NEWS ROUNDUP

Grounded tankers factor in no-retardant firefight Rapidly growing summer wildfires are nothing new in Central Oregon. But the state’s biggest wildfire of the season has been fought, at least for its first five days, without a single load of retardant being dropped from the air – a rare, if not unprecedented circumstance that fire officials say is tied to several factors. The most obvious reason is the grounding, since spring, of 33 large air tankers due to safety concerns, including five based at Butler Aircraft in Redmond. The Redmond planes were inspected recently, and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said during a visit earlier this week that a decision on their return to flight could come as soon as Aug. 6; a few air tankers elsewhere in the West already have been cleared to return to operation....
Private lands sustain Oregon timber industry Oregon logging levels edged up last year to their highest point since 1997, although they remained shadows of what they were in the 1980s mainly because of the collapse of federal lands logging since then. More than three-quarters of the state's timber harvest came from industrial and other private land, reflecting the diminished profile of federal timber. Loggers in 2003 cut just over 4 billion board feet of wood, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry. That's enough to build roughly 300,000 or more average homes and represents a 2 percent increase over the 3.9 billion board feet cut the year before....
McCain taps new land exchange bill U.S. Sen. John McCain has introduced a new Yavapai Ranch land exchange bill that would create a new Verde Basin partnership for water resource planning. The action came shortly after local water groups agreed to seek meetings with the staffs of McCain and U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl about a draft bill similar to the introduced bill. The staff has not yet met with the groups, although McCain has received several letters from local governments listing suggestions about how to revise the draft....
EPA Allowed to Ease Pesticide Reviews The Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) will be free to approve pesticides without consulting wildlife agencies to determine if the chemical might harm plants and animals protected by the Endangered Species Act, according to new Bush administration rules. The streamlining by the Interior and Commerce departments represents "a more efficient approach to ensure protection of threatened and endangered species," officials with the two agencies, EPA and the Agriculture Department said in a joint statement Thursday. It also is intended to head off future lawsuits, the officials said....
Group supports feds' pesticide rule 'streamlining' Oregonians for Food and Shelter applauds U.S. Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries new counterpart regulations to streamline Endangered Species Consultation. These new consultation procedures will provide a practical and effective structure to ensure that necessary measures are taken to protect fish and wildlife, yet provide the necessary pesticide tools to farmers and foresters enabling them to grow food and trees. These procedures will also ensure that consumers can use household products (disinfectants and lawn care) and that vector control districts can continue to use mosquito and rodent control products for public health purposes....
Feds Investigating Confirmed Wolf Attack Near McCall Idaho Two News has learned that federal authorities are investigating a wolf attack in an area near McCall that has been a hotbed of recent wolf attacks. Federal wildlife officials spent Wednesday evening near McCall and confirmed this second attack in less than a month. A USDA Wildlife Services official Todd Grim tells Idaho 2 News there were 2 or 3 different sets of tracks found in the area where the sheep were attacked. 21 of the sheep were severely wounded, 14 more are missing, one guard dog was wounded and another is missing....
Upstream,Downstream: Klamath politics and the great national divide ON JULY 17, FARMERS AND RANCHERS from the area surrounding Klamath Falls, Ore., gathered to welcome the United States Congress to that small town. Some came on horseback, carrying Confederate flags or the Stars and Stripes. Others paraded to the center of town in their off-road vehicles. Others simply marched on foot, waving signs that championed their way of life and denounced those who would seek to meddle in their affairs. Barry Bushue, president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, stood before a podium in front of the Ross Ragland Theater to pump up the crowd on the issue that brought five members of Congress, all Republicans, to Klamath Falls that morning -- the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA), which Bushue called an "outmoded law that has accomplished little more than decades of unnecessary pain and harm." "Klamath Falls has become an unwilling poster child for the failure of an Endangered Species Act that impacts all of us," he said. "The Act is a colossal failure, yet we continue to put people out of business, pour money down rat-holes and get no results."....
Lynx thriving in Maine forest
The Canada lynx population in a Maine research forest grew by 21 kittens this year, according to wildlife biologists studying the rare species. Biologists in June documented seven lynx dens containing eight female kittens and 13 male kittens, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday. Litter sizes ranged from two to five kittens....
Mouse that Cost Economy $100 Million May Never Have Existed After six years of Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations and restrictions that have cost builders, local governments, and landowners on the western fringe of the Great Plains as much as $100 million by some estimates, new research suggests the allegedly endangered Preble's mouse never existed. Instead, it seems to be genetically identical to a cousin considered common enough not to need the federal government's protection. The tiny Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse was listed under the ESA on May 13, 1998, based on a 1954 study performed by Dr. Philip Krutzch, now emeritus professor at the University of Arizona. Krutzch reached his conclusion based on the examination of three skulls and 11 skins, an acceptable level of scrutiny at the time....
Salmonella suspected in N.D. bird deaths Hundreds of dead birds have been found for the sixth straight year at a popular hunting spot in south central North Dakota. Wildlife officials suspect that most of the deaths were caused by salmonella, and they are warning people not to handle dead or sick birds. Officials discovered the deaths of about 1,500 gulls and cormorants in the last month on an island at the Roesler Lake Waterfowl Protection Area, near Lehr....
Bear Killed by Hazing The National Park Service is investigating the death of a bear in Yellowstone National Park. The incident happened more than a week ago at the Slough Creek Campground. The 180 pound male bear reportedly charged three anglers and damaged an occupied tent. A park ranger attempted to scare the bear away by firing a 'cracker' shell from a shotgun towards the bear. The next day, the bear was found dead. Park officials now believe the bear was inadvertently killed by the round and are conducting a review of training techniques. This was the fourth black bear fatality in the park this season....
Interior Secretary Norton defends national parks spending Federal workers have undertaken 4,000 new projects to reinvigorate national parks and are fulfilling President Bush's pledge to spruce up America's natural treasures, the country's top public-lands official said yesterday. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, responding to criticism from watchdog groups, told a national group of conservative state legislators in Seattle that workers are fixing crumbling buildings, removing dangerous non-native plants and repairing trail systems....
Study Says Indian History Inadequate at Wyoming Fort Although its legacy continues to play a pivotal role in the lives of Plains Indians, Fort Laramie National Historic Site in Wyoming does not yet adequately interpret this history for visitors, according to a new report released today by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). "The whole, difficult story about the U.S. Government and American Indians must be told at Fort Laramie, because this is the place where important parts of that story took place," said NPCA's Northern Rockies Program Coordinator Patti Borneman. Originally an outpost for trading furs with local tribes, Fort Laramie was later a refueling stop for emigrants and a military outpost during the Indian Wars. It was also the site where several tribes signed two treaties with the U.S. Government, both of which were later breached to allow for faster settlement of the West and gold mining on sacred Indian lands. The fort was incorporated into the National Park System in 1938....
BLM: North Dakota lease bid was highest ever for region A North Dakota company bid $1.8 million for federal leasing rights on land in that state, one of the highest levels for a federal oil or gas lease in the region, the Bureau of Land Management says. The bid by Behm Energy of Minot, N.D., during a lease sale this week was a record high for federal oil and gas leases in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota since at least 1987, the BLM said. Agency employees said they also believe it may be the highest "bonus" bid ever for rights to minerals on federal lands in the region....
Environmentalists Rally Against Bush Administration's Environmental Assault Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Director Rob Reiner, former EPA Administrator Carol Browner and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer joined national environmental groups at a rally today during the Democratic National Convention. Blasting the Bush administration's environmental record, they announced an unprecedented voter mobilization effort with plans to hit over three million households in nine states using door-to-door canvassing, phone calls and emails. The groups plan to target Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin....
Judge: ALP meeting notes should be public The minutes of a meeting to discuss cost overruns of the Animas-La Plata Project - compiled from memory after a tape recorder malfunctioned - should be made public, a District Court judge ruled Tuesday. "The court finds that the executive session was held in violation of the OML (Colorado Open Meeting Law) and orders that the minutes of the Aug. (14), 2003, executive session should be made public in their entirety," District Judge David Dickinson said in his ruling. Dickinson's order concerns recollections of participants at the meeting that were compiled after a dead battery in the tape recorder microphone resulted in a blank tape. Forty-four people from 13 Colorado and New Mexico public and private entities had gathered at the Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio to discuss the ramification of a Bureau of Reclamation announcement that the cost of the Animas-La Plata Project had grown from $338 million to $500 million....
77-pound catfish surprises father and son When you catch a fish that dwarfs your 4-year-old boy, you know you have a whopper of a fish story. That's Greg Bausch's story this week after fishing on the Missouri River near Parkville. When he and his son, Matthew, and friend Todd Reusser put out jug lines, they caught a 77-pound blue catfish — a fish that made 32-pound Matthew look awfully small when he stood next to it for pictures....
Mysterious animal is the talk of Elmendorf A day after pictures of a mysterious creature shot by a local rancher hit the Internet, the debate continues in this quiet little town over exactly what the strange-looking animal is. Locals gathered at DeLeon's Grocery and Market, looking at pictures and talking about the critter that attracted more than 100 visitors to the store Thursday afternoon. The doglike beast shot and killed by rancher Devin Mcanally has captured the attention of many who say they have seen similar animals in the area. A similar creature reportedly has been spotted in Maryland, where locals are calling it the hyote, a combination of a hyena and a coyote....