NEWS ROUNDUP

Bighorn forest management praised for ties with counties Area county officials complimented the Bighorn National Forest for its job of including the public in early discussions about the latest revision of the forest-management plan. “The Bighorn National Forest has bent over backward to listen to our input, and let the counties make comments on this plan as it is being formulated,” said Sheridan County Commissioner Larry Durante, who is the board’s liaison to the Bighorn Forest. Washakie County Commissioner Terry Wolf said he is pleased Bighorn Forest officials have allowed county commissioners to participate in monthly meetings of the steering committee, which is offering advice to the forest on its long-term management plan...Wilderness study areas: Supreme Court could influence Montana suit The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a Utah case that could significantly affect the outcome of a lawsuit filed over Forest Service management of wilderness study areas in Montana and the Bitterroot, attorneys said Tuesday. The nation's highest court will review a Utah case in which environmental groups sued the Bureau of Land Management for failing to protect areas under consideration for wilderness study from damage by off-road vehicles. Similarly, in 1996 Montana environmental groups sued the U.S. Forest Service over management of seven wilderness study areas, including two in the Bitterroot. The groups, including the Montana Wilderness Association and Friends of the Bitterroot, were successful in U.S. District Court in Missoula, and later the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the groups in ruling that the Forest Service had a legal obligation to maintain the wilderness character of the areas, but also said a trial was warranted to hammer out arguments about whether the agency had done so. Last summer, the federal government petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the Montana case, and, separately, asked them to hear the Utah case, Alan Campbell, an attorney for the Forest Service's Office of General Council in Missoula, said Tuesday...Groups threaten suit over owl-area logging Three environmental groups told a timber company and the state Department of Natural Resources on Monday to make logging practices in the state's Central Cascades friendlier to the northern spotted owl within 60 days, or gear up for a court battle. The Seattle and Kittitas Audubon Society chapters and the Washington Forest Law Center say New York-based U.S. Timberland's logging in the Teanaway River Valley, near Cle Elum, has been too aggressive in recent years, jeopardizing crucial habitat for the threatened owl...Alaska Game Board Approves Aerial Killing of Wolves, Says Defenders of Wildlife Today the Alaska Board of Game approved permits that will allow the shooting of large numbers of wolves either directly from airplanes or after chasing the animals to the point of exhaustion and then landing the aircraft to kill the them on foot. The Board's decision came despite the fact that twice Alaskans have voted to ban the practice (1996 and 2000) in statewide referenda. "The voters of Alaska have twice rejected this practice," said Karen Deatherage, Alaska Program Associate for Defenders of Wildlife. "The State Legislature, the Governor, and now the Game Board have trampled on the voters' wishes and opened the door to the wholesale slaughter of hundreds of wolves. Senator Lisa Murkowski is on record opposing this practice; we need her to step forward and speak out on behalf of Alaska's voters."...Legal Eagle: Bobby Kennedy, Jr. Fights for the Environment In addition to his professorial role and his own law practice, Kennedy serves as president of the Waterkeeper Alliance—an international coalition that now numbers 99 grassroots groups—and as a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). He’s also co-author of a best-selling book, The Riverkeepers, writes op-ed columns for the New York Times and other major newspapers, and speaks to large audiences all across the country. In recent years, Kennedy has emerged as one of America’s most charismatic environmental activists. Not only in his own backyard, where he was instrumental in forging the 1995 Watershed Agreement to protect New York City’s water supply, but in working with indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada to protect their traditional lands. He’s also an avid outdoorsman—a master falconer, kayaker, skier, sailor and fisherman who’s led white-water rafting expeditions down several relatively unexplored rivers in South America and Canada...Group questions salamander listing A 42-page response filed on behalf of local residents challenges the science behind federal protections for the California tiger salamander populations in Santa Barbara and Sonoma counties. Crowell & Moring LLP., a Washington, D.C., law firm, submitted the document to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is considering reclassifying the population of tiger salamanders in Santa Barbara and Sonoma counties as threatened, rather than endangered. The agency also has proposed listing Central California tiger salamanders as threatened. The public comment period closed Friday. Lawyers representing a broad coalition of landowners and businesses in Santa Barbara County contend protections were improperly implemented on a piecemeal basis. The federal agency ruled that Santa Barbara County's salamanders require protections because they are a "distinct population segment," A 2000 decision to list Santa Barbara County's salamanders as endangered angered local farmers, developers and politicians...Lawsuit seeks protection for Western gray squirrelThree environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit yesterday seeking to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Western gray squirrel for protection under the Endangered Species Act, saying a proposed highway in Pierce County threatens it. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, site of Fish and Wildlife's regional headquarters, challenges the agency's June decision that the Western gray squirrel does not warrant federal protection. "We did determine that this population was discrete but not significant, and that was based on genetic analysis," as well as studies of species behavior and geographic distribution, Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Joan Jewett said...Talk of Gas Drilling Splits Pro-Bush Factions in West But now, with natural gas prices up sharply and with President Bush making domestic energy production a national security priority, the fight over the Front is back on. Although the Forest Service's ban on new leases remains in effect, the Bureau of Land Management is reviewing plans by three companies with existing leases to extract gas from eight wells. If they find significant amounts of gas, there will almost certainly be many more new wells, plus roads, pipelines and processing plants. Rumbles of renewed resource extraction along the Front are echoing across the country -- with prime hunting and fishing habitat coming under threat in the federal forests, plains and wetlands of Alaska, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, South Dakota, New Mexico and elsewhere. The gathering din has begun to worry -- and, in some cases, infuriate -- America's fishermen and hunters, many of whom are Republicans who voted for Bush. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates about 47 million Americans fish or hunt...Governor, PAW offer split estate bills Gov. Dave Freudenthal and the Petroleum Association of Wyoming have each proposed their own bills to lawmakers who are considering legislation to give more bargaining power to those who own surface lands but not the minerals that lie beneath. The "split estate" issue became a focal point of the coalbed methane gas development in northeast Wyoming when several landowners complained they had little leverage in striking compensation agreements with developers for surface damages. Mineral developers typically negotiate a "surface use agreement" with surface owners, but if negotiations don't go well, the mineral owner can fall back on a state statute that allows them to post a bond and extract the mineral without a surface use agreement...Eminent domain a high wire in energy bill America needs energy. Americans prize private property rights. Moving energy from new sources, such as mine mouth power plants in the West, to its markets elsewhere in the nation, implies the need to build new transmission lines that may need to cross private property. And that puts U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas on a wire. The proposed energy bill before Congress includes a provision to allow the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to condemn private land for the construction of those lines by "eminent domain." "There's a reluctance on my part, at least, to give FERC the authority to march in to private lands and decree that rights-of-way will be granted," said Thomas, who was in Casper to be with his wife Susan, who was scheduled for a medical treatment. The energy bill's architects are Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La. and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., the GOP chairmen of the House and Senate energy committees...Congressional delegates back effort to restore Great Basin A diverse coalition from eastern Nevada has gained the support of the state's congressional delegates in an effort to restore the Great Basin. An amendment written by Sen. Harry Reid and co-sponsored by Sen. John Ensign would allow the federal Bureau of Land Management to work with the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition on the project. The Senate measure will be backed by Rep. Jim Gibbons when it reaches the House. The coalition, which includes ranchers, conservationists and sportsmen, is committed to restoring approximately 10 million acres of public lands in Lincoln, White Pine and a portion of Nye counties...Commission wants BLM land kept open Concerned about restrictions on use of public lands, Park County commissioners said Tuesday they will urge the federal government to lift the "wilderness study area" designation on 23,930 acres south of Powell. Commissioners are concerned that Congress eventually could designate the area near McCullough Peaks as a wilderness, which is meant to protect natural and remote places by restricting activities there. In particular, they said they were worried that locals would not longer be able to use motorcycles, trucks or other vehicles on the land, which is owned by the Bureau of Land Management...Agency heads back Interior finding Top officials at the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they strongly support a decision by the Interior Department earlier this year to withdraw its concerns about whether a proposed power plant near Roundup would degrade air quality in Yellowstone National Park. Interior's decision to withdraw its "adverse impact" finding was the subject of a lawsuit filed by environmental groups last week. In a story about the lawsuit, The Gazette reported than Fran Mainella, director of NPS, and Steve Williams, director of FWS, had raised concerns about the decision by Craig Manson, assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks at Interior. The story quoted from a letter obtained by environmental groups through the Freedom of Information Act. The letter, which was marked as a draft, said it was from Mainella and Williams but was not signed. On Monday, Mainella and Williams said in a letter to The Gazette that they neither requested nor saw the draft letter, which was written by a "junior staff member" and was "diametrically opposed" to their position in the case...Conservation Groups Intervene to Protect Alaska's National Parks The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), Alaska Center for the Environment (ACE), and The Wilderness Society (TWS) today came to the defense of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska, intervening on behalf of the National Park Service in a lawsuit filed by a family who have illegally bulldozed a road through the park. The conservation groups are represented in the case by Trustees for Alaska...National Park's Overestimated Emission & Sound Levels Set Unjust Standard for Snowmobiling in Yellowstone The terms under which the National Park Service (NPS) is proposing to allow snowmobiling to continue in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks have left snowmobile makers in a quandary, according to the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association (ISMA). The group has fought hard to preserve access, and in March the NPS announced its intention to allow snowmobiling to continue on portions of Yellowstone's roadsystem; 99 percent of the Park and all its backcountry -- over 2 million acres -- would remain off limits to snowmobiles. Snowmobiles would travel the same roads used in the warmer months by more than 1.7 million automobiles and busses. Annual snowmobile traffic in the parks is estimated at approximately 65,000. ISMA's concerns are centered on the drastic overestimates of snowmobile emission and sound levels, which the NPS has used in establishing requirements that would govern snowmobile access, according to Ed Klim, president of ISMA...Water plan is all washed up Voters didn't just say "no" to Referendum A. They said "no way." The referendum that sought $2 billion for water projects in Colorado went down to a defeat so resounding, it stunned opponents and proponents alike. "This is mind-boggling to me," said Don Ament, Colorado's agriculture commissioner and a Referendum A supporter who was left wondering what just happened. Referendum A, which was championed by Gov. Bill Owens since May as a weapon against Colorado's drought, was losing by a nearly 2-to-1 ratio, with most precincts reporting...Korea says U.S. cattle diseased South Korea says eight of 762 live cattle imported from the United States have tested positive for blue tongue, an insect-borne viral disease that is harmless to humans but possibly fatal to cows. The affected cows have been destroyed and the other cows would be re-examined, with their quarantine extended by more than 40 days, the agriculture ministry said in a statement Wednesday...Panel Doubts Finding on Cloned-Food Safety Just days after the Food and Drug Administration announced preliminary findings that meat and milk from cloned animals were safe to consume, a scientific review panel for the agency said on Tuesday that there was not enough data to support that conclusion and asked for more studies. Last week, the F.D.A. released a draft report with its findings, which was the first step for the agency to determine whether animal cloning was another stage for agricultural reproduction or a process that should be regulated in the same manner as that for drugs, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the agency...R-CALF offers list of COOL benefits they say USDA omitted A week after USDA went public with its proposed rules for mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL), a producer group is pointing out they didn't include an analysis of the benefits - only the costs. USDA did not provide "even an elementary benefit analysis of COOL within its proposed rules," says R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA). It did provide a cost estimate that has been criticized by COOL supporters and members of Congress for being biased in favor of the meatpacking industry, which vehemently opposes the legislation, the group says...