NEWS ROUNDUP

Residents paid taxes on land, but it isn't theirs, agency says It's been more than two years since surveyors came to Don Ayers' place in southwest Missouri and told him part of the land really belonged to the federal government. More than two years since the government made an offer: Ayers could keep the land - if he bought it back from the government at fair market value. It is land that Ayers already paid for once, and has been paying taxes on for years... 'Healthy forests' bill awaits Bush's signature A healthy forests bill that proponents say will help lessen the most severe wildfire risks on federal lands now awaits President Bush's signature. Supporters say the controversial legislation, which gained final approval from Congress on Friday, would allow forest managers to more easily thin trees on 20 million acres deemed at greatest risk of major wildfires. The Healthy Forests Restoration Act cleared the Senate unanimously by voice vote, while the House OK'd the measure 286-140, said a spokesman for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., on Friday...Lawmaker Wants More Inmates To Help Thin Forests More inmates in Arizona's prisons could be used to help thin forests, reducing the risk of catastrophic fires, a lawmaker says. Although inmates have worked as wild land firefighters for a number of years, it was only in the wake of the Rodeo-Chediski Fire in the summer of 2002 that the Department of Corrections sent inmates into the woods to help reduce the brush that serves as the initial fuel for fires...Ranchers upset over federal ruling on grazing Ranching advocates are unhappy after a potential precedent-setting ruling was made by a federal judge on Oct. 30, invalidating seven grazing permits in Arizona and New Mexico. A Nov. 4 press release from Forest Guardians, a conservation group, said that the judge ruled the U.S. Forest Service violated the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act for failing to consider the effects of grazing on endangered animals and not consulting on the potential effects for a 10-year period with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The endangered animals include the Mexican spotted owl, the lesser long-nosed bat, the loach minnow and the spikedace...Beetles attack Santa Fe pine forests A cousin of the bark beetles that are attacking pinon trees in northern New Mexico is feasting on ponderosa pines in the Santa Fe National Forest. The forest has hired a logging company - Jemez Mountain Forest Products - to thin about 100 acres in the Redondo campground in the Jemez Mountains west of Santa Fe this winter to fight the problem...Sawtooth administrator witnesses beetle damage Sara Baldwin heard about Idaho's crown jewel - the Sawtooth National Recreation Area - but never visited it before becoming its administrator. But in her first field trip to the alpine Sawtooth Valley north of Ketchum she confronted one of the area's greatest problems: Big swaths of rust-colored lodgepole pines that have fallen victim to the pine beetle...Groups appeal timber sale Environmental groups have appealed the 4.5 million board feet Windmill timber sale in the Mill Creek Drainage south of here, contending the U.S. Forest Service realized it would lose money and then illegally changed its purpose. The groups say the sale could lose up to $376,000. It originally was planned as one of several meant to produce money to complete the Big Sky Lumber land swaps...Global warming blamed, in part, for fierce wildfires Even before last summer's wildfires charred a swathe across the state - and burned up $27 million in tax dollars - some state and national leaders were pointing to forest thinning as a way to cut down on hot-burning wildfires. But a report to be published in the journal "Climate Change" suggests that in the future thick forests may not be the only thing driving intense and destructive blazes. Global warming, the gradual heating of the earth caused by an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide tied, at least in part, to human activities, will make wildfires burn hotter and more intense, concludes the report, produced by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Forest Service...Record try in wildfire recovery under way As a safety officer with a wildfire-recovery team, Randy Draeger spends his days making sure workers don't get struck by falling trees, bitten by pit bulls or run over by bulldozers. But his biggest challenge is preventing exhaustion. Struggling against shortages of equipment and supplies, his colleagues are in a hurry, rushing to stabilize Southern California's charred landscape before a date no one can name. At stake is the survival of people and property, not to mention plants and animals. Armed with new-fangled satellite imagery and old-fashioned elbow grease, beleaguered workers are launching projects ranging from the relocation of endangered frogs to the mulching of hillsides by helicopter. In all, it's the biggest and most complicated wildfire-recovery effort in American history...Forest chief says solutions must come from communities The U.S. Forest Service is focused on remedying four immediate threats to America's forests: over-fueling, invasive plant species, encroaching development and rogue off-highway vehicles. The solutions to these national problems will have to come from local communities. And the people in those communities must look beyond their different points of view to find sensible middle ground...Owl habitat no bar to thinning Although the Coconino National Forest could pick up more than 100,000 additional acres of Mexican spotted owl critical habitat, Forest Service officials do not expect it would have major impacts on Flagstaff-area thinning projects. Rodger Zanotto, stewardship staff officer with the Coconino National Forest, said there will be some minor adjustments in the consultation for fuels reduction projects -- done to help curb catastrophic wildfire threats -- that are being conducted under the banner of the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership. The partnership sponsors the projects around communities and neighborhoods...Editorial: At last, a fire bill I t is all over for now, the unstoppable wildfires this summer and the unending political debate about what to do about them. On Friday, Congress finally approved legislation to speed up thinning of dead and dying forests. The bill that the House and Senate passed in rapid-fire succession Friday came after four years, 24 million acres of wildfires, the deaths of dozens of firefighters and exceptional leadership by several members of Congress, including two Oregon lawmakers, Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Greg Walden...Column: The Healthy Forests Restoration Act: Restoring Forest Health and Combating Catastrophic Wildfire After years of watching catastrophic wildfires burn our forests to the ground, destroy critical species habitat, ruin watersheds and threaten rural communities, Congress has responded to the urgent need to improve the management of America's forests. In the final days before Congress adjourned for the year, the House and Senate reached an agreement on a bipartisan bill that represents the most comprehensive reform of our nation's forest management policies in a generation. The Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (HR 1904), which I co-authored, will expedite the removal of hazardous fuels on 20 million acres of federal forestland, as well as other projects to combat insect infestation and disease in our national forests...Column: Eco-Terrorists Stepping up Attacks Across America Watchdog groups, shocked and alarmed by the violence eco-terrorists are willing to commit, are also dismayed that ELF and ALF appear to have ready access to funds for producing propaganda, recruiting members, and committing their terrorist acts. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which produces slick advertising campaigns and whose leaders are treated as quasi-celebrities on the national cable news networks, has admitted to donating $1,500 to ELF in 2001. According to the Center for Consumer Freedom, PETA donated at least $70,000 to ALF. PETA receives much of its funding from other liberal environmentalist groups. Like ALF and ELF, many of those groups are beginning to come under legal scrutiny...Goshawk ruling reopens forest debate A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the Forest Service did not take into consideration all studies and evidence when developing a plan for protecting a bird of prey known as the northern goshawk -- forcing the agency to revisit a policy that has involved cutting old-growth ponderosa pines. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of environmental groups -- the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club -- in their lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service. The suit contended that the agency failed to protect the northern goshawk in national forests within Arizona and New Mexico...Endangered species listings may backfire New research confirms fears that Endangered Species Act listings do not necessarily help - and may even harm - rare species on private lands. Since the Preble's jumping mouse was listed as threatened, the landowners in the study have degraded as much habitat as they have enhanced, and most oppose the biological surveys that are critical for conserving species. "Private landowners' responses suggested that the current regulatory approach to rare species conservation is insufficient to protect the Preble's mouse," say Amara Brook, Michaela Zint and Raymond De Young of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in the December issue of Conservation Biology. More than 90% of federally listed species live at least partly on nonfederal land and as many as half live entirely on nonfederal land, much of which is private. Anecdotal evidence suggests that listing endangered species may not help protect them on private property because landowners may wreck their habitat to avoid land-use restrictions. This is the first study to see if this is true...Report: N.M. needs river reserve New Mexico should create a "Strategic River Reserve" to acquire water rights to help the state in times of drought and meet legal demands of interstate water agreements, according to a report by an independent think tank. Under the proposal by the Santa Fe-based group, Think New Mexico, the state would lease or purchase water rights from willing sellers to provide a "pool of publicly held water rights on every river system." Water rights also could be donated to the reserve...Bison Roam in the Refuge, but That's on a Reservation But the air at the range is filled with tension these days. The 19,000 acres of hills and ponderosa pine are surrounded by the 1.2 million-acre Flathead Indian Reservation, and tribal leaders have invoked a 1994 federal law to request a compact to participate in managing the bison and range along with other federal refuge properties on the reservation...Drilling causes concern about mule deer For a second straight year, drilling for natural gas will occur in critical mule deer winter range, again raising concerns from environmental groups. Directional drilling from a single well pad eliminates the need for eight separate well sites, centralizes production facilities and consolidates access routes to a single road, Questar officials said. One drawback is that it can take as long as 250 days to drill the eight wells from one pad, hence the need to drill continuously throughout the winter...Two counties use state funds for individuals'grazing permit lawsuits Two southern Utah counties that the state gave $50,000 to fight grazing issues in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument have handed over some of it to three ranchers trying to take grazing permits from an environmental group. The ranchers'legal target is Canyonlands Grazing Corp., an affiliate of the Flagstaff, Ariz.-based Grand Canyon Trust. Trust attorney Cullen Battle has called the ranchers"a bunch of pirates ... (who) are using public money to fund a private hit job on our permits. If they win _ and they won't _ they will walk away with permits we paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for."...Development foes oppose Bush plan for Alaska's oil A Bush administration plan to open almost 9 million acres to oil and gas development in Alaska is ill-conceived and misleading, threatening sensitive havens for migratory birds and other wildlife, environmentalists say. "It's never enough for the Bush administration," Cindy Shogan, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said Friday. "They won't be happy until every acre in America's arctic is a wasteland filled with oil, pipelines and roads." The Interior Department's oil and gas leasing plan targets 8.8 million acres at the northwestern corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in the North Slope...