Jonathan Thompson

West Virginia

Contributing Editor at High Country News

Jonathan P. Thompson: https://t.co/ia5kqWjR7g; author of River of Lost Souls, Behind the Slickrock Curtain, Sagebrush Empire; contributing ed. @highcountrynews;

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Articles

Trump's DOJ takes aim at the Antiquities Act

1 week ago | landdesk.org | Jonathan Thompson

ūüĆĶ Public Lands ūüĆ≤Somewhat lost among the hubbub over Republicans‚Äô efforts to sell off and otherwise deface public lands was a legal opinion by the Trump administration‚Äôs Justice Department published on May 27. In it, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora C. Pettit argues that a president has the authority to alter or eliminate a national monument designated under the Antiquities Act.
Trump's DOJ takes aim at the Antiquities Act

1 week ago | open.substack.com | Jonathan Thompson

🌵 Public Lands 🌲Somewhat lost among the hubbub over Republicans’ efforts to sell off and otherwise deface public lands was a legal opinion by the Trump administration’s Justice Department published on May 27. In it, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora C. Pettit argues that a president has the authority to alter or eliminate a national monument designated under the Antiquities Act.
Sen. Mike Lee revives public land sell-off bid

2 weeks ago | landdesk.org | Jonathan Thompson

ūüĆĶ Public Lands ūüĆ≤It is not hyperbole to say we are living in dark times. The U.S. President is about to hold a multi-million-dollar, taxpayer-funded, dictator-style military parade ‚ÄĒ for his frigging birthday. He activated the national guard and the marines to violently quell non-violent protests in Los Angeles.
Spring runoff peaks, winners announced

2 weeks ago | landdesk.org | Jonathan Thompson

đ„” Aridification Watch đ«Iâm calling it! Spring runoff appears to have peaked on most Western streams â and almost definitely has done so on the streams in this yearâs Land Desk Super Predict the Peak Contest. The good news is, the runoff was later and bigger than a lot of folks â including myself â predicted it would be.
MAGA intensifies its assault on public lands

3 weeks ago | landdesk.org | Jonathan Thompson

šµ Public Lands š²Even before public lands lovers were still celebrating one small victory ā i.e. killing a budget bill amendment that would have sold off a half-million acres of federal holdings in Nevada and Utah ā the MAGA/Trump/GOP launched a multi-pronged assault on the places Americans hold dear.
Wolves return to the West

3 weeks ago | hcn.org | Jonathan Thompson

“Avintaquint is dead!May he never have a successor,” Utah’s Duchesne Record proclaimed in September 1910. “The crafty leader of one of the wiliest bands of pillagers of the cattle range that ever roamed the west” had finally met his end. Avintaquint was not a human outlaw, but a canine one — a giant gray wolf that gained notoriety by feasting on sheep and cattle throughout eastern Utah, stubbornly eluding traps, bullets and poisons for well over a decade.
Foto Friday: Western roaming

4 weeks ago | landdesk.org | Jonathan Thompson

š¦« Wildlife Watch š¦Nearly a century after being extirpated from the region, it appears as if the wolf is returning to the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. Colorado Parks and Wildlife just released its latest map showing watersheds into which radio-collared wolves have roamed, and it includes the San Miguel and Upper Animas watersheds in the San Juans.
A proposed Utah uranium mine gets the Trump treatment

1 month ago | hcn.org | Jonathan Thompson

Welcome to the Landline, a monthly newsletter from High Country News about land, water, wildlife, climate and conservation in the Western United States. Sign up to get it in your inbox. On a blustery day in mid-May, a herd of cattle grazed against the snow-dusted slopes of the La Sal Mountains — a classic Western landscape, except for the splintered remains of all the juniper and piñon trees that had been attacked and viciously shredded by a hydromower.
Bureau of Livestock and Mining is back!

1 month ago | landdesk.org | Jonathan Thompson

⛏️ Mining Monitor ⛏️On May 23, the Bureau of Land Management’s Monticello field office approved the operating plan for Anfield Resources proposed Velvet-Wood uranium mine in southeastern Utah.
Foto Friday: Memorial Day Weekend edition

1 month ago | landdesk.org | Jonathan Thompson

I started writing a dispatch about how the House budget reconciliation bill still really sucks for public lands even though the public land-selloff amendment was stripped from it. I also had a piece lined up about how Kanab, Utah, seems to aspire to become the next St. George, as in it’s growing rapidly with huge, upscale, master-planned “resorts” and “communities,” even as the region aridifies and the water supplies are all tapped out.