Judge halts livestock grazing in Sawtooth NRA A federal judge has halted sheep grazing on a portion of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in central Idaho to protect streams that contain federally protected salmon, bull trout and steelhead. U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill stopped the grazing for this year on the Smiley Creek allotment three days before 900 sheep were to be released. "The bottom line is that sheep will be grazing nearly the entire length of two creeks containing sensitive species of fish and fish habitat adversely affected by past grazing," Winmill wrote in his decision this week. Western Watersheds Project, a Hailey-based environmental group, asked Winmill to end grazing on four allotments but then narrowed its request to the Smiley Creek and Baker Creek regions. Winmill agreed to stop grazing only on the Smiley Creek allotment for one year....
Some see a deal to get river rolling The dried San Joaquin River might flow again, along with lots and lots of money, under a historic deal coming closer by the hour. Long-warring parties who beat the odds to become negotiating partners will march once again before a federal judge in Sacramento on Monday. In their hands could be an accord that reshapes California's water future. "The agreement is there," said Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa. Attorneys for farmers and environmentalists quietly concur, though the final haggling could well last all weekend. Negotiators are motivated. They know that if they fail, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton will impose his own unpredictable solution -- which might hit farmers hard. "The negotiators believe that it is possible to reach agreement in principle on the few remaining issues before June 19, and will continue to work between now and the status conference," attorneys advised Karlton on Thursday. Details are cloaked and negotiators tight-lipped. Still, any deal will be heard loud and clear throughout the West....
Smaller Mine Planned Near Cemex While the city spends its time and money fighting a proposed mega-mine just east of Santa Clarita, the U.S. Forest Service is reviewing plans for a smaller mine nearby. Soledad Enviromineral LLC General Manager Henry Fritzsche said he intends to go through with his plans to mine 3 million tons of anorthosite out of three parcels of land in the Angeles National Forest in between the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. Fritzsche, a resident of Sedona, Ariz., said he has claims for mining rights for 320 acres of land — 16 claims at 20 acres each. He said his project would entail activity on three of the 20-acre claims, and added that he has held those federal mining claims since 1996. The project, Fritzsche said, would extract some 150,000 tons of anorthosite per year for 20 years, would have 20 to 25 truckloads a day on local highways during off-peak hours and mining would occur five days a week. He anticipates four to six mining blasts per year with two- to three-month buffers in between the blast sessions, which would blast anywhere from 25,000 to 40,000 tons of earth per session....
When Dreams Collide For nearly three years, Chicken and Sami Dusenberry have been preparing a building site for their dream house on 46 undeveloped acres in Trail overlooking the Rogue River. Obtaining the proper county permits after a long struggle, they dug a septic system, drilled a well and installed electricity. They are about to apply for a building permit. "It's our dream," Sami Dusenberry said. "We want to live the rest of our lives out here. Now there is this pipeline. They wanted to go through the middle of the homesite but they said they will adjust it a little. "It's still going to be very close," she added. "It's devastating." They discovered this spring that their property lies in the path of the preferred route for the proposed Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline, which would pipe natural gas some 225 miles from Coos Bay to Malin in the lower Klamath Basin. The route would cross through the Dusenberry property, then under the Rogue River....
The leggiest millipede is only the latest specie to call the county home When it comes to being unique, San Benito is like no place else on earth. Beyond its agricultural roots as once being the hay and apricot capitol of the world, and its renown status as the rein-horse training ground of the universe, the county is gaining a new reputation among earth scientists far and wide: it is home to an array of rare species found in no other place on the globe. The latest find to be added to the list of unique species is I. plenipes millipede, a creature last seen 80 years ago and thought to be extinct, which has the distinction of being the world's leggiest animal - up to 750 of the appendages. The discoverer is not about to disclose the location of the millipede, except to say that it resides in a fragile, moist oak woodland environment. But last week, entomologist Paul Marek of North Carolina made his findings public in the prestigious scientific journal Nature and gave an interview to The Pinnacle. "I'd love to tell everybody where it is but it's an incredibly fragile habitat," Marek said. "It could be easily disturbed. "It occurs there and no where else on the planet," he added. "What we determined is that it resides in an area less than a kilometer square in size."....
Verde slated as critical habitat for spikedace minnow Portions of the Verde River are already designated as a refuge for both the southwest willow flycatcher and the razorback sucker. But soon the river's waters and riparian environment may become critical habitat for another threatened species, the spikedace minnow. Representatives of the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and their consultants presented their findings from recent environmental and economic assessments to the public on Tuesday in Camp Verde. The presentation of the reports and the subsequent public comments are among the final steps the agency must to complete before designating over 600 miles of waterways in Arizona and New Mexico as critical habitat for both the spikedace and the loach minnows. There are no loach minnows in the stretch of the Verde being considered....
Polar bear protection review draws 140,000 public comment U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials in Alaska face some 140,000 submitted comments on whether to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but said they have no feel yet for how public sentiment is divided. The last day for the public to comment on the petition was Friday. Rosa Meehan, chief of the agency’s marine mammal management program, said the comment period was intended to seek biological, environmental or technical information, but the agency would not discount comments that simply advocate or oppose more protection for polar bears. ‘‘Someone took the initiative to do that,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s good to have a sense of the level of public interest.’’ The Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy group, petitioned in February 2005 to list polar bears. Classified as a marine mammal because they spend much of their lives on sea ice, polar bears are threatened because of drastic declines in ocean ice due to global warming, according to the petition. When the Fish and Wildlife Service did not meet deadlines in the law for action, the center and two other conservation groups sued. A settlement calls for the agency to make a decision by December 2006....
Rare plant getting helping hands An endangered plant found only in Spanish Fork Canyon is getting a lot of attention from nature lovers who want to give it a chance at survival. Federal, state and local agencies have teamed up in support of the clay phacelia, a bluish-purple flowering plant whose known population in recent years has been less than 10. The clay phacelia exists only in two areas of the canyon — one on private property of The Nature Conservancy, a project partner, and another about five miles away, north of U.S. 6. The collective goal is to establish additional populations at suitable sites on Uinta National Forest land and help the species shed its endangered status. "We're trying to develop a protocol for introducing clay phacelia into some of the habitat it looks like it should be in but isn't," said Susan Meyer, a research botanist with the U.S. Forest Service's shrub laboratory in Provo. A $25,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service got the recovery effort going in 2004. That year, project partners collected about 700 seeds from 57 mother plants. Those seeds produced 53 plants in a greenhouse setting at the Provo shrub lab. With some unexpected help from blue orchard bees, Meyer said she was able to harvest about 10,000 seeds....
Army called to fight toad invasion in Australia An Australian state government called for the army to be deployed against an invasion of toxic toads. Battalions of imported cane toads are marching relentlessly across northern Australia and the West Australian government wants soldiers to intercept the environmental barbarians. State Environment Minister Mark McGowan has written to Defence Minister Brendan Nelson asking permission to use soldiers based in the neighbouring Northern Territory to kill the toads. "The army in the Northern Territory is greater than any other part of Australia," McGowan told national radio. "We'd seek the Commonwealth (federal government) to help us in fighting this terrible threat to native fauna in Western Australia." The toads, Bufo Marinus, were introduced from South America into northeast Queensland state in the 1930s to control another pest -- beetles that were ravaging the sugar cane fields of the tropical northern coasts....
Column: The Appalachian Trail Conservancy The Appalachian Trail stretches 2,175 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin in Maine. Of course part of that trail goes through Pennsylvania, just west of Harrisburg, and north of Reading. If you have never had the opportunity to hike even a small part of it, you have missed a real joy in the outdoors. The idea for the Appalachian Trail was popularized in l921 by Benton MacKaye, who wanted to create a “peoples path” down the spine of the East Coast, where all people could reconnect with the earth, revel in the wonders of nature, and meet others who shared a desire for simplicity, strong recreation, and comradeship of the trail. The Conservancy was founded not long after. For 81 years the Conservancy is and has been a volunteer based, private non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail – a 250,000 acre greenway. Their mission is to ensure that future generations will enjoy the clean air and water, scenic vistas, wildlife and opportunities for simple recreation and renewal along the entire trail corridor. Each year more than 5,000 volunteers contribute more than 200,000 hours to maintenance and conservation efforts along the trail. Some of these efforts include cutting down deadfalls that block the trail after a storm. They also include shoring up landscape ties that stop soil erosion on the steepest grades....
Column: Report on PETA is Journalistic Malpractice When recently Borders Bookstore refused to display the Danish cartoons that were deemed insulting to many Muslims who responded by going on a rampage, some people expressed the view that Borders was being cowardly. Borders management explained they properly didn’t chose to place members of their staff in harms way. So, Borders wasn’t being cowardly but justifiably prudent. It isn’t necessary for Borders to sacrifice some innocent employees for the sake of taking a stand. There could be better ways to show solidarity with champions of freedom of speech and artistic expression. More recently some members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) invaded a dinner where the pop star Beyonce Knowles was the host to various invited guests. PETA members “peppered the pop star with questions about her fur use,” reported the Associated Press. In the report AP gave a short characterization of PETA as “known for its untraditional methods of raising awareness about animal rights.” Never mind for a moment about PETA’s agenda. Certainly, AP’s characterization of PETA’s way of bringing attention to it should not be described in the cowardly fashion of calling them “untraditional methods.” PETA has been guilty of assault, battery, trespass, and harassment against numerous famous individuals who refuse to accept PETA’s viewpoint. These are way beyond “untraditional methods.” They are frequently out and out criminal and AP is plainly mischaracterizing PETA when it refuses to say so. Unlike Muslim radicals, who are reasonably feared to go on a rampage and perpetrated violence against Borders’ employees, AP wasn’t in harms way from PETA. Its conduct is, therefore, pretty clearly cowardly. But there is more. Using the expression “raising awareness about animal rights” is totally misleading, akin to writing about some group that they are invading people’s private parties in an effort of “raising awareness about ghosts.” There are no ghosts! There are no animal rights! AP might as well be writing its report as if the tooth fairy were something real....
Column: The Growth of Green Hype Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is but the most visible of “green” hypes these days, containing doom and gloom galore, the very predictions and prophesies that have been around for centuries and get repeatedly discredited by subsequent events. Gore is now being joined by the highly visible and widely respected New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, with his upcoming June 27th, 2006, Discovery Channel program, “Addicted to Oil.” This is not the place to analyze the content of these programs. Gore’s film has been scrutinized and the conclusion of most careful commentators has been that while Gore assembles credible evidence for global climate change, he hasn’t proven by a long shot that such change is due to anything that human beings have done or have failed to do. Indeed, it seems that over the centuries there has been ample and oft repeated climate change, not unlike what is being experienced now, in both directions, the warming and cooling of the planet. The misanthropic spin is largely gratuitous, reminiscent of the more faith based doctrine of original sin, not based on scientific reasoning. But never mind that. What can be noted here is how much hype surrounds offerings such as those by Gore and Friedman. Both of these men receive the most plentiful exposure on the media, yet they complain endlessly about how little attention they are receiving....