Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , The Media and the Environment
Dear ESPN (and Disney), I am baffled and troubled by your publishing of “The myth of the harmless wolf” by James Swan on the Outdoors section of your popular ESPN.com website. The article is so misleading, one-sided, over-the-top, and,...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
A Montana winter is nothing to scoff at; abbreviated days, extended nights, buckets of snow, routine excursions below zero. But stop us from enjoying life out of doors it does not. The snow-covered mountains, crisp air, and bright sun beg...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
What does the future hold for wild bison in Montana? That is a question Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) seeks to answer over the next year. And the timing couldn’t be better. Shockingly, Montana is essentially devoid of wild,...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Gray wolves continue to grace many headlines in the West these days. And, unfortunately, the news is more often than not bad for the wolves. Here are some recent wolf news stories: In February, a joint resolution drafted by...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
NRDC Senior Wildlife Advocate Louisa Willcox and leading Canadian author Andrew Nikiforuk hiking above dying and dead whitebark pines in the Gallatin Mountains in Montana last summer. Whitebark pine trees anchor the high country of the Northern Rockies. They...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Douglas Chadwick, a prominent Montana author, penned a though-provoking article on the never-ending controversy of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies for the March 2010 edition of National Geographic. In “Wolf Wars,” Chadwick touches on many of the issues...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
An early Valentine’s Day gift to the continent, the Canadian government recently announced it will create North America’s newest national park in an isolated corner of southeast Labrador. Mealy Mountains National Park will include spongy tundra, gorgeous mountains, soggy bogs,...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
In an excellent article published yesterday, Jeremy Hance examines three recent studies that underscore how critically important top predators are to healthy ecosystems. The first study considers the negative effects that occur when "mesopredators” (e.g., coyotes, raccoons, skunks, baboons,...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
An Associated Press article reports that, according to court documents filed by Montana wildlife officials yesterday in the federal lawsuit over the removal of Endangered Species Act protections from wolves in Idaho and Montana (to which NRDC is a...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Montana’s proposal to send some or all of the brucellosis-free Yellowstone bison currently quarantined just north of Yellowstone National Park to Ted Turner’s Green Ranch west of Bozeman, Montana, and allow Turner Enterprises to keep up to 90% of...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
2009 was a dismal, tragic year for Northern Rockies wolves. They lost all protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), were hunted for the first time in Montana and Idaho (and continue to be hunted in Idaho), and were...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
If you’ve ever searched for an answer to the insanity that is bison management in Montana, you need look no further than a recent comment made by Montana’s Governor, Brian Schweitzer. During a speech last week at the annual...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
A recent Associated Press article makes the case that Montana is on the right track with its management of wolves. The article opens by stating, “An examination of Montana’s first public gray-wolf hunt showed at least nine of the...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Two weeks ago, Yellowstone's wild bison received an early Winter Solstice gift from the Gallatin National Forest: permanent closure of the Horse Butte public grazing allotment. This is huge, wonderful news. Horse Butte is a large, cattle-free peninsula that...
Posted by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Grab your distressed prey call and serve yourself an extra helping of manliness at your Thanksgiving feast, it's Idaho Predatory Derby time, baby! Yeah, that's right, the 5th Annual Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife Idaho Predator Derby is set to kick...
