NEWS ROUNDUP

Bush environmental order: Heed local landowners, governments President Bush on Thursday ordered Cabinet agencies to pay more attention to private landowners, states and local governments on how to manage the environment. That could influence federal decisions about the use of public lands, the level of protection for waterways and fighting pollution. The executive order, bypassing congressional action, was issued by the White House without fanfare while the president campaigned in New Mexico. It is in keeping with Bush's goal of having the government defer as much as possible to local interests....
Column: Methane Madness Meanwhile, across the state’s southern border, Wyoming is preparing for the development of more than 51,000 natural gas wells in the basins of the Powder and Tongue rivers, which flow directly north into Montana, where they are responsible for irrigating hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland before joining the Yellowstone River. For many of the farmers and ranchers in the eastern part of the state whose lives hang on the quality and quantity of water in the rivers and in the ground, the state’s position has struck a deep chord of hypocrisy. “The governor’s got her tail in a braid about Canadian companies putting water into the Flathead River, but she’s completely ignoring the problem of water coming in from Wyoming into the Tongue River and the Powder River,” says Irv Alderson, a third-generation rancher in southeastern Montana. “See, we only have two rivers down here that amount to anything, and this is a vast area without much water.”...
Agriculture Dept. Offers Grouse Funding The Agriculture Department offered $2 million Thursday to help private land owners in four Western states protect the habitat of the sage grouse. The bird, about the size of chicken, has seen its numbers thin as its territory gets crowded by homes, cattle and oil and natural gas wells. The money will be available under the Grassland Reserve Program, which gives ranchers and farmers dollars and technical help in protecting grassland and shrubland. Those areas include the sagebrush where the birds live....
Mountain goats move into Yellowstone, for better or worse The mountain goat population in Yellowstone National Park is firmly establishing itself in the park's high peaks and steep cliffs, a new study has found. Mountain goats definitely fit into the category of "charismatic megafauna." Beautiful, graceful and athletic, they survive on scant food in incredibly hostile environments. Plus, they're exciting to watch. The problem is, they aren't native to the Yellowstone region....
U.S. Finances Vineyard on National Parkland Northeast Ohio is not famous for its viticulture, but now a public watchdog group has turned its spotlight on a winery on the grounds of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. That's because the National Park Service has, since 1999, spent more than $475,000 to fund the winery, along with two organic vegetable and free-range chicken farms and other activities on park grounds, according to documents released Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)....
Arco, BLM disagree on authority in cleanup Atlantic Richfield Co. is accusing the Bureau of Land Management of a conflict of interest in its role as both regulator and potential party responsible for the cleanup of a polluted Nevada mine. A lawyer for ARCO told BLM that ARCO will agree to new talks about past costs and future cleanup at the former Anaconda Co. copper mine if BLM agrees to cover more of the expenses and give up its oversight role at the abandoned site at Yerington....
Utah Citizens, Others Reject Initiatives to Expand State and Federal Lands A proposed initiative that would force the State of Utah to spend $150 million to purchase an unspecified amount of land from private citizens and remove it from individual use was thwarted on July 6 when supporters failed to gather enough signatures to put it on the November ballot. The defeat mirrored a wave of recent land-acquisition defeats at both the federal and state levels. The Utah Nature Conservancy began the initiative earlier this year after the Utah legislature rejected a bill sponsored by State Representative Ralph Becker (D-Salt Lake) that would have required the state to purchase privately held lands and remove them from the domain of private citizens....
Governor's Solar Plan Is Rejected The Legislature pulled the plug Thursday on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's hopes of fulfilling a campaign promise to install solar power systems on 1 million homes. With lawmakers set to adjourn today, the governor's negotiators failed to find the votes needed to pass a $1-billion program that Schwarzenegger said would cut pollution and boost power reserves....
Bush, Kerry tussle over West issues President Bush and John Kerry haven't promised to bring rain to the drought-stricken West, but they're arguing over just about every other issue to scratch votes out of the region, from preventing forest fires to dumping nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. "They wouldn't be talking about Yucca Mountain or any other issue in a state that wasn't closely contested in the electoral college," said Bob Loevy, an expert on the Constitution's provisions that says presidential elections will be decided state-by-state, not by who wins the popular vote nationwide....
Drought boosts campaign to drain one of the West's biggest reservoirs The worst drought in the recorded history of the western United States has shrunk the lake behind Glen Canyon Dam to its lowest point in more than 30 years, leaving a 117-foot-high bathtub ring of white mineral deposits on the ruddy shoreline cliffs. To keep pace with the reservoir's steadily receding shoreline, the National Park Service has poured hundreds of cubic yards of concrete to extend marina boat-launch ramps twice in the past two years. The drought also has begun resurrecting the labyrinthine canyon system drowned nearly four decades ago by the rising waters of Lake Powell, revealing to a new generation of westerners the environmental cost of their water and power. And by doing that, the drought has reinvigorated a quixotic campaign to decommission the last of America's high dams and to drain forever the symbolically potent and paradoxically beautiful lake it created....
Denver opens spigot, rescinds water limits Denver Water's board Wednesday lifted water restrictions, effective Sept. 1, just before its staff delivered a recommendation to raise rates. Since May 1, Denver Water customers have faced limits on sprinkler use and steep extra charges for using more than 18,000 gallons in a two-month billing period....
Update on Gila river water The settlement, still in the negotiating phase between Arizona and New Mexico, is an amendment to the 1968 legislation that authorized the Central Arizona Project, an exchange of Colorado River water for Gila River water used in the Phoenix area. Included in the 1968 act was an allocation of 18,000 acre-feet of water to New Mexico from the Gila and San Francisco rivers. Although the water was allotted to New Mexico in congressional legislation, the state has never received use of the water. Because new demands in Arizona for the water are being contemplated, New Mexico has a window of opportunity to keep the water for use in the southwestern part of the state, instead of ceding it to the neighboring state....
Beartooth Pass reopens after snow storm strands travelers The Beartooth Pass has reopened Thursday afternoon after Highway 212 was closed Wednesday evening because of snow. The National Park Service is reporting some intermittent wet and slushy spots on the Wyoming side of the popular road to Yellowstone National Park. James Stevenson, maintenance supervisor for the Montana Department of Transportation Division in Billings, said plows have been working since 8 p.m. Wednesday....
Administration Shifts On Global Warming A Bush administration report suggests that evidence of global warming has begun to affect animal and plant populations in visible ways, and that rising temperatures in North America are due in part to human activity. The report to Congress, issued Wednesday, goes further than previous statements by President Bush. He has said more scientific research is needed before he imposes new restrictions on greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide....
Study in Science reveals recreational fishing takes big bite of ocean catch Taking a hard look at the common belief that recreational fishing accounts for only 2-3% of total landings in the U.S., a new study published in the journal Science (August 26th) reveals that recreational catches account for nearly a quarter of the total take of over fished populations, including many of the most economically valuable species such as red snapper, red drum, lingcod, and bocaccio. For specific depleted populations in the U.S.--particularly the large charismatic fishes that people care about most--recreational landings outstrip commercial landings. This is true for red snapper (59% recreational) and gag (56%) in the Gulf of Mexico, red drum in the South Atlantic (93%), and bocaccio on the Pacific coast (87%), among others....
Oregon Court upholds government worker tracking The government can secretly track its workers without search warrants if they're using government vehicles, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled today. The court rejected an appeal by former U.S. Forest Service worker Tamera Meredith, who was convicted of two arson counts involving forest fires set in 1998 in the Umpqua National Forest....
Human Rights vs. Animal Rights Imparting the total message of Putting Humans First is extremely difficult: Its density of thoughtful content defies its brief narrative. Putting Humans First is the only book I have encountered that views today's environmental movement from a historical and philosophical perspective and convincingly argues why we have been on the wrong track. Machan then lays out a simple blueprint for man's future interaction with the planet and animal kingdom. Putting Humans First should become the gold standard for warm and friendly human beings endeavoring to understand and explain why, though we may love animals and nature, they are intrinsically inferior to humans....
State to pay legal fees in lawsuit over amendment The state will pay $575,000 to cover thelegal expenses of groups that successfully challenged a constitutional amendment that sought to keep out-of-state corporations from owning and running large farm operations in South Dakota. After 60 percent of South Dakota voters approved Amendment E in 1998, the constitutional amendment was challenged by the South Dakota Farm Bureau, state Sheep Growers Association, a handful of farmers and ranchers and several electric companies....
It’s Tourien season Behind them, the cameras clicked away. Just before vanishing from view around a bend in the trail, Sylvester, ever accommodating, turned in the saddle and waved. That might have been a mistake. As he faced forward, he saw coming toward him, a horse-drawn buckboard carrying a load of happy Touriens. Tiny, the Tennessee Walker, took one look and tried to chin the moon. Then he dived to earth, driving his forelegs into the soil half way to China. And up he went again. Sylvester stayed with Tiny for three and a half spine-crushing bucks before he was slammed to the ground like a dropped wrecking ball....