NEWS ROUNDUP

Ranchers tell their side of Mitchell Slough dispute to Schweitzer Yes, Huey Lewis the rock 'n' roller was there, standing along the banks of the Bitterroot River. Yes, Gov. Brian Schweitzer was there, with his four-footed diplomat, Jag the border collie. The Mitchell Slough, which begins at a 60-foot-long headgate near Tucker Crossing north of Corvallis, is currently the subject of a lawsuit that should ultimately determine whether it's a public waterway and thus open to public use. The slough provides irrigation water to a host of ranchers who farm in the mid-Bitterroot. The ranchers had plenty of questions for their fellow rancher, the governor. Who will pay for damages to private property caused by recreationists? they asked. Our deeds say our property lines run to the middle of the ditch, and we pay taxes on that property, asked Ed Hebner. If the public gets access, do we lose that part of our properties? If Mitchell Slough is a public stream, will other irrigation ditches around the state be viewed similarly? The governor steered clear of questions that required a legal interpretation, but he expressed sympathy for ranchers who've found recreationists roaming around their land....
Uinta ranchers worry about drilling threat The oil and gas business is booming in the Uinta Basin, and ranchers say they are starting to take a beating because of it. Members of the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee heard complaints Wednesday from a pair of eastern Utah sheep ranchers that an increasingly heavy concentrations of wells, roads and pipelines are wreaking havoc with grazing. But their biggest fear, they said, is that those grazing lands may never be returned once the energy boom ends, turning a situation of temporary losses into something permanent. "My family have been sheep ranchers for close to 80 years in eastern Utah and western Colorado, and we're seeing changes we've never seen before," said Bill Robinson. "We understand the importance of the oil and gas industry, but we are being negatively impacted . . .. They're taking 10 to 20 percent of our livelihood and are destroying it. It might not ever be reclaimed." Robinson and fellow rancher Burt Delambert asked legislators to assess impact fees or redirect severance taxes back to ranchers to help with remediation costs....
Oil boom draws fire, and so do its opponents Mathis showed photos of substantial oil and gas drilling pads and dirt roads carved through public land in the Uinta Basin. One view was of a dirt road used by the industry, a deeply rutted mass of mud because last winter was so wet. The same parcels are leased to petroleum operations and under grazing permits issued to ranchers. "There's a fair amount of (oil and gas) activity," Mathis said, showing a map of the region. It was peppered with red and black dots representing approved oil wells and places where permission to drill is pending. Bill Stringer, manager of the Bureau of Land Management's field office in Vernal, said there were about 9,000 dots on the map, more than 6,000 of them approved and the rest pending. After the meeting, at the request of the Deseret Morning News, he estimated the area involved is about 1,800 square miles, counting both state and federal land....
Groups appeal leasing on winter range Two Wyoming conservation groups have asked a federal agency to do more to protect big came winter range from oil and gas development. The Wyoming Outdoor Council and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance filed an appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals in Washington, D.C., over nine parcels leased for oil and gas exploration on "crucial" winter range in the Red Desert. Bruce Pendery, staff attorney and public lands director with the Outdoor Council, said this is the latest step after the Bureau of Land Management -- the agency in charge of leasing the parcels -- denied the groups' formal protest on the parcels earlier this year....
Clashing cultures in the country Ohio dairy farmer Frank Sutliff was grinding cattle feed when he saw them again: all-terrain vehicles shredding his alfalfa fields. When he shouted over the engine whine that the riders were trespassing, they smashed him over the head, he said. "I went down, and they just started in on me ... hit me, kicked me, broke my leg," said Sutliff, 46. "I crawled into the truck, drove back to the house and dialed 911." Across rural America, angry skirmishes are increasingly common between property owners and off-roaders squaring off over dwindling open space. Long accustomed to battling environmentalists for access to public lands, off-roaders now find themselves at odds with farmers, ranchers and a flood of new residents moving to the country for peace and quiet....
Feds to restrict off-road vehicles in West For decades, off-road vehicle enthusiasts have been mostly free to roam federal forests and rangelands. Those freewheeling days could be numbered, though. Two government agencies, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, are developing plans to restrict the vehicles to designated routes as part of an effort to curb environmental damage and ease conflict among users of public lands. "The days of blazing new trails are coming to an end," said Leo Drumm, off-highway vehicle coordinator for the Nevada BLM. "There has to be some controls."....
Oregon Wolf plan hits rough patch Wolf supporters and opponents are both critical of a House bill that attempts put the state's strategy for dealing with wolves into law. A wolf plan was crafted last year by a citizens panel and approved in February by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. But the Legislature must change state laws for it to work. The plan approved in February calls for allowing ranchers to shoot wolves attacking livestock, but Oregon's state Endangered Species Act does not permit that. The blueprint also includes a program to compensate people who lose livestock to wolves. Lawmakers would need to establish the fund and provide money for it....
U.S. will resume selling wild horses The federal Bureau of Land Management will announce Thursday it is resuming sales of wild horses with protections to prevent the animals from being sent to slaughter, the agency's director said Wednesday. The agency suspended the sales last month after discovering that 41 animals rounded up from Western rangeland had been sold to an Illinois slaughterhouse and processed for meat. In addition, Ford Motor Co. will pay to transport up to 2,000 horses to Indian reservations and locations run by non-profit organizations. The company will also oversee a "Save the Mustangs" fundraising drive to help groups that adopt the horses pay for their care. Wild horses are "a beautiful symbol of the Wild West" and an "icon" for Ford, said Jon Harmon, a spokesman for the company whose Mustang sports car has been a flagship brand since 1964....
Editorial: Stop the slaughter Thirty-four years ago, Congress declared that wild horses and burros were "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West." With that, the practice of slaughtering them for dog food ended. Late last year, a measure dubbed the "Horsemeat Bill" permitted the commercial trade of some of these animals to resume. Wild horses, whose ancestors escaped the Spanish conquistadors, and wild burros, whose ancestors carried gear for hopeful prospectors, are part of the West's natural history. But to ranchers whose cows chew on public land leased at bargain-basement rates, they have long been perceived as competition for forage. That's why they were herded off for slaughter...."cows chew on public land"??? Is this a New Jersey paper? Nope, afraid not. It just shows you how knowledgeable the Arizona Republic is on this issue. Didn't keep them from editorializing though, did it....
Reps. Maurice Hinchey and Charles Bass Call for End to YellowstoneBuffalo Slaughter The nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association today praised Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) for their leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives to protect America's last wild and genetically pure buffalo. The Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act of 2005 is an admirable effort to treat bison as wildlife and to produce a sensible change to the absurd policy of hazing, capturing, and killing buffalo in and around Yellowstone National Park. "The Yellowstone buffalo herd should have the freedom to roam our federal lands like any other wildlife," said Congressman Hinchey, who serves on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Forest Service. "The current policy of hazing and slaughtering these majestic animals is unnecessary and shameful. My legislation will put an end to these misguided management practices and ensure that our federal agencies act as proper stewards of this wildlife icon." In the 108th Congress, the Hinchey-Bass bill had 104 cosponsors....
Wisconsin wolf population up 14 percent A new estimate shows Wisconsin's gray wolf population may have grown to as many as 455 animals, far exceeding the goal set by state game managers and raising concerns about more conflicts between the predators and humans. The latest estimate indicates the wolf population grew 14 percent in a year and is nearly 100 over the DNR's management goal for the species. The DNR said that in 2004, wolves killed livestock on 22 farms, compared with 14 farms in 2003 and eight in 2002. Last year, 24 problem wolves were legally killed, compared with 17 in 2003. The agency has permits to kill up to 34 this year...
Norton Signs Conservation Agreement with Mexico and Canada, Announces $3.9 Million in Grants for Migratory Bird Conservation Interior Secretary Gale Norton today commemorated the 12th International Migratory Bird Day by signing a declaration of intent with Canada and Mexico to strengthen cooperation on bird conservation. She also announced $3.9 million in grants to conserve birds throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. Norton signed the North American Bird Conservation Initiative Declaration of Intent to "conserve North American birds throughout their ranges and habitats, and ultimately to collaborate with all participant nations regarding bird cooperation.” More than 340 species of birds breed in the United States and Canada, and winter in Latin America. Examples of these birds include species of plovers, terns, hawks, cranes, warblers and sparrows. The declaration will formalize the process for undertaking the initiative, which is designed to address the sharp decline of many migratory bird species in recent decades....
Measure Advances to Designate Eastern Oysters as Endangered A proposal to designate the eastern oyster -- harvested in the Chesapeake Bay and in waters from New England to Texas -- as "threatened" or "endangered" is advancing in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency said Wednesday. Either designation would likely halt or limit harvesting of the bivalves, fisheries experts say. A petition calling on the federal government to recognize Crassostrea virginica as threatened or endangered was filed in January by Dieter Busch, a consultant who formerly headed an arm of the 15-state Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a regulatory authority. The agency has reviewed the petition and determined that it warrants a review by a panel of private, federal and state fisheries experts (up to about a dozen members) that will take up to nine months to review the request further. The process allows for public hearings and public comment....
Reinjection of mine water proposed Anadarko Petroleum has announced a $50 million project to reinject coalbed methane water back into the ground. It's one way to deal with water released by drilling companies to ease the pressure holding methane in coal seams. Some conservationists and ranchers contend the water can be salty or of poor quality and can harm crops. Concerns have also been raised about potential drawdown of aquifers and water wells due to development. Anadarko officials say plans include transporting water discharged from mines in their County Line Field in Campbell and Johnson counties through a 48-mile pipeline to injection wells near Midwest....
Cowboy hall worth the wait The settling of the West didn't happen overnight. And neither has the Cowboy Hall of Fame. After years of hard work, the hall will hold a sneak preview later this month and officially open on June 15. The Medora center will honor North Dakota legends, American Indians, early ranchers, livestock and more. Planning for the hall started in the early 1990s. It's a dream that's taken longer to come true than many expected. But it's been worth the time and effort. The dream to build the center has been driven by those who know the subject: ranchers, rodeo contestants, tribal members and fans of the West -- folks who want to save a part of what they love for the future....

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