NEWS ROUNDUP

Ranchers file suit over water rights A pair of ranching families near Durango have filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming public officials have failed in securing their right to water by allowing coal-bed methane drilling to deplete their water supply. The suit also seeks a state law making it illegal to waste water produced as a byproduct to the drilling process. When state officials estimate 36 acre-feet of water are produced daily by coal-bed methane wells statewide, that could mean big changes for the industry. During coal-bed methane operations, water is released from the tight coal seams in the earth, along with natural gas. “Basically, these wells are taking our water along with the gas,” said Lisa Sumi, research director for the Oil and Gas Accountability Project based in Durango. “By pulling out groundwater in the San Juan Basin, it’s taking water out of the surface waters because the water system is all connected.”....
US defends its efforts as climate talks begin The United States defended its decision not to sign the Kyoto Protocol yesterday, saying during the opening of a global summit on climate change that it is doing more than most countries to protect the earth's atmosphere. The 10-day UN Climate Control Conference is considered the most important gathering on global warming since Kyoto, bringing together thousands of specialists from 180 nations to brainstorm on ways to slow the effects of greenhouses gases. Leading environmental groups spent the first hours of the conference blasting Washington for not signing the landmark 1997 agreement that sets targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions around the world. Dr. Harlan L. Watson, senior climate negotiator for the State Department, said that while President Bush declined to join the treaty, he takes global warming seriously and noted that US greenhouse gas emissions had gone down by eight-tenths of a percent under Bush. Watson said the United States spends more than $5 billion a year on efforts to slow the deterioration of the earth's atmosphere by supporting climate change research and technology, and that Bush had committed to cutting greenhouses gases some 18 percent by 2012....
Column: Wheelchairs and wilderness can coexist Sometimes, life can change dramatically in the blink of an eye. The biggest change in my life came seven years ago, when I was backcountry skiing in the Hoover Wilderness near Yosemite. I missed a turn on a steep icy slope and fell into a rocky gully. In that ugly tumble I crushed my spinal cord, and suddenly, I became a paraplegic. Every able-bodied person has probably wondered: What would I do if I lost the use of my legs? How would I get on with my life? My transition was anything but smooth. Besides the physical setbacks, I suffered bouts of depression, and my marriage disintegrated. One thing remained unchanged, however, and that was my love for the outdoors. As Americans, we share a long tradition of seeking solitude, peace -- and redemption -- in the wilderness. The spring following my accident, friends practically forced me to take a float down the Green River in Utah's Canyonlands National Park. I was skeptical beforehand, but I emerged from the river trip overjoyed to discover I could still camp out under the stars and enjoy the tranquility of wilderness. Wilderness helped me heal both physically and mentally; it helped me get my life back together....
Oregon congressmen have bluepring for Mount Hood U.S. Reps. Greg Walden and Earl Blumenauer are pursuing a plan that would put 75,000 new acres of Mount Hood wilderness permanently off limits to development while seeking to improve transportation options for those who use the mountain for recreation. The plan would also require the U.S. Forest Service to draft a 10-year plan to thin about 130,000 acres of the Mount Hood National Forest at high risk of wildfire. The 75,000 acres designated for protection are less than half the 177,000 acres of wilderness that Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, proposed in a bill that stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress last year. Walden, a Republican from Hood River, and Blumenauer, a Democrat from Portland, say their plan offers a better chance at success in a Congress that isn't anxious to grant new land protections....
Powder hounds say backcountry deal is crud An effort by powder hounds to gain greater access to slopes on the back of Aspen Mountain this winter has failed. The U.S. Forest Service rejected an application by a group called Powder to the People for a permit that would have allowed them to use snowmobiles for backcountry skiing on the Difficult Creek side of Richmond Ridge. Aspen District Ranger Bill Westbrook said in a letter detailing the decision that the agency doesn't want to issue permits to private clubs. The access issues that have bubbled up periodically over the last several decades will be addressed in a forest travel plan due out in 2006, Westbrook wrote....
Burns makes witness list for forest hearing Sen. Conrad Burns has announced a six-man witness list for a Senate hearing in Missoula on Friday. Burns, R-Mont., called the hearing because he said he has "several concerns" about how the U.S. Forest Service is revising forest plans for the national forests in Montana, northern Idaho and parts of the Dakotas. Those forests are all in Region One, which is headquartered in Missoula. Supporters of timber harvest and motorized recreation have been complaining about the direction in which the Forest Service is moving....
House budget sleeper splits the 9th Circuit A little-noticed provision in the massive House budget bill would fulfill the longtime goal of conservatives to split the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, creating a new 12th circuit appellate court and allowing President Bush to name a slate of new federal judges. Conservatives long have claimed that the Ninth Circuit is too liberal, and that reputation was reinforced by the court's 2002 ruling that reciting the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. But legal observers say the outcome of such a split is likely to be a more liberal court making decisions for California, Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands and a more conservative court serving seven other Western states now part of the Ninth Circuit -- Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona....
Colorado River states brace for water cutbacks The shadow of growing demand and years of drought hangs over the Colorado River's 1,450 miles. That shadow may mean cuts to some or all of the river's users, including Nevada. The Bureau of Reclamation, which plays a key role in managing the river, is looking at the possibility that water allocations to the seven states along the Colorado will have to be reduced in three years. The second round of public comment on how to institute cuts will formally end Wednesday. Las Vegas and surrounding communities receive nearly all of their water for homes and businesses from the river. While other states and cities are not as dependent on the Colorado River as a single source, they still depend on the river water to support communities and agriculture. California alone has an annual allocation of 4.4 million acre-feet, more than 14 times what Nevada receives. The Silver State's take is just 300,000 acre-feet, all of which goes to Southern Nevada. One acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or typically enough for almost two Las Vegas families for a year. Cumulatively, the seven states that share the river take 16.5 million acre-feet....
EnCana reconsiders closing access in Roan area Pressured by hunters, a natural gas producer has backed off plans to end public access to 20,000 acres north of Parachute and use of a popular road to the Roan Plateau. EnCana Oil & Gas USA Inc. had planned to cut off the access to the so-called Girls Claims area and Cow Creek Road because of liability concerns. But it reconsidered after intervention by state Rep. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction. Penry said he had received calls from constituents all over the Western Slope concerned about the possible loss of access to hunting and recreation grounds. He then had several conversations with EnCana, which agreed to keep access open next year, and to negotiate with him and the Colorado Division of Wildlife on a possible agreement for longer-term access....
Former BLM supervisor sentenced in embezzlement case A former Bureau of Land Management official was placed on three year's probation Tuesday and ordered to pay nearly $23,000 in restitution and fines for embezzlement. Robert E. Beehler, 57, of Hollister pleaded guilty in August to stealing at least $17,939 by using a government credit card and checks to make personal purchases and pay nongovernment expenses. He then submitted fake vouchers to try to make the expenses look legitimate, prosecutors said....
Proposed Las Vegas Airport Stirs Environmental Concerns Environmentalists fear that a new Las Vegas regional airport, within 15 miles of the Mojave National Preserve, would disrupt the tranquility of the remote desert parkland whose major attraction is its serenity. An environmental impact statement is being prepared for the Ivanpah Valley airport, proposed at a 5,800-acre site between Primm, Nev., at the Nevada-California state line, and Jean, Nev. It would supplement passenger service at the existing McCarran International Airport at Las Vegas, which will reach capacity in 2017, said McCarran spokeswoman Elaine Sanchez....
Lawsuit demands policing of off-roaders Conservation groups have complained in recent years that the National Park Service is doing a poor job of policing off-highway vehicle use in the parks. On Tuesday, three of them filed a lawsuit to force the agency to start doing something about it. The National Park Conservation Association, the Bluewater Network and Wildlands CPR filed a complaint in a Washington, D.C., federal district court that calls on the Park Service and Interior Department to begin complying with their own rules for enforcing and monitoring potentially damaging OHV use. Based on park managers' own reports, the environmental groups cite OHV-related damage to animal burrows in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, to archaeological sites in Grand Canyon National Park and to trails in Washington's Olympic National Park....
National parks strained by budget cuts, advocates say America faces a stiff challenge to prevent deterioration of its national parks because of tight budgets, park superintendents and conservationists say. Yosemite and other parks have slowed repairs on trails, roads and campgrounds, and reduced nature hikes because there are fewer rangers to lead them, park superintendents said Monday in a public hearing by a subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee. Conservationists were grimmer in their assessment. "Each year the deterioration has significant impacts," said Gene Sykes, chairman of the National Park Conservation Association. Reduction in the number of rangers has put the public at risk by failing to stop drug cartels from planting booby-trapped marijuana farms in areas of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks east of Visalia, Sykes....
Zeroing Out the Messenger In a surgical strike from Capitol Hill, Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) has eliminated a little-known agency that counts endangered fish in the Columbia River. The Fish Passage Center, with just 12 employees and a budget of $1.3 million, has been killed because it did not count fish in a way that suited Craig. "Data cloaked in advocacy create confusion," Craig said on the Senate floor this month, after successfully inserting language in an energy and water appropriations bill that bans all future funding for the Fish Passage Center. "False science leads people to false choices." Here in Portland, Michele DeHart, a fish biologist who is the longtime manager of the center, said she is not mad at Craig. "What's the point?" asked DeHart, 55, who for nearly 20 years has run the agency that keeps score on the survival of endangered salmon as they negotiate federal dams in the Columbia and Snake rivers....