Argenta Allotment – Grazing Chaos
Public lands ranchers in the Argenta allotment have long resisted BLM controls on livestock grazing. They were emboldened by the Cliven Bundy debacle, and BLM’s continued failure to effectively deal with Bundy. Argenta ranchers even deny a drought has been... read moreSpruce Mountain Pinyon-Juniper Chaining
Mule deer have a very long traditional migration route. Deer come from as far north as the Jarbidge Mountains on the Idaho border to spend winters on Spruce Mountain, which gets very little snow. Spruce is south of Wells Nevada, in the rain shadow of the Ruby... read moreClearcut in Cave Valley a Sage Grouse & Tree Massacre
Cave Valley, Nevada Ely BLM Cave Lake “Treatment” -Clearcut Targeting Old Trees Two previous waves of deforestation swept the Great Basin. A third wave looms. Pinyon-juniper forests naturally cloak the mountains and slopes of the Great Basin. Native Americans relied... read moreWLD Monitors Grazing Conditions in Nevada
WLD’s Katie Fite visited Cave Valley in the Southern Snake Range, what she found was total devastation. Take a look for yourself by watching these short videos:... read more[Letter from Nevada] | The Great Republican Land Heist by Christopher Ketcham
“[I]n the spring the new shoots on the sage, iridescent, light, and soft, bow in the wind and what that creates on the landscape is an evocation of the wind on the sea. And when the wind blows at dusk after the rain, there’s the sweetest smell.”. .
Harper's Magazine
Natalie Ertz
Executive Director
Inspired by a howl with the late Phantom Hill Wolf Pack of central Idaho, Natalie Ertz has been tracking and monitoring wolves in the central Idaho backcountry for over six years.
During much of that time, Natalie served and learned from Lynne Stone of the Boulder-White Cloud Council providing oversight of the federal and state MANagement of wolves.
Natalie’s passion for wolves and public landscapes is inspired by a deep appreciation for the wild, an appreciation borne on-the-ground.
Brian Ertz
Board President
Brian Ertz is Natalie Ertz’s brother. Brian is in his final year of law school, currently serves as the Chair of the Sierra Club’s National Grazing Team, Conservation Chair of the Sawtooth Group of the Sierra Club and previously spent 7 years as Media Director for Western Watersheds Project. Since that time Brian has consulted a variety of public interest environmental nonprofits on administrative, policy, and media advocacy.
Katie Fite
Board Secretary
Katie Fite brings over 30 years of on-the-ground experience to WLD’s advocacy.
As Western Watersheds Project’s Biodiversity Director, Katie has monitored more public ground–from Modena to the Modoc to Mcdermitt, the Lemhis to Little Blue Table to the Little Lost to Leslie Gulch, from Jarbidge to Jump Creek to Jim Sage, the Pahsimeroi to the Pancake Range, Calico Mountains to Castleford–and brought more headache to those anti-environmental bureaucrats at BLM and Forest Service than arguably any other single person in the Western United States.