NEWS ROUNDUP

Oil, gas bonds leave public with huge potential cleanup liability Bonds posted by companies with federal oil and gas leases cover only a small fraction of the projected costs of plugging wells and restoring land once the fuel is extracted, leaving taxpayers with the potential for huge cleanup bills, an Associated Press analysis of federal records shows. The Bureau of Land Management has collected just $132 million in bonds from oil and gas companies responsible for more than 100,000 wells on federal lands. The government estimates it costs between $2,500 and $75,000 to cap each well and restore the surface area. In the past five years, the BLM has spent $2.2 million to clean up 167 wells where operators defaulted on their bonds. At that average rate of $13,066 per well, the shortfall between the bonds and the actual cleanup costs could leave taxpayers with as much as a $1 billion potential liability if companies reneged on their cleanup responsibilities, the AP analysis found....
Is Hearst a model for future conservation? The Hearst deal illustrates conservation's shift away from government land purchases and toward easements negotiated by nonprofits -- a move that comes as public funds dwindle and as land faces intensified development pressure. According to a recent report by the Washington, D.C., nonprofit Land Trust Alliance, conservation easements have protected about 5 million acres in the country, more than triple the 1.4 million acres protected five years ago. "Easements are a growing trend, and The Nature Conservancy currently in California is doing more of them," said Steve Johnson, that organization's strategic initiatives director. "They'll become a major technique in the toolbox of land conservation." Easements -- favored in principle by the groups that most vocally opposed the Hearst deal -- are less expensive than outright purchases because the loss of development rights devalues the land. They're also cheaper in the long term because the public doesn't foot the maintenance bill and because the parcel continues to generate property-tax revenue for the state....
Editorial: Here come the barbarians into our national forests In earlier times, barbarians were known to rape, pillage and plunder a land. They took what was not theirs and then left the inhabitants to recover in the aftermath. A similar tragedy is brewing in publicly owned forests across the United States, including our own Bankhead National Forest. This time, however, the pillagers won't be riding stallions from distant lands. They'll be fellow Americans aboard bulldozers and logging trucks, courtesy of President Bush....
Editorial: More Risks for Forests THE BUSH administration's new rules on management of national forests are not a surprise. They generally track a set of draft regulations the Forest Service issued two years ago. They are, nonetheless, a disappointment. The furor over the draft had offered the administration a chance to ameliorate the grave problems with its proposal. Instead, just before Christmas, it has gone ahead with a rule that will weaken environmental protection of forests and their wildlife. The idea of streamlining the forest management planning process -- the purported goal of the regulation -- is reasonable. It takes up to seven years to produce the statutorily mandated 15-year management plans for the country's national forests -- an absurd period that guarantees that plans are out of date by the time they get finalized. But the administration's new rule does more than make the process more efficient. It also weakens the protections it should be ensuring....
Editorial: Forest Service rules needed some pruning The Forest Service issued long-awaited new rules Wednesday that will overhaul the way publicly owned forests are managed. What this means is that the nation's 155 national forests may finally get the responsible stewardship they deserve. The new rules are really part two of President Bush's plan to streamline the regulatory and legal mess that has long stymied thorough forest cleanup and fire prevention. New scientific discoveries, population growth across the West and two of the most devastating years of wildfire damage in the nation's recent history provided the White House a crystal clear case for overhauling our outdated forest-management policies. Wednesday's proposal to streamline the planning process required by the 1976 National Forest Management Act will free the Forest Service from wasteful and time-consuming paperwork and give it the latitude to more quickly respond to evolving forest conditions and scientific research....
Editorial: Forest Non-Planning In some areas of the West, decisions made in Washington about public lands grate on local officials. They grit their teeth at endless paperwork and bureaucratic delay. Why not trade a few environmental protections for easier commercial use of those lands? The White House has heard those complaints, echoed by the timber and mining industries, and come up with one whopping Christmas present. The price tag may include loss of endangered species and habitat, irreparable damage to wild land owned by all Americans and the silencing of public comments on logging and mining in remote areas, all in the name of "efficiency."....
Roadless Rule may be in peril Recent decisions to lease nearly 90,000 acres of the Uinta National Forest for oil and gas exploration could wind up on a collision course with the Roadless Rule - if the Bush Administration doesn't succeed in repealing it first. The Forest Service, in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management, sold about 70,000 acres in oil and gas leases during a September auction, and another 17,000 acres Dec. 10. But because a portion of those 10-year leases overlap roadless areas - land under federal regulation that bans development on designated national forest parcels - opposition has been significant. A consortium of environmental, sportsman and outdoor recreation groups - including the Wasatch Mountain Club, Black Diamond Equipment, the Wilderness Society, the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Trout Unlimited - have protested the sales. And at least one group suggests that legal challenges could be in the offing....
Senate, Enviros Blocking Nat'l. Security Fence Succumbing to pressure from the environmental lobby, the U.S. Senate is blocking legislation already passed by the House that would erect an impenetrable national security fence across the U.S.-Mexican border. First proposed by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., way back in 1996, the new border fence was supposed to be an improvement on a temporary structure that was already credited with substantial success. Succumbing to pressure from the environmental lobby, the U.S. Senate is blocking legislation already passed by the House that would erect an impenetrable national security fence across the U.S.-Mexican border. First proposed by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., way back in 1996, the new border fence was supposed to be an improvement on a temporary structure that was already credited with substantial success. Environmentalists are "digging in" over their concerns that the fence would be harmful to endangered species of plants and birds, and would disrupt Indian artifacts, such as seashell fragments....
Environmentalists oppose proposed changes to State Water Project Environmental groups are rallying against a proposed restructuring of State Water Project that would allow local water wholesalers to run part of the massive state aqueduct and reservoir system. The Environmental Water Caucus, a coalition of about 20 groups, opposes a recommendation in the California Performance Review that would also allow water contractors to buy and sell water and water rights. The recommendation is one of 1,200 in a proposed top-to-bottom overhaul of the California bureaucracy....
Conservation easements face legal questions A research group has concluded conservation easements that protect Wyoming's open spaces from development are legal. Some have said that such easements conflict with the state Constitution, but the Wyoming Open Spaces Initiative says otherwise. Wyoming's rule against perpetuity is complicated, and even experienced attorneys can struggle with the concept. The rule, which originates from old English common law, is designed to prevent a long period of uncertainty about who will have what rights in a property. In Wyoming, the rule is embodied both in statute and the constitution. Some say that conservation easements, which can tie up rural property forever, violate the state constitutional provision which says, "Perpetuities and monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free state, and shall not be allowed."....
California: Officials seek to control windmills If environmentalists and California state officials have their way, the towering windmills that dot the Altamont Pass will be replaced and moved to prevent the killing of thousands of birds annually, including species protected under federal and state laws. In an effort to curtail the carnage, they say the turbines -- which provide one-third of California's wind power -- should be newer, taller models and be concentrated on the leeward side of the hills. With 5,000 windmills in a 50-square-mile area, the Altamont Pass is the world's largest wind farm, producing enough electricity to power 200,000 households annually. But it is also the worst in the country for slaughtering birds....
Eagle feathers at center of battle Eagle feathers are the most powerful objects in American Indian ceremonies, and tribal members earn the right to handle them through their knowledge of their people's history and culture. Today, white Utahns who practice an American Indian religion want to be part of the generations-old customs and are challenging federal regulations that limit the right to possess feathers to American Indians who are members of federally recognized tribes. Their latest battle has stretched out for almost a decade and they face formidable opponents. Many tribal members, backed up by the federal government, say the use of feathers and other eagle parts should be reserved for American Indians as a way of preserving the culture. Even religious beliefs are insufficient to allow non-Indians this right, they say....
Appeals court rejects claim on Baca Ranch The Colorado Court of Appeals has rejected all claims by a part-owner of water rights beneath the Baca Ranch, part of the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The decision issued Thursday upheld a state district court's ruling against American Water Development Inc., which tried to block sale of the water rights to The Nature Conservancy. The conservation group bought the 97,000-acre ranch in the San Luis Valley and plans to transfer it to the National Park Service. The ranch was the linchpin in upgrading the sand dunes in southern Colorado from a national monument to a national park....
Cattle call to women of ranching families Ms. Fawcett is typical of the modern ranch women who juggle cooking, calving, spraying, bookkeeping, fixing the fences, feeding the cows and keeping an eye on the hunters tromping around the pastures in search of deer. These are women who know how to cook a feral hog in a coal pit. They don't blink at having to palpate a cow – check for pregnancy by inserting their hands. They are not likely to scream when a rattlesnake slithers by their feet. It's all in a day's work to them. It's in their genes. generations of Fawcetts have ranched in Texas since 1853. As one of the few direct descendants in the family ranching today, Ms. Fawcett worries at 57 about what will become of her ranch near Sonora when she's not around....
System to track stolen horses It's about to get a lot harder to steal a horse in Texas. Starting in January, the Fort Worth-based Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association will launch a national Web-based theft-prevention service. The service will help ranchers and law enforcement officers track down stolen horses by recording vital information from horses, such as color, description, medical history and brand and will include a digital picture, said Todd McCartney, director of the program for the organization. For $30 per horse, information submitted by horse owners will be made available to law enforcement through the Internet. After two years, the annual rate drops to $10 per horse, McCartney said....
Final gavel sounds on Lubbock Horse Auction Some came to buy horses. Some stopped in to say good-bye. Others stopped in to view the last auction. Whatever the reason, hundreds of people attended the final production Tuesday evening at the Lubbock Horse Auction. The weekly horse auction that began more than 40 years ago had attracted ranchers, cowboys, peddlers and interested collectors from across Texas and New Mexico. Now, the final gavel has pounded on an era....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Committee not always the best, easiest way The Little Red Hen brought the meeting to order. "Christmas is right around the corner." Ewe and Eye, the dumber and dumbest sheep twins, looked around the corner of the barn. LRH (Little Red Hen), ignored them. "First on the agenda is a tree. The steel post so graciously donated by Henri goat last year was certainly Frank Lloyd Wright-ish, but the cows have asked for something more traditional."....