NEWS ROUNDUP

Positive ID on bad bear It appears that a male black bear recently killed in the area was the one that had been rummaging for food, tipping garbage cans and spreading fear. Rancher Larry Cottrell shot the bear after it climbed into the bed of his truck. Since then, there have been no bear sightings. "I'm sure the bear Larry shot was the bear that was at our house," homeowner Solveig Fredstrup said....
Yellowstone's bison set record for population The number of bison in Yellowstone National Park is again at a historic high as another winter of control efforts and controversy approaches. The high numbers - biologists figure the population is around 4,200 - will likely help buffer the effect of sending some bison to slaughter because of a government plan to protect neighboring cattle from brucellosis. At the start of last winter, park officials estimated about 4,000 bison in Yellowstone. Nearly 300 were sent to slaughter last spring and nearly 600 calves have been born since....
Activists question efficacy of bison vaccination program The Montana Department of Livestock is proposing that some of the bison that leave Yellowstone National Park be vaccinated, a move intended to help reduce the potential spread of brucellosis. The plan has upset some activists, who question the vaccine's efficacy and view a vaccination program as a waste of money. The department prepared an environmental assessment that proposes vaccinating calves and yearlings that leave the park's western boundary and enter the state. Vaccination would take place ''opportunistically,'' the document says, as a part of bison management activities....
Tribes agree to amend Bison Range management plan The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have agreed to make changes in a proposed agreement to share management of the National Bison Rage with the federal government, hoping to address some of the fears of opponents. The changes include stronger language prohibiting the tribe from lobbying Congress for more money to expand their share of Bison Range management. The changes would also require consultation with the Bison Range manager -- a Fish and Wildlife Service employee -- regarding any waivers of regulations, and they make it clear tribal employees hired at the Bison Range will have sufficient training, education and experience....
Workers' Group Says EPA Censors Comments The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency censored warnings that a Bush administration plan to build roads in national forests could harm drinking water, a group representing government workers said on Monday. The problem arose after the U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, asked for comments on building roads in pristine national forests. An EPA staffer wrote that building roads through swaths of land previously untouched would deteriorate the qualify of water in streams and have an impact on public drinking water. Ruch said that EPA employees related that Steven Shimborg, a political appointee at the EPA, dismissed the staff draft as a "rant" and ordered the objections stricken from the EPA comments....
USFS staff cutbacks are ahead About 20 Stanislaus National Forest employees may lose their jobs, relocate to New Mexico or move to a different department of the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service will reduce its budget and finance and human resources staffs and move the remaining employees to an office in Albuquerque, N.M., said Ron Hooper, staff assistant for the agency's Washington D.C. office. "Why are these centralization efforts so important to the organization? One simple reason is the budget," Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said at a meeting in October. Hooper said moving human resource employees to one office will save the federal agency about $60 million a year....
Hitting a vein In an echo of nugget-chasers past, a new gold rush is under way on some Northern California rivers — one that's generating a wealth of controversy. Wildlife proponents say the mining endangers salmon in the rivers, prompting a lawsuit by a local tribe of Native Americans and questions about whether the waterways can support both fish and miners. At the center of the debate is a gold-ferreting technique far removed from the quaint days of panning. Suction-dredge mining makes it possible for prospectors to scour large and remote stretches of river. Gold hunters use a roaring engine mounted on pontoons to suck gravel and sediment from river bottoms into a sluice box where the ore settles....
Did ecoterrorists torch pricey houses? More than a dozen expensive homes under construction were burned down early Monday in a suburban Washington development that had been criticized by environmentalists because it is next to a nature preserve, officials said. An FBI agent said the fires may have been set by environmental extremists. A dozen homes were destroyed and 29 others damaged near the state's Mattawoman Natural Environment Area. No injuries were reported. The damage was estimated at at least $10 million....
Court: Interior Department systems can go back online An appeals court has reversed a March 15 U.S. District Court decision under which the U.S. Department of the Interior was forced to disconnect a substantial number of its computer systems from the Internet. In an opinion published Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed the earlier decision, saying that the District Court erred in disregarding Interior Department security certifications and in failing to hold a hearing that would have given the department a chance to argue that its computers were secure....
State Fears Ruling's Effect on Environmental Water Policy State officials are urging the Bush administration to fight a court ruling that would force the federal government to pay Central Valley farmers $26 million for water diverted to environmental protections — opening the door to a wave of similar claims. Although the core of the ruling came down nearly a year ago, Bush administration officials have yet to signal whether they will appeal the case. They say a settlement is possible. If the administration lets the decision stand, state officials warn, it could create a precedent that would make it prohibitively expensive to enforce water quality rules and fish protections....
Water Rights Case Threatens Species Protection The Bush administration is close to settling a legal dispute with California farmers that could cost the government millions and make it more difficult for federal authorities to protect endangered species, according to legal analysts and some state and federal officials. Justice Department officials are working to reach an agreement with five San Joaquin Valley water districts that would affirm a federal judge's 2001 decision that federal authorities' efforts to conserve water for two imperiled kinds of local fish violated farmers' private property rights. The ruling, the first of its kind, would set an important precedent and could make it costly for federal officials to take protective actions under the Endangered Species Act. The negotiations have touched off a controversy both within the administration and in California, with some state and federal officials arguing the government would be better off appealing a federal claims judge's decision that the government owes as much as $26 million for depriving San Joaquin farmers of their water rights in the early 1990s....
Cloud-seeding plan draws concerns There appeared to be little support for a proposed $8.825 million state-funded weather modification program at a hearing of the Wyoming Water Development Commission here Monday. The proposed program would involve seeding clouds in the vicinity of the Medicine Bow/Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges as well as in the Wind River Mountains to test whether such seeding would increase snowpack in the mountains -- and therefore create additional water for the state....
State Laws Take Back Seat to Trade California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine thought he had found an eco-friendly way to help the state dispose of millions of scrap tires: use recycled U.S. tires in asphalt for road construction. The Van Nuys Democrat hadn't counted on Canadian and Mexican rubber exporters crying foul. And though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supported Levine's idea, he vetoed the assemblyman's bill in September, saying it would violate international trade pacts and invite retaliation against California goods. Nobody in Sacramento was very happy with the outcome....
It's All Trew: Deere was a man farmers could really dig In 1838, a village blacksmith named John Deere created a plow from a worn saw blade. Amazingly, the new design blade sheared the soil cleanly and the moldboard laid the new soil aside in long, neat ribbons. It was a great improvement over previous plows where soil clung to the blades. By 1848, thousands of Deere's plows were being sold each year. This simple, horse-drawn device consisted of a hooked beam, a plow/moldboard blade and two wooden handles. Called a walking plow or stubble plow, the name was derived from the fact the operator walked behind to steady and guide the work. Though the furrow left behind was small and narrow it had a great impact on the history of the West....