Moving Away
Goodbye, Missoula
After finishing up my Master’s degree in education this summer, the job prospects were bleak.
I applied for several teaching jobs in Missoula, but it was discouraging when every person I talked to commented on how difficult it is to earn such a position without experience. I talked to a career counselor, who advised me to quit applying for these jobs in Missoula and focus on finishing my professional paper. I took her advice.
[more]New West Feature
Conservationists Deplore Bombing of Avalanche Runs at Yellowstone
The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, backed by several other conservation groups, has strongly criticized Yellowstone National Park’s winter use plan to keep Sylvan Pass open between Cody and the park’s east entrance.
The pass features 20 avalanche runs that must be knocked down by artillery shells fired from a 105 mm howitzer, at a cost of $325,000 per season. Weather permitting, high explosives are hand-dropped on the avalanche runs from a helicopter.
[more]New West Feature
Cougar on the Rise
In rural New Mexico, trailheads leading into cougar country often are posted with signs that explain what a hiker should do in case of an encounter.
Maybe Robert Giannini had read such advice, because he did the right thing—eventually.
[more]New West Feature
Cutthroat Habitat Faces Collapse
Climate change could reduce the habitat of cutthroat trout, a keystone species already under stress in the West, by as much as 58 percent over coming decades, according to a study published today. Meanwhile, long-term efforts have begun in Colorado to restore selected cutthroat habitats by eliminating other trout.
Today’s paper, in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also predicts that by 2080, rainbow trout, whose native habitat includes Idaho in the Rocky Mountain states, could be reduced by 35 percent. Two introduced trout species in the study will not do well, either: Brook trout habitat could decline by an estimated 77 percent, and brown trout by 48 percent.
New West Feature
Huge Colorado Runoff Is Mostly a Blessing
As drought continues to hammer southern states—drying out Texas streams, lakes and water supplies—the only things empty in most Colorado rivers are the fishing nets.
“I haven’t seen water like this so late since my first year here in 1985,” said Thomas Schneider, owner of Boulder-based Sunrise Anglers, LLC. “I was guiding last weekend in the park (Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado) and I haven’t seen the Roaring River that high, ever.”
[more]New West Feature
Wyoming Declares War on Wolves![Cowboys capture a gray wolf in Wyoming, 1887. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, John C.H. Grabill Collection, [LC-DIG-ppmsc-02636].](/images/articles/cache/02636v-220x0.jpg)
An agreement reached last week between Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director Dan Ashe, and the State of Wyoming will allow treatment of the wolf as a predator that can be shot, trapped, or run over at any time throughout most of the state.
Interior has agreed to remove Wyoming wolves from the threatened and endangered species list, and give the state authority to manage wolves under a unique and widely criticized dual management plan.
New West Feature
What Happened to the Mulies and Pronghorns?
A suite of habitat stressors appears to have caused a massive decline in mule deer and pronghorn herds around the border of Wyoming and Colorado, according to a recent National Wildlife Federation (NWF) report.
The herds, which tend to migrate back and forth over state lines, have encountered a number of pressures over the past 30 years, including fragmentation of habitat, disease, energy development, drought, and harsh winters.
[more]New West Feature
How Preble’s Mouse Hopped Back into Protection
The reinstatement on Saturday, Aug. 6, of protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for a mouse in Wyoming might seem a small move, but it encapsulates many of the special interest considerations that dominate land use decisions in the West.
The issue, which goes back several years, revolves around the familiar question of what “best science” means. Government agencies, the courts, the media, and biologists themselves have weighed into the debate, closely attended by conservationists, ranchers, and politicians.
[more]New West Feature
Is Snake River Dam Removal Back?
When a federal district court judge ruled on Tuesday that a plan to protect populations of Northwest salmon and steelhead did not meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, the possibility of hydroelectric dam removal on the Snake and Columbia Rivers was resurrected. But that doesn’t mean it is more than just a possibility.
Central Idaho contains the largest and best-protected contiguous salmon habitat remaining in the continental United States. Conservationists long have lobbied for removal of four dams on the lower Snake River that salmon must traverse on their journey to the ocean, and Judge James Redden’s decision gives them renewed hope, however slim.
[more]New West Feature
Sage-grouse vs. Grazing Comes Down to Idaho Court
The extended legal battle over greater sage-grouse entered what might be a critical phase last week as a federal judge heard a case in Idaho, the outcome of which could have major implications for management of livestock grazing on many millions of acres throughout the West.
The geographic scope of the case, which includes public lands in Idaho, Nevada, California, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana, makes it one of the largest environmental lawsuits in U.S. history.
Even so, Idaho District court Judge B. Lynn Winmill’s decision could be more dependent on procedural considerations than on adjudication of the actual issues.
[more]