NEWS ROUNDUP

Report Says Sage Grouse Holding Their Own The sage grouse, a once-abundant game bird under consideration for federal protection, faces serious threats to its survival, a new report says. While sage grouse populations across the West appear to be stabilizing, the report says the bird's habitat is beset by urban sprawl, loud highway traffic, wildfires and drilling operations. The report published by a coalition of state wildlife agencies is the first comprehensive analysis of the sage grouse's status across 770,000 square miles of 11 Western states.... States, Feds Feuding Over How to Handle Resurgent Wolf Population The unexpectedly strong comeback of the wolf in the northern Rockies has created a great snarling and gnashing of teeth, but it's not the sound of the mighty predators bringing down elk or the occasional cow. It's the wrangling over what to do now that wolves have re-established themselves. Since the gray wolf was reintroduced to Wyoming and Idaho in 1995 — eight years after it was brought back to northwestern Montana — the population has grown twice as fast as anyone believed possible. Last summer the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that the process of removing the wolf from the endangered species list could begin, once the three states came up with acceptable management plans to control the population.... N.D. Probes Disappearance of Pelicans Wildlife officials estimate nearly 27,000 American white pelicans have abandoned their summer nesting grounds at the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge north of here. The question is why -- and where they went. "It's like they packed up and left in the middle of the night -- except they didn't pack up, they just left," said Ken Torkelson, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bismarck.... Family of Mexican gray wolves to be rounded up A pair of Mexican gray wolves in New Mexico will be captured and relocated because they moved outside the boundaries of a wolf recovery program and killed a newborn calf. The pair set up territory in the San Mateo Mountains southwest of Socorro, outside the recovery program boundaries along the New Mexico-Arizona state line in southwestern New Mexico. The wolves killed the calf about a month ago. "We have to get them," said John Oakleaf, program field coordinator. The female wolf has given birth to pups, and project workers are trying to determine whether the pups are still alive. Then they will trap the family.... Poisoned meat found in Jackson Poisoned meat bait that has killed or sickened 25 dogs in Wyoming and Idaho now has been found inside the town's limits, leading authorities to rethink their theory that wolves are the main target. In addition, the Wyoming Veterinary Laboratory recently confirmed that two hot dogs found in mid-April in east Jackson contained the pesticide commonly sold as Temik, Rudd said. While it was initially believed the poison baits were an attempt to kill wolves, Rudd said finding them in town could mean whoever is spreading them is less discriminatory.... All Ecosystems Are Equally Productive Under Drought Conditions When push comes to shove, all ecosystems have the same maximum rain-use efficiency, a measure of total plant growth per unit of precipitation. The finding indicates there’s an upper limit to ecosystems’ productivity, said Travis E. Huxman, a plant physiological ecologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He and a team of researchers calculated the upper limit, which they call RUEmax (maximum rain-use efficiency). Life depends on the productivity of plants, Huxman pointed out, adding, “RUEmax defines the limits of that production.”.... BLM to reveal options for up to 500 gas wells The federal government has proposed drilling as many as 500 natural gas wells in and around the San Juan National Forest in the Durango area, drawing criticism from some local activists. In an environmental impact study to be released today, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service, will reveal seven options to develop natural gas in the area. These plans will propose drilling anywhere from 117 to 500 gas wells in the region, covering more than 125,000 acres.... Counties subcommittee drafts new policy on right-of-way claims A new policy on contentious right-of-way claims drafted by a Colorado Counties Inc. subcommittee could be the first step in counties claiming roads across public lands. The Mining Law of 1866, known as Revised Statute 2477, allows governments or individuals to assert right-of-way claims on constructed highways over public lands. But there has been much disagreement on local, state and federal government levels about how the law should be interpreted.... BLM Plans to Ignore Lion’s Share of Public Comments on Otero Mesa Earthjustice notified the Bureau of Land Management today that its decision to refuse the public an opportunity to submit electronic comments via e-mail and facsimile on the proposed oil and gas development on the Otero Mesa is inconsistent with both federal law and the government’s standard practices. On May 19, 2004, BLM issued a supplement to the proposed oil and natural gas development plan for Sierra and Otero Counties, NM, and informed the public of the agency’s intention to accept only U.S. mail comments on the plan. In a letter addressed to Linda Rundell, director of the New Mexico BLM, Earthjustice, The Wilderness Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, and the Southwest Environmental Center informed BLM that refusal to allow electronic comments on the plan interferes with the public’s rights under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the E-Government Act of 2002. Accordingly, the letter demands that the agency post a revised proposed rulemaking by Friday to open up the plan to broader public participation.... BLM says it will take public’s comments via e-mail, fax The Bureau of Land Management says it wants to hear from the public about proposed oil and gas development on Otero Mesa, and e-mails and faxes are welcomed. An agency official responded to criticism from several groups who said the BLM wasn’t accepting comments that were sent in via e-mail and faxes.... Feds Want More Alaskan Land for Drilling The federal governments wants 387,000 more acres available for oil and gas drilling in Alaska, a proposal criticized by environmentalists. The move announced Wednesday is part of a proposed Bureau of Land Management amendment to a 1998 development plan for the northeastern region of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.... Governor protests BLM sale of oil, gas leases in Wyoming Wyoming's governor filed a formal protest this week against an oil and gas lease sale on public lands west of the Wind River Mountains. In so doing, Gov. Dave Freudenthal became the third Western governor in less than a year to challenge the Bush administration's push to develop energy resources in environmentally sensitive areas. Former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt last year requested that 15 new gas wells proposed near the White River in the Book Cliffs be delayed for further study. And earlier this year, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson condemned the Bush administration's plans to expand oil and gas exploration on the Otero Mesa.... Industry Groups Argue for Weakened Clean Water Protections Attorneys for the oil industry filed a motion today seeking to narrow the scope of the federal Clean Water Act as it applies to preventing oil spills in many streams, ponds, wetlands and other waters. Conservation groups that have intervened in the litigation warned that well over half the nation’s waters—ranging from neighborhood creeks and fishing holes to drinking water supplies—could lose federal protection if the oil industry’s argument is successful. At issue in the litigation is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s oil spill prevention program, which is designed to prevent discharges of oil into the waters of the United States, and to contain those discharges if they occur.... FBI Warns of Eco-Terrorism Threat The FBI warned law enforcement agencies of the potential for criminal activity in response to a call for action in support of a convicted eco-terrorist, according to the weekly bulletin issued by the agency and obtained by Fox News. "Supporters of anarchist and convicted arsonist Jeff Luers have designated Saturday, June 12, 2004 an 'International Day of Action and Solidarity with Jeff 'Free' Luers,' alternatively entitled 'J12,'" the FBI said in the bulletin. "J12 events are planned in Eugene, Oregon; Olympia, Washington; San Francisco and Modesto, California; Lawrence, Kansas; Morgantown, West Virginia; Worcester, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; and Lake Worth, Florida.".... Study Ranks Bush Plan to Cut Air Pollution as Weakest of 3 A research firm that the Bush administration commissioned to analyze its plan to lower emissions from coal-fired power plants compared the plan with two competing legislative proposals and concluded in a report released Wednesday that the administration's plan was the weakest. At the invitation of the environmental coalition Clear the Air, the international research firm Abt Associates, which often conducts studies for the Environmental Protection Agency, used the same methodology in assessing all three. It found that the administration's plan, called the Clear Skies Act, would save as many as 14,000 lives but that the other bills would save more - 16,000 in one case and 22,000 in the other.... Column: A Water Grab's Bill Comes Due Water in the West has never made sense, thanks to states drawn with straight lines and watersheds that won't stay put. Then there's California, where hydrology and demography rebound off each other in opposite directions. Two-thirds of the people live in the south, while two-thirds of the surface water is in the north. This mismatch between nature and culture has made the south dependent on water imports, and to some, this is evidence of Southern California's parasitic self-indulgence. Yet northern cities have no reason to be smug, since many of them are water thieves themselves. Two years after Los Angeles had colonized the Owens Valley and begun its desertification, San Francisco performed an even more brazen act of hydrological abduction: It built a dam inside a national park and transformed one of the most scenic valleys in California into a giant bathtub. Yet these same northern cities reacted with self-righteous indignation when the Bush administration recently proposed that residents of San Francisco and other Bay Area communities pay more -- a lot more -- for the right to exploit a national treasure.... Wild West Rodeo High-Tails It Out of China A posse of real-life American cowboys have called off their summer rodeo in the Chinese capital after just a few weeks and ridden off into the sunset. "They left on Sunday, they didn't explain why," said their interpreter. "Their friends drove up and picked them up." The cowboys said the audiences were falling to a trickle because of poor advertising and scheduling, they were being told how to do their job and the paychecks did not always arrive on time. They also said many of the local horses and cattle were too small or too tame to buck.... Future of Tequila Mix equal parts botany, science and Mexican agro-history, then add a jigger of marketing to describe the culture of tequila. Most of us who sip a margarita or savor a fine shot of tequila don't wrap our brains around the complex question of where tequila comes from. Mescal de tequila was the first mescal to be codified and recognized by its geographic origin (Tequila, in the state of Jalisco) and the only mescal known internationally by that name....