NEWS ROUNDUP
Mountain lion enters home on Ute Pass Jim Nicholas was taking a nap Saturday afternoon when his wife, Natalie, rushed into the bedroom, screaming that there was a mountain lion in their home on Ute Pass - possibly attracted there by the couple's toddler, Trevor, who was crying himself to sleep. He looked out the upstairs bedroom window and saw half the tail of the mountain lion sticking out the front door. The cat took one of his wife's sandals and retreated to the top of the hill where it proceeded to chew on it. Later that evening and just down the hill, Christy Sterling was throwing a stick for a dog she was taking care of when a mountain lion - most likely the same one that entered Nicholas' home - jumped over the split rail fence and attacked the dog....
Thinning out the forest In the mountains of Southern California, it's the new sound of summer: the whine of a chain saw followed by the whoosh and thud of a falling tree. Logging crews are moving through neighborhoods and across densely forested hillsides, racing to cut as many dead and dying trees as they can before the area erupts in flames. It's a battle no one expects to win this year -- and perhaps not anytime soon....
Target Shooting Sparked Nevada Wildfire Fire officials may impose restrictions on target shooters in this gun-friendly state for the first time after a man with a rifle admitted he started a wildfire that destroyed six houses south of Reno. Local, state and federal officials said gun enthusiasts who have been free to target practice in Nevada could be limited to designated sites because of the intense fire danger created by drought and heat....
Bear baiting -- which rules rule? Hunters using baits for black bear may have put the animal in the crossfire of two public agencies working to prevent bear confrontations with people. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and the U.S. Forest Service in Wyoming seem to have different goals when managing black bears. Game and Fish allows hunters to set baits for bears, while the Forest Service works to get people to store food so as not to attract bears....
Draft policy on hatchery salmon flawed, scientists say The proposed new federal policy for salmon hatcheries is based on a flawed reading of the Endangered Species Act, hindering efforts to restore wild salmon runs with hatchery fish, scientists say. "The overarching problem is that the ESA is being administered as a fisheries management policy, not as a statute to protect endangered species," a group of scientists said in a letter to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. The scientists were formally commenting on a new federal policy for salmon hatcheries that was prompted by a 2001 federal court ruling giving hatchery fish the same protection as wild fish. The public comment period on the draft policy has been extended to Oct. 22 to include a series of public hearings....
TinkleGate is over; gulag security's not HAVE YOU heard the big news down at Independence National Historical Park? TinkleGate is over! For those who missed it, TinkleGate began Aug. 9, when a 3-year-old child, who had just exited the Liberty Bell Center, had an overwhelming urge to pee. His mom, Barbara Wells, tried to re-enter the center to use the restroom - not realizing the center has no bathrooms - but the security procedures don't allow re-entry unless you get re-screened by metal detectors near the main entrance. So Wells allowed her kid, who was about to explode, to relieve himself in an area between a flower bed and a wall. A park ranger slapped Wells with a $75 ticket for "disposing of human waste in a developed area."....
Grand jury indicts man over ATV incident A federal grand jury has indicted a man in connection with an alleged assault on a Bureau of Land Management ranger. The indictment alleges that Tom Lyn Callen, 19, of Hollister "did forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede and interfere" with BLM ranger Zachary Oper July 3 at the Big Sand Bay recreation area at Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir. At the time of the alleged incident, Callen was also committing another, uncharged offense of operating a motor vehicle in an unauthorized area, the indictment says....
Seeing monumental acceptance When former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt designated five new national monuments in Arizona four years ago, the howls of rural Republicans could be heard all the way to Washington. The Bush administration, saying that the locals had been left out of the decision-making process, threatened to overturn what former President Clinton had signed into law only a few weeks before. But Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke, who was in Flagstaff this week for her first visit to the Vermilion Cliffs and Grand Canyon-Parashant monuments north of the Grand Canyon, now says the specially designated lands enjoy wide approval throughout the federal government....
History kept alive by BLM photographs Ever wonder how a wild horse looks up close in its natural habitat, or what an old gold mine looked like at its dusty ground-breaking? In response to the public's demand for more information about the land it controls, the Bureau of Land Management has made more than 2,500 historical photographs available to the public, including 128 of Nevada's vast landscape. Now anyone can browse through a rich photographic history of United States land - with some photos dating back more than a century - on the BLM's new database in the BLM's digital photo library at www.photos.blm.gov....
NMOGA president supports ‘good neighbor practices’ Oil and gas producers who will not be “good neighbors” with nonroyalty or nonworking interests run the risk of having the government force them to be, the head of an industry lobbying group said. Producers must operate above and beyond what’s mandated by law, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association President Bob Gallagher told a meeting of the area chapter of the Natural Gas Producers Association on Thursday....
CBM water treatment is called affordable A study issued Thursday shows that injecting coalbed methane wastewater back into the ground or treating it are both practical and affordable options. The report released by the Northern Plains Resource Council is the first peer-reviewed technical analysis of solutions for managing coalbed methane wastewater, the group said....
U.S. Illegally Dried River, Judge Rules In a major decision that could affect farming and development in the state's vast middle, a federal judge ruled Friday that the U.S. government has illegally dried up California's second-biggest river, the San Joaquin, by diverting most of its flow to agriculture. Siding with environmentalists in a 16-year-old lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that for more than 50 years the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has violated state and federal laws protecting fisheries by operating the river as an irrigation canal for farming....
Calif. Revives Marine Sanctuary Proposal State wildlife officials announced plans Friday to revive a program to create marine reserves along California's 1,100-mile coast. The program would set up restricted fishing zones expected to serve as models for protecting ocean habitat. Plans for the state-mandated network were shelved eight months ago because of budget woes. State agencies have now secured $2 million from private donors and $500,000 in state funding....
Fate conspired against Nevada's largest ranch When O.K. Reed purchased the Hawes Canyon Ranch in 1906, it came with several water holes on the west side of the Kawich Mountains, about 40 miles east of Tonopah. The ranch served as the nucleus for the development of the United Cattle and Packing Co.'s spread. With hard work, careful investment of funds and no doubt more than a little luck, the ranch grew to staggering proportions. Water was the key to ranching development and success in south-central Nevada. Without developed water cattle ranching is impossible. (Only a very small outfit located near permanent springs and seasonal streams running off the high mountains could manage without developed water.) To create a large ranching operation, a rancher must lay pipelines from springs and streams in the mountains out into the valleys and must dig wells to provide water in areas that lack springs and are too distant for pipelines to be laid. At first, O.K. and Ed Reed dug water wells by hand, some as deep as 100 feet....
Tackling Block Ranch Even in the shade of the big cedars nearby, it's hot work pulling the gateposts of the old cow trap from the ground. Spence Miller and Bart Shipman of the National Ranching Heritage Center stir up a sweat in a hurry on a morning earlier this month as they use picks, jacks, chains and a crowbar to loose the hold on the weathered timbers. They're dismantling the trap so they can haul its pieces to the Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas, and put it back together there as an exhibit. But the old wood is stubborn. It is more than the vise grip of sun-baked earth that clings so jealously to the posts. They are anchored, too, by the years, by the history of Lincoln County's mighty Block Ranch, a past that dates back to the late 19th century....
Saturday, August 28, 2004
Friday, August 27, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Bush environmental order: Heed local landowners, governments President Bush on Thursday ordered Cabinet agencies to pay more attention to private landowners, states and local governments on how to manage the environment. That could influence federal decisions about the use of public lands, the level of protection for waterways and fighting pollution. The executive order, bypassing congressional action, was issued by the White House without fanfare while the president campaigned in New Mexico. It is in keeping with Bush's goal of having the government defer as much as possible to local interests....
Column: Methane Madness Meanwhile, across the state’s southern border, Wyoming is preparing for the development of more than 51,000 natural gas wells in the basins of the Powder and Tongue rivers, which flow directly north into Montana, where they are responsible for irrigating hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland before joining the Yellowstone River. For many of the farmers and ranchers in the eastern part of the state whose lives hang on the quality and quantity of water in the rivers and in the ground, the state’s position has struck a deep chord of hypocrisy. “The governor’s got her tail in a braid about Canadian companies putting water into the Flathead River, but she’s completely ignoring the problem of water coming in from Wyoming into the Tongue River and the Powder River,” says Irv Alderson, a third-generation rancher in southeastern Montana. “See, we only have two rivers down here that amount to anything, and this is a vast area without much water.”...
Agriculture Dept. Offers Grouse Funding The Agriculture Department offered $2 million Thursday to help private land owners in four Western states protect the habitat of the sage grouse. The bird, about the size of chicken, has seen its numbers thin as its territory gets crowded by homes, cattle and oil and natural gas wells. The money will be available under the Grassland Reserve Program, which gives ranchers and farmers dollars and technical help in protecting grassland and shrubland. Those areas include the sagebrush where the birds live....
Mountain goats move into Yellowstone, for better or worse The mountain goat population in Yellowstone National Park is firmly establishing itself in the park's high peaks and steep cliffs, a new study has found. Mountain goats definitely fit into the category of "charismatic megafauna." Beautiful, graceful and athletic, they survive on scant food in incredibly hostile environments. Plus, they're exciting to watch. The problem is, they aren't native to the Yellowstone region....
U.S. Finances Vineyard on National Parkland Northeast Ohio is not famous for its viticulture, but now a public watchdog group has turned its spotlight on a winery on the grounds of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. That's because the National Park Service has, since 1999, spent more than $475,000 to fund the winery, along with two organic vegetable and free-range chicken farms and other activities on park grounds, according to documents released Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)....
Arco, BLM disagree on authority in cleanup Atlantic Richfield Co. is accusing the Bureau of Land Management of a conflict of interest in its role as both regulator and potential party responsible for the cleanup of a polluted Nevada mine. A lawyer for ARCO told BLM that ARCO will agree to new talks about past costs and future cleanup at the former Anaconda Co. copper mine if BLM agrees to cover more of the expenses and give up its oversight role at the abandoned site at Yerington....
Utah Citizens, Others Reject Initiatives to Expand State and Federal Lands A proposed initiative that would force the State of Utah to spend $150 million to purchase an unspecified amount of land from private citizens and remove it from individual use was thwarted on July 6 when supporters failed to gather enough signatures to put it on the November ballot. The defeat mirrored a wave of recent land-acquisition defeats at both the federal and state levels. The Utah Nature Conservancy began the initiative earlier this year after the Utah legislature rejected a bill sponsored by State Representative Ralph Becker (D-Salt Lake) that would have required the state to purchase privately held lands and remove them from the domain of private citizens....
Governor's Solar Plan Is Rejected The Legislature pulled the plug Thursday on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's hopes of fulfilling a campaign promise to install solar power systems on 1 million homes. With lawmakers set to adjourn today, the governor's negotiators failed to find the votes needed to pass a $1-billion program that Schwarzenegger said would cut pollution and boost power reserves....
Bush, Kerry tussle over West issues President Bush and John Kerry haven't promised to bring rain to the drought-stricken West, but they're arguing over just about every other issue to scratch votes out of the region, from preventing forest fires to dumping nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. "They wouldn't be talking about Yucca Mountain or any other issue in a state that wasn't closely contested in the electoral college," said Bob Loevy, an expert on the Constitution's provisions that says presidential elections will be decided state-by-state, not by who wins the popular vote nationwide....
Drought boosts campaign to drain one of the West's biggest reservoirs The worst drought in the recorded history of the western United States has shrunk the lake behind Glen Canyon Dam to its lowest point in more than 30 years, leaving a 117-foot-high bathtub ring of white mineral deposits on the ruddy shoreline cliffs. To keep pace with the reservoir's steadily receding shoreline, the National Park Service has poured hundreds of cubic yards of concrete to extend marina boat-launch ramps twice in the past two years. The drought also has begun resurrecting the labyrinthine canyon system drowned nearly four decades ago by the rising waters of Lake Powell, revealing to a new generation of westerners the environmental cost of their water and power. And by doing that, the drought has reinvigorated a quixotic campaign to decommission the last of America's high dams and to drain forever the symbolically potent and paradoxically beautiful lake it created....
Denver opens spigot, rescinds water limits Denver Water's board Wednesday lifted water restrictions, effective Sept. 1, just before its staff delivered a recommendation to raise rates. Since May 1, Denver Water customers have faced limits on sprinkler use and steep extra charges for using more than 18,000 gallons in a two-month billing period....
Update on Gila river water The settlement, still in the negotiating phase between Arizona and New Mexico, is an amendment to the 1968 legislation that authorized the Central Arizona Project, an exchange of Colorado River water for Gila River water used in the Phoenix area. Included in the 1968 act was an allocation of 18,000 acre-feet of water to New Mexico from the Gila and San Francisco rivers. Although the water was allotted to New Mexico in congressional legislation, the state has never received use of the water. Because new demands in Arizona for the water are being contemplated, New Mexico has a window of opportunity to keep the water for use in the southwestern part of the state, instead of ceding it to the neighboring state....
Beartooth Pass reopens after snow storm strands travelers The Beartooth Pass has reopened Thursday afternoon after Highway 212 was closed Wednesday evening because of snow. The National Park Service is reporting some intermittent wet and slushy spots on the Wyoming side of the popular road to Yellowstone National Park. James Stevenson, maintenance supervisor for the Montana Department of Transportation Division in Billings, said plows have been working since 8 p.m. Wednesday....
Administration Shifts On Global Warming A Bush administration report suggests that evidence of global warming has begun to affect animal and plant populations in visible ways, and that rising temperatures in North America are due in part to human activity. The report to Congress, issued Wednesday, goes further than previous statements by President Bush. He has said more scientific research is needed before he imposes new restrictions on greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide....
Study in Science reveals recreational fishing takes big bite of ocean catch Taking a hard look at the common belief that recreational fishing accounts for only 2-3% of total landings in the U.S., a new study published in the journal Science (August 26th) reveals that recreational catches account for nearly a quarter of the total take of over fished populations, including many of the most economically valuable species such as red snapper, red drum, lingcod, and bocaccio. For specific depleted populations in the U.S.--particularly the large charismatic fishes that people care about most--recreational landings outstrip commercial landings. This is true for red snapper (59% recreational) and gag (56%) in the Gulf of Mexico, red drum in the South Atlantic (93%), and bocaccio on the Pacific coast (87%), among others....
Oregon Court upholds government worker tracking The government can secretly track its workers without search warrants if they're using government vehicles, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled today. The court rejected an appeal by former U.S. Forest Service worker Tamera Meredith, who was convicted of two arson counts involving forest fires set in 1998 in the Umpqua National Forest....
Human Rights vs. Animal Rights Imparting the total message of Putting Humans First is extremely difficult: Its density of thoughtful content defies its brief narrative. Putting Humans First is the only book I have encountered that views today's environmental movement from a historical and philosophical perspective and convincingly argues why we have been on the wrong track. Machan then lays out a simple blueprint for man's future interaction with the planet and animal kingdom. Putting Humans First should become the gold standard for warm and friendly human beings endeavoring to understand and explain why, though we may love animals and nature, they are intrinsically inferior to humans....
State to pay legal fees in lawsuit over amendment The state will pay $575,000 to cover thelegal expenses of groups that successfully challenged a constitutional amendment that sought to keep out-of-state corporations from owning and running large farm operations in South Dakota. After 60 percent of South Dakota voters approved Amendment E in 1998, the constitutional amendment was challenged by the South Dakota Farm Bureau, state Sheep Growers Association, a handful of farmers and ranchers and several electric companies....
It’s Tourien season Behind them, the cameras clicked away. Just before vanishing from view around a bend in the trail, Sylvester, ever accommodating, turned in the saddle and waved. That might have been a mistake. As he faced forward, he saw coming toward him, a horse-drawn buckboard carrying a load of happy Touriens. Tiny, the Tennessee Walker, took one look and tried to chin the moon. Then he dived to earth, driving his forelegs into the soil half way to China. And up he went again. Sylvester stayed with Tiny for three and a half spine-crushing bucks before he was slammed to the ground like a dropped wrecking ball....
Bush environmental order: Heed local landowners, governments President Bush on Thursday ordered Cabinet agencies to pay more attention to private landowners, states and local governments on how to manage the environment. That could influence federal decisions about the use of public lands, the level of protection for waterways and fighting pollution. The executive order, bypassing congressional action, was issued by the White House without fanfare while the president campaigned in New Mexico. It is in keeping with Bush's goal of having the government defer as much as possible to local interests....
Column: Methane Madness Meanwhile, across the state’s southern border, Wyoming is preparing for the development of more than 51,000 natural gas wells in the basins of the Powder and Tongue rivers, which flow directly north into Montana, where they are responsible for irrigating hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland before joining the Yellowstone River. For many of the farmers and ranchers in the eastern part of the state whose lives hang on the quality and quantity of water in the rivers and in the ground, the state’s position has struck a deep chord of hypocrisy. “The governor’s got her tail in a braid about Canadian companies putting water into the Flathead River, but she’s completely ignoring the problem of water coming in from Wyoming into the Tongue River and the Powder River,” says Irv Alderson, a third-generation rancher in southeastern Montana. “See, we only have two rivers down here that amount to anything, and this is a vast area without much water.”...
Agriculture Dept. Offers Grouse Funding The Agriculture Department offered $2 million Thursday to help private land owners in four Western states protect the habitat of the sage grouse. The bird, about the size of chicken, has seen its numbers thin as its territory gets crowded by homes, cattle and oil and natural gas wells. The money will be available under the Grassland Reserve Program, which gives ranchers and farmers dollars and technical help in protecting grassland and shrubland. Those areas include the sagebrush where the birds live....
Mountain goats move into Yellowstone, for better or worse The mountain goat population in Yellowstone National Park is firmly establishing itself in the park's high peaks and steep cliffs, a new study has found. Mountain goats definitely fit into the category of "charismatic megafauna." Beautiful, graceful and athletic, they survive on scant food in incredibly hostile environments. Plus, they're exciting to watch. The problem is, they aren't native to the Yellowstone region....
U.S. Finances Vineyard on National Parkland Northeast Ohio is not famous for its viticulture, but now a public watchdog group has turned its spotlight on a winery on the grounds of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. That's because the National Park Service has, since 1999, spent more than $475,000 to fund the winery, along with two organic vegetable and free-range chicken farms and other activities on park grounds, according to documents released Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)....
Arco, BLM disagree on authority in cleanup Atlantic Richfield Co. is accusing the Bureau of Land Management of a conflict of interest in its role as both regulator and potential party responsible for the cleanup of a polluted Nevada mine. A lawyer for ARCO told BLM that ARCO will agree to new talks about past costs and future cleanup at the former Anaconda Co. copper mine if BLM agrees to cover more of the expenses and give up its oversight role at the abandoned site at Yerington....
Utah Citizens, Others Reject Initiatives to Expand State and Federal Lands A proposed initiative that would force the State of Utah to spend $150 million to purchase an unspecified amount of land from private citizens and remove it from individual use was thwarted on July 6 when supporters failed to gather enough signatures to put it on the November ballot. The defeat mirrored a wave of recent land-acquisition defeats at both the federal and state levels. The Utah Nature Conservancy began the initiative earlier this year after the Utah legislature rejected a bill sponsored by State Representative Ralph Becker (D-Salt Lake) that would have required the state to purchase privately held lands and remove them from the domain of private citizens....
Governor's Solar Plan Is Rejected The Legislature pulled the plug Thursday on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's hopes of fulfilling a campaign promise to install solar power systems on 1 million homes. With lawmakers set to adjourn today, the governor's negotiators failed to find the votes needed to pass a $1-billion program that Schwarzenegger said would cut pollution and boost power reserves....
Bush, Kerry tussle over West issues President Bush and John Kerry haven't promised to bring rain to the drought-stricken West, but they're arguing over just about every other issue to scratch votes out of the region, from preventing forest fires to dumping nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. "They wouldn't be talking about Yucca Mountain or any other issue in a state that wasn't closely contested in the electoral college," said Bob Loevy, an expert on the Constitution's provisions that says presidential elections will be decided state-by-state, not by who wins the popular vote nationwide....
Drought boosts campaign to drain one of the West's biggest reservoirs The worst drought in the recorded history of the western United States has shrunk the lake behind Glen Canyon Dam to its lowest point in more than 30 years, leaving a 117-foot-high bathtub ring of white mineral deposits on the ruddy shoreline cliffs. To keep pace with the reservoir's steadily receding shoreline, the National Park Service has poured hundreds of cubic yards of concrete to extend marina boat-launch ramps twice in the past two years. The drought also has begun resurrecting the labyrinthine canyon system drowned nearly four decades ago by the rising waters of Lake Powell, revealing to a new generation of westerners the environmental cost of their water and power. And by doing that, the drought has reinvigorated a quixotic campaign to decommission the last of America's high dams and to drain forever the symbolically potent and paradoxically beautiful lake it created....
Denver opens spigot, rescinds water limits Denver Water's board Wednesday lifted water restrictions, effective Sept. 1, just before its staff delivered a recommendation to raise rates. Since May 1, Denver Water customers have faced limits on sprinkler use and steep extra charges for using more than 18,000 gallons in a two-month billing period....
Update on Gila river water The settlement, still in the negotiating phase between Arizona and New Mexico, is an amendment to the 1968 legislation that authorized the Central Arizona Project, an exchange of Colorado River water for Gila River water used in the Phoenix area. Included in the 1968 act was an allocation of 18,000 acre-feet of water to New Mexico from the Gila and San Francisco rivers. Although the water was allotted to New Mexico in congressional legislation, the state has never received use of the water. Because new demands in Arizona for the water are being contemplated, New Mexico has a window of opportunity to keep the water for use in the southwestern part of the state, instead of ceding it to the neighboring state....
Beartooth Pass reopens after snow storm strands travelers The Beartooth Pass has reopened Thursday afternoon after Highway 212 was closed Wednesday evening because of snow. The National Park Service is reporting some intermittent wet and slushy spots on the Wyoming side of the popular road to Yellowstone National Park. James Stevenson, maintenance supervisor for the Montana Department of Transportation Division in Billings, said plows have been working since 8 p.m. Wednesday....
Administration Shifts On Global Warming A Bush administration report suggests that evidence of global warming has begun to affect animal and plant populations in visible ways, and that rising temperatures in North America are due in part to human activity. The report to Congress, issued Wednesday, goes further than previous statements by President Bush. He has said more scientific research is needed before he imposes new restrictions on greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide....
Study in Science reveals recreational fishing takes big bite of ocean catch Taking a hard look at the common belief that recreational fishing accounts for only 2-3% of total landings in the U.S., a new study published in the journal Science (August 26th) reveals that recreational catches account for nearly a quarter of the total take of over fished populations, including many of the most economically valuable species such as red snapper, red drum, lingcod, and bocaccio. For specific depleted populations in the U.S.--particularly the large charismatic fishes that people care about most--recreational landings outstrip commercial landings. This is true for red snapper (59% recreational) and gag (56%) in the Gulf of Mexico, red drum in the South Atlantic (93%), and bocaccio on the Pacific coast (87%), among others....
Oregon Court upholds government worker tracking The government can secretly track its workers without search warrants if they're using government vehicles, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled today. The court rejected an appeal by former U.S. Forest Service worker Tamera Meredith, who was convicted of two arson counts involving forest fires set in 1998 in the Umpqua National Forest....
Human Rights vs. Animal Rights Imparting the total message of Putting Humans First is extremely difficult: Its density of thoughtful content defies its brief narrative. Putting Humans First is the only book I have encountered that views today's environmental movement from a historical and philosophical perspective and convincingly argues why we have been on the wrong track. Machan then lays out a simple blueprint for man's future interaction with the planet and animal kingdom. Putting Humans First should become the gold standard for warm and friendly human beings endeavoring to understand and explain why, though we may love animals and nature, they are intrinsically inferior to humans....
State to pay legal fees in lawsuit over amendment The state will pay $575,000 to cover thelegal expenses of groups that successfully challenged a constitutional amendment that sought to keep out-of-state corporations from owning and running large farm operations in South Dakota. After 60 percent of South Dakota voters approved Amendment E in 1998, the constitutional amendment was challenged by the South Dakota Farm Bureau, state Sheep Growers Association, a handful of farmers and ranchers and several electric companies....
It’s Tourien season Behind them, the cameras clicked away. Just before vanishing from view around a bend in the trail, Sylvester, ever accommodating, turned in the saddle and waved. That might have been a mistake. As he faced forward, he saw coming toward him, a horse-drawn buckboard carrying a load of happy Touriens. Tiny, the Tennessee Walker, took one look and tried to chin the moon. Then he dived to earth, driving his forelegs into the soil half way to China. And up he went again. Sylvester stayed with Tiny for three and a half spine-crushing bucks before he was slammed to the ground like a dropped wrecking ball....
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Pepper-spraying of teens sparks angry confab
A crowd of West Marin residents filled the Dance Palace and spilled out the door Wednesday evening for a community meeting to discuss Park Service rangers’ pepper-spraying of a teenaged brother and sister in Point Reyes Station July 28.
Before the crowd was given a chance to voice their concerns, Point Reyes National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher, who had convened the meeting, offered a series of reassurances:
• Neither of the rangers, Roger Mayo or Angelina Gregorio are at this time working in the National Seashore.
• The District Attorney’s Office has been asked by the park to conduct a review of the case separate from the Park Service’s internal investigation.
• The Park Service has asked the Sheriff’s Department to take another look at a Sept. 21 incident when ranger Mayo turned a garden hose on motorcyclists northbound on Highway 1 in front of his Park Service home in the Olema Valley....
A crowd of West Marin residents filled the Dance Palace and spilled out the door Wednesday evening for a community meeting to discuss Park Service rangers’ pepper-spraying of a teenaged brother and sister in Point Reyes Station July 28.
Before the crowd was given a chance to voice their concerns, Point Reyes National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher, who had convened the meeting, offered a series of reassurances:
• Neither of the rangers, Roger Mayo or Angelina Gregorio are at this time working in the National Seashore.
• The District Attorney’s Office has been asked by the park to conduct a review of the case separate from the Park Service’s internal investigation.
• The Park Service has asked the Sheriff’s Department to take another look at a Sept. 21 incident when ranger Mayo turned a garden hose on motorcyclists northbound on Highway 1 in front of his Park Service home in the Olema Valley....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Appeals court upholds reducing commercial wilderness tours A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a lower court's order that reduced the number of commercial wilderness tours in the Sierra Nevada. At issue are so-called "packstock" operations, for-profit companies that carry campers and sightseers deep into the wilderness using horses. The High Sierra Hikers Association and the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics -- consisting of current and former rangers and other forest workers -- sued the U.S Forest Service, charging it failed to study the cumulative environmental affects of 17 companies the agency permitted to trek thousands of visitors through the forest....
Groups say settlement reached over methane concerns An energy development firm and conservation group said Wednesday they have reached an agreement that will head off a threatened lawsuit over coal-bed methane water. Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. and Northern Plain Resource Council, which had threatened to sue over concerns with the company's discharging of coal-bed methane water in southern Montana, said the plan will, among other things, lead to improved water quality monitoring on the Tongue River....
Governor mulls Bridger-Teton leasing Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Wednesday that he intends to "have a look" in early September at areas on the Bridger-Teton National Forest that are being considered for oil and gas leasing. The governor said his staff is looking into the sale to determine if his office will file an objection with the U.S. Forest Service. More than 150,000 acres near Big Piney are being eyed for lease sales in October and December....
Ski Slopes' Enviro Rules Slipping The U.S. ski industry's efforts to improve its environmental image and follow strict principles that value land, water and air are largely hollow and little more than a marketing ploy, according to a new study. Professors Jorge Rivera of George Washington University and Peter de Leon of the University of Colorado at Denver say the National Ski Areas Association's four-year-old Sustainable Slopes Program is ineffective....
Hunter's Role in Cedar Fire Probed Every week, San Diego County Sheriff's Deputy Dave Weldon flies his helicopter over burned treetops, singed buildings and blackened hills — where 10 months ago today the state's most destructive wildfire devoured the land. Weldon was there the afternoon it started. He can't forget the plume of black smoke he spotted on that first day, and his thoughts often turn to the 15 people who died in the days after. He also thinks about the man he believes started the blaze — a lost hunter from West Covina....
McCain, Kyl strike accord on N. Arizona land swap Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl said Wednesday that they have reached an accord on a huge, controversial northern Arizona federal land exchange that could make the trade happen by the end of the congressional session. The uproar over the proposed Northern Arizona National Forest Land Exchange has been the dominant issue in the Verde Valley municipalities of Camp Verde, Cottonwood and Clarkdale during the past two years because of concerns about the future of the Verde River and groundwater in the area....
Desert tortoise killed A half-century-old icon of the Mojave Desert is dead: apparently murdered in his home at the Bureau of Land Management Needles Field Office. The bureau is offering a reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever is responsible for the death of Scarface, a desert tortoise who was found dead in his enclosure on Aug. 4....
Park County appeals wolf case ruling Park County is appealing the dismissal of trespassing and littering charges against a federal wolf biologist and a private contractor who were found with tranquilized wolves on a ranch near Meeteetse. In July, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson dismissed the charges against Mike Jimenez, Wyoming's wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Wes Livingston, a private contractor from Cody. Rancher Randy Kruger pursued the charges after he found Jimenez and Livingston on his land Feb. 14. The men had four tranquilized wolves they were collaring because of depredation problems in the area....
Group commits to conserve prairie dog A Texas working group committee of ranching and farming organizations, environmental groups, state and federal biologists, private landowners and others has said it will continue efforts to conserve and manage the black-tailed prairie dog, even though the federal government has announced it will no longer consider listing the animal as a threatened species. A spokesperson for Texas Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Working Group said the group will continue working toward its proposed goal to have 293,129 acres of occupied prairie dog habitat in Texas by 2011....
Study: Increase timber harvest on state lands(Montana) The annual timber harvest on state-owned forest land can be increased 26 percent, to more than 53 million board feet, while still protecting waterways, wildlife habitat and forest health, a draft report concludes. The study, ordered by the 2003 Legislature, said the increase reflects a more complete assessment of available timber, consideration of more management options, and the state forest management plan. This is the first time since 1996 that a study has been done to determine a "sustainable yield" from the 726,000 acres of state timberland....
L.A. snuffs Utah coal project The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has withdrawn its involvement in the proposed $1.75 billion expansion of the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) near Delta. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn ordered the department to stop using its resources to study construction of a third generating unit at the massive coal-fired facility. Instead, Hahn wants those resources committed to increasing the department's investment in renewable energy, such as wind and solar power....
Recreation growth challenges BLM head Kathleen Clarke became the nationwide director of the Bureau of Land Management not soon after it gained a new mission: overseeing newly created national monuments. During his time in office, President Clinton signed into existence five new monuments in Arizona -- Vermilion Cliffs, Grand Canyon-Parashant, Ironwood, Desert Sonoran and Agua Fria, which have to be managed by Clarke and her staff. But the true management of the monuments is still in its early phases, as the BLM plans to complete draft documents for managing the Arizona Strip monuments and adjacent BLM land this fall and the other three places within the next year....
Archaeologists Unearth Lost Military Camp Known as Cantonment Wilkinson -- named after Gen. James Wilkinson, the man who ran it -- the camp housed as many as 1,500 soldiers in 1801-1802, about a third of the standing U.S. Army at the time, historians say. Alexander Hamilton and George Washington had posted them along the Ohio River, a few miles from where it meets the Mississippi, to take the Mississippi River from the Spanish by force if a war ensued....
Yoshinoya Faces Longer Wait to Refill Beef Bowls Amid U.S. Ban Yoshinoya D&C Co., Japan's third- largest restaurant chain, is so eager to put U.S. beef back on its menu that it may charter a cargo plane to bring the meat once Japan ends a mad-cow related ban on the imports. ``We're considering every possible way of speeding up the delivery of the meat and chartering an airplane is one option,'' said Yoshinoya spokesman Yasunori Yoshimura. Flying in 100 tons may cost the Tokyo-based company as much as $270,000, he said....
Green Berets saddle up And this week, with the military beginning a new effort to hone cavalry skills for 21st-century warfare, his wayward steed posed an urgent problem. The idea is to help America hunt down enemies worldwide. Army leaders see horses and mules - combined with elite troops and the fanciest weapons - as ideal for operations in roadless parts of Afghanistan, the Philippines, Colombia and elsewhere. So Bones and a dozen other members of the 19th Special Forces Group were sent camping in the northwestern Colorado wilderness for a new 10-day training program....
Seven-time champs re-emerging as force It may have appeared as if team ropers Speed Williams and Rich Skelton were in witness protection earlier this year. No one saw or heard from them during the winter rodeo tour after they had won a record seventh consecutive world championship last December. But that has all changed. In fact, most of their competitors probably wish they weren't quite as visible today....
Ride 'em, charros: State lassos Mexico's brand of rodeo Charreria, the national sport of Mexico and a forerunner of American rodeo, came to Colorado Sunday. Six teams of charros, or Mexican cowboys, competed in the event, held at the Coal Creek Arena in Aurora. It was the 10th stop in a championship series that will culminate in the Jose Cuervo Tradicional Charro National Finals Sept. 3 and 4 in New Cuyama, Calif....
Rancher can't refuse DQ offer Rancher Skip Hougland figured it was an offer he couldn't refuse: Bring in a cow, get a free frozen blended coffee beverage. So he took Bonnie Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a Scottish Highland steer who generally goes by "Charlie," to a local Dairy Queen on Tuesday and got a free "Moolatte" as part of a corporate promotion. Hougland brought Charlie to town from his Willow Creek ranch after reading that people who brought a living cow to any participating business would be rewarded with a free coffee-flavored Dairy Queen version of a latte....
"The Old Farmer's Peaches" There is this old farmer who has a prized orchard full of fruit. One hot summer day he decides to take his bucket, go down to the orchard and pick some peaches so grandma can make his favorite dish, peach cobbler. As he is filling his bucket, his old ears hear the shrill sounds of girls’ voices coming from the direction of his little pond just beyond the orchard. He makes his way through the orchard and steps out of the brush to find three young lasses skinny dippin’ in his pond. “Get away old man — go back to where you came from. We are not about to get out and let you leer at us without our clothes! We’ll stay here until dark if necessary,” spouted the bravest of the three beautiful young women. Hummmm ... what nice peaches these are, thought the old farmer. “Ladies, I didn’t come down here to run you off or leer at you as you say, however you are trespassing on private property, I only came down here to FEED MY ALLIGATOR!”....
Appeals court upholds reducing commercial wilderness tours A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a lower court's order that reduced the number of commercial wilderness tours in the Sierra Nevada. At issue are so-called "packstock" operations, for-profit companies that carry campers and sightseers deep into the wilderness using horses. The High Sierra Hikers Association and the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics -- consisting of current and former rangers and other forest workers -- sued the U.S Forest Service, charging it failed to study the cumulative environmental affects of 17 companies the agency permitted to trek thousands of visitors through the forest....
Groups say settlement reached over methane concerns An energy development firm and conservation group said Wednesday they have reached an agreement that will head off a threatened lawsuit over coal-bed methane water. Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. and Northern Plain Resource Council, which had threatened to sue over concerns with the company's discharging of coal-bed methane water in southern Montana, said the plan will, among other things, lead to improved water quality monitoring on the Tongue River....
Governor mulls Bridger-Teton leasing Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Wednesday that he intends to "have a look" in early September at areas on the Bridger-Teton National Forest that are being considered for oil and gas leasing. The governor said his staff is looking into the sale to determine if his office will file an objection with the U.S. Forest Service. More than 150,000 acres near Big Piney are being eyed for lease sales in October and December....
Ski Slopes' Enviro Rules Slipping The U.S. ski industry's efforts to improve its environmental image and follow strict principles that value land, water and air are largely hollow and little more than a marketing ploy, according to a new study. Professors Jorge Rivera of George Washington University and Peter de Leon of the University of Colorado at Denver say the National Ski Areas Association's four-year-old Sustainable Slopes Program is ineffective....
Hunter's Role in Cedar Fire Probed Every week, San Diego County Sheriff's Deputy Dave Weldon flies his helicopter over burned treetops, singed buildings and blackened hills — where 10 months ago today the state's most destructive wildfire devoured the land. Weldon was there the afternoon it started. He can't forget the plume of black smoke he spotted on that first day, and his thoughts often turn to the 15 people who died in the days after. He also thinks about the man he believes started the blaze — a lost hunter from West Covina....
McCain, Kyl strike accord on N. Arizona land swap Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl said Wednesday that they have reached an accord on a huge, controversial northern Arizona federal land exchange that could make the trade happen by the end of the congressional session. The uproar over the proposed Northern Arizona National Forest Land Exchange has been the dominant issue in the Verde Valley municipalities of Camp Verde, Cottonwood and Clarkdale during the past two years because of concerns about the future of the Verde River and groundwater in the area....
Desert tortoise killed A half-century-old icon of the Mojave Desert is dead: apparently murdered in his home at the Bureau of Land Management Needles Field Office. The bureau is offering a reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever is responsible for the death of Scarface, a desert tortoise who was found dead in his enclosure on Aug. 4....
Park County appeals wolf case ruling Park County is appealing the dismissal of trespassing and littering charges against a federal wolf biologist and a private contractor who were found with tranquilized wolves on a ranch near Meeteetse. In July, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson dismissed the charges against Mike Jimenez, Wyoming's wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Wes Livingston, a private contractor from Cody. Rancher Randy Kruger pursued the charges after he found Jimenez and Livingston on his land Feb. 14. The men had four tranquilized wolves they were collaring because of depredation problems in the area....
Group commits to conserve prairie dog A Texas working group committee of ranching and farming organizations, environmental groups, state and federal biologists, private landowners and others has said it will continue efforts to conserve and manage the black-tailed prairie dog, even though the federal government has announced it will no longer consider listing the animal as a threatened species. A spokesperson for Texas Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Working Group said the group will continue working toward its proposed goal to have 293,129 acres of occupied prairie dog habitat in Texas by 2011....
Study: Increase timber harvest on state lands(Montana) The annual timber harvest on state-owned forest land can be increased 26 percent, to more than 53 million board feet, while still protecting waterways, wildlife habitat and forest health, a draft report concludes. The study, ordered by the 2003 Legislature, said the increase reflects a more complete assessment of available timber, consideration of more management options, and the state forest management plan. This is the first time since 1996 that a study has been done to determine a "sustainable yield" from the 726,000 acres of state timberland....
L.A. snuffs Utah coal project The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has withdrawn its involvement in the proposed $1.75 billion expansion of the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) near Delta. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn ordered the department to stop using its resources to study construction of a third generating unit at the massive coal-fired facility. Instead, Hahn wants those resources committed to increasing the department's investment in renewable energy, such as wind and solar power....
Recreation growth challenges BLM head Kathleen Clarke became the nationwide director of the Bureau of Land Management not soon after it gained a new mission: overseeing newly created national monuments. During his time in office, President Clinton signed into existence five new monuments in Arizona -- Vermilion Cliffs, Grand Canyon-Parashant, Ironwood, Desert Sonoran and Agua Fria, which have to be managed by Clarke and her staff. But the true management of the monuments is still in its early phases, as the BLM plans to complete draft documents for managing the Arizona Strip monuments and adjacent BLM land this fall and the other three places within the next year....
Archaeologists Unearth Lost Military Camp Known as Cantonment Wilkinson -- named after Gen. James Wilkinson, the man who ran it -- the camp housed as many as 1,500 soldiers in 1801-1802, about a third of the standing U.S. Army at the time, historians say. Alexander Hamilton and George Washington had posted them along the Ohio River, a few miles from where it meets the Mississippi, to take the Mississippi River from the Spanish by force if a war ensued....
Yoshinoya Faces Longer Wait to Refill Beef Bowls Amid U.S. Ban Yoshinoya D&C Co., Japan's third- largest restaurant chain, is so eager to put U.S. beef back on its menu that it may charter a cargo plane to bring the meat once Japan ends a mad-cow related ban on the imports. ``We're considering every possible way of speeding up the delivery of the meat and chartering an airplane is one option,'' said Yoshinoya spokesman Yasunori Yoshimura. Flying in 100 tons may cost the Tokyo-based company as much as $270,000, he said....
Green Berets saddle up And this week, with the military beginning a new effort to hone cavalry skills for 21st-century warfare, his wayward steed posed an urgent problem. The idea is to help America hunt down enemies worldwide. Army leaders see horses and mules - combined with elite troops and the fanciest weapons - as ideal for operations in roadless parts of Afghanistan, the Philippines, Colombia and elsewhere. So Bones and a dozen other members of the 19th Special Forces Group were sent camping in the northwestern Colorado wilderness for a new 10-day training program....
Seven-time champs re-emerging as force It may have appeared as if team ropers Speed Williams and Rich Skelton were in witness protection earlier this year. No one saw or heard from them during the winter rodeo tour after they had won a record seventh consecutive world championship last December. But that has all changed. In fact, most of their competitors probably wish they weren't quite as visible today....
Ride 'em, charros: State lassos Mexico's brand of rodeo Charreria, the national sport of Mexico and a forerunner of American rodeo, came to Colorado Sunday. Six teams of charros, or Mexican cowboys, competed in the event, held at the Coal Creek Arena in Aurora. It was the 10th stop in a championship series that will culminate in the Jose Cuervo Tradicional Charro National Finals Sept. 3 and 4 in New Cuyama, Calif....
Rancher can't refuse DQ offer Rancher Skip Hougland figured it was an offer he couldn't refuse: Bring in a cow, get a free frozen blended coffee beverage. So he took Bonnie Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a Scottish Highland steer who generally goes by "Charlie," to a local Dairy Queen on Tuesday and got a free "Moolatte" as part of a corporate promotion. Hougland brought Charlie to town from his Willow Creek ranch after reading that people who brought a living cow to any participating business would be rewarded with a free coffee-flavored Dairy Queen version of a latte....
"The Old Farmer's Peaches" There is this old farmer who has a prized orchard full of fruit. One hot summer day he decides to take his bucket, go down to the orchard and pick some peaches so grandma can make his favorite dish, peach cobbler. As he is filling his bucket, his old ears hear the shrill sounds of girls’ voices coming from the direction of his little pond just beyond the orchard. He makes his way through the orchard and steps out of the brush to find three young lasses skinny dippin’ in his pond. “Get away old man — go back to where you came from. We are not about to get out and let you leer at us without our clothes! We’ll stay here until dark if necessary,” spouted the bravest of the three beautiful young women. Hummmm ... what nice peaches these are, thought the old farmer. “Ladies, I didn’t come down here to run you off or leer at you as you say, however you are trespassing on private property, I only came down here to FEED MY ALLIGATOR!”....
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
White House Puts the West on Fast Track for Oil, Gas Drilling Placing a heavy emphasis on energy production in the American West, the Bush administration has moved swiftly to open up broad areas of largely unspoiled federal land to oil and gas exploration. The administration has pressed for approval of new drilling permits across the Rocky Mountains and lifted protections on hundreds of thousands of acres with gas and oil reserves in Utah and Colorado. In the process, it has targeted a number of places prized for their scenery, abundant wildlife and clean water, natural assets increasingly valuable to the region's changing economy....
Energy Companies Don't Use Half of Federal Land They Lease In the Western states where oil and gas resources are most plentiful, the oil and gas developers are using less than half of the acreage they have under lease from the Interior Department, according to a new report and online database compiled by the Environmental Working Group. At the same time, the report shows, the volume of natural gas from the productive areas has increased for all but one of the last seven years. The information was compiled by the environmental group from files obtained from the Bureau of Land Management, a unit of the Interior Department....
Bureau to decide Otero land dispute Environmentalists and oil and gas developers are keeping their fingers crossed. The groups are hoping for opposite outcomes when the Bureau of Land Management in New Mexico makes its decision soon about allowing oil and gas leasing in the Otero Mesa area northeast of El Paso....
Mercury in many lakes, rivers One third of the nation's lake waters and one-quarter of its riverways are contaminated with mercury and other pollutants that could cause health problems for children and pregnant women who eat too much fish, the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday. States issued warnings for mercury and other pollutants in 2003 for nearly 850,000 miles of U.S. rivers — a 65% increase over 2002 — and 14 million acres of lakes. The warning level is the highest ever reported by the EPA....
Valley water deals ripped Six House Democrats are accusing the Bush administration of brokering sweetheart water deals with certain Central Valley farm districts that could affect how much water is available to California's cities and environment over the next 25 years. In an Aug. 20 letter sent to the Interior Department, the six California representatives - led by Rep. George Miller of Martinez and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi - say they are "extremely concerned" about the ongoing contract renewals and suggest they are being rushed to precede the November elections....
Irrigation districts plan to sue Mexico Most Rio Grande Valley irrigation districts and a group of water-rights owners plan to sue Mexico, saying missed water payments have economically damaged the Valley. The lawsuit will list 17 irrigation districts and 29 water-rights owners as plaintiffs and Mexico as a defendant, said Nancie Marzulla, partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Marzulla & Marzulla, which is representing the Valley plaintiffs....
Law of the West 8/23: "Cowboys, Hats and Horses" During this summer, I have gone to a number of horse shows and fairs. There seems to be a slow but steady change happening in Western riding attire. It seems mostly centered on the younger folks, but you can see the trend in adults as well. It’s not only a fashion issue, but can be a legal and health issue as well. Equestrian helmets seem to be replacing our traditional Western hats. In January 1999, Plantation, Fla., became the first city in the United States to make the use of equestrian helmets mandatory for children. The city ordinance required children to use helmets when riding on public property and imposed a legal duty on the parents and horse owners to ensure the use of helmets. As is often the case, the law was enacted in response to a fatal accident involving a 15-year-old girl, a horse, and a medical examiner’s report claiming that a helmet may have prevented the young girl’s tragic death....
White House Puts the West on Fast Track for Oil, Gas Drilling Placing a heavy emphasis on energy production in the American West, the Bush administration has moved swiftly to open up broad areas of largely unspoiled federal land to oil and gas exploration. The administration has pressed for approval of new drilling permits across the Rocky Mountains and lifted protections on hundreds of thousands of acres with gas and oil reserves in Utah and Colorado. In the process, it has targeted a number of places prized for their scenery, abundant wildlife and clean water, natural assets increasingly valuable to the region's changing economy....
Energy Companies Don't Use Half of Federal Land They Lease In the Western states where oil and gas resources are most plentiful, the oil and gas developers are using less than half of the acreage they have under lease from the Interior Department, according to a new report and online database compiled by the Environmental Working Group. At the same time, the report shows, the volume of natural gas from the productive areas has increased for all but one of the last seven years. The information was compiled by the environmental group from files obtained from the Bureau of Land Management, a unit of the Interior Department....
Bureau to decide Otero land dispute Environmentalists and oil and gas developers are keeping their fingers crossed. The groups are hoping for opposite outcomes when the Bureau of Land Management in New Mexico makes its decision soon about allowing oil and gas leasing in the Otero Mesa area northeast of El Paso....
Mercury in many lakes, rivers One third of the nation's lake waters and one-quarter of its riverways are contaminated with mercury and other pollutants that could cause health problems for children and pregnant women who eat too much fish, the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday. States issued warnings for mercury and other pollutants in 2003 for nearly 850,000 miles of U.S. rivers — a 65% increase over 2002 — and 14 million acres of lakes. The warning level is the highest ever reported by the EPA....
Valley water deals ripped Six House Democrats are accusing the Bush administration of brokering sweetheart water deals with certain Central Valley farm districts that could affect how much water is available to California's cities and environment over the next 25 years. In an Aug. 20 letter sent to the Interior Department, the six California representatives - led by Rep. George Miller of Martinez and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi - say they are "extremely concerned" about the ongoing contract renewals and suggest they are being rushed to precede the November elections....
Irrigation districts plan to sue Mexico Most Rio Grande Valley irrigation districts and a group of water-rights owners plan to sue Mexico, saying missed water payments have economically damaged the Valley. The lawsuit will list 17 irrigation districts and 29 water-rights owners as plaintiffs and Mexico as a defendant, said Nancie Marzulla, partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Marzulla & Marzulla, which is representing the Valley plaintiffs....
Law of the West 8/23: "Cowboys, Hats and Horses" During this summer, I have gone to a number of horse shows and fairs. There seems to be a slow but steady change happening in Western riding attire. It seems mostly centered on the younger folks, but you can see the trend in adults as well. It’s not only a fashion issue, but can be a legal and health issue as well. Equestrian helmets seem to be replacing our traditional Western hats. In January 1999, Plantation, Fla., became the first city in the United States to make the use of equestrian helmets mandatory for children. The city ordinance required children to use helmets when riding on public property and imposed a legal duty on the parents and horse owners to ensure the use of helmets. As is often the case, the law was enacted in response to a fatal accident involving a 15-year-old girl, a horse, and a medical examiner’s report claiming that a helmet may have prevented the young girl’s tragic death....
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Monument ranchers seek buyout In fact, this Southern Oregon landscape where Dauenhauer and about a dozen other ranchers run their cattle in the summer is so ecologically unique that President Clinton on June 9, 2000, proclaimed it the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Immediately, mining and timber cutting inside the monument were prohibited. Grazing continued, but the president ordered a study of whether livestock, which can be hard on the land, threaten the ecology of the area. The study won't be completed for a few more years. Ultimately, the answer will determine whether cattle -- and cowboys -- will remain in these parts. But Dauenhauer and the other ranchers don't want to wait around for the results: They want out of their leases, and they want to dictate the terms. They're asking the federal government to buy back the leases allowing them to graze cattle within the monument. And they want conservationists, who lobbied so hard and so successfully for the monument's creation, to share some of the buyback costs....
USFS, snowmobilers still trading blows over Little Box Canyon Almost a year after outdoor enthusiasts complained about changes made to the road in Little Box Canyon north of Rifle, relations between them and the Forest Service remain as rocky as the route itself. Rocks spread by a Forest Service contractor on the road - some of them 10 inches in diameter - have made it off limits to all but four-wheel-drive vehicles with good clearance, said Bob Hoffmeister, treasurer of the Rifle Snowmobile Club....
Judge blocks post-fire timber sale, says hazard would grow A federal judge has blocked the federal government's plans to sell timber from an area west of Lake Tahoe that was extensively burned in a fire three years ago, land now proposed for a wilderness area. U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. blocked the proposed cut in Duncan Canyon, about 30 miles southeast of Foresthill, more than a year after issuing a temporary restraining order. On Friday, he sided with environmental groups that said the logging could create a worse fire hazard and harm wildlife in the area....
Ice Age Floodwaters Leave a Walkable Trail Across the Northwest Thousands of years ago, with a force that shook the earth, ice dams in the mountains here gave way, sending a towering, churning wall of water - the equivalent of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie flowing at a rate of 10 times all the rivers on the planet - on a frantic dash to the Pacific Ocean. The mammoth lake held back by the dam, Glacial Lake Missoula, was drained like a giant bathtub, in perhaps as little as 48 hours. And like an enormous high-pressure fire hose, the water moved massive amounts of rock and left scars in the bedrock of four states. This catastrophic event, in the last ice age, was not the only flood from the lake. There were dozens or more similar "flood outbursts" in the last ice age, and perhaps many more in previous ice ages....
Geologic trail proposed Now Congress is considering whether to create a National Geologic Trail that would stretch from Missoula, Mont., to the Willamette Valley in Oregon and tell the story of the floods. The four-state auto route would be managed by the National Park Service and follow the path of the floodwaters through four states....
Bush Administration Moves Pave Way for Development in Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem A coalition of conservation and outdoor education groups has formally asked the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw plans to lease nearly 158,000 acres for oil and gas drilling in western Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest. The leasing would open the door to industrial development in pristine roadless areas and habitat for rare wildlife such as Canada lynx. The groups sent a letter to the Forest Service last week asking the agency to forego leasing based on violations of federal environmental laws....
Fish Known To Break People's Arms Found In Cherry Creek Reservoir Fishery managers are worried that the introduction of an Asian fish into Colorado waters could damage the sports fishery and even result in injuries to humans. Fishermen recently caught two bighead carp, which can grow to more than 4 feet and weigh up to 100 pounds, in Cherry Creek Reservoir. Biologists are concerned the carp may have spread downstream to the South Platte River, where river flow could provide the habitat they need to successfully reproduce....
Plans would cut snowmobile income: Economic forecasts on park decision mired in questions No matter which path is chosen for snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park, one near-certainty is emerging: the snowmobile business in the park - and the cash that it provides to area businesses - probably won't be what it once was. Under the latest three-year proposal for snowmobiling in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, businesses in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho stand to lose between $165,000 and $11.5 million next year in comparison to the winter of 1997-98, according to National Park Service estimates. Job losses could range from four to 280 compared to the 1997-98 season. Economists used that winter for comparison because they said it represents a typical snowmobile season before the controversy and uncertainty over snowmobiling arose....
Knowledge mined from Silverton hills The hills are alive with the sound of scientific discourse. In silvered aspen glades and on mossy tundra, scientists and teachers are murmuring alongside brooks. And the nearby San Juan Mountains town of Silverton has come to realize that the "gold in them thar hills" doesn't have to be extracted to be treasured....
Horse bidders must pass muster Adopting a horse from the government on the Internet is almost, but not quite, like eBay. First, you have to convince Karen Malloy you are horse-worthy. Malloy manages the Bureau of Land Management's Internet adoptions, which are held five times a year, including this month, at www.adoptahorse.blm.gov. Before you can bid, you have to submit an application that is reviewed by Malloy. Applications for the August auction closed this week....
Editorial: Roadblock at Yucca Mountain federal appeals court decision has thrown a gigantic roadblock in the way of efforts to create an underground burial site for nuclear wastes at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. A three-judge panel in the District of Columbia ruled last month that regulators could not simply require the repository to contain the wastes for 10,000 years, the standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency, but must instead ensure that Yucca could function acceptably for hundreds of thousands of years. That standard is so outlandishly stringent it may not be achievable. Unless Congress steps in to change the ground rules, the court ruling could significantly delay or even derail efforts to move ahead with an underground repository that will be vitally needed in coming decades....
Lawmakers wants law changes to address ag leasing ruling A leading Democrat on Monday proposed law changes to deal with a court ruling that eliminated an automatic advantage for farmers and ranchers facing competition for renewal of their state agricultural leases. Senate Minority Leader Jon Tester of Big Sandy said he will ask the 2005 Legislature to act quickly so that the state Land Board will have the authority to determine who should be awarded leases in light of the judge's decision. Fast action is necessary because the next round of lease renewals will occur in late winter, he said....
Bishop run-in led to change, corps staff say Frustrated federal water quality regulators said the reassignment of the Intermountain section's top official after a run-in with Utah Rep. Rob Bishop was a decision to "feed one of our own to the lions," and could undermine future enforcement activities. Brooks Carter, who had been chief of the Army Corps of Engineers' Intermountain Regulatory Section for 19 years, was moved into a new regional policy job in late July, amid a dispute with Bishop and the city of Perry over a pair of projects that the corps said violated the Clean Water Act....
Settlement leaves many landowners fighting over water A massive, seven-year fight over rights to the Santa Maria Valley Groundwater Basin has taken a first step toward resolution. But for hundreds of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo county property owners and hopeful developers, the settlement signed last week between the Santa Maria Valley Water Conservation District and Santa Maria changes nothing. For those people, most of whom were dragged into the lawsuit against their will, the legal wrangling will continue....
El Paso residents allege water conspiracy by governor Two El Paso, Texas residents have appealed a water permit issued to Dona Ana County and an El Paso-based development group, contending there was a conspiracy involving the developer and the governor to take water that belonged to the El Paso residents. The appeal by Charlie and Phyllis Crowder, filed in state district court here, adds an obstacle to efforts to resolve decades of legal battles over Santa Teresa water. Charlie Crowder has alleged a conspiracy involving Gov. Bill Richardson, the Verde Group and others to take his land and water....
Judge denies motion to stop negotiations in Navajo water dispute A state district judge has ruled that motions to stop a proposed settlement in a Navajo water rights dispute are premature. State District Judge Rozier Sanchez denied the motions after a three-hour hearing Friday saying the state and Navajo Nation are still negotiating the settlement. Sanchez said a final draft had not been submitted to the court. Farmington attorney and resident Gary Horner and San Juan Agricultural Water Users attorney Felix Briones argued to forbid the settlement from proceeding, saying the state has not conducted a survey to see how much water exists or an irrigation acreage study....
Federal wildlife agency to sell groundwater near Silver Springs The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to sell 660 acre-feet of groundwater rights acquired with the purchase of the Ghiglia Ranch in Lyon County to the highest bidder next month. The USFWS bought the groundwater rights in 1999 as part of a $2.6 million deal to acquire the ranch's 4,000 acre-feet of surface water rights. The surface water rights are earmarked for use at the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge near Fallon....
Meat-eaters soak up the world's water Governments may have to persuade people to eat less meat because of increasing demands on water supplies, according to agricultural scientists investigating how the world can best feed itself. They say countries with little water may choose not to grow crops but trade in "virtual water", importing food from countries which have large amounts of water to save their supplies for domestic or high-value uses. With about 840 million people in the world undernourished, and a further 2 billion expected to be born within 20 years, finding water to grow food will be one of the greatest challenges facing governments. Currently up to 90% of all managed water is used to grow food....
Maybelle Carter's guitar staying here A man whose only tie to Nashville's country music business is a love of song has rescued its crown jewel. Murfreesboro businessman Robert W. ''Bob'' McLean has pledged $575,000 to purchase ''Mother Maybelle'' Carter's 1928 Gibson guitar, considered one of the most historically significant instruments in American popular music. It now returns to permanent display in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where the public can enjoy it....
Old Hertzberg museum could go from clowns to cowboys A group of local movers and shakers is working to establish a museum of Western art and artifacts, hoping to enrich the area's cultural tapestry by highlighting more of its history. While still early in the planning process, a small staff for the National Western Art Foundation is already in place and working to unveil the as yet unnamed museum next month. Though the plans may be sketchy, museum leaders are firm about the city's need to explore and illuminate San Antonio and South Texas' role in the West....
Saddle Exhibit Offered at Colorado State Fair For over a century, beginning in the 1870s, saddle making was major industry in Pueblo. Turn-of-the-Century Pueblo was home to such famous saddle makers as S.C. Gallup, R.T. Frazier and Thomas Flynn. At a time when society was dependent upon the horse for transportation, these saddle makers were famous nationwide for developing what is known as the Pueblo Stock Saddle. Today, there is a huge demand from collectors for saddles produced in Pueblo in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though the days of the large saddle shops in Pueblo ended when Mack’s Saddlery burned in 1989, custom saddle makers continue to produce quality handmade saddles throughout Colorado. These artists who continue the art of saddle making are the focus of an exhibit at this year’s State Fair....
Spade rounds up title again In the end, winning the 24th annual Texas Ranch Roundup came down to squeezing a few drops of milk from a wild, uncooperative cow that had no intentions of giving it up. But when the seconds were all counted, the points added up, and the overall numbers were tallied, the Spade Ranch of Lubbock took home the top honors for the third year in a row....
Famed Texas horse line regaining the spotlight There was a time, the old hands say, when you could pick out a Waggoner Ranch cowboy just by the horse he was riding. The horse would have a thick chest, deep heart, big hips and short, strong back. And there was a time when every ranch in the country wanted their horses' bloodlines traced back to names such as Poco Bueno, Pretty Boy and Blackburn....
It's All Trew: Point of view depends on viewing point Recently I refereed a serious debate between three "coffee-slurpers" who were arguing which early-day home improvement had the most significance. All agreed first that rural electricity was number one. But what were numbers two, three and four on the scale? The subjects being argued were running water in the home, a commode in the bathroom or the advent of butane gas piped into a home. As I listened to the comments, the old adage handed down by Grandpa Trew came to mind. "Your point of view often depends on the point from where you are viewing." Here are some good examples....
Monument ranchers seek buyout In fact, this Southern Oregon landscape where Dauenhauer and about a dozen other ranchers run their cattle in the summer is so ecologically unique that President Clinton on June 9, 2000, proclaimed it the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Immediately, mining and timber cutting inside the monument were prohibited. Grazing continued, but the president ordered a study of whether livestock, which can be hard on the land, threaten the ecology of the area. The study won't be completed for a few more years. Ultimately, the answer will determine whether cattle -- and cowboys -- will remain in these parts. But Dauenhauer and the other ranchers don't want to wait around for the results: They want out of their leases, and they want to dictate the terms. They're asking the federal government to buy back the leases allowing them to graze cattle within the monument. And they want conservationists, who lobbied so hard and so successfully for the monument's creation, to share some of the buyback costs....
USFS, snowmobilers still trading blows over Little Box Canyon Almost a year after outdoor enthusiasts complained about changes made to the road in Little Box Canyon north of Rifle, relations between them and the Forest Service remain as rocky as the route itself. Rocks spread by a Forest Service contractor on the road - some of them 10 inches in diameter - have made it off limits to all but four-wheel-drive vehicles with good clearance, said Bob Hoffmeister, treasurer of the Rifle Snowmobile Club....
Judge blocks post-fire timber sale, says hazard would grow A federal judge has blocked the federal government's plans to sell timber from an area west of Lake Tahoe that was extensively burned in a fire three years ago, land now proposed for a wilderness area. U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. blocked the proposed cut in Duncan Canyon, about 30 miles southeast of Foresthill, more than a year after issuing a temporary restraining order. On Friday, he sided with environmental groups that said the logging could create a worse fire hazard and harm wildlife in the area....
Ice Age Floodwaters Leave a Walkable Trail Across the Northwest Thousands of years ago, with a force that shook the earth, ice dams in the mountains here gave way, sending a towering, churning wall of water - the equivalent of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie flowing at a rate of 10 times all the rivers on the planet - on a frantic dash to the Pacific Ocean. The mammoth lake held back by the dam, Glacial Lake Missoula, was drained like a giant bathtub, in perhaps as little as 48 hours. And like an enormous high-pressure fire hose, the water moved massive amounts of rock and left scars in the bedrock of four states. This catastrophic event, in the last ice age, was not the only flood from the lake. There were dozens or more similar "flood outbursts" in the last ice age, and perhaps many more in previous ice ages....
Geologic trail proposed Now Congress is considering whether to create a National Geologic Trail that would stretch from Missoula, Mont., to the Willamette Valley in Oregon and tell the story of the floods. The four-state auto route would be managed by the National Park Service and follow the path of the floodwaters through four states....
Bush Administration Moves Pave Way for Development in Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem A coalition of conservation and outdoor education groups has formally asked the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw plans to lease nearly 158,000 acres for oil and gas drilling in western Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest. The leasing would open the door to industrial development in pristine roadless areas and habitat for rare wildlife such as Canada lynx. The groups sent a letter to the Forest Service last week asking the agency to forego leasing based on violations of federal environmental laws....
Fish Known To Break People's Arms Found In Cherry Creek Reservoir Fishery managers are worried that the introduction of an Asian fish into Colorado waters could damage the sports fishery and even result in injuries to humans. Fishermen recently caught two bighead carp, which can grow to more than 4 feet and weigh up to 100 pounds, in Cherry Creek Reservoir. Biologists are concerned the carp may have spread downstream to the South Platte River, where river flow could provide the habitat they need to successfully reproduce....
Plans would cut snowmobile income: Economic forecasts on park decision mired in questions No matter which path is chosen for snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park, one near-certainty is emerging: the snowmobile business in the park - and the cash that it provides to area businesses - probably won't be what it once was. Under the latest three-year proposal for snowmobiling in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, businesses in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho stand to lose between $165,000 and $11.5 million next year in comparison to the winter of 1997-98, according to National Park Service estimates. Job losses could range from four to 280 compared to the 1997-98 season. Economists used that winter for comparison because they said it represents a typical snowmobile season before the controversy and uncertainty over snowmobiling arose....
Knowledge mined from Silverton hills The hills are alive with the sound of scientific discourse. In silvered aspen glades and on mossy tundra, scientists and teachers are murmuring alongside brooks. And the nearby San Juan Mountains town of Silverton has come to realize that the "gold in them thar hills" doesn't have to be extracted to be treasured....
Horse bidders must pass muster Adopting a horse from the government on the Internet is almost, but not quite, like eBay. First, you have to convince Karen Malloy you are horse-worthy. Malloy manages the Bureau of Land Management's Internet adoptions, which are held five times a year, including this month, at www.adoptahorse.blm.gov. Before you can bid, you have to submit an application that is reviewed by Malloy. Applications for the August auction closed this week....
Editorial: Roadblock at Yucca Mountain federal appeals court decision has thrown a gigantic roadblock in the way of efforts to create an underground burial site for nuclear wastes at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. A three-judge panel in the District of Columbia ruled last month that regulators could not simply require the repository to contain the wastes for 10,000 years, the standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency, but must instead ensure that Yucca could function acceptably for hundreds of thousands of years. That standard is so outlandishly stringent it may not be achievable. Unless Congress steps in to change the ground rules, the court ruling could significantly delay or even derail efforts to move ahead with an underground repository that will be vitally needed in coming decades....
Lawmakers wants law changes to address ag leasing ruling A leading Democrat on Monday proposed law changes to deal with a court ruling that eliminated an automatic advantage for farmers and ranchers facing competition for renewal of their state agricultural leases. Senate Minority Leader Jon Tester of Big Sandy said he will ask the 2005 Legislature to act quickly so that the state Land Board will have the authority to determine who should be awarded leases in light of the judge's decision. Fast action is necessary because the next round of lease renewals will occur in late winter, he said....
Bishop run-in led to change, corps staff say Frustrated federal water quality regulators said the reassignment of the Intermountain section's top official after a run-in with Utah Rep. Rob Bishop was a decision to "feed one of our own to the lions," and could undermine future enforcement activities. Brooks Carter, who had been chief of the Army Corps of Engineers' Intermountain Regulatory Section for 19 years, was moved into a new regional policy job in late July, amid a dispute with Bishop and the city of Perry over a pair of projects that the corps said violated the Clean Water Act....
Settlement leaves many landowners fighting over water A massive, seven-year fight over rights to the Santa Maria Valley Groundwater Basin has taken a first step toward resolution. But for hundreds of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo county property owners and hopeful developers, the settlement signed last week between the Santa Maria Valley Water Conservation District and Santa Maria changes nothing. For those people, most of whom were dragged into the lawsuit against their will, the legal wrangling will continue....
El Paso residents allege water conspiracy by governor Two El Paso, Texas residents have appealed a water permit issued to Dona Ana County and an El Paso-based development group, contending there was a conspiracy involving the developer and the governor to take water that belonged to the El Paso residents. The appeal by Charlie and Phyllis Crowder, filed in state district court here, adds an obstacle to efforts to resolve decades of legal battles over Santa Teresa water. Charlie Crowder has alleged a conspiracy involving Gov. Bill Richardson, the Verde Group and others to take his land and water....
Judge denies motion to stop negotiations in Navajo water dispute A state district judge has ruled that motions to stop a proposed settlement in a Navajo water rights dispute are premature. State District Judge Rozier Sanchez denied the motions after a three-hour hearing Friday saying the state and Navajo Nation are still negotiating the settlement. Sanchez said a final draft had not been submitted to the court. Farmington attorney and resident Gary Horner and San Juan Agricultural Water Users attorney Felix Briones argued to forbid the settlement from proceeding, saying the state has not conducted a survey to see how much water exists or an irrigation acreage study....
Federal wildlife agency to sell groundwater near Silver Springs The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to sell 660 acre-feet of groundwater rights acquired with the purchase of the Ghiglia Ranch in Lyon County to the highest bidder next month. The USFWS bought the groundwater rights in 1999 as part of a $2.6 million deal to acquire the ranch's 4,000 acre-feet of surface water rights. The surface water rights are earmarked for use at the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge near Fallon....
Meat-eaters soak up the world's water Governments may have to persuade people to eat less meat because of increasing demands on water supplies, according to agricultural scientists investigating how the world can best feed itself. They say countries with little water may choose not to grow crops but trade in "virtual water", importing food from countries which have large amounts of water to save their supplies for domestic or high-value uses. With about 840 million people in the world undernourished, and a further 2 billion expected to be born within 20 years, finding water to grow food will be one of the greatest challenges facing governments. Currently up to 90% of all managed water is used to grow food....
Maybelle Carter's guitar staying here A man whose only tie to Nashville's country music business is a love of song has rescued its crown jewel. Murfreesboro businessman Robert W. ''Bob'' McLean has pledged $575,000 to purchase ''Mother Maybelle'' Carter's 1928 Gibson guitar, considered one of the most historically significant instruments in American popular music. It now returns to permanent display in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where the public can enjoy it....
Old Hertzberg museum could go from clowns to cowboys A group of local movers and shakers is working to establish a museum of Western art and artifacts, hoping to enrich the area's cultural tapestry by highlighting more of its history. While still early in the planning process, a small staff for the National Western Art Foundation is already in place and working to unveil the as yet unnamed museum next month. Though the plans may be sketchy, museum leaders are firm about the city's need to explore and illuminate San Antonio and South Texas' role in the West....
Saddle Exhibit Offered at Colorado State Fair For over a century, beginning in the 1870s, saddle making was major industry in Pueblo. Turn-of-the-Century Pueblo was home to such famous saddle makers as S.C. Gallup, R.T. Frazier and Thomas Flynn. At a time when society was dependent upon the horse for transportation, these saddle makers were famous nationwide for developing what is known as the Pueblo Stock Saddle. Today, there is a huge demand from collectors for saddles produced in Pueblo in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though the days of the large saddle shops in Pueblo ended when Mack’s Saddlery burned in 1989, custom saddle makers continue to produce quality handmade saddles throughout Colorado. These artists who continue the art of saddle making are the focus of an exhibit at this year’s State Fair....
Spade rounds up title again In the end, winning the 24th annual Texas Ranch Roundup came down to squeezing a few drops of milk from a wild, uncooperative cow that had no intentions of giving it up. But when the seconds were all counted, the points added up, and the overall numbers were tallied, the Spade Ranch of Lubbock took home the top honors for the third year in a row....
Famed Texas horse line regaining the spotlight There was a time, the old hands say, when you could pick out a Waggoner Ranch cowboy just by the horse he was riding. The horse would have a thick chest, deep heart, big hips and short, strong back. And there was a time when every ranch in the country wanted their horses' bloodlines traced back to names such as Poco Bueno, Pretty Boy and Blackburn....
It's All Trew: Point of view depends on viewing point Recently I refereed a serious debate between three "coffee-slurpers" who were arguing which early-day home improvement had the most significance. All agreed first that rural electricity was number one. But what were numbers two, three and four on the scale? The subjects being argued were running water in the home, a commode in the bathroom or the advent of butane gas piped into a home. As I listened to the comments, the old adage handed down by Grandpa Trew came to mind. "Your point of view often depends on the point from where you are viewing." Here are some good examples....
Monday, August 23, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Cutting through smoke The result, say some wildfire experts, is a worrisome example of the growing problems facing an agency struggling to deal with what Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth has called the nation's "most serious natural resource problem" : millions of acres of overgrown forests in the West that are tinderbox dry from drought and choked with flammable undergrowth piled up because for 80 years just about every fire was aggressively battled. Almost 3.5 million acres, nearly twice normal, have burned so far this fire season, primarily because of large blazes in Alaska. Summer rains have reduced the danger, but large swaths of the West still have an above-average risk (map, Page 30). Combine that with a grounded fleet of air tankers, an often understaffed team of managers overseeing an army of lightly trained, part-time firefighters, and a system of oversight that some say fails to hold those responsible fully accountable, and "you've got a perfect-storm scenario unfolding," says Stephen Pyne, a historian whose forthcoming book, Tending Fire: Coping With America's Wildland Fires, details how things got so bad. "Our whole system of wild-land firefighting is in need of reform."....
Anger afoot along 31-mile Klickitat Trail One of the Klickitat Trail Conservancy's guidelines for use of the 31-mile long Klickitat Trail near Lyle, Wash., reads like a warning found in bear country: "If you encounter harassing property owners, remain calm. Avoid arguments and proceed on your way, unless it does not feel safe to do so. Report the incident to the sheriff's office . . . " Welcome to the sometimes wild West, where Americans trying to get away from it all keep running into each other....
Eyeing Chief Joseph's land The hauntingly beautiful lake is the crown jewel of remote Wallowa County, as it was in the 1870s when 750 of McCormack's Nez Perce ancestors made their summer encampments here. McCormack, 55, a tribal fish technician, considers this the spiritual home of his people. He is fond of quoting Young Chief Joseph, a 19th century leader of the Wallowa Band of the Nez Perce: "I love that land more than all the rest of the world."....
Western Drought Is Grounding Boaters The drought that geologists say could be the worst in 500 years is grounding boaters, creating hazards for water enthusiasts across the West and costing the boating industry and states millions to revamp ramps and move marinas to entice visitors. Roosevelt Lake, about 110 miles northeast of Phoenix, is 30 percent full and only three of the lake's nine ramps are operating, said Quentin Johnson, recreation specialist for the Tonto Basin Ranger District, which manages the lake....
Activists Fight to Stop the Re-filling of Lake Powell In a little-noticed meeting this weekend, some Western environmentalists agreed on a controversial action plan. Lake Powell is now the lowest it's been since the late 60's. The activists want to stop it from ever being re-filled. John Hollenhorst joins us with details....
Ecoterrorism attacks, 1 year later When the smoke settled, 133 vehicles mostly SUVs had been firebombed or spray-painted with messages such as "Fat, lazy Americans" at four car dealerships in West Covina, Duarte and Arcadia and a neighborhood in Monrovia. Damage to the vehicles, and to a finance office at the West Covina dealership, totaled $2.5 million. Ecoterrorism had hit the Valley....
Hair sample links student to Southern California SUV vandalism A graduate student with alleged connections to a radical environmentalist group has been linked to a hair discovered at an auto dealership where authorities say he firebombed or vandalized sport utility vehicles. Forensics experts matched hair and saliva samples taken from 24-year-old Billy Cottrell to a hair found on a headband at the dealership, federal prosecutors said....
Column: Something fishy It was the "Summer of the Shark." In 2001, the media told us, massive numbers of hapless swimmers were shredded up and down U.S. shores. Turns out there were 11 fewer shark attacks than a year earlier. The hysteria ended only when something truly scary occurred in September. But shark attack stories are back — with a twist. The media have combined them with another bit of nonsense it consistently promotes with the ominous name of "The Dead Zone." Shark attacks and a dead zone? Oh my! Good thing it's just a fish story....
Farmlands Seen as Fertile for Terrorism The teeming Swift & Co. slaughterhouse on the edge of town has the feel of a military base lately. Security cars cruise the fenced compound, and periodic drills are run to prepare for any attack. At the Wayne Farms poultry plant in Decatur, Ala., armed guards patrol the grounds, searching for any threat to the tens of thousands of chickens. In Porterville, Calif., dairy farmer Tom Barcellos recently installed video cameras in his milking barns to keep watch over his 1,200 cows....
Kerry Courts Farmers by Opposing Meatpacker Control of Herds Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry won the vote of David Kruse, an Iowa cattle rancher and self-described lifelong Republican. Kerry says he will fight to stop meatpackers such as Tyson Foods Inc. and Smithfield Foods Inc. from raising their own livestock. Kruse said he's being squeezed by Tyson, the world's largest meat processor, and Smithfield, the biggest pork producer, because they cut prices through exclusive contracts with some suppliers or by owning their own herds. Bush ``represents the corporate producers,'' said the 51-year-old Kruse, who raises a herd of 500 cattle in Royal, Iowa, 180 miles northwest of Des Moines....
Murders intersect at Texas museum This is the sprawling saga of the Texas frontier, of two infamous murderers who lived decades apart and the ordinary kitchen utensil that links them. Had it not been for the 1889 murder of a West Texas rancher by his brother and the legal and political machinations that followed, the bottle opener owned by John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald may have ended up a forgotten footnote in the history of church keys, corkscrews and cap removers. The museum, in the ranch house where Bettie B. was born 85 years ago, would be intriguing by itself thanks to items such as the gasoline-powered iron, the rattlesnake coiled in a jar of formaldehyde, or Chun Gafford's baby moccasins, handcrafted by the Comanches who sometimes camped on the family's pastures....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Syllijunction: Ultimate conservation by combining words In an era of increasing pressure on the earth's natural resources and the need to save valuable time in communication, Chris and I offer a new method of syllable conjugation to conserve words and paper: Syllijunction. Instead of asking, "Does your innuendo about my behavior insinuate you think I'm guilty?" you could simply say, "Is that an insinuendo?"....
Cutting through smoke The result, say some wildfire experts, is a worrisome example of the growing problems facing an agency struggling to deal with what Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth has called the nation's "most serious natural resource problem" : millions of acres of overgrown forests in the West that are tinderbox dry from drought and choked with flammable undergrowth piled up because for 80 years just about every fire was aggressively battled. Almost 3.5 million acres, nearly twice normal, have burned so far this fire season, primarily because of large blazes in Alaska. Summer rains have reduced the danger, but large swaths of the West still have an above-average risk (map, Page 30). Combine that with a grounded fleet of air tankers, an often understaffed team of managers overseeing an army of lightly trained, part-time firefighters, and a system of oversight that some say fails to hold those responsible fully accountable, and "you've got a perfect-storm scenario unfolding," says Stephen Pyne, a historian whose forthcoming book, Tending Fire: Coping With America's Wildland Fires, details how things got so bad. "Our whole system of wild-land firefighting is in need of reform."....
Anger afoot along 31-mile Klickitat Trail One of the Klickitat Trail Conservancy's guidelines for use of the 31-mile long Klickitat Trail near Lyle, Wash., reads like a warning found in bear country: "If you encounter harassing property owners, remain calm. Avoid arguments and proceed on your way, unless it does not feel safe to do so. Report the incident to the sheriff's office . . . " Welcome to the sometimes wild West, where Americans trying to get away from it all keep running into each other....
Eyeing Chief Joseph's land The hauntingly beautiful lake is the crown jewel of remote Wallowa County, as it was in the 1870s when 750 of McCormack's Nez Perce ancestors made their summer encampments here. McCormack, 55, a tribal fish technician, considers this the spiritual home of his people. He is fond of quoting Young Chief Joseph, a 19th century leader of the Wallowa Band of the Nez Perce: "I love that land more than all the rest of the world."....
Western Drought Is Grounding Boaters The drought that geologists say could be the worst in 500 years is grounding boaters, creating hazards for water enthusiasts across the West and costing the boating industry and states millions to revamp ramps and move marinas to entice visitors. Roosevelt Lake, about 110 miles northeast of Phoenix, is 30 percent full and only three of the lake's nine ramps are operating, said Quentin Johnson, recreation specialist for the Tonto Basin Ranger District, which manages the lake....
Activists Fight to Stop the Re-filling of Lake Powell In a little-noticed meeting this weekend, some Western environmentalists agreed on a controversial action plan. Lake Powell is now the lowest it's been since the late 60's. The activists want to stop it from ever being re-filled. John Hollenhorst joins us with details....
Ecoterrorism attacks, 1 year later When the smoke settled, 133 vehicles mostly SUVs had been firebombed or spray-painted with messages such as "Fat, lazy Americans" at four car dealerships in West Covina, Duarte and Arcadia and a neighborhood in Monrovia. Damage to the vehicles, and to a finance office at the West Covina dealership, totaled $2.5 million. Ecoterrorism had hit the Valley....
Hair sample links student to Southern California SUV vandalism A graduate student with alleged connections to a radical environmentalist group has been linked to a hair discovered at an auto dealership where authorities say he firebombed or vandalized sport utility vehicles. Forensics experts matched hair and saliva samples taken from 24-year-old Billy Cottrell to a hair found on a headband at the dealership, federal prosecutors said....
Column: Something fishy It was the "Summer of the Shark." In 2001, the media told us, massive numbers of hapless swimmers were shredded up and down U.S. shores. Turns out there were 11 fewer shark attacks than a year earlier. The hysteria ended only when something truly scary occurred in September. But shark attack stories are back — with a twist. The media have combined them with another bit of nonsense it consistently promotes with the ominous name of "The Dead Zone." Shark attacks and a dead zone? Oh my! Good thing it's just a fish story....
Farmlands Seen as Fertile for Terrorism The teeming Swift & Co. slaughterhouse on the edge of town has the feel of a military base lately. Security cars cruise the fenced compound, and periodic drills are run to prepare for any attack. At the Wayne Farms poultry plant in Decatur, Ala., armed guards patrol the grounds, searching for any threat to the tens of thousands of chickens. In Porterville, Calif., dairy farmer Tom Barcellos recently installed video cameras in his milking barns to keep watch over his 1,200 cows....
Kerry Courts Farmers by Opposing Meatpacker Control of Herds Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry won the vote of David Kruse, an Iowa cattle rancher and self-described lifelong Republican. Kerry says he will fight to stop meatpackers such as Tyson Foods Inc. and Smithfield Foods Inc. from raising their own livestock. Kruse said he's being squeezed by Tyson, the world's largest meat processor, and Smithfield, the biggest pork producer, because they cut prices through exclusive contracts with some suppliers or by owning their own herds. Bush ``represents the corporate producers,'' said the 51-year-old Kruse, who raises a herd of 500 cattle in Royal, Iowa, 180 miles northwest of Des Moines....
Murders intersect at Texas museum This is the sprawling saga of the Texas frontier, of two infamous murderers who lived decades apart and the ordinary kitchen utensil that links them. Had it not been for the 1889 murder of a West Texas rancher by his brother and the legal and political machinations that followed, the bottle opener owned by John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald may have ended up a forgotten footnote in the history of church keys, corkscrews and cap removers. The museum, in the ranch house where Bettie B. was born 85 years ago, would be intriguing by itself thanks to items such as the gasoline-powered iron, the rattlesnake coiled in a jar of formaldehyde, or Chun Gafford's baby moccasins, handcrafted by the Comanches who sometimes camped on the family's pastures....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Syllijunction: Ultimate conservation by combining words In an era of increasing pressure on the earth's natural resources and the need to save valuable time in communication, Chris and I offer a new method of syllable conjugation to conserve words and paper: Syllijunction. Instead of asking, "Does your innuendo about my behavior insinuate you think I'm guilty?" you could simply say, "Is that an insinuendo?"....
Sunday, August 22, 2004
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Animal Rights Group Poses as Health Charity to Promote Vegetarian School Lunches
This week an animal rights group claiming to be a medical charity released dubious “report cards” for 11 U.S. school district lunch programs, claiming that most fail to offer “healthy” foods to children. But analysis by the Center for Consumer Freedom suggests that the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is more interested in promoting strict vegetarianism and animal-rights ideology than good nutrition.
“Like other PCRM publicity stunts, these phony ‘report cards’ seek to reward animal-rights-approved meal programs,” said Center for Consumer Freedom research director David Martosko. “This group is out to punish those school districts that dare to serve beef, chicken, and milk. PCRM’s president has claimed that feeding milk to children constitutes child abuse, and now his group is trying to strong-arm school menu planners into seeing things their way.”...
Animal Rights Group Poses as Health Charity to Promote Vegetarian School Lunches
This week an animal rights group claiming to be a medical charity released dubious “report cards” for 11 U.S. school district lunch programs, claiming that most fail to offer “healthy” foods to children. But analysis by the Center for Consumer Freedom suggests that the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is more interested in promoting strict vegetarianism and animal-rights ideology than good nutrition.
“Like other PCRM publicity stunts, these phony ‘report cards’ seek to reward animal-rights-approved meal programs,” said Center for Consumer Freedom research director David Martosko. “This group is out to punish those school districts that dare to serve beef, chicken, and milk. PCRM’s president has claimed that feeding milk to children constitutes child abuse, and now his group is trying to strong-arm school menu planners into seeing things their way.”...
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Meltdown for Global Warming Science
How many times have we heard from Al Gore and assorted European politicians that "the science is settled" on global warming? In other words, it's "time for action." Climate change is, as recently stated by Hans Blix, former U.N. Chief for weapons detection in Iraq, the most important issue of our time, far more dangerous than people flying fuel-laden aircraft into skyscrapers or possibly detonating backpack nukes in Baltimore Harbor.
Well, the science may now be settled, but not in the way Mr. Gore and Mr. Blix would have us believe. Three bombshell papers have just hit the refereed literature that knock the stuffing of Mr. Blix's position and that of his company, the United Nations, and its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)....
Meltdown for Global Warming Science
How many times have we heard from Al Gore and assorted European politicians that "the science is settled" on global warming? In other words, it's "time for action." Climate change is, as recently stated by Hans Blix, former U.N. Chief for weapons detection in Iraq, the most important issue of our time, far more dangerous than people flying fuel-laden aircraft into skyscrapers or possibly detonating backpack nukes in Baltimore Harbor.
Well, the science may now be settled, but not in the way Mr. Gore and Mr. Blix would have us believe. Three bombshell papers have just hit the refereed literature that knock the stuffing of Mr. Blix's position and that of his company, the United Nations, and its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
California Wine vs. Two-Legged Pests
California is under attack by parasites, of both the six-legged and two-legged variety. The former are glassy-winged sharpshooters, leaf-hopping insects that are among the state's most insidious agricultural pests. They carry Pierce's disease, a lethal bacterial infection of grapevines and other major crops, for which there is no cure. The two-legged parasites are the activists and regulators who are making safe, effective new agricultural technologies unavailable in California.
The infestation, which has been creeping northward inexorably from Mexico, threatens the San Joaquin Valley's 800,000 acres of table, raisin and wine grapes and has been found in Santa Clara, Monterey and Solano counties. Inevitably, the nearby premier winemaking regions of Napa and Sonoma will be next....
California Wine vs. Two-Legged Pests
California is under attack by parasites, of both the six-legged and two-legged variety. The former are glassy-winged sharpshooters, leaf-hopping insects that are among the state's most insidious agricultural pests. They carry Pierce's disease, a lethal bacterial infection of grapevines and other major crops, for which there is no cure. The two-legged parasites are the activists and regulators who are making safe, effective new agricultural technologies unavailable in California.
The infestation, which has been creeping northward inexorably from Mexico, threatens the San Joaquin Valley's 800,000 acres of table, raisin and wine grapes and has been found in Santa Clara, Monterey and Solano counties. Inevitably, the nearby premier winemaking regions of Napa and Sonoma will be next....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
PETA Preys On The Gipper
The self-described "total press sluts" at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have once again crossed the line of decency, this time adding insult to the injury of a recently widowed former First Lady. PETA plans to use the image of the late President Ronald Reagan in a campaign blaming meat consumption for Alzheimer's disease. "Win one for the Gipper," reads the PETA ad. "Animal fats DOUBLE your risk of Alzheimer's," it continues. Nancy Reagan officially informed the animal-rights radicals that their attempt to hijack her husband's image was not welcome. PETA, of course, paid her little heed. The sad truth is that this most recent episode is yet another reminder that PETA is simply more interested in animal rights than in human lives -- as it actively opposes the efforts of scientists to cure or treat Alzheimer's disease.
PETA's position is so radical that president Ingrid Newkirk declared: "Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it." PETA's medical front group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), attacks the Alzheimer's Association, the Alzheimer's Disease Research, and the Alzheimer's Society of Canada because those groups know a cure for the degenerative disease might require the use of animals....
PETA Preys On The Gipper
The self-described "total press sluts" at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have once again crossed the line of decency, this time adding insult to the injury of a recently widowed former First Lady. PETA plans to use the image of the late President Ronald Reagan in a campaign blaming meat consumption for Alzheimer's disease. "Win one for the Gipper," reads the PETA ad. "Animal fats DOUBLE your risk of Alzheimer's," it continues. Nancy Reagan officially informed the animal-rights radicals that their attempt to hijack her husband's image was not welcome. PETA, of course, paid her little heed. The sad truth is that this most recent episode is yet another reminder that PETA is simply more interested in animal rights than in human lives -- as it actively opposes the efforts of scientists to cure or treat Alzheimer's disease.
PETA's position is so radical that president Ingrid Newkirk declared: "Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it." PETA's medical front group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), attacks the Alzheimer's Association, the Alzheimer's Disease Research, and the Alzheimer's Society of Canada because those groups know a cure for the degenerative disease might require the use of animals....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Japan vs. the NGOs
If environmental non-governmental organizations NGOs) were to keep a list of their "most favored nations," one would expect Japan to rank near the top. As any visitor to Japan can attest (I've been there twice), the country's population of 120 million recycles enthusiastically. The Japanese government supports the greens' beloved Kyoto Protocol-itself drafted in Japan. And many Japanese companies loom large in the race to develop so-called "green" technologies. Despite all this, once a year, the Japanese get a kick in the teeth from environmentalists. But this year, the Japanese are kicking back.
What is causing the bad blood between Tokyo and the NGOs? Despite all of Japan's pro-green policies, there is one Japanese policy the NGOs cannot abide: Japan's appetite for whale meat, a tradition with roots in Japan's age-old role as a seafaring nation....
Japan vs. the NGOs
If environmental non-governmental organizations NGOs) were to keep a list of their "most favored nations," one would expect Japan to rank near the top. As any visitor to Japan can attest (I've been there twice), the country's population of 120 million recycles enthusiastically. The Japanese government supports the greens' beloved Kyoto Protocol-itself drafted in Japan. And many Japanese companies loom large in the race to develop so-called "green" technologies. Despite all this, once a year, the Japanese get a kick in the teeth from environmentalists. But this year, the Japanese are kicking back.
What is causing the bad blood between Tokyo and the NGOs? Despite all of Japan's pro-green policies, there is one Japanese policy the NGOs cannot abide: Japan's appetite for whale meat, a tradition with roots in Japan's age-old role as a seafaring nation....
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