NEWS ROUNDUP

Ten years later, wolves thrive in Yellowstone It's as if they were never gone and don't plan on leaving again. On this day 10 years ago, the cages were opened for the first gray wolves in 70 years to leave their “mark” on Yellowstone National Park. And mark it they have. From the first 66 wolves turned loose here (and in Idaho) in 1995 and 1996, there are now almost 850 animals in 93 breeding packs. As many as 200 wolf pups could be born this spring. That'll bring the wolf population to more than a thousand. Federal officials say the next 10 years could be more critical than the last 10 in trying to find the balance where man and wolf can co-exist. For the last decade, Ed Bangs has tried to keep that balance....
Judge rejects Wyoming wolf lawsuit A federal judge here has dismissed Wyoming's lawsuit against the federal government over its decision to reject the state's plan for managing the descendants of wolves reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park. U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson said he disagreed with the state's claim that the federal government violated the Endangered Species Act in rejecting the plan. The act didn't come into play because the rejection didn't determine wolves' status under the act, Johnson said in a ruling dated Friday. "The federal defendants were not compelled by statute or regulation to approve the Wyoming plan, nor did the `best science available' mandate attach to their decision making process," Johnson wrote....
Businesses, Fishermen ask Court to Increase Salmon Survival Today, a coalition of businesses, fishermen, conservationists and Columbia River tribes asked a federal judge to immediately put in place specific protections for salmon and steelhead and the people and communities that depend on them for a living. These measures are necessary to ensure that jobs and businesses can survive and prosper along with Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead. The court filing asks for two things to reduce the risks facing salmon survival and recovery in the Columbia and Snake rivers. First, that the federal agencies take steps to move the baby salmon down the river and to the ocean more quickly. Second, that they change the way water gets past some of the dams so that more of it goes over the dam spillways, the safest way for the young salmon to get downstream and avoid the hydroelectric turbines. These two steps will also allow more baby salmon to migrate to the sea in the river rather than be captured and trucked or barged downstream....
Agency admits using faulty data on endangered Florida panthers The Fish and Wildlife Service agreed Monday with a whistleblower's complaint that it bungled some of the science used in protecting Florida's endangered panthers. The agency conceded it violated the Data Quality Act of 2000 in three instances by issuing documents based on faulty assumptions about the habitat of one of the world's rarest animals. That conclusion, based on a review by senior Interior Department officials, is one of the last actions of outgoing Fish and Wildlife Director Steve Williams. Dan Ashe, the service's top science adviser and a member of the review panel, said the agency relied too much on data collected only in late morning hours to establish the panthers' home range. Panthers are most active at dawn and dusk. Agency officials said they hadn't studied whether data collected at other hours might indicate the panthers need a bigger or smaller habitat....
BLM announces first sale of wild horses to tribes The federal Bureau of Land Management says it is selling wild horses to American Indian tribes for the first time. The BLM has sold 141 horses to the Rosebud Sioux in South Dakota and 120 horses to the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota. More sales are planned in upcoming weeks, bringing the total to more than 500 horses. The sale is under legislation recently passed by Congress that directs the BLM to sell wild horses and burros that are older than 10 years or have been unsuccessfully offered for adoption at least three times, director Kathleen Clarke said....
Watt defends decisions as Secretary of the Interior Ronald Reagan’s first Secretary of the Interior defended his decisions in that post, and said the United States is engaged in a culture battle to define the nation. Wyoming native and University of Wyoming Alumni James Watt spoke at the university as a part of the Milward Simpson lecture series on Monday. “I wouldn’t have made the decisions differently if I knew what we’ve learned over the last 20 years,” Watt said. Decisions that Watt made as Secretary of the Interior were part of the revolutionary approach to land management in the Reagan administration. When Reagan took office, sewage was being dumped in the streams and lakes of America’s national parks, historic landmarks were being neglected, the coal and petroleum industries were crippled by inefficient policy, and corruption and mismanagement of public lands was costing states and the federal government millions, Watt said. Heavy-handed policies dictated from Washington DC (like having one mine reclamation policy that required oak trees be planted even on high plains Wyoming coal mine sites) and public land mismanagement lead to a nonpartisan “sagebrush revolution,” Watt said. The governors and residents of Western states demanded sweeping reform....
'Largest private land auction' set In what is being touted by its organizers as the "largest private land auction" in Nevada history, more than 250 acres in the Las Vegas Valley, 160 acres in Pahrump, 3,700 in West Wendover and 250,000 acres in Elko County will be put up for bid in May in a land sale expected to bring in $250-$350 million. One centerpiece of the sale is going to be a 250,000-acre ranch in Northeast Elko once owned by the late entertainer Bing Crosby, the Wincup Gamble Ranch. Besides the 250,000 in deeded acreage, the total land rights bring the parcel's size to 1.2 million acres. The ranch, along the Utah-Nevada border, also comes with water rights....
Decision Creates Chaos and Confusion in Western Water Law On March 7, 2005, the New Mexico Supreme Court reached its decision in Turner v. Bassett and carved out new rules that will ricochet around the West for decades to come. "In essence, the Supreme Court stated that water rights are no longer property rights unless expressly reserved or excepted in property deeds," according to Dr. William Turner. Turner v. Bassett was filed about 6 years ago when Dr. William Turner learned that his firm probably owned water rights on a piece of property he had purchased in 1985. The deed granted Turner everything of record and reserved to Bassett, the seller, everything that was reserved or restricted or easements of record. Water rights were not reserved of record and they were not reserved in the deed. In New Mexico, water rights have traditionally run with the land unless expressly reserved or excepted in the deed -- but no more. With their decision, the New Mexico Supreme Court has held that it is enough for an administrative agency to grant permission for water rights to be severed and that that permission becomes an actual severance. It now only takes an administrative agency to effectuate a severance and, according to the Court, all buyers should know this and should check with the State Engineer before purchasing property...
Drought stirs fears of Dust Bowl Ranchers who have endured western South Dakota's prolonged drought are worried. They may have to sell their cattle unless substantial spring rains start to resurrect the grass their herds need. "It's kind of a critical situation for everybody here," said Bob Johnson, whose ranch is near Buffalo in Harding County. "Everybody is betting on the rain." Western South Dakota ranches usually carry over enough grass to get their cattle through the spring, but there is no carry-over grass this year. That means rain is needed soon to help the range begin recovering. "If it stays dry, there is going to be a lot of cattle sold. There isn't any other way to go," Johnson said. Buying hay is expensive, and the drought is so widespread that there are no pastures to rent within a reasonable distance, Johnson said. That means his family and others will have to sell part of their cow herds if spring rains don't come....
Trail traffic The rain stopped, and scores of day hikers, mountain bikers and horse riders converged on the Mulholland Scenic Overlook trail, one of the busiest paths in the Santa Monica Mountains. Gray clouds raced past shrubby hillsides, and soil turned to dark porridge. The path through Sullivan Canyon resembled a fossil bed of hoof divots, knobby boot prints and gracefully curving bicycle tracks. People come for fun but often find conflict. "You see those!" said Jim Frapton, a day hiker from Los Angeles, pointing to deep grooves from bike tires. "The mountain bikers are killing this forest! They come around corners at 30 mph! They'll kill me someday, or I'll kill them first."...
Reauthorize the County Payments Act Lifesaving search-and-rescue missions in our public forests. Restoration of precious habitat for fish and wildlife. Road maintenance so that we can access our favorite hiking trails. Children working to improve the health of our streams. Vital protection for communities at risk from wildfire. These are just a few examples of the many ways that Oregon communities benefit from the County Payments Act. The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, commonly known as the County Payments Act, created a stable -- yet temporary -- funding stream for programs such as these for 750 rural counties across America. Instead of requiring these counties to rely solely on money from logging on federal forest lands to fund essential county functions such as roads and schools, the bill provides funds that are not tied to our natural resources. This effort has been very successful, and 33 of the 36 counties in Oregon receive $273 million annually to support schools and other essential programs. Of that $273 million, the counties contribute more than $30 million annually to enhance the projects recommended by Resource Advisory Committees....
Innovative Study Will Measure Residential Carbon Sequestration America’s residential areas are expanding fast. But, despite this, scientists know little about how well fixtures of American residential life, things like standard-issue turf lawns, shade trees, marigold gardens and the inevitable evergreen “foundation plantings,” draw climate-changing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere — a possibly significant oversight in national-scale estimates of carbon sequestration. A new $660,000, three-year National Science Foundation project led by Jennifer Jenkins, a research assistant professor at the Gund Institute of Ecological Economics, seeks to change that by quantifying carbon cycles in three Baltimore-area neighborhoods, and determining how different factors influence them. “What we’re doing is starting to fill in the gaps,” Jenkins says. “All the carbon estimates published by the State Department, and used in the Kyoto Protocol, don't include this. So we want to help fill in the spreadsheet. We are going to test hypotheses about what really drives these residential stocks and fluxes.”....
It's All Trew: History? It's in the mail Mention the U.S. mail to almost anyone and you will hear a tale about a lost check or smashed package. Seldom do you hear complimentary remarks about years of faithful, dependable service. How about some true mail tales from the past? Two stories stand out in the California Gold Rush days. One young miner, exhausted from swinging a pickax and shoveling gravel, became so homesick for a letter from home he started the Jackass Express, a mail delivery service. His delivery equipment consisted of a mule, a saddle and a canvas bag. For three dollars cash, he would add your name to his list. For the same price he would carry your letter over the mountains to San Francisco for posting....

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