NEWS ROUNDUP

Enviro v. enviro Western Montanans are well accustomed to fiery clashes over all things environmental, and the frequent squaring off that typically leaves conservationists (“Obstructionists!”) in one corner and the timber industry (“Shortsighted pillagers!”) in another. What’s not so familiar, though, is aggressive public discord within one side or the other, like what’s currently being seen on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, where three prominent Montana conservation groups are under attack by kindred organizations. At issue is a proposal that representatives from Montana Wilderness Association (MWA), National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and Montana Trout Unlimited (MTU) wrote jointly with five timber-reliant groups and herald as a “new era of cooperation,” and which others pan as a needless hand-off of roadless lands to industry interests. “Green Scammers: Behind closed doors, self-appointed interlopers sold out your Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest!” reads the sizable ad printed May 4 in the Missoula Independent and Helena’s Queen City News, paid for by Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Deerlodge Forest Defense Fund, Swan View Coalition, Friends of the Wild Swan, Montana Ecosystems Defense Council and Native Ecosystems Council. The ads respond to an April 24 press conference at which the coalition of Sun Mountain Lumber, Roseburg Forest Products, Pyramid Mountain Lumber, RY Lumber and Smurfit-Stone Container—in concert with MWA, NWF and MTU—unveiled their “new vision” for the 3.3 million-acre Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest....
Access denied It's said that 14,000-foot mountains are Colorado's heritage. In the United States, 75 percent of the landscape that rises 10,000 feet above sea level is here. That includes 54 pinnacles above 14,000 feet. "We are the nation's high country," says T.J. Rapoport of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, a nonprofit coalition working for what can seem a contradicting mission: access to and protection of the mountains. Summiting, or "bagging," 14,000-foot peaks is like collecting baseball cards: Once you've attained one, you want to gain the whole set. And peakbagging has gone trendy. About half a million people climbed a 14,000-foot mountain in the Centennial State in 2005. During the summers, some hikers travel around the state, like Deadheads on Red Bull, stalking the highest summits. But this mob is overwhelming high-altitude environments, even as it clamors for steady access to them....
An Inferno Rages Over Federal Wildfire Policy The politics of academic research are said to be more vicious than normal citizen politics—and even citizen politics are bitter these days. The two recently intertwined against a backdrop of the nation’s policy on wildfire, and the result is a deeply tangled underbrush of confusion and self-interest that accentuates the continuing paralysis of the U.S. Forest Service. The fundamental issue is how to keep our western forests in decent condition. Federal lands produce very little timber these days (about six percent of the nation’s timber). With hardly anyone cutting down trees (and with buildup due to past fire suppression), saplings and underbrush are creating thickets of fuel that turn into tinderboxes. The result, nearly every summer, is fires racing over hundreds of thousands of acres. To stop future fires, the Bush Administration initiated the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, a law passed in 2003 that was supposed to reduce the buildup by short-circuiting the ability of environmentalists to litigate decisions to cut trees. It’s not clear that it really speeds much up (for reasons we don’t have room for here). But in addition, it doesn’t specifically address what happens after a fire. Now we move to the Biscuit fire in southwestern Oregon, where, in 2002, wildfire swept across 500,000 acres. Once the flames went out, the Forest Service got to work on a plan for post-fire restoration, including salvage logging. Although only about five percent of the burned area was initially scheduled for logging, the final plan ended up being the largest timber sale in the area in recent history. Opponents have resisted at every step, through the appeals process, court cases, protests, sit-ins, and road blocks....
Forest official criticizes fire-safety training bill A top U.S. Forest Service official on Wednesday attacked a bill that would require his agency to track money spent on safety training for federal and privately contracted firefighters. Forest Service Deputy Chief Joel Holtrop told a Senate subcommittee that the agency agrees with the intent of the Wildland Firefighter Safety Act, sponsored by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. The bill also would require privately contracted firefighters to receive the same training as federal firefighters. But Holtrop said the agency's bookkeeping makes it too difficult to determine how much it spends on safety training. Holtrop said the Forest Service already is responding to issues raised in the agency's own investigation of training for privately contracted firefighters. The Forest Service is using a new computer system to track numbers and types of firefighting accidents, which will allow the agency to look for accident trends, he said. The Forest Service investigation, released in March, found that nearly one-third of the contracted firefighters reviewed were improperly trained or had no training records. The study cited instances of faked certifications and whole firefighting crews of non-English speakers who couldn't understand their leaders' commands....
Spring rise starts at midnight tonight, Corps of Engineers says The long-disputed artificial spring rise on the Missouri River will begin at midnight tonight, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says. A corps spokesman said water conditions are right to begin releasing water from upstream reservoirs in South Dakota to encourage spawning by the pallid sturgeon, a fish on the endangered species list. After the pulse begins, the amount of water released will steadily increase to a two-day peak Sunday and Monday. Starting Tuesday, releases will be gradually reduced over a 10-day period until they return to the level needed for minimum navigation flows. Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon has filed suit in federal court to stop the spring rise from taking place, but the judge has not yet made a decision. Missouri officials fear the release of water could flood thousands of acres of Missouri farmland along the river. Corps officials dispute that, saying they carefully considered downstream water levels before approving the spring rise....
Complaints about alligators soar But in 1970, the federal government placed the alligator on the endangered species list and prosecuted some hunters. Alligator numbers surged, increasing so fast that many biologists questioned whether the alligator was ever really endangered. Today, an estimated 1 to 2 million of them inhabit Florida's rivers, lakes, swamps and canals. Alligator attacks, such as the one that killed a woman Wednesday in Sunrise, remain extremely rare. But the number of "nuisance" alligator complaints has soared, as more and more people crowd among the canals and swamps in which the reptiles live. The number of nuisance complaints rose to 18,072 in 2004 from 7,289 in 1984. Complaints considered legitimate go to trappers, who can kill the alligator. In 2004, trappers killed 7,352 alligators in response to nuisance complaints. While trappers used to act only in response to complaints, now they can trap alligators at any time in certain populated places. These include swimming areas and boat ramps. The state has more than 200 of these open-harvest areas, but clearly they're not foolproof....
Land auction enters ferret habitat The federal Bureau of Land Management auctioned more than 150,000 Colorado acres for oil and gas development Thursday - including prime habitat for the endangered black-footed ferret. In the $6.8 million lease sale, one of the largest ever in Colorado, oil and gas companies bid on about 155,000 of 192,000 acres offered. Protests have been filed by environmental and recreation groups on 86 percent of the offered parcels. BLM spokeswoman Theresa Sauer said the agency will review all of the protested leases before proceeding and refund lease payments on any protests that are upheld. The agency offered a majority of the land where it is trying to establish a colony of endangered black-footed ferrets....
Warm-water fishing stamp not raising expected money for hatchery A warm-water fishing stamp that lawmakers hoped would fund operations at the state's new fish hatchery at Fort Peck has raised less than half of the money needed. The $22.7 million Fort Peck Multi-Species Fish Hatchery that opened in January needs an estimated $500,000 to operate each year. However, the $5 warm-water stamp has raised only about $225,000, said Chris Hunter, head of fisheries for the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department. A regional advisory committee is recommending some changes to make up for the shortfall, including requiring everybody fishing east of the Continental Divide to buy the stamp, including those who fish on Canyon Ferry Reservoir near Helena. Currently, the stamp is only required to fish on certain lakes and streams....
Two Views of 'Endangered Species Day' By proclamation of the U.S. Senate, May 11 is the first-ever "Endangered Species Day." While some are celebrating America's "commitment to protecting and recovering endangered species," a conservative group calls this a perfect time to "end the perverse incentives that pit property owners against wildlife." The Endangered Species Coalition -- which describes itself as the guardian of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 -- says the goal of this day is simple: " to educate people about the importance of protecting our rare, threatened, and endangered animal and plant species." Wait a minute, says the National Center for Policy Analysis, which believes that "bureaucratic wrangling" prompted by the Endangered Species Act has endangered both animals and people. CPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett says private property owners should be provided with an incentive to "create, enhance and improve habitat for endangered species," since 75 percent of those endangered species depend either entirely or in part on private property owners for their habitat requirements. "The best solution is for property owners to be compensated when the government imposes restrictions to preserve species, just as they would if the land were taken for any other public purpose," Burnett said....
BLM, NPS discuss impact of promoting the Old Spanish Trail Will promoting the first overland trail to California from New Mexico and points east lead to damage to the fragile trail that runs near Barstow and through Ft. Irwin? Several speakers at a joint Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and National Park Service (NPS) planning meeting in Barstow Tuesday night for the Old Spanish Trail said they feared that was the case. The meeting was one of over 20 to be held in communities on or near the trail. The trail was a pack horse and mule trail from Santa Fe, N.M., to the Los Angeles area. It was a trade route for traders of woolen goods from New Mexico and horse and mule traders from California and Arizona. The trail was the first western portion of what would become a coast-to-coast, east-to-west trail and helped open the West to European migration, beginning in the 1800s. The purpose of the meetings is to find out what the communities along the trail are interested in, how they see themselves in relation to the trail and the opportunities for the trail in the local communities....
Bats make some uneasy in wake of rabies case For some, bats remain mysterious creatures of the night, forever demonized in horror flicks. But in Houston and other cities, bats have become part of the urban landscape, an attraction even. "There are bats that live all over the Greater Houston area," said Diana Foss, an urban biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, who noted that 11 species live here. News of an Humble teen infected with rabies from a bat bite, however, has some residents worried about the winged mammals living among them and some biologists stressing safety precautions. Word of the rabies case made resident Janet Jenkins uneasy about the large colony roosting in the dark crevices under the Waugh Drive bridge near her home. She wondered Wednesday about the safety of those who run along the bayou or families who gather in a nearby park....
In Navajo country, a battle brews over proposed power plant But this is also the center of a brewing battle over what would be one of the biggest economic development projects in Indian Country _ a $2.5 billion coal-fired power plant that would serve major cities in the Southwest. Houston-based Sithe Global Power and tribal administrators want to build the plant near the tribe's Burnham Chapter. After years of work, a 50-year lease agreement that would enable the plant to be built on Navajo land is set to come before the tribal council for consideration. The Desert Rock Energy Project in northwestern New Mexico would produce 1,500 megawatts of electricity, enough to power up to 1.5 million homes. It's expected to provide more than 1,000 jobs during construction, and as many as 400 permanent jobs once it's operational, possibly by 2010....
Texas plans nation's largest offshore wind farm The nation's largest offshore wind farm will be built off the Padre Island seashore in South Texas, a critical migratory bird flyway, Texas land commissioner Jerry Patterson said Thursday. Patterson lauded what he said would be an 40,000-acre span of turbines about 400 feet tall able to generate energy to power 125,000 homes. Superior Renewable Energy Inc., based in Houston, would build the farm and pay the estimated $1 billion to $2 billion construction costs. But some environmentalists say the promise of clean energy may not be worth the deaths of countless birds of rare species that migrate through the area each year on their way to and from winter grounds in Mexico and Central America....
Virginia County Bucking Against Cowboy Church In a demand letter written to Bedford County officials, Liberty Counsel has warned the county to back off its citation against a “Cowboy Church.” The letter was written on behalf of Raymond Bell, the pastor of The Cowboy Church of Virginia. Mr. Garland Simmons owns and farms nearly all of his 900 acres in Bedford County. A few months ago, he agreed to open up his barn every Thursday night for worship services conducted by The Cowboy Church of Virginia. Having a church in a barn in the middle of a large field has become a big deal to Bedford County. Mr. Simmons received a Notice of Violation a few days ago, stating that the barn cannot be used for religious services and that his 900 acres of property aren’t zoned for religious meetings, therefore, he would not even be able to apply for a permit. Mr. Simmons has been given thirty days to appeal the decision. Liberty Counsel’s demand letter states that Bedford County is violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and the First Amendment. The letter requests that Bedford County officials immediately rescind the Notice of Violation or face a possible federal lawsuit....
The President and the Cowboy Judging by the streaks of dust clinging to their riding clothes, their tired faces and their tangled hair, Seth Bullock could tell that the three horsemen had been on the trail for a long time. Bullock, a deputy U.S. Marshall and former Deadwood sheriff, had been riding the range on his Belle Fourche ranch looking for strays when he ran into the mounted trio. He struck up a polite conversation at first, but his instincts told him that something was wrong. Outnumbered three to one, Bullock knew there was little use in being overtly hostile. Instead, the cunning lawman resorted to subtle questioning, hoping to get a handle on the situation before he felt the need to put his hands on his pistols. After a few moments, it became clear that only one of the drifters was a troublemaker. Known as Crazy Steve, the offender was wanted in Dakota Territory as a horse thief, and the other two men had just recently captured him. One of Crazy Steve’s two captors was a 26-year-old rancher and deputy sheriff named Theodore Roosevelt. A Harvard-educated man who had already published a nationally-acclaimed history book and served in the New York State Assembly, Roosevelt had only recently moved to Dakota Territory before his 1884 encounter with Seth Bullock....