NEWS ROUNDUP

Ranchers disagree on split estates Such voluntary agreements between landowners and natural gas developers are common in Wyoming. But now, some landowners, conservationists and others are pushing the state Legislature to make such negotiations mandatory when it convenes next month. They say such a law is needed to give landowners more bargaining power in dealings where developers often hold the upper hand. Even in Montana, which has a similar law on the books, one group is hoping to strengthen surface owner rights by requiring that the two sides try to reach agreement on such things as road placement and efforts to minimize dust and other disturbances....
Builder Sues Forest Service Workers Under RICO Act But now Eliason, her husband, Scott, a Forest Service botanist, and their boss, San Bernardino National Forest Supervisor Gene Zimmerman, have had to hire their own attorney to defend them in a lawsuit accusing them of racketeering. San Diego businessman Irving Okovita, who filed the suit, alleges that the Eliasons, Zimmerman and Sandy Steers, a local environmental activist, engaged in a criminal conspiracy to block the Marina Point development, a luxury condominium project Okovita wants to develop with an Arizona company in this hamlet on the north shore of Big Bear Lake. Okovita sued under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a statute originally passed in 1970 to strengthen the government's arsenal against mobsters and drug lords....
Oregon's National Forests to announce job cuts Job cuts are in the works at two National Forests in Oregon. The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest is cutting 47 positions. That's about 15 percent of its staff. And Mount Hood National Forest is getting rid of 18 jobs. That's a reduction of about eight percent. More job cuts could be in the cards at other forests in the state. The Forest Service has been downsizing for a decade because of declining timber sales revenue....
Forest-fee foes lobby against Ohio congressman The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition announced Saturday that it is calling on its members and supporting organizations to oppose the selection of Congressman Ralph Regula (R-OH) as Chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee when the new Congress convenes in January. The Coalition is asking House leadership to bypass Congressman Regula and appoint either Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) or Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) to lead the Committee for the next six years. The move comes in response to Regula’s abuse of power in attaching a permanent public lands recreation fee program to the omnibus spending bill that was passed in a lame duck session of the outgoing Congress....
Records show Interior aide assisted endangered species challenge A series of e-mails and telephone calls related to two high-profile environmental decisions in California has prompted criticism that business interests may be gaining too much influence over the U.S. Interior Department. According to court records, Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald tried to change scientific recommendations related to protecting wetland species and endangered fish. In the first instance, the correspondence was between MacDonald, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service managers and the California Farm Bureau Federation in April. A month later, the federation used the information to back a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., seeking to overturn the service's decision continuing protection for the delta smelt....
Editorial: Saving the salmon THE 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition should be an occasion to restore the salmon runs that impressed and sustained the explorers when they reached the nation's Northwest. Instead, the Bush administration is acting to hinder recovery of many endangered salmon species. The State of Oregon and environmentalists should press their suit to compel the federal government to abide by the Endangered Species Act and protect the fish and their habitat. A major obstacle to salmon recovery is a system of four dams on the Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia. Oregon and the National Wildlife Federation have sued to get the federal government to take whatever steps are needed, including removal of the dams, to bring the salmon back. At the end of last month the administration ruled out dam removal as an option. This is a change from the position of the Clinton administration, which said dam removal should be considered....
Scrub jay stands in the way of woman's home Born with cerebral palsy, Lynde Mongiovi has had to battle her entire life. She worked hard to earn a master's degree in education. She worked hard to become a Brevard County school teacher. She worked hard to save money to buy a piece of land. And she worked hard to maintain an apartment that was wheelchair-accessible. Then came the hurricanes. She lost the apartment to a leaky roof and mold infestation. Now, she has one more battle to wage before she can settle down to the life she has always wanted. Her obstacle? A little bird. Mongiovi would like to build a home on the little lot she owns on Douglas Street in Palm Bay. But she can't because scrub jays — an endangered bird — sometimes inhabit that area....
Column: Case of the red-tailed hawks The story has all the elements of melodrama: a cruel landlord, a penniless family, eviction in midwinter. In the hypothetical case of 927 Fifth Avenue v. Pale Male, my sympathies lie with the defendant. Yet the case is not entirely one-sided, and judgment prudently should be withheld. According to The New York Times, the civil proceeding was initiated a year ago by the board of managers of a sumptuous co-op apartment at Fifth Avenue and East 74th Street. Among the complainant managers are Richard Cohen, a real estate developer, and his wife, the newscaster Paula Zahn. The defendants are Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk, and his current mate, Lola. If that fact prejudices you as a potential juror, one way or the other, you may be excused. Some people may not like hawks. For that matter, some people may not like newscasters. We should put such sentiments aside....
Yosemite rangers called overzealous in law enforcement Andre Vischer was frisked, handcuffed, read his rights and taken away by two rangers. Another ranger drove the couple's rental car while Margaret Vischer remained at the side of the road where a male ranger frisked her, handcuffed her and took her to Yosemite's small jail to spend the night. There she was fingerprinted, photographed, questioned and told to strip, shower and put on an orange jumpsuit. When she asked why she was being jailed even though her blood-alcohol level was under the legal limit and she was not driving, she said rangers told her they considered her a danger to herself and others. The next day, she was released without being charged....
Redskins owner skins slope of foliage Logs and tree limbs litter the steep slope behind the limestone and stucco Potomac, Md., mansion of Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. In the otherwise unbroken ribbon of forest separating his and other handsome estates from the old C&O Canal, there is suddenly a yawning gap. Last month, to the surprise of neighbors and conservation groups, Snyder hired workers to take chain saws to several acres of woodlands, giving him a panoramic view of the Potomac River from the $10 million home he purchased three years ago from Queen Noor, widow of Jordan's King Hussein....
West Nile loosens grip on grouse West Nile virus claimed a lighter toll on Wyoming's sage grouse this year, the Game and Fish Department said. Testing of dead grouse found this summer revealed that only two had died from the disease compared to 16 last year. Both of those testing positive for the mosquito-borne virus were found in the Powder River Basin, officials said Friday in a release. "The decline is good news, but it doesn't indicate any sort of trend," said Tom Christiansen, the agency's sage grouse coordinator. "If there is another bad mosquito year, there will likely be more sage grouse mortality."....
BLM approves exploratory methane drilling project Federal officials have approved another in a series of exploratory coal-bed methane projects to help determine whether large-scale development in south-central Wyoming is feasible. The Jolly Roger Pod project is one of nine drilling endeavors that will allow for about 200 wells in the Atlantic Rim area southwest of Rawlins, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said. Several operators want to drill up to 3,800 natural gas and coal-bed methane wells near the rim over the next several years....
A Year After Mad Cow, Ranchers Rejoice Sergio Madrigal watched in despair as federal officials hauled away his 449 calves to be killed after the nation's first case of mad cow disease was discovered in a nearby dairy cow. A year later, Madrigal looks out at his rebuilt herd and smiles just one of many signs that American ranchers suffered few long-term ill effects from the cow that ruined Christmas 2003. Beef prices are high, and so are spirits. "I'm at another level now," Madrigal said in Spanish through a translator, as he sat in his kitchen after tending his herd now numbered at more than 500 calves. But what a year it's been for the country's $44 billion cattle industry....
Pendleton wants its past designed into its future Remnants of the dance halls, opera houses, brothels and "secret society" meeting rooms of a century ago still occupy some of the vacant upper floors in downtown Pendleton's business district. But those floors could be transformed into glitzy professional offices and residential apartments by an urban renewal project that has residents in this old rodeo town puzzling about how to preserve the past while making way for the future. On any given day, visitors are as likely to see a rancher decked out in a Stetson and boots as an executive with a cell phone and briefcase. No one wants to get rid of the special ambiance that prompted True West Magazine to list Pendleton among the nation's "best Wild West towns" in its October edition....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Endangered list gone to dogs - prairie dogs The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced that the Black-Tailed Prairie Dog will be removed as a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act. It was one of those headlines that make one shake his head in wonder. It's like hearing George W. Bush announce that Hillary Rodham Clinton will be removed from consideration as the Republican candidate for vice president or comparing the Iraq prison scandal to the savagery of Saddam Hussein, or hearing, "Extensive studies show that more women than men burn their bras!" How much money has been spent, smoke created, and emperor's clothes stolen to reach this obvious prairie dog conclusion?....