This Land

This Land PDF Author: Christopher Ketcham
Publisher:
ISBN: 0735220980
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
"The public lands of the western United States comprise some 450 million acres of grassland, steppe land, canyons, forests, and mountains. It's an American commons, and it is under assault as never before. Journalist Christopher Ketcham has been documenting the confluence of commercial exploitation and governmental misconduct in this region for over a decade. His revelatory book takes the reader on a journey across these last wild places, to see how capitalism is killing our great commons. Ketcham begins in Utah, revealing the environmental destruction caused by unregulated public lands livestock grazing, and exposing rampant malfeasance in the federal land management agencies, who have been compromised by the profit-driven livestock and energy interests they are supposed to regulate. He then turns to the broad effects of those corrupt politics on wildlife. He tracks the Department of Interior's failure to implement and enforce the Endangered Species Act--including its stark betrayal of protections for the grizzly bear and the sage grouse--and investigates the destructive behavior of U.S. Wildlife Services in their shocking mass slaughter of animals that threaten the livestock industry. Along the way, Ketcham talks with ecologists, biologists, botanists, former government employees, whistleblowers, grassroots environmentalists and other citizens who are fighting to protect the public domain for future generations. This Land is a colorful muckraking journey--part Edward Abbey, part Upton Sinclair--exposing the rot in American politics that is rapidly leading to the sell-out of our national heritage"--

Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program

Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309264944
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward reviews the science that underpins the Bureau of Land Management's oversight of free-ranging horses and burros on federal public lands in the western United States, concluding that constructive changes could be implemented. The Wild Horse and Burro Program has not used scientifically rigorous methods to estimate the population sizes of horses and burros, to model the effects of management actions on the animals, or to assess the availability and use of forage on rangelands. Evidence suggests that horse populations are growing by 15 to 20 percent each year, a level that is unsustainable for maintaining healthy horse populations as well as healthy ecosystems. Promising fertility-control methods are available to help limit this population growth, however. In addition, science-based methods exist for improving population estimates, predicting the effects of management practices in order to maintain genetically diverse, healthy populations, and estimating the productivity of rangelands. Greater transparency in how science-based methods are used to inform management decisions may help increase public confidence in the Wild Horse and Burro Program.

This Land

This Land PDF Author: Christopher Ketcham
Publisher:
ISBN: 0735220980
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The public lands of the western United States comprise some 450 million acres of grassland, steppe land, canyons, forests, and mountains. It's an American commons, and it is under assault as never before. Journalist Christopher Ketcham has been documenting the confluence of commercial exploitation and governmental misconduct in this region for over a decade. His revelatory book takes the reader on a journey across these last wild places, to see how capitalism is killing our great commons. Ketcham begins in Utah, revealing the environmental destruction caused by unregulated public lands livestock grazing, and exposing rampant malfeasance in the federal land management agencies, who have been compromised by the profit-driven livestock and energy interests they are supposed to regulate. He then turns to the broad effects of those corrupt politics on wildlife. He tracks the Department of Interior's failure to implement and enforce the Endangered Species Act--including its stark betrayal of protections for the grizzly bear and the sage grouse--and investigates the destructive behavior of U.S. Wildlife Services in their shocking mass slaughter of animals that threaten the livestock industry. Along the way, Ketcham talks with ecologists, biologists, botanists, former government employees, whistleblowers, grassroots environmentalists and other citizens who are fighting to protect the public domain for future generations. This Land is a colorful muckraking journey--part Edward Abbey, part Upton Sinclair--exposing the rot in American politics that is rapidly leading to the sell-out of our national heritage"--

Land Use Planning and Oil and Gas Leasing on Onshore Federal Lands

Land Use Planning and Oil and Gas Leasing on Onshore Federal Lands PDF Author: National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing
Publisher: National Academies
ISBN:
Category : Oil and gas leases
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description


America's Public Lands

America's Public Lands PDF Author: Randall K. Wilson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538126400
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
How it is that the United States—the country that cherishes the ideal of private property more than any other in the world—has chosen to set aside nearly one-third of its land area as public lands? Now in a fully revised and updated edition covering the first years of the Trump administration, Randall Wilson considers this intriguing question, tracing the often-forgotten ideas of nature that have shaped the evolution of America’s public land system. The result is a fresh and probing account of the most pressing policy and management challenges facing national parks, forests, rangelands, and wildlife refuges today. The author explores the dramatic story of the origins of the public domain, including the century-long effort to sell off land and the subsequent emergence of a national conservation ideal. Arguing that we cannot fully understand one type of public land without understanding its relation to the rest of the system, he provides in-depth accounts of the different types of public lands. With chapters on national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, Bureau of Land Management lands, and wilderness areas, Wilson examines key turning points and major policy debates for each land type, including recent Trump Administration efforts to roll back environmental protections. He considers debates ranging from national monument designations and bison management to gas and oil drilling, wildfire policy, the bark beetle epidemic, and the future of roadless and wilderness conservation areas. His comprehensive overview offers a chance to rethink our relationship with America’s public lands, including what it says about the way we relate to, and value, nature in the United States.

Rants from the Hill

Rants from the Hill PDF Author: Michael P. Branch
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 1611804574
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
“If Thoreau drank more whiskey and lived in the desert, he’d write like this.”—High Country News Welcome to the land of wildfire, hypothermia, desiccation, and rattlers. The stark and inhospitable high-elevation landscape of Nevada’s Great Basin Desert may not be an obvious (or easy) place to settle down, but for self-professed desert rat Michael Branch, it’s home. Of course, living in such an unforgiving landscape gives one many things to rant about. Fortunately for us, Branch—humorist, environmentalist, and author of Raising Wild—is a prodigious ranter. From bees hiving in the walls of his house to owls trying to eat his daughters’ cat—not to mention his eccentric neighbors—adventure, humor, and irreverence abound on Branch’s small slice of the world, which he lovingly calls Ranting Hill.

Wild Horses of the West

Wild Horses of the West PDF Author: Jan Drake
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
ISBN: 1423655311
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
Captivating photographs and stories of the wild horses of the west. Take an intimate look at the majestic equines who roam the public lands of the Mountain West: Wild Horses of the West provides a front row seat to a world rarely glimpsed by most people. Stories highlight specific horses known in these areas as The Old Man, One-Ear, and the Cremello Brothers whom the photographer, Jan Drake, has been following with her camera for years. More than 200 color photographs are divided into sections including Family Bands, Mares & Foals, Fighting Mustangs, Stallions & Bachelors, and Cedar Mountain Mustangs. Jan Drake is a long-time photographer based in Park City, Utah. She oversees the equestrian center at the National Ability Center (NAC) where adaptive horseback riding, trail riding, equine-assisted learning, and hippotherapy is made available to all ages and abilities. As an annual fundraiser for the NAC, Drake guides private groups on photography excursions to see wild horses of the West up close. She also volunteers regularly with the nonprofit Intermountain Wild Horse and Burros Advisors. This is her first book.

Riparian Areas

Riparian Areas PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309082951
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that wetlands be protected from degradation because of their important ecological functions including maintenance of high water quality and provision of fish and wildlife habitat. However, this protection generally does not encompass riparian areasâ€"the lands bordering rivers and lakesâ€"even though they often provide the same functions as wetlands. Growing recognition of the similarities in wetland and riparian area functioning and the differences in their legal protection led the NRC in 1999 to undertake a study of riparian areas, which has culminated in Riparian Areas: Functioning and Strategies for Management. The report is intended to heighten awareness of riparian areas commensurate with their ecological and societal values. The primary conclusion is that, because riparian areas perform a disproportionate number of biological and physical functions on a unit area basis, restoration of riparian functions along America's waterbodies should be a national goal.

Rangeland Health

Rangeland Health PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309048796
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Rangelands comprise between 40 and 50 percent of all U.S. land and serve the nation both as productive areas for wildlife, recreational use, and livestock grazing and as watersheds. The health and management of rangelands have been matters for scientific inquiry and public debate since the 1880s, when reports of widespread range degradation and livestock losses led to the first attempts to inventory and classify rangelands. Scientists are now questioning the utility of current methods of rangeland classification and inventory, as well as the data available to determine whether rangelands are being degraded. These experts, who are using the same methods and data, have come to different conclusions. This book examines the scientific basis of methods used by federal agencies to inventory, classify, and monitor rangelands; it assesses the success of these methods; and it recommends improvements. The book's findings and recommendations are of interest to the public; scientists; ranchers; and local, state, and federal policymakers.

National Land Parcel Data

National Land Parcel Data PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309164354
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
Land parcel data (also known as cadastral data) provide geographically referenced information about the rights, interests, and ownership of land and are an important part of the financial, legal, and real estate systems of society. The data are used by governments to make decisions about land development, business activities, regulatory compliance, emergency response, and law enforcement. In 1980, a National Research Council book called for nationally integrated land parcel data, but despite major progress in the development of land parcel databases in many local jurisdictions, little progress has been made toward a national system. National Land Parcel Data looks at the current status of land parcel data in the United States. The book concludes that nationally integrated land parcel data is necessary, feasible, and affordable. It provides recommendations for establishing a practical framework for sustained intergovernmental coordination and funding required to overcome the remaining challenges and move forward.

Critères d'aménagement du terrain

Critères d'aménagement du terrain PDF Author: Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (Canada)
Publisher: Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : fr
Pages : 116

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Book Description