NEWS ROUNDUP

U.S. grounds firefighting tankers Just as the 2004 wildfire season is opening, the government on Monday grounded an aging fleet of 33 former military tankers that had been among the biggest weapons in its arsenal for fighting the blazes. The Forest Service and the Interior Department terminated contracts with private companies for use of the planes after the National Transportation Safety Board determined their airworthiness could be not assured. Three such planes crashed between 1994 and 2002, killing seven crew members. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said that, in the wake of the NTSB report, continuing to use the tankers posed "an unacceptable risk" to aviators, ground firefighters and communities near the blazes.... Editorial: During dry times, side with people If one were forced to choose, which species has a greater claim to what little water remains in a region’s drought-depleted reservoirs: human beings or fish? Readers who chose fish over their fellow man should change careers — they have all the common sense it takes to be a federal judge. U.S. District Judge William Downes of Wyoming last week prohibited the U.S. Forest Service from allowing rivers and streams below certain dams in the region to go dry, no matter the time of year, no matter conditions. The ruling could force water authorities all along the Front Range in Wyoming and Colorado to flush precious drinking water from reservoirs in order to accommodate wildlife downstream. Any dams located on national forests could be affected.... 500 Rare butterflies discovered in Ore. About 500 rare butterflies were recently found thriving in the hills west of here, thrilling conservationists who hope the colorful Taylor's checkerspot will fight back from near extinction. The new colony, along with roughly 1,000 butterflies on nearby private and county park land, account for about three-quarters of all Taylor's checkerspot known to exist. The rest are scattered across 10 sites in western Washington.... Column: On the Protection of Species Last week a group of environmentalists and scientists petitioned the federal government protect 225 plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act. Good luck. All those species are already on a list of "candidates" for federal protection. Yet a species can spend years waiting for the federal government to act and provide needed protections. In fact a quarter of the 225 species petitioned have been "candidates" for protection since the 1970s -- the threat of extinction has been hanging over their heads almost since Richard Nixon signed the Act into law. The fact that they haven't already gone extinct is probably pure luck.... Bald eagle poisonings bewilder investigators For more than a decade, someone has been poisoning bald eagles in the mid-Willamette Valley. Since 1991, 18 bald eagles -- including three this year -- have been found dead in a 25-mile radius of Linn, Benton and Lane county farmland. Fifteen had the same poison and sheep meat in their bellies.... Snowmobile town takes 15 percent hit in Yellowstone confusion Resort tax collections here declined more than 15 percent this past winter, and town officials put the blame squarely on confusion over snowmobile rules at adjacent Yellowstone National Park. "This winter was a humbling experience," said Gibson Bailey, a town councilman and gift shop owner.... Once public land goes private Under a 132-year-old federal law, foreign companies have gained control of an estimated 1.2 million acres of federal lands containing gold, silver and other minerals -- an area roughly six times the size of Mount Rainier National Park, a new analysis shows. Together with U.S. citizens and companies, the foreign companies have been able to convert 9.2 million acres of public land to private use, according to a report released yesterday by the non-profit Environmental Working Group. When Congress passed the General Mining Law of 1872, it said the privilege of carting away minerals dug from public land -- and in some cases, buying the land for $5 an acre or less -- was for "citizens of the United States and those who have declared their intention to become such." But an 1898 Supreme Court ruling that gave corporations legal treatment as "persons" effectively overruled that, leaving public lands in the West open to non-American mining companies.... Go here to view the EWG report.... Fossil protection has off-roaders in bind Seen from a distance, the chalky-colored sedimentary layer of earth found in the Pine Nut Mountains southeast of Gardnerville doesn't look like much. Crisscrossed by motorcycle and all-terrain vehicle trails, the soft ground is littered with shotgun shells, discarded tires and beer cans. But the area, inhabited by pinyon pine and juniper and rabbits and quail, is precious ground to paleontologists.... BLM seeking funds to buy land along the Colorado The Moab office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management hopes to win congressional funding for a series of land acquisitions near the Westwater Ranger Station along the Colorado River. BLM officials submitted a proposal for 2006 Land Water Conservation Fund money to buy more than 1,100 acres within the Colorado River Special Recreation Management Area near Westwater, and to purchase a 530-acre conservation easement on privately owned riverfront land downstream of the ranger station.... Road ownership test case hits a bump In the first test of a landmark deal between Utah and the Interior Department to settle disputed ownership of old roads across federal lands, the "Weiss Highway" spanning Juab County has been billed as irrefutably and rightfully the property of the state. But records held by Juab County and the Interior Department show the road was in fact built by federal employees at taxpayers' expense to provide access to federal grazing allotments. And Juab County officials signed away any ownership claim to a major section of the road in a 1936 easement in return for the Interior Department paying the county one dollar. The road was even named for the Department of Interior employee who oversaw its construction, Henry L. Weiss. The origins of the 99-mile route between Jericho Junction and Callao were outlined in testimony filed Friday with the Bureau of Land Management by national conservation groups opposing Utah's request for the federal government to surrender ownership interest in the straight-as-a-preacher gravel road.... Suit would open San Rafael roads A Utah off-highway-vehicle (OHV) advocacy group has filed a lawsuit to force Emery County and Utah to open routes the federal government closed in the San Rafael Swell last May. The Utah Shared Access Alliance (USA-ALL) believes the so-called "San Rafael Swell Route Designation Plan" is an affront to the county's alleged rights to a number of dirt trails and streambeds. USA-ALL last week filed a lawsuit in 4th District Court in Emery County to compel the state, the County Commission and sheriff to "remove all obstructions blocking all RS 2477 highways in Emery County.".... Pack and saddle stock permitted Legislation that would require federal agencies to permit the use of pack and saddle stock on lands they manage was approved by a congressional committee on Wednesday. Representatives Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., and Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., support the legislation, but both fellow lawmakers and Bush administration officials have weighed in against the proposal. The House Resources Committee, which both Cubin and Rehberg serve on, approved the bill, HR 2966, by voice vote. Under the legislation, which is commonly referred to as "Right to Ride" the secretaries of both the Interior and Agriculture departments would be required to "preserve and facilitate the continued use and access of pack and saddle stock animals on such lands where there is a historical tradition of such use.".... Bighorns shot after they strayed Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens have shot six of seven bighorn sheep that wandered from their new home in the Greenhorn Mountains. The sheep were destroyed as part of an agreement established in the environmental assessment the agency put together before reintroducing bighorns into the Greenhorn Mountains a couple of years ago. State wildlife officials want to keep the wild and domestic sheep apart to ensure that the bighorns don't contract a disease and bring it back to the rest of the herd. Ranchers worry about bighorn rams breeding their domestic ewes.... Director turning Sierra Club into political force Carl Pope has helped turn the Sierra Club into a prominent voice in national politics by recruiting new members, lobbying government and motivating voters to think about the environment when they head to the polls. The executive director of the nation's most influential conservation group is plunging deeper into politics this election year, writing a book that accuses the Bush administration of rewriting regulations to help polluters and stripping protections for 235 million acres of wilderness.... Monsanto drops GM wheat projects The St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. quietly and unexpectedly said Monday it is stopping all efforts to commercialize its genetically modified wheat. Monsanto, the world's biggest seller of genetically modified seeds, started field testing its GM wheat in 1997. In 2002, Monsanto wheat had been modified to resist the company's own herbicide, RoundUp, but it faced worldwide opposition from farmers, food manufacturers, environmentalists and consumers.... EPA issues rules cutting pollution in construction and farming vehicles and equipment Pollution is expected to be sharply reduced from off-road vehicles and equipment ranging from forklifts to farm tractors to tugboats under regulations announced Monday by the Bush administration. The Environmental Protection Agency will issue a final rule Tuesday that requires refiners to remove nearly all the sulfur in diesel fuel used by these off-road engines. The rules are aimed at cutting their tailpipe releases of smog-causing chemicals and fine soot by more than 90 percent. Off-road vehicles used in construction, farming, industrial plants, and airports account for one-quarter of all the smog-causing nitrogen oxide and nearly half of the fine soot from mobile sources, according to the EPA.... Editorial: America's mad cow hypocrisy Canadian beef is every bit as safe as American meat, and very likely safer. Canadian BSE testing standards meet or exceed international standards set by the final authority on such screening, the World Animal Health Organization's Office International des Epizooties (OIE). This year, veterinarians and animal pathologists in Canada will test the brains of more than 8,000 high-risk animals that are brought for slaughter or die prematurely on farms and ranches. That's nearly triple the pre-BSE level. And next year, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency expects to increase that again to 30,000 animals. The national network of eight federal, provincial and university veterinary pathology labs responsible for animal testing have all added more staff, purchased more equipment and reformed their testing procedures to ensure suspicious cattle are tested promptly and their disease status determined in days rather than weeks. The OIE still wishes the Canadian government would ban the use of feed made from cattle by-products for non-ruminants such as pigs and chickens, but it has complimented Canada for one of the swiftest responses to BSE it has ever seen. The Americans, by contrast, have yet to establish a laboratory network to conduct tests. Indeed, there are troubling signs that they would prefer not to find any BSE cases that may plague their own herds. Last week, reports emerged that the carcass of a "downer" cow was destroyed at the Lone Star Beef packing house in San Angelo, Tex., before its brain could be sent for BSE testing at a federal laboratory. Even though the cow exhibited classic symptoms of BSE, its remains were rendered before tissue samples could be taken. The New York Times reported last Thursday this was likely done under orders from the USDA's regional office in Austin, Tex., and that USDA inspectors have been coming forward across the United States with stories about supervisors who have encouraged them to look the other way as high-risk animals are destroyed.... Cattlemen Have Beef With USDA Signals on Canadian Imports Let's just say the regulators at the Department of Agriculture stepped in some cow dung. Last week, the Bush administration admitted that it did not follow regulatory procedure in deciding what Canadian beef products can come into the country legally. This caused three problems. It called public attention to a highly contentious issue. The administration's effort to normalize trade relations in Canadian beef may be sidetracked. And the final rule that the USDA currently is working on to expand beef imports from Canada will be scrutinized even more closely by opponents in the wake of the infection called mad cow disease being discovered in Canada and the United States. The issue turned out to be one that shed light on how regulators have used rulemaking -- or in this case, avoided rulemaking -- to manage the political and food safety ramifications of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in this country....Senator slams USDA's mad cow plan U.S. Senator Tom Harkin sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman Monday criticizing the U.S. Department of Agriculture's mad cow testing plan. Referring to a recent incident in Texas, in which a cow with symptoms consistent with mad cow disease was not tested, the Iowan Democrat said the case "calls into question the effectiveness and reliability of USDA's current and proposed surveillance system.".... King’s Saddlery: Tack and much more The narrow building front of King’s Saddlery in Sheridan, Wyo., looks like a nondescript Western store. Inside, Western artifacts and Wyoming memorabilia line the walls and the displays of rodeo tack, polo equipment, boots, hats and accessory items belie the first impression. Friendly clerks greet us with, “Good morning, how are you today?” Our main interest here is to see the rope-making process, saddles and museum. Don King is famous for making saddles and lariats that are the favorites of ranchers and cowboys around the world. Three of his four sons, all of whom are former individual and team-roping champions, are in the business with Don. The other son, Bill, is in real estate. Dan Morales greets us with a smile and drops what he is doing to give us a tour of the rope-making process. Coiled ropes hang over pegs that reach from floor to ceiling. Dan explains the different fibers, sizes, lengths and uses for the variety of ropes. Downstairs he takes us through the rope making process.... It's All Trew: Domino, pool parlors were pre-TV entertainment I apologize at the start if I step on a few toes. I've been asked to write about old-time pool halls and domino parlors which in the Trew family was strictly off-limits. If you frequented such establishments you were considered lazy and a wastrel o' time. (My grandma's exact words.) These legitimate businesses go way back in history especially in areas where men worked in shifts around the clock. Mines, manufacturing plants and night work was usually done by single men who eventually had a little spare time and nowhere else to go....