NEWS ROUNDUP

Wolves expected to grow in numbers Following a decade of acrimony, suspicion and lawsuits, the players in the ongoing wolf debate in Montana and Idaho have a chance to lower their dukes and see if they can all get along. "It's about trust," said Dick Dolan, program director for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a pro-wolf group. "Let's see if we can do this as a community and a region, to live with wolves, to have agriculture and ungulates and predators." Ag, government and green groups often butt heads, especially over wolves. Now they're being "asked to hold hands," said Carolyn Sime, gray wolf program coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "It's scary, but it's refreshing. If all we do is throw rocks at each other, we'll never make progress."....
Editorial: The wolves at our door Ten years ago this week wolves returned to Yellowstone National Park amid fears that they would destroy elk herds and rampage through sheep and cattle ranches in the Rocky Mountains. Now there's a well-considered plan to allow wolves to return to Oregon, and some ranchers and hunters are loudly voicing the same fears that greeted wolves at Yellowstone. The difference now is the West has a decade of experience and knowledge about wolves. Oregonians can see what happened in the Rocky Mountain West. Wolves and the wildlands they have come back to have flourished. Problem wolves have been killed. Ranchers have been compensated for losses....
Column: States making progress in long-term wolf management In the early 1990s, before the first Rocky Mountain gray wolf set foot in Yellowstone National Park after a 60-year absence, a broad range of individuals and organizations struck a deal that promised to restore Canis lupus to the Western landscape. The deal took into consideration the legitimate concerns of ranchers, hunters and outfitters who feared their livelihoods would be threatened. The agreement said that, once there were enough wolves for a biologically sound population, and when Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming came up with reasonable wolf management plans, wolves would be removed from the federal endangered species list and management would be turned over to the states. As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park, I am pleased to say that we have made great strides toward that goal. In doing so, we are writing what eventually could be the greatest wildlife restoration success story in our nation's history....
Groups usually on opposite sides of fence congregate to preserve the environment In the parking lot of the Albuquerque Hilton, a mud-caked diesel pickup with a Bush/Cheney decal and a gun rack sat next to a hybrid bearing bumper stickers urging, "Keep Abortion Legal" and "Treasure our Bosque." As improbable as it might seem, it was quite likely that the owners of the disparate vehicles were there for the same event. The Quivira Coalition - a nonprofit organization that brings ranchers and environmentalists to the communal table - held its fourth annual conference in Albuquerque this week. And nary a "tree hugger" nor "land rapist" passed the lips of any of the attendees. In fact, whether you wore a cowboy hat or a ponytail came secondary to a commitment to preserving both healthy landscapes and the Western way of life....
Governor threatens suit over salmon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, on the heels of a fiery Monday speech at the statehouse in which he criticized federal environmental policies, told the Bush administration Friday he would sue unless federal agencies make hydropower dam operations less destructive to salmon. Kulongoski's action adds considerable weight to the side of fishing and conservation groups, which are challenging the administration's recent conclusion that federal dams in the Columbia Basin pose no threat of driving endangered salmon to extinction. Kulongoski on Friday said he was "gravely concerned" the administration's approach to salmon protection "abandons any effort to achieve recovery of Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead populations."....
Column: It's time that San Francisco let go of Hetch Hetchy San Francisco, tear down that dam. But the hometown of the Sierra Club dithers over the fate of Hetch Hetchy, the main holding tank for city water in Yosemite National Park, while a Republican governor takes the lead by default. The city's fearless leader, Mayor Gavin Newsom, is a study in equivocation, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, confusing dams with rivers, makes ludicrous statements about the "destruction" of the source of the city's water. If the prologue is any indication, we're in for some great political theater....
US churches tell Bush to care for the planet Caring for the planet is a universal value and a central part of God’s concern for stewardship of the earth’s resources, say American church leaders in a powerful inter-religious statement aimed at changing the minds of US legislators and President George W Bush. The ‘God’s Mandate: Care for Creation’ statement is seeking tens of thousands of signatories by 21 January 2005. It is being promoted by the Interfaith Climate Change Network (ICCN) is a joint effort of the Eco-Justice Working Group of the National Council of Churches of Christ USA (NCC) and the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL). The statement expresses “great dismay and alarm at plans by the Administration and the leadership of the 109th Congress to reverse and obstruct programs that protect God’s creation in our land and across the planet.”....
Sheep industry to vote on fee Since 2002, the industry has paid a fee on sheep and lambs sold or purchased for slaughter. Those who oppose paying it can file for a refund. But beginning Jan. 31, producers, feeders and packers will decide whether the national lamb checkoff will become mandatory and nonrefundable. The vote comes at a time when checkoff programs for beef and other commodities are being challenged as unconstitutional by producers who say they shouldn't have to pay for advertising that they don't necessarily agree with. But supporters, while mindful of the court challenges and potential implications for the lamb program, say the assessment is key to the industry's growth and insist that producers, seeing far better sheep and lamb prices than a few years back, can ill-afford to do away with the program - on their own - now....
Hobson family builds on bulls Jeanette and Jamie Stevenson started out in the Depression; young newlyweds with a bunkhouse, a few cattle and big dreams. At times they raised turkeys and sold cream and eggs to make ends meet on their drought-stricken ranch near Hobson. By 1946, after 10 years of toil, the couple had saved enough cash to buy their first registered Angus herd, consisting of three pregnant heifers. Over the next 60 years, the Stevenson family parlayed that hard-earned investment into one of Montana's biggest agricultural success stories....
Branding's mark on West may fade It's a deep scar that serves as a Westerner's coat of arms. It's an indelible mark of ownership that stands out on a cow even in a blizzard, and anybody worth his salt can tell when it's been altered. Hot-iron brands were the Americas' first corporate logos, going back to the 1500s with Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortez's singe of three crosses. But some of those who know brands best can see a day, perhaps a couple of decades out, when this ancient practice, still strong in the American West, might finally be ended by high-tech alternatives considered as cheap and reliable....
New Mexico standoff Friends and foes alike agreed that Elfego Baca never lacked courage in the face of danger. This praise was not surprising, given his family's history. The Bacas were descendants of nearly every conquistador who had proceeded from Mexico City to New Mexico in Spanish colonial times. Fiercely proud of their culture and heritage, the Bacas quickly took offense against those who were insolent. This background fostered Elfego's boldness and prepared him well for his Oct. 30-31, 1884, stand-off against approximately 80 well-armed Texas cowboys at Frisco, N.M., south of Reserve. Elfego Baca was just 19 years old in the fall of 1884. Working for Jose Baca, a relative and prominent merchant in Socorro, Elfego met Socorro County Deputy Sheriff Pedro Saraccino, Jose's brother-in-law. Saraccino wore a large, shiny deputy's badge, an emblem of authority that awed the impressionable teenager....
On The Edge of Common Sense: Rodeo reasoning You can talk about the glamour/and the love of rodeo/The challenge and the heartbreak/of the dally and the throw/Of the guts and luck and glory/the leather and the sweat/The gristle and the power/of the bull that ain't rode yet/And the get-up-in-the-morning/and the miles-down-the-road/And the bronc that stands awaitin'/and the rope that ain't been throwed....