NEWS ROUNDUP

Western Governors To Open Energy Symposium Gov. Brian Schweitzer is making reliable energy a priority for his administration and plans to broaden the spotlight this week with a Western energy conference expected to draw about 600 participants, including at least five governors. ``The Montana Symposium: Energy Future of the West'' kicks off Tuesday in Bozeman and features more than two dozen panels on a wide range of topics, including skyrocketing energy prices, the economic impact of energy development, environmental concerns, coal-to-gas technology and tribal perspectives on energy development. A highlight of the conference will be a panel Tuesday evening featuring Schweitzer, Govs. Jon Huntsman of Utah, Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming, Christine Gregoire of Washington, Ted Kulongoski of Oregon and possibly Joe Manchin III of West Virginia. Manchin, whose participation still was tentative Friday, was invited because his state is a leading coal producer and Schweitzer wants him to talk about effects of coal development....
Coal-to-fuel plant proposal not environmentally sound, group says A coal-to-fuel plant like the one Gov. Brian Schweitzer has proposed for Montana would do little to decrease dependence on foreign fuel imports and would likely be a major source of air pollution, a memo prepared for a conservation group concludes. The memo from John Smillie, program director and researcher for the Western Organization of Resource Councils in Billings, contends a plant the size Schweitzer has been promoting in a number of recent national op-ed pieces would annually create thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, solid waste and other pollutants. It would also require huge amounts of water, Smillie said. His paper was prepared for the Northern Plains Resource Council....
Mining laws threaten wilderness The ruddy slopes of 12,392-foot Mount Emmons loom over this town, drawing hikers, backcountry skiers and snowshoers. But to residents such as Jim Starr, they also stand for what is wrong with the nation's antiquated mining laws. Those laws allowed the Bush administration to sell 155 acres of public land on the "Red Lady" to a mining company for less than $900. The land has deposits of molybdenum, a gray metal used to make steel, alloys and lubricants. "It's a huge threat. If anyone did put a mine in there, it's hard to imagine that it would not destroy this area," said Mr. Starr, a lawyer and Democratic chairman of Gunnison County's board of commissioners. The sale was made possible by an 1872 mining law that lets the government sell, for just $2.50 an acre or $5 an acre, public lands that contain minerals. This land sale, known as a patent, gives companies absolute title to the property....
On the prowl? Wolf sightings and controversy on the rise in Eastern Idaho Scott Christensen had a hopper on his fly line and skulked the bank of Deer Creek, searching for a cutthroat-filled hole. But it was a fresh paw print in the mud along the small stream that caught his eye. It was much too large to attribute to any domestic dog. His buddy, Marv Hoyt, concurred. That afternoon last October, in a roadless area near Soda Springs, they were following the footsteps of a wolf. For Hoyt and Christensen, both with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, it was a thrilling discovery - a sign that a natural balance is slowly returning to the area's ecosystem. On the other hand, several Caribou County ranchers say they've spotted wolves here and are growing increasingly concerned about their sheep and cattle....
Animals clash in Utah County In the hills near Soldier Summit in southeastern Utah County, sheep find ample forage. And here black bears find ample sheep. For about six weeks in the summer, black bears find the sheep irresistible and raise havoc for herders. "That's probably the highest concentration of bear and sheep in the state," said Mike Bodenchuk, director of Wildlife Services in Utah, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Utah ranchers run about 270,000 range sheep, and about 15,000 in Utah County. About a third of those belong to Wilson Brothers Livestock. Don Wilson, 40, of Salem grew up in his father's sheep business and now is a part owner of the outfit, which runs about 5,000 sheep on national forest grazing allotments on the aspen and pine dotted mountain slopes of the White River drainage. This summer they lost about 200 sheep, most of them lambs, to black bears....
Sen. Enzi pressing for wolf, grizzly delisting Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., is pressing the federal government to remove wolves and grizzly bears in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho from the endangered species list. The process to pass management of wolves and grizzlies to the three states has been stalled too long, Enzi said, claiming wolves have "decimated" the state's wildlife and harmed ranchers. "Something must change," Enzi said in a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Tuesday. The senator asked for written assurances that the process to delist grizzlies will get under way this fall with a final decision early next year. If that's not possible, Enzi said, he'd like an explanation. "I have been told many times that we will move forward with grizzly bear delisting, and I am disappointed that this effort has not moved forward," Enzi wrote. "It is time to make delisting the grizzly bear a reality."....
Wetlands aided by grazing Take a bunch of fat, lumbering cows and drop them in a meadow dappled with fragile vernal pools. Sounds like an environmental disaster in the making. But a study published this month suggests grazing might actually benefit seasonal wetlands and the tiny endangered shrimp that live within them. The study in the journal Conservation Biology examines grazing in California's Central Valley, including the Red Bluff area. Debate has raged for years over how to protect dwindling vernal pools from development and heavy grazing. But the argument has been oversimplified, say authors Christopher Pyke of the Environmental Protection Agency and Jaymee Marty of The Nature Conservancy. The public believes in a "false dichotomy" of ranchers whose cattle graze unmanaged vs. environmentalists who insist on putting a stop to it completely, the authors wrote. In reality, science lies squarely in the middle....
Pueblo sues over chairlift Tesuque Pueblo has asked a federal court to halt construction of a triple chairlift at the Santa Fe ski area. The tribe contends the lift will give skiers unfettered access to Tesuque's most holy shrines and locations. Tribal members conduct rituals and ceremonies at the sites that are necessary for the pueblo's survival, the lawsuit says. "Their presence in the area increases the risk that important shrines will be tampered with or destroyed," the lawsuit says. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Fe....
Forest Service wants project ruling lifted The U.S. Forest Service asked a federal judge to lift a ruling that it blames for holding up hundreds of small projects across the country, from cutting the Capitol Christmas tree to fishing trips. But conservationists say the Forest Service has gone far beyond the intent of the ruling and appears to be intentionally holding up trivial projects to create a public outcry. "It's clear to me that the Bush administration is trying to manufacture a political crisis," said Sean Cosgrove, a forest policy specialist for the Sierra Club. The controversy stems from a July 2 ruling in a lawsuit filed by environmental and conservation groups. U.S. District Judge James K. Singleton Jr. found that the Forest Service was improperly approving projects without public comment or appeals....
Black-footed ferrets get new digs The black-footed ferret, one of America's most endangered species, has found a new home on the wind-swept plains north of Fort Collins among a sea of prairie dog mounds.It is appropriate because prairie dogs are the primary food source for these masked members of the weasel family. The 18,000-square-foot, $8 million National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center officially opened Thursday. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who helped obtain congressional funding for the facility, was allowed the honor of releasing a 3-year-old male ferret inside a wire-mesh enclosed preconditioning pen. Rather than fleeing in horror at the sight of the cadre of photographers and onlookers circling the pen, the ferret leisurely squeezed out of the carrier like toothpaste from a tube, and nonchalantly slinked around the pen, rising on hind legs at times as if to pose for photos. “They really are inquisitive – which probably is one reason so many get picked off by coyotes and raptors,” said Mike Lockhart, Laramie-based recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s black-footed ferret program. The roofs of the cages are wire-mesh as well, the need for which was demonstrated by a golden eagle floating overhead as if lining up his next meal. “We leave them in the cage with pre-built prairie dog holes for 60 days to condition them before we release them in the wild,” Lockhart said....
Feds clash over endangerment of species on South Shale Ridge Two federal agencies have clashed over the management of the 27,635-acre South Shale Ridge, about 40 miles east of Grand Junction near De Beque. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Grand Junction Field Office recently issued a document allowing oil and gas leasing in the area, claiming the activity will not harm endangered and sensitive plants in the area. But in a letter from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Western Colorado Field Office to the BLM, officials cautioned that oil and gas development in the area would lead to the listing of two local plant species under the Endangered Species Act. The De Beque phacelia and De Beque Milkvetch are both present in the South Shale Ridge, and the Fish and Wildlife Service has petitioned to list both species because of increased energy development. The Uinta Basin hookless cactus, another plant in the area, is already listed under the act....
Column: Nature cult's devious tactics exposed Nature cultists have been lying for decades about the supposedly "devastating" impacts of ranching, mining, lumbering, and just about any other productive use of the Western lands that you can think of. One of their favorite tactics is to post misleading photos of "damaged" lands on their Web sites -- blithely ignoring the fact that many ecosystems depend on large ungulates (today's cattle partially replacing yestersday's bison, elk or antelope) to trample grass seeds into the ground, fertilize and stir up creeks to promote insect hatches, etc. Down in Arivaca, Ariz., near the Mexican border, rancher Jim Chilton, 66, went on the Internet and was shocked to find a bunch of green extremists dubbed the Center for Biological Diversity had done the same job on him, posting photos which they claimed showed the harm Joe's 425 cattle were doing to his mountainous 21,500-acre leased alotment of U.S. Forest Service land. But this time, they'd picked on the wrong cowhand....
Arizona joins fight over repair of canal What started as a canal-repair project along the California-Mexico border has blown up into an international legal dispute that threatens to undo recent progress in stretching water supplies along the Colorado River. Arizona has joined the fight, along with Nevada, to protect the canal project from claims that it would rob Mexican farmers of water they need and damage sensitive wetlands. At the center of the battle is a 23-mile section of the All-American Canal, which moves water from the Colorado River across Southern California for farmers in the Imperial Valley. Congress approved a plan in 1988 to line that section with concrete, reducing water lost to seepage. But the water that California considered lost had become a lifeline for farmers in the Mexicali Valley, just across the border. The canal water seeped into the valley's groundwater system and was being pumped from wells to irrigate crops in an otherwise poor region....
Ranchers circle the wagons on encroaching development Ranchers like Joe Tonsmeier feel a sense of loss when they see the survey crews pacing neighboring land. Even at his secluded Hayden Creek ranch, some 20 miles east of Salmon, people knock on his door, asking him to break off just a small chunk of his property. The amount of money the would-be subdividers offer is staggering, Tonsmeier said, and it's all too tempting for someone struggling to make a living from the land. So Tonsmeier and other Lemhi County ranchers and residents have formed what they see as the best chance to save the valley's open space and agrarian lifestyle, the Lemhi Regional Land Trust. The group is raising money to give ranchers an alternative to selling their land piecemeal to developers. Tonsmeier hopes to show agricultural landowners how a conservation easement can offer ranchers capital, or significant tax advantages, without breaking up the ranch. "When I talk about conservation easements, I see cautiousness in most people," Tonsmeier said. "They think an easement will limit their operation or force them to offer access to their land. The truth is they'll be able to ranch the land, and they don't have to let anyone on their property if they don't want to."....
U.S. court upholds decision allowing live Canadian cattle across border A U.S. court has denied an appeal from protectionist American ranchers that could have reclosed the border to all live exports of Canadian cattle. Late Thursday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle, Wash., ruled that it would not review a July 14 ruling overturning a two-year ban on young cattle imports due to mad cow disease. The farm lobby group R-CALF, backed by six U.S. states, had asked for the review. "That certainly closes the loop," said John Masswohl of the Canadian Cattleman's Association....
Cowboy Hat Prices Soar Due to Fur Shortage But good quality beaver and rabbit furs — which are used to make felt for the hats — are increasingly hard to find, making it more expensive to be a well-dressed cowboy. A top-grade hat can run as high as $6,000 today. "It used to be you could pay $30 for a hat and it never leaked. Now you pay $300 and as soon as it clouds up, it leaks," complained cowboy Bill McCoin, 55, a hired hand at a local cattle auction. At the high end, for hats starting at $800, the felt is made entirely of beaver. But at the lower end for hats in the $250 range, the felt is often mixed with rabbit fur, mostly from Europe, where rabbits are raised for meat and fur traders bid on the skins after the animal has been butchered. The drop of the dollar against the euro has made even the inferior fur expensive for American hatmakers....
Cowboy Culture What does it take to be a real cowboy? "What really makes a cowboy is hard work, tradition and work ethics. That's what it takes to make a ranch hand," said photographer Gene Peach, who has joined with bestselling author Max Evans to produce "Making a Hand: Growing up Cowboy in New Mexico" (Museum of New Mexico Press, hardcover, $39.95, www.nmpress.org). The book was an outgrowth of an exhibition organized by the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces which showcased Peach's photographs of children from 50 ranching families throughout the state. The photographic exhibit is now on a national museum tour that will continue for another three years. "Most of the images in the book were in the exhibition. We've shot a few more," said Peach, who traveled thousands of miles throughout New Mexico to document the lives of children, some as young as 6 or 7, who had already "made a hand" and become accomplished contributors to their families' ranching operations....
A helluva ride! They may worship the trailblazing spirit of the Old West, but the Cowboy Artists of America have never claimed to be breaking new ground. When four Arizonans founded the group at a Sedona tavern in June 1965, they vowed to carry on the tradition of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, the painters who defined the popular image of the American frontier. In the late 19th century, their work portrayed an era that was already past, in a style (realism) that arguably was made obsolete by the invention of the camera. Yet the four-decade journey of the Cowboy Artists is an unbridled success story. They created a market for Western art that, though probably past its peak, is still avid - and wealthy - enough that the most admired Cowboy Artists can charge six-figure prices for their best work. "For a group to stay together as long as they have, and have their shows growing and growing every year in terms of prices and people collecting it, it's a great story, and it's been great for the Western-art market as a whole," says Maryvonne Leshe, managing partner for Trailside Galleries in Scottsdale, which represents several Cowboy Artists....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Chaos reigns along fault lines Some Future headline: "Governor Calls For Mandatory Evacuation!" California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in response to the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast, has declared the San Andreas Fault line, and its tributaries an eminent disaster area of enormous proportions. He is exercising executive privilege and ordering the evacuation of all persons living, camping or touring within 100 miles on either side of the fault. He is asking the federal government to assist with funding and facilitating this relocation....

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