NEWS ROUNDUP

Mountain lion shot and killed in Fall River County A Fall River County landowner shot and killed a mountain lion Tuesday about two miles south of Edgemont, according to the state Game, Fish and Parks Department. The rancher, Jamie Lawrence, apparently found the mountain lion under a stock trailer a short distance from his home, said Mike Kintigh of the Game, Fish and Parks Department. "The lion was about 52 feet from the house underneath his trailer," Kintigh said....
Judge rejects effort to halt killing of pigs federal judge rejected a request by animal rights activists to halt the killing of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island, which the park's managers say is necessary to protect an endangered fox population. Animal rights activists filed suit last week seeking a halt to the killings, which they say are unnecessary and inhumane. But the judge rejected their request Monday for a temporary restraining order while the lawsuit is pending. Corey Evans, an attorney for plaintiffs who include two Santa Barbara residents and the group In Defense of Animals, said the plaintiffs will seek a preliminary injunction that requires a more thorough hearing than the request for a restraining order. He said the killings violate both state and federal environmental laws....
Ecologists optimistic about giant cactus' chances after wildfire scorching A giant saguaro cactus scorched by a wildfire that started near Cave Creek might survive after all, experts say. Initially, U.S. Forest Service officials were pessimistic that the "Grand One," thought to be the world's second largest saguaro cactus, would survive the fire last month. Flames jumped from a nearby tree onto the saguaro and spread over much of it, but most of the cactus appears to have escaped fatal damage, said Patti Fenner, U.S. Forest Service plant expert. The cactus, estimated at more than 200 years old, stands about 46 feet high, is nearly 8 feet in circumference at its base and has at least 13 arms....
Enviros, timber industry, predict forest-by-forest battles ahead Environmental groups and the timber industry are gearing up for forest-by-forest court fights over potential development in untouched areas of the nation's national forests under a Bush administration rule. The preparation comes after a ruling this week by the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissing an attempt by environmental groups to restore a Clinton administration ban on road-building and other development on 58.5 million acres of national forest land. "What's happening with the environmental movement now is they have had limited success at the national and regional level, and they've taken their battle to a project-by-project status," he said. "I would imagine an appeal of each decision. That's been their tack and I don't see any reason that would be changed."....
Editorial: Feds should acquire Flats mineral rights Cleanup at Rocky Flats, the Colorado Superfund site with the most hazardous wastes, could be basically done by Halloween, although a few environmental projects will continue. Topping the list are private mineral rights that, if developed, could wreck plans to make Rocky Flats a wildlife refuge. Outside the core, the government left about 6,000 acres as a security and safety zone. Today that relatively untouched buffer zone harbors some of the last natural short-grass prairie on the Front Range - prime habitat for several endangered species. In a few years, after environmental reports are finished, the U.S. Department of Interior is slated to manage the old buffer zone as a wildlife refuge. But the feds never acquired rights to gravel, oil and other minerals under the site. Interior officials fret that it will make no sense to operate a wildlife refuge if the property could be mined....
Builders Urge Congress To Update Endangered Species Act The nation’s home builders called on Congress today to update and modernize the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in order to protect the environment and allow local communities to grow and thrive. “Clearly, we must find new ways to balance the needs of our growing communities, with the need to protect and conserve species and their habitats,” Paul Campos, general counsel and vice president of government affairs for the Home Builders Association of Northern California, told the Senate Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Water. Testifying on behalf of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Campos called on the Senate panel to expand landowner incentives under the ESA, and provide certainty to landowners that Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) and other voluntary species management programs will be excluded from critical habitat designations....
House Bill Would Downsize Endangered Species Act The House Resources Committee is poised to consider some of the most sweeping changes ever to the Endangered Species Act with legislation aimed at making it more difficult to list plants and animals and protect their habitat. Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), who has made revamping the act one of his top priorities this year, could possibly move on legislation as early as next week. A staff discussion draft of the bill, leaked to various interest groups, suggests the committee may add more requirements for listing a species, extend deadlines for critical habitat, beef up the requirements for recovery plans, require payments for property owners whose land is affected by the law, offer exemptions for invasive species and cut the entire program in 10 years....
Fungus threatens to put boreal toad on endangered list Once common in the southern Rocky Mountains, the toad has only two viable populations left in Colorado - one in Chaffee County and another in Gunnison County. By September, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to place the alpine-dwelling amphibian on the federal endangered-species list, triggering mandatory protection that may include restricted access to the toad's habitat. The toads of Chaffee and Gunnison counties are unique because they are free of the deadly fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis - the prime suspect for the deaths of several Western amphibians, including boreal toads and leopard frogs....
At least 8,000 pelican chicks believed dead in N. Dakota The Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the deaths of thousands of young white pelicans at a wildlife refuge in central North Dakota, a year after thousands of adult birds abruptly left the same location. At least 8,000 chicks may have died over the last two months, said Ken Torkelson, a spokesman for the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge....
Judge rules U.S. government not liable for migrant deaths A federal judge in Tucson refused Wednesday to hold the U.S. government responsible for the 2001 dehydration deaths of 11 undocumented immigrants just because two of its agencies refused to allow a humanitarian group to leave water drums on a national wildlife refuge bordering Mexico. U.S. District Judge John M. Roll ruled that he had no jurisdiction in the wrongful death lawsuit because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the administrators of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge acted within their discretion when they denied an application by the group Humane Borders to install "water stations" for border-crossing migrants. Furthermore, Roll wrote, the government "owed no duty to affirmatively assist trespassers illegally crossing Cabeza Prieta in avoiding the obvious dangers of a hostile desert."....
BLM, agencies critique Roan Plateau plan draft Lack of information and outmoded data are the prime failings of the draft Resource Management Plan for the Roan Plateau, according to some elected officials and government agencies advising the Bureau of Land Management on the plan. Six cooperating agencies — the cities of Rifle and Glenwood Springs, the town of Parachute, Rio Blanco and Garfield counties and state agencies including the Division of Wildlife and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission — huddled Wednesday in Rifle to help BLM craft the preferred management plan for the plateau. Although BLM will make the final call on just how much and how quickly natural gas will be developed on the resource-rich plateau north of Rifle, the agency also hopes the agencies and governments will reach consensus by the end of the summer on what the plan would look like....
Gotcha - gator at last is captured After 18 years of surviving in the reeds, putrid mud and stagnant water that make up his oasis in the desert of northwestern Arizona, Clem the alligator has been captured and is about to enter a reptilian paradise. "We found him under some reeds in grungy water [Tuesday] night about 9:30," said Russ Johnson on Wednesday as Clem hunkered down on a wet piece of carpet in a horse trailer that will deliver him to his new home. The Bureau of Land Management earlier this year contracted with Johnson to remove the alligator and provide a comfortable home for him....
Plan would restrict use of thumpers There'll be no "thumper trucks" in the sandstone cathedrals of Adobe Town. However, the 32-ton seismic trucks may be allowed to pound the ground on the fringes and through much of 130 square miles in the southern Red Desert, including Kinney Rim and Powder Rim. The Wyoming Bureau of Land Management this week issued its environmental assessment of the Cherokee West 3D seismic survey proposed by Kerr McGee Corp. and Veritas DGC Land Inc. The companies are looking for pockets of natural gas. No decision has been made on the proposal, and the BLM Rawlins Field Office is accepting public comment on the plan until Aug. 12. "Receiver cables for the project will be placed on the surface in the Adobe Town Wilderness Study Area (WSA), but there will be no source points in the WSA itself," BLM officials stated in a press release. That means there will be no vehicle traffic, no shot holes and no vibroseis buggies in the study area. Rather, helicopters will be allowed in the air space above the area. Helicopters will not be allowed to land, but may deploy and retrieve recording equipment from the air. Seismic workers must hike into Adobe Town to set recording equipment....
Residents worry rivers will be hurt by Las Vegas pipeline plan Residents of northeast Clark County farming communities say they fear their lives will change if they lose water from two rivers that thirsty Las Vegas wants to tap. More than 50 people expressed worries here Tuesday about Southern Nevada Water Authority asserting water rights and building a 70-mile pipeline to tap the Muddy and Virgin rivers. "The Southern Nevada Water Authority bought the water. It belongs to them," said Ann Schreiber, a longtime resident of the rural Moapa Valley. "I don't want them taking it where it will hurt people on either river." Many who spoke said the Las Vegas-based water authority should draw water instead from Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam reservoir into which the two rivers flow. The water authority has water rights to the two rivers, but needs federal Bureau of Land Management approval to build the pipeline across federal land....
U.S. court reserves decision on mad cow appeal A U.S. federal appeals court has reserved its decision after being asked to overturn a temporary injunction keeping the border closed to live Canadian cattle. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had been ready to reopen the border on March 7, but the ranchers' lobby group R-CALF convinced a Montana judge to block that decision, arguing that Canada doesn't adequately test for mad cow disease. In two weeks, Cebull will hear R-CALF's application to extend the trade ban indefinitely. "That case is going to proceed on July 27th, and there will probably be an appeal of July 27th, either way it goes," John Masswohl, director of international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said....
Judges skeptical of Canadian cattle ban The Bush administration urged a federal appeals court here Wednesday to reopen the border to Canadian cattle imports, which were banned from the United States in May 2003 after a cow in Alberta was found to have mad cow disease. The three judges appeared skeptical of Cebull's ruling, suggesting he went too far. Russell Frye, the ranchers' attorney, told the judges that the USDA "didn't determine what was an acceptable number of infected cattle to come in." The three judges suggested, however, that Cebull should have given deference to the USDA's decision. Judge A. Wallace Tashima said the law "does invest the secretary of agriculture with a certain amount of discretion" and suggested the lower court's order was just "disagreeing with the secretary." Judge Connie Callahan agreed with Tashima, saying the USDA is "entitled to some deference. It's their whole job to keep up with the science to make those decisions."....
Nolan Ryan Serves Up Great Taste Sports stars and celebrities often lend their names to products through paid endorsements. Baseball legend Nolan Ryan took it one step further when he decided to carve out a niche in the beef business. The Hall of Fame pitcher knows his way around a ranch as well as he does a baseball diamond and wanted to provide meat that was a cut above the rest, sort of like his fastball. "Baseball and ranching are two of my passions," Ryan says. "I decided the only way I could guarantee beef that was tender and good every time, was to start my own brand." Nutrition and great taste are important to consumers and important to Nolan Ryan. Nolan Ryan's Tender Aged Beef delivers on both fronts with nutritious and lean beef cuts that are tender and flavorful....
Tiger tales swish through Atascosa For six months, something has been prowling the countryside along FM 3006 in northern Atascosa County, snatching up dogs, roosters and calves. One night in early May, rancher Brian Beam was baling hay on his tractor when he says he came face-to-face with what could be the culprit: a full-grown tiger, he said, lurking along the creek running through his 27-acre property. "It was huge," Beam said. "I threw (the tractor) into reverse and I was gone. It just took off down the creek." The cat was waist-high with orange fur and black stripes, Beam said. He rallied two neighbors, grabbed some guns and flashlights and took off in pursuit of the creature, which Beam now blames for the March disappearance of two of his calves. "We never could catch up to him, but we found a bunch of hair and tracks," he said....
Antlers of all sizes work into unique pieces for Lee Co. taxidermist Tucked back in a corner of Lee County ranching land, right outside of Lexington, Robert Feller is creating furniture out of antlers, along with his regular taxidermist work. Well, "regular" taxidermy if you consider his work includes the mounting of a 145-pound Alligator Gar! His hobby-turned-real-job branched out when a female rancher in the area approached Feller about using antlers to create furniture. Although he had never thought about this type of work, he figured he'd give it a try. First, Feller took the pile of antlers, divided them by left and right antlers, then decided he needed to sit and think about how to work with the antlers. Needing a structure for sitting, he decided to create his first "antler chair."....
Cheyenne rancher weaves wire into art It's amazing what you can do with a few miles of barbed wire - besides build a fence, that is. Don Berry sculpted statutes of bison and bears out of material found on his property, mostly barbed wire. The folk art figures that are sentinels at the Berrys' ranch 20 miles north of Cheyenne on the Torrington highway include a bison, two bears and a bear cub. The sculptures represent about 700 hours of work and patience. He used carriage bolts for eyes for the bears and old telephone line insulators found on the ranch for the bison's eyes. The axle from a manure spreader was fashioned into the bison's horns. The bison, 6 feet tall and 9 feet long, is full size and live weight, checking in at 1,100 pounds. The bronze-looking sculpture took 2½ to three miles of wire, woven in different patterns....
Staying in touch with cowboy culture Vendors and performers far outnumbered visitors for the Academy of Western Artists convention and trade show this week. But organizers were still as happy as ticks on a sow's ear. That's the central mission of the Academy of Western Artists, which is based in Gene Autry, Okla. The nonprofit organization works to preserve cowboy and Western heritage by supporting, promoting and recognizing its arts and skills. Members include Western and Western swing musicians, cowboy poets, visual artists, chuck wagon operators, gear makers, radio managers and disc jockeys....
Myth or real, West Texas desert lights draw a crowd They start converging about dusk on a desolate spot in the West Texas desert with a ridge view and an expanse of some 20 miles of treeless rangeland. A few bring lawn chairs. Some find a spot on concrete picnic tables. Others lean against a brick wall. With darkness toward to the east and the remnants of a spectacular sunset to the west, the first cries erupt. "Look! Look!" Fingers point. Binoculars get fine tuned. A few cameras click. All the attention focuses on specks of brilliance. Legend? Myth? Natural phenomenon? UFOs? Nevada has Area 51. New Mexico has Roswell. Texas has the Marfa Lights. Whatever's out there sparkling or dancing across Mitchell Flat and toward the Chinati Mountains has both befuddled people and attracted them to this remote area east of Marfa for well over a century....

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