Articles

Because water is managed regionally across the West, and first allocated to the earliest-dated permits, states like Utah which was farmed before Wyoming and Idaho, are getting are getting priority water from states upstream. The rivers are full from the reservoir draw-downs, but the water is headed out-of-state.

The article above discusses Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) which is spreading through Texas and the West at an accelerating rate. As we have written in the "Philosophy" section of this blog:

"Confinement livestock operations take animals off the range where they efficiently convert the sun’s energy in the form of plants into protein and put the grazers in an artificial environment that is maintained with inputs such as grain. When animals of any species are overcrowded in an artificial environment it creates problems with health and behavior as well as logistical concerns like waste management.

Game species, such as elk and deer, succumb to the same pressures when they are subjected to an unnatural environment. Case in point, Chronic Wasting Disease, a fatal neurological disorder that is now spreading through elk and deer. While the disease may have been present in isolation in the wild, it appeared and first became a threat in a confined elk herd at a state research station in Colorado. With the advent of intense deer management, where whitetail deer are managed like livestock to grow large antlers, it has spread at an alarming pace and is now considered a serious threat to the well-being of free-ranging herds.

In another example at nearby Yellowstone National Park, the park herds of bison and elk serve as the nation’s reservoir for brucellosis, a livestock disease that otherwise has been almost eradicated. Instead of being managed holistically, the herds are managed intensively. They congregate because they are fed. They overpopulate because they are protected from predators and hunters. They are not vaccinated because it’s “not natural.”

So now we have elk with both diseases, which will transmit to other cervids (deer, moose and caribou), and potentially to humans, as did Covid.

Aquaculture was once thought to be the key to saving wild fish stocks. As discussed in the article above, it turns out to be fraught with unintended consequences.

Videos

Idaho’s’ mountain goats are adapted to living in rugged, remote areas, so it is natural that the mountain goat would appear mysterious. But this harsh habitat is also their defense.

Holistic management on a New Mexico cattle ranch.

—

And that’s it - as always thanks for reading.

Please pass along, and if you if you received this from a friend - consider subscribing here.

And if you haven’t already - please check out our views on biodiversity at the link below. 👇

Nature didn’t put all of her biological eggs in one basket—and neither do we.