NEWS ROUNDUP

Court rejects appeal over roadless areas A federal appeals court dismissed an attempt by environmental groups to restore a Clinton-era ban on logging in roadless areas of national forests, saying their appeal became irrelevant when the Bush administration adopted a replacement rule. The Clinton administration's rule put 58.5 million acres of roadless forest off-limits to logging and other development. Under the new rule, those lands, most of which are in the West, are open to road building for potential logging, mining and other commercial uses. A federal judge in Wyoming struck down the Clinton administration's ban in 2003, ruling in a lawsuit filed by the state of Wyoming that the executive branch had overstepped its authority in effectively creating wilderness areas on U.S. Forest Service land. The Wyoming Outdoor Council and seven other environmental groups appealed. But on May 5, the day after the 10th U.S. Circuit of Appeals heard oral arguments, the Forest Service issued a new rule to replace the one that had been overturned. "Adoption of the new rule has rendered the appeal moot," a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling Monday....
Freudenthal still wary on roadless rule Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) has not yet decided how to handle petitions for roadless preservation in the state, and continues to have questions about exactly how much weight a governor's request carries. "His questions center on how much influence the state's petitions would have, how they would be judge and prioritized and who would pay for the environmental analyses of the petitions' contents," his press secretary Lara Azar said Tuesday. "Under the new rule, final authority doesn't rest with the states. These things would still go back through the forest-planning process. Before committing state resources to developing these petitions, Gov. Freudenthal wants to know how much weight they will carry."....
Caterpillars invade New Mexico forests Some of northern New Mexico's aspen stands have been stripped of their leaves by masses of wriggling caterpillars in search of food and a place to build a home, but forest officials are confident the trees will recover in time to show off their brilliant colors. Western tent caterpillars began to hatch in May and have since been eating their way through the aspens in the Carson National Forest, especially the Canjilon area at the southern end of the San Juan Mountains. There have also been reports of the critters in the Santa Fe National Forest. Trees in New York, Massachusetts and Vermont have been left bare this summer because of the caterpillars. Terry Rodgers, a forest health official with the U.S. Forest Service in Albuquerque, said officials have had numerous calls from northern New Mexico about the pests. "Apparently the caterpillars were just extreme in their numbers and causing extreme defoliation," he said. "They have already stripped the trees."....
Agency: Petition to protect chub warrants consideration The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will further consider petitions to protect the headwater chub and the Lower Colorado River basin population of the roundtail chub under the Endangered Species Act. The agency is seeking scientific, commercial and historical information before it determines whether to propose adding the chubs to the list of threatened or endangered species. The chubs occur throughout much of New Mexico Gila River headwaters and much of Arizona. Tuesday's finding acknowledges that the Center for Biological Diversity's petition to protect the chubs provides a reasonable case. "However, our finding expresses no view as to the ultimate issue of whether the species should be listed," said H. Dale Hall, the Service's Southwest Regional director....
Appeals court: Army Corps acted correctly on pygmy owl An appellate court says the Army Corps of Engineers correctly declined an endangered species consultation over the impact of two planned developments on a small Arizona owl. The Ninth U-S Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision that the corps had not acted arbitrarily or capriciously in finding that the developments would have no impact on the pygmy owl. Environmentalists argue the pygmy owl is a distinct population group....
Birds' second mass exodus An estimated 16,000 or more American white pelicans again have pulled out of Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge, but this mass departure follows a die-off of pelican chicks. Researchers are unsure of the cause of the chicks' deaths, but the die-off of young birds could total 8,000 or more. "We're ruling out disturbance and leaning heavily toward disease," Ken Torkelson, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Tuesday. The USFWS oversees the refuge and its pelican population. An on-site look Friday revealed about 300 to 500 live chicks remaining after a nesting period that had the potential to produce as many as 9,000 over the course of the summer. However, biologists say they believe the estimate of live chicks remaining is likely low because tall vegetation is hampering visibility....
Alaska Native gets 7 years in walrus crime An Alaska Native was sentenced to a harsh seven years in federal prison for killing six walruses, removing the heads to sell the ivory and sinking the carcasses. Herman A. Oyagak was on probation for felony assault when he participated in what prosecutors declared a wasteful killing of walruses in 2003. That, plus his criminal history, led to the harsh sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Goeke said Tuesday. Under federal law, Alaska Natives are allowed to hunt walruses for subsistence but they must use a substantial portion of the animal. In this case, the walruses were being killed for the ivory and bodies were abandoned, Goeke said....
Silvery minnow numbers soar with high runoff The tiny endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow, the focus of years of battles over water to sustain it, has had a good year, thanks to high runoff in the river. Biologists rescuing the fish from isolated pools along the middle Rio Grande have found 290,000 minnow since June 20 _ a huge jump from the 16,000 rescued and moved to the river's main channel last year, Larry Bell, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service here, said Tuesday. The high runoff from mountain snows allowed the Rio Grande to leave its banks in some areas of the bosque along the river, a condition known as overbanking. Officials credit that overbanking, and its subsequent creation of good habitat for minnow spawning, for this summer's large numbers....
The North Coast is ground zero in the barred owl's invasion of spotted owl country There is nothing that says old-growth louder than the northern spotted owl. There are no forests more closely identified with old growth than those in Redwood National and State Parks. It stands to reason that you should be able to see or hear a spotted owl, then, in those parks. It's more likely that this year, you would be sorely disappointed. The hoot that you may hear now is from an invader, a barred owl. It's like a spotted owl on steroids. The eastern bird's rapid colonization of the West Coast's best old-growth territory has been recognized -- but not so openly discussed -- for years. The barred owl's southward surge and expansion does not bode well for the spotted owl. Experts think the larger owl may eventually push the threatened spotted owl to the brink of extinction, or make Northern California its last refuge....
Allard's land negotiations surprise park resident Betty Dick was surprised to find U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard making real estate deals on her behalf Tuesday. Allard, R-Colo., announced in a news release that he had negotiated an agreement with the director of the National Park Service that would allow Dick to remain on her property in Rocky Mountain National Park. Allard proposes allowing Dick to lease the home and 23 acres near Grand Lake at fair market value. Neither Dick nor her lawyer, John Head, had heard anything about the deal. "Senator Allard has never written to me, never spoken to me and never asked my opinion on any of this," Dick said when reached by phone Tuesday evening. She was facing eviction from her summer home within the park earlier this month because a deal negotiated by her husband 25 years ago expires Saturday. The park service has said Dick can stay in her home until Congress resolves her situation....
Pilgrim family's case heard before Court of Appeals Arguments were made today before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case that could define the authority of the National Park Service to regulate access to private inholdings in parks. And the family at the center of the dispute is no stranger to controversy. The Pilgrims, also known as the Hale family, continue their legal battle, seeking the permission to drive a bulldozer across Wrangell-St. Elias National Park to their property, located 14 miles from McCarthy. Today the battle came to the federal courthouse, where a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments. “The Park Service must provide adequate and feasible access. Now any regulation that violates or that prevents the Hales adequate and feasible access is, per se, unreasonable regulation,” said Russ Brooks of the Pacific Legal Foundation....
At the foot of the falls, the roar of the crowd Without a doubt, the hordes are here. On summer afternoons, Yosemite Valley can be a riot of bumpers and brake lights - Los Angeles gridlock set against a landscape beyond imagination. Yet the place where the Oris stand is a symbol of how Yosemite - as well as the National Park System - is struggling to maintain a sense of solitude amid throngs of automobile-bound visitors. To some, the new path and viewing area at the base of Lower Yosemite Falls is an attempt to make one of the park's most famous landmarks more accessible to a new generation of park visitors, who come not to camp or explore, but to snap a photo and move on. To others, though, it risks turning the great outdoors into a drive-through that rates convenience above conservation....
Editorial: BLM's coziness with oil, gas companies a bad deal for public Giving consultants who are paid by the oil and gas industry some say-so over when it's environmentally safe to drill in the Uinta Basin casts doubt over the Bureau of Land Management's dedication to protecting the area's land and wildlife. How can the BLM objectively assess the potential effects of granting a drilling permit on the basis of information provided by consultants who are paid by the companies that desperately want the permits to be approved? Clearly, it cannot. With oil prices at near-record highs and demand for gas on the rise, companies are clamoring for permits to drill in the energy-rich basin. The BLM received 1,100 applications last year and expects to see 1,200 this year, many more than the office's budget-challenged staff can handle. So, to expedite the processing of permits, which includes assessing their possible effects on the environment, a group of oil and gas companies, through their trade group, Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, generously - like a fox with an ulterior motive - hired consultants to work on the applications, at no charge to the BLM's Vernal office....
Bush administration asking court to block dam spills The Bush administration wants a federal appeals court to stop water from being purposely spilled over five Northwest hydroelectric dams despite a lower court's unprecedented order that it was necessary to help young salmon migrating to the Pacific. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was forced to allow substantial flows to bypass energy generating turbines following a June 20 order by U.S. District Judge James Redden of Portland. Redden ruled that the salmon were imperiled when swimming through those dams' turbines as they headed to the sea hundreds of miles away. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was set to hear the administration's demands to overturn Redden on Wednesday in Seattle. At the request of salmon advocates, fishermen and Indian tribes, Redden ruled that "As currently operated, I find that the dams strongly contributed to the endangerment of the listed species and irreparable injury will result if changes are not made." His order began being carried out June 20, and is to last through Aug. 31....
Environmental lobbyist accused of using ‘undue' pressure Several legislators have filed a complaint against the environmental movement's top lobbyist in Oregon, saying he has attempted to "intimidate'' and "coerce'' them into supporting a pesticide reporting program that's been stalled for years. The complaint accuses Matt Blevins of the Oregon Environmental Council of trying to use undue influence by waging a "media campaign'' of radio and newspaper advertisements against certain lawmakers who fail to support the pesticide use reporting law. State Rep. Mike Schaufler, D-Portland, sent a letter to the Capitol Club, the organization that represents lobbyists in Salem, asking that Blevins be "removed and banned'' from the organization for his actions. Schaufler said Blevins visited him and several other lawmakers in their offices threatening to run ads against them....
Federal government revamping plan for Mississippi River Federal officials are coming up with a new plan for protecting the upper Mississippi River after the original proposal prompted a backlash over restrictions on hunting, camping and other uses. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which held 17 hearings and eight workshops up and down the river since announcing the original conservation plan in May, will now issue an "alternative" plan in October. The plan would then be finalized after 45 days of public comments. Federal officials say it's too soon to say how the new plan will differ from the original one, but they say it will take into account public comments which included objections to restrictions on hunting, boating and public access....
Sierra Club helps Ford go green with second hybrid When the Sierra Club approached Ford Motor Co. last year and offered to help promote the company's first hybrid electric vehicle, the company spurned the olive branch. The Sierra Club has long been a nemesis of Detroit automakers and a critic of Ford's chairman and chief executive, William Clay Ford Jr. But when Ford later heard of the decision, he was said to be angry that an opportunity had been missed to buff the company's image in the way that Toyota had done so deftly with its hybrids. Ford is not letting the chance slip a second time....
Rider of the horse Marvin Brookman likes to point out there are three stock contractors still around from the first National Finals Rodeo in 1959. "Bob Barnes, Harry Vold and me,'' said Brookman. He paused to draw his lunch-time companions closer. "And Harry is older than rodeo,'' Brookman finished with a grin. Brookman is 91 years old and a stroke suffered three years ago doesn't let him get around like he used to. But age and medical frailties have not dimmed his knowledge of bucking stock. Or his quiet sense of humor. The Brookman Rodeo Company of Wolf Point has had bucking stock selected for every NFR, with the one exception, since the event began in 1959 in Dallas, Texas. A truck driving accident in 1962 interrupted the 46-year-old streak....

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