NEWS ROUNDUP
Governors Seek Easing of Endangered Species Act Western governors gathered here Friday to plan with the Bush administration and members of Congress how to change the Endangered Species Act, the 31-year-old law they say has imposed costly hardships on the energy industry, developers, loggers and property owners. Battle lines over the Endangered Species Act appear to be forming around two issues. One is critical habitat, the protected area thought to be key to a species' survival and recovery. The other is at what point a small, distinct population of a species warrants listing for federal protection if the larger population elsewhere appears to be healthy....
Environmentalists lose on spending bill From an Alaska land swap to tours of a Georgia barrier island, business interests bested environmentalists in battles that shaped Congress' $388 billion spending bill. The legislation wasn't totally one-sided as it boosted expenditures for operating national parks and continued bans on oil drilling in national monuments and many offshore areas. Lawmakers also omitted business-sought provisions to help a huge Oregon logging project and to ease standards for some pesticide use....
Measure 37 takes effect, offers look into future The first clues to the future of Oregon's landscape under Measure 37 arrived at government offices Thursday in the form of appraisals, maps and land-use horror stories. Cities and counties reported only a trickle of claims on opening day for the voter-approved measure, which requires governments to waive planning rules that hurt a landowner's market value or pay for the financial blow. Most applications Thursday cited common gripes, such as regulations that stop people from splitting rural land or building houses on it. But several inquiries foreshadowed more dramatic requests looming in the weeks ahead....
New Law Extends Fees for Federal Land Use Fees for activities like picnicking, hiking and canoeing in national forests and other public lands that were due to expire will remain for at least another 10 years. The provision was included in a giant spending bill approved by Congress last month, angering advocacy groups for outdoor enthusiasts and lawmakers from the West, the area most affected. The fees, typically $5, are imposed for use of marked trails in wilderness areas, parking at scenic turnouts or access to federal recreation areas. Fees also are charged to enter national parks, or such activities as boat launches and using camp sites. The fees generate about $170 million a year for the Forest Service and the Interior Department, which use the money to maintain restrooms, collect trash and provide other amenities....
Farm Bureau Files Brief to Protect Landowner Rights Working to protect the rights of America’s farm and ranch landowners, the American Farm Bureau Federation today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a property case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case, Kelo v. City of New London, is an appeal by a homeowner in New London, Conn., of a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling. Also joining the brief were 18 state Farm Bureaus. The Farm Bureau brief contends that the state supreme court is incorrectly allowing the city to use eminent domain authority to take private property for the purpose of turning the property over to business developers constructing businesses generating higher taxes....
Arizona may deal water to Nevada Water-starved Nevada could take as much as 1.25 million acre-feet of Arizona's Colorado River allocation under a deal endorsed Thursday by the Central Arizona Project board. Arizona would guarantee the water to Nevada in return for $330 million and a pledge of political support for efforts to restore top-priority status to the Colorado River water that flows to Phoenix and Tucson through the CAP Canal. That support is worth more than the money to Arizona, which is trying to persuade California and the other Colorado River states to rewrite an old deal that left the CAP supply vulnerable to water shortages on the river. Without those changes, the CAP could lose much of its flow before other states had to cut back....
Editorial: Idaho needs to enforce limits on domestic wells The state doesn't even know how many people use domestic water wells — much less abuse them. Cracking down on renegade water users wouldn't be easy, and it probably wouldn't be cheap. But a group of Treasure Valley lawmakers raises a fair point: In the midst of a statewide water crisis, Idaho isn't doing much to enforce limits on domestic water wells. As the 2005 Legislature looks to avert a devastating water battle in southern Idaho, lawmakers also need to get hard numbers about what it would cost to go after domestic water violations, and what the benefits would be....
Area rancher took control of horses J. E. “Big” Johnson, who stood 6-foot-4, weighed 221 pounds, was a man of great physical strength. Legends of his feats are still remembered. Many of his old cowboy friends tell how he was able to hold and throw those “mean little ponies” with only his bare hands. One of the meanest horses Johnson came across at the Horseshoe Ranch was a horse named “Man Eater.” He’d fight a man, run over him, run him out of the corral, and everyone was afraid of him but Johnson. The first cowboy on “Man Eater” was told to ride a little hell out of his system.....
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Friday, December 03, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
U.S. Panel Recommends No Protection for Grouse Amid an intense lobbying effort by energy and ranching interests in the West, a team of Interior Department biologists has recommended that the sage grouse, a bird whose sagebrush territory has been vastly reduced by farming and development, is not threatened with extinction and does not for the moment need to be protected under the Endangered Species Act. Craig Manson, the assistant Interior secretary in charge of the Fish and Wildlife Service, gave word of the recommendation on Thursday to Representative Richard W. Pombo of California, the chairman of the House Committee on Resources and a fierce critic of the Endangered Species Act, Mr. Pombo's press secretary, Brian Kennedy, said. Steve Williams, the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, must make the final decision about whether to put the bird on the endangered list by Dec. 29....
Lawmakers scrutinize wildlife plan Gov. Dave Freudenthal's proposal to create a wildlife trust fund with an initial $75 million endowment was left largely intact by a legislative committee this week. However, members of the Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee did not decide whether to sponsor the "Wildlife and Natural Resource Funding Act" as a bill in the 2005 legislative session. The bill would establish a permanent account, and only the earnings from the investment of the corpus could be spent on wildlife and habitat-related projects. Funding for projects would be dispersed through a grant process....
Suit fights roads in bear country Environmental groups on Thursday sued the federal government over decisions allowing roads to be maintained in grizzly bear habitat in Western Montana and portions of Idaho and Washington. The groups say the estimated 40 or so grizzly bears in the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak mountains are already struggling to survive and that the existing road network contributes to poaching and mistaken killing of grizzlies, which have been under federal protection since 1975. The lawsuit challenges decisions by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2001 and 2004. The decisions, according to the lawsuit, would allow more than 20,000 miles of roads to be maintained in the Kootenai, Lolo, Idaho Panhandle and Colville national forests....
Feds agree to consider Endangered Species Act protection for lamprey The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to review whether four species of lamprey found on the West Coast should be protected by the Endangered Species Act. Under the settlement of a lawsuit filed earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Portland, the agency agreed to make an initial decision by Dec. 20 on whether a yearlong review should be done on the status of Pacific lamprey, river lamprey, western brook lamprey and kern brook lamprey. "Lamprey have declined dramatically and need the safety net of the Endangered Species Act to survive," said Joseph Vaile of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center....
Study says costs for endangered shrew to run into hundreds of thousands The federal government estimates it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to set aside land for an endangered shrew that makes it home in Kern County. A study by the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service says managing land as critical habitat for the Buena Vista Lake shrew will cost somewhere between a little less than 500-hundred thousand dollars to nearly one (m) million dollars. The study also says local government and landowners will have to pay a portion of that cost -- estimated to be about 50-thousand dollars a year....
Governors may push to alter U.S. law Emboldened by their strong showing at the polls, conservatives are mounting an effort to change a federal law that has annoyed them for more than 30 years: the Endangered Species Act. Key players in the coming congressional battle will gather in San Diego today for a two-day conference sponsored by the Western Governors' Association to rehearse their rhetoric, assess one another's weaknesses and recruit allies. The association includes 18 governors – 12 Republicans and six Democrats. The big game trophy either side would love to hang on their wall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will make an appearance. The governor, who has yet to state his position on the landmark federal law enacted in 1973, isn't ready to bestow his formidable endorsement either way....
N.J. Supreme Court calls off bear hunt The state Supreme Court yesterday called a halt to New Jersey's black bear hunt next week, saying the state lacks a comprehensive policy to determine whether a hunt is needed to control the bear population. The court ordered that the hunt be called off until such a policy is adopted by the state Fish and Game Council and approved by state Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell. The decision puts to rest a dispute between Campbell and the council, which approved the seven-day hunt over Campbell's objections....
Native American Small Businesses Can Benefit from Healthy Forests Intiative A full year has passed since the Healthy Forests Initiative was signed into law, and now Native American small businesses have the opportunity to help protect people, communities and the environment. According to a press release from the SBA, nearly 50 percent of all forest fire fighters in the U.S. are Native American. Participation in forest restoration contracts would provide those firefighters with year-round employment through planned burns, forest thinning and restoration projects....
Changes in Bison Range Deal--Signing Delayed The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) are proposing changes to their agreement with the U.S. Department of Interior to turn half of the National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge in Montana over to the tribe, according to a memo released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The changes are intended to quell concerns that have been raised by employees, conservationists and neighbors of the refuge. A signing ceremony for the agreement, reportedly slated for this week, has been postponed a second time to work out even more amendments to the deal....
Locals lash Tallgrass park Many local residents don't expect much from a new group of Kansans out to rescue the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. In fact, they're just plain tired of the whole thing. Since it opened eight years ago in the heart of the Flint Hills, the preserve has not been a good neighbor, they said. Some call it a symbol of economic failure. Initial expectations that a boom would result from hundreds of thousands of tourists visiting the former Z Bar Ranch never happened. Some blame the park for driving away at least one wind-energy farm that would have brought the county money, although state officials said wind energy was part of a much larger issue....
BLM may retreat from oil, gas leasing plans The next federal oil and gas lease auction in Utah will offer more than 112,000 acres of land for drilling, including parcels within a stone's throw of Hovenweep National Monument on the Utah-Colorado border. Archeologists, conservation groups and a former park ranger are protesting, and the Bureau of Land Management said Thursday it may revise the list of parcels that go up for lease next week. The monument protects five prehistoric villages of multistory towers across 20 miles of mesa tops and canyons....
Burns defends provision allowing BLM to sell wild horses An amendment to the federal spending bill that would allow the Bureau of Land Management to sell wild horses and burros won't mean a wholesale slaughter of the herds, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said Thursday. He said he believes that most horses would end up with private owners, not at slaughterhouses. A story on CBS News Wednesday night ignited a firestorm of protest from animal rights activists and horse lovers around the country who say the amendment will doom thousands of animals....
Grass Bank urges ranchers to apply The Heart Mountain Ranch grass bank - operated by The Nature Conservancy - is encouraging conservation-minded cattle owners to apply for the 2005 season. "We're interested in conservation benefits on private as well as public land," said grass bank project director Maria Sonett. She, along with Skip Eastman, run the Powell grass bank. One of five or so operating grass banks in the United States, Heart Mountain Ranch employs short-duration, high-intensity grazing in which cows eat off a pasture for four or five days, then move to another one. The 600-acre grass bank can feed as many as 3,024 animal units per month (AUM) this year, Sonett said. An animal unit is a cow/calf pair. For $15 per AUM, ranchers can participate in the grazing season that runs from mid-May to late September/early October....
US Says No Plans to Sign New Climate Change Pacts The United States, considered an environmental laggard by its critics, is unlikely to sign any new pacts on climate change at a key environmental meeting this month, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Signatories to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change will meet between Dec. 6-17 in Buenos Aires, where many environmentalists hope new far-reaching targets will be made....
Local Rancher Finds Four Cattle Shot at Close Range A local rancher found four of his cattle shot with a double ought buck. Three of the cows are dead and one is struggling to make it. The rancher doesn’t know who shot his cows, but he’s in the Eastern Idaho Grazer’s Association and they’re offering a $3,000 reward to find out. Gary Pratt and his son were trailing cows in the Wolverine area east of Blackfoot when they found some of their herd dead....
Jackson Hole herd headed for slaughter after brucellosis detection Some 550 cattle - a mix of Hereford and Angus Heifers, cows and bulls - are being shipped to slaughter after four of the animals tested positive for brucellosis. The slaughter process, which began Wednesday, ends an era in Jackson Hole ranching, wiping out the Porter family's registered cattle bloodline and casting doubt on the future of the 822-acre ranch, which has been the focus of numerous development plans. But the alternative for the families running the ranch was a year of extensive testing and quarantine. About 200 heifer calves, 6 to 7 months old, will be spared by being spayed and sold to a rancher in Sublette County. Once spayed, the calves do not pose a danger, according to Bret Combs, a veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service....
Rodeo cowboy For a guy who helped raise such a rebel, Lon Timberman's boy turned out to be a fine young man. Six years ago, Kelly Timberman got on his first bareback bronc. Then he had to go home and tell dad what he'd done. Kelly's justification went something like this....
Brazile out to cap an already good year By most standards, Trevor Brazile had a pretty good rodeo year. The Decatur, Texas cowboy has already won $197,396 for 2004 and is well on his way to a third straight world all-around title. He is the only two-event qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo and carries a healthy $59,366 lead over Blair Burk, of Durant, Okla., in the all-around race. Brazile is also eighth in the world tie-down roping standings and 15th among team roping headers. He will rope with Wayne Folmer, of Justin, Texas....
U.S. Panel Recommends No Protection for Grouse Amid an intense lobbying effort by energy and ranching interests in the West, a team of Interior Department biologists has recommended that the sage grouse, a bird whose sagebrush territory has been vastly reduced by farming and development, is not threatened with extinction and does not for the moment need to be protected under the Endangered Species Act. Craig Manson, the assistant Interior secretary in charge of the Fish and Wildlife Service, gave word of the recommendation on Thursday to Representative Richard W. Pombo of California, the chairman of the House Committee on Resources and a fierce critic of the Endangered Species Act, Mr. Pombo's press secretary, Brian Kennedy, said. Steve Williams, the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, must make the final decision about whether to put the bird on the endangered list by Dec. 29....
Lawmakers scrutinize wildlife plan Gov. Dave Freudenthal's proposal to create a wildlife trust fund with an initial $75 million endowment was left largely intact by a legislative committee this week. However, members of the Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee did not decide whether to sponsor the "Wildlife and Natural Resource Funding Act" as a bill in the 2005 legislative session. The bill would establish a permanent account, and only the earnings from the investment of the corpus could be spent on wildlife and habitat-related projects. Funding for projects would be dispersed through a grant process....
Suit fights roads in bear country Environmental groups on Thursday sued the federal government over decisions allowing roads to be maintained in grizzly bear habitat in Western Montana and portions of Idaho and Washington. The groups say the estimated 40 or so grizzly bears in the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak mountains are already struggling to survive and that the existing road network contributes to poaching and mistaken killing of grizzlies, which have been under federal protection since 1975. The lawsuit challenges decisions by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2001 and 2004. The decisions, according to the lawsuit, would allow more than 20,000 miles of roads to be maintained in the Kootenai, Lolo, Idaho Panhandle and Colville national forests....
Feds agree to consider Endangered Species Act protection for lamprey The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to review whether four species of lamprey found on the West Coast should be protected by the Endangered Species Act. Under the settlement of a lawsuit filed earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Portland, the agency agreed to make an initial decision by Dec. 20 on whether a yearlong review should be done on the status of Pacific lamprey, river lamprey, western brook lamprey and kern brook lamprey. "Lamprey have declined dramatically and need the safety net of the Endangered Species Act to survive," said Joseph Vaile of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center....
Study says costs for endangered shrew to run into hundreds of thousands The federal government estimates it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to set aside land for an endangered shrew that makes it home in Kern County. A study by the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service says managing land as critical habitat for the Buena Vista Lake shrew will cost somewhere between a little less than 500-hundred thousand dollars to nearly one (m) million dollars. The study also says local government and landowners will have to pay a portion of that cost -- estimated to be about 50-thousand dollars a year....
Governors may push to alter U.S. law Emboldened by their strong showing at the polls, conservatives are mounting an effort to change a federal law that has annoyed them for more than 30 years: the Endangered Species Act. Key players in the coming congressional battle will gather in San Diego today for a two-day conference sponsored by the Western Governors' Association to rehearse their rhetoric, assess one another's weaknesses and recruit allies. The association includes 18 governors – 12 Republicans and six Democrats. The big game trophy either side would love to hang on their wall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will make an appearance. The governor, who has yet to state his position on the landmark federal law enacted in 1973, isn't ready to bestow his formidable endorsement either way....
N.J. Supreme Court calls off bear hunt The state Supreme Court yesterday called a halt to New Jersey's black bear hunt next week, saying the state lacks a comprehensive policy to determine whether a hunt is needed to control the bear population. The court ordered that the hunt be called off until such a policy is adopted by the state Fish and Game Council and approved by state Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell. The decision puts to rest a dispute between Campbell and the council, which approved the seven-day hunt over Campbell's objections....
Native American Small Businesses Can Benefit from Healthy Forests Intiative A full year has passed since the Healthy Forests Initiative was signed into law, and now Native American small businesses have the opportunity to help protect people, communities and the environment. According to a press release from the SBA, nearly 50 percent of all forest fire fighters in the U.S. are Native American. Participation in forest restoration contracts would provide those firefighters with year-round employment through planned burns, forest thinning and restoration projects....
Changes in Bison Range Deal--Signing Delayed The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) are proposing changes to their agreement with the U.S. Department of Interior to turn half of the National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge in Montana over to the tribe, according to a memo released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The changes are intended to quell concerns that have been raised by employees, conservationists and neighbors of the refuge. A signing ceremony for the agreement, reportedly slated for this week, has been postponed a second time to work out even more amendments to the deal....
Locals lash Tallgrass park Many local residents don't expect much from a new group of Kansans out to rescue the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. In fact, they're just plain tired of the whole thing. Since it opened eight years ago in the heart of the Flint Hills, the preserve has not been a good neighbor, they said. Some call it a symbol of economic failure. Initial expectations that a boom would result from hundreds of thousands of tourists visiting the former Z Bar Ranch never happened. Some blame the park for driving away at least one wind-energy farm that would have brought the county money, although state officials said wind energy was part of a much larger issue....
BLM may retreat from oil, gas leasing plans The next federal oil and gas lease auction in Utah will offer more than 112,000 acres of land for drilling, including parcels within a stone's throw of Hovenweep National Monument on the Utah-Colorado border. Archeologists, conservation groups and a former park ranger are protesting, and the Bureau of Land Management said Thursday it may revise the list of parcels that go up for lease next week. The monument protects five prehistoric villages of multistory towers across 20 miles of mesa tops and canyons....
Burns defends provision allowing BLM to sell wild horses An amendment to the federal spending bill that would allow the Bureau of Land Management to sell wild horses and burros won't mean a wholesale slaughter of the herds, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said Thursday. He said he believes that most horses would end up with private owners, not at slaughterhouses. A story on CBS News Wednesday night ignited a firestorm of protest from animal rights activists and horse lovers around the country who say the amendment will doom thousands of animals....
Grass Bank urges ranchers to apply The Heart Mountain Ranch grass bank - operated by The Nature Conservancy - is encouraging conservation-minded cattle owners to apply for the 2005 season. "We're interested in conservation benefits on private as well as public land," said grass bank project director Maria Sonett. She, along with Skip Eastman, run the Powell grass bank. One of five or so operating grass banks in the United States, Heart Mountain Ranch employs short-duration, high-intensity grazing in which cows eat off a pasture for four or five days, then move to another one. The 600-acre grass bank can feed as many as 3,024 animal units per month (AUM) this year, Sonett said. An animal unit is a cow/calf pair. For $15 per AUM, ranchers can participate in the grazing season that runs from mid-May to late September/early October....
US Says No Plans to Sign New Climate Change Pacts The United States, considered an environmental laggard by its critics, is unlikely to sign any new pacts on climate change at a key environmental meeting this month, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Signatories to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change will meet between Dec. 6-17 in Buenos Aires, where many environmentalists hope new far-reaching targets will be made....
Local Rancher Finds Four Cattle Shot at Close Range A local rancher found four of his cattle shot with a double ought buck. Three of the cows are dead and one is struggling to make it. The rancher doesn’t know who shot his cows, but he’s in the Eastern Idaho Grazer’s Association and they’re offering a $3,000 reward to find out. Gary Pratt and his son were trailing cows in the Wolverine area east of Blackfoot when they found some of their herd dead....
Jackson Hole herd headed for slaughter after brucellosis detection Some 550 cattle - a mix of Hereford and Angus Heifers, cows and bulls - are being shipped to slaughter after four of the animals tested positive for brucellosis. The slaughter process, which began Wednesday, ends an era in Jackson Hole ranching, wiping out the Porter family's registered cattle bloodline and casting doubt on the future of the 822-acre ranch, which has been the focus of numerous development plans. But the alternative for the families running the ranch was a year of extensive testing and quarantine. About 200 heifer calves, 6 to 7 months old, will be spared by being spayed and sold to a rancher in Sublette County. Once spayed, the calves do not pose a danger, according to Bret Combs, a veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service....
Rodeo cowboy For a guy who helped raise such a rebel, Lon Timberman's boy turned out to be a fine young man. Six years ago, Kelly Timberman got on his first bareback bronc. Then he had to go home and tell dad what he'd done. Kelly's justification went something like this....
Brazile out to cap an already good year By most standards, Trevor Brazile had a pretty good rodeo year. The Decatur, Texas cowboy has already won $197,396 for 2004 and is well on his way to a third straight world all-around title. He is the only two-event qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo and carries a healthy $59,366 lead over Blair Burk, of Durant, Okla., in the all-around race. Brazile is also eighth in the world tie-down roping standings and 15th among team roping headers. He will rope with Wayne Folmer, of Justin, Texas....
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Transcript: Bush Selects Johanns for Agriculture Secretary
BUSH: Thank you all. Good morning.
I am pleased to announce my nomination of Governor Mike Johanns to be the secretary of agriculture.
JOHANNS: Thank you, Mr. President.
BUSH: Governor Johanns is an experienced public servant from America's agricultural heartland. As the son of Iowa dairy farmers he grew up close to the land. He will bring to this position a lifetime of involvement in agriculture and a long record of a faithful friend to America's farmers and ranchers.
He will lead an important agency with the executive skill he has learned as mayor and as a two-term governor of Nebraska.
I've known Mike for a number of years going back to my own service as a governor. I know firsthand his deep commitment to a strong farm economy. He's been a leader on drought relief in Nebraska and throughout the Midwest. He's a strong proponent of alternative energy sources, such as ethanol and biodiesel. He's traveled the world to promote American farm exports.
Governor Johanns is a man of action and of complete integrity. He knows how to bring people together to achieve results. He has been a superb leader for the people of Nebraska. And I'm grateful that he's agreed to take on this important new responsibility in my Cabinet....
BUSH: Thank you all. Good morning.
I am pleased to announce my nomination of Governor Mike Johanns to be the secretary of agriculture.
JOHANNS: Thank you, Mr. President.
BUSH: Governor Johanns is an experienced public servant from America's agricultural heartland. As the son of Iowa dairy farmers he grew up close to the land. He will bring to this position a lifetime of involvement in agriculture and a long record of a faithful friend to America's farmers and ranchers.
He will lead an important agency with the executive skill he has learned as mayor and as a two-term governor of Nebraska.
I've known Mike for a number of years going back to my own service as a governor. I know firsthand his deep commitment to a strong farm economy. He's been a leader on drought relief in Nebraska and throughout the Midwest. He's a strong proponent of alternative energy sources, such as ethanol and biodiesel. He's traveled the world to promote American farm exports.
Governor Johanns is a man of action and of complete integrity. He knows how to bring people together to achieve results. He has been a superb leader for the people of Nebraska. And I'm grateful that he's agreed to take on this important new responsibility in my Cabinet....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Supervisor in Fatal Wildfire on Probation A former wildfire crew supervisor blamed for the deaths of two Idaho firefighters last year has been placed on 18 months probation in a plea deal. Alan Hackett, who was fired by the Salmon-Challis National Forest last month, was accused of providing improper supervision and safety to firefighters Jeff Allen, 24, and Shane Heath, 22, who died in a July 2003 wildfire. Allen and Heath were overrun by flames while trying to clear a helicopter landing spot. They twice radioed for help, but it was too smoky to find them when a helicopter was finally sent....
Column: The disappearance of private land The federal government currently owns 671.8 million acres in the United States while adding more acres daily. 57 percent is used for forest and wildlife, 21 percent for grazing, 14 percent for parks and historic sites and 8 percent is listed as remaining uses. Land trusts and groups such as The Nature Conservancy are gobbling up private land at an alarming rate. They are also buying conservation easements which is worse than buying the property outright. Gretchen Randall of Winningreen LLC reports the federal government owns about a third of all land in the U.S., most of it in the western states. States with the largest percentage of federal land ownership as of 9/30/03 are: Nevada 91.9%, Wyoming 50.6%, Alaska 66.7%, Arizona 50.2%, Utah 66.5%, Oregon 49.7%, Idaho 66.4%, California 46.9%....
Circuit court strikes down road hunting law A circuit judge in the heart of pheasant country has fired a round of legal buckshot at a law passed by the 2003 state Legislature giving hunters the right to shoot from public roads at game birds flying over private land. Circuit Judge Kathleen Trandahl of Winner ruled that the law, supported by sportsmen's groups across the state, is an unconstitutional violation of private property rights — in essence, taking without just compensation. But Trandahl's decision, which is almost certain to be appealed to the South Dakota Supreme Court by state Attorney General Larry Long, won't affect road hunting practices immediately....
White House Poised to Increase Pacific Northwest Logging Environmentalists are bracing for stepped-up efforts by a re-elected Bush administration to dramatically increase logging of old-growth trees and other forestlands in the Pacific Northwest over the next four years. "It's going to be harder and harder for us to get the message out that these forests are important…for many reasons, but we're going to work harder than ever," said Susan Ash of the Audubon Society of Portland. Local advocacy groups are marshalling legal, political and activist resources to prevent logging on still-pristine federal lands in the region, but they face an uphill battle....
Column: Wise Guys In 1988, the Wise Use movement was founded out of fear that George Bush Sr. was going to live up to his campaign pledge to be "the environmental president." This cabal of anti-environmental activists, organized by federally subsidized industries dependent on public lands, issued a natal document, the Wise Use Agenda. It called for, among other things: drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, logging Alaska's Tongass National Forest, opening wilderness to energy development, gutting the Endangered Species Act, and privatizing national parks. Today, the reactionary Wise Use Agenda has become the environmental policy of the administration of George Bush Jr....
For Wildlife With Wanderlust, Their Own Highway A corridor of the wild through the high country of North America - Yellowstone to Yukon - has long been a dream of environmentalists and biologists like Mr. Neudecker, who say that grizzly bears, elk, wolves and other four-legged commuters need help in looking for mates or new habitats. The great national parks of the West, they say, are becoming genetically isolated islands, cut off by development, urbanization and their ever-present iconic symbol, the barbed-wire fence. But in places like this, on a patchwork of public and private lands, and through a tangle of human motivations that often have little to do with saving the planet, the wild road north along the spine of the northern Rockies is becoming reality....
Column: Are wolves good or bad? It doesn't matter A wolf is going to be a wolf. Living with wolves is going to cause problems for people. Back in 1995, when wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park, there was simply too much ignorance among bring-back-the-wolf-backers who looked at the 2.2 million acres of the park and thought it was a big place. The park would offer plenty of landscape to absorb a wolf population, they figured. Add in the national forest ground around the park and they figured there was plenty of room for any wolf overflow as well. And hey, look at all those elk and deer and bison that the wolves have to eat in Yellowstone — why would they ever want to leave?....
Advocacy group announces lawsuit over California missions bill An advocacy group announced a lawsuit Wednesday over legislation to restore California's aging Spanish missions, arguing that the law violates the principle of separation of church and state. Americans United for Separation of Church and State said it would file suit against Interior Secretary Gale Norton on behalf of four California residents. Norton's department would distribute $10 million in federal funding under the law, which President Bush signed on Tuesday....
BLM seizes cattle in Blaine County The federal Bureau of Land Management has impounded nine head of cattle it said were grazing on public land in southern Blaine County without a permit. Craig Flentie, spokesman in the BLM Lewistown office, said the bureau believes the cattle belong to Harry and Carolyn Liddle, who ranch in Blaine County. "There's little doubt, but we want to confirm that," he said today....
Wild horse bill pleases cattlemen Congressional action allowing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to sell older wild horses is good news for ranchers, Nevada Cattlemen's Association President Preston Wright of Deeth said Monday. A measure tucked into an appropriations bill Congress passed earlier this month permits BLM to sell wild horses more than 10 years old or horses that no one wants to adopt. "This will allow BLM to sell a backlog of older horses, which should allow them to go ahead with gathers," said Wright....
Bush signs largest lot of Nevada wilderness President Bush has signed into law a measure conservationists say is the single largest designation of federally protected wilderness in Nevada history — a total of about 1,200 square miles north and east of Las Vegas. The new law creates 14 new wilderness areas protecting wildlife habitat, rugged mountain peaks, limestone cliffs, fragile caves and archaeological resources across a total of 768,000 acres, an area about half the size of the state of Delaware. It directs the Bureau of Land Management to auction up to 90,000 acres of federal land in the rural county north of Las Vegas. It also establishes a utility corridor that would allow the Southern Nevada Water Authority to build a pipeline to tap into groundwater in eastern Nevada and draw as much as 200,000 acre-feet of water per year — enough for more than half a million households....
Federal catalyst of Western water policy resigns Bennett Raley, the passionate architect of federal water policy across the West and a central figure in bringing more water to the San Diego region, has joined the exodus from the Bush administration. While not a high-profile figure nationally, Raley wielded tremendous clout over one of California's most precious resources during shortages and skirmishes from the alfalfa fields of Imperial Valley to salmon-spawning stretches of the Trinity River. "He was a pit bull," said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which includes Las Vegas. "He may have had to put on his bully hat every so often, but I believe everything he did was to balance competing interests."....
State to buy land, water rights along Pecos River state judge’s dismissal of a protest filed with the state court by the Tracy-Eddy family of Carlsbad and the Hope Community Ditch clears the way for the state to implement the Pecos River Settlement. State Judge William Bonem dismissed the case Tuesday on the grounds that the objectors did not meet the minimum standards for going to trial. The trial was scheduled to begin in Roswell on Nov. 13. The dismissal of the challenges to the state’s plan to buy land and associated water rights along the Pecos River allows the state to forge ahead with its plan to buy land and associated water rights along the Pecos River to ensure water flows downstream to Texas....
Researchers Scurry To Study Wreckage A grand ghost of the Missouri River has emerged from her watery grave to give modern-day explorers a clue to her past. Researchers are taking advantage of the lowest Missouri River levels in about 30 years to learn more about a 19th century steamboat that sank more than 130 years ago near present-day Goat Island....
Top bareback horse to receive NFR honor One of the top bareback horses in PRCA history will be honored at this year's National Finals Rodeo. Khadafy Skoal, owned by the Powder River Rodeo Company in Wright, Wyo., is being retired after the NFR. The NFR begins Friday at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. The 21-year-old Khadafy Skoal was selected the PRCA bareback horse of the year in 1990, 1995 and 1996. He was also chosen the top bareback horse for the NFR in 1994, 1996 and 1999 and earned eight Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo and 13 Mountain States Circuit awards during its stellar career....
Supervisor in Fatal Wildfire on Probation A former wildfire crew supervisor blamed for the deaths of two Idaho firefighters last year has been placed on 18 months probation in a plea deal. Alan Hackett, who was fired by the Salmon-Challis National Forest last month, was accused of providing improper supervision and safety to firefighters Jeff Allen, 24, and Shane Heath, 22, who died in a July 2003 wildfire. Allen and Heath were overrun by flames while trying to clear a helicopter landing spot. They twice radioed for help, but it was too smoky to find them when a helicopter was finally sent....
Column: The disappearance of private land The federal government currently owns 671.8 million acres in the United States while adding more acres daily. 57 percent is used for forest and wildlife, 21 percent for grazing, 14 percent for parks and historic sites and 8 percent is listed as remaining uses. Land trusts and groups such as The Nature Conservancy are gobbling up private land at an alarming rate. They are also buying conservation easements which is worse than buying the property outright. Gretchen Randall of Winningreen LLC reports the federal government owns about a third of all land in the U.S., most of it in the western states. States with the largest percentage of federal land ownership as of 9/30/03 are: Nevada 91.9%, Wyoming 50.6%, Alaska 66.7%, Arizona 50.2%, Utah 66.5%, Oregon 49.7%, Idaho 66.4%, California 46.9%....
Circuit court strikes down road hunting law A circuit judge in the heart of pheasant country has fired a round of legal buckshot at a law passed by the 2003 state Legislature giving hunters the right to shoot from public roads at game birds flying over private land. Circuit Judge Kathleen Trandahl of Winner ruled that the law, supported by sportsmen's groups across the state, is an unconstitutional violation of private property rights — in essence, taking without just compensation. But Trandahl's decision, which is almost certain to be appealed to the South Dakota Supreme Court by state Attorney General Larry Long, won't affect road hunting practices immediately....
White House Poised to Increase Pacific Northwest Logging Environmentalists are bracing for stepped-up efforts by a re-elected Bush administration to dramatically increase logging of old-growth trees and other forestlands in the Pacific Northwest over the next four years. "It's going to be harder and harder for us to get the message out that these forests are important…for many reasons, but we're going to work harder than ever," said Susan Ash of the Audubon Society of Portland. Local advocacy groups are marshalling legal, political and activist resources to prevent logging on still-pristine federal lands in the region, but they face an uphill battle....
Column: Wise Guys In 1988, the Wise Use movement was founded out of fear that George Bush Sr. was going to live up to his campaign pledge to be "the environmental president." This cabal of anti-environmental activists, organized by federally subsidized industries dependent on public lands, issued a natal document, the Wise Use Agenda. It called for, among other things: drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, logging Alaska's Tongass National Forest, opening wilderness to energy development, gutting the Endangered Species Act, and privatizing national parks. Today, the reactionary Wise Use Agenda has become the environmental policy of the administration of George Bush Jr....
For Wildlife With Wanderlust, Their Own Highway A corridor of the wild through the high country of North America - Yellowstone to Yukon - has long been a dream of environmentalists and biologists like Mr. Neudecker, who say that grizzly bears, elk, wolves and other four-legged commuters need help in looking for mates or new habitats. The great national parks of the West, they say, are becoming genetically isolated islands, cut off by development, urbanization and their ever-present iconic symbol, the barbed-wire fence. But in places like this, on a patchwork of public and private lands, and through a tangle of human motivations that often have little to do with saving the planet, the wild road north along the spine of the northern Rockies is becoming reality....
Column: Are wolves good or bad? It doesn't matter A wolf is going to be a wolf. Living with wolves is going to cause problems for people. Back in 1995, when wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park, there was simply too much ignorance among bring-back-the-wolf-backers who looked at the 2.2 million acres of the park and thought it was a big place. The park would offer plenty of landscape to absorb a wolf population, they figured. Add in the national forest ground around the park and they figured there was plenty of room for any wolf overflow as well. And hey, look at all those elk and deer and bison that the wolves have to eat in Yellowstone — why would they ever want to leave?....
Advocacy group announces lawsuit over California missions bill An advocacy group announced a lawsuit Wednesday over legislation to restore California's aging Spanish missions, arguing that the law violates the principle of separation of church and state. Americans United for Separation of Church and State said it would file suit against Interior Secretary Gale Norton on behalf of four California residents. Norton's department would distribute $10 million in federal funding under the law, which President Bush signed on Tuesday....
BLM seizes cattle in Blaine County The federal Bureau of Land Management has impounded nine head of cattle it said were grazing on public land in southern Blaine County without a permit. Craig Flentie, spokesman in the BLM Lewistown office, said the bureau believes the cattle belong to Harry and Carolyn Liddle, who ranch in Blaine County. "There's little doubt, but we want to confirm that," he said today....
Wild horse bill pleases cattlemen Congressional action allowing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to sell older wild horses is good news for ranchers, Nevada Cattlemen's Association President Preston Wright of Deeth said Monday. A measure tucked into an appropriations bill Congress passed earlier this month permits BLM to sell wild horses more than 10 years old or horses that no one wants to adopt. "This will allow BLM to sell a backlog of older horses, which should allow them to go ahead with gathers," said Wright....
Bush signs largest lot of Nevada wilderness President Bush has signed into law a measure conservationists say is the single largest designation of federally protected wilderness in Nevada history — a total of about 1,200 square miles north and east of Las Vegas. The new law creates 14 new wilderness areas protecting wildlife habitat, rugged mountain peaks, limestone cliffs, fragile caves and archaeological resources across a total of 768,000 acres, an area about half the size of the state of Delaware. It directs the Bureau of Land Management to auction up to 90,000 acres of federal land in the rural county north of Las Vegas. It also establishes a utility corridor that would allow the Southern Nevada Water Authority to build a pipeline to tap into groundwater in eastern Nevada and draw as much as 200,000 acre-feet of water per year — enough for more than half a million households....
Federal catalyst of Western water policy resigns Bennett Raley, the passionate architect of federal water policy across the West and a central figure in bringing more water to the San Diego region, has joined the exodus from the Bush administration. While not a high-profile figure nationally, Raley wielded tremendous clout over one of California's most precious resources during shortages and skirmishes from the alfalfa fields of Imperial Valley to salmon-spawning stretches of the Trinity River. "He was a pit bull," said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which includes Las Vegas. "He may have had to put on his bully hat every so often, but I believe everything he did was to balance competing interests."....
State to buy land, water rights along Pecos River state judge’s dismissal of a protest filed with the state court by the Tracy-Eddy family of Carlsbad and the Hope Community Ditch clears the way for the state to implement the Pecos River Settlement. State Judge William Bonem dismissed the case Tuesday on the grounds that the objectors did not meet the minimum standards for going to trial. The trial was scheduled to begin in Roswell on Nov. 13. The dismissal of the challenges to the state’s plan to buy land and associated water rights along the Pecos River allows the state to forge ahead with its plan to buy land and associated water rights along the Pecos River to ensure water flows downstream to Texas....
Researchers Scurry To Study Wreckage A grand ghost of the Missouri River has emerged from her watery grave to give modern-day explorers a clue to her past. Researchers are taking advantage of the lowest Missouri River levels in about 30 years to learn more about a 19th century steamboat that sank more than 130 years ago near present-day Goat Island....
Top bareback horse to receive NFR honor One of the top bareback horses in PRCA history will be honored at this year's National Finals Rodeo. Khadafy Skoal, owned by the Powder River Rodeo Company in Wright, Wyo., is being retired after the NFR. The NFR begins Friday at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. The 21-year-old Khadafy Skoal was selected the PRCA bareback horse of the year in 1990, 1995 and 1996. He was also chosen the top bareback horse for the NFR in 1994, 1996 and 1999 and earned eight Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo and 13 Mountain States Circuit awards during its stellar career....
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Men Arrested for Dumping Dirt in a Forest Two men have been arrested for dumping dirt in a national forest. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department said the men, who have not been publicly identified, were arrested at a garage in Coeur d'Alene where the dirt had been removed and the base apparently prepared for paving. Deputy Robert Gomez said the U.S. Forest Service confirmed that it was illegal to dump anything, including dirt, on the federal land. Gomez said he asked the two men about dumping dirt in the national forest "and they went off on a tirade about Mother Earth."....
Helicopter skiing once again raises ire of environmentalists A new battle is brewing over helicopter skiing in the Wasatch Mountains. In the latest installment of what has become an almost regular skirmish, Save Our Canyons Executive Director Lisa Smith said this week that the organization will appeal the new five-year permit approved in October for Wasatch Powderbird Guides, charging that the Forest Service reneged on promises to monitor golden eagle nesting areas during the previous permit period (2000-04) and granted variances to land helicopters in known nesting zones. Save Our Canyons previously appealed the permit Wasatch Powderbirds was awarded in 1999, and has long opposed helicopter skiing in the canyons. The new permit takes effect in January....
Bush to dramatically reduce areas protected for salmon The Bush administration plans to reduce by more than 80 percent the miles of rivers and streams it designates as critical to the recovery of troubled Northwest runs of salmon and steelhead, and plans to cut such habitat protections at the region's military bases. The Bush administration plans to reduce by more than 80 percent the miles of rivers and streams it designates as critical to the recovery of troubled Northwest runs of salmon and steelhead, and plans to cut such habitat protections at the region's military bases. The administration also will study whether it should scale back similar protections on thousands of additional miles of streams protected under the Northwest Forest Plan, which imposed logging restrictions on federal land to help bring back spotted owls. In a new, narrower interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration yesterday said for the first time that it wants to safeguard as "critical" only those waterways currently occupied by salmon and steelhead — not areas that might be considered part of a fish's historic range....
Dam removal isn't an option under Bush's plan The Bush administration yesterday finalized a plan that seeks to protect Columbia River Basin salmon without resorting to removing any dams — even as a last-ditch option. The plan represents a controversial policy shift from the Clinton administration, which ruled four years ago that dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers jeopardized runs of salmon classified as threatened and endangered....
Pombo wants Schwarzenegger, other govs to help change Endangered Species Act The California rancher and congressman whose committee oversees environmental policy wants to enlist some home-state muscle in his campaign to rewrite the Endangered Species Act. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said he'll seek backing for his legislative efforts from Arnold Schwarzenegger and other Western state governors during a meeting this weekend of the Western Governors' Association....
Owens calls for reform of Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act is an unproductive act that should be reformed, Gov. Bill Owens said on Tuesday.
Signed into law 30 years ago by President Nixon, the measure was intended to conserve and recover threatened or endangered species in danger of becoming extinct. "More than 1,000 species have been listed under the act, but less than 1 percent has been successfully recovered (from extinction)," Owens told business executives at his Political Outlook 2005 briefing. "We have a better way of protecting endangered species than what the history of ESA has shown us in the past 30 years."....
Environmentalists fear next 4 years Environmentalists see some of their worst fears playing out as President Bush moves to cement a second-term agenda that includes getting more timber, oil and gas from public lands and relying on the market rather than regulation to curb pollution. Bush's top energy priority - opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling - is shaping up as an early test of GOP gains in Congress. "This is going to be a definitional battle, and we're ready," said Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters....
4 Wolves dead - Alaska issues aerial wolf gunning permits Four wolves were killed over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) issued new permits allowing the killing of wolves from airplanes in Alaska’s interior. The new permits were the first issued this season. One hundred forty-seven wolves were killed last year as the Alaska Board of Game resumed the practice of aerial killing, despite the fact Alaskans have twice voted to ban the practice (1996 and 2000) in statewide referenda. ADF&G wants at least 500 wolves killed this winter, while the Board of Game has targeted nearly 1,000 wolves through 7 approved aerial killing programs....
Column: Something to really grouse about One man's dream, they say, is another man's nightmare. But in the case of Craig Dremann, a retired "ecological restorationist," the dream of saving the habitat of the greater sage-grouse could become a horror story for land users in the 11 Western states where the bird lives and for Americans elsewhere who eat the food grown there or heat their homes with energy produced from the area's natural gas deposits. Dremann is a sincere, thoughtful advocate of environmental stewardship, who does not believe his vision for sagebrush country conflicts with the long-term interests of other users of this land. Yet, his potential success in using the Endangered Species Act (ESA) demonstrates there is something terribly wrong with this law....
Group wants sage grouse to be state bird Wyoming's official state bird will remain the Western meadowlark, at least for now. The Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Interim Committee decided Tuesday to not sponsor a bill that would designate the greater sage grouse as Wyoming's official state game bird and demote the Western meadowlark to the state's official songbird....
Study group recommends compromise on landowner control of hunters Western South Dakota landowners should get more control over who gets licenses to hunt deer on their land, a special study group recommended Tuesday. But the West River Issues Working Group remained deeply split on whether to limit game wardens' ability to enter private land to check whether hunters are following the law. The panel was appointed to study ways to improve relations between hunters and landowners, particularly in western South Dakota. It will present its recommendations to the state Game, Fish and Parks Commission at a Dec. 9 meeting in Pierre....
Coyotes making home in city park Coyotes have ventured into a new territory — the wooded hills of the District's Rock Creek Park. Several of the wolf-like canines have been spotted in the park in the past few months. Adrian Coleman, superintendent for the park, said a few park visitors had reported seeing the animals, but their presence in the area was not confirmed until a park official saw a coyote in mid-September. Coyotes slowly have migrated to the eastern United States in the past century, but this fall's sightings are the first to be documented in the District....
Mountain lions on the prowl once again Mountain lions aren't supposed to exist in the wild within 1,000 miles of here. These ferocious predators — also called cougars, panthers, pumas, catamounts and other names — were hunted into extinction in most Eastern and Midwestern states during the 1800s and early 1900s. The animal's only known habitat since about 1900 has been Western states and southwest Florida, where 50 to 100 panthers survive. But the mountain lion is moving east again, expanding its territory for the first time in a century. More than two-dozen mountain lions have been killed or photographed outside the animal's normal range since 2000....
Park Service denies church expansion The exterior of Grace Episcopal Church, which has endured two wars and the fire of 1814, has survived again. The National Park Service rejected the church's application to build an addition to make room for a growing congregation. The park service ruled that such an addition would violate an agreement signed by Grace parishioners in 1958, in which the church gave the service veto power over physical changes to the building....
Private fence at Hatteras must go, park service says When Hurricane Isabel wiped out dunes that protected an upscale subdivision from the ocean, the property owners paid thousands of dollars to have the dune rebuilt and sprigged with sea grass. Then they built a sand fence parallel to the shore. With winter winds blowing sand laterally on the beach, the Hatteras By the Sea homeowners association thought it would make sense to construct another $2,000 sand fence this fall and catch the material to reinforce their berm, just like at the new dune north of the village. But the National Park Service said the angled fence, located seaward of the dune, is not permitted on its beach and wants it removed....
Government to spend $100 million acquiring mountain land President Bush has signed into law a plan to spend $10 million a year for 10 years buying land in the Highlands, a swath of the Appalachian Mountains through New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania that includes southern Dutchess County. Another $1 million per year would fund Forest Service activities in the region....
Environmental Comic Strip 'Rustle the Leaf' Uses Humor to Change Attitudes, Behavior The Earth has a new ally in the struggle to communicate environmental messages and educational content. He is the leaf of a Butternut tree, and his name is Rustle. Along with his friends--a wise-cracking acorn sprout, a dejected dandelion seed and an adventurous drop of water, Rustle the Leaf is delivering punch lines with a purpose: change people’s attitudes--and eventually their behavior--toward all things environmental. “There’s been an unfortunate disconnect between otherwise responsible people and environmental issues,” says Rustle the Leaf creator and co-writer Dave Ponce. The comic strip is created and posted weekly at http://www.rustletheleaf.com....
Plan to release more delta water stirs controversy A plan to increase freshwater pumping from the delta is pitting Central Valley farmers who want the water for their crops against environmentalists and delta farmers who fear the move will undermine years of fishery and water quality restoration efforts. The proposal would increase the amount of water pumped out of the San Joaquin-Sacramento river delta, a fragile ecosystem that already supplies water for 22 million Californians as far south as Los Angeles and irrigates millions of acres of Central Valley farmland....
80 Year Old Law Of The River Under Scrutiny Las Vegas gets ninety percent of its water from Lake Mead, but it won't be enough for our future. There are several things causing our water problems. Some people point to the fact that we're living with rules that began taking shape more than 80 years ago, the law of the river. In the 1920's, Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas was full of Model T's and Packards. The town had about five thousand residents. There was plenty of water to go around, even before a headline in the Las Vegas Evening Review Journal announced that a new dam would supply water to much of the southwest. With the new dam, and the creation of Lake Mead, came a fight over water rights. California and their farmers were the big winners in the law of the river that began taking shape in the 1920's, securing 4.4 million acre feet a year from the new lake. Arizona got a big chunk, 2.85 million acre feet, and sleepy Nevada just three hundred thousand acre feet. Some people say it hardly seems fair some 80 years later, now that five thousand people have turned into 1.7 million residents....
Bush Says Canada Cattle Plan Should Be `Expedited' U.S. President George W. Bush said he told his budget office to ``expedite'' action on a proposal to allow cattle imports from Canada ``as soon as possible.'' The U.S. banned such imports in May 2003 because of mad cow disease. Bush spoke to reporters during a joint press conference in Ottawa with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. He said a proposal to open the border to cattle from Canada that was sent to his budget office last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture must go through the regulatory process....
Nanny sues "IMUS" after Ranch ruckus A New York woman who worked as a nanny for Don Imus and his wife Deirdre has sued the radio host for wrongful termination. Cathleen Mallette, 24, says she was fired after bringing a harmless cap-gun and pocket-knife with her during a trip last Thanksgiving to Imus's sprawling New Mexico ranch. In her New York State Supreme Court lawsuit filed November 29, 2004, she also claimed that she was defamed when Imus later announced on his program that he had been forced to "disarm" his nanny, whom he labeled as dangerous and a "terrorist."....
Local cowgirl goes through Army mini-basic training Victoria cowgirl Brittany Pozzi prefers to leave running to her barrel horses, so she admittedly wasn't prepared for the rigors of mini-basic combat training, which she and six other rodeo contestants recently endured at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. Pozzi is among eight rodeo contestants sponsored by the U.S. Army. The Army's sponsorship makes it easier for Pozzi and the others to rodeo. But in return, the Army wanted them to get a glimpse of a soldier's life. "It was exhausting," Pozzi, 20, said the week following the day and a half of training. "We had to do everything. We ran and exercised with the troops."....
Baxter Black, Cowboy Poet Baxter Black, described by the New York Times as '…probably the nation's most successful living poet,"…thinks it's an exaggeration. This former large animal veterinarian can be followed nationwide through his column, National Public Radio, public appearances, television and also through his books, cd's, videos and website, www.baxterblack.com. Baxter lives in Benson, Arizona, between the Gila River and the Gila monster, the Mexican border and the Border Patrol and between the horse and the cow---where the action is. He still doesn't own a television or a cell phone, and his idea of a modern convenience is Velcro chaps....
Jewish cowboy Hy Burstein writes book on his worldly horseback adventures In his stetson, boots, sheepskin coat and neckerchief, Hy Burstein is every inch the raw-boned, western cowboy, part Grey Fox, part Ben Cartwright. But Burstein, as his name suggests, is a most unlikely cowpoke. He's Jewish. It's a fact he didn't shy away from when he was persuaded to write a book about his riding adventures around the world. Ride 'em Jewish Cowboy chronicles the estimated 50,000 kilometres he's ridden, not just in North America but through the off-road territories of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Ireland, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Africa, Australia, Mexico and India (where he also rode an elephant)....
Men Arrested for Dumping Dirt in a Forest Two men have been arrested for dumping dirt in a national forest. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department said the men, who have not been publicly identified, were arrested at a garage in Coeur d'Alene where the dirt had been removed and the base apparently prepared for paving. Deputy Robert Gomez said the U.S. Forest Service confirmed that it was illegal to dump anything, including dirt, on the federal land. Gomez said he asked the two men about dumping dirt in the national forest "and they went off on a tirade about Mother Earth."....
Helicopter skiing once again raises ire of environmentalists A new battle is brewing over helicopter skiing in the Wasatch Mountains. In the latest installment of what has become an almost regular skirmish, Save Our Canyons Executive Director Lisa Smith said this week that the organization will appeal the new five-year permit approved in October for Wasatch Powderbird Guides, charging that the Forest Service reneged on promises to monitor golden eagle nesting areas during the previous permit period (2000-04) and granted variances to land helicopters in known nesting zones. Save Our Canyons previously appealed the permit Wasatch Powderbirds was awarded in 1999, and has long opposed helicopter skiing in the canyons. The new permit takes effect in January....
Bush to dramatically reduce areas protected for salmon The Bush administration plans to reduce by more than 80 percent the miles of rivers and streams it designates as critical to the recovery of troubled Northwest runs of salmon and steelhead, and plans to cut such habitat protections at the region's military bases. The Bush administration plans to reduce by more than 80 percent the miles of rivers and streams it designates as critical to the recovery of troubled Northwest runs of salmon and steelhead, and plans to cut such habitat protections at the region's military bases. The administration also will study whether it should scale back similar protections on thousands of additional miles of streams protected under the Northwest Forest Plan, which imposed logging restrictions on federal land to help bring back spotted owls. In a new, narrower interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration yesterday said for the first time that it wants to safeguard as "critical" only those waterways currently occupied by salmon and steelhead — not areas that might be considered part of a fish's historic range....
Dam removal isn't an option under Bush's plan The Bush administration yesterday finalized a plan that seeks to protect Columbia River Basin salmon without resorting to removing any dams — even as a last-ditch option. The plan represents a controversial policy shift from the Clinton administration, which ruled four years ago that dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers jeopardized runs of salmon classified as threatened and endangered....
Pombo wants Schwarzenegger, other govs to help change Endangered Species Act The California rancher and congressman whose committee oversees environmental policy wants to enlist some home-state muscle in his campaign to rewrite the Endangered Species Act. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said he'll seek backing for his legislative efforts from Arnold Schwarzenegger and other Western state governors during a meeting this weekend of the Western Governors' Association....
Owens calls for reform of Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act is an unproductive act that should be reformed, Gov. Bill Owens said on Tuesday.
Signed into law 30 years ago by President Nixon, the measure was intended to conserve and recover threatened or endangered species in danger of becoming extinct. "More than 1,000 species have been listed under the act, but less than 1 percent has been successfully recovered (from extinction)," Owens told business executives at his Political Outlook 2005 briefing. "We have a better way of protecting endangered species than what the history of ESA has shown us in the past 30 years."....
Environmentalists fear next 4 years Environmentalists see some of their worst fears playing out as President Bush moves to cement a second-term agenda that includes getting more timber, oil and gas from public lands and relying on the market rather than regulation to curb pollution. Bush's top energy priority - opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling - is shaping up as an early test of GOP gains in Congress. "This is going to be a definitional battle, and we're ready," said Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters....
4 Wolves dead - Alaska issues aerial wolf gunning permits Four wolves were killed over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) issued new permits allowing the killing of wolves from airplanes in Alaska’s interior. The new permits were the first issued this season. One hundred forty-seven wolves were killed last year as the Alaska Board of Game resumed the practice of aerial killing, despite the fact Alaskans have twice voted to ban the practice (1996 and 2000) in statewide referenda. ADF&G wants at least 500 wolves killed this winter, while the Board of Game has targeted nearly 1,000 wolves through 7 approved aerial killing programs....
Column: Something to really grouse about One man's dream, they say, is another man's nightmare. But in the case of Craig Dremann, a retired "ecological restorationist," the dream of saving the habitat of the greater sage-grouse could become a horror story for land users in the 11 Western states where the bird lives and for Americans elsewhere who eat the food grown there or heat their homes with energy produced from the area's natural gas deposits. Dremann is a sincere, thoughtful advocate of environmental stewardship, who does not believe his vision for sagebrush country conflicts with the long-term interests of other users of this land. Yet, his potential success in using the Endangered Species Act (ESA) demonstrates there is something terribly wrong with this law....
Group wants sage grouse to be state bird Wyoming's official state bird will remain the Western meadowlark, at least for now. The Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Interim Committee decided Tuesday to not sponsor a bill that would designate the greater sage grouse as Wyoming's official state game bird and demote the Western meadowlark to the state's official songbird....
Study group recommends compromise on landowner control of hunters Western South Dakota landowners should get more control over who gets licenses to hunt deer on their land, a special study group recommended Tuesday. But the West River Issues Working Group remained deeply split on whether to limit game wardens' ability to enter private land to check whether hunters are following the law. The panel was appointed to study ways to improve relations between hunters and landowners, particularly in western South Dakota. It will present its recommendations to the state Game, Fish and Parks Commission at a Dec. 9 meeting in Pierre....
Coyotes making home in city park Coyotes have ventured into a new territory — the wooded hills of the District's Rock Creek Park. Several of the wolf-like canines have been spotted in the park in the past few months. Adrian Coleman, superintendent for the park, said a few park visitors had reported seeing the animals, but their presence in the area was not confirmed until a park official saw a coyote in mid-September. Coyotes slowly have migrated to the eastern United States in the past century, but this fall's sightings are the first to be documented in the District....
Mountain lions on the prowl once again Mountain lions aren't supposed to exist in the wild within 1,000 miles of here. These ferocious predators — also called cougars, panthers, pumas, catamounts and other names — were hunted into extinction in most Eastern and Midwestern states during the 1800s and early 1900s. The animal's only known habitat since about 1900 has been Western states and southwest Florida, where 50 to 100 panthers survive. But the mountain lion is moving east again, expanding its territory for the first time in a century. More than two-dozen mountain lions have been killed or photographed outside the animal's normal range since 2000....
Park Service denies church expansion The exterior of Grace Episcopal Church, which has endured two wars and the fire of 1814, has survived again. The National Park Service rejected the church's application to build an addition to make room for a growing congregation. The park service ruled that such an addition would violate an agreement signed by Grace parishioners in 1958, in which the church gave the service veto power over physical changes to the building....
Private fence at Hatteras must go, park service says When Hurricane Isabel wiped out dunes that protected an upscale subdivision from the ocean, the property owners paid thousands of dollars to have the dune rebuilt and sprigged with sea grass. Then they built a sand fence parallel to the shore. With winter winds blowing sand laterally on the beach, the Hatteras By the Sea homeowners association thought it would make sense to construct another $2,000 sand fence this fall and catch the material to reinforce their berm, just like at the new dune north of the village. But the National Park Service said the angled fence, located seaward of the dune, is not permitted on its beach and wants it removed....
Government to spend $100 million acquiring mountain land President Bush has signed into law a plan to spend $10 million a year for 10 years buying land in the Highlands, a swath of the Appalachian Mountains through New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania that includes southern Dutchess County. Another $1 million per year would fund Forest Service activities in the region....
Environmental Comic Strip 'Rustle the Leaf' Uses Humor to Change Attitudes, Behavior The Earth has a new ally in the struggle to communicate environmental messages and educational content. He is the leaf of a Butternut tree, and his name is Rustle. Along with his friends--a wise-cracking acorn sprout, a dejected dandelion seed and an adventurous drop of water, Rustle the Leaf is delivering punch lines with a purpose: change people’s attitudes--and eventually their behavior--toward all things environmental. “There’s been an unfortunate disconnect between otherwise responsible people and environmental issues,” says Rustle the Leaf creator and co-writer Dave Ponce. The comic strip is created and posted weekly at http://www.rustletheleaf.com....
Plan to release more delta water stirs controversy A plan to increase freshwater pumping from the delta is pitting Central Valley farmers who want the water for their crops against environmentalists and delta farmers who fear the move will undermine years of fishery and water quality restoration efforts. The proposal would increase the amount of water pumped out of the San Joaquin-Sacramento river delta, a fragile ecosystem that already supplies water for 22 million Californians as far south as Los Angeles and irrigates millions of acres of Central Valley farmland....
80 Year Old Law Of The River Under Scrutiny Las Vegas gets ninety percent of its water from Lake Mead, but it won't be enough for our future. There are several things causing our water problems. Some people point to the fact that we're living with rules that began taking shape more than 80 years ago, the law of the river. In the 1920's, Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas was full of Model T's and Packards. The town had about five thousand residents. There was plenty of water to go around, even before a headline in the Las Vegas Evening Review Journal announced that a new dam would supply water to much of the southwest. With the new dam, and the creation of Lake Mead, came a fight over water rights. California and their farmers were the big winners in the law of the river that began taking shape in the 1920's, securing 4.4 million acre feet a year from the new lake. Arizona got a big chunk, 2.85 million acre feet, and sleepy Nevada just three hundred thousand acre feet. Some people say it hardly seems fair some 80 years later, now that five thousand people have turned into 1.7 million residents....
Bush Says Canada Cattle Plan Should Be `Expedited' U.S. President George W. Bush said he told his budget office to ``expedite'' action on a proposal to allow cattle imports from Canada ``as soon as possible.'' The U.S. banned such imports in May 2003 because of mad cow disease. Bush spoke to reporters during a joint press conference in Ottawa with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. He said a proposal to open the border to cattle from Canada that was sent to his budget office last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture must go through the regulatory process....
Nanny sues "IMUS" after Ranch ruckus A New York woman who worked as a nanny for Don Imus and his wife Deirdre has sued the radio host for wrongful termination. Cathleen Mallette, 24, says she was fired after bringing a harmless cap-gun and pocket-knife with her during a trip last Thanksgiving to Imus's sprawling New Mexico ranch. In her New York State Supreme Court lawsuit filed November 29, 2004, she also claimed that she was defamed when Imus later announced on his program that he had been forced to "disarm" his nanny, whom he labeled as dangerous and a "terrorist."....
Local cowgirl goes through Army mini-basic training Victoria cowgirl Brittany Pozzi prefers to leave running to her barrel horses, so she admittedly wasn't prepared for the rigors of mini-basic combat training, which she and six other rodeo contestants recently endured at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. Pozzi is among eight rodeo contestants sponsored by the U.S. Army. The Army's sponsorship makes it easier for Pozzi and the others to rodeo. But in return, the Army wanted them to get a glimpse of a soldier's life. "It was exhausting," Pozzi, 20, said the week following the day and a half of training. "We had to do everything. We ran and exercised with the troops."....
Baxter Black, Cowboy Poet Baxter Black, described by the New York Times as '…probably the nation's most successful living poet,"…thinks it's an exaggeration. This former large animal veterinarian can be followed nationwide through his column, National Public Radio, public appearances, television and also through his books, cd's, videos and website, www.baxterblack.com. Baxter lives in Benson, Arizona, between the Gila River and the Gila monster, the Mexican border and the Border Patrol and between the horse and the cow---where the action is. He still doesn't own a television or a cell phone, and his idea of a modern convenience is Velcro chaps....
Jewish cowboy Hy Burstein writes book on his worldly horseback adventures In his stetson, boots, sheepskin coat and neckerchief, Hy Burstein is every inch the raw-boned, western cowboy, part Grey Fox, part Ben Cartwright. But Burstein, as his name suggests, is a most unlikely cowpoke. He's Jewish. It's a fact he didn't shy away from when he was persuaded to write a book about his riding adventures around the world. Ride 'em Jewish Cowboy chronicles the estimated 50,000 kilometres he's ridden, not just in North America but through the off-road territories of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Ireland, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Africa, Australia, Mexico and India (where he also rode an elephant)....
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Provision targets wild horses for slaughter Congress has inserted a provision in this year's spending bill that would allow the slaughter of thousands of wild horses rounded up in Western states for sale in foreign meat markets. The proposed new government policy is wise wildlife management, backers say. But the rule change has enraged activists dedicated to preserving the estimated 37,000 wild horses and burros still roaming free in the West. Sen. Conrad Burns, Montana Republican and one of the authors of the proposed rules change, said the measure is "a step in the right direction." "We've got to get the number of animals down to appropriate management levels and keep them there, but do it in a way that doesn't bankrupt us," he said. It will give the Bureau of Land Management "another tool to help get this under control."....
Mule Deer Avoid Areas with Significant Natural Gas Development A study funded by Questar Exploration and Production Company and the BLM was made public this month and shows that natural gas development in the Upper Green River Valley of Wyoming is affecting the distribution patterns of wintering mule deer. The study is being conducted by Hall Sawyer, a wildlife biologist with Western Ecosystems Technology, Inc. “This report shows that energy development is forcing mule deer out of their natural winter range habitat,” said hunter and outfitter Tory Taylor of Taylor Outfitters of Dubois, Wyoming....
For years, man's 23 acres are nonexistent For almost 40 years, Fred Gruner paid taxes on 23 acres of hilltop land in Lakeside that – on a clear day – boasts grand views of the Coronado Islands. There's just one problem: The land doesn't exist. Thanks to a federal mapping error more than 100 years ago, the acreage exists on paper, but not in reality....
Recreationists cheer proposed travel limits for Roan plateau Some Rifle-area recreationists say the Bureau of Land Management is headed down the right path with a proposal to permanently limit summer vehicle travel to designated routes on the Roan Plateau. "None of us want anybody to go off trails whatsoever. We all believe in maintaining the integrity of a small, narrow path," said Gary Miller, a Rifle mountain biker. A temporary ban on off-road and off-trail travel has been in place since 2000 on the 56,000 acres on the plateau that Congress transferred from the Department of Energy to the Department of Interior in 1997....
Old Laws vs. New Techniques Federal antitrust legislation that was passed more than a century ago to ensure fair trade and competition among large corporations now stands as an impediment to modern ecosystem management – a concept considered critical for effective environmental protection. It is becoming difficult to balance laws that forbid companies from sharing information and collaborating with each other, and innovative land management systems that almost require such close cooperation, forestry researchers from Oregon State University conclude in a new report....
Don't have a cow, man - trampled habitat is fine Good habitat management sometimes makes strange bedfellows. Take, for example, the tale of the quail and the cow. This is no fable. Parts of some state wildlife areas along the South Platte River are bare and trampled, as if a herd of wild bison had stampeded through, eating almost everything in sight. Gorman said selective livestock grazing is part of the agency's plan for improving habitat for bobwhite quail, pheasants, turkeys, songbirds, deer and other wildlife along the river. Where cows are allowed to munch, dense thickets of mature cover give way to open terrain. Sunlight enters and the disturbed soil brings forth new life in the form of annual forbs - weeds, if you will. Quail, in particular, thrive on the new seed crop. The South Platte River corridor is the nearest Colorado comes to having a quail capital, but much of it is too overgrown for quail....
More Padre gas wells are backed A Corpus Christi-based company is on its way to drilling five more natural gas wells in Padre Island National Seashore. The National Park Service has recommended allowing BNP Petroleum Corp. to drill the wells despite protests from the Sierra Club and other environmentalists. In its environmental assessment, the park service acknowledged the best environmental alternative is to not allow the drilling. But the federal agency is compelled by law to allow the wells, park Superintendent Colin Campbell said. That's because Padre Island National Seashore was created in 1962 under a deal that allowed state and private interests to retain their subsurface mineral rights under the park and in the nearby waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Laguna Madre....
Ocean-advocacy groups find success backing GOP One group of environmental lobbyists had success this past election with a surprising but effective strategy: supporting Republicans. The lobbyists, who focus on ocean policy, say they are making a serious effort to find new and returning Republican lawmakers to whom they can give money and support....
President Bush to Get a Taste of Alberta’s Beef during Discussions with the Canadian Prime Minster Canadian beef is on both the agenda and the dinner plate for tomorrow's summit between Paul Martin and George W. Bush. The Prime Minister will press the President to accelerate his government's efforts to reopen U.S. markets to Canadian cattle and softwood lumber, senior Canadian officials said yesterday. And they defended the cheeky decision to serve Mr. and Mrs. Bush a plate of Alberta beef at a gala state dinner tomorrow night. One senior official said Mr. Bush is unlikely to be offended because he has consistently supported Canada's bid to get the U.S. border reopened to Canadian cattle, insisting any ban ''should be guided by science and the regulatory process'' rather than fear....
Cemetery excavation reveals gunslinger's grave Anthropologists theorize that a skeleton excavated from a frontier-era cemetery belonged to gunslinger Cy Williams. Bullet holes suggest that the Caucasian man, who was around 35 when he died, had been felled by a bullet before being dispatched with a shot to the head. Also, the body was buried with three slightly worn nickels dated 1866 and 1867. That suggests the man was buried in 1868 or 1869, according to David Darlington, an adjunct professor at Western Wyoming Community College. "Williams was considered a bad character and had killed a wagon master by the name of Lewis Simpson at fort Laramie," said Darlington, who has drafted a paper on the subject....
Cowboy caught with pants down A red-faced cowboy was found hanging from a fence with his pants down during the weekend, a victim of mixing too much alcohol with too much chain link. According to Regina police, the unidentified man, fortified by more than a few drinks, tried to climb a fence as he was leaving an agriculture festival late Saturday. His pant leg got caught, leaving him dangling upside down. When nobody came to his aid, he reached for his cellphone, which fell out of his pocket onto the ground, just out of reach. The man unzipped his pants so he could slide out of his predicament. But his feet were trapped above his head and he could only wiggle his blue jeans down to his knees. He managed to wiggle enough to dial 911 on his cellphone....
Provision targets wild horses for slaughter Congress has inserted a provision in this year's spending bill that would allow the slaughter of thousands of wild horses rounded up in Western states for sale in foreign meat markets. The proposed new government policy is wise wildlife management, backers say. But the rule change has enraged activists dedicated to preserving the estimated 37,000 wild horses and burros still roaming free in the West. Sen. Conrad Burns, Montana Republican and one of the authors of the proposed rules change, said the measure is "a step in the right direction." "We've got to get the number of animals down to appropriate management levels and keep them there, but do it in a way that doesn't bankrupt us," he said. It will give the Bureau of Land Management "another tool to help get this under control."....
Mule Deer Avoid Areas with Significant Natural Gas Development A study funded by Questar Exploration and Production Company and the BLM was made public this month and shows that natural gas development in the Upper Green River Valley of Wyoming is affecting the distribution patterns of wintering mule deer. The study is being conducted by Hall Sawyer, a wildlife biologist with Western Ecosystems Technology, Inc. “This report shows that energy development is forcing mule deer out of their natural winter range habitat,” said hunter and outfitter Tory Taylor of Taylor Outfitters of Dubois, Wyoming....
For years, man's 23 acres are nonexistent For almost 40 years, Fred Gruner paid taxes on 23 acres of hilltop land in Lakeside that – on a clear day – boasts grand views of the Coronado Islands. There's just one problem: The land doesn't exist. Thanks to a federal mapping error more than 100 years ago, the acreage exists on paper, but not in reality....
Recreationists cheer proposed travel limits for Roan plateau Some Rifle-area recreationists say the Bureau of Land Management is headed down the right path with a proposal to permanently limit summer vehicle travel to designated routes on the Roan Plateau. "None of us want anybody to go off trails whatsoever. We all believe in maintaining the integrity of a small, narrow path," said Gary Miller, a Rifle mountain biker. A temporary ban on off-road and off-trail travel has been in place since 2000 on the 56,000 acres on the plateau that Congress transferred from the Department of Energy to the Department of Interior in 1997....
Old Laws vs. New Techniques Federal antitrust legislation that was passed more than a century ago to ensure fair trade and competition among large corporations now stands as an impediment to modern ecosystem management – a concept considered critical for effective environmental protection. It is becoming difficult to balance laws that forbid companies from sharing information and collaborating with each other, and innovative land management systems that almost require such close cooperation, forestry researchers from Oregon State University conclude in a new report....
Don't have a cow, man - trampled habitat is fine Good habitat management sometimes makes strange bedfellows. Take, for example, the tale of the quail and the cow. This is no fable. Parts of some state wildlife areas along the South Platte River are bare and trampled, as if a herd of wild bison had stampeded through, eating almost everything in sight. Gorman said selective livestock grazing is part of the agency's plan for improving habitat for bobwhite quail, pheasants, turkeys, songbirds, deer and other wildlife along the river. Where cows are allowed to munch, dense thickets of mature cover give way to open terrain. Sunlight enters and the disturbed soil brings forth new life in the form of annual forbs - weeds, if you will. Quail, in particular, thrive on the new seed crop. The South Platte River corridor is the nearest Colorado comes to having a quail capital, but much of it is too overgrown for quail....
More Padre gas wells are backed A Corpus Christi-based company is on its way to drilling five more natural gas wells in Padre Island National Seashore. The National Park Service has recommended allowing BNP Petroleum Corp. to drill the wells despite protests from the Sierra Club and other environmentalists. In its environmental assessment, the park service acknowledged the best environmental alternative is to not allow the drilling. But the federal agency is compelled by law to allow the wells, park Superintendent Colin Campbell said. That's because Padre Island National Seashore was created in 1962 under a deal that allowed state and private interests to retain their subsurface mineral rights under the park and in the nearby waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Laguna Madre....
Ocean-advocacy groups find success backing GOP One group of environmental lobbyists had success this past election with a surprising but effective strategy: supporting Republicans. The lobbyists, who focus on ocean policy, say they are making a serious effort to find new and returning Republican lawmakers to whom they can give money and support....
President Bush to Get a Taste of Alberta’s Beef during Discussions with the Canadian Prime Minster Canadian beef is on both the agenda and the dinner plate for tomorrow's summit between Paul Martin and George W. Bush. The Prime Minister will press the President to accelerate his government's efforts to reopen U.S. markets to Canadian cattle and softwood lumber, senior Canadian officials said yesterday. And they defended the cheeky decision to serve Mr. and Mrs. Bush a plate of Alberta beef at a gala state dinner tomorrow night. One senior official said Mr. Bush is unlikely to be offended because he has consistently supported Canada's bid to get the U.S. border reopened to Canadian cattle, insisting any ban ''should be guided by science and the regulatory process'' rather than fear....
Cemetery excavation reveals gunslinger's grave Anthropologists theorize that a skeleton excavated from a frontier-era cemetery belonged to gunslinger Cy Williams. Bullet holes suggest that the Caucasian man, who was around 35 when he died, had been felled by a bullet before being dispatched with a shot to the head. Also, the body was buried with three slightly worn nickels dated 1866 and 1867. That suggests the man was buried in 1868 or 1869, according to David Darlington, an adjunct professor at Western Wyoming Community College. "Williams was considered a bad character and had killed a wagon master by the name of Lewis Simpson at fort Laramie," said Darlington, who has drafted a paper on the subject....
Cowboy caught with pants down A red-faced cowboy was found hanging from a fence with his pants down during the weekend, a victim of mixing too much alcohol with too much chain link. According to Regina police, the unidentified man, fortified by more than a few drinks, tried to climb a fence as he was leaving an agriculture festival late Saturday. His pant leg got caught, leaving him dangling upside down. When nobody came to his aid, he reached for his cellphone, which fell out of his pocket onto the ground, just out of reach. The man unzipped his pants so he could slide out of his predicament. But his feet were trapped above his head and he could only wiggle his blue jeans down to his knees. He managed to wiggle enough to dial 911 on his cellphone....
Monday, November 29, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Reintroduced gray wolves fighting tooth and nail But despite the unsolved shootings, a management style officials admit is heavy-handed and the age-old contempt for wolves that persists among many residents here, the wolves are starting to come back. At least 50 wolves are now in the wild - halfway to the goal of getting 100 to roam the rugged Blue Range by 2008. Wolves are taking down full-grown elk and pumping out enough pups that releases of captive-bred animals have been scaled back....
Wolves and schoolkids, sharing the sagebrush It's 10 o'clock in the morning. Wolves have been sighted in the sagebrush next to Yellowstone Park School. The sagebrush is a playground for the school's kids. That's where their dynamic alliances are formed and re-formed. But not today. Until there is an all-clear for the wolves, the kids have been told to stay out. The sagebrush here reaches over my head. There isn't a kid in the school who comes close to my armpits. They disappear out in the sagebrush. So do the wolves. There could be an entire pack of wolves among the sage shrubs and you wouldn't see them....
Fences and Exceptions Make Good Neighbors in Montana Near population centers, sprawl is not only affecting wildlife habitat, but it is also drastically reducing opportunities to fish and hunt. In more remote areas, wealthy private buyers are gobbling up desirable ranches and farms; as a result, red "Posted" signs are popping up like wildflowers, barring access to rivers and game lands. Often, those signs are also symbolic markers of an underlying cultural clash. In some rural states, the attempt to preserve access for local hunters in the face of an influx of cash-rich out-of-state sportsmen has led to bitter confrontations and litigation. On the federal level, Congress is contemplating the Open Fields Incentives bill, officially named the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program of 2003. The bill, which has broad bipartisan support, would provide $50 million annually to farmers and ranchers who make their land available for access to the public. And states now routinely purchase conservation easements and "walk-in" rights that can protect lands from development and enable the public to use them in strictly defined ways....
Editorial: Unfair recreation fees now law Get ready to pay through the nose to use your national forests and other public lands. A last-minute plan to charge recreation fees on some federal lands for the next decade was tucked into the 3,000-page appropriations bill that passed Congress last Saturday. The proposal never received even one public hearing and was rammed into law by a congressman who has no public lands in his district. It was lawmaking at its worst....
Column: Environmentalists' lies hinder sensible resource use If you tell a lie often enough and loud enough and with enough conviction, does that make it the truth? The leadership of environmental groups who often take extreme, even radical positions (like the Sierra Club, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Earth First!) regularly misinform the public about natural-resource issues. Their intent appears not to provide factual information so that reasonable people may become knowledgeable about controversial environmental policies but, rather, to deliberately mislead the public about private and commercial uses of natural resources on public land, so that their objective, namely elimination of such uses, will be supported and laws changed. And such propaganda is all too often effective....
Corps sandbar plan raises concerns Several agencies and groups are sounding alarms over a plan to create more Missouri River sandbar habitat for endangered bird species. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public comment on its intentions to create suitable nesting habitat for the endangered interior least tern and the threatened piping plover on emergent sandbars along a stretch of the river from Ponca, Neb., to Fort Peck, Mont. As part of the plan, the corps intends to increase sandbar acreage from 121/2 acres per mile to 50 acres per mile from Garrison Dam to Lake Oahe....
Group wants park officials to reduce roadkill The National Park Service needs to do more to protect wildlife from motorists, an advocacy group for public employees says. An average of 103 large mammals have been killed each year from 1989 to 2003 due to vehicle collisions in Yellowstone. A large mammal is defined as one that weighs more than 30 pounds, according to the Park Service. During that period, 566 elk, 456 mule deer and 192 bison died on park roads, according to Yellowstone officials....
Ownership Dispute Over Montana Riverbed For the Northern Cheyenne, it's about defending a special resource and the border of their reservation. For an energy development firm, it's about business. And for Montana's governor, it's about protecting the state's financial interests and assets, which she insists include the bed of the Tongue River. Ownership of the riverbed, along the eastern border of the tribal reservation in southeastern Montana, is at the heart of a legal dispute over leases the state sold to Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. for natural gas development. The big question: When the boundary of an Indian reservation is a river, who owns the riverbed?....
Scientists watch man-made flood of Grand Canyon More than 135 years after explorer John Wesley Powell first surveyed this ancient canyon, his writings seemed to echo last week as water roared down the Colorado River. "Floods ... have brought down great quantities of mud, making (the river) exceedingly turbid," Powell wrote on Aug. 16, 1869, as he navigated the canyon. For five days last week, dozens of scientists and federal resource managers saw a similar sight after they created an artificial flood by shooting water out of the Glen Canyon Dam: Waves of water, turned the color of mocha latte coffee by sediment, barreling downriver. Now they are analyzing whether the "flush" of sand, silt and clay from side canyons will help save the Grand Canyon's imperiled ecosystem and revitalize recreation....
Pest to attack pesky weed in Colorado River Federal and state naturalists and researchers hope a minute bug will perform like David against Goliath on a noxious weed potentially threatening western Arizona waterways. Actually, they'll settle for the pinhead-sized salvinia weevil being enough of a presence to simply help keep the rapidly growing giant salvinia weed in check along the Colorado River. "It can double its mass under ideal conditions every 2.2 days, meaning that it could grow to form a mat 38 square miles in size in three months," said John Caravetta, associate director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture....
Ranchers want to keep hot-iron brands if system changes Can a bar code - say XJZ3472 - replace a hot-iron brand? Rancher Len McIrvin has his doubts. Twice a year, McIrvin hauls 5,000 cattle between a patchwork of land that he leases and owns near the Canadian border and his winter grazing site in southeastern Washington state. Each animal wears the brand of his Diamond M Ranch - a diamond with legs to represent the M - on its right side. It is that brand that enables McIrvin to differentiate his cattle from every other rancher's in the open grazing land he occupies. And it is brands that must play a role in the federal government's efforts to establish a national system for identifying and tracking cattle, McIrvin said....
Ski racing meets rodeo in new sport of skijoring A horse thunders down the snow-packed main street, hooves spitting snow like sparks. His foam-flecked neck stretches low, Pony Express-style. The cowboy on his back, gripping the saddle horn, hollers, "Yah! Yah!" But this isn't just winter rodeo. There's a skier in tow. My breath catches as the skier shoots past me over a 6-foot jump. I could have touched him from where I stand on the sidewalk. The helmeted figure streaks down the 800-foot course, whipping through slalom gates and over jumps—bursting into the air through clouds of snow. Skijoring—as this is called—originated in Scandinavia, when reindeer towed travelers on skis. One modern variation has dogs pulling cross-country skiers, most often for recreation. But competitive equestrian skijoring is a riveting spectator sport. Ski racers are teamed with horses and riders on the day of the event, and race the clock through the course, one team at a time. Skiers have been clocked at up to 38 m.p.h. behind quarter horse and/or thoroughbred mounts—some with racetrack experience....
The West's best: Generation of ranchers harnessed a hard country While that portrait may have been partly true, the rest of the story about Texas ranch life is not as well-known. For Alf Means, the rest of the story is that he is having to sell his Y6 ranch, which has been in the Means family for more than 100 years. Record numbers of historic family ranches are being put on the market. They are casualties of a pernicious dry spell that dragged on through the 1990s, the roller-coaster economics of the cattle industry, inheritance taxes that make it hard to pass property on to heirs, and family disagreements in the third and fourth generations of children about who'll get what. Then, too, there is a shortage of experienced cowhands to work big spreads. And an influx of well-heeled city folk who want to buy wide-open spaces. Some want a recreational "getaway" with peace and quiet. Some are subdividing the land for resale as "ranchettes."....
QUANAH PARKER A MAN OF TWO WORLDS The wolfhounds followed the casket across the cold ground, two shaggy dogs trotting behind the wagon, but even after all the mourners had drifted away, one of the hounds would not leave. It lay atop the mounded earth, waiting for its master's call. The dog died there of grief in the winter of 1911, expecting Quanah Parker, the last Comanche chief, to return, says Leatrice Tahmahkera Cable, one of Quanah's great-granddaughters. Her father, who was 13 then, brought food to the animal every day, but it was no use....
At home on the range THERE is a kind of man in America who wouldn’t be caught dead in an SUV. This type of fellow does not care for tourists, takes his coffee black and wakes each morning in the dark without an alarm clock. He probably knows grain prices inside out, and believes cigarettes are for fools. He may have gone to Vietnam, he may not. Either way, he doesn’t moon too much at the surrounding mountains when he steps on to his porch in the morning frost. Independent, stubborn, and capable of outworking some of the horses he owns, he takes a certain pride in the Sisyphean nature of ranching in Wyoming, and no American writer knows him quite so well as Annie Proulx....
On The Edge of Common Sense: Lifestock, wildlife also victims of violent weather The brutality inflicted on Florida and the neighboring coasts by hurricanes Bonnie through Ivan is hard to analogize. It could be compared to the terrible blizzard and flood in the Dakotas in '97, or the prolonged mental anguish of a rancher trying to survive a years-long drought, or the suffering of an abused wife. A chronic desperation is created. How many times can you get knocked down and still get back up? The spirit gets battered....
Reintroduced gray wolves fighting tooth and nail But despite the unsolved shootings, a management style officials admit is heavy-handed and the age-old contempt for wolves that persists among many residents here, the wolves are starting to come back. At least 50 wolves are now in the wild - halfway to the goal of getting 100 to roam the rugged Blue Range by 2008. Wolves are taking down full-grown elk and pumping out enough pups that releases of captive-bred animals have been scaled back....
Wolves and schoolkids, sharing the sagebrush It's 10 o'clock in the morning. Wolves have been sighted in the sagebrush next to Yellowstone Park School. The sagebrush is a playground for the school's kids. That's where their dynamic alliances are formed and re-formed. But not today. Until there is an all-clear for the wolves, the kids have been told to stay out. The sagebrush here reaches over my head. There isn't a kid in the school who comes close to my armpits. They disappear out in the sagebrush. So do the wolves. There could be an entire pack of wolves among the sage shrubs and you wouldn't see them....
Fences and Exceptions Make Good Neighbors in Montana Near population centers, sprawl is not only affecting wildlife habitat, but it is also drastically reducing opportunities to fish and hunt. In more remote areas, wealthy private buyers are gobbling up desirable ranches and farms; as a result, red "Posted" signs are popping up like wildflowers, barring access to rivers and game lands. Often, those signs are also symbolic markers of an underlying cultural clash. In some rural states, the attempt to preserve access for local hunters in the face of an influx of cash-rich out-of-state sportsmen has led to bitter confrontations and litigation. On the federal level, Congress is contemplating the Open Fields Incentives bill, officially named the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program of 2003. The bill, which has broad bipartisan support, would provide $50 million annually to farmers and ranchers who make their land available for access to the public. And states now routinely purchase conservation easements and "walk-in" rights that can protect lands from development and enable the public to use them in strictly defined ways....
Editorial: Unfair recreation fees now law Get ready to pay through the nose to use your national forests and other public lands. A last-minute plan to charge recreation fees on some federal lands for the next decade was tucked into the 3,000-page appropriations bill that passed Congress last Saturday. The proposal never received even one public hearing and was rammed into law by a congressman who has no public lands in his district. It was lawmaking at its worst....
Column: Environmentalists' lies hinder sensible resource use If you tell a lie often enough and loud enough and with enough conviction, does that make it the truth? The leadership of environmental groups who often take extreme, even radical positions (like the Sierra Club, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Earth First!) regularly misinform the public about natural-resource issues. Their intent appears not to provide factual information so that reasonable people may become knowledgeable about controversial environmental policies but, rather, to deliberately mislead the public about private and commercial uses of natural resources on public land, so that their objective, namely elimination of such uses, will be supported and laws changed. And such propaganda is all too often effective....
Corps sandbar plan raises concerns Several agencies and groups are sounding alarms over a plan to create more Missouri River sandbar habitat for endangered bird species. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public comment on its intentions to create suitable nesting habitat for the endangered interior least tern and the threatened piping plover on emergent sandbars along a stretch of the river from Ponca, Neb., to Fort Peck, Mont. As part of the plan, the corps intends to increase sandbar acreage from 121/2 acres per mile to 50 acres per mile from Garrison Dam to Lake Oahe....
Group wants park officials to reduce roadkill The National Park Service needs to do more to protect wildlife from motorists, an advocacy group for public employees says. An average of 103 large mammals have been killed each year from 1989 to 2003 due to vehicle collisions in Yellowstone. A large mammal is defined as one that weighs more than 30 pounds, according to the Park Service. During that period, 566 elk, 456 mule deer and 192 bison died on park roads, according to Yellowstone officials....
Ownership Dispute Over Montana Riverbed For the Northern Cheyenne, it's about defending a special resource and the border of their reservation. For an energy development firm, it's about business. And for Montana's governor, it's about protecting the state's financial interests and assets, which she insists include the bed of the Tongue River. Ownership of the riverbed, along the eastern border of the tribal reservation in southeastern Montana, is at the heart of a legal dispute over leases the state sold to Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. for natural gas development. The big question: When the boundary of an Indian reservation is a river, who owns the riverbed?....
Scientists watch man-made flood of Grand Canyon More than 135 years after explorer John Wesley Powell first surveyed this ancient canyon, his writings seemed to echo last week as water roared down the Colorado River. "Floods ... have brought down great quantities of mud, making (the river) exceedingly turbid," Powell wrote on Aug. 16, 1869, as he navigated the canyon. For five days last week, dozens of scientists and federal resource managers saw a similar sight after they created an artificial flood by shooting water out of the Glen Canyon Dam: Waves of water, turned the color of mocha latte coffee by sediment, barreling downriver. Now they are analyzing whether the "flush" of sand, silt and clay from side canyons will help save the Grand Canyon's imperiled ecosystem and revitalize recreation....
Pest to attack pesky weed in Colorado River Federal and state naturalists and researchers hope a minute bug will perform like David against Goliath on a noxious weed potentially threatening western Arizona waterways. Actually, they'll settle for the pinhead-sized salvinia weevil being enough of a presence to simply help keep the rapidly growing giant salvinia weed in check along the Colorado River. "It can double its mass under ideal conditions every 2.2 days, meaning that it could grow to form a mat 38 square miles in size in three months," said John Caravetta, associate director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture....
Ranchers want to keep hot-iron brands if system changes Can a bar code - say XJZ3472 - replace a hot-iron brand? Rancher Len McIrvin has his doubts. Twice a year, McIrvin hauls 5,000 cattle between a patchwork of land that he leases and owns near the Canadian border and his winter grazing site in southeastern Washington state. Each animal wears the brand of his Diamond M Ranch - a diamond with legs to represent the M - on its right side. It is that brand that enables McIrvin to differentiate his cattle from every other rancher's in the open grazing land he occupies. And it is brands that must play a role in the federal government's efforts to establish a national system for identifying and tracking cattle, McIrvin said....
Ski racing meets rodeo in new sport of skijoring A horse thunders down the snow-packed main street, hooves spitting snow like sparks. His foam-flecked neck stretches low, Pony Express-style. The cowboy on his back, gripping the saddle horn, hollers, "Yah! Yah!" But this isn't just winter rodeo. There's a skier in tow. My breath catches as the skier shoots past me over a 6-foot jump. I could have touched him from where I stand on the sidewalk. The helmeted figure streaks down the 800-foot course, whipping through slalom gates and over jumps—bursting into the air through clouds of snow. Skijoring—as this is called—originated in Scandinavia, when reindeer towed travelers on skis. One modern variation has dogs pulling cross-country skiers, most often for recreation. But competitive equestrian skijoring is a riveting spectator sport. Ski racers are teamed with horses and riders on the day of the event, and race the clock through the course, one team at a time. Skiers have been clocked at up to 38 m.p.h. behind quarter horse and/or thoroughbred mounts—some with racetrack experience....
The West's best: Generation of ranchers harnessed a hard country While that portrait may have been partly true, the rest of the story about Texas ranch life is not as well-known. For Alf Means, the rest of the story is that he is having to sell his Y6 ranch, which has been in the Means family for more than 100 years. Record numbers of historic family ranches are being put on the market. They are casualties of a pernicious dry spell that dragged on through the 1990s, the roller-coaster economics of the cattle industry, inheritance taxes that make it hard to pass property on to heirs, and family disagreements in the third and fourth generations of children about who'll get what. Then, too, there is a shortage of experienced cowhands to work big spreads. And an influx of well-heeled city folk who want to buy wide-open spaces. Some want a recreational "getaway" with peace and quiet. Some are subdividing the land for resale as "ranchettes."....
QUANAH PARKER A MAN OF TWO WORLDS The wolfhounds followed the casket across the cold ground, two shaggy dogs trotting behind the wagon, but even after all the mourners had drifted away, one of the hounds would not leave. It lay atop the mounded earth, waiting for its master's call. The dog died there of grief in the winter of 1911, expecting Quanah Parker, the last Comanche chief, to return, says Leatrice Tahmahkera Cable, one of Quanah's great-granddaughters. Her father, who was 13 then, brought food to the animal every day, but it was no use....
At home on the range THERE is a kind of man in America who wouldn’t be caught dead in an SUV. This type of fellow does not care for tourists, takes his coffee black and wakes each morning in the dark without an alarm clock. He probably knows grain prices inside out, and believes cigarettes are for fools. He may have gone to Vietnam, he may not. Either way, he doesn’t moon too much at the surrounding mountains when he steps on to his porch in the morning frost. Independent, stubborn, and capable of outworking some of the horses he owns, he takes a certain pride in the Sisyphean nature of ranching in Wyoming, and no American writer knows him quite so well as Annie Proulx....
On The Edge of Common Sense: Lifestock, wildlife also victims of violent weather The brutality inflicted on Florida and the neighboring coasts by hurricanes Bonnie through Ivan is hard to analogize. It could be compared to the terrible blizzard and flood in the Dakotas in '97, or the prolonged mental anguish of a rancher trying to survive a years-long drought, or the suffering of an abused wife. A chronic desperation is created. How many times can you get knocked down and still get back up? The spirit gets battered....
Sunday, November 28, 2004
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
As you regular readers know, we have opened this up on Saturday night to receive items for posting. If you have a story, remembrance, joke, article, etc. you would like to see published on this weblog, please email me at flankcinch@hotmail.com or just click on the "email me" link to your left.
Gathering around the old oak table
By Julie Carter
The round oak table in my mother’s dining room is as much part of our family history as our family names and all our relatives.
No one knows exactly how old the table is but speculation with the dates we do know puts it in the 70-80 year old range.
It was left behind in an abandoned homestead in Colorado. It was gathering dust in a shed and had been used for a butcher table—complete with saw cuts all around.
In l956 my mother and dad brought it home. They sanded it down and refinished it for the first of three times since then. One by one the saw cuts were sanded out of the oak except for those too deep to remove.
Using money earned from cutting and selling Christmas trees, they spent eleven dollars on raw oak boards to make five leaves for the table.
Dad had no power tools to work with so every step of the way was by hand. Each leaf has a number penciled on the back so it is placed in the table in the correct order to make the pegs fit in the holes properly.
In a time when a dollar was a huge sum, they turned down a $500 offer for it. The natural quarter-sawn oak table had a value to the world but never more than it did to us.
My family has lived around that table. Always extended, with at least two leaves to easily seat eight, the full extension let us seat 20 or so around it during the holidays.
It was those times as a child I thought life was the very best. Never enough chairs, the piano bench would seat two kids and the flour barrel one more. The “little” kids had to sit at a card table so it was honor to dine with the adults even if you had to sit on a flour barrel.
I remember the holidays as always noisy, fun and with lots of food lined up on that oak table. I can still hear the singing in the kitchen when my aunts and grandmothers and mom were doing the dishes and putting away the food after the dinner. Nobody could sing very well but nobody cared.
If it could tell its story, it would tell you how we have laughed, how we cried, how we celebrated and how we mourned—all around that oak table for these near fifty years.
It would explain the small dent that was made when my mother pounded snaps on the shirts she made for my dad. It would tell of the many late nights of family card games, Monopoly, and Parcheesi accompanied by gallons of Kool-aid and bowls of popcorn. It would tell you of the frosting for the hundreds of Christmas cookies and the egg dye for as many Easters.
Looking back I think the oak table is a lot like life. It has seen many seasons, many events and holidays, many decades of living. It has suffered cuts and bruises, been relocated, rearranged and then refurbished. It’s usefulness never a question.
This holiday season my family will again gather to celebrate. There is now a fourth generation in this family that is learning about life around the old oak table.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2004
As you regular readers know, we have opened this up on Saturday night to receive items for posting. If you have a story, remembrance, joke, article, etc. you would like to see published on this weblog, please email me at flankcinch@hotmail.com or just click on the "email me" link to your left.
Gathering around the old oak table
By Julie Carter
The round oak table in my mother’s dining room is as much part of our family history as our family names and all our relatives.
No one knows exactly how old the table is but speculation with the dates we do know puts it in the 70-80 year old range.
It was left behind in an abandoned homestead in Colorado. It was gathering dust in a shed and had been used for a butcher table—complete with saw cuts all around.
In l956 my mother and dad brought it home. They sanded it down and refinished it for the first of three times since then. One by one the saw cuts were sanded out of the oak except for those too deep to remove.
Using money earned from cutting and selling Christmas trees, they spent eleven dollars on raw oak boards to make five leaves for the table.
Dad had no power tools to work with so every step of the way was by hand. Each leaf has a number penciled on the back so it is placed in the table in the correct order to make the pegs fit in the holes properly.
In a time when a dollar was a huge sum, they turned down a $500 offer for it. The natural quarter-sawn oak table had a value to the world but never more than it did to us.
My family has lived around that table. Always extended, with at least two leaves to easily seat eight, the full extension let us seat 20 or so around it during the holidays.
It was those times as a child I thought life was the very best. Never enough chairs, the piano bench would seat two kids and the flour barrel one more. The “little” kids had to sit at a card table so it was honor to dine with the adults even if you had to sit on a flour barrel.
I remember the holidays as always noisy, fun and with lots of food lined up on that oak table. I can still hear the singing in the kitchen when my aunts and grandmothers and mom were doing the dishes and putting away the food after the dinner. Nobody could sing very well but nobody cared.
If it could tell its story, it would tell you how we have laughed, how we cried, how we celebrated and how we mourned—all around that oak table for these near fifty years.
It would explain the small dent that was made when my mother pounded snaps on the shirts she made for my dad. It would tell of the many late nights of family card games, Monopoly, and Parcheesi accompanied by gallons of Kool-aid and bowls of popcorn. It would tell you of the frosting for the hundreds of Christmas cookies and the egg dye for as many Easters.
Looking back I think the oak table is a lot like life. It has seen many seasons, many events and holidays, many decades of living. It has suffered cuts and bruises, been relocated, rearranged and then refurbished. It’s usefulness never a question.
This holiday season my family will again gather to celebrate. There is now a fourth generation in this family that is learning about life around the old oak table.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2004
OPINION/COMMENTARY
CLINTON’S 1.7 MILLION ACRE MONUMENT AT COURT OF APPEALS
President Clinton’s 1996 creation of a 1.7-million-acre national monument in southern Utah is unconstitutional, illegal, and must be set aside, a public interest law firm argued today in its opening brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The brief urges the appellate court to reverse a decision by a Utah federal district court last April in which the court ruled it had no authority to determine if Clinton’s decree violated the Antiquities Act. Mountain States Legal Foundation, which first challenged the decree in October 1996, argues that the Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument in southern Utah violates the U.S. Constitution, which assigns power over federal lands to Congress and other federal laws. “Every school child knows of the system of check and balances put in place by the nation’s Founding Fathers, under which federal courts provide a check on the unbridled power of the President and Congress,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation. Courts often declare acts of Congress to be unconstitutional and courts, as well, have held that presidents exceeded the authority granted them by Congress. The people of Utah, especially southern Utah, deserve an answer to the question: did Clinton exceed his authority when he declared the Utah monument?”....
CLINTON’S 1.7 MILLION ACRE MONUMENT AT COURT OF APPEALS
President Clinton’s 1996 creation of a 1.7-million-acre national monument in southern Utah is unconstitutional, illegal, and must be set aside, a public interest law firm argued today in its opening brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The brief urges the appellate court to reverse a decision by a Utah federal district court last April in which the court ruled it had no authority to determine if Clinton’s decree violated the Antiquities Act. Mountain States Legal Foundation, which first challenged the decree in October 1996, argues that the Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument in southern Utah violates the U.S. Constitution, which assigns power over federal lands to Congress and other federal laws. “Every school child knows of the system of check and balances put in place by the nation’s Founding Fathers, under which federal courts provide a check on the unbridled power of the President and Congress,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation. Courts often declare acts of Congress to be unconstitutional and courts, as well, have held that presidents exceeded the authority granted them by Congress. The people of Utah, especially southern Utah, deserve an answer to the question: did Clinton exceed his authority when he declared the Utah monument?”....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
What's Going on with the Arctic?
Recently the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report was recently released by the Arctic Council, a self-described "high-level intergovernmental forum that provides a mechanism to address the common concerns and challenges faced by the Arctic governments and the people of the Arctic." The report received significant press attention (New York Times "As the Arctic Warms", Washington Post "Study Says Polar Bears Could Face Extinction"). The report documents significant ecosystem response to surface temperature warming trends that occurred in some areas since the mid-19th century and in the last thirty years. Is the ACIA a breakthrough climate assessment? Does it faithfully capture the essence of climate change in the Arctic? Or is it just another doom-and-gloom report from the international climate community? Let's examine climate behavior in the Arctic over the last couple centuries (and beyond) and see what we find....
What's Going on with the Arctic?
Recently the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report was recently released by the Arctic Council, a self-described "high-level intergovernmental forum that provides a mechanism to address the common concerns and challenges faced by the Arctic governments and the people of the Arctic." The report received significant press attention (New York Times "As the Arctic Warms", Washington Post "Study Says Polar Bears Could Face Extinction"). The report documents significant ecosystem response to surface temperature warming trends that occurred in some areas since the mid-19th century and in the last thirty years. Is the ACIA a breakthrough climate assessment? Does it faithfully capture the essence of climate change in the Arctic? Or is it just another doom-and-gloom report from the international climate community? Let's examine climate behavior in the Arctic over the last couple centuries (and beyond) and see what we find....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT BY BUILDING WITH WOOD
Environmental activists have long campaigned against chopping down trees to build homes, claiming that logging harms environment. However, a new report reveals that wood is a better and more environmentally sound building material than concrete and steel.
According to the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials:
---In the cold climate of Minnesota, wood frame houses use 17 percent less energy than steel construction for the typical house, and 16 percent less energy for a concrete structure.
---The same steel frame house also produces 300 percent more emissions into the water supply and 14 percent more air emissions than the wood frame house.
---In the hot and humid climate of Atlanta, concrete construction used 16 percent more energy and created 23 percent more air emissions than wood houses; moreover, concrete produced 51 percent more solid waste.
The new study involved looking at the total “life cycle assessment” of different construction materials and how they are grown, mined, produced or processed. The life cycle measured everything from the amount of electricity used in manufacturing steel at a plant to the amount of fuel required to operate a logging truck.
Overall, the use of wood has 26 to 31 percent less global warming potential than the use of steel or concrete, say the researchers.
Sources: James Wilson, “Study Endorses Wood as ‘Green’ Building Material,” Eureka Alert, September 21, 2004; and Bruce Lippke et al., “Corrim: Life-Cycle Environmental Performance of Renewable Building Materials,” Corrim Reports, June 2004.
For text http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-09/osu-sew092104.php
For report http://maineghg.raabassociates.org/Articles/CORRIM%20June%202004.pdf
SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT BY BUILDING WITH WOOD
Environmental activists have long campaigned against chopping down trees to build homes, claiming that logging harms environment. However, a new report reveals that wood is a better and more environmentally sound building material than concrete and steel.
According to the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials:
---In the cold climate of Minnesota, wood frame houses use 17 percent less energy than steel construction for the typical house, and 16 percent less energy for a concrete structure.
---The same steel frame house also produces 300 percent more emissions into the water supply and 14 percent more air emissions than the wood frame house.
---In the hot and humid climate of Atlanta, concrete construction used 16 percent more energy and created 23 percent more air emissions than wood houses; moreover, concrete produced 51 percent more solid waste.
The new study involved looking at the total “life cycle assessment” of different construction materials and how they are grown, mined, produced or processed. The life cycle measured everything from the amount of electricity used in manufacturing steel at a plant to the amount of fuel required to operate a logging truck.
Overall, the use of wood has 26 to 31 percent less global warming potential than the use of steel or concrete, say the researchers.
Sources: James Wilson, “Study Endorses Wood as ‘Green’ Building Material,” Eureka Alert, September 21, 2004; and Bruce Lippke et al., “Corrim: Life-Cycle Environmental Performance of Renewable Building Materials,” Corrim Reports, June 2004.
For text http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-09/osu-sew092104.php
For report http://maineghg.raabassociates.org/Articles/CORRIM%20June%202004.pdf
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