NEWS ROUNDUP

Federal report: Environmental lapses in oil, gas drilling The Interior Department is spending so much time approving oil and gas drilling permits on public lands that it often fails to do an adequate job policing the environment, congressional investigators say. Nationwide, oil and gas drilling permits from the department's Bureau of Land Management more than tripled from 1999 to 2004. But as those rose, from 1,803 to 6,399, bureau officials in five Western field offices complained staffers had less time for field inspections. "A dramatic increase in oil and gas development on federal lands over the past six years has lessened [the bureau's] ability to meet its environmental protection responsibilities," officials with the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, said in a report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The report had not yet been publicly released. The effects can range from removing several acres of vegetation at a drilling well pad to fragmenting tens of thousands of acres of winter range for mule deer, the report said....
Judge spoke volumes in his first opinion In his very first case on the D.C. circuit, a California land developer appealed an order by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove a fence from a property to accommodate the movement of a rare group of California toads. When a three-judge panel rejected the appeal, the developer asked that the case be heard by the entire circuit court. Roberts wanted to hear the case but was outvoted by his colleagues. He wrote a dissent, politely describing what he saw as wrong-headed reasoning. The majority said the federal government could regulate the land developer because the developer was involved in interstate commerce. Roberts, however, said it was the toads that were being regulated. "The hapless toad . . . for reasons of its own, lives its entire life in California," wrote the court newcomer. He reasoned that toads who live only in California aren't involved in interstate commerce, so the federal government had no authority to order the developer to remove his fence. Business conservatives were ecstatic. In his first case involving an esoteric dispute, he had shown his conservative constitutionalist colors, and had done so with a spunk that made them positively giddy....
Feds issue kill order for wolves In late June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a kill order for the leader of the Ring Pack after he killed two calves and probably a cow in the Gila National Forest of southwestern New Mexico. The agency later trapped a wolf believed to be the alpha male of the cattle-killing Francisco Pack. He injured his front left leg in the trap and it had to be amputated, according to spokeswoman Vicki Fox. A separate lone male wolf was caught on a Sunday on the Plains of San Agustin near a calf he killed on private land. "It's been a trying week," said John Morgart, coordinator of the wolf recovery program. "We've been working closely as we can with the ranchers and other constituencies and hopefully getting the best possible job done."....
Bear messes with Texas boy, flees after scuffle A 14-year-old Texas boy fought off a marauding black bear that invaded his tent in a private campground east of Salida early Tuesday, suffering minor injuries and gaining a heck of a story. Keelan Patton of Pampa, Texas, was asleep with his cousin about 1 a.m. when the bear crashed through their tent's nylon fabric, biting and scratching the youngster's hand and face. Patton suffered what his mother, Jana, thinks is a bite on his head and a claw scratch on his hand that required 14 stitches. Patton and his cousin, Brendan Rice, were asleep in the tent next to the camper where his mother, sister and grandmother slept at Cutty's Camping Resort in the rural Arkansas Valley community of Coaldale. Michael Seraphin, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said the bear ran off when Patton started fighting back. "The whole thing was over in less than a minute." Wildlife officials set a trap for the bear and intend to kill it if it is captured, Seraphin said....
Feds propose bison hunting on elk refuge Federal officials will propose changes in the way elk and bison near Jackson, Wyo., are managed, including the hunting of bison on the National Elk Refuge and less reliance on a winter feeding program. The proposed action is the preferred of six alternatives considered by officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. The draft management plan and environmental study are set for official release today. A copy of the plan was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. Refuge manager Barry Reiswig said the plan looks at the region's burgeoning bison population and the refuge's long-standing supplemental feed program....
Hunters rip feds over refuge Hunters said Wednesday they are fearful that a plan to reduce the number of elk on the National Elk Refuge from 7,500 to between 4,000 and 5,000 will curtail hunting opportunities. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released an outline of its plan Wednesday, calling for a reduction in winter feeding, improvement of winter habitat and 1,000 fewer elk summering in Grand Teton National Park. The agency will release today a draft environmental impact statement analyzing the proposal and several other alternatives. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department said its overall population goal for the Jackson herd, including animals that don’t winter on the refuge, would remain steady at about 11,000 elk. At Flat Creek Inn, where hundreds of hunters bunk during the fall, manager Beth Badgerow said fewer elk on the refuge could be bad for business....
Study Says Development Big Threat to Big Thicket A timely new report today by the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) says that the health of Big Thicket National Preserve in East Texas will be compromised by unplanned development and lack of funding if greater attention is not paid to this national treasure. "Despite the efforts of Texas's congressional delegation, Big Thicket is not out of the woods yet," said NPCA Vice President for Government Affairs Craig Obey. "More money is needed to purchase the land that surrounds Big Thicket's scattered units to protect this treasure from the effects of reckless development." Over the past few years, more than 2 million acres of timber- company land surrounding the preserve have been put up for sale. NPCA's new State of the Parks report reveals that ad hoc commercial, industrial, and residential development of this land enables non-native and invasive plants and feral animals to invade the preserve; subjects the preserve's delicate ecosystem to pesticides and fertilizers; interferes with fire management; and cuts off wildlife migration routes....
Utah Legislators Attack Wilderness Group A committee of Utah legislators that set out to discuss energy policy dealt first with an old nemesis: the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Legislators turned against a staff lawyer they invited from the preservation group, accusing SUWA of wielding too much clout and overstating the need for more wilderness. The lawyer, Steve Bloch, is a member of the Legislature’s Energy Policy Working Group and was invited to brief a standing committee. Rep. Michael E. Noel, R-Kanab, said he was bothered that SUWA portrays Utah’s open public lands of being in imminent danger from development, despite federal environmental laws governing energy exploitation. Noel, a former Bureau of Land Management employee, asserted the alliance didn’t deal honestly or credibly with facts, and another legislator complained SUWA avoided dealing with rural leaders....
Hands-On Environmentalism Frontpage Interview’s guests today are Brent Haglund and Thomas Still, the authors of the new book Hands-On Environmentalism. FP: What inspired you to write this book? Haglund: An abiding commitment to replace costly failures with principled approaches that people can benefit from. Government-mandated environmentalism and state directed control of many of our natural resources have often been imposed with the best of intentions. But those resulting rules and regulations and restrictions very often become rigid, cost a great deal, and develop perverse incentives. Instead of telling people what is best for them and requiring landowners, industries, and municipalities to conform to particular practices, "Hands-On Environmentalism" is needed to show that voluntary, bottom-up solutions to pressing environmental concerns and resource issues have had a long history and an even greater future. And they work. Still: The inspiration for this book came from ordinary people who have succeeded in their own "hands on" conservation efforts. The people are not regulators or government officials, but landowners and other private stewards of land and wildlife. Their stories, viewed collectively against the backdrop of command-and-control environmentalism, offer a refreshing contrast and a model for others to follow....
Pro football player invests in rodeo livestock One man stood out at the Rodeo grounds last week, looking more like a football player than a cowboy. Maybe that's because Jeff Zgonina is a football player. Standing at 6'2" and weighing 290 pounds, Zgonina plays for the Miami Dolphins. He raises bulls and came to Cody for a few days to check out his stock. "They're amazing athletes, and being an athlete I was drawn to it," Zgonina said about the bull business. A defensive tackle, he has spent 13 years in the NFL. During his career he has played for Pittsburgh, Atlanta Carolina and St. Louis before going to Miami two years ago. In 1999, he was a part of the Rams team that won Super Bowl XXXIV....

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