NEWS ROUNDUP

Grand Staircase too big, Utah says More than eight years after the establishment of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the newly minted Huntsman administration wants it downsized. The Utah Attorney General's Office on Tuesday delivered a motion to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking permission to file a friend-of-the-court brief in a lawsuit that is challenging the creation of the monument in September 1996 by then-President Clinton. The Denver-based Mountain States Legal Foundation filed suit in October 1996, then again in November 1997, arguing that Clinton exceeded his authority under the Antiquities Act when he signed a proclamation authorizing the 1.7 million-acre monument in southern Utah....
Expert sees need to protect grouse Pat Deibert speaks English, not bureaucratese, and she doesn't mince words on the subject of the greater sage grouse. "The big mystery is over," said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and national sage grouse coordinator. "The bird didn't make the list." But just because the FWS announced this month that placing the sage grouse on the Endangered and Threatened Species List was "unwarranted" doesn't mean conservation groups can rest easy. The decision could be revisited anytime and local efforts are needed to keep the feds at bay, Deibert told the Big Horn Basin Sage Grouse Working Group Wednesday. "The thing you want to do is to make me go away," Deibert said. "We think that the species, and more importantly the ecosystem, is still at risk. It wasn't enough to be listed, but we're going to be watching very carefully. We want to make sure that good things are happening out there."....
Allies join park resident's fight for home A self-described "little old lady" facing eviction from her family homestead in Rocky Mountain National Park has garnered the support of a Colorado congressman in her quest to use the home for her remaining summers. The plight of 82-year-old widow Betty Dick, who this July faces the end of her 25-year lease on the property in the park's Kawuneeche Valley, spurred U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, to announce the introduction of a bill Tuesday that would preserve her right to use the ranch-style home until her death....
Split-estate bill gets backing from Shell Exploration After years at loggerheads with industry over the need for split-estate legislation, Wyoming landowners were triumphant on Friday when a major oil company endorsed the latest version of the Wyoming Surface Owner Accommodation Act now before the Legislature. Shell Exploration and Production Co.'s support of Split Estate Bill SF60, which was introduced to the Senate committee today, now has the solid support of landowners and industry that two previous split-estate bills lacked. Split estate refers to land in which the surface and the minerals beneath it are owned by separate entities. It has been one of the most divisive issues under discussion between landowners and coal-bed methane developers in the Powder River Basin for more than five years now....
East Texas land dispute goes to trial Millions of dollars in real estate and petroleum deposits are at stake in an East Texas trial to determine title to property that historic documents show was never properly surveyed. The civil trial to settle what started as one of the largest land disputes in modern Texas history opened Tuesday, with attorneys reviewing complex maps with a key witness who is considered one of the state's top licensed land surveyors. The plaintiffs, rancher W.L. Dixon and former surveyor Barton McDonald, filed an application with the Texas General Land Office in 2003, alleging a 4,662-acre vacancy between Gilmer and Longview. A vacancy is land that still belongs to the state, usually found in a gap between surveyed tracts....
As Mountain Waters Run High, so Do Risks Southern California's record rainfall ended eight days ago, but each day torrential runoff from those storms is creating new and deadly hazards in the region's icy mountain streams and usually innocuous urban rivers. This week, raging currents have killed three people: two children and a 35-year-old woman who were swept away in San Antonio Creek below snow-capped Mt. Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains. Rescuers recovered two of their bodies Tuesday. The risk will remain high, with mountain snowmelt and city storm runoff coursing down normally bone-dry river beds and channels. Combine that with curious Southlanders beguiled by snowy peaks and roaring waters, and it's a recipe for disaster, emergency officials said....