NEWS ROUNDUP

Shooting ban under scrutiny The state Game, Fish & Parks Commission will again consider a rule lifting the state ban on shooting prairie dogs on federal land in Conata Basin, just south of Badlands National Park. However, even if the proposed rule is approved, the federal ban on shooting prairie dogs on the Buffalo Gap National Grassland in Conata Basin will remain in place, according to George Vandel, GF&P assistant wildlife director. The Nebraska National Forest, which administers the Buffalo Gap National Grassland in South Dakota, had indicated last summer that it intended to lift its prairie dog shooting ban. However, in a federal court settlement with environmental groups on Oct. 6, the U.S. Forest Service agreed to delay lifting its shooting ban until it completes an environmental impact statement....
Badlands poisoning may begin Preparations to poison prairie dogs in Conata Basin south of Badlands National Park could begin late this week, if the weather cooperates, according to a South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department official overseeing the poisoning effort. Private contractors hired by the state are nearly finished poisoning prairie dogs on private land and have made a good start poisoning on federal land in Custer and Fall River counties, according to Art Smith, GF&P wildlife damage management program administrator....
Column: Forest Conservation Act: More Duplicative Funding Any piece of legislation that unites in sponsorship key leading political figures of one party with a substantial amount of perceived partisan members of the other party should be viewed as fodder for scrutiny. And so it should be with the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, a 1998 measure trading financial assistance for conservation efforts that just received quiet reauthorization through 2007. Introduced in the House as H.R. 4654 and the Senate as S. 2787, the measure passed into Public Law 108-323 on Oct. 6, on the heels of support from more than 30 Republicans and Democrats, six of the latter of whom belong to the nearly socialist Congressional Progressive Caucus....
Group files against Forest Service A Utah environmental group has filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service, claiming the agency continues to ignore provisions of the National Forest Management Act as they relate to monitoring wildlife population trends. The Utah Environmental Congress last week filed a complaint in U.S. District Court against the Dixie, Manti-La Sal, Wasatch-Cache and Uinta National Forests. The suit alleges that each has failed to gather population trend data through their Management Indicator Species process, which measures the impacts of timber and road construction projects on wildlife and fish habitat....
Grizzlies' Rebound Endangers Bears as Towns Boom The 2-year-old bear may not realize it, but it only has one more chance. Twice already it has been caught: the first time rummaging through garbage in a back yard, the second a week later after an anxious resident reported the 400-pound male junior grizzly devouring apples close to a house on the outskirts of town. In the harsh world of bear management around here these days, if it gets caught again, it's finished....
Catch a pikeminnow, get paid This summer, it really paid to go fishing. Thomas Papst of West Linn, as an example, made $34,526. At about $8 a fish by the middle of summer. He was the top angler, turning in a total of 4,664 northern pikeminnow during the reward program that ran through the summer. In all, anglers checked in more than a quarter-million pikeminnow at one of 12 check stations on the Columbia and Snake rivers in Oregon and Washington. It's an annual effort to crop off adult pikeminnow, which are voracious predators on juvenile salmon and steelhead....
Agreement proposed in snake habitat Environmentalists are angry about - and residents are skeptical of - a tentative agreement that could allow work to resume at the Sanctuary, the Evesham development where construction was halted two years ago to protect endangered snakes. The proposed agreement between the Pinelands Commission and developer Iva Samost, announced Friday, would pave the way for completion of Georgia O'Keefe Way. About a half-mile of the road, which is supposed to curl inside the development like a horseshoe, connecting the northern and southern halves, is unfinished. The unpaved portion is lined by fences and bisected by culverts designed to allow timber rattlesnakes to cross safely beneath the road....
Altamont Pass wind farms targeted in bird deaths An environmental group filed a lawsuit Monday against wind farm operators in the Altamont Pass, alleging that two decades of continuing bird kills amounts to an unfair business practice. The lawsuit, brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, names most of the wind farm operators in the Altamont. The group wants the companies to set aside wildlife habitat as compensation for the deaths of thousands of birds in the blades of electricity-generating windmills. The lawsuit was filed in state court on the eve of today's election, because passage of Proposition 64 would limit private enforcement of California's unfair business competition laws....
Fears over mad-cow goat BRITISH scientists were yesterday playing down fears of a new "mad cow" epidemic after news that the fatal brain disease had jumped species for the first time and been diagnosed in a goat in France. Alarmed government officials have already agreed on a mass cull should the disease take hold in sheep or goats in Britain. Fear was also spreading among food safety chiefs and farmers throughout Europe. Scientists have long known there was a theoretical possibility of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, known as mad cow disease, affecting goats and sheep, but there has never been proof. The goat came to the attention of veterinary experts two years ago and laboratory tests were conducted. Brain cells from the goat were injected into mice by French scientists, and the mice went on to contract BSE....
Oregon tribes OK 42 words to replace offensive 'squaw' The word "squaw" has long been considered an offensive term for women by Native Americans. Yet that is the name of Squaw Creek, which traverses the ancestral land of the Warm Springs tribes. Now, after years of internal debate, the Warm Springs Tribal Council has approved a list of 42 words that could be used to rename the creek and other nearby squaw place names. The council of Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, comprising the Wasco, Paiute and Warm Springs tribes, passed a resolution last week accepting the translation of 15 of the 42 words into the three distinct languages of their people....
New Gallery Spurs Interest in the Cowboy Lifestyle The Cowboy Legacy Gallery will open this November at the Carefree Galleria in Carefree, Arizona. The gallery is an association of three well-known Western collectibles experts: Keith Seidel of Seidel's Saddlery, William Welch of Cowboy and The Lady, and Brian Lebel of Old West Antiques of Cody. Due to the recent influx of younger collectors, there are simply less and less authentic Western collectibles in the marketplace. Values are also being driven up by auction selling prices which the novice collector can not afford. The Cowboy Legacy Gallery, located in the Carefree Galleria, offers not only hard-to-get items, but a place to sit and visit, read and study in the library of books on the West and cowboy collectables....
Rodeo Insider The Professional Bull Riders' decision to make its World Finals carry more weight was the right choice. In recent years, a competitor could enter the championships with a big lead and have the world title pretty well sewn up. One revealing case was in 2000 when Chris Shivers won the title despite being thrown off four bulls at the five-round event. But the PBR made a controversial change for the 2004 World Finals that paid off by making its world title race more compelling. The PBR added three rounds and dramatically increased the amount of points a cowboy could earn for turning in the highest aggregate score after eight rounds....
Look out ... Hay wants his buckle back Rod Hay wants to have the championship buckle back on his mantel piece. After equalling a Canadian record by winning his seventh national saddle bronc crown in 2002, the Wildwood cowboy missed the majority of last year's CFR when he elected to go to the Pace Picante Pro Rodeo Classic in Dallas. Due to a scheduling conflict, Hay was forced to choose again this year between the lucrative Wrangler Tour Showdown and the CFR. This time, he's going to Rexall Place....