NEWS ROUNDUP

Administration Opens Alaska's Tongass Forest to Logging Capping more than 10 years of intense controversy over the fate of some of the nation's last remaining old-growth forest, the Bush administration yesterday finalized the opening of 300,000 acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest for logging and other development. "This is the end of a very long process," said Mark Rey, undersecretary for natural resources and the environment at the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the national forest system. "We used the best scientific information available to strike a balance between protecting as much as we could . . . while maintaining a small part of the Tongass for use and management to sustain the 72,000 people who live in southeastern Alaska." The administration's action was not unexpected. After years of maneuvers and counter-maneuvers by advocates and opponents of Tongass logging and the involvement of all three branches of government, the Agriculture Department proposed its final rule in June as part of an agreement in which the state of Alaska -- which wanted the land opened -- promised to drop a lawsuit against the federal government...Southeast Alaska timber industry celebrates logging decision A decision by the Bush Administration to exempt prime timberland in the Tongass National Forest from Clinton-era logging protections was praised in Southeast Alaska on Tuesday. Steve Seley owns Pacific Log and Lumber in Ketchikan, one of the few sawmills still operating in the Panhandle. He recently completed a $1.4 million expansion and was counting on the decision to stay in business. Gov. Frank Murkowski -- a Republican who continued the lawsuit brought by his Democrat predecessor -- said it was good news for the struggling Southeast economy...Catron commissioners testify at U.S. House panel hearing Forage conditions cannot be improved without addressing forest health. Wildfire danger cannot be reduced without addressing forest health. Forest health cannot be addressed without involvement of local human resources and local solutions...Commissioners approve grazing ordinance The committee will advise the Catron County Board of Commissioners on strategies, methods and opportunities for improving range, watershed and livestock stewardship practices and programs. The committee will also develop, implement and foster healthy rangeland and livestock stewardship programs and practices in cooperation, consultation and coordination with the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service, and other agencies involved in range, watershed and livestock stewardship programs and practices...Endangered Species Act survives five decades
Thirty years ago this month, the Nixon administration and a nearly unanimous Congress celebrated the signing of the Endangered Species Act, the nation's premier law for the protection of biological diversity. That may have been the last time harmony reigned over anything related to the species protection law. Today, the act is more controversial than ever, with both supporters and critics agreeing that species protection has become mired in lawsuits and countersuits by environmentalists and industry. Administration officials and key Republican members of Congress say the act is fundamentally "broken" and needs to be rewritten. "The current act and the way it's been implemented has been a failure in recovery of species and, at the same time, it has caused a huge amount of conflict with private landowners," said House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif. "I don't think anybody can look at the act and say it has been a success."...Endangered Species Act fact box The Endangered Species Act, the nation's premier law protecting biological diversity, turns 30 this month. Here's a quick look at the law and some of the controversies related to it:...SIERRA CLUB PICKS WORST BUSH ADMINISTRATION ENVIRONMENTAL EXPLOITS OF 2003 Tripling allowable levels of mercury pollution, shifting the burden of toxic clean up from polluters to taxpayers, and undoing rules for cleaning up America's dirtiest power plants topped a laundry list of Bush administration exploits to weaken decades environmental progress in 2003. "The Bush administration is systematically turning back 30 years of environmental progress," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive director. "You really have to go back to the McKinley administration in the late 19th century to find so many gratuitous giveaways to special interests looking to exploit our air, water, and natural areas. Americans want a 21st century administration that can deliver forward-thinking environmental solutions."...Column: Another Big Green Election Year Raid History lesson time -- again. Anyone wondering how the hapless Big Greens would respond to their latest defeat, the passage of the Wyden/Feinstein Stealthy Timber Act (HFI), need look no further than the foundation-sponsored agenda of the Headwaters 13th Annual Forest Conference, set for this coming January 29th in Ashland, Oregon. With no current legislation slated (read: DC-based fundraising opportunities), the Big Greens have once again decided to mine the grassroots for issues they can take over and grab the money. Also as important to the Big Greens is delivering the grassroots vote to the Democratic Party. Both these entrenched goals nicely fall under the rubric of this year's conference -- titled, "Mobilizing the Grassroots in 2004." It's there, as well, in the impossibly inane choice of Les AuCoin featured in not one, but two two-and-a-half hour "State of the Movement" plenary sessions. AuCoin is titled, "Former Congressman and forest advocate" in the conference agenda. Of course, as a Congressman, the only forest advocating he did was for the forest to be horizontal...Kill grey squirrels to save the native reds (UK) WILDLIFE experts are urging people to trap and shoot grey squirrels in a bid to save the region's native red squirrel population from extinction. Red Alert North West is lending traps to residents in a bid to wipe out the grey squirrel at Formby red squirrel reserve - home to the region's largest population of the endangered species...A legal victory for endangered species An appellate court approved the state's new approach to saving endangered species yesterday, rejecting builders' arguments against the expanded protections. The state last year began restricting development around wetlands connected to other wetlands where endangered species had been seen. In the past, the state had just protected the immediate vicinity of the sighting...Management of thriving gray wolf debated The sound of success pierces the cold, still air like a stiletto. Howls of gray wolves announce their dominance over the food chain from the park's Lamar Valley to the ranches of Montana, less than a decade after wildlife biologists returned them to their traditional habitat. Bringing wolves back from the brink of extinction is being hailed as an ecological triumph, so much so that the federal government reclassified the animal this year from "endangered" to "threatened." The next step toward removal from the protected species list is for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to transfer responsibility for wolf management to game officials in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, possibly late next year...Local hawk becomes object of study The Laramie Raptor Refuge took in a ferruginous hawk that was found on a prairie near Laramie. The hawk could help scientists further their knowledge of West Nile virus. What Catherine Symchych, director of the refuge, finds most interesting about the bird is that testing has shown though WNV is not in the hawk's blood, the virus is in its feather follicles...Editorial: Political Science OVER THE PAST several days, the Bush administration has changed its mind about the scientific merits of two environmental issues. For this administration, which has so often preferred to stick to bad ideas rather than admit they are bad, and which has seemed so addicted to political manipulation of science, such changes are worth noting -- particularly as both are still open to further manipulation... Peril in the Wind Industry The freezers at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department in the Sacramento Valley are overflowing with the decapitated and mangled bodies of golden eagles, kestrels and red-tailed hawks, victims of the whirling blades of wind turbines. Scientists estimate as many as 44,000 birds have been killed over the past two decades by these towering machines in the Altamont Pass, east of San Francisco. Although the rows of spinning blades at Altamont Pass turn wind into electricity and make Alameda County less dependent on fossil fuel, they are also the end of the line for many predatory birds whose annual migration route includes the pass. The area is also home to the largest resident population of golden eagles in the lower 48 states. Concentrating on their prey on the ground, the birds fly into the blur of the windmill blades...Holy Waters Northern waters are freezing as you read this, forcing ducks and geese to head south. According to this year's waterfowl breeding survey, huge numbers of birds are headed your way. Will you be in the right spot when the flights are at their peak? If you want to be sure to get good hunting, head for one of these four holy waters of waterfowling -- places where the shooting is fast, the scenery is beautiful, and the birds never seem to stop flying...Unique facility looks for signs of foul play These are examples of evidence that comes into the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory, the only one of its kind in the world. Like television's popular ``CSI'' show or real-life police crime labs elsewhere, this one examines evidence to try to link victim to crime scene to suspect. The only difference is that the victims here are animals...Judge stands by his snowmobiling rule; blames feds for timing A federal judge Tuesday refused to suspend his order to eliminate snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park by next winter. In clarifying his position, Judge Emmet Sullivan, of Washington, D.C., also blamed the federal government for the timing of his decision, which arrived the day before the park was scheduled to open for the winter season last week. The Blue Ribbon Coalition and the International Snowmobiling Manufacturers Association, both pro-snowmobile groups, and the state of Wyoming had asked for a stay of Sullivan's ruling. He denied that request Tuesday, finding "clear violations" of federal laws by the government and an absence of any persuasive new evidence...Park returning visitor deposits The main concession company at Yellowstone National Park has started refunding money to visitors who planned to snowmobile in the park this winter without a commercial guide. A federal judge on Dec. 16 overturned a Bush administration plan to set aside a ban on snowmobiles in favor of a allowing quieter and less polluting machines into Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Because of the ruling, those who had reservations to come into Yellowstone without a commercial guide will not be allowed in. Hours after the ruling, Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis said those people will get the cost of their reservation refunded...Editorial: Punished for the Truth UNLESS WISER HEADS in the upper reaches of the Bush administration prevail, underlings in the Interior Department are about to deliver a low blow to honesty and integrity in government. For responding with the truth to questions from The Post and other news outlets about staffing in her department, U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers has been placed on leave and notified that superiors in the National Park Service and Interior want her fired. And what was the chief's transgression? She said her understaffed department had to curtail critical patrols in Park Service jurisdictions beyond the Mall, such as major parkways and crime-ridden U.S. parkland in neighborhoods, because of Interior Department orders requiring more officers to guard downtown national shrines. The impending action ought to be reversed. Ms. Chambers should be commended for speaking up for public safety. The Interior Department underlings trying to muzzle her are the ones who should be on their way out the door...A Christmas Tree Grows -- and Grows -- in Oregon This is a story about a giant outdoor Christmas tree and a penny-pinching logger. To celebrate the season, the logger turns on the lights in the tree every day at 4:30 p.m. To save money, he turns them off at 11 p.m., when he figures everyone in the greater Boring area is either asleep or darn well should be. (The Portland suburb of Boring, by the way, owes its name not to a pervasive and localized ennui but to an early settler, W.H. Boring.) This story could begin 50 years before Columbus discovered America. That's when the logger's tree -- a Douglas fir -- was a seedling. It could also begin in 1949. That's when the logger, Glenn Althauser, then 21, bought a patch of wild wooded land and discovered the big tree on a bluff overlooking the roiling Clackamas River...the decorations are strung with a helicopter!...Gay footage will stay in Lincoln Memorial video Footage of gay rights demonstrations will not be removed from a videotape shown at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, according to spokespeople from the National Park Service and the Human Rights Campaign. Earlier reports in various news outlets said the gay images would be removed...Animals Give an End of the Year Cheer; The Fund for Animals Celebrates 2003 Victories The Fund for Animals is celebrating a banner year for animal protection and looking back on some of the year's biggest achievements. "We have made great strides this year to improve the lives of animals across the country," said Michael Markarian, president of The Fund for Animals. "We hope to continue that success through 2004 and beyond." Some of The Fund's accomplishments this year include:...BLM burns juniper slash near Cedar Fort Cedar Fort residents who spotted columns of smoke on the mountain west of town on Monday Dec. 15 didn't need to worry about a wildfire. In fact, the smoke was from 200 small, controlled fires that the Bureau of Land Management set and monitored on BLM land in order to reduce the threat of wildfire to the town...Disease outbreak threatens bighorn sheep Arizona Game and Fish Department personnel are in the midst of a bighorn sheep roundup in the Silver Bell Mountains near Tucson. The biologists are capturing, treating, and releasing desert bighorn sheep in mountains located on the Ironwood Forest National Monument in an effort to protect these native animals from an outbreak of pink-eye, which can have fatal consequences if not treated. Pink-eye can lead to blindness � and that's a big problem for a bighorn...Pecos water lawsuit delaying water purchase program State Engineer John D'Antonio says the state has agreed to about $25 million worth of land and water rights purchases along the Pecos River, but can't close on them until a long-running water rights lawsuit is resolved. The state, federal water managers and several Pecos irrigation districts announced early this year they had reached a settlement agreement on a 50-year-old water rights adjudication case that focuses on the Carlsbad area. However, a few parties have filed notice that they intend to protest the proposed settlement... Column: Attorney General Lockyer's Hot Air Lawsuit So, when I read that several elected state attorneys general were suing the federal government to get more regulations over more of our life to "do something" about ''global warming,'' I got worried. These 11 attorneys general (including California's Bill Lockyer) want the Environmental Protection Agency to enact stringent new rules on emissions into the atmosphere. With variations in details, all the suits seek regulation of carbon dioxide emissions. Also all are founded on shaky science. Also all could cost you your job, your car, and/or many other nice things which you are accustomed to enjoying in our technologically advanced society...Presidential candidates stack up on eco-issues There's been a lot of political analysis concerning why former Vice President Al Gore backed Howard Dean for the Democratic presidential nomination and who in the party has the best chance of beating President Bush in the next election. But little has been said about which Democrat has the best chance of appealing to environmentalists. Green groups like the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace have voiced strong opposition to White House policies on the environment. And the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), Washington's green political machine, says eco-issues may not always be the most important subjects to voters, but they're still influential in crucial swing states...EPA, NSF garner management honors The National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency received the Presidential Award for Management Excellence last week, the highest honors for management success in the federal government...Cloned half-asses from Idaho hold promise for livestock industry Today, the world's first cloned animals in the horse family, three half-asses from Idaho, are doing much better than many of the clones of other species. "They're developing normally and all quite healthy," said Dirk Vanderwall, professor of veterinary and animal science at the University of Idaho. "We're not seeing any of the health problems seen in the clones of other species like cattle or sheep." Between May and June, the team of researchers in Idaho and from Utah State University in Logan witnessed the birth of three genetically identical mules. Idaho Gem, Idaho Star and Utah Pioneer are all identical clones created using genes from the same fetal skin cell obtained from a family of champion racing mules, Vanderwall said...Nature Conservancy buys land near Yellowstone The Nature Conservancy of Idaho has bought an easement on a ranch west of Yellowstone National Park, preserving 158 acres from development while also protecting the land for cattle grazing, wildlife habitat and open space. The property owned by Gordon and Jane Hunt borders a piece of Henry's Lake shoreline protected by another easement...Nebraska restricts Wyoming cattle Nebraska has become the third state to impose restrictions on Wyoming cattle since a herd was found with brucellosis earlier this month, officials announced Tuesday. Colorado and California had earlier implemented restrictions after a herd in western Wyoming's Sublette County tested positive for the disease, which causes cattle to abort and, in rare cases, chronic flu-like symptoms in humans...Coyotes encroach suburbs, eat pets Some Laketon Township residents are fearful that coyotes in the area could be a threat to children as well as family pets. One of them, Lisa Knudsen-Gerling, says wandering coyotes recently snatched her Yorkshire terrier from her yard at 500 Buys, and have killed several neighborhood cats. She says an area resident reported seeing coyotes chewing on the siding of his house. "This is a little bit ridiculous," she said. "They're coming right up to the houses."...Argentina Pushes To Restart Beef Exports To U.S Argentina is eager to regain the 20,000-metric-ton market share for fresh beef that it once had in the United States, and officials are pressing the USDA to lift some of the restrictions placed on trade 2 1/2 years ago because of a cattle disease outbreak. USDA officials completed an exploratory mission this month to begin evaluating cattle conditions there, but Argentina Agriculture Minister Miguel Campos said he urged USDA Secretary Ann Veneman in a December meeting to accelerate the progress. The U.S. border slammed shut to Argentine beef in June 2001, after outbreaks of the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease were reported in northern regions of the country. USDA officials said, however, the department now believes cattle there had been infected far earlier...