NEWS ROUNDUP

Mountain lion attacks animals near Silt Residents in the Silt area say a mountain lion has been attacking their farm animals, but some of them differ on what should be done about it. Sheep rancher James Bair said he'd like the Colorado Division of Wildlife to kill the cat that killed at least two of his sheep up First Street several weeks ago. There was also a report of a lion sighting on the bike path at the Eagle View Subdivision about six weeks ago, Silt Police Chief Paul Taylor said. Bair said he continues to hear of sightings and thinks one is still in the area. "If nobody has killed him he's still around," Bair said. The same lion may have killed a chicken in a subdivision north of Silt about a week ago and attacked an old horse. Heather Tharp, who lives on Panoramic Drive, said a neighbor saw a lion attack a chicken in the middle of the afternoon....
Jaguar sighted this year during N.M. hunt trip At first, when the mountain lion hunters in the hills of Southwest New Mexico saw that one of their dogs had its throat cut, they thought the attacker was a javelina, protecting its young. Instead, it turned out to be a jaguar, the third recent confirmed in-person sighting of the big cat in the Southwestern United States. This one occurred in the "Boot Heel" country of the Animas Mountains about 15 miles east of the Arizona border and a mile and a half north of the Mexican border. The man who spotted and photographed this jaguar on Feb. 20 was Warner Glenn, a Douglas-area rancher and lion hunter who made the first recent confirmed U.S. jaguar sighting in March 1996. Glenn saw the jaguar under a tree at the bottom of a hillside while chasing one of his dogs. The dog had gotten away from the rancher's lion-hunting party of seven people, including his daughter Kelly Kimbro. It took me five minutes to ride down there, to get down the mountain," Glenn recalled last week in an interview. "It was pretty rough. I got to the bottom where the dogs were baying the jaguar, who was backed up under a cedar tree. At that point, I told them on the radio to get down there and help me. He had bitten three of the dogs."...
Bear traps removed from area near attack in Tennessee Wildlife officers removed the last trap from the recreation area where a 6-year-old Ohio girl was killed and her mother and brother were seriously hurt in a bear attack last month, officials said Monday. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said it hasn't found any more bear activity in the campground in the Cherokee National Forest where the attack took place. Officers set traps around a swimming hole where Elora Petrasek of Clyde, Ohio, was playing April 13 before she was mauled by a black bear and her mother, Susan Cenkus, 45, and 2-year-old brother Luke Cenkus were seriously injured. Luke Cenkus underwent surgery and has been released from Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. Susan Cenkus was recovering in stable and improving condition, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday. The U.S. Forest Service has indefinitely closed the campground and recreation area and several roads and trails in the vicinity, the wildlife agency said. The area is expected to remain closed until a forensic analysis on a previously trapped bear is completed and all baiting smells that could attract other bears are gone....
Anti-wolf initiative may not make the ballot Shortly before the 5 p.m. deadline Monday, Ron Gillett rushed from county to county submitting signatures for his anti-wolf initiative. "It's just been overwhelming -- the support for this," Gillett said. But, the support may not be enough to get Gillett's initiative on the November ballot. For more than a decade, Gillett has been an outspoken opponent of the 1995 reintroduction of gray wolves in Idaho. This year, the Stanley outfitter's Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition wanted to have voters decide whether the federal government should remove wolves from the state. Monday afternoon, Gillett's group didn't appear to have the required 47,881 signatures from registered voters necessary to get their initiative on the ballot....
Landowner's Coalition Demands Repeal of ESA "Fed up" landowners have said "enough" to feeble efforts by Congress to "fix" the Endangered Species Act (ESA). That's why a coalition of property rights groups, led by the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range, the American Policy Center, Liberty Matters, and the PFUSA Grange have now gathered more than 6,300 signatures to a letter calling for repeal of the ESA. The letter is being delivered to Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. His committee will soon consider legislation to "update" and "improve" the ESA. The House has already passed the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act (TESRA). The Senate is considering a bill sponsored by Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) called the Collaboration and Recovery of Endangered Species Act (CRESA). While the House version makes at least a weak attempt to compensate landowners when the ESA is invoked, the Senate version offers nothing for them. Both bills confirm the worst fears of landowners about how serious Congress is to actually addressing the real problems of the ESA. In part, the letter says, "Congress needs to revisit the wisdom of the Founding Fathers who believed the ownership of property must be secured from government intervention for liberty to exist. Take that security away through environmental laws like the ESA, and not only is liberty not secure, it no longer exists. You have only to look at the past 30 years since the enactment of the ESA to see what it has produced - the dramatic destruction of property rights and the failure to recover species."....Go here to read the letter.
Wyoming Plans Another Ferret Release Encouraged by the successful reintroduction of black-footed ferrets into central Wyoming's Shirley Basin, state wildlife managers plan to release more ferrets into the same area. Martin Grenier, a nongame mammal biologist with the state Game and Fish Department, told Game and Fish commissioners last week that the agency plans to release 40 more black-footed ferrets in the north and south ends of Shirley Basin, mostly likely in October. Grenier said releasing more black-footed ferrets close to the established population in the basin should help ensure the long-term stability of the species and bring new blood into the population. "This also provides some additional security against (possible disease) outbreaks" in the basin population, he said. The black-footed ferret was officially listed as an endangered species in 1967. Biologists feared the species was extinct before the discovery of a colony on a ranch near Meeteetse in 1981....
FS plans don’t support ski resort The U.S. Forest Service on Monday released revised plans for managing the Bitterroot and Lolo national forests that agency officials say do not support a proposed ski resort on state and private land. The developer of that planned resort, Tom Maclay, said he was disappointed, but not surprised by the agency’s draft plans. ‘‘There are communities moving aggressively to embrace the healthy fun and tourism revenue that come with developed recreation. We hope Missoula will too,’’ he said in a written statement. Bitterroot Resort submitted a revised request to the Bitterroot National Forest last month for a special permit to develop 1,780 acres into alpine ski runs on Lolo Peak. The resort’s original proposal, which called for developing about 11,000 acres including a portion of a research natural area, was turned down by both the Bitterroot and Lolo national forests last year. The newest proposal removed development in the natural area and focused development on the Bitterroot National Forest side....
Power, water - and money Denver has built itself into a corner, a very dry corner. Denver needs water, especially during drought years. One very attractive source is the Shoshone hydroelectric plant in Glenwood Springs. Xcel Energy acquired the Shoshone power plant through a series of mergers in the 1990s. The plant is valuable, not only because it has produced clean, sustainable electricity for nearly a century, but because it comes with the most senior water right on the Colorado River -1902. Denver covets that senior water right for a transmountain diversion to the Eastern Slope, which Xcel is willing to enable by reducing Shoshone's water use at certain times. This means curtailing energy production at the power plant, which is a worthwhile tradeoff since the company derives more income from the transfer of water than on what it loses in hydropower generation. The impact of that seemingly sound business decision is felt downstream on the Colorado River and also upstream in the Roaring Fork and Crystal valleys. When Denver takes water from Shoshone, it also takes from all water users down the line who depend on the river for municipal, agricultural, environmental and recreational uses. Shoshone's senior rights could trump junior water rights if calls are made in low-water years....
State's major packing plants closed by immigration rallies All five of Kansas' major beef packers were closed today to allow workers to participate in rallies on immigration reform. Kansas is the nation's second-largest producer of red meat and hides, and packing plants employ a heavily immigrant workforce. More than 12,000 people work in beef packing in Kansas at Tyson packing plants at Emporia and Holcomb; at National Beef in Liberal; at Cargill in Dodge City, and at Creekstone Farms in Arkansas City. Major packers across the country gave employees the day off today, creating a back-up of cattle in feedlots because no cattle were marketed. "We're already looking at a building oversupply that will drive down prices," said Jim Reeves, a Butler County rancher. "This really isn't what the market needs." At the same time, he said, he understands why major packers would close down. "I've worked the kill floor in both beef and pork plants," Reeves said. "You really can't do the job unless most of the workers are there."
Life is a grand ride for this trick roper As a child, Nolan Leach watched famed trick roper Kevin Fitzpatrick's San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo performance in amazement. As a young man, Leach could give Fitzpatrick a run for his money. "I always wondered what kept the rope open like that," Leach said. "So I started messing around on the ranch." That was seven years ago. Today, the 18-year-old performs a trick roping and bullwhip act at rodeos, halftime shows and other events around the world, including the Stockholm International Horse Show. Leach, who grew up on a small family ranch in New Braunfels, started performing publicly at 12 and has been refining his skills and show with his mustang Bravo since then....
It's All Trew: Great Depression brought many programs Imagine if you will, the following scenario. The stock market crashed, sending the economy into a tailspin. Banks are closing right and left and 40 percent of the people are part-time employed or unemployed. Black clouds of dust arrive daily from The Dust Bowl and there seems to be no relief in sight from any direction. Many are saying the end is coming and all should make preparations. This scene was exactly what newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt inherited when he took office in 1932. In order to provide relief and sustenance to those suffering, he initiated many programs, which were promptly named “The New Deal.” Reams of information have been written about these programs, some extremely successful, others not so successful. That period of time became known as the greatest environmental disaster in American history, resulting in the largest migration ever to occur in America, and marked a complete turnaround in governmental thinking about financial and economic planning....