Tag: Wyoming

greater sage-grouse, Sagebrush Sea
Wildlife

Protecting the Sage-Grouse in a Sea of Natural Gas

While stopping short of full endangered species protections for the Greater Sage-Grouse, the Obama-era Fish and Wildlife Service implemented land use plans to restrict energy development and grazing in the expanse of northwestern U.S. desert called the Sagebrush Sea, depicted in a 2015 documentary. The Trump Interior Department attempted to amend that plan to open up more commercial activities. We feature here an essay on Wyoming’s core plan attempts to salvage the state’s last populations in a landscape dominated by energy development.

Grizzly Bears rarely pose dangers to humans in the wild
Wildlife

George Wuerthner: Habitat Conservation, Not Hunting, Saves Grizzly Bears

Wildlife Agencies advocate hunting helps grizzly recovery. The best available science, however, suggests predators including bears, wolves, mountain lion and coyotes have intricate social interactions that are disrupted or damaged by indiscriminate killing from hunters and trappers. Habitat protection is the main way to protect the fledgling population of grizzly bears as well as avoid human-bear conflicts.

fracking, environmental impacts
Energy

Fracking Study: Contamination Happens

For years the drilling industry has insisted there has never been a proven case in which hydraulic fracturing, or natural gas fracking, has led to contamination of drinking water. Now Environmental Working Group has unearthed a 24-year-old case study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that unequivocally says such contamination has occurred.