Western Watersheds Project

06/23/2026

"The Plan encourages the USFS and BLM to slash environmental review, restock closed or vacant allotments, and increase grazing livestock by 500,000 head months over the next two years," write Josh Osher of WWP, and Lizzy Pennock of WildEarth Guardians in the Missoula Current.

"The agencies scapegoat the laws and regulations that protect public lands and wildlife for making it too hard for ranchers to earn a living. The reality is that long-term aridification has made much public land wholly unsuitable for grazing. Putting more cattle on more unsuitable land makes matters worse. Skyrocketing fuel and equipment prices have caused far more harm to ranchers’ bottom line than agency regulations.

So let’s set the record straight: the Grazing Action Plan is not in the public interest, despite the lands at issue being public land."

Lizzy Pennock and Josh Osher write, Despite well documented environmental harms—trampling native plants and soils, spreading invasive species, reducing biodiversity—the livestock industry has long received favorable treatment from the federal government.

06/23/2026

>> Our national grasslands are living proof of what can happen when land use becomes land abuse. They’re also powerful evidence of how the federal government, through laws and programs, can step in and actually improve our environment, restore landscapes, and bring back wildlife—for the benefit of us all.

On April 14, 1935—"Black Sunday"—a massive dust storm engulfed the southern Plains. The federal government began buying up devastated private lands, which are now public grasslands

06/23/2026

>> Both the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture are rolling out plans to expand access to taxpayer-subsidized public lands grazing on areas run by the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service, respectively. Just another instance of the administration prioritizing industrial activity over ecosystem health and recreation? A giveaway to a favored industry? An unspoken acknowledgement that other policies are killing American farmers? Too little, too late amid economic and climate headwinds? Meaningless virtue signaling ahead of the mid-terms? Maybe it’s all the above.

Yet another tale of messaging versus competence versus economics versus climate change

06/22/2026

>> There is plenty of evidence that livestock and wolves can coexist on public lands, but most ranchers seem stubbornly opposed to coexistence. In light of those who refuse to coexist, let’s examine the comparative merits of having wolves versus having livestock on public lands.

In the American West, the vast majority of public lands are leased to ranchers to graze their livestock. The ranchers can’t seem to get along with any of

06/22/2026

A new memorandum leaves little room for ambiguity, and the message is clear: Livestock grazing is no longer merely one use among many, rather it is the administrative priority.

06/22/2026

Hear Hear!

A recent Colorado news report described the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to once again allow consideration of M-44 sodium cyanide devices on public lands. I believe these devices should be banned outright on all...

06/22/2026

Get those phones ringing, folks.

These bills will weaken protections for wildlife, remove public oversight, mandate livestock grazing in Wilderness and worsen wildfire risks -- among other things.

06/22/2026

TOMORROW! Join Josh Osher, public policy director for WWP and Lizzy Pennock, carnivore coexistence attorney with WildEarth Guardians for a webinar on the proposed new grazing rules for the public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

We'll give you everything you need to know and answer your questions. Please RSVP: tinyurl.com/grazingregs

06/22/2026

“Irresponsible opening of public lands to more livestock and intensive logging and roadbuilding in grizzly habitat are radical policies that will destroy grizzly bears and negate decades of progress in recovering grizzly bears. What the Trump Administration is doing contradicts generations and decades of progress that’s been made in better stewardship of public lands. Again, we Americans are better than that.“

—Servheen, who oversaw federal grizzly bear recovery for the US government for 35 years

On top of national forests and BLM tracts being flooded with more cattle, Greater Yellowstone wildlands may see an unprecedented surge in logging. In their column, Servheen and Wilkinson discuss impacts on grizzlies and conservation

06/22/2026

Thankfully, Governor Hobbs vetores Senate Bill 1280, which would prohibit the state from bringing Mexican Gray Wolf puppies into Arizona or using state funds to do so.

Katie Hobbs vetoes 88 Arizona bills on transgender care, DEI, election rules and fetal lessons; signs 72 bipartisan