NEWS ROUNDUP

Agency confirms wolf killed at least one sheep After investigating the death of nearly 30 head of domestic sheep near the Prospect Mountains east of here, federal wildlife officials confirmed a wolf had killed one, while 14 other dead ewes were determined to be "probable" wolf kills. According to Mike Jimenez of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the remaining 19 dead lambs were too decomposed for a determination to be made. Jimenez said USDA Wildlife Services specialists investigating the matter made the determinations based on the evidence at the scene. Estimating that the sheep had been dead at least 10 days, the determination was "very difficult," Jimenez said, but because one sheep was found dead in a creek, it was somewhat preserved, allowing the confirmation as a wolf kill. The sheep, belonging to Wyoming Stock Growers Association executive Jim Magagna, were found dead in their fenced pasture late last week. Magagna said a ranch worker had counted 49 head of ewes and lambs in the pasture on Aug. 2, including 30 ewes and 19 lambs. Last week, the worker found only 16 sheep remaining alive and the carnage on the ground, including whole quarters of carcasses separated from the rest of the bodies....
Feeding grounds receive reprieve A task force seeking to eliminate brucellosis from cattle is holding off on a proposal to phase out elk feedgrounds in western Wyoming. Brucellosis causes cattle to abort. It also occurs in elk and bison and can be transmitted from wildlife to cattle. The disease re-emerged in cattle in Wyoming in 2003 and 2004, prompting other states to require testing and other regulations for Wyoming cattle. Environmentalists say closing some of the 22 feedgrounds where elk congregate each winter would help fight brucellosis by spreading elk out. Last year, the Wyoming Brucellosis Coordination Task Force presented 28 recommendations for fighting brucellosis, including developing management plans for elk that use the feedgrounds and possibly looking at phasing out some feedgrounds. On Monday, the task force decided to wait on any proposal to phase out feedgrounds until the management plans are written. "It's very premature and shouldn't even be considered at this time," said Terry Pollard, a Pinedale outfitter and task force member....
On the Trail: All about access The tops of mounts Bross, Lincoln, Cameron and Democrat provide brilliant vistas for 100 miles and more, but the view of how to get there is still cloudy. Many climbers assume they are on public land as they strive to add more of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains to their list of accomplishments, unaware they are trespassing on private mining claims. The hikers and the owners of those fourteeners are trying to solve the problem of providing access to those peaks, but they stumble on the crux - how to keep hikers using the trail without putting the landowners in a position to be sued....
Forest Service admits 'serious' logging error The U.S. Forest Service admitted Wednesday to making a "serious" mistake that allowed 17 acres to be logged inside a rare tree reserve as part of the salvage harvest of timber burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire. The logging inside the 350-acre Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area, created in 1966 to protect Brewer spruce and other rare plant species in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, was discovered last week by environmentalists after the Fiddler timber sale was harvested and a forest closure intended to bar protesters was lifted. Forest Service personnel mismarked the border of part of the Fiddler timber sale next to the botanical area - although just who did it or how it happened was not immediately clear, said Illinois Valley District Ranger Pam Bode....
Government Must Pay in Ploy for Redwoods A judge in Houston has ordered the federal government to pay $72 million to a company controlled by financier Charles Hurwitz, after concluding that federal banking officials had filed baseless legal actions against Hurwitz at the behest of California environmentalists. Likening the government's conduct to that of a "cosa nostra," U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes said Tuesday that regulators had a hidden political agenda when they sued Hurwitz and Maxxam Inc. a decade ago over the failure of a Texas thrift. The judge said the move was designed to force Hurwitz into giving up thousands of acres of California redwoods owned by Pacific Lumber Co., which Maxxam had acquired in a takeover. Hurwitz was under fire because Pacific Lumber had been cutting old-growth redwoods at an accelerated rate in Humboldt County along the state's North Coast. Environmental groups urged some politicians and the Clinton administration to push for a lawsuit by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that would set in motion a "debt for nature" deal. Their hope was that the federal government would win a judgment large enough to pressure Hurwitz into turning the redwood forest over to the federal government. The judge's ruling, however, cited evidence indicating that the "debt for nature" idea originated with environmentalists — not Hurwitz — and that it was widely discussed as a legal strategy among several departments and in a meeting with then-Vice President Al Gore. "The Clinton administration was promoting the swap," Hughes wrote. "People from the White House, Forest Service, Interior Department, [Office of Thrift Supervision], FDIC and the vice president's office were now part of the plan to bring actions against Hurwitz and Maxxam to wring the redwoods from them."....
War Over Oil Bubblin’ crude—oil that is. Black gold. Texas tea. The Los Padres National Forest has got it and Congress wants oil companies to have access to it. Last July, the US Forest Service approved a plan that will allow oil drilling to expand across three areas of the Los Padres National Forest. Areas to be leased are located near existing Santa Barbara and Ventura county oil operations in the Cuyama Valley and along the southern boundary of the national forest primarily near the Sespe Oil Fields. Opponents say the decision—nearly a decade in the making—has the potential to cause widespread harm to the forest’s clean water, recreation, wilderness and wildlife....
Alcoa to Grant Conservation Easements to Nature Conservancy In April 2004, Alcoa Power Generating Inc. (APGI) successfully worked with more than 20 national and local organizations (including The Nature Conservancy, National Parks Conservation Association, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the United States Forest Service) to craft a landmark relicensing agreement that, among other things, protects ecologically important lands through the use of permanent and term conservation easements. On August 30, 2005 and as part of the agreement reached, APGI will grant to The Nature Conservancy, at no cost, permanent conservation easements covering approximately 5,900 acres and term conservation easements on an additional 3,975 acres of land. The lands over which the conservation easements will be granted are located in Blount and Monroe counties, Tennessee. More specifically, the land effected sits between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cherokee National Forest. The Nature Conservancy will have the option to buy this land from APGI, ultimately transferring it to the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, or the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, assuring its long-term protection....
Man dives into river to rescue bald eagle Wilson Jimna wasn't expecting anything unusual to happen when he went for a walk Tuesday along the Willamette River in Independence. But soon after arriving, Jimna, 28, ran into the river to rescue a full-sized eagle that appeared to be in trouble, risking gouges from eagle talons and bites from a strong beak. "I jumped into the water because I know eagles are endangered species because I watch the Discovery Channel," he said. "I knew that I had to protect this bird."....
N.D. birds probably flew north Thousands of American white pelicans that abandoned the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in central North Dakota after their chicks mysteriously died appear to have headed across the border to Canada, in southern Manitoba. "Anything that holds water and fish seems have found a pelican, and even places that don't," said Ken DeSmet, an endangered species biologist for the Manitoba Conservation agency. "It's obvious that they are all over the place in areas you wouldn't normally see them." "I'm sure they're Chase Lake birds," said Ken Torkelson, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bismarck. Biologists in both countries are baffled about the influx of the big white birds north of the border, and the exodus from the south....
Governor cheers grouse recovery Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Wednesday cheered the efforts of local working groups to increase or stabilize sage grouse populations and habitat. "Go forth and do good work so I can take the credit," he quipped in a parting comment to grouse advocates gathered here. More seriously, the governor said listing the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act would have profound impacts on agriculture and the burgeoning energy industry, whether the circle zone of concern around each grouse breeding ground was two or five miles. The sage grouse once numbered about 2 million birds in the West. Today, about 250,000 birds inhabit about a quarter-million square miles in 11 states....
More land for toad urged Two conservation groups filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday challenging the federal government's designation of 11,600 acres of protected habitat for the endangered arroyo toad, calling the land area inadequate. The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Christians Caring for Creation, asks a judge to order the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand its designation of "critical" toad habitat, which was cut from 478,000 acres proposed in 2000 to 11,695 acres designated in April. "The federal government has totally fallen down on the job and its obligation to protect the endangered arroyo toad in California streams and rivers," said David Hogan, the Center for Biological Diversity's urban wild lands director. The Fish and Wildlife Service's 2001 designation of 182,360 acres of critical habitat was itself struck down by a federal judge, after it was challenged by the building industry....
BLM officials blame humans for 5 field fires Fire officials are attempting to determine who sparked fires that raged Wednesday west of Utah Lake. Five separate fires started within a few minutes of each other about 6 p.m. on the west side of Redwood Road between mile markers 12 and 19. "We believe these (fires) were human-caused because of the multiple starts all at the same time," said Ali Knutsen, fire-information officer for the Bureau of Land Management. In addition to arson, human-caused fires can stem from sparks from target shooting, a campfire or a burning cigarette butt, Knutsen said. At least two of the five fires merged as they burned the grass in the fields bordering Redwood Road, Knutsen said. By nightfall, officials said, the fires had consumed about 1,600 acres. The affected land included portions belonging to BLM, the state of Utah and private parties....
Editorial: Front fight centers on unproven potential Given a choice between keeping Montana's Rocky Mountain Front just the way it is and saving a few bucks on the monthly heating bill, it's a good bet that Montanans would choose to pay more for natural gas. Choosing between protecting the Front and providing heat and profits for people elsewhere would be even easier, we suspect. But a recent development suggests no such choice is in the offing. Suncor Energy of Canada recently disclosed that it drilled a 16,000-foot dry hole near Flesher Pass, east of Lincoln, in an area known as the Rogers Pass acreage block. The well is being capped and abandoned, and Suncor is looking for greener pastures for its drill rig, opting not to exercise an option to drill a second test well within a lease held by Denver-based PYN Energy. That makes it 0 for 2 for exploratory wells drilled in the area. Unocal (Union Oil Co. of California) also punched a well 17,000 feet deep that it capped and abandoned as a failure. That was 16 years earlier....
Trust lands paying off big Booming interest in Utah's oil and gas potential is paying dividends for the state's school children. The State Institutional and Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), which manages 3.5 million acres of trust lands scattered around Utah, took in $94 million in gross revenues in the fiscal year that ended June 30. That was $33 million more than the agency collected the previous year, which had been a record. Of the $94 million, $72.5 million went to the trust's primary beneficiary - the Permanent State School Fund. Interest from that $500 million fund is distributed to public schools statewide. A Bush Administration push to increase domestic oil and gas production was partially responsible. But interest in Utah trust lands exploded after Wolverine Gas and Oil Corp. struck oil this spring near Sigurd. The company predicted the subterranean reservoir, which has been yielding 1,500 barrels of oil per day, could hold up to 200 million barrels....
Column: BLM suicide ripples across West You have probably never heard of Marlene Braun. But I hope, after reading this, you don’t forget her. Braun worked for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management at one of the newest and least conspicuous national monuments in the country. She was 46 years old when she committed suicide in May, taking her own life following a rocky professional relationship with her BLM boss. As chief overseer of the 250,000-acre Carrizo Plain National Monument in California, Braun enraged ranching interests by questioning the primacy of cows on the open public range. Carrizo Plain, designated by Bill Clinton in the 11th hour of his presidency, was carved out of the high desert primarily as a wildlife refuge to replenish and bolster native animal and plant populations that had fallen into decline after a century of public land livestock grazing....
VS disease causes closure of recreation area near Laurel The 380-acre Sundance Lodge recreation area south of here has been closed to entry of horses and other livestock because of an outbreak of infectious vesicular stomatitis in the region, the Bureau of Land Management announced Tuesday. Numerous horses in the Billings-Laurel area have tested positive for VS, a viral disease primarily affecting horses, cattle and swine. The BLM said some cattle grazing in part of the recreation area also are infected. The closure applies to horses, cattle, sheep, goats, llamas or any other livestock whether on foot or in a vehicle, the BLM said....
Industry Embeds Its Own In The BLM Employees at the Bureau of Land Management field office in Vernal, Utah, were up to their ears in oil and gas drilling applications. So when an oil and gas trade group approached office manager Bill Stringer last year and offered to pay five consultants to help with the backlog, he thought it was a good idea. Stringer's office had 380 backlogged applications for oil and gas permits last year. That number is projected to grow to nearly 600 next year, with each application taking up to 180 days to process. The so-called "hosted workers," who started in February, are employees of SWCA Inc., an environmental consulting firm. The Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States pays the cost of their salaries directly to the consulting firm, but they work in the Vernal office alongside 90 regular BLM employees. "This is about finding a way to accomplish work without asking taxpayers to throw money at it," says Stringer. "We're not doing anything that wouldn't get done anyway, but we're doing it more effectively."....
BLM land up for sale An estimated 10,000 acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management are being considered for sale or disposal in Douglas, Carson City and Lyon counties, according to Tom Crawford, bureau economist and team leader for the Pine Nut Mountains Land Use Plan amendment. A map of the areas under consideration should be released early this fall and areas in Douglas County's Pine Nut Range are under consideration. "The maps (of the designated areas) aren't in a public document yet, but they will be," Crawford said. "Any lands earmarked for disposal will be clearly identified so people will know exactly where the land is located."....
Heroes of Conservation Below the storefront's 30-foot-wide mural of trout, elk, and deer, State Highway 200 winds to the floor of the Blackfoot Valley and meets one of America's most storied rivers. In the 1910s, when the writer Norman Maclean fished it, the Blackfoot River's broad pools and powerful runs produced creels full of enormous bull trout and pristine native Westslope cutthroats. By the time Maclean penned the last sentence of A River Runs Through It in 1973, the fishery was in serious decline. And by the day that Daryl Parker walked into Becky Garland's store in 1987, a lethal combination of mining runoff, overfishing, drought, and years of poor logging, grazing, and irrigation practices on the river's headwater tributaries had brought the Blackfoot to desperate straits. "Several friends had been talking about the problems on the Blackfoot," Parker says. "We all wanted to do something." They did. Sitting around the dining room table at the Parkers' ranch house outside of Lincoln, a group of sportsmen and citizens including Becky Garland, fishing guide Paul Roos, rancher Land Lindberg, logger Mark Gerlach, and Daryl and Sherrie Parker held the first meeting of what is now the Big Blackfoot Chapter of TU....
Landowner goes to court for $1.16M land payment A wetland owner has asked the Superior Court to order the release of some $1.16 million that she said the government owes her for taking her property in 1993. The owner, Victoria S. Nicholas, also accused Attorney General Pamela Brown of discriminating against her claim by blocking the payment. Brown had sued Nicholas and the Marianas Public Lands Authority to prevent the drawdown of funds from the Land Compensation Fund, claiming that compensating Nicholas for an expropriated wetland violated the Land Compensation Act. Former Superior Court presiding judge Edward Manibusan and Diane S. Cabrera, attorneys for Nicholas, said the law is clear that the taking of wetlands for a public purpose is compensable, using funds from the government's land compensation fund. Manibusan and Cabrera said that Brown intentionally filed the lawsuit despite knowing that the taking of wetland is compensable and an amendment to the law had the intent to de-prioritize compensation claims. Originally, the Act prioritized the payment of compensation claims relating to land taken for right-of-way purposes....
USDA declares Missouri a drought disaster area The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared virtually all of Missouri a disaster area because of the severe drought, Sen. Jim Talent said Wednesday. The declaration comes two weeks after Gov. Matt Blunt asked the agency to help the state recover from the Midwest's worst drought in 17 years. Under the designation, qualified farmers in the state are eligible for low-interest emergency loans from the USDA's Farm Service Agency, federal grants, tax relief and other assistance....
Saddle up the cloned sport horses The benefits of cloning animals is far from clear, but there is one novel application that could lead to a revolution, says Henry Nicholls. WHILE reproductive cloning of animals isn't anything like as controversial as the idea of trying to clone humans, it still evokes strong feelings. Cloning livestock promises to bring us better food, but will anyone eat it? Cloning endangered species is an option only if the animal concerned has a closely related farmyard counterpart to supply eggs and act as a surrogate. And cloning pets is just for the sentimental with more money than biological understanding. But one application that has received less attention shows a surprising amount of promise: cloning sport horses. These are the animals that compete in events such as dressage, cross-country and show jumping. The very idea will undoubtedly raise eyebrows, but there are several reasons why this practice could become commonplace sooner than any of the others....(subscription required)
Another Chupacabra? Another Strange Texas Beast It's happened again. Now a farmer in Coleman, Texas may have found a creature some would call a Chupacabra. Reggie Lagow set a trap last week after a number of his chickens and turkeys were killed. What he found in his trap, was an odd-looking animal. It looks like a mix between a hairless dog, a rat and a kangaroo. It looks very similar to an animal killed by a rancher in Elmendorf last year. Some believe the beasts are Chupacabras, of Mexican folklore. Others say they're just dogs with mange. The one found this week in Coleman is now headed to the Texas Parks and Wildlife lab where it may be identified....

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