NEWS ROUNDUP

U.S. to Pay $16 Million in Water Rights Case The Bush administration announced Tuesday that it has agreed to pay $16.7 million to a group of Central Valley farmers and irrigation districts whose water deliveries were cut to protect endangered fish. State officials had strongly urged the administration not to settle the farmers' claims, arguing that such a precedent could make it prohibitively expensive to protect endangered species. But the payment was immediately hailed as a significant victory by property rights advocates and critics of the Endangered Species Act. "This is a very strong precedent," said Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for the House Resources Committee, which is headed by one of the act's most vocal detractors, Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy). "This should really fire a shot across the bow of federal regulators, reminding them that their actions have consequences and their actions cost money." The U.S. Department of Justice settled the case despite widespread warnings that it would lead to a flood of similar claims. The California attorney general's office, the Schwarzenegger administration and attorneys for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration all wrote the Justice Department in the last year, asking the Bush administration to appeal a U.S. Court of Claims ruling in favor of the farmers....
Forest Service going ahead with plan to poison high Cascade lake The U.S. Forest Service has approved a plan to draw down Diamond Lake and poison small nonnative fish that have triggered massive algae blooms and hurt trout fishing. After years of study, Umpqua National Forest Supervisor Jim Caplan on Monday signed a record of decision, the last step in an environmental impact study examining the problem at the high Cascade Range resort lake east of Roseburg. The Forest Service, which manages the land where the 3,000-acre lake is located, and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which stocks the lake with trout, are splitting the estimated cost of about $3.5 million over the next three years, said Umpqua National Forest spokeswoman Sharon Johnson....
Boom: Logging begins anew Loaded log trucks headed to mills near and far ... Men in pickup trucks stacked with chain saws and fuel containers ... The sound of ringing cash registers ... In northern Klamath County, it's like the 1970s and '80s all over again. The industry that created the side-by-side communities of Gilchrist and Crescent and kept the region content for decades is undergoing a revival. Logging companies are scurrying to harvest timberland damaged by the 2003 Davis fire....
Judge upholds driving on beach A small, federally protected shorebird shouldn't stand in the way of beach driving at one of the most popular surf spots in Florida, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Court Judge Gregory A. Presnell ruled that the fact cars and trucks may bother the piping plover isn't enough to halt driving near Ponce de Leon Inlet, at the north end of New Smyrna Beach. During court arguments Dec. 15, the judge watched a pair of short videos showing the birds feeding on the wet sand, then running or flying away as vehicles approached. Godwin and Reynolds' attorney, Ross Burnaman, argued the harassment violates the Endangered Species Act. However, the judge, in his eight-page ruling, wrote that was not enough proof the birds would actually be harmed. "Apparently, vehicles interrupt the plovers' foraging and resting, but it is entirely unclear whether such interruptions cause any more than momentary inconvenience," he wrote....
Judge: Cutthroat trout may need protection Yellowstone cutthroat trout may need federal protection to ensure the species' survival, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Phillip S. Figa in Colorado said Friday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2001 illegally rejected a petition to designate the fish as threatened on the endangered species list. Saying there was "substantial evidence" that a federal listing may be warranted, Figa ordered the FWS to undertake a yearlong comprehensive review of the Yellowstone cutthroat and reconsider whether to apply federal protections. Environmental groups praised the decision not only for criticizing procedural steps taken by FWS but also for addressing "substantive" issues over the status of Yellowstone cutthroat....
Developer's hope for reimbursement falls short Jim Doyle will have to keep waiting for a check from the government. The Utah land developer once again came up short in his quest for legislation requiring the federal government to pay him for 1,550 acres the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared critical breeding grounds for endangered desert tortoises. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, sponsored legislation directing the Department of Interior to purchase Doyle's land. The measure cleared the Senate earlier this month on the evening before Congress adjourned for the year. But the tactic of attaching it and other Senate public lands bills to an unrelated measure that was headed for easy passage backfired, and the package died in the House....
Editorial: Richardson stands up to protect Otero Mesa Gov. Bill Richardson, who can hardly be called anti-development, has wisely and appropriately drawn a line in the sand on development of New Mexico's precious Otero Mesa - public land in which the public's interest and wishes are being compromised for private gain. Elsewhere - for example in the Owyhee Mountains of southeastern Idaho - various competing interests have been able to reach a consensus and compromise that protects large tracts of otherwise vulnerable public lands. To date, the federal government shows no such inclination regarding Otero, rejecting conservationists and Richardson's calls for more stringent environmental safeguards. Hence Richardson's threats earlier this month to put himself and Santa Fe squarely in the BLM's and the drilling industry's selfish ways, including using state permit and review powers to stop or stall the process....