NEWS ROUNDUP

Protecting the Front for the future Ron and Linda Ingersoll don't want things to change on their ranch, where the prairie gives way to jagged peaks and the guests range from sandhill cranes to grizzly bears. They want to make sure the ranch west of Bowman's Corner off Highway 200 remains a rugged place for wildlife and Western lifestyles — and never ends up subdivided for expensive vacation homes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agrees. The agency wants to link private property, such as that owned by the Ingersolls, with other land along the eastern edge of the Continental Divide to form the Rocky Mountain Front Conservation Area. It would create a permanent safe haven for the bounty of wildlife within a 918,000-acre perimeter — an area just slightly smaller than Glacier National Park. Officials stress the proposal — which is already drawing fire from some landowners — does not create more wilderness or a monument, take land off the tax rolls, or prohibit oil and gas development on private land....Also see What is an easement and how does it work? and Who are the easement players?....
Scientists prepare to unveil grasslands report For two years, eight experts have been poring over complex data in search of the best way to manage grazing on North Dakota's national grasslands. Their conclusion, after hundreds of hours of study and discussion, is set to be unveiled this week, and the ramifications likely will extend beyond the state's borders. Ranchers and environmentalists have argued over grazing rules for decades, with the U.S. Forest Service trying to find the proper balance among the many uses of the federal land. "There's a lot of emotions and a lot of issues beyond science," said Rod Backman, a consultant and former North Dakota budget director who serves as administrator for the eight-member scientific grasslands review team. The team's focus is on science, he said. Forest Service officials say the process, if successful, might be used in other parts of the country where there are conflicts over land management plans....
Thinking big about bison When it comes to Yellowstone National Park bison, nothing's ever easy. Now, things are getting even more complicated. State and federal officials want to build a 400-acre brucellosis quarantine facility just south of this Paradise Valley lake popular with both people and wildlife, on state land that was purchased for elk winter range. If it works, the quarantine project could, in about three years, produce certified disease-free animals that could be used to establish wild and free-ranging bison herds in various locations around the West. Across most of their native range, bison are "ecologically extinct."....
Wolf group seeks to find balance on hostile issue Utah's wolf management plan is going on the road this week, and the task force responsible for its creation is more than a little curious about how it will be received. Apprehensive, too. After a year and a half of work, the 13-member wolf working group - a collection of wolf advocates, sportsmen and ranchers - has produced the draft of a plan that sought to strike a balance between competing interests. In other words, how to manage and protect the wolves as they migrate into Utah while preventing livestock depredation and compensating ranchers whose animals fall prey to wolves. The wolf working group began meeting in 2003, after the Legislature passed a joint resolution authorizing the creation of a state wolf management plan as a prelude to the expected removal of wolves from the federal government's endangered species list - a move that would shift wolf oversight to the states....
Rare Mexican Gray Wolf Caught in N.M. Trap An endangered Mexican gray wolf that was part of a cattle-killing pack has been captured in the Gila National Forest. Six wild-born puppies, possibly wolf-dog hybrids, were euthanized. The healthy year-old male from the Francisco pack was captured in a trap Thursday and taken to the Sevilleta Wildlife Refuge north of Socorro, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. The Fish and Wildlife Service ordered the killing of the pack because it had been preying on livestock in the Gila National Forest. It has killed four animals in the past several weeks. The wolf's parents are still being targeted, said service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown....
Prosecutors drop case against man accused of stealing $25,000 antlers Prosecutors this week reluctantly dismissed felony charges against a Grand Junction man who was accused of stealing a set of giant antlers. Leland Jason Cox, 34, of 609 Starlight Drive, was arrested in late January after police allegedly found enormous elk antlers belonging to a New Zealand man in his home along with evidence he was trying to sell them on the Internet. The antlers, which were about 5 feet tall and weighed about 75 pounds each, were reportedly worth more than $25,000. Cox said he unknowingly traded a large set of typical elk antlers to a California man, who purported that he owned the allegedly stolen nontypical antlers....
New Braunfels buzzards targeted The city is done playing around with the flocks of vultures that roost in Landa Park. Officials expect to start a program of trapping and killing the unwanted residents next week, according to Park Ranger Superintendent Roger Dolle. The black vultures are protected by the federal Migratory Bird Act. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services has a permit granted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill a certain number of buzzards every year, said Wildlife Services biologist Vivian Prothro. "We are getting involved with vultures more and more as we speak," she said. "They tend to take up residence. When there are so many concentrated in one area, it can become a health and safety threat." The vultures' droppings could cause a lung infection called histoplasmosis or other diseases and could easily be washed into the Comal River, which runs through the park and is used by thousands of swimmers and tubers every day during the summer....
Rey urges support of Bush roadless plan at Nevada conference Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey urged tourism officials to support the Bush administration's new plan for national forest "roadless areas," saying it would protect most of the acreage. "It's my prediction they'll protect most of the areas" specified under Clinton's 2001 order, said Rey, who directs the nation's forest policy. "We hope to bring the issue to closure once and for all." Rey's remarks came Sunday at the opening of a three-day conference being held by the Western States Tourism Policy Council, which represents 11 states on tourism issues. Rey said past attempts to resolve the fate of roadless areas with a nationwide rule have failed, and that's why the Bush administration is taking a new approach....
Timber towns get federal lift Depressed timber towns in the Northwest will see at least $50 million of new investment in restoring cutover forests through a federal program usually focused on reviving blighted urban neighborhoods. The federal government Wednesday gave $50 million in tax credits to Portland-based Ecotrust, a nonprofit that is changing the conventions of conservation. Ecotrust has begun buying forests to restore their wildlife and other values through careful logging that maintains older and larger trees. Its goal is to cut trees at a sustainable rate that supports low-income, rural communities but also retains the natural role of forests vital to the region, said Bettina von Hagen, vice president of Ecotrust's natural capital fund and forestry program....
Land-grant movement After decades of inaction, fight is gaining traction Momentum is building to transfer federal lands in New Mexico to the heirs of Spanish and Mexican land grants. Descendants of families who received government grants of land before New Mexico was annexed to the United States say that's the only way to correct injustices caused when their ancestors lost control of some of their properties. While the prospect of fencing off forests and streams now open to the public riles many who aren't land-grant heirs, Gov. Bill Richardson and the New Mexico Legislature are urging Congress to transfer lands from the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management to land-grant heirs....
A River Rises to Reclaim Its Past A series of short siren blasts signaled a climactic moment in a decades-long battle over the Trinity River, which, like so many rivers in California, has lost much of its water, its fish and its freedom. As a gate lifted on the small concrete Lewiston Dam, about an hour's winding drive west of Redding, water spilled down an apron into the Trinity. Federal dam managers, who have spent the last 40 years sucking water from the river and sending most of its flow to the farm fields of the Central Valley, were letting the Trinity go. The river ran frothy and aqua-green, knocking down willow trees along its banks, muscling over its sandy shoulders and roaring under bridges. It was fast. It was rambunctious. For four days, it was its old self. The water release, which tapered over the weekend, is key to one of the most ambitious river restoration efforts in the West, intended to revive the Trinity's long-suffering salmon and steelhead runs....
Old Foes Soften to New Reactors Several of the nation's most prominent environmentalists have gone public with the message that nuclear power, long taboo among environmental advocates, should be reconsidered as a remedy for global warming. Their numbers are still small, but they represent growing cracks in what had been a virtually solid wall of opposition to nuclear power among most mainstream environmental groups. In the past few months, articles in publications like Technology Review, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Wired magazine have openly espoused nuclear power, angering other environmental advocates. Stewart Brand, a founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and the author of "Environmental Heresies," an article in the May issue of Technology Review, explained the shift as a direct consequence of the growing anxiety about global warming and its links to the use of fossil fuel....
Column: Big Banks Green Goof CORPORATE concern about the environment is a fine thing. But there's a growing, and dangerous, trend among corporations to jump into bed with radical environmentalists — people who are intent on destroying the very free-enterprise system that their new-found bedmate represents. The latest industry group guilty of "sleeping with the enemy" is the nation's big banks. Specifically, Citigroup, Bank of America, and, most recently, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., have all adopted new environmental policies, at the behest of the ardently anti-capitalist Rainforest Action Network (RAN). RAN claims to promote "peaceable solutions," but its tactics include ugly protests at CEO's homes. And it was reportedly was among the prime organizers of the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organization protests and the resulting riots....
Column: Battlelines drawn with animal rights groups A new allaiance has been formed to try to take away your hunting heritage. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Fund for Animals have joined together with a $ 96 million 2005 budget. Make no mistake about it, the alliance of these two groups is a huge threat to California hunters. They plan to specifically target archery hunting, as well as other types of hunting, while also focusing on state and federal laws and ballot initiatives that protect animals. Hunters must be aware of the devastating impact the HSUS and Fund for Animals missions could have on California sportsmen and women....
Natural Gas Diesel May Cut Smog The rat's nest of pipes and columns snaking across the desert harbors a secret process that will use cobalt to turn natural gas into a powerful, clean-burning diesel fuel. By next year, rulers of this tiny desert sheikdom hope, these gas-to-liquids (GTL) reactors under construction will bring in billions of dollars while clearing big city smog belched by trucks and buses. In all, some $20 billion has been committed to build an unprecedented array of clean diesel plants in this Gulf shore industrial park. Those chipping in include oil titans Royal Dutch/Shell Group, ChevronTexaco and Exxon Mobil, which is making a $7 billion bet on GTL, the largest investment in the corporate history of America's largest company....
Taking Liberty Finally, there is a way to learn how to "connect the dots" between the Wildlands Project, the United Nations, Heritage Areas, and Sustainable Development. Dr. Michael Coffman has developed a fantastic presentation that leads the viewer through the maze of issues that are so confusing. A brand new web site, http://takingliberty.us, presents a concise, comprehensive story, showing exactly how the proponents of land-use control have been able to develop policies at the international level, and implement those policies through federal, state, and local legislation and regulatons. The presentation begins with the master plan, and demonstrates how the government and NGOs are involved, and how the plan impacts private property rights. It discusses GAP Analysis, Greenlining, Conservation Easements, the Endangered Species Act, Roadless Areas, and, using maps, demonstrates how all these initiatives fit into the implementation of the master plan....
Future Unclear on $2 Billion-a-Year US Land Reserve A vast amount of fragile land set aside for a taxpayer-funded conservation program that pays US farmers $2 billion a year is about to lose its protected status, and environmentalists are demanding changes to bring more soil, water and wildlife benefits at a lower cost. Lawmakers have yet to discuss any major changes in the 34.9 million acre Conservation Reserve program. The US Agriculture Department may not decide until later this year how to handle the looming turn-over of land. The reserve pays farmers to retire fragile land that is vulnerable to erosion, needed to filter and improve water quality, or enhance wildlife habitat. Growers are required to plant grasses or trees as permanent ground cover. Five states in the cattle and wheat-growing Great Plains account for 45 percent of land in the reserve....
Haskell Ranch is gone but history remains Before the freeway, fast food row and master-planned communities, ranches covered the San Gorgonio Pass. They had names like Circle C, Barker and Stewart. But most spreads vanished years ago. Today, only a few vestiges survive. And they're fast disappearing. About 10 buildings remain at the former Haskell Ranch -- one of the legendary spreads in the Pass. Now, bulldozers roam the land grading for more homes at Oak Valley. Within about two weeks, demolition crews will have cleared all the buildings from the onetime ranch. But a rich history will live on....
Social activities enlivened Kimberly's earliest days One hundred years ago today the pioneers of Kimberly had a party. The occasion was the arrival of the first building in the new, un-surveyed little town. Water had just come onto the virgin land, and irrigating had begun in earnest, but, nonetheless, more than 50 farm couples from the surrounding area took part in an old-fashioned "hoe down" at the Stockgrowers' Mercantile Company's store. Never mind that the building, which had been hauled from Milner, had been set up in the center of what would become a street, and later would have to "continue its journey a little farther" to get it on the proper lot. At the party, food cooked over a sagebrush fire was served, after which the Twin Falls Land and Water Company's agricultural "superintendent," Alex McPherson, spoke to the farmer's wives about dairying and gardening. Dancing began at 10 p.m. to melodies played by the Swydenski orchestra from Twin Falls....
Jay Walley - in prison - and the Feds didn't do it! J. Zane Walley is in prison. Not a prison made with concrete and iron bars. His agile and creative mind is alive and well, captured inside a body that has malfunctioned. The degree of his recuperation from his stroke of November, 2003, has surprised the doctors, and defied the odds. But, he is still a prisoner. Physically, he works out daily, on five machines that Sarah has installed in their small adobe house. In fact, he told us that she uses a cattle prod to make him stay on those machines, and get his daily exercise! Mentally, he is alert, he understands what's going on around him. He is still driven with a passion for Liberty. But, he cannot speak about it. And, that is his prison. Jay is able to say a few words, then he gets a block, and gets very frustrated. Sarah is the very model of a supportive and loving wife, and it is an inspiration to watch her. He has a little hand-held computerized communicator, "Say it, Sam." He can touch a phrase with a stylus, and it speaks pre-written phrases for him....
Famed gun on display A piece of American history that disappeared for more than 100 years will be on public display today — for the first time since 1847 — at the Army Heritage and Education Center in Middlesex Township. The original air rifle used by Captain Meriwether Lewis of the famed Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804 has been rediscovered and it will be available for public view for the next six months in Carlisle's backyard. The rifle, considered cutting-edge technology at the time Lewis carried it on his cross-country journey, is often mentioned in journal accounts of the trip. Lewis and Clark journal entries show that the air rifle was used to impress the American Indian tribes the team encountered. The rifle fired a .40 caliber lead ball, but without using powder and without making a sound. "It's one of the most famous guns in American history," says John Giblin, chief curator for the Army Heritage Museum....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Nobody loves you like your mama If you find yourself drivin' down a highway this spring through cow country, it's possible you'll spot a bunch of cows walking along strung out in a line. But, you'll notice none of their little calves are with them. If you are a cow person, you already know that the mamas are not abandoning their babies. They are simply working mothers who have left them in Bovine Daycare. Somewhere back in the pasture you will find 10 to 20 calves lying in their nursery watched over by a keen-eyed mama cow. It is a demonstration of "mothering ability," a trait touted by certain raisers of purebred cattle....

===