NEWS ROUNDUP

Wildfire forecast from bad to worse Months ago, national fire managers predicted the 2004 wildfire season would be a bad one in the West. Now, they're changing their forecast: It's going to be worse. With unseasonably warm temperatures in March and April, the potential loss of heavy air tankers for safety reasons and a years-long drought continuing, Western states and the federal government are facing the possibility of another devastating fire season.... Fish kill mystery at 3 lakes has scientists playing detective Perplexing fish die-offs at three lakes along the Salt River during the past two months have scientists and others playing detective. There was a fish die-off at Apache Lake during March, one at Canyon Lake around April 27 and the latest was in Saguaro Lake May 5. Another die off was reported at Apache Lake on May 18. Authorities are actively investigating the die-offs. Larry Riley, the fisheries chief for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, says department biologists are working closely with scientists from other agencies, experts from Salt River Project, and university scientists to solve the mystery.... Column: Off-road vehicles are chewing up our public lands It's hard to find anybody these days who would even try to argue that off-road vehicles don't damage public lands throughout the West. The U.S. Department of Agriculture concluded in 1999 that "with an increase of off-highway vehicle traffic, i.e., motorcycles, four-wheel drive vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service have observed the spread of noxious weeds, user conflicts, soil erosion, damage to cultural sites and disruption of wildlife and wildlife habitat.".... Column: The off-highway vehicle debate revs up I've had motorcycles in some form, on- or off-road, since I was 11 years old. That's how I went fishing or just exploring, dodging logging trucks as I gallivanted through the Flathead National Forest in Montana. It was, and still is, great fun; try it sometime. That's not to say that there aren't problems with motorized recreation. Most things worth having -- motorcycles, guns, automobiles, ORVs, chainsaws, power tools, snowmobiles, cell phones -- all share a common trait. Stupid people shouldn't have them, and there's the rub.... Wild Rogue, but with rules Today, a feud roils the river, pitting muscle-powered watercraft that run with the wild currents against powered jet boats that whiz up and down the rapids. In between the two crowds are federal custodians who are trying to accommodate both sides as they rewrite existing rules. Three jet-boat tours -- two in Gold Beach and one in Grants Pass -- carry 114,000 passengers a year on 36- to 104-mile trips ranging in price from $28 to $75 a person. On the busiest summer day, the three companies can launch 47 jet boats that must thread between flotillas of rafts and kayaks.... Grizzly shot, killed A man reportedly shot and killed a grizzly by accident Saturday afternoon on the west side of Hungry Horse Dam. The man reportedly notified a Forest Service officer of the shooting. The officer called a game warden from Fish, Wildlife and Parks to investigate. This is black-bear season, when hunting the bruins is legal. But killing a grizzly, even by accident, is a crime. The state recently tightened up regulations for black-bear hunting, requiring hunters to pass a bear identification test before they receive a license.... Comeback of grizzly in Utah is unlikely Bear proponents working to recover the grizzly bear in the northern Rocky Mountains doubt the creature will make a comeback in Utah. Even Dick Carter, a Utah environmentalist who has talked for decades about restoring the grizzly, is running out of hope. Carter said there is "ample" territory in Utah for grizzly bears in the Uinta Mountains, the Bear River range northeast of Logan and in the Book Cliffs. What the grizzly cannot overcome, he said, is intolerance by humans..... Tucson Earth First! Shuts Down Fish and Game Office Members of Chuck'shon Earth First! disrupted "business as usual" at the Tucson offices of Arizona Game and Fish for nearly an hour today. Wearing mountain lion masks, banging drums and holding banners reading "Fire the liars" and "Keep Arizona wild," the group made several demands including the release of the captured lion, a change to the mountain lion management plan and the resignation of Game and Fish Regional Supervisor Gerry Perry in response to what EF! claims as the agency's "mismanagement of wildlife". The recent assassination of a mountain lion May 16 in the Santa Catalina Mountains and one near Sonoita added to the frustration and anger of people already upset over the capture of a female lion on April 9, which is now caged in Scottsdale at the Southwest Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.... Wyoming strategizing to be more aggressive in initial wildfire attacks With a potentially explosive wildfire season looming, military helicopters might be stationed near extremely dry forests in hopes of snuffing blazes before they rage out of control. Gov. Dave Freudenthal is "extremely supportive" of the plan to position Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopters near tinder-dry woodlands, said Ray Weidenhaft, fire management officer for the state Forestry Division. The state, struggling with drought for a fifth straight year, is ripe for major forest and grasslands fires this summer. Weidenhaft said the Black Hawks can drop water and bring firefighters to mountainous areas that are difficult to reach.... Senator's block of nursery bill may be payback An action by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., to delay the Bend Pine Nursery bill may be payback for what she considers a broken promise by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to help her pass one of her own pet projects. Murray placed a hold on the bill after the House passed it on Monday, blocking a legislative maneuver by Walden and Sens. Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden to speed the bill through the Senate. Senators are allowed to stop action on a bill indefinitely, and may do so anonymously, by asking that the measure be held. "Sen. Murray did place a hold on the Bend Pine (Nursery) legislation and she hopes the hold sends a signal to committee leaders in the House that passage of her Wild Sky legislation is of the utmost importance," said Mike Spahn, Murray's press secretary.... Additional cougar contacts expected A U.S. Forest Service biologist believes mountain lion encounters will continue this summer and could result in more public lands closures. No forest closures are planned, Forest Service biologist Josh Taiz told the Tucson Citizen, but he is concerned about such incidents. As more people head to the cooler environs of the Santa Catalina Mountains to escape summer temperatures, he hopes to post more warning signs along mountain trails.... Free FEMA book helps homeowners Disaster officials are offering mountain residents a free book to help them defend their homes against wildfires. Titled At Home in the Woods: Lessons Learned in the Wildland/Urban Interface, the 136-page book cuts across genres. Released Friday by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it contains a history of combating the Rocky Mountains' major forest fires since 2000, a textbook on the science of wildfires, and a how-to manual for homeowners on cutting defensible space around their homes.... Hatcheries Try to Get Natural Such begins the process of a new kind of salmon hatchery a model that federal fishery managers hope to see duplicated across the Pacific Northwest. By carefully culling wild fish to spawn the next generation at the Cle Elum hatchery, then rearing the fish in a way that mimics the natural environment as closely as possible, Yakama Nation fishery managers hope to jump-start a population that may someday regenerate on its own in the wild. "That's the right path for hatcheries," said Bob Lohn, regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.... Hatchery habitat hasn't helped A century of experience has shown that hatcheries haven't replaced the salmon lost to overfishing and massive habitat changes, and many scientists believe they're doing more harm than good. Hatcheries have been rooted in the Pacific Northwest for more than a century, originally to compensate for overfishing and, later, to offset the effects of hydroelectric dams. Hatchery-raised fish now account for the overwhelming majority of salmon and steelhead returning to spawn in the Columbia River. So far, the results have been less than sterling.... Column: The 86 percent solution ON MAY 13, in yet another arrogant ruling, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stopped the development of the Blue Rock Country Club project on Walpert Ridge in Hayward -- and ruined plans to begin building Hayward's first new elementary school in 40 years. Ditto a golf course and 614 new homes. The court was unmoved by a friend of the court brief filed by the Hayward Unified School District, which begged the bench to not stop the project, lest it jeopardize $8.5 million in state school-bond construction funding. Thanks to the Ninth Circuit, Hayward children can remain in temporary classrooms. They are hostage to environmentalists and activist Sherman Lewis, who decries "car-ism" (also known as driving) and building new homes and "elite" golf courses in the foothills. Armed with federal Endangered Species Act protections for the California red-legged frog and the Alameda whip- snake, they were able to scuttle grading for the development, which was supposed to begin last week.... Grizzly bears clawing their way back in West But Ursus arctos horribilis -- the West's most rugged of individualists, once pushed to the brink of extinction -- is making a comeback in and around Yellowstone National Park, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Sometime next year, the agency is expected to issue a formal proposal for removing the Yellowstone area grizzlies from the endangered species list.... Column: Hiding behind science The Bush administration is under attack from scientists and advocacy groups for misusing science to advance its political agenda. In other words, the problem with these attacks on the Bush administration is that they hide behind the sanctity of science to advance an agenda that is itself political. What we do, or don't do, about global warming (or stem cell research, regulation of toxic chemicals, protection of endangered species . . .) will be a reflection of how we choose among competing values, and making such choices is not the job of science, but of democratic politics. Science can alert us to problems, and can help us understand how to achieve our goals once we have decided them; but the goals themselves can emerge only from a political process in which science should have no special privilege. But neither the Bush administration nor its scientific critics want to give up on the pretense that these controversies are about science.... Panthers on the Prowl: Florida's big cats rebound They're elusive and sightings are rare, but nearly three times as many Florida panthers now roam the wilds of South Florida than 20 years ago. Efforts to bring the panther back from the brink of extinction produced dramatic success. Breeding and genetic restoration projects were accomplished. Vast tracts of habitat were saved. From an estimated 30 panthers, officials say the population now numbers at least 87, not including kittens. The birth rate has outpaced the number of panthers that die in auto collisions, but biologists say territorial fights are a bigger and just as lethal threat.... Editorial: Species spicer An environmental group is offering up a few pounds of honey to help counteract that vinegar taste the Endangered Species Act leaves in the mouths of many landowners. The focus on incentives and cooperation is a welcome change from confrontations, legal briefs and the adversarial jockeying that species protection too often involves. The Environmental Defense (formerly Environmental Defense Fund) recognizes that there won't be enough places for species recovery without private land, so it has launched a $10 million multiyear program that aims to win the cooperation of private landowners, says Colin Rowan of Environmental Defense.... One Man's Cuddly Critter Is Another Man's Varmint Do you love the idea of wild wolves howling in the woods? If you answer yes, the odds are you don't live in the woods, argues Lenore Hardy Barrett, a Republican state representative from Challis, Idaho, who thinks wolves were banished from the West for good reason. Ms. Barrett, and many ranchers in the region, are fighting the federal government's reintroduction of breeding pairs into Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. "After we cleared them out 35 years ago or whenever, why would we want them back?" she said. "They were in conflict then, and there are more people now." But the fact is many species that have been brought back from the brink are the same ones people have tried their hardest to kill off. And those messy relationships are growing more tangled all the time on a crowded planet where battles are inevitable over which species are worth fighting to save.... Lessons from the Wolf In the dead of winter in 1995 the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service brought 14 wolves into Yellowstone by truck and sleigh. Gray wolves (Canis lupus) from Canada, these were the first to call Yellowstone home since the creatures were hunted out of existence there early in the 20th century. A year later 17 more Canadian wolves were added. Biologists hoped that the reintroduction would return the mix of animals to its more natural state. They expected, for instance, that the wolves would cull many of the elk that lived in the park. When the wolves--once the region's top predator--were gone, the elk population had burgeoned. And the new generation of Canis behaved as predicted. Sixteen packs of wolves, each composed of about 10 animals, now roam the park, and each pack kills an average of one elk a day. The elk population, which had swollen to 20,000 by the 1990s, is now less than 10,000.... Adirondack wolf spawns many theories Two years later, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took tissue for genetic analysis and concluded it was pure gray wolf. That quickly raised questions: Had a loner wandered down from the upper Midwest or Canada? Did humans release it? Was the lab report inaccurate? And the big one: Had timber wolves already come back? Wildlife biologists and advocates agree they haven't, that populations would be noticed, like in the West and upper Midwest. Wolves tend to live in small packs, move around, vocalize frequently and hunt. But the kill has touched off a new round of debate over whether to bring the wolf back to New York.... Group: Bush Muzzling U.S. Park Officials The Bush administration is muzzling national park superintendents by ordering them not to stray in public comments from a list of rosy stances on budget matters, an advocacy group says. National Park Service officials acknowledge providing "talking points" to help guide employees but say that's standard practice and insist that no policy prevents superintendents from being candid.... Burning Man festival wins two-year permit for Nevada desert After facing scant opposition, Burning Man organizers have secured a two-year permit to stage the counterculture festival on the Northern Nevada desert. Bureau of Land Management officials said the gathering that has generated considerable controversy in the past prompted complaints from only a few people this year.... Lawsuit alleges CBM pollutes air Yet another federal lawsuit has been filed over coalbed methane gas development in Wyoming and Montana, this time focusing on air quality issues. "We know we are going to have a large-scale increase in coalbed methane development. We know it leads to increases in air pollution, we know the government -- by its own analysis -- has predicted there's going to be violations of the Clean Air Standards," said Anne Hedges, program director for the Montana Environmental Information Center.... Energy plan draws lawsuit A 33-million-acre energy development spanning the Wyoming-Montana border will violate federal health standards and cloud the skies of national parks and wilderness areas 190 miles away, several environmental groups contended last week in a federal lawsuit. If unchecked, energy development could take an area with some of the cleanest air in the world and make it worse than a major city, said Colorado lawyer Robert E. Yunhke, who filed suit for the Environmental Defense and the National Wildlife Federation, among others. Greens drop protest; natural-gas exploration to begin A Denver-based energy company today will begin a controversial natural-gas exploration project near Nine Mile Canyon after environmentalists abandoned their attempt Friday to stop it. Bill Barrett Corp. is expected to begin laying seismic lines on the West Tavaputs Plateau to pinpoint the best locations to drill for an estimated 66 billion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. Steve Bloch, attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), said his client on Friday withdrew its motion for an injunction after the company agreed to delay exploration activities in two areas that SUWA and other environmental groups have proposed for wilderness protection.... Water Editorial: State needs a system of checks and balances Boone Pickens' people came calling last week. Representatives of his Mesa water company presented their plan to sell water from the Panhandle to North Texas counties. They made their appeal to the group chartered with planning this region's water needs. The panel – which consists of municipal leaders, water district managers, environmentalists, ranchers and industry representatives – has a financial responsibility to consider the plan. North Texas has to explore many options. If we're going to consider a new reservoir, then by all means we should study piping in water from the Panhandle. Of course, buying and selling water is controversial.... EPA plan to improve air quality at parks won't work, critics say After nearly 30 years, the federal government has little to show for its efforts to reduce the haze that obscures the views at many national parks, a problem that was singled out for attention in 1977 under the Clean Air Act. Saying it was time for results, the Bush administration took aim at the matter last month, issuing a regulation that requires power plants and other polluters to install technology to curb emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, the two main contributors to the haze that often shrouds spectacular vistas in an impenetrable brown cloud. But no sooner was it announced than the regulation became mired in controversy, with environmentalists saying the watered-down rule would have little effect.... 24 ranch elk to be killed, tested for CWD State agriculture officials said they will soon kill more than two dozen elk at a northwestern Colorado ranch and test them for chronic wasting disease before determining the herd's future. The decision not to destroy all 200 elk at the Motherwell Ranch, near Craig, represents a shift in Colorado's disease-control policy. Previously, entire herds were slaughtered and tested after discovery of even a single case of the fatal brain- wasting disease in order to prevent the spread of the disease to wildlife.... City can buy farmers' water Area farmers will soon be allowed to sell irrigation water to the city of El Paso under an agreement approved Saturday by the El Paso Public Service Board. The agreement could provide needed water to the city, especially after several years of river drought, as well as recognize the farmers' right to sell water allotted to them that they do not want. Under the agreement, which comes after years of negotiations between El Paso Water Utilities and the board of the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1, farmers will be allowed to sell as much as 85 percent of their allotted irrigation water to the city at market value, now about $200 per acre-foot....