NEWS ROUNDUP

First Wilderness Bill of 109th Congress Sent to President’s Desk The US House of Representatives today unanimously passed the Ojito Wilderness Act of 2005 – a measure to permanently protect 11,000 acres of colorful, wildlife-rich desert less than an hour’s drive from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The measure, which cleared the Senate last summer, now goes directly to the President for his signature. “We’re heartened that Congress passed this important conservation measure early in the session,” said John Gilroy, associate director of the Campaign for America’s Wilderness. “And we applaud the leadership of Senators Bingaman and Domenici and Representatives Udall and Wilson, who worked diligently to move it through Congress. The Ojito bill is just one of many wilderness bills conservationists hope to see enacted in this Congress. A bill to protect a third of Puerto Rico’s Caribbean National Forest as the El Toro Wilderness has cleared both the House and Senate in similar versions, and should move to the President’s desk soon. Measures to permanently preserve special wild places along California’s North Coast and Washington’s Wild Sky have also seen Congressional action. Legislation to create 300,000 acres of wilderness in the Boulder White Clouds Mountains of Idaho, part of an economic development and recreation bill, is scheduled for a hearing in the House next week. And citizens from all walks of life – ranchers, teachers, business leaders, members of the faith community and conservationists – are working with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to protect wilderness on South Dakota’s prairie grasslands, Arizona’s Tumacacori Highlands, Virginia’s forested mountains, Nevada’s sagebrush expanses, and beyond....
Lawmaker seeks to sell Western lands A Colorado lawmaker has seized upon the Gulf Coast hurricanes as a reason for the government to consider selling off land holdings in the West. A bill by Rep. Thomas Tancredo, R-Colo., orders the Interior and Agriculture departments to put 15 percent of the public land they manage onto the open market. Profits from the sales of millions of acres would be put into a special account to pay for expenses generated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as banked for future disasters. Selling off Western land would be a priority. National parks and Indian lands would be excluded. "Every year we acquire more and more land. It doesn't make any sense," Tancredo said. "Sagebrush rebel" lawmakers from the West perennially advocate land sales, but the concept usually doesn't go far in Congress. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Tancredo has recast the idea....
'Comeback Wolves' is inspirational Local writer John Fayhee's essay is just one of the rousing stories in a collection of 50 Western writers' views on reintroducing wolves to Colorado. But it's a zinger. Like many of the writers in "Comeback Wolves," he talks about the female wolf that died June 7, 2004, trying to cross Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs. And that's how reading "Comeback Wolves" is. The essays and poems satisfy both the emotional and intellectual realms; each author has crafted the pieces so the writing could stand up in any literary anthology, all the while painting pictures of the big bad wolf or the wolf we need to reconnect us with our wild nature. Sections of the book review the power of legends and our culture's lingering fears and hatred of the "big bad wolf"; the need to update the destructive myths with new ideas; the wolves' wild howls that transport us to primal fears, as well as to a deep yearning for a restored world; ways we share the spirit and wisdom of wolves; and the practicalities of restoring wolves to Colorado....
Montana, Idaho govs give wolf delisting ideas Earlier this month, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne sent a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton detailing five possible ways to delist wolves in the Northern Rockies. The governors essentially ask that federal protections be lifted from wolves in Montana and Idaho - and that management be passed to state agencies - while the Interior Department and the state of Wyoming continue a long-running dispute in the courts. All sides agree the 900 or so wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming have met biological benchmarks for recovery, they said. “Our task now is to see that the success of this recovery is not overshadowed and mired by inaction,” the governors said in the letter. The governors, though, urge the federal government to depart from past practice in delisting species, namely by lifting federal protections based on state boundaries rather than the more typical “distinct population segments,” which lumps species together based on the regions where they live, not state lines....
Editorial: The Endangered Species Act The U.S. House of Representatives made the right move last month when they approved the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005 (TESRA). It is high time that the ineffective and outdated Endangered Species Act (ESA) be fixed. The ESA has been around since 1973. In over 31 years of its existence, only 10 species have been recovered. That equates to less than 1% of the species that have been listed as endangered. It is appalling that anything with such statistics has been kept around, and worse, used as a tool to control land and devastate livelihoods. In a recent conversation with a top Department of Interior official, he wisely made the analogy that we wouldn’t drive around an old car made in 1973 without expecting to do some repairs once in a while. Likewise, it is irrational to keep a law on the books that is over three decades old without allowing an occasional update. Ranchers have been among those who have had to bear the brunt of the heavy-handed restrictions that the ESA imposes on our land and our ability to operate our businesses. We have experienced it first hand as we have helplessly watched our livestock be destroyed by wolves and grizzlies, have had our water rights diminished for fish that may not even exist in our streams, and have had our federal grazing permits reduced year after year in the name of some species or another. All of this has been imposed on us without the benefit of sound science, and in the name of a law that is not truly conserving species....
Editorial: Monument resulted from misused power Then, there are events like the designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Southern Utah that should have been in focus from the beginning. Alas, former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt doesn't seem to understand that concept in his new book, "Cities in the Wilderness." In it, Babbitt reportedly confides with readers that the way the Grand Staircase was handled could have been better. That's an understatement. While the monument sits in Southern Utah, Babbitt and former President Clinton - desperate for environmental votes in the 1996 mid-term elections - made the announcement that year with the south rim of the Grand Canyon as the backdrop. As a result, 1.7 million acres of land was tied up, severely limiting the use of land to ranchers and others. Now, Babbitt is saying that the situation could have been handled better. How about handled at all? No local governments were notified prior to the announcement. The announcement was made far from the monument itself, showing that Clinton and Babbitt knew what kind of reception such a decision would receive in the area. It was a gutless misuse of the executive branch's power....
Forest: Timber yield to multiply The amount of timber being cut from the Stanislaus National Forest is expected to nearly triple by the end of the decade, U.S. Forest Service officials said yesterday. The forest's five-year vegetation management plan released yesterday is designed to reduce trees and brush that could fuel a destructive wildfire, said Stanislaus National Forest Supervisor Tom Quinn. "We're very excited about the opportunity to accelerate the pace," he said. Some area residents who support logging say the new amount is not high enough, while environmentalists say the logging levels should be lower....
Snowbowl trial hears from tribes As anthropology researcher Emory Sekaquaptewa began to recite a Hopi religious song into the microphone in the trial over snowmaking on the San Francisco Peaks, the court reporter quickly turned to the judge with a worried look. She asked if she should be attempting to transcribe the Hopi song into English. The judge replied no and the courtroom gallery chuckled. It was one of the few light moments in a day during which Hopis spent trying to explain their beliefs, their way of life and the importance of the Peaks to a judge and legal team charged with interpreting them under English law. The kachinas are spirits that primarily live on the Peaks, bring rain to farmers and appear in nighttime dances in Hopi villages at certain times of the year, Hopi Cultural Preservation Office Director Leigh Kuwanwisiwma said....
U.S. Eases Rules On Oil, Gas Drilling In a push by the Bush administration to open more public land to oil and gas production, the Interior Department has quit conducting environmental reviews and seeking comments from local residents every time drilling companies propose new wells. Field officials have been told to begin looking at issuing permits based on past studies of an entire project, even though some of those assessments may be outdated. The instructions are in a directive from the department's Bureau of Land Management expected to cover hundreds of anticipated new drilling applications. The energy bill created new "categorical exclusions" under the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act for allowing new oil, gas and geothermal wells without first conducting environmental studies or soliciting public comment on them. The exclusions from normal permit requirements cover instances when less than 150 acres and no more than five acres in any one spot are disturbed and where nearby drilling has occurred in the past five years....
Judge orders EPA to notify retailers, distributors, about pesticide concerns A federal judge has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to send letters to pesticide retailers, distributors and wholesalers in three states, outlining their responsibilities for notifying consumers about the dangers posed to salmon by the chemicals. The order from U.S. District Judge John Coughenour is a follow up to his January 2004 decision banning the use of pesticides near streams in Washington, Oregon and California until the EPA determines that 38 chemicals won't harm salmon. That ruling was upheld in June by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition to the 20-yard no-spray buffer zones Coughenour ordered near rivers containing threatened or endangered salmon or steelhead, the plaintiffs wanted to ensure urban consumers in those areas are alerted to potential problems when they shop for garden products....
Court Ruling Gives Hope to Klamath Salmon Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Bush administration’s water diversion plan for the Klamath River because it fails to protect threatened Klamath River coho salmon. The court sided with fishing and conservation groups that have been seeking a more balanced distribution of water needed to rebuild Klamath River salmon stocks. The court found the government’s plan illegal because it failed to provide adequate water flows for coho salmon until eight years into the ten-year plan. The court said, “Five full generations of coho will complete their three-year life cycles -- hatch, rear, and spawn -- during those eight years. Or, if there is insufficient water to sustain the coho during this period, they will not complete their life cycle, with the consequence that there will be no coho at the end of the eight years. If that happens, all the water in the world in 2010 and 2011 will not protect the coho, for there will be none to protect.”....
Last stand for Last Chance? The road east to this dying ranch town of 18 people passes the endless subdivisions of the swelling Denver metropolitan area. Then the interstate turns, and it's almost all rolling prairie. That empty space is what enticed various companies to buy up the land surrounding Last Chance and use it to dump Denver's sewage and hazardous waste. But now one of those dumps -- a facility that residents battled for years -- wants permission to accept radioactive waste from inside and outside the state. The ranchers and farmers who have watched their town slowly depopulate are mobilizing for what they see as Last Chance's last stand....
Rodeo stars hang their hats in Oakdale Back in the day, a cowboy's hotel room on the rodeo circuit cost a half dollar--a cup of joe at the neighborhood coffee shop just pennies--and a good day of work lasted eight full seconds. These days, the memories last a lifetime, and can be found in frames on the wall of a museum in a town nicknamed the Cowboy Capitol of the World. To many people, Oakdale is known as a gateway to Yosemite Valley and the site of the Hershey Chocolate Factory. But those in cowboy circles know it's really where you go to find the world's best rodeo stars. The town, with a population of 17,000, is home to more retired rodeo world champions than anywhere else in the country. With the likes of Ace Berry, Harley May, Sonny Tureman, Ted Nuce and the Camarillo brothers, just to name a few, Oakdale holds some stories you could say gave the Wild West its name. Still today, many rodeo hopefuls dream of following in the footsteps of those who put Oakdale on the cowboy map, and still reside there today. The town boasts 25 world champion rodeo titles, and seven inductees into the Rodeo Hall of Fame....

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