NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest Service taking the heat For setting a "prescribed fire" that went awry in September, the U.S. Forest Service is in hot water with the state. Rick Sprott, director of the Utah Division of Air Quality, has issued the Forest Service a "notice of violation" in connection with the Cascade Springs II fire, which burned 7,800 acres and poured smoke into the Wasatch Front for a week. The notice accuses the Forest Service of polluting the air in Utah's population center and of failing to submit a proper plan to the division before igniting the fire. It does not call for a fine, although the notice points out the state reserves the right to levy fines in the amount of $10,000 per day of violation...Developer sues over Lone Peak deed Developer Tim Blixseth has filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service in a dispute over ownership of a patch of ice and rock atop Lone Peak. The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest deeded a 20-acre parcel, including the peak, to Moonlight Basin, a new ski resort. "It's our property," said Moonlight Basin co-owner Lee Poole said Tuesday. "We own it right now." But Blixseth claims the land belongs to him as part of the Big Sky Lumber land swaps, authorized by two acts of Congress, the latest in 1998. He said the disputed land, which may be less than an acre, could support a ski lift, making it worth a fortune to whoever owns it...Book, movie capture spirit of wildlife agent In more than 30 years as a federal wildlife agent, Terry Grosz did everything from busting commercial duck shooters in California to overseeing one of the largest poaching stings in Colorado history. The burly Grosz's escapades with scofflaws of the hook-and-bullet set have provided the grist for five books, including "Wildlife Wars," which won the National Outdoor Book Award in 2000. On Tuesday, Animal Planet will air a movie, "Wildlife Wars," based on his career...Loud noise collars may keep wolves at bay Loudspeakers blaring out the recorded sound of gunfire or other loud noises or dog shock collars could resolve problems with wolves before ranchers resort to a rifle bullet, researchers believe. Shivik, Adrian Treves with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York and Peggy Callahan of the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn., reported on those alternatives in the December issue of Conservation Biology. They researched whether devices -- called RAG or radio-activated guard boxes -- would scare off wolves. The RAG boxes have cassette players that are activated to broadcast loud noises when wolves with radio collars come too close...Ranchers hope bird listing won't fly The federal government is expected to announce early next week whether it will take the first step toward listing the greater sage grouse as an endangered species, a move that could prevent the bird's extinction but also may significantly reduce livestock grazing on public lands. "This could be one more low blow for us," said Wes Quinton, Utah Farm Bureau Federation vice president. "It's at the top of our worry list, with drought and BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease], because it could potentially shut down a large segment of the Western ranching industry."...Endangered Species Act turns 30 years old Now at the ripe old age of 30, the Endangered Species Act is still a vigorous source of debate, although there are signs that the government and environmentalists are beginning to agree that its future lies in cooperation instead of confrontation. Instead of relying on a federal regulatory hammer, both sides are shifting toward incentives for landowners who participate in protection programs. "I think 30 years hence, it's going to be the standard way of operating," said Crain Manson, assistant interior secretary for wildlife. William Robert Irvin, of the World Wildlife Fund, said there is a shared interest in promoting incentives. "I think it is the future," Irvin said. "You can get a lot farther with carrots than sticks." ...Column:Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up Although environmentalists try to suggest that saving endangered species protects humanity, too, the fact is that species preservation is really important only on aesthetic and moral grounds. See, for example, a review article, "Prospects for Biodiversity" in the November 14 issue of Science. The article notes, "In truth, ecologists and conservationists have struggled to demonstrate the increased material benefits to humans of 'intact' wild systems over largely anthropogenic ones [like farms]... Where increased benefits of natural systems have been shown, they are usually marginal and local." The Science article relentlessly continues, "Nowhere is this more starkly revealed than in the extinction of species." Humanity, after all, has been responsible for the extinction in many parts of the world "of all or most of the larger terrestrial animal species... This means that the 'natural' systems we currently think of in these parts of the world (North and South America, Australasia, and virtually all oceanic islands) are nothing of the sort, and yet they still function at least according to our perceptions and over time scales we are currently capable of measuring." In other words, we don't need a lot of species to insure our own species' comfortable existence...Wolves set to huff, puff, blow into state To the north, to the west and to the south, wolves are at Colorado's door. No one knows exactly when they'll return to the state, but most experts expect they will be back within the next five to 10 years. Wolves could return to Colorado from any of three sources:...Zoo-bred wolves are sent packing Five Mexican wolves were captured from 1977 to 1980 in Mexico and taken to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, where they became the Genesis pack for today's recovery efforts in New Mexico and Arizona. As the numbers expanded, zoos in the United States and Mexico started breeding programs, and now there are 29 U.S. zoos and 10 in Mexico raising wolves. There are about 200 wolves in those zoos, in addition to at least 34 released in the wild...Who let the dogs out? Don't tell Catherine Miller prairie dogs are cute. Swarms of the rodents, migrants from the city's enormous greenbelt, have turned her 10-acre farm into Swiss cheese. "It's these huge holes - and nothing around the holes," Miller said of her land east of town, where she grows hay. Heeding concerns of animal-rights activists, Boulder has been relocating prairie dogs to the greenbelt for years to protect them from extermination. Now the city that took the lead in controlling human population growth is bursting with prairie dogs...Snowmobile ruling hits home Each of the past 29 winters, Pahaska Tepee lodge has opened for snowmobilers eager to take a ride into Yellowstone National Park. But in the two weeks since a federal judge ruled against the Bush administration's new snowmobile plan and imposed a Clinton-era phaseout, lodge owner Bob Coe has had second thoughts about keeping his business open through the winter. "It's just put a chill on the entire business,'' he said Wednesday. Profit margins in the winter have always been tight, he said, but the restrictions this season have made it especially hard for his business near the east entrance to stay open and break even, much less carve a profit. "Business is down 65 to 75 percent,'' he said, adding that a decision will be made Monday whether to keep the lodge open for the rest of the winter...Black Beauty Ranch Welcomes Burros from Southern California Parks The Fund for Animals' world- famous Black Beauty Ranch animal sanctuary has welcomed the first of several groups of burros from Death Valley and Mojave National Parks in southern California, in a cooperative effort with the federal government to find homes for the unwanted animals. Working with the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, The Fund for Animals has already received 40 burros and has agreed to accept up to 100 per year...Arctic dig unearths prehistoric settlement Russian archaeologists have discovered the remains of the world's oldest known Arctic settlement - a Siberian riverfront site that they say could help determine when humans first arrived in the Americas. The 30,000-year-old site - twice as old as any previous Arctic dig - includes a rhinoceros bone shaped into a spear that shows a "striking resemblance" to spear points found by archaeologists in Clovis, N.M. The findings by the Russia Academy of Sciences may prompt a re-examination of popular theories about when humans first came to the Americas... Scandal-tainted worker was BLM teacher Some Bureau of Land Management employees attending a training seminar on negotiating land exchanges this month were surprised their instructor was a BLM staffer disciplined for her role in the scandal-plagued San Rafael Swell land swap. Terry Catlin, a BLM lands specialist at the agency's Salt Lake City state headquarters, served as one of the instructors of a weeklong course on land exchanges for BLM professionals Dec. 8-12 in Asheville, N.C. In August, the Interior Department's inspector general determined that Catlin and three other federal employees had negotiated a land exchange with the state of Utah that would have shortchanged taxpayers at least $100 million because of an unusually lopsided oil-shale royalty split that was never clearly revealed to members of Congress and Interior decision-makers...Oregon Trail segments in peril Just a few steps from an unmarked parking lot in Boise, a remnant of American history remains. Ruts of the Oregon Trail mark the journeys of settlers who followed the path by foot and wagon more than 150 years ago. But sections of the trail, which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, have been torn up by four-wheelers and other vehicles. A home has been built on one portion of the trail...Reweaving a historic bond Beneath towering Table Mesa in the vast northeastern corner of the Navajo Reservation is a tiny ramshackle pen filled with about 35 sheep. The scruffy-looking animals, with their short horns and long brown and black wool, are Navajo-Churro, a living symbol of the resilience of the Navajo people. The sheep were nearly wiped out during the tribe's forced relocation in the 1860s and again in the stock reductions of the 1930s. But they are making a comeback...Don't kill the coyote, just confuse him a little Traps. Fences. Poison. Ranchers have tried everything to keep predators from their livestock. But guard llamas? At Thirteen Mile Ranch near Belgrade, Mont., llamas have kept watch over the sheep for a decade. The result: No losses from coyotes - the bane of sheep ranchers. "Our llamas have developed some kind of an understanding with a local and fairly stable coyote pack," says Becky Weed, who runs the ranch with her partner, David Tyler. "They know the ropes, and we know the ropes, and I think they understand that we don't bother them. We like to have them around because they hunt gophers." Increasingly, ranchers in the US and abroad are turning to such natural methods - from aggressive donkeys to strategic herd movement - to safeguard livestock. Those methods mean ranchers seldom have to kill predators. True, the predators they save aren't particularly endangered. And the products they market as "predator friendly" sometimes fetch a premium. But the impetus behind the wild-farming movement seems to run deeper than that. Its message: Ranchers, livestock, and large predators can coexist...The American West, Through German Eyes Professor McClain adds that there are also cowboy hobby towns all over Germany where people can come on the weekends to dress up and play act like cowboys and Indians. "They're bonding with their families in a way that they can afford to do," she says. "They're getting free of the bureaucracy. We Americans cannot understand the feeling of being closed in that Germans have - not only geographically, but they are [a] highly bureaucratized culture."...Mortensen earned his 6th title the old-fashioned way There were no whoops or hollers. No fists thrown in the air. No raising the roof. He was too tired - mentally and physically - to jump up and down in celebration. Dan Mortensen won his sixth world saddle bronc title the old-fashioned way: He earned it. Mortensen's achievement - tying him with the legendary Casey Tibbs - was a testament to the focus and a nose-to-the-grindstone approach that earned the Billings cowboy five previous world championships...Down-to-earth roper rises to join idols While most everyone was focusing on the battle Cody Ohl and Fred Whitfield were waging for the world tie-down roping championship, Mike Johnson quietly won the aggregate title at the recent Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. It was the first time Johnson, who has qualified for 18 NFRs, had accomplished that feat. "I've had lot of disappointments out here," said the 39-year-old cowboy who roped and tied 10 calves in 86.4 seconds. "It was a dream come true for me. I've been competing against those guys for 20 years. I watched them grow from pups to world class athletes...