Yesterday, this letter was delivered to President Biden requesting an executive order protecting beaver on federally managed public lands. “In order to fully realize the wide array of social, ecological, and economic benefits that beavers provide to human and wild communities, the federal government must take bold and decisive action,” said Adam Bronstein of Western […]
Western Watersheds Project
Posted inUS
Western Watersheds Project Links DC Mob Violence to Western Uprisings
January 7, 2020 – The mob violence that swarmed the halls of the Capitol Building and other government offices yesterday is the direct result of a growing movement of domestic terrorists within the United States, paired with a systematic failure by law enforcement to bring them to justice. It flows from a series of smaller […]
Posted inEnviro
Trump administration reissues grazing permit to Oregon arsonist ranchers
BURNS, Ore. Jan. 4, 2021– In the very last moments of 2020, the Bureau of Land Management issued a proposed decision to award grazing privileges to Hammonds Ranches, Inc., despite the history of abuses of grazing privileges by these public land’s ranchers—including actions leading to arson convictions. The BLM notified interested parties of the decision on […]
Posted inCalifornia
Lawsuit Launched Challenging Endangered Species Act Denial for Imperiled Bi-state Sage Grouse
SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, 2020 – A coalition of conservation groups filed a formal notice today of their intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its failure to protect the imperiled Bi-State sage grouse population under the Endangered Species Act despite ongoing population declines. These genetically unique and isolated sage grouse inhabit […]
Posted inEnviro
To Revive Economy, Congress Should Invest $25 Billion in Protecting Wildlife, Restoring Public Lands
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2020 — As Congress works to restart the American economy, 200 wildlife, conservation and environmental justice groups today requested $25 billion in funding for a broad array of new and existing wildlife and public-lands conservation programs that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and benefit people, communities and the environment. The […]
Posted inEnviro
Taxpayers Fleeced Once Again: Public Lands Livestock Operations Pay the Bare Minimum
BOISE, Ida. Feb. 3, 2020 – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service announced the 2020 grazing fee on Friday – once again, the bare minimum allowed under current law and a pittance compared to grazing leases on private lands and what the program costs to administer. By setting the fee at […]
Posted inEnviro
Forest Service Announces Proposed Plan to Gut Sage-Grouse Protections on 5.4 Million Acres
BOISE, ID, Aug. 2, 2019 – The U.S. Forest Service followed the Bureau of Land Management’s lead this week in announcing proposed plans to gut existing protections for greater sage-grouse, despite the bird’s continuing downward spiral in population numbers and increasing threats to its habitats on public lands. The agency hasn’t yet unveiled the actual […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Heavy cattle overgrazing in world-famous aspen Pando Aspen Clone (VIDEO)
FISH LAKE, UT, June 27, 2019– Conservationists today released a new report showing that cattle grazing in the world-famous Pando aspen clone and neighboring aspen groves exert more than four times as much grazing pressure over less than two weeks as do mule deer grazing over the course of the entire growing season. These findings call into […]
Posted inUS
Lawsuit Targets Trump Administration Renewal of Oregon Ranchers’ Grazing Permit
PORTLAND, Ore. May 13, 2019 – Conservations groups filed suit today challenging former Interior secretary Ryan Zinke’s order to renew grazing permits for Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond. Zinke’s January 2019 order, one of his last official acts, came despite the Bureau of Land Management’s 2014 decision to cancel the Hammonds’ privilege to graze […]
Posted inUS
Public Land Livestock Fees Hit Rock-Bottom
WASHINGTON February 22, 2019 – The U.S. Interior Department has reduced fees for grazing cattle and sheep on federal public lands to the minimum allowed under federal law, $1.35 an animal-month. Yesterday’s announcement applies to grazing in national forests and on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The 41-year old formula has […]
Posted inCalifornia
Trump order fast-tracks the destruction of western public lands in the name of fire
WASHINGTON, D.C. Jan. 4, 2018 – President Trump is set to unveil a new Executive Order on Monday that fast-tracks “active management” of western public lands for the benefit of extractive industries and local economies, in the name of fire risk reduction. The Executive Order, currently posted on the advance page of the Federal Register, directs the […]
Posted inEnviro
Federal agency study questions BLM fuel break effectiveness, wildlife impacts
BOISE, Ida. July 27, 2018 – A new federal study released this year calls into question whether fuel breaks are effective in stopping or slowing down fires on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands across the West. The study, undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey at the request of the Bureau of Land Management, concludes that fuel […]
Posted inEnviro
Lawsuit Targets Trump Oil, Gas Leases Threatening Sage Grouse in Five States
BOISE, Idaho April 30, 2018 – Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging Trump administration policies that gut protections for imperiled greater sage grouse and allow oil and gas leases on nearly 2 million acres of the birds’ prime habitat. Today’s suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boise, says the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management […]
Posted inEnviro
Groups Call for Stronger Measures to Conserve Sage-Grouse
WASHINGTON, D.C. December 1, 2017 – Conserving Greater Sage-Grouse requires more habitat protection, not less. That’s the message conservation groups are delivering to the administration as it considers potentially devastating revisions to the landmark 2015 Greater Sage-Grouse conservation planning initiative. The revisions, if enacted, would come at too high a cost to the sage-grouse and the […]
Posted inCalifornia
Conservationists, Ranchers, Park Service Agree on Plan to Address Point Reyes Ranching, Elk Issues
OAKLAND, Calif.July 12, 2017— Conservation groups, the National Park Service, Point Reyes ranchers and Marin County filed a settlement agreement today that resolves litigation over cattle ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore and Marin County portions of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. As the plaintiffs requested in their lawsuit, the Park Service will decide […]
Posted inEnviro
Grazing Fee Drops in 2017, Further Undervaluing American Public Lands
LARAMIE, WY, Jan. 31, 2017 – The public lands management agencies announced the grazing fee for federal allotments today, which the federal government has decreased to a mere $1.87 per cow and her calf (or 5 sheep) per month, known as an Animal Unit Month, or AUM. “This has got to be the cheapest all-you-can-eat […]
Posted inUS
New Polling Data Underscores Public Support for Endangered Species Protections
WASHINGTON January 18, 2017 – The American public supports the continued protection of endangered species and worries that the new Congress will undermine these majority values, according to a new poll of American voters conducted in the wake of the 2016 election that was released today by the Center for American Progress. According to the […]