NEWS ROUNDUP

Drought, bugs may be permanently killing forests Western forests may be on the brink of epochal change, driven to permanent retreat in lower elevations by years of drought and decades of fire-suppression that has made them vulnerable to a scourge of insects, scientists warned Wednesday. The die-off in turn is resulting in uncontrollable wildfires of the sort that swept Southern California last fall, and Arizona and Colorado the previous summer. A hundred of the West's top scientists are gathered by invitation only for a three-day Lake Tahoe conference to share the latest studies on global warming and its impact, and to plot what research is needed over the next five years. "There's stuff dying all across the montane forests of the western U.S.," said Craig D. Allen of the U.S. Geological Survey. "It's a big deal -- socially, environmentally and economically." Other researchers compared the current drought and rising temperatures to a similar episode 13,000 years ago. Mountain forests died off or were wiped out by fire, to be replaced by woodlands, grasslands and desert scrub that had been prevalent at lower elevations or farther south.... Lawyers for men accused of petroglyph theft blame Forest Service Lawyers for two men accused of looting American Indian artifacts said Thursday that the real culprit is the U.S. Forest Service because it failed to mark the site on the edge of Reno as culturally significant. Federal prosecutors urged a U.S. District Court jury to hold the two men responsible for stealing three boulders with artwork etchings that tribal leaders say are priceless and more than 1,000 years old. But the defense lawyers said John Ligon, 40, Reno, and Carrol Mizell, 44, Van Nuys, Calif., removed three boulders with the petroglyphs from national forest land and placed them in Ligon's front yard to protect them from an encroaching subdivision. "He would have never taken them and displayed them in his front yard if he thought they were government property," said Scott Freeman, Ligon's lawyer.... Reid promises help on Jarbidge U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has agreed to look into helping Elko County resolve the South Canyon Road issue at Jarbidge in light of questions arising from the latest court opinion. Elko County District Attorney Gary Woodbury, who was in the meeting with Reid, said today the county is looking at congressional action to back up the agreement the county and federal agencies already signed. "We need something to keep us out of 9th Circuit Court, which we thought the agreement did," Woodbury said.... Environmentalists Sue Over Forest Policy Environmentalists sued the Bush administration on Thursday, objecting to recent changes in the Northwest Forest Plan that they say endanger salmon and clean water. The suit, filed in federal court in Seattle, follows a suit filed last month objecting to another change in the forest plan that eased restrictions on logging of old-growth forests. The administration announced the new rules in March, completing changes that had been in the works for more than a year. One change relaxes a rule requiring that forest managers look for rare plants and animals before logging; another allows agencies to meet clean-water goals on a broad, watershed-wide basis rather than through evaluation of individual projects.... Editorial: Reasonable approach sought on off-road use The U.S. Forest Service and recreationists should look for common ground on road usage rather than resort to heavy-handed regulations. The Forest Service is expected to release a report for public comment within days that will address inconsistencies in how forest roads are managed for off-road use. But some off-roaders are rightfully wary whether the report is actually a route to reducing availability of roads. If the proposal focuses on uniformity and helps educate off-roaders about which trails are open, season availability, etc., then this will be a positive addition for all trail users. If the regulations are a smoke screen used to decrease the number of trails available for off-road use, then the Forest Service could be acting arbitrarily against a particular segment of the public.... Fencing off Spawn Creek could reduce whirling disease Cattle and trout have coexisted in the West for more than a century, with mixed results. Members of Cache Anglers have come up with an idea to help protect a vital native Bonneville cutthroat trout spawning area and slow the spread of whirling disease in Logan Canyon without affecting free-range cattle in the area. The plan to line 1 1/2 miles of aptly named Spawn Creek with fencing has, however, encountered resistance from some grazing-permit owners who worry the $80,000 project could set a precedent.... Owens taps $1.3 million to hire firefighting aircraft Gov. Bill Owens released $1.3 million from the state's Disaster Emergency Fund on Thursday to contract two additional air tankers and a helicopter to help fight wildfires. "As the drought continues, the wildfire potential is something we will have to confront aggressively all summer," Owens said. The U.S. Forest Service grounded federal air tankers recently because of safety concerns.... In about-face, Army scraps plans for environmental cutbacks The Army scrapped plans on Thursday to curtail some environmental protections and contracts after learning from Pentagon budget officials it could make do with cuts elsewhere. The about-face came after a report earlier Thursday about an Army memorandum directing base commanders to shift money out of environmental programs. The Army later said it would carry out other measures — such as a hiring freeze and lower spending for travel and conferences — to help pay for costly military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maj. Gen. Anders Aadland, in a May 11 email, had ordered garrison commanders worldwide to "take additional risk in environmental programs." He told them to "terminate environmental contracts and delay all nonstatutory enforcement actions" until the beginning of the government's next fiscal year in October.... State offers prairie dog management plan The state of South Dakota has drafted a prairie dog management plan that would establish buffer zones aimed at preventing prairie dogs on federal land from encroaching onto adjacent private land. The plan would also establish an emergency interim process to help private landowners next to federal lands control prairie dogs until the U.S. Forest Service can begin action in the buffer zones on federal lands, possibly next year. The plan, which state officials hope to finalize by early July, drew criticism both from grazing interests who say it doesn't do enough to control prairie dogs and from wildlife advocates who say the buffer zones would hurt recovery efforts for black-footed ferrets.... Red-legged golf lawsuit? Two environmental groups are threatening to sue Morgan Hill and The Institute Golf Course if they don’t comply with the Endangered Species Act, according to letters sent to two government agencies. In a letter sent Thursday to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and the Committee for Green Foothills noted its intention to sue after 60 days if the city and The Institute don’t comply with the Endangered Species Act. “The (city and Institute) are causing illegal ‘take’ that harms and harasses the California red-legged frog, a species listed as ‘threatened’ under the ESA,” the letter said. “The ESA prohibits all activities that cause a ‘take’ of an endangered species.”.... Biologists move to protect Mojave rare plant habitat The Center for Biological Diversity (Center), Utah Native Plant Society (UNPS) and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) today noticed the Bush administration Interior Dept. -- Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) of an intent to sue over their failure to designate critical habitat and to implement a recovery plan for two endangered Mojave Desert plants, the Holmgren milkvetch and the Shivwits milkvetch, as required by the Endangered Species Act (ESA).... NOAA expects no big change in salmon runs under draft policy The federal government's new draft plan for counting hatchery fish alongside wild salmon in determining whether some runs need protection could create some confusion among salmon fishermen, but it won't immediately change much else. "There is no lightning bolt," said Commerce Undersecretary Conrad Lautenbacher Jr., who oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "Nothing here is going to change that much." This morning, NOAA officials will release their response to a 2001 court ruling that said the government had wrongly excluded fish reared in hatcheries when deciding whether salmon should be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).... Groups' lawsuit seeks lamprey protection The Pacific lamprey deserves protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, according to a lawsuit filed by a dozen conservation groups. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Portland, asks the court to require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take legal steps to protect the Pacific, river, western brook and Kern brook species of lamprey. The eel-like fish once numbered in the thousands in West Coast rivers, but numbers on the Snake River declined from 50,000 in the early 1960s to fewer than 1,000 in the 1990s.... Plan would use hatchery salmon to boost wild stocks Stung by criticism from federal judges, property-rights advocates and environmentalists, the Bush administration today plans to propose allowing salmon produced in hatcheries to boost struggling wild populations -- some to the point they could lose federal protections. The decision is bound to set off another round of lawsuits over one of the prickliest and most complicated factors in struggles over how to restore the iconic salmon of the Pacific Northwest. But it may satisfy Native American tribes, who say hatcheries could help wild salmon rebound if the rivers where both kinds of fish live are protected. The policy foresees allowing Native Americans and others to keep catching hatchery-produced fish so long as they're not needed to help wild stocks rebound.... Tests show hatchery-raised salmon, trout aren't free of chemicals Atlantic salmon and trout raised in five federal hatcheries are safe to eat, but have high enough levels of dioxin and other pollutants to trigger advisories limiting consumption, according to tests done by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency commissioned the tests on the brood stock fish to determine whether they were picking up PCBs and other contaminants from feed. The tests came after other researchers found that farm-raised salmon, fed the same diet, had higher levels of the chemicals than wild fish.... Park Retirees: Hidden Cuts at National Parks at Odds With Bush Administration Assurances of 'Outstanding Visitor Services' A new national survey based in part on information from 12 representative U.S. national parks reveals a combination of significant cuts in budget, staff and visitor services at all of the parks, a finding that casts into doubt the truthfulness of March 24, 2004 testimony by National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, who told angry members of Congress that Americans would not see major park cuts this summer and that "outstanding visitor services" would be provided. Compiled by the 250-member Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees, the new report, which is entitled "Pretending to Protect the Parks: Mainella and Norton's Legacy of Neglected National Parks in Decline," finds:.... BLM still doesn't have power to cite underage drinkers Proposed new rules to give U.S. Bureau of Land Management rangers authority to cite people for alcohol-related offenses won't be in effect this Memorial Day weekend - the busiest weekend of the year in terms of visitors. Churchill County District Attorney Arthur Mallory isn't so sure the BLM should ever have that power. "My theory is government that is closest to the people is the best for the people," Mallory said.... Greenpeace sets up in Josephine Greenpeace, the conservation group best known for its work with whales, is planning to open its first mobile "forest rescue station" in Josephine County. The station will be an education and campaign center for the group, which has called for an end to logging on federally-owned lands. The exact location of the station, a solar-powered facility which consists of several giant domes, will be revealed next Tuesday.... Endangered Forests Rally at White House Conservation and religious groups rallied at the White House today at noon to call on the Bush administration to protect the nation's remaining old growth and endangered National Forests. The Endangered Forests Rally marks the "Summer Kickoff" (May 27 to June 4 - www.endangeredforests.org) during which environmentalists from Oregon to Virginia will be speaking out to expose the truth regarding the Bush administration's policies that hand over our National Forests to corporate special interests. "The stage is set for the next big showdown over America's endangered National Forests. The Bush administration has derailed sensible and balanced protections for National Forests, and the summer of 2004 may bring ancient forest logging and more development in roadless wildlands," stated Jake Kreilick, Endangered Forests Project Coordinator of the National Forest Protection Alliance. Editorial: BLM needs to heed wishes of the people The obstinate U.S. Bureau of Land Management is asking for it. And Gov. Bill Richardson, and a growing and potent group of local and national conservation organizations, should give the disrespectful federal bureaucrats and the Bush administration all they deserve. New Mexico should fight to protect Otero Mesa from oil and gas drilling, in the courts if necessary.... Disaster film has scientists laughing Slouched in their seats and munching popcorn, a group of climate scientists from the University of Washington pronounced their verdict on the Hollywood blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow" with giggles and guffaws. When star Dennis Quaid, playing a hunky paleoclimatologist, solemnly warns that a massive storm unleashed by global warming is going to plunge the Northern Hemisphere into a new Ice Age — within days! — the real experts nudge each other and snicker. When helicopters freeze midair and the Atlantic Ocean swamps Manhattan, peals of laughter erupt.... If owl rules roost, center gets boot: Native bird may force nature haven to migrate A bird on New Jersey's threatened species list is threatening plans to build a $3 million environmental center where children would learn about such imperiled animals. The fluffy barred owl was spotted in a wooded area of Roseland where Essex County wants to build the 8,900-square-foot center. The Department of Environmental Protection has now refused to approve construction until it can determine if the new center will jeopardize the owl's habitat.... Feds may investigate Canadian beef imports The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General is considering opening an investigation to determine why the agency violated its own policy and allowed the import of millions of pounds of Canadian processed beef products that were banned due to concerns about mad cow disease, United Press International has learned. If the OIG proceeds with an investigation, it would be the fourth inquiry it has launched involving mad cow disease-related issues since the first case of the deadly disease in U.S. herds was discovered last December....