NEWS ROUNDUP

3 environmental laws targeted The Bush administration is asking Congress to amend three environmental laws to reduce their impact on military ranges after failing to win the changes last year. Administration officials circulated among federal agencies their proposed language for changing the laws in a Jan. 6 document obtained by The Associated Press. The language calls for the same changes that stalled in Congress last year. Defense Department officials want the Clean Air Act amended so that any additional air pollution from training exercises wouldn't have to be counted for three years in the state plans for meeting federal air quality standards. The document says that under the current law "it is becoming increasingly difficult to base military aircraft near developed areas." Other changes sought are in the Superfund and the Solid Waste Disposal Act. The Pentagon opposes having to remove unexploded ordnance from its operational ranges. It also wants to delay cleanups until after contamination spreads beyond military boundaries....
Column: The State of Oregon vs. Mike Roselle When it comes to civil liberties, most people will remember 9/11 and the Patriot Act. But if you are a treehugger, you will probably remember when the federal government, and some states, started taking the gloves off back in the mid-eighties. The commencement was a series of laws passed to target a perceived eco-terrorist threat, following the widely publicized sawmill accident in Sonoma County where a young mill worker was injured. A spike in a tree caused a saw blade to snap and hit the worker. It was no matter that the spike was placed by an enraged local landowner and not by any of the activists trying to protect the last old-growth Redwoods on the Pacific Coast. The national news media cranked up the story that eco-terrorists were everywhere planning violence and a series of new laws were passed to deter them from wreaking havoc on the beleaguered timber industry. Most of these new laws didn't distinguish much between property destruction, peaceful protest and acts of civil disobedience. Within a decade, every western state would have laws making it an offense, subject to imprisonment, to halt, impede, hinder, obstruct or delay a timber sale....
Ranchers want wolves recaptured Local ranchers, fearful that their livestock are in danger, are looking to the Socorro County Commission for support in removing a pair of Mexican wolves from the San Mateo and Magdalena Mountain area back to the designated recovery area. Arch "Buck" Wilson, who owns a cattle ranch in western Socorro County, near Magdalena, asked the commission Tuesday to consider the possibilities of helping area ranchers in getting the pair of wolves, dubbed the San Mateo pact, removed from the area. Colleen Buchanan, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service involved with the Mexican wolf reintroduction program, said the San Mateo pact, a male and female, had found their way to that area in Socorro and Catron counties on their own. "They showed up in January 2004 and we recaptured them in August 2004 because they were outside the recovery area," Buchanan said. "We returned them to the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, Apache Stigrevas and the Gila National Forest in Arizona and New Mexico, but the pact has found their way back," she said....
Suit filed over list excluding rare flies A wildlife group has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over failing to list 12 species of Hawaiian picture-wing flies as endangered, saying the agency should have placed the insects on the list more than three years ago. The service first proposed protection of the Hawaiian picture-wings on Jan. 17, 2001. Under the Endangered Species Act, the government had one year to place them on the Endangered Species List and to designate critical habitat for the Hawaiian picture-wings, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. In the lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., the center says the service violated the act by failing to list the 12 species of Hawaiian picture-wings....
State's top forester downplays Bush influence in White River The top U.S. Forest Service official in Colorado is downplaying controversial changes that the Bush administration made to the White River National Forest Plan. Regional Forester Rick Cables claimed the changes won't weaken protections for lynx and water quality as some critics contend. Instead, the changes ordered by U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Undersecretary David Tenny bring the White River National Forest's management practices into compliance with broader federal policies, Cables said during a recent visit to the Roaring Fork Valley. Tenny's decisions - called a "discretionary review" in federal bureaucracy parlance - weren't unprecedented. Other officials in his post have made changes to forest plans, according to Cables....
Caviar scheme leads to three arrests Charges have been filed against three people accused of running an illegal caviar-manufacturing operation, authorities said today. The three, all immigrants from former Soviet-bloc countries, were indicted on charges of felony racketeering and unlawfully possessing and selling white sturgeon, said Sgt. Jeff Samuels, who heads the special investigations unit of the state police Fish and Wildlife Division. The Usoltseffs are accused of illegally buying sturgeon from tribal fishermen in the Columbia River and turning the roe into caviar. The trade was brokered by Grigoryan, who is a limousine driver in the Portland metropolitan area, Samuels said....
Domenici: Delay protection of bird Sometimes, the circle of life will make you dizzy. Sen. Pete Domenici fears federal action to protect the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher will snag efforts to rid New Mexico of two invasive species of plants that drain millions of gallons of water from the environment. So the Albuquerque Republican is asking the Bush administration to delay habitat protections for the flycatcher, which nests in the salt cedar and Russian olive trees that have taken over the bosque along the middle Rio Grande. At a meeting of his Energy Committee on Tuesday, Domenici urged Interior Secretary Gale Norton to seek a delay in a looming regulation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that could limit federal cleanup actions along most of the middle Rio Grande....
Column: Non-Profit or Big Business Why, then, is the National Conservation Resource Service (NCRS), a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), giving $10.7 million dollars out of farm bill funds to a multi-billion dollar "non-profit" agency to make swampland out of rich farmland. This land has been farmed for the past 80 years. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) bought 7,775 acres from Wilder Corporation in 2000 for $18.45 million. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife has since purchased 712 of those acres from the conservancy. The Fish and Wildlife Service owns 2,200 acres adjacent to the conservancy's holdings. This purchase known as "Emiquon" is one of the largest wetland restoration projects in the United States. TNC is often called the "real estate agent for the government."....
BLM seeks emergency ban on Vermillion vehicle traffic Off-highway vehicle damage in the Vermillion Cliffs and Trail Canyon areas on the Utah-Arizona border is prompting the Bureau of Land Management to put emergency OHV restrictions into place - perhaps as soon as next month. Rex Smart, manager of the BLM's Kanab Field Office, said Wednesday that because of documented damage in Trail Canyon and adjacent Hogs Canyon, a combination of route designations and area closures will be put into effect as soon as a final order is drafted and can be sent off to Washington for publication in the Federal Register. That process could take anywhere from three to eight weeks....
BLM scraps plans for expanded enforcement powers in Nevada The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will not seek expanded authority for its rangers to enforce some state laws on federal land in Nevada, a bureau official said. Instead, the agency will work with individual counties to establish law enforcement agreements. "As we meet with each one, we'll decide what works best for that county," said Jo Simpson, a BLM spokeswoman in Reno. Increased visitation and law enforcement problems at areas like Sand Mountain outside Fallon and Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas prompted the BLM last spring to seek expanded authority....
Richardson Addresses Environmental Concern New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday that governors should be allowed to protect environmentally sensitive federal land in their states against oil and gas drilling. Richardson, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said the Bush administration already has a precedent for such a move: a proposed forest protection plan that would leave it to governors to designate what federal forests should remain roadless. Under Richardson's proposal, a final decision on a governor's petition still would be up to the Interior Department....
GOP sets push to drill for oil in refuge A Senate showdown over an Alaska wildlife refuge is expected within weeks as Republicans plan to use a budget measure to overcome strong opposition to allowing oil drilling in the protected area. It will be the first big environmental issue facing the new Congress. Republican leaders indicated Tuesday that they plan to press the issue of drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as part of a so-called budget reconciliation process, which cannot be subject to a Democratic filibuster - a tactic that has blocked the refuge's development in the past. Given the wider GOP majority in the Senate, Republicans said they think they have the best chance yet to open the presumably oil-rich but environmentally sensitive Alaska refuge to oil drilling, which has been one of President Bush's top energy priorities....
Column: You don’t need a motor to experience Yellowstone While I disagree with Interior Secretary Gale Norton’s agenda for Yellowstone National Park, I have to admire her political smarts. She showed great form during her recent snowmobile and snow coach tour of the park this winter. Secretary Norton charmed reporters with her grit, gamely bouncing through sub-zero temperatures on a three-hour snowmobile excursion, and her wit, as she pointed to rising steam from one of the park’s many geysers and quipped, "It’s not all that different from Washington. I mean, look at all the hot air around here." But the best example of her political savvy came in the way she stacked the deck in her framing of the debate over snowmobiles in the park. In addition to her snowmobile tour, Norton took a short ride in a snow coach, the other motorized option for getting inside the park. Afterwards, she said to an Associated Press reporter, "This is a much more ordinary kind of experience." Then, with an unenthusiastic shrug, she added, "It’s not as special as a snowmobile."....
Water leasing sparks worries: Farmers say environ pact targets them And it's largely for that reason some farmers are upset. They say they've become targeted as the responsible party for Rio Grande water conservation efforts. Environmental groups - including the Sierra Club and Forest Guardians - and the city of Albuquerque last week announced an agreement that, among other things, provides money to compensate anybody who leases his or her water rights for environmental uses. Those with water rights encompass cities, developers and farmers. But it's the farmers who fear their water is in the cross hairs. "If you're going to lease water today, you're going to get it from agriculture," said John Carangelo, who farms 60 acres just north of Socorro. "All of the water in the state of New Mexico is fully appropriated. The people using the water are using it - using it for very, very good purposes: to feed you."....
Kennedy blasts Bush on environment, applauds Schwarzenegger While conservationist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used a legislative hearing to label the Bush administration the worst in U.S. history on environmental issues, he also praised the record of his cousin's husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Accusing the White House of rolling back more than 400 regulations and policies that he believes has damaged the environment, Kennedy praised California lawmakers Wednesday for stepping into the void and holding the line on pollution controls....
Judge keeps border closed A federal judge ordered that the U.S. northern border remain closed to Canadian cattle imports Wednesday, after a lawyer for a livestock group said it would be insane to resume imports with so many unanswered questions about mad-cow disease. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had planned to open the border to fuller trade beginning Monday. U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull granted a temporary court order preventing that. R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America had asked Cebull to keep the USDA from implementing a plan to allow some live cattle and expanded beef imports from Canada until the merits of its lawsuit against the government are heard. Cebull ordered attorneys for both sides Wednesday to prepare for a trial in that case. Canadian Trade Minister Jim Peterson said he was disappointed, and "we'll do everything we can to fight it out."....
States moving to keep mad cow investigations secret When rumor of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak among Kansas cattle hit the commodities trading floor in Chicago three years ago, prices plummeted. The rumor was proved false the following day, but it was too late: The beef industry lost an estimated $50 million as skittish investors looked to other commodities, and agriculture officials spent weeks assuring consumers the food supply was safe. With that in mind - and with recent concerns over mad-cow disease at home and in Canada - lawmakers around the country are working on ways to keep livestock disease investigations secret until absolutely necessary....
Western Writers of America joins the National Festival of the West Western Writers of America joins the National Festival of the West at Rawhide, March 17-20, in celebration of the literature of the American West. More than 25 WWA members who write history, novels, short stories, screenplays, children’s books, poetry and music will be on hand to talk about their craft and sign books. "The Western is America’s epic," says Rita Cleary, president of Western Writers of America and author of novels such as "River Walk" and "Charbonneau’s Gold." Cleary will give a presentation about the Lewis & Clark expedition. Other WWA members will talk about issues such as Western justice, Women of the West, American Heroes and Western films and documentaries. They will also present workshops on a variety of writing topics including screenplays, novels, developing characters, and getting your book published....
Prairie Coal Great Plains travelers learned very quickly to gather wood for fuel when they found it. Leather and canvas hammocks, called coosies, were often fastened to the undersides of wagons, and into these firewood was placed and transported. During stops near water courses which had trees, wood was harvested for the next few days of travel. What little wood was located was quickly used up by the first few waves of migrants. With no wood the newcomers quickly resorted to adopting alternative sources of fuels, including corn cobs, braided grasses (called “cats”), and even the woody stalks of sunflowers. For the most part, these had severe limitations--they were inefficient since they burned quickly and gave off little heat, and were considered stopgap measures until something better came along. In time, the use of cobs and grass and stalks faded away and the settlers and travelers moved on to yet another source of fuel, one that was relatively efficient, one that existed in abundance, and one that was to sustain them in their time of need for many years--dried buffalo dung. As with the previous methods, the dung burned somewhat more rapidly than wood, but unlike grass, stalks, and corn cobs it burned hot, evenly, and clean. To the surprise and amazement of many housewives, there was no odor associated with the dried dung. Gradually, the other choices were discarded and buffalo dung became the fuel of choice for the plains settlers for many years....