NEWS ROUNDUP

CANM mulls changes in grazing permits A proposal by the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument to reduce the number of cattle grazing on designated acreage and a consideration for a change in season of use for running cattle didn't quite prompt a range war with permittees. But it did cause concern among cattlemen who hold grazing permits on the land. Seven separate grazing allotments for three permit holders were up for renewal in January. The Monument's pitch called for a 38 percent reduction in animal unit months and a possible change in the grazing season from Dec. 1 to June 1, to Oct. 1 to March 1....
Four groups file challenge to expanded Big Sur grazing Continuing a battle that has gone on for five years, four environmental groups are challenging a decision by the Bush administration to reauthorize and expand cattle grazing on tens of thousands of acres of public land along the Big Sur coast. In December, the U.S. Forest Service issued notices authorizing ranchers to continue cattle grazing on sections of the Los Padres National Forest known as the Gorda, Alder Creek, Salmon Creek and San Carpoforo allotments. Forest Service officials also allowed new grazing in the Kozy Kove, Sur Sur and Sea Vista areas. Ranchers argue that such grazing on public lands is important for their livelihood, particularly in areas where private land costs are high. The environmentalists argue that cows trample wilderness areas, damage streams and are not compatible with recreation in Big Sur, one of the most scenic regions of United States. They also contend that the Big Sur grazing threatens several endangered and threatened species, including the Smith's blue butterfly, the California red-legged frog and steelhead trout....
Oregon prepares for wolves' return Oregon made room for the return of gray wolves Friday night when the state Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted a strategy calling for at least eight pairs of wolves across Oregon but letting ranchers harass or shoot any that go after livestock. The wolf conservation plan lets wolves arriving on their own from neighboring Idaho colonize the state. It also calls for paying ranchers for sheep, cattle or other livestock killed or injured by wolves. The strategy conflicts with a federal court ruling last week, so it will not take full force yet. But commissioners said it outlines a place for the predator that once roamed Oregon with enough controls to minimize costs to ranchers and others who could lose livestock....
Feds still studying wolf ruling Federal officials are still trying to digest a judge's decision about wolf protection last week, but said the management of some wolves will have to change. At the least, the ruling affects management of about 60 wolves in northwestern Montana that are now classified as endangered, a classification that places strict limits on how problem wolves can be dealt with. Protection for those wolves was relaxed in 2003 when they were reclassified as "threatened." Rules were enacted that let landowners kill or harass wolves that were seen attacking their animals on private land. But last week, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones of Portland, Ore., overturned that 2003 decision....
Endangered act? The bitter fight now resuming over how to protect America's endangered plants and animals is being fought as much in the San Joaquin Valley as in Washington. If reformers succeed in amending the 30-year-old Endangered Species Act, it will be largely thanks to the efforts of two Central Valley congressmen: Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, chairman of the House Resources Committee, and Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, also a member of the committee. Both say they are reaching across party lines to change the act because Valley residents -- especially rural landowners -- are dissatisfied with it. "I am pretty optimistic that we can get it done this year," Pombo said early last week. "It is always difficult to move forward on something like that." Environmentalists, however, say they believe Valley residents love the land and wildlife here and will oppose efforts to weaken the act. Defenders of Wildlife recently launched an anti-reform campaign from a new office in Stockton at the same time reform-minded landowners have been having meetings with politicians and wildlife officials....
Call to Save the Snakehead Takes Aim at Federal Policymakers Of all the names that have been hurled at the northern snakehead -- intruder, predator, Frankenfish -- Alan Gardner would like to add one more to the list: victim. Gardner, a Republican county commissioner from Utah, wants the snakehead off the most-wanted list and on the endangered species list. With officials from 12 other Western states, he has petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to save the snakehead. So Gardner hopes to hit Washington policymakers where it hurts. All fresh water with any connection to the Potomac should be closed to boating, fishing or swimming to protect the snakehead, according to his petition. Traffic on existing bridges should be restricted to emergency vehicles only, and people mowing lawns within five miles of the water should be accompanied by a trained snakehead observer....
BLM director says sage grouse decision a new beginning The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is updating state management plans to emphasize concern for greater sage grouse and its habitat across the West, but efforts by local working groups remain key to the bird's survival, BLM Director Kathleen Clarke said Saturday. "It takes more than rules and regulations to restore habitats," Clarke said. "One size does not fit all." Clarke, speaking to about 300 people attending a two-day national sage grouse conference, said last month's decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to list the high desert bird as an endangered species doesn't end concern for its plight but instead marks a new direction for conservation....
ATV dispute steams Box Elder landowners Abiathar R.C. Smith was just 18 when he emigrated from Worcestershire, England, in 1870, to live with an uncle in Kaysville. By the time he died in 1909, "the sheep king of Utah" had amassed 212,000 acres of forest and meadowland in the northern Utah backcountry where Cache, Box Elder and Weber counties meet. Nearly a century later, descendants who own a remnant of Smith's empire, along with several longtime ranchers, are at the center of a dispute that pits private property rights against access to public lands in Box Elder County. The explosion in the number of all-terrain vehicle riders and the growing damage to land and wildlife, they say, has changed their willingness to ignore trespassers....
Measure 37 has legislators in a bind Oregon legislators are confronting a delicate predicament: intense pressure from some quarters to change a property rights ballot measure that drew the support of almost two-thirds of voters last fall. The way elected officials handle Measure 37 will affect property owners' ability to build on their land, neighbors' awareness of what's happening next door, and the use of rural areas now set aside for farms and forests. It could affect state legislators' political futures. "Any legislator who proposes more than minor changes could easily be taking some risks upon their next campaign," said Russ Dondero, a political science professor at Pacific University....
Coal plant foe calls for water audit In a pre-emptive strike against a proposed coal-fired power plant, conservationist David Rumsey is asking the state of Nevada to validate who owns the water on the Smoke Creek Desert, west of Gerlach. Sempra Energy officials have said they need 16,000 acre-feet of water each year to cool the 1,450-megawatt coal-fired plant, which would be one of the largest plants in the country. “We feel it is utterly necessary, given the massive disruption of water in the Smoke Creek basin that their project would result in,” said Rumsey, who is turning the Old Parker Ranch on the desert into a 1,400-acre nature preserve. Rumsey has hired San Francisco lawyer Michael Van Zandt to represent him in the coming legal water battles. On Jan. 27, Van Zandt filed a request for an adjudication of the water rights in the Smoke Creek Desert basin with the state water engineer’s office....
Park Service's Tourism Job Posting Eyed With Mistrust Rarely does a job ad cause so much consternation. The National Park Service announced recently on the federal government's job Web site that it is looking for a "special assistant to the associate director, tourism." The job description said the person would act as a "liaison between the NPS and the tourism industry." The job requires candidates to be able to "expand tourism programs that promote private sector support of the NPS mission." Qualified applicants should have "knowledge of all aspects of the tourism industry." And, it said, they must be able to "teach the practices, operations and expectations of the tourism industry to NPS management." Some national park watchdog groups have been reading the ad like tea leaves, nervously wondering whether all those references to the tourism industry and the private sector indicate where the department is headed in President Bush's second term....
Ranchers fear waste fallout A Massachusetts company has asked for state approval to dump low-level radioactive waste in Colorado's only hazardous-waste landfill, worrying ranchers in rural Adams County that more toxic trash is on its way. If state environmental regulators approve plans recently submitted by Clean Harbors Inc., its U.S. 36 hazardous-waste landfill will become the first in Colorado licensed to accept low-level radioactive waste for disposal. Residents near Last Chance worry that the waste will seep out of the dump and wind up in wells that water their livestock and irrigate their crops. They also dread having to renew the bitter battle that preceded state approval to open the only hazardous waste dump in Colorado two decades ago....
EPA fines owner of Nevada brothel When it came to stripping, a famous Nevada brothel did it wrong and got slapped with a federal fine. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that it has fined the owner of the now-closed Mustang Ranch $23,000 for improper removal of asbestos. The owner, Lance Gilman, allegedly erred while moving the pink ranch building seven miles east to a new site where he owned another brothel. The Mustang Ranch was Nevada's first legal bordello and in its heyday it made more than the $23,000 fine in a good hour, Lindeman said....
U.S. Hunters Flock To Mexico's Deserts To Bag Trophy Game Drawn by plentiful wildlife, warm winter weather and an eager host government, a fast-growing number of American hunters are heading to Mexico to shoot deer, doves and desert sheep in what Mexican officials say has become a $300 million a year industry. About 20,000 foreign hunters, almost all of them U.S. citizens, visited Mexico last year, four times the number that came five years ago. Nearly 57 million acres of private ranchland in Mexico's northern states are open for hunting, about 100 times more land than 10 years ago....
Column, The shrinking salad bowl: Finding our balance on the edge of hunger It's almost too late for California to eat local. Even as we rediscover how good tomatoes and cantaloupe taste when they are freshly picked -- if not in our backyard, then in the next valley over -- our state is fast losing its ability to feed itself. But that may not be all bad. We will gain from our loss if the threat of hunger serves to realign our agricultural priorities individually and statewide. Agricultural census statistics confirm what we all perceive as we watch schools and subdivisions sprout in our lettuce fields, and malls and warehouses move into our pastureland: America's salad bowl is shrinking by the day. Producing the average American diet requires approximately 1.2 acres of land per person, says David Pimentel, professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. Today, counting all our state's cultivable land (including land currently set aside in conservation programs to reduce soil erosion and preserve wildlife habitats), plus all possible pasture and range land (even that of the most marginal quality), California has only three-quarters of an acre of productive land per Californian....
Deer auction makes history It looked like any other livestock auction, but it didn't smell like one. And there weren't any hooves kicking up the red sand in the auction ring. The biggest clue why were the labels on the feed sacks propped along the fence — "Antler Advantage" and "Deer Chow." On the block was not livestock, but rather wildstock, namely white-tailed deer, the prized game that pumps some $2.8 billion annually into the state's economy. While they only appeared on a giant projection screen, the deer were making history nonetheless as the first whitetails sold at a stock show anywhere in the nation. They accounted for an estimated $722,000 in sales at the Premium Whitetail Deer Auction on Friday at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, placing it on par with other auctions at the show....
Texas Hopes to Cure 'Depressed' Bison With Ted Turner's Bulls Everybody needs a little spice in his or her love life -- even a big, shaggy buffalo. Isolated in the Texas Panhandle for 100 years, never a new lover in sight, the historic Caprock Canyons State Park bison herd is suffering from "inbreeding depression" that wildlife officials hope to cure by introducing some new studs to some old cows. These aren't just any bulls, either. The three bison were donated to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department by media mogul Ted Turner. Turner owns the largest private bison herd in the world, with 32,000 head on 14 ranches in seven states. The three bulls are from Turner's ranch in northeastern New Mexico....
Tales from the frontier "The Greatest Cowboy Stories Ever Told," edited by Stephen Brennan (The Lyons Press, 320 pages, $22.95) Stephen Brennan observes that native people always have told stories about when they first settled their homelands, and call it the dream time. Americans' dream time is the settling of the West, and its greatest hero is the cowboy. On the scene for a relatively brief 40 years, the cowboy was ill-paid and far from home. He could claim nothing more than a horse, a saddle and sidearms as his own. He had few prospects. But to the world, he represented freedom, and his adventures were tailor-made for stories....
Wild West coming to Claremore Wild West Arts Club, dedicated to preserving and promoting western arena arts, after 15 years of annual events in Las Vegas, Nev., will be in Claremore April 13-17. The Will Rogers Wild West Expo will be at the Claremore Expo Center. The club started when Mark Allen, WWAC international director, held a trick roping convention at the Will Rogers Ranch in Santa Monica, Calif. At that first gathering Will Rogers Jr., Jim Rogers, Montie Montana and more than 100 trick ropers decided to keep the tradition going. Since that time the Rogers’ brothers, sons of Will Rogers, and Montie Montana, have died. It has grown to include other skills of the old West — Charro roping, whip cracking, gun spinning, fast draw, trick shooting and knife and tomahawk throwing. This year for the first time in more than 30 years there will be trick riding competition, under direction of renowned trick rider Tad Griffith....
Love for the craft keeps Medicine Lodge artist in the saddle Cowboys and cowgirls in these parts make a living riding tall in the saddle. And amid the Gyp Hills, which cowboy and horse have long called home, J.W. Jacobs hopes he is making the ride a little more comfortable. Jacobs is a saddle maker -- crafting cattle hide into saddles, chaps and chinks for the working ranch hand at his Medicine Lodge shop, JW Jacobs Saddlery. The result is a custom-made saddle, as functional as it is a work of art. For the horse rider, to call one of Jacobs' saddles a luxury would be a disgrace. Hand-detailed saddles are fit to the specs of the individual cowboy and, like many well-built saddles, will last a lifetime. Jacobs, 27, is a quiet man, spending long hours at his trade, stopping once in a while to cater to a customer, either needing equipment or a saddle repaired. Some come straight from the range wanting to know what Jacobs can make them. It all starts with a side of leather and a little creativity, he said....
Cowboy hat can set you back thousands But in the modern West, the most serious cowboys are shelling out as much as $3,000 for a cowboy hat. Being a cowboy or cowgirl is getting expensive. The West's rampant inflation is evident in everything from the cost of boots and buckles to saddles and spurs — but hats have seen the steepest rise, say industry insiders. A premium, broad-brimmed Resistol hat now costs $3,000, said Mike Wallis, owner of Red's Clothing Co. in Pendleton. The same hat would have cost $1,200 five years ago or $35 in the 1950s, he said. A series of unusually mild winters has forced up the price on high-end cowboy hats, Wallis said. Bitter winters are essential for producing the downy, pale fur on beaver and other small animals that hatters use as raw material for their ivory- and silver-colored premium felt cowboy hats, he said. Since such winters have been in short supply, so have the hats. Yet another factor is the success of the animal rights movement. With a reduced demand for fur coats and collars, hatters who once bought inexpensive fur coat industry trimmings for hats now must buy entire skins, he said....
Rodeo's rising star Brazile looks toward 4th title Trevor Brazile is no Ty Murray. But he's getting close. Murray, the Mickey Mantle of rodeo, won six consecutive world all-around championships — pro rodeo's ultimate prize — from 1989 to 1994. No one had won two consecutive titles since then until Brazile. The Decatur native has won three in a row. When it comes to rodeo and goals, few in the sport today are better at achieving them than Brazile. At 28, he is well on his way to becoming pro rodeo's next major star, something the PRCA has not really had since Murray won his last all-around title in 1998. Driven to succeed, Brazile credits his success to the old-fashioned values of persistence and hard work. Good genes don't hurt, either. Brazile's father, Jimmy Brazile, was a professional steer roper and a former National Finals Steer Roping qualifier. Jimmy Brazile wouldn't let son Trevor compete in junior rodeos until the age of 11. By then, most of Trevor's pals had been at it for three or four years. "He held me back on purpose," Brazile said. "He wanted me to mature. And he also didn't want me to get used to losing."....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Painting cows an ancient tradition - no bull When cities began displaying life-sized painted plastic cows on street corners and in store windows, the barrage increased. I've never quite understood the painted cow (or horse, or buffalo, or wombat) art, though it's creative. A piano company, for instance, would display a grand cow with her rib cage propped opened and a keyboard for teeth. A jeweler would have a water belly steer covered with glistening calculi stones, and a Mexican food restaurant's cow would look like a piata. But where did the idea come from? I think I know. The story has been passed down through the generations of Sierra Nevada ranchers, California vaqueros and sale-barn bull-haulers until it has achieved legend proportions....