NEWS ROUNDUP

Critical red-legged frog habitat cut by feds The Bush administration Thursday dramatically shrunk the land deemed crucial for survival of the California red-legged frog, a threatened amphibian at the center of a national debate. After years of litigation and scientific dispute, the Fish and Wildlife Service formally declared 450,288 acres as critical habitat for the frog once celebrated by Mark Twain. It's a sprawling patchwork spread over 20 California counties, including Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and portions of Merced, Nevada and El Dorado counties. But the frog's critical habitat no longer includes the county commemorated in Twain's famous ''The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.'' It is also 39 percent smaller than scientists had proposed in November, and 89 percent smaller than officials suggested at the start of the Bush administration. That angers environmentalists but gratifies congressional critics who dispute the usefulness of critical habitat....
Conservationists rally against drilling plan Pinedale Middle School eighth-grader Tracey McCarty said she wanted to find out about ozone levels in Sublette County when she began a prize-winning science fair project last November. With the increased development in the Jonah natural gas fields in southwest Wyoming and 3,100 more wells planned, McCarty wondered whether gas development affected ground-level air quality, specifically ozone levels. So she set up an experiment designed to measure ozone levels at four locations around Pinedale. What the 14-year-old amateur scientist found were ozone levels exceeding national standards. "We got a shocking number of ground-level ozone from my calculations ... We measured ground-level ozone at about 182 parts per billion, and definitely the limit of what we should have in this area, or any area, is under 90 parts per billion," McCarty said Thursday. McCarty joined a host of conservationists, ranchers and Sublette County residents speaking at press conferences in Pinedale and Laramie to announce the filing of two appeals of the Bureau of Land Management's decision approving the Jonah Infill Drilling Project. The appeals were filed by the Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, the Center for Native Ecosystems and the Pinedale-based Upper Green River Valley Coalition....
Former EPA director advocates balancing environment, business Christine Todd Whitman served a frustration-filled two years as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She joined the Bush administration as it began its first term, and she was regarded highly as a moderate voice. But two years later, a period interrupted by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, she resigned, frustrated by environmental groups, business resistance, congressional opposition and a White House that appeared to have its eye on different victories. Whitman will be in town next week to address Valley Forward's Livability Summit, which will focus on smarter growth strategies, said Diane Brossart, the group's executive director. Valley Forward is an organization that promotes a balance of economic growth and environmental quality. The Republic's Michael Clancy discussed the issues with Whitman, a former governor of New Jersey....
Column: Kane County can't cope with free enterprise Kane County's history includes an experiment in the 1870s when Mormon leader Brigham Young tried a form of socialism in which residents pooled and divided resources for the common good. That didn't last long. But it appears Kane County's current conservative Republican commission still has a problem with the free-enterprise system. How else can the commission's recent actions trying to subvert an environmental organization's purchase of Bureau of Land Management grazing rights be interpreted? Between 1999 and 2001, the Arizona-based Grand Canyon Trust bought $1.5 million of grazing permits on 350,000 acres of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument land from willing sellers, with the idea of retiring those permits. Fearing the loss of their area's agricultural industry, Kane County Commissioners sued to take away the trust's property, arguing the permits must be used to graze cattle. Even though the trust was using some permits for grazing, that wasn't enough. Commissioners persuaded the Utah Legislature to spend more than $100,000 of state tax money to sue the BLM for issuing the permits to the Grand Canyon Trust. If an environmental organization sued to obtain grazing permits from a rancher, conservatives would call this "a taking." So how can they justify trying to grab the trust's legally obtained rights?....
Schweitzer explains bison plan to ranchers Gov. Brian Schweitzer is proposing an expanded bison hunt and state payments to ranchers who remove their cattle from grazing grounds in the West Yellowstone area and the Gardiner basin. The measures, part of a 10-year management plan, would help preserve Montana's brucellosis-free status and save the state money it otherwise would have to spend hazing and slaughtering bison, he said. "It doesn't make any sense to haul (the bison) up and bring them to slaughter," said Schweitzer, who rolled out his ideas Wednesday in a meeting with landowners. "We're putting the entire cattle industry at risk. I think we can do it better, and I think we can do it cheaper." Several ranchers expressed skepticism at his plan, saying the solution should come from the federal government....
Helping Save Prickly Victims of Development The operation began military-style at the crack of dawn. Bearing welders' gloves, shovels and tweezers for medical emergencies, the brigade of 40 moved across the desert, undaunted by rattlers, in single-minded pursuit of their well-defended targets. It was the 141st mission of the Cactus Rescue Crew, and its challenge could be seen nearby, where whirling sprinklers signaled another "championship golf fairway" under construction, another "active adult master-planned community" in progress. That would soon bring extensive "blading" — clearing for development — to this spot outside Tucson populated by baby saguaros, lurching barrels and spiny clumps of hedgehogs. In this booming state, second only to Nevada in population growth, the citizens' brigade was organized out of concern that plants on vast swaths of the Sonora Desert were vanishing. The cactus rescuers, volunteers all, have pioneered a novel approach to sprawl, swooping in at the 11th hour to save the desert flora from the bulldozer....
Environmental group sues EPA over Central Valley dust rule An environmental group sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday claiming a new regulation over air pollution in the Central Valley is too lax. Earthjustice is challenging the rule over particulate matter with a lawsuit filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In particulate matter pollution, tiny specks of dust and dirt can linger in the air and become lodged in people's lungs, causing numerous health problems, such as asthma. Agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the nation's most polluted air basins, is one of the leading causes of particulate matter in the region. The agriculture regulation earlier this year required farmers to water service roads, plant grass between trees and buy updated equipment to help cut down on dust pollution. That is not far enough to significantly cut down on pollution, said Paul Cort of Earthjustice....
Irrigators to pay more for power Klamath Basin irrigators will pay higher power costs under an Oregon Public Utility Commission decision Wednesday. The ruling goes into effect Sunday and covers 1,400 Klamath Reclamation Project irrigators and 700 off-Project irrigators. It's intended to put them on rates similar to other PacifiCorp irrigation customers after a seven-year phase-in. Scott Seus, a California farmer and chairman of the Klamath Water Users Association's power committee, used a baseball analogy to describe the ruling. “It's not a home run, but a double,” he said. “They recognize what we have advocated all along - that there is a credit for value. (Phase-in) allows people time to adjust their irrigation practices to stay in business. “The commission came out somewhere in the middle. That's probably a reasonable approach. It gives us breathing room.” The amount of cost increase varies among customer classes, but each now pays less than a penny per kilowatt hour while other PacifiCorp irrigation customers pay 6.98 cents, according to the utility commission....
Government made $9 million in loans to ineligible farmers The Agriculture Department loaned $9 million over six years to farmers who shouldn't have gotten loans, according to an audit released Thursday. The 98 farmers failed to fully repay earlier loans, according to the agency's inspector general. Congress considers those borrowers ineligible for future loans. Through its Farm Service Agency, the department is a lender of last resort; it loans money to farmers and ranchers who can't get credit from banks or other lenders. In 2004 alone, the department issued $323 million in loans, the audit said. The farmers got credit because department employees misunderstood the rules and approved some loans by mistake, the audit found. In other cases, debt history was missing from the department's automated system for tracking loans, or the system wasn't used, auditors reported....
Mad cow suspected in Canada Federal officials Thursday tested a British Columbia dairy cow suspected of contracting mad cow disease, potentially bad news for Canadian cattle ranchers still recovering from a two-year ban on their beef in the United States. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it was trying to confirm whether it is a new case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. The cow was identified on a Fraser Valley farm through the national BSE surveillance program. It would be the fifth case in Canada since May 2003, when the U.S. border was closed to Canadian beef after the sick cows were detected in Canada....