NEWS ROUNDUP

Calif. Wildfires Kill 14, Char 650 Homes Wildfires that have burned for days merged into walls of flame stretching across miles in parts of Southern California on Sunday, leaving 14 people dead, burning 650 homes and frustrating overmatched firefighters who worked relentlessly against fierce winds. The state's largest fire, in eastern San Diego County, caused at least nine deaths, including two who died inside their car as they apparently tried to escape the flames, San Diego Sheriff Bill Kolender said. "We were literally running through fire," said Lisza Pontes, 43, who escaped the fire with her family after the roar of flames woke them at 3:45 a.m. As they drove off, they saw a neighbor's mobile home explode...Editorial: A burning issue Part of the reason for intensity of the fires, of course, is that the forests have been allowed to grow unimpeded over the course of the last decade or so, and the accumulated fuel - underbrush, dead trees and the like - has just been waiting for a spark. This particular spark, firefighters believe, was provided by an arsonist, but it could just as well have been lightening or a thrown cigarette or an untended campfire. The result is the same: miles and miles, and acres and acres, of blackened wildlands, the loss of homes, the deaths of countless wildlife, and the loss of hundreds of thousands - perhaps millions - of board feet of lumber that should have been harvested by commercial loggers. Instead, because of the the fires, what Southern Californians will inherit is a denuded wasteland, an inheritance willed to us all by the extreme left of the environmental movement. And that group is, even now, trying to insure the same sort of disaster will be repeated endlessly across the land, particularly in the West...Proposed off-road limits upset Amador supervisors Off-road-vehicle enthusiasts say they have no problem with a new proposal that would confine them to designated roads and trails on a popular portion of the Eldorado National Forest. But Amador County supervisors don't like the idea -- and they've let U.S. Forest Service officials know about it. The proposed order would prohibit four-wheel-drives, motorcycles, bicycles and any other wheeled vehicles from going off National Forest System roads and trails in the Bear River area, off Highway 88 in upcountry Amador County. Both Bill Dart of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, a national recreation group, and Don Klusman of the California Association of 4-Wheel Drive Clubs said their respective organizations have supported staying on trails. Supervisor Richard Vinson, who represents the upcountry area, said the board's feeling was, "Here's one more restriction -- one that not only restricts you from using the national forest but says you can't even ride a bicycle. "The next step after that would be you can't even walk, either."... Border crime ravaging parks in Arizona National parks and other federal recreation sites in Arizona have some of the highest crime rates of any public lands in the country, and those in southern Arizona lead the list. "It's the Wild West out here every night," one ranger says. Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, southeast of Yuma, has more crimes per visitor than any other piece of public land in the West. The Coronado National Forest in southeastern Arizona leads all forest lands in the number of crimes committed on it. Two rangers in Arizona have been shot in the past two years. Rangers now spend more time patrolling the border than guarding resources they were hired to protect...Policy changes may be adding up to create a new forest order Environmental groups are lashing out, predicting doom for federal forests. Timber industry groups are hopeful, expecting a long-awaited turnaround in forest management policies. Forest Service officials are uncertain what the outcome will be. But it's clear that over the past year, a series of significant policy changes have been developing, most of them driven by Republicans who control the White House and Congress. Individually, the policy moves won't lead to substantial changes, said Julia Altemus of the Montana Logging Association, but combined they will make a difference in forest management...Cougars chewing at economy Cougars have killed so many Rocky Mountain elk in Wallowa County that only 360 tags for antlerless elk are being offered to hunters this year, down from 4,140 just eight years ago. Because hunting is big business in northeast Oregon, the economic impact quickly trickles down to the county's 7,140 residents. The sharp decline also could signal bad news for people beyond Wallowa County. State Fish and Wildlife Department biologists say heavy cougar predation of elk calves will continue and is likely to have a similar effect in Union, Baker, Umatilla and Grant counties.... Ariz. target of grazing buyout billIf you can't beat 'em, buy 'em out. Or sell. Weary of a half-century of grazing conflicts, environmentalists are pushing new proposals to pay off ranchers who want out of their permits to run cattle on public lands. Equally weary, some Arizona ranchers are climbing on board to support the effort. Bills introduced this week in Congress would offer up to $100 million in rancher payouts as a test of the feasibility of a voluntary buyout program. One bill would affect only Arizona, where the buyout effort has been centered. The other would open the federal financial tap to all public lands ranchers in the West. Organizers of the buyout campaign in Arizona say they have collected cards from 170 Arizona ranchers, including 40 from Southern Arizona, in support of the buyout out of more than 800 Arizona ranchers surveyed...Book chronicles "True Grizz" in Northwest Montana Douglas Chadwick says right up front he's no expert on grizzly bears. But that's a modest deflection toward the major themes in his latest book, "True Grizz." It's a book about bears and how bears and people mingle in Northwest Montana, not the author's many experiences with bears or the bio-political baggage that is often attached to grizzly bears and their protection under the Endangered Species Act. The title is a play on pulp magazine tales of terrifying encounters with ferocious, bloodthirsty grizzly bears. Chadwick takes an opposite view in his book: Bears and increasing numbers of people around the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem seem to be coexisting far more than they clash...Sierra Club leader ousted amid rumblings of discontent Just five months after being elected chair of the Napa Sierra Club's executive committee, Tyler York was replaced by fellow committee member Carol Kunze at the group's meeting earlier this month, a decision that may have been prompted by York's ties to the agricultural industry. Kunze, an attorney who serves on the board of several other environmental groups, would not discuss the reasons behind the change in leadership of the Napa club. York also declined to comment. He remains a voting member of the executive committee. "Questions were raised about his leadership," said Eric Antebi, the national press secretary for the Sierra Club. "The organization ultimately decided that it didn't make sense for him to continue serving as leader of the executive committee."...Editorial: Beyond farmers vs. fish A new report on the Klamath Basin should put an end to the obsession with saving threatened fish almost solely by taking water from farmers. A national panel of scientists argues persuasively that it's wrong to keep fighting over warm, polluted water in Klamath Lake, which probably would not restore coho salmon or native suckers in any case. The real solution, they say, is a basin-wide effort that includes removing three dams, restoring large areas of wetlands and returning more clean, cool water to lakes and streams. It could take decades, or longer, to accomplish the broad changes laid out by the National Research Council in its report released last week. The report describes a prescription for the Klamath Basin that is more costly, more politically difficult and, in some cases, even more unlikely than prying water out of Klamath Project farmers...Congress, farmer blast salamander proposal The Endangered Species Act is broken and needs to be changed, said congressmen Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced) and George Radanovich (R-Mariposa) Friday at a meeting in Modesto to gather opinions on whether the California Tiger Salamander should be granted the endangered designation. "At some point, we could literally be preserving ourselves into extinction," Cardoza said. The tiger salamander is found throughout the Central Valley and in parts of the Bay Area and Southern California. If determined to be endangered, more than 1 million acres could be determined critical habitat...Ranchers fight plan to save critters U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials meeting in Modesto got an earful Friday from ranchers who oppose designating the California tiger salamander as a threatened species. The agency is under a court order to consider such a designation. Officials from Stanislaus County, one of 25 counties where the tiger salamander is believed to exist, have asked the agency for more background data on the proposal and for maps showing where the amphibians live...Hearing sought on fish report The three U.S. representatives from the Klamath Basin have asked for a congressional hearing on the Natural Research Council's report issued this week. The report focused on threatened and endangered fish. It was was commissioned by the U.S. Interior and Commerce departments after water to the Klamath Reclamation Project was shut off in 2001. According to the report, the shutoff was made without scientific justification. The report called for Basinwide efforts - from dam removal to river bank restoration to water right buyouts. The report also said there was insufficient evidence that the Klamath Project caused the fish kill of about 33,000 salmon on the lower reaches of the Klamath River in fall 2002. "It's critical that the House Resources Committee examines the findings of the NRC report to help identify ways we can prevent another tragedy like the one that occurred in the Klamath Basin in 2001 from happening again," said Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon in a press release. "This report has the potential to accomplish two pre-eminent, long-term goals: protecting endangered fish species and ensuring the sustainability of Klamath Basin agriculture."...Air quality a concern in big gas fields Gov. Dave Freudenthal wants the state Department of Environmental Quality's new budget to include extra money to start an air quality monitoring program in southwest Wyoming where major natural gas development is underway, according to the governor's press secretary Lara Azar. Air quality has become a focus of concern as drilling activity continues to intensify in the area. Recently, an in-house Bureau of Land Management e-mail was leaked to the public that contained speculation about whether proposals for full-scale development would degrade air quality enough that the public would have to be kept off the mostly federal land. Officials at the BLM Pinedale Field Office said the discussion was purely speculation, and they made assurances that the agency wouldn't allow such a scenario to happen...Court rules ban on public access to trail stands The Wyoming Supreme Court has upheld the right of a ranch in Sheridan County to block public use of a trail that has provided convenient access to prime hunting land for more than a century. In a decision issued Friday, the justices unanimously affirmed District Judge John Brackley's ruling in July 2002 that allowed the owners of the Beckton Stock Farm west of Sheridan - Waldo, William, Sarah and Edith Forbes - to close access to the Soldier Creek Trail, which crosses their property. The trail leads to public lands managed by the Bighorn National Forest, Bureau of Land Management and state of Wyoming. The dispute came to a head in September 2001 when the Forbeses, exasperated by gates being left open, locked off the trail. Hunters were asked to either use a new corridor or call for permission to use the existing trail. The ranch owners filed suit against hunters John Yeager, Larry Durante, John Reilly and George Rogers, claiming they crossed without permission...Fossil hunters comb 50,000 acres in desert A Mojave Desert tortoise, the descendant of an Ice Age survivor, hid in a burrow at the north end of the Las Vegas Valley, protecting itself from the sun's broiling rays and any predators. Researchers figure that for 40 years, this member of a threatened species has crawled over the hard, rocky terrain not far from where ancient elephants tramped 20,000 years ago through marshes at the edge of what was a shallow lake. Today, an environmental team is combing a 50,000-acre area that the Bureau of Land Management has targeted for the auction block. Significant paleontological or archaeological finds could launch a consultation process with Nevada's congressional delegation, and eventual public meetings, about how to protect the sites or preserve what is found...BLM sowing seeds in Book Cliffs The Bureau of Land Management's Moab Field Office is using cutting-edge technology to restore native vegetation to thousands of acres of public land ravaged by fire during the 2002 Rattle Complex blaze. During the next four weeks, supercharged crop-dusting planes will drop 53,200 pounds of mycorrhizae seed mix -- seeds combined with a beneficial fungus to help them take root and encased in an organic polymer coating with a starch binder -- over 1,471 acres of decimated land in the Book Cliffs areas of Cottonwood and Diamond canyons northeast of Moab... Judge halts logging on contested timber sale A federal judge has reordered a halt to logging on a contested timber sale after an environmental group charged the U.S. Bureau of Land Management with ignoring the original order...