NEWS

Arizona wildfire now at 172,800 acres but but still far from towns A lightning-sparked brush fire had grown to 172,800 acres by Wednesday night as it continued to push into central Arizona. Fire crews were conducting burnout operations along east and west flanks trying to prevent flames from growing closer to three small communities north of here. The fire was burning about 20 miles southwest of the mountain communities of Pine and Strawberry and 12 miles from the point when evacuations may be necessary. It was as close as 6 miles to Black Canyon City, a community of about 4,500 just 45 miles north of Phoenix, but wasn't considered an imminent threat to structures there. About 1,600 people were fighting the fire, which was 40 percent contained on the south zone Wednesday night but zero percent contained on the north zone. Fire spokesman Dave Killebrew said the south zone of the fire was at 167,000 acres with the north zone at 5,800 acres. The National Interagency Fire Center said Wednesday that 22 active large fires in the West were burning across more than 905,000 acres in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah....
Old law drives push to open roads In Moffat County, commissioners have claimed 240 miles of roads on federal lands as county rights of way. Some of those roads travel through the Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge and Dinosaur National Monument. In Utah, county commissioners have opened Bureau of Land Management Wilderness Study Areas to off-road vehicles in such popular recreation areas as Behind the Rocks, near Moab; and Arch Canyon, Grand Gulch and Cedar Mesa, southwest of Blanding. Counties across the country have laid claim to roadways on federal lands under a historic law passed after the Civil War to encourage settlement of the western frontier. They’ve also used it to foil private property owners’ attempts to block access to public lands. Revised Statute 2477 is a one-sentence provision of the Lode Mining Act of 1866, whose simple language has created a hornet’s nest of interpretation that is buzzing across the West....
Businesses sue California over salmon Timber, cattle and other business interests are suing California over the state's protections for coho salmon, a legal fight that could determine how river ecosystems are managed across much of northern California. The lawsuit alleges the California Fish and Game Commission did not have sufficient data on coho populations before enacting the protections and that the rules unnecessarily duplicate federal law. The commission added coho salmon from San Francisco to Punta Gorda in Humboldt County to the state's "endangered" list last August. Coho from Punta Gorda to the Oregon border were listed as "threatened."....
Owl study tips scale for court An unpublished "progress report" on northern spotted owls in an area burned by the Timbered Rock fire helped environmentalists land their first success in blocking old-growth salvage logging under the Healthy Forests Initiative. A federal judge Monday cited the 14-page memo on the threatened owls as one of two main reasons for blocking the 6.1 million-acre salvage sale within the 2004 Sims fire on the Six Rivers National Forest in Northern California. The memo from Oregon State University researchers to Bureau of Land Management biologists reveals that radio-telemetry tracking of five spotted owls in winter 2003-04 showed they frequented lands that were moderately and severely burned during the 2002 Timbered Rock fire....
Wyo goes it alone on wolf delisting Wyoming officials are preparing to petition the federal government to remove wolves from Endangered Species Act protection, the state Game and Fish Department said late Wednesday afternoon. The move continues the state's battle with federal officials over how wolves should be managed outside Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. In essence, it seeks to force the hand of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has rejected Wyoming's plan for managing the animals once they're removed from the threatened and endangered species list. The state's plan would classify wolves as trophy game in areas of northwest Wyoming the state considers suitable wolf habitat. Outside those areas they would be considered predators that could be shot on sight. "Removing (wolves) from the endangered species list will allow the state of Wyoming to assume management of wolves within its borders and keep populations at a level that makes sense for Wyoming while also maintaining a recovered population," Game and Fish Department Director Terry Cleveland said in a press release....
Biologist who fought for panthers reinstated For six years biologist Andy Eller reviewed development permits to make sure that subdivisions built in the western Everglades would not wipe out habitat for the endangered Florida panther. But Eller's bosses at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service overruled him and developers went around him, even calling Florida's U.S. senators to get approval for projects. Last year, Eller blew the whistle. He filed a formal complaint charging that the Fish and Wildlife Service was using flawed science and that its failure to oppose developers was jeopardizing the panther. He got fired. Three months ago, the Fish and Wildlife Service conceded he was right after all, and its science was flawed. On Wednesday, the 46-year-old Eller was reinstated....
Pombo on verge of unveiling new species law According to Brian Kennedy, Pombo's Committee press secretary, the bill will include money or tax breaks for property owners who lose financially due to ESA enforcement, as well as a greater role for states and more rigorous demands on planners for species recovery. Pombo's name may or may not be on the bill, Kennedy said. Such legislation has long been expected. It comes in the wake of the defeat of two bills in the previous congressional session. Rep. Dennis Cardoza's, D-Merced, Critical Habitat Reform Act would have forced the Fish and Wildlife Service to give greater weight to economic factors when it designates critical habitat. Rep. Greg Walden's, R-Ore., Endangered Species Data Quality Act would have changed the standards for what types of scientific measurements can be used in designation habitat. "I can't tell you about the language, but the spirit of both will be included in the bigger package," Kennedy said....
Monument road dispute may lead to legal action against Kane County The Interior Department has asked the U.S. Attorney's Office to take legal action against Kane County for defiantly posting signs inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and tearing down signs closing roads on federal land. The request puts the ball in the court of U.S. Attorney for Utah Paul Warner. It has been pending with his office for several weeks, and a spokeswoman declined to say when action might be taken. The Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management have been under pressure from environmental groups and others to take action against Kane County. In a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton last month, Sen. Richard Durbin requested information on what action the department would take against Kane County, and warned he could block the Senate confirmation of the department's No. 2 official if the response was unsatisfactory....
Utah sues feds over Emery County road closures Add yet another installment to the ongoing battle between the state and the federal government over who controls Utah's back roads. The Utah Attorney General's Office on Wednesday filed suit against the Department of Interior over seven road closures imposed by the Bureau of Land Management in and around the San Rafael Swell in Emery County. Two of the roads were closed more than a decade ago because they were in a wilderness study area established by Congress in 1991. The other five were closed as part of the San Rafael Swell travel plan, a designated route system for off-highway vehicles (OHVs) that was finalized by the BLM in 2003. The state and the county are claiming the roads under the federal law known as Revised Statute 2477, which dates back to 1866 and granted public rights-of-way across federal land. The law was repealed in 1976, but existing roads were grandfathered in....
Advocates say legislation puts wild horses at risk Wild horse advocates, rallying Wednesday in Carson City for full federal protection of the animals, said recent legislation designed to help mustangs likely would do more harm than good. The protesters said legislation sponsored by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and supported by three other members of the state’s congressional delegation, would put more animals at risk of winding up at slaughterhouses and on dinner plates in Europe and Canada. Reid’s legislation, introduced June 20, would lower the adoption fee for wild horses and burros from $125 to $25, eliminate the adoption limit of four horses per year and provide one year of federal protection to horses sold to private owners through the Bureau of Land Management....
Clarke cleared in land swap A nearly two-year investigation into Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke's role in the aborted San Rafael land exchange has cleared the Utah native of wrongdoing. Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney initiated the investigation in August 2003 after identifying 14 meetings or contacts with parties involved in the Utah land exchange. The discussions could have violated the recusal agreement that Clarke, who had been director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, entered into to prevent conflicts of interest....
Feds buying Trinity water for Klamath again The federal government is spending $618,000 to buy Trinity River water as an insurance policy against a fish kill on the Klamath River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation expects to sign an agreement soon with a slate of contractors it identified as the Sacramento River Exchange Group. It would buy 20,000 acre feet -- 6.5 billion gallons -- for about $30 an acre foot. "We've isolated a hunk of water and we've got a handshake," said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken. A subcommittee of the Trinity Management Council will meet this week to determine what would trigger the release this fall. The size of the salmon run, the flows in the lower river, and the incidence of disease will all be considered....
Editorial: A Parched River Should Southern Californians be bothered that long stretches of the San Joaquin River, hundreds of miles away, run dry every summer and fall as farmers take all the water to irrigate their crops? Absolutely, if they care about the water they drink. As it descends from the Sierra, the river effectively dies for much of the year when it backs up behind Friant Dam north of Fresno. The water is diverted north and south along the east side of the San Joaquin Valley via irrigation canals. About 60 miles of the river go dry. It does pick up some flow from tributaries to the north, but that water is overwhelmed by polluted irrigation runoff. Victims of this shallow, foul stew include the historic salmon run up the San Joaquin. Ultimately, it flows into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and out to San Francisco Bay. A U.S. district judge ruled last year that the federal Bureau of Reclamation had violated a state fish and game law by allowing the river to go dry. A 1937 law requires dam operators to release enough water downstream to maintain the existing fisheries. The case is set for full trial next spring. A major unanswered question is how to find replacement water for the farmers if some of their supply has to remain in the stream....
Court keeps ban on pesticide use near salmon streams A federal appeals court has upheld a ban on the use of pesticides near streams in Washington, Oregon and California until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determines the chemicals won't harm salmon. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle ruled in January 2004 that no-spray buffer zones be put in place near rivers where there are threatened and endangered salmon. The EPA, pesticide makers and farming groups appealed, arguing, among other things, that a coalition of environmental groups had not proved that dozens of pesticides in question would cause irreparable harm. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument. It also dismissed the EPA's contention that it shouldn't have to comply with the Endangered Species Act because it was already working to comply with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act....
Senate Approves Ban on Human Pesticide Testing The Senate voted to block the Environmental Protection Agency from using studies that expose people to pesticides when considering permits for new pest killers. By a 60-37 vote, the Senate approved a provision from Sen. Barbara Boxer (search), D-Calif., that would block the EPA from relying on such testing -- including 24 human pesticide experiments currently under review -- as it approves or denies pesticide applications. The Bush administration lifted a moratorium imposed in 1998 by the Clinton administration on using human testing for pesticide approvals. Under the change, political appointees are refereeing on a case-by-case basis any ethical disputes over human testing. Ordinarily, approval by both House and Senate would ensure the language is retained in the final version of the bill. But GOP floor manager Conrad Burns, R-Mont., opposed Boxer's amendment, and as lead Senate negotiator on the bill, is well-positioned to kill it in future talks with the House. Burns countered with an amendment, adopted 57-40, in favor of careful human testing. It instructs the EPA to try to make sure any human testing is conducted ethically and that the benefits outweigh the risks to volunteers....
Little britches produces local success When the Little Britches rodeo comes to Craig, there are quite a few "Back when I was in Little Britches" stories the annual event elicits. "Craig seems to always have a lot of World Champions," said Diane Brannan, coordinator of the Craig rodeo. "There are quite a few World Champions who are now parents and helping their children in the rodeos." Three sisters, Janice Vernon, Joyce Barnes and Pam Taylor, were all Little Britches cowgirls growing up. "You want it more for them than you did when you were little," said Joyce, whose son, Casey, won the Little Wrangler All-Around World Championship last year. She was a World Champion in pole bending and goat tying....
Whose Name Is on It? South Dakota's Casey Tibbs and Idaho's Deb Copenhaver won eight saddle-bronc-riding world championships from 1949 to 1959. Casey won six, and Deb won two. They were good friends and argued in fun, razzing each other almost constantly, although many thought they were serious. After retiring from bronc riding, Casey once commented, ³The only horse that I ever thought I couldn't ride was Miss Klamath." One of the finest saddle-bronc photos ever taken was of Deb, a wonderful bronc-rider, successfully riding that great horse, which was owned by Christianson Brothers, in 1952 at the Ellensburg, Washington, rodeo. In 1954, Deb had a huge lead for the championship title. The trophy-buckle maker that year used the aforementioned photo as a model for the scene on the yet-to-be-awarded championship buckle. That fall, Casey ³hit a lick" and got hot. He edged out Deb for the championship buckle by $19. After the championship awards ceremony in Denver, Colorado, that winter, Deb saw Casey and asked, ³Hey, do you know who's picture is on that buckle you're wearing?" Casey replied, ³No, and I don't care. But I do know whose name is on it!"....
Towering above the competition Tucked away behind the trees and homes on U.S. 82 sits KSEY-FM, a radio station that has been serving its hometown of Seymour since 1981. Cowboys on horseback are painted on the little white brick building, and the door stands open, welcoming in the hot air and four dogs that come and go as they please. Loretta Lynn's "One's on the Way" pours from the control room as station owner and manager Mark Aulabaugh sits behind his desk and smokes a cigarette. But this little hometown radio station is much more than it seems. KSEY 94.3 began streaming its programming on the Internet two months ago and was selected by the Academy of Western Artists as the 2004 "Radio Station of the Year." KSEY plays Western swing and honky tonk music. The station doesn't play anything from Nashville, Aulabaugh said, unless it "sounds old."....

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