How quickly will national elk feeding grounds spread chronic wasting disease?

The century old tradition of feeding elk outside Yellowstone could end up severely hurting the population by spreading chronic wasting disease.

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Yellowstone Bison to be hunted or chemically castrated

Yellowstone Bison

MT Gov wants to hunt bison in Yellowstone Park. The USDA wants to chemically castrate them. Either way, ranchers get to cut their numbers.

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Wolf advocates not as sheepish as NYT claims

Is there a new dynamic playing out between ranchers and the defenders of wolves since they were taken of the endangered species list? The New York Times thinks wolf lovers and watchers have been chastened by the delisting and are newly compromising. “Aghast, some environmental groups had a moment of reckoning. Had they gone too far in using the Endangered Species Act as a cudgel instead of forging compromises with ranchers?”

Yeah, there’s a new dynamic: ranchers, hunters and government agents can kill wolves like they haven’t in a century. Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity points out that delisting wolves means that the USDA’s Wildlife Services unit, which kills wildlife for farmers and ranchers at taxpayer expense, will now be able to kill even more wolves for even more reasons. Like to promote elk hunting. Even though biologists say the wolves aren’t really hurting the elk.

Only about 1,100 wolves survive out west, but Wildlife Services kills an amazing number: 452 in FY2010 and 481 in FY2009. Wolves didn’t get kicked off the list (this time) by a bizarre political deal until April. In Idaho 169 wolves have been killed so far this year: 122 for hunters, 42 for cows and 5 for elk. Montana has already killed 136, more than half by hunting.

Leslie Kaufman’s story has some sense of history, but the entire premise seems based on a fabulist rancher’s point of view. I don’t know any wolf people who feel they have “gone too far.” Nor do they–we–feel we have been

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Budget compromises wolves, other politics shafts orcas, PA porcupines

Did Obama cave on political riders in the budget compromise? Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson de-listed wolves in Idaho and Montana in a closed-door deal. NOAA almost protects orcas in Puget Sound. PA to declare open season on porcupines.

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MT train kills 270 pronghorn antelope; 800 die on roads & tracks in rough winter

Blocked by snow and cattle fences, about 800 pronghorn antelope have been killed by trains and cars in Montana this year. One train killed 270.

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150 Yellowstone buffalo risk slaughter; Possum on diet to cure cross-eyes

Yellowstone Park rounds up 300 bison; likely to slaughter half to please local cattlemen. Did Heidi the possum go cross-eyed from being fat? Jane Lynch v. AKC

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Wolf seminars in Midwest; crazy wolf hunting bills out west; good news for big cats

leopard with crazy big spots

A Republican congressman introduced a bill to allow MT and ID to manage their wolves (that is, hunt them to extinction). Meanwhile, WI and MI have wolf classes

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Why is Obama trying to gut the Endangered Species Act?

President Obama talked grandly about how he would “restore the scientific process to its rightful place at the heart of the Endangered Species Act, but now his interior secretary doing incompetent backroom horsetrading on wolves.

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Does Whitebark Pine Decline = Increased Grizzly Attacks?

grizzly

The grizzly bear committee report mainly just takes on a strawman claim that whitebark pine decline=grizzly decline. That’s not what the Times said. The agency’s report really doesn’t refute the real claim, whitebark pine decline=grizzly conflict increase. It just says it’s not the biggest factor.

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Wolves Out West Get Back Endangered Species Protection

An ID judge relisted the gray wolf as an endangered species, saying the USFWS can’t keep them endangered only in WY just because that state is crazy.

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