NEWS ROUNDUP

Appeals court upholds reducing commercial wilderness tours A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a lower court's order that reduced the number of commercial wilderness tours in the Sierra Nevada. At issue are so-called "packstock" operations, for-profit companies that carry campers and sightseers deep into the wilderness using horses. The High Sierra Hikers Association and the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics -- consisting of current and former rangers and other forest workers -- sued the U.S Forest Service, charging it failed to study the cumulative environmental affects of 17 companies the agency permitted to trek thousands of visitors through the forest....
Groups say settlement reached over methane concerns An energy development firm and conservation group said Wednesday they have reached an agreement that will head off a threatened lawsuit over coal-bed methane water. Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. and Northern Plain Resource Council, which had threatened to sue over concerns with the company's discharging of coal-bed methane water in southern Montana, said the plan will, among other things, lead to improved water quality monitoring on the Tongue River....
Governor mulls Bridger-Teton leasing Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Wednesday that he intends to "have a look" in early September at areas on the Bridger-Teton National Forest that are being considered for oil and gas leasing. The governor said his staff is looking into the sale to determine if his office will file an objection with the U.S. Forest Service. More than 150,000 acres near Big Piney are being eyed for lease sales in October and December....
Ski Slopes' Enviro Rules Slipping The U.S. ski industry's efforts to improve its environmental image and follow strict principles that value land, water and air are largely hollow and little more than a marketing ploy, according to a new study. Professors Jorge Rivera of George Washington University and Peter de Leon of the University of Colorado at Denver say the National Ski Areas Association's four-year-old Sustainable Slopes Program is ineffective....
Hunter's Role in Cedar Fire Probed Every week, San Diego County Sheriff's Deputy Dave Weldon flies his helicopter over burned treetops, singed buildings and blackened hills — where 10 months ago today the state's most destructive wildfire devoured the land. Weldon was there the afternoon it started. He can't forget the plume of black smoke he spotted on that first day, and his thoughts often turn to the 15 people who died in the days after. He also thinks about the man he believes started the blaze — a lost hunter from West Covina....
McCain, Kyl strike accord on N. Arizona land swap Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl said Wednesday that they have reached an accord on a huge, controversial northern Arizona federal land exchange that could make the trade happen by the end of the congressional session. The uproar over the proposed Northern Arizona National Forest Land Exchange has been the dominant issue in the Verde Valley municipalities of Camp Verde, Cottonwood and Clarkdale during the past two years because of concerns about the future of the Verde River and groundwater in the area....
Desert tortoise killed A half-century-old icon of the Mojave Desert is dead: apparently murdered in his home at the Bureau of Land Management Needles Field Office. The bureau is offering a reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever is responsible for the death of Scarface, a desert tortoise who was found dead in his enclosure on Aug. 4....
Park County appeals wolf case ruling Park County is appealing the dismissal of trespassing and littering charges against a federal wolf biologist and a private contractor who were found with tranquilized wolves on a ranch near Meeteetse. In July, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson dismissed the charges against Mike Jimenez, Wyoming's wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Wes Livingston, a private contractor from Cody. Rancher Randy Kruger pursued the charges after he found Jimenez and Livingston on his land Feb. 14. The men had four tranquilized wolves they were collaring because of depredation problems in the area....
Group commits to conserve prairie dog A Texas working group committee of ranching and farming organizations, environmental groups, state and federal biologists, private landowners and others has said it will continue efforts to conserve and manage the black-tailed prairie dog, even though the federal government has announced it will no longer consider listing the animal as a threatened species. A spokesperson for Texas Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Working Group said the group will continue working toward its proposed goal to have 293,129 acres of occupied prairie dog habitat in Texas by 2011....
Study: Increase timber harvest on state lands(Montana) The annual timber harvest on state-owned forest land can be increased 26 percent, to more than 53 million board feet, while still protecting waterways, wildlife habitat and forest health, a draft report concludes. The study, ordered by the 2003 Legislature, said the increase reflects a more complete assessment of available timber, consideration of more management options, and the state forest management plan. This is the first time since 1996 that a study has been done to determine a "sustainable yield" from the 726,000 acres of state timberland....
L.A. snuffs Utah coal project The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has withdrawn its involvement in the proposed $1.75 billion expansion of the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) near Delta. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn ordered the department to stop using its resources to study construction of a third generating unit at the massive coal-fired facility. Instead, Hahn wants those resources committed to increasing the department's investment in renewable energy, such as wind and solar power....
Recreation growth challenges BLM head Kathleen Clarke became the nationwide director of the Bureau of Land Management not soon after it gained a new mission: overseeing newly created national monuments. During his time in office, President Clinton signed into existence five new monuments in Arizona -- Vermilion Cliffs, Grand Canyon-Parashant, Ironwood, Desert Sonoran and Agua Fria, which have to be managed by Clarke and her staff. But the true management of the monuments is still in its early phases, as the BLM plans to complete draft documents for managing the Arizona Strip monuments and adjacent BLM land this fall and the other three places within the next year....
Archaeologists Unearth Lost Military Camp Known as Cantonment Wilkinson -- named after Gen. James Wilkinson, the man who ran it -- the camp housed as many as 1,500 soldiers in 1801-1802, about a third of the standing U.S. Army at the time, historians say. Alexander Hamilton and George Washington had posted them along the Ohio River, a few miles from where it meets the Mississippi, to take the Mississippi River from the Spanish by force if a war ensued....
Yoshinoya Faces Longer Wait to Refill Beef Bowls Amid U.S. Ban Yoshinoya D&C Co., Japan's third- largest restaurant chain, is so eager to put U.S. beef back on its menu that it may charter a cargo plane to bring the meat once Japan ends a mad-cow related ban on the imports. ``We're considering every possible way of speeding up the delivery of the meat and chartering an airplane is one option,'' said Yoshinoya spokesman Yasunori Yoshimura. Flying in 100 tons may cost the Tokyo-based company as much as $270,000, he said....
Green Berets saddle up And this week, with the military beginning a new effort to hone cavalry skills for 21st-century warfare, his wayward steed posed an urgent problem. The idea is to help America hunt down enemies worldwide. Army leaders see horses and mules - combined with elite troops and the fanciest weapons - as ideal for operations in roadless parts of Afghanistan, the Philippines, Colombia and elsewhere. So Bones and a dozen other members of the 19th Special Forces Group were sent camping in the northwestern Colorado wilderness for a new 10-day training program....
Seven-time champs re-emerging as force It may have appeared as if team ropers Speed Williams and Rich Skelton were in witness protection earlier this year. No one saw or heard from them during the winter rodeo tour after they had won a record seventh consecutive world championship last December. But that has all changed. In fact, most of their competitors probably wish they weren't quite as visible today....
Ride 'em, charros: State lassos Mexico's brand of rodeo Charreria, the national sport of Mexico and a forerunner of American rodeo, came to Colorado Sunday. Six teams of charros, or Mexican cowboys, competed in the event, held at the Coal Creek Arena in Aurora. It was the 10th stop in a championship series that will culminate in the Jose Cuervo Tradicional Charro National Finals Sept. 3 and 4 in New Cuyama, Calif....
Rancher can't refuse DQ offer Rancher Skip Hougland figured it was an offer he couldn't refuse: Bring in a cow, get a free frozen blended coffee beverage. So he took Bonnie Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a Scottish Highland steer who generally goes by "Charlie," to a local Dairy Queen on Tuesday and got a free "Moolatte" as part of a corporate promotion. Hougland brought Charlie to town from his Willow Creek ranch after reading that people who brought a living cow to any participating business would be rewarded with a free coffee-flavored Dairy Queen version of a latte....
"The Old Farmer's Peaches" There is this old farmer who has a prized orchard full of fruit. One hot summer day he decides to take his bucket, go down to the orchard and pick some peaches so grandma can make his favorite dish, peach cobbler. As he is filling his bucket, his old ears hear the shrill sounds of girls’ voices coming from the direction of his little pond just beyond the orchard. He makes his way through the orchard and steps out of the brush to find three young lasses skinny dippin’ in his pond. “Get away old man — go back to where you came from. We are not about to get out and let you leer at us without our clothes! We’ll stay here until dark if necessary,” spouted the bravest of the three beautiful young women. Hummmm ... what nice peaches these are, thought the old farmer. “Ladies, I didn’t come down here to run you off or leer at you as you say, however you are trespassing on private property, I only came down here to FEED MY ALLIGATOR!”....