NEWS ROUNDUP

Let it burn; put it out The Rincon and Santa Catalina mountains are practically joined at the hip, but their relationship with fire has become a study in contrasts. For thousands of years, lightning-sparked fires crept across both ranges in a similar way, consuming fuel on the forest floor once or twice a decade. But in the past century, as the Catalinas were developed and the Rincons stayed primitive, federal officials were forced to handle fire quite differently in the neighboring mountains... State report says California sapping world's timber California's efforts to protect its own forest land is spurring more logging in other nations, particularly Canada, to feed construction in the nation's most populous state, according to a new state report...Archaeologists find evidence of Chinese camp in Sierra Archaeologists have uncovered evidence near this Sierra town of what's thought to be a Chinese logging camp that dates back to the 1870s. Artifacts found at the Tahoe National Forest site off Sawtooth Road include an ax head, metal files, opium can fragments, a Chinese medicine bottle and tableware fragments... National needs, local concerns The push to develop rich natural gas fields in the West has officials in three Colorado communities concerned the Bush administration is forgetting promises it made to give them influence over use of federal lands. La Plata and Garfield county commissioners are pleading for more environmentally friendly drilling techniques. The Grand Junction City Council was angered by what some saw as a federal failure to protect the local water supply...Use of hatchery salmon to boost wild runs raises thorny questions Many of the spawning salmon were born in the stainless-steel trays of hatcheries and are now being encouraged to mate in the rivers to try to boost the population of wild runs listed under federal Endangered Species Act. This practice raises a complicated and fundamental question in the multibillion-dollar regional effort to save wild Northwest salmon runs: When is a wild fish really wild, with the genetic smarts to help sustain healthy runs for generations to come?...Editorial: Environmentalists should be held accountable An absurd battle is brewing around a congressional act concerning public-lands grazing. The Senate recently adopted a provision to keep ranchers' grazing permits current until environmental reviews of their allotments are completed. Environmentalists are up in arms over the provision, claiming it bypasses federal policy that requires environmental analysis be done before grazing permits are reissued. They want those reviews to justify grazing and want all grazing activity to cease until such assessments can be done...Comeback of prairie chickens a success story Thirty years ago, only about 600 greater prairie chickens remained, prompting a listing as a state endangered species. Now that number has swelled to an estimated 10,000, and the wildlife agency allows a limited hunting season that ranks as Colorado's most arcane adventure with a shotgun...Trinity River settlement eyed with suspicion A proposed settlement to a suit over sending more water down the Trinity River has sent a torrent of concern over Northern California officials who want to revive the river's salmon and steelhead runs. The proposal will be pitched by Westlands Water District, a main beneficiary of Trinity water, to Trinity County supervisors this week, and soon to supervisors in Humboldt County. Westlands General Manager Tom Birmingham will outline an offer the irrigation giant has made to the U.S. Interior Department, which is defending its Trinity restoration plan against Westlands in federal court...Grazing Permits Amendment Comes Under AttackRecent land-use legislation to streamline the permit process for ranchers who graze cattle on public lands has some environmental groups crying foul. Adopted by the Senate on Tuesday, the provision seeks to keep ranchers' permits current until environmental reviews of their allotments are completed... Editorial: Norton puts wilderness at risk U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton violated common sense and her own promises by opening 3 million acres of fragile federal lands to energy drilling and off-road-vehicles (ORVs). In Colorado, 600,000 acres are at risk, including Western Slope scenic areas and wildlife habitat like the Roan Plateau, Vermillion Basin and Big Ridge. The new policy, announced last week, means the Bureau of Land Management won't preserve pristine qualities that make the areas eligible for wilderness designation. In a designated wilderness, mineral development is banned and motorized vehicles are prohibited except in emergencies. By letting ORVs and drill rigs into the areas, Norton will let their pristine nature be ruined - and so ensure that Congress never gets to consider them for wilderness designation...Regulation of the environment benefits the economy, says a White House report It came as a surprise, therefore, when the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently declared that environmental regulations are good for the economy. Looking at a variety of areas - education, energy, housing, health, labor, but mostly the environment - the Bush administration's budget office reported to Congress that "the estimated total annual quantified benefits of these rules range from $146 billion to $230 billion, while the estimated total annual quantified costs range from $36 billion to $42 billion." Of these totals, according to OMB, the yearly benefits of environmental regulations range from $121 billion to $193 billion, the costs from $37 billion to $43 billion. In other words, benefits of things like government-mandated clearer air and cleaner water outweigh costs by as much as 5 to 1...Animas-La Plata meeting may be illegal A closed-door meeting attended by proponents of the Animas-La Plata Project may have violated Colorado and New Mexico open-meeting laws, said opponents and a news-media lawyer... Public help is sought to solve deaths of 7 wolves The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is asking the public for information in the deaths of seven Mexican gray wolves in Eastern Arizona and Western New Mexico since March. Rewards of up to $10,000 are offered to anyone who can assist agents in the arrests of those responsible for the deaths of the wolves, a species that was reintroduced in 1998, said Victoria Fox, a service spokeswoman in Albuquerque...Norton names Montana BLM advisory members Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced the appointment of 17 members to Montana's three citizen-based Resource Advisory Councils that advise the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on public land issues... A Dying Tradition Lehi resident Dale Hunter is a rancher at heart. "I love spending my summers up with the cattle," he said. "It gets me out and I get to see wildlife. It is a hands-on job, it's very enjoyable. You've just got to love that way of life. I grew up with it and my ancestors were always that way and so it was passed on to me. It is a good way of life." But urban sprawl is changing that. Hunter was recently forced to sell more than two-thirds of the farmland that had been in his family for generations because American Fork wanted to build a park. "I really wasn't ready to sell, but it got condemned by American Fork," he said. "They wanted it for its aesthetic value. If I could have it all back again it would be nice, but it is not the same when you have homes and subdivisions all around you." Hunter was one of 42 ranchers who spent Thursday and Friday participating in an agricultural ritual that is as old as the valley's pioneer settlements -- gathering their combined 2,273 cattle from the summer grazing range in Spanish Fork Canyon to take them home for the winter. He said it is a tradition that may have no future...National Park Service Launches New Web Site to Highlight Hispanic Heritage Parks National Park Service Director Fran Mainella today announced the availability of a new web site designed to highlight the importance of Hispanic Heritage Parks and the part they play in the nation's history. The new site titled, "Hispanic Heritage Parks: An Iberian Project," assists visitors in experiencing the nation's Hispanic heritage that is preserved and interpreted throughout the National Park Service... Woolly workers prove their worth They're nature's lawnmowers. But a sheepish plan to cut the grass on Alberta's right-of-ways with a small army of woolly workers is struggling to overcome a basic design flaw: the sheep keep jumping the fence... Editorial: Don't play with fire It seems the fire bill is not out of the congressional woods yet. The agreement between the Senate and the White House on a landmark bill to protect public forests from fire and disease could still get lost in a procedural thicket in Congress. It also could still be smashed by the old-growth-size egos of members of Congress angered by a take-it-or-leave-it letter from seven Democrats, including Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who reached the deal with the White House. House members don't have to like the letter or the process, but they should take seriously Wyden's threat to withdraw his support if the House starts tinkering with the deal. Wyden and other Senate Democrats have every reason to run, not walk, away if the House blows up their compromise... Stumbling Upon Wolf Tracks in the Northern Reaches of Yellowstone Three weeks ago I saw two wolf tracks in the mud of a creek bank high in Yellowstone National Park. It was old mud, from the last time the creek had overrun its banks, but the tracks had blurred only slightly. Each one was larger than my hand, fingers outstretched. Rain and snow blew in squalls across the valley, near the northern edge of the park. The long gravel beach was as gray as the clouds overhead, which dimmed and brightened minute by minute. I bent down to look at the tracks again and then returned to my fishing. But before long I reeled in and walked back over to the mud flat, just to reassure myself that the tracks were really there. They were... Democrats blasted for stalling Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., charged his Democratic colleagues with playing politics in stalling Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt's nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency. "This boycott is nothing more than a political ploy by committee Democrats to try to influence the presidential election next year and disparage our president," Thomas said in a release... Crisis Looming: Demand for natural gas may produce next energy shortage Nationwide, as demand for natural gas grows and production from domestic supplies flattens out or declines, experts say the odorless, colorless gas -- the primary component of which is methane -- may be the source of the next energy crisis. Industry executives, analysts and politicians are all looking at ways to meet the nation's growing thirst for natural gas. Expanding supplies in the Rocky Mountains, offshore drilling and bringing in gas from overseas are all on the table... Goldwater Scholar Applauds Appeals Court Decision in Bailey Case, Warns Property Rights Still Not Safe in Arizona Goldwater Institute constitutional studies director Mark Brnovich applauded yesterday's decision by the Arizona Court of Appeals in the case of Bailey v. Myers, which pitted brake shop owner Randy Bailey against the City of Mesa. The Court ruled in favor of the Bailey family, holding that "Article 2, Section 17 of the Arizona Constitution prevents the City from taking the Baileys' property for this redevelopment project because the ultimate use of the property is not a public use. " But Brnovich also stated that the matter is far from settled. "Bailey and the Institute for Justice have won an important battle for Arizona property owners," he said. But the war is not over. First, Mesa may appeal the case to the Arizona Supreme Court, where Bailey's brake shop will face an uncertain outcome. Second, whatever happens in the Bailey case, the Supreme Court is unlikely to strike down Arizona's 1997 redevelopment statute, which Brnovich sees as a primary cause of eminent domain abuse... With liberty and salmon for all The creators of Salmon Nation ask that you think of it as a real place, defined not by political boundaries, but rather by the mountains, rivers, estuaries and ocean waters where salmon hold a keystone position among living things -- a land stretching from Alaska to California. "Imagine, if you could, a society and an economy based on the natural character of the land," said Spencer Beebe, founder and president of Ecotrust, the Portland nonprofit group orchestrating the Salmon Nation campaign, with help from Patagonia and other sponsors... Smell on earth: Grass Mesa residents choking on fumes from gas drilling Doug Dennison says he doesn't doubt natural gas drilling smells give many western Garfield County residents headaches, makes them nauseous, and is hard on their sleep. "I've spent the better part of two nights on Grass Mesa," said Dennison, Garfield County's oil and gas auditor. "The smell is worse in the early morning." Grass Mesa resident Rebecca Brock said that in July she started smelling the four gas wells that operate about a mile from her house. "I had to close the windows, and almost roasted to death," Brock said. "I couldn't run the swamp cooler, because it sucked the smells in."...Mule rides halted at Grand Canyon The popular mule train rides from the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park have been temporarily halted while canyon trails undergo maintenance. The mule rides, which ended in late September, could resume in about six months, according to Xanterra Parks and Resorts, which operates the rides along with lodges and restaurants at the South Rim...Lost sheep? Not on Dotti the llama's watch She is a 6-foot-tall creature with a shaggy body and a haughty air, her large brown eyes staring intently at a visitor who dares to approach her on a sunny afternoon. Dotti the llama has reason to be suspicious of strangers. Guarding sheep is a serious business. If Dotti is successful at her job, she will help a Humboldt County rancher resurrect the family's sheep farming business...Conservancy won't renew ranch lease The Ojai Valley Land Conservancy will not renew a lease next year with a local horse rancher after its board decided it could not rent out land purchased with public money to a private business. Jim Engel, the conservancy's executive director, said the recent decision was not influenced by a petition signed by about 35 residents complaining about Sue Gruber's Oso Ranch on Meyer Road... Glendive TV station is one-man operation As Ed Agre videotapes this small Montana town's annual parade, candy skids along the ground - thrown from a bank-sponsored float. Behind, farming tractors follow the local football team roaring from a flatbed truck. Though he looks like a proud grandfather trying to catch his grandchildren on tape, Agre, 66, is covering the news. He's news director, reporter and desk anchor for KXGN-Ch. 5 in Glendive, the smallest television news market in the nation. For a 100-mile radius, the only local broadcast news source from the Canadian border to southern Montana is KXGN, aka Ed Agre... Debts force cattle ranch liquidation Leachman Cattle Co. is going through a liquidation to pay off huge debts, likely marking the end of its world-renowned annual auction. Most ranch hands received their last paychecks Tuesday, and the fate of what's left of the ranch assets was being debated last week in Yellowstone District Court. Two ranches are on the block, along with the Leachman Cattle Co. name and the Hairpin brand...Future eyed in old dude ranch Interior Secretary Gale Norton is looking to an old dude ranch in Grand Teton National Park to help ensure the West's historic buildings do not simply rot away...Bison Burgers, for Humanity's Sake THREE years ago, Ted Turner's effort to restore the country's bison herds was such a success that it created a problem: a glut of bison meat. So Mr. Turner has started a restaurant chain, Ted's Montana Grill, where he is turning bison into burgers and, in the process, hoping to build what he calls "another great fortune.'' With little fanfare, Mr. Turner opened the first of the restaurants in 2002 and now has 11 of them in the South and West, five in this city alone. But as everyone knows, Mr. Turner thinks big. So it should come as no surprise that he has ambitious plans for what started as a simple experiment to see if he could create an appetite for bison...