NEWS ROUNDUP

Final report also blames Forest Service safety lapses for deaths in Cramer fire The third and final investigative report into the July 22, 2003 deaths of two firefighters on the Salmon-Challis National Forest agrees with two previous reports that the fatalities may have been prevented had Forest Service (FS) fire managers followed standard safety procedures. Jeff Allen, 24, Salmon and Shane Heath, 22, Melba, were killed the afternoon of July 22, 2003 when the Cramer Fire burned over them. “Had existing FS fire suppression policies and tactics been followed in a prudent manner, particularly by the IC [Alan Hackett, the incident commander], the fatalities of Heath and Allen may have been prevented,” said the report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General. The report agrees with a 2003 FS accident report that determined Hackett and the firefighting team violated all of the agency’s 10 “Standard Firefighting Orders” and 10 of the FS’ 18 “Watch Out Situations.”....
Couple Questioned About Ventura County Tiger State authorities investigating how a 425-pound tiger wound up roaming eastern Ventura County have questioned a Moorpark couple whose menagerie of exotic cats was confiscated from their rental home in the Tierra Rejada Valley earlier this month. The couple had a state permit for three tigers, though authorities who originally inspected the cages found only two. Officials had been alerted to the presence of exotic cats by neighbors who reported that a bobcat had escaped from the property. Fish and Game officials said Thursday that after reports of large paw prints in the area surfaced, they returned to interview Abby and Emma Hedengran about the possibility of a missing tiger. Authorities declined to provide details of the questioning, and the couple could not be reached for comment. When first visiting the couple Feb. 9, the state officials had not yet learned about the prints discovered Feb. 8 at a nursery in the Santa Rosa Valley near Moorpark, according to Steve Martarano, a Fish and Game spokesman. The tiger that left those tracks was shot dead by trackers Wednesday in a narrow ravine off California 23 in Moorpark....
State DNR seeks OK to trap wolves Stung by a court ruling that put the gray wolf back on the endangered species list in Wisconsin and other states, the Department of Natural Resources has asked federal authorities for approval to once again kill and trap problem wolves. DNR officials briefed members of the natural resources and agriculture boards on Wednesday about their efforts to reclaim some of their authority after a federal judge's ruling. The agency has asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for permission to trap wolves so that the state could continue its monitoring program. Trapping also would allow the state to again move problem wolves to other parts of the state where it is believed they would be less of a nuisance. The DNR also is asking federal authorities for approval to kill wolves where they have repeatedly killed farm animals....
Editorial: Water conservationists should be commended Finally there is consensus among some of the major players on the Rio Grande that water conservation and ecological values are worthy. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez and a coalition of six environmental groups on Wednesday announced an agreement they say will ensure the survival of the river, whose waters are the source of much competition and conflict. They are to be commended for compromising rather than continuing a protracted and costly legal confrontation that was counterproductive. In exchange for significant conservation concessions from the city that acknowledge the need for water to sustain the river itself as an ecosystem, the environmental groups agreed to end their litigation over the city's San Juan-Chama water diversion project....
Big day for a little fish Gila topminnows that dart beneath mats of algae and Sonoran mud turtles that slide down boulders to splash in pools here surely don't realize this is a big day for them. But those species and others in this watery habitat stand to benefit from a major land purchase being announced today. Rather than subdividing the bulk of Coal Mine Canyon into 36-acre ranchettes, First United Realty is selling 2,628 acres to the state so it can be protected in perpetuity. The $2.25 million deal in Santa Cruz County is mainly motivated by conservation of the tiny topminnow, one of the first species listed as endangered by the federal government....
Bush Team Readying Backdoor Route to Drill Arctic Refuge Having been thwarted repeatedly in its effort to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling for oil, the Bush Administration and its Congressional leadership have come up with a plan for a sneak attack on the issue. Rather than holding a straightforward vote on the Senate floor, where strong public opposition halted drilling in the past few years, House and Senate members are quietly planning instead to attach the drilling measure to upcoming budget legislation, where it would be all but impossible to stop (budget bills are exempt from filibuster or extended debate)....
List puts N.M. park in Arizona This natural wonderland made it onto a list of 10 favorite hidden parks - but the list hid it even more, by locating it in Arizona. The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees this week released a list of members' favorite parks, but accidentally listed the archaeological site in Arizona instead of Chaco Canyon. The 400-member group discovered the mistake and fixed it, said coalition coordinator Bill Wade. "That mistake slipped through several reviewers, but really, we know it's in New Mexico," Wade said. "Having been there myself, I know how beautiful it is." Chaco Canyon is home to massive ancestral Pueblo Indian ruins that date from A.D. 850 to A.D. 1250. Archaeologists consider it one of the most important sites in the Southwest....
Former U.S. Park Police Chief Suing Interior Department Former U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers is suing the Interior Department, alleging that he supervisor withheld documents that could have cleared her of charges raised in her firing. Chambers was suspended in 2003 after going public with complaints that her department was understaffed and underfunded. her superiors also contended that5 she was insubordinate. She was fired in July. The group representing Chambers in her legal struggle, PEER, says Chambers is trying to get U.S. Park Service officials to release a her performance evaluation....
Interior Dept. rebuts criticism The Interior Department has a strong commitment to environmental regulations intended to protect wildlife and their habitat, Assistant Interior Secretary Rebecca Watson told Trout Unlimited, reacting to criticism from the conservation group. A week ago, Trout Unlimited accused the federal agency of allowing rapid, inadequately researched oil and gas development in the West. The group advocates the protection and restoration of North America's coldwater fisheries. Watson sent Trout Unlimited a letter Thursday focusing on concerns the organization raised in its recent letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton....
Tiny trees spur new growth in industry A question is humming around the edges of the Oregon Logging Conference this week, like the distant sound of a chain saw bucking firewood. Can a small-time logger find a new living with tiny trees - thinned from federal or private forests - that are most commonly chipped for pulp or burned on slash heaps? Now appears to be a good time for small operators to find niche markets for logs as small as 3 to 5 inches in diameter, a few Northwest firms are finding. They're converting the tiny waste trees into products such as tongue-and-grove flooring for homes, produce bins for grocery stores and round-log stud or beam replacement in construction....
Where the Critters Roam On Frank Long's foothills, cow pies apparently are signs of good health for nature. The ubiquitous dark blobs mean cows have been eating the grass, opening up many places in the thick green carpet where small critters flourish and buttercups, lupines and poppies put on brilliant spring shows. After 54 years of ranching here, Long has no wish to see houses in place of critters, wildflowers or even cow pies. He sold the development rights to conservationists who won't allow homes, commercial development, oak tree removal or other significant changes on about 2,900 acres near Mariposa. His property will remain a working ranch, even as development reaches into the oak-studded foothills between the new University of California at Merced and Yosemite National Park....
Roosevelt Lake swells, boosting Valley supply Roosevelt Lake will reach historic high levels today and likely will fill to capacity by spring, three years after the giant reservoir nearly dried up. Runoff from a series of winter storms has more than doubled the lake's size in just 55 days. Water is now lapping up against never-before-used sections of Roosevelt Dam, which was expanded in 1996 just as a record nine-year drought began. As a result, the Valley's water supply is in its best shape in more than a decade. Salt River Project, which manages Roosevelt and five other reservoirs, will head into the warm-weather months with a nearly full system for the first time since the early 1990s, allowing the utility to stop tapping backup wells....
Utah loses key battle over N-waste A utility consortium planning to store 44,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste on the Skull Valley reservation reached a major milestone Thursday when a panel of Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) judges swept aside the last of Utah's administrative objections. The two Atomic Safety Licensing Board rulings - on separate appeals from the state and Private Fuel Storage (PFS) - cleared the way for the NRC to approve a license for the consortium to build and operate the facility 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The ruling is a significant setback in the state's efforts to stop construction of the facility....
Editorial: Support Bush's `Clear Skies' Environmentalists are foolish to oppose President Bush's "Clear Skies" initiative to reduce air pollution from power plants. The proposal contains provisions that would make it more effective than existing law. Clear Skies would reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury from power plants by more than 70 percent. It also would permanently cap plant emissions nationwide, meaning pollutant levels could not increase regardless of how much additional power were generated in the future. These rules would apply equally to older power plants, which now must add pollution controls only when they modernize, and thus would render obsolete the controversial "new source review" rule....
Horse sale grows out of 'crazy' idea Seven hundred, thirty-two horses -- and an ample number of their human counterparts -- from around the country are converging on Shawnee this weekend for the Triangle Sales Co. Inc. Mid-Winter Classic Sale. It's the largest sale of it's kind in the world -- supplying horses to buyers in 47 states and attracting attention from buyers in Japan, Germany and Israel. But, it is still organized out of the addition built on a rambling blue house on Benson Park Road. Cindy Bowling Garner began the business 26 years ago with husband, John Bowling, before his death in 1994. A "crazy idea" to hold a horse sale in the winter led them to the Heart of Oklahoma Expo Center in Shawnee, which then had the only heated facility around....
John Wayne Still Biggest Movie Money-Maker Get back, pilgrim. Legendary movie cowboy John Wayne has outshot Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" and has cruised by Tom Cruise. The late actor has been named as the Top Money-Maker of All Time in the Quigley Publishing Company annual star poll. Born Marion Michael Morrison, Wayne made movies for more than 50 years, including classic westerns "Stagecoach" (1939), "Fort Apache" (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949), "Rio Grande" (1950) and "The Alamo" (1960). He won a best actor Oscar for playing Rooster Cogburn in 1969's "True Grit." In order to compare The Duke's box-office sales to that earned by contemporary stars, a weighted score was given to the star's ranking for each year: 10 points for finishing first, nine for finishing second, etc. Theater owners placed Wayne on the poll 25 times from 1949 to 1974, yielding a total of 172 points....
Hooked on barbed wire? It is a simple reproduction of nature, yet considered to be an invention of genius requiring numerous patents. It connected points while disorienting people and animals. It is treacherous, yet considered a thing of beauty and is housed in museums. If you have not guessed what it is, these questions might give it away: What was rumored to be a northern plot to wipe out cattle, and was thought to be the work of the devil? Barbed Wire. Yes, barbwire fencing, that is now taken for granted, was controversial in its early years. It may still raise some barbs when you realize that the first patent for barbwire was issued in France in 1860 for fencing, which the French called "artificial thorns." In the United States, several factors set the stage for a desperate need for cheap fencing....