NEWS ROUNDUP

Landowners Split on Species Act Burden Late last month the House passed legislation rewriting the Endangered Species Act, arguing that the 32-year-old law was ineffective and prevented American landowners from making use of their property. But the experience of Texas rancher Bob Long tells a somewhat different story: Many owners have learned to live with the law, even as other farmers and developers say it robs them of a livelihood. A decade ago, federal authorities told Long and other landowners living roughly 30 miles southeast of Austin that the law required them to help protect the endangered Houston toad, a small amphibian whose mating call resembles a tinkling bell. Long faced a choice: Resist or cooperate. He chose to cooperate. Long -- a prominent local Republican and preacher who distrusts government and refers to President Bush in casual conversation as "my president" -- has spent the past four years improving toad habitat on his ranch, putting fences around ponds where they breed and altering his cattle's grazing patterns. Under a "safe harbor" agreement he signed last year, Long is legally responsible to protect only the number of toads that were first found on his property, even if the population rebounds. Several neighbors have been watching Long's case, and at least one, rancher Jim Small, is following his example and also taking steps to protect the toads....
S.D. tries to encourage coyote hunters As tens of thousands of hunters descend on a record pheasant population, it's a difficult time to be a coyote hunter. Mange has thinned out the population, fur prices are low and the best hunting requires a drive west of the Missouri River. But state officials and ranch communities are doing their best to keep the predator hunters happy. Without hunters, a resurgence in coyote numbers could mean more losses of calves and, in northwest South Dakota, sheep. South Dakota allows coyote hunting year round, with only a $5 varmint license or any other hunting license. And state game officials are trying to spread the word about a Web site that connects hunters with landowners who want cost-free coyote control. Many West River towns also hold coyote-calling contests, with prizes for the hunters who harvest the most predators....
Hawaii adds stray cattle to open hunt list Hunters will be allowed to take aim at stray cattle next month in an effort to protect the state forest reserves. The state has worked with ranchers on the Big Island to fix their fences, but more than 100 cows are wandering the area that stretches along the Hakalau National Wildlife Refuge. On Nov. 5, the state will open the hunts on “feral and trespass’’ cattle found in the Hilo watershed area each weekend and through Nov. 26. Each licensed hunter will be permitted to kill and remove two cattle per day, with no season limit....
U.S. Weighs Wyo. Request on Wolf Status The federal government said Monday that it will review Wyoming's request to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list after a 10-year effort to restore the predator's population. The government cannot move forward with a proposal to remove the wolf from the list until Montana, Idaho and Wyoming adopt wolf-management plans deemed acceptable by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wyoming is the only state without an approved plan. Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the agency, said the announcement does not mean it has changed its mind about Wyoming's plan. Rather, he said, officials simply decided that some of the ideas raised by the state in a petition this summer deserved a closer look....
Switch focus to key issues, Forest Service chief says The chief of the U.S. Forest Service said he worries "lesser issues," such as logging and road-building on public lands, are drawing too much attention and too many agency resources away from more serious threats to America's forests and grasslands. "I think we need to change the national dialogue to focus on the things that really count the most," Dale Bosworth said Monday night at a scientific conference at Yellowstone National Park. He said he sees the four greatest threats as fire, loss of open spaces, invasive weeds and unmanaged recreation. "Yet our national focus is on other issues, like whether too much timber is coming off national forest land or whether we're building too many roads," he said. "My biggest fear is that these other, lesser issues are absorbing all our energy, while more important things are falling by the way." Bosworth said the Forest Service faces longer-term challenges, as well. These include addressing a backlog of maintenance and restoration projects; dealing with the demands of a growing population on resources; better understanding climate changes; and encouraging a sound "consumption ethic."....
Editorial: Let's get beyond categorical exclusion flap Is the U.S. Forest Service being, shall we say, a little mischievous as it goes about broadly interpreting a federal court ruling over the agency's use of so-called categorical exclusions? For the record, Forest Service officials say no. They say they're just trying to be careful to be absolutely sure they comply with the ruling. But environmental groups behind the legal case say the Forest Service is over-applying the court order - and needlessly throwing into question hundreds of projects they never intended to sidetrack. Here's the background: These categorical exclusions have been used in the past by the Forest Service to approve a variety of small projects that run the gamut from repairing culverts to doing minor cleanup work in campgrounds. In essence, the law that allows these exclusions permits the agency to fast-forward through the normal environmental reviews on routine matters involving environmental impacts the agency has previously - and thoroughly - documented. We've expressed our opinion in the past that these exclusions can be a valuable tool for the Forest Service, and we still believe that's the case. But in July, a federal judge in California found that the Forest Service was using the categorical-exclusion process to improperly approve projects without public comment or appeals. The judge recently specified that his ruling applied nationwide....
Editorial: Radicals Still Running Amok on Environment When Congress passed a law requiring formal environmental studies and reviews for forest projects, surely the purpose was to provide review of road building, large-scale tree harvests and other major projects. But environmental extremists have managed to litigate the law into something more far-reaching than intended, effectively shutting down even the smallest projects, such as Boy Scout trail maintenance projects and - get this - harvesting of the national Christmas tree. The problem stems from a case brought by Earth Island Institute against the Forest Service to stop a project to remove charred and damaged trees from the Sequoia National Forest as a fire-prevention measure. But the environmental group was not content to call a halt to work in that particular forest, and follow-up litigation yielded a friendly ruling from District Court Judge James Singleton, applying a requirement for full-blown environmental reviews nationwide. Its hands tied, the Forest Service announced that even the smallest projects would have to clear lengthy environmental reviews. No quick solution is at hand. But Congress could do a couple of things: First, it could swiftly pass legislation to exempt minor maintenance projects and events from environmental reviews. Second, the Senate could encourage the appointment of judges who are not inclined to expansively allow litigation to be used as a tool to achieve what cannot be promoted through elections and the legislative process....
Power plant would utilize singed trees Trees damaged by the "Rodeo-Chediski" fire in eastern Arizona three years ago could find new life as fuel for a proposed power plant in Snowflake. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday that it will guarantee a $16 million loan to an Arizona businessman who wants to build a biomass electrical generating plant, which will create energy by burning timber and paper. Robert Worsley, sole owner of Snowflake White Mountain Power LLC, said he would put up the remaining $7 million to $10 million in cash needed to make the plant a reality. Worsley hired 75 loggers, who have begun removing 400,000 tons of singed trees, enough fuel to power 20,000 homes for four years, under a contract with the Forest Service....
Heat and Drought Kills Trees in Southwest According to newly published research, a massive die off of pinyon trees throughout the Southwest was caused by higher atmospheric temperatures combined with drought and lowered pest resistance. While the trees ultimately succumbed to infestations of bark beetles, "it was the drought," said research team leader David Breshears, a biologist at the University of Arizona. "Beetles don't get trees unless the trees are really water-stressed" and unable to make enough pinesap to defend themselves against the insects, he said. Breshears, Neil Cobb, director of the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Paul Rich, research scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in N.M. and their colleagues reported their findings this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....
Report details wildlife invasions on bases Military installations across the country are battling wild hogs, snakes and other trouble-making species, says a report being issued Tuesday by the National Wildlife Federation. "Terrorists or natural disasters jump to mind" when one pictures threats to military readiness and homeland security, said Heidi Hirsh, natural resources specialist for the U.S. Marine Corps., which funded the report on behalf of the Defense Department. "But few people realize that we also face the threat of non-human invaders." The report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, looked at a dozen case studies to provide a sample of the problem. Among the findings:....
USDA decides not to close FSA offices In a surpise move, U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided to set aside a plan known as “FSA Tomorrow,” which would have consolidated Farm Service Agency offices across the nation. Under the plan, about 713 of the 2,351 Farm Service Agency county offices in the country would have been closed. The goal was to modernize and streamline the way services are provided to farmers and ranchers. Money saved from the consolidation was to have been reinvested into FSA. No information was available from USDA today about why the agency had made an abrupt 180-degree turn on this issue. But an Oct. 14 Associated Press report revealed that Agriculture Undersecretary J.B. Penn told Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, about the decision when the two met during the Billings Livestock Auction....
Burning Manure Pile in Nebraska Finally Goes Out It took nearly four months, but to the relief of neighbors miles around, a burning manure pile has been extinguished. David Dickinson, owner and manager of Midwest Feeding Co., said Wednesday that several weeks of pulling the 2,000-ton pile apart proved effective by late last week. "We got far enough through it, that it quit," Dickinson said. Dickinson's feedlot, about 20 miles west of Lincoln, takes in as many as 12,000 cows at a time from farmers and ranchers and fattens them for market. Byproducts from the massive operation resulted in a dung pile measuring 100 feet long, 30 feet high and 50 feet wide. Heat from the decomposing manure deep inside the pile is believed to have eventually ignited the manure....
Owner of Horses Shot to Death Speaks A Fremont County family was coping with the loss of four horses on Sunday night…horses they say were like family. Three were found shot to death on Friday, and a fourth was injured and later had to be put down. So far they say they have gotten little information from the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, but as far as they’re concerned this was a senseless act of violence, and they’re hoping whoever is responsible will be punished to the full extent of the law....
Time traveling, on horseback I GLANCE AT FLOYD Gomez, then down at the scrubby arroyos below. Inexplicably, I feel a thousand years old. Floyd, in profile with his black hair braided, sitting motionless on a red-blond mare, could be a thousand years old. The bark of dogs and a horse's call rise on the breeze above Taos Pueblo, echoing in gently sloped juniper canyons, floating across imagined centuries. Everything around us feels ancient, even the air. "Our people, the Tuatah, have been settled here for more than a thousand years," Floyd tells me and my riding buddy, as we pause to admire the landscape. "The pueblo has remains of structures that are at least that old." He's talking about the northern New Mexico reservation, now a mile or so below, where residents ready for mealtime, cooling down their horses or calling in livestock, aware of the dusk settling around Sacred Mountain. An artist and master rider, Floyd is guiding us on a two-hour "spirit ride."....
Cowboy church rounds 'em up For Christians, church can be anywhere two or three are gathered in Jesus' name -- even the clay soil arena at the Kissimmee Valley Livestock Show building in Osceola Heritage Park. Rain or shine, the Rev. Gene Blankenship Jr. pulls up to the complex every first and third Thursday evening of the month to preside at the Cowboy Church of Central Florida. Extra services are added when the Silver Spurs Rodeo is in town, as it was in early October. The cowboy ministry, which is supported by New Hope Southern Baptist Church in St. Cloud, began six weeks ago, after several years of planning. Blankenship says he feels called to "outside evangelism" -- nontraditional approaches to saving souls. He heard about cowboy churches in the West and Midwest, and thought the concept might work in Central Florida, with its long tradition of "cracker cowboys." "Our goal is to reach those who enjoy the Western culture with the gospel of Christ, whether they're a working cowboy or a cowboy at heart," says Blankenship, 43, whose day job is running an audio-production company....
A pioneer looks back at early McCook In June 1906, Mr. A. Barnett sat down at his desk and jotted down a few notes about his early days in McCook. This story is from these memoir notes (at Museum of High Plains), written about 1906 on Barnett Lumber Co. notepaper, found wedged behind a drawer of Mr. Barnett's desk after his death in 1938. As far as is known, these memoirs were never completed. In June 1882, nothing existed on the McCook town site to prevent an unobstructed view -- nothing more than an occasional cactus and a few sparsely grown blades of grass. Looking north from the Fairview Post Office, on the banks of the Republican River, not a tree or bush could be seen looking across the land but the sloping hill where McCook now stands. The ground had been plotted, the stakes driven marking off lots and blocks, but there was nothing that even a bird might rest on but a few scattered sunflower stocks -- and there were no birds....
It's All Trew: Since retirement, sorting things becomes pastime Seems like since I retired, I spend a lot of time "sorting" things. I don't recall having this problem before, but now I'm beginning to believe my goal in life is finally getting everything sorted out before the end. I have even established unofficial rules by which to sort. I have a must-keep, a might-ought-to-keep, a might-need-someday, and a trash category. I have learned the trash can doesn't need to be very large because even though I sort a lot and change categories, I seldom throw anything away. Items being examined usually fall into three categories: stuff you recognize, stuff you don't recognize, and stuff you have never seen before....

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