NEWS ROUNDUP

In Grazing Debate, Some Ranchers Are Switching Sides Bob Miller, a fourth-generation farmer in Oregon's Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, is ready to call it quits. He grazes 150 head of cattle on mountainous federal land that provides crucial forage for his herd, but he is well aware that in a matter of years, the government may push him off after completing a multimillion-dollar study on how ranching is affecting the local ecology. Miller and about a dozen other ranchers in Cascade-Siskiyou own federal grazing permits, lifetime permits that allow them to graze cattle for less than $1.50 a month apiece on the public land. But with concern intensifying about what grazing is doing to the land and the rare species that depend on it, he and others are making common cause with environmentalists who want to end the practice....
Editorial: Sensible swap The heavy lifting is over. After five intense years of uncertainty and scrutiny, a reasonable compromise has been reached on the Yavapai Ranch land exchange, the largest swap in the state's history. There may be a temptation to ease up, to think the exchange is a done deal. Complacency would be a mistake. Arizona's two senators, John McCain and Jon Kyl, and the rest of the state's congressional delegation must be vigilant in shepherding the bill through before Congress adjourns. The chance for a successful exchange as late a couple of weeks ago looked bleak. There were three key actions that got talks back on track....
Let's make a deal: State often gives lease discounts When Big Timber rancher Don Tetlie's state grazing lease was about to expire, the only way he could keep it was to match the high bid of neighbor Horatio Burns, who had offered to pay nearly 10 times more. Tetlie agreed to meet the bid, but in the end, he didn't have to pay it: The state agreed to charge him just one-third of what Burns was willing to pay. Similar rate reductions have occurred dozens of times in the past decade, resulting in more than $1.5 million in state lease discounts, according to an Associated Press review of records kept by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation....
Firefighter is killed in California blaze A firefighter died Sunday and six others were injured while working to contain a comparatively small, but tricky wildfire in Stanislaus National Forest, authorities said. The seven-person crew was overrun by flames while participating in the initial attack on the fire in the Tuolumne River Canyon, said Karen Terrill, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection....
Forest Service deal may preserve Utah sawmills Saving the forests by saving some sawmills? It's an odd combination, but lawmakers and forest officials think it will work. On Friday, Gov. Olene Walker signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Forest Service that gives local loggers priority for some timber sale contracts in southern Utah. "What it means is that forests will be taken care of and along with it, we'll have some communities that will survive," said Walker....
Plundering the past: Archaeologists bemoan looting of artifacts The seed, the bone and bits of charcoal seem little enough reason for smiles all around the small team excavating a rock shelter in a remote canyon near the Pryor Mountains. But finding anything at all is surprising. Looters got there first. If the shelter ever contained arrowheads, stone tools or trade beads, they're gone now....
Nome Cult Trail to be retraced On Sunday, Sept. 12, members of several northern California Native American tribes will begin a 100-mile walk to commemorate the 141st anniversary of the Nome Cult Trail, the forced relocation of Indians from Chico across what is now the Mendocino National Forest to Round Valley. The removal of Indians from Chico to the Nome Cult Reservation in 1863 is one of the many forced relocations following the establishment of reservations in Northern California in the 1850s. Several different tribes were moved to the Nome Cult Reservation after it was established in Round Valley in 1856....
ATV rules on Mount Hood challenged Motorcyclists, snowmobilers and others who ride on backcountry trails and roads within the Mount Hood National Forest complain that federal land managers are squeezing out motorized recreation -- perhaps illegally. The Forest Service says it is following the law, but land managers also acknowledge the agency has stepped up enforcement and posted signs on trails that should have been closed to motorized vehicles long ago....
Woman dies after wilderness accident 41-year-old Tennessee woman died in the Bob Marshall Wilderness on Thursday night after being kicked in the chest by a horse. The woman was an experienced backcountry horsewoman, said Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Cheryl Liedle. She and her husband were taking an extended trip through the Bob Marshall with six horses and a mule. The couple was stopped in the Pretty Prairie area, about 7 miles from the Benchmark trailhead, when the accident occurred, Liedle said. The woman apparently was kicked in the chest just below her neck, Liedle said....
Advocacy group wins appeal, gets trails reopened Utah's largest advocacy group for motorized access of public lands has won an appeal to the Forest Service that will require the Uinta National Forest to reopen 20 miles of motorized trails in American Fork Canyon that were closed last year. Paul Mortensen, attorney for Utah Shared Access Alliance, said the group had tried twice to protest the trails closure, "but our comments were rejected by the Forest Service." When the Forest Service closed the trails, located in Tibble Fork in American Fork Canyon, without accepting public comment, the alliance sued in federal district court....
In West, Old Mines Haunted by Pollution There are as many as 500,000 abandoned mines nationwide, most in the West, government surveys report. About 20% are causing major pollution of rivers, streams and groundwater. Dangerous concentrations of mercury and cyanide along with heavy metals have killed off insects, fish and plant life in some areas. In others, contamination has threatened drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency says 16,000 miles, or 40%, of all Western headwater streams, are now polluted by old, hard rock mines — mines dug into solid rock....
Bush's environmental record to be decisive issue only in Nevada But Nevada, where Bush wants to entomb a half-century's waste from atomic power plants, is the only state where an environmental issue can realistically swing the outcome, according to environmental leaders and political analysts. He said Kerry could benefit in Western states like New Mexico and Arizona where ranchers, hunters, fishermen and environmentalists all worry about oil and gas drilling on public lands and logging in national forests. Likewise, in Nevada. "If enough votes are guided by concern about Yucca Mountain ... it's very conceivable those five electoral votes could end up in Kerry's column," DiPeso said....
Where the bison roam The cloud of brown dust billows up at the top of the hill, then quickly descends the fenced-in slope. Silent at first, the sound of bovine hooves pounding solid ground soon fills the air as well, along with the excited whoops of riders on horseback. It's a scene straight from the Wild West, with emphasis on "wild." For the animals being herded down the hillside by horses aren't cattle, but bison. And the riders aren't cowboys, but U. S. Fish and Wildlife employees, with local ranchers and college students volunteering to help out at the annual round-up held at the National Bison Range in Montana....
Small snails threaten to cause big headaches They only stand five millimeters tall, but a local species of freshwater snail is making waves across the Northwest. If a local springsnail is added to the endangered species list, cattle grazing rights and the ability to recreate near some local springs could be restricted. Springsnails are small creatures that live in freshwater springs and rivers throughout the western United States. They help keep water clean by eating plant and animal waste....
Feds act to protect 3 Utah riverways Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Saturday officially withdrew nearly 200 miles of scenic riverways along the Green, Colorado and Dolores rivers in southeastern Utah from the exploration and location of new mining claims. The order will provide protection for 20 years of 111,895 acres of public lands along 192 miles of river corridor. The order also helps protect at least 161 prehistoric sites, habitat for six threatened and endangered species and 32 Bureau of Land Management recreation facilities constructed along the Colorado River....
Rare fly draws derision at hearing If big horn sheep had blocked construction of highway overpasses, affordable homes and businesses in the San Bernardino Valley, the public might have understood sacrificing economic growth to protect the habitat of a threatened species. But a lowly fly under federal protection drew no sympathy, just derision and frustration at a Congressional hearing Friday on the impact of the Endangered Species Act....
Great Sand Dunes To Be Declared National Park Colorado will become home to the country's newest national park Monday when Interior Secretary Gale Norton officially reclassifies the Great Sand Dunes National Monument. Norton will join Rep. Scott McInnis and Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell in a ceremony at the dunes to designate the southern Colorado site a national park. McInnis, Campbell and fellow Republican Sen. Wayne Allard sponsored legislation and lobbied to have the 750-foot dunes, North America's tallest, the surrounding mountains and the sagebrush-dotted high desert turned into a national park....
Fearless dogs scare away bears with ‘tough love' The mere mention of the word ‘‘bear'' is enough to get Mishka, Tuffy and Cassidy to stand at attention, poised to attack an animal that probably weighs at least 10 times more than they do. Say ‘‘Bark at the bear!'' and they'll do it like actors on cue. Give them a crack at an actual bear, and they'll send it barreling away as if it had never encountered something so unpleasant. After centuries of breeding in Finland, these Karelian bear dogs don't show a hint of fear when they run toward a bear, pulling their handlers along as they bark furiously....
Drilling to oust wild horses One of Colorado's five remaining herds of wild horses is slated to be rounded up and removed from a rugged area in northwest Colorado to make way for more oil and gas development. The pending removal has infuriated wild horse advocates and environmentalists who view the action as a failure of the Bureau of Land Management to follow a 34-year-old federal mandate to manage wild horse populations....
Administration tilts at more windmills More windmills would sprout throughout California, under a Bush administration plan. Now abundant along the Altamont and Tehachapi passes, wind-driven turbines belong on federal land elsewhere in California, according to a government study released Friday. Some 72,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land statewide appear promising for wind power development, the bureau’s study concludes....
BLM lease suspensions is costing millions The failure of the Bureau of Land Management to collect rental payments on 1,200 coal-bed methane leases in the Powder River Basin since January 2001 will cost the federal and state governments more than $1.5 million this year. Exact figures for lost revenue in 2002 and 2003 are not available, but are near this year's figure, said Richard Zander, assistant field manager for the Bureau of Land Management's Buffalo office. "The leases were suspended because the BLM couldn't approve any more until the 2003 EIS was completed," Zander said....
Clean the river before using it Rancher John Barnhart dreams of canoers paddling down a picturesque stretch of the San Antonio River as it winds through Goliad County. Barnhart, 78, is part of a group trying to create a canoe trail to bring recreational tourists — and their dollars — to the area. But there's a problem standing in the way: high bacteria counts in the river, which have raised a major stink among residents here. For years, many locals blamed San Antonio-area waste treatment plants for polluting the river. But a new yearlong study has cleared those wastewater plants of blame, leaving scientists to turn their focus on a new set of suspects — cows, deer and other creatures of the brush country....
Horse sense and Palm Pilots Only an authentic cowboy could live by himself for weeks at a time on a rocky and remote patch of ground in Idaho’s central Owyhee County, a stretch of the interior West where cattle outnumber people by an untold margin. At 29, Jeremy Mink is the real deal – a buckaroo with a handlebar mustache, a .38-caliber revolver strapped to his side and a familial commitment to the herd of 1,400 cattle he lives with year-round....
Introduction of "the devil's rope" transformed ranch life forever Cowboying in the West had already been through centuries of evolution, stemming from the tradition of the Spanish vaquero (the word was later corrupted by English speakers to become "buckaroo," which simply means "hired ranch hand") and dating to the time of the early 16th-century Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez. Federal land was freely available, and cowboys kept their cattle on the hoof, moving on before the vegetation was grazed off. Then in 1873, inventor Joseph F. Glidden changed the West forever with his patent on a new kind of fence: the barbed wire....
Cowed? Not these dogs Border collies, the lithe black and white dogs that are born to herd livestock, are all over the fields at the Box R Ranch between Keno and Ashland this weekend for the second annual Oregon Cowdog Championships. The dogs are putting on quite a show, going about their usual business moving cattle on a lengthy, difficult open-field course or shuttling cows through a series of tight pens and gates in an outdoor arena....
Last Part of Mustang Ranch Brothel Moved The last piece of a risque chapter of Nevada history the Mustang Ranch brothel was airlifted to a new home Sunday. Unlike other buildings from the state's first legal bordello, the 63-foot-wide parlor where the working girls lined up for customers was too big to be moved by truck to its new location at the Wild Horse Adult Resort & Spa. About a dozen girls cheered and champagne flowed as a double-rotored helicopter gently lowered the skeleton of the parlor into place and workers secured it to a concrete pad....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Chihuahua just like home only different We crossed the border at Antelope Wells, N.M., 40 miles south of Hachita on Highway 81, which is paved right up till your front tire hits Mexico. It must be the loneliest immigration outpost in the country. We drove the 72 miles from Animas, N.M., to Mexico Highway 2 in the middle of the day and only passed one car that wasn't up on blocks. The U.S. agent held us for 10 minutes just to visit. We agreed to write him occasionally and he finally let us through. We didn't wake the Mexican border guard....