NEWS ROUNDUP

Judge halts grazing on 800,000 acres near Jarbidge Livestock grazing on roughly 800,000 acres of public lands in the Jarbidge area will come to a halt under an order issued Friday in district court. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill rendered his decision on a lawsuit brought by Western Watersheds Project against the Bureau of Land Management over the agency's handling of grazing permits for 28 allotments in the Jarbidge Resource Area. The environmental group had claimed that the BLM violated federal policies as well as the agency's own guidelines when it increased grazing levels in the area -- a move that compromises sage grouse and other wildlife habitat, Western Watersheds said. "I think this is the first time a court has halted grazing because of its impact on sage grouse," said Laird Lucas, attorney for Western Watersheds Project. "I think the court is very clear that grazing needs to stop and to stop right now."....
The public-land challenge The meadows at the Valles Caldera National Preserve stretch for miles, providing some of the most scenic grazing land in northern New Mexico. Cows grow fat on the tall and protein-rich grasses in this Jemez Mountain valley - a lush bowl of land formed when an ancient volcano blew up more than a million years ago. The cows' access is limited, however, when they approach the streams lacing the fields. Two full-time cowboys coax the cows away after they have had a chance to drink so that their hooves don't trample the stream banks. The added work is time-consuming and something that doesn't usually happen on public land, according to the preserve's ranch foreman. At this 89,000-acre preserve, they have no choice....
Backcountry riders keep wolves at bay in Montana's Madison Valley The first rays of light slowly ignite sagebrush-speckled Antelope Basin as two riders move quietly among the herd. Calves nurse at their mothers' sides then frisk off in a series of ungainly hops to play. And this morning, as they do on most mornings, the cattle rest easy. But a far-off, deep-throated howl rising to a keening high note reminds the riders why they're here: to protect these Montana cattle from wolves. Livestock losses occur for a number of reasons, and each one impacts a rancher's ability to make a living. For many ranchers, the successful reintroduction of wolves to historical home ranges in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming has added yet another piece to the subsistence puzzle. To help solve that conundrum in Montana's Madison Valley, conservationists and ranchers worked together to find a traditional solution to a modern problem....
West Desert Residents Plan Water Protest Residents of the West Desert are angry about a Las Vegas proposal to pump water out of their region, and they're organizing an unusual event to dramatize their concerns. They plan to run, day and night, along the Old Pony Express trail, carrying water and messages of protest. They're calling it the "Water Express Run." It starts in Nevada at dawn, one week from Monday. By the time runners make it into Salt Lake City a couple of days and nights later, they hope they'll have made their point. They won't tolerate a water grab by Las Vegas, or anyone else....
Liquid asset It's not exactly Los Angeles traffic, but a rush-hour queue of kayak-topped cars and school buses towing inflatable rafts crowds this Rocky Mountain town, the hub of one of the busiest whitewater destinations in the nation. A main attraction along the Arkansas River is a manmade water park where gyrating kayaks perform aerials as spectators watch from footpaths and terraces. Colorado has built more such places than any other state, and dozens of others have popped up in Reno and elsewhere in the West as towns install them to enliven waterfronts and city coffers. In California, communities along the Feather, Kern and American rivers are considering building the parks. Yet as these riffled play zones change the face of small-town USA, they are also shaking up water law. It takes lots of liquid to generate the waves and holes that nimble kayaks require. And in the arid West, where ranchers, growers and cities control seemingly every drop, whitewater enthusiasts are the new guys contending for a big gulp....
Scorched desert defies rehabilitation Arizona's wildfires are winding down as the state's rainy season gets under way, and attention is turning to reclaiming burned areas. But fire officials say the desert fires that have predominated this year defy usual attempts at rehabilitation. Reseeding efforts and other rehabilitation techniques that work in forests wouldn't be effective, said Judy Wood, a fire information officer for the state forest service. "There's absolutely no way to rehabilitate the desert," Wood said....
State pays to clear Diamond Lake of unwanted tui chub Oregon will pay $375,000 to help rid Diamond Lake of tui chub, a small, plankton-eating fish that is destroying the lake's ecosystem and strangling its tourist trade. Rep. Susan Morgan, R-Myrtle Creek, got approval for the funding from House and Senate leaders last week. "This appropriation is the final piece of funding for restoration work,'' she said. The money will go to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The U.S. Forest Service will spend more than $1 million and the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, a private conservation group, is conducting a fund-raising effort....
Helicopter logging is proving effective Helicopters are hoisting dead trees out of the San Bernardino National Forest to ease the danger of wildfires, a method that lessens environmental damage and allows timber removal in areas too steep for logging vehicles. Helicopter logging started last year over 2,750 acres and is expected to continue through 2006 in areas from Lake Arrowhead to Idyllwild. The mission is to remove dead trees to create fire buffer zones around mountain communities. "If it's too steep for a bulldozer, it's not too steep for a helicopter. Essentially it's a real useful tool to do a good job environmentally for the forest,' said Bob Sommer, the forest's fuels officer who is managing the helicopter logging effort....
Energy leases at Strawberry alarm fishing group The federal government has spent tens of millions of dollars in the past two decades to restore Strawberry Reservoir and its tributaries as a blue-ribbon fishery. Now, an angling group is charging that continued gas and oil leasing around the reservoir is jeopardizing that investment. Trout Unlimited late last week filed a protest over a new round of leases the Forest Service will put up for auction Aug. 16, a sale that will increase the total number of parcels available for energy exploration around Strawberry to 89. Approximately one-quarter of those leases are in roadless areas. "We are very, very concerned, but until now we haven't gone public, so the angling community as a whole really is just starting to get a feel for what's going on," said Paul Dremann, Trout Unlimited's Utah chapter vice president for conservation. "All you have to do is look at a place like Pinedale [Wyo.] to see how horrendous this could become. We don't think it will come to that, but it could."....
From Defender of Nature to 'Eco-Terrorist' The obvious first question is, Did he do it? "I have been emphatic in declaring my innocence," Arrow says. "The kind of activism I engage in has been well documented as being non-violent civil disobedience." He said he's only run afoul with the law for civil disobedience, for which he has received community service. Never anything violent. Besides, Arrow says arson is incongruent with his beliefs. His law, he says, is that of the Iroquois: "In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation. That's how I live my life, so even when I sleep in the woods, I don't burn twigs because of the carbon dioxide," he said. "I would never endorse arson because of the pollution involved in burning tires and plastic." Arrow doesn't hesitate when asked about why he got locked up. "Basically, the FBI targeted me because I'm an activist," he said. "That's the FBI's modus operandi: They target anyone who gets in the way of the status quo, anyone they view as a threat, or as subversive. They view me as a threat because I talk about truth and expose lies. And my civil disobedience has been effective."....
Feinstein, Republicans Call For Marijuana Crackdown Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and a group of Republican representatives called on the National Park Service Friday to crack down on illegal marijuana cultivation on public lands. The group of legislators wrote, in a letter to Park Service Director Fran Mainella, "We are stunned by the fact that in 2004 alone, authorities seized 200,000 marijuana plants worth approximately $800 million in a single California county, Tulare County. Most of these marijuana plants were cultivated, presumably by individuals linked to Mexican drug cartels, in both the Sequoia National Park and Sequoia National Forest." The letter went on to describe smuggling operations that utilized Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve as "thoroughfares for marijuana drug smuggling into Mexico."....
Fire access roads closed Ron Albright wonders what he would do if a wildfire threatened his home today like one did a couple of years ago. Back then, he and his wife were able to flee the burning San Bernardino Mountains by taking a fire access road. Granted, it was dusty and bumpy, but at least it wasn't in gridlock like the paved roads hopelessly clogged with his retreating neighbors. Now, though, taking that less-traveled road wouldn't be an option because it is closed for repairs. Powerful winter storms damaged more than 2,000 miles of fire access roads used to protect 2.3 million acres of forests in Southern California. "We're vulnerable now more than ever," said Mr. Albright, 58, who has lived in the mountains for 30 years and twice fled approaching flames....
Funding for Natural Resources Agencies Falls Short of Needs Congress approved a $26.3 billion budget for the Interior Department and other natural resources agencies before leaving Friday for summer recess. President George W. Bush is expected to sign the legislation. Controversial funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which the House had previously voted to eliminate, was restored, although at the lowest level of funding provided since 1999. The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is the nation’s primary source of money to conserve land. Each year the fund is authorized to receive $900 million in royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling and to reinvest those funds to purchase new lands for and protect America’s national forests, parks and wildlife refuges. But all of that amount is rarely appropriated to the LWDF. The final bill provides $114 million for federal land acquisition, down from $169 million last year, and $28 million for state park and recreation projects, a reduction from the $92.5 million approved last year....
Agency proposes pulling owl from endangered list A federal agency announced Monday that it will propose the removal of the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl in Arizona from the list of threatened and endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's action follows years of legal battles, including an appellate court decision which the agency cited as the basis for its new proposal. The wildlife service listed the pygmy owls as endangered in 1997, followed by the agency's 2002 proposed designation of 1.2 million acres in Arizona as critical habitat. The proposed delisting, to be published Wednesday in the Federal Register, also includes the critical habitat proposal, wildlife service officials said during a telephone news conference. Ruling on a 2001 lawsuit filed by homebuilding groups, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals ruled in 2003 that the agency had not justified its listing of the owls as significant when considered separately from a broader population that includes owls in areas along Mexico's western coast....
Feds to study roadkill thanks to highway bill The federal government will take a hard look at why roadkill happens thanks to a provision in the transportation bill recently passed by Congress. The Bozeman-based conservation group American Wildlands is praising the study as a starting point in mitigating the effect of roadkill on wildlife populations. The group led an effort to get 38 environmental groups in 10 Western states to back wildlife-friendly provisions in the bill. The study is the first national effort of its kind, the group said....
Adaptation: a bird's tale ON May 23, 1833, John James Audubon, traveling on the U.S. revenue-cutter Swiftsure, landed on New Brunswick's White Head Island to look for a particular bird. The bird in question would have been on the endangered species list if such a list had existed in his day. Last year I visited White Head to search for the same bird, to see how it had fared (or indeed if it had fared) over the past 172 years. Shortly after the ferry from the neighboring island of Grand Manan docked, a man in a geriatric pickup truck offered me a lift. I started telling the driver about Audubon and his visit to the island, but he interrupted me. Audubon, he said, had stayed with a long-dead relative, William Frankland. According to family lore, because there wasn't any salt on the table at the time, the artist-naturalist cheerfully sprinkled gunpowder on his food....
Finding of shrimp delays opening of Mira Mesa school Jonas Salk Elementary School in Mira Mesa will open at least a year behind schedule and cost several million dollars more than estimated because of endangered shrimp found at the site. The school's opening date has been pushed back to September 2007, at the earliest. The issue has outraged some Mira Mesa residents, whose plans for a community park were dashed five years ago – also by environmental restrictions. The 13-acre school site at Parkdale Avenue and Flanders Drive is home to the San Diego fairy shrimp, tiny crustaceans that measure less than an inch long and usually thrive from January to March....
Nine Mile Canyon: Controversy over proposed drilling in the region A Denver-based energy exploration company is proposing to drill 750 natural gas wells on Utah's West Tavaputs Plateau near Nine Mile Canyon, a request that could trigger new battles over an area revered for its ancient Indian rock art and rugged beauty. Bill Barrett Corp., which created a furor among conservationists when it received permits in 2002 to drill 38 wells on about 89 square miles on the back side of the remote Book Cliffs, now is pursuing "full-field development" of the Stone Cabin and Peters Point gas fields. The development on the border of Carbon and Duschesne counties would encompass 137,000 acres, or about 215 square miles, and could yield 500 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The company notified the U.S. Department of the Interior in May of its intent, and now is working with Interior to craft a plan that could be published in the Federal Register by the end of the summer....
Interior threatens whistle-blower According to the filing, the plaintiffs called Ronnie Levine, chief information officer at the Bureau of Land Management, to testify in support of their position that Interior be ordered to disconnect from the Internet and shut down insecure IT systems to safeguard trust data. “Moments before Ms. Levine took the stand for her final day of testimony, she was told that she would be removed as bureau CIO and transferred to a non-information technology position in a bureau office that is targeted for closure,” the document states. “Under oath, Ms. Levine confirmed the chilling effect such retaliation had had on her forthcoming testimony and her fear of further retaliation. The message was delivered with absolute clarity: If you testify truthfully, you will be punished.” Agency officials took the bureau’s Web sites off-line for two months this spring after Interior’s inspector general issued a report warning that the agency’s IT systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks....
Horses, Cattle, Cowboys and Cow Dogs The rolling hills of Tehama County in northern Cali-fornia are covered with live-oak trees, pines and open savannahs with lush green grass. Red Bank Creek flows through the area, completing the pastoral scene, and the result is a great location for a ranch and a working-cow-dog clinic and field trial. It all came together last March with a four-day clinic and the open Ranch Dog Trials, hosted by Merle and Sandi Newton, and their friends and neighbors, Bill and Sandy Renihan of the Indian Oaks Ranch. The Newtons' ranch, located near the town of Red Bluff, is home to their Crystal Rose Cowdog College, where Merle and Sandi breed, train and sell Border Collies as working cow dogs. Anyone who attended the clinic and trials undoubtedly left believing, as the Newtons do, that Border Collies are best when it comes to working cattle. What these dogs can accomplish in moving and holding cattle is amazing. "Border Collies can replace two or three average hands on a ranch," says Sandi, "and they don't go to town on the weekend and forget to come back on Monday."....
Pleasanton hangs its hat on history And while Pleasanton is just one of many small South Texas towns peppering the region with stories of hardened cowboys flourishing across the vast, unfenced plains, a sign posted at its city limits makes an enormous claim. Beneath a cartoon of a longhorn steer carrying a newborn babe, the words "Birthplace of the Cowboy" greet passers-by. An explanation provided by the Longhorn Museum tempers this Texas-size declaration with a sly caveat. But according to Texas historian Robert H. Thornhoff, Pleasanton's claim may carry more weight than the town's official explanation lets on. The cowboy tradition can be traced in earnest back to the Middle Ages in Spain. In 1720, Thornhoff said, Spanish missionaries founded Texas' first mission ranch between present-day Pleasanton and Poteet. Pastia Indian residents, working there as cowboys, raised cattle that had been imported from Spain — the ancestors of the Texas longhorn. Pleasanton "has a valid claim," Thornhoff said....

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