Judge reviewing Idaho salvage logging A federal district judge in Idaho is considering whether to halt a logging operation now under way within sight of the historic Lewis and Clark Trail on the Clearwater National Forest. In Boise on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge heard a request from several environmental groups and an Idaho couple that he temporarily stop a 177-acre logging project on Wendover Ridge in the Powell Ranger District. Lodge is expected to rule in the next few days. For a small timber sale, the Wendover Ridge project has generated considerable controversy, primarily because of its proximity to the trail traipsed by the famous explorers in 1805 and 1806. Although the trail doesn't bisect the timber sale, it does pass within a quarter-mile of the cuts, and at least one of the logging units is visible from the trail, which is expected to see heavy traffic during this summer's Lewis and Clark Bicentennial commemoration....
Managing a national forest's conflicts These aren't easy times to be a U.S. Forest Service ranger. Before Andrei Rykoff could leave for a field trip last week, an employee walked up and urged him to find a way to soothe slumping morale in the work force of the Clackamas River Ranger District. A series of federal budget cuts is forcing layoffs, leaving the survivors wondering who is next. This part of the Mount Hood National Forest had 150 full-time employees in the late 1970s compared with 35 today. The survivors also are stressed with multi-tasking -- performing two or three different functions to cover for the losses. Dealing with a shrinking work force is only one of many challenges for Rykoff, who manages the largest of four ranger districts in the national forest. About 40 percent of the forest's 1.1 million acres are in the Estacada-based district....
State offering funds for shooting ranges The state of Montana is offering $250,000, first-come, first-served, to governments or groups that want to build or improve shooting ranges. Up to $75,000 is available for each project, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced last week. Grant recipients must provide a 50 percent match for each grant, either with money or "in kind" donations, such as labor. Governments, school districts, private shooting clubs and nonprofit organizations are welcome to apply....
Salamander identified using DNA Modern-day biologists don't get this opportunity often, so when it comes, they're excited. This month, an article published in the scientific journal Herpetologica confirms the presence of a new animal - a species of salamander known as plethodon asupak, or the Scott Bar Salamander. The animal is found on rocky slopes, and as of now, has been identified on both sides of the Klamath River between Seiad Creek and Scott Bar Mountain. In the field, the new species of salamander looks very much like its cousin, the Siskiyou Mountain Salamander, according to a Klamath National Forest press release. It is only recognizable as a unique animal when the tools of DNA testing or very precise measurements by experienced field observers tease out the difference....
In-house wisdom, or White House meddling? The surprise, which forest planners say they only learned about last fall, two years into the process of rewriting the rules, came in the form of a corporate planning process called an "Environmental Management System" or "EMS." James Connaughton, head of the President's Council on Environmental Quality, has championed the EMS system as a way to streamline the environmental review and public participation required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). "This is a wholly new creature for the Forest Service." says Mike Anderson with The Wilderness Society. "It's going to push them into an unknown additional amount of analysis and paperwork, but there's no evident benefit for the public." Forest planners strike a more cheery tone, but acknowledge that they are wrestling with the new system. Margaret Hartzell, who heads the team that is revising forest plans for the Colville, Okanogan and Wenatchee national forests in northern Washington, explains that the EMS process is based on an international environmental standard called "ISO 14001." "The mantra is, 'plan, do ...'" She stops, starts again: "'Plan, do, check, act.'" She laughs. "I'm still struggling with this." "There's a learning curve for us," says Hartzell, but the new process is designed to save the agency time and allow it to be quicker on its feet. "The notion is that a forest would not go through a big revision effort every 10 to 15 years," she says. "Every year, you would update the forest plan if you need to. The changes would be smaller, but more often."....
New Mexico Officials Ask Congress To Transfer Land To Land Grant Heirs The State of New Mexico is facing the possibility of transferring millions of acres of federal land to land-grant heirs if Congress approves legislation reinstating the land grants. Arizona could face the same possibility if the legislation is passed. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and members of the New Mexico Legislature have asked Congress to transfer federal lands that are held by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to land grant heirs, who say that the land was unjustly taken from them. In 2003, the New Mexico Legislature passed a bill that made land grants eligible for state and federal funding. However, many of the land grant heirs do not want to be paid for the land, they want to own the land, a difficult prospect for the government to face....
Mormon church project delayed Plans for a Mormon chapel near Running Springs hit a major snag Wednesday when a judge ruled that the project requires extensive environmental analysis and revoked a county permit to proceed with construction. The Save Our Forest Association and several other environmental protection groups filed suit against the county in October after planning commissioners refused to require an environmental impact report for the 7.7-acre project along Highway 18. Instead, the commission decided the project was exempt from the comprehensive study and issued a permit to proceed with construction. The environmental groups claim the church project will spur urban growth in the mountains and threaten endangered species, including the Southern Rubber Boa snake and the San Bernardino flying squirrel....
Do today's kids have "nature-deficit disorder"? In the not-so-distant past, kids ruled the country's woods and valleys -- running in packs, building secret forts and treehouses, hunting frogs and fish, playing hide and seek behind tall grasses. But in the last 30 years, says journalist Richard Louv, children of the digital age have become increasingly alienated from the natural world -- with disastrous implications, not only for their physical fitness, but also for their long term mental and spiritual heath. In his new book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder," Louv argues that sensationalist media coverage and paranoid parents have literally "scared children straight out of the woods and fields," while promoting a litigious culture of fear that favors "safe" regimented sports over imaginative play. Well-meaning elementary school curriculums may teach students everything there is to know about the Amazon rainforest's endangered species, but do little to encourage kids' personal relationship with the world outside their own doors....
Alaskan Sea Otter Population Decline Accelerates The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to provide protections promised over one year ago for the world’s most endangered population of sea otters. Without these protections, scientists predict that these sea otters, found in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula, will become extinct. Responding to what government scientists have called “the most widespread and precipitous population decline in recorded history,” the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal administrative petition to protect the sea otters in October 2000 under the Endangered Species Act, America’s safety net for endangered fish, wildlife, and plants. However, one month later the Bush Administration came into power and has refused to process the petition according to the law ever since. Finally in 2004, and only after the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the Administration, a proposed rule to protect the sea otters was published and distributed for public review. Yet despite having a completed rule to protect these sea otters under the Endangered Species Act and a dedicated funding source to formally protect the sea otters, the Bush Administration has refused to finalize the protections scientists have indicated the sea otters desperately need, delaying implementation of these protections for over five years....
Counties, BLM ease tensions over monument signs The basic conflicts have not gone away. Nor will they any time soon. But it appears that a lengthy meeting Wednesday morning at the Utah Capitol complex has, at least for the moment, reduced tensions between Kane County and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in their escalating battle over rights-of-way issues in and around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. At the behest of Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, a group of BLM officials, Kane and Garfield County commissioners, and members of the Attorney General's staff met for 2 1/2 hours behind closed doors at the Governor's Office in a bid to get the two sides talking again....

===