Posts by Brian Ertz
August 29, 2009
Feds To Consider Tortoise for Endangered Species Act Listing
By Brian Ertz | Posted on August 29, 2009
Groups Applaud Finding for Rapidly Declining Desert Icon
Desert tortoise advocates have been waiting for this good news for a very long time. Should a listing take place, many human intrusions into the desert tortoise’s southwest desert habitat, including livestock grazing, excessive development, and abusive ORV use will be largely halted. The benefit of such will be enjoyed by a great number of desert wildlife species.
Feds to consider protections for desert tortoise - AP :
Wildlife officials said the environmentalists’ petition presented substantial information that might warrant listing the species as threatened or endangered. Threats include urban sprawl, off-road vehicle use and livestock grazing. The tortoises’ range includes 8.4 million acres of federal public land in Arizona. Livestock grazing is permitted on more than half that land.
The advocates’ News Release :
Arizona—Aug 28. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) gave the green light today on a petition submitted by WildEarth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project requesting protection (listing) for the Sonoran desert tortoise under the Endangered Species Act. The finding means that the Service will now conduct a full review to determine if the tortoise warrants being placed on the list of threatened and endangered species.
Read more... | Comments (0) | endangered species, desert tortoise
June 1, 2009
Washington wolves and cows
By Brian Ertz | Posted on June 1, 2009
For quite some time news of wolves moving into Washington state has excited many wolf supporters and Washington residents. A couple photos of the Washington wolves.
As is usually the case, news of Washington wolves has also prompted local ranchers to kick up controversy and concern that their livelihood won’t be able to compete with these conditions of the natural world - on our public land. Recently, a dead cow was found near Twisp, Washington - and although wolves almost certainly had nothing to do with the kill, invariably - that’s where local media put the attention first.