Based on the tracks and the missing gelding, it looks like The Westerner saddled up and rode off.
You better stay in touch though, cuz he could come ridin' back any day.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Upset about wolf plan, ranchers may shut lands to public Some ranchers are so fed up with the state's new plan for managing wolves expected to migrate in from Idaho that they want to close their lands for hunters and anglers. They don't like the fact that they can't shoot wolves they suspect of preying on livestock, and that there is no state fund to reimburse them for livestock killed by wolves. Some ranchers in Baker County have closed their land to hunters and anglers. The Oregon Cattlemen's Association has adopted a resolution to work toward that end statewide if the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission adopts the plan next month. The plan was adopted last February, but has to be amended since the Legislature did not authorize key elements. It originally would have allowed ranchers to shoot wolves attacking livestock. That provision was taken out to conform to a federal court ruling that any wolves moving into Oregon would be protected as a threatened species....
Judge's order halts Butte-area logging A federal judge has granted a request by environmental groups for an injunction to stop logging beetle-killed trees near Basin Creek Reservoir in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest pending an appeal. Monday's decision by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy comes about a month after Molloy denied a similar request by the groups. An appeal of that ruling is pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said Michael Garrity of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. In Monday's decision, Molloy said he granted the latest injunction because logging had already started in the project area south of Butte. If allowed to continue, "there is a chance that a substantial portion of the project will have already been completed by the time the Ninth Circuit considers the merits of the plaintiffs' claims," he wrote. Garrity said Tuesday he was somewhat surprised by the ruling, but also "very happy."....
Court hears arguments over changes in Northwest Forest Plan Environmental and government lawyers argued in federal court Tuesday about whether a recent change to the Northwest Forest Plan — one that eased logging restrictions — was properly arrived at and would provide adequate protections for trout and salmon. The change was made in March 2004, when the Bush administration dropped wording from the forest plan that required certain projects to be evaluated for how they would affect their watershed before they could be approved. Environmental groups say that in making the change, the administration overruled the arguments of its own scientists to please the timber industry. The result, Earthjustice lawyer Patti Goldman told U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler, is that “even in key watersheds, there are no standards that control logging or mining or roadbuilding or grazing or any other activities.’’....
Groups protest Wyoming Range oil, gas leases Conservation groups and a homeowners association filed protests this week with the Bureau of Land Management for two parcels in the Wyoming Range slated for a December oil and gas lease sale. The two parcels total 1,280 acres. Bridger-Teton National Forest officials decided to put the parcels up for lease sale earlier this year - they are one part of a total of 44,600 acres set for leasing. That is scaled back from 175,000 acres originally eyed for lease sale. Peter Aengst with the Wilderness Society in Bozeman said the protests stem from a need for updated analysis on the Bridger-Teton showing if the parcels are suitable for leasing. "Things have changed since 12 and a half years ago," when the original environmental studies were done on the acreage showing they were suitable for leasing, he said. Air quality changes and rapid development of the Upper Green River Valley should weigh into a decision on whether to lease these pristine lands, he said....
Chiricahua prescribed burn to cover 6,000 acres A fire set by the Forest Service to clear overgrown grass and woodlands in the Chiricahua Wilderness Area north of Douglas has prompted numerous calls of concern from as far away as Sierra Vista, according to an agency spokeswoman. The Johnson Peak prescribed burn was set in late October with a goal of clearing up to 6,000 acres, said Teresa Ann Ciapusci, a public information officer with the U.S. Forest Service. To date, the fire has covered about 1,600 acres and is well within the prescription area authorized for the burn....
Bush, Cabinet OK Land Deal Florida officials approved the largest environmental land purchase in state history Tuesday, agreeing to pay $350 million to buy the Babcock Ranch in Southwest Florida, a vast, 74,000-acre tract that is home to the Florida panther and other endangered species. While endorsing the purchase, Gov. Jeb Bush and Cabinet members said they hope the state Legislature agrees to use cash to close the deal, saving the state millions of dollars in interest and keeping enough money in the state's Florida Forever program to buy other environmental land projects around the state. The Babcock purchase is considered environmentally critical because it simultaneously will protect endangered animals, will preserve the Telegraph Swamp and will provide a vital link in a natural land corridor stretching from Lake Okeechobee to Charlotte Harbor....
Tribe sues Interior secretary over Endangered Species Act Federal wildlife officials are protecting one endangered Everglades bird at the expense of another - and in violation of the Endangered Species Act and other federal law, alleges a new lawsuit. The Miccosukee Tribe is suing U.S. Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the case filed in U.S. District Court in Miami this week. At issue is a wildlife service biological opinion that causes water managers to temporarily close five gates that move floodwater from the central Everglades south into Everglades National Park. The practice, which began in 1997, is timed to help a group of Cape Sable seaside sparrows dwelling in the western half of the park breed....
BLM allows more winter gas activity Up to this point, getting permission to drill for oil and gas -- or even walk -- in crucial big game winter range has been an uphill battle. Now, some worry the national push for more energy development is chipping away at these protections. That push can be seen on the Pinedale Anticline natural gas field, where earlier this month the Bureau of Land Management authorized more activity in areas of winter closures. The decisions, enacted under the BLM's discretion to grant exemptions to leaseholders as the agency sees fit, were made without public comment or notification. Instead, notification of one of the exemptions was posted on the agency's Web site as a "Finding of No Significant Impact." Questar Corp. was authorized to conduct four well completions, having requested 16, and has been permitted one new drilling rig. Other companies have bumped up their production in big game ranges as well....
Olympia pays record price for North Las Vegas acreage The Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday sold 3,002 acres of public land for a total of $799.3 million. Parcels offered for sale varied in size from 1.25 acres to 2,675 acres. Yet eight of the 69 parcels offered throughout the Las Vegas Valley didn't sell. Their combined estimated value was $637.5 million. But all eyes were centered on 2,675 acres in North Las Vegas. It was the largest piece of land being offered for sale, with a starting bid price of $522.4 million, or about $195,000 an acre. And after a heavy, heated exchange, Garry Goett's Olympia Group won with a $639 million bid, or $238,878 per acre. It represents a record sale price for North Las Vegas land, reflecting the valley's feverish real estate activity. The final sale price was 18.25 percent higher than anticipated....
Mission man logs the old fashioned way David Sturman goes back in time when he goes to work by using horsepower to move tree logs. The unique thing about Sturman is he is one of the few people left that still uses real live, breathing horsepower, much the way loggers did a century ago. Sturman has incorporated his fondness for the past into creating a better environment for the future. He uses a team of two Belgian horses to skid logs through thick timber to repair waterways and create a healthier environment for wildlife and fish populations. "The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) contracts me to move large wood debris with minimal impact to the environment," Sturman said. Most of his work has been done in wooded areas that require a great deal of maneuvering skill, something that large machinery doesn't possess a lot of....
D.C. to lend ear to problems facing national parks Everything from Northern California-grown marijuana to reptiles stolen from the Mojave Desert could soon wind up in the halls of Congress, at least in a figurative sense. The problems facing national parks in California - including Joshua Tree National Park - will be front and center during an upcoming congressional hearing in San Francisco. The field hearing is one in a series of more than a dozen around the nation by the Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee, a group that has jurisdiction over national parks. Scheduled for Monday and led by Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., it will be a chance for committee members to hear about fiscal and law enforcement challenges in California-based national parks....
Battle for the lake heating up A federal proposal to reshape the trailer-lined shores of Lake Berryessa is facing fierce opposition from mobile home owners who have made the lake their home away from home for the past 50-plus years. More than 1,000 trailer owners are bucking against a federal proposal to replace about 1,300 privately owned trailers with campgrounds and other day-use recreation sites. Trailer supporters have drafted a counterproposal and grabbed the attention of Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, who sent a representative to a stormy town hall meeting about the lake's fate Saturday in the Winters High School gymnasium. Pombo is chairman of the House Resources Committee, which has authority over many key policy decisions on water and energy. Trailer owners turned out en masse at the meeting to challenge federal representatives and environmentalists pushing for the lake's redevelopment....
City makes first payment to Jicarillas Santa Fe Mayor Larry Delgado on Tuesday turned over to Jicarilla Apache Nation a check for $450,000 — the first of what could be $75 million paid by the city to the tribe over the next 50 years to lease water. The agreement between the city and the tribe was approved recently by the federal government — the first longterm lease for water between an American Indian tribe and a municipality, Jicarilla and federal officials say. Under the agreement , beginning in 2007, the city could begin taking up to 3,000 acre-feet a year of Jicarilla’s “futureuse” allocation of 6,500 acre-feet of San Juan/Chama Diversion water....
For high-dollar rights to water, Colorado's the place When Idaho bought water rights on the Snake River this year to protect trout, it paid farmers $325 per acre-foot - about 326,000 gallons. In Colorado, cities buying water for human use have paid farmers as much as $20,000 per acre-foot. "Location, location, location," said Karl Dreher, Idaho's water resources director. Colorado is a notoriously expensive place to shop for water. Nobody maintains a complete record of Western water sales and leases, and many such transactions are private....
Column: Further Down the Drain The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation wants to bet up to $1 billion of your tax dollars that its latest proposals to carry toxic waste waters away from the nation's largest federal irrigation project will not result in another ecological disaster like the selenium poisoning of the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge more than 20 years ago. The Bureau is putting the final touches on an environmental impact statement (EIS) due Feb. 1, 2006 in which it will announce support for one of three possible drainage solutions: Delta Disposal, Central Coast disposal, or building drainage treatment facilities and evaporation ponds within the San Joaquin Valley with varying levels of land retirement. Opponents say the Bureau's science is flawed, threatens fisheries and birds, and that construction and operation costs are likely to become astronomical for keeping just a few hundred growers in business irrigating a desert. The final EIS comes in response to a ruling by the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal five years ago requiring the Bureau to provide drainage for the 730,000-acre San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project, first approved by Congress in 1960....
Population growth imperils humanity Compelling new evidence effectively contradicting premature pronouncements that the world-population crisis is over can hardly be shrugged off as sky-is-falling clucking by hysterical Chicken Littles. A recently released $24 million four-year United Nations-sponsored Millennium Ecosystems Assessment spells out the havoc wreaked by pressures on the planet to feed and provide finite resources for its more than 6 billion inhabitants. Compiled by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries, the report is the product of their examination of 16,000 photographs from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as well as analyses of prodigious volumes of statistical data and other information from scientific journals and other relevant documents. The most unsettling finding is that over the past 50 years, as world population has doubled, human activity has depleted 60 percent of the world's grasslands, forests, farmlands, rivers and lakes. The scientists in this study reached the consensus that in the absence of serious application of sound environmental policies over the next 50 years _ when population is projected to soar from the current 6.5 billion to over 9 billion _ increased demands for food, clean water and fuel could hasten the loss of forests, fish and freshwater reserves, and lead to more frequent disease outbreaks....just thought I'd end with this item from our friends at the scientifically objective and freedom loving United Nations....
Upset about wolf plan, ranchers may shut lands to public Some ranchers are so fed up with the state's new plan for managing wolves expected to migrate in from Idaho that they want to close their lands for hunters and anglers. They don't like the fact that they can't shoot wolves they suspect of preying on livestock, and that there is no state fund to reimburse them for livestock killed by wolves. Some ranchers in Baker County have closed their land to hunters and anglers. The Oregon Cattlemen's Association has adopted a resolution to work toward that end statewide if the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission adopts the plan next month. The plan was adopted last February, but has to be amended since the Legislature did not authorize key elements. It originally would have allowed ranchers to shoot wolves attacking livestock. That provision was taken out to conform to a federal court ruling that any wolves moving into Oregon would be protected as a threatened species....
Judge's order halts Butte-area logging A federal judge has granted a request by environmental groups for an injunction to stop logging beetle-killed trees near Basin Creek Reservoir in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest pending an appeal. Monday's decision by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy comes about a month after Molloy denied a similar request by the groups. An appeal of that ruling is pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said Michael Garrity of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. In Monday's decision, Molloy said he granted the latest injunction because logging had already started in the project area south of Butte. If allowed to continue, "there is a chance that a substantial portion of the project will have already been completed by the time the Ninth Circuit considers the merits of the plaintiffs' claims," he wrote. Garrity said Tuesday he was somewhat surprised by the ruling, but also "very happy."....
Court hears arguments over changes in Northwest Forest Plan Environmental and government lawyers argued in federal court Tuesday about whether a recent change to the Northwest Forest Plan — one that eased logging restrictions — was properly arrived at and would provide adequate protections for trout and salmon. The change was made in March 2004, when the Bush administration dropped wording from the forest plan that required certain projects to be evaluated for how they would affect their watershed before they could be approved. Environmental groups say that in making the change, the administration overruled the arguments of its own scientists to please the timber industry. The result, Earthjustice lawyer Patti Goldman told U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler, is that “even in key watersheds, there are no standards that control logging or mining or roadbuilding or grazing or any other activities.’’....
Groups protest Wyoming Range oil, gas leases Conservation groups and a homeowners association filed protests this week with the Bureau of Land Management for two parcels in the Wyoming Range slated for a December oil and gas lease sale. The two parcels total 1,280 acres. Bridger-Teton National Forest officials decided to put the parcels up for lease sale earlier this year - they are one part of a total of 44,600 acres set for leasing. That is scaled back from 175,000 acres originally eyed for lease sale. Peter Aengst with the Wilderness Society in Bozeman said the protests stem from a need for updated analysis on the Bridger-Teton showing if the parcels are suitable for leasing. "Things have changed since 12 and a half years ago," when the original environmental studies were done on the acreage showing they were suitable for leasing, he said. Air quality changes and rapid development of the Upper Green River Valley should weigh into a decision on whether to lease these pristine lands, he said....
Chiricahua prescribed burn to cover 6,000 acres A fire set by the Forest Service to clear overgrown grass and woodlands in the Chiricahua Wilderness Area north of Douglas has prompted numerous calls of concern from as far away as Sierra Vista, according to an agency spokeswoman. The Johnson Peak prescribed burn was set in late October with a goal of clearing up to 6,000 acres, said Teresa Ann Ciapusci, a public information officer with the U.S. Forest Service. To date, the fire has covered about 1,600 acres and is well within the prescription area authorized for the burn....
Bush, Cabinet OK Land Deal Florida officials approved the largest environmental land purchase in state history Tuesday, agreeing to pay $350 million to buy the Babcock Ranch in Southwest Florida, a vast, 74,000-acre tract that is home to the Florida panther and other endangered species. While endorsing the purchase, Gov. Jeb Bush and Cabinet members said they hope the state Legislature agrees to use cash to close the deal, saving the state millions of dollars in interest and keeping enough money in the state's Florida Forever program to buy other environmental land projects around the state. The Babcock purchase is considered environmentally critical because it simultaneously will protect endangered animals, will preserve the Telegraph Swamp and will provide a vital link in a natural land corridor stretching from Lake Okeechobee to Charlotte Harbor....
Tribe sues Interior secretary over Endangered Species Act Federal wildlife officials are protecting one endangered Everglades bird at the expense of another - and in violation of the Endangered Species Act and other federal law, alleges a new lawsuit. The Miccosukee Tribe is suing U.S. Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the case filed in U.S. District Court in Miami this week. At issue is a wildlife service biological opinion that causes water managers to temporarily close five gates that move floodwater from the central Everglades south into Everglades National Park. The practice, which began in 1997, is timed to help a group of Cape Sable seaside sparrows dwelling in the western half of the park breed....
BLM allows more winter gas activity Up to this point, getting permission to drill for oil and gas -- or even walk -- in crucial big game winter range has been an uphill battle. Now, some worry the national push for more energy development is chipping away at these protections. That push can be seen on the Pinedale Anticline natural gas field, where earlier this month the Bureau of Land Management authorized more activity in areas of winter closures. The decisions, enacted under the BLM's discretion to grant exemptions to leaseholders as the agency sees fit, were made without public comment or notification. Instead, notification of one of the exemptions was posted on the agency's Web site as a "Finding of No Significant Impact." Questar Corp. was authorized to conduct four well completions, having requested 16, and has been permitted one new drilling rig. Other companies have bumped up their production in big game ranges as well....
Olympia pays record price for North Las Vegas acreage The Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday sold 3,002 acres of public land for a total of $799.3 million. Parcels offered for sale varied in size from 1.25 acres to 2,675 acres. Yet eight of the 69 parcels offered throughout the Las Vegas Valley didn't sell. Their combined estimated value was $637.5 million. But all eyes were centered on 2,675 acres in North Las Vegas. It was the largest piece of land being offered for sale, with a starting bid price of $522.4 million, or about $195,000 an acre. And after a heavy, heated exchange, Garry Goett's Olympia Group won with a $639 million bid, or $238,878 per acre. It represents a record sale price for North Las Vegas land, reflecting the valley's feverish real estate activity. The final sale price was 18.25 percent higher than anticipated....
Mission man logs the old fashioned way David Sturman goes back in time when he goes to work by using horsepower to move tree logs. The unique thing about Sturman is he is one of the few people left that still uses real live, breathing horsepower, much the way loggers did a century ago. Sturman has incorporated his fondness for the past into creating a better environment for the future. He uses a team of two Belgian horses to skid logs through thick timber to repair waterways and create a healthier environment for wildlife and fish populations. "The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) contracts me to move large wood debris with minimal impact to the environment," Sturman said. Most of his work has been done in wooded areas that require a great deal of maneuvering skill, something that large machinery doesn't possess a lot of....
D.C. to lend ear to problems facing national parks Everything from Northern California-grown marijuana to reptiles stolen from the Mojave Desert could soon wind up in the halls of Congress, at least in a figurative sense. The problems facing national parks in California - including Joshua Tree National Park - will be front and center during an upcoming congressional hearing in San Francisco. The field hearing is one in a series of more than a dozen around the nation by the Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee, a group that has jurisdiction over national parks. Scheduled for Monday and led by Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., it will be a chance for committee members to hear about fiscal and law enforcement challenges in California-based national parks....
Battle for the lake heating up A federal proposal to reshape the trailer-lined shores of Lake Berryessa is facing fierce opposition from mobile home owners who have made the lake their home away from home for the past 50-plus years. More than 1,000 trailer owners are bucking against a federal proposal to replace about 1,300 privately owned trailers with campgrounds and other day-use recreation sites. Trailer supporters have drafted a counterproposal and grabbed the attention of Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, who sent a representative to a stormy town hall meeting about the lake's fate Saturday in the Winters High School gymnasium. Pombo is chairman of the House Resources Committee, which has authority over many key policy decisions on water and energy. Trailer owners turned out en masse at the meeting to challenge federal representatives and environmentalists pushing for the lake's redevelopment....
City makes first payment to Jicarillas Santa Fe Mayor Larry Delgado on Tuesday turned over to Jicarilla Apache Nation a check for $450,000 — the first of what could be $75 million paid by the city to the tribe over the next 50 years to lease water. The agreement between the city and the tribe was approved recently by the federal government — the first longterm lease for water between an American Indian tribe and a municipality, Jicarilla and federal officials say. Under the agreement , beginning in 2007, the city could begin taking up to 3,000 acre-feet a year of Jicarilla’s “futureuse” allocation of 6,500 acre-feet of San Juan/Chama Diversion water....
For high-dollar rights to water, Colorado's the place When Idaho bought water rights on the Snake River this year to protect trout, it paid farmers $325 per acre-foot - about 326,000 gallons. In Colorado, cities buying water for human use have paid farmers as much as $20,000 per acre-foot. "Location, location, location," said Karl Dreher, Idaho's water resources director. Colorado is a notoriously expensive place to shop for water. Nobody maintains a complete record of Western water sales and leases, and many such transactions are private....
Column: Further Down the Drain The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation wants to bet up to $1 billion of your tax dollars that its latest proposals to carry toxic waste waters away from the nation's largest federal irrigation project will not result in another ecological disaster like the selenium poisoning of the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge more than 20 years ago. The Bureau is putting the final touches on an environmental impact statement (EIS) due Feb. 1, 2006 in which it will announce support for one of three possible drainage solutions: Delta Disposal, Central Coast disposal, or building drainage treatment facilities and evaporation ponds within the San Joaquin Valley with varying levels of land retirement. Opponents say the Bureau's science is flawed, threatens fisheries and birds, and that construction and operation costs are likely to become astronomical for keeping just a few hundred growers in business irrigating a desert. The final EIS comes in response to a ruling by the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal five years ago requiring the Bureau to provide drainage for the 730,000-acre San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project, first approved by Congress in 1960....
Population growth imperils humanity Compelling new evidence effectively contradicting premature pronouncements that the world-population crisis is over can hardly be shrugged off as sky-is-falling clucking by hysterical Chicken Littles. A recently released $24 million four-year United Nations-sponsored Millennium Ecosystems Assessment spells out the havoc wreaked by pressures on the planet to feed and provide finite resources for its more than 6 billion inhabitants. Compiled by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries, the report is the product of their examination of 16,000 photographs from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as well as analyses of prodigious volumes of statistical data and other information from scientific journals and other relevant documents. The most unsettling finding is that over the past 50 years, as world population has doubled, human activity has depleted 60 percent of the world's grasslands, forests, farmlands, rivers and lakes. The scientists in this study reached the consensus that in the absence of serious application of sound environmental policies over the next 50 years _ when population is projected to soar from the current 6.5 billion to over 9 billion _ increased demands for food, clean water and fuel could hasten the loss of forests, fish and freshwater reserves, and lead to more frequent disease outbreaks....just thought I'd end with this item from our friends at the scientifically objective and freedom loving United Nations....
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
WOLF UPDATE---11/20
by Laura Schneberger
A rancher in the Collins park area of Catron County has been targeted for investigation for the death of Ring pack wolf AF 799 and was also questioned in the trapping incident regarding a Luna pack wolf.
The Luna wolf survived, was treated and released minus a toe. There is no trapper in the area at this time except the FWS who were trapping wolves for a study. They claim the trap was not theirs.
The Ring wolf was found at least a week after its death. According to Arizona Game and Fish employees with the program there was no apparent obvious cause of death but this employee openly stated that she suspected the local ranchers. There is a necropsy occurring on the dead wolf but the results have not been made available as of this time.
Interestingly enough, a dead eagle was also found near the carcass of the dead wolf.
After these events Federal investigators were called into the area where they unnecessarily blocked both entrances to the aforementioned ranch headquarters, apparently to keep the ranchers from "running" and proceeded to question the rancher involved. Upon leaving the Headquarters, an investigator asked the rancher how many elk permits he was currently receiving from the state. (Since elk permits have nothing to do with the investigation, this must be interpreted as a threat--FD)
Last week, ranchers in the area waited for their usual vague locations on the current wolf packs, which in fact finally came in 7 days late. The Saddle pack was indeed located on a cow ranch in livestock pastures. Because this area was the same area the Ring pack wolf was found in, it is suspected these locations were intentionally withheld by whoever was in the locator plane during that flight. As a result of withholding locations, a full grown cow in the Collins Park area has been killed. The nearest pack was the Saddle pack.
The examination of the dead cow and results will be forthcoming.
Meanwhile, with no evidence of foul play at least as of yet, harassment of ranchers has become commonplace in the Mexican Wolf recovery area. If their skin was a different color it would be classified as profiling. At the very least this behavior is discriminatory and should be immediately ceased and swift reprimands should follow.
Agency personnel had this to say in an 11-15-05 Silver City daily press article
The agency added: "The area north of the Gila Wilderness is heavily grazed. Several wolf packs have run into trouble in that general area in the past, first scavenging on cattle carcasses and later depredating."
This statement is a fabrication as those of you who attended the Catron County killing field tour can attest. Not only is the area in good condition and not heavily grazed there are no carcasses strewn about for wolves to encounter at least not until one is made by the wolves. Allowing these sort of biased statements to be released to the press does nothing to further trust and cooperation with local residents.
I recommend that everyone on this list cooperate fully with FWS investigations into wolf deaths but keep a log of your experiences and your treatment. You are not required to give up your private property without a warrant or allow searches on your property, unless you are comfortable doing so. If you are verbally harassed by an Arizona Game and Fish employee or FWS employee please do your best to stay neutral and record the conversation to the best of your ability and send it to me.
Sincerely
Laura
Further Update---11/21
I found out last night that Don Gatlin was also interrogated for three hours over both the injured and dead wolf as well as the eagle. That makes 3 out of 4 Collins Park area ranchers that have been interrogated by FWS special agents. It makes no difference that 400 hunters have gone through the area in the week the dead animals were found. Ranchers are the suspects, in fact any rancher in the area is subject to questioning and from what I am hearing it is none too polite.
Laura
by Laura Schneberger
A rancher in the Collins park area of Catron County has been targeted for investigation for the death of Ring pack wolf AF 799 and was also questioned in the trapping incident regarding a Luna pack wolf.
The Luna wolf survived, was treated and released minus a toe. There is no trapper in the area at this time except the FWS who were trapping wolves for a study. They claim the trap was not theirs.
The Ring wolf was found at least a week after its death. According to Arizona Game and Fish employees with the program there was no apparent obvious cause of death but this employee openly stated that she suspected the local ranchers. There is a necropsy occurring on the dead wolf but the results have not been made available as of this time.
Interestingly enough, a dead eagle was also found near the carcass of the dead wolf.
After these events Federal investigators were called into the area where they unnecessarily blocked both entrances to the aforementioned ranch headquarters, apparently to keep the ranchers from "running" and proceeded to question the rancher involved. Upon leaving the Headquarters, an investigator asked the rancher how many elk permits he was currently receiving from the state. (Since elk permits have nothing to do with the investigation, this must be interpreted as a threat--FD)
Last week, ranchers in the area waited for their usual vague locations on the current wolf packs, which in fact finally came in 7 days late. The Saddle pack was indeed located on a cow ranch in livestock pastures. Because this area was the same area the Ring pack wolf was found in, it is suspected these locations were intentionally withheld by whoever was in the locator plane during that flight. As a result of withholding locations, a full grown cow in the Collins Park area has been killed. The nearest pack was the Saddle pack.
The examination of the dead cow and results will be forthcoming.
Meanwhile, with no evidence of foul play at least as of yet, harassment of ranchers has become commonplace in the Mexican Wolf recovery area. If their skin was a different color it would be classified as profiling. At the very least this behavior is discriminatory and should be immediately ceased and swift reprimands should follow.
Agency personnel had this to say in an 11-15-05 Silver City daily press article
The agency added: "The area north of the Gila Wilderness is heavily grazed. Several wolf packs have run into trouble in that general area in the past, first scavenging on cattle carcasses and later depredating."
This statement is a fabrication as those of you who attended the Catron County killing field tour can attest. Not only is the area in good condition and not heavily grazed there are no carcasses strewn about for wolves to encounter at least not until one is made by the wolves. Allowing these sort of biased statements to be released to the press does nothing to further trust and cooperation with local residents.
I recommend that everyone on this list cooperate fully with FWS investigations into wolf deaths but keep a log of your experiences and your treatment. You are not required to give up your private property without a warrant or allow searches on your property, unless you are comfortable doing so. If you are verbally harassed by an Arizona Game and Fish employee or FWS employee please do your best to stay neutral and record the conversation to the best of your ability and send it to me.
Sincerely
Laura
Further Update---11/21
I found out last night that Don Gatlin was also interrogated for three hours over both the injured and dead wolf as well as the eagle. That makes 3 out of 4 Collins Park area ranchers that have been interrogated by FWS special agents. It makes no difference that 400 hunters have gone through the area in the week the dead animals were found. Ranchers are the suspects, in fact any rancher in the area is subject to questioning and from what I am hearing it is none too polite.
Laura
DANIEL MARTINEZ---USFS
For background on this issue go here, here, here and here.
November 22, 2005
Sheriff Steve Tucker
Greenlee County
Hwy 191 P.O> Box 998
Clifton, Arizona 85533
Dear Sheriff Tucker:
I am the victim of a blatant abuse of Constitutional, Federal and State Law. You were noticed of the unlawful and criminal activity on numerous occasions. You had knowledge of the activity yet failed to uphold your oath of office, as required by ARS 38-231. You failed to perform your duty as the highest law enforcement officer in the county ARS-38-443. You allowed my property (my cattle) to be driven from its range without my consent. This is a Class 5 Felony, ARS 3-1303. You violated ARS 13-201. Your omission to perform duty imposed by law has caused me irreparable damage. You were aware there was no Court Order or Warrant and yet you failed to act. ARS 13-204 (B) Ignorance or Mistake as to a matter of law does not relieve liability.
I noticed you that the United States Forest Service had NO Jurisdiction in Greenlee County. They do not have police powers within the state of Arizona. You failed to enforce ARS 13-2906 Obstructing a highway or other public thoroughfare. You failed to enforce ARS 13-3871 Authority of Peace officers. You failed to enforce ARS 13-3875 Cross certification of Federal peace officers. You had knowledge and yet failed to uphold your oath of office. You had the authority to have prevented this abuse of public trust by public officials yet refused to act.
In my conversation with you yesterday you told me you were waiting for me to come in personally to file a report. Sheriff Tucker, I would have done so if that was the proper procedure to do so, according to law. My last conversation with you on October 20, 2005 I expressed my concern that they were going to break into my cabin the next morning. You said you would make note of it but that you were not going to do anything about it because Frank Hayes said he had authority to commit burglary and theft of property as per Federal law. You also said that the County Attorney Derek Rapier had told you that according to a map in the basement it was on the Forest and for you not to interfere. Since when is a map title? That same day I sent you an email in regards to the breaking into my property. I also asked you to consult with a seasoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio and gave you his phone number.
If you are trying to tell me, the victim, why this happened is because I didn’t come in and file a report with you. I must tell you the Arizona Revised statutes are very clear in 22-301 Jurisdiction of Criminal Actions, makes it clear it is not the Sheriff; it is the Justice of the Peace that has the authority. ARS 22-313 Procedure: Makes it clear the rules of Criminal Procedure of the Superior Court shall apply. ARS 22-403 makes clear who shall be the presiding officer. It is the Justice of the Peace not the County Attorney. ARS 22-421 Commencement of Action: this is done by the Magistrate not the County Attorney or the Sheriff.
The Arizona Criminal Rules Rule 2.2 The Commencement of Felony Actions may be commenced by (a) indictment or (b) filing a complaint before a Magistrate. Rule 2.3 Content of Complaint is a written statement of the essential facts that is either signed by a prosecutor of made under oath before a Magistrate. The prosecutor still needs a sworn statement as to the essential facts from someone that has first hand knowledge of the facts. Rule 2.4 Duty of Magistrate upon filing of complaint. If by oath before a Magistrate if there is probable cause and if signed by prosecutor then Magistrate proceeds to Rule 3.1 . Magistrate shall issue a summons or warrant.
Sheriff Tucker, if these laws and rules of the court are not followed according to the Black Letter of the Law the defendant could be denied Due Process of Law and any Judgment against a defendant could be VOID and could be collaterally attacked and vacated.
My question to you sir, how many prisoners do you have in your jail that have been denied Due Process of Law?
Your job is to uphold the law and enforce the law. You had probable cause to act , you had knowledge of criminal activity and yet you failed to uphold your oath of office.
Respectfully,
Daniel Gabino Martinez/Victim non-attorney
cc:
Board of Supervisors
P.O. Box 908
Clifton, Arizona 85533
Derek D. Rapier
Greenlee County Attorney
P.O.Box 1717
Clifton, Arizona 85533
Liliana Ortega
Deputy Greenlee County Attorney
P.O. Box 1717
Clifton, Arizona 85533
Honorable Manuel Manuz
Justice of the Peace
For background on this issue go here, here, here and here.
November 22, 2005
Sheriff Steve Tucker
Greenlee County
Hwy 191 P.O> Box 998
Clifton, Arizona 85533
Dear Sheriff Tucker:
I am the victim of a blatant abuse of Constitutional, Federal and State Law. You were noticed of the unlawful and criminal activity on numerous occasions. You had knowledge of the activity yet failed to uphold your oath of office, as required by ARS 38-231. You failed to perform your duty as the highest law enforcement officer in the county ARS-38-443. You allowed my property (my cattle) to be driven from its range without my consent. This is a Class 5 Felony, ARS 3-1303. You violated ARS 13-201. Your omission to perform duty imposed by law has caused me irreparable damage. You were aware there was no Court Order or Warrant and yet you failed to act. ARS 13-204 (B) Ignorance or Mistake as to a matter of law does not relieve liability.
I noticed you that the United States Forest Service had NO Jurisdiction in Greenlee County. They do not have police powers within the state of Arizona. You failed to enforce ARS 13-2906 Obstructing a highway or other public thoroughfare. You failed to enforce ARS 13-3871 Authority of Peace officers. You failed to enforce ARS 13-3875 Cross certification of Federal peace officers. You had knowledge and yet failed to uphold your oath of office. You had the authority to have prevented this abuse of public trust by public officials yet refused to act.
In my conversation with you yesterday you told me you were waiting for me to come in personally to file a report. Sheriff Tucker, I would have done so if that was the proper procedure to do so, according to law. My last conversation with you on October 20, 2005 I expressed my concern that they were going to break into my cabin the next morning. You said you would make note of it but that you were not going to do anything about it because Frank Hayes said he had authority to commit burglary and theft of property as per Federal law. You also said that the County Attorney Derek Rapier had told you that according to a map in the basement it was on the Forest and for you not to interfere. Since when is a map title? That same day I sent you an email in regards to the breaking into my property. I also asked you to consult with a seasoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio and gave you his phone number.
If you are trying to tell me, the victim, why this happened is because I didn’t come in and file a report with you. I must tell you the Arizona Revised statutes are very clear in 22-301 Jurisdiction of Criminal Actions, makes it clear it is not the Sheriff; it is the Justice of the Peace that has the authority. ARS 22-313 Procedure: Makes it clear the rules of Criminal Procedure of the Superior Court shall apply. ARS 22-403 makes clear who shall be the presiding officer. It is the Justice of the Peace not the County Attorney. ARS 22-421 Commencement of Action: this is done by the Magistrate not the County Attorney or the Sheriff.
The Arizona Criminal Rules Rule 2.2 The Commencement of Felony Actions may be commenced by (a) indictment or (b) filing a complaint before a Magistrate. Rule 2.3 Content of Complaint is a written statement of the essential facts that is either signed by a prosecutor of made under oath before a Magistrate. The prosecutor still needs a sworn statement as to the essential facts from someone that has first hand knowledge of the facts. Rule 2.4 Duty of Magistrate upon filing of complaint. If by oath before a Magistrate if there is probable cause and if signed by prosecutor then Magistrate proceeds to Rule 3.1 . Magistrate shall issue a summons or warrant.
Sheriff Tucker, if these laws and rules of the court are not followed according to the Black Letter of the Law the defendant could be denied Due Process of Law and any Judgment against a defendant could be VOID and could be collaterally attacked and vacated.
My question to you sir, how many prisoners do you have in your jail that have been denied Due Process of Law?
Your job is to uphold the law and enforce the law. You had probable cause to act , you had knowledge of criminal activity and yet you failed to uphold your oath of office.
Respectfully,
Daniel Gabino Martinez/Victim non-attorney
cc:
Board of Supervisors
P.O. Box 908
Clifton, Arizona 85533
Derek D. Rapier
Greenlee County Attorney
P.O.Box 1717
Clifton, Arizona 85533
Liliana Ortega
Deputy Greenlee County Attorney
P.O. Box 1717
Clifton, Arizona 85533
Honorable Manuel Manuz
Justice of the Peace
NEWS ROUNDUP
Ancient Indian site caught in development battle A remote Utah canyon that long concealed a string of ancient Indian settlements holds another surprise: The rancher who sold it kept the mineral rights and says he may use them. Waldo Wilcox, who for nearly 50 years kept the ancient Fremont Indian sites remarkably well preserved, said he kept the mineral rights because Utah wouldn't pay what he thought his 4,200-acre ranch was worth. Wilcox wanted $4 million but got $2.5 million for the ranch in remote Range Creek Canyon. The 75-year-old rancher said that before he opens the canyon to any oil-and-gas development, he would offer the mineral rights to the state -- for a price. In the documentary "Secrets of the Lost Canyon," which airs locally Monday, Wilcox bitterly recalled negotiating with the state....
What's killing the elk in Yellowstone? Whodunit? The big, bad wolf? Old Man Winter? A scientific mystery starring wolves, adversarial weather and a declining elk herd is playing out at Yellowstone National Park. Oh, and people — hunters — are possible suspects, too. The elk population in North Yellowstone has dropped to about 8,000 from almost 17,000 in 1995. That was the year wolves were reintroduced into the 2.5-million-acre federal park in Wyoming, which overlaps the border of Montana and Idaho. The northern herd contains just a fraction of the 120,000 elk believed to dwell in the park region, and Yellowstone's Northern Range is just 204,000 acres. But this region is of particular interest to scientists because it has the largest wolf population, about 106 of the park's 171 wolves in 2004, making the elk there the most vulnerable herd....
New Process May Solve Old Coalbed Methane Problem Results should be in by Thanksgiving for the test run of a Montana-based engineering firm’s proposed solution for a major environmental problem from coalbed methane gas drilling. If the packaged water-treatment system successfully purifies brackish water that sometimes comes with the gas, the procedure could help advance the stalled CBM industry, which produces 9% of U.S. domestic natural gas. Drake Engineering Inc., Helena, is testing its new water-treatment technology at a Marathon Oil Corp. site in Wyoming, says Scott Scheffler, a spokesman for Houston-based Marathon. The system allows "resource extraction in an environmentally responsible manner," says co-owner Vivian Drake. Her husband, Ron, invented the new technology. The skid-mounted Drake treatment module measures about 8 x 12 ft. A pickup truck can deliver the 9,000-lb device on a tilt-bed trailer. The transport height, including trailer, is less than 11 ft. Erected, the unit is 14 ft tall and can process about 250 gallons per minute, or 8,500 barrels per day....
'Canary in the Mine' Bruce Peterson, on his hands and knees, claws through a thick pad of peat moss and into the brown muck beneath. "Put your hand in there and feel that," he says over his shoulder. The hole is an icebox chilled by a slab of frozen soil that starts about a foot below the surface and, in places, extends deeper than the length of a football field. The permafrost on Alaska's northern reaches froze thousands of years ago and has acted as a year-round thermostat for the tundra's plants, animals and water systems. But in recent decades, temperatures have warmed in the Arctic and the top layers of the permafrost have thawed. One long-time researcher predicts that half of interior Alaska's permafrost could be gone by the end of the century. In some places, the tundra is already crumbling into itself because of the thawing. In other places, suddenly unstable trees are tilting over in "drunken forests" and coastal villages on eroding land are being relocated....
Hidden hazards for migrant forest workers First in 1980 and again in 1993, Congress expressed shock at the abuse of Latino forest workers in America's woods and the hypocrisy of undocumented workers doing government work. Today, despite the influx of thousands of legal guest workers into reforestation, much of the work force remains undocumented. And the abject living conditions and wage exploitation that outraged Congress endure. And Congress has never examined the most pressing danger to Latino forest workers: the threat of being injured or killed on the job. A nine-month Sacramento Bee investigation has found that reforestation work, the thinning and planting that keeps both public and private forests healthy, is one of the most hazardous occupations in America _ and one of the most overlooked by state and federal regulators. On Forest Service and national park jobs visited by The Bee this year, peril was paramount. Slashing away at dense tangles of trees with chain saws, the pineros _ Spanish for pine workers _ scrambled through the woods in a chaos of cutting and noise....
Vail turns to logging operations to prevent forest fires, beetles The massive machine wrapped its metal arms around the trunk of the dead tree and in one swift move, cleanly ripped it from the ground. Turning into a clearing, it rotated the log and fed it through another part of the multifunctional machine, stripping it of limbs and leaves. The machine then turned again and neatly added the log to a growing pile. Tom Olden, owner of Pine Martin Logging, recently wielded this tract feller processor during a logging operation on Vail Mountain that cut about 600 trees around the top of Born Free Express Lift, also known as Chair 8. "We have a pristine ski area," said Jen Brown, spokeswoman for Vail Mountain, "and we did it to protect our assets along the gondola. It was related to the pine beetle and working on the fire protection along that area." As pine beetles turn Colorado forests into a rusty shade of red, Pine Martin Logging was hired to remove the trees from about 10 acres of U.S. Forest Service land over two weeks....
New home sought for frogs impeding development For at least six years, there's been one tiny thing standing in the way of rebuilding the Skyline Boulevard bridge and making improvements to the Crystal Springs dam directly underneath. It's a colony of red-legged frogs. But officials say they are closer than they have ever been to coming up with an eviction plan that also protects the creatures, listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. The frogs have taken up residence in an area about the size of a large backyard swimming pool. It's not even a pond, just stagnant water that has pooled in between the slabs of concrete on top of the dam. The area is off limits to the public and sealed off by two locked gates....
BLM aims to step up weed fight Federal studies show there are four times as many noxious weeds on public lands in the West as there were a decade ago. And wildfire risks continue to grow each year. So every year, the Bureau of Land Management uses prescribed burns, chemical weed treatments and a variety of other methods to conserve and restore habitat on thousands of acres of public lands across the West, including Wyoming. The agency wants to enlarge those restoration and conservation efforts to include millions more acres in the near future....
Saving the Environment, One Quarterly Earnings Report at a Time A few years ago, scientists at Cargill Inc. learned how to make rigid, transparent plastics from corn sugars. There was just one problem: they cost a lot more than the oil-based plastics they would replace. But that was before the price of oil shot up and companies came under pressure from consumers and investors to find economically sound ways to adopt "green" packaging and other environmentally friendly products and processes. This year, Wal-Mart, Wild Oats Market and many other retailers, as well as food suppliers like Del Monte and Newman's Own Organics, all embraced corn-based packaging for fresh produce. Sales at NatureWorks, the Cargill subsidiary that makes the plastic, grew 200 percent in the first half of this year over the period last year. "The early adopters were more influenced by environmental concerns than costs," said Kathleen M. Bader, chairwoman of NatureWorks. "But now we're competitive with petrochemicals, too." Cargill is one of several companies profiting from the concerns - of shareholders, communities and consumers - about global warming, leaking landfills and other potential environmental hazards. Huge companies like General Electric and Chevron now have separate businesses to market what they are calling environment-friendly products....
Turkeys losing home on the (free) range Since its origin in 1946, Young's Farm has grown from a family lifestyle into a commercial and agricultural venture that has 60 full-time employees in addition to family workers. It's become one of the biggest tourist attractions for Dewey, a community with fewer than 7,000 residents. More than 150,000 people visit the farm during its pumpkin festival in October alone. Her smile is only skin deep. Behind it, Teskey says she's consumed by the thought of losing the family farm to residential development, which has been mandated by state law. If the Youngs don't cease using the land for agriculture by the end of 2006, the property will decrease in value by 4 percent each year because of the mandate, she said. The property is in an area deemed at risk for water availability, and agriculture uses three times that of residential development, according to some state studies....
It's All Trew: Water - then and now
What did people do for water before windmills? This question is significant and brings to mind other questions of like nature. Beware, as the following theories are strictly "Trew." We know beyond doubt there were millions of buffalo, deer, antelope, coyotes, mountain lions, wild turkeys, plus a long list of lesser creatures living on the Great Plains before the white man came. Each had to have water daily to survive. Add the Indians, their horses and livestock water requirements to this and it adds up to a lot of water needed each and every day. How many gallons? A mature buffalo weighing 900 to 1,000 pounds will drink about eight to 10 gallons of water per day. Calculate a like amount, relative to live weight of all the other prairie creatures and dwellers, and the amount of daily water required becomes astronomical. Remember now, this was before windmills, earthen dams and lakes, pipelines and electrical-powered water systems. Where did all the water come from and where was it located?....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Court needs basic wisdom, not legal eagles The latest bone thrown to the voracious mad dogs of the media, including this columnist, is the all-important, job-eternal Supreme Court nomination. The question that has the least influence on confirmation, yet receives the most polarized press coverage is: "Is the nominee qualified to be a Supreme Court judge?" Using my cowboy logic I'm going to dive beneath the poorly disguised whirlpools of pontificating spin and examine the issue that most begs addressing; i.e., why do we limit our choices to lawyers? I have discussed this with judges and lawyers, as well as cowboys and antelope....
Ancient Indian site caught in development battle A remote Utah canyon that long concealed a string of ancient Indian settlements holds another surprise: The rancher who sold it kept the mineral rights and says he may use them. Waldo Wilcox, who for nearly 50 years kept the ancient Fremont Indian sites remarkably well preserved, said he kept the mineral rights because Utah wouldn't pay what he thought his 4,200-acre ranch was worth. Wilcox wanted $4 million but got $2.5 million for the ranch in remote Range Creek Canyon. The 75-year-old rancher said that before he opens the canyon to any oil-and-gas development, he would offer the mineral rights to the state -- for a price. In the documentary "Secrets of the Lost Canyon," which airs locally Monday, Wilcox bitterly recalled negotiating with the state....
What's killing the elk in Yellowstone? Whodunit? The big, bad wolf? Old Man Winter? A scientific mystery starring wolves, adversarial weather and a declining elk herd is playing out at Yellowstone National Park. Oh, and people — hunters — are possible suspects, too. The elk population in North Yellowstone has dropped to about 8,000 from almost 17,000 in 1995. That was the year wolves were reintroduced into the 2.5-million-acre federal park in Wyoming, which overlaps the border of Montana and Idaho. The northern herd contains just a fraction of the 120,000 elk believed to dwell in the park region, and Yellowstone's Northern Range is just 204,000 acres. But this region is of particular interest to scientists because it has the largest wolf population, about 106 of the park's 171 wolves in 2004, making the elk there the most vulnerable herd....
New Process May Solve Old Coalbed Methane Problem Results should be in by Thanksgiving for the test run of a Montana-based engineering firm’s proposed solution for a major environmental problem from coalbed methane gas drilling. If the packaged water-treatment system successfully purifies brackish water that sometimes comes with the gas, the procedure could help advance the stalled CBM industry, which produces 9% of U.S. domestic natural gas. Drake Engineering Inc., Helena, is testing its new water-treatment technology at a Marathon Oil Corp. site in Wyoming, says Scott Scheffler, a spokesman for Houston-based Marathon. The system allows "resource extraction in an environmentally responsible manner," says co-owner Vivian Drake. Her husband, Ron, invented the new technology. The skid-mounted Drake treatment module measures about 8 x 12 ft. A pickup truck can deliver the 9,000-lb device on a tilt-bed trailer. The transport height, including trailer, is less than 11 ft. Erected, the unit is 14 ft tall and can process about 250 gallons per minute, or 8,500 barrels per day....
'Canary in the Mine' Bruce Peterson, on his hands and knees, claws through a thick pad of peat moss and into the brown muck beneath. "Put your hand in there and feel that," he says over his shoulder. The hole is an icebox chilled by a slab of frozen soil that starts about a foot below the surface and, in places, extends deeper than the length of a football field. The permafrost on Alaska's northern reaches froze thousands of years ago and has acted as a year-round thermostat for the tundra's plants, animals and water systems. But in recent decades, temperatures have warmed in the Arctic and the top layers of the permafrost have thawed. One long-time researcher predicts that half of interior Alaska's permafrost could be gone by the end of the century. In some places, the tundra is already crumbling into itself because of the thawing. In other places, suddenly unstable trees are tilting over in "drunken forests" and coastal villages on eroding land are being relocated....
Hidden hazards for migrant forest workers First in 1980 and again in 1993, Congress expressed shock at the abuse of Latino forest workers in America's woods and the hypocrisy of undocumented workers doing government work. Today, despite the influx of thousands of legal guest workers into reforestation, much of the work force remains undocumented. And the abject living conditions and wage exploitation that outraged Congress endure. And Congress has never examined the most pressing danger to Latino forest workers: the threat of being injured or killed on the job. A nine-month Sacramento Bee investigation has found that reforestation work, the thinning and planting that keeps both public and private forests healthy, is one of the most hazardous occupations in America _ and one of the most overlooked by state and federal regulators. On Forest Service and national park jobs visited by The Bee this year, peril was paramount. Slashing away at dense tangles of trees with chain saws, the pineros _ Spanish for pine workers _ scrambled through the woods in a chaos of cutting and noise....
Vail turns to logging operations to prevent forest fires, beetles The massive machine wrapped its metal arms around the trunk of the dead tree and in one swift move, cleanly ripped it from the ground. Turning into a clearing, it rotated the log and fed it through another part of the multifunctional machine, stripping it of limbs and leaves. The machine then turned again and neatly added the log to a growing pile. Tom Olden, owner of Pine Martin Logging, recently wielded this tract feller processor during a logging operation on Vail Mountain that cut about 600 trees around the top of Born Free Express Lift, also known as Chair 8. "We have a pristine ski area," said Jen Brown, spokeswoman for Vail Mountain, "and we did it to protect our assets along the gondola. It was related to the pine beetle and working on the fire protection along that area." As pine beetles turn Colorado forests into a rusty shade of red, Pine Martin Logging was hired to remove the trees from about 10 acres of U.S. Forest Service land over two weeks....
New home sought for frogs impeding development For at least six years, there's been one tiny thing standing in the way of rebuilding the Skyline Boulevard bridge and making improvements to the Crystal Springs dam directly underneath. It's a colony of red-legged frogs. But officials say they are closer than they have ever been to coming up with an eviction plan that also protects the creatures, listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. The frogs have taken up residence in an area about the size of a large backyard swimming pool. It's not even a pond, just stagnant water that has pooled in between the slabs of concrete on top of the dam. The area is off limits to the public and sealed off by two locked gates....
BLM aims to step up weed fight Federal studies show there are four times as many noxious weeds on public lands in the West as there were a decade ago. And wildfire risks continue to grow each year. So every year, the Bureau of Land Management uses prescribed burns, chemical weed treatments and a variety of other methods to conserve and restore habitat on thousands of acres of public lands across the West, including Wyoming. The agency wants to enlarge those restoration and conservation efforts to include millions more acres in the near future....
Saving the Environment, One Quarterly Earnings Report at a Time A few years ago, scientists at Cargill Inc. learned how to make rigid, transparent plastics from corn sugars. There was just one problem: they cost a lot more than the oil-based plastics they would replace. But that was before the price of oil shot up and companies came under pressure from consumers and investors to find economically sound ways to adopt "green" packaging and other environmentally friendly products and processes. This year, Wal-Mart, Wild Oats Market and many other retailers, as well as food suppliers like Del Monte and Newman's Own Organics, all embraced corn-based packaging for fresh produce. Sales at NatureWorks, the Cargill subsidiary that makes the plastic, grew 200 percent in the first half of this year over the period last year. "The early adopters were more influenced by environmental concerns than costs," said Kathleen M. Bader, chairwoman of NatureWorks. "But now we're competitive with petrochemicals, too." Cargill is one of several companies profiting from the concerns - of shareholders, communities and consumers - about global warming, leaking landfills and other potential environmental hazards. Huge companies like General Electric and Chevron now have separate businesses to market what they are calling environment-friendly products....
Turkeys losing home on the (free) range Since its origin in 1946, Young's Farm has grown from a family lifestyle into a commercial and agricultural venture that has 60 full-time employees in addition to family workers. It's become one of the biggest tourist attractions for Dewey, a community with fewer than 7,000 residents. More than 150,000 people visit the farm during its pumpkin festival in October alone. Her smile is only skin deep. Behind it, Teskey says she's consumed by the thought of losing the family farm to residential development, which has been mandated by state law. If the Youngs don't cease using the land for agriculture by the end of 2006, the property will decrease in value by 4 percent each year because of the mandate, she said. The property is in an area deemed at risk for water availability, and agriculture uses three times that of residential development, according to some state studies....
It's All Trew: Water - then and now
What did people do for water before windmills? This question is significant and brings to mind other questions of like nature. Beware, as the following theories are strictly "Trew." We know beyond doubt there were millions of buffalo, deer, antelope, coyotes, mountain lions, wild turkeys, plus a long list of lesser creatures living on the Great Plains before the white man came. Each had to have water daily to survive. Add the Indians, their horses and livestock water requirements to this and it adds up to a lot of water needed each and every day. How many gallons? A mature buffalo weighing 900 to 1,000 pounds will drink about eight to 10 gallons of water per day. Calculate a like amount, relative to live weight of all the other prairie creatures and dwellers, and the amount of daily water required becomes astronomical. Remember now, this was before windmills, earthen dams and lakes, pipelines and electrical-powered water systems. Where did all the water come from and where was it located?....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Court needs basic wisdom, not legal eagles The latest bone thrown to the voracious mad dogs of the media, including this columnist, is the all-important, job-eternal Supreme Court nomination. The question that has the least influence on confirmation, yet receives the most polarized press coverage is: "Is the nominee qualified to be a Supreme Court judge?" Using my cowboy logic I'm going to dive beneath the poorly disguised whirlpools of pontificating spin and examine the issue that most begs addressing; i.e., why do we limit our choices to lawyers? I have discussed this with judges and lawyers, as well as cowboys and antelope....
Monday, November 21, 2005
NATIONAL FINALS STEER ROPING
Less Than 2 Bucks
Scott Snedecor caught fire at the 2005 National Finals Steer Roping and burned 18-time World Champion Steer Roper Guy Allen by a mere $1.67 for this year's gold buckle. It was the closest title race ever in any single event in the history of the PRCA. Snedecor (Uvalde, Texas), who entered his fifth consecutive NFSR $16,148 behind Allen, won a round, placed in six others and won the average with a total time of 123.4 seconds on 10-head en route to his first world title at the 47th annual NFSR. This year's event featured a $130,000 payoff and ran Nov. 18-20 at the Amarillo National Center in Amarillo, Texas. The $21,850 Snedecor banked in Amarillo added up with his regular-season earnings to $69,318.77 compared to Allen's $69,380.10. While Snedecor placed in the money in seven out of 10 rounds, Allen only placed in three rounds. In the first round, Allen finished third with a run of 11.8 seconds, with Snedecor one-tenth of a second off Allen's time with an 11.9 for fourth place. The final day of competition featured four rounds, and it would be a fight to the end with Snedecor and Allen. Snedecor came out firing, placing fourth in the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds with times of 10.8, 13.6 and 12.6 seconds, respectively. Riding into the final round, Snedecor knew he needed the average win. He also knew there was one more roper to go after him, and that was Allen, who had failed to place in the money on Sunday afternoon. Snedecor needed not only first in the average, but to finish one spot ahead of Allen if he placed in the round. Allen came up with a no time in the final round and although Snedecor didn't place in the money in the 10th round, his average win gave him the victory....
Uvalde cowboy claims gold - barely
A good horse: $20,000-25,000. A good horse trailer: $70,000. A good rope: $30. The final difference in the 2005 National Finals Steer Roping: $1.67. Uvalde's Scott Snedecor won the gold buckle on Sunday with a margin a little less than most people have in their ashtrays, coming from behind to win against 18-time world champion Guy Allen in the Amarillo National Center. "Coming in, I thought I had a shot, but trying to chase Guy Allen, I wouldn't call it a good shot," Snedecor said. "Somehow everything fell right for me. I didn't change anything I'd done all year long, and it worked." Snedecor entered the finals trailing Allen by $16,000 and needing an almost perfect weekend to catch Allen. That was precisely what Snedecor produced, winning the average and $11,400 as one of three cowboys to rope all 10 steers during the three days in front of a big crowd, which included a large and loud section of Snedecor supporters. Brazile won the Colby Goodwin Memorial tie-down match, defeating Cody Ohl in the finals on four attempts with a total time of 39.5 seconds to 41.3 for Ohl....
Less Than 2 Bucks
Scott Snedecor caught fire at the 2005 National Finals Steer Roping and burned 18-time World Champion Steer Roper Guy Allen by a mere $1.67 for this year's gold buckle. It was the closest title race ever in any single event in the history of the PRCA. Snedecor (Uvalde, Texas), who entered his fifth consecutive NFSR $16,148 behind Allen, won a round, placed in six others and won the average with a total time of 123.4 seconds on 10-head en route to his first world title at the 47th annual NFSR. This year's event featured a $130,000 payoff and ran Nov. 18-20 at the Amarillo National Center in Amarillo, Texas. The $21,850 Snedecor banked in Amarillo added up with his regular-season earnings to $69,318.77 compared to Allen's $69,380.10. While Snedecor placed in the money in seven out of 10 rounds, Allen only placed in three rounds. In the first round, Allen finished third with a run of 11.8 seconds, with Snedecor one-tenth of a second off Allen's time with an 11.9 for fourth place. The final day of competition featured four rounds, and it would be a fight to the end with Snedecor and Allen. Snedecor came out firing, placing fourth in the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds with times of 10.8, 13.6 and 12.6 seconds, respectively. Riding into the final round, Snedecor knew he needed the average win. He also knew there was one more roper to go after him, and that was Allen, who had failed to place in the money on Sunday afternoon. Snedecor needed not only first in the average, but to finish one spot ahead of Allen if he placed in the round. Allen came up with a no time in the final round and although Snedecor didn't place in the money in the 10th round, his average win gave him the victory....
Uvalde cowboy claims gold - barely
A good horse: $20,000-25,000. A good horse trailer: $70,000. A good rope: $30. The final difference in the 2005 National Finals Steer Roping: $1.67. Uvalde's Scott Snedecor won the gold buckle on Sunday with a margin a little less than most people have in their ashtrays, coming from behind to win against 18-time world champion Guy Allen in the Amarillo National Center. "Coming in, I thought I had a shot, but trying to chase Guy Allen, I wouldn't call it a good shot," Snedecor said. "Somehow everything fell right for me. I didn't change anything I'd done all year long, and it worked." Snedecor entered the finals trailing Allen by $16,000 and needing an almost perfect weekend to catch Allen. That was precisely what Snedecor produced, winning the average and $11,400 as one of three cowboys to rope all 10 steers during the three days in front of a big crowd, which included a large and loud section of Snedecor supporters. Brazile won the Colby Goodwin Memorial tie-down match, defeating Cody Ohl in the finals on four attempts with a total time of 39.5 seconds to 41.3 for Ohl....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Wolves killed in Wollaston Lake area Tests are being done on two wolves killed in the Wollaston Lake area – the same area where the body of an Ontario man was found last week following a suspected attack by animals. According to the Canadian Press, Saskatchewan conservation officers shot the animals and sent the carcasses to Saskatoon to determine if they were the animals that killed 22-year-old Kenton Joel Carnegie. Carnegie, a third-year geological engineering student at the University of Waterloo, had been working at Points North Landing as part of his fall term co-op program. Following an autopsy, RCMP said although they couldn't say for certain he had been killed by wolves, that was the working theory....
Road battle roused commissioner out of his retirement He hounds land managers. He nips at environmentalists. He howls about the federal threat to local rights. But the bulldog that is Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw wasn't unleashed until 1998, when the retired-cop-turned-forest-ranger-turned-rancher quietly raised his hand and volunteered to examine road issues for a conservative group. "I don't know why I did it," he recalls. "But it felt like it was something I should do." Seven years later, Habbeshaw finds himself leading the charge against the Interior Department and environmental groups in the simmering showdown over who controls public lands. "I'll call it a fight," concedes Habbeshaw, sitting in his Kanab office under one of two prints of cowboys tearing across the prairie. And it's a fight in which the 64-year-old commissioner has thrown his share of punches. "He's a little more confrontational than the average guy," explains Stephen Boyden, deputy director for Utah's Public Lands Policy Coordination Office. The current skirmish ratcheted up in 1996, when then-President Clinton created the 1.9 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, drawing cheers from environmentalists and jeers from many locals....
Local officials provoke BLM over roads in monument The Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s lasted less than a decade as a potent political force. But the sentiment that sparked the backlash over the management of federally owned lands in the West has never really gone away. And nowhere does the movement's heart beat more loudly today than in southern Utah. Specifically, in Kane County. For more than two years, officials in the county, which is home to spectacular redrock vistas enshrined in countless Hollywood films, have been sticking a figurative finger in the eye of the Interior Department, daring it to do something about the federal road signs they have removed and the county road signs they have put up in and around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. All without authorization from the Bureau of Land Management, and in defiance of the BLM's existing transportation plan for the area. County officials frankly admit they are trying to provoke a response from the feds to force a lawsuit or a criminal trespassing charge that will land them in court and give them a chance to make their claim to the roads under an old mining law known as Revised Statute 2477, which granted rights-of-way across federal land....
Forest documentary takes quiet approach If the battles over Northwest logging have become wearisome, then Oregon Public Broadcasting's "Rethinking the Forests" provides an almost peaceful respite. The "Oregon Story" documentary explores the future of Oregon's forests but avoids the loudest voices in the conflict over that future. There are no timber industry big shots, no environmental activists or tree-sitters. The Bush administration and its maneuvers to promote logging are never mentioned. If the battles over Northwest logging have become wearisome, then Oregon Public Broadcasting's "Rethinking the Forests" provides an almost peaceful respite. The "Oregon Story" documentary explores the future of Oregon's forests but avoids the loudest voices in the conflict over that future. There are no timber industry big shots, no environmental activists or tree-sitters. The Bush administration and its maneuvers to promote logging are never mentioned. In their place are Oregonians who are quietly living, working and cutting trees in the forests without fighting. The program is unconventional and already has provoked criticism from environmental activists who say it prescribes logging as the forest cure-all. But it's also provocative. "Rethinking the Forests" makes the case the state's forests are in trouble, especially on the drier east side of the Cascades. Insects and disease are killing them, it says, and court fights are slowing the logging that would help avoid fires such as the ones that scorched Yellowstone National Park in 1988....
U.S. Backs Squeezing Oil From a Stone Tucked into a ravine and hidden behind ridges standing like stony sentinels is the site of Shell Oil Co.'s ultra-experimental, highly anticipated 30-year project to unlock oil from vast underground beds of rock. Here, on this sweeping plateau in western Colorado, the Bush administration has fixed its hopes for the next big energy boom: oil shale, which the U.S. Department of the Interior praises as an "energy resource with staggering potential." Members of Congress have described the region as the Saudi Arabia of oil shale. Legislation recently signed by President Bush instructs the Interior Department to lease 35% of the federal government's oil shale lands within the next year; provides tax breaks to the industry; reduces the ability of states and local communities to influence where projects are located; and compresses multiple, lengthy environmental assessments into a single analysis good for 10 years....
Column: California's calamity in waiting The scenario is as simple as what unfolded in New Orleans. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is below sea level. It is protected by a network of earthen levees dating to the frontier era, many built by Chinese laborers following completion of the trans-Sierra railroad. Through this delta flow the waters of Northern California, which are channeled southward to the semi-arid reaches of Central and Southern California via a network of aqueducts and pipelines representing a multibillion-dollar investment by state and federal government across 75 years of construction. Ringing the delta is a rich empire of agriculture and suburban development. Should a magnitude 6.5 earthquake strike the San Francisco Bay Area — almost a certainty by mid-century, though it could happen today — about 30 major failures can be expected in the earthen levees. About 3,000 homes and 85,000 acres of cropland would be submerged. Saltwater from San Francisco Bay would invade the system, forcing engineers to shut down the pumps that ship water to Central and Southern California while the levees were being repaired. This would cut off water to the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project....
A radical new vision There's not much to see at the United Water and Sanitation District. It consists of a 1-acre patch of grass and thistles in rural Elbert County. No one lives there. There are no buildings - not even a shed - in this special government district. No water or sanitation lines run through it. There is no reservoir or water tank. Nor are there plans for such things. The district has no customers in the county that authorized its creation. Elbert County records list the acre as a helicopter pad site. It's just a piece of ground to meet the legal requirement that special districts have defined boundaries. Yet it serves as the vehicle for an ambitious scheme to create a water network serving future developments throughout Colorado's booming Front Range. "United," Lembke said, "is an animal no one has seen before."....
Decision delayed on proposal to increase Wattenberg drilling The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission decided Friday to postpone a decision on a proposal to increase oil and gas drilling in the Wattenberg Field in northern Colorado. After a two-day hearing, commission members decided to wait until their Dec. 5 meeting in Denver to begin deliberations on the proposal by Kerr-McGee Corp., Encana Corp. and Noble Energy Marketing Inc. The companies have proposed adding three wells per each 160-acre quarter-section in the 2,500-square-mile field, the state's second-largest gas field. To reach the untapped reserves, the companies plan to use directional drilling from the field's existing well pads. The plan has been opposed by local ranchers, developers and landowners who believe the move is a land grab....
Editorial: Reject plan for new mountain village It seems absurd to perch a new city bigger than Alamosa near timberline on one of Colorado's snowiest mountain roads. But that's what the Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture proposes with its controversial Village at Wolf Creek. A key decision is expected soon from the U.S. Forest Service, which ought to reject the inappropriately large-scale project. The development would sit below Wolf Creek Pass (average annual snowfall: 400 inches) along U.S. 160, the highway that crosses the Continental Divide between Durango and the San Luis Valley. The project would be nearly surrounded by national forest and the Wolf Creek Ski Area, which opposes the plan and is tangled in lawsuits over the issue. The project may be built in phases, but government agencies should focus on cumulative effects....
Mining-claim plan worries Westerners Private companies and individuals would be able to buy large tracts of federal land, from sagebrush basins to high-peak hiking trails in Utah and around the West, under the terms of the spending bill that has passed the House of Representatives by a two-vote margin, 217-215. On the surface, the bill reads like the mundane nip and tuck of federal mining law its authors say it is. But lawyers who have parsed its language say the real beneficiaries could be real estate developers, whose business has become a more potent economic engine in the West than mining. Under the existing law, a mining claim is the vehicle that allows for the extraction of so-called hard-rock metals like gold or silver. Under the House bill passed Friday, for the first time in the history of the 133-year-old mining law individuals or companies can file and expand claims even if the land at the heart of a claim has already been stripped of its minerals or could never support a profitable mine. The measure would also lift an 11-year moratorium on the passing of claims into full ownership....
Column: Giving environmentalists a chance to put up or . . . not Something there is about selling off public lands in the West that throws environmental groups into a panic. They invariably prefer the devil they know, which is the perpetual mismanagement of millions of acres by federal agencies who always complain about underfunding. But instead of resisting private sales, they should be invited to get in on them. If political influence corresponds to wealth - and it clearly does - environmentalists individually and collectively could and would outbid the mining, timber and grazing interests for much of the acreage. Then they could manage it the way they want. There would be no more conflicting "multiple use" mandates to worry about. And they wouldn't have to spend millions on lobbying and related nonproductive activities....
New Mexico sees tug-of-war between industry, environmental groups Although New Mexico has been an oil and gas producing state for 80 years, it has recently become a bit of a battleground between environmental groups and the industry. There are several reasons, said Bob Gallagher, president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, why New Mexico has found itself in the spotlight. One is the fact that the state holds the nation's second largest amount of state and federal lands and has a large amount natural resources located on federal lands. Secondly, the state's two senators, Pete Domenici, a Republican, and Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat, are ranking senators on the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and, thirdly, the state's governor, Bill Richardson, is politically active nationally. Two areas, Otero Mesa and Valle Vidal, have become the center of controversy because, Gallagher said, "they hold some of the few new untapped areas of land in the western United States where oil and gas could be developed."....
Fish carcasses rain on forest Helicopters are dropping thousands of salmon carcasses in the Mount Hood National Forest this week, part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife-funded attempt to enhance the food chain for fish and wildlife in the upper Clackamas and Sandy river basins. The fish drop zones total about 10 stream miles. The Forest Service and partners began the drops five years ago to supplement the aquatic food chain, part of the strategy to rebuild depleted fish runs. However, the forested environment prevents all the drops from reaching their intended targets; some of the carcasses fall on land to be consumed by animals. The decaying fish replace some of the nutrients that came from wild salmon after they spawned and died in past generations. After a post-drop survey in 2004 found no significant gain in the simplest forms of aquatic life, the amount dropped for each stream mile was increased, said Burke Strobel, a Forest Service fish biologist based in Estacada....
Editorial: The road to common sense THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE'S new rule for off-road vehicles is a pleasant surprise, or at least a very good beginning. Up to now, using off-road vehicles in the national forests has been legal everywhere except where signs say it's prohibited. The new rule takes the opposite approach: It will be legal to use off-road vehicles only in areas where signs specifically allow it. The change is subtle but profound; the new rule puts the onus on off-roaders, where it belongs, and should make enforcement easier. Knowing which areas allow off-roading will be the driver's responsibility. The rule also ends so-called cross-country riding, in which long-distance trails are forged from one mapped area to another. But its success will depend on what foresters do next. Decisions on off-roading trails will be decided in local planning meetings over the next four years. One thing the Forest Service can do to make that planning a more honest effort is to decide now that illegal routes will remain illegal. Otherwise, off-roaders will be carving up the wilderness with new trails during the next couple of years in hopes of getting as many routes as possible sanctified....
Sacramento River salmon at highest population level in 24 years Wildlife managers expect more than 15,000 endangered winter-run chinook salmon to thrash their way up the Sacramento River this year, the largest number in 24 years thanks to extraordinary and expensive efforts to save the species. But there are a couple of caution flags: An unusually high percentage of the returning fish were born in a hatchery, while an improbably low proportion of dead male fish were found by biologists counting carcasses of the salmon, which die after breeding. An estimated 18 percent are hatchery fish this year, up from the usual 5 percent to 10 percent. Biologists limit the number of hatchery fish to avoid contaminating the wild gene pool, but an unusually large number were released three years ago as an experiment. "It looks like the hatchery fish may have survived a lot better this year. We're not really sure why," said Alice Low, a senior fishery biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game. "It's definitely something we'll keep an eye on."....
Turner says one man can make difference For the past three years, Ted Turner has driven a Toyota Prius that gets up to 50 miles per gallon. He owns a million acres of ranch land in New Mexico; on one ranch, he's knocked down fences and replaced cows with bison. He firmly believes environmental responsibility and profitable business aren't mutually exclusive. Today, Turner will speak at an awards reception sponsored by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. He and the award winners are a signal that, "unquestionably, one person can still make a difference," he said. Turner founded Turner Enterprises in 1991 specifically to address environmental issues around the globe. He owns 14 ranches totaling 2 million acres, including three in New Mexico....
Northwest Power Council Analysis Suggests Electric Rates Could Rise Due To Salmon Lawsuit Increased water spills over Columbia and Snake river dams and changes in river flows to aid juvenile salmon and steelhead migration in 2006, sought by plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit, would raise the cost of electricity in the Northwest this winter and also could increase the risk of power failures, according to an analysis by the staff of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. The net cost of the operations, if they are ordered by the federal court, could range from $125 million to $560 million in 2006, according to the analysis. The matter will be argued December 15 before U.S. District Judge James A. Redden in Portland, where plaintiffs led by the National Wildlife Federation successfully sued the federal government over its 2004 Biological Opinion on Snake and Columbia River hydropower operations to protect threatened and endangered species of salmon and steelhead....
Litigation impacts 800 projects on 1.2 million acres A California woodlands expert this week predicted an “explosive” wildfire season next season if human intervention to clear forest fuels is thwarted by court-mandated bureaucracy. “It is not a question of if, but when the wildfires will ignite,” John Hoffman testified Tuesday before a U.S. House hearing on litigation on U.S. Forest Service firefighting and forest health efforts. “Delays of any extent, extends the time period communities are vulnerable to wildfire,” said Hoffman, natural resources director of the Regional Council of Rural Counties, Sacramento. House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Bob Goodlatte chaired the hearing in Washington, D.C. In September, a California district court ruled in the Earth Island Institute v. Ruthenbeck case that projects proposed by the Forest Service under “Categorical Exclusions” were subject to the notice, comment and appeal provisions of the Appeals Reform Act of 1992. The Earth Island decision could impact roughly 800 projects on over 1.2 million acres of Forest Service land. The ruling applies to timber sales, prescribed burning, forest health, off-highway vehicles and mineral development projects.
Nevada congressman urged to oppose anti-wilderness bill Environmentalists are urging Rep. Jim Gibbons to oppose federal legislation that would potentially open up to development 412,000 acres of wilderness study areas in Nevada and California. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., introduced on Oct. 28 the bill that would remove protections from 11 U.S. Bureau of Land Management wilderness study areas straddling the Nevada-California border north of Reno. Gibbons' name originally appeared on the bill as its lone co-sponsor, but his aides said it was put there by mistake and that he hasn't decided whether to support it or not. John Wallin, director of the Nevada Wilderness Project, said he and other conservationists are not convinced it was a mistake and they remain concerned the Nevada Republican may end up supporting the measure....
'Grizzly Man' beautifully done but like watching an inevitable train wreck "Grizzly Man" is a strange story about some strange people. Of course, those who know Herzog know his films often are filled with strange people, either real or fictional. In this case, the people are real. The strangest of the lot is Timothy Treadwell, the grizzly man. For 13 years, he traveled to Alaska during the summer to do what he could to protect grizzly bears despite the fact they seemed to need no protection beyond what the National Park Service provided. Treadwell seemed to have no fear of these animals and, was able to get close to them and to talk to them. Treadwell captured a lot of his activities on video, and they are the visuals that make up most of the film. We see Treadwell talking in falsetto to bears as people tend to do with their dogs and their infants. He gives the bears names like Mr. Chocolate and Aunt Melissa and professes his love for them. The bears always seem indifferent to Treadwell and merely tolerate him. Sometimes Treadwell will begin to shout and curse, incoherently, at the National Park Service and whatever else he imagines stands in his way of protecting the bears. Every appearance of Treadwell on camera led me to the conclusion he was a man who was going around the bend and it was happening in an extremely dangerous place....
Bill to aid park resident stalls Legislation to help an elderly woman keep her part-time home in Rocky Mountain National Park was caught in the crossfire of an Iraq war debate in Congress on Friday. The House of Representatives was expected to easily approve legislation helping octogenarian Betty Dick, but first the House erupted in emotional finger-pointing over Iraq policy. Things got so emotional that at one point Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, began objecting to any unrelated action that he thought Republicans wanted. The National Park Service wanted to evict Betty Dick when her lease expired earlier this year. The bill would allow her to remain on her property for the rest of her life....
BEARS GO OFF RELIEF Bears in Yellowstone and other northern national parks are going into winter quarters. They are fat, lazy, good-natured, for they are at the end of another summer of high feeding, and they have thoroughly padded their ribs with the layers of fuel-food that will be needed to keep their low-banked fires of life smoldering while they sleep the long weeks away. "As fat as a bear" is a wholly accurate folk-simile, in the late autumn. But 5 months or so hence, when they will be coming out of their dens, the simile will have to change. Then, it will be "as hungry as a bear," and "as cross as a bear," too. The national park bruins will come out with bunkers empty, ribs lean, stomachs hollow, and fairly yelling for food. Bears are pleasant-enough fellows in the autumn, not quite so nice in the spring. The national park bears will not find their spring breakfasts as easy to get in the future as they and their ancestors for several generations have in the past. For Uncle Sam is taking them off relief, depriving them of their dole of assorted garbage that they have come to take for granted as part of their natural and inalienable rights....
Montana man lives with wolves On a cold November day, Carl Bock entered the double-gated 10-acre enclosure where his pack of 10 wolves lives. Instantly, half the pack is there to investigate the people Bock has brought into their territory. Wizzy, the alpha male who began the kill of another wolf in the pack to ascend to lead status -- the rest of the pack hangs back until a winner is obvious, then moves in to finish off the vanquished -- is first on the scene. "Be careful," Bock cautions. "You'll be 2.5 hours before Wizzy burns out on belly rubs." Indeed, Wizzy seems a lamb in wolf's clothing. The only danger from this wolf appears to be getting licked to death. He loves being petted, loves having his belly rubbed. And if you don't crouch down to eye level for him to lick your face, Wizzy will stand on his hind legs and put his front paws up on a tree to get to your level so he can kiss you. A few feet away, outside the enclosure in an area where the public can view the wolves at the Wolfkeep Wildlife Sanctuary, sits a bowling ball that's been chewed in half. Bock uses it as a visual aid to explain to visitors about the massive crushing power in a wolf's jaw....
Steeped in Greenhouse Gas, Pine Trees Deviate From the air, they look like a cross between unexplained Midwestern crop circles and the megaliths of Stonehenge. But these tall structures loom out of a forest. Arranged in a loop, the 100-foot-high by 100-foot-wide assemblages are releasing carbon dioxide, a colorless, odorless miasma that wafts through the loblolly pines they encircle. The 50-foot-tall pines, natives of the Deep South, are subjects in an experiment by scientists at Duke University who are using this engineered micro-climate as a kind of time machine to find out how these trees are likely to react as carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere and temperatures climb....
Seeking Clean Fuel for a Nation, and a Rebirth for Small-Town Montana If the vast, empty plain of eastern Montana is the Saudi Arabia of coal, then Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a prairie populist with a bolo tie and an advanced degree in soil science, may be its Lawrence. Rarely a day goes by that he does not lash out against the "sheiks, dictators, rats and crooks" who control the world oil supply or the people he calls their political handmaidens, "the best Congress that Big Oil can buy." Governor Schweitzer, a Democrat, has a two-fisted idea for energy independence that he carries around with him. In one fist is a shank of Montana coal, black and hard. In the other fist is a vial of nearly odorless clear liquid - a synthetic fuel that came from the coal and could run cars, jets and trucks or heat homes without contributing to global warming or setting off a major fight with environmental groups, he said. "Smell that," Mr. Schweitzer said, thrusting his vial of fuel under the noses of interested observers here in the capital, where he works in jeans with a border collie underfoot. "You hardly smell anything. This is a clean fuel, converted from coal by a chemical process. We can produce enough of this in Montana to power every American car for decades."....
Farming's front and center at talks Amid signs of stalemate, U.S. negotiators are making a final push for a new global trade pact that could usher in the biggest changes in farm policy in decades. U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman last month offered to slash selected agricultural subsidies by up to 60% in return for Europe, Japan and others opening their markets to U.S. farm exports. The European Union responded with a mild tariff-cutting proposal that dashed hopes for a key gathering next month of trade ministers from the 148-nation World Trade Organization. Now, with just three weeks remaining before the make-or-break Hong Kong summit, some trade experts fear another high-profile debacle like two of the WTO's last three ministerial meetings. At the heart of the current deadlock is a high-stakes dispute over farm trade....
Horse sense in Montana How unlikely is it that a Frenchman-turned-U.S.-citizen, the founder of a global power-generation company who makes his home in New York City's eclectic SoHo enclave, is transforming a small college town in southwestern Montana into the horse-whispering capital of the world? Curious ranchers in these parts don't call William Kriegel the "French cowboy" for nothing. Foremost on the receiving end of the rancher's generosity are students from the nearby University of Montana-Western, small in curriculum but, thanks in large part to Mr. Kriegel's grand vision, the only university in the United States to offer degrees (both associate's and bachelor's) in "natural horsemanship."....
Big Lake has gone to the dogs Persisting through three days of dog-eat-dog competition, Pat the border collie and her trainer Robin Penland beat out a "ruff" field of four-legged rivals this past weekend to claim top dog honors and the title of Texas Sheep Dog Association champions at the state tournament in Big Lake. "Everything in this sport emulates actual ranch work," Penland said. "In these trials we're just trying to show the dog that has the best command of the sheep." Rankings of the 98 sheep dogs at the Big Lake tournament were determined by each dog's performance in herding a small flock of sheep down a 300 yard field, through a series of gates and obstacles and into a small pen. Handlers instruct their dogs in this endeavor by voice and whistle commands from a stationary position at the end of the field opposite where the sheep are released at the beginning of each 12 minute run....
Western influence pervades cowboy fellowship They meet in a simple room atop the Livestock Pavilion at the La Plata County Fairgrounds, and their meetings are marked both by high spirits and the spirit of the Lord they come to worship. The Fellowship of Christian Cowboys meets at 7 p.m. Thursdays in the upstairs of the Livestock Pavilion at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. Guests are welcome. Call Jim Bryce, the group’s president, at 259-2562 for information. The Fellowship of Christian Cowboys is in its second incarnation in La Plata County. One basically created for high school rodeo students faltered in the 1990s after a decade of activities. It officially came back in 2002. While the group has the word cowboy in the title, not all members are cattle ranchers, said Jim Bryce, the fellowship president. Some are former ranchers or have deep roots here because their ancestors came as pioneers. Because of that, Bryce said, the fellowship is more about the Western lifestyle....
HIDDEN HISTORY: Crook rancher finds stagecoach stop Pieces of northeast Colorados history are out there, buried six inches to a foot below the grass and weeds along the South Platte River near Tamarack Ranch State Wildlife Area. Crook rancher Bill Condon knew where to look. Decades of running cattle from horseback gave him a knowledge of the land he says you cant get any other way. Hed noticed the dished-out shape where the trail wound its way between the hills and the sometimes swampy river bottoms. Other parts of the landscape reminded him of corrals and mangers for livestock. Hollows and indentations in the ground, visible as shadows, and patches where different types of grasses and weeds grew unmasked the lands historic use. You get interested, Condon said. I think other people would want to know. These were the last sites on the map that I knew about. Condon worked with Jeff Broome, a philosophy instructor at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, with expertise on Gen. George Armstrong Custer and the Plains Indian wars. The historian and his students excavated the site under one rule: No heavy equipment. I told them they could dig as deep as they wanted with a shovel, Condon said. Using narrow shovels and metal detectors, they found bullets and casings, both fired and unfired; shoes for horses, mules and oxen; forks, knives, spoons and other tools; epaulets from the shoulders of a military uniform; tools and other items....
Wolves killed in Wollaston Lake area Tests are being done on two wolves killed in the Wollaston Lake area – the same area where the body of an Ontario man was found last week following a suspected attack by animals. According to the Canadian Press, Saskatchewan conservation officers shot the animals and sent the carcasses to Saskatoon to determine if they were the animals that killed 22-year-old Kenton Joel Carnegie. Carnegie, a third-year geological engineering student at the University of Waterloo, had been working at Points North Landing as part of his fall term co-op program. Following an autopsy, RCMP said although they couldn't say for certain he had been killed by wolves, that was the working theory....
Road battle roused commissioner out of his retirement He hounds land managers. He nips at environmentalists. He howls about the federal threat to local rights. But the bulldog that is Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw wasn't unleashed until 1998, when the retired-cop-turned-forest-ranger-turned-rancher quietly raised his hand and volunteered to examine road issues for a conservative group. "I don't know why I did it," he recalls. "But it felt like it was something I should do." Seven years later, Habbeshaw finds himself leading the charge against the Interior Department and environmental groups in the simmering showdown over who controls public lands. "I'll call it a fight," concedes Habbeshaw, sitting in his Kanab office under one of two prints of cowboys tearing across the prairie. And it's a fight in which the 64-year-old commissioner has thrown his share of punches. "He's a little more confrontational than the average guy," explains Stephen Boyden, deputy director for Utah's Public Lands Policy Coordination Office. The current skirmish ratcheted up in 1996, when then-President Clinton created the 1.9 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, drawing cheers from environmentalists and jeers from many locals....
Local officials provoke BLM over roads in monument The Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s lasted less than a decade as a potent political force. But the sentiment that sparked the backlash over the management of federally owned lands in the West has never really gone away. And nowhere does the movement's heart beat more loudly today than in southern Utah. Specifically, in Kane County. For more than two years, officials in the county, which is home to spectacular redrock vistas enshrined in countless Hollywood films, have been sticking a figurative finger in the eye of the Interior Department, daring it to do something about the federal road signs they have removed and the county road signs they have put up in and around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. All without authorization from the Bureau of Land Management, and in defiance of the BLM's existing transportation plan for the area. County officials frankly admit they are trying to provoke a response from the feds to force a lawsuit or a criminal trespassing charge that will land them in court and give them a chance to make their claim to the roads under an old mining law known as Revised Statute 2477, which granted rights-of-way across federal land....
Forest documentary takes quiet approach If the battles over Northwest logging have become wearisome, then Oregon Public Broadcasting's "Rethinking the Forests" provides an almost peaceful respite. The "Oregon Story" documentary explores the future of Oregon's forests but avoids the loudest voices in the conflict over that future. There are no timber industry big shots, no environmental activists or tree-sitters. The Bush administration and its maneuvers to promote logging are never mentioned. If the battles over Northwest logging have become wearisome, then Oregon Public Broadcasting's "Rethinking the Forests" provides an almost peaceful respite. The "Oregon Story" documentary explores the future of Oregon's forests but avoids the loudest voices in the conflict over that future. There are no timber industry big shots, no environmental activists or tree-sitters. The Bush administration and its maneuvers to promote logging are never mentioned. In their place are Oregonians who are quietly living, working and cutting trees in the forests without fighting. The program is unconventional and already has provoked criticism from environmental activists who say it prescribes logging as the forest cure-all. But it's also provocative. "Rethinking the Forests" makes the case the state's forests are in trouble, especially on the drier east side of the Cascades. Insects and disease are killing them, it says, and court fights are slowing the logging that would help avoid fires such as the ones that scorched Yellowstone National Park in 1988....
U.S. Backs Squeezing Oil From a Stone Tucked into a ravine and hidden behind ridges standing like stony sentinels is the site of Shell Oil Co.'s ultra-experimental, highly anticipated 30-year project to unlock oil from vast underground beds of rock. Here, on this sweeping plateau in western Colorado, the Bush administration has fixed its hopes for the next big energy boom: oil shale, which the U.S. Department of the Interior praises as an "energy resource with staggering potential." Members of Congress have described the region as the Saudi Arabia of oil shale. Legislation recently signed by President Bush instructs the Interior Department to lease 35% of the federal government's oil shale lands within the next year; provides tax breaks to the industry; reduces the ability of states and local communities to influence where projects are located; and compresses multiple, lengthy environmental assessments into a single analysis good for 10 years....
Column: California's calamity in waiting The scenario is as simple as what unfolded in New Orleans. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is below sea level. It is protected by a network of earthen levees dating to the frontier era, many built by Chinese laborers following completion of the trans-Sierra railroad. Through this delta flow the waters of Northern California, which are channeled southward to the semi-arid reaches of Central and Southern California via a network of aqueducts and pipelines representing a multibillion-dollar investment by state and federal government across 75 years of construction. Ringing the delta is a rich empire of agriculture and suburban development. Should a magnitude 6.5 earthquake strike the San Francisco Bay Area — almost a certainty by mid-century, though it could happen today — about 30 major failures can be expected in the earthen levees. About 3,000 homes and 85,000 acres of cropland would be submerged. Saltwater from San Francisco Bay would invade the system, forcing engineers to shut down the pumps that ship water to Central and Southern California while the levees were being repaired. This would cut off water to the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project....
A radical new vision There's not much to see at the United Water and Sanitation District. It consists of a 1-acre patch of grass and thistles in rural Elbert County. No one lives there. There are no buildings - not even a shed - in this special government district. No water or sanitation lines run through it. There is no reservoir or water tank. Nor are there plans for such things. The district has no customers in the county that authorized its creation. Elbert County records list the acre as a helicopter pad site. It's just a piece of ground to meet the legal requirement that special districts have defined boundaries. Yet it serves as the vehicle for an ambitious scheme to create a water network serving future developments throughout Colorado's booming Front Range. "United," Lembke said, "is an animal no one has seen before."....
Decision delayed on proposal to increase Wattenberg drilling The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission decided Friday to postpone a decision on a proposal to increase oil and gas drilling in the Wattenberg Field in northern Colorado. After a two-day hearing, commission members decided to wait until their Dec. 5 meeting in Denver to begin deliberations on the proposal by Kerr-McGee Corp., Encana Corp. and Noble Energy Marketing Inc. The companies have proposed adding three wells per each 160-acre quarter-section in the 2,500-square-mile field, the state's second-largest gas field. To reach the untapped reserves, the companies plan to use directional drilling from the field's existing well pads. The plan has been opposed by local ranchers, developers and landowners who believe the move is a land grab....
Editorial: Reject plan for new mountain village It seems absurd to perch a new city bigger than Alamosa near timberline on one of Colorado's snowiest mountain roads. But that's what the Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture proposes with its controversial Village at Wolf Creek. A key decision is expected soon from the U.S. Forest Service, which ought to reject the inappropriately large-scale project. The development would sit below Wolf Creek Pass (average annual snowfall: 400 inches) along U.S. 160, the highway that crosses the Continental Divide between Durango and the San Luis Valley. The project would be nearly surrounded by national forest and the Wolf Creek Ski Area, which opposes the plan and is tangled in lawsuits over the issue. The project may be built in phases, but government agencies should focus on cumulative effects....
Mining-claim plan worries Westerners Private companies and individuals would be able to buy large tracts of federal land, from sagebrush basins to high-peak hiking trails in Utah and around the West, under the terms of the spending bill that has passed the House of Representatives by a two-vote margin, 217-215. On the surface, the bill reads like the mundane nip and tuck of federal mining law its authors say it is. But lawyers who have parsed its language say the real beneficiaries could be real estate developers, whose business has become a more potent economic engine in the West than mining. Under the existing law, a mining claim is the vehicle that allows for the extraction of so-called hard-rock metals like gold or silver. Under the House bill passed Friday, for the first time in the history of the 133-year-old mining law individuals or companies can file and expand claims even if the land at the heart of a claim has already been stripped of its minerals or could never support a profitable mine. The measure would also lift an 11-year moratorium on the passing of claims into full ownership....
Column: Giving environmentalists a chance to put up or . . . not Something there is about selling off public lands in the West that throws environmental groups into a panic. They invariably prefer the devil they know, which is the perpetual mismanagement of millions of acres by federal agencies who always complain about underfunding. But instead of resisting private sales, they should be invited to get in on them. If political influence corresponds to wealth - and it clearly does - environmentalists individually and collectively could and would outbid the mining, timber and grazing interests for much of the acreage. Then they could manage it the way they want. There would be no more conflicting "multiple use" mandates to worry about. And they wouldn't have to spend millions on lobbying and related nonproductive activities....
New Mexico sees tug-of-war between industry, environmental groups Although New Mexico has been an oil and gas producing state for 80 years, it has recently become a bit of a battleground between environmental groups and the industry. There are several reasons, said Bob Gallagher, president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, why New Mexico has found itself in the spotlight. One is the fact that the state holds the nation's second largest amount of state and federal lands and has a large amount natural resources located on federal lands. Secondly, the state's two senators, Pete Domenici, a Republican, and Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat, are ranking senators on the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and, thirdly, the state's governor, Bill Richardson, is politically active nationally. Two areas, Otero Mesa and Valle Vidal, have become the center of controversy because, Gallagher said, "they hold some of the few new untapped areas of land in the western United States where oil and gas could be developed."....
Fish carcasses rain on forest Helicopters are dropping thousands of salmon carcasses in the Mount Hood National Forest this week, part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife-funded attempt to enhance the food chain for fish and wildlife in the upper Clackamas and Sandy river basins. The fish drop zones total about 10 stream miles. The Forest Service and partners began the drops five years ago to supplement the aquatic food chain, part of the strategy to rebuild depleted fish runs. However, the forested environment prevents all the drops from reaching their intended targets; some of the carcasses fall on land to be consumed by animals. The decaying fish replace some of the nutrients that came from wild salmon after they spawned and died in past generations. After a post-drop survey in 2004 found no significant gain in the simplest forms of aquatic life, the amount dropped for each stream mile was increased, said Burke Strobel, a Forest Service fish biologist based in Estacada....
Editorial: The road to common sense THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE'S new rule for off-road vehicles is a pleasant surprise, or at least a very good beginning. Up to now, using off-road vehicles in the national forests has been legal everywhere except where signs say it's prohibited. The new rule takes the opposite approach: It will be legal to use off-road vehicles only in areas where signs specifically allow it. The change is subtle but profound; the new rule puts the onus on off-roaders, where it belongs, and should make enforcement easier. Knowing which areas allow off-roading will be the driver's responsibility. The rule also ends so-called cross-country riding, in which long-distance trails are forged from one mapped area to another. But its success will depend on what foresters do next. Decisions on off-roading trails will be decided in local planning meetings over the next four years. One thing the Forest Service can do to make that planning a more honest effort is to decide now that illegal routes will remain illegal. Otherwise, off-roaders will be carving up the wilderness with new trails during the next couple of years in hopes of getting as many routes as possible sanctified....
Sacramento River salmon at highest population level in 24 years Wildlife managers expect more than 15,000 endangered winter-run chinook salmon to thrash their way up the Sacramento River this year, the largest number in 24 years thanks to extraordinary and expensive efforts to save the species. But there are a couple of caution flags: An unusually high percentage of the returning fish were born in a hatchery, while an improbably low proportion of dead male fish were found by biologists counting carcasses of the salmon, which die after breeding. An estimated 18 percent are hatchery fish this year, up from the usual 5 percent to 10 percent. Biologists limit the number of hatchery fish to avoid contaminating the wild gene pool, but an unusually large number were released three years ago as an experiment. "It looks like the hatchery fish may have survived a lot better this year. We're not really sure why," said Alice Low, a senior fishery biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game. "It's definitely something we'll keep an eye on."....
Turner says one man can make difference For the past three years, Ted Turner has driven a Toyota Prius that gets up to 50 miles per gallon. He owns a million acres of ranch land in New Mexico; on one ranch, he's knocked down fences and replaced cows with bison. He firmly believes environmental responsibility and profitable business aren't mutually exclusive. Today, Turner will speak at an awards reception sponsored by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. He and the award winners are a signal that, "unquestionably, one person can still make a difference," he said. Turner founded Turner Enterprises in 1991 specifically to address environmental issues around the globe. He owns 14 ranches totaling 2 million acres, including three in New Mexico....
Northwest Power Council Analysis Suggests Electric Rates Could Rise Due To Salmon Lawsuit Increased water spills over Columbia and Snake river dams and changes in river flows to aid juvenile salmon and steelhead migration in 2006, sought by plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit, would raise the cost of electricity in the Northwest this winter and also could increase the risk of power failures, according to an analysis by the staff of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. The net cost of the operations, if they are ordered by the federal court, could range from $125 million to $560 million in 2006, according to the analysis. The matter will be argued December 15 before U.S. District Judge James A. Redden in Portland, where plaintiffs led by the National Wildlife Federation successfully sued the federal government over its 2004 Biological Opinion on Snake and Columbia River hydropower operations to protect threatened and endangered species of salmon and steelhead....
Litigation impacts 800 projects on 1.2 million acres A California woodlands expert this week predicted an “explosive” wildfire season next season if human intervention to clear forest fuels is thwarted by court-mandated bureaucracy. “It is not a question of if, but when the wildfires will ignite,” John Hoffman testified Tuesday before a U.S. House hearing on litigation on U.S. Forest Service firefighting and forest health efforts. “Delays of any extent, extends the time period communities are vulnerable to wildfire,” said Hoffman, natural resources director of the Regional Council of Rural Counties, Sacramento. House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Bob Goodlatte chaired the hearing in Washington, D.C. In September, a California district court ruled in the Earth Island Institute v. Ruthenbeck case that projects proposed by the Forest Service under “Categorical Exclusions” were subject to the notice, comment and appeal provisions of the Appeals Reform Act of 1992. The Earth Island decision could impact roughly 800 projects on over 1.2 million acres of Forest Service land. The ruling applies to timber sales, prescribed burning, forest health, off-highway vehicles and mineral development projects.
Nevada congressman urged to oppose anti-wilderness bill Environmentalists are urging Rep. Jim Gibbons to oppose federal legislation that would potentially open up to development 412,000 acres of wilderness study areas in Nevada and California. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., introduced on Oct. 28 the bill that would remove protections from 11 U.S. Bureau of Land Management wilderness study areas straddling the Nevada-California border north of Reno. Gibbons' name originally appeared on the bill as its lone co-sponsor, but his aides said it was put there by mistake and that he hasn't decided whether to support it or not. John Wallin, director of the Nevada Wilderness Project, said he and other conservationists are not convinced it was a mistake and they remain concerned the Nevada Republican may end up supporting the measure....
'Grizzly Man' beautifully done but like watching an inevitable train wreck "Grizzly Man" is a strange story about some strange people. Of course, those who know Herzog know his films often are filled with strange people, either real or fictional. In this case, the people are real. The strangest of the lot is Timothy Treadwell, the grizzly man. For 13 years, he traveled to Alaska during the summer to do what he could to protect grizzly bears despite the fact they seemed to need no protection beyond what the National Park Service provided. Treadwell seemed to have no fear of these animals and, was able to get close to them and to talk to them. Treadwell captured a lot of his activities on video, and they are the visuals that make up most of the film. We see Treadwell talking in falsetto to bears as people tend to do with their dogs and their infants. He gives the bears names like Mr. Chocolate and Aunt Melissa and professes his love for them. The bears always seem indifferent to Treadwell and merely tolerate him. Sometimes Treadwell will begin to shout and curse, incoherently, at the National Park Service and whatever else he imagines stands in his way of protecting the bears. Every appearance of Treadwell on camera led me to the conclusion he was a man who was going around the bend and it was happening in an extremely dangerous place....
Bill to aid park resident stalls Legislation to help an elderly woman keep her part-time home in Rocky Mountain National Park was caught in the crossfire of an Iraq war debate in Congress on Friday. The House of Representatives was expected to easily approve legislation helping octogenarian Betty Dick, but first the House erupted in emotional finger-pointing over Iraq policy. Things got so emotional that at one point Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, began objecting to any unrelated action that he thought Republicans wanted. The National Park Service wanted to evict Betty Dick when her lease expired earlier this year. The bill would allow her to remain on her property for the rest of her life....
BEARS GO OFF RELIEF Bears in Yellowstone and other northern national parks are going into winter quarters. They are fat, lazy, good-natured, for they are at the end of another summer of high feeding, and they have thoroughly padded their ribs with the layers of fuel-food that will be needed to keep their low-banked fires of life smoldering while they sleep the long weeks away. "As fat as a bear" is a wholly accurate folk-simile, in the late autumn. But 5 months or so hence, when they will be coming out of their dens, the simile will have to change. Then, it will be "as hungry as a bear," and "as cross as a bear," too. The national park bruins will come out with bunkers empty, ribs lean, stomachs hollow, and fairly yelling for food. Bears are pleasant-enough fellows in the autumn, not quite so nice in the spring. The national park bears will not find their spring breakfasts as easy to get in the future as they and their ancestors for several generations have in the past. For Uncle Sam is taking them off relief, depriving them of their dole of assorted garbage that they have come to take for granted as part of their natural and inalienable rights....
Montana man lives with wolves On a cold November day, Carl Bock entered the double-gated 10-acre enclosure where his pack of 10 wolves lives. Instantly, half the pack is there to investigate the people Bock has brought into their territory. Wizzy, the alpha male who began the kill of another wolf in the pack to ascend to lead status -- the rest of the pack hangs back until a winner is obvious, then moves in to finish off the vanquished -- is first on the scene. "Be careful," Bock cautions. "You'll be 2.5 hours before Wizzy burns out on belly rubs." Indeed, Wizzy seems a lamb in wolf's clothing. The only danger from this wolf appears to be getting licked to death. He loves being petted, loves having his belly rubbed. And if you don't crouch down to eye level for him to lick your face, Wizzy will stand on his hind legs and put his front paws up on a tree to get to your level so he can kiss you. A few feet away, outside the enclosure in an area where the public can view the wolves at the Wolfkeep Wildlife Sanctuary, sits a bowling ball that's been chewed in half. Bock uses it as a visual aid to explain to visitors about the massive crushing power in a wolf's jaw....
Steeped in Greenhouse Gas, Pine Trees Deviate From the air, they look like a cross between unexplained Midwestern crop circles and the megaliths of Stonehenge. But these tall structures loom out of a forest. Arranged in a loop, the 100-foot-high by 100-foot-wide assemblages are releasing carbon dioxide, a colorless, odorless miasma that wafts through the loblolly pines they encircle. The 50-foot-tall pines, natives of the Deep South, are subjects in an experiment by scientists at Duke University who are using this engineered micro-climate as a kind of time machine to find out how these trees are likely to react as carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere and temperatures climb....
Seeking Clean Fuel for a Nation, and a Rebirth for Small-Town Montana If the vast, empty plain of eastern Montana is the Saudi Arabia of coal, then Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a prairie populist with a bolo tie and an advanced degree in soil science, may be its Lawrence. Rarely a day goes by that he does not lash out against the "sheiks, dictators, rats and crooks" who control the world oil supply or the people he calls their political handmaidens, "the best Congress that Big Oil can buy." Governor Schweitzer, a Democrat, has a two-fisted idea for energy independence that he carries around with him. In one fist is a shank of Montana coal, black and hard. In the other fist is a vial of nearly odorless clear liquid - a synthetic fuel that came from the coal and could run cars, jets and trucks or heat homes without contributing to global warming or setting off a major fight with environmental groups, he said. "Smell that," Mr. Schweitzer said, thrusting his vial of fuel under the noses of interested observers here in the capital, where he works in jeans with a border collie underfoot. "You hardly smell anything. This is a clean fuel, converted from coal by a chemical process. We can produce enough of this in Montana to power every American car for decades."....
Farming's front and center at talks Amid signs of stalemate, U.S. negotiators are making a final push for a new global trade pact that could usher in the biggest changes in farm policy in decades. U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman last month offered to slash selected agricultural subsidies by up to 60% in return for Europe, Japan and others opening their markets to U.S. farm exports. The European Union responded with a mild tariff-cutting proposal that dashed hopes for a key gathering next month of trade ministers from the 148-nation World Trade Organization. Now, with just three weeks remaining before the make-or-break Hong Kong summit, some trade experts fear another high-profile debacle like two of the WTO's last three ministerial meetings. At the heart of the current deadlock is a high-stakes dispute over farm trade....
Horse sense in Montana How unlikely is it that a Frenchman-turned-U.S.-citizen, the founder of a global power-generation company who makes his home in New York City's eclectic SoHo enclave, is transforming a small college town in southwestern Montana into the horse-whispering capital of the world? Curious ranchers in these parts don't call William Kriegel the "French cowboy" for nothing. Foremost on the receiving end of the rancher's generosity are students from the nearby University of Montana-Western, small in curriculum but, thanks in large part to Mr. Kriegel's grand vision, the only university in the United States to offer degrees (both associate's and bachelor's) in "natural horsemanship."....
Big Lake has gone to the dogs Persisting through three days of dog-eat-dog competition, Pat the border collie and her trainer Robin Penland beat out a "ruff" field of four-legged rivals this past weekend to claim top dog honors and the title of Texas Sheep Dog Association champions at the state tournament in Big Lake. "Everything in this sport emulates actual ranch work," Penland said. "In these trials we're just trying to show the dog that has the best command of the sheep." Rankings of the 98 sheep dogs at the Big Lake tournament were determined by each dog's performance in herding a small flock of sheep down a 300 yard field, through a series of gates and obstacles and into a small pen. Handlers instruct their dogs in this endeavor by voice and whistle commands from a stationary position at the end of the field opposite where the sheep are released at the beginning of each 12 minute run....
Western influence pervades cowboy fellowship They meet in a simple room atop the Livestock Pavilion at the La Plata County Fairgrounds, and their meetings are marked both by high spirits and the spirit of the Lord they come to worship. The Fellowship of Christian Cowboys meets at 7 p.m. Thursdays in the upstairs of the Livestock Pavilion at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. Guests are welcome. Call Jim Bryce, the group’s president, at 259-2562 for information. The Fellowship of Christian Cowboys is in its second incarnation in La Plata County. One basically created for high school rodeo students faltered in the 1990s after a decade of activities. It officially came back in 2002. While the group has the word cowboy in the title, not all members are cattle ranchers, said Jim Bryce, the fellowship president. Some are former ranchers or have deep roots here because their ancestors came as pioneers. Because of that, Bryce said, the fellowship is more about the Western lifestyle....
HIDDEN HISTORY: Crook rancher finds stagecoach stop Pieces of northeast Colorados history are out there, buried six inches to a foot below the grass and weeds along the South Platte River near Tamarack Ranch State Wildlife Area. Crook rancher Bill Condon knew where to look. Decades of running cattle from horseback gave him a knowledge of the land he says you cant get any other way. Hed noticed the dished-out shape where the trail wound its way between the hills and the sometimes swampy river bottoms. Other parts of the landscape reminded him of corrals and mangers for livestock. Hollows and indentations in the ground, visible as shadows, and patches where different types of grasses and weeds grew unmasked the lands historic use. You get interested, Condon said. I think other people would want to know. These were the last sites on the map that I knew about. Condon worked with Jeff Broome, a philosophy instructor at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, with expertise on Gen. George Armstrong Custer and the Plains Indian wars. The historian and his students excavated the site under one rule: No heavy equipment. I told them they could dig as deep as they wanted with a shovel, Condon said. Using narrow shovels and metal detectors, they found bullets and casings, both fired and unfired; shoes for horses, mules and oxen; forks, knives, spoons and other tools; epaulets from the shoulders of a military uniform; tools and other items....
Sunday, November 20, 2005
FLE
Hunter Who Started Cedar Fire Avoids Prison
Sergio Martinez, a 35-year-old West Covina, Calif., man, was sentenced to five years of probation and six months of community confinement in a halfway house. He also was ordered to perform 980 hours of community service and must pay $150 per month for five years. Martinez told reporters in March 2005 that he made a bad judgment call and did not spark the fire intentionally. He said he was so scared of dying that he lit a signal fire. Santa Ana winds soon sent that fire racing over 422 square miles, nearly a 10th of the county's acreage, killing 14 people, destroying more than 2,200 homes and causing more than $800 million in damage....and all Kit Laney tried to do was open a gate and let his mother cows get back to their stranded baby calves...no homes destroyed, no 14 deaths...and he spends 5 months in a Federal prison...thank you US Forest Service and US Attorney David Iglesias.
Outfitter pleads guilty for not having proper permits
A longtime Townsend outfitter pleaded guilty in federal court in Great Falls this week for taking hunters onto the Lewis and Clark National Forest without having the proper permits. Lamonte Schnur, an outfitter for almost 35 years and owner of Monte’s Guiding and Mountain Outfitting, faces up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine for each of the five misdemeanor counts on which he will be sentenced on Jan. 11. The counts specifically state that he conducted service or work activity that is not authorized by federal law, according to information from U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer’s office. So the Forest Service set up a sting operation, in which two law enforcement officers from another region paid Schnur $5,600 for a guided hunt between Oct. 31 and Nov. 3, 2004. The men were briefed on the Forest Service boundaries, and carried Global Positioning Systems to get exact readings of where they were hunting....
Extension of Patriot Act Faces Threat of Filibuster
A tentative deal to extend the government's antiterrorism powers under the law known as the USA Patriot Act appeared in some jeopardy Thursday, as Senate Democrats threatened to mount a filibuster in an effort to block the legislation. "This is worth the fight," Senator Russell D. Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who serves on the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. "I've cleared my schedule right up to Thanksgiving," Mr. Feingold said, adding that he was making plans to read aloud from the Bill of Rights as part of a filibuster if necessary. The political maneuvering came even before negotiators for the House and Senate had agreed on a final deal to extend the government's counterterrorism powers under the act. In a letter Thursday, a bipartisan group of six senators said the tentative deal had caused them "deep concern" because it did not go far enough in "making reasonable changes to the original law to protect innocent people from unnecessary and intrusive government surveillance." Reflecting the political breadth of concerns about the law, the letter was signed by three Republicans - Senators Larry E. Craig, John E. Sununu and Lisa Murkowksi - and three Democrats - Senators Richard J. Durbin and Ken Salazar and Mr. Feingold....
Sen. Specter Puts Brakes on Patriot Act Extension
Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) joined Friday with a bipartisan group of critics to reject a proposed agreement to extend the Patriot Act, dealing the White House an embarrassing setback and dashing its hopes that Congress would vote on the sweeping antiterrorism law before adjourning for Thanksgiving. Speaking at a news conference called by senators who have threatened to filibuster the House-backed legislation unless it provides greater privacy protections, Specter said he disagreed with House negotiators over the expiration dates for two of the law's 16 provisions. "My view is that the Patriot Act needs further analysis and some revision from what is in the proposed conference report at the present time," Specter said. The statute expires Dec. 31, and pressure is building on Congress to act. Specter said that he wanted four-year expiration dates for a provision that gives the FBI broad leeway to seize personal and business information — the so-called library provision — and a second provision that allows the FBI to wiretap any phone a suspect uses. The current version has seven-year expiration dates. Jim Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a group that supports renewing the Patriot Act but with greater protections for privacy rights and civil liberties, said the administration and House leadership "misread the sentiment in the Congress." "I think that there is widespread concern about some of the unrestricted powers in the Patriot Act, and it's bipartisan," he said....
Why Reward Failure?
Congress is now poised to renew the PATRIOT Act, which will dramatically expand the powers of the FBI. Have our lawmakers found the right “balance” between liberty and security? Had the FBI’s record of performance been outstanding, reasonable people could debate whether it is necessary to confer more power on this already powerful police agency. Alas, the FBI’s record cannot even be regarded as satisfactory. In May, after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit, FBI documents came to light that showed that the bureau dispatched its “terrorism” units to investigate anti-war protesters who were gearing up for the 2004 Democratic National Convention. The protesters claimed those subsequent “interviews” were an attempt to intimidate them. In June, the inspector general was finally permitted to release his findings regarding the FBI’s inability to detect and disrupt the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The inspector’s ultimate conclusion -- that the attacks represented a “significant failure” by the FBI -- surprised no one. But this report contained some awful details that had gone previously unreported. In July, Inspector General Glenn Fine reported that the FBI had failed to translate more than 8,000 hours of audio wiretap recording related to counterterrorism investigations. If there is evidence of an impending attack in those recordings, no one can act on it. But it gets worse. When one FBI translator, Sibol Edmonds, stepped forward to report incompetence and possible corruption in the bureau’s translation division, she was discharged. In September, the inspector general reported that the FBI often violated its own rules for handling confidential informants. Last month, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit revealed that the bureau is presently investigating hundreds of potential violations relating to its use of secret surveillance operations. Hundreds? Had this lawsuit not been filed, it is highly unlikely that the FBI would have ever brought these problems to the attention of Congress or the press....
Armed standoff on Rio Grande
U.S. Border Patrol agents were backed down this week by armed men, dressed in what appeared to be Mexican military uniforms and carrying military weapons, who seized a captured dump truck filled with marijuana from the U.S. agents and dragged it across the border into Mexico with a bulldozer. The border incident occurred Thursday evening when Border Patrol agents attempted to pull over a dump truck on Interstate 10 in Hudspeth County, Texas. The driver fled from the agents, exiting the freeway and driving toward the Rio Grande which runs within 2 miles of the interstate in this portion of West Texas. The driver abandoned the truck after it became stuck in the river bed, escaping into Mexico. Agents called for reinforcement from the Texas state troopers and Hudspeth County sheriff and began unloading the haul – estimated to have been nearly 3 tons – when everything changed. Officers "started to retrieve the bundles when the armed subjects appeared," said Agent Ramiro Cordero, Border Patrol spokesman. According to Hudspeth County Chief Deputy Mike Doyal, the dump truck driver returned with armed men, some of whom drove "official looking vehicles with overhead lights." Some of those armed, Doyal told the El Paso Times, appeared to be Mexican soldiers in uniform with military weapons....
Senate Reaches "Compromise" on Habeas Corpus that Could Still Strip Guantanamo Detainees of any Trial
Facing intense criticism from human rights, legal and civil liberties groups, the Senate voted on Tuesday to restore some of the rights of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Under the deal - worked out by Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Carl Levin - detainees convicted by military tribunals can have their cases reviewed by federal courts. Graham sponsored the original amendment hastily passed by the Senate last Thursday that stripped detainees of their right to Habeas Corpus which is their right to challenge their detention in federal courts. This amendment overturned a June 2004 Supreme Court ruling that had affirmed detainees right to Habeus Corpus. The compromise, reached with Levin, still reverses the Supreme Court ruling but allows any detainee sentenced to death or at least 10 years in prison by a military tribunal, to automatically appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In addition, the deal restores federal court jurisdiction over pending cases and provides for a court review of whether standards and procedures of the tribunals are consistent with the Constitution....
Hunter Who Started Cedar Fire Avoids Prison
Sergio Martinez, a 35-year-old West Covina, Calif., man, was sentenced to five years of probation and six months of community confinement in a halfway house. He also was ordered to perform 980 hours of community service and must pay $150 per month for five years. Martinez told reporters in March 2005 that he made a bad judgment call and did not spark the fire intentionally. He said he was so scared of dying that he lit a signal fire. Santa Ana winds soon sent that fire racing over 422 square miles, nearly a 10th of the county's acreage, killing 14 people, destroying more than 2,200 homes and causing more than $800 million in damage....and all Kit Laney tried to do was open a gate and let his mother cows get back to their stranded baby calves...no homes destroyed, no 14 deaths...and he spends 5 months in a Federal prison...thank you US Forest Service and US Attorney David Iglesias.
Outfitter pleads guilty for not having proper permits
A longtime Townsend outfitter pleaded guilty in federal court in Great Falls this week for taking hunters onto the Lewis and Clark National Forest without having the proper permits. Lamonte Schnur, an outfitter for almost 35 years and owner of Monte’s Guiding and Mountain Outfitting, faces up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine for each of the five misdemeanor counts on which he will be sentenced on Jan. 11. The counts specifically state that he conducted service or work activity that is not authorized by federal law, according to information from U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer’s office. So the Forest Service set up a sting operation, in which two law enforcement officers from another region paid Schnur $5,600 for a guided hunt between Oct. 31 and Nov. 3, 2004. The men were briefed on the Forest Service boundaries, and carried Global Positioning Systems to get exact readings of where they were hunting....
Extension of Patriot Act Faces Threat of Filibuster
A tentative deal to extend the government's antiterrorism powers under the law known as the USA Patriot Act appeared in some jeopardy Thursday, as Senate Democrats threatened to mount a filibuster in an effort to block the legislation. "This is worth the fight," Senator Russell D. Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who serves on the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. "I've cleared my schedule right up to Thanksgiving," Mr. Feingold said, adding that he was making plans to read aloud from the Bill of Rights as part of a filibuster if necessary. The political maneuvering came even before negotiators for the House and Senate had agreed on a final deal to extend the government's counterterrorism powers under the act. In a letter Thursday, a bipartisan group of six senators said the tentative deal had caused them "deep concern" because it did not go far enough in "making reasonable changes to the original law to protect innocent people from unnecessary and intrusive government surveillance." Reflecting the political breadth of concerns about the law, the letter was signed by three Republicans - Senators Larry E. Craig, John E. Sununu and Lisa Murkowksi - and three Democrats - Senators Richard J. Durbin and Ken Salazar and Mr. Feingold....
Sen. Specter Puts Brakes on Patriot Act Extension
Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) joined Friday with a bipartisan group of critics to reject a proposed agreement to extend the Patriot Act, dealing the White House an embarrassing setback and dashing its hopes that Congress would vote on the sweeping antiterrorism law before adjourning for Thanksgiving. Speaking at a news conference called by senators who have threatened to filibuster the House-backed legislation unless it provides greater privacy protections, Specter said he disagreed with House negotiators over the expiration dates for two of the law's 16 provisions. "My view is that the Patriot Act needs further analysis and some revision from what is in the proposed conference report at the present time," Specter said. The statute expires Dec. 31, and pressure is building on Congress to act. Specter said that he wanted four-year expiration dates for a provision that gives the FBI broad leeway to seize personal and business information — the so-called library provision — and a second provision that allows the FBI to wiretap any phone a suspect uses. The current version has seven-year expiration dates. Jim Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a group that supports renewing the Patriot Act but with greater protections for privacy rights and civil liberties, said the administration and House leadership "misread the sentiment in the Congress." "I think that there is widespread concern about some of the unrestricted powers in the Patriot Act, and it's bipartisan," he said....
Why Reward Failure?
Congress is now poised to renew the PATRIOT Act, which will dramatically expand the powers of the FBI. Have our lawmakers found the right “balance” between liberty and security? Had the FBI’s record of performance been outstanding, reasonable people could debate whether it is necessary to confer more power on this already powerful police agency. Alas, the FBI’s record cannot even be regarded as satisfactory. In May, after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit, FBI documents came to light that showed that the bureau dispatched its “terrorism” units to investigate anti-war protesters who were gearing up for the 2004 Democratic National Convention. The protesters claimed those subsequent “interviews” were an attempt to intimidate them. In June, the inspector general was finally permitted to release his findings regarding the FBI’s inability to detect and disrupt the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The inspector’s ultimate conclusion -- that the attacks represented a “significant failure” by the FBI -- surprised no one. But this report contained some awful details that had gone previously unreported. In July, Inspector General Glenn Fine reported that the FBI had failed to translate more than 8,000 hours of audio wiretap recording related to counterterrorism investigations. If there is evidence of an impending attack in those recordings, no one can act on it. But it gets worse. When one FBI translator, Sibol Edmonds, stepped forward to report incompetence and possible corruption in the bureau’s translation division, she was discharged. In September, the inspector general reported that the FBI often violated its own rules for handling confidential informants. Last month, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit revealed that the bureau is presently investigating hundreds of potential violations relating to its use of secret surveillance operations. Hundreds? Had this lawsuit not been filed, it is highly unlikely that the FBI would have ever brought these problems to the attention of Congress or the press....
Armed standoff on Rio Grande
U.S. Border Patrol agents were backed down this week by armed men, dressed in what appeared to be Mexican military uniforms and carrying military weapons, who seized a captured dump truck filled with marijuana from the U.S. agents and dragged it across the border into Mexico with a bulldozer. The border incident occurred Thursday evening when Border Patrol agents attempted to pull over a dump truck on Interstate 10 in Hudspeth County, Texas. The driver fled from the agents, exiting the freeway and driving toward the Rio Grande which runs within 2 miles of the interstate in this portion of West Texas. The driver abandoned the truck after it became stuck in the river bed, escaping into Mexico. Agents called for reinforcement from the Texas state troopers and Hudspeth County sheriff and began unloading the haul – estimated to have been nearly 3 tons – when everything changed. Officers "started to retrieve the bundles when the armed subjects appeared," said Agent Ramiro Cordero, Border Patrol spokesman. According to Hudspeth County Chief Deputy Mike Doyal, the dump truck driver returned with armed men, some of whom drove "official looking vehicles with overhead lights." Some of those armed, Doyal told the El Paso Times, appeared to be Mexican soldiers in uniform with military weapons....
Senate Reaches "Compromise" on Habeas Corpus that Could Still Strip Guantanamo Detainees of any Trial
Facing intense criticism from human rights, legal and civil liberties groups, the Senate voted on Tuesday to restore some of the rights of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Under the deal - worked out by Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Carl Levin - detainees convicted by military tribunals can have their cases reviewed by federal courts. Graham sponsored the original amendment hastily passed by the Senate last Thursday that stripped detainees of their right to Habeas Corpus which is their right to challenge their detention in federal courts. This amendment overturned a June 2004 Supreme Court ruling that had affirmed detainees right to Habeus Corpus. The compromise, reached with Levin, still reverses the Supreme Court ruling but allows any detainee sentenced to death or at least 10 years in prison by a military tribunal, to automatically appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In addition, the deal restores federal court jurisdiction over pending cases and provides for a court review of whether standards and procedures of the tribunals are consistent with the Constitution....
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
Writing a cowgirl writer’s résumé
By Julie Carter
I have been asked to submit my résumé to have on file at work. I agreed to present one as requested knowing full well I would first have to do some serious updating of a version from another era.
I had to dig through several file boxes to locate my old résumé that hadn’t seen the light of day in over 15 years. It is so old it was typed with a typewriter and had dates from the last millennium.
I was pretty sure most those years from college forward working jobs like waiting tables, driving truck and tending bar didn’t count for much in this century. The 15 years of managing onsite construction offices for major industrial projects are now only valuable for good narrations. Those stories chronicle the work as well as the geography I saw while moving like a gypsy from project to project.
Two decades of rodeo entry fees and worn out road maps don’t count for much on a résumé. But they do provide a link to the past through friendships made and the fine tuned skill of telling “I yusta rid’em” yarns.
Then came the dead years. Dead to paychecks, office politics, 40-hour-weeks, weekends off, vacations--paid or otherwise, and any thoughts of retirement off in the distant future.
I was back on a ranch where work has a level of physical that few people equate with the panoramic photographs of ranch life as seen in the glossy magazines.
At different times in my life I have worked physically hard jobs where I wore a tool belt, ran a nail hammer, chipping gun, tied rebar, and ran a boom truck--all the name of equal opportunity construction. It doesn’t compare.
While the list of jobs from the ranch would read the same for most ranch women, it has little to do with my job as news writer except maybe the required hours. Both often entail working from “can see to can’t see.”
Peppered among spring brandings, fall shipping, and the daily chores of splitting fire wood, toting ashes, bucketing drinking water from the cistern and the daily dirt road drives to the school bus were stories I wrote for an assortment of ag publications. I was officially published if that qualified me for anything.
Writing grocery lists to feed lunch to 15 cowboys for four days straight and then 40 cowboys on Saturday doesn’t fit the résumé. Neither does the skill to cook it up and serve it either on the mesa top with my horse tied to a tree or at headquarters in a postage stamp sized kitchen.
The 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. check of the corralled heifers awaiting the imminent birthing of their calves is not a usual line on a journalist’s job listing. Nor is the requirement for defensive safety skills usually involving a Maglite flashlight and running a fast retreat on frozen ground with a fire breathing bovine butting at your back pockets.
I had an editor tell me a few years ago that never before me had he had a writer email him and say, “Hold the presses. I’ll be right back. I have to go pull a calf.”
If growing up and living “cowgirl” prepared me for anything in my current job as a writer, it was the lesson of perseverance, endurance, and getting the job done as right as you are able--- whatever it takes.
The lifestyle is a great source of anecdotes but a résumé doesn’t even start to tell the story.
© Julie Carter 2005
THANKSGIVING
by Larry Gabriel
We can learn from history, if we don't rely too much on mass media.
We have all heard the popular story of the first thanksgiving feast of 1621, when the pilgrims celebrated their first harvest. We only assume they ate turkey.
Edward Winslow reported it like this: Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.
For some reason we hear little about the following proclamation by the Congress made at Philadelphia on Oct. 11, 1782.
IT being the indispensable duty of all Nations, not only to offer up their supplications to ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf: Therefore the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States, in the course of the important conflict in which they have been so long engaged; the present happy and promising state of public affairs; and the events of the war, in the course of the year now drawing to a close; particularly the harmony of the public Councils, which is so necessary to the success of the public cause; the perfect union and good understanding which has hitherto subsisted between them and their Allies, notwithstanding the artful and unwearied attempts of the common enemy to divide them; the success of the arms of the United States, and those of their Allies, and the acknowledgment of their independence by another European power, whose friendship and commerce must be of great and lasting advantage to these States:----- Do hereby recommend to the inhabitants of these States in general, to observe, and request the several States to interpose their authority in appointing and commanding the observation of THURSDAY the twenty-eight day of NOVEMBER next, as a day of solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience of his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.
In those days, the federal government did not order citizens to take a day off. They sent their declaration to the states. The states also just passed it along.
Some states responded like New Hampshire, which printed the proclamation and sent it to "worshiping assemblies" with a suggestion that a day of thanksgiving be observed, when "citizens abstain from all servile labor thereon."
That's not the whole story of Thanksgiving, but its worth knowing in a land of self government.
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture
Writing a cowgirl writer’s résumé
By Julie Carter
I have been asked to submit my résumé to have on file at work. I agreed to present one as requested knowing full well I would first have to do some serious updating of a version from another era.
I had to dig through several file boxes to locate my old résumé that hadn’t seen the light of day in over 15 years. It is so old it was typed with a typewriter and had dates from the last millennium.
I was pretty sure most those years from college forward working jobs like waiting tables, driving truck and tending bar didn’t count for much in this century. The 15 years of managing onsite construction offices for major industrial projects are now only valuable for good narrations. Those stories chronicle the work as well as the geography I saw while moving like a gypsy from project to project.
Two decades of rodeo entry fees and worn out road maps don’t count for much on a résumé. But they do provide a link to the past through friendships made and the fine tuned skill of telling “I yusta rid’em” yarns.
Then came the dead years. Dead to paychecks, office politics, 40-hour-weeks, weekends off, vacations--paid or otherwise, and any thoughts of retirement off in the distant future.
I was back on a ranch where work has a level of physical that few people equate with the panoramic photographs of ranch life as seen in the glossy magazines.
At different times in my life I have worked physically hard jobs where I wore a tool belt, ran a nail hammer, chipping gun, tied rebar, and ran a boom truck--all the name of equal opportunity construction. It doesn’t compare.
While the list of jobs from the ranch would read the same for most ranch women, it has little to do with my job as news writer except maybe the required hours. Both often entail working from “can see to can’t see.”
Peppered among spring brandings, fall shipping, and the daily chores of splitting fire wood, toting ashes, bucketing drinking water from the cistern and the daily dirt road drives to the school bus were stories I wrote for an assortment of ag publications. I was officially published if that qualified me for anything.
Writing grocery lists to feed lunch to 15 cowboys for four days straight and then 40 cowboys on Saturday doesn’t fit the résumé. Neither does the skill to cook it up and serve it either on the mesa top with my horse tied to a tree or at headquarters in a postage stamp sized kitchen.
The 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. check of the corralled heifers awaiting the imminent birthing of their calves is not a usual line on a journalist’s job listing. Nor is the requirement for defensive safety skills usually involving a Maglite flashlight and running a fast retreat on frozen ground with a fire breathing bovine butting at your back pockets.
I had an editor tell me a few years ago that never before me had he had a writer email him and say, “Hold the presses. I’ll be right back. I have to go pull a calf.”
If growing up and living “cowgirl” prepared me for anything in my current job as a writer, it was the lesson of perseverance, endurance, and getting the job done as right as you are able--- whatever it takes.
The lifestyle is a great source of anecdotes but a résumé doesn’t even start to tell the story.
© Julie Carter 2005
THANKSGIVING
by Larry Gabriel
We can learn from history, if we don't rely too much on mass media.
We have all heard the popular story of the first thanksgiving feast of 1621, when the pilgrims celebrated their first harvest. We only assume they ate turkey.
Edward Winslow reported it like this: Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.
For some reason we hear little about the following proclamation by the Congress made at Philadelphia on Oct. 11, 1782.
IT being the indispensable duty of all Nations, not only to offer up their supplications to ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf: Therefore the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States, in the course of the important conflict in which they have been so long engaged; the present happy and promising state of public affairs; and the events of the war, in the course of the year now drawing to a close; particularly the harmony of the public Councils, which is so necessary to the success of the public cause; the perfect union and good understanding which has hitherto subsisted between them and their Allies, notwithstanding the artful and unwearied attempts of the common enemy to divide them; the success of the arms of the United States, and those of their Allies, and the acknowledgment of their independence by another European power, whose friendship and commerce must be of great and lasting advantage to these States:----- Do hereby recommend to the inhabitants of these States in general, to observe, and request the several States to interpose their authority in appointing and commanding the observation of THURSDAY the twenty-eight day of NOVEMBER next, as a day of solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience of his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.
In those days, the federal government did not order citizens to take a day off. They sent their declaration to the states. The states also just passed it along.
Some states responded like New Hampshire, which printed the proclamation and sent it to "worshiping assemblies" with a suggestion that a day of thanksgiving be observed, when "citizens abstain from all servile labor thereon."
That's not the whole story of Thanksgiving, but its worth knowing in a land of self government.
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Fox’s Changing Climate
The climate is changing right before our very eyes. It’s not the weather I’m talking about – it’s the media climate. On Sunday, November 14, Fox News set aside its status as the best network for coverage of the global warming debate and for one night became one of the worst. According to the Fox special “The Heat Is On,” “The earth is sending out a desperate alarm.” Now, conservative and free-market groups as well as climate change skeptics are sending out their own alarm. Climatologist Patrick J. Michaels has pointed out that predictions of climate disaster are overblown and “we now know with considerable confidence that warming within the foreseeable future will be modest,” he said in a November 15 Cybercast News Service story. But Michaels added an important note: “The other side, which I now include Fox News on, seems to do everything it can to suppress that story.” There is no question Michaels is right about the latest Fox broadcast. It began with all the hype of a Hollywood movie trailer. Flickering scenes of smokestacks, trucks and cars whizzing down the highway and dead fish in a stream filled the screen as the program began. “The Heat Is On” went downhill from there, piling on a steady stream of left-wing activists, Hollywood celebrities, inaccuracies and exaggerations to paint a picture of a global climate apocalypse. It even included clips from the left-wing propaganda film “The Day After Tomorrow” as well as an interview with Jeffrey Nachmanoff, one of its screenwriters....
Fight! Fight!
PETA is not writing the books on how to win friends and influence people. Currently the animal rights extremists are going after a number of environmental groups because, to some extent or another, support animal testing. PETA is hosting two new sites: MeanGreenies and WickedWildlifeFund. This ought to be fun to watch. (This is a post from the CRC-Greenwatch Blog)
Do the Math
In the last few weeks there have multiple articles, evening news reports, and instances of political posturing in regard to the oil executives and their quarterly profits. The Washington Post ran an article saying, “Senate Democrats want a temporary windfall profits tax, and some consumer groups say the profits should go to build new refineries. But most drivers just want the prices to come down, so they don’t have to shell out wads of money to feed the profits that have America fuming.” The Post quoted one man as saying, “I feel cheated. We’re all getting cheated.” Consumers are quick to run to the phones or take out the pen and paper to inform their respective elected government officials about the evil profiteers, but they rarely sit down to think about how much they waste on products that surely will not, and can not, run their SUV down the local state highway. The next time you hear someone ranting about paying more than $2.10 for a gallon of gas, it would be interesting to see their daily expenditures on products that might be considered by some to be “non-essential” items compared to what fuels their means of transportation:
1 Gallon of Lipton Ice Tea - $ 9.52
1 Gallon of Gatorade - $10.17
1 Gallon of Evian Water - $21.19
1 Gallon of Scope - $84.48
1 Gallon of Vick’s Nyquil $178.13
1 Gallon of Pepto Bismol - $123.20
A post from the Freedom Talks blog.
Global Warming, Global Governance
The European Parliament this week adopted a resolution on a report authored by one of its MEPs. Entitled, "Winning the Battle Against Global Climate Change," it offers a new example of the institutionalized scare-mongering so characteristic of the current climate debate. This mindset is a fertile breeding ground for a quantum leap in international governance, shifting sovereignty from the national level to that of international organizations. In a way, they might promote a phoenix-like rebirth of earlier attempts, in the 1970s and 1980s, to establish an International Economic Order (NIEO), aimed at the "management of interdependence". These proposals encompassed a series of measures and reforms in the areas of raw materials, including oil, international trade, development aid, the international monetary system, science and technology, industrial development and the global food supply. They were the topic of a string of international negotiations, which took place in the second half of the 1970s in countless conferences organized by the UN, UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) and UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization). It takes little imagination to see that all this would have resulted in a degree of government intervention - at both national and international level - which has never been equaled in the history of mankind....
The Killer That Matters Most
Coincidently, at the same time this study was released, I happened to be at the Ugandan Embassy in Washington D.C. The Ambassador to the U.S. from Uganda, Edith Ssempala, spoke forcefully and passionately about the negative influence that western policies have had on her people. Due to the unintended negative consequences of policies that the wealthier countries of the world have adopted, Africans continue to die by the millions each year. But the policies the Ambassador was criticizing had nothing to do to with global warming. What is killing Africans in greatest numbers is poverty, and international trade policies that prevent Africans from protecting themselves from diseases that are easily preventable. The Ambassador mentioned pressure from environmentalists in wealthy nations that has prevented the construction of hydroelectric dams in Africa, denying electricity to millions of people. Two billion of the Earth's inhabitants still do not have access to electricity, leading to massive death tolls from problems such as food-borne illnesses (due to a lack of refrigeration) and pneumonia brought on by breathing air contaminated by the burning of dung or wood for heat and cooking. Anyone that has had to suffer through a loss of electricity for any length of time becomes quickly aware of how necessary electricity is for daily life. Worries over death tolls from global warming is a case of misplaced concern and priorities....
U.S. Should Not Import European Laws
As globalization fosters economic growth around the world, Americans should be vigilant of an unintended consequence: the imposition on U.S. businesses and consumers of the non-science-based, environmentalist-promoted, European Union-embraced standard known as the "precautionary principle." The precautionary principle is the subject of a new Washington Legal Foundation report entitled "Exporting Precaution: How Europe's Risk-Free Regulatory Agenda Threatens American Free Enterprise." Authored by Lawrence Kogan of the Institute for Trade Standards and Sustainable Development, the report describes how "international bureaucrats and influential activist groups use the precautionary principle as a vehicle to diminish America's competitive position in the global economy and advance special interest agendas hostile to free enterprise and technology." Kogan aptly calls the precautionary principle "regulation without representation." The precautionary principle is a scheme for establishing environmental, health and safety regulations that are based on irrational fears rather than empirical science....
Fox’s Changing Climate
The climate is changing right before our very eyes. It’s not the weather I’m talking about – it’s the media climate. On Sunday, November 14, Fox News set aside its status as the best network for coverage of the global warming debate and for one night became one of the worst. According to the Fox special “The Heat Is On,” “The earth is sending out a desperate alarm.” Now, conservative and free-market groups as well as climate change skeptics are sending out their own alarm. Climatologist Patrick J. Michaels has pointed out that predictions of climate disaster are overblown and “we now know with considerable confidence that warming within the foreseeable future will be modest,” he said in a November 15 Cybercast News Service story. But Michaels added an important note: “The other side, which I now include Fox News on, seems to do everything it can to suppress that story.” There is no question Michaels is right about the latest Fox broadcast. It began with all the hype of a Hollywood movie trailer. Flickering scenes of smokestacks, trucks and cars whizzing down the highway and dead fish in a stream filled the screen as the program began. “The Heat Is On” went downhill from there, piling on a steady stream of left-wing activists, Hollywood celebrities, inaccuracies and exaggerations to paint a picture of a global climate apocalypse. It even included clips from the left-wing propaganda film “The Day After Tomorrow” as well as an interview with Jeffrey Nachmanoff, one of its screenwriters....
Fight! Fight!
PETA is not writing the books on how to win friends and influence people. Currently the animal rights extremists are going after a number of environmental groups because, to some extent or another, support animal testing. PETA is hosting two new sites: MeanGreenies and WickedWildlifeFund. This ought to be fun to watch. (This is a post from the CRC-Greenwatch Blog)
Do the Math
In the last few weeks there have multiple articles, evening news reports, and instances of political posturing in regard to the oil executives and their quarterly profits. The Washington Post ran an article saying, “Senate Democrats want a temporary windfall profits tax, and some consumer groups say the profits should go to build new refineries. But most drivers just want the prices to come down, so they don’t have to shell out wads of money to feed the profits that have America fuming.” The Post quoted one man as saying, “I feel cheated. We’re all getting cheated.” Consumers are quick to run to the phones or take out the pen and paper to inform their respective elected government officials about the evil profiteers, but they rarely sit down to think about how much they waste on products that surely will not, and can not, run their SUV down the local state highway. The next time you hear someone ranting about paying more than $2.10 for a gallon of gas, it would be interesting to see their daily expenditures on products that might be considered by some to be “non-essential” items compared to what fuels their means of transportation:
1 Gallon of Lipton Ice Tea - $ 9.52
1 Gallon of Gatorade - $10.17
1 Gallon of Evian Water - $21.19
1 Gallon of Scope - $84.48
1 Gallon of Vick’s Nyquil $178.13
1 Gallon of Pepto Bismol - $123.20
A post from the Freedom Talks blog.
Global Warming, Global Governance
The European Parliament this week adopted a resolution on a report authored by one of its MEPs. Entitled, "Winning the Battle Against Global Climate Change," it offers a new example of the institutionalized scare-mongering so characteristic of the current climate debate. This mindset is a fertile breeding ground for a quantum leap in international governance, shifting sovereignty from the national level to that of international organizations. In a way, they might promote a phoenix-like rebirth of earlier attempts, in the 1970s and 1980s, to establish an International Economic Order (NIEO), aimed at the "management of interdependence". These proposals encompassed a series of measures and reforms in the areas of raw materials, including oil, international trade, development aid, the international monetary system, science and technology, industrial development and the global food supply. They were the topic of a string of international negotiations, which took place in the second half of the 1970s in countless conferences organized by the UN, UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) and UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization). It takes little imagination to see that all this would have resulted in a degree of government intervention - at both national and international level - which has never been equaled in the history of mankind....
The Killer That Matters Most
Coincidently, at the same time this study was released, I happened to be at the Ugandan Embassy in Washington D.C. The Ambassador to the U.S. from Uganda, Edith Ssempala, spoke forcefully and passionately about the negative influence that western policies have had on her people. Due to the unintended negative consequences of policies that the wealthier countries of the world have adopted, Africans continue to die by the millions each year. But the policies the Ambassador was criticizing had nothing to do to with global warming. What is killing Africans in greatest numbers is poverty, and international trade policies that prevent Africans from protecting themselves from diseases that are easily preventable. The Ambassador mentioned pressure from environmentalists in wealthy nations that has prevented the construction of hydroelectric dams in Africa, denying electricity to millions of people. Two billion of the Earth's inhabitants still do not have access to electricity, leading to massive death tolls from problems such as food-borne illnesses (due to a lack of refrigeration) and pneumonia brought on by breathing air contaminated by the burning of dung or wood for heat and cooking. Anyone that has had to suffer through a loss of electricity for any length of time becomes quickly aware of how necessary electricity is for daily life. Worries over death tolls from global warming is a case of misplaced concern and priorities....
U.S. Should Not Import European Laws
As globalization fosters economic growth around the world, Americans should be vigilant of an unintended consequence: the imposition on U.S. businesses and consumers of the non-science-based, environmentalist-promoted, European Union-embraced standard known as the "precautionary principle." The precautionary principle is the subject of a new Washington Legal Foundation report entitled "Exporting Precaution: How Europe's Risk-Free Regulatory Agenda Threatens American Free Enterprise." Authored by Lawrence Kogan of the Institute for Trade Standards and Sustainable Development, the report describes how "international bureaucrats and influential activist groups use the precautionary principle as a vehicle to diminish America's competitive position in the global economy and advance special interest agendas hostile to free enterprise and technology." Kogan aptly calls the precautionary principle "regulation without representation." The precautionary principle is a scheme for establishing environmental, health and safety regulations that are based on irrational fears rather than empirical science....
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