Big Polluters Freed from Environmental Oversight by Stimulus

Big Energy companies with criminal records given billions in stimulus funds to wreak havoc on our public lands and wildlife.

The Center for Public Integrity has issued a stinging report on how the Obama Administration has bypassed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when issuing permits for energy and other projects which involve federal lands or funds. Over and over we have seen that projects are rushed through without any public oversight and in areas where they have severe environmental impacts. Wind farms on public lands without analysis of their impacts on bats, sage grouse, pygmy rabbits, and other wildlife; solar plants on public lands without sufficient analysis on endangered desert tortoise and other imperiled wildlife; power lines and other utilities permitted outside of established corridors without analysis of impacts on wildlife; offshore oil rigs in deep water without proper understanding of how to deal with catastrophic failures. All of these uses are being given a pass under NEPA.

Salazar = Extractive Industries' 'BFF'

What is the problem with this you might ask. Well, I’m sure you remember what happened in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. The Deepwater Horizon was permitted under a categorical exclusion.

In contrast livestock grazing permits are not even renewed under categorical exclusions, they require at least an Environmental Assessment that must undergo public review and can be appealed, in fact I do it all of the time.

These projects also only benefit those with existing power and money while projects, such as rooftop solar and energy efficiency improvements on existing structures which would benefit real people and not come at the expense of irreplaceable wildlife and land resources, are being forgone. It’s all about keeping the wealthy in control of our resources at the public expense.

What is next? Well in Nevada, the scourge of ranchers and water mining entities like the Southern Nevada Water Authority, ancient forests made up of old growth pinyon pine and junipers are being eyed by the energy companies as a source of biomass to fuel turbines. More on that later.

Big Polluters Freed from Environmental Oversight by Stimulus
The Center for Public Integrity

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.

Ivanpah Power Plant – Not Clean Not Green

Michael J. Connor, Ph.D.
California Director
Western Watersheds Project

Ancient Mojave yuccas on the Ivanpah power plant site. (2009) © Michael J. Connor, Ph.D.

Secretary of the Interior Salazar is about to initial a series of major giveaways of public lands in California to industrial-scale solar power producers. These “fast-tracked” power plant projects have had truncated environmental reviews in the current administration’s rush to place huge chunks of public land in the hands of developers to build on them at public expense.

The Ivanpah Solar Power Plant project is a prime example. The project’s proponent, BrightSource Energy, will build an experimental “power tower” solar power plant on over five and a half square miles of high quality desert tortoise habitat in California’s Ivanpah Valley. The 1.7 billion dollar project will be primed with $1.3 billion in public “economic stimulus” funds provided by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

The project is the first of a number of power plants proposed for public lands in the Ivanpah Valley. A photovoltaic plant is planned right next door to the Ivanpah power plant. Just down the valley over the Nevada border is the proposed Silver State power plant. These and other projects will block off the Ivanpah Valley, turn the North Ivanpah Valley into an industrial zone, and will have major consequences for rare and endangered wildlife. Although the ESA-listed desert tortoise population is declining, the Ivanpah power plant will split the North Ivanpah Valley, eliminate desert tortoise habitat, require that resident tortoises be relocated placing them and any resident tortoises at the relocation site in danger, and will severely compromise connectivity and gene flow between important desert tortoise populations. It will also impact foraging for bighorn sheep and other wildlife, a number of rare plants, and an assemblage of barrel cactus unrivaled elsewhere in the Golden State. Native Americans cultural remains including unusual stone structures will be stranded in a sea of mirrors. The agencies don’t know what these structures are, so how can they be important? No matter that the local Chemehuevi Indians don’t share that view.

Senator Tester Betrays Montana Wilderness

Brian Peck Excoriates Senator Tester’s “Wilderness” Bill And The “Environmental” Groups Who Support It.

He explains that the “bill would set aside just over 600,000 acres of Wilderness, withdraw current protection from nearly 250,000 acres, and require that 100,000 acres be made available for logging and roading in an already fractured landscape.”

Senator Tester Betrays Montana Wilderness
By Brian Peck, New West Unfiltered 11-03-09

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.

Secretary Salazar, Senator Reid Announce ‘Fast-Track’ Initiatives for Solar Energy Development on Western Lands

A lot of ecologically important land is going to be put under the bulldozer with this.

Secretary Salazar, Senator Reid Announce ‘Fast-Track’ Initiatives for Solar Energy Development on Western Lands – Department of Interior News Release 6/29/09

And some comment :

Interior fast-tracks Big Solar on public lands – Chris Clarke, The Clade

Note the phrasing: “rapid development of renewable energy, especially on America’s public lands.”

Interior Unveils Solar Hot Spots Across West – David Frey, NewWest

Animal kills by Wildlife Services more than double in ’08

Animal kills by federal agency more than double

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press Writer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The number of animals poisoned, shot or snared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture more than doubled last year, and environmentalists who are critical of the killings renewed their effort Tuesday to limit the agency’s funding for such activities.

The Three Bears? Try 163,000 … and counting

The Three Bears? Try 163,000 … and counting

ROGER ALFORD, Associated Press Writer

“You’ve got bears moving into areas where people live and you’ve got people moving into areas where bears live,” said Mark Ternent, a state bear biologist in Pennsylvania. “Both of those scenarios frequently involve people with little experience living around bears.”

Ternent said most of the encounters are harmless, ending with the bears running away.

“The average bear is afraid of people,” he said. “If it encounters a person, it would rather flee than fight.”

Boyles said people can prevent unwanted bear encounters by doing simple things like putting bird feeders out of reach of the animals, putting trash out only on the day it is to be picked up, and keeping pet food indoors.

Renewable energy sparks a probe of a modern-day land rush

New technology, same uninhibited ambition

You had better watch this, now and from now on.  The land grabbers are on the loose again and they can be stopped only as they were before, by the effective marshaling of public opinion.  Your property is in danger of being alienated, your interests and those of your children are being threatened[…]

Bernard DeVoto
Two-Gun Desmond is Back ~ 1951

They say history repeats itself.  At nearly every point in the history of western colonization there was an industry that was all the uproar among the well-intentioned.  Europeans moved West and trapped away the beaver, mined, laid claim to the land with homestead, sheep and cattle – don’t forget the logging.  That was no problem, the resource was infinite back then.  We did the impossible in harnessing rivers with dams and harvesting its inertia as our own, bringing power to cities and agricultural production to a western arid landscape that would not support such dense human habitation otherwise.  Hydroelectric dams were supposed to be the next perfect, “clean” source of power – remember ?

At each point in this history, calls for restraint, even timid caution against the unforeseeable consequences of the next great, faultless enterprise were brushed aside – dismissed as ‘nay-saying’ and the personalities behind the calls were labeled enemies of progress by even the most forward thinking and well-intentioned voices leading the charge.  The allure of human ambition has always enjoyed more volume than the practice of restraint.  ‘The land is infinite’ ~  ‘we’ve found the perfect technology, the perfect innovation’ ~ ‘we just need to make sure there’s good housekeeping’ ~ ‘you can’t stop progess’.

But, unfortunately – it seems to me, depending on how one looks at it, “progress” keeps happening over and over again in the same way as before.

Renewable energy sparks a probe of a modern-day land rush – The Los Angeles Times

A rush to stake claims for renewable energy projects in the California desert has triggered a federal investigation and prompted calls for reforms to prevent public lands from being exposed to private profiteering and environmental degradation.

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.

Last Spring at Ivanpah…?

A huge solar power plant threatens rare plants and animals.

There has been much discussion about renewable energy sources and large wind and solar projects. The problems with many of these projects are manyfold. One, there will be no decommissioning of any coal fired or other polluting/greenhouse gas emitting power plants as mitigation. Two, the areas where many of these projects are planned are in very important habitats for rare plants and animals. Three, many of these plants are centralized for the profit of the few and vulnerable to any manner of attack as can be seen from last week’s post. Fourth, desert soils, which will be scraped of all life, are great carbon sinks and all of this carbon will be released to the atmosphere exacerbating the greenhouse effect.

The Ivanpah Solar Energy Project is planned for an area of southern California near Clark Mountain on the border of the Mojave National Preserve. 4,000 acres, nearly 6.5 square miles, will be scraped clean of all earth and solar panels will be constructed.

There are better ways and places to produce or save electricity but since many people view these lands as “wastelands” there is little concern from the public. De-centralized power, including community based systems, in areas that have already been developed such as rooftops and farm fields are better options. This type of development is more sustainable, loses less energy in transmission, and less vulnerable to attack.

Basin and Range Watch visited the site of the proposed facility and found a great diversity of life.

Even though the rains were not great this past winter, wildflowers were still common in the Mojave Desert. We walked across the old granitic fan sloping gradually off Clark Mountain, by creosote rings perhaps thousands of years old, by strange tree-like cholla cacti, to a small gray limestone hill. The entire area we traversed will be graded by machinery and stripped of all life if the planned Ivanpah Solar Energy Project is built. So we wanted to check out what will be lost.

The desert here was quite active, Black-throated sparrows singing from the tops of shrubs, Zebra-tailed lizards skittering across washes, and hordes of mammal tracks filling the sand: Kit foxes, kangaroo rats, pocket mice, jackrabbits, even a few wild burros. The place was waking up from cold winter rest, and a diversity of wildflowers showed themselves.

Last Spring at Ivanpah…?
Basin and Range Watch.

Auction saboteur gets letter demanding $81K

DeChristopher gets a confusing letter from the BLM demanding he pay $81,000-

Auction saboteur gets letter demanding $81K.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office and BLM deny responsibility. By Patty Henet.  The Salt Lake Tribune.

Why did he get this letter? Who wrote it.? It seems odd.

Salazar is drilling home renewables’ new power

The great misfortune of “renewables” seems to be that wildlife habitat is expendable…

Salazar is drilling home renewables’ new power.By Michael Riley. The Denver Post

Summer at the ski resorts: Congress must proceed very carefully with Udall’s bill

It appears that there is not really specific details as to what kind of development these resorts can proceed with and seems to allow for water parks and numerous other “suburban” style theme park facilities which conservationists object to on public lands, they have a valid point.

Summer at the ski resorts: Congress must proceed very carefully with Udall’s bill. By Erika Stutzman. The Daily Camera.

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

Don Simon Art: Unnaturalism

Don Simon Art: Unnaturalism. “Images of an evolving world” by artist Don Simon

This is an interesting perspective on the human affect on wildlife and wilderness. (Audio/Visual).

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 :

Flathead County, Montana to consider large bond to conserve open space

Scenic Montana county with exploding population seeks $10-million from voters-

Whenever I visit the area, I try to take a few photos of the disappearing rural countryside.

Story: Flathead open space bond on ballot. By Michael Jamison of the Missoulian

The disappearing rural landscape of Flathead County. Photo taken Sept. 2008 a few miles south of Kalispell, Montana. Copyright Ralph Maughan

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

More on Plum Creek timber: The New Colonialism. Our Forest Legacy

The New Colonialism. Our Forest Legacy. The Flathead Beacon. The Plum Creek matter is a growing issue. Here is another article.

George Wuerthner recommended a link to this article.

Resort on the face of Bitterroot Range is turned down again

Bitterroot Resort’s latest proposal rejected. By Perry Backus. Ravalli Republic

Good!

Greater Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)

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.

Collapse of the recreational ski village market?

Yesterday I posted an article about the bankruptcy of ultra luxury mountain communities — Yelllowstone Club, Promontory, and Tamarack.

Here is one of a number still unbuilt, and now being canceled.

“An ambitious plan to turn the mostly empty land around Bridger Bowl’s base area into a high-class, king-sized ski, recreation and residential village has been withdrawn.” Developer pulls Bridger Bowl village plan. By Dave Richardson. Bozeman Chronicle.

More. Resort Market not holding, Bridger Bowl Ski Area Developers Withdraw Resort Plans. New West. By Lucia Stewart.

Survival of bighorns in Tetons a mystery

This is from the Jackson Hole News and Guide. It’s about how 100 bighorn sheep struggle to survive in the heights of the Tetons. It is a marginal existence, but the destruction of the bighorns of the Snake River Range and other mountain chains to the south and southeast, which would provide better habitat is not due to human development like the article says.

It is sheep, domestic sheep, disease-spreading domestic sheep.

Story by Cory Hatch in the Guide.

Plum Creek subdivisions could strain fire budget in NW Montana

Plum Creek timber is the largest private landholder in Montana, and now since timbering no longer pays as much as remote subdivisions do, they are planning, asking and building a lot of them. Many are located in expensive-to-service, forest fire prone country. Most county commissions seem to think that they have to let developers do as they please with their land, but who pays for all this?

As long as the US Forest Service keeps fighting fires with the primary goal of saving homes, even the most remote, never-should-have-been built homes, the sprawl will never end (except perhaps now by financial collapse of the mortgage market).

This article explores the problem and suggests the reorientation of thinking of county commissioners will be when they have to assess their constituents the true cost of fire fighting.

Plum Creek subdivisions could strain fire budget. By Michael Jamison, Missoulian.

The Ameya Preserve: The Rural Subdivision, Deluxe

This unique and controversial subdivision is being planned for the edge of Paradise Valley, between Livingston and Yellowstone Park. It is being built on Wineglass (Canyon Mountain) where a number of wolf packs have formed in the past.

Its design is far superior to the development that is already going on in the Paradise Valley. It might even by compatable with wildlife; but the fact that it is intended to be a place for socially conscious rich people makes it a lightning rod.

Story in New West. The Rural Subdivision, Deluxe. By David Nolt.

Another story in New West. Montana State Land for Sale. By David Nolt.

One more story in the series New West. Private Property, Public Access and Montana Values. By David Nolt.

The last in the series. New West. The Race to House the Super-Rich. By David Nolt. 

Here is the promo for the “preserve.”

Cows or Condos? Neither!

Cows or Condos? Neither! By George Wuerthner. New West.

It must have been 15 years ago when I was visiting Wuerthner at his place in Livingston that he outlined to me the argument he makes in the New West guest opinion above.

I’ve been thinking about it ever since, especially when I am out on the edge of the rural sprawl or in an especially nasty cow burnt, hell place, which may certainly be in the wide open spaces!

I think George is right on all counts. It is a false choice, especially if you are interested the conservation of wildlife. If you have to make the choice, it should usually be accept the development.

Changing face of farming and grazing in the West

This is from the WWP blog.

What the story in the WWP blog does not mention, is that the very same thing goes on in Idaho to the harm of wildlife and revenue to the counties that allow it — trophy homes are built on an acreage and should generate a fair amount of property tax, but the county classifies it as agricultural land if the homeowner allows someone to run a little livestock on the property part of the year.

In Idaho you can also get a property tax exemption if you manage your land for wildlife. Naturally I like that, but this exemption is hard to come by and has been revoked in individual instances for purely political reasons.

Many troubles for the sage grouse

WWPblog has a story about many of the threats to sage grouse.

Here’s a link to the West Nile concerns

This just goes to show how important rehab efforts after the fire will be to get these birds, and a host of other wildlife, proper habitat. Siberian wheat-grass, another non-native very similar to Crested Wheat, is being considered.

This Western Watersheds webpage has a pretty good rundown of the concern.

post 1421

E. Idaho neighbors disagree on response to grizzly bear attack

This is a follow-up to the story yesterday on the mauling of a man adjacent to his home in a rural subdivision in grizzly habitat near the Idaho/Wyoming border.

E. Idaho neighbors disagree on response to bear attack. Residents acknowledge bears come with the territory, but some still want the grizzly killed. By Rocky Barker – Idaho Statesman

post 1006

Tetonia, Idaho area man mauled near his home by a grizzly with a moose carcass

There aren’t a lot of grizzly bears in Idaho, but other than the rare northern Idaho Selkirk grizzly, the hot spot is the Targhee National Forest vicinity, immediately south and south by southwest of Yellowstone, generally between Yellowstone Park and the west slope of the Teton Range.*  In recent years, subdivisions have been growing in this lovely forest area along the Idaho/Wyoming border on the edge of the West Slope. Grizzly bears have been slowly expanding their range down the west slope of the Tetons as well.

The two collided yesterday and a man was seriously injured just outside his home in the forest and sagebrush.

Story in the Idaho Statesman. By Rocky Barker and Patrick Orr. Bear protecting moose carcass in E. Idaho mauls man who went out to see why his dog was barking

* There is another small area of grizzly bear concentration in Eastern Idaho — the Henry’s Lake Mountains area on the Idaho/Montana border, SW of West Yellowstone.

Post 1003

Stopping growth in Teton County, Idaho

No one will surprised to learn that growth on the Idaho side of the Tetons is out-of-control.

The linked article by Pacific Northwest political observer Randy Stapilus about enactment of a 6-month growth moratorium in Teton County is interesting here because people keep saying we need to subsidize the ranchers. We need to let them run amuck with their livestock so they won’t sub-divide, but the article makes it clear those against growth management are the ranchers, who want to subdivide because it’s their retirement. New comers are often bad-mouthed, but newcomers are the ones with the idea an area can be kept intact as it grows. It’s the ranchers who will ruin the community to help themselves. I hardly blame them for wanting to retire, but the solution is the national grazing buyout which gives them retirement money, but lets them keep the ranch itself.

Stapilus writes: “The discussion was fired up — definitely some very pragmatic and concerned new comers were pitted against some of the most pissed off ranchers I’ve ever seen.”

“Sin City’s” water grab

“KT” has commented extensively on this blog about how Las Vegas is grabbing water from underground for hundreds of miles in all directions so that these environmentally misfit fountains, lakes, and square miles of commerce in the hot desert can continue to grow and grow.

Now Ted Williams has written about it in his blog. Sin City’s Water Grab. By Ted Williams. Ted Williams’ Conservation Connection.

The price the rest of Nevada pays for the Las Vegas water grab will be high, and given the designs of Las Vegas, the underground waters of Utah and Idaho may not be safe either.