City Desk
- Details
- Category: City Desk
Click on the image above for the audio.
PNS - Friday, November 15, 2024 - Matt Gaetz's nomination raises ethics concerns, Trump's health pick fuels vaccine disinformation worries, a minimum wage boost gains support, California nonprofits mobilize, and an election betting CEO gets raided by FBI.
- Details
- Category: City Desk
Click on the image above for the audio.
PNS - Friday, November 15, 2024 - Trump to select Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead HHS; New FBI data show no evidence of violent crime wave in Kentucky; Springfield IL gets federal grant to complete local, regional rail improvements; NYC charter revisions pass despite voter confusion; Study: Higher wages mean lower obesity.
- Details
- Category: City Desk
Big Sky Connection - Environmental groups are pushing back on a new cattle-grazing rule for the Custer Gallatin National Forest that extends the season for a month. They say the change threatens both cattle and grizzly bears in Paradise Valley, Montana. The agency says the rule doesn't actually expand the number of grazing acres. Comments from Mike Garrity, executive director, Alliance for the Wild Rockies.
Click on the image above for the audio. A new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cattle grazing rule is being challenged by environmental advocates who claim it would increase dangerous interactions between cattle and grizzlies. (Adobe Stock)
Mark Moran
November 14, 2024 - PNS - A federal court in Montana has held a hearing more than two years after a coalition of environmental advocates sued the U.S. Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service over expanding cattle grazing in the Paradise Valley, part of the Custer Gallatin National Forest.
The coalition, which includes Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Western Watersheds Project, sued the agencies for extending the cattle grazing season by a month on nearly 1,400 acres of forest land.
Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said the plan will mean more interactions between young, unattended cattle and grizzly bears, which would not end well for either one.
"Putting calves out a month early when they're very small just provides a 'fast food snack' for a grizzly bear," Garrity pointed out. "A small calf makes an easy target for a grizzly bear. They can't defend themselves. They're not very big."
Garrity noted ranchers then complain about bear activity to the Fish and Wildlife Service, which traps and kills the grizzlies. The Forest Service said the new policy does not increase grazing because it is counted by plots of land rather than acreage.
Garrity pointed out groups are working to restore the grizzly bear, which is currently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. He added the Forest Service is not doing its part to help achieve balance.
"There's about a thousand grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem," Garrity reported. "There's hundreds of thousand of cattle. We don't have a shortage of cattle in this country but grizzly bears are threatened with extinction."
The federal judge could overturn the new grazing rules or order a complete environmental review.
| Best Practices | Disclosure |
- Details
- Category: City Desk
Click on the image above for the audio.
PNS - Thursday, November 14, 2024 - An urban vote slump, not the rural electorate, tipped the presidential election. Minnesota voters approved more lottery money to support conservation and clean water. And a survey shows strong broadband lets rural businesses boom.
