NEWS ROUNDUP

Fire Damages Fire Research Center A fire caused about $1.5 million in damage to a building at the Fire Sciences Laboratory west of here, a rural fire department said. No one was injured. The metal building housed offices, a small maintenance shop and a laboratory. Investigators believe the fire started in the lab and have ruled the blaze accidental. The Fire Sciences Laboratory is an arm of the U.S. Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station based in Colorado. The lab researches the behavior, chemistry and effects of wildfires.... Canada reviews Tre Arrow's refugee claim A Canadian immigration panel began hearings Monday to decide if one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives is a terrorist or not before allowing him to apply for refugee status in Canada. Tre Arrow is wanted for his alleged role in the 2001 firebombing of logging and cement trucks in Oregon. The FBI claims he is associated with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), its number one domestic terrorist priority.... Ranchers face tough times during drought Six years of drought have forced the Bureau of Land Management to tell local ranchers they won't have as much forage for their cattle this summer on public lands in southwest Montana. Livestock producers south and west of Dillon are asked to cut back by as much as 40 percent and ranchers grazing cattle on the BLM east of Dillon are asked to cut back by up to 20 percent. ‘‘These are tough times for livestock operators,'' said Tim Bozorth, Dillon Field Manager. ‘‘At BLM we want to thank our local permittees for their cooperation and willingness to do what is right for rangeland health.''.... A no-holds-barred owl war The barred owl has what you might call a serious image problem. It is known in the Northwest as an invading bully that has tossed one heckuva monkey wrench into efforts to save the northern spotted owl. As loggers were shut out of most of the region's public forests to let the spotted owl be, the barred owl had a different idea. It moved in. Fearlessly. Decisively. And spotted owls fled. Barred owls loom about 20 percent larger than spotted owls. They don't much care that their smaller cousin is protected by the Endangered Species Act. And they don't take kindly to company.... Liability: The Silent Player In The Water-Bomber Debate The Forest Service cancelled air-tanker contracts in part because it was afraid of being sued if any of them crashed, according to a report in the Billings Gazette. In a remarkably candid interview (for a government official concerned about liability) Tony Kern, the Forest Service's assistant director of aviation management, said the safety of air crews and people on the ground was the first consideration but liability was also a concern. In late April, an NTSB report on two air-tanker crashes said many of the planes are potentially dangerous and, because they are "public use" aircraft, they are outside the FAA's certification jurisdiction while fighting fires. That put all the responsibility on the Forest Service and it responded May 10 by canceling contracts for 33 large tankers. Kern noted the decision was made a little easier by the unnamed mayor of an unnamed Rocky Mountain city who wrote a letter saying she expected the federal government to "guarantee" that the planes flying over her city "will not come apart over the heads of the public." Kern said her letter brought the issue home for the Forest Service. "This could end up with a plane landing on a school," Kern said. "You are talking about the potential for negligent homicide." Officials at Neptune Aviation, an air-tanker operator, told the Gazette they were shocked by Kern's admission of liability and said the comments could open up the Forest Service to lawsuits resulting from the 2002 crashes.... More species threatened by climate change The Bufo periglenes, the golden toad of Costa Rica, vanished from its habitat in 1987 in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica. It is the first animal species credited with being driven to extinction by climate change. Biologists do not expect it to be the last. Camille Parmesan, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Texas, called the golden toad "a very rare prized endangered species, which has always been very restricted, only ever known from Monteverde, and that's been linked with climate change." "One extinction of an entire species has been solidly linked to climate change," Parmesan told United Press International, "and lots and lots of population extinctions.".... Colorado conversion? A 47-year-old lawyer who grew up on a Colorado ranch, herding sheep, Raley is arguably the nation's most powerful water broker. He and his boss, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, have their fingers on a federal faucet that feed cities, farms, hydropower plants and rivers across the West. But Raley also harbors a little secret that might surprise some of his environmental foes, and alarm those on the other side. According to boatmen and associates I've interviewed, Raley has contracted river fever - a mildly euphoric, somewhat mystical devotion to the canyon that comes from spending several days in its belly. John Wesley Powell caught the fever when he explored the canyon in the 1800s. Raley is now severely infected, having run the river three years in a row.... Va. Sting Targets Trade in Bear Parts, Ginseng His wife had been stricken with breast and colon cancer, and in August 2002, Soo Kil Seo turned hopefully to the possibilities of Asian folk medicine. The 59-year-old Alexandria dry cleaner drove to a rural hunting store that had advertised bear for sale in Korean newspapers, paid $1,200 for two bear carcasses and removed the prized and supposedly curative gallbladders for his wife. The home-style prescription proved far more costly, though, than he had ever imagined. Seo and dozens of other Koreans from the Washington area have been charged with multiple felony counts for alleged violations of wildlife protection statutes, all swept up in a sting operation run from a sham hunting supply store in the Shenandoah Valley. Investigators say they were aiming to stem the illegal trade in wild ginseng and black bears.... Feds win most competed jobs; contractors troubled Federal workers won nearly 89 percent of 17,595 jobs subjected to contractor competitions last year, according to new data from the Office of Management and Budget. OMB predicts the result of those job contests, aimed at driving market-based competition into the government, should save taxpayers an estimated $1.1 billion over the next three to five years as employees reorganize into more efficient organizations and adopt new technology. Still, there is room for improvement in achieving better value when competing government jobs against the private sector, said the study, “Report on Competitive Sourcing Results,” posted on the OMB Web site May 25.... Editorial: National parks are hurting financially The Bush administration should be honest about our national parks' finances. Instead, officials who oversee the nation's 382 parks and historic sites want to paint a happy face on an increasingly serious problem. Actually, the U.S. Park Service's bosses might win public understanding if they were upfront about how grave the situation has become. For years, the parks have had a $1 billion maintenance backlog. Now, annual revenues may fall $600 million short of what's needed to provide basic services, says The National Parks and Conservation Association, an environmental group.... Editorial: Lands in Need of Care t was clear from the moment they took power that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were determined to greatly accelerate oil and gas drilling on the public lands of the West. Driven by a belief that energy independence could be achieved by aggressive exploitation of the public domain, the administration set its sights on doubling the number of wells on lands controlled by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management and urged the environmental community not to block its efforts with frivolous lawsuits. The truth of the matter is that nobody, including conservationists, challenged the government's right or need to look for oil and gas, given the tight markets for both. All anyone asked for was a balanced approach that would broadly respect the requirements of nature and spare particularly fragile landscapes. To the dismay of some Western governors, fish and game commissioners, ranchers and hunters — many of them lifelong Republicans — the administration has not produced a balanced policy. Both Washington and the regional B.L.M offices have repeatedly made clear their belief that extraction of oil and gas trumps all other uses of the public lands. This being an election year, the administration is making noises about a more nuanced approach, and has begun to reach out to its critics among the ranchers and sportsmen. There are 90 different land use plans or leasing proposals on the table. Four are especially controversial. How they come out will tell much about whether the administration has had a genuine change of heart.... Riders, ranchers seek common ground The debate over the future of the Owyhee Mountains was barely on the Wells family's radar as they spent Sunday enjoying their main weekend pastime, riding motorcycles in Owyhee County. They and the few riders at the popular Hemingway Butte trailhead Sunday morning either supported an effort to protect wilderness, ranchers and motorized access called the Owyhee Initiative, or said they were unaware of it. Motorized users have a seat at the table of the Owyhee Initiative talks, organized by the Owyhee County commissioners to seek a resolution to federal land disputes in the 4.9 million-acre southwest corner of Idaho. Other participants include ranchers, environmental groups and outfitters.... Column: Get serious about energy Oil is the lifeblood of our industrial society. But it's been under attack since the early 1970s. Environmentalists told us we'd all choke from the exhaust fumes back then. Then they lied to us about the dangers of nuclear power and succeeded in shutting down plants and averting the construction of new ones. Then they lied about global warming. Then they lied about the ozone hole. Then they complained about oil drilling in Alaska. Then they complained about drilling for natural gas. Then they complained about oil drilling offshore. Then they complained about reliance on foreign oil and told us we must conserve.... Most Federal Oil, Gas Leases Unproductive Nearly three-fourths of the 40 million acres of public land currently leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States isn't producing any oil or gas, federal records show, even as the Bush administration pushes to open more environmentally sensitive public lands for oil and gas development. An Associated Press computer analysis of Bureau of Land Management records found that 80 percent of federal lands leased for oil and gas production in Wyoming are producing no oil or gas. Neither are 83 percent of the leased acres in Montana, 77 percent in Utah, 71 percent in Colorado, 36 percent in New Mexico and 99 percent in Nevada. How much exploration has occurred on the nearly 30 million acres of non-producing public land leases is difficult to say. BLM officials could provide no details on the number of exploratory wells drilled on those leases, despite repeated requests for that information over the past two months.... EPA weighs new fuel ratings The Environmental Protection Agency is weighing changes to the way it calculates fuel economy ratings posted on new cars and trucks to better reflect real-world driving conditions. The review, which comes as concerns rise over escalating oil prices, could result in lower posted fuel economy ratings and potentially impact sales of profitable but gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs.... Climate disaster 'upon us' Humans have done so much damage to the atmosphere that even if they stop burning all fossil fuels immediately, they risk leaving an impoverished Earth for their descendants, a giant of research in the field will say this week. James Lovelock, who detected the build-up of ozone-destroying CFCs and formulated the Gaia theory now widely adopted by environmentalists and biologists, will tell a conference in Devon: "We have not yet awakened to the seriousness of global warming." The Gaia hypothesis is that life itself regulates the chemistry of the atmosphere, the oceans and the bedrock for life's collective benefit. Any disturbance of the process could have dramatic consequences.... Column: Forget gasoline prices, Texans need to talk water But tell that to the Texans who jammed into a conference room there two weeks ago to listen to representatives of Boone Pickens' water company present their plans for shipping water to the Dallas-Fort Worth area from the Panhandle. Lawyers. Ranchers. Hydrologists. Planners. Environmentalists. They all came. And for a good reason. The marketing of water is central to the lives of North Texans and Panhandle residents.... Sentinel chickens on guard against West Nile virus They cluck, peck at the ground and lay eggs like other chickens. But three flocks of Klamath County fowl are actually undercover agents of public health. Every two weeks, a few drops of blood are drawn from each "sentinel chicken" and tested for three mosquito-borne viruses, including West Nile.... Americans put cash above environment More Americans prefer healthy wallets over protecting the environment, according to a poll by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. Of 1,000 persons polled, 54 percent said that protecting the environment is important, but it is more important to keep the economy growing. Broken down by groups, 52 percent of men and 55 percent of women agreed, as did 59 percent of senior citizens. Republicans topped the group with 67 percent, and Democrats split 48 percent to 45 percent who said protecting the environment should be a top priority, even if that means higher consumer prices. Those who identified themselves as environmentalists were almost evenly divided within the 3 percent margin of error, 43 percent choosing the economy to 46 percent preferring the environment.... Rancher's battle casts shadow over Scripps For five years, Charles Vavrus has watched his ranch near the end of Northlake Boulevard become overrun by exotic trees. The drainage ditches are so covered with brush, he claims they no longer work properly. And birds roost on about 27 miles of neglected fence. The ranch owner was ordered in 1999 to halt most of the agricultural operation on the 4,763-acre tract, after the city filed suit against him for chopping down trees. Just over a third of the ranch is slated to be part of The Scripps Research Institute's biotech village. Vavrus' five-year legal battle with the city has complicated the project, which will transform the ranchland into a village of homes and research-related businesses with a town center.... Ballot issues call for electing game managers Colorado's principal wildlife managers should be elected by voters, not appointed for political reasons, say the authors of two petitions filed with the state for inclusion on the November ballot. Voters, not legislators, also should have the last word on setting resident hunting and fishing license fees. Those are the hopes of a self-described "grassroots" group of sportsmen that believes state wildlife management has grown too much under the thumb of politics and profit.... Drought burns change into farm life A nearly decade-long drought is changing the way Frank Martin does business at Crooked Sky Farms. He still grows organic lettuce, beets, bok choi, cabbage and cauliflower on his 26-acre farm in Glendale, Ariz. But growing water-intensive crops like sweet corn is a thing of the past. The drought is forcing a transformation at many Western farms. Like Crooked Sky, they're shifting to different crops. They're also scaling back their acreage, implementing conservation measures and installing water-saving devices.... Mad Cow-Resistant Bovine Developed Japanese and U.S. scientists have genetically engineered a bovine embryo that is resistant to the deadly mad cow disease and they plan to breed several of the cows to use them to make medicines to treat human diseases, an official said Monday. The embryo was implanted in a cow and is expected be born early next year, said Kumi Nakano, spokeswoman for Kirin Brewery, which diversified recently into pharmaceuticals and jointly conducted the research with U.S.-based biotechnology company Hematech. The cows will not be bred to produce mad-cow-free meat. Instead, blood and milk extracted from them will be used in drugs to fight pneumonia, hepatitis C and rheumatic diseases such as arthritis, for the U.S. market by 2013, Nakano said.... Mexican cowboy tradition taking hold in North Texas The charros were in Wilmer on Sunday to ride horses and bulls, and twirl and toss the lasso. They were also there to preserve and perpetuate the cultural tradition of Mexican cowboys. "We don't want to lose our heritage, especially those of us who're second-generation," said Roberto Silva, the son of Mexican immigrants and secretary and treasurer of the Dallas Charro Association. "The sport is barely starting to grow in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Twelve years ago, we had five charro clubs. Now we have 14.".... The cowboy way Cowboy Roundup USA is a celebration of the area's ranching heritage and the people who made the cattle business what it is today. Keeping in line with its mission, Cowboy Roundup USA will begin recognizing the Rancher of the Year. The recipient will be honored during the Saturday performance of the Coors Ranch Rodeo at the Amarillo National Center, said Quien Stapleton, Cowboy Roundup USA president.... Final-run victory caps Windy Ryon Roping Teddy Johnson pulled off a come-from-behind victory over Rope Myers in the Steer Wrestling Challenge and Guy Allen won his fifth steer roping title as the 30th annual Windy Ryon Memorial Roping came to an exciting conclusion Sunday. Johnson, the reigning world champion, stole the crown when Myers, the 2001 world champion, couldn't hold on to his steer on the final run, taking a time of 30 seconds. Johnson dogged his final steer in 4.8 seconds to finish with 77.1 seconds on eight head to take the win. It was the first time he had led during the match.... It's All Trew: Horse manure stunk up Fort Sumner politics While visiting a museum in Fort Sumner, N.M., I saw a leather license plate with tooled numbers on its face. The curator related this story about the unique item. Back in the horse and buggy days of Fort Sumner, there were a lot of horses tied at the hitch rails on the main street, especially in front of the saloons. In summertime, the odor from droppings became overpowering and drew flies by the cloud. The city fathers forced the town buggy and delivery wagon owners to buy a parking permit using the leather license plate for identification. This income was used to hire a local man to take shovel and wheelbarrow and clean the streets once a day. This was the first city tax enforced....