A honkin' problem for Oregon farmers Even Canada geese realized years ago Oregon's pastures are greener than California's. Hordes of geese over the past three decades quit migrating to California in winter, stopping in the Willamette Valley instead. Geese numbers ballooned from about 25,000 to perhaps 300,000 today -- more Canada geese of more varieties than anywhere else in the nation. It's a blessing for birdwatchers but a nightmare for farmers. The voracious birds mow grass as flat as putting greens and trample fields into mud. "They're worse than sheep," said Jim Donald, who figures geese do about $50,000 worth of damage on his Southwest Washington dairy farm each year. "Grass that you spend all winter trying to protect from them can be gone in a few hours." Two bills in the Oregon Legislature -- House Joint Memorial 5 and House Bill 2881 -- take aim at the gaggles. One demands the federal government reduce goose numbers and help farmers slow the damage. The other removes the Aleutian Canada goose from the state's list of endangered species, making it easier to chase and hunt the birds that swarm the coast in increasing numbers each spring. Both measures have passed the House and await action in the Senate....
Let's make sure there's water beyond methane As a rancher in southeastern Montana, my life depends on three things: good weather, healthy soils, and, most of all, a reliable supply of clean water. Like my neighbors, I never worried about my water 10 years ago, but now I worry about it constantly because of coalbed methane extraction south of us along Tongue River. I have visited with a hardworking couple in Wyoming who suffered near emotional breakdown when their water well dried up after the methane industry drained hundreds of feet of water from nearby aquifers. I have seen soil turned into a totally worthless salt flat, sterilized after the methane industry saturated it with salty methane water. We don't need these kinds of problems in Montana. Fortunately, there's another way. Coalbed methane can be extracted responsibly. Northern Plains Resource Council has advocated for alternative development practices to prevent problems in our state. I chair Northern Plains' Coal Bed Methane Task Force, and our biggest focus has always been to figure out ways to make sure our water is protected....
Stricter methane water rules sought A collection of conservation and ranching interests wants the state to impose new restrictions on how waste water from coalbed methane wells must be handled. Northern Plains Resource Council and 15 other groups or ranchers have proposed requiring water either be put back into the ground to replenish aquifers or, if that is not technically possible, be treated before being discharged into rivers or streams for use by irrigators. The goal is to ensure Montanans have "water beyond methane," and offers "the only solution to methane extraction that addresses the widespread drainage of groundwater sources relied upon by farmers, ranchers and rural communities throughout southeastern and south-central Montana," a petition filed with the state Department of Environmental Quality says. The request reflects findings of a study Northern Plains released nine months ago that said returning water into the ground or treating it are affordable options for the industry....
Otter, Patty Duke Pearce join push to raise money for North Idaho easements Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke Pearce and U.S. Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter, R-Idaho, are promoting an effort to raise $2 million in private money to help shield 80,000 acres of forest near northern Idaho's St. Joe River from most development. Pearce and Otter on Thursday were named to co-chair the St. Joe Conservation Initiative. They're trying to raise $400,000 by September, and another $1.55 million in donations by 2007, to buy conservation easements on timber land owned by wood-products company Potlatch Corp. The private money is needed to receive grants from the U.S. Forest Service's Forest Legacy program that easement proponents hope will total about $8 million....
Mining firm will buy Santa Ritas tract More than 2,700 acres in the Santa Rita Mountains that Pima County had been considering for preservation may now become a copper mine. Augusta Resource Corp., a Vancouver, British Columbia-based mining-exploration firm, announced Thursday that it had agreed to buy the 2,760 acres known as Rosemont Ranch for $20.8 million from local developer Triangle Ventures LLC. Triangle Ventures bought the property less than a year ago from Tucson-based mining company Asarco Inc. for $4.8 million....
BLM offers to investigate dangerous wire A federal agency offered Thursday to help investigate a strand of wire found last month stretched neck-high to a motorcycle rider across a path in the Pine Nut Mountains south of Gardnerville. There’s been no other reports of wires stretched across any other paths in Douglas County or on Northern Nevada Bureau of Land Management or Humboldt-Toyiabe National Forest Service lands, authorities said. “That kind of anarchy on the public land has not been uncommon in the past,” said BLM spokesman Mark Struble. “We occasionally find things like that in other places.” The BLM on Thursday offered a special agent to help Douglas County investigate, Struble said. The BLM is also stepping up its regular law enforcement patrols in response to the incident, he said....
Anticipated hordes of Lewis and Clark fans never materialized The hordes of Lewis and Clark fans expected to visit the Gates of the Mountains area along the Missouri River haven't materialized and plans to deal with them have "died a quiet death," officials said. So far, the millions of anticipated Lewis and Clark bicentennial tourists haven't shown up, and neither have the restrictions discussed in 2002 by federal and state officials for the popular, scenic "Gates" area northeast of Helena. Three years ago, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials were voicing concerns about the possible impacts of 10 million people heading to historic sites along the expedition's route....
Federal Court Upholds Key Healthy Forests Provision The U.S. Forest Service was not required to seek public comment and conduct an environmental review prior to approving the logging of 245 acres of beetle-infested forest in the Lolo National Forest, ruled the U.S. District Court of the District of Montana in an April 8 decision. In so ruling, the court approved one of the cornerstones of the Bush administration’s Healthy Forests Initiative, the “categorical exclusions” exemption. Under the Healthy Forests Initiative, the Forest Service is not required to undertake normal public comment and environmental review procedures in approving the logging of less than 250 acres of timber in dead or dying forests if such logging can be accomplished without building more than one-half mile of temporary roads. Only “extraordinary circumstances,” according to the initiative, would require the Forest Service to abide by normal comment-and-review procedures for such a small tract of land....
BLM has new weapon to unleash on fires The latest in wildland firefighting technology resembles a motorized caterpillar as it rolls up and down slopes steeper than 45 degrees. R.J. Johnson, a firefighter for the Bureau of Land Management, says the machine can "go where the typical fire engine can't." "It can carry more water to more fires and help keep down costs," Johnson added about the Wildland Ultra XT 6x6 Water Tender , which he drives. The engine's cab and suspension system is crafted in the Czech Republic and is customized by Indiana-based American Truck Co. Powered by a 425 horsepower, turbo-charged diesel engine, the six-wheel-drive vehicle can haul 2,890 gallons of water and 30 gallons of foam concentrate. BLM spokesman David Boyd says the 10-foot-tall monster truck is one of only three in the country; the other two are based in Oregon. It costs $318,000 - $100,000 more than a traditional fire engine - and can motor down a paved road at 70 mph....
Hemingway's house an endangered place(and apparently many BLM lands) For the first time, a site outside the United States -- novelist Ernest Hemingway's Cuban hideaway -- has won a place on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of the most endangered places. Hemingway spent more than 20 years at the home near Havana, where he wrote "The Old Man and the Sea." Time and the elements have severely damaged the hacienda, called Finca Vigia, or Lookout Farm. Also on the list of endangered places is the National Landscape Conservation System, 26 million acres of federal land in the West that the Bureau of Land Management controls. Mr. Moe said the agency does not have enough money to manage the lands, many of which have been damaged by off-road vehicles and vandalism....Go here to see the Trust's info on BLM land....
The Wilderness Society Commemorates Fifth Anniversary of Neglected Yet Promising National Landscape Conservation System Today The Wilderness Society launched an online campaign to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) a promising yet neglected fledgling land management system. The campaign website, http://ga1.org/campaign/nlcsanniv, encourages visitors to send a message to Interior Secretary Gale Norton urging her to make land conservation a priority for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency that manages all NLCS lands. Visitors can also learn more about this unique land management system that focuses on preserving entire sections of ecosystems and culturally important landscapes. “The National Landscape Conservation System is the most innovative American land system created in the last 50 years,” said The Wilderness Society President William H. Meadows. “But we're concerned that the Interior Department is missing the point. Rather than using the NLCS as it was intended - to truly conserve natural and cultural values by protecting large landscapes that encompass whole ecosystems and communities - the Interior Department is under funding the program and focusing on oil and gas drilling rather than conservation of our best Western lands."....Gee, does this look like an organized campaign?....
2 grizzlies found dead; reward offered A $2,500 reward is being offered in hopes of tracking down the people who killed two grizzly bears and left or dumped their carcasses on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in May, officials said Thursday. An adult female grizzly was found shot to death on May 12 north of St. Mary. Three days later, officials found a dead male grizzly along the Joe Show Road about two miles west of U.S. 89, its claws missing and its ears and lips cut off. Dan Carney, bear biologist on the reservation, said officials believe the ears and lips were removed to keep investigators from identifying the bear by a lip tattoo or ear tag, but biologists had implanted a microchip in the 500-pound bear and could still identify it. Officials sent the male bear's carcass to a state lab in Bozeman to determine exact cause of death....
Pesticide used to poison Idaho wolf The poison responsible for killing several Central Idaho dogs last summer has been determined to have illegally killed a wolf near Clear Creek, a tributary of Panther Creek in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area. The male wolf, called B-204 in wolf monitoring parlance, was equipped with a radio collar on June 27, 2004. At that time, biologists estimated the wolf to be between 1 and 2 years old. He was found to have been killed by ingesting meat laced with a gray, granular poison called Temik, which is a restricted pesticide commonly applied to potatoes. Use of this and other poisons is something a group called Predator Defense believes should be treated as terrorism. "We want to see this kind of misuse tried as a federal felony under a terrorism statute," said Brooks Fahy, the group's executive director....
Nevada quarter to feature mustangs The image of three galloping mustangs ran away from four other finalists by a comfortable margin to be the Nevada design on a series of commemorative quarters minted by the U.S. Treasury. Nevada residents chose from among five finalists during the past month. In a Thursday announcement at the Capitol, Treasurer Brian Krolicki said nearly 60,000 votes were cast. The “Morning in Nevada” design — featuring wild horses with the sun rising behind snow-capped mountains — collected 32 percent of the total. The design also includes sagebrush, the state flower....
Hearing set on Canadian cattle ban The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted the U.S. Department of Agriculture a hearing on its request to overturn U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull's March 2 preliminary injunction preventing Canadian live cattle from resuming entrance into the United States. The appellate court will also hear the request of the National Meat Association to intervene in the case and overturn the injunction. The order, signed by a three-judge panel, set the hearing for Seattle. It is scheduled for July 13, just two weeks before a hearing in Billings before Cebull on a petition by the Rancher-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America for a permanent injunction against the USDA's plan to reopen the border to Canadian cattle 30 months old or younger. The Seattle hearing will be on the questions of whether Cebull properly issued a preliminary injunction and if the National Meat Association, which represents small packers and meat processors, can intervene in the case....
Praising the Lord....The Cowboy Way Thousand Hills Cowboy Church, between Comfort and Kerrville, has no organ, no altar, and no stained-glass windows. Instead of chandlers, lighting comes from old kerosene lanterns wired for electricity. Antique saddles line the walls. Worshipers, who used to sit on hay bales until ants became a problem, now sit on Mexican blankets thrown over wooden benches inside the barn-church. Nearly two hundred area residents come every Sunday to hear Ron Moore preach on a stage in front of an Old West façade made with wood, windows, and rusty tin from a century-old ranch house. Beside him, sitting on a bale of hay, is his cowdog Will, who bows his head to pray on command....

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