NEWS ROUNDUP

Four people arrested at Biscuit salvage protest Four protesters were arrested Wednesday after they put up a hanging platform blocking access to a salvage timber sale in the Biscuit fire area. Those arrested included the woman sitting on the platform, who was removed from her perch, said Tom Lavagnino, spokesman for the Rogue and Siskiyou National Forests. The Wild Siskiyou Action team announced on Monday that it had suspended on a platform 75 feet above the ground, and blocked a Siskiyou National Forest road with a system of ropes and clips....
Environmental groups sue over logging plan Calling it ''mostly just a timber sale,'' three more environmental groups have appealed the U.S. Forest Service's plan to reduce fire risk in the Basin Creek watershed south of Butte. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Ecology Center Inc., both based in Missoula, and the Boulder-based Deerlodge Forest Defense Fund filed the 28-page joint appeal on Monday. They join the Willow Creek-based Native Ecosystems Council appeal filed earlier this month. The groups contend the Forest Service's proposal to remove beetle-infested trees from roughly 2,600 acres violates three federal environmental protection acts, the official forest plan, and a previous settlement agreement reached after ''25 lengthy negotiation sessions.''....
Norton promotes creation of wildfire defense zones Federal officials on Wednesday saw how close wildfire came to the Mount Graham International Observatory and used the occasion to tout the importance of forest-thinning projects. "We need to show how we can defend an area like this," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said after touring the mountaintop observatory southeast of the Valley....
Court ruling favors fish over more electricity from river dams A U.S. District Court judge yesterday barred the federal government from a first-ever attempt to reduce the summer spill that improves passage of young salmon past dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. The government had wanted to push more water through turbines — rather than over spillways — during strong summer power markets, a move that could have raised up to $28 million in additional revenue for the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets wholesale power throughout the Northwest. U.S. District Court Judge James Redden's ruling was a strong rebuke to the National Marine Fisheries Service, which had concluded that spill could be reduced beginning Aug. 1 without harming the recovery prospects for an endangered fall run of Snake River chinook salmon....
Panhandle mice to get federal protection The federal government has been given just more than two years by a judge to reconsider its refusal to designate critical habitat for an endangered beach mouse found only on a Florida Panhandle peninsula. Senior U.S. District Judge William Stafford issued that order, which could lead to putting habitat for the St. Andrew beach mouse off-limits to human encroachment, Tuesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had voluntarily agreed to reconsider its decision after being sued by the Center for Biological Diversity and losing several similar cases in regard to other species, agency spokesman Tom MacKenzie said Wednesday....
When noise is issue, wildlife live high life Translation: It's OK to foist the old noisy jets on regular folks, but let it interfere with the mating habits of the moose, and voila! Congress steps in. And so on June 28, Jackson Hole instituted a congressionally approved ban on Stage 2 aircraft. The move hasn't been lost on Phil Vickers, who sits on Scottsdale's Airport Advisory Commission. "It means that if the noise of Stage 2 aircraft affects animals and wildlife and the environment, you can ban Stage 2," he says. "But if it affects the lives of people in ordinary America, you can't do it."....
Surface-rights initiative gaining signatures A group of ranchers, farmers and other landowners are working to get an initiative on the ballot in 2006 that would protect the property rights of surface landowners during oil and gas development. Lori Goodman, president of the Landowners Association of Wyoming, which is circulating the petitions, said the drive has gathered 25,000 of the necessary 35,000 signatures required for the ballot initiative. The current movement to have a citizen-initiated ballot will use the same language as the failed bill. The major points of the bill set guidelines for notification, planning and compensation. "The bill provides three things - when are you coming, what are you going to do, and I'd like some compensation, period," Barlow said....
BLM on pace to set record for permits As oil and natural gas prices climb, the Bureau of Land Management is on pace to issue a record number of well drilling permits on public land this year. The agency had issued about 3,500 permits by June 25, a number that is expected to increase to a record 6,000 by the end of the federal fiscal year in September, BLM geologist Richard Watson said Wednesday. Last year, the agency issued about 4,000 permits. "It's unprecedented in the history of the BLM," he said during an address to a natural gas outlook conference....
BLM allows coal mine to expand Federal land managers will allow Powder River Coal Co. to expand its North Antelope-Rochelle mine in Campbell County by about 2,368 acres. The company, owned by St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp. - the world's largest coal producer - will have available 306.9 million more tons of recoverable coal on the north side of the mine as the result of a decision issued last week by the Bureau of Land Management. Along with earlier approval to allow expansion on the south side, the extra acreage will extend the life of the mine six years beyond an estimate of 11 years made in 2003, said Mike Karbs, assistant field manager for the BLM's Casper office....
Amnesty brings in Indian artifacts An offer of amnesty for turning in culturally important American Indian artifacts has recovered a 300- to 500-year-old canteen from Jemez Pueblo, a 1,000-year-old Anasazi pot found in northwestern New Mexico and a 300-year-old Navajo pot from federal land. The U.S. attorney's office here on Tuesday displayed about two dozen returned artifacts as a way to promote the amnesty program, which ends Aug. 18....
Two Dozen U.S. National Parks Threatened by Bush Roadless Forest Rule Repeal The Bush Administration's reversal of roadless rule protections for national forests jeopardizes 23 U.S. national parks and monuments in 16 states, raising the specter of serious harm being done to outdoor "crown jewels" that are traveled to each year by more than 40 million Americans -- over a third of all visits to U.S. national parks, monuments and parkways, according to a new report released today by the Campaign to Protect America's Lands (CPAL) and the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees (CCNPSR). The detailed analysis finds that roughly 20 percent of all roadless forest areas that are to be stripped of federal protections by the Bush Administration either directly border or are near national parks and monuments....
Trial date set in case of former U.S. Park Police chief The former chief of the U.S. Park Police has lost her bid to be reinstated while fighting her dismissal. But an administrative law judge agreed Teresa Chambers, a former police chief in North Carolina, has a right to seek testimony from high-ranking officials in the Bush administration. Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton and National Park Service Director Fran P. Mainella are among those Chambers' lawyers will be allowed to seek depositions from under a ruling by a U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board judge....
Grand Canyon sees visitor increase, first in decade The number of tourists visiting Grand Canyon National Park has risen in the past two years, the first upward streak the park has seen in the last decade, reflecting an apparent trend among the national parks. Between January and June this year, nearly 2.2 million people visited the park, a 7.2 percent jump from the same time last year....
Environmentalism takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention Environmentalism is descending on the Democratic National Convention this week in the form of biodegradable balloons and recycled confetti -- and that's just the beginning. All of the electricity powering the festivities is coming from renewable sources or an onsite fuel-cell generator. Local Massachusetts farms are supplying food for a handful of the convention events, and leftovers are being donated or composted. Greenhouse-gas credits will offset the carbon-dioxide emissions generated by convention delegates as they travel to and from Boston, and hybrid gas-electric buses are shuttling people between events....
Environmentalists rally in Boston Rallying at the Democratic National Convention, environmentalists and their allies in Congress on Tuesday accused Republicans of abandoning the public interest and promised to reverse Bush administration rollbacks of key laws and regulations. "One of the things we've got to do is recapture that bipartisan vision of an environmental future for this country, and John Kerry is the candidate who can do that," Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., told about 300 activists at Christopher Columbus Park. With the race between Kerry and President Bush locked in a statistical dead heat, many national environmental groups hope that they can inspire enough voters to support Kerry and tip the balance in swing states such as Oregon....
Rehab projects turn dry flats into wetlands Ten watershed restoration projects have turned nearly 2,000 acres along Last Chance Creek, a major tributary to the Feather River, into functioning meadows, including the wetlands around this pair of ponds near Artray Creek. The projects are the most recent accomplishments of the Feather River Coordinated Resource Management group. Known as a CRM, the partnership of 22 ranchers, anglers, local, state and federal agency officials, has been working cooperatively since 1985....
Back in the saddle In this cowboy story, the American consumer rides to the rescue of the cattle industry, with a hand from Uncle Sam. Undaunted by the specter of mad cow disease, grocery shoppers continue buying beef for low-carb diets and they are paying ever-higher prices to boot. Meanwhile, the U.S. government keeps Canadian cattle out of the country, propping up domestic producers. That all translates into good times on the range so that even famously reserved ranchers smile about the roller-coaster ride to recovery for the largest sector of the U.S. farm economy....
U.S. Distributor Recalls Canadian Ground Beef A Pennsylvania meat company voluntarily recalled 170,000 pounds of hamburger patties that contained Canadian beef products prohibited under safeguards against mad cow disease, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday. The USDA said the recalled products from Quaker Maid Meats, Inc., a privately-owned business, were allowed into the United States after a Canadian meat inspector improperly labeled a shipment of 41,000 pounds of beef. The beef was later used by Quaker Maid to produce 170,000 pounds of hamburger. "This is a mistake made in Canada," USDA Undersecretary Elsa Murano told reporters. "This does not pose any risk to human health."....
J.C's was a time when cattle roamed bosque and droughts claimed crops for five long years J.C. Sanchez of Adelino has been around farms and ranches for almost 80 years and has experienced the changes that time and technology have brought about. Valencia County itself has changed a lot, he said, and he has had to change with it. "It's been a hard life, but a good life," he said. J.C. was born in Adelino in 1921, and he lived on his father's farm until he was about 9 years old. After he and his family moved to Willard, J.C. continued to visit the farm in Adelino on the weekends to help out and do chores, cleaning ditches in the spring, feeding hogs, husking corn and leveling fields with a horse. He said the farm, at 250 acres, used to be one of the largest individually owned farms in the county....
Rancher wants to know what strange creature he killed An Elmendorf rancher is wondering what exactly it was he shot and killed about three weeks ago. Devin Mcanally, an Elmendorf rancher and retired English teacher, found a strange creature lurking in his back yard attacking his livestock. At one point, 35 of his chickens disappeared in one day. He says the dog-like creature was only seen during the day. Local experts are still wondering what it is. McAnally describes it as hairless with blue-ish skin. There's a 2-inch ridge of hair running down its back. It was eating mulberries under a tree when Mcanally shot it. He thinks the creature was pregnant....