NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest Service announces boating plan for upper Salmon River The Sawtooth National Recreation Area has a new plan for managing the upper Salmon River in late summer to protect salmon and allow rafters and kayakers there. It eases much of the friction which has existed between the agency and river outfitters since the mid-1990s. Some of those outfitters had been charged with violations for floating through areas where chinook salmon were spawning....
Editorial, An economic mainstay: Timber industry hasn't gone away Oregon's timber industry milled more lumber in 2003 than in any year since 1997, with Lane County leading the way, the state Forestry Department reported recently. Last year's production figures are a useful reminder that there's more going on in the timber industry than mill closures, layoffs and spotted owls. Timber remains a mainstay of the Oregon economy, especially outside the Portland area, and can retain an important place indefinitely. Last year's harvest of 4 billion board feet was far short of the 1986 peak of 8.7 billion board feet. Protection for the spotted owl, salmon and other species caused a precipitous decline in logging on federal land in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Of the timber cut last year in Oregon, five-sixths came from private timber lands....
Scar reclaimed for forest A quarry that marred the foothills above Garden of the Gods before a decade-long reclamation effort has been donated to the U.S. Forest Service. The transformation of the former Queens Canyon Quarry from community eyesore to community asset was long in the making. The 100-acre quarry once yielded rock and gravel used to build NORAD's installation in Cheyenne Mountain. After years of public outcry about the growing scar, the quarry was closed in 1990 by its owner, Castle Concrete, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Continental Materials Corp....
Column: Looking (or Not) for a Few Good Eco-Frauds Remember "Lynxgate?" Wildlife biologists in Washington planting clumps of fur from endangered lynx in a national forest, sending it in for lab testing, getting caught trying to shut down access to a national forest by triggering the dreaded Endangered Species Act? Remember? About two years ago, it was everywhere. The media went off like an air-raid siren: Grave op-eds ran from coast to coast ("The great bio-fraud" --Washington Times), and conservative talk radio hosts had to use every adjective on the shelf for the vast left-wing conspiracy, then go back and order some more from overtaxed right-wing think tanks. Inspectors general and Congressional hearings ensued, with calls to reevaluate prior studies of grizzly bears and spotted owls. There was only one problem with the story: It wasn't true....
Editorial: Two-Faced Forest Policy There are several good reasons to protect 40,000 acres of New Mexico's Carson National Forest from gas exploration. For one, the alpine meadow was donated to the national forest 22 years ago — by an oil company — for wildlife habitat and recreation. The gift was intended to benefit the public and the environment, not to help out another energy company. The land lies next to a Boy Scout camp where for 65 years youths from across the nation have backpacked, ridden horses and worked on conservation projects. The U.S. Forest Service has determined that gas exploration could pollute water in the pristine countryside, as well as harm wildlife and recreation. Foresters consulted with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is generally friendly to oil, gas and timber interests. The consensus: Reject the request of natural gas producer El Paso Corp. to drill in the meadow....
Column: A global view of our forests As you enjoy your deck or park gazebo this summer, eating hot dogs and apple pie off paper plates, consider the world around you, and your impact on it. You use forest products every day, from napkins and newsprint, to crayons, cosmetics, and charcoal for the barbecue. That's OK, so long as we properly care for our forests. As a forest geneticist, I observe how forests respond to insect infestation, disease, increased tree densities, wildfires, non-native pests and the like. What I see demonstrates it's time to stop cordoning off our forests from harvesting....
Column, The Natural Gas Crisis: Greens Engineer Another Disaster Another invaluable instrument Greens use to deter access to natural gas is the Endangered Species Act. It has been used in the past to decimate sectors of the timber industry, mining, and ranching. On December 16, 2002, the Forest Guardians, together with the Chihauhuan Desert Conservation Alliance, and the Texas Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, delivered notice to the US Fish and Wildlife Service that it intended to sue in order to protect the “critical habitat” of the Aplomado Falcon. This bird’s habitat extends from southern Arizona, throughout half of New Mexico, and into west and south Texas. If successful—and these suits have been successful in the past—it will shut down any drilling for natural gas and, of course, any other energy source. For a single species of falcon! At a time when this nation needs natural gas (and oil) now and will need more in the future!....
Court reverses CBM leases In a victory for environmentalists, a federal appeals court on Tuesday reversed the awarding of three coalbed methane leases, a ruling which could slow a booming natural gas industry in northeast Wyoming. Four conservation groups had appealed a decision by the U.S. District Court of Wyoming upholding the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's issuance of the leases to Pennaco Energy, now a subsidiary of Marathon Oil Corp. At issue was whether the BLM satisfied the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) prior to auctioning the leases to Pennaco on Feb. 1, 2000, to extract coalbed methane in the energy-rich Powder River Basin. More specifically, the case centered on whether the environmental effects of coalbed methane drilling are significantly different from the impacts of non-methane gas and oil development....
BLM pulls 44 mineral leases Oil and gas producers will have to wait a little longer before having a shot at drilling on some 47,000 federal acres in the Newcastle area in northeast Wyoming. But wildlife enthusiasts insist it will be worth the wait. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management failed to conduct an Endangered Species Act review with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before it offered 44 lease parcels in the area for sale. Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and Center for Native Ecosystems caught the oversight and protested the offering in time for the BLM to pull the parcels from Tuesday's sale....
Citizen Groups Protest Upcoming Oil and Gas Lease Sale in Colorado Six Colorado citizen groups today filed documents formally protesting oil and gas leasing on potential wilderness lands. Inclusion of proposed wilderness areas in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) August 12 Competitive Oil & Gas Lease Sale, the groups say, would mar their wilderness characteristics and reduce their chances for protection....
Retailers push candidates on environmental stands Outdoor recreation industry leaders are pressing Utah's gubernatorial candidates to take a stand on the environment before Wednesday's vote on whether to move the two Outdoor Retailer trade shows outside the state. Republican Jon Huntsman Jr. and Democrat Scott Matheson Jr. separately met at the end of last month with the president and board members of the OIA in advance of its executive board meeting planned Wednesday as the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market gets under way in Salt Lake City. The OIA said it will announce after the meeting whether the trade shows, which contribute $32 million annually to Utah's economy, will stay in Utah for the next five years or go to a more environmentally friendly state....
There's no pay in Colorado's dirt A combination of poor geology and strict government regulations makes Colorado an unattractive destination for new mining dollars. This was underscored in a recent survey of executives by the Fraser Institute of Canada, in which Colorado ranked 49th among 53 areas for investment in exploration and development of new mines. Chile was No. 1, followed by Nevada....
Grand Canyon becomes a presidential campaign issue Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry visited the Grand Canyon Monday as part of a campaign swing through the Southwest. During his visit, he said he would commit an additional $600 million over the next five years to maintain and spruce up national parks The Massachusetts senator acknowledged that new spending might require a hike in fees at national parks. The Bush camp, including U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, defended their record on parks, contending they have increased spending, hired more workers and inherited a maintenance backlog from the Clinton administration. Norton and Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl also criticized Kerry for his changing positions on the "Healthy Forests" tree and brush-thinning program passed by Congress last year....
Column: The Silver State Has a Scary Future In July, the Feds handed down to Nevada its bitterest defeat and sweetest victory in ages; the former, a termination of thousands of years of Western Shoshone history; the latter, a reprieve from an apocalyptic future as the world's biggest – and maybe dumbest – nuclear waste dump. In one three-day period, Nevada's past got cancelled while its future was salvaged. But this Indian war and these nuclear politics are just part of a panoply of glaringly weird things going on in the state; there's a gold rush, a water war, and vast military operations, just for starters, and all of them are ecological bad news....
Ranchers offer to end monument grazing A group of ranchers holding grazing leases in or near the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is asking Congress for a buyout to end their commercial livestock grazing in the area. In an Aug. 4 letter to Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., a dozen ranchers seek assistance in obtaining "fair and equitable compensation" in exchange for their historic grazing leases, some of which have been held by ranch families for generations. "We feel that retirement of our grazing leases will be a win-win situation for taxpayers, local government, environmental concerns, rural interface residents and livestock operators without major adverse impacts to the national and local economy, society and the open space concept," they wrote....
Governor signs and cheers Highlands act Gov. James E. McGreevey signed legislation yesterday to protect the northern Highlands from development, telling applauding politicians, two former governors, a handful of environmentalists and two Girl Scout troops that his action will ensure clean drinking water for half the state. The bill is the most sweeping preservation measure since the Pinelands was saved a quarter-century ago, and the governor chose a pristine spot beside the Wanaque Reservoir in Passaic County and flanked by forested mountains to hold a signing gala....
Environmentalists snub signing of Highlands bill Absent from the picturesque scene at the Wanaque Reservoir Dam in Passaic County were some of the Highlands legislation's most vocal advocates - environmental activists from the Sierra Club, the New Jersey Environmental Federation, the Audubon Society, and other groups. The activists - who have been feuding with McGreevey since last month, when he signed legislation that allows developers to pay for expedited state approval of building permits - held their own news conference a block away from the governor's event. They argued that the so-called fast-track bill, which South Jersey lawmakers pushed through the Legislature in June in exchange for their support of the Highlands proposal, would destroy more land than the Highlands measure would protect....
Traces of Fire Retardant Found in Salmon Traces of industrial-strength fire retardant have turned up in wild and farm-raised salmon around the world, a study released Tuesday said. The research, published in the journal Environment Science and Technology, was the latest blow to the nutritious reputation of salmon, which is packed with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. A prior study by the same researchers recently found troubling levels of PCBs, a known carcinogen, in farm-raised salmon....
Biologists work to save alligator gar Old acquaintance Craig Springer, who works for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Division of Fisheries in Albuquerque, N.M., recently saw our Sunday feature about Atlantic sturgeon and how private industry, the state of Maryland and the federal government have joined hands to restore the species to its former glory. "I'm happy to hear about the sturgeon program," he said, "but I think your Beltway readers will be surprised and delighted to learn about another fish, a species that can grow 13 feet long and weigh 300 pounds and is still around — for now." What Springer is talking about is a prehistoric looking critter, filled with teeth and looking, well, looking like an alligator — hence its name, alligator gar....
Western Drought Provoking More Than Water Wars What the U.S. Geological Survey has identified as the worst western drought in 500 years, is propelling the whole western region of the North American continent toward conditions for which financial oligarchs' anti-infrastructure advocates pine: drastic de-population of the North American West, within this decade. The current drought doesn't stop at the United States' northern border negotiated with the British Empire, nor at the southern border of the Gadsden Purchase. The North American Drought Monitor, compiled by the American, Mexican, and Canadian national governments, shows "Abnormally Dry" to "Exceptionally Dry" conditions stretching from an area well above the panhandle in Alaska, to central western Mexico. Parts of Western Texas have been afflicted with drought for the past dozen years. A drought in the region in the 1500s lasted 50 years. And hydrologists say they have no certain way of knowing how long the current one will last. Colorado water officials say the Front Range from Ft. Collins through Denver to Pueblo has adequate water for two more years. What then? Year 2006 would be Year Seven of the drought in that area. By Year Nine—according to a 1996 study which examined worst-case scenarios—governments would have to declare statewide emergencies to manage the dwindling water supplies. "By Year 11, the drought could become all but unmanageable, perhaps even leading to mass migration from the Colorado River Basin," reports the Colorado mountain newspaper, Summit Daily News, citing the study....
Dalhart, XIT Rodeo hold on to traits that make them special Though their community is small and remote, people in Dalhart act like their rodeo is the top of Texas. And rightfully so. When this community of 7,237 in the top left corner of the Panhandle conducts its annual August event, it's an unusually large celebration of Texas themes: ranching, rodeo, barbecue, barbed-wire fences and cattle brands. The XIT Ranch Reunion and Rodeo was formed in Fort Worth in 1936 to pay homage to the historic XIT Ranch, but the event moved to Dalhart the next year because a significant part of the ranch was near Dalhart, said Jarret Bowers, an organizer. The XIT Ranch was a 3 million-acre spread that spanned 10 counties in the Panhandle in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The land was given to a Chicago firm as payment for constructing the state capitol building that now graces Austin's bustling downtown area....
Fly-In Planned in Honor of Cherokee Cowboy Will Rogers Humorist, radio and movie legend, and Cherokee cowboy Will Rogers' life was cut tragically short in late summer 1935. The plane he was riding in, piloted by famed aviator Wiley Post, crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska. This year marks the 69th anniversary of that accident. Rogers, originally from Oklahoma, was an adventurer from his youth. He was born on the banks of the Verdigris River in what would later become Oologah, Oklahoma. His life and enduring sense of adventure will be remembered at the annual Will Rogers Fly-In at 9 a.m. on August 15, 2004. The event will be held at the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch, two miles east of Rogers’ hometown....