Wuerthner: Wolf Restoration is a Challenge to West’s Old Guard

Anti-Wolfer’s Success In An End-Run Delisting of Wolves MUST Ultimately Backfire

George Wuerthner wrote this now apt essay over a year ago, published in New West last September, suggesting that should anti-wolf interests succeed in delisting wolves and fail to exercise restraint in killing wolves that it would ultimately backfire.

Wolf Restoration is a Challenge to West’s Old Guard – George Wuerthner – NewWest.net

Demographically the country is changing to a more diverse racial, religious and age structure.  The majority of Americans who do not hunt only accept hunting if they believe the hunter is killing an animal to eat it. Public support for hunting declines rapidly if hunters kill animals for trophy mounts. When it comes to shooting an animal just to kill it as would be the case for hunters shooting wolves—and/or worse as a matter of vindication as in predator control, public support turns to public opposition.

Similarly, without the ESA ‘hook’ extending legal protection for wolves, some of the last, best remaining legal angles to protect wolves will be in preventing conflict with livestock on public lands that is ultimately responsible for government trapping and slaughter of entire packs of wolves.

Increased public scrutiny over public lands ranching at the land-use level – demanding that ranchers implement preventative measures as a condition of permit to use public lands to graze cattle and sheep is one tangible avenue wolf-advocates might pursue to accomplish wolf protections.

One thing is for sure – if wolves are to persist on the landscape in the ecologically relevant numbers that advocates have been promoting for years, outrage over the wanton slaughter of wolves must be felt by those responsible.

Court Victory Stops Corporate Ranching on 450,000 Acres of Public Land in Southern Idaho

Click to view in Google Maps

On February 28, 2011 Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the United States District Court for Idaho agreed with Western Watersheds Project and reimposed an injunction stopping livestock grazing on 17 grazing allotments covering over 450,000 acres of public land in the Jarbidge Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management in southern Idaho.

The allotments closed under this injunction contain some of the most important remaining habitat for sage grouse, California bighorn sheep, the threatened plant species slickspot peppergrass as well as native redband trout, pygmy rabbits and pronghorn antelope.

March 4 news story added. Federal judge shuts down some Jarbidge grazing allotments. By Laura Lundquist. Magic Valley Times News

Here is Western Watersheds Project’s News Release on this important victory:

Western Watersheds Project Wins A Federal Court Injunction Stopping Livestock Grazing on over 450,000 Acres of Public Land in Southern Idaho

Greater sage grouse, pygmy rabbit and Slickspot peppergrass have won a reprieve from livestock grazing which has decimated their populations and destroyed their habitat. Late yesterday, Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the federal District for Idaho held BLM, various Simplot corporate entities, and other corporate ranching operations to the terms of an earlier agreement, and again enjoined livestock grazing on 17 livestock grazing allotments in southern Idaho.

Obama Administration Refuses to Reform Public-lands Grazing Fee

Fee is only $1.35 to graze a calf cow pair for a month.

Obama Administration Refuses to Reform Public-lands Grazing Fee
For immediate release – January 18, 2011

Contacts: Greta Anderson, Western Watersheds Project, 520.623.1878
Mark Salvo, WildEarth Guardians, 503.757.4221
Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, 928.310.6713
Brent Fenty, Oregon Natural Desert Association, 541.330.2638
Ronni Egan, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, 970.385.9577

Tucson, Ariz. – After a lengthy delay, five conservation organizations finally received an answer today from the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture concerning the artificially low fee federal agencies charge for livestock grazing on public lands. Claiming higher priorities, both agencies declined to address the outdated grazing fee formula. The government’s response was prompted by a lawsuit filed by Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and Oregon Natural Desert Association.

Conservation organizations submitted a petition in 2005, asking the government to address the grazing fee formula and adjust the fee in order to cover the costs of the federal grazing program, which costs taxpayers at least $115 million dollars annually according to a Government Accountability Office report. Conservationists contend that Americans lose even more in compromised wildlife habitat, water quality, scenic views, and native vegetation.

“Today’s long-awaited answer was a huge disappointment,” said Greta Anderson, Arizona Director for Western Watersheds Project. “Year after year, we watch as the government gives a sweetheart deal to public lands ranchers at the expense of taxpayers and the environment. We had hoped the Obama Administration would have done better, but it’s business-as-usual for the western livestock industry.”

“Subsidizing the livestock industry at the cost of species, ecosystems, and taxpayers is plainly bad public land policy,” said Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaigns director with the Center for Biological Diversity, “Today’s choice to continue that policy is both a disappointment and a blight on the Obama administration’s environmental record.”

Conservation groups want Forest Service land near Pocatello closed to livestock grazing

Now, your opportunity to comment on the Pocatello, Midnight, and Michaud grazing allotments-
Comments are due Jan. 4, 2011-

An opportunity like this only comes along every ten years or so.  I know a lot of people have been furious for years about the cattle grazing in the Bannock Range immediately west and south of Pocatello, Idaho.

Western Watersheds/Portneuf Valley Audubon Society new release on the grazing comment opportunity. Conservation groups want Mink Creek closed to cows.

Every ten years or so the Forest Service is supposed to revise its grazing allotment plans. One alternative they have to consider is no grazing. I know a lot of the folks I know here in Pocatello would say, “yes, yes” to reduced or elimination of grazing. There are a few beauty area closed, but about 1200 AUMs graze most of the area from June 1 until Oct. 10 each year (actually until the owners of the cattle bother to pick them up). That only leaves the month of May for an ungrazed experience in this key recreation area on Pocatello’s doorstep.

Here is the scoping document from the Forest Service showing the location of the allotments. PortneufAllotScoping11-22-2010

Send to your comments to Ranger Jeff Hammes, Westside Ranger District at this email address:   comments-intermtn-caribou-targhee-westside@fs.fed.us.  Tell why you are interested, give the information you have about the cows and what you think should be done. The formal name of document being prepared is the Lower Portneuf Grazing EA.

I took the photo below of a cow covered with houndstongue stickers on the Pocatello Grazing Allotment in the summer of 2009. The poor cow’s condition is not unusual, and of course their omnipresence keep the obnoxious weed spreading and spreading.

Houndstongue infested cow. Pocatello Grazing Allotment. Photo by Ralph Maughan. Public domain

Do ranchers have a right to predator free landscape?

George Wuerthner nails it again, questioning the chief assumption that informs livestock-wolf conflict management.

Do ranchers have a right to predator free landscape? – George Wuethner, NewWest

One of the unquestioned and unspoken assumptions heard across the West is that ranchers have a right to a predator free environment. Even environmental groups like Defenders of Wildlife more or less legitimize this perspective by supporting unqualified compensation for livestock losses to bears and wolves.

Only when the answer to George’s question is “yes” do any of the management prescriptions currently taking place, including compensation, “control”/eradication via tax-payer appropriations to Wildlife Services (sic), and other absurd de facto subsidies make any sense at all ~ particularly *but not uniquely* on public lands that belong to all of us.

Idaho Gov. Candidate Allred: “On public lands, to me, wildlife populations have to take priority”

Public land ranchers concerned about candidate’s position that public lands ought be managed to preserve Idaho’s wildlife heritage

Idaho’s Gubernatorial candidate Keith Allred, challenger to “Butch” Otter, recently drew a distinction between wildlife management on public versus private land, standing behind Idaho sportsmen on the bighorn sheep issue :

Candidate’s Comments Cause for Concern – Frank Priestley, Idaho Farm Bureau President

During the October 9th discussion between Allred and members of the Idaho Sportsmen’s Caucus Advisory Council, the subject of bighorn sheep management came up. Following are Allred’s comments verbatim:

“My family a hundred years ago was driving sheep and cattle up to the Sawtooth Valley and running sheep. So I’d like to see a viable sheep industry. But we also have a long enough family history that we remember when there (were) much more substantial bighorn sheep populations in Idaho than there are now. So how do you manage those competing perspectives? Here’s one kind of distinction I would draw: On public lands, to me, wildlife populations have to take priority over individual private interests, really economic interests, and grazing. On private lands then private property owners need to take priority.”

(Emphasis added)

This recognition that wildlife management on public lands ought reflect all Idahoans’ interest, and ought preserve Idaho’s wildlife heritage is threatening to some.

To most, it’s just plain common sense.

UPDATE:  Allred Licks the Boot 10/29/10 : Statement on Bighorn and Domestic Sheep – Keith Allred, Ag Weekly

From Keith Allred – I’m sorry to have inappropriately applied the distinction between public and private land to bighorn and domestic sheep questions in recent comments I made to the Sportsman’s Caucus. I’d like to clarify my points and suggest a solution.

[More…]

Proposed limits on dust irk farmers

The EPA is considering lowering allowable particulate matter from 150 micrograms per cubic meter to the range of 65 to 85 micrograms. This would be a very good outcome for many reason ranging from health, soil erosion and snow melt runoff.

Recently a study implicated dust, primarily from western livestock grazing, as a big cause behind earlier and faster snow melt runoff in the Colorado Rockies which resulted in 5% less water in the Colorado River. Under current law there is little regulation on agricultural practices, especially livestock grazing, which could help mitigate this very real problem.

Of course the livestock industry is up in arms over the proposal and have gotten their lackey politicians involved.

“As usual, the EPA has failed to recognize the real-world impacts of their regulations,” [Mike] Simpson said in a press release.

Well, it looks like they are starting to recognize the impacts of their regulations. It now appears that they have seen the failure of their current regulations to protect long term public values over short term profits of the livestock industry. Let’s hope they make the change soon.

Proposed limits on dust irk farmers.
Capital Press agriculture news

The Guy Idaho Ranchers Love to Hate

“If we weren’t getting to them, they’d brush us off like a fly. After all, we’re just a little organization with 14 or 15 people, but they act like what we do is the end of the world.”

Jon Marvel sees two ways to get cows and sheep to stop grazing on public lands: Politics and litigation. He chooses the latter.

Dennis Higman does a profile on Jon for NewWest.

Fortunate for all of us who care about western public lands and wildlife, the degree to which ranchers and their politician lap-dogs whine about WWP is in direct proportion to the degree at which the organization is bringing much needed change and restoration to the western public landscape.

The Guy Idaho Ranchers Love to Hate – NewWest.net

There are two topics you don’t want to bring up with most Idaho ranchers: wolves and Jon Marvel, the white-haired, 63-year-old founder and executive director of the Western Watersheds Project.

Obama: Pygmy Rabbit “not warranted” for ESA protections

Salazar Strikes Again, Denying Meaningful Protection for Imperiled Tiny Bunny of the Sagebrush Sea

Pygmy rabbit

The declining condition of the Sagebrush Sea has been highlighted on a couple of occasions over the past couple of weeks.  In recent Washington state news we learned that jackrabbits in sagebrush habitats are diminishing.  Pygmy rabbits were rejected ESA protections by the Obama administration last week, and earlier last year Dr. Steven Herman remorsefully described his account of the extinction of the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit:

Science is seldom followed in these endangered species “interventions”.  Politics trumps science -and conservation.

We need to remember the Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit as an example of a form lost in part to the the insanity of Public Grazing.

The Sagebrush Sea is Dying

Significant threats to sagebrush habitat across the western landscape continue to threaten and diminish a variety of sagebrush obligate species.

Sagebrush habitat is among the most imperiled ecosystems in North America and the rate at which our unique western wildlife and fish communities are declining is truly alarming.

Attempting to bring the most relief in the least amount of time, environmentalists continue to push for Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for a number of umbrella species endemic to sagebrush habitats, including the grand-master of the Sagebrush Sea: the Greater Sage grouse.

Prioritizing these “umbrella” species is important, because when successfully listed, the protections secured these species will blanket entire ecosystems positively affecting the diversity of fish, wildlife, and environmental values which share the explicitly protected individuals’ habitat.  It’s like hitting a plethora of birds with one stone (bad analogy).

Ken Cole (age 11) holds pygmy rabbit

Pygmy Rabbits’ Race to Recovery

So it is with the charismatic, imperiled pygmy rabbit, North America’s tinniest bunny, and the only arboreal rabbit (climbs sagebrush) on Earth !

In 2003, a coalition of conservation groups petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to list pygmy rabbits under the ESA.

In early 2008, the USFWS, responding to legal pressure from conservation groups, finally issued a positive 90-day finding for pygmy rabbits, initiating a more thorough assessment of whether to protect the bunny under the ESA.

The agency dragged its feet again, prompting Western Watersheds Project et al to provide a legal reminder, again, of its court ordered obligation to the bunny …

Unfortunately, just earlier this week Pygmy rabbits were denied Endangered Species Act protections by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Laura Zuckerman, Reuters

“We find there has been some loss and degradation of pygmy rabbit habitat range-wide, but not to the magnitude that constitutes a significant threat to the species,” Bob Williams, supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Nevada, said in a statement.

Wolves: Only lazy ranchers blame predator

“The solution to stop the livestock killings by wolves is simple: A $50,000 fine given to each livestock owner who allows wolves to kill their livestock.”

Every once in awhile you come across a Letter to the Editor that just really hits it out of the park:

Wolves: Only lazy ranchers blame predator – Missoulian LTE

Dust cuts water flow into upper Colorado River

Dust from livestock grazing in the southwest reduces water runoff in the Colorado River Basin by 5%

An interesting study has been released by the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies which explains that spring runoff from the Colorado Rockies has been compressed into a shorter period of time due to high levels of dust found on the mountain’s snowbanks.

“Runoff comes from the mountains in a more compressed period, which makes water management more difficult than if the water came more slowly out of the mountains.”

Evaporation and sublimation of the warmer snow itself–then transpiration from the earlier-exposed vegetation–results in water losses to the atmosphere, losses that then don’t go into runoff.

According to the study, the dust loading is five times greater than normal due to human activities such as livestock grazing, activities associated to livestock grazing such as vegetation treatments like these pictured in Nevada, and other disturbances.

After the Mower/Chopper Cave Valley, Nevada © Ken Cole

Hearing on bison hazing set for Tuesday

Grazing and slaughter threaten the viability of bison and other sensitive species-

The US Forest Service and the National Park Service are violating the law by not allowing bison the use of public lands. The grazing allotments provide the excuse the Montana Department of Livestock wants for their annual abuse of buffalo inside and outside of Yellowstone National Park.

Keep in mind, this issue has nothing to do with brucellosis, it is about political control of western lands and wildlife and about who gets to use the grass. It has always been about the noble landed elite showing the rest of us who is boss.

In the winter and spring of 2007-2008, the National Park Service “oversaw and carried out the slaughter of approximately 1,434 bison from (Yellowstone National Park), which represented approximately one third of the existing population of wild bison in the (Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem),” the group wrote in their complaint. “Such management, and ongoing commitment of NPS resources, severely restricts wild bison migrations, impacts their natural behaviors, maintains bison populations at artificially low numbers and negatively influences the evolutionary potential of bison as a wildlife species in the ecosystem.”

Hearing over hazing set for Tuesday.
Eve Byron – Helena Independent Record

Spread of Bighorn Sheep Pneumonia Continues

Domestic sheep spread deadly disease to wild bighorn sheep

It’s been a bad year for bighorn sheep in Montana.

Spread of Bighorn Sheep Pneumonia Continues – New West

While we see an increasing amount of media attention that bighorns are dying of disease, unfortunately, with this article, there is a familiar omission of context regarding a likely source of disease for bighorns in general; namely, domestic sheep.

This is worth pointing out over and over again, as it has significant policy implications.

Earlier, Ken Cole put together a comprehensive illustration of a WAFWA report that summarizes bighorn outbreaks this past year.  It’s worth looking at.

Rancher loses grazing appeal

USFS takes away grazing lease in Nevada’s Santa Rosa Mountains.

The Columbus method of grazing, where cattle are put out for months on end and then “discovered” at the end of the grazing season, gets a spank.

You can read the decision from April here.

Rancher loses grazing appeal.
Written by Dee Holzel – Silver Pinyon Journal

Low larkspur (Delphinium bicolor)

Larkspur Strikes Again !!!

Kinda’ puts the whole “Canadian wolves are a threat to our ‘livelihood'” argument into perspective:

30 cows die in S. Idaho after eating larkspur – Idaho Statesman via Associated Press

Perhaps they will spend millions of tax-payer’s dollars to commission a federal agency to crop-dust our public lands with herbicide such that this “threat” to the Livestock custom and culture can be eradicated.

Landscape covered in threatening, monstrous larkspur (of the deep, dark night) Photograph © Katie Fite 2008

'Larkspur Rebellion'

Elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, pronghorn, upland game birds, small nongame birds, and small mammals all eat Low larkspur. However, for reasons not entirely known, its alkaloid methyllycaconitine can cause motor paralysis in cattle (and humans) – leading to death from asphyxiation. Much effort has been spent trying to breed the vulnerability out of cattle – or at least get them to stop eating it. (Sourced Info via Idaho Native Plant Society)

Visit AGRO’s ‘Cattle Losses’ page to learn the proportion of cattle killed by predators versus the number killed by respiratory, digestive, poison, and other problems.

S.D. ranchers fear wilderness act steals control

Ranchers complain about losing control while accepting government handouts.

The Buffalo Gap National Grassland of South Dakota doesn’t have buffalo any more but it certainly has a handful of ranchers with a strong sense of entitlement. They are worrying that wilderness designation will “steal” control that they seem to believe they should have over these publicly owned lands. Amazingly, the new wilderness designation leaves their control in place and allows them to continue grazing.

In the article ranchers bring up the tired old argument that Easterners are telling them what to do with “their” land but it’s not their land and the idea to designate it as wilderness, as the article points out, came from people who live there too.

“These outsiders from New York and New Jersey are telling us what to do, all these special interests,” Hermosa rancher Denise Baker said. “They’ll get the designation, pat themselves on the back and leave. And us? We’re stuck with it.”

Oregon ranchers indicted for arson wildfires and threats-

Indictment indicates anger about BLM land use behind some of the fires-

They are accused of multiple arson wildfires, threats to federal officials,  even a fire set to drive out hunters. This began as early as 1982.  Some locals call them “good people,” “salt of the earth.” Bill Hoyt president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said there are no better people in the world than the Hammonds [family name of the accused].

Oregon ranchers charged with arson and threats. By Jeff Barnard. AP Environmental Writer

Update: The Hammonds are scheduled for arraignment in Eugene U.S. District Court on June 28 on the felony charges, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Idaho April Wolf Report released

IDFG/Wildlife Services’ war on wolves has begun. 42 wolves killed for 23 depredations.

The monthly update from IDFG, which contains little useful or timely information, has been released for the month of April. It appears from the numbers that Wildlife Services has been given the permission to conduct extensive revenge killings on behalf of livestock producers.

I wonder how much the number has risen in the last month as there have been reports of Wildlife Services planes in the Wood River Valley, Salmon area, and the Boise Foothills this month. I have been told that Wildlife Services has put orange collars on wolves in an attempt to make them easier to spot from the air, in turn, making it easier to avoid killing the “Judas” wolf. In one instance they accidentally shot this wolf so the remaining wolves will be harder to “control”. I guess the lazy, expensive way of managing wolves didn’t work out so well 😉

Idaho Wolf Management Progress Report April 2010

YEAR	Depredations1				Wolf Mortality
	Cattle	Sheep	Dogs	Total	WS2	10j / 36-11073	Other 4	Hunter Harvest	Total
2003	7	130	3	140	7	0	8		15
2004	19	176	4	199	17	0	21		38
2005	29	166	12	207	24	3	16		43
2006	41	237	4	282	35	7	19		61
2007	57	211	10	278	43	7	27		77
2008	104	215	14	333	94	14	45		153
2009	76	295	14	385	87	6	45	135	273
2010 (1/1 – 4/30)	17	6	0	23	36	6	5	46	93

¹ Includes only confirmed wolf depredations of cattle, sheep, and dogs that resulted in death or injury.
² Wolves taken by USDA Wildlife Services in response to depredation on livestock.
³ Authorized take under 10j, or legal take after delisting under state law for protection of stock and dogs (Idaho Code 361107).
⁴ Other includes of mortalities of unknown cause, documented natural mortality, collisions with automobiles, and illegal
take.

What a misleading article! Poor ranchers must do without

No grazing on the Whisky Dick and Quilomene wildlife areas in Washington State

The State of Washington has spent a lot of money trying to justify cattle grazing on wildlife management areas in the state which are comprised of lands purchased using Federal money specifically intended for wildlife habitat. The lands in the Whisky Dick and Quilomene wildlife areas are important habitats for the last remaining sage grouse in the state which need them if they are ever to move from one population area to the other and there is a possibility that they might re-inhabit the area. Sage grouse have been sighted there in the recent past. The lands are also important for steelhead and elk and have many native American cultural sites.

In a cynical ploy to win over votes from ranchers, Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire pushed to allow grazing on these important lands but it appears that she has lost. Western Watersheds Project has been working hard to keep any further grazing from occurring on the state’s wildlife management areas. It’s shocking to hear this complaint in the article Cattle ranchers again must cope with limited grazing. Yakima Herald-Republic, about having to place to graze.  They were grazing on land purchased specifically to benefit fish and wildlife. Governor Gregoire was allowing the grazing to the wildlife area for no grazing fee whatsoever!  Free! The news article makes it sound like something is being done to the ranchers, when in fact the whole grazing scheme was a politically-inspired raid on the public trust, public purse, and the state’s fish and wildlife.

A judge recently scolded the State for its pilot grazing program in the Asotin Wildlife Area where there has been a lot of damage to the habitat and a worker was severely injured while trying to build a fence on a very steep slope. The judge said that not only did the program not improve habitat like was claimed, but that it damaged the habitat.

-Ken Cole and Ralph Maughan contributed to this post.

Federal Agencies Sign Agreement to Protect Sage-Grouse Habitat

But they continue to ignore the biggest threat to their habitat……….. GRAZING.
$16 million in handouts for this year alone.

Sage grouse tracks © Katie Fite

The NRCS is handing out more money to ranchers for “habitat conservation” or “habitat improvement” projects that maintain grazing on public lands.

There are some projects such as fence removal that will be funded but the proposed seeding projects may require new fencing to keep livestock out for measly the 2 years they recommend and in some circumstances they call for applying herbicides to restrict the growth of sagebrush so that the seedlings can get a foothold.

So many times we’ve seen that these kinds of projects are co-opted by the livestock industry to be of more benefit to them rather than the values the funding was made available for. I doubt this will be any exception since they have made a concerted effort to deny that livestock have any role in sage-grouse habitat destruction.

Sheep Station Restricts Grazing to Protect Grizzly Bears

The Agricultural Research Services’ US Sheep Experiment Station in Eastern Idaho has decided to stop grazing sheep in its easternmost pastures to protect grizzly bears and has discontinued working on an Environmental Assessment in favor of a more intensive Environmental Impact Statement of its operations.

As you can see from the mapping there are conflicts with grizzly bears and bighorn sheep on other lands used by the Sheep Station. Two packs of wolves were also killed off because of the sheep just last year.

The sheep station occupies one of the most important corridors along the Centennial Mountains for dispersal of grizzly bears, wolves and bighorn sheep.

Sheep Station Restricts Grazing to Protect Grizzly Bears
Western Watersheds Project and Center for Biological Diversity press release.

Overview of ARS USSES used lands

Idaho Wool Growers Sue IDFG Over Bighorns

Bighorn Sheep © Ken Cole

The Idaho Wool Growers Association and Shirts Brothers Sheep are suing the Idaho Fish and Game Department over an agreement that they signed in 1997 which would hold woolgrowers harmless if bighorn sheep introductions caused harm to their business. There are a number of problems with the agreement which make it unenforceable.

According to the lawsuit, “The Idaho Department of Fish and Game took no action to block the Forest Service from modifying the grazing allotments for Shirts and Shirts Brothers and took insufficient action to prevent Shirts and Shirts Brothers from being harmed by these actions”

I don’t know how the IDFG could block the Forest Service from making these changes. The IDFG has no control over the actions of the Forest Service. The IDFG does not manage grazing privileges on the National Forests and even if the lawsuit is successful it will not change the obligations of the Payette National Forest under the National Forest Management Act which requires them to manage the Forest in a manner which maintains the viability of native or desirable species, including bighorn sheep which have declined in number to only 3500 statewide.

In response to litigation by Western Watersheds Project, the Payette National Forest is drafting a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement which proposes an alternative which may close up to 60% of the Forest’s sheep grazing allotments to keep domestic sheep separate from bighorn sheep that inhabit Hell’s Canyon and the Salmon River Canyon.

Domestic sheep are known to carry diseases which are deadly to bighorn sheep and are likely to have killed hundreds of bighorn sheep throughout the west this winter.

Update 4/5/2010: A Copy of the Woolgrowers Lawsuit

~ be

Wool growers file suit against IDFG: Association claims state agency has not protected them from harm after introduction of bighorn sheep
Eric Barker – Lewiston Morning Tribune

WWP & Wolf Recovery Foundation Litigates Big to Protect Wolves in Central Idaho

~ by Jon Marvel

Friends,
On December 31, 2009 Western Watersheds Project and the Wolf Recovery Foundation welcomed the New Year by filing litigation in federal court challenging the federal government’s mismanagement of public lands and wolves in Central Idaho.

Read the Associated Press article :

Groups Sue to End Idaho wilderness copter landings – John Miller, AP 1/06/10

Sawtooth Mountains - Sawtooth National Recreation Area © Lynne Stone

This important litigation aims to protect Idaho wolves by asking a federal court to halt mismanagement in three key ways :

WWP, Advocates for the West post another victory regarding land baron grazing

Judge Winmill largely rules in favor of plaintiffs on the Nickel Creek case-

From Western Watersheds Project v. Department of Interior:

“For the reasons explained below, the Court will grant WWP’s motion in part, finding that the decision of the Interior Board of Land Appeals is arbitrary and capricious, and remanding the matter to the BLM to (1) include the Management Guidelines as mandatory Terms and Conditions, and (2) render a new decision on the Nickel Creek FFR allotment.”

Doubtful many here have heard of the Nickel Creek allotments in the Owyhee Country of SW Idaho, but this is cause for New Year’s cheers. WWP might have a news release by the end of the day. Here is the decision.  Winmill Nickel Creek decision 12-30-09

Victory for Western Watersheds Project on cutthoat trout

Western Watersheds Project wins appeal in Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest overturning a grazing decision for the Franklin Basin Allotment in northern Utah-

Over the years the popular Franklin Basin area of the Cache National Forest in Bear River Range just south of the Idaho border has been increasingly pummeled by cattle and sheep. One result has been a serious decline in the Bonneville cutthroat trout.
– – – – –

Bonneville Cutthroat © Ken Cole

Dr. John Carter, Utah WWP Director writes:

Friends,

The Franklin Basin Allotment covers over 20,000 acres in the Bear River Range and on the Logan River, a critical Bonneville cutthroat trout fishery in northern Utah. The Bear River Range is the most critical wildlife corridor connecting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to the Uintas and southern Rockies.

The Bear River Range in Idaho and Utah is heavily grazed by livestock, has extremely high road density, and is overrun with dirt bikes and ATVs during the summer and snowmobiles during the winter. Cattle and sheep dominate the habitat, removing forage that would support thousands of deer or elk and many more sage grouse and other forms of wildlife.  Plant communities such as aspen, sagebrush and conifer are dysfunctional, having lost much of their native flora with undesirable species remaining.  Erosion is severe due to the loss of ground covering vegetation.

The Decision by the Forest Service continued unchanged the current stocking rate of 607 cattle from June until October each year and does little to restore the admittedly degraded conditions even though their own data shows the current stocking rate is 6 times what can be supported by the available forage. [boldface mine. RM] The Forest Fishery Biologist report recognizes that Bonneville cutthroat trout populations are declining and admits that the proposal will not improve their habitat.

The WWP Utah Office filed an appeal of this decision.   We were joined by our partners in the Utah Environmental Congress and Wild Utah Project.

The decision by the Uinta Wasatch Cache National Forest Supervisor remands the decision back to the Logan Ranger District to address improving the unsatisfactory conditions that they admit exists on the allotment.   We will continue to press the Forest Service to do an objective job.

Greedy ranchers; livestock pushing out fish and wildlife. How about a year end donation?

Do you want to really put your $20 to $2-million to work?

At this time of year every charity and conservation organization sends out pleas for a year end donation. Given the condition of the economy, most of them really need it. On the other hand, you want to make a cost/effective donation.

Only a few conservation groups expend much going after public land grazing. Maybe it doesn’t sound sexy. Foundations are risk-aversive to giving in a way that would offend our precious landed nobility in the West. Many conservation groups rely very heavily on the good will of these foundations. They are encouraged one way or another to play smileyface with these posers of the “Tradition of the West.”

A few groups do not. As a result they need more income from private donations to make up for the relative lack of foundation giving. If you are irritated enough to give some money, I’d suggest the Western Watersheds Project, Advocates for the West and the Buffalo Field Campaign.

This doesn’t mean there are not other groups, especially smaller ones, that merit a donation. I like the low overhead, high output, uncompromised efforts by these groups.

Nevada: Rancher greed has no limits

They even resent wildlife guzzlers–

“Members of the [Nevada] state Board of Agriculture argue that as their numbers increase, guzzlers are altering the landscape and taking precious resources, whether water or forage, from ranchers. They want to stop the Nevada Department of Wildlife from constructing any new guzzlers and are exploring possible legal challenges. Some ranchers say they are ready to sue over infringing wildlife.”

Guzzlers gouge rift between Nevada state agencies. By Sandra Chereb.- Associated Press Writer.

They are so greedy they oppose the direct collection of rainwater and snow by guzzlers.

– – – –

Added.

John Ralston is the most important political commentator in Nevada.

It’s not just greedy ranchers in the state.

Commentary: Marveling at the conflicts of interest, corruption tolerated in this state. By Jon Ralston. Las Vegas Sun

Forest Service finally closes Horse Butte to livetock grazing

There haven’t been cattle on it for 8 years, but now it is officially closed to grazing-

Despite the absence of cattle on the butte, its official status as a grazing allotment allows Montana Department of Livestock and the Montana Stockgrowers Assn. to bleat about the dangers of brucellosis from the bison that migrate out of Yellowstone every winter (and especially spring) onto the butte. Now their propaganda is even more just thin vapor.

Horse Butte is used by all kinds of rare species the Forest Service says in addition to bison. Much of the Butte is also private and owned by a family that supports free roaming bison.

The difficulty closing this area officially to grazing underscores how hard it is to get livestock off any public lands regardless of the other more important values of a place.

National Forest closes Horse Butte grazing. By Daniel Person. Bozeman Chronicle Staff Writer.

The south side of Horse Butte in April. The snow melts earlier here than anywhere else. Photo copyright Ralph Maughan

Added. Here is the actual Forest Service Horse Butte-suitability analysis

Ranching, recreation collide in the great outdoors

The story of what happened when a sheep guard dog attacked a mountain bike rider in Colorado.

Domestic Sheep © Ken Cole

A woman who was attacked by sheep guard dogs took her case to court and won.

Ranching, recreation collide in the great outdoors
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI – Los Angeles Times

Livestock disease found in eastern Idaho cow

The infected animal had been vaccinated.

This has been a perennial issue in areas surrounding the elk feedlots in Wyoming. It now seems that brucellosis has once again infected cattle in Idaho but it is too early to say where the disease originated. If brucellosis is found in another cattle herd in Idaho within a year then Idaho, once again, will lose its brucellosis free status and all cattle that are exported will have to be tested for the disease.

For years this scenario was held over the heads of people who support free roaming bison in Montana yet, when it came to pass, it turned out to be more of a minor inconvenience rather than the catastrophe the livestock industry claimed it would be.

This issue has been used rather effectively against wildlife for years but the disease is much less of a threat to human health than it was before the pasteurization of milk became the standard. The only way to contract brucellosis is by coming into direct contact with infected fetal tissue or by drinking unpasteurized milk. You cannot become infected by eating cooked beef.

Livestock disease found in eastern Idaho cow
By REBECCA BOONE (AP)

The difference grazing cattle makes at the end of the season

Comparison of two sites, Nov. 4, 2009, in the Mink Creek drainage south of Pocatello, Idaho-

Mink Creek is a popular recreation area on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, just south of Pocatello, Idaho. The first 3-4 miles have no livestock grazing. As the drainage gains slowly in elevation, it is grazed from about June 1 to Oct. 15 by cattle every year.

I was up there this afternoon and I took two photos (actually more than two). They certainly show the difference. The first photo is lower down in the Mink Creek drainage with no grazing for well over a decade. The second is further up, in a wetter, actually a riparian meadow next to the South Fork of Mink Creek. The second photo should have the most grass were there no grazing.

Mink Creek drainage ungrazed. Nov. 4, 2009. The green on the right is a trail. Copyright Ralph Maughan

This riparian meadow is directly adjacent to Mink Creek (runs in the willows). It is also higher elevation than the first photograph. Taken Nov. 4, 2009. Copyright Ralph Maughan

Report: Barbed Wire Fences Deadly To Sage Grouse

The impact to sage grouse numbers appears to be very large

Fencing is harmful to wildlife © Brian Ertz 2009

The thousands and thousands of miles of barbed wire fence chopping up lands throughout the west is bad for wildlife for many reasons.

Now, the impact that this installation for livestock production on public lands has to sage grouse is demonstrated in a study showing definitively that many sage grouse die in collisions with barbed wire fences. This should inform the US Fish & Wildlife’s court-ordered decision about whether or not to list sage grouse.

Report: Barbed Wire Fences Deadly To Sage Grouse – AP

US House passes amendment banning measurement of livestock-related global warming gases

We’ve talked about how despite Hamburgers being the ‘Hummers’ of Food in Global Warming, and How Meat, Especially Beef Contributes to Global Warming, big agribusiness and the livestock industry flex their political muscle and are exempted from Meating the Truth every time (like on the Climate Bill).

Now, a bill has just passed the U.S. House of Representatives that includes an amendment from Idaho’s Mike Simpson that :

prevents the Environmental Protection Agency from being allowed to gather any data on the contribution that animal agriculture makes to climate change.

So even the EPA conducting scientific inquiry into Livestock’s contribution to Climate Change could be cut off, if the President signs the bill.

Simpson even opined: “If the EPA had existed in Biblical times, there is no question in my mind that it would have regulated gas emissions from Noah’s Ark. Poor Noah and his livestock; they could withstand a 40-day flood, but they would never have survived the EPA.”

This news right after a new report suggests that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s report (Livestock’s Long Shadow) estimate that Livestock contribute 18% of human global warming gases in the world (more than all trains, planes, and automobiles) might have significantly underestimated Livestock’s relative contribution to Climate Change :

Livestock and Climate Change – by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang

Investigation under way after ranchers build fence in national forest

New path essentially creates a new road near Bear Lake

Rancher admits that they departed from the approved route, which had an old fenceline already cut, because they didn’t want to go through the Forest Service process of getting it changed.

“It’s just completely ridiculous, the process they have,” Wamsley says.

The new route cuts a 40-65 foot swath through the forest for 3 1/2 miles.

Investigation under way after ranchers build fence in national forest
KSL.com (video included)

Big Victory for Slickspot Peppergrass!

Rare plant will receive protection across its entire range.

WESTERN WATERSHEDS PROJECT NEWS RELEASE

Slickspot Peppergrass (Lepidium papilliferum) © Ken Cole

October 1, 2009

Contact:

Todd Tucci, Advocates for the West (208) 342-7024
Jon Marvel, Western Watersheds Project (208) 788-2290
Katie Fite, Western Watersheds Project (208) 429-1679

SCIENCE FINALLY TRUMPS POLITICS IN PROTECTING RARE DESERT FLOWER

Boise, Idaho – Conservation groups applauded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Secretary Salazar for living up to their promise to let science – and not politics – determine whether Slickspot peppergrass warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act, when the Service announced its intention to protect Slickspot peppergrass as a threatened species.

From the WWP blog. LDS Apostle Orson Hyde speaks in 1865 on the impact of Grazing on Rangeland

Any Utah Latter Day Saint knows the story how the Pioneers made the Utah desert “blossom as a rose,” but the real story is more complex-

Grass was so deep in the early years where Tooele, Utah (Ta WILL ah) now stands that livestock were frequently lost in it. It was named Grass Valley. Anyone been there lately or even a hundred years ago and seen any grass?

LDS Apostle Orson Hyde speaks in 1865 on the impact of Grazing on Rangeland. WWP blog.

Feds To Consider Tortoise for Endangered Species Act Listing

Groups Applaud Finding for Rapidly Declining Desert Icon

Desert Tortoise - photo: USFWS

Desert tortoise advocates have been waiting for this good news for a very long time.  Should a listing take place, many human intrusions into the desert tortoise’s southwest desert habitat, including livestock grazing and excessive development, will be largely halted.  The benefit of such will be enjoyed by a great number of desert wildlife species.

Feds to consider protections for desert tortoise – AP

Wildlife officials said the environmentalists’ petition presented substantial information that might warrant listing the species as threatened or endangered. Threats include urban sprawl, off-road vehicle use and livestock grazing. The tortoises’ range includes 8.4 million acres of federal public land in Arizona. Livestock grazing is permitted on more than half that land.

The News Release :

Arizona—Aug 28. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) gave the green light today on a petition submitted by WildEarth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project requesting protection (listing) for the Sonoran desert tortoise under the Endangered Species Act. The finding means that the Service will now conduct a full review to determine if the tortoise warrants being placed on the list of threatened and endangered species.

Wolves kill 120 sheep at ranch near Dillon

This is the kind of depredation where the wolves need to be shot-

This is unusual. Furthermore it took place on private land. Assuming there are no important facts left out of the story, these wolves should all be shot.

. . .  a couple sidebars to this. 1. They need to get the pack that did it. This should not be a revenge killing situation. 2. People might think this is typical because of the constant trickle of media reports of a lamb here or two or three ewes there.

Wolves kill 120 sheep at ranch near Dillon. By Eve Bryon. Helena Independent Record.

8/29 Update-Comment by Ralph Maughan

Bighorn Roundup 8/23/09

After the Marie Bulgin scandal rocked the Bighorn world many of us had hoped that the issue of disease transmission from domestic sheep to bighorn sheep might be largely resolved in the public debate.  Recent news stories suggest otherwise.

Likewise, there continues to be a lot of political posturing and spinning going on.

Below are the recent articles, a general roundup of recent bighorn sheep issues that have hit the news with some added editorial comment – and perhaps a few insights that didn’t make headlines.

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Grasshopper infestation forces livestock sales in 15 states

Masterswarm

We’ve used the examples of how heat and cold can take more livestock in a few days than wolves do in a year. In following up on our continuing efforts to highlight the absurdly disproportionate media coverage that flares up whenever news of a predator taking a few livestock happens,  I thought I’d post the story below about insects.

Grasshopper infestation forces livestock sales in 15 states

“This year we had a good start but they just took it,” said Tubbs [rancher], 57. “The grasshoppers have taken it down to the dirt. They’ve eaten everything but the cactus.”

Sheep Drive Endangers Arizona Desert Bighorns, Group Says

Bighorn Sheep © Ken Cole

Western Watersheds Project sues to prevent deadly disease spread to rare desert bighorn-

Western Watersheds Project has filed litigation against the US Forest Service in Arizona to prevent the trailing of domestic sheep that spread deadly disease over Forest Service lands that harbor bighorn sheep :

WWP News Release :

Western Watersheds Project filed suit in Federal Court in Tucson, Arizona to stop a large domestic sheep trailing operation in desert bighorn sheep habitat on the Tonto National Forest.  Domestic sheep are a source of respiratory illness that can devastate wild bighorn sheep herds.

Sheep Drive Endangers Bighorns, Group Says – Courthouse News Service

The U.S. Forest Service will cause a “die-off” of bighorn sheep by its decision to allow private livestock companies to drive 12,000 domestic sheep across the Tonto and Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests for a month, the Western Watersheds Project claims in Federal Court. The environmental group says domestic sheep “carry disease that is fatal” to bighorn sheep and any contact between the species could devastate the bighorns.

Collateral damage: Experts wonder what Tester’s bill may kill

More fallout on the costs to conservation Montana Senator Jon Tester’s new Logging Bill (couched in “W”ilderness designation) may have to Montana’s wildlife.

Collateral damage: Experts wonder what Tester’s bill may kill Missoula Independent

While much of the critique coming from conservationists focuses on the negative impact of the logging on other-than-wilderness public lands of which existing protections are traded away in the bill, Ralph Maughan previously leveraged a convincing repudiation of Tester’s logging bill pointing out that much of the Wilderness will be Cow-trashed Wilderness, “Wilderness” designated landscapes allowed to be grazed to the dirt as before.  How’s that for “untrammeled” ?

Horse Debate Misses the Point.

Wild Horses in Nevada © Ken Cole

Ted Williams, a writer for Fly Rod and Reel Magazine and Audubon has written a piece attacking wild horse advocates and politicians who supported H.R. 1018, the Restore Our American Mustangs Act.

I think it misses the point. I think that an opportunity to do something about livestock damage was missed and the bill will ultimately result in great ecological damage. For whatever reason language to proportionately reduce livestock grazing in horse areas was not included in the bill that passed the House but has no counterpart in the Senate.

I think that everyone knows that high use by non-native horses, invasive livestock, and even native ungulates such as elk is damaging ecologically. That is not my debate with the author. I think that the debate rests in proportionality. Livestock damage is several orders of magnitude higher than horse damage even though there needs to be serious reductions in both populations.

Water trough and spring heavily used by horses. There are far more springs abused like this not used by horses. © Ken Cole

In an exchange between Williams and myself he states this: “Unlike horses, cows can be managed, moved, brought in in the winter, and they’re a business”. In essence he seems to justifying the damage they cause for these reasons but I don’t see that they are being managed in such a way to benefit anything other than the pocket book of the rancher.

I go on to respond “we need to be talking about proportion since cattle cause 1000 more times damage to the lands, water, wildlife, vegetation and fisheries. By all rights you should be writing about 1000 times more articles about that damage. I don’t think this issue should be ignored but it certainly needs to be put into proportion.”

One of 239 Ecological Illiterates in the U.S. House
Ted Williams for Fly Rod and Reel.

More corporate welfare for public land livestock production

Obama’s Department of Agriculture has published a rule to extend more subsidies to public land ranchers.

EQIP Extended to Public Lands – National Cattleman’s Beef Association

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a final rule authorizing the use of Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funds for conservation efforts on public lands. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the Public Lands Council (PLC), and other conservation and ranching groups had requested this language in comments submitted to USDA in March. 

Fencing is harmful to wildlife © Brian Ertz 2009

EQIP is a federal agricultural subsidy :

EQIP provides payments up to 75 percent of the incurred costs and income foregone of certain conservation (sic) practices and activities.

“Conservation practices” is a tricky term.  In practice, these federal dollars are often spent subsidizing the construction of agricultural developments like the materials and labor to build fences and to dig wells to pump water on private land.  The new rule expands the subsidy to provide federal cost-sharing for practices which include fences and water developments for livestock production on federal public lands.

Limit per individual or entity is not to exceed $300,000 in 6 year timeframes.

According to the USDA, from 1997 to 2008, over $100 million in EQIP dollars were distributed to subsidize livestock grazing in the country.

Range War in the West

Patrick Dorinson has taken aim at one group of rabble-rousers you may be familiar with :

Range War In the West – FOXNews.com

But some environmentalist outlaws like the Western Watersheds Project had no interest in compromise and since have used and abused the legal system of this country to deny the ranchers their rights and seeks to have the U.S. Government abrogate the legal contracts that allows them to use public lands for grazing.

It’s a funny diatribe, Patrick goes to great lengths to fit in every last possible piece of mud drawing upon over a decade of uninformed cliché, contrived stereotype and baseless accusation.

Every once in awhile these guys need a really good rage in print – good on ’em.  At first I wasn’t going to post it, but it spread to NewWest so I figured we should share it as well.

Judge Affirms Public Access to Science Advisory Committees

Woolgrowers try to spin the decision to muddy the waters on Bighorn/Domestic sheep disease

Bighorn sheep lamb © Ken Cole

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill has voided the Payette National Forest Science Advisory Committee’s contribution to management decisions when it decides whether or not to ban or reduce domestic sheep grazing on the Payette National Forest.

Federal judge voids bighorn sheep disease report – AP

The Woolgrowers successful claim means that the public should have been granted access to ‘listen in on’ the Science Advisory Committee, which was assimilating and summarizing existing information.  This decision cuts both ways, ensuring access for industry as well as conservation advocates.  The Woolgrowers were not successful in overturning previous decisions restricting domestic sheep grazing.  

The judge goes out of his way to affirm that the existing information, including the scientific data demonstrating evidence of disease transmission from domestic to wild sheep that the committee summarized, can still inform management actions.

Not included in the article is the irony that Mark Rey, former undersecretary for natural resources and agriculture for the Bush Administration, is the man responsible for establishing the science advisory committee at issue.

Mike Hudak’s Podcast: Politics Trumps Science in Rangeland Management

How they do it.

In this 15-minute audio presentation, Mike Hudak explains how ranchers use politicians to intimidate land managers from the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management into providing rancher-friendly livestock management that is often detrimental to wildlife. Hudak cites passages from his book Western Turf Wars: The Politics of Public Lands Ranching that illuminate the topic.

Mike Hudak’s Podcast: Politics Trumps Science in Rangeland Management

Cow flop, beer cans, and cheatgrass. © Ken Cole (click for larger view)

Judge orders measures to protect native trout from grazing in eastern Oregon’s Malheur National Forest

ONDA, WWP & CBD halt cattle grazing

The Oregon Natural Desert Association’s press release :

PORTLAND, ORE. Jun 16, 2009

Cattle grazing along a steelhead stream, Malheur National Forest. photo: ONDA

Fish advocates applauded a federal judge’s decision yesterday to protect native steelhead trout in the John Day River basin. The court order temporarily halts cattle grazing within important native trout streams in eastern Oregon’s Malheur National Forest. This latest round of the decade-long litigation targets, as the court put it, “repeated failures” by the Forest Service to address grazing impacts to fish habitat. The steelhead, an iconic Pacific Northwest native trout, is listed under the Endangered Species Act as a “threatened” species in danger of extinction.

Grazing has badly damaged stream and riparian habitats along more than 230 miles of streams, according to evidence gathered by ONDA and the Forest Service.

Okanogan-Wenatchee Forest Experiments with Lone Washington Wolf Pack

Friends, 

We did our best, but these Foresters in Washington state are well-schooled in The Way of the Bureaucrat.  Despite the sole known Washington wolf pack’s rendezvous site being at the best, most available water source for public land cattle on the unit, livestock described by Don Johnson as looking feeble and “like bait”, the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest has decided that it wants to experiment with Washington wolves and allow livestock to be put out on top of them to see whether conflict will arise.

Anxiety grows as wolves rebound in Methow Valley  – The Seattle Times

We were able to rattle the cage enough to secure a few conservation measures from the Forest which may help the Lookout pack, including (but not limited to) :

• During times that cattle are in a unit with den or rendezvous site, the permittee will be required to inspect the area at least twice per week.
• Sick or injured livestock must be removed from the allotment.
• “Livestock carcasses on the allotment must be moved from the allotment, destroyed by blasting with explosives, or electric fenced if they would attract wolves to a potential conflict situation with other livestock, such as a salting ground, water source, or holding corral.”

(Emphasis Added)

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly volunteer to help with the blasting.

We were also assured that the Washington wolves would not be “controlled” if a conflict did arise.  Of course, the real threat is the long-term, the threat that the wolves will acclimate to the taste of easy & tender calf, and the local media’s reactionary tendency to put the blame on the wolves.

Let’s hope for the Lookout pack’s sake that we’re wrong.

U Idaho knew bighorn disease link after ’94

Conflict of interest results in suppressed study ?

Note: a more robust story than initially has been linked to below

Marie Bulgin is Coordinator of the University of Idaho’s Caine Veterinary Teaching and Research Center, a prominent research facility that has investigated potential links between domestic sheep disease and bighorn die-offs. At the same time serving as head of the research facility, Dr. Bulgin raised domestic sheep herself, and has served as the President of the Idaho Woolgrower’s Association. Marie Bulgin has long held that there has been no evidence of direct transmission of disease linked to the die-off of bighorn from domestic sheep in the range :

We do know that they do have die-offs periodically and the more recent ones that I’m familiar with have been pneumonia and the pneumonia is a pasteurella caused pneumonia, bacterial, and domestic sheep die of pasteurella pneumonias, but so far in the research we’ve done here, and we’ve done quite a bit of it, we haven’t been able to connect the pasteurella in domestic sheep with that that causes the die-offs in bighorn sheep.

She has testified to this under oath in federal court and to the Idaho legislature and her testimony has been widely used by sheepman, local politicians, and local media (as recently as 2 days ago) to deny the direct link between domestic sheep transmission and muddy the waters concerning bighorn management – and she’s gotten away with it.

Now, a study has emerged, conducted by her own University of Idaho Caine Veterinary Center, by researchers more recently under Dr. Bulgin’s charge. The study demonstrates compelling evidence that transmission of disease between domestic sheep to bighorn sheep does in fact take place in the wild. The research paper was completed in 1994, but for some reason, the study has not shown up until very recently.

U Idaho knew bighorn disease link after ’94 – Associated Press

Why was this important study held ‘under the radar’ for so long ?

Soil carbon sequestration study begins

Public lands as carbon sinks ?

We’ve spoken of the potential for our public lands to act as carbon sinks.

When you think about public lands and the value that these places have to serve our efforts to curb global climate change I’d like you to consider a new idea that is as old as dirt ~ passive restoration. Yes, I’m suggesting that part of the answer might be to remove our footprint on those places we can – and in doing so – let the land catch it’s breath.

Just as trees draw CO2 out of the atmosphere, so does the life of soil and other healthy plant communities.  In fact, even in places as arid as the Mojave desert, researchers have found that healthy, undisturbed living-soils may draw as much carbon out of the atmosphere as temperate forests !  Can you imagine ? Resting the land from soil disturbing activities that degrade living-soils and remove vegetation, precluding the living carbon from being recycled back into the soil, ~ preserving our natural environmental heritage ~ may actually be an important strategy in mitigating climate change – a way to actually and directly take carbon out of the atmosphere.

Perhaps these ideas will be considered in the study recently announced concerning sagebrush communities :

Soil carbon sequestration study begins – Casper Star Tribune

Scientists believe increasing the carbon in soils — a process known as soil carbon sequestration — may help reduce the rise of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere that contribute to global warming

Commissioners work with feds to head off grazing lawsuits

Central Idaho threatened/endangered fish habitat is threatened by public land livestock grazing.  Federal managers drag their feet.  WWP threatens to file suit.

Chinook - photo: USFWS

Many folk don’t realize the impact to native fisheries habitat that livestock grazing can and does have.  The Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other land and wildlife management agencies work diligently to avoid acknowledging livestock’s impact to listed fish species such as Bull Trout, Chinook salmon, steelhead, and Sockeye salmon even when their own biologists and other scientists officially describe the deleterious effect.

It’s real – fish depend on stream-side vegetation for shade, filtering sediment, and as habitat for insects that fish eat.  Livestock grazing removes that vegetation and tramples stream-banks polluting spawning gravels and redds (fish nests) with sediment that suffocates fish eggs.  Grazing widens stream-channels increasing water temperature beyond tolerable levels and reduces the number of pool habitat fish need in streams.   A single livestock trampling event can wipe out entire redds (fish nests) killing thousands of protected fish eggs and baby fish.

Fish need water, water use to supply stock tanks on public land and diversions that irrigate  private pasture those cattle use on the off-season robs fish of the water-flow they need to survive and thrive.

I was recently interviewed by a local (Challis, Idaho) paper in response to Western Watersheds Project’s series of letters notifying government agencies of our intent to sue across central Idaho to ensure public land livestock management doesn’t unlawfully impact Bull Trout, Chinook salmon, steelhead, and Sockeye salmon.  The report was honest to the issue at hand – wildlife, a rarity for this state’s media – so I thought I’d post it :

Commissioners work with feds to head off grazing lawsuits. Todd Adams – Challis Messenger

It’s time to do something about the egregious mismanagement of these important and valued Idaho fisheries :

5/14/09 Montana Department of Livestock chasing baby buffalo with broken leg

Last Thursday, Montana Department of Livestock chased/hazed/harassed/played ‘cowboy’ with a mother buffalo and her calf, despite the broken leg the calf sustained – all on behalf of Livestock’s stranglehold over our public land and wildlife management..

Judge rejects splitting up suit over Western bird

BLM Resource Management Litigation hits “World News”

Update May 13:  The Salt Lake Tribune publishes an important Editorial on the recent news: Saving sage grouse :

A funny-looking bird that fluffs its feathers to dance an elaborate mating rite just might be able to accomplish what well-funded environmental groups have been struggling to do for decades: bring about regional protection of vast swaths of Western lands.[…]

[…]In protecting the sage grouse, we protect ourselves and the scenic wonders we treasure from the headlong rush to extract more fossil fuels, to pollute our air, and to mar our most fragile landscapes with excessive ATV traffic.

The Guardian is running Todd Dvorak’s piece on WWP’s recent successful argument in federal court to keep its West-wide comprehensive litigation in one courtroom :

Judge rejects splitting up suit over Western bird – Guardian vi AP

The New York Times ran a clip of the piece as well .

This ambitious case is a big deal and promises to be a headache for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose promise to clean up Interior is being tested by the suit in a manner that moves beyond photo-ops and talking-points.

Will Salazar do the right thing for Western public landscapes and wildlife for real ?

Bush BLM’s environmental legacy on trial; Will Salazar listen ?

Scope of litigation - map © Advocates for the West & Conservation Geography - click to view enlarged map

Judge B Lynne Winmill ruled in favor of Western Watersheds Project ordering that the group’s comprehensive challenge of over 16 Resource Management Plans, directing management of over 30 million acres, can be litigated in his single court.

Resource Management Plans (RMPs) guide management of livestock grazing, off road vehicles, energy development, and other potentially environmentally harmful administered uses of public land.

WWP argues that Bush BLM’s collective Resource Management Plans constitute a systemic effort to undermine fundamental environmental laws of the United States thereby threatening many imperiled species using the example of mismanagement and failure to consider impact to sage grouse – an imperiled landscape indicator species (‘canary in the coal-mine’ of sage-steppe habitat) across millions of acres.

Earth satellites tell the truth: Grazing threatens wildlife habitat in West

“. . . ubiquitous public lands grazing has contributed to the decline of native wildlife,” concludes the report entitled ‘Western Wildlife Under Hoof’.”

Wildearth Guardians has used satellite images and public land records to show the massive damage grazing of sheep and cattle does to the soil, water, forage, and wildlife of our public lands, including the spread of non-native invasive weeds.

Study: Grazing threatens wildlife habitat in West by Scott Sonner. Associated Press

Lake Creek – Then and Now

A sad fact is that public land livestock grazing is so pervasive out west (around 300 million acres of public land) that most people have become accustomed to the image of livestock degraded landscapes and have little idea what might be.

Lake Creek was the straw the broke the bovine's back - it prompted the organization of Idaho Watersheds Project (now Western Watersheds Project). Left: Condition of state land on Lake Creek, July 24, 1994 © Lynne Stone; Right: Condition of state land on Lake Creek July 18, 2007

Recently, WWP received a report dated July 18, 2007 from the Idaho Department of Lands which included the photographs below in the right column and the two final pictures documenting the restoration taking place on the 1.2 mile state land along Lake Creek.

Ranchers now have a way out

Mark Salvo and Andy Kerr write about the voluntary grazing buy-outs included in the recent Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, and how these “win/win” solutions could become a more generalized tool across western public lands to resolve often contentious resource conflicts.

Ranchers now have a way out – High Country News, Writers on the Range

Grazing-permit retirement is a voluntary, non-regulatory, market-based solution to grazing problems. Congress last legislated this approach in 1998, when it provided for permit retirement in Arches National Park in Utah. With the omnibus bill, Congress has now authorized ranchers to retire many more grazing allotments on much larger expanses of public land.

Idaho Federal judge orders ESA review for Big Lost River whitefish

Judge Lodge mandates a “status review” for rare whitefish. Major impacts expected if fish is listed-

Judge orders protection review for Idaho fish. By Todd Dvorak. Associated Press Writer.
Judge rules in favor of whitefish. By Jason Kauffman. Idaho Mountain Express.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told to reconsider ESA listing for Mackay area fish

This could be very good news for the sorry Big Lost River and the abusive grazing practices permitted by the Lost River Ranger District of the Salmon-Challis National Forest.

Judge Edward Lodge generally is not very favorable to lawsuits brought by conservation groups.

Photo of the generally dewatered bed of the Big Lost River.

Photo of Copper Basin. Overgrazed mountain valley. This valley could be Lamar Valley of Idaho, but livestock grazing dominates everything else. It is the headwaters of the East Fork of the Big Lost River.

Photo of the East Fork of the Big Lost River in Copper Basin

– – – – – –

Those few undegraded parts of the Big Lost River are popular with trout anglers. Restoration to increase the Big Lost whitefish would have enormous benefits for trout and the local economy.

Idaho Anti-Bighorn Bill May Backfire

A Review of Idaho Senate Bill 1124

Bighorn Sheep in the East Fork Salmon River Canyon. Photo © Ken Cole

Earlier I wrote about a member of the Idaho legislator and livestock rancher, Monty Pearce, who has recently taken aim at bighorn sheep conservation and restoration efforts in response to a sheepman’s call for special treatment from the Idaho legislature.  This after the Payette National Forest’s proposal to drastically reduce his permitted domestic sheep grazing on your federal public land.

Rancher Pearce’s legislation, Idaho Senate Bill 1124, seeks to bring to a halt the Idaho Department of Fish & Game’s efforts to transplant and relocate bighorn sheep – and potentially most big game – in the state of Idaho.

Ironically, the Idaho Attorney General’s Office answered some legal questions that suggest Idaho Senate Bill 1124 might be just as likely to backfire, removing a federal obligation the Forest currently has to consult with the state over wildlife issues.

Stalk-leaved Monkeyflower (Mimulus patulus)

"Stalk-leaved Monkeyflower"
Mimulus patulus
Asotin Wildlife Area
© Dr. Don Johnson (Click to enlarge)

Mimulus patulus Occurence & Habitat

Springs and seeps are unique habitats that occur where subterranean water emerges from an aquifer. In the semi-arid and arid west, these unique sources of water are particularly important ‘oasis’ habitats for wildlife, especially during drought and heat.  Their relatively consistent temperatures and chemistry provides for  “hotspots” of biological diversity – many of the more fragile plants and wildlife found in these habitats require very specific conditions and will not persist with the greater water temperature, chemistry, and flow fluctuations that occur downstream.  Generally in the west, from a distance you may identify springs and seeps by the presence of an aspen clone or other green, lush vegetative expressions on the slopes of an otherwise tan, dry hillside.  Up close you’ll find a microclimate of mosses and unique plant-life.  If you’re lucky, you may happen-upon a wet-spot blanketed by butterflies attracted to its mineral-waters and gathering energy in the sun.

Good news. Western Watersheds Project Wins Appeal Of Grazing Decision On 412,000 Acres Of Arizona Desert

This helps makes up a bit for the bad news on wolves today-

Tucson, Arizona

Today, a federal judge reversed the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to allow livestock grazing on 412,000 acres of public land managed by the Bureau’s Kingman Field Office. Saying, “Cattle are not ghosts. They are bigger and heavier than any native wildlife,” Administrative Law Judge Andrew Pearlstein admonished the BLM for not sufficiently considering the impacts of cattle grazing on four livestock allotments before issuing the permit.

The judge determined that the BLM failed to justify any economic need for the decision, failed to provide any site-specific information on fences, watering sites and other range developments, failed to consider retiring the area from grazing, and failed to meaningfully analyze the potential environmental impacts of grazing on annual ephemeral vegetation. Western Watersheds Project (WWP) had raised all of these points in its appeal of the decision in October of 2008.

The four allotments – Planet, Primrose, Alamo Crossing, and Crossman Peak- have not been grazed for 18 to 25 years. The area includes two federally-designated Wildernesses, the Bill Williams River, and habitat for desert tortoise, bald eagle, and bighorn sheep. Additionally, hundreds of archeological sites have been recorded within the allotments. The region receives just 3 to 7 inches of rain a year and summer temperatures reach near 110 degrees.

“We’re pleased that the Judge recognized the detrimental effect of livestock on soils, vegetation, and riparian areas. It is great that such a large expanse of desert will continue to be spared those impacts,” said Greta Anderson, Arizona Director of Western Watersheds Project. “It’s also a good reminder to the Arizona BLM that they have a statutory obligation under the National Environmental Policy Act to take a hard look at their proposed actions.”

Western Watersheds Project works throughout the west to restore watersheds and wildlife. http://www.westernwatersheds.org/

Judge Pearlstein’s Order can be found at WWP’s web site at this URL: http://www.westernwatersheds.org/legal/09/az/alj_kingman_decision.pdf

“Grazing-as-usual” ends on 600,000 acres of public land in southwest Idaho

 This is important news for management of public lands in sage-steppe country.

Sage grouse in flight, Bruneau uplands © Ken Cole 2008

Judge rules in southwest Idaho grazing case – AP

A federal judge has directed the Bureau of Land Management to rethink the way it manages grazing across thousands of acres of southern Idaho, especially the impact livestock have on sage grouse and other threatened species.

Following the intense Murphy Complex Fire that swept through southern Idaho a couple summers back, wiping out 76 sage grouse leks, intense political pressure to turn the cows back out quick largely eclipsed consideration for sage grouse, pygmy rabbits, and other wildlife displaced onto the remaining habitat spared the blaze.  To give an idea of the regard for habitat in this part of the country, Ralph Maughan took photos of cattle grazing  post-burn – Bad practice when one hopes to restore the landscape.  

Given the critical importance of the remaining habitat in Jarbidge country, conservationists quickly filed suit to ensure wildlife wouldn’t take the short-end of the stick given BLM’s plan to fold and continue “grazing-as-usual” on over 625,000 acres following the fire.    

The question:

When fire (or any catastrophic event) wipes out huge swaths of wildlife habitat, how should that affect management of wildlife values versus livestock on those remaining landscapes so important to remaining wildlife ? 

Idaho Legislature Takes Aim at Bighorn Sheep

Rancher & state senator Monty Pearce

Idaho state senator Monty J. Pearce, a rancher from New Plymouth, has introduced legislation that would effectively prevent transplant and relocation of bighorn sheep into the state of Idaho.  The legislation also instructs state managers to “relocate or control” bighorns that come into proximity of “any private, state or federal lands that have any domestic sheep use, or any domestic sheep allotments administrated by the bureau of land management or U.S. forest service”.

Idaho Senate Bill 1124

Idaho Statehouse representative for the Idaho Conservation League, Courtney Washburn, responds to the proposed legislation:

It is my belief that bills like SB 1124 are a result of the actions [Western Watersheds Project] is taking.  This has more to do with revenge against [Western Watersheds Project] than actual wildlife issues.  It is unfortunate that the intervention of the Idaho legislature in this issue will likely be harmful to wildlife but it is a consequence of the approach Western Watersheds has taken on this issues.

It’s the Wilderness, Stupid

Why can’t we understand that wilderness should be a big part of our economic future?

It’s the Wilderness, Stupid
By Bill Schneider

Can America’s West stay wild?

Bunnies, cowboys, culture, economics, demographics, the West

Can America’s West stay wild? Christian Science Monitor

Between 1970 and 2000, nonlabor jobs fueled 86 percent of this growth. Mining, timber, and agriculture (including ranching) contributed only 1 percent. Now, 93 percent of jobs in the West have no direct link to public lands, says Rasker. But wilderness areas, in conjunction with infrastructure like airports, correlated closely with areas that saw the greatest growth.

related: The Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit Is Now Genetically Extinct

Bill would block killing of wild horses, burros

Bill would block killing of wild horses, burros

“It is unacceptable for wild horses to be slaughtered without any regard for the general health, well-being, and conservation of these iconic animals that embody the spirit of our American West,” Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., said in a statement.
By SANDRA CHEREB – Associated Press Writer

Meanwhile, back in Utah…

Resolution supporting horse slaughter passes
The Salt Lake Tribune

And in Wyoming…

Lawmakers decry interference in horse slaughter
By MARJORIE KORN – Associated Press writer

And in Montana…

House takes up bill to approve slaughterhouse
By JOHN S. ADAMS – Tribune Capitol Bureau

Hamburgers are the Hummers of Food in Global Warming: Scientists

Elimination/Reduction of Beef in your diet remains among the most potent personal choices you can make to help preserve our natural world

Hamburgers are the Hummers of Food in Global Warming: Scientists – CommonDreams.org

Buying local meat and produce will not have nearly the same effect, he cautioned.

That’s because only five percent of the emissions related to food come from transporting food to market.

“You can have a much bigger impact by shifting just one day a week from meat and dairy to anything else than going local every day of the year,” Weber said.

The facts : Livestock production …

• is the largest land use in the western United States
• Ranching in the West is the principle source of conflict resulting in tax-payer dollars spent to kill wolves, buffalo, coyotes, prairie dogs, and other wildlife [1]
• is the most significant cause of non-point source water pollution [2]
• is the most prominent factor resulting in wildlife imperilment/loss of biodiversity/listed species in the West [3]
• is the most robust contributor to desertification of landscapes in North America [4]

WWP win in Washington state underscores politicized wildlife management

Thurston County Superior Court has ruled in favor of Dr. Steve Herman and Western Watersheds Project deciding that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) violated the State Environmental Protection Act when issuing grazing permits on its state wildlife areas without undergoing environmental analysis.  The state and Washington Cattleman’s Association had claimed that such analysis was not required as the lands had been grazed in the past under a ‘verbal lease’ – a handshake, and that this arrangement exempted the parties from the need to undergo the analysis.

Court faults Fish and Wildlfie for granting Kittitas grazing lease – Yakima Herald-Republic :

Steve Herman, the Thurston County resident who filed the suit on behalf of the Western Watersheds Project, a regional conservation group based in Idaho, called last week’s ruling “a very clear-cut victory for those of us who would preserve some wildlife areas for wildlife.”

Whiskey Dick Wildflowers © Katie Fite, WWP (click to view slideshow)

The Whiskey Dick/Quilomene Wildlife Area was acquired by the people of Washington as critical wildlife habitat to preserve steelhead fisheries, big game, and other wildlife including the state-listed Greater Sage-grouse and other sage-steppe obligate species.

Sage Grouse Distribution in Washington State(click to enlarge)

The Wildlife Area is particularly critical for Greater Sage-grouse in Washington, whose populations have been significantly diminished given fragmented and degraded habitat, leaving the bird teetering on the brink of extinction in the state.

The Wildlife Area is located directly between the two remaining populations of sage grouse in Washington state, providing a critical link, a habitat corridor.  Grazing the area threatens this habitat, potentially exacerbating the isolation between the two remaining sage-grouse populations.

Vet urges ranchers to adopt brucellosis plan

Producers in 7 Montana border counties would need to test, vaccinate. By Tom Lutey. Billings Gazette.

Salazar to take preservation nationwide – Interior secretary to use Colorado land-conservation program as model.

This is an interesting development in the DOI agenda under Secretary Salazar with this being his first public comment on his plans for a national preservation program. The questions begin with concerns about whom the actual beneficiaries would be? And just how would this program be implemented by anti-federal regulation interior western extractive interest promoting state legislative bodies? Another concern would be just what the definition of a “working farm” is with regard to such a program and would it really be considered “change”?

Salazar to take preservation nationwide – Interior secretary to use Colorado land-conservation program as model
by Joe Hanel – Herald Denver Bureau

The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit is now genetically extinct

This loss highlights the importance of genetic interchange and landscape-level habitat preservation

Photo Courtesy USFWS

The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit has been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act but efforts to restore the bunny have been unsuccesful.  Even efforts at maintaining as much of the Columbia Basin ancestory/gene by interbreeding with Idaho pygmy rabbits are not looking good.

Last-ditch effort to save pygmy rabbits near an end – Wenatchee Work Online

Pygmy rabbits are very timid animals, not prone to travel large distances or cross open spaces without cover from predators.  Fragmentation and manipulation of habitat associated with development, livestock grazing, and other activities that degrade the thick old-growth sagebrush pygmy rabbits need to survive is largely responsible for the imperilment of the rabbits.

Update – Dr. Steve Herman explains some history :

Sheepherder Wants Special Treatment from Idaho Legislature.

Weiser sheep rancher tells Idaho lawmakers Forest Service threatens his livelihood
Brian Murphy – Idaho Statesman

Sheepherder Ron Shirts has appealed to the Idaho Senate to intervene and give him special consideration above the interests of the public, wildlife, and the Nez Perce Tribe. Shirts complains that his livelihood is threatened because the Payette National Forest is not living up to an agreement made in 1997 when bighorn sheep were transplanted to Hells Canyon. The article fails to mention that this agreement did not include the Nez Perce Tribe who still hold treaty rights to grazing and hunting in the area which supersede those of Shirts and other sheepherders.

Idaho’s one Democrat, Minnick, teams with Simpson to reintroduce CIEDRA

Prospects for “wilderness bill” have now improved-

Walt Minnick, the Democrat who defeated incumbent nutwinger Bill Sali for Idaho First Congressional District, joined with Idaho Second District Representative, Republican Mike Simpson to reintroduce the controversial Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA) on the first day of Congress.

With Democrats in control the prospects for the passage of the bill written by  Simpson have increased as well as the possibility of making the legislation less damaging.

While the media often call it a “Wilderness bill” because it designates 318,765 acres in the Boulder Mountains and White Cloud Mountains as Wilderness, there are other aspects of the bill that many see as problems. We need to see the actual text of the bill to see if any of these have been removed.

Livestock as four legged picnic baskets

George Wuerthner wrote a letter to the editor making a great point about the double-standard regarding livestock/wolf conflicts – especially on public lands :

In our national parks it’s illegal to leave out picnic baskets because it will lead to human-bear conflicts. To save bears, humans are fined if they fail to put away food.

But when it comes to ranchers, we have the exact opposite approach. Instead of fining them for leaving four legged picnic baskets scattered all over the landscape — including most of our public lands — we hold the wolves accountable [for] any losses that are largely due to the livestock industry’s poor management.

The whole letter :

Livestock as four legged picnic baskets – Wuerthner on the Environment

Black-tailed Prairie Dog

Bighorn Sheep Rule Stirs Debate in West

Mark Rey recently issued a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) requiring the Forest Service to test bighorn sheep for disease before the federal government allows states to transplant wild sheep on Forest lands.  As one might guess, this move chafes at state wildlife managers’ long-held claim to exclusive management of wildlife. It’s angering bighorn advocates & environmentalists too !       

Bighorn Sheep Rule Stirs Debate in West – Wall Street Journal

WWP End of Year fundraising request

End of year donations will keep Western Watersheds Project going strong !

WWP is funded by the financial contributions of our members, and without your help we could not carry out our critically important and successful work to protect and restore western watersheds and wildlife.

Nothing speaks more clearly than a good photograph about why WWP works so hard to change the management of western public lands. Please take a look at this photo taken in October 2008 of a riparian landscape degraded by cattle on Forest Service administered lands in the Little Lost River watershed of central Idaho.

Man building fence for WDFW paralyzed in fall

Washington governor’s program to put cows on state wildlife areas results in a second serious injury-

A second man has taken a fall while building fence for the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.

Family asks for help after man is paralyzed in canyon fall – klewtv.com

Susan Perez said she had been fearful for her husband’s safety when he first started working on the fence along George Creek Canyon about two weeks ago.

“He said, ‘You should see the hill I work now. It’s 2,000 square feet straight up,’ ” she said. “They have no safety harnesses. They have no cleated boots. They have no safety devices whatsoever.”

The steep slopes, the cliffs, in the area are inappropriate for the livestock grazing, the whole reason the fence-building is going on – and it’s dangerous for the people involved.  Another man fell into a canyon on the other side of Pintler Creek in February doing the same thing – building fences so WDFW can put cattle on lands purchased for wildlife.  This is the third injury the Department has sustained for these grazing projects, projects which cost the state of Washington $800,000 when the state is already $6 billion in debt.

Some background on Washington grazing:

Grazing on Washington state wildlife lands, and an ugly political deal by governor Christin Gregoire

Omnibus public lands bill is not truly dead.

Early resurrection planned in the next Congress-

Although it was supposed to move in the lame duck session, that session fizzles and the bill was pulled under threat of filibuster by Tom Coburn (R-OK).

Senator Reid, the major leader, has announced that an unrevised version of the massive public land bill (pieces of public lands legislation all over the United States inside) will be brought up early in the next Congress.

This is good news. This is also horrible news because of the the content of the various individual items. One of the worst is the Owyhee canyonlands a.k.a. Owyhee Initiative in SW Idaho.

Rocky Barker traces its origins in his blog today and Begreen has a fine response.

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

Cattle ranchers declare a new ‘War on the West’

Rocky Barker takes note :

Two months before Obama’s inauguration, cattle ranchers declare a new ‘War on the West?’

This aggressive political posture in response to the prospect of change has been characteristic of livestock associations throughout the West since the beginning of their history.  The survival of their influence, relative to the public’s interest at large, is stoked by their self-inflated sense of victimization – wolves, coyotes, even bighorn sheep and pygmy rabbits – i.e. the natural world, become a perceived threat to their ‘livelihood’ and exclusive political influence (a hyper-influence Ralph Maughan has aptly likened to a Western anomaly of political feudalism – a closed system of power practiced right here in these ‘democratic’ United States).  The prospect of a president who stands behind a science objectively describing the natural world’s imperiled state is a threat.

Livestock has been "Waging war on the West" for a very long time

If we’re to be honest about it – Livestock has been waging ‘War on the West’ for a very long time.  Take a look at these photo galleries compiled by WWP monitors – documenting the condition of your public lands this year :

Gallery 1

Gallery 2

Gallery 3

A cougar again on Idaho State University campus (Pocatello, ID)

This winter begins like last with cougars on campus-

The cougars haven’t harmed anyone, but, of course, their presence on campus worries people.

The following announcement came over Idaho State University email Nov. 4.

Idaho Fish and Game officials have set a cougar trap on campus after a possible sighting Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 4.  The trap is set in the area of the sighting, above the jogging trail on Red Hill above Davis Field.  Public Safety is advising people to be careful in the secluded areas of campus between  Red Hill, the cemetery and other areas.

Any sightings should immediately be reported to ISU Public Safety at 282-2515.

Cougars were in other parts of Pocatello last winter.

Why?

I have a pretty good idea. If you travel to the Caribou National Forest and the BLM lands that directly adjoin the city, with the exception of a “beauty zone” along Mink Creek, these public lands have been increasing abused by livestock grazing. There is little for the deer to eat, they come into town (indeed they sleep next to my house) where there is some pretty good forage. Of course the cougars follow.

I am increasingly of the view that we need a major push at change on range on these public lands. If any friends in Pocatello, Chubbuck or Inkom want to help with bringing grazing under control on your public land please contact me. Ralph Mauighan rmaughan2@cableone.net

End of the grazing season. Devastation as usual

Oh, what a comparison!

Last October a number of us visited the Lost River Ranger District in an area called Pine Creek. We went with the district ranger and the Supervisory Range Conservationist. It was pretty embarrassing. Some of the awful photos went up on Google Earth. End of 2007 grazing season in an unnamed tributary called “Pine Creek.”

I guess it wasn’t embarrassing enough because this year things were as bad or worse.

End of the 2008 grazing season with 90% forage eaten by cattle on Lost River Ranger District. Salmon-Challis National Forest. Photo Western Watersheds Project

I can post a bunch more if people are interested.

Later. Folks did want to see more-

Here is what a wet meadow/riparian area should look like in similar country. I took this photo in early October about 20 miles from the photo above on an Idaho state grazing lease acquired by the Western Watersheds Project after a many year battle with the State Land Board. WWP removed all the livestock.

Wet meadow/streamside area in Lake Creek. Herd Creek Highlands. Central Idaho. Early October 2008. Not grazed for about 4 years. The grazing lease is held by the Western Watersheds Project. WWP pays to run cattle lease, but doesn

More on Pine Creek –

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 ?’

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.

Western Turf, Wars: The Politics of Public Lands Ranching

Mike Hudak has written a book about what it is like for the citizen-activists who are fighting the livestock industry over livestock abuses on your western public lands. It can be pretty dangerous, especially to your job.

Review of the book. The Politics of Public Lands Ranching. Western Turf Wars. By Jamie Newlin. Counterpunch.

I hope some folks will pick this book up at amazon.com or better http://westernturfwars.com

Ranching & Forestry industries send 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue Interior to prevent Polar Bear listing

The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) sent a 60-day Notice of Intent to sue the Department of Interior over its decision to list Polar Bears under the Endangered Species Act.  From PLF’s News Release:

The PLF letter is filed on behalf of ranching and forestry interests that, along with employers nationwide and the economy in general, would be harmed by heavy-handed regulations that could proceed from the listing of the polar bear.

Hunting Season is Open on Polar Bears’ ESA Listing – Mother Jones

Grousing Around

Joan McCarter looks at some of Wyoming’s recent strategies to protect sage grouse, avoid ESA listing of Sage grouse to keep Oil & Gas happy.

Grousing Around
Is the sage grouse the 21st century’s spotted owl? – NewWest

Outrageous giveaway to public land ranchers in Utah proposed

Outrageous giveaway to public land ranchers in Utah proposed. By Dawn House. The Salt Lake Tribune

Ninth Circuit orders Bureau of Land Management to evaluate wilderness values on public lands

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 15, 2008
CONTACT:
Brent Fenty 541-330-2638
Jon Marvel 208-788-2290

PORTLAND, ORE. — The Bureau of Land Management must rewrite its land use plan for southeast Oregon due to a landmark decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday. The BLM wrongly refused to evaluate impacts to wilderness values on the public lands in the challenged plan, according to the decision, which overturned a district court decision upholding the plan.

The ruling will have a profound impact on BLM’s management of the public lands it is charged with protecting. The court specifically rejected BLM’s disavowal of “the very idea of wilderness” as one of many resources and values for which the agency must manage. Finding that the law, including BLM’s own guidance documents, unmistakably requires BLM to analyze impacts to a landscape’s wilderness characteristics, the court vacated the plan and ordered BLM prepare a new plan.

Read the whole Press Release

UPDATE: Read a Copy of the Decision

Judge halts USDA’s cattle-grazing plans on Conservation Reserve Program lands

The Conservation Reserve Project has removed many millions of marginal and sub-marginal lands from agricultural production over the last 20 years or so. It has had an enormous beneficial effect on water quality and wildlife habitat in some places. Southeast Idaho, where I live is one of the most important places to benefit.

On the other hand, the monetary payments to these nonproducing farmers have been enormous. As George Wuerthner has pointed out many times, the land could have purchased and become public land easily for the amount of money paid to the owners who voluntarily sign up for this program.

Another one of the irritating aspects of the program is the tendency for various Administrations, including the current one, to open these lands to grazing where there is a drought, or in the present case, simply high food prices. This pretty much defeats the expensive CRP’s purpose.

Fortunately, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour has just issued and injunction that could stop the renewed grazing on 24 million acres of CRP lands around the U.S.

Story in the Seattle Times. The injunction ordered Tuesday by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour could affect 24 million acres of conservation lands across the country.

And here is some potentially very bad news. Farmers are pressuring to be let out of their CRP contracts because of the artificially high price of corn that has been created by mandates to produce ethanol from corn. USDA Rule Change May Lead To Crops on Conserved Land. By Joel Achenbach. Washington Post.

These lands were taken out of production because they are generally hilly with soils that flow away with the first rain. Corn is one of the very worst crops in terms of erosion. It is plain to see that corn simply cannot hold the soil in place. Add this then as yet another cost of corn ethanol.

Many people are blaming the huge midwest floods on the land use practices in the area, aggrevated by planting of more corn — this is the kind of additional cost we are talking about.

[Mexican] Wolf recovery can succeed

Benjamin Tuggle, Southwest regional director of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has published an Op-Ed in the Arizona Republic:

Wolf recovery can succeed

The Op-Ed is released, likely to smooth things over, amidst recent controversy in response to inaction on the part of FWS including at least 2 lawsuits and a recent poll demonstrating southwesterners [overwhelmingly] want wolves (77 percent of Arizonans and 69 percent of New Mexicans support wolf reintroduction on public lands).

The Mexican gray wolf is considered by scientists as the most endangered mammal in North America and efforts at restoration have been stymied, the greatest threat to Mexican wolves being predator control actions enforced on behalf of the livestock industry.

Greater Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)

Suit Opposes Elk Feeding in Wyoming

The New York Times details a recent lawsuit filed yesterday by environmentalists to stop the feedlot-like conditions of the National Elk Refuge in Wyoming.

Suit Opposes Elk Feeding in Wyoming – New York Times. By Jim Robbins.

The spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) threatens wildlife given its recent proximity to the “refuge” and is of particular concern given the congregated conditions fostered by feeding wild elk and the catastrophic potential for massive spread.

The feedlot-like conditions are maintained to keep wild elk off of land livestock producers covet as their own – the herds’ native winter range. When elk eat the forage, cows don’t have as much.

Opportunity for elk feedlots serving as de facto baiting-grounds for killing wolves post-delisting has also been a concern.

Story added. Jackson Hole News and Guide. Refuge feeding fought in suit. Conservation groups say practice threatens elk with disease; critics argue animals will starve. By Cory Hatch.

Christian Science Monitor looks at the awful winter for Yellowstone Bison

In Montana, bison plan paused. Ranchers and conservationists are increasingly at odds, as Yellowstone herd numbers plunge. By Todd Wilkinson. Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor.

Actually, I think the genetically pure bison is now in danger of extinction and should be added to the endangered species list.

Cars and Cows

Earlier in Oil & Gas eyes your public lands I asked a question of Interior’s plans to “solve” America’s energy woes by opening up vast public lands to the oil & gas industry :

Are energy reserves that may or may not be accessible on your public lands worth the cost to wildlife, our environmental heritage, our children’s environmental trust ? Is $4/gallon gas the problem ? Is domestic extraction of fossil fuels on public lands the solution ?

It seems to me that all of these symptoms might be pointing to a deeper problem.

George Wuerthner explores the government’s shallow responses and the deeper problems in Living Large in America: Cars and Cows – featured in Counterpunch.

Wuerthner’s piece is also in New West.

Harper’s gets it right on Buffalo

For those of you with a Harper’s Magazine subscription, you’re in for a treat with Christopher Ketcham’s article They shoot buffalo, don’t they: Hazing America’s last wild herd in Harper’s most recent edition. Ketcham gets it right again.

For those of you, like myself, who don’t have a subscription to the publication, get on down to your local newstand and pick up a copy. It’s the June 2008 edition.

The article hearkens back to Harper’s Bernard DeVoto days in it’s candid willingness to take Livestock to task for their crimes against wildlife and the absurd hold this special interest has on management – on its ability to mangle the truth. It’s a stark depiction of just how little this cultural identity – this mentality, has changed.

It’s a good read, let’s hope Ketcham keeps following this path ~ Livestock’s contribution to the subsidized War on Wildlife with other species and co-opted agencies – there are plenty to choose from.

Here’s a work of Christopher Ketcham published in the recent past :

The Cowboy’s Carnage: Ranching and the War on Wildlife in the American West (Men’s Journal, Jan. 2008 ..)

Ripples continue amid sage grouse review

The oil & gas and livestock industries continue to feel the pressure from land use agencies as the evidence piles up indicating that these extractive uses of our public lands are significantly contributing to the precipitous decline in sage grouse numbers.

Sage grouse are described as the “spotted owl” of the ranching industry in the west, and now as the “polar bear” of the oil & gas industry in the west.

Whatever your thoughts on comparable species and whatever the result of the court ordered reconsideration for listing, the incredible Greater Sage-Grouse is already elevating wildlife’s priority and bringing a new and welcome introspective pause to our dangerously destructive relationship with the imperiled Sagebrush Sea.

Cambridge Wolf Kill

From what I understand, agencies discourage the photography of permitted ‘control’ actions – especially among private individuals permitted to kill the predators. As we see here and from what we have seen in the past, it appears that sometimes folk just can’t help themselves.

WWPblog has posted these photos of a wolf apparently legally killed near Cambridge Idaho.