NEWS ROUNDUP

DISMISSAL OF ETHICS COMPLAINT The United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit dismissed an ethics complaint filed against a judge whose ruling opened up nearly a third of national forests to timber cutting and other development. Two watchdog groups had complained that the judge, Clarence A. Brimmer of Federal District Court in Wyoming, owns stock or royalty interests in 15 oil and gas companies that could be affected by his July 14 decision that invalidated a rule limiting timber harvesting and other development on 58 million acres of remote forest controlled by the Forest Service. Chief Judge Deanell R. Tacha of the appeals court said she could find no basis for the accusations... Nevada's'Shovel Brigade'in outhouse feud with Forest Service Call them the"Outhouse Brigade." A group of northeast Nevadans feuding with the U.S. Forest Service over control of a remote national forest road near a trout stream is vowing to defy the agency and drive up the road to clean out a public outhouse...McInnis offers replacement for burned Sept. 11 memorial flag U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis has promised to provide a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol to replace a mountaintop Sept. 11 memorial flag that was burned. The giant flag planted on Peak 1 in Summit County to honor the victims of the terrorist attacks was discovered destroyed last weekend. Notes left at the site said the flag was burned to protest U.S. foreign policy...Company fined for cutting trees in national forest Officials of Plum Creek Timber Co. have agreed to pay nearly $66,000 in restitution and a $1,000 fine for allegedly illegally cutting millions of board feet of timber on the Clearwater National Forest... Forest Service upholds pricey perk for public lands access Jim Horkovich was skiing at Copper Mountain Ski Resort last year when he was turned away from a short lift line marked by a yellow flag. The line, it turned out, was reserved for skiers who paid extra or had a lodging package with the resort...USFS nixes ATV filming near Red River A little over 2 weeks after receiving an application to film ATV (all-terrain vehicle) riding in the Red River area for the cable Outdoor Life Network (OLN), Ron Thibedeau, District Ranger for the Questa Ranger District of the Carson National Forest decided against issuing a Special Use Permit...Senator moves to bar new job competitions at Interior, Forest Service During a Wednesday debate over the Interior appropriations bill, the Senate minority whip proposed language that would prevent the Interior Department and Forest Service from putting more federal jobs up for competition. The amendment, offered by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., would block Interior and the Forest Service (which is part of the Agriculture Department but which receives funds from the Interior bill), from initiating new competitive sourcing studies in fiscal 2004. These agencies could complete studies already underway... Officials say drought has increased beetle infestations Drought is being blamed for increasing bark beetle infestations in the Northern Rockies, sometimes to epidemic proportions in aging and overgrown forests, experts say... Thinning forests will take time, Forest Service chief says The U.S. Forest Service will thin trees especially around Arizona homes, but it will take more than a decade to significantly lower wildfire risks, a top official said. "It's going to take some aggressive work for 10 or 15 years on some of these forests before we make a big difference in how fire reacts," U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth told the Arizona Daily Star editorial board on Tuesday... Critics give lawmakers an earful What was supposed to be a temporary recreation fee to park, hike and use picnic areas in national forests is turning some taxpayers into trespassers, critics of the 7-year-old fee said Wednesday... Forest Service OKs Tongass sales Two timber sales in the Tongass National Forest have been approved by the Forest Service, and one sale is likely to be incorporated into a 10-year timber contract...Leavitt for Head of EPA? Much Worse Than You Thought As a rule, secretaries of the Interior Department come from the West and directors of the Environmental Protection Agency hail from the East. Ronald Reagan breached this cardinal political tenet by picking Anne Gorsuch Burford of Colorado to head his EPA department, with disastrous results... Inland sites cited in butterfly recovery A plan released Wednesday by federal wildlife officials aimed at preventing a tiny butterfly from becoming extinct suggested that four areas in western Riverside County should be the focus of recovery efforts. The plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which also designates two areas in San Diego County, is aimed at improving the endangered Quino checkerspot butterfly to threatened status by 2018... Conservation groups: Water legislation is anti-environmental The Senate’s passage of an amendment to the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill is anti-environmental, a coalition of conservation groups said Wednesday...Algae bloom on Klamath prompts tests A big algae bloom on the Klamath River turned it green earlier this week, initially troubling fisheries experts concerned about salmon migrating upstream...Group: Powder Rim area endangered Wyoming's Powder Rim in the Southern Red Desert is designated as an endangered linkage in a conservation program that if completed would eventually provide a continuous wildlife corridor between Mexico and Canada, the Wildlands Project announced Tuesday in a flyover of the area...State engineer under fire for suggesting changes to groundwater appropriation State Engineer Jerry Olds accepts that he could be committing political suicide by telling this truth: Utah's groundwater is so over-allocated that if water rights aren't reallocated, some aquifers could be destroyed...A New Life for Wildlife Federation Head The chief executive of the National Wildlife Federation, one of the major enviro groups, has resigned, leaving some folks there wondering what's up. Mark Van Putten, who has been with the NWF for more than 20 years, including seven as president, told colleagues in an e-mail Sept. 3 that "it is time for me to pursue other ways in which I can serve the cause of conservation and it is time to give others the privilege of service that NWF has given me...