NEWS ROUNDUP

Town in Montana Wilderness Is Divided Over Drilling Plan "I'd like to see them drill," said Carl Field, a longtime real estate broker and land manager with a cluttered storefront office on Choteau's quiet main street. Gas production, Mr. Field said, "could help everyone around here, from suppliers to contractors, motels and grocery stores." For many, however, the prospect of drilling on the Front again is sacrilege. A combination of federal lands and vast private ranches, the Front is undeveloped, and because it is much lower in altitude than the mountains that tower over it, it provides a crucial winter refuge for wildlife.... Horse Trails Will Stay Open For Now The Shawnee National Forest Service had some good news for equestrian-based campground owners and the businesses who profit from traveling horseback enthusiasts -- open trails will stay open for now. Just in time for tourist season, the Forest Service listened to concerns from equestrian-based campground owners about ways to keep trails open and still protect sensitive plants and areas. Shawnee Forest Supervisor Allen Nichols said that while the ultimate decision about trail closures is not "a committee decision," he "never wanted to walk away from an opportunity to partner with people.".... Office Depot, 3 Conservation Groups Form Alliance Office Depot Inc. (ODP, news), seeking to boost its "green" reputation, plans to announce an alliance today with three conservation groups to promote research into forest management and endangered-species protection, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported. The Delray Beach, Fla., office-supply retailer aims to increase the amount of conservation data available overall, and to use the data to strengthen its own paper-procurement policy, said Tyler Elm, Office Depot's director of environmental affairs: "This is providing us with information we need to have a robust vendor-control policy.".... Amphibian slows some growth But 63 other projects, including many large residential subdivisions that would add at least 1,450 new homes, have been held up pending further review, according to a Press Democrat analysis of federal records. The number of homes snarled in the salamander's path is nearly double the number of new housing units built across Santa Rosa last year.... Mystery poisonings kill bald eagles Thirty years after a toxic pesticide was banned to protect bald eagles, someone is poisoning the nation’s symbol with another pesticide in the Willamette Valley. In the past 13 years, 17 bald eagles have been found dead in the Mid-Willamette Valley. Of those, 11 were tested and found to have eaten Fenthion, a highly regulated pesticide that is illegal in Oregon.... There's hope for giant bird Four captive-bred California condors were set free Saturday atop a 1,000-foot precipice north of the Grand Canyon, pulling the endangered bird a few more steps back from the abyss of extinction. In 1982, just 22 of the gigantic vultures were left in the world, prompting the unprecedented capture of an entire species of wildlife. Though initially opposed by many environmentalists, the strategy is now heralded as one of the shining successes of the Endangered Species Act.... Yellowstone winter use falls 18 percent In the midst of confusing and conflicting court opinions regarding snowmobiling regulations, winter traffic through Yellowstone National Park’s east entrance dropped 52 percent through February, the largest falloff of the park’s gateways. Overall winter use in the park was down 18 percent. A total of 185,796 visitors were reported in 2003-04, compared to 226,194 last winter.... Way of the wolf: The day the 'gray lady' went missing Of 174 wolves in the park, two attained celebrity status: the female nicknamed Cinderella and her longtime mate, a charcoal gray male. Park researchers called the pair "the Hollywood wolves," because of two National Geographic documentaries that focused on them and their family, the Druid Peak Pack — named for a nearby dome-shaped mountain. To many, they became the embodiment of Yellowstone's wild-wolf program. So Cinderella's absence and her mate's disconsolate wails on that Sunday morning in February stirred special concern among the wolf-watchers.... Permit backlog unjammed The Bureau of Land Management Buffalo Field Office has unjammed a backlog of 1,400 permits for coalbed methane gas wells on federal lands in the Powder River Basin. Now, the office is on track to maintain a steady flow of new permits said Richard Zander, assistant field manager at the BLM Buffalo Field Office.... Editorial: Slicing Up Energy IN THEORY, the Senate still intends to pass an energy bill this year. In practice, the list of other items on the agenda isn't getting any shorter, and the return to a large, complicated and possibly unpopular bill in the months before an election seems unlikely. As a result, some senators are considering shaving off some pieces of the bill and finding other means of passing them. We would prefer to see Congress take up a truly ambitious energy bill, one that actually reversed the advantages that the oil and gas industries have built into the tax code over time, and let markets do a better job of determining prices. But in the meantime, the notion of passing a few intelligent energy measures separately might not be a bad one -- as long as senators do so wisely.... Companies see NPR-A as tantalizing new territory For a glimpse of Alaska's crude oil future, take a small airplane to the middle of nowhere, jump into an industrial-size pickup truck with the heater on high, then drive west down a 34-mile road made of ice. There, jutting up from an endless plain of wind-sculpted snow, is the tall derrick of Rig 19. It's nasty cold, about 25 below zero. At times, great plumes of boiler steam seem to cling to the steel before disappearing.... California pushes to preserve coast The two visitors, marveling at miles of uncluttered oceanfront, didn't know about a small, powerful network of nonprofit land trusts, government agencies and foundations that has bought thousands of acres of California's coastline since 2000 to stop growth. As experts predict nearly 50 million Californians within a generation, the state is in the midst of an unparalleled drive to steer its 1,100-mile coast clear of more development. Borrowing from a movement that created more than 250 miles of oceanfront state parks during the last century and tapping portions of $11.1 billion in new state bonds, California preserved nearly 53,000 acres of coastal-area land last year, reports the California Coastal Conservancy, a state agency that seeded such projects with $168 million and leveraged $133 million more.... Hayden now ready to embrace Buffalo Commons initiative Mike Hayden was never a shy man, striding in cowboy boots as Kansas governor while spinning rustic anecdotes with a booming twang. But 13 years after the end of his governorship, Hayden is just getting warmed up in speaking freely - starting with an admission rarely uttered publicly by active-duty politicians. "I was wrong," Hayden says of his 1987 dismissal of unpopular predictions about the Great Plains' future. The prognosticators were Frank and Deborah Popper, married land-use experts from, of all places, New Jersey. They forecast continued declines in Plains population and natural resources and came up with a provocative name for their Plan B: the Buffalo Commons - long-term restoration of native grass and wildlife, notably buffalo.... Poll says tax to help aquifer is acceptable There is strong public support for continued use of tax dollars to buy undeveloped land in environmentally sensitive areas that help protect San Antonio's drinking water, according to a new poll commissioned by groups promoting the idea. The Bexar Land Trust, Nature Conservancy of Texas and the Trust for Public Land want the City Council to ask voters in November to reinstitute a 1/8-cent sales tax that would preserve additional environmentally sensitive properties.... Land policies turn sportsmen against administration From the slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the primeval forests of Alaska to the prairie potholes of the Dakotas, hunting and fishing enthusiasts are rebelling against President Bush's public lands policies. The nation's 47 million hunters and anglers tend to be conservative Republicans who voted for Bush in the last election, but many sportsmen say they have been imbued with a new sense of militancy by the administration's sacrifice of some of the best wild lands in America to economic development.... Powell saves Mead from drying up? Glen Canyon Dam, the 41-year-old barrier that backs up the Colorado River to form Lake Powell, is preventing the drought from virtually drying up Lake Mead downriver, according to some number-crunching by a Page scientist. Before Glen Canyon Dam was finished in 1963, Lake Mead dropped 130 feet below full pool in 1956 in the midst of another drought. And without the upstream dam now, Lake Mead would be just 9 percent full, argues Paul Ostapuk, a meteorologist at Navajo Generating Station near Page.... Wilderness backers look to Nethercutt for congressional boost Boosters of an effort to permanently protect 106,000 acres of wilderness in Snohomish County are looking for a savior and hoping the race for U.S. Senate will provide one. But time is running out for the bill in the current Congress, and the politics don't look favorable for what could be the first federal wilderness designation in the state in almost 20 years.... Nevada rancher's privacy case goes before U.S. Supreme Court A Nevada rancher who ran afoul of the law for refusing to identify himself to officers will have his day in the U.S. Supreme Court. Oral arguments are scheduled for Monday in a case that will determine whether people have a constitutional right to refuse to tell police their names.... Kansas Struggles to Test for Mad Cow Days after the federal Agriculture Department unveiled its plan for expanded surveillance for mad cow disease, Kansas officials say they're scrambling to figure out how to find and test enough at-risk cattle. Federal Agriculture Department officials said this week the broadened monitoring would focus on at least 201,000 animals that show signs of possible mad cow infection. Animals considered possible carriers include so-called downer animals that cannot stand at slaughter, cattle found dead on farms, or those with nervous system problems. Under the new testing, Kansas - the nation's second-largest cattle producer - has been ordered to test more than 7,000 animals for mad cow disease, state Livestock Commissioner George Teagarden said. To him, that 47-fold increase over the 150 animals Kansas screened last year "will be a challenge."....Salvaging old wood becomes new industry "It was getting to be a hazard to cattle," the 81-year-old retired rancher said. "They could get in it, break through the windows and get hurt." Instead of burning the home to the ground - a longtime method for ranchers to dispose of old buildings - Nichols hooked up with one of the many companies that specializes in salvaging old wood. Hilton Hern, a co-owner of Montana Rustic Wood Hub, gave Nichols $4,000 for the house, hauled it away and rebuilt it into someone's cabin.... Houston artist has sky-high dream of a 28-story Cowboy Don't hold your breath, but the IH-35 corridor could be in line for a truly breathtaking sight - a 28-story cowboy statue created by internationally-known artist and sculptor David Adickes. The "generic cowboy" structure, as Adickes envisions, would include an interior elevator, theater and museum. At 280 feet high, it would be the tallest sculpture in the world, Adickes said in a telephone interview from his Houston studio....