NEWS ROUNDUP

Hages provide solutions to PRFW Couple details property battles with government When it comes to property rights cases for ranchers and farmers throughout the U.S., the two most common misconceptions that Nevada rancher Wayne has seen is a misunderstanding of what property really is in property rights cases and knowing what questions to ask in which courts. One of the primary reasons taking cases are lost is a lack of knowledge as to what property is. The majority of lawyers, as well as farmers and ranchers, say in their cases that the property being taken is what Wayne called the subject, or the physical property like land, wells or water. But what is actually being taken away is the access to the property and being able to make beneficial use of the property, Wayne said, and that is what should be defined as property in a case. The physical property will be there, but government often prevents farmers and ranchers from accessing the subject of property. "Property and access are synonymous," Wayne said. Another very significant reason for losing these cases is lawyers taking them to the wrong court. Most of the cases he has seen have been filed in Federal District Court, but this court doesn't have jurisdiction over property valued at $10,000 or more; most takings cases exceed $10,000. Wayne said these types of cases must go to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and while he has worked to make this known, lawyers are continually told they have "the right question in the wrong court," he said, when they don't take cases to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims....
Shell project puts focus on oil shale 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 percent 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 lengthy environmental assessments into a single analysis good for 10 years....
Soon-to-be-abandoned rail line may become a trail he federal Bureau of Land Management is hoping to team up with Cochise County officials to take over a soon-to-be abandoned railroad line and turn it into a recreational trail. The San Pedro & Southwestern Railroad has struggled for nearly three years to turn a profit on the 60-mile stretch of line from Curtis to just east of Bisbee. It now has filed an application with the government to abandon the line. The company's filing says it may remove the tracks and ties but retain the right of way and leave the bridges in place. That leaves an opening for the BLM to take over the right of way as a trail in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. The BLM would manage about 25 miles of line inside the conservation area, and is looking for Cochise County supervisors to support the rest of the trail area....
Judge orders environmental groups to post bond in logging case A federal judge has ordered environmental groups suing over the logging of beetle-killed trees in the Basin Creek area south of here to post a $100,000 bond to cover the potential costs of delaying the project. The U.S. Forest Service requested the bond, arguing it stands to lose $400,000 to $600,000 if logging is delayed for a year pending an appeal by the groups to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy this week set the bond at $100,000, saying the amount would be large enough to "ensure meaningful accountability" if the appeals court upholds his earlier ruling that the project is in the public interest and should proceed. The Native Ecosystems Council, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, and the Ecology Center had argued that small nonprofit organizations shouldn't have to post a bond, and requested that the amount be set at $1. The groups have since vowed to appeal. "There's no precedent for this, so we're confident it will be overturned," said Michael Garrity, executive director of Alliance for the Wild Rockies. "If it were allowed to stand, it would have a chilling effect on citizens who are trying to stop illegal logging and protect fish and wildlife on public lands."....
Judge halts snowmobile grooming A federal judge in eastern Washington ordered the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday to halt snowmobile grooming in the recovery zone for woodland caribou. The order signed by U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley comes as a preliminary injunction as part of a lawsuit brought by conservation groups to close the 450,000-acre recovery zone completely to snowmobile use. Woodland caribou is often described as the most threatened large mammal in North America....
Jefferson County wants feds to open closed roads Jefferson County commissioners are demanding that state and federal land managers reopen all routes closed to motorized travel and relinquish all roads through public land to the county. In a letter written to Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Supervisor Bruce Ramsey, commissioners said the Forest Service has been illegally shutting down roads for years without consulting the county, which has the sole authority to control all roads. “We’re saying the Forest Service doesn’t own any roads in this county,’’ Commissioner Chuck Notbohm said this week. “While it may be their land, the roads are ours.’’ Commissioners Tom Lythgoe and Ken Weber joined Notbohm in signing the letter that was also sent to the Helena National Forest, Bureau of Land Management in Butte and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Commissioners asked the agencies to remove all signs, debris and gates from closed roads until the issue is resolved....
Salmon survival ruling is appealed The Bush administration said Wednesday it will appeal a federal judge's ruling that its plan for making Columbia Basin hydroelectric dams safe for salmon violated the Endangered Species Act. The decision to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes as NOAA fisheries, the agency that crafted the plan, and other federal agencies continue to work with Indian tribes, conservation groups and others to come up with a new plan that is better for fish. At issue is how much water will be routed through turbines, creating electricity sold by the Bonneville Power Administration, and how much will be spilled over dams to help juvenile salmon migrate to the ocean....
Column: California's water woes in 2005 Like Old Man River, another year has rolled by in California's water world and, as usual, things have gotten worse. The year started with recurring news reports of the continuing decline of several critical fish species in the Bay-Delta Estuary, which is also the source of drinking water for 23 million Californians. Then in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last summer came sobering news that the fragile Delta levee system near Sacramento and Stockton could collapse in a major earthquake or a horrendous storm event, causing massive destruction and loss of life. Undeterred, developers proposed another 100,000 homes in the Delta region -- below the levees! Last month the state's Little Hoover Commission released a report (PDF) criticizing "CALFED," the consortium of state and federal agencies created in 1994 to "solve" the problems of the Delta. More than a decade and $3 billion later, the Little Hoover Commission report notes CALFED has little to claim in the way of improvements for the Delta or the state's water problems....
Coal Reversal The FutureGen project was first proposed in 2003. The new development being touted this month is simply that the Bushies have brought aboard partners from the energy sector, including American Electric Power, Southern Company, and Foundation Coal, that will collectively contribute $250 million to the project. The bulk of the $620 million that the DOE plans to pony up on its own was allotted in the energy bill that passed this past August. The feds hope to get the rest of the needed money from other energy R&D funds and an unnamed group of "international partners." FutureGen aims to build a soup-to-nuts demonstration facility that would generate virtually zero-emission (yes, zero emission!) electricity from coal -- billed by industry as "clean coal" -- within the next decade. It would use "integrated gasification combined-cycle" (IGCC) power-plant technology that first pressurizes coal to produce a vapor, then filters carbon dioxide and smog-causing pollutants from the gas before burning it. The captured greenhouse gases would then be stored underground where they couldn't contribute to atmospheric warming -- a technique known as "sequestration."....
Nature reclaims Rocky Flats At first, there was just a slight movement of air in the hayloft overhead. Then a single swoosh betrayed a great horned owl sweeping in a circle before floating to a perch on the windowsill. Peering over his shoulder at the rare visitors below, the owl made it clear that humans are interlopers now at Rocky Flats. People have become rarities at the now-defunct atom bomb plant, vastly outnumbered by coyotes, deer and owls. Demolition workers packed up and left in October, leaving the 6,000 acres of foothills prairie to the occasional environmental regulator or researcher checking on the cleanup. Heavily armed guards protecting deadly plutonium have been replaced by a 4-foot- tall wire fence that might stop a cow, but little else....
Energy Department opposes elk hunts on Hanford Reach A proposal to include public or tribal hunting in a plan for managing elk at the Hanford Reach National Monument may be shelved after the U.S. Department of Energy says it would be inconsistent with the site's overall management plan. The Energy Department issued its position late last week in a written public comment to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That agency manages Hanford Reach, a free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River bordering the Hanford nuclear reservation. The reach and the nuclear site are owned by the Energy Department. Wildlife managers estimate the reach's elk population at close to 800 animals - hundreds more than some scientists believe the area can support. Area farmers complain that the elk are damaging their crops. The state has paid more than $500,000 in crop damages by the herd since 2000....
Column: The Ghost of Christmas Future pays Dubya a visit One of my favorite stories of the Holiday season is "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. What could be more inspiring than that moment when Ebenezer Scrooge, after enduring the long dark night of the soul, wakes up a new man. Scrooge’s transformation from a fearful, angry tightwad to a joyful gift-giver always fills me with hope for humanity, even in these troubling times. As a Westerner and a conservationist, it has been hard to find much to be hopeful about in recent years. This administration has shown little respect for our region’s astonishing natural heritage. The not-so-subtle attacks on basic environmental laws and the constant push to hurry up and drill, mine and cut our public lands in the name of national security and corporate profits have made it hard not to feel a little stingy toward the man in the White House. So I have recently found myself fantasizing about how George W. Bush might redeem himself in his last few years of office if he were Scrooged. Imagine the scene....
Bovine TB case in deer feared A deer in northwestern Minnesota is believed infected with bovine tuberculosis, state officials said Wednesday, fueling new concern that a fatal cattle disease has now spread to wildlife. Until this summer, bovine TB hadn't been found in Minnesota since 1971, but then came a string of infected beef herds — and now, a "presumptive positive" TB test from a deer shot in the state's far northwest in November. Final test results will come early next year. Cattle ranchers face a different challenge. Already Minnesota has lost its federal designation as a TB-free state, which means that now anyone shipping livestock across state lines must first have their animals tested. But until now, bovine TB had been confined to beef herds, which can be fenced, tested, quarantined and, if necessary, easily killed. But in roaming wildlife, eradication becomes much tougher....
Devastating tale of the Dust Bowl "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl" by Timothy Egan Houghton Mifflin, 340 pp., $28 How Americans love to win — or to be more precise, how they hate to fail. Maybe that's why our collective memory of the Dust Bowl, America's worst prolonged environmental disaster, is a dim one, centered on the doubtful face of film star Henry Fonda looking east one last time as his family flees west from Oklahoma in "The Grapes of Wrath." After reading Timothy Egan's new book, "The Worst Hard Time," one could make a case that the Joads made the best of the situation. "The Worst Hard Time" is about the disaster that befell those who were left behind....

FLE

Postponing Fight, Congress Extends Terror Act 5 Weeks

In a frantic finish before adjourning for the year, Congress extended on Thursday the broad antiterrorism bill known as the USA Patriot Act by five weeks after the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee balked at a longer extension. The deal, approved by voice vote in sparsely attended sessions in the House and Senate, averts the expiration of the 16 major provisions of the original law on Dec. 31. It was the final twist in a six-day game of brinksmanship between President Bush and Senate Democrats who, joined by a handful of Republicans, had blocked a bill to make permanent the original law. But the deal fell far short of President Bush's aim of permanently extending the original law, which expanded the government's investigative powers after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The extension also set the stage for a clash over civil liberties and national security when lawmakers return here early next year. The action was taken after the head of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Republican of Wisconsin, threatened to derail a six-month extension the Senate passed on Wednesday night. White House officials intervened on Thursday to persuade Mr. Sensenbrenner to sign off on the five-week extension....

'Warrantless' searches not unprecedented

Previous administrations, as well as the court that oversees national security cases, agreed with President Bush's position that a president legally may authorize searches without warrants in pursuit of foreign intelligence. "The Department of Justice believes -- and the case law supports -- that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes and that the president may, as he has done, delegate this authority to the attorney general," Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick said in 1994 testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. That same authority, she added, pertains to electronic surveillance such as wiretaps. More recently, the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court -- the secretive judicial system that handles classified intelligence cases -- wrote in a declassified opinion that the court has long held "that the President did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information."....

Defending Spy Program, Administration Cites Law

In its first formal response to Congress on the growing controversy over domestic spying, the Bush administration argued Thursday that the president's authorization of domestic spying was consistent with the 1978 law that governs the government's electronic eavesdropping. The letter to Congress, which was signed by William E. Moschella, assistant attorney general for Congressional affairs, said the administration considered the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the court established through it, "a very important tool" in fighting terrorism and "makes full use" of it. But the letter, which was sent to the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, said the system "could not have provided the speed and agility for the early warning system" demanded by President Bush. It also argued that the administration could not have sought expanded authority from Congress under the law without risking exposure. To go to Congress for legislative authority, the department said, "would have tipped off our enemies concerning our intelligence limitations and capabilities."....

Judges on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program

The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President Bush's domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government sources. Several members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in interviews that they want to know why the administration believed secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails of U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal. Some of the judges said they are particularly concerned that information gleaned from the president's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to gain authorized wiretaps from their court. "The questions are obvious," said U.S. District Judge Dee Benson of Utah. "What have you been doing, and how might it affect the reliability and credibility of the information we're getting in our court?" Such comments underscored the continuing questions among judges about the program, which most of them learned about when it was disclosed last week by the New York Times. On Monday, one of 10 FISA judges, federal Judge James Robertson, submitted his resignation -- in protest of the president's action, according to two sources familiar with his decision. He will maintain his position on the U.S. District Court here....

Terror case challenges White House strategy

Suddenly, terror suspect Jose Padilla seems a lot more dangerous to the Bush administration. It has nothing to do with his suspected involvement in Al Qaeda bomb plots, analysts say. Rather, the administration worries that the US Supreme Court might agree to hear Mr. Padilla's case and decide one of the most pressing constitutional issues in the war on terrorism. And by all appearances, government lawyers think they might lose. The issue: Does President Bush have the power as commander in chief to order the open-ended military detention of US citizens that he deems enemy combatants? It is not a minor matter. The claim of broad presidential power is a cornerstone of the administration's effort to restore what it views as the proper level of executive authority after decades of erosion following the Watergate scandal. Such robust, independent presidential power is said to be critical to safeguarding the country from a repeat of the 9/11 terror attacks. But the White House faces a significant hurdle. It is not at all clear that a majority of Supreme Court justices agree with such an expansive view of executive power....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Wildlife group denies claim for sheep kill Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group that pays ranchers for livestock killed by wolves and grizzly bears, is refusing to reimburse a Hutterite colony for two sheep killed by a bear in September. Minette Johnson, the group's Northern Rockies representative, said group members worked with the Rockport Hutterite Colony west of Pendroy to build three electric-fenced bedding grounds to protect the sheep. Defenders also gave the colony money in 2000 to secure its night sheep pasture. The two ewes killed this fall were in a pasture more than two miles from an electric fence. "They aren't putting the sheep into the fenced areas until sheep get killed," Johnson said. Defenders of Wildlife also changed its guidelines for compensation this year, she said....
Alcohol and science: Saving the agave For centuries, artisans working in the adobe haciendas of Mexico's rural valleys have followed tradition to make the powerful spirit tequila. Copying age-old indigenous techniques, they distilled the liquor from sweet juice cooked out of the fat stems of a local succulent, the blue agave (Agave tequilana Weber, var. azul). But in recent years, tequila makers have had to bring the latest science to the agricultural process to save both the industry and the culture it supports. Some of the oldest and biggest producers are employing scientists, building high-tech laboratories and funding academic research on the blue agave so that researchers from biochemists to geneticists can scrutinize this little-understood plant. The shift began nearly a decade ago, when disease and pests wiped out much of Mexico's crop of blue agave....
Elk herd needs to be thinned The elk in Theodore Roosevelt National Park are breeding successfully - too successfully. The herd needs to be thinned. The National Park Service faces a grim reality. Up to half of the estimated 750 elk will have to be killed. It should be done humanely, professionally and as soon as possible. The elk can't be captured and transported elsewhere as it stands right now because of the slim possibility that the authorities might be exporting North Dakota animals with chronic wasting disease. As much as hunters would like the privilege of taking one or more elk in the park, that won't happen. Federal law prohibits public hunting there, and park officials are not interested in seeking legislation to change that. Sadly, the answer is for the Park Service to schedule an intentional thinning....
Feds, state remain deeply divided The disagreement between Wyoming and the federal government over wolf management is only the latest incarnation of a feud that has alternately boiled and simmered since plans were approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1987 to restore the wolf population in Yellowstone National Park. Because of threats to area cattle and wildlife, wolves were eradicated from the greater Yellowstone ecosystem by the 1930s. To restore ecological balance, Canadian gray wolves were introduced in 1995 and 1996 despite strident objections by Wyoming officials, ranchers and outfitters. Since then, wolves have fanned out and their numbers have grown to 912 in the three states surrounding Yellowstone, including 220 in Wyoming. The number of confirmed wolf attacks on livestock and pets in the Northern Rockies jumped from 291 in 2003 to 412 in 2004, according to Fish and Wildlife Service statistics....
Lawsuit seeks to block energy rules Several conservation groups have sued to block new federal rules governing hydroelectric-dam licensing, arguing that they give utilities unfair control over the nation's rivers as they seek to relicense their dams. The lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Seattle accuses the government of publishing the new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rules without allowing for public comment. Because the rules apply retroactively, they also illegally allow challenges to established measures that protect rivers from dams, the lawsuit contends. The new rules for dam relicensing have broad reach nationally. More than 200 dam projects in 36 states, generating enough power to light more than 22.5 million homes, are due to apply for new 50-year operating licenses by 2020....
Is God Green? Local evangelical Christians want you to recycle. They'll be in seventh heaven if you walk more and drive less, volunteer to clean up rivers, highways and forest trails, plant more trees, and leave the ATVs and snowmobiles back at the house. Now, hang a left for another message: The conservation community also wants you to recycle, walk more and drive less, clean up rivers and forests, plant more trees and leave the noisy dirty engines at home. These hopeful stories of common ground are brought to you by God, says Pastor Tri Robinson of Boise's Vineyard Christian Fellowship, and by "shared core values," adds Rick Johnson, executive director of the Idaho Conservation League. The two have never met, but both speak the language of caretakers of the earth. And in the public arena, they represent the tentative beginnings of an alliance between the left and the right on the issue of environmental responsibility....
New law bans Caldera drilling Northern New Mexico’s Valles Caldera National Preserve will be protected from geothermal drilling under a measure signed into law by President Bush. The measure directs the federal government to buy the remaining mineral rights beneath the 89,000-acre Jemez Mountain preserve. The bill was proposed by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N .M., and co-sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N .M. Under the new law, the secretary of agriculture will negotiate a price to buy the private mineral rights. If that is unsuccessful , the issue would go to a federal court for resolution....
State to proceed with lawsuit over wolf management plan Wyoming officials say they will proceed with a lawsuit against the federal government over its rejection of the state's wolf management plan. Gov. Dave Freudenthal met Thursday with Paul Hoffman, the Interior Department's deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. The governor said after the meeting he sees no sincere effort by the federal government to compromise with the state. "I think this is all D.C. politics, not biology," Freudenthal said. Freudenthal said the meeting convinced him that federal officials won't budge on their view of the minimum number of wolf packs that the state or federal government should be responsible for maintaining in Wyoming if the animals are removed from protection under the Endangered Species Act. "Basically, their position hasn't changed from what it was," Freudenthal said. "It's not really clear why he came out."....
Fish and Wildlife proposes habitat for threatened fish The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to designate 633 miles of streams and rivers in New Mexico and Arizona as critical habitat for two small fish listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The habitat for the spikedace and loach minnows would include portions of the Gila, San Francisco, Blue, Black, Verde and Lower San Pedro rivers and some tributaries in Apache, Cochise, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, Pima, Pinal and Yavapai counties in Arizona and Catron, Grant and Hidalgo counties in New Mexico. The designation, which includes a 300-foot buffer zone on the banks, would encompass waterways through federal, state and private lands. The agency has twice before designated critical habitat for the two fish, but the earlier designations were struck down by federal courts....
Utah wilderness gets green light The Senate approved a defense bill late Wednesday that virtually seals the deal for creating 100,000 acres of new wilderness area in Utah. The Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area will help protect the military training mission at the Utah Test and Training Range as well as cut off Private Fuel Storage's preferred railroad starting point to its proposed nuclear waste storage site. The approval also marks the first wilderness designation in the state in 20 years, according to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. The Senate's voice vote on the 2006 National Defense Authorization bill came late in the evening after hours of waiting for a vote on the separate Defense Appropriations bill. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, reviving an idea originated by former Utah Rep. Jim Hansen, called for the protection of a large area of land to ensure training for Hill Air Force Base and to block nuclear waste from going to PFS's proposed nuclear waste storage site on the Goshute Indian reservation in Tooele County's Skull Valley....
Kane near deal with BLM on road signs County and Interior Department officials on Tuesday reached a tentative agreement to end the dispute, which dates back over two years and intensified in February when the county began placing off-highway vehicle route signs in and around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in defiance of BLM rules. Under the framework of the agreement - which must still be approved by Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Kane County commissioners - the county will remove all signs that don't comply with the BLM's current transportation plan for the monument and the surrounding area. In exchange, the county soon will be able to assert its right-of-way claims across federal land through a new process that officials say will closely mirror a recent appeals court decision that redefined how road ownership claims are to be evaluated and resolved....
Pennsylvania says return Valley Forge Pennsylvania is angry over the federal government's negligence of Valley Forge National Historical Park. Pennsylvania sold the park to the federal government in 1976 and Gov. Edward G. Rendell says officials need to step up to the plate or give it back, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday. Rendell suggested the federal government return the park to Pennsylvania in a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton last week, the newspaper said....

FLE

Spy Court Judge Quits In Protest

Legal Test Was Seen as Hurdle to Spying

Can the government spy on citizens without a warrant?

Why Bush Approved the Wiretaps

Byrd Says Bush Is Spying on 'Innocent Americans'

Clash Is Latest Chapter in Bush Effort to Widen Executive Power

Spying Program Snared U.S. Calls

Administration Cites War Vote in Spying Case

F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show

Uncle Sam is listening

Past rulings don't support Bush's use of war powers

Spying on Americans

Pentagon's Intelligence Authority Widens

4 GOP Senators Hold Firm Against Patriot Act Renewal

Once-Lone Foe of Patriot Act Has Company

Congress pushes back, hard, against Bush

Agents' visit chills UMass Dartmouth senior A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book." Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program. The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said. The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a "watch list," and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further....

Martinez cattle are sold by USFS in Texas

Another chapter in the ongoing saga of a dispute between a rancher and the federal government has been written. Cattle impounded by the U.S. Forest Service were sold at auction in Texas last week.

The grazing allotment dispute between the Martinez family and the Forest Service, which has been simmering on the coals for well over a year, is now in federal court. The Forest Service said the cattle belonging to the Martinez family were illegally grazing on the Pleasant Valley and Hickey allotments in the Clifton Ranger District of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.

The cattle are from the Martinez Ranch, northeast of Clifton. The ranch was owned for decades by Abelardo “Abe” Martinez Sr. and was purchased by his three sons, one of whom is Dan, the family's spokesman. Dan contends the Forest Service is wrong and has acted illegally in the impound action.

He successfully filed a petition for an injunction in Graham County Superior Court in late November that kept the cattle from being sold in Dalhart, Texas, on Dec. 1. However, the case was moved to federal court by a U.S. attorney and the injunction expired.

Forest Service spokesman Bob Dyson said in a Dec. 16 news release that 328 head of cattle were sold at a public auction in Dalhart for “about $159,606” on Dec. 15. He said 12 of the cattle died after they were in Texas.

“There was a two-week delay in selling the animals as a result of an Arizona Superior Court injunction, so the animals stayed at the sale barn longer than anticipated.” Dyson said. “Because of the two-week delay, 10 cows and two calves eventually died despite efforts of the sale barn and its veterinarian to treat the animals with antibiotics. There are still over 30 head scheduled to be sold at the Dalhart facility.”

Dyson said money from sale of the cattle “goes toward offsetting costs incurred by the Forest Service, the State of Arizona and the sale barn for gathering and caring for the cattle and completing brand inspections and ear tagging. If there are any receipts left, then the remaining money goes to the previous owner of the cattle.”

That is unlikely to happen. Clifton District Ranger Frank Hayes said impoundment and other related costs come to about $400,000. He said the amount received for the cattle was affected negatively due to the antibiotic treatments, which had to be disclosed to buyers, who must then wait 30 days before the cattle can be slaughtered.

He said a certified letter was sent to Martinez notifying him of the cattle sale and related facts. He said Martinez was also notified that 37 head of cattle that were still in Arizona were shipped to Dalhart on Dec. 16.

Dyson said the Forest Service tried for over a year to have Martinez remove the cattle from federal land. Dan Martinez, who now owns the Martinez Ranch with his two brothers, adamantly disagrees with the Forest Service and said removal of the cattle is a criminal act on the part of the federal agency.

At the heart of the dispute between the USFS and the Martinezes is a Forest Service requirement of the waiver of a grazing permit by Abelardo Sr. in order to have it reissued to his sons. The permit process would involve a reduction in the number of cattle that can be grazed and affect access to parts of the San Francisco River, Zieroth said.

In late July, Dan Martinez said the Forest Service wanted his father to waive certain rights, and his father refused to do so. He said his father has never been involved in the legal system and the Forest Service is trying to “take advantage of these small ranchers.”

Not so, Apache Sitgreaves Forest Supervisor Zieroth said. She said the matter simply comes down to the fact the Martinezes do not have grazing permits. She said the USFS has tried to work with the Martinezes to resolve the issue, but they have refused to comply. She said the Martinezes' Pleasant Valley allotment grazing permit expired in August 2004.

On July 25, the Forest Service sent the Martinezes notices of intent to impound unauthorized livestock. Dan Martinez faxed a copy of the impound notice to The Copper Era. “Refused for Fraud!” was scrawled in large letters on the notice.

Martinez also said he would not resist removal of the cattle but would take action afterward. “I intend to prosecute criminals,” he said. “There's not even a court order. We haven't seen any legal documents.”

Zieroth said a court order was not necessary to impound Martinez's cattle and the Forest Service followed proper procedure leading up to and during the action. She said, “Under federal regulations, unauthorized livestock must be impounded and removed from federal lands, and if they are not redeemed by the owner of the livestock, they are sold at public auction.”

The Forest Service is relieved “to have completed this phase of the lengthy process in removing the cattle from the National Forest,” Zieroth said in the Dec. 16 news release announcing the cattle sale.

She said, “We have been especially concerned for the health and welfare of the cattle so we were a bit disappointed when the injunction delayed their timely disposition. We can now move ahead to authorize a new grazing permittee for the Pleasant Valley Allotment.”

While the case is in federal court, Martinez apparently intends to have his day in state court in Arizona. On that same day the remaining cattle were shipped from Arizona to Texas, The Copper Era received a faxed copy of a letter from Martinez's attorney, Billy W. Boone, to a livestock commission company representative in Dalhart demanding Martinez's cattle be returned to him or face court action in Arizona.

Boone said in his letter, dated Dec. 12, “Rather than avail itself of the legal channels in Arizona courts to challenge the rights which pre-date the Forest Service, the U.S. Forest Service simply stole the cattle without judicial process nor seeking authority of the courts in Arizona. He said the Forest Service circumvented the law by moving the cattle to New Mexico and then to Dalhart.

“Constantly moving the cattle from jurisdiction to jurisdiction when there are auctions in Arizona should make one sit back and wonder why?” Boone writes. “It certainly does not pass the smell test.”

Boone also says, “As you are aware, by letter from Mr. Dan Martinez, that he is the owner and there is a lien on those cattle for $600,000 that pre-dates the U.S. Forest Service's wrongful seizure of the cattle. Demand is hereby made for the return of Mr. Martinez's cattle. If the cattle are either sold or not immediately returned to Mr. Martinez, you along with the auctioneer company will join the individuals form the U.S. Forest Service as defendants in state court in Arizona.”

He adds, “Please be advised that Mr. Martinez has reported the theft of these cattle to the appropriate authorities in Arizona.”

Recall started

Boone does not say in his letter what “proper authorities” he is referring to. They certainly are not authorities from Greenlee County where the cattle were rounded up and impounded. Greenlee County Attorney Derek Rapier and Sheriff Steve Tucker said the cattle impoundment is a federal matter over which they have no jurisdiction. Their stand has angered some people in Greenlee and a recall of both has been started.

Duncan resident Donald Vandell filed an “application for serial number for recall” on behalf of Americans For Property Rights on Dec. 6 with the Greenlee County Elections Director's Office.

Vandell said in the filings on Rapier and Tucker that both “stood by while U.S. Forest Service employees broke Arizona law.” He said both refused to enforce a provision of the Arizona Constitution that says, “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.

In both documents Vandell said, “This property includes cattle. A court order is required to forcibly remove an private property from a citizen of the State of Arizona, United States of America. The U.S. Forest Service has not received a court order from a court in Arizona.”

In a second letter to the editor in today's Copper Era, Rapier reiterates his stand that federal and not local law applies to the case and the county has no jurisdiction in the matter.

Senate Blocks Arctic Drilling

The Senate blocked oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge Wednesday, rejecting a must-pass defense spending bill where supporters positioned the quarter-century-old environmental issue to garner broader support. Drilling backers fell four votes short of getting the required 60 votes to avoid a threatened filibuster of the defense measure over the oil drilling issue. Senate leaders were expected to withdraw the legislation so it could be reworked without the refuge language. The vote was 56-44. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was among those who for procedural reasons cast a "no" vote, so that he could bring the drilling issue up for another vote. The vote was a stinging defeat for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who for years has waged an intense fight to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He had thought this time he would finally get his wish....

NEPA Task Force Issues Draft Findings and Recommendations

Washington, DC – Today, after completing seven months of public hearings around the United States, the House Task Force on Updating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) issued its draft findings and recommendations on improving the Act. The findings and recommendations are open to public comment for 45 days. Following the comment period, the Task Force will prepare a final report early next year.

“This draft report is the product of the Task Force’s extensive work during seven months of public hearings and having considered thousands of public comments,” said Task Force Chairwoman Cathy McMorris (R-WA). “The 45-day public comment period reflects the character of this Task Force and of NEPA itself. I look forward to receiving additional input from the public once again.”

The draft report is a collection of findings and recommendations for improving and updating NEPA, taken directly from official public testimony and written input over the months. The Task Force will accept additional public comments until February 3, 2006, only if they are specific to the recommendations or findings of the report. For additional information on how to comment please see page 2 of the Task Force report.

“The Task Force heard diverse opinions on whether or how to improve NEPA,” continued McMorris. “I am committed to providing practical recommendations that take these views into account and improve NEPA.”

This initial report sets out 22 recommendations based on the testimony and comments. The draft recommendations are grouped to address the major issues presented to the Task Force. All the draft recommendations are categorized under the following groups:

Group 1 – Addressing delays in the process
Group 2 – Enhancing public participation
Group 3 – Better involvement for state, local and Tribal stakeholders
Group 4 – Addressing litigation issues
Group 5 – Clarifying alternative analysis under NEPA
Group 6 – Better federal agency coordination
Group 7 – Additional authority for the Council on Environmental Quality
Group 8 – Clarifying the meaning of “cumulative impacts”
Group 9 – Studies

NEPA Task Force Report

A push for animal-friendly roads A stream of traffic flows along Picture Rocks Road, past two roadside culverts where Natasha Kline is checking for animal tracks. The tunnels, intended to drain a sandy wash, are serving instead as life-saving byways for wildlife along this busy commuter route through Saguaro National Park. As a park biologist, Ms. Kline knows such crossings can be crucial. A recent study counted as many as 53,000 animals killed on Saguaro's roads each year. "It's a huge problem," she says, "and our issue will be every park's issue in 10 years or so." Efforts to solve the problem have spawned a new discipline called road ecology. The practice brings together transportation planners, scientists, and wildlife activists who plan new road projects to minimize impacts on animals. By using a variety of strategies - from lowered speed limits in wildlife areas to high-tech, vegetated overpasses where cameras monitor animal use - they hope to reduce the number of animals killed and improve road safety for drivers....
Bush administration working on new plan to delist wolves The Bush administration is working on a new plan for removing Endangered Species Act protections for thriving populations of gray wolves in the Great Lakes and Northern Rockies after deciding not to fight a federal court ruling that found the old plan illegal. Assistant Interior Secretary Craig Manson, in a statement released Tuesday in Washington, D.C., said he continued to believe the old plan was "biologically and legally sound" – but the Department of the Interior would be issuing a new proposal "as early as possible in 2006." Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, a plaintiff in the case, said the center would not oppose removing Endangered Species Act protections for wolves introduced in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park, or those naturally occurring in northern Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin – as long as the Bush administration does not try to "gerrymander" the population boundaries again....
"Eco-Terrorism": Cui Bono? In the 1980s in the North Santiam Canyon east of Salem, OR, Ancient Forest activism was peaking after years of dogged effort. This is the area of the famous 1986-89 North Roaring Devil blockade and tree sit (the second ever pro-forest tree sit; the first coming in the nearby South Santiam's Millennium Grove actions of 1985). North Roaring Devil protection efforts went on for three years, over sixty folks were arrested for non-violent Civil Disobedience at the logging site; sixty-three acres of five-hundred-plus year old trees were leveled; but, in the end, a lawsuit stopped the logging of an additional 170 acres and even led to the Willamette National Forest Plan being thrown out and redone. The entire area is now a part of a 49,000 acre reserve. Naturally, this effort gained a lot of notoriety. It was the first such effort to garner national attention to the plight of our fast-vanishing old growth forests, bringing in reporters from around the world. It led to a spread in National Geographic and some TV documentaries....
Eco-terror endangers worthy cause I don't know if federal prosecutors were blowing smoke last week when they said Chelsea "Country Girl" Gerlach and Bill Rodgers helped burn down Two Elk lodge in Vail in 1998. Gerlach's lawyer and Rodgers' friends say it isn't so. Whatever the pair's roles in the unsolved Vail arson, I know true environmentalists welcomed this so-called eco-terrorism like they would an epidemic of chronic wasting disease. Almost all eco-terrorism "would be laughable if it wasn't so serious," said Roger Flynn, who directs the Western Mining Action Project. "Let's burn a few SUVs. Let's burn a ski lodge." An eco-terrorist, Flynn said, is "like a child who throws a tantrum."....
Lawsuit challenges Franklin Basin snowmobile access Cross country skiers and other nonmotorized winter recreationalists are feeling squeezed by a revised land-use plan put forth by the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Now they have filed a lawsuit over the changes. Four conservation groups - Nordic United, the Bridgerland Audubon Society, the Winter Wildlands Alliance and the Bear River Watershed Council - filed a complaint in U.S. District Court last week charging that the Forest Service flouted environmental laws last summer by reopening the Franklin Basin/Tony Grove area in Logan Canyon to snowmobile use after closing the section to motorized recreation as part of its 2003 Forest Plan....
Environmentalists Declare Opposition to Alito for Supreme Court Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. has run into opposition from environmentalists in his bid to assume the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Five environmental groups and a nonprofit, public interest environmental law firm today formally declared their opposition to Alito for the lifetime Supreme Court appointment - the first environmentalist campaign against a Supreme Court nominee in 18 years. The Sierra Club, Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, National Environmental Trust, and Greenpeace joined the law firm Earthjustice in stating that Alito's nomination endangers laws that Americans rely upon, including fundamental safeguards for public health and the environment....
BLM starts environmental study of oil shale extraction in 3 states The Bureau of Land Management has launched an environmental review intended to guide oil shale development on huge stretches of federal land in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah over the next several years. The BLM, which oversees millions of acres in the three states, has 18 months to gather public comments and complete an environmental impact statement. The push, mandated in a federal energy bill, comes more than two decades after the first oil-shale boom busted, leaving western Colorado's economy reeling for years. Soaring oil prices and demand are behind the revived interest in trying to tap the large reserves of oil trapped in rock and sand....
Forest narrows review of drilling work The U.S. Forest Service is extending categorical exclusion status to small oil and gas projects, hoping to reduce red tape while saving time and money. Conservationists take a more jaundiced view of the initiative. "It's a classic shell game," said Tim Preso, an Earthjustice attorney based in Bozeman. Typically, Forest Service officials say they want to defer environmental assessments or impact statements when oil and gas leases are put up for sale, saying they'll study environmental impact issues when the energy companies want to start exploring and drilling, Preso said. "Now, with this categorical exclusion, there'll be no studies at all," Preso said. Patricia Dowd of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition echoed Preso's concern. "Based on the Forest Service's own history, it is not clear that the public's concerns about cumulative impacts will be addressed," she said....
Forest Service buys 2,100 acres of conservation easements in SNRA The snowmobile trail connecting Stanley to Redfish Lake, and beyond, within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area north of Ketchum, is now open as a result of the U.S. Forest Service's recent purchase of the trail easement and conservation easements from the Piva family. Normally, the conservation easements do not provide for public access. However, Forest Service spokesman Ed Waldapfel said, this conservation easement acquired a trail route over the Piva Ranch adjoining the city of Stanley south of the Stanley Airport. The conservation easement also purchased the development rights on the bench that the trail crosses. This will reduce future use conflicts and protect the cherished scenic, historic and pastoral qualities of the Stanley Basin, Waldapfel said....
Snowmobiles in Yellowstone still too noisy Despite technology and fewer numbers, noise is still an issue with snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park, according to a new report. Snowmobiles exceeded noise thresholds near Old Faithful, Madison Junction and the West Entrance, according to National Park Service sound tests conducted last winter. Snowcoaches also went beyond the limits, but much less frequently. Overall, noise levels were "substantially lower" than the 2002-2003 season, the report said, but not low enough at times to meet goals set by the Park Service. "One thing that's clear is there's further improvements to be made," said Mike Yochim, an outdoor recreation planner at Yellowstone....
River dredging rushed to beat new regulations Annual dredging of the Snohomish River will be completed earlier than usual because of new federal protections for salmon. The Army Corps of Engineers removes sandy material each year in a six-mile stretch of the Snohomish River, starting at its mouth, from one of two collector basins on the river's bottom. In the past, the work was usually completed around February. But because of new regulations to protect salmon in Washington, Oregon and Northern California, the work must be completed by Jan. 2, when the rules will go into effect, said Patricia Miller, the corps' project manager for the dredging....
A Solid Take on the New Old West Chilton Williamson definitely cares about the West. Every essay in his collection The Hundredth Meridian – Seasons and Travels in the New Old West makes this abundantly clear. Most of the writings have been culled from columns he wrote for Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. From wanderings in the high country near his home in the same community of Kemmerer, Wyoming to a mildly eccentric homage visit to the approximate grave site of writer Ed Abbey to Navajoland scenes I and II and beyond, every word Williamson lays down indicates a man who is tied into the land, the heritage and the mythology of the Old West especially as it evolves into the New West. The author is one of us, and by that I mean someone who calls the high plains and Rocky Mountains home, someone who is more than a little bit fed up and disgusted with and has little time for people who would or do move here dragging the baggage they’re fleeing with them or, perhaps worse yet, those who pontificate from the distance of other parts of the country about how the West should be run. The “tree huggers” with little awareness, concern or compassion for how the land operates as a natural system. The self-satisfied, misinformed crew that supports sadly-confused groups like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), those who would turn the land into a theme park. Williamson prefers the company of individuals who get their hands dirty out this way – the ranchers, roughnecks and loggers. He has no desire to see this vast landscape turned into an industrial park but he doesn’t want to see the region subjugated and degraded into a The author is one of us, and by that I mean someone who calls the high plains and Rocky Mountains home, someone who is more than a little bit fed up and disgusted with and has little time for people who would or do move here dragging the baggage they’re fleeing with them or, perhaps worse yet, those who pontificate from the distance of other parts of the country about how the West should be run. The “tree huggers” with little awareness, concern or compassion for how the land operates as a natural system. The self-satisfied, misinformed crew that supports sadly-confused groups like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), those who would turn the land into a theme park. Williamson prefers the company of individuals who get their hands dirty out this way – the ranchers, roughnecks and loggers. He has no desire to see this vast landscape turned into an industrial park but he doesn’t want to see the region subjugated and degraded into a homogenized, milquetoast arcade like Yellowstone National Park has become....
Shrewd strategy fuels Bush policy efforts The Bush administration is using a savvy strategy to sidestep opposition to its environmental policies while remaining within the law, a new book co-written by a Northern Arizona University professor asserts. His victory is all about Republicans presenting a unified front, using terms like "common sense" to describe sweeping proposals and timing legislation to coincide with sweeping wildfires in California and Oregon, Northern Arizona University political science professor Jacqueline Vaughn and former NAU professor Hanna Cortner write in a new book, "George W. Bush's Healthy Forests, Reframing the Environmental Debate." In the case of Bush's Healthy Forest Restoration Act that environmental groups dubbed a timber giveaway, which passed right after fires consumed 750,000 acres of California's desert brush, Bush won by getting all Republicans to work from the same playbook and present a unified front. "The book just shows how the Bush administration pulled off what it wanted in terms of forest policy," Vaughn said. "That same strategy is being used for some other policy now."....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Death could be rare wolf attack Scientists and wildlife officials are investigating what appears to be the first documented case of healthy wolves killing a human in North America. The attack took place in November at Points North Landing near Wollaston Lake, Saskatchewan. The body of 22-year-old Kenton Joel Carnegie was found Nov. 8. Officials say the Oshawa, Ontario, man appeared to have been attacked by four wolves that had been eating garbage in the area for some time and likely had lost their fear of people. At least two wolves suspected in the attack have been shot, and an examination by Paquet found cloth, hair and flesh in the large intestine that resembled human remains. A final report on the attack is expected by mid-January, Paquet said....
Column: The American Mind and the Big Bad Wolf Everywhere you turn these days, there seem to be headlines about wolves. “Idaho to Take Over Managing Wolves in January,” read an AP story in yesterday’s Idaho Statesman. “Wolfless Nevada,” declared another AP piece, in the Casper Star-Tribune. (That fascinating story was about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejecting a petition to delist wolves in Nevada, despite the fact that the species was completely wiped out in Nevada several decades ago.) Across the West, states are grappling with the question of how to manage wolves: whether or not they should be listed, what should happen when they interfere with ranching, how many is too many, who should be allowed to decide. In the ten years since wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone, the animals have become a symbol of hope for wildlife lovers, a soul-stirring sign that the wild has not been entirely eradicated from the West. But for some ranchers and others who will never love the howling canines, the wolf is still a creature to loathe, a pest no better than a rat that should be left to survive only in the smallest possible pack numbers. If the headlines are any indication, it seems like the anti-wolf faction may be winning – though their victories are hidden behind a veil of dispassionate policymaking....
House Passes Arctic Drilling With Defense Appropriations Today the House of Representatives passed legislation authorizing energy production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) by a vote of 308-106 as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act. The Arctic drilling provision is seen to complicate the appropriation of funds to support American troops at a time of war, and it does not belong there, opponents say. They see the vote as a political move to attach a highly controversial measure to a bill that is almost certain to pass. The provision was inserted at the last minute against the wishes of many members of Congress. Wilderness advocates are united in opposition to including Arctic drilling language in the Defense Appropriations bill. Today's House vote authorizes oil and gas development on 2,000 acres of ANWR's 1.5 million acre coastal plain....
Caldera Trust opts for steers The Valles Caldera Trust decided to try to cut its losses from livestock grazing by approving a one-year experiment for fattening steers. That settled the whether-or-not part of a difficult two-part question. The second part, yet to be decided, is how many steers to run this summer on the Valles Caldera National Preserve. In reaching the decision, board members disappointed cattle growers at nearby Jemez Pueblo, who have been among the participants in the previous years' grazing programs, as well as some conservationists who thought the impasse could be solved by letting the program rest for a year. The decision came at the end of a public meeting Friday night in which financial concerns dominated....
Trail options raise hackles It was a short winter trail, connecting McFarland Lake to South Fowl Lake on the Minnesota-Ontario border. For more than four decades, local snowmobilers zipped across it, eager for the walleye that could be pulled through holes in remote South Fowl's ice. But three years ago, Superior National Forest officials found out about it, and the fun ended. The trail, it seemed, cut through a small part of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, where motors have been banned since 1978, and was shut down. Now, in a dispute that recalls the clash of interests that occurred decades ago between environmentalists and motor enthusiasts over Boundary Waters access, the Forest Service is considering several options outside the wilderness area for a replacement route....
Lead problem jams gun club After joining the Index Sportsmans Club in 2000, Bill Boardman always enjoyed target shooting with his shotgun in the scenic environment of Index. Boardman, 69, who has used shotguns since he was 10 years old, likes the marksmanship and competition of shooting as well as the camaraderie with club members. But it's been more than a year since Boardman shot clay pigeons at the club's shooting range in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest just west of the town. About a year ago, the U.S. Forest Service shut down the club's activities after a study found spots with high concentrations of lead from lead shot in the woods off the club's shooting range. The club's permit, which a club must have to shoot in a national forest, expired long ago. The study cost the federal agency about $10,000, said Larry Donovan, the agency's recreation special uses coordinator in Mountlake Terrace....
Editorial: Reopening forest should be priority WE continue to see forest access roads closed, wilderness trails blocked and picnic grounds unfinished. Chantry Flat Road, a highly used link from Arcadia and Sierra Madre into Big Santa Anita Canyon, has been closed for almost two years, keeping families and most hikers out. Crystal Lake picnic grounds and campground atop Highway 39 also remains closed indefinitely. A combination of poor decision-making by the Forest Service and a spate of bad weather - a perfect storm of events - keeps large portions of the federal forest off-limits to taxpayers. Yet the U.S. Forest Service announced plans last month to build a second off-highway vehicle area near the West Fork of the San Gabriel River for about $200,000 to $250,000. It has launched the environmental analysis for the project, which would be paid for by a combination of county and state grants and volunteer labor. We're assuming that does not include the staff time of USFS personnel....
Otter, Brady Spar Over Bill to Sell Public Land for Storm Relief Idaho's gubernatorial candidates are sparring over a U.S. House bill aiming to sell millions of acres of public land across the West -- including in Idaho. Representative C.L. "Butch" Otter, so far the lone Republican contender for the post being vacated by Governor Dirk Kempthorne, is one of 13 sponsors of the measure. It aims to sell up to 15 percent of Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land and use the proceeds to fund hurricane and disaster relief. Otter says privatizing the land will also add to tax revenue for isolated Idaho counties....
Group expresses frustration with BLM The group working with the Bureau of Land Management to set public land policies in Northwest Colorado expressed concern last week with the bureau's schedule, saying it makes public involvement difficult. The Northwest Colorado Stewardship has worked with the bureau for the past four years on the resource management plan for the Little Snake Resource area. The resource area covers much of Northwest Colorado, including all of Moffat County. The plan will help set the bureau's policies for everything including oil and gas development on public lands, wilderness designations and off-highway vehicle use. The diverse group is made up of representatives from the energy industry, ranchers, public-land advocates and government officials. Last week, the group's planning committee sent a letter to John Husband, field manager at the Little Snake Field Office. In the letter, the group expressed concerns about the amount of time it has to review documents from the bureau....
Domenici proposes selling BLM land in Dona Ana County U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici is proposing that about 65,000 acres of federal land in Dona Ana County near Las Cruces be sold and that about 200,000 acres in the county be designated wilderness. Steve Bell, chief of staff for Domenici, R-N.M., said the proposal is intended "to bring some rationality to the development process" in the rapidly growing area. The legislation still is in the works, but Domenici plans to introduce it next year, Bell said. Under the plan, up to 65,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management property could be sold over the next two decades. BLM figures show about 1,500 acres of BLM land in Dona Ana County have been sold or traded during the past six years. Land sales would be overseen by an advisory board made up of representatives of the county, Las Cruces, developers and conservation groups, Bell said. Part of the money would be split by the city and county and some would go to fund conservation projects, he said....
Much Is Riding on Ivory Bill's Wings More than 30 bird experts now spend each day in the swampy forests of eastern Arkansas, tying audio and video recording devices onto tree trunks, paddling quietly in canoes, and sitting on camouflaged wooden platforms near ancient cypresses, just waiting for the rare ivory-billed woodpecker to appear. More than six months after scientists announced to the world that they had rediscovered the presumed-extinct bird, they are in the midst of an unprecedented search for the icon. It is a campaign that could transform the nation's conservation debate, and it has already altered the small town adjoining the bird's natural habitat. "We've got all the people, the equipment in place, now all we need is a little luck," said Ken Levenstein, crew leader for the 22 scientists who are searching full time for the woodpecker until the end of April 2006 along with a rotating group of 112 volunteers. A group of bird researchers -- including officials from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and the Nature Conservancy -- electrified birders in late April when they declared the ivory-billed woodpecker had survived undetected in the Big Woods, more than half a million acres of bottomland hardwood forest an hour's drive from Little Rock....
Mo. governor asks corps to forego spring rise on Missouri River Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt said Monday the Army Corps of Engineers should abandon plans for a spring rise on the Missouri River next year or face legal action from the state. "This plan could devastate farm families' crops and would further undermine environmentally friendly navigation," Blunt said in a letter to the corps. After more than a decade of legal disputes, the corps in October announced plans for two "spring pulses," or releases of water from upstream reservoirs to encourage spawning by an endangered fish, the pallid sturgeon. Environmental groups seeking to protect river wildlife support the move. Blunt and other Missouri officials have long opposed the idea, fearing it could flood thousands of acres of farmland in that state. In his Dec. 16 letter, Blunt argued there is not enough scientific evidence to show a spring pulse will even help the pallid sturgeon. He said the plan is contrary to the corps' primary mission of flood control and navigation....
History of energy in Jackson Hole According to historical documents, trappers John Carnes, his wife Millie Sorelle and John Holland were the first to homestead in Jackson Hole in 1884, entering the valley from Green River country via the Gros Ventre. Carness and Holland are credited with introducing wagon energy to the valley, hauling dismantled farm equipment via that route. Robert E. Miller, a shrewd businessman remembered as "Old 12 Percent," first brought a wagon into the valley via Teton Pass. By 1888, Jackson's population of 20 men, two women and one child lived a sustainable lifestyle, humbling by today's standards. All food was grown, raised, gathered or hunted locally. All houses, furniture and fuel were made of local timber. Nails had to be brought in from outside, often necessitating the use of wooden pegs in their stead. Candles were made of elk tallow, eliminating dependence on kerosene lamps. Elk hides were tanned and used for shoes and clothing. Water was hauled from creeks. All transportation energy was self generated, consisting mainly of foot, horse, ski or snowshoe. In 1889, Sylvester Wilson, his son, Elijah "Uncle Nick"Wilson, his married daughter Louise Smith, and Selar Cheney spent two weeks hauling six wagons over Teton Pass, two at a time, pulled by three teams of horses, effectively establishing the rugged Teton Pass as the valley's primary communication and transportation artery....
It's All Trew: Childhood medications were simple, gave relief Early childhood open wounds were merely painted with iodine, wrapped with a clean rag and the ends ripped in strips and tied. Only serious wounds with bleeding were taken to the doctor's office because the visit required money, which was scarce as hens' teeth at our house. Most people raised in the country have a story or two telling of spending a lot of time soaking a toe, hand or foot in coal oil from stepping on a nail, chopping a toe with a hoe or like my episode where I split my big toe with a post-hole digger helping mother plant a rose bush. I spent an hour morning and night soaking that toe in coal oil. Today, 60 years later, when I trim the toenail on that toe I imagine I can smell coal oil...

NEWS ROUNDUP

Wolfless Nevada The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is refusing to take the gray wolf off the list of endangered species in Nevada, even though agency biologists acknowledge the animals have been extinct in the state for decades. In fact, while the University of Nevada's athletic teams are nicknamed the Wolf Pack, there's general agreement that the mountains and high desert valleys that boast mountain lions, black bears and bighorn sheep haven't been home to more than a handful of wolves for centuries. The Nevada Division of Wildlife petitioned the federal agency to delist the wolf in Nevada, primarily to give the state more options to manage the wolf population in case the carnivores wander here after being reintroduced elsewhere. In rejecting the petition earlier this month, the Fish and Wildlife Service said the Endangered Species Act makes it clear a species cannot be removed from the protected list unless it's documented the animal was listed in error and that either the species never existed or could not exist in an area because of unsuitable habitat....
Idaho to take over wolf management next month In just a few weeks, Idaho will officially take over most wolf management duties from the federal government. Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and U.S. Secretary of Interior Gale Norton are scheduled to sign the wolf management agreement Jan. 5 in Boise, the culmination of a federal rule approved nearly a year ago. The rule makes it possible for both Idaho and Montana to take more control over managing gray wolves for the first time since they were reintroduced into both states in the mid-1990s. The wolves are considered a threatened species, protected by the federal Endangered Species Act. Once the agreement is signed, ranchers will be able to obtain permits to kill wolves that are preying on livestock by going to state officials instead of the federal government. ‘‘They will be the designated agent of the service,’’ Jim Caswell, the director of the Idaho Office of Species Conservation at Boise, told the Lewiston Tribune. ‘‘They call the Fish and Game department and Fish and Game will come out and investigate.’’ The rules will also allow the states to petition the federal government for permission to kill wolves that are harming big game herds. Still, gaining such permission won’t be easy — first state officials must conduct peer-reviewed studies proving the wolves are the biggest problem that big game animals such as elk face. Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game is already working on one study, which should go out for peer review soon, Caswell said. The federal government will still investigate and prosecute any wolf-poaching cases, under the rule....hhmmmm, they turn over all management except law enforcement....
Wolf standoff persists Wyoming must regulate all hunting of wolves if it ever wants to see the predator removed from federal protection, a top U.S. Interior Department official told a legislative committee. "What we need in Wyoming is we need to have a licensed hunt," Paul Hoffman, Interior's deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, told the Joint Travel Committee on Thursday. For years, Wyoming officials and Interior have squabbled in meeting rooms, back rooms and courtrooms over how the state should manage wolves if the animals are removed from Endangered Species Act protection. Testimony from Hoffman -- who opposed the federal government's wolf reintroduction program in the 1990s while serving as executive director of the Cody Chamber of Commerce -- didn't immediately break the stalemate. Last year, the federal government rejected the state's management plan because it allowed too much freedom by the public to shoot wolves that stray from the national parks and wilderness areas of northwest Wyoming. Gov. Dave Freudenthal, the Legislature and many ranchers and hunting outfitters support the "shoot on sight" provision to keep wolf populations at bay in other areas of the state. Federal officials say the provision would hinder establishment of a sustainable wolf population....
Column: Red or Blue? Mining Law Defeat is Proof the West is Neither The recent debacle over proposed changes to the archaic 1872 mining law that were tucked into a federal budget bill by Nevada Republican Representative Jim Gibbons has revealed some important truths about the politics of land use in the New West. Opposition to the measure rushed like an avalanche down both sides of the continental divide, bridging a highly polarized national political divide and rendering the solid red block that covered the Rocky Mountain states on electoral maps a year ago completely irrelevant. As for Gibbons himself, he is currently running for governor of Nevada, a mining state where over 80 percent of lands are owned by the federal government. With that in mind, his budget language appears to be (literally) one of the biggest pieces of pork in political history, until we note that none of the companies that would benefit the most from the legislation are based in Nevada. In fact, most of them are foreign companies. It is worth noting that three mining companies that have staked almost a combined 600,000 acres worth of mining claims on public lands contributed over $60,000 to Gibbons’ political campaigns over the last decade. The bulk of those donations came from Denver-based Newmont Mining, which has over 347,000 acres worth of public claims, more than any other single claim-holder....
BLM updates grazing study A federal grazing study that has gone on for five years and has thus far cost over $368 for every cow and calf grazed on a new national monument is a bit closer to completion. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management last week mailed out an update to its grazing study of the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument, a 52,940-acre patch of federal lands east of Ashland, Ore., that feeds about 543 cow-calf pairs each summer on seven allotments. Howard Hunter, the BLM planner in charge of the monument studies, said most studies will come to an end in 2006 and will face another year of analysis before the agency decides if it will allow grazing to continue. “We’ve already spent $1 million on this,” Hunter said, and costs to wrap up the project are unclear. The 11 ranchers involved on the allotment have tried for three years to arrange a buyout brokered by environmental groups boosting a cow-free monument. The hangup has been settling on a price that would allow relocation of livestock and the base ranches on private property. A provision of the executive order reads: “Should grazing be found incompatible with protecting the objects of biological interest, the Secretary (of Interior) shall retire the grazing allotments pursuant to the process of applicable law.”....
Grazing resumes in regional parks With the advent of the rainy season and the growth of new grass, cows have returned to the regional parks where ranchers have grazing lease arrangements with the East Bay Regional Park District. Park visitors may encounter cattle at Morgan Territory Regional Preserve east of Mt. Diablo, and in the Somersville and Garaventa areas of Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve south of Antioch. Grazing will resume at other parks as the season continues. The park district allows livestock grazing (mostly cattle, but also some sheep and goats) in about half of its 65 regional parks. Grazing isn't something new. Dating back to prehistoric times, large herds of deer, elk, antelope and other grazing animals could be found in what are now the East Bay grasslands. Modern-day grazing in the regional parks does generate revenue for the District, but really it is a vegetation-management technique to maintain grassland habitat for a variety of plants and animals. Research indicates that moderate grazing encourages a greater diversity and density of plant and animal life. Grazing is also used to reduce the fuel load and thus the potential for wildfire, especially in park areas near residential neighborhoods....
Valles Caldera Preserve's trust faces big deficit The group charged with managing the Valles Caldera National Preserve blames a budget deficit of up to half a million dollars from the 2005 fiscal year on poor accounting and previous management. "I've have never seen a more horrible accounting system in my life," said trustee Jim Gosz on Friday at a public meeting of the Valles Caldera Trust in Santa Fe. Gosz, who was appointed to the board in April, said past trust administrators didn't resolve the problems. "It's been a whitewash to some degree over the past years," Gosz said. The board stopped short of naming Ray Powell Jr., the trust's executive director last year, as being responsible for the deficit. Powell resigned from the position in September. Attempts to reach Powell by e-mail and telephone Saturday were unsuccessful. Board Treasurer Larry Icerman said recent efforts to resolve the trust's accounting problems uncovered the deficit....
Beware the lynx and hare One need not be racing a snowmobile through the woods to disrupt wildlife. Skiers and snowboarders are being asked to respect wildlife closures in areas accessible from Vail Mountain to protect snowshoe hare and lynx habitat this winter. The areas are all outside the ski area boundaries and include Commando Bowl, Mushroom Bowl, Benchmark Bowl, the top of the ridge between Pete's and Skyline Express Lifts and the area immediately west of Champagne Glade in Earl's Bowl. "Snowshoe hares are the preferred prey of the Canada Lynx, so by protecting habitat for the hares, we are providing a food source for lynx," said Forest Service Ranger Don Dressler. Wildlife management areas were developed to provide habitat for snowshoe hares with minimal disturbance from skier traffic. Studies have shown that areas where skiers have intruded have drastically fewer hares than undisturbed areas....
Huge bat colony inhabits old mine in Colorado One of the largest populations in Colorado -- and possibly all the western United States -- of an imperiled species of bat has been found in the Crystal River Valley, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The Townsend's big-eared bat is using an old mine that tapped into a natural cave as a roosting habitat, wildlife biologist Phil Nyland of the Aspen Ranger District said. He would not confirm just how many bats are living there. Studies are under way to determine how often during the year the bats use the Maree Love mine, located on the lower slopes of Mount Sopris near the Penny Hot Springs. A consultant is preparing an official report about the mine's history for the Forest Service, but preliminary information suggests the Maree Love was a working gold mine in the late 1880s. It apparently was abandoned for a period before it was tapped again for lead and zinc....
Park City seeks BLM land To city fathers, the few remaining slivers of undeveloped land left in Park City are priceless as open space. Actually, the price they would like to pay for some open space is about $10,000 an acre. That's the amount the city is offering the Bureau of Land Management for roughly 116 acres of prime, undeveloped property the federal agency owns within the city limits. The total amount the city wants to pay would be about $1.16 million. And Park City wants to keep its offer intact, although some others are saying the land is worth many times that amount and that the city's proposed deal would be a colossal rip-off of U.S. taxpayers. A plan to preserve open space — a plan being pushed by city officials and U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, along with support from the Sierra Club — is causing a lot of heartburn in the U.S. Department of Interior, BLM's parent agency. Some argue that at the city's proposed price, the deal could be a $100 million loss to taxpayers. "While we have not undertaken an appraisal of these lands, comparables in the immediate area suggest a valuation of at least $1 million an acre is not unreasonable, meaning the total fair market value of the land being transferred could well exceed $100 million," said Chad Calvert, a deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Interior, during congressional testimony earlier this year....
Utah scores in nuke-dump fight Utah's congressional delegation achieved a significant, hard-fought victory Friday in its effort to block a nuclear waste storage site in the state, winning approval of a wilderness area aimed at blocking a rail line that would deliver the waste. The Cedar Mountain wilderness language was approved by leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees after a weeks-long push by Utah members of Congress who were aided by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., environmental groups and Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid. The creation of the 100,000-acre wilderness area would prevent the preferred route for a rail line to the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, where a group of electric utilities known as Private Fuel Storage has won a license to store 44,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants until a permanent home is built in Yucca Mountain, Nev....
Perennial snowmobile debate quiet so far For the past two winters, West Yellowstone business owner David McCray hasn't felt optimistic, but he and others in this tiny gateway to Yellowstone National Park are full of hope this year. There's snow on the ground. Early bookings look promising. And, when Yellowstone opens for its winter season Wednesday, it will be the first time in three years that snowmobile tourists aren't playing by a new set of rules in the park. "This year is normal, and that takes a ton of pressure off us," said McCray, who is already booked with snowmobile tours the first few days of the winter season. However, that continuity may be short-lived, as the National Park Service is working on a new long-range plan for winter use that is likely to again ignite the debate about whether the machines should even be allowed in the park....
Norton: Colorado River plan needed Western states, stuck in a stalemate over how to manage the Colorado River during droughts, are jeopardizing the legal peace that's prevailed on the river during much of the past two decades, federal water officials said Friday. For the past six months, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the river, has been waiting for the seven states that comprise the Colorado River Basin to offer their suggestions for a new federal drought management plan, but to date they've failed to deliver. Last spring, after the states missed a deadline to produce their own plan, U.S. Secretary of Interior Gale Norton launched a two-year public process to craft a federal drought strategy. Since then, though dozens of other groups have submitted drought proposals, the states remain deadlocked on a number of key issues, including how lakes Powell and Mead should be managed and who will bear the brunt of any shortages that may occur....
Suspects' eco-activism took root in high school The FBI knew her as the Country Girl and him as the Country Boy. When they were arrested Dec. 7 in the most extensive snare of suspected eco-saboteurs in U.S. history, she was identified as Chelsea Gerlach, 28, the first person named as a suspect in the 1998 Vail fire bombings. He was Stanislas Meyerhoff, also 28, who faces 17 counts of arson, conspiracy and destruction that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. They appeared in U.S. District Court in Eugene together, just as they were photographed together in 1993 as high school peace activists....
Ecoterror suspect called 'mastermind' His supporters universally call him a kind and compassionate man dedicated to social service, community building and nonviolence. Prosecutors say he's an accomplished arsonist who "masterminded" the burning of buildings across the country for the cause of a radical environmental group, leaving a swath of damage totaling more than $20 million. The U.S. magistrate judge hearing the case decided evidence leaned toward the latter and ordered Prescott resident William Rodgers, 40, held in jail until his extradition to Washington state to stand trial....
Cowpokes and oilmen: Booms, busts, scandal and rebirth Proponents of setting aside oil for the Navy, though, encountered many detractors among politicians and private-sector oil interests. Why shouldn't the government let the private sector provide any needed oil to the Navy, they argued. In an apparent case of letting the fox manage the henhouse, President Warren G. Harding transferred management of the oil field from the Navy to the Department of the Interior, led by Secretary Albert Fall, a former New Mexico senator who had opposed restrictions placed on the oil fields. Fall promptly leased the rights to the oil field to Wyoming-savvy Harry Sinclair of Mammoth Oil without any competitive bidding. Besides the Teapot Dome sweetheart deal, Fall also leased the Naval oil reserves at Elk Hills, Calif., to another company in exchange for no-interest loans. These under-the-table deals, complete with valises full of "gifts," totaled about $400,000, which was a lot of money in 1922. Fall's apparent new financial status began arousing suspicion. The Wall Street Journal broke the story and a Senate investigation ensued....
Song and story differ in the popular Rudolph saga It was 1939 when the Montgomery Ward company told one of its copywriters to develop a Christmas story that could be given to shoppers as a promotion. Robert L. May, 34, got the assignment. He drew from "The Ugly Duckling" and his own shy childhood to develop "the idea of an underdog ostracized by the reindeer community because of his physical abnormality: a glowing red nose," according to a report on snopes.com. He considered using the names Rollo and Reginald before choosing Rudolph. May's boss was worried about the red nose because of the "image associated with drinking and drunkards." But drawings of a pleasant reindeer with a red nose ended the controversy. Montgomery Ward handed out 2.4 million copies of the Rudolph story in 1939 and 6 million by the end of 1946. Several singers turned down the chance to record the tune, but Gene Autry, the famous singing cowboy, was urged by his wife to record it, which he did in 1949. Autry, who later became owner of the Anaheim Angels baseball team, introduced the Rudolph song at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1949. The record sold 2 million copies that first year and remains the second best-selling Christmas song of all time, behind Bing Crosby's "White Christmas."....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Pistol Pete forced to hang up his guns New Mexico State, one of my alma maters, called the Aggies, uses the symbol of Pistol Pete as a mascot. He's also the same character used by Oklahoma State and University of Wyoming. As the mincing tip-toe of political correctness creeps across college campuses, it leaves in its Gerber baby food wake an homogenized landscape of, not diversity, but a beige sameness. It is as if the designer of the universal architecture of Waffle Houses was now assigned to stifle and subdue any malignant spots of individuality with the university system. To the point, after more than 40 years, the muffins of P.C. have disarmed Pistol Pete. It was deemed too controversial by those who know best. That, in a land where the First Amendment exists only because of the Second. In a country where the NRA is more powerful than the unions. In a state where people pay money to come hunt. Where the he Spanish, Native American and cowboy cultures rule. Where they invented the atomic bomb. Where humans still believe they have the right to defend themselves. Pistol Pete can't be shown with his pistols....

FLE

Some of you new readers may be wondering "what the heck is this FLE stuff". I came to this weblog to read about grazing, wilderness, property rights and other natural resource issues.

You can read my original explanation for starting this section here. Basically, the activities of the Forest Service LEOs and the actions of the US Attorney in the Kit Laney case were so outrageous that it caused me to take another look at the entire law enforcement apparatus and the impact it could and is having on westerners. That was the original rationale, and since any new expansion or limitation on Federal authority would also impact the natural resource policing agencies, I covered all the law enforcement/judiciary issues.

The other interesting aspect to note is the issue of sovereignty. Since the Feds own one out of every three acres in the United States, and along with state and local government control so many of our resources, the issue of who is sovereign is important to all of us. Who will manage our resources? Individuals, local government, state government, land trusts, the Feds or some combination. Read carefully many of the postings on law enforcement and you will see the issue of sovereignty and separation of powers as paramount in the event. Look at who is arresting who for what. Look at the Kelo decision and the recent Daniel Martinez issues and you will see what I mean.

In addition, those of us who use the computer and the internet to inform each other and discuss those issues of importance to us, must keep a wary eye on any limitation/regulation/monitoring of our free speech activities.

The last two weeks have brought a deluge of news articles on these items and so I thought an explanation was in order for my newer readers.

I would welcome any comments you may have about my coverage of these events.

Frank DuBois