NEWS ROUNDUP
 
Wildfire in California started by bird flying into power line  Fire officials say a bird sparked the huge wildfire threatening hundreds of homes in Southern California.They say a red-tailed hawk flew into a power line, was electrocuted, and its flaming body fell into tinder-dry brush.  No houses have been lost but nearly 16-hundred homes have been evacuated since the fire began Saturday. It's spread across six-thousand acres in northern Los Angeles County and is about 45 percent contained....
Restoration effort outlined as firefighters complete work on Carson City fire   Local, state and federal officials outlined plans Monday to restore land blackened by a fast-moving wildland fire that destroyed 15 homes in Nevada's capital city and forced the evacuation of hundreds more. Jack Troyer, regional forester for the intermountain region of the U.S. Forest Service, said a multi-agency effort will include seeding and tree-planting on the 7,600 acres scorched by the Waterfall fire.  Rehabilitation began Sunday with the construction of artificial terraces to slow runoff this fall. Planting will come later in what's expected to be a yearlong process....
Column: Logging old growth should become old hat   In 30 years, can you imagine looking back and wishing we had more 6-foot-wide stumps or more logging roads? Now more than ever, federal foresters' primary mission should be to thin young tree plantations and address fire hazards. Yet every day, the Bush administration, despite its rhetoric of "healthy forests," is taking us back to the dark ages of forest management by opening ancient forests and wild, roadless lands to more logging....
Hopi tribe signs forest service deal  The Hopi Tribe has signed an agreement with officials from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest that formally gives the tribe’s Cultural Preservation Office consultation authority. The Hopi Tribal Council in the form of a resolution originally approved the agreement, formally called a “Memorandum of Understanding”, on June 8. According to the tribe, the MOU gives the tribe authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and other laws as the Cultural Preservation Office represents Hopi tribal interests on forestlands. Until now, the CPO only had informal power....
Bush, Kerry campaigns build on forest issue  To hear the Bush and Kerry campaigns tell it, the very fate of Western forests hinges on the next presidential election.  Environmentalists backing Sen. John Kerry last week blamed the Bush administration for abandoning protections for roadless lands -- with one, Portland's Ken Rait, accusing the president of "dealing our wild forests away as payola for campaign contributors." Meanwhile, Republican officials reacted with disdain when Kerry released his plan for coping with the catastrophic wildfire threat facing the West....
McInnis' rush to seal deal on forest bill upsets Udall   U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis is stepping on some toes on his rush out the door.  As time winds down on McInnis' last year in Congress, the four-term Grand Junction Republican recently introduced legislation meant to improve one of the national treasures in his district, the White River National Forest.  It would allow the U.S. Forest Service to dispose of 16 surplus properties and keep the money for improvements to the forest.  Most of the parcel is in U.S. Rep. Mark Udall's neighboring 2nd District. Udall's staff is upset that in McInnis' rush to get the bill approved under his watch, he has left Udall and various affected communities out of the loop....
Critical FWS scientist notified of job loss  A scientist who publicly criticized his supervisors at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to adequately protect the Florida panther has received a letter from the federal agency citing plans to remove him from his job.  The notice came a week after Fish and Wildlife denied a formal complaint filed by Andrew Eller Jr. The Vero Beach man had contended flawed science led officials to approve eight developments on land needed for the survival of the endangered Florida panther....
French wolves return only to become prey   France yesterday defied environmentalists by permitting a limited cull of the country's small and protected wolf population, which is blamed for causing havoc among sheep farmers in the south-east. On Sunday 140 sheep died after jumping into a steep ravine in the Alpes-de-Haute Provence department fleeing a suspected wolf. The predators were hunted to near-extinction in France in the 1920s but have made a startling return in the last decade. The French wolf population is still no more than 40-50 strong but the animals have been blamed for the deaths of nearly 2,200 sheep last year, up from fewer than 200 in 1994....
BLM between a rock and a hard place with management area  The release of an administrative plan concerning the Clear Creek Management Area has spurred a flurry of controversy between off-road vehicle users and environmentalists, and placed the Bureau of Land Management in the middle.For the past 30 years, Clear Creek has become one of the premier spots for off-highway vehicle (OHV) users to participate in their sport. But a BLM management plan released to the public Thursday could soon limit the surplus of routes and trails available to them because of growing environmental concerns and pressure from environmentalists....
Massive wetlands restoration project begins on San Francisco Bay   One of the nation's most ambitious environmental projects got underway Monday when state and federal wildlife officials released thousands of gallons of brackish water from salt ponds they will convert to tidal marsh along the southern fringe of San Francisco Bay.  The 30-year project aims to restore habitat for endangered species and migratory birds, improve flood control and create recreational areas in 15,100 acres of salt ponds formerly owned by Cargill Salt of Minneapolis....
Hear us out   The movement to change the Endangered Species Act to prevent another Klamath Basin 2001 is gathering steam, a quintet of U.S. representatives said Saturday.  U.S. Rep. Greg Walden said his bill calling for more peer review of decisions under the 30-year-old ESA should be fine-tuned next week and ready for a vote. Peer review is a second look in deciding how to administer the act.  Emotions ran high outside the theater Saturday morning as two marches converged in front of the theater before the hearing. Members of the Klamath Tribes and environmentalists came in support of the ESA and water users and others from the agricultural community came to call for change in the ESA....
Witness by witness: What they said   Here are summaries of the testimony and answers of the witnesses and those who accompanied them at the congressional hearing Saturday morning at the Ross Ragland Theater....
Opposing viewpoints converge  From opposite ends of Main Street and opposite viewpoints on the Endangered Species Act, residents of the Klamath Basin converged on the Ross Ragland Theater Saturday morning. It got a little rowdy, but it stayed peaceable as groups representing Klamath Basin irrigators and the Klamath Tribes met in front of the theater, later the venue for a congressional field hearing.  About 100 members of the Klamath Tribes and environmentalists started at the Klamath County Museum and walked to the beat of a drumming group.About 250 water users and others in the agriculture community, some singing a soft chorus of "God Bless America," set out from Veterans Park and walked ahead of the clomp of horse hoofs....
Suit threatened over cleanup  The Natural Resources Defense Council announced Monday that it intends to sue the U.S. Department of Energy over its plan to leave 99 percent of contaminated soil at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory where nuclear testing was conducted for decades.  The lawsuit threat comes after several failed attempts by California's two senators and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to have a new analysis of radiological contamination at the lab and a recent discovery of high levels of radioactivity in groundwater....
Groups' petition seeking protection for insects   Environmental groups on Monday filed a petition with federal wildlife officials requesting protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act for 16 bees, beetles, wasps and other insects unique to the Imperial Sand Dunes.  The move, seeking to keep portions of the towering, wind-sculpted dunes in Imperial County closed to off-roading, is the latest in a four-year tug-of-war over the California desert's most popular off-roading area. Known as the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, major portions of the dunes were closed in 2000 to protect a threatened plant. However, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has proposed reopening roughly 50,000 acres, about a third of the dunes....
Rio Grande Dries Out  The Rio Grande River has dried out in a 23-mile stretch between Isleta Pueblo and Elephant Butte.  Scientists are working on what's become an annual event.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists have been working seven days a week for a month, trying to rescue endangered Rio Grande silvery minnows stranded in isolated pools....
Wolf that killed cows destroyed   A male wolf that killed four cows was removed from a pack southwest of Cody on Carter Mountain and destroyed, federal wildlife officials said.  "I hope that will stop the cow killing," said Mike Jimenez, Wyoming wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  A female with pups was left behind.  Five other wolves in the region have been removed this year....
Tortoise effort targets ravens   Federal and state agencies, seeking to protect the federally threatened desert tortoise, are considering shooting and poisoning ravens to control the soaring population of the birds, which are the lumbering reptile's major predator.  Ravens, whose numbers have increased more than 1,000 percent in the past 25 years, prey on young tortoises with soft shells, preventing 40 percent to 60 percent of them from surviving into adulthood, U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Doran Sanchez said Monday....
Study evaluates effects of CBM on Tongue River  The U.S. Geological Survey recently started an intensive streamflow and water quality monitoring program on the Tongue River to collect scientific information about areas with potential for coalbed methane development in Montana and Wyoming.  The 11-site network monitors streamflow and water quality along the Tongue River and its major tributaries. Information from the monitors is intended for use by irrigators, industry and regulators in Montana and Wyoming....
U.S. House OKs reduction in trona royalties   Lawmakers ignored Bush administration opposition on Monday and passed a bill that would reduce the federal royalty trona companies pay from 6 percent to 2 percent.  By an overwhelming voice vote, the House passed the bill, HR4625, authorizing the reduction in royalty payments. The vote came less than one week after the Interior Department issued a written statement opposing the bill.  In the written testimony, the department noted that the fair-market value of the royalties is "estimated to be above the current 6 percent rate."....
Wilderness protection sought for rock-art site 80 miles north of Vegas   Wilderness advocates are asking Nevada’s federal lawmakers to add protection for a remote site with ancient American Indian rock art to a Lincoln County lands bill Congress is due to discuss today.  The site, known as the Shooting Gallery, features 5,000 petroglyph images including raindrops, reptiles, waterfalls, bighorn sheep and hunters in a two-mile stretch of the Pahranagat Range, about 80 miles north of Las Vegas. In recent years, looters have dug for artifacts beneath the prehistoric etchings....
Draft Strategy comes under fire  True Oil's Rene Taylor called the document blackmail. She said it will pit the oil and gas industry against the livestock industry in the hopes that one will survive and one won't. Jim Magagna with the Wyoming Stock Growers Association agreed the document was ominous. He said it will shift the problems of the oil and gas industry onto the backs of the livestock industry.  One main option advocated in the strategy is habitat acquisition. The document said acquiring fee title properties and associated federal grazing allotments would address the needs of the most crucial habitats. Other options included the voluntary retirement, or purchase of grazing allotments on public lands, a call for stricter grazing/AUM management program, conservation easements and long and short-term habitat improvement projects, among others....
William Myers: Unfit Nominee Pushed by GOP Leaders  Senate Republican leaders have scheduled a July 20 cloture vote on the appeals court nomination of William Myers, whose blatant use of his government position to undermine environmental protections and disregard the rights of Indian tribes has drawn unprecedented opposition and widespread editorial denunciation. People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas said the push to confirm the underqualified ideologue to the federal appeals court reflects Republican leaders’ election-year strategy to manipulate the judicial confirmation process for political gain....
Column: Access to forests clouded by politics  When Montanan Jack Atcheson was presented with Outdoor Life magazine's Conservation Award a while back, he felt compelled to comment on the basic nature of politics as it pertains to public land management.  "If the Democrats are in power, they try to lock the outdoors up and keep us away from it," Atcheson observed. "If the Republicans are in, they want to cut it down or sell it."  Atcheson easily might have had the current hair-pull over roadless areas in mind when he issued this cynical assessment....
Republican Environmentalists Blast Bush Record  One of the Environmental Protection Agency's earliest leaders, flanked by Republican state politicians, blasted the president's record on the environment Monday during a news conference organized by an anti-Bush environmental group.  Russell Train, a Republican, was the EPA's second chief under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. But he said President George W. Bush's record is so dismal that he's casting his presidential vote for Democrat John Kerry in November.  Environment2004, the environmental group, released a report Monday titled "Damaging the Granite State." It criticizes presidential policies on energy, global warming, toxic waste and air and water pollution....
Members of Congress, Environmentalists Blast Bush Plan to Give Away Federal Forests     Members of Congress and environmental groups will announce their opposition to the Administration's proposal to dismantle the Roadless Rule, "one of the most important and popular land preservation initiatives of the last 30 years. (New York Times, 7/18/04)" The plan, to permit logging, mining and drilling in millions of acres of roadless areas of national forests was announced by the Administration on July 12. A 60 day public comment period was announced on July 16 in the Federal Register. Environmental groups are also running ads next week in Congress Daily.  Day: Tuesday, July 20th Time: 11 AM EST Location: Cannon House Office Building Terrace, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC. (In the event of rain, the event will be held in Cannon room 441) Attendees: Sen. Maria Cantwell, Reps. Rosa DeLauro, Jay Inslee, Maurice Hinchey, members of Heritage Forests Campaign, U.S. PIRG, National Environmental Trust, others....
Residents hope idea holds water  This community in the Boulder foothills was parched and frustrated, so much so that residents hatched what they hope will be a do-it-yourself model for Front Range water woes.  Their plan: Build a 5-acre reservoir in the valley that cuts through Pine Brook Hills. Already, residents have ponied up the land and the cash to complete the project....
Bard plays Big Sky Country  On a perfect summer evening, in the middle of what even many Montanans refer to as the middle of nowhere, ranchers and others from a hundred miles away or more made their way past this tiny town and drove half an hour more on a rutted, boulder-studded pink gravel road that winds through green meadows and pine forests to the top of an island in the sky called Poker Jim Butte.It is live theater, Montana style. Not in the round, but on top of the world.  The troupe's visit is a major event in this town of 13-- "14 when my granddaughter is here," Fjell said."This is our one shot at culture all year," said Butch Fjell, her husband, and they make the most of it.Not only is the play an important cultural occasion, but the injection of 10 energetic actors into a quiet ranching town is also a treat--families offer beds for the actors and make potluck suppers to share after the play ends."The people of Birney have probably seen more Shakespeare than 99 percent of the people in New York City," Jahnke said....