NEW ROUNDUP

Logging rules relaxed to deal with beetle infestation SILT, Colo. (AP) - The U.S. Forest Service is making use of new, more relaxed rules to rush through a logging project in the Flat Tops Wilderness to reduce the spread of beetles. The Little Box timber harvest, about 17 miles north of Silt, is being conducted under one of five new categorical exclusions, or CEs, that allow sales to go forward without an environmental review process... Slurry system protects homes La Plata County residents seeking to fire-proof their homes have one more weapon available with the introduction of slurry spraying machines available through a Mancos-based company...Washington concocts new spoils system Under the guise of flexibility, the Bush administration is quietly engineering a corporate takeover of government. President Bush has ordered all federal agencies to solicit bids from private corporations to replace 425,000 civil service jobs by the next election. That’s nearly one-quarter of the entire permanent federal work force.The National Park Service has been one of the first agencies slated to implement what the Bush administration calls “competitive sourcing.� According to agency documents, the plan entails potential replacement of 11,000 employees – more than two-thirds of the Park Service’s permanent workforce... Front drilling battleground As the federal government pushes for oil and natural gas development in the Rocky Mountains, nowhere does the debate hit closer to home than here, where the plains roll up to the Front's extraordinary peaks. Many folks on Choteau's Main Avenue won't discuss oil and gas development; they fear losing customers or friends, no matter what their opinion. A survey in Teton County showed a near split down the middle between those who support "environmental quality" and those who support "development of natural resources." ...Lands Council refutes Bush's forest initiative SANDPOINT, Idaho -- The Lands Council is using a Panhandle fire to dispute the Bush administration's Healthy Forest Initiative. The conservation group argues the 650-acre Myrtle Creek fire burning eight miles west of Bonners Ferry demonstrates how backcountry logging projects are ineffective at reducing forest fuels and protecting communities from wildfires... BLM considers sage grouse habitat conservation plan It's been called the icon of the West and the "spotted owl" of the western sagebrush steppe. But proposed listings of the dwindling number of sage grouse under the federal endangered species act would affect management of federal, state and private lands throughout the birds' range in parts of Utah, the Great Basin and the northern Great Plains...Biologist keeps close tabs on Wyoming's wolves On a trail in the Upper Green River Valley, wolf biologist Mike Jimenez sees the first clue that the alpha female of the Green River Pack has passed this way... Hatcheries are no substitute for quality habitat A full seven months before his August trip to the Northwest, President Bush foreshadowed the administration's new salmon policy in his State of the Union Address. The president said that "the greatest environmental progress will come about not through endless lawsuits or command and control litigation, but through technology and innovation." He was partly right...