NEWS ROUNDUP

Schweitzer predicts 'powder keg' season Plagued by continuing drought, a shortage of mountain snow and forests full of dry timber, Montana is a powder keg as the summer wildfire season approaches, Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Friday. Schweitzer has asked the Pentagon to return some of the 1,500 Montana National Guard troops and aircraft called to active duty because of Iraq. He is urging anyone with firefighting equipment to sign up with the U.S. Forest Service so they can be summoned quickly when help is needed on the fire lines. Schweitzer also plans to ask governors in Idaho and Washington, and provincial officials in Saskatchewan and Alberta to commit manpower and machines should the fires ignite as he expects. Such mutual aid will be critical, he said....
Northwest fears tinder-dry summer season Authorities are bracing for a seventh year of drought in Montana, where the mountains are so bare that peaks will need three times the usual snowfall between now and when the spring runoff begins just to reach average levels. In Idaho, snowpack is at about 50 percent of average with the lone bright spot - albeit a rather dim one - being Eastern Idaho at 75 percent of average. Parts of the state already have endured five straight years of drought. Conditions are even grimmer in Washington, where snowpack stands at just 16 percent of average in some places. Spokane saw the driest February since record-keeping started in 1881....
Activists make camp in old-growth forest marked for logging Environmentalists opposed to plans to log an old-growth forest reserve burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire have set up a camp to protest Bush administration policy. "This is the front line in a national struggle," Laurel Sutherlin, spokeswoman for the Oxygen Coalition, said yesterday. Members of the group were among a few dozen people who have been camping out where the road leading to the Fiddler timber sale crosses the Illinois River. "If the Forest Service allows a timber company to start logging in old-growth reserves for the first time ever, that's something people need to know that is happening," Sutherlin said....
Simplot wins OK to explore mining in a roadless area Just more than a year after federal officials asked Caribou-Targhee National Forest administrators to reconsider their decision, the U.S. Forest Service again granted permission for Simplot to explore the possibility of mining in an Inventoried Roadless Area near Georgetown. Greater Yellowstone Coalition spokesman Marv Hoyt said his group will appeal the decision. The exploration project, which involves extending Simplot's current Manning Creek Mining Lease to the south, includes building 14,850 feet of new road and reconstructing 2,000 feet of previously reclaimed road. Simplot plans to drill 25 exploratory holes and install two groundwater monitoring wells. According to the plan, the roads must be returned to their original land contours and revegetated after the exploration....
This year's water supply is looking scarce for Klamath farmers, fish Federal water managers say they hope to be able to give most Klamath Reclamation Project farmers their full ration of water this year. But conditions are looking a lot like the drought of 2001, when they had to cut off most farms to provide for threatened and endangered fish. The mountain snowpack that provides much of the region's water is 43 percent of normal, and streamflows from April through September are forecast to be 52 percent of normal into Upper Klamath Lake, the project's primary reservoir. A drought forced the bureau to shut off water to most of the project at the start of the 2001 irrigation season, though water was restored later in the year....
Agency will review pygmy rabbit status The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to decide by May 16 whether threats to the North American pygmy rabbit warrant a yearlong review that could lead to protection under the Endangered Species Act. The animal lives in the western half of Wyoming, particularly on the edges of deserts and in the Jack Morrow Hills area. The agreement came in a settlement of a U.S. District Court lawsuit by environmental groups that contended the Fish and Wildlife Service had refused to consider their petition for protection of the rabbit. The settlement was approved Thursday by Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise....
House committee tables measure to shoot cougars on sight A House committee has tabled a bill that would have allowed mountain lions to be shot on sight in New Mexico. The measure’s sponsor, Republican Representative Brian Moore of Clayton, says it would have allowed ranchers to protect their livestock by reducing the number of mountain lions in the state. Moore says the idea also would help the deer population. The measure would remove mountain lions or cougars from their status as regulated game animals and would leave them classified, along with coyotes, as vermin with no legal protection....
Five states and Albuquerque will work with EPA on haze analysis In the wake of a federal appeals court decision rejecting a government-approved program to improve air quality and visibility, five western states and Albuquerque, N.M., said Friday they would work with the government to repair problems with the program. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled last month that the states' program was based on Environmental Protection Agency methods that the court found inconsistent with the federal Clean Air Act three years ago. The program, in use in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, Oregon and the city of Albuquerque, was challenged by the Alexandria, Va.-based Center for Energy and Economic Development, a coalition of coal, utility, rail and other companies....
State may join suit claiming park road The state wants to join with San Juan County in suing the federal government to gain ownership of an overgrown road that runs several miles into Canyonlands National Park. Utah's motion to intervene, filed Thursday, has been anticipated since last summer, when the state quietly informed the Bush administration it planned to sue to reopen 7 1/2 miles of the road to vehicle traffic. The state essentially wants to co-own the road with San Juan County, said Assistant Utah Attorney General Ralph Finlayson. The prospect alarms environmentalists and national park advocates, who fear the courts could set a bad precedent....
Editorial: Roan Plateau plans need a second look Reams of newly released information about the Roan Plateau should send the U.S. Bureau of Land Management back to the drawing board regarding plans to permit oil and gas drilling on the western Colorado landmark. The new data would likely intensify and expand the public debate. The BLM had the data on hand for some time but only recently made much of it available for public review. To give citizens time to study the documents, the BLM extended the public comment period on its Roan Plateau plan from March 4 to April 11. The Roan Plateau rises dramatically 3,000 feet above Interstate 70 near Rifle. The plateau's top, sides and base encompass about 127,000 acres, of which about 54,000 acres are privately owned. Of the 73,000 acres of public land, less than half have been used for drilling or other human development....
Column: False hopes in Arctic Refuge NORTH SLOPE OIL started flowing through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in 1977. A decade later, Alaska claimed the pipeline would shut down by 2000 unless it developed the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain. We have debated how much oil might be there and its relevance to our energy needs ever since. To those who would keep the coastal plain wild, it does not matter how much oil is there; it should remain wild. Some places are too important for wild natural values to be developed. The American people support its protection by almost 2 to 1. Important as that debate is, it is irrelevant to the way in which industry actually produces Alaska North Slope oil. Even before The New York Times reported that ''major oil companies are largely uninterested in drilling in the refuge," observation of industry behavior should have confirmed that and more. Three related conclusions follow....
Rockhounds rush opal discovery Would-be opal prospectors and miners lined up 50-deep Friday morning to buy a 12-page report about an opal deposit in the Granite Mountains in Fremont County. At 11 a.m. Friday, the Wyoming Geological Survey in Laramie announced the location of a large opal deposit in central Wyoming. "We had 40 to 50 people lined up at the door before we started selling the report at 11 a.m.," said Nancy Elliott, the survey's sales manager. By mid-afternoon, she had sold at least 25 copies of the report....
Lake Powell exposing canyon sites It looks as if someone scooped a 100-foot dip from a brick of cinnamon ice cream. Steve Carothers aims his speedboat straight for this cavity in the canyon wall. At the last moment, he throttles back, and slowly we motor through its vaulted entrance. I look upward. An oval opening rings the top of this domed depression forming a gaping skylight in the overhead rock. What at first looked like a dimpled cave is actually a natural bridge in the Navajo sandstone. Five years ago, this site would have laid unseen, buried beneath the waters of Lake Powell. Now we float in its grandeur....
Irrigators consider forming public utility district to avoid power rate hike Klamath Reclamation Project irrigators hoping to avoid a steep increase in power rates are considering a number of options, including the possibility of forming a locally controlled public utility district. "The power rate change is not necessarily a done deal," said Lynn Long, chairman of the Klamath Water Users Association power committee. "We have a lot of cards yet to play." Farmers in the Klamath Project enjoy a deeply discounted rate of about half a center per kilowatt hour under a contract signed nearly 50 years ago with Pacific Power's predecessor, Copco....
Column: When bureaucrats control the country The Missouri legislators who approved a water law (HB 1433) in the waning moments of last year's session, no doubt, thought they were creating something to help protect clean water in a nine-county area. That's what they were told by reputable employees of the state agencies and influential lobbyists from environmental organizations. The new law created a nine-county district in which water policy would be developed and enforced by appointed - not elected - officials. None realized that the law they adopted was, in fact, an important step toward the implementation of a plan conceived more than 15 years ago by government officials and environmental organizations convened by, and systematically working through, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland. The plan, generically known as "ecosystem management," is designed to manage natural resources on an "ecosystem" basis, rather than on the basis of arbitrarily drawn state and county political boundaries. Equally important, is the transfer of management authority from elected officials to appointed officials. The "watershed" is the primary building block of every ecosystem....
Law would fund research on cloud seeding Flying rainmakers have jump-started the clouds for nearly a half-century in a technology that melds science with a hefty infusion of luck. Now, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, representing a state still recovering from a decadelong drought, wants to accelerate man's efforts to harvest more moisture from the skies. This week, the Texas Republican introduced the Weather Modification Act to expand research and development of projects designed to wring extra rain and snow from the clouds or suppress devastating hailstorms. Similar to legislation Hutchison introduced in the previous session of Congress, the bill seeks to develop "a comprehensive and coordinated" national weather modification policy that would broaden research at the state and federal levels. It also calls for the creation of an 11-member advisory board to work with Congress....
Experts sure of 1 thing: It's dry here "It's been an astonishing winter," says Belgrade native Kelly Redmond, a climate scientist at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nev. Not since the winter of 1940-41 has the West's weather been so sharply divided. The Southwest has been lashed by storm after storm, with flooding in Las Vegas, lush fields of wild flowers in Death Valley and pieces of California falling into the ocean. Meanwhile, south-central Montana and north-central Wyoming settled in as the driest area of the continental United States....
EPA Insider Nominated to Lead Agency President Bush reached into the ranks of the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday and nominated its acting administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, to head the office where he has worked for 24 years. Johnson, 53, a biologist and pathologist, would be the first scientist and first career EPA employee to head the agency, which was established in 1970 as the environmental movement took hold across the U.S. Johnson must be confirmed by the Senate and his selection drew initial support from some senators with strong environmental records, as well as others who closely follow such issues. But skeptics questioned whether Johnson would stand up to White House officials, who critics say favor industries' needs over protection of the nation's air, water and land....
Bill protects resident hunting preference U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., has joined a group of lawmakers seeking to ensure the right of Wyoming and other states to limit nonresident hunting and fishing licenses. Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials called the bill an important measure to preserve the state's right to regulate hunting within its borders. Enzi said Thursday he is cosponsoring the measure in the Senate along with Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Ted Stevens, R-Alaska; John Ensign, R-Nev.; and Ben Nelson, D-Neb. Enzi said in a press statement the bill was introduced in direct response to a recent court ruling in Arizona by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals....
Column: The tyranny of eminent domain On February 22nd, the future of property rights in America will be at stake, as the Supreme Court begins oral arguments in the case of Kelo v. New London. The central question at issue is: "should the government be able to use its power of eminent domain to seize property from one private party and transfer it to another?" The seven property owners on the side of Kelo are the last remaining of more than 70 families whose homes and businesses were targeted for demolition several years ago, by the city of New London, Connecticut, to make room for a 90-acre private development. The story of one of the owners, Susette Kelo, is representative. Kelo, a nurse, bought, and painstakingly restored a home, that initially was so run-down that she needed to cut her way to the front door with a hatchet. After she had achieved her dream home, she was informed in November 2000, by the local government that her home was condemned, and ordered to vacate within 90 days. She and the other owners remain in their homes only by the grace of a court order, which prevents eviction and demolition, until their appeals are exhausted. What justifies this treatment of Kelo and the other owners, who simply want to be free to live on their own property?....