NEWS ROUNDUP

A Growing Friendship: Environmentalism and OHV Driving Off-highway driving and environmentalism don't always seem like the best of friends. In fact, the New York Times recently called the sport one of the most politically volatile land-use issues in the country. But the nonprofit organization Tread Lightly!® has developed a new training program called Tread Trainer™ that hopes to help maintain a vital friendship between environmental ethics and outdoor play. Initiated in March of 2003, Tread Trainer is a national, volunteer-based program that seeks to train people all over the country to become "Master Tread Trainers," or official representatives of Tread Lightly! Master Tread Trainers are trained in the principles of minimizing environmental impact and presentation skills. They then teach others to become "Tread Trainers"- thereby creating a growing network of volunteers prepared to reach millions of recreationists within a few years.... Forest Service, rancher reach agreement U.S. Forest Service has agreed on electric fencing to isolate a new trail created from the old Harrison Pass Road as part of a cooperative agreement that may be blazing a new trail of its own. "It's definitely a good deal," rancher Fred Zaga of Jiggs said Friday. Without the agreement that calls for fencing off the reclaimed old roadway, trail and Toyn Creek in the Ruby Mountains, Zaga said he wouldn't have been able to graze cattle in the area for two years. The agreement also calls for the Forest Service to provide watering troughs and Zaga to install them, as well as for permanent fencing on a small portion of rancher Tony Zunino's grazing allotment, according to Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko.... Black Hills trees dying from combination of factors Several thousand acres of trees in a portion of the Black Hills National Forest are dying from what experts suspect is a combination of hail damage, fungus and drought. Forest Service spokesman Frank Carroll of Custer said the die-off also is another sign of an unhealthy forest. "When hail damages trees, it allows fungus to invade," Carroll said. "If the trees are nice and healthy with lots of water and so forth, they're effective in fighting it off. If they're too dry, they're not.".... Tonto fees make unhappy campers Since 1997, the federal government has tried to supplement public-lands budgets by collecting fees at various sites, such as the Tonto National Forest, which is accessed through the Peralta Trailhead, east of Apache Junction. But the Tonto Forest is the only public-lands agency in the nation to hand off enforcement to a private company. And that has changed the dynamics of what happens when people either forget or, like Merlino, refuse to pay the fee.... Platte River plans could hurt Wyoming A plan to expand storage capacity of Pathfinder Reservoir to benefit threatened species in Nebraska could cost upstream irrigators in southern Wyoming, a state legislator and water rights expert said.... Feds' plan champions South Platte New dams and most other development would be permanently banned along a spectacular stretch of the South Platte River and its North Fork under a management plan released late last month by the U.S. Forest Service. The agency simultaneously announced it would abandon for now the idea of protecting the canyon-cutting river under a Wild and Scenic designation, but would work within existing forest regulations to preserve the river's character.... Protecting springs at root of furor over landing No one disputes the importance of Wood's Landing to the last vestige of Columbia River chum salmon. The spring-fed shoreline east of the Interstate 205 Bridge is one of only three major spawning sites that remain for the threatened fish, and it is by far the largest spawning ground between Beacon Rock and the Grays River across from Astoria, Ore. -- a distance of 120 river miles. A major reason for this, fishery biologists say, is the springs. Bill Maitland paid $1 million three years ago for a 4 1/2-acre piece of property near the springs, with the understanding that the site was zoned for residential development on 10,000-square-foot lots.... BLM, Public Lands Council Sign Agreement to Promote Cooperative Monitoring of Rangeland Conditions The Bureau of Land Management and Public Lands Council today signed an agreement that will promote cooperative monitoring of public rangeland conditions. The purpose of the agreement is to help stabilize grazing on BLM-managed lands and help achieve desired conditions on public rangelands in the years to come.... Retirees in the Rockies Worry on Drilling The plan has run into unusually broad opposition in western Colorado, from relatively new arrivals like the Andersons to veteran landowners who remember when the region's oil shale industry went bust in 1982. Even commissioners in revenue-starved rural counties say energy companies are running roughshod over local rights. Many here support multiple-use for the West's sprawling public lands, including responsible energy development. But they worry that this new boom threatens not only the environment but the outdoors-based economy that has replaced the oil-and-gas backbone of the 1970s and '80s.... Biologist chronicles history of waterfowl hunting Harold Duebbert does not stop at loving history. He lives it. He still hunts ducks out of a boat he made 40 years ago. He shoots a 1912 L.C. Smith Model 12 shotgun. The decoys over which he shoots ducks were carved by his own hands. He prefers old-style tan waterfowl hunting jackets and caps to the modern computer-generated camouflage prints. The bookshelves in Duebbert's home are lined with vintage volumes that date back a century or more. That zeal was the engine behind Duebbert's most recent acknowledgment to the way things used to be, a book titled "Wildfowling in Dakota: 1873-1903.".... Suspended Park Police Chief Continues Her Fight In the latest missive to cross her “Honest Chief” Web site, suspended U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers notes the rallying to her cause of a new group of attorneys from the Government Accountability Project (GAP), who have filed a brief with officials. “It provides startling information about a Federal law which prohibits paying a salary to any Federal employee who attempts to inhibit another employee's communication with Congress or attempts to discipline an employee for having done so,” points out Chambers, who remains in an administrative limbo following her controversial suspension two months ago.... Canyon visitation rebounds After three years in a slump, visitation to Grand Canyon National Park is on the rebound. Figures for 2003 released by the National Park Service show a jump of nearly 3 percent to 4.46 million visitors, the first yearly rise since 1999.... Column: Debate revs up snowmobilers Snowmobiles in West Yellowstone belly up to storefronts like cowboys' mounts at the hitching posts of old, giving this community of 1,100 on the border of Yellowstone National Park an aura like no other. The self-proclaimed "snowmobile capital of the world" for decades has been a place where winter vacationers come to rent motorized sleds for forays into the surrounding national forests and the treasured park, whose west gate sits at the edge of town. Now politics is putting the brakes on.... Carrying on Pony Express tradition As president of the National Pony Express Association’s Nevada Division, McPherson has become a leader in the drive to create more exposure for the brief but legendary mail service and to help ensure the historic trail is preserved.... Editorial: Divide and conquer Most Utahns would be forgiven if they did not know there was such a thing as a state Constitutional Defense Council. Fewer will see any reason to change the way it operates. The council is a conclave of the governor, attorney general, Senate president and minority leader, House speaker and minority leader, two citizens appointed by the governor and four representatives of county governments selected by the Utah Association of Counties. Its job is to evaluate federal laws and regulations that might place an undue burden on the state, its localities or its people and recommend whether and where to challenge them.... Ranchers eat up range monitoring talk “We’re not talking about the Columbus Theory here,” he said with a grin, regarding cattle grazing. “You know, turn ’em out in the spring, and re-discover them in the fall.” Canterbury doesn’t fit the stereotype of an environmentalist monitoring rangeland flora. But he couldn’t be more passionate about Land EKG, a Bozeman, Mont.-based land and habitat management company. Record-keeping can be as basic as a pencil and notebook or cutting-edge techno. Canterbury showed the audience a long rod marked off at two-inch increments he uses to measure plant height when on horseback. He also passed out forms he uses to graph such indicators as how quickly vegetation grows, and how far plants are spaced apart. On the other end, he teaches ranchers to use Palm Pilots to record their findings in the field.... Push to create wilderness areas stirs debate Environmental groups are pushing Congress to designate nearly 11 million acres of Oregon land as wilderness, off limits to roads, development, recreation and logging. In a state that already has 2.27 million acres of designated wilderness, that would be about a six-fold increase.... Army lax on site cleanup The Army, tired of such horror stories of discovering unexploded or forgotten ordnance nationwide, in 1999 issued directives designed to force current and former ranges to better track their cleanup efforts, better record ordnance use, improve security, reduce environmental damage and improve sustainability of ranges. But inspectors now say those directives were never implemented, according to documents obtained by the Deseret Morning News through a Freedom of Information Act request.... Bush's budget reduces spending on environment, boosts military President Bush will send Congress a $2.39 trillion budget today that cuts environment, agriculture, and energy programs while giving large increases for military and homeland security spending, administration and congressional officials said. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department will be squeezed as Bush reduces his request for spending on the environment and natural resources from $32.2 billion last year to $30.3 billion this year. But a senior administration official said no cuts would be made in the EPA's enforcement budget.... Bush Moves to Defuse Environmental Criticism The Bush administration is moving to defuse some of the severest criticisms of its environmental policies, just as several Democratic presidential candidates are taking aim at its record. Polls reflect public unease with President Bush's handling of the environment, and some Democrats see an opening in this year's congressional and presidential elections -- even if history shows that the subject rarely ranks among voters' top concerns.... Western primary eyed for '08 After declaring the New Mexico caucus "a huge success" in highlighting the West, Gov. Bill Richardson said Sunday that he plans to push for a Western regional primary in four years to increase the political clout of the Rocky Mountains states.... Two cities may douse new fireplaces To some, the smell of real wood crackling in a traditional toasty warm hearth is one of those things that make a house a home. To others, including Hayward and San Leandro city officials, that fireplace or wood-burning stove is also a source of pollutants harmful to human health. Both the Hayward and San Leandro city councils could give up the former to deal with the latter through ordinances they're considering this week that would prohibit the installation of wood-burning fireplaces and stoves in new homes, and replacement in existing homes.... State wants plan to reduce ozone Weld County oil and gas producers may soon wind up pumping tens of millions of dollars into pollution-control equipment to reduce ozone. That's because state health officials think the county's 12,000 wells are burping out tons of ozone that drifts south and pushes Denver-area counties past federal air-quality standards. So state health officials want Weld oil and gas producers to come up with a way to reduce ozone emissions by 40 percent to 60 percent.... NCBA favors voluntary meat-labeling program For Jim McAdams of Adkins, Texas, the two-year delay in implementing country-of-origin labeling (COOL) couldn't have come at a better time. "We are grateful for the delay because what we are going to try to do in that time frame is to develop and implement a volunteer country-of-origin labeling program," McAdams said. McAdams was one of 5,000 cattle producers and industry officials attending the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) annual convention and trade show last week in Phoenix.... The big sale: Payoff at cattle auction spurs ranch life The drive down from Susanville is long — nearly 400 miles. But brothers Randy and Matt Harkness of the 7-H Ranch were drawn to the 101 Livestock Market by the promise of a good price for their 209 head of cattle, even though beef prices had fallen drastically less than a month earlier after a bovine infected with mad cow disease was discovered in the nation’s food supply. The Harknesses had hoped for $1 a pound and needed at least 85 cents to break-even. They ended up getting an average of $1.03 per pound....