NEWS ROUNDUP
Open-range zoning to end in Rio Verde Grazing livestock between homes in the foothills near Rio Verde will become taboo, as plans were announced this week to eradicate the area's open-range designation. Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley and state Sen. Carolyn Allen, R-Scottsdale, announced they would change the rules for Rio Verde Foothills, a 20-square-mile county island where residents have complained for years about loose horses and cows. Stapley and Allen said they were startled to learn the open-range zoning in Rio Verde Foothills benefits a few property owners who have long received agricultural exemptions on property taxes....
Suit protests grazing closures Two southern Utah counties have filed a lawsuit contesting grazing closures in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Garfield and Kane counties argue that, since 1999, the Bureau of Land Management has permanently discontinued livestock grazing on over 240,000 acres in the monument without notifying Congress, as required by the Federal Lands and Policy Act. Such closures have put pressures on individual ranchers, and on the economies of both counties, the suit said....
It's Not All Blue Skies for Drilling Project When he turned Mt. Rushmore into his granite canvas, sculptor Gutzon Borglum wrote that the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln would remain visible, Lord willing, "until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away." Borglum's vision endures in the Black Hills of South Dakota about 130 miles from here, but for nearly a month every year, it may soon become harder to see the famous faces through the man-made haze generated by the addition of 50,000 gas wells in northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana. It is just one of several ways in which the largest expansion of natural gas drilling approved by the federal government is expected to degrade air quality in the region that today has the clearest skies in the lower 48 states. Government scientists expect that the drilling expansion, combined with a planned increase in coal mining and oil drilling in the northern Great Plains, will nearly double smog-forming emissions and greatly increase particulate matter pollution in a thinly populated region that has produced less than 3% of the amount of unhealthful air found in Los Angeles. The BLM moved forward with the project despite its own air quality analysis, which concluded that the pollution would cloud views at more than a dozen national parks and monuments, exceed federal air quality standards in several communities and cause acid rain to fall on mountain lakes, where it could harm fish and wildlife....
‘Wolfmen' reflect on controversy As he read through the e-mails at his office, one from a wolf activist caught Ed Bangs' attention. It arrived shortly after Bangs made the difficult decision that wolves preying on livestock had to be killed. ‘‘May your putrid corpse rot in hell,'' the e-mail said. He shrugged it off. It wasn't the first message of its kind; it wouldn't be the last. The business of wolf management requires a thick skin, said Bangs, the federal government's wolf recovery coordinator for the region. ‘‘You can't take it personal, or you'd be a raving lunatic.'' Bangs, along with Joe Fontaine and Carter Niemeyer, have long been the public faces for what has arguably been one of the most contentious conservation efforts of the last century — returning the gray wolf to the wild in the Northern Rockies....
Protection waived for jumping mouse The Preble's meadow jumping mouse, once seen as a costly impediment to development, is now viewed by the government as a critter that never really existed - and is no longer in need of federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Interior Department said Friday that new DNA research shows the 9-inch mouse, which can launch itself a foot and a half into the air and switch direction in mid-flight, is probably identical to another variety of mouse common enough not to need protection. Manson and other Interior officials cited a peer-reviewed but unpublished study by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science suggesting the Preble's mouse is genetically identical to the Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse. The study was paid for by Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service, the Energy Department, the state of Wyoming and the Denver museum. Interior officials acknowledged that 14 peer reviewers had split 8-6 to narrowly support the study's conclusions....
Stream setback proposal draws fire from landowners Developers, ranchers and other landowners are fighting a proposed law that would prohibit them from building homes and other structures near the state's rivers and streams. Sen. Bob Hawks, D-Bozeman, is carrying a bill drafted by environmental groups that would establish a 30-yard building setback from the high-water mark of streams and a 100-yard setback from the high-water mark of rivers. Critic Bill Myers said passage of the bill would ruin any chances of developing his property, the money from which would pay for his retirement. Myers owns a small chunk of land along the Bigfork Bay in Bigfork. "All my eggs are in a small basket this bill would crush," he told lawmakers Thursday....
Norton: Cooperation works for water, species President Bush has a bold, clear vision for meeting the water supply and endangered species challenges facing Western communities. Interior Secretary Gale Norton delivered that key message to 300 members of the Colorado Water Congress here Friday, emphasizing the effectiveness of cooperative, locally driven partnerships in which the federal government works with stakeholders as catalyst and coordinator to resolve natural resource issues. "Americans have always looked to the West with hope, and they should do so now in this new term of the administration,” Norton said. “The president envisions preventing crises by innovative thinking and long-term planning; avoiding long years of litigation by cooperative agreements and replacing costly laws with common-sense legislation.”....
Navratilova backs PETA sheep effort Martina Navratilova is helping an animal rights group in its campaign against an Australian sheep farming practice. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released the contents of a letter Thursday that it said Navratilova wrote to Prime Minister John Howard over the practice of mulesing. The procedure - named after inventor and rancher J.H. Mules - involves slicing flesh and wool away from the sheep's rump to prevent blowflies from laying their eggs in the skin....
'Across the Generations' According to cowboy Chuck Milner, the best things to raise on a ranch are children, and several of Thursday's performances showed the ranching culture is being passed on to the next generation. Milner and his children, Hallie, 11, and Cody, 8, performed songs Thursday at the Elko Convention Center. Milner played the guitar while Hallie played the fiddle and Cody the mandolin. He said traditions are meant to be handed down. Another of the cowboy poets, Wylie Gustafson, said he has his father to thank for his love of singing and poetry. "I would not be here right now if it wasn't for him singing songs to us at night," Wylie said. He and his father, Rib Gustafson, performed several songs Thursday in the Great Basin College Theatre....
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Friday, January 28, 2005
MAD COW DISEASE
Mad Cow Disease Found in French Goat, EU Says Mad cow disease has been found in a goat, the first time the brain-wasting affliction that ravaged European cattle herds and killed at least 100 people, has been diagnosed in another animal, the EU said on Friday. "A suspected case of BSE (news - web sites) in a goat slaughtered in France in 2002 has been confirmed today by a panel of European scientists," the EU Commission said in a statement. Scientists initially thought the animal, born in 2000, had scrapie, a disease from the same family as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the formal name for mad cow disease. The Commission underlined there was little risk of humans catching the disease due to strict food hygiene and animal feed rules. "Precautionary measures to protect consumers from this eventuality have been applied in the EU for several years ... any possible risk to consumers is minimal," it said. The EU's food safety authority EFSA said it was too early to analyze the risk from goat meat and further checks were needed. "Important information gaps do not allow at this stage the quantification of BSE-related risk with regard to the consumption of goat meat," it said in a statement.The 25-nation bloc has approximately 11.6 million goats with the largest herds found in France, Spain and Greece. Up until now, the risk of mad cow disease jumping species has focused on sheep not goats. No case of BSE has ever been confirmed as naturally occurring in sheep, but there are fears that some sheep diagnosed as having scrapie -- not known to be harmful to humans -- might be carrying the brain-wasting affliction....
Mad Cow Disease Found in French Goat, EU Says Mad cow disease has been found in a goat, the first time the brain-wasting affliction that ravaged European cattle herds and killed at least 100 people, has been diagnosed in another animal, the EU said on Friday. "A suspected case of BSE (news - web sites) in a goat slaughtered in France in 2002 has been confirmed today by a panel of European scientists," the EU Commission said in a statement. Scientists initially thought the animal, born in 2000, had scrapie, a disease from the same family as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the formal name for mad cow disease. The Commission underlined there was little risk of humans catching the disease due to strict food hygiene and animal feed rules. "Precautionary measures to protect consumers from this eventuality have been applied in the EU for several years ... any possible risk to consumers is minimal," it said. The EU's food safety authority EFSA said it was too early to analyze the risk from goat meat and further checks were needed. "Important information gaps do not allow at this stage the quantification of BSE-related risk with regard to the consumption of goat meat," it said in a statement.The 25-nation bloc has approximately 11.6 million goats with the largest herds found in France, Spain and Greece. Up until now, the risk of mad cow disease jumping species has focused on sheep not goats. No case of BSE has ever been confirmed as naturally occurring in sheep, but there are fears that some sheep diagnosed as having scrapie -- not known to be harmful to humans -- might be carrying the brain-wasting affliction....
NEWS ROUNDUP
To drill or not to drill? A classic Western controversy surrounds the proposed gas drilling on the Roan Plateau. On one side, the Federal Government, gas companies, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Association are pushing for more domestic energy production. On the other side, a coalition of ranchers, citizens, politicians and environmentalists attempt to put differences aside, unify, and restrict any drilling on the Plateau’s upper reaches....
Fire season drawing concern of governor Frustrated with what she sees as federal foot-dragging, Gov. Janet Napolitano is turning to the state's congressional delegation to help determine if and when the state will get air tankers for the upcoming fire season. In a letter to the delegation, Napolitano said she worried that Arizona was destined to a repeat of last year, when air tankers were grounded in the midst of Arizona's fire season. The U.S. Forest Service will be offering contracts for tanker operations in mid- to late-March, Napolitano told the congressmen, without citing her source. "That is simply too late for Arizona as our wildland fire season starts earlier in the year and we need to make decision (sic) on allocation of state resources now," she wrote....
Eureka mill to close after 25 years Wednesday, Jim Hurst reached deep into his bag of tricks, mumbled a few incantations and conjured up a handful of absolutely nothing. "There's nothing left," the lumber mill owner said. "I've pulled several rabbits out of the hat to keep it running this long. But there's no more tricks up the sleeve. It's over." After 25 years in the business, Eureka's Owens and Hurst Lumber Co. is silencing the saws. Hurst, who has been a vocal advocate of the timber industry and an outspoken critic of environmentalists, blamed the U.S. Forest Service for not providing enough public-land logs to keep his operation afloat. And he blamed the conservation community for forcing the agency's hand with regard to diminishing harvests....
Environmentalists sue to stop logging at national monument Environmentalists sued the federal government this week over plans to log Giant Sequoia National Monument, saying the move would cater to the timber industry at the expense of an ecosystem home to two-thirds of the world's largest trees. The Sierra Club and four other environmental groups said a plan by the U.S. Forest Service to log parts of the 327,769-acre monument in central California was scientifically suspect. They filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco seeking to block the plan and have it vacated....
Salmon survival game plays out on board A new board game will teach children the life cycle of salmon and steelhead trout. The U.S. Forest Service and 12 partners ordered 1,200 of the games to be made by the federal printing office at cost of $36,000. The Salmon Life Cycle game will be distributed to schools in the lower Columbia River Basin, and will be available at any national forest headquarters office in Oregon and Washington or from the partners, Glen Sachet , spokesman for Mount Hood National Forest, said Wednesday. The game will be loaned, similar to checking out a book from a library, and will not be sold, Sachet said....
Species act violated in flood, but Mesquite won't face fine Federal and city officials have agreed to develop a long-term plan to protect lives, property and endangered species habitat on the Virgin River after emergency flood-control measures altered the river's channel. The city won't be fined for Endangered Species Act violations that might have occurred during and after this month's flooding, Mayor Bill Nicholes said. ''We all admit that private communications might have helped,'' Nicholes said after meeting Wednesday with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Army Corps of Engineers officials. ''But stopping water going into homes was a priority.'' ''As far as any fines, that's pretty much satisfied there won't be anything,'' he said. Officials bulldozed about 80 acres of critical habitat for several federally protected birds and fish while struggling Jan. 11 to keep the river out of homes and a middle school in the southeast Nevada community near the Arizona and Utah border....
Wildlife officials opt to open dunes to off-road vehicles Federal wildlife officials cleared the way Thursday to reopen desert dunes popular with Inland off-roaders, saying desert tortoises and a plant threatened with extinction can survive among the recreational vehicles. Environmentalists said they would fight the decision to open nearly 50,000 acres, or about one-third, of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area to motorcycles, dune buggies and all-terrain vehicles. Damage from off-road play would push the species closer to extinction, they said. "They can't just go ahead and throw the dunes open," said Daniel Patterson, ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity in Idyllwild....
Fish and Wildlife Service denies petitions to list common grasses under ESA The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced it will not move to add two common grasses, found in California, Baja California, Mexico, and Arizona, to the Federal list of threatened and endangered species. The Service said it has completed a review of the two grasses, Arizona brome (Bromus arizonicus) and nodding needlegrass (Nassella cernua), in response to two petitions filed in June 2002 by a private citizen. The petitions claim the two species are in decline and threatened by commercial, residential, and agricultural development, off-highway vehicle activity, energy development, cattle grazing, fires, military activities, introduction on nonnative plants, roadside herbicide use and mowing, and law enforcement activities along the border between the United States and Mexico....
Coho report in line with Bush approach Contrary to findings by federal scientists, Oregon officials have concluded that Oregon coast coho salmon are not at risk and thus no longer in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act. If U.S. officials accept Oregon's conclusion -- outlined in a draft report -- the state probably would take over management of the prized fish and become the first state in a drive by the Bush administration to emphasize local control over wildlife issues. It would lead the way in reshaping national policy on endangered species....
Column: Mexican grays did their part Skeptics had predicted that captive wolves would never withstand the harsh realities of survival in the wild, but those wolves proved that they still harbored the inherent capability to bring down elk, find den sites for the birth of their pups and produce offspring that knew nothing about the zoos where their parents had been fed by humans. Today, natural reproduction in the wild has nearly replaced release of captive wolves as the source for population growth. Despite the success of the Mexican wolf recovery program, there are critical problems screaming for remedial correction. Immediate action must begin to correct two major problems in the federal rule that governs protocol for the project. First, the rule must be relaxed so wolves that roam outside the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area boundaries are removed only when they cause livestock depredation or present a threat to humans. Second, the rule must be modified to develop authority to conduct releases of Mexican wolves directly into the Gila National Forest....
Park: River runners' deal may not float While Grand Canyon National Park officials on Wednesday applauded an agreement between private boaters and commercial outfitters for rafting trips on the Colorado River through the park, they cautioned that other viewpoints must be considered. The Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association, the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association, American Whitewater and the Grand Canyon River Runners Association announced what they billed as a historic compromise between user groups competing for the limited space on the river. Their compromise called for a split of river permits between commercial and private rafters, the continued use of motors, an adjustment to spread out use throughout the year and improvements to the permitting system....
Underfunded national parks must turn away children, study says National parks in California are so underfunded and understaffed that they've eliminated educational programs and are turning away thousands of children each year. According to a study this week from the National Parks Conservation Association, roughly 80,000 kindergartners through 12th graders participate in educational programs each year at parks such as Joshua Tree, Yosemite and Lassen Volcanic. That amounts to only 1 percent of the state's 7 million public and private school students. NPCA, a nonprofit advocacy group, estimates that the 11 parks would require a $7 million increase in their operating budgets to meet current demand. The national park system as a whole suffers from a shortfall of more than $600 million, according to the NPCA study, prompting parks around the country to cut programs and staff....
Congress to restart debate on energy bill With home heating bills up 30 percent or more over the past few years and electric rates rising, Congress will once again try to pass an energy bill aimed at boosting U.S. supplies of natural gas. While similar bills have languished in Congress, energy companies have taken steps of their own to increase supplies. More than 26 proposals are on the drawing board to build facilities to receive natural gas imports from overseas. And some electric companies have turned to building coal-fired power plants instead of the once more popular gas-fired ones. When Congress made its initial stab at an energy bill four years ago, the major impetus was an electricity shortage that hit California and caused price spikes throughout the West. But today, many lawmakers are more worried about the high price of natural gas, which has boosted consumer utility bills and cost thousands of jobs at chemical, paper and fertilizer companies -- industries that use large amounts of natural gas....
Column: Thwarting America's Energy Needs Well of course you want the entire shoreline of the East and West Coast to be filled with windmills producing insignificant amounts of energy! Nothing better than to head for the beaches of New Jersey or California and look out on the inspiring vista of wall-to-wall windmills. And let's not stop there. Kansas could be turned into a huge wind farm to keep the streetlights on in Topeka. Then there's the promise of hydrogen as a seemingly endless form of energy for our cars and other vehicles. Never mind the billions it would require to reproduce the existing network of gas stations across the nation -- or the fact that it would cost a lot of money and take a lot of energy just to split off that hydrogen molecule for a drive to grandma's house. Surely the US government is on top of all of this. Anyone remember the Bush energy plan? Well, maybe not....
Five Garfield County towns oppose drilling on top of Roan Plateau The city councils of at least five Garfield County towns have voted to oppose a federal plan to allow drilling for natural gas on top of the Roan Plateau. Some of the towns are endorsing an alternative drafted by a coalition of environmental and community groups. The Bureau of Land Management last November proposed up to 200 wells on top of the sprawling plateau, which towers more than a half mile above the Colorado River valley about 150 miles west of Denver....
Global warming novel a hit with politicians, but not scientists A provocative new novel that says fears of global warming are unjustified and stoked by an environmentalist-media conspiracy is taking Washington by storm. "State of Fear," a novel by Michael Crichton, the best-selling author of "Jurassic Park," and the creator of the TV show "ER," compares scientists who warn of global warming to advocates of eugenics who said that the mixing of races would ruin the world's genetic stock. In an appendix explaining his position, Crichton writes: "Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be a natural phenomenon. Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be man-made. Nobody knows how much warming will occur in the next century."....
Huge manure fire burns into third month But Dickinson, who makes his living in the cattle business, has an environmental problem on his hands that is vexing state officials: a 2,000-ton pile of burning cow manure. Dickinson owns and manages Midwest Feeding Co. about 20 miles west of Lincoln, which takes in as many as 12,000 cows at a time from farmers and ranchers and fattens them for market. Byproducts from the massive operation resulted in a dung pile measuring 100 feet long, 30 feet high and 50 feet wide that began burning about two months ago and continues to smolder despite Herculean attempts to douse it....
U.S. ranchers say Canada appears to be complying with BSE feed safeguards A group of American ranchers say Canada appears to be complying with a key safeguard against the spread of mad cow disease. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) released some initial findings Thursday based on a tour some of its members took of Alberta feedlots and a slaughter facility last week. One issue the ranchers focused on is how well Canada is following a ban imposed in 1997 against feeding cattle meat or bonemeal from cows or other ruminants....
Mad cow hard to get, study suggests A person would have to eat 1.5 kilograms of brain and viscera from an infected cow in a single sitting to contract the human form of mad-cow disease, according to a new study in the medical journal The Lancet. While that is markedly less than Alberta Premier Ralph Klein's estimate that "you would have to eat 10 billion meals of brains, spinal cords, ganglia, eyeballs and tonsils to get the disease," it still provides fairly good assurance that eating Canadian beef is safe, researchers say. Jean-Philippe Deslys, a prions researcher at the French Atomic Energy Commission, said that while his research does not provide a definitive minimum infective dose for the transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy from cattle to humans, it strongly suggests that existing measures to protect the food supply are adequate....
Cowboy's Best Friend For Rodney Hopwood's 13-month-old border collie, Marco, the first glimpse of civilization came after a long journey. "He's never been to town," Hopwood, a Kimberly, Idaho, dog trainer, said Wednesday. But the trek to the Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale is an annual rite for Hopwood, who's been showcasing cattle dogs here for nine years. The sale -- the biggest of its kind west of the Rocky Mountains -- is the only one that Hopwood brings his dogs to....
The oldest trade rebranded Can a bordello really be sold as a resort destination? George Flint, head of the Nevada Brothel Association, insists that a trip to the Mustang Ranch could be “just as important as driving to Mount Rushmore”. This is all in marked contrast to the Mustang Ranch's history. The first legal brothel in America saw the murder of a boxer, a mysterious fire and several government raids; it is also cited (unfavourably) in the Internal Revenue's tax manual. It was owned by Joe Conforte, who spent time in jail, tried to float the brothel on the stockmarket, fled charges of money-laundering, racketeering and bribery, and is now rumoured to be living in Brazil. In 1999, the government seized the Mustang Ranch (this time to shut it down for good). When the Bureau of Land Management auctioned the ranch's assets on eBay in 2003, Mr Gilman paid $145,000 for the brothel's trademark and pink stucco building, which he airlifted to a site beside the Wild Horse....
The last two days you may have noticed gaps or spaces between items that normally aren't there. Well, I don't know why they are there either....blogspot.com must be experiencing some kind of a problem with their publishing function.
To drill or not to drill? A classic Western controversy surrounds the proposed gas drilling on the Roan Plateau. On one side, the Federal Government, gas companies, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Association are pushing for more domestic energy production. On the other side, a coalition of ranchers, citizens, politicians and environmentalists attempt to put differences aside, unify, and restrict any drilling on the Plateau’s upper reaches....
Fire season drawing concern of governor Frustrated with what she sees as federal foot-dragging, Gov. Janet Napolitano is turning to the state's congressional delegation to help determine if and when the state will get air tankers for the upcoming fire season. In a letter to the delegation, Napolitano said she worried that Arizona was destined to a repeat of last year, when air tankers were grounded in the midst of Arizona's fire season. The U.S. Forest Service will be offering contracts for tanker operations in mid- to late-March, Napolitano told the congressmen, without citing her source. "That is simply too late for Arizona as our wildland fire season starts earlier in the year and we need to make decision (sic) on allocation of state resources now," she wrote....
Eureka mill to close after 25 years Wednesday, Jim Hurst reached deep into his bag of tricks, mumbled a few incantations and conjured up a handful of absolutely nothing. "There's nothing left," the lumber mill owner said. "I've pulled several rabbits out of the hat to keep it running this long. But there's no more tricks up the sleeve. It's over." After 25 years in the business, Eureka's Owens and Hurst Lumber Co. is silencing the saws. Hurst, who has been a vocal advocate of the timber industry and an outspoken critic of environmentalists, blamed the U.S. Forest Service for not providing enough public-land logs to keep his operation afloat. And he blamed the conservation community for forcing the agency's hand with regard to diminishing harvests....
Environmentalists sue to stop logging at national monument Environmentalists sued the federal government this week over plans to log Giant Sequoia National Monument, saying the move would cater to the timber industry at the expense of an ecosystem home to two-thirds of the world's largest trees. The Sierra Club and four other environmental groups said a plan by the U.S. Forest Service to log parts of the 327,769-acre monument in central California was scientifically suspect. They filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco seeking to block the plan and have it vacated....
Salmon survival game plays out on board A new board game will teach children the life cycle of salmon and steelhead trout. The U.S. Forest Service and 12 partners ordered 1,200 of the games to be made by the federal printing office at cost of $36,000. The Salmon Life Cycle game will be distributed to schools in the lower Columbia River Basin, and will be available at any national forest headquarters office in Oregon and Washington or from the partners, Glen Sachet , spokesman for Mount Hood National Forest, said Wednesday. The game will be loaned, similar to checking out a book from a library, and will not be sold, Sachet said....
Species act violated in flood, but Mesquite won't face fine Federal and city officials have agreed to develop a long-term plan to protect lives, property and endangered species habitat on the Virgin River after emergency flood-control measures altered the river's channel. The city won't be fined for Endangered Species Act violations that might have occurred during and after this month's flooding, Mayor Bill Nicholes said. ''We all admit that private communications might have helped,'' Nicholes said after meeting Wednesday with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Army Corps of Engineers officials. ''But stopping water going into homes was a priority.'' ''As far as any fines, that's pretty much satisfied there won't be anything,'' he said. Officials bulldozed about 80 acres of critical habitat for several federally protected birds and fish while struggling Jan. 11 to keep the river out of homes and a middle school in the southeast Nevada community near the Arizona and Utah border....
Wildlife officials opt to open dunes to off-road vehicles Federal wildlife officials cleared the way Thursday to reopen desert dunes popular with Inland off-roaders, saying desert tortoises and a plant threatened with extinction can survive among the recreational vehicles. Environmentalists said they would fight the decision to open nearly 50,000 acres, or about one-third, of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area to motorcycles, dune buggies and all-terrain vehicles. Damage from off-road play would push the species closer to extinction, they said. "They can't just go ahead and throw the dunes open," said Daniel Patterson, ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity in Idyllwild....
Fish and Wildlife Service denies petitions to list common grasses under ESA The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced it will not move to add two common grasses, found in California, Baja California, Mexico, and Arizona, to the Federal list of threatened and endangered species. The Service said it has completed a review of the two grasses, Arizona brome (Bromus arizonicus) and nodding needlegrass (Nassella cernua), in response to two petitions filed in June 2002 by a private citizen. The petitions claim the two species are in decline and threatened by commercial, residential, and agricultural development, off-highway vehicle activity, energy development, cattle grazing, fires, military activities, introduction on nonnative plants, roadside herbicide use and mowing, and law enforcement activities along the border between the United States and Mexico....
Coho report in line with Bush approach Contrary to findings by federal scientists, Oregon officials have concluded that Oregon coast coho salmon are not at risk and thus no longer in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act. If U.S. officials accept Oregon's conclusion -- outlined in a draft report -- the state probably would take over management of the prized fish and become the first state in a drive by the Bush administration to emphasize local control over wildlife issues. It would lead the way in reshaping national policy on endangered species....
Column: Mexican grays did their part Skeptics had predicted that captive wolves would never withstand the harsh realities of survival in the wild, but those wolves proved that they still harbored the inherent capability to bring down elk, find den sites for the birth of their pups and produce offspring that knew nothing about the zoos where their parents had been fed by humans. Today, natural reproduction in the wild has nearly replaced release of captive wolves as the source for population growth. Despite the success of the Mexican wolf recovery program, there are critical problems screaming for remedial correction. Immediate action must begin to correct two major problems in the federal rule that governs protocol for the project. First, the rule must be relaxed so wolves that roam outside the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area boundaries are removed only when they cause livestock depredation or present a threat to humans. Second, the rule must be modified to develop authority to conduct releases of Mexican wolves directly into the Gila National Forest....
Park: River runners' deal may not float While Grand Canyon National Park officials on Wednesday applauded an agreement between private boaters and commercial outfitters for rafting trips on the Colorado River through the park, they cautioned that other viewpoints must be considered. The Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association, the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association, American Whitewater and the Grand Canyon River Runners Association announced what they billed as a historic compromise between user groups competing for the limited space on the river. Their compromise called for a split of river permits between commercial and private rafters, the continued use of motors, an adjustment to spread out use throughout the year and improvements to the permitting system....
Underfunded national parks must turn away children, study says National parks in California are so underfunded and understaffed that they've eliminated educational programs and are turning away thousands of children each year. According to a study this week from the National Parks Conservation Association, roughly 80,000 kindergartners through 12th graders participate in educational programs each year at parks such as Joshua Tree, Yosemite and Lassen Volcanic. That amounts to only 1 percent of the state's 7 million public and private school students. NPCA, a nonprofit advocacy group, estimates that the 11 parks would require a $7 million increase in their operating budgets to meet current demand. The national park system as a whole suffers from a shortfall of more than $600 million, according to the NPCA study, prompting parks around the country to cut programs and staff....
Congress to restart debate on energy bill With home heating bills up 30 percent or more over the past few years and electric rates rising, Congress will once again try to pass an energy bill aimed at boosting U.S. supplies of natural gas. While similar bills have languished in Congress, energy companies have taken steps of their own to increase supplies. More than 26 proposals are on the drawing board to build facilities to receive natural gas imports from overseas. And some electric companies have turned to building coal-fired power plants instead of the once more popular gas-fired ones. When Congress made its initial stab at an energy bill four years ago, the major impetus was an electricity shortage that hit California and caused price spikes throughout the West. But today, many lawmakers are more worried about the high price of natural gas, which has boosted consumer utility bills and cost thousands of jobs at chemical, paper and fertilizer companies -- industries that use large amounts of natural gas....
Column: Thwarting America's Energy Needs Well of course you want the entire shoreline of the East and West Coast to be filled with windmills producing insignificant amounts of energy! Nothing better than to head for the beaches of New Jersey or California and look out on the inspiring vista of wall-to-wall windmills. And let's not stop there. Kansas could be turned into a huge wind farm to keep the streetlights on in Topeka. Then there's the promise of hydrogen as a seemingly endless form of energy for our cars and other vehicles. Never mind the billions it would require to reproduce the existing network of gas stations across the nation -- or the fact that it would cost a lot of money and take a lot of energy just to split off that hydrogen molecule for a drive to grandma's house. Surely the US government is on top of all of this. Anyone remember the Bush energy plan? Well, maybe not....
Five Garfield County towns oppose drilling on top of Roan Plateau The city councils of at least five Garfield County towns have voted to oppose a federal plan to allow drilling for natural gas on top of the Roan Plateau. Some of the towns are endorsing an alternative drafted by a coalition of environmental and community groups. The Bureau of Land Management last November proposed up to 200 wells on top of the sprawling plateau, which towers more than a half mile above the Colorado River valley about 150 miles west of Denver....
Global warming novel a hit with politicians, but not scientists A provocative new novel that says fears of global warming are unjustified and stoked by an environmentalist-media conspiracy is taking Washington by storm. "State of Fear," a novel by Michael Crichton, the best-selling author of "Jurassic Park," and the creator of the TV show "ER," compares scientists who warn of global warming to advocates of eugenics who said that the mixing of races would ruin the world's genetic stock. In an appendix explaining his position, Crichton writes: "Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be a natural phenomenon. Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be man-made. Nobody knows how much warming will occur in the next century."....
Huge manure fire burns into third month But Dickinson, who makes his living in the cattle business, has an environmental problem on his hands that is vexing state officials: a 2,000-ton pile of burning cow manure. Dickinson owns and manages Midwest Feeding Co. about 20 miles west of Lincoln, which takes in as many as 12,000 cows at a time from farmers and ranchers and fattens them for market. Byproducts from the massive operation resulted in a dung pile measuring 100 feet long, 30 feet high and 50 feet wide that began burning about two months ago and continues to smolder despite Herculean attempts to douse it....
U.S. ranchers say Canada appears to be complying with BSE feed safeguards A group of American ranchers say Canada appears to be complying with a key safeguard against the spread of mad cow disease. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) released some initial findings Thursday based on a tour some of its members took of Alberta feedlots and a slaughter facility last week. One issue the ranchers focused on is how well Canada is following a ban imposed in 1997 against feeding cattle meat or bonemeal from cows or other ruminants....
Mad cow hard to get, study suggests A person would have to eat 1.5 kilograms of brain and viscera from an infected cow in a single sitting to contract the human form of mad-cow disease, according to a new study in the medical journal The Lancet. While that is markedly less than Alberta Premier Ralph Klein's estimate that "you would have to eat 10 billion meals of brains, spinal cords, ganglia, eyeballs and tonsils to get the disease," it still provides fairly good assurance that eating Canadian beef is safe, researchers say. Jean-Philippe Deslys, a prions researcher at the French Atomic Energy Commission, said that while his research does not provide a definitive minimum infective dose for the transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy from cattle to humans, it strongly suggests that existing measures to protect the food supply are adequate....
Cowboy's Best Friend For Rodney Hopwood's 13-month-old border collie, Marco, the first glimpse of civilization came after a long journey. "He's never been to town," Hopwood, a Kimberly, Idaho, dog trainer, said Wednesday. But the trek to the Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale is an annual rite for Hopwood, who's been showcasing cattle dogs here for nine years. The sale -- the biggest of its kind west of the Rocky Mountains -- is the only one that Hopwood brings his dogs to....
The oldest trade rebranded Can a bordello really be sold as a resort destination? George Flint, head of the Nevada Brothel Association, insists that a trip to the Mustang Ranch could be “just as important as driving to Mount Rushmore”. This is all in marked contrast to the Mustang Ranch's history. The first legal brothel in America saw the murder of a boxer, a mysterious fire and several government raids; it is also cited (unfavourably) in the Internal Revenue's tax manual. It was owned by Joe Conforte, who spent time in jail, tried to float the brothel on the stockmarket, fled charges of money-laundering, racketeering and bribery, and is now rumoured to be living in Brazil. In 1999, the government seized the Mustang Ranch (this time to shut it down for good). When the Bureau of Land Management auctioned the ranch's assets on eBay in 2003, Mr Gilman paid $145,000 for the brothel's trademark and pink stucco building, which he airlifted to a site beside the Wild Horse....
The last two days you may have noticed gaps or spaces between items that normally aren't there. Well, I don't know why they are there either....blogspot.com must be experiencing some kind of a problem with their publishing function.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Interior rancher leading the fight against prairie dogs They might look innocent enough, but for rancher Charles Kruse, prairie dogs are anything but harmless. “I've sold a third of my herd, my neighbor Jerry Heinrichs has had to sell 100% of his herd, my brother Daniel had all of his cows shipped up to Pierre last year.” 650 acres of Kruse's land in the Conata Basin is overrun by prairie dogs, turning once green pasture into a barren wasteland in just three short years. “When you have 70,000 acres of prairie dog town next to you and they are all coming off onto your property it's really frustrating to be a farm rancher.” Kruse says recent poisoning efforts on federal land is not enough. Now, he is suing the Secretary of South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks, and the South Dakota Department of Agriculture for mis–managing the federal lands. “In 41–11–15 it says there were supposed to set up a fund to compensate landowners for lost income and it hasn't been done and we would like the secretaries to obey the laws.”....
Drilling's effects on landowners at issue A lawmaker is taking a growing property-rights fight between ranchers and oil and gas companies to the Capitol. Rep. Kathleen Curry is proposing legislation that would force the companies to negotiate how they do business on private land where they have obtained subsurface property rights. By building roads, drilling and placing pumps on once-productive agricultural land, the companies are affecting landowners' property values, said Curry, D-Gunnison. Curry wants to create an "incentive to negotiate," she said Tuesday. "The goal is to minimize decreases in property rights."....
Judge denies logging halt of Biscuit fire-killed trees A federal judge has denied a request to halt logging within the area burned by the massive 2002 Biscuit fire. The request was brought by environmentalists who claim the US Forest Service failed to protect hundreds of dead trees that should have been left standing for salmon habitat. US District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene ruled that the claims brought by the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics were not serious, and they were unlikely to win in a trial....
Yavapai Ranch Land Exchange slated for reintroduction Key Arizona members of Congress will try, again, to push through a complicated land swap bill that would allow Flagstaff to expand Pulliam Airport. The Yavapai Ranch Land Exchange bill is set to be reintroduced in the Senate and House of Representatives this week. The bill died during Congress' last session that ended in early December, prompting ranch owner Fred Ruskin to begin dropping strong hints that he didn't plan to wait for another try in Washington, D.C. All told, the legislation would have allowed the Forest Service to exchange 21,236 acres of land near Flagstaff, Williams, Camp Verde, Clarkdale and Cottonwood for approximately 35,000 acres of the private ranch land....
Editorial: Federal agencies need consolidation Today, three federal agencies manage the vast majority of public lands in the United States. The Forest Service, under the Department of Agriculture, manages nearly 200 million acres. The National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, both under the Department of Interior, manage 84 million and 262 million acres, respectively. And that’s one agency too many. How these agencies and their missions evolved is a long story. The National Park Service is the only one of the three with the strictly preservationist role — to protect the "crown jewels" of America’s natural wonders. But at this point we don’t need both a Forest Service and a BLM, which have come to serve very similar purposes. Given the compatibility and redundancy of their missions, they should be combined into a single agency. Ideally, this would improve consistency and predictability in how federal lands are managed and help reduce public confusion about agency missions....
Hunter ordered to pay $15,000 after grizzly shooting, cover-up A Kentucky bow hunter who killed a federally protected grizzly bear near Island Park, Idaho, and then tried to cover it up, has been ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution. Dan Walters, 46, of Dry Ridge, Ky., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court this week to a misdemeanor charge of killing the bear, a 300-pound, 7-year-old sow that was part of efforts to restore the grizzly, a threatened species protected under the Endangered Species Act. Walters also will be forbidden from hunting for two years....
Column: Bison management: time to sink or swim Indecision is usually a fatal disease. The ongoing Yellowstone National Park bison saga is a perfect example of treading water. The National Park Service has demonstrated over the past 3½ decades that it is no longer capable of making tough decisions or executing a plan of action. Enter Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Schweitzer has proposed temporarily depopulating Yellowstone National Park of bison over a period of a few years. Bison would be rounded up, tested for brucellosis, and those testing positive would be sent to the slaughter house. Bison that test negative would be held on various ranches until the brucellosis-free bison can be returned to Yellowstone. Already there are howls of protest....
New wells officially on tap at Padre With crews poised to start drilling this week, the National Park Service has approved a controversial plan to allow five more natural gas wells at Padre Island National Seashore. The move angered environmentalists, who are calling for the federal government to buy the private mineral rights under the seashore. However, the decision was not unexpected. In its environmental assessment of the plan released in November, the Park Service recommended allowing the drilling, saying the environmental impact was minimal and the federal government could not deny access to private mineral rights on the property. The Park Service's regional office in Denver made that position official Wednesday....
Animal rights group wants to give doomed horses to tribes An animal rights group hopes to muster support to defeat legislation that they say would result in thousands of wild horses being used as food for Europeans. Rather, the group would like to give those horses to Indian tribes. The controversy started when Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., sponsored legislation that reversed a longstanding Bureau of Land Management law. For years the BLM required people adopting wild horses to prove over the course of a year that they could adequately care for them before the agency would grant legal ownership. Burns’ legislation allows the bureau to sell horses that are 10 or older, or that have been unsuccessfully offered for adoption three times, without the waiting period. The law outraged many who worried that the horses could end up in countries like France and Belgium where horse steaks are considered a delicacy....
Utah, Interior OK plan to clear air in parks The Interior Department and Utah agreed Wednesday to a plan aimed at helping to reduce haze in Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion national parks. The agreement, two years in the making, helps implement the National Parks Service's plan to wipe out haze in national parks across the country, restoring "natural visibility" by 2018. "It says we'll play nicely with one another," said Cheryl Heying, planning branch manager at the Utah Division of Air Quality. Restoring visibility to its natural condition in the national parks is something we're committed to in the state of Utah." The memorandum sets up a process for the Park Service to notify the state to address major pollution sources, such as power plants, if progress is not being made toward clearing the air....
Environmentalists threaten legal action to stop rechanneling of river A national environmental group has threatened legal action to block the rechanneling of the Virgin River, but city officials said the work is needed to protect public infrastructure and private property following damaging floods earlier this month. Daniel Patterson, an ecologist with the Denver-based Center for Biological Research, said Mesquite officials are doing work beyond what is necessary and could affect habitats along the river. “They need to slow down and talk to some biologists and everyone else with an interest in the river,” Patterson said, adding that federal law should require the halt to the rechanneling efforts....
Survey finds Oregon farmers depend on irrigation "Many people think irrigation is not a big issue in Oregon because of how wet the state appears to be," says Jim Johnson, land use and water planning coordinator for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. "However, irrigation is really a key to Oregon agriculture. Nearly 45 percent of all farms and ranches in the state do some type of irrigation totaling about 1.9 million acres." The latest figures show 17,776 of Oregon's 40,033 farms irrigate some or all of their land. The number of farms is up slightly from the 1997 irrigation survey, but the number of acres irrigated is down by 55,850 acres. Reasons vary for the relatively small drop in acreage, according to Johnson....
U.S. threat aimed at NAFTA Frustrated by legal challenges and stalled talks, the U.S. lumber industry is threatening an unprecedented constitutional challenge of NAFTA that could risk unravelling the decade-old free trade deal completely. The U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports yesterday confirmed statements by Sen. Michael Crapo of Idaho that it may file a lawsuit challenging the wide-ranging trade deal's authority over U.S. law. "The grounds would be that it is inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution and it violates our rights," said Harry Clark, a lawyer for the coalition. Trade experts said last night the constitutional challenge, if successful, could seriously undermine the free trade pact between Canada, Mexico and the United States....
Pilot animal ID program tracks cattle on trucks using GPS, cellular technology On any given day on the remote roads of Kansas, hundreds of tractor-trailers are hauling cattle across the state's vast rangelands, headed for feedlots and slaughterhouses. And in an era of mad cow disease and the threat of agroterrorism, federal agriculture regulators want to be able to locate within 48 hours - or sooner - the whereabouts of each of the nation's 100 million-plus head of cattle. Enter a Kansas proposal that would combine GPS, cellular and radio frequency technologies to track cattle as they are in transit. It is one of the ideas the U.S. Department of Agriculture is testing and one that could shape the nation's emerging animal identification system....
Wagon journey ends in Austin A group of El Paso-area students landed on the Capitol steps Tuesday better acquainted with history and proud of their part in retracing the southern gold rush using horse-drawn wagons to cover the 650-mile journey. Fourteen Socorro Independent School District students participated in the project that replicated -- in reverse -- the mid-1800s route taken by adventurer William P. Huff, whose 300,000-word diary guided the group along the way. Slider history teacher Victor Gonzalez, who accompanied the students, said the firsthand experience of hitching the horses, feeding them and living along the trail amplified what they learn from textbooks....
Magdalena agency gathering stockyard histories A project to preserve and improve Magdalena's Stock Driveway and Shipping Yards as a national historical site and to attract tourism is plodding along. The Magdalena Area Community Development Corp. has recently entered into an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to gather and record oral histories throughout Socorro and Catron counties. Built in 1885 when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway completed its branch line to Magdalena, the stock driveway began being utilized by cattle and sheep drivers to ship their stock, according to a chamber of commerce publication. The Magdalena Stock Driveway is one of only three original and historic cattle and sheep herding stockyards in existence in the country today....
Interior rancher leading the fight against prairie dogs They might look innocent enough, but for rancher Charles Kruse, prairie dogs are anything but harmless. “I've sold a third of my herd, my neighbor Jerry Heinrichs has had to sell 100% of his herd, my brother Daniel had all of his cows shipped up to Pierre last year.” 650 acres of Kruse's land in the Conata Basin is overrun by prairie dogs, turning once green pasture into a barren wasteland in just three short years. “When you have 70,000 acres of prairie dog town next to you and they are all coming off onto your property it's really frustrating to be a farm rancher.” Kruse says recent poisoning efforts on federal land is not enough. Now, he is suing the Secretary of South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks, and the South Dakota Department of Agriculture for mis–managing the federal lands. “In 41–11–15 it says there were supposed to set up a fund to compensate landowners for lost income and it hasn't been done and we would like the secretaries to obey the laws.”....
Drilling's effects on landowners at issue A lawmaker is taking a growing property-rights fight between ranchers and oil and gas companies to the Capitol. Rep. Kathleen Curry is proposing legislation that would force the companies to negotiate how they do business on private land where they have obtained subsurface property rights. By building roads, drilling and placing pumps on once-productive agricultural land, the companies are affecting landowners' property values, said Curry, D-Gunnison. Curry wants to create an "incentive to negotiate," she said Tuesday. "The goal is to minimize decreases in property rights."....
Judge denies logging halt of Biscuit fire-killed trees A federal judge has denied a request to halt logging within the area burned by the massive 2002 Biscuit fire. The request was brought by environmentalists who claim the US Forest Service failed to protect hundreds of dead trees that should have been left standing for salmon habitat. US District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene ruled that the claims brought by the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics were not serious, and they were unlikely to win in a trial....
Yavapai Ranch Land Exchange slated for reintroduction Key Arizona members of Congress will try, again, to push through a complicated land swap bill that would allow Flagstaff to expand Pulliam Airport. The Yavapai Ranch Land Exchange bill is set to be reintroduced in the Senate and House of Representatives this week. The bill died during Congress' last session that ended in early December, prompting ranch owner Fred Ruskin to begin dropping strong hints that he didn't plan to wait for another try in Washington, D.C. All told, the legislation would have allowed the Forest Service to exchange 21,236 acres of land near Flagstaff, Williams, Camp Verde, Clarkdale and Cottonwood for approximately 35,000 acres of the private ranch land....
Editorial: Federal agencies need consolidation Today, three federal agencies manage the vast majority of public lands in the United States. The Forest Service, under the Department of Agriculture, manages nearly 200 million acres. The National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, both under the Department of Interior, manage 84 million and 262 million acres, respectively. And that’s one agency too many. How these agencies and their missions evolved is a long story. The National Park Service is the only one of the three with the strictly preservationist role — to protect the "crown jewels" of America’s natural wonders. But at this point we don’t need both a Forest Service and a BLM, which have come to serve very similar purposes. Given the compatibility and redundancy of their missions, they should be combined into a single agency. Ideally, this would improve consistency and predictability in how federal lands are managed and help reduce public confusion about agency missions....
Hunter ordered to pay $15,000 after grizzly shooting, cover-up A Kentucky bow hunter who killed a federally protected grizzly bear near Island Park, Idaho, and then tried to cover it up, has been ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution. Dan Walters, 46, of Dry Ridge, Ky., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court this week to a misdemeanor charge of killing the bear, a 300-pound, 7-year-old sow that was part of efforts to restore the grizzly, a threatened species protected under the Endangered Species Act. Walters also will be forbidden from hunting for two years....
Column: Bison management: time to sink or swim Indecision is usually a fatal disease. The ongoing Yellowstone National Park bison saga is a perfect example of treading water. The National Park Service has demonstrated over the past 3½ decades that it is no longer capable of making tough decisions or executing a plan of action. Enter Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Schweitzer has proposed temporarily depopulating Yellowstone National Park of bison over a period of a few years. Bison would be rounded up, tested for brucellosis, and those testing positive would be sent to the slaughter house. Bison that test negative would be held on various ranches until the brucellosis-free bison can be returned to Yellowstone. Already there are howls of protest....
New wells officially on tap at Padre With crews poised to start drilling this week, the National Park Service has approved a controversial plan to allow five more natural gas wells at Padre Island National Seashore. The move angered environmentalists, who are calling for the federal government to buy the private mineral rights under the seashore. However, the decision was not unexpected. In its environmental assessment of the plan released in November, the Park Service recommended allowing the drilling, saying the environmental impact was minimal and the federal government could not deny access to private mineral rights on the property. The Park Service's regional office in Denver made that position official Wednesday....
Animal rights group wants to give doomed horses to tribes An animal rights group hopes to muster support to defeat legislation that they say would result in thousands of wild horses being used as food for Europeans. Rather, the group would like to give those horses to Indian tribes. The controversy started when Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., sponsored legislation that reversed a longstanding Bureau of Land Management law. For years the BLM required people adopting wild horses to prove over the course of a year that they could adequately care for them before the agency would grant legal ownership. Burns’ legislation allows the bureau to sell horses that are 10 or older, or that have been unsuccessfully offered for adoption three times, without the waiting period. The law outraged many who worried that the horses could end up in countries like France and Belgium where horse steaks are considered a delicacy....
Utah, Interior OK plan to clear air in parks The Interior Department and Utah agreed Wednesday to a plan aimed at helping to reduce haze in Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion national parks. The agreement, two years in the making, helps implement the National Parks Service's plan to wipe out haze in national parks across the country, restoring "natural visibility" by 2018. "It says we'll play nicely with one another," said Cheryl Heying, planning branch manager at the Utah Division of Air Quality. Restoring visibility to its natural condition in the national parks is something we're committed to in the state of Utah." The memorandum sets up a process for the Park Service to notify the state to address major pollution sources, such as power plants, if progress is not being made toward clearing the air....
Environmentalists threaten legal action to stop rechanneling of river A national environmental group has threatened legal action to block the rechanneling of the Virgin River, but city officials said the work is needed to protect public infrastructure and private property following damaging floods earlier this month. Daniel Patterson, an ecologist with the Denver-based Center for Biological Research, said Mesquite officials are doing work beyond what is necessary and could affect habitats along the river. “They need to slow down and talk to some biologists and everyone else with an interest in the river,” Patterson said, adding that federal law should require the halt to the rechanneling efforts....
Survey finds Oregon farmers depend on irrigation "Many people think irrigation is not a big issue in Oregon because of how wet the state appears to be," says Jim Johnson, land use and water planning coordinator for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. "However, irrigation is really a key to Oregon agriculture. Nearly 45 percent of all farms and ranches in the state do some type of irrigation totaling about 1.9 million acres." The latest figures show 17,776 of Oregon's 40,033 farms irrigate some or all of their land. The number of farms is up slightly from the 1997 irrigation survey, but the number of acres irrigated is down by 55,850 acres. Reasons vary for the relatively small drop in acreage, according to Johnson....
U.S. threat aimed at NAFTA Frustrated by legal challenges and stalled talks, the U.S. lumber industry is threatening an unprecedented constitutional challenge of NAFTA that could risk unravelling the decade-old free trade deal completely. The U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports yesterday confirmed statements by Sen. Michael Crapo of Idaho that it may file a lawsuit challenging the wide-ranging trade deal's authority over U.S. law. "The grounds would be that it is inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution and it violates our rights," said Harry Clark, a lawyer for the coalition. Trade experts said last night the constitutional challenge, if successful, could seriously undermine the free trade pact between Canada, Mexico and the United States....
Pilot animal ID program tracks cattle on trucks using GPS, cellular technology On any given day on the remote roads of Kansas, hundreds of tractor-trailers are hauling cattle across the state's vast rangelands, headed for feedlots and slaughterhouses. And in an era of mad cow disease and the threat of agroterrorism, federal agriculture regulators want to be able to locate within 48 hours - or sooner - the whereabouts of each of the nation's 100 million-plus head of cattle. Enter a Kansas proposal that would combine GPS, cellular and radio frequency technologies to track cattle as they are in transit. It is one of the ideas the U.S. Department of Agriculture is testing and one that could shape the nation's emerging animal identification system....
Wagon journey ends in Austin A group of El Paso-area students landed on the Capitol steps Tuesday better acquainted with history and proud of their part in retracing the southern gold rush using horse-drawn wagons to cover the 650-mile journey. Fourteen Socorro Independent School District students participated in the project that replicated -- in reverse -- the mid-1800s route taken by adventurer William P. Huff, whose 300,000-word diary guided the group along the way. Slider history teacher Victor Gonzalez, who accompanied the students, said the firsthand experience of hitching the horses, feeding them and living along the trail amplified what they learn from textbooks....
Magdalena agency gathering stockyard histories A project to preserve and improve Magdalena's Stock Driveway and Shipping Yards as a national historical site and to attract tourism is plodding along. The Magdalena Area Community Development Corp. has recently entered into an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to gather and record oral histories throughout Socorro and Catron counties. Built in 1885 when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway completed its branch line to Magdalena, the stock driveway began being utilized by cattle and sheep drivers to ship their stock, according to a chamber of commerce publication. The Magdalena Stock Driveway is one of only three original and historic cattle and sheep herding stockyards in existence in the country today....
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Protection vs. recreation: the tortoise tussle As Congress considers whether to tinker with the venerable Endangered Species Act, a dust-up between environmentalists and off-road enthusiasts is spotlighting the power of judges to protect animals from the agencies assigned to defend them. At issue is the Mojave desert tortoise, a species whose numbers in Southern California have shrunk in recent decades. Federal wildlife officials, who believe they only have an obligation to keep the tortoise from dwindling further, are facing fire from environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club. A federal judge has been sympathetic to the tortoise's defenders, rejecting pleas from off-roaders who fear losing access to large swaths of the desert. The dispute is part of an enduring trend in which environmentalists are turning to the courts to fight any federal rollback of protections for rare plants and animals. In recent months, judges have been grappling with how far to go to protect animals such as Arizona's pygmy owl and the southwestern willow flycatcher....
Murray tries again for wilderness bill Sen. Patty Murray yesterday launched yet another bid to win congressional approval for Wild Sky, a popular but tormented effort to create Washington's first new wilderness area in a generation. "Wild Sky reflects the great tradition of preserving places that make Washington state unique," Murray, D-Wash., said of the proposal to protect 106,000 acres in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. But while Murray said the bill's prospects in the Senate are good, where it has already passed twice, its future in the House is far less certain. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said he would consider Wild Sky only if it is trimmed of roughly 13,000 acres that contain logging roads and other marks of modern intrusion....
Ranchers to sue state over prairie dogs Landowners in southwestern South Dakota are asking the state to compensate them for losses caused by black-tailed prairie dogs that moved from federal land onto the ranchers' private land. The approximately 60 landowners filing suit have lost about $5 million because the state failed to control the prairie dog population in the area around the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, said rancher Charles Kruse of Interior. The lawsuit alleges that the state Agriculture Department and the state Game, Fish and Parks Department did not comply with state laws related to the reintroduction of the endangered black-footed ferret and the management of prairie dogs, the ferrets' main food. A 1992 state law allowed the two departments to participate in the programs to reintroduce the black-footed ferret, but it set several conditions. One of those conditions said private landowners had to be compensated if increases in the prairie dog population were needed. Prairie dog numbers skyrocketed in some parts of southwestern South Dakota in recent years because of drought and a halt in poisoning on federal land while federal officials studied whether to designate the prairie dog as an endangered species. The drought and prairie dogs destroyed grazing on parts of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. The critters also moved from the federal grasslands onto adjacent private lands....
LAND TRIAL JUDGE COULD RULE SOON Attorneys crammed a complicated two-year legal battle into less than two hours Tuesday when they made their closing arguments in a trial to determine the ownership of hundreds of acres of land and mineral deposits in Upshur County. State District Judge Paul Banner said he hopes to make a ruling by the end of next week, after he examines scores of maps, documents and other pieces of evidence. Plaintiffs W.L. Dixon and Barton McDonald filed a lawsuit against Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson claiming the 4,662-acre William King Survey actually lies about two miles west of where it appears on today's maps, leaving a vacancy in the eastern position. Historically, vacancies have been discovered in mostly small tracts of land, gaps between surveyed areas. Vacancies belong to the state, rendering invalid titles to land and minerals held by private entities in the vacancy. Because vacancies benefit the state's Permanent School Fund, lawmakers included an incentive to find them - a fraction of the mineral values in the vacant area....
Panel endorses wildlife trust fund CHEYENNE -- A bill that would preserve wildlife habitat for future generations through a $75 million state trust fund was unanimously endorsed by a Senate committee on Tuesday. Under the Wildlife and Natural Resource Funding Act, only the interest and earnings generated by the account could be spent. Allowable projects would include improving or acquiring habitat and accepting easements that could protect land from development. A board appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate would evaluate, rank and prioritize proposed wildlife improvement projects and determine which ones to fund, with an emphasis on public-private partnerships....
Bison activists want disease targeted, not animals Bison-protection activists urged Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Tuesday to join them in attacking disease in Yellowstone National Park bison and end the hazing, capturing and killing of the animals as they leave the park. Schweitzer, who earlier this month halted a planned bison hunt this winter, said he agrees that ridding the herd of brucellosis should be a priority, but he also said that hunting must be a part of population control beyond Yellowstone's borders. He and representatives of the Buffalo Field Campaign agreed the bison need more room to roam outside the park on public land, but Schweitzer warned the group's leaders that allowing a more free-ranging herd must not jeopardize Montana's status as a brucellosis-free state....
Group making a point with 'endangered' snakehead A group of politicians from Western states has embarked on an unlikely cause: having the voracious, invasive northern snakehead declared as an endangered species. But the move isn't so much about the toothy fish - it's a stunt aimed at gaining attention to property owners' concerns about the federal government infringing on their rights to protect endangered species. Alan Gardner, a commissioner in rural Washington County, Utah, admitted the application is a ploy for publicity. "It may let other people in other areas realize what impact the Endangered Species Act has on them," Mr. Gardner said. The petition filed by Mr. Gardner and government officials from a dozen other Western states asks the federal government to protect the northern snakehead and its possible habitat - a massive stretch of land from upstate New York to parts of North Carolina....
Governors Want Clean Air Protections New York Gov. George Pataki and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are pressing Congress to protect key parts of the Clean Air Act as lawmakers and the Bush administration seek to change the law. The two moderate Republicans on Tuesday urged senators considering updating the act not to reduce the powers states have now to enforce environmental regulations or create tougher state regulations. The governors, who both place great emphasis on their environmental initiatives, wrote to members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which will hold a hearing Wednesday to consider changes to the Clean Air Act....
Bankruptcy Threat With an Edge Timber giant Pacific Lumber Co. has told the Schwarzenegger administration that unless it is allowed to cut more trees, the firm may file for bankruptcy, which it says would likely terminate environmental safeguards promised as part of a $480-million deal struck more than five years ago. The federal and state governments paid the company that money to protect several thousand of acres of ancient redwoods under a 1999 agreement preserving the Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County. But now Pacific Lumber, owned by Houston-based Maxxam Inc., says it faces financial ruin because it is starting to run out of marketable timber. Unless the state grants permission for logging on a dozen areas of flood-prone watersheds the company still owns near Eureka, it says, it will have to file for bankruptcy, closing mills and laying off workers....
New sawmill is a pleasant surprise In the Seattle metropolitan area, as in most Western cities, any talk of new jobs these days usually centers around the so-called new economy: computers, biotechnology, the service industry. So it came as a surprise when Sierra Pacific Industries, a privately held company in Redding, Calif., announced a proposal last week to build something that's become a rarity around here: a sawmill. "Well, that's a switch," regional economist Dick Conway said. Like many in the area, Conway has become more used to hearing about sawmills closing, not opening....
An End to the West's Drought? Early January surveys of snowpack show that the Colorado River Basin, which gathers runoff from Wyoming to Southern California, will receive 98 percent of "normal" precipitation this year. If the rest of the winter meets historic averages, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the West's most massive reservoirs which have shrunk over the past five years to 56 percent and 36 percent of capacity, respectively, will rise. That's good news not only for the recreationists who love to boat in the desert, but also for the tens of millions of people who rely on the river for agricultural and drinking waters, including farmers in Arizona and urbanites in Las Vegas. But I wouldn't bet on the reservoirs filling up just yet. As reported in High Country News this month, scientists at the University of Arizona have discovered through analysis of the growth rings of trees that drought is a persistent visitor to the West. Over the past 500 years, a half-dozen major droughts, some lasting many decades, have struck the Colorado River Basin, according to research from the university's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. So the current drought could last a long while, whether it is interrupted by an occasional wet year or not....
Entertaining 'Across Cultures' As the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering gathered steam Monday, the featured evening performance at the Western Folklife Center's G Three Bar Theater was entitled "Across Cultures" - but it could well have been called "Across Oceans." A pair of poets from the Australian Bush shared the stage with Grupo Cimarron, a joropo band from the eastern plains of Colombia, and the unique mix of music, rhyme and culture from around the world delighted the near-capacity crowd....
It just suits them Russ Weaver preached the Gospel in a cowboy hat and a gold-and-silver belt buckle that bore a cross to more than 800 people that filled the Stock Show's livestock auction room for Sunday's Cowboy Church services. Cowboy church is an international movement that began reaching out to Christians from agricultural backgrounds more than three decades ago. When the movement's pioneers saw that Christians with farming, ranching and rodeo backgrounds were not regularly attending a church, they decided to take the church to them. Services were held in their workplaces, such as rodeo arena barns, where jeans and vests prevailed over the suit-and-tie attire of a traditional church, and bales of hay doubled as pews and prayer altars....
Cow Stuck In A Well An unusual rescue in Fresno County, came to a happy ending. A cow got stuck in a well near South and Peach Monday night. That's west of Fowler. An 80,000 lb. excavator was brought in to free the cow. Yet there she was, an 8-month old heifer, 20-feet down at the bottom of an abandoned well west of Selma. Rancher Steve Farris noticed she was missing from the herd late Monday and went searching for her, "I got about right over here by the fence and I heard this moo."....
Protection vs. recreation: the tortoise tussle As Congress considers whether to tinker with the venerable Endangered Species Act, a dust-up between environmentalists and off-road enthusiasts is spotlighting the power of judges to protect animals from the agencies assigned to defend them. At issue is the Mojave desert tortoise, a species whose numbers in Southern California have shrunk in recent decades. Federal wildlife officials, who believe they only have an obligation to keep the tortoise from dwindling further, are facing fire from environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club. A federal judge has been sympathetic to the tortoise's defenders, rejecting pleas from off-roaders who fear losing access to large swaths of the desert. The dispute is part of an enduring trend in which environmentalists are turning to the courts to fight any federal rollback of protections for rare plants and animals. In recent months, judges have been grappling with how far to go to protect animals such as Arizona's pygmy owl and the southwestern willow flycatcher....
Murray tries again for wilderness bill Sen. Patty Murray yesterday launched yet another bid to win congressional approval for Wild Sky, a popular but tormented effort to create Washington's first new wilderness area in a generation. "Wild Sky reflects the great tradition of preserving places that make Washington state unique," Murray, D-Wash., said of the proposal to protect 106,000 acres in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. But while Murray said the bill's prospects in the Senate are good, where it has already passed twice, its future in the House is far less certain. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said he would consider Wild Sky only if it is trimmed of roughly 13,000 acres that contain logging roads and other marks of modern intrusion....
Ranchers to sue state over prairie dogs Landowners in southwestern South Dakota are asking the state to compensate them for losses caused by black-tailed prairie dogs that moved from federal land onto the ranchers' private land. The approximately 60 landowners filing suit have lost about $5 million because the state failed to control the prairie dog population in the area around the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, said rancher Charles Kruse of Interior. The lawsuit alleges that the state Agriculture Department and the state Game, Fish and Parks Department did not comply with state laws related to the reintroduction of the endangered black-footed ferret and the management of prairie dogs, the ferrets' main food. A 1992 state law allowed the two departments to participate in the programs to reintroduce the black-footed ferret, but it set several conditions. One of those conditions said private landowners had to be compensated if increases in the prairie dog population were needed. Prairie dog numbers skyrocketed in some parts of southwestern South Dakota in recent years because of drought and a halt in poisoning on federal land while federal officials studied whether to designate the prairie dog as an endangered species. The drought and prairie dogs destroyed grazing on parts of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. The critters also moved from the federal grasslands onto adjacent private lands....
LAND TRIAL JUDGE COULD RULE SOON Attorneys crammed a complicated two-year legal battle into less than two hours Tuesday when they made their closing arguments in a trial to determine the ownership of hundreds of acres of land and mineral deposits in Upshur County. State District Judge Paul Banner said he hopes to make a ruling by the end of next week, after he examines scores of maps, documents and other pieces of evidence. Plaintiffs W.L. Dixon and Barton McDonald filed a lawsuit against Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson claiming the 4,662-acre William King Survey actually lies about two miles west of where it appears on today's maps, leaving a vacancy in the eastern position. Historically, vacancies have been discovered in mostly small tracts of land, gaps between surveyed areas. Vacancies belong to the state, rendering invalid titles to land and minerals held by private entities in the vacancy. Because vacancies benefit the state's Permanent School Fund, lawmakers included an incentive to find them - a fraction of the mineral values in the vacant area....
Panel endorses wildlife trust fund CHEYENNE -- A bill that would preserve wildlife habitat for future generations through a $75 million state trust fund was unanimously endorsed by a Senate committee on Tuesday. Under the Wildlife and Natural Resource Funding Act, only the interest and earnings generated by the account could be spent. Allowable projects would include improving or acquiring habitat and accepting easements that could protect land from development. A board appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate would evaluate, rank and prioritize proposed wildlife improvement projects and determine which ones to fund, with an emphasis on public-private partnerships....
Bison activists want disease targeted, not animals Bison-protection activists urged Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Tuesday to join them in attacking disease in Yellowstone National Park bison and end the hazing, capturing and killing of the animals as they leave the park. Schweitzer, who earlier this month halted a planned bison hunt this winter, said he agrees that ridding the herd of brucellosis should be a priority, but he also said that hunting must be a part of population control beyond Yellowstone's borders. He and representatives of the Buffalo Field Campaign agreed the bison need more room to roam outside the park on public land, but Schweitzer warned the group's leaders that allowing a more free-ranging herd must not jeopardize Montana's status as a brucellosis-free state....
Group making a point with 'endangered' snakehead A group of politicians from Western states has embarked on an unlikely cause: having the voracious, invasive northern snakehead declared as an endangered species. But the move isn't so much about the toothy fish - it's a stunt aimed at gaining attention to property owners' concerns about the federal government infringing on their rights to protect endangered species. Alan Gardner, a commissioner in rural Washington County, Utah, admitted the application is a ploy for publicity. "It may let other people in other areas realize what impact the Endangered Species Act has on them," Mr. Gardner said. The petition filed by Mr. Gardner and government officials from a dozen other Western states asks the federal government to protect the northern snakehead and its possible habitat - a massive stretch of land from upstate New York to parts of North Carolina....
Governors Want Clean Air Protections New York Gov. George Pataki and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are pressing Congress to protect key parts of the Clean Air Act as lawmakers and the Bush administration seek to change the law. The two moderate Republicans on Tuesday urged senators considering updating the act not to reduce the powers states have now to enforce environmental regulations or create tougher state regulations. The governors, who both place great emphasis on their environmental initiatives, wrote to members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which will hold a hearing Wednesday to consider changes to the Clean Air Act....
Bankruptcy Threat With an Edge Timber giant Pacific Lumber Co. has told the Schwarzenegger administration that unless it is allowed to cut more trees, the firm may file for bankruptcy, which it says would likely terminate environmental safeguards promised as part of a $480-million deal struck more than five years ago. The federal and state governments paid the company that money to protect several thousand of acres of ancient redwoods under a 1999 agreement preserving the Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County. But now Pacific Lumber, owned by Houston-based Maxxam Inc., says it faces financial ruin because it is starting to run out of marketable timber. Unless the state grants permission for logging on a dozen areas of flood-prone watersheds the company still owns near Eureka, it says, it will have to file for bankruptcy, closing mills and laying off workers....
New sawmill is a pleasant surprise In the Seattle metropolitan area, as in most Western cities, any talk of new jobs these days usually centers around the so-called new economy: computers, biotechnology, the service industry. So it came as a surprise when Sierra Pacific Industries, a privately held company in Redding, Calif., announced a proposal last week to build something that's become a rarity around here: a sawmill. "Well, that's a switch," regional economist Dick Conway said. Like many in the area, Conway has become more used to hearing about sawmills closing, not opening....
An End to the West's Drought? Early January surveys of snowpack show that the Colorado River Basin, which gathers runoff from Wyoming to Southern California, will receive 98 percent of "normal" precipitation this year. If the rest of the winter meets historic averages, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the West's most massive reservoirs which have shrunk over the past five years to 56 percent and 36 percent of capacity, respectively, will rise. That's good news not only for the recreationists who love to boat in the desert, but also for the tens of millions of people who rely on the river for agricultural and drinking waters, including farmers in Arizona and urbanites in Las Vegas. But I wouldn't bet on the reservoirs filling up just yet. As reported in High Country News this month, scientists at the University of Arizona have discovered through analysis of the growth rings of trees that drought is a persistent visitor to the West. Over the past 500 years, a half-dozen major droughts, some lasting many decades, have struck the Colorado River Basin, according to research from the university's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. So the current drought could last a long while, whether it is interrupted by an occasional wet year or not....
Entertaining 'Across Cultures' As the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering gathered steam Monday, the featured evening performance at the Western Folklife Center's G Three Bar Theater was entitled "Across Cultures" - but it could well have been called "Across Oceans." A pair of poets from the Australian Bush shared the stage with Grupo Cimarron, a joropo band from the eastern plains of Colombia, and the unique mix of music, rhyme and culture from around the world delighted the near-capacity crowd....
It just suits them Russ Weaver preached the Gospel in a cowboy hat and a gold-and-silver belt buckle that bore a cross to more than 800 people that filled the Stock Show's livestock auction room for Sunday's Cowboy Church services. Cowboy church is an international movement that began reaching out to Christians from agricultural backgrounds more than three decades ago. When the movement's pioneers saw that Christians with farming, ranching and rodeo backgrounds were not regularly attending a church, they decided to take the church to them. Services were held in their workplaces, such as rodeo arena barns, where jeans and vests prevailed over the suit-and-tie attire of a traditional church, and bales of hay doubled as pews and prayer altars....
Cow Stuck In A Well An unusual rescue in Fresno County, came to a happy ending. A cow got stuck in a well near South and Peach Monday night. That's west of Fowler. An 80,000 lb. excavator was brought in to free the cow. Yet there she was, an 8-month old heifer, 20-feet down at the bottom of an abandoned well west of Selma. Rancher Steve Farris noticed she was missing from the herd late Monday and went searching for her, "I got about right over here by the fence and I heard this moo."....
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Buyout plan to retire grazing permits targets ranchers Rancher Darryl Sullivan works several jobs to makes ends meet. He sells horse trailers and livestock equipment in Las Cruces, makes custom hats, levels fields and puts in cement irrigation ditches. His two grown sons aren't interested in taking over the 44-Bar Ranch, south of Socorro, that has been in the family for five generations. That's why Sullivan is eyeing a proposal backed by Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians and other environmental groups to use taxpayer money to buy out and retire federal land grazing leases. The grazing permit buyout proposal has slowly been gaining momentum in Congress and among a growing number of ranchers. Proponents say as many as 50 ranchers in New Mexico, 250 in Arizona and others around the West are coming out to support it....
Drilling Plan OKd for Rare Desert Land Overriding objections by New Mexico's governor, the Interior Department announced a final plan Monday for expanding oil and gas drilling on Otero Mesa, a rare desert grassland and one of a handful of places in the western U.S. where opposition to drilling had united ranchers, property rights advocates, hunters and conservationists. The plan, crafted by the Bureau of Land Management, is smaller in scope than originally contemplated, but much larger than what Gov. Bill Richardson indicated he would support. It allows drilling a maximum of 141 exploratory wells and 84 producing wells on nearly 2 million acres of Chihuahuan grassland in southern New Mexico....Go here for the AP version of the Otero Mesa decision....
Forest Service gets tough on snowmobilers The Flathead National Forest is beefing up patrols and getting tougher on snowmobilers who venture into areas where they're not supposed to. Forest officials say snowmobile trespassing into designated wilderness and other areas where motor vehicles are forbidden is becoming an increasing problem in the region. Forest Service officers plan stepped up patrols from the ground and by air to catch snowmobilers who cross boundaries, and there will be stiffer punishment for those who are caught, Brady said. The Forest Service will pursue mandatory court appearances, as opposed to issuing citations at the scene, in most cases. Past fines have averaged about $200, but Brady said the agency will seek higher fines - up to $500 - and snowmobiles may be impounded until a case is resolved or the fine is paid, Brady said....
Clouds of suspicion persist over reports on Cedar fire Last week, like something out of the "The Twilight Zone," a new twist bubbled to the surface in the ongoing story of the Cedar fire. In a Jan. 18 request for a grand jury probe, its fourth, the committee produced written declarations by two eyewitnesses – Donna Jennings and Lori Munger. On the evening of Oct. 25, 2003, these women had joined a group admiring the sunset. "The evening was clear and we could see for miles," writes Jennings, a geophysicist who worked for Science Applications International Corp. for 18 years but is now a stay-at-home mom. "We were looking to the northwest and my friend Lori Munger called our attention to what she described as a small orange color 'floating in the air' like a parachute. Instantaneously, we all saw a HUGE wall of flame the size of a large building. Prior to this there was no smoke. The smoke was intense and blowing bent over to the southwest, sideways, not straight up. We were in shock. Next, a small fire started UPWIND from the original burst of flame. As we watched, more small fires were set, like someone setting backfires. Each small fire was exactly the same size and spaced the same distance from the last when it started. . . . The vegetation was very thick and we were several miles away, but all of us knew and agreed that this fire was deliberately being set." The group discussed a gunshot they heard before the fires started. They also noticed flashing lights near the fires....
PETA calls on secretary of interior to ban traps After several dogs were left to suffer for more than two days in leghold traps set by National Park Service (NPS) employees at Badlands National Park in Scenic, S.D., PETA appealed to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton to ban snares, leghold, and body-gripping traps on all NPS lands. PETA’s letters and calls went unanswered, and the group is now making a public appeal for a ban on these cruel devices. On Tuesday, PETA representatives and Humane Officer Jill Gravley of the Humane Society of the Black Hills—who found the dogs—will hold a news conference in Rapid City to reveal graphic photos of the injured dogs and to urge Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton to ban the traps and snares on all NPS lands....
Study: Buy more land, quickly, for Everglades restoration State and federal officials should buy more land, and do so quickly, in order to restore the Everglades before the property becomes developed or too expensive, according to a report released Monday. The report on water storage is the seventh and final in a series by the National Academy of Sciences that gives advice to federal and state agencies and other entities engaged in restoring the greater Everglades. The 30-year, $8.4 billion federal-state restoration program is intended to restore some of the natural water flow through the sensitive ecosystem that once stretched uninterrupted from a chain of lakes near Orlando to Florida Bay. The report also suggested speeding up projects that restore the natural flow of the water and considering the use of Lake Okeechobee for additional water storage....
Scientists call for world panel to combat species loss Scientists called on Monday for the creation of a global panel of experts on species loss, warning that the planet was racing towards a man-made extinction crisis. "Biodiversity is being destroyed irreversibly by human activities," said the appeal, made by leading biologists and environmentalists at the start of a conference in Paris on wildlife loss. The proposal won the immediate endorsement of French President Jacques Chirac, who pledged to promote it at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), an offshoot of the landmark 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro....
US lab lists policies capping gas supply A national laboratory managed by the US Department of Energy has identified 40 environmental policy and regulatory constraints on the supply of natural gas. In a study released Jan. 24 by the House Committee on Resources, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) says regulations limit gas supply by restricting access to gas resources, delaying exploration and production (E&P) or transportation, or increasing costs. Also on Jan. 24, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources opened its conference on natural gas....
N.D.'s unique law on property sales challenged by environmentalists The grasslands, tree groves and wetlands, with signs warning hunters to keep out, mark a stretch of rolling prairie near here as a haven for wildlife. Court documents mark it as something else: the focus of a battle over a North Dakota law that conservationists say is unmatched in the nation in limiting their work. The 1985 law requires land buyers to submit their plans to a public review board, and gives the governor final authority to approve or reject any purchases, though denials are rare and the law allows conservation groups already operating in the state to continue buying land. Farm groups and county officials who support the measure say it helps ensure that farmland will not be lost. Conservationists and other critics say it hampers their work and keeps new groups from operating in North Dakota....
Water use reflects thirst to conserve Drought-inspired conservation has reduced metro Denver's water consumption to levels not seen since 1969, despite a 65 percent growth in the number of customers over that span. Denver Water delivered just 59.4 billion gallons last year, 22.6 billion gallons fewer than the utility did before the onset of drought in 2000, new agency numbers show. "It's astonishing," Liz Gardener, Denver Water's conservation manager, said of the 28 percent drop. Similar savings have been noted in Aurora and Colorado Springs, the Front Range's two other municipal giants....
Drug company sued over death of rancher The widow of a Clay County rancher and rodeo rider who was killed by an accidental injection of a cattle antibiotic has filed a lawsuit alleging the drug's manufacturer failed to warn about its dangers. Rourk Erickson, 38, was killed in 2003 when a cow charged and the needle holding the antibiotic punctured his skin, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in North Platte by Erickson's widow, Debra. The drug, Micotil 300, is used to treat respiratory infections in cattle. In animals, Micotil is to be injected only under the skin, and it can be deadly if overdosed or injected into the bloodstream. It also can be fatal to humans....
It's All Trew: In case you were wondering how long a well-rope was During a recent coffee shop session, an elderly gentleman described a certain distance by saying, "It was as long as a well-rope." I had not heard the term since childhood and innocently asked, "Just how long is a well-rope?" Now, so all of us, especially the younger readers, stay on the same page, a well-rope is a long manila rope, some 3/4 to an inch in diameter. It is threaded through a block pulley hanging in the top of a windmill tower, with one end hanging down over the sucker-rod or pipe, and the other end passed through a snatch block at ground level and tied to a power source like a truck. This device allows a water well to be repaired and serviced with simple tools and minimal labor. A second determining factor is most sucker-rods are 10 to 18 feet in length and most pipe is 20 feet in length. Therefore, most windmill towers are a least 30 feet tall to allow removal of the pipe....
What's in a Song? Musgrave's 'Escalante Adios' Hearing such ballads as "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" or "Streets of Laredo," it's easy to think of lonesome cowboys and trail drives frozen in time. And those melancholy laments are likely to be heard in Elko, Nevada at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. But new verses deal with issues facing today's ranchers. Curly Musgrave's "Escalante Adios," tells of the federal government taking grazing lands away from ranchers in southern Utah to make a new national park. With the help of the Western Folklife Center, we look at the story behind the music, as part of our occasional series, "What's in a Song?"....
FOOT-AND-MOUTH BELIEVED TO BE FIRST VIRUS UNABLE TO SPREAD THROUGH MICROSOFT OUTLOOK Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center today confirmed that foot-and-mouth disease cannot be spread by Microsoft's Outlook email application, believed to be the first time the program has ever failed to propagate a major virus. "Frankly, we've never heard of a virus that couldn't spread through Microsoft Outlook, so our findings were, to say the least, unexpected," said Clive Sarnow, director of the CDC's infectious disease unit. The study was immediately hailed by British officials, who said it will save millions of pounds and thousands of man hours. "Up until now we have, quite naturally, assumed that both foot-and-mouth and mad cow were spread by Microsoft Outlook," said Nick Brown, Britain's Agriculture Minister. "By eliminating it, we can focus our resources elsewhere."....
Buyout plan to retire grazing permits targets ranchers Rancher Darryl Sullivan works several jobs to makes ends meet. He sells horse trailers and livestock equipment in Las Cruces, makes custom hats, levels fields and puts in cement irrigation ditches. His two grown sons aren't interested in taking over the 44-Bar Ranch, south of Socorro, that has been in the family for five generations. That's why Sullivan is eyeing a proposal backed by Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians and other environmental groups to use taxpayer money to buy out and retire federal land grazing leases. The grazing permit buyout proposal has slowly been gaining momentum in Congress and among a growing number of ranchers. Proponents say as many as 50 ranchers in New Mexico, 250 in Arizona and others around the West are coming out to support it....
Drilling Plan OKd for Rare Desert Land Overriding objections by New Mexico's governor, the Interior Department announced a final plan Monday for expanding oil and gas drilling on Otero Mesa, a rare desert grassland and one of a handful of places in the western U.S. where opposition to drilling had united ranchers, property rights advocates, hunters and conservationists. The plan, crafted by the Bureau of Land Management, is smaller in scope than originally contemplated, but much larger than what Gov. Bill Richardson indicated he would support. It allows drilling a maximum of 141 exploratory wells and 84 producing wells on nearly 2 million acres of Chihuahuan grassland in southern New Mexico....Go here for the AP version of the Otero Mesa decision....
Forest Service gets tough on snowmobilers The Flathead National Forest is beefing up patrols and getting tougher on snowmobilers who venture into areas where they're not supposed to. Forest officials say snowmobile trespassing into designated wilderness and other areas where motor vehicles are forbidden is becoming an increasing problem in the region. Forest Service officers plan stepped up patrols from the ground and by air to catch snowmobilers who cross boundaries, and there will be stiffer punishment for those who are caught, Brady said. The Forest Service will pursue mandatory court appearances, as opposed to issuing citations at the scene, in most cases. Past fines have averaged about $200, but Brady said the agency will seek higher fines - up to $500 - and snowmobiles may be impounded until a case is resolved or the fine is paid, Brady said....
Clouds of suspicion persist over reports on Cedar fire Last week, like something out of the "The Twilight Zone," a new twist bubbled to the surface in the ongoing story of the Cedar fire. In a Jan. 18 request for a grand jury probe, its fourth, the committee produced written declarations by two eyewitnesses – Donna Jennings and Lori Munger. On the evening of Oct. 25, 2003, these women had joined a group admiring the sunset. "The evening was clear and we could see for miles," writes Jennings, a geophysicist who worked for Science Applications International Corp. for 18 years but is now a stay-at-home mom. "We were looking to the northwest and my friend Lori Munger called our attention to what she described as a small orange color 'floating in the air' like a parachute. Instantaneously, we all saw a HUGE wall of flame the size of a large building. Prior to this there was no smoke. The smoke was intense and blowing bent over to the southwest, sideways, not straight up. We were in shock. Next, a small fire started UPWIND from the original burst of flame. As we watched, more small fires were set, like someone setting backfires. Each small fire was exactly the same size and spaced the same distance from the last when it started. . . . The vegetation was very thick and we were several miles away, but all of us knew and agreed that this fire was deliberately being set." The group discussed a gunshot they heard before the fires started. They also noticed flashing lights near the fires....
PETA calls on secretary of interior to ban traps After several dogs were left to suffer for more than two days in leghold traps set by National Park Service (NPS) employees at Badlands National Park in Scenic, S.D., PETA appealed to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton to ban snares, leghold, and body-gripping traps on all NPS lands. PETA’s letters and calls went unanswered, and the group is now making a public appeal for a ban on these cruel devices. On Tuesday, PETA representatives and Humane Officer Jill Gravley of the Humane Society of the Black Hills—who found the dogs—will hold a news conference in Rapid City to reveal graphic photos of the injured dogs and to urge Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton to ban the traps and snares on all NPS lands....
Study: Buy more land, quickly, for Everglades restoration State and federal officials should buy more land, and do so quickly, in order to restore the Everglades before the property becomes developed or too expensive, according to a report released Monday. The report on water storage is the seventh and final in a series by the National Academy of Sciences that gives advice to federal and state agencies and other entities engaged in restoring the greater Everglades. The 30-year, $8.4 billion federal-state restoration program is intended to restore some of the natural water flow through the sensitive ecosystem that once stretched uninterrupted from a chain of lakes near Orlando to Florida Bay. The report also suggested speeding up projects that restore the natural flow of the water and considering the use of Lake Okeechobee for additional water storage....
Scientists call for world panel to combat species loss Scientists called on Monday for the creation of a global panel of experts on species loss, warning that the planet was racing towards a man-made extinction crisis. "Biodiversity is being destroyed irreversibly by human activities," said the appeal, made by leading biologists and environmentalists at the start of a conference in Paris on wildlife loss. The proposal won the immediate endorsement of French President Jacques Chirac, who pledged to promote it at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), an offshoot of the landmark 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro....
US lab lists policies capping gas supply A national laboratory managed by the US Department of Energy has identified 40 environmental policy and regulatory constraints on the supply of natural gas. In a study released Jan. 24 by the House Committee on Resources, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) says regulations limit gas supply by restricting access to gas resources, delaying exploration and production (E&P) or transportation, or increasing costs. Also on Jan. 24, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources opened its conference on natural gas....
N.D.'s unique law on property sales challenged by environmentalists The grasslands, tree groves and wetlands, with signs warning hunters to keep out, mark a stretch of rolling prairie near here as a haven for wildlife. Court documents mark it as something else: the focus of a battle over a North Dakota law that conservationists say is unmatched in the nation in limiting their work. The 1985 law requires land buyers to submit their plans to a public review board, and gives the governor final authority to approve or reject any purchases, though denials are rare and the law allows conservation groups already operating in the state to continue buying land. Farm groups and county officials who support the measure say it helps ensure that farmland will not be lost. Conservationists and other critics say it hampers their work and keeps new groups from operating in North Dakota....
Water use reflects thirst to conserve Drought-inspired conservation has reduced metro Denver's water consumption to levels not seen since 1969, despite a 65 percent growth in the number of customers over that span. Denver Water delivered just 59.4 billion gallons last year, 22.6 billion gallons fewer than the utility did before the onset of drought in 2000, new agency numbers show. "It's astonishing," Liz Gardener, Denver Water's conservation manager, said of the 28 percent drop. Similar savings have been noted in Aurora and Colorado Springs, the Front Range's two other municipal giants....
Drug company sued over death of rancher The widow of a Clay County rancher and rodeo rider who was killed by an accidental injection of a cattle antibiotic has filed a lawsuit alleging the drug's manufacturer failed to warn about its dangers. Rourk Erickson, 38, was killed in 2003 when a cow charged and the needle holding the antibiotic punctured his skin, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in North Platte by Erickson's widow, Debra. The drug, Micotil 300, is used to treat respiratory infections in cattle. In animals, Micotil is to be injected only under the skin, and it can be deadly if overdosed or injected into the bloodstream. It also can be fatal to humans....
It's All Trew: In case you were wondering how long a well-rope was During a recent coffee shop session, an elderly gentleman described a certain distance by saying, "It was as long as a well-rope." I had not heard the term since childhood and innocently asked, "Just how long is a well-rope?" Now, so all of us, especially the younger readers, stay on the same page, a well-rope is a long manila rope, some 3/4 to an inch in diameter. It is threaded through a block pulley hanging in the top of a windmill tower, with one end hanging down over the sucker-rod or pipe, and the other end passed through a snatch block at ground level and tied to a power source like a truck. This device allows a water well to be repaired and serviced with simple tools and minimal labor. A second determining factor is most sucker-rods are 10 to 18 feet in length and most pipe is 20 feet in length. Therefore, most windmill towers are a least 30 feet tall to allow removal of the pipe....
What's in a Song? Musgrave's 'Escalante Adios' Hearing such ballads as "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" or "Streets of Laredo," it's easy to think of lonesome cowboys and trail drives frozen in time. And those melancholy laments are likely to be heard in Elko, Nevada at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. But new verses deal with issues facing today's ranchers. Curly Musgrave's "Escalante Adios," tells of the federal government taking grazing lands away from ranchers in southern Utah to make a new national park. With the help of the Western Folklife Center, we look at the story behind the music, as part of our occasional series, "What's in a Song?"....
FOOT-AND-MOUTH BELIEVED TO BE FIRST VIRUS UNABLE TO SPREAD THROUGH MICROSOFT OUTLOOK Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center today confirmed that foot-and-mouth disease cannot be spread by Microsoft's Outlook email application, believed to be the first time the program has ever failed to propagate a major virus. "Frankly, we've never heard of a virus that couldn't spread through Microsoft Outlook, so our findings were, to say the least, unexpected," said Clive Sarnow, director of the CDC's infectious disease unit. The study was immediately hailed by British officials, who said it will save millions of pounds and thousands of man hours. "Up until now we have, quite naturally, assumed that both foot-and-mouth and mad cow were spread by Microsoft Outlook," said Nick Brown, Britain's Agriculture Minister. "By eliminating it, we can focus our resources elsewhere."....
MAD COW DISEASE
Tainted feed possibly sold after ban As U.S. investigators travelled north yesterday to assess the steps Canada has taken to prevent mad-cow disease, Ottawa for the first time raised the possibility that manufacturers pumped out tainted livestock feed after such practices were banned. Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials said they are checking into more than a dozen feed sources — from cat food for barn cats to questionable practices at feed mills and rendering plants —that could have caused the brain wasting disease in an Alberta cow born after the tough new feed rules were implemented in 1997....
Johanns Begins Review Of Canada Cattle Trade Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns began his new job Monday caught in a dispute between meatpackers and some ranchers over reopening U.S. borders to cattle from Canada. He also faced reluctance in Japan to resuming imports of U.S. cattle. Johanns told reporters that in the aftermath of a new case of mad cow disease discovered in Canada on Jan. 11, U.S. inspectors were traveling there Monday to investigate that country's compliance with its 1997 ban on putting cattle remains in feed. The brain-wasting disease is thought to spread through infected animal parts added to animal feed. "It is my goal here to make sure that I look at everything that is available, that I look at what the team finds in Canada, that I make sure that my briefings are thorough, and that I've got all the information at my disposal," Johanns said on his first day at the Agriculture Department. The newest Canadian animal to test positive for the disease was significant because, unlike in two earlier cases, it was born after the feed ban....
China, Japan, Taiwan May Drop Canadian-Beef Ban Soon Canada expects several Asian markets that banned Canadian beef after the country reported a case of mad cow disease in May 2003 to resume imports soon, Canadian Beef Export Federation President Ted Haney said. China is expected to allow the import of beef and other cattle product to resume gradually in the first half of this year, probably after Japan, South Korea and Taiwan resume imports in the next few months, Haney said in an interview in Hong Kong. The recent cases didn't hurt sales in Hong Kong, which allowed imports of Canadian beef to resume Nov. 30, Haney said. The city of 6.8 million people is a ``sentinel market'' and its decision to allow imports may prompt other countries in the region to follow, he said....
Editorial: Don't wait for crisis Federal officials should wake up to their own lack of knowledge about the risks from mad cow disease. New scientific research underlines the fact that little is known about the illness, which can cause a fatal brain disease in people. Researchers, led by Adriano Aguzzi at the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, found that prions, which are believed responsible for mad cow disease, can live in various organs in the bodies of lab mice. Prions are previously unknown types of folded proteins that are thought to accumulate in parts of the body, causing several brain-wasting diseases. The finding of prions in mice organs still has to be checked in cows. But the research calls into glaring question the adequacy of U.S. and foreign regulations that assume only beef parts from the head and central nervous system present a risk to people....
Tainted feed possibly sold after ban As U.S. investigators travelled north yesterday to assess the steps Canada has taken to prevent mad-cow disease, Ottawa for the first time raised the possibility that manufacturers pumped out tainted livestock feed after such practices were banned. Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials said they are checking into more than a dozen feed sources — from cat food for barn cats to questionable practices at feed mills and rendering plants —that could have caused the brain wasting disease in an Alberta cow born after the tough new feed rules were implemented in 1997....
Johanns Begins Review Of Canada Cattle Trade Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns began his new job Monday caught in a dispute between meatpackers and some ranchers over reopening U.S. borders to cattle from Canada. He also faced reluctance in Japan to resuming imports of U.S. cattle. Johanns told reporters that in the aftermath of a new case of mad cow disease discovered in Canada on Jan. 11, U.S. inspectors were traveling there Monday to investigate that country's compliance with its 1997 ban on putting cattle remains in feed. The brain-wasting disease is thought to spread through infected animal parts added to animal feed. "It is my goal here to make sure that I look at everything that is available, that I look at what the team finds in Canada, that I make sure that my briefings are thorough, and that I've got all the information at my disposal," Johanns said on his first day at the Agriculture Department. The newest Canadian animal to test positive for the disease was significant because, unlike in two earlier cases, it was born after the feed ban....
China, Japan, Taiwan May Drop Canadian-Beef Ban Soon Canada expects several Asian markets that banned Canadian beef after the country reported a case of mad cow disease in May 2003 to resume imports soon, Canadian Beef Export Federation President Ted Haney said. China is expected to allow the import of beef and other cattle product to resume gradually in the first half of this year, probably after Japan, South Korea and Taiwan resume imports in the next few months, Haney said in an interview in Hong Kong. The recent cases didn't hurt sales in Hong Kong, which allowed imports of Canadian beef to resume Nov. 30, Haney said. The city of 6.8 million people is a ``sentinel market'' and its decision to allow imports may prompt other countries in the region to follow, he said....
Editorial: Don't wait for crisis Federal officials should wake up to their own lack of knowledge about the risks from mad cow disease. New scientific research underlines the fact that little is known about the illness, which can cause a fatal brain disease in people. Researchers, led by Adriano Aguzzi at the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, found that prions, which are believed responsible for mad cow disease, can live in various organs in the bodies of lab mice. Prions are previously unknown types of folded proteins that are thought to accumulate in parts of the body, causing several brain-wasting diseases. The finding of prions in mice organs still has to be checked in cows. But the research calls into glaring question the adequacy of U.S. and foreign regulations that assume only beef parts from the head and central nervous system present a risk to people....
Monday, January 24, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Planning rules have foresters puzzled Forest planners across the country, including those on the Flathead and Kootenai national forests, are scratching their heads over new regulations for developing long-term strategic forest plans. The Flathead, Kootenai and other forests in the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Region are revising their respective forest plans. It will be up to forest supervisors to decide whether to proceed under the new regulations, which were released Dec. 23 by Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth. The new regulations are intended to provide a more flexible, efficient and responsive type of long-range forest plan. But actually implementing the regulations into a forest plan revision process that's already under way raises many questions for forest planners. "Our team is unsure of how this will affect our process," said Jack Zearfoss, acting planner on the Kootenai National Forest, which canceled a public meeting on forest plan revision that was scheduled Thursday. Zearfoss said the forest planning team is waiting for clarification from the agency's national and regional levels in the form of forest planning "directives" that will be included in a revised version of the agency's regulation handbook....
Sides await word on cave bugs case The U.S. Supreme Court could signal as early as today whether it will allow Central Texas cave bugs into its halls of justice, in a case that property rights advocates hope will gut the Endangered Species Act. A decision by the Supreme Court whether to hear the case should signal the final chapter in a dispute over six species of tiny bugs that have held up a housing and commercial development in Travis County for the past 17 years. To those who support the challenge, the bugs found in a handful of caves in Travis and Williamson counties perfectly exemplify how the act is misused to suppress private property rights. Their challenge lies in the origins of the environmental law, instituted in 1973 using the Commerce Clause, which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce....
Grange wins ESA lawsuit on coho salmon “We prevailed,” said Leo Bergeron, president of the Greenhorn Grange. “For seven years, we have maintained that coho salmon should not be listed with the Endangered Species Act.” David has beaten Goliath. It wasn’t easy. And there will still be challenges. But it was the Greenhorn Grange, based in Yreka, which began gathering information to fight the coho listing in 1997, when the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposed that 300 feet on each side of streams bearing coho should be subject to federal regulations – including private property. Landowners grew upset that the government would mandate what they could and could not do on their own property. In the ensuing foray, rallies were held with 600 to 1,000 people attending from Yreka to Happy Camp. Strategies for fighting a federal agency were discussed and argued. While options were bantered, officers of the Greenhorn Grange encouraged citizens to sign a petition against the terminology that claimed 300 feet from the high water mark on streambanks was “critical habitat” for coho. “That is dry ground,” reiterates Bergeron....
Land-Use War, Malibu Style This isn't one of those development stories with an easy bad guy. There is no big-box retailer looking to grab a corner of Main Street; no mega homebuilder trying to pave a mountainside. Instead, this is a feud that pits blind kids against a rare fish in a gorgeous canyon of giant oaks and sycamores high above the beach near Malibu. On one side of the canyon is the Foundation for the Junior Blind, which is hoping to renovate and expand its longtime summer camp. On the other side is neighbor Jeremy Joe Kronsberg, a retired screenwriter and director who calls the project a "blueprint for environmental ruin." Kronsberg lives not in Malibu luxury but in a mobile home with his wife, Lynne, an artist. He hunts for wild mushrooms and ponders the comings and goings of coyotes, bobcats and red-shouldered hawks....
Protected since 1889, Goodman Point Pueblo slated for initial mapping in April A 142-acre high-desert parcel a dozen miles northwest of Cortez so impressed federal officials in 1889 that they set it aside and made it off-limits to homesteaders. They gave this protection to the ancient Indian village more than 15 years before the great pueblos of Chaco Canyon and spectacular cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde were so protected. The Goodman Point Pueblo thus escaped the brush clearings, crop plantings and excavations that stripped many other Ancestral Puebloan sites in southwestern Colorado, including a thoroughly ransacked Mesa Verde, archaeologist Kristin Kuckelman said. This spring, for the first time, scientists will begin to comprehensively study Goodman Point. Active from about A.D. 1000 to 1280, it is one of the largest sites in a corner of the state renowned as a treasure trove of pre-Columbian culture....
Rocky Mountain hiker survives 100-foot fall A Colorado man fell about 100 feet at Long's Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park and crawled miles for help, it was reported Saturday. "This man is extremely fortunate to be alive. I am unaware of a fall that has taken place on the Narrows section that did not result in a fatality," Kurt Oliver, of Rocky Mountain National Park, told KMGH-TV, Denver. "The circumstances and teamwork that took place on this rescue were incredible." The 28-year-old hiker from Aurora, Colo., fell Thursday, was knocked unconscious and when he came to, he crawled and pulled himself back to the Keyhole route, park officials said....
San Francisco may charge for grocery bags San Francisco may become the first city in the nation to charge shoppers for grocery bags. The city's environmental commission is expected to ask the mayor and board of supervisors Tuesday to consider a 17-cent per bag charge on paper and plastic grocery bags. Their goal is to reduce plastic bag pollution. Environmentalists say plastic bags jam machinery, pollute waterways and often end up in trees....
Column: Savage Rapids Dam Removal With congressional support from US Senators Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden and Oregon Congressmen Greg Walden and Peter DeFazio, the Savage Rapids Dam removal project has become a full employment opportunity for personnel at the US Bureau of Reclamation and for lobbyists who continue to be the primary beneficiaries of this overflowing pot of gold. The US Bureau of Reclamation has spent $2,115,004 since 1989 and is now funded with another $2.2-million - a total of $4.3-million. Lobbyists employed by the Grants Pass Irrigation District have been paid over $475,000 since 1999 to secure funding for the Bureau of Reclamation....
Strife over new Central Valley water allocation The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has released preliminary 2005 federal water allocation projections for California, and the figures have made many of the stakeholders unhappy. Environmentalists and fisheries advocates claim the agency is ignoring key provisions mandated by federal legislation directing greater flows down the Sacramento River to restore depleted salmon runs. Farmers say the federal Central Valley Project -- which supplies 7 million acre-feet of water to farmers, wildlife refuges, fisheries and cities from the upper Sacramento Valley to Los Angeles -- was built specifically for agriculture, but ongoing diversions to cities and environmental restoration are coming unfairly at the farmers' expense....
Snow in the making: Cloud seeding boosts snowpack for water supply Each winter, Bonnie Moody watches the weather like a hawk from the Eden Valley Irrigation District's small shop here. Moody, the district's manager and water master, is looking for winter days with just the right temperature, just the right wind direction and speed, and just the right kind of clouds in the sky. When conditions are right, Moody makes snow. This year marks the third winter Moody has been working on a cloud-seeding program that aims to increase water in the district's Big Sandy Reservoir by boosting the snowpack in the nearby Wind River Mountains. The Wind Rivers are the main water source for the district's irrigation system. "There is kind of a real art to this," Moody said during a recent demonstration of one of the district's cloud-seeding units. Although Moody has been at it for just three years, the Eden Valley cloud-seeding effort has been under way since the 1960s, a result of research conducted by the University of Wyoming. The effort involves the use of burners to release silver iodide into clouds to enhance the potential for snowfall....
Southeast Kansas farmers taking hit from rustling spree Fred Wheat says he'll be able to recover after having 20 head of cattle stolen from his pasture sometime after Thanksgiving. But if rustlers hit his herd again, that might be enough to send the 63-year-old rancher out of business. Wheat is among a number of southeast Kansas ranchers who have had parts of their cattle herds disappear from their fields. Possibly tempted by high beef prices, modern-day cattle rustlers have stolen about 50 head from the area since November. Kansas ranks No. 2 in the country with 6.65 million head of cattle on ranches and feedyards. And while cattle thefts aren't rare in the state, the numbers of cattle taken from southeast Kansas farms is unusual, cattle experts said....
Spirited cowboys on the trail of an even older profession A few moments later, as she's being handcuffed and realizes that her potential john is actually an undercover police officer, Davis wails in disbelief: "What is this, baby? ... Oh, wrong ... car!" And then she explains: "I was just in town for the stock show." As the National Western Stock Show rolls into Denver every January, retailers and restaurants, hotels and motels all get ready for a boom in business. So do prostitutes. During the two-plus weeks of the stock show, which ends today, prostitutes up their efforts, and so does Denver's vice squad....
Tome on the range: 'Cowboy Logic' column gives birth to second book for rancher For Ryan Taylor, "cowboy logic" isn't just a way of thinking. It's a world view. He defines it as "a way of looking at things that allows you to see the humor in situations that seem devoid of a humorous angle, (like) a look at the lighter side of going broke. It's also a common sense, horse sense kind of an outlook." "Cowboy Logic" also is the title of his self-syndicated weekly newspaper column and of two books collecting those columns, the second of which came out late last year....
Planning rules have foresters puzzled Forest planners across the country, including those on the Flathead and Kootenai national forests, are scratching their heads over new regulations for developing long-term strategic forest plans. The Flathead, Kootenai and other forests in the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Region are revising their respective forest plans. It will be up to forest supervisors to decide whether to proceed under the new regulations, which were released Dec. 23 by Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth. The new regulations are intended to provide a more flexible, efficient and responsive type of long-range forest plan. But actually implementing the regulations into a forest plan revision process that's already under way raises many questions for forest planners. "Our team is unsure of how this will affect our process," said Jack Zearfoss, acting planner on the Kootenai National Forest, which canceled a public meeting on forest plan revision that was scheduled Thursday. Zearfoss said the forest planning team is waiting for clarification from the agency's national and regional levels in the form of forest planning "directives" that will be included in a revised version of the agency's regulation handbook....
Sides await word on cave bugs case The U.S. Supreme Court could signal as early as today whether it will allow Central Texas cave bugs into its halls of justice, in a case that property rights advocates hope will gut the Endangered Species Act. A decision by the Supreme Court whether to hear the case should signal the final chapter in a dispute over six species of tiny bugs that have held up a housing and commercial development in Travis County for the past 17 years. To those who support the challenge, the bugs found in a handful of caves in Travis and Williamson counties perfectly exemplify how the act is misused to suppress private property rights. Their challenge lies in the origins of the environmental law, instituted in 1973 using the Commerce Clause, which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce....
Grange wins ESA lawsuit on coho salmon “We prevailed,” said Leo Bergeron, president of the Greenhorn Grange. “For seven years, we have maintained that coho salmon should not be listed with the Endangered Species Act.” David has beaten Goliath. It wasn’t easy. And there will still be challenges. But it was the Greenhorn Grange, based in Yreka, which began gathering information to fight the coho listing in 1997, when the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposed that 300 feet on each side of streams bearing coho should be subject to federal regulations – including private property. Landowners grew upset that the government would mandate what they could and could not do on their own property. In the ensuing foray, rallies were held with 600 to 1,000 people attending from Yreka to Happy Camp. Strategies for fighting a federal agency were discussed and argued. While options were bantered, officers of the Greenhorn Grange encouraged citizens to sign a petition against the terminology that claimed 300 feet from the high water mark on streambanks was “critical habitat” for coho. “That is dry ground,” reiterates Bergeron....
Land-Use War, Malibu Style This isn't one of those development stories with an easy bad guy. There is no big-box retailer looking to grab a corner of Main Street; no mega homebuilder trying to pave a mountainside. Instead, this is a feud that pits blind kids against a rare fish in a gorgeous canyon of giant oaks and sycamores high above the beach near Malibu. On one side of the canyon is the Foundation for the Junior Blind, which is hoping to renovate and expand its longtime summer camp. On the other side is neighbor Jeremy Joe Kronsberg, a retired screenwriter and director who calls the project a "blueprint for environmental ruin." Kronsberg lives not in Malibu luxury but in a mobile home with his wife, Lynne, an artist. He hunts for wild mushrooms and ponders the comings and goings of coyotes, bobcats and red-shouldered hawks....
Protected since 1889, Goodman Point Pueblo slated for initial mapping in April A 142-acre high-desert parcel a dozen miles northwest of Cortez so impressed federal officials in 1889 that they set it aside and made it off-limits to homesteaders. They gave this protection to the ancient Indian village more than 15 years before the great pueblos of Chaco Canyon and spectacular cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde were so protected. The Goodman Point Pueblo thus escaped the brush clearings, crop plantings and excavations that stripped many other Ancestral Puebloan sites in southwestern Colorado, including a thoroughly ransacked Mesa Verde, archaeologist Kristin Kuckelman said. This spring, for the first time, scientists will begin to comprehensively study Goodman Point. Active from about A.D. 1000 to 1280, it is one of the largest sites in a corner of the state renowned as a treasure trove of pre-Columbian culture....
Rocky Mountain hiker survives 100-foot fall A Colorado man fell about 100 feet at Long's Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park and crawled miles for help, it was reported Saturday. "This man is extremely fortunate to be alive. I am unaware of a fall that has taken place on the Narrows section that did not result in a fatality," Kurt Oliver, of Rocky Mountain National Park, told KMGH-TV, Denver. "The circumstances and teamwork that took place on this rescue were incredible." The 28-year-old hiker from Aurora, Colo., fell Thursday, was knocked unconscious and when he came to, he crawled and pulled himself back to the Keyhole route, park officials said....
San Francisco may charge for grocery bags San Francisco may become the first city in the nation to charge shoppers for grocery bags. The city's environmental commission is expected to ask the mayor and board of supervisors Tuesday to consider a 17-cent per bag charge on paper and plastic grocery bags. Their goal is to reduce plastic bag pollution. Environmentalists say plastic bags jam machinery, pollute waterways and often end up in trees....
Column: Savage Rapids Dam Removal With congressional support from US Senators Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden and Oregon Congressmen Greg Walden and Peter DeFazio, the Savage Rapids Dam removal project has become a full employment opportunity for personnel at the US Bureau of Reclamation and for lobbyists who continue to be the primary beneficiaries of this overflowing pot of gold. The US Bureau of Reclamation has spent $2,115,004 since 1989 and is now funded with another $2.2-million - a total of $4.3-million. Lobbyists employed by the Grants Pass Irrigation District have been paid over $475,000 since 1999 to secure funding for the Bureau of Reclamation....
Strife over new Central Valley water allocation The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has released preliminary 2005 federal water allocation projections for California, and the figures have made many of the stakeholders unhappy. Environmentalists and fisheries advocates claim the agency is ignoring key provisions mandated by federal legislation directing greater flows down the Sacramento River to restore depleted salmon runs. Farmers say the federal Central Valley Project -- which supplies 7 million acre-feet of water to farmers, wildlife refuges, fisheries and cities from the upper Sacramento Valley to Los Angeles -- was built specifically for agriculture, but ongoing diversions to cities and environmental restoration are coming unfairly at the farmers' expense....
Snow in the making: Cloud seeding boosts snowpack for water supply Each winter, Bonnie Moody watches the weather like a hawk from the Eden Valley Irrigation District's small shop here. Moody, the district's manager and water master, is looking for winter days with just the right temperature, just the right wind direction and speed, and just the right kind of clouds in the sky. When conditions are right, Moody makes snow. This year marks the third winter Moody has been working on a cloud-seeding program that aims to increase water in the district's Big Sandy Reservoir by boosting the snowpack in the nearby Wind River Mountains. The Wind Rivers are the main water source for the district's irrigation system. "There is kind of a real art to this," Moody said during a recent demonstration of one of the district's cloud-seeding units. Although Moody has been at it for just three years, the Eden Valley cloud-seeding effort has been under way since the 1960s, a result of research conducted by the University of Wyoming. The effort involves the use of burners to release silver iodide into clouds to enhance the potential for snowfall....
Southeast Kansas farmers taking hit from rustling spree Fred Wheat says he'll be able to recover after having 20 head of cattle stolen from his pasture sometime after Thanksgiving. But if rustlers hit his herd again, that might be enough to send the 63-year-old rancher out of business. Wheat is among a number of southeast Kansas ranchers who have had parts of their cattle herds disappear from their fields. Possibly tempted by high beef prices, modern-day cattle rustlers have stolen about 50 head from the area since November. Kansas ranks No. 2 in the country with 6.65 million head of cattle on ranches and feedyards. And while cattle thefts aren't rare in the state, the numbers of cattle taken from southeast Kansas farms is unusual, cattle experts said....
Spirited cowboys on the trail of an even older profession A few moments later, as she's being handcuffed and realizes that her potential john is actually an undercover police officer, Davis wails in disbelief: "What is this, baby? ... Oh, wrong ... car!" And then she explains: "I was just in town for the stock show." As the National Western Stock Show rolls into Denver every January, retailers and restaurants, hotels and motels all get ready for a boom in business. So do prostitutes. During the two-plus weeks of the stock show, which ends today, prostitutes up their efforts, and so does Denver's vice squad....
Tome on the range: 'Cowboy Logic' column gives birth to second book for rancher For Ryan Taylor, "cowboy logic" isn't just a way of thinking. It's a world view. He defines it as "a way of looking at things that allows you to see the humor in situations that seem devoid of a humorous angle, (like) a look at the lighter side of going broke. It's also a common sense, horse sense kind of an outlook." "Cowboy Logic" also is the title of his self-syndicated weekly newspaper column and of two books collecting those columns, the second of which came out late last year....
Sunday, January 23, 2005
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
What were they thinking?
By Julie Carter
It seems to be human nature, at least for most of us, to put ourselves in a position that we later question with a “What was I thinking?”
Some never realize it was a moment when they should have questioned that very thing, indicating a complete lack of the aforementioned “thinking.”
We see it a lot here in the sparsely populated areas of the west. The rural west, where those seeking to escape traffic jams and high pressure time management, flock to build a home and make a living in the peace and quiet of our natural dust and lack of amenities.
Settled quietly into the nooks and crannies of the rolling foothills, they often don’t bring with them the skills sometimes needed for living in the “wild” but they certainly make for a good story from time to time.
Looking out the window of the work shop, he could see the barn and corrals and the horses. Registering quickly in his brain was what else he has just seen in the corral with the horses. A pig! A big scrawny very ugly pig.
Out the door the missus goes to investigate. Denim bathroom and rubber ducky slippers for a wardrobe, she climbs over the rocks, climbs the hill, goes through the corral fence all the while clucking and cooing to this “poor thin very ugly piggy.” What was she thinking?
Picking up some alfalfa from the feeder she offers it to the pig easing herself closer to him, recognizing he really is very ugly and really isn’t all that thrilled to have her trying to help him. He runs off to pace the chain link enclosure around the property, the fence that should have kept him out of the compound in the first place.
Bewildered, the missus returns to the house and begins phoning neighbors who might possibly be missing a pig. In her quest, she discovered that what she had just attempted to pamper and pet was indeed a wild feral hog, not just a scrawny ugly piggy.
She also learned the danger of where she has just been, in her bathrobe and her naivety, proving once again that ignorance can be bliss. The boar neither charged nor even acted challenged. Must have been those ducky slippers that charmed him.
She was sober. That isn’t always the case with “what was I thinking” events.
My dad, a couple cousins and an uncle were one time sitting around the kitchen table passing a square bottle and telling wild stories when my dad exclaimed, “Well I’ll be, a bear just ran up that tree.”
“That tree” was a big cottonwood about 15 feet from the back door and in full view of the dining room where they sat. The dogs were barking, the kids were yelling and dad headed to get a rope.
A rope! He had decided he needed to rope that bear, in the tree, and bring him down. Up the ladder he went. It was completely dark except for a distant yard light. Out on a limb went the bear followed by my dad. What was he thinking?
They faced off at the end of the already creaking branch. The bear, obviously thinking much clearer than my dad, dropped to the underside of the big limb and hand over foot crawled toward the trunk, passing right beneath his hopeful captor. Once at the trunk he was down the tree and out the yard gate faster than dogs, kids or laughing family could follow.
Looking back we were pretty happy the bear didn’t drink.
©2005 Julie Carter
What were they thinking?
By Julie Carter
It seems to be human nature, at least for most of us, to put ourselves in a position that we later question with a “What was I thinking?”
Some never realize it was a moment when they should have questioned that very thing, indicating a complete lack of the aforementioned “thinking.”
We see it a lot here in the sparsely populated areas of the west. The rural west, where those seeking to escape traffic jams and high pressure time management, flock to build a home and make a living in the peace and quiet of our natural dust and lack of amenities.
Settled quietly into the nooks and crannies of the rolling foothills, they often don’t bring with them the skills sometimes needed for living in the “wild” but they certainly make for a good story from time to time.
Looking out the window of the work shop, he could see the barn and corrals and the horses. Registering quickly in his brain was what else he has just seen in the corral with the horses. A pig! A big scrawny very ugly pig.
Out the door the missus goes to investigate. Denim bathroom and rubber ducky slippers for a wardrobe, she climbs over the rocks, climbs the hill, goes through the corral fence all the while clucking and cooing to this “poor thin very ugly piggy.” What was she thinking?
Picking up some alfalfa from the feeder she offers it to the pig easing herself closer to him, recognizing he really is very ugly and really isn’t all that thrilled to have her trying to help him. He runs off to pace the chain link enclosure around the property, the fence that should have kept him out of the compound in the first place.
Bewildered, the missus returns to the house and begins phoning neighbors who might possibly be missing a pig. In her quest, she discovered that what she had just attempted to pamper and pet was indeed a wild feral hog, not just a scrawny ugly piggy.
She also learned the danger of where she has just been, in her bathrobe and her naivety, proving once again that ignorance can be bliss. The boar neither charged nor even acted challenged. Must have been those ducky slippers that charmed him.
She was sober. That isn’t always the case with “what was I thinking” events.
My dad, a couple cousins and an uncle were one time sitting around the kitchen table passing a square bottle and telling wild stories when my dad exclaimed, “Well I’ll be, a bear just ran up that tree.”
“That tree” was a big cottonwood about 15 feet from the back door and in full view of the dining room where they sat. The dogs were barking, the kids were yelling and dad headed to get a rope.
A rope! He had decided he needed to rope that bear, in the tree, and bring him down. Up the ladder he went. It was completely dark except for a distant yard light. Out on a limb went the bear followed by my dad. What was he thinking?
They faced off at the end of the already creaking branch. The bear, obviously thinking much clearer than my dad, dropped to the underside of the big limb and hand over foot crawled toward the trunk, passing right beneath his hopeful captor. Once at the trunk he was down the tree and out the yard gate faster than dogs, kids or laughing family could follow.
Looking back we were pretty happy the bear didn’t drink.
©2005 Julie Carter
OPINION/COMMENTARY
...The State of Frogs
There is no better sign that you have a strong argument than when your opponents attack your motives rather than your evidence. I'm hoping for the same response to my new report exposing the massive waste of time and money spent chasing chemical phantoms in the so-called "global amphibian crisis." Ecologists have been stuck in a pesticide rut ever since DDT was railroaded out of polite society by a Rachel Carson-led media manipulation campaign eerily similar to today's global warming "debate." Science was ignored in favor of emotion and dogma. After DDT, every time something has appeared to go wrong in nature, ecologists have leaped to pesticide conclusions. Take the case of the deformed frogs in Minnesota. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency held a press conference in 1997 -- covered by ABC News Nightline -- saying that they had "proof" that a chemical in the water was causing the frog deformities. Within months, other researchers (including Environmental Protection Agency scientists) would embarrassingly demonstrate the MPCA had instead flubbed the tests. The true culprit turned out to be a natural parasitic worm - although you'll not find many frog scientists publicizing this. Nor have any newspaper or magazine articles been written to tell the public that pesticides are off the hook....
...The State of Frogs
There is no better sign that you have a strong argument than when your opponents attack your motives rather than your evidence. I'm hoping for the same response to my new report exposing the massive waste of time and money spent chasing chemical phantoms in the so-called "global amphibian crisis." Ecologists have been stuck in a pesticide rut ever since DDT was railroaded out of polite society by a Rachel Carson-led media manipulation campaign eerily similar to today's global warming "debate." Science was ignored in favor of emotion and dogma. After DDT, every time something has appeared to go wrong in nature, ecologists have leaped to pesticide conclusions. Take the case of the deformed frogs in Minnesota. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency held a press conference in 1997 -- covered by ABC News Nightline -- saying that they had "proof" that a chemical in the water was causing the frog deformities. Within months, other researchers (including Environmental Protection Agency scientists) would embarrassingly demonstrate the MPCA had instead flubbed the tests. The true culprit turned out to be a natural parasitic worm - although you'll not find many frog scientists publicizing this. Nor have any newspaper or magazine articles been written to tell the public that pesticides are off the hook....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
FACTS ARE GETTING IN THE WAY OF ENVIRONMENTAL HYPE
According to environmentalists, President Bush’s second term will spell doom for clean air and clean water. But such hysteria simply flies in the face of the facts, according to Stephen Moore of National Review. The environment is actually getting cleaner, he says.
According to the American Enterprise Institute’s 2004 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators:
---Between 1976 and 2002, ozone ambient air pollution levels have declined 31 percent; sulfur dioxides are down by 70 percent and lead is down by 98 percent.
---Over the past 50 years, air pollution emissions have declined by 3 percent annually relative to output -- indicating that industries have made substantial gains in efficiency.
---Today’s drinking water is cleaner than it was 50 years ago, and many polluted lakes and streams that were too dirty for human enjoyment 30 years ago are now available for fishing and recreation.
Free-market capitalism has helped the environment, says Moore, through private property rights, greater efficiency with resources and new technologies for clean air and water. In fact, the greatest environmental threats of the 20th century came from communist nations during the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, notes Moore.
Source: Stephen Moore, “Clearing the Air,” National Review, December 31, 2004; and Stephen Hayward, “2004 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators,” American Enterprise Institute, April 14, 2004.
For AEI report:
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.,bookID.764/book_detail.asp
FACTS ARE GETTING IN THE WAY OF ENVIRONMENTAL HYPE
According to environmentalists, President Bush’s second term will spell doom for clean air and clean water. But such hysteria simply flies in the face of the facts, according to Stephen Moore of National Review. The environment is actually getting cleaner, he says.
According to the American Enterprise Institute’s 2004 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators:
---Between 1976 and 2002, ozone ambient air pollution levels have declined 31 percent; sulfur dioxides are down by 70 percent and lead is down by 98 percent.
---Over the past 50 years, air pollution emissions have declined by 3 percent annually relative to output -- indicating that industries have made substantial gains in efficiency.
---Today’s drinking water is cleaner than it was 50 years ago, and many polluted lakes and streams that were too dirty for human enjoyment 30 years ago are now available for fishing and recreation.
Free-market capitalism has helped the environment, says Moore, through private property rights, greater efficiency with resources and new technologies for clean air and water. In fact, the greatest environmental threats of the 20th century came from communist nations during the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, notes Moore.
Source: Stephen Moore, “Clearing the Air,” National Review, December 31, 2004; and Stephen Hayward, “2004 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators,” American Enterprise Institute, April 14, 2004.
For AEI report:
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.,bookID.764/book_detail.asp
OPINION/COMMENTARY
A Matter of Balance
A leading U.S. hurricane researcher at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Dr. Chris Landsea, has resigned from the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The reason: To protest the personal leanings of an IPCC lead author on the subject of climate and hurricanes. That is no small matter. The IPCC is widely considered by the world's governments to be the most authoritative source for what we know about global warming. It periodically produces reports on the sate of the science of global warming, and is currently working on its Fourth Assessment Report. Landsea, in resigning, is protesting a lack of such balance on the part on one lead author - Dr. Kevin Trenberth of the Observations chapter on which Landsea was working. Landsea notes in his letter to the scientific community that Trenberth has publicly advocated the view that substantial increases in hurricane activity will accompany global warming, despite the lack of a scientific basis for a hurricane-global warming connection. Dr. Landsea, in fact, believes from his research that the current state of the science suggests little if any increase in predicted hurricane strength in the next 80 years. His view is consistent with the IPCC's Third Assessment Report of 2001....
A Matter of Balance
A leading U.S. hurricane researcher at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Dr. Chris Landsea, has resigned from the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The reason: To protest the personal leanings of an IPCC lead author on the subject of climate and hurricanes. That is no small matter. The IPCC is widely considered by the world's governments to be the most authoritative source for what we know about global warming. It periodically produces reports on the sate of the science of global warming, and is currently working on its Fourth Assessment Report. Landsea, in resigning, is protesting a lack of such balance on the part on one lead author - Dr. Kevin Trenberth of the Observations chapter on which Landsea was working. Landsea notes in his letter to the scientific community that Trenberth has publicly advocated the view that substantial increases in hurricane activity will accompany global warming, despite the lack of a scientific basis for a hurricane-global warming connection. Dr. Landsea, in fact, believes from his research that the current state of the science suggests little if any increase in predicted hurricane strength in the next 80 years. His view is consistent with the IPCC's Third Assessment Report of 2001....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
FEARS OVER “FRANKENFOODS” ARE UNFOUNDED
Anti-biotech advocates have successfully created hype over genetically-modified foods, claiming them unsafe to eat. However, scientific research has so far been rigorous and extensive, and in no way indicates that such foods are dangerous for human consumption, say authors Henry I. Miller and Gregory Conko.
In their new book, “The Frankenfood Myth,” the authors contend:
---Genetically-altered foods in some form or another have existed since the early 20th century; in fact, the types of wheat used in making bread and pasta are a result of cross-breeding programs that combined different types of plants with wheat.
---In thousands of containment laboratories across the United States and Europe, there has been no evidence of an adverse reaction to gene-spliced microorganisms -- in humans, animals or the environment.
---In fact, gene-spliced corn has been documented to benefit public health; it has lower levels of fumonism, a fungal toxin that can increase esophageal cancer in humans.
---A 2001 EPA rule requires repeated testing and case-by-case reviews of pest-resistant genetically-engineered foods, much stricter requirements than for conventional cross-breeding.
It is important to recognize that life is filled with risks, and the production, distribution and sale of food are not exceptions. There is also a risk in rejecting new technologies and products, and in establishing a public policy principle against innovation. When public policy discriminates against the use of a product or technology with benefit and risk characteristics that are overwhelmingly positive, which is the case with the new biotech today, all of society loses, says Jay Lehr, science director for the Heartland Institute.
Sources: Jay Lehr, “Scientific Evidence Puts the Lie to Concerns Over Genetically Modified Food,” Heartland Institute, October 2004; Henry L. Miller and Gregory Conko, “The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution,” George C. Marshall Institute, September 20, 2004.
For article text:
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15729
For Miller and Conko text:
http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=246
FEARS OVER “FRANKENFOODS” ARE UNFOUNDED
Anti-biotech advocates have successfully created hype over genetically-modified foods, claiming them unsafe to eat. However, scientific research has so far been rigorous and extensive, and in no way indicates that such foods are dangerous for human consumption, say authors Henry I. Miller and Gregory Conko.
In their new book, “The Frankenfood Myth,” the authors contend:
---Genetically-altered foods in some form or another have existed since the early 20th century; in fact, the types of wheat used in making bread and pasta are a result of cross-breeding programs that combined different types of plants with wheat.
---In thousands of containment laboratories across the United States and Europe, there has been no evidence of an adverse reaction to gene-spliced microorganisms -- in humans, animals or the environment.
---In fact, gene-spliced corn has been documented to benefit public health; it has lower levels of fumonism, a fungal toxin that can increase esophageal cancer in humans.
---A 2001 EPA rule requires repeated testing and case-by-case reviews of pest-resistant genetically-engineered foods, much stricter requirements than for conventional cross-breeding.
It is important to recognize that life is filled with risks, and the production, distribution and sale of food are not exceptions. There is also a risk in rejecting new technologies and products, and in establishing a public policy principle against innovation. When public policy discriminates against the use of a product or technology with benefit and risk characteristics that are overwhelmingly positive, which is the case with the new biotech today, all of society loses, says Jay Lehr, science director for the Heartland Institute.
Sources: Jay Lehr, “Scientific Evidence Puts the Lie to Concerns Over Genetically Modified Food,” Heartland Institute, October 2004; Henry L. Miller and Gregory Conko, “The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution,” George C. Marshall Institute, September 20, 2004.
For article text:
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15729
For Miller and Conko text:
http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=246
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)