NEWS ROUNDUP

Hiker froze to death A missing hiker, identified as David Anderson of an unknown town in Texas, died of hypothermia after becoming separated from friends on a camping trip in the Teton Wilderness, investigators said Thursday. Investigators found grizzly bear bite marks and scratches on the body but those wounds occurred after the 24-year-old Signal Mountain Lodge employee died, said Teton County Coroner Bob Campbell....
In Pike National Forest, an Office With a View To get that spectacular windows-all-around office with 100-mile views and his government-issue log cabin in a secluded forest glen, Ellis fills an increasingly rare federal job description: He is one of the last of the Forest Service's fire lookouts, spending his days in splendid isolation atop a rocky peak in Pike National Forest about 9,700 feet above sea level. Binoculars at the ready, Ellis scans hundreds of square miles of forest, from the purple mountain majesties of the Continental Divide, 60 miles to the west, to the amber waves of grain blanketing the prairie stretching out to the east....
Air Tankers Return to Firefighting Duty The government agreed Thursday to put two more large air tankers back into service for the remainder of the fire season -- on an experimental basis only. More than two dozen air tankers were grounded this spring because of safety concerns. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said two P2V tankers, owned by companies in Montana and Nevada, will be outfitted with special equipment to monitor how much stress the planes experience during firefighting duty. The remainder of the companies' fleets will stay grounded, at least for the next three months, as officials continue working with the planes' manufacturer to determine their airworthiness, he said....
Four-wheelin' fun Joining me on the summit were almost 20 other participants in the 38th annual Sierra Trek, a yearly gathering of four-wheeling and sport utility vehicle enthusiasts who come to this area to camp, socialize, and test their off-highway driving skills amidst the backdrop of the Sierra scenery. This year's Trek, sponsored by the California Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs, drew more than 900 participants from all over the Western United States. While the majority of participants came from the Bay Area and Central Valley, it was not unusual to see families from Southern California, the Mt. Shasta area, and even a few from Washington and Oregon at the Trek's base camp on Meadow Lake (approximately 20 miles northwest of Truckee)....
Pair of bear-trapping women defy stereotypes Rotting roadkill, cow blood and fish guts are the tools that Barb McCall and Kerri Lippert carry into the woods near the Canadian border. Those smells attract bears, and it is the job of the two young women to catch, collar and release up to 20 of them this summer. McCall and Lippert are the first all-female bear-trapping team in the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Every morning they get into a state pickup truck and crisscross Forest Service roads, looking for the next catch....
Wolves kill three bear hounds Wolves from a pack located in the Town of Shanagolden killed three bear hounds in an incident confirmed by investigators from the United States Department of Agriculture - Wildlife Services on Aug. 4. Adrian Wydeven, Park Falls, mammalian ecologist for the Department of Natural Resources, said this is the first depredation incident on bear-hunting dogs in 2004. He said that wolves and pups are in rendezvous sites at this time of the year. It is unknown if the wolves were protecting the rendezvous sites at the time the dogs were killed....
Fastest-growing county bars development on 500,000 acres The nation's fastest-growing large county has won approval to protect dozens of threatened and endangered species by locking out developers from a half-million acres of land. Anti-sprawl groups, environmentalists and builders worked together on the conservation proposal, part of Riverside County's nationally recognized effort to integrate planning for development of roads and homes with protections for delicate wildlife and plant habitat....
Bush administration cites "national security" as reason to skirt enviro rules Now the Bush administration may be weeks from implementing more environmental exemptions for the sake of "national security," which critics find equally preposterous. The Department of Homeland Security has proposed a directive [PDF] that would enable a raft of agencies under its domain -- including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Coast Guard, Border Patrol, and more than a dozen others -- to eschew environmental reviews and assessments of their operations, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, if agency officials feel such reviews are impinging on their efficacy. The directive, which does not require congressional approval, would also allow the agencies to conceal information they consider sensitive from a national-security standpoint....
Endangered mice in deep water The discovery of several endangered animals on the outskirts of southwest Bakersfield is causing alarm within the water community. Federal biologists found at least two Buena Vista Lake Shrews along the Kern River bed and may push forward to protect their habitat. They said today, there are fewer than 30 of these shrews in existence. Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service notified the City of Bakersfield of its intention to designate the habitat as critical to saving the shrew. The only problem is the habitat is in an area where the city recharges our groundwater basin, and Bakersfield's Water Resources Director said any move to interfere with groundwater recharge programs is cause for concern....
Biologists rescue minnows from drying Rio Grande Biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have rescued some 5,700 endangered Rio Grande silvery minnows from a drying portion of the river south of Albuquerque. The minnows were captured from shrinking pools along the river over the past two days. They were moved to a reach of the Rio Grande in northern Albuquerque that does not go dry....
Plan for hunting at refuges draws mixed response The US Fish and Wildlife Service's plan to allow hunting at two regional nature refuges pleases hunters but upsets critics worried about public safety and the effect on wildlife. A draft management plan nearing final approval calls for allowing hunting of deer, turkey, woodcock, ruffed grouse, squirrels, and rabbits at Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, which includes portions of Sudbury, Stow, Maynard, and Hudson. Hunting of ducks, geese, and deer would be allowed in portions of Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge that are in Sudbury and Wayland. Currently hunting is not allowed at either refuge....
Breakfast with bats The bats got a thumbs up Thursday from visitors who attended the 47th annual Bat Flight Breakfast at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, while a new menu got mixed reviews. After a no-show last year, the approximately 300,000 Mexican free-tail bats that call the cave home during the summer were under a bit of pressure. And based on crowd comments, they performed admirably....
Ranger-spray case investigator departs A criminal investigator spent two and a half days this week at the Point Reyes National Seashore interviewing victims, rangers, and witnesses regarding rangers’ pepper-spraying of a brother and sister July 28 in Point Reyes Station. Conducting the Park Service’s investigation is Special Agent Paul Crawford from Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada. The community has responded with outrage after it was reported that two rangers, Roger Mayo and Angelina Gregorio, at close range pepper-sprayed the eyes of Chris Miller, 18, and his sister Jessica, 17, while they were restrained and sitting on the ground. Eyewitnesses have said the siblings from Inverness Park were not threatening the rangers, instead describing the rangers as having "lost control."....
AP: Most U.S. Oil, Gas Leases Unexplored Despite soaring oil and gas prices, oil companies and individuals who own nearly 30 million acres of nonproducing federal oil and gas leases have made little effort to transform them into energy producers, federal records show. An Associated Press analysis of Bureau of Land Management records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act found that 98 percent of the more than 33,000 leases still considered nonproducing by BLM have never had an exploratory well drilled. Ninety-seven percent have never had a single application for a permit to drill filed with the BLM....
Loss of foals from Pryor Mountain wild horse herd blamed on mountain lions Mountain lions are being blamed for playing a “significant role” in the deaths of 22 of 28 foals born to the Pryor Mountain wild horse herd in May. “We feel pretty strongly that because of the number and the regularity, it's probably a couple of lions,” possibly a lioness with young kittens, said Linda Coates-Markel, wild horse and burro specialist for the Bureau of Land Management. A lion is also blamed in an attack in June on an undersized 5-year-old stallion that roams the lower portion of the wild horse range. The stallion survived, although it suffered puncture and claw wounds on its hindquarters, shoulder, neck and head....
Column: Kerry's Energy Plan In the 1960s John F. Kennedy inspired America with his pledge to put a man on the moon in ten years. Now, John F. Kerry is invoking that proud history to promote his own plan to end US dependence on Middle East oil. "This is the great project for our generation," Kerry declared in May, and his recent comments suggest it will be a major theme in the fall campaign as well. During Kerry's speech at the Democratic convention, for example, he mentioned the environment only in passing. But he spoke at length about freeing the country from Middle East oil, winning some of the strongest applause of the night by promising to rely on American "ingenuity and innovation--not the Saudi royal family." Elevating energy over the environment is shrewd politics for Kerry. True, George Bush has compiled the worst environmental record in modern American history, while Kerry has earned a 96 percent lifetime voting record from the League of Conservation Voters, a nonpartisan group in Washington that has now endorsed him. But the Kerry campaign recognizes that the environment is not a decisive issue for most voters....
Kerry mining fee proposal draws opposition in Nevada John Kerry's proposal to increase mineral royalties to raise money for national parks has drawn strong opposition from officials and mining interests in Nevada, which produces 81 percent of the nation's gold. Kerry has proposed an 8 percent royalty fee on precious metals dug from federal land, while doubling the claim fee to $200 and eliminating land patents....
Wildlife Board OKs Hearst Deal Over strong objections from some environmentalists, a state board on Thursday agreed to provide $34.5 million to help preserve the Hearst Ranch, a major stretch of undeveloped coastline in Central California. The unanimous vote by the three-member Wildlife Conservation Board is the second of four steps in cementing a controversial deal totaling $95 million that opponents call too generous to owner Hearst Corp. and supporters hail as historic protection for spectacular ocean bluffs and hills surrounding Hearst Castle in San Simeon....
A Utah Rancher's Secret Trying to keep a secret is almost impossible these days, but rancher Waldo Wilcox kept a good one for half a century. Last month, when his secret was finally revealed, it became the second biggest global, online news story of the day. Here's what it was: Since 1951, Wilcox has protected one of the most remarkable archaeological treasures ever found in the American Southwest. He protected this treasure simply by not telling anyone about it. As Wilcox put it succinctly, "The less people who know about this, the better."....