Massive Omnibus public lands bill killed by filibuster threat

Senator Coburn (R-OK) threatens filibuster. Reid pulls omnibus public lands bill-

There was a lot of good and bad in this bill, but it is dead; and some of the good areas won’t be around to save in a year or two when this comes up again in some form.

Public lands bill looks dead for year. By Matthew Daly. Associated Press Writer

Kathie Lynch: Northern Range wolf upate

The Druids are doing well . . . the rest, not-

Kathie Lynch just wrote one of her detailed and descriptive wolf updates. It follows below.

Please note her plea for donations to the Park’s wolf program.

Thanks Kathie!

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Yellowstone wolf notes posted on Nov. 16, 2008. Copyright © Kathie Lynch

An early November trip to Yellowstone provided close up views of the Druid Peak pack and the Canyon group. I had the good fortune to be at Curve pullout (west end of Little America) when 20 of the 21 Druids crossed the road nearby. They all looked great, including, of course, our 8 ½ -year-old hero, the dashing 302M!

Bush admin screws bighorn sheep

Mark Rey orders APHIS testing of bighorn sheep reintroductions-

This is a slap at Western Watersheds Project for shutting down disease spreading domestic sheep operations in bighorn territory of Idaho.

It is also another attempt to try to subordinate Forest Service authority over wildlife to APHIS, the livestock friendly agency that should concentrate on foreign pests, not native wildlife.

Fortunately Mark Rey, another Bush Administration plunderer, will soon be gone. He is trying to create a controversy like the bison/brucellosis controversy where bighorn sheep become the problem instead of livestock.

Bighorn sheep don’t bring diseases. Domestic sheep bring diseases.

Link to story from Wilderness Sportsman. Bush admin screws bighorn sheep

Western Watersheds Project beats plan to increase grazing in Arizona’s Whetstone Mtns.

Water developments for cows are beaten back-

Water developments on public lands may sound good, but the reality is they are almost always intended to increase grazing of livestock.

These encasements, troughs, tanks, and pipelines do not benefit wildlife. Instead they often turn a spring, or an area of small springs or seeps, full of wildlife, into manure-mud, disgusting ponds that are surrounded solely by cattle.

Story in the Western Watersheds Blog. Win for the Whetstones.
Map of the Whetstone Mountains