NEWS ROUNDUP

D.C. judge denies venue change A Washington, D.C., judge has rejected a request that a lawsuit led by Montanans for Multiple Use against the Flathead National Forest be moved to a federal court in Montana. Environmental groups that have intervened in the case wanted it moved to Missoula. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Roberts rejected that request on Friday....
Edwards Praised by Sierra Club for Environmental Leadership John Edwards is a leader on protecting Americans' health and safety. In a 2003 Earth Day release Edwards stated, "our country needs real leadership on many critical issues: safeguarding the water our children drink, preserving our national parks and forests, and achieving energy independence while addressing dangerous climate changes are just a few." In the Senate, Edwards has built a strong record on these and other environmental issues....
Rainbows celebrate 'Interdependence Day' Members of the Rainbow Family gathered Sunday in the South Warner Mountains in the Modoc National Forest for its annual communion while the rest of the nation celebrated Independence Day. "We look at this as our day of interdependence," said a 30-something who has taken the name Aviathar, but goes by Vee. "We recognize how dependent we are on each other." Forest Service officials put the gathering's attendance at approximately 16,000 people, admitting the estimate was probably low....
Environmentalists rally in Medford against Biscuit salvage About 200 people rallied Tuesday in Medford to call on the US Forest Service to drop salvage logging plans for the Biscuit fire. Jasmine Minbashian of the Northwest Old Growth Campaign says the plan to log burned timber was a trojan horse for outdated ideas of how to deal with forests and fire....
Forest Service releases plan for historic OTO dude ranch The Forest Service wants to keep the historic OTO dude ranch near Yellowstone National Park a low-key place and protect the buildings. The plan for Montana's first dude ranch became formal with release of an environmental assessment subject to public comment until Aug. 1. The OTO became public property 14 years ago, and Gallatin National Forest officials have been trying to figure out what to do with it....
Decade after Storm King tragedy, families gather to pay tribute Parents and children of the 14 firefighters killed when a wildfire exploded and trapped them on Storm King mountain 10 years ago returned to the site of the tragedy today to remember their loved ones. "It's kind of bittersweet, but it's nice to see the other families," said Kathy Brinkley, whose son Levi died in the fire....
Corps agrees to BPA's summer dam spill plan A federal plan that continues to protect Columbia Basin fish while reducing summer spill at four Columbia and Snake river dams was given the go-ahead Tuesday by Brig. Gen. William T. Grisoli, Northwestern Division Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps decision cites a favorable findings letter issued by NOAA Fisheries that concludes the proposed spill and flow modifications meet the needs of affected fish listed under the Endangered Species Act....
Western Governors Say Wait on Sage Grouse Listing Eleven western governors have asked federal authorities not to grant a special protected status to the greater sage grouse -- a move that could threaten oil and gas drilling in the Rocky Mountains -- until local groups finish studying the issue, officials said on Tuesday. The governors in a letter to the service said local communities were already taking steps to protect the sage grouse and that 64 local groups had been formed to study the problem. "In the West, we are witnessing an unprecedented conservation effort," the governors said in their letter....
Editorial: Stop grousing, Norton, about protecting bird The Rio Grande has its silvery minnow. The Pacific Northwest has its spotted owl. And now the Western prairie - including New Mexico - might have its sage grouse. Last month, during the Western Governors' Association meeting in Santa Fe, Interior Secretary Gale Norton warned the bird's numbers have dwindled to a point the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's hand is being forced - again. It might need to protect the once-abundant game bird under federal law, specifically the Endangered Species Act. Oh, my!....
Salamander expected to nix Calif. project Concerns over the California tiger salamander and its habitat may delay a housing project at Fort Ord, Calif., the Monterey Herald reported Tuesday. The project, a 1,400-unit housing facility on a Monterey County controlled part of the former military base, was supposed to break ground next spring....
Editorial: We're losing Missouri water wars For heaven's sake, somebody please buy President Bush a new pair of glasses. His myopic view of Missouri River water management has all the earmarks of a nearsighted man on his way to total blindness due to politics. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently made a big deal out of creating 1,200 acres of shallow-water habitat for the endangered pallid sturgeon on the Missouri River in Nebraska. That was pretty much all that was demanded by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, of Minneapolis, as he put his legal rubber stamp on the status quo of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' management plan for the Missouri River....
Coalition plans suit over wolves A coalition of 27 associations and counties from Wyoming and elsewhere plans to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its handling of wolves and its refusal to approve Wyoming's proposed wolf management plan. The group, calling itself the "Wolf Coalition," sent a notice of intent to file civil suit to the Fish and Wildlife Service last week, saying that a lawsuit would be filed in 60 days for violations of the Endangered Species Act. The group says the federal government has not met its obligations in properly handling wolves and their effects since they were reintroduced to the northern Rocky Mountains in 1995 and 1996. Wolves have "severely damaged" livestock and wildlife populations along with local agriculture businesses, the coalition says. The group says the wolf population has far exceeded original goals and Wyoming should not be forced to allow them to spread across the state....
Bison Range agreement unveiled The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on Tuesday released details of their long-anticipated agreement on management of the National Bison Range at Moiese. The first year of the agreement calls for tribal management of some maintenance, educational and visitor-service activities. About eight to 10 maintenance employees will be affected and come under tribal management in fiscal year 2005. Subsequent annual agreements could expand tribal authority....
Lethal order issued for male Mexican gray wolf Fish and Wildlife Service officials authorized the killing of a male Mexican gray wolf that has killed at least five cattle since late March. Victoria Fox, a communications officer for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said wolf M574 committed three confirmed livestock depredations on the San Carlos Apache Reservation with his mate, F797. Since then, Fish and Wildlife Service officials issued a lethal take order for M574 and captured F797. Fox said the take order is only the third issued since the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Project's inception in 1998....
Editorial: Whipping boys for past mistakes A decision by the federal government and state of Utah to sue the Boy Scouts of America for $14 million to recover the costs of fighting a 2002 wildfire that members of one troop are suspected of inadvertently setting smells suspiciously like scapegoating to us. It's not necessarily out of line for the government to hold people responsible for malicious or criminally negligent actions that result in wildfires. And the Boy Scouts, no doubt, make a tempting target for example-making, given their high national profile and deep pockets. But if we really want to get serious about holding people accountable for the precarious, disease- and fire-prone state of our national forests, the search for likely culprits leads right back to the government's door....
Greenpeace boat docks in Portland The Arctic Sunrise, a former Norwegian sealing ship, docked Friday near the Morrison Bridge in Portland, the only stop in the contiguous United States on the boat's trip to Alaska later this month. The boat was open for tours Sunday and Monday, with a slated departure time of early afternoon today. Greenpeace workers planned the stop as part of the organization's project to draw attention to logging on public land, including possible logging in areas burned in 2002 by the 500,000-acre Biscuit fire in Southern Oregon. A rally at noon today will further highlight the group's concerns....
Hahn Moves to Preserve Owens Valley Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn called Tuesday for the creation of a land conservancy that would ban any future development on 500 square miles of the Owens River Valley in the eastern Sierra Nevada — the same land the city secretly acquired a century ago in order to obtain the water rights. Under the mayor's proposal to "preserve 320,000 acres of natural beauty in the Owens Valley," the city would retain the water rights but establish a conservation easement that would ensure that the area remained in a natural state, probably open to the same general uses — fishing, hunting, hiking and grazing by local ranchers — that are currently permitted....
Housing project starts water fight along the San Joaquin A developer building on the banks of the San Joaquin River intends to use decades-old contracts originally given to farmers to siphon river water into a new housing development, drawing opposition - and lawsuits - from an unlikely coalition of farm interests, environmentalists and government agencies. "We never dreamed that they would be able to use riparian rights to build subdivisions," said Bud Rank, 82, a retired farmer who was born and raised on the banks of the San Joaquin....
Report sounds alarm on wilderness Lawmakers are working to permanently protect a big chunk of mountainous terrain in eastern Snohomish County, but environmentalists are worried that effort might fail. That's why environmentalists listed the proposed Wild Sky Wilderness north of Index and Skykomish in a national report that describes a dozen natural "treasures in trouble." The report, compiled by the campaign, extols the natural beauty of 12 places from Virginia to Alaska, where groups or lawmakers are trying to create new wildernesses....Go here to see the report...
Texas legal drama unfolds This weekend, if Corpus Christi Medical Examiner Ray Fernandez has his way, a couple dozen lawyers, medical experts and reporters will congregate at a small cemetery here to watch the exhumation of a famous Texas rancher — perhaps the initial step in opening a Pandora's box of Texas history. Mr. Fernandez, 44, on behalf of his mother, Ann, has sued one of Texas' wealthiest foundations, claiming that its namesake, John G. Kenedy, was the father of Mr. Fernandez's mother, the love child of a maid in the Kenedy household. Mr. Kenedy, grandson of one of the co-founders of the famed King Ranch just a few miles south of here and owner of La Parra, a 400,000-acre spread that once was the second largest in the state, died in 1948....
It's All Trew: Frugality way of life for pioneer families One frugal practice was never throwing anything away. People collected bits of string, tied them together, rolled them into a ball and stored them behind a trivet hanging on the wall. All wrapping paper was ironed flat with a hot iron and stored on a shelf in the pantry. Paper sacks were folded carefully and stored. Excess paper, such as old mail, was rolled into a tube, tied with twine and used as kindling to start a fire. Clothing was hemmed up, let out, cuffs turned up or down, holes patched in knees or the legs cut off, collars turned around and sewed back on again. When the clothing was completely used up, it was cut apart for quilt scraps or into long strips for floor-mop heads....