NEWS ROUNDUP

Judicial Nominee Criticized The Interior Department's inspector general has criticized the actions of a judicial nominee who is seen by some Republicans as the best hope of breaking Senate Democrats' long-standing resistance to some of President Bush's choices for federal judgeships. The judicial nominee, former Interior Department solicitor William G. Myers III, bypassed normal procedures in dealing with a Wyoming rancher who repeatedly violated federal grazing laws, according to a letter from the inspector general. Opponents of Myers's nomination -- one of several filibustered by Democrats last year -- say the complaint adds new arguments against the appointee. Yesterday, they urged senators to look into the complaint during a Judiciary Committee hearing to be held in about two weeks. Myers is an Idaho-based lawyer whom Bush has tapped for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit....
Prairie Dogs Bane to Ranchers Existence Jerry Heinrichs says that because of the long-running drought across the West, his cattle had to compete with prairie dogs for the grass. And the prairie dogs won. Across his ranch and other swaths of both private and government-owned grassland in southwestern South Dakota, about 50 miles east of Mount Rushmore, little remains but bare dirt, stones, prairie dog mounds and the burrowing rodents that live under them. Heinrichs mostly blames the federal government, which for more than four years stopped poisoning prairie dogs while it decided whether the critters regarded by ranchers as a nuisance deserved to be protected under the Endangered Species Act. "The worst enemy we've got right now is our own government," Heinrichs said....
Legislative panels endorse measures to control prairie dogs A state management plan that seeks to protect landowners while maintaining enough prairie dogs to prevent them from being declared endangered won unanimous approval Tuesday from a South Dakota House committee. Meanwhile, a Senate committee endorsed two bills aimed at preventing prairie dogs from invading the land of ranchers who do not want them. State officials said the management plan seeks to make sure South Dakota has a sufficient population of prairie dogs and also protects the rights of ranchers who do not want the critters on their land....
UCLA expert studies wolf genes at park The secret of success may be in the genes. A decade after wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, a UCLA researcher is studying the wolves' DNA to better understand how genetics and family ties influence where they live, whom they mate with and how they choose their friends. Wayne is looking for the possible genetic basis of the program's success. Specifically he'll look at how family ties between wolves affect the establishment of packs, roaming patterns, mating and rivalries with other packs....
Hearing on split estate bill sees crowd of 150 A hearing Monday on legislation giving landowners more rights in dealing with gas companies that own rights to minerals under their land underscored the deep divisions in the debate. Opponents warned that the bill would chase the gas industry out of western Colorado, while supporters declared that they’re at a major disadvantage without it. More than 150 people, with some standing in the hallway, packed the Garfield County Commissioners’ meeting room to voice their opinions on the bill by Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison. Her bill would require companies to negotiate an agreement with property owners when a split estate occurs. That’s when a person owns the land but not the minerals underneath it. A company legally has the right to develop the minerals when it owns them or leases them, sometimes from the state or federal government. Although energy companies say they reach deals with landowners 90 percent of the time, many landowners have complained of being coerced and having little, if any, rights, because mineral rights are considered to trump surface rights....
Trout Unlimited urges slower approach to petroleum development Oil and gas development in the Rocky Mountain West is happening too fast, with scant study of the potential effects on fish, wildlife and human health, Trout Unlimited said Tuesday. The national organization, which says its mission is to protect and restore North American trout and salmon fisheries, released a report by consultants who inventoried the available scientific information on effects of petroleum development. "The more we dug for information, the more we realized how little there was, especially of the field-research variety, the stuff that really tells you what's going on in the rivers where the fish are affected," said consultant Carol Endicott of Bozeman, Mont. Don Duff, an aquatic ecologist who retired from the U.S. Forest Service, said officials are under too much pressure to produce impact studies clearing the way for development. "If they have some concerns or some things that are red flags, in a lot of cases they're being asked not to put those in," he said....
Oil drilling debate in Alaska, Gulf likely to heat up again The windswept tundra of far northeast Alaska is home, at least part of the year, to animals such as the caribou, polar bear, musk ox and 135 species of migratory birds. It's an ecosystem richly diverse despite the muted tones that life takes on because of the harsh climate. That climate has made the area largely inaccessible to humans and left the tundra nearly as pristine as any place on earth. Northeast Alaska - the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, more specifically - is thousands of miles away and has almost no physical similarity with the warm, watery eastern Gulf of Mexico at Florida's back door. Little except the likelihood that oil and gas lie below ground in both places. As the debate about oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge again churns to life in Washington, it is renewing concerns among conservationists that there's more at stake than pristine tundra and the calving grounds of caribou....
Grazing gets OK A $37,500 study funded by the State Land Board has concluded that cattle may be grazed on two parcels of state land within the Browns Park Wildlife Refuge. The conclusion was no surprise to the refuge's manager, Jerry Rodriguez, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fish and Wildlife has opposed allowing cattle to graze on the refuge, because grazing is incompatible with the refuge's mission of providing habitat for wildlife. Natural Resource Options Inc. of Bozeman, Mont., conducted the study. The contractor requested that the refuge participate in the study, but Rodriguez refused, saying the study proposal was not scientific. "Because of the decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to be involved in the project, no data was collected on refuge lands. That decision limited the scope of the project and reduced the number of sites to be inventoried," the contractors wrote in the study....
Federal agency sued over plans to divert more water from San Francisco Bay-Delta Environmental groups filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday, challenging the agency's plans to divert more water from the San Francisco Bay-Delta to the San Joaquin Valley. In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the groups questioned the agency's recent biological opinion that increasing water exports would not have a major impact on the federally protected delta smelt. That opinion, issued in July, could result in boosting the amount of water pumped out of the delta over the next 25 years. The lawsuit claims that the delta smelt are at their lowest recorded level since monitoring began in 1967, and that increased water exports could threaten the species' existence....
Yellowstone’s Bombardiers Hit 50 The wonderful round-nosed Bombardier snowcoaches became the winter workhorses in Yellowstone 50 years ago. Way back in 1922, 15-year-old Joseph-Armand Bombardier and his brother Leopold took apart a Ford clunker their father bought for them in Valcourt, Quebec, reworked it, and unveiled a vehicle with four skis and a rear-mounted propeller powered by the car’s engine. For Joseph-Armand and the over-snow world, it was the beginning of an historic career. Bombardier built both propeller-driven ‘”snowplanes” and track-driven vehicles....
Norton a believer after snowmobiling Interior Secretary Gale Norton cruised soft, powdery roads on snowmobile, then planned to ride in a snug snowcoach, to experience for herself Tuesday the plan that has made room for both activities in Yellowstone National Park for at least the next two winters. Norton, making her first wintertime visit to the park this week, said snowmobiles ''can play a role'' in the park, and that an outing Monday on the machines, in which she encountered a small herd of bison and only one paid her notice, reinforced that belief. Concerns have been raised in the past by some conservationists about harassment of wildlife by riders....
Senator floats plan for state to buy southwestern ranch The Senate's Republican majority leader is proposing to settle lengthy state talks to buy a Badlands ranch by having the state purchase the land, then recoup part of the cost by selling some of it. Sen. Bob Stenehjem, R-Bismarck, outlined the idea late Tuesday at a meeting of Senate Republicans. His idea is intended to block a potential sale of control of the land's surface rights to the federal government, Stenehjem said. The Senate Appropriations Committee will consider Stenehjem's proposal Wednesday. It earmarks $3.5 million for the deal, with $2.48 million coming from Bank of North Dakota profits. It is coupled with a two-year study of the deal's implications for the region, including its effects on local cattle grazing rights....
Park service pays $25,000 fine to Valley air district The National Park Service has paid a rare $25,000 fine over a brush-clearing fire that Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks crews ignited in defiance of a local air district's no-burn order. The fine ended an unusually public confrontation between Sequoia-Kings Canyon and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, which protects 3.5 million people from smoke and smog-forming gases in such fires. The parks never had been cited, much less fined, for violating a no-burn order. "I think this is the first time we've had the park service pay a penalty," said Wayne Clark, air district compliance manager. "The decision about burning is ours to make."....
Water Pacts Give State's Growers New Profit Stream The Bush administration plans this month to begin signing contracts that will position Central Valley farmers to reap substantial profits for decades by selling water to the state's expanding metropolitan areas. The more than 200 contracts — governing most of the water from the massive federal Central Valley Project — will give the valley's agribusiness interests control over the single largest allotment of water in the state for the next 50 years. That will not directly affect how much urban users in places such as Southern California pay for water. But by promising irrigation districts more water than they may need — and at a relatively inexpensive price — the agreements will virtually guarantee growers a dominant role in the state's water markets....
Despite storms, Klamath Basin is dry Although Mother Nature has dumped tremendous amounts of snow across the Sierra Nevada this winter, Klamath Basin farmers are facing another potential dry year unless there are some heavy winter storms in the weeks ahead. Klamath Basin water officials point out that as of Feb. 1 the Klamath snowpack was less than 50 percent of average--a figure than is about 100 percent lower than the snowpack being measured in the Sierra. Because of the possibility of a water shortage this year, many irrigators are electing to take part in the Bureau of Reclamation's 2005 water bank program. The water bank program is required by the National Marine Fisheries Service to increase flows down the Klamath River for threatened coho salmon....
Column: Honor the contract on the Klamath I f the Bonneville Power Administration is forced to charge market rates for its electricity, as the Bush administration's budget proposes, Oregon ratepayers would face increases of as much as 20 percent per year. "That would kill the economy of Oregon," Rep. Darlene Hooley is quoted as saying. Well, Klamath Basin farmers are facing a rate increase of 2,500 percent for electricity. It's time for a reality check on the Klamath Basin and the contract between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and PacifiCorp. The contract, negotiated in 1917, provides affordable power for the Klamath Irrigation Project as a "franchise fee" in exchange for PacifiCorp's right to build power generating facilities on the Klamath River. The contract was renewed in 1956 when PacifiCorp received permission to build additional and profitable generating facilities. PacifiCorp's obligation is to honor its licensing conditions as long as it holds the license....
A warmer Arizona and Southwest chill scientists to the bone Apocalyptic fires. Devastating insect outbreaks. Invasions by alien plants. Scientists' predictions for how Arizona's forests will respond to global warming seem straight out of the Bible or science fiction. A few researchers speaking at a conference in Sedona last week felt obligated to apologize after their talks since they were so pessimistic. To the scientists assembled by the University of Arizona, recent changes in the Arctic are "smoking guns" that show climate change is already happening. But in the Southwest, where a brutal drought, monster wildfires and a bark beetle epidemic have taken their toll in recent years, the evidence is more circumstantial, they say....
Quintessential cowboy 'Doc' Partin co-founded the Silver Spurs Rodeo The Silver Spurs Rodeo has always been a time of excitement and celebration for Osceola County's ranchers and cowboys. However, there will be a huge void when the 115th event kicks off tonight. Missing from the rodeo's lineup of esteemed founding members will be former "Big Boss" Henry Hyatt "Doc" Partin. Partin, who was practically born in a horse's saddle, died Sunday at his ranch in St. Cloud after a long illness. He was 88. "He was probably the best cowboy in these parts," said Kevin Whaley, committee chairman for the Silver Spurs Rodeo and a relative of Partin's. "He loved them ol' cows."....