NEWS ROUNDUP

Area called ripe for a disaster The oil industry had the Exxon Valdez. Nuclear power had Three Mile Island. Wednesday, with flames menacing one of Southern California's most beloved mountain resorts, Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains risked becoming forestry's equivalent -- a disaster so overwhelming it could change U.S. environmental policy for decades to come. The area, filled with overgrown, diseased and dying trees, has gained a reputation in recent years as one of the worst examples of forest mismanagement in the West. If much of Lake Arrowhead or nearby Big Bear Lake ends up burning, fire experts said it could prompt rapid changes, including congressional orders for much more logging to thin out the nation's overgrown forests, a loss of public confidence in environmental groups that have resisted such logging, and billions more taxpayer dollars spent on fire protection...Gallegly proposes waiving law to battle fires Ten years ago, Rep. Elton Gallegly stood beside two California Air National Guard planes grounded by bureaucratic red tape and watched helplessly as the hills of Malibu burned in the distance. A similar scene played out in eerie fashion late last week. Once again, as wildfires raged across Southern California, two C-130 military planes that could have been used to put out the flames or at least keep them from burning out of control sat on the ground. In both cases, part of the problem was an arcane federal law that prohibits the use of military equipment to fight wildfires until all available commercial aircraft have been deployed. Gallegly and Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., are pushing for Congress to allow military firefighting equipment to be used as soon as possible to fight wildfires. They are sponsoring legislation that would waive a Depression-era provision in the Economy Act of 1932. The law, adopted to protect civilian jobs, requires that all commercial or private resources under government contract must be exhausted before military equipment can be used to fight wildfires...Column: Behind the Inferno In California, where overzealous environmentalism often trumps common sense, our forests are suffering from rampant disease and destruction. In just a matter of days, over 600,000 acres of Southern California's forests have been reduced to mere ashes due in part to overgrown forests that have been infected by the largest bark-beetle infestation in the last 50 years. Due to decades of mismanagement, the thinning of these forests remains largely unpracticed within our state, leaving forests that historically contained just 30 to 40 trees per acre, now filled with 300 to 400 trees per acre. As the events of this week have demonstrated, the gross mismanagement of our state's forests has literally created a perfect storm for wildfires... Our current forest policies have allowed 190 million acres of federal land to remain at a dangerously high risk of catastrophic wildfire, insect infestation, and disease. As a result, last year alone, American taxpayers spent over $1.6 billion fighting record-setting blazes due to overgrown forests. Furthermore, lengthy bureaucratic processes have added to this smoldering danger, as they have kept the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) from being able to fully manage our forests. Just recently, the USFS testified that while treatment of an important project was held up in a three-year, 800-step decision-making process, a record-setting wildfire eviscerated large swaths of landscape and caused enormous damage to the natural environment as well as to a number of communities. Despite the plea from the National Volunteer Fire Council to "reduce the threats from catastrophic wildfire, insect infestations and disease," federal land managers can only treat about 2.5 million acres out of 190 million each year due to these often unnecessary bureaucratic processes...Editorial: The Senate answers the fire call C hased by the terrifying fires in Southern California, the Senate hurried Thursday to approve legislation to reduce the threat of wildfire. Lawmakers agreed on a fire policy the day after a firefighter died and a congressman was among thousands of Californians who lost their homes. Yes, this bill was a long time coming. The West first called in this fire emergency more than four years ago. Since then, we have lost 24 million acres of forests -- and the lives of dozens of firefighters -- to catastrophic wildfires. Yet Congress is at last answering the fire call. The Senate legislation shaped this week is the right approach to thinning sick, brittle forests and reducing the threat of unstoppable fires like those raging in Southern California...Lizard defenders file suit over species' status Environmentalists in an ongoing battle with the government over the status of a desert lizard are taking the fight to court. On Thursday a coalition of environmental groups announced they filed a lawsuit against the Bush administration and Interior Secretary Gale Norton that accuses the government of illegally denying the flat-tailed horned lizard protection as a threatened species. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson...BLM director apologizes to employees for criticisms in Reno The head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management apologized to her 10,000 employees nationally for her criticism a week ago of agency bureaucrats. ''I apologize for any embarrassment you and your families may have experienced because of things I said,'' Kathleen Clarke wrote in a letter and e-mail this week addressed to ''All BLM Employees.'' In an Oct. 20 speech at an oil and gas industry confernece in Reno, Clarke said she was demanding more accountability of her field managers to try to rein in an agency that lacked discipline under the Clinton administration...U.S. may ease beef ban The United States may let Canadian cattle and some fresh beef into the country early next year for the first time since a case of mad cow disease was found in May. Bill Hawks, an Agriculture Department undersecretary, said U.S. officials are proposing to allow in from Canada cattle that are 30 months old or younger. Meat allowed in would be from animals that age. The department is taking comments on the proposal until January...January trial set for suit against meatpacker federal trial is set to begin early next year in an eight-year legal battle between a meatpacking powerhouse and a group of cattlemen who accuse it of cornering the beef market. About 31,000 farmers and 4,000 feedlots from across the country sued IBP Inc., saying the company conspired to fix prices paid on the open market. A jury trial has been scheduled for Jan. 12, 2004, in Birmingham, Ala...Cowgirl boot camp No doubt about it: I'm a city slicker. What I wrangle is words on a computer screen; all I lasso is latte at my local Starbucks in Washington, D.C. I couldn't hoist a bale of hay if my life depended on it, and my red-lacquered nails are more at home in Paris than on the range. I've hardly ridden since I was spooked by a fall in my teens. Yet in my heart, I'm a cowgirl. Strong. Self-reliant. Free. Or I'd like to be. So would the 17 city and suburban women here with me at The Alisal Guest Ranch and Resort's first Cowgirl Boot Camp. We've been drawn to this 10,000-acre spread northeast of Santa Barbara by the promise of riding the range and learning to rope and fly-fish...Ranchers credit meaty diets for high beef prices A lanky Texan like Paul Genho never had much interest in celebrity doctors and their slim-down trends. Until now. Thanks to the toppled food pyramid approach advised by diet gurus such as Dr. Atkins and Dr. Agatson, red meat sales are up again, and the fattier the meat the better. "Beef is hot, beef is back," said Genho, manager of the 825,000-acre King Ranch, one of the country's top beef producers. "People are sick of chicken." Breed bulls are going for $40,000 and per-pound prices recently trading over a dollar a pound of live weight...