NEWS ROUNDUP

Column: What Rules Are Needed to Keep the Wilderness Wild? The Wilderness Society, a strong critic of the unregulated use of off-road vehicles, says that the United States has at least 11 million of them and that 93 percent of the 262 million acres of Western land under the Bureau of Land Management is open to some form of off-road use. In Utah alone, the society says, 94 percent of the 22 million acres under the federal bureau's jurisdiction is open to vehicles ranging from dirt bikes to Jeeps. The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association says the United States has 130,000 miles of signed and maintained snowmobile trails. In places like the Florida Keys, where fragile reefs and fertile wetlands abound, water scooters are under increasing scrutiny for the damage they — or the access they provide — can cause. "Motorized recreation has outstripped the ability of agencies to manage it," said Rollin Sparrowe, president of the Wildlife Management Institute, whose members are professionals in the field. "And there's a whole new generation of people using the forest who have never used any other means of access but a machine."....Water sought to help Klamath River salmon Federal irrigation authorities are looking outside the Klamath Reclamation Project for farms and ranches willing to sell water to build up a water bank devoted to threatened salmon in the Klamath River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Klamath Falls is sending 300 applications to people interested in bidding on contracts to provide a total of 75,000 acre-feet of water, through wells or forgoing irrigation, said Gary Baker, special-projects officer for the bureau in Klamath Falls. The bureau is expanding the program it began last year to produce an extra 100,000 acre-feet of water for threatened coho in the Klamath River, as set by federal scientists under the Endangered Species Act. Most of the water will go to increasing springtime flows, when young salmon migrate to the ocean, said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken....Critics Say the Park Service Is Letting Religion and Politics Affect Its Policies To halt the removal of a cross placed in the Mojave National Preserve almost 70 years ago to commemorate World War I veterans, a Republican lawmaker from California has proposed swapping the land it sits on with a private group. The National Park Service recently ordered the return of plaques bearing biblical verses that had hung in Grand Canyon National Park for more than 30 years before they were taken down last summer. The Park Service also approved selling a book at the Grand Canyon that suggests the canyon was created in six days several thousand years ago. And here at the Lincoln Memorial, an eight-minute film that shows historical events at the memorial, including demonstrations for civil rights, abortion rights and gay rights, is being revised by the Park Service to add four minutes of more politically neutral events....Wyo seeks injunction on snowmobile phaseout The state has said it will appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia from a decision Dec. 16 by U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan of Washington rejecting a Bush administration plan to allow 1,350 snowmobiles a day in the parks and replacing it with the Clinton phaseout plan. "Next year, if we don't get anything done, we are facing a ban on snowmobiles," Jerde said. He said that in its appeal of the Sullivan decision, the state will ask for a change of venue to the 10th U.S. Circuit in Denver, which has jurisdiction over a snowmobile suit filed by the state in federal court in Wyoming. This suit, challenging the Clinton administration rules, was settled, but has been reopened by Brimmer at the state's request. "Our lawsuit was the first, and it's basically the same lawsuit," the assistant attorney general said. Besides, he said in response to questions of committee members, "We are more likely to get a ruling that we like out of the 10th Circuit than the D.C. circuit.".... Heliport plan concerns BLM Southwest Henderson residents aren't the only ones concerned about a plan to move sightseeing helicopters from McCarran International Airport to a new facility near Sloan. The federal Bureau of Land Management isn't crazy about the idea either, especially if it means low-altitude flights over the federally protected Sloan Canyon wilderness and its large collection of American Indian rock art....Editorial: Snowmobile firms can survive Snowmobile rental companies in West Yellowstone, Mont., say they're suffering economically, but their ire should be aimed at Bush administration officials who led them down the primrose path. The Bush team spent $2.4 million trying to ignore clear scientific evidence that recreational snowmobiles didn't belong in Yellowstone National Park. If the federal or Wyoming and Montana governments had spent a fraction of that sum promoting the many kinds of winter recreation available at towns surrounding the national park, the local economies would be thriving. Numerous studies have shown that snowmobiling harms Yellowstone's environment, so the Clinton administration planned to phase out the machines. The Bush administration nixed that plan on the pretext it needed more information. But the Bush administration's own studies confirmed what the Clinton-era research had found....Muddy Ridge lands ceded to feds century ago The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes are requesting that about 56,000 acres of excess federal lands within their Wind River Reservation be transferred back to the tribes as required by the federal excess property laws. In 1975, Congress enacted a law that states that excess federal land within a reservation shall be transferred in trust for the tribe. The act is not discretionary and was enacted to enhance economic benefits to the tribes. In 1976, as part of the new Federal Land Policy Management ACT (FLPMA) requirements, the BuRec began a review of withdrawn lands, including the acreage within Muddy Ridge, to determine the land's use and status. In 1990, the BuRec completed the review of the withdrawn lands in the Riverton Unit and identified approximately 56,296 acres of land surplus to the agency's needs within the unit....Artificial water holes awash in controversy Environmentalists are blocking a plan to improve artificial water holes that hunters and some biologists say are keeping bighorn sheep and other animals alive in the drought. In a fight being watched across the nation, sporting and green groups are locking horns in an age-old dispute: One side thinks big-game species need help from humans; the other describes water holes, often financed by hunters, as feel-good measures that are apt to do more harm than good....Judge dismisses fire suit Federal Judge Edward Shea on Friday dismissed a lawsuit asking for $108 million in damages caused when the 2000 Hanford wildfire swept off federal land. More than 100 parties sued the federal government, saying its fire prevention and firefighting efforts were lacking. But Shea found that the federal government had contracted out those services and could not be held legally responsible. Plaintiffs' attorneys had yet to meet with their clients Friday to discuss whether to appeal....Columbia oil spill stretches for 23 miles Oil containing a cancer-causing compound spilled from the transformer of a major dam into the Columbia River, killing fish and leaving a rainbow-hued streak 23 miles long. Officials were still uncertain Saturday how much oil had leaked from a frost-damaged transformer, but had set up a command center at The Dalles dam staffed by 50 local and state officials. Environmentalists are calling for an investigation, claiming the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did too little after the spill was first noticed on Thursday, while understating the amount of oil that leaked....Elks' winter ports in a storm Pushed down from the high mountains by the cold and blizzards, hundreds of Rocky Mountain elk are gathering daily at feeding sites along the base of the craggy Elkhorn Mountains in Northeast Oregon. About 1,500 elk and 500 deer are munching alfalfa hay at 10 Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife sites. That's more than double the number of elk the agency fed last year. The remote feeding sites are scattered along a 45-mile line in the 1,200-acre Elkhorn Wildlife Management Area, Migez said. Fish and Wildlife began developing winter feeding sites in the early 1970s after nearly three decades of conflict with ranchers weary of elk raids on their haystacks. The 10 feeding sites have been in operation since 1984 or 1985, he said....Editorial: Yucca goes to court Making their case before a judicial panel convened at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Wednesday, attorneys for Nevada argued the state had been unfairly singled out for the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository -- a plea which received a chilly reception, given that no one challenged Judge David Tatel's contention that the land is, in fact, "federal property." "This concerns the use of federal property in the state," said Judge Tatel. "When you are talking about federal property, it is not intuitive to consult the states." Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval had early on vowed an objection to that premise would be one of the tactics the state employed. So why did that premise apparently go unchallenged? An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is expected, regardless of Wednesday's result. But the opportunity to introduce a stronger case for Nevada's sovereignty over her own lands may just have gone a-glimmering....Column: Methane industry should listen to farmers Caskey and other out-of-state methane executives seem to think safeguards for our clean irrigation water and valuable aquifers are obstacles to development. They consider filling out the right paperwork a “hoop” and “hurdle,” but they only do that after they’ve been sued. For farmers, ranchers and others who rely on that same water for irrigation, stock and our homes, those safeguards are the key to making sure we can pass on our operations to our kids and grandkids. Legal opinion supports GF&P's private access policy A legal opinion from the state attorney general supports current practice of state conservation officers to enter private land without permission to check hunters and enforce wildlife laws. In an official opinion released Thursday, Attorney General Larry Long said conservation officers are not guilty of trespassing, nor do they violate constitutional provisions against "unreasonable searches and seizures," even though they enter the land without permission, a warrant or reasonable suspicion of a crime. The dispute over property rights surfaced in Harding County last fall when a rancher signed a trespass complaint against a GF&P officer. Long's office still hasn't determined whether to charge the conservation officer. Long's opinion likely strengthens the resolve of legislators and landowners who will push the Legislature to restrict GF&P authority....Rustlers may ride again on the Colorado plains Since the 1860s, when Colorado cattle baron John Iliff discovered it was more profitable selling beef to gold miners than panning for flakes himself, stockmen have been converting golden prairie grass into cash. Along with that movement came unscrupulous cowboys who sought shortcuts to riches and stole cattle grazing on the vast eastern range. Cattle theft can be more lucrative than burglary, and few thieves are ever caught. A house thief can get only a fraction of the value of a stolen television set at a pawn shop, but a cattle thief can get top market value for a calf, a mother cow or a bull at an auction barn, Gray said....Ranch horses compete on first day of Fort Worth livestock event Traditional horse events at the stock show feature animals specifically bred for show. Not the case for the ranching-horse competition, which premiered two years ago. "This type of event is very much geared toward ranching horses," said Bruce McCarty, horse show manager for the stock show. "These horses, they're not pampered very much. They work every day." Mr. McCarty said the Fort Worth stock show was one of the first in the nation to present such an event, and it has quickly become one of its most well-attended competitions. It's also one of the most difficult to enter. The event, which lasted more than six hours, requires too much time to allow more than 15 contestants. James Gholson of Guthrie, Okla., won the competition riding Pay One, who will be sold at the stock show today.... Life as a young cowgirl By age 12 Rosalee Barnhart Shirley was a real cowgirl. She could saddle her own horse, and for two fall seasons in the 1930s, a Dexter family paid her to herd cattle on their ranch. The year was 1935 when Shirley wrangled her first herd. Paying jobs were slim for a young girl. Shirley, now 81, jumped at the opportunity. In the 1930s ranchers hauled their livestock to market on boxcars, and the Missouri Pacific Railroad ran through the center of Dexter. Another year Shirley helped lead the cattle from the ranch to the railroad’s loading docks, just past Dexter’s old depot.... They rub horses the right way Equine massage therapists Jeanell Evans and Rebecca Wyatt rub away the aches and pains of their hoofed clients, but the treatments also benefit horse owners. Evans, 50, and Wyatt, 32, long-time family friends and Northwest Side residents, are certified equine message therapists, though both have other full-time jobs. Evans is a physical therapy technician and Wyatt is a veterinary technician. When treating a horse, Evans runs her hands over the animal looking for indentations, swelling, knots, tightness or tender spots that indicate problem areas. She applies between 3 and 8 pounds of pressure to the point to relieve the muscle stress. "We just use a light amount of pressure," Evans said. "It's not how much pressure you can put, it's where you put it. You don't use strength. You use knowledge." As part of treatment, the women stretch the animals' legs, and massage their gums too....Hollywood to break last taboo with gay cowboys Heath Ledger, star of A Knight's Tale, and Jake Gyllenhaal, best known from the arthouse hit Donnie Darko, are lined up to play star-crossed lovers in director Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, a frank portrayal of physical and emotional bonds between men. It is a story of two cowboys who spend a summer on the range in 1963. Under the open skies of Wyoming, the pair fall into a tempestuous love affair and forge a relationship that lasts the rest of their lives. Though major Hollywood stars such as Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas have played gay roles in the past, none has done so with such frank intimacy....Permissive society can have bite to it One of my favorite places to hunt squirrels for years was owned by an elderly gentleman who lived alone. I wouldn't say he talked a lot but he definitely didn't believe in letting silence hang in the air too long. His sentences were not limited by the normal laws of grammar but by the movement of the sun and moon. He wouldn't have known a period if it hit him in the face. His run-on sentences began at dawn and ended some time after he went to sleep....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Ski industry takes aim at NEPA reform It’s not every day senior White House officials visit the Colorado high country, but in mid-January, Horst Greczmiel, a top advisor on environmental policy, came to Copper Mountain Resort to participate in a regional roundtable on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The 30-year old federal law ensures that government officials consider environmental impacts when they make decisions affecting federal lands. Under NEPA, agencies like the U.S. Forest Service must try to include the public in the decision-making process from its earliest stages. The law also requires agencies to evaluate and disclose the potential impacts of proposed activities on federal lands, not only to the environment, but to cultural resources and local economies....Cause of fire still cloudy What caused the Grand Prix fire? So far, no one knows, not even the investigators. In fact, they haven't classified the fire that destroyed nearly 200 homes in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties as either an accident or arson....Lawsuit seeks snowmobile bridge removal A lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula Thursday to force the Flathead National Forest to remove a snowmobile bridge. The bridge was recently installed under a special use permit issued to the Flathead Snowmobile Association. The Swan View Coalition filed the lawsuit because it wants the bridge over Lost Johnny Creek in the northern Swan Mountains removed by March 15, when grizzly bears emerge from their dens after hibernation....With attention from sightings, environmentalists want plan to manage cougars Indigenous to the region before the arrival of European settlers, cougars and other predators were hunted and trapped in the 1800s and early 1900s to the point where they were listed as vanished from the state. Recent sightings have fueled a debate over whether the animals were wiped out. The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy wants to foster a cougar management program that ensures enough genetic diversity to support a small, sustainable population. But it also wants recognition of its argument that a potentially viable, breeding cougar population exists in the Upper and Lower peninsulas. The state Department of Natural Resources, however, says there’s no proof the animal makes Michigan its home....Salmon Advocates File Suit Seeking Basin-Wide Analysis: Biological Opinion violates ESA, groups say Conservation groups and Pacific Coast commercial fishermen filed suit today asking a federal judge to declare illegal a NOAA Fisheries' Biological Opinion (Bi-Op) governing the operation of Bureau of Reclamation irrigation projects in the Snake River basin. On behalf of Idaho Rivers United, American Rivers, National Wildlife Federation, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and Institute for Fisheries Resources (PCFFA/IFR), Earthjustice attorneys asked the court to order the fisheries agency to correct numerous errors in its analysis of the effects of these projects on endangered salmon and steelhead and develop a comprehensive plan to restore these fish....Federal government sued over cuts in vernal pools' protection Three environmental groups have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its decision to cut by more than half the number of acres it will protect for seasonal ponds that support 15 species of rare plants and tiny shrimp. The service's original 2002 proposal was to protect nearly 1.7 million acres of vernal pools in 36 counties. However, developers said the designation would hurt housing construction in the fast-growing Central Valley, while farmers said it would hurt agriculture and land prices. The service said in August it would instead designate 740,000 acres in 30 California counties and one in Oregon as "critical habitat" for the vernal pool species....Environmentalists win timber battle A federal magistrate has ruled in favor of four environmental groups that sued to block a timber sale near the Wild and Scenic section of the Rogue River. The summary finding by U.S. District Magistrate John P. Cooney in Medford asks the Bureau or Land Management to reconsider the Pickett Snake sale. He said the sale - completed in 2002 but held up in the courts since - violates the agency's Medford District resources management plan, as well as federal environmental law....Isleta pledges support to help minnow Isleta Pueblo Gov. Alvino Lucero stood beside the Rio Grande to say the pueblo was committed to helping restore the bosque and save the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. The pueblo on Wednesday became the 21st government entity or private organization to join the Middle Rio Grande Endangered Species Act Work Group, which seeks cooperative ways to ensure the minnow can survive despite the ongoing drought and competing human needs for water from the river....Environment Groups Assail Bush Record President George W. Bush has the worst environmental record in American history and shows no signs of changing his tune, environmentalists said Wednesday at a press briefing. The panel of experts from many of the nation's major environmental organizations said the administration is enacting a broad agenda to relax federal environmental laws and limit the ability of federal agencies to protect the nation's air, water and public lands....Court to Decide Golf Course Development Conservation groups asked a federal appeals court to halt a golf course and subdivision planned in northwestern Wyoming because the impact on bald eagles wasn't seriously considered. Canyon Club Inc. is building an 18-hole golf course and 71-home development along the Snake River 17 miles south of Jackson, Wyo....Biology teachers admit to taking skull, horns from park Two biology teachers at Brigham Young University-Idaho have been convicted of illegally taking a bighorn sheep skull and horns from Yellowstone National Park, the National Park Service announced Friday. On Jan. 7, U.S. Magistrate Stephen Cole ordered each of them to pay $1,750 in restitution, placed them on federal probation for three years and banned them from the park for two years....Hiring allies from Durham gets Chambers in hot water Among the issues that federal officials have cited in pushing to remove former Durham police Chief Teresa Chambers from her job as chief of the U.S. Park Police are several instances of misconduct involving the hiring of two former Durham allies for top positions at the national agency. A federal memorandum outlining the reasons she should be fired notes that the U.S. Office of Special Counsel -- an independent federal investigative agency -- has been probing "alleged prohibited personnel practices" in Chambers' hiring of former Durham City Councilwoman Pamela Blyth, former Durham police Maj. Dwight Pettiford, and Barry Beam, a former officer in Prince George's County, Md., where Chambers worked before coming to Durham. The three make up the core of Chambers' command circle: Pettiford and Beam are deputy chiefs, while Blyth is her special assistant....BLM loses in court: Judge says federal agency violated rules on advisors The Bureau of Land Management violated regulations it wrote to ensure a "fair membership balance" on Resource Advisory Councils in Colorado, according to a U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. The ruling overturns a U.S. District Court ruling and allows Sarah Peters and Joshua Houdek to continue litigation against the BLM. They allege the agency politicized the appointment process for advisory councils that are intended to provide a representative voice of the public on various public lands management issues.... Leaders focus on river, fire issues The director of the Bureau of Land Management pledged Thursday to include local government representatives in major decisions that affect the lower Deschutes River, including whether to require permits to float the popular stretch. The commitment came after a coalition of local government representatives objected to plans by the BLM, Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs to implement a limited permit system on part of the river beginning July 1, 2005....Mining ties of company hired to draft Steens plan draw fire The top Democrat on the U.S. House Resources Committee says the hiring of a company with mining industry ties to prepare a plan for Steens Mountain creates potential conflicts of interest "that cannot be brushed aside or quietly ignored." Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton to "take steps to ensure the integrity of the Steens planning effort."....Wyden asks for probe Sen. Ron Wyden asked for a federal investigation Friday into how the U.S. Bureau of Land Management chose a contractor with mining industry ties to help develop a management plan for public lands in southeastern Oregon. "This particular case raises such a serious perception of impropriety that it threatens to undermine the public's confidence in the protections accorded Steens Mountain," the Oregon Democrat wrote in a letter to the inspector general of the Department of Interior. Wyden's request is part of a growing amount of criticism from Democrats aimed at the Bush administration over BLM's hiring of Enviroscientists Inc. of Reno, Nev., for $670,000 to help write a new management plan for Steens Mountain and the Andrews Resource Area....Yengich hired to defend Kane County officials Kane County has hired a prominent criminal defense attorney to represent three county officials who are the subject of a federal grand-jury investigation. Ron Yengich was hired secretly in November to represent County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw, Sheriff Lamont Smith and roads superintendent Lou Pratt in a probe related to their removal of federally owned signs inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The probe centers on Habbeshaw, Smith and Pratt, who drove into the Grand Staircase-Escalante in early August and removed 31 "Carsonite" markers, thin signs used to delineate trails, roads and travel restrictions. All of the 31 markers indicated restrictions or prohibitions on off-highway vehicles. The officials say they removed the signs after concluding they infringed on county rights of way under a 19th-century law known as RS2477....Lynx from Canada arriving in Colorado It has been an excellent trapping season so far for lynx in Quebec, and the first animals have started arriving for release in Colorado. The state Division of Wildlife hopes that 50 lynx from Manitoba and British Columbia will join those from Quebec, raising the number known in the wilds of Colorado from 78 adults and 16 kittens to more than 150....Bill to ban slaughter of bison advances A proposal to ban the killing of Yellowstone National Park bison on any federal lands has picked up more than 40 sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is similar to a measure that attracted wide support in the House last year, failing by a fairly narrow margin of 190 to 210. I believe it was the first time most members of Congress were aware of the issue, Michael Scott, director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said of last year's floor debate and vote....Sequoia Plan Trims Timber Cutting The U.S. Forest Service has backed away from some controversial parts of its plan to manage the Giant Sequoia National Monument, but is still calling for extensive timber cutting in the southern Sierra preserve. A final management plan released Friday by the Forest Service projects about a third less logging in the monument than initially proposed in a much-criticized draft issued a year ago. It also drops plans to create gaps — essentially mini-clear cuts — in the sequoia groves, which the Forest Service had said were necessary to encourage sequoia reproduction....STATE RULES NO VACANCY IN UPSHUR COUNTY More than 4,600 acres of Upshur County land and minerals worth untold millions of dollars don't belong to the state, but to the people who owned them before finding themselves embroiled in the state's largest modern land dispute, the Texas land commissioner ruled Friday. Commissioner Jerry Patterson's ruling still leaves uncertainty as to the outcome of the dispute, because the attorney pushing the land vacancy claim said he hasn't consulted with his clients about whether to appeal the ruling. That's good news to more than 1,600 landowners who have worried for months that their holdings could be in jeopardy. Potentially thousands more have rights to mineral royalties in the oil-rich area. The monthslong dispute has embittered scores of retirees who depend on regular checks from oil companies....Left out West The West is listening. But is anybody out there talking? In just two weeks, a chunk of Western states, including New Mexico, will choose among the nine Democrats now running for their party's nomination for president. Not a region rich in delegates, the arid West is nevertheless loaded with big issues: Water scarcity, immigration, border trade, healthy forests and growth dominate headlines. But a variety of Western experts and activists say they're still waiting to hear the Democratic candidates devote themselves to regional matters....Column: Nuke route a funny way to think The preferred nuclear waste route selection made by the Department of Energy as announced on Dec. 23 is truly ludicrous in my way of thinking. Why would anyone build a 319-mile rail line, locking up 300,000 plus acres in lieu of 214 miles and a lot less open public land, just because the U.S. Air Force objected? The state of Nevada has objected to the Yucca Mountain Project from the beginning and no one seems to be listening to them, so why should the Air Force be any different?....The nation´s forest chief warns of four threats to our forests U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth told employees Friday how to help him rebuild trust in the agency as they set up a thinning program to reduce the threat of fire. I want people to be darned sure it´s a fuels treatment project and not a timber sale project cloaked up,” Bosworth said at the Idaho Environmental Forum. No longer, he said, does the agency consider timber cutting and road building its primary mission. The new threats to the nation´s forests are fuel buildup and fires, motorized recreation, the loss of open space and invasive alien species....U.S. Official Says WTO Backs United States Position on Softwood Lumber The World Trade Organization has upheld steep antidumping tariffs that the United States has imposed on softwood lumber imports from Canada, a U.S. trade official said Friday. The decision by a World Trade Organization dispute panel was received late Friday by the U.S. government, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has not yet been made public....Mexico promises substantial payment on water debt For the first time in a decade, Mexico has not only met but surpassed its obligation of Rio Grande water to the United States, Texas and federal officials said Friday. Since Oct. 1, Mexico has transferred 383,554 acre feet of water to the United States, said Sally Spener of the International Boundary and Water Commission. The commission oversees Rio Grande water accounts. Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico is obligated to transfer 350,000 acre feet of water a year over a five-year period. Mexico had fallen behind on its payments under the treaty over the past decade. U.S. officials say Mexico owes 1.3 million acre feet....Officer kills wrong big cat The mistaken shooting of a domestic cat is prompting Redlands police to issue binoculars to officers involved in the hunt for a mountain lion that is believed to have been menacing residential neighborhoods for at least 2½ years. "We've issued binoculars to help them identify ... the animal," Redlands Police Chief Jim Bueerman said Friday, a day after an officer killed the wrong animal. "It was a big cat, but it was still a house cat."....Brochure gives city folks the poop on country life: Transplants warned about farm fumes With the warning that "manure happens," a planned brochure will tell city dwellers what to expect if they decide to move to the country. Sure, "manure happens." Other stuff happens, too: noise from animals and farm machinery; blowing dust; mud; and farm work into the evening. And, of course, odor....Bullish on Cowtown Since its inception in the late 1800s, rodeo has galloped from impromptu bronc and steer busting contests on cattle drives to a sophisticated sport that is featured in upscale metropolitan venues. And no part of the show is bigger than bull riding. For the past decade, rodeo's headline event -- and its most dangerous -- has busted into a lucrative league of its own with high-profile cowboys, TV contracts and NASCAR-like following. For the first time in its 108-year history, the Stock Show Rodeo will capitalize on the sport's growth and feature Bulls Night Out, a one-night, one-shot event showcasing some of the best bull riders and nastiest bulls around....DRAWN TO THE WEST Wallace Simpson vividly painted the cowboy life -- branding, bucking broncos, a soft blue dawn greeting a cattle drive. Fort Worth embraced him, and the one-time cowboy became one of the city's best-known artists. Throughout the 1920s, the Star-Telegram featured his full-page color illustrations and smaller drawings....High-dollar horses elevate Ranch Rodeo to high art Several big-time ranches demonstrate their daily chores at the Stock Show's "Best of the West" Ranch Rodeo today. Real cowboys will rope and ride on their ranches' best horses. On Sunday we learn just how much money those horses are worth. It will be a staggering amount. Last year's champion ranch horse, a 10-year-old gray gelding from the Four Sixes Ranch in Guthrie, went for $40,000. These horses are geldings. They can't reproduce. What you buy is what you get and that's the end of it. Fifteen horses are in this invitational sale, and they'll be put to the test. Judges will watch the horses work cattle, slide to stops, roll back over their hip and change directions, drag a log and open a gate, then stand quietly in the middle of the arena when the rider drops the reins and walks away. Horse enthusiasts have come to admire ranch horses. And while not all the horses will bring tens of thousands of dollars, the average price in last year's sale was an amazing $13,600....On The Edge Of Common Sense: Diminutive dog proves to be a survivor Over the years, I've become accustomed to the incongruous sight of rugged ranching families with their weathered faces, rough hands, fearsome pickups and macho confidence, carrying a small dog. These petite pups look out of place amongst the bullying blue healers, busy border collies, exuberant shepherds, saddle horses, hay wagons, big tires and steel-shod hooves that make up the rancher's daily environment. They are like a corsage on a backhoe bucket....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Alaska Region begins national Forest Service pilot for performance accountability The Forest Service announced today that a Texas consulting firm had been hired to guide its Alaska Region as it begins a pilot program to shift to performance-based accountability. Weidner Consulting from Austin, Texas, has been retained to assist in forming a "Credibility through Accountability" system for the Region here. The Alaska Region performance accountability system will serve as the pilot in the Forest Service's national performance accountability system. The national system is being developed in response to the General Accounting Office and the Office of Management and Budget’s increased focus on greater accountability and customer-based results for federal agencies. The Forest Service presently uses a budget-driven accountability system....Forester says delays in logging could ruin wildfire salvage plan A leading expert on salvage logging says he doubts much of the charred timber from the 2002 Biscuit Fire in southern Oregon will ever be cut because decay has made recovering the trees uneconomical. Oregon State University forestry professor John Sessions had calculated that rapid salvage logging could earn enough to pay for both the costs of fighting the blaze and replanting hillsides. The Siskiyou National Forest used his analysis to boost its proposed cutting more than fivefold. But the federal process for mounting logging operations could take until the summer to complete. And Sessions told more than 150 people at a forum in Eugene this week that the burned timber deteriorates so quickly 40 percent will be worthless to sawmills by this summer.... SUV Owners of America Call on Attorney General Ashcroft To Take Action Against Escalating Domestic Eco-Terrorism Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America (SUVOA) today called on Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge to step up intelligence and federal enforcement action against The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a militant environmental group, that today defiantly took responsibility for destroying sport utility vehicles (SUVs) at a Santa Fe, NM Land Rover dealership, and U.S. Forest Service construction equipment. The group this week released a list claiming responsibility for 75 such acts of domestic terrorism and claimed responsibility for some 75 other domestic terrorist acts around the country. To date, SUVs have been destroyed at dealerships in California, Texas and Virginia, in addition to the latest incident in New Mexico. On its Web site, the group boasts of causing upward of $55 million in damages for acts of terrorism....Another contractor hired for horse roundup in Carson National Forest The U.S. Forest Service has hired another contractor to try to round up wild horses in the Carson National Forest. Officials hired Mount Taylor Mustangs on Monday. The contractor has 60 days to gather 30 wild horses in the Jarita Mesa Wild Horse Territory. Officials say the contractor plans to use salt as bait to lure the horses into pens set up where the horses frequent. The previous contractor failed to capture any horses before calling it quits earlier this month....Fire review’s omissions questioned U.S. Forest Service officials are considering reinserting some of the many pieces of information blacked out in the official report investigating the deaths of Idaho wildland firefighters Jeff Allen and Shane Heath in July. The 80-page report, issued by the Forest Service Monday, had all of the names of people involved and several blocks of text edited out (redacted) by federal Freedom of Information Act officials, who cited privacy concerns. The redactions make it almost impossible to tell who made which decisions that led to the deaths of Allen and Heath or to follow the narrative of the chain of events that led to the fatal accident July 22....Clock ticks on York transfer When York was founded 138 years ago, people weren't too particular about some of the property lines. Miners would stake their claims with definitions as vague as "running from the toe of the hillside to the toe of the other hillside," according to York resident and historian David Ray Olson. Mining claims often were of irregular sizes, and boundaries didn't necessarily abut. In addition, no one bothered to claim the property on which the cemetery was established in the 1860s — "who's going to claim a cemetery," Olson questioned rhetorically — or on the property where the first schoolhouse was erected. "The people who lived here then worried more about the value of the minerals; no one enforced boundaries," Olson noted. But after the formation of the United States Forest Service in 1905, and as houses were built and sold on those old mining claims, the boundaries took on more significance as the federal government took ownership of unclaimed lands in the area....Proposed trail restrictions create controversy The U.S. Forest Service appears to have stirred a hornet's nest with proposed restrictions on use of off-road vehicles, "but that's good," according to Rick Lint. Lint, ranger for the Calcasieu District of Kisatchie National Forest, said a gathering of forest users in the district office parking lot earlier in the week to "protest" the proposed rule was a positive response rather than a negative one. The group of about 60 hunters and sportsmen showed up at the urging of Robert "Boo" Maddox IV, who complained the rule would ban four-wheelers from the 184,000 acres in the Calcasieu District. Maddox has called a public meeting at his shop on Ward Road near Cotile Lake at 6 p.m. Saturday to discuss the proposed rule and to offer an organized response to the Forest Service before the public comment period is closed Jan. 30....Freudenthal blasts U.S. wolf decision Election-year politics in the Bush administration fueled a federal decision earlier this week to reject Wyoming's plan for managing wolves, Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Thursday. During a press conference, Freudenthal said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave conflicting feedback on Wyoming's proposal - first appearing to support it while it was being developed in the Legislature and then panning it on Tuesday. "They could have said last year that this statute was fundamentally flawed," the governor said. He said he believes the Bush administration ultimately turned down Wyoming's plan in an effort to shore up support on environmental issues as the 2004 election looms. "It is a case where they decided to listen to certain kinds of pro-wolf environmentalists more significantly than they listened to a Western interest like Wyoming," Freudenthal said. "The lash of federal servitude has fallen across our back and I don't like it."....Editorial: Wyoming stymies wolf delisting Federal rejection of Wyoming's plan means that federal rules will continue to apply for all three states — and that means the states will have no way to hold the wolf population down. Wyoming stockgrowers are urging the state to stand firm against the feds, and treat wolves as expendable predators rather than a wildlife resource to be maintained. We hope they change their minds. That would in their best interest — and in Montana and Idaho's best interest as well....Conservationists warn Corps about 2004 Missouri River Operations Conservationists served notice to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers yesterday that it must operate its Missouri River dams in accordance with a "Biological Opinion" issued in 2000 -- rather than an amended opinion issued in December of 2003 -- to avoid another lawsuit over its operations this summer. After reviewing the amended opinion, conservationists have concluded it would lead to continued decline of the Missouri's native fish and wildlife and therefore does not pass muster as a matter of law. The groups also believe the amendment is likely to prolong the dispute over management of the river than to resolve it....Column: When insects take priority Our school enrollment is spiking, we have numerous schools from elementary, middle schools and high schools all being planned to accommodate this increasing school enrollment. Yet our federal government puts education and the welfare of children below that of the welfare of an insect. In fact, it is worse than that. It is not the welfare of an insect that is in question. It is the welfare of the habitat that may be home to an insect someday. The Lake Elsinore Unified School District has the land, the plans approved and the money allocated to build the Ronald Reagan Elementary School. The only thing it doesn't have is the approval of Jane Hendron and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fish and Wildlife conducted a survey of the 13-acre site between Clinton Keith and Bundy Canyon roads, but found no endangered insects. Hendron said "We don't know if there's Quino butterfly on that site or not." "It's a question of having a greater workload than what we have staff available to do" she added. I guess that's what portable classrooms are for, to stuff children into portable classrooms because federal government employees are overworked. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service sure must have a very broad definition of habitat. Apparently habitat doesn't in fact have to actually house endangered species, it just has to look like it should and that is good enough for them and bad enough for the children. The children go into double sessions or overcrowded portable classrooms because the $15 million new school site looks like it might be habitat for insects....Ringling Brothers’ Circus Claims to Promote Conservation It may sound like an unusual pairing—protecting endangered species by putting them in the circus—but Ringling has become an actor in this new arena. In 1995, Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s corporate parent (which also owns the Disney on Ice and Siegfried and Roy shows), established the Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC), a $5 million, 200-acre Asian elephant breeding and research facility in Polk City, Florida. Since 1992, when Ringling began a breeding program, 15 elephants have been born, more than anywhere else in North America, including zoos....Pearce says forests must be thinned Regardless, real danger exists in the Lincoln National Forest, in the Sacramento Mountains of Otero County. To help address it, Pearce supported the Healthy Forests Act, passed in late 2003, which funds dense-forest cleanup, especially abutting communities. “We absolutely have to start thinning,” Pearce says, pointing out an equally large hurdle may be convincing bureaucratic decision makers to act. Wildfire is such a threat, he says, because “the fuel load has been building for years.” In the Lincoln, that is partly attributable to the Endangered Species Act. In 1993, the Mexican spotted owl was listed as endangered, virtually shutting down logging. Yet since “the last 20 years have been wet” years, he says, the danger was not as immediately evident as it has escalated to, in 2004. “The explosive elements (dryness, overgrowth) have been pulled together in this period, and our lifetime,” Pearce says....El Camino Real back on historic track U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio vowed Thursday to designate the oldest highway in Texas as a national historic trail, hoping to end an ordeal that has dragged on for more than five years. This time the designation would apply only to public lands and wherever private property owners consent. "As far as I know, no other trails bill has gone this far to protect private property rights," said Rodriguez, a Democrat. The last version of the bill passed the House in 2001, but failed in the Senate. Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who has voiced concerns in the past, will support the new bill as long as landowners can opt in or out, a spokesman said. "She's just trying to do it in a way that respects private property rights," said Kevin Schweers, in Hutchison's Washington office....Hoyer seeks probe into Park Service A congressman yesterday demanded that the Interior Department investigate "unauthorized leaks" that he said resulted in a report in The Washington Times about lapses in national security and the firing of U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers. U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House Democratic whip, said the so-called leaks were "unacceptable" and suggested that the story was printed to influence the outcome of an appeal by Chief Chambers to save her job....Transcript of Al Gore's Jan 15 Speech on Environment In a speech co-sponsored by MoveOn.org and Environment2004, former Vice President Al Gore issued a powerful indictment of the Bush administration's assault on the environment. Gore also criticized the administration's refusal to address global warming, linking the issue to U.S. national security. Gore said that the President is choosing to help his coal- and oil-company supporters rather than advance modern technologies that can affordably solve this critical problem....Bush administration sees ethanol, methanol as products of forest thinning The Bush administration said Thursday it hopes turning small trees and brush into ethanol, methanol and other energy products will eventually help pay for thinning national forests to reduce the danger of wildfire. Paying for thinning 28 million acres of Western forests considered at high risk for wildfire has been a problem, because the small trees and brush that need to be removed aren't big enough for traditional lumber. Thinning costs between $250 and $1,000 an acre. Many of the forests are too overstocked to use the cheapest method, prescribed fire, without removing small trees and brush first. Harvesting larger trees to pay for the work leads to lawsuits from conservationists....Pentagon Appeals to White House on Pollution Limits The Defense Department, having won exemptions from three major environmental laws in the last two years, now is seeking to be excused from three more. Requirements of the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act already do not apply to the Pentagon. Now it wants exemptions from the Clean Air Act and two toxic waste laws, which Congress has refused to grant in each of the past two years....Cattle tuberculosis found in Central Texas herd A herd of dairy cattle in Central Texas has tested positive for cattle tuberculosis, state officials said. The infection at a Hamilton County dairy is the first discovered through a statewide testing program launched in November, the Texas Animal Health Commission said in a Thursday statement. Officials are trying to determine how the herd was infected and if the infection has spread to other herds. Tuberculosis is highly contagious among cattle, causing abscesses and leading to death, but it cannot be spread to humans. All infected animals in a herd must be killed....Mutton bustin’ offers sheepish grins for all But Miller also deals in mutton — sheep riding for the little ones. That’s right — sheep riding. Otherwise known as mutton bustin’. Mutton bustin’ allows the youngsters to imitate the big boys on the big beef. Instead of a bull, they ride a 100-pound sheep. It’s kind of like T-ball for the bull riding crowd....Meyer, Freudenthal seek $1M for bucking bronc lawsuit Secretary of State Joe Meyer and Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked the Joint Appropriations Committee on Thursday to pony up $1 million so the state can sue a Texas organization for using Wyoming's trademarked bucking-horse-and-rider logo. The Texas Stampede, which stages concerts and professional rodeos to benefit children at two Dallas hospitals, filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office a few months ago for ownership of the logo. The Texas Stampede has been using a bucking horse and rider since its inception in 2001. While the Texas Stampede logo faces left instead of right, both symbols show a cowboy holding his hat overhead atop a bronc with its back arched and rear hooves lifted. "It's important because, in a sense, Wyoming's like any other business. You end up with marketing money invested in certain kinds of trademarks and identifiable logos," Freudenthal said before the meeting....

MAD COW NEWS

Man dies of CJD after growth treatment as a boy A father has died aged 33 of the human form of mad cow disease after being given hormones as a boy of nine to cure his stunted growth. The hormones were harvested from human corpses. It was not until Barry Metcalf was 22 that he was told they had come from a batch contaminated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. His condition was diagnosed at the beginning of last year and within 11 months he was dead....Senators Enzi and Daschle call for country-of-origin meat labels in wake of mad-cow case President Bush should use emergency regulations to direct the Agriculture Department to adopt country-of-origin meat labeling in the wake of the Washington state mad cow case, Sens. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., say. The senators requested the move Thursday in a letter to the president. The Washington case, which involved a cow born in Canada, "has cast an unfair shadow of uncertainty over the American food industry," the senators wrote. They want rules directing meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United States to be labeled as "100 percent U.S. beef.".... Consumer groups want more cattle testing Consumer and health groups asked Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Thursday to immediately increase testing of cattle for mad cow disease and establish a mandatory animal identification system for tracking cows and beef cattle. In a meeting with Veneman, the consumer groups said testing for mad cow should include animals as young as 20 months. USDA has said it would focus on animals 30 months and older since its long incubation period — four to five years — means mad cow typically doesn't show up in younger animals. But representatives from the advocacy groups that met with her Thursday — including the American Public Health Association, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Government Accountability Project and Public Citizen — complained the beef industry still has too great a role in the project....U.S. and Canadian officials to meet on mad cow and cattle ban Agriculture Minister Bob Speller says he expects to find out Friday how close U.S. officials are to agreeing to lift their ban on Canadian cattle. But Speller, who's scheduled to meet with both his American and Mexican counterparts, doesn't expect any exact date to emerge from the talks. "Hopefully what I'll get out of the meeting is a commitment to move forward on a process towards opening the border," said Speller. "We've moved lockstep on the science . . . We need that border open." The Canada-U.S. cattle market is highly integrated, with some seven million cows crossing the border in the last five years. Speller, who just returned from Japan and South Korea, said it's hard to sell them on taking Canadian beef products when Canada and the U.S. aren't buying each other's cattle....Mad cow hurting industry, ranchers tell lawmakers The widespread ban on U.S. beef exports because of the mad cow scare is beginning to hurt Colorado cattlemen. Officials with the Colorado Beef Council delivered the sobering news to state lawmakers today even as they said beef sales remain strong. Domestic demand for beef has remained strong enough to push live cattle prices back up to $82 per hundred pounds, said Bob Rolston, a cattle buyer for Maverick Ranch Natural Beef. Prices had been at about $90 last month but the discovery of mad cow sent them tumbling by about $20....FDA Places Six Canadian Feed Plants on Import Alert Since the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has placed six Canadian animal feed plants on "import alert" after finding prohibited meat material in its shipments, a spokeswoman said on Thursday. Canadian feed plants owned by Bunge Ltd., Louis Dreyfus, and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool were among those listed by the FDA that must test all feed shipments bound for the United States for traces of animal tissue, the FDA said....More talks eyed on beef import ban Japanese and U.S. farm chiefs agreed Thursday to hold further talks aimed at resuming Japanese imports of U.S. beef as soon as possible, beginning with Washington's plan to dispatch a negotiating team to Tokyo next week. Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman reached the agreement during telephone talks in the morning, Japanese government officials said. Details of the planned U.S. delegation were not unveiled, the officials said. After the talks, however, Kamei told reporters that it will be difficult for Japan to lift the import ban at an early date, saying the current U.S. measures to ensure the safety of beef products fall short of Japan's safety standards. In the talks, Kamei told Veneman that in order to lift the import ban, Japanese consumers must be reassured of the safety of U.S. beef. He also briefed her on Japan's safety measures, such as testing all cattle in the country for mad cow disease, and urged the U.S. to take similar steps, according to the officials....USDA quietly declares emergency in Washington state The U.S. Department of Agriculture has quietly declared an "extraordinary emergency" because of the discovery of a Holstein infected with mad cow disease in Washington state - a move that will give federal officials additional authority to quarantine herds and destroy cattle. Agriculture Department officials said the declaration will also make additional funding available for their ongoing investigation and to reimburse farmers for animals that have been destroyed. The declaration was published Monday in the Federal Register, a daily publication of all rules, regulations and notices issued by the federal government....Australian beef prices up 60 percent in Tokyo The United States supplied one third of Japan's beef, but since the discovery of a case of mad cow disease in America, Tokyo has stopped all US beef imports. Shops and restaurants are warning of serious beef shortages. The result has been a 60 per cent increase in the wholesale price of Australian beef, raising fears the soaring price will make the product less palatable in Australia's most valuable market....Italy reports two new cases of mad cow disease Two Italian cows from separate breeding farms in northern Italy have tested positive for mad cow disease - the first cases detected this year, the Health Ministry said Thursday. The country's total is now up to 117 cases, the ministry said. The disease was confirmed by testing done at a Turin zoological institute that serves as the national control centre for the disease. Italy detected its first case in 2001, after the European Union ordered mandatory tests on cattle older than 30 months destined for slaughter. Fifty cows tested positive in 2001, 36 in 2002, and 29 in 2003....Editorial: The Spider At The Center Of The Mad-Cow Web While Luddite intellectual guru Jeremy Rifkin has stayed on the sidelines of the recent mad-cow debate, three of his former employees -- Ronnie Cummins, John Stauber, and Howard Lyman -- have taken the lead in fanning the flames of panic. This trio of scaremongers has a long-standing, Rifkin-inspired "beef" with beef. For them, the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease was simply an opportunity to score PR victories on behalf of their anti-corporate, anti-technology, and animal-rights ideology. Along with his disciples, Rifkin seeks to impose his fringe politics on the dinner plate. He argues that "eating is the ultimate political act" -- taste, value and food safety be damned. Rifkin's campaign against steak and hamburgers began in 1992 with his book, Beyond Beef. He described beef as a "new form of human evil" and a "malevolent force in the world." He falsely blamed it for everything from hunger to global warming to spousal abuse, and even claimed that "a person is committing an evil act by growing feed for cattle or consuming a hamburger."....Mad cow as bioterrorism? Scientists worry that US gov't classification of BSE prions as 'select agents' could hinder research As public interest in bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) grows in the United States, strict controls on who is allowed to study could needlessly slow US research on the disease, contend some prion scientists. That's because as part of the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act that recently took effect, BSE prions are considered “select agents” that require special security arrangements, including background checks on anyone who may have access to this material in the lab. The measure, which calls for similar precautions on handling some 80 other select agents, is one of an increasing number of safeguards intended to keep potentially dangerous biological materials out of terrorist hands. However, the background checks and inspections necessary have slowed down certification of labs....UPI Exclusive: No mad cow tests in Wash. Federal agriculture officials did not test any commercial cattle for mad cow disease through the first seven months of 2003 in Washington state -- where the first U.S. case of the disease was detected last month -- according to records obtained by United Press International. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's records of mad cow screenings, conducted on 35,000 animals between 2001 to 2003, also reveal no animals were tested for the past two years at Vern's Moses Lake Meats, the Washington slaughterhouse where the mad cow case was first detected. In addition, no mad cow tests were conducted during the two-year period at any of the six federally registered slaughterhouses in Washington state. This includes Washington's biggest slaughterhouse, Washington Beef in Toppenish -- the 17th largest in the country, which slaughters 290,000 head per year -- and two facilities in Pasco that belong to Tyson, the largest beef slaughtering company in the United States....Big Beef’s Dirty War: Meat industry has resisted cleaning up its act for decades Nonetheless, in some ways the department has strikingly little power over the meat industry compared to that of other government agencies. If it discovers a batch of potentially dangerous meat, the agency cannot order it recalled from supermarket shelves the way, say, toys judged to be choking hazards can be ordered recalled. The USDA can only ask the companies involved to voluntarily recall their tainted product. Most such meat never comes back. According to an analysis of USDA data by the Detroit Free Press, from 1998 through 2000 nearly 109 million pounds of meat and meat products were recalled in the United States, but only 24 percent of that meat was ever recovered. Nor can the USDA even tell consumers which stores might have meat subject to recall sitting on their shelves. Such information is considered the meatpacking companies’ proprietary business information. That secrecy can extend to an appalling degree. In 1999, IBP, a major meatpacking company, recalled 10,000 pounds of ground beef because it was shot through with bits of glass; but neither the company nor the USDA would tell the public which stores had received the extra-crunchy beef....Cowgirls kick off 'Thanks Alberta' campaign The province's best-known cowgirls are tipping their hats to Albertans for their support during the current mad cow crisis. "It's incredible the support we've seen," said Erin Butters, who ranches with her family near Cochrane. Butters, 25, Lenore McLean of High River, and Patti Scott of Sundre were on hand in Calgary yesterday to kick off Alberta Beef's "Thanks Alberta" campaign. Under the program the cattle industry will send postcards to more than a million households in the province to thank consumers for buying beef....Mad cow hits ranchers: Scare has driven down selling price of certain cattle Van Haur sold 6-year-old mother cows in December for $600 each. Today, they'd bring $450 each or less. Using the calculator on his cell phone, he figures his feeder cattle at his uncle's lot in Nebraska that brought $1,100 in early December would sell for $950 to $970 today. He figures he's lucky. "The guys that held off selling until January for tax reasons are sweating," he said. The price swing hasn't hit the breeder cattle market. Van Haur bought a bull for breeding for $5,000 at the stock show, about what he would have paid in December....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Federal officials draft Canada lynx impact statement Federal officials have finished drafting a study that says how 18 national forest land-use plans in the northern Rockies, including the Bitterroot's, could be amended to protect the threatened Canada lynx. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management draft environmental impact statement for the Northern Rockies Lynx Amendment proposal differs from an earlier proposal, and includes changes in how officials could address some high-elevation timber thinning and winter recreation. The agencies' preferred alternative E includes proposed restrictions on pre-commercial thinning of timber in snowshoe hare habitat, but it makes exceptions for "fuel reduction" projects intended to reduce fire danger, said Jon Haber, a Forest Service project manager for the Northern Rockies Lynx Amendment in Missoula. Also a change from an earlier proposal is that while the agencies' preferred option would discourage any net increase in "over-the-snow trails" in lynx habitat, primarily new groomed trails used by snowmobiles and compacted on a regular basis, Haber said, it would not prohibit new ones....Sitka residents rally against roadless rule repeal About 100 demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Forest Service District Office on Wednesday morning to protest the Bush Administration's Dec. 23 decision to repeal the "roadless rule" on the Tongass National Forest. Holding blank signs and wearing white mouth gags to signify that opposition to the roadless rule repeal continues to go unheard, the protesters stood in the rain from about 7:30 to 8:15 a.m. as Forest Service employees arrived for work. Protesters held up a 15-foot banner that said, "Tongass BUSH-Whacked: Will of the People Ignored," and sang "This Land is Your Land" and "We Shall Overcome."....Florida black bear won't be listed as threatened species Florida black bears have been found sleeping in truck beds in rural Collier County, rummaging through garbage cans and wandering through Golden Gate Estates neighborhoods. But one place they won't be found is on the federal list of threatened or endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reaffirmed on Wednesday a 1998 decision to not list the Florida black bear as a threatened species. Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club and the Fund for Animals challenged the 1998 decision. In 2001, a federal judge ordered the agency to reconsider. The results were published Wednesday in the Federal Register....Fed changes worry bombing range neighbors Bonnie Rader fought the military for years to clean up unexploded ammunition at a former Air Force bombing range in Aurora. "Bombing ranges have so many surprises and it's usually the homeowner who gets the surprise," said Rader, who lives near the former Lowry Gunnery and Bombing Range. "Little people like me can not make a difference without the state and environmental laws to help us." After two years of intense negotiation and a lawsuit, the state forced the Defense Department to develop an extensive cleanup plan for the 59,000-acre site near the Aurora Reservoir in southeast Arapahoe County. States could lose the power to enforce such environmental agreements if Congress approves legislation requested by the Pentagon. The Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative would make military bases exempt from environmental laws that cover everything from hazardous waste, air quality and endangered species....Wyoming lawmakers say feds unclear on wolf plan Wyoming lawmakers say the federal government was vague on what was expected of the state during negotiations on removing wolves from federal protection, and they expressed surprise and hurt that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cited flaws in the state plan as a reason for suspending the process. Lawmakers said they got mixed messages from the agency last year as they drafted the proposal for how Wyoming would manage wolf populations after the feds stepped aside. They noted that Wyoming's plan recently passed muster with several wildlife experts and wolf biologists. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., said the federal government had indicated to him that Wyoming's plan was adequate. Gov. Dave Freudenthal added the decision was "based on little more than Potomac politics."....Valley farmers win in court over water loss In a major victory for California farmers, a federal judge has said the U.S. government must compensate a group of San Joaquin Valley growers for diverting some of their water to protect endangered fish. The ruling could tilt the balance between farmers and environmentalists in their endless battle over California's water supply -- and make federal officials hesitate to use the Endangered Species Act to take water from agriculture. "It makes the decision (to enforce the Endangered Species Act) harder because there's direct financial consequences up front," said Lester Snow, a Sacramento water consultant and former regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. "It's a sea change in the way they manage the Endangered Species Act." Under the ruling by Judge John Paul Wiese of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, a group of farmers in the San Joaquin Valley must be paid about $26 million for water they didn't receive during droughtlike conditions between 1992 and 1994. The court handles claims against the federal government. The case arose when federal officials invoked the Endangered Species Act to reduce the amount of water being pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the vast farming operations of the San Joaquin Valley. The action was taken to protect two species of fish, the chinook salmon and Delta smelt, which were getting sucked into the government's giant water pumps and killed in ever-increasing numbers....Park police chief alleges systematic harassment National Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers was harassed for at least a year as she tried to reform her agency, and was eventually put on administrative leave after she filed a formal complaint against her immediate supervisor, her attorneys said Wednesday. Lawyers for the embattled chief said she and her top deputies faced an increasingly hostile work environment during the past year that included the scattering of nails under the tires of their vehicles, placement of used condoms on and around vehicles, computer hacking, and the pepper-spraying of office doors....Rehberg invites judge on snowmobile trip Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., has invited the Washington, D.C., judge who overturned the Bush administration's snowmobile plan to take a snowmobile trip with him through Yellowstone National Park. In a letter Wednesday to Judge Emmet Sullivan, Rehberg said he hoped the trip would show that snowmobiles are a "legitimate" form of transportation in Yellowstone. The tour also would give Sullivan a chance to talk with park officials and business owners who depend on snowmobile business in the winter. "While I strongly disagree with your decision for its potentially devastating effect on the economies of nearby gateway communities, I would nonetheless like to invite you to join me in West Yellowstone sometime over the remaining winter months, and take a snowmobile tour of Yellowstone," Rehberg wrote in his letter to the judge....S.D. aerial hunting law concerns coyote hunters The state Game, Fish & Parks Commission wants to give aerial hunters a better shot at coyotes by opening more than a million acres of public land in western South Dakota to nongovernment gunners. That's good news to ranchers who suffer livestock losses to the pesky predators. "The more help we get, the better it is because we're getting overrun by coyotes right now," Harding County rancher and aerial hunter Jerry Janvrin said Wednesday. But some sport hunters worry that highly effective aerial hunting will spoil their sport and could threaten the safety of recreational hunters using public land....Cougar attacks rising in southern Oregon Cougar attacks are becoming more common in southern Oregon, leading to more loss of livestock and threats to humans, biologists said. Just this week, cougars mauled three ewes on Roger Thalacker's 15-acre ranch in Eagle Point, puncturing the throat of one of the animals. The dying ewe is the seventh victim of a cougar attack in the last two years. And last week, a cougar near Williams killed an ostrich and some ducks. Also, last Wednesday in rural Ashland, a man shot and killed a cougar that appeared not to fear people, according to state biologists. Biologists say the conflict between cougars and humans is here to stay. Utah claims Juab road, Right-of-way request is state's first on U.S. land A lonely two-lane highway that winds through Juab County's West Desert is the first claim by state officials for right of way through federally managed lands. Known as the Weiss Highway to those few who travel it, the paved road extends west from Nephi to the Nevada border, providing access to ranchers who are scattered through western Juab County, County Commissioner William Howarth said. The road has existed for decades, at one time leading to a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, and has long been used by miners, law enforcement officers and outdoor recreators. Howarth was on hand for a Wednesday afternoon news conference at the Utah headquarters of the Utah Bureau of Land Management, where Gov. Olene Walker formally submitted a claim for the Weiss Highway to the BLM. The state could potentially submit thousands of claims for right of way to roads under the RS 2477 statute during coming years, and many of those roads are needed travel routes that should be protected, Howarth said....Pilot program may pummel prairie dogs Limited poisoning of prairie dogs on federal grasslands south of Badlands National Park could resume soon in a pilot program to provide relief for ranchers whose land is being overrun by prairie dogs from the nearby federal land. The pilot program is still in the planning stages, but state and federal officials hope to have it together by about March 1, Bill Perry, Wall District ranger on the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, said Wednesday. Although Perry said the proposed pilot plan is not a "knee-jerk" reaction, his announcement comes after area ranchers complained in recent weeks to the Pennington County Commission that prairie dogs from federal lands were encroaching on their private ranches in Conata Basin, ruining rangeland for grazing....Illegal poison poses threat to other species Illegal poisoning of prairie dogs in Conata Basin may have killed some black-footed ferrets and is endangering other mammals and birds in the area, according to Bill Perry, Wall District ranger with Buffalo Gap National Grassland. The black-footed ferrets, reintroduced in Conata Basin in 1996, are doing well overall, but numbers fell by about one third in the area where illegal poison has been found on federal land east of the Conata Basin road, Perry said. "The rodenticide is killing the prairie dogs, and it is carried in their carcasses, and then it can kill any predators that eat the carcasses," Perry said.... Court Hears Arguments Over Nuclear Waste Dump Attorneys for the state of Nevada and environmental groups told a U.S. appellate court yesterday that federal agencies ignored science and law in deciding to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in a mountain outside Las Vegas. Taking up the Yucca Mountain dispute, which has raged for two decades, the panel of three judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard federal government lawyers argue that the decision to create the dump for waste from the nation's nuclear reactors was based on sound reasoning. Nevada officials consider the federal court one of their last hopes of stopping the $58 billion project, located in the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The panel is expected to issue its decision in late spring or summer, and attorneys on both sides said they would appeal to the full appellate court if they lose....Court Urged to Require EPA Role in Everglades Shift of Polluted Water A lawyer for an Everglades Indian tribe urged the Supreme Court yesterday to require South Florida's water managers to get federal approval before they shift water from the suburbs to protected wetlands, as the justices heard oral arguments in a case that could affect state water supply and flood-control practices across the nation. But Jeffrey P. Minear, a lawyer for the Justice Department, which supports the SFWMD, told the court that the pump is not covered by the Clean Water Act because it is merely moving polluted water around, not adding pollution to the water, and that "the costs would be very substantial" if permitting were required. The water district and its supporters -- which include not only the Bush administration, but also New York City and 11 western states -- say those costs would include a heavy new regulatory burden on states and cities that move vast amounts of agricultural and drinking water via aqueducts, pipes and reservoirs. The Indian tribe is backed by 14 states, mostly from the East, and by environmental groups....West Texas water export plan draws state scrutiny Thirsty cities far away from underground water supplies in West Texas make ranchers and El Paso community leaders nervous. The livelihood of rural Texas and El Paso's future water supply both could hinge on how state officials handle a private company's desires to export water from state land in far West Texas to distant communities. A Senate Select Committee on Water Policy will meet Feb. 3 in El Paso. The committee met for the first time Wednesday in an effort to refine state water policy that has been seven years in the making. Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is considering a plan by a consortium of Midland-based investors, who want to lease 355,000 acres of state land in Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties. The company, called Rio Nuevo Ltd., wants to export water from the land and sell it....New Test Scores Cattle Temperaments A livestock specialist at the University of Georgia has developed a scoring system that allows owners to assess the temperaments of cattle so they can breed calmer calves. Studies conducted in Australia, Colorado and elsewhere have shown that serene cattle gain weight faster and provide more tender meat than cranky cattle. Also, calves with poor dispositions can cause costly damage to equipment, fences and harm handlers, said Jerry Baker, a researcher at the university's Coastal Plain Experiment Station....Remaining cattle from brucellosis herd shipped to slaughter About 260 cattle from a western Wyoming ranch were sent to slaughter Wednesday, the latest step in federal and state efforts to prevent spread of brucellosis. "It wasn't the best," rancher Jerry Jensen said of his emotions in seeing the bulk of his family's herd leave in five cattle trucks. "I mean, you see four generations go down the road, and it wasn't our fault." All the family's breeding stock, including cows, bulls and 2-year-old heifers, were sent to a packing plant in Nebraska....Farm Bureau Cool On COOL At a final convention press conference Wednesday, American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman struggled to explain apparent contradictions in policies delegates adopted on country of origin labeling and trade. Farm Bureau wants a "pause" in the implementation of country of origin labeling for agricultural products, Stallman said. Yet, delegates passed a resolution Tuesday saying they still support "the concept" of COOL. That resolution also criticized the regulations the Bush Administration crafted for implementing COOL, saying the rules did not follow Congress' intent in writing the provision in the 2002 farm bill. The issue appears to remain contentious among Farm Bureau members and leaders.... Standard of the West for 125 years Watson is proud of the heritage he is charged with continuing. “How many companies come to mind that have reached this milestone?” Watson asked. “When Henry Ford introduced his Model T in 1909, Justin had been making boots for 30 years. When the Wright Brothers left the ground for a few historic moments, we had been making boots for 24 years. When the first shots were fired to signal the Oklahoma Land Rush, Justin had been in business for 10 years. I could go on and on. Justin Boots has not only survived, but thrived. There are great products out there that are just as old, but, in my opinion, no brand creates as much positive conversation or fond memories as the Justin brand.”....Jack Daniel rolling out a different kind of label Bull riding, cowboy boots and Jack Daniel's. The company that owns Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey believes all three go together, and it's rolling out its own brand of clothing to get its name out in the Wild West, or at least among people who identify with it. Trying to keep the cowboy connection alive, Brown-Forman sponsors Professional Bull Riders and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events. Jack Daniel's sponsors bull-riding brothers Cory and Evan Rasch on the pro circuit. Now it's rolling out woven printed and solid shirts, T-shirts, and polo shirts with the Jack Daniel's name, along with belt buckles, cowboy hats, wallets and watches....Colorado vet latest to use hyperbaric oxygen therapy Colorado veterinarian Kara Keesling became one of only three privately practicing veterinarians in the United States to use hyperbaric oxygen therapy on horses when she started using the technique on horse last fall. "Though still relatively new to equine veterinary medicine, [hyperbaric oxygen therapy] has been used successfully to treat a wide variety of condition in horses," Keesling said. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy gained a bit of spotlight last season when the treatment was used on undefeated two-year-old champion Vindication in his recovery from a strained suspensory. Keesling has been using the chamber at her Colorado Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center at Fossil Creek Veterinary Hospital in Fort Collins...

MAD COW NEWS

Mad cow center stage at stock show Stock show officials put together a symposium with Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colorado, and stock show President Pat Grant to sort the facts from fears. James Milligan, 50, of Kings, Illinois, raises Herefords and his family has been ranching on the same land since 1836. The stock show veteran, who hasn't sold any animals since the scare began, is also worried about falling cattle prices. "We got over a dollar a pound for the last batch we sold, now they're going for 80 cents a pound," he said. Milligan thinks the public understands there isn't a health risk at this point, and he hoped people recognize the infected animal was a dairy cow. "I wouldn't sell anything to anybody that I wouldn't eat myself," he said. "And I really think most producers are that way."....USDA Tracing Suspect Cattle From Canada When investigators went to the Alberta, Canada, farm of Wayne and Shirley Forsberg, the couple's remarkably simple records made it easy to prove they raised the Holstein that brought the first known case of mad cow disease into the United States. But investigators are having far more trouble finding the scores of other animals from the Forsberg ranch that came into the United States with the diseased cow. Three weeks after the infected animal's discovery at a Mabton, Wash., farm, officials have located only 14 of the 81 cows they are looking for....Beef back on menu at Jefferson County schools Last week, the district decided to pull four items out of school cafeterias because of concerns about mad cow disease. They were beef-combo burritos, taco chalupas, foot-long hot dogs and bologna. As of Wednesday, the district is putting those items back on menus, after reassurance from the distributors that the food is safe....Three Truckee restaurants served beef recalled because of mad cow concern Three restaurants in the Truckee portion of Nevada County received and served beef that was recalled because of possible contamination from mad cow disease, county Environmental Health Department announced today. Neither county nor state officials would name the three restaurants involved because the USDA will not allow local officials to release the information, county health officials said. The recalled beef was not distributed to retail outlets, such as grocery stores, the release said. All the beef had been served at the Truckee-area restaurants before the county or the places of businesses had been notified of the recall, state Department of Health Services confirmed today....Group criticizes public health leadership as piecemeal, haphazard When Trust for America's Health complained in August 2003 that federal efforts to prevent and control animal-borne illness were lacking, mad-cow disease hadn't yet been discovered in the United States. Now that bovine spongiform encephalopathy has been found, anxiety about whether to let our kids eat a McDonald's hamburger has added a new urgency to the trust's mission. The organization, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group founded to raise the profile of public health matters, charges that the federal government and Congress have allowed the growing problem of animal-borne illness to be addressed in a diffuse and, therefore, needlessly haphazard way. "No one's truly in charge, and it leaves you at risk," said Shelley A. Hearne, the group's executive director. The trust's August report calculates that more than 200 government offices and programs have a hand in responding to the animal-borne diseases that have been making the news in the past few months....Canada blocks meat-hauling trucks because of mad cow fears Canadian customs officials have refused to let a Bozeman company’s trucks cross its border to reach Alaska since mad cow disease was found in Washington state last month, owner Paul Lambert said Tuesday. The ban on Northern Routes Transportation’s trucks makes no sense, Lambert said, because they travel to Alaska on a “through-transit” permit. That means they’re bonded and sealed at the border and can’t be opened until they reach Alaska unless a Canadian customs official is present. The ban is costing the company thousands of dollars, Lambert said....USDA overhauls meat inspection rules The disconnect between the two Agriculture Department agencies responsible for safety of the food supply is how meat from a Holstein cow in Washington State potentially ended up on dinner tables in six states before federal regulators discovered the cow had been infected with the disease commonly known as "mad cow disease." Under new rules established by the Agriculture Department that went into effect Monday, meat inspectors can no longer mark carcasses as having passed inspection while they are undergoing testing for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE); carcasses can now be marked as inspected only after negative test results are received. Before Monday, carcasses selected for testing were marked by inspectors as "inspected," and would likely have entered the food chain by the time test results were received....Another herd quarantined due to mad cow link-USDA Another dairy herd in Washington state was quarantined after at least one animal was linked to a Holstein cow infected with mad cow disease, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday. USDA said at least one herdmate of the infected cow was sent to a dairy facility in Quincy, Washington. "USDA believes that as many as seven animals may have been sent to this facility," it said in a statement. "We are working to confirm how many may remain at this facility."....Editorial: 'Alternative' Food Market? Fake Food Scares! In this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, organic-farming cheerleader Michael Pollan declared: "For several years now, an alternative, postindustrial food chain has been taking shape, its growth fueled by one 'food scare' after another: Alar, G.M.O.'s [sic], rBGH, E. coli 0157:H7; now B.S.E." This, for Pollan, is a good thing. Never mind that the Alar scare, which devastated apple farmers, was an utter fabrication staged to raise money for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Forget that biotech crops (GMOs) pose zero risk to human health, that milk from cows given the "recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone" (rBGH) is indistinguishable from conventional milk, that Americans are more likely to get E. coli food poisoning from eating organic produce, and that -- as Pollan himself admits -- the risk of getting mad cow disease "may be vanishingly small." Michael Pollan never denies that our modern food system is the safest in the world. He simply doesn't care. Instead, Pollan wants readers to share his feelings about the way food is produced. It's just "nauseating," "gross," and "disgusting," according to this eminent writer. Go organic, Pollan insists. Embrace the "countercuisine." It's less "gross." Of course, Pollan's knack for making the most innocuous agricultural practice seem "disgusting" is never applied to organic food. He knows that readers are less likely to embrace the "alternative food chain" when they know their bean sprouts are grown in manure (what we might call the "ick" in organic)....Mad cow import bans get Canadian goats Bans on Canadian animal exports because of mad cow disease are having a devastating impact on a small but specialized sector of the market -- farmers who sell goats for use in traditional Muslim holiday feasts. U.S. importers and retailers said on Wednesday that prices were rising steeply ahead of the early February Eid al-Adha celebration that concludes the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. "I will not have enough goats for the festival," said Taher Mayar, owner of Mayar Halal Meat in California. "And the people will not be able to buy one because of the high price." Live goats from Canada are included in an American import ban on ruminants that followed the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in Alberta last May.... JAPAN: McDonald's to give away hamburgers in wake of US BSE case Panicking over yet another BSE crisis, this time in the wake of the mad cow discovery in the US in December, McDonald's Co. Japan said it would be giving away ten million hamburgers to customers this Sunday. Code-named ‘Mac Hamburger Day,’ the Japanese franchise said it will hand out coupons for its burgers with purchases in a bid to assure customers of the safety of its beef supplies. For years the company has trumpeted that its beef comes from non-tainted Australian supplies only and not American or domestic beef that was hit by Japan’s own BSE outbreak two years ago. However, sales have decreased dramatically at the outset of each outbreak....Beef sales up despite mad cow Wholesalers bought the third-largest amount of beef in a one-week period since 1990 as consumer demand for U.S. beef remains strong three weeks after a dairy cow on a ranch in Washington state was found to have mad cow disease. The beef wholesalers purchased 21.7 million pounds of beef, destined for retailers and food service operators, according to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, a trade group in Centennial, Colo. The association said Tuesday that the figure is 42.6 percent greater than shipments during the week ended Oct. 31, 2003,which was considered a good week, said Michelle Peterson, a spokeswoman....Editorial: 'Unfair' bans on U.S. beef mirror actions taken here In a campaign to lift the bans, the U.S. government says it has taken adequate steps to ensure that the one mad cow case remains an isolated incident. However its arguments are undercut by its own history of banning other countries' beef at the first appearance of the disease, then retaining the bans even in the face of far tougher steps than the U.S. has taken so far. Japan's beef, for example, is still banned in spite of the world's most rigorous testing. Such actions open the U.S. to charges of hypocrisy and invite a similarly arbitrary response from trading partners now that the U.S. is suffering its own mad cow problem. Moreover, they beg the most important question: What level of scrutiny is needed to adequately protect consumers, regardless of where their meat comes from?....