NEWS ROUNDUP

America's Keystone Forests: A Map for Moving Forward The U.S. Forest Service will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2005, an event the agency will trumpet with much pomp and circumstance. But in the 100 years since the Forest Service was first charged with "sustaining the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands," our national forests have been ravaged by mismanagement and special private interests. We propose a blueprint for moving forward in our new report America’s Keystone Forests: Mapping the Next 100 Years of Forest Protection. (Go here to view the report)....
Editorial: New Forest Service rules long overdue Despite the alarmist claims of some environmental groups, the reforms to the forest planning process rolled out by the Forest Service recently are long-awaited and much-needed. Critics claim the changes will lead to some kind of environmental disaster, but we have long argued on these pages that the Forest Service's current approach to planning simply does not work. It is cumbersome and expensive, progressing at a pace so glacial that it actually discourages public involvement. It is so inflexible and unresponsive that a forest plan can be outdated the same year it is approved....
Editorial: New Forest Service rules silence public New rules the U.S. Forest Service recently announced could silence the public's voice and make it harder to know if wildlife will be harmed by logging, road building or oil and gas drilling. At stake is the future of 191 million acres of national forests, including 14 million acres in Colorado. For the West, where most national forests are located, the new rules could have profound environmental and economic consequences. We Westerners rely on the national forests for clean water, wildlife protection, recreation and resources. So the uproar over the Forest Service's new planning rules is about much more than a bureaucratic process. At stake is how our national forests will be cared for in the future....
Editorial: Forest planning can stand improvement The near-Pavlovian response of outrage from environmentalists last week to changes announced in the procedures the U.S. Forest Service follows in making its long-range management plans for the national forests may be understandable. The Bush administration has been rather unabashed in its ambition to log, drill and mine more on public lands, so it's perhaps natural to view any proposal to "streamline" planning as a thinly veiled effort to expedite mayhem. But anyone who has paid much attention to the cumbersome, bureaucratic process that has come to dominate national forest management must admit, at least privately, that the system bears improving. Unfortunately, the planning rules first adopted in 1976 have proved so cumbersome, so unwieldy, that the Forest Service sometimes seems to spend more time managing paperwork than resources. The gestation period for some of the agency's forest plans rivals the intended lifespan of the plans - it takes an average of nearly eight years to prepare a 15-year plan....
Unmanned aircraft may help fight forest fires The U.S. Forest Service is looking to unmanned aircraft as a way to track forest fires while keeping firefighters safe. Tracking the location of a forest fire is a crucial part of battling the blaze. Traditionally, fire managers have relied on pilots flying over the flames at night, shooting pictures using heat-sensitive cameras. Mission managers then assign tasks based on the photos. But there are situations that are too dangerous for human pilots -- such as low visibility caused by a smoky fire. So when the U.S. Forest Service learned of the tests that researchers at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory were doing on small, cheaper unmanned aerial vehicles, they jumped on board....
Forest agency centennial brings revelry, debate The US Forest Service is marking its 100th anniversary amid debate over whether it is living up to the mission that President Theodore Roosevelt gave it in 1905: to "perpetuate the forest as a permanent resource of the nation." Dampening the revelry for a centennial celebration that will run from tomorrow through Friday, the Forest Service is so tied up in litigation that some say it no longer has the focus of Gifford Pinchot, its first director. "A hundred years later, the whole picture is significantly more complex," said Dale Bosworth, the Forest Service chief. "The population has increased significantly. There are much more demands than there were 100 years ago in terms of recreation and solitude." From overgrown forests that contribute to major fires to the spread of invasive species and urban encroachment on open space, the agency's 37,600 employees have a host of modern concerns, Bosworth said....
A Look at U.S. Forest Service Number of Forests - 1905: 83 forest reserves 2005: 155 National Forests and 20 National Grasslands Number of Acres - 1905: 63 million 2005: 192 million Budget - 1905: $400,000 2005: $4.1 billion Number of Employees - 1905: 270 2005: 37,648 U.S. Population - 1905: 76 million 2005: 290 million....
Wyoming wants testimony for wolf lawsuit Testimony of a U.S. Interior Department official before a Wyoming legislative committee should be admitted as evidence in the state's wolf lawsuit against the federal government, Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank has argued. Rejection of the state's wolf management plan was based on legal and political reasons, not science, according to a brief that Crank filed in U.S. District Court. At issue is testimony by Paul Hoffman, deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, before the Joint Travel, Recreation and Wildlife Committee on Jan. 15, 2004, in Laramie. The state contends Hoffman's remarks confirm the state's position that the wolf management plan was adequate from a scientific perspective, but that the agency was swayed by political and legal considerations to reject it....
Column: Saving the sage grouse On the sagebrush sea of the American West, people are embarking on an uncharted new journey called community-based conservation. Their flagship is the greater sage grouse, a bird that has narrowly avoided being added to the endangered species list because of the cooperative efforts of people around the region. The decision not to list the sage grouse signals the beginning of a bold experiment. For many years, people in communities around the West have been arguing that they are the best stewards of their local public lands, resources and wildlife. Now, locals are being given the chance to prove it....
Editorial: The enemy within WHEN IT comes to despoiling the environment, the Department of Defense has the worst record of any federal agency. It promised to turn a new leaf in 1996, when it adopted a directive committing it to "environmental security leadership." Now it wants to drop that policy in favor of managing its facilities "to sustain the national defense mission." The draft of the new directive refers to preventing pollution, but the focus is on "mission accomplishment" and enhanced readiness. The Pentagon's new leaf is losing its green faster than a New England maple in October. The proposed new directive comes on top of the Defense Department's success at getting Congress to exempt its training operations from the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammals Protection Act. Congress went along with this even though it had always granted case-by-case exemptions on national security grounds. There is no record of any training operation ever being hindered by compliance with an environmental law....
Giant Gambian rat target of eradication The Florida Keys, already dealing with invasive exotics including melaleuca and iguanas, have added another to the list of unwanted newcomers: the African Gambian pouch rat. Biologists and conservationists in the Keys say the rodent needs to be eradicated before it increases its range and harms native species that live in natural areas of the Keys. Although it is unclear how or why the rats - which can grow as big as a raccoons - were released on Grassy Key, biologists are saying the animals could be devastating to the Florida Keys' ecological system....
Alaska scientists fear rat invasion on islands Only hours after a giant soybean freighter ran aground a few hundred miles from this small island in the middle of the Bering Sea, the research scientists stationed here began to panic. It would be merely a matter of time before oil from the freighter Selendang Ayu, which broke apart on Dec. 8, would begin oozing into the ocean, straight into one of the world's most diverse and delicate wildlife habitats. But worse than an oil spill, in the view of wildlife biologists working furiously to protect millions of exotic animals, the freighter, if it got close enough, could cause an even greater environmental calamity: a rat spill. Rats, of the hardy Norway breed, are now present on 82 percent of the world's islands, including, of course, Manhattan. Like killer bees swarming across the continents, rats are now burrowing into the farthest reaches of Alaska, attacking seabirds where they nest, along with their eggs and chicks....
Experts explore weather-wildlife link as behavior changes Canada geese are spending mild winters in Montana. Ducks are bypassing their normal pit stops. American pikas, tiny rodents known for their high-pitched squeak, are disappearing from some mountain landscapes. Even the elk and frogs are acting a little odd compared with years past. Warmer temperatures and less snowfall, caused by years of drought and perhaps a symptom of changes in the global climate, are making a mark on the way waterfowl and wildlife in much of the West behave. The Wildlife Society and National Wildlife Federation chartered a committee to investigate possible links between wildlife and climate change. Earlier this month, the organizations released the first comprehensive assessment of how wildlife across North America are responding to global warming....
2004 Conservation Achievements: The Trust for Public Land Yesterday, the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national land conservation nonprofit, announced its conservation achievements for the year 2004. Across the country, TPL protected more than 111,532 acres in 35 states during 2004, with a fair-market value of $403 million. In addition, TPL and its affiliate, the Conservation Campaign helped 41 counties and municipalities nationwide pass measures that will generate more than $2.3 billion in new funding for parks and open space. In a New York Times Op-Ed from Nov. 20, TPL president Will Rogers said that despite a divided electorate, "these measures unify Americans. It's hard to be against new parks and trails, or to disagree with wanting to protect farms and forests from development." In fact, American voters in 2004 approved 162 conservation ballot measures, raising over $4 billion nationwide for land conservation according to TPL....
"Broads" help keep land wild A Durango-based national conservation group is trying to be a different kind of voice crying in the wilderness. With public land managers spread thinly over millions of acres, the group intends to enhance stewardship by combining technology with two of the things its members love best: hiking and being "great old broads." The women, who call themselves Great Old Broads for Wilderness, will team up with Bureau of Land Management staff to document the shape of the landscape at Canyon of the Ancients National Monument in southwestern Colorado. And they are using their corps of volunteers to collect field data in southern Utah, where land management agencies have been overwhelmed by the explosive growth of off-road-vehicle use, or lack the personnel to monitor degradation caused by oil and gas drilling or overgrazing, says the group's executive director, Ronni Egan....
Oil and gas work keeps lawyers busy Oil and gas work isn't all drilling, tripping pipe and metering gas flows. When the activities clash with the interests of other land uses, lawyers get involved. And some people argue that there's more discovery, motions and orders happening in Wyoming's courts and law offices than in the oil and gas fields. "I can tell you that my workload, with regard to access issues and resolving disputes between operators and surface owners, has mushroomed in the last two years. And I am not the only lawyer who is very busy doing that," said Gillette attorney R.T. Cox....
As gold price rises, mining fever surges A rapid rise in gold prices has led to an increase in mining claims in the past year in Oregon and Washington. The price of gold is now close to $450 an ounce, after 10 years of seesawing between $280 to $380 an ounce. The last major gold rush in the Northwest dates back to 1980, when prices spiked to more than $800 an ounce. That surge made paper multimillionaires of a few mine owners before the bottom again dropped out of the gold market....
Column: Misinformation drives students' environmental gloom and doom Too often, environmental teaching takes the form of fearful and gloomy messages, presented to children as early as kindergarten or even preschool. It's a disturbing trend with potentially devastating ramifications. In 1994, Nancy Bray Cardozo, writing in Audubon magazine, shared her uneasiness about children's environmental education. Her 6-year-old daughter had received a hand-me-down bed from an aunt, and she was about to sleep in it for the first time. Cardozo noticed that something was bothering her daughter, and she asked what it was. The little girl told her, "They killed trees to make my bed.' The gloom and anxiety often overshadow the facts. Students become alarmed about toxic waste, acid rain, deforestation and global warming, without ever learning basic scientific facts about these complex issues....
Column: When visions collide Rainforests are disappearing at a frightening rate, the students were taught, so they raised $523 for an activist group's "protect an acre" program. At the behest of their teacher and the group, they trekked into Manhattan to ask a major bank to "stop lending money to projects that destroy endangered forests and cause global warming." Indoctrination and manipulation are deplorable enough when high school or college students are involved. But these were second graders, and the close cooperation between their teacher and radical environmentalists underscores a widening problem. But what happens when their vision of a "better Earth" collides with the dreams of billions of poor people who still don't enjoy even the most rudimentary necessities: electricity, safe water, basic nutrition and health care, and a chance to see their children live past age five? Who then gets to decide which dreams and priorities take precedence, how high a price must be paid, and who pays that price?....
PETA asks SU, LSU to drop live mascots An animal-rights group wants Southern University to refrain from replacing the jaguar mascot that died Sunday from symptoms related to old age. But Southern's chancellor said the university is likely to get a new cat and raise money for a habitat much larger than the previous mascot's 418-square-foot cage on the Baton Rouge campus. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a Norfolk, Va., group critical of schools that keep big cats as mascots, says Southern should end its three-decade-old practice of keeping a pet jaguar. Rhodes said PETA also opposes LSU keeping its Mike the Tiger mascot, who will be furnished with a larger $2.9 million habitat this summer....
Column: New freedoms for a new year The new year will likely be much happier than it would have been had the November election results been different. But a Republican majority in Congress and a Republican administration provide no guarantee that public policy will be influenced by either common sense or by red-state voters. The people who elected the current congressional majority and the administration should gear up to hold government's feet to the fire to see that badly needed reforms in public policy are actually made. Among the new year's resolutions should be a firm resolve to insist that elected officials address these issues:....
Ranchland stampede Ranching has never been a big-money enterprise. Drought years can sink ranchers into deep debt. Swaying beef prices can pinch budgets. Tax bills can be hefty, work days long. And as playground-seeking jet-setters and big-plan developers hungrily eye Colorado's dwindling ranchland with millions of dollars in hand, selling out has never been more tempting for calloused, sun-bleached cowboys. "Farmers and ranchers in Colorado are seeing their equity slipping away, and they see an opportunity to cash in and start sipping piña coladas, even though most of them don't know what that is," says Don Ament. He's a Colorado farmer and the commissioner of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, which oversees the state's third-largest economic engine....
Keeping it all in the family Over the years, the Yturria ranch was divided among various children, but all the parcels have remained in the hands of direct descendants, one of the few big estates from the early era still entirely in family hands. The largest portion of the original ranch – more than 15,000 acres six miles north of Raymondville – is owned by Frank Yturria. Frank Yturria has succeeded by taking cues from his ancestor, chartering two banks and making friends with powerful politicians. His great-grandfather sided with Emperor Maximilian and received a plush customs appointment as a result. Mexican President Porfirio Diaz plotted his revolution while a guest in Francisco's home....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Freedom America's gift to entire world We live in a country that, if you believe the polls, the whole world hates. If so, then why do they risk their lives every day, by the hundreds of thousands, to come here and live and become citizens? One word: freedom. And that is what infuriates the twisted, hate-driven pied pipers posing as religious figures who threaten, condemn and boast about killing 3,000 Christians and Jews in the inferno of Sept. 11, 2001. Freedom. It is the kryptonite that defeats the despots. And that has been America's gift to the world....