Do Elk Feedgrounds Violate Public Trust?

Do Elk Feedgrounds Violate Public Trust? By Deb Donahue.* Wyomingfile.com

This is a fine legal analysis of Wyoming’s elk feedlots.

” Litigation is generally an ineffective way to manage wildlife. But litigation over the feedgrounds seems inevitable, and it may be the only way to ensure that western Wyoming’s wildlife get a fair shake.”

- - - -

*Deb Donahue is a lawyer and a wildlife biologist. A member of the University of Wyoming College of Law faculty since 1992, she teaches Environmental Law, Public Lands, Indian Law, and Native American Natural Resources Law. She spent 2002 on sabbatical in New Zealand, studying biodiversity conservation policy. Donahue served as executive director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council in 1983-85. She has worked for federal land management agencies, the mining industry, law firms, a federal judge, and conservation organizations, including the National Wildlife Federation in Alaska. She is author of The Western Range Revisited: Removing Livestock from Public Lands to Conserve Native Biodiversity (1999). In 2000 she was honored as the Wyoming Wildlife Federation’s Natural Resources Conservationist of the Year. In 2000 she was honored as the Wyoming Wildlife Federation’s Natural Resources Conservationist of the Year.

Wyoming Elk Feedlots kept open a month longer than average

Wyoming’s Elk feedlots were kept open a month longer than usual. Managers of the National Elk Refuge are looking to expand the hunt and irrigate the feedlot saying that doing so will disperse the animals, reducing the disease potential. No mention of natural predators or preservation/restoration of the herds’ natural winter range.

Alfalfa pellets.

Winter feeding on elk refuge exceeds historical average
AP

Researchers Using GPS to Track the Elusive Wolverine at Glacier National Park

Researchers Using GPS to Track the Elusive Wolverine at Glacier National Park.  KFBB.com (Great Falls, Montana)

Owyhees bill hits a new snag

Owyhees bill hits a new snag. By Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman.

Efforts to move the headwaters of the Snake River into the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System could derail Idaho Senator Mike Crapo’s Owyhees bill.

Once again the person troubling Crapo is Idaho’s other “more famous” senator, Larry Craig.

Craig who voted against protecting the Wyoming Range from gas drilling is also opposing the efforts of Wyoming’s senators to protect the Snake River (and many of its headwaters streams in Wyoming). Craig’s objection is about the stretch of the main Snake downstream from Jackson Lake (actually a reservoir).

Downstream irrigators in Idaho hold almost all the water rights to the Snake River. Craig thinks the protection bill as passed by the key Senate Committee, supported by Wyoming’s senators, will somehow hurt the interests of Idaho irrigators. The problem for Crapo arises if the Owyhee bill and the Snake River bill are put into a public lands legislative package. Democrats may drop the Owyhee bill from the package if the Republicans keep wrangling among themselves.

- - - -
More on this: Idaho irrigators fight Wyo effort. Casper Star Tribune.

Added May 11. Additional information on one of the reasons why the Owyhees matter to more than the livestock industry. Idaho, Oregon desert canyonlands offer early-season camping with amazing views. By Pete Zimowsky. Idaho Statesman.

The Problems with Conservation Easements

George Wuerthner gives a thoughtful critique of conservation easements as a conservation strategy :

Why Cows Aren’t Always Worse Than Condos
The Problems with Conservation Easements
by George Wuerthner

News From Judge Molloy’s Court on Wolf Litigation - 5/7

Two decisions from Judge Molloy today on the litigation brought by the coalition of conservation and animal rights groups against the federal government’s decision to delist the Northern Rocky Mountain Gray Wolf.

The first is Judge Molloy’s decision on a motion made by the federal government requesting an extension of two weeks to respond to wolf advocates’ request for an injunction :

Update 5/8:
Montana judge rejects bid to delay wolf lawsuit
Matthew Brown - AP

The Big Bad Wolf: In the Rockies, man’s hatred and fear of the species is on display again

The opinion piece below is by author Gary Ferguson. His most recent book (co-authored by Douglas W. Smith) is “Decade of the Wolf: Returning the Wild to Yellowstone.” Earlier he wrote “The Yellowstone Wolves: the First Year.” He has written 8 other books.

“The big bad wolf. In the Rockies, man’s hatred and fear of the species is on display again.” Gary Ferguson. LA Times Op Ed.

Arizona Game and Fish: confusing and error-filled statements about bighorn and desert cougars at Kofa National Wildlife Refuge

If you are not familiar with Kofa, it is huge, almost 700,000 acres.

However, the bighorn have been struggling there, but their numbers are now increasing, a fact the AZ F & G ignored as they announced, but may not honor, a one-year moratorium on removal of desert cougars in the area (perhaps 3 are left).

Blog on the issue.

From PEER. Arizona Game Agency Scapegoats Cougars For Bighorn Travails