The New York Times writes a wonderful editorial mentioning two recent legal victories (public land rancher secrecy & Bush grazing regs) Western Watersheds Project and Advocates for the West won in federal court ~ The Public Trust – New York Times Editorial
Two recent court decisions have now reasserted the public interest. A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that the Bush regulations violated environmental laws by limiting public participation in bureau decisions and weakened the ability of federal and state agencies to prevent harmful grazing practices and manage rangelands in an environmentally sound way.
Two weeks later in Idaho, United States District Court Judge Candy Dale ruled that the bureau must end its policy of withholding the names and addresses of people with grazing permits on 160 million acres of its land.
Terry Tempest Williams writes “If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. There is no place to hide, and so we are found.”
I remember kneeling on the wet ground, the reddish-brown earth painting circles on the knees of my favorite jeans. Dew was everywhere and the smell of wet sagebrush seemed to soak into every pore. We sat watching the sun slowly begin to rise, sending streams of orange and pink light cascading over the Lost River Range. Then we heard it, the first “boom.” I remember being so disappointed with that sound. There had been all of this hype over the ‘booming’ the night before at the dinner table, and now it just sounded like my brother had popped his knuckles.
Then my dad handed me the binoculars. As a ten year old somewhat prissy girl, even I was impressed. Three or four male sage grouse were strutting back and forth on the lek in the distance. They would puff up the sacs on their throats and chest, and I just knew that if they had arms they would start beating their chests like King Kong atop the Empire State Building. Instead, they would kind of bob their heads and a hollow sounding ‘Pop! Pop!’ could be heard. Their tail feathers were fanned out in a magnificent array, looking almost like black spears against their reddish bodies, the same color as the circles on my knees. I watched the hens peeking out of the sagebrush seeming to hide just like us, not wanting to interrupt the magnificent display. Read the rest of this entry »
Snake River Basin (SRB) redband trout are native to the high desert country of southern Idaho, northern Nevada, and eastern Oregon. This species is uniquely adapted to survive the harsh temperature extremes and reduced water flows of the high desert which are lethal to most other trout. SRB redband are an important element of the high desert ecosystem. They are the only native salmonid left in these drainages, and are a significant part of the food chain. Redband eat insects and other fish. They in turn are a food source for dippers, king fishers, mink, otters, and great blue herons.
SRB redband trout are also an evolutionary unique genetic resource which could be important to the survival of Snake River steelhead, as well as isolated resident redband populations now also imperiled. Historically SRB redband interbred with the recently listed anadromous Snake River steelhead and produced anadromous fors of SRB redband trout. However, the construction of the Hells Canyon dam complex in the 1960s blocked anadromous fish passage. Consequently Snake River steelhead continue to migrate to and from the ocean, while SRB redband trout reside their entire life inland in the Bruneau, Owhyee, Boise, and other Snake river tributaries. Whereas much of the native anadromous Snake River steelhead, gene pool has been lost to interbreeding with hatchery fish, the native gene pool of the SRB redband trout is still intact. Thus, where native gene pools of SRB redband trout have the ability to produce anadromous forms (were it not for the Hells Canyon Dam complex), SRB redband trout have the potential to provide the genetic diversity necessary for anadromous Snake River steelhead species survival.
Redband, like other species of trout, are found mainly in streams with riparian vegetation and in-stream cover, including undercut banks, large woody debris, and overhanging vegetation. Streamside vegetation should shade at least 75% of the stream surface during the hours of 11:00am to 4:00pm from June to September. Such vegetation provides both shade that maintains the lover water temperatures required by trout during hot, dry summer months, and habitat for insects which redband feed upon. Redband also occupy lower gradient streams and should have access to pools which provide rearing habitat, resting places, overwintering areas, and refuges from floods, drought, and extreme temperatures. Read the rest of this entry »
So, here in the Bear River Range, the most significant high-elevation wildlife corridor connecting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and northern Rockies to the Uintas and southern Rockies, a wolf was killed for using that corridor. This wolf made it through the gauntlet of roads, noisy ATVs, dirt bikes, and other human actions that degrade wildlife habitat. Of course if it had made it to Utah, it’s fate would probably have been the same as we are no more enlightened than those in Idaho. A sad situation!
The wolf was “harassing” the sheep of a Forest Service permittee. This raises the question as to where were the guard dogs? Where was the herder? Obviously close enough to kill the wolf, but not close enough to chase it away. I suppose harassment of sheep means being in sight (rifle sight) of the herder. Read the rest of this entry »
With only 1.1% of the beef production in the United States coming from BLM managed lands in the west, and a management system where all costs exceed income by a factor of eight to twelve, there is no economic reason to continue an activity that has resulted in the essential destruction of 80% of stream systems, the elimination of water quality and radical modification of wildlife and native plant habitat. It is time to start the end of this destructive use. I propose that public lands ranchers petition their representatives in Congress, who have always been ready to do their bidding, to provide for a buy out of whatever interest in these lands ranchers may have. If they fail to do this, they face inevitable economic extinction as their livestock use withers in the face of environmental and economic realities many of which they have brought down on themselves by their selfish and heedless excesses over many decades.
Jon Marvel is executive director of WWP. He lives in Hailey, Idaho.
Water troughs kill innumerable birds and other wildlife on public lands
I breathe in sharply. The bird in the trough is large this time. The feathers are scarcely wet – the head lying face down in gentle repose – yet somehow as if at any moment it might spring awake and gracefully lift into the sky on those powerful wings tucked so neatly against the sides of the body.
No! I cry out. But there is no response. No head lifts, no eyes plead for assistance. I realize suddenly that life and hope have only been recently abandoned by this still form, and my imagination begins to race. If only – if only I had made it here just an hour before, perhaps even just minutes ago, before that last fateful breath was taken. If only I could have plucked this beautiful falcon from the alluring but deadly water and sent it winging back across the night sky, back to Echo Crater where the prairie falcons nest and scream from the rocky walls.
But this bird will never fly again. Nor will the hundreds and likely thousands of other birds that have drowned this summer alone in water developments on public and private rangelands in Idaho. The prairie falcon was only one of three found drowned this summer in Laidlaw Park, Idaho. The three falcons, along with approximately two dozen other birds, died recently in troughs and tanks in the Craters of the Moon National Monument Expansion, where a warning was issued upon establishment by Presidential Proclamation “not to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature of this monument.” Read the rest of this entry »
The verdict is still out on what the specific impacts of global climate change really will be for our desert wildlands but government responses are definitely posing new challenges to already stressed wildlife on public lands. Climate change does pose a threat to biodiversity and may even threaten entire ecosystems. Meeting these threats requires more protection of sensitive habitats, particularly those providing connectivity for species movements, to preserve ecological flexibility. Unfortunately, so far the response of the agencies has been just the opposite of what is needed. They are allowing many of the public lands that would provide this flexibility to be considered for the industrial scale development of so-called green energy projects by private industry. Read the rest of this entry »
People often ask me what I teach at Boise State University and the answer invariably engenders glazed eyes, looks of puzzlement, or long, breathy yawns. Environmental ethics and logic are, unfortunately, seen to be dull and superfluous by so many people. More importantly, this indifference often silently sanctions the careless destruction of public land habitats and ecosystems. As an educator, I try to tackle this indifference by uniting environmental ethics and activism in the minds of students. Moreover, I teach my students that effective activism cannot proceed without a philosophical understanding of its own ethical motives and goals. Read the rest of this entry »
Before my retirement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in July 2000, I directed the wolf recovery program in Idaho. The work was the most rewarding, challenging, frustrating and stressful experience of my 33 years with the FWS. Read the rest of this entry »
Those of us who care about public lands’ ranching tend to think about the ecological costs of livestock on the landscape: ruined streams, trampled and compacted soils, and degraded vegetation communities. Many of us care deeply about the impacts of cows on wildlife habitats and worry about the permanent damage that this powerful special interest group inflicts on our publicly-owned forests, deserts, and grasslands.
Thinking about these things in terms of the economics is just as frustrating. From grazing fees to fat cows, the balance is constantly tipping towards the side of the cowboys. Read the rest of this entry »
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With only 1.1% of the beef production in the United States coming from BLM managed lands in the west, and a management system where all costs exceed income by a factor of eight to twelve, there is no economic reason to continue an activity that has resulted in the essential destruction of 80% of stream systems, the elimination of water quality and radical modification of wildlife and native plant habitat. It is time to start the end of this destructive use. I propose that public lands ranchers petition their representatives in Congress, who have always been ready to do their bidding, to provide for a buy out of whatever interest in these lands ranchers may have. If they fail to do this, they face inevitable economic extinction as their livestock use withers in the face of environmental and economic realities many of which they have brought down on themselves by their selfish and heedless excesses over many decades.
