NEWS ROUNDUP

Oil, Gas Companies: Bill Could Cripple Industry Oil and gas companies said a measure that would require companies to compensate property owners for surface damage could cripple their industry, prompting lawmakers Wednesday to delay action as they consider changes. The bill (House Bill 1185) would require mineral owners to pay surface owners whose property or land values are damaged by oil and gas operations. The issue centers on the so-called "split estate," when one person owns the land but someone else owns the minerals beneath it. Companies that own or lease the minerals have a right under state law to "reasonable use" of the surface to extract the oil, gas or coal. Industry representatives told lawmakers it could take nine years for a well owner to recoup the bond money. They said many drillers would not be able to get bonding and would have to put up the money themselves because of the possibility of extended litigation. "It's intended to tie up capital. It would clearly put small operators out of business. It's intended to give surface owners the power to slow oil and gas development," said Howard Boigon, a director for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association....
Council approves drilling requests City Council approved Mewbourne Oil Company's requests Wednesday to drill in the 3900 block of Thomason Road by an 8-0 vote, with Councilman Ned Elkins commending the company for one employee's efforts in helping to revise the city's oil and gas ordinance two years ago. But a Carlsbad Fire Department employee, Mark Alam, said he is a resident of the area and wanted some questions answered. Dave Henard, of RESPEC Environmental, a consultant to the city on drilling activity within city limits, was at the meeting Wednesday. His report to the city states that there are no homes within 1,000 feet of the proposed drilling rig. Alam said the closest residents to the drilling are on Thomason Road, and the 1,000-foot line actually goes through one of his neighbor's homes. "The plot is incorrect at this time," Alam said of the maps indicating where the well would be and how far area homes were from the proposed drilling. Henard told council members the stake for the actual point of drilling was not at the site, but he said when he was in the drilling area, there were no homes within 1,000 feet. Mayor Bob Forrest said the city's ordinance only requires that drilling be 500 feet from any homes....
Government Reduces Endangered Mexican Wolf Numbers for Third Year in Row The number of endangered Mexican gray wolves that could be confirmed in the wild declined for the third successive year in 2005 as a result of trapping and shooting of wolves by the U.S. government, conservationists charged today. And the number could drop further, with the Luna Pack of Mexican wolves repeatedly encountering and feeding on livestock carcasses of animals they did not kill, which is likely to induce them to predate on livestock. At the end of 2003, the interagency Mexican wolf reintroduction field team could document 55 wolves in the wild; at the end of 2004, 44 wolves in the wild; and at the end of 2005, 35 wolves in the wild -- representing a 20 percent decline each year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with statutory authority to recover Mexican wolves, had projected 55 wolves at the end of 2003; 68 at the end of 2004; and 83 by the end of 2005....
Maclay: Suit Stems From Misunderstanding About Historical Rights Tom Maclay, the landowner planning a destination ski resort at the base of Lolo Peak responded today to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court against him yesterday, saying in a statement, "there appears to be a misunderstanding about our family’s rights to access roads on what are now National Forest lands." The complaint alleges Maclay illegally cut about 400 trees on National Forest Service property, including trees in the Carlton Ridge Natural Resource Area. It also alleges he cleared several closed roads and built new ones on federal property. Maclay's statement characterizes the National Forest property as "lands that we have used for recreation and ranching for over 100 years, since before Congress created the U.S. Forest Service." The statement also reads: "This issue comes down to a debate over historical land rights that has been occurring across the West for decades. There are many situations in which landowners’ historical use of roads is subject to unresolved disagreements with the Federal Government. We regret that it appears these issues will have to be addressed in the context of litigation."....
Salvage ruling no help to local mill A federal judge last week ruled that salvage logging in core grizzly bear habitat could begin again, now that grizzly bears are in their den. But the ruling comes far too late for one local mill. F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber had about 800,000 board feet of timber cut and on the ground from last summer, said Ron Buentemeier, Stoltze general manager. Now it's under about 5 feet of snow, he said Monday. “There's no chance of those logs being picked up under the time frame the judge gave us", he said....
Working for Bears or Barely Working? "By the end of the year, I also expect that the Yellowstone grizzly bear will be removed from protection under the Endangered Species Act in portions of Idaho. Grizzly bears may be here to stay, but thanks to the state plan that you helped develop, federal management of this species is on its way out." --Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, January 9 State of the State Address. To hear this message from the leader of Idaho's state government, you might think that the proposed removal of Endangered Species Act protections from the Yellowstone grizzly is an all-but-done done deal. If you attended the casual, meet-and-greet-style open house about delisting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held on January 12 in Idaho Falls, you might have gotten the same impression of the federal government. And according to some conservation groups, that feeling would be right, since they say public input appears to matter little in the government's drive to delist. "I'm not sure why there was this meeting," said Joe Timchak, an Idaho Falls science teacher who attended the open house with his daughter. Timchak said he was tentatively supportive of the Fish and Wildlife Service's plan, announced on November 15, to hand control of bears over to state control, as long as he could be sure the bears were guaranteed adequate and protected habitat. But like several other locals who talked with BW after leaving the event, he added with a shrug, "It seems like the decision has been made basically."....
'Wilderness is Our Common Ground'; Conservation Group Launches New Ad Campaign What do a group of high school teachers, a women's exercise class, and a local businessman have in common? A love of Arizona's special wild places -- and the desire to see them protected for their children and grandchildren. "Wilderness is Our Common Ground" is the theme of the new print ad campaign debuting today by the Sky Island Alliance -- a conservation group based in Tucson. To view the ads, go to http://www.commongroundaz.org. "Arizonans from all walks of life and backgrounds use and enjoy our special wild places in many different ways," says Mike Quigley, Sky Island Alliance Wilderness Campaign coordinator. "These natural gems are part of what makes this state unique, and part of what makes us Arizonans. Our wilderness areas help keep our water and air clean. They provide places to get away from our hectic lives, or make happy memories with our friends and families, and they provide unmatched opportunities for hiking, hunting, fishing and birding." The ads, which start running today in a number of area newspapers including the Nogales International, La Estrella de Tucson, the Arizona Daily Star, and the Tucson Citizen, feature a variety of citizens who value wilderness for different reasons....
Restoration or Exploitation? Claiming that the Fishtrap project perfectly illustrates the failed nature of the current U.S. Forest Service management scheme for restoring forests, the Ecology Center, Native Forest Network and Alliance for the Wild Rockies have filed a formal administrative appeal over the Fishtrap logging project that calls for industrial logging in unroaded wildlands, old-growth forests and habitat for grizzly bears and bull trout. The Fishtrap project area is located 20 miles north of Thompson Falls within the remote upper Fishtrap Creek watershed. Sixty-seven percent of the Fishtrap project area is part of the Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recovery Area and Fishtrap Creek is listed as a priority stream for the threatened Bull trout. The Fishtrap logging project would cut down enough trees from over 3 1/2 square miles of the watershed (2,260 acres) to fill 2,400 log trucks lined up end-to-end for twenty miles. The Fishtrap project calls for industrial logging in unroaded wildlands, within old-growth forests and important habitat for grizzly bears and bull trout. Based on the Forest Service's budget, the project would lose $2.5 million....
Administration pitches new salmon policy Conceding that using hatcheries to supplement dwindling salmon populations is harming wild salmon species in some cases, the Bush administration plans to move away from the practice in favor of a more direct solution: Catch fewer fish. James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, announced the new policy Wednesday at a meeting of salmon scientists, many of whom have concluded that wild Pacific salmon will become practically extinct this century without big changes in how the harvest is managed. "Our goal is to minimize and, where possible, eliminate the harvest of naturally spawning fish that provide the foundation for recovery," Connaughton said in an interview with The Associated Press before his speech. Critics said the change in tactics does not address the combination of factors that have severely reduced salmon runs, from overfishing and development to hydroelectric dams....
Feds drops fish passage requirement for Hells Canyon dams The federal agency overseeing Columbia River and Snake River salmon recovery has decided against requiring the Idaho Power Co. to add fish ladders on its Hells Canyon dams, angering environmentalists but addressing utility complaints that such requirements would be too costly and ineffective. As recently as Oct. 28, the National Marine Fisheries Service was considering requiring fish-passage facilities on Idaho Power's 1,167-megawatt, three-dam system on the Snake River as a condition of the company's license renewal. Cost of the fish ladders has been estimated by the Fisheries Service at more than $100 million. In a Nov. 16 e-mail obtained by The Associated Press, the agency said it is focusing instead on recommending Idaho Power set aside money to clean up the river above the dams so the waterway will one day provide good habitat for salmon and steelhead....
Fight Begins On Santa Rosa Island Hunting Proposal Supervisors have voted to fight a proposal calling for the transfer of Santa Rosa Island to the military for recreational hunting. San Diego Republican Duncan Hunter proposed the idea twice in congressional legislation last year. But the military itself hasn't proposed a change in use of the National Park Service island and Supervisor Judy Mikels is calling Hunter's proposal "a ploy." She says he's using the military in an excuse to create hunting grounds and that he should be "straight up" about his proposal. Santa Rosa Island has been a national park since the mid-1980s, when a cattle company sold it to the federal government for almost $30 million....
Conservation groups pool resources to buy Afognak lands Several foundations and the federal government, seeking to protect wildlife habitat, have purchased 2,400 acres of Native corporation land and 2,000 acres of corporate timber harvest rights near northern Afognak Island's Perenosa Bay. The American Land Conservancy and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation bought the land and timber rights from Afognak Joint Venture, a group of Kodiak-area Native corporations. The conservancy and foundation then gave the land to the state of Alaska's Department of Natural Resources, which will manage it. Some timber rights were extinguished in the deal, and some are now held by the conservancy and foundation. The proposal to buy the land got traction in 2002 and 2003, when the land conservancy and elk foundation won back-to-back $1 million competitive grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior....
Studies on mouse to be reviewed In the wake of a new genetic study that found the Preble's meadow jumping mouse appears to be a distinct subspecies after all, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has delayed removing federal protections for the Colorado-dwelling rodent. The agency's acting regional director said Wednesday that officials would convene a panel of experts in genetics and small mammals to review the conflicting studies after an examination in 2003 disputed the mouse was its own subspecies deserving of protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Rocky Mountain News reported the new, unpublished study by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey in Wednesday's editions. Not only will the the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put together scientific experts to evaluate the matter, but the agency has also delayed by six months a Feb. 2 deadline to remove protections for the mouse, which dwells along stream-banks and wetlands on the Front Range. The agency will also reopen public comment on the matter for 60 days.
Plans for a sports complex in Colton are abandoned Colton officials recently struck out in their effort to build a sports complex featuring three major league ballpark replicas. The city and the company negotiated for more than five years about the project but hit setbacks early on when the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly, which is protected by the Endangered Species Act, was discovered in the original project site. The proposed project shrank from 16 acres to 11 acres and was moved to a location near Interstate 215 after the fly was discovered. During the delay, the rising cost of construction materials increased the project cost from about $5 million to between $10 million and $12 million. "When that happened the project was just not practical anymore," Councilman John Mitchell said. "This is no fault of Colton or of Big League Dreams," Mitchell said. "It's the (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife (Service's). They took a project and doubled it in price and shrunk it down over a fly."....
Gardiner outfitter sentenced to prison for poaching A Gardiner outfitter is going to federal prison and a pair of his California clients must pay steep fines for poaching violations, federal judges ruled here Wednesday. More people could also be facing charges, according to officers for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Outfitter John Daniel "Danny" McDonald pleaded guilty in October to two felony violations of the Lacey Act, which covers interstate transportation of illegally taken wildlife. Judge Richard Cebull on Wednesday sentenced him to a year in federal prison and ordered him to pay $50,000 in restitution. He must also give up hunting and outfitting for the rest of his life....
U.S. pulls inspectors from horse processors As of March 10, Congress no longer will pay for inspections at three processing plants in the United States that prepare horse meat for human consumption in Europe, Asia and other overseas markets. Without U.S. inspectors, the officials from two plants in Texas and another in Illinois contend that the plants would be forced to shut down. The cost of euthanizing a horse and having the carcass removed is $1,500 to $2,000, while a farmer might sell an unwanted horse to a processing plant for about $500. "We're fighting for our lives, yet we comply with more laws than any other processing plants that I know of," said Jim Bradshaw, a lobbyist for Dallas Crown Inc. in Kaufman and Beltex Corp. in Fort Worth, Texas. The companies are asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to continue providing inspections after the March deadline _ at the firms' expense on a per-fee basis. "Without this outlet, you're going to see people turning out old horses onto the desert or dumping them alongside the road," said Randy Parker, Utah Farm Bureau's chief executive officer. "Ranchers care about their horses just like they do any other animal they're responsible for. This is about farming, these aren't pets." Fifty agricultural organizations nationwide are supporting ranchers' rights to send off unwanted horses for slaughter....
Best-Selling Cowboy Singer Bucks Trend with Free Song Downloads to Share As the major record labels install ever more rigid copyright protections and scary embedded technology on their CD releases, Buck Howdy, the King of Kids’ Cowboy Music, is bucking all trends to offer his music – for free. What’s more, he’s actually encouraging his fans to “Pass the Buck,” to copy and share his music. Buck’s free download program just launched at www.buckhowdy.com. Amazingly, Buck is ready to share his songs just a couple of months after Giddyup! was released on CD to national acclaim (it’s been charting on Billboard’s top 25 internet sales list since November, and has won a Dove Family Approved seal and acclaim from Common Sense Media, among others). Giddyup! was also selected this week by the American Library Association for its prestigious "Notable Recordings of 2006" list. By going to Buck’s website (www.buckhowdy.com), fans can download copies of 10 songs from Giddyup! as well as graphics for the special version. There is no cost for the downloads but as Buck explains, there is one itty bitty catch. “You have to promise to share my music with at least two people (and those people have to promise to share it with more people and on and on) because I convinced Mrs. Howdy that once folks hear these ten songs, they'll rush out and buy the full length store version with ALL the songs.”....