NEWS ROUNDUP

Groups' appeal says road plan bad for bears The Lolo, Kootenai and Idaho Panhandle national forests are not taking seriously their obligation to protect grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk ecosystems, environmentalists said in an administrative appeal filed Monday. A new access management plan for the forests closes far too few roads - and roads kill grizzly bears, said the complaint filed by seven environmental groups led by the Missoula-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies. Grizzly bear populations in the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk ecosystems number only about 30-40 animals, so few that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared them warranted for listing as endangered species in 1999.... Military planes to be used to fight forest fires Firefighting agencies will use as many as eight military C-130 planes along with water-carrying helicopters and fixed-wing planes akin to crop-dusters, officials said. It will cost anywhere from $26 million to $40 million to replace the big tankers, including costs to terminate the existing contracts, which had been signed though the 2004 fire season, said Mark Rey, the Agriculture undersecretary who directs forest policy.... Forest Service investigates paintball play More than a dozen lean-to's, wooden barricades and a plastic fence have been erected in about an acre of forest land along the Peaks Trail south of Frisco. Dozens of trees have been marred with paint marks, and hundreds of uncharged paint balls lay on the forest floor in the area. A small table has also been stored in the area. According to Ken Waugh, district recreation staff officer with the Dillon Ranger District, playing paintball is illegal on national forest land.... Oregon biz leaders back roadless-area protections Some of the biggest names in Oregon's corporate world joined with local manufacturers of outdoor equipment Tuesday to call on the Bush Administration to uphold protections for National Forest roadless areas. Nike, Adidas, Salomon, Columbia Sportswear, and seven other outdoor recreation businesses headquartered in Oregon spoke of the importance of wild roadless forests to their customers and their businesses. Paul Kelly, Nike's Global Director of Public Affairs announced, "As a company committed to environmental stewardship and innovation, Nike supports the 2001 Roadless Rule and believes that it is fundamental to maintaining the integrity of some of our country's most beautiful natural areas for the outdoor athletes and enthusiasts of today, and for generations to come.".... Conservation Groups Sue to Protect California Spotted Owl The Center for Biological Diversity and four other groups, represented by Earthjustice, filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for wrongfully denying protection for the California spotted owl under the federal Endangered Species Act. The suit challenges the Fish and Wildlife Service’s February 10, 2003 decision denying protection for the owl, which was in response to a petition filed by the groups. The owl, which inhabits old growth forests in the Sierra Nevada, is threatened by logging on Forest Service and private lands.... USDA Announces Interim Final Rule for Grassland Reserve Program Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman today announced the release of an interim final rule to implement the Grassland Reserve Program (GRP), authorized in the 2002 Farm Bill. The GRP helps landowners restore and protect grassland, rangeland, pastureland, shrubland and certain other lands and provides assistance for rehabilitating grasslands. By issuing an interim final rule with request for public comments, USDA can conduct a program sign-up and implementation this fiscal year, according to the rule. USDA will consider all comments received during a 60-day public comment period in developing a final GRP rule.... Analysis shows Northern spotted owl still declining The latest five-year update on the Northern spotted owl shows the threatened bird is declining faster than ever. The study appears to be a blow to timber industry efforts to loosen restrictions on national forest logging in Washington, Oregon and Northern California to protect fish and wildlife habitat. The study follows another report that found the threatened marbled murrelet in decline. While owl numbers from 1998 to 2003 held steady or declined only slightly in most of the study areas in Oregon and California, they declined so fast in Washington that the population as a whole fell by 4.1 percent, the study found.... Environmentalists seek stronger scrub jay status Just a few birds can halt a fleet of bulldozers, but environmentalists still want more protection for the Florida scrub jay. They hope to slow the destruction of the birds' habitat by forcing the federal government to dub them "endangered." Four environmental groups, led by the Sierra Club, sued to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to change the scrub jay's listing from "threatened," its less-critical status since 1987.... Column: Salmon recovery efforts must be based on science The Pacific Northwest faces a new threat to the long-term survival of our wild salmon runs: environmental policy decisions based on federal politics, not science. The Bush administration proposes in a draft policy to count millions of hatchery fish as part of West Coast wild salmon runs, when in fact they are very different animals. The administration is all but saying that hatchery fish production can make up for land use and industrial actions that destroy salmon habitat and harm water quality for people. The administration is wrong.... Peregrines nest on San Francisco building They've raised families in suburban counties surrounding San Francisco Bay, and nested on the Bay Bridge. Now, peregrine falcons have moved downtown. For the first time in perhaps decades, peregrines have successfully nested on a San Francisco building - the headquarters of utility company PG&E. Two 4-week-old nestlings have been sighted.... State to revisit plover habitat plan Facing increasing criticism from coastal communities, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department said it is reconsidering a plan to restrict public access to 57 miles of state beaches for the protection of threatened populations of Western snowy plovers. Michelle Michaud, a natural resource manager for OPRD, said the state has received a "mixed bag" of comments regarding its proposal to expand beach restrictions for the threatened shorebird. But Michaud added that the majority of the public was concerned about losing access and recreational opportunities on miles of state lands.... Endangered Species Act reconsidered Republicans have introduced at least four bills in the U.S. House or Senate to reform the Endangered Species Act in the current legislative session. And in the last six months, the Bush administration has made two internal decisions, and is considering a third, that change the act. The new slate of legislation differs from other efforts to change the law. Republican legislators now speak of improving the act for the sake of animals, rather than for defending the rights of property owners.... Wolf case becomes battle of which court A territorial dispute of sorts has arisen in the case of four tranquilized wolves, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist and his assistant and criminal charges of trespassing and littering levied against the two. An order of removal has already switched the venue in the case of the State of Wyoming v. Michael Jimenez, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf manager, from Park County to U.S. District Court in Cheyenne. Federal employees are permitted to take state charges filed against them into a federal courtroom. Wes Livingston, a Cody resident who helped Jimenez with wolf-collaring operations, is also entitled to this protection, said attorney Mike Messenger. Though Livingston was arraigned in Park County on Tuesday, Messenger indicated that he was waiting for a federal judge to ship Livingston's case to Cheyenne and that the paperwork could arrive "any minute." But Park County Attorney Brian Skoric plans to challenge the order today.... State Rangeland Database Discussed Ranchers helping each other set fire to their land might sound a bit odd, but popularity of this concept is growing. Ranchers are organizing Prescribed Burning Associations to make prescribed fire a safe, ecologically-friendly tool for managing rangelands, said Dr. Mort Kothmann, rangeland scientist with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. The Edwards Plateau Prescribed Burning Association, organized in 1997, was the first landowner coop. Since then, new chapters have been forming across the state, and in Oklahoma and Colorado. Interest is also building in New Mexico.... Battles brew over land rights Investors in a central Utah company are the largest beneficiaries of a 132-year-old federal mining law that sells mining rights to prospectors for as little as 84 cents an acre, according to data compiled by an environmental group. The records also reflect an ongoing battle between Crippled Horse Investments, a Texas corporation, and the federal government. Crippled Horse is suing the government, trying to force the transfer of more than 23,000 acres in Uintah County near the Colorado border for oil shale mining, despite a moratorium on transfers that has been in place since 1994. The company is scheduled to go before U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene on Friday. At issue is the 1872 Mining Act, a landmark piece of homestead legislation, passed by Congress to encourage starry-eyed prospectors to develop the frontier.... TPL Receives "Four Cs" Award for NM Work In recognition of their outstanding collaborative efforts to protect beautiful landscapes in Northern New Mexico, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) presented the prestigious Four Cs Award to the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national non-profit land conservation organization. The award was presented during a ceremony Friday, May 7, at the Orilla Verde Recreation Area near Taos. BLM Director Kathleen Clarke presented the award on behalf of the BLM.... Rancher fighting feds relents Luther "Wally" Klump, the Willcox rancher who spent a year in prison defying a federal court order to move his cattle off public land, was freed Tuesday after he agreed to round up the herd and not shoot government agents. "I'm ready to remove my cows from the Simmons Peak allotment and withdraw my Second Amendment mandate," Klump wrote in a surrender note to U.S. District Court Judge John Roll.... Sierra Club Endorses Kerry for President The Sierra Club -- the nation's oldest, largest and most influential environmental group -- today endorsed Sen. John Kerry for President of the United States, citing his outstanding leadership in safe-guarding America's air, water and public lands. "John Kerry will provide the environmental leadership that has been sorely missing in the Bush White House," said Sierra Club President Larry Fahn. "His commitment to environmental progress stands in stark contrast to the Bush administration's all-out assault on the environment and its record of putting polluting corporations before the American public's health and safety.... Climate Change Gets a Hollywood Makeover It is just another digitally enhanced disaster movie, but campaigners hope "The Day After Tomorrow," a climate change Armageddon blockbuster, will have a lasting special effect on respect for the planet. 20th Century Fox's $125 million film opens in cinemas worldwide on May 28. Riding on its coat tails is an army of environmentalists hoping it will win new recruits to their cause.... Global Warming Ignites Tempers, Even in a Movie Any studio that makes a $125 million movie about global warming is courting controversy. But 20th Century Fox does not seem to have fully anticipated the political firestorm being whipped up by its film "The Day After Tomorrow." Environmental advocates are using the film's release, scheduled for May 28, as an opening to slam the Bush administration, whose global warming policies they oppose. Industry groups in Washington are lobbying on Capitol Hill to make sure the film does not help passage of a bill limiting carbon-dioxide emissions, which many scientists say contribute to global warming. Meanwhile on Tuesday Fox sparred with celebrity advocates who complained that they had been disinvited to the movie's premiere, only to be reinvited later in the day.... Tribes seeking $1 billion The Klamath Tribes are seeking at least $1 billion in compensation for the loss of salmon runs in the Upper Klamath Basin. An attorney for the Chiloquin-based Tribes said he filed a suit this morning in U.S. District Court in Portland against PacifiCorp, which operates a series of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. Plaintiffs in the suit include the Klamath Tribes, several individual tribal members, and Klamath Claims Committee, a little-known entity that dates to the termination of the tribes in the 1950s.... Fallow land traded for water The Metropolitan Water District approved an agreement Tuesday in which Riverside and Imperial county farmers would be paid to take land out of production so irrigation water could be diverted to urban users in Southern California coastal communities. The 35-year agreement, which will have a startup cost of $100 million, calls for farmers in the Palo Verde Irrigation District to receive steady payments for rotating their crops and making the water from the Colorado River available to 18 million customers from Ventura County to the Mexican border.... Sand, Sagebrush and Spearfishing in the N.M. Desert Fishermen love to tell tall tales but the one about spearfishing in the desert plains of New Mexico is true. Among the white sands, sagebrush and sandstone cliffs, a group of doggedly determined divers earlier this month held what they billed as one of the few spearfishing competitions in the world at the Elephant Butte Lake reservoir -- right in the desert. "People don't believe there's spearfishing in the desert, but there is and it's a very active sport in the state," said desert sportsman Jim Summers, who organized the competition. The reservoir, New Mexico's largest man-made lake, is in a basin region just west of what is called Jornada Del Muerto (the Path of the Dead).... Fishing deal lets ranchers say no to developers' bait Seven miles of prime trout fishing streams that carve through Park County ranchland have been opened to the public this week in an unprecedented deal that open-space advocates say will ultimately save 13,000 acres in danger of being developed. The deal allows anglers who enjoy flyfishing to sign up, pay a fee ranging from $25 to $50 and spend the day along a stream on one of six private ranches. A part of that cash goes to the ranch owner, giving them an income source so they do not have to sell when the developers come knocking. But the best part, anglers say, is that it opens up more fishing access in a state that is losing streams to subdivisions and private-land grabs.... Groups Lash Out at USDA Conservation Plan An Agriculture Department plan to pay farmers and ranchers to protect and improve natural resources will freeze out most potential participants, critics of the plan said Tuesday. Critics said the department was not doing what Congress had wanted with the Conservation Security Program, which would provide money and technical assistance for environmentally friendly land management practices. The program should be open to producers who are eligible, not only to the limited number that USDA proposes, they said.... USDA orders silence on mad cow in Texas The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued an order instructing its inspectors in Texas, where federal mad cow disease testing policies recently were violated, not to talk about the cattle disorder with outside parties, United Press International has learned. The order, sent May 6 by e-mail from the USDA's Dallas district office, was issued in the wake of the April 27 case at Lone Star Beef in San Angelo, in which a cow displaying signs of a brain disorder was not tested for mad cow disease despite a federal policy to screen all such animals.... Continuing Will’s roping legacy Will Rogers used the rope to underline a style of humor that was to become his trademark, his son Will Jr. wrote in the forward to “Will Rogers Rope Tricks” by Frank Dean, rodeo trick roper and author. Frank Dean’s legacy is helping to perpetuate the memory of Will Rogers and the role trick roping played in his career and his life. The Wild West Arts Club Frank Dean-Will Rogers Award was presented to a Mexican charro at International Convention in Las Vegas. Funds left to Will Rogers Heritage Inc. in Dean’s will are used for WWAC trick roping prizes and awards....