John Cornyn visited Midland on Tuesday to hear about the impact of the Endangered Species Act, specifically the listing in March of the lesser prairie chicken as threatened. One would reduce funding for listing activities, including for the lesser prairie chicken, based on arbitrary decision deadlines reached in closed-door settlements. A second would prohibit the departments of Interior and Agriculture from altering land management practices based on the chicken's listing.
Read More
WASHINGTON - More than 200 professional fish and wildlife scientists, including 12 former state fish and game agency directors and several former high-ranking federal agency officials, urged the U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management yesterday to "act promptly and meaningfully to conserve intact and unfragmented BLM-administered public lands across the West." "We recognize the critical importance of habitat provided by 245 million acres of Bureau of Land Management-administered public lands," stated the scientists in a strongly worded letter, "and we are concerned about mounting pressures that could result in the development and fragmentation of these lands. Barring responsive action by the BLM, many large landscapes could cease to support abundant fish and wildlife populations that have…
Read More
The Fish and Wildlife Service is phasing out the use of neonicotinoid insecticides on national wildlife refuges in its Pacific region, which includes Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. USDA is commissioning surveys and focus groups to find out more about food stamp recipients who aren’t exempt from the program’s work requirements. Respondents will be paid $40 to complete the interview. Rail Board Warned on Grain Focus.
Read More
The decision this past week during a meeting in Salmon was unanimous. The Times-News reports (http://bit.ly/1sPIpYB) that the commission approved a letter opposing the monument to Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and the Idaho Congressional Delegation.
Read More
July 13--In massive areas of the Jemez Mountains and Otero County, it's the meadow jumping mouse. Also in southeast New Mexico and Texas, it's the dunes sagebrush lizard. In Colorado and other Western states, it's the sage grouse. And Congress needs to change the law to recognize that -- since environmentalists and bureaucrats insist there is no leeway. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal.
Read More
Brownback and other officials contend it will damage the economy because farmers, ranchers and oil and natural gas producers face restrictions on their operations and potentially hefty conservation fees.
Read More
Commissioners flew over the proposed 592,000-acre national monument earlier in the Wednesday and are scheduled to hear a staff presentation on the proposal currently before the Obama administration.
Read More
The Greater Yellowstone grizzlies will remain a borderline viable population as long as they remain isolated from other grizzly populations. Grizzly bears and people do not make ideal neighbors, but they can and do coexist. It is a chance to move beyond restoring separate island populations.
Read More
...species," Rabot said. A listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act would protect U.S. wolverines as a population segment geographically separated from those in Canada and Alaska. (There are scattered populations of wolverines, the largest member of the weasel family, beyond Wyoming, Montana and Idaho; a lone wolverine was spotted in California in recent years.) Walsh ordered a reversal of the recommendation to list the animals as threatened, the agency confirmed...
Read More
Washington, DC - Yesterday, the House Natural Resources Sub-Committee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans, and Insular Affairs held a hearing on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) policies regarding the importation of sport hunted elephants and other lawful ivory trade. Safari Club International (SCI) was represented by Air Force Veteran Scott O'Grady who highlighted the impact that the importation ban has on conservation in Africa Former Congressman Jack Fields and Itai Hilary Tendaupenyu, principal ecologist of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority also testified as to the important role that hunting plays in conservation and the devastating effect that the importation ban is having on conservation funding in Zimbabwe. "Today's hearing before the sub-committee gave hunter-conservationists the opportunity to express…
Read More