NEWS ROUNDUP

Column: Landowners always lose with drilling As a former rancher from south of Silt, I would like to relate to you my personal experience in dealing with drilling. Even though most mineral rights have been severed from the surface rights in Colorado, in this case, we were in possession of the mineral rights as well as being the surface owners and occupants. We purchased our ranch in 1995, knowing that the existing mineral lease would expire in 1998. We assumed we were safe when that deadline passed. However, in 2003, we received notice that the company wanted to drill several wells on our ranch. When we protested that the lease had expired, we were informed that our ranch had been "unitized" - a federal designation that pools tracts of land into a "unit" for the convenience of the drilling company. Unitization changes two aspects of the lease: Any well spacings that have been previously negotiated are negated (the density of the wells is now controlled by the BLM); and, the lease becomes, essentially, a lease in perpetuity....
Colorado split-estate bill dies A bill that would have given landowners more control over oil and gas drilling on their property died in the Colorado Legislature Wednesday because opponents on both sides of the issue said it didn't strike the right balance. A similar bill was approved by Wyoming lawmakers earlier this year. The oil and gas industry said the Colorado bill was unnecessary because the state already has laws that address disputes that arise when drilling rigs roll onto someone else's land. Environmentalists and property owners said the bill didn't go far enough. Landowners with surface rights only have complained that their fields have been trampled and crops damaged as oil and gas companies holding mineral rights rushed to dig new wells. The bill would have required landowners and mineral owners to come to the bargaining table to discuss limits to the damage being done to surface property and compensation. If either party refused to sign, an appraiser would be hired to estimate the damage. If that figure was rejected, both sides would be forced into binding arbitration....
Judge voids approval of Montana mine A proposed copper and silver mine challenged by environmental groups - and by jeweler Tiffany & Co. - has been sidelined by a judge who found federal officials gave approval without adequately considering potential harm to imperiled bears and fish. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said that in analyzing the Montana mining proposal of Revett Silver Co., the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inadequately weighed the possible effects on grizzly bears and bull trout, both protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. Revett proposed developing the Rock Creek mine beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area in northwestern Montana. In a full-page advertisement last year in The Washington Post, New York's Tiffany demanded the federal government reject the mine and change the nation's mining law written nearly 135 years ago. On Wednesday, environmental groups that filed a lawsuit challenging the mine cheered the ruling Molloy issued two days earlier....
Anti-logging protester hangs out, snarls traffic A man protesting the salvage logging of timber burned in the 2002 Biscuit fire suspended himself from a tripod in a downtown Portland intersection Wednesday, blocking traffic for about 90 minutes. Police pulled down the 20-foot tripod at the intersection of S.W. 2nd Avenue and Stark Street and carried the man to a police car. About 30 supporters gathered outside the Northwest regional offices of the U.S. Forest Service, the same building where Michael Scarpitti, known as Tre Arrow, stayed perched on a ledge for 11 days in July of 2000 to protest logging on national forests. The protest by Stumptown Earth First! was over the logging of fire-killed trees on the Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon that burned in the 500,000-acre Biscuit fire....
Colorado Chafes Under Lynx Restrictions Three decades after Colorado's native lynx disappeared, scores of the tufted-eared, long-haired cats are prowling across the western part of the state and roaming into Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. Citing the success of a six-year, $2.5 million state program to transplant the endangered lynx from Canada, state officials want the federal government to lift restrictions on construction and logging designed to protect lynx habitat. But so far, they've been disappointed and frustrated. "There is still no guarantee that we will get out from under the Endangered Species Act," state Division of Wildlife lynx expert Rick Kahn told the Colorado Legislature Wednesday....
Lawsuits challenge species protections A conservative legal foundation has filed twin federal lawsuits challenging federal protections for 42 species — 15 of which live only in shallow seasonal pools across much of California and in far southern Oregon. The Pacific Legal Foundation says the critical habitat designations, which together cover 1.5 million acres in 42 counties, drive up housing costs and taxes and harm private property rights without doing much to save species. The suits, filed simultaneously Wednesday in Fresno and Sacramento federal courts on behalf of building and agriculture associations, challenges the critical habitat designations of 27 species — of which 21 are plants — and requires the agency to correct habitat areas for 15 vernal pool species. The suits claim the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's designations are haphazard and impose "huge social and economic costs" on property owners. The Sacramento-based legal foundation has filed other suits challenging what it says are flawed Endangered Species Act protections for hundreds of species....
Report: 17 species of Kansas fish endangered A group of experts has identified 17 species of fish native to Kansas that could be considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act. In a report to be published next month in the "Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science," the nine biologists, water quality experts and others also listed 28 more species that could be elevated from their current risk categories in Kansas. "We published the paper with the intent of providing information to organizations and agencies at the federal or state level," said Joseph Collins, an adjunct professor at the Kansas Biological Survey in Lawrence and co-author of the paper. "We are not actually making recommendations to anyone. We're not a governing body. We just get the data and analyze it."....
Snowplaners sue for park access Calling the elimination of snowplanes on Jackson Lake "arbitrary and capricious," a group of snowplaners has filed suit against the federal government calling for a reinstatement of the activity. "Save Our Snowplanes" and its attorney, Karen Budd-Falen of Cheyenne, filed suit in U.S. District Court Tuesday calling for, in part, an immediate elimination of the ban on snowplane use and a declaration from the National Park Service that it violated several laws in eliminating the activity. "In making its decision to eliminate snowplane use on Jackson Lake after the 2001-2002 winter season, the National Park Service failed to supply a reasoned analysis for the total elimination of snowplane use following their historic use on Jackson Lake," the lawsuit said. "It is also apparent that members of the public, who support the use of snowplanes on Jackson Lake, were not provided sufficient notice that they may be directly affected" by the winter use plans....
FAA gives Grand Canyon aircraft new rules The Federal Aviation Administration has issued new regulations that encourage air sightseeing tour operators to use newer, quieter aircraft in Grand Canyon National Park. Existing regulations restrict the number of flights and require tour operators to stay within specified flight routes. Under the new rules, posted Tuesday, operators who lessen noise will qualify for incentives that could include more flights with fewer restrictions. The exact incentives have yet to be determined....
Dugway expansion a mystery Does the Army want to expand its Dugway Proving Ground in Utah so it can forcibly obtain nearby land it contaminated with chemical weapons but has refused to clean? Or does it want to keep UFO-hunting groups farther away from the secretive base because they now closely watch it, suspecting that it stores and works on alien spacecraft as a "new Area 51"? Pick either theory or one of your own because the Army isn't going to say. Five months after being asked, the Army has officially refused to release documents explaining why and where exactly it might expand Dugway. In a letter denying a Freedom of Information Act request filed in October by the Deseret Morning News, Brig. Gen. James R. Myles, commander of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, states that the Army had identified "a number of documents ... regarding proposals to enlarge the boundaries of Dugway Proving Ground," confirming it is indeed looking at expanding the base that is already larger than Rhode Island....
Rare coalition backs Utah wilds plan Strange bedfellows — from the governor to military backers and from a congressman to some of Utah's strongest environmentalists — were prepared to announce support for a wilderness bill today. The measure, to be introduced by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, is designed to protect the Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range. It would designate a 100,000-acre Cedar Mountain Wilderness in Tooele County. Backers believe it also could block construction of the proposed Private Fuel Storage nuclear-waste facility in Skull Valley, Tooele County. Lawson LeGate, the Sierra Club's Southwest representative, noted that Bishop had introduced the bill in the House last year. "Part of his interest in it is dealing with the Skull Valley issue," LeGate said. "He is united with most Utahns in opposing the nuclear waste above-ground storage there."....
Klamath farmers pursue water claims Farmers from Northern California and Oregon tried to convince a federal judge Wednesday that they should be compensated for water the government diverted from irrigation in 2001 to protect Klamath River salmon. But a government attorney argued that the irrigation districts don't have property rights that allow compensation if they don't get as much water as they're supposed to. "There is simply no state law-based water right that has attributes of property rights,'' Justice Department attorney Kristine Tardiff told U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Francis M. Allegra. Roger Marzulla, representing the water users, disagreed, contending legal precedent "has squarely held that the plaintiffs hold a property right.'' "There is as of today no water right for fish'' under Oregon law, he added. Wednesday's argument was a step in determining whether the two dozen Klamath Basin irrigators and property owners will collect $100 million they claim they are owed for the 2001 water diversions that sent about one-third of their allotted water to help the threatened coho salmon....
Column: Nature's Crisis In my 35 years as a conservationist, I have never beheld such a bleak and depressing situation as I see today. The evidence for my despair falls into three categories: the state of Nature, the power of anticonservationists, and appeasement and weakness within the conservation and environmental movements. I fear that on some level we must recognize that this state of affairs may be inevitable and impossible to turn around. That is the coward's way out, though. The bleakness we face is all the more reason to stand tall for our values and to not flinch in the good fight. It is important for us to understand the parts and pieces of our predicament, so we might find ways to do better....
Column: Days of Whine and Posers So begins the worst paragraph in the history of conservation writing, the most sniveling piece of crap I have ever read. Let's be clear, all of us who are trying to save this planet know it is bad, but none of the bad news is new news. And there is some good news. The international conservation movement has grown into one of the largest, most widespread and diverse social movements in the history of civilization. Facing the crisis of extinction is at the core of its mission. The fact that some of the movement's largest institutions are not always on the front lines of this fight is not news either, and neither are many of the other things Foreman cites in his dreary piece. Earth to Foreman: the fact that we are losing the war is not news! David Brower said back in 1980 that all the environmental movement had achieved so far was to slow the rate of things getting worse....
Column: U.S. environmental movement's dying A couple of weeks ago, I listened to a program on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation. The subject of the program was: "Is the environmental movement dead?" Even the most optimistic speaker said that the movement was a faint shadow of its former self, while the most pessimistic pronounced the movement dead and buried. As proof of the demise of the movement they cited the recent Senate vote to OK drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). A decade ago, such a vote would have produced thousands of protesters converging on the Capitol, but today there was scarcely a whine, let alone a hearty protest. Another example of loss of power by the environmentalists was their inability to lobby successfully to raise the mileage rating for cars and pickup trucks. Though the documentation of the decline in power by the environmental movement was interesting, the next part of the program tried to discover why the movement had lost power. Some of the explanations offered were flimsy at best and threadbare at worst. I so wanted to pick up the phone and call the announcer and say, "I know why the environmental movement has gone belly up. It is mainly due to the alienation of the average outdoors person. The movement stopped identifying with causes that the average hiker, hunter, angler and bird watcher supported - the movement lost the middle ground and pursued some far left agendas."....
FL FWS Biologists Ordered To Approve All Development The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service orders its biologists to approve all development projects in south Florida regardless of the consequences to wildlife, according to a letter by 20 current and former agency scientists released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The biologists also write that a key supervisor in the FWS Vero Beach office called the Florida panther a “zoo species” and forbade scientific staff from raising concerns about threatened or endangered species. The letter from 20 former co-workers of Andrew Eller, the FWS panther biologist who was fired one week after the November 2004 election, maintains that —....
Column: Conservation economics 101 It is commonplace in modern conservation planning to hear that people who live in the vicinity of endangered species habitats need to have an economic investment in the protection of those species. The theory, based mostly on western ideas of private property, is that without an economic incentive -- providing motel rooms, giving wildlife tours, selling alligator-skin boots, silk-screening sea-turtle T-shirts, whatever -- the people who live with or near endangered animals simply will wipe them out if they cannot make money from them. Writing in his magnificent book on large predators, "Monster of God," author David Quamman expels the great, long, exasperated sigh that anyone who covers the world biodiversity crisis eventually feels welling up after hearing this argument for the thousandth time....
Under Siege You couldn't find a better place to have lunch than this cramped, dusty Cochise County cook shack. It has every bit of ambience that Arizona ranch country can offer, including a wood-slat ceiling covered with strips of tin from a dismantled pigpen. In ranching, nothing goes to waste, so when Ruth Evelyn Cowan had the opportunity to collect some scrap from her parents' New Mexico ranch, she grabbed it. The tin might rattle in the wind and drum in the rain, but those sounds create a symphony for Cowan, who loves this place and this life. She was born into it 57 years ago, and you can see that it suits her down to the mud on her boots. You don't have to listen hard to hear the contentment in her voice when she goes on about her American Brahman cattle--big, silver, hump-backed animals with floppy ears that she talks to as if they were her kids. But this is Southern Arizona under siege, so there really is only one subject on the agenda, one issue that dominates all others here: the border with Mexico and the invasion of illegals who, every day and every night, rush to fill this yawning vacuum....
Ranch wives stay involved to avoid depression Leslie Hendry lives 75 miles from Casper on her family ranch near Lysite. Shopping and socializing are an hour-and-a-half drive. The nearest neighbor is five miles away. Her older son is away at college, and her younger boy, a high school freshman, has to ride a school bus three hours a day, not getting back until suppertime. During busy seasons, like calving, Hendry works outside with her husband and the hired men, but right now, she's inside, dealing with the piles of paperwork needed to run the business of a ranch. All day, alone, without even the radio on for company. That's how she likes it....
===