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Nature Below The Knee
The natural world on the ranch provides for daily wonders. Each spring we watch the pronghorn antelope fawns speeding past with their mothers, and get barked at by the bucks. We relish the bugling trills of sandhill cranes calling across the landscape in the dawn hours, and admire their gangly grace. But much of natures wonders at this time of year occur below knee-level to a human.
Cat UrbigkitJuly 22, 2019
Extremism, Not Journalism
This Land Was Your Land. With a headline like that, I should have known that it was click-bait. But I took the bait and clicked on The New York Timesopinion piece last weekend, only to see that the author was none other than Christopher Ketcham. His work is currently widespread in anticipation of the release of his book This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption Are Ruining the American West.
Cat UrbigkitJuly 15, 2019
Retired At One: The Story of Boo
I could hear the livestock guardian dogs raising hell that morning a little over a year ago when I stepped outside to begin to check how all the animals had faired during the night.
Cat UrbigkitJuly 08, 2019
Why a Federal Agency Kills Millions of Animals
Within the last week Wyoming Wildlife Advocates has been busily posting on social media about USDA Wildlife Services, including this statement: Wildlife Services kills millions of animals in the U.S. each year for no purpose.
Cat UrbigkitJuly 01, 2019
Range Writing: Moving Away From Nature
The current view that new food technology will be our salvation results in a drive that pushes the human population further away from nature and away from a reliance on the land to sustain our bodies.
Cat UrbigkitJune 24, 2019
The Bloody Sire Inhabits the Sagebrush Sea
Its been an interesting week on the ranch, which is located amid the sagebrush sea of western Wyoming. We had our first confirmed depredation of a 20-pound lamb by a pair of adult bald eagles. This was somewhat of a surprise since our livestock guardian dogs tend to harass big birds that come near the flock, and because most confirmed eagle depredations on livestock are inflicted by golden eagles not bald eagles. I had watched a pair of golden eagles hunting over the sheep flock the week prior and was relieved when a spring snow squall pushed the eagles away from the flock.
Cat UrbigkitJune 17, 2019
Retiring An Old Dog
As she aged, we gradually placed Old Mama with flocks following shorter trails, and finally stopped allowing her to trail to winter range four years ago. Shes adapted beautifully to every change; so long as shes with sheep, shes content.
Cat UrbigkitJune 10, 2019
The Decline of the Whiskey Mountain Bighorns
The Whiskey Mountain bighorn sheep herd has made Dubois, Wyoming an international stop for people interested in this species of mountain royalty, with many residents keep spotting scopes trained on the hillsides above town for constant sheep viewing. This rustic western community also hosts the National Bighorn Sheep Center.
Cat UrbigkitJune 03, 2019
Range Writing: The Push to Build a Predator Disneyland
If one were to believe the spiel, wolf advocates are benevolent custodians of the public interest, and ranchers suffer from the myth of the wolf and a fear deeply ingrained that can be cured with education. A few recent examples of this custodial role show that the advocates propose a wolves for thee, not for me landscape one in which decisions are made by unaffected residents of population centers on behalf of uneducated rural serfs (serfs whose work feeds the nation and are most impacted by ever-expanding wolf populations).
Cat UrbigkitMay 27, 2019
Cooperation, or Coercion? Navigating the minefield of stewarding rare animals
...property owners keep quiet, fearful that detection of these rare species only brings restrictions on their property rights and use.
Cat UrbigkitMay 20, 2019
Unread U.N. Global Extinction Report Creates Panic
The IBPES claims cant be fully assessed until the complete report is released, but we have ample reason to view its findings as exaggerated. Thats unfortunate, since maintaining biological diversity is a worthy global goal. I predict that when scientists are granted access to the full report later this year, they will find numerous flaws in its methodology and findings but those faults wont make international news.
Cat UrbigkitMay 13, 2019
Conservation Contrasts: What Are You Supporting?
There are major differences in the way conservation organizations accomplish their missions.
Cat UrbigkitApril 29, 2019
Range Writing: Endangering Success
The grizzly bear population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem achieved biological recovery goals nearly two decades ago, but the animals remain under federal protection after more than 40 years of such protection.
Cat UrbigkitApril 22, 2019
Range Writing: Colorado Wolf Project’s Deceit
...readers should beware that RMWP isnt telling the whole truth when it responds to these supposed myths. For the sake of brevity, Ill only tackle a few points, but rest assured that RMWPs response to each of its nine points is oversimplified and misleading.
Cat UrbigkitApril 15, 2019
Range Writing: Our Public Lands Aren’t Killing Us
Seattle-based Egan writes of out in the way beyond of a vast kingdom now being used to hasten the demise of the planet. As a rural resident in Wyoming (our nations least populated state), I live in the way beyond Egan writes about, but I know that the Big Empty isnt empty. It is home to thriving human and animal communities. We may have more elk and livestock on the landscape than people, but thats the way we like it. We are the stewards of Americas public lands.
Cat UrbigkitApril 01, 2019