NEWS ROUNDUP

Snowmobile letters by Pombo criticized Tracy Republican Richard Pombo's use of taxpayer-financed mail has drawn a formal complaint from environmentally minded lawyers. In a Capitol Hill filing, two Midwestern attorneys contend that Pombo violated House rules with an overtly partisan mailing too close to the Nov. 2 election. The mailing — to about 166,000 Midwestern snowmobilers — improperly exploited public funds on behalf of Republican campaign efforts, they said....
Panel to review split-estate bill Surface owner protection advocates and lawmakers who support them are confident the third version of a split-estate bill will pass this time. It will be reviewed by the Joint Judiciary Committee today in Lander. The legislation is intended to give surface owners with no rights to the oil and gas below their land more say in how those minerals are developed. The three main elements of the bill are a notification standard, a requirement for cooperative planning and "loss of value" compensation to the landowner....
Shell studies how to extract oil from shale, cut U.S. dependence A stretch of private land 200 miles west of Denver is home to an ambitious research project that - if successful - could reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil. Energy giant Shell Oil Co., which owns the property, is using it for an experimental technology to extract oil from shale formations. Although the project, called Mahogany, was rejuvenated four years ago, the company says it will be early in the next decade before it makes a commercial decision. Shell is not alone. A host of energy companies are revisiting technologies to recover shale oil, plans placed on the back burner 30 years ago because of extremely high capital costs. But now they're seen as viable alternatives to buying pricey foreign crude oil....
Superior sitting on copper fortune The old Arizona mining town of Superior has felt more bust than boom over the past decade, but a deep-pocketed British corporation wants to revive the area's glory days with a $2 billion mining investment. Resolution Copper Co., a subsidiary of British mining giant Rio Tinto, found a huge underground ore body that sits more than 7,000 feet below the surface. Rio Tinto's top brass, including Chief Executive Officer Leigh Clifford, told Gov. Janet Napolitano this week that they will spend at least $200 million over the next five years to tap into the copper body and make the project work. Getting at the copper could cost more than $2 billion, an investment the British company is willing to make for its payoff down the road....
Drilling approved on Grass Mesa EnCana Oil and Gas has received permission to drill as many as 100 natural-gas wells on 9,792 acres in the Grass Mesa area south of Rifle during the next few years. The Bureau of Land Management’s Glenwood Springs Field Office approved a geographic area plan and environmental assessment for the area last week. The plan was submitted to the BLM about a year ago. It calls for six wells to be directionally drilled from one current well pad and 94 wells from 16 new well pads. More than 40 percent, or 4,065 acres, are BLM lands ,and nearly 60 percent, 5,725 acres, are privately owned....
Public asks questions about oil, gas leases
While the public was invited to comment on 12 specific oil and gas leases in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, many at a Wednesday meeting wanted the facts about all possible exploration in the 377,000-acre monument. Because of a recent federal court decision, the Bureau of Land Management is asking the public to comment on 12 existing oil and gas leases in the national monument. The leases cover about 10,000 acres....
Fur seal population in decline Northern fur seal moms whelped fewer pups on Pribilof Island beaches last summer than at any time since 1921, according to a preliminary population report released this week by the National Marine Mammal Laboratory. Overall pup counts have been dropping almost 6 percent each year since 1998, to an estimated 153,000 this year. This trend compounds a mysterious decline in the herd that has continued off and on for at least 30 years....
Research continues on Preble's jumping mouse A new report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that the Preble's meadow jumping mouse is identical to another subspecies of jumping mouse, bolstering Wyoming's argument that the mouse be removed from the endangered species list, according to Gov. Dave Freudenthal's office. The report released last week is in addition to a study last year that found the Preble's to be genetically identical to another mouse. "The Fish and Wildlife Service should be applauded for its efforts to seek the best science on the Preble's," Freudenthal said in a statement Wednesday. "Scrutiny of the science used to list the mouse in the first place has been extremely intense, and with good reason. My hope is that the recent efforts by the Service mark a shift in the way listing decisions will be made in the future."....
U.S. officials kill wolf pup near Roscoe The days appear numbered for a new wolf pack in the Roscoe area. Government agents shot a wolf pup Thursday after receiving reports of livestock losses this spring and summer. About 40 sheep and a half-dozen calves were killed, he said. And it appears most of the depredation is tied to these wolves, Bangs said. The calves belonged to several landowners but the sheep all belonged to one landowner....
Environmentalists intend to sue over sharp-tailed grouse A coalition of environmental groups plans to sue the federal government over its failure to list the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse as an endangered species. Led by the Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians, the groups on Thursday sent out a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The notice went to Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other officials. Sizable populations of the grouse are in Idaho and Colorado. The rest of the bird's current range comprises south-central Wyoming, northern Utah, northeastern Nevada, northern Washington and central British Columbia, according to the environmental groups....
Ten Years of Wolves in Yellowstone & Idaho Defenders of Wildlife is kicking-off the ten year anniversary of wolves in Yellowstone and Idaho by issuing its first State of the Wolf report. The study provides a snapshot in time of the ongoing recovery of the wolf nationwide and the threats that still jeopardize the future of these majestic creatures. The report examines gray wolves in 7 regions: Northern Rockies, Pacific Northwest, Southwest United States and Mexico, Southern Rockies, Great Lakes, Northeast and Alaska....Go here(pdf) to view the report.
Removal of Yosemite Dam to Be Studied Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's resources secretary has directed his agency to study possible restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, giving an unexpected official boost to the controversial idea of dismantling the dam that has been integral to the Bay Area's water supply for more than 80 years. Mike Chrisman's decision came at the request of Assembly members Lois Wolk (D-Davis) and Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg), and less than two months after the nonprofit group Environmental Defense released a study detailing possible alternatives to the Bay Area's sources of drinking water and hydroelectric power....
Groups claim win over BLM A pair of environmental groups have notched what they call a significant victory over the Bureau of Land Management in an ongoing battle over the sale of oil and gas leases in the state. The Department of Interior's Board of Land Appeals late Wednesday ruled in favor of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council, overturning the BLM's March 2002 decision to lease about 26,000 acres of public land in the Utah backcountry for oil and gas exploration. The two groups have lodged their complaints over what they describe as the BLM's failure to identify and inventory "cultural resources" such as archaeological sites and ancient cliff dwellings before selling the leases. They also accused the agency of failing to consult with American Indian tribes and other members of the public prior to the lease sales. Both are requirements under the National Historic Preservation Act....
Rainwater harvesting once common, needed again to promote conservation Remember Butch Cassidy and “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”? Well, grab those raindrops when they fall! Who knows when it will rain again, as we have seen over and over here in West Texas. Rainwater is a free source of nearly pure water and too valuable to waste. For thousands of years, the world has relied upon rainwater harvesting (RWH) to supply water for household, landscape and agricultural uses. Before city water systems were developed, rainwater was collected (mostly from roofs) and stored in cisterns or storage tanks....
Election serves as whack upside the head for environmental community The Bush victory dealt a devastating wallop to the environmental community, but some members say it also delivered a much-needed reality check to a movement struggling to find its soul. Understandably, many environmental leaders who jumped into the election fray insist their crusade to mobilize the green vote could not have been harder fought: Beltway groups raised record funds -- in total more than $12 million -- to help oust Bush, and deployed bigger volunteer armies than ever before to pound the pavement in swing states....
Pilot project to track, ID cattle in 7 states A voluntary pilot program geared at tracking and identifying cattle in seven Western states should be up and running in the next two weeks, organizers of the program said yesterday. Northwest beef-industry leaders announced plans in May to implement a pilot animal-identification system. The goal is to meet a new requirement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture ensuring that a diseased animal or tainted meat can be traced within 48 hours. The ability to trace livestock became crucial after the discovery of the nation's first case of mad-cow disease in a Washington state Holstein late last year....
Tumbling tumbleweeds I learned that there are five species of tumbleweeds in the United States. The Common Tumbleweed, a member of the Amaranth family, is native and is abundant in arid regions from Canada to Mexico. It is found in nearly every state and commonly grows in dry sandy soils on railroad embankments, road sides, gravel pits and waste places. The worst of the tumbleweeds is the Russian thistle, which is not really a thistle but a member of the Goosefoot family. It is sometimes called the Prairie Tumbleweed and hitchhiked into the United States during the last century in grain imported from Russia. Its stems form a loose globe up to 4 feet in diameter. Its long, thin, spine-tipped leaves and spines give it a bristly appearance. When young and green, it can be eaten by cattle, but when it is mature it is like cactus. It thrives on land too dry for most plants and is the last survivor in drought years. It sometimes appears in a brilliant reddish color in autumn....