“Sin City’s” water grab

“KT” has commented extensively on this blog about how Las Vegas is grabbing water from underground for hundreds of miles in all directions so that these environmentally misfit fountains, lakes, and square miles of commerce in the hot desert can continue to grow and grow.

Now Ted Williams has written about it in his blog. Sin City’s Water Grab. By Ted Williams. Ted Williams’ Conservation Connection.

The price the rest of Nevada pays for the Las Vegas water grab will be high, and given the designs of Las Vegas, the underground waters of Utah and Idaho may not be safe either.

Big Burns Vs. Forest Thinning

You have all seen those photos of forest fires that stopped abruptly when they reached a stand of thinned timber. That can be very misleading. There are plenty of times when the thinning made no difference, and George Wuerthner has some of these “politically incorrect” photos.

Wuerthner is on tour speaking in community after community about the realities of wildfire, and countering the years of political propaganda about wildfires motivated by agencies seeking big budgets and the timber industry trying to justify more logging.

I listened to Wuerthner recently. I think he sometimes goes a bit too far in other direction, but given the magnitude of the propaganda machine he faces, his occasional hyperbole is useful.

Thinning forests is not an all purpose way of stopping wildfiires, nor are wildfires necessarily bad. Guest opinion by George Wuerthner in New West.

The long life of one wolf [B7M] embodies the story of wolf recovery in Idaho

On Jan. 17, I posted my story on the death of Idaho wolf B7M.

Today Rocky Barker at the Idaho Statesman wrote a long feature article tying this very long-lived wolf (the oldest yet?) into the Idaho wolf recovery story. It is an amazing story! The long life of one wolf embodies the story of wolf recovery in Idaho. By Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman.

New Cody Group, “Shut out of Yellowstone,” seeks to keep Sylvan Pass open through winter.

This new group is completely fuzzing the issue. The Park Service wants to abandon plowing the pass and triggering artificial avalanches along the route because of the high cost, danger, and declining use. These folks are not being shut of the Yellowstone, they are having a remarkably large subsidy discontinued. Good. Yellowstone Park needs the money for important things.

Story, Shut out of Yellowstone? Casper Star Tribune. By Amy Tripe.

Keeping the pass open. By Brodie Farquhar. Casper Star Tribune. Farquhar analyzes the effort to continue plowing to the pass, etc. “On a per capita basis, the Sylvan Pass avalanche control program worked out to $177.37  per visitor last winter.”

Alaska Board of Game now deliberating whether to hunt grizzlies at McNeil Falls

This has been an international issue — the proposal to open this bear congregation are (during salmon spawning) to hunting.

I posted an earlier article on this.

Most recent story  KTUU TV. Alaska.