NEWS ROUNDUP

USFS, Martinezes clash on grazing permit issue A rancher whose cattle are scheduled to be removed from two grazing allotments for which he does not hold permits has asked Arizona's governor to "send out the state militia." The U.S. Forest Service announced in a news release last week that it plans to remove cattle from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest's Pleasant Valley and Hickey grazing allotments on which the Martinez family has cattle if the Martinezes do not remove the cattle. Forest Supervisor Elaine Zieroth said the Martinez grazing permit on the Pleasant Valley allotment expired last August. The Martinezes also have cattle on the Hickey allotment, for which they have not previously had a permit. The Martinezes reportedly have around 250 cattle grazing there. The Martinez Ranch, located northeast of Clifton, was owned for decades by Abelardo "Abe" Martinez Sr. It was purchased by Martinez's three sons. One of those sons, Dan, has been highly vocal in opposition to removal of the cattle. He said the Forest Service is trampling on his federal and state Constitutional rights. He also said the USFS has failed to use due process and does not have a court order to remove the cattle....
Column: Land-use planning for Arizona way past due You may think I am one of those environmentalists who wants to take away the rights of the average citizen to use their property as best suits them. Quite the contrary. The laws as they stand are mostly in favor of special interests; among these are ranchers and farmers. Agriculture in Arizona has long been a threat to this frail land and is becoming even more so. Water is very much an issue here, with more people moving into the area. Yet most of it is used for farming in Arizona, wasted on high- water crops not viable for this climate. The University of Arizona Extension Service could tell you this, but whatever knowledge they have to offer is trumped by politics....
Calif. fire report faults escape routes Firefighters failed to give themselves enough escape routes while battling a wildfire in the Stanislaus National Forest last fall, according to a report by state and federal investigators Wednesday. Three firefighters were injured and one was killed. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection firefighter Eva Schicke, a star athlete in college, was not able to outclimb the wildfire up a steep slope to a safe zone a mere 35 feet away. The firefighters started backfires designed to burn toward the wildfire. But when the wind suddenly shifted, the backfires themselves were what burned over the crew, the report concluded. The crew immediately began running to their previously identified safety zones - a riverbed below and a road above. "However, due to the steepness of the slope and rapid change in fire behavior, they did not all reach safety," concludes the report by a joint investigative team of the state forestry department and the U.S. Forest Service. The report said the fire burned over crew members in just 30 seconds. They never had time to unfold their tent-like fire shelters; the entire flare-up lasted less than two minutes....
Legal wrangling may end access to Colorado's top peaks Four 14,000-foot peaks declared off-limits this summer may be the first in a series of trail closures on private mining claims throughout Colorado. Or they may be a precaution meant to head off lawsuits, with little more daily consequence than a printed warning on a takeout coffee cup. U.S. Forest Service rangers started handing out fliers in and around this former mining town at the end of June warning hikers that Mount Bross, Mount Cameron, Mount Democrat and Mount Lincoln were closed because getting to their summits would mean crossing private mining claims whose owners no longer welcomed hikers. Because they all can be climbed in a one-day hike, the four peaks are among the most popular 14,000-foot peaks, or fourteeners, in Colorado....
Fast track to drilling The federal government is on course to drastically overhaul the regulatory process to further speed up oil and natural gas drilling on Colorado's public lands. It is turning five regulatory hoops into one. The Glenwood Springs division of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will become an umbrella office for four federal agencies to consolidate the process for reviewing drilling permits. Those agencies are the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army Corps of Engineers. Energy companies have to apply for permits from these agencies and get their approval before they can drill oil and natural gas wells on public lands. The office in Glenwood Springs is among eight BLM offices in five states - Colorado, Utah, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming - that will be converted into umbrella offices. The government will spend $20 million on the conversion, Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary of land and minerals management at the U.S. Department of Interior, said Wednesday at the Colorado Oil & Gas Association's conference in Denver. After three years, if the pilot program is found successful, it will be expanded to other states....
On Indian land, a twist on church vs. state The relationship between government and religion has been a complicated issue ever since the architects of the new American republic made it the lead item in the First Amendment to the US Constitution and Thomas Jefferson argued for "a wall of separation between church and state." It remains a difficult legal and political issue, as witness the US Supreme Court's recent split decisions on public displays of the Ten Commandments. It may be even more complex involving claims by native Americans, whose spiritual and religious practices are so connected to what they see as holy ground. A series of court cases and federal agency policy decisions have attempted to thread subtle differences between the constitutional protection of the "free exercise" of religion and the equally important prohibition against the "establishment" of religion. As with the Supreme Court's two-way decisions on the Ten Commandments, federal courts seem to have moved in conflicting directions....
Chapman recalls his ‘Smokey’ past At the age of 20, most men and women today are just finding their feet in the world. Some are attending college, while others have gone into the workplace, but all are eager to make their mark. In May 1950, G.W. Chapman was 20 years old, and little did he know, his actions to save a small bear cub would change the course of U.S. Forest Service history. In May 1950, Chapman and his fellow employees were working on a bridge when they got the call to attend to a fire near Capitan. Near the end of the main fire, Chapman said, 20 men were dispatched to a small canyon where the fire was still strong. The men were doing well, he said, until the wind picked up....
Deal could resolve dispute over Mount Hood slope The bitter dispute over the future of Mount Hood's northern slope took a peaceful turn this week when developers, environmentalists and Hood River Valley residents agreed on a potential solution. The agreement calls for Mt. Hood Meadows ski resort to trade approximately 775 acres it owns near Cooper Spur for 120 acres in the Mount Hood National Forest near Government Camp. The Government Camp parcels -- a 40-acre plot east of the unincorporated town and an 80-acre plot to the west -- are zoned for residential development and could accommodate 480 single-family homes. Mt. Hood Meadows has lobbied for years to plant more lodging close to its resort, 70 miles east of Portland. Meadows would give up its plans to expand the Cooper Spur Ski Area and build a resort there, would agree not to acquire more property on the mountain's northern slope and would relinquish its lease on the small ski area....
Trekkers eager to be moonstruck An ancient moon-watching pilgrimage that has not been made for nearly a millennium begins again on a high stony mesa in southwestern Colorado. This year, for the first time, after consultation with Pueblo tribes, the U.S. Forest Service is allowing people to resume the trek up narrow cliff trails to the mesa top to see an astronomical event called the lunar standstill. It is believed ancient Puebloans traveled here to witness the infrequent event. Not since their pilgrimages ended with the burning and abandonment of this site in the year 1125 have people come to wait and watch for the moon to rise between two stone pillars jutting high above the Piedra River Valley. It is no ordinary moonrise. And the place, Chimney Rock Archaeological Area, is no ordinary observation point....
Burrowing owls on the field have sidelined Boca High's football team Their mascot is the Bobcats, but it's burrowing owls that have taken center stage on Boca Raton High's athletic fields. And these owls, which have made a home on the stadium's 5-yard line, are proving threatening enough to kick an entire football team and band off their fields. Some teachers and students playing Ultimate Frisbee discovered the protected species last month, Principal Geoff McKee said. When not in their nest, the birds can frequently be seen resting on the goal post. The Bobcats are waiting to hear whether they can hold their first game, a preseason kickoff with Jupiter High, at their regular stadium. School officials are awaiting permits from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to remove the owls, or fill the hole in the field where they've been nesting....
Dissension on the Chesapeake A Maryland environmentalist alarmed by the steady decline of the Chesapeake Bay's native oyster population is trying to get it on the federal Endangered Species list -- a proposal that has sparked an uproar of opposition in the oyster industry from Maine to Louisiana. Wolf-Dieter Busch, an environmental consultant, believes bay pollution and ineffective regulations could prove fatal to the eastern oyster. Ravaged in the past by overfishing, and now undermined by disease, 99 percent of the eastern oyster population in the bay has disappeared since the late 19th century, according to federal fisheries statistics. In January, Busch petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to list the oyster on the Endangered Species list, despite the existence of millions of oysters living in the bay and thriving oyster populations elsewhere along the East Coast and in the Gulf states....
BLM seeks tougher measures to protect Sand Mountain butterfly Off-highway vehicle riders will face fines for venturing off designated routes at Sand Mountain under new regulations sought by the Bureau of Land Management. The federal agency that oversees management of the popular recreation site 30 miles east of Fallon tried voluntary restrictions two years ago to protect the rare Sand Mountain blue butterfly. But officials and conservationists say more needs to be done to force compliance. "Our compliance monitoring of the voluntary route system for the last year has shown it to be pretty much a failure," said Elayn Briggs, BLM associate field manager. "So even the OHV groups are saying at this point we need to do something to make it work better."....
Plan calls for moving some minnows to Texas The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has introduced a proposal that would call for moving some captive Rio Grande silvery minnows to a new home in Big Bend National Park and the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River in Texas. The endangered fish once swarmed the waters of the lower Pecos River and most of the Rio Grande to the U.S.-Mexico border before the 1970s. But habitat has dwindled, and now the fish is found only in the Rio Grande between Cochiti Dam and Elephant Butte Reservoir. Officials said a new population in Texas would make the minnow less vulnerable to catastrophic events such as prolonged or widespread river drying. The proposal states that the Big Bend stretch of the Rio Grande is a good bet for the tiny fish because other similar species are found there, water quality is good and flows are relatively stable....
Eagle plumage a hot item with both legal and illegal buyers Demand for eagle feathers, taken from one of the most coveted icons in America today, is soaring. Eagles figure large in American Indian spiritualism, and their feathers are an integral part of tribal members' ceremonies. But the bird is a threatened species. Possession of eagle feathers is so tightly controlled by the government that unauthorized possession - even from picking up fallen feathers - is against the law, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and up to a year in jail. Only members of federally recognized tribes are permitted to buy or own feathers, and there is only one place to buy them: the National Eagle and Wildlife Property Repository at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Commerce City....
Grizzlies have great sniffers When it comes to grizzly bears, the nose knows - boy does it know. Dr. George Stevenson, a retired neurosurgeon from Jackson Hole, Wyo. has been examining the brains of grizzly bears for the past year. Within nine months to a year, Stevenson and a team of neuroscience students hope to publish a "rough" atlas of the grizzly bear's brain. What he's seen to date is fascinating, Stevenson said earlier this week. For example, a grizzly bear's nose is highly developed - thousands of times more developed than a human's, and far better than the best tracking dog's nose. "They have the greatest olfactory (mechanism) on earth," Stevenson said....
Will Nine Mile get drilling project? A massive natural gas development contemplated for a plateau near eastern Utah's Nine Mile Canyon will be discussed publicly and go through extensive environmental analysis, say federal officials — once the plan is formally announced. That announcement might be weeks away. But already the project is drawing controversy to the area, which in the past has been the focus of fierce battles pitting developers against advocates for preserving the ancient Indian rock art and the natural setting. Bill Barrett Corp., based in Denver, has proposed developing up to 750 gas wells on West Tavaputs Plateau, part of which overlooks Nine Mile Canyon from the south, according to the BLM. The world-famous canyon is home to some 700 panels of rock art. It also hosts pipelines, ranching and tourism. Patrick Gubbins, BLM Price field manager, said Barrett has a "proposal for a full-field development on the West Tavaputs" Plateau. That's in addition to wells already in the region....
Drilling slowed by challenges A more than sixfold increase in challenges to federal oil and gas leases has slowed the Bush administration's plan to open more federal land to energy development, a top Interior Department official said Wednesday. Challenges to individual leases rose to 4,425 this year from 664 in 2001. Appeals filed after the leases were issued increased to 925 from 266 during the same period. The challenges - mainly from environmental groups and landowners - are clogging the permit process, said Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary of the Interior Department....
Thousands write to say don't drill in scenic area Federal officials have received more than 74,000 comments from citizens regarding Garfield County's Roan Plateau, a majority of them opposing oil and natural gas drilling on top of the scenic area. Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary of land and minerals management at the U.S. Department of Interior, disclosed the figure Wednesday. "We got comments from as far as Australia," Watson said at the Colorado Oil & Gas Association's conference in Denver. "We are taking a look at them, reviewing the comments." "I believe it will take us several more months to make a decision, maybe well into next year." The Roan Plateau is a prime example of the ongoing conflict between environmentalists and energy producers in much of the country. Those who want to protect the plateau are pitted against gas companies that are keen to develop it, given that it sits on 5.2 trillion cubic feet of gas - enough to heat 2.5 million homes for 20 years to 30 years....
Copper Mine to Open Near Moab Twelve years after it was first proposed, an open-pit copper mine is on the verge of opening in the Lisbon Valley southeast of Moab. Over the past year, Denver-based Constellation Copper Corp. has accelerated development of mining pits, crushing facilities and leaching ponds in anticipation of producing its first batch of cathode copper by mid-November. After the southeastern Utah operation reaches full production capacity by February of 2006, company officials expect the facility to employ 145 Utahns and to produce 54 million pounds of refined copper annually. "We certainly like to see mining going on in the state of Utah, and any time one of these operations comes on line, it's exciting," said Darren Haddock, a permit supervisor with the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining. Constellation Copper, a mid-tier mining company, is investing an estimated $55 million into the project. Over the past year, as China's booming economy increased demand for copper and raised prices to record levels, Constellation accelerated development of the site....
Energy bill effects begin as refiner exits MTBE business The most ambitious federal energy legislation in decades began to have an impact less than a week after its passage by Congress and before President George W. Bush's scheduled Aug. 8 signing of the bill into law (OGJ, Aug. 1, 2005, p. 25). But the effect probably wasn't what lawmakers and administration officials had in mind. Valero Energy Corp. announced plans to quit producing methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) to reduce its product liability lawsuit exposure. The action, which will cut gasoline production at its refineries by about 60,000 b/d, came after the House-Senate conference removed MTBE defective-product liability protection from the energy bill. Refiners were disappointed that the provision, which was part of the original House bill, did not survive. "This means that industry resources—better employed to produce fuel—will have to be used instead to contest legal actions that seek to penalize our members for obeying the requirements of the Clean Air Act," the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association said in a statement....
Groups call for phased drilling Conservation groups are urging federal officials to pace natural drilling in the Jonah Field near Pinedale to reduce wildlife, air quality and social impacts. Five conservation groups outlined their hopes in a "position paper" released recently as the Bureau of Land Management mulls several alternatives for more drilling in the massive gas field. The main message, according to Linda Baker, community organizer with the Upper Green River Valley Coalition, is "get the gas, but do it right." "The first thing that we're concerned about is correctly analyzing impacts and potential impacts," Baker said. "We do need to be able to accurately predict impacts in order to mitigate those impacts effectively." The groups, including the Wyoming Outdoor Council, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wilderness Society, say the BLM has inadequately forecast impacts in past analyses....
BLM plans land sale in northeastern Nevada About 3,900 acres of publicly owned lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management are proposed for auction this fall. The BLM said the 11 parcels in Elko and Lander counties range is size from 80 to 663 acres. Officials with the federal agency said they've been meeting with the local governments for more than year to discuss the proposed sales. Federal law allows the agency to sell public lands that it has identified as uneconomic or difficult to manage....
Nevada water authority sees canal lawsuit as threat to supply Nevada's largest water agency intends to ask a federal judge not to block a plan to improve a canal just north of the Mexico border, arguing that stalling the project could threaten Nevada's share of Colorado River water. The authority will submit documents later this month to intervene in the All-American Canal lawsuit because it has "a direct tie to Southern Nevada's water supply," Mulroy said. A Mexican organization and two U.S. nonprofit groups filed the lawsuit June 19 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. They want a judge to stop the Interior Department and Bureau of Reclamation from lining a porous 23-mile stretch of the All-American Canal with concrete. No hearing has been set....
Dam and Waste Will Go, Freeing Two Rivers Since 1907, the Milltown Dam just east of Missoula, Mont., has held back two of the state's major rivers and trapped tons of toxic mining waste that once washed down one of them from more than 100 miles upstream. An agreement announced this week, however, will allow work to begin on the removal of the decaying timber-and-stone structure and the waste behind it. The job is a technically challenging one that aims to restore the two rivers, the Blackfoot and the Clark Fork, to free-flowing conditions by 2009 at a cost of about $100 million. Three years of negotiations centered on who would pay how much for the removal of the waste, which previously flowed from one of the country's largest copper mines, by now long shuttered. Under the deal, the Atlantic Richfield Company, which in 1977 inherited a legacy of pollution here in buying the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, the mine's previous owner, is to pay $80 million; Northwestern Energy, which owns the dam, $11.6 million; and the State of Montana $7.6 million....
It's raining insect poop out here! It was literally raining insect poop along much of the Grafton Loop Trail this weekend. Honest! Hiking up Puzzle Mountain on Saturday I stopped to rest. And that's when I first heard it. The sound of rain. But it couldn't be because the sun was out and the sky was bright blue. I waited, listened some more, looked up, and realized that what I was hearing were insects eating away the leaves of the hardwood trees and dropping poop all over the place, and occasionally dropping themselves onto the forest floor....
US beef industry hails clearance of mad cow A final round of tests cleared an elderly US cow of mad cow disease, the government said yesterday, prompting cheers from the country's beleaguered beef industry. US beef exports plummeted after the first US case of the brain-destroying disease, in a dairy cow, in December 2003. While Americans are eating more beef than ever, major export customers such as Japan and South Korea still ban US beef. The Agriculture Department said conclusive tests at its animal disease laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and a respected British lab in Weybridge, England, showed the animal did not have mad cow disease. The cow had trouble calving and died in April. ''It certainly lifts a cloud off the current situation," said Richard Fritz of the US Meat Export Federation....
Wild about the West Twenty-five years after John Travolta rode a mechanical bull and roped Debra Winger's heart, urban cowboys are having another day in the sun. Turns out, New York is wild about the Wild West. Just check out clothing-store windows, a spate of new restaurants and even the tunes on our iPods (wasn't that you twanging out to Willie Nelson on the subway last week?). "It's a culture we all find absorbing," says Hollie Bendewald, owner of Whiskey Dust, a West Village shop specializing in new and used Western duds and gear. "There's a strong code of ethics as well as a simplicity about the West."....
Author Jane Kirkpatrick will discuss new book at Lincoln County Historical Society The appearance is sponsored by the Lincoln County Historical Society, and the author will discuss her new book, "A Land of Sheltered Promise," as well as offer insight into the historical research she did when writing "A Gathering of Finches," which takes place on the Oregon coast in the early 1900s. Based on real people and events, "A Land of Sheltered Promise" is a historical novel which takes place over a century and tells the stories of three women seekers on an infamous ranch near Antelope, Oregon. A hundred years ago, the property was known as the Big Muddy Ranch. Kirkpatrick is the best-selling author of two nonfiction books and 11 historical novels. Her commitment to research and her love for the West allow her to paint a convincing portrait of the Old West. Kirkpatrick's books reveal the timeless themes of courage, hardiness, faith, commitment, hope and love. Her novel "A Sweetness to the Soul" won the Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, an award earned previously by Louis L'Amour, Larry McMurtry and James Michener....
Festival in Wellsville celebrates the Wild American West The Wild West has changed a bit since the early 1900s, the era depicted at the American West Heritage Center. But visitors to the Festival of the American West in Wellsville said Wednesday that the area has never been more beautiful. Julie Lee, a Rexburg resident who has traveled throughout the United States performing with Americana equestrian team, said the setting of the historically authentic arena where she performed Wednesday with dozens of other girls can't be beat. “It's incredible. It's just breathtaking,” Lee said shortly after the Americanas showcased their talents - standing up, playing violins and displaying American flags - all while mounted on the backs of 45 black horses....
10th World Championship Ranch Rodeo in Amarillo Texas It’s the Real Deal! 10th World Championship Ranch Rodeo in Amarillo Nov. 10-13, 2005. It all started as a dream of a few people- building a rodeo that reflected the activity of a working ranch while giving the public a great snapshot of this unique lifestyle. Now it’s ten years later and the World Championship Ranch Rodeo, sponsored by the Working Ranch Cowboys Association (WRCA), has grown into one of the largest annual events in Amarillo and a major western lifestyle event in the U.S. If you have ever dreamed of living the cowboy life of independence, wide open spaces, handshakes, honesty, hard work and traditional family values, then Amarillo is the place for you in November. More than 100 cowboys and cowgirls from ranches across the western U.S. and Canada will be in town for the 10th World Championship Ranch Rodeo....

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