NEWS ROUNDUP

Suit seeks to halt grazing Get ready for a Western showdown. An environmental group recently stirred the debate over public lands use when it filed a lawsuit that could impact one of the nation's largest livestock producers. Litigation over Bureau of Land Management's decision to allow new grazing in the Jarbidge area could pit two well-known Western figures against each other. "The BLM is failing to protect values other than livestock grazing," said Jon Marvel, whose Hailey-based Western Watersheds Project levied the lawsuit. Western Watersheds seeks to put a halt to grazing on roughly 800,000 acres of BLM land. A good portion of those acres are used by J.R. Simplot for his cattle grazing operation -- one of the largest in the country. While Simplot could not be reached for comment, another well-known rancher said he believes he knows Western Watersheds' real motives. "Their agenda is to remove livestock from the range," said Bert Brackett, whose family has run cattle in the region for generations. Western Watersheds' suit would impact a substantial portion of Brackett's ranching operation....
Feds propose restrictions for wolf program over ranchers' concerns The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed new restrictions on releasing Mexican gray wolves into the wild after hearing the concerns of ranchers and other opponents of the reintroduction program. The agency has suggested a one-year moratorium on some releases. No captive-bred wolves without experience in the wild would be let loose, and wolves that had killed livestock wouldn't be moved from one state or Indian reservation to another under the proposal. The draft proposal, announced Friday at a meeting in Arizona, allows for the moratorium to be lifted if something happens to bring the number of breeding pairs in the wild below six, Morgart said. The proposal is open for public comments and a final decision will made in June....
Reforestation effort lagging The U.S. Forest Service is lagging behind in efforts to reforest thousands of acres of land, leaving the nation's national forests increasingly prone to devastating wildfires, a federal report released Wednesday concludes. A General Accountability Office study found the amount of land needing reforestation has increased since 2000, and the Forest Service now has a backlog of 900,000 acres. Fire damage, insect infestation and disease -- and not timber harvesting -- are increasing the need to replant trees in the nation's forests, the report found. But the Forest Service lacks the data and funding to effectively address the backlog and must do a better job establishing priorities among reforestation projects, the report found....
Forest Service official sues for documents related to pesticide use The Forest Service is being sued by one of its own officials for failing to release documents on the approval of pesticide use in several national forests across the Southwest. Doug Parker, pesticide coordinator and assistant director of forestry and forest health for the agency's Southwestern Region, has been seeking the documents since December, when he claims his supervisor rejected a request he made under the Freedom of Information Act. Parker's attorney, Dennis Montoya of Albuquerque, said his client is seeking information on all pesticide projects in the region's 11 forests since January 2002, including proof that certified employees reviewed and signed off on the plans and documentation that workers who applied the chemicals or supervised the projects had proper training....
Biologists begin hunting for elusive pallid sturgeon This week marked the beginning of the annual "pallid sturgeon hunt" on the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. This "hunt" is where fisheries biologists and pallid sturgeon researchers from multiple agencies come together to capture adult pallid sturgeon. Then the adults are taken to the hatchery, spawned, and the young produced are raised, then released back to the wild. Since this endangered species is having trouble reproducing and recruiting on its own under existing habitat conditions, pallid sturgeon need the stocking program in order to replenish their population until habitat conditions are improved....
Conservationists, federal agencies spar over salmon Conservationists and the federal government argued in court Wednesday over whether the federal government is responsible for the threatened and endangered salmon that die making their way past hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. A coalition of environmentalists, sports fishermen and American Indian tribes argued that the latest federal program for operating the dams under the Endangered Species Act treats the manmade structures as part of the landscape and fails to take responsibility for irreparable harm to the fish. In their rebuttal in U.S. District Court in Portland, the U.S. Justice Department argued that the federal agencies which control the 14 dams dissecting the Columbia and Snake Rivers cannot be held responsible for the existence of the dams, which predate the passage of the Endangered Species Act. They can only be held responsible for the extra mortality caused by how the dams are operated, not the mortality based on the existence of the dams, said attorney Fred Disheroon, representing NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency responsible for restoring salmon runs in danger of extinction....
Agency estimates cost of protecting endangered bird The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates a price tag of $29.2 million to $39.5 million a year to protect the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher. Last fall, the agency proposed, for the second time, designating 1,556 miles along the Rio Grande and other rivers in New Mexico, Arizona and five other states with habitat considered critical to the 6-inch-tall bird. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2001 that an earlier economic analysis was not adequate. Public hearings on the proposal are set for next month. Comments will be accepted until May 31....
Woodpecker 'rediscovery' sets birders all atwitter For nearly 60 years, bird lovers have slogged through the swampwaters of the Deep South, along the bayous and rivers feeding the Mississippi River, searching in vain for a spectacular bird long thought to be extinct - the ivory-billed woodpecker. In news bound to electrify bird lovers worldwide, scientists are expected to announce today the "rediscovery" of the ivory-bill in a remote swampy area of northeast Arkansas known as the Big Woods. At least one male ivory-bill has been found alive and well in the deep forest of bottomland hardwoods between Little Rock and Memphis. It is the first confirmed sighting of the long-sought bird since World War II....
Government moves to raise royalties on some oil production now that prices are up With oil prices rising, the Interior Department wants more royalties on energy production. The department's Bureau of Land Management gave notice Wednesday that it plans to suspend its policy of offering discounted royalties for producers of heavy crude oil, starting in November. There are 19 such companies operating on 39 leased properties nationally. The discounted rates, which have helped prop up the industry since 1996 when prices were lower, would return when oil prices fall below $24 a barrel for six consecutive months. Heavy oil operators pay a customary royalty rate of 12.5 percent per barrel, but under the royalty relief program that rate has ranged from 3.9 percent to 11.6 percent per barrel, said Patrick Etchart, spokesman for Interior's Minerals Management Service in Denver. The bureau also is looking at dropping its discount royalties for more than 400,000 "stripper" wells, which produce 15 or fewer barrels a day, but has yet to make a decision, spokeswoman Celia Boddington said....
Bush Gives Energy Plan Amid High Prices President Bush today called for major new construction of nuclear power plants, oil refineries and other facilities to help reverse America's growing dependence on foreign energy sources. Bush said the higher cost of gasoline is a problem that has been "years in the making" and that amounts to a steadily rising "foreign tax on the American people." Bush called for increasing domestic production from existing energy resources, notably nuclear power, which now meets 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs. Bush also pointed out that no new oil refineries have been built in the United States since 1976, and he said U.S. oil refining capacity needs to be expanded to reduce dependence on imports....
Lawmakers pull together diverse coalition to stop horse slaughter A coalition of celebrities, race track leaders and others have called in from across the country hoping their voices push forward legislation that would end or limit the slaughter of wild horses. Lawmakers have been pushing for years to stop horses from being killed at three U.S. slaughterhouses that send the meat overseas for consumption. The effort picked up steam after Congress last year replaced a 34-year-old ban on selling wild mustangs and burros with a provision that allows the sale of older, unwanted horses. Supporters of two proposed measures -- one that would stop the commercial sale of wild horses and burros and one that would ban horse slaughter in the United States -- are trying to pull together as many people as possible to back their cause. So far, they have pulled together stars ranging from country music singers to a "Desperate Housewives" actress....
Feral hogs making a mess of Texas Wild hogs are mangling fields and pastures with their razor-sharp tusks. They're wrecking ecosystems by wallowing in streambeds. They're even killing and eating smaller animals. In short, the nation's largest feral hog population is making a mess of Texas. Farmers and ranchers - who sustain an estimated $52 million annually in damage at the snouts of the rapidly growing wild hog population - are asking the Legislature and hunters for help controlling the estimated 2 million animals. "Bring an AK-47, because that's what you'll need," Canton cattle rancher Don Metch said. The nocturnal, omnivorous hogs can grow to 400 pounds and have four fierce-looking tusks that can extend five inches from their top and bottom jaws. They're more bristly and muscular than domestic pigs, and they can be ill-tempered when cornered. Feral hogs are found in 230 of the state's 254 counties, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department estimates. Nationwide, hogs number 4 million in 42 states, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates....
Column: Environmentalism is alive and well and adapting When a passionate cause becomes a mainstream value, has the cause died, or lost its way? That's what some environmental ``doom and gloomers'' are saying about our movement. That's just wrong. Today, because of proposals made by ardent environmentalists -- and embraced by politicians who have ranged from reluctant to enthusiastic -- America's air is healthier and its waterways less polluted. Hazardous wastes are handled with greater care. We have brought a few species back from the brink of extinction. All without impeding economic growth. Still, environmental groups face greater challenges than could have been imagined when we began. As we enter the 21st century, a historic shift has occurred in the balance of strength between nature and humankind. We have passed from a world where the overall stability of the earth's environment could be taken for granted to a world where major, possibly irreversible human alterations of the environment are under way. Chief among these is global warming....
Bay Area environmentalists increasingly targeting Pombo The meeting was about protecting the Farallon Islands. But at a mid-April town hall event in San Francisco, a San Francisco Board of Supervisors member got up in front of an audience of 60 and voiced what seemed to be on the minds of many. "The strategy has got to change toward knocking out people like Mr. Pombo," Jake McGoldrick said. His words were met with a tremendous round of applause. Last fall, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, easily won a seventh term. But the congressman's recent work to rewrite environmental laws has earned him the notice of environmentalists and politicians in the nearby Bay Area. Increasingly, there seems to be a Bay Area movement growing to unseat Tracy's powerful local congressman. For some, getting rid of Pombo seems to have become a top priority....
Water rights group appeals refuge permit A water rights advocacy group last week filed an appeal contesting an off-season water right granted by the state to a federal agency for use on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Water For Life Executive Director Emilie Wolff said the water right application did not comport with Oregon water law’s standards on beneficial use and over-appropriation and sets an unsettling precedent. Among the claims advanced in the appeal, Water For Life claims that the state relaxed water permit standards when it granted the 820.4 cubic feet per second water right in the Donner und Blitzen River Basin and stripped the state of its ability to allocate for future uses in the basin. “They took an off-season right for every drop of water that will ever run through that basin,” Wolff said. “Eight-hundred and twenty cfs is a gigantic amount of water. It’s a basin at full capacity of flood stage.” Wolff said water permit applicants typically explain in detail what they plan to do with their water. In this case, however, officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stipulated only that they would use the right for wildlife refuge management. “They’ve given the agency a right in a way they would never give to a rancher,” she said. “It’s definitely precedent-setting. We definitely think that the department is overstepping its statutory bounds.”....
Column: The Fight to Save the Cache River Swamps The Cache River wetlands in extreme Southern Illinois are amazing to see - even after having large areas drained a century ago. This was done by reversing the flow of Post creek that once went into the Cache, enriching it and helping keep it wet. Instead, Post Creek became a disastrously eroded drainage ditch that drained the swamps into the Ohio River. Even after being badly exploited by the timber industry in the early 1900s, and after being devastated by row crop and livestock farming along it in the past several decades, what’s left is a strikingly beautiful and unique environment. In this wetland, particularly in the National Natural Landmark “Buttonland Swamp,” are some of the oldest trees in the U.S. This wetland, which is located in the “lower Cache,” escaped the drainage district and the loggers and contains cypress trees that are up to a 1,000 years old, and have hundreds of “knees,” some of which are taller than a person. Even the National Geographic, in a 1992 story several years ago, referred to the Cache wetlands as “internationally significant.” It now is primarily owned by either Illinois, (The Illinois Dept. Of Natural Resources) the federal government, (The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) or the Nature Conservancy, although there are still key private inholdings. These three agencies refer to themselves as “The Partnership.” The decades long process of recognizing the significance of the swamp, and taking steps to both protect and acquire the swamp has been touted as one of great environmental successes in the nation. But looks can be deceiving. In spite of the all of the publicity about the area in the last decade, the ecosystem is in trouble....
River runs full for first time in 10 years The Rio Grande is living up to its name as the spring runoff is filling the river and moving into the bosque. "An average stream flow forecast of 152 percent at Otowi Bridge near Española and recent warm weather have produced early and bountiful spring runoff conditions this year," State Engineer John D'Antonio said, "which is great news for farmers and recreational enthusiasts." For the first time since 1995, the river is filled to its banks and a larger volume is expected before the peak of the snow-melt runoff occurs in May. "We are expecting the volume of water to pass the gauge at Otowi Bridge to be 150 percent of average until the end of July," said Dan Murray, water supply specialist with the Natural Resource Conservation Service, which monitors the snow pack in the Rio Grande Basin. "This is the ninth highest flow since 1958. Last year, the actual flow was 60 percent of normal."....
La Plata River overwhelms Bureau of Rec improvements A section of the La Plata River that was realigned to be more environmentally functional was designed to handle heavy runoff - but the test just came too soon, a Bureau of Reclamation biologist said Tuesday. Michael Francis was explaining why snowmelt runoff in the past two weeks has torn through two sections of an S-shaped channel that was created as part of a $1.2 million reconfigured riparian area two miles south of here. The redesign eliminated a 1,700-foot unobstructed channel that was causing environmental problems downstream. Two southwest La Plata County residents think the S-shaped channel was too shallow. "People around here said from the beginning 'It's not going to hold.' It wasn't deep enough," said Sharon Daniel, a former school-bus driver and ditch rider in western La Plata County. "A river does what it's going to do. And this wasn't Mother Nature's best work."....
Plowing a niche Hiking boots aside, Kent Connor looks the part of a western rancher from central casting, black cowboy hat, denim and all. At age 66, Connor runs a small cow-calf operation with his wife near Corvallis, Mont., using teams of horses to do much of the labor. It is a lifestyle steeped in tradition. "My wife's family and my family go back to about 1865," says Connor. "When I was 10, 11 years old I drove a team of horses and raked hay." When you watch him harness a team of his Belgian draft horses, each one weighing about 1,500 to 2,200s pounds, in his small red barn it feels like it could still be 1865. For the Connors and many like them in the West, the farm life will soon be a relic of memories and movies. This should come as news to no one since the West's prime farmland has been the sacrificial lamb to suburban expansion for decades now. As a profession, farming has never been easy, and thus never less attractive to younger generations than it is now in this age of convenience....
Bull rider's win proves costly Former bull riding world champion Cody Hancock had just returned to competition from a torn abdominal muscle he suffered at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in December. So he wasn't about to allow a severed ear slow him down last weekend at the Clovis (Calif.) Rodeo. Hancock drew Russell Rodeo's Boogie Ray in the first round, but he received a re-ride on a bull named Wino when Boogie Ray didn't perform up to par. Hancock scored only 72 points on Wino, but then it got even worse. While scrambling to get to the fence, the bull ran over him, grazing his right earlobe and tearing it. Officials called a brief timeout while fellow cowboys looked for the missing piece of his ear. No one was able to locate it at the time, but a 11-year-old boy found it after the rodeo. Despite the pain, Hancock returned the next night with a bandage over his ear and took on a Growney Brothers bull named Mudslide. Amazingly, he marked 89 points on the bull and won the round. On Sunday, he scored 83 points on a bull named Ugly, another Growney Brothers bull. That effort gave him second place in the championship round, but it gave him his first aggregate title of the season with 244 points on three bulls....
Chuck wagons roll into Logan It looked like the cast of Lonesome Dove had set up camp Saturday at Ute Lake. Five groups with five old-fashioned chuck wagons were on hand as part of the Logan/Ute Lake Chamber of Commerce’s Chuck Wagon Cook Off. The smell of apple cobbler baking in Dutch ovens, biscuits browning in iron pans over coal fires, and bacon and beans boiling in huge stock pots had those attending the event buying ten-dollar tickets to sample the culinary delights. Members of the American Chuck Wagon Association take their old west ways seriously. Sam Howell and his friend Paul Geesling, dressed in cowboy garb, brought their wagon from Odessa to relive the old days alongside shimmering Ute Lake. “This wagon is about 105 years old,” Howell said as he stirred a big pot of beans and hard, cured bacon. “The secret to the beans is the herbs and spices, but I’m not saying which ones.” Each wagon was judged on the quality of food, the wagon and the campsite. The cooking competition is what gets mouths to watering and creative juices flowing....

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