NEWS ROUNDUP

Aspen Fire impact tops $162M The total economic impact of this summer's Aspen Fire is more than $162 million and recovery to the environment and business is expected to last at least five years. Insurance payouts to date have topped $80 million, said James Frederikson, executive director of the Arizona Insurance Information Association, and are expected to increase to $100 million or more for cabins and businesses, personal property lost and temporary living expenses. Summerhaven residents and business owners continue to struggle with insurance claims. "The majority of us just got through the debris removal stage and now we're dealing with insurance companies," said Debbie Fagan, owner and president of The Living Rainbow in Summerhaven, who is still negotiating her claim. "A lot of us were underinsured, not realizing it."...Environmentalists to protest EPA settlement Environmentalists are likely to protest an EPA settlement of wetlands violations during the development of new powder-skiing terrain at the nation's most popular ski resort. The federal agency announced late Friday that it had fined Vail Resorts $80,100 as part of a settlement of the company's violation of the Clean Water Act during development of Blue Sky Basin. The agency had earlier said it was considering a $200,000 fine. ''The fine is nothing. It should clearly be 10 or 20 times that much,'' said Rocky Smith of Colorado Wild on Saturday...Local denied permit for peace flag The U.S. Forest Service last week denied permission for Doug Malkan to place a peace flag alongside an American flag atop Peak 1. The American flag was originally erected on Peak 1 Sept. 16, 2001, five days after the terrorist attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C., in honor of those who died. Each year, hikers summit the peak to replace the flag, which after a winter on the blustery peak, is weather-worn. A few days after they replaced the flag last month, however, someone burned the new flag, leaving behind handwritten notes and computer printouts denouncing the war in Iraq. Law enforcement officials have not arrested anyone in that incident. In the interim, scores of people have ascended the 12,805-foot peak and erected flags of their own - including one donated by Rep. Scott McInnis that flew over the nation's capitol. Malkan hoped to be part of those groups, but held off until he could obtain permission from the U.S. Forest Service. Rick Newton, the Dillon district's new ranger, sent Malkan a letter this week denying the application, saying the use is not consistent with Forest Service laws, regulations and policies...Garbage in, garbage out: Nature wins Officially, the mission of Leave No Trace is "to promote and inspire responsible outdoor recreation through education, research and partnerships." But according to the nonprofit organization, it often finds itself deflecting an ill-gotten image as an outdoors "referee" - a group that makes the laws and then enforces them. In other words, the "wilderness police."... Wilderness bill introduced Legislation that will protect California's most prized natural areas as wilderness and wild and scenic rivers has been introduced by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa. The California Wild Heritage Wilderness Act of 2003 will protect more than 1.1 million acres of federal lands in Northern California and nine of the area's rivers...Click here to view the legislation...Groups to file prairie dog lawsuit A coalition of conservation groups this week notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that it intends to sue over the agency's failure to protect the black-tailed prairie dog under the Endangered Species Act. The notice is required under the act and gives the agency 60 days to respond or to settle the issue. FWS determined in February 2000 that the black-tailed prairie dog required protection under the act but that there were other, higher priority species. The species became a candidate for listing, with its status to be reviewed annually. Forest Guardians, based in New Mexico, said that more than three and one-half years after FWS determined that listing the black-tailed prairie dog was "warranted but precluded," the agency has failed to even propose listing it. The groups are challenging the "warranted but precluded" designation and point to a mandate from Congress that it not be used as a shield for the "foot-dragging efforts of a delinquent agency." The organizations said they believe FWS is refusing to make politically controversial wildlife decisions that are required under the act...Click here to view the notice of intent (pdf)...Pentagon, environmentalists battle over training impact Now the Defense Department is doing battle over Red Beach itself, part of a larger war the Pentagon is waging in Congress over the nation's more than 425 military installations, the largest of which dot states throughout the West -- from the 2 million acres of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to the 870,000 acres of Fort Wainwright in Alaska. The Pentagon fears much of that land, originally set aside for its exclusive use, could be snatched away from it by the Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws that address everything from porpoises to pollution. At stake, it argues, is the U.S. military's very ability to train in peace as it fights in war. To counter the perceived threat of laws such as the Superfund and Clean Air Act, the Pentagon is pushing for exemptions...Military coexists with endangered pronghorn on bombing range It's not yet sunrise but Pam Landin's day is already swinging into high gear on this southern Arizona military range. She has hiked 200 feet up a rocky slope to a ledge on Observation Point Echo, overlooking a vast flat landscape where Air Force pilots routinely practice bombing runs. With binoculars and a high-powered scope she searches the desert below for endangered Sonoran pronghorns. The presence of any of the deer-like animals within three kilometers of a nearby array of targets resembling tanks can force pilots to detour to other sites on the Air Force's 1.1 million-acre portion of the range, or even scrub their missions...License to kill: Residents face task of shooting lions after county cuts trapper position The mere mention of mountain lions can provoke a variety of responses: fear, awe and loathing among them. With five dead sheep in little more than a month, Dawn Leaming is matter-of-fact calm when she recounts her first-hand encounter with one of California's largest - and most elusive - predators. "I was down doing some chores, and there was a commotion in the sheep pen," the Rough and Ready septuagenarian said. "We've had in 20 years eight lions killed on this property. That was the first one I have seen."... Longmont seminar links faith, environmental activism The ad campaign, "What would Jesus Drive?" asks us to stop driving gas-guzzling SUVs. A group called "Redwood Rabbis" fights to preserve old growth forests outside San Francisco. Evangelical preachers are working the term, "endangered species" into Sunday sermons. The voice of the faith community is becoming increasingly bold in the environmental movement and this is true at in Boulder County. Jews of the Earth promotes a Judaism grounded in saving the planet. Next weekend, the faithful and Earth-minded are invited to Longmont's First Congregational United Church of Christ to explore global warming with a theological spin...Badlands may become closed to motor vehicles Bureau of Land Management officials have proposed banning motorized use of the Badlands, a desert area about 20 miles east of Bend. The closure would ban trucks, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles and cars from any of the roughly 50 miles of roads that currently run through the approximately 32,000-acre area, according to Greg Curry, outdoor recreation planner for the BLM...Far from Mideast, home-grown eco-terrorism on rise Beneath a cluster of stumps spread over a grassy flat, the fungi are finishing the job, completing the annihilation of much of a life's work. For 18 years, U.S. Forest Service researcher Don Riemenschneider had raised and documented 500 poplars, devoting such attention to them that the trees became, he said, like his children. Over the decades, his technical and time-consuming labors to breed resistance to a certain cottonwood canker went largely unwatched. Except, that is, by the "Elves." In the darkness of July 20, 2000, members of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) crept onto the grounds of the Rhinelander Forest Service research station and mauled the trees that Riemenschneider had known since they were buds...Prone to controversy W hen the Booth and Bear Butte fires erupted 14 miles apart in Central Oregon on Aug. 19, Laurie Heath feared the worst. Heath, fire management officer for the Sisters Ranger District, had seen hundreds of fires in her 24-year U.S. Forest Service career. But she had worried since the early 1990s that a big fire might blow up in that section of the Deschutes National Forest. Many of the trees had been weakened by bark beetles and the spruce budworm, a caterpillar that strips foliage from conifers. Fuel density was 50 to 130 tons an acre, compared with an acre of healthy forest where perhaps 15 tons of pine needles, duff, small trees and grasses would accumulate on the forest floor...Park rangers facing more danger on job On a routine patrol through Big Bend National Park on the Texas-Mexico border, law officer Cary Brown pulled over a speeding pickup and found an antsy driver with a two-way radio -- and more than $2 million worth of marijuana. Narcotics interdiction is a major part of Brown's job, but the 26-year law enforcement veteran doesn't work for the U.S. Border Patrol or any other agency typically connected with such a mission. Brown is a National Park Service ranger, and it's been a long time since he and the 40 other park rangers have been able to focus on illegal camping and other such violations as they patrol some 300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. Today, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, rangers have shifted their focus to smugglers and fugitives in what has become one of the most dangerous jobs in federal law enforcement...Yellowstone tightens boating restrictions Park officials say they have tightened their rules for use of motorboats in portions of Yellowstone Lake that are off-limits to motorboats belonging to the public. The park was criticized recently by Edward Meyer, a park resident of many years, who said park employees have been abusing their authority to use motorboats in the lake's south and southeast arms. ''Too many backcountry hikes and paddles have had their solitude disturbed by whining engines and rocking wakes for me to stay silent any longer,'' Meyer wrote. He said rangers have used motorboats, instead of horses, to stock backcountry cabins and that VIPs and politicians - including First Lady Laura Bush - have been allowed to bend park rules...Norton 'disappointed' with higher Animas-La Plata costs A 48 percent increase in costs for the Animas-La Plata Project likely won't derail construction, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Friday. Still, Norton said she, too, wants to get to the bottom of why project costs jumped from about $338 million to more than $500 million only four months after construction began. "We were disappointed with finding out that the costs were going to be significantly higher," Norton told The Durango Herald. "There should have been a system in place that would tell us if the contracting was not going to be able to stay within expectations."... Cloud seeding to continue in Summit Summit County can expect 12 to 14 percent more snow than usual this season if cloud-seeding efforts pan out as resort and Denver Water officials hope. Western Weather Consultants of Durango has been working with Vail Resorts for 28 years and will enter its second winter of seeding clouds in Summit County...Property compensation fight on again A property rights group is renewing its fight to require state and local governments to compensate landowners when land-use regulations devalue their property. Oregonians in Action is using paid petition gatherers in hopes of placing the property rights measure on the November 2004 ballot to replace one that was tossed out by the courts. The plan is a new one, but it's likely to spark the same heated debate as the 2000 initiative did over the rights of landowners versus the right of government to regulate land development. It's being called "Son of Measure 7," after the controversial plan that was approved by 54 percent of Oregonians. That measure, which would have amended the constitution to require property owner compensation, was struck down by the state Supreme Court on the grounds that it put too many constitutional changes into one amendment. The new measure attempts to circumvent that problem by putting the changes into state statute, rather than the constitution. Dave Hunicutt, head of Oregonians in Action, said the new measure also makes it clear governments could avoid having to compensate landowners simply by not enforcing land-use regulations that diminish property value...Click here (pdf) to read more about the iniative, and click here for another article...Judge: Loggers Need Pollution Permit Timber companies that engage in forest logging should be required to obtain federal stormwater pollution permits, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has misconstrued the 1972 federal Cleanwater Act by exempting logging companies from going through the permitting process for stormwater runoff. Runoff of dirt, debris and chemicals is a major pollutant in rivers and harms fish and wildlife. The Tuesday ruling was based on a lawsuit brought by the Environmental Protection Information Center and other groups against the EPA and a Pacific Lumber Co. logging operation in California's Humboldt County. The groups charged that Pacific Lumber was violating the Clean Water Act in the same manner as a factory that dumps pollutants into a river without a permit...