NEWS ROUNDUP

Undaunted, they fight for the Montana way of life Doug Ensign is a Montana rancher who could make a mint in a New York minute by creating a neighborhood on his land or selling his 4,500 acres to somebody rich and famous. Instead, in the seventh year of drought, Ensign is cutting down on the number of cows he grazes and inviting two-legged visitors to fish for trout across the river from a campsite used by Capt. William Clark on July 15, 1806. Undaunted Stewardship -- its name chosen to mirror Thomas Jefferson's praise for the "courage undaunted" of Lewis and Clark -- is the Big Sky State's latest initiative to hang on to its way of life. Ranchers are getting help at improving their land stewardship -- curbing such problems as overgrazing and pollution -- and setting up exhibits along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail....
Interior wants Front gas/oil drilling EIS A much larger "landscape level analysis" covering a narrow 100-mile-long strip along the entire Rocky Mountain Front is replacing the smaller study on the impacts created by one company that wants to explore for gas and oil on four acres in the Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area. Assistant Secretary of the Interior Rebecca Watson — a former Helena attorney — announced plans on Tuesday for the "North Headwaters Planning Unit" landscape level analysis, which will take at least two years to complete. This analysis replaces the Environmental Impact Statement on the proposal by Startech Energy to drill three exploratory wells along the Front....
Wolf rules expected by early next year Rules to give Montana and Idaho more power to control wolves were supposed to become official last summer but lawsuits have delayed them until at least early next year, a top federal official said Tuesday. Workers at the Department of Interior have been kept busy with five lawsuits involving the wolf controversy and haven't had enough time to fully develop a new proposal for state management, said Steve Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Williams was in Billings on Tuesday to discuss a proposal for conservation easements in Montana....
Forest Service reviews policy on retrieving downed game The Forest Service has decided to review a decade-old policy allowing retrieval of downed big game by all-terrain vehicles. In three areas on the Grand Mesa National Forest, hunters have been allowed to retrieve downed game during big game hunting season between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Hunters are allowed to take their all-terrain vehicles in off-route areas of the forest. “We’ve been doing some monitoring of the area during hunting season to see if people are complying with retrieving game during designated hours,” said Loren Paulson, district recreation manager for the Grand Valley Ranger District....
Oakland reports cougar sightings: Schools locked down near spots in Orion, Sumpter townships A cougar hasn't been captured -- dead or alive -- in Michigan for nearly a century, but evidence is mounting that at least one might be on the prowl in the Detroit area, and experts said Tuesday it may be an exotic pet on the loose. Cougars reportedly have been spotted this summer in Monroe and Macomb counties. Now, there are reports of big cat sightings in western Wayne and northern Oakland counties. On Thursday, a Sumpter Township resident reported he came face-to-face with a cougar near his Harris Road home, Sumpter Township police said. Police officers didn't see the animal but photographed nearly a dozen paw prints left behind....
Bald Eagles Rebound, Other Birds of Prey in Trouble The bald eagle is out of the woods but other birds of prey are in trouble. An icon of conservationists, the bald eagle was on the brink of extinction in America's lower 48 states four decades ago, when its numbers stood at just 417 nesting pairs. At the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference which began in Bangkok on Saturday, Washington is proposing that the bird's global status be shifted from a list of critically-endangered animals to one that would allow some commercial trade in the species....
Re-examination of delta smelt listing is ordered Potential irregularities and misrepresentations in the court-ordered scientific review of the status of the delta smelt population have convinced a U.S. District Court judge to reopen the matter. At the request of the California Farm Bureau Federation, a status conference has been scheduled for Oct. 19 in Washington, D.C. At issue is the quality of data and research that initially led to the 1993 listing of the fish population under the Endangered Species Act-and the procedures followed afterward to determine the species' status and progress toward recovery as required by federal law....
Officials start snake de-listing process Since the late 1970s, the Concho water snake has kept the Colorado Municipal Water District from distributing all the water it could from the O.H. Ivie and E.V. Spence reservoirs. Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it could remove the Concho water snake from the threatened species list within the next two years. Getting the snakes off the list would mean the district could provide an extra 8,000 to 10,000 acre feet of water annually to its customers, CRMWD General Manager John Grant said....
Bush signs bill to expand Mount Rainier National Park President Bush on Tuesday signed a bill to expand the boundaries of Mount Rainier National Park by roughly 800 acres, the largest expansion in more than 70 years. The boundary adjustment will authorize purchase of about 800 acres of private land just outside the park, allowing officials to move the Ipsut Creek campground to a more secure area with easier access to the site. The adjustment also will allow the Park Service to use some of the land for a permanent visitor's center....
Landslide reveals possible ancient skeleton A landslide last January near Bell Rapids may lead to a major fossil discovery in south-central Idaho: the complete skeleton of a mastodon. The Nelson Slide in the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument uncovered a mastodon tusk. National Park Service hydrogeologist Neal Farmer hopes further excavation will uncover the rest of the ancient mammal, similar to Ice Age mammoths....
BLM misses 3,000-well mark The Bureau of Land Management's Buffalo Field Office worked furiously in recent weeks trying to permit 3,000 coalbed methane gas wells before the end of the agency's fiscal year last week. Despite coming within 280 wells of that Bush administration mandate, gas producers here complain the effort still hasn't helped them maintain a steady flow of gas from the Powder River Basin....
Three groups say current rules put the Mexican Spotted Owl in danger Grazing on four allotments near Zion National Park could have bad effects on Mexican Spotted Owls looking for forage and new nesting areas, environmentalist groups claim. And though a Utah judge has ruled otherwise, they believe the Bureau of Land Management should redo its analysis of the grazing permits. The BLM in February 2003 renewed the 10-year grazing permits for 54 head of cattle on 3,870 acres on allotments known as Cave Creek, Coop Creek, Gordan Point and Neuts Canyon. The permit holders previously had grazed sheep. Four environmental groups are planning to appeal the BLM's environmental assessment of the permits to the Department of Interior. The allotments abut the northeastern corner of the national park and lie within one of the five designated Mexican Spotted Owl habitat units in Utah....
Editorial: Legislation a model for resolving land use issues The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Monday that sets the stage for other Nevada counties to resolve public land issues, such as the impasse over wilderness areas, while also bolstering the tax revenue of local governments, funding education and promoting conservation. More than 100,000 acres of federal land in Lincoln County would be sold to private interests through the Lincoln County Conservation, Recreation and Development Act. The proceeds would be distributed to various entities, with 5 percent to the state education fund, 45 percent to Lincoln County for economic development and 50 percent to the Department of the Interior for management and protection of archaeological resources....
ATV rider pleads guilty to striking BLM officer A Twin Falls-area man pleaded guilty Tuesday to using his all-terrain vehicle to injure a U-S Bureau of Land Management officer. Tom Lyn Callen was charged with assault on a federal officer. Callen was riding his ATV at Salmon Creek Reservoir on July third. A BLM ranger approached Callen on foot because he was riding in an area off-limits to motorized vehicles. Callen raced down the hill and struck the officer in the knee....
Oil industry calling for fight against environmentalists Oil and gas industry executives are calling for a battle against environmentalists they see as anti-development. Steve Hinchman, senior vice president of worldwide production for Marathon Oil Co., said it's vital to gain access to drilling in new areas and to ease restrictive regulations to increase supplies in the short term. The "anti-development movement" is increasing costs of oil and gas development, denying access to resources and hurting the industry's image, and eventually could harm the U.S. economy, Hinchman said at the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association's annual meeting here Monday....
House Votes to Gerrymander the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals The House narrowly approved an amendment unveiled just last night by Representative Mike Simpson (R-ID), seeking to split the U. S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals into three separate appellate courts: a Ninth Circuit overseeing only California, Hawaii, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam; a new 12th Circuit serving Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, and Montana; and a new 13th Circuit serving Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. This controversial amendment bypassed the House Judiciary Committee and now threatens the viability of an underlying bill to create more federal judgeships, S. 878....
Summit County Siphoning the Summit Many who use Dillon each weekend don't yet realize that Denver Water will begin taking much larger gulps from its largest storage pond, raising and lowering its levels dramatically. Nor do many know that the utility plans to increase by 77 percent the amount of water it diverts from the Blue River, the lifeline for the reservoir and Summit County. That means about half of the Blue River's crisp, clear native flows will come to the Front Range in the next 25 years, up from about 25 percent now, according to the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments....
Water, ranching in family's blood Denver Water bought Byers' property and buried it under water by building Dillon Reservoir. He used the money to purchase a ranch just below what is now the Eisenhower Tunnel. That land, too, was condemned, this time to build Interstate 70. Eventually Gail Culbreath's parents moved to New Mexico, ranching there until they were in their mid-80s. When Grady and Gail Culbreath hear about Denver's plans to take even more water from Summit County, their thoughts turn immediately to the Blue River: How much more water can it give up and still maintain its own cool, clear essence?....
Summit County Trouble looms in Glamour Gulch The Roaring Fork is just a phantom version of the once-noisy beast that gave the waterway its evocative name. In decades past, the river has been divided, diverted and drained. It has been steered toward ski areas and hayfields and even through mountains to irrigate the emerald corn and melon fields of southeastern Colorado's Arkansas River Valley and the pop-up suburbs of Colorado Springs. Front Range diversions alone have cost the Roaring Fork above Aspen nearly 40 percent of its flow. Another 10 percent leaves the river above town at the Salvation Ditch, which waters hayfields and ranches down valley....
Fishing in troubled waters In the headwaters of the Roaring Fork River, they see the Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Co. taking nearly 40 percent of the river's flow above Aspen to the Front Range. And Twin Lakes wants to take more - up to an additional 14 percent of the river's average flow above Aspen. But the second barrel aimed at Pitkin County could present an even bigger threat. A massive federal waterworks dubbed the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project already moves nearly 54,000 acre-feet of water from various creeks in the Roaring Fork basin to cities and farmers in southeastern Colorado. That's enough to supply up to 108,000 households for a year....
Denver Water holds off on cloud seeding After spending $1.1 million on cloud seeding the last two years, Denver Water will hold off on the program this year, at least initially, according to Larry Hjermstad of Durango-based Western Weather Consultants. "We won't be doing anything immediately," Hjermstad said. "But we'll keep the equipment in place and look at conditions as the snowfall season progresses," he added, explaining that he has the capability to start operating the cloud seeding equipment on short notice....
Tribes to recommend new names for creek Squaw Creek may get a new, more politically correct name. The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs have wanted the name changed since the mid-'90s, but never recommended a replacement to the Oregon Geographic Names Board, which regulates place names. After years of internal debate, the tribes' Cultural Heritage Committee will ask tribal elders about possible replacements at a meeting this Thursday, said Mike Clements, the tribes' economic development manager. The current name has been illegal since 2001, when the Oregon Legislature passed a law banning "squaw" place names on public lands....
Column: Dear CowQueen Pick up a “Dear Abby” column and you’ll find that all those requests for advice are written by city women. You can tell because there’s never any mention of weather conditions, night calving or going to town for parts. My totally scientific, fact-based analysis tells me that alas, country folk seem to be short-sheeted in both the advice and in the lovelorn department. But not for long. A fresh eye has appeared on the scene. She writes a country advice column called, “Dear CowQueen.”....