NEWS ROUNDUP

Grazing cutbacks proposed for Crazies The Gallatin National Forest is proposing major cutbacks in the number of cattle grazing in part of the Crazy Mountains. The Crazy Allotment, on the southern end of the prominent range northeast of here, includes 8,430 acres. It's unusual in that it is divided almost evenly between public and private land in a checkerboard pattern. The area has been grazed for more than a century, and the existing permit allows 403 cow/calf pairs to use the area between July 1 and Sept. 15. The U.S. Forest Service wants to cut that number down to 312 pair. That's a reduction of almost 25 percent and "that seems pretty extreme to me," said Lorents Grosfield, a Big Timber rancher and former state senator who holds the permit. "That's a big hit in my operation," Grosfield said Tuesday. "That's 100 cows I've got to find grass for." However, an environmental assessment of the area says reductions are needed for the health of land and water and to comply with federal law....
Forest Service backs off on grasslands leasing policy change The U.S. Forest Service has reversed course on a new policy that barred ranchers who lease land or livestock in the national grasslands from obtaining grazing permits. Ranchers and members of North Dakota's congressional delegation are still upset with the federal agency, saying it was wrong for Forest Service officials to make grazing policy changes without first consulting the people they affect. "At best, it's sloppy work. At worst, I think it's bad policy slipped under a door someplace," Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Tuesday during a field hearing here of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. Gail Kimbell, head of the Forest Service's Northern Region, said the specific policy language about leasing that had drawn objections had been removed. She apologized and pledged to work with ranchers on new language. "It is not the intent of the Forest Service to eliminate leasing," she said....
Environmentalists, Simplot strike deal Strange bedfellows a court case has made. When a local opponent of public lands grazing recently sued the federal government, few could have pictured an alliance with the West's most prominent rancher in the group's future. Yet on Tuesday, that's just what happened with Western Watersheds Project and J.R. Simplot. The two agreed to a settlement that not only brings a sensitive species to the forefront of the debate and raises questions about the role of politicians in the dispute, but also puts pressure on a federal agency's management practices. "The largest public lands ranching operation in the United States has agreed to support science-based management of livestock grazing, including significantly reduced livestock grazing to protect sage grouse and other sensitive species ... " said Jon Marvel, executive director of Western Watersheds. The agreement does not affect other permittees in the case, although Western Watersheds continues to negotiate with them....
Western states sue feds over decision to open pristine forests California, New Mexico and Oregon sued the Bush administration over the government's decision to allow road building, logging and other commercial ventures on more than 90,000 square miles of the nation's remaining pristine forests. In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, attorneys general for the three states challenged the U.S. Forest Service's repeal of the Clinton administration's "roadless rule" that banned development on 58.5 million acres of national forest land, mostly in western states. In Tuesday's lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, the states allege that the Bush administration's repeal of the roadless rule violated federal law because the government didn't conduct a complete analysis of the new regulation's environmental impact. "The federal government acknowledges that road-building and timber harvest will result in decreased water quality, increased sediment and pollutants, yet they refuse to protect our state's few remaining pristine areas," New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid said....
Enormous loop trail for ATVs tied up A proposed 300-mile all-terrain-vehicle loop trail linking Challis, Mackay and Arco has hit a speed bump. The loop, a brainchild of the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation, met criticism from conservationists, ranchers and residents who own property near the proposed trail, according to Dave Claycombe, an outdoor recreation specialist with the IDPR. Now, IDPR is refocusing its proposal on three separate, smaller loops near Challis, Mackay and Arco. Claycombe said the smaller loops would appease some of the concerns from the opposition, which he feels misunderstood the details of the original project, specifically the fact that the loop already exists....
Rule may hasten cleanup of Utah County canyon Environmental groups that volunteer to help government and businesses clean up waste from mine drainage in the West won't be held liable if there are future disputes over the pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday. The EPA's ''good Samaritan'' initiative is aimed at encouraging more groups to pitch in to protect drinking water and watersheds threatened by the nation's 500,000 abandoned mines, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson told a White House conference on the environment. Some groups have worried about future responsibility if sites they help reclaim become Superfund sites - the nation's worst toxic messes. Trout Unlimited, for example, wants to help the Forest Service clean up acidic mine runoff in Utah's American Fork Canyon. The Superfund law makes those who have worked at toxic waste sites potentially liable for future cleanups....
Column: Mother Nature Versus Moronic Theories If ever there was a time for Americans to repudiate the endless claims of environmentalists, it is now. Hurricane Katrina is an object lesson in the power of Nature to lay waste to everything in its path. Just as surely as the rising of the sun, it will be mere hours before some environmental group announces that this hurricane resulted from “global warming.” Let me assure you that this hurricane and all others are part of a natural climatic cycle that begins off the west coast of Africa and makes its way across the Atlantic. Always has and always will. We can, however, be assured that, with the coming of winter, after the first big blizzard to hit the U.S., we will be told that it is the result of “global warming.” Only there is no “global warming” unless you are talking about the fact that the Earth is currently in an interglacial period between the last Ice Age and the next. As Hurricane Katrina was wreaking havoc, I received a news release from “EarthSave International”, describing itself as a non-profit organization dedicated to “improving the environment and all life on Earth.” Turns out, a study by this group proved that cars and power plants are not “a major cause of global warming.” Instead, the real problem is “animal agriculture.”....
Judge blocks plan to poison Sierra stream A federal judge on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction barring wildlife officials from poisoning a Sierra waterway in an attempt to recover a rare species trout. The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Frank Damrell apparently ends plans to attempt to restore the Paiute cutthroat trout to Silver King Creek by eliminating its competitors for food. "This is going to pretty much do it for us. We're not going to move forward. We're very disappointed," said California Department of Fish and Game spokesman Steve Martarano. Environmental groups opposed the plans, contending the poison, called rotenone, might harm other organisms in the water. They argued that the U.S. Forest Service had not adequately measured the project's environmental impact....
Land deal protects Washoe Valley land, water rights A conservation group has purchased 533 acres in scenic Washoe Valley, the fourth in a series of land deals to preserve large swaths between Reno and Carson City as open space, officials announced Tuesday. The latest acquisition brokered by The Conservation Fund includes 2,938 acre-feet of surface and ground water rights on the old ranch land and wetlands bordering the west shore of Washoe Lake, said Mike Ford, the group's Nevada director in Las Vegas. The deal was finalized last month and the land has been turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Ford said. "The water rights have been transferred to BLM and they are going to keep them on the ground, to keep the area green and keep Washoe Lake replenished," Ford said. "They won't be transferred off the property."....
Ranger District closes forest to OHVs What was once a pristine natural setting is now scarred and crisscrossed with ugly dirt trails, but Payson Ranger District officials hope they've put an end to the destruction. The Houston Creek Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Site in Star Valley has been closed to all motorized vehicles -- the first area in the Payson Ranger District where OHVs are banned. The 50-acre site borders the east side of Moonlight Drive between two private parcels of land, and includes a portion of Houston Creek. Construction of an off-road race track -- complete with jumps, ovals and other racing features -- followed by a 35-dirt-bike race were the specific acts that finally triggered the closure, but the district has been dealing with OHV damage since 2000....
Study: Oregon Wild Fish Face Extinction The first status report on wild fish in a decade suggests that nearly half the native species in the state are at risk of extinction. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists studied 69 distinct fish populations, including all varieties of the state's salmon and steelhead species, and most of the trout population. They also assessed selected sturgeon, lamprey, dace and chub species listed under the Endangered Species Act. Eleven of the 33 salmon and steelhead populations are at risk of irreversible decline, and seven are potentially at risk, according to a draft of the report....
A judge rules a federal official broke the law by not protecting a desert lizard Interior Secretary Gale Norton violated the law when she failed to consider a desert lizard's shrinking habitat as part of a decision not to pursue federal protection for the tiny reptiles, a federal judge in Phoenix ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake upheld environmentalists' claim that Norton's withdrawal of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to list the flat-tailed horned lizard as a threatened species violated the Endangered Species Act. Environmentalists on Tuesday said the ruling means that the small, sand-dwelling lizard could be back in line for government protection. "It's very highly endangered, in the Coachella Valley especially," said Daniel Patterson, an ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The next step, hopefully, is that the government will stop delaying and do the right thing for the lizard." Representatives of the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined comment on Tuesday's ruling saying that their agencies had not had time to review it....
Experts see Alaska as U.S. front against bird flu Bird experts working in some of the most remote areas of Alaska have begun checking migrating birds for avian influenza to see if they are spreading the feared virus out of Asia. A team heads off later this week for the Alaskan Peninsula to test Steller's eiders, a type of duck, for the virus, U.S. Geological Survey experts said. Other teams have already begun testing geese and ducks in other refuges, taking advantage of regular ecological studies to test birds migrating from Asia for the H5N1 virus. "We think that Alaska is likely to be the front line," said Hon Ip, a virologist at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Other states are vulnerable, too, he said. "There are birds that fly directly across the Pacific from Southeast Asia to our western states like California, Oregon and Washington," Ip added in a telephone interview....
Relief extension sought for 5-b/d wells Two associations representing California independent operators asked the US Bureau of Land Management to extend the Stripper Well Royalty Relief Program (SWRRP) for wells producing less than 5 b/d of oil. The California Independent Petroleum Association and the Independent Oil Producers Agency of Bakersfield filed joint comments with the BLM's Washington, DC, office in response to a notice that the SWRRP was being suspended due to sustained high oil prices. "The SWRRP is perhaps one of the most critical programs the federal government currently operates relative to domestic production," the groups said in a letter. "The program has been particularly important to help incentivize the exploration and production of heavy oil reserves—the principal type of reserve found in California. Suspension of this program, we believe, will create immediate impacts on the viability of certain wells that the bureau should evaluate closely before moving forward."....
Concerns about preserve heat up The Mojave National Preserve fires have been put out. But concerns associated with the National Park Service's management of the region are just heating up. San Bernardino County's concerns with the management of the Preserve go beyond the fire and the perceived lack of aggressiveness in preventing or suppressing, according to First District Supervisor Bill Postmus. He's concerned about the removal and obliteration of the ranching community within the Preserve as well as the removal and obliteration of the water guzzlers that served both livestock and wildlife. Postmus said in a prepared statement he's also alarmed at the regulatory control exerted by parks service over the use of County owned and maintained roads within the Preserve. Other concerns include what he termed "strong-armed law-enforcement tactics" exerted by NPS on neighboring private lands within the Preserve; The dogged pursuit of reclaiming property with alleged non-conforming uses....
Indian Trust Fund Scandal Points to Decades of Poor Accounting The federal government has leased Indian lands for farming, grazing, mining, logging and other money-making activities, but the Interior Department has done a sloppy job of accounting for the fees. More than $100 billion, which were put into trust funds, may be lost. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in July condemned the government's treatment of Indians and ripped into the Interior Department for its unreliable information. He wrote that Interior's tenure as trustee has been “shot through with bureaucratic blunders, flubs, goofs and foul-ups, and peppered with scandals, deception, dirty tricks and outright villainy, the end of which is nowhere in sight." While the trust accounts reach back to 1887, Interior could account for only 1988 to the present, and that information may not be credible, Indian Country Today reported. Poor computer records, lost data and incompetent administrators have been blamed....
Feds Unable to Pin Down Source of Mad Cow The government closed its investigation into the nation's first domestic case of mad cow disease Tuesday, saying it could not pin down how a Texas cow was infected with the brain-wasting ailment. Officials continue to believe the 12-year-old Brahma cross cow ate contaminated feed before the United States banned ground-up cattle remains in cattle feed. The only way the disease is known to spread is through eating brain and other nerve tissue from infected cows. ``The investigation did not identify a specific feed source as the likely cause of this animal's infection,'' said Steve Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine. Sundlof said the most likely culprit was tainted feed eaten before the 1997 ban....
How the Western was won It would be fitting if the Autry National Center called itself the Museum With No Name. Right now it's being overshadowed by its exhibit - "Once Upon a Time in Italy - The Westerns of Sergio Leone." Italian film director Leone is most famous for transforming TV actor Clint Eastwood into the enduringly mythic Man With No Name in a series of three mid-1960s "spaghetti Westerns": "A Fistful of Dollars," "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (which are available on DVD from MGM). The history and impact of those films, as well as of Leone's artistry, are the subjects of this innovative and surprising multimedia exhibit at the Autry's Museum of the American West in Griffith Park through Jan. 22. Leone changed the very nature of Westerns, as well as notions of movie heroism/antiheroism in his Eastwood movies and his subsequent epic, 1968's "Once Upon a Time in the West" (available on DVD from Paramount)....
Celebrating 25 years of mules and skinners Hells Canyon Mule Days will be celebrating 25 years of Mules and Mule Skinners on the weekend after Labor Day, Sept. 9 - 11. From its humble beginnings in 1981 it has progressed steadily and since 2002 it has been the fastest growing mule show in the Northwest. This annual event draws mule and donkey owners and spectators intrigued by this long-eared equine from all over the Northwest and the world. This past year contestants came as far away as Wisconsin, New York, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. The spectator who won the “Furthest Traveled Contest” was from Germany and others in the standings traveled from states as far away as Michigan, Indiana and Oklahoma. The first Hells Canyon Mule Days was the result of a meeting between local ranchers, packers and guides, and representatives of the Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce and USDA Forest Service to explore the idea of putting together a new county event. Wallowa County; rich in the history of the inhospitable terrain of Hells Canyon, and that area owes most of its early settlement and development to the mule, which predominantly served as a major means of transportation during those early times. As a result of the meeting, the mule — tough, intelligent, sure-footed, and often misunderstood, but a mainstay of the many packer and outfitters working in Wallowa County — was elevated to center stage for the first Hells Canyon Mule Days celebration....
A real cowboy When Ellensburg Rodeo Board President Roger Weaver on Jan. 29 announced that rancher Buck Minor would leave the board in February after 35 years of service, many said they couldn't imagine a rodeo without Buck. Not to worry. Minor said he'll be back in the saddle to help out at this weekend's 83rd Ellensburg Rodeo. "They called me and asked me to help out on the track events and with the stock," Minor said. "I don't know how many more times I can get up on my horse. I'll do it this time, one more time I guess....
Goodbye to ranch, era Stanford's last roundup was held at daybreak Monday, when the animals remaining on the historic 1,200-acre Piers Ranch were loaded into trailers to be hauled away. But two horses, Mariel and Boomer, weren't buying it. As the last trailer waited, they decided to stay. And three strong handlers, a veterinarian, a big bale of hay and a pack of barking dogs weren't enough to change their minds. ``Right now, I'm not nostalgic. I'm just ready to get on the road,'' said a weary Kathleen Piers, after a horse had stepped on her foot and she had gotten rope burns on her hands. ``And I don't fancy getting crushed.'' The only longtime cattle ranchers left in the northern stretch of Silicon Valley, 81-year-old Roger Piers and his wife, Kathleen, are moving on. When their Stanford University lease expired this month, they decided to leave what they believe is the most expensive ranch land, per acre, in California. More than 150 horses and 320 head of cattle are gone....

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