NEWS ROUNDUP

Habitat protection plan suddenly in question After battling for years over how to balance demand for new houses against needs of endangered species, builders and environmental groups are in danger of losing a proven tool for resolving conflicts: the habitat conservation plan. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has thrown out a key rule that provided powerful incentive for warring parties to come to the table and craft deals. That's key for San Diego County, which has more endangered species than any other county in the nation, in large part because of its diverse ocean-to-desert wildlife zones and enormous development pressures...Condors rebuff effort to release them to wild Four endangered California condors were set to be released into the wild Friday at Pinnacles National Monument, 30 miles south of Hollister, but weren't quite sure if freedom was their thing. By noon, more than 300 people with binoculars stared at a ridgetop pen overlooking rural San Benito County where the majestic birds were held. The door opened -- the culmination of two years of planning, a new milestone in the painstaking effort to bring back one of North America's most high-profile endangered species from the precipice of extinction. But the birds did not fly away. They sat. And sat. They hopped around a bit...Pilgrim family member fined $1,000 for horseback trip A federal magistrate has fined a member of the Pilgrim family $1,000 for taking an undercover ranger on a paid horseback trip in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park without a permit. Joshua Hale, whose family is embroiled in a dispute with the government over park access, had asked magistrate Harry Branson to fine him only the $200 charged for the horseback excursion. Branson, who handed down the fine Friday, convicted Hale on Monday of conducting business in the park in August without a permit. Hale said he made "innocent mistakes" when he took the ranger to the Bonanza Mine above Kennicott without the permit required to operate a business in a national park. But Branson said he believes the 23-year-old Hale is an intelligent, resourceful young man who would be able to pay the $1,000. He gave Hale a year and a day to pay the fine...Land-Trust Boom A Boon for Habitat The use of easements to protect open space has a long history. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bought easements in Minnesota and the Dakotas in the 1930s to preserve bird habitat. The National Park Service bought easements to preserve vistas along the Blue Ridge Parkway. But conservation easements came to prominence only after 1976, when Congress approved tax deductions for land and easements given to environmental charities for conservation purposes. Since then, easements have been widely heralded for helping safeguard the environment, protecting wildlife and making many regions more attractive places in which to live and play...Editorial: Quieting the roar in Yellowstone With postcard views of bison, elk, swans and steaming geysers around every corner, riding a snowmobile into Yellowstone National Park is an unforgettable experience. It is also a noisy and damaging intrusion on Yellowstone's land, air and wildlife. Last week a federal judge overturned the Bush administration's plan to expand snowmobile use of Yellowstone, and reinstated a phase-out of the machines ordered by former President Clinton. The judge was right to nix the Bush plan, which allowed 1,000 snowmobiles a day to buzz past wildlife in Yellowstone. Yet a complete ban on the machines seems unnecessary...Editorial: A culture of judges A decision this week by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan junking the Bush administration's plan to permit snowmobiling in Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks is a good example why the nation should return to a culture of legislative politics. The compromise the National Park Service worked out, reversing a Clinton-era ban, was reasonable and should have been implemented. It certainly didn't ignore the valid concerns of critics, namely the noise and pollution, since it capped the number of daily visits and required snowmobiles to have quieter, less-polluting four-stroke engines. The machines were required to stick to roads at low speed limits. The environmental groups of course fought the plan tooth and nail in the courts because these days, in our broken system, judges can almost always be counted upon to usurp the policy-making functions of representative government. Unfortunately, when that happens, citizens lose their status as voters, or electors, and become mere courtroom spectators. Nevada might sue over lack of wild horse roundups The state might sue unless the federal government removes thousands of more wild horses from public lands in Nevada, a state legislator warned. State Sen. Dean Rhoads, chairman of the Legislative Committee on Public Lands, said a lack of federal funding is threatening planned roundups of the animals. "There's far too many horses on the range,"said Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, a rancher."With damage from fires and the continuing drought, there isn't enough forage. Wildlife and livestock are being negatively impacted."...Task force to identify wild lands Utah Gov. Olene Walker appointed 16 people Friday to a task force created to identify wild lands in Utah that deserve protection, a step toward developing the state's outdoor recreation industry and keeping Outdoor Retailer conventions in Salt Lake City. The task force will be made up of five people from state government, five from county governments and six representatives of the outdoor recreation industry. It had been created by former Gov. Mike Leavitt, who left Utah to head the Environmental Protection Agency before its members were named...Location of wolf pack stumps wildlife managers A wolf pack that frequents the North Fork of the Sun River drainage is expanding its home range in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Wildlife managers believe the pack has about eight wolves. Last December, it was believed the pack had grown to 14, said Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's wolf recovery coordinator. Some wolves traveling with the pack, however, apparently have left...Battle brewing over rivers Grand County wants the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to leave its waterways alone. The BLM has identified 44 river segments -- creeks, washes, and other tributaries totaling about 387 miles in the southeast Utah county -- that it says could meet eligibility requirements for federal protection under the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The BLM asked the Grand County Council to submit comments. This week, the agency got its answer...Environmentalists fear rule's shift of water cleanup control A rule that some environmental groups say would gut the Clean Water Act is under review at the Environmental Protection Agency, but fear is growing among clean water activists that the Bush administration will launch it soon, perhaps over the holidays. A leaked draft copy of the 200-page Watershed Rule has Young and others worried because it shifts much of the control over the cleanup of polluted waters from EPA to the states. And it's an issue, they say, in which many states have weak if not poor track records. Though the EPA wouldn't comment on the specifics of the proposed Watershed Rule, officials there said Friday that it is still undergoing internal agency review and discussion...Wood stoves that pollute are banned in Truckee Truckee will be free of air-polluting wood stoves and fireplace inserts by July 15, 2006, if enforcement of an ordinance adopted by the town council goes according to plan. The new law gives town staff maximum time to educate the public on the policy - a key to enacting it smoothly - and work out the details of enforcement, which would likely include inspections or registration. Homeowners who do not remove noncomplying stoves and fireplaces (devices without Environmental Protection Agency certification or town approval) by the deadline would face a first-offense fine of up to $1,000. Town Planner Duane Hall projected that it would cost a household $300 to remove a stove and from $1,500 to $3,000 to replace it with an approved appliance...Animas-La Plata costs explained at meeting Top Bureau of Reclamation officials took messages of old errors and new beginnings regarding the Animas-La Plata Project to skeptical audiences Friday in Durango and Aztec. "We don't feel good about this," said Bill Rinne, deputy to Bureau Commissioner John Keys in Washington. "There's no way to sugarcoat it." The mission of the Rinne-led team was to explain to the public the contents of a report already shared with project partners three American Indian tribes and three water districts...Scramble for energy pits drillers, ranchers Up to 3,000 new oil and natural-gas wells will sprout from the Powder River Basin each year as the Bush administration's push for increased energy production sweeps across the sparse stretch of rangeland. That push will also bring 29,000 miles of new roads, more than 20,000 miles of pipeline and 30,000 miles of utility lines to a 12,500- square-mile area straddling the Wyoming-Montana border. For the most part, it's hard- worked ranchland, homesteaded generations ago by hardy pioneers. But some ranchers and others with ties to the land now worry the basin is booming at the expense of their property rights. They say drillers are running roughshod over their land, draining water wells and flooding farm fields with water so salty it makes soil harden like concrete...Unlikely Allies Resist Drilling Plan The boom, however, is running into criticism from an unlikely alliance of hunters, ranchers, environmentalists and others who say energy companies are running amok, building roads and drilling wells without permission. Fights are breaking out over mineral rights involving ranchers who until now had been more familiar with cattle prices and winter wheat. Some have gone to court to keep the energy companies off their land. Some of those who live in the West's far-flung reaches believe that public land should be available for energy development. But they are calling for the government to put on the brakes, worried that the new boom is threatening both the environment and the outdoors-based economy that has replaced the oil-and-gas days of the 1970s and '80s...Government buys more bison meat as Indian tribes turn to it for protein Bison sustained American Indians on the Great Plains for centuries, but members of Nebraska's Winnebago tribe needed some nudging before they were ready to eat government-supplied ground and stew meat from the huge mammals. The supplements came through an Agriculture Department program that has sent bison meat to tribes over the past three years. LaRose and others say the meat offers Indians a choice protein source that also has ties to their cultural history. But just as important for ranchers, government contracts for bison meat totaling $25 million since 1998 have kept the industry afloat. About one-third of the government's bison purchases were specifically for reservations. The other two-thirds were aimed at stabilizing prices. Congress is poised to set aside an additional $4 million in bison meat contracts for tribes in 2004 as part of spending bill the Senate is expected to send to President Bush in January...Apaches praise 'Missing' for accuracy, language Tommy Lee Jones speaking Apache? Word swept through the Mescalero reservation like an early winter wind. Not only Jones but most characters in the Ron Howard film The Missing speak the Chiricahua dialect of Apache, and most adult Apaches in the audiences have said they could understand every word...West Texas couple is sweet on herd of Oreo cattle Visit Don and Jan Clower and you'll encounter a rare breed. Not the Clowers. They're down-to-earth West Texas folks. But their herd of cattle is, as they say, "a conversation piece." The Clowers keep a herd of about 50 head of Belted Galloways on their 80-acre place about 4 1/2 miles northwest of Anson. The belt is a hair strip that loops all the way around an otherwise black animal's midsection. The dominant color of the Clowers' animals is black, prompting the nickname "Oreo cattle" because they are black on the ends and white in the middle...On The Edge Of Common Sense: Tell the boss you'd like to try out for the team I worked for a man several years ago whose education came from experience. He harbored a suspicion of new college graduates who overestimated their own value. He received many resumes from new graduates seeking employment at our large livestock operation. He would invariably bring the resumes in, deposit them on my desk and say, "This is another one of those guys who wants a position. Tell him all we've got are jobs!"...Kaenu Reeves Home Raided For Animal Endangerment Early Tuesday morning the Los Angeles County sheriffs department raided actor Kaenu Reeves' Hollywood estate. The raid took place after an anonymous tip made the week before. Kaenu was taken out in hand cuffs and animal control officers carted off dozens of boxes. Deputy Alex Rodriquez was one of the officers who took part in the raid, "It was terrible, and there were animal carcasses everywhere. I've been on drug busts with less death."...