NEWS ROUNDUP

Environmentalists appeal Arizona logging plan Environmentalists say taxpayers will be bilked and fire danger and soil loss will increase if the Forest Service goes through with a plan to salvage dead trees on land charred by the Rodeo-Chediski fire. The logging on 41,059 acres burned in the blaze would cut big, blackened trees while their cores are still valuable as timber.... Private Investment Protects Environment Where Government Fails The Institute for Humane Studies, an essential educational foundation in Arlington, Va., just launched a new Web site entitled A Better Earth. The site aims to educate college students, graduate students and others on alternative methods of environmental preservation — methods less hostile to free markets and free enterprise. The new Web site is important, because the environment seems to be the one area where even avowed free marketeers can't quite bring themselves to trust private enterprise over government intervention. Profit-seekers and corporations are too greedy and self-interested, the thinking goes, to give much thought to preserving wildlife, forests and wilderness. But is that really so? Are governments really better at preserving the environment than private enterprise? The biggest polluters on the planet are governments, not corporations. The U.S. government immunizes itself from most all of the environmental laws it demands of private corporations. And it is by far the bigger polluter.... A fish's role in the ecology debate Salmon have been the leading cultural icon in the Pacific Northwest since well before Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explored the territory 200 years ago. But now these oceangoing travelers are facing new challenges as steep as the Columbia River dams that precipitated their decline into near-extinction. A recent series of legal actions and political decisions aimed at protecting fish would limit use of pesticides, curtail river dredging, reduce water available for irrigation, and change the operation of power-generating dams. All this adds up to the likelihood of economic conflict across a region the size of Western Europe. Meanwhile, the National Academy of Sciences and another federally appointed panel of scientists have weighed in with controversial warnings. Federal judges have gotten into the act as well.... Mexican Spotted Owl designation could have big impact on state The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released economic and environmental impact reports stating that a proposed critical habitat designation for the Mexican Spotted Owl would have a multi-million dollar impact on businesses that rely on national forests in Arizona. The final draft of the economic analysis for the owls is a 190-page document clearly detailing potential financial impacts to tribal activities, the timber industry, livestock grazing, fire management, small businesses, mining, oil and gas development and mining activities. Economic impact estimates measured in dollars are often put into two categories--high and low--and are frequently charted and well-documented in the document.... Arizona Hopes to Return Rare Fish to Wild State and federal officials are hoping a return to the wild will be possible by year's end for dozens of rare fish that were evacuated because of a wildfire. The roughly 1,000 Gila chub have been held at three different locations since they were removed from Sabino Creek in July to protect them from ash-laden runoff from the Aspen fire, which destroyed the vacation hamlet of Summerhaven on Mount Lemmon.... Column: Raising A Howl On the sixth anniversary of the first release of endangered Mexican gray wolves into the wild on March 29, 1998, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal petition for rule-making with Interior Secretary Gale Norton and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams to save the Mexican wolf population from federal mismanagement. The 14-page petition was filed pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act, which gives the federal government 90 days for an initial response and one year to promulgate new regulations. Should these deadlines be missed, the center will sue to compel compliance. The petition requests reforms in the reintroduction program in accordance with recommendations of four independent scientists who examined the program at the behest of the Fish and Wildlife Service.... Key senator: 9th Circuit will be split Republican senators say they have gone from asking whether the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals should be split up to deciding how to split it up. "I think it is inevitable that (the court) will be split up," said. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. On Wednesday, six judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Montana, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee panel that presides over the nation's court system. Sessions, other Republican senators, and several judges who testified said the court is geographically too large and too populous to be effectively administered. They noted that the about a fifth of the United States' population lives in the 9th Circuit, and the circuit includes nearly 40 percent of the nation's land mass.... Editorial: PETA Goes Too Far No stranger to controversy, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is at it again with an offensive new anti-meat billboard. The outdoor advertisement, which went up this week in Toronto and Edmonton, shows a young female model on one side, a close-up of a pig on the other, and the slogan "Neither of us is meat." It's a grotesquely insensitive reference to the case of accused serial killer and pig farmer Robert Pickton, who currently faces 15 charges of first-degree murder. Investigators have spent months sifting through his Port Coquitlam, B.C., property and have linked the DNA of 31 missing women to the site. Exploiting this tragedy to promote an anti-meat, pro-vegetarian message shows appalling disregard for the feelings of the victims' survivors.... Mexican Gray Wolves Debate Rages in N.M. Mexican gray wolves were called everything from treasures to killers during a hearing before the state Game Commission here. Six years after wolves were first brought back to the Southwest, it was clear Tuesday that opinions about them are still extreme. "I feel very fortunate — I have heard the howls of wolves," Grant County resident Sharon Morgan told the three state game commissioners heading the meeting at Western New Mexico University. But Gila Wilderness outfitter Jack Diamond disagreed. "Everyone thinks this wolf is such a great animal. He's a killer," Diamond said. "Does anybody care about our deer or elk? They're the ones that are going to suffer.".... New EPA smog standard to put 8 national parks in violation The Environmental Protection Agency plans to announce next week that the air quality in areas that include at least eight of the United States' most popular national parks is in violation of a new and more protective federal smog standard, National Park Service officials said Wednesday. Yosemite Park would join three national parks in California-- Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Joshua Tree -- listed as having unhealthy air. The air quality in those three parks already violates the EPA's old and less stringent smog standard, which was based on a one-hour measurement of air quality. That is being phased out in favor of an eight-hour measurement.... Park Service Faces Questions on Statue Even as it turned to a nonprofit group for a handout to reopen the Statue of Liberty, the National Park Service had access to millions of dollars for needed safety upgrades to the monument. The Park Service, the steward of Lady Liberty, has accumulated $15 million over the past five years from a franchise fee paid by tour operators and concession stands at Ellis Island and Liberty Island, according to Park Service officials. Under federal rules, the Park Service must spend 85 percent of the money at the site where it was earned.... Column: Commonsense Management of Resources Where do meat and vegetables come from? How about two-by-fours? Did you say farms and forests, or did you choose grocery and hardware stores? Modern conveniences tend to sever our cultural ties to the land that feeds and shelters us. They distance us from how natural resources become comfortable homes, dinner tables and more. That disconnect can do great harm. The decline of California's public forests and forestry industry is a prime example. California's foresters ultimately provide everything from paper towels to pool tables. They replant far more trees than they harvest, and a recent Cal Poly San Luis Obispo study found they meet the highest standards for protecting fish and wildlife as well as soil, air and water quality. Yet foresters have been vilified -- so effectively that in the past 10 years, more than half of California's mills have closed and 4,000 jobs have been lost.... New strain of sheep brain disease found A strain of scrapie - the fatal brain disease in sheep - not previously seen before in the UK has been discovered, it was announced yesterday. Scientists have identified the case after performing a series of diagnostic tests on tissue from a four-year-old sheep in an unnamed area of the UK. Some of the methods used showed the case had some characteristics similar to experimental BSE in sheep. But a microscopic analysis of brain material showed that the case did not resemble experimental BSE in sheep.... Baucus calls for probe before Canadian imports resume The United States should not reopen its border to live Canadian cattle imports until the investigative arm of Congress conducts its own investigation into Canada's handling of mad cow cases there, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Tuesday. Baucus' call for an independent investigation by the General Accounting Office comes one day before the U.S. Department of Agriculture closes its comment period on a proposal to reopen the border to cattle older than 30 months of age.... USDA expects BSE rules to cost up to $149 million The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that recent regulations designed to keep bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) infectivity out of the food supply will cost the beef industry from $110 million to $149 million a year. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today released a preliminary impact analysis on the regulations, which include a ban on the use of "downer" cattle for human food. The rules were announced in December, a week after the discovery of the nation's first BSE case in Washington state, and took effect in mid-January.... Equitrol Lawsuit A jury has returned a verdict of $1,007,500 to plaintiffs alleging in a lawsuit that Farnam's product Equitrol, a feed-through fly control product, was defectively designed and caused harm to their horses; Farnam has countered with a press release stating that it is appealing the decision and believes that the court decision is incorrect on legal and factual grounds. Equitrol's active ingredient tetrachlorvinphos (a cholinesterase inhibitor) is widely used for feed-through larvacides (manufactured by other companies) for cattle and in fly control products for several other species. Other companies manufacture and sell tetrachlorvinphos as a feed-through larvacide for horses.... Cutting star Rice takes another coveted crown Tag Rice further solidified his position as one of the brightest stars in the National Cutting Horse Association on Wednesday by riding Mr. Beamon to the championship of the Super Stakes Classic Open. The 28-year-old Buffalo trainer marked a solid 224.5 score on the gray gelding, working third in the last bunch of cattle at Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum. The title put an even $50,000 in the pockets of Rice and owner Charlie Seiz of Cedartown, Ga. Cats Red Feather, ridden by Phil Rapp of Weatherford, finished second with a 223.5 for a payoff of $41,145. John Wold of Argyle rode Cats Mereda to third place and $34,449....