NEWS ROUNDUP

NOTE: Click on the highlighted areas in orange to go to the article, study, report, etc.

In case of downed trees, investigator has suspect in mind A U.S. Forest Service investigator says she knows who knocked over more than 100 ponderosa and lodgepole pines around Labor Day and dug trenches into a dirt road popular among off-road vehicle enthusiasts. Kim Jones, special agent for the Forest Service, said a landowner in the area brought heavy equipment into the forest to cause the damage. The felled trees and trenches continue to block three roads as they cross onto a cluster of private properties leading up to Fairview Peak. Jones, who helped determine the cause of the 2002 Hayman fire, was assigned to investigate the destruction after off-roaders reported that one of the roads they have used for years looked like it had been hit by a hurricane. Jones said the damage resulted from long-standing conflicts between private property owners in the area and off-roaders who use roads that cut across those private properties...'Bale bombing' targets burned areas Dangling beneath a helicopter, a 600-pound bundle of straw in a cargo net is destined for an experiment high in the North Fork Valley. That load and many more are flown over a forest brimming with brilliant yellow larch and green firs, to a ridgeline blackened by the Robert Fire. The straw is dumped, as evenly as possible, as an emergency measure to control runoff, erosion and sediment in downslope streams. "Bale bombing" is just one version of the Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation projects being carried out on 165,000 acres burned on the Flathead Forest over the summer... Feds pass on wolverine listing The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not consider federal protections for wolverines, citing a lack of information about the species. Six conservation organizations in July 2000 petitioned the federal government to list the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act in the lower 48 states and to designate critical habitat. Wildlife officials on Tuesday said the petition doesn't provide "substantial information" indicating that listing the wolverine as threatened or endangered may be warranted...Boys ranch planned south of Magdalena It's all about immersing into the history of the land, enjoying the lore of the Old West and experiencing the excitement of the legends of the days of cowboys and Indians. This is the typical day Bayard Harris envisions with the creation of the Ranch of the Pharaoh, a camping and ranching experience for adolescent boys, located in the heart of the high desert, in the foothills of the San Mateo Mountains, between Magdalena and Datil, about 14 miles south of the Very Large Array. Harris, from Roanoke, Va., has been working toward what he calls "the ultimate cowboy experience" for young men, in hopes of offering a life experience that will stay with the young men for the rest of their lives and help guide them in decisions they make in every aspect of their lives...Wasatch County balks at bill to reseed charred land A Wasatch County official says they should not have to foot the bill to reseed private land charred by a U.S. Forest Service prescribed burn that went out of control last month. ''We're a little frustrated,'' Mike Davis, Wasatch County manager, said. ''We don't have a budget for that. We'd have to go to the taxpayers and that wouldn't sit well.''...Wilderness Society Releases Wildland Fire Policy Report; Report Outlines Landmark Plan to Protect Communities Recent summers have seen large forest fires burning millions of acres across western states. And while everyone agrees that fuel loads in forests must be reduced, they disagree over where, and by how much. Recent plans, including the President's own Healthy Forest Initiative and several introduced in the Senate have attempted to address the issue, but few contain provisions for the prioritization of treatment areas. Moreover, many virtually ignore the threat of fire to communities. A new report from The Wilderness Society, "The Wildland Fire Challenge: Focus on Reliable Data, Community Protection, and Ecological Restoration," offers a science-based solution to the current wildland fire management dilemma. The report evaluates the quality of information feeding Federal wildland fire policy and assesses the challenge with a community protection focus. Further, it outlines the first steps to prioritize where fuels reduction efforts are needed, and delivers a plan to restore fire-reliant forests...Click here to view the report... BLM Responds to Alleged Hazing of Rookie Firefighters A spokeswoman for the government clarified by saying that the probe centered on two fire crews consisting of ten fire employees. That a female recruit was sexually harassed by a veteran firefighter and that other recruits were demeaned and humiliated by being forced to wear children's dolls around their necks were among the findings. The BLM specifically denied finding any evidence that rookies were ordered to strip down to their underwear and urinate on themselves, or that women were fondled, or that anyone attempted to blastedommit sodomy; allegations which were made to us by more than one source...Costs of studies blasted "The studies are robbing the agencies of their very limited resources with the real goal of privatizing and commercializing public lands," said Vera Smith of the 10,000-member Colorado Mountain Club. The analysis by the Campaign to Protect America's Lands, released in Denver, said the Interior Department spent $16 million this year on privatization studies and saved only $600,000. But John Wright, a spokesman for Interior Department, said only $2.1 million was spent in the last two years on hiring private consultants. The Campaign to Protect America's Public Lands said its $16 million figure included wages for the hours federal workers spent helping the private consultants instead of doing their jobs...Editorial:Costly local giveaways overload energy plan But during the long fight over the legislation, the focus on addressing those priorities has been diverted by costly home-state interests. Questionable programs are being expanded and difficult problems set aside as lawmakers tuck parochial benefits under the umbrella of a national energy policy. The result is a 10-year, $75 billion package filled with local jobs programs and giveaways to well-connected industries. The total is double the spending and tax breaks proposed in 2001 and threatens to push the government deeper into debt even as it reports a record $374 billion deficit for the year that ended Sept. 30...Cloud-seeding funds continue to flow Did you know that the water flowing from your kitchen faucet might have had a little help getting there? For nearly two decades, Santa Barbara County has used cloud seeding to augment local water supplies. Clouds are composed of water-vapor droplets of different sizes and temperatures. Rain or snow is formed when this vapor attaches to microscopic particles of atmospheric dust, called condensation nuclei. Once heavy enough, the particles falls out as precipitation. Cloud seeding increases condensation nuclei within a cloud. Silver iodide is injected into the clouds by generators placed on the tops of mountains or mounted on the wing-tips of small aircraft...Montana dam owners sued A federal lawsuit by two Bozeman residents says PPL Montana, Avista Corp. and PacifiCorp owe Montana decades of lease payments for their hydroelectric dams, which sit on state-owned riverbeds. The companies have never paid for use of the land, and it's time to calculate back payments and interest due to the state school trust, the designated beneficiary of state lands, say Richard Dolan and Denise Hayman. They brought the lawsuit "on behalf of the state, (their) children, the public school fund and all other beneficiaries of the school trust," says the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court at Missoula...Editorial:Troubled waters When there is enough water to go around, you build a dam. When there isn't enough water to go around, everybody has to give a damn. Everybody standing in front of Hoover Dam last week to celebrate the signing of a seven-state accord to more fairly share precious water from the Colorado River was justly happy about the deal. They also knew that the agreement is five years late, given that the water those Western states have finally agreed to share is dwindling to the point that the fighting is likely to begin again soon. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, who also signed the pact, allowed the euphoria of the moment to go to her head just a little when she said, "With this agreement, conflict on the river is stilled." Shortly thereafter, Norton regained her senses and said, "We've taken away the legal obstacles to surplus water for California water. We have not created water." Indeed they have not...Gene mutation not the likely cause of latest mad cow case The cow confirmed earlier this month as being Japan's eighth with mad cow disease did not show any mutations in its prion genes, according to research findings. The results of the study suggest that external factors may have caused the cow's infection. "It is quite unlikely that genes were the reason" for the cow's infection with the disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, said Yoshio Yamakawa of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. The Holstein -- infected with an atypical form of mad cow disease -- had a different prion structure that the seven earlier cows...More mad cow cases in Italy Two more Italian cows have tested positive for mad cow disease, bringing the country's total to 113, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. The cows came from two breeding farms in northern Italy, the ministry said, citing confirmation from a Turin zoological institute that acts as the country's national control centre for the disease. Italy found its first case in cattle in 2001, after the European Union ordered mandatory tests on cattle older than 30 months destined for slaughter. Fifty positive cases were reported in 2001, 36 in 2002, and 27 so far this year. Last year, Italy reported its first case of the human form of the brain-wasting illness in a young woman in Sicily. Experts believe the human form of the illness is transmitted by eating meat from infected animals...Onassis heiress gives boyfriend a cow The gift that the heiress of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis chose for her Brazilian (news - web sites) boyfriend may not match in elegance the flawless gems her grandfather poured on Jacqueline Kennedy. But the price is quite high, for a cow. The world's richest teen-ager, Athina Roussel, 18, paid 220,000 pounds for a prize cow called Esperanca (Hope) at a cattle auction in Sao Paulo on Monday night as a gift for her boyfriend -- Olympic horseman Alvaro Affonso de Miranda Neto, known as Doda, auction organisers said on Tuesday. Doda, 30, who was also at the auction, has a cattle farm...USDA may ask Supreme Court to review beef checkoff The Bush administration may ask the Supreme Court to decide the future of a U.S. beef industry program that funds the "Beef, It's What's For Dinner" advertising campaign, a U.S. Agriculture Department official said on Monday. Last week, the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the administration's request to reconsider its ruling that the government-run beef "checkoff" program was unconstitutional and should be terminated...A family ranch, run by outsiders If there's such a thing as true grit and Texas spirit, Henrietta King personified it. So it makes sense that she wouldn't let a little thing like death jeopardize the ranch her husband worked so hard to build and that she worked so hard to keep intact. Even if she was the one doing the dying. Under the terms of her last will and testament, the ranch went into a trust for 10 years -- long enough, she hoped, for her family to pay off its debts and buy out relatives who wanted to cash in their shares. The brilliance of King's plan, carefully crafted by her attorneys, still shines in an age when inheritances and progress have broken up many historic ranches by dividing them into ever-smaller pieces...Editorial: Elk escape shows danger of game farms We hate to say we told you so, but we told you so. Despite game farmers' reassurances that they keep their animals responsibly confined so they are not a threat to wild populations, a fallen tree on a fence last month near Winifred let 24 domesticated elk escape their game farm. The elk belonged to the Judith River Ranch, very close to the Missouri-Judith River Breaks area, home to world-class wild elk that draw hunters every fall and are part of the natural beauty and balance of the country. As of Tuesday, six game-farm bulls were still at large. Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks authorities are hoping that a new influx of hunters this weekend in District 426 will run across the animals with their large yellow ear tags...Bair Ranch conservation clouds up Local environmentalists say opposition to the Bair Ranch conservation deal shows there continues to be a lack of understanding about the benefits of protecting large portions of land. Since the summer, when county commissioners approved in a 2-1 vote a $2 million contribution to the purchase of a $5 million conservation easement on 4,300 acres of the Glenwood Canyon ranch, Commissioner Tom Stone has questioned aspects of the deal, including whether it's appropriate to use taxpayer dollars to protect a working ranch that won't have public access...PETA wants SF Bay Area region of Rodeo to change its name An animal rights group has asked a region of the San Francisco Bay area called Rodeo to change its name in exchange for $20,000 worth of high-protein, lowfat veggie burgers. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter Monday to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, urging them to give up the name because it evokes the violent sport of rodeo, which harms animals, PETA officials said. Rodeo is an unincorporated region about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco...Cowboys' numbers crunch And the survey says ...That's what rodeo cowboys all over the United States and Canada are waiting to see as the PRCA tabulates questionnaires it recently sent members. The issue was the number of rodeos that should count in the world standings. Until last year, a rough stock cowboy -- bareback, saddle bronc and bull riders -- could officially count 125 to his season winnings. Timed event competitors -- steer wrestlers, tie-down ropers and team ropers -- were allowed to count 100. Last year, wanting to cut down travel costs for competitors, the PRCA lowered the numbers to 75 for rough stock cowboys and 50 event for those in the timed events. The number is also 50 for barrel racers, who are governed about another sanctioning body, the Women's Professional Rodeo Association. The rule also levels the playing field a bit, not allowing those wealthier cowboys and cowgirls from going out and "buying," a gold buckle by being able to travel everywhere by private plane or having the best horses based at various sites around the country. When a cowboy enters a rodeo, he must declare the rodeo "official" or "unofficial." At official rodeos, the money counts in the world standings...Rodeo performed by special cowboys It's a place where persons with disabilities can experience the joy of a cowboy's rodeo life. The Special Cowboys Rodeo Association held its seventh anniversary rodeo Sunday, this one dedicated to Audra Hardin of Collinsville, a member who lost her battle with spina biffida in August. Complete with a rodeo queen and king, the event went off without a hitch. "It takes a lot of volunteers to put on an event of this kind," said co-founder Melanie Robbins. "We wouldn't be able to do this without the volunteers." The grand entry event kicked off at 2 p.m. and all the participants who were there, rode through the arena; some with volunteer assistance and others without. The cloverleaf barrel race was the first event, beginning with the age 7 and under category. Events also included Poles and Cowboy Rescue as well as live, Texas Country music throughout the day...