NEWS ROUNDUP
Ranchers take aim at wolf reintroduction plan Eastern Oregon ranchers complained Friday that a rule to manage the reintroduction of wolves into Oregon places too many restrictions on when ranchers can kill wolves that harm livestock. "You really need to say that we have the right to protect our livestock anytime, anyplace," said Mack Birkmaier, a rancher from the Joseph area. Ranchers, however, said the plan is overly restrictive because it requires that ranchers actually observe a wolf attacking livestock before it could be killed. La Grande-area rancher Bob Beck said it is unrealistic to require that wolves "have to be attacking my stock right before my eyes before I can kill them." "Clearly, your plan seeks to control my behavior in the face of an invasion of large predators into my grazing lands," he said. "I hope you will see that this plan does not give me tools or options to deal with wolves that you insist are coming."....
Animal rights group wants to overturn law that would allow mustang auctioning A coalition of animal rights groups wants to overturn a law signed Wednesday by President Bush that seems to pave the way for the slaughter of thousands of wild horses. Filmmaker Ginger Kathrens of Colorado Springs, co-founder of the Wild Horse and Burro Freedom Alliance, said the coalition in January will urge lawmakers to find a way to overturn an provision in the 2005 budget bill that requires the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to auction off unadoptable or older mustangs. Kathrens said the wild horse alliance, which she said represents 8 million animal lovers, is looking at two strategies: pushing for a long-discussed law that outlaws the slaughter of any horse for commercial purposes, or finding a way to pass follow-up legislation that negates the Burns provision....
Split-estate bill's backers seek broad support Two new amendments to a split-estates bill would reduce the notice requirement for mining activity and change the way the bill addresses how mining might affect land use. The Joint Interim Judiciary Committee unanimously adopted the two amendments Thursday, saying the changes were necessary to ensure the broadest base of support for the bill. Lawmakers have struggled to find a balance on split estates between landowners and those who own the rights to mineral resources underneath the land....
Editorial: Old West icon Wild horses running free on the vast open lands of the West symbolize to many Americans their own independent, self-reliant spirit. Who doesn't love the image of sleek, healthy horses, undomesticated and unfettered? But the practical reality of wild-horse herds is that there are more of them than the public land they live on - and American taxpayers - can support. The Bureau of Land Management's wild-horse adoption program has not been as successful as the agency and animal-rights groups had hoped, due to neglect by the agency and a lack of interest among potential buyers. Ranchers whose cattle must compete for forage with the non-native equines see them more as a pest than a romantic icon. As a result, 14,000 horses are living in poor conditions in BLM corrals, 700 of them in Utah, instead of roaming - and reproducing - with their 37,000 or so luckier cousins that are still free in 10 Western states. That is not protection; it is abuse....
Colorado's snowpack up, easing drought fears Every river basin in Colorado has risen above the 30-year average when it comes to snowpack and experts say the state appears to be bouncing back from a five-year drought. "I think it is too early to say the drought is over. But now I would bet against it becoming a 10- or 20-year drought," federal climatologist Klaus Wolter said today after a snowstorm pounded northern Colorado....
Rey: Bush administration wants increased thinning in national forests The Bush administration plans to double efforts to thin fire-prone Western forests and will emphasize the cutting of trees that can be sold to help pay for the work, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said. Along with increased thinning, the administration wants to reform the Endangered Species Act, streamline national forest management and give states more power in managing roadless areas, said Rey, who directs the nation's forest policy. But Rey, speaking at the annual meeting of the Intermountain Forest Association, did not offer any details on exactly what type of Endangered Species Act reforms the president would support....
"No surprises" endangered-species plan revived The Bush administration yesterday said it will allow developers to complete construction and other projects even after belated discoveries that the work could endanger protected species. The new rules from the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service restore a Clinton-era initiative known as "no surprises." It will allow agencies to give blanket assurances to home builders, timber and mining companies and other developers that they won't have unforeseen requirements to protect rare species once a project has begun. A federal judge had blocked the rules in June, telling the government it needed to hear more ideas from the public....
Blame ESPN for this shortened version. They didn't show the 8th round of the NFR until midnight...
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Friday, December 10, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Bush keeps Norton as Interior secretary President Bush has decided to keep Interior Secretary Gale Norton in his second-term Cabinet, making her one of six top department heads to remain after a post-election shuffle. The news, announced by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, means the former Colorado attorney general will remain at the center of Bush's public lands and energy policies. In an interview last month, Norton said she was happy in her job, but that her future was in the president's hands. She released a brief statement Thursday confirming she had agreed to stay....
Three indicted for trying to thwart lion hunt Three men have been indicted for allegedly trying to disrupt plans to capture and kill mountain lions near Tucson last spring. A federal indictment charges EarthFirst member Matthew Crozier, 32, of Prescott and Rodney Adam Coronado, 38, of Tucson with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, which is a felony. They also are charged with trespassing on national forest land, interfering with a forest officer and violation of a special closure order — all misdemeanors. Esquire magazine writer John Hammond Richardson, of Katonah, N.Y., also is charged in the indictment with the same three misdemeanors. He allegedly had accompanied the activists....
Forest Service officials blame log shortage on lawsuits Idaho sawmill owners say they don't have enough trees to cut, and federal forest managers blame it on lawsuits. Dave O'Brien, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman, says there are four major North Idaho logging operations currently stalled by legal action. Speaking at a Coeur d'Alene forestry conference Wednesday, he said the litigation is holding back trees that could be helping the mills. Now, mill owners have started bringing in trees from as far away as the Washington coast to keep their workers busy....
Column: Deal for ranchers - and land We all seem to agree: The old ways are not working. Something has to change on the range. We need new ideas and new opportunities to reduce unchecked urban sprawl, provide employment opportunities and protect the beautiful landscapes that make New Mexico the Land of Enchantment. So here is a radical idea: Save taxpayers money by paying ranchers to remove their livestock from public land. Nationwide, ranchers pay about $14 million to lease more than 250 million acres of national forest and Bureau of Land Management land, but it costs the agencies more than $100 million annually to manage the program....
Senate Clears Wilderness Bills in Final Hours of 108th Congress In the final hours of the 108th Congress, the U.S. Senate passed a major public lands bill which included two wilderness bills: the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Act (S. 738/H.R. 1501) and the Ojito Wilderness Act (S. 1649/H.R. 3176). Both bills had received broad, bipartisan support and the California bill’s sponsors even won praise from Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), who oversees the Senate’s public lands panel, for their due diligence in addressing stakeholder concerns....
BLM keeping 3 parcels in auction While the Bureau of Land Management withdrew two parcels near Hovenweep National Monument from an oil and gas lease sale after urging from the National Park Service and environmental groups, three nearby parcels will remain on the block for Friday’s auction. The two parcels directly south of the monument were pulled from the sale Tuesday, but three parcels roughly one mile northwest of the monument will be offered to the highest bidder. “There are other leases already in existence in that area, and there didn’t seem to be any reason why those parcels shouldn’t be leased,” said Laura Williams, spokeswoman for the bureau’s Utah office....
The Nature Conservancy buys Moen Ranch Last Thursday, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) closed a deal with Duane Moen and the group now owns 1,800 acres in the Pahsimeroi Valley and Little Hat Creek, plus holds title to the permits for grazing on 45,000 acres of public land. The group doesn’t intend to hold onto most of the property, but will sell the bulk of it to private holders. They will also sell river access to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game for public fishing, hunting and recreation....
Column: Liberal terror The nation obviously has been focused very heavily on terrorism for the last three years. Unfortunately, the overwhelming attention paid to foreign terrorist threats has tended to make people complacent about homegrown, domestic terrorism. Those living in the Washington, DC area got a wake-up call on this last week, when an apparent group of environmental terrorists torched a housing development under construction in nearby Charles County, MD. Law enforcement officials have not yet determined who the perpetrators were and it is conceivable that simple vandalism or other motives were at work. But the evidence strongly suggests eco-terrorism. The development has been under attack by environmentalists for some time for allegedly disturbing a nearby wetland. Moreover, the arson-and there is no doubt that it was arson-fits a pattern of eco-terrorism that has been seen elsewhere....
Cargo Ship Leaking Fuel Oil Off of Alaska Fuel oil was pouring out of a Malaysian-flagged cargo vessel that grounded off an Aleutian island and split into two nearly equal pieces, threatening a sensitive area of marine habitat, officials said on Thursday. The ship, which lost power and began drifting early Tuesday morning in the stormy Bering Sea, appeared to be losing much of the nearly 500,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel oil it was carrying, officials said....
Feds offer rewards in wolf killings Federal wildlife authorities are offering rewards of $5,000 for information into each of four separate wolf killings in southern Idaho during the past two months. In each case, the wolves appear to have been shot in October and November, said Scott Kabasa, special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based in Boise. The carcasses has been sent to the service's National Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Wash., for further analysis. Kabasa said it is likely the wolves were killed by hunters....
New book studies 'Grizzly Lessons' Wyoming author Geral Blanchard takes an interesting look at the relationship between grizzlies, wolves and humans in his new book, "Grizzly Lessons." Blanchard, who lives near Big Horn, Wyo., focuses on the Yellowstone National Park and Shoshone National Forest area he loves so much. While the book is full of tales from this area, it is really much more than that. It is a study of the search for coexistence between bears, wolves and people. "Grizzly Lessons" looks at this relationship from historical American Indian perspectives to wilderness explorers to present-day ranchers, hunters and environmentalists....
Large fish ladder opens on Ventura River One of the largest fish ladders in California opened Thursday to the applause of more than 100 environmentalists and local, state and federal officials. The state-of-the-art Robles Fish Passage Facility is located on the Ventura River and will help with the recovery of the endangered Southern California steelhead trout. The total cost of the fish ladder is expected to reach $9 million after an additional $1 million in enhancements to be completed by next year. The fish ladder is more advanced than others in the state because it is designed to allow fish to move both upstream and downstream....
Congress Approves Bald Eagle Commemorative Coin Act While Congress was busy debating and passing a suitable Intelligence bill to help defend our nation's security and freedoms, the very symbol of those rights (and the U.S.A. itself) was also getting a big boost to secure its own future health and welfare. The "American Bald Eagle Recovery & National Emblem Commemorative Coin Act" (H.R. 4116 & S.2889) was unanimously passed by the House and Senate by the end of the 108th Congress on Wednesday evening. When signed into law by the President (within the next 10 days), the legislation would authorize the U.S. Mint to create and market a three-coin gold, silver and clad set ($5, $1 and $.50 pieces) in 2008 (the 35th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA)). A surcharge from the sale of each coin sold will be earmarked to create an American Eagle Fund endowment managed by the AEF. If the coin set sells out, it has the potential of raising $10,750,000 for eagles....
Water rationing a possibility if drought keeps up This could be the driest year since 1989, and the second driest since 1953, according to National Weather Service data. While rainfall measured up to an inch in parts of the valley last weekend, no rain is likely in the next three weeks, as the drought that began more than a decade ago continues to worsen. Yet, few are thinking about a time when water is rationed for urban dwellers, endangered species become extinct because habitats dry up or farms become dusty, abandoned fields, said Gregg Garfin, program manager for the University of Arizona's Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, which studies the environment. It's time they did. Along with scientists, state and local officials are starting to plan for an extended drought....
Authors of Western Fiction Take Advantage of Unique Online Site It has been over sixteen months since WritersWest.com appeared online, making available books about the American West. In that time, the number of authors joining this consortium of western writers has steadily increased. WritersWest.com is an independent consignment bookstore where the books come from the western writers, and not distributors. The author sets the price and receives 75% for each title sold. Many of the authors participate in WritersWest.com's co-op advertising, which increases their visibility in venues that would be price-prohibitive for individual authors....
Joe Montana gets a rush out of competing on cutting horse San Francisco 49ers legend Joe Montana never played for Dallas, but this week he's a cowboy. The Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback even dresses the part. Wearing a black cowboy hat, cowboy boots, spurs and Wranglers, Montana competed in the National Cutting Horse Association World Championship Futurity on Wednesday at Will Rogers Coliseum. Montana, 48, qualified for the second round on two horses, Lookwhatthecatdrugin (215 points) and Dualetta Deville (213)....
Rodeo wary of wrongs in name of animal rights Nearly 50 security specialists from throughout the West Coast are at the Thomas & Mack Center to supplement Las Vegas and UNLV police officers during the National Finals Rodeo. But the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's security effort isn't primarily to protect the nightly crowds of more than 17,000 against an international threat of violence. The PRCA is on alert for domestic foes. One group of animal rights advocates was in Las Vegas for opening weekend, waging a verbal war against rodeo and alleging crimes are committed against the calves, steer, horses and bulls of the PRCA. NFR officials remain on alert for more activist groups, believing an act meant to disrupt the rodeo could occur at any time....
Riding Out The Pain The bull raging beneath Fred Boettcher bucked out of the chute and suddenly spun left, twisting the rider backward and to the right. When the bull bucked again, the cowboy's right leg hit the ground as he started to fall. But his gloved left hand was stuck in the rigging. The bull whipped his head around to see what was hanging from his right side. The 160-pound Boettcher and the 1,500-pound bull stared at each other....
Bush keeps Norton as Interior secretary President Bush has decided to keep Interior Secretary Gale Norton in his second-term Cabinet, making her one of six top department heads to remain after a post-election shuffle. The news, announced by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, means the former Colorado attorney general will remain at the center of Bush's public lands and energy policies. In an interview last month, Norton said she was happy in her job, but that her future was in the president's hands. She released a brief statement Thursday confirming she had agreed to stay....
Three indicted for trying to thwart lion hunt Three men have been indicted for allegedly trying to disrupt plans to capture and kill mountain lions near Tucson last spring. A federal indictment charges EarthFirst member Matthew Crozier, 32, of Prescott and Rodney Adam Coronado, 38, of Tucson with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, which is a felony. They also are charged with trespassing on national forest land, interfering with a forest officer and violation of a special closure order — all misdemeanors. Esquire magazine writer John Hammond Richardson, of Katonah, N.Y., also is charged in the indictment with the same three misdemeanors. He allegedly had accompanied the activists....
Forest Service officials blame log shortage on lawsuits Idaho sawmill owners say they don't have enough trees to cut, and federal forest managers blame it on lawsuits. Dave O'Brien, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman, says there are four major North Idaho logging operations currently stalled by legal action. Speaking at a Coeur d'Alene forestry conference Wednesday, he said the litigation is holding back trees that could be helping the mills. Now, mill owners have started bringing in trees from as far away as the Washington coast to keep their workers busy....
Column: Deal for ranchers - and land We all seem to agree: The old ways are not working. Something has to change on the range. We need new ideas and new opportunities to reduce unchecked urban sprawl, provide employment opportunities and protect the beautiful landscapes that make New Mexico the Land of Enchantment. So here is a radical idea: Save taxpayers money by paying ranchers to remove their livestock from public land. Nationwide, ranchers pay about $14 million to lease more than 250 million acres of national forest and Bureau of Land Management land, but it costs the agencies more than $100 million annually to manage the program....
Senate Clears Wilderness Bills in Final Hours of 108th Congress In the final hours of the 108th Congress, the U.S. Senate passed a major public lands bill which included two wilderness bills: the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Act (S. 738/H.R. 1501) and the Ojito Wilderness Act (S. 1649/H.R. 3176). Both bills had received broad, bipartisan support and the California bill’s sponsors even won praise from Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), who oversees the Senate’s public lands panel, for their due diligence in addressing stakeholder concerns....
BLM keeping 3 parcels in auction While the Bureau of Land Management withdrew two parcels near Hovenweep National Monument from an oil and gas lease sale after urging from the National Park Service and environmental groups, three nearby parcels will remain on the block for Friday’s auction. The two parcels directly south of the monument were pulled from the sale Tuesday, but three parcels roughly one mile northwest of the monument will be offered to the highest bidder. “There are other leases already in existence in that area, and there didn’t seem to be any reason why those parcels shouldn’t be leased,” said Laura Williams, spokeswoman for the bureau’s Utah office....
The Nature Conservancy buys Moen Ranch Last Thursday, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) closed a deal with Duane Moen and the group now owns 1,800 acres in the Pahsimeroi Valley and Little Hat Creek, plus holds title to the permits for grazing on 45,000 acres of public land. The group doesn’t intend to hold onto most of the property, but will sell the bulk of it to private holders. They will also sell river access to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game for public fishing, hunting and recreation....
Column: Liberal terror The nation obviously has been focused very heavily on terrorism for the last three years. Unfortunately, the overwhelming attention paid to foreign terrorist threats has tended to make people complacent about homegrown, domestic terrorism. Those living in the Washington, DC area got a wake-up call on this last week, when an apparent group of environmental terrorists torched a housing development under construction in nearby Charles County, MD. Law enforcement officials have not yet determined who the perpetrators were and it is conceivable that simple vandalism or other motives were at work. But the evidence strongly suggests eco-terrorism. The development has been under attack by environmentalists for some time for allegedly disturbing a nearby wetland. Moreover, the arson-and there is no doubt that it was arson-fits a pattern of eco-terrorism that has been seen elsewhere....
Cargo Ship Leaking Fuel Oil Off of Alaska Fuel oil was pouring out of a Malaysian-flagged cargo vessel that grounded off an Aleutian island and split into two nearly equal pieces, threatening a sensitive area of marine habitat, officials said on Thursday. The ship, which lost power and began drifting early Tuesday morning in the stormy Bering Sea, appeared to be losing much of the nearly 500,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel oil it was carrying, officials said....
Feds offer rewards in wolf killings Federal wildlife authorities are offering rewards of $5,000 for information into each of four separate wolf killings in southern Idaho during the past two months. In each case, the wolves appear to have been shot in October and November, said Scott Kabasa, special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based in Boise. The carcasses has been sent to the service's National Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Wash., for further analysis. Kabasa said it is likely the wolves were killed by hunters....
New book studies 'Grizzly Lessons' Wyoming author Geral Blanchard takes an interesting look at the relationship between grizzlies, wolves and humans in his new book, "Grizzly Lessons." Blanchard, who lives near Big Horn, Wyo., focuses on the Yellowstone National Park and Shoshone National Forest area he loves so much. While the book is full of tales from this area, it is really much more than that. It is a study of the search for coexistence between bears, wolves and people. "Grizzly Lessons" looks at this relationship from historical American Indian perspectives to wilderness explorers to present-day ranchers, hunters and environmentalists....
Large fish ladder opens on Ventura River One of the largest fish ladders in California opened Thursday to the applause of more than 100 environmentalists and local, state and federal officials. The state-of-the-art Robles Fish Passage Facility is located on the Ventura River and will help with the recovery of the endangered Southern California steelhead trout. The total cost of the fish ladder is expected to reach $9 million after an additional $1 million in enhancements to be completed by next year. The fish ladder is more advanced than others in the state because it is designed to allow fish to move both upstream and downstream....
Congress Approves Bald Eagle Commemorative Coin Act While Congress was busy debating and passing a suitable Intelligence bill to help defend our nation's security and freedoms, the very symbol of those rights (and the U.S.A. itself) was also getting a big boost to secure its own future health and welfare. The "American Bald Eagle Recovery & National Emblem Commemorative Coin Act" (H.R. 4116 & S.2889) was unanimously passed by the House and Senate by the end of the 108th Congress on Wednesday evening. When signed into law by the President (within the next 10 days), the legislation would authorize the U.S. Mint to create and market a three-coin gold, silver and clad set ($5, $1 and $.50 pieces) in 2008 (the 35th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA)). A surcharge from the sale of each coin sold will be earmarked to create an American Eagle Fund endowment managed by the AEF. If the coin set sells out, it has the potential of raising $10,750,000 for eagles....
Water rationing a possibility if drought keeps up This could be the driest year since 1989, and the second driest since 1953, according to National Weather Service data. While rainfall measured up to an inch in parts of the valley last weekend, no rain is likely in the next three weeks, as the drought that began more than a decade ago continues to worsen. Yet, few are thinking about a time when water is rationed for urban dwellers, endangered species become extinct because habitats dry up or farms become dusty, abandoned fields, said Gregg Garfin, program manager for the University of Arizona's Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, which studies the environment. It's time they did. Along with scientists, state and local officials are starting to plan for an extended drought....
Authors of Western Fiction Take Advantage of Unique Online Site It has been over sixteen months since WritersWest.com appeared online, making available books about the American West. In that time, the number of authors joining this consortium of western writers has steadily increased. WritersWest.com is an independent consignment bookstore where the books come from the western writers, and not distributors. The author sets the price and receives 75% for each title sold. Many of the authors participate in WritersWest.com's co-op advertising, which increases their visibility in venues that would be price-prohibitive for individual authors....
Joe Montana gets a rush out of competing on cutting horse San Francisco 49ers legend Joe Montana never played for Dallas, but this week he's a cowboy. The Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback even dresses the part. Wearing a black cowboy hat, cowboy boots, spurs and Wranglers, Montana competed in the National Cutting Horse Association World Championship Futurity on Wednesday at Will Rogers Coliseum. Montana, 48, qualified for the second round on two horses, Lookwhatthecatdrugin (215 points) and Dualetta Deville (213)....
Rodeo wary of wrongs in name of animal rights Nearly 50 security specialists from throughout the West Coast are at the Thomas & Mack Center to supplement Las Vegas and UNLV police officers during the National Finals Rodeo. But the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's security effort isn't primarily to protect the nightly crowds of more than 17,000 against an international threat of violence. The PRCA is on alert for domestic foes. One group of animal rights advocates was in Las Vegas for opening weekend, waging a verbal war against rodeo and alleging crimes are committed against the calves, steer, horses and bulls of the PRCA. NFR officials remain on alert for more activist groups, believing an act meant to disrupt the rodeo could occur at any time....
Riding Out The Pain The bull raging beneath Fred Boettcher bucked out of the chute and suddenly spun left, twisting the rider backward and to the right. When the bull bucked again, the cowboy's right leg hit the ground as he started to fall. But his gloved left hand was stuck in the rigging. The bull whipped his head around to see what was hanging from his right side. The 160-pound Boettcher and the 1,500-pound bull stared at each other....
Thursday, December 09, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Rancher boots wildlife group off ranch A Paradise Valley sheep rancher has booted a pro-wolf environmental group off his property, accusing it of what he called "pretty much blackmail." Rancher Bob Weber, who lives in the Trail Creek area, has told Defenders of Wildlife it is no longer welcome on his property unless he receives a public apology from the group. He made his statements in a letter printed in Tuesday's Livingston Enterprise and in an interview Wednesday. A Defenders spokeswoman said no apology is planned and that the group had only been trying to help Weber protect his property....
Forest Service worker charged with illegally gathering firewood A U.S. Forest Service maintenance employee who is married to a ranger has been accused of illegally gathering firewood. Federal prosecutors allege Rodney J. Lane of Kooskia gathered enough firewood July 7 to fill a pickup in a prohibited area along U.S. Highway 12, about six miles west of Lowell. The area is within the Middle Fork of the Clearwater Wild and Scenic River portion of the Clearwater National Forest....
Timber groups call for more thinning in Idaho forests The leader of a major forestry organization called for the federal government to increase timber-thinning projects and do more to fight forest fires during the group's annual meeting. Neil Smith, the head of the Western Forestry and Conservation Association, told members that he sent a message to the White House in August urging the president to send federal troops and more resources to fight forest fires. Much of the Inland Northwest is at risk for a repeat of the 1910 fires, which burned more than 3 million acres and killed 85 people, said Jim Peterson, publisher of the forestry journal Evergreen Magazine. Today, trees continue to struggle to regenerate at some of the sites, he said....
Tapping the Bridger-Teton Conservation groups worry that growing demand for natural gas could mean future visitors to the Bridger-Teton National Forest will gaze at a forest of drilling derricks. But forest officials contend that won't happen. True, forest managers recently OK'd more than 100,000 acres in the forest for oil and gas leasing. But those leases, if sold, will likely come with stringent stipulations for environmental protections....
Charges filed in sheep-release case The couple who allegedly released 24 Navajo-Churro sheep in the national forest up Skalkaho Creek in May pled not guilty to misdemeanor charges Monday. Kathryn and Edward Reiff are charged with 24 counts each of abandonment of sheep and animals at large for the incident - one for each sheep that was allegedly released. The news of the released sheep concerned Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks because of the possibility of the rare breed of domestic sheep contaminating the bighorn sheep herd in the area. At least 13 of the released sheep have been killed by FWP officers....
Column: Sneaky Fees Stalk Public Lands Would you still call your town library "public" if a private corporation managed the books your taxes paid for, then charged you a fee to borrow them? Thanks to a provision sneaked into the recently passed federal spending bill, we may face that question about our public lands. Just hours before senators were expected to vote on the $388 billion, 3,000-plus page bill, a rider-- meaning no debate or vote possible -- was inserted, courtesy of Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. The rider to the spending bill authorized federal agencies to extend recreation access fees on most public lands for the next 10 years. The tactic avoided an unwinnable vote on a program opposed by more than 300 organizations, four states and many county governments. Now, access fees can be charged on 600 million acres of our public land -- an area more than six times the size of Montana. These fees are more than a nuisance form of taxation. They undermine the very idea of these lands as publicly owned, and they open a path to unprecedented commercialization....
Conservationists seek to protect Jackson Lake snail A coalition of scientists and conservationists have petitioned for federal protection of a rare freshwater snail living in Jackson Lake. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the snail as threatened under the Endangered Species Act it could alter how the Bureau of Reclamation manages the lake, which is located in Grand Teton National Park. The bureau would have to account for it when deciding lake levels and water releases from Jackson Lake Dam....
Wyo sues Interior over wolf documents Wolves continue to multiply, and trees continue to die for more paper in yet the newest legal salvo between Wyoming and the federal government over the reintroduction of Canis lupus. The Department of Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service in November rejected the state's wolf management plan, and now Wyoming demands the release of at least 69 undisclosed records or groups of records to explain the decision, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday by Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank....
Illegal immigration and smuggling continue to wreak environmental havoc in Southern Arizona Conservationist Trevor Hare stands atop a scarred hillside in the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, scoping out another spot of scorched earth in Southern Arizona's ongoing border conflict. Not so long ago, this isolated spot was like most of the surrounding Sonoita Valley countryside about an hour's drive southeast of Tucson, covered with tall grasses and cactus shaded by mesquite, cottonwood and ash trees. Now the hillside, which leads into an area known as The Narrows, is a chewed-up mess of boulders, concrete posts and metal stakes....
Wyo challenges protection of mouse New genetic information on the endangered Preble's meadow jumping mouse led Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Wednesday to petition the U.S. Department of Interior to remove the mouse from federal protection. Researchers at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science conducted DNA research on the Preble's mouse, and concluded it is not genetically different than the campestris mouse commonly found in Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas and Canada. Ironically, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday released a statement that previous petitions to remove the mouse from federal protection were unwarranted, due to insubstantial biological information....
Growers hopeful about proposal for fish habitat Mendocino County Farm Bureau President Peter Bradford is just one of many throughout the state who has been dealing with fisheries issues related to the Endangered Species Act. He said that he is cautiously optimistic about recent news brought by a federal fisheries agency that has scaled down critical habitat boundaries for several species of salmon and steelhead. "We are quite pleased with the reduction in area. That is going to be tremendous for a lot of the landowners here," Bradford said. "The regulatory hammer is always poised to come down. NOAA Fisheries still hasn't adequately proven the science to show that any conditions created by landowners are the cause of the species decline. But any reduction at all in impact areas is very good news." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration filed proposed rules in the Federal Register last week to designate critical habitat areas for species of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. A revised version of previous designations, the plan could exclude more than 80 percent of the critical habitat that the agency previously said was necessary to save and strengthen fish populations....
Column: Sacrificing the Sage Grouse How many E Magazine readers are surprised that, in the wake of what EPA head Michael Leavitt calls a "mandate" for the Bush administration's scorched-earth environmental policies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) would sacrifice the greater sage grouse to protect western oil and gas interests? That's certainly the way it looks after the New York Times revealed December 5 that a Bush Interior Department political appointee with no wildlife background, Julie MacDonald, inserted herself into the decision-making process. The consequence: USFWS is recommending that the highly endangered bird not be listed as such under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)....
USDA is killing marauding wolves Wolf attacks on livestock have become an increasing problem in northern Wisconsin as the wolf population grows, but federal wildlife officials offered hope Tuesday for a solution. David Ruid, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the state Natural Resources Board that removing predator wolves from an area has helped. "This year we implemented our control program on 19 farms and solved this on 17 of those," Ruid said....
Study: Return of Wolves Changes Ecosystem Scientists studying the broader effects of wolf reintroduction said a growing body of evidence suggests that killing off predators such as wolves and grizzly bears in the last century started a cascade of effects that threw ecosystems out of balance. Researchers from Oregon State University found that a thriving wolf population not only changes where and how elk browse it even reverberates down to the number of willows that grow next to streams. The research, published in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Forest Ecology and Management, comes as states begin to wrestle with a problem they haven't faced in nearly a century: how to deal with wolves....
Oil and Gas Development Targeted in National Forest Roadless Area A coalition of conservation and outdoor industry groups has formally asked the Forest Service to withdraw plans to lease over 20,000 acres for oil and gas drilling in Utah's Uinta National Forest. The leasing would allow industrial development in roadless areas along the Wasatch Front that provide valuable opportunities for hiking, fishing, and hunting, as well as habitat for wildlife such as the Bonneville cutthroat trout and northern goshawk. The groups sent a letter to the Forest Service yesterday asking the agency to withdraw its consent to leasing based on violations of federal environmental laws....
Conservationists Ask for Public Access to Otero Mesa Development Documents On behalf of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society, Earthjustice filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C. to acquire documents explaining the Bush administration's proposal to open up New Mexico's pristine Otero Mesa to private oil and gas exploration. The suit is necessary because the BLM shared documents with oil and gas companies but refuses to share all of them with the public. Before the Bush administration came into office, the federal Bureau of Land Management planned to allow limited oil and gas development in Otero Mesa near existing roads. After the Bush administration took over, the BLM suddenly changed its plan to instead encourage widespread oil and gas development in virtually all parts of the largely unroaded natural area....
Swap fails; rancher says he'll build on prime land A northern Arizona rancher says Congress' failure to approve a huge and controversial exchange of private property for public land before adjourning its two-year legislative session on Wednesday means he will proceed with other options for his ranchland. "It is best for my family to concentrate our efforts on other alternatives for the ranch's future," Yavapai Ranch owner Fred Ruskin said after it became clear a bill including the land deal was dead. The proposed swap would have turned over 35,000 acres of Ruskin's ranch southeast of Seligman to Prescott National Forest in return for about 2,200 acres near Interstate 17 and Arizona 260 in Camp Verde, where Ruskin wanted to build a shopping center and housing development. With the legislation's failure, Ruskin has no option but to push ahead with his Plan B, which is developing homes on his land, according to Kurt Davis, who has been helping Ruskin lobby for the measure....
Congress intervenes in island wilderness debate, allows motorized tours Much to the chagrin of environmentalists, the federal government gave the green light Wednesday to motorized tours of Georgia's Cumberland Island - the largest undeveloped barrier island on the eastern seaboard. The congressional directive ends - at least for now - a bitter legal dispute over whether tourists should be able to more easily travel to some of the island's attractions, including a mansion once owned by the Andrew Carnegie family and the church where John F. Kennedy Jr. was married. Environmentalists warned that allowing motorized vehicles - even in limited numbers - would distract from the ambiance of the wilderness as experienced by those who explore it the old-fashioned way: on foot....
Column: Environmentalists Becoming Less and Less Relevant Environmental activists wanted two things to happen on Election Day -- they wanted President Bush to lose and their cause to be a big reason why. They got neither, and that may bode well for the future of environmental policy reform. Surveys taken before the elections showed that the environment was far down on the list of voters' concerns. For example, a Gallup poll taken earlier in 2004 ranked it 11th in importance among 12 issues. The election-day results bore this out, as the environment was barely on the radar compared to security, the economy, health care, and other issues. Overall, it is safe to say that environmental issues played no role in the outcome, and that probably would have been the case even if Bush had narrowly lost....
An Ad Campaign for Beef Rises to the Supreme Court The government went before the Supreme Court on Wednesday for the third time in recent years to defend an agricultural marketing program that requires producers to pay for advertising that not all of them want, and that some have challenged as compelled speech. "Beef: It's What's for Dinner," an advertising campaign financed by a $1 assessment on every head of cattle sold, was at issue this time. A dissident group of ranchers who believe their own beef to be superior and who see no benefit in generic advertising won a ruling from a federal appeals court that the assessment, usually referred to as a checkoff, violated their rights under the First Amendment....
Two brothels vying for 'Mustang Ranch' name No one really won the name "World Famous Mustang Ranch" at Tuesday's meeting of the Storey County brothel licensing board. The board decided to give the name to both parties jostling for it - at least until a federal court rules otherwise. Storey County Commissioner Greg "Bum" Hess said Tuesday that Lance Gilman and David Burgess, both of whom operate brothels in the county, can use the name until the federal court for the Nevada district decides on the trademark case. That decision should determine who owns the notorious name of Nevada's first legal bordello....
Rancher boots wildlife group off ranch A Paradise Valley sheep rancher has booted a pro-wolf environmental group off his property, accusing it of what he called "pretty much blackmail." Rancher Bob Weber, who lives in the Trail Creek area, has told Defenders of Wildlife it is no longer welcome on his property unless he receives a public apology from the group. He made his statements in a letter printed in Tuesday's Livingston Enterprise and in an interview Wednesday. A Defenders spokeswoman said no apology is planned and that the group had only been trying to help Weber protect his property....
Forest Service worker charged with illegally gathering firewood A U.S. Forest Service maintenance employee who is married to a ranger has been accused of illegally gathering firewood. Federal prosecutors allege Rodney J. Lane of Kooskia gathered enough firewood July 7 to fill a pickup in a prohibited area along U.S. Highway 12, about six miles west of Lowell. The area is within the Middle Fork of the Clearwater Wild and Scenic River portion of the Clearwater National Forest....
Timber groups call for more thinning in Idaho forests The leader of a major forestry organization called for the federal government to increase timber-thinning projects and do more to fight forest fires during the group's annual meeting. Neil Smith, the head of the Western Forestry and Conservation Association, told members that he sent a message to the White House in August urging the president to send federal troops and more resources to fight forest fires. Much of the Inland Northwest is at risk for a repeat of the 1910 fires, which burned more than 3 million acres and killed 85 people, said Jim Peterson, publisher of the forestry journal Evergreen Magazine. Today, trees continue to struggle to regenerate at some of the sites, he said....
Tapping the Bridger-Teton Conservation groups worry that growing demand for natural gas could mean future visitors to the Bridger-Teton National Forest will gaze at a forest of drilling derricks. But forest officials contend that won't happen. True, forest managers recently OK'd more than 100,000 acres in the forest for oil and gas leasing. But those leases, if sold, will likely come with stringent stipulations for environmental protections....
Charges filed in sheep-release case The couple who allegedly released 24 Navajo-Churro sheep in the national forest up Skalkaho Creek in May pled not guilty to misdemeanor charges Monday. Kathryn and Edward Reiff are charged with 24 counts each of abandonment of sheep and animals at large for the incident - one for each sheep that was allegedly released. The news of the released sheep concerned Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks because of the possibility of the rare breed of domestic sheep contaminating the bighorn sheep herd in the area. At least 13 of the released sheep have been killed by FWP officers....
Column: Sneaky Fees Stalk Public Lands Would you still call your town library "public" if a private corporation managed the books your taxes paid for, then charged you a fee to borrow them? Thanks to a provision sneaked into the recently passed federal spending bill, we may face that question about our public lands. Just hours before senators were expected to vote on the $388 billion, 3,000-plus page bill, a rider-- meaning no debate or vote possible -- was inserted, courtesy of Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. The rider to the spending bill authorized federal agencies to extend recreation access fees on most public lands for the next 10 years. The tactic avoided an unwinnable vote on a program opposed by more than 300 organizations, four states and many county governments. Now, access fees can be charged on 600 million acres of our public land -- an area more than six times the size of Montana. These fees are more than a nuisance form of taxation. They undermine the very idea of these lands as publicly owned, and they open a path to unprecedented commercialization....
Conservationists seek to protect Jackson Lake snail A coalition of scientists and conservationists have petitioned for federal protection of a rare freshwater snail living in Jackson Lake. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the snail as threatened under the Endangered Species Act it could alter how the Bureau of Reclamation manages the lake, which is located in Grand Teton National Park. The bureau would have to account for it when deciding lake levels and water releases from Jackson Lake Dam....
Wyo sues Interior over wolf documents Wolves continue to multiply, and trees continue to die for more paper in yet the newest legal salvo between Wyoming and the federal government over the reintroduction of Canis lupus. The Department of Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service in November rejected the state's wolf management plan, and now Wyoming demands the release of at least 69 undisclosed records or groups of records to explain the decision, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday by Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank....
Illegal immigration and smuggling continue to wreak environmental havoc in Southern Arizona Conservationist Trevor Hare stands atop a scarred hillside in the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, scoping out another spot of scorched earth in Southern Arizona's ongoing border conflict. Not so long ago, this isolated spot was like most of the surrounding Sonoita Valley countryside about an hour's drive southeast of Tucson, covered with tall grasses and cactus shaded by mesquite, cottonwood and ash trees. Now the hillside, which leads into an area known as The Narrows, is a chewed-up mess of boulders, concrete posts and metal stakes....
Wyo challenges protection of mouse New genetic information on the endangered Preble's meadow jumping mouse led Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Wednesday to petition the U.S. Department of Interior to remove the mouse from federal protection. Researchers at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science conducted DNA research on the Preble's mouse, and concluded it is not genetically different than the campestris mouse commonly found in Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas and Canada. Ironically, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday released a statement that previous petitions to remove the mouse from federal protection were unwarranted, due to insubstantial biological information....
Growers hopeful about proposal for fish habitat Mendocino County Farm Bureau President Peter Bradford is just one of many throughout the state who has been dealing with fisheries issues related to the Endangered Species Act. He said that he is cautiously optimistic about recent news brought by a federal fisheries agency that has scaled down critical habitat boundaries for several species of salmon and steelhead. "We are quite pleased with the reduction in area. That is going to be tremendous for a lot of the landowners here," Bradford said. "The regulatory hammer is always poised to come down. NOAA Fisheries still hasn't adequately proven the science to show that any conditions created by landowners are the cause of the species decline. But any reduction at all in impact areas is very good news." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration filed proposed rules in the Federal Register last week to designate critical habitat areas for species of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. A revised version of previous designations, the plan could exclude more than 80 percent of the critical habitat that the agency previously said was necessary to save and strengthen fish populations....
Column: Sacrificing the Sage Grouse How many E Magazine readers are surprised that, in the wake of what EPA head Michael Leavitt calls a "mandate" for the Bush administration's scorched-earth environmental policies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) would sacrifice the greater sage grouse to protect western oil and gas interests? That's certainly the way it looks after the New York Times revealed December 5 that a Bush Interior Department political appointee with no wildlife background, Julie MacDonald, inserted herself into the decision-making process. The consequence: USFWS is recommending that the highly endangered bird not be listed as such under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)....
USDA is killing marauding wolves Wolf attacks on livestock have become an increasing problem in northern Wisconsin as the wolf population grows, but federal wildlife officials offered hope Tuesday for a solution. David Ruid, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the state Natural Resources Board that removing predator wolves from an area has helped. "This year we implemented our control program on 19 farms and solved this on 17 of those," Ruid said....
Study: Return of Wolves Changes Ecosystem Scientists studying the broader effects of wolf reintroduction said a growing body of evidence suggests that killing off predators such as wolves and grizzly bears in the last century started a cascade of effects that threw ecosystems out of balance. Researchers from Oregon State University found that a thriving wolf population not only changes where and how elk browse it even reverberates down to the number of willows that grow next to streams. The research, published in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Forest Ecology and Management, comes as states begin to wrestle with a problem they haven't faced in nearly a century: how to deal with wolves....
Oil and Gas Development Targeted in National Forest Roadless Area A coalition of conservation and outdoor industry groups has formally asked the Forest Service to withdraw plans to lease over 20,000 acres for oil and gas drilling in Utah's Uinta National Forest. The leasing would allow industrial development in roadless areas along the Wasatch Front that provide valuable opportunities for hiking, fishing, and hunting, as well as habitat for wildlife such as the Bonneville cutthroat trout and northern goshawk. The groups sent a letter to the Forest Service yesterday asking the agency to withdraw its consent to leasing based on violations of federal environmental laws....
Conservationists Ask for Public Access to Otero Mesa Development Documents On behalf of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society, Earthjustice filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C. to acquire documents explaining the Bush administration's proposal to open up New Mexico's pristine Otero Mesa to private oil and gas exploration. The suit is necessary because the BLM shared documents with oil and gas companies but refuses to share all of them with the public. Before the Bush administration came into office, the federal Bureau of Land Management planned to allow limited oil and gas development in Otero Mesa near existing roads. After the Bush administration took over, the BLM suddenly changed its plan to instead encourage widespread oil and gas development in virtually all parts of the largely unroaded natural area....
Swap fails; rancher says he'll build on prime land A northern Arizona rancher says Congress' failure to approve a huge and controversial exchange of private property for public land before adjourning its two-year legislative session on Wednesday means he will proceed with other options for his ranchland. "It is best for my family to concentrate our efforts on other alternatives for the ranch's future," Yavapai Ranch owner Fred Ruskin said after it became clear a bill including the land deal was dead. The proposed swap would have turned over 35,000 acres of Ruskin's ranch southeast of Seligman to Prescott National Forest in return for about 2,200 acres near Interstate 17 and Arizona 260 in Camp Verde, where Ruskin wanted to build a shopping center and housing development. With the legislation's failure, Ruskin has no option but to push ahead with his Plan B, which is developing homes on his land, according to Kurt Davis, who has been helping Ruskin lobby for the measure....
Congress intervenes in island wilderness debate, allows motorized tours Much to the chagrin of environmentalists, the federal government gave the green light Wednesday to motorized tours of Georgia's Cumberland Island - the largest undeveloped barrier island on the eastern seaboard. The congressional directive ends - at least for now - a bitter legal dispute over whether tourists should be able to more easily travel to some of the island's attractions, including a mansion once owned by the Andrew Carnegie family and the church where John F. Kennedy Jr. was married. Environmentalists warned that allowing motorized vehicles - even in limited numbers - would distract from the ambiance of the wilderness as experienced by those who explore it the old-fashioned way: on foot....
Column: Environmentalists Becoming Less and Less Relevant Environmental activists wanted two things to happen on Election Day -- they wanted President Bush to lose and their cause to be a big reason why. They got neither, and that may bode well for the future of environmental policy reform. Surveys taken before the elections showed that the environment was far down on the list of voters' concerns. For example, a Gallup poll taken earlier in 2004 ranked it 11th in importance among 12 issues. The election-day results bore this out, as the environment was barely on the radar compared to security, the economy, health care, and other issues. Overall, it is safe to say that environmental issues played no role in the outcome, and that probably would have been the case even if Bush had narrowly lost....
An Ad Campaign for Beef Rises to the Supreme Court The government went before the Supreme Court on Wednesday for the third time in recent years to defend an agricultural marketing program that requires producers to pay for advertising that not all of them want, and that some have challenged as compelled speech. "Beef: It's What's for Dinner," an advertising campaign financed by a $1 assessment on every head of cattle sold, was at issue this time. A dissident group of ranchers who believe their own beef to be superior and who see no benefit in generic advertising won a ruling from a federal appeals court that the assessment, usually referred to as a checkoff, violated their rights under the First Amendment....
Two brothels vying for 'Mustang Ranch' name No one really won the name "World Famous Mustang Ranch" at Tuesday's meeting of the Storey County brothel licensing board. The board decided to give the name to both parties jostling for it - at least until a federal court rules otherwise. Storey County Commissioner Greg "Bum" Hess said Tuesday that Lance Gilman and David Burgess, both of whom operate brothels in the county, can use the name until the federal court for the Nevada district decides on the trademark case. That decision should determine who owns the notorious name of Nevada's first legal bordello....
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Interior Department's No. 2 Resigns After Controversial Tenure J. Steven Griles, the former timber and energy lobbyist who managed the country's vast mineral and land holdings as the Interior Department's No. 2 official, resigned yesterday and said he would return to the private sector. Griles, a vocal advocate for drilling and logging on public lands as Interior's deputy secretary, won praise from industry but came under intense scrutiny for maintaining close ties to his former lobbying firm and its clients. An 18-month investigation by the department's inspector general found that he had dealings with energy and mining industry clients of National Environmental Strategies Inc. even as he continued to receive payments from his former firm. The report did not accuse Griles of violating any laws or federal ethics rules....
Wolf plan lacks cattle rancher support Continued criticism from ranchers is expected when a wolf management plan that has preliminary approval of the state Fish and Wildlife Commission gets a public airing Friday. The Salem public hearing is the first of three scheduled by the panel before Feb. 11, when it is to make a final decision on the plan that would allow ranchers to kill wolves seen attacking their livestock. Approving the rules to implement the plan won't be the end, though, because the Legislature would need to revise the state's endangered species law. The commission is responding to changes in federal policy that are expected to cause wolves to migrate to Oregon from Idaho....
Agency says ads misinform The Wyoming Outdoor Council and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department say some people in western Wyoming are deliberately spreading misinformation about the state's grizzly bear occupancy management plan. An unknown group has borrowed the Game and Fish Department's Grizzly Bear Working Group name and placed ads in several local newspapers. The ads claim the state's plan "would have a devastating effect on ‘multiple use' by area citizens," closing down grazing, logging, roads, trails and campgrounds....
Editorial: Best choice for managing wolves This is, of course, a touchy subject that triggers all sorts of volatile reactions from folks. Some wolf advocates have little trust in the state to manage relatively small populations on the Montana landscape, preferring that task be left to the heavy, protective hands of the federal government. Those who flat-out dislike wolves wonder why the heck the state is taking any role in protecting and managing them. Both positions are off-center, missing the major point: Like it or not, wolves have protected status under the Endangered Species Act, and the state is just plain better suited to manage them than the federal government....
Turtle nests could stall post-hurricane dune restoration Plans to repair sand dunes damaged from Florida's historic hurricane season could be blocked by nesting sea turtles until the end of next year's hurricane season, officials said. State officials have hoped to spend nearly $70 million to make repairs before more storms carve into severely eroded beaches, but local officials say little work can be done before the end of April, when sea turtles return to the Florida shoreline to lay their eggs. When that happens, restoration projects could be stalled at many beaches until November because of federal protections for the endangered species....
Dubois crowd grills G&F on grizzlies A deeply suspicious, rancorous crowd of 150 filled the Headwaters Art and Conference Center here Monday night to learn about the grizzly bear occupancy plan proposed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. During a question and answer session with Game and Fish representatives, the Dubois audience seemed suspicious of the motives of state and federal agencies alike when it comes to managing the tri-state population of grizzly bears after it is removed from Endangered Species Act protection. "When are we going to get our lifestyle back?" was one question shouted from the rear of the hall, voicing widespread resentment toward an expanding grizzly bear population that has made hunters and hikers wary of venturing into grizzly country....
ESA Under Review Western governors convening a two-day summit on the federal Endangered Species Act heard a list of complaints: Too few plants and animals saved. Too many lawsuits filed. The economic costs of the act are too high. Attended by nearly 300 people representing industry, agriculture and conservation groups, the governors' Endangered Species Act summit comes at a time when the Bush administration is changing how the 31-year-old landmark environmental law is interpreted and enforced. The western governors made it clear that they expect to have a voice in future decisions. Of the more than 1,200 species listed by the federal government as threatened or endangered, nearly 70 percent are located in 18 Western states...
Editorial: Reopen forest without the delay WHEN the U.S. Forest Service in late October rescinded its wacky edict and declared it was re-opening the Angeles National Forest, they were telling half- truths. In fact, access to large portions remain closed for reasons that are unclear. Closures continue to deny public access to the upper reaches of Azusa Canyon, closed since the October 2002 Curve-Williams Fire. Closures at the entrance to Glendora Mountain Road and Chantry Flat Road deny millions of visitors each year access to some of the most reachable forest acreage. Chantry Flat Road's closure epitomizes the Forest Service's stubborn preoccupation with keeping forest access roads closed and therefore, keeping people out. Fewer people, less work. Sounds good if you are a Forest Service employee....
Editorial: End to range wars might lie at 'radical center' And it is particularly satisfying to apply Stegner's sunny observation to the long, often bitter spat between New Mexico's ranchers and environmentalists. A three-part series that ended Dec. 4 by Tribune reporter Carrie Seidman, titled "Change on the range," suggests that one of the most innovative and promising strategies for preserving both Western lands and the ranching way of life is being developed right here in the Land of Enchantment. The strategy, promoted by the 7-year-old Quivira Coalition of Santa Fe, appears to be having some success....
BLM Launches Two New Web-Based Tools for Accessing Land Use Records The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced the deployment of “Land and Mineral Use Records” and “Federal Land Stewardship,” two new Web-based data tools within its GeoCommunicator website. Part of the BLM’s E-Government initiative, GeoCommunicator (www.geocommunicator.gov) is a website for the distribution of spatial data from the BLM’s Land and Minerals Records System and the joint BLM-U.S. Forest Service U.S. National Integrated Land System (NILS). NILS uses ESRI’s ArcGIS 9 technology and Model Builder to develop and standardize BLM’s land management business processes....
Column: We Need a Green March It can no longer be denied: The national environmental movement has stalled. It became glaringly obvious as the movement campaigned against George W. Bush for three years with no noticeable influence on his re-election. It's proven more subtly by the fact that Congress has passed almost no significant environmental laws since 1980, and by now, whoever happens to be president can jerk around the priorities of key agencies like the Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The environmental movement's halt is important in the West, because this is the movement that set aside all the federal land that distinguishes the region, and it defends the bedrock laws that preserve the qualities of the land, wildlife, water and air....
New plan for dams aims to improve salmon runs Two hydroelectric dams once blamed for harming Skagit River and Baker River salmon runs would be managed in a more fish-friendly way under an agreement reached by Puget Sound Energy, tribes, state and federal environmental agencies and environmental groups. The deal would set stricter limits on how much water should be released from two dams on the Baker River, which flows through the North Cascades town of Concrete, Skagit County, before joining the Skagit River. The energy company, which owns the dams that have a combined output of 175 megawatts of power, also would pay for expanding a fish hatchery, transporting fish around the dams, improving habitat, redeveloping a resort along Baker Lake and protecting tribal cultural sites....
Editorial: Horse-trading for more water On Thursday, the Arizona Water Banking Authority is expected to approve a pact that transfers 1.25 million acre-feet of Colorado River water to Nevada. In return, Arizona will be paid $330 million over the next 14 years and gain something it has shunned for years: a strategic partner in determining the future of the Colorado River and protecting its own water supply. This deal, tantalizingly close to completion after years of negotiations, creates a water bank in Arizona. The Southern Nevada Water Authority would be able to draw from that bank by taking water from Lake Mead that otherwise would flow downstream to Arizona. Nevada can withdraw as much as 20,000 acre feet -- one year's supply for about 30,000 Las Vegas Valley households -- beginning in 2007. By 2011, the state could draw 40,000 acre-feet per year until the 1.25 million acre-feet credit is gone. The deal was reached, in part, because of the increasing likelihood that both Arizona and Nevada will have their shares of Colorado River water reduced as a result of the West's persistent drought. If federal authorities declare a "shortage condition" on the river, Arizona will absorb the biggest share of that reduction....
Land bared by receded waters sparks Lake Powell debate With the waters of Lake Powell receding because of the drought and its once-submerged canyons re-emerging, has the time come to start looking at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area as more than a reservoir? A local environmental group says yes. The Glen Canyon Institute has petitioned the National Park Service to adopt a new management plan for Lake Powell, arguing that the reappearance of the canyon after 40 years mandates a reappraisal of how the agency defines the recreation area....
Energy report aims to move U.S. forward In an attempt to break a deadlock on a national energy policy, a diverse group of environmentalists, academics and former government officials will publish a report today that presents strategies for making the country cleaner, more competitive and less vulnerable to energy shocks. The strategies, intended to be the basis for action by Congress, include policies that are generally anathema to at least some of the constituencies represented by members of the group. It says the government should force increases in efficiency in cars and electrical equipment, stimulate global oil production, regulate ``greenhouse gas'' emissions with a trading system, rapidly expand a new method of burning coal and explore a revival of nuclear power. The $5 million, two-year private study, titled ``Ending the Energy Stalemate,'' is intended to be a package-deal blueprint, akin to a Ford Foundation report 30 years ago that first suggested vehicle mileage standards and a national petroleum reserve....
FBI Considers Ecoterrorism A Growing National Threat Ecoterrorism, suspected in the torching of a tony housing development near a sensitive wetland this week, is a growing national threat, the FBI says. The radical campaign gets less publicity than the sister movement of animal rights activism, known for freeing animals from cages and threatening laboratory employees. But the FBI, which dubs both movements "special interest extremism", blames them for 1,100 criminal acts that have caused $110 million worth of damage since 1976. Both types of extremists have emerged in recent years as a "serious domestic threat", the agency says....
Column: Stealing Property Rights in the Name of Historic Preservation The West Bridgewater Historical Commission announced in early October that it wants to create a "demolition delay bylaw" whereby any property owner who wishes to demolish his old, decrepit home and replace it with a new one, must file a "notice of intent to demolish a significant building" and wait for up to half a year to receive (or not receive) a "demolition permit." Once a property owner files his request to do want he wants to with his property, the Historical Committee schedules a public hearing on the matter and the property owner is required to post a notice of the public hearing that is visible from the nearest public way. After the public hearing, the Commission is given 21 days to cast its judgment and decide whether the property owner’s plans to do what he wants with his property conflict with what South Boston’s The Enterprise describes as "West Bridgewater's historical, cultural or architectural heritage or resources." In other words, the property owner is screwed....
Next on Supreme Court menu: beef and free speech For years, beef was considered the bad boy of American cuisine. Rising health concerns about red meat and soaring prices in the 1980s plunged the beef industry into crisis. The problem got so bad that in 1985, Congress passed the Beef Act - a law aimed at improving the image of steaks, burgers, and even pot roast. The centerpiece of the effort was a generic advertisement: "Beef: It's What's for Dinner." An industry organization, the Livestock Marketing Association, and a group of ranchers are challenging the constitutionality of the Beef Act - saying it forces some beef producers to pay for advertising that they do not support....
WNFR Journal: Round 4 Now that is more like it. Round 4 of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo was pretty spicy. Guys who needed to get with the program did just that. Even the team ropers got into the spirit of things and posted their strongest overall performance in four rounds. If you are Kelly Timberman and leading in the world standings, the last thing you want to see is reigning champion Will Lowe jumping around in the Thomas & Mack Arena and celebrating a go-round win. Lowe has placed in the last two rounds, but is well back in the aggregate race. Lowe is so much fun to watch. He brings that youthful exuberance with him everywhere he goes. It may take more than boyish charm though to pull out a second straight world championship. Have you ever tried to follow someone through traffic and no matter what you do you can't keep up? That has to be how 14 steer wrestlers feel about Luke Branquinho.... You can also see Medders comments on rounds one, two and three...
Interior Department's No. 2 Resigns After Controversial Tenure J. Steven Griles, the former timber and energy lobbyist who managed the country's vast mineral and land holdings as the Interior Department's No. 2 official, resigned yesterday and said he would return to the private sector. Griles, a vocal advocate for drilling and logging on public lands as Interior's deputy secretary, won praise from industry but came under intense scrutiny for maintaining close ties to his former lobbying firm and its clients. An 18-month investigation by the department's inspector general found that he had dealings with energy and mining industry clients of National Environmental Strategies Inc. even as he continued to receive payments from his former firm. The report did not accuse Griles of violating any laws or federal ethics rules....
Wolf plan lacks cattle rancher support Continued criticism from ranchers is expected when a wolf management plan that has preliminary approval of the state Fish and Wildlife Commission gets a public airing Friday. The Salem public hearing is the first of three scheduled by the panel before Feb. 11, when it is to make a final decision on the plan that would allow ranchers to kill wolves seen attacking their livestock. Approving the rules to implement the plan won't be the end, though, because the Legislature would need to revise the state's endangered species law. The commission is responding to changes in federal policy that are expected to cause wolves to migrate to Oregon from Idaho....
Agency says ads misinform The Wyoming Outdoor Council and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department say some people in western Wyoming are deliberately spreading misinformation about the state's grizzly bear occupancy management plan. An unknown group has borrowed the Game and Fish Department's Grizzly Bear Working Group name and placed ads in several local newspapers. The ads claim the state's plan "would have a devastating effect on ‘multiple use' by area citizens," closing down grazing, logging, roads, trails and campgrounds....
Editorial: Best choice for managing wolves This is, of course, a touchy subject that triggers all sorts of volatile reactions from folks. Some wolf advocates have little trust in the state to manage relatively small populations on the Montana landscape, preferring that task be left to the heavy, protective hands of the federal government. Those who flat-out dislike wolves wonder why the heck the state is taking any role in protecting and managing them. Both positions are off-center, missing the major point: Like it or not, wolves have protected status under the Endangered Species Act, and the state is just plain better suited to manage them than the federal government....
Turtle nests could stall post-hurricane dune restoration Plans to repair sand dunes damaged from Florida's historic hurricane season could be blocked by nesting sea turtles until the end of next year's hurricane season, officials said. State officials have hoped to spend nearly $70 million to make repairs before more storms carve into severely eroded beaches, but local officials say little work can be done before the end of April, when sea turtles return to the Florida shoreline to lay their eggs. When that happens, restoration projects could be stalled at many beaches until November because of federal protections for the endangered species....
Dubois crowd grills G&F on grizzlies A deeply suspicious, rancorous crowd of 150 filled the Headwaters Art and Conference Center here Monday night to learn about the grizzly bear occupancy plan proposed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. During a question and answer session with Game and Fish representatives, the Dubois audience seemed suspicious of the motives of state and federal agencies alike when it comes to managing the tri-state population of grizzly bears after it is removed from Endangered Species Act protection. "When are we going to get our lifestyle back?" was one question shouted from the rear of the hall, voicing widespread resentment toward an expanding grizzly bear population that has made hunters and hikers wary of venturing into grizzly country....
ESA Under Review Western governors convening a two-day summit on the federal Endangered Species Act heard a list of complaints: Too few plants and animals saved. Too many lawsuits filed. The economic costs of the act are too high. Attended by nearly 300 people representing industry, agriculture and conservation groups, the governors' Endangered Species Act summit comes at a time when the Bush administration is changing how the 31-year-old landmark environmental law is interpreted and enforced. The western governors made it clear that they expect to have a voice in future decisions. Of the more than 1,200 species listed by the federal government as threatened or endangered, nearly 70 percent are located in 18 Western states...
Editorial: Reopen forest without the delay WHEN the U.S. Forest Service in late October rescinded its wacky edict and declared it was re-opening the Angeles National Forest, they were telling half- truths. In fact, access to large portions remain closed for reasons that are unclear. Closures continue to deny public access to the upper reaches of Azusa Canyon, closed since the October 2002 Curve-Williams Fire. Closures at the entrance to Glendora Mountain Road and Chantry Flat Road deny millions of visitors each year access to some of the most reachable forest acreage. Chantry Flat Road's closure epitomizes the Forest Service's stubborn preoccupation with keeping forest access roads closed and therefore, keeping people out. Fewer people, less work. Sounds good if you are a Forest Service employee....
Editorial: End to range wars might lie at 'radical center' And it is particularly satisfying to apply Stegner's sunny observation to the long, often bitter spat between New Mexico's ranchers and environmentalists. A three-part series that ended Dec. 4 by Tribune reporter Carrie Seidman, titled "Change on the range," suggests that one of the most innovative and promising strategies for preserving both Western lands and the ranching way of life is being developed right here in the Land of Enchantment. The strategy, promoted by the 7-year-old Quivira Coalition of Santa Fe, appears to be having some success....
BLM Launches Two New Web-Based Tools for Accessing Land Use Records The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced the deployment of “Land and Mineral Use Records” and “Federal Land Stewardship,” two new Web-based data tools within its GeoCommunicator website. Part of the BLM’s E-Government initiative, GeoCommunicator (www.geocommunicator.gov) is a website for the distribution of spatial data from the BLM’s Land and Minerals Records System and the joint BLM-U.S. Forest Service U.S. National Integrated Land System (NILS). NILS uses ESRI’s ArcGIS 9 technology and Model Builder to develop and standardize BLM’s land management business processes....
Column: We Need a Green March It can no longer be denied: The national environmental movement has stalled. It became glaringly obvious as the movement campaigned against George W. Bush for three years with no noticeable influence on his re-election. It's proven more subtly by the fact that Congress has passed almost no significant environmental laws since 1980, and by now, whoever happens to be president can jerk around the priorities of key agencies like the Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The environmental movement's halt is important in the West, because this is the movement that set aside all the federal land that distinguishes the region, and it defends the bedrock laws that preserve the qualities of the land, wildlife, water and air....
New plan for dams aims to improve salmon runs Two hydroelectric dams once blamed for harming Skagit River and Baker River salmon runs would be managed in a more fish-friendly way under an agreement reached by Puget Sound Energy, tribes, state and federal environmental agencies and environmental groups. The deal would set stricter limits on how much water should be released from two dams on the Baker River, which flows through the North Cascades town of Concrete, Skagit County, before joining the Skagit River. The energy company, which owns the dams that have a combined output of 175 megawatts of power, also would pay for expanding a fish hatchery, transporting fish around the dams, improving habitat, redeveloping a resort along Baker Lake and protecting tribal cultural sites....
Editorial: Horse-trading for more water On Thursday, the Arizona Water Banking Authority is expected to approve a pact that transfers 1.25 million acre-feet of Colorado River water to Nevada. In return, Arizona will be paid $330 million over the next 14 years and gain something it has shunned for years: a strategic partner in determining the future of the Colorado River and protecting its own water supply. This deal, tantalizingly close to completion after years of negotiations, creates a water bank in Arizona. The Southern Nevada Water Authority would be able to draw from that bank by taking water from Lake Mead that otherwise would flow downstream to Arizona. Nevada can withdraw as much as 20,000 acre feet -- one year's supply for about 30,000 Las Vegas Valley households -- beginning in 2007. By 2011, the state could draw 40,000 acre-feet per year until the 1.25 million acre-feet credit is gone. The deal was reached, in part, because of the increasing likelihood that both Arizona and Nevada will have their shares of Colorado River water reduced as a result of the West's persistent drought. If federal authorities declare a "shortage condition" on the river, Arizona will absorb the biggest share of that reduction....
Land bared by receded waters sparks Lake Powell debate With the waters of Lake Powell receding because of the drought and its once-submerged canyons re-emerging, has the time come to start looking at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area as more than a reservoir? A local environmental group says yes. The Glen Canyon Institute has petitioned the National Park Service to adopt a new management plan for Lake Powell, arguing that the reappearance of the canyon after 40 years mandates a reappraisal of how the agency defines the recreation area....
Energy report aims to move U.S. forward In an attempt to break a deadlock on a national energy policy, a diverse group of environmentalists, academics and former government officials will publish a report today that presents strategies for making the country cleaner, more competitive and less vulnerable to energy shocks. The strategies, intended to be the basis for action by Congress, include policies that are generally anathema to at least some of the constituencies represented by members of the group. It says the government should force increases in efficiency in cars and electrical equipment, stimulate global oil production, regulate ``greenhouse gas'' emissions with a trading system, rapidly expand a new method of burning coal and explore a revival of nuclear power. The $5 million, two-year private study, titled ``Ending the Energy Stalemate,'' is intended to be a package-deal blueprint, akin to a Ford Foundation report 30 years ago that first suggested vehicle mileage standards and a national petroleum reserve....
FBI Considers Ecoterrorism A Growing National Threat Ecoterrorism, suspected in the torching of a tony housing development near a sensitive wetland this week, is a growing national threat, the FBI says. The radical campaign gets less publicity than the sister movement of animal rights activism, known for freeing animals from cages and threatening laboratory employees. But the FBI, which dubs both movements "special interest extremism", blames them for 1,100 criminal acts that have caused $110 million worth of damage since 1976. Both types of extremists have emerged in recent years as a "serious domestic threat", the agency says....
Column: Stealing Property Rights in the Name of Historic Preservation The West Bridgewater Historical Commission announced in early October that it wants to create a "demolition delay bylaw" whereby any property owner who wishes to demolish his old, decrepit home and replace it with a new one, must file a "notice of intent to demolish a significant building" and wait for up to half a year to receive (or not receive) a "demolition permit." Once a property owner files his request to do want he wants to with his property, the Historical Committee schedules a public hearing on the matter and the property owner is required to post a notice of the public hearing that is visible from the nearest public way. After the public hearing, the Commission is given 21 days to cast its judgment and decide whether the property owner’s plans to do what he wants with his property conflict with what South Boston’s The Enterprise describes as "West Bridgewater's historical, cultural or architectural heritage or resources." In other words, the property owner is screwed....
Next on Supreme Court menu: beef and free speech For years, beef was considered the bad boy of American cuisine. Rising health concerns about red meat and soaring prices in the 1980s plunged the beef industry into crisis. The problem got so bad that in 1985, Congress passed the Beef Act - a law aimed at improving the image of steaks, burgers, and even pot roast. The centerpiece of the effort was a generic advertisement: "Beef: It's What's for Dinner." An industry organization, the Livestock Marketing Association, and a group of ranchers are challenging the constitutionality of the Beef Act - saying it forces some beef producers to pay for advertising that they do not support....
WNFR Journal: Round 4 Now that is more like it. Round 4 of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo was pretty spicy. Guys who needed to get with the program did just that. Even the team ropers got into the spirit of things and posted their strongest overall performance in four rounds. If you are Kelly Timberman and leading in the world standings, the last thing you want to see is reigning champion Will Lowe jumping around in the Thomas & Mack Arena and celebrating a go-round win. Lowe has placed in the last two rounds, but is well back in the aggregate race. Lowe is so much fun to watch. He brings that youthful exuberance with him everywhere he goes. It may take more than boyish charm though to pull out a second straight world championship. Have you ever tried to follow someone through traffic and no matter what you do you can't keep up? That has to be how 14 steer wrestlers feel about Luke Branquinho.... You can also see Medders comments on rounds one, two and three...
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Positive ID on bad bear It appears that a male black bear recently killed in the area was the one that had been rummaging for food, tipping garbage cans and spreading fear. Rancher Larry Cottrell shot the bear after it climbed into the bed of his truck. Since then, there have been no bear sightings. "I'm sure the bear Larry shot was the bear that was at our house," homeowner Solveig Fredstrup said....
Yellowstone's bison set record for population The number of bison in Yellowstone National Park is again at a historic high as another winter of control efforts and controversy approaches. The high numbers - biologists figure the population is around 4,200 - will likely help buffer the effect of sending some bison to slaughter because of a government plan to protect neighboring cattle from brucellosis. At the start of last winter, park officials estimated about 4,000 bison in Yellowstone. Nearly 300 were sent to slaughter last spring and nearly 600 calves have been born since....
Activists question efficacy of bison vaccination program The Montana Department of Livestock is proposing that some of the bison that leave Yellowstone National Park be vaccinated, a move intended to help reduce the potential spread of brucellosis. The plan has upset some activists, who question the vaccine's efficacy and view a vaccination program as a waste of money. The department prepared an environmental assessment that proposes vaccinating calves and yearlings that leave the park's western boundary and enter the state. Vaccination would take place ''opportunistically,'' the document says, as a part of bison management activities....
Tribes agree to amend Bison Range management plan The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have agreed to make changes in a proposed agreement to share management of the National Bison Rage with the federal government, hoping to address some of the fears of opponents. The changes include stronger language prohibiting the tribe from lobbying Congress for more money to expand their share of Bison Range management. The changes would also require consultation with the Bison Range manager -- a Fish and Wildlife Service employee -- regarding any waivers of regulations, and they make it clear tribal employees hired at the Bison Range will have sufficient training, education and experience....
Workers' Group Says EPA Censors Comments The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency censored warnings that a Bush administration plan to build roads in national forests could harm drinking water, a group representing government workers said on Monday. The problem arose after the U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, asked for comments on building roads in pristine national forests. An EPA staffer wrote that building roads through swaths of land previously untouched would deteriorate the qualify of water in streams and have an impact on public drinking water. Ruch said that EPA employees related that Steven Shimborg, a political appointee at the EPA, dismissed the staff draft as a "rant" and ordered the objections stricken from the EPA comments....
USFS staff cutbacks are ahead About 20 Stanislaus National Forest employees may lose their jobs, relocate to New Mexico or move to a different department of the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service will reduce its budget and finance and human resources staffs and move the remaining employees to an office in Albuquerque, N.M., said Ron Hooper, staff assistant for the agency's Washington D.C. office. "Why are these centralization efforts so important to the organization? One simple reason is the budget," Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said at a meeting in October. Hooper said moving human resource employees to one office will save the federal agency about $60 million a year....
Hitting a vein In an echo of nugget-chasers past, a new gold rush is under way on some Northern California rivers — one that's generating a wealth of controversy. Wildlife proponents say the mining endangers salmon in the rivers, prompting a lawsuit by a local tribe of Native Americans and questions about whether the waterways can support both fish and miners. At the center of the debate is a gold-ferreting technique far removed from the quaint days of panning. Suction-dredge mining makes it possible for prospectors to scour large and remote stretches of river. Gold hunters use a roaring engine mounted on pontoons to suck gravel and sediment from river bottoms into a sluice box where the ore settles....
Did ecoterrorists torch pricey houses? More than a dozen expensive homes under construction were burned down early Monday in a suburban Washington development that had been criticized by environmentalists because it is next to a nature preserve, officials said. An FBI agent said the fires may have been set by environmental extremists. A dozen homes were destroyed and 29 others damaged near the state's Mattawoman Natural Environment Area. No injuries were reported. The damage was estimated at at least $10 million....
Court: Interior Department systems can go back online An appeals court has reversed a March 15 U.S. District Court decision under which the U.S. Department of the Interior was forced to disconnect a substantial number of its computer systems from the Internet. In an opinion published Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed the earlier decision, saying that the District Court erred in disregarding Interior Department security certifications and in failing to hold a hearing that would have given the department a chance to argue that its computers were secure....
State Fears Ruling's Effect on Environmental Water Policy State officials are urging the Bush administration to fight a court ruling that would force the federal government to pay Central Valley farmers $26 million for water diverted to environmental protections — opening the door to a wave of similar claims. Although the core of the ruling came down nearly a year ago, Bush administration officials have yet to signal whether they will appeal the case. They say a settlement is possible. If the administration lets the decision stand, state officials warn, it could create a precedent that would make it prohibitively expensive to enforce water quality rules and fish protections....
Water Rights Case Threatens Species Protection The Bush administration is close to settling a legal dispute with California farmers that could cost the government millions and make it more difficult for federal authorities to protect endangered species, according to legal analysts and some state and federal officials. Justice Department officials are working to reach an agreement with five San Joaquin Valley water districts that would affirm a federal judge's 2001 decision that federal authorities' efforts to conserve water for two imperiled kinds of local fish violated farmers' private property rights. The ruling, the first of its kind, would set an important precedent and could make it costly for federal officials to take protective actions under the Endangered Species Act. The negotiations have touched off a controversy both within the administration and in California, with some state and federal officials arguing the government would be better off appealing a federal claims judge's decision that the government owes as much as $26 million for depriving San Joaquin farmers of their water rights in the early 1990s....
Cloud-seeding plan draws concerns There appeared to be little support for a proposed $8.825 million state-funded weather modification program at a hearing of the Wyoming Water Development Commission here Monday. The proposed program would involve seeding clouds in the vicinity of the Medicine Bow/Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges as well as in the Wind River Mountains to test whether such seeding would increase snowpack in the mountains -- and therefore create additional water for the state....
State Laws Take Back Seat to Trade California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine thought he had found an eco-friendly way to help the state dispose of millions of scrap tires: use recycled U.S. tires in asphalt for road construction. The Van Nuys Democrat hadn't counted on Canadian and Mexican rubber exporters crying foul. And though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supported Levine's idea, he vetoed the assemblyman's bill in September, saying it would violate international trade pacts and invite retaliation against California goods. Nobody in Sacramento was very happy with the outcome....
It's All Trew: Deere was a man farmers could really dig In 1838, a village blacksmith named John Deere created a plow from a worn saw blade. Amazingly, the new design blade sheared the soil cleanly and the moldboard laid the new soil aside in long, neat ribbons. It was a great improvement over previous plows where soil clung to the blades. By 1848, thousands of Deere's plows were being sold each year. This simple, horse-drawn device consisted of a hooked beam, a plow/moldboard blade and two wooden handles. Called a walking plow or stubble plow, the name was derived from the fact the operator walked behind to steady and guide the work. Though the furrow left behind was small and narrow it had a great impact on the history of the West....
Positive ID on bad bear It appears that a male black bear recently killed in the area was the one that had been rummaging for food, tipping garbage cans and spreading fear. Rancher Larry Cottrell shot the bear after it climbed into the bed of his truck. Since then, there have been no bear sightings. "I'm sure the bear Larry shot was the bear that was at our house," homeowner Solveig Fredstrup said....
Yellowstone's bison set record for population The number of bison in Yellowstone National Park is again at a historic high as another winter of control efforts and controversy approaches. The high numbers - biologists figure the population is around 4,200 - will likely help buffer the effect of sending some bison to slaughter because of a government plan to protect neighboring cattle from brucellosis. At the start of last winter, park officials estimated about 4,000 bison in Yellowstone. Nearly 300 were sent to slaughter last spring and nearly 600 calves have been born since....
Activists question efficacy of bison vaccination program The Montana Department of Livestock is proposing that some of the bison that leave Yellowstone National Park be vaccinated, a move intended to help reduce the potential spread of brucellosis. The plan has upset some activists, who question the vaccine's efficacy and view a vaccination program as a waste of money. The department prepared an environmental assessment that proposes vaccinating calves and yearlings that leave the park's western boundary and enter the state. Vaccination would take place ''opportunistically,'' the document says, as a part of bison management activities....
Tribes agree to amend Bison Range management plan The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have agreed to make changes in a proposed agreement to share management of the National Bison Rage with the federal government, hoping to address some of the fears of opponents. The changes include stronger language prohibiting the tribe from lobbying Congress for more money to expand their share of Bison Range management. The changes would also require consultation with the Bison Range manager -- a Fish and Wildlife Service employee -- regarding any waivers of regulations, and they make it clear tribal employees hired at the Bison Range will have sufficient training, education and experience....
Workers' Group Says EPA Censors Comments The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency censored warnings that a Bush administration plan to build roads in national forests could harm drinking water, a group representing government workers said on Monday. The problem arose after the U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, asked for comments on building roads in pristine national forests. An EPA staffer wrote that building roads through swaths of land previously untouched would deteriorate the qualify of water in streams and have an impact on public drinking water. Ruch said that EPA employees related that Steven Shimborg, a political appointee at the EPA, dismissed the staff draft as a "rant" and ordered the objections stricken from the EPA comments....
USFS staff cutbacks are ahead About 20 Stanislaus National Forest employees may lose their jobs, relocate to New Mexico or move to a different department of the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service will reduce its budget and finance and human resources staffs and move the remaining employees to an office in Albuquerque, N.M., said Ron Hooper, staff assistant for the agency's Washington D.C. office. "Why are these centralization efforts so important to the organization? One simple reason is the budget," Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said at a meeting in October. Hooper said moving human resource employees to one office will save the federal agency about $60 million a year....
Hitting a vein In an echo of nugget-chasers past, a new gold rush is under way on some Northern California rivers — one that's generating a wealth of controversy. Wildlife proponents say the mining endangers salmon in the rivers, prompting a lawsuit by a local tribe of Native Americans and questions about whether the waterways can support both fish and miners. At the center of the debate is a gold-ferreting technique far removed from the quaint days of panning. Suction-dredge mining makes it possible for prospectors to scour large and remote stretches of river. Gold hunters use a roaring engine mounted on pontoons to suck gravel and sediment from river bottoms into a sluice box where the ore settles....
Did ecoterrorists torch pricey houses? More than a dozen expensive homes under construction were burned down early Monday in a suburban Washington development that had been criticized by environmentalists because it is next to a nature preserve, officials said. An FBI agent said the fires may have been set by environmental extremists. A dozen homes were destroyed and 29 others damaged near the state's Mattawoman Natural Environment Area. No injuries were reported. The damage was estimated at at least $10 million....
Court: Interior Department systems can go back online An appeals court has reversed a March 15 U.S. District Court decision under which the U.S. Department of the Interior was forced to disconnect a substantial number of its computer systems from the Internet. In an opinion published Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed the earlier decision, saying that the District Court erred in disregarding Interior Department security certifications and in failing to hold a hearing that would have given the department a chance to argue that its computers were secure....
State Fears Ruling's Effect on Environmental Water Policy State officials are urging the Bush administration to fight a court ruling that would force the federal government to pay Central Valley farmers $26 million for water diverted to environmental protections — opening the door to a wave of similar claims. Although the core of the ruling came down nearly a year ago, Bush administration officials have yet to signal whether they will appeal the case. They say a settlement is possible. If the administration lets the decision stand, state officials warn, it could create a precedent that would make it prohibitively expensive to enforce water quality rules and fish protections....
Water Rights Case Threatens Species Protection The Bush administration is close to settling a legal dispute with California farmers that could cost the government millions and make it more difficult for federal authorities to protect endangered species, according to legal analysts and some state and federal officials. Justice Department officials are working to reach an agreement with five San Joaquin Valley water districts that would affirm a federal judge's 2001 decision that federal authorities' efforts to conserve water for two imperiled kinds of local fish violated farmers' private property rights. The ruling, the first of its kind, would set an important precedent and could make it costly for federal officials to take protective actions under the Endangered Species Act. The negotiations have touched off a controversy both within the administration and in California, with some state and federal officials arguing the government would be better off appealing a federal claims judge's decision that the government owes as much as $26 million for depriving San Joaquin farmers of their water rights in the early 1990s....
Cloud-seeding plan draws concerns There appeared to be little support for a proposed $8.825 million state-funded weather modification program at a hearing of the Wyoming Water Development Commission here Monday. The proposed program would involve seeding clouds in the vicinity of the Medicine Bow/Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges as well as in the Wind River Mountains to test whether such seeding would increase snowpack in the mountains -- and therefore create additional water for the state....
State Laws Take Back Seat to Trade California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine thought he had found an eco-friendly way to help the state dispose of millions of scrap tires: use recycled U.S. tires in asphalt for road construction. The Van Nuys Democrat hadn't counted on Canadian and Mexican rubber exporters crying foul. And though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supported Levine's idea, he vetoed the assemblyman's bill in September, saying it would violate international trade pacts and invite retaliation against California goods. Nobody in Sacramento was very happy with the outcome....
It's All Trew: Deere was a man farmers could really dig In 1838, a village blacksmith named John Deere created a plow from a worn saw blade. Amazingly, the new design blade sheared the soil cleanly and the moldboard laid the new soil aside in long, neat ribbons. It was a great improvement over previous plows where soil clung to the blades. By 1848, thousands of Deere's plows were being sold each year. This simple, horse-drawn device consisted of a hooked beam, a plow/moldboard blade and two wooden handles. Called a walking plow or stubble plow, the name was derived from the fact the operator walked behind to steady and guide the work. Though the furrow left behind was small and narrow it had a great impact on the history of the West....
Monday, December 06, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Western governors focus on wildlife A majority of Western governors gathered in San Diego yesterday said they favor significant revisions in the federal Endangered Species Act, one of the nation's landmark environmental laws. Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and others said the 31-year-old law often robs Westerners of their property rights and imposes broad rules after little consultation. "We want to recover the species," said Owens, a Republican. But, he added, "let's not use the species act as a way to try to manage public and private properties."....
Interior Official and Federal Biologists Clash on Danger to Bird The scientific opinions of a Bush administration appointee at the Interior Department with no background in wildlife biology were provided as part of the source material for the panel of Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and managers who recommended against giving the greater sage grouse protection under the endangered species act. The appointee, Julie MacDonald, a senior policymaker, criticized studies showing widespread loss of grouse territory and sporadic declines in grouse populations....
Encroaching homes silence Reacting to complaints from the Oxenfords and other neighbors, including former Gov. Roy Romer, Pike National Forest officials are preparing to close the area, known as Slaughterhouse Gulch, to recreational shooting. Whether a shooting range is an informal one such as Slaughterhouse Gulch or commercial, it runs into trouble when people begin building houses nearby....
Fur flies over Wolf Creek project The proposed village at Wolf Creek isn't going to happen without a fight, if recent events are an indication. An environmental group last week sued tiny Mineral County, population 800, for approving the development, which could bring jobs and millions of dollars annually to the depressed county. The same group has sued the U.S. Forest Service for giving the developer seasonal access to the village site. The owners of the Wolf Creek ski area, which lies adjacent to the proposed village, are suing the developers. And the developers are countersuing the resort owners in a convoluted contractual dispute....
Movement's roots go back a decade Fat cows, healthy ecosystems and intact rural communities are the goal of the Heart Mountain grass bank, according to grass bank project director Maria Sonett. The philosophy of the grass bank sprouted a decade ago with the Malpai Borderlands Group, a rancher-led nonprofit organization located in the boot heel of New Mexico and Arizona. The group formed in response to public lands grazing policy, loss and subdivision of private ranchland and frustration with mismanagement of land by federal and state agencies. Now the first grass banks are closing, having accomplished their goals, while new ones are forming in places such as Oregon and Nebraska....
Ranchers push 'corner jumping' bill Lawmakers jumped right over a proposed bill that would ban "corner jumping" in Wyoming. Without a vote, a joint interim legislative committee last week decided not to pursue an agriculture industry-sponsored draft bill that would restore the Wyoming Game and Fish Department authority's to cite hunters for the practice, also known as "corner cutting." Corner jumping describes the practice of stepping over the corner created where four sections of land meet in order to reach a cater-corner parcel of public land. Earlier this year, Game and Fish wardens quit citing hunters for corner jumping after an opinion from the state attorney general....
Alaska case goes to high court The U.S. Supreme Court next month will hear arguments on whether the federal government should give the state ownership of submerged lands in Glacier Bay and other spots in Southeast Alaska. The case began when Alaska commercial fishermen were angered by the National Park Service's decision in 1998 to phase out fishing in Glacier Bay. The state sued, saying that Congress never intended to include the bay itself when it created a national monument there in 1925. State attorneys are also asking the court to resolve a 34-year-old state-federal boundary dispute over the rest of Southeast Alaska's inland waters....
PERC gives Bush a C+ grade The Bush administration is doing only a middling job of implementing free market approaches to environmental issues, according to a Bozeman think tank. PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center, has given the administration a C+ for its first term. The grade is a slight improvement from the C- the administration earned from PERC after its first two years. PERC advocates free market environmentalism, which it defines, in part, as "adherence to respect for property rights, market trading and decentralization."....
Column: Death of the environmental movement? Environmentalism is a dead movement walking. So goes the theme of a controversial essay circulating among environmentalists and their funding organizations. Entitled "The Death of Environmentalism," the epistle was produced by longtime environmental activist Michael Shellenberger of the Breakthrough Institute in El Cerrito and Ted Nordhaus, vice president of Evans/McDonough, an opinion research firm. Its content was based on interviews with more than 25 of the environmental community's top leaders and thinkers. On Dec. 8, former Sierra Club president Adam Werbach will take up the cause, in a speech, also titled "The Death of Environmentalism," to be presented at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Several National Public Radio affiliates plan to broadcast the speech a few days later. In it, Werbach will argue that the modern environmentalism must die in order for a new movement to be born....
Column: Tough row to hoe The United States made $17 billion in direct government payments to farmers and ranchers in 2003 — amounting to 32 percent of net farm income. On top of this were additional billions in indirect assistance, delivered via subsidized loans and insurance, loan guarantees and tax breaks. If the farm lobby's argument that such largess is necessary to preserve the family farm ever applied, it doesn't now. According to the Agriculture Department, about 40 percent of all farms receive government payments of one kind or another. The bulk of these payments, however, go to larger farms. In fact, while just 7 percent of all U.S. farms have sales of $250,000 or more, this 7 percent receive almost half of all government payments....
Deep in his heart, still a cowboy As a boy, Dan Taylor had doggedly perfected his roping skills on the family's ranch near Brady. After his school classes and practice for the track team, he would go home and practice roping 20 calves every day, chasing them down, one by one, as the sun slowly slipped into the flat horizon, like an orange penny into a bank. Roping took him to the bright lights of New York City 14 times. One of those times, he made headlines when a bucking bull broke out of Madison Square Garden and was running wild through the streets, going the wrong way down one-way streets. Panicked officials turned to Mr. Taylor, who went in hot pursuit on his horse. "Roped it right there on Broadway just before 42nd Street," he says with a twinkle in his blue eyes....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Keeping it clean is exception, not rule If one can get enteritis from eating with dirty hands and lung cancer from breathing dirty air, can one get potty ear from listening to dirty words? And does one get potty mouth from cussing? I think that it is an appropriate name for the malady of those who insist on using profane language when it is inappropriate and offensive. Recently I was in the company of a young professional man. He was handsome and dapper. Two women he knew came up and he introduced us. He did most of the talking and continued to spice up his discourse with cuss words ... all of 'em....
Western governors focus on wildlife A majority of Western governors gathered in San Diego yesterday said they favor significant revisions in the federal Endangered Species Act, one of the nation's landmark environmental laws. Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and others said the 31-year-old law often robs Westerners of their property rights and imposes broad rules after little consultation. "We want to recover the species," said Owens, a Republican. But, he added, "let's not use the species act as a way to try to manage public and private properties."....
Interior Official and Federal Biologists Clash on Danger to Bird The scientific opinions of a Bush administration appointee at the Interior Department with no background in wildlife biology were provided as part of the source material for the panel of Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and managers who recommended against giving the greater sage grouse protection under the endangered species act. The appointee, Julie MacDonald, a senior policymaker, criticized studies showing widespread loss of grouse territory and sporadic declines in grouse populations....
Encroaching homes silence Reacting to complaints from the Oxenfords and other neighbors, including former Gov. Roy Romer, Pike National Forest officials are preparing to close the area, known as Slaughterhouse Gulch, to recreational shooting. Whether a shooting range is an informal one such as Slaughterhouse Gulch or commercial, it runs into trouble when people begin building houses nearby....
Fur flies over Wolf Creek project The proposed village at Wolf Creek isn't going to happen without a fight, if recent events are an indication. An environmental group last week sued tiny Mineral County, population 800, for approving the development, which could bring jobs and millions of dollars annually to the depressed county. The same group has sued the U.S. Forest Service for giving the developer seasonal access to the village site. The owners of the Wolf Creek ski area, which lies adjacent to the proposed village, are suing the developers. And the developers are countersuing the resort owners in a convoluted contractual dispute....
Movement's roots go back a decade Fat cows, healthy ecosystems and intact rural communities are the goal of the Heart Mountain grass bank, according to grass bank project director Maria Sonett. The philosophy of the grass bank sprouted a decade ago with the Malpai Borderlands Group, a rancher-led nonprofit organization located in the boot heel of New Mexico and Arizona. The group formed in response to public lands grazing policy, loss and subdivision of private ranchland and frustration with mismanagement of land by federal and state agencies. Now the first grass banks are closing, having accomplished their goals, while new ones are forming in places such as Oregon and Nebraska....
Ranchers push 'corner jumping' bill Lawmakers jumped right over a proposed bill that would ban "corner jumping" in Wyoming. Without a vote, a joint interim legislative committee last week decided not to pursue an agriculture industry-sponsored draft bill that would restore the Wyoming Game and Fish Department authority's to cite hunters for the practice, also known as "corner cutting." Corner jumping describes the practice of stepping over the corner created where four sections of land meet in order to reach a cater-corner parcel of public land. Earlier this year, Game and Fish wardens quit citing hunters for corner jumping after an opinion from the state attorney general....
Alaska case goes to high court The U.S. Supreme Court next month will hear arguments on whether the federal government should give the state ownership of submerged lands in Glacier Bay and other spots in Southeast Alaska. The case began when Alaska commercial fishermen were angered by the National Park Service's decision in 1998 to phase out fishing in Glacier Bay. The state sued, saying that Congress never intended to include the bay itself when it created a national monument there in 1925. State attorneys are also asking the court to resolve a 34-year-old state-federal boundary dispute over the rest of Southeast Alaska's inland waters....
PERC gives Bush a C+ grade The Bush administration is doing only a middling job of implementing free market approaches to environmental issues, according to a Bozeman think tank. PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center, has given the administration a C+ for its first term. The grade is a slight improvement from the C- the administration earned from PERC after its first two years. PERC advocates free market environmentalism, which it defines, in part, as "adherence to respect for property rights, market trading and decentralization."....
Column: Death of the environmental movement? Environmentalism is a dead movement walking. So goes the theme of a controversial essay circulating among environmentalists and their funding organizations. Entitled "The Death of Environmentalism," the epistle was produced by longtime environmental activist Michael Shellenberger of the Breakthrough Institute in El Cerrito and Ted Nordhaus, vice president of Evans/McDonough, an opinion research firm. Its content was based on interviews with more than 25 of the environmental community's top leaders and thinkers. On Dec. 8, former Sierra Club president Adam Werbach will take up the cause, in a speech, also titled "The Death of Environmentalism," to be presented at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Several National Public Radio affiliates plan to broadcast the speech a few days later. In it, Werbach will argue that the modern environmentalism must die in order for a new movement to be born....
Column: Tough row to hoe The United States made $17 billion in direct government payments to farmers and ranchers in 2003 — amounting to 32 percent of net farm income. On top of this were additional billions in indirect assistance, delivered via subsidized loans and insurance, loan guarantees and tax breaks. If the farm lobby's argument that such largess is necessary to preserve the family farm ever applied, it doesn't now. According to the Agriculture Department, about 40 percent of all farms receive government payments of one kind or another. The bulk of these payments, however, go to larger farms. In fact, while just 7 percent of all U.S. farms have sales of $250,000 or more, this 7 percent receive almost half of all government payments....
Deep in his heart, still a cowboy As a boy, Dan Taylor had doggedly perfected his roping skills on the family's ranch near Brady. After his school classes and practice for the track team, he would go home and practice roping 20 calves every day, chasing them down, one by one, as the sun slowly slipped into the flat horizon, like an orange penny into a bank. Roping took him to the bright lights of New York City 14 times. One of those times, he made headlines when a bucking bull broke out of Madison Square Garden and was running wild through the streets, going the wrong way down one-way streets. Panicked officials turned to Mr. Taylor, who went in hot pursuit on his horse. "Roped it right there on Broadway just before 42nd Street," he says with a twinkle in his blue eyes....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Keeping it clean is exception, not rule If one can get enteritis from eating with dirty hands and lung cancer from breathing dirty air, can one get potty ear from listening to dirty words? And does one get potty mouth from cussing? I think that it is an appropriate name for the malady of those who insist on using profane language when it is inappropriate and offensive. Recently I was in the company of a young professional man. He was handsome and dapper. Two women he knew came up and he introduced us. He did most of the talking and continued to spice up his discourse with cuss words ... all of 'em....
Sunday, December 05, 2004
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
Pasture Bullies—who needs them?
By Julie Carter
It is in the news everywhere. Playground bullying is becoming a problem in schools across the nation. Magazine articles and books are being written about its affect and how to diffuse it.
Bullies pick on someone else as a way to get power, to get their way, or to feel important. Bullies hit, kick, or push to hurt people, and they sometimes do things to scare them. Some bullies threaten others or try to make them do things they don't want to do.
All the above clearly describes what happens in the pasture. The bovine version of the bully, generally just called a bull, is undoubtedly the single most aggravating facet of the cattle business. The cow-calf business is really the cow-calf and bull business.
It is a scientific fact that on some level, you have to have bulls. Even cattle operations that totally use artificial insemination for producing a calf crop still have to rely on someone, somewhere to have bulls.
To an outsider, they are indeed magnificent specimens of the breed. To the cowman, they are a necessary pain in the operation. The huge lumbering animals have one function and one only. When it is time for them to go to work in the spring, they trot off to the herd like love is in the air.
When the summers heat up, you can reliably find them shaded up under a cedar tree. They are usually in groups of two or three and presumably discussing their conquests of previous months. They spend their days wandering to and from the shade to the water hole.
Come fall and winter when they are thinner, sore-footed and depleted of energy, or so they’d have you believe, they hang out close to the feeding grounds. They bellow, dig holes in the ground to waller in, and pick fights with the younger bulls.
By this time they are usually in a pasture by themselves, separated from the cows, and the locker room mentality runs deep. The ‘jock” of the group will fight with anything that looks wrong at him, walks in his “territory” and often for no other reason except he looks like he needs a whippin’. Others will join the fight just because.
All this is well and good if you as a human don’t have to do anything with this testosterone laden herd other than drive by daily and drop some feed to them. Attempts to move them anywhere makes one seriously question the necessity of the critter.
After they refuse to drive except with constant hollering and pushing every single step of the way for the miles you have to go, after the three you are driving to the herd refuse to stay together and you wear your horse out going back and forth- back and forth, and after the big bully bull runs off the young sore-footed bull the seventeenth time, you start using threatening curses like “McDonalds” or “Oscar Mayer!”
Many a cowman has given serious thought to an operation without bulls. Their main option is to get rid of the mama cows and become a “yearlin’” man with the seasonal intake of 45 day weaned calves.
But sometime before Christmas he’ll get a big box of fruit, a nice jacket, or a new stock sorting stick from his “bull man.” And sure enough, he’ll buy a few more new bulls and be back in the bull, cow and calf business before he ever got out of it.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2004
Please feel free to submit a piece for posting. A story, a commentary on a current issue, or whatever is your pleasure. Just email me and I will consider using your item for this Saturday feature.
Pasture Bullies—who needs them?
By Julie Carter
It is in the news everywhere. Playground bullying is becoming a problem in schools across the nation. Magazine articles and books are being written about its affect and how to diffuse it.
Bullies pick on someone else as a way to get power, to get their way, or to feel important. Bullies hit, kick, or push to hurt people, and they sometimes do things to scare them. Some bullies threaten others or try to make them do things they don't want to do.
All the above clearly describes what happens in the pasture. The bovine version of the bully, generally just called a bull, is undoubtedly the single most aggravating facet of the cattle business. The cow-calf business is really the cow-calf and bull business.
It is a scientific fact that on some level, you have to have bulls. Even cattle operations that totally use artificial insemination for producing a calf crop still have to rely on someone, somewhere to have bulls.
To an outsider, they are indeed magnificent specimens of the breed. To the cowman, they are a necessary pain in the operation. The huge lumbering animals have one function and one only. When it is time for them to go to work in the spring, they trot off to the herd like love is in the air.
When the summers heat up, you can reliably find them shaded up under a cedar tree. They are usually in groups of two or three and presumably discussing their conquests of previous months. They spend their days wandering to and from the shade to the water hole.
Come fall and winter when they are thinner, sore-footed and depleted of energy, or so they’d have you believe, they hang out close to the feeding grounds. They bellow, dig holes in the ground to waller in, and pick fights with the younger bulls.
By this time they are usually in a pasture by themselves, separated from the cows, and the locker room mentality runs deep. The ‘jock” of the group will fight with anything that looks wrong at him, walks in his “territory” and often for no other reason except he looks like he needs a whippin’. Others will join the fight just because.
All this is well and good if you as a human don’t have to do anything with this testosterone laden herd other than drive by daily and drop some feed to them. Attempts to move them anywhere makes one seriously question the necessity of the critter.
After they refuse to drive except with constant hollering and pushing every single step of the way for the miles you have to go, after the three you are driving to the herd refuse to stay together and you wear your horse out going back and forth- back and forth, and after the big bully bull runs off the young sore-footed bull the seventeenth time, you start using threatening curses like “McDonalds” or “Oscar Mayer!”
Many a cowman has given serious thought to an operation without bulls. Their main option is to get rid of the mama cows and become a “yearlin’” man with the seasonal intake of 45 day weaned calves.
But sometime before Christmas he’ll get a big box of fruit, a nice jacket, or a new stock sorting stick from his “bull man.” And sure enough, he’ll buy a few more new bulls and be back in the bull, cow and calf business before he ever got out of it.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2004
Please feel free to submit a piece for posting. A story, a commentary on a current issue, or whatever is your pleasure. Just email me and I will consider using your item for this Saturday feature.
OPINION/COMMENTARY
UTAH TRAIL USERS URGE STRIKING OF ILLEGAL ROAD CLOSURE
The closure of a recreational road by the National Park Service (NPS) violates the will of Congress that the road be kept open to the public; therefore, that closure must be stricken, several recreational groups argued in a brief filed today in Utah federal district court. The groups urged the court to invalidate the NPS’s decision to close the Salt Creek Road in Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah. The groups’ brief in support of their counterclaim is only the latest legal action after years of litigation involving the Salt Creek Road, which accesses Angel Arch. “Ever since the National Park Service suffered a stinging rebuke at the hands of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in 2000 for illegally closing the road and for reversing its position on appeal, the Park Service and its lawyers have stonewalled so they need not comply with that ruling,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation, which represents the recreational groups seeking to keep the Road open. “At long last they ran out of time and were forced to prepare a record and issue a ruling. Sad to say, instead of conducting an impartial review of the facts, they jerry-rigged a record in an attempt to support the decision that had been reached in the Clinton Administration, that is, to close the road and ban the public.”....
UTAH TRAIL USERS URGE STRIKING OF ILLEGAL ROAD CLOSURE
The closure of a recreational road by the National Park Service (NPS) violates the will of Congress that the road be kept open to the public; therefore, that closure must be stricken, several recreational groups argued in a brief filed today in Utah federal district court. The groups urged the court to invalidate the NPS’s decision to close the Salt Creek Road in Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah. The groups’ brief in support of their counterclaim is only the latest legal action after years of litigation involving the Salt Creek Road, which accesses Angel Arch. “Ever since the National Park Service suffered a stinging rebuke at the hands of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in 2000 for illegally closing the road and for reversing its position on appeal, the Park Service and its lawyers have stonewalled so they need not comply with that ruling,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation, which represents the recreational groups seeking to keep the Road open. “At long last they ran out of time and were forced to prepare a record and issue a ruling. Sad to say, instead of conducting an impartial review of the facts, they jerry-rigged a record in an attempt to support the decision that had been reached in the Clinton Administration, that is, to close the road and ban the public.”....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
ALF Militants Attack California McDonald's
On this date in 1982, a letter bomb addressed to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher exploded in her residence at Number 10 Downing Street. It was one of five explosive packages sent by a previously unknown group calling itself the Animal Rights Militia (ARM). With twenty-two years of hindsight, most observers now understand that ARM is a particularly nasty "arm" of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which still busies itself terrorizing farmers, restaurant operators, laboratory scientists, and others who fail to embrace animals' "rights" as a life philosophy. And last week the ALF continued its violent campaign by hitting two Los Angeles McDonald's....
ALF Militants Attack California McDonald's
On this date in 1982, a letter bomb addressed to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher exploded in her residence at Number 10 Downing Street. It was one of five explosive packages sent by a previously unknown group calling itself the Animal Rights Militia (ARM). With twenty-two years of hindsight, most observers now understand that ARM is a particularly nasty "arm" of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which still busies itself terrorizing farmers, restaurant operators, laboratory scientists, and others who fail to embrace animals' "rights" as a life philosophy. And last week the ALF continued its violent campaign by hitting two Los Angeles McDonald's....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
SAVE THE VERMIN!
Almost half of the nation’s poor live in vermin-infested housing, yet New York City’s attorney general, along with five other state attorneys, are suing the federal government for using pesticides in public housing units.
The AGs claim they want to promote "integrated pest management," which just means using a variety of means to control pests -- including pesticide use. But these taxpayer-funded "consumer advocates" seem more interested in their own irrational quest to eliminate chemicals, say observers.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, vermin pose major problems for public health:
---Asthma affects about 6 million children nationwide, and cockroach-related asthma and allergies disproportionately affect poor, minority children living in the inner city.
---Rats, which can carry over 70 different diseases, frequently bite the hands and faces of children under the age of 5 while they’re sleeping.
---A Los Angeles hospital reported that African-Americans and Hispanics accounted for all rat bites treated by the hospital during a three-year period, says Dr. Pamela Nagami.
Furthermore, the National Organization of African-Americans in Housing (NOAHH) reports that household pests are one of the top three problems affecting minority and low-income residents in inner cities, and that the use of pesticides poses a small risk compared to the greater risk of vermin-related health problems.
The lawsuit, supported by green activists and taxpayer funded “consumer advocates,” could give a victory to rats, mice and cockroaches, but create further health problems for the public housing residents.
Source: Angela Logomasini, “A Green Push to Keep Projects Safe for Vermin,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, October 5, 2004.
For text http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,04248.cfm
SAVE THE VERMIN!
Almost half of the nation’s poor live in vermin-infested housing, yet New York City’s attorney general, along with five other state attorneys, are suing the federal government for using pesticides in public housing units.
The AGs claim they want to promote "integrated pest management," which just means using a variety of means to control pests -- including pesticide use. But these taxpayer-funded "consumer advocates" seem more interested in their own irrational quest to eliminate chemicals, say observers.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, vermin pose major problems for public health:
---Asthma affects about 6 million children nationwide, and cockroach-related asthma and allergies disproportionately affect poor, minority children living in the inner city.
---Rats, which can carry over 70 different diseases, frequently bite the hands and faces of children under the age of 5 while they’re sleeping.
---A Los Angeles hospital reported that African-Americans and Hispanics accounted for all rat bites treated by the hospital during a three-year period, says Dr. Pamela Nagami.
Furthermore, the National Organization of African-Americans in Housing (NOAHH) reports that household pests are one of the top three problems affecting minority and low-income residents in inner cities, and that the use of pesticides poses a small risk compared to the greater risk of vermin-related health problems.
The lawsuit, supported by green activists and taxpayer funded “consumer advocates,” could give a victory to rats, mice and cockroaches, but create further health problems for the public housing residents.
Source: Angela Logomasini, “A Green Push to Keep Projects Safe for Vermin,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, October 5, 2004.
For text http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,04248.cfm
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Oil Obsession
If you think gas prices are through the roof now, beware the advent of the Chinese family car. No kidding: Growing prosperity will produce literally hundreds of millions of middle-class, energy-hungry (car-driving) Chinese over the next 20 years — launching gas prices into outer space. China's energy use is already growing by leaps and bounds. It now ranks No. 2 in world energy consumption (behind the United States, ahead of Japan), and is a major cause of rising energy prices. Beijing's growing needs will have significant ramifications on everything from international security to global pollution. As major powers scramble to secure limited world energy resources, conflict is certain — and armed conflict isn't out of the question....
Oil Obsession
If you think gas prices are through the roof now, beware the advent of the Chinese family car. No kidding: Growing prosperity will produce literally hundreds of millions of middle-class, energy-hungry (car-driving) Chinese over the next 20 years — launching gas prices into outer space. China's energy use is already growing by leaps and bounds. It now ranks No. 2 in world energy consumption (behind the United States, ahead of Japan), and is a major cause of rising energy prices. Beijing's growing needs will have significant ramifications on everything from international security to global pollution. As major powers scramble to secure limited world energy resources, conflict is certain — and armed conflict isn't out of the question....
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