NEWS ROUNDUP


To drill or not to drill? A classic Western controversy surrounds the proposed gas drilling on the Roan Plateau. On one side, the Federal Government, gas companies, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Association are pushing for more domestic energy production. On the other side, a coalition of ranchers, citizens, politicians and environmentalists attempt to put differences aside, unify, and restrict any drilling on the Plateau’s upper reaches....
Fire season drawing concern of governor Frustrated with what she sees as federal foot-dragging, Gov. Janet Napolitano is turning to the state's congressional delegation to help determine if and when the state will get air tankers for the upcoming fire season. In a letter to the delegation, Napolitano said she worried that Arizona was destined to a repeat of last year, when air tankers were grounded in the midst of Arizona's fire season. The U.S. Forest Service will be offering contracts for tanker operations in mid- to late-March, Napolitano told the congressmen, without citing her source. "That is simply too late for Arizona as our wildland fire season starts earlier in the year and we need to make decision (sic) on allocation of state resources now," she wrote....
Eureka mill to close after 25 years Wednesday, Jim Hurst reached deep into his bag of tricks, mumbled a few incantations and conjured up a handful of absolutely nothing. "There's nothing left," the lumber mill owner said. "I've pulled several rabbits out of the hat to keep it running this long. But there's no more tricks up the sleeve. It's over." After 25 years in the business, Eureka's Owens and Hurst Lumber Co. is silencing the saws. Hurst, who has been a vocal advocate of the timber industry and an outspoken critic of environmentalists, blamed the U.S. Forest Service for not providing enough public-land logs to keep his operation afloat. And he blamed the conservation community for forcing the agency's hand with regard to diminishing harvests....
Environmentalists sue to stop logging at national monument Environmentalists sued the federal government this week over plans to log Giant Sequoia National Monument, saying the move would cater to the timber industry at the expense of an ecosystem home to two-thirds of the world's largest trees. The Sierra Club and four other environmental groups said a plan by the U.S. Forest Service to log parts of the 327,769-acre monument in central California was scientifically suspect. They filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco seeking to block the plan and have it vacated....
Salmon survival game plays out on board A new board game will teach children the life cycle of salmon and steelhead trout. The U.S. Forest Service and 12 partners ordered 1,200 of the games to be made by the federal printing office at cost of $36,000. The Salmon Life Cycle game will be distributed to schools in the lower Columbia River Basin, and will be available at any national forest headquarters office in Oregon and Washington or from the partners, Glen Sachet , spokesman for Mount Hood National Forest, said Wednesday. The game will be loaned, similar to checking out a book from a library, and will not be sold, Sachet said....
Species act violated in flood, but Mesquite won't face fine Federal and city officials have agreed to develop a long-term plan to protect lives, property and endangered species habitat on the Virgin River after emergency flood-control measures altered the river's channel. The city won't be fined for Endangered Species Act violations that might have occurred during and after this month's flooding, Mayor Bill Nicholes said. ''We all admit that private communications might have helped,'' Nicholes said after meeting Wednesday with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Army Corps of Engineers officials. ''But stopping water going into homes was a priority.'' ''As far as any fines, that's pretty much satisfied there won't be anything,'' he said. Officials bulldozed about 80 acres of critical habitat for several federally protected birds and fish while struggling Jan. 11 to keep the river out of homes and a middle school in the southeast Nevada community near the Arizona and Utah border....
Wildlife officials opt to open dunes to off-road vehicles Federal wildlife officials cleared the way Thursday to reopen desert dunes popular with Inland off-roaders, saying desert tortoises and a plant threatened with extinction can survive among the recreational vehicles. Environmentalists said they would fight the decision to open nearly 50,000 acres, or about one-third, of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area to motorcycles, dune buggies and all-terrain vehicles. Damage from off-road play would push the species closer to extinction, they said. "They can't just go ahead and throw the dunes open," said Daniel Patterson, ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity in Idyllwild....
Fish and Wildlife Service denies petitions to list common grasses under ESA The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced it will not move to add two common grasses, found in California, Baja California, Mexico, and Arizona, to the Federal list of threatened and endangered species. The Service said it has completed a review of the two grasses, Arizona brome (Bromus arizonicus) and nodding needlegrass (Nassella cernua), in response to two petitions filed in June 2002 by a private citizen. The petitions claim the two species are in decline and threatened by commercial, residential, and agricultural development, off-highway vehicle activity, energy development, cattle grazing, fires, military activities, introduction on nonnative plants, roadside herbicide use and mowing, and law enforcement activities along the border between the United States and Mexico....
Coho report in line with Bush approach Contrary to findings by federal scientists, Oregon officials have concluded that Oregon coast coho salmon are not at risk and thus no longer in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act. If U.S. officials accept Oregon's conclusion -- outlined in a draft report -- the state probably would take over management of the prized fish and become the first state in a drive by the Bush administration to emphasize local control over wildlife issues. It would lead the way in reshaping national policy on endangered species....
Column: Mexican grays did their part Skeptics had predicted that captive wolves would never withstand the harsh realities of survival in the wild, but those wolves proved that they still harbored the inherent capability to bring down elk, find den sites for the birth of their pups and produce offspring that knew nothing about the zoos where their parents had been fed by humans. Today, natural reproduction in the wild has nearly replaced release of captive wolves as the source for population growth. Despite the success of the Mexican wolf recovery program, there are critical problems screaming for remedial correction. Immediate action must begin to correct two major problems in the federal rule that governs protocol for the project. First, the rule must be relaxed so wolves that roam outside the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area boundaries are removed only when they cause livestock depredation or present a threat to humans. Second, the rule must be modified to develop authority to conduct releases of Mexican wolves directly into the Gila National Forest....
Park: River runners' deal may not float While Grand Canyon National Park officials on Wednesday applauded an agreement between private boaters and commercial outfitters for rafting trips on the Colorado River through the park, they cautioned that other viewpoints must be considered. The Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association, the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association, American Whitewater and the Grand Canyon River Runners Association announced what they billed as a historic compromise between user groups competing for the limited space on the river. Their compromise called for a split of river permits between commercial and private rafters, the continued use of motors, an adjustment to spread out use throughout the year and improvements to the permitting system....
Underfunded national parks must turn away children, study says National parks in California are so underfunded and understaffed that they've eliminated educational programs and are turning away thousands of children each year. According to a study this week from the National Parks Conservation Association, roughly 80,000 kindergartners through 12th graders participate in educational programs each year at parks such as Joshua Tree, Yosemite and Lassen Volcanic. That amounts to only 1 percent of the state's 7 million public and private school students. NPCA, a nonprofit advocacy group, estimates that the 11 parks would require a $7 million increase in their operating budgets to meet current demand. The national park system as a whole suffers from a shortfall of more than $600 million, according to the NPCA study, prompting parks around the country to cut programs and staff....
Congress to restart debate on energy bill With home heating bills up 30 percent or more over the past few years and electric rates rising, Congress will once again try to pass an energy bill aimed at boosting U.S. supplies of natural gas. While similar bills have languished in Congress, energy companies have taken steps of their own to increase supplies. More than 26 proposals are on the drawing board to build facilities to receive natural gas imports from overseas. And some electric companies have turned to building coal-fired power plants instead of the once more popular gas-fired ones. When Congress made its initial stab at an energy bill four years ago, the major impetus was an electricity shortage that hit California and caused price spikes throughout the West. But today, many lawmakers are more worried about the high price of natural gas, which has boosted consumer utility bills and cost thousands of jobs at chemical, paper and fertilizer companies -- industries that use large amounts of natural gas....
Column: Thwarting America's Energy Needs Well of course you want the entire shoreline of the East and West Coast to be filled with windmills producing insignificant amounts of energy! Nothing better than to head for the beaches of New Jersey or California and look out on the inspiring vista of wall-to-wall windmills. And let's not stop there. Kansas could be turned into a huge wind farm to keep the streetlights on in Topeka. Then there's the promise of hydrogen as a seemingly endless form of energy for our cars and other vehicles. Never mind the billions it would require to reproduce the existing network of gas stations across the nation -- or the fact that it would cost a lot of money and take a lot of energy just to split off that hydrogen molecule for a drive to grandma's house. Surely the US government is on top of all of this. Anyone remember the Bush energy plan? Well, maybe not....

Five Garfield County towns oppose drilling on top of Roan Plateau The city councils of at least five Garfield County towns have voted to oppose a federal plan to allow drilling for natural gas on top of the Roan Plateau. Some of the towns are endorsing an alternative drafted by a coalition of environmental and community groups. The Bureau of Land Management last November proposed up to 200 wells on top of the sprawling plateau, which towers more than a half mile above the Colorado River valley about 150 miles west of Denver....
Global warming novel a hit with politicians, but not scientists A provocative new novel that says fears of global warming are unjustified and stoked by an environmentalist-media conspiracy is taking Washington by storm. "State of Fear," a novel by Michael Crichton, the best-selling author of "Jurassic Park," and the creator of the TV show "ER," compares scientists who warn of global warming to advocates of eugenics who said that the mixing of races would ruin the world's genetic stock. In an appendix explaining his position, Crichton writes: "Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be a natural phenomenon. Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be man-made. Nobody knows how much warming will occur in the next century."....
Huge manure fire burns into third month But Dickinson, who makes his living in the cattle business, has an environmental problem on his hands that is vexing state officials: a 2,000-ton pile of burning cow manure. Dickinson owns and manages Midwest Feeding Co. about 20 miles west of Lincoln, which takes in as many as 12,000 cows at a time from farmers and ranchers and fattens them for market. Byproducts from the massive operation resulted in a dung pile measuring 100 feet long, 30 feet high and 50 feet wide that began burning about two months ago and continues to smolder despite Herculean attempts to douse it....
U.S. ranchers say Canada appears to be complying with BSE feed safeguards A group of American ranchers say Canada appears to be complying with a key safeguard against the spread of mad cow disease. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) released some initial findings Thursday based on a tour some of its members took of Alberta feedlots and a slaughter facility last week. One issue the ranchers focused on is how well Canada is following a ban imposed in 1997 against feeding cattle meat or bonemeal from cows or other ruminants....
Mad cow hard to get, study suggests A person would have to eat 1.5 kilograms of brain and viscera from an infected cow in a single sitting to contract the human form of mad-cow disease, according to a new study in the medical journal The Lancet. While that is markedly less than Alberta Premier Ralph Klein's estimate that "you would have to eat 10 billion meals of brains, spinal cords, ganglia, eyeballs and tonsils to get the disease," it still provides fairly good assurance that eating Canadian beef is safe, researchers say. Jean-Philippe Deslys, a prions researcher at the French Atomic Energy Commission, said that while his research does not provide a definitive minimum infective dose for the transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy from cattle to humans, it strongly suggests that existing measures to protect the food supply are adequate....

Cowboy's Best Friend For Rodney Hopwood's 13-month-old border collie, Marco, the first glimpse of civilization came after a long journey. "He's never been to town," Hopwood, a Kimberly, Idaho, dog trainer, said Wednesday. But the trek to the Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale is an annual rite for Hopwood, who's been showcasing cattle dogs here for nine years. The sale -- the biggest of its kind west of the Rocky Mountains -- is the only one that Hopwood brings his dogs to....
The oldest trade rebranded Can a bordello really be sold as a resort destination? George Flint, head of the Nevada Brothel Association, insists that a trip to the Mustang Ranch could be “just as important as driving to Mount Rushmore”. This is all in marked contrast to the Mustang Ranch's history. The first legal brothel in America saw the murder of a boxer, a mysterious fire and several government raids; it is also cited (unfavourably) in the Internal Revenue's tax manual. It was owned by Joe Conforte, who spent time in jail, tried to float the brothel on the stockmarket, fled charges of money-laundering, racketeering and bribery, and is now rumoured to be living in Brazil. In 1999, the government seized the Mustang Ranch (this time to shut it down for good). When the Bureau of Land Management auctioned the ranch's assets on eBay in 2003, Mr Gilman paid $145,000 for the brothel's trademark and pink stucco building, which he airlifted to a site beside the Wild Horse....

The last two days you may have noticed gaps or spaces between items that normally aren't there. Well, I don't know why they are there either....blogspot.com must be experiencing some kind of a problem with their publishing function.