NEWS ROUNDUP

Agents allege timber theft cover-up Near the end of the Northwest's logging boom, current and past federal officers say, timber companies stole thousands of public trees possibly worth millions of dollars -- with the help of the U.S. Forest Service. Those are the claims that unfolded this week in a cavernous but nearly empty Portland courtroom. If true, and the Forest Service insists they are not, they would outline some of the most sensational forest crimes no one has ever been prosecuted for. A hearing now winding down centers instead on five current and former Forest Service enforcement officers who say their own agency undercut their work to bring the nation's biggest timber thieves to justice....Court ruling leaves 6 million salmon fry in limbo Six million salmon fry swim now in a kind of limbo at the Trail Lakes Hatchery in Moose Pass since the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals banned their release into Tustumena Lake. The fry represent a potential return of 100,000 salmon, averaging four pounds apiece, if eventually released to grow in the wild. The ruling last month, in a lawsuit filed in 1998 by The Wilderness Society and the Alaska Center for the Environment, overturned lower court decisions that had upheld the program run by Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association, which has stocked the lake with juvenile salmon since 1997. The plaintiffs had argued that the stocking program, started in 1993 by the aquaculture organization under a contract with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, violated provisions of the 1964 Wilderness Act.... Wild horse advocates protest BLM's latest roundup in Nevada A small group of wild horse advocates protested the Bureau of Land Management's latest roundup of the animals in Nevada. Advocates held placards Friday in Silver Springs to protest the agency's plans to reduce a 261-horse herd south of Lahontan Reservoir to no more than 15 animals. The helicopter-guided roundup that began Thursday was expected to last five to seven days. About 150 horses had been captured by Friday night in the desert 45 miles east of Carson City.... Battle plan readied for Mormon crickets Armed with a substantial budget this time around, Nevada agriculture officials are preparing a battle plan against hordes of Mormon crickets expected to march across much of Northern Nevada this summer. On Tuesday, a string of public hearings begins to brief citizens on plans to poison the insects that covered some 6 million acres of Nevada last year — possibly the biggest such bug invasion since World War II.... Scruples never bothered a railroad baron wannabe By the time Ben Holladay, pockets bulging with fresh cash, blew into Portland, he'd already fashioned himself as one of the West's most freewheeling tycoons. His goal was to further boost his fortunes in railroading. In the process he carefully made enemies of Portland's business barons, prostituted the state's politicians, offered a comprehensive course in how not to run a railroad and in general conducted himself like the ruthless manipulator he was. Born in 1819 in Kentucky, where his father guided wagon trains through the Cumberland Gap, Holladay started in the freight business in Weston, Mo., sold supplies to the Army during the 1846-48 Mexican war and rapidly broadened his horizons.... Sierra Club under siege? Yes But recent events now threaten to divert the Sierra Club from its mission. In early January, 13 past presidents of the club wrote to its current board of directors to express "extreme concern for the continuing viability of the club." They warned of an "organized effort" to take over the board of the Sierra Club in order to move personal agendas "and to use the funds and other resources of the club to those ends." Those agendas are narrow, focusing on animal rights and anti-immigration policies. In a speech to the 2003 Animal Rights Conference in Los Angeles, newly elected Sierra Club board member Paul Watson boasted: "We're only three directors away from controlling that board. We control one-third of it right now. And once we get three more directors elected ... we can use the resources of the $95 million-a-year budget to address some of these issues. ... So, you know, a few hundred or a few thousand people from the animal- rights movement joining the Sierra Club - and making it a point to vote - will change the entire agenda of that organization.".... Column, GOP: Defend the land Over the holidays, the Bush administration issued a guideline reintroducing commercial logging into roadless areas of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Like many Republicans, I read this news with resignation. While not exactly the coming of the apocalypse, it does appear to be yet another disappointing example of the GOP coming out on the wrong side of an important and mainstream environmental issue. Having worked on the front lines of Colorado's environmental politics as head of Great Outdoors Colorado, I have been surprised at how far the party has shifted from its conservation and environmental roots. At what point did support for clean water, abundant open spaces and wildlife habitat and sensible land-use planning become a threat to the GOP's defining political philosophy?.... Drought gives rise to livestock diseases Discovering a field of dead cattle is an agriculturist’s worst nightmare. Cattle are an agriculturist’s life, their heritage, and the way they support themselves and their family. Though losing cattle is something ranchers must deal with each year, recently the loss in cattle to disease has been overwhelming. However, the diseases contracted by the cattle are not carried by insects. They’re carried by rangeland vegetation that cattle are being forced to eat because there was not a sufficient amount of “normal” vegetation on grazing pastures for cattle to eat.... Richardson Orders Protection of Otero Mesa Gov. Bill Richardson signed an executive order Saturday throwing the weight of state government against a federal oil and gas drilling plan for environmentally sensitive Otero Mesa. "Today I am taking significant action to protect Otero Mesa in language that the Department of the Interior and the Bush administration cannot confuse or misunderstand," Richardson said at an Otero Mesa Forum in a downtown theater. Joanna Prukop, head of the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, said her agency, the Environment Department and the Game and Fish Department plan to file a formal protest by Feb. 9 against BLM plans to open some 100,000 acres to oil and gas development.... Water Fight Brewing in Southern Colorado Pressure over water use in the drought-plagued San Luis Valley is building and could erupt in the kind of legal battles seen along the South Platte River. Several years of drought have dropped water levels underneath the south-central Colorado valley and worsened tension between farmers and ranchers with senior water rights and those with newer claims.... Nation's cattle herd liquidation longest on record With lingering drought shriveling pastures throughout much of the western United States, the nation's cattlemen last year liquidated more of their cattle herds and sheep flocks. Figures released Friday by the National Agricultural Statistics Service show the longest cattle cycle liquidation in history, said Duane Hund, a farm analyst with Kansas State University....The race to trace food disease The Department of Agriculture is accelerating a program that will allow investigators to trace a cow back to its birthplace within 48 hours, part of its response to the discovery of a Holstein infected with mad cow disease. But the private sector and many foreign governments already are far ahead of those efforts. Spurred by fears of food-borne illnesses and demands from customers to know what is in their food, more companies are developing sophisticated and speedy trace-back systems for everything from hamburgers to pickles. Europe and Japan have passed trace-back laws that require tracking systems for meat and other types of food....