NEWS ROUNDUP

BLM, environmentalists accused of grazing plot The Bureau of Land Management unlawfully awarded livestock grazing rights to environmentalists who were determined to reduce grazing in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, according to a federal lawsuit filed by ranchers and local governments. Garfield and Kane counties and several local ranchers accuse the BLM of violating the requirements of the Taylor Grazing Act and Interior Department regulations. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court, in Salt Lake City. The complaint stems from a Jan. 26 decision by Interior Department administrative-law judge James H. Heffernan in Salt Lake City, who ruled that Canyonlands Grazing Corp. legally owns three grazing permits in the national monument. Presently, Canyonlands is involved in grazing. Besides the Grand Staircase-Escalante area, it has a large grazing area in northern Arizona, Hedden said in January. However, Canyonlands Grazing Corp.'s Web site says the group is dedicated to the elimination of livestock grazing on public land. "Specifically, its principal business is the purchase, sale and assignment of grazing preferences on the public lands with the sole intention of compelling the BLM to retire the (Clark Bench) allotment from further livestock grazing," the lawsuit asserts. The plaintiffs claim that "Canyonlands Grazing Corp. eventually acquired a few livestock, utilized its grazing permit for what amounts to a conservation purpose, and effectively mothballed its grazing permits for the past three grazing seasons."....
Judge rules CBM company can't discharge into streambeds A district judge has ruled that a coal-bed methane operator can't discharge production water onto a rancher's property because the streambeds it would flow into don't meet the legal definition of state watercourses. Ruling in an ongoing condemnation case between Williams Production RMT Co. and rancher William P. Maycock II, Judge Keith G. Kautz of Wheatland concluded that while watercourses don't have to flow continuously to be recognized as containing waters of the state, "the flow needs to occur at 'regular season,' and not at irregular portions of days." The decision comes after Williams unsuccessfully tried to condemn a right of way for its discharged water across Maycock's ranch last fall. The company failed to provide Kautz with a survey and the judge ruled he couldn't make a decision without one. The company then claimed a right to discharge the water into the streambeds. Wendtland said he expects Williams will try to file another condemnation lawsuit. If so, Wendtland said he will push to require the company to install a pipeline across his client's land, rather than have the water drain across the surface....
Gale Norton's stewardship Gale Norton's legacy as Secretary of the Interior will not be a tale of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, but one of engaging citizens as environmental stewards. In her five-year tenure, which will end on March 31, Mrs. Norton has turned the virtuous idea of grass-roots conservation, which she has called "cooperative conservation," into a workable reality and a blueprint for subsequent conservation policy. The initiative offers officials from city and county governments an active role in the policy-making process with federal officials. In determining land-use regulations, for instance, Bureau of Land Management officials would sit down with representatives from the local communities to decide how the land should be used. Building interest in conservation for the people who use the land -- be they farmers, ranchers, sportsmen or other outdoor enthusiasts -- is essential to creating a lasting conservation effort, and Mrs. Norton's policies are built on this foundation....
From Brothel Owner to Park Ranger, Interior Secretary Roams Far Pop star Jessica Simpson once mistook Gale Norton for an interior decorator. Simpson isn't the only one confused over the role of a U.S. Interior secretary. The Cabinet post is one of the most wide-ranging and least- understood jobs in Washington. Interior's far-flung duties include controlling a fifth of U.S. land and 68 percent of oil and gas reserves; coordinating budgets for a string of Pacific island territories; and running schools for some 50,000 American Indian children. At one point, the department even owned Nevada's Mustang Ranch brothel, prompting Norton to observe: ``It gives the phrase `Madame Secretary' a whole new meaning.'' Congress created Interior in 1849 and charged it with duties ranging from issuing patents to running Washington's jail. Over the years, it ran much of what is now the Energy Department and even appointed the leaders of U.S. territories in the Pacific....
Land plan draws fire Selling off Bureau of Land Management property to help cover the nation's debts is a misguided and short-sighted idea, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and members of the public said Monday in Billings. Baucus hosted a public meeting at Montana State University-Billings to get input and rally opposition to the BLM proposal. "I think it's outrageous for the United States government to sell public lands, pure and simple," Baucus said. Proposals to sell BLM and U.S. Forest Service land are still alive in Washington, D.C., and Westerners need to stand up and speak against them, he said....
Conservationists vie to buy forest habitat The Big River tract in California's Mendocino County is a sprawling expanse of towering redwoods and Douglas firs, woods that for years have provided an ideal habitat for rare spotted owls and endangered coho salmon and steelhead trout. Now, it's all up for sale. Big River, neighboring Salmon Creek and dozens of other forests across the nation have come on the market in recent years as timber companies shed holdings that are worth more as real estate than as a source of lumber. The trend has spurred a land rush that has conservation groups scrambling to raise money to buy environmentally sensitive tracts in competition with private investors seeking to snap up the land for development. A recent U.S. Forest Service study predicted that more than 44 million acres of private forest land, an area twice the size of Maine, will be sold over the next 25 years. The consulting firm U.S. Forest Capital estimates that half of all U.S. timberland has changed hands in the past decade. The Bush administration also wants to sell off forest land, by auctioning more than 300,000 acres of national forest to fund a rural school program....
Lawmakers Kill Wolf Creek Development Resolution A resolution criticizing the Forest Service over plans to allow 2,000 housing units to be built near the Wolf Creek Ski Area was killed Monday after a parade of witnesses told lawmakers the federal review process was flawed. If approved, the Village at Wolf Creek could eventually include 222,100 square feet of commercial space and enough housing for up to 10,500 people. The surrounding county has fewer than 1,000 full-time residents. Dusty Hicks, spokesman for the development project, rejected suggestions from witnesses at Monday's hearing that there was collusion or a payoff....
Column: Restoring Healthy Forests One of us runs a large timber company. The other leads a major conservation organization. But despite our differing roles and perspectives, we agree on a positive solution to an urgent and vexing problem. Fires have always played an important role in maintaining healthy forests. After decades of fire suppression, vast areas of Oregon's forests and woodlands are in unhealthy, unnatural condition. They are overcrowded with young trees and highly vulnerable to unnaturally severe wildfires, insect outbreaks and disease. The problem is growing worse every year. An analysis by The Nature Conservancy of the most recent forest health data suggests that, of the 34 million acres of forests and woodlands in Oregon, more than 25 million acres need active treatment -- thinning, controlled burning or both -- to restore safer and more natural conditions. More than 15 million of these acres are on public land....
Groups protest oil, gas leasing In what is likely the start of a series of protests, Trout Unlimited and the National Outdoor Leadership School -- along with some outfitters and guides -- announced Monday they are protesting the oil and gas lease sale of parcels in the Wyoming Range. The lease sale, set for April 4, is for 11 separate parcels that total nearly 20,000 acres in the Upper Green River drainage. Energy development could harm fishable mountain streams including North Horse Creek, Dead Cow Creek, Lead Creek, South Cottonwood Creek and South Beaver Creek, all of which are Green River tributaries and home to native Colorado River cutthroats, according to Trout Unlimited. Steven Hall, spokesman for the BLM, has said protests are not unusual. In August, 123 lease parcels were protested of the 188 put up for sale. In June, 142 out of 189 were protested, and in April, 83 of 227 were protested. In addition to concern for fisheries, Trout Unlimited cited the possible presence of Canada lynx, effects on air quality, and a lack of assessment of current and foreseeable impacts are reasons for the latest lease protest....
Verdict still out on wildlife plan in the Jonah Field Oil and gas industry officials are excited about a first-ever plan designed to help wildlife affected by increased drilling in the Jonah Field in southwest Wyoming, but conservationists are more skeptical about the plan. EnCana Oil and Gas Inc. and other operators received federal approval last week to boost natural gas production in the field by doing "in-fill" drilling, which allows wells to be placed closer together within the overall boundary of the field. The drilling is intended to speed up gas extraction. As part of the project, the plan calls for improving wildlife habitat in areas surrounding the field to make up for land that is harmed by the anticipated drilling of more than 3,000 new natural gas wells in the future. The project area covers about 30,500 acres of mostly federal public lands about 30 miles southeast of Pinedale. The plan calls for the Bureau of Land Management to establish an interagency office in Pinedale to monitor reclamation efforts and to oversee offsite mitigation projects. The office and its work will be funded by a $24.5 million grant from EnCana Oil and Gas Inc....
Wilderness: The new anti-nuclear weapon On Jan. 6, President Bush signed into law the first new Utah wilderness area since 1984 - and made it a little harder for nuclear power plant operators to ship radioactive waste to a nearby Indian reservation. The new Cedar Mountain Wilderness protects some 100,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. But it also blocks the right-of-way for a railroad line to the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, a key component of the tribes' plan to accept waste from nuclear power plants around the country. Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, a longtime nemesis of the local wilderness community, first proposed the idea of using wilderness to fight nuclear waste in 2002, just before he retired....
BLM plans sports park in eastern Utah More than 1,200 acres in eastern Utah could become a park for off-road vehicles, drag racers, rock climbers and ultralight aircraft, under a proposal by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Approval could be granted by summer to allow Uintah County to develop the park, about 4.5 miles east of Vernal. The BLM would give Uintah County the land for the park, to be called the Buckskin Hills Recreation Area. Private groups would be responsible for constructing the various parts. An environmental assessment found no reason to block the deal, and there were few negative comments about the proposal during a recent public review. BLM and county officials said the park would divert off-roaders from protected lands....
Grand Canyon battles traffic jams near its entrances Clogged roadways at the Grand Canyon have prompted the National Park Service to launch a new planning round aimed at reducing vehicle traffic near the natural wonder. Park officials are asking the public to comment on ways to fix the traffic problem. The option the park is using as a starting point would put one new 450-vehicle parking lot outside the south entrance to the park and another adjacent to the park's visitor orientation center, and expand bus service within the park. There were 4.3 million recreational visitors to the canyon in 2004 and 4.4 million last year. In the peak visitor days of summer, tourists sometimes sweat in their cars for up to an hour just to reach the entrance station. Earlier proposals calling for building a costly light rail line will not be among the eventual options, park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge said....
Developers covet areas surrounding national parks People who cherish Joshua Tree National Park's desert probably don't want wayward tee shots, pets or trash spoiling the serenity and scenery, but it could happen. Development is closing in on Joshua Tree and many other national parks. "It is happening all over the country," said Curt Sauer, superintendent of Joshua Tree, "and it is going to continue to happen." It isn't difficult to find examples: • In West Virginia, there are proposals to build more than 2,000 homes at the edge of the New River Gorge National River — including up to 550 homes on a site chosen to appear on the back of the quarter. • In Florida, there's a proposal to fill wetlands at the edge of the Everglades National Park to make way for 6,000 homes, shops, schools and a movie theater. • In Ohio, there are plans for at least five subdivisions just outside Cuyahoga Valley National Park. • In Arkansas, population growth is putting pressure on Hot Springs National Park and Pea Ridge National Military Park, said Ernie Quintana, Midwest regional director of the National Park Service....
Parks Struggle to Keep Wildlife Healthy and Other Interests Happy A tractor engine roars to life along Muddy Creek, and for several hundred wild elk it is a dinner bell. They splash through deep snow and line up for hay tossed on the ground from a tractor-pulled wagon. This scene, played out here and at 22 other feeding grounds at the southern end of the Yellowstone ecosystem, may seem benign. But feeding concentrates the elk in such large numbers that brucellosis spreads easily and reaches levels 10 times as great as the natural rate, or even higher. The disease causes elk cows to abort their calves. Brucellosis is one of several diseases that affect wildlife and domestic animals and that have appeared in the national parks. Controlling them poses a challenge to the National Park Service, which has to decide on strategies and try to meet a number of competing needs of hunters, tourists, ranchers and the animals....
Scientists Say Grizzly Proposal Premature More than 250 scientists and researchers have signed a letter opposing a federal proposal to lift Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem. They contend, among other things, that there is inadequate habitat protections, genetic concerns and too few bears to merit lifting federal protections. The letter, dated Monday, was addressed to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's grizzly bear recovery coordinator, Chris Servheen, who could not be reached immediately for comment. Monday marked the end of an extended comment period on the federal "delisting" proposal for Yellowstone-area grizzlies....
Bush Administration Opposes World Heritage Convention Action to Protect Glacier National Park and Other Sites The U.S. government is strongly opposing efforts by the United Nations to protect some of the most vulnerable World Heritage Sites from the impacts of global warming. The move comes as a meeting of experts convened by the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) begins today in Paris in response to petitions to protect World Heritage Sites threatened by climate change, including Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (in the U.S. and Canada), on Mount Everest and the Peruvian Andes where glaciers are rapidly melting, and the Belize Reef and Great Barrier Reefs (in Australia) which are being damaged due to climate change. In a position paper posted on the conference website, the Bush administration argues against any action under the World Heritage Convention and attempts to cast doubt on the science of global warming....
Reclamation commissioner retires after 40 years John W. Keys, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation for the last five years, said Friday that he will step down after nearly 40 years with the agency, which controls dams, power plants and canals across the West. Keys is the second high-profile Interior Department official to retire this month. Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced last week that she would step down at the end of March. Bureau spokesman Kip White said Keys wanted to spend more time with his family. He and his wife live in Moab, Utah, where they both fly planes as a hobby. “He is a consensus builder who spent a long career with the Bureau of Reclamation and then agreed to join my team to lead the bureau as commissioner,” Norton said in a statement. “He will be missed.” A native of Sheffield, Ala., Keys joined the agency in 1964 as a civil and hydraulic engineer and later worked as the Pacific Northwest regional director. He had retired from the government when President Bush tapped him to return to head the bureau....
The fast-reproducing feral hog is bringing its destructive behavior to populated areas It's not just George Bush Park, and it's not just soccer fields. Across Texas, feral hogs have become a maddening and destructive presence. With 1.5 million to 2 million swine roaming all but about 20 of its 254 counties, Texas has the nation's largest feral hog population. In 1990, only 19 states — mainly in the Southeast — had feral hogs, and the nationwide population was 1 million to 2 million, said John Mayer, co-author of Wild Pigs in the United States. By 2004, hogs were in 35 states and numbered 4 million to 5 million. "If you don't have them now, get ready — they're coming," said Mark Mapston, a district supervisor with Texas Wildlife Services and author of the booklet Feral Hogs in Texas. Locally, wild hogs ruin fairways and greens at suburban golf courses, pose a threat to costly wetlands created by Harris County to offset new development, and are so common in some areas that motorists occasionally hit them at night....
'Eat potatoes and buckskin' When Freda Glassier glances out her kitchen window to the south she sees the vast fields of the Emma area where, for most of her 90 years, she coaxed things to grow. She's been in her house on Hook Spur Lane for 58 years. It's less than a mile from where she was born and raised, the daughter of immigrants from Italy. It's also less than a mile from the house where she and her husband, Fred, first scraped out a living as potato farmers and cattle ranchers. Freda is brutally, and refreshingly, honest about her life. There were no frills. She didn't travel much. She never even took the train to Aspen. She loved the simple life on the ranch. Hard work wasn't reserved for special projects. It was a way of life....
Rodeo champ, rancher, artist In the summer, the whitewashed shelves that run up the west wall inside the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds Hall of Champions usually house the prize vegetables and blue ribbons of 4-H contestants. In their place last week rested the size 7E black boots, championship belt buckles and defining pictures of a rodeo champion, rancher, husband and a dad. A framed panoramic shot of the Brewer Ranch showed where Bill Brewer, who died March 9 at the age of 81, lived as full a life as anyone. From the angle the picture was taken, you couldn’t see the barn door where he’d painted the likeness of four young horsemen riding home. He was a family man first, said his oldest son Bill, one of Brewer’s four boys depicted on horseback on that barn door. In his 60s, he took three consecutive team roping world championships in the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association. “I just like to win,” Bill once said in an interview with the Wyoming Wrangler. “I never plan to quit. As long as I can swing a rope I’ll keep roping. If a fellow just puts his feet up and sits back - that’s no good.”....
It's All Trew: Folklore sayings come in all shapes, sizes A previous article contained numerous folklore-type sayings passed down in my family, and it brought in many responses from readers. A book, titled "Black Cats, Hoot Owls and Water Witches," added other superstitious phrases to the subject. My favorite weather saying is, "The morning rain is like an old women's dance. It is soon over." My apologies to the elder ladies. Another saying that I intend to watch in the coming year is, "Frost on a moonlit night won't kill." I am also watching for the saying, "Big raindrops, little rain. Little raindrops mean big rain." Common sense says, "A short horse is quickly curried."....