NEWS ROUNDUP

Arizona town for sale on eBay for $5.5M Tortilla Flat, a little spot of land with a few wood buildings near the Salt River Lakes, is for sale on the Internet for $5.5 million. Advertised as one of the "last remnants of the Old West", the town's listing on eBay has received more than 6,500 hits. Nestled in the Superstition Mountains about 18 miles northeast of Apache Junction on winding state Route 88, the restaurant offers prickly pear cactus ice cream, half-pound cowboy burgers and saddle seating at the bar...Regional forester to take job with elk foundation Regional Forester Brad Powell will leave the U.S. Forest Service after 32 years to accept a position next month with the Missoula-based Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, he said Thursday. Since 2001, Powell has been the Northern Region forester in charge of 13 national forests and grasslands covering 25 million acres in Montana, North Idaho and the Dakotas. Powell said he will retire from the Forest Service Jan. 23 and join the elk foundation, an international non-profit group whose mission is to ensure the future of elk, other wildlife and their habitat, as senior vice president for conservation and lands...Forest Service Won't Block E-Mail The Forest Service is dropping a plan to ignore public comments from certain e-mail servers or on printed post cards. The agency had said last spring that it intended to bar "duplicative materials" such as mass e-mails, form letters and printed post cards, on grounds that they added little to debate over forest decisions...Study finds $70 billion in possible outsourcing The government's push to open federal jobs to competition could open as much as $70 billion outsourcing opportunities to private firms, but lingering uncertainties on the final version of the rules make it more difficult to predict, according to a new report from research firm Input. Researchers considered the number of jobs that could be outsourced -- officials have estimated that almost 900,000 federal jobs could be suitable for outsourcing -- and Bush administration officials have said they want agencies to open half of those to competition by September 2004. Based on those figures, Input calculates that competitive sourcing could bring up to $70 billion to vendors, including up to $5 billion for information technology companies, if all the potential jobs are outsourced...Economists Criticize Forest Service Over $10 Billion Road Backlog Investing in current roads instead of building new ones would help reduce the growing road maintenance crisis in the national forests, according to new letter that was sent today from 25 prominent economists to President Bush. The letter notes that, "Prioritizing road system expenditures toward existing infrastructure, rather than commissioning the construction of new roads would help to reduce this taxpayer burden and make better use of existing roads to increase access to the National Forests." The letter calls for, " 'a few good roads' not more miles of poorly maintained roads that add sediment to our streams, fragment wildlife habitat and displace non-motorized recreation such as hiking and mountain biking." The economists also call for the President and the administration to support the current Roadless Area Conservation Rule as a tool to support bring the road maintenance crisis under control. According to the letter supporting such an effort would, "increase the likelihood that the U.S. Forest Service can maintain existing roads in good working order at a reasonable cost to U.S. Taxpayers."...Click here(pdf) to see the letter...Oregon leading research into deadly ailment affecting deer Oregon is taking the lead on learning more about a mysterious ailment that is killing blacktailed deer from the crest of the Cascades to the coast. Deer hair-loss syndrome, a vexing condition that appears to irritate deer literally to death, has spread the past several years since it was discovered in Southwest Washington. Afflicted deer are commonly mangy, thin and weak. It's common throughout wet regions of Western Washington in both blacktail and whitetailed deer and in blacktails in Western Oregon. It might be infecting blacktails in Northern California...Snowmobile use, restrictions spur appeals in Logan district The Utah Snowmobile Association and a loosely organized group of nonmotorized recreation users have appealed a new winter recreation plan for the Logan Ranger District. Snowmobilers are upset because a popular area near Tony Grove Lake has been closed to motorized use to provide more opportunity for snowshoers and backcountry skiers. The nonmotorized group appealed because it thinks too much U.S. Forest Service land has been left open to snowmobiles...Feds propose ban on West Coast swordfish fishing to save turtles The federal government is proposing to shut down commercial swordfish fishing on the West Coast because too many endangered turtles are getting caught on hooks and dying. The proposed regulations by the National Marine Fisheries Services would affect about two dozen remaining long-line fishing boats that operate off the coast of California after restrictions to protect sea turtles forced the vessels from the waters of Hawaii...Fish and Wildlife Service again calls for flow changes in Missouri River A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruling Thursday affirmed the need for flow changes in the Missouri River starting next summer, shifting a 14-year battle into an election year and probably beyond. In a surprise ruling that sparked strong criticism in Missouri, government biologists concluded that the Army Corps of Engineers must provide shallower water in the lower river next summer to help the endangered pallid sturgeon - or violate the Endangered Species Act...Agency Rejects Bid To Take Mouse Off Endangered List The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refused Thursday to remove the Preble's meadow jumping mouse from the Endangered Species List, even as new research was announced that will keep the dispute alive. The agency said available science doesn't justify yanking federal protections for the mouse found along the Rockies' eastern front in Colorado and southeastern Wyoming, said Ralph Morgenweck, director of the service's regional office in Lakewood. Also Thursday, Denver-based scientists said new research shows the mouse isn't a distinct subspecies -- a designation that was the basis for placing it on the Endangered Species List...NWF Takes Legal Action to Ensure Wolf Recovery in the Northeast Charging that the Bush administration's decision to abandon wolf recovery efforts in the Northeast violates the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and four coalition partners filed a lawsuit today in federal district court in Vermont. In the complaint, NWF and the other groups explain that the final Wolf Reclassification Rule that was issued in April effectively terminates federal wolf recovery efforts in the Northeast, where suitable wolf habitat exists and wolves are apparently beginning to return. The rule changes the status of wolves from endangered to threatened in the Northern Rockies and the Great Lakes where wolves have begun to thrive, but terminates recovery planning for wolves in states like Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, where no wolf recovery efforts have taken place to date...Wolf watching: A big bad business Since their reintroduction into the Lamar Valley around Soda Butte Creek in 1995, wolves have created a cottage industry. There are now wolf guides, wolf-watching outfitters and motels in nearby Cooke City that cater to the crowd. Wolf enthusiasts buy powerful spotting scopes, tripods and long-lens cameras to fill their quest. The Lamar Valley wolf packs can be seen anytime -- high noon on an August day -- but sightings are most likely from early-May to mid-June, soon after the elk and bison herds drop their young. The baby wolves rest snug as a bug in their den with a "babysitter" on guard while mom or pop journeys out of the hills, across the highway and down into the lush river valley to grab a calf. Grizzly bears and coyotes emerge as well. The kill is quick, merciful and generally clean. The adults gorge themselves, then return across the road and up into the cliffs to regurgitate for the young ones...Wolves: The Sierra Club's view Now here in Wyoming, we are engaged in a debate about how to best manage these animals. The state legislature, ignoring the economic and biological benefits of wolves, passed legislation in the 2003 session that classifies wolves as "trophy game animals" in a few areas in Western Wyoming and classifies them as "predators" in the rest of the state. The significance of these classifications is that in the majority of the state where they are classified as "predators," wolves will be subject to the same persecutions visited upon them during the 1800s and first half of the 1900s. They may be killed by any means for any reason, or for no reason except the sake of killing them...Wolves: An outfitter's view Most Wyoming hunters opposed the introduction of the Canadian Gray Wolf and continue to oppose its protection. The primary reason for this opposition is very simple; wolves compete for the huntable surplus of game. Historically, more animals are born than are needed to replace natural mortality. This recruitment enables the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to issue permits to hunters, producing revenue to pay for game management. Game populations are kept in balance through regulated hunting and Wyoming hunters are able to get meat for the freezer to help feed their families. This system has worked for several decades. Many outfitters don't believe wolves only kill the weak, sick and old of a herd. Enter the Canadian Gray Wolf, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and those who push the anti-hunting, pro-predator agenda. They introduced this non-native wolf under the guise of "restoring historical balance to the Yellowstone ecosystem", even though strong evidence shows that wolves rarely entered Yellowstone in the 77 years prior to 1913 (National Park Service Documents, The Wolves of Yellowstone" Weaver 1978)...Snowcoach operators stage protest People who used to run snowcoaches in Yellowstone National Park held a "friendly demonstration" at the park's west gate Thursday, protesting the loss of their permits to do business there. "We're just trying to keep a few jobs that shouldn't have been lost," said Jim Holstein, a partner in Yellowstone Tour Guides, based in Big Sky. He said he had to turn away $1,500 worth of reservations Thursday and is canceling $15,000 worth of reservations that had been made for this season. In the wake of this week's court decision, the focus has been on snowmobiles. But there is considerable anger and confusion among snowcoach operators as well...Park Service Moves to Fire Police Chief Over Comments U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa C. Chambers, who was placed on leave after stating publicly that her department was understaffed, was formally notified yesterday that the National Park Service intends to fire her. The notification, which was faxed to an attorney for Chambers yesterday morning, caps two weeks of suspense and intrigue at the Park Police, a 620-member department whose chief responsibility is safeguarding the Mall and its monuments. Called a "proposal for removal," the notification for the first time stipulates the charges against Chambers, according to people familiar with the document. Chambers is accused, among other allegations, of improperly lobbying Congress and disclosing secret budget details through her public comments...Snowmobile ban brings quiet - and lot of noise When Jerry Schmier says it's all quiet on the western front of America's first national park, he has a different interpretation from most. Mr. Schmier worries the silence may presage economic calamity for his town of West Yellowstone, the self-proclaimed "snowmobile capital of the world." This week, on the eve of Yellowstone National Park opening its gates to winter visitors, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a controversial order that has left many in the park gateway community stunned. "The whole thing is a political nightmare, and we're caught in the middle of it," says Schmier, standing next to a fleet of cleaner and quieter snow machines he bought to keep his 30-year-old tourist business afloat, a fleet the federal government encouraged him to buy. "If this ban holds up, it's going to be devastating."...Snowmobile Industry Fights Back The snowmobile industry and snowmobile enthusiasts said they will appeal this week's federal court decision cutting by half the number of snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone National Park this winter. The State of Wyoming and the National Park Service are expected to join the appeal, the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association said in a press release. The appeal seeks an emergency stay of Judge Emmet Sullivan's ruling, which blocked a Bush administration policy in favor of an earlier, Clinton-era rule. An emergency stay would allow more snowmobiles into Yellowstone while the case is being appealed. The snowmobile industry argues that blocking the Bush administration plan at the last minute is causing serious harm in communities surrounding the park, which depend on wintertime tourists...Snowcoach builder miffed at park Ron Gatheridge braked his snowcoach-like Chevrolet Suburban to an abrupt halt in front of Yellowstone National Park's west entrance Wednesday morning, jumped out and propped a "For Sale" sign in the driver's side window. Then he stomped off. "The U.S. government can have the f--er!" Gatheridge yelled over his shoulder when asked why he left the vehicle at the park gate...Column: State officials ignore "death fences" Those concerned about the present and future protection and management of our valuable big game resource and the problem with high fences with low bottom wires cannot be taken lightly. High tensile fences on state and Bureau of Land Management public lands are for containment of domestic bison, a largely public- subsidized industry. High, 60-inch fences with low, 11-inch bottom wires, are devastating to the survival of elk, mule deer, whitetail deer, bighorn sheep, moose and pronghorn antelope. The high fences on the Robb-Ledford area, Willow Creek and the north fork of the Greenhorn were reported in Range Magazine, May 21, 2002, "Ted Turner's Death Fences" and in the Washington Times "Greens Give Turner a Break." A bighorn sheep was found entrapped in the same fence this spring and a moose calf last summer. The Montana Standard also reported August 2001, "Death Trap?" These fences go on for miles and miles in the Robb-Ledford area with more miles constructed this summer in the Dark Hollow-Cream Creek area...U.S. Court to Review Nev. Fight Over Dump Nevada's legal team will tell a federal appeals court that the government is trying to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain even though the site does not meet the original legal requirements for a dump, lawyers said yesterday. The hearing Jan. 14 before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will cover six lawsuits, now consolidated, that the state filed against the federal government between 2000 and 2002. For Nevada, which has failed in the political arena for more than two decades to stop the dump, the courts might represent its best chance of keeping out 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive waste, lawyers said at a media briefing. The waste would be buried for 10,000 years at a desert site 90 miles from Las Vegas...Editorial: Wetlands support worth cheering After reports surfaced that the Environmental Protection Agency wanted to open millions of acres of fragile wetlands to potential development for the first time since the signing of the 1972 Clean Water Act, many agency-watchers were disappointed but few were surprised. But then a strange thing happened: Roused to action, conservationists, anglers and hunters besieged the EPA and the White House with more than 133,000 letters and e-mails mostly protesting the proposal. Adding their voices to the fray were 218 members of Congress and 26 senators. This time, it worked...Column: Patchwork wetlands rules leave too much to chance Memo from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to landowners, home builders, developers and regulatory field officials: "You're out of luck." That, in essence, is what the two agencies said when they announced that they would not issue a new rule on federal regulatory jurisdiction over isolated wetlands at a hastily arranged joint news conference on Tuesday. Instead, the agencies will continue to direct field staff to rely on a patchwork of contradictory circuit court rulings to make critical environmental decisions. If you own land or you ever intend to buy any, you should be deeply concerned by this turn of events...Western EPA managers report increased political pressure More than 80 percent of managers at an Environmental Protection Agency regional offices believe they are under increased pressure to base decisions on politics, rather than science, according to a recent survey by an environmental advocacy group. Roughly 83 percent of managers responding to the questionnaire, distributed by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a nonprofit organization based in Washington, to employees at the EPA's Region 8 office, agreed that "political interests affect key decisions made by the EPA more than they did five years ago." About three-quarters of managers said they think the EPA regional office is a weaker "environmental protection organization" than five years ago. Non-management employees at the regional office were not quite as critical...MoveOn.org Voter Fund, Environment2004 to Fight Bush Administration's Dirty Air Agenda Two weeks after announcing its campaign to educate Floridians about the dismal environmental record of President Bush and his allies, Environment2004, a new Democratic section 527 group, is teaming up with MoveOn.org Voter Fund to urge Floridians to oppose weakening the Clean Air Act. Section 527 groups are allowed to collect soft money to fund direct voter contact and issue messaging. The organizations will use Internet ads and emails from former Clinton administration EPA chief Carol Browner to Floridians to urge that they petition Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist to oppose changes in the "New Source Review" program. This program requires aging power plants and industrial facilities to reduce their emissions when they expand or refurbish. Weakening this program is a centerpiece of the Bush Administration's environmental agenda...Climate Change Leading to Diseases: WHO A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) says climate change is adversely affecting the health of millions of people across the world, leading to the death of thousands, and fueling diseases like diarrhea and malaria. According to the study -- authored by WHO in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Meteorological Organization and the United States Environmental Protection Agency -- even small temperature changes can increase the prevalence of malaria...Lightning strike zaps 13 cows An Australian farmer lost 13 of his Friesian cows when lightning hit a tree they were sheltering under during a storm this week. "There was two big claps of thunder and when I went to get the cows, there were 13 of them dead under the tree," David Potter of Fernvale told the Brisbane Courier. "You could see where the lightning had hit the tree. I've never heard of anything like this. It's ... just unlucky -- unlucky 13."...Worldwide transfusion fear after UK mad cow death British blood recipient may have become the world's first case of human-to-human transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the lethal human form of "mad cow" disease linked to eating British beef products. If the case is not an isolated one, it may have ramifications for blood transfusion services worldwide...Italy Has BSE Case An Italian cow from a breeding farm in central Italy has tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, bringing the nation's total to 115 cases, the Health Ministry said Thursday. The disease was confirmed by testing done at a Turin zoological institute that serves as the national control center for the disease. Italy found its first case in cattle in 2001, after the European Union ordered mandatory tests on cattle older than 30 months destined for slaughter. Fifty positive cases were reported in 2001, 36 in 2002, and 29 so far this year...100 years ago, The Great Train Robbery launched feature film industry A fierce-looking outlaw aims his six-shooter at a cluster of law-abiding citizens sitting in the darkness. He pulls the trigger and smoke pours out of the gun barrel. Men shriek. Women faint. The gun fired but no sound was heard, except for the pounding of an upright piano. The outlaw was actor George Barnes, and the scene came at the end of an 11-minute silent movie, The Great Train Robbery. It was a week before Christmas 1903 - the night the motion picture industry was born. The Great Train Robbery and other westerns that followed "created the whole studio system eventually," observed Randy Haberkamp, film programmer for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...Youngsters ages nine, five, travel cross-country Their father, Jack Abernathy, was a well-known U.S. Marshal who could fight wolves with his bare hands and did so to great fanfare in the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt. Abernathy taught his boys to ride, care for their horses, and to be independent from the time they could physically stay on a horse. The boys' trips turned into publicity events with newspaper reporters, townspeople, and, yes, even former president Teddy Roosevelt watching from afar. It all started in the summer of 1909 when the nine-year-old Bud (real name Louis) began studying his dad's maps. His five-year-old brother, named Temple after Sam Houston's son, knew his older brother could do no wrong...Rocking horse restriction overruled The future of the rocking horse is no longer under threat, after the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) admitted that its ruling that rocking horses must be below 600mm (less than 2ft) was a mistake. Last week, the British Toymakers' Guild announced that advice had gone out from the Department of Trade and Industry to local trading standards authorities not to act on the new standards - due to become effective from 1 January. The height restriction ruling was made to apply to rocking toys, such as those on springs commonly seen in children's playgrounds, and never intended for the British rocking horse...