Can Humans Try?

by Stephen Capra, Bold Visions Conservation

It remains a mystery why so many people are content to put their heads in the sand on issues like global warming. In some circles, it's the cool political thing to do, but for others, tuning out of society has become part of their mental health regime.

What is more challenging to understand is why, as a society, we continue to do things that make life more fragile, that leave less to generations to come, and some do it with a smug arrogance that revolves around the idea of getting all you can. Yesterday, I came upon an article about water use in the Colorado River. What astonishes me is that even though we have destroyed so many pieces of this once magnificent river with dams and diversions, we still allow 47% of the river's water to grow alfalfa so that cattle can eat.

Our western lands have been degraded by public land grazing, and ranchers enjoy rich subsidies, but we will drain a river to keep feeding this boys' club. In states like New Mexico, its share of the water for alfalfa from Colorado is more than 80%. If a company used its water, not for people and communities, but to grow a crop of cows, I think most people see it as insanity. Still, the tired refrain of custom and culture continues to destroy the utopia that once was the West.

The same people pushing for alfalfa to be grown with this precious water also want wolves and other predators destroyed. As rural communities lose access to clean, predictable water, cows continue being fed on public lands and enjoy alfalfa as they endure winter and other adverse conditions. Today, the mighty Colorado no longer reaches the wetlands of Mexico, which Aldo Leopold spoke about in amazement.

What continues to allow such stupidity to continue? The same mentality that people like Senator Daines use to eliminate wilderness and allow more off-road and snowmobile access despite the harm to wildlife.

The same mentality that drives state game and fish agencies the power to encourage trophy hunters to destroy the genetically most essential animals. We continue the norms of the early part of the 19th century lest we offend some interest that profits from this outdated sense of entitlement.

If the world is to prosper, it must stop the endless assault on our lands, wildlife, and waters. We need far more wilderness, rewilding, and an end to things like trapping. We need dams removed, fish to return, and we need to stop the wanton waste of water to grow cows. We must stop ranchers from killing precious wildlife.

The problem remains that some people want to avoid even trying. As our living standards soar, it comes at the cost of our connection to wildness and the destruction of native species. This all begins and ends with a commitment to change and to accept new technologies that end our dependence on coal, which puts the wise use of water resources as the top priority. Somehow, it has become cool to be raging at conservation and anything that changes how some have lived for generations in the West. It is time to expedite, through incentives, the federal government to change old laws that are clearly outdated. While educating the youth of our world as people like Greta Thunburg symbolize, they are inheriting our failed policies and some of our notable successes. Many more do so with courage and wisdom.

I remember a saying about wilderness when I was young: I may never be able to see it, but it remains important that these lands are protected for generations to come. We must see beyond our own reflection and push for change so that in the future, children and adults can marvel at wolves, mountain vistas, and the sunset in a desert canyon, visuals we have been so blessed to witness.

The process begins by breaking the stranglehold of ranchers, trophy hunters, farmers, and politicians who refuse to innovate have upon us, strangling the life out of the magic that defines our sacred West. We must keep fighting and pushing for sustainable policies, and we must be focused on protecting this place we love for generations to come. It remains our moral responsibility.

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This past week, we met with all the Tribes of Idaho and Montana and felt it was an essential first step. We will keep you posted.

Tribes Can Make the Difference

Stephen Capra, Executive Director, Bold Visions Conservation

We live in such precarious times; it is reassuring that Spring is arriving. While it is cold and the much-needed snows continue, we will soon hear the voices of the birds we have missed, the rivers will pick up the tempo, and we will soon see the new leaves on the trees of Summer.

The sense of renewal is one that brings a smile after the long winter.

Today, I will be heading to Billings to meet with the Tribes of Montana and Idaho. It is an honor to be asked to present our National Monument proposal to them. I have had the pleasure of working with Tribes since my early days on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. They were key to the National Monuments we created in New Mexico and vital to Chaco Canyon.

When you think about the area of the National Monument proposal in Montana and Idaho, Tribes have been there in various forms for 11,000 years; we have been there for more like 250 years. The Gallatin valley was summer hunting and gathering grounds for the Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Sioux, Eastern Shoshone, Northern Arapahoe, Shoshone-Bannock, Nez Perce, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Salish, and Kootenai Tribes who shared the wealth of game in the moderate weather of summer.

Some in the conservation community do not trust the Tribes. Like any people, the views of Tribes and Tribal members can vary. Still, their engagement and support are vital to the creation of this Monument. My experience over the years has been very positive and allows important dialogue and the building of trust.

It is important to remember that a Monument can be created by the Antiquities Act; this Act allows the President to protect the lands and bypass the dysfunctional Congress we are now witness to. It also does not allow the anti-wilderness and public lands hatred that is at the core of many in our delegation and those at a state level.

This Monument is about protecting the enormously important wildlife corridors that define this mountain range. The importance of rewilding some of these lands so wildlife can genuinely thrive will also enhance the concept that this Monument is for wildlife! Nowhere in the lower 48 are we gifted with so many species that are endangered or threatened by ignorance and a game commission focused on the destruction of wolves, grizzly bears, and wolverines. These lands must be protected for their future.

We need this Monument to relieve some of the pressure from the 4 million visitors who overwhelm Yellowstone each year. We also need this to change the face of wilderness and public lands protection in Montana, which has largely been dormant, thanks to Senator Daines, who only wants to remove more lands and protections.

This is not an easy project, but with your support and energy, we can work with the community of Bozeman, smaller surrounding communities, and the Tribes to find common ground that will protect these lands forever and allow our wildlife to truly thrive.

As a Society, Can We Allow Torture to Become the New Normal?

The latest news is that outfitters in Idaho now want to trap wildlife and allow slob hunters to pay and come shoot them while already withering in pain. Imagine who such a person could be and how this carnival relation to wildlife is being propagated in Idaho; it is a new low in our society and represents the legalization of true madness.

Such a plan was floated several years ago in Montana, but it did not reach the point of a commission meeting. Governor Gianforte, for his part, did go on the Sinclair ranch and killed a wolf that had suffered for perhaps for days awaiting its fate in a trap. He coldly shot her. People like Gianforte are sick individuals who enjoy the suffering of wildlife, and there is no limit to his or other's depravity.

This is the new reality in the West that those who hate wolves want to take their killing to a whole new level, one they hope will end the reintroductions. In the meantime, they want to profit from the torture of an innocent creature, one that is smart, family-oriented and delivers so many benefits to our lands and waters. Yet we are allowing true idiots and their friends in the legislature to control OUR wildlife.

This is not limited to wildlife but to controlling our public lands. We cannot allow such behavior to become the norm on public lands. It's unfathomable that groups like the Foundation for Wildlife Management can push radical and sickening concepts to kill wolves and other predator species, all without regard to real science. These voices are amplified by Livestock and trophy hunters, so they may continue to control our game agencies and commissions.

It has been an endless period of time since the commissions in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming have made the slaughter of wolves commonplace. Using bogus science and pushing to kill all predator species, they stare blankly at our concerns, get agitated at our outrage, and work together to kill the wildness that is on our public lands. They ignore the economic engine that wolves provide and want to allow cattle and rural misinformation to be the new law of the land.

Disinformation continues to gain traction, as evidenced in Colorado, where the media is controlled by ranching interests and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is feeding hysteria to rural communities. One question remains: Why are wolves so threatening to men in rural communities? Is it because they are real family units? Or because, unlike ranchers, they help the lands and waters? Perhaps because they are smart and share their kills with other species.

No, this group of men remains scared of wolves and wants to send a message to Washington that wolves are not to be part of the West. In return, we must return the favor by demanding that the price of grazing be increased. Those new stipulations should include language that forbids those grazing on public lands from trapping any wildlife. At Bold Visions, we will continue to push for more measures that help wolves.

As we look for solutions, pandering to ranchers, trappers, and other wildlife sociopaths is not helping wolves and other wildlife. What we see is these bastards increasing the pain and suffering of wildlife, not trying in any way to co-exist. Thus, we must be loud, invested, and engaged.

My time in Colorado makes clear that these groups are not trying to co-exist, but rather to slaughter wolves, and they are one Republican Governor or Western Slope Democrat away from doing so.

Martha Williams is also responsible for this nightmare; we cannot allow the reelection of one member to cast the fate of an entire species. Wildlife needs our support; they need our voice; we cannot continue to allow quack science, rural ignorance, and trophy hunters to guide policy.

We need real leadership, and that begins in Washington, with those in charge fighting for wildlife. The more Washington ignores the issue, the more power it yields to the Sagebrush Rebellion and the more power it yields to those who want to kill, not help, wildlife in the West.

Wolves deserve far better, and this proposal that will come before Idaho Fish and Game needs to be shut down. Please take some time to write to Governor Brad Little, and the Fish and Game Commission Members.

Make clear that:

• This is simply wildlife torture and not sport.

• That wolves in Idaho are already under way too much stress.

• Wildlife and wolf viewing are an economic engine, and this level of slaughter will prevent you from visiting the state.

• Trapping is a disgrace and has no place in modern society.

• Science would never support such sick actions.

• Wolves, like all wildlife, feel pain and suffering. Can you, with good conscience, allow this?

Also, send your letter to Martha Williams, the head of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Let her see clearly that her not relisting wolves has now resulted in these actions.