NEWS ROUNDUP

Court throws out 12-year prison sentence in Colorado's largest wildfire An appeals court Thursday threw out a former U.S. Forest Service employee's 12-year prison sentence for starting the biggest wildfire in Colorado history. The Colorado Court of Appeals said state Judge Edward Colt gave Terry Lynn Barton too harsh a sentence and had at least "the appearance of prejudice" because smoke from the fire had prompted the judge to leave his own home for a night. The court ordered a new sentencing before a new judge for Barton, who admitted starting the June 2002 fire when she burned a letter from her ex-husband in a drought-stricken area....
Forest plan might not protect grizzly bears After reviewing management plans for the national forests around Yellowstone National Park, environmentalists have an easy answer for how well they think grizzly bears will be protected. "Not well at all," said Louisa Wilcox, wild bears project director for the National Resources Defense Council. The group thinks the big bears may become extinct. Wilcox and a handful of other grizzly bear defenders announced their analysis of new amendments to the plan Wednesday and said if grizzlies are de-listed from the Endangered Species Act - which could happen as early as next year - there's a good chance of extinction....
Dozens rally against condos lawsuit Dozens of residents and environmentalists rallied Thursday to condemn a federal lawsuit filed against an activist and three U.S. Forest Service employees. The Marina Point Development project began in 1981 when a group of investors bought a 15.5-acre property along the north edge of Big Bear Lake - in Fawnskin, a town of 400 people. The project has more than 100 condos. The development has been stalled by various bureaucratic and environmental delays, the most recent of which is a court-ordered injunction granted as a result of a lawsuit filed on behalf of environmental groups including the Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of Fawnskin. In November, lawyers for the developers filed a federal lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, naming San Bernardino National Forest Supervisor Gene Zimmerman and biologists Scott and Robin Eliason....
Pentagon Proposes Loosening Its Environmental Policy The Defense Department, which has won congressional exemptions from environmental laws in the last two years, now wants to change an internal policy that commits the department to sound environmental practices. A draft of the proposal, which would replace a 1996 directive, eliminates the Pentagon's vow to "display environmental security leadership within DOD activities worldwide." It stresses, instead, the "national defense mission." The new proposal replaces a list of concrete responsibilities with vague guidance to the military about how to prevent pollution and guarantee compliance with federal and international laws. The directive would not affect any ongoing cleanup efforts by the Defense Department....
Wash. Orcas Get Feds' 'Threatened' Status Two years after denying Endangered Species Act protection to killer whales that live much of the year near Washington's San Juan Islands, the federal fisheries agency said Thursday it plans to list the struggling population as a threatened species. A federal judge last year had ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to reconsider its decision on the whales after eight environmental groups and concerned individuals filed suit. The threatened-species designation could become final a year from now, following a period of public comment....
Crow tribal member gets probation in eagle’s death A former Garryowen resident who admitted illegally possessing a bald eagle carcass will spend three years on federal probation. U.S. Magistrate Richard Anderson on Thursday sentenced Duane Neil Costa, now of Ronan, after an hourlong hearing in which attorneys argued over restitution and whether Costa should get credit for accepting responsibility. Anderson gave Costa credit for accepting responsibility, a decision that qualified him for probation instead of a minimum eight months in prison. The judge did not impose restitution because the government did not present a basis for determining a fair amount. Anderson ordered that four months of probation be spent in home confinement and barred Costa from hunting, fishing or trapping during his probation....
Group seeks status review on 198 California endangered species Nearly 300 rare creatures, from the Arroyo Southwestern toad to the White sedge, are considered threatened or in danger of extinction in California, yet there has been no recent review whether two-thirds of the plants and animals still merit protection. Every five years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is required to consider the 298 species' status under the Endangered Species Act, but it says it's so tied up in competing lawsuits from environmental groups and opponents that most decisions now are driven by judges' orders. To prod the service to act, a conservative legal group will notify it Friday that it will add a new lawsuit in 60 days unless the agency starts or schedules status reviews on all 198 listed species that have gone unchallenged for five years or more....
Snowy plover protection plan OKd A state panel endorsed a plan Thursday for protecting the threatened western snowy plover that could lead to new restrictions on such activities as driving, kite flying and playing with dogs on about 20 percent of the coast's sandy beaches. The state Parks and Recreation Commission approved the plan but held off on imposing new rules pending federal actions. The plan goes to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for approval and for its drafting of an environmental impact statement, which officials said could take up to two years....
Center Files Notice on "Accidental" Government Killing of Jaguars The Center for Biological Diversity today filed formal 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, Interior Secretary Gale Norton and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services for actions taken by the latter agency that are likely to result in the "take" of endangered jaguars (panthera onca) in the United States. "Take" under the Endangered Species Act means "harassing, harming, pursuing, hunting, shooting, wounding, killing trapping, capturing, collecting, or attempting to engage in any such conduct." The notice letter points to failures of USDA's Orwellianly-named Wildlife Services agency to abide by Fish and Wildlife Service requirements in the former agency's wildlife poisoning, trapping and neck-snaring program, that Wildlife Services map out occupied habitat of jaguars and limit its killing techniques in these areas....
Dispute over listing sage grouse as endangered species The greater sage grouse has been nominated for protection as an endangered species, launching a high-voltage debate about its status among biologists, politicians, lobbyists, activists and agency managers. Terri Russi, supervisory wildlife biologist in the Bureau of Land Management's Bishop field office, and his wildlife biologist colleague, Steve Nelson, have been keeping careful tabs on the local sage grouse population in the hope they can determine how many birds there are and whether the number in their area is stable, increasing or declining. So far, their data suggest the grouse population in most of the Bishop area - the westernmost grouse habitat in the United States - is relatively stable, although it fluctuates from year to year. To help keep the grouse from disappearing, they've developed a conservation strategy in partnership with members of the local community, based on maintaining desired levels of vegetation health. They have used those standards to manage grazing and other activities with the potential to degrade sagebrush habitat....
Column: Governors Take Aim at Wounded Species Judging by their comments last week at a meeting in La Jolla, Calif., Western governors have thought a lot about the Endangered Species Act and its consequences for ranching, farming and real-estate development in their states. It became equally clear during the meeting that many governors have not thought clearly about this most far-reaching of federal environmental regulations. Or maybe they're just ignoring what they know. The Western Governors Association hoped to come up with strategies for amending the Endangered Species Act to make it work better. Many of the proposals that emerged from the panel discussions and presentations were for reasonable tweaks in the process: greater involvement by the states in conservation efforts, incentives for private landowner cooperation, making the designation of critical habitat part of the recovery planning for a species rather than one of the first steps in the process. But again and again, in their remarks, the governors and several of their invited speakers -- among them Rep. Richard Pombo, a Republican from California's Central Valley who has been spearheading his party's efforts to revise the ESA for a decade, and who now chairs the House Resources Committee -- made it clear that they don't believe the law needs minor improvement....
Park Service proposes allowing more river runners in Grand Canyon More river runners may soon be challenging the rapids of the Colorado River through the depths of the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service wants to increase the total yearly passengers by 38-hundred from 22-thousand-461 to 26-thousand-317 as part of a revised Colorado River management plan. A panel of scientists, geologists, professors and consultants is considering increasing the passenger totals. At the same time, the number and length of trips, as well as group sizes for some areas would be reduced....
Chambers Files Appeal for Immediate Reinstatement Teresa Chambers today filed a legal action to overturn her removal as Chief of the U.S. Park Police. Her 232-page petition cites more than 40 legal errors made by the judge who upheld Chief Chambers’ termination this past fall, according to a copy of the petition released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In an October 6th ruling, an administrative judge for the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board issued “an initial decision” that Chief Chambers’ firing was justified due to statements she made in an interview with The Washington Post. The judge did, however, throw out two of the six administrative charges that the Department of Interior had leveled against Chief Chambers....
Yellowstone Trails Lead Bison to Slaughter As the snowmobile season begins in Yellowstone National Park, The Fund For Animals, Bluewater Network and other groups filed suit in Washington D.C. challenging the National Park Service's (NPS) one-two punch against Yellowstone's magnificent bison herd -- grooming snow-packed roads that facilitate bison leaving Yellowstone, and then participating in the slaughter of those very animals when they leave the Park. "It is time for NPS to stop leading Yellowstone bison to their slaughter, by grooming the very trails that help bison find their way out of the Park each winter," said Michael Markarian, president of The Fund for Animals....
Ohio's Regula raises ire in West over park fees In Ohio, he is known as a powerful but genial congressman who has long had a soft spot for the wide-open spaces of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the cattle farm he calls home. Out West, though, Rep. Ralph Regula has a different reputation these days among some outdoorsy types. They accuse the Republican from Navarre of using a sneaky move last month to pass legislation that will force nature lovers to "pay through the nose" for the foreseeable future to visit federally owned recreation areas....
Coal lease bids top $1 billion in '04 Kennecott Energy Co. secured an additional 195 million tons of federal coal in the Powder River Basin with a $146.3 million bid this week. The West Antelope "bonus bid" pushes Wyoming's total for coal lease sales this year beyond $1 billion, half of which comes back to the state. That means: * $1.6 million for community colleges in Wyoming. * $7.5 million for cities, counties and highways. * And $527 million for K-12 school capital construction....
New Oil, Gas Wells Decline This Year Even as the Bush administration issued a record 5,824 oil and gas drilling permits for Western public lands in 2004, the number of new wells drilled declined by 10 percent this year to 2,489, according Bureau of Land Management figures. Environmentalists seized upon the figures -- publicized by the Wilderness Society -- as evidence that companies do not need to expand exploration into sensitive lands. "Why does the Bush administration continue to offer leases on wilderness-quality lands that should be set aside and protected?" asked the Wilderness Society's Dave Alberswerth....
BLM starting roundup of 2,000 Nevada mustangs Federal land managers have begun efforts to round up nearly two-thousand wild horses in eastern Nevada. Officials for the US Bureau of Land Management met with contractors Wednesday to finalize plans for the gather of 1,916 mustangs in the Antelope complex about 60 miles south of Wells and 60 miles north of Ely. The BLM intends to return about 440 of those horses back to the range and make nearly 1,500 available for adoption. BLM spokesman Mike Brown says the gather is expected to begin Thursday or Friday and last for about 60 days, depending on weather conditions....
Water vote sinks: Delegates walk out on reading of proposed settlement Just when everyone thought the Navajo Nation Council had a clear-cut choice Wednesday of pushing the green button to vote "yes" on the proposed San Juan River water rights settlement or pushing the red button to vote "no," delegates came up with yellow. Following nearly half a day of debate on the issue, Speaker Lawrence Morgan adjourned the meeting around 4:45 p.m. for lack of a quorum after Coalmine/Toh nanes dizi Delegate Hope MacDonald-Lonetree pulled out the rule book and rocked the boat. The proposed settlement agreement nearly 200 pages had not been read into the record. As Phephelia Johnson began the laborious task, delegates headed for the door....
A river flowing to the past Explorer and mountain man Jedediah Smith roamed the West in the 1820s, trapping for "plews" -- cured beaver pelts. These furs could make his fortune, or at minimum, fund future treks. He also hunted for the Rio Buenaventura, a Hudson's Bay Co. fantasy of a river that might run west from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The dream of such a river was so seductive that 20 years later, John C. Fremont still quested for it....