UPDATE: Title changed (I honestly didn't know that you can't call out another diarist!).
The top diary right now is about how the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) is magnanimously giving land to the Forest Service. That's all well and good, but the author failed to mention something that a lot of you will be interested.
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is a notorious anti-predator, pro-wolf-killing organization.
Here's what the other diary didn't mention about RMEF:
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has changed its position 180 degrees on the matter of wolves in recent years. The change corresponds almost exactly with hiring of David Allen as the President and CEO of the Foundation. Allen has not only taken a strongly anti-wolf position, but he has done it taking an “in your face” way to traditional conservation organizations such as those supported by Olaus Murie, which he now calls “extremist.” Allen has also expressed contempt for many of the concepts of ecology, as he seemed to be moving the RMEF toward a single species, single value of elk (hunting) approach. Some critics have also accused Allen of failure to support the concept of public lands. http://www.thewildlifenews.com/...
“Wolf reintroduction is the worst ecological disaster since the decimation of bison herds,” Allen said recently, as he claimed that wolves are “decimating” and “annihilating” elk herds. "To keep wolf populations controlled, states will have to hold hunts, shoot wolves from the air and gas their dens,” he said. http://www.hcn.org/...
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation leaders want state wildlife officials to get more aggressive about wolf control, and they’ve offered at least $50,000 to make it happen. http://missoulian.com/...
RMEF also provided $25,000 for the USDA Wildlife Services program in Montana, including collaring and activities associated with Montana’s wolf management plan. http://www.pinedaleonline.com/... [Wildlife Services are the government's own predator killers--an atrocious use of federal money and a huge subsidy to ranchers]
I fully support buying private lands and turning them over to the government. But if you want to do so, do it with a real conservation organization:
The Nature Conservancy
The Trust for Public Land
or your local land trust