Blog

{{custom_field.photo_credit}}

We Need Your Help Now

A Message from Bob Ferris Cascadia Wildlands’ catch phrase is: we like it wild.  But it could just as easily be: we get things done.  Recent examples?  Sure.   – Our lawsuit and settlement prevented the State of Oregon from killing wolves when and where they wanted.  The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife now … Read more

Mr. Cady Goes to Washington or Ten Bears and Josey Talk Wolves

By Bob Ferris I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s and watched Westerns with my dad.  We liked the action, wildness and, at times, the messaging contained in the films about cowboys, mountain men, desperados and the first folks in the Americans.   Somewhere in the proteinaceous filing cabinets of my brain I am … Read more

Teddy and the Big Assed Wolves

By Bob Ferris "The wolf is the arch type of ravin, the beast of waste and desolation. It is still found scattered thinly throughout all the wilder portions of the United States, but has everywhere retreated from the advance of civilization." from Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches by Theodore Roosevelt  originally published in this … Read more

We are Salmon

By Bob Ferris When reading Tim Egan’s recent op-ed in the New York Times on salmon I was reminded of an “aha” moment I recently experienced at the Tongass talk I gave for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Science Pub.  Towards the end of the talk I asked the crowd of 90 or … Read more

Tag the Tongass

By Bob Ferris   Roughly 1.2 million people visit the 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest each year, but few of them seem to know it.  In their minds they are making stops at places like Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan on Alaska’s picturesque Marine Highway.  They see bears, wolves, salmon, deer and eagles in what they … Read more

Blog: Rhetoric on Tongass Doesn’t Match Actions

by Gabe Scott   A nail is being driven in the coffin on Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Is it a coffin for the old-growth logging industry; or for Tongass wolves, deer and salmon? It is up to you to decide.   Recent announcements by the Obama administration offer glimmers of hope. Secretary Vilsack’s July 3, … Read more

Of Zombies, Zane Grey and Western Rivers

By Bob Ferris I became convinced yesterday that actors who play zombies in movies learned their walking techniques from fly fishermen wading in swift rivers on slippery and slimy cobble.  I came to that conclusion as I “gingerly” crossed the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River—it is all in the balance … Read more

O&C Schemes: What About Blacktail Winter Habitat?

Pictures and graphics are always important.  In putting together a power point slide for an upcoming talk I am giving on the Tongass National Forest for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, I stumbled onto the following graphic representation (with lots of help from Gabe Scott our person in Cordova, Alaska). Just a simple … Read more

Who Wants to Bet the Farm on This Tired Old Horse?

By Bob Ferris   As a wildlife biologist who has spent most of his professional career working with critters, I have to admit that I am fairly new to forestry issues. Moreover, the O&C issue is a particularly gnarly one.     But I can read graphs and have spent a long time interpreting and … Read more

On Becoming a Wolf Activist—Do the wolf waltz

By Bob Ferris “Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor.” Ginetta Sagan   The title of a recent opinion piece in a Utah paper nailed it: Making War on Wolves.  Because what we are seeing out there is truly a war waged on a wildlife species. And like with most wars … Read more

Excuse me but when exactly did the USFWS become the CIA?

By Bob Ferris I have worked on conservation issues through more than seven administrations and during that time I have known personally most of the directors of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  In nearly all instances these have basically been stand-up folks trying to do the best job possible under trying circumstances.  With all … Read more

We Have Oregon Wolf Pup-age in 2013

By Bob Ferris Although we do not have total counts at this point, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has confirmed reproduction in seven known packs this year—Imnaha, Minam, Mt Emily, Snake River, Umatilla River, Walla Walla, and Wenaha.  And here is a shot of the Mt. Emily pups.  These represent more tangible dividends … Read more