NEWS ROUNDUP

Saving Law From Extinction After years of effort, landowners, developers and other business interests might finally see changes in the Endangered Species Act, a landmark environmental law that has itself become endangered owing to growing dissatisfaction among supporters and critics. The 1973 law, which grants federal protection to species threatened with extinction, hasn't been significantly updated since 1988. While it is widely seen as in need of reworking, though, there is little consensus over how to revise a central provision that restricts use and development of land considered essential to preserving a listed animal or plant species. In September, that began to change. The House approved revisions that would eliminate the so-called critical habitat program, which restricts encroachment in areas containing physical or biological features essential to the conservation of an endangered species. That change would relieve builders and loggers, among others, of the lengthy development permitting process and the costs of complying with critical habitats and make the government pay for economic losses owners suffer when use of their property is restricted. But the vote was close -- 229-193 -- and there was considerable support for a less-sweeping alternative. Now a showdown is brewing in the Senate, which will begin debating the law's future when Congress reconvenes next month....
Aware of Political Ecosystem, Property Rights Advocate Embraces Conservation Plan So imagine the reaction in these precincts when, in the early 1990's, the Interior Department set out to protect the warbler by buying - or condemning - cedar-covered land. There were protests on the Capitol steps in Austin. One rancher took a bulldozer to his cedar trees. Others indicated they would tie the project up in court battles. The effort stalled. Over a decade later, in a cultural and political turnabout, people like Kerry Russell, a lawyer, rancher and lifelong resident of the area, have largely bought into a conservation program that combines federal and state incentives with flexibility for landowners, who can participate by committing land to conservation purposes forever, or for as little as 10 years. Part of the payoff is that they are shielded in those years from unilateral conservation actions by government, a provision that gave the program the name "Safe Harbor." "If you sign up to restore or enhance the habitat for a certain number of years, after that time you won't be held to" the obligations any further, Mr. Russell said. He has committed to preserve and tend 150 acres of cedar groves on his property for the migratory warblers forever. Mr. Russell, like his fellow Republican Bob Long, a rancher a few counties away, is a familiar public face of the program in Texas. The state has been a focal point of safe harbor initiatives, and the Austin office of Environmental Defense has been in the forefront of putting together safe harbor agreements....
Feds pressure state on methane water rules A federal agency is putting pressure on Montana regulators to back away from a proposed crackdown on coalbed methane wastewater. The U.S. Department of Energy says it was called in at the request of Wyoming state officials, who have worried their northern neighbor may go overboard with water quality rules. The Board of Environmental review was left wondering why the Department of Energy had a representative at a hearing earlier this month on a proposal that would apply tougher water quality restrictions on coalbed methane operations. "You don't typically get those type of individuals traveling to testify," said Robin Shropshire, a member of the state Board of Environmental Review that is looking at tougher water rules. The prospect of large-scale, coalbed methane drilling in southeastern Montana has led to bitter disputes between conservationists, some land owners and the natural gas industry. But federal regulators are an uncommon sight in the battle....
Grape-eating bears killed as vineyards' territory expands Bears have frequented the pond and an adjacent meadow since the Dakins bought the property, which they call Wild Springs Ranch, a decade ago. Now, just like that, they are gone. The new owner of the adjacent Aetna Springs Vineyard, tired of having his prized grapes eaten, hired federal trappers a few months ago to kill the offending bears. The tragic fate of their beloved bruins has thrust the Dakins into a seething debate over the future of the nation's most famous wine-growing region. Wildlife is often the loser as vineyards steadily creep into the hinterlands amid a growing demand for the kind of premium grape that can be produced only in mountainous wildland regions....
IRS, lawmakers study gifts to protect habitat They gave away the rights to develop the land, ensuring that no shopping mall or subdivision will ever displace the mallards and pintails. It’s not the usual charitable gift. But it’s duck season, and Ducks Unlimited is bagging hunting land along the flyway that bears southbound ducks into Arkansas every winter. The conservation-minded charity has accumulated nearly 18, 000 acres in the state, most of it during the past five years — not by buying parcels, but by accepting conservation easements from landowners willing to sign away the right to ever cash in by selling to a developer. In exchange, they get a federal income tax deduction. Concerned about outsized deductions that some donors have claimed for easements on golf courses or land of marginal value, the Internal Revenue Service is scrutinizing a stack of easements, including some held by Ducks Unlimited, and Congress has been considering a rewrite of the rules....
Deer and Foxes Compete for an Island Kingdom On the balmy last day of fall, three white-rumped mule deer skittered around a rocky mountainside, then ranged free across the upper reaches of Santa Rosa Island. Not far away on a brushy slope, two tiny foxes with reddish-brown chests lounged side by side like housedogs, passing their afternoon inside a large chain-link cage. These inhabitants of Channel Islands National Park have vastly different origins. The mule deer are thriving descendants of animals brought to the island early in the last century to provide hunting for the owners and their guests. The 5-pound Santa Rosa Island foxes, once-plentiful natives of the island, now number only about 70 and are listed as a federal endangered species. The fate of these two species and others, however, has been intertwined for two decades as the National Park Service has struggled to transform the remote island from a privately owned cattle ranch and hunting operation into a park that protects public access and unique natural, cultural and archeological resources. Although the cattle were removed seven years ago, the former owners have been permitted to maintain commercial deer and elk hunting, which park officials say has been harmful to the island's plant and animal life and restricted the public....
Pombo-led panel unveils rewrite of environmental canon Tracy Rep. Richard Pombo's House Resources Committee unveiled a Christmas package of proposals to alter a bedrock federal environmental law this week in the latest in a yearlong string of controversial ideas that has sent environmentalists into orbit. This week's effort by Pombo's panel is to revisit the National Environmental Policy Act, known by its acronym NEPA. This is the 35-year-old law that requires the federal government to consider environmental concerns whenever it acts on public land. NEPA can require lengthy impact reports for timber harvests, mining permits and oil leases. Oil, gas, nuclear energy, logging and ranching interests have long clamored for revisions to the law, which they say allows environmental groups to block projects they dislike. Pombo and much of his family are longtime ranchers....
FWP takes aim at hay-eating elk near Buffalo Between 250 and 300 elk that raided ranchers' haystacks in the Buffalo area in central Montana have dispersed after the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks expanded a late hunt and issued kill permits and supplemental licenses to thin the herd and scare them off. "They didn't stay in here very long," said Buffalo-area rancher Bill Mikkelson. "(FWP) did kill a few right off the bat to scare them out of here." But the problem is becoming an annual occurrence that may require a change in hunting regulations before it is solved. The elk traveled into the region, north of Judith Gap, in early December. They are part of 700 head of elk that winter on the west side of the Snowy Mountains. Heavy snowfall on their usual winter range likely pushed them out in search of food. "This is the fourth time in six years that we've had movement out of the Snowies onto the flats toward the Little Belts," said Mike Aderhold, Region 4 supervisor for FWP. "We've been treating it as an anomaly, but now we're starting to think it's more of a pattern."....
Feds keep steelhead, rainbow trout distinct Ten groups of steelhead from Southern California to Washington will retain Endangered Species Act protection under a new policy that lists only those that spend time in the ocean, exempting fish that remain in their native rivers, NOAA Fisheries announced Friday. The change in policy was prompted by a suggestion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has jurisdiction over trout and steelhead that remain in rivers, that the two agencies adopt the same policy for defining steelhead populations. NOAA Fisheries retained the old policy for salmon, said Garth Griffin, fisheries biologist for NOAA Fisheries in Portland. While steelhead are the same genus as salmon, they are different species and have much different life histories. The decision by NOAA fisheries was applauded by Trout Unlimited and the Native Fish Society in Portland, who said counting steelhead and genetically identical rainbow trout in the same population groups could lead to inflated fish numbers that could result in removing protections for some steelhead that need it....
Cattle, birds, endangered species coexist in Ramona grasslands Entering the grasslands on Rangeland Road presents a series of contrasts: Dozens of cows graze outside the gates of an exclusive community. Beyond neighborhood traffic lies seemingly vacant rolling hills where birds burst from every other bush. These are the remains of a habitat that once sprawled across Southern California. "Look, meadowlarks," said Zach Principe, an ecologist working for the Nature Conservancy on a visit earlier this month. Under tufts of California buckwheat, he also pointed out rodent burrows and picked up a handful of crumbly ground cover. Principe was on hand to begin surveying the national conservation group's latest acquisition, a 1,230-acre property known as the Davis/Eagle Ranch, northwest of the Ramona Airport. This property is part of around 8,000 acres of what's known as the Ramona grasslands....
Agency: Project, lynx can co-exist A federal wildlife agency has ratified an earlier opinion that the proposed Village at Wolf Creek won't jeopardize the survival of the Canada lynx in the United States. In a final ruling issued Wednesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the “direct and indirect effects of the Project will not appreciably reduce the likelihood of both the survival and recovery of the lynx.” The Village at Wolf Creek is 288 acres in the middle of the Rio Grande National Forest, where Texas billionaire Billie Joe “Red” McCombs wants to build a luxury resort for as many as 10,000 people. A final opinion on the survival of the Canada lynx, which were introduced in the U.S. in 1999, has stalled a decision by the Forest Service on whether to allow access to the proposed development across public land....
NASCAR Conservationist In late 2004 Al Cecere, founder and president of the American Eagle Foundation, was on Capitol Hill, trolling for votes for a bill he had hatched, the Bald Eagle Coin Act. Its goal was to raise $10 million for bald eagle recovery projects through the U.S. Mint's sale of commemorative coins after the bald eagle goes off the endangered species list, probably this year. But as this session of Congress was set to expire, it looked as if Cecere's coin bill might, too. Besides competing for attention with the intelligence bill, it had raised a few eyebrows among lawmakers with their own coin bills. Finally, though, in a display of bipartisanship unique by today's standards, Cecere garnered enough votes to move the bill toward unanimous passage as Congress's final act. Two days before Christmas, President Bush signed the bill into law....
National Forest Management: Is Politics Trumping Science? Underlying much of the heated debate about National Forest management today are a couple of loaded - and surprisingly hard-to-answer - questions: Do a cluster of recent changes in forest management, notably those relating to forest planning, motorized use and roadless designation, signal an increasing politicization of public land management? And, more specifically, did partisan political maneuvering (and by extension campaign contributions) trump science in shaping these changes? As the University of Montana’s College of Forestry and Conservation’s Professor Martin Nie points out, the nuances of political influence largely occur in a black box: whether politicians are influenced by contributions, or whether contributions are made based on like-minded politics is difficult to know. Most of the folks I've spoken with think that, indeed, the new Forest Service planning rules are enabling elected political officials and appointees to make the crucial decisions on public lands - decisions that have long been the province of federal servants. (For some advocates of the changes, that's part of the point). But rather than string together a conclusion, I will present and let you, New West readers, do the deducing....
Experimental forest designated in Sierra For the first time in more than 40 years, the Forest Service has established a new experimental forest in California to study management techniques and reduce wildfire threats in the Sierra Nevada. The agency is teaming with UC Berkeley to designate the Sagehen Experimental Forest about 10 miles north of Truckee and 30 miles west of Reno, Nev. The 8,100-acre area will be managed by the university, the Tahoe National Forest and the Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth formally approved the designation on Monday, creating California's 11th experimental forest and the first since 1962. He said such forests have played an important role in improving management of forest resources throughout their history....
Forest Service seeks to protect small bighorn sheep herd Managers of the Bridger-Teton National Forest say they want to set travel routes for skiers and snowboarders through mountainous bighorn sheep winter range to protect the state's smallest and most isolated herd. At just over 100 animals, the Targhee bighorn sheep population is all that remains of a herd that once roamed from the west side of the Teton Range to the valley bottoms of Jackson Hole. The Forest Service says human influences, including recreation, now pose the biggest threat to the stability of the herd. A study in the 1990s showed that the Targhee herd winters on high, wind-swept terrain between Static Peak, in Grand Teton National Park, south to Rendezvous Peak. The U.S. Park Service already closes Static Peak and other areas in the park to skiing each winter to protect the sheep....
Rough skies for aerial tankers In three years, since two of its large fire-retardant bombers broke up in mid-flight, Hawkins & Powers Aviation Inc. has gone from one of the country's largest aerial firefighting firms to the brink of bankruptcy. It has lost key government contracts for the use of most of its heavy air tankers and essentially has been forced from a business it helped pioneer. There have been lawsuits, layoffs and a change in direction. New management has taken over in an effort to satisfy creditors and turn the company into a viable airplane refurbishing business that could be sold to a new operator. Like Hawkins & Powers, the entire aerial firefighting industry is facing an uncertain future....
Scientists target tree-killing beetle The wasps listen for sounds of their prey, then drill through bark to reach them. Either they paralyze the juvenile victim and glue eggs to its back, or pierce it to lay the eggs inside. When the eggs hatch, the wormy wasp young munch away at leisure. For anyone who loves a day in a shady yard, a walk in the woods or the crack of a baseball bat, the gore is justified. The target is the larvae of emerald ash borer, an Asian beetle that has been 100 percent fatal to North American ash trees since its arrival about 10 years ago, likely in a shipping pallet. The beetle, first noticed in 2002, has blanketed most of lower Michigan and appeared in Ohio, Indiana and southern Ontario. Worried that the bug cannot be stopped, researchers are trying to figure out how to help the ash tree survive an infestation. Scientists are studying borer-killing wasps, insecticide use, crossbreeding and the possibility of breeding a tree that makes its own insecticide....
USFS stock home on range In the gathering light of another gray dawn, hundreds of ears perk up as a pair of familiar voices boom out across the pasture. "Come onnnn boys. Come onnnn." Bob Hoverson yells once more, then whistles - a shrill high note that starts the closest mules and horses moving toward the corrals at the Ninemile Remount Depot. The first few trot into the enclosure where ranch manager Dean Solheim is filling the feeding bunks with hay. "They're all 'using' animals," Hoverson says. "They're used to being handled. They all get used a lot more so than most animals used for recreation." The stock comes from upward of 25 different Forest Service ranger districts from as far away as Powell, Wyo. For decades, the remount station has served as winter range for the working stock during their winter vacation. Their season of rest lasts from Nov. 1 to May 15....
Column: Eco-terror returns to the news Arson is a difficult crime to prove, so it's no surprise that the federal government only recently named two suspects in the 1998 fires that caused $12 million in damage atop the Vail ski area. The 28-year-old suspects, who both grew up in Eugene, Ore., have not been charged, let alone found guilty, of anything at Vail. Some informed opinion suggests guilt may never be established unless plea bargains in other cases produce confessions. Of course, lack of evidence never stops many people from drawing conclusions. In times of trauma, human nature seems to respond with shotgun conclusions. Hence, after the 9/11 attacks, many people of dark complexions were attacked simply. … well, simply because they maybe, kinda, sorta looked like people from the Middle East. And after the fires at Vail in 1998, I heard educated people respond with logic that was no better. The Sierra Club had better divulge what it knows about the arsonist, one woman said. "Don't tell me they don't know who it was," she added. This was also about the time that the term "eco-terrorism" was unleashed by headline writers....
Powell, Hazlett defend Caldera efforts When Valles Caldera Trust board member Larry Icerman said last week that the trust was facing a deficit of up to $500,000 in its 2004-2005 operating budget, his announcement raised eyebrows and questions. Former trust Executive Director Ray Powell and former Chief Financial Officer Dennis Hazlett, who both resigned in the fall, defended their records in trying to turn around the trust's dismal financial accounting during their tenures last year. "There is no deficit," Hazlett said this week. "That is my firm belief." Icerman, who's helped oversee efforts to resolve the trust's financial problems, said at a public meeting Dec. 23 in Santa Fe that there was a potential deficit of $200,000 to $500,000 in the trust's operating budget from the last fiscal year. He said a complicated accounting process, with two sets of books and the failure of prior trust administrations to resolve financial issues, may have created the deficit....
Idaho may lose USDA status The U.S. Department of Agriculture will likely strip Idaho of its coveted brucellosis-free status following infections in eastern and central Idaho, a move that would force cattle ranchers to do expensive testing before their animals are shipped out of state. The decision is expected in January, state Department of Agriculture officials said. Idaho, which has had brucellosis-free status since 1991, says it may challenge the federal move. Lifting the status would force ranchers to test female and uncastrated male cattle over 18 months old before selling them across state lines, according to minimum testing guidelines....
Judge orders Wolf Point family to leave home A federal judge has given a Wolf Point area family until the end of February to leave property now owned by the government or face eviction by federal marshals. Senior U.S. District Judge Jack Shanstrom gave Edmund "June" and Loretta Walton and their three sons, Stephen, Pat and T. Ed, "one final opportunity to remove themselves and any personal property they desire'' from land owned by the Farm Service Agency. The deadline is Feb. 28. Shanstrom issued his order Dec. 16. The dispute between the Waltons and the Farm Service Agency dates to the mid-1990s. Edmund and Loretta Walton signed over their property and federal grazing allotments to the agency, which then was called the Farmers Home Administration, in a liquidation agreement in 1994. The agreement allowed the Waltons to live on about 10 acres of the land until mid-1999. The Waltons did not exercise an option to buy back the property - about 4,000 acres south of the Missouri River between Glasgow and Wolf Point - but they continued to occupy it....
Was it UFOs? Mystery haunts eastern plains Cattle rancher Clyde Chess never learned who — or what —killed his heifer 11 years ago, removing its lips, tongue, ears, heart and reproductive organs with laserlike precision. But he has a theory. “I suspect, and I know it sounds far-fetched, it was government testing,” said Chess, who has a ranch in Rush. “They’re the only ones that have that kind of technology.” This is eastern El Paso County, where stories of mysterious black aircraft, unexplained lights in the sky and bizarre cattle experimentation aren’t considered too farfetched. Many remember the string of cattle mutilations that oc- curred in the 1970s and happen to this day. Of course, it’s been a long time since Colorado ranchers sat on their porches at night with shotguns, scanning the sky, but there’s a new mystery on the eastern plains, one involving the unexplained deaths of six horses and a burro in Calhan....
Col. Norman Vaughan, dies at age 100 Refusing to "grow old" to the very end, irrepressible dog musher and world adventurer Col. Norman Vaughan died in an Anchorage hospital Friday amid family and friends -- just four days past his 100th birthday. Vaughan's life as a sportsman, soldier and entrepreneur spanned the 20th century, but it was his buoyant example of how an active outdoor life doesn't have to end at age 70, or 80, or even 90 that inspired legions of admirers. At 84, Vaughan was still entering and completing the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome as the self-proclaimed "oldest and slowest" musher in the world....
It's All Trew: Early letters beautiful in design, neatness In my research, I read many old letters, diaries and personal accounts written in longhand by the authors. It appears that almost all items written before WWII were beautiful in design and neatness plus were easy to read and decipher. Most items written since are the exact opposite. Old school records I have studied show that penmanship was taught at least twice a week in most early schools. Time and again I have found records of teaching penmanship to grownups in night classes outside of school. My own experience mirrors these findings as I remember penmanship classes on certain days through the third grade. I skipped the fourth grade when the schools changed to twelve years instead of eleven. Until this time, my writing was smooth and legible....