NEWS ROUNDUP

Scientists watching unusual events near volcano A series of unusual earthquakes near Mount St. Helens in recent days has scientists warning that something more serious could be imminent. The "hazardous event" the U.S. Geological Survey warns is possible could be an explosion caused by steam building up inside the volcano, or it could be more serious -- involving molten rock and deadly gas....
Mount St. Helens: Scientists in a scramble Small earthquakes rattled Mount St. Helens at the rate of one or two a minute yesterday, and seismologists were scrambling to determine the significance of some of the most intense seismic activity in nearly 20 years. Early tests of gas samples collected above the volcano by helicopter yesterday did not show unusually high levels of carbon dioxide or sulfur. "This tells us that we are probably not yet seeing magma moving up in the system," said Jeff Wynn, chief scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Vancouver, Wash. He noted additional tests are necessary to better define whether there's magma moving under the mountain's crater....
School fences out bears Construction of a bear fence at Valley School will be a community project Oct. 2. After several recent bear sightings, including two on the steps of the teacher's cabin Monday night, Sept. 13, the Forest Service gave the school permission to build the fence. Teacher Audra Morrow, who lives in a cabin next to the school on the upper South Fork, didn't see the two grizzlies at first. "I walked right past the door and didn't notice them, but my dog went crazy," she said. "I looked out and expected to see people, but there were two bears."...
The Nature Conservancy and Partners Complete Acquisition of Baca Ranch After more than a decade of work to conserve the 151-square mile Baca Ranch, The Nature Conservancy today announced it had completed the last of a complex set of real estate transactions, clearing the way for the protection of the ranch and the designation of the nation's newest national park, the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Upon closing the Baca Ranch transaction, the Conservancy transferred management responsibility for 27,000 acres of land within the designated national park boundaries to the National Park Service. The Conservancy will continue to manage the remainder of the Baca lands in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior pending a final $3.4 million federal appropriation. Once the remaining monies are appropriated, the full ownership of the ranch will be transferred to the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and USDA Forest Service to create the Baca National Wildlife Refuge and expand the existing Rio Grande National Forest....
Putting Out Fires At 8:15 a.m. on a day in mid-August, Rick Ochoa, the top weatherman at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho, walks into a briefing room filled with personnel from the multiple federal agencies that staff the center. As he does every morning during the peak spring and summer fire season, he provides a detailed weather report for the entire country on a floor-to-ceiling screen. But unlike the forecasts on nightly TV, Ochoa's zeroes in on weather conditions of little interest to laymen but of key importance to firefighting agencies. He talks about relative drought and the presence of "dry" thunderstorms, which can spark and then help spread a fire....
Feds may add toad to roster Colorado's only alpine toad, the forest-dwelling boreal toad, would be added to the U.S. Endangered Species List under a proposal about to be submitted by federal wildlife officials. Listing the toad would strengthen protections for the warty 4-inch amphibian, whose numbers have plummeted in the last 20 years, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist said Monday. But some state wildlife officials say the federal designation is unnecessary and could create burdensome land-use restrictions, especially on U.S. Forest Service property above 7,000 feet....
West Nile bald eagle deaths confirmed Bald eagles face a new threat this year, but humans and toxins are not the culprits. The University’s Raptor Center confirmed that the West Nile virus killed four male bald eagles in the Minnesota and Wisconsin area last week, and the number could keep climbing. Professor and Raptor Center Director Patrick Redig said he is “reasonably certain” another bald eagle in the center will test positive for the virus. The virus is transmitted from mosquitoes and can cause death in humans and animals....
Fish list grows crowded Another federally protected fish could be entering the fight for Klamath Basin water. Seven hundred and six miles of streams and 33,939 acres of lakes and marshes around Oregon were designated as critical habitat for the threatened bull trout last week. All of the lakes and marshes are in the Klamath Basin. Federal officials are still trying to determine what the impact could be on the other protected fishes, two species of endangered suckers and the threatened coho salmon, and on the Klamath Irrigation Project....
The American River's Hidden Fish Kill The Klamath River fish kill of September 2002, when 68,000 salmon died because of low, warm water conditions on the lower river, is considered the largest of its kind in U.S. history. However, another "hidden fish kill" that took place on the American River in the fall of 2001, 2002 and 2003 is now vying for this dubious distinction. Only a few short miles from the Caliornia State Capitol, huge numbers of adult chinook salmon return from the ocean to spawn. But 181,709 of these fish recently perished before spawning. River advocates and fishery biologists blame the fish kills on poor water management by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and on the continuing lack of flow and water temperature standards on the American, while federal officials claim that they are forced to balance the needs of different users in managing the river....
Two conservation groups sue over wildflower habitat Two conservation groups have made good on their promise to sue the Department of Interior over what they say is its failure to follow through in protecting two endangered plant species in the St. George area. The Tucson, Ariz.-based Center for Biological Diversity and the Utah Native Plant Society on Monday filed a federal complaint in Washington to force the Bush Administration to provide "critical habitat" for the Holmgren milkvetch and the Shivwits milkvetch - a pair of nearly extinct wildflowers found only in the Mojave Desert near the Utah-Arizona border. The two plant species are in the path of a planned freeway interchange and roadway in St. George's south corridor that would link the city with its proposed new airport and a planned community....
Judge questions plan on dams The Bush administration's dismissal of dam removal as an option for restoring salmon has been met with skepticism by the federal judge overseeing the protection of the fish. At issue is a draft plan by federal authorities for balancing the needs of salmon against the demand for electricity, irrigation water and barge transportation provided by dams in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. U.S. District Judge James Redden has raised several questions about the legal and scientific footing for the plan and will lay out his concerns at a status conference Tuesday with government lawyers and those for conservation groups and American Indian tribes....
Group urges feds to let locals lead on sage grouse The rapid growth of state and local conservation efforts aimed at preserving the Greater Sage Grouse --which wildlife experts say is the species' best chance for long-term success -- will be reversed dramatically if the federal government commandeers these efforts through an Endangered Species Act listing. So said the Partnership for the West coalition in recent testimony to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water....
Politics skew park budgets The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught on fire in 1969, or at least the pollution in it did. But it has been cleaned up, and Congress even made its scenic upstream valley a national park in 1974. But that park isn't well-known nationally, and few faraway families would plan summer vacations specifically to see it. Still, the Cuyahoga park has a bigger base budget ($9.5 million this year) than some of the true icons of the park system, including Grand Teton National Park ($9.35 million), Mount Rainier National Park ($9.29 million), Utah's Lake Powell ($9.28 million) and Zion National Park ($6 million) among many others. Why? "I believe it's politics," said former Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, who served in Congress for 22 years and retired as chairman of the House Resources Committee....
EPA seeks stricter park snowmobile plan The Environmental Protection Agency is urging the National Park Service to change its latest proposal for snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park to reduce the amount of pollution emitted by the machines. Scaling back emissions could mean changing the type or number of snowmobiles that are allowed into the park, according to an EPA official....
Park Service Retiree Group Wades Into Political Waters This is not the kind of group you would want as your enemy. Its members have experience, political savvy and an insider's knowledge of how the place is run. They also aren't afraid to talk. Call them the AARP of the National Park Service. The Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees is a newcomer to the phalanx of interest groups in the nation's capital, but it has managed to leverage its influence by disclosing leaked internal memos, taking its case to Capitol Hill and zeroing in on key regulatory issues that the Bush administration has on its agenda for park management....
Environmental groups urge more study of drilling plans Environmental groups want the government to take a much harder look at EnCana Oil & Gas Co.'s plans to drill more than 1,200 natural-gas wells on 17,000 acres in western Colorado. The federal Bureau of Land Management released an environmental assessment of the plans in July, but the environmental groups say a more detailed environmental impact statement should be done. EnCana plans to drill the wells from 120 well pads. It would build 62 miles of roads, 71 miles of pipeline and two compressor stations in the area about 30 miles southwest of Meeker and 160 miles west of Denver....
BLM proposes wind turbine to help power new building A 120-foot-tall wind turbine could reduce by about 25 percent the electricity bill at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's new Rawlins Field Office. The 20-kilowatt wind turbine would generate about 330,000 kilowatt hours per year, worth about $15,000 at current rates....
Hunters, environmentalists protest federal land swap A controversial bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski that would trade federal land to two Native corporations in the Berners Bay region near Juneau has raised the ire of some Alaska hunters, and Monday they called the bill "plain wrongheaded." The trade, known as the Cape Fox Land Exchange, would give two Southeast Native corporations up to 12,000 acres of federal land around the popular recreation area of Berners Bay near Juneau. The corporations, Sealaska and Cape Fox, would give up other land and mineral rights in Southeast....
Column - Cheaper vs. cleaner: big differences Consider two recent news items: oil prices creeping up toward $50 a barrel and Antarctic glaciers breaking up into icebergs at an accelerated pace, probably due to global warming. They may not seem related. And with war in Iraq and the economy topping the list of election concerns, energy and the environment aren't exactly front-page political news. But the two overlap considerably. And while they may not rank as top-tier issues among voters, they resonate deeply and personally for millions of Americans - including many who've yet to make up their minds whom to vote for....
Even some foes cheer Bush for new diesel-pollution rules While environmentalists and many Democrats in Congress consistently disparaged the Bush administration's clean-air record, one of the president's most far-reaching achievements went largely unheralded. Bush agreed to cut diesel pollution 90 percent in everything from tractors and construction equipment to lawnmowers, forklifts and diesel generators. The administration also forced the refining industry to reduce sulfur — the primary ingredient in ozone pollution — in fuel by 99 percent....
Bush cut some diesel pollution but let big ships keep spewing Through a filament of haze they emerge: containerships long enough to ferry the Space Needle, some belching as much exhaust as 12,000 cars, cutting through the bay toward the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach. During a decade in which scientists learned diesel pollution was even worse for our health than once thought, Murphy's agency made an astounding discovery: Ocean-going ships that cruised past Santa Barbara's coast each year emitted more smog-forming pollution than all vehicles on the county's roads combined....
Roslyn hires consultant to research water rights The small town of Roslyn on the Eastern slope of the Cascades has hired a consultant to research new water rights after the town's irrigation district shut off the spigot this summer. Roslyn, which was built in 1886 as a mining town, is a junior water rights holder in the Roza Irrigation District. During the dry summer months, residents were forced to conserve water when the district shut off the domestic water supply for the first time. In years past the district had threatened to reduce the amount of water the city received, but never made good on those threats. This was the first time Roslyn was ever cut off from its domestic water supply, said Mayor Jeri Porter....
Environmentalists dream of restoring Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley Of all the battles waged over natural resources in California, perhaps none is bolder, or more romantic, than a campaign by environmentalists to tear down a dam in Yosemite National Park that has provided water and electricity to much of Northern California for 80 years. A report released Monday by Environmental Defense is the latest attempt to sway public opinion in favor of draining Hetch Hetchy Valley and restoring to nature what conservationist John Muir called Yosemite Valley's little brother - a "precious mountain temple" and "grand landscape garden" that now lies 300 feet under water. The authors of the report, "Paradise Regained," argue that water quality, supply and storage, as well as power generation, could be maintained if the Hetch Hetchy Valley, in the Sierra Nevada mountains about 160 miles east of San Francisco, were drained and restored. The study proposes a variety of alternative water and power sources for the San Francisco Bay area and the Central Valley if the O'Shaughnessy Dam were taken down....
It's All Trew: Whetstone was also an important tool According to Roy Underhill, author of "The Woodwright's Companion," the smaller and sharper the sand particles the better the whetstone. As metal is rubbed across the stone, the particles are dulled and glazed over with the metal removed during sharpening. Oil or water must be added to flush away the dulled sand particles and surplus metal. This explanation is important as it helps explain why the whetstone requires special care and storage by owners. Our family always kept a good whetstone at hand in the house, bunkhouse and barn. My folks spent hours honing their pocket knife blades making ready for the next use. When Dad honed his knife, Mother invariably handed him a paring or butcher knife and I remember several lessons given to me on how to sharpen a knife blade. A whetstone had to be kept alive by generous applications of oil or water. I venture to guess more knives were sharpened by using saliva than oil as spit was always handy. Many whetstones, like ours, were mounted on wooden blocks with wooden lids. The wood held all surplus oil and moisture thus keeping the rock alive and not dried out and dead. Many cowboys carried their own small whetstones in leather holsters in their pockets....