NEWS ROUNDUP

Lawmakers say Sierra overgrown, ask for "common sense" management Citing the recent California wildfires, Republicans and a few Democrats representing the state in Congress warned this week that the Sierra Nevada is dangerously overgrown and urged "common sense" revisions to a management plan for the forest. The lawmakers' letter to Regional Forester Jack Blackwell, the top U.S. Forest Service official for California, comes as he prepares to finalize controversial revisions to the management plan for 11.5 million acres in the southern and northern Sierra. The proposed revisions would allow more logging in the Sierra's national forests by increasing the size of trees that could be cut, from maximums of 12 inches or 20 inches in diameter in most areas under the existing plan, up to 30 inches in diameter...Fire retardant dispute heats up It steers wildfires away from homes, yet it can kill fish, too. That's been a tradeoff the U.S. Forest Service has gone along with for decades in its heavy reliance on fire retardant. But for one retardant company, the tradeoff is coming to an end in 2005, when its products will be banned by the Forest Service. Faced with the prospect of going out of business, Phoenix-based Fire-Trol has sued the Forest Service. The lawsuit, filed with U.S. District Court in Phoenix Oct. 21, says two Forest Service policy changes will put the company out of business, leaving the agency to rely on a single retardant supplier...Environmentalists oppose extended drilling in winter range Some environmental groups are upset by the number of extended drilling permits the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has granted in key winter range corridors. The BLM has approved 31 of 39 requests so far this season, and last year granted 286 of 311 requests by energy companies to keep operating in big game migration areas such as the Pinedale Resource Area past a Nov. 15 cutoff point...Newest residents of suburbs? Wolves With wolf packs predicted to expand into many states, possibly coast to coast, some say it is time to take another look at laws protecting wolves and other large predators. There is growing concern about conflicts with wolves in Minnesota, where packs are moving deeper into farming areas and killing livestock, approaching city suburbs and making more contact with humans...Program chronicles 100 years of wildlife conservation in America Sometime during this holiday weekend, conservationists may consider giving thanks to Theodore Roosevelt. They may praise the foresight and conviction he exercised as president when he signed an executive order on March 14, 1903, creating America's first national bird reservation on Florida's Pelican Island. Because of Roosevelt's vision and ethos, wildlife conservation is very much alive and well a century later. That rich century-long legacy of the National Wildlife Refuge system is being chronicled on ESPN2 this fall, including this Sunday morning at 8:25 ET, as "A Century of Conservation" airs on the Deuce...Food for fertile debate: cloud seeding is back Whether Mother Nature is in the mood or not, Durango weather wizard Larry Hjermstad is firing up his cloud-seeding generators all the same. Hjermstad, manager of Western Weather Consultants LLC, recently signed a contract with the Denver Water Board for another season of seeding to boost the city's water supplies and will continue a long-running program for Vail and Beaver Creek. This winter, with the help of some slick Colorado State University computer models, Hjermstad hopes the operation can be fine-tuned in real time - and that could mean even more snow for the Colorado mountains, upping the all-important powder quotient for Eagle County ski areas...New Zealand mud snails invade: Tiny mollusks threaten area trout streams The New Zealand mud snail is as unprepossessing as its name: A tiny mollusk that seldom exceeds 5 millimeters in length, with a color like ripe compost. But this seeming nebbish is actually the Conan the Destroyer of gastropods, a fecund and voracious grazer that can strip entire river systems of algae. Sometimes reaching concentrations of 700,000 per square meter, they displace virtually all other bottom-dwelling species...Ranchers worry proposed bills could end grazing Ranching is all Calvin Crandall has ever known. He grew up with it and learned the business from his father. "That's all I've ever done," the Springville rancher said. He doesn't think much of a proposal that would allow ranchers to sell their federal public land grazing permits back to the government. He opposes the proposal because it aims to take cattle off the public lands, he said. Campaign president Andy Kerr this month sent a letter to more than 25,000 individuals and groups that hold livestock grazing permits on federal public lands, explaining and urging support for the two bills...Efforts save home of 1889 Derby winner Mining entrepreneur Noah Armstrong built the barn in the 1880s. Armstrong made his fortune mining silver in the Pioneer Mountains near the ghost town of Glendale, according to a history compiled by Byron Bayers of Twin Bridges, whose family once owned the land where the barn sits. Armstrong had a passion for race horses and he believed that horses raised in the thin air of Montana might have an edge on the racetrack. He purchased the ranch just outside of Twin Bridges in 1882 and renamed it Doncaster Ranch after a favorite horse. And then he went to work having a barn built worthy of his dreams. The ground floor of the three-story Round Barn contained horse stalls, offices and sleeping quarters for the employees. In the center of the circular structure were harness closets, two hospital stalls, a grain elevator and a spiral stairway to the second floor. In one of the hospital stalls, a horse later named Spokane was born in 1886. It went on to win the Kentucky Derby in 1889...Arrest for catching mouse?: California law pushed by animal group requires trapping license A California law requires a trapping license in order to kill mice. The Animal Protection Institute of Sacramento pushed the bill, which mandates anyone who takes furbearing mammals or non-game animals must purchase a trapping license by passing a complex test and paying a fee of $78.50, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The Fish and Game Code 4005 defines non-game animals as including mice, rats, gophers and moles, the paper noted...Horses ordered to diaper-up for parade An ordinance to keep horse manure from littering the streets during a Christmas parade caused such a stink in Lucedale that it won't be enforced. The city's jewel, the annual Christmas parade is scheduled for Dec. 6. The parade turns the town of 2,458 residents into an overflow crowd of 10,000 people spilling into the streets to see dozens of floats, several bands and 200 horses. At one point, horse riders threatened to boycott the parade because of the new town ordinance requiring horses to wear a "bun bag", a "diaper" of sorts...