NEWS ROUNDUP

Curry takes 2nd stab at drilling bill State Rep. Kathleen Curry is harnessing the support of everyone from Colorado homebuilders to conservation groups for another tussle with the gas development industry. Curry has introduced a bill for the second straight legislative session to try to give surface landowners more power in negotiations with gas companies that want to drill wells on their properties. The Democrat from Gunnison, whose district includes the Roaring Fork Valley and part of western Garfield County, failed to win approval for a similar bill last year. Curry said she is taking another crack at the issue because surface owners aren't receiving proper compensation for damage from drilling on their property. Colorado's rules and regulations are skewed in favor of the gas industry, she maintained....
Capitol clash set to surface over impact of drilling A high-stakes clash of economic titans is set to break out at the Capitol today, when lawmakers consider forcing energy companies to increase compensation for landowners whose property values are hurt by the uninvited roads, gas wells and heavy equipment used to extract natural gas. This isn't the first time the General Assembly has considered landowners' complaints about gas drilling. But it is the first time a bill has come out of the gate backed by the real estate development industry, a powerful force that can hold its own against energy lobbyists. House Bill 1185 would encourage energy companies to enter into surface-impact agreements with landowners before drilling on their property and force them to post a $25,000 bond for every well where an agreement was not possible. Courts would decide disputes over compensation. Currently, companies must only post a a single $100,000 bond to cover all of their activity in the state, and landowners can only collect for damage they can prove is "unreasonable."....
Bill aims to protect surface landowners Politics makes strange bedfellows. This holds true for the newly formed coalition of farmers, ranchers, home builders and environmental activists campaigning for House Bill 1185. Introduced Tuesday by Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, the bill aims at compensating landowners for damage to their properties from oil and natural gas drilling. It also outlines a process for settling disputes between landowners and energy companies. "This is a property rights bill," Curry said Tuesday during a news conference. "Some Garfield County landowners brought this to my attention, (agricultural) people . . . who have multiple wells on their lands. "My impetus for this bill is those people, not the home builders. They have a different perspective, but the message is the same: Everybody is looking at a balance, at a level playing field." Curry said that according to data from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, only 13.2 percent of the well permits approved from 2000 through 2005 have a surface use agreement....
A new tack in West's land battles The federal government owns so much of Custer County, Idaho, that one could call it common ground. More than 95% lies in public hands. But for years, Idaho has failed to find much, if any, common ground on what to do with the region's pristine backwoods. Environmentalists wanted to protect the roadless forestland as federal wilderness, ranchers hoped to maintain the land for their cattle, and weekend warriors pushed for access for their dirt bikes and off-road vehicles. Local government officials, starved for revenue, looked to privatize some government land to generate more property taxes. Exhausted after three decades of lawsuits, failed legislation, and ill will, these groups are backing a compromise bill that would designate some 300,000 acres as wilderness, privatize another 6,000, and keep the rest open for multiple uses. Some observers call the legislation, submitted last year by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R) of Idaho, an example of "collaborative process," an evolving concept that could define the future of conservation....
Commission affirms stance against wilderness area Ranchers, bird watchers, off-road enthusiasts and rock hounds packed Pennington County Commission chambers Tuesday to debate the pros and cons of wilderness areas in Buffalo Gap National Grassland. As part of its 2002 management plan, the U.S. Forest Service recommended the Indian Creek and Red Shirt areas of Buffalo Gap National Grassland be designated as federal wilderness areas. The commission voted unanimously in 2004 to urge Gov. Mike Rounds, the state Legislature and South Dakota's congressional delegation to oppose expansion of wilderness areas. County commission chairman Ken Davis said he is unaware of any attempts at the federal level to move forward on the proposal, but he has received several questions about the county commission's continued opposition. In 2004, the commission voted unanimously to oppose expanded wilderness areas....
Fairy shrimps and bears hot topics for species protection From barely visible fairy shrimp to highly visible black bears, we share our Napa Valley home with a rich diversity of animals, birds, fish, insects and plants. Some of them are listed as threatened or endangered. As our houses and vineyards press outward from the valley floor, we are moving deeper into our wild neighbors' spaces, and discovering that sharing habitats is not always easy. The recent killing of four black bears at a Pope Valley vineyard drew attention to a critical question: How do we balance the need for protecting our agricultural land and crops while also preserving critical habitat for native, rare, threatened or endangered species? The bear-killing, which was done legally to protect vineyard land, incited a strong public outcry in favor of protecting the bears, even among some other vineyard owners. It also raised curiosity about what rare, threatened or endangered species live in Napa County, and what we should do to protect them....
A New Alarm Sounds for Amphibians Frogs exposed to a mix of pesticides at extremely low concentrations like those widely found around farms suffer deadly infections, suggesting that the chemicals could be a major culprit in the global disappearance of amphibians, UC Berkeley scientists reported Tuesday. When tadpoles were exposed in laboratory experiments to each pesticide individually, 4% died before they turned into frogs. But when atrazine and eight other pesticides were mixed to replicate a Nebraska cornfield, 35% died. The frogs developed an array of health problems, including meningitis, because the chemicals suppressed their immune systems. They also took longer to complete the transformation from tadpole to frog, which reduces their chances of survival. At least one-third of amphibians worldwide, or 1,856 of the known species of frogs, toads, salamanders and caecilians, are in danger of extinction, according to an international group of conservation biologists....
Mouse that roared A new genetic study of the Preble's meadow jumping mouse rejects previous findings and concludes that the Colorado-dwelling rodent is a distinct subspecies, biologists familiar with the unpublished report said Tuesday. The new findings could rekindle the long-running, rancorous debate over federal protections for the pint-size mouse, which lives in grassy areas near Colorado Front Range stream banks. The latest work was done by U.S. Geological Survey biologists. The results were scheduled to be presented to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall this morning in Washington, D.C. "Why can't the government make up its mind?" Denver real estate attorney Howard Gelt said Tuesday. "This does not provide any kind of stability or sense of direction. We're going to go from one end of the spectrum to the other."....
Salmon advocates challenge de-funding of fish-counting agency Conservation and sport fishing groups have filed a lawsuit challenging a legislative move by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, directing the Bonneville Power Administration to eliminate funding for an agency that counts young salmon crossing dams. The lawsuit was filed Monday in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco by the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association. It names BPA as the defendant and asks the court to direct the agency to keep the Fish Passage Center intact. "We must not allow one man's political maneuvering to trump science and the law," Mark Riskedahl, executive director of NEDC, said in a statement....
Both sides of buffalo debate irate about roaming charges In the towns that pepper the terrain northwest of Yellowstone National Park, there are some things you can count on each year when the biting, frigid winter locks down on the land. One is the capture and killing of bison. Another is the loud butting of heads. The heads are human. Some belong to National Park Service, which annually culls the Yellowstone bison herd - more than 600 so far this year - in wild, noisy, snowmobile-powered roundups and sends most to the slaughterhouse. The other heads are those of activists who passionately try to protect the gigantic, shaggy symbols of the American West. As you'd imagine, the two groups don't agree on much. Take an incident two weeks ago. Here are a few facts: Forty buffalo stampeded onto Hebgen Lake near West Yellowstone, Mont. Fourteen of the buffalo crashed through the ice. Two drowned. Getting the rest of the story is about as easy as trying to eat a buffalo steak with a spoon....
Donation helps wolf research Wolf research in Yellowstone National Park will get a $1.4 million boost in the coming years. An anonymous donor in Colorado has pledged to give $140,000 a year for the next 10 years to track and better understand the park's wolves, the Yellowstone Park Foundation announced Monday. The National Park Service's Yellowstone Wolf Project will get about $100,000 a year and wolf researchers from the University of Minnesota will get the remaining $40,000. The Yellowstone Park Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Bozeman, has typically provided about $150,000 in private donations for the Yellowstone Wolf Project each year to add to funding from the Park Service....
BLM greenlights Easter Jeep Safari The Bureau of Land Management has renewed a Moab off-road club's permit to hold the annual Easter Jeep Safari in Grand and San Juan counties. The decision met with harsh words from environmentalists who contend the federal agency did not do enough to protect sensitive lands from damage by off-highway vehicles. Now in its 40th season, the Jeep Safari annually draws more than 1,500 participants from around Utah and the nation. But the nine-day event also coincides with spring break for many college and high school students who flock to Moab for backcountry recreation, including off-highway driving. In recent years, county officials have estimated that as many as 10,000 OHV enthusiasts who were not associated with the Jeep Safari have crowded into town and onto the area's backcountry trails throughout the week....

Pitt given Wyoming ranch land that is 'littered with fossils' A Wyoming rancher donated 4,700 acres of land rich in dinosaur fossils to the University of Pittsburgh, which will maintain it for students and researchers. Allen Cook, of Wheatland, Wyo., said he decided to donate the land, worth about $7 million, after he had it appraised in preparation for selling part of his ranch. The appraiser put Cook in touch with Alec Stewart, dean of the university's honors college and the appraiser's graduate school classmate. Cook said the university's interest "seemed kind of in line with what I'd like - that the land would be preserved." The land is "littered with fossils," said Mary Dawson, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History who visited the ranch several years ago. "They have a real gem out there," she said....
Clogged Rockies Highway Divides Coloradans When Interstate 70 was built through here in the 1960's and 70's, the Colorado Rockies were largely rural and remote, and the old roads that the highway replaced were a widely recognized danger. Over the years, as the population grew, delays and frustrations on the highway began to mount. Traffic jams at nosebleed altitude became common. In 8,800-foot-high Silverthorne, which was little more than a gas station pit stop a generation ago, with a grocery that got fresh produce only on Thursdays, alpine meadows gave way to factory outlet stores. Now state officials are considering a major and contentious widening project for Interstate 70 that is dividing people over the question of who the highway is for and how it transformed these mountains. The project is a variation of a drama that is playing out across much of the West as once-rural outposts are transformed into brimming settlements with newfound political and economic clout in transportation decisions....
Circle the wagons The afternoon crowd was beginning to trickle through Gate 3 at the Manatee County Fair, and Hub Hubbell was ready. Duded up in boots, jeans, denim shirt, vest, red bandanna and a sweat-stained cowboy hat, the lifelong rodeo cowboy, now 87, was tinkering with his rustic chuck wagon, parked on the grass off to the right of the main gate. "No horses this time," said Hubbell, who has entertained folks for more than six decades as a rider, announcer and performer with his trick ponies. "I'm going to talk about the hardships on the trail." The chuck wagon was his podium. It was a mini-replica of the Old West covered wagons with the big spoked wheels that helped keep cowpokes fed on those long cattle drives from Texas to Kansas, Missouri, Wyoming, Montana and even Canada after the Civil War. "This is similar to the ones made in 1865, but the real ones were about six-foot longer, a foot higher and a foot wider," said Hubbell, who bought the chuck wagon from a collector in Sarasota five years ago. "I tried to fix this up as original as they made it back then. I could take this on the trail. It's pretty solid."....
George Bush To Star in Sequel to ‘Brokeback Mountain’ In a surprisingly public disclosure, President Bush has revealed that he will star in a sequel to the award-winning yet controversial movie ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ which he also stated that he “thoroughly enjoyed.” During a Q&A session at Kansas State University, a young male student humorously asked Bush if he has seen the Hollywood hit about two homosexual cowboys in Wyoming. But Bush’s answer startled the audience. "I have seen it and thoroughly enjoyed it," Bush said flatly of the critically acclaimed love story, to nervous laughter. The sequel will be called “Brokeback Whitehouse” in which Twist discovers he has a rich queer uncle in Washington, DC. They get invited to the White House and the president helps them drill an oil well in Wyoming....