New Buffalo Policy Leads to Illegal Killings

According to Montana officials, at least two Yellowstone buffalo have been found shot to death outside of park boundaries, and a third buffalo has died under suspicious circumstances.

These killing have occurred only a week after Montana officials made the decision to allow Yellowstone buffalo to migrate outside of the park and into Montana. Local ranchers, who fear that Bison will transmit the disease brucellosis to cattle, have protested the decision and are at the heart of local outrage over the decision.

The issue with Yellowstone bison underscores the unresolved problem of human-wildlife interaction and the conflict which exists surrounding wildlife management decisions. What's more, the debate over the issue brings to light the struggle of local communities with federal land managers, who function under distinctly different directives.

In the West, federal land remains a massive section of the total land area. As federal management plans develop around wildlife and habitat protection, local communities which exist on the fringe of federal land areas will continue to see conflicts arise over how the land is managed. Forest Service land has progressively moved away from timber harvesting and toward recreation and habitat protection. National Parks continue to operate under the goal of preserving habitat and completely prohibiting development. Unlike timber or mineral resources, however, wildlife moves at will. Federal land managers can not simply erect a wall around parks and national forests to keep animals in. What's more, many forests and parks were not designed to accommodate wildlife movement and migration, putting important migration routes into public hands.

This dynamic is on full display in Montana. As private land owners continue to manage their land in a way which conflicts with federal wildlife policy goals, conflict will continue unabated. Unless private land owners can work with federal land managers, lawsuits will undoubtedly be filed and it will be left to the courts to determine the fate of the Yellowstone bison.

A New Role for Congress; The Wolf No Longer Endangered..

Congress, for the first time ever, has acted to remove an animal from the endangered species list. The animal in question ? The Grey Wolf. While issues over the Grey Wolf have been rampant in recent months in the Mountain West, this effort by Congress is an unprecedented decision. No animal has ever been delisted by congress. Fallout has been significant in environmental circles, though it has been hailed in more conservative groups.

Idaho house speaker recently made the outrageous accusation that "If we don't take care of this problem soon, we won't have any wildlife to hunt or to look at." This kind of hyperbole has certainly contributed to the zeal that anti-Wolf groups have found themselves enraptured in over the past few months, and further illustrates the kind of anti-science, anti-anti-environmental attitude rampant in Idaho and even Congress.Furthermore, the state of Idaho has declared a state of emergency based on the wolf, which will grant the state special powers to eliminate wolves.

It is not hard to imagine why this world suffers from such environmental degradation when we have such a passion for destroying it.

New Forest Service Guidelines May Threaten Wildlife

As the Obama administration unveiled it's new Forest Service management planning rules, they were quickly met by opposition from wildlife conservation groups. What's the problem ? The new rules don't do enough to protect the already struggling wildlife populations on Forest Service land.