NEWS ROUNDUP

Wyoming rancher asks court to force BLM to reconsider penalty A Wyoming rancher embroiled in a decade-long feud with federal land managers asked an appeals court Thursday to force the Bureau of Land Management to reconsider a decision that he said cost him his grazing permits and his business. An attorney for Harvey Frank Robbins Jr., of Thermopolis, said the BLM had in effect unfairly seized Robbins' property when it revoked a 2003 agreement not to punish him for 16 alleged grazing violations. Robbins' grazing permits were canceled after the agreement was revoked. The BLM said it revoked agreement because Robbins had violated the permits again. The hearing was the latest step in the feud between the BLM and Robbins, who owns the High Island, HD and Owl Creek ranches. Earlier this week, a different panel of the 10th Circuit ruled that Robbins may pursue a separate lawsuit against the BLM. Robbins claims the agency stripped him of various land-use privileges and permits because he refused to reinstate a road-access agreement the BLM had with the High Island Ranch's previous owner. The case argued Thursday stems from the 16 citations for grazing violations. In the January 2003 agreement, the BLM agreed not to pursue action against Robbins if there were no further violations for two years. The BLM revoked the agreement after Robbins' cattle were found grazing in unauthorized areas for the third time in 2003. The agency said it issued warnings after the first two incidents. Robbins sued in February 2004, arguing the BLM denied him his right to dispute the violations. U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson of Cheyenne, Wyo., upheld the BLM's decision last year, and Robbins appealed to the 10th Circuit....
More Yellowstone bison captured as some sent to slaughter Authorities captured another 105 bison at Yellowstone National Park Thursday as officials shipped to slaughter two dozen animals captured a day earlier, a park spokesman said. Al Nash said about 290 bison still are being held inside the park's northern border at the Stephen's Creek capture site and that they all would go to slaughter without being tested for the disease brucellosis. Twenty-four bison were shipped off Thursday, he said. Meanwhile, at least two bison died after crashing through an icy lake just outside the park's western boundary, activists said. State wildlife officials temporarily suspended bison hunting in that area late Wednesday to allow for the hazing of bison that ventured too far into Montana. The state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said it also planned to temporarily halt the hunt north of Yellowstone to allow for hazing. The agency said the move, set to take effect late Thursday, was needed to keep stray bison away from livestock. Officials hoped to reopen that area to hunting Saturday....
Bison hazing goes awry: 14 animals fall through ice Fourteen bison from Yellowstone National Park fell through the ice on Hebgen Lake after being hazed by government agents on snowmobiles Thursday morning. Two drowned in the icy water, 10 were pulled out and two walked out on their own. "It was horrible," said Dan Brister of the Buffalo Field Campaign, a group that advocates for bison and monitors hunting and hazing operations. "I saw 12 buffalo in that little hole swimming around, pawing at the edges, trying to pull themselves up, but the physics wouldn't allow it," he said. The activity at the lake was part of a busy and controversial day for Yellowstone's bison and those trying to control their movements outside the park's boundary....
State officials say salt water spill is significant A salt water leak from a pipe carrying oil field waste in northwestern North Dakota has killed fish and forced ranchers to move their livestock, state officials say. "It's a significant salt water spill that's having an adverse effect on the environment," said Dave Glatt, the state Health Department's environmental chief. "Our major issue is finding where it is, where it isn't, and finding ways to clean it up." Glatt and other officials from the Health Department and the state Oil and Gas Division said Thursday that they did not know exactly how much spilled from the Zenergy Inc. salt water transfer line, but an initial estimate indicating 4,500 barrels was too low. "We know it's more than that," said Mark Bohrer, an Oil and Gas Division engineer. One barrel is about 42 gallons. Zenergy officials could not be reached for comment....
Column: Paying Ranchers to Ban Public Hunting Wyoming has the wrong idea when it comes to elk feedlots, but a couple of Cowboy State legislators certainly have it right on free access to hunting. They have a thoroughly reasonable plan that’s long overdue, but nonetheless, it stands a slim chance of becoming reality. Most western states have been able to resist pressure from ranching organizations to require the wildlife department to compensate landowners for damage done by wildlife—tearing down fences, eating haystacks, trampling crops, etc. Wyoming, on the other hand, made an unusual and controversial move to compensate ranchers for wildlife damage to their crops or facilities. There’s no established fee schedule. Instead, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department assesses each claim on a case-by-case basis. In 2005, the WGFD paid out $182,000 to satisfy these wildlife damage claims. The statute that allows these payments includes a clause preventing ranchers who receive wildlife damage money from closing their land to hunting. In reality, on the financial scale of things, some hunters wouldn’t consider this too bad of a deal because the statute was intended to keep all this land open to public hunting. But there’s a catch. There always is, it seems....
Colorado looks to RFID to protect elk herds The state of Colorado is testing radio frequency identification (RFID) tags as one way to help protect elk herds from contagious disease. Working with three ranchers and a vendor of animal-tracking systems, the state last month wrapped up a pilot test that involved tracking animals using passive RFID tags. Now the state is looking to launch another test with active RFID tags, which will hopefully extend the tracking range, said Scott Leach, a field investigator for the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Active RFID tags are battery powered and can send out a signal at predetermined intervals. Passive tags only transmit data when scanned and tend to have a smaller range. As part of his job, Leach tracks chronic wasting disease (CWD), a degenerative neurological illness endemic in Colorado and some other states. CWD is viewed as a very serious threat to both captive and wild cervids -- elk and deer -- and the state wants an automated system to track and isolate any CWD outbreaks to protect elk herds....
New Manager at Conservancy’s Red Canyon Ranch Bill Oakes keeps a framed picture on his desk that reminds him how deep his agricultural roots grow. The old black-and-white print shows his great-grandfather working the family’s north-central Washington ranch in the 1800s. Oakes carries on tradition as the new manager of The Nature Conservancy’s Red Canyon Ranch, a 35,000-acre slice of striking canyon walls and verdant hillsides outside Lander, Wyo. “With Wyoming’s high desert and mountain meadows, I feel right at home,” Oakes says of the similarities to the Okanogan County (Washington) ranchland his family has lived in for over five generations – since his great-great grandparents were homesteaders in the 1890’s. Oakes’ new position marks a return to the American West—he spent 14 years in Hawaii as a livestock and production manager for a large cattle and sheep ranch. With several different precipitation zones, the island ranch exposed Oakes to what he calls a “microcosm of the mainland U.S.”....
Collaborations Protect Wyoming Wildlife Habitat in 2005 The Wyoming Chapter of The Nature Conservancy announced the conservation of 6,864 acres in 2005, bringing the total amount of land protected by the Conservancy in Wyoming to more than 400,000 acres. Collaborations with private landowners wanting to maintain rich wildlife habitat on their properties steered this past year’s many projects. "One of the most important things we did in 2005 to conserve wildlife habitat was to help keep ranchers on the land," says Andrea Erickson, Wyoming State Director for The Nature Conservancy. “By working with willing landowners on voluntary land conservation agreements, biologically rich properties have been maintained for both agriculture and wildlife in a ‘win-win-win’ situation”, says Erickson....
Avalanche created: One side says skiers could have been caught; other says such danger was averted Some backcountry skiers and snowshoers have become alarmed in the wake of an avalanche last week in Big Cottonwood Canyon triggered when helicopter ski guides set off an explosive charge while testing for slope stability. Wasatch Powderbird Guides was testing along Cardiac Ridge on Jan. 5 when one of the charges set off a large slide that ran into Cardiff Fork. A group of cross-country skiers was making its way up toward another part of the ridge when the incident occurred. No one was injured, but some witnesses were shaken by the experience. Lisa Smith, executive director of Save Our Canyons, says the incident highlights what she calls a growing conflict between the heli-skiing company and backcountry users in the Cottonwood canyons. The environmental group has filed suit against the Forest Service, challenging the most recent operating permit the agency issued to Wasatch Powderbird Guides, which has been operating in the Wasatch Mountains for over three decades....
Review: Feds lost $9 million on Biscuit Fire logging The U.S. Forest Service lost more than $9 million logging trees burned by the massive 2002 Biscuit Fire in southwestern Oregon, a review coordinated by the World Wildlife Fund has found. The conclusion, derived from an analysis by a retired forest policy expert for the Congressional Research Service, comes on the heels of a study out of Oregon State University that found salvage logging on Biscuit killed most of the seedlings that had generated naturally and increased fire danger in the short term. “This is a lose-lose, economically and ecologically speaking,” said Dominick DellaSala, a forest ecologist for the World Wildlife Fund and lead author of the report, “The Facts and Myths of Post-Fire Management: A Case study of the Biscuit Fire, Southwest Oregon.” “If Congress continues to pursue salvage logging legislation we could see the Biscuit case played out in other places around the nation.”....
Public can comment on name changes The U.S. Forest Service is taking comments from the public on proposed name changes for Squaw Lake and Squaw Creek in the Powers Ranger District. The proposed name to replace the word “squaw” is “Sru” (pronounced shrew), which is the word for grandmother in local Indian language. The Coquille Indian Tribe proposed the name, since local tribes have deemed the word squaw as offensive. Any final proposal will go to the Oregon Board of Geographic Names, with a final decision to be made by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names....
Bush Administration refutes roadless charge The future of more than 4 million acres of Colorado roadless areas is still unknown after the Bush administration filed a brief this week denying allegations that it rescinded a rule protecting roadless areas without conducting necessary environmental studies. The administration lifted a nationwide rule for national forests, known as the “roadless rule,” last May. The rule, created in the final days of the Clinton administration in early 2001, banned development in 58 million acres of national forests. Attorneys general from California, New Mexico and Oregon, the governor of Oregon and 20 environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service last August, charging the rule was improperly repealed because the agencies didn’t ask for public comment and didn’t conduct environmental studies required by law....
Choice habitat transferred to BLM About 2,000 acres in the Elkhorn Mountains south of here have been transferred to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as part of a plan to conserve wildlife habitat in an area of brisk development. The transfer was announced Wednesday by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which last year joined another environmental nonprofit, The Conservation Fund, in acquiring 5,548 acres in the Elkhorns. The organizations said they would hold the land until federal funds to place it under government control became available. The 2,000-acre transfer completed with $1 million from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund is the first installment toward placing all the land under the BLM’s supervision. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., led efforts to obtain the $1 million, the foundation said. ‘‘I am in favor of this project because it increases access to public lands and enhances elk habitat,’’ Burns said. ‘‘However, we always need to be careful when the federal government acquires more land to make sure that addition enhances the purposes of local users. I am happy to support cases like this one where the local sportsmen, landowners and county commissioners come together.’’....
Idaho seeks permission to kill 50 wolves to help elk Idaho wants to kill as many as 51 wolves in the north-central part of the state, according to a plan that state Department of Fish and Game managers say will help boost the region's elk herds. The killings would take place on the state's mountainous border with Montana, near State Highway 12. Biologists estimate there are between 43 and 69 wolves there, but too few elk for hunters. The plan is to initially kill 75 percent of the area's wolves. This would be one of the first actions taken by the state since assuming management control of about 600 federally protected wolves in Idaho last week. Since wolves are still under Endangered Species Act protections, the federal government has final say over whether they can be killed to help wildlife such as elk. State officials plan to give their proposal to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by late February or early March, following public meetings in Boise and Lewiston. Federal officials say science, not politics, will govern whether it wins approval....
BLM called overeager to develop lands A national environmental group on Thursday accused the Bureau of Land Management of ignoring its own guidelines in a bid to expand oil and gas development on public lands. The Washington D.C.-based Wilderness Society surveyed 11 BLM land-use plans affecting more than 30 million acres in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Alaska, concluding they will more than triple the number of wells to be drilled. Two BLM land-use plans in Utah were part of the survey. The environmental group says that, based upon the current draft of its revised resource management plan, the Vernal office will expand drilling by 50 percent, to 8,787 wells. The office also will open 97 percent of its 1.9 million subsurface acres to energy development. The Price Field Office plan calls for 79 percent of its 2.8 million subsurface acres to be made available for oil and gas development, along with a 25 percent increase in the number of wells to 1,500. But Culver says those numbers do not include a recent proposal for 700 new wells on the West Tavaputs Plateau that is currently being studied....
BLM extends comment period on vegetation treatment proposal The Bureau of Land Management announced Monday that it is extending until Feb. 10, 2006, the public comment period on its proposed methods for treating and managing vegetation on BLM-managed public lands. The agency, which held public meetings on its vegetation treatment proposal from Nov. 28-Dec. 13, 2005, is extending the public comment period to ensure that all interested parties have an opportunity to express their views. The public comment period had originally been slated to close on Jan. 9, 2006. The public is invited to comment on the BLM's extensive environmental analysis of proposed vegetation treatments, which are aimed at controlling the spread of noxious and invasive plants on BLM-managed lands in the West....
Additional research needed on increased drilling, county says La Plata County wants scientists and industry experts to conduct more research to determine if increased drilling - through new 80-acre spacing orders - will aggravate potentially explosive methane seeps near the Fruitland Outcrop. On a trip to Denver on Monday, county commissioners Sheryl Ayers and Wally White jump-started talks with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to reconvene a task force that will further study the potential dangers of drilling along the outcrop. A task force several years ago linked methane gas seeps to increased drilling, although industry executives disputed that conclusion. The outcrop is a 50-mile arc of shallow coal that juts above the ground. Extending like the rim of a bowl, it starts south of Durango and extends north of Bayfield and east, into Archuleta County. Ayers said the oil and gas commission was receptive to the idea of assembling a panel. The team will be similar to the one arranged in 1998 as part of the 3M Project - otherwise known as the San Juan Basin Monitoring, Mapping and Modeling Proposal....
Real cowboys and movie stars bought outfits at Wallace's Boots and saddles and everything in between. Dean Wallace sold it all, to everyone from ranchers to Hollywood folk — among them a lass by the name of Raquel Welch. "He said he never met a woman with bigger feet. He sold her a pair of men's boots,"says Mary-Jean Wallace, Wallace's daughter-in-law.
Wallace, 84, who died on Christmas Day, was one of the last in town to sell Western goods as a family enterprise. It all began in 1954 when Dean and his wife, Gloria, bought Buck Jones Cowboy Outfitters on Scott Street Downtown, where Gloria had been working for a couple of years. In 1957, they changed the name to Wallace's Cowboy Outfitters, a name that would stick for the next 33 years....