NEWS ROUNDUP

Locals lobby for Forest changes They are captured in a video prepared by a group of Douglas County business and community leaders who are frustrated by a slow political process that does not allow land managers to immediately clear out dead wood and replant damaged forests. Calling themselves Communities for Healthy Forests, the 15 core committee members hope to promote a grass-roots effort that represents the people. The video, presented to a crowd at Monday's Roseburg Area Chamber of Commerce noon forum at the Holiday Inn Express, is the first step in spreading the group's message throughout Oregon, the West and hopefully across the country to Washington, D.C.... Firefighters Criticized For Saving Turkey and Eggs During New Mexico Wildfire Firefighters who saved a wild turkey and her eggs while fighting the Peppin Fire near Capitan, N.M., are being criticized by at least one property owner who charged they did not do enough to save 12 cabins that burned down. Paula Cairns, of Boerne, Texas, who owns one of the destroyed cabins, said she was angry that forest officials publicized they had saved the turkey but said little about the destruction of her family's cabin. "We were flabbergasted (when we heard about the turkey). We felt like it was very insensitive, that no efforts were made to preserve our area of the forest. We would have loved for them to come in and do a fire line around our area," said Cairns, whose family has owned the cabin for more than 50 years.... Politics hold sway in Biscuit logging, wilderness plan Nine days before the U.S. Forest Service announced an unprecedented blueprint for restoring slopes burned by the Biscuit fire, the president's point man on national forests slipped into Portland to share sushi with a political adversary. Inside a private tatami room at the Sinju Restaurant in the Pearl District, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey told Josh Kardon, chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, of the government's decision to take truckloads of blackened trees from the Siskiyou National Forest. The plan for the first time would allow loggers into roadless forests in the Lower 48 states set aside by President Clinton. That is just the sort of approach that earned President Bush low marks from environmental groups and Democrats such as Wyden. But Rey had brought a sweetener, something that Wyden and Gov. Ted Kulongoski had been pushing for: more protected wilderness.... Cleaning up after old-time miners Brown scum floats on the beaver pond at the top of American Fork Canyon. While the iron oxide occurs naturally, it would not have found its way into the pond without mining. The pond is fed by a small but rapidly flowing water source emerging through an earthern plug that seals the abandoned Pacific Mine.... Fees to use public land taking hike The sticker shock hit Tom Younger with all the impact of a Super Slam arrow. When the president of Columbine Bowmen received the bill for the annual special use permit on U.S. Forest Land on the Rampart Range just southwest of Denver, he nearly fell to the floor of his Fort Lupton home. The $240 fee the club had paid for nearly four decades to operate an archery range on 60 acres of national forest had, in one fell swoop, escalated to $7,560.... Is wolf comeback waning? After flourishing for a quarter-century in the forests of northeast Minnesota, the timber wolf population in the state has peaked and may be shrinking. That change in direction has surprised wildlife experts and defied earlier predictions that protection offered by the Endangered Species Act would allow the wolf to spread across the state.... Column: The Great Refinery Shortage There are plenty of reasons gas costs so much, but one of them is that the United States doesn't have enough refineries. The National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association says that the last new refinery built in the United States was Marathan Ashland's Garyville, La., plant—and it was completed in 1976. According to this report, between 1999 and 2002 refining capacity in the United States rose only 3 percent, squeezing up prices since demand grew much faster than that. Who's to blame for the fact that refining supply can't keep up with our thirst for oil? Probably you.... 10,000th Salmon Saved From Drying Creeks The month of May saw the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) and its volunteers rescue their 10,000th endangered salmon from drying creeks and release it into a safe flowing stretch downstream. This marks a milestone that began six years ago when SPAWN discovered water levels dropping in important "nursery habitat" leaving coho salmon and steelhead trout juveniles dying in the evaporating pools located in the Lagunitas Watershed's, San Geronimo Valley in Marin. "We are just giving these fish one more fighting chance to survive in their habitat, which we have altered to the fish's detriment," said Todd Steiner who directs SPAWN and galvanized this effort. "These fish would meet certain death without our intervention.".... Big Hole ranchers offered $1 million to keep water in river The federal government is offering to pay Big Hole Valley ranchers $1 million to leave their irrigation water in the river. The goal is to leave enough water in the stream to protect the fluvial arctic grayling. The upper Big Hole is the only place in the lower 48 states where those rare fish still live.... Wolf turns up dead in Colorado A young wolf from a Yellowstone pack was found dead along Interstate 70 west of Idaho Springs on Saturday, the first confirmed wild wolf in Colorado in 69 years. The appearance of the female wolf, designated No. 293, was confirmation that Yellowstone wolves, reintroduced in 1995, are attempting to establish new territories hundreds of miles from home. Wolves have been sighted in southern Wyoming for the past two years, but 293's appearance so deep into Colorado astounded even one of the country's top wolf biologists.... Editorial: Myths and truths about wolves The howls echoing across Colorado are humans reacting to the appearance of a lone wild wolf in our state. Depending on the person, the outcry signals either love or hate. What's needed, though, is more understanding of the facts and less fighting over the myths. The discovery doesn't mean wolves have re-established a viable population in Colorado. It does, however, confirm biologists' predictions that the species is working its way south from Wyoming. When will a full-fledged wolf pack make its home permanently in Colorado? It could be next year, or it could take a decade.... Elk devouring future of beavers, wetlands The industrious beaver, nature's supreme wetlands engineer, is having a tough time recolonizing its former strongholds. During the early 20th century, hundreds of the large rodents paddled through ponds of their own making in the park's high valleys that flank the Continental Divide. But recent studies suggest beavers now number no more than several dozen. Trapping once was a major cause of the beaver's decline in Rocky Mountain National Park. But now beavers have run into a different problem. Elk..... OHV group drops suit over roads An off-highway-vehicle group has dropped its lawsuit against Emery County and Utah, which the group accused of shirking their duty to protect road rights of way on federal lands. The Utah Shared Access Alliance (USA-ALL) filed a lawsuit May 3 in 7th District Court to force the county and state to open routes in the San Rafael Swell that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had closed to motor vehicles. The group last week withdrew its action, apparently after becoming satisfied that the state and county are doing their jobs.... Column: Taking a look at genetic diversity For the multitude of plants, animals and insects living in British Columbia and Pacific Northwest forests, there is no reason to believe that logging or the many forms of natural disturbance result in a net loss of genetic diversity. The numerous species of ferns, mosses, lichen, and fungi are so prolific and widespread that it is hard to imagine inbreeding or temporary local loss of habitat as a serious threat. For the trees and other plants there are nearly always some seeds or seedlings ready to spring back to replace the old forest. These contain the genetic material of their parents. Most birds, mammals, and other animals either escape to surrounding forest or adapt to the new environment. Some species, such as salamanders, will survive in reduced numbers initially but there is no evidence that their genetic diversity is lost as they eventually recover in the new forest. Other species, such as field mice, will increase in numbers after logging but there is no reason to suspect significant change in the genetic make-up of the population. Most genetic work with trees simply involves controlled breeding programs using normal sexual reproduction by fertilizing seeds with pollen.... Grand Canyon is ailing, but panel can't agree on a prescription But all is not well in this crown jewel of America's national park system. The salt cedar and trout are invaders, part of a wave of alien fish and plants that have moved in and devoured or crowded out the native species. The sandy shorelines are washing away. And once-buried Indian archaeological sites are slipping into the river. The Grand Canyon is in deep trouble, and the government-appointed panel assigned to come up with solutions is torn by competing interests and cannot muster the political will to act decisively.... Activists seek rules to prevent whale collisions Environmentalists looking to protect whales from collisions with ships in Alaska and on the West Coast hope to import proposed East Coast restrictions. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking that calls for tighter restrictions on vessels to reduce ship strikes on the North Atlantic right whale along the East Coast. The notice was published in the Federal Register June 1. NOAA will take comments until Aug. 2. Environmentalists say NOAA should issue a rule that applies to the coasts off Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington because of problems with whale strikes.... Montana recommends bison hunt State wildlife officials are recommending allowing a limited hunt of bison that leave Yellowstone National Park in search of winter forage. Ranchers and livestock industry officials worry that wandering bison could transmit disease to cattle. Allowing hunters to shoot up to 25 bison each winter was the preferred alternative in an environmental assessment released Monday by Montana's Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.... Japan PM Has 'Banned' U.S. Beef for Lunch with Bush Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, showing he himself had no qualms about U.S. beef -- banned in Japan due to concerns over mad cow disease -- ate beef tenderloin when he lunched with President Bush (news - web sites) on Tuesday. "The beef was delicious. And the prime minister ate it too," said a senior Japanese official who accompanied Koizumi to the lunch at the Georgia resort of Sea Island ahead of the Group of Eight nations summit....