NEWS ROUNDUP

Groups protest "roadless rule" As the public comment period ended Monday on the revised "roadless rule," members of several conservation groups called on the Bush administration to scrap the plan that they say leaves Colorado forests even more vulnerable to logging, energy development and road building. Instead, they want the U.S. Forest Service to adopt the original rule, proposed by then-President Clinton, which blocks development of "roadless" land in 39 states, including Colorado. Either way, conservationists and others could be in for a long wait. A Forest Service spokeswoman said Monday that the agency has "no real timetable" for sorting through the thousands of public comments received since July....
N.M. gov calls on Bush to preserve road building ban in woods ''There's not a mandate for the Bush administration to open up the nation's roadless areas,'' said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. ''And there's no reason the Forest Service needs to create a convoluted ... process for protecting these areas.'' Richardson and other critics called that a cop-out and said forest policy should be made at the federal level, not by states. He said the roadless rule was a factor in close presidential races in several Western states, and dropping the change would ''heal the wounds in the West.'' Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group, dismissed Richardson's comments as partisan. ''To think a governor wouldn't want to have direct input in how lands are managed in his state is hypocritical,'' West said. And he said the notion the rule was a factor in the presidential race was ridiculous: ''Anybody who looks at the polling pre-election and post-election knows the environment was so far down the list it didn't have an impact.''....
'Greens' take aim at Leavitt Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt hasn't even rolled out his environmental agenda for the next four years. But already, prominent conservation organizations are taking a "sky-is-falling" approach to their predictions for the next Bush administration, and they have the former Utah governor firmly in their sights — that is, if they can see him through all the dirty air caused by what they fear will be a dismantling of the Clean Air Act and an across-the-board rollback of environmental protections....
Blackfeet begin fight for Badger-Two Medicine land More than a century ago, Montana's Blackfeet Indian Nation lost a sprawling expanse of sacred land. Tuesday, they begin the process of getting it back. If the elders are right, the eastern half of Glacier National Park actually belongs to the Blackfeet. If they're right, the Badger-Two Medicine (named for two primary rivers that run through it) actually belongs to the tribe....
Forest Fire Battle Hits Federal Court California's fire season just ended. Now the battle over how to fight forest fires is heating up. A federal judge in Montana is expected to rule in a few weeks on a lawsuit that could radically change fire fighting in California. A third of the entire state of California is federal land -- the U.S. Forest Service is responsible for protecting all of it. But, could stopping the fight against forest fires be the best way to fight forest fires? NBC11's Garvin Thomas found an environmental advocate that thinks so....
Residents worry about grizzly hunting, genetics Having enough grizzly bears to hunt, maintaining the genetics of Yellowstone's grizzly population and addressing future threats to the animal were the main concerns expressed Monday by southwest Wyoming sportsmen about the state's proposed grizzly bear management plan....
Timber industry expects no change for northern spotted owl A timber-industry group that sued for a review of the threatened-species status of the northern spotted owl said yesterday it does not expect the bird to lose federal protection but hopes new information will allow more logging in national forests. "I don't see how it could be taken off the list," said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council in Portland. "Let's do what we need to do to protect the species based on the true risk, not some flawed notion they are solely dependent on old growth." Under terms of a 2003 lawsuit settlement, yesterday was the deadline for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to decide whether the bird that prompted sharp logging cutbacks in the 1990s still merits federal protection....
Conservative legal group challenges endangered species protection A conservative legal group has threatened to sue the federal government over its plans to protect four dozen endangered species in California ranging from peninsular bighorn sheep to the tiny robust spineflower. The Pacific Legal Foundation notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service on Monday that it would file suit in 60 days, claiming the agencies failed to meet requirements of the Endangered Species Act when they set out to protect 16 animal and 32 plant species. Advance notice is required before filing endangered species lawsuits. Based on a favorable ruling in U.S. District Court in Fresno that overturned habitat protection for the Alameda whipsnake last year, the foundation said the agencies underestimated the economic impact of protection and didn't properly follow the rules to protect habitat....
Conservationists meet to plan global green agenda More than 5,000 scientists, conservationists and politicians meet in Thailand over the next week to hammer out a blueprint for saving some of the world's most endangered species and fragile ecosystems. The IUCN World Conservation Union, which is hosting the four-yearly World Conservation Congress, is billing the eight-day Bangkok convention as the one of biggest environmental meetings in history....
Judge blocks Timbered Rock sales A federal judge blocked timber salvage sales on federal land burned by the Timbered Rock fire in Southern Oregon. Judge Ann Aiken issued the permanent injunction for the Flaming Rock and Smoke Gobbler timber sales on Nov. 8, concluding that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's decision to salvage the timber was arbitrary and capricious. The sale plans called for logging 17 million board feet of timber from 12,000 acres of the BLM's Medford District land burned by the 27,000-acre fire in 2002. Both sales, however, are in late-successional reserves, which are required under the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan to be managed to protect and enhance old-growth forest ecosystems....
Norton draws less flak It seems so long ago when Gale Norton was public enemy No. 1. Back in the opening weeks of George W. Bush's presidency, the Interior secretary nominee from Colorado quickly became one of the most vilified members of the president's Cabinet. On the day of her confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate, Greenpeace activists swung from the rooftop of the Department of Interior headquarters to unfurl a banner saying, "Bush & Norton: Our land, not oil land!" But then something happened. Public land issues took a back seat to terrorism, war and the economy. The soft-spoken Norton slipped into the background....
Conoco closer to NPR-A Officials with the U.S. Interior Department have given their nod to Conoco Phillips Alaska Inc.'s plan to expand from its existing Alpine oil field into the northeastern edge of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The Bureau of Land Management approved development on the two reservoirs that are in its jurisdiction -- which Conoco has dubbed Lookout and Spark -- after tightening some of the environmental restrictions the company must adhere to. The restrictions include barring some of the proposed gravel roads and pipelines from a three-mile protection zone along Fish Creek and requiring that pipelines be built seven feet off the ground, instead of five, to allow migratory caribou to pass under them....
Flake, Franks, Shadegg back federal land acquisition cuts Valley Congressmen Jeff Flake, Trent Franks and John Shadegg are pushing for cuts in federal land acquisition funding. The move could have a big impact in Arizona, where the federal government owns a substantial amount of land. The three Republicans back a proposed $121 million decrease in land acquisition funding. The cut is part of a U.S. House version of the yet-to-be-completed Department of Interior spending package. A rival Senate version of the Interior budget calls for a $215 million increase in the federal government land-buying pool of cash. Flake, Shadegg and Franks have joined 32 other fiscal conservatives in letter to U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., backing the cuts....
Wolf rules eyed The Colorado Division of Wildlife will ask the Wildlife Commission on Wednesday to relax the regulations governing ranchers who kill wolves preying on their livestock. "Right now, the wolf is a state endangered species and can only be killed if it's a threat to human life," said Gary Skiba, state wildlife biologist who heads up the wolf-management effort. If one is killed for any other reason, the charge is a Class 5 felony punishable by up to a $100,000 fine and three years in jail....
Column: Californians, Hug a Miner Today Your car. Your desk. Your computer. Your pots and pans. The road outside. Your lunch. What do these things have in common? All of them involved disturbing the land and the ''exploitation'' of natural resources in their creation. Anything around you that contains metal, plastic or rubber comes directly from mining and oil drilling operations somewhere in the world. Anything that is wood, paper or food was either logged or harvested. Almost everything we have comes from mining, drilling, logging and farming, and yet these industries are increasingly under attack from the NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) people, regulators, and environmentalists....
Column: Revolt Rattles Oregon's Land-Use Legacy Washington has apples. Colorado has football and hockey. Oregon? We have land-use laws. It's what built our state's reputation. Planning textbooks often feature a chapter on Oregon, and environmentalists and land-use planners throughout the West look longingly towards our state Legislature in Salem; it's the place where smart people put a cap on sprawl. That was before Nov. 2, when Oregonians questioned their resolve to be sprawl-fighters. Nearly 60 percent of Oregon voters across rural and urban areas passed a ballot initiative that requires state and local governments to either compensate landowners when environmental or planning laws harm property values, or else to waive the regulation. Written by a property-rights group that has worked for years to dismantle land-use laws, the measure provides no funding mechanism for processing claims or for the estimated millions of dollars in compensation that could be due....
Australian court rules cowboy hats too dangerous; helmets needed The sweat-stained felt hats worn by Australian cowboys, as much a part of the Outback as kangaroos and sun-baked soil, may be heading for the history books. They fail modern industrial safety standards. It all stems from the death of a cowboy, who suffered massive head injuries after being trampled in a fall from a horse while mustering bulls in July 2001. His sole protection was the tattered hat provided him for shading from the sun. The New South Wales state government brought charges against the ranch owner, who employed 23-year-old Daniel Croker, convicting and fining the company $72,000 last month for breaches of safety, including failure to provide the horseman with an equestrian helmet....
It's All Trew: Drought wrings the patience from community Two years passed without rain in the Caprock community. Herds were culled as grass and crops died because of the drought. Most people had notes due at the bank and many were working at outside jobs trying to hang on until the drought broke. Nerves were frazzled in frustration. The ladies sponsored a private dance, rented a local hall and hired a western band in an effort to provide the community with a little recreation and relaxation. They decorated the tables and brought dips and snacks while the men brought liquor....