NEWS ROUNDUP

Buyout plan divides ranchers across West Now, however, there could be another option for Mr. Shull. Federal legislation aimed at retiring grazing permits on federal rangelands might just give some ranchers the incentive to sell out and retire in style. Under the Voluntary Grazing Permit Buyout Act, introduced in Congress last month, ranchers who agree to retire their federal grazing leases would receive $175 per "animal unit month" - equivalent to the amount of forage that one cow-calf pair consumes monthly. For a rancher who grazes 300 pairs on federal land for six months, that amounts to a payout of $262,000. Shull, who holds permits to graze his cattle on the grasslands five months a year, sees merit in the proposal, and wouldn't mind having the option to cash in his federal rights. "I might look at that at some point in the future," he muses...Political Lobbyists Use E-Mail as Another Tool of Influence In addition to messages from people who've taken the time to sit down at their computer and type out their own thoughts, Representative Baldwin receives hundreds of identical e-mails sent by special interest groups. Like most of her colleagues, Ms. Baldwin has redesigned her Congressional web site to reduce the volume of electronic mass mailings. All e-mails to her office must now originate on her web page, so people have to type in their address before they can send her a message. Baldwin aide Adam Young calls it 'embedded e-mail.' He says it's part an effort to serve constituents better and reduce the volume of e-mail by screening messages that come from outside her district. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is working now to prevent federal agencies like the National Forest Service from creating electronic filters that will not just sort but actually reject mass e-mails. The Forest Service says the filters are needed to limit public comment to those who are directly affected by its policies. But Cindy Cohn says natural resources like forests belong to everyone and it's unfair to prevent average citizens from having input on how they're managed...Column: Restoring Klamath Heartlands In Oregon's Klamath Basin -- renowned for its water disputes -- a remarkable and little-noted story about land is unfolding. The current story begins 50 years ago, with a since-repudiated federal policy toward Indian tribes called "termination." It involves the chance to right a profound injustice, and an opportunity to achieve forest restoration on an unprecedented scale. However the story ends, it marks a profound moment in the history of Oregon and the West...Where it stinks, there are coal fires Kirk Wambach smelled sulfur out in the pasture and figured he'd better investigate. The smell means one thing -- coal's on fire. Trouble is, there are so many coal seam fires in western McKenzie County, Wambach didn't know if his nose was following a new fire downwind or one already located. The grasslands rancher hiked the open range where his cattle graze and found a granddaddy of a coal seam fire up on a ridge...Profits, religion battle over peaks After years of controversy, the Coconino National Forest Service will release its Environmental Impact Statement on snowmaking as early as December. According to the Arizona Snowbowl's Web site (http://www.arizonasnowbowl.com/) the public will have 45 days to review the statement and comment before the U.S. National Forest Service. The Forest Service, which issues Snowbowl's operation permit, will then decide if predicted environmental impacts outweigh snowmaking benefits...Idaho water users suing over salmon Idaho water users are taking the offensive in the operation of the vast upper Snake River reservoirs, announcing their intention to sue the federal government over flows for migrating salmon. The Coalition for Idaho Water filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the secretaries of Interior and Commerce, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "We did not make the decision to fight over Idaho water in the federal courts - the environmentalists did. Now that we have been forced onto that path, we must fight and we must fight aggressively," said Norm Semanko, water coalition president...Column: Biscuit - No Gravy. "Let it Burn" Philosophy Reigns Supreme The 2002 Biscuit Fire in Southern Oregon could have been stopped in its tracks. And, it should have been stopped in its tracks long before 500,000 acres of designated wilderness lands were engulfed in flames. Now that it's over, and now that over $100-million was spent fighting this fire, it's time to let the timber rot on the stump. There's no winning the war for timber harvest on public lands...Column: Give rivers room to heal The agreement announced last month to tear down two dams and bypass another to give wild Atlantic salmon a comeback chance in Maine's Penobscot River heralds a new approach to river management that this country - and the world - urgently needs. Negotiations among a private hydroelectric power producer, conservation organizations, and government officials have produced a decision that is good for fish, anglers, local economies, and the river itself with minimal impact on energy production. Such a sensible rebalancing of priorities on a larger scale could go a long way to restoring health to the planet's ailing rivers...Defenders of Wildlife President to Host NPC 'Morning Newsmaker' News Conference Dec. 3 Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the Defenders of Wildlife, will host a "Morning Newsmaker" news conference at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 10 a.m. The National Press Club is on the 13th floor of the National Press Building, located at the corner of 14th and F streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. In advance of the 30th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, Schlickeisen will release a new report on the Bush administration's efforts to undermine the law through the judicial system. Schlickeisen will highlight the report's findings and provide an overview of the law's history, current status, and future challenges to the Act as background for reporters covering the anniversary later in December. Alaskan Wild Cattle Herd Face Expulsion They are touted as some of the hardiest cattle in the world, robust members of a wild herd that's roamed this remote Alaska island for more than 100 years. The herd has survived long stretches without a human caretaker on Chirikof Island, in the turbulent Gulf of Alaska. Initially introduced in the late 1800s, the animals supplied meat for early pioneers, including whaling crews and an Arctic blue fox industry established by Russian fur traders...Man Treated For Rabies After Fox Attack A warning from the National Park Service: Beware of rabid foxes. A Tucson man is being treated for rabies after he was attacked by a fox over the weekend at Saguaro National Park East. With more than 150 miles of hiking trails, the park is one of southern Arizona's great escapes. But on Sunday, the park's tranquility took a terrifying turn for a jogger. "He was running down the trail, he didn't see the fox, it lept up and bit him in the thigh," says B ob Love, the chief ranger for Saguaro National Park. He says the fox didn't stop after that first bite -- it went on the attack until the jogger hit it with a rock and it ran away...Survey of Yosemite wildlife draws telling comparisons with naturalist's early 20-century journals Naturalist Joseph Grinnell's penciled field notes may be almost 90 years old, but they're a cutting-edge research tool in current Yosemite wildlife studies. Teams of mammal, bird and reptile experts packed photocopies of some of Grinnell's 2,000 handwritten pages on mule back with them during a new round of faunal survey expeditions in Yosemite last summer, searching out everything that crawls, skitters, glides or stalks through the 1,169 square miles of glaciated grandeur. Grinnell's Yosemite journals, compiled from 1914 to 1920 with colleagues from UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), provide a unique baseline picture of wildlife in the park. His work there helped establish his legacy as a forefather of the conservation movement...BLM survey throws ownership of Fort Hall family's land into question Jan Denlinger's family has owned land in the Pingree area located on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation since 1917. Recently, however, Denlinger learned that the federal government believes a portion of the land, a 130-acre island in the Snake River, might not be his. Bureau of Land Management officials completed a survey of the land Thursday, leaving markers across an island on the land. A tentative map will be completed later this spring, showing the property boundaries. Denlinger has letters from both the Tribes and the BLM that he believes show the Tribes intend to claim the land. "It's a land-grab and it's against our family. I'm going to fight it. We paid taxes on that piece of property for at least 40 years, on that piece of property we supposedly don't own," Denlinger said...Utahn wants $15M for desert-tortoise land A southern Utah landowner's long-standing plea to be paid millions of dollars for approximately 1,300 acres of his property that the federal government has declared desert tortoise habitat and protected from development was heard Tuesday by a Senate subcommittee. Under a bill sponsored by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, James Doyle would get an initial payment of $15 million from the Bureau of Land Management for land he owns near St. George in Washington County. Doyle, who now lives in Idaho, started acquiring options to purchase the acreage from the state of Utah in 1981 to develop into bedroom communities of St. George, but in 1990 the desert tortoise was listed as an endangered species and a habitat conservation plan adopted in 1996 essentially prohibited any development on the lands in the so-called Red Cliffs preserve...Fremont County approves grazing permit resolution The Fremont County Commission has unanimously endorsed a resolution against allowing anyone except ''legitimate ranchers'' to hold federal grazing permits. The resolution defines ''legitimate ranchers'' as people ''whose livelihood depends on their ability to graze domestic livestock on lands administered by federal agencies. ''We've got two things going on,'' Thompson said. ''Anti-grazing people want the federal government to buy out grazing permits, and non-ranchers and others want to hold permits.''...Grizzly study's funding mauled Funding for a massive grizzly bear population study on the northern Continental Divide has been whittled down to a level that could risk the statistical credibility of the study's results. The study, headed by U.S. Geological Survey researcher Kate Kendall, got about $2.1 million from Congress. That amount forced her to pare back the scope of the ambitious project. The study will rely largely on collecting bear hair samples for genetic analysis to produce the first-ever population estimate of grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem...Judge Rules Against Interior Department The Interior Department is not requiring companies to pay fair market value for the use of public lands and resources, according to a federal judge who ordered the Bush administration to revisit its mining rules. Regulating the mining of minerals such as gold, silver and copper, the department operated "under the erroneous assumption that it did not need to attempt to obtain fair market value for operations on unclaimed land," U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. said in an opinion Tuesday...Coyote hunter fined $2,000 A Buffalo man convicted of illegally killing a coyote was fined $2,000 Wednesday at a sentencing hearing. Jerry Janvrin, 50, was found guilty in September of one count of illegal airborne hunting and acquitted of another count. The federal case ignited resentment among ranchers who support Janvrin and the coyote control he has provided to a four-county predator control district. It also flamed simmering resentment among landowners about the policy of state Game, Fish & Parks Department officers entering private land without landowner permission. At least 50 ranchers in northwest South Dakota closed their land to hunting after Janvrin's Sept. 18 conviction...Shivwits get water in U.S. deal The federal government is finally settling a 112-year battle by Utah's Shivwits Band of the Paiute Tribe for water on its parched reservation near St. George. "With the water-rights settlement, the future provides more opportunities for jobs, agriculture and economic development," Shivwits Chairman Glenn Rogers told the Deseret Morning News. Interior Secretary Gale Norton explains that Congress approved a plan for that settlement in 2000 - but it required a $24 million appropriation and numerous agreements to be signed by the band, various water agencies, the state engineer, courts and the federal government...State panel slams door on environmentalists' plan to guard water flow The state on Wednesday threw out requests by environmental groups seeking to purchase rights to keep water flowing into the state's bays and estuaries. The 3-0 decision by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality commissioners opens the doors to more industrial, municipal and agricultural water users to get permits, a move environmentalists said would guarantee that no fresh water reaches the coast...Column: Strengthening property and water rights Underlying the whole problem is still another, more basic challenge. Alaska's Constitution and the Statehood Act grants most subsurface rights to the state in a giant sweep, fomenting All the almost unsolvable problems we now face. If the "people of Alaska" own the subsurface, then individual property owners cannot. Thus we have an ongoing, constant struggle over who and how the subsurface will be used. With government ownership, this problem will always remain. Changing the Constitution and Statehood Act should be examined because private property owners ought to benefit from what's found under their land, but that's another fight for another day. We have to deal with present laws as they stand. That's why the "Property Rights and Water Protection Acts" have been proposed to clarify and strengthen in statute private property owners' rights as much as the Constitution and Statehood Act permit...EPA Releases Producers' Compliance Guide The Environmental Protection Agency has released its Producers' Compliance Guide for CAFOs, describing EPA's regulations for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. The guide includes sections that describe the CAFO regulations, who they affect, what they require and what assistance is available. If you own or operate a CAFO, you can use this guide to figure out what you need to do to comply with the regulations. You can download the Producers' Guide at http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/afo/compliance.cfm....Big Green Governor? The Hummer has not yet been converted, and people from all parties in the country's most populous state are waiting -- waiting to see if Schwarzenegger's fuel-hungry Hummer will run on hydrogen and, more importantly, waiting to see what the famous governor can get done as a Republican who purports to support both business and environmental issues. How well he walks that line could have reverberations across the country...Findings lend weight to sheep feed sabotage Authorities have found material they think is animal product in sheep feed, which would seem to lend weight to animal liberationists' claims that they put pig meat into the feed and water at a Victorian feedlot in an attempt to sabotage a live sheep shipment. Around 70,000 sheep were bound for the Middle East, but the shipment has been delayed pending an investigation. The activists say that they put pig meat into the feed and water in order to stop them from meeting the criteria for Muslim markets...OIE Will Not Change Mad Cow Guidelines Until May The World Organization for Animal Health, known as OIE, will not be changing its bovine spongiform encephalopathy guidelines until May 2004, despite a request by the U.S., Canada and Mexico for it to do so by the end of this year, an OIE official said. David Wilson, head of the OIE's international trade department, said it would be "impossible" to meet the request for new guidelines on mad-cow disease until May at the earliest. In September, the U.S. Canada and Mexico requested in a joint letter to OIE Director General Bernard Vallat that the international organization develop new "practical guidelines for risk mitigation measures supported by science before the end of this year."...America's agriculture system said to be vulnerable to attack by terrorists A simple handkerchief wielded by a resourceful terrorist could cause billions of dollars of damage to America's food system and untold terror in the nation's kitchens, senators were told Wednesday. Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, government officials have secured cities, airports, harbors, government buildings and tourist sites, but food experts say more attention should be focused on the country's food supply. "We have become a nation concerned about receiving anthrax in our mailboxes," said Dr. Tom McGinn of North Carolina Department of Agriculture. "Imagine what it would be like to be a nation concerned about opening our refrigerators and anthrax being in our refrigerators as well."...Tom Horn hanging still debated It was a surreal scene when the day finally came. Indeed, it was a day that many thought would never come. Having awoke to a chilly, gray morning in Cheyenne on Nov. 20, 1903, Tom Horn appeared nonchalant on the last day of his life. Just before 11 a.m., Sheriff Ed Smalley, Deputy Sheriff Dick Procter and a young county clerk named Joe Cahill escorted him to the gallows...Horses, snakes and other wild tales The Native Americans have their legends kept down through the generations by story tellers. It’s the job of a gifted tribe member to be the keeper of the stories and to pass them on to the next generation from the many generations that came before. Cowboys do much the same thing. Where the Native American storyteller will have a name like Grandmother Two Bears or Old Father Story Teller, the cowboy will simply be named Ben, Joe or Charlie. But if they were to be in a tribe somewhere, they might be named something like Cowboy Who Walks like Penguin. Old cowboys tend to be shorter than they were in their youth, a bit bowlegged and they waddle when they walk .The days of that long legged strolling stride left when arthritis set in every bone they ever bunged up in their lives. What they don’t have left in athletic ability, they have maintained in humor and the passing of the legends...