NEWS ROUNDUP

Nevada’s Plan to Develop the Desert This was territory nobody wanted — not homesteaders, not city dwellers, not even the railroads. It remained the big empty: a state-sized expanse of sagebrush, canyon lands and jagged mountains left almost entirely to the federal government. But now Nevada's Lincoln County, a 10,637-square-mile piece of the lonely Old West, might be headed for a bit of a New West boom. "Let us grow. Let us develop our water. Let us bring in some industry," pleads County Commissioner Tim Perkins. The Nevada congressional delegation is doing its best to oblige. In June, members introduced a bill that would ease the way for hundreds of miles of water pipelines across federal land and carve out 87,000 acres of public holdings — the equivalent of nearly three San Franciscos — to sell for private development around the county's scattered little communities. The proposal to sell off federal land here is the latest in a series of congressional acts, launched in 1998, that are helping fuel southern Nevada's explosive expansion. The approach Nevada officials are pushing is being eyed as a model in other Western states where the federal government controls huge swaths of land....
Fire Grows After Charring Gold Rush Town A northern California wildfire that destroyed 22 homes and two businesses in this historic gold mining town grew to nearly 10,000 acres Tuesday, but evacuated residents were able to return home. The fire, burning about 140 miles northwest of Sacramento, had moved north of French Gulch and was 25 percent contained. Firefighters did not expect to fully contain the flames until Friday. Two walls of flame roared through the community of 150 homes on Saturday, destroying one-sixth of its buildings. Firefighters managed to save an 1885-era hotel on the National Register of Historic Places, a school and the post office....
Vail Resorts Closes on Purchase of Vassar Meadows Site Vail Resorts announced today that it has closed on the purchase of a major portion of Vassar Meadows, 357 acres of open space located south of Eagle, Colo., from The Conservation Fund for more than $4.7 million. Much of this land will be combined with an in-holding of 135 acres that Vail Resorts already owns in the South Game Creek area on Vail Mountain. Then, as part of an environmental effort to preserve open space, both parcels are expected to be ultimately conveyed to the U.S. Forest Service in exchange for five acres at the base of Vail Mountain that are vital to Vail's Front Door redevelopment. Any Vassar Meadows land now owned by Vail Resorts that is not conveyed to the Forest Service as part of the land exchange will not be developed, and will be held for a future exchange or donation to the Forest Service by the Company....
Fire on the mountain: Unfettered flames an effective tool for Wilderness management Below Hell's Half Acre Lookout six wildfires were visible on Monday. The smallest - the Mile North Fire - started within the past few days. The oldest and biggest - the Harrington Ridge Fire - has been going for about a month. "It's natural forces forming a natural landscape," said West Fork district ranger David Campbell. The Forest Service calls them Wildland Fire Use fires and they are only allowed in designated wilderness areas or wilderness study areas that have them written into their fire management plans, said Campbell. The Selway-Bitterroot was the first wilderness to incorporate the strategy - the first wilderness to let a naturally started fire run its course....
Group formed to seek compromise over rare Nevada butterfly A new working group has been formed in Churchill County to try to find ways to help the Sand Mountain blue butterfly and avoid a potential listing under the Endangered Species Act. The working group was formed by the Lahontan Valley Environmental Alliance, an organization that tries to resolve differences between competing interests in natural resource issues....
Researchers Try to Breed Rare Sea Ducks Researchers at the Alaska Sealife Center are poking into the private lives of Steller's eiders - a rare sea duck that is disappearing from its nesting grounds in Alaska. Ten males and seven females were collected from the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands in 2003 and installed in a large outdoor pen at the Seward center as part of a federally funded captive breeding program. Researchers have observed the sea ducks for a year. To help get the ducks in the mood this spring, their 25-foot-by-60-foot pen was converted into something more cozy, with tundra grasses, moss, pebbles, driftwood and natural barriers for increased privacy....
County appeals trespass ruling Just because the hot-button legal dispute was dismissed in federal court, Park County officials are not about to let sleeping wolves lie. Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric on Monday appealed dismissal of two cases alleging trespass by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee and his assistant. Wyoming wolf recovery coordinator Mike Jimenez and Wes Livingston, an employee of Hawkins and Powers Aviation Inc., were accused of trespassing on the Larsen Ranch in Meeteetse during a wolf radio-collaring operation. The men were found on the ranch property with four tranquilized wolves on Feb. 14....
Alaska man accused of smuggling, selling illegal animal remains Federal agents arrested an Alaska man yesterday in Poulsbo, alleging that a yearlong undercover operation found he was dealing in smuggled tusks, teeth, skulls and bones of several animals, including Alaskan and Asian bears, walruses, birds and other protected animals. Federal prosecutors also allege that William Sidmore made thousands of dollars dealing in the ivory of extinct wooly mammoths from tusks stolen from federal land in Alaska. He moved much of the inventory through Seattle and Poulsbo, prosecutors say....
Desert flooding in California kills 2 Heavy flooding in the Mojave Desert killed at least two people, damaged a key highway and forced the closure of Death Valley National Park, one of the hottest places on Earth.
Fierce storms that hit the desert over the weekend triggered flooding that washed cars off roads and sent mud, rock and debris cascading into the Furnace Creek Wash....
Lawsuit planned in case Pilgrims stay A bulldozer confrontation in the streets of McCarthy on Saturday ended peaceably, with a promise from trespassers to move along, preparations for a lawsuit, and performances by rival bluegrass bands. Nearly 70 local residents and landowners showed up Saturday with a bulldozer to clear a town site right of way where the 17-member Hale family, which goes by the name of Pilgrim, has had a camp for more than two years, according to organizers. The Hales have blamed their predicament on the National Park Service and a misunderstanding with the miner who sold them land outside McCarthy. Their neighbors said the time for excuses is past. The Pilgrim family was not ready to move Saturday, and the neighbors did not force an immediate confrontation....
Press Release: Interior Department’s Wildlife-Friendly Pledge Is Largely Cosmetic This week, the Bureau of Land Management issued a new policy (Instructional Memorandum 2004-110 Change 1) that Interior claims will allow federal officials to hold off offering new oil and gas leases if they think the current plans for protecting wildlife are not adequate. In reality, this new policy is largely cosmetic, maintains BLM’s strong presumption in favor of oil and gas leasing, and will do little to protect the West’s last wild landscapes or the wildlife they harbor....Go here(pdf) to view the Instructional Memorandum....
1979 memo: Radioactive contamination 'problem' at Yerington mine Anaconda Copper Co. officials noted a "problem" with radiological contamination at a northern Nevada mine 25 years ago as they considered options for selling the property at Yerington, an internal memo shows. "It now appears that the residue in the evaporation ponds is a problem because of radiological contamination," according to the memo obtained by The Associated Press....
Amnesty winds down for tribal artifacts taken from Four Corners states A three-month federal amnesty offered to looters returning archaeological artifacts ends Sept. 4 in Colorado. On May 20, U.S. attorneys in the Four Corners states agreed not to prosecute anyone who turned in illegally possessed Indian articles of cultural importance during the amnesty period. The amnesty ends Wednesday in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico....
Enviro's Oppose Cutting Trees for Vets' Graves Environmentalists are upset with a plan to cut down a grove of old cottonwood trees at Fort Logan National Cemetery, a move cemetery officials say is needed to provide final resting places for veterans in the metro area. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs wants to open up a total of 61 acres of grassy, rolling space for new grave sites next month. One acre of that is a cottonwood grove that members of the Audubon Society of Greater Denver say serves as habitat for red-tail hawks and great horned owls....
Unusual Alliance Is Formed to Clean Up Mine Runoff An unusual partnership linking the federal Forest Service, the environmental group Trout Unlimited, the ski resort owners Snowbird Corporation and Tiffany & Company has been created to clean the acidic mine runoff from the American Fork watershed - and perhaps spur similar alliances around the West, where mining waste has polluted the headwaters of 40 percent of all watersheds. The alliance, to be announced Wednesday, is intended to overcome hurdles that have slowed mine cleanups: the intermingling of public and private land in the most affected areas and the provisions of the Superfund law that make those who work at mine waste sites, whether to re-mine them or clean them, potentially liable for their pollution....
Briefs piling up in Montana high court Proponents and opponents of a November ballot initiative to allow the use of cyanide in mining chemical processes are currently battling before the Montana Supreme Court. After a petition qualified Initiative-147 for the Montana election ballot, a Montana rancher and an anti-mining NGO, Montana Environmental Information Center (MEIC) of Helena, filed a petition with the high court to prevent the measure from being placed on the ballot. These opponents claim the measure is unconstitutional because it would restore the mining rights that any company or person had when cyanide mining processes were banned in new mines by voters in 1998....
Fighting against the tide - State senator worries about water rights State Sen. Sam Aanestad on Monday attacked the idea of a Sierra Nevada Conservancy, fearing it will infringe on property and water rights. Despite Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's endorsement of the plan, the Republican legislator last week voted against a compromised version of the bill, which would create an organization aimed at gathering grants and other funds to protect and improve the mountain range. "It's a huge land grab by the state of California," said Aanestad, R-Grass Valley. "The most onerous part of it is the board will have control over all water rights. It's a huge invasion on water rights."....
Myakka woman preserves Cracker heritage "This is where the cattle industry started in Florida. This is our roots, right here," she said about the lineage of her herd of Florida Cracker cows. "Their ancestors go back to the 1500s and the Spaniards. Not long ago - the 1940s and 1950s - this is what people were still raising in Florida." That includes her hero, her father Bayard Toussaint. For 26 years he was the ranch manager of the sprawling 91,000-acre Babcock Ranch in Punta Gorda. He had 16,000 head of cattle and a fulltime crew of about a half-dozen cowboys....
Raising Longhorns a mix of novelty and economy John and Carol Dvorak recognize the American heritage of the Longhorn cattle they raise by welcoming visitors to their farm southwest of Marion. The Dvoraks see their colorful cattle as a bit of living American history so close to the Chisholm Trail and cowtowns Longhorns helped make famous. But among the things they value most about their purebred 60-cow herd Texas Longhorn cattle is the "good night's sleeps" they get during calving season when other cattlemen are checking for cows and heifers having trouble giving birth to calves. They never have to pull calves to assist the birthing process....
American political humorist Will Rogers' ideas strike true even today Just like Mark Twain, Will Rogers had our number. Twain's career spanned the second half of the 19th century and his observations on life, American politics and character strike true to this day. A product of the Gilded Age, Twain's humor could be as barbed as a harpoon. Will Rogers, the Oklahoma cowboy/Indian seems a friendlier, less complex character than Twain (real name Samuel Clemens). Rogers was a huge hit on the stage, in the movies and in print where his daily columns were required reading. His day came in the 1920s and '30s when he was not only America's foremost political humorist but one of the most beloved men of his day....
Competition tests man’s best friend Rex crouched low along the dusty ground. The 4-year-old border collie’s alert blue eyes were pegged steadfast on three heifers pacing in the corral. Nearby, riding a chestnut-tanned horse, Hollister resident Julie Carreiro called to the dog. “Down. Hey. Watch. Watch. Lie Down. Come here! Come! Here!” One nervous cow started to bolt in the wrong direction. Rex instantly shot toward it. The cow kicked hind hooves dangerously up, but Rex agilely jumped out of range. With canine confidence, he assertively guided the big animal toward the back of the open trailer. The cow complied, entering the trailer, followed by another heifer....
Structured for Success Ask saddlemaker Cary Schwarz if he expected Traditional Cowboy Arts Association to catapult to success in less than 6 years, and his answer leans toward the negative. "At the beginning, I never thought it'd catch on like this," he shares. Each TCAA member has earned elite status in his trade of choice. The saddlemakers, bitmakers, spurmakers, silversmiths and rawhide braiders hone their skills, continually seek educational opportunities and manage to leave their egos at the door. It's not surprising then that they carefully select each new member....
Riding With The Elusive Vaquero Our September 2004 issue featured "Resurrecting the Ol' 25" about a historic Nevada ranch describes my encounter with one of the few vaqueros left on the western range. As an extra bonus during my visit to Hardy Downing's lease operation, I enjoyed a great opportunity to ride with Juan Gonzalez, a living link to American buckaroo heritage. "Watch Juan rope," Hardy's crew warned me in advance. "He's a top-rated charro in North America during his spare time. So's his son." My ears definitely perked up at hearing this juicy gossip....
ProRodeo Hall of Fame Inducts New Class The ProRodeo Hall of Fame's gala 25th anniversary weekend reached its apex August 14 with the induction of seven-time world champion Fred Whitfield, three-time world champion Tee Woolman and 1991 World Bareback Riding Champion Clint Corey, as well as six other rodeo luminaries and one storied bareback bronc before a record crowd of more than 1,500 people. The Hall of Fame, which opened in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1979, has been celebrating its silver anniversary throughout 2004. For 25 years, the Hall of Fame has been the center of rodeo history and Western heritage....