Monday, November 27, 2006

NEWS ROUNDUP

On the Move to Outrun Climate Change As the Bush administration debates much of the world about what to do about global warming, butterflies and ski-lift operators, polar bears and hydroelectric planners are on the move. In their separate ways, wild creatures, business executives and regional planners are responding to climate changes that are rapidly recalibrating their chances for survival, for profit and for effective delivery of public services. Butterflies are voting with their wings, abandoning southern Europe and flying north to the more amenable climes of Finland. Ski-lift operators in the West are lobbying for leases on federal land higher up in the Rockies, trying to outclimb snowlines that creep steadily upward. Polar bears along Hudson Bay are losing weight and declining in number as the ice shelf melts and their feeding season shrinks. Power planners in the Pacific Northwest, which gets three-quarters of its electricity from hydroelectric dams, are meeting in brainstorming sessions and making contingency plans for early snow melts, increased wintertime rainfall, lower summertime river flows and electricity shortfalls during hotter, drier summers. With the issue of a warming planet shifting rapidly from scientific projection to on-the-ground reality, animals and plants are being compelled, along with businesses and bureaucracies, to take action aimed at self-preservation. They are doing so even as the Bush administration eschews regulations, laws or international treaties that would require limits on carbon dioxide emissions, which scientists say are the main cause of global warming....
The wolf in winter In the language of biologists, they are "charismatic megafauna," the species that define a landscape and get the lion's share of attention in our parks and refuges. Wolves, bears, moose and eagles are not only wild creatures in the woods -- they are symbols of what we admire and sometimes fear about the wilderness. As the human population grows, questions about whether we want to live in a world with wolves and other wild animals become more urgent. Minnesota is one of the last places in the Lower 48 with an ecosystem that still includes big predators and game animals. In the state's remaining wild spaces, we are fortunate to be able to encounter, and learn about, our animal kingdom's star attractions. In 1963, the wolf population in the contiguous United States was estimated at between 360 and 710, all in Minnesota except for 10 on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Today, there are more than 5,000 in the lower 48, about 3,000 of them in Minnesota. Their recovery is remarkable, especially considering that many people would just as soon see them dead....
Native elk thrive again on fringes of Bay Area On the east side of Santa Clara County, up over the Diablo Range and not more than 30 miles from Silicon Valley, cattle rancher Keith Hurner bounced his red pickup truck down a dirt road last week and came upon a herd. Not cows. Elk. Hurner hears the elk bugling at night. He keeps pictures of them in his home on the ranch that has been in his family for 110 years. ``I think it's the greatest thing that's ever happened here,'' said Hurner, 70. ``I really enjoy watching them.'' It might surprise the Bay Area's city dwellers to know there are at least 300 tule elk in Silicon Valley's rural Back 40, roaming across the wide-open ranch lands between Pacheco Pass, Livermore and Interstate 5....
West's newest prospectors seek geothermal energy Mormon ranchers in Idaho’s Raft River Valley who hit gushers of hot water while drilling irrigation wells in the 1950s soon learned the corrosive, 300-degree liquid killed their crops. Their sons and daughters who remain in this wind-washed country near the Utah border remember the steaming ponds were good for at least something: boiling farm animals. “The locals would bring their chickens and pigs and scald the hair and feathers off them,” recalls Paul Barnes, a Malta rancher. “When I was a kid, we actually cooked pinion nuts we gathered in the hills.” Barnes now returns to the geothermal area daily — not to roast pinions, but as a roughneck on a drilling crew boring 6,000 feet into the earth. Come next October, his employer, U.S. Geothermal, expects to begin producing electricity from a hot-water-fired power plant. Utility Idaho Power Co. has agreed to buy enough electricity to light 7,500 homes. It’s no coincidence U.S. Geothermal, which in August won $34 million in financing from investment bankers at Goldman Sachs in New York, is now prospecting for geothermal energy on Idaho’s high desert. Across the West, some 60 new geothermal projects are in the works, in addition to 61 existing sites in five states....
Circling the Welcome Wagons For a long time, people settled in this country where the natural resources were, or along railroads and highways. That left giant swaths of American outback empty by default, and the Rocky Mountain West, with its mind-numbing distances and extreme environment, was, for a long time, among the emptiest. Thirty years ago, when I moved from upstate New York to Montana, it was still a high-country Brigadoon, hidden away from the real world by its location, climate and deficit of jobs. The few cities were islands in an ocean of drop-dead beautiful landscapes. Montana and the other mountains and canyons of the nation's cordillera, in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, weren't yet known as the Third Coast—the next major American settlement after the East Coast, the first, and the West Coast on the Pacific Ocean. The problem with living on the Third Coast is that we all saw what happened to the second....
Greens honor McCloskey An environmental award normally reserved for those in government went this year to former Congressman Pete McCloskey, whose failed primary campaign against Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, was judged key by the Sierra Club in the eventual defeat of the congressional incumbent. Although McCloskey played down his role in Democrat Jerry McNerney’s victory, he said he would treasure the Edgar Wayburn Award as much as his two Purple Hearts. “I was deeply touched; I was practically in tears,” McCloskey said of the surprise Nov. 17 award ceremony. The Yolo County rancher’s campaign, described by McNerney’s campaign manager as “a battleship softening up the shore for the troops,” focused in part on the environment. McCloskey helped draft the Endangered Species Act that Pombo wanted to wind back, and he co-chaired the first Earth Day in 1970....
Bombing range's makeover under fire A couple of miles east of E-470, plans are afoot for the biggest development few have ever heard of: a 2,880-acre community on par in size with Stapleton and Lowry, yet resting solidly outside the metro area's urban growth boundary. The embryonic development, sitting on a chunk of land once used for bombing practice by the Air Force, has the unusual quality of falling under the ownership of the State Land Board, an obscure Colorado agency that more often deals in grazing rights, gas leases and gravel pits. But with little public fanfare, the land board is now playing the role of mega-developer. Its five-member board is on the verge of picking from one of three proposals submitted by companies that want to plan homes, schools and businesses on land even some Aurorans consider the boonies....
Wind River Ranch: Nature's refuge Five thousand tree-studded acres of canyon and prairie along the Mora River north of Las Vegas, N.M., used to be the vacation home of philanthropist Eugene Thaw. Now it is the headquarters of a conservation organization with an ambitious list of environmental goals. It also provides refuge to 150 Santa Fe prairie dogs displaced by development. Here's how it happened. Two years ago, Thaw, now 79, felt he was growing too old for his hobby of raising Arabian horses. He decided he wanted Wind River Ranch, 16 miles northwest of Las Vegas to serve a public purpose. Thaw had hoped to donate the ranch to the Wildlife Conservation Society. He offered it to the organization. And it looked like all systems were go at first. The group even recruited Brian Miller, a conservation biologist from the Denver Zoo, to manage the ranch. But the deal fell through. Undeterred, Thaw hired Miller himself. And the Wind River Ranch Foundation, a private nonprofit, was founded. The mission of the foundation is simple: "To further conserve the wild landscapes through ecological restoration, research and education." But its goals are many....
Prospects increasing for helping threatened frogs' survival Survival prospects could leap upward for the threatened Chiricahua leopard frog _ if such mortal threats as bullfrogs and fungal disease can be dealt with. The green critters speckled with black dots, native to portions of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico, have dwindled greatly in population and habitat because of factors ranging from nonnative predators to disease, drought and habitat destruction _ essentially ranches being broken up for development. But since 2000, even before the frogs' 2002 listing as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, federal and state wildlife agencies have been developing a plan to get ranchers and other private landowners to help protect them through so-called safe harbor agreements....
Some Kansas prairie dogs being exterminated with poison The fight over the fate of prairie dogs in Logan County escalated during the weekend, when two exterminators started spreading poison, much to the surprise of the landowners. One of the landowners, Larry Haverfield, said he contacted his attorney on Monday to figure out a way to fight the poisoning. The Wyoming-based exterminators spread the poison on land that has been targeted for reintroduction of the federally endangered black-footed ferret — an idea that has been strongly resisted by some in the area. Last week, the Logan County Commission, which has fought the ferret reintroduction, rejected a prairie dog management plan proposed by Haverfield. Two days after the plan was submitted, Haverfield received a letter from Logan County Attorney Andrea Wyrick rejecting the plan and saying the county would proceed with eradication on Haverfield’s land — and send the bill to him....
The Greatest Hunting Controversy of Them All I’ve been writing about wildlife and conservation for 34 years, and one thing I’ve learned is that if you want controversy, write about wolves or hunting. Now, I’m wondering what would happen if I wrote about both at the same time. Hunting is engrained in the culture of the New West, but demographics are gradually changing with new folks moving in every day from urban America where hunting may not be so engrained into their lifestyle. Still, I feel safe in saying that the majority of NewWesties accept hunting as a legitimate form of outdoor recreation instead of viewing it as legalized murdering of innocent animals. But will the majority accept wolf hunting? It won’t be too long before we have to answer this question. As you read this, at dusk in our general big game hunting seasons, the option of making the wolf a trophy big game animal is buried in the management plans, formal and informal, written by the Idaho, Montana and Wyoming wildlife agencies....
Future uncertain for wilderness ranch This time of year, frigid temperatures and blowing snow mean casual visits are about to end at the historic Red's Horse Ranch eight miles from the nearest road in northeastern Oregon's Eagle Cap Wilderness. The trails will reopen in June, and the U.S. Forest Service will take stock of how the former dude ranch fared during another winter season. But the agency can do only basic maintenance; with a budget of $4,000 a year, that's all it can afford. The approach hasn't changed much in the 12 years since the Forest Service acquired the spread. Fans of the picturesque site -- shoehorned into a deep wilderness canyon beside the Minam River and accessible only by shoe leather, horseback and small airplane -- worry that the ranch will continue to fall into disrepair, and they want to preserve the rich history of the place....
Denver water system still reeling from effects of wildfire More than four years after the huge Hayman fire roared through the forests southwest of Denver, surrounding the Denver water utility’s oldest reservoir, the company continues to wrestle with the fire’s aftereffects. Mud, ash and decomposed material pours into 101-year-old Cheesman Reservoir whenever a storm hits, sending tons of muck into the lake that was at the fire’s center. All this creates an ongoing headache for Colorado’s largest water provider. Utility managers worry debris may eventually fill in the reservoir, gum up the pipes and render the water system ineffective. ‘‘We were told it would stabilize in five years,’’ said Kevin Keefe, superintendent of source supply for Denver Water. ‘‘This is year four. It’s not getting better,’’ Keefe said. ‘‘It’s getting worse.’’ The utility has spent $7.8 million in the last four years removing debris, replacing culverts, building sediment dams and seeding slopes, officials say....
Getting to bottom of mysterious elk deaths It wasn't until game warden Benge Brown ran out of ammunition putting down elk that he knew Wyoming had a big problem. It was February 2004, and the Rawlins-based game warden for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department had just returned to the Red Rim, a low red sandstone rise 12 miles west of Rawlins, after spending a few days in Afton dealing with elk getting into haystacks. Brown had seen just a few elk down with mysterious symptoms before he left for Afton, but he'd thought about them the whole time he was gone, concerned there might be more. One elk down was nothing unusual, but two elk was worrisome. "When I got back, I drove around looking," he said, "and I didn't have to look very far." Dying elk were scattered all over the low rocky country of the Red Rim-Daley Wildlife Habitat Management Area, a reserve created primarily not for elk, but for pronghorn antelope. There were, in fact, several hundred antelope there that February, and they seemed to be fine. The elk, however, were dying slow, horrible deaths, helplessly stranded on their bellies in snow drifts and caught grotesquely on fences, which they normally could jump with ease....
Editorial - Shale leases welcome Americans who worry about this country's increasing dependence on foreign oil - and that should be most of them - should cautiously welcome news that the Department of the Interior has approved leases on parcels of federal land in Rio Blanco County for oil shale research, development and demonstration projects. Cautiously, because there are many unanswered questions about the process. But welcome, because if those questions can be answered satisfactorily, the West's oil-shale resources would supply a significant share of America's energy needs. The five leases will be for 160-acre parcels on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Shell will have three of them, and Chevron and EGL Resources one each. Interior's determination that the leases would have " no significant impact" rests in part on the simple fact that 800 acres is a minute portion of the 1,455,900 acres managed by the BLM in the White River Resource Area. There are multiple safeguards written into the environmental assessments (available at www.co.blm.gov/wrra/nepa.htm). In addition, the companies will have to obtain all the applicable local, state and federal permits regulating air and water quality. And even if all this were to prove insufficient in some unforeseen way, the effects would be minimal....
Column - Wild horses have become the West's sacred cows Our national obsession with keeping "wild" horses and burros on public lands that are incapable of supporting them has always struck me as bizarre, especially since it's the result of our alleged love for them. Ask most any wild horse advocacy group and you'll be told that wild horses are native wildlife and anyone who wants them off the public land is fronting for the cattle industry. It's true that cattle do more damage than free-ranging horses or burros because there are more of them. But one horse does far more damage than one cow. And though it's true that a form of horse evolved in North America, it went extinct along with other ice-age megafauna such as the woolly mammoth. Arguing that the modern horses unleashed by the Conquistadores are "native" to the continent because their progenitors were here 10,000 years ago is as absurd as arguing that elephants are native, too, because their progenitors were also here 10,000 years ago. Unlike all native ungulates, and even unlike cattle, horses and burros have meshing incisors and solid hoofs. Because native vegetation of the arid West has evolved no defense against these animals, they extinguish it and then starve....
Suit filed to open remote road A long-simmering issue involving an obscure 19th-century law that grants rights of way on federal land is heading for court. A major legal battle looms over the public's right to use a closed Inyo County road through remote Surprise Canyon to the ghost town of Panamint City in Death Valley National Park. "Under law, the federal government must give private landowners access to their property," said Wyoming attorney Karen Budd-Falen, counsel to three groups of landholders who own property near the old mining camp. Their land is surrounded by federal land and can be reached by road only by a 132-year-old route through Surprise Canyon. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management installed a gate to close the road in mid-2001, sparking the court challenge by the landowners and off-road- vehicle groups that frequented the canyon. Budd-Falen said the plaintiffs - the nonprofit Friends of the Panamint Valley, the Little Chief Millsite partnership, and landowner Bryan Lollich - contend the Civil War-era law granting right of way on public land must be upheld. "Through the Mining Act of 1866, which later became Revised Statute 2477, Congress granted rights of way over unreserved public lands for the construction of highways," the Budd-Falen said. "Passage of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 repealed RS 2477, but rights of way existing before its adoption on Oct. 21, 1976, were grandfathered in. This included the road through Surprise Canyon."....
Burros to be gathered next week They'll be gathering jacks and jennies in Johnnie next week. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is planning to remove between 20 and 40 wild burros from private property in Johnnie early next week to address safety concerns for the public and the burros. The BLM outlined plans for the removal of 240 wild horses and 540 burros from the entire Spring Mountains Herd Management Complex in January. That management complex includes both sides of the Spring Mountains including Johnnie on the west and Red Rock Canyon on the east. In the last two months calls have increased about wild burros entering private property on the north end of Pahrump. In the last two weeks, two wild burros died after being hit by vehicles. A private homeowner has agreed to allow the BLM and Nye County Animal Control to bait trap the burros by placing feed in a corral and closing the gate once the animals enter. The burros have encroached on the landowner's property, the BLM states in a written press release....
White House opposes White Pine Public Lands Bill The Bush administration voiced a familiar refrain on Thursday when it came out against a plan to sell off public land in White Pine County while creating new wilderness and expanding parks. A Bush official said a bill that reconfigures federal property in eastern Nevada was unacceptable because profits from public land sales would remain within the state. The official's comments echoed Bush's dislike for previous laws that authorize disposal of excess federal land in Clark County and Lincoln County while specifying the proceeds be spent locally or dedicated for Nevada purposes. "The administration believes that all American taxpayers should benefit from the sale of public lands," Chad Calvert, Interior Department deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals, said at a Senate hearing. Nevada senators who wrote the White Pine bill shrugged at the opposition, which had been expected....
Home on line in BLM land dispute A cabin tucked in the pines outside Placerville has been home to a series of owners for nearly half a decade. But because of a mining-claim misunderstanding even older than the cabin, the federal government views it as a squatter's dwelling and the owners who have lived there the past 25 years as trespassers. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management notified Sally Siegel and David Mattner this summer that unless they can convince bureau attorneys otherwise, they must leave and wipe out any signs of human habitation on their 5 acres. Siegel and Mattner and their predecessors on the property have been fighting the BLM since the days when Dwight Eisenhower was president and nearby Telluride was an undiscovered remnant of a mining town. It was an era when some mining claims were still marked with rocks and bridge posts. "No one ever tried to dupe anyone. This is an abuse of power," said Siegel, a well-known preschool teacher in the Telluride area....
State weighs wolf hunt before taking oversight Michigan's federally protected population of gray wolves could be under state oversight by spring, and a group charged with developing a management plan is divided between allowing the reclusive animal to be hunted or keeping it safeguarded. The Michigan Wolf Management Roundtable will offer advice to update the state's management plan, which was developed in 1997. Gray wolves will become the responsibility of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources if the federal government delists the animal as an endangered species in four months. The impending switch to state oversight is being driven by an increasing population in the Upper Peninsula, where possibly more than 400 wolves exist. Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced a proposal earlier this year to remove the wolf from the endangered species list in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, where a combined 3,800 are estimated to live. But the farmers, hunters, scientists, conservationists, environmentalists and tribal representatives who make up the advisory panel are split over the issue of sport or recreational hunting of the animal. Some support hunting, while others vehemently oppose it....
‘Vestiges of what Colorado used to be’ When Edwin James, the man credited with the first recorded climb of Pikes Peak, explored the mountain in July 1820, there were no official trails. The mountain was a wild place, home to bears, elk and mountain lions. Its highest hillsides were decorated with tiny alpine flowers. And its streams held a fish that had lived there long before explorers arrived. Today, the mountain is still a wild place. Its forests and meadows are still home to elk, bears and mountain lions, and flowers still cling to the tundra. Sure, there have been changes — a highway and a railroad route wind up the mountain. Every day, explorers climb established trails to the summit and around its base. But that native fish — a brightly colored greenback cutthroat trout — still lives in the stream called Severy Creek. It’s a valuable link to the biological past of Colorado, which is why Severy Creek and a trail that crosses it were closed in 1999....
Big Win for Enviros There's no question that America's environmentalists won big in the midterm elections. "We picked up twenty new environmental votes in the House of Representatives and five in the Senate, plus four governorships," says Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, who called 2006 "the most successful midterm election in the environmental movement's history." Whether the victory is big enough to change government policy during the last two years of the Bush presidency, especially on the overriding threat of global warming, is less clear. Much will depend on how worried Republicans get about running on Bush's environmental record in 2008. "Congressional Republicans will adopt an 'avoid embarrassing Bush' strategy," predicts Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth. Now that Democrats enjoy majorities in both houses of Congress, Blackwelder adds, "they could get a decent global warming bill through the House and probably onto the Senate floor. If Republicans conclude they can't defeat the bill on a straight vote, they'll filibuster it to save Bush, and ultimately themselves, the embarrassment of vetoing it."....
A greener Congress Deadly chemical runoff and suffocating loads of sediment plague the Mississippi River, and the governors of Missouri, Illinois and three other states in the river basin want an accounting of the problem. A bill in Congress would do just that, and now that Democrats have taken control, it could speed to passage. "The Congress is definitely a deeper shade of green after these elections," said Melinda Pierce, a Sierra Club lobbyist. The Mississippi River bill has a modest price tag and focuses on a regional problem. It's one type of narrower environmental initiative that Democrats will probably seek to guide through when they take control of Congress in January 4. But Democratic leaders are setting their sights higher as weel, promising major policy shifts including....
UN authorities lobby for increased environment power ELEANOR HALL: At a meeting of world leaders in Sydney today, the United Nations authorities are lobbying for the international body to be given more power, particularly on the environment. The European Union is now leading the charge, arguing that the UN's existing environment body lacks resources and that the program is outdated. But as Sarah Clarke reports, the EU is not expecting much support from the Australian Government. SARAH CLARKE: Climate change has been described by the outgoing United Nations Secretary General as "grave a threat as conflict, poverty and the spread of weapons". Yet even members of the United Nations Environment Program say the agency is overstretched, and needs more power if it's to fulfil its role. Shafqat Kakakhel is the Executive Director. SHAFQAT KAKAKHEL: We think that we need an international organisation of a higher profile, a higher stature, in order to deal with the ever-worsening and escalating environmental challenges that the planet faces. SARAH CLARKE: Today he'll join delegations, academics and environmental groups at an international meeting in Sydney to push for a stronger global watchdog....
Doubletree Hotels help kids get wild in classrooms across the nation Tigers, humpback whales, polar bears, and monarch butterflies - oh my! Not exactly Dorothy's traveling troupe of friends, these threatened and endangered animals are all getting a little help from more than 10,000 grade school children across the U.S. and Canada this fall as part of a special education initiative. Doubletree Hotels today announced an exclusive partnership with World Wildlife Fund, one of the world's largest and most recognized conservation organizations, as a continuation of the hotel brand's successful Teaching Kids to CARE community outreach program. From now until December, thousands of kids will learn about the threats and challenges facing the world's animal population today and encourage them to do their part to protect our planet's wildlife. "With more than 10,000 animals currently considered endangered and at risk of disappearing forever, our Doubletree Teaching Kids to CARE initiative empowers students to do their part to protect the world's magnificent creatures," said Dave Horton, senior vice president - brand management, Doubletree....

U.S., Colombia sign trade pact
The Bush administration signed a free-trade agreement Wednesday with the government of Colombia, despite strong Democratic Party objections that threaten to keep the pact from becoming law. The signing ceremony at the Inter-American Development Bank culminated more than 2 1/2 years of work on the pact, which the White House sees as an important tool for promoting stability in the volatile Andean region. "The agreement will deepen and strengthen our trade ties by providing new opportunities for U.S. businesses, manufacturers, farmers and ranchers to export their goods and services to one of Latin America's most robust economies," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John Veroneau said. Two-way trade between the U.S. and Colombia totaled $14.3 billion in 2005, with machinery, chemicals and agricultural goods topping U.S. exports. Crude oil was Colombia's No. 1 export to the U.S., followed by other energy products, clothing and cut flowers....
Mark of the Old West With cattle rustling staging a comeback in Texas, Kansas and elsewhere, Eldon Crowder wants to ensure it doesn't become a big problem in Colorado. He's among 60 state brand inspectors scattered across Colorado. It's a state law-enforcement job with roots dating to the 1860s, in what was Colorado Territory. And it's a job that hasn't changed much over the years. Cattle industry officials say the recording of livestock brands for proof of ownership has kept a lid on cattle rustling in Colorado vs. states where brand laws are less strict. "It's a deterrent more than anything else," says the 49-year-old Crowder, a brand inspector for nearly two decades. "It's one of those deals that keeps honest people honest."....
Residents react to rodeo and parade cancellation, plead with City Council to protect traditions A tearful 10-year-old Dani Sommerhauser of Thousand Oaks pleaded with the Thousand Oaks City Council to please save the Conejo Valley Days parade and rodeo. "Me and my horse both enjoy that and you guys are taking it away and I'm very, very sad," was all she could get out before she became too choked up to continue. "She is beyond sad," said her mother Tammy Sommerhauser, after the meeting. Dani isn't the only one in Thousand Oaks who's upset over the cancellation of this year's parade and rodeo by Conejo Valley Days organizers. Several people showed up at the council meeting to ask for help in continuing the 50-year-old traditions. Brad Merville of Thousand Oaks also spoke at the Council meeting asking the Council to look into alternative funding, possibly from local corporations or other interested parties. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley and watched that community give up its traditions and turn into a place with concrete, gangs and violence, he said....

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