NEWS ROUNDUP

Split-estate decision expected soon The chairwoman of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission said it likely will issue a decision on the state's first split estate case during its February meeting in Casper. Lynn Boomgaarden said she and other commissioners were disappointed by the evidence presented during a Tuesday hearing between Johnson County rancher Steve Adami and Gillette oil and gas producer Kennedy Oil. “The commission has made it clear we're taking this seriously and we expect both sides to be prepared,” Boomgaarden said. “I don't think we saw as refined a presentation as the commission had hoped.” Adami and Kennedy Oil came before the commission in a dispute over six off-channel water pits the producer wants built to collect water from drilling operations on Adami's 11,000-acre ranch east of Buffalo. The pits are already bonded for a total of $83,000. Adami wants that figure increased and has asked the commission to consider the adequacy of the bonds and take stock of potential environmental costs associated with the pits....
Study faults Wyoming for lack of coalbed rules Wyoming's failure to come up with comprehensive regulations controlling coalbed methane development may be to blame for friction between landowners and energy companies, a new study by University of Wyoming researchers suggests. That same regulatory failure also plays a role in Montana's move to enact coalbed methane water regulations that could curtail production in Wyoming, says the study by the University of Wyoming's Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources. "Strongly held disagreements and difficulties about CBM development generally, and water management specifically, have gotten to the point that, at the very least, continued growth in CBM production may be under some threat," the study states. Wyoming has so far only captured 5 percent of its estimated $140 billion in coalbed methane reserves, the study states. Production dropped by 5 percent from 2003 to 2004 "due to difficulties in managing and disposing of CBM water," according to the study. Coalbed methane production often involves pumping huge quantities of groundwater to relieve pressure that holds the gas in coal seams. Some ranchers and conservationists have complained about wasting water by pumping and about poor water quality....
Gas drilling means growth Those in western Wyoming enjoying small-town life, brace yourself. Development of the Jonah natural gas field may bring big changes. A new plan favored by federal land managers for development of the massive gas field calls for 76 years of development in the field, bringing nearly $2 billion to Sublette County over the life of the field. In all, nearly 8 trillion cubic feet of gas would be recovered from Jonah under the Bureau of Land Management's preferred plan, released Friday. That would be enough to heat all the homes in Wyoming for 500 years. "The increasing conversion of large tracts of land from rangeland to gas development is seen by some as industrialization and a diminishment of the characteristics they most enjoy in the region: its natural beauty and quiet, vast reaches of unpopulated and undeveloped open space, fresh air, and wildlife" the BLM said in its new, 400-page plan with additional 2,000-plus pages of supplements....
BLM weeds out oil-shale applications The Bureau of Land Management on Tuesday will narrow a field of applicants seeking leases for experimental oil-shale development in Colorado and Utah. BLM Director Kathleen Clarke will set aside eight of 20 applications for "further consideration" of their technical and financial qualifications for work on 160-acre parcels of land, the agency said Friday. The decisions already have been made but won't be announced until Clarke briefs reporters on a conference call Tuesday and the agency posts a list on its Web site. BLM officials did say they rejected as incomplete an application filed by Anadarko Petroleum in Wyoming, leaving a field of 16 contenders for parcels in Colorado and Utah. But BLM spokeswoman Heather Feeney said the bureau has launched an environmental study for larger-scale oil-shale operations that will cover known oil-shale deposits in Wyoming. That study is expected to be done by mid-2007. The bureau in the meantime plans to open 160-acre parcels in Utah and Colorado for experimental works, but only after operators pay for environmental assessments that could run $200,000 each, said James F. Kohler, chief of the BLM's solid minerals branch....
County may take stance on wolf delisting Gray wolves are a predator species in need of management and the federal government should move quickly to remove them from the endangered species list, according to a resolution coming before the Gallatin County Commission on Tuesday. The joint resolution is being sought by commissioners in seven counties near Yellowstone National Park. It carries no legal weight but is seen as a form of protest by those concerned about the species' reintroduction. "I don't think our joint resolution is going to change anything," Gallatin County Commissioner Joe Skinner acknowledged Friday. "(But) hopefully it will send a message that we are concerned for the agricultural problems wolves represent and for the sportsmen's problems."....
Groups lose bid to ban livestock from Pole Mountain A federal court has denied a petition from environmental groups that sought to keep livestock off of a portion of the Medicine Bow National Forest. The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Native Ecosystems and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, had challenged Forest Service decisions allowing livestock grazing in the Pole Mountain area. The groups claimed cattle were hurting water quality in area streams. Clint Kyhl, Laramie district ranger for the Forest Service, said his agency was pleased with the court's decision. "We always thought we were doing the right thing up there, and this just sort of confirms it," Kyhl said. "We feel that the Forest Service did a thorough job of responding to the state and federal laws and regulations required of us, and that measures were taken to protect water quality." Jeremy Nichols of the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance expressed regret over the court's ruling....
Sagebrush and cowboys growing grouse Sage grouse habitat has declined throughout southern Idaho and other parts of the West. Sage grouse populations in Idaho have shown a statewide decline of 40 percent over the past three decades. Wildfire, agriculture expansion, herbicide treatments, adverse weather and rangeland seedings have contributed to the decline in Idaho's largest native game bird, according to information released by the Shoshone Basin Sage Grouse Local Working Group. The Working Group (the Shoshone Basin Sage Grouse Local Working Group) is composed of landowners , sportsmen, business and interested citizens working with local, state and federal representatives to develop sage grouse habitat conservation plans. These plans cover management of private, state and federal owned lands....
EnCana extends benefits to sage grouse The greater sage grouse has benefited from extra environmental mitigation practices undertaken by natural-gas giant EnCana Oil and Gas on its 44,000-acre North Parachute Ranch, according to initial wildlife study results. Environmental Coordinator Kim Kaal recently presented the findings for the company’s property outside Parachute and adjacent to the Roan Plateau. The land was formerly owned by Unocal and acquired by EnCana in 2004, along with water and mineral rights. EnCana is working with the Colorado Division of Wildlife on some of its studies, such as the greater sage grouse....
Fish/Game seeks guzzlers for Mojave Preserve A proposal first floated by the California Department of Fish and Game to restore artificial water sources in the Mojave National Preserve has finally reached the public comment stage. The state agency began meeting with the National Park Service in the summer of 2004 regarding the proposal to retrofit 12 former ranch wells in the Mojave National Preserve as wildlife guzzlers. Ranchers raised cattle for many decades in what became the preserve in 1994. They drilled wells to provide water for their cattle. One well was first developed in the 1860s and many of them date to the dominant period of the Rock Springs Land and Cattle Company between 1894 and 1927, according to the park service. Cattle ranchers turned their wells on and off to move cattle around, according to the park service, to keep them from overgrazing in a particular area....
Grizzlies May Lose Protection Federal officials have begun the process of removing grizzly bears around Yellowstone National Park from the Endangered Species List, ending 30 years of protection and shifting responsibility for their management to state officials who may allow hunting. Seen as a major conservation success story, the Yellowstone population of grizzlies has increased about fourfold, from 150 to nearly 600 since going on the endangered list in 1975, and it is continuing to grow at an annual rate of 4% to 6%, according to the U.S. Department of Interior. The federal delisting plan unveiled here last week calls for maintaining the existing level of protection for bears within a 9,200-square-mile area in and around Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. But special protections will be dropped outside that loose ring of federal land. Beyond it, where many grizzlies wander and 10% to 30% of them live, bear habitat will be open to road building, logging, recreation and development. Under the delisting plans, state officials in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho will take over management of the bears and may allow hunting outside the protected areas....
Project seeks to restore habitat for minnow Rolf Schmidt-Petersen pointed to the steep-sided, brushy bank of an island in the muddy Rio Grande north of Albuquerque's Alameda bridge. Over the drone of an idling airboat Monday morning, he said: "We need to slope those banks and terrace part of the island to try and slow the river down." Slowing the river is crucial to restoring habitat and calm pools for the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow, said Schmidt-Petersen, Rio Grande bureau chief for the Interstate Stream Commission. State officials and members of Congress gathered Monday to celebrate the first workday of a multiyear, multimillion-dollar project designed to stabilize the minnow's population in a three-mile stretch of the river. The project grew in part out of a 2003 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service mandate that agencies restore endangered species' habitat along the river....
Klamath County considering geothermal energy project Controversy is brewing over a plan to develop a $200 million geothermal energy project at the Medicine Lake Highlands, a collapsed large shield volcano. Since the 1980s, a series of developers have proposed drilling geothermal wells at Medicine Lake and transmitting energy over power transmission lines. Proponents tout geothermal energy as a clean alternative to other sources of electricity, such as fossil fuels, coal and nuclear energy. And the concept has caught on: the state of California, for example, is requiring energy providers to place a higher reliance on alternative power, such as geothermal and wind, to ease dependence on fossil fuels. The work includes pumping naturally heated water from underground sources, using the water to generate power and then pumping the water back into the ground to be reheated and reused. Some studies show that the Medicine Lake Highlands has the largest identified geothermal resource in the lower 48 states....
Judge halts seismic survey A federal administrative appeals judge has halted an oil and gas seismic survey project proposed for the Adobe Town area of southwest Wyoming's Red Desert. The challenge alleged violations of the National Environmental Policy Act and said the BLM had failed to take a hard look at the impacts to fossils and sensitive wildlife species. The groups said the area is known worldwide for its fossils of ancient mammals from the Eocene period, covering dates between 57 million and 45 million years ago. The appeal also said the agency did not conduct a required study of cumulative impacts to wildlife that use lands affected by the project and ignored their responsibility to consider lower-impact alternatives instead of the use of thumper trucks....
West to have enough wildfire aircraft, feds say There will be sufficient air tankers, helicopters and other firefighting resources to battle what could be severe wildfire season in the West, federal officials say. Fewer single-engine air tankers will be reserved for full-time firefighting use, but more will be called up on an as-needed basis, a top Agriculture Department official said. Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, offered the explanation in response to a request from Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano for assurances concerning the air tanker fleet and other fire preparations given the likelihood of a severe fire season this year in the Southwest. "The governor is right to be concerned about the upcoming fire season's severity," Rey said. Climate models are predicting a worse-than-average fire season in the region. However, Rey said, "we have resources committed that will maintain our success rate at nearly 99 percent in initial attack." In a year-end letter, Napolitano urged Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Interior Secretary Gale Norton not to cut back on wildland firefighting and prevention resources in light of drought conditions in the Southwest....
Eminent domain battle shaping up at Padre Island Willacy County officials think good things could at long last happen for their remote corner of Texas - if only they could overcome the 9.5-mile bay that separates the mainland from their section of Padre Island. A few years ago they bought a so-called ferry - a 40-year-old amphibious vehicle that initially failed to pass government safety standards. Now they just need a place to land it. But the section of Padre Island the county wants is owned by the Nature Conservancy, and the environmental group says it's not for sale. So the county commissioners voted in November to use eminent domain to seize the land, angering conservancy members who fear an influx of beachgoers will threaten wildlife on the 1,500-acre section of island....
Alito May Quickly Affect Laws The reach of the environmental laws is to come before the court in late February. Property rights activists have urged the justices for years to protect landowners and developers from the effects of the Endangered Species and Clean Water acts, which include preserving wetlands. In 1972, Congress made it illegal to discharge pollutants into "navigable waters." Because water flows downhill, federal environmental protection officials have interpreted this provision to regulate tens of thousands of inland streams, hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands and even creek beds that have water only on occasion. After Roberts became chief justice in October, the court announced it would hear a property rights case from Michigan. John Rapanos, a landowner, was prosecuted and fined for having filled in wetlands on a farm field 20 miles from Lake Huron. The government said there was a "hydrological connection" between his field and the Great Lakes via several small streams. The Pacific Legal Foundation, a property rights group in Sacramento representing Rapanos, argues that the court should rein in the environmental regulators. The group says the 1972 law covers only rivers, lakes and bays on which ships can travel. "Hopefully, the court has taken this case to end this abuse of federal power under the Clean Water Act," said Reed Hooper, a lawyer for Rapanos....
The Sago Mine disaster: Solace from Butte It is impossible to watch the events of Tallmansville, W. Va., without an overwhelming sense of impotence in the face of tragedy. What can anyone say or do that could possibly provide comfort to the families? Who but the victims of such tragedy can begin to comprehend the depth of their despair? History, perhaps, can offer solidarity from a context that is distant in time, but proximate in experience. The history of mining, sadly, provides a deep well of experience from which to draw. The worst hard-rock mining disaster in American history took place on June 8, 1917, when a fire in Butte, 2,000 feet below ground, left 415 miners to fight for their lives....
Quest for the Chisholm Trail They have a historical problem down in Donna, a small community between Harlingen and McAllen in the Rio Grande Valley. There is a marker in town that says the Chisholm Trail came through the area, but there is no documentation to back up the claim. No one knows where the marker came from, or who ordered it. The records were lost in a fire at the museum years ago. To find the answers, folks at the local museum in Donna contacted History Detectives, a public television show that delves into historical mysteries. Producers of the show were in the Fort Worth area this week, seeking information. They met at the hilltop home of Weatherford rancher Tom B. Saunders IV in southern Parker County. Saunders comes from a long line of Texas cattlemen. Aside from being a rancher, he is also a published author and historian. He has a definite opinion on the route of the Chisholm Trail and gladly shared that opinion with the television crew....
Western wear on way to classic status Fans of Western wear fall into a few categories, chief among them people who just live and love the Western lifestyle, whether they wear their jeans and snap shirt daily on the farm, ranch or rodeo circuit; or save them for stock show week, the dance floor of the Grizzly Rose or trips to the mountains. The truth is that there are many facets to Western wear. "It means a lot of different things to different people," says Daniel DeWeese, editor of Western Lifestyle Retailer magazine. A New Yorker might look at a Colorado cowboy, rancher or rodeo princess' attire as a costume, "but it's never a costume to the core market," he says. And the lines are blurring between the Western and mainstream markets as younger customers who make up the core market want their jeans to be just as fashionable as other denim sold at the mall, says Cathy Hagerty Soden, design director for Cinch, Cruel Girl and Rockies, brands made by Rocky Mountain Clothing Co. in Denver. function is always important but "customers are much more aware of how they want their jeans to look," she says. The Western market is getting a boost from such sources as Style.com, which dubs one of the top trends this season "New Frontier." And this month's Harper's Bazaar has a "Best Western" layout of items that promise to "kick-start your wardrobe." All proof, DeWeese says, "that Western wear is having a huge influence on mainstream fashion."....
Stetsons and Resistols are born in Garland Cowtown may be where the West begins, but cowboy-hat fans, who should be out in force at the Fort Worth Stock Show this weekend, may not realize that the West's headwear capital lies a few miles east. "The history here is just phenomenal," said Stan Redding, sales vice president for Hatco, a Garland-based manufacturer of Resistol and Stetson hats. "We're the only hat company in the United States that makes a hat start to finish." Housed in a low, sprawling building, Resistol has been making hats at the same Garland plant since the 1930s. Though Stetson began in Philadelphia in the 19th century, it moved to Texas about a year and a half ago, when the company's St. Joseph, Mo., plant was shuttered, according to Gary Rosenthal, Stetson's former owner. Much of the old machinery from St. Joseph rests in two Quonset huts beside the Garland facility. "It's not for sale," Redding said. "We wouldn't let any hat maker get his hands on it." That's because times and tastes have changed but hat-making materials and equipment haven't. "We're using the same machinery that we used 60, 70, 80 years ago" and have had to build a machine shop to make parts for the old gear, Rosenthal said. "We can't even buy the parts."....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Calf was within reach, if only she'd looked first It is the bad dream of the rancher's wife during calving season. Not as bad as a blizzard or machinery wreck, but worse than having to go to Kingfisher for parts. Hubby's been gone overnight so Shirla saddles up to go check the new calves in the calving lot. It's cold enough to freeze the muddy spots, but it's a sunny morning. She spots a heifer on her side, her abdomen is tight and she's straining. Dismounting, Shirla approaches the beast for a closer look. No feet sticking out. A call on her cell phone to father-in-law down the road proves fruitless, no one answers. So back to the house she rides to get her teenage daughter. "I'm gonna need yer help," Mom says....