Blog
“Grimm” Prospects for Idaho’s Predators
Wildlife Services recently held a series of meetings in Idaho to “educate” the public on its use of cyanide bombs to kill coyotes at the behest of ranchers. Here is our take on the Boise meeting: If Idaho Wildlife Services’ goal with its recent series of meetings – held in Lewiston, Boise and Pocatello –…
Tell Wildlife Services – NO cyanide bombs on our public lands.
Wildlife lovers and public lands users everywhere should be outraged by the actions of Wildlife Services. This secretive federal agency uses deadly poisons, neck snares, aerial gunning and other inhumane methods to indiscriminately kill all manner of wildlife species if the animal is reported to interfere with human activities – most often, livestock grazing on our…
ACTION ALERT — IDAHO WOLVES UNDER ATTACK AGAIN
By Associate Attorney Talasi B. Brooks On July 5, the Idaho Fish & Game Commission opened a comment period on a proposal to change the rules governing bear baiting to now also allow for wolf baiting. Baiting is luring in a predator with smelly attractants, allowing it to feed until it becomes habituated or reaches…
A Coalescing on the Henry’s Fork
By Kendra Kenyon, Director of Strategic Partnerships June 29, 2017 I’ll let you in on a little secret – Idaho’s legendary Henry’s Fork is magical in June. Driving up from Boise last week to this tributary of the Snake River, where our Board Member Jim Sturdevant was hosting a gathering at his cabin, I was struck…
The High Cost of Cheap Grazing
By Andy Kerr Originally published May 26, 2017 on Andy’s blog site: www.andykerr.net It costs more to feed a domestic housecat than to graze domestic livestock on federal public lands. This has generally been the case since the early 1900s, when the federal government first required ranchers to pay a fee for grazing their livestock…
Greenfire: Verdancy on the East Fork Salmon River
By Anna Demetriades, Director of Development & Communications June 8, 2017 Contrary to its name, which conjures images of lush and robust greenery (but in fact derives its moniker from an Aldo Leopold quote), the Greenfire Preserve on the East Fork Salmon River possesses the stark, high desert beauty of sagebrush steppe – layer upon…
Bears Ears, the Final Piece in a Decades-Old Public Lands Vision, Deserves Protection
Eighty-one years ago, Franklin Roosevelt’s secretary of the interior, Harold Ickes, proposed a vast, 4 million-acre national monument for southern Utah. Over the ensuing decades, pieces of Ickes’ vision were realized in the establishment of Canyonlands and Capitol Reef national parks, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Defending Idaho’s wolves from Wildlife Services
By Arie Weidemaier May 9, 2017 The phrase “Predator management” seems uncontroversial. In Idaho, this phrase often refers to “management” of wild wolf populations by a secretive federal agency known as Wildlife Services. One of the biggest problems with how this agency operates is the lack of public participation – the public is mostly unaware of…
A PRAYER FOR THE SALMON’S SECOND COMING
Excerpt from an essay by David James Duncan May 4, 2017 Feeling inspired to protect Idaho’s salmon spawning habitat? Make a gift to Advocates for the West for IDAHO GIVES. We’ll put your gift right to work protecting the very best of Idaho! On the eastern edge of Idaho last fall, seven hundred miles from the sea, I watched…
Star to Star
By Rachel Teannalach April 26, 2017 My most memorable Idaho days have stretched from the last star to the first star, without walking more than ten feet in any direction. These days in which I created “time-lapse” paintings were filled with inner peace and gratitude for natural places. I will tell you about one. The…