NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest Service looks beyond timber sales for dollars The lure of money is shaping the nation's 155 national forests: more advertising, more fees, more roads to draw timber sales and lumber mill jobs. The Bush administration also wants to sell more than 300,000 acres of national forests and other public land to help pay for rural schools in 41 states. The land sales, ranging from less than an acre to more than 1,000 acres, are expected to generate $800 million and would be the largest sale of forest land in decades. The Forest Service also hopes to raise money by allowing corporate advertisers to put up logos and banners at ski resorts, marinas or other buildings as well at events such as races, competitions and festivals held in national forests. The agency, part of the Agriculture Department, is also planning to conduct more frequent appraisals of 14,500 private cabins allowed in national forests the past 90 years, mainly in California, Oregon and Washington. Environmentalists are alarmed....
National Forest sale would be buyers' boon It could all be yours, for a price, under President's Bush's plan to sell an estimated 175,000 acres of National Forest land in Missouri and 34 other states to sustain a fund for rural schools and roads. The idea has drawn the wrath of everyone from conservationists to Missouri Republican members of Congress who say the state would get a paltry return for the sale. But the proposal promises to be hugely popular with one particular group - buyers. Rural property is in high demand in states such as Missouri, where up to 21,566 acres of Mark Twain National Forest could be put on the block. Real estate agents and landowners said the forest land would go quickly - and for a high price. "Land is just snapped up in a heartbeat around here unless they've got an incredible price on it," said Clete Baxter, a real estate agent who recently quickly sold 10 acres for $5,499 an acre near one of the Mark Twain parcels southeast of Columbia that could be for sale. U.S. Forest Service officials said they have heard from people who want the land - commonly in 40-acre parcels or more - for hunting, farming, residential or investment purposes. Adjoining landowners also want it, they said....
Bikers beware: Officials cracking down on illegal mountain bike use A mountain bike ride on the wrong side of the Blue Mountain Recreation Area could end up being a bit pricey. The U. S. Forest Service announced in an open letter last week that it will immediately begin enforcing a horse- and hiker-only rule on all trails north of Blue Mountain Road in the recreation area. “We have counted on signing, voluntary compliance and peer pressure to enforce this rule,” said Missoula District Ranger Maggie Pittman in the letter. “Unfortunately, these methods don't seem to be working. “The signs have been removed and vandalized, and the trail is being used by mountain bikers,” she said. Bikers caught illegally riding there could now end up paying a $150 fine, plus a $25 processing fee. The Blue Mountain National Recreation Trail has been designated a horse and hiker trail since its inception in the 1970s....
New Rules Rein In Off-Road Riders Spurred by homeowners tired of the noise, dust and environmental destruction, Riverside County on Tuesday approved a crackdown on off-road vehicle use on private property, and neighboring San Bernardino County may soon adopt its own restrictions. The off-roading limits have slowly gained political support in the fast-growing counties, where housing developments are encroaching on once-remote deserts and mountains that are popular destinations for Southern California dirt-bikers and other all-terrain-vehicle enthusiasts. The restrictions in Riverside County, which the Board of Supervisors approved 4 to 1, follow two years of protracted debate and will limit riding times and the number of vehicles residents can ride on their property. Supervisors also approved strict new noise limits, although they apply as much to garage bands as they do to dune buggies....
Road policy crosses public lands A new federal policy addressing ownership of thousands of miles of roads crisscrossing public land includes rights of way in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who’s leaving office, has directed her agencies to apply a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling nationwide when deciding whether local governments or individuals have valid claims to roadways across federal land. The policy is producing warnings of more conflicts, lawsuits, and trails in national parks and wilderness morphing into motorways. Some roads are present in the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, said Sellar-Baker, who added that those avenues are typically used as in-holdings for people who want legal access to their private property. At the core of the conflict is an 1866 mining law, known as Revised Statute 2477, that allowed local governments to claim rights of way across federal land. When the law was repealed in 1976, Congress allowed states and counties to keep using traditional highways. Left unresolved were disagreements over whether thousands of miles of dirt paths and trails qualify as roads. In 1997, Congress, wrangling over changes to the law, imposed a moratorium on approval of claims. That left places like Moffat County in northwestern Colorado with no recourse when federal agencies closed roads traveled since the 1880s by ranchers and others, said Jeff Comstock, the county’s natural resources director....
Drought spurs fears of active wildfire season A persistent drought, coupled with unseasonably high temperatures and gusty winds, have led to a record number of wildfires this year, and weather and fire officials say conditions are ripe for more activity this spring. From January 1 through March 22, more than 17,000 wildfires have been reported, with 1.5 million-plus acres burned across the country, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The number of fires eclipses the five-year average of slightly more than 11,000 fires for the same period. The acreage burned this year is triple the 549,866 acres of 2000, the previous high in the last six years. Weather and fire officials said they fear what has occurred in Texas and Oklahoma, where the greatest damage has been reported so far this year, could be a preview of what is possible for wide swaths of the Southwest and Great Plains over the next few months....
Condor nest spotted in Big Sur The first California condor nest seen in a century in Monterey County was spotted by a wildlife biologist Monday in a hollow redwood tree on the Big Sur Coast. The discovery is an important milestone in the effort to reintroduce condors into the wild, said Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society. The society has been releasing condors raised in captivity on the Big Sur Coast since 1996 and at Pinnacles National Monument since 2004. The nesting pair was seen and photographed by Wildlife Society condor biologist Joseph Brandt after he saw the birds had apparently taken up housekeeping in the redwood tree. The condors were identified as a 9-year-old male, Condor 167, and an 8-year-old female, Condor 190....
Judge tosses suit seeking to halt pig kills on Santa Cruz Island A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to stop the killing of thousands of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island as part of an effort to protect endangered island foxes. U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian said he disagrees with a Santa Barbara County businessman's claim that the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy, which co-own the island, rushed to eradicate the animals before developing an environmental plan. “The policy and scientific question of how to restore Santa Cruz Island has existed for years, as the number of Santa Cruz Island foxes declined ... and rare and endemic plant species on the Island began disappearing,” Tevrizian said in a ruling released on Tuesday. Both organizations have said that the pigs, which were introduced by ranchers in the 1850s, are destroying the island – part of the Channel Islands National Park – by causing erosion, uprooting native plants and helping spread invasive species....
Beaver dams may slow runoff State and federal officials, trying to keep more water in Cassia County, are considering bringing in some natural experts: beavers. "Beaver do better work than the Corps of Engineers," Mike Todd, regional wildlife habitat biologist with the Magic Valley Region of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, told the South Idaho Press. Water from snow melt tends to flow quickly through the southeast Idaho county, so fast that it doesn't have a chance to filter down to the aquifer or form pools that would remain through the dry summer months. "If you have a riparian system that needs to be repaired, beaver will bring back some stability," Todd said. "When drainages dry up, places with beaver ponds have water still available." Along with Todd, representatives of the U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Mid-Snake Resource Conservation and Development Area, and other local soil and water conservation districts are discussing whether to transplant beavers to public land in the county....
Decades later, Leopold's outdoor wisdom still rings true Aldo Leopold's seminal work "A Sand County Almanac" is required reading for conservationists. It should be required reading for anyone who spends much time in the outdoors. I long have contended hunters and fishermen have more in common with environmentalists than either group believes. Books such as this represent a sort of middle ground of appreciation for the land. One oversized, coffee table edition of "A Sand County Almanac" (which is never out of print though it was written more than 50 years ago), is beautifully illustrated with full-page color photographs and contains an introduction by noted conservationist Kenneth Brower. He suggests that if there are "sacred texts - literary cornerstones" for environmentalists, this is one of them. Leopold (1887-1948) worked for the U.S. Forest Service, was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and was a noted conservationist. The Aldo Leopold Foundation is located in Baraboo, Wis., and there is a Leopold Education Project in St. Paul, Minn. He is not forgotten....
Lead poisoning in cattle threatens rancher's future A single can of paint in Don Koster's pasture could put the Ottawa County rancher out of business. Twenty-seven head of cattle belonging to Koster have died from lead poisoning in the past two weeks. Koster said he wasn't aware of the rusting paint can when he bought the pasture 10 years ago and didn't discover it until cattle began turning up dead earlier this month. "It's flat devastating," said Koster, who had 250 head in that pasture and must test them all at $15 each. "It could have happened to anybody." Officials say the blood tests will reveal which cattle, if any, have high levels of lead in their system. Those carrying too much lead won't be slaughtered for meat, so there is no risk to consumers. "The owner is doing the right thing by looking at the animals' blood level to ensure they do not show abnormal levels of lead," said Fred Oehme, a veterinary toxicologist at Kansas State University. "Normal cattle carry lead. It's a matter of dose." Lead poisoning is relatively uncommon in cattle, said Russell Van Meter, a veterinarian at Sunflower Veterinary Services in Minneapolis, Kan....
Roy Moore challenges tracking of mad cow Former Chief Justice Roy Moore, whose fight to put a Ten Commandments monument in the state courthouse led to his ouster, is challenging state and federal officials on another issue — tracking livestock to deter mad cow disease. Moore opposes such tracking, saying it represents unprecedented government intrusion into the right to own animals. He says an identification system — first for cattle and then for all types of livestock — is "more identifiable with communism than free enterprise." But with the third confirmed case of mad cow disease in the United States turning up recently in Alabama, critics say Moore is embarrassing the state while trying to run as a political outsider against Republican Gov. Bob Riley in the GOP's June 6 primary. Moore, whose anti-tracking position is shared by others nationally, finds the timing of Alabama's first mad cow case curious. It was announced as a bill moved through the Legislature to implement an animal identification system consistent with any developed by federal agriculture officials....
Ranchers file lawsuit against the packers A class action lawsuit was filed by several ranchers that claim United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials were not qualified enough to write an accurate market report on cattle prices. Some of the largest meatpackers in the nation want the report excluded from a federal trial that begins this week in South Dakota. Ranchers have said that meatpackers took advantage of the new mandatory price reporting law in 2001 to artificially lower prices for live cattle. Kansas feedlot operator Mike Callicrate says the USDA’s price reporting was flawed, but that doesn’t account for the 40 million dollars that he claims packers stole from cattle producers. “Our view of the law is it doesn’t matter if the packers knew or didn’t know or whether the USDA was messing up or not. The packers made money unfairly off of misreporting information and they should repay the producers,” said Callicrate in an interview with a South Dakota farm braodcaster. Callicrate believes the case is narrow and it shows the power of the big packers....
Cattle Producers Will Work Together to Remedy Supreme Court’s Pickett Decision Independent cattle producers across the United States were dealt a temporary setback Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court (Court) denied plaintiffs in the Pickett v Tyson Fresh Meats case the opportunity to appeal a lower court’s decision in favor of major meatpackers. “Recently, 36 cattle-producer groups – including R-CALF – asked the Supreme Court to review this case, and we believe this decision by the Court could profoundly undermine the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 (PSA),” said Randy Stevenson, a Wyoming feedlot operator who co-chairs R-CALF USA’s Marketing Committee. “While R-CALF is disappointed with this development, we’re not unprepared. Stevenson said both the executive and judicial branches of government have come up short in response to producer concerns about PSA. “It’s long past time to legislatively address this failure,” he continued. “Monday’s Court decision has reinvigorated producers around the country, and we will work together to pursue a legislative remedy that will clarify what Congress intended when it passed the Act back in 1921. “We especially want the Packers and Stockyards Act to be interpreted literally – to mean the same thing it did in 1921,” urged Stevenson. “Our industry must aggressively work together to accomplish this effort....