NEWS ROUNDUP

Gory Details Released About Fatal Lion Attack Sheriff's officials say an autopsy has confirmed that Mark Jeffrey Reynolds, 35, was mauled to death by a mountain lion in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in southern Orange County. Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff's Department said that "removal of organs from the chest and abdominal cavity due to a predatory animal, in this case a mountain lion" was the official cause of death. Authorities believe that Reynold's bike chain had fallen off and he was repairing it when he was attacked. Anne Hjelle, 30, is in serious condition on Friday after several other bikers pulled her away from a lion in a tug-of-war. She suffered non-life-threatening wounds to her neck, head, back and legs...USFS Fiscal Study Leads to Staff Cuts The United States Forest Service (USFS) is thinning its employee ranks, firing 80 vehicle mechanics statewide - including three who work in the Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara County. However, employees on the chopping block don't plan to go down without a fight. An internal USFS study, released Jan. 7, concluded it would be cheaper to hire outside contractors to perform the duties of current employees in the vehicle fleet maintenance divisions of the state's 18 national forests. USFS regional press officer Matt Mathes said the fired employees will not be abandoned by the forest service, which plans to use a six-month transition period to help the workers decide what to do after they are let go...Snowshoeing boom creates back-country feud The noise in the backcountry has nothing to do with snowmobiles. Cross-country skiers and snowshoers know where to go to get away from the piercing cackles of racing two-cycle engines. The problem is that snowshoeing is booming, that a huge proportion of snowshoers are beginners and their lack of etiquette is really ticking off the cross-country skiing public. Snowshoers who don’t watch where they’re stepping are getting yelled at a lot on Oregon’s backcountry trails...NEPA "modernization' discussed A consortium of state and federal officials met Thursday in a roundtable discussion to figure out how to "modernize" the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The conference, which continues today at Copper Mountain Resort, was held to discuss how to streamline NEPA processes, restore the original intent of the act, encourage collaboration between state, federal and local entities and get the public more involved in the process. Conference attendees agreed NEPA is still a valuable document. But in the 33 years since its implementation, it has become cumbersome for those proposing projects, has alienated the public from participation and has forced project applicants to generate giant reports in fear their data won't be deemed adequate, said Fred Wagner, a Washington, D.C., attorney whose firm focuses on environmental review and permit processing...Kempthorne defends downlisting of Canadian gray wolves Governor Dirk Kempthorne is joining the Bush Administration in defending the federal government’s decision to “downlist” Canadian gray wolf populations in Idaho. The Kempthorne Administration and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game will stand with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton in a lawsuit filed by several environmental groups seeking to stop U.S. Fish and Wildlife plans to downlist the wolves from endangered to threatened status under the Endangered Species Act. The proposed rule was originally announced by the Clinton Administration in July of 2000...Endangered Species Act Hits 30-Year Mark "It's the pre-eminent anti-growth act in America, the pre-eminent anti-housing, anti-construction, anti-new road law in America. That's not what it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be the pre-eminent species protection act in America," said property rights activist Laer Pearce. In the last two years alone, the federal government has set aside 38 million acres of so-called critical habitat, including three parcels each the size of Rhode Island — one for a bird, one for a frog and the last for an owl. Critics say that as a result of the act, endangered flies have blocked freeway construction, spawning salmon have brought down dams and suckerfish in Oregon have put hundreds of farmer out of work. In California, a shrimp that thrives in mud puddles gave government nearly de facto control over private property, effectively denying owners the right to build, farm or sell their land. "There is a lot of taking of land that happens," Pearce said, adding that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost in the mining, construction, logging and farming industries. "We are forced to give away a lot of our land and very rarely is anything given in return."...Column: The lobo doesn't belong in Colorado The Rocky Mountain News' Jan. 2 article, "Wolves set to huff, puff, blow into state," and its accompanying sidebar mistakenly state that Mexican gray wolves may have originally inhabited Colorado. Though the taxonomy of wolves continues to evolve, one thing remains clear: Colorado's gray wolves were not the unique Mexican subspecies, Canis lupus baileyi. The highest U.S. priority for restoration of this animal, the lobo (or "desert wolf" in the words of pioneering ecologist Aldo Leopold), should be to Arizona's Sky Islands Ecosystem, where cool, forested mountains rise out of an ocean of desert. To the contrary, wolf taxonomy was originally elucidated by the federal agency that wiped out the species. That extermination campaign began in 1915 after wolves survived both state-sponsored bounties and ranchers' individual efforts to eliminate them. The last resident wolf in the American West was trapped in Conejos County, Colorado, in 1945...Two plans offered to protect migration corridor A coalition charged with developing a plan to protect a key wildlife migration corridor in western Wyoming has submitted two proposals for consideration. One plan outlines ways to address threats from oil and gas development, private land development, fencing and vehicle collisions to animals migrating through the historic Trapper's Point area west of Pinedale. That proposal, developed by the majority of the 22-member coalition, was submitted last month to Bureau of Land Management officials. The Wyoming Outdoor Council and other conservation groups, meanwhile, developed a counterproposal that calls for more ''no leasing'' for oil and gas development areas within the Trapper's Point bottleneck. The groups felt the original plan didn't do enough to protect migrating animals...Bear baiting opponents deliver signatures aplenty Opponents of bear baiting have more than enough signatures to put the question of banning the controversial practice before Alaska voters this fall, but pro-hunting groups are mobilizing for a fight they say will be one of the most important in the nation. "The bottom line is that the anti-hunting movement has decided bear hunting is the next target," said Rob Sexton of the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance. Along with a similar ban proposed in Maine, he said, "I expect this will be the biggest issue in 2004." Bear hunters say bait stations are necessary in areas of thick brush, and they note that drawing bears into the open ensures a clean shot on a legal animal. State law requires bait stations stay at least a mile from homes and a quarter-mile from roads or trails and be cleaned up afterward...IG, Ethics Office, clear Interior solicitor of conflict charges An investigation by the Interior Department's inspector general and a review by the Office of Government Ethics show that the former solicitor, William G. Myers III, generally sought to avoid conflicts with groups on whose behalf he had lobbied. "Mr. Myers' actions show a strong intention to comply with his ethics agreement and the rules governing conduct of government employees," wrote Amy L. Comstock, chief of the Office of Government Ethics, in a letter obtained by The Associated Press. "Based on the evidence presented in the report of investigation, we have concluded that Mr. Myers did not violate his ethics agreement with regard to any of the meetings raised" in a complaint by environmental groups, wrote Comstock, who was appointed by President Clinton...Party Leaders Agree Environment Could be Key for Swing Voters in '04 Elections; Environment2004 Called 'Most Interesting' Group Targeting Bush, Allies Records Environmental issues could be the key issue for swing voters in the 2004 Presidential and Congressional elections, according to Democratic and Republican leaders interviewed by Living On Earth, a nationally syndicated radio program that airs 302 National Public Radio stations starting this weekend. Reporters who want to preview the show can view the transcript at http://www.environment2004.org/story.php?id=165 or listen to it online starting at 5 p.m. today by visiting http://www.loe.org. The show suggests that Environment2004, the first Democratic environmental Section 527 organization, could be the most interesting group focusing on environmental issues. Section 527 groups are allowed to collect soft money to fund direct voter contact and issue messaging. Next week the Environment2004 Education Fund is co-sponsoring a major environmental address by former Vice President Al Gore attacking the Bush Administration's policies on global warming and the environment at the historic Beacon Theatre in New York City on Thursday, Jan. 15, at 12 p.m...Rancher objects to rail route When it comes to the preferred route for shipping 77,000 metric tons of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, Warm Springs rancher Joe Fellini lies right in the path. The northern Nye County public lands advocate offered an early indication to Nye County Commissioners meeting here Tuesday that ranchers will put up a stiff fight before allowing the Department of Energy to ship nuclear waste through their grazing lands. Fellini said the federal government is misleading the public in a notice published in the Federal Register Dec. 29, a request to withdraw 308,600 acres of public land. Fellini said he added up 1,002 sections listed in the notice, which, at 640 acres per section, would amount to a much greater land seizure of 641,280 acres. Fellini said the land withdrawal would cut him off from water sources. He told Nye County Commissioners he's unsure what affect it would have on his permitted animal unit months for grazing. Fellini reminded commissioners that ranchers are about the last source of tax base left in the area. The Department of Energy could take a shortcut by building a rail line through the Nellis Air Force Range, the Caliente-Chalk Mountain Corridor, which would be only 214 miles, but U.S. Air Force officials objected, he said...EPA Administrator Promises to Pursue Clinton-Era Pollution Lawsuits The Bush administration's top environmental official promised Friday to prosecute vigorously Clinton-era lawsuits against polluters even as his agency seeks to ease the clean-air standards that produced the litigation. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt said the administration would go forward with eight lawsuits filed against coal-fired plants that are among the nation's main sources of air pollution. He also indicated the administration may file new cases...Brucellosis investigation turns to neighboring elk The investigation into the cause of brucellosis in a western Wyoming cattle herd will soon focus on elk that gather at an adjacent state feedground. ''We have plans to catch as many elk on that feedground as possible and test them for exposure to brucellosis,'' said Terry Kreeger, Game and Fish Department veterinary research services supervisor. The tests could help determine whether the herd was infected by elk...Cowboy built Ford-tough He's got the kind of cool name - to say nothing of the grit, gumption, style and smarts - that befits a someday world champion. And, for the record, the designer genes he brings into the rodeo arena aren't bad, either. Son of a gun, a son of a legend is making his mark. Which is to say that Royce Robert Ford of Kersey, a 22-year-old 6-footer with boyish good looks, the kind of shy smile guaranteed to turn a buckle bunny all dewy inside, and $148,584 in 2003 earnings, is the third-ranked bareback bronco rider in the world. Even more eye-popping is Ford's M.O. for reaching that pinnacle...On The Edge Of Common Sense: Northern bronc riders have time to practice Since 1980, all but two of the World Champion Saddle Bronc riders have come from the Hi-Line; Montana, Alberta, North Dakota or South Dakota. The question is why? Theories abound: Bronky horses do better in blizzards, wind, ice and snow; cowboys who can ride bronky horses do better in blizzards, wind, ice and snow; judges are tougher in blizzards, wind, ice and snow; cowboys whose names end in son, sen, ibbs, or auer do better in blizzards, wind, ice and snow...Artsy to boot Among the boots the museum will feature are a red-and-white pair that belonged to cowboy singer/actor Gene Autrey and a pair of Kilgore Rangerette boots. The oldest pair on display, which are black with a green butterfly, are from 1925 and are an example of how boots looked back then, Nielsen says. There's also a beautiful pair of pink-and-brown boots with multicolored silk embroidery, a shark-skin pair that Justin made for the winner of the annual All-Around Cowboy title and a pair of John Justin Jr.'s TCU boots. "He just wore them to one game and ended up making pairs for every team in the [now defunct] Southwest Conference," Nielsen says. There's also a pair of cowboy-boot roller skates, because "anything you can do, you can do better wearing boots," John Justin Jr. once said...