NEWS ROUNDUP

Government Shirked Its Duty to Wild Fish, a Judge Rules A federal judge in Oregon ruled Thursday that the Bush administration had arbitrarily limited and skewed its analysis of the harm that 14 federal dams cause to endangered Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead. As a result, Judge James A. Redden of Federal District Court ruled, the administration had shirked its duty to ensure that government actions were not likely to jeopardize the survival of the species. The ruling came in a challenge by environmentalists, fishing groups and Indian tribes to the administration's determination that the harm the hydropower dams were posing to the young salmon and steelhead could be remedied over the next 10 years by $6 billion in improvements to the dams, including spillways designed to get the fish through safely. The ruling sends the issue back to the National Marine Fisheries Service for the third time. It also paves the way for the judge to rule on other pending requests by the same groups that the fish have a greater claim than they have had on limited water resources, especially when the Army Corps of Engineers manages the rate of flow this summer during the annual out-migration of year-old fish....
Island pigs slaughter protested at Norton event in Santa Barbara About two-dozen demonstrators greeted Interior Secretary Gale Norton with signs Thursday calling for an end to the slaughter of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands National Park. The National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy, which co-own the island, have hired a professional hunter to kill the pigs as part of its effort to protect endangered island foxes. Parks officials say the pigs attract nonnative golden eagles to the island that then also prey on the dwindling fox population. There are fewer than 100 foxes left on the island today. Norton was visiting Santa Barbara for the dedication of the city's Spanish colonial courthouse as a national historic landmark. She did not address the demonstrators during her prepared remarks, which were met with a few jeers....
Forest Service reactivates tankers The Forest Service will reinstate a fleet of 25 heavy tankers and other large aircraft to join hundreds of smaller planes and helicopters in combatting what is expected to be another tough wildfire season this summer. Officials said Thursday that despite some recent safety concerns, they have contracted to use nine P2V tankers and seven former Navy P-3 Orion turboprops to fight wildfires across the West. The large fixed-wing aircraft can drop up to 3,000 gallons of chemical fire retardant on blazes. In addition, an old Douglas DC-7 propeller-driven airliner, retrofitted with fire monitoring equipment, will be used to gather data on wildfires. Eight of the military's enormous C-130 transport planes, each outfitted with firefighting gear, also are being made available for use....
Study: Aspen declines in West Stands of white-barked aspens across the West are facing a similar fate. Decades of fire suppression have left the sensitive trees unable to compete in forests overcrowded with pine and fir trees and shrubs. Historically, frequent, low-intensity fires burned away trees and brush and encouraged new growth in aspen populations, which sprout from a massive, fire-resilient root system, Mueller said. The tree is known for its distinctive bark and fluttering leaves and valued as prime elk, deer and bird habitat. Without fire or other disturbances, the massive, interconnected root systems that link entire stands of aspens put all their energy into the larger trees, which emit a hormone that suppresses new sprouts. Those trees, which have little tolerance for competition, are slowly being overrun by conifers and shrubs. The root systems, which can live and produce trees for thousands of years, are shrinking....
U.S. judge throws out Columbia dams plan A federal judge yesterday rejected the Bush administration's $6 billion plan to improve the Columbia Basin hydroelectric dam system, saying it violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect threatened and endangered salmon. Noting that federal law puts salmon "on an equal footing with power production," U.S. District Judge James Redden in Portland ruled in favor of a challenge by environmentalists, Indian tribes and fishermen to a NOAA Fisheries plan for balancing dams against salmon. That plan, called a biological opinion, contended that $6 billion in improvements to the dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers and other measures would eliminate threats to the future survival of threatened and endangered salmon....
Interior chief pans Hetch Hetchy plan The nation's top natural resources official cast a cup of cold, mountain water Wednesday on an ambitious proposal to tear out a century-old dam and restore Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. "We have not closed any doors on anything, but what I see is a scarcity of water throughout the West," said Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Norton made the remarks during a brief question-and-answer session with reporters after speaking here to the Commonwealth Club of California....
Part of Alaska's Denali Closed After Bear Attack Rangers have temporarily closed a popular section of Denali National Park and Preserve after a grizzly bear attacked a hiker earlier this week, officials said on Thursday. The hiker, Joanne Saunders of Poquoson, Virginia, suffered cuts, bruises and a broken nose on Monday when the bear grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her onto the ground, the Park Service said. Saunders was treated and released from a Fairbanks hospital. The attack, which lasted just a few seconds before the bear fled into the brush, occurred when Saunders and her husband were standing on a rock outcropping to get a better view while hiking in an off-trail area with heavy brush and poor visibility, officials said....
Land swap proposed Utah's Republican Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch are wading into the shark-infested Colorado River — or at least they are wading into the land politics of southeastern Utah. And the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is praising the move. Both senators introduced legislation Thursday calling for an exchange of state School Trust lands in the Moab area for an equal amount of land somewhere else that can be developed. The trust "currently owns some of the most spectacular lands in America, located along the Colorado River in southeastern Utah," Bennett said. The legislation will trade those lands "into federal ownership and for the benefit of future generations." According to Bennett, the state would give up roughly 40,000 acres along the Colorado River corridor to better protect views of Arches National Park, the famous Kokopelli and Slickrock bicycle trails, wilderness study areas and Westwater Canyon, one of the world's premier whitewater rafting destinations....
Sportsmen and Conservation Groups Act to Save Otero Mesa From Giveaway to Big Industry Sportsmen and Conservation groups, represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit today in federal district court in Albuquerque seeking to save New Mexico’s Otero Mesa from the onslaught of oil and gas development. The conservation groups’ lawsuit supports a similar legal challenge filed in April by the state of New Mexico. Today’s suit claims the federal government failed to disclose the true effects of the oil and gas development on water resources, wildlife, and archaeological sites, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The suit also contends that the development plan fails to protect wildlife and plants in the most environmentally sensitive areas. On April 22, New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid filed suit on behalf of New Mexico against the federal Bureau of Land Management in federal district court in Santa Fe. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson has repeatedly asked the federal government to consider state interests and scale back the oil and gas development plans at Otero Mesa. The New Mexico lawsuit says that BLM violated federal laws by refusing to consider state interests when it adopted its aggressive oil and gas development scheme....
Land swap pushed for new mine Arizona lawmakers introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday that would help pave the way for a new underground copper mine near Superior. Versions of the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2005 were introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jon Kyl and in the House by Rep. Rick Renzi. The act would convey 3,155 acres of federal lands to Resolution Copper Co. and the town of Superior in exchange for 4,814 environmentally sensitive acres owned or controlled by Resolution Copper. Resolution's holdings include 3,073 acres along the lower San Pedro River in Pinal County, the 1,030-acre Appleton Ranch in Santa Cruz County and smaller sites near Superior and north of Phoenix....
Irvine Ranch Land Reserve Trust Launched with $20 Million Vowing to create a "new standard" for conservation stewardship and outdoor recreation, Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren today announced creation of the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve Trust covering 50,000 acres on the Irvine Ranch. The Reserve stretches from the mountains to the sea in central Orange County and covers more than 145 square miles. Speaking in Irvine Regional Park to 200 invited environmentalists, city, county, state and federal officials, Reserve landowners, and outdoor and environmental advocates, Bren said the Bren Foundation would make a $20 million gift to the Trust to support enhanced conservation and recreation on the Reserve. The non-profit organization will encourage far-reaching and cooperative efforts among more than 30 public entities involved with the Reserve....
Norton has harsh words for enviros, critical habitat lawsuits Escalating the rhetoric over congressional efforts to rewrite the Endangered Species Act, Interior Secretary Gale Norton accused environmentalists yesterday of focusing on litigation and fundraising at the expense of conservation and species recovery. "It certainly is far easier -- and more lucrative -- for some organizations to put out a press release or file a lawsuit than it is to restore a wetland or eradicate invasive weeds," Norton told a gathering of hunters and conservationists in Washington. "I am concerned about the polarization and politicizing of conservation. Instead of cooperation and consensus, we often see conflict," Norton said in an address to the American Wildlife Conservation Partners Conference. "This conflict frequently is spurred more by the desire to do fundraising than out of genuine concern for the resource."...
Brucellosis eradication debated for Yellowstone ecosystem A proposal to eradicate brucellosis from the greater Yellowstone ecosystem has raised concern from conservationists and praise from ranchers. Conservationists say they worry the proposal signals a shift toward more aggressive tactics to combat the disease that would treat wildlife like livestock. Cattle ranchers say a more aggressive approach is long overdue. At a meeting of the Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee on Wednesday, a new "memorandum of understanding" to guide the group was proposed that includes language to eliminate the disease that causes cattle to abort. The current agreement only calls for developing plans to eradicate the disease. Rob Hendry of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association said the committee has been talking about getting rid of brucellosis in Yellowstone for the last 10 years without much progress....
Legends of Jim Hathaway One of the most notorious cases during his eight years as constable in Nogales was the Mother Modie incident. On Oct. 19, 1925, the townsfolk of Nogales were horrified to learn of a terrible crime committed against one of their most beloved citizens. Gertrude "Mother" Modie ran a lodging house in town. She was known as a soft touch because she would never turn anyone away from her door if they needed a place to stay. She was well known and loved by every rancher, prospector, homesteader and cowboy on both sides of the border. Constable Jim Hathaway got the call early in the morning and hurried to the rooming house where he found Mother Modie lying in a pool of blood, dangerously near death. The 72-year-old woman had been beaten, slashed with a knife. The odor of charred flesh in the room led to the grisly discovery that her hands and feet had been brutally burned....

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