NEWS ROUNDUP

Westerners see poetic justice in saving snakehead For years, Alan Gardner has watched Easterners tie up land and scuttle development in the West by asking federal bureaucrats to put various rodents, predators and pests on the nation's endangered-species list. Now it's time for a little payback. Mr. Gardner is leading a band of 13 commissioners from Western counties who have filed to seek protection for a rare new species: the northern snakehead fish, also known as the "Frankenfish." In their application on behalf of the snakehead, the commissioners identify its habitat as a stretch of freshwater and land covering 68 million acres and cutting across 11 Eastern states and Washington, D.C. In the unlikely event that their petition is approved, the snakehead's hangouts would come under strict restrictions on building, transportation and recreation in the name of protecting the famous fish....
Engineers Redesign Roads to Save Moose At night on a dark country road, all that the headlights catch are the shadowy legs the size of tree trunks rising out of the pavement. Standing six feet at the shoulder, weighing up to 1,000 pounds, with massive antlers more than five feet across, moose tower over automobiles and have no fear of them. Increasingly the undisputed giants of the northern forest are tangling with traffic as they expand south. Massachusetts motorists hit 52 moose last year, a more than sixfold increase in four years. But now some traffic engineers around the country are experimenting with redesigning roads to accommodate wandering wildlife and using high tech laser and infrared devices, developed for space exploration and anti-missile systems, to warn motorists when a moose wanders into the road....
Professor protects critters If God's eye is on the sparrow, who's keeping tabs on the weasels? Kerry Foresman and Cory Clausen, that's who. Foresman, a University of Montana biology professor, and Clausen, who works for Roscoe Steel and Culvert Co. in Missoula, have patented a handy-dandy anti-roadkill device called the "critter crawl," a metal, mesh shelf that nestles inside a culvert, suspended above any flowing water. It allows furry little fauna such as fishers, martens, weasels, raccoons, skunks, porcupines, marmots — everything from the endangered lynx to the everyday puddy tat — to tiptoe under a highway, safe from the wrath of B.F. Goodrich....
Prairie chickens draw crowds More than 100 people flocked from as far as Massachusetts and as close as Clovis this weekend to attend the fourth annual High Plains Prairie Chicken Festival. The highlight of the weekend is the lesser prairie chicken’s mating ritual. Right before the springtime sunrise, male prairie chickens congregate on raised semi-clearings called “leks.” Here they puff their feathers, their pinnate and their bright red cheeks, as they spar, stomp and scratch to woo the female. The male’s mating “booming” cry can be heard up to a mile away....
All in the name of buffalo Justine Sanchez' maternal instinct fueled her desire to volunteer for the Buffalo Field Campaign. "As a mother, I felt like I have to raise my child to be a conscious human," she said this past week. "That's the only way we're going to be successful, to raise our children to look out for the buffalo." Sanchez, who lives in the mountains near Ward, Colo., started volunteering for the campaign four years ago after she grew frustrated reading about the capture and killing of Yellowstone National Park buffalo. These women, along with hundreds of other volunteers, are the reason the Buffalo Field Campaign is going strong. Now in its eighth year, the group wants to end what it sees as the unjustified slaughter of wildlife, all in the name of protecting cattle....
Devils Tower to keep name If God's eye is on the sparrow, who's keeping tabs on the weasels? Kerry Foresman and Cory Clausen, that's who. Foresman, a University of Montana biology professor, and Clausen, who works for Roscoe Steel and Culvert Co. in Missoula, have patented a handy-dandy anti-roadkill device called the "critter crawl," a metal, mesh shelf that nestles inside a culvert, suspended above any flowing water. It allows furry little fauna such as fishers, martens, weasels, raccoons, skunks, porcupines, marmots — everything from the endangered lynx to the everyday puddy tat — to tiptoe under a highway, safe from the wrath of B.F. Goodrich....
Lawsuit Pits Tribe Against U.S. and Endangered Bighorn Sheep Peninsular bighorn sheep have lived in this sun-drenched oasis and the parched mountains looming above as long as Native Americans have been here. It is an ancient relationship enshrined in the bighorn statue chained securely in front of the Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians' downtown administrative offices. But now, the tribe is suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking to withdraw special protection of 844,000 acres for the endangered sheep. Tribal officials contend that the "critical habitat" designation could cost them "hundreds of millions of dollars" in future development revenues — even though only 17,000 of the protected acres are on reservation land. An attorney for the tribe said that to challenge the habitat designation on the reservation land, the lawsuit had to target all 844,000 acres. The tribe, which owns half of downtown Palm Springs, says it has no immediate plans to develop the lands, but wants to preserve its right to do so....
Freedom beckons 6 lynx Finally, he went for it. Seconds later, the lynx had vanished, becoming Saturday the newest transplant to a state his species once called home. The $2.5 million lynx reintroduction program the Colorado Division of Wildlife began six years ago is reaching its apex and drawing to an end. Not only is this the last year wildlife officials intend to release large groups of the cats into the San Juan Mountains, but it’s also the first year they will have a real chance of telling whether the reintroduction effort is working. Kittens born in Colorado are old enough to breed, and if they do, it could mean the species is once again taking hold....
Dispute brewing over expansion plans at Little Bighorn Battlefield The current superintendent of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument near here is at odds with a former superintendent and a National Park Service historian over a proposal to expand the battlefield's museum and visitor center. Current Superintendent Darrell Cook said he is taking a ‘‘very preliminary'' look at adding an indoor interpretive space to the visitor center and expanding the onsite museum. But Robert M. Utley, the former chief historian of the National Park Service, which operates the national monument, said expanding the visitor center at its existing location ‘‘would likely inhibit, perhaps fatally,'' long-term plans to move the center off the site of the 1876 battle. In a letter to the Custer Battlefield Historical and Museum Association, Utley said it ‘‘is widely acknowledged'' that the National Park Service chose the wrong site in 1950 by building the museum at the battlefield site. ‘‘It is a major intrusion on the historic landscape and ought to be removed as soon as possible,'' he wrote....
Man rushes to preserve dino tracks Grand Junction resident Andre Delgalvis launched a race against time and the spring runoff to save what may be a significant find of dinosaur footprints at Lake Powell. Several years in a row of drought has drained Lake Powell to roughly one-third its capacity, the lowest it has been since it was filled in the 1960s. Historically low water levels at the lake have revealed hundreds — possibly thousands — of dinosaur tracks embedded in sandstone rocks that now rest on the shoreline, said Delgalvis. When the reservoir is full, the rock and footprints will be submerged. Delgalvis wants to save the dinosaur footprints before they’re inundated with water, covered again perhaps for decades....
Senate panel OKs bill for Mississippi drilling in Gulf Islands Seashore A U.S. Senate committee has approved a bill that would allow the state of Mississippi to explore, develop and produce oil and gas from beneath the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The bill, approved Wednesday by the Senate Appropriations Committee, also could prevent litigation between the National Park Service and the state of Mississippi over the rights to oil and gas under the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The committee is headed by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. The bill must pass the Senate and House before it could become law. More than 80 percent of Gulf Islands National Seashore is under water, except for the barrier islands. The seashore stretches 160 miles from Cat Island in Mississippi to the eastern tip of Santa Rosa Island in Florida....
"Fair balance" urged on Roan The federal government has seriously underestimated the impacts of its plan to drill for gas on western Colorado's Roan Plateau and should adopt more environmental protections to avoid a court fight, a coalition of local governments, businesses and environmentalists says. In comments submitted Friday to the Bureau of Land Management, the group urged the federal agency to adopt a competing proposal that would prohibit drilling from the plateau but allow directional wells to access gas beneath it. The coalition, which includes two counties, conservation groups and businesses, claims the BLM study is flawed because it looks at environmental impacts during only the first 20 years of a development cycle that will last much longer....
Gas bonanza shakes dust from Western towns Landscape painter Alfred Jacob Miller set up his easel on the shore of Fremont Lake 168 years ago and rendered one of the most famous romantic portraits ever made of the wild American West. Today, in the small ranching and tourist community that grew up around the venerated lake, motel rooms in Pinedale are sold out, but not from traditional tourists exploring the haunting Wind River range. The influx stems from an unprecedented invasion of oil-patch "roughnecks" creating a round-the-clock beehive of drilling rig crews, pipe layers, roadbuilders, and truck fleets. Indeed, tiny Pinedale represents ground zero in one of the biggest natural-gas booms in the postwar era. Driven by high energy prices and looser government regulations, it is transforming many of the small towns here along the rumpled spine of the Rockies — creating thousands of lucrative jobs, pouring money into local treasuries, and, as always happens with sudden growth, producing new problems ranging from traffic to drug use....
Column: ANWR is a start Sometimes we have to hand it to our greener friends, especially those in the Green Party. To express their horror about the recent Senate vote to open a teeny section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling, they raise the global warming specter. Specifically, the March 22 press release says, "Green Party members noted that new drilling not only threatened local lands and wildlife in Alaska, but also risked accelerating the advance of catastrophic global warming." Even if we grant all the globe's average annual warming of 0.017 degree Centigrade in the last 10 years was due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide -- and that's quite a concession -- the numbers on ANWR are a drop in the barrel. According to the Energy Information Administration, in that decade petroleum accounted for about 42 percent of the total human contribution of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. That would mean a total petroleum-related warming of about 0.007 degree yearly....
Sand and gravel plant in tight spot Sandia Aggregates may be about to lose it all in an unusual conflict that pits sand and gravel production against the protection of sensitive lands. The company, owned by Pabco Building Products LLC, will begin shutting down this month and will have to lay off at least half of its 20 employees. At the heart of the issue are location and time. Sandia's operations in northeast Clark County abut the Rainbow Gardens Area of Critical Environmental Concern. That site is a 37,620-acre parcel east of Frenchman's Mountain that received federal protected status in 1998, partly because it is a habitat for sensitive plants, such as the bearpaw poppy, and threatened animals, including the desert tortoise....
Column: Tree Huggers Finally Branch Out Some environmentalists are ready to pronounce their movement dead. As evidence they point to the relentless confidence with which President Bush and Republican majorities in Congress attack long-standing environmental goals, such as protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drillers. In truth, though, the environmental movement's vitality depends on how we define the movement. This is more than a linguistic exercise. Take global warming. The "environmentalism is dead" crowd contends that the big environmental groups have failed to get new federal laws passed limiting global-warming gases. The reason, they say, is the green groups' inability to link with labor and social movements and develop a broad coalition to take on such multifaceted issues as global warming. The environmentalists counter they have partners in their quest for energy efficiency. Both sides overlook a new dynamic that is revitalizing and redefining environmentalism: the development of locally and regionally based quality-of-life movements....
A testy case on access Asher's house sits on a low bluff above the John Day. For him, "steelheaders" has become an epithet, synonymous with the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, a group on the opposite side in a long-running dispute over who owns the banks along the Central Oregon river. On Tuesday, the State Land Board is expected to side with the steelhead group and assert the public's ownership over a 174-mile stretch of the John Day as it flows from near Spray into the Columbia River east of The Dalles. In the next several years, the state is set to do the same with at least six more rivers, starting next with the upper Rogue River. And if the experience around Spray is any indication, the other decisions will prove just as fraught with politics, lawsuits and enmity. "They way I see it, we're sort of a test case," Asher said. "Whatever is decided here will apply to the rest of the rivers in Oregon."....
Drought means less water for Klamath farmers Spring rain and snow have been too little, too late to avert irrigation cutbacks on the Klamath Reclamation Project, where farmers will have to tighten their belts to sustain threatened and endangered fish in a drought. The operations plan for the 2005 irrigation season released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation cuts back water for farmers by 15 percent on the bulk of the 180,000-acre project straddling the Oregon-California border on the east side of the Cascade Range. ``Since this is shaping up to be the third driest year on record, I am asking all Klamath Basin farmers, both on and off the reclamation project, to really tighten up on their water usage,'' said Dave Sabo, Reclamation's manager for the Klamath Project. Because of the drought, the amount mandated for fish is less than in wet years. A water bank set up to increase flows for fish has ramped up to 100,000 acre feet this year - about a third of what goes to irrigation. Farmers are being paid $7.6 million to leave 25,000 acres dry and divert wells. Nearby wildlife refuges are contributing 15,000 acre feet....
State prepares for water 'call' response Wyoming needs a plan to respond to a "compact call" on the Colorado River, should such a call ever happen, state officials say. Deputy State Engineer Harry LaBonde spoke with members of the Green River Basin Advisory Group here this week about the state's work on such a plan. The planning process focuses on the need for the upper basin states to provide water to the lower basin states under the Colorado River Compact, which was signed in 1922. With five years of drought, major storage accounts are low and could get lower. Wyoming's Green River is a tributary of the Colorado River....
Could Bull Riding Become the Next NASCAR? The wild sport of bull riding has always had its fans, but a group of cowboys wants more. They are trying to do for bull riding what NASCAR did for stock-car racing -- propel it into the big leagues. With high-tech shows and big-money promotions, bull-riding competitions have been filling arenas from California to the Carolinas and building a loyal TV audience of millions of fans. Bull riding advocates say the sport appeals to more than just cowboys. "You don't have to have a cowboy hat, you don't have to be from Wyoming, you don't have to have an agriculture background, it's just the sports fan," said Tuff Hedeman of the Professional Bull Riders Association....
Saddler's craft fits him well Saddler Doug Zinsitz is just about the last of his breed in this part of Texas. But once there was Don Atkinson in Ingram, Leonard Galvan on West Avenue in San Antonio and Don Atcheson in Kerrville. Before that, a rider could get a custom-made saddle in the now-defunct downtown Joske's department store. Even routine saddle-making jobs, once plentiful in Yoakum, are gradually being shifted to Mexico. Now, Doug's Saddlery on Main in Boerne is about the nearest place for locals to get a saddle featuring the leather and designs — called tooling — that they want. "It's a tough business to get into because it's hard to get schooled in this kind of work since you can't get the tools you need," said Zinsitz, 50....
Wild West Expo begins this week From 33 states and four foreign countries, western arena arts experts and fans will gather in Claremore April Wednesday through Sunday for the Will Rogers Wild West International Expo (public events start Thursday morning). If you have ever watched rope twirling, gun spinning or the latest Halle Berry movie, when she cracks a whip in each hand as “Catwoman,” and wondered “how’d they do that,” come to the Claremore Expo Center for the answer. Like explaining how a magic act really works, experts in western arena arts will conduct exhibitions, seminars and lessons and compete during the Will Rogers Wild West International Expo at the Claremore Expo Thursday through Sunday. The Wild West Expo, moving to Claremore after 16 years in Las Vegas, is co-sponsored by the Will Rogers Heritage Trust and Wild West Arts Club....
Trick roper will spin butterflies Charro-style trick riding will be one of the features at the 84th Red Bluff Round-up Rodeo April 15-17 at the Tehama District Fairground. One of the brightest young talents performing the classic charro-style trick roping; Tomas Garcilazo will present La Charreria. Garcilazo was born and raised in his family heritage in the most traditional and pure sport of Mexico La Charreria. He has been champion all around in this sport which is composed of seven different events called Charro Complete. Garcilazo has been traveling all around the world developing horsemanship and roping skills bringing to the United States a Mexican flavor of his tradition and culture....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Black gets nod, not the wave at rodeo parade It's not easy being Queen for a Day. The Tucson Rodeo Parade Committee, numbering in the thousands as far as I could see, chose me to be their grand marshal. I was humbled and excited! It was like being nominated Secretary of Commerce or having Reggie Jackson ask for my autograph. In the interest of public disclosure they informed me that I was not the first choice, which explained the wadded up checklist I found in the rodeo museum trash can. My name was at the bottom. The following names had been crossed out: Sam Elliott, Condie Rice, Martha Stewart, Fred Whitfield, Theodore Roosevelt, Howard Hughes, Lassie, an Elvis impersonator and Garfield. The committee explained I would have responsibilities other than simply riding in the parade. I imagined interviews with National Public Radio, Dan Rather, Rush Limbaugh, a TV spot with Larry King, ribbon cuttings at Hoover Dam, the Pro-Rodeo Hall of Fame, Chernobyl. Instead, it turned out I was required to bus tables after the volunteers' luncheon, detail the parade chairman's car, and hawk nachos and beer during the slack performances....

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