Buffalo Field Campaign mobilizes to protect bison in Island Park

Idaho’s livestock politicians is as regressive as Montana about bison leaving Yellowstone, but a bison bull has wandered into Idaho near Henry’s Lake, and they are out to kill him.

The Buffalo Field Campaign wants to document what goes on to give it some media attention.

Buffalo Field Campaign mobilizes to protect bison in Island Park. Island Park News.

New report says grazing had “negligible” effects on size of Murphy Complex fire

This is a revised version of an earlier story.

Here is the news release from the Western Watersheds Project.

Rocky Barker also discusses it in his recent blog.

BLM Report On The Murphy Complex Wild Fire Shows That Grazing Has Little Effect On Fire Behavior.

Idaho BLM has released a long awaited Report on the Murphy Complex Fire. The Murphy wildfire blaze burned over half a million acres of sage-grouse and pygmy rabbit habitat in summer 2007.  BLM, ranchers and Idaho politicians had hoped the Report might show that livestock grazing can reduce wildfire impacts. Instead, it showed little to no effect of livestock grazing in limiting fire spread.

In fact, under the hot, dry conditions typical of western wildfires, grazing would have to be conducted to such a degree that only bare dirt, manure and trampled grass remained to make much difference at all. Such severe grazing leaves no habitat value for sensitive species such as sage grouse, pygmy rabbits or other species such as mule deer.

Good wolf news from Boundary County, Idaho

There is now a large wolf pack near Sandpoint, Idaho, right up against the B.C. border. Hopefully they will expand and restore some of wolf popuation around Creston, Rossland and Nelson, B.C. where bad provincial policies have eliminated wolves.

Story. Boundary County residents glimpse pack of 14 wolves. By Gwen Albers. Hagadone News Network

Note: Hagadone is a far right-winger; probably not too pleased with wolves in Boundary County.

Montana officially loses its brucellosis free status

Montana officially loses its brucellosis free status. Billings Gazette. By Matthew Brown. AP

This is entirely a problem of their own making, or I just I should say the Montana Stockgrowers Association, who bulldozed away efforts to split the state into two zone when it came to brucellosis.

It’s hard to have sympathy when such a obvious course in the wrong direction was chosen. On the other hand, this is hardly a disaster for the Montana cattle industry. As the article says “The testing of cattle is expected to cost ranchers in the state’s billion-dollar cattle industry an estimated $6 million to $12 million.”

They have taken that much of the taxpayer’s money to kill Yellowstone bison to no positive effect for themselves or anyone else.