GAO REPORTS
Information Quality Act: National Agricultural Statistics Service Implements First Steps, but Documentation of Census of Agriculture Could Be Improved. GAO-05-644, September 23. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-644
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05644high.pdf
Nuclear Cleanup: Preliminary Results of the Review of the Department of Energy's Rocky Flats Closure Project. GAO-05-1044R, September 22.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-1044R
Friday, September 23, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Panel OKs rewrite of Endangered Species Act A House committee on Thursday approved a sweeping rewrite of the Endangered Species Act that hands major new rights to property owners while limiting the federal government's ability to protect plant and animal habitat. The bill by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., bars the government from establishing ''critical habitat'' for species where development is limited, and sets deadlines for property owners to get answers from the government about whether their development plans would hurt protected species. If the government doesn't answer in time, the development could go forward. If the government blocks a development, the property owner would be compensated. The bill ''will place a new emphasis on recovery and eliminates dysfunctional critical habitat provisions,'' Pombo said. ''It's about a new era in protecting species and protecting habitat at the same time we protect property owners.'' Pombo's committee approved the bill on a 26-12 vote, over objections from some Democrats and moderate Republicans who said it would disfigure the landmark 32-year-old law that environmentalists credit with preserving species like the bald eagle and California sea otter....
Environmentalists, industry, battle over what is old-growth After failing to halt two timber sales in Washington and Oregon in federal court, environmental groups are now accusing Boise Cascade Co. of reneging on its 2003 promise not to buy wood from old-growth forests. The Boise-based company began logging 10 million board feet of timber in the Deschutes National Forest in eastern Oregon last week. It expects to begin cutting 6.5 million board feet from the Wenatchee National Forest in northeastern Washington within days. Both areas were damaged by 2003 fires. Environmentalists say it's old growth. Boise Cascade says it isn't. Forestry experts say the disagreement highlights the difficulty of defining just what makes up old-growth forests, which for years have been at the center of the clash between loggers and preservationists....
Activists removed from Bitterroot forest office during EIS press conference Three environmental activists were escorted out of the Bitterroot National Forest office under armed guard Thursday after attempting to attend a news conference on the release of the environmental review of a controversial timber sale. "I've never been turned away from that building," said Jim Miller, Friends of the Bitterroot president. "I've been coming here for decades." Miller said he was led out of the building by a "fully armed" officer wearing a bulletproof vest. The Forest Service held the news conference to release the final Middle East Fork Environmental Impact Statement, which is Montana's first project to be released under the authority of President Bush's Healthy Forests Restoration Act. The agency invited six Ravalli County residents who supported the Forest Service's preferred alternative to meet with the press. Bitterroot Forest Supervisor Dave Bull said the others were excluded because the agency wanted to provide a "safe environment" for community members who had helped craft the agency's preferred alternative....
Column: The Hopi Way may vanish so skiers can play Since ancient times Hopi people have regarded the San Francisco Peaks as "Nuvatukyaovi," which in the Hopi language means "place of snow on the peaks." Nuvatukyaovi is central to Hopi culture and religion. It is the home of Katsina spirits who, in the growing season, drift as clouds from the Peaks and descend on my homeland, bringing rain, hope and guidance to the Hopi people. Hopi children are initiated into Katsina societies, which teach them to live humble, respectful lives, in balance with all living and non-living things; values at the heart of a life path known as the Hopi Way. Of course, American Indians are a conquered people. Since Spanish and European settlement we have lost lives, most of our land and much of our culture and traditions....
Attempts continue to protect Valle Vidal Different agencies in New Mexico are working in different ways on the same issue, but they all have a common goal: protecting Valle Vidal. Four state agencies are working together on a petition to nominate Valle Vidal for the designation of Outstanding National Resource Waters (ONRW). Officials of each agency or department were present at a Town Meeting at the Philmont Training Center Wednesday. In an overview of the ONRW designation, the proposed document explains, “Water is the lifeblood of the area’s wildlife populations ... The headwater streams of the Valle Vidal flow into two major drainages, the Rio Grande (on the west side) and the South Canadian (on the east side).”....
Column: Government gone bad The next time you hear someone lament that citizens are growing more apathetic about getting involved in government decision-making, you might want to point to the actions of the Bitterroot National Forest managers as a helluva good reason why. Recent revelations of the blatant and arrogant disregard for what citizens have to say about the future of their own national forest lands is not the first time, and will certainly not be the last, that a government agency has gone bad—but it’s a shocker, nonetheless. As reported this week, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the Native Forest Network show the Bitterroot National Forest spent $162,000 preparing for the Middle East Fork hazardous fuels reduction project. Given the unbelievably reckless spending proclivities of the Bush administration and the Republican Congress that have erased the surplus and left us with mounting trillions in national debt, this piddling amount of money is certainly not that big of a deal, except for one thing: the forest managers spent it to mark the cut for their “preferred alternative” while the public comment period on the proposal was still open. In other words, the agency had already made its decision and was moving ahead to implement it with total disregard for whatever the public might say. Everyone who has ever had contact with state or federal agencies knows that their personnel—especially those charged with stewarding the fish, wildlife and natural resources on public lands—consider themselves “trained professionals.” Those of us in the public, who just happen to own these resources, are relegated to a lesser category of uninformed amateurs who either support them as “friends” or oppose them and are dubbed “troublemakers.” Given this rather dismal regard for the public, it is not uncommon for agencies to disparage public opinion in favor of the decisions made by their “professional managers.”....
Plan to ship trash to desert site derailed The nation's largest proposed landfill next to Joshua Tree National Park suffered a major setback when a federal judge rejected a land swap that is key to the project moving forward. U.S. District Judge Robert J. Timlin said in a 26-page opinion released Tuesday that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management failed to fully consider the environmental consequences of permitting a landfill on 3,481 acres the federal agency traded to Ontario-based Kaiser Ventures. Kaiser wanted to exchange the land for 2,486 acres of private land scattered throughout the Riverside County desert in order to develop the Eagle Mountain landfill. Environmentalists hope the decision will make it almost impossible to revive the project because Los Angeles County can also use the Mesquite landfill in Imperial County, which is similar in size to Eagle Mountain....
Hatch introduces nuke waste bill Just days after Utah's junior senator made a U-turn on nuclear waste, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced legislation that would block any radioactive waste from coming to a private facility in Utah. Much of the waste going to that facility would roll through Utah County. U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who long has supported a proposed federal waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., Tuesday dropped his support for that beleaguered project, which would hold the nation's commercial spent reactor fuel. Though Hatch has introduced a nuclear waste bill, Bennett instead expressed support for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, who plans to introduce legislation that would turn over responsibility for the spent fuel to the Energy Department, keeping the waste at reactor sites while the country rethinks its nuclear waste policy. But Reid can't help Utah, Hatch says. Joining Reid would alienate the Bush administration and others who are in a position to block a proposed private spent fuel storage facility on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley....
Editorial: Bennett's about-face It does not happen very often that a U.S. senator or congressional representative changes his or her mind. On those rare occasions when reversals are made, more often than not, it is done in the dark of night during a protracted legislative battle, and they attempt to do so with as little public notice as possible. Credit Utah's Sen. Bob Bennett for having the guts to stand on the floor of the U.S. Senate, in the daylight, and proclaim his change of heart for everyone to see and hear. Bennett says he now has come to believe that a federal plan to store, permanently, high-level nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain "does not make sense and we need to move in some future direction." It is a complete about-face: Three years ago, he and Sen. Orrin Hatch voted to continue building the Yucca Mountain facility....
Cowboy creates comedy in poems Louis L'Amour? That's grand and all. But when Baxter Black talks about being a cowboy, that's not the type he's referring to. "I don't know anything about being a cowboy in 1880 or relate to the songs they sing," said the poet, novelist and radio personality. "Not that I'm a spokesman, but that's the feeling about us in the cow business. "We like Roy Rogers and Louis L'Amour, but they don't have a clue what we're doing. . . . I write about cowboys today. Cow people. Livestock. Sheep people." A veterinarian for large animals for years before becoming a writer and gaining fame for his essays on National Public Radio, Black lives in Arizona near the Mexico border, an area with a rich history that suits the storyteller....
Western design feted Ask a dozen people at the Western Design Conference to explain exactly what "Western design" is, and you're likely to get at least 13 different answers. The answers follow a continuum of influences from rustic to lodge to American Indian to cowboy chic. And that full range was on display Thursday as nearly 100 exhibitors showcasing furniture, fashion and housewares gathered in Cody's Riley Arena for the opening of the Western Design Conference exhibition and sale. Those expecting to see a compendium of cowboy kitsch were greeted instead with a decidedly fresh and diverse take on Western design. "This has been surprising," said Larry Lefner of Woody Creek, Colo. "I didn't expect this much culture in a little bitty town in Wyoming, but it's fantastic. There's a lot of very good talent on display here today."....
Strange sickness affecting horses in Ennis Teri Freeman watched her appaloosa horse Lucky die of a strange liver disease within a day of showing symptoms in early July. In the evening, the 27-year-old horse became lethargic, demented and jaundiced. Freeman sat with him all night. By the morning Lucky was dead. ‘‘He died in my arms,'' Freeman said recently at the Rusty Cowboy, an antique store she rents on the south end of Main Street in Ennis. Her partner Bobby Bock's Arab pinto horse Splash showed similar symptoms a few weeks later: becoming lethargic, walking in circles and having her skin flake off in huge clumps that look like peeling paint. It was a bizarre sickness, Bock said. ‘‘None of the old cowboys around here have seen anything like this,'' he said. They rushed Splash to Ennis veterinarian Eileen White, who took the horse to a veterinarian in Belgrade who specializes in internal medicine for horses. White said Splash showed signs of dementia and had jaundiced eyes. She ran tests on the horses liver and found it just wasn't working....
Riders shoot from horseback Kevin Fink, 48, pops balloons as a hobby. From horseback. With a gun. "It is a true adrenaline rush - the whole experience of training a horse to let you shoot a gun while you are on his back and then riding through a course at top speed trying to hit all the targets," Fink said. Fink, a retired rodeo cowboy, and 12 others are keeping the Old West tradition of mounted shooting alive. Their group, Dakota Territory Shooters, formed in Lennox this summer. "We keep everything as authentic to the Old West as possible," said Tea resident Mick Nesseim, 50. "We use all leather equipment, dress like the Old West cowboy and only shoot single-action revolvers of .45 Colt caliber, the same guns they used back then." Mounted shooting is a timed competition. A horse and rider navigate one of 57 courses approved by the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association....
CPRA to stand on own two feet It’s the cowboy way to go it alone and it’s the only logical choice for the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association after a recent U.S.-Canada split in the rodeo ranks. The CPRA was feeling a little gored last month after news that its U.S. counterpart put the hooves to a longstanding sanctioning agreement between the two organizations. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), which is headquartered in Colorado Springs, announced on Aug. 18 the termination of an arrangement that saw all CPRA rodeos co-sanctioned by its American cousin. With the agreement gone by 2006, all CPRA rodeos will no longer count in the PRCA standings. CPRA president Bob Robinson sought to put a positive spin on recent events when the organization announced on Sept. 7 its intentions to forge ahead with or without its southern counterpart. “We’re big enough to stand on our own two feet and that’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “The CPRA is completely self-sustainable. We have a great product and we’re ready to showcase it to the world on our own. Now we will be able to think about ourselves and not worry about what another association thinks when developing our policies and strategies.” Just how this new world order in the rodeo ring will shape up is not yet clear. The CPRA will mull over several scenarios over the next few months, including expanding the current options available to non-Canadians and their ability to qualify for the annual Canadian Finals Rodeo....
Champion responds well to last-chance pressure It's well documented that six-time world champion tie-down roper Fred Whitfield performs best in clutch situations. With his back against the wall, Whitfield always rises to the occasion. It doesn't matter whether it's at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the Pace Picante series, or at a regular rodeo during the season. The Hockley, Texas, cowboy knows how to handle pressure. His latest clutch run came Saturday at the 95th annual Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up, the final stop on the Wrangler ProRodeo Summer Tour. Whitfield knew he needed to make every run count if he was going to earn a place in the $350,000 Pace Picante ProRodeo Challenge in Omaha, Neb., Sept. 30-Oct. 1. Entering Pendleton, he was 31st in the standings, and only the top 12 qualify for Omaha. It didn't take Whitfield long to make his move. He came out firing in the first round with a 9.4-second run, which was good enough for a fourth-place finish in the round. He encountered a little more trouble in the second (11.5). But the total was enough to make the Wrangler Tour final round, and that was all Whitfield needed. He roped and tied his calf in 8.5 seconds to finish atop the leaderboard and capture the aggregate title with a time of 29.4 seconds on three head. When the dust finally settled, Whitfield had collected 25.5 points and moved into a tie for 11th place with 49.5 points, securing a spot in the Pace Challenge....
Rodeo-themed Extreme Makeover to air Oct. 2 When the ABC mega-hit show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition knocked on the doors of the PRCA Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., in mid-July, the ProRodeo family couldn't wait to jump in and get dirty. Wrangler, Justin Brands and virtually every other PRCA corporate partner opened their pocketbooks and hearts to a Colorado Springs-area family whose 101-year-old, 2,000-square-foot farmhouse could no longer meet the needs of six children and their parents. Billy Jack and Anne Barrett and their kids — four are adopted out of foster care programs — live in the tiny town of Peyton, which is situated a few miles east of Colorado Springs. The Barretts were chosen for the makeover for opening their lives and home to troubled and disadvantaged children. More than 3,000 applications are considered each day by the show. ABC will be airing the Barrett Family episode on Sunday, Oct. 2, beginning at 8 ET. This is the second episode in the show's third season lineup, which begins on Sunday, Sept. 25. The Barretts are horse people and love the sport of rodeo. The ABC Extreme Makeover team's task was to tear down the family's existing home and build a new house that represented the family's passion for rodeo and the Western culture....
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Panel OKs rewrite of Endangered Species Act A House committee on Thursday approved a sweeping rewrite of the Endangered Species Act that hands major new rights to property owners while limiting the federal government's ability to protect plant and animal habitat. The bill by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., bars the government from establishing ''critical habitat'' for species where development is limited, and sets deadlines for property owners to get answers from the government about whether their development plans would hurt protected species. If the government doesn't answer in time, the development could go forward. If the government blocks a development, the property owner would be compensated. The bill ''will place a new emphasis on recovery and eliminates dysfunctional critical habitat provisions,'' Pombo said. ''It's about a new era in protecting species and protecting habitat at the same time we protect property owners.'' Pombo's committee approved the bill on a 26-12 vote, over objections from some Democrats and moderate Republicans who said it would disfigure the landmark 32-year-old law that environmentalists credit with preserving species like the bald eagle and California sea otter....
Environmentalists, industry, battle over what is old-growth After failing to halt two timber sales in Washington and Oregon in federal court, environmental groups are now accusing Boise Cascade Co. of reneging on its 2003 promise not to buy wood from old-growth forests. The Boise-based company began logging 10 million board feet of timber in the Deschutes National Forest in eastern Oregon last week. It expects to begin cutting 6.5 million board feet from the Wenatchee National Forest in northeastern Washington within days. Both areas were damaged by 2003 fires. Environmentalists say it's old growth. Boise Cascade says it isn't. Forestry experts say the disagreement highlights the difficulty of defining just what makes up old-growth forests, which for years have been at the center of the clash between loggers and preservationists....
Activists removed from Bitterroot forest office during EIS press conference Three environmental activists were escorted out of the Bitterroot National Forest office under armed guard Thursday after attempting to attend a news conference on the release of the environmental review of a controversial timber sale. "I've never been turned away from that building," said Jim Miller, Friends of the Bitterroot president. "I've been coming here for decades." Miller said he was led out of the building by a "fully armed" officer wearing a bulletproof vest. The Forest Service held the news conference to release the final Middle East Fork Environmental Impact Statement, which is Montana's first project to be released under the authority of President Bush's Healthy Forests Restoration Act. The agency invited six Ravalli County residents who supported the Forest Service's preferred alternative to meet with the press. Bitterroot Forest Supervisor Dave Bull said the others were excluded because the agency wanted to provide a "safe environment" for community members who had helped craft the agency's preferred alternative....
Column: The Hopi Way may vanish so skiers can play Since ancient times Hopi people have regarded the San Francisco Peaks as "Nuvatukyaovi," which in the Hopi language means "place of snow on the peaks." Nuvatukyaovi is central to Hopi culture and religion. It is the home of Katsina spirits who, in the growing season, drift as clouds from the Peaks and descend on my homeland, bringing rain, hope and guidance to the Hopi people. Hopi children are initiated into Katsina societies, which teach them to live humble, respectful lives, in balance with all living and non-living things; values at the heart of a life path known as the Hopi Way. Of course, American Indians are a conquered people. Since Spanish and European settlement we have lost lives, most of our land and much of our culture and traditions....
Attempts continue to protect Valle Vidal Different agencies in New Mexico are working in different ways on the same issue, but they all have a common goal: protecting Valle Vidal. Four state agencies are working together on a petition to nominate Valle Vidal for the designation of Outstanding National Resource Waters (ONRW). Officials of each agency or department were present at a Town Meeting at the Philmont Training Center Wednesday. In an overview of the ONRW designation, the proposed document explains, “Water is the lifeblood of the area’s wildlife populations ... The headwater streams of the Valle Vidal flow into two major drainages, the Rio Grande (on the west side) and the South Canadian (on the east side).”....
Column: Government gone bad The next time you hear someone lament that citizens are growing more apathetic about getting involved in government decision-making, you might want to point to the actions of the Bitterroot National Forest managers as a helluva good reason why. Recent revelations of the blatant and arrogant disregard for what citizens have to say about the future of their own national forest lands is not the first time, and will certainly not be the last, that a government agency has gone bad—but it’s a shocker, nonetheless. As reported this week, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the Native Forest Network show the Bitterroot National Forest spent $162,000 preparing for the Middle East Fork hazardous fuels reduction project. Given the unbelievably reckless spending proclivities of the Bush administration and the Republican Congress that have erased the surplus and left us with mounting trillions in national debt, this piddling amount of money is certainly not that big of a deal, except for one thing: the forest managers spent it to mark the cut for their “preferred alternative” while the public comment period on the proposal was still open. In other words, the agency had already made its decision and was moving ahead to implement it with total disregard for whatever the public might say. Everyone who has ever had contact with state or federal agencies knows that their personnel—especially those charged with stewarding the fish, wildlife and natural resources on public lands—consider themselves “trained professionals.” Those of us in the public, who just happen to own these resources, are relegated to a lesser category of uninformed amateurs who either support them as “friends” or oppose them and are dubbed “troublemakers.” Given this rather dismal regard for the public, it is not uncommon for agencies to disparage public opinion in favor of the decisions made by their “professional managers.”....
Plan to ship trash to desert site derailed The nation's largest proposed landfill next to Joshua Tree National Park suffered a major setback when a federal judge rejected a land swap that is key to the project moving forward. U.S. District Judge Robert J. Timlin said in a 26-page opinion released Tuesday that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management failed to fully consider the environmental consequences of permitting a landfill on 3,481 acres the federal agency traded to Ontario-based Kaiser Ventures. Kaiser wanted to exchange the land for 2,486 acres of private land scattered throughout the Riverside County desert in order to develop the Eagle Mountain landfill. Environmentalists hope the decision will make it almost impossible to revive the project because Los Angeles County can also use the Mesquite landfill in Imperial County, which is similar in size to Eagle Mountain....
Hatch introduces nuke waste bill Just days after Utah's junior senator made a U-turn on nuclear waste, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced legislation that would block any radioactive waste from coming to a private facility in Utah. Much of the waste going to that facility would roll through Utah County. U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who long has supported a proposed federal waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., Tuesday dropped his support for that beleaguered project, which would hold the nation's commercial spent reactor fuel. Though Hatch has introduced a nuclear waste bill, Bennett instead expressed support for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, who plans to introduce legislation that would turn over responsibility for the spent fuel to the Energy Department, keeping the waste at reactor sites while the country rethinks its nuclear waste policy. But Reid can't help Utah, Hatch says. Joining Reid would alienate the Bush administration and others who are in a position to block a proposed private spent fuel storage facility on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley....
Editorial: Bennett's about-face It does not happen very often that a U.S. senator or congressional representative changes his or her mind. On those rare occasions when reversals are made, more often than not, it is done in the dark of night during a protracted legislative battle, and they attempt to do so with as little public notice as possible. Credit Utah's Sen. Bob Bennett for having the guts to stand on the floor of the U.S. Senate, in the daylight, and proclaim his change of heart for everyone to see and hear. Bennett says he now has come to believe that a federal plan to store, permanently, high-level nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain "does not make sense and we need to move in some future direction." It is a complete about-face: Three years ago, he and Sen. Orrin Hatch voted to continue building the Yucca Mountain facility....
Cowboy creates comedy in poems Louis L'Amour? That's grand and all. But when Baxter Black talks about being a cowboy, that's not the type he's referring to. "I don't know anything about being a cowboy in 1880 or relate to the songs they sing," said the poet, novelist and radio personality. "Not that I'm a spokesman, but that's the feeling about us in the cow business. "We like Roy Rogers and Louis L'Amour, but they don't have a clue what we're doing. . . . I write about cowboys today. Cow people. Livestock. Sheep people." A veterinarian for large animals for years before becoming a writer and gaining fame for his essays on National Public Radio, Black lives in Arizona near the Mexico border, an area with a rich history that suits the storyteller....
Western design feted Ask a dozen people at the Western Design Conference to explain exactly what "Western design" is, and you're likely to get at least 13 different answers. The answers follow a continuum of influences from rustic to lodge to American Indian to cowboy chic. And that full range was on display Thursday as nearly 100 exhibitors showcasing furniture, fashion and housewares gathered in Cody's Riley Arena for the opening of the Western Design Conference exhibition and sale. Those expecting to see a compendium of cowboy kitsch were greeted instead with a decidedly fresh and diverse take on Western design. "This has been surprising," said Larry Lefner of Woody Creek, Colo. "I didn't expect this much culture in a little bitty town in Wyoming, but it's fantastic. There's a lot of very good talent on display here today."....
Strange sickness affecting horses in Ennis Teri Freeman watched her appaloosa horse Lucky die of a strange liver disease within a day of showing symptoms in early July. In the evening, the 27-year-old horse became lethargic, demented and jaundiced. Freeman sat with him all night. By the morning Lucky was dead. ‘‘He died in my arms,'' Freeman said recently at the Rusty Cowboy, an antique store she rents on the south end of Main Street in Ennis. Her partner Bobby Bock's Arab pinto horse Splash showed similar symptoms a few weeks later: becoming lethargic, walking in circles and having her skin flake off in huge clumps that look like peeling paint. It was a bizarre sickness, Bock said. ‘‘None of the old cowboys around here have seen anything like this,'' he said. They rushed Splash to Ennis veterinarian Eileen White, who took the horse to a veterinarian in Belgrade who specializes in internal medicine for horses. White said Splash showed signs of dementia and had jaundiced eyes. She ran tests on the horses liver and found it just wasn't working....
Riders shoot from horseback Kevin Fink, 48, pops balloons as a hobby. From horseback. With a gun. "It is a true adrenaline rush - the whole experience of training a horse to let you shoot a gun while you are on his back and then riding through a course at top speed trying to hit all the targets," Fink said. Fink, a retired rodeo cowboy, and 12 others are keeping the Old West tradition of mounted shooting alive. Their group, Dakota Territory Shooters, formed in Lennox this summer. "We keep everything as authentic to the Old West as possible," said Tea resident Mick Nesseim, 50. "We use all leather equipment, dress like the Old West cowboy and only shoot single-action revolvers of .45 Colt caliber, the same guns they used back then." Mounted shooting is a timed competition. A horse and rider navigate one of 57 courses approved by the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association....
CPRA to stand on own two feet It’s the cowboy way to go it alone and it’s the only logical choice for the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association after a recent U.S.-Canada split in the rodeo ranks. The CPRA was feeling a little gored last month after news that its U.S. counterpart put the hooves to a longstanding sanctioning agreement between the two organizations. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), which is headquartered in Colorado Springs, announced on Aug. 18 the termination of an arrangement that saw all CPRA rodeos co-sanctioned by its American cousin. With the agreement gone by 2006, all CPRA rodeos will no longer count in the PRCA standings. CPRA president Bob Robinson sought to put a positive spin on recent events when the organization announced on Sept. 7 its intentions to forge ahead with or without its southern counterpart. “We’re big enough to stand on our own two feet and that’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “The CPRA is completely self-sustainable. We have a great product and we’re ready to showcase it to the world on our own. Now we will be able to think about ourselves and not worry about what another association thinks when developing our policies and strategies.” Just how this new world order in the rodeo ring will shape up is not yet clear. The CPRA will mull over several scenarios over the next few months, including expanding the current options available to non-Canadians and their ability to qualify for the annual Canadian Finals Rodeo....
Champion responds well to last-chance pressure It's well documented that six-time world champion tie-down roper Fred Whitfield performs best in clutch situations. With his back against the wall, Whitfield always rises to the occasion. It doesn't matter whether it's at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the Pace Picante series, or at a regular rodeo during the season. The Hockley, Texas, cowboy knows how to handle pressure. His latest clutch run came Saturday at the 95th annual Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up, the final stop on the Wrangler ProRodeo Summer Tour. Whitfield knew he needed to make every run count if he was going to earn a place in the $350,000 Pace Picante ProRodeo Challenge in Omaha, Neb., Sept. 30-Oct. 1. Entering Pendleton, he was 31st in the standings, and only the top 12 qualify for Omaha. It didn't take Whitfield long to make his move. He came out firing in the first round with a 9.4-second run, which was good enough for a fourth-place finish in the round. He encountered a little more trouble in the second (11.5). But the total was enough to make the Wrangler Tour final round, and that was all Whitfield needed. He roped and tied his calf in 8.5 seconds to finish atop the leaderboard and capture the aggregate title with a time of 29.4 seconds on three head. When the dust finally settled, Whitfield had collected 25.5 points and moved into a tie for 11th place with 49.5 points, securing a spot in the Pace Challenge....
Rodeo-themed Extreme Makeover to air Oct. 2 When the ABC mega-hit show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition knocked on the doors of the PRCA Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., in mid-July, the ProRodeo family couldn't wait to jump in and get dirty. Wrangler, Justin Brands and virtually every other PRCA corporate partner opened their pocketbooks and hearts to a Colorado Springs-area family whose 101-year-old, 2,000-square-foot farmhouse could no longer meet the needs of six children and their parents. Billy Jack and Anne Barrett and their kids — four are adopted out of foster care programs — live in the tiny town of Peyton, which is situated a few miles east of Colorado Springs. The Barretts were chosen for the makeover for opening their lives and home to troubled and disadvantaged children. More than 3,000 applications are considered each day by the show. ABC will be airing the Barrett Family episode on Sunday, Oct. 2, beginning at 8 ET. This is the second episode in the show's third season lineup, which begins on Sunday, Sept. 25. The Barretts are horse people and love the sport of rodeo. The ABC Extreme Makeover team's task was to tear down the family's existing home and build a new house that represented the family's passion for rodeo and the Western culture....
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Thursday, September 22, 2005
FARM AID CONTROVERSY
Farm Aid expenses eat away donations Even before Willie Nelson strums his first chord Sunday at this year's Farm Aid show in Tinley Park, one of the concert's missions will have been accomplished: Upholding the family farm as an American icon. But how much the Farm Aid organization helps those farmers financially is a different matter. The percentage of funds given away by the group is exceedingly low compared with money eaten up by expenses or not used. Last year, Farm Aid donated less than 28 percent of its revenue, according to a review of the non-profit's records and policies. An organization should be giving away at least 65 percent of its revenue to be considered performing adequately, said Naomi Levine, a New York University expert on philanthropy. The high-profile concert itself, which is also burdened by high expenses, provides only a small percentage of revenue to philanthropic causes. Farm Aid, which has been more successful than any other group -- maybe even farmers themselves -- at advocating the need for family farms, dispensed $387,641 in 57 grants to local organizations in 2004. This was on total revenue of slightly more than $1.4 million, according to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Evelyn Shriver, president of Bandit Records and a director on Farm Aid's board, said she was "shocked" that such a small percentage of the money raised went to grants last year....
Farm Aid singer rips up, stomps on newspaper In a press conference after the Farm Aid concert last weekend in Tinley Park, musician Neil Young tore up a copy of a Chicago newspaper and stomped on it. What made him mad was an article critical of the farm charity for giving away less than 28 percent of its budget in direct grants. "We are not purely raising money to give to farmers," Young said. "That's only a small part of what we do. We are available 24/7, 365 days a year to the American farmer. That's what we do. That costs a little bit of money.'' If those expenditures were included in the total, it would show that the charity spent 76 percent of its budget on its mission of helping farmers, with the remaining 24 percent going for administrative and fund-raising expenses, Farm Aid officials said. That's well above standards set by the Better Business Bureau and other charity watchdog groups that recommend charities spend at least 65 percent on program services, according to Glenda Yoder, associate director at Farm Aid....
Farm Aid show backs Katrina aid, organics Farm Aid staged its 20th annual star-studded benefit concert on Sunday, pledging help for overlooked rural victims of Hurricane Katrina and defending against charges of financial waste. The day-long show at an outdoor arena south of Chicago grossed $1.3 million in ticket sales and played to an enthusiastic crowd of more than 28,000. Farm Aid's founder, country music legend Willie Nelson, performed alongside board members Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews as well as Wilco, Buddy Guy, Widespread Panic and other performers. Conceived by Nelson in the depths of the U.S. farm crisis and first staged in Champaign, Illinois, in 1985, Farm Aid is now closely associated with the "good food movement" and a push-back by small-scale and organic producers against huge factory farms and corporate-driven production agriculture. "We are here to promote food from family farms," said Caroline Mugar, executive director of Farm Aid. "Changing the food you buy changes the way your food is grown."....
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Farm Aid expenses eat away donations Even before Willie Nelson strums his first chord Sunday at this year's Farm Aid show in Tinley Park, one of the concert's missions will have been accomplished: Upholding the family farm as an American icon. But how much the Farm Aid organization helps those farmers financially is a different matter. The percentage of funds given away by the group is exceedingly low compared with money eaten up by expenses or not used. Last year, Farm Aid donated less than 28 percent of its revenue, according to a review of the non-profit's records and policies. An organization should be giving away at least 65 percent of its revenue to be considered performing adequately, said Naomi Levine, a New York University expert on philanthropy. The high-profile concert itself, which is also burdened by high expenses, provides only a small percentage of revenue to philanthropic causes. Farm Aid, which has been more successful than any other group -- maybe even farmers themselves -- at advocating the need for family farms, dispensed $387,641 in 57 grants to local organizations in 2004. This was on total revenue of slightly more than $1.4 million, according to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Evelyn Shriver, president of Bandit Records and a director on Farm Aid's board, said she was "shocked" that such a small percentage of the money raised went to grants last year....
Farm Aid singer rips up, stomps on newspaper In a press conference after the Farm Aid concert last weekend in Tinley Park, musician Neil Young tore up a copy of a Chicago newspaper and stomped on it. What made him mad was an article critical of the farm charity for giving away less than 28 percent of its budget in direct grants. "We are not purely raising money to give to farmers," Young said. "That's only a small part of what we do. We are available 24/7, 365 days a year to the American farmer. That's what we do. That costs a little bit of money.'' If those expenditures were included in the total, it would show that the charity spent 76 percent of its budget on its mission of helping farmers, with the remaining 24 percent going for administrative and fund-raising expenses, Farm Aid officials said. That's well above standards set by the Better Business Bureau and other charity watchdog groups that recommend charities spend at least 65 percent on program services, according to Glenda Yoder, associate director at Farm Aid....
Farm Aid show backs Katrina aid, organics Farm Aid staged its 20th annual star-studded benefit concert on Sunday, pledging help for overlooked rural victims of Hurricane Katrina and defending against charges of financial waste. The day-long show at an outdoor arena south of Chicago grossed $1.3 million in ticket sales and played to an enthusiastic crowd of more than 28,000. Farm Aid's founder, country music legend Willie Nelson, performed alongside board members Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews as well as Wilco, Buddy Guy, Widespread Panic and other performers. Conceived by Nelson in the depths of the U.S. farm crisis and first staged in Champaign, Illinois, in 1985, Farm Aid is now closely associated with the "good food movement" and a push-back by small-scale and organic producers against huge factory farms and corporate-driven production agriculture. "We are here to promote food from family farms," said Caroline Mugar, executive director of Farm Aid. "Changing the food you buy changes the way your food is grown."....
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NEWS ROUNDUP
House panel near approval of major Endangered Species Act Conservative lawmakers poised to eliminate key provisions of the landmark 32-year-old Endangered Species Act encountered unexpected support Wednesday: Some environmentalists and liberal Democrats said they agree with some of the changes. "There is a recognition that the current critical habitat arrangement doesn't work, for a whole host of reasons,'' said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., a leading liberal voice on the House Resources Committee. "There are some in the environmental community who think the answer is just no to any change, and I think that's a problem.'' Miller and other Democrats said that without substantial amendments, they still can't support a bill by Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., that's set for a committee vote Thursday. Pombo's bill is a top-to-bottom overhaul of the Endangered Species Act that would delete the federal government's ability to protect "critical habitat'' for plants and animals and require compensation for landowners if the government blocks their development plans to protect certain species....
Evangelical and Jewish Leaders and Scientists Call on Congress to Protect Endangered Species An extraordinary partnership between sometimes distant communities -- evangelical Christians and Jews, clergy and scientists -- today announced creation of the "Noah Alliance" to prevent congressional attempts that would rollback and weaken the Endangered Species Act. In separate statements released together, members of the Academy of Evangelical Scientists and Ethicists and rabbis and scientists associated with the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life echoed insights from both scripture and science. Calling for faith community action, they presented plans to mobilize efforts in key states and across a range of religious associations. "Evangelicals are often set apart from other faith groups and religion and science are said to be at odds," said Dr. Cal DeWitt, President of the Academy of Evangelical Scientists and Ethicists. "But we don't have to agree on how the world was created in order to join forces to protect all creatures on Earth." Citing the Biblical example of Noah, nearly 70 evangelical scholars from Baptist, Pentecostal, Reformed, and other denominations wrote, "As evangelical Christians in our time, we see a most profound threat to the integrity of God's creation in the destruction of endangered species and their God-given habitat." These evangelical scholars, from 35 Christian colleges and universities in 19 states, are helping to train the next generation of evangelical leaders in places like Messiah College in Pennsylvania, Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, Point Loma Nazarene University in California, John Brown University in Arkansas, Colorado Christian College, and many others. In a separate statement, nearly 40 prominent rabbis joined a Nobel laureate and almost 30 other eminent Jewish scientists, from distinguished institutions such as Princeton, Cornell, Stanford, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Carnegie Institution, in declaring "our conviction that the Endangered Species Act is one of our generation's richest fulfillments of our biblical destiny as b'tselem elohim, created in the image of God with the unique power to share, preserve and renew creation."....
Rancher must accept water, suit says A Powder River Basin cattle rancher is challenging the notion that surface owners can be forced, without legal recourse or monetary compensation, to accept coal-bed methane water produced from upstream wells. Groups such as the Powder River Basin Resource Council warn that if the courts rule that coal-bed methane water enjoys the same public easement as "waters of the state," it would give a new and dangerous legal precedent of condemnation to the oil and gas industry. In his arguments on Tuesday, Wendtland said the case exemplifies a previously unchallenged notion in the coal-bed methane industry that downstream, off-lease surface owners cannot refuse their by-product water when intermingled with "waters of the state." He said operators typically strike private agreements with downstream landowners regarding the water. Williams brought the case against Maycock when the parties failed to reach a surface use agreement and Maycock threatened to pursue criminal trespassing charges if the company allowed by-product water from its upstream coal-bed methane wells to flow onto his property via Barber Creek. Attorneys for Williams Production argued that, based on the state's constitution, the operator's by-product water does become "waters of the state" when it enters a natural watercourse....
Report: 'West is warming' Climate change in Colorado and the West is leading to depleted snowpacks, higher temperatures and warmer winters, all factors that could endanger water supplies for the Front Range and plains agriculture. That was the stark assessment of a report released Wednesday by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, a fledgling advocacy group that calls itself a "mainstream coalition" educating the region about the hazards of global warming. "The West is warming, our snowpacks are declining and that has profound impact on our water supplies," said Stephen Saunders, president of the climate organization and the lead author of the 30-page report, titled "Less Snow, Less Water: Climate Disruption in the West." The organization said it analyzed temperature data from several federal agencies. The data covered four major Western river basins, including the Colorado and the Missouri, which includes the South Platte River....view the report here....
Builders: Overdue Proposed Rule On Endangered Species Is Sensible Policy Two years after a federal court ruled illegal the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) listing of the cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl under the Endangered Species Act, FWS has proposed to remove the pygmy owl from the endangered species list. The proposed rule is a victory for sensible policy making, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). FWS’ new proposed rule finds that Arizona’s population of cactus ferruginous pygmy-owls does not qualify as a “significant” population and should be taken off the endangered species list. The proposed rule would also render moot an earlier proposal, never finalized, that would have directly affected 1.2 million acres of pygmy owl habitat. “We support the Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposed action,” said David F. Wilson, NAHB President and a builder from Ketchum, Idaho. “The delisting of the pygmy owl is based on sound science, not political whim.” On August 19, 2003, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, in a suit brought by NAHB, the Southern Arizona Home Builder Association (SAHBA), and the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona (HBACA), that the pygmy owl listing was illegal. The Court agreed, and found that FWS did not articulate a rational basis for the listing of the pygmy owl, given that the owls were known to exist in far greater numbers in Mexico....
'Black gold' flows in Sevier The discovery of a major oil field has people in this tiny farm town on the edge of anticipation, driving property values and speculation, real-estate agents say. But the payoff could make millionaires out of some landowners who never knew there was oil under Sigurd, a Sevier County town of 431 with no traffic lights, grocery store or home mail delivery. The town center is defined by Dave's Country Trading Post, where ranchers' retired greasy cowboy hats hang from the rafters. The ranchers, if they're selling any land, are keeping the mineral rights. Hope came more than a year ago, when tiny Wolverine Gas & Oil Corp. made an unlikely find that could rank as the biggest onshore discovery in 30 years. Although no one knows for certain how much oil Wolverine will find — and some industry analysts are skeptical — the potential has townsfolk giddy....
Next phase in protecting species: living with them The Rogue Valley in southern Oregon is normally a mellow, small-town place where the major commercial export is Harry and David's fancy fruits and most of the violence comes at the hand of Richard III onstage at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. But lately, people have been keeping an eye out for predators on the prowl - not criminals, but tooth-and-claw types a critical notch above humans on the food chain. Dog walkers out for an evening stroll have spotted cougars in the town park. Pets and livestock have been mauled or sometimes killed. In the eastern part of the state, gray wolves from the wilds of Idaho have occasionally emigrated across the border, worrying ranchers and others. It's not just a local phenomenon. From Oregon, Idaho, and the northern Rockies to the upper Midwest and across to northern New England there are legal cases, legislative efforts, and political debates over how to control or accommodate what in some places are growing populations of large carnivores....
Toad's listing could affect plans for facility A rare forest-dwelling toad could complicate efforts to build a $300 million underground physics laboratory at Henderson Mine. On Sept. 30, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to propose that Southern Rocky Mountain boreal toads be included on the Endangered Species List. Listing would strengthen protections for the warty 4-inch amphibians, whose numbers have plummeted in the last 20 years. Colorado populations of the boreal toad include a group that breeds in ponds on Henderson Mine property. A long string of "ifs" could toss the boreal toad into the mix as Colorado researchers attempt to land the federally funded Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, known as DUSEL. If Fish and Wildlife proposes listing the toad as a threatened or endangered species, and if that listing is approved, then Endangered Species Act protections come into play....
Gathering planned to talk about pelican abandonment The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is planning a gathering of pelican experts to try to solve the mystery of why the big birds abandoned the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in central North Dakota. No date has been set, but the meeting would include biologists and officials from refuges throughout the Upper Midwest, said Ken Torkelson, a Fish and Wildlife spokesman in Bismarck. Last year, nearly 30,000 pelicans left the refuge near Medina, leaving their chicks and eggs behind. This year, the refuge saw a massive die-off of pelican chicks, followed by an exodus of their parents. "Next year may bring a whole new mystery," Torkelson said....
Congressman calls for sale of federal land to fund hurricane relief U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo on Wednesday called for the sale of federal land to fund Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. "The federal government may be cash-poor but it is land rich. There is demand for farm and ranch land, and the federal government should have long ago transferred its massive holdings to the private sector, where it can be put to use," the Colorado Republican said in a statement. He introduced a bill in Congress requiring the Interior Department to sell 15 percent of the federal land it controls, excluding national parks and Indian land. The Agriculture Department also would be required to sell a portion of the land it controls. "Environmental radicals put up regulatory roadblocks to use of our national land, often miring any sensible land use proposal in endless litigation. My bill would give environmentalists an excellent opportunity to put their money where their mouth is and buy up federal land for conservation," Tancredo said....
State launches road claims The long battle over the ownership of Utah's rural back roads either took a giant step toward a conclusion, or was plunged even deeper into the murk on Wednesday. Armed with an appeals court decision loosening the definition of what constitutes a public right of way, the Governor's Office unveiled an ambitious, aggressive plan to claim old Jeep and mining roads across federal land in every county of the state. Under the plan, counties now need only to identify, record and map the roads they claim as their own under an old mining law known as RS 2477, which granted public rights of way across federal land. The statute was repealed in 1976, but existing roads were grandfathered in. Lynn Stevens, the state's public lands policy coordinator, said that in the wake of this month's 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, it is state law - not Bureau of Land Management policies - that will now guide the counties in their quest to claim the roads....
Yellowstone’s microbes spawn new industries John Colter left Fort Remon in the winter of 1807 with a 30-pound pack and a rifle to recruit Indian trappers. On that trek he discovered a volcanic wonder. “Colter’s Hell” later became the world’s first national park. A rugged peak in Yellowstone National Park bears the explorer’s name. A little more than a century and a half later, a prospector following Colter’s tracks discovered a golden bug. The prospector was Dr. Robert Brock, a microbiologist from the University of Wisconsin. Brock was sampling hot water from the outflow of a thermal spring when he made a discovery that would rattle the halls of academia. The further upstream he went, the hotter the water became. He was nearing the spring where the water crowded the boiling point when he found a creature that would have a greater economic impact than all the moose, buffalo, bear and elk in the park. He named this microbe Thermus aquaticus, Latin for the hot water the creature called home. “Taq” proved to be neither plant nor animal. It was a member of an entirely new kingdom of living organisms. The enzyme found in Thermus aquaticus is now used to duplicate DNA at high speed. The process makes literally billions of copies of a DNA sample in hours. This is the technology used to identify the bodies of air crash and homicide victims or the true father of a baby. This is the technology of the TV show “CSI.” It’s what made genetic engineering possible. The enzyme earns a genetics company $300 million a year....
Probe of Yellowstone deaths extends to Arizona The investigation into the case of a Scottsdale man and his son who plummeted 200 feet to their deaths in Yellowstone National Park soon will extend to Arizona. Officials with the National Park Service will talk to Arizonans who knew 50-year-old Drew Speedie and his 13-year-old son Brent to collect background for the investigation, said Brian Smith, Park Service special agent in charge of investigating the deaths. The Speedies plunged 200 feet from Gardner River Bridge to their deaths Friday while on vacation in Wyoming, officials said. Irene Speedie — Drew’s wife and Brent’s mother — reported the pair’s absence about three hours after they left to take pictures, said park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews....
Senate Petitioned in Eminent Domain Case The Connecticut woman whose case led to the Supreme Court decision allowing local governments to take homes for private development asked senators on Tuesday to end the federal government's involvement in such seizures. "I sincerely hope that Congress will do what judges and local legislators so far have refused to do for me and for thousands of people like me across the nation: protect our homes," Susette Kelo told the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel is considering one of several congressional proposals that would bar federal money from construction projects that benefit from the Supreme Court ruling. State and national lawmakers around the nation are moving quickly to blunt the effects of the Supreme Court's Kelo v. City of New London, Conn., decision. In that 5-4 ruling, the justices said municipalities have broad power to bulldoze people's homes in favor of private development to generate tax revenue. The decision drew a scathing dissent from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as favoring rich corporations. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts _ who is on track to become the next chief justice _ told senators last week that Congress and state legislatures have the power to trump the decision, something the Republican-controlled House and Senate are working feverishly to do....
Plan to compensate Spokane Tribe hits snag A proposal to compensate the Spokane Tribe of Indians for land flooded by the Grand Coulee Dam has raised the ire of Lincoln County elected officials and property owners, who claim they were not consulted. The plan pushed by Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Wash., would pay the tribe tens of millions of dollars and transfer management of land south of the Spokane River to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The bill recently was passed by the U.S. House without debate and awaits Senate action. A similar agreement was reached with the Colville Confederated Tribes in 1994. Both tribes have reservations abutting Lake Roosevelt, the sprawling reservoir behind the dam. In exchange for a change in management of the land, the Spokanes said they would accept about 29 percent of what the Colvilles were given in 1994 - $53 million up front and millions more each year....
Two hikers attacked by grizzly Two hikers were attacked by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park, but escaped serious injury, the National Park Service said Thursday. Pat McDonald, 52, of Bismarck, and Gerald Holzer, 51, of Northfield, Minn., were hiking on a trail near Shoshone Lake in the park's southern section when they noticed fresh bear scat, officials said in a written statement. They decided to continue, but were charged by a grizzly bear "at full stride" about a quarter-mile further along the trail, the release said. Holzer, who was in front, sidestepped the bear. McDonald stepped behind some trees and dropped to the ground, officials said. The bear ran past him, but returned and swatted at him, then turned to Holzer, who had dropped to the ground and was lying on his stomach....
Bennett switches, opposes Yucca U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett has changed his mind about the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump and now plans to join Nevada lawmakers in pushing for legislation that will keep the radioactive fuel where it is. "However much the idea of a single repository may have made sense decades ago, it's now clear that it does not make sense and we need to move in some future direction," said the Utah Republican in a Senate floor speech Tuesday. In publicly renouncing his past position - a rarity in Congress - Bennett allied himself with Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and other political leaders in the state's fight to block a private waste-storage site on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. In the same stroke he isolated his fellow Utah Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch....
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House panel near approval of major Endangered Species Act Conservative lawmakers poised to eliminate key provisions of the landmark 32-year-old Endangered Species Act encountered unexpected support Wednesday: Some environmentalists and liberal Democrats said they agree with some of the changes. "There is a recognition that the current critical habitat arrangement doesn't work, for a whole host of reasons,'' said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., a leading liberal voice on the House Resources Committee. "There are some in the environmental community who think the answer is just no to any change, and I think that's a problem.'' Miller and other Democrats said that without substantial amendments, they still can't support a bill by Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., that's set for a committee vote Thursday. Pombo's bill is a top-to-bottom overhaul of the Endangered Species Act that would delete the federal government's ability to protect "critical habitat'' for plants and animals and require compensation for landowners if the government blocks their development plans to protect certain species....
Evangelical and Jewish Leaders and Scientists Call on Congress to Protect Endangered Species An extraordinary partnership between sometimes distant communities -- evangelical Christians and Jews, clergy and scientists -- today announced creation of the "Noah Alliance" to prevent congressional attempts that would rollback and weaken the Endangered Species Act. In separate statements released together, members of the Academy of Evangelical Scientists and Ethicists and rabbis and scientists associated with the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life echoed insights from both scripture and science. Calling for faith community action, they presented plans to mobilize efforts in key states and across a range of religious associations. "Evangelicals are often set apart from other faith groups and religion and science are said to be at odds," said Dr. Cal DeWitt, President of the Academy of Evangelical Scientists and Ethicists. "But we don't have to agree on how the world was created in order to join forces to protect all creatures on Earth." Citing the Biblical example of Noah, nearly 70 evangelical scholars from Baptist, Pentecostal, Reformed, and other denominations wrote, "As evangelical Christians in our time, we see a most profound threat to the integrity of God's creation in the destruction of endangered species and their God-given habitat." These evangelical scholars, from 35 Christian colleges and universities in 19 states, are helping to train the next generation of evangelical leaders in places like Messiah College in Pennsylvania, Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, Point Loma Nazarene University in California, John Brown University in Arkansas, Colorado Christian College, and many others. In a separate statement, nearly 40 prominent rabbis joined a Nobel laureate and almost 30 other eminent Jewish scientists, from distinguished institutions such as Princeton, Cornell, Stanford, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Carnegie Institution, in declaring "our conviction that the Endangered Species Act is one of our generation's richest fulfillments of our biblical destiny as b'tselem elohim, created in the image of God with the unique power to share, preserve and renew creation."....
Rancher must accept water, suit says A Powder River Basin cattle rancher is challenging the notion that surface owners can be forced, without legal recourse or monetary compensation, to accept coal-bed methane water produced from upstream wells. Groups such as the Powder River Basin Resource Council warn that if the courts rule that coal-bed methane water enjoys the same public easement as "waters of the state," it would give a new and dangerous legal precedent of condemnation to the oil and gas industry. In his arguments on Tuesday, Wendtland said the case exemplifies a previously unchallenged notion in the coal-bed methane industry that downstream, off-lease surface owners cannot refuse their by-product water when intermingled with "waters of the state." He said operators typically strike private agreements with downstream landowners regarding the water. Williams brought the case against Maycock when the parties failed to reach a surface use agreement and Maycock threatened to pursue criminal trespassing charges if the company allowed by-product water from its upstream coal-bed methane wells to flow onto his property via Barber Creek. Attorneys for Williams Production argued that, based on the state's constitution, the operator's by-product water does become "waters of the state" when it enters a natural watercourse....
Report: 'West is warming' Climate change in Colorado and the West is leading to depleted snowpacks, higher temperatures and warmer winters, all factors that could endanger water supplies for the Front Range and plains agriculture. That was the stark assessment of a report released Wednesday by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, a fledgling advocacy group that calls itself a "mainstream coalition" educating the region about the hazards of global warming. "The West is warming, our snowpacks are declining and that has profound impact on our water supplies," said Stephen Saunders, president of the climate organization and the lead author of the 30-page report, titled "Less Snow, Less Water: Climate Disruption in the West." The organization said it analyzed temperature data from several federal agencies. The data covered four major Western river basins, including the Colorado and the Missouri, which includes the South Platte River....view the report here....
Builders: Overdue Proposed Rule On Endangered Species Is Sensible Policy Two years after a federal court ruled illegal the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) listing of the cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl under the Endangered Species Act, FWS has proposed to remove the pygmy owl from the endangered species list. The proposed rule is a victory for sensible policy making, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). FWS’ new proposed rule finds that Arizona’s population of cactus ferruginous pygmy-owls does not qualify as a “significant” population and should be taken off the endangered species list. The proposed rule would also render moot an earlier proposal, never finalized, that would have directly affected 1.2 million acres of pygmy owl habitat. “We support the Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposed action,” said David F. Wilson, NAHB President and a builder from Ketchum, Idaho. “The delisting of the pygmy owl is based on sound science, not political whim.” On August 19, 2003, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, in a suit brought by NAHB, the Southern Arizona Home Builder Association (SAHBA), and the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona (HBACA), that the pygmy owl listing was illegal. The Court agreed, and found that FWS did not articulate a rational basis for the listing of the pygmy owl, given that the owls were known to exist in far greater numbers in Mexico....
'Black gold' flows in Sevier The discovery of a major oil field has people in this tiny farm town on the edge of anticipation, driving property values and speculation, real-estate agents say. But the payoff could make millionaires out of some landowners who never knew there was oil under Sigurd, a Sevier County town of 431 with no traffic lights, grocery store or home mail delivery. The town center is defined by Dave's Country Trading Post, where ranchers' retired greasy cowboy hats hang from the rafters. The ranchers, if they're selling any land, are keeping the mineral rights. Hope came more than a year ago, when tiny Wolverine Gas & Oil Corp. made an unlikely find that could rank as the biggest onshore discovery in 30 years. Although no one knows for certain how much oil Wolverine will find — and some industry analysts are skeptical — the potential has townsfolk giddy....
Next phase in protecting species: living with them The Rogue Valley in southern Oregon is normally a mellow, small-town place where the major commercial export is Harry and David's fancy fruits and most of the violence comes at the hand of Richard III onstage at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. But lately, people have been keeping an eye out for predators on the prowl - not criminals, but tooth-and-claw types a critical notch above humans on the food chain. Dog walkers out for an evening stroll have spotted cougars in the town park. Pets and livestock have been mauled or sometimes killed. In the eastern part of the state, gray wolves from the wilds of Idaho have occasionally emigrated across the border, worrying ranchers and others. It's not just a local phenomenon. From Oregon, Idaho, and the northern Rockies to the upper Midwest and across to northern New England there are legal cases, legislative efforts, and political debates over how to control or accommodate what in some places are growing populations of large carnivores....
Toad's listing could affect plans for facility A rare forest-dwelling toad could complicate efforts to build a $300 million underground physics laboratory at Henderson Mine. On Sept. 30, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to propose that Southern Rocky Mountain boreal toads be included on the Endangered Species List. Listing would strengthen protections for the warty 4-inch amphibians, whose numbers have plummeted in the last 20 years. Colorado populations of the boreal toad include a group that breeds in ponds on Henderson Mine property. A long string of "ifs" could toss the boreal toad into the mix as Colorado researchers attempt to land the federally funded Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, known as DUSEL. If Fish and Wildlife proposes listing the toad as a threatened or endangered species, and if that listing is approved, then Endangered Species Act protections come into play....
Gathering planned to talk about pelican abandonment The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is planning a gathering of pelican experts to try to solve the mystery of why the big birds abandoned the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in central North Dakota. No date has been set, but the meeting would include biologists and officials from refuges throughout the Upper Midwest, said Ken Torkelson, a Fish and Wildlife spokesman in Bismarck. Last year, nearly 30,000 pelicans left the refuge near Medina, leaving their chicks and eggs behind. This year, the refuge saw a massive die-off of pelican chicks, followed by an exodus of their parents. "Next year may bring a whole new mystery," Torkelson said....
Congressman calls for sale of federal land to fund hurricane relief U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo on Wednesday called for the sale of federal land to fund Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. "The federal government may be cash-poor but it is land rich. There is demand for farm and ranch land, and the federal government should have long ago transferred its massive holdings to the private sector, where it can be put to use," the Colorado Republican said in a statement. He introduced a bill in Congress requiring the Interior Department to sell 15 percent of the federal land it controls, excluding national parks and Indian land. The Agriculture Department also would be required to sell a portion of the land it controls. "Environmental radicals put up regulatory roadblocks to use of our national land, often miring any sensible land use proposal in endless litigation. My bill would give environmentalists an excellent opportunity to put their money where their mouth is and buy up federal land for conservation," Tancredo said....
State launches road claims The long battle over the ownership of Utah's rural back roads either took a giant step toward a conclusion, or was plunged even deeper into the murk on Wednesday. Armed with an appeals court decision loosening the definition of what constitutes a public right of way, the Governor's Office unveiled an ambitious, aggressive plan to claim old Jeep and mining roads across federal land in every county of the state. Under the plan, counties now need only to identify, record and map the roads they claim as their own under an old mining law known as RS 2477, which granted public rights of way across federal land. The statute was repealed in 1976, but existing roads were grandfathered in. Lynn Stevens, the state's public lands policy coordinator, said that in the wake of this month's 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, it is state law - not Bureau of Land Management policies - that will now guide the counties in their quest to claim the roads....
Yellowstone’s microbes spawn new industries John Colter left Fort Remon in the winter of 1807 with a 30-pound pack and a rifle to recruit Indian trappers. On that trek he discovered a volcanic wonder. “Colter’s Hell” later became the world’s first national park. A rugged peak in Yellowstone National Park bears the explorer’s name. A little more than a century and a half later, a prospector following Colter’s tracks discovered a golden bug. The prospector was Dr. Robert Brock, a microbiologist from the University of Wisconsin. Brock was sampling hot water from the outflow of a thermal spring when he made a discovery that would rattle the halls of academia. The further upstream he went, the hotter the water became. He was nearing the spring where the water crowded the boiling point when he found a creature that would have a greater economic impact than all the moose, buffalo, bear and elk in the park. He named this microbe Thermus aquaticus, Latin for the hot water the creature called home. “Taq” proved to be neither plant nor animal. It was a member of an entirely new kingdom of living organisms. The enzyme found in Thermus aquaticus is now used to duplicate DNA at high speed. The process makes literally billions of copies of a DNA sample in hours. This is the technology used to identify the bodies of air crash and homicide victims or the true father of a baby. This is the technology of the TV show “CSI.” It’s what made genetic engineering possible. The enzyme earns a genetics company $300 million a year....
Probe of Yellowstone deaths extends to Arizona The investigation into the case of a Scottsdale man and his son who plummeted 200 feet to their deaths in Yellowstone National Park soon will extend to Arizona. Officials with the National Park Service will talk to Arizonans who knew 50-year-old Drew Speedie and his 13-year-old son Brent to collect background for the investigation, said Brian Smith, Park Service special agent in charge of investigating the deaths. The Speedies plunged 200 feet from Gardner River Bridge to their deaths Friday while on vacation in Wyoming, officials said. Irene Speedie — Drew’s wife and Brent’s mother — reported the pair’s absence about three hours after they left to take pictures, said park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews....
Senate Petitioned in Eminent Domain Case The Connecticut woman whose case led to the Supreme Court decision allowing local governments to take homes for private development asked senators on Tuesday to end the federal government's involvement in such seizures. "I sincerely hope that Congress will do what judges and local legislators so far have refused to do for me and for thousands of people like me across the nation: protect our homes," Susette Kelo told the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel is considering one of several congressional proposals that would bar federal money from construction projects that benefit from the Supreme Court ruling. State and national lawmakers around the nation are moving quickly to blunt the effects of the Supreme Court's Kelo v. City of New London, Conn., decision. In that 5-4 ruling, the justices said municipalities have broad power to bulldoze people's homes in favor of private development to generate tax revenue. The decision drew a scathing dissent from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as favoring rich corporations. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts _ who is on track to become the next chief justice _ told senators last week that Congress and state legislatures have the power to trump the decision, something the Republican-controlled House and Senate are working feverishly to do....
Plan to compensate Spokane Tribe hits snag A proposal to compensate the Spokane Tribe of Indians for land flooded by the Grand Coulee Dam has raised the ire of Lincoln County elected officials and property owners, who claim they were not consulted. The plan pushed by Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Wash., would pay the tribe tens of millions of dollars and transfer management of land south of the Spokane River to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The bill recently was passed by the U.S. House without debate and awaits Senate action. A similar agreement was reached with the Colville Confederated Tribes in 1994. Both tribes have reservations abutting Lake Roosevelt, the sprawling reservoir behind the dam. In exchange for a change in management of the land, the Spokanes said they would accept about 29 percent of what the Colvilles were given in 1994 - $53 million up front and millions more each year....
Two hikers attacked by grizzly Two hikers were attacked by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park, but escaped serious injury, the National Park Service said Thursday. Pat McDonald, 52, of Bismarck, and Gerald Holzer, 51, of Northfield, Minn., were hiking on a trail near Shoshone Lake in the park's southern section when they noticed fresh bear scat, officials said in a written statement. They decided to continue, but were charged by a grizzly bear "at full stride" about a quarter-mile further along the trail, the release said. Holzer, who was in front, sidestepped the bear. McDonald stepped behind some trees and dropped to the ground, officials said. The bear ran past him, but returned and swatted at him, then turned to Holzer, who had dropped to the ground and was lying on his stomach....
Bennett switches, opposes Yucca U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett has changed his mind about the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump and now plans to join Nevada lawmakers in pushing for legislation that will keep the radioactive fuel where it is. "However much the idea of a single repository may have made sense decades ago, it's now clear that it does not make sense and we need to move in some future direction," said the Utah Republican in a Senate floor speech Tuesday. In publicly renouncing his past position - a rarity in Congress - Bennett allied himself with Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and other political leaders in the state's fight to block a private waste-storage site on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. In the same stroke he isolated his fellow Utah Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch....
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005
GAO REPORT & TESTIMONY
Environmental Information: Status of Federal Data Programs That Support Ecological Indicators. GAO-05-376, September 2. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-376
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05376high.pdf
Energy Markets: Gasoline Price Trends, by James E. Wells, Jr., director, natural resources and environment, before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. GAO-05-1047T, September 21. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-1047T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d051047thigh.pdf
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Environmental Information: Status of Federal Data Programs That Support Ecological Indicators. GAO-05-376, September 2. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-376
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05376high.pdf
Energy Markets: Gasoline Price Trends, by James E. Wells, Jr., director, natural resources and environment, before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. GAO-05-1047T, September 21. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-1047T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d051047thigh.pdf
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NEWS ROUNDUP
Alliance could prove key as Pombo takes on Species Act After more than a decade of failed attempts, U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo thinks he's finally found a workable way to revise the federal Endangered Species Act. The key could be Pombo's ally and neighbor Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat who also represents part of San Joaquin County. The two introduced House Resolution 3824 on Monday at a Sacramento news conference. Pombo, a Tracy rancher, first entered politics because of his strong feelings against the way the Endangered Species Act was implemented -- several species live on land either he or his family owns. He has tried to rework the act ever since he was elected in 1992. Now, he's joined with Cardoza, who said possibly 40 other Democrats could co-sponsor the measure that is expected to be heard in Pombo's House Resources Committee on Wednesday....
Column: The ESA is a soaring success The Endangered Species Act -- which is being reviewed by Congress this week -- is a soaring success. Just look up. Look skyward for a while and you might spy an American bald eagle. Hundreds of them live in my home state of Montana. Across the United States, the bald eagle is a living, flying example of what works about the Endangered Species Act. Conflicts over endangered species make headlines. Success happens in quiet obscurity. But over time, the successes are dramatic indeed. Gray wolves are another Endangered Species Act success story in the Northern Rockies. Wiped out by over-zealous predator control a century ago, wolves began trickling back into Montana in the 1980s. Now, there are hundreds of wolves in western Montana, and more in neighboring Idaho and Wyoming. Because Montana stepped up to the plate and agreed to manage these animals for the future, the federal U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently handed wolf management over to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. This is evidence of the flexibility built into the law....
Editorial: Rationalizing ESA Sen. Allard notes that the top-down model of federal intervention often places undue burdens on private property owners, since more than a third of all critical habitat nationwide occupies private land. He says those property owners should be justly compensated for any efforts they are required to undertake in the name of species protection. In order to come up with a more rational approach toward species protection, Sen. Allard has joined fellow senators as a charter member of a new bipartisan working group dedicated to creating meaningful improvements to the Endangered Species Act. Among the proposals being readied by the group are those which would provide incentives to landowners for their commitment to conservation, enhance involvement of states in recovery efforts, and require that sound science be the basis for making decisions about the protection of flora and fauna. Too often the Endangered Species Act - the ESA - has been hijacked and used for political and ideological ends. It’s time to rationalize the entire process, and we applaud Sen. Allard for his efforts toward that end....
Judge orders study of pesticides on frog A federal judge here is ordering federal authorities to study whether 66 pesticides commonly used in agribusiness are jeopardizing the California red-legged frog, the frog believed to have inspired Mark Twain's fabled short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White ruled Monday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must "consult" with biologists to determine whether, as environmentalists allege, the pesticides are harming the frog, which has lost about 70 percent of its numbers and was listed as a threatened species in 1996. The California red-legged frog is the largest frog native to the western United States. Females are larger than males, about 5.5 inches versus 4.5 inches. The adults usually have red legs. The EPA said in a statement it disagreed with the decision and was reviewing its options. White ordered the government and the Center for Biological Diversity, which brought the suit, to agree to a time when the studies should be complete....
Mass Extinction of Insects May Be Occurring Undetected The term "endangered species" typically conjures up images of charismatic animals—tigers, pandas, orangutans, whales, condors. But a new study says that the vast majority of species on the verge of extinction is in fact humble insects. The study estimates that up to 44,000 bugs of all varieties could have been wiped off the face of the Earth during the last 600 years. And hundreds of thousands more insect species could be lost over the next 50 years. Only about 70 insect extinctions have been documented since the 15th century, possibly because many insects have been poorly studied. "Most extinctions estimated to have occurred in the historical past, or predicted to occur in the future, are of insects," argues entomologist Robert R. Dunn of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. The finding is significant, because insects play vital roles in plant pollination, decomposition, and soil processing. They also form essential links in ecological chains as plant-eaters, predators, and parasites....
Agency accused of botching efforts to save fish Two former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees claimed Monday the agency willfully violated the Endangered Species Act by letting the Rio Grande run dry at inappropriate times — a threat to the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. Zach Simpson and Keith Basham also said the agency routinely suppressed scientific information regarding the number of dead fish discovered from 2002 to 2004 — keeping the number of fish killed by water operations within allowable limits. In one instance in 2003, Simpson claimed a contract employee found five dead minnows but was advised by a Fish and Wildlife supervisor to throw them into willow shrubs to conceal their deaths. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said those fish were discarded because the contractor failed to follow procedures for documenting locations where they were found. She also disputed any suggestion that the fish’s numbers have dwindled and said flooding this spring has dramatically improved habitat for the minnows because it simulated the river’s natural cycle....
Hearing On Pygmy Owl Will Discuss Pros And Cons Of De-listing The Pygmy Owl's days on a protected perch are numbered as the US Fish and Wildlife Service begins the process of revoking the bird's endangered species status. Developers who've seen owl-related restrictions stall construction across the northwest welcome the move, while environmentalists threaten lawsuits. The courts say wildlife managers haven't shown why southern Arizona's owls need protection when populations elsewhere in the southwest are doing fine. A September 20th hearing at the Tucson Convention Center from 6:30pm to 9:00pm will deal with pros and cons for taking the Pygmy Owl off the endangered species list. If the owl does go off, it won't go quietly....
Colorado hunting program draw critics Critics of a program that encourages landowners to manage their land with wildlife in mind say recently approved changes don't go far enough. The Ranching for Wildlife program gives ranchers with more than 12,000 acres hunting licenses and more flexible hunting seasons if they open their land to public hunting and manage their land for the benefit of wildlife. Sportsmen and RFW neighbors say the Division of Wildlife program provides undue benefits to private landowners and hurts public hunting. The Colorado Wildlife Commission last week adopted new program rules that will take effect in 2006. Under existing rules, private landowners get 90 percent of male elk and deer licenses allocated for their land; the public gets the rest. Landowners typically sell their licenses. Under the new rules, landowners would receive 80 percent of the licenses. Landowners could still receive 90 percent of the licenses if they meet requirements like broadening public hunting access, improving habitats and helping wildlife officials reach herd objectives....
A valley transformed Linda Baker likes to say that when she settled in this isolated corner of Wyoming 23 years ago, "it was the least populated valley in the least populated state in the Lower 48." But Pinedale, the Sublette County seat, is no longer isolated and no longer as quiet as when Baker arrived. The town lies on the edge of one of the most productive natural gas reservoirs in the United States, a vast bubble of fossil energy trapped beneath the gently rolling hills just outside of town. That gas field is the focus of an energy boom that has ignited fierce debate in Wyoming over the proper balance between resource extraction and environmental protection, and has transformed the landscape, economy and culture of Sublette County by boosting its population, property values and crime rate. "I feel like I'm being robbed of my home," Baker said. "My town is full of strangers." Pinedale is not alone. The energy boom transforming Baker's home echoes across the American West, where skyrocketing gas prices and relaxed government regulations have unleashed one of the biggest natural resource bonanzas of the past century....
State wildlife federations unite to protect resources against energy development The ever-increasing impact of energy development on the West’s wildlife resources is serious enough that four state wildlife federations have banded together to seek more protection for wildlife and key landscapes. The wildlife federations of Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and New Mexico have formed a coalition urging federal and state agencies to take specific steps to ensure that energy exploration and development is done responsibly to protect Western wildlife species and landscapes. “The tens of thousands of wells and accompanying roads and pipelines over the next decade will have more impact on our public lands, water and wildlife habitat than anything we’ve seen before,” said Dennis Buechler, Issues Committee chairman for the Colorado Wildlife Federation. “It will require a strong, coordinated effort by all conservationists, including hunters and anglers, if we hope to prevent major, permanent damage to fish, game and other populations of our native species.” The passage of the 2005 Energy Act last month provided new incentives for energy companies and will spur energy development throughout the West, where much of the drilling for oil and gas is expected to occur, leaders of the groups said....
Companies seek oil-shale leases Shell, Chevron and Exxon Mobil are among the companies that have asked for 19 federal leases to research turning oil shale into oil in Colorado and neighboring states, the Bureau of Land Management said Tuesday. Of the 19 requests, 10 are for parcels on Colorado's Western Slope, eight are for Utah sites and one is for a Wyoming site. The 160-acre research tracts on federal lands could be converted to 5,100-acre production leases if companies prove they can turn rock into fuel. A BLM team will start in late October to evaluate each proposal on its potential to advance shale technology, economics and environmental effects, then make recommendations about awarding leases. Geologists say up to 1 trillion barrels of oil lie bound in the 1,000-foot-thick shale formations of western Colorado, Wyoming and Utah....
Local governments say no on drilling Roan Plateau Natural-gas development on top of the Roan Plateau was opposed by most of the local governments Monday in comments to the Bureau of Land Management on the uses of 73,602 acres of public lands from Rifle to Parachute. But since drilling may occur anyway, the cities of Glenwood Springs and Rifle, Town of Parachute and Rio Blanco County supported a plan by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources that may lessen the impacts on the top. Garfield County commissioners planned to meet this morning to finalize their comments, but Commissioner Larry McCown said they would also likely support the DNR plan that calls on the BLM to issue mineral leases to different producers as they normally do, but only allow one operator to be responsible for the roads, well pads and other aspects of production. Glenwood Springs City Council was the most forceful against drilling on top. “The (plateau) is a special area for those of us in Colorado and on the Western Slope,” the council wrote. “It should be protected for future generations.”....
Counties rally for $100M in impact money A group of Wyoming county and city leaders wants the state to set aside $100 million to help communities cope with the impacts of natural gas development over the next two years. Drilling and operational activities are putting a direct strain on roads, law enforcement and social services across the board in at least eight Wyoming counties, according to the Local Government Coordinating Council. And council members say it's time the state spends a significant portion of its new-found natural gas wealth to enable those communities to keep functioning properly. "I think the impacted counties can justify the infrastructure projects that they haven't been able to do for the past five years," Gillette Mayor Duane Evenson said. Evenson outlined the tentative proposal before several county representatives during a "Local Government Workshop" here on Monday, which was sponsored by the CoalBed Methane Coordination Coalition....
Mine above Crested Butte listed as Superfund site The remains of the Standard Mine, high above Crested Butte, are now listed among priority sites to be cleaned up under the federal Superfund program. The mine, which sits along a main tributary to the watershed for the town of Crested Butte, operated from 1874 to 1966. Metals such as cadmium, copper, lead and zinc are leaching from the mine’s shafts and wastewater pond into Elk Creek, which feeds into Coal Creek, which supplies water to the town four miles downstream. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking an individual or company to hold responsible for the cleanup. If a responsible party can’t be found, the U.S. Forest Service will likely pick up some of the bill. The Standard Mine is in the Gunnison National Forest....
Thinning project shows dramatic success The sharp line in the aerial photograph is obvious, abrupt and dramatic: black forest on one side, green canopy on the other. "It tells the whole story right there," said Ron Hvizdak. "When you look at that, there's no question that it works. People see it, and they know." Hvizdak has known for years: A healthy forest can sometimes stop a crown fire. As fire management officer on the Kootenai National Forest, he's been using fire to fight fire for decades, but never has he had such stark proof that his effort works. Four years ago, he and others on the forest logged and thinned a bit more than 600 acres near Eureka. They took out some trees, cut back the Douglas fir, removed the "ladder fuels" that allow wildfires to climb up off the ground and into the crown. The plan, he said, was to return this patch of forest to its historic composition of fire-resistant ponderosa pine and larch. Then, two years later, they returned to carefully burn out the ground beneath the big trees, torching out the fine debris and young fir seedlings....
Smokey Bear thieves take diversion deal Two pranksters facing felony charges for stealing Smokey Bear from the Naches Ranger District have avoided trial by entering diversion deals with the Yakima County prosecutor's office. James P. Kendrick, 25, and Kale Heily, 23, were scheduled for trial this week for stealing the 7-foot, 600-pound chain saw-carved bear from its perch outside the ranger district in April, then dumping the badly damaged carving in an orchard. Court records show Kendrick and Heily last month entered into diversion deals to charges of malicious mischief and theft, charges that will be dropped a year from now if the two men stay out of trouble....
Marked trees anger environmentalists The Bitterroot National Forest has spent more than $160,000 marking trees for a timber cut designed to reduce hazardous fuels, even though a final decision on the logging project hasn't been reached. The figure of $161,940 was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request sought by the Native Forest Network, which opposes the forest's preferred alternative for the Middle East Fork hazardous fuels reduction project in the southern end of the Bitterroot Valley. "We find it incredibly disingenuous that during the public comment period, a period where they said they would take the public's comment and incorporate it into their plan, they were just moving ahead with the plan that they apparently already have chosen," said Matthew Koehler, director of the Native Forest Network....
Column: A Chief Justice Already Testing Environmental Law's Pillars The memos written by the President's nominee for Chief Justice of the United States as a young lawyer have brought John Roberts into sharper focus, both as a lawyer and as a human being. On the one hand, his conservative legal stances have alarmed civil rights and women's groups; on the other, pundits have noted his sharp wit on topics as varied as Michael Jackson, Girl Scout cookies, and patterns for presidential china. Yet after all the weighty analysis and comic relief, environmentalists have circled round to where we started: pondering Roberts's cryptic remarks about a "hapless toad." While we hope this phrase is just another witticism, we fear it may shed light not only on Roberts's views, but on some troubling judicial trends. For decades, environmental protection has been built on four pillars: national laws that establish minimum standards for addressing nationwide problems; cooperative sharing of federal power with the states; latitude for state governments to experiment and innovate; and citizen participation in enforcing decisions at both federal and state levels. These pillars have been built through bipartisan legislation, implemented by Democratic and Republican presidents, upheld by the courts, and supported by a steady majority of the public. The environmental pillars were profoundly shaken by the Rehnquist Court's "new federalism." That Court's rethinking of the roles of federal and state governments has injected constitutional issues into even routine environmental cases, and linked their fate to that of some unlikely companions. The definitive word on federal power, and thus on federal environmental law, may have come from last term's medical marijuana decision, or might emerge from the new term's case on physician-assisted suicide -- issues normally far removed from smokestack emissions or endangered species conservation....
PETA Campaign Comparing Slaves To Animals Draws Outrage One panel features a 1930s photograph of a lynching of a black man in Indiana offset by an Angus cow hanging by its feet at a slaughterhouse. Next to it, another installment drops the mouths of onlookers as their eyes move from a picture of a burning black corpse from a 1919 race riot to the corresponding image, that of a rooster set on fire. Continuing along the "Animal Liberation Project," an exhibition recently launched by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), there are pictures of black men and women being branded, bloodied and burned, contrasting with shots of various domesticated animals in similar positions. One of the most provocative images, however, is that of a chained black human's foot opposite the thick, powerful - and equally shackled - limb of a circus elephant. One month after suspending the New Haven display comparing animal cruelty to slavery, PETA has resumed its traveling show on the West Coast. The exhibit is now making stops in Washington state. The Animal Liberation Project (www.peta.org/animalliberation) - with more photographs featuring such imagery as starving cows being shepherded into a rancher's pen, next to a picture of thousands of slaves being herded off a ship - has managed to earn official condemnation from the NAACP, offended other minority communities across the country and affront its own allies in the animal-rights movement....
Rustling's new breed As fuel prices climb, farmers and ranchers are facing a foe not seen in the Old West: the diesel rustler. A generation of farmers who grew up leaving the barn door open has taken to posting field hands to watch over diesel tanks at night, and locking up gas pumps even as thieves invent new ways to siphon fuel from farm equipment. Peter Dompe, who grows beans and almonds in Crows Landing, some 90 miles southeast of San Francisco, has taken to sleeping overnight in his truck hoping to catch fuel snatchers who he says have made off with thousands of dollars worth of the diesel he uses to run his tractors. "We hide out there in the orchards and watch them come and go,'' said Dompe. "They think they're commandos.'' Farm thefts are not uncommon: ranchers still face the old-fashioned cattle rustlers, and have also come to terms with finding fertilizer stockpiles missing, tractors gone at dawn and entire orchards uprooted in the still of the night. But rural detectives compare the recent spate of thefts to a rash of larceny during the gas crisis of the 1970s....
Border ranchers losing their way of life "In the last five years, I don't know of one example of a rancher buying a ranch," said Rodolfo Elias, a stern, proud ganadero whose family has raised cattle in northern Mexico's Sonora state since the early 1800s. "It's all drug traffickers." "They build their mansions and throw their parties and within a few years, something happens to them and another one takes their place," he explained in Spanish. When land near the border goes up for sale, drug traffickers will pay twice the market rate for it, Elias said, far more than what local ranchers could afford. They keep the ranches as trophies, or use them to launder money and as staging areas for their smuggling operations into the United States. "It's frustrating," Elias said, "because you dedicated your life to this, and you love the land and you love the cattle and then you see it all go to the drug traffickers."....
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Alliance could prove key as Pombo takes on Species Act After more than a decade of failed attempts, U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo thinks he's finally found a workable way to revise the federal Endangered Species Act. The key could be Pombo's ally and neighbor Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat who also represents part of San Joaquin County. The two introduced House Resolution 3824 on Monday at a Sacramento news conference. Pombo, a Tracy rancher, first entered politics because of his strong feelings against the way the Endangered Species Act was implemented -- several species live on land either he or his family owns. He has tried to rework the act ever since he was elected in 1992. Now, he's joined with Cardoza, who said possibly 40 other Democrats could co-sponsor the measure that is expected to be heard in Pombo's House Resources Committee on Wednesday....
Column: The ESA is a soaring success The Endangered Species Act -- which is being reviewed by Congress this week -- is a soaring success. Just look up. Look skyward for a while and you might spy an American bald eagle. Hundreds of them live in my home state of Montana. Across the United States, the bald eagle is a living, flying example of what works about the Endangered Species Act. Conflicts over endangered species make headlines. Success happens in quiet obscurity. But over time, the successes are dramatic indeed. Gray wolves are another Endangered Species Act success story in the Northern Rockies. Wiped out by over-zealous predator control a century ago, wolves began trickling back into Montana in the 1980s. Now, there are hundreds of wolves in western Montana, and more in neighboring Idaho and Wyoming. Because Montana stepped up to the plate and agreed to manage these animals for the future, the federal U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently handed wolf management over to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. This is evidence of the flexibility built into the law....
Editorial: Rationalizing ESA Sen. Allard notes that the top-down model of federal intervention often places undue burdens on private property owners, since more than a third of all critical habitat nationwide occupies private land. He says those property owners should be justly compensated for any efforts they are required to undertake in the name of species protection. In order to come up with a more rational approach toward species protection, Sen. Allard has joined fellow senators as a charter member of a new bipartisan working group dedicated to creating meaningful improvements to the Endangered Species Act. Among the proposals being readied by the group are those which would provide incentives to landowners for their commitment to conservation, enhance involvement of states in recovery efforts, and require that sound science be the basis for making decisions about the protection of flora and fauna. Too often the Endangered Species Act - the ESA - has been hijacked and used for political and ideological ends. It’s time to rationalize the entire process, and we applaud Sen. Allard for his efforts toward that end....
Judge orders study of pesticides on frog A federal judge here is ordering federal authorities to study whether 66 pesticides commonly used in agribusiness are jeopardizing the California red-legged frog, the frog believed to have inspired Mark Twain's fabled short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White ruled Monday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must "consult" with biologists to determine whether, as environmentalists allege, the pesticides are harming the frog, which has lost about 70 percent of its numbers and was listed as a threatened species in 1996. The California red-legged frog is the largest frog native to the western United States. Females are larger than males, about 5.5 inches versus 4.5 inches. The adults usually have red legs. The EPA said in a statement it disagreed with the decision and was reviewing its options. White ordered the government and the Center for Biological Diversity, which brought the suit, to agree to a time when the studies should be complete....
Mass Extinction of Insects May Be Occurring Undetected The term "endangered species" typically conjures up images of charismatic animals—tigers, pandas, orangutans, whales, condors. But a new study says that the vast majority of species on the verge of extinction is in fact humble insects. The study estimates that up to 44,000 bugs of all varieties could have been wiped off the face of the Earth during the last 600 years. And hundreds of thousands more insect species could be lost over the next 50 years. Only about 70 insect extinctions have been documented since the 15th century, possibly because many insects have been poorly studied. "Most extinctions estimated to have occurred in the historical past, or predicted to occur in the future, are of insects," argues entomologist Robert R. Dunn of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. The finding is significant, because insects play vital roles in plant pollination, decomposition, and soil processing. They also form essential links in ecological chains as plant-eaters, predators, and parasites....
Agency accused of botching efforts to save fish Two former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees claimed Monday the agency willfully violated the Endangered Species Act by letting the Rio Grande run dry at inappropriate times — a threat to the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. Zach Simpson and Keith Basham also said the agency routinely suppressed scientific information regarding the number of dead fish discovered from 2002 to 2004 — keeping the number of fish killed by water operations within allowable limits. In one instance in 2003, Simpson claimed a contract employee found five dead minnows but was advised by a Fish and Wildlife supervisor to throw them into willow shrubs to conceal their deaths. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said those fish were discarded because the contractor failed to follow procedures for documenting locations where they were found. She also disputed any suggestion that the fish’s numbers have dwindled and said flooding this spring has dramatically improved habitat for the minnows because it simulated the river’s natural cycle....
Hearing On Pygmy Owl Will Discuss Pros And Cons Of De-listing The Pygmy Owl's days on a protected perch are numbered as the US Fish and Wildlife Service begins the process of revoking the bird's endangered species status. Developers who've seen owl-related restrictions stall construction across the northwest welcome the move, while environmentalists threaten lawsuits. The courts say wildlife managers haven't shown why southern Arizona's owls need protection when populations elsewhere in the southwest are doing fine. A September 20th hearing at the Tucson Convention Center from 6:30pm to 9:00pm will deal with pros and cons for taking the Pygmy Owl off the endangered species list. If the owl does go off, it won't go quietly....
Colorado hunting program draw critics Critics of a program that encourages landowners to manage their land with wildlife in mind say recently approved changes don't go far enough. The Ranching for Wildlife program gives ranchers with more than 12,000 acres hunting licenses and more flexible hunting seasons if they open their land to public hunting and manage their land for the benefit of wildlife. Sportsmen and RFW neighbors say the Division of Wildlife program provides undue benefits to private landowners and hurts public hunting. The Colorado Wildlife Commission last week adopted new program rules that will take effect in 2006. Under existing rules, private landowners get 90 percent of male elk and deer licenses allocated for their land; the public gets the rest. Landowners typically sell their licenses. Under the new rules, landowners would receive 80 percent of the licenses. Landowners could still receive 90 percent of the licenses if they meet requirements like broadening public hunting access, improving habitats and helping wildlife officials reach herd objectives....
A valley transformed Linda Baker likes to say that when she settled in this isolated corner of Wyoming 23 years ago, "it was the least populated valley in the least populated state in the Lower 48." But Pinedale, the Sublette County seat, is no longer isolated and no longer as quiet as when Baker arrived. The town lies on the edge of one of the most productive natural gas reservoirs in the United States, a vast bubble of fossil energy trapped beneath the gently rolling hills just outside of town. That gas field is the focus of an energy boom that has ignited fierce debate in Wyoming over the proper balance between resource extraction and environmental protection, and has transformed the landscape, economy and culture of Sublette County by boosting its population, property values and crime rate. "I feel like I'm being robbed of my home," Baker said. "My town is full of strangers." Pinedale is not alone. The energy boom transforming Baker's home echoes across the American West, where skyrocketing gas prices and relaxed government regulations have unleashed one of the biggest natural resource bonanzas of the past century....
State wildlife federations unite to protect resources against energy development The ever-increasing impact of energy development on the West’s wildlife resources is serious enough that four state wildlife federations have banded together to seek more protection for wildlife and key landscapes. The wildlife federations of Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and New Mexico have formed a coalition urging federal and state agencies to take specific steps to ensure that energy exploration and development is done responsibly to protect Western wildlife species and landscapes. “The tens of thousands of wells and accompanying roads and pipelines over the next decade will have more impact on our public lands, water and wildlife habitat than anything we’ve seen before,” said Dennis Buechler, Issues Committee chairman for the Colorado Wildlife Federation. “It will require a strong, coordinated effort by all conservationists, including hunters and anglers, if we hope to prevent major, permanent damage to fish, game and other populations of our native species.” The passage of the 2005 Energy Act last month provided new incentives for energy companies and will spur energy development throughout the West, where much of the drilling for oil and gas is expected to occur, leaders of the groups said....
Companies seek oil-shale leases Shell, Chevron and Exxon Mobil are among the companies that have asked for 19 federal leases to research turning oil shale into oil in Colorado and neighboring states, the Bureau of Land Management said Tuesday. Of the 19 requests, 10 are for parcels on Colorado's Western Slope, eight are for Utah sites and one is for a Wyoming site. The 160-acre research tracts on federal lands could be converted to 5,100-acre production leases if companies prove they can turn rock into fuel. A BLM team will start in late October to evaluate each proposal on its potential to advance shale technology, economics and environmental effects, then make recommendations about awarding leases. Geologists say up to 1 trillion barrels of oil lie bound in the 1,000-foot-thick shale formations of western Colorado, Wyoming and Utah....
Local governments say no on drilling Roan Plateau Natural-gas development on top of the Roan Plateau was opposed by most of the local governments Monday in comments to the Bureau of Land Management on the uses of 73,602 acres of public lands from Rifle to Parachute. But since drilling may occur anyway, the cities of Glenwood Springs and Rifle, Town of Parachute and Rio Blanco County supported a plan by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources that may lessen the impacts on the top. Garfield County commissioners planned to meet this morning to finalize their comments, but Commissioner Larry McCown said they would also likely support the DNR plan that calls on the BLM to issue mineral leases to different producers as they normally do, but only allow one operator to be responsible for the roads, well pads and other aspects of production. Glenwood Springs City Council was the most forceful against drilling on top. “The (plateau) is a special area for those of us in Colorado and on the Western Slope,” the council wrote. “It should be protected for future generations.”....
Counties rally for $100M in impact money A group of Wyoming county and city leaders wants the state to set aside $100 million to help communities cope with the impacts of natural gas development over the next two years. Drilling and operational activities are putting a direct strain on roads, law enforcement and social services across the board in at least eight Wyoming counties, according to the Local Government Coordinating Council. And council members say it's time the state spends a significant portion of its new-found natural gas wealth to enable those communities to keep functioning properly. "I think the impacted counties can justify the infrastructure projects that they haven't been able to do for the past five years," Gillette Mayor Duane Evenson said. Evenson outlined the tentative proposal before several county representatives during a "Local Government Workshop" here on Monday, which was sponsored by the CoalBed Methane Coordination Coalition....
Mine above Crested Butte listed as Superfund site The remains of the Standard Mine, high above Crested Butte, are now listed among priority sites to be cleaned up under the federal Superfund program. The mine, which sits along a main tributary to the watershed for the town of Crested Butte, operated from 1874 to 1966. Metals such as cadmium, copper, lead and zinc are leaching from the mine’s shafts and wastewater pond into Elk Creek, which feeds into Coal Creek, which supplies water to the town four miles downstream. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking an individual or company to hold responsible for the cleanup. If a responsible party can’t be found, the U.S. Forest Service will likely pick up some of the bill. The Standard Mine is in the Gunnison National Forest....
Thinning project shows dramatic success The sharp line in the aerial photograph is obvious, abrupt and dramatic: black forest on one side, green canopy on the other. "It tells the whole story right there," said Ron Hvizdak. "When you look at that, there's no question that it works. People see it, and they know." Hvizdak has known for years: A healthy forest can sometimes stop a crown fire. As fire management officer on the Kootenai National Forest, he's been using fire to fight fire for decades, but never has he had such stark proof that his effort works. Four years ago, he and others on the forest logged and thinned a bit more than 600 acres near Eureka. They took out some trees, cut back the Douglas fir, removed the "ladder fuels" that allow wildfires to climb up off the ground and into the crown. The plan, he said, was to return this patch of forest to its historic composition of fire-resistant ponderosa pine and larch. Then, two years later, they returned to carefully burn out the ground beneath the big trees, torching out the fine debris and young fir seedlings....
Smokey Bear thieves take diversion deal Two pranksters facing felony charges for stealing Smokey Bear from the Naches Ranger District have avoided trial by entering diversion deals with the Yakima County prosecutor's office. James P. Kendrick, 25, and Kale Heily, 23, were scheduled for trial this week for stealing the 7-foot, 600-pound chain saw-carved bear from its perch outside the ranger district in April, then dumping the badly damaged carving in an orchard. Court records show Kendrick and Heily last month entered into diversion deals to charges of malicious mischief and theft, charges that will be dropped a year from now if the two men stay out of trouble....
Marked trees anger environmentalists The Bitterroot National Forest has spent more than $160,000 marking trees for a timber cut designed to reduce hazardous fuels, even though a final decision on the logging project hasn't been reached. The figure of $161,940 was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request sought by the Native Forest Network, which opposes the forest's preferred alternative for the Middle East Fork hazardous fuels reduction project in the southern end of the Bitterroot Valley. "We find it incredibly disingenuous that during the public comment period, a period where they said they would take the public's comment and incorporate it into their plan, they were just moving ahead with the plan that they apparently already have chosen," said Matthew Koehler, director of the Native Forest Network....
Column: A Chief Justice Already Testing Environmental Law's Pillars The memos written by the President's nominee for Chief Justice of the United States as a young lawyer have brought John Roberts into sharper focus, both as a lawyer and as a human being. On the one hand, his conservative legal stances have alarmed civil rights and women's groups; on the other, pundits have noted his sharp wit on topics as varied as Michael Jackson, Girl Scout cookies, and patterns for presidential china. Yet after all the weighty analysis and comic relief, environmentalists have circled round to where we started: pondering Roberts's cryptic remarks about a "hapless toad." While we hope this phrase is just another witticism, we fear it may shed light not only on Roberts's views, but on some troubling judicial trends. For decades, environmental protection has been built on four pillars: national laws that establish minimum standards for addressing nationwide problems; cooperative sharing of federal power with the states; latitude for state governments to experiment and innovate; and citizen participation in enforcing decisions at both federal and state levels. These pillars have been built through bipartisan legislation, implemented by Democratic and Republican presidents, upheld by the courts, and supported by a steady majority of the public. The environmental pillars were profoundly shaken by the Rehnquist Court's "new federalism." That Court's rethinking of the roles of federal and state governments has injected constitutional issues into even routine environmental cases, and linked their fate to that of some unlikely companions. The definitive word on federal power, and thus on federal environmental law, may have come from last term's medical marijuana decision, or might emerge from the new term's case on physician-assisted suicide -- issues normally far removed from smokestack emissions or endangered species conservation....
PETA Campaign Comparing Slaves To Animals Draws Outrage One panel features a 1930s photograph of a lynching of a black man in Indiana offset by an Angus cow hanging by its feet at a slaughterhouse. Next to it, another installment drops the mouths of onlookers as their eyes move from a picture of a burning black corpse from a 1919 race riot to the corresponding image, that of a rooster set on fire. Continuing along the "Animal Liberation Project," an exhibition recently launched by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), there are pictures of black men and women being branded, bloodied and burned, contrasting with shots of various domesticated animals in similar positions. One of the most provocative images, however, is that of a chained black human's foot opposite the thick, powerful - and equally shackled - limb of a circus elephant. One month after suspending the New Haven display comparing animal cruelty to slavery, PETA has resumed its traveling show on the West Coast. The exhibit is now making stops in Washington state. The Animal Liberation Project (www.peta.org/animalliberation) - with more photographs featuring such imagery as starving cows being shepherded into a rancher's pen, next to a picture of thousands of slaves being herded off a ship - has managed to earn official condemnation from the NAACP, offended other minority communities across the country and affront its own allies in the animal-rights movement....
Rustling's new breed As fuel prices climb, farmers and ranchers are facing a foe not seen in the Old West: the diesel rustler. A generation of farmers who grew up leaving the barn door open has taken to posting field hands to watch over diesel tanks at night, and locking up gas pumps even as thieves invent new ways to siphon fuel from farm equipment. Peter Dompe, who grows beans and almonds in Crows Landing, some 90 miles southeast of San Francisco, has taken to sleeping overnight in his truck hoping to catch fuel snatchers who he says have made off with thousands of dollars worth of the diesel he uses to run his tractors. "We hide out there in the orchards and watch them come and go,'' said Dompe. "They think they're commandos.'' Farm thefts are not uncommon: ranchers still face the old-fashioned cattle rustlers, and have also come to terms with finding fertilizer stockpiles missing, tractors gone at dawn and entire orchards uprooted in the still of the night. But rural detectives compare the recent spate of thefts to a rash of larceny during the gas crisis of the 1970s....
Border ranchers losing their way of life "In the last five years, I don't know of one example of a rancher buying a ranch," said Rodolfo Elias, a stern, proud ganadero whose family has raised cattle in northern Mexico's Sonora state since the early 1800s. "It's all drug traffickers." "They build their mansions and throw their parties and within a few years, something happens to them and another one takes their place," he explained in Spanish. When land near the border goes up for sale, drug traffickers will pay twice the market rate for it, Elias said, far more than what local ranchers could afford. They keep the ranches as trophies, or use them to launder money and as staging areas for their smuggling operations into the United States. "It's frustrating," Elias said, "because you dedicated your life to this, and you love the land and you love the cattle and then you see it all go to the drug traffickers."....
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Tuesday, September 20, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Congressman eyes preserve logging probe An Oregon congressman called Monday for an investigation into how the Forest Service allowed 16 acres inside a rare tree reserve to be logged as part of a salvage harvest following a 2002 fire. The tree-cutting inside the 350-acre Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area in southwestern Oregon was discovered by environmentalists last month, after an approved timber sale was completed. The Forest Service has said employees of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest mismarked the area where the logging took place, although just who did it or how the mistake happened has not been determined. Normally trees are marked with stapled tags and paint to show the boundaries of timber sales and reserves within them. "Given the large size of the illegal harvest, ... I find it difficult to understand how this could have been a casual oversight," said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore....
Recovery plan completed for Pecos sunflower A final recovery plan for the native Pecos sunflower calls for identifying stands of the rare flower and conserving known habitat in the desert wetlands of New Mexico and West Texas. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife released the plan this week for the showy plant, which survives in less than two dozen known locations in the two states. The plan aims to protect and bolster the population so the plant can one day be removed from the Endangered Species List. The Pecos sunflower was added to the list in 1999. While the plant is similar to the common sunflower, it has a cluster of several smaller reddish flowers at the tip. It grows only in saturated soils such as desert wetlands and flowers from August to October....
POMBO BILL WOULD RIP THE HEART OUT OF THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Resources Chairman Richard Pombo, long a foe on the Endangered Species Act, introduced a bill today that would significantly weaken protections for our nation’s fish, plants, wildlife, and the places they call home. Mr. Pombo plans to hold a vote in Committee on Thursday, September 22nd and the legislation could be on the floor of the House as early as the week of September 26th. "Pombo's bill would reverse thirty years of progress," said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity, "it would rip the heart out of America’s most important wildlife law." "This bill would put corporations, developers, and other powerful special interests in the position of deciding whether endangered species live or die," said Susan Holmes, senior legislative representative for Earthjustice. "The Endangered Species Act has saved hundreds of species from extinction, and this bill would unravel that safety net."....for more environmental perspective see Pombo Moving Legislation That Would Cripple Endangered Species Act
It's Wild vs. Domestic Sheep as Groups Lock Horns Over Grazing Area Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep are believed to have once numbered 1,000 or so, but after they dwindled to about 100 they were listed as a federally endangered species, in 1999. Mountain lions and diseases were the culprits, and in June when the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest reopened an area for domestic sheep grazing, the disease threat became a problem again. The forest had closed the area a year before to protect the bighorns from domestic sheep and their diseases. Tom Stephenson, a bighorn sheep biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game, said trackers had documented bighorn rams' straying into the grazing area between Yosemite National Park and saline Mono Lake. "When they reopened it," Dr. Stephenson said of the grazing area, "we were definitely concerned." But when the California agency requested permission from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to kill any bighorns that wandered and mingled with domestic sheep as a preventive measure, environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity protested. They argued that killing bighorns was counterproductive and that the Forest Service should instead eliminate grazing in the vicinity of the wild sheep....
GAO calls for more federal involvement in wind farms A government report urged federal officials to take a more active role in weighing the impact of wind power farms on bird and bat deaths, saying local and state regulators sometimes lack the necessary expertise. Monday's report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, found that the federal government offers minimal oversight in approving wind power plants, leaving decision-making at the state and local level. As a result, the GAO found, "no one is considering the impacts of wind power on a regional or 'ecosystem' scale - a scale that often spans governmental jurisdictions."....
Flow Regime Deal Reached on American River After years of negotiations, Department of Interior officials on September 8 agreed to support a new flow regime for the lower American River developed by the Sacramento Valley Water Forum. The agreement between the Water Forum, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will raise minimum flows on the river for the benefit of salmon, steelhead and other fish. This is a huge victory for fishery conservation and environmental groups that have pressured the Bureau for decades to develop long-overdue temperature and flow standards on the popular urban river stretching from Nimbus Dam to Discovery Park. The Save the American River Association, California Sportfishing Projection Alliance, Friends of the River, United Anglers and Granite Bay Flycasters were among the key groups participating in the successful campaign to finally get the federal government adopt a new flow regime. "The adoption of these flow standards represents a significant milestone in restoring the American River," said Ron Stork, conservation director of Friends of the River. "We chose to kept our noses to the grindstone and kept talking with the Bureau of Reclamation even after internal deadlines requiring an agreement had already passed."....
Three Engangered California Condors Released At Pinnacles Three California condors were released into the wild Saturday in the latest step toward bringing back North America's largest bird from near-extinction. More than 300 people gathered around 10 a.m. to watch the endangered birds spread their wings over this isolated stretch of wilderness, about 100 miles southeast of San Francisco. The condors, raised in captivity, emerged from their pens and spent several minutes on the ground before flying off to join six other condors already living in the park from previous releases, officials said. Weighing up to 20 pounds with wingspans of up to 10 feet, condors once could be seen from Mexico to British Columbia. But habitat loss, hunting and lead poisoning threatened the species, which reached a low of 22 birds nationwide in the early 1980s. Federal biologists captured all remaining wild condors in 1987 and began breeding them in zoos....
Experts fear impact of African lizards on waterfowl But it was the creature she couldn't find that worried Willett and other officials and residents on this posh island retreat with a 6,400-acre national wildlife refuge. The Nile monitor lizard, a cunning carnivore of voracious appetite that has already put fear in the hearts of many in nearby Cape Coral, Fla., has made its way across San Carlos Bay to Sanibel, a 17-square-mile island on Florida's southwestern coast. "We have more than 1,300 waterfowl nests on some of our satellite island rookeries, and we already have reports of Nile monitor lizards on Pine Island and Sanibel," Willett said as she looked for signs of the invader last month. "If these big lizards establish a breeding population and discover the rookeries as a food source, the birds may abandon them." This is not a gecko-sized problem. And herons, terns and cormorants aren't the only species endangered. Nile monitor lizards are large, nonnative predators capable of wreaking havoc on indigenous wildlife - and people, too....
Girls and Boys Are Loaded For Bear Samantha, a freckle-faced, pony-tailed fourth-grader, was on a bear hunt. Not the pretend kind memorialized in picture books and summer-camp chants, but a real one for black bears that live in the woods of southwestern Vermont. She had won a "dream hunt" given away by a Vermont man whose goal is to get more children to hunt, and she had traveled about 200 miles from her home in Bellingham, Mass., and was missing three days of school to take him up on his offer. The dream hunt -- all expenses paid, including taxidermy -- was the brainchild of Kevin Hoyt, a 35-year-old hunting instructor who quit a job as a structural steel draftsman a few years ago and decided to dedicate himself to getting children across the country interested in hunting. This year, three pro-hunting groups -- the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance and the National Wild Turkey Federation -started Families Afield, a program to lobby states to lower the age at which children can hunt or to loosen the requirements for a child to accompany a parent on a hunt....
Colorado River states taking hands-off approach to extra water A wet winter has made a little more water available this year than last year to states that rely on the Colorado River, a Bureau of Reclamation official told water managers from seven states that draw from the river. But fears of drought have the three states that rely on Lake Mead agreeing not to touch the surplus this year, said Terrence Fulp, area manager for the bureau's lower Colorado River regional operations office in Boulder City, Nev. "The states are saying that at this time, they are not planning to take any additional water," Fulp said. "We don't know if the drought is over or not." Fulp made the comments after representatives of the seven states met Monday at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas....
An uncertain future for San Joaquin River It begins as fresh snowmelt, streaming from Mount Ritter's gray granite faces into Thousand Island Lake, a bouldered mirror. The clear blue water spills out through a narrow canyon, and the San Joaquin River is born. When conservationist and mountaineer John Muir first explored these upper reaches, the narrow gorge barely contained the power of the living river, which carried the continent's southernmost salmon run, sustained Indian tribes and set the rhythm of life in the valley below with floods and droughts. "Certainly this Joaquin Canyon is the most remarkable in many ways of all I have entered," Muir wrote in 1873. Today, maps still show the San Joaquin River meandering to the Pacific via San Francisco Bay - but it is not the river Muir marveled at....
For years, the Mexican state of Sinaloa and its capital Culiacan have been the administrative headquarters for many of the country's most fearsome drug cartels. But like most things in Mexico for which there is a demand farther north, the drug trade has migrated, too. It has come here, to the state of Sonora, and the teeming, dusty border cities like Nogales and Agua Prieta that fan out into the desert just across the fence from Arizona. "It's become a war zone," said Ruben Ruiz, whose family has been ranching in Sonora for generations. "This place is a manifestation of the social problems of both countries." With the unremitting poverty of Southern Mexico pushing from below and the insatiable American appetite for cheap labor, cheap goods and cheap drugs pulling from above, the population of Sonora's border cities has ballooned in the past 15 years, and crime rates have also soared....
It's All Trew: Cowboys: Stand-up comedians for the Lord Few occupations experience everyday hazards quite like that of the cowboy. There's something about being out in the boondocks tending livestock that draws trouble like a lightning rod draws strikes. Some adhere to a theory that God made cowboys and their cowboy way of life just so he could enjoy an occasional laugh himself. Old Tom was known for being tight with his money and started replacing rusted water tanks with huge, used equipment tires he bought at the Army Surplus Store. The top could be removed with a sharp knife, then scoot the remainder under the lead pipe of the windmill, spread black plastic sheeting in the bottom and bingo, he had a cheap, rustproof water tank for cattle. Tom discovered an added bonus of bumping the rubber tire with his pickup during cold weather, which broke up the ice inside, saving ax work on his part....
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Congressman eyes preserve logging probe An Oregon congressman called Monday for an investigation into how the Forest Service allowed 16 acres inside a rare tree reserve to be logged as part of a salvage harvest following a 2002 fire. The tree-cutting inside the 350-acre Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area in southwestern Oregon was discovered by environmentalists last month, after an approved timber sale was completed. The Forest Service has said employees of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest mismarked the area where the logging took place, although just who did it or how the mistake happened has not been determined. Normally trees are marked with stapled tags and paint to show the boundaries of timber sales and reserves within them. "Given the large size of the illegal harvest, ... I find it difficult to understand how this could have been a casual oversight," said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore....
Recovery plan completed for Pecos sunflower A final recovery plan for the native Pecos sunflower calls for identifying stands of the rare flower and conserving known habitat in the desert wetlands of New Mexico and West Texas. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife released the plan this week for the showy plant, which survives in less than two dozen known locations in the two states. The plan aims to protect and bolster the population so the plant can one day be removed from the Endangered Species List. The Pecos sunflower was added to the list in 1999. While the plant is similar to the common sunflower, it has a cluster of several smaller reddish flowers at the tip. It grows only in saturated soils such as desert wetlands and flowers from August to October....
POMBO BILL WOULD RIP THE HEART OUT OF THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Resources Chairman Richard Pombo, long a foe on the Endangered Species Act, introduced a bill today that would significantly weaken protections for our nation’s fish, plants, wildlife, and the places they call home. Mr. Pombo plans to hold a vote in Committee on Thursday, September 22nd and the legislation could be on the floor of the House as early as the week of September 26th. "Pombo's bill would reverse thirty years of progress," said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity, "it would rip the heart out of America’s most important wildlife law." "This bill would put corporations, developers, and other powerful special interests in the position of deciding whether endangered species live or die," said Susan Holmes, senior legislative representative for Earthjustice. "The Endangered Species Act has saved hundreds of species from extinction, and this bill would unravel that safety net."....for more environmental perspective see Pombo Moving Legislation That Would Cripple Endangered Species Act
It's Wild vs. Domestic Sheep as Groups Lock Horns Over Grazing Area Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep are believed to have once numbered 1,000 or so, but after they dwindled to about 100 they were listed as a federally endangered species, in 1999. Mountain lions and diseases were the culprits, and in June when the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest reopened an area for domestic sheep grazing, the disease threat became a problem again. The forest had closed the area a year before to protect the bighorns from domestic sheep and their diseases. Tom Stephenson, a bighorn sheep biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game, said trackers had documented bighorn rams' straying into the grazing area between Yosemite National Park and saline Mono Lake. "When they reopened it," Dr. Stephenson said of the grazing area, "we were definitely concerned." But when the California agency requested permission from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to kill any bighorns that wandered and mingled with domestic sheep as a preventive measure, environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity protested. They argued that killing bighorns was counterproductive and that the Forest Service should instead eliminate grazing in the vicinity of the wild sheep....
GAO calls for more federal involvement in wind farms A government report urged federal officials to take a more active role in weighing the impact of wind power farms on bird and bat deaths, saying local and state regulators sometimes lack the necessary expertise. Monday's report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, found that the federal government offers minimal oversight in approving wind power plants, leaving decision-making at the state and local level. As a result, the GAO found, "no one is considering the impacts of wind power on a regional or 'ecosystem' scale - a scale that often spans governmental jurisdictions."....
Flow Regime Deal Reached on American River After years of negotiations, Department of Interior officials on September 8 agreed to support a new flow regime for the lower American River developed by the Sacramento Valley Water Forum. The agreement between the Water Forum, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will raise minimum flows on the river for the benefit of salmon, steelhead and other fish. This is a huge victory for fishery conservation and environmental groups that have pressured the Bureau for decades to develop long-overdue temperature and flow standards on the popular urban river stretching from Nimbus Dam to Discovery Park. The Save the American River Association, California Sportfishing Projection Alliance, Friends of the River, United Anglers and Granite Bay Flycasters were among the key groups participating in the successful campaign to finally get the federal government adopt a new flow regime. "The adoption of these flow standards represents a significant milestone in restoring the American River," said Ron Stork, conservation director of Friends of the River. "We chose to kept our noses to the grindstone and kept talking with the Bureau of Reclamation even after internal deadlines requiring an agreement had already passed."....
Three Engangered California Condors Released At Pinnacles Three California condors were released into the wild Saturday in the latest step toward bringing back North America's largest bird from near-extinction. More than 300 people gathered around 10 a.m. to watch the endangered birds spread their wings over this isolated stretch of wilderness, about 100 miles southeast of San Francisco. The condors, raised in captivity, emerged from their pens and spent several minutes on the ground before flying off to join six other condors already living in the park from previous releases, officials said. Weighing up to 20 pounds with wingspans of up to 10 feet, condors once could be seen from Mexico to British Columbia. But habitat loss, hunting and lead poisoning threatened the species, which reached a low of 22 birds nationwide in the early 1980s. Federal biologists captured all remaining wild condors in 1987 and began breeding them in zoos....
Experts fear impact of African lizards on waterfowl But it was the creature she couldn't find that worried Willett and other officials and residents on this posh island retreat with a 6,400-acre national wildlife refuge. The Nile monitor lizard, a cunning carnivore of voracious appetite that has already put fear in the hearts of many in nearby Cape Coral, Fla., has made its way across San Carlos Bay to Sanibel, a 17-square-mile island on Florida's southwestern coast. "We have more than 1,300 waterfowl nests on some of our satellite island rookeries, and we already have reports of Nile monitor lizards on Pine Island and Sanibel," Willett said as she looked for signs of the invader last month. "If these big lizards establish a breeding population and discover the rookeries as a food source, the birds may abandon them." This is not a gecko-sized problem. And herons, terns and cormorants aren't the only species endangered. Nile monitor lizards are large, nonnative predators capable of wreaking havoc on indigenous wildlife - and people, too....
Girls and Boys Are Loaded For Bear Samantha, a freckle-faced, pony-tailed fourth-grader, was on a bear hunt. Not the pretend kind memorialized in picture books and summer-camp chants, but a real one for black bears that live in the woods of southwestern Vermont. She had won a "dream hunt" given away by a Vermont man whose goal is to get more children to hunt, and she had traveled about 200 miles from her home in Bellingham, Mass., and was missing three days of school to take him up on his offer. The dream hunt -- all expenses paid, including taxidermy -- was the brainchild of Kevin Hoyt, a 35-year-old hunting instructor who quit a job as a structural steel draftsman a few years ago and decided to dedicate himself to getting children across the country interested in hunting. This year, three pro-hunting groups -- the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance and the National Wild Turkey Federation -started Families Afield, a program to lobby states to lower the age at which children can hunt or to loosen the requirements for a child to accompany a parent on a hunt....
Colorado River states taking hands-off approach to extra water A wet winter has made a little more water available this year than last year to states that rely on the Colorado River, a Bureau of Reclamation official told water managers from seven states that draw from the river. But fears of drought have the three states that rely on Lake Mead agreeing not to touch the surplus this year, said Terrence Fulp, area manager for the bureau's lower Colorado River regional operations office in Boulder City, Nev. "The states are saying that at this time, they are not planning to take any additional water," Fulp said. "We don't know if the drought is over or not." Fulp made the comments after representatives of the seven states met Monday at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas....
An uncertain future for San Joaquin River It begins as fresh snowmelt, streaming from Mount Ritter's gray granite faces into Thousand Island Lake, a bouldered mirror. The clear blue water spills out through a narrow canyon, and the San Joaquin River is born. When conservationist and mountaineer John Muir first explored these upper reaches, the narrow gorge barely contained the power of the living river, which carried the continent's southernmost salmon run, sustained Indian tribes and set the rhythm of life in the valley below with floods and droughts. "Certainly this Joaquin Canyon is the most remarkable in many ways of all I have entered," Muir wrote in 1873. Today, maps still show the San Joaquin River meandering to the Pacific via San Francisco Bay - but it is not the river Muir marveled at....
For years, the Mexican state of Sinaloa and its capital Culiacan have been the administrative headquarters for many of the country's most fearsome drug cartels. But like most things in Mexico for which there is a demand farther north, the drug trade has migrated, too. It has come here, to the state of Sonora, and the teeming, dusty border cities like Nogales and Agua Prieta that fan out into the desert just across the fence from Arizona. "It's become a war zone," said Ruben Ruiz, whose family has been ranching in Sonora for generations. "This place is a manifestation of the social problems of both countries." With the unremitting poverty of Southern Mexico pushing from below and the insatiable American appetite for cheap labor, cheap goods and cheap drugs pulling from above, the population of Sonora's border cities has ballooned in the past 15 years, and crime rates have also soared....
It's All Trew: Cowboys: Stand-up comedians for the Lord Few occupations experience everyday hazards quite like that of the cowboy. There's something about being out in the boondocks tending livestock that draws trouble like a lightning rod draws strikes. Some adhere to a theory that God made cowboys and their cowboy way of life just so he could enjoy an occasional laugh himself. Old Tom was known for being tight with his money and started replacing rusted water tanks with huge, used equipment tires he bought at the Army Surplus Store. The top could be removed with a sharp knife, then scoot the remainder under the lead pipe of the windmill, spread black plastic sheeting in the bottom and bingo, he had a cheap, rustproof water tank for cattle. Tom discovered an added bonus of bumping the rubber tire with his pickup during cold weather, which broke up the ice inside, saving ax work on his part....
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Monday, September 19, 2005
GAO REPORTS
Klamath River Basin Conservation Area Restoration Program: Limited Assurance Regarding the Federal Funding Requirements. GAO-05-804, September 19.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-804
Highlights - Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05804high.pdf
Wind Power: Impacts on Wildlife and Government Responsibilities for Regulating Development and Protecting Wildlife. GAO-05-906, September 16.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-906
Highlights - Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05906high.pdf
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Klamath River Basin Conservation Area Restoration Program: Limited Assurance Regarding the Federal Funding Requirements. GAO-05-804, September 19.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-804
Highlights - Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05804high.pdf
Wind Power: Impacts on Wildlife and Government Responsibilities for Regulating Development and Protecting Wildlife. GAO-05-906, September 16.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-906
Highlights - Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05906high.pdf
===
NEWS ROUNDUP
Lawmakers seek to eliminate protections for wildlife species A bipartisan pair of Central Valley congressmen is set to propose today changing an Endangered Species Act they contend has become unwieldy and is thwarting development without doing wildlife much good. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, a Republican, and U.S. Rep. Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat, are allied on a bill that has environmental groups alarmed. The congressmen are to be joined at a Sacramento news conference by Republican U.S. Reps. George Radanovich of California and Greg Walden of Oregon. They chose to announce the bill a continent away from Washington, D.C., where the measure is to be formally introduced today, to illustrate that the proposed bill would return more control to state and local governments, aides said. Pombo has scheduled a hearing by his committee Wednesday on the bill, entitled the "Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005." A copy was made available Sunday to the Associated Press. The government would have to compensate property owners at fair market value for any loss that results from protecting endangered species, or else it could not enforce the act, under the bill....
NEW ENVIRONMENTALISM: Cooperative conservation Environmentalism is hiking a new path. So says the Bush administration. Forget the days of top-down regulations from Washington. Federal policy-makers no longer know best. They never did. That was the message preached by Bush administration officials last month at a three-day White House conference on "cooperative conservation." Claiming to embark on a new era, federal managers say they are opening their arms to community groups, state and municipal governments and activists across the country. "Environmentalism circa 1970 was all about conflict," Interior Secretary Gale Norton told local and state leaders, academics and environmental advocates who gathered in St. Louis. "It was a real struggle to set the direction of the country," she said. "I submit that cooperation and win-win solutions are more sustainable than alarmism on both sides or winner take all conflicts." At the center of this new environmentalism is the coined phrase of cooperative conservation -- one that invites the engagement of local officials with in-the-dirt knowledge of their communities. Supporters of the concept say it is taking root and gaining momentum across the country. But the approach -- which critics say can bypass environmental regulations -- is also eliciting complaints from those who characterize Bush as a Texas oilman gutting fundamental protections governing air pollution, clean water and land management....
Green Groups Oppose Bush Pick for Fish & Wildlife Service The Bush administration nominee to head the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is drawing fire from conservation groups. Today a coalition of groups released a letter to Congress charging that Dale Hall, currently the USFWS Southwest regional director, gave illegal orders to his staff not to make scientific findings protective of wildlife, rewrote scientific conclusions for political reasons and issued a questionable policy forbidding biologists from considering genetic information about species’ recovery. “We are not questioning his education or training, we are questioning his integrity,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting a series of actions by Hall that undercut the mission of the Fish & Wildlife Service. “Dale Hall has developed the reputation of being one of the biggest ‘biostitutes’ in the country; his moral flexibility is apparently why he was picked for this job.” On July 18, President Bush nominated Hall to take over the vacant directorship of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act for land and freshwater species. The Senate is expected to consider Hall’s nomination later this month....
Biologists Encouraged by Ferrets' Progress Wildlife biologists believe that black-footed ferrets released into the wilds of Colorado are thriving - and breeding - as the state tries to build a self-sustaining population of the mammal considered to be the rarest in North America. About 170 ferrets have been released in Colorado, mostly on Bureau of Land Management land. Recent population counts in northwestern Colorado have convinced state biologists that the animals are reproducing. "Seeing so many is very encouraging," said Pam Schnurr, a Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist. "And the fact that we saw so many means that there are a lot more out there." One captured female was lactating, meaning she gave birth earlier this summer. Black-footed ferrets were thought to be extinct until a dog dropped a dead ferret on a rancher's doorstep in northwestern Wyoming in 1981 and a small group was found in a prairie dog colony. The last confirmed sighting of the animal in Colorado was in 1943....
Ghost town fights to bury its dead A dispute over ownership of a cemetery in a Montana ghost town has landed in Congress, where one of Montana's senators is urging the federal government to surrender the land. But the U.S. Forest Service, which owns the property in the tiny mountain town of Elkhorn, says it's not inclined to give up the title without getting fair market value. The old ghost town in Jefferson County has just a few aging families left, and a number of them want to be buried in the cemetery _ legally _ next to their ancestors on the tranquil site overlooking a valley. People were buried in Elkhorn before Montana became a state or the Forest Service was established. But the cemetery became Forest Service land somewhere along the way, no one is sure quite when, and federal law prohibits human burials on public land. That hasn't stopped residents from burying loved ones there over the years, however. Locals estimate up to 90 people, maybe more in unmarked graves, have been interred in the last century or so. Resident and rancher Fred Bell, 71, whose grandparents, parents and son are buried in the cemetery, says he won't stop pushing the government to legally allow burials. He was among those who approached Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., last year after an unsuccessful effort spanning 15 years....
Grasshoppers devour Fort Klamath pastures A late and unexpected hatch of grasshoppers is munching on forage that ranchers earmarked for thousands of cattle summering in this valley north of Klamath Falls on the way to Crater Lake National Park. At least one rancher thinks the pests matured on pastureland dried up by the Klamath Rangeland Trust under an experimental program to provide more water to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Klamath Project. Officials who turned out for a Sept. 8 meeting with ranchers are more cautious about cause of the problem, and one said the clearwinged grasshoppers might have flown west from Klamath Marsh on the Williamson River. No one disputes that a plague of grasshoppers is loose in the Wood River Valley. “You ride a four-wheeler out there now and you don’t open your mouth or they might fill it,” said Bob Brown, who ranches on the west side of the valley. “They are thicker than ever.” Helmuth Rogg, an Oregon Department of Agriculture entomologist, said the 2006 problem might be “huge.”....
Wolf plan at final stage The final plan for managing protected gray wolves that migrate into Oregon will prohibit ranchers from killing wolves that attack livestock and will not include compensation for losses to wolf attacks. The state Fish and Wildlife Commission had included compensation and authority for killing wolves in the management plan adopted in February, pending approval by the Legislature needed to change state law. But lawmakers failed to agree on those two provisions and bills to make the changes went nowhere. So the commission intends to remove them from the plan at a Nov. 4 meeting. Wildlife officials say what remains is a solid plan, while cattle ranchers say it does nothing for them when the federal government has the final say, anyway....
Environmentalists, ranchers at odds over livestock threat to bighorn sheep in Sierra It's mating season for an endangered population of Sierra bighorn sheep, and experts are worried that amorous animals could be put in danger through close contact with disease-carrying domestic sheep. Environmentalists insist the government should do more to keep the two sheep populations apart -- perhaps by closing grazing allotments on federal land. But a lifelong Nevada sheep rancher countered that his livelihood is at-risk. He said it's a type of high-stakes conflict with the government that is increasingly common across the West. "They don't care about those bighorn," said Fred Fulstone of Smith Valley. "It's a land grab. They're doing it all over the West."....
Critics claim collusion between feds, Wolf Creek ski village developers An attorney for developers of a contentious proposal for a resort at the base of one of Colorado's most rustic ski areas secretly wrote federal policy governing his client's project, according to an environmental group that sued to obtain the records. The documents obtained by Durango-based Colorado Wild appear to show that an attorney representing the Village at Wolf Creek, proposed by Texas billionaire Billy Joe "Red" McCombs, drafted a letter eventually sent last year by the U.S. Forest Service to the developers -- his client. The letter said the developers could temporarily use a Forest Service road to get to their land, a key step in winning approval from the county for the $1 billion project. A crucial decision by the Forest Service is pending on whether developers can build a permanent road across forest land to connect the resort to a state highway in southwestern Colorado. Operators of the Wolf Ski area and critics of the ski village claim the series of faxes between the Forest Service and Washington, D.C., attorney Steven Quarles confirms their suspicions that the federal agency is rubber stamping decisions....
Howlin' over Wolf Creek This bare-bones ski area has an abundance of one thing: snow. More of it falls here than any place in Colorado. With lift tickets holding at a relatively low $45 a day, it attracts people on a budget. Some are experts, others are content to ski all day in outerwear fashioned out of plastic trash bags and duct tape. They come to this stretch of the San Juan Mountains for the 465 inches of annual snowfall. No one comes for the nightlife or upscale boutiques, or to stay in luxury hotels or condos. There's none of that here - at least not yet. Not until Texas billionaire Red McCombs builds a full-blown resort village in the ski area's midst. The massive project would potentially create not only the biggest but also the highest ski resort village in the state. The plan has set off one of the state's most closely watched and emotionally charged development squabbles, pitting even the ski area against the village as it moves closer to breaking ground....
Shots add tension to timber sale protest It was a surreal day in the woods, what with the harpist tree sitter playing gentle music from 140 feet up in the canopy, and the grumpy tree sitter over the next ridge yelling curses down on chain saw-wielding loggers, and police officers detaining a videographer who got too close to the action. You had to strain to hear harp music, but it was lovely, the faint sounds of "Greensleeves" wafting from the high canopy of a tree more than 5 feet in diameter. Mostly the chain saws drowned it out. A protester who would only give her name as Healing Tree said she was there despite reports that people are taking potshots at activists trying to stop logging in old growth stands in the Willamette National Forest east of McKenzie Bridge....
Hunker down: The BLM is on the prowl While Dave Dumas was growing up in Portland, he spent weekends and summers at his family's cabin on the Trask River near Tillamook. His parents bought the property in the late 1930s, and the family's experience there was so memorable that by 1989, Dumas owned that homestead and the adjacent acre, on which he built a cabin of his own. The new cabin was set 50 feet from the river. Come winter, the water often crept closer to the place, but that was the only intrusion Dumas and his wife, Corinne, ever worried about. Until they received that unforgettable call from the Bureau of Land Management. Stuart Hirsh was on the line. "We seem to have a problem with your property," Dumas recalls him saying. You may own that cabin, Hirsh added, but you don't own the land under it. In August 2003, the BLM slapped Dumas with a trespass order, claiming the cabin was on public land. New surveys of the property, Hirsh said, had established as much. In fact, the BLM first decided the Dumases were trespassing 11 years earlier and had finally gotten around to dealing with them....
Utah, feds refashion wilderness deal Utah and the Bureau of Land Management are taking their agreement freezing wilderness study areas out of the courts in favor of a private accord limiting BLM's activities. The development, made in a court motion filed this week, comes one month after Chief U.S. District Judge Dee Benson rescinded his approval of the agreement made in 2003 by former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Benson said the agreement that governs BLM's management of public lands amounted to a policy decision by the Bush administration, not a matter of law to be settled by the courts. He said the agreement could improperly bind future presidential administrations. Benson reversed his original decision after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver bounced the case back to him on an appeal by environmental groups. Despite the reversal, government lawyers insist the original terms of the deal remain in place, prohibiting the BLM from declaring any new wilderness study areas as candidates for congressional action. Assistant Utah Attorney General Mark Ward likened the new agreement to a contract....
BLM retiree, environmentalist bridge gaps to aid wildlife Clare Bastable and Bob Elderkin seem like an odd couple when it comes to environmental activism. Bastable, 30, has worked with wilderness organizations and is a conservation coordinator for the Colorado Mountain Club. Elderkin, 66, worked for the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey. Elderkin, a former rodeo bull and saddle bronc rider, goes by horseback on hunting trips into the backcountry. Bastable doesn't hunt, though she admires people who get their food "the old fashioned way." Yet it doesn't take long to realize the differences are complementary. Bastable and Elderkin have helped unite environmentalists, hunters, anglers, hikers and others tracking the booming energy development in western Colorado, which is cheered by some for the economic boost and feared by others for its potential impacts. The two recently teamed with other activists in suggesting guidelines for gas drilling, including a proposal that well pads be spaced one per 620 acres. The typical spacing in the area is one pad per 40 acres. Several wells can be drilled from one pad by boring a hole both vertically and horizontally to angle around and hit more of the pockets of gas. Elderkin believes a company could recover all the gas by drilling 64 wells from one 20- to 25-acre pad. There are signs, however, that ideas being advanced by Elderkin, Bastable and such groups as the Colorado Mule Deer Association and the Colorado Wildlife Association are striking a few chords. BLM officials have raised similar ideas, such as clustering development in blocks, during recent meetings with state and local officials. The state Department of Natural Resources proposed a variation of the concepts in a subsequent forum....
BLM funds anticline monitoring The Bureau of Land Management will pay $275,000 to fund an advisory group's main recommendations for monitoring oil and gas development in southwest Wyoming. The monitoring in the Pinedale Anticline will include counting traffic to and from drilling rig sites, collaring sage grouse for study, and assessing reclamation efforts. They were the highest priorities for monitoring identified by the Pinedale Anticline Working Group and its seven task groups. The anticline begins northwest of Pinedale and stretches about 30 miles to the southeast in Sublette County. The working group was established by the BLM in 2002 to advise the BLM on issues involving oil and gas development impacts on air quality, water quality, wildlife and the socio-economics of nearby communities. More than 100 residents volunteered to serve on the board and the various task groups. Representatives from government, industry, agriculture and conservation also are members....
Asarco reclamation plans may be costly to taxpayers Toothless state and federal mining laws could leave taxpayers holding the bag for cleaning up billions of dollars worth of environmental damage left behind by hard-rock mining operations. The threat is particularly real in Arizona, where the state's second-largest copper producer, Asarco LLC, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The cost of cleaning up Asarco's five mine and smelter sites in Arizona could be as much as $1 billion, yet there are only $7.3 million in guarantees posted by the company to ensure the work is completed. The $7.3 million isn't even available to cover environmental cleanups. It's for reclamation, or returning the sites to a safe and stable condition when mining ceases. There are no financial guarantees for environmental cleanups, which can be more complex and costlier than reclamation projects....
Broken borders: Beefed-up patrols send people into Arizona's remote areas The Moroney's 20,000-acre ranch of high-desert scrubland is a bone-dry, rugged expanse of mesquite brush, ocotillo cactus and creosote bush, some 20 miles north of the Mexican border and 17 miles southeast of Tombstone, Ariz. It is an unlikely place for a human highway, but the ranch is bisected by electrical transmission wires that run like a north-south axis through the property, and the coyotes who lead the immigrants use the wires as navigational landmarks. Each year hundreds, if not thousands, of immigrants cross through the Moroneys' ranch en route to pickup points. Yet the Moroneys also have had frightening encounters with men who demand rides, telephone use, even beer. Salvadoran gang members once flashed Dennis $4,000 in exchange for a ride to Phoenix, which he declined. His truck was stolen last year, and when police recovered it two weeks later, all the seats had been removed and plywood compartments with spaces for 21 people had been built into the cab and truck bed. The vehicle's odometer showed it had been driven an additional 6,500 miles in the two weeks it was missing....
Initiative opposes confined livestock Arizonans will have some big choices to make during the 2006 election year, and one of the biggest could involve pregnant pigs. Animal-rights activists have filed an initiative that would make it a crime for farmers to keep young calves or pregnant pigs in crates so cramped that the animals can't turn around. Opponents already are rallying to defeat the measure, calling it "anti-meat." The political lines are being drawn, with the Arizona Humane Society on one side and the Arizona Cattlemen's Association on the other. Arizonans for Humane Farms, a coalition of local and national activists, said Arizona must outlaw "cruel and intensive confinement" of animals on big, corporate farms....
Horses Destined for Slaughter One of the most controversial topics involving equines in the United States concerns sending horses to slaughter. Many horse owners and even non-owners are miles apart when this issue arises. There are those who take an extreme stance—that humans should not eat the flesh of any animal. A discussion on that subject is not our objective. On the other side of the scale are those who believe that horse meat is edible food just like beef, pork, chicken, and lamb. In the middle are persons who like a good beef steak, a fried pork chop, a grilled lamb chop, or roasted chicken but draw the line at consuming horse meat. The horse, they maintain, is a companion animal and should be exempt from the culinary category. For the most part, individuals with the above viewpoint would reside in the United States. Many Europeans and Orientals have grown up eating horse meat and continue to do so today. To them, the horse is just another animal that provides sustenance in a healthy way. After all, horse meat is very lean and nutritious—almost completely devoid of fat and harmful cholesterol. Perhaps geography has something to do with people’s feelings on the issue. Some European countries where horse meat is consumed are smaller than a number of American states. While U.S. residents have the luxury of space, many Europeans do not. In many countries, human population is so dense that there is no room for the backyard horse. Riding is confined to central stables. As a result, one could surmise, many Europeans did not develop the same love affair with the horse that has been in vogue in the United States for decades, dating back to when the horse moved from draft animal to recreational status. Whatever the case, it is a fact that there is virtually no market for horse meat in the United States, while there is strong demand throughout Europe and in parts of the Orient. In those countries, colorful ads encourage potential customers to try quality, imported U.S. horse meat. The ads are similar to those seen in the U.S extolling the virtues of particular beef cuts, the ‘other white meat,’ lamb, or chicken....
North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame celebrates state's Western roots The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame gathers together the colorful roots of the Dakota cowboy into one place - Medora. The museum embraces and commemorates the Western heritage and culture of our state, and it serves to document and salute the cowboy and horse culture that run deep in North Dakota. The Hall of Fame was dedicated Aug. 6. In the early part of this century, farms and ranches dotted the large, expansive Plains. Small towns, scattered about open land, grew up to support the farmers and ranchers, and the rolling Plains were an endless playground for herds of cattle and horses....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Some fields ripe for technological change Technology is now available to count cattle on a Forest Service permit from outer space, to construct material for space shuttles that can withstand 3,000 degree temperature on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere and to plastic wrap a tool in Ace Hardware that cannot be opened with the Jaws-of-Life. Farriers still are using the same technology the Romans did when they invaded England in 55 BC. The two fields most closely related to farriary, weight lifting and carpentry, have advanced slightly with the advent of Gatorade and the self-retracting measuring tape, but horse-shoeing still remains a primitive technology....
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Lawmakers seek to eliminate protections for wildlife species A bipartisan pair of Central Valley congressmen is set to propose today changing an Endangered Species Act they contend has become unwieldy and is thwarting development without doing wildlife much good. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, a Republican, and U.S. Rep. Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat, are allied on a bill that has environmental groups alarmed. The congressmen are to be joined at a Sacramento news conference by Republican U.S. Reps. George Radanovich of California and Greg Walden of Oregon. They chose to announce the bill a continent away from Washington, D.C., where the measure is to be formally introduced today, to illustrate that the proposed bill would return more control to state and local governments, aides said. Pombo has scheduled a hearing by his committee Wednesday on the bill, entitled the "Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005." A copy was made available Sunday to the Associated Press. The government would have to compensate property owners at fair market value for any loss that results from protecting endangered species, or else it could not enforce the act, under the bill....
NEW ENVIRONMENTALISM: Cooperative conservation Environmentalism is hiking a new path. So says the Bush administration. Forget the days of top-down regulations from Washington. Federal policy-makers no longer know best. They never did. That was the message preached by Bush administration officials last month at a three-day White House conference on "cooperative conservation." Claiming to embark on a new era, federal managers say they are opening their arms to community groups, state and municipal governments and activists across the country. "Environmentalism circa 1970 was all about conflict," Interior Secretary Gale Norton told local and state leaders, academics and environmental advocates who gathered in St. Louis. "It was a real struggle to set the direction of the country," she said. "I submit that cooperation and win-win solutions are more sustainable than alarmism on both sides or winner take all conflicts." At the center of this new environmentalism is the coined phrase of cooperative conservation -- one that invites the engagement of local officials with in-the-dirt knowledge of their communities. Supporters of the concept say it is taking root and gaining momentum across the country. But the approach -- which critics say can bypass environmental regulations -- is also eliciting complaints from those who characterize Bush as a Texas oilman gutting fundamental protections governing air pollution, clean water and land management....
Green Groups Oppose Bush Pick for Fish & Wildlife Service The Bush administration nominee to head the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is drawing fire from conservation groups. Today a coalition of groups released a letter to Congress charging that Dale Hall, currently the USFWS Southwest regional director, gave illegal orders to his staff not to make scientific findings protective of wildlife, rewrote scientific conclusions for political reasons and issued a questionable policy forbidding biologists from considering genetic information about species’ recovery. “We are not questioning his education or training, we are questioning his integrity,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting a series of actions by Hall that undercut the mission of the Fish & Wildlife Service. “Dale Hall has developed the reputation of being one of the biggest ‘biostitutes’ in the country; his moral flexibility is apparently why he was picked for this job.” On July 18, President Bush nominated Hall to take over the vacant directorship of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act for land and freshwater species. The Senate is expected to consider Hall’s nomination later this month....
Biologists Encouraged by Ferrets' Progress Wildlife biologists believe that black-footed ferrets released into the wilds of Colorado are thriving - and breeding - as the state tries to build a self-sustaining population of the mammal considered to be the rarest in North America. About 170 ferrets have been released in Colorado, mostly on Bureau of Land Management land. Recent population counts in northwestern Colorado have convinced state biologists that the animals are reproducing. "Seeing so many is very encouraging," said Pam Schnurr, a Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist. "And the fact that we saw so many means that there are a lot more out there." One captured female was lactating, meaning she gave birth earlier this summer. Black-footed ferrets were thought to be extinct until a dog dropped a dead ferret on a rancher's doorstep in northwestern Wyoming in 1981 and a small group was found in a prairie dog colony. The last confirmed sighting of the animal in Colorado was in 1943....
Ghost town fights to bury its dead A dispute over ownership of a cemetery in a Montana ghost town has landed in Congress, where one of Montana's senators is urging the federal government to surrender the land. But the U.S. Forest Service, which owns the property in the tiny mountain town of Elkhorn, says it's not inclined to give up the title without getting fair market value. The old ghost town in Jefferson County has just a few aging families left, and a number of them want to be buried in the cemetery _ legally _ next to their ancestors on the tranquil site overlooking a valley. People were buried in Elkhorn before Montana became a state or the Forest Service was established. But the cemetery became Forest Service land somewhere along the way, no one is sure quite when, and federal law prohibits human burials on public land. That hasn't stopped residents from burying loved ones there over the years, however. Locals estimate up to 90 people, maybe more in unmarked graves, have been interred in the last century or so. Resident and rancher Fred Bell, 71, whose grandparents, parents and son are buried in the cemetery, says he won't stop pushing the government to legally allow burials. He was among those who approached Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., last year after an unsuccessful effort spanning 15 years....
Grasshoppers devour Fort Klamath pastures A late and unexpected hatch of grasshoppers is munching on forage that ranchers earmarked for thousands of cattle summering in this valley north of Klamath Falls on the way to Crater Lake National Park. At least one rancher thinks the pests matured on pastureland dried up by the Klamath Rangeland Trust under an experimental program to provide more water to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Klamath Project. Officials who turned out for a Sept. 8 meeting with ranchers are more cautious about cause of the problem, and one said the clearwinged grasshoppers might have flown west from Klamath Marsh on the Williamson River. No one disputes that a plague of grasshoppers is loose in the Wood River Valley. “You ride a four-wheeler out there now and you don’t open your mouth or they might fill it,” said Bob Brown, who ranches on the west side of the valley. “They are thicker than ever.” Helmuth Rogg, an Oregon Department of Agriculture entomologist, said the 2006 problem might be “huge.”....
Wolf plan at final stage The final plan for managing protected gray wolves that migrate into Oregon will prohibit ranchers from killing wolves that attack livestock and will not include compensation for losses to wolf attacks. The state Fish and Wildlife Commission had included compensation and authority for killing wolves in the management plan adopted in February, pending approval by the Legislature needed to change state law. But lawmakers failed to agree on those two provisions and bills to make the changes went nowhere. So the commission intends to remove them from the plan at a Nov. 4 meeting. Wildlife officials say what remains is a solid plan, while cattle ranchers say it does nothing for them when the federal government has the final say, anyway....
Environmentalists, ranchers at odds over livestock threat to bighorn sheep in Sierra It's mating season for an endangered population of Sierra bighorn sheep, and experts are worried that amorous animals could be put in danger through close contact with disease-carrying domestic sheep. Environmentalists insist the government should do more to keep the two sheep populations apart -- perhaps by closing grazing allotments on federal land. But a lifelong Nevada sheep rancher countered that his livelihood is at-risk. He said it's a type of high-stakes conflict with the government that is increasingly common across the West. "They don't care about those bighorn," said Fred Fulstone of Smith Valley. "It's a land grab. They're doing it all over the West."....
Critics claim collusion between feds, Wolf Creek ski village developers An attorney for developers of a contentious proposal for a resort at the base of one of Colorado's most rustic ski areas secretly wrote federal policy governing his client's project, according to an environmental group that sued to obtain the records. The documents obtained by Durango-based Colorado Wild appear to show that an attorney representing the Village at Wolf Creek, proposed by Texas billionaire Billy Joe "Red" McCombs, drafted a letter eventually sent last year by the U.S. Forest Service to the developers -- his client. The letter said the developers could temporarily use a Forest Service road to get to their land, a key step in winning approval from the county for the $1 billion project. A crucial decision by the Forest Service is pending on whether developers can build a permanent road across forest land to connect the resort to a state highway in southwestern Colorado. Operators of the Wolf Ski area and critics of the ski village claim the series of faxes between the Forest Service and Washington, D.C., attorney Steven Quarles confirms their suspicions that the federal agency is rubber stamping decisions....
Howlin' over Wolf Creek This bare-bones ski area has an abundance of one thing: snow. More of it falls here than any place in Colorado. With lift tickets holding at a relatively low $45 a day, it attracts people on a budget. Some are experts, others are content to ski all day in outerwear fashioned out of plastic trash bags and duct tape. They come to this stretch of the San Juan Mountains for the 465 inches of annual snowfall. No one comes for the nightlife or upscale boutiques, or to stay in luxury hotels or condos. There's none of that here - at least not yet. Not until Texas billionaire Red McCombs builds a full-blown resort village in the ski area's midst. The massive project would potentially create not only the biggest but also the highest ski resort village in the state. The plan has set off one of the state's most closely watched and emotionally charged development squabbles, pitting even the ski area against the village as it moves closer to breaking ground....
Shots add tension to timber sale protest It was a surreal day in the woods, what with the harpist tree sitter playing gentle music from 140 feet up in the canopy, and the grumpy tree sitter over the next ridge yelling curses down on chain saw-wielding loggers, and police officers detaining a videographer who got too close to the action. You had to strain to hear harp music, but it was lovely, the faint sounds of "Greensleeves" wafting from the high canopy of a tree more than 5 feet in diameter. Mostly the chain saws drowned it out. A protester who would only give her name as Healing Tree said she was there despite reports that people are taking potshots at activists trying to stop logging in old growth stands in the Willamette National Forest east of McKenzie Bridge....
Hunker down: The BLM is on the prowl While Dave Dumas was growing up in Portland, he spent weekends and summers at his family's cabin on the Trask River near Tillamook. His parents bought the property in the late 1930s, and the family's experience there was so memorable that by 1989, Dumas owned that homestead and the adjacent acre, on which he built a cabin of his own. The new cabin was set 50 feet from the river. Come winter, the water often crept closer to the place, but that was the only intrusion Dumas and his wife, Corinne, ever worried about. Until they received that unforgettable call from the Bureau of Land Management. Stuart Hirsh was on the line. "We seem to have a problem with your property," Dumas recalls him saying. You may own that cabin, Hirsh added, but you don't own the land under it. In August 2003, the BLM slapped Dumas with a trespass order, claiming the cabin was on public land. New surveys of the property, Hirsh said, had established as much. In fact, the BLM first decided the Dumases were trespassing 11 years earlier and had finally gotten around to dealing with them....
Utah, feds refashion wilderness deal Utah and the Bureau of Land Management are taking their agreement freezing wilderness study areas out of the courts in favor of a private accord limiting BLM's activities. The development, made in a court motion filed this week, comes one month after Chief U.S. District Judge Dee Benson rescinded his approval of the agreement made in 2003 by former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Benson said the agreement that governs BLM's management of public lands amounted to a policy decision by the Bush administration, not a matter of law to be settled by the courts. He said the agreement could improperly bind future presidential administrations. Benson reversed his original decision after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver bounced the case back to him on an appeal by environmental groups. Despite the reversal, government lawyers insist the original terms of the deal remain in place, prohibiting the BLM from declaring any new wilderness study areas as candidates for congressional action. Assistant Utah Attorney General Mark Ward likened the new agreement to a contract....
BLM retiree, environmentalist bridge gaps to aid wildlife Clare Bastable and Bob Elderkin seem like an odd couple when it comes to environmental activism. Bastable, 30, has worked with wilderness organizations and is a conservation coordinator for the Colorado Mountain Club. Elderkin, 66, worked for the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey. Elderkin, a former rodeo bull and saddle bronc rider, goes by horseback on hunting trips into the backcountry. Bastable doesn't hunt, though she admires people who get their food "the old fashioned way." Yet it doesn't take long to realize the differences are complementary. Bastable and Elderkin have helped unite environmentalists, hunters, anglers, hikers and others tracking the booming energy development in western Colorado, which is cheered by some for the economic boost and feared by others for its potential impacts. The two recently teamed with other activists in suggesting guidelines for gas drilling, including a proposal that well pads be spaced one per 620 acres. The typical spacing in the area is one pad per 40 acres. Several wells can be drilled from one pad by boring a hole both vertically and horizontally to angle around and hit more of the pockets of gas. Elderkin believes a company could recover all the gas by drilling 64 wells from one 20- to 25-acre pad. There are signs, however, that ideas being advanced by Elderkin, Bastable and such groups as the Colorado Mule Deer Association and the Colorado Wildlife Association are striking a few chords. BLM officials have raised similar ideas, such as clustering development in blocks, during recent meetings with state and local officials. The state Department of Natural Resources proposed a variation of the concepts in a subsequent forum....
BLM funds anticline monitoring The Bureau of Land Management will pay $275,000 to fund an advisory group's main recommendations for monitoring oil and gas development in southwest Wyoming. The monitoring in the Pinedale Anticline will include counting traffic to and from drilling rig sites, collaring sage grouse for study, and assessing reclamation efforts. They were the highest priorities for monitoring identified by the Pinedale Anticline Working Group and its seven task groups. The anticline begins northwest of Pinedale and stretches about 30 miles to the southeast in Sublette County. The working group was established by the BLM in 2002 to advise the BLM on issues involving oil and gas development impacts on air quality, water quality, wildlife and the socio-economics of nearby communities. More than 100 residents volunteered to serve on the board and the various task groups. Representatives from government, industry, agriculture and conservation also are members....
Asarco reclamation plans may be costly to taxpayers Toothless state and federal mining laws could leave taxpayers holding the bag for cleaning up billions of dollars worth of environmental damage left behind by hard-rock mining operations. The threat is particularly real in Arizona, where the state's second-largest copper producer, Asarco LLC, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The cost of cleaning up Asarco's five mine and smelter sites in Arizona could be as much as $1 billion, yet there are only $7.3 million in guarantees posted by the company to ensure the work is completed. The $7.3 million isn't even available to cover environmental cleanups. It's for reclamation, or returning the sites to a safe and stable condition when mining ceases. There are no financial guarantees for environmental cleanups, which can be more complex and costlier than reclamation projects....
Broken borders: Beefed-up patrols send people into Arizona's remote areas The Moroney's 20,000-acre ranch of high-desert scrubland is a bone-dry, rugged expanse of mesquite brush, ocotillo cactus and creosote bush, some 20 miles north of the Mexican border and 17 miles southeast of Tombstone, Ariz. It is an unlikely place for a human highway, but the ranch is bisected by electrical transmission wires that run like a north-south axis through the property, and the coyotes who lead the immigrants use the wires as navigational landmarks. Each year hundreds, if not thousands, of immigrants cross through the Moroneys' ranch en route to pickup points. Yet the Moroneys also have had frightening encounters with men who demand rides, telephone use, even beer. Salvadoran gang members once flashed Dennis $4,000 in exchange for a ride to Phoenix, which he declined. His truck was stolen last year, and when police recovered it two weeks later, all the seats had been removed and plywood compartments with spaces for 21 people had been built into the cab and truck bed. The vehicle's odometer showed it had been driven an additional 6,500 miles in the two weeks it was missing....
Initiative opposes confined livestock Arizonans will have some big choices to make during the 2006 election year, and one of the biggest could involve pregnant pigs. Animal-rights activists have filed an initiative that would make it a crime for farmers to keep young calves or pregnant pigs in crates so cramped that the animals can't turn around. Opponents already are rallying to defeat the measure, calling it "anti-meat." The political lines are being drawn, with the Arizona Humane Society on one side and the Arizona Cattlemen's Association on the other. Arizonans for Humane Farms, a coalition of local and national activists, said Arizona must outlaw "cruel and intensive confinement" of animals on big, corporate farms....
Horses Destined for Slaughter One of the most controversial topics involving equines in the United States concerns sending horses to slaughter. Many horse owners and even non-owners are miles apart when this issue arises. There are those who take an extreme stance—that humans should not eat the flesh of any animal. A discussion on that subject is not our objective. On the other side of the scale are those who believe that horse meat is edible food just like beef, pork, chicken, and lamb. In the middle are persons who like a good beef steak, a fried pork chop, a grilled lamb chop, or roasted chicken but draw the line at consuming horse meat. The horse, they maintain, is a companion animal and should be exempt from the culinary category. For the most part, individuals with the above viewpoint would reside in the United States. Many Europeans and Orientals have grown up eating horse meat and continue to do so today. To them, the horse is just another animal that provides sustenance in a healthy way. After all, horse meat is very lean and nutritious—almost completely devoid of fat and harmful cholesterol. Perhaps geography has something to do with people’s feelings on the issue. Some European countries where horse meat is consumed are smaller than a number of American states. While U.S. residents have the luxury of space, many Europeans do not. In many countries, human population is so dense that there is no room for the backyard horse. Riding is confined to central stables. As a result, one could surmise, many Europeans did not develop the same love affair with the horse that has been in vogue in the United States for decades, dating back to when the horse moved from draft animal to recreational status. Whatever the case, it is a fact that there is virtually no market for horse meat in the United States, while there is strong demand throughout Europe and in parts of the Orient. In those countries, colorful ads encourage potential customers to try quality, imported U.S. horse meat. The ads are similar to those seen in the U.S extolling the virtues of particular beef cuts, the ‘other white meat,’ lamb, or chicken....
North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame celebrates state's Western roots The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame gathers together the colorful roots of the Dakota cowboy into one place - Medora. The museum embraces and commemorates the Western heritage and culture of our state, and it serves to document and salute the cowboy and horse culture that run deep in North Dakota. The Hall of Fame was dedicated Aug. 6. In the early part of this century, farms and ranches dotted the large, expansive Plains. Small towns, scattered about open land, grew up to support the farmers and ranchers, and the rolling Plains were an endless playground for herds of cattle and horses....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Some fields ripe for technological change Technology is now available to count cattle on a Forest Service permit from outer space, to construct material for space shuttles that can withstand 3,000 degree temperature on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere and to plastic wrap a tool in Ace Hardware that cannot be opened with the Jaws-of-Life. Farriers still are using the same technology the Romans did when they invaded England in 55 BC. The two fields most closely related to farriary, weight lifting and carpentry, have advanced slightly with the advent of Gatorade and the self-retracting measuring tape, but horse-shoeing still remains a primitive technology....
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