Have you come across any interesting Wildlife News? March 15, 2011

Note that this replaces the 25th edition. That edition will now move slowly into the depths of the blog.

Sticky Geranium and a Crab Spider © Ken Cole

Please don’t post entire articles here, just the link, title and your comments about the article. Most of these violate copyright law. They also take up too much space.

‘Republicans for Environmental Protection’ – Endangered Species?

The word “conservation” and conservative are closely related, but there seems no room for conservationists in today’s radicalized Republican Party-

So-called “conservative” Republican activists are bent on tearing down protections for the land, water, wildlife, and human safety from toxic elements. Below the New York Times blog interviews the head of the group Republicans for Environmental Protection, which has for a time a least lost all of its clout among  tea-partyized Republican activists and elected officials.

‘Republicans for Environmental Protection’ – Endangered Species? By Andrew C. Revkin. Dot Earth. New York Times.

Natural gas drilling proposal in Wyoming Range gets 40,000 comments!!

Wyoming folks love the Wyoming Range and fear fracking-

An unprecedented number of comments came in on the Plains Exploration & Production Co.’s (PXP) plan for up to 136 gas wells south of Bondurant near Noble Basin. Most of the Wyoming and adjacent Salt River Range has been withdrawn from oil and gas leasing/drilling by act of Congress, but the PXP leases slipped through before the leasing was shut down by the Wyoming Range Legacy Act.

My experience in the Noble Basin and adjacent area is of some of the finest elk and moose country in Wyoming.  A domestic sheep beleagered bighorn sheep herd is nearby. The huge number of comments seem to have strengthened the views of new Wyoming governor Matt Mead on the subject of drilling, after maybe fracking the area.

Wyoming Range drilling project garners 40,000 comments. By Environment & Energy Daily in WyoFile.

Penned Yellowstone National Park bison eat a lot of hay

The 600 temporarily captured bison eat about 6 tons of hay a day-

For whatever the real reason Montana’s Governor Schweitzer spared the bison captured at the northern boundary of Yellowstone Park, most folks on this forum were pleased. The bison do eat a lot of hay and, of course, the feeding increases the chance they will return next year, although they don’t seem to like being penned.

It’s interesting that the Park Service has not ruled out killing the 40% of the bison who tested positive for brucellosis. The pointlessness of this harsh action has been pointed out many times.

Captive bison eating Yellowstone National Park’s stockpile of hay. By Brett French. ‌ The Billings Gazette |