NEWS ROUNDUP

Men Arrested for Dumping Dirt in a Forest Two men have been arrested for dumping dirt in a national forest. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department said the men, who have not been publicly identified, were arrested at a garage in Coeur d'Alene where the dirt had been removed and the base apparently prepared for paving. Deputy Robert Gomez said the U.S. Forest Service confirmed that it was illegal to dump anything, including dirt, on the federal land. Gomez said he asked the two men about dumping dirt in the national forest "and they went off on a tirade about Mother Earth."....
Helicopter skiing once again raises ire of environmentalists A new battle is brewing over helicopter skiing in the Wasatch Mountains. In the latest installment of what has become an almost regular skirmish, Save Our Canyons Executive Director Lisa Smith said this week that the organization will appeal the new five-year permit approved in October for Wasatch Powderbird Guides, charging that the Forest Service reneged on promises to monitor golden eagle nesting areas during the previous permit period (2000-04) and granted variances to land helicopters in known nesting zones. Save Our Canyons previously appealed the permit Wasatch Powderbirds was awarded in 1999, and has long opposed helicopter skiing in the canyons. The new permit takes effect in January....
Bush to dramatically reduce areas protected for salmon The Bush administration plans to reduce by more than 80 percent the miles of rivers and streams it designates as critical to the recovery of troubled Northwest runs of salmon and steelhead, and plans to cut such habitat protections at the region's military bases. The Bush administration plans to reduce by more than 80 percent the miles of rivers and streams it designates as critical to the recovery of troubled Northwest runs of salmon and steelhead, and plans to cut such habitat protections at the region's military bases. The administration also will study whether it should scale back similar protections on thousands of additional miles of streams protected under the Northwest Forest Plan, which imposed logging restrictions on federal land to help bring back spotted owls. In a new, narrower interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration yesterday said for the first time that it wants to safeguard as "critical" only those waterways currently occupied by salmon and steelhead — not areas that might be considered part of a fish's historic range....
Dam removal isn't an option under Bush's plan The Bush administration yesterday finalized a plan that seeks to protect Columbia River Basin salmon without resorting to removing any dams — even as a last-ditch option. The plan represents a controversial policy shift from the Clinton administration, which ruled four years ago that dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers jeopardized runs of salmon classified as threatened and endangered....
Pombo wants Schwarzenegger, other govs to help change Endangered Species Act The California rancher and congressman whose committee oversees environmental policy wants to enlist some home-state muscle in his campaign to rewrite the Endangered Species Act. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said he'll seek backing for his legislative efforts from Arnold Schwarzenegger and other Western state governors during a meeting this weekend of the Western Governors' Association....
Owens calls for reform of Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act is an unproductive act that should be reformed, Gov. Bill Owens said on Tuesday.
Signed into law 30 years ago by President Nixon, the measure was intended to conserve and recover threatened or endangered species in danger of becoming extinct. "More than 1,000 species have been listed under the act, but less than 1 percent has been successfully recovered (from extinction)," Owens told business executives at his Political Outlook 2005 briefing. "We have a better way of protecting endangered species than what the history of ESA has shown us in the past 30 years."....
Environmentalists fear next 4 years Environmentalists see some of their worst fears playing out as President Bush moves to cement a second-term agenda that includes getting more timber, oil and gas from public lands and relying on the market rather than regulation to curb pollution. Bush's top energy priority - opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling - is shaping up as an early test of GOP gains in Congress. "This is going to be a definitional battle, and we're ready," said Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters....
4 Wolves dead - Alaska issues aerial wolf gunning permits Four wolves were killed over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) issued new permits allowing the killing of wolves from airplanes in Alaska’s interior. The new permits were the first issued this season. One hundred forty-seven wolves were killed last year as the Alaska Board of Game resumed the practice of aerial killing, despite the fact Alaskans have twice voted to ban the practice (1996 and 2000) in statewide referenda. ADF&G wants at least 500 wolves killed this winter, while the Board of Game has targeted nearly 1,000 wolves through 7 approved aerial killing programs....
Column: Something to really grouse about One man's dream, they say, is another man's nightmare. But in the case of Craig Dremann, a retired "ecological restorationist," the dream of saving the habitat of the greater sage-grouse could become a horror story for land users in the 11 Western states where the bird lives and for Americans elsewhere who eat the food grown there or heat their homes with energy produced from the area's natural gas deposits. Dremann is a sincere, thoughtful advocate of environmental stewardship, who does not believe his vision for sagebrush country conflicts with the long-term interests of other users of this land. Yet, his potential success in using the Endangered Species Act (ESA) demonstrates there is something terribly wrong with this law....
Group wants sage grouse to be state bird Wyoming's official state bird will remain the Western meadowlark, at least for now. The Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Interim Committee decided Tuesday to not sponsor a bill that would designate the greater sage grouse as Wyoming's official state game bird and demote the Western meadowlark to the state's official songbird....
Study group recommends compromise on landowner control of hunters Western South Dakota landowners should get more control over who gets licenses to hunt deer on their land, a special study group recommended Tuesday. But the West River Issues Working Group remained deeply split on whether to limit game wardens' ability to enter private land to check whether hunters are following the law. The panel was appointed to study ways to improve relations between hunters and landowners, particularly in western South Dakota. It will present its recommendations to the state Game, Fish and Parks Commission at a Dec. 9 meeting in Pierre....
Coyotes making home in city park Coyotes have ventured into a new territory — the wooded hills of the District's Rock Creek Park. Several of the wolf-like canines have been spotted in the park in the past few months. Adrian Coleman, superintendent for the park, said a few park visitors had reported seeing the animals, but their presence in the area was not confirmed until a park official saw a coyote in mid-September. Coyotes slowly have migrated to the eastern United States in the past century, but this fall's sightings are the first to be documented in the District....
Mountain lions on the prowl once again Mountain lions aren't supposed to exist in the wild within 1,000 miles of here. These ferocious predators — also called cougars, panthers, pumas, catamounts and other names — were hunted into extinction in most Eastern and Midwestern states during the 1800s and early 1900s. The animal's only known habitat since about 1900 has been Western states and southwest Florida, where 50 to 100 panthers survive. But the mountain lion is moving east again, expanding its territory for the first time in a century. More than two-dozen mountain lions have been killed or photographed outside the animal's normal range since 2000....
Park Service denies church expansion The exterior of Grace Episcopal Church, which has endured two wars and the fire of 1814, has survived again. The National Park Service rejected the church's application to build an addition to make room for a growing congregation. The park service ruled that such an addition would violate an agreement signed by Grace parishioners in 1958, in which the church gave the service veto power over physical changes to the building....
Private fence at Hatteras must go, park service says When Hurricane Isabel wiped out dunes that protected an upscale subdivision from the ocean, the property owners paid thousands of dollars to have the dune rebuilt and sprigged with sea grass. Then they built a sand fence parallel to the shore. With winter winds blowing sand laterally on the beach, the Hatteras By the Sea homeowners association thought it would make sense to construct another $2,000 sand fence this fall and catch the material to reinforce their berm, just like at the new dune north of the village. But the National Park Service said the angled fence, located seaward of the dune, is not permitted on its beach and wants it removed....
Government to spend $100 million acquiring mountain land President Bush has signed into law a plan to spend $10 million a year for 10 years buying land in the Highlands, a swath of the Appalachian Mountains through New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania that includes southern Dutchess County. Another $1 million per year would fund Forest Service activities in the region....
Environmental Comic Strip 'Rustle the Leaf' Uses Humor to Change Attitudes, Behavior The Earth has a new ally in the struggle to communicate environmental messages and educational content. He is the leaf of a Butternut tree, and his name is Rustle. Along with his friends--a wise-cracking acorn sprout, a dejected dandelion seed and an adventurous drop of water, Rustle the Leaf is delivering punch lines with a purpose: change people’s attitudes--and eventually their behavior--toward all things environmental. “There’s been an unfortunate disconnect between otherwise responsible people and environmental issues,” says Rustle the Leaf creator and co-writer Dave Ponce. The comic strip is created and posted weekly at http://www.rustletheleaf.com....
Plan to release more delta water stirs controversy A plan to increase freshwater pumping from the delta is pitting Central Valley farmers who want the water for their crops against environmentalists and delta farmers who fear the move will undermine years of fishery and water quality restoration efforts. The proposal would increase the amount of water pumped out of the San Joaquin-Sacramento river delta, a fragile ecosystem that already supplies water for 22 million Californians as far south as Los Angeles and irrigates millions of acres of Central Valley farmland....
80 Year Old Law Of The River Under Scrutiny Las Vegas gets ninety percent of its water from Lake Mead, but it won't be enough for our future. There are several things causing our water problems. Some people point to the fact that we're living with rules that began taking shape more than 80 years ago, the law of the river. In the 1920's, Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas was full of Model T's and Packards. The town had about five thousand residents. There was plenty of water to go around, even before a headline in the Las Vegas Evening Review Journal announced that a new dam would supply water to much of the southwest. With the new dam, and the creation of Lake Mead, came a fight over water rights. California and their farmers were the big winners in the law of the river that began taking shape in the 1920's, securing 4.4 million acre feet a year from the new lake. Arizona got a big chunk, 2.85 million acre feet, and sleepy Nevada just three hundred thousand acre feet. Some people say it hardly seems fair some 80 years later, now that five thousand people have turned into 1.7 million residents....
Bush Says Canada Cattle Plan Should Be `Expedited' U.S. President George W. Bush said he told his budget office to ``expedite'' action on a proposal to allow cattle imports from Canada ``as soon as possible.'' The U.S. banned such imports in May 2003 because of mad cow disease. Bush spoke to reporters during a joint press conference in Ottawa with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. He said a proposal to open the border to cattle from Canada that was sent to his budget office last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture must go through the regulatory process....
Nanny sues "IMUS" after Ranch ruckus A New York woman who worked as a nanny for Don Imus and his wife Deirdre has sued the radio host for wrongful termination. Cathleen Mallette, 24, says she was fired after bringing a harmless cap-gun and pocket-knife with her during a trip last Thanksgiving to Imus's sprawling New Mexico ranch. In her New York State Supreme Court lawsuit filed November 29, 2004, she also claimed that she was defamed when Imus later announced on his program that he had been forced to "disarm" his nanny, whom he labeled as dangerous and a "terrorist."....
Local cowgirl goes through Army mini-basic training Victoria cowgirl Brittany Pozzi prefers to leave running to her barrel horses, so she admittedly wasn't prepared for the rigors of mini-basic combat training, which she and six other rodeo contestants recently endured at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. Pozzi is among eight rodeo contestants sponsored by the U.S. Army. The Army's sponsorship makes it easier for Pozzi and the others to rodeo. But in return, the Army wanted them to get a glimpse of a soldier's life. "It was exhausting," Pozzi, 20, said the week following the day and a half of training. "We had to do everything. We ran and exercised with the troops."....
Baxter Black, Cowboy Poet Baxter Black, described by the New York Times as '…probably the nation's most successful living poet,"…thinks it's an exaggeration. This former large animal veterinarian can be followed nationwide through his column, National Public Radio, public appearances, television and also through his books, cd's, videos and website, www.baxterblack.com. Baxter lives in Benson, Arizona, between the Gila River and the Gila monster, the Mexican border and the Border Patrol and between the horse and the cow---where the action is. He still doesn't own a television or a cell phone, and his idea of a modern convenience is Velcro chaps....
Jewish cowboy Hy Burstein writes book on his worldly horseback adventures In his stetson, boots, sheepskin coat and neckerchief, Hy Burstein is every inch the raw-boned, western cowboy, part Grey Fox, part Ben Cartwright. But Burstein, as his name suggests, is a most unlikely cowpoke. He's Jewish. It's a fact he didn't shy away from when he was persuaded to write a book about his riding adventures around the world. Ride 'em Jewish Cowboy chronicles the estimated 50,000 kilometres he's ridden, not just in North America but through the off-road territories of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Ireland, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Africa, Australia, Mexico and India (where he also rode an elephant)....