NEWS ROUNDUP

Congress taking aim at Endangered Species Act A bruising battle over reforming the nation's premier law for protecting endangered species is shaping up for the next Congress. Emboldened by their increased majority, House and Senate Republicans said they are optimistic that they can enact major changes to the Endangered Species Act, a goal that has eluded the GOP for more than a decade. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, chairman of the subcommittee with oversight of the endangered-species law, have also said reform is a top priority for the 109th Congress. Next week, the Western Governors Association is hosting a "summit meeting" in San Diego to develop a legislative strategy for prodding Congress to make major changes to the act....
Study finds moderate grazing benefits Nevada plants Livestock grazing advocates may have new ammunition in the dispute over the long terms effects of livestock grazing. An article released this week in the Journal of Rangeland Management documents a comprehensive research project that looked for differences between grazed and un-grazed rangelands in Nevada. The study, called "Vegetation change after 65 years of grazing and grazing exclusion," found that there are few differences among plant populations on grazed and un-grazed lands. "Advocates for the removal of livestock often do not provide scientific evidence of long-term damage from properly managed livestock grazing," said Barry Perryman, co-author of the study and assistant professor of animal biotechnology at the University of Nevada, Reno. "On the other hand, livestock grazing supporters have little documented evidence of grazing having any beneficial effect on the land."....
Firefighter accused of setting 3 wildfires A U.S. Forest Service firefighter from Greenfield (Monterey County) has been accused of starting three wildfires this summer that burned 800 acres and cost $2.5 million to fight. Craig Matthew Underwood, 31, was charged Wednesday in a San Jose federal court with three counts of willfully setting fire to federal lands. Those fires -- the Memorial Fire, Slide Fire and Fred's Fire -- all occurred in the Los Padres National Forest, where Underwood lives. He could face a penalty of up to 15 years in prison for the three counts and up to $750,000 in fines....
Wilderness plan backed Gov. Janet Napolitano has joined those supporting a new wilderness area for Arizona. The proposed Tumacacori Highlands wilderness, which would cover 84,000 acres in southern Arizona, drew the governor's backing for the protection it would give the land. "In addition to maintaining the natural beauty and condition of the Tumacacori Highlands, enacting the . . . wilderness proposal would provide economic benefit to the region by creating a fantastic tourist destination," Napolitano wrote....
Brokaw dispute poses tough questions Tom Brokaw's recent dispute with an outfitter taking clients on a neighbor's ranch on the West Boulder River poses at least as many questions as it provides answers. And none of them have to do with Brokaw, who was maligned badly by many as the situation went through the courts. Brokaw, anchor of the NBC Nightly News, sought relief from District Court after the Montana Board of Outfitters had given a Wyoming outfitter permission to take 10 archery or rifle clients on three parcels of land on Chuck Reid's Burnt Leather Ranch. District Judge Randal Spaulding wound up ruling that it would have endangered people and livestock for the outfitter to hunt two of the parcels. He barred the outfitter from hunting one narrow strip that straddled the West Boulder Road which was almost surrounded by Brokaw's ranch and another parcel which was larger but had no legal access for the outfitter....
Group, landowners to work on Habitat A regional group hopes that it can work with landowners to improve sage-grouse habitat in northeast Wyoming. The work is considered important because the federal government is expected to list the bird as an endangered species across the West. The Northeast Wyoming Sage Grouse Working Group is producing a brochure on "Successful Seeding for Sage Grouse" that includes a recommended seed mix to revegetate habitat for sage grouse. The objective is to provide more sagebrush in the winter for feed and cover, and provide more broad-leafed plants in the summer for food for chicks. The restored habitat also would provide forage, cover and nesting for sage grouse and other wildlife....
BLM to amend plan for prairie chicken, dune lizard The Bureau of Land Management wants to amend resource management plans in the Roswell and Clovis areas for the lesser prairie chicken and sand dune lizard. The BLM published notice of its intent in the Federal Register on Wednesday. The federal agency says the amendment will help it respond to changing resource conditions for the two species on public lands in southeastern New Mexico. Both species have experienced population declines in the past decade and are candidates to be listed as threatened or endangered species....
Some believe wolves killed Blaine Co. calf A calf killed south of Chinook has the owner and the person who investigated the kill suspecting wolves. Some government officials said it's unlikely wolves have migrated to this part of Montana. "The chances are very slim," said Ed Bangs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Gray Wolf Recovery Program coordinator. Any wolf found here would be a gray wolf from Canada, he said, not one of the wolves that were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995....
Western wildlife agencies undertake massive survey Wildlife agencies in 19 Western states and one Canadian province are taking part in an enormous survey to gauge the public's perception of fish and wildlife management issues. The survey is called "Wildlife Values in the West." The surveys were sent out in October to residents across the West. Sikorowski said the participating wildlife agencies are hoping to receive 400 completed surveys per state for a response rate of about 30 percent. The 12-page survey is broken up into two sections. One section is common to all the states. But the final portion is state specific, giving wildlife agencies insight into what their constituents are thinking....
Editorial: A balanced plan for Roan Plateau The cartoon image of the Bush administration as a pillaging caretaker of public lands took a hit the other day with the release of the Bureau of Land Management's draft plan for the natural-gas-rich Roan Plateau in western Colorado. If what the BLM proposes amounts to pillaging, then the Dalai Lama is a war-monger. To be sure, the BLM's "preferred alternative" permits increased energy production in the lower elevations of the 73,602 acres of public land in play, but it simultaneously delays drilling for many years on the top of the plateau. The higher elevations are prized for their beauty, so it is only natural for people to worry about their scenic qualities being scarred by drilling rigs....
BLM to reopen West Slope to oil shale studies, leases More than 20 years after "Black Sunday" signaled the end of the oil shale boom on the Western Slope, the government is planning to offer some shale leases. The Bureau of Land Management earlier this week announced its intent to begin an oil shale leasing program, offering oil companies a chance to conduct research on 40-acre plots for short periods. It has been decades since the BLM has issued any oil shale leases, but memories of the boom in the 1970s are still strong on the West Slope....
Army tests ravaged family's land Siblings Louise, Douglas and Allan Cannon inherited a gold mine. But they say the Army is giving them the shaft, figuratively, as some of its old, dark secrets have turned their dream of rich income into a nightmare. They found belatedly that the Army's nearby Dugway Proving Ground attacked the old family mines with 3,000 rounds of chemical arms at the end of World War II. The purpose was to simulate what the Army would face against Japanese bunkers and caves. The Army also bombed the surface of 1,425 acres of Cannon family-owned land above the mines with more than 23 tons of chemical arms, including deadly mustard agent, hydrogen cyanide and the choking agent Phosgene, plus high explosives and incendiary arms that included napalm, butane and gasoline (from flame throwers)....
City joins appeal on Poudre River flow The city of Greeley has joined the state and a Fort Collins irrigation company in a brief filed with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals about the operation of one of its high mountain reservoirs. They argue that the bypass flow requirements sought by Trout Unlimited from Long Draw Reservoir are illegal and that the lawsuit by Trout Unlimited against the U.S. Forest Service, the city and the irrigation company should be dismissed. In May, the U.S. District Court in Denver ruled in favor of Trout Unlimited on a lawsuit it filed in 1994 against the city, Water Supply and Storage Co., which supplies irrigation water to more than 50,000 acres in Larimer and Weld counties and the forest service. In May, the court ruled that the forest service is required to minimize harm to fish and wildlife when issuing or re-issuing permits for operation of dams and diversions on federal lands....
Prescott deal set to quench growing thirst Attorneys from Prescott and Prescott Valley on Wednesday signed off on a major water project that many say has as much significance locally as the Central Arizona Project does to the Valley. Finishing touches were placed on an intergovernmental agreement to buy the 4,500-acre JWK Ranch north of Prescott for $23 million. The governing councils of both municipalities are expected to approve the deal within the next two weeks. Subsurface pumping from the Big Chino aquifer, a sprawling groundwater basin that extends beneath the JWK Ranch, is expected to provide nearly 9,000 acre-feet of water annually to the two rapidly growing, water-strapped municipalities. An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons of water....
Texas Returns to the Passion of the Longhorn Faced with extinction 75 years ago, the Texas Longhorn is not only thriving again but fetching prices in the tens of thousands of dollars from fans of the iconic cattle breed of the Wild West. The 1,000-pound longhorns number in the hundreds of thousands these days, with many being kept on small pleasure farms by a new breed of cattle enthusiast. "People are spreading out and they are building 'ranchettes' -- 25 to 50 acre places. They are looking for some cattle for these places and the longhorn fits right in," said Larry Barker, the director of promotions for the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America, based in Fort Worth, Texas....