NEWS ROUNDUP

Wildlife blamed for bacteria growth To the surprise of many, a bacteria-source study conducted in Smith River shows that birds and small mammals contribute the most fecal matter to the watershed. The usual suspects — cows and humans — appeared as blips on the radar screen compared to the zeppelin of birds, small animals, deer and elk. “What they found out was, most of it is wildlife,” said Bill Town, chairman of the Smith River Watershed Bacteria Source Tracking Study and an alternate on the Smith River Watershed Council. Dogs and cats were no small contributors, but ranchers and residents along Smith River say those contributions can be easily mitigated as long as septic tanks and cattle aren’t doing all the dirty work. “If there isn’t a problem, then we can smile at ourselves and say, ‘We’ve been doing a pretty damn good job of protecting our watersheds,’” Town said. Smith River residents hope the independent DNA study, conducted by CH2M Hill, based in Denver, will persuade the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to redirect some heat from their livestock as the river’s main contaminators....
Judge: Ranchers have stake in elk feedgrounds Ranchers in northwest Wyoming have a "substantial economic and private property interest" in preserving the state's system of elk feedgrounds, a federal judge says. As a result, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson ruled that the Wyoming Stock Growers Association may intervene as a matter of right in a lawsuit over western Wyoming’s elk feedgrounds. The Friday decision allows the livestock industry group to participate in a lawsuit that was filed in federal court by the environmental law firm Earthjustice on behalf of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council. The lawsuit was filed in February against the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, challenging the authorization of state-run elk feedgrounds on federal lands in western Wyoming. The groups seek to have the federal agencies study a range of alternatives to the feedgrounds in wake of disease transmission issues. The lawsuit also targets facilities built to capture elk at the Muddy Creek feedground in Sublette County as part of a program to test the animals for brucellosis and kill those that test positive....
A Closer Look Smokey Bear was created in 1944, after the release of Walt Disney's "Bambi." Disney agreed to let the forest fire prevention campaign use Bambi's image on a poster, which proved using an animal as a fire prevention symbol was successful. However, Bambi's image was only on loan from Disney for one year, and the Forest Service would need to find another animal for their campaign. Thus, it was decided the nation's number one firefighter would be a bear. It was August 9, 1944, when the first poster of Smokey Bear was created. It showed a bear pouring a bucket of water on a campfire. In 1952, an act of Congress took Smokey out of the public domain and placed him under the control of the Secretary of Agriculture. The Act provided for the use of collected royalties and fees for continued education on preventing forest fires. Smokey's image is protected by US Federal Law and is administered by the USDA Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters, and the Ad Council. Smokey became very popular and his message is the longest running public service campaign in U.S. history. Smokey is often depicted as a bear wearing blue jeans and a flat-brimmed hat, like park rangers wear. A cartoon was designed by Richard Scarry for Little Golden Books, and Smokey received so much fan mail he was assigned his own zip code. It was in the spring of 1950 when the "real" Smokey Bear would emerge. A little black bear cub was caught in the Capitan Gap wildfire in the mountains of New Mexico. The cub had climbed a tree to escape the fire, but his paws and hind legs had been burned. Firefighters rescued the cub, and a rancher who had helped fight the fire, agreed to take the cub home. A New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Ranger heard about the cub at the fire camp and drove to the rancher's home to get the bear. The cub needed veterinary aid and was flown to Santa Fe where his burns were treated. Soon the media picked up the story and broadcast it nationwide. Many people wrote or called to inquire about the cub's health. He was first called "Hotfoot Teddy" but was later renamed "Smokey" after the fire service mascot....
Land battle to culminate in federal court Walker County resident Gregory Colson finally will have his day in federal court Monday in a battle for rights concerning 19 acres of family owned land off FM 1374. The old Colson homestead still stands, and the land remained untouched for more than 70 years until the mid 1990s when Colson decided to erect a gate. The question of land ownership surrounds one piece of that 19 acres that is being tagged a “road” by the U.S. government, but Colson’s lawyers at Moak & Moak argue any semblance of a designated roadway. “The area in question is claimed by the United States to be an old wagon trail that went from Huntsville to Montgomery,” attorney J. Paxton Adams said in December. “Today, however, nobody that views the property would recognize any road or even the remnants of a road. We don’t believe it ever was the road that the United States now claims it to be.”....
Wisconsin wolf population keeps increasing, DNR says Wisconsin's wolf population continues a slow increase, with the state's annual winter survey showing somewhere between 465 to 502 animals. That's up about 7 percent from last year's count of 435 to 467, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reported Tuesday. Biologists have conducted annual wolf population surveys since the winter of 1979, when the number of wolves began increasing after the animal was extinct for decades in the state. The survey doesn't include pups born this spring. Wisconsin now has far more wolves than called for in the federal wolf recovery plan for the region, and the federal government is in the process of removing wolves from the Endangered Species List in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and nearby states. That effort could be complete next year, pending any legal action....
New Protections Proposed for Mussels In response to a lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating 1,200 miles of rivers and streams in Alabama, Florida and Georgia as critical habitat for seven federally protected mussel species. The waterways include portions of Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system in all three states, the Ochlocknee River in Georgia and Florida and the Econfina Creek and Suwannee River in Florida. Some scientists rank mussels as the nation's most threatened natural resource. Of the 300 species found in the United States, most live in the Southeast. American Indians ate them and used them to make tools and jewelry, and their shells were a major source of buttons from about 1890 until plastic buttons came along in the 1950s. The critical habitat designation is proposed for five endangered mussels _ the fat threeridge, the shinyrayed pocketbook, the Gulf moccasinshell, the Ochlocknee moccasinshell and the oval pigtoe _ and two threatened mussels, the Chipola slabshell and purple bankclimber....
U.S. Government Sued for Allowing Imports of Peruvian Mahogany Doubly illegal, mahogany from the Peruvian Amazon is being imported into the United States for deluxe furniture under the noses of three federal agencies, according to a lawsuit filed today by two Peruvian indigenous groups and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a U.S. conservation organization. The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York City. Nearly all of Peru’s mahogany exports are logged illegally, the groups say. Importing it into the United States is illegal because it violates the U.S. Endangered Species Act and a major international treaty, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the lawsuit charges. More than 80 percent of illegally logged Peruvian mahogany ends up in the United States....
Conservation groups sue to save rare plant in gas fields Two conservation groups filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to protect a rare plant found only in a small area in the gas fields of northwestern Colorado. The groups' lawsuit asks the court to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to decide whether to place the DeBeque milkvetch on the endangered species list. The wildflower, about a foot tall with white sweet-pea-like flowers, is found only within 30 miles of the town of DeBeque. Erin Robertson, a biologist with the Denver-based Center for Native Ecosystems, said the plant grows on the area's high-desert knolls and at the bottom of the Roan Plateau near Rifle. The rate of natural gas drilling in the area is on the rise. The Bureau of Land Management is considering a plan to open much of the federal land on the Roan Plateau to energy development....
New road to Roan kicks up dust A new road being built to the top of the Roan Plateau has some seeing plenty of dust near Parachute. The road is being blasted into the Roan Cliffs for Petroleum Development Corp. (PDC) to gain access to 16,000 acres of private land slated for extensive natural gas development. The two-lane private road, under construction since last summer about eight miles north of Parachute, is being built in Garden Gulch and above Parachute Creek to prevent trucks from having to drive through DeBeque to reach the Roan Plateau via Logan's Wash, cutting off more than an hour of travel time. Dewey Gerdom, PDC vice president of exploration, said the "very expensive" road will provide year-round access to private land atop the Roan Plateau for PDC and its partner drilling companies, whose names Gerdom would not disclose. Gas companies not in the partnership will not be allowed to use the road. With the blasting spewing plumes of dust in the air, the view from Sid Lindauer's home is sometimes a bit hazy these days. Lindauer, who lives about a mile north of Parachute, said the blasting was so intense recently "that the whole valley filled up with dust," obscuring views of Battlement Mesa and the surrounding area. "My wife was shocked when she heard that blast go off," he said....
Private land owners declare ‘Keep off!’ Some landowners believe the county is encouraging trespassing with the development of its new trails system map. Landowners in Ophir and Soldier Canyons came together for a meeting with county leaders May 23 and left with a proposal in place. The plan fell apart when some landowners refused to sign on, says landowner Leo Ault. Ault, whose family owns between 6-7,000 acres of wilderness in Ophir Canyon — according to his best estimation — says they are trying to organize another meeting this weekend with only landowners in attendance. In response to landowners’ frustrations, Richard Clark, former leader of the county trails committee, says defining what roads are public is a complicated matter. “Public-private road issues in Utah are controversial and the legal issues surrounding them are not clear, at least to me,” Clark said. “I think it’s premature for anyone to say any road up there is public or any road is private.” But some landowners are pointedly informing everyone to keep off private land. This is their land and some don’t intend to share it. “It’s getting to be out of hand,” Ault said. “It’s my private property. Would someone want me to go riding through their backyard. There’s not a bit of difference.”...
Park Service: Raft in fatal accident hit downed tree A Snake River rafting accident that killed three people occurred when the raft hit the root end of a tree that had lodged in a channel, Grand Teton National Park officials said Tuesday. The accident Friday killed Elizabeth Rizas, 58, and John Rizas, 63, both of Beaufort, S.C., and Linda Clark, 69, of Shreveport, La. Nine others plus the boatman also fell into the water. Park spokeswoman Joan Anzelmo said it is not uncommon for trees to wash down the Snake River during the spring. She said the tree that caught the raft had washed away by Saturday....
Historic guns stolen from Fort Davis recovered National Park Service agents have recovered several 19th century weapons that were stolen from Fort Davis National Historical Site two months ago. Site Superintendent Chuck Hunt said the artifacts _ including several pistols, five revolvers and a knife dating to the 1880s _ were recovered Tuesday. The National Park Service is now offering $10,000 for information that leads to the arrest of the people who stole the weapons. "The case is progressing quickly," said Dave Sandbakken, a special agent with the park service....
Search continues for missing U.S., Canadian climbers on Alaska's Denali Park Clouds prevented two U.S. army helicopters from reaching the summit of Alaska's 5,304-metre Mount Foraker in the search for two missing climbers Tuesday. "Clouds shut them down at 16,000 feet," said Denali National Park and Preserve spokeswoman Kris Fister. It was the sixth day of searching for Sue Nott, 36, of Vail, Colo., and Karen McNeill, 37, of Canmore, Alta. Searchers will try again Wednesday to reach the summit after footprints were found Monday near the mountain top. "That's our highest priority area because of finding the tracks at 16,400 feet," she said. She said searchers theorize the two climbers may have purposely burrowed themselves into a sheltered spot, such as a crevasse, to reduce their exposure to the wind and cold....
New Luxury High Sierra Camp Set to Debut July 3 in California's Scenic Sequoia National Monument Outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy the getting-close-to-nature aspects of a camping experience -- without sacrificing creature comforts such as steaming hot showers, gourmet cuisine, plush linens and feather-top beds -- are the target demographic for a brand-new backcountry tent hotel located in Sequoia National Monument, California. The Sequoia High Sierra Camp will officially open on July 3 and remain in operation until mid-September for the 2006 season. The luxury wilderness retreat is privately owned, and will be operated by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, the hospitality management company providing visitor services in nearby Sequoia National Park, under contract with the National Park Service. Located in a secluded forest area within Sequoia National Monument, Sequoia High Sierra Camp consists of 36 luxury canvas bungalows with upscale guest amenities to include Tuscan-inspired architectural design with classic teak wood furnishings, plush-top king sized beds, down feather pillows, triple-sheeted linens, deluxe private comfort stations and hot shower facilities. Three daily California-cuisine style meals, with an emphasis on healthful, fresh and seasonal ingredients, are included in the overnight rates. Each cabin, measuring approximately 330 square feet, is nestled amidst lush Red Fir and Lodgepole Pines and features a private sitting area replete with Adirondack chairs from which to enjoy the expansive views....
Column: Who are big oil’s best friends? Environmentalists Other industries, particularly those in the energy sector, have similarly sidestepped antitrust laws with the help of the environmental movement, of all things. Environmentalist organizations are their “labor unions.” Consider the extraordinary success the environmental movement has enjoyed over the past 35 years in stopping oil exploration on the outer-continental shelves off both coasts, as well as in vast regions of Alaska, where there are known to be huge oil reserves. Domestic oil production might well be double (or more) of what it currently is without this anti-energy movement, and gas prices would be a small fraction of what they are. No nuclear power plants have been built in decades thanks to the Dr. Frankenstein-style hysteria drummed up by the environmental movement. It may take well over a decade to procure all the governmental licenses to begin construction of a nuclear plant, and even then the government reserves the right to deny a building permit. This, too, makes energy scarcer and more expensive. Hydroelectric power has also been stifled by litigation and legislation, and the same can be said of coal-fired power plants....
U.S. Science Panel Sees Big Problems if Indian Point Reactors Are Closed Closing the Indian Point nuclear reactors would make electricity more expensive, leave New York more vulnerable to natural gas shortages and add to pollution that causes global warming, according to a report released on Tuesday by a committee of the National Academy of Sciences. The committee said that there were no insurmountable technical obstacles to closing the plant. But it asserted that electric demand was growing so fast in the region, and building power plants was so difficult, that simply meeting power needs during peak periods would be a challenge even if the reactors stayed in operation. Congress provided $1 million for the study, under a bill sponsored by Nita M. Lowey, a Westchester Democrat who says the reactors should be closed because of the risk of a release of radiation through accident or terrorist attack....
Napolitano vetoes property rights bill on slum clearance Gov. Janet Napolitano on Tuesday vetoed a bill to impose new restrictions on municipalities’ use of eminent domain to clear slum areas. The bill (HB2675) would have prohibited using eminent domain to boost tax revenue if the planned new use doesn’t have an additional public purpose. It also would prohibit condemnation of non-blighted property within a declared slum area and set a new legal standard that local governments must clear before designating areas as blighted. Additionally, it would have given property owners the right to improve conditions to avoid inclusion in designated slum or blighted areas, impose new disclosures before local governments can make the designations and shorten the length to five years from ten. The legislation was supported by groups representing property rights advocates, small businesses and home builders and opposed by the League of Arizona Cities and Towns and individual cities and towns as well as groups representing planners and environmentalists....
AgInfoLink USA Announces the Release of Meat Inventory Tracking System AgInfoLink USA, a privately-held food traceability information solutions provider, has announced the release of their Meat Inventory Tracking System (MITS) 2.0. The MITS software program was developed to enable custom meat packing plants to identify live animals, link them to individual cuts of meat through to point of sale, and to help plants better manage their meat inventory. The initial MITS 2.0 product installation was just completed at Western Prime Meats in Weyburn, SK. MITS, an affordable and easy-to-use carcass-to-cut traceability system for small to medium size packing plants is in high demand because of today's changing marketplace. "Being able to help our customers tackle the challenges associated with regulatory compliance, new export requirements, supporting branded meat label claims, and day-to-day inventory management has been very rewarding. Traceability, combined with added efficiencies in processes and better management of information, will continue to be an important part of the meat business, and we're making it easier for our customers to meet these challenges and remain competitive," said Lee Curkendall, Vice President of Business Development for AgInfoLink.
Australian Cattle Traceback System Upgraded; Big Growth An Australian cattle traceback system, which the industry regards as a key component in holding and building shares in premium beef exports markets, has been upgraded amid a sharp increase in usage. The National Livestock Identification System, or NLIS, is a key component in a system that allows beef to be traced back to individual animals. More than 143,000 farms and 38 million electronic devices are registered on the database of the NLIS, with usage quadrupling since July 1, 2005, when the system became mandatory, according to a statement issued late Monday by system manager Meat & Livestock Australia Ltd. The NLIS database records an average of 41,000 cattle movements a day and has recorded up to 96,000 cattle movements in a single day. The system processes 98% of all transactions in well under one hour, with 71% processed in under a minute, MLA reported. Changes to the NLIS will improve the navigation and usability of the system's database, it said. Key industry participants believe traceback of beef to cattle is the foundation of the food industry, which depends on the trust of consumers for its future. Australia exports about two-thirds of beef production, with more than 90% of exports going to three major markets - Japan, the U.S. and South Korea....
Farmers' goods showcased in restaurant When several North Dakota farmers asked a consulting firm to help them figure out how to make more money on their products, they got a simple answer: Open an upscale restaurant. The farmers, members of the North Dakota Farmers Union, ran with the advice, and Wednesday they are in Washington opening what they hope is the first of many restaurants that feature their goods. The producers, many of whom have had trouble making ends meet, will now sell their fresh beef, vegetables and specialty crops directly to lawyers, lobbyists and tourists in the nation's capital for $20 to $30 an entree. The unusual restaurant is called Agraria, nestled beside the Potomac River in the prime real estate of Georgetown's Washington Harbor. About 90 percent of the restaurant's investors are farmers from around the country, and the food comes from farms in 25 states. About a third of the food is expected to come from North Dakota, where the idea originated....
Agent of compromise Bob Budd has driven his state-owned pickup 6,000 miles in the last three months, putting in dawn-to-dusk workdays to get a close look at two of his passions -- Wyoming's wild places, and the people who care for and about them. As executive director of the state's new Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Board, Budd is helping lead a first-of-its-kind effort to direct some of Wyoming's vast mineral wealth toward preserving the state's animals and their habitat. It's a job for which he doesn't mind putting in extra hours. "As exhausting as it is has been, it's also been invigorating for me," said Budd, who has been on the job for eight months. "I've gotten to see what the people are doing on the land, and the commitment they have to the things we all value in this state." Budd has met with landowners, conservation groups, government employees and others who hope to get shares of the proceeds from the state's new $40 million wildlife trust fund, established by the Legislature and the governor last year. Budd and the nine volunteer members of the trust fund board in recent weeks have been "ground-truthing" 38 applications for the first-ever distribution of trust fund proceeds by visiting the areas eyed for protection or improvement. The board is scheduled to decide on the grants when it meets Thursday in Gillette....
Ranchers file appeal in Canada beef import case In its latest attempt to halt the importation of Canadian beef and cattle, the U.S. rancher group R-CALF USA said on Tuesday it has filed a notice of appeal to a U.S. District Court decision in April that allowed such imports to continue. "We remain frustrated that there has never been full consideration of the merits of our case," R-CALF President Chuck Kiker said in a statement. "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in July 2005 that USDA should be given deference in this matter, but there's never been an evaluation of all of the evidence." R-CALF has argued that Canadian cattle pose a risk of mad cow disease, which is formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), to the U.S. cattle herd. "R-CALF wants the opportunity not only to make certain that USDA's decision-making on this Final Rule gets a thorough review because the agency has continued to make inconsistent statements about BSE risks, but also to make certain that we have the chance to lay out scientific evidence by nationally recognized experts and government agencies," Kiker said....
Wayne Hage, Nevada rancher and sagebrush rebel, dies Wayne Hage, who battled the federal government for decades over public lands and private property rights, has died. Hage, who came to epitomize Nevada's Sagebrush Rebellion, had been ill and died Monday at his Pine Creek Ranch near Tonopah, friends said. He was in his 60s.
"He actually successfully beat cancer a number of years ago," said Bob St. Louis, and longtime friend and fellow rancher. "In the past couple weeks, it came back in really aggressive form." A memorial service is planned Saturday at the Hage ranch in Monitor Valley. Hage, who married former Republican U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth of Idaho in 1999, had battled the government since the Forest Service started scaling back the number of cattle allowed to graze on national forest land in the early 1980s. In 2002, U.S. Claims Court Judge Loren Smith ruled in Washington D.C., that Hage had a right to let his cattle use the water and forage on at least some of the federal land where he formerly held a federal grazing permit north of Tonopah, in central Nevada.
A longtime state's rights activist and author of "Storm Over Rangelands," Hage filed a claim seeking $28 million in damages in 1991 after Forest Service officials suspended his grazing permits on parts of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, saying overgrazing was causing ecological damage on the high-desert range....