NEWS ROUNDUP

Can you hear me now? The call of the wild is getting louder. But it's people, not animals, who are responsible for the uproar. From birds in European cities to killer whales off the U.S. coast, some animals are ratcheting up their calls in order to be heard above the human clamor. Recordings of whale calls made during the past three years, for example, show that orcas on the West Coast increase the length of their calls when surrounded by rumbling engines from whale-watching boats. And studies of a common European songbird reveal that city crooners shift into a higher pitch range during rush hours to transcend the traffic noise....
Editorial: Wrong recipe for the Biscuit U. S. Sen. Gordon Smith should abandon his threat to push through legislation to lock environmentalists out of the courtroom and accelerate salvage logging on the Biscuit fire. Smith is understandably frustrated with the delays and legal roadblocks thrown in front of the U.S. Forest Service's Biscuit salvage plan. Two years after the fire swept half a million acres of the Siskiyou forest, dead trees worth millions of dollars, and hundreds of good jobs, are rotting even though they could be safely salvaged without lasting environmental harm. Yet a legislative rider is a poisonous way to attempt to resolve the conflict over Biscuit salvage. Any effort to legislate one of the largest logging projects in the history of the national forest would undermine public trust in the Forest Service and Congress....
In the Mojave Preserve, Emotions Still Run Hot As the preserve's 10th anniversary approaches, its proponents celebrate it as a citadel of nature amid an onrushing tide of development, while local residents continue to resent the limits on off-road exploration, hunting, cattle ranching and other economic activities. About an hour's drive northeast of Barstow, the preserve was established as part of the California Desert Protection Act. The legislation set aside more land than any previous conservation law in the lower 48 states. It expanded Joshua Tree and Death Valley national monuments, conferring national park status on each, and it created new wilderness in areas managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. In all, the act increased protection for more than 9 million acres of desert....
Measures to designate NW lands foundering in Congress The Sierra Club and 26 other conservation groups have withdrawn support for the proposed 300,000-acre Hemingway Wilderness near Idaho's Sun Valley. A growing number of off-road vehicle recreationists are opposing that plan. A proposal to designate the Wild Sky Wilderness in the Cascade Range northeast of Seattle also withered Wednesday in Congress. And prospects are dimming this year for action on wilderness designation for the Owyhee canyonlands of southern Idaho, although Inland Northwest conservationists are still optimistic for the long term....
Column: Let's protect the Front As a rancher from Dupuyer, and a former Pondera County commissioner, I appreciate that the Front's beauty and natural values are essential to the enjoyment and economic security of local families, Front communities and all of Montana. Montanans have a long tradition of working together to protect the Front, and the wise judgments of past generations have kept the Front one of our most treasured places. This summer, Montanans again demonstrated the depth of their attachment to the Front. During a public comment period conducted by the BLM, 93 percent of Montanans participating urged the government to abandon a proposal to drill federal lands along the Front. Instead, Montanans and Americans overwhelmingly urged that the Front be protected for future generations to enjoy....
Editorial: Yellowstone grizzlies, roaring success complicated by controversy For the past 30 years, conservationists have worked to restore Yellowstone Park's most popular, living tourist attraction: the grizzly bear. The success of grizzly recovery in Yellowstone Country is both a boon and a bane. Now that we've got a healthy number of bears, we've got to live with them. Bears and people actually coexist reasonably well in the 2.2-million-acre park. There's a force of rangers to keep people and bears apart, to enforce safety measures. And there's no livestock grazing within the park boundaries. Outside the park, the greater griz population is more problematic. Bears ramble over public lands leased for private grazing and onto private land where they aren't welcome. Increased development with growing populations of seasonal and year-round residents increase potential for friction in bear country....
Editorial: Suit over hunter's death raises safety issues Timothy "Omar" Hilston, a 50-year-old experienced outdoorsman from Great Falls, was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear in 2001 as he field dressed an elk. In the suit, his widow accuses the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks of negligence in their bear management practices. The news brought into sharp relief two questions: What's the responsibility of hunters and others who use the woods to be aware of the dangers there and to prepare for them? How much responsibility does the government have to protect people from wildlife and other threats?....
Old bear spray ineffective during attack Pepper spray that did little, if anything, to prevent a bear from attacking a mountain biker might have been ineffective because it was old and unapproved, experts say. Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, recommends that back-country travelers carry a can of EPA-approved bear pepper spray that is less than a year old. Old spray tends to separate from its propellant and does not discharge it properly, he said....
Groups spar with feds over protection for spotted owl Rebuffed by a federal wildlife agency last year, environmental groups aren't giving up on their fight to secure protection for the mysterious, mottled-brown-and-white California spotted owl, which lives in the mountains of Riverside and San Diego counties. The groups are charging ahead with efforts on two fronts. Led by the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, which has a regional office in Riverside County, environmentalists sued in May to challenge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2003 decision not to place the California spotted owl on the endangered species list....
Plague found in sick prairie dog Plague has been confirmed in a prairie dog in western Custer County, the first such confirmed case in South Dakota wildlife in recent history, Dr. Sam Holland, state veterinarian, said Friday. A rancher who lives near the Wyoming border discovered the sick prairie dog, he said. Testing found that the animal has sylvatic plague, which is spread by infected fleas....
Bush switches nation's tack on protecting species When it comes to saving America's most endangered plants and animals, George W. Bush has listed fewer species for protection than any other president. In nearly four years in office, Bush has protected one-tenth as many species as his father did under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Even as species slipped toward extinction, most of the protection he did extend came as a result of court orders....
Going, going, gone: Three case studies It was as if the furry, back-floating marine mammals had simply vanished. After learning some Alaskan sea-otter populations were plummeting up to 17 percent a year — perhaps because they were being eaten by killer whales — federal scientists in 2002 knew what to do: They filed the paperwork to list the creatures under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)....
Pair near end of epic West Coast Trail hike For 3½ months, they have been on the move constantly, walking nearly 20 miles a day, threading their way across beaches, rainforests and farm country. On Tuesday, they expect to reach the end of the West Coast Trail — the fence marking the U.S.-Mexico border. Olive, 28, and his companion, Sarah Janes, 23, set out in June from the northwest tip of Washington. Both are taking a break from jobs with the National Park Service. Once they cross the border, the pair will become the first hikers to complete the journey in a single trip....
National parks in budget turmoil Actually, the administration cut the base budgets at three of every four parks nationally this year — including at 10 of the 13 National Park Service units in Utah, according to a Morning News analysis of published operating budgets for individual parks. Where did the money go? Much apparently helped protect "national icon" parks against terrorist threats — including the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall, Mount Rushmore, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and memorials in Washington, D.C. So terrorism may be creating cuts at many parks to protect a few from terrorists....
For good or ill, Bush clears path for energy development Roads and well-drilling pads etched from the sagebrush now stretch to the horizon in ghostly cul-de-sacs. A decade ago this wind-swept swath of country was largely untouched by humans. Today, nearly 500 natural-gas wells dot the Green River Valley, and the Bush administration has called for up to 3,100....
Battle over NPR-A heated Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management say the marshy tundra around a giant North Slope lake could hold hundreds of millions of barrels of crude oil, enough to significantly boost domestic oil production for a nation heavily dependent on foreign imports. To get at the oil, the agency recently proposed rolling back restrictions imposed in 1998 during the Clinton administration that keep oil explorers out of areas important for migratory geese and other wildlife....
Nuclear power slides back onto the agenda Reviled for more than a quarter of a century, nuclear energy is poised for a comeback. Soaring energy costs, worries about energy dependence and growing fears of global warming have combined to revive a once-doomed industry that remains the butt of pop-culture satire such as The Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Three utility consortiums — Exelon, Entergy and Dominion Resources — recently filed early site applications with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for new plants — the first in nearly three decades....
SUWA petitions BLM for closure of certain off-road trails It's no surprise, then, that the 1978 plan for the area did not address the potential effects of off-road vehicles, and those effects are dramatic enough in the Vermilion Cliffs area that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance petitioned the BLM last week for an emergency closure of some trails in the area. The conservation group contends those ORV trails were developed only in the last couple of years and threaten critical habitat for native wildlife and some archaeological resources....
St. Helens Activity May Signal Explosion A strengthening series of earthquakes at Mount St. Helens prompted seismologists Sunday to warn that the once-devastating volcano may see a small explosion soon. The U.S. Geological Survey issued a notice of volcanic unrest in response to the swarm of hundreds of earthquakes that began Thursday....
Column, Invasive species: The newest threat to property rights If you have foreign weeds, grass, trees, or shrubs on your property (and you most certainly do), you're in trouble. Under "Invasive Species" provisions currently sitting in the Senate's version of the Federal Transportation Bill (S. 1072), your property could quickly become the target of radical environmentalists and bureaucrats. Imagine the Endangered Species Act on steroids. Now multiply its devastating effect on property rights by one million. That should give you a pretty good idea of what "Invasive Species" legislation will mean for property owners in every state, county, city and suburb in the nation....
Major shift mapped for Delta water Under pressure from some of California's biggest cities and farm districts, federal and state officials are planning major changes in how water is stored and distributed across the state, including increased pumping of supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The proposed changes, outlined in an obscure state-federal document called the Operations Criteria and Plan, sets the stage for California's most far-reaching plumbing shifts in a decade. Under the plan, water contractors would increase pumping from the Delta by 27 percent, sending more to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. Less water would flow to the San Francisco Bay and less would be reserved for endangered salmon during the driest of droughts....
Government official praises Animas-La Plata project progress The head of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said he is happy with the progress of the Animas-La Plata Project, the $500 million plan to build a huge reservoir in southwest Colorado. "It's a good project and will settle water-right obligations (to American Indian tribes)," bureau Commissioner John Keys said Thursday. "I was pleased with the reaction of three private consultants who have been here to see what we're doing and how we're doing."....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Veterinary questions for new millennium have been pondering the state of veterinary medicine in the new millennium. These subjects deserve some deeper thought, or at least a grant application for further study: 1. The plethora of chickens, the dearth of chicken practitioners. 2. The value of veterinarians in the war against bioterrorism. 3. Is there a place for grooming in an exclusive reptile practice? 4. What is the most important discovery in vet medicine since 1969? 5. What do you think of quacks in horse medicine, human medicine and brokerage firms?....