NEWS ROUNDUP

Some Proposed Changes Dropped in Parks' New Rules The Bush administration issued a new rulebook for managing the national parks yesterday, jettisoning some changes it had considered instituting earlier this year that were criticized by park advocates. The roughly 200-page draft "management policy document" guides park supervisors on everything from protecting homeland security to allowing off-road vehicles to traverse nature areas. Park advocates had argued that an earlier version of the document, drafted by Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Paul Hoffman, would undermine environmental protections. Park Service Director Fran P. Mainella said at a news conference that the rules reflect the agency's attempt "to be 21st century-relevant. . . . To manage parks emphasizing either conservation or enjoyment, to the exclusion of the other, imperils the national park concept." Environmentalists lauded the administration for abandoning some of the proposed changes that became public in August, including language that instructed park officials to try to mitigate air pollution rather than eliminate it. But they questioned other aspects of the new plan -- now subject to a 90-day public comment period -- citing language that makes good visibility in national parks an "associated value" rather than a "highly valued" resource....
Judge tells Forest Service it went too far The U.S. Forest Service went overboard when it suspended mushroom picking, the cutting of Christmas trees and other activities to comply with a court order declaring it had to give the public a greater say in forest management decisions, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Clarifying an earlier ruling, U.S. District Judge James K. Singleton Jr., wrote that the Forest Service needs to take public comments and consider appeals on major projects, such as timber sales and new off-highway vehicle trails — not on minor things such as permits for hunting guides or gathering mushrooms. “This is the second time in a row the judge agreed with us and rejected the Forest Service’s utterly ridiculous interpretation of his order,’’ said Jim Bensman of Heartwood, a Midwest forest protection group that was a plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging Bush administration changes to forest management rules. “I think this is pretty solid proof that the Forest Service was playing games with thousands of people’s livelihoods to try to get a political advantage.’’ The Forest Service had suspended nearly 1,500 activities nationwide, including cutting an 80-foot spruce in New Mexico to serve as the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree, the transfer of an operating permit for a ski area outside Los Angeles and permits to pick mushrooms on national forests in Oregon, arguing that they were all affected by Singleton’s July 2 ruling for the Eastern District of California....
Group Sues Navy to Limit Sonar It Says Harms Marine Life Loud blasts of sound from the sonar systems of Navy ships are killing and disorienting whales and other marine mammals and should be far more strictly limited, an environmental group argued in a federal lawsuit filed yesterday. The suit, filed in California by the Natural Resources Defense Council, charges that routine use of mid-frequency sonar in Navy training and testing is illegal under federal law and is needlessly harmful. The group sued the Navy over its use of low-frequency sonar in 2002 and negotiated a settlement limiting its use. The new suit calls on the Navy to make changes to its far more extensive use of mid-frequency sonar, as well. "Military sonar needlessly threatens whole populations of whales and other marine animals," said Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney at NRDC. "In violation of our environmental laws, the Navy refuses to take basic precautions that could spare these majestic creatures."....
Senate panel OKs oil drilling in Arctic refuge The Senate Energy Committee voted on Wednesday to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling as part of a broad budget bill to fund the federal government. Tapping the refuge's billions of barrels of crude oil is a key part of the Bush administration's national energy plan to boost domestic production. Environmental groups and many Democrats oppose drilling, saying that instead of threatening the habitat of wildlife in ANWR, lawmakers should look at ways to cut oil consumption with more fuel-efficient vehicle standards. The energy panel approved the ANWR drilling provision, 13-9. All Republicans on the committee, except Gordon Smith of Oregon, voted in favor of the plan. Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Daniel Akaka of Hawaii also voted for drilling....
Likely new plant species found on Guanella Pass Of all the moonworts out there - pumice, dainty and paradox, to name a few - the forked-leaf was least known. Not anymore. Found in July along a road on Guanella Pass in the Arapaho National Forest, the thumb- size cousin to a fern appears to be a new plant species. "We've had experts come look at the plants, and they all agreed - yes, this is new to science," said Steve Popovich, an Arapaho National Forest botanist. The moonwort was spotted by a wildlife biologist doing survey work before the start of a road regrading project in Clear Creek County....
Norton says BLM revamping its policies on rights of way Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton said Wednesday that the Bureau of Land Management is revamping its right-of-way policies following a recent appeals court ruling that gives deference to the state's definition of what constitutes a county road as it crosses federal land. Norton, who was in Utah County to present grants to Utah and Idaho water districts and companies as part of her "Water 2025" initiative, said that because the appeals process is still playing out, it is still too early to draw any final conclusions about a September decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that essentially broadened the definition of a county back road. But she also said that the Denver-based appeals court "laid out the law in great detail. Barring more litigation, we will begin putting that order into effect."....
After decades in public service, John Turner returns home Wyoming is prized for its vast open spaces, abundant wildlife, solitude, clear air and clean water, for the freedom to wander and engage nature unencumbered by fees or commercialization. Such hardto- quantify values are priceless, as Wyoming's healthier, less frenzied, less crowded and less controlled quality of life gets harder and harder to come by. Attributes that differentiate Wyoming from Anywhere, U.S.A., motivate and characterize its people, and none more so than third-generation Jackson Hole resident John Turner, an advocate for Wyoming's wildness and global ecological integrity. One hardly pictures a former U.S. State Department attaché milling around a humble, homestead cabin in a tattered cowboy hat and worn denim jacket, waxing poetic about elk, asking ranch hands how many horses were shipped off today. But now that John Turner's back on the Triangle X, happily ignoring his five-newspaper morning and constant background televised media barrage ­ the information-overload lifestyle that defined his Washingtonian existence ­ he returns peacefully to ranching....
Twilight on the trail Their names line the wall of the dim tack room: Bob, Rosie, Dusty, Biscuit, Stinger, Babe, Frog, Cindy, Roxy and a couple of dozen others. They are the mules, and a few horses, who have served with packer Betty Applebaker in the stock packing program headquartered at the U.S. Forest Service Fish Lake Guard Station over the past two decades. Soon, possibly next summer, there will be no more pack animals at Fish Lake and Applebaker will retire. McKenzie District Forest Service officials have decided to end the pack program at Fish Lake after some 95 years. Applebaker said pack teams have been part of the Forest Service operations since the agency was established in 1905. In addition to Fish Lake, in Oregon and Washington there are stock pack teams in the Okanogon and Wanatchee wilderness areas, two in the Umatilla wilderness, a large pack program in the Wallowa-Whitman district, and a smaller team on the Rogue River. Acting District Ranger Sandy Ratliff said that it is uncertain whether any stock will be at Fish Lake next summer....
'Not everyone is cut out to be a cowboy' Take a drive an hour-and-a-half from Vail, from multi-million-dollar homes and money, to the northwest corner of Eagle County. Here paved roads turn to dirt, cell phones don’t work and working men favor cowboy boots and hats over Patagonia jackets. This is where Kip Gates lives, on top of a mesa, on a ranch that his family has owned for decades. This is where Kip works, between 10- and 14-hour days, six, sometimes seven days a week, just like his father did, and his father’s father. Kip is a fifth-generation cattle rancher, and for that, he is thankful. He gives thanks for his three children and for his family, and for the mountains that support and surround the 740-acre ranch near Burns that his ancestors homesteaded more than a century ago. He gives thanks nearly every time he steps outside the house he grew up in and sees the expanse of land where his forebears toiled. And he gives thanks every time he steps out of an ethereal aspen stand and into the light of an autumn afternoon. Kip is made even more thankful because he’s painfully aware that he’s a member of a dying breed....
Through a Cowgirl's Lens Ask Marlene McChesney how long she's been riding and she looks dazed. McChesney, 49, doesn't remember a time when she wasn't on a horse. She makes her living on horseback, running cattle herds with the help of two cowboys. She knows horses. She raises quarterhorses, in fact. And she knows cows. It's those two things that have led to a surprising third career for McChesney - art photographer. By some twists of fate as quick as a mother cow headed back to her calf, McChesney found herself going beyond snapshots to an invitation to compete in one of the biggest cowboy art venues in the world, a spot in a gallery show during the upcoming National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas....

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