NEWS ROUNDUP

Farmers sign up to dry up After farming this area all his life, Wade Prescott recently decided to dry up half of his land in return for money from the government. The choice wasn’t an easy one for this Hazelton-area farmer. Then again, Prescott says, most farmers who rely on groundwater to irrigate crops are running out of options. That’s why Prescott elected to put 300 acres in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program — a joint state-federal plan to pay farmers to let their lands go dry — for the next 15 years. With a $258 million price tag, the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer CREP will take 100,000 acres out of production and reduce pumping on the aquifer by 200,000 acre-feet annually. That’s enough water to cover the same amount of land in water one-foot deep. Announced in May, the program still needs volunteers....
Group continues bid to protect surface rights Although the New Mexico Legislature failed to pass a bill that would have provided landowners with surface rights on public lands protection or damage compensation from oil and gas companies, backers of the bill say they are not giving up. It will be back on the table in the 2007 Legislative session. A public meeting sponsored by the Fee and Public Land Association will be held at 7 p.m. today in the auditorium at New Mexico State University Carlsbad Campus to explain to land owners the proposed Surface Protection Act. According to the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, which strongly supports the proposed act for New Mexico, 11 states have surface owner protection legislation, which typically requires that oil and gas companies provide notice to landowners before entering a property to drill a well, and that companies negotiate damage settlements with surface owners. Lisa Ogden, a rancher and New Mexico Cattle Growers president elect, who actively lobbied for the bill during this year's legislative session, said that a few oil and gas companies offer some compensation to surface owners, but generally the landowner is at the mercy of the company in terms of monetary compensation....
Burned Biscuit trees get logged With no protesters in sight, logging started Monday on the first timber sale in a national forest roadless area since the Bush administration eased logging restrictions. The logging went ahead after a federal judge in San Francisco last week declined to delay the work pending her ruling on lawsuits by conservation groups and four states challenging the Bush administration's new "roadless rule." That rule eased a Clinton administration rule that had put 58.5 million acres of national forests off-limits to most logging, mining and development. Loggers reported that they felled about 150 dead Douglas firs between 22 and 50 inches in diameter in their first day of work on the Mike's Gulch timber sale on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Work was expected to go on for about two months. Forest spokeswoman Patty Burel said there were no protesters in the area when logging started early Monday. The area had burned in the 2002 Biscuit fire, and it remained open to the public. Helicopters were not yet hauling out the logs....
Town taking down No Trespassing signs Imagine Colorado Springs if Pikes Peak were closed to the public. That’s sort of what the little Park County mountain town of Alma has been dealing with. Access to three Colorado 14ers — Mount Democrat, Mount Lincoln and Mount Bross — was closed last summer by private landowners concerned about their liability. The No Trespassing signs are coming down, replaced by trail signs and road markers. The town took the unusual step of leasing 3,900 acres of mountain land and accepting liability in a unanimous vote of the Alma Board of Trustees on Aug. 1. “I felt like it was a good thing for business in Alma, Fairplay and Park County,” Alma Mayor Mark Dowaliby said. “It was an opportunity to get government to help people. The reason we are in government is to help peo- ple. ”The new plan is a bargain for the mountain burg near Breckenridge with about 250 people, harsh winters and views galore. “The town is paying a dollar a month to lease the three peaks,” Dowaliby said....
Interfering in lion hunt gets activist prison term A Tucson animal activist was sentenced to eight months in federal prison Monday for interfering with U.S. Forest Service agents who were trying to capture mountain lions in Sabino Canyon two years ago. Rodney Coronado will also have to spend three years on probation upon his release, pay $100 in restitution and stay away from activists involved in such groups as the Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation Front and Earth First. U.S. District Judge David Bury told Coronado he wanted to send a message that if you use "force and violence in civil disobedience you are going to be punished for it; it's anarchy." Coronado, 39, Matthew Crozier, 33, and Esquire magazine writer-at-large John Richardson were arrested in the spring of 2004 after authorities accused them of interfering with the mountain lion hunt. Federal officials closed Sabino Canyon that spring because they were alarmed at a growing number of encounters between mountain lions and humans....
Death of a forest It seems there’s just not much good news for trees these days. Between the mountain pine beetles decimating lodgepole pines across the West to a mysterious illness affecting aspen trees, foresters are already looking ahead to what the landscape will look like in the future. “This mature pine forest is a goner,” said Cal Wettstein, district ranger for the Holy Cross and Eagle ranger districts. “We’re focusing on the next forest.” Asked what the future holds for the Vail Valley’s forest, Wettstein said simply “large fires.” Over the next two decades, the beetle-killed trees will shed their needles and their branches, then fall down and contribute to a tremendous load of fuel on the forest floor, Wettstein said. At that point, he said, it’s a waiting game as to when the combination of fuel, weather and a spark culminates in a large-scale fire....
Endangered Bighorn Protected from Sheep Grazing To protect endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep from deadly disease this summer, the U.S. Forest Service has wisely halted risky domestic sheep grazing in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in the eastern Sierra Nevada. “After much evidence was presented, the Forest Service honored concerns raised by scientists and conservationists and made a decent decision for this year,” said Daniel R. Patterson, Ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The agreement must be closely watched to ensure it is followed daily on the ground to monitor bighorn movements – a key component of the Forest Service’s decision.” Because domestic sheep can spread disease to the endangered bighorn, the Forest Service will not permit domestic sheep grazing near occupied bighorn habitat on the Dunderberg Allotment in Mono County this year. The Forest Service is also limiting grazing in bighorn habitat on two nearby allotments, Tamarack and Cameron Canyon. Some risk to bighorn remains on the Tamarack and Cameron Canyon allotments north of Dunderberg Peak, but if bighorn move further north this year, domestic sheep grazing may be halted there as well....
Judge approves Kensington Mines disposal method A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging federal approval of a mining company's plans to deposit rock waste in a southeast Alaska lake. The permit allows for rock waste to be dumped into nearby Lower Slake Lake. "It was music to our ears," said Scott Lamb, a spokesman for Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp., the Idaho-based parent company of Coeur Alaska. "In light of the court's decision, we would encourage those who have opposed the project to abandon their efforts." Environmental groups had filed the lawsuit, saying the Kensington Mine project's lake discharge permit from by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violates the Clean Water Act. They now have 30 days to appeal....
Industry reps say they face too many development obstacles The Rockies, from Montana to Mexico, are the single greatest source of untapped domestic energy in the lower 48 states, and the oil and gas industry needs to do more so lawsuits and other obstacles don’t tie up vital resources on Western public lands, speakers at an energy conference said Monday. Although environmentalists and people facing drilling on or near their land believe the pace of energy development is skyrocketing, industry representatives said they face too many obstacles. ‘‘Through lawsuits and other actions, it’s more and more difficult to get leases on public land,’’ Duane Zavadil of the Bill Barrett Corp. said during a summit sponsored in part by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Association, a trade group. The Rockies hold 224 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or 41 percent of the reserves in the lower 48, Zavadil said. About 70 percent of the region’s minerals are on federal land, he added. ‘‘In most other countries that would be considered a good thing. We’d have some self determination in our source of natural gas,’’ Zavadil said. ‘‘But the federal land management is in fact imposing requirements that limit access to 137 (trillion cubic feet) of that 224 tcf.’’....
BLM finds no impact in proposed oil shale project A proposed research project to test an extraction method for oil shale in the Piceance Basin will have no appreciable environmental impact, according to the Bureau of Land Management. The conclusion is based on findings of an environmental assessment (EA) published last week. The EA analyzes the potential impact of EGL Resources Inc.'s test of an in-place oil shale retorting technology it hopes to conduct on a 160-acre lease of BLM property near Meeker. EGL's report is the first of five proposed projects in Colorado. Two additional EAs, for Chevron Shale Oil Co. and Shell Frontier, which seeks to lease three separate tracts, are due out in the next several weeks, according a prepared statement from BLM....
Water wells draining rivers at their source Among the major rivers that begin or end in Arizona, only the Verde flows on its own from start to finish. But like all the state's rivers, it is running out of water and running out of time. The water that fills the Verde is in danger of being sucked away by wells, and no one is moving to turn off the pumps. In the first of six stories examining the health of Arizona's rivers, The Republic looks at the 150-mile Verde River. The cities want to use water in the underground aquifers that feed the Verde to quench the thirst of their growing cities. Thousands of other unmonitored wells already are drawing water from the same sources. State laws are virtually powerless to protect the Verde and other Arizona rivers from the pumping. The situation is dire for Arizona's dying rivers. But desert rivers are resilient and, given water, recover with remarkable speed....
Upstream damage dooms Little Colorado River system Water hadn't flowed through this stretch of the Little Colorado River in weeks, months maybe. The dry winter produced little runoff, and almost none made it this far downstream, barely 40 miles from the river's end. But the empty riverbed wasn't the troubling part of the view from the old suspension bridge. What stuck out sorely were the deep green stands of tamarisk that lined the banks and pushed into the channel, creating an artificial path almost as rigid as concrete. "The Little Colorado River is at the epicenter of the tamarisk invasion," said Sharon Masek-Lopez, a biologist who advises the Hopi Tribe on water issues. "With all the tamarisk in there, the river can't function as it normally would. It needs to spread out and meander, but it can't." Invasion is not too strong of a word to describe what is happening to the Little Colorado and other Arizona rivers, whose riparian areas are choking on invasive plants that take advantage of weakened ecosystems....
Indian activist anxious to close book on huge lawsuit After 10 years of leading the largest American Indian lawsuit against the U.S. in history, Elouise Cobell has been through her share of emotions. Last week, however, the lead litigant in the Indian Trust Fund lawsuit was flat shocked when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pulled back legislation that could have ended the lawsuit. "They were that close," Cobell said, sitting in her Browning office. "What kind of pressure happened that they pulled back and lost the greatest chance they had? "Who knows what goes on behind closed doors," she said. Had the McCain bill moved forward as it was written, it would have settled the class action lawsuit that seeks a historical accounting and trust-fund reform for money accounts belonging to 500,000 landowners. The bill called for an $8 billion settlement - down from accounting as high as $237 billion - to be paid as restitution for money lost, accounting errors and unpaid interest on federally managed land accounts....
Column - The Wilderness Paradox Wilderness is tearing at the soul of mountain biking. The Wilderness Act forces us to choose between protecting open space and riding our bikes. In the name of environmental protection, it forces us to lump mountain biking with the evils of mining, oil drilling and logging. Wilderness forces us to see justice in allowing 1500 pound horses to chew through Wilderness trails while our waffle prints are regarded as a scourge of the Wilderness world. Wilderness is not only renewing our age-old hostilities with the hiking groups, but is pitting biker against biker in a high stakes inter-nacine argument about the future of our passion. In the meantime, the Wilderness juggernaut rolls on across the country. There's still debate about whether the 1964 Congress really intended bicycles to be prohibited in Wilderness when they banned "other modes of mechanized transport" from Wilderness areas....
Column - "Smart Growth" Policies Hurt It is not uncommon to find workers in the Washington, DC area who suffer a two-hour commute each way to their jobs. Some travel from as far as West Virginia or Pennsylvania.1 In many cases, the cause is not preference but finance. Simply put: There is lack of affordable housing in the region.2 It is a problem nationally, not just in our nation's capital. Steep increases in property values are often attributed to a robust real estate market or an area's appeal for living, working and attracting business.3 However, another more flagrant and largely overlooked cause is so-called "smart growth" planning. There is mounting evidence that smart growth policies have already prevented thousands of American households from their claim of the American Dream of owning their own home....
Column - Land Rights: Why Do They Matter? Today, all across America, people are focusing on a major constitutional issue: their right to control the use of their land and property. Landowners in the East are concerned about restrictions on their land rights when their property is designated as historic. Farmers are up in arms about the Corps of Engineers wetlands program that forces them to abandon the use of farmland because it may become wet during part of the year. Ranchers and forest owners in the West are threatened by enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. In some ways, the movement is a rebellion. Yet in the strict meaning of the word, the movement is more a revolution - a complete rotation that carries us back to a first Constitutional principle, the principle of protection against excessive government. Some of the groups that contest the state's authority describe the problem in simple terms. The land on which they live is theirs, quite often owned by family members for three generations or more. In their view, no one has a superior right to tell them what they can do or not do on their land. (Of course, if the owners are truly harming others, then they can be sued under common law.) Others see the problem in more complex terms. They hold contracts, deeds and easements that give them the legal right to graze cattle, cut trees, or build houses. They see a growing maze of federal, state and local regulations that interfere with the terms of the contracts and deeds they hold. These regulations are supposed to serve a public interest, but the burden falls on the shoulders of individuals who hold specified rights to land. In their view, their Fifth Amendment rights are denied. They believe what the Constitution says: "Nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."....
Ranchers making inroads protecting cash cows A smart cattle rustler can make $20,000 in one hit. The payoff is quick and the turnaround appealing. But ranchers and investigators say it's becoming harder than ever to get away with stealing cattle – once a hanging offense – thanks to an electronic database that gives authorities more time to devote to investigations. Cattle brought to the Emory Livestock Auction in East Texas are identified upon arrival with bright yellow tags that are glued to their flanks. Even though much evidence still starts on paper, a relatively new computer system that transfers brand inspection forms onto CDs has shaved about three weeks off investigations, said Larry Gray, law enforcement director for the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, an industry group. "The cattle business is still pretty much done on a handshake," he said. But the paper trail is becoming more important as rustling becomes a white-collar crime, with more organized cases of bank fraud and embezzlement arising each year, he said. Last year, the Cattle Raisers Association recovered about 5,200 cattle worth nearly $3.5 million in Texas and Oklahoma – nearly double the number recovered the previous year....
Stubborn Cowboys Elmer Kelton was voted "Great Western Writer of All Time" by the Western Writers of America, a daunting title to work under, though he bears it modestly. There is, after all, that modifying adjective: Western. Kelton, who turned 80 in April, has his academic champions, but he acknowledges that "the Western field is a literary ghetto. Critics don't read a Western unless the book is contemptuous of its subject matter. If you write out of love for your subject matter they'll dismiss you." Elmer Kelton loves his subject matter. He was born to it, after all. And if the Western is a ghetto, it is a remarkably rich ghetto populated by the likes of Edward Abbey (The Brave Cowboy), Jack Schaefer (Shane), Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove), and other novelists whose mortal sin, it seems, is setting their tales in open spaces rather than in the confines of the faculty lounge or city tenement. Elmer Kelton has an utter mastery of his subject; a distinctive, even arresting, point of view; and a narrative talent honed by writing for the Western pulps. His best work, The Time It Never Rained (1973), can be read as character study, regional literature, and philosophical novel: find me a navel-gazing New Yorker writer who has squeezed out a single book as rich, layered, and unsettling. Following a lunch of--what else?--thick steaks, I spoke with Elmer Kelton in his study in the home he and his wife built half a century ago in the ranching town of San Angelo, Texas. His library overspills with books on Texas, cattle, and the West; his musical tastes run to Bob Wills, Roy Acuff, Willie Nelson, and Bill Monroe. He reels off the original lineup of the "Sons of the Pioneers."....
Trew: Hands, not cowboys, did the ranch work Hand appears to be a shortened version of “hired hand” meaning an individual’s hands were paid to perform a certain job or jobs. Employers were not concerned with the person’s looks, color, character, reputation or financial worth. They merely wanted a pair of hands to haul feed, dig tanks, brand cattle, build fence or whatever else was required. During this period, the ranch hired many young boys, some who had run away from large poor families trying to exist in hard times. These boys were listed as “roustabouts” and given menial jobs until they either quit or proved their worth. Among the many “hand descriptions” listed in the notations of the manager were hay hands, plow hands, ranch hands, trail hands and fence hands. Each was a part of a crew performing that kind of work. The next steps up the ladder were bosses, foremen, branding reps and the office staff or management. Most beginning hands drew pay of $25 to $30 per month plus board, providing food and bed. Proven hands drew from $30 to $40 per month with bosses, reps and cooks earning $50 per month. My favorite “hand story” tells of a new ranch owner announcing he was raising all his hand’s wages by $10 per month in hopes of retaining experienced employees. All the hands thanked him for the unexpected raise except one cowboy. When questioned about his lack of appreciation he said, “It nearly kills me to drink up $30 worth of whiskey each month now. Another $10 may just finish me off.”....