NEWS ROUNDUP

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Blame Game Begins in Calif. Wildfires The Southern California wildfires have been vanquished, but the second-guessing is in full swing. Politicians and residents have a lot of questions about how the wildfires managed to do so much damage, scorching more than 740,000 acres, burning about 3,600 homes and killing 22 people. They were the most destructive wildfires to ever hit California. In hard-hit San Diego County, they want to know whether a lack of coordination and equipment hindered the firefighting effort and prevented communities from being saved. President Bush, Gov. Gray Davis and a 1932 state law have all come under criticism...Bush takes quiet aim at 'green' laws Slowly but surely, the Bush administration is using courts and spending legislation to reverse Clinton-era trends in environmental protection. From the administration's point of view, this serves to: provide balance to the conflict between protecting nature and advancing the economy; give states and localities more say in such decisions; and reduce the "analysis paralysis" that can hinder federal government land managers from doing their job. This is being done in several ways...Human-caused bear deaths preventable, experts say Some Yellowstone National Park grizzly bear deaths could have been avoided, a federal biologist said Wednesday and called for a task force to study ways of reducing human encounters with the animals. Chris Servheen, speaking to a subcommittee of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, said at least 290 grizzlies have died in and around Yellowstone since 1980. Of those, 188 died of human-related causes. Servheen said hunters seeking other game killed 35 of the bears in self defense. He said that makes such deaths more common than in other bear habitats. Wildlife experts say the best ways of avoiding bear risks are to travel in groups, make loud noises and avoid dawn and dusk. Following this advice, however, also makes it difficult to stalk an elk...Competitive bidding comes to roost with Forest Service The Department of Defense went through it and now it's the Forest Service's turn. Competitive sourcing is the practice of replacing government jobs with private contractors. Lost River District Ranger Carol Eckert told the Custer County Commissioners at their October 14 meeting that the Forest Service has gone through the first wave of evaluating jobs within the trails, recreation and maintenance departments to see who can do the most efficient job. The Forest Service came out on top this time. She said the next stages are to consider everything else over the next couple of years. The Forest Service has contracted some jobs out in the past, such as National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), campground maintenance, and some trail and firefighting work...Lewis Hopes Lessons Learned Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) hopes Congress has learned something from the devastating wildfires that have ravaged the San Bernardino Mountains and California in recent days. "I'm going to insist that we change current laws to allow activation of military aircraft to help combat firestorms," Lewis told The Mountain News and Crestline Courier-News in an exclusive interview conducted at the San Bernardino International Airport on Saturday. Lewis was referring to an arcane provision in the Economy Act of 1932 that prohibits the U.S. Forest Service from activating state-of-the-art Air National Guard fire-fighting planes until all commercial asserts are exhausted...In dense forests, bugs set table for flames The beetles that have chewed through pine forests in the San Bernardino Mountains, creating vast stands of tinder-dry wood just waiting to burst into flame, are as small as a grain of rice. They can fly for miles, yet spend most of their lives hidden under bark. They coordinate attacks with chemical signals. Some carry fungus in a special pouch in their heads as a weird sort of biological weapon. Bark beetles are a natural part of a healthy forest. By attacking and killing weak trees, they make room for new growth and create housing for birds and animals in the dead snags. They're also an important food for woodpeckers. But where entire forests are weakened by overcrowding, drought or disease, as they have been in Southern California and across much of the West, these tiny insects can be devastating...Fire's scapegoats: environmentalists For the past week, while Southern California has burned, environmental groups have been pilloried on talk radio. They have received streams of angry e-mail. Columnists have blasted them. As the story goes, tree-huggers blocked logging projects to thin the very forests that are burning. Had they not been so obstructionist, the fire danger would have been reduced, critics say. The reality, however, is not so straightforward. Environmental groups have indeed appealed and sued to block forest-thinning projects on public land in the Sierra Nevada and other fire-prone areas in the West in recent years. But U.S. Forest Service records show that in the four national forests in Southern California affected by this week's catastrophic fires, environmentalists have not filed a single appeal to stop Forest Service tree-thinning projects to reduce fire risk since 1997 -- the time period for which records are immediately available...The Death Of Fast Skiing? That vagary, however, was questioned last winter by the U.S. Forest Service, which oversees the use of public lands for many ski areas, including Aspen. Norton himself accused a young local skier of almost hitting him. After a confrontation and chase, the teen's season pass was pulled indefinitely. He protested to the Forest Service, which urged resort management to set a policy on reckless skiing and a process by which offenders could appeal. The kid got his pass back in two weeks. Now the Aspen Skiing Company is formulating guidelines similar to many resorts: First offenders get a warning; a second offense earns a pulled ticket; and repeat offenders may have their pass suspended for longer periods. Aspen, however, decided not to define "reckless skiing," nor does it intend to. "We don't think it's possible," says Norton...Congress limits outsourcing at Interior, Energy Congress has placed restrictions on competitive-sourcing programs at the Energy and Interior departments in HR 2691, the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The appropriations bill has been passed by both the House and Senate and is awaiting President Bush's expected signature. The limits include new reporting requirements, and, most important, requirements for the cost savings that competitive-sourcing projects --in which federal employees compete with contractors for government work--at Energy and Interior must generate. According to the bill, Energy, Interior and the Agriculture Department's Forest Service must provide detailed reports on their competitive-sourcing studies to Congress by Dec. 30. The bill also requires the agencies to provide a detailed work program for competitive-sourcing efforts planned for fiscal 2004. The appropriations bill limits funds available for competitive-sourcing studies to $2.5 million at Interior and $500,000 at Energy in 2004, unless the departments seek congressional approval. The Forest Service may spend a maximum of $5 million on competitive-sourcing projects started in 2004, according to the bill...Forest Service blamed for Cascade II wildfire Officials have determined that improper planning on the part of U.S. Forest Service personnel caused the Cascade II Fire, a prescribed burn that raged out of control for a week in September in the Uintah National Forest. The prescription was originally set at 600 acres, with an extra 400 acres reserved in case something went wrong. It torched that plus 7,200 more acres. An interagency review panel, drawn from the Bureau of Land Management, the state and the Forest Service, determined that fire personnel had not conducted sufficient analysis to increase the burn to include the extra 400 acres. In a prepared statement released by the U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday night, the agency admitted ". . . an inadequate burn plan and inadequate pre-burn weather monitoring and analysis contributed to [the fire's] escape . . ."...DEC head blasts environmentalists Alaska's top environmental regulator scolded conservation groups Wednesday for spreading fear mongering about the condition of the environment and lambasted the media for being "eager apostles" of green activists. Ernesta Ballard, Alaska's commissioner of environmental conservation, spoke about public lands management at the Alaska Miners Association luncheon at the Sheraton Anchorage Hotel where the group is holding its annual convention this week. Besides criticizing journalists and environmentalists, Ballard also jabbed at the government's approach to tackling resource issues. Ballard said more than enough acres are managed for conservation in Alaska and that land set-asides aren't necessary for environmental protection. The proliferation of wilderness areas and monuments "demonstrates that we have lost our national resolve to develop our resources."...Elusive wolverines not "endangered" for now Whether you call him Gulo gulo, skunk bear or devil bear, one thing is for certain -- very little is known about the wolverine. So little, in fact, that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to consider listing the wolverine as an endangered species last month, saying there is not enough information to determine whether they are actually endangered. Wolverines "omnivorous members of the weasel family" survive primarily as scavengers and move about in a bear-like fashion on five-toed feet. The historic, as well as current, habitat and population numbers of these creatures seem to be just as elusive as the animals are. Local researchers are working to close this information gap...Deal Reached on $400.5B Defense Bill According to lawmakers and congressional staff, the bill also: Grants the military exemptions to the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The Pentagon says those and other environmental rules impede training exercises. Environmentalists say exemptions could be detrimental...National Environmental Trust Statement on the Backroom Deal on Department of Defense Environmental Exemptions "Today the Republican Congressional leadership opened gaping new loopholes in two of the nation's bedrock environmental laws. The backroom deal on the Department of Defense authorization bill will significantly weaken the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. "This deal is a crippling blow for marine mammals. It lets the Secretary of Defense bypass these key protections, and appears to trump the recent court decision protecting whales and dolphins from the impacts of navy sonar. Does anybody trust Donald Rumsfeld to save the whales?...100 House members support plan to protect Northwest's economy, salmon, taxpayers Support for protecting the Northwest's economy and salmon runs reached a milestone today, with 100 House members signing on to the bipartisan Salmon Planning Act. Introduced by Representatives Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Thomas Petri (R-WI), this bill has three main elements -- a science analysis by National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of current and anticipated salmon recovery actions, General Accounting Office (GAO) studies on how to best transition local economies to a free-flowing lower Snake River and authority to the Army Corps of Engineers to remove the four lower Snake River dams, if dam removal is deemed necessary by the federal agencies charged with protecting salmon and complying with tribal treaties. "What this is really about is ensuring the region has a strong economy and healthy wild salmon runs," said Michael Garrity, associate director, federal dams program, American Rivers...Albuquerque wins huge water victory The City of Albuquerque won a huge water victory Thursday when a U.S. House and Senate Conference Committee approved language in an appropriations bill that bars the federal government from using the city's San Juan/Chama water to satisfy provisions of the Endangered Species Act. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez announced the language approval during a hastily called news conference in his City Hall office. "This secures for all time Albuquerque's San Juan/Chama water supply," Chavez said while thanking New Mexico's two U.S. senators--Republican Pete Domenici and Democrat Jeff Bingaman for their work on the matter. Chavez said that the San Juan/Chama water represents 70 percent of Albuquerque's future supply. If the federal government were allowed to take the water for the slivery minnow, Albuquerque's future growth would have been jeopardized, Chavez said. At issue in the court case was whether the federal government could use what is referred to as "non-native" water to help the silvery minnow. Because the San Juan/Chama water is imported under the Continental Divide into the Rio Grande basin, it is not native to the system. Attorneys for the city had argued in court that water that is not native to a river system could not be used to satisfy the Endangered Species Act...Horseback riders, bikers team with national group on Headwaters plan protest Equestrians and mountain bikers frustrated with plans to all but close the Headwaters Forest Reserve to riding and biking have vowed to fight against the plan with a national access group's help. The Blue Ribbon Coalition, which normally concerns itself with preserving off-road vehicle access to public lands, has filed a protest letter against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's final management plan. The Idaho-based group claims BLM wants to manage the 7,400-acre property as a wilderness despite contrary direction from Congress. BLM, on the other hand, said its intended policy to keep horses and bikes out of the reserve is based on a strict legislative mandate. Limited hiking would be allowed under the plan, bikes will be kept from all but 3 miles of trail, and horseback riding would not be allowed...Leavitt asks BLM to delay drilling The Bush administration's push to drill for more oil and gas in the Rocky Mountains is apparently too aggressive for the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Mike Leavitt -- in one of his last gubernatorial actions before resigning to become Bush's top environmental adviser -- told the federal government he opposes 15 new gas wells proposed in the Book Cliffs of eastern Utah. In a letter this week to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Leavitt asks the agency to delay authorizing the wells, which would be within a portion of the White River Wilderness Inventory Area (WIA)...Editorial: End BLM horse adoptions But somehow, the BLM managed to spend $1,400 arranging each horse "adoption" -- three times what it would cost to simply graze the animal in knee-deep grass on government land in Kansas or Oklahoma. On top of that, while the word "adoption" brings to mind little girls festooning their ponies' manes with wildflowers, a 1996 investigation by The Associated Press found "a federal program created to save the lives of wild horses is instead channeling them by the thousands to slaughterhouses, where they are chopped into cuts of meat." Finally, the agency's Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board suggested this week that the costly and unaccountable program be suspended. Might there be a way to solve this problem not by increasing, but by reducing government involvement? Of course there is. There is a long history in the West of private horse roundups, which cost the government nothing. It's time to get Washington out of the absurdly expensive and bottlenecked "adoption" program. Simply issue permits to private individuals to go capture a dozen or a hundred wild horses at a time...California fires may threaten endangered butterflies The wildfires that ravaged San Diego County have proven deadly to some of its smallest inhabitants - fragile, endangered butterflies that live in the coastal regions and mountains and virtually nowhere else. Probably thousands of butterflies were killed in the fires because they were in the egg or larval stage and unable to fly away, researchers said...Largest parcel goes unsold at BLM land auction in Las Vegas Bidders passed on a southern Nevada parcel that had been expected to fetch at least $250 million during a Thursday land auction, leaving the Bureau of Land Management holding more than half the federal property it hoped to sell. "It's fair to characterize it as a disappointment," Merv Boyd, BLM Las Vegas land sale manager, said after the agency auctioned 750.5 acres for almost $131 million. The BLM had hoped to auction 2,723 acres and raise at least $361 million...Public-land swaps reveal firm's clout Western Land Group helps determine the land the federal government is interested in obtaining, negotiates to purchase those parcels for its client, offers the swap, organizes appraisals, arranges for environmental studies and other investigations, and follows it through closing. Individuals in the firm, who have handed out thousands of dollars in political contributions, know the politicians who can help the process or slow it with inquiries. At times, Western Land Group approaches lawmakers to write the swap into bills when the bureaucratic process stalls or is too slow. Those tactics result in a 95 percent success rate for the firm's clients and tens of thousands of acres changing hands, according to the company...Column: Teddy Roosevelt Would Have Put His Foot Down When the young Theodore Roosevelt went West to become a cattle rancher in the late 1800s, he was impressed by the flint of the Western character. In his travels through South Dakota and the Rocky Mountains, he met mountain men and cowboys and Indians so independent and strong-willed that even the robuster-than-robust Roosevelt confessed he sometimes felt inadequate. Today, watching some Westerners prostrate themselves to the Bush administration as it encourages energy companies to devastate the most delicate of our lands, I have to wonder what has happened to the Western character. My guess is that if Theodore Roosevelt were alive today, he would have a fit over what they are doing to the Powder River Basin and the Red Desert in what can only be called the Great Orgy to drill for the gas we know as coalbed methane. And then he would have fought it with every fiber in his body...New Study Reveals Critical Threats to Big Bend; Conservation Group Encourages Establishment of International Park to Protect Resources A dwindling water supply, air pollution, and an annual funding shortfall of more than $6 million threaten the health of Texas' Big Bend National Park, according to a new report released today by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). The nonpartisan organization is encouraging Congress and the administration to fund the needs of the park and support the establishment of an International Park to improve the condition of the area's fragile landscape. "Big Bend is a spectacular park, but there is trouble in paradise," said Jim Nations, vice president of NPCA's State of the Parks(r) program. "Without water and clean air the park will never be healthy. The United States and Mexico need to work together to protect this gem."...White House Acknowledges Climate Report Not Subjected to Sound Science Law The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has publicly acknowledged that the National Assessment on Climate Change was not "subjected to OSTP's Information Quality Act guidelines." This acknowledgement now appears prominently on the document posted on the U. S. Global Change Research Program's web site (http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/nacc/). With this admission, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has withdrawn its complaint in federal court that the National Assessment did not meet the minimal scientific standards required by the Federal Data Quality Act. A subsequent product disseminated by the Environmental Protection Agency, Climate Action Report 2002, repeats many of the scientifically unsupportable assertions contained in the National Assessment and should now be subjected to FDQA guidelines, as should the next National Assessment due in October 2004. "The record shows that the Clinton White House pressured bureaucrats to rush out an incomplete and inaccurate report despite protests from government scientists," said Christopher C. Horner, Senior Fellow at CEI. "The government also subsequently confirmed that the two climate models selected for the National Assessment are 'outliers' chosen to guarantee extreme results and are incapable of replicating even past climate trends."...Proposal would limit wetlands protection Bush administration officials have drafted a rule that would significantly narrow the scope of the Clean Water Act, stripping many wetlands and streams of federal pollution controls and making them available to being filled for commercial development. The rule, spelled out in an internal document provided to the Los Angeles Times by a senior government official, says that Clean Water Act protection would no longer be provided to "ephemeral washes or streams" that do not have ground water as a source. Streams that flow for less than six months a year would also lose protection, as would many wetlands, according to the document....Most Voters Don't Consider Environmental Record Environmentalists critical of President Bush's record say they believe his policies will help get out the environmental vote for his Democratic opponent in 2004. But while Democrats generally fare better than Republicans when it comes to the environment, polls show that few voters make their decision on a candidate based primarily on environmental issues. A Harris poll survey last month asked voters to name the two most important issues confronting the government. Combining the two selections, voters ranked the environment 25th out of 43 issues...Senate supports plan for meat labeling; Opposes Canadian Imports The Senate insisted Thursday that the Agriculture Department move ahead with preparations for a law requiring meatpackers and grocers to inform consumers what country their meat comes from. Led by senators from some Western states, the Senate voted 58-36 to oppose efforts in the House to effectively exempt meat products from a law requiring that foods start carrying country-of-origin labels by September 2004. The Senate, in its consideration of a $17 billion agriculture spending bill for the 2004 budget year, also approved an amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., that would put the Senate in opposition to an Agriculture Department proposal to allow Canadian cattle into the United States. The proposal would end an import ban imposed after a case of mad cow disease was found in Canada last May. Dorgan urged that the United States follow the guidelines of the World Organization for Animal Health, which recommends a seven-year import ban after mad cow disease is found. Opening the border now, he said, "could be a devastating risk to our livestock industry."...U.S. exports soar after mad cow case U.S. beef exports soared 17 per cent after world markets shunned Canadian beef due to a case of mad cow disease, Statistics Canada says. Most of the increase went to Mexico, Japan and South Korea, where Canadian and U.S. exporters traditionally compete, said the report released yesterday. But industry officials suggested the picture is not as bleak as it might seem. Re-establishing trade links will be easier because customers don't seem to have lost the taste for high-quality, grain-fed beef, said Ted Haney of the Canada Beef Export Federation. Haney's members have lost an estimated $1.65 billion in sales since May 20, when bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, was detected in an Alberta breeder cow. The Statistics Canada report said Americans have picked up much of the slack. Prior to the confirmed case of mad cow in Alberta, U.S. beef exports averaged $460 million (Canadian) a month. That monthly average jumped to $540 million in each of June, July and August... Rube and his new boots We had already finished saddling our horses in the dark and were standing around the fire telling stories and waiting for daylight when Rube drove in and parked his old pickup. Over the crackling and popping of the fire we could hear the squeaky door of Rube's pickup open and close and Rube cussing as he made his way to the tack house. He knew he was late, we knew he was late and once again the day would start with everyone making fun of him. It really didn't matter what the reason was, Rube was just one of those guys who naturally ended up being the butt of everyone's joke. It was quiet around the fire as we stared at the embers and listened to Rube cussing his impatient horse as he saddled it...