NEWS ROUNDUP


Report Released on Effects of 2003 Wildfires on Endangered Species The Center for Biological Diversity ("Center") released a report Tuesday analyzing the potential regional effects of the October 2003 southern California wildfires on four species listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. The coastal California gnatcatcher, least Bell's vireo, Quino checkerspot butterfly, and southern California mountain yellow-legged frog have U. S. ranges restricted to southwestern California, and their habitats were all impacted by the recent fires. The report also calls for federal, state, and local agencies to conduct supplemental environmental review of projects that may impact these species because baseline conditions have changed as a result of the fires....Go here (pdf)to view the report..... Column: Shouldwe take chances with fire? Hundreds of thousands of acres of timber have been destroyed by terrible, destructive fires over the past few years. These fires destroyed homes, animals and everything in the inferno’s path, leaving fear in the hearts of those who live anywhere near a burn area. There are reports these high temperature fires leave the soil sterile. When an area is logged, new trees can be planted, but following these fires nothing will grow for years on sterile soil. For years the forests have been neglected, so any fire that starts will be a hot one because of the buildup. For years the environmentalists have prevented thinning and multiuse of the land areas. They have closed roads so once a fire starts, fire equipment cannot get to the fire to keep it under control.... Forest Service approves Keystone addition The U.S. Forest Service has OK'd the addition of 577 acres to the Keystone Resort in Summit County, paving the way for snowcat tours. The approval puts the ski areas known as Erickson Bowl and Little Bowl inside the resort's boundaries, allowing them to be destinations for the new tours. The tours will be run by Keystone Adventure tours and begin in the next few weeks.... DeFazio: Forest law spending is 'funny money' Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said the administration's claim to spend $760 million to fully fund the so-called healthy forests law was misleading. "It's funny money. They are not delivering on their promise here," DeFazio said. He and other critics accused the administration of combining several unrelated Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management accounts to come up with the $760 million figure. "They are adding things up that are already underfunded until they get to the number 760 and say, 'We told you,' " DeFazio said. But Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., called the proposal a good start.... House panel to study study timber job losses Timber sales on federal lands declined dramatically in the last decade. During the 1960's, 70's and 80's Forest Service timber sales were roughly 11 billion board feet (BBF) a year. Today, the number has dropped to approximately 2 BBF a year, an 82 percent reduction in timber harvests. During the 1980's, 22,000 good timber jobs in the Pacific Northwest vanished because of sensational campaigns led by environmentalists to malign the industry as the killer of spotted owls. However, scientists now confirm that the plight of the owl is due to a more persistent foe - natural selection - and the barred owl. Nonetheless, foresters have seen a healthy, sustainable industry all but disappear. The forest industry has been criticized unjustly by radical environmentalists, who aided the large scale export of jobs overseas where lumber is cheap and, ironically, environmental standards are few. As a result, over 900 mills, pulp and paper plants, and other forest products plants have closed since 1990 and at least 130,000 jobs have been lost since mid-1990.... Risk doesn't deter growth in fire-prone areas Population in the eight Rocky Mountain states — Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona — jumped 42% since 1990, the Census Bureau says. Market researcher Claritas Inc. estimates the region will grow 10% more by 2008. Those numbers don't tell the whole story. In some states, almost everybody lives on land with fire potential. While only 2% of New Mexico's land lies in such areas, 80% of the houses do, according to Forest Service data. Wyoming has the same pattern. In other Western states, including California, Washington and Oregon, 40% to 55% of houses are in such areas. Aggravating the threat: a century of government policy bent on fighting almost every Western fire, leaving wildlands overgrown and ripe for catastrophic burns.... Administration budget makes unexpected change for BPA President Bush's budget on Monday proposed new restrictions on the Bonneville Power Administration's ability to use long-term, private-sector loans to build transmission lines and finance other major projects. The proposal ran into immediate objections. Opponents said the proposal could jeopardize the agency's plans to guard against blackouts by upgrading the Northwest power grid and seemed to contradict past administration guidance that the BPA turn to private loans rather than the U.S. Treasury.... State may sue feds over wolves State attorneys are preparing to go to court to appeal the U.S. Department of Interior's recent rejection of Wyoming's wolf management plan, Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Tuesday. At the same time, state officials have filed a federal Freedom of Information Act request for all U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service documents related to several aspects of gray wolf reintroduction and management. Freudenthal also plans to write Interior Secretary Gale Norton an outline of the past year's events in which, Freudenthal claims, the federal government changed its initial position supporting the state's wolf management law. Plus, he said, the Interior Department's scientific review of the state's wolf management plan passed muster with 10 of the 11 federally appointed biologists who studied it, yet the agency still decided to reject the state plan.... California groups sue to strip coastal bird of protected status The city of Morro Bay and a Santa Barbara County citizens group filed suit Tuesday to remove the western snowy plover from the federal list of threatened species, arguing that the decision to protect the coastal bird is based on "junk science." The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, seeks to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to respond to petitions to strip the snowy plover of its protected status and end restrictions on beaches where it breeds. The plaintiffs say the federal protections are keeping people off Central California beaches and hurting coastal communities that rely on business from beach-going tourists.... Column: Putting common sense in the Endangered Species Act Since the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, most Americans have come to identify themselves as environmentalists. Unfortunately, over the years a small faction of the movement has drifted further and further away from the original goals of environmentalism. These pseudo-environmentalists now pursue an agenda that has less to do with conserving resources, reducing pollution and protecting wildlife than with attacking business and opposing certain products and technologies. Ironically, their efforts are often inimical to the protection of the environment — and to common sense, as well.... Sierra Club Opposes William Myers's Nominiation to the Ninth Circuit The Sierra Club joined with a broad coalition including the National Congress of American Indians, the Alliance for Justice, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and other environmental groups to support a fair and balanced court system that will protect the rights and safety of all Americans. Expressing concern about his anti-environmental record, the Sierra Club has announced its opposition to William Myers, President Bush's latest nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. "The Bush administration is pushing lifetime appointments for judges who are out of step with most Americans, threatening to unravel environmental protections. William Myers is the most extreme example," said David Bookbinder, Sierra Club's Washington Legal Director. "Myers's anti-environmental views and avowed hostility to environmental protections make him unfit to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a court that handles an exceptionally large number of environmental cases.".... Biologists find cows make good company with some rare critters Fairy shrimp, the rare tiger salamander, the solitary bee - rare critters that live in seasonal rainwater pools in California's grasslands - may actually benefit from having large, heavy-footed cattle grazing around their habitat. Several biologists looking closely at what happens in these vernal pools say the diversity of the ephemeral fauna and flora in the water increases when cows keep weedy non-native grasses under control.... Column: Woodland worry In normal years, wheeling flocks of powder-blue piñon jays harvest tons of high-fat, high-protein piñon nuts and then plant them an inch deep, root-end down, into a mulched litter of dead needles and twigs in widely dispersed areas. Those not dug up for winter sustenance germinate with the next summer's rains to become future piñon woodlands. Tree feeds bird, and bird plants tree, in a remarkable but little-known dance of mutualism, in which each partner's evolutionary footfall is matched in kind. In the process, the "bird-pine" woodlands of the Southwest are created and maintained - a 75,000-square-mile ecosystem that provides habitat and favorable micro-climates for hundreds of other species.... 'Animal Law' Comes Into Its Own Ten years ago, one would have been hard pressed to find even a reference to "animal law." These days, animal law has become a viable legal specialty, with an increasing number of attorneys forming entire practices dedicated to animal issues. Animal lawyers don't just handle legal challenges for endangered species or prosecute severe abuse cases. In response to a growing interest in protecting all animals, animal practices now represent many kinds of issues, including animal cruelty, companion animal custody during divorces, legal provisions for animals in case of the guardian's death, hunting limits, lab testing of animals, wildlife conservation regulations, even definitions of terms such as "pain" as they relate to animals, and much more.... Group says two Wyo ranges among worst Two huge grazing allotments in central and southwestern Wyoming have been identified by a coalition of conservationists as among the "top ten" most overgrazed public lands in the West. RangeNet, a special project of the Western Watersheds Project, released the "American West's Most Overgrazed Public Lands 2003" list this week. The list aims to draw attention to overgrazed areas of the west, said RangeBiome's Larry Walker who oversaw the poll. Walker is former range conservationist with the Bureau of Land Management who retired in 1997 after 31 years of service with the agency. Other overgrazed allotments ranked in the poll include: The Diamond Bar Allotment in New Mexico's Gila National Forest, first place; the Rock Creek/Mudholes Allotment in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, second; the Montana Allotment in Arizona's Coronado National Forest Nogales Ranger District, fourth; the Pleasantview Allotment in near Pocatello, Id. and the Sycamore Valley Allotment in California's East Bay Regional Park District, tied for fifth; Kens Lake/Behind the Rocks State Trust Lands in Utah, seventh; the Antelope Basin Allotment near Madison, Mont., ninth; and California's Ord Mountain Allotment, tenth. The list can be viewed at RangeNet's Web site (www.rangenet.org).... Judge hears CBM water dispute Federal land managers and the coalbed methane gas industry like to say that the burgeoning development in the Powder River Basin is proceeding responsibly. If anything, there is too much environmental analysis and too many regulatory hurdles. But U.S. Federal Judge William Downes said Tuesday he resents that notion. After hearing testimony from two ranchers and viewing an aerial photograph of damages allegedly caused by coalbed methane water discharges, Downes said it's obvious there are some problems. "That doesn't look like it's just swell to me," Downes said, referring to Plaintiff's exhibit No. 33, a photograph of Edward Swartz's ranch in northern Campbell County.... Bush budget soaks S.F. for Hetch Hetchy President Bush's new budget contains an unwelcome bombshell for San Francisco, a proposal to raise the rent the city pays for its Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park from $30,000 a year to a whopping $8 million. The city's representatives in Congress pledged Tuesday to fight the proposed increase in the rent, which hasn't gone up in more than 70 years....