NEWS ROUNDUP

Survivor of Glacier grizzly attack describes his experience Johan Otter said he could feel the grizzly bite his head and tear off his scalp — but his greatest concern was for his 18-year-old daughter. The 44-year-old Escondido, Calif., physical therapist had been hiking with his daughter, Jenna, last month in Glacier National Park in Montana when he was attacked by a grizzly bear trying to protect her cubs. Otter understood that impulse. "Don't get to my daughter. Just stay with me,'' he recalls thinking during the Aug. 25 attack. And indeed Jenna suffered just a bite on the heel, along with a shoulder injury and some facial lacerations. By the time Otter arrived at Harborview Medical Center here about 10 hours later, his scalp was gone and his skull exposed. Among the injuries from his five-minute-long attack: five fractured vertebrae, three broken ribs, a fractured eye socket, five major bites throughout his body, and a broken nose, doctors said....
Montana approves bison hunt Montana's wildlife commission gave final approval Thursday to a plan that will allow hunters to kill up to 50 bison that leave Yellowstone National Park and enter Montana. It will be the first such hunt of bison in Montana in 15 years. The state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission approved hunting over a three-month period, beginning Nov. 15, and agreed to require that hunters undergo a training course to prepare them for killing one of the animals and possible encounters with protesters and the media, among other things. Two commissioners deemed the requirement offensive or unnecessary - Victor Workman of Whitefish called it "unreasonable, uncalled for and unwarranted" - but others saw it as key to ensuring the long-term viability of the controversial hunt. "I want this hunt to be a success," chairman Steve Doherty said, adding that the mandatory orientation should not only increase the likelihood of that but also show respect both for the bison and the state's hunting tradition....
Forest Service Plan Would Speed Drilling The U.S. Forest Service will propose regulations to shorten the environmental reviews of small oil-drilling projects in national grasslands, an Agriculture Department official said Friday. The proposal would affect grasslands covering about 4 million acres in a dozen states in the Great Plains and West. Oil exploration is off limits in some areas of the national grasslands, but where drilling is allowed, a required environmental assessment takes a minimum of six months. North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven complained some of the reviews were taking three times that long, delaying projects that could help the economy. Mark Rey, a USDA undersecretary, outlined a proposal Friday to allow some small projects to undergo two-month reviews instead....
Forest Service will review grazing policy book, official says A handbook detailing U.S. Forest Service policies for allowing cattle grazing on national grasslands will be reviewed cover to cover, rather than singling out two new chapters to which ranchers objected, a top official said. The chapters were recently changed to say that ranchers who lease grazing property in national grasslands shouldn't get grazing permits that come with the land. The changes were suspended after they prompted widespread complaints. Mark Rey, a U.S. Agriculture Department undersecretary, said Friday the entire book will be open to public comment for 60 days. Rey said the comment period is likely to begin next week. "It will not surprise you to know that sometimes the government screws things up. It may, however, be refreshing to hear somebody in government say that," Rey said at a news conference with Gov. John Hoeven on Friday....
Pot growers engage hunters in shootout Bear hunters and at least three Mexican nationals overseeing a marijuana garden exchanged gunfire after the hunters accidentally stumbled upon the illegal pot fields. Undercover Gila County Narcotics Task Force agents, who asked not to be identified, said the incident began about noon Friday, Sept. 2 with a 911 call from the hunters. In interviews with the Queen Creek hunters, agents learned the four were scouting for bear southwest of Payson on the Cross F Ranch. "One of (the hunters) was in Deer Creek canyon and came across some clothes, and plants that appeared to be marijuana," the GCNTF agent said. "Minutes later, he found himself face-to-face with one of the suspected growers he has identified as a Mexican national."....
Cougar is culprit in horse's death When a man found his 1,200-pound Arabian horse dead in a Jackson County field last week, he thought it had been shot. There were two punctures in its neck like a vampire bite and gashes that looked like knife wounds. County animal control officer Machele Dunlap showed up and did a careful examination of the horse. No bullets were inside it, and she realized that only one wild animal in Michigan could have done that kind of damage. "It was a cougar," Dunlap said of the wild cat that weighs 100-200 pounds and is also called a mountain lion or puma. "We've had a number of people call in to report cougar sightings, and I have to admit that we were skeptical, because whenever we'd go out to investigate, we couldn't find anything. But there's really no question on this one." Pat Rusz, the research biologist for the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy in Bath, said a necropsy on the horse and a clear track proved it was killed by a cougar....
Wolf advocates pressing for animals' return Wolf advocates say they are not willing to wait 100 years for the animals to return to Colorado on their own and will begin pushing the state to find a way to bring them back. They want the state Division of Wildlife to develop a wolf recovery plan similar to the one the division embarked on six years ago with the Canada lynx. The state's Wolf Management Working Group - made up of ranchers, environmentalists, sportsmen, biologists and government officials - is equipped to shape a wolf plan representing all sides of the issue, say supporters of reintroduction. Rob Edward, of Sinapu, a Boulder-based group that advocates reintroduction of wolves, and a member of the state working group, said the panel provides an ideal forum to address the conflicting views on the wolf - a romantic symbol of the West's wildness to some and a scourge to livestock to others. The group agreed in January that wolves would be tolerated in Colorado if they naturally wander in from adjacent states - as long as they don't kill livestock or cause major trouble....
Mining plans worry bull trout watchers The farther north Canadian coal mining proposals reach - that is, the more distant they become from the Montana border - the more Clint Muhlfeld worries. "We know that our bull trout use the upper portion of the watershed," Muhlfeld said. "It's critical habitat, and the higher these proposals reach into those headwaters, the greater the impact on a fish that's already on the brink of extinction." Muhlfeld is a fisheries biologist with the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks; south of the border, his job is to protect and recover endangered bull trout. But north of the border, where many of those bull trout spawn and rear and migrate seasonally, the waterways they call home flow over deposits of gold, coal, oil and gas, rich resources British Columbia's government is keen to develop....
Allard spearheads effort to revamp Endangered Species Act Efforts made in western Colorado to preserve endangered species could be used as a model to revamp the Endangered Species Act. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., is one of three senators, including Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mike Crapo of Idaho, who have formed a working group studying the act and how it might be improved. Allard said he is looking at cooperative efforts to rescue four endangered fish species from the Colorado River, as well as private and public work to help the greater sage grouse, as prototypes for other recovery efforts, such as the one for the Gunnison sage grouse. Part of the goal is to emphasize recovery over mere conservation of species deemed to be threatened or endangered, Allard said in a telephone interview Friday....
Editorial: Endangered Species: A law that works There can be no slacking. America must continue saving endangered and threatened species. Despite the claims of Republican congressional leaders, the Bush administration and property rights activists, the country has no need to modernize the Endangered Species Act. Likewise, there's absolutely no need to streamline the law, simplify it or drastically revise it. To be sure, none of those ideas are completely lacking in merit. But they aren't valid starting points for any revisions to the act. The one requirement is to maintain an effective deterrent to those in business, industry and government who plunder the environment. In the Northwest, that means, among other things, salmon protection, saving old-growth trees and keeping the orca population of Puget Sound viable. As President Bush likes to say in many contexts, it is important to set clear expectations. In this country, we don't kill off species. Period....
Water users back ESA reform Draft legislation to reform the Endangered Species Act is getting strong support from Idaho’s leading water group. ESA reform is badly needed and could come up for a vote in Congress this month, said Norm Semanko, executive director of the Idaho Water Users Association. The ESA’s poor record alone is an indication that it needs to be changed, said Semanko, who is running for a seat in Congress next year as a Republican from Idaho’s 1st Congressional District. The Idaho Cattle Association is also behind the latest attempt to amend the ESA. “Idaho ranchers understand the need to reform the ESA as they struggle with requests for new listings, and as they fight to protect their private property from wolves – a predator that was ‘reintroduced’ to the region and has reproduced in great numbers since that time,” ICA executive director Lloyd Knight said in a recent newsletter....
BLM rethinks forestry plan for Northwest Forest activists and timber companies are excited about a Bureau of Land Management initiative that may - or may not - spur logging in Southwest Oregon. The BLM may drop 1.6 million acres of reserves from 2.6 million acres of forest land as part of a re-evaluation of its land management plans sparked by the settlement of a timber industry lawsuit. The settlement requires the BLM to find at least one way it can allow harvesting on all the land under its control and still meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, BLM spokesman Alan Hoffmeister said. The new plan will take BLM land out from under the Northwest Forest Plan, the document that laid out how forests should be managed - cut and preserved - in the range of the endangered spotted owl, which spans Western Washington, Western Oregon and Northern California. The process creates the potential for protests and counter-protests of a fury unseen since the establishment of the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994....
Resort exonerated in avalanche death Results of a U.S. Forest Service-led investigation released Friday exonerated the Arapahoe Basin Ski area in the first avalanche death in 30 years within the boundaries of a ski area and called for more research into so-called wet slab avalanches. The ski area ``fulfilled the spirit and intent'' of their snow safety plan and their special use permit, said Doug Abromeit, director of the Forest Service's National Avalance Center and a member of the team that investigted the death of David Conway, 53, of Boulder. The team's report described how warm weather led to the 150-foot-wide and 1,362-feet long slide on a 25-to 30-degree expert slope 11,700 feet high....
BIO Statement on NYSE Response to Animal Rights Extremists The Hon. James C. Greenwood, president and CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), released the following statement regarding the recent decision to postpone the listing of Life Sciences Research (Huntingdon Life Science) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE): "I am dismayed that biomedical research has taken a backseat to the pressure tactics of animal rights extremists. Ethical animal research has played a vital role in virtually every major medical advance of the last century -- for both human and animal health. This research is invaluable in the development of life-extending treatments for people, as wells as cats, dogs, farm animals, wildlife and endangered species. "The ability to conduct humane and responsible animal-based research must be preserved to help conquer disease, alleviate suffering, and improve the quality of life. Biotechnology companies have depended on this research to develop more than 200 drugs and vaccines approved by FDA, helping 325 million people worldwide and preventing incalculable human suffering....
Column: California's Congressional Pests Often I find merit in the quip that we are, indeed, a two-party system -- the Stupid One (Republican) and the Evil One (Democratic). Recently, however, the overwhelmingly Democratic California congressional delegation seems to be poaching on the Republicans' turf. The issue is a somewhat arcane one: the use of human volunteers to test certain pesticides before they are introduced to the marketplace. Government regulators and public health experts around the globe, along with myriad scientific bodies, support the qualified use of human clinical studies in the approval process for pesticides. However, several scientifically challenged members of California's congressional delegation have intervened to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from considering these tests in its evaluation process -- even if the results have already been obtained. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Hilda Solis (D-CA) crafted an amendment to the EPA's appropriations bill that seeks a one-year moratorium on EPA's use of data from human studies. During Senate consideration of the bill, Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT), who represents common-sense farmers and ranchers, sponsored a conflicting amendment that would have mandated EPA to review all human studies under consideration to be certain they had been conducted safely and ethically. During the conference committee on the appropriations bill, a compromise was reached that would prohibit EPA from proceeding with human studies until the agency produces a final regulation on this issue....
Katrina fuels global warming storm Hurricane Katrina has spurred debate about global warming worldwide with some environmentalists sniping at President George W. Bush for pulling out of the main U.N. plan for braking climate change. Experts agree it is impossible to say any one storm is caused by rising temperatures. Numbers of tropical cyclones like hurricanes worldwide are stable at about 90 a year although recent U.S. research shows they may be becoming more intense. Still, the European Commission, the World Bank, some environmentalists, Australia's Greens and even Sweden's king said the disaster, feared to have killed thousands of people in the United States, could be a portent of worse to come. "As climate change is happening, we know that the frequency of these disasters will increase as well as the scope," European Commission spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich said....
Fremont elk rancher forced to slaughter herd Fremont County elk rancher Ron Walker watched his nine-year-old business fade away. The US Department of Agriculture is slaughtering over 300 of Walker's elk. That's because last year an elk born at his breeding ranch near Penrose, tested postive for chronic wasting disease-- a fatal neurological disease found in deer and elk. The only way to test other animals for the disease... is to kill them first. But Jim Miller, policy director for Colorado's AG department, says the USDA must destory the domestic herd in case any of them have it. Walker points out that chronic wasting disease has been around for years and no one knows how it spreads. It appears to have little, if any, effect on the elk population of Colorado. In fact, the Division of Wildlife is reportedly trying to reduce the statewide elk population by 25-thousand animals. Walker says, "So killing all my elk does nothing to save wildlife. if it did i would agree with that." Regardless, Walker's herd will be sedated and then euthanized....
Writing a new breed of novel Sheep rancher Heather Sharfeddin not only raises a rare breed of sheep, she may have just achieved a literary first – a new genre of novel. Heather is a talented writer. Her first novel is to be released by Bridge Works Publishing Co. of Bridgehampton, N.Y., on Oct. 1 and will sell for $21.95. The title? Ah, once a sheep rancher always a sheep rancher. She branded her novel “Blackbelly,” the name of the rare breed of sheep she and her husband, Salem, raise on their ranch in Sherwood, Ore. Actually, the action in the novel occurs not in Oregon, but in a fictional town in Idaho called Sweetwater. “I spent a large part of my childhood on the Salmon River in Idaho,” she said. “Sweetwater is a town of my imagination, but I don’t have to stop and think about the precise sound of thunder in the hills, the smell of alfalfa hay or the taste of well water. Those elements of Idaho are imprinted in me and come out in the writing without much deliberate thought.” The plot involves Chas McPherson, a loner Blackbelly sheep rancher, in this rural Idaho town who is accused of burning out a neighboring Muslim family after 9/11. From the first accusation to the surprising ending, Heather holds her reader on a tight tether of suspense. Why do I think she’s achieved a literary first? Neither her agent nor her publisher could exactly peg the genre for this book. Heather didn’t like the suggestions they came up with, so she picked her own genre – Contemporary Western....
True cowboy poet The true poet is a person who is compelled to write poetry regardless of commercial prospects, skittishness of talent or contradiction of cosmic logic. Baxter Black is a true poet. He wrote poetry long before anybody knew he did such a thing, and he will write it long after everyone else has had just about enough. In addition, Baxter Black is a true cowboy poet. The cowboy poet seems too romantic a notion to be true: the cattle driver composing sonnets by campfire. But Black, a large-animal veterinarian who long ago left behind active practice for the uncertainties of show biz, realized when he first read his pastoral poems to farmers and cattlemen that these stoical men craved such encapsulations of their experience....

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