NEWS ROUNDUP

The New Ranch May Be Key to the Success of the New West There’s a saying in farming and ranching circles that asphalt is the last crop. That paints a dim picture, but Tuesday’s panelists chose instead to focus not on lamenting the issue, but on showing through example how modifying traditional ranching lands and practices to meet new challenges has renewed the definition of success for ranchers and habitat alike throughout the Rockies. Moderator Jack Wold, president of Wold Oil and Gas and a rancher himself, led the discussion on the threats and signs of hope in Rockies ranching, with student researcher Andrew Yarbrough, author and environmentalist Dan Dagget, ranchers and leaders of the Country Natural Beef co-op Doc and Connie Hatfield, rancher Dale Lasater, New Seasons Market CEO Brian Rohter and rancher and Wyoming State Senator John Schiffer. The lively discussion kicked off with a presentation from Yarbrough highlighting the changes ranching has seen over the last several decades, and the trends that promise to shape – for better or worse – the future of ranching in the Rockies. Like conservation and biodiversity, ranching’s biggest threat is population growth, with ranch lands being sold off to developers with offers too tempting for struggling farmers and ranchers to turn down. Shrinking healthy soils and grasses, consolidation of the livestock industry and the ongoing effects of government subsidies were also on trial during the discussion....
Lawsuit against BLM dismissed A U.S. District Court has dismissed a suit by a local rancher who accused the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of destroying the viability of her ranch by allowing oil and gas companies to extract minerals below the surface. Tweety Blancett, who leases federal land in San Juan County near the Colorado state line, alleged in the Dec. 2004 suit filed in United States District Court in Washington, D.C. that the BLM "failed to comply with its mandatory duties under the Taylor Grazing Act." The purpose of the Act is to safeguard livestock grazing areas. The suit also alleged the BLM did not take enforcement action against oil and gas companies who have violated BLM regulations. According to a written opinion filed March 20 by Judge John D. Bates, the court lacked jurisdiction in the matter and dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning Blancett could refile. "I thought it was an interesting decision," Blancett said. She added that while the court dismissed the claim, Bates did recognize the ranch was not viable. "The court agrees, and will presume for the purpose of resolving the present motion that the alleged lack of enforcement action for the violations was the primary cause of decline," Bates wrote. "He's not disagreeing the ranch has been destroyed," Blancett said. "This judge was very knowledgeable on the issues." However, BLM officials said although the opinion may have acknowledged a decline in the ranch, it did not agree the BLM failed to live up to its obligations....
Group appeals feds' approval of Burnt Mountain expansion A coalition of backcountry skiers and environmentalists refuses to surrender Burnt Mountain without a fight. This week the coalition appealed a U.S. Forest Service decision that allows the Aspen Skiing Co. to expand east of the Long Shot trail on Burnt Mountain. White River National Forest Supervisor Maribeth Gustafson approved the Skico project as an amendment to the ski area's master plan in February. The Skico wants to thin trees on about 500 acres of Burnt Mountain and add roughly 200 acres of skiable terrain that would provide a "semi-backcountry experience." It might pursue the project this summer and might some day add a chairlift to serve the terrain. Donald Duerr, director of the Wyoming-based Ark Initiative, prepared the appeal. A 217-page document lays out the arguments, which often go into excruciating detail. One other environmental organization, eight individuals from the Roaring Fork Valley and two people from Florida are also appellants....
Navy drilling for geothermal energy Developers have often been reluctant to hunt for new geothermal energy because of the enormous cost and risk associated with drilling down deep below the earth's surface. So the U.S. Navy is increasingly doing the drilling on their behalf, scouting for untapped reserves of heat pent up beneath the surface of military facilities. One of the Navy's most recent geothermal discoveries, at Fallon Naval Air Station in Nevada, will culminate with a private power plant coming on line in 2008, officials said during a congressional hearing Thursday. Under the deal, the Navy will share profits with the contractor, making industry "more willing to partner in what is still a risky enterprise," said Wayne Arny, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for installations and facilities. The Navy is conducting similar activities at a handful of other sites, which officials see as part of a larger effort to open federal property to renewable energy development as an alternative to foreign oil....
Don't count on federal timber payments, Smith says Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith says he will fight hard to renew a program that has pumped more than $2 billion into Oregon and other states hurt by logging cutbacks on federal land. But the Republican said rural counties and school districts across the West should not depend on the federal subsidies indefinitely. “I have a duty to my colleagues in county government to remind them this was a temporary program. This was never meant to be a permanent thing,” Smith said in an interview with The Associated Press. Smith said he was speaking out because many counties – including some in Oregon – are locking the federal payments into their operating budgets for such basics as schools and roads. “This is a mistake,” Smith said. “It just isn't wise to lock it into permanent baseline budgets.”....
Cougar plan draws fire It's hard to find anyone who really likes the proposed state plan for controlling cougars, but the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission is widely expected to adopt it this week. The commission meets Thursday in Salem to consider the plan put together by biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to address a rising number of complaints that cougars have been eating more pets and livestock -- and scaring more people -- since voters adopted a ban on hound hunting in 1994. The plan tries to restore the balance of cougars, humans, livestock and game animals that was in place in 1994. That's the year Oregon voters adopted a ban on hound hunting, widely considered the most effective means of killing cougars. Voters reiterated their support for the ban two years later. The cougar plan calls for holding Oregon's cougar population at or above the 1994 estimate of 3,000 animals. The current estimate is 5,000. It gives the department authority to kill cougars as long as livestock kills and complaints from people exceed 1994 levels, which they now do, and in 66 wildlife management areas where deer, elk and bighorn sheep herds are struggling. The Oregon Hunters Association grudgingly supports the plan, but contends it should have given hunters a bigger role in controlling cougar numbers....
Plum Creek shuts down half a shift at sawmill Plum Creek has cut half a shift at its sawmill here and offered the 45 employees impacted by the cut transfers to other plants in the valley. The sawmill used to have two full-time shifts. Plum Creek will cut that to 1.5 shifts, Hank Ricklefs, vice president of manufactured products said Tuesday. The reason for the cuts is the head rig saw is designed to take larger dimension timber. But Ricklefs said Forest Service sales and its own timber don't supply the volume of large logs that are needed to keep the head rig saw running at 80 hours a week. Most sales today are smaller dimension timber, he noted. “It's completely driven by wood supply issues,” he said. The other side of the mill uses a smaller saw that accommodates smaller-diameter timber, but the two are designed to work in tandem, Ricklefs noted....
Can Missoula's Mountain Bikers and the Forest Service Get Along? The president of Mountain Bike Missoula, a cycling advocacy group, is holding a weathered, two-week-old newspaper article in his hand. Ryan, an attorney with graying hair and an athletic build, doesn't look like the typical stereotype of a mountain biker – a teenager illicitly building big jumps in the woods. But Ryan, a Missoula native, has been biking the trails around here for 20-odd years, and knows his way around just about all of them. Ryan describes MBM members as an eclectic mix of middle-aged bikers and younger freeriders. The reason for his frustration is the article in his hand: A month ago, the Forest Service warned local bikers in a terse letter to stay off the Blue Mountain National Recreation Trail, a nine-mile, scenic trail overlooking Missoula’s valley floor. Following the letter, an article in the Missoulian reiterated the letter’s warning – noting that a hefty $175 fine would be slapped on anyone caught on two wheels on the trail. The sudden announcement took the local mountain bike community by surprise. But for a few years, their relationship with officials on the Lolo National Forest’s Missoula Ranger District has been on the rocks. In their view, the increased fines and abrupt letter were typical communication in a string of conflicts between local land managers and mountain bikers....
As wood rots, timber companies still seek Biscuit timber Four years after the giant Biscuit fire, timber companies remain interested in logging trees it killed. But both loggers and the U.S. Forest Service say the end of the salvage is near, given the deterioration of timber in the Siskiyou portion of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. "We are interested in the volume. We need the wood," said Steve Swanson, president of Swanson Group Inc. in Glendale. "Without a doubt the quality and value of that wood has diminished," he said. "And it's not going to get any better. The chance of a viable sale diminishes every single day." Darrel Bonde, timber manager for South Coast Lumber Co. of Brookings, said the two planned salvage sales this year "will be the last shot at anything. It'll all be gone after this summer." Forest officials say no date has been set for timber auctions. The logging would be harvested by helicopter to reduce soil damage. The sales would be in areas designated as roadless. Environmentalists say any salvage harms the natural recovery after a fire and is not economically justifiable....
New diversion aids fish The historic channel of Clearwater River that meets the North Umpqua River roared back to life last week with the opening of a gate on PacifiCorp's newly completed water diversion project. It had been 50 years since the natural connection sustained Clearwater River's flow. A previous man-made project had diverted all of its flow to Toketee Lake -- a reservoir that formed with the construction of a dam on the North Umpqua River. The new diversion puts part of Clearwater River back on its original course to allow fish, amphibians and habitat debris to pass between the two rivers again. It was one of the requirements in PacifiCorp's 35-year relicensing settlement agreement with the U.S. Forest Service, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and other state and federal agencies for its 185-megawatt North Umpqua Hydroelectric Project....
Gunnison sage grouse won't be put on list Federal officials announced Wednesday that they have decided against placing the Gunnison sage grouse on the endangered species list, saying the bird's numbers have stabilized or increased over several years. The decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reverses one in 2000 that designated the bird as a candidate for the list, meaning it needed protection but wasn't a priority. A new analysis of data from Colorado and Utah state wildlife agencies showed that the number of Gunnison sage grouse increased to an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 birds from about 3,000 in 2003, said Pat Mehlhop of the regional Fish and Wildlife office in Lakewood. "We said, 'Let's look at these trends more thoroughly and determine if they are as large a threat as we first perceived them to be when we put (the grouse) on the candidate's list,'" Mehlhop said. Environmental groups had petitioned to have the bird listed as threatened or endangered after it was classified as a candidate for federal protection....
Deal blocks testing during hunt An energy company has agreed to stop seismic testing on a Wyoming national forest just before hunting season begins, after negotiating with a hunters' group. ExxonMobil agreed to stop geophysical seismic activity two weeks before hunting season begins and throughout the season in Hunt Area 143 west of LaBarge on the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Forest Service officials last year agreed to allow seismic activity during hunting season, but that decision was appealed by the Wyoming Wildlife Federation and Wyoming Outdoor Council. The seismic activity -- which includes use of ATVs, helicopters, cables and explosives to determine the presence of oil and gas -- was halted last year after the appeal was filed. A court was supposed to take up the case this winter, but the groups reached an agreement out of court....
BLM proposes multi-year birth control program for wild horses The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, concerned about deteriorating conditions at the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, is proposing the use of birth control over the next five years to limit herd growth while the agency works on range improvement projects and a long-term herd plan, an agency official said. BLM officials also want to use a bait-trapping program this summer to capture and take up to 24 horses off the range, which is in southern Montana and northern Wyoming. Linda Coates-Markle, BLM's wild horse and burro specialist for Montana and the Dakotas, said this and the birth control effort are more humane and less intrusive than traditional round ups that cull horses from the land. "We have to limit grazing impacts, at least temporarily, until we get out of the drought, and the range has a chance to show an improving trend," she said. The carrying capacity of the range is just over 140, assuming good range conditions, Coates-Markle said. The current herd size is estimated near 160 horses -- not counting the foals BLM expects this year -- and range conditions cannot be considered good, she said....