NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest-care shift sparks controversy The letter that California's Republican congressional delegation wrote to the U.S. Forest Service last month -- urging revisions to a Sierra wildlife preservation and fire protection plan -- was music to the agency's ear. A storm of criticism over the agency's proposal to triple the volume of logging to pay for fire prevention has delayed a final decision by at least three months. The letter from all of the state's Republican representatives and three of its Democrats was a show of support for the administration to scale back environmental policies it regards as overly protective...Forest Health Bill a "Jobs" issue, former Forest Service boss says The healthy forests bill signed by President Bush last week won't stop wildfires, but it will put a lot of people on the government payroll, according to the man who ran the nation's two biggest land management agencies during the Clinton administration. "We're probably sitting on a local jobs bill second to none'' since the Civilian Conservation Corps, a 1930s jobs program, Mike Dombeck said Friday. He addressed well over 200 people gathered for the annual meeting of the Montana Wilderness Association...Volunteers say they were "staged" Along with fighting fires, Helena National Forest employees also are battling the perception that they look with disdain upon local firefighters and are reluctant to use them. Volunteers tell story after story about offering their services, only to be rebuffed or sent to "staging" or home while fires rage...Editorial: Forest law makes obstruction harder President Bush on Wednesday signed into law the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. This law won't live up to all the promises its backers have made. Nor will it result in the ecological disaster predicted by its opponents. But the law will make it easier for the U.S. Forest Service to manage our national forests according to the judgment of the country's best and brightest land-and-resource managers, and that's a change for the better. As supporters of this legislation, we find it a little embarrassing to hear the president of the United States say, as he did Wednesday, that the new law will "help prevent catastrophic wildfires" and relieve Americans from "enduring season after season of devastating fires." Many variables contribute to massive forest fires and no legislation can affect the most important ones - they're dictated by nature...Experts say wildfires have endangered state's water supplies, wildlife The deadly Southern California wildfires that stripped forest hillsides have created threats to drinking water supplies for millions of people and to the already endangered California condor, the chief of the U.S. Forest Service said Friday. Dale Bosworth also warned that homes in the scorched areas of the San Bernardino Mountains face dangers from winter rains washing through barren hillsides. "You could have mass soil movement, you could have mudslides into homes," Bosworth told the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health...Off-road vehicles back on mesa trails Eight years after off-road vehicle groups objected to a U.S. Forest Service decision closing trails and roads on Grand Mesa, the agency decided to reopen 30 miles of routes to motorized use. Although the Forest Service's walk-in only access to 25 lakes and reservoirs will be preserved, 30 miles will be opened to connect routes or provide loops in already allowed routes...Sheep butt bighorns in grazing plan A conservation group has told the Bridger-Teton National Forest it is ready to fight in court over a decision to open three grazing allotments to domestic sheep. The grazing areas are south of Jackson in the Wyoming Range and overlap habitat used by the Jackson herd of wild bighorn sheep. Western Watersheds Project Wyoming Representative Jonathan Ratner gave the Forest Service a letter, dated Nov. 16, threatening a lawsuit if the Bridger-Teton sticks with its proposal to allow one permitee to run up to 6,500 ewe-lamb pairs on the 67,500 acres. But Bridger-Teton District Ranger Greg Clark defended the grazing proposal as meeting forest standard and guidelines. He also said his decision to open three vacant allotments was backed by regional forest officials. He said they gave him the green light to do so without first completing an environmental impact statement...Fish fleet buyout sends industry into uncharted waters A once-thriving part of the northwest economy is about to undergo a major change. Roughly half of Oregon and Washington's commercial fishing fleet is being bought out by the federal government to save dwindling fish numbers. However, KATU's Grant McOmie found it also brings economic uncertainty to coastal businesses and fishermen...U prof supports wolves removal from U.S. endangered species list Wolves -- long on the federal endangered species list -- might soon lose that protection if a University professor has his way. Professor David Mech recently became the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service chief adviser for a proposal that would remove all wolves from the endangered species list. The U.S. Geological Survey researcher said he hopes to rid people of one of their greatest misconceptions about wolves: that they are endangered...Bombs ready to blow at Camp Navajo The Arizona National Guard will start detonating old bombs at Camp Navajo left over from the years the facility served as a munitions depository. But the Guard will have to take into account two local residents that happen to live on the property: bald eagles and Mexican spotted owls. The 28,000-acre Camp Navajo, located west of Flagstaff in Bellemont, has become home to the two endangered species, and the potential disruption caused by open detonation has brought the National Guard and U.S. Fish and Wildlife together to formulate a plan...Expert upset over grizzly delisting Wilderness supporters have a "huge responsibility" to make their views known about a process that could lead to removing grizzly bears from endangered species protection, bear specialist Doug Peacock said. If the delisting proposal goes through, "the people of Wyoming will bear the onus for the future of the grizzly," Peacock declared at a meeting on Friday sponsored by the Wyoming Wilderness Association and allied groups...Column: Case against copter pilot for the birds Jim Cheatham doesn't look like a guy who wants to harass birds. A trim man of 61 with a white beard and a faint resemblance to Ernest Hemingway, he's first and foremost a pilot. He has 43 years of flying experience and 22,000 hours -- 2 1/2 years -- in the air. The Salinas-based pilot, however, stands accused of ruffling the feathers of 43 seabirds April 27 as he flew a helicopter to take photos of the popular Big Sur Marathon...Remote Nevada Road's Status in Limbo Any day now, Mother Nature will dump enough snow on South Canyon Road to effectively close it -- by anybody's standards -- and the question of whether the remote backcountry road is technically open or legally closed will be moot again until spring. In the meantime, just as it has for eight winters since a 1 1/2-mile stretch washed out in a 1995 flood, the legal status of the road remains in limbo. And the fractious dispute over property rights, government authority and a dwindling species of trout will continue to simmer in remote northeast Nevada... Conservation Leaders Lay Out Top Priorities To Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and top Interior Department officials met Monday November 24 with the leaders of several sporting organizations to discuss the top policy priorities of the conservation community. Secretary Norton requested the help of the TRCP in pulling together a representative group of leaders from some of the country's hunting and angling groups to meet with her and other top Interior Department officials. The meeting was convened in order to give Secretary Norton and the Interior Department leadership a clear understanding of which common issues are of greatest immediate concern to hunters and anglers...HSUS Calls For Immediate Rescue Of Stranded Cows The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is demanding that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) officials intervene immediately to save 23 wild cows who have been suffering and dying from extreme stress, overcrowding, injury, dehydration and starvation on a barge on Alaskan waters for almost three weeks now. "It is unconscionable that U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials would allow these animals to suffer this traumatic journey and confinement over the last two weeks," said Kelly Peterson, program coordinator for The HSUS Northwest Regional Office, on Thursday...Groups crying foul because of dune closure violations Environmental groups are crying foul after the 2003 Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area Thanksgiving weekend, saying the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has neglected to thoroughly enforce court-mandated closures in the sensitive dune areas. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Desert Protective Council joined in criticizing the BLM's stepped up law enforcement presence, saying that little to no attention was given to the areas restricted to off-highway vehicle use north of Highway 78 or in areas such as the closures near Buttercup Valley south of Interstate 8...Nevada hunters split over proposed off-road vehicle regs proposed regulation to restrict hunters' use of off-road vehicles stirred emotional debate before the Nevada Wildlife Commission. The proposal to prohibit hunters from driving all-terrain vehicles more than 25 yards off established roads is pitting traditionalists who hunt on foot against machine sportsmen. Wildlife division officials said it comes in response to numerous complaints by traditional hunters about ATVs' impact on wildlife and habitat...IRS still pursuing cattle scam investors Thousands of investors in an ill-fated tax shelter scheme run by a smooth-talking cattle baron from Eastern Oregon are facing an ongoing investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. Known as the "Paper Cowboy," Walter Hoyt III of Burns was sentenced in 2001 for selling cattle that existed only on paper, in addition to other schemes. Investors used shares in the nonexistent herds for tax shelters. Hoyt conned investors in 41 states out of more than $100 million, in a case that has been called the biggest agricultural scam in U.S. history. Now 63, he is at a low-security federal prison southeast of Phoenix, Ariz., and is scheduled for release in 2018. But for investors, the headaches didn't end when Hoyt went to prison because they now must deal with the IRS. The federal tax collection agency thinks that investors into Hoyt's scheme were not victims of a scam but willing accomplices and tax cheats...Editorial: Keeping consumers in the dark It is fitting that Congress is burying its effort to delay a country-of-origin labeling law, known as COOL, in a massive end-of-session spending bill. This is all about keeping information from the American people. COOL, approved as part of the 2002 Farm Bill, set a Sept. 30, 2004, deadline for mandatory labeling identifying which country fruits and vegetables, beef, pork, lamb and seafood come from. Now Congress, pressured by retailers and meat packers, is preparing to delay the deadline another two years... Ranch style: Wal-Mart heiress content with her kingdom for horses Making her morning rounds from stall to stall, Alice Walton stops to greet, pamper and occasionally plant a nuzzled kiss on the noses of her 80-some prized cutting horses at the Rocking W Ranch. To the horses, she's not the Wal-Mart heiress or the richest woman in the United States, but a warm hand and a priceless pat on the neck. Walton, a proactive member of the National Cutting Horse Association, calls herself the "Baby Tamer" of the Rocking W, earning that nickname by developing a knack for picking out 2-month-old weanlings who will grow up to be 3-year-old champions...Column: Ranchers ain't dead yet There is nothing quite like reading your own obituary. Unfortunately, I get to read mine a lot. Please consider this a huge scream of protest, a wake-up call from 6 feet below: I ain't dead yet...Home on the range at twilight The signs over the door say "Old Cowboy" and "Old Cowgirl." The doorbell is a dinner bell. At first, no one answers except the cattle dog, Roama. Then 89-year-old John Sharp comes to the door, looking like a Hank Williams' song in his red flannel shirt, jeans, boots and a silver belt buckle won in a rodeo. He apologizes for napping. His wife, Joyce, is in town at an auction buying some calves...Trade deal stalls The US and Australia have failed to reach an agreement as planned this week on ending trade barriers and will meet next month to try to bridge differences over pharmaceutical pricing and farm tariffs. Negotiators from both sides spent a week in Washington, and reported progress on all aspects of a free-trade accord. An agreement, if reached next month, could still get congressional approval next year, said Ralph Ives, the chief US negotiator...Cattle test positive for brucellosis in Wyoming county For the first time in 16 years, cattle in Wyoming have tested positive for brucellosis, a discovery that raises concerns about exporting cattle from the state in the future. The cattle come from a ranch near Boulder in Sublette County. Of 391 cows tested earlier this week, a "significant number" showed positive signs in preliminary tests for the disease, according to Jim Logan, Wyoming's state veterinarian. State officials are looking to confirm those findings through testing at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa. The results are expected by next Thursday...