NEWS ROUNDUP

Conservation groups say new forest off road vehicle regulations not tough enough A national coalition of conservation interests today said the U.S. Forest Service’s new off-road vehicle regulations fail to adequately address urgent threats and pressed the agency to halt the continued creation and use of unauthorized, renegade routes in America’s forests. While welcoming the Forest Service’s recognition of the serious problem, the Natural Trails and Waters Coalition said threats from these unplanned routes made by ATVs, dirt bikes, jeeps and other off-road vehicles will not be controlled under the new regulations. Such routes damage wildlife habitat, create conflicts with other forest users, and facilitate trespass onto adjacent lands. In fact, the regulations weaken the agency’s authority granted by President Nixon’s Executive Order requiring off-road vehicle use to be "controlled and directed . . . to protect the resources of (public) lands . . . and to minimize conflicts" with other forest users, like hikers, hunters and ranchers....
Governor gets primed for water dispute A potential water dispute pitting residents of Utah's West Desert against Las Vegas water officials has gotten the attention of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. Huntsman traveled by plane and automobile Tuesday to meet with residents of Callao, Trout Creek, Partoun and Eskdale, who oppose a proposal by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to pump groundwater from the Snake Valley just over the state line in Nevada to meet the rapidly growing water needs of Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County. Residents fear that the plan to take 25,000 acre-feet annually out of the valley and its aquifer - both of which sprawl into Utah - will deplete their water resources and dry up the area's ranch and farm lands. Because Utah's groundwater supply could be impacted by the project, the state has congressionally backed veto power over the proposal. Huntsman has taken no official position on the Southern Nevada plan, which is still early in the environmental study process. But he told a town hall-style gathering at West Desert High School that he would not approve any project that would compromise peoples' lives and livelihoods....
Governor seeks to restore "roadless-rule" protections Gov. Christine Gregoire has formally asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to revive protections for roadless national-forest land in Washington that were scrapped by the Bush administration earlier this year. Gregoire's request Wednesday is her first clear indication of how she wants to treat 2 million acres of federal land in Washington that have been untouched by roads. It allies her with environmental groups that embraced the sweeping Clinton-era "roadless rule" barring road building for logging, mining and other work on 58 million acres in national forests nationwide. But the request also is likely to set up a confrontation with the U.S. Forest Service. A similar request last week by Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski was swiftly rejected by Agriculture Undersecretary Marc Rey. Elliot Marks, an environmental adviser to Gregoire, predicted the same fate for her request....
Editorial: A roadless exercise in futility Like so many empty exercises in that irony-free zone known as American politics, the great roadless-area states-rights parade is proceeding apace toward no conceivable useful end. The current chapter in the decades-long debate over whether wilderness land on federal property should be protected from development started at the tail end of the Clinton administration, when the president signed the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule preventing the construction of roads on 58.5 million acres of federal wild lands. The move was applauded by conservationists, but they and the president and everybody else knew that the rule could be easily overturned by the incoming Republican president, George W. Bush. Sure enough, Bush did just that earlier this year, opening the land to logging, mining and other possible uses. As part of this process, the Bush administration gave governors the option to petition the Agriculture Department to recommend how roadless areas in their states should be managed. And why would the federal government want input from the states, which generally lack the money, expertise or interest to provide it, rather than from the Forest Service professionals who are supposed to be managing the land? One can only suppose that administration officials had visions of a bunch of sagebrush rebels giving their policies a political boost. Of course, it hasn’t turned out that way, especially in the several western states with Democratic governors....
Ex-Interior Deputy Testifies Lobbyist Offered Him Job The former No. 2 official at the Interior Department acknowledged to Congressional investigators on Wednesday that he had received a job offer while at the department from the lobbyist Jack Abramoff and that he had other contacts with Mr. Abramoff, the focus of a corruption inquiry. The official, former Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles, insisted in testimony to a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that there was nothing improper in his ties to Mr. Abramoff and that he had immediately reported the job offer, in 2003, to ethics officials in the department. It can be a crime for federal officials to open job negotiations while working for the government. Mr. Griles, who left the department to set up his lobbying firm, acknowledged the offer after being confronted by the committee chairman, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, with an e-mail message from Sept. 9, 2003, by Mr. Abramoff. In it, Mr. Abramoff told his lobbying colleagues that he had met with Mr. Griles that evening, that Mr. Griles was "ready to leave Interior and will most likely be coming to join us" and that "I expect he will be with us in 90-120 days." Despite the job offer and other e-mail messages that showed contacts between the lobbyist and Mr. Griles, the former official insisted he did not have a special relationship with Mr. Abramoff. "I don't recall intervening on behalf of Mr. Abramoff's clients ever," he said....
Bill would speed up salvage logging and tree planting after wildfires in national forests Two Northwest congressmen are preparing a bill to speed up logging dead timber and planting new trees after storms and wildfires, but environmentalists fear it will harm forests more than help them. Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Brian Baird, D-Wash., were expected to introduce their Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act on Thursday in an effort to do for salvage logging what was done for forest thinning with the 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act: streamline environmental analyses and challenges from the public. With the size and severity of wildfires increasing, the bill demands that areas hit by fires, storms and insect infestations greater than 1,000 acres be restored quickly. It seeks to establish standardized approaches to restoring forests, taking into account differences in ecosystems, arguing that both wildlife habitat and timber production would benefit. It also promotes research....
States submit plans to keep threatened species off endangered list Utah last month submitted a wildlife action plan to the Interior Department that charts a future course for species and habitat protection and restoration. Now, so has everybody else. Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced Wednesday that wildlife agencies from all 50 states and six territories have finalized similar plans to establish a national framework for species protection. The goals: to enhance habitats, and in doing so, keep at-risk wildlife off the federally managed Endangered Species List. "We all recognize that the federal government can't do this alone; it can't conserve and protect everything that needs to be protected," Norton said during a morning news conference. "If we're going to succeed, it must be by working hand-in-hand with partners. Today, we're creating a new conservation legacy." The action plans were required by the Interior Department for states to continue receiving funds from the State Wildlife Grant Program, which has doled out $400 million for state conservation efforts since 2001. Just over $63 million will be distributed next year....
Editorial: Parks vs. profits In August, the Interior Department proposed new rules that would have defined livestock grazing and mining as legitimate uses of national parks, even those as important to this nation's heritage and tourism as Yellowstone. The rules also would have allowed liberal use of noisy, polluting off-road vehicles and snowmobiles in the parks. The plan's author, Paul Hoffman, deputy assistant Interior secretary, advocated greater use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone in his former job as director of the Chamber of Commerce in Cody, Wyo. The revised proposal removes the cows and the chickens, but it still smells of goat. It does not openly allow mining or grazing, but it would weaken standards on air quality and noise pollution in the parks. More important, it would change an important policy dating to 1918 that said conservation must take priority over recreation when there is a clash between the two. That's simply sound stewardship; without conservation, parks would become so dilapidated by overuse that there would be little left for future generations to enjoy....
Judge hears arguments in wilderness mine case State officials put Montanans’ constitutional rights at risk by granting a permit for a proposed copper and silver mine beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, lawyers for an environmental group said in court Wednesday. Lawyers for the Montana Environmental Information Center and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality presented arguments in a case challenging a water-discharge permit granted for the Rock Creek mine, planned by Revett Minerals Inc. of Spokane, Wash. In its court case, MEIC said the mine threatens Montanans’ right to a clean and healthful environment, a right set forth in the state constitution. The organization also said DEQ’s approval of the permit violates a state law intended to control water pollution. Arsenic contamination is among the concerns, said Matt Clifford, representing MEIC. He told District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock that water discharged from the mine site would require treatment ‘‘in perpetuity,’’ to protect the environment. DEQ lawyer Claudia Massman said the agency’s issuance of a permit was based on an analysis that spanned 14 years and took into account more than 6,000 comments from the public. There is no evidence the agency acted arbitrarily, as MEIC contended, Massman said....
Minnow listed as endangered species A minnow native to the Southwest was listed Wednesday as an endangered species by federal wildlife officials. The Gila chub has been under consideration for federal protection for years and has been the subject of ongoing litigation by environmentalists, but on Wednesday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added it to the endangered species list and designated critical habitat to help protect the fish from further decline. The chub, a small-finned dark-colored minnow, was once the most abundant fish in the Gila River drainage in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. "Over a long period of time, our activities in the Southwest have brought the decline of the chub," said Jeff Humphrey, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Overgrazing and the damming and diversion of waterways left the chub in only 15 percent of the habitat it historically occupied, said Humphrey. The fish, more recently hurt by drought and wildfires that sent suffocating ash into creeks and waterways, now live in only 29 isolated pockets....
BLM gets thumbs down on Missouri Breaks In a national review, the Bureau of Land Management received poor to failing grades from The Wilderness Society for its management of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in north-central Montana. Although the agency "strongly disagrees with the Wilderness Society study," said Celia Boddington, a Washington, D.C., BLM spokeswoman, she noted that the National Landscape Conservation System is still a work in progress. "We've come a long way and continue to move forward," she said. "We're working with national and local partners to make still further improvements to the system." The study's release came in the same week that the BLM's Lewistown field office unveiled its draft resource management plan for the Missouri Breaks, which is already drawing fire from local conservation groups....
As bear film debuts, some worry about its message The troubled life and death of bear activist Tim Treadwell finally makes its way to the silver screen in Missoula this week. The film “Grizzly Man,” directed and narrated by German filmmaker Werner Herzog opens at the Carmike 10 on Friday. But accompanying the film's Missoula debut will be a panel of bear experts concerned about the message Treadwell's behavior in the film seems to promote. “Tim's behavior makes it seem like a good idea to get up close and personal with brown bears,” said Chuck Bartlebaugh, of the Missoula-based Center for Wildlife Information. “He wanted to depict bears as this cuddly species that we could all get out there and pet. That's just so wrong.” Herzog's film depicts Treadwell as a psychologically complex figure, a former drug abuser who still suffered mental instability in his quest to “protect” bears. Treadwell was grandiose and naive in his effort to integrate his life with those of bears, but he was also a fierce advocate for the bruins. Bear experts like Bartlebaugh didn't begrudge Treadwell his sense of connection with bears and his willingness to work on their behalf, but his methods were beyond troubling. And ultimately, his methods cast his entire operation in a troubling light....
Experts Worry About Colorado River Estimates Some Colorado River experts worry a new federal process aimed at figuring out how to operate Lake Mead and Lake Powell in times of drought is being overly generous in its assumptions of how much water is available. They caution the overestimate could cause problems in the future, echoing the mistake the West's water honchos made in the early 1920s when they divided up the river's water during a time of plenty. Years after the 1922 Colorado River Compact, the document that divided the water among seven western states, officials discovered the allocation was much higher than the river's historical flow. The result was a serious water deficit that left water lawyers in the 21st century to figure out the mess....
Code of the West is the backbone of cowboy movies Last year Turner Classic Movies called inviting me to be part of a month of shows featuring old Western movies. First I declined, explaining that although I enjoyed them, I was not an authority on the subject. I suggested they try some of the veteran Western actors that were still around such as Buck Taylor or Jerry Potter. No, what they wanted was me to elaborate on what real cowboys thought of the old Western movies. I agreed to do it with the caveat that I actually knew some real cowboys. Among the observations I made were that Western movies actually put some real cowboys such as Ben Johnson, Richard Farnsworth and Slim Pickins, to work. Also it was kinda like home movies in that it is always fun to try and guess where they were filmed. If there were Saguaro cactus, it was not the Dodge City they claimed! But to me the most important part of old Westerns was that they portrayed The Code of the West, as it still exists today. In a nutshell, "doin' the right thing." Recently, James P. Owen, an investment consultant, wrote a book called, "Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn From the Code of the West." He boiled the cowboy ethics down to 10 principles:....

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