Invasive carp may recolonize areas they were once eradicated from, depending on how long the occupation lasts.
Public lands
Posted inJanuary 25, 2016: The Forever War
Modern sagebrush rebels recycle old Western fantasies
Ammon and Ryan Bundy, sons of scofflaw Nevada rancher Clive Bundy, appear to have made an ambitious New Year’s resolution: Force the federal government, which has managed more than half of the American West’s lands for the past century, to relinquish them, at gun point if necessary, to the locals. Over the weekend, the Bundy […]
Posted inJanuary 25, 2016: The Forever War
Photos: A protest over imprisoned ranchers becomes an occupation of a wildlife refuge
In eastern Oregon, the latest iteration of the Sagebrush Rebellion.
Posted inJanuary 25, 2016: The Forever War
Wildlife Services and its eternal war on predators
The federal agency has been researching nonlethal means to protect livestock for decades. So why is it still killing so many carnivores?
Posted inArticles
BLM proposes rules for oil and gas methane emissions
The rule will help conserve natural gas and mitigate pollution, targeting 100,000 existing wells.
Posted inArticles
Rob Bishop’s long-awaited ‘grand bargain’ for Utah public lands
After decades of stalemate, the new bill gets mixed reactions.
Posted inArticles
The folly of “taking back” the West
Do 700 million acres of national parks, national monuments, national forests, national wildlife refuges and Bureau of Land Management units belong to you and your fellow Americans? No, according to the increasingly popular notion in the West that it’s time for states to “take back” federal land. “Taking back” property that belongs to Alaskans and […]
Posted inArticles
West Obsessed: Behind the Malheur occupation
Our editors discuss the lead-up to the stand-off in Oregon.
Posted inArticles
Justice in the West has a double standard for protesters
In Boston over 200 years ago, a group of American patriots dressed and painted like Indians smashed crates and dumped tea into the city’s harbor. In today’s American West, protesters ride their ATVs into publicly owned canyons to protest federal restriction of motorized access, and more recently, grazing-fee opponents forcibly “occupy” the desks of wildlife […]
Posted inArticles
The first Sagebrush Rebellion: What sparked it and how it ended
Today’s movement is a radical, perverted version of the 1970s-80s rebellion.
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Ranch Diaries: The anti-ranching, misinformed discourse around Malheur
The federal grazing system doesn’t support good management.
Posted inArticles
Former BLM chief: Bundys ‘pursuing an agenda’ on public land
Bob Abbey was Bureau of Land Management chief from 2009 to 2012 and Nevada state director from 1997 to 2005. In a recent interview with High Country News, he discusses the BLM’s response to ranchers, including Cliven Bundy in Nevada, who broke federal laws, as well as the importance of collaborating with local law enforcement when it comes […]
Posted inArticles
The BLM has armed up since 1978, but it’s still outgunned
In confrontations with armed groups like the Bundy supporters, local law enforcement matters most.
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The BLM’s inconsistent approach toward rule breakers
A look at how the feds have — and have not — punished individuals for defying regulations.
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Malheur occupation, explained
The deep history behind the Bundy brothers’ takeover of a wildlife refuge in Oregon.
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Forty years of Sagebrush Rebellion
The Oregon occupation, the 2014 Bundy standoff and many other stories are all related to a long-simmering movement.
Posted inArticles
Where private land meets public interest
A group of landowners on the Colorado-New Mexico border aim to conserve a contested landscape.
Posted inArticles
Court will hear case against data trespass laws
A federal judge rejected the state of Wyoming’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit.
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
Two visions collide in Utah’s Wasatch Range
As ski resorts push for a mega-connection, backcountry skiers try to save some wild.
Posted inDecember 7, 2015: Good Neighbors
Adrenaline junkies get political
Do young recreationalists who like things faster and steeper care about the land the way their forebears did?