NEWS ROUNDUP

Environmentalists want to stop Catron County ranchers A coalition of environmental groups wants to stop Catron County ranchers Kit and Sherry Laney from grazing their livestock on national forest land without a permit. The groups filed for an injunction in federal court Wednesday in Albuquerque, seeking a halt to what they call illegal grazing that has been ongoing for at least six months...Senate Allows Harmful Grazing Practices to Continue Indefinitely Harmful public lands grazing could continue for four more years without any environmental review under provisions adopted Tuesday by the U.S. Senate. By unanimous consent, the Senate voted to accept measures that attempt to exempt federal agencies until 2008 from conducting environmental analysis of grazing permits under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)... Internal Review Panel Plans to Investigate Fire Did the U.S. Forest Service misjudge the danger that a prescribed burn in the Cascade Springs area might get out of control? An internal review panel plans to take a look at that question--and what could have been done early on to contain the blaze...Study puts cost of Colorado's worst-ever wildfire at $238 million The cost of the largest wildfire in Colorado history, which destroyed 132 homes and blackened 138,000 acres in 2002, is approaching $240 million, the U.S. Forest Service said in a study released Thursday...GAO weighs in on firefighting GIS Agencies that fight wildfires on public lands suffer from many common incompatibilities among data and systems that could hamper firefighting efforts, according to a new report from the General Accounting Office... From Conquest to Conservation Charles Wilkinson of the University of Colorado makes this salient point in the forward of From Conquest to Conservation: Our Public Lands Legacy, leading him to ponder a key question: "Why has the Forest Service never embraced Aldo Leopold as its guiding light?" The answer to that question -- as well as a set of principles that would bring the Forest Service closer in line with Leopold's vision -- are found within the pages of this eminently readable history of America's relationship to its public lands. Indeed, Leopold's presence permeates From Conquest to Conservation, which chronicles the history of the nation's 463 million acres that lie under the auspices of the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management...Nationwide Outdoors Pass: A one fee covers all proposal for public lands The Interior Department is proposing creation of a nationwide outdoors pass to standardize fees in national parks, forests and recreation areas and at dams and other federally owned public lands. Department officials envision something like an expanded National Park Service Golden Eagle pass, which costs $65...Real-time 'movies' will predict wildfire behavior for one hour Someday fire fighters will be able to manage wildfires by computer. Rochester Institute of Technology recently won a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to translate remote-sensing data about wildfires into real-time "mini-movies" that fire managers can download on laptop computers at the scene of a blaze. The model and visualization will predict the fire's behavior for the following hour... The path to healthier forests The Senate agreement with the White House on a landmark bill to protect the nation's public forests from fire and disease is as welcome as a good rain falling on a dry Oregon forest. Finally, here is a reasonably balanced, carefully written plan to counter the fires that have swept across millions of acres of thick, sick and dying forests in Oregon and across the country... The battle over Cave Rock The Highway 50 tunnels are a perfect metaphor for the way most people experience Cave Rock. As Tahoe visitors zoom through those roadway shafts, they can zip right through the heart of Cave Rock without seeing it well, or touching it at all. So, this striking monolith on Lake Tahoe's east shore has grown quite familiar while remaining almost entirely unknown...Pickers plunder plants The harvest of wildflowers for their medicinal properties is becoming so widespread that some forest rangers are starting to worry about overzealous pickers...Prescribed burns aim to prevent disaster Firefighters have known for more than a century that once a forest fire gets big, human efforts are powerless to stop it. That was illustrated in 1988 in Yellowstone National Park. As a result, the U.S. Forest Service has aggressively put out forest fires before they get big -- 98 percent of all fires are put out early, said Uinta National Forest Supervisor Pete Karp...Wildlife 'linkages' targeted Looking down from a single-engine plane, it all seems very clear. Spruce and fir trees, powdered by a late September dusting, sparkle in the brilliant sunshine. Sinewy fingers of forested land stretch north and south as far as the eye can see. But directly below, the forest is cut off abruptly by a shimmering asphalt snake: Interstate 70, where it climbs across Vail Pass, in the very heart of the Southern Rockies...Simpson's wilderness deal hits a snag The road to wilderness designation is no easy path, but recently another curve has come up and Congressman Mike Simpson is taking a "wait and see" attitude. The Custer County Farm Bureau chapter has withdrawn any support for a wilderness deal until environmental groups permanently withdraw from legal action on upper Snake River dam releases...NWF Pursues Legal Action to Ensure Wolf Recovery in the Northeast Charging that the Bush administration's decision to abandon wolf recovery efforts in the Northeast violates the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) announced today that it intends to take legal action. In its 60-day notice of intent to sue, NWF explains that the final Wolf Reclassification Rule that was issued in April effectively terminates federal wolf recovery efforts in the Northeast, where PLF may sue over plover designation suitable wolf habitat exists and wolves are apparently beginning to return... PLF may sue over plover designation The Pacific Legal Foundation, a property rights legal group, has filed a notice of intent to sue the federal government to force it to review a request to remove the threatened designation of the Western snowy plover. The PLF, which represented Coos County earlier this year in its effort to compel the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to overturn critical habitat designations for the plover, filed the notice on behalf of the Surf Ocean Beach Commission... Dry year? No, it's not; yes, it is; no, it's not The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has again switched the water-year type classification for Upper Klamath Lake - it's "below average" again. An early September rainstorm brought more water into the lake, and that caused the Bureau to redefine the year, said Dave Sabo, Klamath Reclamation Project manager. As a result, the Bureau is sending more water downstream...Build it ... but will they come? Drainage around Tucson inconveniences drivers in rainy weather and we all complain about rush-hour traffic in a city that could certainly use better planning. But for some species, such as our little hopping friend the toad, the rains and roads mean even more dangerous travel... Driving 350 Miles, Traveling 400 Years America's internal compass has historically pointed westward. But out in New Mexico, where thunderstorms can be seen for miles and eternity feels like a next-door neighbor, history has traveled on a northward road. It is El Camino Real, the Royal Road, once the footpath of Indians and officially blazed in the 16th century by Spanish conquistadors - a hellish 1,800-mile trail extending from civilization in Mexico City to the wild, remote reaches of the "tierra nueva" north of Santa Fe. Twenty-two years before the Mayflower, the road carried European colonists to what is now the United States. Led by Juan de Onate, the aristocratic son of a Spanish silver baron, the settlers brought along Christianity, the wheel, horses, sheep, written language and gunpowder for subduing the Indians..BLM says up to 500 wells could be drilled on Colorado plateau The Bureau of Land Management says up to 500 natural gas wells could be drilled on western Colorado's Roan Plateau over the next 20 years, though it doesn't plan to allow such dense development. The scenario was outlined in an internal bureau document, but a BLM official downplayed the possibility Wednesday...Drilling the Wild Rod and gun in hand, and backing the Second Amendment right to own firearms, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have won the hearts of America's sportsmen. Yet the two men have failed to protect outdoor sports on the nation's public lands. With deep ties to the oil and gas industry, Bush and Cheney have unleashed a national energy plan that has begun to destroy hunting and fishing on millions of federal acres throughout the West, setting back effective wildlife management for decades to come...BLM mediates gas and coal agreement The Bureau of Land Management has mediated an agreement between two companies to allow underground coal development to continue near Farmington. San Juan Coal Company and Dugan Production Company reached an agreement that will protect the coal mine while allowing Dugan to develop as much gas as possible...Directional drilling called "infeasible" A state recommendation to use directional drilling on the top of the Roan Plateau is probably not practical, according to a U.S. Bureau of Land Management document...Town's former residents recall losing fight "The Bureau of Reclamation bulldozed everything below the water line," said Milestone. "They took out all the trees. They scraped it clean. There's not much left." People were devastated. The headline in True West magazine said it all: "Uncle Sam sobers Whiskeytown."...Backwoods bard: Ferguson's book chronicles remote season Gary Ferguson knows wilderness. And he knows what it does to people, how it brings out both their worst behavior and best attributes. And although he is one of the nation's top chroniclers of the wild, he admits the struggle it takes to put wilderness -- and our messy relationship with it -- into words...Advisers recommend expansion of drilling U.S. consumers could save $300 billion in lower natural gas costs over 20 years if more federal lands and offshore waters are opened to drilling, said a report to U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham today. The report, written by the National Petroleum Council, composed mostly of energy executives and Energy Department officials, forecast U.S. demand for natural gas will increase 50 percent in the next two decades as more natural gas-burning power plants are built... Grazing-for-wildlife project under way After a decade of butting heads, ranchers, resource agencies and researchers are coming together to ask a question suited to this area: Can grazing cows on a plot of land help wildlife?...Bighorn rancher booted off allotment A long-established Wyoming ranching family has been evicted from a Bighorn National Forest grazing allotment after a series of grazing violations...Cowboy's blue jeans no longer made in Texas Levi Strauss, the maker of denim jeans, is closing its remaining factories in the US and Canada. The Levi plant at San Antonio, Texas, is set to shut down before the end of the year and others will close by March next year... Is it High Noon for the western? The western movie is 100, but it is in truly appalling health. Hollywood released no cowboy films in 2002, so will audiences flock to the spate of big-budget westerns due out soon? The end came not with the swoosh and crack of a six-shooter being drawn and fired, but with the rumble of bulldozers. This summer, Laramie Street - the dusty film set of saloons, sheriffs' offices and shacks featured in countless Hollywood westerns - was levelled to make way for more useful movie backdrops at Warner Brothers studios...