NEWS ROUNDUP

Ex-Forest Service Worker Must Pay $14.7M A federal appeals court Tuesday ordered an imprisoned former Forest Service employee responsible for the largest wildfire in Colorado history to pay $14.7 million in restitution. A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with federal prosecutors who argued Terry Lynn Barton should pay the cost of emergency restoration of national forest southwest of Denver.... Administration’s Budget Too Low to Achieve Healthy Forest Goals The Administration’s budget proposals for restoring forest ecosystems and reducing fire risks to rural communities are too low, according to nonprofit environmental group American Forests’ analysis. In recent testimony to the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, AMERICAN FORESTS, the oldest national nonprofit conservation organization, is urging Congress to dramatically increase the amount of funding for collaborative local efforts to thin forests and reduce fuel loads around communities threatened by wildfire.... Column: Fire can be a tool or a torment depending on how it is used Fire is one of nature's grand contradictions. When under control, working its way slowly through crackling logs surrounded by melon-sized rocks in a fire ring, it is pleasing and beneficial. When out of control, pushed by winds through dry prairie grasses, it is both dangerous and devastating. For people who spend time outdoors, campfire is good and wildfire is bad. So for much of the last century, forest and prairie land managers went to great lengths to prevent or suppress fires that had the potential to burn large areas. This is an obvious choice in areas where uncontrolled fire could endanger human lives. Over the last couple of decades, however, researchers have learned more and more about the long-term benefits of fire to both grasslands and forests.... Recovery plan approved for 'rarest trout in America' The U.S. Forest Service approved a plan Tuesday to restore what wildlife officials call "the rarest trout in America" to 11 miles of a Sierra Nevada creek after first removing nonnative fish from the waterway. The plan is controversial because the planned removal this fall involves the use of a fish poison to eliminate competition from the nonnative trout. That prompted an environmental group's lawsuit that delayed the process for a year while a federal environmental impact statement was prepared. Wildlife officials say restoring the Paiute cutthroat trout to its native habitat in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness is worth the damage to other species, most of which they expect to repopulate the creek within a couple years.... Front drilling proposal sparks 12,000 e-mails During the first week of a public comment period on a proposal to drill for natural gas in the Rocky Mountain Front, the Bureau of Land Management received more than 12,000 e-mails -- so many electronic comments that the government account is overloaded for now. But those 12,000 e-mails are just the beginning. About 150 people packed into Choteau High School on Monday to learn more about an environmental review that the BLM must complete before the proposal moves forward. The Choteau meeting was the first in a series of five that will be held this month.... Feds held off updating status of prairie dog The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has received so much new information about black-tailed prairie dog populations that it delayed its annual update on the animal's status as a candidate for the threatened species list. For now, the prairie dog remains a low priority for listing on the threatened species list, according to the service's report filed in the Federal Register on Tuesday.... Groups file petition to protect 225 species An alliance of environmentalists, scientists and artists petitioned the Bush administration yesterday, demanding that steps be taken to protect 225 vanishing plants and animals nationwide. The species are languishing under the Endangered Species Act without adequate protection, critics say. "They're all at risk for extinction. Some are on the brink," said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Portland office of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups petitioning the government. The species have been placed on the "candidate list" for endangered species protection. More than a quarter of the species have been on the list for nearly 30 years.... Columbia River closes to spring chinook angling With a new run size projection 44 percent smaller than pre-season forecasts, Oregon and Washington fishery managers on Tuesday ended all sport fishing for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River, effective 12:01 a.m., Thursday, because the allowable impacts to wild fish have been met. Biologists from the Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife departments downgraded their pre-season prediction of the number of spring chinook destined for areas above Bonneville from 360,000 to 200,000. Pre-season predictions of the number of fish entering the Columbia River are based on jack counts at Bonneville Dam, the number spawning fish available and other factors. Biologists are unsure why the actual returns are less than the pre-season predictions, and will continue to evaluate the run.... Ditches kill a half million fish Hundreds of thousands of fish diverted into irrigation canals each year die because they are not able to return to streams and reservoirs before the canals dry up, a study on the Wind River Indian Reservation found. "Irrigators, sportsmen and wildlife managers have always known that fish are lost in irrigation canals each year, but we were amazed by the number of fish we found in every canal we sampled," said Dave Skates of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which participated in the research.... Tribes attack BLM for broken trust over mines An attorney for the Fort Belknap Tribes argued in federal court Monday that the Bureau of Land Management has broken its trust obligation to the tribes in its permitting and oversight of the Zortman-Landusky gold mines. "Not even the most basic requirements were followed by the federal government," Mike Axline, an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center, told federal Judge Donald Molloy. The Fort Belknap Tribes sued the BLM and two other federal agencies in 2000, saying the government neglected its duties to protect the tribe's natural resources and historic sacred lands in its dealings with the now-defunct mines.... BLM looks at enforcing drug and alcohol bans The Bureau of Land Management is proposing a rule change that would permit BLM officers to enforce drug and alcohol regulations on public lands in Nevada. Currently, BLM officers must summon state and local law enforcement officers when violations occur.... Where the Wild Horses Go It’s a brisk, breezy February day—the second Tuesday of the month, a.k.a. auction day—and a pretty good crowd has gathered, despite the fact that only a handful of horses will be trailered away from here today. This is the Bureau of Land Management’s regional Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Center. There’s none of the hustle-bustle and “insiders-only” atmosphere that you’d feel at a local livestock auction barn, where most of the buyers are old pros and a newcomer hardly knows what’s going on. No, here all is done with simplicity and casualness. Facility manager Pat Hofmann kicks things off with a spiel on how things are done.... Study of the New Rockies Finds Old West Is Old Hat The myths and paradoxes of the new American West were explored Tuesday as experts here released a comprehensive report highlighting sweeping changes in population, growth and the environment across the Rocky Mountain region. Most Westerners don't live off the land, aren't especially rugged and like big-box stores and lattes as much as anyone else, the statistics show. "We continue to believe this Marlboro man, cowboy myth about the West," said Walter Hecox, a professor of economics at Colorado College. He pointed out that 1.7% of Westerners earn a living from agriculture, mining or other natural resource-based occupations.... To Cut Smog, Los Angeles Places a Bounty on Mowers In the smog capital of the nation, it seems that no effort to reduce pollution is too small. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which sets emission rules for the Los Angeles basin, announced a program on Tuesday to take 4,000 soot-belching gasoline mowers off Los Angeles lawns. Angelenos who turn in their old gasoline mowers will get a $300 credit toward the purchase of a shiny new $400 electric mower.... Column: Climate change too slow for Hollywood, too fast for the rest of us It's always been hard to get people to take global warming seriously because it happens too slowly. Not slowly in geological terms -- by century's end, according to the consensus scientific prediction, we'll have made the planet warmer than it's been in tens of millions of years. But slowly in NBC Nightly News terms. From day to day, it's hard to discern the catastrophe, so we don't get around to really worrying. Something else -- the battle for Fallujah, the presidential election, the spread of SARS, the Jacksonian mammary -- is always more immediate, and evolution seems to have engineered us for a fascination with the sudden. Slowness, by all accounts, shouldn't be a problem with The Day After Tomorrow, a new global-warming epic due in theaters May 28. Apparently, the script posits that rapid melting of Arctic ice is enough to trigger massive changes in ocean currents, shutting down the Gulf Stream and setting off a humongous super storm.... Judge throws out hunting suit A judge has thrown out a lawsuit, closely watched by landowner and hunting groups, that argued hunters should be required to get permission before they set foot on private North Dakota farm and ranch land. Rod Froelich, a Selfridge rancher and state legislator, and his wife, Kathryn, were seeking an advisory legal opinion in their case, which North Dakota courts do not give, South Central District Judge Gail Hagerty ruled.... NRCS Chief optimistic CSP will be a vibrant, rapidly growing program Bruce Knight, Chief of USDA's NRCS, was dealt a difficult hand by legislators in terms of how to fairly administer the Conservation Security Program (CSP) in light of restrictions placed on it during the political process. The plan for how to play those cards, announced today, uses priority watersheds and categories of farms and ranches to narrow eligibility as a cost saving measure. Knight explained to reporters this afternoon that NRCS is up against some serious constraints that are the direct result of decisions made at the Congressional level. Those decisions mean the agency has been forced to make some tough decisions about how best to implement the $41 million program for 2004.... USDA strangling CSP in the crib, says Senator Harkin The Bush Administration today announced its plan for implementing the landmark Conservation Security Program (CSP). USDA will use watersheds as a basis to determine participation. The plan has drawn harsh criticism from Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Specifically, critics say USDA's proposals for selecting priority watersheds and determining producer eligibility by categories within those watersheds appear to be "unnecessarily complicated and exclusionary." What's more, they say the Administration seems to plan to make the restrictions permanent.... Shy Australian now world's biggest cattle baron Outback Australian rancher and ex-potato farmer Peter Menegazzo became the world's biggest cattle baron on Tuesday when he bought out his partners in Stanbroke Pastoral Company, the country's biggest beef producer. Stanbroke has 24 cattle properties covering 10 million hectares (24 million acres) and carrying 435,000 head of cattle.... Statement on Texas cow with central nervous system symptoms The Food and Drug Administration learned that a cow with central nervous system symptoms had been killed and shipped to a processor for rendering into animal protein for use in animal feed. FDA, which is responsible for the safety of animal feed, immediately began an investigation. On Friday and throughout the weekend, FDA investigators inspected the slaughterhouse, the rendering facility, the farm where the animal came from, and the processor that initially received the cow from the slaughterhouse. FDA's investigation showed that the animal in question had already been rendered into "meat and bone meal" (a type of protein animal feed). Over the weekend FDA was able to track down all the implicated material. That material is being held by the firm, which is cooperating fully with FDA.... USDA vet: Texas mad cow breach not unique The recent case of a Texas cow that displayed symptoms consistent with mad cow disease but slipped through the cracks of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's surveillance plan is not an isolated incident, an agency veterinarian and a consumer advocate told United Press International. The revelation that the cow was not tested has generated alarm among the public and Congress, and a USDA veterinarian said cows displaying central nervous system disorders, such as the one in Texas, often are not tested for mad cow -- even though the department considers these animals the most likely to be infected with the disease. "Sometimes Veterinary Services (the USDA branch responsible for picking up brains for mad cow testing) won't even show up," the veterinarian, who requested anonymity, told UPI. "If you tell them the cow is under 30 months (old), they won't bother with it.".... Only 3 mad cow tests done at Texas firm Only three cows have been tested for mad cow disease over the past two years at the Texas plant where federal testing policies for the deadly disease were breached last week, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture testing records obtained by United Press International. The small number of tests occurred despite the fact that the plant, Lone Star Beef in San Angelo, Texas, processes older, dairy cows, which are considered to hold a high risk of being infected. The only confirmed mad cow infection in U.S. herds occurred last December in a 6 1/2-year-old dairy cow in Washington state. Lone Star is the 18th largest slaughterhouse in the country and processed about 350,000 animals over the two-year period.... Bob Welch: Saddle sore Cowboy Bob earns his spurs When I last looked at Rusty - really looked at the horse - he was smirking slightly. It was November 2002 and, as I began my first elk-hunting trip, Rusty initiated me by bucking me onto a log. Physically, I was only bruised. Emotionally? Ask my therapist. It's bad enough being the only nonhunter on a trip with a bunch of Eastern Oregon cowboys, one of whom has a dried antelope scrotum on his truck's gearshift knob. But to walk while the "James gang" is riding - you having been dubbed "Cowboy Bob" - well, you might as well be riding a battery-operated scooter at a Hell's Angels rally. Slowly, I've been healing. Then, a few weeks ago, came chilling words....