NEWS ROUNDUP

Basin water rights disputed Utah officials have accelerated their timetable to reach an agreement with Nevada over the sharing of groundwater resources under the border the two states share in the Great Basin. Residents of Utah's west desert, and some environmentalists, are wondering why. "They said they weren't in any hurry to get this done; now they seem to be in a terrific hurry," Trout Creek rancher Ken Hill said this week.he apparent impetus for the shift: pressure from Southern Nevada Water Authority officials, who are seeking to build a 200-mile pipeline from the Snake and Spring valleys near Great Basin National Park that would send 25,000 acre-feet of water annually to Las Vegas. Utah water rights officials are now targeting September for completing at least the framework of an agreement. "I wouldn't go so far as to say we'll sign an agreement [by September], but it's obvious that [southern Nevada] hasn't been comfortable with our timeline," Boyd Clayton, an assistant engineer with the state's Division of Water Rights, said Thursday. "They would like us to move faster and have indicated that." Who's applying the leverage? Environmental groups and others detect the hand of Nevada Sen. Harry Reid. They say the Senate Democratic leader, whose son Rory is a member of the SNWA board, has been playing political hardball with Utah officials to get the deal done.....
Habitat projects a top priority for elk foundation In an effort to preserve and improve wildlife habitat across the state, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is helping to fund 22 projects in Wyoming this year, awarding $227,000 in grants. Working with ranchers, state agencies and other partners, the foundation is assisting with prescribed burns, water development projects, weed control efforts and other programs that may seem small but end up making a big difference. "The projects are important for a variety of species, not just elk," said Jerry Altermatt, a Wyoming Game and Fish biologist working with the foundation on habitat conservation....
Property rights advocates turn in signatures for initiative Initiative 933 supporters, many wearing cowboy hats and boots, gathered on the steps of the state Capitol Thursday cheering as a John Deere tractor hauled in their load of 40 boxes of petitions holding more than 315,000 signatures to submit to the secretary of state. The initiative requires local government to pay any landowner who has been "harmed," economically or otherwise, by any kind of regulation passed since 1996 that has limited what they can do on their land. In effect, it would negate the last decade of environmental protection and growth management rules passed in Washington. The Washington Farm Bureau, the measure's main proponent, hailed the strong support as a sign that Washington voters need relief from restrictive government regulations on private property. Washington Farm Bureau President Steve Appel, said property rights are a critical issue for farmers and ranchers in Washington who have seen the use and the value of their property damaged by government regulations. Appel said the I-933 gives voters the chance to tell government that it needs to understand the impact that laws and regulations have on private property and provide compensation when laws and regulations harm property values....
West Texas landowner initiatives advance Literally thousands of West Texas farmers and ranchers have been meeting in community centers, churches, abandoned gymnasiums, and other gathering places in several counties. The sessions involve Q&A sessions with county officials, legal counsel, and WTWEC advisors, as West Texans explore the pros and cons of wind energy development. From the Concho Valley to the Red River to the Texas Panhandle and all points in between, West Texas ranchers, farmers, and county leaders are organizing, marketing, and building wind energy projects. This intensity and depth of action is in stark contrast to other areas of the U.S. and even South Texas, where wind projects continue to face stiff in my back yard opposition. In fact, in many West Texas areas, the battle cry is often “Put them in my front yard "Please.”....
Company out to dig up more water Farmers who rely on North Poudre Irrigation Co. water for their fields might end up with the water they expected to receive for the growing season after all. The North Poudre board of directors decided Wednesday to look into borrowing water from local municipalities and water districts to cover a projected shortfall of 5,000 to 6,000 acre feet of water farmers were told would be available for their crops. If the water is available, it would be moved into the irrigation company’s system of reservoirs and canals for use this year with the understanding that it would be paid back next year, board members said....
Fence researcher deters hungry wildlife with woven wire Roy Fenster may have fencing in his blood, but he has also left his blood in fences. "I had eight stitches from a barbed wire fence once," said the Montana State University graduate student with plenty of shock and ahhhh memories. "I have been shocked a lot of times, but never electrocuted," he joked. Fenster used to build electric, barbed wire, smooth wire and woven wire fences while working for farmers in Nebraska. He then went on to build 4,800 feet more as part of his master's degree research at MSU. He wanted to find the best way to modify fences to keep deer and elk out of pastures and crops. "If ranchers could keep elk out of critical pasture, ranchers wouldn't be so opposed to elk," said Jim Knight, Fenster's advisor and an MSU Extension Wildlife Specialist. "They would be more tolerant of elk." Fenster started his project in 2004 by finding four Montana ranches with livestock and large numbers of elk or deer....
Looters still ravaging ancient Arizona An Arizona State Land Department investigator and an Arizona State University archaeologist looked intently out the windows of the small aircraft as it circled a desert wash above ancient gravesites. Soon, the two men saw the telltale signs: makeshift roads, heavy equipment, a series of linear cuts. "Look at all those holes; they weren't there before," archaeologist Keith Kintigh said. "That's where they're digging." Experts fear looting of ancient Native American burial sites in Arizona is on the rise, though Land Department investigator Brad Geeck said there are no hard statistics to track those trends. "Every year, the calls seem to increase." The rewards, experts say, outweigh the risks. A single intact pot can bring as much as $75,000. Desecrating human remains to get to the pot is a misdemeanor, with a fine of less than $500....
Foes imaginary, real at Piñon site Army Maj. Milford Beagle stood in a mock forward operating base and looked over a map that pinpointed the locations of three enemy forces operating in the vast war zone: Muhammed's Army, QJBR and Muqfada's Militia. Outside his camp, troops wearing 40 pounds of gear in near 100-degree heat searched for insurgents on 236,300 acres of the austere, arid landscape of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, 150 miles southeast of Fort Carson. In Beagle's eyes, the desert training ground - roughly the same size as Rocky Mountain National Park - was the perfect place to get 3,500 troops from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team ready last month for a fall deployment to Iraq. With an additional 10,000 troops moving to Fort Carson in the next two years, officials want to expand Piñon Canyon by more than 400,000 acres - making it the Army's largest training site. That plan has run into a buzz saw of opposition from a group of about 500 farmers and ranchers. The Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition says the Army has not articulated the need for so much property and has not been forthright about its plans. "If I wanted to deal with you on some land that you had, we would enter into an open and honest discussion. ... But there's none of that open discussion, it's just not there," said coalition leader Lon Robertson....So if we are really looking at future plans to pull troops out of Iraq, why do we need more land to train more troops? I thought the emphasis was on training Iraqi troops, not ours.
Climate change making ominous mark on Midwest Snow sometimes piled so high in the 1960s and 1970s that Gladstone, Mo., postman Bob Drayer couldn't pull his truck up to mailboxes. In the early 1980s, Mary Beth Kirkham crunched across campus on ice cleats at Kansas State University, where she teaches in the Department of Agronomy. "I've given away my ice cleats; we don't have those cold winters anymore," Kirkham said. Although skeptics say our changing weather is just part of a natural cycle, many scientists say winter's diminished fury here is the most visible piece of evidence in the Midwest of global warming. But there are other signs as well. Wildlife and plants native to the South, such as the armadillo and the southern magnolia, now are thriving here. Flowers bloom two weeks earlier than usual, bird migration timetables are out of whack, and heat and drought have dropped many lake and river levels below normal for several years. "This is a much, much bigger issue" than what most people understand, said Ronald P. Neilson, an internationally recognized bioclimatologist at the USDA Forest Service in Oregon. "Haste is important."....
Global warming triggers fatal wildfires in Western US The never-ending warning signals that refer to the increased level of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere (which produces the famous “green-house effect”) are now having a new “buddy”: the wildfires. Scientists found after an intensive study that wildfires in the US have become more dangerous in the last 35 years. The main reason for this is the rise in temperatures, especially in the western part of the US. The global warming was found to be even more important than the forest management programs (which means the use of wood from forests for different industrial activities or the eradication of entire forested areas for agricultural purposes). One of the most important conclusions that the team of scientists came up with is that temperatures in the West for a period between 1987 and 2003 were not less than 1.5 degrees higher than the temperatures registered in the previous 17 years (1970-1987). The scientists discovered that, in fact, the seasonal temperatures were the warmest since record-keeping started in 1895. They were measured for the summer and spring period. A climate researcher, Anthony Westerling, who led the research while at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, said that "It all fits together. The [fire] seasons do start earlier and run longer. It is consistent with a changing climate."....
Rainbow Family number peaks at 15,000 An estimated 15,000 people showed up at the peak of the Rainbow Family's gathering in the mountains of northern Colorado, the U.S. Forest Service said Thursday. The agency said officers had written a total of 584 citations, including 298 for camping without a permit and 181 for drug-related violations. Officials refused to grant the loosely organized, nationwide band a permit, citing fire danger. The weeklong gathering officially started Saturday. The Forest Service said it is gathering data for a rehabilitation plan for the estimated 4-square-mile area of the Routt National Forest where the group is camping. Officials said their concerns include compacted or eroded soil, water pollution and stream bank damage, abandoned dogs and vehicles and trails worn into the forest....
Bill would limit comment on logging Fuel-reduction logging and controlled-burn Forest Service projects on at least 1.2 million public acres would be exempt from the public comment and appeals process under a provision included in a spending bill that a key Senate committee recently approved. Forest Service officials say the measure would reduce the cost and time for high-priority projects but environmentalists cried foul, saying it would cut the public out of decisions affecting public lands. The measure would allow the Forest Service to exempt from the comment and appeals process controlled-burn projects of up to 4,500 acres and fuel-reduction logging projects of up to 1,000 acres. The provision, authored by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., would effectively overturn a court ruling that requires such projects to be subject to public comment. The congressional action comes as the matter remains under litigation, with arguments made in a federal appeals court last month....
Judge won't halt forest thinning A federal judge here has denied a request by two environmental groups to block a project to thin a heavily forested area in the Bitterroot Valley. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, in a decision dated last Friday, declined to issue a preliminary injunction for the project. He said the WildWest Institute and the Friends of the Bitterroot were unlikely to succeed on the merits of their claims that the U.S. Forest Service violated procedures of the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act. Matthew Koehler, the WildWest Institute's executive director, said Wednesday his group was reviewing its options, which may include an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "We were disappointed," Koehler said of Molloy's ruling. The case involved the contentious Middle East Fork Hazardous Fuel Reduction Project, Montana's first hazardous materials reduction project under the Bush administration's Healthy Forests initiative....
Wild Horses in the Wild - Targets of Ruthless Exploiters I am disturbed by the distortions of truth put out by enemies of wild horses in the American West. Extreme prejudice distorts their view of the life of horses in the wild. Instead, with closed minds, they disregard the many positive aspects of the natural, free life of horses. They should read my book, "Wild Horses: Living Symbols of Freedom" to get a fairer picture and stop listening to the bar room philosophies of public land exploiters who are blinded to the true ecological value of wild horses by their own possessive interests. Some aspects of wild horse behavior may seen harsh, yet they prove to be wise in the long run. For example, when a stallion prevents its male progeny from re-entering his band, he prevents inbreeding. The bachelors soon accept this rejection and go off to form their own bands, when sufficient habitat is available. The problem today is that people with vested interests in the livestock and game hunting industries are concocting all sorts of lies and distortions to denigrate wild horses in the wild....
Million-dollar moth: State spends $1m annually for 137-year-old mistake Etienne Leopold Trouvelot was apparently inquisitive, talented and well-regarded in his day. But he is not well-regarded in our day. Because of his mistake 137 years ago, Washington state expends $1 million annually in a war without end against gypsy moths. "We spend more right now to detect and eradicate gypsy moths than any other insect," state Department of Agriculture spokesman John Lundberg said Wednesday. As moths, gypsy moths are only interested in reproducing. But as caterpillars in the spring, they eat forest canopies, litter parks with droppings and give humans rashes. In the Northeast United States, leaf-eating gypsy moths can't be stopped. Officials can only hope to contain them. Trouvelot accidentally released European gypsy moths in 1869 from his home in Medford, Mass. Trouvelot understood the hazards non-native species pose to ecosystems and alerted city officials. The news of moths on the loose didn't incite action, however. "They kind of blew him off," Lundberg said. "They said, 'We have caterpillars around here all the time.' " Trouvelot had gone back to France by the time gypsy moths stripped Medford's trees bare a decade later....
Salamander ruling disputed Five environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the federal government Thursday, challenging its decision not to extend Endangered Species Act protection to a pair of north state amphibians. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in April that it would not list either the Siskiyou Mountain or Scott Bar salamanders as endangered or threatened species, saying California and the U.S. Forest Service already have protections in place. But those protections could disappear, the environmental groups contend. "They substantially relied on protections that are on the chopping block and are in the process of being eliminated," said Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups in the lawsuit. The state is in the process of removing the Siskiyou Mountain salamander from its threatened species list. Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service is rewriting its "survey and manage" rules, which require influences on animals such as the salamanders to be taken into account before a timber sale goes through....
Ceremony needs space: Public asked to respect voluntary closure in forest An American Indian coming-of-age ceremony that hasn't been practiced in its entirety since the 1920s will usher a girl into womanhood starting Saturday. But planning the age-old rite in the 21st century has come with growing pains of its own, said Caleen Sisk-Franco, spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu. "Isn't it ironic that it's the Fourth of July, 2006, and we're still begging around for our rights," Sisk-Franco said this week. "We're still not there yet." The ceremony site -- once the tribe's traditional area -- is now managed by the U.S. Forest Service and a campsite concessionaire. As a popular piece of public land, the 120-member tribe can't use it as freely as it once did. As a result, the tribe says, the government has failed to honor its religious rights. Shasta-Trinity National Forest officials last week asked that the public respect a voluntary closure from Saturday to Tuesday, from McCloud Bridge to about one mile south. District Ranger Kristi Cottini said that because the area is public land, it cannot be completely blocked off....
DDT: The Bald Eagle Lie While the AP acknowledged the fact that bald eagle populations “were considered a nuisance and routinely shot by hunters, farmers and fishermen” – spurring a 1940 federal law protecting bald eagles – the AP underplayed the significance of hunting and human encroachment and erroneously blamed DDT for the eagles’ near demise. As early as 1921, the journal Ecology reported that bald eagles were threatened with extinction – 22 years before DDT production even began. According to a report in the National Museum Bulletin, the bald eagle reportedly had vanished from New England by 1937 – 10 years before widespread use of the pesticide. But by 1960 – 20 years after the Bald Eagle Protection Act and at the peak of DDT use – the Audubon Society reported counting 25 percent more eagles than in its pre-1941 census. U.S. Forest Service studies reported an increase in nesting bald eagle productivity from 51 in 1964 to 107 in 1970, according to the 1970 Annual Report on Bald Eagle Status. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service attributed bald eagle population reductions to a “widespread loss of suitable habitat,” but noted that “illegal shooting continues to be the leading cause of direct mortality in both adult and immature bald eagles,” according to a 1978 report in the Endangered Species Tech Bulletin. A 1984 National Wildlife Federation publication listed hunting, power line electrocution, collisions in flight and poisoning from eating ducks containing lead shot as the leading causes of eagle deaths....
Recent fires on Gila cost millions to fight Fires in recent weeks on the Gila National Forest of southwestern New Mexico have cost millions of dollars to fight, according to Forest Service officials. They say two fires detected on June 2nd and June 19th cost about $11.5 million together. The cost to fight two other fires that became known as the Reserve Complex was put at $6.3 million. Forest Service spokeswoman Loretta Benavidez says firefighters and support personnel who fought blazes in the Gila for the past month came from 36 states. They say more than 2,200 people were involved in the suppression efforts. Wildfires in the Gila this year have charred more than 83,000 acres.
Poison plan appealed Two conservation groups are appealing the Flathead National Forest’s decision to authorize the poisoning of 21 lakes in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and the Jewel Basin Hiking Area. In an appeal filed last month, Wilderness Watch and Friends of the Wild Swan allege that the Forest Service’s approval of the South Fork Flathead Watershed Westslope Cutthroat Trout Conservation Program violates provisions of the Wilderness Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act and the Endangered Species Act. The plan authorizes the state Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) to use poisons and motorized equipment to remove hybrid cutthroat trout from mountain lakes, and then restock those historically fishless lakes with genetically pure populations of Westslope cutthroat trout. The groups also claim the Forest Service’s authorization to use helicopters, aircraft, outboard motors, pumps and mixers in Jewel Basin and the Bob violates the agency’s own forest plan, which does not allow motorized equipment in plan-identified grizzly bear “core areas” while bears are out of their dens....
Border Fight Focuses on Water, Not Immigration For more than 100 years, as their names imply, Calexico and its much larger sister city, Mexicali, south of the border, have embraced each other with a bonhomie born of mutual need and satisfaction in the infernal desert. The pedestrian gate into Mexico clangs ceaselessly as Mexicans lug back bulging bags from Wal-Mart and 99 Cent Stores in Calexico. The line into the United States slogs along, steady but slower, through an air-conditioned foyer as men and women trudge off to work and, during the school year, children wear the universal face that greets the coming day. Now, the ties that bind Calexico and Mexicali are being tested as a 20-year dispute over the rights to water leaking into Mexico from a canal on the American side is reaching a peak. Though the raging debate over illegal immigration in the United States has not upset border relations here, some say the fight over water could affect the number of Mexicans who try to cross here illegally. To slake the ever-growing thirst of San Diego, 100 miles to the west, the United States has a plan to replace a 23-mile segment of the earthen All-American Canal, which the federal government owns and the Colorado River feeds, with a concrete-lined parallel trough. The $225 million project would send more water to San Diego, by cutting off billions of leaked gallons — enough for 112,000 households a year — that have helped irrigate Mexican farms since the 1940's.....
Enlarged livestock district is petition's aim Greensprings landowners have banded together to place 4,400 acres in the Cascade Mountains off-limits to grazing cattle. "We have no property rights when it comes to cows and cowboys," said Leon Kincaid, who owns two parcels totaling 32 acres that he says have suffered thousands of dollars in damage over the past 21 years from cattle. Kincaid and other property owners, including the Green Springs Inn, are part of a petition sent to Jackson County that would enlarge the existing Greensprings Livestock District. A livestock district, according to Oregon law, places the burden on cattle ranchers to keep their animals out of the designated land. More than 100 affected properties along Highway 66 now fall under open-range law, which places the burden on landowners to keep cattle out....
USDA won't send mad cow experts for Canada probe The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Thursday it will not send any experts to take part in Canada's investigation of its latest case of mad cow disease, saying it was confident in Canada's food safety measures. Canada confirmed the case on Tuesday, in an older crossbreed beef cow. It was the country's sixth native-born case of the disease since 2003. Canada said the cow was born "well before" the 1997 ban on use of cattle protein in cattle feed, one of the major safeguards in North America against spread of the disease. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency invited USDA to take part in the investigation of the new case. "Based on our confidence of the food safety measures in place in Canada and our previous audits of the system, we have determined that it is not necessary to send any U.S. experts to participate in this epidemiological investigation at this time," said USDA chief veterinarian John Clifford in a statement. Clifford said "we do not expect that this latest case would cause any disruption in our trade in beef or beef products from Canada."....
Canada cows complicate US, Seoul beef trade South Korea has told the Bush administration it will not resume beef trade until U.S. slaughterhouses segregate Canadian beef products, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. South Korea closed its borders to U.S. beef in December 2003 after the first U.S. case of mad cow disease was reported. The United States has since brought into effect a number of food preparation safeguards but South Korean government officials are concerned about the effects of mingling U.S. and Canadian beef. Canada, which confirmed its sixth home-grown case of mad cow disease on Tuesday, ships cattle and beef from animals under 30 months old into the United States. It has seen twice as many cases of mad cow as the United States, which has a much larger herd. "The Korean audit team found problems in U.S. slaughter procedures, such as the (lack of) segregation of Canadian beef," the source said. "Seoul is discussing and waiting for the U.S. to take measures on that issue. Any time the issue is solved (it will) start importing U.S. beef." No-one from the U.S. Agriculture Department was immediately available for comment....
High Tech Cow Tracking A Utah company hopes its new technology will change the face of the country's meat supply forever. One hundred million head of cattle make up the sources of America's beef. It's "what's for dinner" but Mad Cow, Hoof and Mouth disease, E. coli and antibiotics all should be concerns for consumers. Using wireless technology, North Salt Lake company Tek-Vet tags bovine with a remote box that simply sees if a cow has a fever or if they're too cold. "The cowboys are watching the cows and they go check them all the time. This also acts as a validation, when they think might be sick they can go check on them here." Tek-Vet CTO Richard Keene says the rancher, cowboy or farmer tracks via the Internet each individual cow in their herd. "If we plan to export, we are going to have to have a system like this." So what does this mean to you as the consumer? How about cows not pumped full of antibiotics? And the ability to check out where your New York Strip came from. "You'll be able to buy that piece of meat and go online and put in that animal identifier and find out the entire history of that animal."....
Getting an education Sue and I, along with quite a few of our friends the same age, are beginning to experience a new sensation. We're grandparents. This situation actually began several years ago. It has been wonderful, don't get me wrong. Lately, though, the whole grandparent thing has taken an odd turn. As proud grandparents we looked forward to the first time the kids rolled over, took their first step and uttered their first word. Pretty normal stuff. The first step rapidly evolved into chasing them everywhere, and not being able to keep up with them. It's talking with them, however, that has turned the most interesting. Random babbling has become sentences. Sentences became questions. Eventually, grandparents and grandkids began to have conversations. This is when things began to get a little weird....
On The Edge of Common Sense: 'Da Vinci Code' taken literally, although author indicates he made it up "President Kennedy's assassination was a government cover up," pronounces conspiracy theorists. "I made it up,' shouts Oliver Stone. "I can actually speak Wookie,"proclaims a dedicated Star Wars fan. "I made it up!" shouts George Lucas. "The Da Vinci Code, a saga that plays at the heart of western religion," opines one reviewer. "I made it up," shouts Dan Brown. Although I congratulate Mr. Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, for writing such an appealing book, I am stunned that so many ignore him and take it seriously. Reporters and commentators pose questions with the gravity normally reserved for the North Korean nuclear threat or a coal mine cave in. "Is it possible the Apostle John was really a woman? "Is it true Constantine invented the genuflect?" "Did Da Vinci really paint the face on the barroom floor?" "Who left the tip at the Last Supper?"....