NEWS ROUNDUP

Grazing to be curtailed in East Fork drainage The Sawtooth National Recreation Area is scheduled today to release a long-awaited environmental study and related management decisions on cattle grazing in the East Fork of the Salmon River valley on the eastern slope of the White Cloud mountains. The decision appears to reach a compromise position between proposed curtailment of grazing in the area and the status quo, which was deemed to be damaging to natural resources and recreation opportunities. In March, the U.S. Forest Service released a draft of the Upper and Lower East Fork Cattle and Horse Allotment Management Plans that proposed to reduce in half the size and scope of two grazing allotments used by seven Custer County ranchers...Bear Expert and Companion Killed in Bear Attack at Alaska Park A self-taught bear expert who once called Alaska's brown bears harmless was one of two people fatally mauled in a bear attack in the Katmai National Park and Preserve. The bodies of Timothy Treadwell, 46, and Amie Huguenard, 37, both of Malibu, Calif., were found Monday at their campsite when a pilot arrived who was supposed to take them to Kodiak, state troopers said Tuesday. Treadwell, co-author of "Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska," spent more than a dozen summers living alone with and videotaping Katmai bears. Information on Huguenard was not immediately Available. The Andrew Airways pilot contacted troopers in Kodiak and the National Park Service after he saw a brown bear, possibly on top of a body, at the camp near Kaflia Bay... Official: Burned timber no longer salvageable "Little to no" merchantable timber likely remains in several fire-salvage sales stopped by an environmental lawsuit earlier this year, a Kootenai National Forest official said. Another summer of heat and drought probably dealt the final blow to thousands of board feet of timber damaged by wildfires during the summer of 2000, said Tom Maffei, timber sale contracting officer for the Kootenai forest. Twelve of 16 active timber sales and six of 26 planned sales stopped by a court order last July were intended to salvage burned trees. Still, Maffei said language attached to the Interior Appropriations Bill by U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., "would be helpful" in renewing work on the green timber sales and in completing restoration work in the burned areas... Editorial: Forest health may rely on fire prevention effort In a June study by the Northern Arizona University Forestry Department, "Analysis of Costs and Benefits of Restoration-Based Hazardous Fuel Reduction Treatments vs. No Treatment," G.B. Snider, D.B. Wood and P.J. Daugherty studied the conditions of forests in the early 1900s and compared them to current conditions. They compared the effects of wildfires then and now and determined that recent forest management practices have been a contributing cause to the out-of-control fires such as Rodeo-Chedeski in Arizona last year, which conservatively cost $300 million to suppress. This study says it would be more cost effective to spend $500 per acre to prevent forest fires rather than millions to suppress them once they've started. The authors summarize their findings by saying "each year that no action is taken to restore acres that are at highest risk for unnatural fire, the problem becomes worse. Fuels resulting from beetle outbreaks are contributing to the hazardous fuels build up." The actions that the authors recommend include drastic thinning of small-diameter timber and removal of dead and dying beetle- and drought-damaged trees... Mapping the Forest Disaster ESRI, the recognized world leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, is providing extraordinary support to our public safety officials who are striving to manage the effects of the drought and beetle infestation disaster in the San Bernardino Mountains. The company is also now providing free, detailed information to the public through a new Web portal...Forest officials forging ahead with marginal timber sale The Forest Service is moving ahead with a controversial timber sale south of here, even though it probably will lose money and irritate the neighbors while sawmills might not even want the logs. Since it was first proposed four years ago, its "purpose and need" was to provide cash so the Gallatin could buy land in the Taylor Fork drainage south of Big Sky from Big Sky Lumber Co. The "timber for land" provision in the BSL swaps was approved by Congress in 1998 and was a provision that Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., insisted upon. It called upon the Gallatin to sell $4.5 million worth of logs in several separate timber sales by the end of this year, or BSL would get land in the Bangtail Mountains northeast of Bozeman in exchange for its Taylor Fork land...Forest Service to use fire to improve game range A $7,000 grant from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation will help the U.S. Forest Service get moving on a project designed to keep trees from taking over some important grasslands. The project calls for chopping down some small trees and lighting some controlled burns in meadows that elk and other wildlife rely on for winter forage. "We're trying to restore fire back into those areas," said Rachel Feigley, a biologist on the Gallatin National Forest's Livingston District... Saving a forest by cutting it The U.S. Forest Service is proposing cutting trees north of Vail to save a forest. This counter-intuitive approach is sure to become a controversial proposal for managing up to 10,000 acres of lodgepole pines north of Vail. The Forest Service contends that cutting a majority of the trees can actually improve lynx habitat and make the forest healthier and less prone to major wildfires. The approach is also being recommended by wildlife biologists and forest managers who are charged with making sure there is adequate habitat for the shy, tuft-eared feline and other animals... Native California plant taken off federal protection list A native California plant that has been federally protected for 13 years has recovered, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday in removing it from the endangered species list. The decision to remove Hoover's woolly-star from a list of threatened species comes after the discovery of new populations in three counties, the service said...Summit unveils land-use proposal Summit County planning officials unveiled a revised land-use plan Monday night that includes a toolbox full of smart growth measures. The proposal includes a development cap and a transfer-of-rights program aimed at steering development away from the backcountry and toward areas with existing infrastructure. While limiting growth, the goal also is to preserve the rural character of certain areas: for example the upper Snake River Basin, around Montezuma, and the Lower Blue Valley, north of Silverthorne...In the Northwest: Gas drillers poised along Rocky Mountain Front R.L. "Stoney" Burk is a country lawyer who has practiced for 21 years in Choteau. A decorated former fighter pilot, Burk is conservative to the core in his suspicions of federal power and the exercise thereof from Ruby Ridge, Idaho, to Waco, Texas. When it comes to oil and gas leasing on "the Front," he sounds like John Muir. "They'll road it, contaminate it, leave it and step on our faces on their way out," Burk said. "They've done it again and again in Montana." Fighting words, but there is much to fight for...Methane company fined $20,000 The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has fined a coal-bed methane company $20,000 for unauthorized construction on federal land near the Powder River...BLM Sweetens Deal for Online Auction of Mustang Ranch It's not as easy to get rid of a brothel as you might think. The Bureau of Land Management has listed the Mustang Ranch on eBay for a second time. This time the agency is sweetening the deal. After the brothel failed to sell the first time around, officials add the naming rights and trademark "World Famous Mustang Ranch" to the package...Federal agency considers changes to NPR-A regulations The Bureau of Land Management is gathering public comment about proposed land-use plan changes that could allow more oil and gas development on a 4.6-million-acre portion of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The proposed changes for the northeast section of the reserve could make the requirements for development more flexible and better accommodate new production technology as it emerges, said Susan Childs, a BLM environmental program analyst...BLM separates roads from planning process for public lands As Utah's six Bureau of Land Management field offices develop plans for 9.9 million acres of public lands, the simple definition of what constitutes a road or trail promises to cause grief. That is why the agency's national office issued planning guidelines Monday that give field offices like those in Utah more time to complete route designations while they finish their resource management plans. Essentially, BLM will be able to produce the overall management plans before, and separate from, the road plans... Zuni Salt Lake threatened again The sanctity of the Zuni Salt Lake is again in jeopardy. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced earlier this month plans to possibly lease a part of a recently abandoned mine site to oil and gas development. The area, sacred to Zuni and other native people, had been under consideration as a coal mine by Salt River Project, an Arizona utility company...Bond referendum ignites water wars in Colorado It has pitted farmers against city folks, environmentalists against Front Range governments and conservative Republicans against the Republican governor. Although lawmakers intended a $2 billion bond referendum on Colorado's Nov. 4 ballot to find solutions for a record drought, it instead has ignited divisive water wars over how best to use and conserve the state's limited resource. Influential western Colorado politicians, lobbying groups and residents are concerned Referendum A will enable thirsty, populated areas in eastern Colorado to take their water with little regard for the region's future... Law of the lands Some people think Robert J. Miller, an Indian law scholar, specializes in an obscure area of legal academia. But the associate professor at Lewis & Clark Law School disagrees. Tribal sovereignty is quickly becoming one of the fundamental legal, economic and environmental questions of our time, said Miller, who is a member of the Eastern Shawnee tribe of Oklahoma... Legal battle centers on basin As 180 gallons of water gush from his well every minute, George Adam wonders how anyone can believe the Santa Maria Valley groundwater basin isn't full. Last year, Adam's family spent $48,000 for a tiling system to divert the water - which was flooding his 18-acre cauliflower field off Simas Road - to the nearby Solomon Slough and then to the ocean. Grower George Adam stands along a channel that cuts through a field leading water to the ocean. Adam says groundwater in the Santa Maria basin is plentiful and state water is not needed. Below, water pours out of an irrigation pipe into a channel that will eventually take the water to the ocean. He says rising water levels are a problem faced by many area farmers - and an indication that there is plenty of groundwater in the basin. Adam can cite charts and studies that bolster his claim. But then again, so can others who believe that groundwater demand has outstripped supply. Wednesday is the opening day of a trial in San Jose to determine just how much water is flowing in the valley's basin - and whether there is enough to go around... Another Bush Administration 'Leak' Says Group; Snowmobiles Leak Pollution into Yellowstone; Court to Decide Issue Before Winter Snowmobiles may be barred from nearly all of Yellowstone National Park this winter as a federal judge has announced that he will issue a ruling in the lawsuit filed by animal protection and environmental groups before the winter snowmobile season. The groups, suing to stop the White House's latest attack on the environment, have filed a legal brief illustrating how the Bush Administration has sold out Yellowstone to the snowmobile industry by allowing the use of polluting, noisy, and wildlife-harming machines despite its own studies that show exactly how harmful they are...Editorial: Congress, Bush must challenge Antiquities Act The problem is that the Antiquities Act consists of vague language. For example, there is no definition of what "historic" or "scientific" means in the act. It is left to each president to decide how he or she will define the term. To say that Clinton's use of the Antiquities Act caused some unrest would be a big understatement. We still feel the effects of his declaration today. While changing what already has been done might be difficult -- if not impossible -- there is room for improving the process to ensure such decisions aren't made by one person in the heat of a campaign, as it could be argued Clinton did to enhance presidential and congressional campaigns in the past. It's time for the president and Congress to pass another act that supersedes the Antiquities Act. The goal would not be to remove any chance of protecting public lands from development, but the process should have to be put through Congress... Some things technology won't helpGoing, going, gone. Our calves sold a week ago today on an Internet cattle auction. It's the latest technology to hit the cattle industry that once was as simple as a horse, a saddle and a man. None of it is so simple today. As I write, six semi-trucks sit ready to load as soon as the pasture is gathered and the calves are sorted and weighed. It's shipping day. It is part of the normal process of the cattle business. It is the once a year pay day for the rancher. This is where you very likely in today's economics of ranching, find out you worked all year for nothing... Balancing Cattle, Land and Ledgers Mr. Kahrle practices what is called sustainable ranching. By avoiding pesticides and relying more on range grass than feed grown with fertilizers, he says, he is helping to sustain the environment. By avoiding antibiotics and hormones, he is sustaining the quality of his beef. And by reducing his costs and becoming part of a network of distributors, retailers and chefs who care about what they are doing and are willing to pay for it, he is sustaining what is often an economically precarious way of life. "We use more of what nature gives us," Mr. Kahrle said. "It makes sense on every level." Mr. Kahrle is part of a small, growing group of ranchers and business owners who say the meat industry has cut so many corners for the sake of profit that the environment and the quality of beef have been compromised and small ranchers have been driven out of business. With recent outbreaks of disease, like mad cow in Canada, and a larger trend toward organic and humane treatment of animals, those out West in big hat country feel the time is ripe to market beef with a known history...Idaho cattle may open export market for Northwest An Idaho rancher who recently delivered nearly 800 cattle to a ship in The Dalles bound for South Korea may have helped open a national export market for ranchers in the Pacific Northwest. If the ship docks in the South Korean cities of Inchon and Busanin with healthy steers, the cattle fatten up to provide nicely marbled meat, and the export costs prove to be reasonable, the success could launch a $40 million annual market of exports from Oregon to South Korea...FISHING FOR HORSES But Jason Mercurio is the scion of a Monterey Bay commercial fishing family, grew up in Monterey and literally won his spurs as a cowboy and wrangler, competing against longtime ranching families at the Carmel Valley Ranchers Days held each year at the end of September. Mercurio, 23, took the Old Style Roping championship this year on the last day of Ranchers Days at the Carmel Valley Trail and Saddle Club, throwing a flawless figure-eight loop -- a California vaquero technique that allows a riata to catch a cow by both neck and forelegs -- while riding with partner Mollie Dorrance of Salinas...Last look at Happy Trails before move After forging happy trails in the High Desert for 35 years, family members of Western film icons Roy Rogers and Dale Evans are packin' up and movin' out. The Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Museum, which has fallen on hard times since the deaths of its namesake stars, is relocating to Branson, Mo., where country-western reigns supreme...