NEWS

Ranchers worried about oil company's water use Some ranchers near here are worried about an oil company's use of water, saying there may not be enough left for people or livestock. The North Dakota Water Commission said it will monitor two McKenzie County aquifers in response to ranchers' fears. Alan Wanek, a hydrologist with the commission, said the agency installed two monitoring wells in the Sentinel Butte and Tongue River aquifers last week. Zinke & Trumbo, an oil company that has been working in the Foreman Butte field, has installed nine water wells under temporary permits and wants to make them permanent. The permits allow the company to use up to 5 million gallons of water a year....
Forest Service sued over Wolf Creek Pass An environmental group battling the U.S. Forest Service over a proposal to build a resort village on Wolf Creek Pass has sued the agency for allegedly withholding public records and granting developers access across federal land without a permit. Colorado Wild and Monte Vista rancher Greg Gosar filed the two lawsuits Friday in U.S. District Court in Denver. Jeff Berman of Colorado Wild said the group sued the agency under the Freedom of Information Act because Rio Grande National Forest officials would not identify, as required by law, the nature of about 80 documents it refused to release. Under the act, agencies can withhold documents for various reasons but must identify them and the reasons for withholding them in a "privilege log."....
Editorial: Don't cry wolf The Mexican wolf recovery program corrects mistakes made when wolves were systematically exterminated for the sake of cattle ranching. You can help prevent mistakes in the way that program is carried out by getting involved in a public comment process that includes a meeting Tuesday night in Phoenix. One proposal by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service would prohibit the relocation of wolves from Arizona to New Mexico. This is a mistake. Such relocations are currently the only way wolves can be released into New Mexico, which contains 75 percent of the recovery area and includes top-notch wolf habitat. Rather than impose this new restriction, a revised plan should rescind the prohibition on releasing wolves from the captive population directly into New Mexico....
Hopi plan action against Forest Service ''I am disappointed but not at all surprised at this latest decision of the Forest Service to uphold the desecration of Nuvatukyaovi [San Francisco Peaks],'' Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor said. Southwestern Regional Forester Harv Forsgren affirmed the decision by Coconino National Forest Supervisor Nora Rasure, which approved expansion and snow production from recycled water at the Arizona Snowbowl on San Francisco Peaks. Taylor said the Hopi Tribe is ''deeply disappointed at the insensitive snub'' by the Forest Service's regional office's affirmation of the earlier decision. The Hopi plan to proceed with action in federal court to halt the desecration. ''It became evident early on in the process that federal authorities were ignoring the deeply felt concerns of the Hopi Tribe and all Native nations. It is our duty and obligation to protect and preserve the spiritual integrity of Nuvatukyaovi and we will never give up in our efforts to do so.''....
Rare alliance favors thinning of forests High in the canopy of centuries-old yellow-sided pines near Black Butte are branches thick as utility poles. Beneath the imposing ponderosas, Tim Lillebo, dressed in dirty jeans and wearing hiking boots, pushes through a dense thicket of spiny saplings. As a 30-year veteran of Oregon's timber wars, Lillebo has spent much of his life opposing logging on public lands such as this area. But he'd like to see some chain saws back in the federal forest. "What we need to do," he said, "is remove a hell of a lot of small-diameter trees." That puts Lillebo, a field representative for the Oregon Natural Resources Council, on the side of federal land managers and timber companies, a rare alliance. He and his group support a plan that would have the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management provide a steady amount of woody brush from thinning operations to companies that invest in new technologies to use the material....
Oregon backs off plan to restore goats to gorge Faced with a lawsuit from conservationists, the state of Oregon on Friday backed off plans to release mountain goats in the Columbia Gorge in time for this year's anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Instead, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will take more time to work with conservationists, making it impossible to go through with the release of some 20 goats originally planned for mid-July, said agency spokesman Brad Wurfel. The Friends of the Columbia Gorge and In Defense of Animals had filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Portland asking a judge to order an examination of the release plans, said Friends of the Columbia Gorge attorney Nathan Baker....
Shovel Brigade appeals Jarbidge decision The Jarbidge Shovel Brigade is appealing Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Supervisor Bob Vaught's decision on South Canyon Road at Jarbidge. Attorney Grant Gerber said the big question in the appeal is "why is a Forest Service employee proceeding to close about one-third of the road we're fighting over?" Vaught's decision on the controversial road was to keep it primitive, with some repairs up to Urdahl Campground while closing the remaining four-tenths of a mile to vehicles from there to Snowslide Gulch. Gerber argues that the Forest Service can't close any part of the road....
Still accessible by the determined, Jarbidge hopes for strong summer A broken bridge stands between Fred Thatcher and the meadows south of Jarbidge where he gathers huge mushrooms to fry in butter and garlic. Between Rey Nystrom and the waist-high seas of wildflowers he'd like to photograph next month on the south summits. Between Jarbidge's visitors and many of the campsites normally available for their tents and RVs. Between the town's fledgling arts council and the high country where it planned to lead a geology tour in July. Between Jarbidge's volunteer emergency workers and potential troubles on the remote south end of the Jarbidge River canyon....
Idaho governor plans to use roadless authority Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said Thursday he'll wait until early next year to ask the Bush administration to consider opening for development millions of acres of federal forest land in Idaho that have never been roaded, logged or mined. Kempthorne vowed to take advantage of the new authority over national forest-land planning recently given to governors. In May, the U.S. Forest Service overturned a rule that former President Clinton had used to protect the nation's 58.5 million acres of pristine woodlands from commercial uses. "I'm going to petition," Kempthorne told county commissioners, environmentalists, timber industry officials, sportsmen and reporters gathered for the announcement in his state Capitol office. But he said he'll wait to hear from people living near the state's 10 national forests before deciding exactly where new roads should be allowed in the 9.3 million roadless acres -- an area almost twice the size of Massachusetts and second only to Alaska's 14 million roadless acres....
Grizzly plan draws fire The newly revised Wyoming grizzly bear occupancy management plan hasn't satisfied critics to the left or the right. Not the Wyoming Outdoor Council, nor the chairman of the Fremont County Commission, which has declared the bear to be "socially unacceptable" in the county. "Managing a wildlife species for its minimum population on reduced habitat with increased mortality following delisting is a recipe for relisting," said Meredith Taylor, a Wyoming Outdoor Council staffer. Fremont County Commissioner Doug Thompson complained that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is not listening to citizens. "They're being more responsive to the feds than the people of Wyoming. That's unfortunate, because they're trying to please people who'll never suffer the consequences we will," Thompson said, citing public fear of grizzlies, maulings, deaths, property damage and livestock losses....
Pumping endangers state rivers and wildlife From a clearing in the ash trees and willows here, the Verde River whispers as it flows by. Along these banks, only a dozen miles or so below the Verde's headwaters and far above most of the tributaries that add to the river, you can hear birds, the buzz of insects, a twig breaking underfoot. But for all its serenity, this stretch of the Verde is producing an increasingly vocal debate about how rural Arizona can continue to grow freely and still protect its natural resources. "It would be a shame if one of our last living rivers were reduced to an artificially created flow," said Michelle Harrington, who works on Verde issues for the Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based conservation group. "I really hope we can be more forward-thinking than that."....
Time runs out for federal dollars on Klamath A 20-year program to restore Klamath River fisheries is running out of time, and more specifically, money. But when the Klamath River Fisheries Task Force met here last week, it got no guidance on the future from either state or federal governments. “I don’t think anybody out there knows where we are going,” said John Engbring, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service executive from Sacramento who is chairman of the task force, a federal advisory committee. Along with the 20-year-old authorization aimed at managing anadromous fisheries on the main-stem Klamath, the law assigned $1 million a year through 2006. That created a comprehensive restoration plan, and supplements state and federal data collection on the Klamath and its tributaries....
Johnsgard's book examines crumbling prairie dog empire In 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ignited a firestorm on the Great Plains when it made the prairie dog a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Farmers and ranchers decried the announcement, saying the burrowing rodents deserve protection about as much as mosquitoes. Wildlife advocates countered that black-tailed prairie dogs are an important grasslands species that occupy only about 1 percent of their historic range. Four years later, the service removed prairie dogs from the candidate list to the delight of agricultural interests and the dismay of environmentalists. As the controversy faded, so did the prairie dog in the public's consciousness. In "Prairie Dog Empire: A Saga of the Shortgrass Prairie," Lincoln author Paul Johnsgard doesn't attempt to reignite the controversy, but he clearly wants the reader to understand the object of such passion. His book, the 49th of his writing career, is much more than a profile of the creature French fur traders named petit chien, or little dog. For starters, Johnsgard shows that the biological value of prairie dogs can't be refuted by those who would wipe them from the landscape. Drawing upon reams of published research, Johnsgard provides brief natural histories of the black-footed ferret, the swift fox and the burrowing owl, all of which rely on prairie dogs for prey or their colonies for habitat....
R-CALF leader stepping aside When Leo McDonnell's father died 12 years ago, he made his son promise to get more involved with national cattle organizations. McDonnell took that involvement to a new level. After disagreeing with how the National Cattlemen's Beef Association represented ranchers, he helped create an organization that has since inserted itself into trade policy issues and legal matters at the highest level _ even stopping the federal Agriculture Department from reopening the Canadian border to live cattle after mad cow incidents. The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America has seen a steady growth in size and prominence in its short history. In 2000, the group had an annual budget of $350,000. This year's budget will run about $2.3 million. Five years ago, R-CALF had 3,500 members. Today it has 16,700, along with 60 affiliated groups. In a few months, McDonnell, a 53-year-old Columbus, Mont., man who ranches in four states including North Dakota, will step aside as president of R-CALF....
Black Jack's gang terrorized two territories The Black Jack Ketchum gang has nearly been forgotten in modern-day Arizona and New Mexico, but it terrorized people in both territories near the close of the 19th century. Tom Ketchum was the outlaw called Black Jack, but his brother Sam was another gang member who was as notorious. Other band members were Sam's brother-in-law Dan Johnson, Sam Marr and Tom Thomas. Arizona Territory first became interested in the gang after the robbery of the International Bank at Nogales in 1896. Until then, they had been a problem for New Mexico Territory. How they were identified as the Black Jack gang isn't clear from news reports, but when Arizona's Sheriff Fly and his posse were ambushed trailing the robbers in Skeleton Canyon in August, they were clearly identified as Black Jack and his gang. A member of Fly's posse, Frank Robson, was killed by the outlaws who managed to elude their pursuers after the fight....
Cowboy author's memoir depicts rough-and-tumble life Author Dayton Hyde still likes to climb into the saddle, although some people might question his sanity for doing so. "You bet I still ride," the rancher and former rodeo cowboy said Thursday. "I'm only 80, so why not? Every now and then, I'll watch a rodeo and see a saddle bronc and think I could ride it. But then I remember, 'By God, that was 60 years ago.' " Hyde, of Hot Springs, S.D., ran away from home at age 13 and discovered the cowboy lifestyle in eastern Oregon. His newest book, "The Pastures of Beyond," is a memoir filled with recollections from a disappearing way of life, with rough-cut ranch hands with names like Yellowstone and BK Heavy, bedrolls under the stars and the scent of freshly bruised sage. As a professional rodeo cowboy, Hyde rubbed elbows with some of the big stars of his era: Slim Pickens, Casey Tibbs, Bill Linderman and members of the famous Greenough rodeo family. Many people don't know that Pickens was an accomplished rodeo cowboy and rodeo clown before his long Hollywood career took off. The book includes a photo that Hyde took for Life magazine in 1948, showing Pickens decked out in a bandanna and a straw sombrero at a Billings rodeo. "He was as good a friend as I've ever had," Hyde said....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Wild turkey menace rears its ugly head Normally, the only time turkeys make the paper is in November, but this spring, photos of wild turkeys appeared in both the Long Island, N.Y., and Spokane, Wash., newspapers. Both stories involved potential overpopulation and "infestation," "inbreeding," or "attacks." In each instance it was the result of well-intentioned humans manipulating the turkey population. Washington hunters all over the state have had a bonanza spring turkey season. The State Department of Fish & Wildlife says, "Emphasis is swinging from spreading birds across the state..." to "...helping landowners cope with flocks big enough to raise havoc..." In New York, wild turkeys have escaped from the Boys Ranch into the community....

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