NEWS ROUNDUP

Note: blogspot.com is going offline for maintenance at midnight mst, so the news section will not be as complete as usual.

Crusade set to save Valley Big Bear Valley is embarking on an all-out crusade, with Michael Perry leading the charge. The crusade-to save Big Bear Valley. In the wake of the Old Fire that was stopped just short of reaching Big Bear, Perry is leading the fight to protect the Valley through healthy management of the surrounding forest. His plan is called HUFI, Healthy Urban Forest Initiative. Perry, who is city manager for Big Bear Lake, presented the plan to the City Council at its Nov. 10 meeting. He did so before a packed house at the Performing Arts Center and three network news crews...Environmentalists fear military exemptions just the beginning A defense bill that would let the U.S. military bypass key environmental laws to conduct training is a dangerous assault on endangered species and mammals, environmentalists said Wednesday. The Senate approved the measure Wednesday, and it now goes to President Bush for his signature. ''Essentially, what this law will do is put the military above the laws - two of the most important laws to protect our wildlife,'' said Susan Holmes, senior legislative representative for the environmental group Earthjustice...Norton, Mexico's Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, Extend Wildfire Protection Agreement for Additional Ten Years Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton and her recently appointed Mexican counterpart, Alberto Cardenas-Jimenez, Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), today signed an agreement to extend cooperation on wildfire protection for the next ten years. This agreement has enabled fire fighters and their equipment to cross the border and help fight wildfires that threaten both countries. "The recent experience in Southern California reinforces the need to work together to manage fires," said Norton. This agreement first established in 1999, was renewed during the U.S.-Mexico Bi-national Commission (BNC) meeting hosted by the U.S. Department of State. The agreement continues the designation of a zone of mutual assistance of up to 10 miles on each side of the border, and authorizes cooperation on other fire management activities outside the zone. "I am pleased this signing will result in further exchanges of resources and continued training," said Cardenas, "as well as the protection and preservation of species in critical habitats along the border."...Shovel shuffle: Elko County to reconsider moving Jarbidge plaque The Shovel Brigade's commemorative plaque may not be coming off the wall of the Elko County courthouse afterall. The Elko County Commission has set Dec. 17 to reconsider its vote to take down the symbolic plaque and photos of the South Canyon Road near Jarbidge. On a 3-2 vote last week, the commissioners decided to move the plaque and photos to the Jarbidge Community Center. But a group of local residents, including Assemblyman John Carpenter, persuaded the panel to reconsider the vote given its significance in an ongoing dispute with the Forest Service over jurisdiction of the road and protection of threatened bull trout... Environmental Impact Statement frustrating The delay of the final Safford Environmental Impact Statement has frustrated and delayed many people's efforts to expedite a proposed copper mining operation 8 miles north of Safford, including Congressional representative Rick Renzi, who is ready to lobby the Secretary of Interior...No snowmobile speed limit at Dutchman Deschutes National Forest officials will not impose a speed limit on snowmobilers at the Dutchman Flat Sno-Park, despite having decided internally that the area warrants speed restrictions. Marv Lang, recreation specialist for the Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District, told a group of trail users Tuesday night that the agency lacks enough law enforcement officers to enforce a limit. The district has only two law enforcement officers (LEOs), who are the equivalent of agency police. They carry guns and have the authority to enforce rules and regulations...New group works to protect migration corridor A recently formed coalition of concerned parties is working on a protection plan for a key wildlife migration corridor in western Wyoming. Officials involved in the effort said the coalition -- which includes government agencies, state lawmakers, agricultural producers, conservationists, and oil and gas industry interests -- has been working for over a month to draft a protection plan for the historic Trapper's Point area west of Pinedale...Column: Fires point to need to pass forests bill The California wildfires make an airtight case for President Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative -- and Congress should waste no time in passing it. The Forest Service, handcuffed by restrictive rules and frivolous lawsuits, has been unable to manage forests effectively to prevent catastrophic fires. The service dedicates an alarming 40 percent of its resources to the managing process, paperwork and responding to litigation. Many Forest Service thinning and fuel-reduction initiatives require at least five alternative analyses, creating bottlenecks that can stall critical actions by two years or more. The service's efforts are further hampered by an endless stream of appeals from environmental zealots. In California alone, such appeals slowed 66 percent of all forest fuels- reduction efforts in the past two years, according to the watchdog General Accounting Office...Balancing Biodiversity Michael Robinson, the founder of Sinapu and member of The Center for Biological Diversity visited campus Nov. 4 to help what he called “the most imperiled mammal in North America.” Robinson founded Sinapu while studying at CU in 1991. Sinapu, named for the Ute word for “wolf,” is an organization dedicated to protecting the healthy existence of carnivores throughout the Rocky Mountains...Column: They Blinded Me with Pseudo Science In the final days of October, Craig Manson, assistant Interior secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, dealt a "Godfather"-style blow to a team of government biologists that was about to release a final report with flow recommendations for the Missouri River -- a blow that could have a sizable ripple effect on the river itself. The report was to have argued for the need to better mimic the natural flow of the Missouri (releasing more water from hydroelectric dams in the spring and less in the summer) to prevent extinction of the river's endangered sturgeon, tern, and plover populations, and to reduce the risk of future flooding...Made for each other? When the US Air Force tested its largest conventional weapon, a 21,000-pound behemoth dubbed the "Mother of All Bombs," at Eglin Air Force Base in March, the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker had a ringside seat. The University of Arizona ecologist touts Eglin as a model for saving the planet's endangered species using a new-old approach he calls "reconciliation ecology." It is, he says, the science of planning or reengineering human habitats to accommodate man and nature simultaneously...Lawsuit Challenges Open-Air Testing of Genetically Engineered 'Biopharm' Crops Attorneys with Earthjustice and the Center for Food Safety filed suit in federal district court in Honolulu today asking the court to order the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to assess the environmental and public health risks of, and better regulate, the open-air testing of biopharmaceutical test crops in Hawaii and throughout the United States. The attorneys represent a coalition that includes Friends of the Earth, KAHEA, Pesticide Action Network North America, and Center for Food Safety...Column: Alliance for environmental disaster For folks who think that groups like the Sierra Club have too much influence over environmental policy, liberal environmentalists run the EPA, most environmental regulations are cumbersome and outdated, environmental terrorists are running amok, "environmental racism" is related more to "political correctness" than political reality, and that President George W. Bush is getting a bad rap on his environmental record, a new organization has emerged to set the record straight. Partnership for the West, which grew out of a late-September summit in Denver attended by several elected officials, a number of corporate representatives, and members of many long-standing anti-environmental organizations including the American Land Rights Association, the Blue Ribbon Coalition, and the Mountain States Legal Foundation (from which Gale Norton hails), was formally unveiled on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., in late October...Yellowstone's New Electronic Field Trip is an Out-Of-This-World Adventure Yellowstone National Park announces the premier of Zooming in on Hayden Valley, airing November 12, 2003, on the Windows into Wonderland electronic field trip web site www.windowsintowonderland.org. Redesigned by Earthtalk Studios in Bozeman, Montana, the site has a fresh, inviting format. School groups will find the electronic field trip user-friendly and filled with scripted dialogue, animations, and streaming video and audio content. Educators are encouraged to register online at the web site and preview the electronic field trip before its official premier...New Book Canvases the State Showcasing Voluntary Grower Efforts to Protect Wildlife What would make a winegrape grower set aside prime vineyard land to attract wood ducks or create space for endangered species? California Vineyards and Wildlife Habitat, a book released today by the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG), offers insight to the extraordinary measures growers throughout the state are voluntarily taking to protect wildlife habitats and enhance vineyard environments. From Mendocino to San Diego County, the 96-page, full-color book takes the reader through every major California winegrape growing region chronicling the personalities and practices behind one of agriculture's greatest environmental success stories. Through extensive interviews with vineyard owners, growers and the conservationists they partner with, primary author and photographer Steve Adler details the broad spectrum of conservation methods employed by California's winegrape growers... Endangered plant halts golf course project An endangered species known as Swamp Pink has forced developers of a proposed age-restricted neighborhood in Gloucester County to eliminate a nine-hole golf course slated for the site. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Swamp Pink is a flowering plant that is listed as threatened in the region...Lynnwood argues woodpeckers A proposed subdivision in northeast Lynnwood is ruffling the feathers of some nearby residents who say the presence of pileated woodpeckers and wetlands should stop homes from being built there. The landowner, the proposed subdivision developer and a group of neighbors pleaded their cases during a roughly three-hour hearing before the Lynnwood City Council on Monday night, but the council made no final decision...Lake Tapps can handle salmon, water draw People who want to save Lake Tapps, and those who want to draw drinking water from it, have received an unexpected word of encouragement from federal fish scientists. But for supporters of a power plant on the lake, the news continues to be bad. The agency charged with protecting threatened salmon in the White River said in a recent report that water in the river seems sufficient to preserve the fish, maintain the lake and supply drinking water to 300,000 people in East King County...Norton Finalizes Real Estate Appraisal Reform Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton today announced that real estate appraisal functions previously performed by various agencies within the Department of the Interior have been consolidated in a new departmental office. The Office of Appraisal Services, housed within the department's National Business Center, will administer the various appraisal services required by Interior's programs. Brian Holly, Chief Appraiser for the U.S. Department of Justice, has agreed to serve as Acting Chief Appraiser for the department and head the office. "The creation of the Office of Appraisal Services enhances our ability to provide unbiased appraisals consistent with the public interest," Norton said. "This new organization has been carefully structured to ensure appraiser independence, make certain that appraisals meet recognized professional standards, and advance conservation goals."...Column: Let the Buffalo Roam, Is it time to consider reverse homesteading? My first instinct is that "he who lives by the subsidy should die by its withdrawal." Cut the subsidies and let farmers either learn to succeed at farming without them or go into some other line of work. But given the number of U.S. senators from the Plains states, that is a political nonstarter. So how about some "reverse homesteading"? Instead of encouraging people to settle and work the land, pay them to leave it voluntarily. This could work in a variety of ways. The feds could outright buy the farms and put them back into the public domain. Even given the significant management problems that the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management have, this option would nevertheless spare taxpayers from the fate of endless subsidy payments, while giving erstwhile farmers a nest egg to start their new lives...U.S. to review Mexicali power plants, lines In response to a San Diego federal court ruling, the U.S. Department of Energy will do a full review of the environmental impact of two Mexicali power plants and the power lines that carry electricity from Mexico to California. U.S. Judge Irma E. Gonzalez ruled in May that the United States illegally granted presidential permits for the power lines, which are owned by Sempra Energy and InterGen. She said the Bush administration's abbreviated environmental assessment of the project didn't adequately evaluate the consequences of the companies' power plants in Mexico...New BLM oil, gas leases challenged Outdoor educators and retailers have joined environmentalists in formally challenging the Bureau of Land Management's plans to sell oil and gas leases on Utah lands that until recently were regarded by the agency as having wilderness characteristics. A coalition of environmental groups on Monday filed a protest against the BLM for 21 parcels of land included in its quarterly oil and gas lease sale, scheduled for Nov. 24. They were joined by the Lander, Wyo.-based National Outdoor Leadership School. Their protest follows a similar one lodged Friday by the Outdoor Industry Association, based in Boulder, Colo. The environmental groups -- along with Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., sponsor of a 9.1 million-acre Utah wilderness bill -- are angry that the oil and gas sales include parcels within "wilderness inventory areas" that the BLM under the Clinton administration thought could be worthy of eventual wilderness protection...Cattlemen pleased with changes to grassland conservation program The agricultural appropriations bill, overwhelmingly passed last Thursday by the Senate, contains changes to the Grassland Reserve Program, which the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) says were necessary. "In particular, the Senate passed language to make clear that private organizations may own the title interest in a program easement if the organization is otherwise qualified under the law," according to Jeff Eisenberg, executive director of the Public Lands Council (PLC), and the NCBA director of federal lands...Four more Polaris models meet Yellowstone snowmobile requirements Snowmobiles that the National Park Service earlier said would require special equipment to meet noise standards do not need the equipment after all, Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis said Wednesday. New tests the Park Service said it encouraged manufacturer Polaris Industries Inc. to conduct show that when operated at higher elevations like Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, the four models are considerably quieter than when operated at lower elevations...Island Bison Ship Out for Plains More than 100 of Catalina Island's legendary bison departed the island forever Tuesday, herded into trucks, ferried across the sea on an industrial barge, and then sent on a journey that will take them to the northern Plains where their ancestors once grazed. The transfer of one-third of the renowned Catalina bison herd is a rare joint effort of animal welfare advocates and conservationists, two groups that long have sparred over how to reduce the numbers of nonnative animals roaming an island whose managers have a mission of conserving wildlife...Acequia association: Plan doesn't protect acequias The New Mexico Acequia Association says the first draft of the state’s water plan fails to protect acequias. The group plans to warn legislators that the draft plan unveiled last month threatens acequias through its emphasis on developing water markets for the trade in water rights. Association members participated in public meetings where state officials gathered public comment on issues to include in the state water plan. But association members say the draft fails to reflect their concerns...Brazil has beef with U.S. With 3,500 workers slaughtering and processing an at-capacity 1,100 cows a day, you might think the owners of the Bertin Ltda. plant would have all the work they could handle. Instead, the company would like to expand -- but it is cramped by import restrictions that keep raw Brazilian beef out of U.S. grocery stores and restaurants. "We are exporting our beef to all other major markets in the world," said Bertin sales manager Dominic MacDermot. "Why is it that we are being penalized by the Americans?" ...An old way of life grows fainter: Local rancher G. B. Oliver Jr. dies The crest has passed, and the waning ripples from the original wave of Otero County pioneers are smoothing into faint reflections of an earlier time. Local rancher and lifelong county resident G.B. Oliver Jr., 77, passed away at the home of his son in La Luz Canyon Monday. He died suddenly after working some fence line...