Column: Wolves and hunting I'm convinced, based on several years of wolf research, that hunters will bear the brunt of wolf recovery/protection, regardless of location. There is no language written, in any wolf recovery plan, to protect the hunter's privilege to hunt. Wolves are well known to cause wild game population declines, which are so drastic, hunting is either eliminated or severely curtailed. And, there is no provision for recovery of wild game populations for the purposes of hunting. It simply will not be allowed. The problem with wolf recovery is that most people, especially hunters, have not looked "beyond press releases, and into the heart of the wolf issue." It must be stated clearly that the wolf is the best tool for shutting down hunting. The anti-hunters know this. Most hunters don't. Thus, wolf recovery is not opposed by the people who will be impacted most. In order to understand the impacts wolves have on hunting, let's look at some biological factors of the wolf, and compare some hunting facts....
EPA finds no radiation worries in town near polluted mine Federal regulators examining uranium contamination at a closed copper mine in northern Nevada reassured nearby residents they needn’t fear the homes they live in or the roads they drive. A special van that spent 10 days measuring radiation levels in and around Yerington determined there’s no immediate radiological concerns about dirt or rock hauled off the former Anaconda copper mine to build roads or foundations for homes the past three decades. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists confirmed earlier readings of unusually high levels of radiation on the mine property, which covers about six square miles along Yerington’s eastern border. But the meters didn’t register anything other than normal radiation levels off the mine site, which the U.S. Bureau of Land Management formally closed to public access last week, citing radiological and other hazards....
Gas-Drilling Permits in Rockies Outstrip Ability to Tap Resource As energy companies and Bush administration officials have long told the story, lack of access to federal land is the primary roadblock for increased production of natural gas in the United States. The lack-of-access story, however, does not square with what is happening on the ground here at the epicenter of what is widely being called the largest boom in gas drilling on federal land ever in the Rocky Mountain West. In response to White House orders to expedite gas extraction on federal lands, the Bureau of Land Management has issued more gas-drilling permits in the West than the industry has rigs to drill with or workers to operate the rigs, according to government records, industry experts and local officials....
Montana wants National Guard troops in Iraq back to fight fires To the casual visitor, this state is a postcard with snow on the mountaintops, gurgling rivers and hillsides covered with pine trees. To those in the know, this state is a virtual tinderbox. Facing a seventh consecutive year of drought and predictions of an extremely high risk of forest fires this summer, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer took an unusual step in March. He asked the Pentagon to bring the state's National Guard troops back from Iraq to be ready for firefighting duty. "This request was just good old cowboy common sense," he said, rapping his knuckles on the table in his office here for emphasis. "I'm not crying wolf. This is the real deal here. We will prepare for the worst, and I will pray for the best." But in a response dated March 17, Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, commander of the National Guard Bureau, rejected the request, saying he was not "in a position to direct the early return of deployed Guard soldiers and equipment."....
Column: Buyouts Help Lands and Ranchers Over the past decade, in places like Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Oregon's Steens Mountain and Arizona's Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, ranchers have accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars to take their cows permanently off lands with high ecological and recreational values. Whether this trickle of buyouts ever turns into a larger flood depends largely on money. A group of environmental organizations, flying under the banner of the Public Lands Grazing Campaign, is pushing legislation that would authorize the federal government to fund buyouts across the West. But the prospects of this Congress and president approving it are dimmer than dim. Site-specific bills &emdash; such as the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act, which authorizes the buyout of grazing permits held by a handful of Idaho ranchers in a proposed wilderness area &emdash; are more likely to pass and get funded. The ranchers' best hope for getting a "golden saddle" lies in the growing number of conservation groups and their private funders who want to see fewer cattle on the range. Today, at least a half-dozen groups, including the Grand Canyon Trust, the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Association, the National Wildlife Federation, the Conservation Fund, and the Oregon Natural Desert Association, have buyout programs. The Conservation Fund alone has purchased grazing permits covering 2.5 million acres over the last 10 years....
Initiative pays dividends for split estate lands Encouraged by a state association's outreach efforts, New Mexico Congressman Tom Udall, D-N.M., decided against re-introducing legislation last month that would have changed how surface and mineral lease holders reach agreements on shared federal lands. The "Good Neighbor Initiative" was launched in January by the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association (NMOGA). It seeks to address conflict between parties that hold mineral rights, usually energy companies, and groups that lease surface rights, often farmers or ranchers, on shared federal lands. The dual leases, called split estates, involve literally millions of acres overseen by the federal government. "I wanted to give this policy of the oil and gas association an opportunity to work," says Udall. "In the long run, I would like to see the surface owners' concerns be taken care of in a responsible way." Surface owners say oil and gas companies don't notify them prior to drilling, endanger livestock or contaminate water resources. Energy companies often complain that surface owners don't understand their lands are shared-use and they too often resort to lawsuits rather than talks to resolve conflicts....
Successful permitting means listening The North Slope Borough’s land planning and permitting section has the reputation of being an unreasonable regulator with its hand out. Section head Rex Okakok Sr. considers the reputation unfair. “We are in favor of oil and gas development, as long as it does not hurt our subsistence resources … and provides jobs for the people of the borough. … We bend over backwards, my staff and I, to guide oil companies through the permit application process. … In the last eight years since I’ve headed this office we have issued some 1,500 permits with only one delay, and that permit eventually did get issued,” Okakok told Petroleum News in a recent interview. “In my view we are very reasonable and helpful when a company comes in with a project.”....
Gas drillers have foothills in sight A Texas company hopes to drill two exploratory natural-gas wells in the Pike National Forest near Monument, marking the first echoes of the Rocky Mountain energy boom at the foot of the Front Range. Officials with Texas-based Dyad Petroleum, who could not be reached for comment, have said they expect to find gas some 8,000 feet below Mount Herman, a popular recreation area near the town of about 3,500 in the foothills northwest of Colorado Springs. These would be the first wells drilled along the Front Range foothills since the 1960s, several experts said....
Sheep to help cut fire risk on hillsides west of Reno Sometime late next week, a special team of firefighters will help reduce the risk of fire along a swath of foothill country west of Reno. They will do so with their mouths. Some 800 sheep will be set loose to graze across hilly fields now blooming green with grasses that will soon turn brown and ready to feed a dangerous, fast-moving wildfire. The project, a joint venture between the Nevada Department of Agriculture, Nevada Division of Forestry, U.S. Forest Service and Washoe County, is the first time sheep have been used to reduce fire danger in the Reno area....
As ancient ruins decay, experts say: Bury them In national parks and historic sites across the Southwest, federal conservation experts are pouring tons of dirt over 1,000-year-old ruins, reburying them in a desperate attempt to preserve the ancient dwellings and the information they hold about past lives. Archaeologists have lost too many battles against wind, water and gravity, they said. At Chaco Canyon, Aztec Ruins, Chimney Rock and other popular sites, walls are crumbling and ceilings are collapsing faster than they can be repaired with mortar and epoxy. By reburying sites - a process called reverse excavation, or backfilling - conservators put ancient structures back in a sort of suspended animation, where delicate mud mortar, ancient plaster and intricate stonework can hide from the elements....
Editorial: Give public a say in gas development The BLM is being shortsighted about development of natural gas in Wyoming. Citizens need to have a greater voice in drilling policies. There are environmentally friendly ways to develop natural gas, but they don't seem to be much used in southwestern Wyoming. Many residents of the state's Upper Green River Basin are alarmed about the pace of energy development - and about whether they have any say in it. Those concerns are shared in communities throughout the Rocky Mountains, as the federal government pushes to open more public lands to energy development but seems deaf to public input....
Lethal Legacy? Abandoned uranium mines bring health worries In a series of bluffs and buttes near the Montana and South Dakota border are the leavings of the atomic age. A decade after the United States dropped atomic bombs at Hiro- shima and Nagasaki, uranium mining claims were filed on the 65,000 acres of the North Cave Hills, South Cave Hills and Slim Buttes areas of Custer National Forest's Sioux Ranger District, about 100 miles north of Rapid City. By 1965, the mining companies had closed operations, packed up offices and equipment and disappeared from the prairie. Left behind and nearly forgotten were the 89 mined sites on national forest system land on the South Dakota portion of the Sioux Ranger District. Harding County residents worry that the abandoned uranium mines might have caused a higher incidence of cancer in the area. But state health officials say their fears are unfounded....
Replanting Burned Forests Delayed In California California has replanted little more than a quarter of the acreage the U.S. Forest Service determined needed attention after severe wildfires four years ago. The Arbor Day report comes as a congressional watchdog agency warned this week that reforestation is lagging nationwide. In Washington, D.C., U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey announced Friday that the Forest Service will partner with the nonprofit organization American Forests to plant as many as 20 million seedlings nationwide over the next decade. But the $200,000 in public money devoted to the partnership this year is a tiny fraction of what the Forest Service once spent. Of the 118,000 acres of California national forests that burned four years ago, 30,000 acres were so severely burned that foresters said they were unlikely to quickly recover on their own. But just 28 percent of the land has been replanted so far, according to a sampling by The Forest Foundation, an affiliate of the timber industry-allied California Forest Products Commission. Plans had already been modified to replant only 43 percent of what was originally targeted, the foundation found....
Forest Service will reopen disputed road A remote backcountry road that became a flashpoint for property-rights activists will be mostly reopened to four-wheel-drive and off-road vehicles under a decision issued by the U.S. Forest Service. A portion of the road left largely impassable by flooding nearly 10 years ago will remain off limits, except for horses, hikers and other non-motorized uses, the Forest Service said Thursday. ''This decision is a compromise of use and protection,'' said Bob Vaught, supervisor of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. Biologists for the Fish and Wildlife Service had argued for years that the road should not be rebuilt because of potential harm to bull trout in the nearby Jarbidge River. But some property-rights activists had asked the agency to recognize residents' rights to travel the road and to approve their plans to rebuild it....
Conservationists kill pigs to save fox Norm Macdonald rises each morning with the sun, grabs his .223-caliber rifle and slips into the passenger seat of a tiny, doorless helicopter for another day of shooting pigs. As the chopper skims over rugged terrain, Macdonald scans dozens of simple fence traps he's set up for the thousands of wild swine that have overrun this Southern California island. When there are pigs in the traps - and there always are - Macdonald leans out and pumps two bullets into each animal: One for the heart and one for the head. Each pig's death brings conservationists one step closer to their goal of saving the tiny Santa Cruz fox, an endangered species found only on this 96-square-mile island off Santa Barbara. Experts believe it's the best way to mend the island's delicate ecological web, which was torn when domesticated pigs escaped from now-abandoned ranches as early as the 1850s....
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota wolf population on rise New research shows that wolf numbers are increasing in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The three states in the upper Midwest have an estimated 3,800 gray wolves, experts said at a two-day conference in Hickley last week. While populations grew in all three states, preliminary data for Michigan and Wisconsin suggest dramatic change growth in those states -- 14 percent more wolves last winter than a year earlier. Michigan and Wisconsin still have far fewer wolves than Minnesota, which has an estimated 3,020 of them, up 23 percent since the last major survey in the winter of 1997-98, said John Erb, wolf biologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources....
Scientists Find Climate Change 'Smoking Gun' The Earth is now absorbing so much heat from the sun that the soot and greenhouse gases that humans are putting in the air appear to be the only reasonable explanation for the warming trend, according to research released Thursday by a team of prominent climate scientists. The scientists from NASA, Columbia University and the U.S. Department of Energy determined that precise, deep-ocean measurements showed a rise in temperature that matched their computer model predictions of what would happen in an increasingly polluted world. The scientists wrote that the findings confirmed the planet's "energy imbalance," a long-held theory on global warming....

Water Sparks Controversy at Utah-Nevada Border Las Vegas's growing thirst has touched off a rebellion along the Utah-Nevada border. People there say Las Vegas is coming after their water and they want the State of Utah to stand up and say "No!. Las Vegas wants to drill wells and build pipelines in a large swath of rural Nevada. But it's stirring controversy on both sides of the border. That's because one aquifer they want to drill is mostly under the state of Utah. It's called the Snake Valley aquifer, underground water stretching under three rural Utah counties. Ranchers and farmers in the area rely on springs and wells fed by that same groundwater. They fear Las Vegas pumping will drastically lower the water table and dry up their valley....
Boots on the ground As most Americans know, American Indians’ battles in this country didn’t end with Geronimo. Since World War II, they have waged a ground war in and out of the courts to defend their traditions and secure equal rights. It is this conflict that forms the crux of Charles Wilkinson’s dazzlingly researched and definitive new book, Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations. Drawing parallels between this movement and the civil rights era it took place alongside of, Wilkinson portrays their struggle as an essential chapter in American life. The story begins in the year of 1953, the same year “Brown v. Board of Education” reached the Supreme Court, and American Indians, as Wilkinson puts it, were being “left in the dust.”....
Cancer cure, rodeo rider unlikely partners When Owen Washburn hops atop 1,900 pounds of bucking beef tomorrow at the Nassau Open, he'll be sporting patches on his Wrangler shirt typical of any pro bull rider. Acme boots and American hats are to him what Pennzoil and Goodyear are to a NASCAR driver. But in a sport where chewing tobacco, tractors and all things cowboy are the usual sponsors, this New Mexico rancher and bull rider wears one logo that sends a different sort of message. It's for TheraSeed, the tiny radiation seed implant used as an alternative to surgery in treating prostate cancer....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Hay, hay, hay! It's hot chow for cows Jessie Winchester wrote a song called "Mississippi On My Mind." It contained the line, "Where the dogs are hungry all the time." The same can be said about team-roping steers. They're bred to stay thin and rarely are they overfed. Shannon had a little arena and always kept a handful of flaco corrientes (svelte bovidae). He asked Byron to find him some cheap hay and offered to let him use his homemade flatbed fenderless trailer....

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