Wildlife

A threatened species of prairie dogs in Utah is on the verge of burrowing through sewage lagoons at Bryce Canyon National Park. Staffer Richard Bryant says in a worst-case scenario the lagoons could collapse, closing bathroom facilities and forcing the park to shut down. An estimated 27 prairie dogs, one-sixth of the estimated Bryce Canyon […]

Fierce opposition from area residents has delayed a plan to improve grizzly bear habitat in Idaho’s Targhee National Forest. The Forest Service recently agreed to an out-of-court settlement with environmental groups to close hundreds of roads in an area adjacent to Yellowstone National Park (HCN, 4/4/94). But during an environmental assessment of the new plan, […]

The bull trout is disappearing, says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but the agency cannot protect the trout as an endangered species because it doesn’t have the money. In a ruling June 7, the Fish and Wildlife Service found that the listing of the rare fish was “warranted but precluded.” Doug Zimmer, an Olympia, […]

-I plan on really cleaning house on Rocky Mountain butterflies next year. Am bringing 20,000 envelopes and I expect to fill them all up!” wrote one of three men indicted in a large butterfly poaching ring. All allegedly traded and poached butterflies between 1983 and 1992, from such places as Grand Canyon and Yosemite. An […]

Landowners can’t own exclusive rights to wild animals on their property, a judge has ruled in Wyoming. Texas millionaire Clayton Williams, owner of a 90,000-acre ranch in Carbon County, and three other Wyoming ranchers recently lost their challenge to a Wyoming law that says the state owns all wildlife as a trustee for its citizens […]

Cougars have emerged as the leading cause of deaths among endangered mountain caribou in the Idaho Selkirk Mountains, reports the Spokane, Wash., Spokesman-Review. Ravaged by clearcuts and roads in their prime habitat, the caribou were listed as an endangered species in the late 1980s. At the end of the decade, 60 caribou were captured in […]

A recent Supreme Court decision on water quantity might help the Northwest’s beleaguered salmon. In a 7-2 ruling, the court said states can set minimum flow standards for waters downstream of hydroelectric plants. The case involved a dam that the city of Tacoma and a county utility wanted to build on the Dosewallips River near […]

After getting hammered by protests from loggers on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, the Forest Service abruptly killed an old-growth research project it had backed for the last 18 months. University of Washington scientists wanted to erect a 300-foot crane to study one of the least known areas of old-growth forests – the canopy. The Olympic Peninsula […]

In an odd twist on modern economics, conservationists want to use the savings and loan debacle to protect the largest privately owned old-growth redwood grove in the world. The 3,000-acre Headwaters Forest of northern California is owned by Pacific Lumber, which was a family business until it was taken over in 1985 by junk bond […]

The U.S. Forest Service, with approval from Secretary of Agriculture Jim Lyons, has signed a deed of trust with Colorado developer Tom Chapman. The deal gives Chapman 105 acres of federal land near the Telluride Ski Area in return for Chapman’s 240 acre inholding in the West Elk Wilderness near Paonia. Chapman must also remove […]

Jerry Holliday wasn’t pleased when he found out that Forest Service workers blasted down the walls of his cinderblock cabin in southern Utah’s Manti-La Sal National Forest. “Hell, you just don’t blow somebody’s property up and walk away,” Holliday told the Salt Lake Tribune. Holliday and co-owners Gene and Kenny Shumway had built the cabin […]

The superintendent of Wyoming’s Fremont County School District recently canceled wolf presentations at three elementary schools in Lander. Wild Sentry, a Montana-based wolf education program, has successfully taught thousands of kids in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho about the controversy and stereotypes surrounding the animal. But when area ranchers learned the program was coming to town, […]