NEWS ROUNDUP

'Radical Center' Tries To Shield Ranch Land Studying the restorative effects of fire is one of several ecological projects designed by the nonprofit Malpai Borderlands Group, which was founded in 1994 by McDonald and other local ranchers who felt threatened by government regulation and widespread subdivision of Arizona rangeland. The group is in the vanguard of a growing movement in the West -- the formation of rancher-based land trusts that buy and hold conservation easements to protect ranch land from development. The loosely structured group now consists of ranchers, government regulators, conservationists, scientists and environmentalists working to find out how best to restore, protect and maintain a delicate habitat while supporting profitable ranching. The group strives for consensus and has been successful enough that this unlikely convergence of divergent interests has fostered cooperative ecological studies of fire, grassland restoration, erosion control and innovative compliance with the Endangered Species Act....
Man fined for removing Forest Service boundary markers Ketchum man is learning the hard way not to mess with the U.S. Forest Service. A U.S. Magistrate Judge found Monty Straley guilty on two misdemeanors for illegally removing boundary markers that separated his property from Sawtooth National Forest land and for interfering with a Forest Service boundary marking project, according to a statement released Friday by the U.S. Attorney District of Idaho. When crews conducted survey work in the Ketchum area in 2003, they placed markers to distinguish the line between Straley's private property and public lands. Straley removed the fiberglass posts and threatened to get rid of additionally installed markers if the originals were replaced....
Governor opposes proposed roadless rule revision Gov. Ted Kulongoski on Friday sent a letter to the U.S. Forest Service opposing a Bush administration proposal to ease a 2001 rule that protects roadless areas on federal land. The Democratic governor said the Republican proposal "will break up the integrity of the forest ecosystem of large contiguous roadless areas, which in turn, will lead to severe environmental damage to these sensitive areas."....
GOP plans to revise species protections Despite winning the White House and bigger majorities in Congress, Republicans have mapped out a limited agenda of forestry legislation for the 109th Congress, but they do plan changes to the Endangered Species Act. Among the measures to be considered by the Resources Committee is a plan by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to create a panel of scientists to review data that regulators use to design plans to protect endangered species....
Snowmobile plan draws 2 more challenges Two more legal challenges have been filed to the National Park Service's plan to allow snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks for the next three winters. The latest action came Friday from conservation groups. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition and others are asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to order the Park Service to do the monitoring and "adaptive management" necessary to protect the park and its resources. Friday's action followed a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Wyoming Lodging and Restaurant Association. It claims the federal government failed to provide a "reasoned explanation" for its decision requiring guided trips in Yellowstone and limiting the number of snowmobiles...
BLM denies Nevada mine cover-up Bureau of Land Management officials insisted Friday there's "no cover-up" at a polluted Nevada mine and blamed cleanup delays on the ex-project manager who filed a federal whistleblower complaint. A lawyer for whistleblower Earle Dixon said the environmental specialist was fired by bureaucrats who "shot the messenger" rather than respond to his concerns about radioactive materials and other toxic wastes at the former Anaconda copper mine near Yerington in northern Nevada....
Salt wells blamed as cause of quake An earthquake near the Colorado-Utah border Saturday night might have been caused by a government agency injecting brine 14,000 feet into the earth. “We have a seismic network set up for measuring and recording any events associated with the injection process, and it appears this earthquake was one probably associated with that process,” said Andy Nichols, manager of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation facility that injects 230 gallons of salt per minute into deep wells in the Paradox Valley Area....
Flood to build Canyon beaches Federal scientists hope to flood the Grand Canyon for about four days later this month in a second attempt to restore some of the beaches and habitat lost when the Colorado River was dammed four decades ago. Under a plan outlined this week for public comment, the Bureau of Reclamation would create the artificial flood by releasing extra water from Glen Canyon Dam. The river would swell to nearly five times its normal flow at the peak of the experiment. The intent is to use the water to move tons of sand and sediment downstream to the upper reaches of the Grand Canyon, rebuilding some of the beaches eroded over time....
New brucellosis case hits Teton County Four animals in a Teton County cattle herd tested positive for the brucellosis antibody, officials announced this week, requiring the state to start the clock again to obtain brucellosis-free status. The four animals were in two different herds on one ranch in Teton County. Two animals from a purebred herd that grazes on the ranch tested positive for the disease, and culture results this week confirmed earlier tests....
Shoshone celebrates the Old West Shoshone, Calif., gives the impression of teetering on the edge of the known civilized world, whether you come there from the California or the Nevada side. It's usually eerily tranquil under the shade of the lined cottonwoods and scattered date palms in front of the old Shoshone Museum. You half expect to see a dog awaking from his nap in the middle of the highway running through town. But this weekend the quiet oasis village just south of Death Valley and north of the Old Spanish Trail sprung to life with outbursts of six-shooter gunfire from rowdy "cowboys." Gentler folk played foot-stomping bluegrass music while couples took to the patio for country-western swing dancing. Crafts people sold their artistic wares, cowboy poets recited homegrown desert lyrics and regional historians spun yarns of Old Western trails and newer ones, too, most of the tales at least partly true....
Requiem for a maverick The dead man's friends wrapped his ashes in a black bandanna, fastened it with a hackamore knot and carried it to the top of a low hill overlooking the breaks of the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle. They set their burden on the grass. Six cowboys lounged horseback beside it while some of the dozen or so people spoke of the dead man or said poems or sang songs to the music of fiddles and guitars. Then Rooster Morris, foreman of Spring Creek Ranch, where they were, stepped down from his stirrups and picked up the bandanna. He remounted and rode slowly down the grassy slope, cradling the dead man's ashes....