Monthly Archives: January 2016

Oregon Rancher ‘Heroes’ Accused of Child Abuse

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/05/oregon-rancher-heroes-accused-of-child-abuse.html

Steven and Dwight Hammond, the inspiration for the ‘militia’ occupying an Oregon federal building, allegedly took sandpaper to their nephew’s chest.
A photo of a teenage boy with two bizarre wounds on his chest suggests that child abuser might be a better description than hero for the two ranchers in whose name so-called militia members have taken over a federal building in Oregon.

“Raising kids is like raising cows or dogs,” one of the ranchers is quoted as saying in a police report to which the photo is attached.

The photo is of Dusty Hammond, nephew of rancher Steve Hammond and grandson of rancher Dwight Hammond.

More: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/05/oregon-rancher-heroes-accused-of-child-abuse.html

Reality Check on Public Lands Ranching: A reaction to the rhetoric of the Bundy militia in Oregon

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Reality Check on Public Lands Ranching: A reaction to the rhetoric of the Bundy militia in Oregon

By On January 4, 2016

Boise, ID – Western Watersheds Project is disappointed that the government’s acquiescence to ongoing law-breaking on public lands across the West has led to the armed occupation of one of America’s premier bird sanctuaries. This weekend’s militia takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is another battle in the “War on the West” that extractive industries have been waging for 150 years.

The occupying militia is led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy, sons of Cliven Bundy, the notorious rancher who has refused to pay his fees for years and continues to illegally trample fragile desert tortoise habitat with his trespassing cows. The militia initially claimed the occupation was to support local ranchers and convicted arsonists Dwight and Steven Hammond, although the Hammond family has distanced itself from the Bundys’ recent activities. The Bundy group has moved onto generally railing against federal land ownership and legal limits on environmentally destructive activities like logging and ranching.

But what Ammon Bundy considers tyrannical treatment of grazing permittees is actually a generous welfare program: between 1995 and 2012, Hammond Ranches, Inc. received $295,471 in federal payouts. There is enormous subsidization of public lands livestock grazing. While the going rate for grazing a cow and a calf on private land for a month in Oregon is $17, the equivalent fee on federal public lands is only $1.69.[1] This artificially low fee creates a national deficit of at least $12 billion dollars every decade– hardly a sign that the federal agencies are trying to put ranchers out of business.

“The ongoing occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon is a reaction to the perceived mistreatment of public lands livestock operators and other extractive users of American’s wild spaces. This perception is inaccurate, considering the systemic support and financial subsidies that our government gives these industries despite the adverse ecological impacts and profound debt they create,” said Travis Bruner, Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project, an advocacy group dedicated to ending public lands livestock grazing.

In fact, even the Malheur Wildlife Refuge is controversially open to livestock grazing use, despite the Refuge system’s mandate to protect wildlife habitat. The spectacular wetland complex is a mecca for birdwatchers due to its role as a major migratory bird stopover. Thousands of Americans visit the refuge each year to enjoy the unique species that frequent the Pacific flyway, pouring over $1.9 million into the local economy annually.[2] When Ammon Bundy promotes his agenda of using the resource, he’s overlooking the many Americans who “use the resource” to enjoy quiet recreation like bird-watching.

Widespread livestock grazing occurs on nearly 220 million acres of public land in the western states, and this is a leading cause of soil loss, species endangerment, invasive species infestations, and predator killing. Only 22,000 ranchers have the privilege of using federal lands for their operations, a business opportunity mistakenly referred to as a “right” by those that would seek to establish it as such. The courts have affirmed that there are no “grazing rights,” and the Bundys’ use of the term does not make it so.

“There are no grazing rights,” said Bruner, “but there are lots of grazing ‘wrongs.’ The federal agencies failure to rein in the worst abusers of public lands livestock allotments has emboldened people like the Bundy brothers and others across the West to take land management into their own hands. It’s time to stop caving in to their demands and manage wildlife habitat in the true public interest.”

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Photos of the Malheur National Wildlife

Why Are These Poachers Treated With Velvet Gloves?

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by Paul Watson

These guys are poachers and in their defense, a group of armed thugs have seized a federal building to denounce the U.S. Federal government because of the conviction of two ranchers who burned 130 acres of public land to conceal their criminal poaching activities.

These are armed right wing anti-government anti-environmentalists defending the right of men to commit crimes.

If this was an occupation by armed Islamic militants the drones would already be launched.

If this was an occupation by Native Americans, the F>B>I> would be moving in aggressively right now.

If this was an occupation by animal rights or environmental activists, everyone would now be dead or in jail.

But somehow just because these guys carry guns, spout tea-party rhetoric, support Trump and the other Republican comedians running for President they are being handled with kid gloves.

Why the discrimination? Why the double standard? Waving the flag does not justify poaching, trespass, destruction of property, threats to civilians and law enforcement people.

There is a big why hanging in the air about this incident.

The question is, what the hell is going to be done about it?

Black lives don’t seem to matter. Native American lives don’t seem to matter. Environmentalist lives don’t seem to matter but cowboy rednecks lives who destroy public land and poach animals seem to matter.

This is rapidly evolving into a major national disgrace.

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is for the birds

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“Malheur’s for the birds”

That’s the slogan that read across a T-shirt I wore back in the late ’70s, when I worked there for the summer in the maintenance department for the Malheur Field Station. A branch of Oregon’s Pacific University, the “Field Station” was where they held month-long courses in botany and ornithology.

I also took their anthropology/wilderness survival course, called, “Aboriginal Life Skills of the Northern Great Basin.” There, we learned how the Paiutes lived off the land, hundreds of years before ranchers claimed it for themselves and their ubiquitous cows. Their armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters building is apparently part of an effort to re-assert their “constitutional rights.”

As an avid birdwatcher, I know the refuge and its headquarters well. Possibly second only to Yellowstone National Park for biodiversity, wildlife can be found throughout the refuge. The Wildlife Department headquarters office is practically a required stop for die-hard birders, due to the oasis-like edge effect the treed property has in the midst of an otherwise contiguous sagebrush habitat.

Say’s the Portland Audubon Society of the unique national refuge:

This area is one of the premiere sites for birds and birding in the U.S. The refuge consists of over 187,000 acres of habitat which include wetlands, riparian areas, meadows, and uplands.

 Location: In the center of the southeast quarter of the state, 30 miles south of Burns in central Harney County.

Description: This area is one of the premiere sites for birds and birding in the U.S. The refuge consists of over 187,000 acres of habitat which include wetlands, riparian areas, meadows, and uplands. Refuge lands are configured in roughly a “T” shape, 39 miles wide and 40 miles long.

Ornithological Highlights: Malheur’s varied habitats, abundant resources, and location on the Pacific Flyway are utilized by a variety of migratory and resident birds. Over 320 species of birds have been observed at Malheur, including numerous watch-listed species such as Western Snowy Plover, Long-billed Curlew, Franklin’s Gull, Short-eared Owl, Greater Sage-Grouse, Bobolink, Trumpeter Swan, and Brewer’s Sparrow.

The refuge’s riparian habitat supports the highest known densities of Willow Flycatcher, up to 20% of the world’s population of White-faced Ibis, and significant breeding populations of American White Pelican and Greater Sandhill Crane. Breeding populations on the refuge also include a variety of gulls and terns and hundreds of pairs of various duck species. The first Oregon breeding record of Cattle Egret came from Malheur Lake in the mid-1980s. Black-crowned Night-Heron pairs nesting on the refuge generally number in the hundreds.

During migration, the Refuge regularly supports hundreds of thousands of waterfowl and tens of thousands of shorebirds, including a significant proportion of the total populations of several species. Malheur Refuge is also a winter concentration point for raptors of many species.

Thousands of birders come to the refuge annually to take part in the spectacle, whether they come for the waterfowl, songbirds, or both. Due to the high birder coverage and concentrated bird habitat Malheur Headquarters may have the highest all-time bird list of any single location in Oregon.

For more information on Malheur, please see the Technical Site Report in the National IBA database.

Links:

Yes, contrary to the cow-pushers who are now trying to take it over again, this time from the rest of the US citizens, Malheur’s for the birds…and for us bird watchers too.

Hot Pacific Ocean Runs Bloody — Blob Now Features Record Red Tide

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robertscribbler's avatarrobertscribbler

Red Tide. It’s what happens when massive algae blooms cover vast regions of ocean.

The biological density of the blooms is so great that they can paint the waters affected a shade of brown or red. A bloody color indicative of clouds of dangerous microbes just beneath the surface. And today, a massive Red Tide — perhaps the largest ever recorded — now stretches from California to Alaska along a vast stretch of the North American West Coast already reeling under the ongoing and dangerous impact of a massive ocean heating event that researchers have called ‘The Blob.’

Red Tide

(A Red Tide can paint the ocean in bloody shades as seen in the image above. It’s also bad news for many marine species — first due to production of deadly biotoxins and second due to its ability to rob ocean waters of oxygen as the bloom dies off and decays. Image…

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Awakening the Horrors of the Ancient Hothouse — Hydrogen Sulfide in the World’s Warming Oceans

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“Dead Cthulu waits dreaming…” H.P. Lovecraft

In the 1930s, pulp horror writer H.P. Lovecraft penned tales of ancient monsters called Old Ones that, if awakened, would emerge to devour the world. One of these horrors, Cthulu, lay in death’s sleep in his house called R’lyeh at the bottom of the Baltic Sea (Charles Stross) awaiting some impetus to disturb him from necrotic slumber (ironically, the Baltic sea bed contains one of the world’s highest concentrations of the deadly hydrogen-sulfide producing bacteria that are a focus of this article).

Namibia Hydrogen Sulfide Emission 2007

(2007 Hydrogen Sulfide emission off the coast of Namibia. Such emissions tend to color the surface water green and, in extreme cases, black. Image source: Earth Observatory)

In the imaginary world of H.P. Lovecraft, terrible lore of these horrific Old Ones, among which, Cthulu was the worst, lay stored in ancient tomes. To learn of these mysteries was to risk madness…

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Thousands of cows died in southern storms

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http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national/texas-milk-shortage-thousands-cows-died-southern-s/npwks/

This past summer we saw egg rationing, now milk might be coming up short on demands. If this sounds like the apocalypse — well, it’s actually just Texas. (Video via U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance)

The recent Southern storms that caused major damage in states in and around Texas are now resulting in another problem: lack of milk.

Upwards of 30,000 cows died in Texas and New Mexico. As for the ones that are still alive? They’re likely dried up, as cows need to be milked regularly to keep producing.

Last summer, several states, including Texas, started coming up short on eggs after the bird flu struck. Stores started rationing the number of cartons consumers bought, and the event was predicted to affect supply over the next year.

It’s unclear if the price of milk will spike, jugs will be rationed or if this will affect other states. One U.S. Department of Agriculture report says Texas isn’t one of the top five dairy contributors for the U.S., but the 27 million residents of Texas will certainly be affected. (Video via Texas Farm Bureau)

Iowa Egg Farm Investigation

Fire burned about 130 acres to conceal poaching

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/armed-militia-bundy-brothers-take-over-federal-building-in-rural-oregon/ar-BBoa6sU?ocid=spartanntp

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/03/us/oregon-wildlife-refuge-protest/

The prosecutor said witnesses saw the Hammonds illegally slaughter a herd of deer on public land.

“At least seven deer were shot with others limping or running from the scene,” Williams wrote.

He said a teenage relative of the Hammonds testified that Steven Hammond gave him a box of matches and told him to start the blaze. “The fires destroyed evidence of the deer slaughter and took about 130 acres of public land…

           Meanwhile, other terrorists make their statement…

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Conservationists deal blow to Wildlife Services in landmark WA wolf case

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http://yubanet.com/usa/Conservationists-deal-blow-to-Wildlife-Services-in-landmark-WA-wolf-case.php#.VoiWcTZdG1s

By: Cascadia Wildlands

OLYMPIA, Wash. December 21, 2015 – In response to a challenge brought by a coalition of conservation organizations, a federal court rejected plans to escalate cruel wolf killing in Washington state by the secretive federal program dubbed “Wildlife Services.” Federal District Judge Robert Bryan held that Wildlife Services should have prepared a more in-depth environmental analysis of the impacts of its proposed wolf killing activities, finding the program’s cursory environmental assessment faulty because the proposed actions would have significant cumulative impacts that are highly controversial and highly uncertain.

Wildlife Services is a controversial program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service responsible for killing millions of wild animals every year, including wolves, grizzly bears, otters, foxes, coyotes and birds, with almost no oversight or accountability.

Judge Bryan vacated the program’s analysis, stating “Wildlife Services shall not take any further wolf management actions in Washington under the proposed action alternative, but shall observe the status quo in place prior to the environmental assessment and [finding of no significant impact].”

“Wildlife Services has long asserted that it need not comply with our nations’ federal environmental laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, but this decision rejects those arguments and requires Wildlife Services to comply with all federal laws, not just those it finds convenient to comply with,” said Western Environmental Law Center Attorney John Mellgren.

A 2013 internal audit revealed that Wildlife Services’ accounting practices lacked transparency and violated state and federal laws. The program employs incredibly cruel tools to kill wildlife including aerial gunning, leghold traps, snares and poisons.

“It is long past time that we base wildlife management decisions on the best available science, not on antiquated anti-wolf rhetoric and myth,” said Bethany Cotton, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians. “Wildlife Services needs to come out of the shadows, update its analyses and adopt practices in keeping with modern science and values about the ethical treatment of animals.”

The environmental assessment prepared by Wildlife Services failed to provide data to support several of its core assertions. For example, Wildlife Services claimed that killing wolves reduced wolf-caused losses of livestock, yet recent peer-reviewed research from Washington State University directly contradicts this conclusion, finding that killing wolves actually leads to an increase in wolf-livestock conflicts. The environmental assessment also fails to address the ecological effects of killing wolves in Washington, including impacts on wolf populations in neighboring states and on non-target animals, including federally protected grizzly bears and Canada lynx.

“This decision is so incredibly encouraging,” said Nick Cady, legal director of Cascadia Wildlands. “We have been working for over a decade to hold Wildlife Services accountable for its blind, reckless lethal control programs. This decision paves the way for meaningful analysis of the program’s impacts and hopefully a meaningful look at whether or not this wolf killing is worth it.”

Washington has experienced Wildlife Services’ wolf killing program firsthand. In August 2014, Wildlife Services snipers shot and killed the Huckleberry wolf pack’s alpha female during a helicopter gunning operation. The death of the Huckleberry pack’s breeding female threatens the future of the entire pack.

Wildlife Services also “advised” the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in the contentious 2012 killing of Washington’s Wedge wolf pack. In that instance, WDFW killed seven wolves after predation of livestock on public lands, despite the rancher’s failure to take sufficient action to protect his cattle.

“The Court made a wise and prudent decision that safeguards the legal right of citizens to know what their government is doing in their name,” said Timothy Coleman, executive director of Kettle Range Conservation Group. “The so-called Wildlife Services cannot just grant itself authority to execute an endangered species absent the public interest or best available science.”

Wolves were driven to extinction in Washington in the early 1900s by a government-sponsored eradication program on behalf of the livestock industry. The species began to return to Washington from neighboring Idaho and British Columbia in the early 2000s and the wolf population in the state has grown to 13 confirmed packs. Despite this growth, wolves in the state are far from recovered and face ongoing threats. According to WDFW, Washington currently has at least 68 wolves in 16 packs.

The organizations, Cascadia Wildlands, WildEarth Guardians, Kettle Range Conservation Group, Predator Defense and the Lands Council were represented by the Western Environmental Law Center.

copyrighted wolf in water

Militia takes over Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters

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By Les Zaitz | The Oregonian/OregonLive The Oregonian
on January 02, 2016

The Bundy family of Nevada joined with hard-core militiamen Saturday to take over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, vowing to occupy the remote federal outpost 50 miles southeast of Burns for years.

The occupation came shortly after an estimated 300 marchers – militia and local citizens both – paraded through Burns to protest the prosecution of two Harney County ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who are to report to prison on Monday.

Among the occupiers is Ammon Bundy, son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, and two of his brothers. Militia members at the refuge claimed they had as many as 150 supporters with them. The refuge was closed and unoccupied for the holiday weekend.

In phone interviews from inside the occupied building Saturday night, Ammon Bundy and his brother, Ryan Bundy, said they are not looking to hurt anyone. But they would not rule out violence if law enforcement tries to remove them, they said, though they declined to elaborate.

“The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds,” Ammon Bundy said.

“We’re planning on staying here for years, absolutely,” he added. “This is not a decision we’ve made at the last minute.”