NEWS ROUNDUP

Rey speaks on ranching, forests and war Ranching advocates applauded Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey after he praised the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, the 2002 Farm Bill, Bill Clinton’s roadless rule and President Bush’s military efforts to fight terrorism. Rey made the comments to an audience of ranchers, lobbyists and federal employees during the Arizona Cattle Grower’s Association centennial celebration at the Prescott Resort on Monday....
Rocky Mountaineers Revolt Planned drilling of tens of thousands of wells has unleashed a backlash among ranchers, farmers, and independent business people. They're challenging drilling aimed at fueling California as traditional gas fields run dry and see the new wells as a major threat to their water, air, land and way of life. Traditional gas drilling is reaching into more inhabited areas – as are new extraction methods, such as coal-bed methane. From New Mexico to Montana, they are petitioning their government and filing lawsuits....
Editorial: No time for fire smoke screen At a time when the costs and methods of fighting wildfires have come under scrutiny, it probably isn't wise for National Forest personnel to put up a smoke screen when it comes to this year's fire season. But that's what happened Tuesday when reporters attempted to visit one of the area's first major fires. Ranger Amber Kamps, continuing a tactic she's followed since she has been in charge of the Helena National Forest's Lincoln Ranger District, refused to allow the media anywhere near the blaze. This is in contradiction to the "Interagency Media Guidelines for Wildland Fires" - created and followed by federal agencies nationwide - which states that "Denial of access will be a rare occurrence."....
Helicopter crew misses chance to douse fire Even though the crew of a state-owned helicopter found the Ogden Mountain Fire at 1 p.m. Monday, they weren't ordered to drop water on the flames for more than three hours, until after the blaze got out of control. Instead, the helicopter was used to guide a three-person National Forest Service firefighting team to the remote location. By Tuesday, what had started as less than an acre fire 12 miles southwest of Lincoln had grown to around 70 acres, with 160 people, four retardant planes, two helicopters and a "Super Scooper" working the fire....
Thinning slows fire Fire racing up a ridge above Chiloquin ran into a road block Sunday afternoon. In its path was a patch of private forest land that had been thinned by its land owner under a federal grant. The diminished fuel load kept the fury of the fire down and bought firefighters time to get the fire controlled....
Habitat projects for elk providing mixed results Habitat improvement projects at state elk feedgrounds over the years have sought to make elk less dependent on wintertime food handouts, with mixed results. Cases of brucellosis in cattle near the Muddy Feedground near Boulder last year led the federal government to revoke Wyoming's brucellosis-free status. There is concern that feedgrounds help brucellosis spread by concentrating elk. Jared Rogerson, a Game and Fish Department brucellosis biologist, said habitat improvement projects have covered some 10,000 acres on the Muddy, Fall Creek and Scab Creek feedgrounds. Most of the projects have involved burning habitat in a mosaic pattern and thinning aspen stands....
A new approach to working with endangered species At first glance, Bob Long may seem to be an unlikely environmental activist. He is a minister, a rancher and a staunch defender of property rights. He is also leading the way in the fight to preserve the endangered Houston Toad, populations of which have a tenuous foothold in Bastrop County and on Long’s family ranch there. “I wanted to get off dead center,” Long says. “We had a stakeholder group that was bogged down in paperwork, and I saw an opportunity to get something going on my ranch that could be a template for other farmers and ranchers.” That “something” Long refers to is called “safe harbor.” Under its terms, Long—or any other landowner—may work to manage the land to increase populations of an endangered species. Later he can take it all back, removing the habitat and modifications, without penalty under the law....
Editorial: Wolf pack was sacrificed as part of reintroduction deal The feds took out a nine-member wolf pack last week near McCall after failed attempts to convince the critters to remove sheep from their diet. By the resounding "Hallelujah!" heard around Idaho, you'd have thought the state sales tax had up and expired. Truthfully, the demise of the Cook Pack - which over the last two summers killed in the neighborhood of 200 sheep - isn't one which wolf restoration advocates should mourn. And for the anti-wolf crowd, it's not one to cheer, either. Gunning down all nine of these wolves from a helicopter is the kind of control the government must exercise if its efforts to keep wolves a part of the wild landscape of Idaho are to have any kind of validity. Granted, sheep just might be the least equipped of domestic livestock to deal with a pack of hungry wolves. Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery coordinator had this to say about sheep in last year's Idaho State Journal: "Sheep are susceptible to just about any predator, whether it walks, runs or flies - they're just looking for a place to die."....
Feds fail to protect species from pesticides The Tucson, Ariz.-based, Center for Biological Diversity is accusing federal officials of failing to protect endangered species from pesticides. The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday the group has concluded about 375 animals and plants -- nearly one-third of the species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act -- are exposed to and potentially harmed by pesticides. The environmental group said in a report the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "displays a stunning lack of initiative in complying with the Endangered Species Act" and "has shown reckless disregard for the impact of its pesticide regulation program on wildlife."....Go here(pdf)to view the report....
Government May Face Lawsuit Over Salmon Conservation and fisheries groups have given the government two months' notice that they plan to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unless it does a better job gauging the risks various pesticides pose to salmon in the Pacific Northwest. In a letter sent Monday to EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt, lawyers with the environmental defense firm Earthjustice said the agency failed to use the best available science when it concluded that more than three dozen pesticides either would not harm or would not likely harm threatened and endangered salmon runs....
Outbreak of gastrointestinal illness hits Yellowstone visitors, workers A highly infectious illness sickened 134 people at Yellowstone in June and early July, the National Park Service said. The virus was likely the same bug that has sickened hundreds on cruise ships and caused earlier outbreaks at Yellowstone and Grand Canyon national parks. Of those who became sick, 53 were visitors and 81 were employees....
No arrests made at convention so far This ain't Chicago, 1968. Or even Philadelphia, 2000. As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, there'd been no arrests at the Democratic National Convention. "It's a police state," groused Detlev Koepke, 48, a history professor at Bridgewater State College, as a U.S. Park Service lieutenant told him to remove a "Take Back Democracy" sign that was blocking officers' view of Faneuil Hall....My purpose in posting this is to ask the question, "what in the hell is the park service doing at the DNC?" If you know, please let me know.
Burns enters mineral lease fray Leaseholders and private organizations can discuss a buyout or exchange of mineral leases on the Rocky Mountain Front, but the federal government should not pay for the deal, says Sen. Conrad Burns. Burns, R-Mont., on Tuesday met with eight members of the "Save the Front" coalition at his Great Falls office. The group is working to protect the Rocky Mountain Front from oil and natural gas development. Burns offered to hold a meeting between leaseholders and the organization. Depending on that discussion, Burns also said he could support slowing down development options while a deal was negotiated....
Testimony begins for Rifle rancher seeking gas royalties A jury was seated and testimony began Monday in District Court in Glenwood Springs in a lawsuit over natural-gas royalties a Rifle-area third-generation sheep rancher claims he wasn’t paid over an eight-year period. William Clough owns about 12,000 acres along the Interstate 70 corridor from Rifle to west of Parachute, including the land at the base of the Roan Plateau where numerous wells have been drilled. He filed a lawsuit against Williams Production in February 2002 that claims he was not paid all the gas royalties due him over an eight-year period....
Court battle likely over Ballardini buyout A court battle over the future of the Ballardini Ranch appears inevitable after the Washoe County Commission agreed Tuesday to try one last time to buy the historic property and seize the land if a deal can’t be reached. Representatives of Minnesota-based Evans Creek LLC, owners of the Ballardini Ranch, said the county’s $20 million appraisal of the 1,019-acre ranch would provide “far, far, far” too little money for an agreement to be reached, setting the stage for court action by the county to take the land....
State Land Board works to fix grazing-lease law The state Land Board is working on ways to comply with a recent judge's order condemning as unconstitutional one long-standing practice of divvying out state grazing leases. The board, made up of the governor, attorney general, auditor, secretary of state and superintendent of public instruction, told the Montana Department of Natural Resources Monday to start looking at ways they can change either state law or the board's own internal rules to do away with an automatic "preference right" for ranchers who have pre-existing grazing leases. At issue is the commonly called "preference right," a part of state law that assures ranchers who already have grazing leases that they can automatically keep them if they meet the high bid from others on the state land....
Corner jumping doesn't violate rules Douglas hunter Bill Kearney always suspected it wasn't illegal to corner jump over private land while hunting. Now he has a state opinion backing up his contention. The Douglas sportsmen was acquitted of trespass charges in April after he used a Global Positioning System (GPS) device to step from one parcel of public land to another while hunting in Albany County in September 2003. The practice is known as corner jumping or corner crossing....
Eco-Feudalism in the Adirondacks In August 1978, 19-year-old Tim Jones bought an acre of land near the Raquette River in New York’s Adirondack Park. Four previous generations of Tim’s family had owned property along River Road in Altamont, and in August 1991 Tim obtained a permit from the town to begin building a small single-family dwelling. Tim was working on his cabin on April 21 of the following year when he was visited by Ed Talbot, a representative of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). Claiming that Tim’s property was part of a "jurisdictional wetland," Talbot ordered him to cease construction and remove the building. Tim pointed out that the lot he had purchased in 1978 was part of a pre-existing subdivision and was thus exempt from the APA’s jurisdiction under the 1973 act creating the agency. Talbot returned later that day with a formal cease-and-desist order....
USDA Signs Agreement With Ducks Unlimited USDA today announced a cooperative partnership with Ducks Unlimited, Inc. (DU) that will establish a framework of cooperation relative to the conservation and productivity of wetlands, uplands, grasslands and other waterfowl and wildlife habitats on private and public lands. “This five-year agreement recognizes the importance of public and private conservation partnerships to wetland and wildlife habitat objectives,” USDA Secretary Ann Veneman said....
Editorial: The Basin and the Bay IN 2002, DROUGHT led farmers in the Klamath River Basin in Oregon and Northern California to divert river water to their fields. Tens of thousands of coho salmon and other endangered fish died as a result. In 2003, a federal court ruled that river water could no longer be diverted, since doing so violated the Endangered Species Act. The result, in 2004, was mass bankruptcy, as farmers' livelihoods literally dried up. That's the West Coast story: Look no farther than the Chesapeake Bay watershed for the East Coast version. In a series of stories, The Post has revealed that despite more than a decade's worth of effort, the bay is actually no less polluted now than it was 15 years ago. Its "dead zone" -- the area of the bay in which nothing can live -- actually is expanding. Yet many of the most obvious sources of pollution have already been targeted: Phosphate detergents are banned in the region, and this spring Maryland legislators passed a $2.50 per household "flush tax" designed to raise money for sewage treatment plants. Meanwhile, the largest sources of pollution -- nutrient runoff from some 12,000 farms in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania, as well as from cities -- have hardly been tackled. That's because to do so would be complicated and expensive, and might put at risk the income of the region's farmers. The bicoastal environmental trouble illustrates how difficult the choice can be between clean rivers and "normal" water levels on the one hand, and agriculture and irrigation on the other....
No plan yet for parched Klamath Federal officials have yet to develop a plan to deal with a repeat of the 2002 fish kill on the Klamath River, even as flows in the lower river drop below that year's levels at this time. The flows are scheduled to level off, however, as water bought by the federal government begins to be sent down the river beginning in mid-August. That will keep river levels somewhat higher than they were in 2002. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is also looking to acquire more water to use in the event of such an emergency, but does not intend at this point to boost flows as a preventative measure....
Dry West sends out for water The next frontier in the West may be a billion-dollar system of water wells and pipelines. From here to El Paso, communities in the midst of huge development booms expect to spend fortunes to lay pipes from new water sources, some of them hundreds of miles away. For towns and cities that can develop fresh sources of water, the pipelines will not only accommodate the rush of more industry and homes, they're also expected to boost local economies for decades to come. The proposed projects also reflect a hard fact about the driest region in the USA: All the water in the West's rivers, creeks, lakes and reservoirs is taken, committed to present needs. To fill the taps of burgeoning cities and suburbs, the West is looking elsewhere — and in many cases, looking deeper....
Feds take shot at unleaded ammo So-called "green ammo" -- bullets made of iron, copper and other metals less toxic than lead -- has become the norm at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, essentially the nation's largest police academy. Responsible for training the employees of 76 federal agencies, from the Secret Service to the U.S. Park Service police, the center has virtually created a market for unleaded ammunition that officials say poses fewer health and environmental risks....
Greening the Conventions The monthly meeting started precisely at 9:45 a.m. The agenda included five minutes on the press conference with the mayor, five minutes for waste management, 10 minutes on outreach. Was this a meeting for a government agency, or a community advocacy group? Perhaps a company board meeting? Actually, all of the above. It was a general meeting of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions (CERC), a non-partisan collaboration of 60 organizations spanning the nonprofit, commercial and public sectors. “We are promoting the use of environmental best practices for the Democratic (July 26 to 29) and Republican National Conventions (August 28 to September 2) in order to showcase those practices to the political leaders and the general public,” explains Executive Director Daniel Ruben. “We want to establish the role model for future conventions, political and otherwise.”....
Apache Creek cows poisoned by oleander cuttings Barney, whose ranch includes part of Apache Creek, appeared to be in mild shock. All 60 of his cows, including two bulls, were fine when he checked them Saturday evening. On Sunday, he found six of them dead. As he moved the herd to his corrals, two more died along the way. He would come to learn that his cows were dying because they ate oleander leaves. Someone had trimmed their oleander bushes and dumped the cuttings on his side of the fence along the creek....
Cowboy's Death Troubles Town On the one-year anniversary of Billy Warren's death in mid-July a friend strung yellow ribbons around a pole near where the rancher's house stood. Within hours, someone had torn down the ribbons and stomped them into the dirt. It was more proof, if any was needed, that the mystery surrounding the cowboy's death in the midst of an arson fire continues to haunt this vacation getaway on the scenic Central Coast. Despite law enforcement efforts to put the case to rest in a community that averages one homicide a decade, rumor and innuendo continue to swirl through the cafes and antique shops that line the narrow downtown streets. That's because the Warren name meant something here. The Warrens helped build the city back when it was called Slabtown for its mercury mines. For a century, the family ran cattle over some of the finest grazing land left on the Central Coast. Spread across the slopes of the Santa Lucia Mountains, the 4,000-acre Warren Ranch contained throat-catching vistas of forests and mountains that had not changed in millenniums....
Unique market creates “harmony” for producers and consumers “Fresh food, less traveled.” A simple statement that says a thousand words. In today’s global agriculture market, there is growing number of consumers who feel disconnected to their food supply. They are the group that have made farmer’s markets across the nation so popular in their search for fresh, local produce and meat that meets their quality standards. These people are looking for what their grandparents had, a healthy food supply that you could put a face to, the face of the farmer or rancher that raised the product — and an enterprising group of farmers and ranchers in the Colorado region are giving them just that....
Law of the West: Agriculture and borders Working my “day job” in the homeland security realm, I noticed that the Customs and Border Protection agency graduated its first class of Agriculture Specialists. These 29 young men and women will serve at various ports examining the baggage, mail and cargo that comes into the U.S. for prohibited agricultural products. While part of their duties include protecting our borders from agricultural and biological terrorism, they also serve the more traditional role of preventing the introduction of non-native species of plants and animals. These agriculture specialists will work hand in hand with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the USDA. APHIS is responsible for protecting and promoting U.S. agricultural health, administering the Animal Welfare Act, and carrying out wildlife damage management activities....
An old cowboy B.E. Denton was born on Hog Creek, a small stream running into the Brazos River, about 30 or 40 miles west of Fort Worth, Texas, about 1845. Texas was a wild place at that time and Cyclone said the scream of panthers in the night would send shivers down his spine. But he loved living next to nature, even when a warring party of Comanche Indians came by to run off a number of the family saddle horses and shoot arrows at Cyclone and his sister. But he learned to ride, rope and shoot with the best of them. About the age of 16, a time when boys were considered “grown” on the frontier, he saddled his favorite horse, Topsy, and in his words, “Lit a shuck for the further West. This was in the early ’70s and I soon found that travelin’ in those parts was both lonesome and dangerous.” Cyclone and Topsy headed West through the dry country of West Texas and into the badlands of Southeast New Mexico where water is scarce and human existence was missing. Then they crossed the Rio Grande River and up into the foothills of the Rockies to a small place called Silver City, N.M. Silver City was a mining town full of dance halls, saloons, and shooting galleries. The town was also full of buffalo hunters, gamblers, wild men and wild women. That was where Cyclone saw his first man killed....
It's All Trew: Hot-wire fence inspires change of occupation I quit irrigated farming and became a full-time rancher because of a hot-wire fence. My teenage sons installed a new hot-wire fence a little too close to an irrigation ditch. One morning early, I was wading the muddy ditch picking up aluminum siphon tubes to change a setting of water. My arms were nearly full when I stepped into a hole filling my right boot with cold water. To keep from falling, I squatted down to catch my balance, dipping my buttocks down into the cold water. At this very instant, the armload of aluminum tubes touched the hot-wire fence. The rodeo following had great influence on my decision to change occupations. Talk about changing direction in midstream, this was a fine example....