NEWS ROUNDUP

Landowner near Rocky Flats sues to keep water and access rights A landowner near Rocky Flats filed suit against the government on Friday, asking the court to prevent the Department of Energy from cutting off water supplies and access to his mining and ranching operations. Charles Church McKay, a fourth-generation rancher in Jefferson County, is suing in U.S. District Court to enforce a 1985 settlement agreement involving the government's operation of the nuclear facility -- which has since been demolished. According to the agreement, the DOE would supply up to 20,000 gallons of water per day from its water treatment facility at Rocky Flats to the Rock Creek Industrial Park, on which McKay owns property that he would like to develop. The government and its contractors, including Rockwell International and Kaiser-Hill Co., have complied with the agreement for the last two decades, but stopped in the last year as they vacated the buildings, the lawsuit states. Mike Waldron, a spokesman for the DOE, declined to comment....
Valles Caldera Nat'l Preserve: From water to elks, lead scientist coordinating projects Bob Parmenter, the Valles Caldera National Preserve's lead scientist, stripped off his socks and boots on a blustery fall day recently and stepped bare footed into the freezing waters of a stream to retrieve a water-quality monitor. The easy-going ecologist collected samples at several more sites on the preserve (wearing wading boots) during the day and data from a group of soil scientists on another stop. "I like data. Data is good," said Parmenter, former director of the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, who became the science manager at the preserve two and a half years ago. Parmenter oversees some two dozen research projects on the preserve including aerial mapping of vegetation, a radio-collaring project to find out if coyotes are responsible for fewer elk calves on the preserve and a study of how forage fairs without elk and cattle grazing. In addition, he monitors six weather stations, soil sampling, wildlife surveys and the aftermath of a 1,800 acre prescribed burn in Valle Toledo this fall....
Valles Caldera: Struggling to preserve When the Molina Complex Fire swept through part of the Santa Fe National Forest in 2003, it wiped out two-thirds of a grazing allotment leased by Pojoaque rancher David Ortiz. While the land recovered, Ortiz applied to graze his cattle on the Valles Caldera, an 89,000-acre ranch in Northern New Mexico purchased by the U.S. Congress in 2000. The preserve's grazing program has kept Ortiz's small herd fed, but the program is set to expire this month, and the trust that manages the Valles Caldera is considering closing the program for a year. "I'm hopeful they'll extend it," Ortiz said. "If not, I'll have to apply for a different allotment, find new summer pasture or sell and get out of the ranching business." Last year, 37 local ranchers and the Jemez Pueblo Livestock Cooperative participated in interim programs that provided them with summer grazing lands or temporary pasture while they worked on improving their own range. But grazing is a money loser. The program costs more than $100,000 and brought in about $40,000 last year, according to preserve figures. The future is uncertain for the former Baca ranch, six years after Congress agreed to pay $101 million....Ain't it amazing. Ranchers all over this country make money raising cows. Every gov't run grazing program, though, seems to lose money. 'Course I don't think there are too many cow men out there in the private sector doing "aerial mapping of vegetation"....
Methane boom takes toll in dust Outside the window of Jack Cooper's saddle shop in rural Sheridan County, there is nothing obstructing his scenic view of the jagged Bighorn Mountains that dominate the western horizon or the tree-lined creek winding its way through a wide valley to the east. Only the dust billowing from behind a constant procession of trucks heading to and from a nearby coalbed methane gas field gets in the way. Cooper lives along a gravel road that has become a major artery for trucks and workers in one of the many methane fields in northeast Wyoming. Traffic passing outside his home has increased from perhaps 75 to 100 vehicles a day just five years ago to 800 a day last year, he said. Dust hangs in the air like ground fog among the trees and rolling hills. "We don't dare leave a window open in the daytime," Cooper said. While oil and gas development creates other problems - housing shortages, noise, water pollution and increased crime - dust is just about universal in the booming methane fields of Wyoming and other states rich in natural gas....
'Clinton's monument' threatens nearby ranchers The second confrontation with CMR occurred when a "federal ranger" challenged Dave Collins and his crew moving cattle down a county road (established by order of the county commissioners and is continually maintained by them) from one of Mr. Collins' pastures to another pasture which happens to cross a section of the CMR. Mr. Collins maintained that "we never left the road right of way." He subsequently received a letter from the federal U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administrator (they manage the CMR) stating that he would be required to obtain prior written permission each time he trailed cattle down that road. We are talking about a maintained county road which has a steady stream of cars and trucks usage on a regular basis. (The federal government certainly has the option to fence the right-of-way.) States, not the federal government, regulate public road usage and this example of federal government abuse of fundamental states' rights is very disturbing....
Rookie Senator Proving Green Some people are beginning to suspect Martinez is more green than they had thought, especially back in March when he cast the deciding Senate vote in favor of opening the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. At the time, Sierra Club President Carl Pope accused Martinez of "selling out the country" and making it clear "he's for sale." Now, national environmental groups are heartened by his positions on other issues. "On most of the things I've followed, I've been pleased," said Frank Jackalone of St. Petersburg, Sierra Club senior regional representative for Florida and Puerto Rico. "The big exception is Arctic drilling. If he supports El Yunque, that's an important treasure to be preserved and I can do nothing but commend him. "When somebody goes the extra mile to actually go there and help protect it, you have to give him a plus on that." Martinez opposes oil and gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, despite White House wishes. He even argued against a compromise advanced by Gov. Jeb Bush. He has in recent months championed a variety of causes, from barrier islands to coral reefs....
Forest joins shift away from old growth Southwest Oregon's Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has become the latest national forest to turn away from cutting storied old-growth trees, moving instead toward less-controversial thinning of crowded younger stands. The move reflects a broader trend by the U.S. Forest Service to give up logging of big, old trees that yield large volumes of valuable wood but have been a rallying cry for forest defenders. They have used appeals and lawsuits to fight the logging, driving up costs to the government. Other national forests including the Siuslaw, Gifford Pinchot and, increasingly, the Mount Hood, are no longer offering old-growth trees for sale to timber companies. Controversy surrounding such cutting often drains funds and leads to such interminable holdups that the projects may never proceed....
Outgoing interior assistant reflects on controversial times The urbanization of America has helped polarize beliefs about the environment, leaving many city dwellers with romanticized and often unrealistic views about wildlife and natural resources in the West, according to an outgoing federal executive who oversaw hundreds of millions of acres of public land. Rebecca W. Watson, who resigned earlier this month as an assistant secretary of the interior to take a job with a Denver law firm, said her four years at the Interior Department exposed her to a growing number of Easterners and others who apply "false perspectives" to conflicts over federal land management. "If you are an urbanite and don't have any familiarity or have not been out in the West or read about issues and gained a deeper understanding about natural resources and the West, you might have some ideas about it that don't hold up to reality," Watson said in a recent interview....
New turf for science: suburbia Suburbia may be familiar turf, but it's one of the last frontiers for scientists trying to understand how ecosystems work and how people are changing the natural world. From the woodsy suburban enclaves of Vermont to sprawling Chico, Livermore and Gilroy, researchers are starting to probe the role of lawns in global warming, how garden fertilizers and pesticides affect wildlife and how storm water running from roofs, roads and driveways undermines the health of streams. "The suburban landscape is large, and it's growing," said Jennifer Jenkins of the University of Vermont, one of the scientists who reported her findings last week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. "There's this enormous land surface that's falling through the cracks."....
Political foes' trails merge in forest Reps. Greg Walden and Earl Blumenauer come from different sides of Mount Hood, the snowcapped icon that looms over Portland and the Columbia Gorge. Walden, a Republican, comes from the rural conservative side that has traditionally viewed the forests on the mountain's flanks as a source of timber and jobs. Democrat Blumenauer comes from the urban, liberal side that depends on the mountain for drinking water and outdoor recreation. Despite past clashes over environmental issues, the two have come together, even buddying up for a backpacking trip around the mountain. Out of that has come a proposed bill to put 75,000 acres of wilderness off-limits to logging on the Mount Hood National Forest, without reducing the area where logging can occur....
Forest Service's logging plan rejected A federal appeals court has ruled against the U.S. Forest Service in a lawsuit over a logging proposal in the Lolo National Forest, calling the agency's decision to harvest timber in areas that were burned by the fires of 2000 "arbitrary and capricious." The decision reverses a 2003 ruling by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals likened the Forest Service's efforts to thin old-growth stands for forest health without knowing how those efforts would affect wildlife to pharmaceutical companies marketing drugs without ensuring that they're safe and effective. But one justice asserted in a written dissent that the court had gone too far and had "crossed the line from reviewer to decision maker." At issue is a debate over a portion of the 74,000 acres burned on the Lolo National Forest in August and September of 2000. The Forest Service proposed to log about 4,600 acres in and around the burned area. In support of that proposal, the agency crafted a 1,900-page environmental impact statement that included 150 maps and about 20,000 pages of background information....
Editorial: Lost in the wilderness The legendary U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield regularly chose his re-election year to push through wilderness legislation protecting Oregon forests, mountains and rangelands for perpetuity. Hatfield understood the power and public appeal of wilderness. During his remarkable 30-year career in the Senate, he fought for legislation that not only created the Mount Jefferson Wilderness but also quadrupled Oregon's wilderness system, from 500,000 acres to 2.1 million acres. Oregon needs another strong, statewide advocate for wilderness protections. Oregon is far behind neighboring states in protecting wilderness: California has protected 13 percent of its landscape, Washington 10 percent and Oregon just 3.6 percent. Some lawmakers are trying: Reps. Greg Walden and Earl Blumenauer are co-sponsoring a bipartisan proposal to add 75,000 acres to existing Mount Hood wilderness. Sen. Ron Wyden has proposed a more sweeping 177,000-acre expansion of Mount Hood wilderness....
Future of timber payments to rural counties in doubt Rural counties and schools across the West are quietly gearing up for an expected battle over the renewal of billions of dollars in subsidies from the federal government, designed to compensate for the loss of timber harvests on thousands of acres of publicly owned land. The program, pushed through Congress in 2000 by Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, expires in 2006, and signals about its future from Washington, D.C., have been mixed. County commissioners and education officials in the rural West were already concerned about potentially wavering support from the Bush administration. Now, new concerns are surfacing that the bill might fall prey to those trolling for ways to pare the federal budget, as legislators search for a way to afford administration-backed tax cuts, the costs of rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the war in Iraq, all at once. The measure has provided nearly $2 billion to mainly Western states since 2000, including $273 million for Oregon, $67 million for California, $45 million for Washington and $24 million to Idaho....
Surprise end to Sabino lion story Sabino Canyon's problem mountain lions, spared from state-ordered death in the spring of 2004, may have all been legally hunted and killed since then. At least four mountain lions have been shot in the Santa Catalina District of the Coronado National Forest since public uproar over state plans to hunt problem cats in Sabino Canyon in March 2004 caused the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to switch to a strategy of trapping and transporting such lions. One lion was tranquilized and moved to a Scottsdale wildlife preserve that April. Late this week, a wildlife biologist for the district revealed, in court testimony, that "archery deer hunters had taken two lions out of the Sabino Canyon area" since that time. And, as previously reported, two of the believed problem lions were taken in shotgun shootings by wildlife officers after the cats had confronted hikers on popular trails in the Santa Catalina Mountains in May and November 2004. Wildlife biologist Josh Taiz testified Thursday during the trial of two men charged with trying to disrupt the capture of lions in March 2004. Taiz, whose investigations of "aberrant behavior" by lions in the vicinity led to the 2004 Sabino Canyon closure and hunt, said the fact that lions could be taken by bowhunters reinforced his feeling that they had lost their usual fear of humans....
Reporter's tapes place activists in Sabino A reporter's notes were used in U.S. District Court Friday to place Earth First activists Rodney Coronado and Matthew Crozier in Sabino Canyon and detail their movements during a 2004 mountain-lion hunt they are accused of disrupting.
The notes were in the form of cassette tapes that Esquire magazine writer-at-large John Richardson dictated to himself. Coronado, 39, and Crozier, 33, are charged with a felony count of conspiracy to impede or injure an officer of the United States and misdemeanor counts of interfering with a U.S. Forest Service officer and depredation of government property. Richardson, the third defendant in the case, will be tried later, but his recordings, seized when Forest Service and FBI agents took him into custody in a closed Sabino Canyon on March 24, 2004, were played Friday to the jury that will decide Crozier's and Coronado's fates....
Fish protection charges up electricity bills Wildlife programs, mostly salmon recovery, account for about a third of the cost of wholesale electricity from Bonneville Power Administration dams and tack on about $10 a month to a monthly household bill, the BPA says. The agency says the government spends more to offset the harm dams do to salmon than it does on running the dams. But fish or no fish, BPA power is cheaper than most electricity. “Dams don’t cost much except for what they do to fish,’’ said Steven Weiss of the Northwest Energy Coalition, a coalition of environmental groups, utilities and others that pushes for renewable energy, and fish and wildlife restoration. The per-household cost emerged from a court battle last month and is the first time federal agencies have calculated how much private households pay for such programs, said Ed Mosey, a BPA spokesman. Environmental groups calculate the household cost slightly lower — about $7 a month, Weiss said....
California rabbits championed A canvas sack was rolled back to reveal a tiny, quivering rabbit that blinked twice in the daylight, then bolted into a tangle of blackberry bushes. "It's like being plunked down in a big city you've never seen before," said wildlife biologist Laurissa Hamilton as she released the riparian brush rabbit into dense vegetation alongside the San Joaquin River. The 1-pound animal was one of seven released Friday on the privately owned Faith Ranch as part of a five year, $2.6 million effort to restore one of California's most endangered mammals. By the end of this week, researchers will have released 30 animals -- enough to start a population specialists hope will become self-sustaining and help the rabbit hop off federal and state endangered species lists....
Greater Yellowstone; A Grizzly Home About 10 years ago a grizzly sow and her three cubs were seen by Paul Bruin as he was fishing the Snake just above Deadman's Bar in Grand Teton National Park. The following day these bears were tranquilized on South Park Loop at the Bob Lucas’s Ranch. She either skirted Jackson or walked straight down the river through the property of many unsuspecting homeowner. In November 2003 a 2-year-old female grizzly had been sleeping on people's porches and in garages for nearly a week in Driggs. 06-2004 JHMR ski patroller Kirk Speckhals was mountain biking on Togwotee Pass when a grizzly attacked him, it was driven off with pepper spray thanks to fellow mountain biker Tom Foley. Between 1994 and 1996, 182 cattle were found dead on 2 grazing allotments in Togwotee Pass. 3.5 calves are lost to grizzly depredation for every confirmed calf kill. These ranchers gave up their grazing allotment that made their ranch a viable business. They likely now regret getting involved with the Nature Conservancy in a partnership that preserved their ranch for green space and ranching negating their option to subdivide after losing their ability to ranch....
Editorial: Laws needed to protect private property rights Your land is not your own, particularly if government wants it. If you weren’t sure of that before, the latest sign comes from Yolo County, Calif., Superior Court Judge Timothy Fall, who made it clear to all that the threat of a government body taking land by eminent domain hangs like a dark cloud over all property owners. The decision clears the way for Yolo County to force the owners of Conaway Ranch to sell their property to the county. The irony of this dispute is that the county does not need the land for some compelling project to benefit the public like a new dam and reservoir to increase the state’s water supply or even an airport or an interstate freeway. No, the county wants the land to maintain it as it is. County officials are afraid of what the current property owners might do with the land so they decided to appropriate it. The Conaway Ranch case follows in the footsteps of the June U.S. Supreme Court case, Kelo v. City of New London, in which the court ruled that the city of New London, Conn., could use eminent domain to acquire property for a private economic development. However, the Conaway Ranch case goes beyond that. If Fall’s decision stands, it now appears local governments can take land just because they don’t trust the owners to use it in the manner government deems appropriate....
Utah drags its feet on roadless forests As surrounding states have scrambled during the past six months to meet a Forest Service deadline to identify roadless forest areas they wish to remain protected, Utah has done comparatively little. That is beginning to change. Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. now is asking for recommendations from the counties, the start of what could become a formal process. But to what end remains to be seen. And whatever the result, it is unlikely to satisfy environmental critics. The Bush Administration repealed the Clinton-era Roadless Rule in May, which extended protection to nearly 59 million acres of pristine and largely remote forest lands. But as part of the policy change, the Agriculture Department created a process whereby governors can petition to keep roadless protections in their states intact. The petitions are due next November. Colorado's legislature has created a task force to study the issue and make recommendations. Montana's governor has traversed the state, holding public meetings in affected counties to gain input from politicians and the public alike. And California, Oregon and New Mexico have filed suit against the federal government over the roadless change, arguing that the Bush policy violates environmental laws and creates an undue burden on the states. By contrast, Huntsman has been content to let the Forest Service planning process determine the best use for Utah's 8.1 million acres of forest lands, about 4 million of which was designated as roadless....
New drilling hot spot triggers wildlife concerns As the snows pile up in the mountains, thousands of mule deer climb down from the higher elevations to winter on a sagebrush-strewn mesa. This tableland also is part of one of the largest gas fields in the country, the hot Pinedale Anticline Field. Federal regulators have given energy companies the green light to drill hundreds of wells in this field. And the Bush administration has agreed to allow producers to test restrictions that had barred drilling during the winter months, touching off a debate over whether the industry's hunt for gas is hampering wildlife's struggle to survive the harsh Wyoming winter....
Energy companies swarm the Rockies Oil and gas producers are stampeding to the Rockies. With natural gas prices hitting all-time highs and Gulf of Mexico production still recovering from a hurricane-plagued year, energy companies — many with ties to Houston — are drilling up long-neglected fields. The Rockies are thought to hold enough gas to heat and cool 70 million homes for nearly half a century, the National Petroleum Council estimates. But those resources are usually found in hard-to-produce deposits. In their headlong rush, the energy companies are helping transform the nation's least populous state, where pronghorn antelope are said to still outnumber people. Up and down Wyoming, oil-field service workers are packing hotels, not to mention Applebee's restaurants. They're driving up local real estate prices and bedding down in spartan — and that means booze-free — living quarters dubbed "man camps."....
Bush signs Grijalva bill to give back land to tribes For the people of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, whose reservation is 189 miles west of Phoenix, the return of their ancestral La Paz lands would be celebrated with a dedication of blessings, speeches and dances at a remote desert site. For Rep. Raul Grijalva, a two-term Democrat from Tucson, the first celebration came three weeks earlier when his bill to restore the land was signed into law by President Bush. Grijalva had worked for two years to give back 15,375 acres taken in 1915 by President Wilson. The late Sen. Barry Goldwater had twice attempted and failed to get the land returned....
Golden Gate national park to expand The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved adding nearly 5,000 acres of scenic land along the San Mateo County coast to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the largest expansion of that national park unit since it was established by Congress in 1972. The expansion includes Rancho Corral de Tierra, a sprawling, mountainous property that extends eastward across from the Half Moon Bay airport and surrounds the coastal towns of Moss Beach and Montara. The bill, which passed the Senate in July and is expected to be signed by President Bush, ends a four-year effort by environmentalists....
Plan would give island to military Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park off the coast of Southern California would become a recreation enclave for the military under a proposal for a pending defense bill. The measure was being circulated by Republican aides for the House Armed Services Committee, chaired by California GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter, according to Democratic congressional aides who made it public Friday. Hunter proposed a similar measure in May only to drop it amid objections from Democrats and environmentalists. His committee spokesman, Josh Holly, declined comment Friday. "This is a bad idea and that's why it's being pushed in secret negotiations behind closed doors and out of public view," said Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, whose district includes 53,000-acre Santa Rosa Island off Santa Barbara. "All Americans should have access to the Channel Islands National Park, not just top military brass, members of Congress and folks who can pay thousands of dollars to go on private hunting trips," Capps said....
Las Vegas boom deals some a losing hand At first glance, Las Vegas has never had it so good. In fact, this desert valley of almost 2 million people is the fastest-growing in the country. Las Vegas, in fact, leads the nation in job creation, and it has a white-hot housing market. ''It's going phenomenally well," said Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former lawyer for mobsters. But as bright as the present appears, there are signs that Las Vegas is becoming polarized. Prices have pushed home purchases beyond the reach of many families. Crime is on the rise. And activists report problems in recruiting teachers, nurses, and police to serve a population growing by 6,000 a month....
‘Mad cow’ changes global cattle industry For ranchers like Bill Donald, the resumption of beef trade with Japan, two years after "mad cow disease" turned up in this country, would be huge. Still, he’s not ready to sell his own cattle to Japan, and he’s not alone. ‘‘I think most ranchers won’t bother with it this first year,’’ the south- central Montana rancher said. ‘‘There are a lot of hoops to jump through.’’ New requirements for doing business in Japan could keep many producers from tapping that once-lucrative market — at least initially. Selling beef to Japan will mean maintaining a paper trail from the ranch to the feedlot to the slaughterhouse, to verify cattle are killed at 20 months of age or younger. The levels of infection for mad cow disease are believed to rise with age, and plans for resuming trade have been based on that cutoff....
A Kansas shrine for Hopalong His was a face that had seen too much in this life to be easily impressed with trivia or knickknacks. As others chattered happily through the museum tour, he smiled politely but remained detached. And then it happened. The one exhibit that made his face light up like a Christmas tree. Indeed it was a Christmas tree, and surrounding it were hundreds of gifts, all appropriate for a child of the early 1950s. But his eyes zeroed in on the bicycle--a shiny black 20-inch Hoppy bike, complete with leather saddlebags and streamers. "I wanted one of those so bad when I was a kid," he nearly shouted, drawing the attention of not only his companions, but others visiting the museum. The bicycle is one of 2,400 signature items on display at the Hopalong Cassidy Museum in this town about 15 miles north of Wichita. Since its opening in 2003, more than 70,000 children of the 1950s have relived the jubilation of their childhood Christmas mornings, similar to the unidentified man above. Billed as the largest collection of Hopalong Cassidy items in the world, the museum does more than celebrate the beloved radio, television and movie character (played by William Boyd in 66 feature-length movies, beginning in 1935, and 52 half-hour TV shows that aired on NBC from 1948 through 1952). It celebrates the American cowboy with exhibits devoted to the Chisholm Trail, to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autry and the American Indian....
Jones Down Home in Texas Tommy Lee Jones doesn’t work just for the sake of working. He tries to choose only quality jobs. He says he turns down a lot of films because simply “they aren't any good.” But while Jones has become a Hollywood star, he's always been uncomfortable with the Hollywood spotlight. “Here, on this ranch and in this county, everybody knows everybody and we don't have any movie stars here,” says the notoriously private and sometimes a bit prickly actor of his sprawling ranch in the Texas hill country. He's also a hands-on rancher with a commercial cattle operation....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Buyers experience auction barn miracle If ya hang around a sale barn long enough, you are bound to see some strange, some would say supernatural or even extraterrestrial, happenings. Like a cattle buyer actually bidding a penny over the market, or a waiter in a tuxedo at the sale barn cafe, or what happened to Chato and the Indian cow. Sonny said when the truck arrived from the reservation, a lot of the cows were thin but the last one required gentle assistance to unload. She was a common lookin' white face cow with a wide muzzle, ringed horns, bony hips and a long tail. A T-11 brand as well as several hieroglyphic brands decorated her hide. Chato came in to report that the cow in question was now, and as he put it, "had been dead all day long!" Sonny sent two cowboys to the pen. Sure 'nuf, she was still dead....