NEWS ROUNDUP

Cowhands balk at rounding up cattle for Forest Service Several cowhands have balked at rounding up a beleaguered rancher’s cattle from areas of the Gila National Forest, and the U.S. Forest Service is trying to line up a new group to move the herd. The unidentified drovers were approached by Forest Service officials who told them the roundup from Diamond Bar Ranch allotments is legal. However, Diamond Bar ranchers Kit and Sherry Laney say the legality remains in dispute. Courts have ruled against the Laneys, ordering the removal of their cattle. The Forest Service, which has estimated more than 400 cattle are grazing without permits, expects to begin the roundup as soon as it can line up a new contractor to remove the herd. That’s according to Gila Forest range management officer Steve Libby. Laney, reached last night, says nobody from his side will interfere with the roundup—but they’ll document with video and film—and plan to initiate charges against those responsible.... 10 Yellowstone bison sent to slaughter The Park Service corralled 33 bison inside Yellowstone National Park on Saturday, readying them for possible slaughter less than a week after 10 bison were trapped outside the west boundary and killed. The operations are part of an ongoing battle to protect cattle outside the park from brucellosis, a disease to which bison have been exposed. Bison migrating out of the park are rounded up and shipped to slaughterhouses, operations contested by activists with Buffalo Field Campaign.... Column: Invasion of the Kennewick Men After almost eight years of labyrinthine litigation the case of Kennewick Man has ended with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and archaeological science is the winner -- for now. In a February 4 decision, the Ninth upheld the district court ruling stating that since no relationship could be established between modern American Indians and Kennewick Man -- physically, contextually, or otherwise -- he is not a Native American as defined under NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, thus NAGPRA isn't applicable. The Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) therefore applies and the bones can once again be studied by anthropologists. The tribes, who argue that any and all pre-Columbian remains are Native American regardless if the individual's tribe or culture still exists in modern times, are sure to appeal. Kennewick Man is the mostly complete skeleton found in 1996 in Kennewick, Washington, by two college students wading up the Columbia River to watch a series of hydroplane races. Analysis of his size -- he stood about 5 ft. 10 in. in life -- build, skull shape, and other characteristics differentiated him from known Native American populations.... Eureka opposes land sales Eureka County Commissioners are sending a letter to U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., opposing federal land acquisitions in rural northern Nevada under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act. The commissioners voted Friday to send the letter stating that the board "feels strongly that federal land acquisitions in northern Nevada counties, specifically Eureka County, will have a profoundly negative affect on our rural communities.... Property Rights Scorecard Released The League of Private Property Voters (LPPV) today released it's Fifteenth Annual Congressional Vote Index, rating all members based on votes cast in 2003 and naming Champions and Enemies. 35 Champions of Property Rights and 35 Enemies of Property Rights were named in the Senate, and 192 Champions and 165 Enemies were cited in the House. The entire Vote Index can be downloaded at http://www.landrights.org/2003VI1.PDF.... Plan would put forest land under BLM rules A state-sponsored proposal suggests consolidated management of 1.3 million acres of federal forest and range lands in Cassia and Twin Falls counties under the Bureau of Land Management. A public meeting will be held Friday night at the Farm Bureau office in Twin Falls to discuss the plan. Approval would require consent from the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service and Congress. Federal legislation would be needed to shift Sawtooth National Forest lands in the two counties under the BLM's land and resource management rules -- to the extent possible. "You've got intermingled lands administered by the Forest Service and BLM. It seems clear there are ways to be more efficient," said Bob Maynard, an attorney with the law firm Perkins Coie working as a state consultant.... BLM resumes wild horse roundup The Bureau of Land Management has resumed a roundup of wild horses in a remote area 75 miles east of Fallon. Agency officials plan to remove about 100 more of the animals from the Desatoya Herd Management Area, saying current numbers are more than the land can support. The roundup netted about 200 wild horses before it was suspended last July. The BLM sought to wait until cooler weather would force the animals to lower elevations. The agency says the Desatoya area's food and water can only support 127 of the horses.... Yukon Flats proposal has some wary Some public land watchdogs say a federal proposal to hire a tribal group for work on the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge sits on shaky legal ground and sets a poor precedent by giving tribes a stronger hand in refuge operations. The chairman of the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments, though, says other refuge users have little to fear from his organization's participation in the daily tasks on the 8.5-million-acre refuge.... Federal agencies launch biotech Web site The site, found at http://usbiotechreg.nbii.gov./, includes a searchable database of biotech-enhanced crops intended for food or feed that have passed US governmental reviews for food, feed or planting use in the United States. Users can search products by trade name, scientific name, applicant name, and engineered traits such as pest resistance, events or keywords. The site also features information on US laws and regulations applying to biotech-enhanced crops, the respective roles of the several federal agencies in reviewing and approving biotech-enhanced commodities, frequently asked questions, key government contacts, and capacity-building efforts undertaken by the US State Department and other agencies.... Report: Water savings less than hoped in payment effort The federal government says a $1 million project that paid irrigators above Upper Klamath Lake not to water their pastures in 2002 cut water use by only half as much as the project's sponsors estimated. The problem? The estimate didn't take into account how much water that native grasses and other vegetation would take up and allow to evaporate into the atmosphere. The project began in the spring of 2002 and was one of the Bush administration's first efforts to find solutions to the struggle that had resulted in a water cutoff and national publicity in the Klamath Basin the year before.... Ranch's virulent bird flu puts Gonzales on guard One chicken ranch has been devastated and others may be in jeopardy from a contagious strain of bird flu that chose Gonzales County to make its first U.S. appearance in 20 years, officials said Monday. Blood samples were being taken from chickens within a 10-mile radius of an unidentified ranch where more than 6,600 chickens were destroyed last week due to contamination from the H5N2 virus that causes the disease. Also under quarantine are two live-bird markets in Houston that handled poultry from the now-padlocked ranch.... Engineered DNA Found in Crop Seeds Much of the U.S. supply of ordinary crop seeds has become contaminated with strands of engineered DNA, suggesting that current methods for segregating gene-altered seed plants from traditional varieties are failing, according to a pilot study released yesterday. More than two-thirds of 36 conventional corn, soy and canola seed batches contained traces of DNA from genetically engineered crop varieties in lab tests commissioned by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based advocacy group. The actual amount of foreign DNA present in U.S. seeds appears to be small, and most engineered genes getting into the seed supply are among those that regulators have deemed safe for consumption, the report acknowledges.... United States to reopen comment period on beef ban: B.C. agriculture minister The United States will likely announce soon it plans receive public submissions on reopening the border to live cattle shipments from Canada, B.C.'s agriculture minister said Monday. John van Dongen, who joined officials from Ottawa and six other provinces for meetings with U.S. officials and industry groups, said the period for public comment will probably last 15 to 30 days....Glacier County sheriff, deputy arrested A county sheriff in Montana and one of his deputies were charged Monday with defrauding a federal emergency feed program for ranchers on American Indian reservations. A grand jury indicted both men on charges of conspiracy and fraud, accusing them of forging or altering receipts that were submitted to the American Indian Livestock Feed Program. The program, administered by the federal Farm Service Agency, provides financial assistance to ranchers on reservations who are affected by natural disasters that cut into their livestock feed. If they have to buy feed, they can submit claims through the tribe to be reimbursed for the purchases.... It's All Trew: Giveaways always a powerful gimmick Every facet of living today had a start somewhere in the past. Some of the greatest changes are shown in modern-day advertising. Gimmicks, gimmies and freebies are still the best way to attract customers to your business. How about in the old days? The earliest advertising gimmick I know of here in the West came in the form of hard-rock candy contained in a wooden case of Arbuckles Coffee. Ranch and chuck wagon cooks held sway over other employees using the candy as favors in exchange for a little help during meal or gathering fire wood. Since toilet paper was considered too expensive for use on roundups and trail drives, the empty paper sacks holding two pounds of coffee were also passed out by the cook as gifts....