Kim Nance, a veterinarian, is one of the neighbors who has noticed the wild horse population grow over the years, causing issues with bordering ranches. “There are years when we have really bad drought and the horses have all their ribs showing. You see a lot of them limping, a lot of trauma, broken legs and nobody is there to take care of the animals when they’re suffering,” Nance said, “It’s hard to watch.” [Neighbors say almost 1,000 horses run wild near Alamo]New Mexico is a fence-out state and domestic horses are considered livestock while wild and feral mustangs are not but those deemed estray is a gray zone. Nevertheless, after finding a veterinarian with extensive experience an area couple raised the money and gelded three stallions. Two of our three Spring foals are colts that will face surgery in a few more months.
5/18/24
NM under fire for horse neglect in Socorro County
5/15/24
BLM New Mexico, Montana better at stewardship than most: PEER
According to data released today by the nonpartisan Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), 56.7 million acres of BLM rangeland fail to meet the agency’s land health standards, primarily owing to livestock grazing. Particularly hard-hit are the high, cold deserts of Nevada, Wyoming and southern Idaho; In Nevada alone, approximately 22 million acres of public grazing land do not meet health standards. There are some bright spots: BLM state offices in Montana and New Mexico, for instance, have done a much better job meeting health standards than some of their neighbors, while 83% of Montana’s assessed acreage meets agency standards. [Federal grazing lands fail their checkup]Brazen vandalism increases perpetrated by the extreme white wing of the Republican Party on BLM public property are attacks on US propelled by thugs like Donald Trump, Kristi Noem and worse.
A 32-year veteran of @BLMNational has left the agency, citing its declining ability and willingness to protect public lands. Her central concern is that BLM range staff can't halt the damage caused by overgrazing and grazing trespass.https://t.co/wiJzdkOPkG#ProtectPublicLands
— PEER (@PEERorg) May 9, 2024
5/13/24
Environmental racism, habitat degradation would plague SE Arizona mine
“It is not only beneficial to USFS and the Biden Administration, it is beneficial to the Santa Cruz County to employ an engagement process that ensures the entire community has been effectively educated and fully understands the impacts of the Hermosa Project, as well as, informed of the range of possible alternatives that mitigate adverse impacts.” Robin Lucky, president of the Calabasas Alliance, a watchdog conservation group located in Santa Cruz County says many residents remain distrustful of the process. [Forest Service begins public scoping period for South32 Hermosa Mine Project]Learn more at the Patagonia Regional Times.
5/12/24
WTF is wrong with Newell?
Darrell Goins, 42, of Newell, South Dakota, is charged in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia with six felony offenses, including civil disorder; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; and entering and remaining, disorderly or disruptive conduct, and act of physical violence in a restricted building or grounds using a dangerous weapon. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Dakota. [South Dakota Man Arrested for Assaulting Law Enforcement and Other Charges During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach]Just say it: radical christianic terrorism; but now it’s time to add stochastic to that tagline, too.
5/11/24
Lost paradise: when holocaust is art
O’Keeffe moved in for good in 1949 – the year that the Soviet Union detonated their first nuclear test in Kazakhstan. Throughout the 1950s, nuclear tests took place all over the New Mexican desert, and O’Keeffe would have known about the infamous “Trinity” test that took place in 1945. According to Pita Lopez, Project Director for the Abiquiú Historic Properties, O’Keeffe built hers in the early 1960s because she “wanted to be around to see what the landscape would look like if there was ever a catastrophe.” [Georgia O’Keeffe’s Subterranean Fallout Shelter]ip image: across the plaza from the O'Keeffe property is the abandoned El Piñon Theater.
5/10/24
Canada joins passenger rail expansion that could connect with El Paso
Upon crossing the border by Coutts into the U.S., those on board would have the option of finishing their journey in the Montana communities of Shelby, Great Falls, Helena, Bozeman, or Livingston. [Alberta-Montana passenger rail service proposed]Cheyenne, Wyoming is on board with Colorado for expanded Front Range passenger rail that would connect El Paso to Shelby. I-25, especially from Pueblo, Colorado to Fort Collins through Colorado Springs and the Denver metro, sucks at biblical proportions as does flying into Denver International Airport so growth on the Front Range is driving planners to pick up the pace on passenger rail.
A newly formed Cheyenne Passenger Rail Commission created under Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins’ guidance has been formed to help with the local effort. Most significantly, it would help passengers avoid congestion on the busy I-25 corridor when traveling down to the Front Range. As long as travel times could be made comparable to or better than driving in a car to Fort Collins or Denver, the passenger line could serve as a legitimate alternative. [Push For Wyoming-Colorado Passenger Rail Service Gaining Momentum]Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) is working for restoring the North Coast Hiawatha and finding funding for the next phase of the project through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill while his Small Community Air Service Enhancement Act boosts airport improvements in eastern Montana counties. Treasure County was the latest to join the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority as nineteen Montana counties, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai, Northern Cheyenne and Apsáalooke Nations bring the former North Coast Hiawatha to life.
More passenger rail through Montana isn’t just a hope and a dream, it’s a plan that’s chugging its way to reality, according to a report this week from the Big Sky Rail Authority. And Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is on board. “The bottom line is, passenger rail is something we believe in … we’ve done it before in this country, and we’ve done it well, and there’s no reason we can’t do it again,” Buttigieg said. [Big Sky Rail Authority: ‘We are no longer debating feasibility’]Lewis and Clark County is home to the state capital and has yet to support the concept citing lack of service while Yellowstone County, the state's most populous, is holding out for more money.
5/9/24
Politicians buy NM newspapers from Gannett; pledge centrism
The Rio Grande Sun‘s owners include Ryan Cangiolosi and Harvey E. Yates Jr. of Albuquerque, both of whom have served as chairmen of the Republican Party of New Mexico, and state Rep. Joseph Sanchez, a Democrat from Alcalde. According to a news release from Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe that represented Gannett in the sale, Yates is a managing member of the El Rito group. Connor will serve as editor and publisher of the five newspapers. Connor said the group will work to provide a “center” balance when it comes to news coverage with the three new papers. [Gannett sells four New Mexico newspapers, three to 'Rio Grande Sun' owners]The Santa Fe New Mexican was a Gannett paper from 1976 to 1989.
5/7/24
Bird migration underway
5/6/24
Republicans now driving grid attacks
In reports filed to the [Department of Energy], power grid operators identified 200 instances of vandalism, suspicious activity, sabotage or physical attacks in 2023, comprising 58% of all reported incidents. Over the past decade, roughly half of these attacks happened in the West. They planned to use that chaos “to create a favorable operating environment to conduct an assassination.” In the far-right movement, this twisted logic falls under the banner of an ideology called “accelerationism”: the belief that accelerating the collapse of society will enable white people to take over and rebuild the world they want. [How attacks on energy substations play into the hands of extremists]In 2023 in my home state of South Dakota Riggin Lynn Scheer was unmasked as a Nazi.
5/5/24
Insurance companies, utilities still bilking homeowners in WUI
Downhill off Bridger Canyon Drive, a burned tractor, caked in soot, displays a sign for vehicles passing by: “State Farm is Not a Good Neighbor. They Do Not Pay Their Claims.” When Sandy and Paul Strong bought their house up Bridger Canyon in 2022, they didn’t expect to spend so much time thinking about trees. On a sunny mid-April afternoon, Jessica Braun was up at the Strong’s property, touting a chainsaw and a drip torch. Her co-workers were felling trees behind the house, and the land was dotted with scorch marks from smoking piles of burned debris. Now, they are logging, and the wood will be sold to a timber mill to help cover the cost of the work. A skidder will come to take the logs this summer. ['We'd be the torch': Bridger Canyon homeowners work to reduce fire risk]Xcel Energy is just one utility being bankrupted by insurance companies looking for culprits in human-caused disasters now that it's been determined all-day hurricane force winds drove the 2021 Marshall Fire in Boulder County, Colorado. And they're not small fires either as the Smokehouse Creek Fire Complex spread over 1.2 million acres of the Republican Texas panhandle where sixty counties face disaster declarations.
The pole identified as the cause of the fire had been suffering from decay, and an Xcel contractor designated it in need of replacement, the report said, citing testimony from an Xcel executive. The report, issued Wednesday, also found that Texas does little to regulate the inspection, maintenance and replacement of utility poles. [Texas Lawmakers Fault Xcel Power Pole in State’s Largest Fire]Utilities, insurers, county commissions, lenders and developers need to be held accountable for building tinder boxes packed so closely together that homeowners can see into each others bathrooms. Counties should be able to fine property owners who fail to create defensible space or clear dry fuels. Well-funded local and volunteer fire departments could conduct prescribed fires and burn road ditches to create buffers where contract fire specialists don’t exist.
A new study quantifies how much worse the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome and wildfires were because of global warming. Short version: A hell of a lot worse. Details from my @latimes colleague @phila_lex: https://t.co/LpQQu4HJSr
— Sammy Roth (@Sammy_Roth) April 22, 2024
5/4/24
Goss: South Dakota's economy sucks less due to Biden "tailwind"
"The feds were raising rates, and the economy has still moved along and is improving a bit at least in manufacturing, which is what our survey said," said Goss. "But, when the federal government runs a deficit, which will be about $2.2 trillion this year, it's really hard to move lower when you've got that kind of tailwind, and that's what we've got--an economic tailwind that has shown up in our April survey of manufacturing supply managers." [Goss: April BCI continues to show mixed bag]South Dakota is at full employment so expect inflation to edge higher in the coming months.
5/2/24
South Dakota should consider partnership with BLM for shooting range
5/1/24
4/30/24
Remanding tracts to tribes the right thing to do
You know, the more you think about it, the more you think about this whole doctrine of discovery and what the federal government and attorneys have done to us – we've really got to stand up for ourselves, we have to protect what little we have. There should be no question that that land reverts back to the tribes. [Senior Wind River Conservation Associate Wes Martel]
Oklahoma’s creation must be taught alongside all the grim and dark history of U.S. tribal relations prior to 1907. How it is taught, of course, varies by the students’ age. But no child is too young to receive an honest, if difficult to hear, recitation of our shared history. Our public educators must also have the freedom to teach it. [Chuck Hoskin, Jr.]On 18 April Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced protections for 4,200 acres in New Mexico for lands sacred to the Santa Ana and San Felipe Pueblos. In Arizona she signed historic agreements with the Colorado River Indian Tribes and pledged $14.5 to the Navajo, Hopi and San Carlos Apache to electrify homes.
4/28/24
Wyoming judge sounds alarm on mounting violence
The agency, responsible for the protection of 2,700 federal judges and more than 30,000 federal prosecutors and other court personnel, has seen a sharp rise in threats related to the country’s bitter political divisions, Marshals Director Ronald Davis told Reuters in a recent interview. [Exclusive: Threats to US federal judges double since 2021, driven by politics]In Wyoming and other western states Trump's followers are targeting Bureau of Land Management district offices as conservation gains equal ranking under the Federal Land Management Policy Act.
Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Kate Fox said that she's alarmed by the trends. She's working diligently to increase awareness, and security measures, in courthouses and communities across the Cowboy State. It's the trial court judges who have a lot more interaction and who tend to get a lot more threats of violence. [Wyoming Supreme Court Chief Justice speaks on the need for increased security as threats to judges spike]It’s impossible to imagine a more committed insurrectionist than the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee who gleefully incites his disciples to render a bloodbath on his political enemies.
The Sublette County Attorney’s Office released a statement Mon. on the recent wolf incident. This comes after the killing and alleged torture of a wolf by local Cody Roberts in late February has received international attention. Story by @miss_ctanhttps://t.co/drPJEekUDq
— Wyoming Public Radio (@WYPublicRadio) April 23, 2024
4/27/24
Extreme white wing of the Republican Party putting Idaho hospital in the crosshairs
In July 2023, Idaho's abortion ban was amended to exclude ectopic and molar pregnancies, which if not terminated can only result in the death of both the mother and the fetus. But some doctors have said the text still conflicts with their duty of care and does not take into account the broad scope of severe medical complications women can face during pregnancy, including loss of fertility. [Idaho's biggest hospital says emergency flights for pregnant patients up sharply]Sidearms for the pre-born!
Hey everyone, I just wanted to update you all on something important. I recently offered $10,000 to anyone who could prove I ever lied. Despite facing a massive $53 million lawsuit from St Luke's Hospital, no one has been able to show where I lied. It's frustrating because this… pic.twitter.com/v4WKyWVOKO
— Ammon Bundy (@RealABundy) April 25, 2024
4/26/24
ITBC, Heinert move ten buffalo to Taos Pueblo
Almost 37 years ago, Frank and Deborah Popper’s collaborative academic article was published in a small magazine for planning professionals. On March 27 the couple visited Montana State University in Bozeman for a public presentation and discussion about how things have changed since their article was first published. [Buffalo Commons authors look back at evolution of their Great Plains bison concept]The Oakland Zoo just sent fourteen more buffalo for a total of 38 to the Blackfeet Nation. But, whether it's American Prairie's bison grazing on Bureau of Land Management ground in Montana, the US Department of Agriculture killing cattle on the Gila or feds shooting goats in the Tetons socialized grazing just isn't enough to keep some Republicans happy.
4/24/24
South Dakota still addicted to gambling
It also has a high prevalence of gambling through lottery tickets, with the 10th highest lottery sales per resident age 18+. South Dakota has legalized betting on fantasy sports, regular sports and horse races, and it allows gambling machines to be put in stores. With so many different legal ways to gamble, it makes sense that many residents have a problem. The grip that gambling has on the Mount Rushmore State is evident in the fact that it has a high number of Gamblers Anonymous meetings per capita. [Most Gambling-Addicted States (2024)]The reasoning is hardly mysterious. It’s all about the money video lootery, a too big to jail banking racket, a medical industry triopoly, prostitution, the Sturgis Rally, policing for profit, sex trafficking, hunting and subsidized grazing bring to the SDGOP destroying lives, depleting watersheds and smothering habitat under single-party rule.
Gamers visiting Deadwood in March dropped $127.2 million in machines, on tables, and sports betting for just over an eight percent increase compared to March 2023. Thus far this year, the collective handle in Deadwood is $358.3 million, up less than half a percent, compared to the same period in 2023. [Black Hills Pioneer]When i was still playing Ricky Jacobsen, Chuck Baumann and Jeanette Fraser took their own lives after losing everything in Deadwood's poker games. No doubt there have been others.
4/23/24
Brookings listened: rainwater harvest encouraged
Yes, the Big Sioux River is a sewer of biblical proportions.It’s probably better than nothing but stormwater from city streets is every bit as toxic as runoff from ag, maybe more. #ecocide #southdakota #redstatefailure #sdleg https://t.co/V6JxvwGbJE https://t.co/SKyL5HuNd2
— interested party (@larry_kurtz) December 7, 2021
Starting Monday, April 22, 2024, City residents can register for and pick up a voucher at the Engineering Division office in Suite 140 of the Brookings City & County Government Center at 520 Third St. Vouchers are limited to one per residential property and are for City of Brookings residents only. A total of 40 vouchers will be available on a first-come, first-served basis until they are gone. [2024 Stormwater Incentive Program]Let's see: Brookings owns a research park, the hospital, the liquor store, the water, the phone company, the power company, an entertainment venue, the golf course, it's home to South Dakota's largest public university and a federally subsidized cheese and dairy industry.
4/22/24
Expect a contested Republican convention
— Ashleigh London (@ashleighlondon) April 22, 2024
4/21/24
Another mountain town turns to ice farming
Lake City is an old silver-mining town — population 432 — tucked in a valley in the San Juan Mountains. The Lake City Ice Park was created by a motley crew of carpenters and raft guides who shared a passion for the sport. They began “farming,” or creating their own ice in the Lake City area in the late 1990s — a scheme fueled by a mischievous curiosity and thousands of feet of hose. In Ouray, the climbers can scale more than 150 named routes along the Uncompahgre River Gorge at what has become the world’s largest man-made ice-climbing park. During the winter of 2021-’22, the Ouray Ice Park pumped $18 million into Ouray County. [Can ice climbing bring life to an isolated Colorado town in the dead of winter?]
The Ice Park in Ouray is a unique place that continues to bring ice climbers from across the world. Often called the Switzerland of America, Ouray is a year-round destination. You can learn about the work of the Rural Opportunity Office and what all the local businesses say… pic.twitter.com/n2CfDVGVGo
— Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) February 16, 2024
We're excited to be heading to this year's Bozeman Ice Climbing Festival, which supports the Montana community with education and mentorship on one of the most renowned frozen waterfalls in US ice climbing.https://t.co/Ius7GVChr5
— Rab (@rab_equipment) December 5, 2023
📽️ Marcus Garcia#TheMountainPeople #WeAreRab pic.twitter.com/tYzeJgJgrl
4/19/24
Cancellation of flights between Minneapolis and Pierre could boost passenger rail
Denver Air Connection and the Pierre Regional Airport gave flights to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport a try, but that’s coming to an end June 9, 2024. [Lack of use leads to quick end to flights from Pierre to Minneapolis-St. Paul]My proposal for passenger rail from Minneapolis to Denver is a multi-modal route from the Twin Cities to Mankato on the right of way owned by the Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern Railroad to Brookings, South Dakota and Pierre then to Rapid City and to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway tracks at Alliance via Chadron, Nebraska then to Cheyenne and Denver. Service to Sioux Falls and Omaha could diverge at Florence, Minnesota.
Rail advocate Dan Bilka disputed that during the Wednesday meeting. The current study is meant to identify routes that would best serve both rural and urban transportation needs, enhance existing long-distance routes and “reflect public engagement” on passenger rail. “That’s why we might be actually a higher priority than some of these other ones that might overlap with state supported services,” Bilka said of the South Dakota proposals. [State transportation head doubts passenger rail service is a real possibility for South Dakota]Yes, socialized agriculture, socialized dairies, socialized cheese, socialized livestock production, a socialized timber industry, socialized air service, socialized freight rail, a socialized nursing home industry, socialized water systems and now a socialized internet are all fine with Republicans in South Dakota but then they insist single-payer medical insurance is socialized medicine.
4/18/24
Earth hating Farm Bureau wants more socialism in farm bill
“It’s time to get it passed, this year,” said Scott VanderWal, president of South Dakota Farm Bureau. “We didn’t really want to be in a presidential election year when we had to do this, but that’s where we’re at. We have to deal with it.” Tensions between ranchers and farmers sometimes arise when policies that favor crop subsidies encourage the conversion of grassland to cropland or reduce grazing areas for livestock. Thune told South Dakota Searchlight that balancing those interests can be achieved within the framework of the farm bill. [Cattlemen tell Thune: ‘More ranch’ needed in already overdue farm bill]Yet, Republicans in red states are howling because the federal government and states are buying land to protect it from desertification.
Don't miss this terrific new piece by Eric Schlosser: The Cartel on Your Dinner Plate - The Atlantic https://t.co/CGbIHBDCQb
— Michael Pollan (@michaelpollan) April 10, 2024
4/17/24
After SCOTUS ruling American Rivers names New Mexico's waterways most imperiled
To address the gap in clean water protections left by the Supreme Court decision, New Mexico must secure durable funding to establish a state-led surface water permitting program to protect its rivers, streams, and wetlands. The state’s heritage, environment, people, and economy depend on it. [American Rivers]Watersheds in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico provide between 50-75% of the water found in the Rio Grande but irrigators in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas take at least 80% of that from the 1,885 mile long river. At least fifteen native fish species and their aquatic habitat once found in the southern portion of the Rio Grande are now gone because the river dries up every year.
4/16/24
Rounds, Republicans paved the way for Trump's Covid ethnic cleansing
Americans cannot afford to look back with rose-colored glasses to act as if Trump wasn’t so bad. Certainly, Indian Country cannot afford another four more years of Trump. [When Trump Said, “They Don’t Look Like Indians to Me”]We all know South Dakota's current Republican governor is a racist so it comes as no surprise to anyone that she has been barred from four reservations and counting.
4/14/24
Saving the planet from Republican money no easy task
With governments of the world facing a 2025 deadline for new and stronger plans to curb carbon pollution, nearly half of the world's populations voting in elections this year, and crucial global finance meetings later this month in Washington, United Nations executive climate secretary Simon Stiell said Wednesday he knows his warning may sound melodramatic. But he said action over the next two years is “essential.” If emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from burning of coal, oil and natural gas continue to rise or don't start a sharp decline, Stiell said it “will further entrench the gross inequalities between the world’s richest and poorest countries and communities" that are being worsened by climate change. And behind it all is money. [UN climate chief presses for faster action, says humans have 2 years left 'to save the world']Margaret Byfield is the daughter of a couple with ties to the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion and in Nevada they grazed their cattle without permits on federal land. In 2022 her group, American Stewards of Liberty or ASL presented anti-Earth resolutions to a receptive Otero County Commission and the San Juan County Commission heard two resolutions dealing with land use issues after watching Byfield's dog and pony show. Her husband, Dan has been a lobbyist for the Texas Farm Bureau.
Alfredo Herrera is kinder, and softer-spoken, a young rancher whose ancestors first homesteaded their family plot in northern New Mexico 100 years ago. All weekend long, there has been talk of “grassroots.” At the time, ASL’s website declares that 54 percent of its hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual revenue comes from small donors. (The vast majority of that money is spent on the couple’s salaries.) The group’s 990s tell a different story: “Service fees”—money that comes presumably from their county-level consulting and, lately, their summits—make up more than two-thirds of ASL’s revenue. Who do they want to own this country? If I squint a bit, this conference starts to look like a front on behalf of the oligarchs who pay the bills—the people who, if our public lands are ever privatized, will wind up the new owners. [This Land Is My Land: Inside the Growing Movement to Fight Conservation]Learn more at the Wisconsin Examiner.
4/13/24
No significant impact? BHNF, Spearditch Canyon under attack
There were 383 formal objections from the public, and the Forest Service determined that 122 objections were “eligible for review.” However, no objection resolution meeting was held, as is typical with this process. Instead, the Forest Service will move directly to a decision. Its draft decision was that there would be “no significant impact” and to let the drilling go forward. Like 382 others – and like hundreds more in other phases of the project — Black Hills Clean Water Alliance put time and effort into this process. To see the Forest Service brush off our concerns with its repeated assertions that they did the minimum necessary is insulting. [GOLDEN CREST GOLD DRILLING PROJECT: BLACK HILLS NATIONAL FOREST ISSUED A “RESPONSE” TO PUBLIC OBJECTIONS]While exploratory drilling wastes millions of gallons of water it tends to have minimal impact on the Forest itself but the drillers usually sell their data to bigger miners like Barrick, a Canadian earth raper.