NEWS ROUNDUP

Hages provide solutions to PRFW Couple details property battles with government When it comes to property rights cases for ranchers and farmers throughout the U.S., the two most common misconceptions that Nevada rancher Wayne has seen is a misunderstanding of what property really is in property rights cases and knowing what questions to ask in which courts. One of the primary reasons taking cases are lost is a lack of knowledge as to what property is. The majority of lawyers, as well as farmers and ranchers, say in their cases that the property being taken is what Wayne called the subject, or the physical property like land, wells or water. But what is actually being taken away is the access to the property and being able to make beneficial use of the property, Wayne said, and that is what should be defined as property in a case. The physical property will be there, but government often prevents farmers and ranchers from accessing the subject of property. "Property and access are synonymous," Wayne said. Another very significant reason for losing these cases is lawyers taking them to the wrong court. Most of the cases he has seen have been filed in Federal District Court, but this court doesn't have jurisdiction over property valued at $10,000 or more; most takings cases exceed $10,000. Wayne said these types of cases must go to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and while he has worked to make this known, lawyers are continually told they have "the right question in the wrong court," he said, when they don't take cases to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims....
Shell project puts focus on oil shale Tucked into a ravine and hidden behind ridges standing like stony sentinels is the site of Shell Oil Co.'s ultra-experimental, highly anticipated 30-year project to unlock oil from vast underground beds of rock. Here, on this sweeping plateau in western Colorado, the Bush administration has fixed its hopes for the next big energy boom: oil shale, which the U.S. Department of the Interior praises as an "energy resource with staggering potential." Members of Congress have described the region as the Saudi Arabia of oil shale. Legislation recently signed by President Bush instructs the Interior Department to lease 35 percent of the federal government's oil shale lands within the next year, provides tax breaks to the industry,reduces the ability of states and local communities to influence where projects are located and compresses lengthy environmental assessments into a single analysis good for 10 years....
Soon-to-be-abandoned rail line may become a trail he federal Bureau of Land Management is hoping to team up with Cochise County officials to take over a soon-to-be abandoned railroad line and turn it into a recreational trail. The San Pedro & Southwestern Railroad has struggled for nearly three years to turn a profit on the 60-mile stretch of line from Curtis to just east of Bisbee. It now has filed an application with the government to abandon the line. The company's filing says it may remove the tracks and ties but retain the right of way and leave the bridges in place. That leaves an opening for the BLM to take over the right of way as a trail in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. The BLM would manage about 25 miles of line inside the conservation area, and is looking for Cochise County supervisors to support the rest of the trail area....
Judge orders environmental groups to post bond in logging case A federal judge has ordered environmental groups suing over the logging of beetle-killed trees in the Basin Creek area south of here to post a $100,000 bond to cover the potential costs of delaying the project. The U.S. Forest Service requested the bond, arguing it stands to lose $400,000 to $600,000 if logging is delayed for a year pending an appeal by the groups to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy this week set the bond at $100,000, saying the amount would be large enough to "ensure meaningful accountability" if the appeals court upholds his earlier ruling that the project is in the public interest and should proceed. The Native Ecosystems Council, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, and the Ecology Center had argued that small nonprofit organizations shouldn't have to post a bond, and requested that the amount be set at $1. The groups have since vowed to appeal. "There's no precedent for this, so we're confident it will be overturned," said Michael Garrity, executive director of Alliance for the Wild Rockies. "If it were allowed to stand, it would have a chilling effect on citizens who are trying to stop illegal logging and protect fish and wildlife on public lands."....
Judge halts snowmobile grooming A federal judge in eastern Washington ordered the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday to halt snowmobile grooming in the recovery zone for woodland caribou. The order signed by U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley comes as a preliminary injunction as part of a lawsuit brought by conservation groups to close the 450,000-acre recovery zone completely to snowmobile use. Woodland caribou is often described as the most threatened large mammal in North America....
Jefferson County wants feds to open closed roads Jefferson County commissioners are demanding that state and federal land managers reopen all routes closed to motorized travel and relinquish all roads through public land to the county. In a letter written to Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Supervisor Bruce Ramsey, commissioners said the Forest Service has been illegally shutting down roads for years without consulting the county, which has the sole authority to control all roads. “We’re saying the Forest Service doesn’t own any roads in this county,’’ Commissioner Chuck Notbohm said this week. “While it may be their land, the roads are ours.’’ Commissioners Tom Lythgoe and Ken Weber joined Notbohm in signing the letter that was also sent to the Helena National Forest, Bureau of Land Management in Butte and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Commissioners asked the agencies to remove all signs, debris and gates from closed roads until the issue is resolved....
Salmon survival ruling is appealed The Bush administration said Wednesday it will appeal a federal judge's ruling that its plan for making Columbia Basin hydroelectric dams safe for salmon violated the Endangered Species Act. The decision to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes as NOAA fisheries, the agency that crafted the plan, and other federal agencies continue to work with Indian tribes, conservation groups and others to come up with a new plan that is better for fish. At issue is how much water will be routed through turbines, creating electricity sold by the Bonneville Power Administration, and how much will be spilled over dams to help juvenile salmon migrate to the ocean....
Column: California's water woes in 2005 Like Old Man River, another year has rolled by in California's water world and, as usual, things have gotten worse. The year started with recurring news reports of the continuing decline of several critical fish species in the Bay-Delta Estuary, which is also the source of drinking water for 23 million Californians. Then in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last summer came sobering news that the fragile Delta levee system near Sacramento and Stockton could collapse in a major earthquake or a horrendous storm event, causing massive destruction and loss of life. Undeterred, developers proposed another 100,000 homes in the Delta region -- below the levees! Last month the state's Little Hoover Commission released a report (PDF) criticizing "CALFED," the consortium of state and federal agencies created in 1994 to "solve" the problems of the Delta. More than a decade and $3 billion later, the Little Hoover Commission report notes CALFED has little to claim in the way of improvements for the Delta or the state's water problems....
Coal Reversal The FutureGen project was first proposed in 2003. The new development being touted this month is simply that the Bushies have brought aboard partners from the energy sector, including American Electric Power, Southern Company, and Foundation Coal, that will collectively contribute $250 million to the project. The bulk of the $620 million that the DOE plans to pony up on its own was allotted in the energy bill that passed this past August. The feds hope to get the rest of the needed money from other energy R&D funds and an unnamed group of "international partners." FutureGen aims to build a soup-to-nuts demonstration facility that would generate virtually zero-emission (yes, zero emission!) electricity from coal -- billed by industry as "clean coal" -- within the next decade. It would use "integrated gasification combined-cycle" (IGCC) power-plant technology that first pressurizes coal to produce a vapor, then filters carbon dioxide and smog-causing pollutants from the gas before burning it. The captured greenhouse gases would then be stored underground where they couldn't contribute to atmospheric warming -- a technique known as "sequestration."....
Nature reclaims Rocky Flats At first, there was just a slight movement of air in the hayloft overhead. Then a single swoosh betrayed a great horned owl sweeping in a circle before floating to a perch on the windowsill. Peering over his shoulder at the rare visitors below, the owl made it clear that humans are interlopers now at Rocky Flats. People have become rarities at the now-defunct atom bomb plant, vastly outnumbered by coyotes, deer and owls. Demolition workers packed up and left in October, leaving the 6,000 acres of foothills prairie to the occasional environmental regulator or researcher checking on the cleanup. Heavily armed guards protecting deadly plutonium have been replaced by a 4-foot- tall wire fence that might stop a cow, but little else....
Energy Department opposes elk hunts on Hanford Reach A proposal to include public or tribal hunting in a plan for managing elk at the Hanford Reach National Monument may be shelved after the U.S. Department of Energy says it would be inconsistent with the site's overall management plan. The Energy Department issued its position late last week in a written public comment to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That agency manages Hanford Reach, a free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River bordering the Hanford nuclear reservation. The reach and the nuclear site are owned by the Energy Department. Wildlife managers estimate the reach's elk population at close to 800 animals - hundreds more than some scientists believe the area can support. Area farmers complain that the elk are damaging their crops. The state has paid more than $500,000 in crop damages by the herd since 2000....
Column: The Ghost of Christmas Future pays Dubya a visit One of my favorite stories of the Holiday season is "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. What could be more inspiring than that moment when Ebenezer Scrooge, after enduring the long dark night of the soul, wakes up a new man. Scrooge’s transformation from a fearful, angry tightwad to a joyful gift-giver always fills me with hope for humanity, even in these troubling times. As a Westerner and a conservationist, it has been hard to find much to be hopeful about in recent years. This administration has shown little respect for our region’s astonishing natural heritage. The not-so-subtle attacks on basic environmental laws and the constant push to hurry up and drill, mine and cut our public lands in the name of national security and corporate profits have made it hard not to feel a little stingy toward the man in the White House. So I have recently found myself fantasizing about how George W. Bush might redeem himself in his last few years of office if he were Scrooged. Imagine the scene....
Bovine TB case in deer feared A deer in northwestern Minnesota is believed infected with bovine tuberculosis, state officials said Wednesday, fueling new concern that a fatal cattle disease has now spread to wildlife. Until this summer, bovine TB hadn't been found in Minnesota since 1971, but then came a string of infected beef herds — and now, a "presumptive positive" TB test from a deer shot in the state's far northwest in November. Final test results will come early next year. Cattle ranchers face a different challenge. Already Minnesota has lost its federal designation as a TB-free state, which means that now anyone shipping livestock across state lines must first have their animals tested. But until now, bovine TB had been confined to beef herds, which can be fenced, tested, quarantined and, if necessary, easily killed. But in roaming wildlife, eradication becomes much tougher....
Devastating tale of the Dust Bowl "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl" by Timothy Egan Houghton Mifflin, 340 pp., $28 How Americans love to win — or to be more precise, how they hate to fail. Maybe that's why our collective memory of the Dust Bowl, America's worst prolonged environmental disaster, is a dim one, centered on the doubtful face of film star Henry Fonda looking east one last time as his family flees west from Oklahoma in "The Grapes of Wrath." After reading Timothy Egan's new book, "The Worst Hard Time," one could make a case that the Joads made the best of the situation. "The Worst Hard Time" is about the disaster that befell those who were left behind....