NEWS ROUNDUP

Forced to let cattle graze, environmentalists attempt to restore land near Grand Canyon Step through the doorway of the cramped line shack out on the Two Mile Ranch grazing range and you might figure it's worth it to sit a spell until the cowhand gets back. His hat's there, black and felt like it ought to be, hanging from a nail in the cinder-block wall. He has stocked the cupboard with cans of green beans and carrots. He hasn't cleaned in a long time - the floor crunches with each step, and mice have taken over the lumpy mattress - but you forgive him that because he's getting paid to chase cattle, not dust bunnies. Still, for all the Hollywood details, this is not a place stuck in an episode of Bonanza. Or even in the past. The next time a cowhand shows up for work, he or she will find the beginnings of a modern experiment in ranching, an operation steeped not in tradition but in conservation. In one of the largest deals of its kind, Two Mile Ranch and neighboring Kane Ranch were sold last year to Grand Canyon Trust and the Conservation Fund, environmental groups trying to position themselves on the leading edge of the so-called green ranch movement....
The Elk Feed Ground Conundrum Elk feed grounds have both pros and cons, the pros include; concentrating elk at specific locations to prevent agricultural depredation, prevents starvation, reduces commingling of livestock and elk, reduces elk/vehicle collisions, facilitates vaccination of elk, inventory studies, and stable elk numbers, they reduce competition with other species for crucial winter habitat, and they are popular with much of the public. Feed ground cons include; congregating elk in an artificially small footprint facilitates disease transmission, it costs Game and Fish about1.3 million dollars annually to manage 22 feed grounds not including the National Elk Refuge, this number excludes disease research. Feeding elk can send a message that habitat is not important! Problems with discontinuation of elk feed grounds include; increased conflicts with highways, fences etc., winter range snow depths that preclude many areas as suitable winter range, increases need for proactive herd management to avoid heavy snow year decimation, heavy snow years will move elk from winter range to available food sources generally haystacks or cattle feed lines increasing elk/livestock interactions increasing damage claims to the Game and Fish and increasing friction with the agricultural community. There currently is not enough winter range to support present herds so it would decrease elk numbers 70-80%, costing about 22 million dollars to the economy of NW. Wyoming....
Grazing takes its toll on the West The West is synonymous with cowboys and Indians, great herds of buffalo and cattle ranching, but according to a recent study by a University of Colorado soil ecologist, past activities on the land have left the Colorado Plateau region with long-term ecological damage. Jason Neff, an assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at CU, has found that despite a 30-year respite from livestock grazing on a site in Canyonlands National Park, Utah, soil erosion and nutrient loss continue to affect the environment. “The news about grazing here is not good,” Neff said....
Livestock district demand sparks ranchland debate A couple who own land next to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument have asked Jackson County officials to extend a local livestock district, sparking debate among neighboring ranchers. Under Oregon law, a livestock district places the burden on cattle ranchers to keep their animals out of the designated land. That’s as opposed to common open-range areas, where it is the neighbors’ responsibility to properly fence in properties to keep livestock out. Ranchers say the livestock district extension proposal is a tactic to oust cattle from public lands, a sensitive topic considering the ongoing negotiations between ranchers and the federal government over selling grazing rights in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. By including the land in the district, petitioners Marshall and Nancy Cole would have the right to impound any errant cattle, essentially taking them away from the rancher, said Bruce Buckmaster, owner of Buckmaster’s Soda Mountain Ranch....
Water Resources Could Be The Next Energy Crisis According to the National Association of Farm Broadcasters, the top agricultural news story of 2005 was the sharp rise in energy prices that affected farmers’ fuel and fertilizer costs. This is a story that could repeat itself in 2006, although it seems unlikely that energy prices will ratchet up as much as the past year. While it was not necessarily front page news in 2005, the world supply of fresh water is of growing concern. In all likelihood water will supplant energy as our most critical natural resource within the next 15 years. The United Nations has already predicted that by 2020, water and not oil will be a source of conflicts in the world. If this projection is right, that’s not good for agriculture because farmers and ranchers are even more dependent on water than they are on affordable, reliable sources of energy. And while there are substitutes for fossil fuels, no one has claimed to have found a substitute for water. Desalination on a large scale is probably in the same category as hydrogen fuel for now – it’s a long way off....
Bill aims to limit law on outfitters A bill that would allow landowners to hire unlicensed hunting guides on private property would strengthen property rights and could provide a financial boost to small ranchers, according to one of its sponsors, Rep. Mark Semlek, R-Moorcroft. Semlek's bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Chuck Townsend, R-Newcastle, would allow landowners to use their employees as hired guides on private property, but licensed outfitters still would be required on public land. Currently, any paid hunting guide must be a licensed outfitter. "We're not talking about these huge ranches that have a lot of public land interspersed among their private lands and that have a huge hunting business and a lot of outfitters on their place," Semlek said. "The case that comes to my mind is my father or my son, for instance, who are not the titled owners of our property. If they want to take some hunters out, they should have the right to do that on my private land. "I'm thinking in the context of the smaller, family ranch operations in Wyoming who might only have one employee who, under the current law, is not able to guide hunters." Last year, Attorney General Pat Crank issued an opinion, at the request of the Wyoming Board of Outfitters and Professional Guides, that said only licensed outfitters are authorized to guide hunters, even on private land. Semlek said that's an infringement on the private property rights of landowners....
Froggy went a'climbing When Glendora rock climber Troy Mayr started scaling the steep granite walls at Williamson Rock 15 years ago, he had the place pretty much to himself. Now, on a peak summer weekend, he shares the crags with 250 to 500 people, who come to climb at what has become one of the premier climbing destinations in Southern California. But this season, Williamson Rock, 6,700 feet above La Ca ada in the San Gabriel Mountains, will be unusually quiet. Williamson has been closed to protect the mountain yellow-legged frog, whose numbers have been decimated. An estimated 100 adult frogs remained in the Southern California population in 2002, when it was listed as a federally endangered species. Scientists have not fully determined why the frog is struggling, but it may be due to fires, non-native predators and disease. The frogs live just upstream and downstream of the main climbing area in a stream at the base of the gorge. The Forest Service on Dec. 27 closed access to 1,000 acres north of the Angeles Crest Highway in the Cooper Canyon area....
Efforts made to manage lynx Even as biologists continue to track lynx and learn more about how they are using forest habitat, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service are considering several management options that will help determine how the cats will fare in the long term. The Forest Service is in the midst of developing a set of plan amendments for a number of national forests in the Rocky Mountain region. Currently the amendments are in between a draft and final version, and conservation groups are concerned that protection for lynx will take a back seat to energy development and logging plans billed as forest health treatments. The draft version of the forest plan changes basically exempted energy projects and forest health projects from requirements to protect lynx habitat, said Jacob Smith, of the Center for Native Ecosystems....
U.S. adds regulatory clout to help pineros Chain saws in hand, they trudged through the woods, slashing away at trees with no training. At night, they slept in ragged tents in bone-chilling cold. Up before dawn, they traveled to remote job sites in unsafe vans. In the woods, U.S. Forest Service employees watching the Latino work crews took notice of the conditions, even recorded them in their agency diaries, but did not act to stop them. Last week, the agency moved forward with plans to make field-level employees who oversee forest labor as accountable for the workers as they are for the forest work. Following through on a promise made in November, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth altered the oversight contracts to spell out - in no uncertain terms - what constitutes a federal health and safety violation and to allow its employees to halt jobs when violations occur....
Hunters becoming an endangered species Don Schaller has been hunting all his life and plans to keep at it until his body can't take anymore. The 68-year-old Portland resident raised his four sons to hunt, but with mixed results. "Two of them hunt and the other two are too damn busy to get out," he said. Schaller's not the only one having trouble getting his kids to hunt as younger Oregonians find new ways to enjoy the outdoors or just decide to stay indoors. Oregon's population has doubled in the past 50 years, but fewer bought hunting licenses last year than in any year since 1958. Fewer bought fishing licenses, according to preliminary figures, than in any year since 1969. It's a national trend, but only Nevada and Michigan are expected to lose hunters faster that Oregon, according to an analysis by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, National Wild Turkey Foundation and U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance. A national survey found the top two reasons for not hunting and fishing more were lack of time and family or work commitments....
Bald eagles in the Keys return to nests destroyed by hurricanes Bald eagles in the Florida Keys have rebuilt most of the nests blown away by hurricanes in 2004 and 2005, state wildlife officials said. Aerial surveys of 11 known nesting sites in the Keys last week show that seven nests are active, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission biologist Steve Nesbitt said. Two nests, one on Big Pine Key and the other on the mainland in northern Monroe County, were missing. "It was extremely productive and very encouraging that the birds are doing so well," Nesbitt said. The number of nesting pairs statewide dropped from 1,133 in 2003 to 1,092 in 2004, but last year rebounded to 1,133, wildlife officials said. Bald eagles, which are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, have also rebuilt damaged nests elsewhere in the state, according to monitors for the Audubon of Florida EagleWatch program....
Panel's ruling on chinook has sportfishing group riled By the narrowest of margins, a 4-3 vote, members of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission said Friday that they wanted to boost the amount of spring-run chinook given to commercial gillnetters on the Columbia River. Reaction from sportfishing interests was swift and livid. "I'm stunned. And we certainly didn't expect it," said Trey Carskadon, the president of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association. "The insensitivity to our needs is just unconscionable. "And, frankly, I don't know where to go from here." With the vote, commissioners told officials for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to go into negotiations with their counterparts in Washington with a preferred 45 percent commercial, 55 percent sport split, a 5 percent drop on the sport side. That's not a 55/45 split in the actual catch, but the share of the 2 percent al-lowed mortality of wild up-river spring chinook that are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. But the commission vote also allows Oregon negotiators some wiggle room. It allows for a shift of the split 5 percent in either direction -- to the current 60/40 split that sportfishing interests urged, or a 50/50 that gillnetters said they needed to keep the industry afloat....
Killing of grizzlies raises concern A federal grizzly bear expert contends wildlife managers desperately need more resources to monitor the threatened bears in northwestern Montana, where he says the 11 known illegal grizzly killings last year were the highest in recent memory. "This is urgent, considering the number of illegal kills right now," Chris Servheen, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's grizzly bear coordinator, said Friday. Limited resources to put tracking collars on bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem has hindered efforts to track how, where and why bears are dying, he said. The number of illegal kills in 2005 was likely higher than the 11 wildlife managers know about, he said. Since 2004, 21 grizzlies in that part of northwestern Montana were recorded as known illegal kills, but it remains unclear whether that signifies a trend in a region where many people live close to or in bear territory....
Interior secretary backs Endangered Species Act revamp Interior Secretary Gale Norton is backing congressional efforts to rewrite the federal Endangered Species Act, an undertaking that could give landowners tax breaks for helping plants and animals and allocate more power to political appointees. "We need to take a hard look at how the (Endangered Species Act) is structured and administered," Norton said during a statehouse ceremony Thursday that transferred management of about 600 Idaho wolves from the federal government to the state. "We will continue to work with Congress." Environmentalists credit the 1973 environmental law with helping prevent the extinction of such creatures as the bald eagle, grizzly bear and wolf. Some farm and property rights groups contend it hinders legitimate land uses and generates lawsuits. In September, the House passed a bill by Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., that would compensate property owners if species-protection requirements foiled development plans. The House measure also would put political appointees in charge of making some scientific determinations, and prevent "critical habitat" designations in some areas....
Men plead guilty in grizzly killing Two men have switched their pleas to guilty in the killing of a yearling grizzly bear in eastern Idaho and the destruction of a radio telemetry collar attached to the bear's mother. They face jail time and up to a $100,000 fine each. Tim Brown, 38, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor Thursday in U.S. District Court in Pocatello for shooting the bear in 2002 with a rifle. He faces up to 6 months in jail, a year of supervised probation and up to a $100,000 fine plus restitution. Brad Hoopes pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor for destroying government property, the radio collar. The collar was removed from the yearling's mother, which had been killed the previous day. He faces up to a year in jail, a year of supervised probation, and up to a $100,000 fine plus restitution. Both men are scheduled to be sentenced in Pocatello federal court on March 16....
Humane Society critical of coyote killing contest An annual coyote killing contest set for this weekend in Fallon County will go on despite objections from a national animal protection group that the event is unethical. The Humane Society of the United States, headquartered in Washington, D.C., sent a letter to the Baker Chamber of Commerce, a sponsor of the event, expressing its dismay over the sponsorship. The contest exhibits "a blatant disregard for wildlife and the integrity of ecosystems,'' the society said. Casey Pheiffer, of the Humane Society, asked the chamber to cancel the event, saying that sponsoring "this reprehensible event may result in a negative view of Baker by the general public.'' Carla Rustad, chamber president, and Karen Leibee, an organizer, said the event will not be canceled. The event, called the "Coyote Calling Contest - Coyote Hunt,'' runs from 7 p.m. today to 2 p.m. Sunday. Sign-up and a rules meeting will be held at the Plevna Bar in Plevna. Two- or three-person teams then will hunt coyotes with landowner permission. According to the rules, snow machines and airplanes are prohibited. So is alcohol. Entry fees will be added to a $1,000 purse that will go to the four teams with the most coyotes. Participants can keep the carcasses or sell them to a buyer for the fur. The contest has been held for several years, Leibee said. Last year, 96 people participated and shot about 55 coyotes, she said....
Column: Get Richard or Die Tryin' Just a week into this election year and already environmental strategists are up to their elbows in plots to snatch Congress from the grip of anti-environment GOP leaders and turn it over to a conservation-minded majority. Leaders of green groups including the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife are hatching plans to help political allies who face tough battles this coming November, including Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). But an even bigger priority for enviros is thwarting the reelection of Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), chair of the House Resources Committee and a zealous advocate of major environmental rollbacks -- among them, weakening the Endangered Species Act, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the outer continental shelf, selling off national parks and monuments, and changing mining law to allow thousands or even millions of acres of public land to be transferred into private hands....

Cows shot; reward is offered for the culprit A cattle rancher in Tooele County is offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for shooting and killing seven cows. The dead cows, all pregnant at the time of the slaying, were discovered on Dec. 29 by a neighbor who was putting up a fence on adjacent property near Mile Marker 32 of State Road 36 north of Vernon. The neighbor noticed the cows lying down and walked over to check on them, according to Tooele County sheriff's Detective Ron Johnson. The cows appeared to be shot in the head and neck and were fanned out across the range about 200 yards from each other, he said. The cattle's owner told police the cows were worth about $1,500 each and was "quite upset" with their killing, the detective said....
Cattle rustlers ruffle feathers in Ozarks A lot of things were said about cattle rustling in Bob Herndon’s garage, but it was a lawman’s remarks that drove home just how bad the problem is in the Ozarks. Eighty-seven thefts. Twenty-nine counties. Almost a half-million dollars in stolen property. "They’re pretty bold individuals," said Sgt. Dan Nash, a Missouri State Highway Patrol detective who’s been investigating the thefts for more than a year. For the first time, Nash explained Thursday to ranchers - many of whom have awakened to a smaller herd in recent months - that an "organized group" is behind the ongoing thefts. The crooks are stealing the cattle under cover of darkness and then selling them at local stockyards and barns within a few days, he said....
The cattle call For 100 years now, the National Western has been a midwinter institution in this former cow town, drawing in ranchers from around the country to buy and sell prized purebred cattle, and city slickers amused by the sight of earnest teens primping their steers with combs and hair dryers. The stock show, which runs today through Jan. 22, is a brilliant collision of rural and urban cultures. It is preschool children romping with goats in the petting zoo and weathered old ranchers swapping tales over black coffee in the Stockyards Inn. It is horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, bison, chickens, rabbits, llamas and dogs. It is crowded concourses and funny barnyard smells, medicine-show hucksters and teary-eyed teens hugging their doomed grand champions one last time. "It is," said historian Tom Noel, "a truly wonderful event."....
The Running of the Steers Pamplona, Spain, is known for its annual encierro, or running of the bulls, as famously portrayed in Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises. This Tuesday Denver will be the site of a somewhat similar spectacle: 30 longhorn cattle—followed by 100 sheep, driven by trained stock dogs—will barrel through the downtown streets of the Mile High City. And that’s just a small part of the kickoff for the 100th anniversary celebration of Denver’s massive National Western Stock Show, which begins tonight. The 16-day show is the world’s largest exhibition of seedstock, the elite cattle used for breeding. And in addition to hosting 20 different breeds of cattle in its sprawling stockyards, it is also home to the world’s second-largest horse show—as well as a showcase for sheep, pigs, poultry, rabbits, goats, llamas, bison, and even yak. More than 12,000 entries from exhibitors from all over the world are converging on the 95-acre site. Not far from the stockyards, the Denver Coliseum is holding some 40 rodeo events, as 700 competitors brave bucking broncos for cash prizes—the fifth-richest rodeo jackpot on earth....
Cattle queen As the 2006 Citizen of the West, and the first female member of the National Western Executive Committee, Anschutz-Rodgers personifies the guts and grit of America's pioneers. "She's pretty spunky, small and short as she is," says Colorado historian Tom Noel. "She has a genuine interest in preserving the Western tradition," says Ben Houston, board chairman of the Western Stock Show Association. "She runs her ranch in true Western style, and is a true conservationist in her methods of ranch management." "She's a very sincere person," says neighbor John Martin. "If she's got something to say that you don't want to hear, it's still going to come out." Anschutz-Rodgers is particularly outspoken about saving America's ranchlands from being gobbled up by developers, then chopped into subdivisions and golf-courses. She's been dubbed a latter-day cattle queen, the 21st-century version of an archetype dating back to the 19th century, when wealthy Elizabeth Iliff, widowed by her rancher husband, ran Colorado's largest ranch that stretched 100 miles along the South Platte River from Greeley to Julesburg....

Intriguing history wraps ancient blanket Sometimes an object or artifact has such powerful associations with a landscape that it defines a sense of place. Such is the case with an Ancestral Puebloan weaving called the Telluride Blanket, which may be the only intact cotton-dyed Puebloan textile in the world. At a recent showing of the blanket at the Telluride Historical Museum, the textile was named a national treasure by Carl Patterson, curator at the Denver Art Museum. Every artifact has a story, and the full story of the Telluride Blanket may be one of the most interesting in the Southwest. It links Ancestral Puebloans with Four Corners ranching and mining families in the stewardship of a rare 800-year-old textile from a weaver's loom. The story of this extraordinary colored blanket, how it was found and by whom, and how it passed to the Telluride Museum, is a subject of recent research. Each thread of the story has exciting twists and turns....
Bootmakers from Mexico riding at the top of their dying industry Sitting on the stool he has warmed for 13 years, Eduardo Ramirez stretches black ostrich leather over a plastic shoe mold, just the way his father taught him. He picks up a hammer and nails the smooth sole onto the bottom of a Size 9 boot. He rubs his calloused hands together for heat and deliberately stitches the sole with a nylon-threaded needle. Ramirez works quietly in the back room of a freshly painted stucco shop in midtown Phoenix, undistracted by a Singer sewing machine that hums across the room and Billy Joel's piano on a boom box. For generations, Latino craftsmen such as Ramirez have sewn cowboy boots for the wranglers of the Southwest, long before they became this season's hottest style and stocked on shelves at Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. But the fashion frenzy passes by shops like Boot Maker Espinoza, where real bootmakers work through changes in fashion and society....
Denominations forge unique alliance to keep ministries in rural Montana For 31 years Jack Siemens was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week as a maintenance supervisor with the state transportation department. Now retired, he's back on the road answering a new call. Every Sunday morning Siemens, 65, drives 70 miles round-trip to preach at Lutheran churches in Harlem, Hogeland and Turner on the Hi-Line. Meanwhile, in the cattle country east of Great Falls, rancher and homemaker Editha McKay, 48, drives a similar circuit preaching in Geyser and Stanford. When her Presbyterian church in Geyser lost its pastor last month, the congregation turned to her for leadership. This spring — after she finishes her job as a school cook — McKay plans to become a full-time, permanent lay minister for her parish and possibly for a church in Stanford. Siemens and McKay are among a growing number of rural Montana churchgoers making the leap from pew to pulpit....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Technological advancements solve the problem Pudge and Maughn were a couple of top hands gatherin' cows on the Diamond Mountain allotment in northeast Utah back in the '60s. Although they were true cowboys, they weren't above accessing modern technology. One late October as they were pushin' a bunch toward the corral, one of the cows fell back with a lameness. The boys left her to retrieve later and took the other cows on in. Parked at the corrals was Pudge's 1950 model 2 1/2-ton heavy-duty bobtail stock truck. That morning they had driven Maughn's pickup and horse trailer to the backside of the allotment, unloaded the horses to start the gather and left the rig parked. After penning the herd, the boys loaded in the bobtail and went back after the pickup and trailer. Along the way, they spotted the lame cow. She seemed unmoving, so the decision was made to tie her down and load her in the horse trailer when they returned....