NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest Service officials detail proposed Canada lynx rules A seldom-seen forest cat known for its tufted ears and large paws that work like snowshoes for hunting winter prey is getting more attention lately in the northern Rocky Mountains. Forest Service officials are in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming towns this month to explain proposed new conservation rules for Canada lynx, listed as a threatened species in 2000. Last month, federal land managers rolled out a draft Environmental Impact Statement that says what measures might be taken to conserve and protect lynx and their habitat: some 18.5 million acres of public lands, including portions of the Bitterroot National Forest.... Grizzly study spawned controversial road policy When Rick Mace started following grizzly bear movements and monitoring traffic on roads in the South Fork of the Flathead, he had scant reason to suspect his research would fuel the most controversial policy on the Flathead National Forest. The influence of roads on bears, after all, was the study's fifth priority. But that changed quickly, even before the study was finished.... Species Protection Threatened By Water-Rights Ruling An effort to save two rare fish in California's Central Valley more than a decade ago now could jeopardize the federal government's ability to protect threatened or endangered species. In December, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., awarded $26 million to a group of California farmers for the early 1990s water diversion, ruling that the farmers were entitled to compensation for the water they lost. If the judgment survives expected legal challenges, the government could find itself forced to pay millions more for efforts to protect endangered fish. That would have implications across the West, where the federal government often clashes with property owners in attempts to save species on the brink of extinction. Along the California-Oregon border, for example, a similar court case could leave the government with a $100 million bill for water diverted from farmers in 2001 for species protection.... ID tags proposed for OHVs A bill that would require off-highway vehicle (OHV) users to affix identification numbers to their machines was passed out of the Senate Transportation and Public Utilities and Technology Standing Committee on Friday. Sen. Thomas Hatch, R-Panguitch, sponsor of Senate Bill 166, says his bill is a response to the growing toll that off-road vehicle violators are taking on the back country. Providing "an easily identifiable way" to track down such offenders should act as a deterrent, he told committee members.... Grouse vanishing as tide ebbs on ‘sagebrush sea’: Restrictions could be placed on grazing, hunting and farming The sagebrush of the American West is finally commanding respect. Long derided, degraded, dug up and burned, the fate of the native plant that once spread across 155 million acres has prompted a stepped-up conservation effort from Owyhee County to the Bush administration. Twenty-one environmental groups filed a petition in December calling to list sage grouse as an endangered species. That action has accelerated efforts to preserve sagebrush ecosystems on which the birds depend across 11 Western states and Canada.... Forest Service critics say not all forest fires need to be extinguished But the real problem, said Andy Stahl, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, was not addressed in the investigation: The Forest Service fights too many fires. ‘‘Why did they choose to fight that fire in the first place?'' he asked. ‘‘It was in the middle of a roadless area next to a wilderness area. There were no homes or communities that stood to be harmed. Fire was the best thing that could have happened to the ecology.''.... The bear market As interest in exploring and living in wilder parts of the West grows, so does the potential for conflict between people and bears. That hasn't been lost on entrepreneurs such as Pride Johnson, who sees profit in bear deterrence. "Bears. That's our livelihood," said Johnson, president of Counter Assault, a Kalispell, Mont.-based company that specializes in bear products, including industrial-size pepper spray canisters with a 30-foot range and a new line of backpack-size, bear-resistant food containers.... County, agriculture board discuss possible wolf policiesCounty commissioners sought a local farming and ranching board's recommendation on wolves, and last week were told ag producers ought to be able to handle any attacks on livestock like they can domestic dogs under Montana law, with lethal defense. Ravalli County Commissioners, prompted by an e-mail last month from a Pray man asking Montana's 56 counties to adopt tough stances toward gray wolves managed by the federal government, including declaring the federally protected species predators, asked the county's Right to Farm and Ranch Board for input. Meeting with commissioners Thursday, board members said "local control is crucial to the protection of livestock." One Montana law cited by the board essentially says domestic dogs that harass, destroy or injure livestock may be killed immediately by the livestock owner, his agent or employee.... Delegation urges feds to be flexible on wolves Wyoming’s congressional delegation wants federal officials to work with the state on its plan to manage wolves. Sens. Craig Thomas and Mike Enzi met Thursday with Steve Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who is expected to discuss the issue with state lawmakers next week in Cheyenne. Enzi said it could be possible to adjust the plan’s wording without changing the spirit of it. “Wyoming took an honest and forthright approach by calling the wolf a predator in its plan,” he said. “Montana, however, chose to avoid this classification in its plan, but I believe in practice it allows wolves to be managed as predators.”.... BNSF applies for grizzly bear ‘take’ permit Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is applying for an “incidental take permit” under the Endangered Species Act to legalize the grizzly bear deaths its trains cause along the southern edge of Glacier National Park.... Parks officials, activists look at limiting visitors to Yosemite The National Park Service, environmentalists, visitors and businesses around Yosemite have discussed aspects of this question for decades without much resolution. A federal appeals court told the Park Service the time has come to answer. Last fall, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Yosemite officials must figure out how many people can use the Merced River, part of which runs through the heart of Yosemite Valley. Park planners must come up with a "carrying capacity" for visitors at the Merced. The capacity may involve the 7-square-mile valley as well, since the river is the central feature in this glacial valley.... Park studies ways to trim elk numbers Releasing wolves and allowing hunting were two of the suggestions from more than 1,100 people and organizations on managing the growing number of elk in Rocky Mountain National Park. Park managers are developing a plan to reduce the size of the herd, which biologists say is too large. Between 3,000 and 4,000 elk migrate in and out of the park. About 90 percent of the comments agreed that the herd needs to be controlled.... Nevada panel votes to pursue lawsuit over wild horse program Nevada's Wildlife Commission has voted to recommend filing a lawsuit accusing the Bureau of Land Management of mismanaging the state's 18,000 wild horses and burros. The nine-member commission on Friday voted unanimously to request the state Attorney General's office file a lawsuit that claims failures with the BLM's program have led to the degradation of Nevada's ranges.... BLM voids Robbins' grazing deal The Bureau of Land Management has voided a controversial settlement agreement with Thermopolis-area rancher Harvey Frank Robbins Jr., after Robbins was cited for willful trespass of cattle, officials and attorneys involved in the dispute say. Conservationists lauded the move, Robbins' attorney criticized it and filed a lawsuit, and BLM officials said they still hope to work with Robbins in the future. Robbins' attorney, Karen Budd-Falen of Cheyenne, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court on Friday afternoon seeking a preliminary and/or permanent injunction preventing the BLM from voiding the settlement agreement.... Mining company buys ranch in monument, hopes for exchange The U.S. Bureau of Land Management hasn’t decided whether to move forward with a study of a land exchange that would allow the agency to acquire the 200-acre Horseshoe Ranch in the heart of the Agua Fria National Monument in southeastern Yavapai County. Red Mountain Mining Inc. of Mesa closed escrow this month on the Horseshoe Ranch with hopes of trading it for a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) parcel in Mesa. Red Mountain made a down payment of $1.5 million toward the $3.5 million ranch sale price.... Column: Proposed legislation ignores the basics Perhaps the most egregious aspect of the bill for the West is the way it needlessly subsidizes already-developed and profitable technologies, especially coalbed methane, at the expense of our environment. The bill would authorize a long industry wish list of "reforms" to our federal land management regulations in the name of "streamlining" access to federal lands and removing "impediments" in environmental laws. Here is just one of many examples: Sections 327 and 328 exempt drilling for energy minerals from important provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act, allowing, among other things, companies to inject diesel fuel into aquifers without regulation.... Off-roading gets official push On Saturday, he urged California to make more public lands available for a tidal wave of interest in his sport. About 500,000 off-road enthusiasts crowded the deserts in Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern and Imperial counties over the last Thanksgiving weekend, giving a portent of the swelling interest, according to Waldheim, commissioner of the state Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Division of the state Department of Recreation. "California recreation agencies never saw so many people," said Waldheim, a Glendale resident. "They were riding motorcycles, riding rails, riding Jeeps.".... White House reviews how agencies get their facts So it's no surprise that a proposed overhaul of the way the government handles the scientific information used to support its vast net of regulations has raised a storm of controversy and sharp divisions among scientists, professors, bureaucrats, environmental and public health groups and industry organizations. The proposal, by the Office of Management and Budget, seeks to change the peer review process, which is the way scientific studies are reviewed by independent experts and given the seal of approval. It would give OMB officials the power to apply standard rules throughout government, whereas every agency now seems to conduct peer review its own way.... Editorial: Federal inaction leaves states to scramble on environment New studies show mercury that falls into water can build up in fish, creating a health hazard for people who eat them. But the federal government has failed to adopt tough curbs. So last week, five Great Lakes states announced a joint effort to reduce toxic mercury pollution spewed by coal-burning power plants in the region. The Great Lakes campaign is the latest example of states setting their own environmental standards — from conserving electricity to combating air pollution — in response to years of inaction by Washington. The trend has accelerated recently as the Bush administration has rolled back air, water and other environmental regulations it says hurt businesses and cost jobs. Federal officials contend that environmental decisions often are best left to states, to be based on their own interests.... Land deal would smooth way for transfer of water The Imperial Irrigation District has agreed to spend $77.29 million to buy nearly 42,000 acres of farmland in the Imperial Valley from U.S. Filter Corp., a deal that will give the district far more control over an historic plan to transfer 30 million acre-feet of water from agricultural to urban uses over the next 75 years. The purchase of Western Farms was approved Thursday by the district's board of directors. The deal will make it the largest landholder in the county. It also signals the end of a 15-year attempt by private interests to get control of significant water rights in the Imperial Valley and profit from them.... Beckwourth Trail area may be sold When history buff David Hollecker points to the last endangered remnant of the Beckwourth Trail in Golden Valley, images of the early pioneers spring to life. In 1851, the first wagon trains on the Beckwourth Trail to California left the green grass and the clear water of the Truckee Meadows. They climbed north on a rocky road, now U.S. 395, to the next watering hole north at the base of Peavine Peak. According to one immigrant’s account in 1852, his steers had eaten so much grass they even looked bigger. As published in California newspapers, Mr. Fairchild wrote the grass has “sweld them out so I fear the skin will split if we don’t drive on.”.... Judge orders rancher's body exhumed A judge has ordered a South Texas rancher's body exhumed in a lawsuit to determine paternity and a related claim to the 400,000-acre ranch. The remains of John G. Kenedy Jr., scion of one of the region's most fabled and wealthy pioneer families, must be exhumed by Feb. 28, according to State District Judge Guy Herman in Austin. The order came in a lawsuit filed by Dr. Ray Fernandez, now the Nueces County medical examiner, and his mother, Ann Fernandez, claiming that the man in the grave was her father. Kenedy had no known heirs when he died in 1948 and was believed to be sterile. His childless sister, Sarita Kenedy East, died 13 years later, apparently ending the family line, and triggering a legal free-for-all over the enormous estate.... South Texan rattles skeletons in a famous closet In a book about the Kenedys, "If You Love Me, You Will Do My Will," by Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth, he is cast as a hard-drinking roughhousing rascal who once, while an undergraduate, ventured to the land of the Mormons after hearing accounts of polygamy. "Mistaking a religious-based practice for promiscuity, he and a pal took a train out to Salt Lake City to sample this imagined lotus land of unfettered carnality," and his father had to send private detectives to bring him back, Michaud and Aynesworth wrote. Another account featured the young Kenedy in Washington, where he and his inebriated buddies shot out street lamps around Capitol Hill with hunting rifles.... The ultimate cold-case file It's a classic Old West showdown, a ruckus involving righteous sheriffs and brazen outlaws, but with a modern-day twist: The weapons are not six-shooters but DNA samples. Billy the Kid is being raised from the dead, figuratively and maybe even literally. A group of lawmen in New Mexico, with the support of the governor, is seeking to exhume long-buried bodies to resolve a running dispute over Billy the Kid, the young-gun outlaw who, most historians and countless books, movies and songs agree, was shot dead here in 1881 by Sheriff Pat Garrett. Or was he? "There is reasonable doubt," says Tom Sullivan, who holds Garrett's old job as sheriff of Lincoln County. "We'd just like to know the truth.".... Brazile ties down first title in Fort Worth Sunday was a special day for Trevor Brazile, the reigning world all-around champion cowboy. It was a day when the Decatur cowboy came back to Will Rogers Coliseum and won his first tie-down roping championship at the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show Rodeo, where he spent a lot of time in his youth. Brazile, who grew up in nearby Krum, said he remembered skipping school and coming to watch the ropers during slack. "I always wanted to be here and win it," he said. "And now it happened."....