NEWS ROUNDUP

Editorial: What's that howling? Wild wolves roam Arizona because reason triumphed over the Little Red Riding Hood myths that led to the federally funded slaughter of these top predators years ago. Yet it wasn't easy to launch this effort, and some ranchers still oppose the reintroduction of the endangered Mexican gray wolf that began in 1998 in Arizona and New Mexico. They left fingerprints on a recent proposal that wolf advocates say would undercut the process of building a sustainable population of this endangered species in the wild. That proposal was the result of an invitation-only meetings orchestrated by New Mexico Republican Rep. Stevan Pearce. He brought wolf-averse New Mexico ranchers together with high-level officials of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for private meetings....
Rights of passage After an absence of 40 years, salmon could return to the rivers and streams of Central Oregon by the end of the decade. It would be the largest single salmon and steelhead reintroduction in Oregon's history -- reaching from the Ochoco Mountains to the foothills of the Cascades. To succeed, the fish will have to overcome not only a legacy of failed salmon policies in the upper Deschutes River basin, but also the challenges of present-day politics. But along with the hopes of restoring the lost fishery are the fears of farmers, ranchers and others who rely on the basin's rivers for irrigation. They're worried that the ensuing competition for water could devolve into a Klamath-style confrontation....
Large male bear may have killed fellow griz A dead male grizzly bear, apparently the victim of another grizzly, was found Tuesday west of Choteau. Ranchers discovered the bear on Willow Creek near their property and contacted Fish, Wildlife & Parks, said Mike Madel, FWP bear specialist in the Choteau area. He said it appears the 5- or 6-year-old male grizzly was killed by a larger grizzly. "He was beaten and bitten," Madel said. "We know these males get into severe fights." He suspects the two grizzlies were fighting over a female grizzly that had been spotted in the same area. "We could see where the two encountered each other, and there were seven or eight circles that they treaded out while fighting," Madel said. The grizzly bear that was killed weighed between 450 and 500 pounds. Bear specialists found fur and a broken claw in the area. Wayne Gollehon said the bear was killed near his family property. "There was some tore up ground and hair and blood scattered around," he said. "I was quite surprised. I'd never heard of an adult bear being killed by another adult."....
Editorial: Roadless Rules ON ITS OWN, the Bush administration's rationale for radically amending the "roadless rule" sounds reasonable. The rule, a Clinton administration regulation designed to prevent logging, mineral extraction or road construction of any kind within some 56.5 million acres of pristine national forestland, has been contested by several states and has been overturned by two federal judges. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who is responsible for the Forest Service, says he wants to eliminate the one-size-fits-all federal rule in favor of a "state by state process." Mr. Rey says that this would give governors more say in how the rule is applied and therefore reduce the amount of "ill will" that the rule created. That argument is fine, as far as it goes. Unfortunately, it overlooks the bigger picture. It overlooks the fact that one of the court decisions against the rule has been successfully overturned by a higher court, and another appeal is pending: Surely that means that it's at least possible for the government to keep the legal process going. It overlooks the fact that the rule is supported not only by public opinion -- millions of people have signed petitions in its favor -- but by scientific evidence....
Pilots speak out on fire fleet From the father of aerial firefighting to pilots who recently flew through fiery debris in Southern California wildfires, aviators are saying the U.S. firefighting fleet is undergoing fundamental changes that may cost extra lives and homes. Federal agencies' shift from aging, big air tankers toward more helicopters and small, single-engine planes -- rather than finding new, large air tankers -- is based on faulty fiscal conclusions and flawed accident statistics, according to several pilots who have broken a 50-year-old code of silence. The Aerial Firefighting Industry Association -- representing 15 firms that supply planes, maintenance and pilots to government agencies -- also is touting a decade-old National Air Tanker Study that showed an overwhelming benefit-to-cost ratio for big air tankers and envisioned a fleet of 41 modern aircraft by now....
Loving NEPA to death If the first public hearing on changing the nation's landmark environmental protection act is any indication, the law may be liked to death. No one at the hearing on reforming the National Environmental Policy Act attacked the law, although Republicans noted repeatedly that it needed to be reformed. The debate over NEPA is one of those obtuse insider battles that the general public often ignores, but which are profoundly important. President Nixon signed NEPA in 1970, and it serves as the basis for federal management of public lands. The law requires federal agencies to conduct lengthy environmental reviews before approving projects. It is key to limiting development on public land and protecting endangered species. But critics, many of them in the GOP, contend the law has spawned a nightmare of litigation as lawsuits are filed to stop or alter proposed projects. They contend the law has also produced "paralysis by analysis'' as projects are delayed....
Wetlands project upsets some A barbed-wire fence on the east end of The Nature Conservancy’s land at the McCarran Ranch east Sparks has wild horse advocates and officials for the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center all riled up, but an official from the conservancy says the complaints are based on misunderstandings. The 300-foot fence put up about a year ago has cut off a path traditionally used by wild horses to drink from the Truckee River at the McCarran Ranch. And Lance Gilman, co-owner of Tahoe-Reno Industrial Park and the Wild Horse Adult Resort & Spa brothel next door, is upset that The Nature Conservancy began raising Northern Leopard frogs in a series of ponds at the McCarran Ranch — without telling anybody in the county....
'Green' energy another threat to grouse Wind power, a clean energy source that is plentiful in western Oklahoma, presents a threat to a dwindling population of birds on the Great Plains, conservationists and researchers say. The concern is that planned wind farms may damage bird habitat. Scientists are attempting to map the areas where potential wind farms and bird habitats overlap. Prairie grouse, whose numbers have taken a nosedive, particularly concern conservationists. The lesser prairie chicken, whose population has fallen from about 2 million to fewer than 50,000 in the past century, seem vulnerable to any sign of human activity in their breeding grounds, which stretch from northern Oklahoma into Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas, said Ron Wolfe of the Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville, Okla....
Huntsman policies delight rural factions but leave greens uneasy A little over four months into his first term, Huntsman's rural constituents are happy enough with his approach to public lands issues. But the state's environmental and outdoor recreation communities are getting nervous. "We are working with the governor. We believe he understands the importance of conservation for the long-term economic vibrancy of Utah," says Peter Metcalf, CEO of Black Diamond Equipment, a Holladay-based outdoor recreation company. "But we are concerned about what we're seeing coming out of his administration. What's happening seems to be contrary to the principles he has articulated and contrary to the economic goals of the state." Since Huntsman's inauguration the state has:....
BLM considers direct sales It might be faster. It might be cheaper. And it might not be as controversial. For all these reasons, the Bureau of Land Management is proposing a policy change that would allow it to sell property directly rather than rely on often complicated land exchanges. Those exchanges have been under the microscope in recent months as the bureau considers trading off "Area 51" west of Redding to a developer in exchange for his private land in Trinity County. Neighbors have blasted the trade, saying that Area 51 is likely worth much more than the Trinity land, and complaining that the exchange process is difficult for the public to monitor. The BLM still will use exchanges when conditions merit, officials said Friday....
Former oil town hopes to become vast wasteland This small West Texas town grew its economy on oil but may hang its hopes on what some folks think is their next boom: storage and disposal of radioactive waste. Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists owns 14,400 acres about 30 miles outside town near the New Mexico border. About 1,340 acres are set aside for hazardous waste storage and disposal, and the company will manage tons of federal uranium byproduct waste by year's end. Some residents think the site will bring dozens of jobs from spin-off industries, and city leaders anticipate it will pump millions of dollars into the economy. It's a reverse NIMBY — not in my back yard — with Andrews welcoming the radioactive waste rather than fighting to keep it out....
Conservation easement benefits ranching family, wildlife, sportsmen Warren Gore, whose grandfather Glen homesteaded the original Gore ranch on Glade Park in the 1920s, swept an arm over the spring-green landscape that is his family’s home as well as home to elk, deer, bear, mountain lions and a small population of Gunnison sage grouse. “It’s always been our hope that we could keep this in ranching,” said Gore, accompanied by his father Don and two of Warren’s children, Madeline, 11, and Marshall, 8, on that blustery day, buffeted by a west wind bearing the taste of snow. “We’ve always been interested in preserving the wildlife habitat at the same time. And from the family side, keeping the ranch is important to our kids, too.” Saving that ranching future, and saving the wildlife habitat seriously threatened by the octopus of development slithering across the flats of Glade Park, will be easier now that the Gore family, headed by patriarch Don Gore, has agreed to put 4,433 acres of their land into a conservation easement with the Colorado Division of Wildlife....
Land in the rearview mirror Scobey School Superintendent Dave Selvig can record the fading of Daniels County's population by counting heads on the playground. This spring, 24 seniors will graduate. Next fall, 17 kindergarteners will enroll. Somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of the graduates will go to college, Selvig said. Few of them will be back. "There's just nothing to keep people here,'' he sighed. Between the 1930 and 2000 censuses, 29 of Montana's 56 counties lost population. Some, like tiny Petroleum County just east of the state's center line, are down to less than one-quarter of peaks recorded in 1930. Many more, mostly in rural Eastern Montana, have lost half their numbers. Depopulation, especially in counties dependent on agriculture, appears to be accelerating and, so far, unstoppable. While Montana's population grew 12.9 percent between 1990 and 2000, much of the farm and ranch land east of the mountains saw alarming losses....
Elmendorf creature wasn't part of legend Forget the chupacabra. Those mysterious beasts that have been spotted in Texas have nothing to do with the monster of Puerto Rican folklore. The strange animals are merely common coyotes inflicted with bad cases of mange — very bad cases, according to a Lubbock professor who has spent nearly 20 years studying the skin disease. The only thing the chupacabra and these sickly coyotes have in common is their horrendous hides. "We looked at it, and of course it's a mange coyote," said Danny Pence, a professor of parasitology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. "There's no doubt in our minds whatsoever."....
Horses once were backbone of state's ag labor How's this for a trend? Horse numbers are increasing and cattle numbers are decreasing. The reasons are fairly clear. More and more Montanans own horses for pleasure and recreation, especially affluent people who purchase acreage in rural areas. At the same time, cattle numbers have declined because of drought and market conditions. Although beef prices have been good for the past year or two, cattle are at a decade-low count of about 2.4 million head. This shift may not be a permanent one, but the upsurge of interest in horses harks back to a time when land was plowed by teams of horses, when hay rakes were pulled by horses and when the U.S. Army was buying thousands of horses on the open market. The only way to get to town until 1910 or 1915 was on horseback or by horse-drawn wagon. The business of raising, rounding up and selling horses was an active one....

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