NEWS ROUNDUP

Firm to create habitat after spill A Pepco oil spill in Maryland is enabling federal officials to preserve more grassland in northeastern South Dakota. "Instead of requiring the oil company to just pay a bunch of money, they are required to restore habitat," Valerie Fellows of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Chesapeake Bay office in Annapolis, Md., said....
Beavers rebound, strengthen habitat Beavers are by no means scarce in Portland and many other North American cities, rebounding from centuries of trapping for their once-coveted pelts. The official state animal of Oregon has become a frustrating nuisance in the eyes of some property owners and city maintenance crews, with its habit of devouring prized landscaping and building unexpected lakes....
Herseth tour churns up questions about Casey ranch sale The on-again, off-again expansion plan for Wind Cave National Park took an interesting turn Monday on the wheels of an all-terrain vehicle driven by U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth. Although the park expansion seemed to spin out four weeks ago when members of the Casey family of Rapid City confirmed they had tentatively accepted a private purchase offer for their ranch — a stunning piece of pasture, forest and craggy canyons that would form the bulk of the park's 5,675-acre expansion — Herseth's visit to the ranch suggested the deal might not be done....
Teton County is No. 1 public playground Because of its wealth of high-quality public lands, Teton County has been ranked the top recreation area in the nation. The ranking as the No. 1 public playground came from Colorado College's 2004 "State of the Rockies Report Card." "Jackson, Wyo., located within Teton County, may be the supreme location for recreation in the United States," the report states. "Positioned as a gateway to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park, and at the base of the world-renowned Jackson Hole ski resort, it is difficult to imagine a better place for the outdoor enthusiast or second-home owner."....
Lives lost, lessons learned The small mistakes, oversights, misjudgments and petty turf battles piled up for four days, unnoticed or ignored. They came together in one confused, terrifying moment at 4:11 p.m. July 6, 1994. At that minute, investigators later determined, 12 young firefighters who had been cutting a fire line high on Storm King Mountain near Glenwood Springs realized they couldn’t outrun a wall of smoke and flame that unexpectedly had blown up the hillside at them, fanned by 45-mph winds, and all 12 died....
Anger, bitterness still resonate with firefighter’s parents The fire line is still visible, cut in subtle arcs across the western flank of the mountain. It is kept alive by volunteers who trim the shiny, green oak brush to honor those who dug it. It is kept alive by death. It is a line smokejumper Don Mackey and others decided to build downhill on a steep slope that fateful day 10 years ago. It was a decision, in the eyes of some, made by someone who was overly aggressive....
Survivors forever changed by fire The embers of the Storm King Fire still burn inside the 35 people who escaped its wrath. Some took the red-hot pain and turned it into their passions, their careers. Others tried to smother the coals of remembrance, but they still glow, reminding them of the fire’s fury. The way they dealt with the aftermath of the fire determined their identities 10 years later....
Column: Keeping public lands open In the two centuries since Lewis wrote those words, much has transformed our country. Tiny outposts grew into great cities, and Indian trails became modern highways linking every corner of our nation. Yet today, the "visionary enchantment" Lewis experienced still beckons millions of Americans who take to the outdoors to enjoy the wonders of great open spaces. That's why it troubles us that access to many of the nation's public lands is being closed to recreational activity. Our organization, Americans for Responsible Recreational Access (ARRA), was founded because of a growing concern about the alarming number of closures....
Climbers support temporary ban at Cave Rock An advocacy group for climbers is urging its members to temporarily refrain from scaling Cave Rock at Lake Tahoe through the summer while its lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service is pending. The Forest Service had asked The Access Fund to support a voluntary climbing closure during July and August “to protect the area during this high use time of the summer,” according to a statement issued by the Forest Service....
Column: The cougar problem is more manageable than we think The mountain lion attack on a woman hiking in Sequoia National Forest last week makes it clear that California wildlife policy must change: What we need, to solve the cougar problem, is predator managers (i.e., hunters or trappers) to achieve a balance between predator and natural prey -- not human prey. Many environmentalists acknowledge that California is losing its mule deer. The fact is we are losing all deer, mule and blacktail, as well as bighorn sheep, kit foxes and wild turkeys. The reason for these losses is no predator management -- not people, as most biologists want you to believe, encroaching on habitat....
Lake Powell's low level threatens power supply Plummeting water levels in Lake Powell have drastically slashed electricity generation at the reservoir's Glen Canyon Dam, forcing power authorities to cut deliveries to utilities from the Colorado Front Range to Provo, Utah. Federal officials fear that $100 million worth of hydropower generated annually by Lake Powell could dry up completely by 2009 if dam managers continue releasing water at pre-drought rates....
The globalization of thirst It's a story about control. Not over oil or land, but over water. Who needs it? Who owns it? How much will it cost? The PBS Point of View documentary "Thirst" dives into the world's next global currency. Filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman slash between Bolivia, India and California, examining the increasing privatization of the precious resource....
City: 50-year Jicarilla lease vital to tapping Rio Grande A plan by the city of Santa Fe to lease water rights from the Jicarilla Apache Tribe is essential to the community’s efforts to divert water directly from the Rio Grande, officials said Friday. The proposed lease calls for the city to pay the tribe $1.5 million a year for 3,000 acre feet of water — about one-fifth of the city’s current water usage. The price will fluctuate in the future depending on market conditions....
Dreams turn to dust: Drought, neglect bury a community in sand Successive years of severe drought wiped out the vegetation on the unoccupied -- and upwind -- portion of their Escalante Valley Ranchos subdivision. The neighborhood has become a wasteland of fine gray sand. With wind a constant phenomenon in this part of the state, the sand and dust have been assaulting Welsch and his two dozen neighbors for more than two months. It is a small-scale dustbowl, and someday it could spread across the Escalante Valley if farmers now cultivating thousands of acres of alfalfa and grain here go out of business or lose their water rights....
Vesicular stomatitis detected at three more sites Horses on a total of nine sites in Texas and four premises in New Mexico are known to be infected with vesicular stomatitis, announced officials with the Texas Animal Health Commission. Vesicular stomatitis is a painful blistering disease of livestock, such as horses, sheep, swine and deer. The viral disease appears spontaneously and sporadically in the southwestern U.S. and is thought to be transmitted by sand flies and black flies. The cases this spring are the first to be confirmed since l998....
Summer with sheep It's the ideal lifestyle for a mountain man. Living out of a tent, cooking on a wood-burning stove, all alone except for a horse, a dog and 1,300 sheep. For Peruvian Aldo Quiñones Inga, it's a job. This summer, Quiñones Inga will make a living tending ewes and lambs in the Weminuche Wilderness. Taking care of sheep can be a nomadic existence. In order to provide them with enough food to fatten them up for selling season, the Brown family herds them high into the mountains....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: PETA says angling is cruel, barbaric Trout Unlimited, an organized group of fly fishermen, takes up the defense of fishing by citing studies that show a behavioral response to noxious stimuli is separate from the psychological experience of pain. If I could give my advice to the TU lawyers, trying to use scientific evidence in a debate with PETA is like trying to potty train a duck. Rule to live by: Don't treat lunatics like reasonable people....