NEWS ROUNDUP

Mother mauled by a bear leaves hospital An Ohio woman mauled by a bear that killed her 6-year-old daughter and seriously injured her 2-year-old son April 13 at a U.S. Forest Service recreation area returned home Tuesday. Greg Rush, owner of Jim Rush Funeral Homes in Cleveland, Tenn., said the body of Elora Petrasek was returned to Ohio for a planned Saturday funeral. He said the girl's mother, Susan Cenkus, of Clyde, Ohio, traveled home with other family members in a privately owned airplane. "All that happened today," Rush said. "I think it will be fine to report the family is back in Ohio." Jan Powell, a spokeswoman at Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, said Cenkus has been released. Powell said she could not provide any other information. Luke Cenkus, 2, underwent surgery and was released earlier. Tennessee wildlife officials said Monday that results from samples taken during a necropsy on a bear captured three days after the attack were not expected before next week...
Yellowstone Wolf Population Tops 1,000, States Seek Delisting The population of gray wolves in and around Yellowstone Park has reached more than 1,000, according to a March 10 federal government report. The number of wolves, including nearly 100 breeding pairs, is more than sufficient for the wolves' removal from Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection. But disagreements between Wyoming and the federal government have delayed the wolves' delisting. By 2003, the gray wolf population in and around Yellowstone had reached approximately 760 animals, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) determined was sufficient to remove the animals from ESA protection. While protection was considered no longer necessary, FWS nevertheless required Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming to submit wolf management plans as a prerequisite to delisting the wolf, to satisfy FWS that the wolves will not fall back into endangered status. Two years ago, the FWS approved the wolf management plans submitted by Idaho and Montana, but it has refused to approve Wyoming's proposal. Until an agreement is reached between Wyoming and the federal government, wolves cannot be delisted in any of the three states. The Wyoming-FWS dispute is currently being litigated in a federal appellate court. Wyoming is seeking to the court determine whether its proposed management plan meets the criteria for ESA delisting. The FWS argues Wyoming's plan will be ripe for litigation only after the federal office issues a final and formal decision, due in July, on the proposed plan. Wyoming counters that the agency's repeated objections to its plan, while approving the plans of Idaho and Montana, amounts to an FWS denial that is suitable for litigation. By stalling on a "final" decision, Wyoming argues, the FWS has benefitted from more than two years of a de facto decision without having to defend it in federal court....
Officials Ponder Return of the Panther Florida panthers once roamed much of the southeastern United States. Today, fewer than a hundred live in a protected South Florida preserve. But this subspecies of the American mountain lion has now outgrown that habitat. So the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a draft plan to reintroduce the endangered cat to its historic range… including wilderness areas in Alabama, Mississippi and the interior highlands of Arkansas. But wildlife officials in Arkansas are at odds about bringing the panther back. Before they were exterminated by bounty hunters and loggers in the early 20th century, Florida panthers prowled Arkansas's bayous and mountains. Today, deep in the Ozarks National Forest, USDA Forest Service biologist Joe Neal explores the historic panther habitat. He surveys the trail that leads high up to a ridge of immense limestone boulders, collapsed into crevices and caves. "I assume places like that would be ideal for panthers," he explains, "because there would be places they could den, places they could raise young and the big ledges exposed to the sunlight would be perfect for sunning." And that's why federal wildlife officials have included the one point two million hectare Ozark and Ouachita National Forests in their Panther Recovery Plan....
Wolf found dead near Winona A gray wolf that likely wandered into Minnesota from Wisconsin was found dead just south of Winona. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist Eric Nelson said Tuesday that the 80-pound male, recovered a week ago on U.S. Highway 61, appeared to be a gray wolf. Ron Refsnider, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist in St. Paul, said it would be rare but not surprising to find a wolf in Winona. “Wisconsin has wolf packs in the Fort McCoy and Black River State Forest areas, only about 50 miles from Winona,” he said. “Individual wolves could easily make the trip from Ft. McCoy to Winona in a week or so.” Wolves can cross the river when it’s frozen and are capable swimmers....
Groups to sue over cutthroat Three conservation groups said Tuesday they plan to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the agency's decision to not give the Yellowstone cutthroat trout special protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, the Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Rivers Council said they filed a required 60-day notice of intent to sue over what they see as the agency's illegal denial of special federal protection for the fish. "It's well known and acknowledged that the species has declined and is facing a multitude of threats," Noah Greenwald, a conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, said Tuesday. Among the threats he cited are disease and habitat loss. Fish and Wildlife has twice said in recent years that the fish did not warrant Endangered Species Act protection. The first decision pertained to the sufficiency of the petition, an agency spokeswoman said; the more recent decision was issued this year....
Oregon fishermen argue for larger salmon harvest Property rights advocates joined commercial fishermen in a federal appeals court Monday to argue that hatchery fish should be counted along with wild fish in deciding whether to restrict the commercial ocean harvest of Klamath River fall chinook salmon. But lawyers for the government and Indian tribes argued the law that sets the minimum number of salmon returning to the Klamath cannot be changed simply to boost the total number of fish when the wild fish run declines. "To come in 17 years after the fact and challenge the framework upsets the entire system," said Mark Haag, an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. But Russell Brooks, an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, a property rights public interest law firm based in Sacramento, Calif., argued that NOAA Fisheries has the authority to include hatchery fish in that number. "The only time they're treated separately is when they return," said Brooks, representing the Oregon Trollers Association....
A Historical Perspective of Environmental Sense and Nonsense One has to be about 80 years old to remember when homes were lit by kerosene lamps, which released smoke continually; when homes were heated with wood or coal stoves that belched smoke or soot into the air constantly and into the room most every time the stove door was opened for refilling; when minimally treated sewage was discharged into the nearest river or lake; when city streets were littered with horse manure; when laundry could not be hung outdoors during cold weather because of soot; when small dust clouds followed moving vehicles on unpaved streets; and when garden pests were controlled with deadly poisonous arsenic, lead, and mercury compounds which persisted almost indefinitely in the soil. The goals of environmental protection are stimulating and exciting. Because everyone believes in a good environment, working toward this goal can be a uniting force for many diverse elements in our society. Unfortunately, finding whipping boys for environmental problems--many real, some imaginary, and nearly all exaggerated--was an integral part of the early period of environmental discontent and continues today. The search for better ways to protect our environment turned to some extent into a vendetta aimed at big business, government officials, and the "establishment" in general. Hysteria was effective in gaining attention, focusing on environmental problems, and initiating action to correct them. But hysteria's time has past....
Palisade courting ways to protect its watershed n the David-versus-Goliath battle of the town of Palisade against the Bureau of Land Management over gas leasing in the town’s Grand Mesa watershed, the little guys are proving to be resilient and tenacious. The latest evidence was the announcement over the weekend by Palisade Mayor Doug Edwards that the town is prepared to sue, if need be, to prevent drilling in its watershed. And, while such a lawsuit would be expensive, Edwards said the town has received offers of free legal assistance to seek a temporary restraining order to keep drillers out its watershed. The small town at the east end of the Grand Valley and its holdings on Grand Mesa could create a serious challenge to the Bush administration’s effort to lease as much of the West for drilling as rapidly as possible. Edwards made it clear that a lawsuit is the option of last resort for the town. For the time being, Palisade is pursuing other means to protect its watershed....
Experts doubt oil shale answer to energy crisis Massive deposits of oil shale are locked up under America's Western prairies, but even with crude prices at historic highs, some experts doubt it will become economical to extract it anytime soon. The Energy Department remains enthusiastic about the prospects of using the deposits, saying the United States needs to take a second look at this "strategically located, long-term source of reliable, affordable and secure oil." The Bureau of Land Management says it is reviewing proposals from eight companies to conduct research into how to extract the oil from shale in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. U.S. deposits of oil shale hold the potential of providing enough oil "to meet U.S. demand for oil at current levels for 110 years," the agency says. With oil hitting record prices on the world market, projects once shelved as impossibly uneconomical when oil was $30 a barrel are now getting a second look. But Walter Youngquist, a retired University of Oregon geology professor, says he's considered ways of exploiting America's untapped oil shale resources for 40 years and concludes that extracting commercial amounts is like a mirage: every time it is approached, it just keeps retreating into the distance....
Kempthorne may play bigger role in energy decisions Energy has played a small role in Dirk Kempthorne’s governorship, but it may hog the spotlight in his job as Interior secretary. Fast-rising gasoline prices have made energy a major political issue for President Bush and Congress. The Interior Department controls two-thirds of the nation’s oil and gas reserves, including 1.76 billion acres of the Continental Shelf that geologists say has billions of gallons of oil waiting for the taking. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said he told Kempthorne that increasing the nation’s energy supplies should be his top priority. Already, Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson has put a hold on Kempthorne’s nomination to protest the administration’s plan to allow drilling off the Florida coast. Kempthorne testifies Thursday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on his nomination. Except for Nelson’s hold, Kempthorne is expected to enjoy smooth sailing to confirmation in the Senate, said Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig....
Report Links Corps' Planning to Inadequacies in Levee System The Army Corps of Engineers did not shift course to meet the needs of the changing landscape of New Orleans, and as a result the city did not get the hurricane protection system that it needed, a panel of outside engineers said in a report yesterday. The report, prepared by members of the American Society of Civil Engineers at the request of the corps, was stinging in its criticism of the corps' planning and development of New Orleans's hurricane protection system in the decades after Hurricane Betsy in 1965. It said the corps did not follow its own procedures in monitoring the rate at which land was subsiding and water was rising around the city, and it criticized the corps as designing the levee system around outdated data that left floodwalls nearly two feet lower than they should have been....
Digging up history Dozens of cattle skulls, some with horns, have been unearthed from construction sites near Memorial Coliseum, and local historians have two explanations. They believe the carcasses were either the dinner leftovers of Gen. Zachary Taylor's 4,000 troops in 1845 or they are refuse from a post-Civil War beef packery operated by famed South Texas rancher Richard King. Historical references confirm that cattle were herded from the north and corralled on the south side of Taylor's encampment, which ran along Corpus Christi Bay from the Corpus Christi Beach area to Artesian Park. "Taylor's army encampment was much of the town at the time," said Caller-Times historian Murphy Givens. "They lived mostly on beef; there were no canned rations."....