in Calgary.  By Kelly Cryderman, Canwest News Service

For more information, here is the blog “Oil Sands Watch.” It has interesting information like “Oil Sands Development Could Claim More Than 160 Million Boreal Birds.”

Alaskans brace for Redoubt Volcano eruptions

Major volcano close to Anchorage and Seward could have major wildlife and economic impacts-

Alaskans brace for Redoubt Volcano eruption. By Dan Joling. AP

Idaho Fish and Game forecasting the largest salmon returns in years

Great news! Will it pan out?

Fish and Game forecasting the largest salmon returns in years. In other news, F&G will issue fewer moose tags and mountain goat permits in 2009 and 2010. By Roger Phillips. Idaho Statesman.

More money and more political battling have been used to restore salmon (and steelhead) than any other endangered species.

2008 grizzly bear mortality in NCDE

Not a bad year for grizzlies in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, unlike the Greater Yellowstone-

Thirteen grizzlies were known to have died, eleven were human caused. Is it significant that the grizzly in the NCDE is still listed as a “threatened species” and the Greater Yellowstone population has been delisted?

Graphical display of 2008 NCDE grizzly mortality. (pdf file)

How Meat, Especially Beef, Contributes to Global Warming

Those who write for this blog don’t think, “beef, it’s what for dinner.”  If you care about the future of humankind, at least it shouldn’t be.

This from the Scientific American.

How Meat Contributes to Global Warming: Producing beef for the table has a surprising environmental cost: it releases prodigious amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. By Nathan Fiala

Idaho Wolf Rediscovered in Wyoming

NW Montana wolf shows up in Southeast Idaho too.

Idaho wolf B-271M, which was born to the Steel Mountain Pack, has shown up again west of Cody, WY after disappearing from Yellowstone’s wolf watchers last summer.

Will he form a successful pack?

Also, there is a wolf from NW Montana in Southeast Idaho which is part of the GYE DPS.

The latest report Wyoming Report made a correction saying this wolf is from SW Montana.