NEWS ROUNDUP

Top Birder Challenges Reports of Long-Lost Woodpecker The ivory billed woodpecker? That is the bird that went extinct and was rediscovered, and then there was some argument. But it is all settled now, and the great creature lives, elusively, in an Arkansas swamp, with a chunk of federal money to keep it comfortable. Right? Maybe not. The nation's best known birder, David A. Sibley, whose book "The Sibley Guide to Birds" is a bible for field identification, has decided that the happy ending is too good to be true. Mr. Sibley, a soft-spoken, attention-avoiding writer and illustrator of many other bird books, says in an article being published today in Science that a blurry videotape that was the strongest evidence of the woodpecker's continued existence does not show an ivory bill at all. He and three colleagues write that the bird on the tape was almost certainly a common pileated woodpecker and that there is simply no conclusive evidence that the ivory bill has escaped extinction. The videotape, which has been called an ornithological Zapruder film, was made on April 25, 2004, by M. David Luneau Jr., an engineering professor at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Professor Luneau had joined a search led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to gather more evidence after two serious birders reported seeing the ivory bill fly in front of their canoe. Along with sightings, the tape was the centerpiece of a spring 2005 paper, also in Science, that caused jubilation among conservationists and birders and prompted the federal government to commit $10 million for ivory bill conservation....
With Energy-Tax Bonanza, Wyoming Schools Enjoy Windfall Forget the bucking bronco. A clattering cash register has become the more apt symbol of Wyoming in the energy rush. Over the past four years, as natural gas prices have spiked and drillers have descended here on the nation's least-populous state, Wyoming has collected about $65 million a month more in energy taxes than the government can spend. The numbers, in their cumulative power and duration, are starting to change the state's vision of what it could be and how to get there. Money has been poured into wildlife protection, historical preservation and the support of families of National Guard troops in Iraq. A $100 million tax cut this year eliminated the sales tax on groceries. (There is no personal or corporate income tax to cut.) But that still left hundreds of millions to be set aside in an all-purpose savings account that some state officials fantasize could one day grow large enough to subsidize the state budget itself — Wyoming as trust-fund kid, or cowboy emirate....
Cattle may use creek again after salt water spill Ranchers who relied on a McKenzie County creek to water their cattle may use it again, because a hazard posed by a salt water spill has passed, a state Health Department official says. The company responsible for the pollution, Zenergy Inc. of Tulsa, Okla., is cleaning up the salt-contaminated soil. Charbonneau Creek was polluted in early January when a salt water disposal pipeline ruptured, spilling briny water into a stock pond, a beaver dam and the creek itself. Salt water is a waste product of oil production. The creek, which is fed by spring water and is flowing, empties into the Yellowstone River. Dave Glatt, chief of the Health Department's environmental section, said it does not appear the Yellowstone was harmed by the accident. Recent melting snow has caused salt levels in the creek to recede, Glatt said. The creek will be monitored to make sure salt from the creek bed does not leach again into the water, he said....
Additional Proposed Changes to Federal Oil and Gas Regulations In a move that will help the nation meet its energy needs, the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service are jointly proposing further revisions of regulations governing oil and gas activity on the public lands. These further proposed revisions supplement an earlier proposal – published by the two agencies in July 2005 – that would revise an existing set of regulations known as Onshore Oil and Gas Order Number 1. The Order’s regulations establish the requirements that companies must meet to obtain approval for oil and gas exploration and development on all Federal and Indian lands (except those of the Osage Tribe). The BLM’s and Forest Service’s latest proposed regulatory revisions, published in today’s Federal Register, would implement portions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 by making Order Number 1’s drilling permit provisions consistent with those in the Act. The new energy law contains a timeline for processing drilling permit applications – known as Applications for Permits to Drill (APDs) – that differs slightly from the one contained in the regulatory proposal of July 2005. Besides making the timeline in Order Number 1 consistent with that in the Energy Policy Act, today’s further proposed revision specifies what constitutes a “complete” APD package. This latest proposal also makes clear that the BLM and Forest Service intend to continue requiring an on-site inspection before determining that an APD package is complete. In addition, the proposal published today would require additional bonding in split-estate situations where a lessee cannot reach agreement with an Indian surface owner. The Federal Register notice published today opens up a 30-day comment period during which the public may submit written comments on the further proposed revisions to Onshore Oil and Gas Order Number 1. (The notice also re-opens for 30 days the comment period on the July 2005 regulatory proposal.)....
States Calculate Global Warming Pricetag In a new sign of growing concern about the impact of global warming on the health of the U.S. economy, the insurance commissioners of the 50 U.S. states last week voted unanimously to establish a task force on the possible impact of climate change on the insurance industry and its consumers. The decision, taken by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, came during the same week that the world's biggest insurance broker, Marsh & McLennan, briefed its corporate clients, which include roughly 75 percent of the "Fortune 500" biggest companies, on the potential impact of global warming on their businesses. Marsh's clients heard from, among others, Carol Browner, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) when former President Bill Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocol to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and Robert Watson, the chief climate scientist at the World Bank and former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)....
More indictments in NW ecoterrorism probe Two more people were indicted Thursday on charges they were part of a group calling itself "The Family" that was responsible for a series of firebombings around the Northwest from 1996 to 2001 claimed by the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. The indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Eugene brings to 13 the number of people who will go on trial Oct. 31 on 65 counts, including conspiracy, arson, and use of a destructive device in a crime of violence. The targets included U.S. Forest Service ranger stations in Oregon, government and university research labs in Washington, a horse slaughterhouse in Oregon, a tree farm in Oregon, a power transmission tower in Oregon, a Colorado ski resort, lumber mills in Oregon, and federal wild horse corrals in Oregon, Wyoming and California. The fires caused more than $100 million in damages....
Forest Land Sale Plan Goes Forward The Bush administration formalized its plan to sell more than 300,000 acres of national forest to help pay for rural schools in 41 states, submitting legislation to Congress on Thursday to funnel $800 million to the schools over the next five years. The schools would get $320 million next year, but the figure would drop sharply after that, to $40 million in its final year, officials said. That would be a 90% decrease from current spending — a figure Western lawmakers called unacceptable. The legislation came as four former Forest Service chiefs criticized the land sale plan as contrary to more than a century of agency practice. "Selling off public lands to fund other programs, no matter how worthwhile those programs, is a slippery slope," the retired chiefs said, calling the land sale "an unwise precedent." The letter was signed by Max Peterson, Dale Robertson, Jack Ward Thomas and Michael Dombeck. The men led the agency under four presidents from both parties....
Report: Losses from decay heavy from Biscuit Fire Losses from unsalvaged timber from the 2002 Biscuit fire in southwest Oregon stand to approach $140 million if nothing is done to harvest it, according to a report from the U.S. Forest Service. Some Biscuit sales were logged in 2004 and 2005. The report said data "shows clearly that 42 percent of the volume per acre has been lost since late 2002," largely from decay. However, the thought of logging the area is anathema to many scientists and environmentalists who say the best way to help the area recover is to leave it alone. The report, released by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., placed the value of the timber that could be legally and profitably cut immediately after the fire at about $171.8 million. It said about $32.3 million of that has been recovered to date....
A Century of Debate Just how exciting can a book about the Antiquities Act of 1906 be? Probably more so than you would think--certainly it was for me. It's not the history of an obscure, 100-year-old law; this is the story of fundamental questions of importance to all Americans. It is the story of visionaries trying to preserve a heritage that, even then, was vanishing. It is the story of bruising political battles that continue even to today. It is the story of how public archaeology came into being in the United States. Ultimately, it is the story of how we decided to treasure our nation's cultural--and natural--heritage. The Antiquities Act is brief, and only the second and third of its four sections are important today. The second deals with the creation of National Monuments: lofty ideals, vague wording, and a sweeping presidential prerogative. The third provides access to the sites and artifacts found on the Monuments for scholars, museums, and universities, but this access comes with certain responsibilities. All this in some 269 words. It is an extraordinary document. The book about all of this, The Antiquities Act: A Century of American Archaeology, Historic Preservation, and Nature Conservation (University of Arizona Press, 2006; cloth $45.00, paper $19.95), is edited by David Harmon (conservationist, George Wright Society), Francis P. McManamon (archaeologist, National Park Service), and Dwight T. Pitcaithley (historian, New Mexico State University). The editors contributed an introduction and concluding chapter, but the main portion of the book is a collection of 15 chapters authored by various specialists and grouped according to four themes....
US hails calm world reaction to new mad cow case The low-key world reaction to discovery of the third U.S. case of mad cow disease is a sign that trading partners recognize American beef is safe, an Agriculture Department spokesman said on Tuesday. The new case was an elderly Santa Gertrudis beef cow from a small herd in Alabama and the first found since November 2004. The cow was buried on the farm. "It was not an animal that got in the (human) food supply. It did not get in the animal feed supply. Our firewalls worked," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told reporters in Berlin, his third stop on a trip to Europe. "I think overall there has been a very measured reaction to the announcement," USDA spokesman Ed Loyd wrote in responses to e-mail questions. Loyd cited "an increasing understanding worldwide of (the) safety of U.S. beef" and acceptance of international guidelines that say beef can be traded when nations take steps to prevent the spread of mad cow, formally named bovine spongiform encephalopathy....
Horse Owners Are Bridling at Changes It used to be a place where a middle-class family could own a small house on a large parcel with a horse corral out back and a few chickens and roosters running around the yard. But these days in Sylmar, the human population is going up while the number of horses is dropping. And this has some longtime residents concerned that a way of life in this foothill community on the northeastern edge of the San Fernando Valley is disappearing. Even its name sounds pastoral, derived from a combination of the word "sylvan" and the Spanish word mar, roughly translating into "sea of trees." In Sylmar, olive trees once grew thick on land tilled by farmers and ranchers, who turned the arid countryside into a hub for olive growing and related agricultural enterprises. After World War II, the land was subdivided into generous lots, giving it the feel of the country, even though it was only about 26 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. But developers looking for places to build in today's hot real estate market have discovered Sylmar. They are razing the ranch-style houses and replacing them with tracts of single-family homes, condominiums and town houses....
Rancher Carlton goes to the grave in her pickup A gun-toting wisp of a woman who favored jeans and John Wayne went out the way she lived. At Fleta Carlton's funeral Wednesday, ranch hands loaded her casket into the bed of Old Blue, the gas-belching pick-up she drove all over the 1,400-acre Carlton Triangle Ranch. Friend Ed Bledsoe steered the beat-up Dodge to the Old Miakka Cemetery, where folks in boots and Wranglers, suits and ties sang "Amazing Grace." Carlton was buried in a plaid cowboy shirt and jeans. "A dress? She would have been angry at us for that," said niece Stacey Carlton. In her pocket, her little brother Tony put something familiar: her Old Timer pocketknife, which she only put down at night. And a sharpening stone, just in case the thing gets dull....