NEWS ROUNDUP

Feds kill five wolves Federal wildlife officials killed five wolves in Sublette County earlier this week in response to chronic livestock depredations. Mike Jimenez of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the wolves were members of the Daniel wolf pack, which has been implicated in the killing of at least 21 head of livestock in the last few years. Five members of the pack were killed last year as well, and federal officials do not know how many members of the pack are still roaming. One night last week, the wolf pack entered a Daniel-area ranch pasture where pregnant cows were located, bringing two of the animals down. One of the cows was alive but severely wounded when found early the next morning and was destroyed by the ranch owners. Both of the cows were due to give birth, as calving in the herd had already begun, doubling the losses for the ranch....
Aggressive bobcat killed near Horseshoe Lake found to have rabies A bobcat that was killed after attacking two vehicles near Horseshoe Lake tested positive for rabies on Friday. Tonto National Forest wildlife specialist Todd Willard warns recreationists heading to the Mesquite Campground area to be especially alert for wildlife exhibiting odd behavior. Willard said that on Wednesday a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy noticed the bobcat on a dirt road leading to the popular campground, about 15 miles northeast of Carefree. The deputy slowed his vehicle, and the bobcat continued to trot alongside it like a dog. When the deputy stopped, the bobcat attacked a tire. The deputy called a forest service officer to the scene, and the bobcat attacked his vehicle, too. The animal was shot and bagged....
Lynx protection plan revised White River National Forest managers have reworded their plan for protecting the endangered lynx after objections from higher-ranking officials in Washington, but they said safeguards will not be weakened. Environmentalists were skeptical and accused forest managers of circumventing established rules for changing their management plans. The revision, which changes the White River's management plan, was released Friday. Don Carroll, acting supervisor of the 2.3 million-acre forest in western Colorado, said Thursday the change merely avoids duplication by deleting rules from the White River plan that are already in force under Forest Service manuals....
Plan to control ravens may stir things up A federal agency familiar with controversy is likely to stir up more flak with a plan to shoot or poison ravens that prey on young desert tortoises that are battling for survival in the Mojave. It is among several proposals to control ravens outlined in a habitat-conservation plan for the 9.3‚million-acre western Mojave Desert, just released by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, San Bernardino County and the city of Barstow. The BLM's 15-member California Desert District Advisory Council discussed the plan Friday at its meeting in Barstow. Meanwhile, the BLM lifted its prohibition Friday on off-highway vehicle use in the eastern desert in a move that will actually protect the tortoise, said Linda Hansen, the bureau's California desert district manager....
Endangered Species Act provisions appear to benefit imperiled organisms An analysis of the conservation status of 1095 species that have been protected under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) indicates that those that have been given more protection under the act are more likely to be improving in status and less likely to be declining than species given less protection. The study, "The Effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act: A Quantitative Analysis," by Martin F. J. Taylor, Kieran F. Suckling, and Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, affirms the effectiveness of some controversial aspects of the act for conservation. The results could inform various efforts now under way in Congress to amend the act. The study finds that the longer species were listed under the act, the more likely they were to be improving in status and the less likely to be declining, suggesting ESA conservation measures act cumulatively over time. Separately, species for which "critical habitat" had been designated for two or more years appeared more likely to be improving and less likely to be declining than species that did not have critical habitat for at least two years. Likewise, species that had recovery plans for two or more years appeared more likely to be improving and less likely to be declining than others, and species with dedicated recovery plans appeared to fare better than species protected by multi-species recovery plans. Other protections afforded by the ESA, such as protection of individual animals from unregulated "take," also had apparently beneficial effects on species' conservation status....
Study shows salmon spawned, thrived above Klamath dams Based on a review of historical and archaeological evidence, a group of federal biologists has concluded that salmon definitely spawned in waters far above a series of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River that have blocked fish since 1917. The report comes as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission considers whether to grant the utility Pacificorp a new license to operate four dams straddling the Oregon-California border as they are, or go along with American Indian tribes, commercial fishermen and conservationists who want the dams removed or altered to open access to hundreds of miles of spawning habitat. Besides being the focus of intense political battles about allocations of water between fish and farms, the Klamath River is a keystone for setting annual salmon harvests in the Pacific Ocean....
Jurassic-era 'Popeye' pops out An amateur paleontologist hunting for fossils in a quarry near his home in Grand Junction has found something no one had ever seen before. G.W. "Wally" Windscheffel, 77, a retired Navy master chief and electrical contractor with a passion for writing and paleontology, discovered the fossil remains of a termite-eating mammal that lived in Colorado 150 million years ago. The Jurassic-era creature was found in a clump of bentonite near Fruita, west of Grand Junction. Windscheffel's discovery, reported this week in the journal Science, was formally named Fruitafossor windscheffeli - "Fruita" for where it was found; "fossor," which is Latin for digger; and "windscheffeli" in honor of its discoverer. The small, powerful mammal evolved highly specialized techniques for feasting on termites, according to the Science report....
Mormon crickets may threaten rangelands Large outbreaks of Mormon crickets and grasshoppers are expected once again to threaten rangelands and crops in parts of southern Idaho. "We're anticipating a busy year, based on the surveys we did last fall," said Ben Simko, program manager for the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. Authorities are particularly concerned about Mormon crickets in southwest Idaho, where large infestations occurred last year. Hardest hit was Owyhee County with some 1.65 million acres infested. "We think that for now the cricket problem will continue to be significant," said Dave McNeal, state plant health director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture....
Ranch too expensive for state, North Dakota House decides An offer to buy a 5,225-acre ranch in North Dakota's western Badlands is a "shakedown" and "rip-off," the sale's critics said as the state House voted to scuttle the deal. "If the state wants to buy this ranch, I'm putting mine on the table today ... for the same amount. This is not right," said Rep. Rod Froelich, D-Selfridge, a rancher who represents a rangeland district in south-central North Dakota. The $3.52 million proposal to buy the Eberts' rural Medora ranch, which is adjacent to land that former President Theodore Roosevelt once worked, was offered as a way to keep the federal government from buying the property or imposing restrictions on how the land could be used. During House debate Friday on legislation to buy the land, lawmakers were skeptical that any federal offer was forthcoming. Western North Dakota legislators objected to any state purchase of private land, and said the $674-an-acre price was too rich, given its limited value for ranching....
Livestock Producers Watching Bill Myers Vote Closely As Congress returns to Washington next week, producer-members of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and Public Lands Council (PLC) are watching for any political maneuvering against judicial candidate William Myers as a vote on his confirmation in the U.S. Senate draws closer. Myers is nominated to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has jurisdiction over nine Western states and over 485 million acres of federal lands. “This could be one of the most critical votes of this Congressional session, and one that we’re watching closely,” says NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Jay Truitt. “A vote or any action against Mr. Myers is clearly a vote for special interests, and turns a blind eye to the needs of Western communities. Attempts to block his confirmation represent political maneuvering at its worst.”....

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