The EPA's Paranoid Style

Dr. Alan Carlin, a 37-year agency veteran, was muzzled earlier this spring. Dr. Carlin offered a report poking holes in the science underlying the theory of manmade global warming. His superior, Al McGartland, complained the paper did "not help the legal or policy case" for Team Obama's decision to regulate carbon, told him to "move on to other issues," and forbade him from discussing it outside the office. Now come Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, married, and each with more than 20 years tenure at the EPA. They too are dismayed by Democrats' approach to climate, though for different reasons. Dedicated environmentalists, they created a 10-minute YouTube video arguing Congress's convoluted cap-and-trade bill was a "big lie" that is too weak. They instead propose imposing taxes, lots of them, on fossil fuels. Their views aren't new. Earlier this year the duo sent a letter to Congress making the same case. The video has been out for some time, and the pair got clearance from the EPA before they ran it. Mr. Zabel in the opening notes that "nothing in this video is intended to represent the views of EPA or the Obama Administration." It wasn't until the couple ran a high-profile op-ed in the Washington Post in October that the agency nerved out. Meet the Obama EPA, and its new suppressing, paranoid style. It was the president who once ripped the Bush administration for silencing scientific critics, and it was EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson who began her tenure promising the agency would operate like a "fishbowl." But that was before EPA realized how vastly unpopular is its plan to usurp Congress and regulate the economy on its own, based on its bizarre finding that CO2 is a danger to health. Faced with unhappy members of Congress, dissenting employees, an opposition business community, and a backlash on the science, Mrs. Jackson is no longer a fan of open government. The goal now is to rush the agency regulations through as quickly as possible, squashing threatening dissent and deflecting troublesome questions...read more

EPA Workers Question Obama Gag Order - Video

Lawsuit Abuse Charge by Western Lawmakers Enrages Enviro Groups

Poor government oversight has allowed advocacy groups to squander taxpayer money on frivolous lawsuits that drain the budgets of federal land management agencies without the knowledge of the public or Congress, a group of Western lawmakers told Attorney General Eric Holder in a letter released this week. Specifically, members of the Congressional Western Caucus charge that environmental groups have used the Equal Access to Justice Act to win back millions of dollars in attorney fees for lawsuits filed against the Forest Service and other federal agencies. But environmental groups, while endorsing recommendations for greater public access to EAJA records, said the research supporting the claims, done by a Wyoming lawyer and former Interior special assistant in the Reagan administration, is spurious and greatly misrepresents the share of funding they receive under the act and a similar program called the Justice Fund. Budd-Falen's research, however, remains posted on the Web site of the Idaho-based Western Legacy Alliance, which helped fund her work and lobbied the Congressional Western Caucus to investigate. Alliance member Jeff Faulkner, in a statement, went so far as to accuse environmentalists of "shaking down federal government programs so they can access taxpayer dollars to fund their radical agendas." But Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of eight groups targeted by Budd-Falen and the Congressional Western Caucus, said the claims against the nonprofit groups are outrageous. Among other things, Suckling said the letter's claim of EAJA abuse by environmental groups "is sheer nonsense, as it fails to cite even a single example of abuse."...read more

Go here to view the lawmakers' letter.

Should private cattle graze on public lands?

It's a battle that has ranchers pitted against environmentalists. An ongoing legal dispute over grazing practices in the Malheur National Forest has many Eastern Oregon ranchers worried about their livelihoods and the future of their ranches. Environmentalists are concerned grazing on certain parts of the public forest is degrading habitat for threatened fish. The dispute was sparked by a lawsuit filed by the Bend-based Oregon Natural Desert Association against the U.S. Forest Service. ONDA would like to see the Forest Service remove grazing in certain areas along Forest Service land along the John Day River, an area important for steelhead habitat. The ranchers found out the only way to have a voice in the debate was to file a lawsuit. So, they are also suing the Forest Service, whose representatives did not return calls for comment. Brent Fenty, the executive director of ONDA, said grazing ruins riparian areas, kills cover that shades streams and keeps the water temperatures low, which fish need to survive. “For us, it's straightforward,” Fenty said. “Our expectation in the short term is we want the U.S. Forest Service, charged with managing grazing, to comply with their own laws and regulations to protect stream health and native fish. In the long term, we hope to protect the most important areas of fish habitat.”...read more

A Leviathan of Land

...With this reinvigorated discussion of how big is too big, it is worthwhile to remind Americans of just how massive the Federal government already was before our current woes began. There are few more striking measures of the government’s size than the land mass of the Federal estate. The vast majority of federal lands fall within one of four agencies: the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Agriculture’s US Forest Service. At over 258 million acres, the Bureau of Land Management alone is bigger than France and Germany combined. When combined with the other aforementioned agencies, the land area is equal that of ten European nations as shown in the accompanying graph...The Foundry

Pine Beetles Not a Good Reason for Climate Change Legislation

Last week Senator Max Baucus joined several mainstream environmentalists in adding pine beetle outbreaks to a long list of things that can be blamed on climate change. Baucus is referring to the recent breakout of pine beetles in Montana. These insects bore their way into pine tress and lay their eggs inside the tree; the larvae of the beetles feed off the bark and this eventually kills the trees. The beetles thrive in climates that are dryer and warmer than usual for that region, and this has led environmentalists to link the outbreaks in the Western United States and Canada to climate change; many have called it a climate change catastrophe. However if we look at the history of outbreaks in the western mountain states, the climate change argument is on very shaky ground. Montana has been hit by pine beetle outbreaks on and off since the 1920s so this is nothing new for the state. An even earlier outbreak is documented from 1894 to 1908 in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Since Co2 concentrations were considerably lower around the turn of the century, it does not follow that a reduction in Co2 will eliminate the pine beetle problem. According to a recent study done by the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, these outbreaks should not be regarded as a crisis: “There is no evidence to support the idea that current levels of bark beetle or defoliator activity in Colorado’s lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forests are unnaturally high” and that “Historic photos and tree-ring evidence also document extensive insect outbreaks prior to the 20th century.” Furthermore, there are more factors than just temperature which cause outbreaks of pine beetles. According to Dave Thom, a natural resources specialist with the Black Hills National Forest, the density of the forest is a major contributor, “As the trees get more dense, they are less able to resist bark-beetle infestations. When you take increasingly dense trees and add the drought, the intersection causes weakened trees that are more susceptible to beetle attack. That phenomenon can happen regardless of a few degrees of change in climate, measured on a global scale.”...read more

And why are our Forests so dense? Because of environmental lawsuits and policies instigated by the same environmentalists who are now blaming the infestation on global warming.

Seas Grow Less Effective at Absorbing Emissions

The Earth’s oceans, which have absorbed carbon dioxide from fuel emissions since the dawn of the industrial era, have recently grown less efficient at sopping it up, new research suggests. Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels began soaring in the 1950s, and oceans largely kept up, scientists say. But the growth in the intake rate has slowed since the 1980s, and markedly so since 2000, the authors of a study write in a report in Thursday’s issue of Nature. The research suggests that the seas cannot indefinitely be considered a reliable “carbon sink” as humans generate heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. The slowdown in the rise of the absorption rate resulted from a gradual change in the oceans’ chemistry, the study found. “The more carbon dioxide the ocean absorbs, the more acidic it becomes and the less carbon dioxide it can absorb,” said the study’s lead author, Samar Khatiwala, a research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology...read more

A climate threat, rising from the soil

Across a patch of pineapples shrouded in smoke, Idris Hadrianyani battled a menace that has left his family sleepless and sick -- and has wrought as much damage on the planet as has exhaust from all the cars and trucks in the United States. Against the advancing flames, he waved a hose with a handmade nozzle confected from a plastic soda bottle. The lopsided struggle is part of a battle against one of the biggest, and most overlooked, causes of global climate change: a vast and often smoldering layer of coal-black peat that has made Indonesia the world's third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States. Peat, formed over thousands of years from decomposed trees, grass and scrub, contains gigantic quantities of carbon dioxide, which used to stay locked in the ground. It is now drying and disintegrating, as once-soggy swamps are shorn of trees and drained by canals, and when it burns, carbon dioxide gushes into the atmosphere. Amid often-acrimonious debate over how to curb global warming ahead of a critical U.N. conference next month in Copenhagen, "peat is the big elephant in the room," said Agus Purnomo, head of Indonesia's National Council on Climate Change...read more

Fight Climate Change With Free Condoms, U.N. Population Fund Says

The battle against global warming could be helped if the world slowed population growth by making free condoms and family planning advice more widely available, the U.N. Population Fund said Wednesday. The agency did not recommend countries set limits on how many children people should have, but said: "Women with access to reproductive health services ... have lower fertility rates that contribute to slower growth in greenhouse gas emissions." "As the growth of population, economies and consumption outpaces the Earth's capacity to adjust, climate change could become much more extreme and conceivably catastrophic," the report said. On Wednesday, one analyst criticized the U.N. Population Fund's pronouncements as alarmist and unhelpful. "It requires a major leap of imagination to believe that free condoms will cool down the climate," said Caroline Boin, a policy analyst at International Policy Network, a London-based think tank. She also questioned earlier efforts by the agency to control the world's population...read more

Corn-based ethanol producer says it will soon compete with gasoline

The nation's largest producer of corn-based ethanol said it has slashed the cost of producing cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs and that it will be able to compete with gasoline in two years. POET, which currently produces 1.5 billion gallons a year of ethanol from corn, said its one-year old pilot plant has reduced the cost of making ethanol from corn cobs from $4.13 a gallon to $2.35 a gallon by cutting capital costs and using an improved "cocktail" of enzymes. Moreover the company said that it can use a byproduct called lignin as fuel and that it would provide all the energy needed for the cellulosic plant as well as 80 percent of the energy that would be needed by a conventional corn-based distillery making twice the amount of ethanol. "Two years ago I would have told you this was a long shot," said POET chief executive Jeff Broin. "Now I'll tell you that we will produce cellulosic ethanol commercially in two years." POET launched the cellulosic ethanol pilot plant one year ago in Scotland, South Dakota and Broin said that the plant had figured out how to cut capital costs by 40 percent, cut the amount of energy used in pre-treatment stages and lowered enzyme costs...read more

Studying Fertilizers To Cut Greenhouse Gases

gricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have found that using alternative types of fertilizers can cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, at least in one part of the country. They are currently examining whether the alternatives offer similar benefits nationwide. Nitrogen fertilizers are often a necessity for ensuring sufficient crop yields, but their use leads to release of nitrous oxide, a major greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Fertilizer use is one reason an estimated 78 percent of the nation's nitrous oxide emissions come from agriculture, according to Ardell Halvorson, a soil scientist at the ARS Soil Plant Nutrient Research Laboratory in Fort Collins, Colo. Halvorson compared nitrous oxide emissions from corn fields treated with either a conventional nitrogen fertilizer (urea) or either of two specially formulated urea fertilizers-one with "controlled release" polymer-coated pellets, and the other with inhibitors added to "stabilize" the urea to keep more of it in the soil as ammonium for a longer period. In a two-year experiment at Fort Collins, he collected the emissions using static vented chambers, similar to small "pillbox" structures placed over the soil. He chose a no-till cropping system because it's known to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. He found that the controlled-release fertilizer cut nitrous oxide emissions by a third, and that the stabilized fertilizer cut them almost in half...read more

Fed court upholds Maine's trapping regulations concerning Canada lynx species

A federal court ruling on Tuesday upheld Maine's trapping regulations by denying a request from two animal welfare organizations for a permanent injunction because they failed to prove Canada lynx as a species is irreparably harmed under the regulations. The ruling from U.S. District Court Chief Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. came nearly 15 months after the Animal Welfare Institute and the Wildlife Alliance of Maine filed the case against Roland D. Martin, commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. "The department and the Office of the Maine Attorney General are pleased that Chief Judge Woodcock let stand Maine trapping regulations, and rejected claims that trapping is detrimental to the Canada lynx species," department spokeswoman Deborah Turcotte wrote in a report Thursday evening...read more

‘The Light of Day’ Exposes the Green Movement’s Roots in Tyranny

This book, by emerging author James Byrd, paints a telling portrait of the true agenda of the Green Movement. It successfully exposes the underlying agenda of collective power in the hands of the State; at the expense of the individual. Mr. Byrd creates a world of dynamic characters, their interrelations, and the societies in which they are cast. It is a powerful first book, by an author who has a firm grasp of the way in which an oppressive government uses propaganda and fear to control the general population. The Light of Day is the story of Jeff O’Hara and his struggle for personal freedom and the realization that the things most worth having sometimes require the greatest sacrifice. The Light of Day is a must read for anyone who is concerned with the veracity and motives of the modern environmental movement. The reader will find themselves cast into a world that may not be far off, where the needs of the individual are superseded by the ‘virtues’ of nature. It is a gripping first novel and a testament to the integrity of the human spirit...read more

U.S. food safety likely to get overhaul in 2010

A U.S. Senate committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to increase government oversight of food safety but the first significant overhaul in 50 years may not happen until 2010. Pressure to overhaul the food safety system has grown following several high-profile outbreaks involving lettuce, peppers, peanuts and spinach since 2006 that have sickened thousands and killed several. The Senate bill would expand U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight of the food supply and shift its focus toward preventing, rather than reacting, to foodborne outbreaks. FDA would have the power to order recalls, increase inspection rates and require all facilities to have a food safety plan. The Senate bill is similar to legislation passed by the House in July in many key areas. One area where they differ is the Senate bill does not include a yearly fee to help pay for the increased oversight...read more

Idaho Power's cloud seeding efforts keep water flowing over dams

Cloud seeding once was seen similar to well divining, medicine shows and miracle healers. But today Idaho Power Co. is investing up to $1 million to seed the clouds above Idaho's mountains - in hopes of increasing the snowpack that holds the water that will drive the hydroelectric turbines to produce the cheapest power the company can get. The Boise utility is not alone. Eastern Idaho counties and businesses have put together a coalition to pay for cloud seeding in the Upper Snake River Basin. They estimate their limited efforts already have increased the snowpack there by 7 percent - about half as much as Idaho Power hopes for. "I feel really good about it," said Paul Romrell, a Fremont County commissioner who heads the coalition. "Our reservoirs levels are in better condition than they've been in for years." The basic technology has been around for a while. Silver iodide is sprayed into the clouds, pulling the moisture out to form ice crystals that drop and fall on the earth as snow or rain...read more

Mad Science? Growing Meat Without Animals

Winston Churchill once predicted that it would be possible to grow chicken breasts and wings more efficiently without having to keep an actual chicken. And in fact scientists have since figured out how to grow tiny nuggets of lab meat and say it will one day be possible to produce steaks in vats, sans any livestock. Pork chops or burgers cultivated in labs could eliminate contamination problems that regularly generate headlines these days, as well as address environmental concerns that come with industrial livestock farms. To grow meat in labs from satellite cells, the researchers suggested current tissue-engineering techniques, where stem cells are often embedded in synthetic three-dimensional biodegradable matrixes that can present the chemical and physical environments that cells need to develop properly. Other key factors would involve electrically stimulating and mechanically stretching the muscles to exercise them, helping them mature properly, and perhaps growing other cells alongside the satellite cells to provide necessary molecular cues. So far past scientists have grown only small nuggets of skeletal muscle, about half the size of a thumbnail. Such tidbits could be used in sauces or pizzas, Post and colleagues explained recently in the online edition of the journal Trends in Food Science & Technology, but creating a steak would demand larger-scale production...read more

Song Of The Day #185

This morning on Ranch Radio is Ernest Tubb & Red Foley and their 1952 recording of Too Old To Cut The Mustard.

It's available on the 4 disc box set Texas Troubadour (99 songs and a booklet for $25.98).

Albert Perez 1922-2009

ALBUQUERQUE — And the Lord said, “Good job, my shepherd — now come on home.” Friday, Nov. 13, 2009.
It is a sad day for the Albert Perez family — but what a great day in Heaven. There, it’s just breaking daylight. The sky is magenta, pickup engines are being revved, helicopter blades are starting their roll, cowboys are saddled up on fresh horses. Laughter and raucous conversation fill the chilly air. This could be the best coyote hunt ever. And life will continue on here, as it should, but not without dear memories held closely and safely to our hearts. Albert Perez had many loves — family, friends, sheep, ranching, rain (damn, it’s dry), sheep, hunting, fishing, sports (let’s go Aggies!), sheep, a good day’s work, bologna on white bread (again, Albert?), Corinne’s roast leg of lamb, sheep; and one deep, abiding hate most worthy of mention — any live coyote.
Albert was born in Flagstaff, Ariz., on May 28, 1922, to parents Ramon and Ysaura Perez. The family moved to New Mexico in 1927, where they began assembling ranches near Yeso, Pastura, and Pintada. Here Albert’s siblings, Anna, Carmen, Ramon, and Alice were born. At the age of seven, Albert was already camping with sheep bands. He attended school in a one-room schoolhouse in Buchanan and in Vaughn, where he graduated from high school in 1941, then joined uncles, Narciso and Manuel, and a couple other hired hands in fencing the entire ranch. He left the ranch to attend New Mexico A&M (now NMSU) for a short time, but returned when World War II began. Albert met Corinne Ribera, the light of his life, when his sister brought her out to the ranch from Albuquerque to ride horses. They married on Aug. 30, 1947, and continued with a partnership, friendship, and love that lasted 62 years. After living in Flagstaff for a short time, the couple moved to the ranch at Pintada, and proceeded to raise their family. Eventually they moved to Vaughn, where Albert was a longtime member of the Vaughn School Board. In addition, Albert was chairman of the Guadalupe County Soil and Water Conservation District for 30 years, and was honored with the New Mexico Wool Growers’ 2000 Sheepman of the Year. Albert was the consummate rancher and steward of the land. As with any good shepherd, the care of his livestock and family came first, his pasture and water shortly behind. He led by example — his life, his hearty laugh (AhhOOOF!), his honor and love are all the lessons we need carry on. Adios y a Dios, Alberto.
Albert is survived by his wife of 62 years, Corinne; son Albert (Tibo) Perez, and wife, Robin, of Taos; son, Narciso Perez, of Albuquerque; daughter, Cambria Masci, and husband, Greg, of Gallup; daughter, Pier, and husband, Lane, of San Diego; grandchildren, Cassidy Nunn, and husband, James, of Montrose, Colo., Kendall Perez, of Greeley, Colo., Sean Perez, of Las Cruces, and Giuliano Masci, of Gallup; sisters, Anna Osle, of Albuquerque, and Alice Perez, of Vaughn; and numerous nieces, nephews, in-laws, out-laws, and other beautiful friends he thought of as family. In addition to his parents, Ramon and Ysaura, Albert was preceded in death by his brother, Ramon, and a sister, Carmen.
Pallbearers will be Vincent Perez, Dominic Perez, Bruce Dereta, Frank Perez, John Spensieri and Carlos Armendariz. Honorary pallbearers are Mannie Aguilar, Alfredo Flores, Charlie Serrano, Butch Del Curto, Gino Lujan, Jack Achen, Jim Sachse, Earl Sena, Sec Rivera, Brahaim Hindi Sr., Alex Gazolas, Norbert Archibeque, Andy Cordova, Charles Schoolcraft, Johnny Madril and Ernest Perez. Rosary will be Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009, at 7 p.m., at French Mortuary, 10500 Lomas Blvd., Albuquerque. Funeral services are scheduled for Friday, Nov. 20, 2009, at 10 a.m., at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Vaughn. Please visit our online guestbook for Albert at RememberTheirStory.com.

Feds buy green cars, auction rejects

If you missed out on Washington's cash incentive program to trade in your old clunker, Uncle Sam still has a deal for you: The government will sell you rejects from its own fleet, even as it makes dealers scrap all those old cars that were collected from the public. The sale of the federal castoffs at auction is nothing new; deals for the consumer mean income for the government. But in swapping out old government cars for new models under the economic stimulus package, officials also are claiming environmental benefits that don't add up. The General Services Administration used stimulus money to buy 17,246 new vehicles, including more than 3,000 hybrids, for an impressive 40 percent improvement in fuel efficiency over the old models, the agency says. It said that translates into a decline of 334 million pounds of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the next seven years, the difference between the emission levels of the old cars and their replacements. There's no question the federal fleet is greener. But the environmental claim doesn't take into account that most of the old wheels still will be on the roads, driven by people who bought them at auction...read more

What a nice image this provides: Feds drive around in shiny new vehicles while the public makes due with old clunkers.

I'd say mighty typical of what's happening today.

EPA, BLM dispute slows progress on Superfund site

Bureaucratic snags threaten to slow cleanup of the state's dirtiest abandoned mine, a Superfund site in southern Oregon that leaches 5 million gallons of fish-killing, acid rock drainage into nearby creeks each year. The Formosa mine, a source of copper and zinc until 1993, is on a mix of private and public land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management about 25 miles south of Roseburg. The BLM says none of the contamination comes from its land, which includes thousands of feet of mine tunnels. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, overseeing the site under the federal Superfund cleanup program, says it's clear that a significant portion does. The EPA won't go forward with the testing needed to begin cleanup on the BLM's portion of the land without the BLM agreeing to pay for it. But the BLM won't agree to pay, saying doing so could set a precedent and put the agency on the hook for cleanup costs estimated to run up to $50 million. The impasse looks likely to delay testing on the BLM land and related cleanup work by at least two years, said Larry Tuttle, an activist who helped put Formosa on the Superfund list in 2007 after a 13-year battle to get it cleaned up...read more

We certainly can't set a precedent that a federal agency must pay to clean up it's own mess. No, no, that money is for those shiny new cars.

Forest Service should change firefighting policies, report says

Sharply questioning the U.S. Forest Service's aggressiveness, the Los Angeles County Fire Department says in a report on the deadly Station fire that the federal agency should change its policies to allow night flying by water-dropping helicopters and make greater use of local reinforcements to attack any blaze in the Angeles National Forest. In the report, a review of the first five days of the Station fire, County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman urges the Board of Supervisors to lobby the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Congress to alter the Forest Service's practices to ensure "a timely appropriate response to wildfires" in the Angeles. The report suggests that a fiercer air assault by the Forest Service -- and by the county at one crucial point -- might have kept the Station fire small. It says the Forest Service must change its approach from "taking what the fire will give us" -- a defensive posture -- to "hitting the fire early and hard." Unlike the county and Los Angeles city fire departments, the Forest Service does not deploy water-dropping aircraft at night, because of safety worries. County helicopters helped contain the Station fire to 15 acres during its first day, after it broke out at the edge of the forest above La Cañada Flintridge. Because the fire was burning on federal land, the Forest Service later took control and the choppers were sent home. After Forest Service commanders rolled back their response, the fire began to spread overnight, and no helicopters returned until about two hours after first light on the critical second day, The Times has reported...read more

Area politicians support recommendations in county's Station Fire report

The day after the county in a report on the Station Fire called for a "vastly different approach" in the way the U.S. Forest Service fights fires, the agency announced it will reconsider its policies. Area politicians supported taking legislative action to enact the recommendations. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, lauded the report for bringing up questions about the way the Forest Service handles wildfires, especially after what he called the "fairly superficial" report released by the Forest Service on Friday. "I thought the county did a very good analysis and raised some important issues," Schiff said. "We may need to take action to implement some of the recommendations that they made." The Forest Service may consider reviewing one of the report's key recommendations: the agency's 20-year ban on overnight aerial water drops, said Jim Hubbard, deputy chief for the Forest Service. "We're looking at safety factors," Hubbard said. "We're looking at whether the technology has advanced enough that we feel comfortable." The Forest Service used to allow helicopters to make drops at night, but the agency banned the practice shortly after an accident in the Angeles National Forest in which two helicopters collided during a night operation, Hubbard said. Supervisor Michael Antonovich, a critic of the Forest Service's policies, said in a statement that night drops "would have prevented the Station Fire's rapid growth and mitigated its catastrophic toll." The county Fire Department allows night drops and has staff prepared to fly at all hours...read more

Idaho to pay $50K to settle grazing lease lawsuit

Idaho agreed Tuesday to pay $50,000 and pledged to follow anti-discrimination rules to settle a federal lawsuit against state officials who awarded grazing leases to ranchers, not the environmentalist who had offered more money. The Idaho Board of Land has also committed to revising its rules to allow conservation groups to lease state endowment trust lands, a big change after years of fierce litigation. The board's five members are the governor, state controller, secretary of state, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction. In 2006, Washington state businessman and environmentalist Gordon Younger was the high bidder on seven Idaho grazing leases, but lost when the Board of Land with then-Gov. Jim Risch gave the leases to livestock owners. Younger, who planned to manage the lands to restore what he called "their degraded streams and wildlife habitats," sued in U.S. District Court on grounds he was the victim of discrimination...read more

Dust Up About Dust

A federal regulatory proposal, that is being “fast tracked” to adoption, poses a new threat to the survivability of businesses in Montana, most especially agriculture, according to the Western Business Roundtable (WBRT). The new regulations will reduce the allowable level of dust particles in the air to one-tenth current standards – levels lower than those normally recorded in natural areas, such as Yellowstone National Park. If the regulations being proposed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are implemented, “It would bring economic development and growth to a halt,” said Jim Sims, President and CEO of WBRT, a coalition of companies and industry associations throughout the western states focused on encouraging investment, growth, and job creation in all economic sectors. The proposed regulation is based on a “flawed” study, according to Sims, one that broadens the definition of what is considered dust and raises the specter of health concerns. Since health is ostensibly at issue, regulatory solutions are considered “absolute” – in other words, economic impacts or technical feasibilities are not allowed to be considered in deciding whether a regulation should be adopted. The regulations could have a strong impact on a wide variety of industry, most particularly upon agriculture and cattle producers, said Sims, adding that it will take a concerted effort on the part of all industry throughout the western states to mitigate the proposal. The issue of dust is not as significant to less arid and windy eastern states...read more

Grizzly Bear Defenders Fight Logging Projects

Environmentalists say the U.S. Forest Service is paving the way to grizzly bear deaths by opening one of America's five remaining grizzly bear habitats to road construction and logging. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies says the Forest Service's approval of three new projects will hurt the 45 grizzlies that remain in the region. Grizzly bears produce small litters at older ages than other bears; they are "hard to grow, but easy to kill" and have one of "the slowest reproductive rates of North American mammals," according to the federal complaint. A single grizzly bear's range may cover hundreds of square miles. And the Alliance says that 69 percent of grizzly bear deaths are caused by humans. It adds that roads "literally pave the way for these mortalities" by giving humans access to the bears. These projects authorize construction of more than 14 miles of new roads, reconstruction of 2.4 miles of roads, temporary reopening of 5 miles of closed roads and permanent reopening of 3.5 miles of roads. The projects will open up 3,988 acres of the endangered grizzly bears' habitat to commercial logging. The Alliance disputes the Forest Service's conclusion that the projects will not hurt the grizzly bears...read more

Forest Service says trees can slow climate change

National forests can be used as a carbon "sink" with vast numbers of trees absorbing carbon dioxide to help slow global warming, the Forest Service chief said Wednesday, but that goal must be balanced. He's also concerned about the risk of catastrophic wildfires that produce massive amounts of carbon dioxide. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said his agency is trying to manage forests to combat climate change while still easing the risk of wildfires that have increased in frequency and intensity, in part because of global warming. Forests now store enough carbon to offset about 16 percent of the nation's fossil fuel emissions, but that number could be reduced or even reversed if wildfires and insect infestation continue to increase, Tidwell said. "Disturbances such as fire and insects and disease could dramatically change the role of forests, thereby emitting more carbon than currently sequestered" by tree stands across the country, Tidwell told the Senate Public Lands and Forestry Subcommittee. Elaine O'Neil, a research scientist at the University of Washington's School of Forestry, said wildfires in California alone released emissions equivalent to that of seven million cars a year from 2001 to 2007...read more

Researchers studying link between climate change and cattle nutritional stress

The lab measured the amount of crude protein and digestible organic matter retained by cattle in the different regions. The pattern of forage quality observed across regions suggests that a warmer climate would limit protein availability to grazing animals, Craine said. "This study assumes nothing about patterns of future climate change; it's just a what if," Olson said. "What if there was significant atmosphere enrichment of carbon dioxide? What would it likely do to plant phenology? If there is atmospheric carbon dioxide enrichment, the length of time between when a plant begins to grow and when it reaches physiological maturity may be condensed." Currently, cattle obtain more than 80 percent of their energy from rangeland, pastureland and other sources of roughage. With projected scenarios of climate warming, plant protein concentrations will diminish in the future. If weight gain isn't to drop, ranchers are likely going to have to manage their herds differently or provide supplemental protein, Craine said. Any future increases in precipitation would be unlikely to compensate for the declines in forage quality that accompany projected temperature increases. As a result, cattle are likely to experience greater nutritional stress in the future if these geographic patterns hold as a actual example of future climates, Craine said...read more

Smiths produce quality horses in Wyoming

When a world champion bronc rider marries a collegiate national all-around cowgirl, it's pretty easy to assume that horses will remain a vital part of their lives. That's exactly what happened for Bill and Carole Smith. The former rodeo champions have turned their love of horses into a thriving business, even during tough economic times. The Smiths own the WYO Quarter Horse Ranch and this past year they held their 26th annual spring performance and production sale. September marked the ninth year they have also held a fall production sale in order to keep up with demand. “It's a family operation, not an open consignment sale,” said Carole. There are five family members and one close friend involved in the bi-annual sales. Their success over the years has been due to their ability to find a market for their horses. There seems to be two basic performance horses in the United States: the backyard horse or the specialty horse. The price of the specialty horse often makes it unattainable for many buyers and the lack of training, conformation and breeding on the backyard horse often makes it undesirable. The Smiths knew there was an overlooked market in between. Bill, who won the title of World Champion Bronc Rider in 1969, 1971 and 1973, retired from rodeo in 1979. “He always had horses and knew he wanted to start raising them,” said Carole. Married by then, Bill would train geldings and take them to different sales. After a few years of spending money to haul his horses to different sales and paying consignment fees, they decided they could make more money by holding their own sale. When the couple settled in Thermopolis, Wyo., in 1983, they made the commitment and held their first WYO performance and production sale. “It was a family sale then and it is now,” said Carole...read more

Song Of The Day #184

Ranch Radio brings you Take An Old Cold Tater And Wait by Little Jimmy Dickens.


The tune was recorded in 1949 and is available on his The Hits: 16 Biggest Hits and also on I'm Little, But I'm Loud: The Little Jimmy Dickens Collection.