NEWS ROUNDUP

Mountain lion enters home on Ute Pass Jim Nicholas was taking a nap Saturday afternoon when his wife, Natalie, rushed into the bedroom, screaming that there was a mountain lion in their home on Ute Pass - possibly attracted there by the couple's toddler, Trevor, who was crying himself to sleep. He looked out the upstairs bedroom window and saw half the tail of the mountain lion sticking out the front door. The cat took one of his wife's sandals and retreated to the top of the hill where it proceeded to chew on it. Later that evening and just down the hill, Christy Sterling was throwing a stick for a dog she was taking care of when a mountain lion - most likely the same one that entered Nicholas' home - jumped over the split rail fence and attacked the dog....
Thinning out the forest In the mountains of Southern California, it's the new sound of summer: the whine of a chain saw followed by the whoosh and thud of a falling tree. Logging crews are moving through neighborhoods and across densely forested hillsides, racing to cut as many dead and dying trees as they can before the area erupts in flames. It's a battle no one expects to win this year -- and perhaps not anytime soon....
Target Shooting Sparked Nevada Wildfire Fire officials may impose restrictions on target shooters in this gun-friendly state for the first time after a man with a rifle admitted he started a wildfire that destroyed six houses south of Reno. Local, state and federal officials said gun enthusiasts who have been free to target practice in Nevada could be limited to designated sites because of the intense fire danger created by drought and heat....
Bear baiting -- which rules rule? Hunters using baits for black bear may have put the animal in the crossfire of two public agencies working to prevent bear confrontations with people. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and the U.S. Forest Service in Wyoming seem to have different goals when managing black bears. Game and Fish allows hunters to set baits for bears, while the Forest Service works to get people to store food so as not to attract bears....
Draft policy on hatchery salmon flawed, scientists say The proposed new federal policy for salmon hatcheries is based on a flawed reading of the Endangered Species Act, hindering efforts to restore wild salmon runs with hatchery fish, scientists say. "The overarching problem is that the ESA is being administered as a fisheries management policy, not as a statute to protect endangered species," a group of scientists said in a letter to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. The scientists were formally commenting on a new federal policy for salmon hatcheries that was prompted by a 2001 federal court ruling giving hatchery fish the same protection as wild fish. The public comment period on the draft policy has been extended to Oct. 22 to include a series of public hearings....
TinkleGate is over; gulag security's not HAVE YOU heard the big news down at Independence National Historical Park? TinkleGate is over! For those who missed it, TinkleGate began Aug. 9, when a 3-year-old child, who had just exited the Liberty Bell Center, had an overwhelming urge to pee. His mom, Barbara Wells, tried to re-enter the center to use the restroom - not realizing the center has no bathrooms - but the security procedures don't allow re-entry unless you get re-screened by metal detectors near the main entrance. So Wells allowed her kid, who was about to explode, to relieve himself in an area between a flower bed and a wall. A park ranger slapped Wells with a $75 ticket for "disposing of human waste in a developed area."....
Grand jury indicts man over ATV incident A federal grand jury has indicted a man in connection with an alleged assault on a Bureau of Land Management ranger. The indictment alleges that Tom Lyn Callen, 19, of Hollister "did forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede and interfere" with BLM ranger Zachary Oper July 3 at the Big Sand Bay recreation area at Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir. At the time of the alleged incident, Callen was also committing another, uncharged offense of operating a motor vehicle in an unauthorized area, the indictment says....
Seeing monumental acceptance When former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt designated five new national monuments in Arizona four years ago, the howls of rural Republicans could be heard all the way to Washington. The Bush administration, saying that the locals had been left out of the decision-making process, threatened to overturn what former President Clinton had signed into law only a few weeks before. But Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke, who was in Flagstaff this week for her first visit to the Vermilion Cliffs and Grand Canyon-Parashant monuments north of the Grand Canyon, now says the specially designated lands enjoy wide approval throughout the federal government....
History kept alive by BLM photographs Ever wonder how a wild horse looks up close in its natural habitat, or what an old gold mine looked like at its dusty ground-breaking? In response to the public's demand for more information about the land it controls, the Bureau of Land Management has made more than 2,500 historical photographs available to the public, including 128 of Nevada's vast landscape. Now anyone can browse through a rich photographic history of United States land - with some photos dating back more than a century - on the BLM's new database in the BLM's digital photo library at www.photos.blm.gov....
NMOGA president supports ‘good neighbor practices’ Oil and gas producers who will not be “good neighbors” with nonroyalty or nonworking interests run the risk of having the government force them to be, the head of an industry lobbying group said. Producers must operate above and beyond what’s mandated by law, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association President Bob Gallagher told a meeting of the area chapter of the Natural Gas Producers Association on Thursday....
CBM water treatment is called affordable A study issued Thursday shows that injecting coalbed methane wastewater back into the ground or treating it are both practical and affordable options. The report released by the Northern Plains Resource Council is the first peer-reviewed technical analysis of solutions for managing coalbed methane wastewater, the group said....
U.S. Illegally Dried River, Judge Rules In a major decision that could affect farming and development in the state's vast middle, a federal judge ruled Friday that the U.S. government has illegally dried up California's second-biggest river, the San Joaquin, by diverting most of its flow to agriculture. Siding with environmentalists in a 16-year-old lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that for more than 50 years the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has violated state and federal laws protecting fisheries by operating the river as an irrigation canal for farming....
Calif. Revives Marine Sanctuary Proposal State wildlife officials announced plans Friday to revive a program to create marine reserves along California's 1,100-mile coast. The program would set up restricted fishing zones expected to serve as models for protecting ocean habitat. Plans for the state-mandated network were shelved eight months ago because of budget woes. State agencies have now secured $2 million from private donors and $500,000 in state funding....
Fate conspired against Nevada's largest ranch When O.K. Reed purchased the Hawes Canyon Ranch in 1906, it came with several water holes on the west side of the Kawich Mountains, about 40 miles east of Tonopah. The ranch served as the nucleus for the development of the United Cattle and Packing Co.'s spread. With hard work, careful investment of funds and no doubt more than a little luck, the ranch grew to staggering proportions. Water was the key to ranching development and success in south-central Nevada. Without developed water cattle ranching is impossible. (Only a very small outfit located near permanent springs and seasonal streams running off the high mountains could manage without developed water.) To create a large ranching operation, a rancher must lay pipelines from springs and streams in the mountains out into the valleys and must dig wells to provide water in areas that lack springs and are too distant for pipelines to be laid. At first, O.K. and Ed Reed dug water wells by hand, some as deep as 100 feet....
Tackling Block Ranch Even in the shade of the big cedars nearby, it's hot work pulling the gateposts of the old cow trap from the ground. Spence Miller and Bart Shipman of the National Ranching Heritage Center stir up a sweat in a hurry on a morning earlier this month as they use picks, jacks, chains and a crowbar to loose the hold on the weathered timbers. They're dismantling the trap so they can haul its pieces to the Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas, and put it back together there as an exhibit. But the old wood is stubborn. It is more than the vise grip of sun-baked earth that clings so jealously to the posts. They are anchored, too, by the years, by the history of Lincoln County's mighty Block Ranch, a past that dates back to the late 19th century....