The November 5 election was a disaster for public lands and conservation. Clearly the American voters were focused on widespread economic insecurity and voted their pocketbooks. Other issues like climate …
Category: land management
Cattle Industry in a Sacred Land
New management plan for the Bears Ears National Monument allows too much grazing despite tribal involvement.
Firefighter Shortage Threatens the West
According to the Forest Service, 45% of their permanent firefighting workforce has quit in the last three years.
Attacks on National Park Service Budget are Intollerable
Since $150 million is a copper pocket change in the federal budget, the drive to cut the Park Service must be ideologically driven.
Yellowstone by Winter
Winter in Yellowstone National Park reveals wildlife, geothermal features, rivers and quiet with few people while bison, trumpeter swans, river otter and wolves endure the cold. Winter is the time to see Yellowstone.
John Wesley Powell Wanted to Denude the Rocky Mountains
In line with his singular focus on water for farms and towns, Powell opposed the creation of the forest reserves, the precursors to the national forests. He worried that a Forest Service would compete for money with his US Geologic Survey and didn’t want the Forest Reserve designation to prevent dams from being built to feed farms water.
Failed National Park Proposal Could Have Displaced the Manhattan Project
How many people know that there was a big movement to create a new national park in the Los Alamos area before the Manhattan Project
Killing Eagles in the Jemez Mountains
In an unusual chain of events, the Pueblo of Jemez, a Native American community in Sandoval County, New Mexico, was granted a permit to kill one eagle on the Valles …
Time for More Prescribed Fire
Despite recent prescribed fire escapes, we need to ramp up prescribed burning in northern New Mexico and treat many more acres before another dry windy spring causes problems.
Is Wildland Firefighting a Waste of Tax Dollars?
In 2023 when megafires erupt across North America, and our national forests seem trapped in an escalating yet faltering war on wildfire, it might be good to look back …
