NEWS ROUNDUP

Ethics Group Criticizes Henry Paulson Nomination for Treasury; Cites Nature Conservancy Conflict of Interest and Fannie Mae Fraud Peter Flaherty, resident of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), criticized the expected nomination today of Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson as Treasury Secretary. NLPC was the sponsor of a shareholder proposal at the Goldman Sachs annual meeting on March 31. The proposal, which generated significant media attention, asked for a report on Paulson's apparent conflict of interest in chairing both Goldman and the Nature Conservancy. In November 2005, Goldman Sachs adopted an "Environmental Policy" that closely parallels the Nature Conservancy agenda on key issues like global warming. Moreover, Paulson's son Merritt is a trustee of a Nature Conservancy-related group that was the recipient of a Goldman Sachs donation in the form of a tract of land totaling 680,000 acres in Chile. In his remarks at the annual meeting, Flaherty also noted that the Nature Conservancy has been mired in scandal in recent years, as detailed in a Washington Post series and in Senate hearings. The group sold ecologically sensitive land at a discount to its own trustees on which they built multi-million-dollar vacation homes, and structured land donations so wealthy donors could improperly receive tax breaks. Goldman's defense, delivered at the meeting by John H. Bryan, chairman of the Goldman Governance Committee, was essentially that the Goldman board reviewed the environmental policy and the Chilean land deal and approved them. Bryan specifically denied that the Nature Conservancy was involved at all in the land deal. According to the Nature Conservancy tax return, however, it was paid a consulting fee of $144,000 by Goldman for assistance on the land deal. In an April 4 opinion article in the Wall Street Journal titled "Green-Nosing," business writer Judith Dobrzynski wrote, "It's ludicrous to suggest that Goldman's board acted alone, as if directors didn't know of Mr. Paulson's involvement with the conservancy or his advocacy of environmental causes." Flaherty said, "There remain unanswered questions about Paulson's personal and business ethics. At Goldman Sachs, Paulson promoted his own personal interests at the expense of shareholders. As Treasury Secretary, will he promote the public interest, or his own?"....
Paulson Wrong Choice for Secretary The White House made an unfortunate mistake in nominating Henry M. Paulson, Jr. to be the next Secretary of the Treasury, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The Goldman Sachs chairman's other role as chairman of the board of the Nature Conservancy, which is under investigation for financial misdealings that benefited some of its officers and donors, should automatically disqualify him for the top Treasury job. “No conservative administration should consider appointing anyone who works for the Nature Conservancy to any position and certainly not to one carrying the high responsibilities of Treasury Secretary. The financial scandals at the Nature Conservancy uncovered by the Washington Post are only the tip of the iceberg. The Nature Conservancy has served as the agent for turning millions of acres of productive private land into federally-owned land and has made huge profits doing so,” said CEI’s Director of Energy & Global Warming Myron Ebell. “The question that needs to be asked is, what will Mr. Paulson be able to do as Treasury Secretary to benefit the Nature Conservancy and its big corporate partners?” “The Nature Conservancy is one of the most feared environmental groups throughout rural America,” said R. J. Smith, CEI Adjunct Scholar. “While promoting itself as a ‘private’ conservation group, small landowners, family farmers, ranchers and tree farmers know it as a strong-arm real estate agent for the federal government. It acquires land at fire-sale prices from landowners bankrupted by environmental regulations, then turns around and sells most of it to the federal government at inflated prices. The last thing America needs is more range and forest land for the federal government to mismanage and burn down.”....
Treasury Nominee Is a Major GOP Donor In nominating Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson to be the next Secretary of the Treasury, President Bush tapped a major Republican donor who has been more generous to the party than outgoing secretary John Snow. While Paulson has a long record of giving to Republicans, his wife and his employees at Goldman Sachs favor Democrats, according to research by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. The Center found that Paulson and his wife, Wendy, have contributed more than $426,000 since 1989 to federal candidates, party committees and political action committees controlled by members of Congress. Most of the money—$370,000—has gone to Republicans, almost all of it from the Treasury nominee himself. His wife has given three-quarters of her share to Democrats. Wendy Paulson has given $6,000 to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaigns and $5,000 to her political action committee, HILLPAC. Together, the Paulsons have given $10,000 to the Democratic Party of Idaho. For her $5,000 gift to the state party, Wendy Paulson listed her occupation as “conservationist.” She has served on the board of the Nature Conservancy, and her husband has most recently served as board chairman. In addition to the couple's contributions to candidates and parties, Wendy Paulson has been a major contributor to the League of Conservation Voters' 527 fund, which campaigned for Democrat John Kerry and against George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. She has given at least $401,000 to the League's political activities since 2000....
Some on right wary of nominee's green links Although Henry Paulson's nomination to be Treasury secretary is expected to sail through Congress, conservative groups that defend individual liberties expressed adamant opposition to it yesterday because of the Goldman Sachs chairman's ties to the Nature Conservancy. Mr. Paulson is chairman of the environmental group, which purchases huge tracts of land to set them aside and prevent them from being developed. Property rights advocates charge that the group preys upon financially feeble rural landowners, family farmers, ranchers and tree farmers, purchasing their property at bargain prices and then selling it at a profit to the federal government. Myron Ebell, analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, said Mr. Paulson has the potential to wreak far more havoc in economic policy than his predecessor, Paul O'Neill, who was fired in 2002 for questioning President Bush's tax-cut plans. He said Mr. Paulson could become an outspoken advocate for curbs on global warming and other environmental causes within the administration....
Wyoming Game & Fish Commissioner: Elk at refuge starving A member of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission charged that elk were intentionally starved to death over the winter at the National Elk Refuge, an accusation the refuge manager labeled "ridiculous." Clark Allan, of Jackson, outlined his complaint in a 12-page letter dated May 5 to the regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency that oversees the refuge outside Jackson. "To put the mismanagement on the refuge into perspective, I can easily tell you that if a local rancher sustained the losses the Refuge has sustained and brought this herd into spring in similar body condition, he would almost certainly be prosecuted for cruelty to animals," Allan wrote. Allan said he was complaining as an individual commission member that calves were starved to death to "further a political agenda" over the management of elk herds in Wyoming. "Department biologists who are charged with management of elk in the State of Wyoming indicate that the loss of elk calves from the 2005/2006 winter will have a severe impact on elk numbers in the Jackson Hole elk herd for several years to come," Allan wrote. "Furthermore, it will result in significant loss of hunting opportunity for Wyoming sportsmen, ... compounded by the fact that the Jackson Hole elk herd is expected to sustain an extreme number of large predators."....
Piñon neighbors unsettled by Army's plan to expand In a federally protected grassland, paleontologist Bruce Schumacher worries about the future of a hillside where he is unearthing bones of the largest dinosaur species that ever lived. To the west, 83-year-old rancher Edith Hall wonders if Army tank tracks will run across the Santa Fe Trail wagon ruts behind her barn. Two hours south, down a dirt road to an isolated town, parents in Trinchera fear the end of their 55- student school. They all occupy what Fort Carson calls a "potential area of interest" for expanded military maneuvers - more than 1 million acres in parts of three counties. They don't know when, if or where the Army will extend its reach across a dry land, where cattle graze amid canyons speckled with ancient pictographs and dinosaur bones....
Endangered Species Act is becoming major issue After several fairly easy attempts to clinch the incumbency, Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, is facing perhaps his most challenging quest to hang onto his congressional seat. Pombo, the chairman of the House Resources Committee, has found himself on the receiving end of attacks and allegations from numerous groups — namely environmental — that question his integrity and ties to special interests and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "The primary has been more high-profile than it has in the past," Pombo said. "I'm a committee chairman. I'm a big target." The biggest curve ball, however, was when former Congressman Paul "Pete" McCloskey Jr. moved from Yolo County to the 11th Congressional District with the sole purpose of defeating Pombo, who is seeking an eighth term. One of McCloskey's main reasons for campaigning to return to Congress is Pombo's attempt to rewrite the Endangered Species Act, which McCloskey co-authored. "To me, the Endangered Species Act is a valuable thing," McCloskey said. "To him, it's a bar to development." Pombo argues that the rewrite is necessary and includes requirements to recover species....
Back to the Biscuit Chip Dennerlein acknowledges that administrative appeals and lawsuits haven't stopped U.S. Forest Service plans to salvage fire-killed timber in the 2002 Biscuit fire's inventoried roadless area. But the director of the Siskiyou Regional Education Project isn't giving up. "If information, truth and knowledge count for anything, if modern forestry conservation and biology count for anything, the Forest Service will not sell this sale," he said while visiting the upper portion of Unit 3 in the Mike's Gulch sale on Tuesday. Mike's Gulch, the first roadless area sale expected to be offered, will be put up for auction in mid-June. In addition to the Mike's Gulch sale, the agency also plans to offer the larger Blackberry sale in early August. Both are in the Illinois Valley Ranger District west of Kerby. Although Forest Service officials could not be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon, an evaluation of the Biscuit fire timber salvage project released last month by the agency has concluded that no significant new information has surfaced in studies criticizing the salvage effort. The evaluation was in response to an environmental group's lawsuit to stop the salvage logging....
West's new tune: Hands off our lands For years, selling off some of the U.S. government's vast land holdings has been a goal of many Western conservatives. But now it's become the third rail of the region's politics: touch it and you'll get burned. Consider the reaction to the Bush administration's proposal this year to sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of national forests and other public lands: Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., declared the plan "dead on arrival." It was quickly rejected by the public and disowned by Republicans in Congress. Now, the selloff proposal - while it remains alive - has been pushed into the shadows. Even President Bush's new interior secretary has spoken out against a key aspect of the plan. "Among congressional Republicans, there's a recognition that this can't be done. But the administration seems stuck with its proposal," said Daniel Kemmis, senior fellow at the Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana. Other recent selloff plans have met similar opposition. A Nevada congressman's proposal to sell public land to mining companies was shelved under pressure from hunters and Western county commissioners....
Woman pleads guilty in ecoterror case One of three people accused of plotting to blow up a U.S. Forest Service genetics lab and other targets pleaded guilty to conspiracy, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Lauren Weiner, 20, of Pound Ridge, N.Y., agreed to cooperate with investigators as part of her plea bargain. That includes testifying against Eric McDavid, 28, of Foresthill, Calif., and Zachary Jenson, 20, of Monroe, Wash. They remain in the Sacramento County Jail and could face five to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of conspiring to use fire or explosives to damage property. The three were arrested Jan. 13 as they allegedly bought bomb-making materials at a Kmart in Auburn, east of Sacramento. Three days before their arrests, the three are alleged to have scouted the Nimbus Dam and nearby fish hatchery on the American River near Sacramento, and the Forest Service's Institute of Forest Genetics near Placerville, in the foothills east of Sacramento. The three planned to act in the name of Earth Liberation Front, an underground group of environmental activists, investigators said....
Are supertanker wildfire bombers worth extra cost? Federal fire managers say new supertanker jets being developed by private companies will dramatically increase the amount of fire retardant dropped on wildfires and will work in concert with ground crews and other tanker aircraft. Now, they are trying to decide if the extra airpower is worth the higher cost. ''You can spend millions of dollars putting out a single stump,'' U.S. Forest Service aviation specialist Scott Fisher, chairman of the Interagency Airtanker Board, said Tuesday while watching a modified Boeing 747-200 passenger jet drop 20,500 gallons of water on an empty field during a demonstration flight. Oregon-based Evergreen International Aviation is trying to persuade federal land managers to add the 747 to the fleet of 16 smaller fixed-wing air tankers used on wildfires around the country each year. Another company, Oklahoma-based Omni Air International, has proposed using a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 it has modified to carry up to 12,000 gallons of water, about half the payload of the 747. Conventional air tankers can only deliver up to 3,000 gallons of water, foam, gel or other retardant on a fire before returning to a base for reloading....
Beavers keeping Forest Service busy Sometimes the best course of action is simply to say "dam it," U.S. Forest Service officials in Aspen concluded this spring. Short stretches of two popular hiking trails in the Aspen area are flooded because of nearby beaver dams. The Weller Lake trail is flooded about 30 yards from its trailhead off Highway 82 east of Aspen. The Capitol Creek trail is flooded about seven-tenths of a mile from its trailhead. In bygone eras the Forest Service would destroy the dams and possibly even shoot the beavers to deal with the problems, according to Martha Moran, a recreation manager for the Aspen-Sopris District. Now the agency is letting nature take its course while seeking alternatives for safe access. Beavers have dammed Capitol Creek for years but the effects on the trail are getting progressively worse, Moran said. At least 100 yards of the trail are now in wetlands. Hikers and equestrians are forced to stay on the swampy, muddy main route or create braided trails to avoid the slop. "People are getting mud up to their knees," Moran said....
Al Gore the Environmental Titan? Al Gore has returned to the political spotlight in exalted fashion, propping himself up for a potential presidential bid in 2008. Front and center in Gore’s new rhetorical entourage is the state of nature, and in particular, global warming. And while Gore may be delivering an important message about the fate of our fragile ecosystems, one must be weary of the messenger’s past. For Gore’s own environmental record leaves much to be desired. Al Gore’s reputation as the Democratic standard bearer of environmentalism dates back to the early 1990’s when his book Earth in Balance outlined the perilous threats to the natural world. Gore also showboated his green credentials at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, which garnered the newly minted Senator great respect among Beltway greens who praised him for his willingness to take sides on controversial issues. While serving as vice president under Bill Clinton, Gore was put in charge of the administration’s environmental portfolio, but had little to show for it. Other than his alleged environmental convictions, Gore was politically timid when push came to shove in Washington. During Clinton’s campaign for president in 1992 Gore promised a group of supporters that Clinton’s EPA would never approve a hazardous waste incinerator located near an elementary school in Liverpool, Ohio, which was operated by WTI. Only three months into Clinton’s tenure the EPA issued an operating permit for the toxic burner. Gore raised no qualms. Not surprisingly, most of the money behind WTI came from the bulging pockets of Jackson Stephens, who just happened to be one of the Clinton/Gore’s top campaign contributors....
For ranger station site, let bidding bout begin From the mid-1930s until five years ago, the U.S. Forest Service's Willamette National Forest had its Blue River Ranger District headquarters just outside the town of Blue River, 40 miles east of Eugene-Springfield up Highway 126. The complex, ultimately including an office building, five houses, a warehouse and a fueling station, has sat vacant since 2001, when the Blue River and McKenzie ranger stations consolidated. Now, the Forest Service plans to sell the whole 3.5-acre property, located at 51668 Blue River Drive, via an auction that will begin Monday. The facility will be open for inspection by prospective bidders on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The bidding will start at $200,000. Those wishing to take part in the auction must submit an initial auction bid and a refundable deposit of $50,000 - payable by cashier's or certified check, bank or postal money order or credit card - to the Forest Service. Selling surplus government property by auction isn't a new idea - the Forest Service currently has a half-dozen properties up for sale around the Pacific Northwest - but reliance on the Internet to accept and track the bids is a sign of the high-tech times....
FAA takes the wind out of wind farms The federal government has stopped work on more than a dozen wind farms planned across the Midwest, saying research is needed on whether the giant turbines could interfere with military radar. But backers of wind power say the action has little to do with national security. The real issue, they say, is a group of wealthy vacationers who think a proposed wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts would spoil the view at their summer homes. Opponents of the Cape Wind project include several influential members of Congress. Critics say their latest attempt to thwart the planting of 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound has led to a moratorium on new wind farms hundreds of miles away in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Federal officials declined to reveal how many stop-work orders have been sent out. But developers said that at least 15 wind farm proposals in the Midwest have been shut down by the Federal Aviation Administration since the start of the year. "This is a big, ugly political maneuver by a handful of people who are undermining America's energy security," said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a non-profit group that promotes renewable power. Vickerman and others said that despite the government's recent concern about proposed wind projects, it is allowing dozens of current wind farms to continue to operate within sight of radar systems....
Ala. man warned against capturing gator Authorities have told a Montgomery County, Ala., man he must call in help to remove an 8-foot alligator that's taken up residence in his farm pond. Ben Simpson said he didn't think much about the gator's arrival three years ago until he heard reports about the reptiles killing three women in Florida. "We've never had a problem, but after what's happened in Florida, it makes me nervous," Simpson told the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser. "We have grandchildren going down to the pond all the time," he said. However, officials have told Simpson he cannot personally remove the 8-foot gator, which would violate the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Instead, he must contact the county's conservation officer to hire a licensed trapper, who is allowed to kill an alligator and sell its meat and the skin....
Florida's gator count estimated at 1 million To the unaided eye, the swampy wilderness seems to sleep at night. Only eerie murmurs, grunts and an occasional splash break the darkened silence. But light it up and the illusion fades. Alligators are everywhere, their red bulbous eyes glowing on the water's black surface. White birds flutter through the haze of a powerful spotlight. Turtles rest on logs in the sawgrass. Snakes slither through weeds. Even with rampant development and loss of wetlands, officials estimate there are more than one million alligators in Florida - a miraculous comeback for a species that was approaching extinction 40 years ago. State officials and environmentalists attribute the population growth to strict federal regulations on sales of alligator products like skin and meat and a strong conservation effort....
BLM: King coal will keep growing There's a black-ringed supernova in northeast Wyoming, and federal regulators expect it to expand significantly over the next 14 years. Based on the decades-long trend of escalating demand for Powder River Basin coal and current market indicators, production could increase 50 percent to 591 million tons annually by 2020, according to the Wyoming Bureau of Land Management. That increase would nearly triple the amount of surface disturbance and require a major expansion of railroad service to the region. Mike Karbs of the BLM Casper Field Office said the projections are part a formal "review" of production scenarios, which becomes a tool for the BLM and other agencies in land use planning....
Proceed with caution, officials urge on oil shale development Garfield County Commissioner Tresi Houpt is pleased U.S. senators are headed to the Western Slope to learn more about oil shale this week, but she wants to make sure they understand the grand promises and broken dreams that accompanied the last effort to extract oil from shale rock. In a letter sent by Houpt and 12 other elected officials in western Colorado, government leaders urged the senators at Thursday’s Energy Committee field hearing in Grand Junction to slow down. The letter, which will be submitted to the committee, lauds the Bureau of Land Management’s oil shale research and development demonstration program as an important “first step” toward determining the potential for developing oil shale commercially. The BLM’s research and development program would issue small 160-acre leases to companies wishing to test oil shale technologies. The agency is expected to issue those leases to several companies some time this summer, and only after the pilot projects are proven would commercial-scale leases be made available. But under the 2005 Energy Policy Act, expedited commercial leasing is required on public lands at the conclusion of an environmental study, due to be complete by Feb. 8, 2007, according to BLM officials’ reading of the act. Lynn Rust, deputy state director for energy, land and minerals at the BLM’s state office in Denver, said Congress called for the commercial program so the secretary of the Interior Department may offer oil shale leases by 2008. “Our letter simply asks the committee to wait for the results of the pilot programs before we start commercially leasing public lands,” said Grand Junction City Councilwoman Teresa Coons, who signed the letter. “We’re not saying we don’t want to do oil shale. We’re just saying we should proceed with caution, take a step back and work in a logical sequence.”....
Agencies scrutinize arsenic from mines The federal government is stepping up efforts to investigate and control arsenic contamination from mines near the northwest corner of San Bernardino County. Officials are worried that arsenic-laden dust kicked up by wind and by off-road vehicles is a health hazard to residents and recreationists. One federal agency is considering keeping the public out of contaminated areas. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will review test results from recent soil samples to determine arsenic exposure among people living or playing in the area, said Libby Vianu, a regional representative of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the CDC. The samples were collected around the mining community of Red Mountain. The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees public land around Red Mountain and nearby communities, has secured $500,000 in emergency funding to begin controlling the contamination. Vianu and BLM officials will host a community meeting tonight in Johannesburg to discuss the arsenic and how to deal with it. Arsenic, which can occur naturally in rock, or be a byproduct of ore processing, can be deadly in high enough concentrations. The toxic element has been found in soil and mine-waste piles around the Kelly silver mine just outside of Red Mountain and the Yellow Aster gold mine in nearby Randsburg....
Controlling Missouri River at issue since the 1800s The massive old steamboat is on stilts now, standing sentry over the river it helped reshape. The Capt. Meriwether Lewis, which workers used to straighten and dredge the Missouri River between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sioux City, Iowa, now sits about 100 feet from the water. On a recent May morning, Harold Davis, president of the Brownville group that cares for the steamboat-turned-museum, points toward a giant steel apparatus at the front of the boat. "It worked like a vacuum," Davis said. "They could cut a channel 20 feet deep with this, if they needed to." The Meriwether Lewis and three others like it shaved about 240 miles off the roughly 2,600-mile river, the nation's longest, and left a straighter, deeper waterway that is easier to navigate. However, unintended consequences of the straightening plus construction of large dams in Montana, the Dakotas and Nebraska affect not only the river but the lives of those around it. At the center is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which straightened the river and now seeks to ease resulting conflicts. The mix includes often contradictory demands for ecological restoration, wildlife protection, flood control, water conservation and hydropower supply....
Who Should Decide Land Use? U.S. Government Already Does "Cities in the Wilderness: A New Vision of Land Use in America," by Bruce Babbitt. Island Press, $25.95. "Wildfire and Americans: How to Save Lives, Property and Your Tax Dollars," by Roger G. Kennedy. Hill and Wang, $26. It is a truth almost universally acknowledged that the federal government has no business in land use regulation, that decisions about what should be built and where must be made at the local level, where people understand their landscapes and have a strong vested interest in doing the right thing. This view has lots of political support. Initiatives as diverse as reshaping the federal flood insurance program and enhancing the Endangered Species Act have foundered amid accusations that they would produce, in effect, unacceptable federal control over local land use decisions. This view is wrong, at least according to Bruce Babbitt and Roger G. Kennedy. In new books, they say the federal government has long played a powerful role in local land use decisions. But its influence has been disguised — as tax deductions for mortgages, as highway programs or as logging concessions. Both senior officials in the Clinton administration, Mr. Babbitt, former interior secretary, and Mr. Kennedy, who headed the National Park Service, cite different examples and offer different suggestions. Their underlying message, however, is the same....
Species on endangered list challenged Ever since a 3-inch fish protected by the Endangered Species Act stopped construction of a dam in Tennessee in 1978, the law has been known as one of the toughest environmental laws on the books. Environmental groups have used it to halt development in pristine lands across the nation. Today, the law designed to protect animals such as the manatee from extinction also has become a legal tool of property-rights groups and developers. In a counterpunch to environmentalists who have filed lawsuits aimed at protecting hundreds of plant and animal species by listing them as endangered or threatened, property-rights groups such as the Pacific Legal Foundation are filing lawsuits to have animals and plants removed from the list so that development can proceed. Meanwhile, industry groups have filed dozens of legal challenges aimed at allowing development on lands set aside by the U.S. government to help protect endangered species. "The conventional wisdom is that environmental groups exclusively used this provision in court, but today, the industry lawsuits challenging critical habitat designations far outnumber environmental challenges," says Pat Parenteau, a law professor at Vermont Law School in South Royalton, Vt. In a study he published last August on active litigation involving the Endangered Species Act, Parenteau counted 45 lawsuits filed by industry groups and five filed by environmental groups. At the forefront of the movement is the National Association of Home Builders, which recently prevailed in a legal battle over Arizona land that had been designated as a habitat for the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl. Two environmental groups have sued to restore the designation, and a court hearing on the issue is scheduled for Friday....
Population is bald, but not thinning With spikes in his boots and a rope looped around a tree trunk, Gary Meinke edged his way straight up a 60-foot cottonwood. His target at the crown above: baby bald eagles. Nearly extinguished by pesticides that thinned their eggshells, bald eagles have made a comeback across the United States. In the 1980s, the popular nest at Barr Lake State Park was the only one in the eastern half of Colorado. There are now at least 60 nesting pairs in Colorado, and many more winter in refuges near prairie dog colonies. Still, the symbol of America remains a bird protected by the Endangered Species Act. At nesting sites like Barr Lake, dedicated volunteers still risk their necks each spring by pulling newborn eagles from treetop nests so their legs can be banded with state and federal tags....
Report: Yellowstone air shows some degradation There’s good news and bad news about air quality trends in national parks, but the news is mostly bad when it comes to Yellowstone National Park. Of six air quality categories studied from 1995 to 2004, Yellowstone has four categories with statistically significant declining air quality trends -- the worst trend line in the nation. The nation’s first national park improved significantly in one category -- visibility on clear days. The areas in significant decline include pollutants such as ozone, as well as acid-creating sulfate, nitrate and ammonium ions in precipitation. “Yellowstone is the economic engine for this region,” said Tim Stevens, a Gardiner, Mont.-based representative of the National Parks Conservation Association. “Unless we can reverse these trends, we risk killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.” Wenzler and other conservationists believe the situation will get worse. The federal Department of Energy reported last month that 129 coal-fired power plants are in some stage of development in Western states. “I’m afraid that the national parks in the West are going to get hit with a tidal wave of new energy development,” he said. A December 2005 analysis for the Western Governors' Association predicts that volatile organic compounds discharged from oil and gas activity will double by 2018 and that oxides of nitrogen will rise by some 30 percent....
Organic farms see growth on more demand Earthbound Farm's fields of organic baby spinach and romaine lettuce are a living symbol of the organic food movement's explosive growth in recent years. What started two decades ago as a three-acre roadside farm in this valley 90 miles south of San Francisco has grown into the country's largest grower of organic produce, with more than 100 types of fruits and vegetables on 28,000 acres in the U.S. and abroad. Earthbound's extraordinary growth is only the most visible example of how organic farming is changing. Small family farms created as an alternative to conventional agriculture are increasingly giving way to large-scale operations that harvest thousands of acres and market their produce nationwide. And with Wal-Mart, Safeway, Albertson's and other big supermarket chains expanding their organic offerings, the transformation may only be in its early stages. Organic food only makes up 2.5 percent of U.S. food sales, but it's the fastest growing segment of the market. Sales reached nearly $14 billion last year, up from $6 billion five years earlier, according to the Organic Trade Association in Greenfield, Mass....
Argentina's Beef Industry Relieved To Be Exporting Again Argentina will begin exporting beef again Tuesday and the beef industry, which had seen profits plummet amid a 10-week-old ban on beef exports, is relieved about it. After suffering repeated setbacks this year, cattle ranchers and beef exporters were granted a reprieve late Friday when the government announced it would partially lift the ban. "The new policy is positive," said Javier Ordoqui, president of Carbap, the country's biggest cattle ranchers organization. "This alleviates the situation for ranchers, who were in a very bad way because of the huge decline in prices we've seen since the ban was announced. The ban really harmed ranchers." Argentine President Nestor Kirchner banned beef exports in March to prevent soaring domestic and foreign demand from pushing local prices beyond the purchasing power of average Argentines. The strategy worked, at least partially. Livestock prices declined by up to 30%, although retail prices declined by much smaller amounts on supermarket shelves. The ban was the most severe in a string of policies aimed at reducing beef prices. Among other things the government has raised taxes, changed production and sales rules, and pushed the industry into signing price control accords. Kirchner also insulted ranchers, branding them "greedy profiteers" who supported the country's military dictatorship in the 1970s. Last week ranchers began to react en masse, with thousands organizing protests in the country's interior. As the anger mounted, ranchers began to talk of carrying out a nationwide strike in which they would stop selling beef. But Friday's announcement has alleviated much of the tension and reduced the likelihood of a strike. "I don't think there will be a strike," said Ordoqui, whose organization represents the owners of more than half of Argentina's estimated 55 million head of cattle....
On the Edge of Common Sense: U.S. is a beacon for the world's mistreated With your permission I would like to indulge in a little naked patriotism. The United States of America, during my lifetime, has become a nation like none other on earth. Not because it is the most powerful nation on earth, but because we, more times than I can count, have taken the side of the oppressed with no intention to conquer, rule or pillage. In the act of offering our assistance, we have sacrificed blood, money and lives. We have beat ourselves up. We have questioned our motives. Our leaders have engaged in heated debate about the hows and whys, but we continue to be the single brightest light for the world's mistreated. We will take on the schoolyard bully. In spite of all our mistakes, missteps, misjudgments and misgivings, the world today would be a completely different place if our country; conservative; liberal; black; white; rich; poor; north; south; Manhattan, N.Y.; or Manhattan, Kan.; Americans all, had turned our back on the injustices and inhumanities that relentlessly stalk the globe. Supporting the troops and their families on the front lines in the war on terror is not a partisan action. It is an act of pride, compassion, love, concern, anguish and hope. They carry our colors into harm's way, and have since 1776....