NEWS ROUNDUP

Citing Fire Risk, U.S. to Expand California Logging U.S. forestry officials announced on Thursday that they would significantly expand the amount of logging allowed in California's Sierra Nevada mountains in what they described as an effort to curb wildfires. Environmental groups and a California state official attacked the plan as showing disregard for the environment. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service said it would permit logging of 700,000 acres over the next 20 years. "I personally witnessed the human suffering and catastrophic damage caused by those fires," Forest Service Regional Forester Jack Blackwell said. "I am personally convinced that future droughts in the Sierra Nevada, coupled with periods of wind and high temperatures, could lead to the same devastation there," he said in a statement. "It is my professional responsibility to take decisive action."....Forest Service Recreation Plan For Grand Mesa Challenged Three environmental groups have appealed a U.S. Forest Service plan that would open 30 miles of roadless areas on Grand Mesa to motorized recreation. The Colorado Mountain Club, The Wilderness Society and Wildlands CPR filed the appeal Tuesday, saying wildlife habitat would be harmed by opening the routes....Two charged with trespassing on controversial fire Two men who face a March 23rd federal trial on trespassing charges accuse the Forest Service of retaliating for trying to show the agency's questionable logging practices near Bonners Ferry. Environmental activist Rein Atteman with The Lands Council and Washington State University engineering professor Charles Pezeshki have pleaded innocent to misdemeanor trespassing. They say the 36-hundred-acre fire along Myrtle Creek was especially destructive because the forest was littered with slash from a recent logging operation. The two say the Forest Service is retaliating against them....Of ’bilers and bears An odd thing happened in 2002: Environmentalists and snowmobile enthusiasts agreed on boundaries within the vast Flathead National Forest. Their plan placed especially sensitive wildlands off-limits to snowmobiles, but let the machines roar unimpeded through the popular playgrounds. The Forest Service accepted the agreement in principle, and the remarkable consensus was widely hailed as a model for settling future disputes in the cultural wars over how to best use our pristine public lands. But did anyone really expect the peace to last? Now, only months later, environmentalists are screaming over an issue they neglected to settle with snowmobilers when the two camps were still talking—when should the snowmobile season end each year?....Uneasy truce rules on Wolf Creek Pass Two winters after Wolf Creek Pass snow-sport enthusiasts sat down to resolve differences over use of the 10,850-foot-high playground, observers say tensions are easing. But they don't agree on a long-term solution to differences that pit skiers, snowshoers and snowboarders against snowmobilers. A task force formed under the auspices of the U.S. Forest Service to resolve conflicts has come up with a reasonable solution for the time being, said skier Emily Deitz, a member of the group....Finding ways to use wood debris Long-term forest health in Colorado and other fire-prone Western states depends on entrepreneurs who create uses for the wood debris, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Wednesday. "We have to find ways of using the biomass from forest thinning," said Norton at the Bioenergy and Wood Products Conference in Denver. About 190 million acres of fire-prone Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property need to be thinned. Each acre yields about 80 tons of dead wood, dried branches and other waste known as biomass. Thinning costs about $800 to $1,000 an acre. About $760 million is authorized for the Healthy Forests program this year, but markets for biomass will make the thinning projects self-sustaining....Judge restricts use of pesticides on West Coast A federal judge on Thursday restricted the use of 38 pesticides near salmon streams in Washington, Oregon and California, a ruling environmentalists hailed as an important step toward the recovery of salmon and steelhead in the West. Expanding upon two previous rulings, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour barred the use of the pesticides -- ranging from agricultural sprays to some household weed-killers -- within 20 yards of the waters until the Environmental Protection Agency determines whether they are likely to harm protected fish. He also banned aerial spraying of the pesticides, except for public health reasons such as controlling mosquitoes, within 100 yards....CropLife America/RISE Statement on U.S. District Court Order in Endangered Species Act Case "Today, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington state ordered unnecessary buffer zones up to 300 feet for certain pesticide applications close to waterways along with a redundant consumer education program for pesticides already approved for use by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). "The court's final order is devastating to agriculture and pest control in the Pacific Northwest. These severe restrictions on agriculture, small- business and consumer use of pest control products hurt farmers, foresters, homeowners and retailers in Washington, Oregon and Northern California. "While plaintiffs in the case will claim victory, it is important that consumers know the lawsuit, which resulted in the final order, deals with an administrative process for reviewing registrations for pesticides, not their safety. "The pesticides now subject to buffers are tools family and commercial farm owners use to control diseases, weeds and insects that destroy crops, reducing both quality and yield. Further, products for use by pest control operators and homeowners to enhance and protect property and public health will carry redundant warnings about non-existent "threats" to salmon. These pesticides have all undergone rigorous scientific scrutiny and have been approved by the EPA. This scientific testing process ensures that humans, fish and wildlife alike are safe and protected. "The court has ruled -- salmon first, not people."....Wild cow clone on display at San Diego Zoo The world's first surviving clone of an endangered animal went on display Thursday at the San Diego Zoo, after being moved there from the San Diego Wild Animal Park earlier in the day. The animal, Jahava, is an 8-month-old banteng created from the DNA of a male banteng that died at the zoo in 1980. Members of the bovine family and related to domesticated cows, banteng are wild, curved-horned cattle found in Southeast Asia's bamboo forests. The clone, which was born to a domestic cow at an Iowa genetics farm last April, was hand-raised at the Wild Animal Park from age 1 month until the calf's transfer to the zoo. The animal had never been exhibited to the public while at the park....Leonardo DiCaprio, Laurie David Open NRDC Environmental Action Center Actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio will join producer and environmentalist Laurie David to dedicate NRDC's (the Natural Resources Defense Council) new David Family Environmental Action Center and Leonardo DiCaprio e-Activism Zone. The dedication will take place Thursday, January 22, 2004 at 10:00 am. Mr. DiCaprio and Ms. David are both members of NRDC's Board of Trustees. The Action Center and e-Activism Zone are on the ground floor of NRDC's new Southern California office, which the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) this week awarded a "Platinum" rating, recognizing the highest possible achievement in sustainable design. The environmental advocacy group's building is now the "greenest" in the country.... Songbirds hold up Newport Road extension A pair of songbirds listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are holding up an almost $20 million project realigning Newport Road with Domenigoni Parkway. Construction was scheduled to start next month until two California gnatcatchers were found when Riverside County officials surveyed the 7.5-mile project area in September, said project manager Cindy Wachi. The start of construction will be delayed beyond February and will remain on hold until after the county can meet with officials from the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, Wachi said. She said the meeting should take place soon, but no date has been set yet....Number of hunters down, but more rich people bag animals Fifty years ago, it was likely to be a member of a rural family looking for inexpensive food for winter in the nearby woods. Today, the fastest growing population of new hunters is city dwellers earning $100,000 or more who purchase expensive guns and top-line equipment for a three- or five-day excursion into the wilds - Americans somewhat like President Bush who spent his Christmas vacation bagging quail with his father, or Vice President Richard Cheney who recently went duck hunting with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. "For whatever reason, aristocrats tend to hunt. It's been that way through history, and America has developed an aristocratic class," said Norm Phelps, program director of the Fund for Animals, an anti-hunting organization in Silver Spring, Md. The most recent statistics on hunting compiled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that hunting is on a steady decline in the United States. Both the number of hunters and the number of animals killed are down sharply from post-World War II levels....Fund for Animals Hunts Down Top 10 States that Show Most Rapid Decline in Sport Hunting The Fund for Animals today released a list of ten states that have experienced the largest decline in the number of hunters over a decade. Data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife agencies show that the decline of hunting is continuing nationwide, falling from 14 million hunters age 16 or older in 1991, to 13 million in 2001. Topping the list with the largest drop in hunters from 1991 to 2001 is Rhode Island, with fewer than half as many people still killing wildlife for sport. "It is very encouraging to see that states in various geographic regions are all becoming safer for wildlife," said Heidi Prescott, national director of The Fund for Animals. "More and more people all over the country realize that you don't have to kill animals to enjoy nature. If you want to shoot animals in the wild, pick up a camera instead of a gun or bow."....Introduction effort kills five rare pronghorns Wildlife experts have captured two female endangered Sonoran pronghorns from Mexico for a captive breeding project, but five other animals caught in the effort died, officials said Wednesday. A team of biologists and veterinarians working on a joint project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Arizona Department of Game and Fish caught the animals Friday and Saturday. The capture, with the cooperation of Mexican authorities, took place the Altar Desert of Sonora, Mexico, about 30 miles east of Puerto Penasco. That area has the only known viable Sonoran pronghorn population -- more than 300 animals, said Jim deVos, Arizona Game and fish research chief. The first five animals, two males and three females, were netted from the air, sedated, crated and brought to a base camp for monitoring, then flown as a group to a square-mile fenced enclosure in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge near Ajo. But one pronghorn died of a medical problem, and the other four deaths were attributed to hyperthermia, or overheating, caused by the stress of capture....So, will they be charged for violating the ESA? Don't hold your breath....Retired National Park Service Leaders Denied White House Visit, Urge President to "Halt" Anti-Conservation Moves at Interior The White House has declined to meet with representatives of 183 concerned National Park Service (NPS) retirees who today sent President George Bush a letter expressing grave concerns that "actions are being taken in the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service that are short-changing, ignoring or violating the long-standing legislation and policies comprising the mission of the National Park Service." In particular, the retirees highlighted recent troubling developments at Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Parks as examples of the Department of the Interior abandoning its core mission of conservation. The letter signers are members of the Coalition of Concerned National Park Services Retirees. The signers of the letter represent over 6000 years of NPS experience and include one former director, two former deputy directors, eight former regional directors and 62 former park superintendents. The NPS retirees writing to President Bush served under both Republican and Democratic administrations....Alaskan tracts opened to drilling Interior Secretary Gale Norton signed off on a plan Thursday for opening most of an 8.8 million-acre swath of Alaska's North Slope to oil and gas development. Some of the drilling could occur in areas important for migratory birds, whales and wildlife. The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management will use the plan to manage a northwest portion of the government's 23.5 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Geologists believe the reserve may contain 6 billion to 13 billion barrels of oil. It is located just west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where President Bush wants to open a 1.5 million-acre coastal plain to drilling as one of his top energy priorities. The Senate, in debating a massive energy bill, has rejected drilling there....Along Public Trail, a Church Recounts Its History Tens of thousands of people come here each year to a granite-walled nook in the hills just off the old pioneer trail to hear the tale of the lost Martin Handcart Company of 1856 and how a party of poor Mormon converts faced down death in a howling blizzard. The place, called Martin's Cove — an uninhabited hollow of sand and sage surrounded by sheer cliffs that block the wind — sits on federal land 50 miles southwest of Casper, part of the vast Western domain of the Bureau of Land Management. But the story is not told by bureau employees. Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dispatched on six-month assignments and brimming with faith, are the trail and museum guides. Now that unusual relationship — a publicly owned historic site interpreted by a private and very interested party — has been locked into law. A brief provision tucked into an energy appropriations bill signed by President Bush in December authorizes a 25-year lease agreement between the church and the government, with all but automatic renewals after that....New Political Voice for Wildlife & Wild Places: Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund Today, wildlife proponents announced the launch of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, a new, independent organization designed to give conservation voters an added voice in the upcoming legislative and political battles in 2004. The new organization will lobby for pro-conservation policies, and educate citizens about the conservation records of the president and Congress. The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund website - http://www.defendersactionfund.org - went live today. "The current policies of the White House and Congress represent the single greatest threat to meaningful conservation of wildlife and wild lands in the United States," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. "Oil and gas, mining, timber and other industries have exerted tremendous influence over the President's policies. The result has been the dismantling of many of our country's most important conservation laws, including those that protect our wildlife and habitat. The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund was created to stop this madness, fight for sane conservation legislation, and to educate citizens about the need for responsible stewardship of our wildlife and natural resources." Schlickeisen said the new and independent 501(c)4 organization will complement the activities of other environmental lobbying groups that have traditionally focused on the public health implications of environmental policies, not on conservation or wildlife issues....New Study Details The Double Lives Of Suburban Pumas Twelve days after a puma killed one person and hurt another in Southern California, researchers at the University of California, Davis, today released the most intensive scientific assessment to date of the complex relationships between pumas and people on the expanding urban fringe. The report details the lives of 20 pumas straddling two worlds -- one a popular state park rich with natural prey but shared with a half-million hikers, bikers, campers and horse riders, and the other woodsy communities where cats, dogs, chickens, pigs, goats and alpacas are easy pickings but eating one can get a puma killed. From those details, the researchers make recommendations to help pumas and humans co-exist -- recommendations that should be useful as dangerous encounters increase throughout the American West....Environmentalists sue EPA over clean water permits for oil platforms off Calif. Environmental groups filed a lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, claiming the federal government has failed to update clean water permits for nearly two dozen oil drilling platforms off the California coast. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court here, alleges that the EPA hasn't issued new water permits for 22 oil platforms off Southern and Central California. It seeks to require that the agency issue updated permits under the Clean Water Act....New Report Finds Genetically Modified Insects May Offer Public Health And Agricultural Benefits, But Clear Regulatory Oversight Is Lacking Researchers are using biotechnology to develop genetically modified (GM) insects for a wide variety of purposes, including fighting insect-borne diseases like malaria and controlling destructive insect agricultural pests, but the federal government lacks a clear regulatory framework for reviewing environmental safety and other issues associated with GM insects, according to Bugs in the System? Issues in the Science and Regulation of Genetically Modified Insects, a new report released today by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. The report provides an overview of current research efforts to apply genetic engineering technology to insects, and looks at the benefits, risks and scientific uncertainties associated with transgenic insects....Column: The Once-Green GOP "The environment is probably the single issue on which Republicans in general--and President Bush in particular--are most vulnerable." So asserted Frank Luntz, a leading Republican pollster, last year in a confidential memo that surfaced in the New York Times. One wonders whether White House political guru Karl Rove agrees with Luntz's assessment, given the Bush Administration's relentless assault on clear skies and healthy forests on behalf of its corporate backers. But as former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's recent truth-telling reminds us, there are also honorable Republicans out there who are appalled by the arrogant, dishonest extremism of the Bush crowd, which they see as a betrayal of real conservatism. On the environment, it's worth remembering that it was Republicans who led the federal government into the modern environmental era, when Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, signed into law the Clean Air and Clean Water acts (and much other fundamental legislation) and generally launched the nation on a course of environmental protection that, despite recent backsliding, remains the envy of much of the world. Now, this oft-forgotten history has been described by a former Republican insider, Russell Train, in a book that offers implicit lessons to anyone hoping to exploit Bush's vulnerabilities on the environment in 2004. Ignore the book's bland title--Politics, Pollution, and Pandas--and focus on the pedigree of the author....USDA Unveils New Biotech Crop Regulatory Proposals USDA today announced its intention to update and strengthen its biotechnology regulations for the importation, interstate movement and environmental release of certain genetically engineered (GE) organisms. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) evaluating its biotechnology regulations and several possible regulation changes, including the development of a multi-tiered, risk-based permitting system to replace the current permit/notification system, along with enhancements to the deregulation process to provide flexibility for long term monitoring. Any proposed changes to the regulations will be science and risk-based. USDA officials said they hoped to have a draft EIS prepared and published yet this calendar year, with regulations coming potentially in 2005....Idaho irrigators gird for battle Five months ago, the Coalition for Idaho Water had 15 members. Today it has 45. Why the rapid growth? A lawsuit filed by environmental groups in August and the specter of what happened in the Klamath Basin three years ago have been big motivating factors. Thirty new members have joined the coalition since environmental groups served notice last summer that they intended to sue the federal government over the operation of 10 dams on the Upper Snake River system....Brucellosis found in more Wyoming cattle A second herd of cattle has tested positive for brucellosis in Wyoming, which means that the state will lose its brucellosis-free status, state officials announced Thursday morning. The development is a blow to Wyoming's cattle industry, which will face new restrictions on exporting cattle, including a requirement that cows must be tested for the disease before they're shipped to other states. Jim Logan, the Wyoming state veterinarian, said tests showed six cattle at a feedlot in Worland had brucellosis. Although the cattle came from a herd in Sublette County where dozens of cows tested positive for the disease late last year, the Worland herd is now considered separate....Test suggests other animals in Valley area may also have rabies Test results from a rabid bobcat suggest that other animals in the northeastern portion of the metropolitan region may also be infected with rabies. Tests on the animal's remains show it suffered from a type of rabies called the gray fox variant, said Elisabeth Lawaczeck, state public health veterinarian. The bobcat was shot Jan. 5 at a ranch near Cave Creek after it attacked a dog and displayed no fear of humans. The animal's remains were sent to a lab for testing and those results were released Wednesday....Court boots suit inspired by cattle scam A federal appeals court has rejected a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in a cattle-ranching scam that cost investors in 41 states more than $100 million. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled in favor of the IRS in a lawsuit filed by dozens of victims of the so-called "phantom cattle" scam by former Oregon rancher Walter J. Hoyt III, nicknamed the "Paper Cowboy" for herds of cattle that existed only on paper. Between 1971 and 1996, Hoyt organized partnerships that were partly designed to offer investors a tax deduction in addition to any profits on livestock sales. But the partnerships eventually became what some investigators called the biggest agricultural scam in U.S. history. The investors sued the IRS after the agency disallowed tax deductions based on the phony livestock operation and ordered payment of penalties and interest. Some investors claimed bankruptcy and other financial hardships as a result. The investors blamed the IRS for failing to stop the Hoyt operation despite continuous audits of Hoyt for 24 years....Deer case could have major impact If the long-held legal doctrine that wildlife is a public resource owned by everyone and no one comes undone, bet on the undoing involving Texas and its white-tailed deer. A major step in that direction will come early next week from a federal court in San Antonio. A federal judge there has said he will rule on a suit seeking to designate wild white-tailed deer as private property and will overturn the state's authority to make management decisions concerning those deer. Texas has been heading this direction with its white-tailed deer for some time....Stroke took a lot from cowboy; now he's got it all back Stran Smith was speaking casually, ankle-deep in a conversation about horses, when he was suddenly and literally struck dumb. Words and ideas percolated in his head, but he couldn't pour them out. He couldn't talk. Or at least nothing anybody would recognize as talk issued from his mouth. Here he was at age 32, in the midst of an outstanding season, a star in the rodeo world, one of the best tie-down ropers around, strong as a bull and then just as suddenly, inarticulate. Unable to make himself understood, Smith found paper and pen and hurriedly used them to convey an alarming message: "I can't talk." Smith later would make what amounts to a shocking admission for a rodeo cowboy: He was scared back on April 26, when he had that stroke and lost his speech – because he didn't know what else he might lose....