NEWS ROUNDUP

Group says Forest Service ignores grazing An environmental group accused the U.S. Forest Service of failing to adequately monitor livestock grazing allotments in New Mexico and Arizona and allowing overgrazing. The Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians compiled the report with data provided by the Forest Service under the Freedom of Information Act, said Billy Stern, grazing program director for Forest Guardians. The report, released Tuesday and based on data compiled between 1999 and 2003, said the worst year was 1999, when 75 percent of grazing allotments in the two states did not comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. According to the data used, the Apache-Sitgreaves, Prescott and Tonto national forests in Arizona, the Coronado national forest in both states and the Lincoln National Forest in southern New Mexico had 50 percent or more allotments out of compliance for all five years of the study....Go here(pdf)to view the report.
Clash on high plains The greater sage grouse, a dusky, chicken-sized bird that puffs up like a balloon during mating season, is threatening to limit the production of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of natural gas in the sagebrush country of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Montana. Biologists say the number of greater sage grouse in the West has dropped from 2 million in the mid-19th century to fewer than 200,000 today. If the sage grouse is listed, it will light the fuse on a wildlife protection battle that some predict will dwarf the fights over the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, northern spotted owl and endangered Colorado River fish combined. "Some say the grouse could become the 'spotted owl' of the Intermountain West," said Secretary of Interior Gale Norton. "But the sage grouse occupies nearly 12 times as much land as the northern spotted owl."....
House, Senate set to make ESA reform a priority next session Endangered Species Act reform is shaping up to be a top issue for the next Congress, with the Republican leadership of the House and Senate authorizing committees vowing to prioritize passage of reform legislation. And with a larger Republican majority in the both chambers, as well as a White House amenable to ESA reform, congressional aides said the time is ripe to move a bill to final passage. Spokesmen for Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) both said yesterday that legislation on the issue would be a top priority this Congress....
Greens see hopeful signs in West Despite a bruising election defeat for Democrats, environmental leaders see some hopeful signs they are making headway in the West. “In Western states, we are detecting a shift in people's attitudes in what has been pretty much thought of as a solid bloc in favor of resource extraction,” said Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters. “Majorities were speaking out in favor of conservation, renewable energy, mass transit, pro-environment. I think we're going to be moving in that direction.” It is an assertion scoffed at by William Perry Pendley, director of the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation, based in Denver. "The environmental movement, more than any other election I've watched since 1964, went all-out to defeat George Bush. I've never seen the spending and they wrapped themselves around John Kerry and went down to stunning defeat," he said....
Delicate balance threatened in big-game country Nature played a cruel joke on Wyoming's Upper Green River Valley. Beneath the sagebrush plains crucial to tens of thousands of big-game animals and one of the state's largest concentrations of greater sage grouse are trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, trapped in layers of sandy soil. In the past five years, as the demand and price for natural gas has burgeoned, dozens of the nation's top oil companies have rushed to lock up leases on federal, state and private lands. Where tourist RV's once clogged highways, there now are caravans of red and white Halliburton drilling and support rigs....
Spirit of the Wild West often fenced in federal preserves Evoking images of a powerful rush of flying manes and stomping hooves, wild and estray horses have embodied the independent spirit of the Wild West. However, some groups worry it may all become an illusion. The Bureau of Land Management estimates 32,290 wild horses currently roam on public lands across the western United States. More than half of them - 17,679 - are in Nevada. About 6,000 horses are captured every year and roughly the same number are adopted. Yet about 14,000 formerly wild horses are now kept in federal preserves. While captivated populations are replaced by an 18-25 percent herd-reproduction rate, wild-horse advocates fear herds will be whittled to nothing....
Some Enviros Optimistic, Others Fear Bush's Second Term Not surprisingly, President Bush has thus far failed to mention the environment in discussions about his second-term agenda. But even though the White House will be focusing primarily on foreign policy and domestic economic issues, some environmentalists are optimistic that the administration will work to leave an environmental legacy to be proud of during its second term. "We hope the President's conciliatory and unifying words in his acceptance speech signal a new willingness to meet us halfway on key conservation issues," says Rodger Schlickeisen of Defenders of Wildlife. "We remain vigilant as ever but are hopeful that we can make some meaningful progress in Bush's second term."....
Could this ... stop this? Tiny endangered shrimp could derail retail giant Costco's plans to build in San Luis Obispo, unless the City Council allows the store to open before permits for road improvements are issued. While biologists look near Calle Joaquin for vernal pool fairy shrimp -- crustaceans the size of kidney beans that live in pools of standing water -- permits to straighten the road cannot be issued. Under the original plan, Costco can't open until the road improvements are permitted. The search for the shrimp could take all winter. Costco is under contract with the Madonna family, which owns the property, to buy the land by next month -- before studies of the pools might be finished. "It is too great a risk to purchase the property or begin building the warehouse without having the necessary Calle Joaquin permits in hand," the company's lawyer, V. Anthony Unan, wrote in a letter to the city....
Report finds vast maintenance backlog for West's national parks A new report concludes the Bush administration will not be able to eliminate millions of dollars in overdue maintenance at national parks by the time President Bush leaves office in 2009. "The administration will have addressed about 25 percent of the backlog," said F. Patrick Holmes, project manager for Colorado College's State of the Rockies Project. "Whatever they have done, it's insufficient." During his 2000 campaign, Bush accused the Clinton administration of leaving the parks in poor condition and promised to push for $5 billion in maintenance over five years. Since then, the National Park Service has tried to figure out how much maintenance actually needs to be done. Interior Secretary Gale Norton says the administration has spent more than $2.9 billion to help reduce an estimated $4.9 billion maintenance and repair backlog, though she admitted eliminating it is impossible....Go here(pdf)to view the report.
Suit: BLM fired man for revealing mine hazards A former project manager for a contaminated mine site said Wednesday that he was fired for refusing to keep silent about dangers posed by radioactive and other toxic wastes at the site. In a federal whistleblower complaint seeking more than million in damages, Earle Dixon said he was fired by the Bureau of Land Management in October in retaliation for his aggressive research and public comment on the health and safety risks to workers and residents near the former Anaconda copper mine bordering Yerington, an agricultural town in northern Nevada. A copy of the administrative complaint obtained by The Associated Press said Dixon refused to go along with repeated attempts by BLM management and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection to downplay the issues....
Scamming seed seller sentenced to three years A Utah man who bilked taxpayers by selling bad seeds to the federal government got a break Wednesday when a judge sentenced him to three years in prison. Goble apologized for his actions, which involved providing 155,000 pounds of mislabeled fourwing saltbush seed to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The scam was the first of its kind involving the native seed industry and revolves around two contracts awarded to Goble Seed Co. Under the 1999 and 2001 agreements, the company was to deliver fourwing saltbush seed to the BLM in Nevada....
BLM approves Questar's winter drilling Year-round drilling for natural gas will be allowed on lands identified as crucial deer winter range, federal officials decided. Prill Mecham, the Bureau of Land Management's Pinedale Field Office director, agreed to allow Questar Exploration and Development Co. to drill six wells from three pads for nine years during winter months, starting next winter, in the Pinedale Anticline field....
Column: The Environmentalists vs. Safe Energy America’s domestic shortage of natural gas is, as Alan Greenspan has observed, "a very serious problem." Fortunately, there is a proven technology that could enable Americans to access plentiful natural gas stores from overseas: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)--natural gas cooled and condensed into a portable liquid, 1/600th its original volume. Given these facts, one might expect energy-short state governments to eagerly approve corporations’ proposals for new LNG facilities; instead, bowing to pressure from environmentalists, they are repeatedly rejecting them. Is LNG a disaster waiting to happen? Consider its history. In the last 60 years in the United States, only one person has died in an LNG-related accident. Countries like Japan use LNG accident-free to get nearly all of their natural gas. In 1995, LNG facilities in Kobe, Japan, went undamaged in an earthquake that registered 6.8 on the Richter Scale! LNG’s admirable safety record is the result of two fundamental factors....
Editorial: On The ANWR Path The oil under the permafrost of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge hasn't changed since the White House failed to get the green light to drill there 19 months ago. But the political climate has. It was March 2003 when the administration's bid to open ANWR to oil development fell in the Senate by a vote of 52 to 48. But in January 2005, a new Senate hits town with four fresh members who are expected to support President Bush's wish to make use of the energy gift that awaits. Oh, and let's not forget that the president himself was re-elected....
Column: U.S. squandering oil, gas reserves Saturday night I had the privilege of listening to a noted expert on energy use. Randy Udall raised some cautionary flags about energy use in the United States. Perhaps the most frightening statement he made was to say, "We are as dependent on oil and natural gas as the Sioux and Cheyenne were on the buffalo." Udall presented some myths that we have been led to believe. One myth is that the well will never run dry; we will always have plenty of petroleum and natural gas. Another myth is that environmentalists are holding up development of oil and natural gas reserves in the Mountain West. The stark fact is that the United States has already used up two thirds of its petroleum reserves and one half of its natural gas reserves. Our natural gas production has reached a plateau and is starting to decline....
Ruling by court may imperil wetlands Broad interpretation of a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the range of the Clean Water Act has left wetlands across the Southwest at risk, according to an environmental group's report. At least 3.3 million of the 20 million acres cited in the report are on the Texas coast and 200,000 more acres are "playa" lakes, which are clay basins that fill with rainfall in the Texas Panhandle, National Wildlife Federation representatives say. The nonprofit group says its November report assesses the impact of a ruling that favored supporters of a Chicago landfill....Go here(pdf)to view the report.
'Coastal Clash' documentary zooms in on Malibu A documentary premiering Friday spotlights struggles between beach property owners and beachgoers, exploring everything from seawalls to land trusts along California's coast and focuses about 10 minutes on beach access in Malibu. While the producers of the documentary say they gave equal time on camera to those on both sides of the issue of beach access, local residents and city leaders say the filmmakers did not do enough to contact more people in Malibu. The film, which co-producer Elizabeth Pepin calls an objective study of coastal issues, begins in Malibu, as the voice-over says, "The problem is how to get access to the beach in communities that are fenced and gated to keep the public out, like Malibu."....
Study group recommends compromise on landowner control of hunters A compromise plan that would give western South Dakota ranchers more control over who gets licenses to hunt deer on their land was endorsed Wednesday by a group studying ways to improve relations between landowners and hunters. However, the West River Issues Working Group was unable to agree on any proposal dealing with game wardens' ability to enter private land to check whether hunters are following the law. The compromise approved Wednesday would not guarantee licenses to anyone, but would let ranchers with at least 1,000 acres sponsor a certain number of hunters who would get the chance to draw licenses from a special pool. A hunter who got a license after being sponsored by a landowner could hunt only on that rancher's land....
Zebra-donkey hybrid finds home in Valley Marjorie Springmeyer, at 82, said she was depressed about politics at South Lake Tahoe and decided that buying a zedonk - half donkey, half zebra - might make her happy. The idea was planted in her head about a year ago after reading a Tahoe Daily Tribune article about a couple in Shingle Springs, Calif., that raises zedonks. When Springmeyer inquired about the hybrid animals, the breeder's wife informed her that her husband had since died, and she consented to sell one of their four zedonks. As of Oct. 9, Springmeyer and Tyndall own Skeeter. Skeeter is the son of Touchdown, a donkey, and Zella, a zebra. Skeeter has a sister named Zellarina....
Dallas not so modern that it won't host cattle drive Early this morning, in the dark canyons of downtown, Dallas is reflecting a little on its past. The bellowing of 100 Texas longhorns will mingle with the noise of thousands of daily commuters. They are steers, trophy steers with horn spans of 5 and 6 feet, and by midmorning they will be paraded through the city to kick off the 2004 Texas Stampede this weekend at the American Airlines Center. The herd, the dozen or so cowboys working it and the authentic chuck wagon parading behind it may seem incongruent against the Dallas skyline. For years, the city has tried to conceal its Western breeding. It has trumpeted itself as a modern city looking toward the future. But when the Pace Picante ProRodeo Classic comes to town, it's time to look back -- to kick off the Prada loafers and slip on the Justin Ropers. It may look a little funny, feel a little odd, but there is precedent. Dallas actually was once on a cattle trail. It was the Shawnee Trail, and it began in South Texas below Austin and passed through Waco, northward to Dallas, then to the Red River at Rock Bluff. It followed the eastern edge of what became Oklahoma, with terminals in Missouri at Sedalia, Westport, Kansas City, Independence and St. Louis....