NEWS ROUNDUP

White House loses in ruling on forests Three rules imposed by the Bush administration unlawfully limit the public's ability to influence U.S. Forest Service decisions on management of the nation's forests, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula issued an injunction Monday against a rule that requires people to specify objections to Forest Service projects while they are under consideration, or forfeit the right to challenge them later. The injunction applies nationwide. "The substantive comment requirement was a serious problem because under these rules, members of the public might not even know that a project threatened their interests until after the Forest Service deadline for public comment," lawyer Doug Honnold said Tuesday. "Whether you're a hunter, hiker or neighboring landowner, the Bush rule could cut you out of the process," said Honnold of Earthjustice, which represented The Wilderness Society, American Wildlands and Pacific Rivers Council in a lawsuit challenging rules issued in 2003. Named as defendants were Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, Undersecretary Mark Rey and Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth. A timber industry group Tuesday defended the requirement for substantive comment. Timber- sale protesters "should come in ahead of time and have real reasons, rather than this boilerplate language that so many of the groups or individuals use," said Ellen Engstedt, executive vice president of the Montana Wood Products Association. "You don't wait until the process is finished and then say, 'I don't like it.' " The Forest Service had said the rules would help hasten removal of trees from overgrown forests that pose a wildfire hazard. Forest Service spokesman Dan Jiron said agency officials had not read Molloy's decision and had no comment. "We'll comply with court orders and if something else needs to be done, we will work with our lawyers," Jiron said. Molloy also struck down a Forest Service rule that exempted some Forest Service projects from requirements for environmental analyses. The third rule allowed the government to bypass public involvement in national forest management by having the agriculture secretary or undersecretary sign decisions on agency projects....
Forest activists obtain access A U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., has sided with a Tri-State environmental group in its quest to gain access to U.S. Forest Service documents. The court ruled Friday that the forest service was wrong to deny a request by Heartwood for copies of scientific studies submitted to the agency. Heartwood, which often challenges policies at the Hoosier National Forest and Shawnee National Forest, believes the studies may have been biased in favor of active management of forestlands. By comparing the drafts with the agency's final ecological study, Heartwood believes it might be able to expose manipulation. The study was being used to shape long-term strategic plans for both Hoosier and Shawnee forests....
Siskiyou Mountains and Scott Bar Salamanders Illegally Denied Protection Under the Endangered Species Act The Center for Biological Diversity, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Environmental Protection Information Center and Oregon Natural Resources Council today filed an official 60-day notice to challenge in federal court the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to leave the Siskiyou Mountains and Scott Bar Salamanders off the list of endangered species. The Fish and Wildlife Service announced its decision today. “The Siskiyou and newly discovered Scott Bar Salamanders need the safety net of the Endangered Species Act to survive,” said Noah Greenwald, Conservation Biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity and primary author of the petition. “Today’s decision flies in the face of science and comes from an administration that has persistently showed disregard for the nation’s wildlife.” To date, the Bush administration has protected just 41 species, which is the fewest number in the history of the Endangered Species Act and hardly compares to the 512 species protected under the Clinton administration or 234 protected under Bush senior’s administration. The administration has denied or delayed protection for literally hundreds of imperiled species....
Column: Leopold the Hunter A GOOD friend who hunts and writes told me that he once gave a public lecture about hunting and conservation. At question time, a member of the audience stood and lectured my friend that Aldo Leopold, the great wildlife ecologist and conservationist, had opposed hunting and therefore hunting was immoral. My friend hadn't time to disabuse the "lecturer" of his belief--to tell him that Leopold had created the field of wildlife management, publishing its first textbook in 1933 (Game Management); that he had fashioned his own hunting bows; that he had bought his famous worn-out, soil-depleted Wisconsin "sand county" farm as a hunting camp as well as a land restoration project; or that he had based the Land Ethic on the sportsmanship philosophy his father had taught him. In fact, Leopold wrote lyrically and lovingly about hunting all his life. A reader of Leopold would have to work very hard to miss Leopold the hunter, because the hunter's signature is on virtually every page. I doubt my friend could have recounted Leopold's history as a hunter in a way that would have shaken the "lecturer's" belief, so rigid is the anti-hunting ideology, but it's important for hunters to understand how anti-hunters have press-ganged the long-dead, over-sanctified Leopold for their cause....
Questions remain in bear attack The United States Forest Service is awaiting tests from a euthanized black bear to determine if it was the same one that attacked a family in the Chilhowee Mountain Recreation Area, Mary Bell Lunsford, information officer, said. Elora Petrasek, 6 years old, was killed earlier this month by a black bear in the area. Her mother and 2-year-old brother were also injured in the attack, but are expected to recover. A necropsy, an autopsy on animals, was performed on the bear and the investigation is still waiting on results, according to Lunsford. She said the area is still closed off to the public with no timetable set for when it will reopen. A second bear has been captured in a trap near the site and is now being held alive. She said there are no indications as to why the bear attacked the family. Frank Van Manen, research ecologist for the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries at the University of Tennessee called the incident “unsettling.”....
Two North Dakota Utilities Pay for New Source Review Violations Two utilities in North Dakota have agreed to reduce emissions of two harmful pollutants by more than 33,000 tons per year. The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced settlement of a case alleging violations of the New Source Review (NSR) provisions of the Clean Air Act - the first NSR settlement with a power plant utility in the western United States. The case was brought against Minnkota Power Cooperative and Square Butte Electric Cooperative. These member owned rural utilities will reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) by about 23,600 tons per year and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by more than 9,400 tons annually from the Milton R. Young Station, a coal fired power plant near Center, North Dakota. Sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides cause severe respiratory problems and contribute to childhood asthma. These pollutants are also contributors to acid rain, smog and haze, which impair visibility in national parks....
Court rejects appeals of Missouri River policy In a victory for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear challenges to a lower court ruling that favors the navigation industry over recreation and other interests on the Missouri River. The action, which involves several cases, let stand without comment a ruling last August by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That decision said recreation and environmental concerns along the river are of lesser value than maintaining barge traffic along the river's shipping channel. Monday's action is a blow to North Dakota, South Dakota and environmental groups that appealed the ruling. The states wanted a higher priority given to the multimillion-dollar fishing business upstream, which has suffered from a loss of water directed downstream....
Scientists seek clues to dying steelhead It was simple surgery, done in four minutes from a makeshift operating room floating on the Puyallup River. Biologist Andrew Berger sliced open a young steelhead and tucked a vitamin-sized transmitter into the folds of its belly. As a colleague pumped water into the fish's gasping mouth, Berger quickly stitched the wound closed so the 8-inch smolt could continue its journey out to sea. Berger and other biologists with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians hope the delicate operation on this and dozens of other young fish will yield answers to some pressing questions: Where, exactly, do steelhead go when they leave the rivers that flow to Puget Sound? And why are so many dying? Steelhead populations around Puget Sound have plummeted dramatically enough that the federal government has proposed listing them for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Steelhead, which are similar to rainbow trout but spend much of their lives in the ocean and return to rivers to spawn, have such complex life cycles that unraveling the mystery of their decline is difficult....
Column: Is God an environmentalist? It is hardly news that environmentalists are critical of the Bush administration's track record on issues ranging from climate change, to mineral exploration on public lands, to the gutting of the Endangered Species and Clean Water acts. What is new is that the latest chorus criticizing his environmental policies comes from deep within the president's political base. In the run-up to the last presidential election, the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals adopted a resolution affirming "that God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part." A year ago, more than 1,000 church leaders signed a statement cautioning Bush that "there was no mandate, no majority, or no 'values' message in this past election for the president or Congress to roll back and oppose programs that care for God's creation." The idea that the Bible gives humanity "dominion" over the earth is nothing new to U.S. religion or politics. Early colonists brought the notion with them from England, christening this "New World" a second Eden, a vast garden there for the tilling. The agricultural/industrial complex was built on this fertile metaphorical foundation. So President Reagan's Secretary of the Interior James Watt could praise national parks as "cathedrals to the wonder of nature and to the glory of the Creator." This at the same time he was authorizing massive mineral and timber exploitation on public lands, and declining to set aside any more pristine wilderness for protection. Fittingly, critics dubbed Bush's recently resigned Interior secretary, Gale Norton, "James Watt in a skirt." But many evangelical Christians are profoundly uneasy with such an interpretation of the biblical injunction to "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it." Calling themselves "Creation Care" activists rather than "environmentalists" (a designation they associate with liberals, secularists and Democrats), they represent the conservative wing of a broader movement within American Christianity that scholars refer to as "ecotheology."....
Drilling in rec area concerns Craig officials The city of Craig doesn’t want to see a natural-gas drilling rig in the middle of a new recreation area on the eastern shore of Elkhead Reservoir. But the potential exists if the Bureau of Land Management next month leases federal mineral rights under the city’s 40-acre parcel where a picnic area, boat ramps and other facilities are planned, City Manager Jim Ferree said Tuesday. “We don’t want a gas well drilled in the middle of our park,” Ferree said. Elkhead Reservoir, northeast of Craig on Elkhead Creek, also is a backup water supply for the city, Ferree said. Its main water source is the Yampa River. Ferree said the city has not had to use its Elkhead water supply, but could if growth calls for the extra water. He said the city’s immediate concern is what happens on the surface of city property....
Mineral-rights owners win changes to proposal Key provisions were cut Monday from a plan intended to give landowners more legal protections from damage caused by oil developers who own the mineral rights on their property. The oil industry, which sparred with lawmakers earlier in the day over the plan, welcomed a revamped version of the proposal. Originally, it would have given landowners the opportunity to force mineral rights owners to get a bond to pay for any potential damages. But an Environmental Quality Council subcommittee decided to strip tougher measures from the proposed law. In Montana, there is little a surface owner can do to stop someone who owns mineral rights on their property from developing the resource. Such ownership situations are called split estates because two different people own parts of the what is essentially the same property -- one owns the ground and the other owns the minerals or resources under it. Conservationists said there is still time to get the tougher provisions back into the proposed law, particularly an idea that would force the owners of mineral rights to enter into negotiations prior to drilling. The subcommittee's action left little protection under the measure for surface owners, said Julia Page, with the Northern Plains Resource Council. But the whole proposal faces a number of hearings, eventually needs to pass muster with the 2007 Legislature, and could be changed any number of ways. As it sits, the proposal would toughen the notification requirements of developers before they drill, and makes smaller modifications to current law....
BLM says arsenic of concern High levels of arsenic left over from a hundred years of mining near the northwest corner of San Bernardino County has federal officials worried about the potential health risk to residents and off-roaders. Soil samples in recent months showed "extremely" high arsenic concentrations near Red Mountain, Johannesburg and Randsburg, desert towns rooted in the area's gold and silver industry. About 500 people live in the remote communities, and the territory is an increasingly popular off-road recreation spot. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is considering closing dirt roads where motorcyclists and other off-roaders kick up potentially hazardous dust. People could be exposed by breathing the dust or by skin contact. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has asked the bureau to contain or clean up the arsenic from processed gold and silver ore, known as mine tailings....
Western senators blunt about 'flawed' road policy Six Democratic senators have asked the Interior Department to reconsider its policy on how to decide ownership of thousands of miles of roads around the West, voicing "deep concern" about what they call a "flawed" policy. Last month, the Interior Department issued new guidelines laying out how it will handle disputes with counties and states over road ownership, after a 2005 ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a lawsuit over disputed Utah roads. The new Bureau of Land Management guidelines expanded the ways counties could claim ownership of roads, granting them permission to do routine maintenance and allow land managers to grant permission to expand or improve roads. "The new policy would risk significant harm to our national parks, wildlife refuges, national monuments, wilderness areas, wilderness study areas, proposed wilderness and other special public lands by paving the way for unprecedented road development and damaging off-road vehicle use," the senators said in a letter to acting Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett. "We strongly urge you to reconsider this ill-advised policy," they wrote. The letter was signed by Sens. Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California; Ken Salazar of Colorado; Ron Wyden of Oregon; Richard Durbin of Illinois; and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee....
Stolen from US history: its artifacts In Italy, they are called tombaroli - tomb raiders - and punished with decade-long jail sentences and million-dollar fines. In America, they plunder virtually unnoticed, stripping parks and historical sites of their cultural bounty without fear of getting caught. Indeed, US officials say the brazen looting of ancient native-American artifacts, Civil War mementos, and other valuable relics is reaching epidemic proportions. In any given year, cultural thieves make off with $500 million in relics, the FBI estimates. On National Park Service land alone, they strike on average once a day. "This is on a scale where it's radically affecting our ability to understand the past," says Martin McAllister, an independent archaeologist who has investigated over 200 damaged sites for state and federal departments. "We're talking a multimillion-dollar criminal enterprise here." Now, federal agencies, including the FBI's Art Crime Team, are beginning to score some victories against cultural theft. Last year, a dozen cases were successfully prosecuted under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, a 1979 law that bans the removal and sale of artifacts from public land. In Georgia, a judge sentenced Terry Crawford to 21 months in prison for stealing Civil War bullets from Chickamauga Battlefield. In Colorado, Robert Hanson, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for receiving and transporting Pueblo artifacts dating from 1200, including funeral objects, bowls, and tools....
Bear attacks hunter near Olympic National Park A black bear attacked and seriously injured a hunter on a road just outside Olympic National Park late Saturday, authorities said. A second hunter shot and killed the bear before summoning help, said Larry Evans, a shift supervisor for the Washington State Patrol's office in Bremerton, on the Kitsap Peninsula between Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula. The injured hunter was rushed to Forks Hospital with a compound fracture to the arm, a broken hand and several bite marks, Evans said. The man lost a significant amount of blood, but was expected to survive, Evans said. The attack was reported to the state patrol around 9 p.m., and aid workers arrived about 15 minutes later. The bear apparently had dragged the man away from the site of the attack before being shot, Evans said. Troopers said they receive occasional reports of cougar attacks in the area, but that bear attacks are relatively rare....
Eminent-domain measure euthanized The sponsor of a constitutional amendment to prevent governments from taking land for economic development killed his proposal Monday but said he is willing to work with the House speaker on a proposed compromise. Still, Republican Rep. Al White of Winter Park said the proposed deal being brokered by Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is "stopgap" because it is a statutory measure that would be much easier to change than a constitutional amendment. The new proposal, White said, "may slow the avaricious cities in concert with the greedy developers in taking the private property of the poor citizens of Colorado" until a constitutional amendment by citizens initiative can be passed in November. On Monday, White asked his colleagues to kill his proposed constitutional amendment, House Concurrent Resolution 1001, because it had been changed so drastically for the worse....
President Bush enjoys bike ride above Palm Springs President Bush woke up early and rode his mountain bike along the Clara Burgess Trail to the top of Murray Hill, which affords a spectacular view of the Coachella Valley and Little San Bernardino Mountains. The trail is considered strenuous for riding, with a 500-foot elevation gain. The total round-trip was a little more than 7 miles. “He said it was a pretty tough terrain, but he enjoyed it,” Press Secretary Scott McClellan said. Jim Foote, acting manager of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, said the Clara Burgess trail is also among those monument managers ask people to avoid part of the year to prevent disrupting endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep. The trail is one of about 10 in the monument under a “voluntary avoidance” program. People are asked to stay off the Clara Burgess trail from Jan. 1 to June 30 during the sheep lambing season, he said. It was uncertain Sunday night if White House organizers accompanying President Bush knew about the “voluntary avoidance” program.