Proposed Removal of Gray Wolves’ Endangered Status a Case Study in the Politicization of Science – June 17, 2013

US Fish and Wildlife Service relies on taxonomical shenanigans to appease wolf haters

The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s recent announcement that it is beginning the process for removing gray wolves across the country from the protection of the Endangered Species Act surprised no one. The Fish and Wildlife Service’s mid-1990s reintroduction of gray wolves — a species virtually extirpated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries — into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho marked a triumph for conservationists and ranks as one of the most striking fulfillments of the Endangered Species Act. But as I have reported here and here, the wolves quickly met enemies.

Photo by US Fish and Wildlife ServiceThe Fish… more

by: James William Gibson

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Wolf Slaughter Continues in the Rocky Mountains – January 31, 2013

Fantasies of killing become increasingly bizarre

Lynne Stone, longtime wolf advocate and executive director of central Idaho’s Boulder White Clouds Council in Ketchum, couldn’t help but laugh. For the last two years she has routinely petitioned the Idaho Dept of Fish and Game for every single “ Big Game Mortality Report” filed on wolves killed by hunters —several hundred of them since the animals lost Endangered Species Act protection. Hunters and trappers are required to send in the report along with the skull and pelt for examination. In mid-January Stone ran across a November 2012 report that stated, “DNA came back as a domestic dog,” a light-skinned one.

Photo Flickr/CC BY… more

by: James William Gibson

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Crime Accompanies Flow of Oil Workers into North Dakota – December 12, 2012

State’s Attorney General cautions that more crime is a function of more people, but locals remain wary

The fracking boom that is remaking the face of North Dakota has attracted thousands of workers to the state as people who cannot find jobs elsewhere pursue the lucrative wages in the new northern oil path. According to the US Census Bureau, the state gained more than 11,000 residents between 2010 and 2011, putting North Dakota’s population at an all-time high of 684,000 people. While some people celebrate the boom, with the increased population has come a problem that no one likes: an increase in crime.

Photo by Flickr user porchlifeWestern North Dakota residents say they are particularly concerned about… more

by: James William Gibson

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Shale Oil Boom in North Dakota is Impacting Native Americans Especially Hard – December 3, 2012

Tribal members complain they aren’t receiving profits from oil rush

In just five years North Dakota (Read our Winter cover story, “Boom!”) has gone from a quiet agricultural state to a rapidly industrializing energy powerhouse. By the middle of 2012 North Dakota was producing about 660,000 barrels of oil a day, more than twice as much as just two years before. That number makes North Dakota the second largest oil producing state in the United States, after Texas.

Photo by Andrew FilerActivists from North Dakota's reservation town of Mandaree, which is mostly poor, say none of the
oil money collected by either the tribe or the state of North Dakota comes back to… more

by: James William Gibson

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Idaho Fish and Game Report Says Trapped Black Wolf Not Shot, “Just Nicked” – April 13, 2012

Trappergate Update: Conservation Activists Encouraged. “Our Moment is Coming,” They Say

Why me, Bill” asked “Elizabeth.”. “Why should anyone care about what I think the Bransford photos accomplished?" I’m just a wee, grubby misfit. I don’t even have one fancy title to my name.” Elizabeth (not her real name) lives in northern Idaho. She grasped that the www.Trapperman.com photos showing smiling hunter Josh Bransford with a trapped black wolf standing in blood-drenched snow in the background would soon disappear. She saved the images and through the North Idaho Wolf Alliance network, got the photographs to Earth Island Journal in late March (Read the original story, Wolf Torture and Execution Continues in the Northern Rockies).

Trapperman.commore

by: James William Gibson

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