Are Wolves The Pronghorn’s Best Friend?

Are Wolves The Pronghorn’s Best Friend? Wolves benefit pronghorn by keeping coyotes in check. Coyotes are a very serious predator of pronghorn fawn, whereas wolves pretty much ignore them.

ScienceDaily. Mar. 3, 2008 — As western states debate removing the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act, a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society cautions that doing so may result in an unintended decline in another species: the pronghorn, a uniquely North American animal that resembles an African antelope.  Rest of story.

Western Watersheds Project files expanded litigation in the Owyhee subsequent to Murphy Fire

Last summer, the Murphy fire burned a huge swatch of the Owyhee country in SW Idaho (and northern Nevada). Ever since the BLM has been under intense pressure to do the wrong things such as graze lands that burned rather than let them recover.

Some of the ranchers here have very high political connections. The BLM can’t stand up to them. Litigtion is needed to uphold the law.

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WESTERN WATERSHEDS PROJECT

NEWS RELEASE

March 3, 2008

Contacts:

Katie Fite, Western Watersheds Project 208-429-1679 (W); 208-871-5738 (C)
Todd Tucci, Advocates For The West 208-342-7024 ext. 202
Jon Marvel, Western Watersheds Project: 208-788-2290 ext. 11

E-mail: wwp@westernwatersheds.org

Western Watersheds Project Files Expanded Litigation To Stop New Fencing And Close Critical Sage Grouse Habitat To Livestock Grazing On 56 Grazing Allotments In The Jarbidge Field Office Of The BLM

On Monday March 3, 2008 Western Watersheds Project (WWP) filed a series of legal motions in federal district court in Boise, Idaho to reopen and expand litigation against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for taking illegal management actions on hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Twin Falls and Owyhee Counties after the 500,000 acre Murphy Complex Fire burned through the area in the summer of 2007.

Story of Buffalo Ridge Pack is told in word and photo

According to Ed Bangs and observations on the ground, probably all of the Buffalo Ridge wolf pack near Clayton, Idaho have been now been shot for repeatedly picking off a few tiny cow calves born in the bone chilling winter and pastured next to the vast central Idaho wilderness.

Lynne Stone of the Boulder White Clouds Council has created a photo essay on this predictable but avoidable tragedy. It’s truly disheartening for those who might think these matters can be solved proactively in a way that keeps both wolves and livestock alive rather than opt for dead wolves, dead livestock, and bruised feelings.

Buffalo Ridge Wolf Pack Under Siege. Sunday, Feb. 24 2008. By Lynne Stone.

Stone updated the story today (see her explanation among the comments below on this post). Five Wolves are “Lethally Controlled”
By Lynne Stone. Feb. 26 -28.

For a long time this wolf pack was the easiest one to see in Idaho. This backwards direction of Idaho’s newly found wolf management and Wildlife Services, the federal agency that seems determined to lock the states into 1920s style thinking about predators, is likely to be repeated many times in the near future.

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My earlier story on this. Buffalo Ridge Pack to be wiped out, classic example of what’s wrong with Idaho state wolf management.