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Advocates for the West Wins Ruling to Block Trump Policy Cutting Public Out of Oil and Gas Leasing Decisions on Public Lands A federal judge on Friday granted Advocates for the West’s request to halt a Trump administration policy that sharply restricts public participation in oil and gas leasing decisions on public lands. The ruling applies to future oil and gas lease sales…

Southern Resident Killer Whales are on the brink of extinction. Idaho’s sockeye salmon are on life support. The Clearwater River’s once famous wild B-run steelhead population is in a state of collapse. These are data-based facts, and anyone who denies them is ill informed, unable to accept reality, or running for re-election to Congress in…

By John Rygh, a retired geologist and longtime resident of McCall, Idaho. Opinion piece originally posted in McCall’s local paper, the Star News. Midas Gold has certainly been rolling out a persistent stream of deceptive fantasies about their proposed Stibnite mining project for the last couple years. Not exactly outright lies, but very carefully worded…

By Mia Montoya Hammersley, Healthy Communities Legal Fellow at Earthjustice and 2016 Summer Law Clerk for Advocates for the West Before attending law school, I completed my undergraduate studies at Franklin University Switzerland, a small international liberal arts school located in the heart of the Southern Alps. When friends and colleagues learn of my time…

Rose Chilcoat, former Associate Director of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and her husband Mark Franklin face serious charges for a crime they didn’t know they’d committed.  Last April, Mark Franklin closed a cattle gate on public land in a remote section of Utah desert. Now, he faces up to 16 years in prison on charges…

Fish & Game Still Allowing Angling. Time to Shut ‘Er Down Boys! APRIL 2, 2018 ~ THE CONSERVATION ANGLER, David Moskowitz Idaho, still famous for potatoes, used to be famous for big wild steelhead. How big? The biggest in the lower 48 States. How famous? Ted Trueblood among others became famous fishing for what are surely the most…

A recent article published by the New York Times by reporter Coral Davenport: Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks Were Fast. It Could Get Messy in Court. As the head of the federal agency controlling billions of acres of public lands and waters, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has spent the past year making bold policy proclamations to advance President Trump’s…

A blog from Steve Holmer, Vice President of Policy at American Bird Conservancy The administration’s recent decision to backtrack on the landmark 2015 Greater Sage-Grouse conservation plans is a disaster in the making for these fast-disappearing birds – and for the remaining sagebrush habitat on public lands. Under this backward-looking change, which would green-light new development on…

Senior Attorney Todd Tucci – Washington, DC Office Yesterday, President Trump made his first visit to Utah to announce he is withdrawing protections for over 1.5 million acres of national monuments – threatening tens of thousands of cultural, historic, paleontological and ecological artifacts and objects. President Trump shrank Bears Ears National Monument by nearly 90%, and…

Long Live the Columbia River Gorge – Unless Greg Walden Has His Way By Andy Kerr – Originally published on his Public Lands Blog Part 1: It’s a Beautiful, Natural, and Necessary Thing That Nature Changes September 29, 2017 Everyone—including many a card-carrying conservationist—just needs to take a deep breath. Yes, there was a relatively large…