NEWS ROUNDUP

Feds file complaint against anti-wolf activist An anti-wolf activist in central Idaho whose Web site tells how to poison wolves has been charged with placing bait with intent to kill wolves, and unauthorized use of a pesticide on U.S. Forest Service land. Federal authorities filed the complaint Oct. 13 against Tim Sundles of Carmen. He is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court on Tuesday in Pocatello. Both charges are misdemeanors and each carries a maximum penalty of a $100,000 fine and six months in jail. The bait charge is a violation of the Endangered Species Act. Sundles, an ammunition-maker critical of the federal government for returning wolves to Idaho, said he views the charges as retribution for his anti-wolf activism....
Forest Service action irks lawmakers A group of Western lawmakers is demanding an explanation from the U.S. Forest Service after the agency responded to a federal court ruling last month by suspending hundreds of activities on Forest Service land, including mushroom picking and Christmas-tree cutting. "The Forest Service is overreacting and needs to revisit this overreaching directive," said Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Boulder. On Tuesday, U.S. Reps. Udall and John Salazar, D-Manassa, and U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., sent a sharply worded letter to Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, who oversees the Forest Service. "It is unsurprising that our constituents have told us that they believe the agency is deliberately overreacting to the court's decision," the lawmakers wrote. In a separate letter to President Bush, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., accused the administration of advancing its political goals by "causing maximum disruption to persons and economies that rely on access to the National Forests for non-controversial activities such as hunting."....
Judge delays decision on easement for coal-bed methane water A judge delayed issuing an easement that would allow a coal-bed methane developer to release water into South Prong Barber Creek, saying he might need a survey to tell him exactly where the easement should be. "I authorized a pre-condemnation entry and assumed a survey would be done," 8th Judicial District Judge Keith G. Kautz said during Wednesday's hearing. "If I send appraisers out, I have to tell them where to go." Kautz gave developer Williams Production RMT Co. one week to conduct the survey or present arguments why they shouldn't have to. Rancher William P. Maycock II had challenged the company's plans to release water from their coal-bed methane operation into the creek, saying the discharged water would change the character of the creek and ruin the creek bed where his cattle graze. But the company said once they had legally discharged water into a waterway, that water became the property of the state, and no private citizen had the right to stop it. Kautz ruled in favor of the company last week, and company officials asked the court for a 20-foot-wide easement down a 10-mile length of the creek....
BLM holding meetings to draw map of future energy corridors across West Federal land managers take their first public step next week in plotting routes across the West for billions of dollars worth of future powerlines and oil and natural gas pipelines to connect the region's vast energy reserves with consumers in the nation's fastest-growing cities. The Bureau of Land Management holds a public meeting Tuesday in Denver, followed by 10 additional sessions culminating in Phoenix and Seattle on Nov. 3, to help it draw up energy transmission and distribution corridors, a requirement of the 2005 energy bill signed Aug. 8 by President Bush. Total U.S. energy demand is expected to grow by some 1.9 percent a year until 2025, and the West has seen unprecedented growth in oil and natural gas production, wind prospecting and plans for new coal-fired power plants in states including Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and North Dakota. As a result, Congress has ordered maps of where upgraded and new electricity transmission facilities are to be built, to expedite the construction of links to energy-hungry cities such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Seattle....
First Lady promotes parks during visit First lady Laura Bush dropped in on Denver Thursday, first for a Republican National Committee fundraiser, then for a brief speech on behalf of a foundation that supports national parks. But the first lady's second stop was at the Phipps Mansion in Denver, where she appeared along with U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton to praise the work of the National Parks Foundation and a youth program known as Junior Rangers. "As I flew . . . from Washington this morning and looked out at our beautiful country, I was reminded again how important it is that we introduce America's young people to our national parks and the outdoors," Bush said....
Group files lawsuit over desert species An environmental group on Thursday filed a lawsuit asking a judge to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to decide if rare desert species deserve special protection. The Center for Biological Diversity sent petitions in 2002 and 2004 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to see if the agency would protect 17 species -- bees, beetles, sand wasps and others -- under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The animals live only at the Algodones Dunes, a favorite off-roading area in Imperial County. The agency is supposed to determine in 90 days if any petition warrants further action, the lawsuit said....
County to U.S.: Act on bird or we'll sue The Coos County Board of Commissioners has put the U.S. Department of the Interior on official notice: If it doesn't soon change the restrictions guarding the threatened marbled murrelet, the county will file a lawsuit. “We're talking about real money and real jobs that are at risk the longer it takes fish and wildlife to make a decision,” Coos County Chairman John Griffith said Wednesday. The commissioners want to prod U.S. Fish and Wildlife to take action on data made public in September 2004, when the agency acknowledged that its classification of murrelets as a “distinct population segment,” was suspect. The classification was a key condition on the road to being protected under the 1973 endangered species act....
Saving tiny delta fish carries heavy price tag, report says Saving the endangered delta smelt, a tiny fish considered a key indicator of the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a report to be released Thursday. The price tag includes projects that also could aid other troubled species and the overall ecology of the delta, which provides drinking water to more than 70 percent of Californians. Options to restore the population and their costs vary, according to the 14-point recovery plan obtained by The Associated Press. The report, developed by the state Department of Water Resources and Department of Fish and Game, also said further research could affect decisions on what actions to take....
Groups protest gold test pits A historic preservation group and three environmental groups are appealing to the U.S. Department of the Interior, hoping to stop a Canadian company from looking for placer gold in the historic South Pass area. Meanwhile, the company has sent a reclamation bond to the state, a requirement before exploration can begin. The Alliance for Historic Wyoming, together with the Sierra Club, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council, have filed an appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals. They say the Bureau of Land Management failed to consider the impacts a Dickie Springs gold mine would have on the area’s historical landscape....
Judge orders Interior IT system shutdown A judge has ordered the Interior Department to disconnect all information technology systems that access Indian trust fund data because the systems are vulnerable to hacker attacks. Today, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth granted American Indian plaintiffs a motion for a preliminary injunction to shut down all computers, networks, handheld computers and voice-over-IP equipment that access trust fund data. The injunction prohibits Interior employees, contractors, tribes and other third parties from using those systems. Interior’s IT security has been the focus of a nine-year class-action lawsuit that criticizes the department’s oversight of Indian trust funds. Plaintiffs have accused Interior officials of failing to properly protect data....
Montana ranchers end fight on beef checkoff A Montana ranching couple said they are finished fighting the U.S. Department of Agriculture over a $1-per-head fee on cattle. Steve and Jeanne Charter have asked a federal judge here to dismiss their case and end an 8-year battle over the beef checkoff. The couple said Thursday that pursuing the matter further in court would have been expensive and futile, particularly in light of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in May that upheld the fee and the government's right to force ranchers to pay it. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard the Charter case, said there was still room for the Shepherd-area cattle producers to challenge the checkoff as unconstitutional for the way it's carried out. But an attorney for the Charters, Kelly Varnes, said proving that would have been difficult. For example, the ranchers would have had to prove that they - as individual producers - were tied to the message disseminated by beef ads funded with checkoff dollars....
Historic cabin in Rincons turns 100 Levi Manning, who came to Tucson from Mississippi in 1883, left his mark on Tucson business and local politics as well. He also left his name on two of southern Arizona's landmarks, the Manning House in the heart of what used to be called Tucson's Snob Hollow, and Manning Cabin, high among the pines of the Rincon Mountains. On Sunday, Saguaro National Park - which includes the Rincon Mountains - will host an afternoon of celebration to mark the 100th anniversary of building the cabin, said Meg Weesner, chief of science and resources management for the park. The cabin is a beautiful structure, Weesner said. "It's made of logs, probably cut on site. It's about 60 feet long and 20 feet wide." There is a spring-fed pond near the cabin that probably supplied water for the Mannings and later inhabitants....

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