NEWS ROUNDUP

Wolf talks start quietly, but could get loud Idaho senators resumed discussions on one of their most common — and one of their least favorite — topics Wednesday: wolves. But this time, the state is another step closer to being able to manage the wolves without as much oversight from the federal government. Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's Office of Species Conservation director, Jim Caswell, walked the Senate Resources and Conservation Committee through a slate of new rules that will go into effect Feb. 2. The wolves still will be protected by Washington, D.C., but livestock and pet owners will get much more flexibility to harass and kill wolves that threaten their animals. Wolves were all but extinct in Idaho for years, with just a few lone animals wandering down from Canada. In 1995, against the Idaho Legislature's will, wolves were reintroduced and managed by the Nez Perce Tribe and the federal government. Now, Caswell estimated, there are at least 450 wolves in the state, plus an additional 150 pups from this summer....
Ranchers bear added burden Jim Melin has been living with predators for a long time. He raises cattle and sheep on privately owned bench land shadowed by the Absaroka Range. Bears and lions sometimes attack his animals. So do coyotes, foxes and domestic dogs. But wolves are something else. The father of 11 children -- the youngest is only 3 -- Melin had made it a habit to send his dogs off with the smaller kids when they played outside. "They'll run off a bear or a lion," he said of the dogs. "But they're an attractant to a wolf. So now what do you do?" He keeps an eye on his kids. He keeps his dogs inside at night. Watching his livestock all the time impossible, though he does what he can. For the past three or four years, he said, he's lost no lambs to eagles or coyotes. Foxes might have taken a handful of newborn animals. Dogs have killed a half-dozen sheep and bears have claimed a similar number. But wolves, he said, have killed 49 sheep, although not all those losses could be proven. He also blames wolves for the loss of 10 newborn calves one year. That time, he had gathered the herd for calving and a pack of wolves walked by. They didn't attack, but they startled the mother animals....
Depredations have climbed sharply over the past two years Livestock losses to wolves have been greater than predicted. Livestock losses to wolves have been less than predicted. Which statement you want to believe depends on how you want to do your figuring. The 1994 environmental impact statement outlining wolf reintroduction said wolves in the Yellowstone National Park area would kill between one and 32 cattle yearly, an average of 19 animals. It also predicted the wolves would kill between 17 and 110 sheep, an average of 68. The same document predicted a recovered wolf population would number about 100 wolves. However, there are now at least 300 wolves in the greater Yellowstone area. If you calculate the averages, losses to wolves since 1995 have averaged 16 cattle and 68 sheep, well within the averages even though there are three times the predicted level of wolves. But the averages don't tell the whole story. Depradations have climbed sharply over the past two years. In 2004, the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife, which pays ranchers for confirmed or probable losses, wrote checks for 200 sheep and 56 cattle in greater Yellowstone. That's roughly twice the predicted levels....
Wolves welcome - just not big, bad ones Members of the state's Wolf Management Working Group told the Colorado Wildlife Commission on Thursday that wolves are welcome in Colorado - as long as they behave themselves. The 14-member group spent six months on a draft management plan, agreeing unanimously on a number of issues, including impacts on livestock and wildlife, damage payments to livestock producers, and the need to monitor wolf movements and behaviors. "This is the first step in what we could do if a wolf wanders in from a neighboring state," said Gary Skiba, state Division of Wildlife wolf coordinator....
Attorney General's Office Asks Builder to Drop Racketeering Suit In an unusual move, the California attorney general's office has asked a San Diego developer to drop a federal racketeering lawsuit that accuses three U.S. Forest Service employees and an environmental activist of conspiring to block a proposed luxury condominium development on Big Bear Lake. The suit is an example of an improper use of the courts "by powerful interests against private citizens to suppress legitimate 1st Amendment activity," Deputy Atty. Gen. Harrison Pollak of the office's environmental unit said in a letter to the developer. A dozen years ago, California passed a law to combat what legislators saw as efforts by companies to intimidate individuals who got involved in public debates. The sponsor, then a state senator, was Bill Lockyer, now the state attorney general. Pollak said he believed the current case marked only the second time since the passage of the law that the attorney general's office has gotten involved in this way in a federal case. The suit, filed by developer Irving Okovita, alleges that the Forest Service workers used a small environmental group, the Friends of Fawnskin, as "racketeering enterprise" to block the development. The workers and their supporters accuse Okovita of using the racketeering law to retaliate against them....
Appeals Court OKs Fire Site Logging An appeals court Thursday lifted its injunction barring salvage logging from the site of the nation's worst wildfire in 2002 -- an issue that has pitted environmentalists against the timber industry and Bush administration. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided a lower court judge did not abuse his discretion when he refused to stop salvage logging on old-growth forest in the Rogue-River Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon. Six timber sales amounting to 47 million board feet were conducted in the area and brought $2 million. Lifting the preliminary injuction "will allow us to move forward with economic recovery and restoration of the land," said forest supervisor Scott Conroy....
Woman giving up in battle over Mojave land After decades, Connie Connelly is resigned to leaving her rustic home in the northeastern Mojave National Preserve for a mobile-home in remote Wyoming, pending the close of escrow later this month. "I plan on moving on as quick as possible," said Connelly, 44, who has been battling federal authorities' efforts to evict her from the venerable general store her family turned into a homestead in 1966. The house sits on five windswept acres near the state line, about 23 miles from Primm, Nev. Connelly, who pleaded not guilty in August to a charge of trespassing on federal land, was due in federal court today but that hearing is to be continued until next month. If convicted, she faces up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine. Prosecutors have said they will take Connelly's move into consideration as they decide whether to pursue the case. Faced with possible jail time and a fine she cannot afford, Connelly said she ultimately had no choice but to agree to move. But she would prefer to stay in the six-room home she shares with 11 dogs, a cat and a horse. "I am still praying for a miracle," Connelly said. "I just feel sick."....
Mad-cow probe focuses on batch of special feed Federal investigators have narrowed the search for the source of the latest mad-cow case down to a “readily available” grain supplement an Alberta farmer bought nearly a year after strict new safeguards were put into place. In the spring of 1998, Wilhelm Vohs, who had for years fed his cattle nothing but grain grown on his central Alberta ranch, bought a nutritional supplement for his fresh crop of Charolais calves, hoping it would enhance their development. He thought the calf-starter feed consisted of minerals, vitamins and grain. “I bought that feed in good faith,” Mr. Vohs, a 46-year-old rancher from Innisfail, told reporters gathered in his community's town hall....
Beef ID program sparks dispute A feud over whether the state of South Dakota should operate an animal ID database as part of Gov. Mike Rounds' South Dakota Certified Beef program erupted Wednesday during the first day of committee hearings in the 2005 Legislature. A meeting of the Joint Appropriations Committee hearing with top state Agriculture Department officials ended up in an argument with Agriculture Secretary Larry Gabriel and state veterinarian Sam Holland on one side and private database owner Marshall Edleman on the other. Edleman told the committee that he believes not only should the state's database not be established because it would compete with private companies launching animal ID database businesses, but he also said cattle producers should shun government-managed databases because of privacy concerns. He cited the fact that a nonprofit group posted subsidies USDA paid to individual farmers on the Internet as a situation to be avoided. "People are much more willing to participate in a system if they know they are dealing with a private entity. We're very afraid that this type of information — how many cattle you own and where they're located —would get out there," Edleman said. "If, as producers, we're paying to put in the information and store it, we should be able to control it. And for the interest of the taxpayers, we need to keep it in private industry."....
Panel endorses stronger livestock disease reporting requirements Supporters of stricter requirements for reporting livestock diseases say the benefits of disclosure outweigh the possible damage of a false alarm. A legislative committee on Thursday endorsed a measure that would require the state veterinarian to establish and manage a list of contagious or infectious diseases deemed a threat to livestock. Ranchers, private veterinarians, government agencies and anyone with ''jurisdiction'' over infected animals would have to report any suspected illnesses on the list. The measure, recommended 9-0 by the House Agriculture Committee, moves forward amid concern about another case of mad cow disease in Canada and brucellosis worries in Wyoming....
Ranching never looked so good! The Women's Movement has put on many different hats over the years. Long before Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and concerns about glass ceilings came to public attention, however, the women of the West had been putting on the ten-gallon hat, so to speak - quietly assuming traditionally "male" roles on the ranch. They did this without complaint, without revolution, but with a quiet acceptance of accomplishing what needed to be done with men, or without them. Such women are the subject of "Hard Twist: Western Ranch Women," an exhibit of 61 photographs by celebrated photographer Barbara Van Cleve. The Rockwell Museum of Western Art will host the exhibition from January 13 to April 24, 2005. "Hard Twist," which is also the title of a book of photographs on the same subject by Van Cleve, details the lives of modern women ranchers in large-scale black and white photographs. The pictures, most of them close ups, convey both the daily routine involved in ranching and the emotions connected to it. The exhibit will open with a presentation by Van Cleve at 6:00 p.m., and a reception with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, following her talk on January 13th. Van Cleve will be joined by Linda Davis, one of her subjects, who is featured in the exhibit. Davis will be on hand to talk with participants about her experiences running a ranch. Museum members and youth 17 and under are invited free of charge....
Cowboy poet is rodeo parade grand marshal Cowboy poet, humorist and columnist Baxter Black has been chosen grand marshal for this year's La Fiesta de los Vaqueros on Feb. 24. "I normally don't accept accolades of this sort, but I told them I would accept on one condition: That they allow me to bring some real cowboys along," said Black, a Benson-area resident since 1997. "I'll have a 'posse' from down in this part of the world - mostly old cowboys - in the parade with me." The parade, expected to have about 120 entries in this, its 80th year, usually takes about 2 1/2 hours to finish. "I've always been supportive of rodeo. This is the sport of my kind of people," said Black, a former large-animal veterinarian before becoming a nationally known entertainer. "The Tucson Rodeo is pretty fancy and it's quite an honor to be asked to be their parade marshal."....
Why we do the things we do "This cowboy life is sure romantic ain't it?" John Blount grinned at me from under the brim of his cap secured under a hood. I grinned, too, but kept my mouth closed so the cold air wouldn't hurt my teeth. Those of us who ranch, farm, day work, ride salebarn pens or any other "agricultural pursuit" (that phrase will ring a bell if you are an FFA member or alumnus) do it purely because we love it. Don't argue with me. You know it's true. In the best of years, we break even - if you don't count the payments. Any number of weather or disease disasters can wreck an entire season's work, stealing any chance of profit in what may be only 15 minutes of hail, wind or water. But, we don't quit. Why?....