A honkin' problem for Oregon farmers Even Canada geese realized years ago Oregon's pastures are greener than California's. Hordes of geese over the past three decades quit migrating to California in winter, stopping in the Willamette Valley instead. Geese numbers ballooned from about 25,000 to perhaps 300,000 today -- more Canada geese of more varieties than anywhere else in the nation. It's a blessing for birdwatchers but a nightmare for farmers. The voracious birds mow grass as flat as putting greens and trample fields into mud. "They're worse than sheep," said Jim Donald, who figures geese do about $50,000 worth of damage on his Southwest Washington dairy farm each year. "Grass that you spend all winter trying to protect from them can be gone in a few hours." Two bills in the Oregon Legislature -- House Joint Memorial 5 and House Bill 2881 -- take aim at the gaggles. One demands the federal government reduce goose numbers and help farmers slow the damage. The other removes the Aleutian Canada goose from the state's list of endangered species, making it easier to chase and hunt the birds that swarm the coast in increasing numbers each spring. Both measures have passed the House and await action in the Senate....
Let's make sure there's water beyond methane As a rancher in southeastern Montana, my life depends on three things: good weather, healthy soils, and, most of all, a reliable supply of clean water. Like my neighbors, I never worried about my water 10 years ago, but now I worry about it constantly because of coalbed methane extraction south of us along Tongue River. I have visited with a hardworking couple in Wyoming who suffered near emotional breakdown when their water well dried up after the methane industry drained hundreds of feet of water from nearby aquifers. I have seen soil turned into a totally worthless salt flat, sterilized after the methane industry saturated it with salty methane water. We don't need these kinds of problems in Montana. Fortunately, there's another way. Coalbed methane can be extracted responsibly. Northern Plains Resource Council has advocated for alternative development practices to prevent problems in our state. I chair Northern Plains' Coal Bed Methane Task Force, and our biggest focus has always been to figure out ways to make sure our water is protected....
Stricter methane water rules sought A collection of conservation and ranching interests wants the state to impose new restrictions on how waste water from coalbed methane wells must be handled. Northern Plains Resource Council and 15 other groups or ranchers have proposed requiring water either be put back into the ground to replenish aquifers or, if that is not technically possible, be treated before being discharged into rivers or streams for use by irrigators. The goal is to ensure Montanans have "water beyond methane," and offers "the only solution to methane extraction that addresses the widespread drainage of groundwater sources relied upon by farmers, ranchers and rural communities throughout southeastern and south-central Montana," a petition filed with the state Department of Environmental Quality says. The request reflects findings of a study Northern Plains released nine months ago that said returning water into the ground or treating it are affordable options for the industry....
Otter, Patty Duke Pearce join push to raise money for North Idaho easements Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke Pearce and U.S. Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter, R-Idaho, are promoting an effort to raise $2 million in private money to help shield 80,000 acres of forest near northern Idaho's St. Joe River from most development. Pearce and Otter on Thursday were named to co-chair the St. Joe Conservation Initiative. They're trying to raise $400,000 by September, and another $1.55 million in donations by 2007, to buy conservation easements on timber land owned by wood-products company Potlatch Corp. The private money is needed to receive grants from the U.S. Forest Service's Forest Legacy program that easement proponents hope will total about $8 million....
Mining firm will buy Santa Ritas tract More than 2,700 acres in the Santa Rita Mountains that Pima County had been considering for preservation may now become a copper mine. Augusta Resource Corp., a Vancouver, British Columbia-based mining-exploration firm, announced Thursday that it had agreed to buy the 2,760 acres known as Rosemont Ranch for $20.8 million from local developer Triangle Ventures LLC. Triangle Ventures bought the property less than a year ago from Tucson-based mining company Asarco Inc. for $4.8 million....
BLM offers to investigate dangerous wire A federal agency offered Thursday to help investigate a strand of wire found last month stretched neck-high to a motorcycle rider across a path in the Pine Nut Mountains south of Gardnerville. There’s been no other reports of wires stretched across any other paths in Douglas County or on Northern Nevada Bureau of Land Management or Humboldt-Toyiabe National Forest Service lands, authorities said. “That kind of anarchy on the public land has not been uncommon in the past,” said BLM spokesman Mark Struble. “We occasionally find things like that in other places.” The BLM on Thursday offered a special agent to help Douglas County investigate, Struble said. The BLM is also stepping up its regular law enforcement patrols in response to the incident, he said....
Anticipated hordes of Lewis and Clark fans never materialized The hordes of Lewis and Clark fans expected to visit the Gates of the Mountains area along the Missouri River haven't materialized and plans to deal with them have "died a quiet death," officials said. So far, the millions of anticipated Lewis and Clark bicentennial tourists haven't shown up, and neither have the restrictions discussed in 2002 by federal and state officials for the popular, scenic "Gates" area northeast of Helena. Three years ago, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials were voicing concerns about the possible impacts of 10 million people heading to historic sites along the expedition's route....
Federal Court Upholds Key Healthy Forests Provision The U.S. Forest Service was not required to seek public comment and conduct an environmental review prior to approving the logging of 245 acres of beetle-infested forest in the Lolo National Forest, ruled the U.S. District Court of the District of Montana in an April 8 decision. In so ruling, the court approved one of the cornerstones of the Bush administration’s Healthy Forests Initiative, the “categorical exclusions” exemption. Under the Healthy Forests Initiative, the Forest Service is not required to undertake normal public comment and environmental review procedures in approving the logging of less than 250 acres of timber in dead or dying forests if such logging can be accomplished without building more than one-half mile of temporary roads. Only “extraordinary circumstances,” according to the initiative, would require the Forest Service to abide by normal comment-and-review procedures for such a small tract of land....
BLM has new weapon to unleash on fires The latest in wildland firefighting technology resembles a motorized caterpillar as it rolls up and down slopes steeper than 45 degrees. R.J. Johnson, a firefighter for the Bureau of Land Management, says the machine can "go where the typical fire engine can't." "It can carry more water to more fires and help keep down costs," Johnson added about the Wildland Ultra XT 6x6 Water Tender , which he drives. The engine's cab and suspension system is crafted in the Czech Republic and is customized by Indiana-based American Truck Co. Powered by a 425 horsepower, turbo-charged diesel engine, the six-wheel-drive vehicle can haul 2,890 gallons of water and 30 gallons of foam concentrate. BLM spokesman David Boyd says the 10-foot-tall monster truck is one of only three in the country; the other two are based in Oregon. It costs $318,000 - $100,000 more than a traditional fire engine - and can motor down a paved road at 70 mph....
Hemingway's house an endangered place(and apparently many BLM lands) For the first time, a site outside the United States -- novelist Ernest Hemingway's Cuban hideaway -- has won a place on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of the most endangered places. Hemingway spent more than 20 years at the home near Havana, where he wrote "The Old Man and the Sea." Time and the elements have severely damaged the hacienda, called Finca Vigia, or Lookout Farm. Also on the list of endangered places is the National Landscape Conservation System, 26 million acres of federal land in the West that the Bureau of Land Management controls. Mr. Moe said the agency does not have enough money to manage the lands, many of which have been damaged by off-road vehicles and vandalism....Go here to see the Trust's info on BLM land....
The Wilderness Society Commemorates Fifth Anniversary of Neglected Yet Promising National Landscape Conservation System Today The Wilderness Society launched an online campaign to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) a promising yet neglected fledgling land management system. The campaign website, http://ga1.org/campaign/nlcsanniv, encourages visitors to send a message to Interior Secretary Gale Norton urging her to make land conservation a priority for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency that manages all NLCS lands. Visitors can also learn more about this unique land management system that focuses on preserving entire sections of ecosystems and culturally important landscapes. “The National Landscape Conservation System is the most innovative American land system created in the last 50 years,” said The Wilderness Society President William H. Meadows. “But we're concerned that the Interior Department is missing the point. Rather than using the NLCS as it was intended - to truly conserve natural and cultural values by protecting large landscapes that encompass whole ecosystems and communities - the Interior Department is under funding the program and focusing on oil and gas drilling rather than conservation of our best Western lands."....Gee, does this look like an organized campaign?....
2 grizzlies found dead; reward offered A $2,500 reward is being offered in hopes of tracking down the people who killed two grizzly bears and left or dumped their carcasses on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in May, officials said Thursday. An adult female grizzly was found shot to death on May 12 north of St. Mary. Three days later, officials found a dead male grizzly along the Joe Show Road about two miles west of U.S. 89, its claws missing and its ears and lips cut off. Dan Carney, bear biologist on the reservation, said officials believe the ears and lips were removed to keep investigators from identifying the bear by a lip tattoo or ear tag, but biologists had implanted a microchip in the 500-pound bear and could still identify it. Officials sent the male bear's carcass to a state lab in Bozeman to determine exact cause of death....
Pesticide used to poison Idaho wolf The poison responsible for killing several Central Idaho dogs last summer has been determined to have illegally killed a wolf near Clear Creek, a tributary of Panther Creek in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area. The male wolf, called B-204 in wolf monitoring parlance, was equipped with a radio collar on June 27, 2004. At that time, biologists estimated the wolf to be between 1 and 2 years old. He was found to have been killed by ingesting meat laced with a gray, granular poison called Temik, which is a restricted pesticide commonly applied to potatoes. Use of this and other poisons is something a group called Predator Defense believes should be treated as terrorism. "We want to see this kind of misuse tried as a federal felony under a terrorism statute," said Brooks Fahy, the group's executive director....
Nevada quarter to feature mustangs The image of three galloping mustangs ran away from four other finalists by a comfortable margin to be the Nevada design on a series of commemorative quarters minted by the U.S. Treasury. Nevada residents chose from among five finalists during the past month. In a Thursday announcement at the Capitol, Treasurer Brian Krolicki said nearly 60,000 votes were cast. The “Morning in Nevada” design — featuring wild horses with the sun rising behind snow-capped mountains — collected 32 percent of the total. The design also includes sagebrush, the state flower....
Hearing set on Canadian cattle ban The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted the U.S. Department of Agriculture a hearing on its request to overturn U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull's March 2 preliminary injunction preventing Canadian live cattle from resuming entrance into the United States. The appellate court will also hear the request of the National Meat Association to intervene in the case and overturn the injunction. The order, signed by a three-judge panel, set the hearing for Seattle. It is scheduled for July 13, just two weeks before a hearing in Billings before Cebull on a petition by the Rancher-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America for a permanent injunction against the USDA's plan to reopen the border to Canadian cattle 30 months old or younger. The Seattle hearing will be on the questions of whether Cebull properly issued a preliminary injunction and if the National Meat Association, which represents small packers and meat processors, can intervene in the case....
Praising the Lord....The Cowboy Way Thousand Hills Cowboy Church, between Comfort and Kerrville, has no organ, no altar, and no stained-glass windows. Instead of chandlers, lighting comes from old kerosene lanterns wired for electricity. Antique saddles line the walls. Worshipers, who used to sit on hay bales until ants became a problem, now sit on Mexican blankets thrown over wooden benches inside the barn-church. Nearly two hundred area residents come every Sunday to hear Ron Moore preach on a stage in front of an Old West façade made with wood, windows, and rusty tin from a century-old ranch house. Beside him, sitting on a bale of hay, is his cowdog Will, who bows his head to pray on command....

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Court says federal agency doing little for endangered sturgeon The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not doing enough to help the Kootenai River white sturgeon, a fish on a "slow train to extinction" as females age and reproduction idles, a federal judge says. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula set a Dec. 1 deadline for the agency to redraw the white sturgeon's "critical habitat," a protected area with the features necessary for survival of North America's largest freshwater fish. It has been on the federal endangered species list since 1994. The present critical habitat is an 11-mile stretch of the Kootenai River in Idaho with a sandy bottom. Under Molloy's order, Fish and Wildlife must extend the protected habitat to include river bottom rocky enough to support spawning by sturgeon, a fish that can weigh hundreds of pounds and live 80 years or longer....
Wolf Kills Dog in Munising The successful comeback of the grey wolf in the UP may have pleased DNR officials, but some residents in Munising are anything but thrilled. Ann Dolaskie says her 7 year old dachsund Teeka was killed by a wolf Tuesday night. "I heard a funny yip," she said. "Something bit her is what it sounded like so I ran back outside and she was in the mouth of a wolf. She had her in a choke hold by the neck." The wolf disappeared into the woods with the dog and hasn't been seen since....
Editorial: Best available science should not be limited It seems like every time you turn around these days, there is an assault on science in America. It's not good for the country, its people, its political system or its economy. The latest attack is right here in Albuquerque, where the Southwest Region director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has arbitrarily decided to limit the use of genetics in making official decisions on protecting endangered animals and plants. Fortunately, scientists and other Fish and Wildlife officials are not taking Director Dale Hall's anti-science, pro-development edict lying down. They are complaining - and well they should. So are environmental and conservation organizations, which at the first opportunity should challenge Hall's decision legally....
Can billionaire philanthropy save the earth? A few days ago, I was commiserating with a friend about the sad state of environmental affairs. We were talking about the infamous "death of environmentalism" paper and its call for the environmental movement to connect more to issues involving social justice. My opinion, I told my friend, is that it's not environmentalism that's dead. There's just no future in regular work. The future lies in capital, connections to it and then wielding that power. I concluded: "Billionaire philanthropy is the only thing that can save the earth." I thought my argument made sense. Our national and international economic systems increasingly support massive aggregations of wealth. And now, it is mainly by the benevolence of a small portion of all those millionaires and billionaires that most environmental organizations stay funded. Think Rockefeller, Hewlett-Packard, Ford and of course, Ted Turner. And now, Wal-Mart....

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EPA wants Milltown Dam removed Dismantling the aging dam built at the point where the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers meet in western Montana will be the easy part. It's dealing with the contaminated mud behind the dam -- enough to fill a freight train more than 500 miles long -- that poses the real challenge, officials say. The Environmental Protection Agency wants the Milltown Dam, located at the end of the nation's largest Superfund environmental cleanup site, to be taken down around late 2006. "That's if Mother Nature cooperates and things go as planned," said EPA project manager Russ Forba. "It's an active system, so you can't always predict." After years of campaigning, environmentalists view the sediment removal as a triumph. Skeptics, however, say disturbing the mud could introduce new problems....
Permit requirements could put a hitch in farming operations “Neither Congress nor EPA ever intended to subject the application of pesticides to the Clean Water Act’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit requirements,” said Ed Duskin, Southern Crop Production Association executive vice president. “Rather, all sources of exposure in the environment — including air and water — from either direct application, runoff or spray drift of pesticides have been effectively regulated by EPA under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).” But rulings by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has “muddied the waters” on CWA permits, leading House members to introduce legislation (H.R. 1749), which would spell out that pesticides applied in accordance with FIFRA meet the Clean Water Act policy established by Congress....
$12.5 million deal OK'd to bar drilling in state waters of gulf A $12.5 million deal that won approval Wednesday from Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet is designed to protect state-controlled waters from oil drilling and end decades of litigation. "It sends a very positive and powerful signal that offshore drilling, particularly in the near waters of our state, is taboo," Bush said. "That chapter in Florida's history is over." Coastal Petroleum, the company that owns the last offshore drilling leases that the state issued in the 1940s, will receive the money in exchange for dropping efforts to drill along the state's west coast. Barring a course reversal by the Legislature, that means oil rigs will be indefinitely banned from Florida waters that extend about 10 miles into the Gulf of Mexico....

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Air Quality: Much Worse on Paper Than in Reality No area outside California comes anywhere close to having "some of the worst air pollution in the nation." And yet a search through newspapers both large and small reveals that journalists and environmental activists have collectively put more than half the country into this category. This may be one of the few cases where a thousand words are worth much more than a picture. Here then is a partial inventory of air quality false alarms. Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reports, has "some of the worst air pollution in the nation."[3] Eighty miles north of Chicago is Milwaukee, which the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says has "some of the worst air pollution in the nation."[4] Toledo joins its Midwestern brethren with "some of the worst ozone pollution readings in the nation," according to the Toledo Blade.[5] Ditto for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which according to the Associated Press "has some of the most polluted air in the nation."[6] The Dallas-Fort Worth area has "some of the country's worst air," claims the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.[7] The Baltimore Sun says Baltimore has "some of the worst air pollution in the country" as well.[8] Houston? "[S]ome of the worst air pollution problems in the country," says United Press International.[9] The New York metropolitan area has "some of the country's dirtiest air," according to the Westchester Journal News.[10] Don't forget Atlanta, which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says has "some of the worst air pollution in the country," with agreement from the Associated Press as well.[11] Raleigh, North Carolina's News & Observer says it is not only Atlanta, but the entire Raleigh-Greensboro-Atlanta "megalopolis" that has "some of the worst air pollution in the country."[12]....
Scientists turn from brown to green chemistry A quiet revolution to discover more environmentally friendly products and processes is under way in one of society's most polluting industries. Called "green chemistry," the idea is to make chemicals using less toxic or environmentally benign feed stocks and to develop chemical manufacturing processes that take fewer steps and therefore use less energy, water and potentially harmful substances. While the idea has been around a long time, it has only begun to gather steam in recent years. Although not as widespread as industry and environmentalists would like, a new generation of chemists is gradually being introduced to the concept of green chemistry - as opposed to the old "brown chemistry" - in high schools and colleges across the country. The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation have been underwriting green chemistry research for the past decade, the fruits of which are beginning to be seen....
Experts Are Listening to Grand Canyon Mounted at about ear level on tripods, microphones are capturing the sound of quiet at the Grand Canyon. The four microphones are attached to sound level meters and computers that will later screen out all manmade sounds, such as the chatter of hikers, the rumble of cars and the buzz of sightseeing planes and helicopters. All that will be left will be the sounds of nature: the wind in the trees, the chirping of birds, for example. Park officials are doing this because they need to establish the natural decibel level at the Grand Canyon before policymakers can decide whether the current noise-reduction regulations governing flights over America's most breathtaking natural wonder are adequate. Although the listening devices are new, the effort to determine whether the park is as quiet as it should be goes back a generation....

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CHANGES AT THE WESTERNER

While serving as the NM Secretary of Agriculture, I was always wanting staff to keep me briefed on current issues, but I never received the kind of info I wanted. So, what you have been seeing at The Westerner is the kind of daily briefing I desired. Further, I have done my searches in the late evening and early morning, so that when you fired up your computer in the am you had THAT days news in front of you.

Although I retired in June of '03, Sweet Sharon has threatened to kick my crippled ass out of the house unless I bring in some more dinero. Since I still enjoy shelter and food, I accepted a new position in January. I'm finding I can't stay up all night searching for news and meet my new responsibilities, so some changes are in order.

The Westerner will now appear more like a regular blog, with me posting items as I find 'em, all hours of the day. I will still give you excerpts or a summary of the article, but they won't appear in one bunch and I won't be able to place the posts based on subject matter. As a result, some news items will appear earlier than before, while others won't be as timely. It will also mean you should check in more than once a day if you want to keep up with the happenings here.

Tomorrow, I will let you know about the additional subject matter to be covered by The Westerner.

If you have any complaints about the new approach, email me and I will give you Sweet Sharon's email and phone number....

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Judge reviewing Idaho salvage logging A federal district judge in Idaho is considering whether to halt a logging operation now under way within sight of the historic Lewis and Clark Trail on the Clearwater National Forest. In Boise on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge heard a request from several environmental groups and an Idaho couple that he temporarily stop a 177-acre logging project on Wendover Ridge in the Powell Ranger District. Lodge is expected to rule in the next few days. For a small timber sale, the Wendover Ridge project has generated considerable controversy, primarily because of its proximity to the trail traipsed by the famous explorers in 1805 and 1806. Although the trail doesn't bisect the timber sale, it does pass within a quarter-mile of the cuts, and at least one of the logging units is visible from the trail, which is expected to see heavy traffic during this summer's Lewis and Clark Bicentennial commemoration....
Managing a national forest's conflicts These aren't easy times to be a U.S. Forest Service ranger. Before Andrei Rykoff could leave for a field trip last week, an employee walked up and urged him to find a way to soothe slumping morale in the work force of the Clackamas River Ranger District. A series of federal budget cuts is forcing layoffs, leaving the survivors wondering who is next. This part of the Mount Hood National Forest had 150 full-time employees in the late 1970s compared with 35 today. The survivors also are stressed with multi-tasking -- performing two or three different functions to cover for the losses. Dealing with a shrinking work force is only one of many challenges for Rykoff, who manages the largest of four ranger districts in the national forest. About 40 percent of the forest's 1.1 million acres are in the Estacada-based district....
State offering funds for shooting ranges The state of Montana is offering $250,000, first-come, first-served, to governments or groups that want to build or improve shooting ranges. Up to $75,000 is available for each project, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced last week. Grant recipients must provide a 50 percent match for each grant, either with money or "in kind" donations, such as labor. Governments, school districts, private shooting clubs and nonprofit organizations are welcome to apply....
Salamander identified using DNA Modern-day biologists don't get this opportunity often, so when it comes, they're excited. This month, an article published in the scientific journal Herpetologica confirms the presence of a new animal - a species of salamander known as plethodon asupak, or the Scott Bar Salamander. The animal is found on rocky slopes, and as of now, has been identified on both sides of the Klamath River between Seiad Creek and Scott Bar Mountain. In the field, the new species of salamander looks very much like its cousin, the Siskiyou Mountain Salamander, according to a Klamath National Forest press release. It is only recognizable as a unique animal when the tools of DNA testing or very precise measurements by experienced field observers tease out the difference....
In-house wisdom, or White House meddling? The surprise, which forest planners say they only learned about last fall, two years into the process of rewriting the rules, came in the form of a corporate planning process called an "Environmental Management System" or "EMS." James Connaughton, head of the President's Council on Environmental Quality, has championed the EMS system as a way to streamline the environmental review and public participation required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). "This is a wholly new creature for the Forest Service." says Mike Anderson with The Wilderness Society. "It's going to push them into an unknown additional amount of analysis and paperwork, but there's no evident benefit for the public." Forest planners strike a more cheery tone, but acknowledge that they are wrestling with the new system. Margaret Hartzell, who heads the team that is revising forest plans for the Colville, Okanogan and Wenatchee national forests in northern Washington, explains that the EMS process is based on an international environmental standard called "ISO 14001." "The mantra is, 'plan, do ...'" She stops, starts again: "'Plan, do, check, act.'" She laughs. "I'm still struggling with this." "There's a learning curve for us," says Hartzell, but the new process is designed to save the agency time and allow it to be quicker on its feet. "The notion is that a forest would not go through a big revision effort every 10 to 15 years," she says. "Every year, you would update the forest plan if you need to. The changes would be smaller, but more often."....
New Mexico Officials Ask Congress To Transfer Land To Land Grant Heirs The State of New Mexico is facing the possibility of transferring millions of acres of federal land to land-grant heirs if Congress approves legislation reinstating the land grants. Arizona could face the same possibility if the legislation is passed. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and members of the New Mexico Legislature have asked Congress to transfer federal lands that are held by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to land grant heirs, who say that the land was unjustly taken from them. In 2003, the New Mexico Legislature passed a bill that made land grants eligible for state and federal funding. However, many of the land grant heirs do not want to be paid for the land, they want to own the land, a difficult prospect for the government to face....
Mormon church project delayed Plans for a Mormon chapel near Running Springs hit a major snag Wednesday when a judge ruled that the project requires extensive environmental analysis and revoked a county permit to proceed with construction. The Save Our Forest Association and several other environmental protection groups filed suit against the county in October after planning commissioners refused to require an environmental impact report for the 7.7-acre project along Highway 18. Instead, the commission decided the project was exempt from the comprehensive study and issued a permit to proceed with construction. The environmental groups claim the church project will spur urban growth in the mountains and threaten endangered species, including the Southern Rubber Boa snake and the San Bernardino flying squirrel....
Do today's kids have "nature-deficit disorder"? In the not-so-distant past, kids ruled the country's woods and valleys -- running in packs, building secret forts and treehouses, hunting frogs and fish, playing hide and seek behind tall grasses. But in the last 30 years, says journalist Richard Louv, children of the digital age have become increasingly alienated from the natural world -- with disastrous implications, not only for their physical fitness, but also for their long term mental and spiritual heath. In his new book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder," Louv argues that sensationalist media coverage and paranoid parents have literally "scared children straight out of the woods and fields," while promoting a litigious culture of fear that favors "safe" regimented sports over imaginative play. Well-meaning elementary school curriculums may teach students everything there is to know about the Amazon rainforest's endangered species, but do little to encourage kids' personal relationship with the world outside their own doors....
Alaskan Sea Otter Population Decline Accelerates The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to provide protections promised over one year ago for the world’s most endangered population of sea otters. Without these protections, scientists predict that these sea otters, found in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula, will become extinct. Responding to what government scientists have called “the most widespread and precipitous population decline in recorded history,” the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal administrative petition to protect the sea otters in October 2000 under the Endangered Species Act, America’s safety net for endangered fish, wildlife, and plants. However, one month later the Bush Administration came into power and has refused to process the petition according to the law ever since. Finally in 2004, and only after the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the Administration, a proposed rule to protect the sea otters was published and distributed for public review. Yet despite having a completed rule to protect these sea otters under the Endangered Species Act and a dedicated funding source to formally protect the sea otters, the Bush Administration has refused to finalize the protections scientists have indicated the sea otters desperately need, delaying implementation of these protections for over five years....
Counties, BLM ease tensions over monument signs The basic conflicts have not gone away. Nor will they any time soon. But it appears that a lengthy meeting Wednesday morning at the Utah Capitol complex has, at least for the moment, reduced tensions between Kane County and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in their escalating battle over rights-of-way issues in and around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. At the behest of Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, a group of BLM officials, Kane and Garfield County commissioners, and members of the Attorney General's staff met for 2 1/2 hours behind closed doors at the Governor's Office in a bid to get the two sides talking again....

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Residents Flee as Homes Fall in Calif. Landslide A landslide sent 17 multimillion-dollar houses crashing down a hill in Southern California early Wednesday as residents alarmed by the sound of walls and pipes coming apart rushed from their homes in their nightclothes. At least five people suffered minor injuries. About 1,000 people in 350 other homes in the Bluebird Canyon area were evacuated as a precaution. In addition to the 17 houses destroyed -- earlier reports said as many as 18 had been destroyed -- 11 were damaged and a street was wrecked when the earth gave way around daybreak in this Orange County community about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles....
Schwarzenegger Issues Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gases Speaking to hundreds of international leaders gathered here for the United Nations World Environment Day, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a plan to reduce California's contribution to gases that many scientists believe cause global warming. Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, outlined his ambitious goals on Wednesday in a three-tiered Environmental Action Plan intended to reduce California's greenhouse gas emissions in less than five years to less than the levels in 2000. The plan calls for the further reduction of emissions by 2020 to less than the levels produced in 1990, and for the reduction, by 2050, of emissions to 80 percent less than the levels in 1990. "I say the debate is over," Mr. Schwarzenegger told about 500 guests, including mayors from more than 70 cities from around the world invited to hear the announcement at City Hall. "We know the science. We see the threat, and we know the time for action is now."....
Betting The Farm On Free Trade Across the midwest, rural radio stations are airing ads that feature a famous quote from President Dwight D. Eisenhower: "Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield." The ads are sponsored by the National Farmers Union, a group representing family farms, and it's no secret that the Washington pencil-pusher being targeted is American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman. Even Stallman, who grew up on a 1,100-acre rice and cattle farm in Columbus, Tex., ruefully calls himself "a cell-phone farmer." But it's not his pinstripe suits or corner office overlooking the U.S. Capitol that get the goat of the NFU. It's the way Stallman is dividing farm country by leading the 5.6 million-member Farm Bureau, the nation's most powerful agricultural lobby, in a strong free-trade direction. Stallman favors low worldwide tariffs and a cut in government handouts, reasoning that large-scale, mechanized, and superefficient American farmers can export their way out of the commodity glut dogging the industry. That stance puts Stallman at the epicenter of a raging controversy over the future of American farming. Other voices representing small farmers and their struggling rural communities -- the NFU and the National Family Farm Coalition among them -- fear being crushed between giant U.S. agribusiness and tons of food from developing countries....
Myers Confirmation on Chopping Block In that now-famous, or perhaps infamous, compromise deal by 14 U.S. senators hoping to end a quarrel over judicial filibusters, the name of former Interior Department Solicitor General William Myers (search) was excluded from an agreement not to filibuster. For months, Republicans claimed to have the votes to confirm Myers to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals were it not for democratic filibusters. But now he remains in judicial limbo. Detractors say it is because he lacks the necessary Washington gravitas. The American Bar Association rated him "qualified," but supporters say that's too lukewarm. By far, the most resounding charge against Myers is that he's anti-environment. Opponents point to positions he took as a lobbyist, lawyer and as solicitor general for the Department of the Interior and accuse him of attacking laws protecting lands, water and endangered species....
Retail beef prices hit near record highs With grilling season in full swing, retail beef prices are near record highs, thanks to tight supplies, more demand and rising fuel costs. Retail prices for choice beef averaged $4.25 a pound in April, the latest period available from the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service. April's price was second only to November 2003, when beef prices rose to $4.32 a pound after Canadian imports were cut off due to a case of mad cow disease. June prices should drop slightly to a range of $4 to $4.10 because demand will ease as grilling season drops off and supplies will increase, said Ron Gustafson of the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service. Average beef prices have increased every year since 1999, climbing from $2.87 a pound that year to $4.06 a pound in 2004, according to the research service. Beef consumption has climbed 25 percent since 1998 to 27.6 billion pounds last year....
Farmers, new fishing group to work on water together The Klamath Water Users Association last week signed an agreement to cooperate with a newly formed fishing group that says it represents Pacific Coast commercial fishermen who use hook and line. In the agreement signed Friday between the water users and the Oregon Trollers Association, the groups say they will support salmon restoration efforts that provide water for both farmers and fishermen. They also agree to work at providing timely information to each other and educate each other, and to "avoid media statements and public policy positions that fuel conflict between our constituencies," according to a press release issued by the water users....
Wolves plan still lacking consensus Utah's wolf management plan has been kicked, poked and argued about from one end of the state to the other. Now it is in the hands of the Utah Wildlife Board. Following a sometimes heated series of regional meetings held earlier this month and one final gathering of the state's wolf task force on Tuesday, the board will get a plan that is mostly finished but continues to lack consensus on the most contentious issues. Most significant of the unresolved issues: protocol for the lethal control of wolves, levels of compensation for livestock killed by wolves and how to address the impacts of wolf predation on big game....

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Write-off on the Range He also points out three substantial, earth-tone, wooden houses, built in the folds of the land. These houses are not "skylined" on ridgetops, the way trophy homes are in less sensitive developments, he says. Instead, the view is mostly preserved. The conservation easements, he explains, have been an essential component in the investors’ "business plans." By donating the easements to the land trust, the investors have likely reaped millions of dollars in tax breaks, along with profits from selling high-priced lots. Similar weddings of conservation and business plans can be found throughout Madison County. One-fifth of the private land here is protected by conservation easements, a total of about 200,000 acres; the county may lead the West in that regard. Madison County remains rural, with only about 7,000 residents. But the landowners doing easement deals here include Atlanta-based billionaire Ted Turner; a billionaire Wal-Mart heiress and her husband, the owner of the Denver Nuggets; the CEO of the $100 billion AIM mutual funds; the founder of the $150 billion Oppenheimer mutual funds; the CEO of the Cox Enterprises multinational media empire; the family that built the Arm & Hammer Baking Soda conglomerate; a multimillionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur; and the owners of several exclusive ski-resort developments. As in much of the scenic West, land conservation here has become largely a rich man’s game. And the conservation easement system serves upscale landowners to such a degree that a growing number of people think it’s unfair....
Colorado tax credits make easements work for working people Colorado farmers Dorothy and Norman Kehmeier have raised more than $500,000 in cash, simply by donating conservation easements on about 200 acres of their land. And they’d like other landowners to hear about it. "It’s wonderful," Dorothy Kehmeier says. She’s referring to an innovative Colorado program that enables struggling ranchers and farmers to cash in on easements. The Colorado Legislature approved the program in 1999, and it’s been running since 2000. It gives state income tax credits to landowners who donate easements to land trusts. The credits are equal to the value of the easements, and landowners can sell their credits to wealthy people who can apply the credits to their own hefty tax bills. The tax credits are better than tax deductions because they reduce the buyer’s tax bills dollar for dollar....
Conservation Easement Statistics 1.1 billion Total private acres in United States/ 2 million Number of acres of "development sprawl" consuming landscapes per year/ 800,000 Number of acres of land protected by local and regional land trusts per year, either in new conservation easements or purchases/ 7 million Total acres covered by conservation easements held by local, regional and national land trusts/ 17,847 Numbers of easements held by local and regional trusts in 2003/ 2,500 Number of new easement deals made per year....
Desperation leads to preservation Given his druthers, Randy Rusk would rather raise cattle, bale hay and drink in the views from his Wet Mountain Valley ranch. But the potential breakup of his parent's 1,800-acre operation pushed a reluctant Rusk to the head of a campaign to preserve Colorado's vanishing rural landscapes. "It sure wasn't the intent at the start," said Rusk, 55. "I'd be content to stay here and be a cowpuncher - there's no doubt." But instead of losing the Rusk Hereford Ranch to the pincers of development and unfavorable economics, Rusk and several conservation partners have stitched together agreements with owners of 11,000 acres to bar development from much of the valley floor forever. About 4,000 acres are already under conservation easements; the rest of the deals are expected to be completed this year....

a tip of the hat to Headwaters News for the links

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Plans to oust lakeside residents causing waves There also are a lot of people, rooted along the shoreline in 1,300 mobile homes and travel trailers of mixed vintage, people who have rented their lakeside spots through long-term contracts with the federal government. The contracts expire in three or four years. They have to go. Most of the mobile homes are vacation or weekend places. A few resort employees live year round, such as Rose Stubbs, a 30-year resident of Lake Berryessa Marina Resort. "I just don't know what I'm going to do," said the 82-year-old as she wielded pruning shears in the narrow garden outside her beloved double-wide mobile home.... The Bureau of Reclamation has concluded differently. The bureau, which manages contracts with seven resorts along the lake, is searching for a new contractor to provide recreational services such as boat launches, campgrounds and boat rentals that would replace the clusters of mobile homes. Since 2000, the bureau has been exploring options for the lake and gathering public input. It is expected to choose a plan by fall, said Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the bureau. Though the specifics are still unclear, one thing seems certain: The mobile homes will go, he said....
Craigslist Foundation turns its energy to green networking Since its founding in 1995, Craigslist has gained a devoted following in cities around the world. As filmmaker Michael Ferris Gibson showed in his recent documentary "24 Hours on Craigslist," the online community board brings strangers together for all sorts of transactions and revelations. Now the website's namesake foundation -- whose raison d'être is strengthening community by supporting local nonprofits -- is developing a new environmental network. Craigslist Foundation's Environmental Non-Profit Network is still taking shape, but it will likely include both social and technological components. Its debut in Craigslist's home base, the San Francisco Bay area, has already attracted the interest of hundreds of local organizations. The foundation's executive director, Darian Heyman, says the network could eventually expand to play a national role....
Closings I recently visited Zion and Bryce National Parks in Southern Utah. Forty years ago, there were more roads and access, and they were free. Today, visitors are crowded on a single road, and each visit costs $20. Would the giant rock formations no longer be there, if the state of Utah or a private owner owned the park? Would you (in the case of Zion) have to pay $20 to use a state highway, in an area where alternatives are non-existent? In Virginia, the Manassas Battlefield National Park has prevented the improvement of the two state highways through the Park, for years. Now, the federal government proposes to close the two highways. Commuters and local drivers have been disadvantaged for years, and now their displacement will be complete. Would this battlefield be any better managed by the state government, or even a private contractor who would be powerless to claim surrounding lands, or the access of drivers using public roads? As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service buys new refuges, by promising to keep hunting open, and then close hunting after they get Congressional approval (Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge) they help destroy hunting. As they tell Arkansas duck hunters that duck hunting in Arkansas may have to be "regulated" (i.e. restricted) because of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker "discovery," they assist the radical anti-hunting organizations' steady constriction of hunting....

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Arizona Department of Agriculture
1688 W. Adams Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85007
(602) 542-4373 FAX (602) 542-5420

PRESS RELEASE, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2005
MEDIA CONTACT: Katie Decker, 602-542-0958

Number of Vesicular Stomatitis Found In Horses in Arizona Increases to 20

(Phoenix, AZ) -- The Arizona Department of Agriculture has confirmed twenty cases of Vesicular Stomatitis in horses throughout Arizona. This comes nearly a month after the first case was confirmed on April 20, 2005. These premises have all been quarantined. The following is a list of areas where these cases exist:

Camp Verde – 6 premises
Wickenburg – 2 premises
Wittmann – 2 premises
Sedona - 1 premises
Dewey – 2 premises
Cottonwood – 1 premises
Kirkland – 1 premises
Cave Creek – 1 premises
Tolleson – 3 premises
Avondale – 1 premises

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NEWS

As landscape shifts, Oregon struggles to protect farmland Dueling cries to scale back Oregon's new property rights law, and to address the frustrations that fueled it in the first place, are forcing state leaders to reconsider what type of rural land deserves protection. The Legislature's one shot at overhauling Measure 37 heads to the Senate floor today with precarious odds of passing. But even if Senate Bill 1037 tanks -- taking with it a proposed three-tier rural land system -- Oregon still has to address the farmland question. For three decades, widespread regulation allowed the state to shelter most rural property from development without making tough choices among crops and regions....
Drought further jeopardizing endangered, threatened wildlife Elsewhere in the state, biologists are plucking leopard frogs and eggs out of drying pools and taking them to museums and zoos to protect the adults and allow tadpoles to develop. To make sure endangered Sonoran pronghorns in southern Arizona get enough nourishment, officials are watering the desert to replenish shriveled plants. The federal government gave New Mexico money to refurbish wells to help a threatened fish. Meanwhile, farmers in the Northwest have sold water to increase flows for threatened and endangered fish; and environmental groups, developers and government agencies are working to protect a federally listed ground beetle, tiger salamander and several shrimp that live in seasonal pools. Most of the efforts are intended to help the fish and animals survive through the drought. But facing the threat of future dry spells, ongoing water shortages due to population spikes and global warming, officials also are investigating long-term solutions to help jeopardized wildlife....
America's unpopular and unnecessary predator war continues It’s late May in Alaska. A pack of wolves rises from its afternoon nap and heads out behind the alpha male on a hunt. The pups follow for a few hundred feet but soon realize their short legs cannot keep up. A half-hour into the hunt they notice a pair of porcupine caribou: stragglers. Just then, a prop airplane swoops overhead. The passenger points his assault rifle out the window and easily drops two wolves. He fires again, wounding the alpha male. The plane turns around and lands near the injured leader. The shooter gets out and kills him with a final bullet. Just over a year ago this sort of thing would be against the law in Alaska as voters had thought their votes had assured, but last summer Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski signed legislation that brought back aerial and what’s called “same-day airborne” wolf hunting1. Aerial hunting is when you fire directly from the aircraft. Same-day airborne hunting refers to the practice of using an aircraft to chase your prey until you exhaust them, then landing the helicopter or plane as close as you wish to the animal, putting one foot on the ground, and firing....
Find forest solutions locally, Dombeck urges Every time locals scuffle among themselves, he said, "the issues get elevated." What should be local decisions become national mandates, because with each hometown battle "you're just shoving the issue up to the next level." Instead, Dombeck laid out something of a plan for towns like Libby, timber towns whose steep social and economic decline has tracked the decline in timber sold from federal forests. First, he said, educate people especially young people about natural systems and resource-based ways of life. Build backing by reconnecting people to the land. Then negotiate. Bring every stakeholder along, and make sure everyone has an incentive to be there. Over time, those relationships will snowball to involve local governments, and those local governments will join in strong coalitions. Only then, Dombeck said, does it make sense to appeal to federal land managers with a proposal that is not only good for rural economies but that also is an investment in the land....
Forest rangers' jobs change with times In the early years, rangers were often homegrown jacks-of-all-trades who knew the territory. If a man - women weren't even considered - showed he could ride a horse and handle pack animals, including throwing a diamond hitch, manage livestock and was familiar with firearms and an axe, he had a six-day-a-week job that paid $900 to $1,500 a year (the equivalent of $18,471 to $30,785 in 2005, according to an online inflation calculator). Issued a map, rake, axe, bucket - and a badge - the ranger was given oversight of several thousand acres. He had to supply the rest of his equipment, including clothing, firearms and a horse. The job included keeping trails usable, stocking fish, serving as game warden, fighting fires, making sure grazing rights were respected and keeping peace between cattlemen and sheepmen....
Missing Riverside County Boy, 9, Might Have Been Attacked by Cougar The location and condition of a child's skull and bones found near a Big Bear area campground where a 9-year-old boy disappeared last July indicate he may have been killed by a mountain lion, authorities said Tuesday. San Bernardino County medical examiners are using dental records and DNA tests to determine if the remains that were found during the weekend by hikers and sheriff's deputies are those of David Gonzalez,who lived in Lake Elsinore and whose disappearance triggered a massive search-and-rescue effort last summer. Authorities believe a cougar may have attacked the boy in the woods and then dragged his body to an isolated area, which would explain David's sudden disappearance and why rescuers could not find him, Patterson said....
Coalition envisions trail from Reno to Tahoe Rim When Chuck Greene grew up near Toronto, people were free to visit Algonquin, a 3,000-square-mile park where people can canoe. Today, a reservation is required. “I don’t want to see that happen here,” said Greene, whose late father, Lorne Greene, the star of “Bonanza” helped put Northern Nevada on the tourist map for decades. Now Chuck Greene, co-chairman of the Sierra Front Recreation Coalition and a strong supporter of the Tahoe Rim Trail Association, is working to put a Tahoe-Rim-to-Reno trail on the map....
Court halts methane development An appeals court panel on Tuesday granted a request by the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe and a conservation group to halt coal-bed methane development in Montana's portion of the Powder River Basin pending an appeal of their case. The decision, by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, prevents the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from approving coal-bed methane projects in the basin in Montana and keeps Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. from drilling additional wells in one of its projects and building related infrastructure. John Arum, an attorney for the tribe, said he was pleased and viewed the ruling as a positive sign....
Large calcite formation found in N.M. cave A calcite formation named Snowy River could prove a gold mine for scientists. Snowy River, believed to be the largest continuous calcite formation in the world, was discovered in September 2001 by a Bureau of Land Management team led by veteran speleologist John McLean of Colorado. The stark white passage, looking like a river of snow surrounded by walls of brown clay and black manganese dioxide deposits, stretches more than two miles from Fort Stanton Cave in sourthern New Mexico....
Yosemite Construction Creates Controversy A new $13.5 million restoration project at the base of Yosemite Falls has made it simpler and easier for the day-trippers but has set off another phase in the debate about the future of one of America's most treasured national parks. The cars carry millions of people, but the project's freshly paved roads, remodeled visitors' center and new hotel plans have some environmentalists concerned that Yosemite is becoming, well, less natural. Lawsuits have slowed work on some road improvements and the renovation of Yosemite Lodge -- projects expected to cost more than $440 million -- but other construction is well underway. This spring the whirring of saws and beeping of backhoes are drowning out the chirping birds....
Column: Ain't I an Environmentalist? "The Death of Environmentalism" should be called "The Death of Elite, White, American Environmentalism." A critique of the environmental movement that draws on neither the perspectives nor achievements of the environmental-justice (EJ) movement is, at very best, incomplete. That the DOE interviews and recommendations only focused on white, American male-led environmentalism meant that the fatal flaws of that part of the environmental movement infected the critique itself. These omissions inspire me to paraphrase Sojourner Truth and ask, "Ain't I an environmentalist?" Their critique also repeated issues raised in letters that environmental-justice leaders have sent to leaders of white environmental groups since 1990. And yet, the authors have begun to attack the EJ movement, calling it fetishized NIMBY-ism during a panel presentation at Berkeley, while making the contradictory claim that environmental-health issues aren't real concerns in communities of color....
Column: World Environment Day? Predictably, the UN has a lot of highly dubious suggestions about what a person might do to celebrate World Environment Day – indeed its website lists at least one idea for each letter of the alphabet. One of my favorites is “Ratify international environmental conventions,” which seems to imply that the only current hold-up for environmental schemes such as the Kyoto accord are a few Joe Schmos from Middle America who remembered to “reuse” and “recycle,” but somehow forgot to “ratify.” Is it World Environment Day again, Sal? Damn. Where am I going to find an environmental convention to sign on to at this time of night? My second favorite suggestion is “Distribution of leaflets, brochures and posters” because of the shameless way that it casts wasting paper as a laudatory activity because it’s, you know, for a good cause. (If one combines this leaflet/poster suggestion with the list’s later suggestion, “Save paper,” a good argument can be made that the two cancel each other out, leaving sitting back in a chair and doing nothing one of the better ways to celebrate World Environment Day.) And finally, I’m quite fond of the suggestion that people “Hoist banners at major intersections in cities” since the lack of clarity about what the banners might say leaves open a delightful range of possibilities....
Column: The Soul of Environmentalism The world is coming together in San Francisco this week for the first-ever U.S.-based celebration of World Environment Day. But what exactly do American environmentalists have to celebrate? After all, environmentalism in the U.S. faces unprecedented challenges. More than two decades of advocacy about global climate change have left the movement here sidelined as the Kyoto Protocol went into effect -- our country has yet to enact a single policy that reduces the U.S.'s total emissions of heat-trapping gases. And who'd have thought that environmental leaders would be uncorking the nuclear genie as a solution at just the time when worldwide nuclear proliferation was at its highest level ever?....
Column: Common ground exists for hunters, protectors As sure as a bear sleeps in the woods, conditions are ripe for an era of cooperation between outdoorsmen and environmentalists. You heard right. We're talking hook and bullet meets tree hugger. Perhaps not a match made in heaven, but one whose time has come. For decades, elements who abuse public lands and waters for profit have pushed a campaign to discredit those whose goal is environmental protection, effectively driving a wedge between those who hunt and fish and those who strive to safeguard the resources where these activities occur....

Column: A relic of the recent past Nevertheless, the Foster City Historical Society has performed a useful service by publishing a little book titled simply "Foster City." It details the building of an attractive middle-class community with about 30,000 people on what was once swamp land. What makes this story of more than local interest is that Foster City is the kind of community that would be difficult to build today and, in many places, virtually impossible. The very idea of draining a swamp — a sacrosanct "wetland" — would arouse the fury of environmental zealots. Legalistic hassles over "environmental impact" reports alone might be enough to bankrupt the builders. Foster City was built in the 1960s, just before the environmental protection racket went big time, with the aid of legislation and court decisions that gave green zealots the power to impose huge costs on others at little or no cost to themselves....
Would you like the Budweiser ribs or the Smirnoff sirloin? Bob Thornberg thinks he might know the secret for tender meat. Feed booze to the cattle. To be precise, he's testing the benefits of adding ethyl alcohol to the diet of beef cows. "We're adding 32 ounces of fermented liquid, of which 8 percent is alcohol, to their drinking water," said Thornberg, president of SweetPro Feeds of Walhalla, N.D. "It would be like a quart of beer. Really, really strong beer." Thornberg has been in the livestock feed supplement business since 1989, when he began researching uses for byproducts of the ethanol industry. So, the guy knows his fermentation and distillation. He's a national award winner for his innovation and research....
Victor-area icon recalls a different Bitterroot Valley For more than 125 years, there have been Bukers living within a mile of the Curlew Mine. But by the time John Buker, now 92, moved back to the land his grandfather homesteaded, the once prosperous silver mine northwest of Victor had already seen its heyday. Born August 10, 1913, on a dryland ranch east of Florence, Buker graduated from eighth grade at Lone Rock School before moving with his family to his grandfather's 160-acre ranch on Indian Prairie Loop in 1928. His mom and dad had tried to prove up on a homestead of their own on Hidden Valley Road, but the extended drought of the 1920s drove them off the parched, rocky dirt. "My dad went broke on the dryland," Buker recalled last week, "and Grandpa was getting old. So he and Mom moved back here when I was 14. We come over here with teams and wagons trailing horses behind us." Buker still lives on the nearly intact homestead that's been in his family since 1880 and the farm wagons that ferried his family to the once-forested spot still rest in the field behind his house, their metal wheels rusted from nearly a century of Bitterroot weather and the wooden spokes sporting a healthy crop of colorful lichens....
Following a trail of Old West recipes Listen up, buckaroos. There's a new cookbook you might want to take a gander at - 'specially if you like to grill, grew up on a diet of Gunsmoke and Rawhide, and every now and then get a hankerin' for some cowboy food. Yessir, if you love Westerns and don't mind the kind of writin' in which all the "g's" are dropped, The All-American Cowboy Grill is for you. Corny? Sure it is. And beany, too, with 15 of its more than 200 recipes - all gathered from famous cowboy and cowgirl stars - devoted to that humble staple of the Old West, from Annie Oakley's Baked Beans to Slim Pickens' Cowboy Beans....another review is Home Cooking on the Range....
Poet lariat "Son, live your life as if it were your own," Michael Leonard said slowly and carefully as he delivered the last line of his poem by the same name. Leonard, a cowboy poet from north of Walton, lives the words he speaks. Like many artists whose greatest work has its beginning in pain, Leonard's poetry evolved from his need to express himself after his diagnosis with multiple sclerosis. "I started writing for fun in about 1990-just to give my friends a hard time," he said. "And then as MS hit, I really started writing more seriously." Before the diagnosis in 1992, Leonard was a rodeo cowboy and traveled to rodeos all over the country....
Bill Pickett Rodeo celebrates Black cowboys What led the Rev. Joseph Lowery, one of the nation’s best-known Black leaders, to trade his Sunday church clothes for Western wear and jump on a horse? “A lot of prayer,” joked Lowery, who served as grand marshal for a recent stop of the Bill Pickett International Rodeo. The all-Black rodeo, named for the Black cowboy who invented the art of bulldogging, has been touring the nation for 21 years. But Lowery says the history lessons offered at every show need to reach a wider audience and do more than spread the story of one man....

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CHANGES AT THE WESTERNER

Check in tomorrow for some announced changes in The Westerner, both in format and content.

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NEWS

'Competitive Sourcing' Memo Causes a Little Stir at the Forest Service So this month the U.S. Forest Service created a small stir when an "informational update" created the impression that OMB was putting the strong arm on the Forest Service's parent, the Agriculture Department. The Forest Service memo said OMB had told Agriculture "that it's previous 'Yellow' rating in competitive sourcing on the . . . scorecard will be changed to 'Red.' . . . It was stated that this was due to the lack of competitions, and primarily in the Forest Service." The memo noted that "OMB has never been satisfied with the lack of competitions in the Forest Service." The memo also seemed to raise the old quota issue (using federal jargon for measuring full-time employees, or FTEs). But it also reiterated that the Forest Service has its own game plan....
Watchdog to monitor Forest Service pesticide An environmental group is putting pressure on the U.S. Forest Service to follow environmental laws after a top regional official raised questions about pesticide use on forests throughout New Mexico and Arizona. Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics charges in a letter to Southwestern Regional Forester Harv Forsgren that public documents reviewed by the group "indicate a history of shortcomings" when it comes to training workers and complying with the National Environmental Protection Act. "I think the Southwestern Region has some pesticide cowboys who are somewhat caviler about how they use these poisons," said FSEEE executive director Andy Stahl. "For them to jump through the process hoops, they don't think that's all that important. For them to get the job done is more important."....
Last sawlogs running through Eureka mill Mill manager and co-owner Jim Hurst said the remaining logs on deck will be run through the mill by the end of next week, and he is planning a ceremony of sorts for the last log to be processed. In January, Hurst announced plans to shut down the mill because of lost confidence in the ability of the U.S. Forest Service to maintain a steady timber supply on the Kootenai National Forest, which surrounds Eureka. Last month, Hurst said there was some potential for a hardwoods manufacturing company based in Kentucky to purchase the Eureka mill for processing wood products destined for Japanese markets. But that possibility evaporated in the following weeks....
Forest Service becomes more fire friendly The last 100 years have witnessed many shifts in the way the public and Forest Service view the management of fire and timber production in the forests. Today, the agency has a more fire friendly approach than it once did -- an approach based partially on declining timber sales in the forests. "We -- meaning the profession -- have learned a lot about fire ecology," said Ed Fournier, a retired Sawtooth National Forest supervisor. The Forest Service now evaluates whether a fire will cause damage or whether it will thin overgrown areas, said Scott Nannenga, Minidoka District Ranger. "We now have a policy where we can let natural fires burn," he said....
Washed-out fire roads are invitation to disaster THE U.S. Forest Service has its work cut out for it: More than 2 million acres of forest in Southern California is inaccessible by fire engine. And the summer fire season is just around the corner. For example, in the nearby San Bernardino National Forest, one of the most heavily damaged in the southland, nearly 60 percent to 70 percent of existing fire roads have been washed out by the winter's record rains -- or made impassable by boulders and fallen trees....
Divided road It's a big dispute for such a small road. "It's not really about the road," says Richard Hatfield, project manager for the U.S. Forest Service. "It's about two groups that have very different ideas on public lands management, and this is the place that they've both drawn lines in the sand." Two years ago, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service — which each have jurisdiction over sections of the road — closed the route because of pressure from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Since then, four-wheel-drive enthusiasts led by the High Desert Multiple Use Coalition have fought to reopen the seldom-used road....
Forest Service May Sell Some Staff Facilities Wrestling with a long inadequate maintenance budget and facing the prospect of more funding cuts, the U.S. Forest Service is proposing to sell a fifth or more of its staff buildings across the country, including hundreds in California. A Bush administration plan would allow the Forest Service to go into the real estate business, auctioning staff facilities and the land they sit on to raise cash for upkeep and the construction of new buildings. Ranger stations, warehouses, residences and remote work centers could be sold under the program, which must be approved by Congress. Under the heading "Hot Sales!" a government website this spring showcased several Forest Service properties auctioned under a pilot program. Among them were two unused houses in Sierra Madre sold by the Angeles National Forest in Southern California for nearly $1.7 million...."unused houses", what the hell is that???
Editorial: Plan should not allow wholesale killing of wolves Utah's final management plan was shaped by public comment given to five regional advisory councils whose recommendations will be considered by the Wolf Working Group and the state Division of Wildlife Resources. The ultimate blueprint must provide protection to the wolves and also to ranchers whose livestock may be affected by wolf predation. The interests of neither should be protected at the expense of the other. All five regional councils have supported the right of ranchers to shoot wolves they see attacking or threatening their animals on private land or on public property where they graze. However, that provision must not be interpreted as absolute authority to shoot wolves on sight....
Fishermen calling for an improved salmon recovery On a recent foggy evening near the mouth of the Columbia River, fisherman Jim Wells was joined by just four other boats, a far cry from the crowds seen during the heyday of commercial salmon fishing. A drastic decline from the promising spring chinook returns of the past five years has commercial, tribal and sport fishermen alike criticizing recovery efforts for endangered and threatened salmon. Some blame poor ocean conditions for the lower returns, while others point to farmers' irrigation for reducing river flows. All fault the hydropower system, proving once again that the fish-vs.-dams debate is far from settled....
How can Idaho hike its salmon numbers?: Dams are a concern for many state anglers Last week, a letter signed by more than 1,100 Northwestern businessmen - including nearly a dozen from Pocatello - was distributed in Washington D.C. It implores lawmakers to do more to help the recovery efforts of wild salmon and steelhead in the Snake and Columbia River basins. The two-page letter asserts that the new Federal Salmon Plan represents a step in the wrong direction and says the economies of many towns in Idaho, Washington and Oregon will plummet if changes aren't instituted. "It's calling attention from all these business people ... that Congress really needs to take a look at this," Boller said. But recent legislation proposed by Congressman C.L. "Butch" Otter seeks to not only maintain the eight dams on the lower Snake River, but also to look into increasing Idaho's water storage capacity....
Wolves teach experts about global warming Gray wolves could emerge as a "canary in the coal mine" of global warming by suggesting how climate change will affect species around the world, researchers say. "We're not so much looking at wolves as a predator but as an indicator," says environmental scientist Christopher Wilmers of the University of California-Berkeley. At Yellowstone National Park, for example, winters have grown more than a week shorter since 1948, Wilmers and Wayne Getz of South Africa's University of Pretoria report in a study in April's PloS Biology journal. But wolf packs appear to ease the effects of shorter winters on the food chain, Wilmers says....
Column: Endangered priorities The problem is that instead of using the rankings to prioritize, the FWS has assigned "high" to "moderately high" rankings for nearly all of the species on the list. With such an indiscriminate ranking system, it is no wonder FWS claims it needs more money; it has no reliable mechanism for allocating funds to their best use. In spite of the inadequate priority system, FWS still managed to spend $153 million in recovery funds from fiscal 2000 through 2003. About 95 percent of the funding focused on the 1,147 species of "high" to "moderately high" priority. Spending 95 percent of recovery funding on 92 percent of the most imperiled species sounds proportionate, but these aggregates are as flighty as the ivory-billed woodpecker. When you compare the ranking and funding list together - something FWS does not do - you discover that none of the 20 species which received the most funding were of the highest priority. In fact, the species receiving the second most recovery funding - the bull trout - was ranked as a "9" on a priority scale of 1 to 18. The "threatened" bull trout received about four times more funding than the "endangered" black-footed ferret despite the ferret's score of a "2" on the scale....
Salamander deal paves way for developers New homes and businesses planned for southwest Santa Rosa that have been snarled for nearly three years by protections for an imperiled salamander could be built as soon as next year if a draft plan to protect the animal and make room for growth is put into effect. The plan to protect the California tiger salamander represents a significant breakthrough in the protracted struggle to save the animal without stopping housing construction in the county's largest city. It would allow salamander habitat in Santa Rosa and other cities to be destroyed so long as wildlands are set aside for the animal in outlying rural areas....
Utah officials struggle to finish wolf plan But if Hatch saw a wolf attacking one of his cows or calves, under the law about all he could do would be stand and watch. Hatch is hoping a new state plan for wolf management will allow ranchers to take immediate action to protect livestock. It's one of many sticking points the Wolf Working Group ran into as it drafted the plan. It's also one of many suggested revisions to the draft released in April. Ranchers want the right to shoot first -- on private and public land -- and explain it later if livestock is attacked. Big game hunters and guides don't want the wolves to reduce the population of trophy elk and deer and threaten the economy of a big industry in the state. And environmentalists want to make sure the wolves remain adequately protected. It's a contentious issue, but one the state wants to settle before wolves make their way further into Utah than border areas....
Flaming Gorge releases blamed for farm flooding Over the angry objections of farmers and county officials, the Bureau of Reclamation has begun experimental high flow releases at Flaming Gorge Dam that are intended to improve habitat for trout and endangered native fish species in the Green River. McKee says farmers have been forced to pull their pumps from fields along the river, and alfalfa and other crop stands are being destroyed by the high water. He said the high flows will create mosquito problems, including possible West Nile virus infestations, and a breakout of noxious weeds. McKee said the county might go after the bureau for losses suffered by farmers. "There's always legal recourse, and we're considering legal recourse," he said. The county officials said the Bureau of Reclamation has ignored their pleas to reduce the flows....
Church attempts religious balance at Martin's Cove Most people who visit Martin's Cove in southwestern Natrona County are interested in learning the Mormon history surrounding the tragic winter of 1856. But some visitors to the cove, which sits on public land owned by the Bureau of Land Management and is leased to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, want to visit the site for its historic and natural beauty and avoid any religious messages. For ElDean Holliday, director of Mormon handcart sites in Wyoming and chief caretaker of Martin's Cove, this poses a unique problem for the church: How can the church provide a strong, religious and moral experience for followers interested in the spiritual history of a site considered sacred while at the same time provide a secular experience for nonfollowers?....
Who should wrangle Utah's wild horse herds? Running free across the vast, desolate lands of the Great Basin and beyond, wild horses conjure up images of the old, iconic West. They also provoke a visceral response - both among those who seek to protect them and those who consider them a nuisance. Now, a prominent legislator is suggesting that the state get into the business of overseeing wild horse herds in Utah. Unhappy with what he calls perennial under-counts of Utah's wild horse population by the Bureau of Land Management, Sen. Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch, says the state could do a better job of managing the herds. Hatch is considering making a proposal to the BLM to allow Utah to do just that. "I believe we could do it better and I don't think I'm alone," says Hatch, a businessman and rancher. "The [BLM] has a commitment to manage for certain populations in certain areas. Regardless of the excuse, it hasn't happened. In many instances, the wild horses have greatly exceeded their range and gone into areas they're not supposed to."....
Oil shale deposits generate new buzz as energy source The massive oil shale deposits have been called Saudi Arabia in the Rocky Mountains, and billed as the solution to the nation's energy woes. But those who lived through the oil shale boom in the 1970s and its collapse in the early 1980s are tempering their optimism with a dose of caution. "This isn't our first rodeo," said Uintah County Commissioner Jim Abegglen. "We're excited about it, but we're realists." The United States is consuming about 19 million barrels of oil daily and, with a growing dependence on imported oil and prices hovering at an economy-stunting $50, Congress is assembling an incentives package to try to resurrect interest in the industry that extracts oil from the rock. "It's a different world today," said Sen. Orrin Hatch. "Last time we weren't as far along on the science and ability to develop the resource . . . and the costs were overwhelming."....
Editorial: Oil, gas development stir up rights issues Across the West, an artifact of the 19th century is igniting disputes between landowners and oil and gas companies. As Uncle Sam sold land to settlers, it often retained the mineral rights. Today, there are many thousands of square miles between the Great Plains and West Coast where the surface of the land is owned by ranchers or other private individuals but the mineral rights belong to the federal government or have been leased to oil and gas companies. Conflicts over how the minerals get developed have become more frequent with the Bush administration's full-court press on energy development. In Colorado, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management tried to auction natural gas leases without telling surface owners that rights to minerals under their properties were up for grabs. In Wyoming, ranchers complain that coal-bed methane development has dumped saltwater in previously fresh streams and lakes, leaving the water unfit for humans or livestock. State governments have responded unevenly. Wyoming this year adopted stronger surface owner protections but Colorado rejected a similar effort. Since federal agencies are responsible for the leases, a federal solution seems logical....
Divided over drilling A legal issue known as "split estate" divides landowners who own just the surface rights from those who own the now-lucrative minerals under the surface. In Garfield County, 72 percent of drilling permits in 2000-04 were issued for sites where one owner controls both mineral rights and surface rights, and 28 percent were issued for split estates. Courts traditionally have ruled that mineral rights are superior to surface rights. Owners of surface rights can negotiate payments and agreements for the use of their land, but they often say` the payments are paltry and that the oil and gas companies deal with them in an abrupt take-it-or-leave-it style. The holder of mineral rights is privileged to use as much of the surface as is reasonably necessary to extract the minerals. The common-law thinking is essentially pragmatic; otherwise, the owner of the mineral rights would be denied access to the resources he owns. But, in this competition between ownership rights, the Colorado Constitution also provides that private property cannot be taken or damaged "without just compensation."....
Wilderness Site May See Oil Drilling Tucked away in the 96-page emergency military spending bill signed by President Bush this month are four paragraphs that give energy companies the right to explore for oil and gas inside a sprawling national park. The amendment written by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) codifies Mississippi's claim to mineral rights under federal lands and allows drilling for natural gas under the Gulf Islands National Seashore — a thin necklace of barrier islands that drapes the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. As a preliminary step to drilling, the rider permits seismic testing, which involves detonating sound-wave explosions to locate oil and gas deposits in the park. Two of the five Mississippi islands are wilderness areas, and the environs are home to federally protected fish and birds, a large array of sea turtles and the gulf's largest concentration of bottlenose dolphins. The legislation marks the first time the federal government has sanctioned seismic exploration on national park property designated as wilderness — which carries with it the highest level of protection....
'He's either loved or reviled' As the Bush administration pushes ever harder for more oil and gas drilling in Colorado and the West, a lone government worker in Denver is pushing back. Weston Wilson, a longtime scientist for the Environmental Protection Agency's regional office downtown, went public last fall with criticism of an EPA study that gave the go-ahead to a drilling technique that some think poses a risk to groundwater. He's remained outspoken since, quoted by national media and championed by environmental groups as a courageous bureaucrat bucking his political bosses. In March, his whistle-blowing led the EPA's inspector general to open an investigation....
Trophy deer lands man in hot water The sun was heading toward the horizon on the plains of southwestern Oklahoma when hunter Michael Crossland decided to see if any deer were lurking around a tree-lined creek bottom. What the 25-year-old farmer and rancher didn't bargain for was a legal dispute over what is expected to be the largest whitetail deer ever killed in Oklahoma - a monster buck with a 31-point set of antlers worth thousands of dollars. Crossland said that on Nov. 23 he was with the landowner's hired hand, who went to retrieve a four-wheeler and gave Crossland his rifle in case he spotted any big deer. "I walked around the bend on the west side of the creek," Crossland said. "First I saw a doe, and then I saw the buck come around." After quickly loading the rifle, Crossland lined up the large animal in his scope from about 70 yards away and dropped it with one shot. "I didn't know he was that big until he fell," Crossland said. "He fell and he rolled his head, and that's when I said, 'Oh my gosh.'" But as word quickly spread about the huge deer taken in Tillman County, problems started to mount for Crossland....
It's All Trew: WPA aided America's health Records show that more than 35,000 men and women were trained in carpentry to construct toilets, septic tanks and lay clay drainage lines for the public. Those in need merely went to the WPA office, signed a request, paid $5 for materials. If you were broke, you signed another form and the government would pay the money needed. It was not a loan to be repaid. Between 1933 and 1945, federally trained carpenters built 2,309,239 sanitary privies in America. Not only did the public benefit from improved hygiene and comfort, the carpenters earned weekly paychecks for their labor. The greatest benefit of all, sanitary, fly-proof outhouses placed on improved locations halted the killer epidemics....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Grandpa passes on wisdom of the aged Grandpas have a special job and have since days of yore/To teach his children's children things his parents might ignore. Like how to spit and whistle, carve initials on a tree/The value of an empty can and why some things aren't free. Why dogs get stuck, how birds can fly, why Grandma's always right/And how to tie a square knot and the time to stand and fight. And, if Grandpa's a cowboy and the kid is so inclined/The horn of wisdom empties out to fill his little mind....

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Three calves test positive for BSE

Three young calves on a Welsh farm have tested positive for BSE in what is believed to be the first cluster of infections discovered for almost a decade. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed that experts were trying to establish whether the cows, from an unidentified farm in the Dyfed area, had become infected by the same route, possibly through feed imported from abroad. The cows are aged between 36 and 43 months. The first case was identified more than two months ago and the two others were confirmed at the end of last week. A Defra spokesman could not confirm reports that it is the first time three cases born after 1996 have been linked to one farm and that the three-year-old cow is the first BSE case born as late as 2002 in Europe....

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NEWS

Investing in Green The recent rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought to have gone extinct, was a rare bit of good news in an otherwise gloomy time for conservationists. Like everyone, ecologist Gretchen Daily at Stanford University was thrilled—"this bird is a legend in my life"—but it also confirmed her belief that efforts to preserve endangered species are "doomed to failure" unless conservationists embrace free-market capitalism. Specifically, she thinks that we should view an ecosystem not as vacant land for development, but as a capital asset that must not be squandered, even if that means compensating landowners for keeping forests green. Daily, director of Stanford's tropical research program at the Center for Conservation Biology, talked with NEWSWEEK's Fred Guterl. Excerpts....
Nothing to write home about After spending the last three weeks flying above the Dakotas at low levels, a pilot-biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says there's generally less water on the landscape than last year. How that affects waterfowl production remains to be seen. "Quite possibly, South Dakota was as dry as I've seen it since the early 1990s," said John Solberg, pilot-biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Bismarck. "Overall, I'd say North Dakota was fair - some areas poor, some areas good. I've seen it worse, but I've seen it a whole lot better, too." Solberg, who wrapped up the survey Thursday, has been flying the Dakotas since May 4 as part of the annual North American spring waterfowl survey, a massive effort in which U.S. and Canadian biologists team up to sample waterfowl and habitat conditions across Canada and the northern United States. Managers across North America's four waterfowl flyways use the results from the survey to set fall hunting seasons. This year marks the survey's 50th anniversary....
Column: Agriculture collides with environment One that comes to mind occurred this winter in San Bernardino County along the remote Mojave River. The river, which is underground most years, rose to the surface with a vengeance during the heavy rains. Roaring out of the northern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains, it filled the above-ground channel quickly as it coursed its way toward Soda Lake near the high desert community of Baker. Between the open channel of the upper river and the broad lower channel was a stretch near Oro Grande that had not been cleared for years. Occupants of land bordering the clogged section had repeatedly requested clearing, only to be told by county officials that environmental restrictions to protect various endangered critters of one kind or another made it impossible to undertake the task. The water overflowed the channel, causing millions of dollars of needless damage to dairies, dairymen and their animals, and other agricultural operations adjacent to the channel. And, as one dairyman put it, "Any endangered species that might have been along the river are either dead or flushed miles away from here."....
Proposal outlines park brucellosis eradication A proposed agreement between the federal government and the three states surrounding Yellowstone National Park would focus more efforts on trying to eliminate brucellosis from elk and bison herds. If implemented, wildlife advocates say, it could mean a big shift in strategy. Currently, most work aims at "controlling" the disease to keep cattle from getting it. That usually means keeping possibly infected elk and bison away from cattle. Switching the emphasis to disease eradication in wildlife, as a draft memorandum of understanding calls for, could mean an awful lot of dead elk and bison. Disease eradication work so far has consisted largely of a "test and slaughter" program in which animals that test positive for the disease are killed and others are held in quarantine facilities and repeatedly tested until proven negative, a process that takes years....
Gibbons eyes more land money for schools Money from Nevada land sales would go to education, wildfire prevention, noxious weed control, sage grouse protection and other natural resource programs under a bill being drafted by U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno. Gibbons said he’s working on the proposal in an effort to head off the Bush administration’s plan to take land sale revenues to close the budget deficit. Gibbons said funds also could be spent on routine operations of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies in Nevada....
Fate of wild horses to be considered in U.S. Senate Moved by the news that 41 wild horses sold by the federal government had ended up at an Illinois slaughterhouse, a majority of the House voted this month to ban future sales. Supporters of the ban hope the public's love affair with these vestiges of the American West is enough to get the Senate to follow the House's lead. But some lawmakers see the issue differently. "In Nevada, horses do not always look beautiful like the horse that we see in 'Black Beauty.' That is because we cannot manage 20,000 horses on land which does not look like Kentucky, does not look like West Virginia," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. "These horses get starved, they are weakened, they become diseased." Sen. Conrad Burns, a Montana Republican, said there is a need to manage wild horse populations, which ranchers say compete with their cattle for grazing on public lands. Other lawmakers cite the $20million-a-year cost for the care and feeding of older horses that are unlikely to be adopted....
Rural Oregonians fear bill is threat to their water rights For most city dwellers, a water meter keeps track of every gallon that comes out of a garden hose or shower head. But not so for their country cousins — mainly agricultural irrigators but also rural homeowners with wells — many of whom are holders of water rights. But with pressure on limited water resources rising in the high desert and elsewhere, the Legislature is considering what proponents call a "baby step" toward a measurement system that might stretch the state's over-appropriated water supply. The state Senate last week passed a bill that would enact a voluntary statewide tracking system overseen by the state's Water Resources Department. It is pending in the House....
World's mayors seek to fight global warming, make cities greener Mayors from some of the world's biggest cities are gathering here this week to forge a set of international guidelines for sustainable urban living - billed as a municipal version of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming that the United States never ratified. The Urban Environmental Accords, to be signed at the United Nations World Environment Day Conference, is the latest example of cities seeking to tackle climate change despite reluctance from their national governments. "We cannot afford to wait for the state or federal government to do the job. There are too many excuses going around, particularly in this country," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. "Increasingly, the world will look at mayors to become the stewards of the environment since the vast majority of the pollution comes from cities."....
Experts: Petroleum may be nearing peak Could the petroleum joyride -- cheap, abundant oil that has sent the global economy whizzing along with the pedal to the metal and the AC blasting for decades -- be coming to an end? Some observers of the oil industry think so. They predict that this year, maybe next -- almost certainly by the end of the decade -- the world's oil production, having grown exuberantly for more than a century, will peak and begin to decline. And then it really will be all downhill. The price of oil will increase drastically. Major oil-consuming countries will experience crippling inflation, unemployment and economic instability. Princeton University geologist Kenneth S. Deffeyes predicts "a permanent state of oil shortage." According to these experts, it will take a decade or more before conservation measures and new technologies can bridge the gap between supply and demand, and even then the situation will be touch and go....The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!
Fish conservationists angle for dam breaching A federal court ruling rejecting the Bush administration's latest effort to balance Columbia Basin salmon recovery against hydroelectric dams has fish conservationists pressing anew for breaching four dams on the lower Snake River. ``What the law requires is an honest analysis of how we configure the hydro system so we can get salmon back in our rivers,'' said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation. ``What all the scientists tell us is such an honest analysis would call for breaching the lower four Snake River dams.'' But with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress dead set against breaching the dams, the idea remains a long way from going anywhere....
Environmentalists slam leaked G8 statement The environmental group Friends of the Earth has criticised a leaked draft statement for the upcoming G8 summit for failing to set specific targets or timetables to reduce greenhouse gases from the highly industrialised countries. "The alarm bells on climate change are ringing, but the world's richest nations aren't listening," Catherine Pearce, Friends of the Earth International's climate campaigner, said in a statement Friday. The British government, which is hosting the summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, from July 6-8, played down the significance of the 14-page document, posted on the Internet Wednesday by a British environmentalist. A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said the document was an old draft....
As Columbia flows, so does region The water sometimes seems quiet and calm at the mouth of the Columbia River, offering no hint of its turbulent history or the deep emotions it provokes in the Pacific Northwest. From its headwaters in British Columbia's Selkirk Mountains, the river weaves through a tapestry of mountains, desert sagebrush and steep canyons to the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, it is the cord that ties the region together. It nourishes communities and crops, wildlife and fish. It provides a treasure of irrigation, transportation and electricity. For native peoples and the millions of white settlers who followed, it's a spiritual and recreational jewel to be cherished and enjoyed....
Water rights applications unanswered Anyone getting in line now may have an even longer wait. In late December, the Bureau of Reclamation quietly notified the state that it was staking a claim to all unappropriated water in the Columbia and its tributaries that may be needed to fill a proposed reservoir. It was a move that once might have invoked fury in the West, home of the adage that whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over. Sweeping claims to natural resources by the federal government have historically met stiff resistance and scorn. Just four years ago, federal marshals were called in to guard irrigation gates during a revolt by farmers' supporters in Klamath Falls after the government shut off irrigation to ensure water for protected fish during a drought. However, the government's more recent claim went largely unnoticed. Nobody is sure if the residents of Eastern Washington simply didn't hear about it, don't believe the reservoir will ever be built, or just don't care after years of frustration....

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