NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest Service Suggests Halt To Grazing In Montana Wildfire Area The thousands of cattle that ordinarily graze on federal and private land south of Big Timber should not be there next year, because they'd be too hard on the land as it rebounds from the big Derby Mountain wildfire, a federal report says. Its recommendation to suspend grazing until 2008 has consequences for rancher Terry Terland, who was tending cattle burned by the fire that began with lightning Aug. 22 and spread across 207,000 acres of forest and range, 60% of it owned privately. The fire, which destroyed 26 homes, continues to smolder. Terland has eliminated about 20 calves burned by the fire and left unable to walk adequately, and said several more animals may have to go. "I don't know how so many cows survived as they did," he said. The 140 cow-calf pairs that Terland had before the fire are just a fraction of the cattle ordinarily put out to graze on federal or private lands in the area that burned. The impact of all that grazing would be too much for the recovering land; therefore, grazing should be deferred, concluded a federal team that spent two weeks studying effects of the fire and ways to mitigate them, then summarized findings in the report released this week. Team leader Henry Shovic, soil scientist for the Gallatin National Forest, said the land stands to recover fully. "Many of the grasslands were singed, not so much burned," he said Wednesday....
Where the wild things are Carrizo Plain rancher John Ruskovich stood in the open ground behind his property after dusk, watching the western ridgeline. Starlight coated the sky. A raptor drifted slowly across the remote town of California Valley and toward the distant Caliente foothills. Other than the faint whistle of an eastbound zephyr, not a sound hit the wind. The cry of a colt cut through the silence. "This is why we're here," Ruskovich suddenly said, keeping his gaze locked on the horizon. These days, however, the old Carrizans also share the landscape with folks cut from different fabric. As the coastal gap filled in the late 20th century, rising land prices in Pacific communities pushed many low-income residents over the eastern ranges. Some sought refuge in California Valley and the greater Carrizo basin. Not long after, a late-term proclamation by President Bill Clinton in 2001 established the Carrizo Plain National Monument in the southern half of the valley. The monument opened the levies to a tide of ecotourism and ultimately charmed Realtor interests. In came a host of what locals refer to as "born-again Carrizans" propertied non-natives seeking respite from the modern world. Suffice it to say, the three faces of Carrizo never managed to see eye-to-eye, and, with the relatively meager law enforcement presence, disagreements on the plain occasionally spun out of control....
Cattle-grazing project intended to improve wildlife lands The whole concept sounds like an oxymoron: bringing cattle in to graze on state wildlife lands ... for the sake of the wildlife. Try to get your head around that one. That's precisely what state wildlife managers have been doing since entering into a cooperative pilot program with the Washington Cattlemen's Association to see if selective grazing can indeed improve habitat and growth of wildlife forage. To some, the concept may seem incongruous. "It just defies logic," groused one critic. But some Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials involved in the project are defending it as potentially a very good thing -- and not, apparently, simply because the program was foisted upon them by the state governor. "When I first heard about it, I thought this may not be such a bad thing," said Bob Dice, manager of four wildlife areas in southeast Washington, three of which already are or will soon become part of the pilot grazing program. Much of that land had been cattle range before the state acquired it, largely because of its abundance of muledeer and elk. Now, Dice said, "We've got lands that have been sitting essentially idle for 15, 20 years, with no impact as far as fire and grazing." And, said state range specialist Edd Bracken, that minimal impact has not been to the liking of the big-game species so coveted by hunters....
Editorial - A pointless fight: Defense of grazing totally misplaced The elected officials of two southern Utah counties may pretend, even to themselves, that their protracted lawsuit over grazing rights in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a fight against overreaching environmentalists and a misdirected federal agency. But what Kane and Garfield counties are really fighting is the march of time. So it is no wonder they keep losing. The latest - and, hopefully, the last - setback for the counties came Friday in U.S. District Court. Judge Tena Campbell correctly ruled that the counties had no business trying to stop the willing sale of $1.5 million worth of federal grazing permits to the privately funded willing buyers of the Grand Canyon Trust. The Bureau of Land Management, which holds the land for all Americans, had approved the sale and its own administrative law judge later upheld the action. But, at a cost to state taxpayers now approaching $125,000, the counties persisted. They claimed that, because the Grand Canyon Trust first pondered retiring the land from grazing, then began making minimal use of the permits while the area's land use plan was under way, the permits should go instead to ranchers who were eager to use the permits to their fullest. The judge rightly dismissed the counties' estimate of $170,000 in lost annual revenue as pure conjecture. She might also have noted that, even if true, it would be no different than losses local government always suffers when the marketplace causes any business to close or relocate....
FB Seeks Intervenor Status in BLM Grazing Lawsuit The American Farm Bureau Federation is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the Western Watersheds Project and the Natural Resources Defense Council against the Bureau of Land Management in U.S. District Court in Idaho. The activist environmental groups are seeking to stop BLM from implementing new regulations on livestock grazing on public lands. If intervenor status is granted, AFBF’s written response to complaints brought by the groups in the lawsuit will be considered by the court. “We filed the motion to intervene because we believe the Bureau of Land Management acted within its authority in issuing new grazing regulations and that they are appropriate. The new BLM regulations will benefit ranchers in nearly a dozen Western states,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “Ranchers holding grazing permits generally move their livestock to public lands in the summer months, providing an important feed rotation that keeps their operations viable. Without grazing permits, ranchers would be forced to bear the additional cost of providing feed to their livestock year-round.”....
'Ranchette' buyers take a slice of rural West Allen Edwards grows trees and salad greens and raises sheep and goats on 520 acres in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of greater Sacramento's relentless sprawl. The land has been in his family 60 years, but never under pressure like it is today. Edwards says residential developments, including upscale trophy homes known as "ranchettes" — rural dwellings on several acres — are making it harder for farmers like him to operate. Ranchette neighbors tried to block renewal of his permit to harvest timber over worries that logging trucks would obstruct their access road. When he cuts trees, they complain that it degrades their views. All around him, developers have pushed land prices beyond what farmers and ranchers can afford. Edwards and his wife, Nancy, are becoming an anachronism in the foothills: farmers who still make a living off their land. "Even among our friends the norm is you're always looking for some way to divide your land and sell it off," says Edwards, 59. "It's probably the biggest business in this area." And not just here. In California's Central Valley, the nation's most productive farm region, on the slopes of the Colorado Rockies, in western Montana's big-sky country and in other popular Western locales, ranchettes are fragmenting the countryside at an alarming rate, environmentalists and land-use experts say....
Bush Environmental Policy Irks Judges In West Using language that suggests they are fed up with the Bush administration, federal judges across the West have issued a flurry of rulings in recent weeks, chastising the government for repeated and sometimes willful failure to enforce laws protecting fish, forests, wildlife and clean air. In decisions in Oregon, California, Montana and Wyoming, judges have criticized the judgment, expertise and, in some cases, integrity of the federal agencies that manage natural resources on public lands. The rulings come at a time when an emerging bipartisan coalition of western politicians, hunters, anglers and homeowners has joined conservation groups in objecting to the rapid pace and environmental consequences of President Bush's policies for energy extraction on federal land. Specialists in environmental law cite a noticeable increase in the number of recent court rulings in which federal judges in the West have ruled against the administration, using blunt language that shows impatience and annoyance. "You are seeing frustration in the federal judiciary," said Dan Rohlf, a law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, in Portland, Oregon. The law school has the nation's oldest environmental law program. "When judges express that frustration on paper, which is not all that often, they are often reflecting what they see as a systematic effort to get around the law."....
U.S. EPA settles with Taft, CA company for Clean Water Act violations The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced resolution of Clean Water Act violations with GPS River Rock Products at its sand and gravel mining facility in Ventucopa, Santa Barbara County, CA. In addition to paying a $35,870 fine, the mining company will transfer 22 acres of land in the Cuyama River watershed to the Bureau of Land Management for protection of habitat and the endangered California jewelflower. GPS River Rock Products has agreed to spend up to $130,000 to enhance and restore portions of the Cuyama River on BLM-owned land that have historically been used as illegal dump sites. Once these dumps sites have been restored, GPS will discourage further illegal dumping by removing access to the sites by fencing or removing access roads....
Whooping Cranes, Ultralight Planes Take Flight on Annual Migration Early this morning a unique flock of 18 birds joined the millions heading south for the winter. But this group of whooping cranes had surprising-looking "birds" at the helm: four ultralight aircraft. Researchers from Operation Migration, a Port Perry, Ontario-based nonprofit, are flying the whooping cranes from central Wisconsin to Florida with the ultimate goal of reintroducing a new migrating population of the endangered species.
Seventeen cranes successfully flew the initial leg—4 miles (6 kilometers)—of the 1,228-mile (1,976-kilometer) journey on their first try. One crane, however, was reluctant. A female bird "decided she was quite comfortable on the runway," said Liz Condie, Operation Migration's communications director. One of the ultralights headed back for her. "It took some encouragement," Condie said, "Eventually, she decided [to do it.]" The group is part of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, a team of government agencies and nonprofits in the United States and Canada working to establish a migratory population of whooping cranes in the eastern U.S....
California’s Harmful Fish Stocking Practices Challenged The Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Rivers Council filed a lawsuit today against the California Department of Fish and Game over the agency’s longstanding failure to consider the impacts of fish stocking on imperiled aquatic species such as the Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog, Cascades Frog and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. “Numerous studies demonstrate that stocking introduced trout in California’s lakes and rivers has serious impacts on native fish and amphibians and is contributing to a number of species’ slide towards extinction,” stated Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Yet Fish and Game has never analyzed or mitigated the impacts of stocking on California’s aquatic ecosystems or natural heritage.” The groups submitted comments in August 2005 and again in July 2006 requesting that Fish and Game initiate environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The comments included data showing that fish stocking in 2005 occurred in at least 47 water bodies where 36 imperiled species occur, including a number of federally listed threatened and endangered species....
Canyon permits for private river runs go to lottery system Grand Canyon National Park has started taking applications for self-guided rafting permits on the Colorado River and will use a new lottery that replaces a 26-year-old waiting-list system. The lottery will allocate permits for private trips as opposed to those run by commercial outfitters. Private, or non-commercial, trip permits, which have attracted more than 1,000 applicants a year, are among the most coveted and hardest to obtain in the national parks. Whether the lottery will make permits easier to obtain is debatable. But it may, at least, open the process to newcomers. It also may require applicants to use new strategies to maximize their chances of getting drawn. Under the old permit system, which began in 1980, applicants for self-guided river trips paid $100 to be put on a waiting list. The list had grown to more than 8,200 people by 2003, when it was frozen. Some waited 10 years or more to obtain a permit, said Steve Sullivan, permits program manager for Grand Canyon National Park. The new system permits 503 launches per year for self-guided trips, compared with an average of 253 per year under the old system. Also, permit dates are more spread out during the year. (Because some permits were assigned to people on the wait list, only 197 launches are in the 2007 lottery.)....
Trust-land fight on ballot Arizona's 9.3 million acres of state trust land are to be managed for the benefit of Arizona's schools. For nearly 100 years, that has meant selling land at auction to the highest bidder. But that makes it hard for cities, counties and conservation groups to buy land they want protected from development, including almost two-thirds of the 650,000 acres identified in Pima County's 2004 open-space bond program. Enter Proposition 105 and Proposition 106. Voters must decide this November between the two versions of trust-land reform. Both would make it possible for counties and cities to buy some conservation land at market value, instead of at auction, but that is where the similarities end. Proposition 105 was placed on the ballot by the Legislature, at the request of home builders. It sets aside roughly 37,000 acres of open space that cities or counties could buy for fair-market value. It also would allow the Legislature to set aside another 400,000 acres in the future. Proposition 106 is backed by environmentalists and the state teachers union. It conserves more land — 690,000 acres — and almost half of it would be conserved without the requirement that it be bought. The balance, roughly 360,000 acres, could be bought by cities, counties or conservation groups at market value....
Is Colorado on cusp of another uranium rush? During the last several years, the price of uranium has risen from $7 a pound to more than $50, leading to an upsurge in speculative activity, and a revival of Colorado’s uranium industry. In the western Colorado counties of Montrose, San Miguel and Mesa, more than 5,000 uranium mining claims have been filed during the last four years, up from only a handful during the preceding two decades. Mining giants such as Cameco have acquired prospects in the “uranium belt,” as have dozens of smaller firms. According to Timothy Collins, a San Francisco venture capitalist who was deeply involved in the uranium industry in the 1960s, today’s market is being driven by a looming imbalance between supply and demand....
Western Fires: Made in Washington, D.C. From high atop a horse named Cruiser, it’s easy to see what ails so much of America’s West. Above and below an equestrian path in the Gallatin National Forest, pine trees and Douglas firs crowd together like rush-hour subway commuters. Many are shorter and thinner than normal, due to intense competition for water, nutrients, and sunlight. Among these upright evergreens, dead trunks, limbs, and branches litter the arid ground. They are parched white, like the bones of a carcass bleached beneath the searing sunshine. “This hasn’t burned since the 1940s,” says Ryan Neel, a wrangler from the nearby Lone Mountain Ranch. One well-placed lightning bolt could turn this overgrown hillside into a furnace. Compare this neglected patch of the federal property portfolio to the practically groomed habitat at media mogul Ted Turner’s 175-square-mile Flying D Ranch, about 50 miles away. Young and old members of assorted arboreal species stand comfortably apart from each other, minimizing fire risk. On this private land, foresters carefully pick trees to sell, and then carefully remove them by helicopter. Despite such costly techniques, Turner Enterprises turns a profit. “Fire safety is an ancillary benefit of thinning for pest and disease control,” says general manager Russ Miller. “Spacing out the trees makes it more difficult for insects to spread from tree to tree.” This contrast between public mismanagement and private stewardship recurs across the West. The enormous fires that routinely engulf millions of acres from the Rockies to the Pacific tend to devour federal lands. Washington, D.C. owns, for instance, 29.9 percent of Montana, 45.3 percent of California, and 84.5 percent of Nevada. Excluding Alaska and Hawaii, 54.1 percent of America’s West is federal property....
Hunters, lawmakers question 'canned hunts' Days after Gov. Jim Risch ordered a special hunt to kill domestic elk that escaped from Rex Rammell's ranch in eastern Idaho, Brad Horner was inside Rammell's Chief Joseph hunting preserve, shooting a huge, six-point bull elk. Horner is a veteran hunter from McMinnville, Ore., with a room full of trophies from around the world, including Africa. He didn't say how much he paid Rammell, who charges up to $6,000 for a trophy elk. But like any hunter, he was eager to share the story of his successful hunt. "It took 15 minutes," Horner said. "I shot him at 200 yards." Rammell's escaped elk and the ease in which a hunter can pay for the privilege of killing one of Idaho's most prized big game animals has hunters, legislators and governor candidates questioning whether "shooter bull" operations belong in Idaho. But elk ranchers say the controversial hunts are vital to the elk ranching industry and are worth about $20 million annually in economic impact to the state....
Born Again, Again: Will evangelicals help save the earth? But this was also the year the environmental movement turned biblical -- the year when people of faith began in large numbers to join the first rank of those trying to protect creation. The key symbolic moment came in February, when 86 of the country's leading evangelical scholars and pastors signed on to the Evangelical Climate Initiative, a document that may turn out to be as important in the fight against global warming as any stack of studies and computer models. It made clear, among other things, that even in the evangelical community, "right wing" and "Christian" are not synonyms, and in so doing it may have opened the door to a deeper and more interesting politics than we've experienced in the last decade of fierce ideological divide. That document seemed, to many newspaper readers, to come out of nowhere. But, of course, it was the result of long and patient groundwork from a small corps of people. Understanding that history helps illuminate what the future might hold for this effort. And given that 85 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christian, and that we manage to emit 25 percent of the world's carbon dioxide -- well, the future of Christian environmentalism may have something significant to do with the future of the planet....
Global Warming Could Spread Extreme Drought Drought could double by century's end because of global warming, threatening the survival of millions of people around the world, according to new research by British climate scientists. The researchers warn that this estimate may actually be too conservative, as it doe not take into account the potential for carbon feedbacks in the climate system that are likely to accelerate warming across the planet. The study was funded by the British government and carried out by climate scientists at the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research. "This report is jaw-dropping," said Andrew Simms, spokesman for the Climate Clinic, a coalition of UK environmentalists, businesses and the Energy Saving Trust. "The new projections on drought from the Hadley Centre are like being told that this is the day the earth catches fire." The researchers examined climate records for the second half of the 20th century and found global drought increased 25 percent in the 1990s. Using a powerful climate model, the researchers analyzed future drought based on temperature and rainfall predictions. The research shows that extreme drought could affect 30 percent of the world's land surface, up from the current span of 3 percent. Severe drought will affect 40 percent of the earth's land, up from eight percent, and moderate drought, which currently affects about 25 percent of the world's surface, will rise to 50 percent....
Report Looks at Farmers' Perspective on Conservation Program The Center for Rural Affairs explored the experiences farmers and ranchers had with the Conservation Security Program and on Thursday released the results in a report titled "The Conservation Security Program: An Assessment of Farmers' Experience with Program Implementation." The CSP is a voluntary stewardship incentives program designed to reward farmers and ranchers for adopting advances conservation systems that provide environmental services benefiting the country as a whole. The program pays farmers for clean water, better soil management, improved habitat, energy efficiency, and other natural resource benefits. According the Center for Rural Affairs, the majority of farmers showed strong support for the CSP, but the interviews revealed some concerns as well. "Through our hotline and interviews we have found that the CSP is a very promising conservation program that farmers and ranchers are very excited about," says the Center's Traci Bruckner. "There is no question, however, that the lack of appropriate funding for the program, stemming from continuous budgetary assaults, as well as problematic administrative implementation, have kept the program from reaching its full potential."....Go here(pdf)to read the report.
Carey ranchers instrumental in starting Trailing of the Sheep Festival The long drive to John Peavey and Diane Josephy Peavey's Flat Top Sheep Ranch northeast of Carey takes visitors past rural—really rural—and then on to really remote. Altogether, the Peaveys' ranch stretches across some 28,000 deeded acres, the majority of which is found in the Muldoon area. A smaller portion of the land they own—where they overwinter their cattle herd—is located down south in the sagebrush deserts near a place called Kimama, which is north of the towns of Burley and Buhl. During the warmer months, the Peaveys graze their sheep and cattle across a large expanse of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management grazing allotments in the Pioneer Mountains and foothills surrounding the main ranch. In the winter, the Peaveys' sheep are trucked out of state to warmer grazing areas in California....