NEWS ROUNDUP

Column: Preparing for Nature's Attack Environmentalists and their opponents have spent far too much time debating whether global warming is caused by humans, and whether the transition to cleaner energy sources will be good or bad for the economy. Whatever the causes, warming is a genuine risk. If the earth's temperatures continue to rise, we can expect to face melting glaciers and rising sea levels, warmer ocean temperatures and more intense hurricanes, more frequent droughts and other extreme weather. Is the government ready? No. Which is why we need a Global Warming Preparedness Act. Those of us who live in California have long prepared ourselves for "the big one." Many of us buy earthquake insurance, bolt our houses to their foundations and set aside emergency food and water. Local governments create evacuation plans with first responders and make sure emergency generators are in place. Schools have created plans to house families whose homes are damaged. But nothing like this exists nationally. Under a preparedness act, it would. The law would give the Federal Emergency Management Agency the task of coordinating a national global warming preparedness plan with other government agencies....
Ranchers encouraged by grazing regs New grazing regulations could improve grazing management and help sustain ranching on public lands, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the Public Lands Council (PLC). The Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published the final regulations in today’s Federal Register. While still reviewing the details of these regulations, rancher groups agree the BLM has taken a positive step toward balancing land management concerns with sustainable resource development. The final regulations take effect 60 days following publication. “We have worked for years to communicate to the Administration about the challenges our ranchers face,” says Jeff Eisenberg, director of federal lands for NCBA and executive director of PLC. “The regulations issued today are proof positive that the BLM is listening to these concerns and wants a regulatory system that works, but also helps enhance the business climate for our nation’s ranchers.”....
Water supply is on the rocks, and that's OK The snow that covers Oregon's highest mountains is only the most visible part of the storage system that supplies water to streams and rivers flowing from the Cascades. The very rock that makes up the peaks soaks up rain and melting snow into an underground basin the size of Great Salt Lake. The water from deep under the ground surfaces through springs five, 10, sometimes even 50 years later. Each basin in Oregon depends on these water supplies to different degrees. About 28 percent of the North Santiam River system comes from this High Cascade region. By comparison, 6 percent of the South Santiam River system is classified as High Cascades, according to research by scientists at the Pacific Northwest Research Station, a part of the U.S. Forest Service. "The number is significant because our work has demonstrated how the presence of these young volcanic rocks has a lot to do with where the rain goes when it falls and where the snow goes when it melts and the timing on which it re-emerges," said Gordon Grant, a research hydrologist. "And ultimately, it says something about the availability of water late into the summer."....
Lease sale proceeds Despite Gov. Dave Freudenthal's call for a halt to the process, the U.S. Forest Service is proceeding to offer nearly 20,000 acres on the Bridger-Teton National Forest for lease for oil and gas development at auction today. In a letter last week to federal land managers, Freudenthal said it would make sense to resolve pending protests of an energy lease sale last December of land within the Bridger-Teton before offering more of the forest lands for lease. Conservation groups, as well as outfitters and guides, protested December's lease sale, saying drilling on the Forest Service lands threatened to harm trout streams and other wildlife habitat in the Wyoming Range. Those appeals are still pending with the BLM, which handles energy leasing on both its own and Forest Service lands. Freudenthal last week wrote to Jack Troyer, regional forester with the U.S. Forest Service in Ogden, Utah, and Bob Bennett, Wyoming state director of the BLM. "All told, 44,000 acres have been slated for oil and gas leasing in the Bridger-Teton," Freudenthal wrote. "Such leasing has raised the ire of a varied range of groups and constituencies."....
Column: Troubled National Forest waters Our national forests. The very places we can always count on to have healthy stream flows. Right? Not necessarily. Protection of streams, wetlands and groundwater on national forests will be profoundly affected by quiet negotiations occurring today between the U.S. Forest Service and an under-the-radar state authority called the Montana Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission. So far the seemingly sensible concept of leaving water in stream for fish, recreation and public health — and to provide continuous flows for accommodating existing water-right holders downstream on private land — isn’t winning the day. The negotiations are arcane and mind-numbing, but the result could be far-reaching. It will ultimately settle whether the Forest Service has a legal right — and if so, how meaningful it will be — to protect streams from future development under Montana’s “first in time, first in right” water use law. A Forest Service and commission accord could settle for perpetuity who has priority say in the future of all water on national forests in Montana — including in developed and undeveloped tracts, designated wilderness, and wild and scenic rivers. At stake is the protection of water for countless lakes, waterfalls, wetlands, critical fisheries and spectacular vistas. Curiously, the state’s negotiators on the commission appear reluctant to recognize any legal ability in the Forest Service to protect these public resources beyond a few paltry tools granted by (and revocable by) Congress. And they’re playing hardball, forcing the Forest Service to navigate technical and legal knotholes in order to justify the seemingly common sense conclusion that to be healthy the public’s streams, fisheries and natural areas need water....
Colorado ski development clears hurdle A hotly contested proposal for a major development near one of Colorado's most rustic ski areas cleared a key hurdle Monday when federal officials approved construction of two short roads across national forest to reach the site. The Village at Wolf Creek, proposed by Texas billionaire Billy Joe ''Red'' McCombs, could eventually include 222,100 square feet of commercial space and enough housing for up to 10,500 people. The surrounding Mineral County in the San Juan Mountains about 170 miles southwest of Denver has fewer than 1,000 full-time residents. ''We are relieved this process has come to this point,'' developer Bob Honts said. ''We thank the U.S. Forest Service for the opportunity to build the village with reasonable access.''....
Once foes, forest service and Nevada county back road deal After years of battling over a remote Nevada road and its effect on a threatened fish, the Forest Service and Elko County tried to persuade a federal judge Monday to ignore environmentalists' objections and ratify a settlement that grants the county a right of way to the route. U.S. District Judge David Hagen ruled in June 2003 that the compromise agreement was illegal because it violated several environmental laws. Hagen, who has since retired, stayed the deal pending an appeal by the county. On Monday, the county's lawyers began presenting evidence in a scheduled five-day hearing to try to have the agreement reinstated. Among other things, they argue the South Canyon Road near the Idaho border was built before the Humboldt National Forest was established in 1909 and should never have been considered a national forest road....
Regulators calculate higher bond for Troy Mine Regulators say the bond for eventual reclamation of a copper and silver mine in northwestern Montana is too small for the job, and should increase by about $2.5 million. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Forest Service want a bond of nearly $13 million for the Troy Mine, 15 miles from Troy. Inflation and fuel costs were among the considerations in calculating the new amount as part of a routine review conducted at five-year intervals, Warren McCullough of DEQ's Environmental Management Bureau said Monday. ''There were some areas that we did not agree with, but we are moving forward to increase the bond nonetheless,'' said Carson Rife, vice president at Revett Minerals Inc. in Spokane, Wash. The company's subsidiary, Genesis Inc., operates the Troy Mine on private and Forest Service land. In a March 22 letter to DEQ, Genesis disputed both the size of the increase and the process used to calculate it. McCullough and John McKay of the Kootenai National Forest staff said a response to the company is pending. The bond is a safety net for financing reclamation if Genesis were to stop mining, the required environmental work did not occur and government agencies stepped in. Operation of the mine is projected to span at least the next five years, mine manager Doug Miller said....
Feds to Do Own Spotted Owl Recovery Plan Citing federal budget cuts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided it can't afford to pay an outside contractor to develop the long-overdue recovery plan for the northern spotted owl, so it will develop the blueprint for saving the threatened species from extinction on its own. "We had hoped to get a special funding allocation to handle a contractor who could help us with what will be a very labor intensive recovery planning process," said Fish and Wildlife spokesman David Patte. "It just didn't come to bear." The owl's dependence on old growth forests forced a dramatic cutback in logging on national forests in Washington, Oregon and Northern California in the 1990s. However, owl numbers continue to fall as the species confronts new threats with no clear way to stop any of them _ disease, wildfire and the barred owl, a cousin from eastern Canada that is pushing spotted owls from the best habitat. The decision to pursue a recovery plan, shelved before it was finished in 1992, is part of the settlement of a timber industry lawsuit demanding a new look at the federal lands set aside from logging as critical habitat for the bird....
A Weed, a Fly, a Mouse and a Chain of Unintended Consequences First came the knapweed. Then came the gall fly. And now the mice population is exploding — the mice that carry hantavirus. In a classic case of unintended ecological consequences, an attempt to control an unwanted plant has exacerbated a human health problem. Spotted knapweed, a European plant, is a tough, spindly scourge that has spread across hills and mountainsides across the West. In Montana alone, one of the worst-hit states, it covers more than four million acres. In the 1970's, biologists imported a native enemy of knapweed, the gall fly. The insect lays eggs inside the seed head, and the plant then forms a gall, or tumor, around the eggs. When the larva hatches, it eats the seeds. Dean Pearson, who works at the Rocky Mountain Research Station of the United States Forest Service, said the fly had not halted the spread of knapweed. In a report in Ecology Letters, however, Dr. Pearson reports that the introduced fly has changed the ecosystem's dynamics. The fly larvae provide an abundant food source for deer mice in the winter, above the snow. Instead of dying out, as is often the case in cold and snowy weather, the deer mice climb the stalk of the plant above the snow to the seed head. They can eat as many as 1,200 larvae a night, at a time when there is normally no other food. Mice numbers have tripled because of this food supply, said Dr. Pearson, and with them hantavirus, a viral infection is spread by urine and droppings. It is rare, but can cause a pneumonialike disease that can be fatal to humans....
Outdoor Industry Leaders Lobby for Roadless Land Nearly 50 companies specializing in outdoor recreation sent letters to the U.S. Forest Service on Friday requesting that roadless wildlands in America's national forests be protected from logging and other development. The companies, among them such industry leaders as Patagonia and The North Face, argued in the joint letter that their businesses depend on customer participation in a wide variety of outdoor activities and that any losses to America's roadless areas would "constrain our customers' activities and diminish our business opportunities." The outdoor recreation industry currently brings in $33 billion each year. "America's pristine roadless forests are public assets that provide our customers with incredible recreational opportunities," Patagonia's CEO Casey Sheahan said in a statement. "Without these wild backcountry lands, our business opportunities would be significantly restricted."....
Out of Bounds In the 100 years since concerted restoration efforts returned healthy numbers of bison to the plains of Wyoming, the animal has become as much a part of Yellowstone’s landscape as the geysers and sulfur springs that dot the terrain. But in recent decades, bison have been treated less like wild animals and more like livestock. By 1902, the number of bison in the Greater Yellowstone had dropped below 30, a far cry from the days when more than 30 million bison grazed on western lands. That year, Yellowstone officials brought back a few dozen members of the original herd that had been shipped out of the state years earlier. In the hundred years since, bison numbers have increased dramatically: Last summer, nearly 5,000 buffalo roamed throughout the park. But today that tally is now closer to 4,000. This winter the Park Service sent more than 900 bison to slaughter, ostensibly because of the risks the animals pose to cattle grazing on adjacent lands....
Sempra drops plans for Idaho coal-fired plant Sempra Energy said on Wednesday it was dropping plans to build a coal-fired power plant in Idaho in the face of strong opposition to the proposed $1 billion project. In a letter sent on Wednesday to Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and leaders of the state legislature, Michael Niggli, president of Sempra Generation, said the company would sell the development rights to the project. The plant would have been the first coal-fired generating station in the state. Idaho now gets most of its electricity from hydropower. A few hours after the letter was received, the Idaho Senate passed by a 30-to-5 vote and sent to the governor a bill calling for a two-year moratorium on coal-fired power plants. The Idaho House overwhelmingly passed the measure last week. The moratorium bill says "coal-fired power plants may have a significant negative impact upon the health, safety and welfare" of people, financial security of agricultural business, and the protection of natural resources....
Future of mountain cabins could be at risk Family traditions, rich in history, are celebrated every summer in the cabin villages on Mount Graham - but the future existence of the cabins is at risk. “We are doing an environmental study of the impact the cabins are having on issues such as the endangered red squirrel and with sacred, mountain grounds of the Apache Indians,” Recreation and Special Uses Program Manager Bill Lewis said. The Safford Ranger District of the Forest Service hosted an open house at the Arizona Room of the Manor House on Tuesday for cabin owners of Mount Graham to ask questions about the renewal process for permits. Summer homeowners spoke directly to several Forest Service officials at four separate stations. Many questions and concerns were expressed by families that have owned a cabin since as early as 1920....
Forest Service buys Blackfoot acreage The U.S. Forest Service has acquired nearly 11,300 acres bordering national forestlands in the Blackfoot watershed. The agency bought the land -- six separate parcels in Powell and Lewis and Clark counties -- from the Nature Conservancy last week using $10 million from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. The conservancy acquired the property in 2004 from the Seattle-based Plum Creek Timber Co. as part of the 88,000-acre Blackfoot Community Project. "This is great news for the Blackfoot because it puts in public ownership lands that local residents wanted to see continued public access on," said Hank Goetz, lands director for the Blackfoot Challenge, the landowner group leading the conservation effort....
Authorities want say in forest buy Lawrence County officials want to have input before the U.S. Forest Service buys more land in the county for the Wayne National Forest. The forest service has $800,000 that it wants to use to buy property in Washington Township that currently belongs to The Nature Conservancy. The Nature Conservancy has bought some 3,600 acres of property in the county for $2.8 million in the past few years. The proposed purchase would cover only about 1,000 acres or so, said Gloria Chrismer, Ironton district ranger at the Wayne. "I'm surprised by (the opposition)," Chrismer said last week. "I'm disappointed. We've been talking about this for several years." County Commissioner Jason Stephens said the federal government already owns more than 25 percent of the land in Lawrence County. Future purchases takes the land off tax rolls and decreases tax revenues to local schools and pulls the land off any list for possible development. "Local people should have some say" in future land purchases, Stephens said. The Lawrence County Board of Commissioners will be asking local legislators and Gov. Bob Taft about changing the law to give counties input on future land sales, he said....
Sedona jeep tours bring money and concerns They roar through the ravines and mesas of some of Arizona's most beautiful country, hundreds of tour jeeps carrying nearly 350,000 tourists annually. But the tours are becoming so popular that they are not only threatening the solitude of the high country but also the environment. "It's hard to believe that this area has been used for spiritual renewal, given all the din now," said Dianne Leibensperge, who lives in the upscale Broken Arrow neighborhood of Sedona, on the main thoroughfare to the vistas. She said the neighborhood has a carnival atmosphere and the jeeps have put hip-deep ruts in nearby roads. As the state's estimated $15 million-a-year jeep-tour industry pits residents against operators, Forest Service planners are caught in the middle, trying to balance environmental concerns with the rights of businesses in Sedona and beyond....
Forestry official: Make some noise Montana's wood products industry is nearing the tipping point - and could end up following in the footsteps of Southwestern states where lumber mills have virtually disappeared - if the logjam on public lands doesn't change. That message Friday from keynote speaker Jim Petersen started a two-day Montana Society of American Foresters conference titled “The Law and Forestry” at the Holiday Inn Parkside in Missoula. Petersen, of Bigfork, is director of the Evergreen Foundation, a nonprofit forestry research and educational organization. Between 1989 and 2004, 414 wood products plants closed in five Western states, he said. In Montana alone, 27 mills have shut their doors since 1989. Petersen said 48,501 forest industry jobs in the West were lost because of those closures. Many of the shutdowns were the result of a dwindling log supply from federal lands due to appeals and litigation....
Eye in the sky: Red-tailed Hawk favorite of falconers From heights where the large birds are barely distinguishable by the human eye, the red-tailed hawk, with eyesight eight times greater than a human's, can spot potential prey the size of a small mouse. Their fantastic hunting capabilities and ability to hover on warm air thermals makes birds of prey awe-inspiring to people. The Red-tailed Hawk, the most widespread of the Buteo family and a favorite of falconers, resides in the Southwest year-round, enjoying the mild winters and an abundance of prey. Armed with strong grasping feet and sharp talons ideal for perching and clutching, the hawk, as well as most raptors, capitalizes on various hunting techniques. Whether soaring or perched it is safe to say the powerful eyes of the hawk are constantly scanning the ground, Klinger said....
Wild About Wild Flowers John Thomas stands in a field at Wildseed Farms near Fredericksburg, Texas (pop. 8,911), and surveys the surrounding canvas of mixed wildflowers—black-eyed Susans, purple coneflowers, white daisies, red and orange California poppies, yellow coreopsis and pink buttercups. He knows that next spring the seeds from his farm will blanket the edges of highways across America. Today, Wildseed Farms is one of the most successful wildflower production farms in the nation, with 65 employees that include horticulturists and botanists. Eighty-eight varieties of seeds are collected on 200 scattered acres in the Texas Hill Country near Fredericksburg, and on another 1,000 acres in Eagle Lake, Texas (pop. 3,664), along the Gulf Coast. Last year, the farms harvested 50,000 pounds of bluebonnet seeds—70 percent of the world’s supply....
Conservation Planning Pilot Project Results Announced In California, as many as 140 customers signed up for conservation planning assistance during the recent Natural Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS) Conservation Planning Pilot Project, according to initial project results announced today by State Conservationist Lincoln E. Burton. California was one of nine states participating in the conservation planning sign-up, a pilot initiative that emphasized the importance of conservation planning to help farmers and ranchers be better prepared to apply for conservation programs and to comply with federal, state, tribal and local environmental regulations. Nine California field offices participated in the pilot project. Using a landowner self-assessment process, individuals who wanted technical assistance to develop a conservation plan applied at their local NRCS office during the specified sign-up periods that ranged from October 31 to December 30. All agricultural land was eligible for conservation planning technical assistance, including cropland, orchards, vineyards, pasture and range, woodland and farmsteads....
Strange love on the ranch Love comes in many types. Tough love, puppy love, love at first sight, love 'em and leave 'em, first crushes, infatuation. And, of course, the obsessive kind which can lead to restraining orders. It is the latter that has struck a midvalley couple. But no one is calling for a judge to intervene. In fact, said rancher Rory Cerise, most people who stop by think the peculiar relationship of Petunia and Chicken is cute. Chicken is actually an African flightless goose who, about six years ago, took a shining to Petunia, a retired saddle mare, on the Cerises' ranch near Emma. Chicken's name comes from his demeanor, Cerise said. But his cowardice might have saved his neck, which he sticks completely vertical as he bellows and hisses to protect his betrothed. Chicken, his brother and two ducks were orphaned one January morning at the foot of the ranch's driveway, Cerise said. Raccoons, and then dogs, got the ducks; Chicken's brother met his end March 12 under the heavy hooves of the ranch's cows. Now there's just Chicken. But he has also known the pain love can bring. Petunia has stepped on his webbed feet, broke his toes and made him lame, Cerise said. "She doesn't even know he's there," he said, which may be the worst misery of all. Chicken's love is undying, but it's costing him calories....
It's All Trew: A criminal or a saint? You never know On at 9 a.m. Feb. 4, 1931, two men entered the First State Bank of Alanreed, and demanded money, according to Fort Worth newspaper articles sent to me by T. Lindsay Baker. E. B. Hedrick, bank cashier, was forced at gunpoint to open the vault where the cash was taken. He was then ordered to lie on the bank floor until the thieves departed. Just as the robbers were leaving the bank, local blacksmith Jim Bryant entered for his daily free cup of coffee provided by the bank. The robbers ordered Jim to lie down on the floor. Jim was hard of hearing and didn't understand the order. When he didn't obey, one of the robbers shot him in the stomach. The robbers then left in one car, switched to another car and fled the scene....