NEWS ROUNDUP

Appeal Rejected in Trout Restoration Plan The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday rejected environmentalists' appeal of a plan to poison a stream south of Lake Tahoe to aid what wildlife officials call "the rarest trout in America." Unless opponents sue, the decision frees the California Department of Fish and Game to seek a permit to clear nonnative fish from 11 miles of Silver King Creek next month using rotenone, a toxic chemical. The department then wants to restore the Paiute cutthroat trout to its native habitat in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness. Silver King Creek flows into the Carson River south of Lake Tahoe....
Helicopter Pilot Dies During Firefighting A helicopter crashed Wednesday while ferrying supplies to firefighters in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in central Washington, killing the pilot. The pilot, identified by the U.S. Forest Service as Mike Ward, 55, of Clayton, Ga., was the only person on board....
Power of the Flood The alarms are there because of the events of Aug. 14, 2003--a day on which 1.57 inches of rain fell in a half-hour on the northeast face of recently burnt Apache Peak, the canyon's sole watershed, precipitating a flood many times larger than any ever recorded in the canyon. Pelting down off the peak's steep, blackened face, the deluge became a surging 12-foot-deep amalgam of water, ash, dirt, scorched trees and rocks that churned through the lower canyon, sweeping away tens of thousands of dollars worth of property and killing 59-year-old Oracle publisher and environmental activist Jim Huntington, quite probably before he could get out of his creek-side house. It took months for the ad hoc Bonito Canyon Coalition (headed by Mattson) to get answers or help from any government entity except the cash-strapped but responsive Pinal County. They became particularly frustrated with the Forest Service, whose burnout of Apache Peak had turned into an inferno as it went up the slope: The peak was later identified as one of the two most intensely burned areas of the whole Aspen Fire. (The other was Carter Canyon, near Summerhaven.) An extremely hot fire can change soil so that it actually repels water, and the fire incinerates every plant and bit of mulch that could slow the momentum of water running downhill....
Bear chases hiker in Lone Pine wilderness An aggressive black bear is facing the death penalty after it charged, chased down and then clawed a fleeing hiker with its paw Tuesday in the Cottonwood Pass area in the Golden Trout Wilderness west of Lone Pine. The hiker suffered cuts on the arm, but refused medical treatment. The bear attack near Cottonwood Pass comes on the heals of a bear "mouthing" and bruising a hiker on June 22 in the Kearsarge Pass area, which was the first, physical bear-person incident in the Inyo National Forest since 2002....
Carson City fire rehab to cost $6.4 million It will cost $6.4 million to rehabilitate the huge area west of Carson City blackened by the Waterfall fire, officials say. Carson City Park Planner Vern Krahn said the work will start with reseeding, then will turn to more involved rehabilitation. The U.S. Forest Service will sign an agreement with the Nevada Division of Forestry and Carson City to immediately start aerial seeding and straw mulching of the damaged areas....
Salvage timber sale in Central Oregon attracts no bidders A sale of timber salvaged from 2002's Eyerly Fire in Central Oregon attracted not a single bidder this week, with most concluding that the timber was too old to be of any value. In a salvage sale, trees killed, or otherwise damaged in a fire, are sold and logged. Dead trees can lose their value quickly because they are especially vulnerable to rot, insects - which can stain the wood blue - and, eventually, more fires....
Groups Say Federal Laws Endanger Forests, Help Logging Industry Speaking at the National Press Club, four environmental groups released a report that said timber and gas development proposals backed by the administration are endangering wildlife and stripping public forests of their recreational values. The report, "This Land is Your Land," blames the Bush administration's "Healthy Forests Initiative" for threatening several regional forests from Alaska to Virginia and negatively affecting their ecosystems and economies....
Column: Pulling a Fast-Track One McGreevey last month signed sweeping legislation giving developers fast-track access to 1.5 million acres of the state. The act radically streamlines the permitting process for new construction in urban and suburban areas, and even rural areas designated as town centers. Critics fear that such rapidly permitted development will come at the expense of the environment and public oversight. The New Jersey fast-track legislation contains extraordinary provisions. It forces the state departments of environmental protection, transportation, and community affairs to either approve or disapprove a developer's permit application in just 45 days -- after which time, unresolved requests get automatic approval. The act also privatizes the permitting process, letting developers hire private consultants to write and review permits, and largely extinguishing agency oversight. In another proviso, approved fast-track permits, when contested in court, become final with a single judge's ruling. No public or agency appeal is allowed....
New map shows habitat of endangered tiger salamanders Tens of thousands of acres in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Santa Clara counties would be designated critical habitat for the California tiger salamander under proposed rules released Tuesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The rules are part of the service's announcement last month that it had listed the black-and-yellow amphibian as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. As part of the new designation, the federal wildlife agency will earmark 382,666 acres in 20 counties throughout the state as habitat critical for the recovery of the species. The land would be subject to certain development restrictions under the law....
Toad Jumps in the Way of Development County planners Wednesday added a rare toad to a list of environmental concerns surrounding a planned 2,500-home development near San Francisquito Creek. A Newhall Land and Farming Co. executive said the county’s approval process was halted last May when western spadefoot toads crept down into a man-made basin — a “footprint” for the 966-acre project — and were discovered there. “It wasn’t a natural area for them,” Newhall Land spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer said. “This is a situation where it was clearly a temporary basin we had created, and the toads had gone down to that area.” The toads are classified by federal agencies as a “species of concern,” meaning they’re threatened, but not severely enough to be classified as endangered....
USFWS, partners to remove fish barriers The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the agency's partners will pool $4.8 million in 2004 to remove 91 barriers to fish passage in 26 states. Service funds for the popular Fish Passage Program, amounting to $2.8 million, will be supplemented by another $2 million in matching funds from a wide array of partners ranging from civic and conservation organizations, local and State governments and other Federal agencies....
Dispute over Pilgrims' camp takes an unneighborly turn After a summer of growing tension in McCarthy, one of the Pilgrim family's two right-of-way disputes appears to be coming to a head this weekend. Local landowners say they are ready to use a bulldozer to clear a public right of way in the middle of town where the large, Bible-toting family has maintained a camp for two years. The Pilgrim family patriarch attributed the faceoff to continuing harassment from the National Park Service, which has battled the family over its efforts to gain bulldozer access to its land 13 miles inside the park. Papa Pilgrim, whose legal name is Robert Hale, on Wednesday said park employees had "incited the local people" against his 17-member family....
BLM says it will work with tribes on artifacts Range Creek has been in the spotlight since June, when national attention was drawn to its pristine Fremont artifacts. The state owns more than 4,000 acres in Carbon and Emery counties, where the artifacts are centered, while the BLM manages most of the surrounding land. The lack of tribal involvement at the site has raised the ire of American Indian groups, but the Aug. 4 notification letter and an invitation to the site later this month are the first steps toward making amends. ''There is a need to join forces,'' said Forrest Cuch, director of the state Division of Indian Affairs. Cuch made his first visit to the site Saturday and said he was pleased to find no excavation taking place. His main concern is preservation and security....
BLM trims plan for mare birth control The Bureau of Land Management said it's scaling back plans for giving birth control to mares on the Pryor Mountain wild horse range, citing concerns with the toll of predation on younger animals in the herd. Contraception is being given to seven older mares and perhaps another younger horse, said Linda Coates-Markle, BLM's wild horse and burro specialist for Montana and the Dakotas. Earlier plans called for giving birth control to several yearlings and 2-year-olds also. But the effects of natural mortality - and particularly predation by mountain lions - prompted the BLM to limit its program this year, she said Wednesday....
Column: The Courts Get One Right In July of this year, the Michigan Supreme Court struck an unexpected blow for freedom; a decision, which hopefully will restore a little sanity to the raging nationwide debate over private property rights. For more than two decades now, cities and counties across America have been using their constitutional right of imminent domain to forcibly take private property from its rightful owners, then turn around and sell that same property to other private owners under the pretense that doing so is a “public use”. Over the past couple of decades, this travesty has occurred tens of thousands of times....
Activists pleased with dam decision It took seven years, but conservation groups finally have a commitment from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to take a closer look at how Idaho Power Co.'s Hells Canyon dams affect threatened or endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead. "It's high time that FERC looked at what impact the project is having on listed fish and make adjustments to whatever is needed," said Sara Eddie, an attorney with Advocates of the West who is representing Idaho Rivers United....
Environmental groups fault Bush policy on wetlands The Bush administration has allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands under a policy adopted last year, according to a report issued yesterday by four environmental groups. The study, based on Freedom of Information Act requests, represents the first accounting of how the administration's interpretation of a 2001 Supreme Court decision affected isolated wetlands in states from New Mexico to Delaware. The court ruled that isolated wetlands that do not cross state boundaries and are not navigable do not enjoy the same federal protections as other wetlands just because they serve migratory birds....
Feds ditch "isolated" water When officers of the Pine Brook Water District decided to build a reservoir on Twomile Creek, they got a pleasant surprise: No federal Clean Water Act permit was needed. In 2003, the Bush administration instructed federal agencies that they no longer have authority over "isolated" waters such as Twomile Creek. Since then, the Army Corps of Engineers has determined it has no jurisdiction over projects affecting at least two dozen other creeks, ditches and reservoirs in northeastern Colorado, according to a new report on the administration's water policy....
Taxpayers Forced to Fund Anti-Bush 'Environmentalists' Even though most environmental groups are determined to oust President Bush from office this November, those groups are benefiting from an unprecedented level of federal assistance, according to a Washington, D.C., research group. It's possible that some of that money is also being used in the campaign against a second Bush term, Capital Research Center (CRC) reported in an editorial, citing audits conducted by the White House Office of Management and Budget. The audits, according to CRC's David Healy, show that in the fiscal year 2004 budget, $143 million was channeled to environmental groups that disclose their finances. That's nearly twice as much as the $72 million that the groups got in fiscal year 1998....
Groups appeal San Juan-Chama water diversion permit Six environmental groups are appealing the state engineer’s approval of a project to divert water from the Rio Grande for Albuquerque. They contend State Engineer John D’Antonio did not have proper jurisdiction to approve a permit for the project. The water comes from the San Juan-Chama project, which diverts river water from southern Colorado into the Rio Grande basin. Environmentalists also argue that water users downstream from Albuquerque would be harmed and that the project would damage efforts to preserve the Rio Grande ecosystem....