NEWS ROUNDUP

Editorial: Burning issue All the great fire had to do was jump U.S. 60 at Cottonwood Ridge, and the path of utter destruction was clear. But it did not jump U.S. 60. Frightening plumes of flame towering 200 feet or more dropped meekly to two feet or less at Cottonwood Ridge. Throughout the third night of the conflagration, the mighty Rodeo-Chediski charged up Cottonwood Ridge at least three times from three angles. And each time it died in the ankle-deep grasses surrounding those few acres of mechanically thinned trees. The White Mountain Apaches who years earlier had thinned the trees, including numerous large-diameter trees, of Cottonwood Ridge can be fairly credited with helping save the Mogollon Rim. Unencumbered by the threat of lawsuits or a time-consuming appeals process, the Apaches took the initiative to thin parts of their forests. Theirs is the legacy of what Bush's Healthy Forest legislation would provide to national forests: Where the Apache forests were treated and thinned, they survived; where they were not, they were consumed...Column: Forests for the People, Not Politicians The multi-billion dollar clean-up from the California fires of 2003 will take years. Thousands of people must rebuild their homes and businesses. Yet while houses can be replaced, lives and cherished mementos cannot. These unfortunate Californians have become the latest victims of absentee owners: in this case, Washington-based politicians and forestry agencies. Their loss can either be a senseless tragedy, or the catalyst for reform. But for real reform to take place, centralized forest land control and the misuse of forests for political purposes must be rejected absolutely. While the fires are unusual (partly from the effects of bark beetle infestation), they had been predicted by analysts for years who warned of the dangers of recent fads in forestry management, or rather lack of management, on public lands. Had more underbrush been thinned over the years, and selective timbering been more common, the fires would not have been so severe and probably could have been prevented. Nor would over 6 million acres have burned in western states in 2002 -- an area larger than New Jersey. Advocates of more active management of federal forests (including the thinning of forests) are justified in saying, "We told you so."...Reorganization of the Forest Service is reportedly taking its toll on workers A budget-cutting effort to streamline organization on the Umpqua National Forest has eliminated 26 jobs, most in the four ranger districts in Tiller, Glide, Cottage Grove and Toketee. Twenty-one people have been reassigned within the Umpqua National Forest, and five have been registered with a national list that is considered first when filling any nationwide Forest Service vacancy. The changes affect much more than how projects are handled, workers say. It affects their lives and the communities historically connected to the ranger districts. For employees who have watched and helped their forests grow and change, the move can be emotionally devastating...Foreign invaders winning in county Siskiyou County is under attack from foreigners and the damage they are doing is costing millions each year. The foreigners that Klamath National Forest Service botanist Marla Knight talks about are "noxious weeds," a growing problem in the entire nation including Siskiyou County. Speaking at the Shasta Valley Rotary on Monday, Knight defines noxious weeds as non-native plants that spread aggressively as they displace native plants. She showed pictures of several areas in the county and region where noxious weeds have formed a "monoculture," completely displacing native plants...Grant PUD files federal papers to re-license dams The two dams -- Priest Rapids and Wanapum -- span the river just upstream of the Hanford Reach, which provides spawning habitat for 80 percent of the Columbia's fall chinook. "This is the most stable stock of fish in the Columbia Basin and is the backbone of the tribal fishery," said Charles Hudson, a spokesman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. "In Indian country, we believe in protecting the Hanford Reach at all costs." The tribes and environmentalists have yet to decide how far to go in challenging the license renewal for the dams, but both say they will be closely involved in the proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission...Deluges Would Threaten Reservoir Racing to protect a reservoir that is a key link in Southern California's water supply, federal helicopter teams are dropping straw by the ton on slopes severely burned in October's catastrophic wildfires around Silverwood Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains. Officials want to stabilize the slopes before heavy winter rains, which could trigger large-scale erosion of ash, silt and potentially toxic compounds into the lake. The reservoir provides drinking water for 12 million people, said Matt Mathes, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service in California. "There are going to be a lot of mudslides, and a lot of sediment is going to wind up in the reservoir if we're not careful."...Analysis: Endangered Species Act turns 30 As with so many things, however, that support depends on which side of the economic uncertainty one stands. In this month's journal Conservation Biology, a study out of the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources found landowners in the Rocky Mountains who were asked to preserve their land to protect a small rodent, the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, were about as likely to dig up the mouse's habitat to avoid regulation as they were to preserve it. On the other hand, a majority of landowners -- 56 percent -- would not even allow a biological survey of their property to gather data that could lead to the mouse's protection. Small wonder. ESA regulations to protect species can be so stringent they effectively drive federal policy on public lands. The protections also can be extended to private lands and as a result "many landowners appeared to defend themselves against having their land-management options restricted by refusing to allow for surveys for the Preble's," the Michigan study said...ESA 30th Anniversary; Defenders of Wildlife Report: Bush Administration Judicial Abuses Undermine Endangered Species Act Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen will release a new report in early December which chronicles the Bush administration's efforts to subvert the Endangered Species Act (ESA) through the judicial system, including the flagrant disobeying of court orders, the use of specious legal and scientific arguments, and systematic defiance of the Act's requirements. Schlickeisen will release the report at a Press Club speech highlighting the 30th anniversary of the ESA on Dec. 3, at 10 a.m. in the Lisagor Room of the Press Club. In addition to the report, Schlickeisen will provide an overview of the ESA's history, current status, and future challenges to the Act as background for reporters covering the Act's anniversary later in December...Editorial: For the birds The potential answer: Kill the eagles, who are apparently more "threatened" by federal bureaucrats and do-gooders than anybody else. Of course, foxes aren't "endangered"; they are abundant throughout the United States. But by creating hundreds of "subspecies" of plentiful animals -- and identifying each "habitat" as unique -- environmentalists and others have succeeded in expanding he Endangered Species Act well beyond its intended scope. And now, some "threatened" eagles must pay. Oh well, to make an omelet ...Elk Refuge vaccination plan continues apace Wyoming Game and Fish officials are preparing to vaccinate elk on the National Elk Refuge again this year, despite continued cries of critics who say the plan is ineffective. Dean Clause of the agency's Pinedale office said the plan is to vaccinate more animals against brucellosis this winter. Brucellosis can cause cow elk to abort. Ranchers fear the disease could spread to domestic livestock...Park Police Duties Exceed Staffing: Anti-Terror Demands Have Led Chief to Curtail Patrols Away From Mall The U.S. Park Police department has been forced to divert patrol officers to stand guard around major monuments, causing Chief Teresa C. Chambers to express worry about declining safety in parks and on parkways. In the long run, Chambers said, her 620-member department needs a major expansion, perhaps to about 1,400 officers. Congressional leaders, however, have urged the Park Police force to refocus on the Mall, cutting back on such activities as drug investigations and traffic enforcement that take them away from National Park Service lands. The Park Police department, an arm of the Park Service, claims to be the oldest uniformed federal police agency, tracing its roots to a group of watchmen hired in 1791 to guard public buildings and lands in the capital. The force includes about 400 officers in the Washington area, with the rest split between parks in New York and San Francisco...Man charged in park poaching A Montana man accused of killing an antelope inside the park faces federal charges, including poaching and resisting arrest. The Park Service said park rangers who responded found Johnson attempting to leave in his sport utility vehicle. Rangers said a short standoff ensued after Johnson refused to get on the ground and told the rangers to shoot him...Justice Department informed of Utah land swap issue The Justice Department has been notified of potential criminal wrongdoing in a land swap in Utah's picturesque San Rafael Swell that was aborted when whistleblowers said it would have been a $100 million taxpayer rip-off. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel cited "evidence of criminal violations" as a grounds for not releasing a report prepared in response to allegations raised by Bureau of Land Management appraiser Kent Wilkinson. The special counsel's office had earlier determined that Wilkinson's claims had merit, and directed the Interior Department to investigate the matter and report on changes it would make. By law, that report is made available to the whistleblowers for review unless potential criminal matters are uncovered...Crystalline stars found in N.M. cave Four cavers have found a river of white calcite and walls covered in clear crystalline stars while exploring a cave in south-central New Mexico. About 10,000 feet of the calcite river have been mapped but cavers have not reached the formation's end. One of the four, retired U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist John McLean, said the calcite formation, nicknamed the Snowy River Formation, can reveal the cave's history and how water travels through the ground in the area...Committee to look at uses for Nevada wilderness areas A legislative study committee will meet Dec. 18 in Winnemucca to begin developing recommendations on what Congress should do with Nevada's 20-year-old Wilderness Study Areas. More than 20 years ago, Congress set aside more than 5 million acres of Nevada for study as potential wilderness. Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, said that while 2 million acres have been set aside as wilderness, the various groups interested in the land have been unable to reach consensus on what to do with the remaining 3.8 million acres...Wild horses removed from southwest Wyoming More than 1,300 wild horses were rounded up from six management areas in southwest Wyoming this fall, the Bureau of Land Management said Monday. The roundups, conducted Oct. 6 to Nov. 18, were part of the agency's continuing effort to cut Wyoming's wild horse population in half in order to fulfill an agreement with the state....Lassen County concerned over potential water export For the last 10 years or more there has been activity on and off to try and export ground water from around the Honey Lake Valley to Nevada. Just two weeks ago, a public meeting was held in Susanville during which a representative of the Bureau of Land Management from Carson City introduced two independent water companies who are developing plans to construct and operate water supply and transmission projects to meet the current and future needs of the Stead and Lemmon Valley areas to the north of Reno...Pending LDS deal criticized Legislation allowing the LDS Church to lease Martin's Cove in Wyoming is expected to be signed by President Bush after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. While the deal is being welcomed as an end to controversy by the church and the Wyoming congressional delegation, opponents say turning a national historic site over to a religious group creates a dangerous precedent. Passed by both houses of Congress on Nov. 18 with little fanfare and buried inside the $27 billion energy and water spending bill, the lease deal brings to a close a concerted five-year effort by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to obtain control over the site. Mormons venerate Martin's Cove as sacred ground because of its connection to an 1856 handcart caravan of European converts to the faith who died in an October blizzard on the Wyoming plains while trudging toward Zion...Noxious weed tamarisk spreading fast Far more serious than pesky patches of dandelions in suburban yards, the wildlife-threatening tamarisk weed is gradually spreading through Colorado and the West. It has been found advancing into Grand County, within 15 miles of the Summit County line. The fast-growing noxious weed is infesting rivers and other riparian areas, strangling native habitats several years after the first seeds hit...Editorial: Congress improves wildfire prevention Generations of well-intentioned but misguided government officials turned many of America's forests and wildlands into tinderboxes. What humans have done to threaten these forests, we must now strive to undo. Legislation recently passed by Congress is a big first step. Over time, it should make federal lands safer from devastating fires -- if Congress and communities follow through on their commitments. The Healthy Forests Restoration Act, the first significant federal forest-management legislation in decades, is remarkable in two ways. For the nation, it demonstrates that bipartisan solutions can be accomplished in Congress. For the West, it puts much greater resources into responsible forest thinning and fire prevention...Mining claim could end up costing up to $600 million A second-generation miner has filed what may be the largest mining compensation claim in U.S. history. Walter Freeman wants up to $600 million from the federal Treasury after he was denied permission to dig in part of the Siskiyou National Forest. Freeman, 58, wants to mine for nickel ore and build a smelter on public land where his parents staked mining claims as early as 1940...A nose for knapweed The trick -- and it's an important one -- is finding the plant in new locations before it becomes well-established. And in tackling that task Hal Steiner and his dog Nightmare are serious as a bad dream. Steiner is training the 18-month-old dog to find knapweed as part of a Montana State University research project. He's training the dog to dig when it finds knapweed, not because anybody needs the dog to destroy the plant but because researchers envision a GPS unit strapped to the dog. The digging will keep the dog in one place long enough for the GPS, which will record locations every three seconds, to beep several signals to a computer and help map weed locations...Wolf plans get experts' approval: Reviews favorable but not ringing endorsements Plans written by Montana, Wyoming and Idaho appear to be adequate blueprints for sustaining wolf populations if federal protections are lifted, according to 11 wolf experts who reviewed the plans. But the statements released Monday weren't exactly a ringing endorsement of all three proposals. There continue to be some key concerns, including a reliance on federal funding to carry out the plans, the classification of some wolves in Wyoming as predators and a lack of detail in Idaho's proposal. The review of the state plans is an important step toward removing wolves from the endangered species list, which all three states have been pushing for...Hearing nears exhumation intervenors in Billy the Kid case Silver City is a town proud of its colorful history, and Billy the Kid is part of it, she said. Tippett represents Lincoln County Sheriff Tom Sullivan, Capitan Mayor Steve Sederwall and De Baca County Sheriff Gary Graves, who want proof that Sheriff Pat Garrett killed William Bonney, also called the Kid, on July 14, 1881, in Fort Sumner. A hearing is set Dec. 8 in Silver City, where Catherine Antrim, the Kid's mother, is buried. The hearing will consider whether Silver City Mayor Steve Fortenberry has legal standing to interfere with Antrim's exhumation. It also will consider a petition to intervene from Bill Robins, a state-appointed lawyer for the Kid himself. Robins wants a posthumous pardon for Billy the Kid...Nature's images are soul feast After a lifetime spent on the Great Plains, I am still amazed at the power Mother Nature can produce. From gentle rain to roaring thunderstorms, from dusty whirlwinds to tornadoes, and from drought to floods, Mother Nature can do it all. Also in her bag of many tricks, and my favorite trick of all, is her ability to produce the miracle of a mirage...