NEWS ROUNDUP

Florida landowner fights to keep `hole in doughnut' On a patch of rugged wilderness, with alligators, bears and an occasional panther for neighbors, a partially disabled former Navy frogman is nearing the end of a battle to save his homestead from an $8 billion plan to restore the development-battered Everglades. As the Florida Department of Environmental Protection threatens to acquire the 160-acre property under eminent domain--a process by which a government can seize private property for public use--Jesse Hardy has refused the state's final offer of $4.5 million, and so far has not been satisfied with property offered for a land swap. Florida officials contend that Hardy's land would be threatened by flooding under the plan. But the bearded Hardy said that a private study had determined that his land would be flood free, at 13 feet above sea level, when waters rise because of the state and federal Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan for Central and Southern Florida. Described as the world's largest ecosystem restoration effort, that program covers an 18,000-square-mile area with the goal of restoring the annual southward flow of rainwater through sawgrass and cypress forests from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. "This is not the Everglades; that's a reference to that river of grass that grows 30 miles thataway," Hardy said, pointing to the ground and then to the southeast. "No, no, no, there's nothing here to restore. I'm 13 feet above sea level. There will never be a sheetflow of water here. There never was any heavy-duty standing water here.".... a tip of the hat to Julie at Property Rights Research....
Turning prairie dogs into a farmer's friend, not foe Conservation groups on Tuesday announced the purchase of 46,000 acres of desert grasslands in northern Mexico, a project aimed at converting pesky prairie dogs into valuable farm tools, while also saving the lives of the potentially endangered creatures. The joint effort between a U.S. nonprofit organization and its Mexican counterpart is to demonstrate that the black-tailed prairie dog — seen as an intrusive rodent in much of the western United States and northern Mexico — can help grazing lands thrive. In Mexico, the Nature Conservancy, with help from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, is developing a management plan involving "working" prairie dogs at the El Uno cattle ranch, located outside the small town of Janos, about 45 miles south of the New Mexico border. A "grass bank" will let local ranchers graze cattle at El Uno while allowing the soil on their own lands to rest and recuperate....
Column: Old West vs. New West Life was much simpler when I viewed the battle to "save" the West through a black-and-white lens. As a young environmentalist, it was easier to condemn my adversaries' beliefs without scrutinizing my own. And it was easier to attack my adversaries when I didn't know them. I have agonized over this for years now. At the heart of this land war - and that's what we should call it - is a conflict of cultures. On one side stand the "New Westerners," mostly urbanites who consider themselves environmentalists, but whose connection to the land comes through recreation. On the other side are the "Old Westerners," most of whom live and work in small rural communities and make their living from the land. In the past three decades, each side of the conflict has so caricatured their opponents that they have, in the process, turned themselves into cartoon characters as well....
Judicial Nominee Under Scrutiny Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) called Tuesday for an investigation into whether William G. Myers III, a nominee for the federal appeals court in San Francisco, lied when he told a Senate committee that he was not aware of the terms of a controversial settlement the Interior Department had made with a politically connected Wyoming rancher until months after the deal was signed. Myers was the top lawyer at the department in the first term of the Bush administration, when the agreement was consummated. Feingold said a memo from Karen Budd-Falen, the rancher's lawyer, "directly contradicts Mr. Myers' written response to a question I submitted." A spokeswoman for Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said he was reviewing the information regarding Myers, who cleared the committee on a 10-8 party-line vote last month. An aide to panel chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said the nominee "was thoroughly vetted and investigated by the White House, the Department of Justice, the American Bar Assn. and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee."....
Gov't backs off cutting aid to farmers After two months of fierce resistance from farmers and Congress, the Bush administration has dropped an effort to cut government payments to farmers. Bush asked Congress in February to slash billions of dollars from payments to large farm operations, dropping the maximum farmers are allowed to collect from $360,000 to $250,000 and closing loopholes allowing some growers to obtain millions of dollars. He also proposed to cut all farm payments by 5 percent. On Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told key senators that while spending must be reduced to hold down the federal deficit, he is willing to look elsewhere in agriculture programs for cuts. "Perhaps the administration has finally begun to hear the roar from the heartland," said Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.... Roar?? Sounded more like a big whine to me....
Public-lands ranchers: Should you trust this man? Andy Kerr, who has been an environmental activist for more than 20 years, was a key figure in the struggle to curtail logging in the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, he is the director of the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign, which seeks to pass legislation that would allow the federal government to buy federal grazing allotments from ranchers and permanently retire the land from grazing. HCN executive director Paul Larmer recently interviewed Kerr about his transformation from lawsuit-wielding agitator to carrot-carrying negotiator....
A New Line of Defense for Landowners Thanks to the American Land Foundation (ALF), property owners have a new line of defense in the never ending battle to protect their property from state and federal regulation. ALF’s latest program, LandGuard creates a link between the nation’s top property rights attorneys and America’s landowners to provide expert protection and advice. ALF, a non-profit organization, was founded over a decade ago with a goal to educate and help landowners fight government regulation of private property. Over the last decade, ALF president, Dan Byfield, has spent countless hours counseling landowners who found themselves facing threats from government agencies or individual groups intent on taking or controlling their private property. With each phone call, Byfield realized landowners were losing their battles because they waited too long to act or they didn’t have adequate legal counsel. He knew there had to be a better way. Byfield determined that what landowners needed most was access to immediate advice from qualified property rights lawyers, preferably in the landowner’s geographical area and at a price that wouldn’t break the bank....Go here to learn more about LandGuard....
Judge allows timber sale to go forward A federal judge has rejected a challenge to one of the keystones in the White House's Healthy Forests Initiative, allowing a timber sale to continue on the Lolo National Forest without full environmental review. "What he said is that the categorical exclusion is a tool that can be used," said Chris West, "and it can be done quickly - before the value of timber is lost." West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, applauded the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula to allow logging to continue on the Lolo's Camp Salvage timber sale. The sale was administered under new federal regulations that allow for "categorical exclusions," - exemptions from normal environmental reviews and public-comment requirements for sales that fall into a narrow category. To qualify for categorical exclusion status, the sale must be of dead or dying timber, on 250 acres or fewer, with less than one-half mile of temporary road building. Barring any "extraordinary circumstances," the categorical exclusion means there is no need for a full environmental analysis or environmental impact statement....
Wal-Mart, NFWF commended by Norton Interior Secretary Gale Norton today commended the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Wal-Mart for developing an innovative conservation partnership under which the company will contribute $35 million over the next 10 years to conserve and protect vital wildlife habitat across the country. Under the "Acres for America" program, Wal-Mart pledges to conserve at least 138,000 acres of habitat, equal to the footprint of all its stores and facilities in the United States. However, the amount of habitat actually conserved will be much higher, as the Foundation already has reached an agreement to acquire more than 6,000 acres to be added to Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana and a permanent conservation easement on more than 312,000 acres of forests, rivers and wetlands in Maine. "'Acres for America' demonstrates the power of cooperative conservation and partnership," Norton said at a ceremony at the National Geographic Society. "With its generous contribution, Wal-Mart is empowering the foundation to protect and restore important areas of wildlife habitat that otherwise might never be conserved. The company is setting a standard of corporate stewardship that I hope other companies will emulate."....
Land near Grand Canyon to be protected Bolstered by a $1 million grant from retail giant Wal-Mart, conservation groups plan to protect almost 900,000 acres of wilderness, including land stretching along 125 miles of the Grand Canyon's North Rim. Conservationists said the $4.5 million purchase of two private ranches, totaling about 1,000 acres, also will help protect more than 850,000 acres that are attached to the land through grazing permits from the North Rim to the Utah line. The acquisition connects three national monuments, two national recreation areas and eight wilderness areas, shielding them from further development and restoring overgrazed lands to nurture endangered species in the region....
Ranch redefines large-scale conservation Lava Lake Land & Livestock, based near Carey, is redefining the face of Western sheep ranching and conservation. The company, which was recently honored with the Idaho Wildlife Society's special recognition award, was created out of several sheep outfits bought five years ago by a San Francisco couple named Brian and Kathleen Bean. The company's holdings include 24,000 acres of private land and grazing privileges on 730,000 acres of public land allotments. The award was given to the ranch in recognition of the company's work to accomplish "landscape scale conservation" in South Central Idaho. Landscape-scale conservation moves the focus from individual species to an entire landscape to protect plant communities and wildlife, especially species that need large areas to survive, said Tess O'Sullivan, Lava Lake's program manager for science and conservation....
U.S. forests look for sites to close down Your favorite national forest campsite will soon be competing for its survival, while the ranger station down the road may show up for sale on the Internet. The U.S. Forest Service is ranking recreation sites such as campgrounds and trailheads for closure, because it can no longer afford to maintain them all. Oregon's Deschutes and Winema national forests are among the first nationwide to undertake the reviews. The squeeze is driven in part because President Bush's Healthy Forest Initiative, a push to thin flammable Western forests, is diverting money away from the upkeep of forest facilities. The Forest Service is also attempting to sell offices and compounds that bustled during the logging heyday decades ago but now sit idle. Its officials hope cash from the sales will help keep other decaying facilities from falling apart....
Wyoming county plans to appeal wolf ruling of U.S. district judge The ability to shoot wolves as predators is worth fighting for, Park County commissioners said Tuesday. They vowed to continue their legal support of Wyoming's dual-classification wolf-management plan by appealing U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson's recent dismissal of the three-party lawsuit filed against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Interior. Park County will be a "plaintiff intervenor," once again joining forces with the state of Wyoming and the Wolf Coalition. It will appeal Johnson's decision to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. "I feel very strongly about this," said Commissioner Marie Fontaine. "We've been misinformed a number of times along the way. The number of wolves here is overwhelming, especially being so close to Yellowstone National Park." Because Wyoming wants wolves classified both as a trophy game animal and a predator, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not approve Wyoming's management plan. Predator status won't preserve the 15 packs needed to remove the animal from Endangered Species Act protection, the agency says....
Refuge expansion proposed The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is exploring a proposal to add the Barnes Ranch and perhaps the Agency Lake Ranch to the Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. Under two proposed additions, the Fish and Wildlife Service would purchase the 2,671-acre Barnes Ranch, which is in private ownership, and either cooperatively manage the 7,125-acre Agency Lake Ranch with the Bureau of Reclamation, or acquire the Agency Lake property. The refuge currently includes almost 15,000 acres of mostly freshwater marsh and open water on Upper Klamath Lake, including habitat for endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers, and a variety of resident and migratory birds. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say the refuge additions would increase water storage in the Upper Klamath Basin, and improve fish and wildlife habitat....
Governor backs industry plan A Bureau of Land Management plan to allow more drilling in the Jonah natural gas field near Pinedale doesn't give companies enough flexibility to tap all the gas that's available, Gov. Dave Freudenthal says. At the same time, the plan's attempt to limit disturbance from development would provide only marginal benefit to wildlife habitat, the governor has concluded. As a result, Freudenthal supports EnCana Oil & Gas Inc.'s proposal to allow drilling of wells with few restrictions within the existing Jonah field, in exchange for a commitment from the company to improve wildlife habitat in areas surrounding the field, according to a Tuesday letter he wrote to the BLM....
U.S. eyes oil shale resources Faced with record-high crude oil imports and prices, U.S. lawmakers held a one-day hearing Tuesday to examine tapping domestic oil shale on federal lands, a resource some geologists say could yield 1.9 trillion barrels of oil. Oil shale formations, largely found out West, release low-grade oil when mined, crushed, and subjected to high temperatures. Companies like Royal Dutch/Shell Group, already armed with the technology to develop oil shale, would be the likely benefactors if the Senate folds legislation to open the fields into a future energy bill. The interest is certainly there. Over the past four months more than 30 companies and individuals have sent recommendations to the Bureau of Land Management on how to go about leasing mineral rights on oil federal oil shale properties. Even the Defense Department has joined in, seeing an opportunity to perhaps boost jet fuel supplies. Senator Pete Domenici, the Republican chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said at the hearing he is looking at tax incentives to encourage developing oil shale....
Colo. River users at odds over flow The seven states that share the Colorado River are unlikely to agree on how much to refill Lake Powell this year, leaving the decision to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Colorado's top water planner said Tuesday. Five of the driest years on record have left Lake Powell, the giant impoundment on the Utah- Arizona line, two-thirds empty. Meanwhile, record precipitation this winter has helped produce a dramatic rebound in Lake Mead, Powell's equally large downstream sibling, which is now nearly two-thirds full. To help restore balance to the system, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming want the Bureau of Reclamation to capture more water than planned behind Lake Powell's Glen Canyon Dam. They plan to make that request next week....

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