NEWS ROUNDUP

Capitol cowboy Richard Pombo discards his tie, props black alligator-skin boots on the desk and takes a long pull on a cold bottle of Coors Light. His boyish face, framed by dark hair and a goatee, flushes with success. On this warm autumn evening in the Capitol, the seven-term congressman is one step further in his decade-old quest for sweeping changes to the way the government seeks to protect endangered wildlife. The House Resources Committee, which he chairs, has just passed his overhaul of the landmark Endangered Species Act. And, at this very moment, apoplectic environmentalists want nothing more than to turn Pombo into the political equivalent of a Tyrannosaurus rex. That's just the way he wants it. For this fourth-generation Portuguese rancher from the San Joaquin Valley, making the "greens" see red isn't just part of the job, it's a perk....
Pombo's environmental claims Richard Pombo and environmentalists have sparred for years over whether the congressman lies or stretches the truth about the impact of land-use regulations on property owners. Times staff members separate fact from fiction. ALLEGATION: Pombo lied when he said people died as a result of a 2001 federal decision to cut off water supplies to Klamath Basin farmers for the benefit of endangered fish. TRUTH: It was a serious stretch. EXPLANATION: Specifically, Pombo said, "In the recent case of the Klamath Basin and the endangered sucker fish, for example, it was determined that the sucker needed water more than the area's farmers needed it to irrigate their crops and feed their families. The result was a devastating loss of family farms, human life and economic vitality." The statement relies on friends' and families' interpretations rather than a doctor's opinion. A 2001 news story quoted a farmer's widow in the Klamath Basin who said that her husband, Michael Adams of Tulelake, shot himself because he had lost hope. Mike McKoen, a Merrill, Ore., rancher and potato farmer, died of a heart attack in summer 2001, which his wife said was brought on by stress related to the federal decision.....
Conservationists' 'Bogeyman' Last year, Congressman Richard Pombo and his staff considered selling off 15 national parks, monuments, preserves and historical sites, along with naming rights for visitors' centers and hiking trails, to corporate bidders. The flamboyant idea -- to raise more federal revenues -- was later withdrawn under bipartisan criticism, but it was the latest in a string of maneuvers that have vaulted Mr. Pombo to public enemy No. 1 for many environmental groups. As chairman of the powerful House Resources Committee with its far-reaching oversight of the nation's public lands, Mr. Pombo has used his position as a bully pulpit to push an agenda of environmental conservatism. In just a few short years, the 43-year-old has become a leader in Congress in rolling back environmental regulations -- at a time when like-minded Republican conservatives in the Senate and White House are in power. Apart from contemplating a selloff of national-park sites, Mr. Pombo has recently tried to overhaul the Endangered Species Act, privatize vast government lands in the West and open up protected coasts and wilderness to more drilling. Often sporting a cowboy hat and boots, he openly chastises environmental groups as "radical" and "extreme." In reaction, the Sierra Club calls Mr. Pombo "the most frightening man in Congress" and recently handed out a Halloween mask of the onetime California rancher. The League of Conservation Voters has given Mr. Pombo a 3% rating in terms of how often his votes are aligned with environmentalists, one of the lowest for any politician....
Sierra Valley ranch lands shielded from development In summer, cattle roam the green, stream-crossed bottom of California's largest alpine valley in much the way they have for the last 150 years. Now, two recent agreements between ranchers and conservationists give hope that the rangeland heritage of Sierra Valley will live on despite real estate pressures that have turned ranches in other parts of the state into subdivisions. The owners of DS Ranch, an 8,000-acre spread, and Trosi Canyon Ranch, 1,360 acres of grazing land and prime deer habitat, recently signed conservation easements barring the properties from being subdivided and developed. The Truckee-based Sierra Business Council, the Feather River Land Trust, the California Rangeland Trust and the Nature Conservancy have all worked on preserving the valley. In the end, the partners hope their conservation efforts, which now cover more than 30,000 acres, will guard the spectacular valley from the housing pressures of nearby cities....
Saltwater Spill Fish Kill Could be Extensive State health officials say ten more sampling stations have been set up along a creek in northwestern North Dakota to assess damage from a salt water leak earlier this month. The Zenergy pipeline leak spilled an estimated 22-thousand barrels of salt water, or more than 900-thousand gallons. Officials say it flowed into Charboneau Creek near Alexander, which flows into the Yellowstone River. State Health Department environmental scientist Kris Roberts says the monitoring stations will be about two miles apart. He says the health department is working with Zenergy consultants to clean up the spill, but icy conditions have slowed the work. Roberts says the fish kill could be extensive in some parts of the creek. The health department also is advising ranchers as the salt plume moves downstream, so they have a chance to move their livestock....
Judge orders Forest Service to release documents A judge has ordered the U.S. Forest Service to surrender records on a development planned at a rustic Colorado ski resort to opponents -- just weeks before the agency is expected to make a final recommendation on the project. The Forest Service released thousands of documents last fall after a lawsuit by Colorado Wild, a Durango-based environmental group. A federal magistrate ruled Tuesday that the Forest Service must follow up by certifying that the search is complete, describe how the search was done and provide an index of communications between the agency and the developers of the Village at Wolf Creek. Environmental groups, area residents and operators of the Wolf Creek ski area in southwestern Colorado are battling to block construction of the resort at the base of the ski slopes. They contend the development by Texas billionaire Billy Joe "Red" McCombs" will destroy wetlands, harm water quality and lynx the state has released in the area to restore the mountain cat to Colorado....
Logging article stirs controversy A group of professors at Oregon State's College of Forestry unsuccessfully tried to get the prestigious journal Science to hold off on publishing a study that concluded that leaving forests alone is the best way to help them recover from wildfires. Editor Donald Kennedy, the former president of Stanford, said those who dispute the findings can respond to the study once it is published instead of using what he called censorship. The study was scheduled for Friday's edition of the journal. An Oregon State graduate student, Daniel Donato, 29, led researchers in examining lands burned by the 2002 Biscuit wildfire in southwest Oregon, where the Bush administration and others at OSU had promoted logging as a means of restoring forests quickly. Donato's team concluded logging slows forest recovery. They found that logging after the Biscuit fire destroyed seedlings and littered the ground with highly flammable tinder....
Wolf study based on assumptions Recent press accounts reported that a study revealed that wolves aren't to blame for the decline in the Northern Yellowstone elk population and quoted a researcher as stating, "You don't need wolves in the picture at all to explain the population drop," and "Whether or not wolves had been introduced, you'd have seen fewer elk anyway." The researcher was John Vucetich, a research assistant professor in the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science at Michigan Tech. Media accounts reported that hunters and drought are the two primary factors in the 40-percent drop in the elk population - not wolves. But what many press accounts failed to reveal was that the study being cited was actually a population simulation model, not field research. The authors of the paper, including the MT professor and two Yellowstone National Park wolf biologists, built and assessed population models, "then used the best of these models to predict how elk dynamics might have been realized after wolf reintroduction had wolves never been reintroduced," according to the study, which was recently published in the journal Oikos. After reviewing the research paper earlier this week, Wyoming Farm Bureau executive vice president Ken Hamilton said, "Just as I suspected, they went model shopping and got the results they wanted."....
Column: Tone down ecosystem debate We have very imperfect information about the value of natural resources and about the costs of environmental damage caused by resource use. People on different sides of a particular issue cite different estimates. Such estimates vary depending on who makes them and when they are made. Even when there is agreement on the scope of benefits and costs, different people place different values on crucial gains or losses. Those physically distant from the Amazon Basin or the Four Corners tend to emphasize the societal value of long-term ecosystem preservation. Those close to the resource tend to place more value on available land and jobs. Both sets of concerns are legitimate. No resource-use policy will please everyone. The fairest and most-efficient outcomes can emerge when debate about trade-offs involved is moderate, with all sides respecting legitimate concerns of others. That seldom happens.
Antiquities Act: Task of recovering stolen artifacts, an increasingly dangerous duty One hundred years ago this year, Congress adopted the Antiquities Act, making it a crime to steal Indian artifacts or deface ancient and historical sites on federal lands. Congress further clarified and strengthened federal authority in 1979 with the passage of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, or ARPA, which prohibits the sale, purchase or trafficking of artifacts more than 100 years old such as masks, pots, clothing and human remains taken from public lands. The act made looting, transporting or selling any artifact worth more than $500 a felony, punishable by fines up to $20,000 and up to one year of imprisonment. For a second offense, felons could be fined up to $100,000 and spend as many as five years in prison. The West is full of archaeological treasures. The long, complex history of humans is told by what was left behind. New Mexico alone has hundreds of ancient sites once inhabited by Pueblo, Anasazi and other ancestral tribal people....
Stewards of protection: State program and private groups help guard hundreds of ancient and historical sites Katherine Wells at first tried to keep secret the more than 6,000 petroglyphs on her 165 acres near Velarde. But when a mineral lease threatened to destroy rock art on nearby public land, she changed her mind. Wells put her land in a trust with the Archaeological Conservancy to protect it forever from development, mining and grazing. She helped create Vecinos del Rio, a nonprofit preservation group. She coordinates a training program for volunteers who are documenting the extensive rock art found along the basaltic Mesa Prieta near the Rio Grande Gorge. Wells is one of a growing cadre of private citizens who are helping the state protect hundreds of ancient and historical sites from vandals, looters and unintentionally destructive visitors....
When greenies go nuts: tales of the eco-11 terrorists Charges against individuals who reportedly formed a ring of ecoterrorists is good news for the Northwest and a validation for the FBI, whose agents persisted over long years to assemble evidence of arson and property destruction. The indictments, if proven in court, tell a tale of berserk behavior, of careers and good work damaged, all in the name of the Earth. The Earth is a false god if it means concocting explosive gel with soap shavings as the stabilizer. They don't target or harm people, is the defense used by the ecoterrorists, but of course they do. They harm families and research, paychecks and public wealth. They stain environmentalism with their unbalanced fervor. The individuals appear as normal as the trees, but with secret lives of destruction — a firefighter, a Southwest bookstore owner and a health-care worker for the disabled are among those found and charged. One committed suicide in jail, others appeared at the courthouse in Eugene, Ore., smiling the smiles of the righteous....
Shadowy groups difficult to defeat Friday's indictments won't completely crush the two shadowy eco-terrorist groups targeted by federal authorities, according to several experts. "It's naive to think that the arrest of 11 people, as important as it is, will shut the movement down," said Dave Martosko, director of research for the Center for Consumer Freedom, who has closely followed the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front groups. Daniel Pope, a professor of history at the University of Oregon in Eugene, who has taught a course on American radicalism, said their very structure makes it hard to do away with them. "It strikes me that the purpose of these organizations includes being loose, amorphous, non-hierarchical and without a backbone," said Pope....
Steep and deep As avalanche-control blasts echoed in a narrow valley walled off by towering, jagged whitecaps, a guide stretched one hand high above her head while cupping the other around her nose and mouth, creating an air pocket. Skiers and snowboarders - already required to strap on homing beacons and backpacks containing small shovels and extendable probes - looked on quietly as the guide demonstrated how to survive in a cascading mass of snow. Precautions taken at Silverton Mountain render the threat of avalanches low. Yet little can be left to chance at this breathtakingly steep, rugged throwback of a ski area that bridges the thrills of the backcountry with some basic conveniences of conventional resorts....
Ranch eyes land swap with state A ranch is proposing to swap 3,378 acres of its land for about 623 acres of state land where it would like to build a resort near Medicine Bow National Forest. The land being offered by the Three Forks Ranch is near the southern end of the Atlantic Rim about 27 miles north of Baggs in the Dry Cow Creek drainage. The land has four large spring-fed reservoirs, two small reservoirs and two other springs, all with water rights. Public roads provide access to the area, according to state officials. The state land sought by the ranch is on the Colorado line and abuts the Sierra Madre portion of Medicine Bow National Forest. The state land has the Running Fork of the Little Snake River running through it and isn't far from the Three Forks Ranch headquarters, which is in Colorado. Along with the resort, the ranch would also like to build high-priced homes....
Amid the elk, family clings to Wild West Five thousand elk mingle in the snow of the National Elk Refuge and a frigid, biting wind snaps across the 25,000-acre meadow. It's feeding time. Big, burly Ryan Castagno has little time to waste. He cranks up the gas grill outside the warming hut where he and a few other men rest between sleighloads of tourists eager to get close to the elk. The fire is hot and Castagno throws a T-bone steak onto the rack, flops the meat over a few times with his hand and then picks the steak off the sizzling-hot grill with the same hand. He carries the smoldering meat into the hut in his hand, drops it onto a plate and knocks off his lunch in 90 seconds. Don't even ask about a salad. Or a napkin. James Thomas, a big guy himself, watches and smiles. He and Castagno, neither of them 30 yet, are figures from the past, two of the four tough, weather- resistant men who spend these winter days driving teams of horses and sleighs through the sprawling sea of elk. The elk arrive each December from the snowy mountains to the low meadow where the snow isn't as deep and food comes easier. Outside the hut, Thomas points to a stand of cottonwood trees at the end of the refuge. His grandmother was born in a cabin in those trees in 1909. She and her husband, Bill Thomas, ran cattle and, each winter, marveled at the elk....
Cow Chips: Controversial microchips will ID all livestock High technology may soon be used to track individual livestock and pets, but the “mandatory” aspect of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) animal identification system may be costly in more ways than one. Agriculture knows there is a problem. With worldwide markets, the ability to trace and back-track the life of an animal can quickly stop the spread of disease. But how can it be done in a cost-effective manner that does not intrude on Constitutional rights of animal owners? Recently complaints have sprung up regarding a USDA-driven National Animal Identification System dubbed NAIS. Property rights advocates are screaming the loudest, but California agriculture organizations are also quietly questioning the Draft Strategic Plan that gives July 2006 as the target date for the USDA to issue a proposed rule for requirements. There are two “mandatory” aspects of the NAIS plan. As a result, all animals will be tracked by a government agency. First will be the mandatory registration of all premises where livestock are housed. This includes owners of even one cow, horse, pig, goat, lamb, chicken, goose, duck or rabbit. And under the current threat of bird flu epidemic, “premises” could be expanded to include anyone with a parakeet or other bird pets. Fish are also farmed and would need to be under the NAIS. A seven digit number will be given to each registered “premise” and there will be $10 fee charged the premise owner. The government will then know who you are, where you are and what you have....
Debate rages over unwanted horses The routine is similar at all three U.S. horse slaughterhouses: A captive bolt gun renders the horse unconscious. The horse is then hoisted by a hind leg, slit in the throat, skinned, carved, packed, frozen and shipped abroad for human consumption. An estimated 60,000 American horses are killed this way annually. But some groups, including horse organizations, suggest the method is better than letting unwanted horses waste away in a pasture. On the other side is a majority of the U.S. Congress, which is trying to put the slaughterhouses out of business. The appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture included an amendment prohibiting the USDA from spending its money to inspect the slaughterhouses. The ban goes into effect March 10. The slaughterhouses -- two in Texas and one in Illinois, and all European-owned -- cannot operate if they're not inspected. The slaughterhouses have countered with a petition to the USDA, offering to pay a fee for inspections. The USDA is entertaining the offer and animal rights activists are outraged....
Bison are Buicks, and other dangerous beliefs Don't believe everything you hear about the West. While some Western myths are mere entertainment, others can kill you. Like thinking a 4-wheel drive provides traction on ice. Recently, some dangerously incorrect statements gained serious media attention during the first hunt in 15 years for bison leaving Yellowstone Park. Calling the hunt a slaughter, protesters said buffalo are so docile that killing one is like shooting a Buick or - as one hunter said - "like shooting a cow." Those statements are worth just what they cost you. Lying in a snowdrift at 30 below zero, I once watched lead balls bounce off a buffalo's hide. Hunters poured more powder, stuffed more lead balls into their muzzle-loading rifles until one wounded a bull, but it didn't fall. The other bull we'd bought to shoot that day grew agitated, snorting and pawing while we crouched in the snow. I could have used a few smooth-tongued activists between me and those bulls, or, after we survived the hunt, helping us butcher as our hands froze to our knives. I once saw a bull toss his head like a high school girl flipping her hair. The bison next to him took a few steps and fell, disemboweled by that casual motion. A bison bull may weigh a ton - like a modest passenger car - but can spin and leap like a ballet dancer. From a standing position, a bison, like a deer, can jump a fence. They can run 35 miles an hour, faster than most horses and all joggers. Unless you can jump 12 feet straight up and come down doing a four-minute mile, stay well away....
Fletcher saw potential for land – just add water Rancho Santa Fe was such a community. Fletcher was instrumental in bringing water to the former Spanish land grant, earlier known as Rancho San Dieguito. In 1911, the San Diego Chamber of Commerce gave a banquet honoring E.P. Ripley, president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. Fletcher was present and so was W.E. Hodges, vice-president of the railroad. According to Fletcher's memoirs, Hodges, who was seated next to Fletcher, began to relate to him the problems of the railroad's recently acquired Rancho San Dieguito, where the company had planted eucalyptus trees to produce wood for railroad ties. When the 8,800-acre ranch was purchased, 3 million eucalyptus trees were planted, but the wood they yielded proved to be unsuitable for railroad ties. Fletcher saw potential for developing the land. He envisioned an exclusive community of "gentleman farmers" on the site. But water would be necessary....
Days Gone By: Local physician’s life lends itself to great stories Audrey Elliot Santoro, the mother of Dr. Jerry Bailes, grew up in the tiny Garland community about nine miles from Stigler, Okla., when it was still Indian Territory. One day, when she was 8 years old and watching her pa chop firewood in the front yard of their home, a neighbor came riding up on horseback. “How ya’ feelin’ today,” the neighbor asked. “Feelin’ just fine, thank ya,” answered her pa, Ed Elliott. “Ya won’t for long,” the neighbor said before pulling out his six-shooter and pumping six bullets in him. He was already heading back toward his home by the time Audrey’s father hit the ground....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Cattle feeder cologne unique, puzzling idea I just got wind of your latest venture into the entrepreneurial world. It's odd that if I'd heard you'd merged with Tyson Foods or been arrested transporting Amish across the state line, I'd have shaken my head but taken it in stride. As it was, I sat back too stunned to similize. It's like ... see, wait! It's as if Dick Cheney had joined the ACLU. Or Osama had seen the error of his ways and joined the Methodist Church. But a cattle feeder producing a line of cologne? You must be barraged with cheap shots suggesting names like, Eau d' Moo, Poopet (rhymes with Chevrolet), Nebraska Noir, Whiff of Wisner, Waft of Wahoo, Rumensent, Olay d' Manuire, Corral #5. What claims will it make; To improve one's chances in the meat market? To increase one's self esteem? To drive away horn flies? To cover odors such as feedlot dust, Terramycin, silage pit treacle or overflow lagoon that have permeated your skin?....