NEWS ROUNDUP

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Congress OKs $3B to Combat Wildfires Congressional negotiators agreed Monday to spend almost $3 billion in the coming year to combat and prevent wildfires, making history's largest one-time firefighting allocation as a series of devastating blazes tore through California. The firefighting money includes $289 million for suppression, $11 million to cut down trees in overgrown or disease-ridden forests to reduce fire threats and $9 million in state and community fire assistance. It also repays $400 million that the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management borrowed from other programs to battle blazes this summer... Hamstrung heroes?: A devastating wave of fires underscores perilous choices of when to attack and when to retreat. The current conflagrations in Southern California involve both city and wildland firefighters, but it's the issue of wildland firefighters losing their edge that has singed the grapevine for several years now, discussed among firefighters and argued on the pages of their professional journals. The charge is that wildland firefighters - from the elite smoke jumpers to the novice "Type 2s" - lack the gung-ho spirit of 20 years ago. They don't work as hard on the fire line. They don't go after fires as aggressively. Whereas crews used to spend days in the sticks eating only what they carried or what helicopters could sling in, they now return after each shift to fire camps that are sometimes more like summer camp, with catered steak dinners, laundry service and hot showers instead of soot-caked bodies and C rations. Larry Humphrey, an outspoken 30-year veteran and the commander at the Summerhaven fire that destroyed more than 250 Arizona homes in June, sees increasing caution. "We're becoming less aggressive when we fight fire," says Humphrey, who works for the Bureau of Land Management in Arizona. "There's a trigger point for engagement, and a trigger point for disengagement." And fire teams yo-yo between attack and retreat. To Humphrey, it's an aggressive crew that stays alert and safe. Dan Buckley, a mustached 45-year-old who manages fires in Yosemite, says teams just quit the fire line while battling the 500,000-acre Biscuit fire in Oregon in summer 2002. "Even if they were doing critical work, they'd just get up and leave," he recalls. "It was crazy."...Ranchers cool to proposed western grazing law Legislation that would give western cattle and sheep ranchers a chance to sell their federal grazing leases back to the government is getting a cold reception from stockmen in Southwest Colorado. "It would be disastrous," said Sid Snyder, a Cortez cattleman whose family has grazed stock on federal land since 1952. "It might be good for a short while, but it takes away opportunities. What if my son wants to continue the operation and doesn't have the option?" Ned Jefferies, president of the La Plata-Archuleta Cattlemen's Association, doesn't know anyone anxious to sell. "In Southwest Colorado, if you're going to have an economical unit pay your bills and make a profit it's hard to make it work without a permit," Jefferies said. "All kinds of livestock operations do it without a permit, but a lot of cattlemen work at something else or they have mineral income or the wife goes to town to work." "I don't think many ranchers would agree with the buyout," said Steve Suckla, a third-generation San Miguel County cattleman whose family has used federal grazing permits for 45 years. Suckla said ranchers commonly buy and sell grazing permits among themselves under established guidelines. A government buyout, which would retire land from grazing permanently, could prove too definitive, Suckla said. "Grazing permits here are part of the community, a part of the infrastructure," Suckla said. "The fires and the drought show just how shaky tourism is. Agriculture isn't going to go away."...Proposed legislation offers money for ranchers' grazing rights Legislation has been proposed to Congress to offer ranchers money in exchange for their public grazing leases with the support from Graham and Greenlee county residents. According to the text of the Arizona Voluntary Grazing Permit Act, the intent of the legislation is, "To give livestock operators holding a grazing permit or lease on federal lands in the state of Arizona the opportunity to relinquish their grazing permit or lease in exchange for compensation, and for other puposes." Arizona Cattle Grower's Association lobbyist "Doc" C.B. Lane said he spoke with three ranchers who are pushing the bills. "The bills have very big, fatal holes in them and no one seems to notice," he said in an e-mail to the Courier. "In both bills, the 'waiving of the permit' does not exclude all of the permits that are sold between ranchers." If either bill passes, every government agency that has grazing permits would have to retire every permit permanently as each one is waived, he said...Shoshone settlement remains distant A settlement for the Western Shoshone's long disputed land claims in Nevada has taken one step forward and one step back. The Senate last week voted to pay nearly $145 million to the Western Shoshone as reparations for ancestral land taken by the federal government. Eligible tribal members would get about $20,000 apiece to settle a 1977 land claims case. But opponents of the payout filed a lawsuit in federal district court earlier this month seeking to assert title to more than 60 million acres, mostly in Nevada, under a treaty signed with the U.S. government in 1866. The dispute over land claims dates back more than 50 years and seems destined to drag on, especially as tribal members remained divided over whether to accept a one-time payment from the government or continue seeking ownership of the land...Wyoming Checks Mines for West Nile Source An outbreak of West Nile virus in northeastern Wyoming has scientists and some residents wondering if an unconventional approach to natural gas extraction is increasing the risk of the disease. The treeless prairie of the Powder River Basin in northeastern Wyoming is dotted with thousands of wells for extracting methane, which like other types of natural gas is used to heat homes. But in these wells, unlike traditional ones, the natural gas is mixed with ground water. Every well that pumps out methane also pumps out ground water round the clock, and the arid region is dotted with hundreds of new ponds to hold the excess water. In all parts of the country, health officials have advised residents that one of the first lines of defense against the mosquito-borne virus is to get rid of standing water. While the link between the methane wells and the virus is still under study, some scientists suspect that the standing water may be a rich breeding ground...Grouse face new threat in W. Nile West Nile virus has killed almost two dozen of Wyoming's greater sage grouse, a species already imperiled by drought, overgrazing and the splintering of the sagebrush steppe they need to survive. Experts say the deaths foreshadow what could occur in Colorado next year, when the Western Slope is expected to suffer more intense West Nile infection. Already, 19 sage grouse in Wyoming, the state with the West's last sizable stand of the birds, have succumbed to West Nile. That number will grow...CA Fires: And now for the REST of the story..... San Diego County instituted the first Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Program (MSHCP) in the nation about 10 years ago. The MSHCP was supposed to provide "islands of connected habitat" to "preserve a rich diversity of sensitive flora and fauna". By some counts, San Diego County has the highest number of plants, animals, birds, and reptiles in the threatened and endangered species list. The corner stone of the MSHCP is (or was) the Mission Trails Regional Park. This "park" connected pocket of habitat from the mountains to the coast. This same "park" is the corridor that allowed the fire to progress rapidly through residential and industrial areas; claiming untold millions in property damage and human life. While this news report cites eight deaths due to the fire, updated reports have attributed eleven deaths. The grand MSHCP "preserve" is now charred lands...Ranch owner: Access ruling will help all citizens The owners of a ranch that won a Wyoming Supreme Court decision allowing them to control access through their spread said the ruling will help all Wyoming property owners and those who wish to use their land. ''The clarity of the Supreme Court's decision should remove all future uncertainties,'' said Spike Forbes, who co-owns the Beckton Stock Farm west of Sheridan with other relatives. ''Such clarity is a clear benefit to all the citizens of Wyoming, whether they own property or simply wish to use the property of others.'' In their decision issued Friday, the justices unanimously affirmed a lower court ruling that allowed the ranch to close access to the Soldier Creek Trail which crosses their property. The trail leads to prime public hunting lands managed by the Bighorn National Forest, U.S. Bureau of Land Management and state of Wyoming. The trail had been used by the public since the 1890s, but in 2001, the Forbeses locked off the trail because hunters were continually leaving gates open and littering. Hunters were asked to either use a new corridor or call for permission to use the existing trail...Outdoor retailers nag Leavitt Outdoor retailers, restless with what they see as inaction by Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt on promised protections for the state's wild lands, are talking again about packing up their twice-yearly trade show and pitching camp outside Utah. Although Leavitt insists he has made solid progress in keeping his pledge to make Utah the nation's recreation capital, the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) said Sunday in a letter to the governor it was "immensely disappointed" with his lack of results. "Whatever his goals were, whatever his objectives were," said OIA President Frank Hugelmeyer, "at this point they are just words." The retailers' latest threat to pull their big trade show out of Utah came on the eve of plans for a crucial vote in the U.S. Senate to push forward Leavitt's stalled nomination to be the next administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, action which could come as soon as today. Some of the Democratic senators blocking a Senate confirmation vote on Leavitt have called the governor's handling of wilderness evidence that he is not suited to the nation's top environmental protection job...Details in death of bear researcher may never be known After investigating the scene of the killings and listening to a six-minute tape recording of the screams and shouts made during the attack, officials can guess what happened, but they can't be sure, Ellis said. He was one of the rangers who found the bodies in the Kaflia Lake area on Oct. 6, and he shot the large bear guarding the bodies as the bruin approached him, with a bullet stopping the bear only 12 feet away. A necropsy of the bear's stomach two days later found human remains. Still, officials can't be sure that bear killed the pair. Rangers and troopers also shot a young, aggressive bear that approached their plane shortly before taking off with the victims' remains, according to the Associated Press. After piecing various evidence together in the past few weeks, Ellis now speculates that a bear came through the Treadwell/Huguenard camp the evening of Oct. 5 and "when Treadwell went out to investigate, the bear probably took a swipe (at) or bite" out of Treadwell, injuring him...Editorial: Klamath conundrum The Klamath River basin, site of one of the West's most intractable water problems, recently got a new and important dose of science that should make alfalfa farmers, salmon fishermen and federal agencies equally uncomfortable. These groups are all part of the problem. If there is ever to be peace on the river, they have to work together for a solution that provides enough clean water at the right temperature to keep fish swimming and spawning in the Klamath. The current situation produces a near-monthly political battle over flows in the river. Does the federal Bureau of Reclamation release water from the polluted Klamath Lake, home of endangered suckerfish, which need clean water? If so, does the water flow into the Pacific Ocean to help sustain the river's salmon and steelhead? Or does this flow get diverted by farmers who contract with the bureau for irrigation water? This new, exhaustive review by the National Academies of Science adds two important ingredients to this ongoing political struggle -- temperature and tributaries...Surface damage painful subject It's been eight months since a 12-person jury awarded Dan ''Buck'' and Mary Brannaman damages of $810,887 in their civil lawsuit against Paxton Resources Inc. The award was for breaching a surface and damage use agreement in the first such trial involving coal-bed methane development in the Powder River Basin counties of Sheridan, Campbell and Johnson. While many landowners in Sheridan County and surrounding areas have reaped benefits from coal-bed methane development in the form of royalty payments and property improvements, others say they are still experiencing problems with operators, for reasons similar to those listed by the Brannamans in their case. Proponents of methane development and extraction, including Paxton Resources President Greg Vadnais, assert they just want to do the right thing, and maintain there are mutual benefits for both operators and landowners. For people like Bill and Marge West, landowners in the Spotted Horse area with significant methane development on their property, and Sheridan County rancher Bill Doenz, the Brannaman case - once seen as a turning point in landowner/methane operator cooperation - hasn't really changed the attitudes of methane operators they claim still refuse to honor negotiated surface-damage agreements. ''I wish the Brannaman case had turned things around, so that methane companies would start doing what they should be doing. I don't see how it's affected things at all,'' said Marge West...Gov't Doubles Food Labels Cost Estimate People probably will have to pay more for their food to cover the cost of new labels Congress ordered to tell where their meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and peanuts come from, the Agriculture Department said Monday. The department released figures doubling from $2 billion to $4 billion its estimate of what the labels will cost in their first year, largely from procedures required for labeling livestock origins. In the 2002 farm bill, Congress required that the labels start appearing on products by next September. Kenneth Clayton, associate administrator for the department's Agricultural Marketing Service, said the costs are likely to be passed on to consumers as higher shelf prices at grocery stores. Clayton offered no estimate of how much prices might go up because of the labels...Head vet lays out BSE trail The case of the cow with BSE could be a novel written by British mystery novelist Agatha Christie. Instead, it's a true-life story that Canadian veterinarians had to deduce in a race against time. Canadian Food Inspection Agency staff had few clues when they got the call May 16, just before the Victoria Day long weekend, that a cow had tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, said George Luterbach, a CFIA veterinarian. They knew the remains of a black cow had gone to a rendering plant three months earlier and the hide had been stripped and sent to a tannery. That basic knowledge launched parallel investigations within CFIA. Investigators had to find out what happened to the animal and where it had come from...Necessity mothered creative inventions The ingenuity and creativeness of our ancestors never cease to amaze me. It was a time of few towns, fewer stores, no money, and if you needed something you didn't have at hand, you made it or did without. Addie Adkins of Pampa tells how her daddy made an ice cream freezer out of two buckets. Seems a bad hailstorm hit their farm when Addie was about 5 years old. Her mother mixed ice cream in a one-gallon syrup bucket with lid and bail. Her daddy inserted the small bucket into a larger milk bucket and packed the extra space with hail stones and cow salt. Using the bail on the smaller bucket, he twisted it around and around until it froze the ice cream inside. Addie said it sure was a treat...