NEWS ROUNDUP

Proposed wilderness expansion covers hard-fought ground The 64,000 acres of new wilderness that the U.S. Forest Service wants to create within the area burned by the massive 2002 Biscuit Fire covers ground that has been fought over for more than 20 years by environmentalists trying to put old growth forests off-limits to logging. Earth First! protesters laid down in front of bulldozers in 1983 to stop construction of the Bald Mountain Road through the North Kalmiopsis Roadless Area. Others climbed charred trees to stop salvage logging after the Silver Creek drainage burned in 1987. Environmentalists, however, are far from supportive of the Forest Service's current wilderness proposal, saying it amounts to a trade-off for support to log other parts of the Siskiyou National Forest that should also be protected.... Wilderness proposal comes as a surprise The federal government's call for 64,000 acres of new wilderness was viewed widely Tuesday as intriguing -- and a complete surprise. "There has been no contact either with my staff or myself regarding this. I've not seen maps nor descriptions," said Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio, whose 4th Congressional District includes much of the Southern Oregon landscape scorched in the summer of 2002. The establishment of wilderness areas is not taken lightly.... Angry Cabin Owners To Meet With Forest Service The Peppin Fire destroyed their cabins, and they blame the Forest Service. The nation's largest wildfire so far this year burned 12 cabins and several outbuildings. Residents believe firefighters could have doused the flames when the blaze was only a few dozen acres.... Va. groups turn to Earth First! to combat timbering in Jefferson Anti-logging activists in southwest Virginia will work with environmental group Earth First! on ways to stop a timber sale in the Jefferson National Forest now that their legal and administrative attempts have been denied. The activists, who have been fighting the Bark Camp timber sale in Wise and Scott counties since 1997, this month will learn the finer points of tree climbing, blocking roads and surviving in the woods at a weeklong "action camp" organized by several environmental groups.... Forest Service: Some air tankers could be back in air this summer Some large air tankers that had been grounded over safety concerns could be back fighting fires this summer if their private operators can prove they are safe to fly, federal officials said Wednesday. The Forest Service grounded the 33-plane fleet last month because it had no way to tell if the aging planes were safe. But officials said Wednesday they have worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to develop guidelines to assess the planes' air worthiness. The private companies that operate the military surplus planes will be asked to supply detailed records showing each plane's flight history, maintenance and other information, said Mark Rey, the Agriculture undersecretary who oversees the Forest Service.... Jury returns split verdict in Nevada petroglyph theft case Two men accused of stealing ancient American Indian artwork from a national forest were convicted Wednesday of theft of government property. But in a split verdict, the U.S. District Court jury found the men not guilty of unlawful excavation of archaeological resources. The men's lawyers said they are optimistic the judge will throw out the convictions because the jury didn't follow the judge's instructions on interpreting the law.... Bill would make recreation fees permanent Whether the public should be charged fees to recreate on public lands has been a controversial subject since 1996 when Congress authorized a pilot project to do just that. Now Congress is considering a bill to make the program permanent and create an "America the Beautiful" pass required for entry to federal parks, forests and monuments. And opponents and proponents are weighing in.... Forest Service issues 175 citations for fire restriction violations Coconino spokeswoman Raquel Poturalski said that two-thirds of the 175 Forest Service citations issued this week were for violations of fire restrictions. She said the Arizona Department of Public Safety assisted by flying over forested areas with infrared cameras to help spot violators. The DPS officers radioed coordinates to the Forest Service when they spotted a fire.... Fire, drought dry up Cedar Creek falls The cool, deep, pool of water at the bottom of Cedar Creek Falls is gone. So is the sparkling 100-foot waterfall which dropped to the bottom of the canyon and fed the pool east of Ramona. Both fell victim to the huge Cedar fire, which blazed through central San Diego County last year and scorched the watershed on the lower slopes of the Cuyamaca Mountains. The barren terrain that was left in its wake eroded during the winter and filled the creek and pool with sediment, sand and debris.... Biologists alarmed at disease outbreak in Klamath River salmon The California Department of Fish and Game is worried that a parasite killing young salmon and steelhead migrating down the Klamath River to the ocean could kill hundreds of thousands in coming weeks as flows reduce. Young chinook, coho and steelhead infected with the parasite Ceratomyxa shasta began showing up in traps that sample the annual migration around May 1, said senior fisheries biologist Neil Manji of the department's Redding office. The parasite is found up and down the river, but the cause of the outbreak remains unknown.... Environmental Protection 'Embedded' into Everyday Life on US Military Bases In April, attorney generals from 39 states urged the U.S. Congress to reject a Pentagon proposal that would relax environmental laws on military bases. Since the passage of the Clean Air, Water and Endangered Species Acts in the early 1970s, the Pentagon has had to comply with strict environmental laws governing how it manages its military reservation land. There are more than 425 military installations in the United States, encompassing 12 million hectares of largely undeveloped land.... Timber industry faults report on endangered birds An iconic Northwest seabird’s protection under the federal Endangered Species Act remains in question, after probes by the timber industry into new reports that the bird soon could be extinct in Oregon and Washington. The Portland-based American Forest Resource Council says the findings issued last month by a panel of leading scientists on the marbled murrelet are tilted toward the bird. The forest council’s vice president, Chris West, said some of the scientists are known to advocate murrelet protection, and the new findings frequently cite their own studies.... Companies bid $53.9M for Alaska leases Five oil companies bid Wednesday for the right to develop 1.4 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in the largest onshore federal lease sale in state history. The high bids totaled $53.9 million and covered 123 individual tracts. The highest bid for a single tract was $13.74 million, made by Fortuna Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Calgary, Alberta-based Talisman Energy Inc. "The energy resources of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska are essential to meeting our nation's energy demands," said Henri Bisson, the Bureau of Land Management's Alaska director.... Las Vegas area land prices boom at BLM auction Prices boomed to nearly $280,000 an acre at a Bureau of Land Management auction Wednesday, with 2,532 acres of formerly federal land purchased by developers in fast-growing Clark County. The largest parcel - 1,940 acres in the Henderson hills that received no bids in November - sold for $557 million to the Focus Group, a southern Nevada developer that is earmarking it for a master-planned community.... Governor Murkowski Welcomes Federal Decision on Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Governor Frank Murkowski on Tuesday welcomed the Department of the Interior's recent decision not to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction in the Alaska Peninsula/ Aleutian Islands commercial salmon fisheries, known as the Area M June fishery. In a letter to Murkowski dated May 28, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced the decision and reiterated that "a high threshold for justification would have to be met before a decision to extend jurisdiction beyond Federal lands is made." Norton recognized that "such extraordinary decisions [preempt] a State's authority to regulate within its own jurisdiction." Norton indicated that she "will not risk damaging Federal/State relationships unless there is a clear demonstration that the State's action constitutes a substantial and impermissible interference with a federally protected right.".... Column: "The Day After Tomorrow" The $200-million Summer blockbuster features super-tornadoes smashing LA, hail stones the size of Toyotas falling in Tokyo, waves that wash an oil tanker up Fifth Avenue in New York, and a blizzard that turns Manhattan into Mt. Everest. It’s “Deep Impact” meets Willard Scott. It’s junk science meets disaster films. It’s Chicken Little with brain freeze. It’s – really, really dumb.... Ute tribal members suing agency over right-of-way dispute Three members of the Ute Indian Tribe, including a former Business Committee member, have filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs alleging the BIA has ruined their property by granting rights-of-way to two irrigation companies. In federal court documents, Richard Mountain, Stewart Pike and Floyd Wopsock maintain the BIA "systematically allowed non-Indian irrigation companies . . . to build facilities that trespass on trust lands, divert valuable irrigation water supplies off Indian lands and impair important fisheries expressly protected by Congress."....