Archive for the ‘Wildlife Habitat’ Category
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
Disregard of environment is immoral
Recent news that sage grouse would not be listed under the Endangered Species Act, while celebrated by industry, was for some of us a moment of great sadness. Not because it was unexpected; it wasn’t. But because it confirms again that nothing really matters to us but human comfort and material prosperity. We continue to believe that only humans are necessary and important.
Sage grouse are a sagebrush-dependent species, which for us laypersons can be understood simply as a species whose health directly mirrors the health of the habitat it occupies. If sage grouse are becoming extinct, the habitat is also so fragmented and degraded it can no longer support them. There were once hundreds of millions of sage grouse, along with vast numbers of bison, bears, mountain sheep, elk, deer, wolves, lions and billions of smaller animals, birds and fish occupying the sage-steppe ecosystem. We have ruthlessly and in many cases systematically exterminated them and their habitat for our own benefit and continue to do so to this day.
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Posted in Endangered Species, Environment, General Conservation, Wildlife, Wildlife Habitat | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
Sage-grouse require expanses of mature and old growth sagebrush habitats in gently sloping areas, tall residual grass cover with sagebrush overstory for nesting, and wet meadows for brood rearing. Their habitat has decreased about 60% over the last 100 years with acceleration in that decline in recent years.
Now, sage-grouse populations are facing high risks from new energy projects across their habitat. Industrial wind energy projects and huge utility corridor proposals are proposed for some of the West’s most remote and intact sagebrush landscapes.
Developers of these projects parrot the same fearbased talking points that have driven so many policies of the US in over the past decade, only with a climate twist: “If we can’t build the Windy Ridge kazillion megawatt wind farm on top of 20 sage-grouse leks, polar bears will die”.
Two current examples of destructive energy projects are the proposed China Mountain wind farm near Jackpot, Nevada on the Idaho-Nevada border, and the Ruby Natural Gas Pipeline that seeks to build a new energy corridor through critically important sage-steppe landscapes of northwestern Nevada.
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Posted in Idaho, Interior, Nevada, Public Lands, Sage grouse, Wildlife Habitat, Wind, water | 3 Comments »
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
WWP’s challenge of 17 BLM Resource Management Plans incorporating tens of millions of acres of public lands has gotten the attention of Eureka County, Nevada. The County seeks to intervene in the lawsuit.
Eureka wants to intervene in lawsuit – Free Press
Marvel said the lawsuit “charges that the BLM failed to comply with the National Environmental Protection Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act by not analyzing adequate alternatives that would protect sage grouse and other sage steppe wildlife species.”
“WWP claims that all the RMPs (resource management plans) are inadequate and violate the law in similar ways. The lawsuit affects about 34 million acres of BLM-managed lands,” he said.
But others react differently.
Nevada Cattlemen’s Association President Dan Gralian told Elko County Commissioners in June the Western Watersheds lawsuit is intended to drive people off public lands, and the suit affects all of rural Nevada. More than 300 grazing permits in the state would be affected if Western Watersheds wins.
Gralian called Western Watersheds a “radical environmental group.”
Tags: RMP Litigation
Posted in Court, Environment, General Conservation, Interior, Livestock, Wildlife, Wildlife Habitat | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Greater sage grouse © Ken Cole, WWP 2008
Saving sage grouse
Tribune Editorial, May 13, 2009
Updated: 05/13/2009 05:42:14 PM MDT
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.
The sage grouse might turn out to be the Great Basin’s equivalent of the northern spotted owl, the bird whose near-extinction slowed timber cutting in the Northwest and saved millions of acres of old-growth forests after it was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
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Posted in Environment, General Conservation, Grazing, Interior, Livestock, News, Public Lands, Sage grouse, Wildlife, Wildlife Habitat | 1 Comment »
Monday, April 20th, 2009
Click to zoom and learn more
Tags: creek, riparian habitat, stream
Posted in General Conservation, Wildlife Habitat, water | No Comments »
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Will "Change" benefit America's wildlife heritage ?
The inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20, 2009 started a new era in public land management. Without question the priorities of our new President will be different and, we hope, much better than those of the last eight years of Republican control.
President Obama has committed his administration to science-based decision-making and, as a strong part of that effort, to the assessment of human influence on global warming and all its many negative consequences for life on earth.
Unfortunately, it is much less clear what the new administration’s policies will be for western public lands and the habitat those lands provide for native wildlife and fish.
Much of the uncertainty regarding the future of public lands and wildlife come from the Obama appointments of Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior and Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture. Both of these experienced and thoughtful politicians have lengthy backgrounds that suggest they may be entwined very strongly with traditional extractive users of public lands. (more…)
Tags: Department of Agriculture, Interior Department, Salazar, Vilsack
Posted in ESA, Endangered Species Act, Environment, General Conservation, Grazing, Interior, Livestock, Public Lands, Wildlife Habitat | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 29th, 2008
We received official notification today that following an appeal brought by Western Watershed Project’s California Office, the Doublehead Ranger District on Modoc National Forest has opted to withdraw its recent decision to authorize cattle grazing on Tucker allotment. Western Watersheds Project appealed the decision to protect the sage grouse and other at risk species. The 29,226 acre Tucker allotment, adjacent to Clear Lake, provides crucial nesting and brood rearing habitat for the handful of sage grouse that remain on the Modoc National Forest and in Modoc County, California.
Tucker allotment lies within the Clear Lake-Devil’s Garden Sage Grouse Population Management Unit. That once abundant sage grouse population now consists of only 20-30 birds – most of which use habitat on Tucker allotment. These Clear Lake sage grouse are of considerable scientific interest being nonmigratory and isolated from other populations to the east. Their loss would result in a yet another significant range contraction for the species.
Western Watersheds Project will be keeping a careful watch on the Forest to ensure that actions are taken to protect and not to further jeopardize this imperiled population of greater sage grouse.
Tags: sage grouse Modoc National Forest
Posted in California, Grazing, Public Lands, Sage grouse, Wildlife Habitat | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
Today, the Office of Hearings and Appeals ruled in Western Watersheds Project’s favor over grazing at the Yankee Jim Area of Critical Environmental Concern for the second time in 2 months. Judge Sweitzer ruled that a BLM Alturas Field Office May 14, 2008 grazing agreement be set aside for failing to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The Yankee Jim Ranch is a small allotment consisting of only 1,500 acres but the entire site was designated as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) in April 2008, a fact that BLM had ignored when it issued its decision in May. The Yankee Jim ACEC was designated due to the presence of numerous important archeological sites, including over 90 pre-historic sites in the meadow and upland areas, and important historical connections. According to the BLM’s own reports, cattle have been trampling, trailing and dispersing artifacts, pawing and digging, and even wallowing on the archeological sites and these disturbances have escalated in recent years. Despite this, the BLM had proposed to permit livestock grazing on the allotment without even the most basic environmental analysis.
The allotment is also important wildlife habitat for sage grouse, sandhill cranes, waterfowl, and one of the largest pronghorn herds in California. It includes unique riparian habitats including the only “fen†found in the BLM’s Alturas Resource Area.
For more information about WWP’s California program and a copy of the Order, please see our California webpage, here <http://www.westernwatersheds.org/wwpinfo/califO.shtml>
Posted in California, Grazing, Livestock, Public Lands, Wildlife Habitat | No Comments »
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
A federal judge has enjoined plans to graze and produce cattle feed on lands that recieve money from a federal program used to set aside those lands for their value to conservation.
Judge halts USDA’s cattle-grazing plans on Conservation Reserve Program lands -Â Lynda Mapes – Seattle Times
The injunction holds until the judge issues a decision as to whether the program must undergo proper environmental analysis of its impact to wildlife and habitat.
Posted in Court, Feed/Forage, General Conservation, Grazing, Livestock, Wildlife Habitat | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
The BLM is proposing to spend $1 million building 100 miles of fences in one of America’s largest fence-free ranges in Wyoming’s Green Mountain Common Allotment. This area has the potential to host abundant diverse wildlife – but has been pounded by livestock for so long that the BLM seeks to fence it down into 6 allotments.
BLM struggles to find balance on Green Mountain allotment
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Tags: Over-grazing, western watersheds project
Posted in General Conservation, Global Warming, Grazing, Livestock, Over-grazing, Wildlife Habitat, Wyoming | 1 Comment »
