NEWS ROUNDUP

Glacier burst floods creek High in the Wind River Mountain Range, just north of Wyoming's highest peak, is a natural trench that runs like a hallway straight through a glacier to where a lake used to be. On Sept. 6, Mother Nature uncorked the lake, releasing 600 million gallons of water through the trough, surging down into Dinwoody Creek...Officials Welcome 'Healthy Forest' Act But David Caine of the Arrowhead Communities Fire Safe Council said lawsuits by environmental extremists have hamstrung the Forest Service in a misguided attempt to protect federal lands from all logging -- even selective thinning -- and human encroachment. "The Healthy Forest Act will relax some environmental code sections that were more of an obstacle than a benefit" to the forests, Caine said. "They were encumbered with environmental reporting and surveys ... in a prolonged process that actually obstructed forest management." Caine said prudent forest management is especially critical in an "intermixed" environment, where wildlands coexist intimately with human dwellings...Environmentalists doubt safety of fire retardant As fires raged in the West this fall, air tanker pilots flew low above rugged terrain and treetops spraying red mists of chemicals to slow the advancing flames. Some are concerned those millions of gallons of chemical fire retardant that helped firefighters protect lives and property could in the long run harm the environment or firefighters' health. A group of former U.S. Forest Service workers and environmentalists has filed a complaint saying the government has never done extensive reviews to determine if the fertilizer-based fire retardants pose risks to wildlife or humans. Until the environmental impact studies are done, they want the court to limit use of the chemicals...Editorial: Saving a mountain treasure Southwest Colorado and northwest New Mexico have been punctured by more than 20,000 oil and gas wells, including some that bore into coal seams to extract methane. Another 12,000 wells are planned in the area south of Durango and near Aztec and Farmington, N.M. Few national forests and other federal land in the San Juan Basin haven't yet sprouted drill rigs, roads and pipelines. One of the few remaining undisturbed spots is the HD Mountains area, a patch of rugged canyons and steep hills covered by old-growth forests. The ecosystem, with its endangered species habitat and 300-year-old trees, should stay off-limits to new roads and unnatural surface disturbance. Happily, a compromise is possible that would protect the heart of the natural area while still letting oil and gas companies extract most of the energy resources...Fire industry worth billions of dollars At least 125 for-profit companies, mostly in the Western United States, earn all or part of their income providing fire engines or crews to the federal government, according to Debbie Miley, executive director of the National Wildlife Suppression Association, a trade association for private firefighters. Fire engines and hand crews are only part of the business. Modern firefighting requires caterers and bulldozer drivers, portable toilet and shower providers, bus drivers and mechanics and electricians. It employs meteorologists, biologists, fire-behavior specialists, public affairs officers, accountants, supply officers, medics, administrators of all stripes and a whole bunch of pilots and air crews...Rancher finds plan to protect mouse gives him some security When Livermore rancher Al Johnson learned biologists had trapped a federally protected species of mouse near a stream that cut through his 2,000-acre ranch, he couldn't help a feeling of dread. Even though the Preble's meadow jumping mouse had not been found on his property, the mice had been trapped on both sides of his ranch. So federal biologists declared his three streams mouse habitat and told him that he would have to tailor his ranching operation to minimize damage to the little critter's habitat...At 30, Endangered Species Act still breeds controversy But as the Endangered Species Act marks its 30th anniversary in December, the country's most powerful environmental law finds itself under attack from all sides. Politicians say the law has been hijacked by environmentalists and turned into an anti-growth tool. Conservation groups accuse the Bush administration of trying to ignore the law. Meanwhile, officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service struggle with programs that are hundreds of millions of dollars in the red. The agency routinely fails to make timely decisions, and nearly every decision it does make generates a lawsuit. As a result, court orders dictate many of the agency's actions...Organ Pipe barrier expected to keep drugs, entrants out A new $17 million vehicle barrier at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument promises to help keep out loads of illegal drugs and immigrants along one of the U.S. border's most popular smuggling routes. The barrier, old railroad rails buried five feet deep and welded into a ribbon of steel, will do nothing to stop foot traffic and is designed only to deter cars and trucks and the damage they do when they tear across protected plants and carve rutted paths in fragile desert soil. But agencies that manage border lands are eager to get similar barriers for their own property, in part because the fences they have now are no more than a hodgepodge of broken barbed wire, power poles and abandoned cars shoved into the gaps. The new barriers are popular for another reason, too: Agencies fear the new Organ Pipe fence will actually work, pushing smugglers' vehicles onto their lands...Sides agree energy bill will return Faced with steadfast opposition, Senate leaders had no choice last month but to turn out the lights on a sweeping energy policy, including provisions aimed at expanding energy production in the Rocky Mountain West. But both sides recognized that blockage in the Senate was a time out rather than a decisive victory...Long-lasting health effects of wildfires unknown As wildfires raged out of control throughout Southern California at the end of October, most residents heeded the medical advice of doctors and stayed indoors. They avoided physical activity and ran their air conditioners rather than open windows. But what happens now that the smoke has cleared and county health officials issue periodic warnings of hazardous air when the wind blows and ash once again briefly fills the sky?...Pacific Northwest salmon farms breed concerns Not only Norway is swarming with escaped Atlantic salmon. They are also swimming free in Oregon's back yard. Many of the same risks -- disease and threat to native stocks -- follow them. And U.S. and Canadian government agencies, caught flatfooted by the salmon farming boom, have acted slowly...Utah Joins States Supporting Looser EPA Clean-Air Rules Utah will join eight other states that approve the federal Environmental Protection Agency's decision to loosen the Clean Air Act's regulations to allow older power plants, refineries, and factories to modernize without having to install expensive pollution controls. The Utah Attorney General's office this week intervened in the lawsuit, making Utah among nine states coming to the defense of the EPA's relaxed air-quality regulations...Column: Turning Northeast Wyoming Upside Down in the Hunt for Coal-Bed Methane In the Powder River Basin, it's hard to miss the fresh dirt roads that crawl along the draws and up over the saddles in the hills. But those roads are a sign that the surface no longer means much in this part of Wyoming. What the eye can't see is that the real owners of the land own what lies beneath. Those who own the surface are just squatters. The Powder River Basin is the most active region of coal-bed methane drilling in the nation, a place where in the next few years more than 50,000 wells will have been drilled to obtain, at most, a year's supply of natural gas. There has always been plenty to divide one neighbor from another in the area. But the coal-bed methane push, which began, innocuously enough, with a tax credit in the late 1980's, has caused a bitterness that may never be repaired...Fight on to Save Plains Water Source An estimated 5 billion gallons is pumped from the Ogallala aquifer annually with the majority of it going to irrigate farm fields in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Wyoming. Farmers tap into the Ogallala to help them grow corn, cotton, wheat, soybeans and other crops, which become food products or fatten livestock. Estimates of the aquifer's long-term sustainability vary according to geography, with some areas of the underground water supply still showing another 250 years of capacity or more. But many areas spread through the different states have far less time - maybe 60 more years of capacity, some experts say...Anger at disruption to live sheep export Activists allegedly broke into a feedlot, slipping what is believed to be shredded ham into the food and water of sheep in a bid to stop the animals being exported to the middle east. The 70,000 sheep, destined for Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, will remain at Portland until tests are completed. Member for Wannon, David Hawker, said the action was "nothing short of economic terrorism"...Bison market on rise A four-year slump blamed on oversupply of bison and lack of demand is ending, with prices spiking at the same time beef cattle are selling at record high prices, officials say. Reduced herds and campaigns to build a consumer base for bison meat are bringing the higher prices, according to the National Bison Association...U.S.-EU trade woes test relations The American-European trade and investment relationship is the largest in the world, with about $1 billion in transactions a day. The bulk of trans-Atlantic commerce goes smoothly, but divergent rules and regulations on corporate takeovers, chemicals, agriculture and food labeling are threatening to stifle some trade...Ranchers keep afloat by pitching high-priced deer hunts on Web But perhaps even more unusual was the way the hunt was marketed: on the Internet. Increasingly, the traditional deer hunt -- which last year accounted for almost $1 billion in retail sales in Texas -- is going 21st-century high tech, with ranchers who eschew the word "kill" for "harvest," using computers to market and sell hunting rights on their land. Months before last year's high-stakes hunt, Vela photographed available bucks on the ranch, posting a photo gallery of them on the Internet -- a practice that allows him to book dozens of hunts...Vanishing life Babe Hogan fires up the tractor, a relic dating back to 1941 but still raring to go. Cattle grazing deep in the valley rush -- as fast as hefty pregnant heifers can -- toward the cantankerous purr of the engine. The cattle rancher chugs out to pasture towing barrels full of corn and oat pellet cake. Hogan drives in a slow, wide circle; the herd falls behind. The smell of wet hay from the night's rainfall and the rising mist of a cool January morning re-create a timeless moment in a southeastern field in Boulder County...Cowboy Soul I learned long ago that being a real cowboy is not a matter of wearing a silver belt buckle and a big hat. It isn't even bullriding, rodeos, or having cattle or horses. Nor does being a cowboy have to do with whether or not you were born in Texas, Colorado or Montana. Some of the greatest cowboys who ever lived have come from places like Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, New York, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. Some have even come from as far away as Ireland, Scotland, England and France. Many were metis, half-breed French-Cree-Canadians living on the Red River of the North. The Red River of cowboy song fame is in fact the Red River between Minnesota and Canada, and not the one that runs in Texas. Cowboys also roamed the mountains and meadows of Alberta...