NEWS ROUNDUP

U.S. Panel Recommends No Protection for Grouse Amid an intense lobbying effort by energy and ranching interests in the West, a team of Interior Department biologists has recommended that the sage grouse, a bird whose sagebrush territory has been vastly reduced by farming and development, is not threatened with extinction and does not for the moment need to be protected under the Endangered Species Act. Craig Manson, the assistant Interior secretary in charge of the Fish and Wildlife Service, gave word of the recommendation on Thursday to Representative Richard W. Pombo of California, the chairman of the House Committee on Resources and a fierce critic of the Endangered Species Act, Mr. Pombo's press secretary, Brian Kennedy, said. Steve Williams, the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, must make the final decision about whether to put the bird on the endangered list by Dec. 29....
Lawmakers scrutinize wildlife plan Gov. Dave Freudenthal's proposal to create a wildlife trust fund with an initial $75 million endowment was left largely intact by a legislative committee this week. However, members of the Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee did not decide whether to sponsor the "Wildlife and Natural Resource Funding Act" as a bill in the 2005 legislative session. The bill would establish a permanent account, and only the earnings from the investment of the corpus could be spent on wildlife and habitat-related projects. Funding for projects would be dispersed through a grant process....
Suit fights roads in bear country Environmental groups on Thursday sued the federal government over decisions allowing roads to be maintained in grizzly bear habitat in Western Montana and portions of Idaho and Washington. The groups say the estimated 40 or so grizzly bears in the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak mountains are already struggling to survive and that the existing road network contributes to poaching and mistaken killing of grizzlies, which have been under federal protection since 1975. The lawsuit challenges decisions by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2001 and 2004. The decisions, according to the lawsuit, would allow more than 20,000 miles of roads to be maintained in the Kootenai, Lolo, Idaho Panhandle and Colville national forests....
Feds agree to consider Endangered Species Act protection for lamprey The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to review whether four species of lamprey found on the West Coast should be protected by the Endangered Species Act. Under the settlement of a lawsuit filed earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Portland, the agency agreed to make an initial decision by Dec. 20 on whether a yearlong review should be done on the status of Pacific lamprey, river lamprey, western brook lamprey and kern brook lamprey. "Lamprey have declined dramatically and need the safety net of the Endangered Species Act to survive," said Joseph Vaile of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center....
Study says costs for endangered shrew to run into hundreds of thousands The federal government estimates it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to set aside land for an endangered shrew that makes it home in Kern County. A study by the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service says managing land as critical habitat for the Buena Vista Lake shrew will cost somewhere between a little less than 500-hundred thousand dollars to nearly one (m) million dollars. The study also says local government and landowners will have to pay a portion of that cost -- estimated to be about 50-thousand dollars a year....
Governors may push to alter U.S. law Emboldened by their strong showing at the polls, conservatives are mounting an effort to change a federal law that has annoyed them for more than 30 years: the Endangered Species Act. Key players in the coming congressional battle will gather in San Diego today for a two-day conference sponsored by the Western Governors' Association to rehearse their rhetoric, assess one another's weaknesses and recruit allies. The association includes 18 governors – 12 Republicans and six Democrats. The big game trophy either side would love to hang on their wall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will make an appearance. The governor, who has yet to state his position on the landmark federal law enacted in 1973, isn't ready to bestow his formidable endorsement either way....
N.J. Supreme Court calls off bear hunt The state Supreme Court yesterday called a halt to New Jersey's black bear hunt next week, saying the state lacks a comprehensive policy to determine whether a hunt is needed to control the bear population. The court ordered that the hunt be called off until such a policy is adopted by the state Fish and Game Council and approved by state Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell. The decision puts to rest a dispute between Campbell and the council, which approved the seven-day hunt over Campbell's objections....
Native American Small Businesses Can Benefit from Healthy Forests Intiative A full year has passed since the Healthy Forests Initiative was signed into law, and now Native American small businesses have the opportunity to help protect people, communities and the environment. According to a press release from the SBA, nearly 50 percent of all forest fire fighters in the U.S. are Native American. Participation in forest restoration contracts would provide those firefighters with year-round employment through planned burns, forest thinning and restoration projects....
Changes in Bison Range Deal--Signing Delayed The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) are proposing changes to their agreement with the U.S. Department of Interior to turn half of the National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge in Montana over to the tribe, according to a memo released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The changes are intended to quell concerns that have been raised by employees, conservationists and neighbors of the refuge. A signing ceremony for the agreement, reportedly slated for this week, has been postponed a second time to work out even more amendments to the deal....
Locals lash Tallgrass park Many local residents don't expect much from a new group of Kansans out to rescue the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. In fact, they're just plain tired of the whole thing. Since it opened eight years ago in the heart of the Flint Hills, the preserve has not been a good neighbor, they said. Some call it a symbol of economic failure. Initial expectations that a boom would result from hundreds of thousands of tourists visiting the former Z Bar Ranch never happened. Some blame the park for driving away at least one wind-energy farm that would have brought the county money, although state officials said wind energy was part of a much larger issue....
BLM may retreat from oil, gas leasing plans The next federal oil and gas lease auction in Utah will offer more than 112,000 acres of land for drilling, including parcels within a stone's throw of Hovenweep National Monument on the Utah-Colorado border. Archeologists, conservation groups and a former park ranger are protesting, and the Bureau of Land Management said Thursday it may revise the list of parcels that go up for lease next week. The monument protects five prehistoric villages of multistory towers across 20 miles of mesa tops and canyons....
Burns defends provision allowing BLM to sell wild horses An amendment to the federal spending bill that would allow the Bureau of Land Management to sell wild horses and burros won't mean a wholesale slaughter of the herds, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said Thursday. He said he believes that most horses would end up with private owners, not at slaughterhouses. A story on CBS News Wednesday night ignited a firestorm of protest from animal rights activists and horse lovers around the country who say the amendment will doom thousands of animals....
Grass Bank urges ranchers to apply The Heart Mountain Ranch grass bank - operated by The Nature Conservancy - is encouraging conservation-minded cattle owners to apply for the 2005 season. "We're interested in conservation benefits on private as well as public land," said grass bank project director Maria Sonett. She, along with Skip Eastman, run the Powell grass bank. One of five or so operating grass banks in the United States, Heart Mountain Ranch employs short-duration, high-intensity grazing in which cows eat off a pasture for four or five days, then move to another one. The 600-acre grass bank can feed as many as 3,024 animal units per month (AUM) this year, Sonett said. An animal unit is a cow/calf pair. For $15 per AUM, ranchers can participate in the grazing season that runs from mid-May to late September/early October....
US Says No Plans to Sign New Climate Change Pacts The United States, considered an environmental laggard by its critics, is unlikely to sign any new pacts on climate change at a key environmental meeting this month, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Signatories to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change will meet between Dec. 6-17 in Buenos Aires, where many environmentalists hope new far-reaching targets will be made....
Local Rancher Finds Four Cattle Shot at Close Range A local rancher found four of his cattle shot with a double ought buck. Three of the cows are dead and one is struggling to make it. The rancher doesn’t know who shot his cows, but he’s in the Eastern Idaho Grazer’s Association and they’re offering a $3,000 reward to find out. Gary Pratt and his son were trailing cows in the Wolverine area east of Blackfoot when they found some of their herd dead....
Jackson Hole herd headed for slaughter after brucellosis detection Some 550 cattle - a mix of Hereford and Angus Heifers, cows and bulls - are being shipped to slaughter after four of the animals tested positive for brucellosis. The slaughter process, which began Wednesday, ends an era in Jackson Hole ranching, wiping out the Porter family's registered cattle bloodline and casting doubt on the future of the 822-acre ranch, which has been the focus of numerous development plans. But the alternative for the families running the ranch was a year of extensive testing and quarantine. About 200 heifer calves, 6 to 7 months old, will be spared by being spayed and sold to a rancher in Sublette County. Once spayed, the calves do not pose a danger, according to Bret Combs, a veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service....
Rodeo cowboy For a guy who helped raise such a rebel, Lon Timberman's boy turned out to be a fine young man. Six years ago, Kelly Timberman got on his first bareback bronc. Then he had to go home and tell dad what he'd done. Kelly's justification went something like this....
Brazile out to cap an already good year By most standards, Trevor Brazile had a pretty good rodeo year. The Decatur, Texas cowboy has already won $197,396 for 2004 and is well on his way to a third straight world all-around title. He is the only two-event qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo and carries a healthy $59,366 lead over Blair Burk, of Durant, Okla., in the all-around race. Brazile is also eighth in the world tie-down roping standings and 15th among team roping headers. He will rope with Wayne Folmer, of Justin, Texas....