NEWS ROUNDUP

White House Intercedes for Gas Project in National Forest Overriding the opposition of the U.S. Forest Service and New Mexico state officials, a White House energy task force has interceded on behalf of Houston-based El Paso Corp. in its two-year effort to explore for natural gas in a remote part of a national forest next door to America's largest Boy Scout camp. Forest Service officials discouraged efforts to drill in the Valle Vidal at least three times since the agency acquired the land in 1982, citing concerns about water pollution, wildlife and recreation if a large-scale energy project were approved. But last week, the agency took the first step toward approving the giant energy company's proposal to tap into 40,000 acres of alpine meadows in the Carson National Forest. The agency released a report that forecast a high probability of recovering gas from the area and laid out a scenario in which 500 wells could be drilled on the forest's east side....
Column: Forest Service isn't right for this job Neptune Aviation flies aerial tankers that were built for war to combat hellish wildfires, but their toughest mission ever appears to be navigating a federal bureaucracy that grounded the Missoula-based firefighting force pending near-absolute proof that its aging but well-maintained aircraft are airworthy...The decision to cancel the contracts was based not on any hard evidence that the air tanker force isn't safe. Rather, it was the NTSB's declaration that airworthiness needed to be assured through a more thorough oversight program - and that the Forest Service is responsible for ensuring airworthiness. Previously, the Forest Service believed that was the Federal Aviation Administration's job. Interestingly, the NTSB report didn't single out heavy air tankers. Its findings applied to any and all aircraft hired by the Forest Service....
Small air tankers attack fires faster Under a hot, high desert sun, three red and white planes that resemble World War II-era P-51 fighters stand at the ready on the apron of a tiny airport, their pilots and ground crews reading paperback novels and chatting in the shade of a tarp. When a fire call comes in to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) air-tanker base here, the pilots can be in the air in eight minutes, following a Global Positioning System heading to a fire with a 500-gallon load of pink, sticky fire retardant to buy time for the ground crews that will actually put out the blaze....
Smokey turns 60 Smokey Bear is the spark behind the longest-running public-service campaign in U.S. history. The national symbol for wildfire prevention turns 60 today. Since 1980, Smokey Bear's campaign has received more than $1 billion in donated advertising time and space. Even more noteworthy is the long-lasting relationship Smokey has had with its creator: Foote Cone & Belding's Southern California office, which brought the bear to life Aug. 9, 1944....
Roadless rage hits national forests The Clinton plan spun through a gauntlet of nine lawsuits before slamming into a legal wall July 14, 2003, when the U.S. District Court of the District of Wyoming ruled the plan was not legal and ordered it to be permanently enjoined, according to the Federal Register. The court's decision has been appealed. "Right now the Clinton era roadless ruling has been enjoined," Holloway said. "If nothing happens to that and it continues to be enjoined then this new (Bush) ruling would replace the Clinton-era roadless rule." The Forest Service hopes the appeals court will rule on the Clinton plan before the Bush administration issues its final plan, Holloway said....
Editorial: Rough riders ANY HUNTER, hiker, or bird-watcher who spends much time in the woods is familiar with the erosion and habitat destruction caused by the irresponsible use of off-road vehicles. The threat these dune buggies, modified SUVs, and dirt bikes pose to the country's national forests has been cited repeatedly by the Forest Service director, Dale Bosworth, as one of his agency's four most serious problems. Unfortunately, the proposal the Forest Service has come up with to curb "unmanaged recreation," as he has called it, falls short of what is needed. It does not insist on a tight time frame for addressing this urgent problem and does not include provisions for the additional enforcement officers needed to ensure that users of off-road vehicles stick to the trails and roads set aside for them....
Glacial Changes Tied to Quakes Retreating glaciers in southern Alaska may make earthquakes more likely there, according to a study by NASA and U.S. Geological Survey scientists in the July issue of the journal Global and Planetary Change. The study reflects one of the under-appreciated consequences of global warming, said Jeanne Sauber, a geophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Glaciers in Alaska have shrunk "at least 10 percent in the last hundred years," because of higher temperatures and increased precipitation, she said....
Rounds pushing for policy changes Gov. Mike Rounds has asked President Bush to change federal policy on prairie dogs, including dropping the prairie dog as a candidate for the threatened species list and setting one-mile buffer zones on federal lands next to private land. The buffer zone request is an apparent change from an earlier state proposal for a half-mile buffer zone....
Million Dollar Miles The road climbs to nearly 9,000 feet and makes 96 curves over 9.6 miles as it passes through key grizzly bear habitat, which federal law says must be protected. And since it's in the park, all sorts of special considerations must be applied. All of the thin topsoils must be saved, mostly for the store of native seeds they contain, and cuts in roadside cliffs must allow footholds for bighorn sheep. Drainage ditches are designed to drain slowly enough to foster native wildflowers, but fast enough the road won't flood. When crews haul water for dust control and compaction, they have to be careful where they get it, to avoid spreading exotic taints like whirling disease and New Zealand mud snails from one drainage to another....
Grand Teton teaches the power of place A 50-year battle ensued during the late 1800s over whether the 12,000-foot peaks in the Jackson Hole valley should be added to the upstart National Park Service's holdings. The contested beginnings of the park are still visible in the number of internal contradictions and compromises. It's the only national park to host an airport, one of the few to allow cattle grazing and hunting and the river has a dam. Most of the buildings from its pre-park days have been destroyed but there are still several private in-holdings and structures. While those exceptions may rankle environmentalists, "We respect those uses," said Grand Teton National Park spokeswoman Joan Anzelmo....
Nevada Ponders Superfund Status for Mine Pressured by a ranking senator from Nevada and the Environmental Protection Agency, Gov. Kenny Guinn says he might reconsider his opposition to a federal Superfund cleanup declaration for a huge abandoned mine contaminated with toxic waste and uranium. Guinn, other state officials and local politicians have contended that the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection is making progress at the former Anaconda copper mine bordering Yerington, an agricultural town in northern Nevada, and that one-time Anaconda parent Atlantic Richfield Co. is cooperating....
Report angers heirs Many land-grant heirs say a recent federal report shows the government simply wants to dismiss their claims. The U.S. General Accounting Office in June released a report concluding that the government's controversial handling of land-grant claims in the late 1800s met constitutional due-process requirements. While the GAO concluded that the government had followed the law in reviewing land-grant claims in the 1800s, it also found that the process placed hardships on land-grant heirs. The GAO study concludes that it's up to Congress to consider whether it now wants to make amends by possibly turning over land or cash to heirs, or perhaps simply issue them an apology....
Last roundup for Ponderosa Ben, Hoss, Adam and Little Joe Cartwright have gone on to that cattle drive in the sky, and now the Lake Tahoe-view ranch where the beloved TV characters hung their spurs and Stetsons for 14 seasons is headed off into the sunset. The Ponderosa Ranch Western Studio and Theme Park in Incline Village, Nev., where 431 episodes of "Bonanza" were filmed from 1959-73, will shut its gate in seven weeks. The park's Web site says the Ponderosa is open until Sept. 26, adding, "This is the last year, so plan your ranch visit today."....
Editorial: Environment worth more than a passing glance If one looks past the colorful balloons, around the overly scripted appearances and under the MTV-like spectacle that was the Democratic National Convention, you might stumble upon something interesting: the party platform. But for all the talk of strength, the platform is incredibly weak and shallow in an area where Democrats have been traditionally bold and formidable: the environment. Of the 33 pages in the platform, only two mention the environment, which is of particular concern to thousands of voters in the Rocky Mountain region stretching from northwest Montana to New Mexico. And those two pages have so few specifics that one wonders from which party's fountain the rhetoric flowed....
LAKE MEAD: Marina might have to move But there is no denying that the lake is shrinking, and if it continues to drop at its present rate, the Overton Beach Marina could be forced to relocate sometime next spring. The water level now sits at less than 1,126 feet above sea level, down almost 100 feet from its high water mark. By June, it could fall below 1,113 feet, according to the latest projections from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation....
75 blacksmiths forge Deere plow replica for anniversary The 3,000 man-hours that went into building a replica of John Deere’s cutting edge 1837 plow — the first one built on the grounds of the John Deere Historic Site here in 160 years — earned the “plow build team” a whopping $24, the price it would have fetched in that era. The plow, built entirely by hand by a team of blacksmiths led by Dave Brandon of Rock Falls, Ill., was the focal point of a “hammer in” at the historic site — located about 80 miles northeast of the Quad-Cities — meant to mark its 40th year as a national historic landmark designated by the National Park Service, said Rick Trahan, the site’s resident blacksmith. The event attracted up to 75 smithies, who fired metal and shaped it to produce an array of items from candle holders to knife blades to delicately fashioned decorative leaves and animals. Smoke from dozens of tiny forges filled the air as the smithies took “green” coal and burned off the impurities to make the coke that can be burned at up to 2,000 degrees to cut and shape iron and high carbon steel....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: There are reasons we have cowboys Why America needs cowboys: 1. So the press will know how to describe people who don't mind taking the handoff and running over the middle on a "fourth-down and 2" situation. 2. To prevent the abuse of facilities, i.e., corrals, calf chutes, barb wire, aluminum gates, telephone poles, old car bodies, split rails, or electric fence. When properly placed, the cowboy can be sandwiched between these inanimate objects and the cow, to soften the blow and lessen the damage. 3. To serve as one of the few sources of amusement in the life of a cow....