NEWS ROUNDUP

Lynx more than mirage in White River forest Bowing to reality presented by Colorado Division of Wildlife biologists, the regional forester for the Rocky Mountains announced last week that lynx habitat will be protected throughout the White River National Forest. That’s a welcome change from a decision handed down from Washington, D.C. last December, which overturned lynx protection specified in the White River National Forest Management Plan. Not only did Deputy Agriculture Undersecretary David Tenny overturn years of public involvement and compromise that went into the White River plan, he ignored any information available from the Division of Wildlife to conclude there was no evidence of lynx using the White River. Therefore, Tenny determined, there was no reason to believe the wild felines would benefit from the habitat protection. In fact, state biologists have said that tracking collars on lynx show more than 300 visits by the shy cats to the White River National Forest since lynx were first transplanted to Colorado in 1999. State officials also determined that at least two females have dens in the White River....
Editorial: Nature at Bay The Bush administration's efforts to capitalize on the recent discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker were bizarre. Gale Norton, the interior secretary, announced a $10 million program to enlarge the bird's habitat, proclaiming that "second chances to save wildlife once thought to be extinct are rare." But what about first chances? The woodpecker, if it indeed has returned, is as much warning as gift. President Bush's policies suggest that he not only has failed to learn from past mistakes, but is determined to repeat them on a more destructive scale. The obvious example is his fixation on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. This bespeaks an intellectually bankrupt energy policy and would certainly cause trouble for wildlife....
Conservationists find eggs in nest of burrowing owl When Greg Clark inserted a video camera into the den of burrowing owls, he knew the relocation of nine of the small birds just over the Utah state line in Arizona was a success. "There are some eggs," Clark told a handful of volunteers watching the portable video monitor as the infrared camera snaked into the darkened hole. "That's pretty much what we were looking for." Clark heads relocation efforts for Wild at Heart, a nonprofit group responsible for saving burrowing owls from development around metropolitan areas in Arizona....
Hatcheries may be releasing pollutants along with fish When environmental regulators last winter tried to solve the mystery of how a toxic chemical wound up in the mountain-fed waters of Icicle Creek, they stumbled on a surprising potential culprit: a federal fish hatchery. Tipped by news reports of a Montana hatchery that had polluted a local stream with paint from the walls of concrete fish tanks, Washington regulators tested paint chips from the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery. They discovered the paint contained PCBs, once-ubiquitous industrial chemicals now banned because they are toxic in minute levels and stay around for years. Alerted to the findings, hatchery managers shut down tanks containing 1.6 million tiny chinook salmon, moved them into tanks without the paint and started testing hatchery fish and nearby stream sediments for contamination....
36 Senators Seek More Money for National Parks The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) today praised Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.), Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), and the 34 other U.S. Senators who this week sent a letter to the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee seeking much-needed funding for America's national parks. "This letter illustrates the strong, bipartisan support for increased national park funding as Congress prepares the parks' fiscal year 2006 budget," said NPCA President Tom Kiernan. The letter that Sen. Thomas, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources National Parks Subcommittee, and Ranking Member Akaka sponsored was signed by a total of 36 U.S. Senators, and requested an additional $150 million for the fiscal year 2006 operations of the national parks. Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) and Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) sponsored a similar letter in the U.S. House of Representatives, which was signed by 78 members of Congress....
Drilling Near Nuclear Blast Cavity Called Risky Business On a bright fall afternoon 36 years ago, the Atomic Energy Commission and a Texas oil company detonated a 40-kiloton nuclear device inside an 8,000-foot shaft on a high meadow, an effort to crack into a bounty of natural gas trapped in a dense subterranean rock formation. Here on Colorado's energy-rich Western Slope, the nuclear experiment yielded mixed results. A rich lode of gas was indeed shaken out of its rock casing, but the gas that rushed to the surface was too radioactive to be commercially useful. Federal officials assured the community that the Rulison test site, named after a nearby community, was safe. Still, they forbade oil or gas drilling on 40 acres surrounding the blast. Last year, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission added another half a mile to the federal off-limits zone. But now, another Texas energy company has proposed drilling within the half-mile zone. The company, Presco, says it will extract the gas using a nonnuclear process called hydraulic fracing, which like the original experiment is designed to shatter underground rock and tap into embedded stores of natural gas. The company says this can be done without disturbing the radioactive material that remains buried in the blast cavity....
Energy boom is crowding ranchers Now the onetime professional steer roper and other ranchers here face a new test - energy companies intensifying their search for natural gas beneath the same lands used by grazing herds. The trend, causing tension across the American West, stems from the policy of "split estates" - where the owners of at least 50 million acres of private land have surface rights, while energy developers can own the mineral rights beneath or lease them from the federal government. That means scores of ranchers here in the Powder River basin may have little say over thousands wellheads that could soon proliferate. While some landowners will reap benefits, anything from monetary compensation to ranch improvements, most feel helpless against an industry that they see threatening to mar the landscape and contaminate precious groundwater. A growing number of ranchers are fighting back against the federal government with lawsuits aimed to strengthen landowners' influence over energy development practices within their acres....
Column: The House Passes Green Energy Bill The House recently passed a bill purportedly for the purpose of improving our ability to produce energy. President Bush has called it "a good energy bill" and has urged the Senate to act so that Congress can send him a bill by this summer that he can sign into law. However, the proposal passed by the House makes many concessions to environmentalists and therefore won't achieve its purported end if signed into law. Why is this the case? While the bill increases access to federal lands for oil and gas exploration and eases some regulations (such as speeding up the approval process for certain new refineries), it also provides billions of dollars in subsidies and tax incentives for various environmentalist-inspired endeavors, including the promotion of energy efficiency and the development of "alternative" fuels....
BLM pulls rock art site from lease sale As expected, the Bureau of Land Management has pulled back a series of parcels around Parowan Gap - a nationally recognized collection of American Indian rock art in Iron County - from an oil and gas lease sale set for next week. The BLM has removed a six parcels that comprise about 20 square miles both in and around the petroglyph site from the May 17 auction, although officials would not rule out putting at least some of the tracts up for sale at a later date. "They've been deferred from the May sale in order to give us time to confer with Native American groups and ensure that we have the proper protections in place," Don Banks, the BLM's state chief of external affairs, said Monday....
Washington, activists argue a 'new' energy With the nation paying dearly for its power consumption, large energy corporations would like to build 30 to 40 LNG terminals in the United States, mostly in coastal communities. But such ideas are meeting with resistance at every step of the way. Any day now, for example, a federal appeals court in California is expected to issue an important ruling on who has jurisdiction over California's waters to site potential LNG terminals. And, both the president in recent speeches and Congress in pending energy legislation are getting involved - at a time when natural gas prices are close to an all-time high. "This is a debate that needs to happen," says James Hoecker, who was chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) during the Clinton administration and is now a partner at the law firm Vinson & Elkins in Washington. "It will be helpful that Congress has decided to express what it believes national policy ought to be."....
Land exchange refloated in House Utah officials are pitching an 88,000-acre land swap that would protect popular recreation destinations along the Colorado River, world-renowned mountain bike trails, and soaring redrock arches in sensitive wilderness areas while helping fund Utah schools. "It's quite unique," said Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, who is sponsoring the exchange in the U.S. House. "We've got a lot of support on it. We hope it will go very smoothly and we'll get it done very quickly." It is the first exchange proposed since Utah's bid to swap out land in the San Rafael Swell collapsed in 2002 after whistle-blowers at the Bureau of Land Management alleged it was a $100 million boondoggle for federal taxpayers. Utah would get land in the Uinta Basin believed to contain valuable oil deposits. Oil royalties could generate considerable revenue earmarked for the state's schools. The state also would get parcels near the town of Green River and the Moab airport....
Nature Conservancy says complaints misunderstandings Complaints about a fence blocking a path used by wild horses to get to the Truckee River at the McCarran Ranch east of Sparks are based on misunderstandings, The Nature Conservancy said. Lance Gilman, co-owner of Tahoe-Reno Industrial Park and the Wild Horse Adult Resort & Spa brothel next door, also is upset that The Nature Conservancy began raising Northern Leopard frogs in ponds at the ranch without telling anybody in the county. The frog has been listed by the state as a protected species. For now, that gives the frog no legal protection. But Gilman fears an endangered species listing could someday make building his industrial park more difficult....
A Web of Sensors, Taking Earth's Pulse In the wilds of the San Jacinto Mountains, along a steep canyon, scientists are turning 30 acres of pines and hardwoods in California into a futuristic vision of environmental study. They are linking up more than 100 tiny sensors, robots, cameras and computers, which are beginning to paint an unusually detailed portrait of this lush world, home to more than 30 rare and endangered species. Much of the instrumentation is wireless. Devices the size of a deck of cards - known as motes, after dust motes - can measure light, wind speed, rainfall, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure, detecting the presence of a warm body or tracking the progress of a chill wind up the canyon....
Water worries spark moratoriums A once-in-500-year drought has prompted counties and residents in the Magic Valley to take water matters into their own hands. Worries over water quality and quantity nudged two counties into adopting temporary moratoriums on confined animal feeding operations while two other counties consider similar steps. Today, Lincoln County residents will take their concerns for this scarce resource one step further when they ask county commissioners for a moratorium on all changes to land use -- including subdivisions and dairies -- until a comprehensive land use plan can be adopted. Members of the Lincoln Rural Council assert that development in Lincoln County is "out of control." Not only have a number of wells gone dry in the county but some have also seen increases in nitrate levels, said Susan Westendorf, a spokeswoman for the council....
Tribes buy into political process Ten years ago, Native American tribes were still the minor political players they'd been for centuries, with their campaign donations barely registering on the national radar. But tribes, enriched by casino profits, are among the nation's fastest-growing contributors, pumping more than $7 million into federal campaigns in last year's elections. That's more than mining, textile and environmental groups. They've also bolstered their lobbying teams. Like other groups, they're trying to build influence to protect their gains -- including the right to operate gambling centers -- and to expand into untapped territory....
Congress Is Staying Clear of Dispute Over Mad Cow Congress appears to be unlikely to step in the middle of a standoff between the Bush administration and American cattlemen over reopening the border to imports of cattle from Canada. The cattlemen are concerned about whether the Canadian cows would infect the American herd with the deadly mad cow disease. The Senate, responding to that concern, narrowly voted in March to block the Agriculture Department's ruling that deemed Canadian cattle healthy enough to allow the border to be reopened. With the deadline for Congressional action on Saturday, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia, has no plans to bring the issue up for a vote, a spokesman for the committee said Monday. Mr. Goodlatte, who opposed the Senate vote, plans to let the issue play out in the courts before considering any action, the spokesman said. That could set up a showdown in the Montana courtroom of Judge Richard F. Cebull of Federal District Court, who was sharply critical of the Agriculture Department's assurances that measures were in place to assure the safety of the beef coming from Canada....
Riding high The city is stretching awake, the streets still deserted and dark, as Dennis McQueen wheels into the parking lot on Fort Worth's north side. It's 5 a.m. -- four hours before the officers of the Fort Worth Police Mounted Patrol will arrive at the stables on the edge of Cowtown's historic Stockyards District, but McQueen has work to do. At 48, he is the old man of the yard, the horse trainer and riding teacher for the mounted patrol, one of Fort Worth's most recognizable images. McQueen is the man who makes horses and riders ready for duty in this town that values Western heritage. Many officers have never ridden a horse before applying for the mounted patrol, and they have McQueen to thank for their confidence on the street. But few outside the division know his name....
Champion steer wrestler competes with diabetes About seven years ago, when Luke Branquinho was a freshman at West Hills College in Coalinga, he was diagnosed with a disease that changed his life. After hallucinating and experiencing repeated symptoms of extreme fatigue, Branquinho, 17 at the time, went to the doctor and found out disturbing news. He had Type II diabetes. Branquinho tests his sugar levels four to five times a day. If they're low before a performance, he drinks a Coke before jumping on the horse. In between events, he carries a $4,000 pump that looks like a pager and automatically injects insulin into his veins. It takes the guesswork out of the injections because it's connected almost 24 hours a day, delivering small doses of insulin through a flexible, plastic catheter. His approach is working. Two years after being diagnosed, Branquinho won the 2000 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association overall and steer wrestling Rookie of the Year awards. And his career skyrocketed from there. Last year, he won the PRCA steer wrestling world title in Las Vegas and pocketed almost $200,000 in earnings....
Dual champions at George Paul For only the third time in its 28-year history, the George Paul Memorial Bull Riding competition has co-champions. B.J. Schumacher, of Hillsboro, Wis., scored 179 points on two bulls Sunday afternoon to tie Mike Scarlavai of Michigan atop the leader board at this yearÕs event, held at the Val Verde County Fairgrounds. Scarlavai scored his points Saturday night....
It's All Trew: Little black box start of family photography Long before the modern term of PC, personal computer, appeared, another PC came along in the form of a personal camera most people called a Kodak. This simple black box performed the miracle of taking photographs anywhere and at anytime. Kodaking became a national fad and a serious hobby for millions of people. History has certainly been enhanced by these images that preserved the authentic past. Its use caught on like wildfire, especially with the younger set. The first Kodaks were simple devices with a peep hole to focus, a lens, click button and a knob to advance the film forward for the next picture. There were no adjustments. Most new operators ruined or double-exposed a roll or two of film while learning. These old boxes soon gave way to Brownies with many new improvements....

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