NEWS ROUNDUP

Idaho submits plan to ease wolf protection Idaho is floating a new proposal that it hopes could speed the removal of federal protection for gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains. The animals have been protected since 1975 under the Endangered Species Act after being hunted to near extinction. In early August, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne gave officials with the U.S. Interior Department a plan calling for removing the wolves from protected status in parts of Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Washington and Oregon. Recent federal court rulings - and the failure of Wyoming to get federal approval for a plan to manage wolves within its borders - have hampered the delisting process. Idaho officials said Kempthorne's proposal could break this bottleneck and move wolves closer to the day when they'll be treated like other wildlife, such as elk or black bears....
Deal protects Elkhorns land The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and The Conservation Fund announced on Wednesday they've become owners of the highly visible property on the eastern flanks of the Elkhorn Mountains south of Helena. The two nonprofit groups plan to manage the property until it can be sold to a public agency, which probably will be the Bureau of Land Management, an adjacent landowner. The land was appraised at about $2.8 million, and the BLM hopes to have enough funding by 2007 through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund to purchase the property from the two conservation groups. Rick Hotaling, BLM field manager in Butte, said it probably will be a staged acquisition based on available funding. "The Elkhorn Range contains some of the most important and vulnerable wildlife habitat in Montana," said Gates Watson, Montana state director for The Conservation Fund....
Column: Grizzly recovery should be held up and praised For a long while, many of the protagonists involved with America’s environmental battles seem to have adopted a firebrand attitude, which is that praising a perceived adversary is a function of weakness. Some wars have been fought for so many years that no one - especially the young - remembers how and why they started. Such is the case with greater Yellowstone grizzly bears and the region’s population of gray wolves. Where grizzlies are concerned, I have this thought: If the Sunnis and Shia in Iraq; if Israelis and Palestinians; if Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland can be expected to pull the ammo clips out of their rifles and stand down, then why can’t the disparate factions involved with grizzly recovery do the same? At least, why can’t they do it for a single reflective moment and honor an achievement that defies the prevailing trends in our modern world?....
Pombo expects approval of species act revision U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, the Tracy Republican who chairs the House Resources Committee, said Wednesday that he expects the House to pass his far-reaching rewrite of the Endangered Species Act as soon as next month. Pombo said he and key Democrats agree on about 90 percent of the language in the bill, which will likely be sponsored by a Democrat. Pombo made the comments during a meeting Wednesday with Record editors. The bill would change how the federal government designates “critical habitat” of rare plants and animals. Under the Pombo proposal, a federal agency first would have to come up with a plan to pull the rare species back from extinction. That plan would then declare where the critical habitat is located. Currently, habitat is designated before biologists come up with a recovery plan, a system that Pombo and other critics have said doesn’t make sense. Pombo’s proposal also would reimburse private landowners for any restrictions that may be placed on their land after it is designated as critical habitat. Under the present system, landowners are usually asked to voluntarily comply with effort to protect species on their land....
Farmers Lose Klamath Water Fight A federal judge Wednesday rejected the major arguments of Klamath Basin farmers who sought $1 billion from the federal government after regulators virtually cut off irrigation water during a drought to protect endangered fish. Environmentalists and fishermen who have been battling farmers over water in the sprawling agricultural basin on the California-Oregon border called the decision by Judge Francis M. Allegra of the U.S. Court of Claims a major victory. "This is good news for the fishermen and families down river who have been largely shut out of this debate," said Todd True, an attorney for Earthjustice, an environmental law firm involved in the case. Roger Marzulla, a Washington lawyer representing the Klamath irrigators, said the decision reversed a century of Western water law by handing over state rights "to a federal bureaucracy in Washington." "It's a pretty scary prospect for all the Western states," Marzulla said, adding that "in a perverse way" the judge had done farmers a favor, offering up an opinion that "is so bad and so wrong it's a huge target for reversal on appeal."....
Regional BLM Chief Admits To Embezzlement Regional Bureau of Land Management chief Robert Beehler admitted embezzling $18,000 from the federal agency. Beehler, whose BLM office oversees 315,000 acres of federal lands from Monterey County to Alameda County, pleaded guilty last week in U.S. District Court to using his government credit card for personal expenses and doctoring invoices to obtain cash. Jan Bedrosian, deputy state director for external affairs for the BLM, said there was a two-year investigation by the Interior Department's Office of the Inspector General. Beehler was placed on administrative leave earlier this month. Beehler, 57, will retire Saturday and will be allowed to collect his pension. "He pled guilty to a felony but it does not negate his 28 years of service," Bedrosian said....
Urban sprawl meets open range The thick frame of his Volvo S80 sedan helped Rodney Chew survive the impact of colliding with a wandering horse in a quiet neighborhood near Troon Country Club. The Scottsdale resident struck and killed the horse this month in an accident that has once again called attention to the challenges of having open range meeting urban sprawl. The recent livestock accidents near the open-range area of Rio Verde Foothills have raised the ire of residents and prompted responses from Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley and state Sen. Carolyn Allen, R-Scottsdale. Open-range grazing will be illegal beginning in 2006, when a new "high-density grazing" zoning is instituted in the unincorporated, 20-square-mile foothills area....
Sheepdogs to strut their stuff Simple calls directed the sleek black-and-white-dogs to herd eight sheep into an open trailer. On command, the dogs circled and darted at the sheep, pushing them toward the trailer's door. They collected a stray and forced it with the others. Then, with all eight inside, the stock man shut the trailer door and thanked the dog handlers Wednesday afternoon. "Where were you this morning?" said Doug Livingston, who trades sheep to ranchers throughout Utah. "I had six men and I couldn't get them in." The dogs and handlers are national sheepdog champions from Wales, Scotland and England who are in town for the Soldier Hollow Classic at Wasatch Mountain State Park — four days of herding sheep that looks like hard work to a casual observer but is bliss for the dogs. The international dogs are just a few of the 120 that will compete. Sheepdog trial champions throughout the United States are expected this weekend at Soldier Hollow for hours of moving sheep around a mountainside through shrubs and trees and around gates and obstacles....

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