NEWS ROUNDUP

High court rules preserving trees around eagle nest not a taking The Oregon Supreme Court ruled today that a timber company did not qualify for compensation from the state when the Oregon Department of Forestry barred it from cutting down trees around a bald eagle nest. Reversing a ruling by the Oregon Court of Appeals, the Oregon Supreme Court in Salem concluded that regulating private property in line with public policy is not equivalent to taking a piece of property for public use, and in any event, the Department of Forestry had allowed logging on most of the property. In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Rives Kistler, the Supreme Court found that a state wildlife regulation does not amount to a taking when it bars logging, and the state constitution clause guaranteeing compensation when private property is taken for a public use applies only when the full economic use of the property is denied, not just a portion....
Agreement reached in group's lawsuit over grayling The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to determine by April 2007 if the fluvial arctic grayling should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. The agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity also requires FWS to pay the group's attorney's fees - $111,408. It was approved by U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. "The settlement agreement doesn't presuppose that the grayling will be listed," said Doug Peterson, a Fish and Wildlife Services fisheries biologist in Helena. "We will go through the process of evaluating its status." In May 2003, the center sued FWS, saying the agency hadn't done enough to protect the river-dwelling fish that has been reduced to a single, self-sustaining population in a stretch of the Big Hole River in southwestern Montana. The fish was once found throughout the upper Missouri River drainage....
Wildlife agency issues guidelines for wetlands Federal guidelines released Thursday for protecting seasonal wetlands favor development over species protection in a handful of fast-growing California counties. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that protecting all areas containing the so-called vernal pools would be too costly to the state's economy. The agency's revised guidelines are the latest version of a federal critical habitat plan that an environmental group has successfully challenged in court. They could lead to additional housing developments in a state where the median home price is about $450,000, 2½ times the national median. The wildlife agency says it tried to strike a balance between the pressure to build more homes in California's quickly developing Central Valley and the well-being of 15 rare species that dwell only in the shallow and temporary pools....
FWS approves conservation easement program for Front The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has approved a conservation easement program that could restrict development along the Rocky Mountain Front. The decision establishes the Rocky Mountain Front Conservation Area and gives FWS the power to buy easements on 170,000 acres of private land from among 561,700 acres that are eligible for protection. The program goes into effect next month, but $1 million in federal funding won't be available until later this fall. A number of landowners are already on the waiting list to put easements on their land, said Dave Gillund, project leader at Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Landowners who take part in the voluntarily program can use their land for agriculture but face restrictions on subdivisions and commercial developments. In exchange, they get a one-time payment from the federal government. The amount of the payment are determined through an appraisal and negotiations with FWS. About 55,000 acres along the Front already are protected by easements, while other areas are protected by preserves and wildlife management areas....
BLM plans horse roundup in southern Red Desert The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is planning to round up about 1,000 wild horses from the southern Red Desert starting next week. The roundups will target the Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek wild horse management areas, as well as any horses outside those areas. "We are exceeding our management levels for these two wild horse populations," said Alan Shepherd, head of the Wyoming BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program....
Column: Endangered Roberts? Some loud voices on the Green Left — the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and Friends of the Earth — are going after John Roberts. Listen in. Their yelling reveals a lot about the current state of the environmental movement. It also indicates what President Bush should expect in spades if in the future he nominates a judge with a longer environmental record. The bone of contention that the enviros are currently gnawing at is Roberts’s minority opinion in Rancho Viejo v. Norton. The Sierra Club complains that Roberts “strongly implied that Congress does not have the Constitutional authority to protect certain species under the Endangered Species Act.” Earthjustice (formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) warns that in “a key environmental case, Judge Roberts questioned the constitutionality of Endangered Species Act safeguards.” Based on that, Earthjustice sent out an e-mail claiming that “much of what we know about Judge Roberts is quite troubling.” And Friends of the Earth claims that a “recent case dealing with the Endangered Species Act raises troubling concerns about Robert’s commitment to upholding Congress’s constitutional right to pass laws that protect our air, land and water.” Rancho Viejo v. Norton really shouldn’t rate high in propaganda value for Roberts’s opponents....
Colorado River plan applauded, criticized Water officials from California, Arizona and Nevada have joined with the federal government to enact a 50-year plan designed to both protect the lower Colorado River and ensure human needs are met. "This agreement represents the largest, the longest term, and the most innovative partnership plan for habitat restoration on a river system in the United States," said Craig Manson, assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, part of the U.S. Department of Interior. Labeled the "Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Plan," the program is intended to protect threatened and endangered species along 400 miles of river from Lake Mead to the Mexican border, while ensuring an uninterrupted flow of water and power. More than 8,000 acres of riverside, marsh and backwater habitat will be restored for at least 26 native species, including six federally protected species, among them the razorback sucker, bonytail chub and humpback chub. Critics, however, aren't so enthusiastic about the program derived through a "cooperative conservation" strategy endorsed by the Bush administration. "It is 'cooperation' between the water users, power producers and federal government to provide legal and political protection from litigation," claimed Michael Cohen of The Pacific Institute....
Decatur cowboy up for run toward NFR Trevor Brazile's season has been something like a train chugging up a mountain. The three-time world all-around champion has made gradual progress, but not with any great speed. However, after last weekend, like the slow-moving train, he hopes he might have finally reached the summit and will soon be picking up steam. Brazile hopes that his recent success could result in a clearer view of his final destination – the National Finals Rodeo in December. He turned in a gangbuster performance at the Dodge City (Kan.) Roundup Rodeo Sunday when he broke the arena record in tie-down roping with a 6.9-second run en route to the aggregate championship. He also competed in team roping and steer roping, making it to the final round in both, earning the all-around title for the third consecutive year. He finished with a payday of $9,994. That pushed his season earnings in the all-around category to $107,551 and, more importantly, moved him to eighth place in the tie-down event....

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