NEWS ROUNDUP

N.M. LAWMAKERS URGE FOREST SERVICE TO MOVE PAST LANEY CASE With a final resolution to the Kit Laney case in sight, U.S. Senator Pete Domenici and Congressman Steve Pearce today urged the U.S. Forest Service to position itself toward rebuilding a working and cooperative relationship with New Mexico livestock producers. Domenici and Pearce today said the Forest Service should advocate leniency for Laney as this case is resolved as a means of rebuilding a strong relationship with livestock producers throughout the state who have grazing permits on federal forest lands....
Blackfoot conservation deal completed Blackfoot Valley landowners working with The Nature Conservancy have completed a $32 million effort to preserve ranching, forestry, wildlife and public access on 42,927 acres. Previously owned by Plum Creek Timber Co., the upper Blackfoot Valley land will now be resold - mostly to adjoining ranches, all with conservation agreements....
Wolf who led state debate suspected of killing sheep Remember B45? The gray wolf in 1999 made Oregon confront a future with wolves when she became the first of her species spotted in the state for as long as most could remember. She was captured a month later and shipped back to Idaho but vanished as quickly as she had caught Oregon's attention. Authorities now scratch their heads. Captured and released near the Idaho-Oregon line a few weeks ago, the aging wolf is gray around the muzzle but so healthy she appeared to have given birth to a litter of pups this year....
Wolf group unable to reach consensus Ben Boswell, a county commissioner from Eastern Oregon, calls an effort to establish and manage wolves in Oregon a “fool’s errand.” Boswell was one of two people on a 14-member advisory group to reject a draft plan for managing wolves in Oregon. The group — representing interests from livestock producers to hunters to conservationists — spent 11 months creating the plan. On Thursday, the advisory group presented the plan to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission....
'Most wanted' wildlife list released Hoping to raise the profile of certain endangered species ahead of an international conference, the World Wildlife Fund on Thursday issued an updated list of wildlife most often bought, sold, smuggled, killed or captured for the global marketplace.
The Swiss-based group urged governments to agree to restrict trade in obscure species, which have a high market value as culinary delicacies, aphrodisiacs or pets....
Detention site may be named landmark A National Park Service study recommends that the World War II Japanese-American internment camp near here be considered for National Historical Landmark designation. The Heart Mountain Relocation Center site, located west of Powell, was one of nine properties recommended for historic landmark designation out of the 37 sites nationwide that were examined. The study focused on sites associated with Japanese-American exclusion, relocation and detention and with Japanese-American service in the U.S. military during World War II....
40 and frail: Park found woefully underfunded As its 40th birthday approaches this weekend, Canyonlands National Park's health is frail — with a $2 million annual operations shortfall, a $36 million maintenance backlog, three of every five historic structures there deteriorating, an ongoing invasion by nonnative species, and threats looming from nearby development. That's according to a yearlong study released Thursday by the private National Parks Conservation Association....
Ousted Chief Denies Defiance Ousted U.S. Park Police chief Teresa C. Chambers took the witness stand yesterday in her bid to reclaim the job and testified that she would not knowingly defy a superior. During about two hours of questioning by her attorney, Mick Harrison, Chambers sought to portray herself as a forceful advocate for the needs of the Park Police, but not so driven that she would disobey direct orders....
Pepper-spraying highlights loss of public oversight over park July’s pepper-spraying of a teenaged brother and sister by two Point Reyes National Seashore rangers has resurrected public unhappiness about the loss of citizen oversight of the local Park Service. Until October 2002, a Citizens Advisory Commission to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore helped establish policies in the two federal parks. Nominated by counties near the parks and confirmed by the Secretary of the Interior, the commissioners played a major role in reviewing park problems and making recommendations to the Park Service....
CBM production remains flat Despite a Bureau of Land Management mandate to permit 3,000-wells per year, the coal-bed methane gas industry here still struggles to rise again to its 2002 high-water production mark of 1 billion cubic feet of gas (bcf) per day. That worries producers because it sends a signal to investors that the play may be dwindling and not worth further investment....
Seven depart Buffalo BLM office Pressure to permit an annual minimum of 3,000 coal-bed methane gas wells before Oct. 1 is at least partly to blame for the sudden turnover of key employees at the Bureau of Land Management's Buffalo Field Office, Assistant Field Manager Richard Zander said. However, Buffalo Field Office Manager Dennis Stenger downplayed the role of administrative pressure to issue permits as a reason for the recent departures of seven specialists, including his own....
Ranch dressing It's time to shake the scorpions out of the boots, air out the chaps and dust off the Stetson: Saturday is Empire Ranch's annual open house - and we're all invited. Empire Ranch, founded in 1876 as a cattle operation, is owned these days by the citizens of the U.S. of A., taken care of by the Bureau of Land Management, which calls it Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. The 73,000-acre spread, in addition to being a national historic landmark, is a working cattle ranch....
Feds end Rinconada land dispute Junkyard owner Casey Sánchez awoke Wednesday morning with about 20 federal agents waiting for him outside. After two decades of waiting for Sánchez to remove tons of rusted cars and other refuse from about nine acres of public land along N.M. 68, Bureau of Land Management rangers and U.S. Marshals knocked on his door and led him outside at gunpoint and began removing his junk....
Land exchange protests similar The San Carlos Apache Tribe and Western Mining Action Project are claiming the land exchange between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Phelps Dodge (PD) does not benefit the public interest and should not take place. Both parties have filed protests to the BLM's Record of Decision (ROD) to approve the land exchange with PD. The land exchange has been called crucial to the development of the Dos Pobres/ San Juan mine eight miles north of Safford....
Environmental Heroes Honored The ChevronTexaco Conservation Awards, founded by the late outdoors humorist and author Ed Zern, today celebrated its 50th anniversary by honoring six environmental heroes, including the founder of an international program to protect primates, marine scientists who helped find treatments for cancer and a biologist who unraveled the mystery of breeding endangered rhinos in captivity....
Editorial: Rescue for a River A landmark court decision promises to bring new life to one of California's major rivers, the San Joaquin, which rises in the High Sierra near Mammoth Lakes and gives its name to the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley. The ruling also could mean better water quality for Southern California residents. The decision of U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton declares that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation illegally takes so much water from the 350-mile-long San Joaquin each year that the river dries up in two major stretches, destroying what once was "one of the largest Chinook [salmon] runs anywhere on the Pacific Coast." That, it said, violates a 1937 state law requiring dam operators to allow enough downstream flow to maintain existing fisheries....
New U.S. salmon plan would keep dams intact By spending $6 billion over 10 years to help young salmon safely pass fish-killing hydroelectric dams, the government can comply with Endangered Species Act protections for the fish on the Snake and Columbia rivers, federal fisheries managers said of their new plan yesterday. The plan, produced under the order of a federal judge in Portland, seeks to dispel any further moves to punch through four dams on the Snake River to allow the river to flow more naturally....
Powell's declining levels stir new worry Operators of Navajo Generating Station near Page want to drill five 54-inch-diameter tunnels deep into the sandstone walls of Lake Powell before declining water levels at the drought-stricken reservoir force the power plant to shut down. The plant is in no immediate danger, but its loss would put a dent in the regional power supply, rob the Central Arizona Project of inexpensive electricity needed to keep water flowing to Phoenix and Tucson and cost the local economy hundreds of millions of dollars....
Column: The good earth There are two opposing strategies for recruiting environmentalists: consternation and elation. Sacred Planet takes the road less traveled, through snowy peaks beneath starry skies. Except for a brief glimpse at woodlands clearcut into wasteland and recurring images of urban commuters magnified into frenzy by time-lapse photography, Jon Long's IMAX experience is a gorgeous reminder of what is being lost. Robert Redford, a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council, provides spare narration to accompany sequences in undeveloped areas of Malaysia, the American Southwest,....