NEWS ROUNDUP

Conservationists back ranchers in gate dispute Northern Utah farmers and ranchers, angered by Box Elder County's prosecution of one of their own for locking a gate on a road through a family ranch, have joined forces with conservation groups. Two dozen ranchers, together with the Ogden Sierra Club, Bear River Watershed Council and Bridgerland Audubon Society, are calling the charges 'coercion' to get residents to relinquish private property. They also blast Cache and Box Elder counties, as well as the Forest Service, for failing to stop off-road vehicle users from trespassing on private land. Box Elder County Attorney Amy Hugie last month charged 38-year-old Bret cq Selman, a prominent Tremonton rancher who with his parents runs a 7,000-acre ranch southeast of Mantua, with five class B misdemeanors - four counts for placing a gate on the road and one count of obstructing traffic. Shaun Peck, Selman's Logan attorney, said his client admits locking the gate. 'It's a question of whether he has a right to lock it," Peck said. "We maintain he did.' The Selmans contend that the rough dirt road in question is a private 'livestock driveway' that has always been posted as 'No Trespassing' or as private property. The gate across the road traditionally has been closed but not locked....
Court questions wolf Lawsuits If the line of questioning by a three-judge panel is any indication, the State of Wyoming’s appeal of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s rejection of its state wolf management plan is doomed, as is the appeal filed concurrently by the Wyoming Wolf Coalition. Oral arguments in the appeals were heard by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Salt Lake City on Monday. A federal judge in Wyoming had rejected the lawsuits, but his decision was appealed to the higher court. The state’s case focuses on FWS’s January 2004 letter to the state rejecting the wolf management plan and insisting that the plan eliminate “predator” status for wolves before it would be accepted. The wolf coalition’s case also argued over the rejection of the wolf management plan but also claimed that FWS’ insistence that wolves must be protected throughout Wyoming represents a major modification to wolf management that must be subject to an environmental impact statement pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act. The panel keyed in on the 2004 letter by FWS, indicating that the letter was not “final agency action” for which judicial review is appropriate....
Gray Wolf Numbers in Northern Rockies Up The number of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies has surpassed 1,000, a decade after wolves were reintroduced in and around Yellowstone National Park, a report released Thursday shows. "I'm eating crow," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Helena. "I never thought we'd get that high." The report, from state and federal wildlife agencies responsible for wolf management in the three-state region, shows population growth in Montana and Idaho. But it shows an overall decline in Wyoming, where wolf numbers in Yellowstone National Park fell sharply _ mainly because so many pups died. Officials suspect disease as the culprit behind the deaths. Outside the park, the wolf population in Wyoming grew by about 33 percent between 2004 and 2005, the report concluded. Estimates for the end of 2005 put the Northern Rockies wolf population at 1,020, with 512 wolves in Idaho, 256 in Montana and 252 in Wyoming. Estimates also put the number of breeding pairs in the states at 71, far above the minimum 30 that help define the wolves as a recovered species. A breeding pair consists of an adult male and female with at least two pups until year's end....
Ranch owner supported by hundreds Marie Wissler was overwhelmed by the show of support from her neighbors, hundreds of whom attended a meeting Wednesday to discuss helping her stave off any attempt to force her to sell part of her ranch. Lewis-Palmer School District 38 is looking for a site for a new high school, and Superintendent Dave Dilley has said the Wissler Ranch is the only parcel that could meet all its needs. The district wants to buy about 60 acres of the 814-acre ranch, and officials have said condemnation is an option if the family is unwilling to sell. Many of the more than 200 people at the meeting had never met the 87-year-old Wissler but said they admire her determination to keep the land that’s been in her family for four generations and want to help her hold onto it. Wissler, a widow who has lived on the ranch for 60 years, has said she isn’t interested in selling. Neighbors braved slick roads and snow to attend the meeting at Creekside Middle School and prepare for the school board’s March 16 meeting....
Law will keep highest peaks open Lawsuits and liability weren’t much on Jim Gehres’ mind 40 years ago when he finished climbing all 54 of Colorado’s highest mountains the first time around. After Gov. Bill Owns signed a bill Wednesday to keep the big peaks accessible and free of legal hassles, the 73-year-old Gehres won’t have to worry if he goes climbing again — and he said he might. The new law will allow owners to permit people to cross their land and mining claims without being sued for any accidents that might occur. Trails on a half-dozen of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks cross private or leased land, presenting an obstacle for peak-baggers — climbers who set out to reach the top of all the “Fourteeners.” The bill requires the U.S. Forest Service and climbing groups to put up signs warning of dangerous abandoned mines, mark the trails and educate the public about private property rights. Access became an issue when some owners posted “no trespassing” signs for fear of being sued if a hiker fell into an old mine shaft or was injured some other way....
Scientists resist species act reform As a Senate committee prepares to take up revisions to the Endangered Species Act, nearly 6,000 biologists from around the country signed a letter Wednesday urging senators to preserve scientific protections in the landmark law. The House passed an Endangered Species Act rewrite last year that horrified many scientists and environmentalists. One environmental lobbyist said the bill amounted to a "death warrant for treasured American wildlife." They are lobbying the Senate now, in hopes its Environment and Public Works Committee will take a more moderate stance. "Unfortunately, recent legislative proposals would critically weaken" the law's scientific foundation, said the letter organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The 5,738 signers included six National Medal of Science recipients....
Can a nonprofit force the US government to change its policy on global warming? Elkhorn coral and polar bears appear to have little in common, but they share the same lawyers. In an effort to force the US government to reduce carbon emissions, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has petitioned to have the creatures added to the federal endangered species list. Since the Endangered Species Act requires the US to protect the habitat of any listed species, and the sea ice and oceans where polar bears and coral make their homes are threatened by global warming, adding the two to the list would, theoretically, force the retooling of all federal policy contributing to climate change. CBD hopes its strategy will gain a foothold for global warming science in a hostile political environment. But skeptics say the likelihood of increasing fuel economy standards, ditching the Clear Skies Initiative, abandoning Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling for good, repealing the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and sharply controlling fossil fuels production—all to save an animal that lives underwater and looks like a rock—would appear to have a polar bear's chance in hell....
Column: The Absurdity We Call "Public Involvement" In early January, I suggested Idaho had not made a smooth move when it launched a controversial wolf-killing plan before the ink had dried on the documents transferring management from the feds to the state wildlife agency. To me, this seemed like getting off on the wrong foot and could discourage or delay transfer of state control in other states and for other species—or even create enough political backlash to prompt the feds to re-take control of wolf management in Idaho. But the toothpaste was already out of the tube, and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (DFG) charged ahead with the next step, soliciting comments from the public. That’s the subject of this column, the embarrassing craziness we commonly but incorrectly refer to as “public involvement.” In thirty years of working for and with agencies and writing about citizen-initiated conservation efforts, I have yet to see a proposal yanked or substantially altered due to the results of “public involvement.” I have, however, seen many examples of agencies coming up with their plan, going through the motions of soliciting public comment, and then going ahead when they feel they’ve met legal requirements. With cosmetic adjustments at best, the “draft” plan morphs into the final plan, regardless of how lopsided the public comments. This sends a strong message that most agencies consider “public involvement” little more than an annoying delay....
State vet threatens quarantines Threatening to quarantine a ranch because elk and cattle commingle is a “draconian” use of the powers of the state veterinarian, according to the Green River Cattlemen’s Association and the Jackson Hole Cattle and Horse Association. The two organizations passed resolutions that acknowledged the intensive brucellosis surveillance program in place in the state’s livestock herds but called for the Wyoming Livestock Board to “cease and desist” the practice of quarantining cattle when commingling with elk occurs and there is no evidence of brucellosis in a cattle herd. Brucellosis is an bacterial-based disease that can cause abortion outbreaks in cattle, elk and bison. Most cattle in Wyoming are vaccinated against the disease....
Argentina's Kirchner Gambles Big With Beef Ban Shocker Argentine President Nestor Kirchner made one of the most extreme policy decisions of his three-year presidency Wednesday: he banned beef exports for six months. Just as striking as the measure itself, which prompted a chorus of condemnation from industry leaders, is the unilateral way in which Kirchner apparently arrived at it. Throughout the day, amid rumors that new beef restrictions would be announced to curtail rising prices in the domestic market, staff in the Agriculture Secretariat said they knew nothing of any such plans. There were no meetings underway at the Secretariat, they said, and the Agriculture Secretary himself, Miguel Campos, was visiting an industry trade fair in Santa Fe province. Toward the end of the day, Economy Minister Felisa Miceli, who was accompanying Campos and Vice President Daniel Scioli at the same trade fair, ruled out an export ban in comments to the state news agency, Telam. But three hours later, after flying back to Buenos Aires for a rushed meeting with the president, Miceli was hosting a press conference, where she made a dramatic about-face. The government, she said, was "worried about the purchasing power of our workers and our families," and so was imposing a 180-day export ban to bring "the internal supply and the internal demand (for beef) into equilibrium."....