Whose Sheep? How wild sheep lose out to their domesticated brethren

Earlier I linked to the WWP blog story “Bighorn Sheep Threaten Western Way of Life?”

Now the Boise Weekly has reprinted an article from High Country News giving more background into the controversy that led to the successful lawsuit this spring that kept the Payette National Forest from ignoring its court ordered duty to keep the domestic sheep and bighorn sheep apart.

Whose Sheep? How wild sheep lose out to their domesticated brethren. By Nathaniel Hoffman, High Country News.

This issue will be back next spring.

Just a few domestic sheep and bighorn sharing the same country could set off disease that would undo a generation of efforts to restore bighorn to the Idaho/Oregon border at Hells Canyon.

Yellowstone Volcano Inflating With Molten Rock At Record Rate

For the last 3 years the floor of much of the Yellowstone caldera has been rising at 3 inches a year, much faster than previous uplifts. In the past, of course, the uplift has always stopped and then fallen.

This time will probably be the same.

There have been many versions of the story the last week. This one is more detailed than most, and a touch more scary.

Yellowstone Volcano Inflating With Molten Rock At Record Rate. Science Daily

USGS Map of the Yellowstone caldera and older calderas. 

Motion triggered cameras show benefits of timber road obliteration on Clearwater N.F. in Idaho

Story by John Cramer. Missoulian.

One of keys to restoring the elk population in the upper Clearwater may be removing unneeded and “bleeding” logging roads than killing native bears, cougar and wolves.