Feds claim 91.9% of Nevada Nevada is getting smaller. At least the parts of it that Nevadans can call their own. All but 8.1 percent of the state is in the hands of federal agencies, according to an inventory by the U.S. General Services Administration. This information is not new. The 91.9 percent calculation of federal land comes from a 2003 report by GSA. However, lawmakers and state officials continue to quote a lower figure of 87 percent when talking about the amount of federal land in Nevada, and the state Department of Conservation & Natural Resources posts an even lower 86.1 percent on its Web site. Federal land managers keep close tabs on their holdings in each state, but the GSA report consolidates statistics from all departments. Lands controlled by the Department of Defense and Indian reservations apparently were not included in earlier estimates....
NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT 9TH CIRCUIT NOMINEE ROLE IN SLEAZY DEAL In a curious report that raises more questions than it answers, the Interior Office of Inspector General last night released a report blasting an improper settlement reached with a politically connected Wyoming rancher. In a press statement sent only to selected reporters, but not posted on its web site, the Office of Inspector General contends that it has cleared William Myers, the former Solicitor for the Department of Interior, who has been re-nominated by President Bush to serve on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, of any wrongdoing. That conclusion is strongly disputed by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) whose complaint prompted the OIG report. The report blames a deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management and an associate Solicitor, hand-picked by Myers for reaching and enforcing a deal of questionable legality that virtually immunized the rancher from penalties for grazing violations and left BLM’s own employees in legal jeopardy. “Under Earl Devaney, the Office of Inspector General has become the Office of Deflector General; its reports target obscure middle managers while shielding the higher-ups who gave the orders,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that OIG admitted that it “could not determine what motivated senior BLM officials to propose and advance the idea of a settlement.”....
Ranchers must learn how to negotiate, speakers say Don Spellman has worked with 10 different companies since coal-bed methane development came to his Campbell County ranch seven years ago. One of the first companies made a bad impression. The company had a high turnover rate, so he was never quite sure who to talk to. Then Spellman and a company representative agreed to a new two-track road. Later, Spellman watched a bulldozer peel a two-mile-long swath across his ranch. "That's not my idea of a two-track road," Spellman said....
Lawmakers unlikely to pass coalbed legislation Those hoping the 2005 Legislature would approve new regulations for coalbed methane development in the state are finding those wishes quickly dashed, with three major bills already dead and at least one other stalled and unlikely to pass. Proponents of the measures blame their defeat largely on what they characterized as a mind-set of some lawmakers that the energy industry is too important to the state to burden with additional regulations. Lawmakers introduced a handful of measures earlier this session that were intended to address energy exploration in Montana, particularly growing interest in coalbed methane, a type of natural gas found in coal seams. One of the more prominent bills was one by Sen. Mike Wheat, D-Bozeman, that was intended to give surface owners more bargaining power when dealing with developers with mineral or gas leases under their property....
Trackers Kill Tiger in Ventura County Sharpshooters searching for a 425-pound tiger that had prowled the hills of Simi Valley for two weeks shot and killed it Wednesday after a family awoke to find it walking past their backyard. The decision by government trackers to use high-powered rifles instead of tranquilizer darts to bring down the elusive cat outraged animal rights activists. But state officials said they had no alternative but to shoot to kill, because the animal could have attacked or bolted onto a highway or into a public park nearby. Thus ended a bizarre two-week saga that brought wilderness trappers to suburbia and forced families to keep children and pets indoors after huge cat tracks started being spotted throughout the oak-studded hills of eastern Ventura County....
Senate OKs bill calling for more radio-collared wolves The Montana Senate has passed a bill that would require state officials to capture and radio collar more wolves. Senate Bill 461 passed by a wide margin and is now awaiting action in the House. The bill would require the state spend about $25,000 the first year for equipment and personnel to monitor collared wolves. The bill has since been amended to give the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks the responsibility and to focus efforts on areas where depredations on livestock are "chronic or likely." Montana has about 40 wolf packs, which are defined as "two or more animals running together," Smith said. Of those packs, about 20 are in areas where trouble with livestock is more likely, he said, and 15 of the packs already have a collared animal among them....
Coyote bounty focus of legislative effort Four years ago, three western Minnesota counties put $10 bounties on coyotes in hope of reducing their numbers. But the counties soon discovered a major problem: The bounties were illegal. Now, bills in the Legislature would allow Minnesota counties to pay bounties on coyotes. Bob Padula says the idea is a no-brainer. "Coyotes eat sheep. I've had four attacked in the last five years," said Padula, a sheep rancher in Montevideo in western Minnesota and president of the Minnesota Lamb and Wool Producers Association....
Albuquerque, group reach deal on minnows The city of Albuquerque and environmental groups reached a settlement Wednesday in a five-year legal battle over the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. Organizations including the Sierra Club and National Audubon Society agreed to pursue no further legal action against the city in exchange for measures they said will help the tiny fish species to survive. Under the settlement, Albuquerque will set aside 30,000 acre-feet of water in a city reservoir to help preserve the minnow. Environmentalists said that will make the reservoir one of only a few in the West with significant space devoted to an environmental effort. An acre-foot is the amount of water that can cover an acre to a depth of 1 foot. The city also agreed to commit $250,000 from the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Authority and $25,000 from environmental groups to a water-leasing program for the middle Rio Grande. The program would increase water flow, which will help further protect the minnow and other species....
Alaskan otter sick with parasite killing California otters An injured sea otter found last month tested positive for a lethal parasite that has infected or killed hundreds of California sea otters in an outbreak blamed on domestic cats. This appears to be Alaska's first confirmed case of an otter sick with Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan that matures only inside cats and spreads through their feces. The otter is under care at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward after being found in Resurrection Bay....
Wild horse advocates voice disappointment in Reid’s inaction Wild horse advocates said Wednesday that they’re disappointed in U.S. Sen. Harry Reid’s position on handling of the animals, arguing he should be doing more to preserve and protect the living symbols of the West. In a demonstration outside the Nevada Legislative Building just before the Democratic senator addressed state lawmakers, about a dozen wild horse supporters said Reid needs to use his leverage as Senate minority leader to help prevent the sale and slaughter of the animals....
2 Utahns admit to killing 9 wild horses Two Utah men Tuesday admitted to killing nine wild horses on federal land in Iron County. Fred Eugene Woods and Russell Wesley Jones each pleaded guilty to three criminal counts — one felony charge of injuring U.S. property and two misdemeanor counts of causing the death of a wild, free-roaming horse. Woods, 48, acknowledged shooting six horses — including a 1 1/2-year-old buckskin filly and a 4-year-old bay stallion — and Jones, 30, admitted killing three — including two black stallions, one 7 years old and the other 2 years old. The case is believed to be the first in which the killing of wild horses has resulted in a felony conviction....
County to buy ranches for open space An array of desert grasslands and archaeological sites will be in public hands once Pima County closes on a multimillion-dollar deal that's part of a larger effort to preserve open space. County supervisors voted unanimously this week to spend $20.6 million to buy a nearly 10,000-acre ranch near the rural town of Arivaca and a smaller ranch southwest of Tucson. The larger ranch, called Rancho Seco, is the largest of nine properties the county has agreed to purchase with open-space bonds approved by voters last year....
Senate OKs end to Choteau bird preserve Lawmakers voted Tuesday to eliminate a bird preserve near Choteau, citing complaints about damage the deer population has caused in and around the preserve. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Joe Tropila, D-Great Falls, eliminates the Teton Spring Creek Bird Preserve, which was established in 1923. Ranchers with land in and around the preserve boundaries have complained for years that the deer living there eat a lot of hay and leave much more unusable as livestock feed because of droppings and urine. Rifle hunting is not allowed within the preserve, but the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks began allowing limited archery hunting within the boundaries in 1976....
More Utah wilderness proposed A coalition of environmental groups on Wednesday unveiled a proposal to designate as wilderness 3.6 million acres of sprawling canyons, blue-ribbon trout streams, twisting red rock formations, and popular hunting and hiking areas in the three national forests in southern Utah. The coalition, consisting of 12 groups, first presented its plans to the U.S. Forest Service in the fall but did not publicly unveil them until now. They come as the Dixie, Fishlake and Manti-LaSal national forests are working on forest-management plans that could end up redrawing wilderness boundaries. Wilderness designations within the forests would bar users from operating off-road vehicles in the area and prevent industry from logging or drilling for oil and gas. If the groups' recommendations were accepted, those restrictions would apply to 75 percent of the three forests' combined 4.8 million acres....
Cadre grows to rein in message The ranks of federal public affairs officials swelled during the Bush administration's first term, but that hasn't meant that government information is easier to get. The staffs that handle public relations for government agencies grew even faster than the federal work force, personnel records show, yet at the same time the White House tightened its control over messages to the news media and restricted access to public information. Between September 2000 and September 2004, the number of public affairs officials rose 9 percent, from 4,327 to 4,703, in executive-branch agencies, according to U.S. Office of Personnel Management statistics. Meanwhile, the federal work force grew 6 percent. Nearly half the jump at Agriculture came at its Forest Service, which oversees the vast tracts of national forests and now has 306 public affairs staff. Lennon said his staff grew, in part, because of a growing number of advisory panels required by Congress and a controversial program that opens some forests to logging over environmentalists objections....
Rains put forests at new risk This winter's relentless storms have decimated an estimated 70 percent to 90 percent of the 1,300 miles of back roads that lace the San Bernardino National Forest, leaving them impassable and useless with fire season a few months away and sufficient funding for repairs nowhere in sight. "My immediate concern is fire suppression through the course of the summer," San Bernardino National Forest Supervisor Gene Zimmerman said Wednesday. "Those forest roads are incredibly important." U.S. Forest Service surveys by helicopter and crews on the ground revealed the vast majority of visible roads have been washed away, covered with mudslides and strewn with boulders, forest engineer Mike Florey said....
Hunter Ordered to Pay $18M in Calif. Fire A lost hunter who started a forest fire in northern California while trying to keep warm was ordered to pay $18.2 million in restitution Wednesday. The fire in the Mendocino National Forest burned 6,058 acres and cost $33 million to suppress, authorities said. The restitution covers the U.S. Forest Service's cost of fighting the fire and restoring the burned area, prosecutors said. Jason Hoskey, 26, of Willows, lit a campfire when he got lost hunting on Sept. 27, 2003. The fire spread after he fell asleep. Flames had been banned in the area because of extreme fire danger. Prosecutors said Hoskey also violated the ban by smoking several cigarettes....
Forest chief answers critics Stanislaus National Forest's leader yesterday faced a roomful of upset mill workers who blame the Forest Service for recent layoffs. Forest Supervisor Tom Quinn attended the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors meeting to explain why timber sales on the forest have dropped. Sierra Pacific Industries officials and workers say the drop resulted in temporary layoffs of about 150 employees at the company's Standard and Chinese Camp mills. Supervisors asked Quinn to explain why 12 million board feet of lumber is harvested annually when about 300 million board feet grows in the forest....
Judge upholds limits on off-road vehicles in Big Cypress preserve A federal judge has upheld limits on swamp buggies and other off-road vehicles at Big Cypress National Preserve. U.S. District Judge John E. Steele ruled Tuesday that the National Park Service followed the law in preparing a plan that restricted off-road vehicles to certain areas of the neighbor of Everglades National Park. He rejected arguments by hunting clubs that the park service failed to consider the consequences or alternatives. The ruling caps a long battle between hunters and environmental groups over how the park should be used....
Critical juncture for property rights Given the prominent role courts have come to play in every facet of American life, each meeting of the U.S. Supreme Court can result in rulings with profound implications for us all. But this session is shaping up as one of the most momentous yet on the subject of property rights; more specifically, the question of what constitutes a government "taking" under the Fifth Amendment. On Tuesday, the black robes heard arguments in Kelo v. New London (Conn.), a fairly typical takings case in which a city used the power of eminent domain to confiscate private property based on its claim that a waterfront redevelopment project qualifies as a "public good" under the law. Today, the court begins mulling an even more intriguing case, touching on the question of whether government actions that deprived California farmers of irrigation water also qualifies as a "taking," requiring that compensation be paid....
Under NAFTA provision, Canadians want U.S. to pay for beef ban Under an obscure provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canadian cattlemen are asking the U.S. government to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to cover losses they incurred when the border was closed to Canadian beef after mad-cow disease turned up in Alberta. With the ban set to be lifted early next month, the case spotlights NAFTA's little-known Chapter 11, which allows companies to claim damages from governments if their laws or actions damage trading partners. About 500 cattlemen, mostly from the province of Alberta, have filed 121 claims under NAFTA seeking at least $325 million in compensation from U.S. taxpayers for the May 2003 decision to halt imports of Canadian beef and cattle, their lawyer said....
Burning Manure In Nebraska Finally Goes Out It took nearly four months, but to the relief of neighbors miles around, a burning manure pile has been extinguished. David Dickinson, owner and manager of Midwest Feeding Co., said Wednesday that several weeks of pulling the 2,000-ton pile apart proved effective by late last week. "We got far enough through it, that it quit," Dickinson said. Dickinson's feedlot, about 20 miles west of Lincoln, 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. Heat from the decomposing manure deep inside the pile is believed to have eventually ignited the manure....
CHAMPIONS SQUARE OFF SATURDAY AT LOS ALAMITOS Champions Catchmeinyourdreams and Whosleavingwho will break from posts 3 and 6, respectively, in Saturday’s $251,200 Los Alamitos Winter Championship (G1). The winner of the 400-yard stakes will earn the season’s first berth to this year’s Champion of Champions (G1), American Quarter Horse racing’s richest and most prestigious race for older horses. Racing for Kirk Goodfellow of Minden, Texas, and trained by Chris O’Dell, Catchmeinyourdreams is the sport’s reigning champion aged gelding. The Pritzi Dash gelding is coming off of a season in which he won the Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap and Los Alamitos Invitational Championship and earned $208,493. Cody Jensen, who rode Catchmeinyourdreams in those stakes wins, will ride him again on Saturday. Whosleavingwho shared the sport’s world champion title with Streakin Sin Tacha in 2002. Owned by Arizona-based ranchers Jim Geiler and Kim Kissinger, and trained by Paul Jones, the 7-year-old gelding by Chicks Beduino has won 20 of 41 races – including eight stakes – and has earned $1,121,127. Alejandro Luna will ride Whosleavingwho on Saturday, as the gelding attempts to qualify to the Champion of Champions for the fourth consecutive year....
Cowboy poets, musicians to perform this weekend Roughhewn cowboy poetry, folksongs of the West and a hearty cowboy breakfast around the campfire. That’s what it’s all about Friday through Sunday (Feb. 25-27) at the 19th Annual Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine. Sul Ross State University will serve as host and gathering place Friday through Sunday for the 49 performers and singers scheduled to entertain this year, at the second oldest cowboy poetry gathering in the country. Only the cowboy poetry gathering in Elko, Nev., is larger and older, said Michael Stevens, president of the organizing committee....
Calling All Cowgirls: Montana's Mountain Sky Beckons 'Wild Women' Seeking Western Adventure Women yearning to heed the call of the Wild West are invited to drop their briefcases and house chores and head for Big Sky country to enjoy a special offer filled with adventure and pampering at beautiful Mountain Sky Guest Ranch in Montana. Nestled within more than 6,000 acres of breathtaking countryside, this historic guest ranch is offering a " Wild West Women Adventure" package, tailored to meet every need for fun, food and friendship. From Saturday, May 7 through Wednesday, May 11, cowgirls from California to the Carolinas can gather their friends and lasso this special four-night adventure, which includes accommodations in refurbished rustic or modern guest cabins, gourmet dining, unlimited riding and ranch activities, a Yellowstone Park tour, airport transportation and gratuities - all for just $1,000....