NEWS ROUNDUP

Bush order eases rules protecting wildlife in forests National forest managers will not have to adhere to strict wildlife protections that have been in place for more than two decades under a temporary rule issued yesterday by the Bush administration. Issued in 1982 by the Reagan administration, the viability requirement was often cited in lawsuits that forced the Forest Service to sharply reduce timber cutting in the Pacific Northwest and other regions with declining populations of owls and other animals. Forest Service spokesman Joseph Walsh said that there was confusion over the two rewrites and that the temporary directive, published yesterday in the Federal Register, was intended as a clarification. It states that until final regulations are issued, forest managers can follow the 1982 regulations if they wish but that they are "not in effect." Instead, it directs managers to base forest plans on "the best available science."....
Survivor recalls noise, impact of crash Jodee Hogg said she is ready to move on with her life after walking away from a plane crash last week in the Montana wilderness that killed three companions. Hogg, appearing Wednesday on ABC News' "Good Morning America," also said it's enough for her that authorities had apologized for initially believing all five on board the single-engine aircraft - a pilot and four Forest Service workers - had perished in the crash near Glacier National Park. Matthew Ramige, of Jackson, Wyo., also survived. "I'm ready to close the book and move on, and get my life started again," she said....
Jackson resort permitted more backcountry skiers The Bridger-Teton National Forest will allow Jackson Hole Mountain Resort to guide more than twice as many skiers in the backcountry this winter. The resort had been permitted to guide 300 backcountry skiers each winter, although the Forest Service routinely allowed the company to exceed that limit. Under the new permit, approved by District Ranger Nancy Hall, the resort would be guaranteed 721 skier days with an option for an additional 179 if the resort proves skier demand warrants it, the agency said Tuesday. The resort could guide up to 900 skiers total....
For the sixth time since 1990, Arizona voters are again being asked to approve land swaps By that definition, we've got some positively certifiable lawmakers up in Phoenix. For the sixth time in 14 years, legislators are asking Arizona voters to let the state back into the business of swapping State Trust Land. This time, the prop is picking up patriotic appeal by flying under the banner of the Military Base Preservation Initiative--a title that has environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters, tossing around terms like "political deception" and "mislead the public."....
Mount St. Helens on Higher Eruption Alert Mount St. Helens could erupt within days, government scientists said on Wednesday, raising the alert after movement in the volcano's lava crust was detected following a week of small earthquakes. "We think that the likelihood of an eruption has increased," Cynthia Gardner, seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey told reporters....
Reagan was right: Trees do cause smog Although scientists knew that trees contribute substantial amounts of VOCs to the atmosphere, the rate of increase in recent decades was previously unrecognized. ''If we don't understand what's going on with biogenic (plant-produced) VOCs, we are not going to be able to weigh different air-quality strategies properly,'' said Purves. ''It's a big enough part of the puzzle that it really needs to go in there with the rest.'' The study may help explain why ozone levels have not improved in some parts of the country as much as was anticipated with the enactment of clean-air laws, Purves said....
Recreation Group Says TRAIL Act Will Penalize Bad Behavior, Keep Public Lands Open Americans for Responsible Recreational Access (ARRA) said yesterday's passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of H.R. 3247, the TRAIL Act of 2004, represents an important victory for all who pursue recreation on public lands in a responsible manner. "This bill, for the first time, would provide for consistent penalties across all public lands agencies for those who would abuse our public lands," said ARRA Executive Director Larry E. Smith. "Instead of allowing those few who misbehave to deny opportunities to everyone, the TRAIL Act will make it possible to repair the damage, penalize the wrongdoers and keep our public lands open to all."....
Executive director of BlueRibbon Coalition resigns Clark Collins, an original founder of the Pocatello-based BlueRibbon Coalition, has reassumed the group's executive director role, following the recent resignation of Bill Dart. Dart was cited with outfitting without a license Aug. 20 when a Forest Service officer reportedly caught him giving a motorcycle tour to an unknown number of clients in the Sawtooth National Forest. After initially being placed on indefinite administrative leave, he announced his resignation Sept. 24....
Forest residents told to leave Within the Angeles National Forest, Larry Bartlett and his neighbors stand guard against fires, littering and loitering. Now they are waiting out an order by the U.S. Forest Service to leave their homes in the forest, most of which was closed to the public Monday until the intense fire danger subsides. Last Friday, a dozen residents who live in a cluster of historical log cabins inside the North Trail Canyon near Tujunga said they were notified by telephone they had 48 hours to leave or face a fine of $5,000. But they are refusing, awaiting official eviction notices. At that point they will decide whether to leave or to fight to stay....
No to plea for squirrel species The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has turned down another petition to list the Western gray squirrel for protection under the Endangered Species Act, the agency said yesterday. A petition filed in December 2002 by the Institute for Wildlife Protection, based in Eugene, Ore., asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to name all Western gray squirrels as endangered, not just the Washington population as other recent petitions and lawsuits have asked....
Wolves killing more domestic animals in Wisconsin Timber wolves are killing more domestic animals in Wisconsin as the population has steadily grown to nearly 400 wolves, a state wolf expert says. So far this year, there have been 21 confirmed cases of wolves killing livestock on farms compared with 14 in all of 2003 and eight in 2002, said Adrian Wydeven, head of the state Department of Natural Resources' wolf management program....
Tree-sit removals draw crowd to courthouse steps About 50 logging activists gathered at the Humboldt County Courthouse as two of their peers were scheduled to check into jail for brief stays. They were greeted with honks from passing cars, and passed by log trucks escorted by Eureka Police Department motorcycles. In August, protesters boarded a log truck and blocked traffic, but Tuesday's demonstration was mellow. Activists Matt Dicks and Kim Starr were sentenced to 10 and 15 days in county jail last week for disturbing the peace and blocking access to Palco property in Southern Humboldt....
'Slobs' force officials to kill grizzly A grizzly bear had to be killed Wednesday after it became accustomed to human food and being in close contact with people. The young female grizzly spent weeks hanging around the Eagle Creek trailhead along the North Fork of the Shoshone River, just east of the East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The bear regularly fed on horse grain and human food that was carelessly left out by people, according to Chris Servheen, the scientist in charge of grizzly recovery for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "If people are going to keep acting like slobs, we're going to have to keep killing bears," Servheen said....
New Agreement Preserving Bowhunting Tradition The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today signed a four-year agreement with the Archery Trade Association, the Bowhunting Preservation Alliance, and Arrowsport to increase archery and bowhunting opportunities, building on bowhunters' continued support for wildlife conservation. "This is another example where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is strengthening partnerships with the hunting community," Service Director Steve Williams said....
Alaska weighs ban on hunters luring bears with food Stale doughnuts, lard, honey-drenched dog food – is this any kind of meal for a wild Alaska bear? No, say activists promoting a ballot initiative that would outlaw the controversial practice of bear baiting in Alaska, one of the many states where bear are hunted....
$26-Million Deal Will Save 8,800 Acres of Fragile Desert An 8,800-acre swath of fragile desert wilderness in the Coachella Valley — which helps to sustain palm oases, sand dunes and the endangered desert tortoise — will be preserved under a $26-million land deal finalized last week by the Nature Conservancy. The acquisition of the Joshua Hills increases the Coachella Valley Preserve by nearly 50%. It also ensures a sand source for the dunes below and forms a link for bighorn sheep, bobcats and kit foxes traveling from Joshua Tree National Park to the valley....
Park's ecosystem at risk, EPA admits The Environmental Protection Agency has acknowledged that nitrogen pollution is harming Rocky Mountain National Park, and administrator Mike Leavitt says he wants to move quickly to fix the problem. Airborne pollutants from Front Range tailpipes, smokestacks, crop fields and feedlots are damaging the park's prized mountaintop ecosystems. If unchecked, the creeping accumulation of urban nitrogen compounds could acidify park waters and soils, posing a threat to fish, forests and alpine tundra, according to park researchers. The problem is known as nitrogen deposition....
Snowmobile protest in D.C. is banned What's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander, an environmental group has found. Campaign to Protect America's Lands wanted to demonstrate the commotion 11 snowmobiles make by parking them outside the nation's Capitol. But the National Park Service denied the group a permit to do so inside Simon Bolivar Park, which is located across the main entrance to the U.S. Department of Interior. The group claims it was denied a permit because snowmobiles aren't considered an acceptable use in D.C....
Bush Administration Sits on Revised Video Until After Election In order to edit out filmed scenes of gay and abortion rights demonstrations that occurred at the Lincoln Memorial, the Bush Administration has spent more than a year and nearly $200,000 making two new versions of a video, according to agency records released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In November 2003, under pressure from conservative religious groups, the Park Service announced that it would alter an eight-minute video containing photos and footage of demonstrations and other events taking place at the Lincoln Memorial....
Editorial: BLM and OHVs Trying to be fair," is how Rex Smart, manager of the Kanab Bureau of Land Management field office, characterizes his plan to designate some trails in the Vermilion Cliffs area for off-highway vehicles and to make others off-limits. But fairness is only part of the equation. BLM managers must also act quickly as they weigh the often-devastating effects of uncontrolled OHV use on Utah's natural outdoor treasures and the complex issue of how the delicate ecosystems of the state's deserts and mountains can survive and co-exist with OHV users and non-motorized recreationists. Smart's office is responding to a petition from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, but BLM managers shouldn't wait for conservationists to prod them before taking action to protect public lands....
'Who Owns the West?' You Do! Anti-development groups such as the Environmental Working Group (EWG) seek to block development of domestic supplies of clean-burning natural gas. In a recent report EWG presents myths instead of facts in hopes of scaring policy- makers, media and the public and prevent developing energy resources on Western lands -- non-park, non-wilderness public lands designated to serve, and be used by, all Americans. Here is a top-line look at some of the myths in the report, and the facts available from government, industry and third-party sources....
Bison hunt scaled down A proposed bison hunt in Montana is likely to get a lot smaller, according to the regional manager for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Hunting in the West Yellowstone area is no longer on the table, FWP regional manager Pat Flowers said, because of the potential for conflict with annual bison hazing operations there....
Refinery report becomes environmental hot potato A government advisory panel has delayed releasing a report on ways to boost U.S. oil refining capacity, and one source familiar with the report attributed that to the Bush administration wanting to avoid a fight over environmental regulations before the national elections. The report by the National Petroleum Council to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham had been scheduled for release on Thursday and was eagerly awaited by the oil industry, which saw U.S. crude oil prices hit a record $50.47 a barrel this week....
Russian cabinet set to approve Kyoto accord After years of wavering, the Russian government is expected to take concrete steps today toward ratifying the Kyoto climate-change accord, something that would bring the pact into legal force for its 120 signatory nations. Both the state-run Itar-Tass news agency and the more independent Interfax news service carried reports yesterday quoting unnamed government sources who believed President Vladimir Putin's cabinet would approve the accord at a meeting today and pass it on to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, for ratification....
Drought shrinking jewels of the desert Lake Powell is enormous, but five years of drought have sapped it badly. It's less than half full and down 130 feet. And so the launch ramp at Wahweap, a lakeside resort, ended on dry land. The lake level is still falling — 21 inches a week. So the National Park Service, which extended the ramp 300 feet in 2003, extended it again this month. "Chasing the water," park service staffers call it....
Abandoned Mines Threaten West's Waterways More than a century ago, this wild stretch of mountain and rock was one of the richest mining areas on Earth. Tons of zinc, silver and lead were extracted. Colorado's largest chunk of gold was found here -- a 13-pound nugget named "Tom's Baby." The mines are still producing, but it's a product no one wants. Bright orange water runs from open shafts into tributaries of the Blue River, one of the state's major trout fisheries. Great piles of waste rock, or mine tailings, stand 80 feet high and extend for 30 acres in all directions. Just beneath the surface, tunnels full of poisonous gas honeycomb the mountains, reaching under the nearby town of Breckenridge....
Professor goes West to study dam removal A geology professor from Western Carolina University will spend the next few months in Olympic National Park in Washington attempting to gauge the impact of the nation’s largest dam removal project on water quality in what was once one of the Pacific Northwest’s most productive salmon rivers. A $182 million federally funded plan to restore the Elwha River, the largest watershed in Olympic National Park, will result in the removal of two dams — the 108-foot-tall Elwha Dam and the 210-foot Glines Canyon Dam. The project, set to begin in 2007, is designed to re-establish the salmon fishery in the Elwha River and restore the river’s delta area to its original sandy coastal environment....
Editorial: The Hetch Hetchy fantasy BUILDING A DAM in Yosemite Park would never happen today. But more than 80 years ago, San Francisco filled the Hetch Hetchy Valley to create a water-and-power system that now serves 2.4 million people in the Bay Area. Does it make sense to tear down O'Shaughnessy Dam today? Only if dozens of questions over water purity, water rights, drought years, electricity, politics and a monumental bill can be answered. The conservation group Environmental Defense wants to take out the dam and restore a spectacular, granite-faced Sierra valley. It's an inspiring goal, advocated by no less than John Muir, who fought the dam in the 1920s....
The Saints’ Fence Horace Greeley, noted newspaperman and proponent of westward migration, had two hard and fast rules when it came to colonization — no rum, and no fences. Mr. Greeley, it seemed, had authored a book titled “What I Know of Farming,” in which he championed the European practice of herding cattle instead of fencing them, whether out or in. In retrospect, the newspaperman apparently knew a lot more about newspapers than he did about livestock....
End of an era as drive-in screen comes down With a thud and a cloud of dust, the drive-in theater era in Fallon ended with the dismantling of the old Roper Drive-In screen. The decrepit screen was leaning perilously forward, and it fell Sept. 25 at the hands of a contractor. What's left is an empty lot, a few speaker poles and memories of hot summer nights in the minds of many long-time Fallon residents. The Roper Drive-In was constructed in the summer of 1954, said Bob Erickson, current owner of Fallon Theatres and former owner of the drive-in. The famous sheep rancher Walt Whitaker first opened the theater as a business venture and operated it with various partners until the theater closed in 1978, according to the Churchill County Museum....