Just a hundred and fifty years ago bison, wapiti, bighorn sheep, pronghorns and deer cleared the grasses driving Wyoming's fire years and if dry fuels remained in the fall tribes burned the rest. But, today wildfires have scorched nearly a million acres in Wyoming and Republican ranchers want to kill the elk and remove the horses that reduce fuel loads even though domestic livestock just can't keep up.
The solution establishes criteria for payment eligibility based on the degree to which a local elk herd is overpopulated and the percentage of grass eaten by that game. Additionally, a ranch must allow some hunters on the property to be eligible. [Wyoming wildlife officials OK rancher payment plan for elk-eaten grass]
The cost of keeping feral horses in holding pens off wild lands costs taxpayers at least $49 million annually. Wyoming has the second-highest feral horse population in the country with at least 7,144 of these critters. So, after threats of violence from Republicans the US Bureau of Land Management wants to remove some 5,000 horses.
The Bearlodge Ranger District of the Black Hills National Forest in northeastern Wyoming is shopping for Earth haters who want to be outfitters and guides for hunting deer, wapiti, cougars, and wild turkeys. Each ranger district has this option but it tends to happen most often where congressional delegations are Republicans and Crook County is a colony of whiny anti-government welfare ranchers. 420 permits are issued for over 24,000 head of cattle to graze the BHNF for pennies a month in June through October and according to some alarmists wapiti can spread brucellosis and wild turkeys can transmit avian flu to fragile livestock.
“It’s hot, dry, and windy, which are prime conditions for a spark to ignite into much more,” Governor Gordon said. “We must be conscientious of the conditions and the impact even an act as small as sighting in your rifle on a dry grassland can have on our neighbors and state. Check for fire bans and follow all local guidance.” [Governor Gordon Extends Executive Order to Aid in Livestock, Feed Transport]The Anthropocene is now and time to rewild some of the American West eventually becoming part of a Greater Missouri Basin National Wildlife Refuge connecting the CM Russell in Montana along the Missouri River through North Dakota to Oacoma, South Dakota combined with corridors from Yellowstone National Park to the Yukon in the north and south to the Pecos River through Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, western Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
Clear the eastern red cedar and second growth conifers then restore aspen habitat, prescribe burns, begin extensive Pleistocene rewilding using bison and cervids, empower tribes, lease private land for wildlife corridors, turn feral horses from Bureau of Land Management pastures onto other public land to control exotic grasses and buy out the welfare ranchers Tony Dean warned us about.
Learn more at Wyoming Public Radio.
1:46am CDT #SPC Day1 #FireWX https://t.co/Sz3kci5V5F pic.twitter.com/q4uw9ebeHY
— NWS Storm Prediction Center (@NWSSPC) September 14, 2024
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