NEWS ROUNDUP

Enviros oppose shrinking grizzly zone Environmentalists are opposing a proposal to shrink the zone where grizzly bears would be allowed to roam in Wyoming. Under a bear management plan approved in 2002, the state would allow grizzlies to expand throughout the greater Yellowstone ecosystem provided that the habitat was biologically suitable and the bears' presence was acceptable to people. The plan is to go into effect when the federal government removes grizzlies from Endangered Species Act protection. Now the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has determined that the plan is too vague and relies too much on private property and other unsuitable habitat....
Unhappy fate awaits park elk The National Park Service is facing nothing but unattractive options for disposal of the surplus elk at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. As told last Sunday by the Tribune's Lauren Donovan, the park already holds nearly twice as many elk (600) as the ideal population (360). With no predators for control, their numbers will double within three years. The old solution -- shipping the surplus out of state -- is not available because of a quarantine resulting from chronic wasting disease elsewhere. Letting the surplus establish itself outside the park is opposed by surrounding ranchers justifiably worried about their grass, hay and row crops....
Rare birds struggle to survive Biologists have released more than 25,000 masked bobwhite quail in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge since 1985, when the federal government bought a ranch for nearly $9 million and booted cows from the grasslands southwest of Tucson. But within a year of being set free, more than 90 percent of the endangered birds were dead, most of them picked off by hawks. Today, 100 to 200 survive in the wild. Now, officials have decided to halt releases of the quail so they can figure out what's going wrong. The reintroduction program has long been held up as a costly federal boondoggle by conservative critics and neighboring ranchers....
Domestic sheep posing threat to bighorns in wild Four months ago, more than 24 domestic sheep were released into the national forest in the Skalkaho Creek drainage and a warrant has been issued for a California couple. In October, after some delays in the investigation, a $10,000 bench warrant was issued for the Reiffs, charging them with 24 counts each of abandonment of sheep and animals running at large - one count for each animal known to have been released. The fear is the domestic sheep could inter-breed with the wild sheep, out compete the bighorns for range and feed, and pass along diseases to the wild herd. Since May, FWP has shot 13 of the sheep, said Darrah....
Editorial: Endangered weeds The absurdity of the biodiversity movement was never more evident than Wednesday, when Las Vegas officials learned the federal government is moving to protect some 8,000 acres from development because of the presence of weeds. Much of the land, which extends across the far northern valley from North Las Vegas west into Las Vegas, was slated for auction to home builders in February. However, botanists found the Las Vegas bearpoppy, a scrub protected under state law, and a previously unknown form of the kindling known as the Las Vegas buckwheat. "It's a brand new variety based on the genetics of the plant," U.S. Bureau of Land Management environmental protection specialist Jeff Steinmetz said of the buckwheat. And under the Endangered Species Act, the government can move to preserve every subspecies and sub-subspecies of plant and wildlife because of differences detectable only at the genetic level. A rural squirrel with a fleck of red in its tail becomes "endangered," while its plentiful, nearly identical cousins beg for nuts in the city park and spawn future generations of road kill....
Oil booms anew on Eastern Plains The tantalizing signs of Colorado's next oil boom can be seen in the lunchtime bustle at Rachael Nicar's formerly shuttered Crestwood Cafe. They're seen in the rising occupancy levels at John Song's Akron Motel. They're seen in the hopeful eyes of Washington County Commissioner Quentin Vance, who has watched the county's fiscal health deteriorate since the last oil boom of the early 1980s. And they're seen especially around the sage-dotted prairie of northeastern Colorado, where a series of drilling rigs probe around the clock to tap a nearly forgotten resource that's suddenly in vogue again. Oil is back....
BLM trims wild horse herd Ken Martin watches the wild horses on McCullough Peaks. He keeps his distance so he does not disturb them. He names the horses. He knows the dominant stallions and their favorite mares. He knows the good fathers, the wannabe mothers and the precocious colts. Martin turned his pastime of watching wild horses into a business three years ago and has since guided tourists into the 110,000-acre McCullough Peaks management area. But Martin will have to work harder to find the horses this summer, as 80 percent of the wild horses have been removed by the Bureau of Land Management to comply with the Cody Field Office's resource management plan....
Under pressure, BLM to remove more wild horses in Nevada The Bureau of Land Management has moved closer to its goal of reducing wild horses and burros to a number that Nevada's ranges can sustain. That's the word from BLM Nevada Director Bob Abbey, who says the agency plans to reduce the herds to "appropriate management levels" by 2006 if it gets needed funding. He says the agency wants to reduce Nevada's wild horse numbers from the current 19,000 to 14,500....
G.O.P. Plans to Give Environment Rules a Free-Market Tilt With the elections over, Congress and the Bush administration are moving ahead with ambitious environmental agendas that include revamping signature laws on air pollution and endangered species and reviving a moribund energy bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration. In addition, the administration intends to accelerate conservation efforts by distributing billions of dollars to private landowners for the preservation of wetlands and wildlife habitats. The White House also plans to announce next month a new effort to clean up the Great Lakes....
Editorial: Environmental issues are a concern for all of us Among those most disappointed in Tuesday's presidential election results were New Mexico's dedicated advocates for the environment, conservation and public lands. After hearing that pro-environment, Democratic candidate John Kerry had conceded Wednesday, some wept. All expressed frustration at facing four more years of the anti-environment policies of President Bush. As Tribune Reporter Ollie Reed Jr. wrote Thursday, Nov. 4, in "Woeful environmentalists vow to keep fighting," groups such as the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club and the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance had hoped to defeat Bush and restore science-based environmental regulation and public-lands stewardship to the national agenda....
Snowmaking tool or hocus-pocus? Vail Mountain swears by it. And so does its nearby sister resort, Beaver Creek. Cloud seeding, while an inexact science, might offer the two ski areas a far cheaper way to bring on the white stuff than the costly, water-guzzling practice of snowmaking. But only a handful of Colorado ski resorts attempt to cover all their bases - or their slopes - by doing both....
Big Bird legend haunts witnesses For decades, bird lovers have flocked to the Rio Grande Valley to see a large variety of their feathered friends. But in 1976, hunters scoured the area trying to win a reward for the capture of a creature which became known to residents here as Big Bird. For about two months in the mid-1970s, Big Bird — and we’re not talking about the friendly tall, yellow bird that loves children on Sesame Street — terrorized Valley residents. The 5-foot-tall bird was described as “horrible-looking,” according to The Monitor’s archives. Its wings were large enough to be folded over its body and it had large, dark red eyes attached to a gray, gorilla-like face. Its head was bald and it made a loud, shrill sound through its 6-inch long beak. Tom Waldon claimed to have found its tracks on Jan. 2, 1976, near his home in Harlingen. The three-toed tracks measured 8 inches across and pressed an inch and a half into the ground....
Many county fairs finding tough financial times As spreading cities flood farmlands and farmlands become threatened, so too are county fairs, with their sawdust and hucksters, livestock and carnival rides, rodeos and proud 4-H and Grange displays. Fairs increasingly are running in the red, and having to do unpopular things to survive. Across Oregon and the nation fairs and rodeos are falling victims of apathy, passed over by people who grew up in tract housing, not doing farm chores....
Restoration slow-going at historic ranch house By most accounts, the historic Warner-Carrillo adobe ranch house remains standing due to an astounding combination of favorable conditions and luck. Doña Vicenta Sepúlveda de Carrillo built the home in 1857. But historians disagree about whether Carrillo built the house on top of remnants of another house owned by land baron Jonathan Trumbull Warner. The home was built near a major crossroads of the southern overland trail during the Gold Rush days of 1848-51. Warner capitalized on the steady stream of pioneers by selling them everything from clothes to cattle. Van Wormer said about 200 people, overjoyed to see green pastures and trees after trekking thousands of miles through the deserts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and eastern California, stopped to camp near Warner's house every night. Ranchers and cowboys continued to live in the house until about 1960, and the abandoned home and barn have steadily deteriorated since....
Strong As Rope In May 2003, a mild stroke threatened to throw Stran Smith out of the loop of pro rodeo stardom. At the time, Smith, a six-time National Finals Rodeo tie-down roping qualifier, experienced sluured speech, then lost his ability to talk for 24 hours. His speech slowly returned, and medical tests revealed he had a heart defect. After undergoing surgery to correct the atrial septal defect at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, Smith was back on the rodeo circuit in less than two months....
He's a bull rider with a different set of specs Matt Austin is among the top bull riders in the world. Yet he doesn't strike you as someone who would climb aboard a 2,000-pound bull and try to ride it. With his wire-rimmed glasses, he could more easily pass for a Rhodes scholar. In fact, his peers affectionately call him Poindexter, after the bookish character in Felix the Cat cartoons. A cowboy hat replaces the mortarboard....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Can Thanksgiving turkey ever be replaced? We are gathered just outside the fair barn near The Hickory Hut in Salina, Kan., to report on the debate that has divided the nation: Which entre should be chosen as the national Thanksgiving dish? Turkey, the defending champion, is represented by Tom, of course. The challenger, representing french toast, is Henr. Patty Parsley of the Food Channel is our mediator....