NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest Service to raze Dreyfus Estate A 10,000 square-foot mansion on the shores of Lake Tahoe will be torn down, ending nearly eight years of debate and controversy over the scenic estate’s future, federal officials announced Tuesday. The decision to “decommission” the lakeside estate once owned by stock market magnate Jack Dreyfus represents the best use of the property and will improve public access to the lake, said Maribeth Gustafson, supervisor of the U.S. Forest Service’s Tahoe unit. “I thought they had more intelligence,” said former Douglas County Commissioner Don Miner, who in 2001 called for a grand jury investigation into the matter. “Unfortunately, it’s a continuation of the schizophrenic nature of the Forest Service. They tease the public with possibilities and then turn around and put it to a use totally not contemplated in the years they manipulated the public.” Formerly known as the Dreyfus Estate, the Zephyr Shoals property is composed of 81 acres, including a near three-quarter-mile stretch of Tahoe’s shoreline. Structures on the site include a luxury 10-room mansion, a caretaker’s cottage and a six-car garage....
Flaming Gorge requires portable toilets Campers won't be allowed to run off into the bushes to do nature's business under new regulations that are being implemented at the popular Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwest Wyoming. Camping on the shores of Flaming Gorge outside developed campgrounds will now require portable toilets or self-contained vehicles under the new rules, Acting Ashley National Forest Supervisor Eileen Richmond said....
Salmon-timber deal? In return for sparing the chain saw on 5 percent of its land, should Washington's timber industry get 50 years of protection against Endangered Species Act prosecutions for killing or harming endangered salmon? Federal officials are asking the public to speak up today on that question at a hearing in Seattle on the so-called Forests and Fish plan. It covers more than 9 million acres -- about one-fifth of the state. It would be the largest such deal in the West. Hailed by the timber industry, government officials and some tribes, the plan was criticized by independent scientists, environmentalists and other tribes when it was unveiled five years ago. In the months ahead, federal officials will decide how to transform it into a "habitat conservation" plan, a way to legally allow industries to kill and harm protected animals in exchange for taking specified steps to help the species....
Closed military bases can leave behind pollution problems When the Army's Fort Ord in California was put on the federal base closure list in 1991, real estate developers salivated. If "location, location, location" is the credo of real estate development, then Fort Ord appeared to have it all - 28,000 acres located along the spectacular Pacific Coast Highway between Monterey and San Francisco, including three miles of beachfront. Local government planners and developers envisioned housing developments and shopping plazas, office complexes and hotels that would enhance the tax base and compensate for revenue lost when the Army pulled out. Today, only a small fraction of the site has been developed, largely because of environmental concerns, including scarce freshwater and contamination of existing supplies; the presence of endangered species; fear that development would increase sprawl and traffic; and a vast legacy of unexploded munitions from decades of training exercises....
Skis carve a path of controversy in Arizona Dividing two worlds, the pearl-white loft of the San Francisco Peaks hovers as a dwelling place for powerful earth gods, at least in the eyes of native peoples living on the nearby Navajo and Hopi Indian reservations. But for athletic denizens of urban Flagstaff, those same mountains rising overhead have come to mean something else: a rare opportunity to alpine ski on the arid Colorado Plateau. Today, those differing views, one modern, the other ancient, have created a clash of cultures that now reverberates across Western Indian country. A recent decision by the US Forest Service to allow expansion of a commercial ski area and use of treated sewage water for artificial snowmaking in the San Francisco Peaks has incited an emotional debate about spiritual desecration....
Wildlife area could see drilling BP American Production Inc. wants to drill for oil and natural gas within a small portion of the Chain Lakes Wildlife Habitat Management Area in southwest Wyoming, according to federal and state officials. The company is seeking to develop its mineral leases on about 8,960 acres within the larger, approximately 62,566-acre Chain Lakes habitat area. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released an environmental assessment of the proposed development for public review. Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials said the proposal, if approved, would mark the first actual drilling program on one of the agency's wildlife habitat management units. "This is still one of our WHMAs ... but it's one of those split-estate things, and we don't control what happens with the mineral rights," Game and Fish Habitat Program Coordinator Vern Stelter said in a phone interview....
Historic trail restrictions bother Mormons Treks along the Mormon Pioneer and Oregon trails in central Wyoming by large groups will be curtailed to reduce environmental damage, federal land managers announced Monday.
The decision will most affect members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who often re-enact journeys their ancestors made west during the 19th century. Groups of as many as 400 sometimes dress in period clothing and pull belongings in handcarts along the trail. Under the new rule, a maximum of 200 people would be allowed in one group, and large groups would have to apply for and agree to conditions of a special recreation permit....
Wilderness group lists top 10 endangered California wildlands In remote northwestern California, where the Salmon River flows into the Klamath on its way to the Pacific, the Karuk tribe gathers each year for a world renewal ceremony at what its culture holds to be the center of the universe. The rivers, subject to ongoing battles between tribes, farmers and fishermen over too-scarce water, are the most threatened wild places in Northern California on the top 10 list released Tuesday by the California Wilderness Coalition. The Oakland-based nonprofit has compiled the list the last four years based on a survey of other environmental groups, scientists and experts. The Klamath River was on last year's list, but the tributary Salmon River watershed is among four new danger zones this year because of the potential for logging, mining and new roads there....
Cougar hunts may be OK'd With their numbers rising, mountain lions are considered an increasing threat to wilderness hikers and bikers as well as livestock. Cougars have been reported in the Hesperia area recently and are blamed for the deaths of about 36 goats. Since 1994, mountain lions have been blamed for three human deaths in California, including one in Orange County. New legislation, which goes before a committee of the California Assembly today, would authorize limited hunting of the lions throughout the state to help keep their population in check....
Column: How Not to Fix Conservation Easements One of the most useful, cost-effective methods of conserving land in America is in serious crisis. A series of scandals has revealed major abuses of conservation easements -- a legal tool increasingly used to protect private land from development by compensating landowners for development rights. It is true that some landowners who donate easements to nonprofit land trusts have used inflated appraisals to take huge tax write-offs at the expense of taxpayers. Others have used easements to protect swamps and mountainsides that could never be developed, or golf courses and private lots that have little or no conservation value. Congress is now rightly considering how to crack down on these abuses. But rather than fixing the problems, some of the proposals could destroy a tool that in most cases has worked well. It has protected important wildlife habitat, open space, forests, ranch and farm lands on more than 17,000 properties totaling more than 5 million acres across the country....
Nez Perce Tribe approves historic water deal with Idaho, feds The Nez Perce Tribe has agreed to give up its claims to most of the water in the Snake River Basin under a multimillion dollar agreement with the state and federal governments. The 6-2 vote by the tribe's executive committee came Tuesday afternoon, after a meeting in which tribal members spoke out both for and against the plan. The agreement has already been approved by the state and federal governments, and the tribe's ratification was the last step needed for the plan to take effect. The agreement grants the tribe rights to 50,000 acre-feet of water in the Clearwater River, plus $80 million in cash and land and a pledge from the state and federal governments to provide tens of millions of dollars for fish habitat and other environmental improvements. The agreement would protect irrigators in the Upper Snake River Basin and some loggers and landowners in the Clearwater and Salmon river basins from endangered species-based lawsuits....
New York, Other States Sue EPA Over Mercury Rule New York, California and seven other states sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today to challenge new rules on mercury emissions from power plants that the states say fail to protect the public. ``It is an established medical fact that mercury causes neurological damage in young children, impairing their ability to learn and even to play,'' New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey said in a statement. The EPA two weeks ago set the first limits on airborne mercury pollution from coal-fired plants, the largest man-made source of the poison. Under the new rules, utilities that don't meet pollution standards can buy credits from those who do rather than upgrade equipment. Other states that joined the suit are Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Vermont....
Columnn: Clearing the air No matter. Environmentalists and some members of Congress are alleging the new EPA rules don't go far enough and will put thousands of unborn babies and children at risk of neurological damage because of higher methylmercury levels in fish. Their rationale is that the release of mercury from coal-burning power plants contaminates our seafood. Here's where the shell game comes in. Emissions from U.S. incinerators and other sources have been declining for decades. U.S. power plants now contribute less than 1 percent of the global atmospheric mercury. In fact, the U.S. discontinued mercury mining altogether in 1991 and domestic use of mercury fell more than 75 percent just between 1988 and 1996. Our air is cleaner than ever. Methylmercury has always been found naturally in fish and in our bodies, but the trace levels of human exposure haven't increased in centuries; in fact, they're dropping. And research that has followed thousands of pregnant women and their children for nearly 15 years has found no evidence the amounts of methylmercury in our fish put children or newborn babies at risk. Even among populations eating 10 times or more the amounts of fish Americans consume, scientists have found no credible evidence of neurotoxicity, let alone brain damage, developmental delays, retardation or learning disabilities....
Study: Salmon from farms breed sea lice Salmon farms help stock supermarkets but also breed parasitic sea lice that infect young wild salmon and could endanger other important ocean species such as herring, scientists said Tuesday. Even a single farm can have far-reaching effects, Canadian researchers Martin Krkosek, Mark Lewis and John Volpe found. The study adds fuel to the clamor over farmed versus wild salmon, a debate that extends along Pacific Northwest coastlines. "We know that the lice do infect other species," said Krkosek, a University of Alberta mathematical biologist. "The transmission from farmed fish to wild fish is much larger than what was previously believed." Adult salmon can survive such infections, but the younger salmon are more vulnerable....
Experts Warn Ecosystem Changes Will Continue to Worsen, Putting Global Development Goals At Risk A landmark study released today reveals that approximately 60 percent of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth – such as fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests – are being degraded or used unsustainably. Scientists warn that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years. “Any progress achieved in addressing the goals of poverty and hunger eradication, improved health, and environmental protection is unlikely to be sustained if most of the ecosystem services on which humanity relies continue to be degraded,” said the study, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Synthesis Report, conducted by 1,300 experts from 95 countries. It specifically states that the ongoing degradation of ecosystem services is a road block to the Millennium Development Goals agreed to by the world leaders at the United Nations in 2000. Although evidence remains incomplete, there is enough for the experts to warn that the ongoing degradation of 15 of the 24 ecosystem services examined is increasing the likelihood of potentially abrupt changes that will seriously affect human well-being. This includes the emergence of new diseases, sudden changes in water quality, creation of “dead zones” along the coasts, the collapse of fisheries, and shifts in regional climate....a tip of the hat to The Uneasy Chair for the link....
Column: Don't Think of the Environment George Lakoff may be the new darling of the Democratic Party, but how sweet is he on the environmental movement? A onetime adviser to Howard Dean, who hails him as "one of the most influential political thinkers of the progressive movement," Lakoff is author of the election-year best-seller Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, which solidified his rep as a top-tier Democratic strategist. A professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, he is widely seen as the meta-thinker who can rearticulate liberals' core values and help invigorate the flagging progressive movement. Environmental leaders, too, are turning to Lakoff for guidance as they grapple with a values dilemma similar to that of progressives at large. The past few months have seen much heated debate about how best to revive environmentalism, if it can be revived at all. But even before Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus's much-ballyhooed "Death of Environmentalism" paper spurred a combustive mix of introspection and vitriol, green leaders last year signed a high-dollar contract with Lakoff to help them revamp their messaging strategy and increase their political power....
Column: Support ANWR Drilling – Save Wildlife Habitats The U.S. Senate budget bill would finally open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling. Environmentalists are shocked and outraged. “This battle is far from over,” they vowed. Indeed, the 51-49 margin underscores the ideological passion of drilling opponents, their party-line determination to block Bush Administration initiatives, the misinformation that still surrounds this issue, and a monumental double standard for environmental protection. Many votes against drilling came from California and Northeastern senators who have made a career of railing against high energy prices, unemployment and balance of trade deficits – while simultaneously opposing oil and natural gas development in Alaska, the Outer Continental Shelf, western states and any other areas where petroleum might actually be found. Drilling in other countries is OK in their book, as is buying crude from oil-rich dictators, sending American jobs and dollars overseas, reducing US royalty and tax revenues, imperiling industries that depend on petroleum, and destroying habitats to generate “ecologically friendly” wind power....

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