NEWS ROUNDUP

Federal officials draft Canada lynx impact statement Federal officials have finished drafting a study that says how 18 national forest land-use plans in the northern Rockies, including the Bitterroot's, could be amended to protect the threatened Canada lynx. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management draft environmental impact statement for the Northern Rockies Lynx Amendment proposal differs from an earlier proposal, and includes changes in how officials could address some high-elevation timber thinning and winter recreation. The agencies' preferred alternative E includes proposed restrictions on pre-commercial thinning of timber in snowshoe hare habitat, but it makes exceptions for "fuel reduction" projects intended to reduce fire danger, said Jon Haber, a Forest Service project manager for the Northern Rockies Lynx Amendment in Missoula. Also a change from an earlier proposal is that while the agencies' preferred option would discourage any net increase in "over-the-snow trails" in lynx habitat, primarily new groomed trails used by snowmobiles and compacted on a regular basis, Haber said, it would not prohibit new ones....Sitka residents rally against roadless rule repeal About 100 demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Forest Service District Office on Wednesday morning to protest the Bush Administration's Dec. 23 decision to repeal the "roadless rule" on the Tongass National Forest. Holding blank signs and wearing white mouth gags to signify that opposition to the roadless rule repeal continues to go unheard, the protesters stood in the rain from about 7:30 to 8:15 a.m. as Forest Service employees arrived for work. Protesters held up a 15-foot banner that said, "Tongass BUSH-Whacked: Will of the People Ignored," and sang "This Land is Your Land" and "We Shall Overcome."....Florida black bear won't be listed as threatened species Florida black bears have been found sleeping in truck beds in rural Collier County, rummaging through garbage cans and wandering through Golden Gate Estates neighborhoods. But one place they won't be found is on the federal list of threatened or endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reaffirmed on Wednesday a 1998 decision to not list the Florida black bear as a threatened species. Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club and the Fund for Animals challenged the 1998 decision. In 2001, a federal judge ordered the agency to reconsider. The results were published Wednesday in the Federal Register....Fed changes worry bombing range neighbors Bonnie Rader fought the military for years to clean up unexploded ammunition at a former Air Force bombing range in Aurora. "Bombing ranges have so many surprises and it's usually the homeowner who gets the surprise," said Rader, who lives near the former Lowry Gunnery and Bombing Range. "Little people like me can not make a difference without the state and environmental laws to help us." After two years of intense negotiation and a lawsuit, the state forced the Defense Department to develop an extensive cleanup plan for the 59,000-acre site near the Aurora Reservoir in southeast Arapahoe County. States could lose the power to enforce such environmental agreements if Congress approves legislation requested by the Pentagon. The Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative would make military bases exempt from environmental laws that cover everything from hazardous waste, air quality and endangered species....Wyoming lawmakers say feds unclear on wolf plan Wyoming lawmakers say the federal government was vague on what was expected of the state during negotiations on removing wolves from federal protection, and they expressed surprise and hurt that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cited flaws in the state plan as a reason for suspending the process. Lawmakers said they got mixed messages from the agency last year as they drafted the proposal for how Wyoming would manage wolf populations after the feds stepped aside. They noted that Wyoming's plan recently passed muster with several wildlife experts and wolf biologists. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., said the federal government had indicated to him that Wyoming's plan was adequate. Gov. Dave Freudenthal added the decision was "based on little more than Potomac politics."....Valley farmers win in court over water loss In a major victory for California farmers, a federal judge has said the U.S. government must compensate a group of San Joaquin Valley growers for diverting some of their water to protect endangered fish. The ruling could tilt the balance between farmers and environmentalists in their endless battle over California's water supply -- and make federal officials hesitate to use the Endangered Species Act to take water from agriculture. "It makes the decision (to enforce the Endangered Species Act) harder because there's direct financial consequences up front," said Lester Snow, a Sacramento water consultant and former regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. "It's a sea change in the way they manage the Endangered Species Act." Under the ruling by Judge John Paul Wiese of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, a group of farmers in the San Joaquin Valley must be paid about $26 million for water they didn't receive during droughtlike conditions between 1992 and 1994. The court handles claims against the federal government. The case arose when federal officials invoked the Endangered Species Act to reduce the amount of water being pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the vast farming operations of the San Joaquin Valley. The action was taken to protect two species of fish, the chinook salmon and Delta smelt, which were getting sucked into the government's giant water pumps and killed in ever-increasing numbers....Park police chief alleges systematic harassment National Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers was harassed for at least a year as she tried to reform her agency, and was eventually put on administrative leave after she filed a formal complaint against her immediate supervisor, her attorneys said Wednesday. Lawyers for the embattled chief said she and her top deputies faced an increasingly hostile work environment during the past year that included the scattering of nails under the tires of their vehicles, placement of used condoms on and around vehicles, computer hacking, and the pepper-spraying of office doors....Rehberg invites judge on snowmobile trip Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., has invited the Washington, D.C., judge who overturned the Bush administration's snowmobile plan to take a snowmobile trip with him through Yellowstone National Park. In a letter Wednesday to Judge Emmet Sullivan, Rehberg said he hoped the trip would show that snowmobiles are a "legitimate" form of transportation in Yellowstone. The tour also would give Sullivan a chance to talk with park officials and business owners who depend on snowmobile business in the winter. "While I strongly disagree with your decision for its potentially devastating effect on the economies of nearby gateway communities, I would nonetheless like to invite you to join me in West Yellowstone sometime over the remaining winter months, and take a snowmobile tour of Yellowstone," Rehberg wrote in his letter to the judge....S.D. aerial hunting law concerns coyote hunters The state Game, Fish & Parks Commission wants to give aerial hunters a better shot at coyotes by opening more than a million acres of public land in western South Dakota to nongovernment gunners. That's good news to ranchers who suffer livestock losses to the pesky predators. "The more help we get, the better it is because we're getting overrun by coyotes right now," Harding County rancher and aerial hunter Jerry Janvrin said Wednesday. But some sport hunters worry that highly effective aerial hunting will spoil their sport and could threaten the safety of recreational hunters using public land....Cougar attacks rising in southern Oregon Cougar attacks are becoming more common in southern Oregon, leading to more loss of livestock and threats to humans, biologists said. Just this week, cougars mauled three ewes on Roger Thalacker's 15-acre ranch in Eagle Point, puncturing the throat of one of the animals. The dying ewe is the seventh victim of a cougar attack in the last two years. And last week, a cougar near Williams killed an ostrich and some ducks. Also, last Wednesday in rural Ashland, a man shot and killed a cougar that appeared not to fear people, according to state biologists. Biologists say the conflict between cougars and humans is here to stay. Utah claims Juab road, Right-of-way request is state's first on U.S. land A lonely two-lane highway that winds through Juab County's West Desert is the first claim by state officials for right of way through federally managed lands. Known as the Weiss Highway to those few who travel it, the paved road extends west from Nephi to the Nevada border, providing access to ranchers who are scattered through western Juab County, County Commissioner William Howarth said. The road has existed for decades, at one time leading to a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, and has long been used by miners, law enforcement officers and outdoor recreators. Howarth was on hand for a Wednesday afternoon news conference at the Utah headquarters of the Utah Bureau of Land Management, where Gov. Olene Walker formally submitted a claim for the Weiss Highway to the BLM. The state could potentially submit thousands of claims for right of way to roads under the RS 2477 statute during coming years, and many of those roads are needed travel routes that should be protected, Howarth said....Pilot program may pummel prairie dogs Limited poisoning of prairie dogs on federal grasslands south of Badlands National Park could resume soon in a pilot program to provide relief for ranchers whose land is being overrun by prairie dogs from the nearby federal land. The pilot program is still in the planning stages, but state and federal officials hope to have it together by about March 1, Bill Perry, Wall District ranger on the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, said Wednesday. Although Perry said the proposed pilot plan is not a "knee-jerk" reaction, his announcement comes after area ranchers complained in recent weeks to the Pennington County Commission that prairie dogs from federal lands were encroaching on their private ranches in Conata Basin, ruining rangeland for grazing....Illegal poison poses threat to other species Illegal poisoning of prairie dogs in Conata Basin may have killed some black-footed ferrets and is endangering other mammals and birds in the area, according to Bill Perry, Wall District ranger with Buffalo Gap National Grassland. The black-footed ferrets, reintroduced in Conata Basin in 1996, are doing well overall, but numbers fell by about one third in the area where illegal poison has been found on federal land east of the Conata Basin road, Perry said. "The rodenticide is killing the prairie dogs, and it is carried in their carcasses, and then it can kill any predators that eat the carcasses," Perry said.... Court Hears Arguments Over Nuclear Waste Dump Attorneys for the state of Nevada and environmental groups told a U.S. appellate court yesterday that federal agencies ignored science and law in deciding to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in a mountain outside Las Vegas. Taking up the Yucca Mountain dispute, which has raged for two decades, the panel of three judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard federal government lawyers argue that the decision to create the dump for waste from the nation's nuclear reactors was based on sound reasoning. Nevada officials consider the federal court one of their last hopes of stopping the $58 billion project, located in the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The panel is expected to issue its decision in late spring or summer, and attorneys on both sides said they would appeal to the full appellate court if they lose....Court Urged to Require EPA Role in Everglades Shift of Polluted Water A lawyer for an Everglades Indian tribe urged the Supreme Court yesterday to require South Florida's water managers to get federal approval before they shift water from the suburbs to protected wetlands, as the justices heard oral arguments in a case that could affect state water supply and flood-control practices across the nation. But Jeffrey P. Minear, a lawyer for the Justice Department, which supports the SFWMD, told the court that the pump is not covered by the Clean Water Act because it is merely moving polluted water around, not adding pollution to the water, and that "the costs would be very substantial" if permitting were required. The water district and its supporters -- which include not only the Bush administration, but also New York City and 11 western states -- say those costs would include a heavy new regulatory burden on states and cities that move vast amounts of agricultural and drinking water via aqueducts, pipes and reservoirs. The Indian tribe is backed by 14 states, mostly from the East, and by environmental groups....West Texas water export plan draws state scrutiny Thirsty cities far away from underground water supplies in West Texas make ranchers and El Paso community leaders nervous. The livelihood of rural Texas and El Paso's future water supply both could hinge on how state officials handle a private company's desires to export water from state land in far West Texas to distant communities. A Senate Select Committee on Water Policy will meet Feb. 3 in El Paso. The committee met for the first time Wednesday in an effort to refine state water policy that has been seven years in the making. Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is considering a plan by a consortium of Midland-based investors, who want to lease 355,000 acres of state land in Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties. The company, called Rio Nuevo Ltd., wants to export water from the land and sell it....New Test Scores Cattle Temperaments A livestock specialist at the University of Georgia has developed a scoring system that allows owners to assess the temperaments of cattle so they can breed calmer calves. Studies conducted in Australia, Colorado and elsewhere have shown that serene cattle gain weight faster and provide more tender meat than cranky cattle. Also, calves with poor dispositions can cause costly damage to equipment, fences and harm handlers, said Jerry Baker, a researcher at the university's Coastal Plain Experiment Station....Remaining cattle from brucellosis herd shipped to slaughter About 260 cattle from a western Wyoming ranch were sent to slaughter Wednesday, the latest step in federal and state efforts to prevent spread of brucellosis. "It wasn't the best," rancher Jerry Jensen said of his emotions in seeing the bulk of his family's herd leave in five cattle trucks. "I mean, you see four generations go down the road, and it wasn't our fault." All the family's breeding stock, including cows, bulls and 2-year-old heifers, were sent to a packing plant in Nebraska....Farm Bureau Cool On COOL At a final convention press conference Wednesday, American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman struggled to explain apparent contradictions in policies delegates adopted on country of origin labeling and trade. Farm Bureau wants a "pause" in the implementation of country of origin labeling for agricultural products, Stallman said. Yet, delegates passed a resolution Tuesday saying they still support "the concept" of COOL. That resolution also criticized the regulations the Bush Administration crafted for implementing COOL, saying the rules did not follow Congress' intent in writing the provision in the 2002 farm bill. The issue appears to remain contentious among Farm Bureau members and leaders.... Standard of the West for 125 years Watson is proud of the heritage he is charged with continuing. “How many companies come to mind that have reached this milestone?” Watson asked. “When Henry Ford introduced his Model T in 1909, Justin had been making boots for 30 years. When the Wright Brothers left the ground for a few historic moments, we had been making boots for 24 years. When the first shots were fired to signal the Oklahoma Land Rush, Justin had been in business for 10 years. I could go on and on. Justin Boots has not only survived, but thrived. There are great products out there that are just as old, but, in my opinion, no brand creates as much positive conversation or fond memories as the Justin brand.”....Jack Daniel rolling out a different kind of label Bull riding, cowboy boots and Jack Daniel's. The company that owns Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey believes all three go together, and it's rolling out its own brand of clothing to get its name out in the Wild West, or at least among people who identify with it. Trying to keep the cowboy connection alive, Brown-Forman sponsors Professional Bull Riders and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events. Jack Daniel's sponsors bull-riding brothers Cory and Evan Rasch on the pro circuit. Now it's rolling out woven printed and solid shirts, T-shirts, and polo shirts with the Jack Daniel's name, along with belt buckles, cowboy hats, wallets and watches....Colorado vet latest to use hyperbaric oxygen therapy Colorado veterinarian Kara Keesling became one of only three privately practicing veterinarians in the United States to use hyperbaric oxygen therapy on horses when she started using the technique on horse last fall. "Though still relatively new to equine veterinary medicine, [hyperbaric oxygen therapy] has been used successfully to treat a wide variety of condition in horses," Keesling said. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy gained a bit of spotlight last season when the treatment was used on undefeated two-year-old champion Vindication in his recovery from a strained suspensory. Keesling has been using the chamber at her Colorado Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center at Fossil Creek Veterinary Hospital in Fort Collins...