NEWS ROUNDUP

Senate Approves More Offshore Drilling The Senate wants to expand oil and gas drilling to a large chunk of the Gulf of Mexico that has been off limits to energy companies. But the House has a more ambitious plan: Open coastal waters to drilling everywhere unless a state objects. Opening the Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas rigs has moved to the center of the energy debate in Congress where lawmakers for months have struggled to respond to growing anger among voters over high energy prices — a particular problem in an election year. By a vote of 71-25 Tuesday, the Senate passed a bill directing the Interior Department to begin selling leases for oil and gas development in 8.3 million acres of the east-central Gulf of Mexico — about 100 miles from the nearest land and 125 to 310 miles from Florida beaches....
Tragedy looms over wildland debate Nearly 15 months after the manager of the Carrizo Plain National Monument killed herself after months of frustration on the job, the federal Bureau of Land Management is reviving the process of creating a management plan for the 250,000-acre grasslands preserve that will be forever associated with Marlene Braun's tragic death. Braun committed suicide on May 2, 2005, capping a months-long dispute with her BLM bosses over how the preserve should be managed, and in the process earning reprimands and suspensions for what her superiors concluded were intemperate acts of insubordination. The backdrop for the battles was more political than personal. Created by presidential proclamation just hours before President Clinton left office in 2001, the Carrizo Plain had become a battleground over cattle grazing on public lands -- an issue on which the BLM typically found itself siding with cattlemen. It just so happened that these public lands, on the border between Kern and San Luis Obispo counties, are the last big patch of wild grasslands left in California and the home of the largest concentration of endangered species in the state. Some, like the giant kangaroo rat, are in direct competition with cattle. Braun had openly complained that she felt efforts to curtail grazing were being resisted at higher pay grades in the agency, and that she was suffering the fallout....
Editorial: Verbal attack on fire crew scorches Burns Exactly what did the junior senator from Montana say to a group of 20 highly trained front-line Virginia firefighters as they waited for a plane at Billings Logan Airport on July 23? The public may never know the whole conversation. The Augusta Hot Shots from the U.S. Forest Service had been fighting a 92,000-acre wildfire in Yellowstone County and were awaiting transportation to their next assignment when they were accosted by Sen. Conrad Burns. From reporting by The Gazette State Bureau and Associated Press, it is known that Burns said enough to cause these professional firefighters to call for help. A Montana Department of Natural Resources employee who had been serving as information officer on the fire was dispatched to the airport to hear what Burns had to say. He had plenty to say, none of it constructive, none of it recognizing the heroic efforts of firefighters in this fiery summer. Burns pointed to a firefighter and told the DNRC employee: "See that guy over there? He hasn't done a goddamned thing. They sit around. I saw it up on the Wedge fire and in northwestern Montana some years ago. It's wasteful. You probably paid that guy $10,000 to sit around. It's gotta change." The quote reveals the senator's approach to dealing with what his apology described as "frustration" after talking to landowners "critical of the way the fire was handled."....
Sen. Burns' comments detailed in reports The Forest Service report included criticisms that Burns made to Paula Rosenthal, a public information officer from the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, about how the Bundy Railroad fire was fought. Rosenthal was called to the airport by Forest Service officials to talk to Burns after he criticized some members of the Augusta, Va., Hotshots. Her separate state report was made public last Thursday. Burns, she wrote, had these comments: “This command/control doesn't work.” “Managing these fires from Boise does not work.” “Ranchers complaining firefighters/engines driving right by while their land is burning.” The Forest Service documents also included a firsthand account of the airport incident by Gabe Templeton, one of the Augusta Hotshots, describing what happened to him and fellow team members Jeff Cleek and Jude Waerig. It said the three men were sitting in the Billings airport waiting for their flight when Burns approached them with an outstretched hand and asked if they were firefighters. “I shook his hand and replied yes,” Templeton wrote. “He shook my hand, introduced himself and then replied, ‘What a piss poor job' we were doing. I replied, ‘Have a nice day.' The senator mentioned that we were ‘wasting a lot of money and creating a cottage industry.' He also told us that we needed to listen more to the ranchers. I replied that ‘we are pretty low on the totem pole.' Then he walked off.”....
Wolves eating more livestock Early planners also thought that wolves wouldn’t eat livestock as long as they lived near an abundance of natural prey. “Wrong, wrong, wrong,” Kaminski said. Wolf predations on livestock have increased dramatically since 2003 despite early predictions and control efforts. In the Greater Yellowstone Area, 20 of 27 packs that overlapped grazing lands killed livestock in 2004. Wolf control officials killed seven packs that year. By 2005, 32 packs killed livestock and officials had to kill 10 packs. But even removing the wolves, either by killing the animals or relocating them, rarely solves the problem. Relocated packs will most likely return to the site or find new livestock to depredate. On the other hand, killing a pack often leaves survivors that infiltrate or start other packs. Eventually, the packs that absorb these survivors usually start to kill livestock as well. Biologists have learned that a wolf that develops a taste for beef or lamb keeps coming back. “Once they start, it’s difficult to stop them,” he said. “Many of these packs depredate consistently.”....
4 wolves killed after livestock deaths; more killings authorized Federal Wildlife Services agents have shoot-to-kill orders for as many as six more wolves in central Idaho, after killing four wolves in the last two weeks. The targeted wolves were suspected of killing or harassing cattle and sheep in the mountainous region. The latest killings bring the number of federally protected wolves shot by Wildlife Services officers in 2006 to 14, with another nine killed by ranchers through Tuesday. The ranchers have been allowed to shoot the animals under relaxed rules of engagement in place since early 2005, said Steve Nadeau, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's wolf specialist. In all of 2005, 27 wolves were killed legally by officers and ranchers. Nadeau expects the number of wolf control actions this year to rise, as wolf numbers in the state have grown to 600 since the reintroduction of 35 animals in 1995 and 1996. Idaho and Montana want the animals cleared from Endangered Species Act protections, but the effort has been stymied because neighboring Wyoming's plan to manage wolves hasn't won federal approval. "We're finding wolves in new areas now, where we haven't had them previously. They're taking sheep or cattle, so we're having to address that," Nadeau said....
Woman escapes after wolf pounces The wolf saw Becky Wanamaker first. She was strolling through a campground just off the Dalton Highway, along the Arctic Circle, waiting for her four traveling companions to wake up. A long day in the car ahead, she decided to stretch her legs. Then she saw the wolf. Its eyes fixed on her. The animal was mostly gray and bigger than a husky, Wanamaker said Wednesday, now safely home in Anchorage after Friday's attack. And it had long, long legs. "And I don't remember if it was moving toward me or if it was stopped when I first saw it," she said. "But I just freaked and I bolted and ran toward the (campground) outhouses. That's what was in my head -- run faster, get inside. I kept running -- just thinking, don't fall. If you fall, you're done." But wolves run faster than schoolteachers....
Pinon Canyon expansion measure pending before Senate Pushing through a list of bills before going on its August recess, the Senate may take up the Pentagon's 2007 budget bill this week - including an amendment to force the Army to give lawmakers extensive information about any future expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., attached the amendment to the Defense Department's 2007 appropriation bill last month and it requires the Army to provide Congress with a list of information about its need to expand the 240,000-acre training site. Whether the Senate will get to the budget bill before recessing until after the Labor Day weekend is uncertain, according to Allard's spokeswoman, Laura Condeluci. The Senate intends to recess on Friday until September. The House has completed its version of the defense budget bill and is already in recess, but that version of the bill does not contain any restrictions on the proposed Pinon Canyon project. When the Senate finishes its version, a final bill will be worked out in a conference between House and Senate members....
Legality of Forest Service road plan questioned A federal judge said Tuesday that the Bush administration had the right to overturn a ban on road construction in untouched parts of the national forests but questioned whether it could do so without weighing the possible environmental effects. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte said the Forest Service appeared to be ''on solid ground'' last year when it reversed a Clinton administration rule banning new roads on nearly a third of federal forests. But she questioned whether the agency violated federal law by skipping environmental studies -- the heart of two lawsuits brought by 20 environmental groups and the states of California, Oregon, New Mexico and Washington. The cases have since been consolidated, and all parties presented arguments Tuesday in Laporte's courtroom. Laporte said she did not know when she would make a final decision in the case. ''The court's role is not to endorse one approach over the other,'' Laporte said, referring to Forest Service management plans. Rather, she said, the question is whether federal procedures were violated when Bush overturned the ban on road building that President Clinton ordered in January 2001, eight days before he left office. If so, that could prompt Laporte to invalidate a new state-by-state management strategy endorsed by the Bush administration and restore the road-building ban....
Logjam blasting prompts debate Last week's dynamiting of a logjam on the Salmon River in central Idaho's Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness has prompted criticism from groups who say federally protected reserves are no place for high-explosive intrusions on nature. The logjam, the result of a washout from a sudden storm last Sunday, forced 250 whitewater rafters on guided trips to camp upstream for three days until Forest Service officials removed the obstruction. Agency officials analyzed several options, including waiting for spring floods to wash out the logs jammed into the tight Pistol Creek Rapids. They also considered evacuating boaters. While guides and outfitters who earn millions from rafting trips annually say blasting was a "common sense" solution, George Nickas, the Missoula, Mont.-based director of Wilderness Watch, said letting human schedules dictate wilderness management goes against the whole idea of what wilderness is about: protecting an area where man is a visitor, but doesn't remain....
Scientists concerned over forest legislation On the eve of a hearing on a controversial forestry bill, a letter signed by 546 scientists was released Tuesday warning about the negative impacts of logging after wildfires. The Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act is slated for discussion by the Senate Agriculture Committee's forest subcommittee on Wednesday. The legislation's sponsors say it would help the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management fund restoration, reforestation and research. Environmental groups are worried the legislation (HR 4200) would fast-track logging by suspending environmental safeguards and reducing the public's ability to give input on how national forests are managed. “We are concerned that HR 4200 will bind us to land management practices that, perhaps logical in the past, are no longer tenable in the light of recent scientific understanding,” the scientists' letter said. “Neither ecological benefits nor economic efficiency result from post-disturbance logging.”....
Caring for a wounded waterway Every day, saltwater floods the marsh surrounding Highway 101 just south of the popular Cascade Head hiking trail. It is a natural process in a place that looks like it has been a tidal marsh for centuries. The grasses grow higher than humans here, the air is salty and fresh and fish feed and hide from predators. But this area isn't as pristine as it first seems. It used to be a pasture for cows -- cut off with dikes and dams from the flow of ocean water up the Salmon River. Remnants of the past are hidden between the clumps of grasses. A team of graduate students has spent the past several weeks exploring the history of the Salmon River estuary, an area where seawater and freshwater mix....
BLM land-lease sale plan draws protests Environmental groups and outfitters have filed protests involving nearly three dozen parcels that have been proposed by the Bureau of Land Management for its upcoming gas and oil lease sale. The Utah BLM office plans to offer leases on 334,000 acres - the second-largest total in state history - in its regular quarterly sale on Aug. 15. Protests received by Monday's deadline total just over 41,000 acres, including parcels near Arches National Park, along the San Juan River, the Green River in Labyrinth Canyon and around the railroad grade in the Golden Spike National Historic Site. But the focus of the protests this time center on the parcels around Arches. The National Park Service requested a deferment on 20 parcels near the park - including some within sight of the landmark Delicate Arch - because of viewshed, water quality, water quantity and nighttime illumination issues. "Visual analysis of parcels generally closer than 5 miles to the park shows that all or portions of these parcels are visible from multiple vista points in the park," wrote Arches National Park Superintendent Laura Joss in a May 31 letter to the BLM. "Potential impacts include light pollution from flaring and lighting drill rigs or production facilities which dilutes the night skies, an important park value."....
Court in Nevada case rules BLM must widen look at mining effects A federal appeals court panel on Tuesday ordered a lower court to review the environmental effects of operations at two gold mines in northern Nevada in a ruling that advocates said could force closer scrutiny of the use of federal lands in the West. Newmont Mining Corp., which owns the mines, downplayed the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which instructed the Interior Department and Bureau of Land Management to consider cumulative effects of mining at two sites northwest of Carlin. "Operations continue as normal," said Mary Korpi, a spokeswoman in Reno for Denver-based Newmont. Basically, we're very pleased with the ruling. We're not impacted." Korpi noted that the court upheld most BLM and Interior findings on air quality, public water reserves, bonding to ensure reclamation of mined lands, a requirement for separate environmental studies on the two mines, and cumulative impacts for water. However, the three-judge panel, quoting arguments by the environmental group Great Basin Mine Watch, also said the BLM "'cannot simply offer conclusions.'" "'Rather, it must identify and discuss the impacts that will be caused by each successive (project),'" the court said in San Francisco, "'including how the combination of those various impacts is expected to affect the environment.'"....
Idaho tribe, BPA at odds over new Oregon chinook hatchery The Bonneville Power Administration says it won’t spend $16.4 million to build a fish hatchery in northeast Oregon unless it gets confirmation that, in light of a recent court ruling, the hatchery will help threatened chinook salmon. The Nez Perce Tribe, which wants to start construction on the hatchery this winter, says the BPA is holding the money hostage. “From the tribe’s perspective, it appears BPA is holding Northeast Oregon Hatchery ‘hostage’ in order to meet its own desire to receive some specific ‘ESA credit’ from NOAA Fisheries,’’ wrote tribal Chairwoman Rebecca Miles in a June 13 letter to BPA Administrator Steven Wright. The proposed hatchery was listed in biological opinions covering federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers as one of the measures that would help chinook salmon recover. However, U.S. District Judge James Redden in Portland recently ruled against management plans for dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers, saying they would not prevent chinook salmon from going extinct. A new biological opinion is being written by federal agencies and plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to Redden’s decision. The BPA wants to make sure the new hatchery will be considered a help to recovering salmon runs and not be ruled as detrimental after it is built....
How (Not) to Protect the Environment For the FBI, environmental activism — with its arson, vandalism and more — has become synonymous with “domestic terrorism.” But in the forests of southern Oregon, there’s been another way. Check out a photo gallery from Chris LaMarca, a photojournalist who spent four years with a diverse group — from college kids to ranchers — working to stop old-growth logging through civil disobedience and legal action. “We can all learn a lot from these people,” he says. It’s unbelievable how smart they are, how organized they are. They’re not a bunch of homeless kids being idiots running around the forest. They’re a collective of strong-willed people who believe in protecting what’s wild and raw....
Unions Say E.P.A. Bends to Political Pressure Unions representing thousands of staff scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency say the agency is bending to political pressure and ignoring sound science in allowing a group of toxic chemicals to be used in agricultural pesticides. Leaders of several federal employee unions say the chemicals pose serious risks for fetuses, pregnant women, young children and the elderly through food and exposure and should not be approved by Thursday, the Congressional deadline for completing an agency review of thousands of substances in pesticides. “We are concerned that the agency has not, consistent with its principles of scientific integrity and sound science, adequately summarized or drawn conclusions” about the chemicals, union leaders told the agency administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, in a newly disclosed letter sent May 25. The leaders also wrote that they believed that under priorities of E.P.A. management, “the concerns of agriculture and the pesticide industry come before our responsibility to protect the health of our nation’s citizens.” Nine union leaders representing 9,000 agency scientists and other personnel around the country signed the letter....
Where rural life, city growth clash When horse trainer and rancher Jack Teague ambles into the desert that surrounds his north Scottsdale home, he sees power lines, rooftops and construction trucks dotting the once-barren landscape. It frustrates him because he knows what's coming. Teague's 5-acre ranch is adjacent to nearly 10 square miles of state trust land in northeast Phoenix. In the coming years, the rocks and hiking trails, cactuses and coyotes that surround his property will give way to thousands of houses plus restaurants and shopping centers. And there is nothing he can do to stop the onslaught of growth. More and more Valley residents are finding themselves in Teague's position these days, as the State Land Department continues to sell off parcels of pristine desert to keep up with the state's booming population. Last year, the agency sold a record $515 million in land. Later this year, it will sell its largest parcel to date: a 275-square mile swath of terrain in the East Valley known as Superstition Vistas....
Oklahoma Cattleman Defends Property Rights to Senate Subcommittee The government should not be regulating wetlands or ditches on farmers' and ranchers' private property under the Clean Water Act, according to Keith Kisling, a cattle rancher and wheat farmer from Burlington, Oklahoma. Kisling says recent decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court limit the waters subject to regulation under the Act, and the government needs to act accordingly. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water called the hearing to discuss the impact of the Supreme Court's decisions in the joint cases of Rapanos v. United States and Carabell v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on "The Waters of the United States." Kisling testified today on behalf of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) and National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG). "The challenge for society in using private lands is to strike a sensible balance between the demands of food production and conservation of natural resources," said Kisling. "Regulation has been allowed to proceed unlawfully and directly at odds with teachings from the leading Supreme Court cases." Cattlemen cite examples of government officials trying to use the Clean Water Act to regulate prairie potholes, ponds, irrigation ditches, and intermittent streams on private lands. "Not only does this create an unstable working environment for farmers and ranchers, but it's legally unfounded," says Jeff Eisenberg, NCBA's director of federal lands....
Western governors push for federal disaster assistance Gov. John Hoeven and his counterparts in Western states are urging Congress to pass drought aid legislation. Hoeven drafted a letter signed by 17 members of the Western Governors' Association, including South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, the chairman. "Current forecasts in some areas are predicting more dry weather, with little promise of relief," the letter said. "These weather conditions in combination with increased production costs, are taking a terrible toll on our farmers and ranchers, and their livestock and crops." The letter was delivered to congressional leaders on Tuesday. In addition to Hoeven and Rounds, the letter was signed by the governors of Wyoming, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah and Washington....
Grassfed cows may yield healthier meat "Fast Food Nation" author Eric Schlosser, in examining how to restore the disconnect between farm and table, wasted no time getting to the point as he spoke to the third annual American Grassfed Association conference held in Colorado Springs late last month. "It should come as no surprise that American beef can't be sold in Japan, Korea and the European Union," he said. "A recent report showed that 75 percent of Japanese consumers didn't want to eat American beef because the USDA has succeeded in giving American meat a bad name. This room is the solution." While praising the assembled ranchers for their commitment to open-pasture grazing, he reiterated the importance of connecting food producers with consumers. In doing so, Schlosser reaffirmed his disdain for factory farms that produce much of the nation's meat. Ranchers from as close by as Utah and Wyoming, and as far away as Texas, Georgia and Missouri gathered in Colorado Springs to explore a range of eco-friendly, sustainable ranching and marketing techniques at the conference, "Grazing America." Schlosser's book has been hailed by environmentalists and dietitians as a well-researched critique of so-called "factory farms." Written in 2001, it also raised hackles among large-scale cattle growers and the lobbyists who represent them. A film based on the book is due to be released in October, and his most recent book, "Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food," is directed toward a younger audience....
It’s The Pitts: All Hat/No Cattle Like everyone in the auction business I often get asked to volunteer my time to serve as auctioneer at charity auctions for groups like private schools, the local Chamber of Commerce and even the occasional garden club. I got roped into this year’s charity auction at the local Garden Club by an ex-friend of mine. He’s a pig farmer who did the auction last year and afterwards came down with a ghastly allergic reaction to flowers. The idea of a pig farmer who can't stand the sweet smell of flowers should have tipped me off right there. Anyway, he volunteered my services as auctioneer for the Garden Club's Annual Charity Auction and Potted Plant Sale. I must say that the buying crowd was different than those at cattle sales....