By now you should have in your hands the spring issue of RANGE magazine, and we hope you’re enjoying the beautiful photos and thoughtful stories from our contributors. We’ve heard from several of you this past week that you’ve already finished the entire magazine, and now you have to wait three months for the summer edition.

This weekly email is in response to those requests for more information, more content, and more of RANGE. We hope that you will share this newsletter with your friends, forward it to anyone you know who may enjoy spending time with us as we assemble the summer edition and let them know to sign up here to join us each week.

From time to time, we’ll drop hints of stories that are in the works, talk about upcoming events, highlight books our readers have recommended, and share some of the beautiful photographs you all send in that we don’t have space for in the magazine.

Please feel free to let us know what you like about this idea and what you would like to see going forward. We encourage you to write and let us know what’s going on out on the ground in your neck of the woods. We spend a lot of time reading as much of your local and state news as we can and have our ear to the ground, but we don’t catch everything. If there’s a story out there that needs to be told, send it over, and we’ll run it down and follow up.

One last thing — in the spring edition, I committed us to growing the RANGE subscription base to 30,000 subscribers by December as our parting gift to CJ. Now would be a great time to subscribe if you don’t already, and then encourage all your friends to also subscribe. Just use this link to our website, use promo code EMAIL, subscribe, and save $5 off the regular price!

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a weekend read and posted on the RANGE Facebook page asking what everyone was reading. Several of you responded, suggesting some great books:

We also had a call today from Sandra Overholtzer, and ended up chatting about all the great events she attends that celebrate the cowboy way of life. She was just in Elko for Cowboy poetry and got a copy of Martin Black’s “Owyhee Odyssey,” and highly recommends these episodes from when Black was very young, telling the story of his four-generation history in the West. “It’s a marvel he’s still functioning,” she said, “I could hardly put it down.”

And best of all, CJ’s new book, “At the Edge of Out There,” is on the ground in Fallon. We’re carrying it in our little store, Great Basin Trading Co., and online at Great Basin Trading Co. Be sure and get yours today!

The Bureau of Land Management is looking for people willing to serve on the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board and seeking public nominations to fill the six current and upcoming vacancies.

This board advises the BLM and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service on the protection, management, and control of wild free-roaming horses and burros under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

According to a notice published in the Federal Register, three positions are currently vacant: wild horse and burro advocacy, veterinary medicine, and public interest with special knowledge of natural resource management. Three additional seats — representing humane advocacy, livestock management, and wildlife management — will become available in September 2026.

Board members serve three-year terms without compensation, though travel expenses may be reimbursed when engaged in approved board business. The board meets at least once annually, with additional meetings called as needed.

Individuals may nominate themselves or others. Nomination packets must include a resume detailing the nominee’s qualifications and relevant experience. Members are selected based on education, training, or experience that enables them to provide informed and objective advice. Under federal law, members of the board may not be employed by state or federal government agencies. Nominations must be received or postmarked by April 13, 2026.

The BLM will host an informational webinar about the nomination process and the board’s role on March 11 at 1 p.m. PDT via Microsoft Teams. Advance registration is required, and the link to register is here.

More information about the nomination process and the Wild Horse and Burro Program is available at blm.gov/whb.

Wolves, Distance, and Food on the Plate
By Bill Beck

A field-based view from three decades of living with wolf policy

When Canadian gray wolves were released into central Idaho wilderness areas and Yellowstone National Park in 1995, many of the potential problems were obvious to people who make their living on the land. What was less obvious, at least to policymakers and much of the public, was how wide the gap had become between where food is produced and where most Americans live.

By way of background, I’m long of tooth and short on patience. I grew up on a small family farm in the Midwest, one of eleven kids, where long days and hard work were not concepts but expectations. Like many readers of RANGE magazine, I learned early where food comes from and what it takes to produce it.

When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released Canadian wolves into the Northern Rockies, they added a new and costly challenge for Western cattlemen, sheep producers, and farmers. Support for the reintroduction came largely from well-intentioned but badly misinformed urban voters who were told that wolves would “rebalance” ecosystems by selectively removing only the old, sick, and weak animals.

That story left out a few inconvenient facts. Wolves kill livestock. They kill pets. They do not observe property lines, management plans, or population limits. For cattle, sheep, horses, dogs, and the animals that sustain rural livelihoods, they remain very much on the wolves’ menu.

Another consequence of over-abundant wolf populations has been the displacement of big game from their traditional habitat. Elk and deer pushed by persistent predation pressure often move closer to private land, concentrating impacts along the edges of ranches and farms. The resulting economic strain on agricultural producers is real, even when it’s treated as collateral damage in broader policy debates.

So is anyone actually doing something about it?

One organization working on the issue is the Foundation for Wildlife Management www.f4wm.org, founded in North Idaho in 2011 by outdoorsmen and women who were seeing the effects of wolf overpopulation firsthand. Their focus is not ideology but reduction using legal, regulated methods.

Trapping is widely recognized as the most effective tool for reducing wolf numbers. Incidental hunting is exactly that: incidental. Trapping, however, is expensive. Equipment costs add up quickly with traps, snow machines to access remote areas, trailers to haul them, fuel, maintenance, and the time required to comply with state regulations that mandate regular trap checks. That time often comes at the expense of other work and income.

Regulations require that traps be checked frequently to minimize suffering once an animal’s “mobility has been reduced.” (Forgive me, I can’t help noticing how careful the language becomes here.) Ironically, no such consideration is afforded the calves slowly eaten alive, cows with udders torn apart, or dogs killed by a pack of wolves.

F4WM raises funds through memberships, donations, and banquets to reimburse the documented expenses associated with legally dispatched wolves. This is not a bounty system; it is cost recovery for work that few are willing or able to do.

Part of the group’s mission is public education. Many people still imagine traps as oversized, steel-jawed contraptions straight out of a Hollywood western. That image is outdated and inaccurate. Wolves, likewise, are often portrayed as soft, dog-like creatures, rather than highly efficient predators.

What is rarely shown are the realities: an elk eaten alive, bones picked clean without context, or livestock losses that never make it into glossy wildlife documentaries.

Successful wolf trapping is difficult, lonely work that requires skill, experience and patience, qualities in short supply. If you live with the consequences of overpopulation, it’s worth learning who is doing the work and how they do it.  Please consider getting to know F4WM at www.f4wm.org, maybe attend a banquet, and get to know local members. If needed, let them know you have a problem, and they may be able to help.  And best of all, they won’t cost you a dime.

Distance, from the land, from food production, and from consequences, shapes how these debates play out. Closing that distance with more education, even a little, would lead to more honest conversations about wildlife, responsibility, and the true costs of management decisions.

We hope you enjoyed hearing a little more about what’s going on out on the ground and hope that you’ll join us next week. If you know anyone who would enjoy more RANGE, please forward this email and have them click the button below to sign up.