NEWS ROUNDUP

New Rule on Endangered Species in the Southwest The southwestern regional director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has instructed members of his staff to limit their use of the latest scientific studies on the genetics of endangered plants and animals when deciding how best to preserve and recover them. At issue is what happens once a fish, animal, plant or bird is included on the federal endangered species list as being in danger of extinction and needing protection. Dale Hall, the director of the southwestern region, in a memorandum dated Jan. 27, said that all decisions about how to return a species to robust viability must use only the genetic science in place at the time it was put on the endangered species list - in some cases the 1970's or earlier - even if there have been scientific advances in understanding the genetic makeup of a species and its subgroups in the ensuing years. His instructions can spare states in his region the expense of extensive recovery efforts. Mr. Hall's ruling fits squarely into the theory advanced by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a property-rights group in California, that endangered species be considered as one genetic unit for purposes of being put on the endangered species list and in subsequent management plans....
Experts tout wolf breeding breakthrough Two artificially inseminated Mexican gray wolves recently birthed a combined eight living pups at a research site founded by late naturalist Marlin Perkins, marking perhaps the first time the non-surgical technique has worked with endangered wolves. Wildlife officials cheered word of the newcomers to the St. Louis-area Wild Canid Survival and Research Center - the world's largest holder and breeder of Mexican gray wolves - as proof of the technology's usefulness in rebuilding the population of the animals. Among other things, the "phenomenal" breakthrough someday may enable noninvasive fertilization of female wolves in the wild, no longer requiring them to be caged or disruptively brought in for insemination, said Kim Scott, the center's assistant director....
Geese damage fields; bill aims to reduce populations Approached from hundreds of feet away, the skein takes heed, rolling its winged percussion as the evening sky turns black with flapping silhouettes over the New River. A cannon sounds in the distance. The time-released propane blasts are all ranchers can use to haze the geese and reduce the massive grazing. But if legislation passed unanimously by the House last month in Salem becomes law, these stewards of the land could have a few more tools next year to control the population. They say sections of the fields can be transformed from lush green to brown muck in a matter of hours. To the Aleutian Canada geese, the grassland is effectively a massive lunch, providing the energy they need to make the journey back to breeding grounds in their namesake Alaskan islands, some 3,000 miles away....
Groups challenge refusal to protect trout Environmental groups are back in court seeking Endangered Species Act protection for the westslope cutthroat trout, a fish the groups say inhabits only a fraction of its historic range in the Northern Rockies. A lawsuit delivered Monday to U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., says the fish is at greater risk than the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledges. The lawsuit, expected to be officially filed later this week, asks the court to scrap the agency's finding that protection under the act is not warranted, and order further study....
Predators in Yellowstone Decade of the Wolf Douglas W. Smith and Gary Ferguson Lyons Press, $23.95 Their names are lifeless numbers: 10, 42, 21. But their stories are full of the drama of survival in the wild. Authors Douglas Smith and Gary Ferguson capture that spirit in this book detailing the 10-year effort to reintroduce the fierce canines to Yellowstone National Park after a 70-year absence. Smith, the park's Wolf Project leader, and nature writer Ferguson recount the highs and lows of the controversial program, which began in 1995 with the release of 31 Canadian gray wolves. Along with the historical account is a close look at individual wolves that excelled in bravery, boldness or cunning. It was their adaptability, along with help from conservationists, that made the program a success: Nearly 200 wolves now roam the park and its environs. Smith and Ferguson recount the duties that make a wolf biologist's job extraordinary — looking into the eyes of a wolf just darted with a tranquilizer gun, soaring over the park in a spotter plane, dodging the slings and arrows of the anti-wolf segment of the population, many of whom are hunters and ranchers who long opposed the project....
Grand Canyon tests check sounds of nature Standing about ear high on tripods, microphones attached to sound level meters and computers are trying to capture the sound of quiet at the Grand Canyon. When the chatter of hikers, the rumble of idling cars and the buzz of air traffic are removed, what does nature sound like around the landmark? Grand Canyon National Park officials hope to help answer that question with data now being collected. The information will be used in computer models that will help determine how noisy the park would be without human intrusion and whether current regulations on tour flights adequately limit noise....
Kane-BLM feud still simmers; some flexibility emerges The contentious argument between Kane County and the federal government over ownership of roads that spider web across Bureau of Land Management land took on some new signs of trouble and some of flexibility Monday. Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw said during a County Commission meeting that he and county work crews have voluntarily removed 52 signs erected by the county from the BLM-administered Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. He also said someone has been covering county stickers encouraging ATV use that are posted on road markers with stickers prohibiting ATVs on those roads. The new stickers resemble official BLM stickers. Eight other county signs have been pulled up on the monument....
Column: America's Self-Imposed Energy Shortage Many think America is suffering from an unavoidable energy shortage. In truth, we’re failing to harness the energy we have. Standing between this energy and the public are brigades of environmental lawyers using federal statutes to block projects they dislike. These lawyers, and the laws that make their efforts possible, pose a serious challenge to a secure energy future, a challenge that Washington has yet to address. Examples can be found nationwide: One environmental group recently announced a lawsuit to stop construction of a power plant in southern Illinois that would have used abundant local coal. Other groups are suing to block natural gas production throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Still others lost a case trying to restrict new oil wells in Alaska but have just launched a separate lawsuit to do the same. Such lawsuits have become the norm. Almost every major energy project in the U.S. can expect a court battle before moving forward....
Column: Environmental Progress, Despite the Greens Recent opinion surveys have found sharp changes in attitudes about environmental issues. A recent Harris Poll reported that 56 percent of Americans are now optimistic about our environmental future, and other polls show the public is tuning out environmentalists. Public perception is finally starting to catch up to reality, as the data show that most -- most, though not all -- environmental problems in the United States have been getting better for a long while now. The gloom-and-doom messages of environmental activist groups and the bad-news inclinations of the news media have obscured these trends, but eventually the public has started to notice the massive improvements in air quality and the rebirth of America's forestlands....
Bush: EPA Chief Will Emphasize Science President Bush, in a rare visit to the Environmental Protection Agency, pledged Monday that science would be at the heart of the nation's air, water and land policies. Bush attended a ceremonial swearing-in ceremony for Stephen Johnson, the first career employee to take over the agency's reins. Johnson, a 24-year EPA veteran, also is the first administrator with a science background. "With this background, Steve will help us continue to place sound scientific analysis at the heart of all major environmental decisions," Bush said at a 15-minute ceremony in which White House chief of staff Andy Card administered the oath of office....
Banks Go for Green It's every corporation's nightmare: a throng of rowdy activists gathers outside company buildings to demonstrate against alleged environmental and human-rights abuses. That was the scene in New York City and Chicago last month as dozens of people in white haz-mat suits converged on the offices of JPMorgan Chase to protest what they claimed was the bank's underwriting of illegal logging in Indonesia and human-rights abuses tied to a Chase-funded mining operation in Peru. Oil companies and industrial giants may be accustomed to such treatment, but not JPMorgan Chase, the second largest bank in the U.S. Two weeks later, the company announced that it would introduce policies to promote sustainable forestry and indigenous people's rights and would block funding that could be used for illegal logging. It also promised to reduce its carbon emissions and those of its clients. Chalk up another victory for environmentally and socially responsible finance. Ten years ago, big private banks were not featured on environmentalists' hit lists. Activists focused on large corporate polluters in the oil and timber industries. Over time, though, green groups have realized that one effective way to halt destructive practices is to take on the institutions that bankroll them....
Judicial pick may be fall guy in political fight In backroom negotiations to defuse the looming showdown over the Senate filibuster rule, a group of centrist Republicans and Democrats has singled out Myers as an expendable nominee whose hopes for a lifetime appointment to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals may be crushed for the sake of a deal, along with Michigan nominee Henry Saad. As a longtime Western lobbyist for grazing and energy interests, and a conservative advocate with a self-confessed knack for "bombastic" rhetorical warfare, the former Interior Department solicitor has won the enmity of a formidable roster of environmental, American Indian and civil-rights organizations....
Column: The Courthouse Effect: How to win a global-warming suit In his recent novel State of Fear, Michael Crichton centers his plot on a global-warming lawsuit that has been threatened by a leading environmental group on behalf of a small Pacific island nation allegedly menaced by rising sea levels. In Crichton's fictional universe, the science of global warming is a big joke, and the suit turns out to be a publicity stunt. In real life, though, environmentalists and their allies aren't bluffing. Frustrated by the Bush administration's seeming indifference to climate change, they've plotted their legal strategy carefully and have so far filed three test cases. Federal courts in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco heard arguments in two cases last month that challenge the failure of federal agencies to address global warming. One of the suits takes on the Environmental Protection Agency for not regulating carbon dioxide emissions; the other targets the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation for funding fossil-fuel projects without assessing the environmental impact. A third case, brought by eight states last summer against five major electric utilities, argues that the companies' carbon dioxide emissions are a public nuisance because they trigger global warming and attendant effects like heat waves and beach erosion. Finally, the Arctic Inuit have announced plans to challenge the United States over global warming before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an action that could lay the groundwork for a future trip to court....
Rural Western towns face grim choice: Grow or die Take a turn off the main road here, where the constant Wyoming wind blows, and it's almost like entering a faded postcard of Americana. A lonely town hall, a glistening white library and a one-counter post office where no one waits in line. But Chugwater's main street, with its shuttered businesses and boarded windows, is empty, and the cattle easily outnumber the town's 244 people. Even the River Rocks Steakhouse, once billed as "the most rocking place in Chugwater" is closed. No grocery store. No traffic. No doctor. Some worry whether that all adds up to something else: No future. Here and across the rural West, little towns like Chugwater face big choices: Grow or die....
Jimmy Martin, 1928–2005 Jimmy Martin, the self-styled "King of Bluegrass," died at a hospice near his home in Hermitage, TN on May 14. Martin had been diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2003, but the progress of the disease was slow, and the first of two hospice stays was cut short by an apparent recovery. Significantly, Martin never gave up his plans to perform at this year's Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, IN. Born in rural Sneedville, TN in 1928, Jimmy Martin showed a talent for singing early in life, and as a child he and his brothers and friends used homemade instruments to imitate the sounds of the string bands they heard on the radio. Martin's desire to pursue a music career only grew as the years went by, and in 1949, newly fired from a paint crew in Morristown, TN, he traveled to the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville, talked his way backstage, and launched into an impromptu audition for bandleader Bill Monroe—who hired Martin on the spot as a singer and rhythm guitar player. A coda to that story, possibly apocryphal, has Jimmy driving all the way back to Morristown, finding his old boss, and telling him, "Thanks for firing me, you horse's ass—and if you want to hear about my new job, tune your radio to WSM next Saturday night!"....
Lawmakers unhappy with bootmaker Authorities have heeled a San Antonio man who they say conned more than 30 members of the 2003 Legislature and dozens of staff members and lobbyists into paying thousands of dollars for custom-made cowboy boots that in many cases were never delivered. Harry Henze Jr., 45, was picked up Wednesday by Department of Public Safety troopers at a shoe repair shop he'd opened in the Alamo City. He's being held in lieu of $100,000 bail in the Travis County Correctional Complex on two felony charges of aggravated theft. Indictments list more than 80 alleged instances of theft from January through September 2003....
24th Annual “End of Trail” Shooting Festival In the late 1800s, a gathering of 2,000 cowboys, cowgirls, gamblers, gentleman shootists, saloon girls, and Civil War veterans — each one packing pistols, rifles, and/or double-barrel shotguns — would have been a location for respectable citizens to avoid at all costs. Nowadays, people purchase tickets and use vacation time to witness the spectacle. The 24th annual End of Trail Championship of Cowboy Action Shooting & Wild West Jubilee took place east of Albuquerque, N.M., during the last weekend of April. Though 2005 marked the first time the Single Action Shooting Society’s (SASS) yearly festival was held outside the state of California, the change is a permanent one, with SASS purchasing a more central location of almost 500 picturesque acres in rugged New Mexico. Along with the above-mentioned 2,000 shooters/vendors/sponsors, another 5,000 visitors bought tickets over the spring weekend for the chance absorb sights and sounds (and shopping!) of all things Old West. Rubbing elbows with dusty hombres bearing names like Judge Roy Bean, General U.S. Grant, Johnnie Concho, Latigo Lady, Buckskin Doc, and Wildcat Kate helped to make the overall experience larger than life....
Code of the West teaches youngsters solid values Mention the West, and images of noble cowboys, clearly identified good guys versus baddies, and agreements sealed with a handshake instead of a formal contract all come to mind. What is often called the Code of the West – those same core values – is being used by Cowboys and Kids in a character-building program designed with elementary students in mind. “We use cowboys and rodeoing as an attention-getter to teach children honesty, respect for others, responsibility and having a good attitude. In the process, we also teach them something about what cowboys really do,” said Janet Lemmons, West Coast representative for the nonprofit organization. The organization’s stated mission: “To reach youth with a message of character-branding truths for today and tomorrow.”....
"Good Medicine" “Laffin’” is always better when there is more than one of you enjoying that good medicine. “Good Medicine” is also the title of a book just released by Cowboy Magazine. The foreword is by Baxter Black and I have a small part in the book by having one story and several illustrations for some of the other funny, funny stories. “Good Medicine” is a collection of really cute, funny stories written by cowboys themselves about situations they have found themselves or someone they know in. I think it would make a really great Father’s Day gift for the head wrangler. In all the years that I punched cows, I found myself in situations that were certainly not funny at the time, however, reflecting back on them, I had to “laff.” There was the time a horse tried his best to drown both of us and one of my cowboys rode up and roped the hoss and pulled him out of the water before he tossed me a line....
It's All Trew: Autograph book reveals mother's girlhood On December 25, 1916, my mother Naoma Simmons received an autograph book for Christmas. Measuring only 4x7 inches, it contained blank pages edged in gold for autographs of her family and friends. Naoma was only 8 years old and the first entry was by her father who wrote, "Love many and trust few, but always paddle your own canoe. Respectfully, your Papa." The second entry was by her mother who penned: "Dear Naoma, Keep a watch on your words my dear for words are a wonderful thing. They are sweet like the bee's honey, or like bees they have a terrible sting. Lovingly, your Mama." I can see my mother now as a cute little girl progressing from sister to sister and on to anyone who came, handing her new book and pencil and begging for autographs. At that age, I doubt if she could read well enough to see what each verse said....

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY DARLIN'

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