NEWS ROUNDUP

Ag Secretary: Burns 'very unfair' in attack on firefighters Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Tuesday a verbal attack by U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., on federal firefighters for their work in quelling a Montana wildfire was unfair, adding that he was proud of the job being done by the 10,000 U.S. Forest Service firefighters he oversees. Johanns' comments came while visiting the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, which manages 15,000 firefighters from five federal agencies, including the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. "To be quite candid, I think it's very unfair to the firefighters," Johanns said of Burns' comments. Johanns praised them for their determination in dangerous situations _ such as an Aug. 13 helicopter crash near Yellow Pine, Idaho, that killed four people, including three firefighters from the Payette National Forest. "It's been a tough season, from a number of standpoints," he added. "But that loss of life makes it especially difficult."....I'll bet Johanns gets a nice little call from the White House about his comments.
Endangered wolf pup dies in the wild An endangered Mexican gray wolf pup that was released into the wild with its parents earlier this summer has died, according to officials with the wolf reintroduction program. The male pup, a member of the Meridian Pack, was released in Arizona in June. Officials said it was with its parents on July 14, but evidence was found days later that it was dead. Other members of the pack injured a dog later in July and were hazed by the program field team to keep them away from homes. Officials reported two other depredation cases in July. A male wolf, probably from the Granite Pack, killed a calf in New Mexico and two Luna Pack yearlings were blamed for another depredation....
Fire plan tossed out at Sequoia monument A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a U.S. Forest Service management plan to use commercial logging to reduce fire danger in the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Ruling on a lawsuit filed last year by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer found the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Protection Act by not adequately analyzing the impacts of logging in the monument east of Fresno. "This is an across-the-board victory for one of the most treasured natural resources on the planet," said Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for Lockyer. Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes saw things differently "We are very disappointed by the ruling," he said. "We spent almost four years developing a plan that meets the spirit and intent of President Clinton's proclamation," which created the monument in 2000. In a related ruling Tuesday, Judge Breyer also ruled in favor of six environmental groups that had sued the Forest Service over four timber sales in the region, three of them in the monument. Breyer halted the sales -- which had been signed prior to Clinton's proclamation but never actually acted on -- saying the agency failed to consider new information about the potential impacts on a rare weasel-like mammal, the Pacific fisher....
Navajo AG: Tribes must have final say in right-of-way issues The Energy Policy Act of 2005, Section 368, requires the U.S. Department of Energy and other federal agencies designate new right-of-way corridors for energy development on federal lands. Section 1813 of the act requires a federal study of energy rights-of-way across Indian lands. That study also includes an accompanying report on 1948-2006 historic rates of compensation for rights-of-way crossing Indian lands. In comments submitted to the feds earlier this year on behalf of the Navajo Nation, Attorney General Louis Denetsosie said it is well known that the right-of-way compensation dispute between El Paso Natural Gas and the Navajo Nation prompted the Section 1813 study. Initially, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association and El Paso proposed that Congress amend the 1948 Indian right-of-way statute to permit the Secretary of the Interior to grant rights-of-way for tribal lands over the objections of the tribe. Congress refused to do this, and instead directed the Section 1813 study be conducted....
Military pitches in to battle wildfires Wildfires raging nationwide have prompted the first military firefighting deployment in three years. Forty-nine large fires, covering 773,000 acres, are burning in 12 states. With all civilian fire teams deployed, the National Interagency Fire Center sought help from the Pentagon, which sent an Army battalion of 550 soldiers from Fort Lewis, Wash., last week to fight the Tripod Complex fire in northern Washington. The unit was deployed by Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. As of Monday, the 116,000-acre Tripod Complex fire in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest 7 miles north of Winthrop was 30 percent contained. This year, 77,176 fires have scorched 6,804,464 acres - the most for this time of year since at least 2000....
New outlaws plague Arizona desert refuges Roger Di Rosa, standing atop a high ridge overlooking a broad basin and the Growler Mountains beyond, recalls what this protected area was like nearly 30 years ago when he did his first tour here in the Southwest's Sonoran Desert. "You could go out and not see another person for a week," says Di Rosa, who now manages the sprawling U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuge that covers an area the size of Rhode Island. There's no longer a shortage of people here or on other federal land that makes up 43% of the 1,900-mile boundary with Mexico. Aggressive crackdowns along the border in recent years in places such as San Diego and El Paso have pushed illegal immigrants and drug smugglers into remote desert areas in southern Arizona. As a result, employees from park rangers to biologists are dealing more with the effects of illegal immigration, instead of protecting wildlife and helping visitors. Last year, 205,231 illegal immigrants were apprehended on Arizona border lands managed by the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management, according to Di Rosa....
Mineral Basin mine cleanup ready for finishing touches They make for a collection of strange bedfellows. But together, they are about to accomplish something unprecedented. A conservation group, a jewelry company, a ski resort and the federal government have pooled their resources to reclaim an abandoned hard-rock mine complex in Mineral Basin that has been leaking heavy metals into the canyon watershed for decades. The project, which began in 2004, is now in its final stages. The news medias were invited to take a look at the nearly finished effort on Tuesday....
Nevada woman dies in fall at Zion National Park A Las Vegas woman died Tuesday after falling several hundred feet from the popular Angels Landing trail in Zion National Park in southern Utah, a park spokesman said. The body of Bernadette Vandermeer, 29, was found by search and rescue crews, said Chief Deputy Rob Tersigni of the Washington County sheriff's office. The sheriff's office and park police received an emergency call reporting the fall early Tuesday, said Tom Haraden, a Zion National Park spokesman. "A gentleman was with his wife and she had fallen from Angels Landing," Haraden said. Search and rescue teams and a helicopter were dispatched to find the woman, who was dead at the scene, he said....
Cat-killing raccoons on prowl in west Olympia Raccoons are cute, until they kill one of your cats. That is what a west Olympia neighborhood is learning this summer. Raccoons have killed about 10 cats in a three-block area near the Garfield Nature Trail at Harrison Avenue West and Foote Street Southwest. Problem wildlife coordinator Sean Carrell of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife called the situation "bizarre, weird." "I've never heard a report of 10 cats being killed. It's something we're going to have to monitor," he said. He added that they may have to bring in trappers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The problem got so bad that residents Kari Hall and Tamara Keeton even started a Raccoon Watch after having an emotional neighborhood meeting attended by about 40 people....