NEWS ROUNDUP

Healthy Forests Initiative dealt setback A federal court ruling reversing part of the Bush administration's Healthy Forests Initiative has nationwide implications, said the Durango lawyer who filed the complaint against the U.S. Forest Service. Matt Kenna, who represented the Western Environmental Law Center, argued the agency violated the 1992 Appeals Reform Act that allows the public to comment on and appeal all Forest Service projects. He said the Bush administration illegally changed Forest Service regulations in 2003 when it denied public input on projects like hazardous fuels-reductions projects. "The Forest Service tried to turn a law that only exempted actions such as mowing an office lawn from public comment and appeal into one exempting timber sales and other threats to the environment from citizen review," Kenna said. With the July 7 verdict, Judge James Singleton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California upheld the ARA and struck down a provision that allowed projects signed by the secretary or undersecretary of Agriculture to bypass the appeals process....
Environment Lawyers Uneasy Over Roberts' Supreme Court Nomination Earthjustice Executive Director Buck Parker said that the non-profit environmental law firm he leads is "concerned that Judge Roberts may fail to uphold our key environmental safeguards as a Supreme Court justice." In a key 2003 environmental case, Rancho Viejo, LLC v. Norton, Judge Roberts questioned the constitutionality of Endangered Species Act safeguards, Parker said. "Roberts’s arguments advanced a distorted view of Congressional power that could threaten to undermine a wide swath of environmental protections, including the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act," said Parker. While Acting Solicitor General, Roberts was the government’s lead counsel before the Supreme Court in Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation, a case brought against then Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. by citizens seeking to enforce environmental protections in response to the government’s decision to open 4,500 acres of public land to mining. Despite express statutory authorization for such suits, however, Roberts argued that plaintiffs, members of the National Wildlife Federation, had no right to file the claims, because they had not presented sufficient proof of the impact of the government’s actions on them to give them standing. The Supreme Court agreed with Roberts, tightening standing requirements for federal cases in one of a line of cases making it harder for plaintiffs to challenge governmental actions detrimental to the environment, the Alliance for Justice pointed out....
Environmentalists oppose nomination of Hall Some environmentalists are angry over President Bush's selection of H. Dale Hall as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "This will be a serious threat that species on the brink of extinction simply don't need," said Nicole Rosmarino, conservation director for the Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians. "Dale Hall adheres to the junk science approach of the Bush administration." Defenders for Wildlife vice president for conservation litigation Mike Senatore called Hall a "terrible choice." "We've actually had some dealings with him while he was regional director of the Southwest region and through those dealings, it's been extremely unfavorable," Senatore said. "We've had issues where he's actually overruled his own field biologists on environmental matters."....
Population of endangered woodpecker rises The work of Cox and others is part of a massive effort to restore healthy populations of the endangered woodpecker in the South - and it seems to be paying off. "We have turned the corner," said Ralph Costa, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's red-cockaded woodpecker recovery coordinator in Clemson, S.C. Active woodpecker clusters - family groups of about three birds or more - have increased nearly 30 percent, from 4,694 in 1994 to 6,061. The birds once thrived in the longleaf pine forests that stretched from Texas and Oklahoma in the West to Georgia and Florida in the East and up the coast as far as New Jersey. The recovery effort got a boost with habitat conservation plans that allow landowners to move isolated woodpeckers unlikely to survive and safe harbor agreements that provide financial incentives for artificial nests and other habitat enhancements....
Duck forecast is looking up Waterfowlers won't be restricted to shorter hunting seasons or fewer ducks in the bag after all, say biologists who've been building the season framework for the Central Flyway this week in Helena, Mont. Despite rumors the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service might drop the liberal duck-hunting package it has offered for several years, waterfowl managers say few changes are coming. In fact, there could be some additional opportunity, as pintail numbers have risen a bit. The duck count across the northern prairies barely slipped this year, to 31.7 million breeding ducks from 32.2 million ducks in 2004....
Pilot project boosts weed-eating beetles South Dakota's Agriculture Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are among agencies that have joined in a pilot project in eastern South Dakota aimed at reducing the noxious weed leafy spurge. The program lets property owners collect flea beetles from another person's property at no charge. The beetles then can be released on the gatherer's land. Flea beetles slowly eat and kill the spurge, a weed so noxious that cattle sometimes refuse to graze in fields where the bright yellow plant blooms. Adult beetles eat the leaves of leafy spurge, but Ron Moehring of the state Agriculture Department said beetle larvae do even more damage. The larvae strip the spurge of its roots so the canes can't grow, he said....
State stands behind split estate law With little fanfare Tuesday afternoon, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission made several amendments to and adopted final rule changes to implement the new split estates law. But the fireworks may soon follow. For many landowners in Wyoming, the new law means they no longer have to rely on the "luck of the draw" when oil and gas developers want to produce minerals that are below the surface but are not part of the surface ownership. Whether they're good or bad actors, all developers must now comply with notification and good-faith negotiation requirements to strike a private "surface use agreement." But for many in the industry, the new requirements amount to, albeit well-intended, legal traps. Tuesday's amendments aimed at clarifying language to match that of the law, which went into effect July 1. However, it's the changes the commission didn't make that may spark fireworks in the near future. It didn't change a 180-day timeline to strike a surface use agreement, and it didn't bend to pressure from the federal government to exempt development on federal minerals....
Companies propose year-round drilling on big game winter range Shell Exploration and Production and other companies are seeking an exception to allow year-round drilling on big game winter range in the Pinedale area. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management usually prohibits drilling in deer, elk, moose and antelope winter range from Nov. 15 through April 30, when the animals are vulnerable to stress. Shell, Anschutz Pinedale Inc., and Ultra Resources Inc. are proposing up to 45 new wells using directional, or diagonal, drilling from 32 drilling pads. The companies say directional drilling does less harm to wildlife and produces less air pollution, according to the BLM....
Judge sets $1,000 bond for groups' CBM appeal A federal judge has ordered a conservation group and the Northern Cheyenne tribe to post a total bond of $1,000 in their appeal of a ruling in a lawsuit over coalbed methane development. U.S. Magistrate Richard Anderson said a nominal amount was appropriate because "these cases are about the public interest. They deserve to be heard on the merits. A nominal bond facilitates this objective.'' Fidelity Exploration and Production Co., a subsidiary of MDU Resources Inc., asked that the NRPC and the tribe post a $9.5 million bond to secure it against losses that an economist estimated could range from $9.5 million to $13.7 million. The NPRC and the tribe are appealing to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals an injunction issued by Anderson allowing up to 500 coalbed methane wells a year to be drilled in the Tongue River watershed in southeastern Montana while BLM studies the environmental effects of phased development....
Dry grass + Days of '47 = fire ban Earlier this summer, heavy rains fueled record crops of wild grasses across Utah's undeveloped open spaces. Then, hot July temperatures dried out those grasses, now averaging 28 inches high and weighing in at 2,000 pounds an acre - four times the usual amount. The numbers worry fire officials. With Days of '47 festivities approaching, fire restrictions are in effect for nearly half of Utah. "When [cheat grass] burns, it lights up like oil and explodes in flames," said Susan Marzec, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management....
Counties and Ranchers Get Heard Kane and Garfield Counties and local ranchers had their day in court last week at the hearing in Kanab on the elimination of grazing permits by the Grand Canyon Trust (GCT). At issue, is whether the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and environmental groups can legally mothball grazing permits forever or whether that concept is against existing laws. Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw said he felt good about their witness testimonies, "We were able to get out the factual basis of our case, and finally, get our side of the story before the court. We certainly don't know how the final legal decision will fall, but it's a major hurdle to be heard at last." The counties and ranchers have always pointed out the fact that the elimination of grazing permits is against the law, specifically the Taylor Grazing Act (Taylor Act) and Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). They say the attempts to change policy has been driven from the top down by Dept. of Interior (DOI) that oversees BLM, with the blessings and under the direction of DOI Secretary Gale Norton....
Groups sue U.S. over plan to line canal near Mexico border A Mexican organization and two nonprofit groups are suing the U.S. government to stop plans to line a canal near the border that supplies water to farms in California's Imperial Valley. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, seeks class-action status for people in the Mexicali Valley of Mexico, and a declaration that water seeping into the ground north of the border but serving people in Mexico cannot be seized by the United States. At issue is a decades-old federal plan to line the porous All-American Canal with concrete. The canal delivers water from the Colorado River just north of the border to the agriculture-rich Imperial Valley in California. The U.S. government estimates that almost 68,000 acre-feet of seepage could be saved if the canal is lined....
Water Theft: Garkane Energy and Boulder Irrigators under Attack by Federal Regulations The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has Garkane Energy Cooperative (Garkane), Boulder Irrigation Company (BI), and all Garkane customers in a stranglehold that others say cannot be loosened. These real stakeholders stand to foot the bill for the Feds' demands for water rights, diversion, equipment, studies and monitoring, all for a fish named the Colorado cutthroat trout. The project has been underway for four years, but the public is just now learning about it. Garkane is currently in the process of relicensing its hydroelectric operations in Boulder Creek with FERC for the next 30 years. As part of that process, the U.S. Forest Service has flexed its muscles under the Federal Power Act and called for environmental studies, collaborative discussions between Garkane, BI, other Federal and State resource agencies, and Trout Unlimited, a nonprofit group that says its "the nation's leading coldwater conservation organization." The purpose of the discussions, which have actually been ongoing for years, is to find, take and divert at least two cubic feet a second (cfs) of water from Garkane's current operations and BI's shareholders. The water is to be put back into two washes that were supposedly dried up 50 years ago by Garkane's current license....
Panel to subpoena Yucca papers A congressional committee will subpoena documents from the Energy Department about possible paperwork fraud on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada, a lawmaker said Monday. The department missed a Monday deadline set by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., to hand over documents, including personnel records of scientists on the project, organizational charts and research details. Porter, who chairs a House Government Reform subcommittee, said he met with the chairman of the full committee, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who agreed to subpoena the documents Tuesday....
PBS 'lost its soul' in farm series A coalition of 70 environmental groups announced yesterday that PBS has "lost its soul" over a 20-part series meant to celebrate the traditional values and bedrock appeal of the nation's farm country. In conjunction with Boston-based American Public Television, PBS will air "America's Heartland" on 305 stations this fall, funded by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Soybean Association, four other agricultural trade groups and the Monsanto Company, a Missouri-based manufacturer of seeds and herbicides. And therein lies the rub. "Public television has lost its soul if it can be so easily bought and sold by corporate agribusiness," said Alice Slater of the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, which organized the effort....
Wall ranch invites artists to living Wild West scenes The characters decked out in Native American and Wild West regalia are models, and most of the photographers are oil painters, sculptors and water-colorists who specialize in scenes of the Old West. They're all here for the annual Artist Ride, a three-day-long, invitation-only event that re-creates Wild West tableaux for artists. It's life imitating Frederic Remington, Albert Bierstadt and Charles M. Russell. It's also the largest event of its kind, attracting some of the genre's leading figures to a convivial affair that's as much reunion as tax deduction. On a sprawling campground, two white men pose as Lewis and Clark; a Lakota boy wields a bow and arrow; a Lakota woman cradles her two children. In the distance, Indians pursue a stagecoach; a trio of mountain men pause in a canoe in the middle of the river; a Korean-American portrays an 1860s "Chinaman" panning for gold at the river's edge....
Billy Bob's passion for boots fuelled by hatred BILLY BOB THORNTON has courted controversy by declaring he enjoys wearing lizard-skin boots because he despises the creatures they're made out of. The MONSTER'S BALL star has a pair of lizard-skin boots he wears as often as he can, and he admits his dislike for the creatures drives his passion for the footwear. He says, "I love these boots. I actually got 'em in a store in New York years ago called Buffalo Chips over in SoHo. "The reason I wear boots like this, it has nothing to do with being a cowboy, I just don't like lizards so I'll wear anything made out of 'em."....

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