NEWS ROUNDUP

Former Forest Service chiefs say public support crucial From overgrown forests that contribute to major fires to the spread of invasive species, the U.S. Forest Service faces a host of weighty concerns. But as the agency begins its second century, four former Forest Service chiefs say it must address an even basic more challenge: Convincing an increasingly urbanized public of the agency's importance. "Our biggest challenge is connecting people with the land and nature," said Mike Dombeck, who served as Forest Service chief from 1997 to 2001. Without public support, Dombeck and other former chiefs said, the Forest Service will have trouble with everything from getting proper funding to enforcing complex rules over management of the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands....
Feds asked to stop wolves from chasing elk Wolves are chasing elk from state feedgrounds, increasing the potential for disease transmission to cattle, Gov. Dave Freudenthal was told Tuesday during a cabinet meeting. "In the last month we've moved well in excess of 3,000 elk back on the feedgrounds that wolves have been instrumental in moving," Game and Fish Director Terry Cleveland said. He told the governor that dispersing the elk in the Daniel area is causing "significant commingling issues with livestock and potential for brucellosis transmission and even public safety in that we've ended up with elk herds on public road rights of way at least two different times."....
Column: Tiny bird wields great power A bird standing 5 inches tall and weighing five grams will hold bulldozers at bay in Carlsbad for six months beginning March 1, temporarily halting work on the city's new golf course. It will be just one more delay for a project that began with the appointment of a citizens committee 15 years ago. Preparation of the site will be suspended during the breeding season of Polioptila californica californica, better known as the coastal California gnatcatcher. Construction of Murrieta's newest and largest shopping center was delayed for seven months when it was learned the site of a traffic signal would be located within the gnatcatcher's nesting habitat. Work cannot begin on the Carlsbad Oaks North business park until after a Jan. 8 federal court hearing on the project....
Wind turbines taking toll on birds of prey The big turbines that stretch for miles along these rolling, grassy hills have churned out clean, renewable electricity for two decades in one of the nation's first big wind-power projects. But for just as long, massive fiberglass blades on the more than 4,000 windmills have been chopping up tens of thousands of birds that fly into them, including golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls and other raptors. After years of study but little progress reducing bird kills, environmentalists have sued to force turbine owners to take tough corrective measures....
Judge delays BLM timber sale over environmental analysis A judge has delayed a federal timber sale that combined logging mature trees with reducing fire danger, finding that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management failed to fully analyze the combined effects of past and future logging on northern spotted owls and salmon. "We're hoping this legal win convinces the BLM to sit down and finally design a restoration alternative with us, instead of the old-growth logging they have pushed for over the last decade," said Spencer Leonard of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, an environmental group that sued BLM. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan granted a preliminary injunction barring timber harvest on the Scattered Apples sale while the two sides offer suggestions on how to fix the problems identified in the ruling....
Court rules Bush administration's off-road plan is illegal threat to desert web-of-life In a big win for desert tortoise and other endangered species in the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA), a federal court in San Francisco yesterday agreed with conservationists and issued an injunction ordering the Bush administration to stop off-road vehicle damage on over half-a-million acres of desert washes and critical habitat in Riverside, Imperial and San Bernardino Counties. Desert washes (dry streams) on U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands in the Northern and Eastern Colorado Desert (NECO) planning area, which are critical for tortoise survival and recovery, are now off-limits to off-road vehicles until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) completes new biological opinions that protect critical habitat and promote tortoise recovery. There are thousands of desert washes weaving across the landscape in this part of the CDCA, and BLM's 'washes open' policy allowed driving in all of them, creating off-road sacrifice zones....
Oh, No. John Turner For Under Secretary of Interior YOU can have a say in who is the next Secretary of the Interior! And you must because ... The Greens are planning to take back the position. Great favorite John Turner is being considered for the position of Under-Secretary of the Interior to replace Steven Griles. The idea is to have Gale Norton resign in the next two years and move Turner up to Secretary of Interior. Thousands of landowners and Federal land users worked hard in 2001 to head off Turner. Now you must do it again....
Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival Starts on Friday Like the first two, the 3rd annual Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival, Friday-Sunday, January 7-9, 2005, will again be a not-to-be-missed event. Celebrities, filmmakers, environmental activists, a VIP party, and of course an array of fabulous award-winning films will highlight the 2005 festival. In the two years of this soldout event, the WSEFF has brought in celebrities like actors and activists Daryl Hannah (Kill Bill 1 & 2, Splash) and Peter Coyote (E.T., Erin Brokovich), and adventurers like mountaineer Carlos Buhler, speed climber Hans Florine, and extreme boater Scott Lindgren. Environmental activists and filmmakers from Colorado, the Yukon, Wyoming, and California have spoken about issues including bio-diesel, water rights, endangered species, oil drilling in Alaska, forestry, and the organic movement. In addition, the festival has screened nearly 100 award-winning environmental and adventure films from all over the world....
Flats whistleblowers to speak The book "The Ambushed Grand Jury" paints a tale of alleged environmental crimes and high-level government cover-up of said crimes at Rocky Flats in the late 1980s. Wes McKinley, a rancher from southeastern Colorado and "Ambushed" co-author, served as foreman of a special grand jury formed to complete a report about federal investigations into alleged Flats violations. The grand jury finished the report in 1992, but large portions of the report were not made public. McKinley could not release the details himself due to grand jury secrecy laws. Jon Lipsky, a former FBI Special Agent, participated in a 1989 FBI raid of the Flats facility. Lipsky said he has been "muzzled for over a decade" by the federal government to keep him from speaking about Rocky Flats, and Wednesday's event will be his first public discussion of the Flats investigation....
USDA's Veneman Sees Canada Cattle Trade Resuming We believe that the rule is based upon good analysis, sound science and a thorough risk analysis," Venetian told reporters after addressing a celebration of the U.S. Forest Service's 100th anniversary. The plan to expand bilateral cattle and beef trade, which was interrupted in May 2003 by the discovery of Canada's first domestic case of mad cow disease, faces a couple of possible roadblocks. Congress has until March 7 to review the trade plan. If enough lawmakers express reservations, the USDA might be pressured to delay the regulation. So far, only a couple members of Congress have publicly stated their opposition. Also, at least two farm groups, R-CALF USA and the National Farmers Union, have challenged the USDA's plan. R-CALF USA has said it is considering a lawsuit to stop the border opening, claiming the expanded trade could threaten U.S. consumers and American cattle herds....