NEWS ROUNDUP

Alaska Region begins national Forest Service pilot for performance accountability The Forest Service announced today that a Texas consulting firm had been hired to guide its Alaska Region as it begins a pilot program to shift to performance-based accountability. Weidner Consulting from Austin, Texas, has been retained to assist in forming a "Credibility through Accountability" system for the Region here. The Alaska Region performance accountability system will serve as the pilot in the Forest Service's national performance accountability system. The national system is being developed in response to the General Accounting Office and the Office of Management and Budget’s increased focus on greater accountability and customer-based results for federal agencies. The Forest Service presently uses a budget-driven accountability system....Forester says delays in logging could ruin wildfire salvage plan A leading expert on salvage logging says he doubts much of the charred timber from the 2002 Biscuit Fire in southern Oregon will ever be cut because decay has made recovering the trees uneconomical. Oregon State University forestry professor John Sessions had calculated that rapid salvage logging could earn enough to pay for both the costs of fighting the blaze and replanting hillsides. The Siskiyou National Forest used his analysis to boost its proposed cutting more than fivefold. But the federal process for mounting logging operations could take until the summer to complete. And Sessions told more than 150 people at a forum in Eugene this week that the burned timber deteriorates so quickly 40 percent will be worthless to sawmills by this summer.... SUV Owners of America Call on Attorney General Ashcroft To Take Action Against Escalating Domestic Eco-Terrorism Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America (SUVOA) today called on Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge to step up intelligence and federal enforcement action against The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a militant environmental group, that today defiantly took responsibility for destroying sport utility vehicles (SUVs) at a Santa Fe, NM Land Rover dealership, and U.S. Forest Service construction equipment. The group this week released a list claiming responsibility for 75 such acts of domestic terrorism and claimed responsibility for some 75 other domestic terrorist acts around the country. To date, SUVs have been destroyed at dealerships in California, Texas and Virginia, in addition to the latest incident in New Mexico. On its Web site, the group boasts of causing upward of $55 million in damages for acts of terrorism....Another contractor hired for horse roundup in Carson National Forest The U.S. Forest Service has hired another contractor to try to round up wild horses in the Carson National Forest. Officials hired Mount Taylor Mustangs on Monday. The contractor has 60 days to gather 30 wild horses in the Jarita Mesa Wild Horse Territory. Officials say the contractor plans to use salt as bait to lure the horses into pens set up where the horses frequent. The previous contractor failed to capture any horses before calling it quits earlier this month....Fire review’s omissions questioned U.S. Forest Service officials are considering reinserting some of the many pieces of information blacked out in the official report investigating the deaths of Idaho wildland firefighters Jeff Allen and Shane Heath in July. The 80-page report, issued by the Forest Service Monday, had all of the names of people involved and several blocks of text edited out (redacted) by federal Freedom of Information Act officials, who cited privacy concerns. The redactions make it almost impossible to tell who made which decisions that led to the deaths of Allen and Heath or to follow the narrative of the chain of events that led to the fatal accident July 22....Clock ticks on York transfer When York was founded 138 years ago, people weren't too particular about some of the property lines. Miners would stake their claims with definitions as vague as "running from the toe of the hillside to the toe of the other hillside," according to York resident and historian David Ray Olson. Mining claims often were of irregular sizes, and boundaries didn't necessarily abut. In addition, no one bothered to claim the property on which the cemetery was established in the 1860s — "who's going to claim a cemetery," Olson questioned rhetorically — or on the property where the first schoolhouse was erected. "The people who lived here then worried more about the value of the minerals; no one enforced boundaries," Olson noted. But after the formation of the United States Forest Service in 1905, and as houses were built and sold on those old mining claims, the boundaries took on more significance as the federal government took ownership of unclaimed lands in the area....Proposed trail restrictions create controversy The U.S. Forest Service appears to have stirred a hornet's nest with proposed restrictions on use of off-road vehicles, "but that's good," according to Rick Lint. Lint, ranger for the Calcasieu District of Kisatchie National Forest, said a gathering of forest users in the district office parking lot earlier in the week to "protest" the proposed rule was a positive response rather than a negative one. The group of about 60 hunters and sportsmen showed up at the urging of Robert "Boo" Maddox IV, who complained the rule would ban four-wheelers from the 184,000 acres in the Calcasieu District. Maddox has called a public meeting at his shop on Ward Road near Cotile Lake at 6 p.m. Saturday to discuss the proposed rule and to offer an organized response to the Forest Service before the public comment period is closed Jan. 30....Freudenthal blasts U.S. wolf decision Election-year politics in the Bush administration fueled a federal decision earlier this week to reject Wyoming's plan for managing wolves, Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Thursday. During a press conference, Freudenthal said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave conflicting feedback on Wyoming's proposal - first appearing to support it while it was being developed in the Legislature and then panning it on Tuesday. "They could have said last year that this statute was fundamentally flawed," the governor said. He said he believes the Bush administration ultimately turned down Wyoming's plan in an effort to shore up support on environmental issues as the 2004 election looms. "It is a case where they decided to listen to certain kinds of pro-wolf environmentalists more significantly than they listened to a Western interest like Wyoming," Freudenthal said. "The lash of federal servitude has fallen across our back and I don't like it."....Editorial: Wyoming stymies wolf delisting Federal rejection of Wyoming's plan means that federal rules will continue to apply for all three states — and that means the states will have no way to hold the wolf population down. Wyoming stockgrowers are urging the state to stand firm against the feds, and treat wolves as expendable predators rather than a wildlife resource to be maintained. We hope they change their minds. That would in their best interest — and in Montana and Idaho's best interest as well....Conservationists warn Corps about 2004 Missouri River Operations Conservationists served notice to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers yesterday that it must operate its Missouri River dams in accordance with a "Biological Opinion" issued in 2000 -- rather than an amended opinion issued in December of 2003 -- to avoid another lawsuit over its operations this summer. After reviewing the amended opinion, conservationists have concluded it would lead to continued decline of the Missouri's native fish and wildlife and therefore does not pass muster as a matter of law. The groups also believe the amendment is likely to prolong the dispute over management of the river than to resolve it....Column: When insects take priority Our school enrollment is spiking, we have numerous schools from elementary, middle schools and high schools all being planned to accommodate this increasing school enrollment. Yet our federal government puts education and the welfare of children below that of the welfare of an insect. In fact, it is worse than that. It is not the welfare of an insect that is in question. It is the welfare of the habitat that may be home to an insect someday. The Lake Elsinore Unified School District has the land, the plans approved and the money allocated to build the Ronald Reagan Elementary School. The only thing it doesn't have is the approval of Jane Hendron and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fish and Wildlife conducted a survey of the 13-acre site between Clinton Keith and Bundy Canyon roads, but found no endangered insects. Hendron said "We don't know if there's Quino butterfly on that site or not." "It's a question of having a greater workload than what we have staff available to do" she added. I guess that's what portable classrooms are for, to stuff children into portable classrooms because federal government employees are overworked. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service sure must have a very broad definition of habitat. Apparently habitat doesn't in fact have to actually house endangered species, it just has to look like it should and that is good enough for them and bad enough for the children. The children go into double sessions or overcrowded portable classrooms because the $15 million new school site looks like it might be habitat for insects....Ringling Brothers’ Circus Claims to Promote Conservation It may sound like an unusual pairing—protecting endangered species by putting them in the circus—but Ringling has become an actor in this new arena. In 1995, Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s corporate parent (which also owns the Disney on Ice and Siegfried and Roy shows), established the Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC), a $5 million, 200-acre Asian elephant breeding and research facility in Polk City, Florida. Since 1992, when Ringling began a breeding program, 15 elephants have been born, more than anywhere else in North America, including zoos....Pearce says forests must be thinned Regardless, real danger exists in the Lincoln National Forest, in the Sacramento Mountains of Otero County. To help address it, Pearce supported the Healthy Forests Act, passed in late 2003, which funds dense-forest cleanup, especially abutting communities. “We absolutely have to start thinning,” Pearce says, pointing out an equally large hurdle may be convincing bureaucratic decision makers to act. Wildfire is such a threat, he says, because “the fuel load has been building for years.” In the Lincoln, that is partly attributable to the Endangered Species Act. In 1993, the Mexican spotted owl was listed as endangered, virtually shutting down logging. Yet since “the last 20 years have been wet” years, he says, the danger was not as immediately evident as it has escalated to, in 2004. “The explosive elements (dryness, overgrowth) have been pulled together in this period, and our lifetime,” Pearce says....El Camino Real back on historic track U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio vowed Thursday to designate the oldest highway in Texas as a national historic trail, hoping to end an ordeal that has dragged on for more than five years. This time the designation would apply only to public lands and wherever private property owners consent. "As far as I know, no other trails bill has gone this far to protect private property rights," said Rodriguez, a Democrat. The last version of the bill passed the House in 2001, but failed in the Senate. Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who has voiced concerns in the past, will support the new bill as long as landowners can opt in or out, a spokesman said. "She's just trying to do it in a way that respects private property rights," said Kevin Schweers, in Hutchison's Washington office....Hoyer seeks probe into Park Service A congressman yesterday demanded that the Interior Department investigate "unauthorized leaks" that he said resulted in a report in The Washington Times about lapses in national security and the firing of U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers. U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House Democratic whip, said the so-called leaks were "unacceptable" and suggested that the story was printed to influence the outcome of an appeal by Chief Chambers to save her job....Transcript of Al Gore's Jan 15 Speech on Environment In a speech co-sponsored by MoveOn.org and Environment2004, former Vice President Al Gore issued a powerful indictment of the Bush administration's assault on the environment. Gore also criticized the administration's refusal to address global warming, linking the issue to U.S. national security. Gore said that the President is choosing to help his coal- and oil-company supporters rather than advance modern technologies that can affordably solve this critical problem....Bush administration sees ethanol, methanol as products of forest thinning The Bush administration said Thursday it hopes turning small trees and brush into ethanol, methanol and other energy products will eventually help pay for thinning national forests to reduce the danger of wildfire. Paying for thinning 28 million acres of Western forests considered at high risk for wildfire has been a problem, because the small trees and brush that need to be removed aren't big enough for traditional lumber. Thinning costs between $250 and $1,000 an acre. Many of the forests are too overstocked to use the cheapest method, prescribed fire, without removing small trees and brush first. Harvesting larger trees to pay for the work leads to lawsuits from conservationists....Pentagon Appeals to White House on Pollution Limits The Defense Department, having won exemptions from three major environmental laws in the last two years, now is seeking to be excused from three more. Requirements of the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act already do not apply to the Pentagon. Now it wants exemptions from the Clean Air Act and two toxic waste laws, which Congress has refused to grant in each of the past two years....Cattle tuberculosis found in Central Texas herd A herd of dairy cattle in Central Texas has tested positive for cattle tuberculosis, state officials said. The infection at a Hamilton County dairy is the first discovered through a statewide testing program launched in November, the Texas Animal Health Commission said in a Thursday statement. Officials are trying to determine how the herd was infected and if the infection has spread to other herds. Tuberculosis is highly contagious among cattle, causing abscesses and leading to death, but it cannot be spread to humans. All infected animals in a herd must be killed....Mutton bustin’ offers sheepish grins for all But Miller also deals in mutton — sheep riding for the little ones. That’s right — sheep riding. Otherwise known as mutton bustin’. Mutton bustin’ allows the youngsters to imitate the big boys on the big beef. Instead of a bull, they ride a 100-pound sheep. It’s kind of like T-ball for the bull riding crowd....Meyer, Freudenthal seek $1M for bucking bronc lawsuit Secretary of State Joe Meyer and Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked the Joint Appropriations Committee on Thursday to pony up $1 million so the state can sue a Texas organization for using Wyoming's trademarked bucking-horse-and-rider logo. The Texas Stampede, which stages concerts and professional rodeos to benefit children at two Dallas hospitals, filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office a few months ago for ownership of the logo. The Texas Stampede has been using a bucking horse and rider since its inception in 2001. While the Texas Stampede logo faces left instead of right, both symbols show a cowboy holding his hat overhead atop a bronc with its back arched and rear hooves lifted. "It's important because, in a sense, Wyoming's like any other business. You end up with marketing money invested in certain kinds of trademarks and identifiable logos," Freudenthal said before the meeting....