NEWS ROUNDUP

EnCana's 'field of dreams' has Colorado locals crying the blues Northwestern Colorado is largely undeveloped and sparsely populated, home to agriculture and ranchers. Many of its people moved there looking for a pristine place to call home and most had no idea that the ground below them held natural gas, a fair assumption given that energy companies didn't see or pursue the potential until recently. That's changed radically. EnCana is pushing hard this year, drilling more than 300 wells, with hundreds more to come. It is an example of what EnCana calls an "unconventional" gas field, where numerous wells are necessary to tap gas that is spread out in small pockets over a large area. One analyst described the region as a "field of dreams." It is EnCana's single most important drilling location and positive community relations will be a key to success. The anger among some residents was stirred principally after a serious misstep by EnCana Corp. in 2004, and it has not abated even though the company is getting credit for recent improvements in its practices. Last summer, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission penalized EnCana $371,200 (U.S.), the largest such fine in the regulator's history, because natural gas containing benzene, a carcinogen, seeped from a poorly completed EnCana well into Divide Creek, about 250 kilometres west of Denver....
Forest throws out grazing plan The supervisor of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest has overturned part of a grazing plan to avoid damaging streams and streamside habitat. The decision, which resulted from an appeal by the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, means forest officials must now revise a grazing plan that affects more than 62,000 acres of public lands in southeastern Wyoming and northern Colorado. Authorized last spring, the plan, known as the Upper North Platte Analysis, would have permitted cattle grazing in streams and streamside habitats that are already suffering from drought, erosion and overgrazing, said a Biodiversity Conservation Alliance representative....
Snowbowl won't perform work until suits settled The Arizona Snowbowl has agreed not to begin work on snowmaking and other improvements at the ski area until lawsuits against it by Indian tribes and conservation groups have been settled. That accord was struck Wednesday during a federal court hearing in Prescott seeking a preliminary injunction against the construction before U.S. District Judge Paul Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt also scheduled a tentative court date for mid-October and consolidated the four suits into one filed by northern Arizona tribes and environmentalists against the U.S. Department of the Interior....
Troy Mine cave-in raises doubts at Rock Creek mine Generally speaking, a hole in the ground is not a problem at an underground mine, which is, after all, a hole in the ground. But an unexpected cave-in at the Troy Mine this spring has raised doubts about the future of a controversial mine proposal nearby. In approving the Rock Creek mine - which would tunnel beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness - Forest Service officials pointed to the Troy Mine as a good example of what might be expected. Responding to cave-in or subsidence concerns, officials noted the existing Troy Mine provided "an excellent analogy for the proposed Rock Creek mining method and risks of subsidence." The geology is much the same at the two sites, they said, as is the mining method proposed....
No end in sight for Biscuit Fire salvage Three years after lightning sparked the biggest wildfire in the nation in 2002, salvage logging is limping along, with no end in sight. The Forest Service said Wednesday it has sold 67 million board feet burned by the Biscuit Fire -- enough to build 15,000 homes -- of which 25 million board feet has been harvested. That compares to 370 million board feet called for in the final logging plans issued a year ago. There is no word on when the bulk of the sales, located in roadless areas that environmentalists still hope to protect from logging, will be offered, if ever. "It's been meaningful volume to the guys who got it, but given the controversy and the hype, it's been a yawner," said Chris West of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group....
House panel studies motorized recreation on public lands Off-road vehicle enthusiasts complained to a congressional committee Wednesday that they are increasingly being blocked from enjoying national forests, parks and rangelands. Last year, 51 million of 211 million national forest visitors participated in off-road vehicle recreation, a tenfold increase over 1972, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The service says unregulated recreation, including off-road vehicle use, is a key threat to the national forests. Off-road vehicle users disturb wildlife, hunters, hikers and skiers with their noise and fumes....
Toronto Artist Traded Endangered Species, Canada, U.S. Allege The Internet is being used increasingly to support illegal trade in wildlife specimens and products, according to Canadian and U.S. wildlife officers. The warning came Wednesday as a Toronto man was charged in Canada for selling parts of endangered species on the Internet. Officials of both countries cooperated in the investigation and arrest of Mark J. Gleberzon, age 36, for allegedly selling products containing elephant ivory and parrot feather ornaments to U.S. wildlife officers in New York. After a 15 month investigation, Gleberzon was arrested May 12 by United States Fish and Wildlife Service special agents at LaGuardia International Airport in New York City while attempting to board a return flight to Canada....
World Wildlife Fund Launches Wildfinder, World's Most Powerful Tool to Find Where Wildlife Live The world's only searchable database for all four groups of land vertebrates launches today on World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Web site, http://www.worldwildlife.org. Wildfinder is the only online, map-driven tool to cover the entire globe. "For the first time the geographic ranges of 26,000 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians can be found at a single site," said Eric Dinerstein, WWF's vice-president for science. "This kind of information is critical for studies in ecology, biogeography, conservation biology and natural history. Before Wildfinder, finding these data might require a time-consuming search of several different references. Now, they are available with just a few mouse clicks." WildFinder allows the user to search for wildlife two ways – by location or by species....
Animal rights group sues over Steller sea lion research An animal rights group filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing the federal government of using illegal research techniques on threatened and endangered Steller sea lions. The Humane Society of the United States says the National Marine Fisheries Service has approved permits for research activities that include hot branding and tissue sampling of thousands of Steller sea lions each year. Humane Society officials said the research practices violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act....
Bears will be bears U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy dismissed a lawsuit last Thursday dealing with the grizzly bear mauling death of Great Falls hunter Timothy Hilston. The case stems from an Oct. 30, 2001 incident in which Hilston went hunting in the Blackfoot Clearwater Wildlife Management Area about 45 miles east of Missoula. Hilston was successful in downing an elk and was in the process of field dressing the animal when he was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear. Believing that the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Department of Wildlife and Parks were “negligent in operation and control, maintenance and management of the grizzly bears” in the wildlife management area, Hilston’s widow sued those agencies for the death of her husband. Lawyers for the state and feds say if Hilston’s widow was successful in her suit, it could have set a precedent that would have opened the floodgates for similar lawsuits and undermined grizzly bear protection....
B.W. Cox Wants to Leave a Land Legacy If you want to learn about plants, soil conditions, water tables, aquifer recharges, what grows where and why, spend at least a day driving around a vast ranch with its owner. Hopefully he’s the type of rancher who knows a thing or two about how to keep the soil rich and the cows fat, how to make sure the eagles, the elk and the bears all get along with him and his cows. B.W. Cox is one of those ranchers. He’s probably a better land steward than his Forest Service neighbors. He’s made his living here all of his long years. It isn’t an easy living, as evidenced by B.W.’s slight limp-and-tilt, his creaky bones. But to be surrounded by his land, his family and his cows is all he really wants. No condos in Florida or even a small house in Socorro. “Those people who do that,” he says, referring to his ranching cohorts who sell off their land and retire, “they’re dead in seven, eight months.” B.W.’s Montosa Ranch is in Magdalena, New Mexico, which sits about 15 miles west of Socorro, north of the Magdalena and San Mateo Mountains, above the plains of St. Augustine....
Planes plant seeds to grow a crop of raindrops Todd Flanagan knows the desperation felt by area farmers and ranchers as sweltering summer days fail to yield any significant rainfall. Flanagan is a meteorologist for a rainmaking project here, and, lately, he's had to answer to a lot of concerned residents wondering where the rain is. There has been no measurable rainfall at San Antonio International Airport for 43 days, according to the National Weather Service. It's the 11th longest period of no rain since 1946, when the agency began tracking such records. But Flanagan isn't discouraged. The South Texas Weather Modification Association sent two planes Thursday into the skies northwest of San Antonio to seed clouds and hopefully produce rain....
Governor rehires brand inspectors Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Thursday upbraided state livestock officials for their "insensitive and callous" dismissal of four brand inspectors due to a budget crunch, then shifted funds to rehire them. State Veterinarian and Wyoming Livestock Board Executive Officer Dwayne Oldham said the layoffs were the last choice to balance the Brand Inspection Program budget and that a sincere effort was made to personally contact the affected employees. The board told the inspectors in late June they would be laid off to help make up a shortfall expected to reach $1.25 million by next summer. On June 27, Freudenthal announced he would not authorize higher fees on ranchers to cover the deficit, saying other options remained. The deficit resulted from fewer cattle being inspected and sold because of drought, and higher travel costs and benefits for brand inspectors....
Hudson rancher held liable for horse that caused accident A $300,000 lawsuit settlement set a standard for livestock owners. Joan and Frank Hunter of Westminster sued Bruce Eastwood, a Hudson-area rancher, because one of his horses escaped through an open gate and ran in front of their car. The Hunters were driving west on Interstate 76 about 11:30 p.m. April 8, 2001, when they hit the horse that shattered the windshield and struck the Hunters. John Case, the Hunters' lawyer, said the settlement amount was the maximum available through Eastwood's insurance policy. "They are not going to be rich because of it," Case said. "They're getting compensated for part of what they lost." Case said state courts used to rule in favor of livestock owners, but times have changed....

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