NEWS ROUNDUP

Man pleads guilty over role in starting deadly 2003 wildfire A lost hunter who set a signal fire that grew into the biggest wildfire in state history pleaded guilty Thursday in a deal with federal prosecutors that could put him behind bars for up to five years. Sergio Martinez pleaded guilty to one count of starting the October 2003 Cedar Fire. Driven by hot, dry winds, the fire killed 15 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes in San Diego County. In court Thursday, the 34-year-old construction worker admitted that he set a fire after he became lost while hunting. Judge Roger T. Benitez asked him to summarize what happened....
Environmental group's appeal puts sand camping plans on hold The friction between off-road riders and the other tourists who frequent the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area has flared up again. Tensions began after the U.S. Forest Service put its launch of a new camping reservation system in the Oregon Dunes on hold after Umpqua Watersheds Inc., a Roseburg conservation group, objected to the plans. The delay places in doubt the vacation plans of many of the visitors who flock to coastal Douglas County each summer to ride and camp among the dunes. The Forest Service is to decide by April 14 whether to let the sand camping plan proceed....
Groups decry proposed hunting ban Hunters, many wearing camouflage and safety-orange hats and vests, were the overwhelming majority of the more than 250 people who packed Stanwood Middle School's gym Wednesday night. They showed up to oppose a citizen petition to ban hunting on Leque Island, a 400-acre state-owned lowland between Stanwood and Camano Island. Officials from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife called the meeting to get public comments about the petition. The only person to speak in favor of it was Camano Island resident Sharon Callaghan, who wrote the petition. According to the petition, the ban is justified because it is no longer a rural area, hunting disturbs the peace and the area is too close to wildlife areas important to the Audubon Society and The Nature Conservancy....
Montana prepares to fight wasting disease Montana is in the process of crafting a state plan to prevent chronic wasting disease from showing up here or to contain the disease if it does occur. Feldner gave an overview of the plan, which suggests an outright ban on importing any game-farmed deer and elk from states that have animals with chronic wasting disease. Right now, it is legal to import deer and elk from states with the disease if the game farm in question has not had a case of CWD in five years. The plan also suggests banning feeding deer and elk. As a state, Montana does not feed deer or elk, but citizens may as long as it doesn't unnaturally congregate animals. Feldner said Montana should consider banning the practice outright. The plan also calls for closing the state's rehabilitation center for orphaned fawns. Right now, the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks takes in about 50 fawns a year at a central rehabilitation center in Helena. The animals are taught to live in the wild and are returned to the place they were found....
Panel rejects 'Clear Skies' President Bush's bid to rewrite the nation's air pollution laws ground to a halt in Congress yesterday when Republicans were unable to overcome objections in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the bill would weaken central pillars of environmental protection. The setback dealt a body blow to the administration's highly touted plan and handed a victory to environmental groups that viewed the "Clear Skies" bill as rolling back safeguards at the behest of industry interests. The Environmental Protection Agency will issue new rules today and next week to control the same pollutants targeted by the Bush initiative, but these rules will not change provisions in the 1990 Clean Air Act that would have been revised by "Clear Skies."....
Ecological groups sue over offshore oil leases Ten environmental groups have sued the federal government over its recent decision to extend the lives of 36 oil and gas leases offshore of the Central Coast. Last month, the federal Minerals Management Service extended the leases for as long as three years to give the oil companies that own them the chance to update their plans for exploration and development of the leases. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of Northern California. It argues that the government failed to consider all the ramifications of extending the leases, including those caused by exploration, drilling and production. It also challenges the agency's decision not to consider alternatives to developing the leases....
Goshutes file lawsuit to stop feds from dealing with disputed leaders A group of disgruntled Goshute Indians has filed a lawsuit against federal agencies. They seek greater involvement in the process that may send 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel to a proposed storage facility on their Tooele County reservation. The suit, filed against the U.S. Interior Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, claims federal administrators have erroneously negotiated with disputed leaders and failed to take into account the concerns of the 124-member tribe. Abby Bullcreek and the other five individuals named Tuesday as plaintiffs say they have "a strong interest" in blocking Private Fuel Storage from gaining federal approval to build a nuclear storage site on their reservation....
Idaho takes steps to dry up crops for the first time For the first time, Idaho has taken steps to buy back water rights. The Idaho Water Resource Board agreed to buy all the water -- more than 74,000 acre-feet -- of the Bell Rapids Mutual Irrigation Co. of Hagerman. If approved by the state, the deal would dry up 24,500 acres of sugar beet, barley and potato fields. Instead the water would be left in the Snake River to help aid salmon migration. It could also be used to help resolve conflicts over spring flows from the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. Critics say the move could hurt the economies of surrounding communities like Buhl. "There are going to be effects, from the grocery man to the gas man," said Mike Hamilton, president of Farmers National Bank in Buhl. The purchase would cost $300 an acre-foot, for a total of about $24 million. The money come out of the general fund and go to the farmers who own the water rights. The plan calls for paying the money back to the state by leasing the water to the federal Bureau of Reclamation so it can meet flow requirements for salmon under the Endangered Species Act...
Rivers likely won't meet irrigation needs: Projections put Columbia flow at 61%, Yakima 41% of normal From the Yakima Valley east to Spokane, communities on Washington's dry side have long marched with a banner that boasts "Where Irrigation Feeds the Nation." Now that a drought emergency has been declared, it is a concept that could be under siege by late summer as water managers tread lightly among needy user groups. The biggest water user on the state's east side is the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which extracts on average 2.5 million acre-feet of water a year from the Columbia River's Roosevelt Lake behind Grand Coulee Dam and 2.7 million acre-feet from the Yakima River. The water is sold wholesale to local irrigation districts, which peddle it to farmers who grow things such as potatoes, corn, beans and alfalfa in the Upper Columbia District, and grapes, vegetables and orchard crops in the Greater Yakima Valley....
Scarce water in Klamath Basin triggers calls for drought plan Federal reclamation officials say dry conditions in the Klamath Basin have triggered letters implementing the Klamath Basin drought management plan. The letters call for meetings between the Bureau of Reclamation and districts and individual irrigators to determine allocation in case of a drought, said Dave Sabo, area manager for the Klamath Basin Area Office of the Bureau of Reclamation. Sabo said because of low moisture and runoff levels, the bureau needs to begin now to plan water deliveries. He said that on March 1, the bureau estimated an inflow to Upper Klamath Lake of 52 percent of normal though November but that the snowpack has dropped to 38 percent and expected warm dry conditions will make it worse....
Wash. Governor Declares Drought Emergency Gov. Christine Gregoire declared a statewide drought emergency, anticipating what weather forecasters predict will be the Pacific Northwest's worst dry spell in nearly three decades. Gregoire made her announcement Thursday before an audience of farmers in the already arid Yakima Valley. The last statewide drought emergency was declared by Gov. Gary Locke in 2001. "While water shortages won't affect all areas of the state in precisely the same way, it seems very likely that all areas of our state will experience at least some level of drought this year," Gregoire said. In the declaration, Gregoire creates an interstate agency to coordinate the government's response, calls for $8.2 million more in drought-related state appropriations and orders the National Guard to prepare to combat wildfires this summer....
Mexico agrees to pay water debt Mexico has pledged to repay its entire water debt to Texas by Sept. 30 in an agreement expected to end a 12-year dispute between the United States and its southern neighbor over terms of a 1944 water-sharing treaty. Gov. Rick Perry called the accord “tremendous news” for farmers, ranchers and other residents of the Rio Grande Valley and hailed it as a turning point in what he called “probably the most contentious issue in the last 50 years” between the two countries. Mexico owes Texas about 733,000 acre-feet of water under the treaty terms — about half the 1.5 million acre-feet it owed before plentiful rain fell in 2003 and 2004. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons — enough to cover an acre a foot deep. The accord U.S. and Mexican officials reached last week guarantees that Mexico will transfer water from the Amistad and Falcon reservoirs, eliminating its water debt and raising U.S. reserves from 95 percent of storage to 103 percent of storage. Mexico also agreed to deliver at least the average minimum of 350,000 acre-feet of water per year for the remaining three years of the current cycle and pledged to end the cycle with no deficit....
Statement By Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns Regarding Guatemala's Passage Of The United States-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement "I am very pleased that Guatemala today passed the United States-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, which follows the recent approval of this agreement by El Salvador and Honduras. "This action now brings the United States one step closer to an agreement that will significantly benefit American agriculture. Farmers, ranchers and food processors will benefit from the opening of markets to 44 million consumers and an anticipated increase of $1.5 billion in U.S. agricultural exports....
High court overturns woman's obstruction conviction A Belle Fourche woman's conviction of interfering with law officers who were trying to save strayed sheep in a blizzard was overturned Thursday by the state Supreme Court because she was not told of the perils of defending herself. Circuit Judge Warren G. Johnson should have made sure Leigh Patten, 75, understood that going to trial without an attorney can be a daunting task, the high court decided. "The circumstances did not indicate she was aware of the disadvantages and dangers of self-representation," the justices concluded unanimously. Patten was arrested Dec. 28, 2003, after trying to stop the Butte County sheriff and others from taking the sheep to shelter. The sheriff's office was called when sheep strayed onto a roadway about seven miles from Newell. Dozens of sheep had bunched up in a fence corner and were covered by blowing snow. About 150 sheep walked over the sheep-laden snowbank and onto the roadway....

Canada Puts C$50 Million in Beef Markets Campaign Canada's agriculture minister said on Thursday he will plow C$50 million ($42 million) into beef-industry efforts to diversify markets as ranchers grapple with the prospect of stalled live-cattle trade with the United States for another year or more. The money, which follows a C$37-million injection from the Alberta government, will go to helping the struggling industry find new markets and re-enter others closed since Canada found its first case of mad cow disease nearly two years ago. The beef sector wants to cut its reliance on the United States, where a group of activist ranchers were successful last week in preventing live-cattle trade starting up again for the first time since the border was slammed shut in May 2003....
It's off to Boot Hill for the last Western store in downtown Downtown's 86-year-old Palace Boot Shop is closing its doors, which raises the question: Where will Paul Newman get his boots? A longtime customer, the actor slips in inconspicuously. "He walks in with jeans and a cap, and you don't recognize him," said co-owner Lakis Xydis. It may not be trendy, but Palace Boot has history. It is downtown's last old Western store, and its closing will mark the end of a Houston era. Faded and charming, Palace Boot hasn't been remodeled since it opened, and for good reason. An Old World-style bootmaker has no need to get fancy. Outside is a metal sign emblazoned with a cowboy lassoing a bull and dusty window displays. Inside are rows of boots and a moose head above the door. "The old man shot it in Alaska,"said Lakis Xydis, referring to his late uncle Steve Panos, who founded the shop in 1919....
Charlie Goodnight, Jose Tafoya exemplify pivotal figures of Llano Estacado history In 1893 Texas ranchers including Charlie Goodnight sued the State of Texas to recover the value of horses and cattle stolen by Comanches who traded them to Comancheros from northern New Mexico. This story is what I imagine Charlie and Jose might have talked about during the hearings of that lawsuit. They probably hunkered down in the shade of one of the sapling courthouse trees in Clarendon on the afternoon of Jose's testimony, after he had recounted the numbers of cattle he received from the Comanches and later sold in New Mexico to settlers and the U. S. Army. Both had extensively traveled the Llano Estacado and Pecos River Valley when much younger. In the 1920s Goodnight told his biographer J. Evetts Haley, "Tafoya was a wonder, and knew the Plains from the Palo Duro to the Concho by heart." (Some of Goodnight's dialog in this essay comes from the Haley book.) Tafoya was fluent and literate in both Spanish and English. In the 1860's and early 1870's he had 250 wagons rolling on the Llano Estacado, hauling buffalo meat and trade goods. Tafoya became one of the U.S. Army's most sought-after scouts in the mid to late 1870's....