NEWS ROUNDUP


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

Two Western governors raise concerns about Senate wildfire bill Governors of New Mexico and Arizona say a forest fire prevention bill stalled in the Senate fails to meet the needs of forest communities and more should be done. Specifically, the legislation needs to focus efforts to reduce fire risks in communities near forests, to provide funding for forest treatment projects, and to include clear protections for old growth forests, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, both Democrats, wrote in a letter to several senators...Forest Service says ads are inflammatory Raw feelings between Shovel Brigade members and the U.S. Forest Service have led to a media war and a decision by one district ranger not to attend a scheduled meeting with ranchers about their grazing allotments. Radio advertising began airing on local stations over the weekend stating that the Forest Service has implemented a policy of issuing citations for "operating any vehicle off-road in a manner which damages or unreasonably disturbs the land, wildlife or vegetative resources." The ad refers anyone who has received such a citation to the Shovel Brigade for help. On Saturday, an Idaho man who had been cited for resource damage for driving up South Canyon Road at Jarbidge attended a meeting there of the Shovel Brigade. During that meeting, Elko attorney Grant Gerber, who has represented the Shovel Brigade in the past, told the Free Press he has agreed to defend John Eickhof of Wendell, Idaho, as he fights the ticket. Other radio ads went further. The announcement, paid for by Mike Lattin, encourages anyone cited and "apprehended" by Forest Service personnel for such an offense to "consider them armed and dangerous" and to cooperate to the fullest extent possible. Similar ads began running in today's Elko Daily Free Press...Also see Armed and dangerous: Forest Service calls Elko ads inflammatory....Watersheds project opens office in Bozeman The Western Watersheds Project recently opened an office in Bozeman, Mont., under the direction of Glenn Hockett, according to a press release from project officials. "Western Watersheds Project welcomes having such a knowledgeable, on-the-ground director for our new office in Montana," said Jon Marvel, executive director of WWP. "We know Glenn's work will assist the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to comply with the law." Based in Hailey WWP now has offices in Mendon, Utah; Pinedale, Wyo., and Missoula and Bozeman as well as ongoing conservation work in eight western states. The group's chief target is public lands livestock grazing that WWP says destroys western watersheds and threatens or endangers species such as wolves, bighorn sheep and native fish...Research behind forest thinning comes under fire The U.S. Forest Service and environmentalists are at odds over a plan to prevent catastrophic fires on almost 8,000 acres of high-elevation forest near Leadville. The Forest Service says the combination of thinning and planned burns will allow smaller, more frequent fires to restore the kind of forest that existed there before miners moved into the area. But environmental groups argue the money would be better spent controlling fire danger in Front Range communities...Jaguar photographed near Mexico border A rare and elusive jaguar has been captured on film at a remote area south of Tucson. The photograph, released yesterday, was snapped in August by a surveillance camera hidden in an area suspected to be frequented by the endangered cat. A big cat specialist believes it shows the same jaguar photographed by a surveillance camera in December 2001. "This (recent) photograph is incredibly exciting because of the patterns of spots on the animal," said Bill Van Pelt of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. He said the recent picture was taken about five miles from the first. Exactly where the photographs were taken is being kept secret to protect it....States, Environmental Groups Challenge Bush on Global Warming: Twelve Attorneys General Challenge Politically Charged EPA Pollution Ruling Twelve states, several cities, and over a dozen environmental groups today joined forces to challenge the Bush Administration's continued failure to confront global warming. The plaintiffs are targeting the unprecedented ruling by the Environmental Protection Agency late last summer that summarily disavowed the agency's long-standing jurisdiction under the Clean Air Act to regulate global warming emissions. The states, cities and groups challenged the EPA decision in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. States challenging EPA's decision are California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. American Samoa, and the District of Columbia are also named in today's petition. The cities of Baltimore, and New York also filed a separate petition today...Ranchers sue to remove wolves Ranchers and county leaders are trying to stop the Blue Range Mexican Gray Wolf reintroduction project by suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Coalition of the Arizona and New Mexico Counties Executive Director Howard Hutchinson said that individual ranchers and cattle groups joined forces to file a lawsuit to remove the wolves from the wild. The preliminary injunction that was filed about two weeks ago includes testimony from local rancher Rocky Manuz about the reintroduction project. In his testimony, Manuz addresses alleged and proven depredations caused by the wolves. The primary goal of the lawsuit is to prove the wolves are crossbreeding and to put them temporarily back into captivity until safeguards are designed to prevent the disruption of the wolves' gene pool. If this were to happen, wolves would be removed from the Blue Range Reintroduction Area that includes eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Hutchinson said the lawsuit focuses on the high probability of wolves interbreeding with domestic canines or wolf hybrids, decreasing the purity of their endangered gene pool. He said the groups have evidence of a wolf litter that has markings that look exactly like a breed of ranching dog known as catahoula dogs. "We also believe that there have been other instances of crossbreeding with coyotes, domestic dogs or wolf hybrids," he said. "Part of our claim is that the Fish and Wildlife Service has refused to honor our Freedom of Information Act request with this genetic issue."...Fish report fallout keeps on coming The day after the release of a federal report about fish in the Klamath Basin, reaction continues to roll out from Washington, D.C., to Klamath Falls to the Pacific Coast. The most common message is that the National Research Council's report on endangered fishes in the Basin is going to change things. Members of Congress said the report refocuses restoration efforts on the Basin as a whole. Federal officials said the report will change how the Klamath River is managed. The Klamath Tribes said the report shows the need for restoration of the ecosystem. Meanwhile, a Northern California newspaper said a draft version of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report on the fall 2002 Klamath River fish kill blames low flows in the river. According to the Eureka Times-Standard, a preliminary U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report says about 33,000 chinook salmon died because of low water flows in the Klamath River. The paper said it got the draft Tuesday and quoted it as saying ''decreased discharge'' delayed migration of the salmon, which died from disease in the crowded lower river in September 2002...Bear conference focuses on dealing with habituation People can, need to and are successfully coexisting with habituated populations of brown and grizzly bears, one of the world's leading authorities on bear-human interactions said Thursday. But successful coexistence isn't possible everywhere and always requires the active management of both people and bears, Stephen Herrero told a meeting of bear biologists from the United States and Canada. By allowing visitors to be close - albeit, not too close - to bears, park and refuge managers can expand the public's understanding, enjoyment and love of the species, said Herrero, a professor at the University of Calgary in Alberta...Ranching 101: Hey, Dude, Where's My Herd? "A lot of cowboys don't like dudes riding with their cattle," Bob Cochran, a cowboy who looks as if he just got off the set of a John Ford western, tells me somewhat delicately. We are moving a small herd up a mountainside, and my son and I have broken the first rule of cattle wrangling: don't ride too close to the cows. Now, instead of traveling in a nice, compact group, some are veering off toward the woods to the right, a few have chosen to go left, and the less adventuresome ones are plodding on straight ahead. With an almost imperceptible flick of his reins, Mr. Cochran signals his horse to take pursuit of the strays, and my husband, with slightly less aplomb, takes off after him. Though my husband, Robert, and our two children, Elly, 12, and Jesse, 8, are Easterners, we at least like to think we can blend into new places gracefully, without instantly being branded as tourists. In our less-than-Western garb — from my baseball cap to Jesse's nylon track pants — we are clearly dudes at the Boulder Mountain Ranch, a small outfit in southern Utah run by Mr. Cochran and Sioux, his wife...If Mad Cows Could Talk Dead mad cows can't talk. If they could, they'd probably tell you they are genuinely mad, with good reason, over the way Japan's bureaucrats and politicians have handled bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). "Blame humans, not cows," they might moo. Silly cow talk? Nope. When the latest case of mad cow disease was found near Tokyo on Oct. 6 -- Japan's eighth case since the first BSE victim shocked Japan in the summer of 2001 -- the government fell back on the now familiar tack of "round-up-the-regular-suspects" and try not to panic the voters or, rather, consumers. So far, the government has been unable to explain the causes of any of the eight cases. While touting the success of its policy of "testing" every cow in Japan, it has knowingly put out misleading information about what it has done to prevent the disease from spreading. And it ignored a warning from the European Union that, if followed, could have prevented BSE cases. The victim in the latest case was a bull whose age was surprisingly young -- 23 months old. Japan's previous seven infected cattle had been much older. The animal was brought to a slaughterhouse in Ibaraki Prefecture, north of Tokyo, on Sept. 29. The bull's brain sample tested positive in the initial screening test...FDA On Animal Antibiotics Faced with growing concern about antibiotics in livestock, the Food and Drug Administration recommended a three-step process Thursday to help make sure drugs proposed for use on animals won't create dangerous drug-resistant germs. Companies proposing new antimicrobial drugs for animal use could apply the guidelines in their applications for approval, the agency said. In addition, officials said the FDA will use the guidance to evaluate antimicrobials already in use, and could move to take them off the market if it determines there is a risk to humans...CSU professor estimates $100 billion cost nationally from CWD Chronic wasting disease could have a $100 billion economic impact across the country every year under a worst case scenario developed by a Colorado State University researcher. Andrew Seidl, an associate professor of agricultural and resource economics, said Thursday his estimate is based on the possibility that chronic wasting disease would be so widespread that no one would hunt or travel to view wildlife. ''The bottom line is while we really don't know what the total economic impact is going to be, we can see that wildlife is a large and important industry,'' said Seidl...US-Australia FTA could take 10 years: expert A United States trade expert says a free trade deal between the US and Australia could take as long as 10 years to be phased in. Dr Mechel Paggi from the University of California says the US will play hard ball on agricultural reform and will push for changes to Australia's quarantine provisions and the export monopoly on wheat. And he says the US is unlikely to make concessions on things like the beef quota, which limits Australian imports to the US. Dr Paggi says President Bush is facing an election in 2004, and a free trade agreement could cost him votes. "I think farmers and ranchers on both sides of the ocean are impatient," he said.
"I think the process looks to me like it will take some time into 2005 to complete, and then likely it will follow the history of the agreements with Mexico and Canada, where you have got a phase-in over a 10-year period before you have the actual free trade that we all want."...