Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Opening the conservation toolbox for a critically endangered toad
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Monday, October 23, 2023
A Wyoming toad, USFWS ([link removed])

The Interior Department is expanding its efforts to save one of North America's most critically endangered amphibians—the Wyoming toad. This month, the Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced the creation of the Wyoming Toad Conservation Area ([link removed]) , which was made possible through a sale from private landowner ([link removed]) to a conservation nonprofit, and ultimately the federal government, which purchased more than 1,000 acres through the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The new designation is the 13th conservation area managed by USFWS, which for most of its history only managed wildlife refuges on federal lands. The new conservation areas are focused on voluntary conservation easements on private land ([link removed]) . High Country News reports ([link removed]) that plans are underway for another two conservation areas, in Montana and Florida.

Nearby, Laramie Basin landowner Fred Lindzey provides habitat for the toads and works with the USFWS ([link removed]) to facilitate regular surveys on his land. Under a safe harbor agreement, USFWS agreed to not demand more conservation work from Lindzey without his consent.

The combination of tools and designations being used to help the Wyoming toad across public and private land are the sorts of examples that the Center for Western Priorities highlighted in our recent Conservation Toolbox ([link removed]) report—and a demonstration of how collaboration is the key to conservation wins.

“When we invest in a species like the Wyoming toad, we really can turn it around,” USFWS Director Martha Williams told High Country News ([link removed]) . “This is a perfect example of what we can do when we persevere and give a species time, and when we all work together toward its long-term recovery.”


** Quick hits
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After 40 years, Colorado Superfund site still has no plan to clean up uranium mill waste

Denver Post ([link removed])

How efforts to protect an Indigenous oasis almost led to its demise

Grist ([link removed])

Ken Burns documentary explores the collapse and return of American Buffalo

Missoulian ([link removed])

Bison grazing area at former arsenal to expand thanks to Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act

Colorado Sun ([link removed])

The ecological benefits of rehoming a national park's booming bison population

Smithsonian ([link removed])

Ranchers sue BLM over lack of wild horse gathers in central Nevada

Nevada Independent ([link removed])

Bennet, Neguse lead celebration at one-year anniversary of Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument

Vail Daily ([link removed])

Opinions: Montana governor tries to bully his way into bison slaughter while putting public lands on the chopping block

Daily Montanan ([link removed]) | Daily Inter Lake ([link removed])


** Quote of the day
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” There was this idea that you would take the people out of living in these protected spaces, but they could come and they could visit and they could enjoy the natural environment, and we would protect that environment up to an extent. But Indigenous presence is vital to the stewardship of the land.”

—University of Arizona law professor Rebecca Tsosie, Grist ([link removed])


** Picture This
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@nationalparkservice ([link removed])
This is the ideal ‘marmot’ body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

We’re all marmots. Winter is coming! The tundra-dwelling yellow bellied-marmots have been preparing for hibernation for the last couple of months. Since marmots spend more than half their life hibernating, they have developed amazing adaptations to survive the winter.

Image: A marmot standing upright on a rock at Rocky Mountain National Park. NPS/Schonlau

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