NEWS ROUNDUP

Evacuation of L.A.-Area Forest Demanded Trish De Somma considers herself the eyes and ears of the patch of national forest near Los Angeles where her family leases a cabin. Forest fire officials see De Somma and others like her as a liability living amid hills and canyons of kindling-dry pines and brush. In an extreme effort to prevent October wildfires as catastrophic and deadly as those last year, all but a fraction of the sprawling Angeles National Forest has been closed. No hunting, no hiking, no camping. And for scores - possibly hundreds - of residents such as De Somma, an unprecedented order: No staying put. De Somma is unmoved....
Small-time prospectors may face restrictions There's gold in them thar hills, but local prospectors may soon find it harder to hunt for the shiny flecks and tiny nuggets in the Coronado National Forest. By next summer, the U.S. Forest Service plans to release new rules for so-called placer mining in the mountains east of Green Valley and northwest of Nogales. Mining with dynamite, gaping open pits and dump trucks the size of houses aren't at stake. It's old-school, small-scale prospecting with shovels, sifters and sluice boxes - something that's done today for fun rather than fortune....
Appeals court temporarily halts Gallatin timber sale A federal appeals court has temporarily halted a timber sale in the Gallatin National Forest that environmentalists claim would damage wildlife habitat near Yellowstone National Park, an attorney said Sunday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency injunction late Friday, said Tim Bechtold, who represents the three conservation groups that filed the lawsuit in July. The stay halts all logging and road building until the court decides whether to issue a permanent injunction, he said....
Watching, waiting at Mount St. Helens Mount St. Helens stewed in volcanic gases amid low-level earthquakes yesterday, with crowds of eager tourists hoping to glimpse an eruption that scientists said could occur immediately or within a few weeks. A second long tremor early yesterday and an increase in volcanic gases strongly suggest that magma is moving inside, researchers from the US Geological Survey said. The mountain's alert was raised to Level 3, the highest possible, after a volcanic tremor was detected Saturday for the first time since before the mountain's 1980 eruption....
Preserving Blackfoot for future generations Jim Stone works hard on his Rolling Stone Ranch every day. But while tending to the day-to-day details of maintaining a 2,800-acre spread and 200 head of cattle, the 43-year-old Ovando rancher takes a long-term view of the future, both of his ranch and of the entire Blackfoot Valley. "I'm thinking 80 years, to where maybe my son can have something better," he said. After getting more and more interested in conservation efforts throughout the 1980s, Stone and several other Blackfoot-area landowners in 1993 formed the Blackfoot Challenge, a group dedicated to protecting the natural resources and rural lifestyle of the 1.5 million-acre Blackfoot Watershed through education and land management programs....
Column: Why the greens won't vote for Bush During his term in office, Bill Clinton listed 527 "endangered species," 40.9 percent of all listed species. George Bush, by contrast, has listed only 26 species - .02 percent - during his first term in office. This is only one of the measures cited by environmental organizations who claim that George Bush is the worst environmental president in history. More than 50 of Bill Clinton's top appointees came directly from the staffs of environmental organizations, who, for eight years, used the government to advance their green agenda. President Bush sent most of these people packing, and replaced them with people the greens call anti-environmentalists, or corporate special-interests....
First prairie chicken hunt in 60 years a success story North Dakota is holding its first prairie chicken season in almost 60 years beginning Saturday. This is remarkable, first because prairie chickens didn't occur in the state at the time of European settlement, then because they became almost unbelievably common, then because they disappeared and finally because they are back. The chicken's original range is south and east of here, in the tall grass prairie of Illinois and Iowa. The northern Plains did not become attractive to chickens until Europeans began farming here on a large scale. The chickens found that grain fields offered abundant food, and that remaining tracts of prairie offered sufficient shelter against the winter weather....
Should gas-powered boats be banned on Waldo Lake? "Anything that goes on at Waldo Lake becomes an issue simply because the users are very emotionally attached,'' said Brian McGinley, a recreation planner for the U.S. Forest Service. So a proposal to ban all gas-motor-powered boats from the lake will come as a dagger to the heart of many longtime users, while being hailed as an environmental salvation by some who paddle or row. The forest service implemented a similar ban on motors in 2002, then withdrew it to collect more information. "There was quite a bit of emotional flack about the options we were looking at,'' McGinley said....(Oh, I see. Any opposition to Forest Service policy is because folks are "emotionally attached" and spew "emotional flack". FS policy is, of course, based on pure reason and sound science.)
Horse power Mules and horses loaded with lumber, crosscut saws, axes and more pack a semi-truck load of materials needed to build a new bridge. They haul firefighters, equipment, food and supplies deep into the forest, where even helicopters cannot fight fires. And they are the most important tool for the handful of rangers who construct, maintain and repair the 1,000 miles of trails that were once cared for by 600 people in the Shoshone National Forest....
Wolverine's epic trek astonishes biologists A wolverine equipped with a Global Positioning System collar wandered from Pocatello, Idaho, to the northern reaches of Yellowstone National Park - covering nearly 550 miles in seven weeks - in one of the longest recorded treks by a species known to be wily and elusive. The walkabout was tracked by scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society, who published the results of their study in the latest issue of Northwest Science....
Battle to save global wildlife running out of funds: official Conservationists are preparing for key battles at a global wildlife summit in Bangkok as officials warn that the battle to save endangered species is being hampered by lumbering bureaucracy, unwilling governments and a cash crisis. Some 1,500 delegates gathered for the 13th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) are set to debate 50 changes to the global treaty, including limits on trade in species such as the great white shark and Irawaddy dolphin....
Gibbons joins in sage grouse fight U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., has joined with Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, in spearheading a congressional effort to keep the sage grouse off the endangered species list. Gibbons, who is vice chairman of the House Resources Committee, and Matheson are encouraging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to allow Western states to continue with their locally led conservation efforts, rather than list the sage grouse....
Dealing with the neighborhood bear Theresa Lineberger can still remember the young male grizzly bear that crawled onto her family's deck, perched himself on the railing and munched on all of the crab apples he could swipe from a nearby tree. ''I nailed him with a full can of (pepper) spray,'' said Lineberger, an emergency room nurse who lives on a ranch near Wapiti with her husband, Ron. ''I don't dislike (bears), but when I'm home, where I'm supposed to feel safe, I don't want to have encounters.'' Bears, black and grizzly, are common at the Linebergers' place. One summer and fall, 11 had to be trapped and relocated....
Panther groups hope for swing to more protection For years environmental groups fighting to protect Florida panther habitat watched as development after development, road after road was built on lands considered to be big cat habitat by the federal government. The Florida Wildlife Federation and the National Wildlife Federation and others charged that local, state and federal permitting agencies weren't doing their job to enforce protection measures such as the Endangered Species Act....
Column: Snake Bitten by Salmon Subsidies For more than two decades, Uncle Sam has dropped the ball on salmon recovery in the Columbia and Snake River basin in the Pacific Northwest. Attempts to save these endangered species have shred billions of federal dollars like fish through a turbine. All the while, the federal government has turned a blind eye to the most cost-effective solution to the problem: Dam Removal. A new decision ignores the scientific consensus that removing four dams on the Lower Snake River in eastern Washington is the best option for salmon recovery. Northwest ratepayers and federal taxpayers have already spent more than $4.5 billion on salmon recovery efforts. Yet, several stocks of lower Snake River salmon and steelhead are already extinct and the remainder could be pushed into extinction as early as 2016....
Rewrite softens report on risks to fish Officials at a federal fisheries agency ordered their biologists to revise a report on salmon and other endangered fish so that more water can be shipped to Southern California from the Delta, according to interviews and internal agency documents obtained by The Bee. Biologists with NOAA Fisheries, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, concluded in August that a plan to pump more water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could jeopardize endangered salmon and other fish. NOAA administrators in Long Beach, however, overruled the biologists and supervised a rewriting of their analysis. That, in turn, removed the last major obstacle to a plan that could send more water south, affecting how much is reserved in Northern California, including for salmon in the American River....
Wolves change hunting behavior for fall This time of year, hunters are a wolf's best friend. It's an unusual relationship, of course. Hunter cries have been among the loudest against Canis lupus, as both are often hunting the same prey. But this time of year, hunters perhaps unknowingly help wolves by leaving gut piles and other offal in the woods -- a tasty treat for a hungry wolf....
Part of falling tree kills Washington firefighter, 26 A 26-year-old firefighter from Washington state was killed when he was struck by part of a falling tree, park officials said yesterday. Daniel Holmes, of Bellingham, died Saturday after the top of a 100-foot white fir unexpectedly fell where his firefighting crew had intentionally set a fire in the Grant Grove area of Kings Canyon National Park, east of Fresno, according to park officials. About 20 firefighters witnessed the accident, which occurred about 11 a.m. after four acres had been ignited....
Editorial: Snowmobile plan needs more tweaks Over the summer, the National Park Service hustled to draw up new rules for snowmobiling in Yellowstone this winter. Before the winter starts, we'd urge them to tinker a little more. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to the Park Service urging them, among other things, to make sure the new temporary plan doesn't allow pollution levels to exceed targets set out in a 2003 plan....
Land exchange would limit access to Desolation Canyon High up on the Tavaputs Plateau, golden aspens flutter in the breeze and elk bugle mating calls across the meadows, as if part of a vast mountain symphony. A good 25 miles from the nearest paved road, the area is one of the most beautiful - and remote - tracts of wilderness in the state. It could soon become even more remote. A proposed land trade between the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) and Hunt Consolidated, a Dallas-based oil company, would, when completed, effectively form a privately held barrier to about 80,000 acres of federal land on the west rim of Desolation Canyon - at least via the most direct route, by hiking or horseback, from Range Creek in the Roan Cliffs of eastern Carbon County....
As Reservoirs Recede, Fears of a Water Shortage Rise Five years of record-breaking drought in the Colorado River basin have drained Lake Powell of more than 60% of its water. Flows on the Colorado are among the lowest in 500 years. Downriver, Lake Mead, the biggest reservoir in North America and supplier of water to Southern California, Arizona and Las Vegas, is little more than half full. At Mead's northern end, the foundations of St. Thomas, a little town demolished in the 1930s to make way for the reservoir, have reemerged. The 1,450-mile-long river that greens 3.5 million acres of farm and range land and helps feed the faucets of 25 million people may within a few years lack the water to quench the West's great thirst. For the first time ever, the seven states that rely on the Colorado are confronting the possibility of a shortage....
Southern Ute lawyer: Lawsuit isn't new An environmental group's lawsuit filed Monday to stop construction on the Animas-La Plata Project is more of the same old story that's already been shot down, said Scott McElroy, a lawyer for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. The A-LP Project is largely a settlement of water claims by the Southern Utes and the Ute Mountain Utes. "The issues that the Citizens Progressive Alliance raises aren't new," McElroy said on Friday. "To date the court has upheld the validity of the 1991 consent decrees as having been entered into in proper fashion, and they are binding on all parties."....
Editorial: A healthier river At first glance it appears to be one of those all too rare situations where we decide to manage a natural resource solely for its own sake. The idea of modifying water flows and temperatures at Flaming Gorge Dam for the sake of four endangered downstream fish species is that kind of stewardship and the right approach for the Green River. Creating aquatic habitat that better suits razorback suckers, humpback and bonytail chubs and Colorado pike minnows probably won't make Green River fly fishing guides, or anyone else, a dime. But it could bring operation of the dam into compliance with the Endangered Species Act, and that's why the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is contemplating the modifications....
Water deal has its skeptics Treasure Valley lawmakers are skeptical of a costly plan aimed at keeping state officials from shutting off pumps for thousands of Magic Valley farmers and businesses. They worry their mostly urban constituents will be asked to pick up an unfair portion of the burden to buy out struggling farmers to stop the depletion of the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, which underlies 10,000 square miles. The plan aims to increase the flows out of Thousand Springs near Hagerman that replenish the Snake River as it runs past Boise. The deal would cost $80 to $100 million in state-backed bonds, mostly covered by the farmers and businesses who pump water out of the aquifer....
Part one: The last drop But the very ingredient that makes their mountain retreat so magical - the cold clear water that purrs through rock-and-log-strewn streams - is under siege, threatening the high country that is Colorado's postcard to the world. Already, the Front Range takes vast amounts of water from the counties that are home to Winter Park, Keystone, Vail and Aspen. But now Front Range utilities are reaching for the last of the extensive water claims staked out decades ago in Grand, Summit, Eagle and Pitkin counties. The utilities, including Denver Water, need more to satisfy the demands of ever-growing cities stretching from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs....
Part two: Grand's last stand The mighty Colorado River is born here, delivered by the icy tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park and the wind-hammered peaks overlooking the Fraser Valley. It nearly dies here, too. Dozens of the river's tributaries abruptly stop cascading down the mountainsides, captured by simple dirt or concrete ditches gouged into the steep terrain. These remote structures send the water far away, through dark tunnels and open canals heading east, leaving the Colorado's main stem to wait in vain for a bounty that never comes....
Governor opposes pay for wildlife damage Conservation easements, not direct landowner compensation, is the best way to address ranchers' loss of rangeland grass and forage to wildlife, Gov. Dave Freudenthal told landowners. In March, Freudenthal vetoed a bill that would have studied ways to reimburse landowners for pasture lost to wildlife, saying it would represent a significant policy shift in how the state handles wildlife damages....
Olmito man sues rancher for loose cattle A 40-year-old Olmito man, who was involved in an auto accident with a cow crossing Highway 100, has sued a ranch owner and the Rubmar Land Company. In his lawsuit, Juan Hurtado claims that ranch owner Ruben Barrera and Rubmar are responsible for his Jan. 9 accident through negligence. The lawsuit alleges that Barrera and the land company failed to prevent cattle from roaming on the highway....
Drought aid splits GOP, colors Senate race in South Dakota How political can it be for Congress to help farmers and ranchers suffering from a drought? Judge by the television viewing habits of Sen. George Allen of Virginia, who heads the Senate's Republican campaign operation. "I've been watching the Weather Channel this whole year," Allen said last week. "I love seeing those green spots for South Dakota." Green spots mean rain, which could diminish South Dakota's thirst for federal drought assistance. But there were not enough of those spots this election year to keep the Senate from approving a bipartisan $3 billion package of drought aid. Much of that money is for farmers in Midwestern states that are so important in voting on Nov. 2 for president and the Senate. No such aid has won approval in the House, whose leaders and conservatives say the plan is too expensive....
On 'McLeod,' lady ranchers can't be cowed Imagine, if you will, women riding the range, rounding up cattle, shearing sheep, mending fences and performing in rodeos. Got the picture? Then you've got "McLeod's Daughters," the first prime-time series for cable's "WE: Women's Entertainment." This entertaining series, starting tonight at 10, is an Australian import, filmed on a ranch near Adelaide....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: When the buck stops, pain starts 'Carpal tunnel?" I asked the handsome, strapping Utah cowboy who had both wrists in a cast. "Rodeo," he said, "I bucked off." "Broncs? Bulls?" "No, I rode my saddlebronc." "Did ya win?" I asked. "Placed third," he said, "They paid two places." "Oww!" I said, "What happened to your arms?" "Team roping," he said with a trace of humiliation....