NEWS ROUNDUP

Victims of bear attack had visited forest several times before The mountaintop swimming hole near where a black bear killed a 6-year-old girl and injured her mother and 2-year-old half brother was a favorite spot for the outdoors-loving Ohio family, relatives said Monday. Relatives of Elora Petrasek met with reporters for the first time Monday since she was killed four days earlier near a waterfall pool on a 1,800-foot mountain in the Cherokee National Forest of southeast Tennessee. "We are very familiar with this area, very familiar with being out in nature," her father, Robert Petrasek, 37, of Sarasota, Fla., said after reading a statement thanking rescuers and doctors. He said the family previously lived in southeast Tennessee. Elora Petrasek, of Clyde in northern Ohio, was killed Thursday afternoon. The bear also bit her half brother, 2-year-old Luke Cenkus, puncturing his skull, and went after the children's mother, Susan Cenkus, 45, who was critically injured as she tried to fend off the animal with rocks and sticks. The mother remained in critical condition Monday at Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, but she was "awake and doing well" and "neurologically intact," Dr. Vicente Mejia said in a release from the hospital. Her son was listed in fair condition and is expected to get more antibiotic treatment and a psychological evaluation to determine any emotional effects from the attack....
Endangered, Rescued, Now in Trouble Again Black-footed ferrets, the weasel with the burglar's mask that was brought back to life after reaching the brink of extinction, are facing a new challenge from the spread of plague in prairie dogs, their only prey. The disease has slowed the growth of the wild population, which is constantly replenished by the introduction of captive-bred ferrets. And plague is now approaching a colony of prairie dogs that supports half the wild ferret population. Wildlife biologists are waiting to see if the disease will reach the Conata Basin here, a treeless moonscape next to Badlands National Park with the largest population of the highly endangered black-footed ferrets anywhere in the country. "If we lose Conata, oh boy, the program is in trouble," said Michael Lockhart, coordinator of the black-footed ferret recovery program for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. There are now about 850 of the ferrets in the United States, about 350 in a captive breeding center at Fort Collins, Colo., and the rest at 10 sites around the West and one site in Mexico. About 250 of the wild ferrets live in the Conata Basin. The plague bacteria, Yersinia pestis, is the same one that caused the Black Death in Europe. It came to the West Coast of the United States from China around 1900, and slowly spread in rodents and other animals to the Rocky Mountain West. Black-footed ferrets are extremely sensitive to plague....
Hikers irate over cattle grazing in Walnut Creek parks Scoot over skeeters, the spring rains have brought another nuisance to vex hikers. The cows grazing in Walnut Creek open space aren't new, but they are making their annual appearance in the pastures where they have seasonal grazing rights. Some might find the sight pastoral, even a nod to the city's ranching history; others see a scene fraught with mud, manure and mashed wildflowers. When resident Mike Egan took his dog hiking last week, he brought a plastic bag along to pick up after the pup, like any responsible pet owner -- but felt silly when he found the trail already littered with sizable mounds of manure. "I'm thinking, what's wrong with this picture?" he said. Egan is among a group of critics of the city's long-standing policy of leasing grazing rights to ranchers. Concerns range from mucking up trails and muddying waterways to eating the wildflowers and littering trails with cow patties....
Elk, wolf researchers probe wildlife battlefield Christianson and Creel are researching elk in the northwest part of the Yellowstone Ecosystem to see how they're affected by wolves. From previous years, they know that wolves cause elk to change herd sizes, behavior patterns and use of the landscape. Now, the researchers are trying to understand how these changes affect the elks' nutrition, reproduction and survival. From January into spring, Christianson lives during the week in a one-room bunkhouse off U.S. 191. He spends his days doing things like spotting elk and wolves, inspecting tracks and scrutinizing videotapes of the animals. Creel generally drives down from Bozeman every Wednesday to join Christianson on his rounds. Every two weeks, the researchers follow elk paths through the Porcupine, Taylor and Tepee/Daly drainages, recording where the elk have traveled and fed and what plants they have eaten. Sometimes, they drop a lead ball or pound the snow with an imitation hoof to see how hard the elk had to work to get through the snow to a meal. It's all to see how wolves affect how well the elk are feeding and how hard the elk have to work for a meal. This day was somewhat different, though. With an unsolved mystery pulling them toward Cameron Draw, Christianson slipped into cross-country skis while Creel donned snowshoes....
Salmon advocates to sue over Oregon Coastal coho Salmon advocates Monday notified the federal agency in charge of protecting salmon that they intend to go to court to challenge a decision not to put Oregon Coastal coho salmon back on the threatened species list after a court ruling took it off. The 60-day notice of intent to sue, required by law before bringing a lawsuit against the government, argues that the decision by NOAA Fisheries violates the Endangered Species Act, goes against the best available science and relies on a new theory put forth by the state of Oregon that coho can rebound even from very low populations. "Coho are still in trouble, their habitat is still in trouble, and now is not the time to declare mission accomplished and walk away," said Jan Hasselman, an attorney for Earthjustice in Seattle, who represents the coalition of salmon conservation and fishing groups....
California tackles greenhouse emissions As it has done with tailpipe emission standards, coastal protection, and endangered species, California is trying to become a leader on one of today's most pressing environmental concerns: global warming. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and Democratic leaders are getting behind measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions by forcing California businesses to measure how much they emit, and establish ways to limit them. Last week, Mr. Schwarzenegger brought together top environmental, political, and business leaders for a "Climate Action Summit" in San Francisco. There, he called for a "market based system" in which companies would receive strict caps on how much ozone-depleting gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and others) they could emit. Companies with emissions below such caps could then sell their unexpelled allotment to others who have exceeded their limits. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez (D) and Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (D) are already sponsoring a specific "cap and trade" bill. And Senate President pro tem Don Perata (D) is sponsoring a bill that would require in-state utilities, which establish long-term contracts with out-of-state energy providers to no longer allow sources with high carbon content....
Pygmy owl to be taken off endangered list A tiny desert owl is set to be taken off the federal government's endangered species list, drawing praise from developers but protests from environmentalists. The cactus ferruginous pygmy owl is only about 6 inches long and weighs in at less than 3 ounces, but has been at the center of a battle between environmentalists and developers for more than a decade. Environmental groups successfully sued to have it placed on the endangered list in the early 1990s. Developers countersued in 2001, opposing restrictions placed on land use to protect the bird. An appeals court ordered the government to reconsider the listing and the habitat designation....
Delta Smelt's Fate Worries Scientists Last summer, state fish and game workers dragged a net dozens of times through the milk-chocolate waters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, looking for a tiny, steely blue fish found nowhere else in the world. The catch, 17 delta smelt, was shockingly small. Never in the nearly five decades that the state has monitored smelt in the sprawling delta, where two of the state's biggest rivers converge just east of San Francisco Bay, have their numbers been as dismal. So abundant a generation ago that fishermen used the translucent, finger-length fish for bait, the delta smelt population has plummeted from the millions to an estimated 100,000 or less — bringing it, some warn, to the brink of extinction. The smelt's recent collapse, coupled with the decline of three other fish species that swim in the delta, has launched a multimillion-dollar scientific detective hunt for the reason. There is a sense of urgency because the smelt's only home is one of California's most important, if troubled, ecosystems. The hub of the state's giant water system and a Bay Area playground, the delta is a vital link in the estuary chain that supports most of California's commercial fish species....
Fish count agency gets extension The contract for the agency that counts salmon and other fish in the Columbia River has been extended while a federal appeals court considers arguments about whether it should remain open. Officials with the Bonneville Power Administration said the agency has extended the existing contract through Nov. 30 for the Fish Passage Center in Portland. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in March that money for the center should be continued until a lawsuit filed by environmentalists and Indian tribes challenging its closure can be resolved. The court likely will hear arguments in the case in mid-September, power officials said. Bonneville had decided to split the fish counting duties between two other agencies after a legislative move by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, that effectively eliminated the center's $1.3 million budget....
Book Review: The Last Season by Eric Blehm Probing account of the mysterious death in the High Sierras of a veteran National Park Service ranger and the passion that shaped his life. Blehm, an outdoor-sports editor and writer, goes to great lengths to establish the wilderness experience, skills and dedication of outdoorsman Randy Morgenson in a sometimes redundant apotheosis. Morgenson mysteriously disappeared in his 28th season as a backcountry ranger while on patrol in July 1996, in the Kings Canyon national park, some 200 miles south of Yosemite in a valley called, by legendary wilderness pioneer John Muir, one of the most beautiful in the Sequoia region. Yet while the book unfolds with flashbacks as his fellow rangers marshal to search for him some six days after his last communication, Blehm also builds the picture of a complex and conflicted person, as well as a man whose wife, having become aware of his recent affair, is seeking a divorce. The question of whether Morgenson was in a state of depression serious enough to take his own life haunts the expedition as the search party fans out, some recalling that he 'hadn`t been himself' in the weeks or even months prior. The suspense is leavened by hints that the circumstances of his death are not to be immediately resolved....
Park 2,000 acres bigger Just in time for spring wildflower season, Pinnacles National Monument, a popular escape for Bay Area hikers and rock climbers in San Benito County, will grow by nearly 2,000 acres today. At a ceremony in the park, located 32 miles south of Hollister, federal officials and environmentalists will mark the transfer of Pinnacles Ranch, a 1,967-acre expanse of oak woodlands and grasslands, into the park's boundaries. The property had been owned by Stuart Kingman, a former Hewlett-Packard engineer and resident of Campbell and Portola Valley. Kingman became part-owner of the ranch in 1978 after he left Hewlett-Packard. He then built and managed a popular campground on the property, which lies adjacent to the park's eastern entrance off Highway 25. He and his wife, Peggy, lived on the ranch for 28 years, but decided as they got older, they wanted to make sure it was protected rather than carved up into 40-acre ranchettes. The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit land trust, paid the Kingmans, who now live in Sonora, and two business partners $5.3 million in February 2005 for the property. The land couldn't transfer to the National Park Service, however, until Congress approved the money, which took several years of legislative effort by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif....
Park Service rules may be revised With 50 species of mammals and 250 species of birds, with its Wonderland rock formations and its away-from-it-all backpacking spots, Joshua Tree National Park each year offers 1.4 million visitors a break from the traffic, smog and noise that define much of Southern California. So would any of that change, really, if the National Park Service makes some seemingly obscure revisions to one of its enormously bureaucratic internal documents? That question is central to the controversy surrounding a Park Service plan to rewrite the guidelines that park directors rely on when balancing conservation against visitors' use of the country's 390 national parks, seashores and historic sites. The current regulations make park protection the top priority, but the revisions tend to make “park use” and “conservation” equally important. Many of the nation's park directors, as well as a good sampling of congressional Democrats and Republicans, fear that what's being proposed would favor visitor use over preservation – a new focus that some claim is an outgrowth of what they call President Bush's development-friendly policies....
Parks brace for reductions The Bush administration has directed the National Park Service n including Wyoming’s Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks -- to substantially decrease its reliance on tax-supported funding, according to internal documents released Monday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Park Service officials say they’re simply trying to cope with rising costs and tighter budgets, without harming the parks or decreasing the enjoyment of more than 270 million visitors each year. According to Jeff Ruch, PEER’s executive director, the Park Service is using a new approach called "core operations analysis," in which each park is asked to develop budgets based on a 20 to 30 percent reduction in federal budget support. Park superintendents have the daunting task of deciding which visitor services or other functions can be jettisoned, Ruch said. Whatever shortfalls in support for essential operations remain must be covered with fee hikes, donations from foundations, partnerships with concessionaires and businesses, cost shifting or increased reliance on volunteers, Ruch said....
Progress made in sale of ranch The sale of the Eberts family Badlands ranch for preservation and public use is cruising forward in third gear. The Badlands Little Missouri Ranch, important for its link to President Theodore Roosevelt, is closer than ever to being in public hands. The Ebertses have been trying for three years to sell the land to preserve its historic integrity. After being struck down twice, the family may have a third-time charm. The family of three brothers, Ken, Allan and Dennis, tried to sell the ranch first to the National Park Service, and then to North Dakota for a state preserve. There was interest in acquiring the land where Roosevelt grazed cattle in the 1880s, but the attempts died for lack of public support and funding. The U.S. Forest Service through Dakota Prairie Grasslands has $1.5 million available this summer for a down payment on the 5,200-acre ranch north of Medora. The Forest Service and the Eberts family have yet to sign any agreement. It's pending a formal appraisal. The ranch was appraised at $3.5 million in 2004 when North Dakota, led by Gov. John Hoeven's administration, tried to buy it for what would have been the first state-owned preserve....
BLM draws fire for Pinedale office location State and national wildlife and sportsmen's groups are questioning a federal agency's new building location in a Pinedale wildlife corridor. The Wyoming Wildlife Federation and the Wildlife Management Institute of Washington, D.C., said the Bureau of Land Management's decision to move into a building in an already-tight pronghorn antelope migration corridor reflects poorly on the agency. "We consider it inappropriate, leasing office space in the middle of a pronghorn migration corridor," said Dave Gowdey, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation. "We think it shows an indifference to wildlife that we find extremely disturbing." Steven Hall, spokesman for the BLM's Cheyenne office, called an article about the office location -- published in the Wildlife Management Institute's "Outdoor News Bulletin" April 12 -- irresponsible....
BLM expects Wyo staff losses While the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is boosting its staff to help deal with booming energy development in Wyoming, the agency's other functions will likely be handled by fewer people in coming years. “We’re going to have to do more with less,” said Rubel Vigil, acting field manager for the BLM's Lander office. During an open house meeting last week with ranchers who graze livestock on the Green Mountain Common Allotment, Vigil said the BLM in Wyoming is looking at a 10 percent cut in staffing over the next two years. Vigil said it might take a while before he could replace a range conservationist who’s leaving the Lander Field Office. Yet in the Rawlins and Buffalo field offices, staffing levels have grown by 22 and six positions, respectively, in response to the rapidly growing workload involved with the energy boom in those districts. Those additional positions are funded separately, via provisions in the National Energy Act....
Cloned cattle await approval Jan Schuiteman and the customers for his cloned bulls have been waiting two years for the government to decide whether meat from such animals' offspring should be allowed for sale. Clones produced by his TransOva Genetics of Sioux Center cost $15,000 to $20,000 apiece, so the decision from the Food and Drug Administration is critical to his business. The bigger question, though, may be whether consumers and big food buyers like McDonald's will purchase the meat or milk that are products of cloning. Foods made with genetically engineered corn or soybeans have been sold widely for several years, but polls suggest consumers will be hesitant to buy meat or milk that is produced through biotechnology. "It's a social, political issue also," said Schuiteman, chief executive officer of TransOva, which is promoting its cloning business at the Biotechnology Industry Organization's trade show this week. The government's "stamp of approval would go a long way" toward assuring consumers that the products are safe, he said. Cloning an animal produces an exact copy of the parent, an attractive idea to farmers and ranchers who are looking to copy cattle, hogs or horses with top genetic traits. A bull could be cloned, for example, that is more likely to produce calves that would yield high-quality beef. At today's cattle prices, a steer whose beef is graded as choice would fetch about $80 more than a steer rated "select." Studies indicate the meat or milk of cloned livestock would be safe to eat. However, companies like TransOva have been observing a voluntary moratorium requested by FDA on using cloned animals for food while the agency decides how to regulate the products....
Government won't require birth date in animal tracking system A livestock tracking system planned by the government will not include the age of animals, despite the key role age has played in mad cow disease investigations. Agriculture Department officials say they don't want to overburden ranchers and can track most birth dates. Critics said the omission could make the system worthless. "So what's the point of having this animal ID system? This is one fact you actually really need to know when it comes to mad cow," Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union, said Monday. The department promised to create the system after the nation's first case of mad cow disease two years ago and has already spent $84 million on it. Earlier this month, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns promised it would be in place by 2009. The system also applies to pigs and chickens and to many other diseases. But the controversy is about mad cow disease, medically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE....
New plan to track animals draws snorts from ranchers A new, high-tech livestock identification and tracking plan aimed at improving animal health and consumer confidence instead has triggered a revolt among some Texas producers. "It's an affront to my personal liberty," said Ron Hickerson, who runs a small herd in Bandera. "I find this is about the most intrusive law they've ever passed in my life." Under the law, every livestock animal and every location where livestock can stay is to be assigned a number. If an animal is moved, its owner is expected to report that movement to a central tracking system. The measure, House Bill 1361, addresses the fears of a global market about the devastating outbreak of such maladies as mad-cow disease and bird flu. But it will increase the costs and record keeping for everyone from ranches to rodeos — consequences critics see not only as unwise but also un-American. "Looking at the Bill of Rights, it's unconstitutional to have to register with an agency to keep livestock," said Debbie Davis, a Bandera area Longhorn rancher who is president of the Cattlemen's Texas Longhorn Registry. "It's Marxism." HB 1361, passed by the Legislature last year, authorizes the Texas Animal Health Commission to implement an animal identification system for livestock, which excludes dogs, cats and other companion animals. The computerized system is designed to help authorities locate animals that have been exposed to a disease within 48 hours of its outbreak....
Rounding up the Western family All things need nurturing, even ranch lands of the American West. In their upcoming book, writer Linda Hussa and photographer Madeline Graham Blake hope to show why ranch lands of the American West require a lot of mothering. With the help of Carole Fisher of Bonanza, who's serving as project manager, Blake and Hussa are combining efforts to create "Mothering in the West: A Literary and Photographic Study of Ranch Families." The large format book is scheduled to be published by the University of Nevada Press in early 2008. Photo exhibits will be held in conjunction with the book's release. "It's not going to be just a picture book about the West," says Hussa, who lives and works with her husband John on a third generation cattle ranch in Modoc County's Surprise Valley. "It's talking to the real blood and guts issues, and why we need to pay attention to them." "The time is right to have a book about the West and how people in the West preserve its history and culture," says Fisher, who raises sheep near Bonanza with her husband, a retired large-animal veterinarian....
It's All Trew: A look at wash day from early to modern Many of my columns originate from a casual inquiry from a reader. David Bowerman of Amarillo asked whether I knew some of his relatives who operated a laundry or "wash-a-teria" in early McLean. When the question was presented to our coffee shop locals, we heard some interesting facts and stories about this most important local institution. The earliest laundry site recalled is still standing as a wooden building near the alley across from the Methodist Church. The equipment included Maytag washing machines with wringers and rinsing tubs. Since this was before the advent of affordable clothes dryers, the back lot of the laundry was filled with clotheslines. Most laundries of the time had a shallow trough built into the concrete floor and covered with wooden slats to allow for dumping of tubs and machines of dirty water. Most people brought their own homemade lye soap to use....