NEWS ROUNDUP

Judicial Nominee Cleared in BLM Case Interior Department Inspector General Earl E. Devaney absolved former department solicitor William G. Myers III of blame in a case involving a January 2003 legal settlement between the Bureau of Land Management and a Wyoming rancher. In a 24-page report made public yesterday but dated Oct. 13, Devaney criticized the conduct of BLM Deputy Director Frances Cherry, Associate Solicitor Robert Comer and an unnamed lawyer in the solicitor's office for reaching the settlement with rancher Harvey Frank Robbins despite written objections from the Justice Department, the U.S. attorney's office in Cheyenne, Wyo., and career BLM staffers. "While the report speaks for itself, the inspector general has expressed his hope that it will dispel the criticisms directed at former Solicitor William G. Myers, III," Roy Kime, a spokesman for the inspector general's office, said in a written statement yesterday. "In transmitting the report to the present solicitor and assistant secretary for land and minerals, the inspector general ascribed no fault whatsoever to Mr. Myers. To the contrary, a fair reading of the report would suggest that Myers was, in fact, victimized when he was given a distorted explanation by one of his senior associate solicitors." Myers, now an Idaho-based lawyer whom President Bush has nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, has been a target of the environmental group Community Rights Counsel, which argued this month that the settlement gave Robbins "carte blanche authority to violate federal grazing laws."....
Officials limit use of ATVs in retrieving downed animals Grand Mesa National Forest officials have announced plans to discontinue a provision that allows the use of all-terrain vehicles on non-designated routes to retrieve downed game. The new rule goes into effect for big-game hunting seasons in 2005. Previously, hunters were allowed to drive off designated routes during the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to retrieve any downed game. District Ranger Connie Clementson said Forest Service employees found that many hunters were abusing the privilege by traveling into areas without following the rules, disrupting the hunting experience for others and complicating forest management....
Molas Pass battle reaches new level Silverton snowmobile riders are butting heads with a Snowcat skiing operator on Molas Pass over the wintertime use of the land there. Mounting tensions between Tim Kuss, owner of El Diablo Alpine Guides, and the Silverton Snowmobile Club came to a head on Saturday, Feb. 5, after Adam DeVeny of Silverton and a group of snowmobilers were approached by a gun-toting Kuss, who was also on a snowmobile. DeVeny and the group wanted to snowmobile where Kuss planned to take skiers. "He said it was an A-area (closed to motor vehicles), and he said we were on his ski hill," recalled DeVeny, who said he thought they were in an area where motorized vehicles are allowed. "But he was entirely out of line bringing a shotgun into the whole issue." DeVeny said Kuss never pointed the gun at anyone and kept its breach open and unloaded. Kuss said he was carrying the weapon because he had felt threatened by snowmobilers in the past who "became pretty violent right off the bat."....
Sleds vs. Skico in the backcountry On the back of Aspen Mountain exists an enormous winter playground choked with deep powder and crisscrossed with public and private land. Whether accessed by foot or motorized vehicle, the area has been used by an assortment of backcountry enthusiasts for years. But now, snowmobilers - mainly those who are backcountry skiers using their sleds to spin quicker laps - are being told they can no longer access national forest land. Meanwhile, Aspen Mountain Powder Tours, a snowcat-skiing operation that conducts trips on the back of Aspen Mountain, is permitted to go wherever they please. It's a common occurrence in mountain towns of the West, where land-use issues have been the source of more clashes than 1980s ski fashion....
Top Forest Service official says user fees 'here to stay' People who visit national forests can expect to pay fees more often at special attractions like the Maroon Bells, but access to the vast majority of the public lands will remain free, according to a top U.S. Forest Service official. Regional Forester Rick Cables said he believes charging user fees at a few, select sites is an excellent way for the U.S. Forest Service to stretch its limited budget. He points to the Maroon Bells as a poster child for the program's success. Traffic to the internationally famous Maroon Bells is restricted during the heart of summer. Visitors pay $5 to ride a bus. Cables said 80 percent of the funds raised get plowed back into facilities and staffing at the area....
On different frequencies Tracking surveys of radio-collared Canada lynx show the shy cats have been located hundreds of times inside the White River National Forest since the state reintroduced them to southern Colorado in 1999. Yet a top U.S. Department of Agriculture official in December ordered forest officials to scrap strong lynx protections in the new management plan for the forest based on the "lack of documented lynx sightings." Ongoing state studies show lynx were recorded within the 2.3-million-acre forest at least 300 times. Biologists identified 43 individual animals - including two females that denned on the forest's southern boundary last year - based on their unique radio-collar frequencies....
Groups oppose plan to lower water level It isn't the poisoning, it's the yo-yoing water levels that pose the biggest problems with a plan to save Diamond Lake, according to Francis Eatherington, the conservation director for Umpqua Watersheds Inc. The group, along with the Oregon Natural Resources Council and the Cascadia Wildlands Project filed an appeal with the Umpqua National Forest of an approved plan to lower the lake, poison invasive tui chubs -- along with other gill-breathers in Diamond Lake -- refill it, then restock it with trout. A decision on the appeal by officials with the U.S. Forest Service is due in March. Diamond Lake is a popular fishing and recreation lake just north of Crater Lake in southwest Oregon....
California farmers ask high court to help them get paid for water Supreme Court justices were wading into the West's contentious water wars Wednesday, hearing arguments from Central Valley farmers who want the government to pay them for water they say they were due but never received. The government said the water had to be diverted to protect two threatened fish. Government lawyers also said the farmers don't have standing to sue the Bureau of Reclamation directly, because water districts, not individual land owners, negotiate government water deals. The state of California and environmental groups are backing the government. At issue is a water service contract between the federal agency responsible for managing water in the West, and Westlands Water District, which encompasses 600,000 acres of farmland in western Fresno and Kings counties....
Park rules on Rainbow Bridge stand A National Park Service policy asking guests to respect the sacred status of Rainbow Bridge in southern Utah by not walking under the mammoth archway will not be reviewed by the Supreme Court, the justices announced Tuesday. The Natural Arch and Bridge Society and Evelyn Johnson and Earl DeWaal sued the Park Service in 2000, claiming the policy is unconstitutional because it grants special treatment to American Indian religions. The 275-foot redrock span, the largest natural bridge in the world, is a significant cultural site for several American Indian tribes, including the Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Paiute....
U.S. Fish & Wildlife May Outsource Biological Staff The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service may soon be replacing hundreds of its biological technicians and fish hatchery workers with private contractors. The USFWS Director, however, is asking his superiors at the Department of Interior to stop the process, according to the all-employee email released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). On February 8,USFWS Director Steve Williams sent out an all-employee email confessing his unhappiness with the way contractor competitions (under a Bush Administration initiative called “Competitive Sourcing”) had been conducted for its biological science technicians and aquatic husbandry staff. Williams contended that the competition results did not match departmental needs and were not conducted in a manner that “is fair to both our employees and to potential private bidders.” Williams’ action strongly implies that the private companies underbid the federal employees and are in a position to take over these job classes. Offices of Personnel Management records show USFWS employing 659 biological science technicians, who conduct much of the fieldwork for agency scientists, and 90 aquatic husbandry personnel, who support the agency fishery and hatchery operations....
Column - Hell on wheels: ORVs invade desert Like clockwork, every major holiday, our communities are invaded by a hoard of off-road vehicle riders who terrorize residents, trespass with abandon, tear up our public lands and permanently mar the landscape. They come from Los Angeles and Orange County with their RVs and trailers full of off-road vehicles and consider our home their playground. This last President's Day weekend was a virtual hell for residents and homeowners who saw a doubling of the number of ORVs grinding day and night. Well, guess what? This is our home and community and we are not going to let irresponsible people destroy the reason why we live here!....
The Waning Reign of Monarchs High on a remote mountaintop, Alfredo Cruz Colin gazed at a panorama of giant pines and firs where millions of orange and black monarch butterflies spend the winter after flying as far as 2,000 miles from Canada and the United States. He saw two things: one of North America's most spectacular natural wonders and trees that could be sawed down and sold for $300 each. "We can contemplate the butterflies," said Cruz, a lawyer. "Or we can send our children to school and feed our families" with the cash from the cut trees. "It's a tough choice." The winter migration of monarch butterflies to Mexico, a stunning sight that draws vast numbers of tourists to mountain forests 100 miles west of Mexico City, has been devastated this year. One of the chief causes is logging that destroys butterfly sanctuaries, according to Mexican and U.S. environmentalists. The butterfly population this winter is the lowest since researchers began detailed surveys 12 years ago and perhaps the smallest since the 1970s, when international scientists first discovered the colonies in central Mexico, according to Lincoln P. Brower, a biology professor at Sweet Briar College in central Virginia and an authority on monarch butterflies....
U.S., Germany to Agree Climate Change Measures The United States, criticized for its refusal to sign the U.N. Kyoto climate pact, will agree with Germany to strengthen efforts to limit global warming, according to a draft agreement obtained by Reuters. The agreement, to be sealed during President Bush's visit to Germany on Wednesday, outlines plans to improve energy efficiency and cut emissions of heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases, without setting targets or giving details. The two countries will agree to improve environmental and energy-efficient technologies, to cooperate in expanding climate research and to find common measures to cut greenhouse gases at home and abroad....
The Choice Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Jared Diamond. : Viking, 2004, 575 pp. Huls Farm and Gardar Farm seem to be models of successful agricultural enterprise. Both have lush settings, good grass, and imposing barns that house 200 head of cattle, and they are owned by respected community leaders. They also face significant difficulties: their high-latitude locations make for short growing seasons, and a changing climate signals greater problems to come. The two farms form the center of an anecdote that comes at the beginning of Jared Diamond's Collapse, and the story's O. Henry ending, stealthily arrived at, encapsulates the book's message. Huls, Diamond reveals, is a still-expanding fifth-generation farm in Montana's Bitterroot Valley; Gardar, despite its apparent prosperity, was abandoned 500 years ago when Greenland's Norse society collapsed amid starvation and civic unrest. One might draw from this parallel a pessimistic conclusion about Montana's environmental future, but Diamond is no pessimist. The fall of Greenland's Norse society was not inevitable: its inhabitants could have saved themselves but, trapped by tradition and blinded by prejudice, declined to take the necessary steps. The collapse of Gardar Farm thus serves not as a warning of imminent apocalypse but as evidence that if modern society can learn from the failures of its predecessors, it can avoid their fate....