NEWS ROUNDUP

Possible wolf spotted in North Park A "large, dark canine" that wildlife officials believe is a wolf has been spotted in the area around Walden in North Park. Gary Skiba, state Division of Wildlife wolf management planning coordinator, said, "There is a video of it and I’ve heard the animal acts like a wild animal, not one that was domesticated." If it is a wolf, it will be the first verified in Colorado since a female that wondered down here from Yellowstone National Park was killed on I-70 west of Idaho Springs on June 7, 2004. "From what I’m hearing, it doesn’t act domesticated — that is it doesn’t seem to want to hang around where people are — but there still is no way to know," Skiba said. The animal was first seen on Feb. 16 and Feb. 17 after a rancher called a wildlife division officer and reported it. The officer shot a few minutes of video of it....
Saving the jaguar throughout its range In 1993, reports of jaguars occasionally swimming across the Panama Canal were borne out by track evidence on Barro Colorado Island. In 1996, a rancher in southern Arizona, thinking his dogs had cornered a puma, grabbed his camera and photographed a jaguar. That photograph led to the discovery of a small jaguar population in the Sonoran state of Mexico, which had been completely off the experts’ radar screen. We quickly realized that some jaguars were traveling long distances from Mexico into the seemingly inhospitable desert habitat of the southwestern U.S. This was no anomaly. State game agencies had decades of reports of regular, though infrequent, visits by jaguars to the United States-Mexico border. Sitting at my desk, I stared at the dots I had just connected. I thought about jaguars walking the beaches of Costa Rica, wandering the mangrove swamps of Mexico, moving through citrus plantations in Belize, crossing high mountain passes in the Andes, and living in the harsh Chaco region of Bolivia. Hunters believe that jaguars wander long distances through almost any kind of habitat. When the last jaguar was killed in California in 1955, American naturalist Aldo Leopold estimated the cat had traveled at least 500 miles from its home. Genetic uncertainty strongly affects extinction in animal populations. I realized that we had an unprecedented opportunity to guarantee the survival of the jaguar. While I had been focusing our efforts on JCUs—known jaguar populations in areas with relatively abundant prey and largely intact habitat—I had ignored the mostly human-dominated landscapes between these sites. With no clear genetic divergence detected between populations throughout the cats’ range, I could assume that at least some jaguars were using these landscapes—dispersing through everything from citrus plantations to village gardens....
Voters may see initiative to back landowners in drilling tiffs A new front opened in the oil-and-gas war Wednesday thanks to a ballot initiative from a group of Glenwood Springs residents. Colorado Land Owners for Fairness filed notice that it wants to pursue a state constitutional amendment to increase the rights of landowners when oil and gas companies want to drill on their land. Separately, a bill on the same topic is working its way through the Statehouse. "We never pinned our hopes on the legislative process," said John Gorman of Colorado Land Owners for Fairness. "It's a difficult process. It's fraught with many land mines as you go through. We've hit a couple, but it doesn't mean we won't see a good bill." Regardless of what happens at the state Capitol, the time was right to file the initiative, Gorman said. His group has to clear several procedural hurdles before it can start collecting signatures to put the measure on November's ballot. Last week, the House voted for a bill to push landowners and drillers toward signing agreements on land use. The vote came after days of meetings between environmentalists, home builders, real-estate agents, gas drillers, farmers and ranchers. In the end, the House bill uses language pushed by BP, the most active gas driller in Southwest Colorado. Dan Randolph of the Durango-based San Juan Citizens Alliance hopes the initiative pushes legislators toward adopting a stronger bill. "If the Legislature deals with the bill in a good, solid way, then we think the initiative probably isn't necessary," he said....
BLM Biologist Exposes Inside View Of Agency Priorities The 37-year-old Mr. Belinda had signed up for a tour of duty in the BLM's Pinedale Field Office in 2004 because he thought he could make a positive difference as two titanic forces of environment and full-field energy development converged. His wife was from Wyoming and her roots were calling her home. As a hunter and angler, he also was drawn to the abundance of wildlife in the state. The natural beauty, formed by the Wind River Mountains rising above the Upper Green River Valley to the east, and the presence of big game and good fishing in the area, are one reason why some of the senior advisors to President George Herbert Walker Bush, the current president's father, bought ranches in the area, along with tycons who made big money in the private sector. Professionally, Belinda had a unique perspective when he arrived in Pinedale. For years, he had worked for the BLM in southern New Mexico, helping to manage gas leasing that had swept across the Permian Basin. "If only we could go back in time and apply the knowledge that we have today about impacts, things might be different there," he told me as we cruised across the Anticline in his pick-up truck in 2005. "But over the decades, because of our own ignorance, opportunities were squandered in the Permian. I hope the same thing doesn't happen here." Thousands of wells, tens of thousands of miles of pipeline and roads, and stubbles of compressor station nodes, are now proliferating in western Wyoming. It's a veritable bonanza, filling the state coffers with a lottery strike of fiscal richness but causing even the most enthused to wonder what will be left when the gas play ends in a couple of decades. Ironically, the most intense pressure wasn't coming from industry but from his own BLM superiors. Ironically, he told me last year, the oil and gas industry has a greater interest in being more sensitive on the land, and a willingness to modify its projects to accommodate wildlife, than the BLM does. Who's calling the shots for the agency isn't clear....
Scientists Urge Experiments on Barred Owls With the decline of northern spotted owls at a crisis point, a group of scientists is urging the government to consider experiments that include killing some of the barred owls that have invaded spotted owl territory from British Columbia to California. "There is nobody who wants to kill barred owls," said R.J. Gutierrez, one of the nation's leading experts on spotted owls and a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Minnesota. "But if you really want to understand whether they are part of the problem with the recent declines in spotted owl populations, then that's what you have to do." As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prepares to choose a contractor to produce a recovery plan for the spotted owl, declared a threatened species in 1990, the prospect of killing one owl to protect another will be a key issue. A 2004 status review of the spotted owl pointed to the barred owl as a leading factor in spotted owl declines, but offered no clear path for the future....
Colmn: Wild Lands Logging Greenwashed by Enviro Groups Unfortunately, many environmental groups are providing 'green wash' for Bush's 'states rights' roadless plan by legitimizing the process and participating in the Governor's rule making. The Utah Environmental Congress (UEC) firmly believes that while these groups may be well intentioned--they are most definitely off the mark. UEC has heard repeatedly that some intend to participate in the Governor's petition of roadless areas while simultaneously working to defeat it through litigation. We believe this sends a mixed message to the American people in an already confusing issue. Yet, some greens are clamoring for a seat at the table when we believe they should be categorically denouncing the entire process. Legitimizing an unlawful Presidential policy does far more harm than good....
Landowners protect the Centennial Valley Two ranch families have signed conservation easements that prevent housing developments on 7,400 acres in the Centennial Valley. They join 13 other landowners in the remote southwestern Montana valley who have signed these voluntary agreements which now cover more than 31,000 acres. The landowners signing the latest conservation easements said they were motivated by a desire to keep the Centennial Valley like it is, with its ranching heritage, stunning scenery and diverse wildlife. “It’s such a beautiful valley,” said rancher David Schuett, whose conservation easement covers 3,346 acres west of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. “All of us want to preserve it. We don’t want it broken into little recreational places,” he added. The Schuetts live and operate their main ranch near Dillon....
Cows shot, killed on Arizona ranch t’s an unusual crime that has cost a rancher $5,000 and left authorities puzzled. Sometime around Feb. 23, four pregnant cows were shot several times and left to die on a large ranch near Seligman, about 75 miles west of Flagstaff, the Arizona Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday. A hunter discovered the animals when he was scouting the area for predators. “This is very serious,” said Katie Decker, a department spokeswoman. “The fact that someone will go out and do something like this is very frightening.” Authorities don’t believe it’s related to a recent case at a ranch near Cave Creek dam where nine cows were shot. Whoever is responsible for killing the cows at Diamond A Ranch in Seligman could face multiple charges of animal cruelty, Decker said. Department investigators are searching for leads....
Too little, too late? “We sure could use some rain” is an all too familiar refrain heard lately. Sometimes, “... and a little hay wouldn’t hurt either” will follow that statement. The drought conditions that Texas and much of the Southwest has experienced has found area cattle producers scratching their heads and digging deep into their pocketbooks just to keep their cattle fed. Some cattle producers have had to go as far as Colorado to find hay, and pay a premium price if they’re lucky enough to find it. “It’s been a tough row to hoe” for the working man, Navarro County rancher Gary Brunton said. “What hurts the most is that I spent a fortune on planting in the fall, and it never rained. A lot of seed got ruined.” Brunton said he sold a lot of yearlings he would have held on to, not only due to the lack of hay, but the lack of water as well....
Spring work has sprung at Helle ranch despite winter winds It is a busy time at the Helle ranch. With four kids, sheep to shear and cows to calve John Helle is running in every direction. The spring work has begun. Although the dry, windy winter has Helle somewhat frustrated, he is pleased that it has not been too cold since he started shearing his sheep. They still get chilled when that icy wind blows, but Helle said he has enough shed space for the 500 they sheared this week. He also plans to feed them one and a half times as much feed as usual. He said they utilize a lot of feed burning the energy to stay warm. He has about 8,000 sheep and has finished the first 500. Helle plans to shear another 5,000 in April and the last 2,500 in May. He said they have taken a couple of thousand lambs over to Manhattan where he leases some pasture from a rancher....
Calving adds excitement through humdrum February Go feed the cows, go move the bales - it is the everyday humdrum way of life for Randy Pegar this week. After bringing up a load of their belongings, son Don and his wife have returned to California for another load. But first he spent a week helping his dad and brother with calving during a cold snap. Pegar does not like to hire outside help, so he and his sons alternate checking the cows. “Everything we do, we do ourselves,” he said. “We had one cow give Don a dance lesson,” said Pegar. “She was just a little bit snorty.” He said the cow cornered 6-foot-6 Don in the barn for 20 minutes the other night. When Pegar asked him why he did not call him to come help, Don said he could not get to his phone. He told his dad, “Every time I got close to the door she got back on me.” Pega said the cow calved right in front of the door.