McCain, Obama Talk Sportsmen’s Issues with Field & Stream

McCain, Obama Talk Sportsmen’s Issues with Field & Stream. By Matthew Frank. New West.

Some folks will like to hear this . . . “[Obama’s] favorite piece of public land is Yellowstone.”

All in all, too much talk about guns. This should be a minor issue for hunters now that the Supreme Court interpreted the Second Amendment to mean, correctly I think, that yes Americans do have a right to own guns.

The NRA now keeps the issue going because their payroll depends on it. The gun issue also serves to keep hunters on the development and industry side of conservation, which the right-wing NRA supports.

Grazing may cease to protect bighorns

Grazing domestic sheep in bighorn habitat exposes bighorn to deadly disease and massive die-offs.  Western Watersheds Project successfully brought this point to the Payette National Forest via federal court winning a temporary halt to grazing domestic sheep in the critical bighorn habitat of Hells Canyon and the Salmon River.  Because of these decisions, the Payette National Forest is amidst an environmental review of domestic sheep grazing in bighorn habitat on the Forest, in its released draft EIS the Forest is finally proposing to end domestic sheep grazing in these critical bighorn habitats.

Grazing may cease to protect bighorns – Idaho Statesman

Cattleman: ‘I’ve always respected wolves – until now’

Every once in awhile it’s good to take a look at a really biased piece about wolves to attempt to better understand.  This one’s from Sweet :

Cattleman: ‘I’ve always respected wolves – until now’ – 2news.tv

It’s often good to ask, ‘What emotional or mythical mechanisms does the writer and/or cattleman of this piece use to compell the audience ?’

Idaho moves the ball forward on environmental policy

Rocky Barker gives an account of the divergent views expressed at a recent panel in Boise about how to take on environmental challenges in the West.

Idaho moves the ball forward on environmental policy – Letters from the West 

The post gives a few quotes that are quite representative of the different models for conservation in the west, with Idaho Conservation League’s Rick Johnson calling for bipartisanship to achieve environmental advance, Advocates for the West’s Laird Lucas suggesting that in such a one-party dominated state it requires conflict/rocking the boat to affect change, and with politicians and activists describing diverse issues and approaches.

What do you think ?  Activism; conflict resolution; or something in between ?