NEWS ROUNDUP

Surprise! Bush has approved 1.4 million acres of wilderness Environmentalists revile George W. Bush as the president who wants to drill for oil in a pristine Alaskan wildlife refuge and sell off national forests. So it might be surprising to learn that Bush has signed nine bills creating a total of 1.4 million acres of new wilderness on federal land, protecting it from development and saving it for people who like to hike, hunt, fish and get away from it all. In the last four months alone, Bush has approved three wilderness areas totaling more than 120,000 acres in New Mexico, Utah and Puerto Rico. The largest chunk is in Utah's rugged Cedar Mountain range, home to pronghorn antelope, bobcats and golden eagles. Has the conservative Texas rancher gone green? No, environmentalists say. In fact, Bush angered conservationists again last week with his budget plan to sell off some 300,000 acres of national forests and other public lands worth hundreds of millions of dollars. So why would the president prevent so much land from ever being mined, drilled for oil and gas or disturbed by motor vehicles? He's doing what every president since Lyndon Johnson has done — going along with what local folks want for their states, says Bart Koehler, director of the Wilderness Society's Wilderness Support Center in Colorado....
Schweitzer blasts Bush's public land sale proposal The Bush administration Friday unveiled a list of more than 300,000 publicly owned acres it wants to sell to provide cash for states and counties. The list includes 13,948 acres in Montana, most of them in national forests west of the Continental Divide. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, called the proposed land sale a "wrongheaded" idea proposed by a "U.S. government that is living beyond its means." He compared it to a rancher who keeps selling land to buy new pickups and tractors, a man who lives well until he eventually finds himself broke. "It's a damn poor way to run a ranch and it's a way worse way to run a government," Schweitzer, a third-generation farmer, said Friday in a telephone interview....Go here for a state by state list of property for sale
Ranchers pleased, enviros unhappy Rancher Sonny Clarke's job these days isn't just barreling around in his pickup truck to shore up aging dirt watering tanks. It's also fixing up fences knocked down by illegal immigrants and keeping an eye out for drug smugglers. That's one reason he agrees with a new federal decision to lower public land ranchers' grazing fees by 23 cents per animal-unit month. An animal-unit month is the amount of forage a cow and her calf eat in a month. The fee drop starts March 1, and stems from sharply higher gasoline prices. Critics say the fee decrease is wrong, since it comes less than five months after a congressional watchdog office warned that the fees don't come close to paying the cost of running the grazing program. The Government Accountability Office report was the second one from that agency since 1991 to suggest that the grazing fee structure is out of whack. But federal officials have no choice, legally, but to lower the fee right now. The official formula requires the cut to reflect increases in the costs of being a rancher, U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Tom Gorey said. The formula is based partly on the rancher's ability to pay, as a way of keeping the livestock industry healthy, said Linda Hutton, of the National Agricultural Statistics Service in Washington, D.C....
Western Water: Solutions to Overallocation The world of water has changed of late and it is about time. For almost 20 years, a gradual shift has been ongoing: water that was historically used for agriculture and ranching is increasingly going to western cities. Called reallocation, this process has become common throughout the West. It is so pervasive that the real question is no longer whether water will be transferred from rural to urban use. The debate concerns the terms of the transfer, how rural communities that cede water will derive fair and valuable benefits from it. Although this process first gained momentum in California, the Southern Nevada Water Authority gets a good portion of the credit for its systematic implementation. Out of necessity, SNWA reinvented water in the Southwest. Nevada had received such short shrift from the original Colorado River Compact that the Silver State found itself backed against a formidable wall when growth in southern Nevada, began to outstrip groundwater supplies. Forced to rely on federal dollars to ferry its trickle of the Colorado from Lake Mead to Las Vegas, southern Nevada faced a crisis in the 1980s....
Ranchers worry about long-term effects of salt water leak The director of North Dakota's oil and gas division says it could take up to a decade to deal with a large salt water leak in the northwestern part of the state, and ranchers in the region are worried. "If I don't have access to (Charbonneau) Creek by summer, there's no way I can keep my cattle numbers here," said Ned Hermanson. "I'll have to look for other pasture." The leak detected Jan. 4 in a Zenergy Inc. pipeline about six miles west of Alexander, near Charbonneau Creek, was estimated at more than 900,000 gallons. Salt water is a waste product of oil production that can kill vegetation and hurt animals. Oil companies pipe it underground to dispose of it. The state Industrial Commission also is inspecting the 200 oil field salt water pipelines in North Dakota to ensure they have proper equipment to detect leaks. Helms said oil operators will be asked to add any necessary monitoring devices, and if they do not the Industrial Commission could implement an emergency rule....
Unease on the open range In this remote corner of northwest Eagle County, elk outnumber humans by a long shot, and eagles seem as common as crows. Ranches, some of which have been in the same family for generations, comprise most of the land that isn't publicly owned, and the abundant wildlife moves back and forth between them without a thought for the controversy brewing around their presence. Around Burns, ranchers are incensed by a new set of rules proposed by the county that would require any new development to be screened in terms of its effects on wildlife habitat. The rules apply to properties larger than 35 acres, which means ranches in many cases. And while agricultural buildings are exempt, ranchers say the proposed regulations would have a devastating effect on their livelihood....
Groups want feds to buy ranch Nearly three dozen wildlife and conservation groups, including one that Theodore Roosevelt started more than a century ago, want the federal government to buy land where the former president ranched in North Dakota's western Badlands. It's the latest development in a four-year struggle by the Eberts family to sell 5,150 acres of picturesque property amid hills, buttes and the Little Missouri River. The Ebertses say they want to preserve the land, but neighbors worry about a federal land grab. The Boone and Crockett Club, started by Roosevelt in 1887, hopes to enlist the support of other groups around the country to lobby Congress to approve the purchase. A U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee is considering legislation to allow the Forest Service to start the land acquisition by spending $1.45 million within its present budget....
A New Proposal for Tejon Ranch A coalition of environmental groups says it will withdraw its opposition to development of the sprawling Tejon Ranch if the builder agrees to set aside about 380 square miles in the Tehachapi Mountains as wilderness. The coalition hopes its offer persuades developers to scale back their plans on the 270,000-acre site and to more than double the amount of land to be preserved. The coalition now wants to save 245,000 acres — a swath of land bigger than Chicago and Philadelphia combined. Tejon Ranch officials dismissed the new proposal as unreasonable but left open the possibility for more discussions with environmentalists over the fate of the tableau of mountains, grasslands and twisted oaks 60 miles north of Los Angeles. One thing is clear: The proposal marks yet another juncture in the long-running debate over development of Tejon Ranch. Just eight months ago, Tejon Ranch Co. and a national land trust hailed an agreement to sell more than one-third of the ranch for use as a nature preserve as the most significant conservation project this decade in the West....
Judge's ruling could let water flow to San Diego County A federal court judge last week dismissed several claims that billions of gallons of water expected to be headed to San Diego County by 2008 actually belong to Mexican residents. U.S. District Court Judge Philip Pro dismissed seven of eight claims in a lawsuit challenging a long-discussed Imperial Valley canal-lining project that would send water to San Diego County. The seven claims revolved around the argument that the water belonged to the people of Mexico. The eighth claim, which has yet to be heard by the court, challenges the project on the grounds that its environmental studies were inadequate. The court ruling was the latest development in the long-discussed project to build a 23-mile, concrete-lined stretch of the 82-mile All-American Canal in Imperial Valley ---- a project that San Diego County water leaders are counting on to help sustain thousands of households for 110 years....
Community struggles to keep rights to land In the valley below a ring of blue-black mountains in southeastern Arizona, a group of townspeople gathered on a recent Sunday after church to stop a copper-mining giant. They sat shoulder to shoulder on wooden benches in a crowded meeting hall, asking one another in hushed voices: "Did you get a letter?" Dozens of certified letters arrived at the small Dragoon post office in mid-January, sent by foreign mining giants BHP Billiton and General Minerals Corp. The companies wrote that they had filed claims on some of the residents' land and reserved the right to enter property starting last Friday. With copper surging to record prices on the world market, some analysts say more rural areas across the West can expect to see similar notices. Using a near-century-old law, mining companies are legally allowed to check if some rural residents are sitting on a gold mine....
Regulators deal with mines left abandoned Imagine that the state of Utah is chock full of holes, thousands and thousands of them. And that each is a potential environmental or public safety hazard. Now imagine yourself a state or federal abandoned mine program regulator. This is your reality. Utah has anywhere from 17,000 to 20,000 old, abandoned hard rock mines, dotting the state from the west desert to the Wasatch to the Colorado Plateau. Most of them are remote and rarely encountered. But between what they can emit and what can happen to those who unwittingly enter them, regulators, environmentalists and academics see an increasing threat. "What we've got is a huge problem," says Terry Snyder, abandoned mines coordinator for the Bureau of Land Management Office in Utah....
Utah's latest wilds area not just about scenery The dry, rounded ridges of the Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area stretch north-south for about 55 miles, framing this barren valley with its sagebrush and parched grass. The Cedar range opens to the west on desolate salt flats, where the Air Force has sprayed nerve gas and drops ordnance on a Rhode Island-sized bombing range, and where much of the nation's industrial waste gets entombed for disposal. Of all the spectacular and wild places in Utah worthy of protection as wilderness, the Cedars never ranked high on anyone's list. Yet, after rejecting wilderness proposals for more than two decades, Utah's congressional delegation united behind this site. But more than scenery was on the mind of Utah's congressional delegation. The restrictions of the Wilderness Act of 1964, intended to forever preserve virgin wilderness in a natural state, will make it impractical for a tribe of 121 Goshute Indians to accept nuclear waste for storage on their tiny patch of Skull Valley....
Tensions flare over New Mexico energy deal A royalty deal between the Bureau of Land Management and El Paso Exploration and Production Co. allows 25 more natural gas wells on the privately owned Vermejo Park Ranch, adjacent to a pristine forest area that is the focus of a battle over coal-bed methane. The agreements will let the federal government recover royalty payments on gas under the ranch owned by media mogul Ted Turner. El Paso, not Turner, owns subsurface rights at the ranch, which already has numerous gas wells. The gas comes from coal beds that extend under the eastern portion of the 100,000-acre Valle Vidal, part of the Carson National Forest. The BLM said it signed the agreements to gain royalty payments on wells along the boundary between the ranch and Valle Vidal. The required spacing of wells in the gas field and the irregular, diagonal boundary between the ranch and forest land mean many border gas units, if developed, would drain from under the Valle Vidal, the BLM said....
Work set to begin on Montana meat labeling law Work is set to begin next week on a plan to implement a state law requiring that meat sold in Montana grocery and other stores be labeled to show country of origin. An advisory council charged with writing rules for the so-called placarding law plans to hold its first meeting Feb. 22. The hope is to have a rough draft of rules - or at the least some "very good ideas in place to make a first draft" - by the end of the day, said Jack Kane, chief of the weights and measures bureau in the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. The law requires retailers to post placards denoting the country of origin for beef, lamb, pork and poultry products. If the origin of the product is unknown, that must be disclosed, as well. Kane said the burden to verify the origin of meat will fall on retailers. Those unable or unwilling to do the task would mark the meat as "country of origin unknown," he said....
Argentina cattle market ruminates over beef disease The world's No. 3 beef exporter known for its succulent steaks made from pasture-fed cattle, Argentina last week confirmed an outbreak of the highly contagious disease in the northeastern province of Corrientes. Although the ailment does not generally harm humans, it is shunned in the world market. A host of South American nations, along with Argentina's top clients Russia, Israel, South Africa and Singapore, have already restricted Argentine beef imports. "What bothers cattle ranchers is not being able to plan for the future," broker Gervasio Saenz Valiente said on Friday, as buyers surveyed steer ripe for slaughter inside the bustling Liniers market in Buenos Aires. The news dashed hopes in the thriving sector. Beef exports hit a record $1.4 billion last year and Argentina's government was working to reopen lucrative markets, such as the United States, closed after foot-and-mouth struck in 2001 and 2003....
Mother-daughter team succeeds in Montana designer chaps business Plain brown chaps might suit your average working rancher, but a rodeo queen is more apt to pick a pair with green and purple metallic-colored fringe and her title written in cursive up the leg. From a Fromberg shop called Leather Legends, Marge Taylor outfits working ranchers, Western pleasure riders and motorcyclists in custom-made chaps and leather jackets. She and daughter Tammy also have fitted competitive horseback drill teams from Texas and California, along with a sprinkling of rodeo queens. But the wildest chaps they make are one-of-a-kind collectibles, designed and priced to ride in parades or hang like artwork on a wall. On one pair of chaps, a tooled leather image of Buffalo Bill emerges from the dense, curly, brown hair of a buffalo hide. A matching buffalo serape, designed as a companion piece, depicts a tooled leather landscape of desert mesas and bluffs....
PRCA headquarters, HOF moving to N.M. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today announced that the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the largest and oldest rodeo sanctioning body in the world, has chosen Albuquerque, N.M., as the location for its new headquarters and ProRodeo Hall of Fame facility. This move will bring 85 full-time jobs, a $3.35 million payroll and approximately 50,000 annual Hall of Fame visitors to Albuquerque. "The move to New Mexico is a very exciting development for the sport of ProRodeo," stated PRCA Commissioner Troy Ellerman. "The PRCA Board of Directors and administration sees this as more than an attractive financial offer. It's also a great opportunity to grow the ProRodeo brand, and elevate professional rodeo to the level of other major league sports." ProRodeo is a multimillion-dollar industry that will have a major positive impact on New Mexico's economy. As part of the agreement, the PRCA has agreed to both bring major rodeo events to New Mexico and promote the state at their out-of-state events. In 2005, 24 million spectators purchased tickets to PRCA events, PRCA rodeos paid out over $35 million in prize money and contributed in excess of $25 million to charitable causes and scholarships. The exact details of the agreement to move the PRCA to New Mexico are still being finalized. This includes the exact location of the headquarters and ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Albuquerque. However, the package will include state funding assistance to help finance the construction of a new facility within the next 18 months, and $5 million to promote the sport of ProRodeo. The Governor will announce more of the funding details on Monday, Feb. 13 at a news conference with PRCA officials at 1:30 p.m. (MT) in the Governor's Office in Santa Fe....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Need to shepherd draws woman to alpacas She was an authentic animal lover. Dee grew up on a western cattle ranch. After she moved away, her suburban neighborhood prevented her from raising cows. "They are so bulky," she said. But her need to "shepherd" was not satisfied by dogs, cats or even a gerbil. One day she discovered alpacas. They are the Porsche of camelids compared to the Ford Explorer llama or the Humvee dromedary. Any good stockman can affirm that it is possible to develop an affection for a bum lamb or a good and faithful cow. So when I say she loved her alpacas, we livestock people understand that particular bond. But, I admit, I did not entirely grasp the depth of her animal husbandryness....