NEWS ROUNDUP

Court holds U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to higher standard for logging in owl habitat The government must provide for the recovery of the northern spotted owl, not just its survival, when considering how much logging can be allowed in old growth forests designated as critical habitat, a federal appeals court ruled. The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was the third since 2001 to find that the standard that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses to measure the harm caused by government projects within critical habitat for threatened and endangered species goes against the will of Congress in enacting the Endangered Species Act....
Editorial: Off-Roading Loses Its Way Motorized off-road vehicles, from inexpensive dirt bikes to $100,000 Hummers, provide a sort of unfettered outdoor thrill ride, often in competitive mode. Groups representing off-roaders say their numbers now top 2 million. Families head out to the deserts or mountains for an activity that keeps even the teenagers in the family. For others it's a guy thing, with big toys and great scenery. The knobby-tired vehicles also rip into wild areas, tearing up native plants and sometimes stripping soil to bedrock. Their engines shred the peace of hikers and campers and frighten animals into remote corners. The question is whether it's still possible to balance motorized fun and environmental preservation. Many off-roaders spurn the park roads — after all, the name of the pursuit is off-road — to carve an estimated 60,000 miles of renegade trails in national forests....
Rehberg reaches deal on air tankers The time needed to produce some missing paperwork on Neptune Aviation's grounded firefighting planes may decrease, Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg, said Friday. Rehberg announced Friday afternoon he had reached an agreement with Forest Service Undersecretary Mark Rey in which the Forest Service would pay for finding the needed data from Lockheed Martin Corp., the manufacturer of the P2v tanker planes that Neptune uses. "The best news in all this is that we've made it an important enough issue that Lockheed and the Forest Service have already begun the work on getting the necessary date for certification," Rehberg said in an e-mail message....
Forest Service yields on Biscuit The Siskiyou National Forest has agreed to use its own employees to mark trees to be left behind on salvage timber sales being offered this year in the area burned by the 2002 Biscuit Fire. A motion filed by the U.S. Forest Service in U.S. District Court in Medford to lift a preliminary injunction blocking the timber harvest said orange paint would be used to mark the dead trees that are to be left standing....
Pact signed to expedite removal of Elwha dams A long-delayed project to remove two dams on the Olympic Peninsula's Elwha River received official approval as members of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe joined the city of Port Angeles and others to sign an agreement allowing the project to move forward. The National Park Service, the city and tribal members signed the agreement yesterday to begin work on the $182 million plan to restore the Elwha, once one of Washington's most productive salmon rivers. The project is set to start in 2008. It was approved by Congress in 1992, but has been stalled as negotiations dragged on over its effect on local communities....
Bill Clinton: America’s forests may be on a road to ruin With the active support of 1.5 million citizens, in January 2001, my administration issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule to limit logging and development in nearly 60 million acres of national forests where there were no roads already built. The Natural Resources Defense Council called it the most important forest conservation measure of the past century. But now, the “roadless rule” faces a threat. In recent weeks, the Bush administration has announced its proposal to eliminate it, setting the stage for trees to be cut and roads to be built in forests throughout our land....
Bark beetle infestation slows but could explode again Insects that have destroyed millions of trees, helping to fuel catastrophic wildfires throughout the Southwest, have slowed down this year, but one cold winter could turn the tables, officials say. Bark beetles infested Arizona forests in 2002 after a mild winter dropped less than an inch of rain in many areas, turning trees yellow, brown and red. Drought conditions weaken trees and speed the reproduction cycle for some types of beetles, which also have infested regions in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The insects bore into bark and make tunnels to lay their eggs. The young insects chew into the wood, cutting off water and nutrients to the tree. The beetles also deposit a fungus that attacks the trees....
Cows, calves killed for fun Southeastern Idaho ranchers say someone has broken a code of the West by shooting about eight cows and calves for fun on grazing allotments. Rancher Larry Fitch reports the suspects are shooting the animals just to shoot them. Each cow is worth about 12-hundred dollars and a calf goes for about 700 dollars....
Save the Holes Created hundreds of thousands of years ago by rainwater that eroded porous limestone bedrock, caves such as this one, underground rivers and deep pits speckle the 16.9 million-acre Tongass National Forest of southeast Alaska. During the last 13 years, Lewis, Allred and Smith, along with others with whom they work, have discovered nearly two-thirds of the 600 known caves in the area. They estimate there could be 600 more, making this one of the best cave landscapes—known as "karst"—in the world. Unaffected by development, these caves have revealed 41,600-year-old bear bones, 10,000-year-old human bones and the skeletal remains of thousands of birds, mammals and fish from before, during and after the Ice Age. Such findings have led paleontologists and archeologists to reconsider theories of human migration into North America. The porous bedrock that produces these caves also produces acres of well-drained soil, creating some of the largest trees in the world—many with 10-foot diameters. If clear-cut, the forest floor erodes and debris and water can infiltrate the caves, destroying artifacts, stalactites and the fragile structure of these ancient domains....
U.S. Official Takes Farmers' Side on Smelt A Bush administration official has helped California farmers in a campaign to eliminate endangered species protections for the delta smelt, a tiny fish that has bedeviled Central Valley irrigators, an environmental group has charged. In 2002, the California Farm Bureau and a pair of Central Valley water agencies went to court to force the government to review the smelt population. The review, completed in the spring, concluded that the fish was still endangered. Recently, the farm group went back to court, arguing that the review had been inadequate. As part of their filing with the court, lawyers for the Farm Bureau argued that the review had been criticized within the government. The lawyers pointed to an e-mail forwarded to them by Julie MacDonald, the Interior Department's deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, in which she criticized the review of the smelt population as "oversimplified and misleading."....
Endangered Species Official Reassigned The Interior Department confirmed Friday that Gary Frazer, its senior career official in the Endangered Species Office, which has produced several scientific findings angering his political superiors in the Fish and Wildlife Service, was reassigned last week to a newly created post as his division's liaison to the United States Geological Survey. Tina Kreisher, the spokeswoman for the Interior Department, read a prepared statement saying that Mr. Frazer's new post was created as part of the commitment of the service's director, Steven A. Williams, "to strengthening the service's science capability."....
Enviros: Take bald eagle off endangered list More than five years after proposing to take the bald eagle off the endangered species list and declare victory for our national symbol, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has still failed to complete the paperwork. "The eagle has recovered, and the federal government has had ample time to finish the job," said Dr. Timothy Male, an Environmental Defense ecologist. "The eagles' numbers scream 'We're Back!,' but the process has dragged on and on. If we want Americans to have faith in their government's conservation efforts, our leaders need to declare victory when it's been won. There is no clearer victory in the history of the Endangered Species Act."....
Judge lets enviros join Fish and Wildlife in suit over wolf plan A federal judge agreed Thursday to let five environmental groups help defend the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service against a lawsuit filed by the state of Wyoming over rejection of its wolf management plan. "Wyoming has chosen a sort of maverick approach," said attorney Tom France, who represents the National Wildlife Federation. "This litigation is really taking us further away from wolf delisting and state management." Federal officials have said they will remove wolves from the endangered species list once Montana, Idaho and Wyoming have submitted acceptable management plans. Plans from Montana and Idaho have been accepted, but the fish and wildlife service rejected Wyoming's, which would remove protections once the animals leave national parks and adjacent wilderness areas....
Wolves coming our way Wolves. No animal on Earth inflames the passions of admirers and detractors alike. It is not the animal so much as the symbol imprinted on our psyches, a strand of evolutionary DNA harkening back to our cave-dweller ancestors who fought the sabre-toothed tiger and cave bear and competed with the wolf for game until they eventually domesticated the animal to serve as hunter, companion and sentinel....
Officials propose critical habitat for plant The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to designate 8,486 acres along 113 miles of streams in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming as critical habitat for a threatened plant. The Colorado butterfly plant grows in moist areas of floodplains. It reaches 2-3 feet and has reddish, fuzzy stems and white flowers that turn pink or red with age. A critical habitat designation could result in restrictions in how the land is used....
Klamath water report questioned by many A state report released Friday cites a Klamath River flow study that was thrown out by a federal judge and dismissed by the National Academy of Sciences last year. An independent fisheries biologist and farmers are questioning the inclusion of the flow study. The report, issued by the California Department of Fish and Game, concludes that river flows are "the only factor and tool available in the Klamath Basin" to prevent the combination of conditions that led to the deaths of an estimated 34,000 salmon in the lower Klamath River in September 2002....
Use of fire questioned in restoring prairies Native prairies, probably the single most endangered ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest, were historically shaped by fire, one expert said today, but in the future they may be brought back to health by one of the more noisy, pedestrian inventions of the modern age – the lawnmower. This is one of the conclusions emerging from years of research on how best to recover the native prairies that once dominated such regions as the Willamette Valley of western Oregon, which have shrunk to less than half of 1 percent of their former abundance, along with the multitude of plants and animal species which depended upon them....
Run-ins with humans complicate efforts to save endangered panther Florida panthers may be loved symbolically, as a state mascot, but in the past half-year or so they've started prowling around people's back yards, making fur fly - literally. In June a panther killed livestock at a campground near Everglades City, Fla. In May, others lurked around the site of the sacred Miccosukee Green Corn Dance, coming uncomfortably close to people. In both cases a panther was captured and moved - a step so frowned upon by wildlife biologists that it had been taken only once before, in 1998. A panther followed Lucky Cole up his driveway in the Pinecrest community in Big Cypress National Preserve. He likes being close to nature. But he's concerned....
Park Service's plan to buy Hacienda Casino advances A casino near the entrance to Lake Mead that has long been eyed by developers is one step closer to becoming property of the National Park Service. Wednesday, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton approved about $20 million for the purchase and restoration of the Hacienda hotel-casino near Boulder City as part of $493 million in land purchases authorized for land conservation. If the Hacienda sells, the Park Service will consider a variety of uses for the property including a visitor entrance to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, regional offices for the Park Service or a training center. The 16-story hotel tower -- considered an eyesore by environmentalists and Park Service officials -- would likely be removed....
This Land Is Your Land ... For Now On Monday, Lynn Scarlett, an assistant secretary at the Department of Interior, which encompasses the BLM, sent a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) urging Congress to adopt legislation that would change the way the government can use the money generated by selling BLM land. Historically, Congress has required the DOI to put all earnings from federal land sales directly into the U.S. Treasury -- which Scarlett says discouraged the BLM from selling off public lands for such worthwhile uses as urban and community development....
BLM land-sale plan decried A proposal to expand a law allowing the Bureau of Land Management to sell federal land has conservationists up in arms and federal officials wondering what the fuss is about. Kathleen Clarke, director of the Bureau of Land Management who visited the Salem district office Thursday morning, said the proposal simply expands the authority the agency already has....
GAO to explain findings on land grants At issue is more than a million acres of land that New Mexico heirs to original land-grant settlers say was taken through fraud and the failure of the United States to fulfill its obligations under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Much of land became public — Bureau of Land Management, state or U.S. Forest Service land — or available for private purchase, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office and landgrant activists. A June report released by the GAO found the federal government had fulfilled its obligations under the treaty. But the report says a lessstrict standard for settling land grants was applied by Congress to California than the ones used later in New Mexico. And it notes the process set by Congress at the time New Mexican land claims were settled was “inefficient and created hardships for many grantees.”....
Wild chickens have the whole town clucking It's been 30 years since wild chickens began roaming the town's streets, the unintended result of an experiment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. People learned to accommodate and even appreciate them: Traffic stops while rows of fluffy chicks cross to safety and hop up on the curb. "Love Dem Wild Chickens," reads a bumper sticker. But residents have split this summer. Some hail the chickens as the last genetic link to the red jungle fowl, the revered pets of the Egyptian pharaohs, and demand that they be protected. Others say they have had enough: Enough dead-of-night crowing, scratching and defecating....