Pebble Mine Aerial Photo (Bill Roth / ADN archive 2013)

Not Even Close, John Shively


John Shively assures us that Pebble Mine is safe in his recent opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News. He promises Pebble Mine will be constructed and operated without jeopardizing the world’s most important wild salmon fishery. Let’s have a look at his arguments and see if he’s right. Most of his opinion is an argumentum ad…

Tongass National Forest, Northern Chichagof Island

Another Victory for the Tongass


Back in March, U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason rejected an attempt by the U.S. Forest Service to open up Prince of Wales Island and some of the smaller surrounding islands to clearcutting of the remaining old growth forest there. In her decision, Judge Gleason left open the issue of the scope of the remedy, and…

Sawtooth Mountains at Dawn from Stanley Lake, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho

May WC Ask a Favor?


WC rarely asks his readers for a favor. It’s happened a couple of times, and each time readers have come through. This doesn’t involve any of your money, it will benefit you and your families, and it will make you feel good besides. WC wants you to contact your Representatives and Senators and ask them…

"Running from the Wolves," Adolf Baumgartner-Stoiloff, 1890(?)

Wolves


WC’s first encounter with a wild wolf came in Denali National Park – then called Mt. McKinley National Park – in the upper Sanctuary River Valley. WC had led a small group of young Boy Scouts up there on a camping trip. Refuge Valley, the West Fork of the Sanctuary River, is beautiful, an easy…

Greater Sage Grouse on a lek, southcentral Idaho

A Modest Win for the Greater Sage Grouse


The Greater Sage Grouse is in big trouble. AS WC has written here before, populations of the iconic bird have plummeted from an estimated 16 million to less than half a million. The primary cause of the population crash has been habitat loss. Back in 2015, a painfully negotiated settlement among the stakeholders would have…

Wisdom and her chick on Midway Atoll NWR. Photo credit: Ann Bell/USFWS

Introducing Wisdom


Among birders, at least, one of the most famous individual birds in the world is Wisdom. Wisdom is a female Laysan Albatross, a species that spends almost all of its life at sea. Wisdom comes to shore on Midway Island, near the center of the Pacific Ocean, only to breed. Wisdom is the oldest banded…

Jabiru, Pantanal. Brazil

The Ethical Dilemma of Birding Brazil


But at the same time, you have to wonder if visiting Brazil is the right thing to do. Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro is a far-right politician whose campaign promises included destroying the Amazon, repealing environmental protections and removing protections for Brazil’s indigenous peoples. He spews misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ, and racist statements. To the extent that taking a…

Environmental Protection

Good News You Might Have Missed


In the holiday frenzy and year end wrap up, there was some good news on the conservation front. At least in the legal arena. Here’s a quick recap. Western Watersheds v. BLM. Dwight Hammond and his son Steven Hammond were convicted of committing arson on their grazing allotments back in 2012. Donald Trump subsequently pardoned them and then-Interior…

BLM's Tri-State Fuel Break Proposed Project Area

Dealing with Climate Change: Wildfire Fuel Breaks


It seems increasingly likely that humanity’s inaction in the face of the existential threat of anthropogenic climate change means we are going to have more than than the 2° Celsius of global temperature increase that climatologists regarded as manageable. So, without in any way diminishing the urgency that humanity’s CO2 emissions be reduced, it’s time…

Yellowpine Pit, East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River, Idaho

Compromise and Environmentalism


WC is an admitted, unapologetic conservationist and environmentalist. For most of his adult life he has been actively involved in conservation organizations. As a contributor, as a lawyer, as a member and even as a member of boards of directors. WC understands the issues and challenges conservation organizations face pretty well. And the recurring issue,…

Salmon-free prime spawning habitat, headwaters of the Salmon River, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho

The Forest Service Tries Passive-Aggressive


All of the salmonid species in Idaho’s Salmon River are either endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Chinook and Red Salmon; Steelhead. No to mention Bull Trout. Some of the best spawning habitat is in the headwaters of the Salmon River, in the Sawtooth National Forest, and especially the Sawtooth National Recreation…

Izembek National Wildlife Refuge Uplands (photographer unknown)

A Couple of Wins for the Good Guys


Good news for Alaska conservationists has been scarce the last two years. Too many old fights have come back. So when on a single day, Friday, March 29, 2019, there are two different wins, well, it’s worth a blog post. The first win came for Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. Disgraced former Secretary of the Interior…

Water meadows in the headwaters of the North Fork of the Payette, August 2018

The Forests Will Return


It’s hard to be outdoors in the Western United States right now. It seems as if we have been in a cloud of wildfire smoke for months. Your eyes water and the back of your throat burns. Your clothes smell like a a drowned campfire. And thousands of fires have reduced too much of Western…

Stanley Lake and the Sawtooths at 6:10 AM

“What Is Your ‘Why’?”


WC attended Wild Idaho recently. Among the many excellent speakers was Connie Myers, the founding director of the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center. The Center is an inter-agency training facility for the four federal agencies with a stake in wilderness: the Forestry Service in the Department of Agriculture; the National Park Service and the…

Southern Idaho Dairy, CAFO Operation, Twin Falls, Idaho

Cowboys, CAFOs and Stupid


The image most of us have of Idaho – when you think of Idaho at all – is a cowboy ridin’ the range, herding cattle in the sagebrush.1 Never mind that cattle ranchers today use pickups, 4-wheelers and drones, not horses. But cattle grazing on the range, under the big, western skies, isn’t where the…

Finca Lerida Coffee Farm, Panama

The Looming Coffee Crisis


WC wants his fellow coffee junkies to understand just how serious this is: coffee, the single best reason for getting out of bed in the morning, is at grave risk from climate change. Coffee, especially arabica coffee, is fussy about where it will grow and what climatic conditions it will tolerate. The other species, robusta, is a…