SPLIT ESTATE
Please find below and attached a sample set of comments on the BLM Split Estate Issue. Given the poor attendance of landowers and users at the Listening Session in Albquerque, it is IMPERATIVE that LOTS of written comments go in.
If you have personal experience with impacts of the oil and gas industry on the surface estate, please include them. The more personal you can make the comments, the better off we will be thanks.
The comment deadline is tomorrow, April 1, 2006.
Thanks!
March 31, 3006
Mr. Jim Perry, Environmental Scientist
Fluid Minerals Group
Bureau of Land Management
1620 L Street NW, Room 501
Washington DC, 20036 email: splitestate@blm.gov
RE: Review of policies, regulations & laws directing leasing and development of federally managed oil and natural gas under privately owned surface lands
Dear Mr. Perry:
Landowners in the West should not and cannot bear the uncompensated costs of affordable fluid energy for our entire nation. As Americans continue to pay ever-increasing prices at the gas pump, it seems that the fluid energy industry that is making literally billions upon billions of dollars should be ready, willing and able to do their share in protecting private property rights and conservation of our nation’s natural resources that reside on the surface. Given that the industry is unwilling to do so, it is incumbent upon the government and its’ regulatory agencies to provide the structure necessary.
As members of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association (NMCGA), we fully support the detailed comments that the Association has submitted. We want to be sure that the following items are addressed as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) addresses the need to balance fluid energy production with private property rights and natural resource conservation:
The Mining Act must be amended to reflect appreciation of the surface estate over public minerals
Changes need to be made in Onshore Order #1
The BLM must exercise its’ regulatory authority to ensure that:
the best technologies are used to create the least amount of surface damage, even if they are not the least expensive options,
surface use agreements are required
bonding is adequate for the damage anticipated
reclamation is accomplished
Thank you for your consideration. We understand the need for a secure domestic energy supply and fully support responsible energy development. As rural citizens, we are perhaps more dependent upon fluid energy than our urban counter parts for livelihood. It is essential that the BLM find a way to protect surface values, property rights and the water so precious to the West, while permitting responsible oil and gas development.
Sincerely,
Caren Cowan
Executive Director
New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association
Albuquerque, New Mexico
505.247.0584 phone
505.842.1766 fax
Friday, March 31, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
Creature Feeds Conspiracies, Controversy, Part II In Eastern Montana, permits had been issued and a plan formed to take care of a wandering creature, wolf or not, that had killed 36 sheep and injured some 71 more. But the level of frustration in the prairie communities continued to build, further feeding a divide between two cultures -- one rooted to the land the animal was wandering, and the other filled with regulations designed to protect the animal. Some of the first questions about how to deal with the stock-killer concerned the CM Russell Wildlife Refuge. Among the least popular of the federal government's many, many unpopular endeavors in the region, the CM Russell's one million acres (including the vast acreage of the surface of Fort Peck Reservoir) has been a flash point since it was set aside as a "game range" in 1936, following the general exodus of human population from the region in the wake of the Dust Bowl years. Among the extremely hardy agricultural people who did not leave, who stayed on, year after year, building larger and larger holdings in order to survive, there is ongoing suspicion that the Refuge, which has been the site of prairie dog town recovery (an idea that disgusts many ranchers who have battled the rodents for decades) is also the secret site of wolf re-introductions. Such secret re-introductions, it is theorized, will have the conspiratorial effect of bringing down even more federal regulations on ranching operations and have the wolves killing stock that will help to ease ranchers into the financial abyss. That event will force the sale of private property and begin the creation of the Big Open, or the even more despised notion of the Buffalo Commons, a huge, unpeopled, wildlife reserve, running through the parts of the Great Plains states that have suffered big declines in agriculture and population since the 1920's....
Desert water more precious than gold Water has been called "the essential element" and nowhere was and still is that more true than Tooele County. When you think of the water resources of Tooele County, you may say as Sir Richard Burton did in 1860 "Water, Water, everywhere and not a drop to drink." Millions and millions of gallons of water cover vast tracts of the county in Great Salt Lake and out in the Great Salt Lake Desert. Unfortunately, this water is useless except for the heavy metals, salt and brine shrimp extracted from it in mass quantities each year. This is not the complete story of water in the county, however, as there are several significant sources, several of which remain untapped. It was said back in the Old West that the only thing more valuable than gold was water. If you were a cattle rancher or a farmer, your spread could only grow as far as your water resources and the conditions of the range would allow. Water has been utilized by the people of the county in many interesting ways since the first settlers eked out their first season at the mouth of Settlement Canyon. The first obvious use was for culinary purposes and the second was irrigation. But after that, the pioneers put the water resources of the county to work in all kinds of interesting ways. Saw mills were constructed on Settlement Canyon Creek and near the Benson Grist Mill in the early 1850s. The power of water was utilized to mill the lumber that built the early settlers' homes, churches, barns and other buildings. Water power was also used to grind the wheat into flour that was brought to the mill....
Rancher lifestyle endures In Rush Valley father Johnson and his family continue a lifestyle generations old & growing hay and raising cattle. Johnson, 64, says to him the lifestyle is priceless & worth far more than any profit he could make through selling his water rights. As suburbanization encroaches culturally and physically, the Johnsons could make a a bundle to sell out. The water used to grow just one acre of alfalfa can serve as many as five suburban homes. Darrell's father Orson is in his 80s. Father and son & one at the age of retirement and one well past it & drive their tractor together around the farm, work and talk. Sons and grandsons work on the farm and help out. Family members have sometimes worked jobs in town in order to make ends meet. Johnson combined his passion with practical necessity for about ten years when he worked for a bank in Salt Lake loaning money to ranchers. He was willing to do what was needed to preserve the rural lifestyle they love. Another generation down Darrell sees future ranchers. "I've got a 4-year old grandson helping me all morning and you can bet he's going to want to stay out here and do this," Johnson said. "This little guy knows as much about cows as I do. It's a good life....
Irrigators wrestle with water ruling Klamath Reclamation Project irrigators huddled Tuesday to decide their next step after a federal judge required accelerated implementation of a Klamath River management plan. U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong's decision Monday put the river's water allocation plan into effect immediately rather than over the next five years. If flows drop to levels that threaten coho salmon, water could be withheld from irrigators. Most local irrigators agree that's not likely to happen this summer because of the significant snowpack in the mountains. As of Monday, the Klamath Basin's snowpack was 163 percent of average - compared with one-third of average a year ago. Oregon has the West's best overall snowpack with 136 percent of average. Despite that, the president of Klamath Water Users Association expressed frustration with the scope of Armstrong's ruling. Steve Kandra said the Klamath Project is only a small part of the Klamath River system, but was hit with accelerated phases of river management because that's all the judge could legally affect....
National director says agency improving work relationship with oil and gas industry The national director for the Bureau of Land Management told oil and gas producers in Eddy County Thursday that the agency's goal is to work smarter, more efficiently and cooperatively with the oil and gas industry. She said that the Carlsbad Field Office is one of several pilot offices in the Western states that will be implementing the new initiatives, which have a goal of decreasing processing times for applications for oil and gas drilling and inspections of oil and gas wells. The pilot offices have three years to demonstrate their effectiveness. At the end of the third year, the BLM will have to report to Congress, said Alan Kesterke, who heads the BLM national energy policy liaison Energy Act implementation team. Dale Hall, national director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who accompanied Clarke from Washington, said pilot offices like Carlsbad BLM office are the key to doing business in a new way. He said part of the pilot office program is to staff the local BLM office with a biologist from Fish and Wildlife and another person from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. In essence, it will be a one-stop office for the oil and gas industry. The Local BLM office is also in the process of hiring 23 more people....
Manmade Ponds Help Preserve Wetlands More people building ponds for golf courses and subdivisions or to retain stormwater and wastewater helped create the nation's first net gain in wetlands in a half-century of government record-keeping. About 5 percent of the contiguous United States, or almost 108 million acres, was covered with wetlands as of 2004, the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service reported Thursday. It found a net gain of 191,800 acres of wetlands since the last report in 1997. Bush administration officials cast the report as evidence that the nation has turned a corner on years of wetlands losses. State wetland managers and advocacy groups for hunting, recreation and environmental causes all called the report misleading. The Fish and Wildlife Service reported a gain of 715,300 acres of shallow-water wetlands - mainly artificial varieties of ponds - which offset a continued loss of 523,500 acres of marshes, swamps, and other more traditional and natural wetlands that are the so-called nurseries of life....
Hearing opens on water plan for Nevada lobbyist-developer Nevada's state engineer opens hearings Tuesday on contested plans for water that lobbyist-turned-developer Harvey Whittemore needs for a huge project, 60 miles north of Las Vegas, that eventually could include 50,000 homes and 10 golf courses. State Engineer Hugh Ricci has scheduled three days for a review of applications by Lincoln County and the Vidler Water Co. to pump 14,000 acre-feet of water a year from Kane Valley to supply the big Coyote Springs development. Whittemore says he already has water rights available for the first 5,000 homes. The additional water would allow for continued growth of the development, which could include condominiums and hotels in addition to individual homes. Vidler attorney Steve Hartman said the firm would be comfortable if Ricci approves 5,000 acre-feet and then orders a prolonged test to see if there are any adverse effects on the 28-mile-long Kane Valley. The plan has generated protests from the federal government, which claims the pumping would harm the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and threaten some endangered species, including a small fish known as the Moapa dace and the Southwestern willow flycatcher, a small bird....
Column: Gale's Greatest Hits Five years ago, the Interior Department, which oversees one-quarter of the nation's land, 9,000 employees and nine federal agencies, appeared to have turned a corner. Outgoing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had just pulled off a remarkable conservation offensive, getting his boss, Bill Clinton, to create and expand more than a dozen national monuments in the West. The monuments capped the Babbitt team's many efforts, from trying to reform the 1872 Mining Law to implementing habitat protection plans for imperiled species living in the path of growth. So thoroughly had Babbitt pushed conservation that when Gale Norton, a former attorney general from Colorado, took over the reins in 2001, several pundits predicted that she would have a difficult time dismantling a "reborn" Interior Department. But that's not how things worked out....
Staying down on the farm Over the past quarter-century, Arizona farmers and ranchers have sold an average of 1,320 acres a day. Houses and shops have replaced almost one-third of the state's farmland. But as more farmers sell their land to developers, a handful of die-hards are turning to agritourism, also known as agritainment, to preserve their farms and their way of life. "We are losing our farmers, our locally grown food and the knowledge of how fertile this region was before the houses came," said Katie Decker, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Agriculture, which charts the state's ongoing loss of farmland. Agritourism, which combines agriculture and tourism by providing the public with a farming experience, also gives farmers who want to keep plowing a way to fight off developers....
Johanns releases farm program wish list March is among thousands who have given wish lists to the Agriculture Department as it prepares for an overhaul of farm programs next year. Many talked in person to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns during a nationwide series of forums. On Wednesday, Johanns issued an exhaustive summary of the comments, more than 4,000 in all. Comments and summaries are available on the department's Web site, http://www.usda.gov. The department did not say which issues were most talked about. But a Washington-based group, the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, reviewed transcripts of the forums earlier this year and said that 40 percent of those who spoke mentioned conservation. Next comes a series of analysis papers on different issues. Johanns said he will decide what to ask Congress for later, likely early next year....
We’re Thinking About Tomorrow Susie Morales lives west of Nogales in a remote canyon crisscrossed by smuggling trails. From her kitchen door, she can look out and sees burreros — drug mules — backpacking marijuana into the country. They're close enough to wink at her. Her house has been broken into many times, and she had to protect it — it looks like a fort, with security doors, window bars, and an expensive alarm system. At suppertime, when her husband is outside talking to passing illegals, she keeps a rifle on the table while she cooks. As maddening as that insecurity is, what bothers Susie most is that she can no longer live the way she was raised. For generations on this border, residents have shown generosity and kindness to passersby. But rampant drug-running and illegal immigration have driven a stake through the heart of that way of life. The invasion has brutalized border country, and for Susie, who is fifth generation, that means making the heart-breaking decision to stop offering food and water to illegals. They come in hordes now, and the danger has grown too great. "I can't describe how upsetting it is to have to change who I am," says Susie. "Why, after 50 years, should I have to face this moral conflict?" In Cochise County, rancher John Ladd fights to keep what he owns. With 10 1/2 miles of land abutting the Mexican line, he watches the border war every day through his living room window. In the early 2000s, the Border Patrol averaged 350 arrests every 24 hours on his property, including 700 in a single night....
Creature Feeds Conspiracies, Controversy, Part II In Eastern Montana, permits had been issued and a plan formed to take care of a wandering creature, wolf or not, that had killed 36 sheep and injured some 71 more. But the level of frustration in the prairie communities continued to build, further feeding a divide between two cultures -- one rooted to the land the animal was wandering, and the other filled with regulations designed to protect the animal. Some of the first questions about how to deal with the stock-killer concerned the CM Russell Wildlife Refuge. Among the least popular of the federal government's many, many unpopular endeavors in the region, the CM Russell's one million acres (including the vast acreage of the surface of Fort Peck Reservoir) has been a flash point since it was set aside as a "game range" in 1936, following the general exodus of human population from the region in the wake of the Dust Bowl years. Among the extremely hardy agricultural people who did not leave, who stayed on, year after year, building larger and larger holdings in order to survive, there is ongoing suspicion that the Refuge, which has been the site of prairie dog town recovery (an idea that disgusts many ranchers who have battled the rodents for decades) is also the secret site of wolf re-introductions. Such secret re-introductions, it is theorized, will have the conspiratorial effect of bringing down even more federal regulations on ranching operations and have the wolves killing stock that will help to ease ranchers into the financial abyss. That event will force the sale of private property and begin the creation of the Big Open, or the even more despised notion of the Buffalo Commons, a huge, unpeopled, wildlife reserve, running through the parts of the Great Plains states that have suffered big declines in agriculture and population since the 1920's....
Desert water more precious than gold Water has been called "the essential element" and nowhere was and still is that more true than Tooele County. When you think of the water resources of Tooele County, you may say as Sir Richard Burton did in 1860 "Water, Water, everywhere and not a drop to drink." Millions and millions of gallons of water cover vast tracts of the county in Great Salt Lake and out in the Great Salt Lake Desert. Unfortunately, this water is useless except for the heavy metals, salt and brine shrimp extracted from it in mass quantities each year. This is not the complete story of water in the county, however, as there are several significant sources, several of which remain untapped. It was said back in the Old West that the only thing more valuable than gold was water. If you were a cattle rancher or a farmer, your spread could only grow as far as your water resources and the conditions of the range would allow. Water has been utilized by the people of the county in many interesting ways since the first settlers eked out their first season at the mouth of Settlement Canyon. The first obvious use was for culinary purposes and the second was irrigation. But after that, the pioneers put the water resources of the county to work in all kinds of interesting ways. Saw mills were constructed on Settlement Canyon Creek and near the Benson Grist Mill in the early 1850s. The power of water was utilized to mill the lumber that built the early settlers' homes, churches, barns and other buildings. Water power was also used to grind the wheat into flour that was brought to the mill....
Rancher lifestyle endures In Rush Valley father Johnson and his family continue a lifestyle generations old & growing hay and raising cattle. Johnson, 64, says to him the lifestyle is priceless & worth far more than any profit he could make through selling his water rights. As suburbanization encroaches culturally and physically, the Johnsons could make a a bundle to sell out. The water used to grow just one acre of alfalfa can serve as many as five suburban homes. Darrell's father Orson is in his 80s. Father and son & one at the age of retirement and one well past it & drive their tractor together around the farm, work and talk. Sons and grandsons work on the farm and help out. Family members have sometimes worked jobs in town in order to make ends meet. Johnson combined his passion with practical necessity for about ten years when he worked for a bank in Salt Lake loaning money to ranchers. He was willing to do what was needed to preserve the rural lifestyle they love. Another generation down Darrell sees future ranchers. "I've got a 4-year old grandson helping me all morning and you can bet he's going to want to stay out here and do this," Johnson said. "This little guy knows as much about cows as I do. It's a good life....
Irrigators wrestle with water ruling Klamath Reclamation Project irrigators huddled Tuesday to decide their next step after a federal judge required accelerated implementation of a Klamath River management plan. U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong's decision Monday put the river's water allocation plan into effect immediately rather than over the next five years. If flows drop to levels that threaten coho salmon, water could be withheld from irrigators. Most local irrigators agree that's not likely to happen this summer because of the significant snowpack in the mountains. As of Monday, the Klamath Basin's snowpack was 163 percent of average - compared with one-third of average a year ago. Oregon has the West's best overall snowpack with 136 percent of average. Despite that, the president of Klamath Water Users Association expressed frustration with the scope of Armstrong's ruling. Steve Kandra said the Klamath Project is only a small part of the Klamath River system, but was hit with accelerated phases of river management because that's all the judge could legally affect....
National director says agency improving work relationship with oil and gas industry The national director for the Bureau of Land Management told oil and gas producers in Eddy County Thursday that the agency's goal is to work smarter, more efficiently and cooperatively with the oil and gas industry. She said that the Carlsbad Field Office is one of several pilot offices in the Western states that will be implementing the new initiatives, which have a goal of decreasing processing times for applications for oil and gas drilling and inspections of oil and gas wells. The pilot offices have three years to demonstrate their effectiveness. At the end of the third year, the BLM will have to report to Congress, said Alan Kesterke, who heads the BLM national energy policy liaison Energy Act implementation team. Dale Hall, national director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who accompanied Clarke from Washington, said pilot offices like Carlsbad BLM office are the key to doing business in a new way. He said part of the pilot office program is to staff the local BLM office with a biologist from Fish and Wildlife and another person from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. In essence, it will be a one-stop office for the oil and gas industry. The Local BLM office is also in the process of hiring 23 more people....
Manmade Ponds Help Preserve Wetlands More people building ponds for golf courses and subdivisions or to retain stormwater and wastewater helped create the nation's first net gain in wetlands in a half-century of government record-keeping. About 5 percent of the contiguous United States, or almost 108 million acres, was covered with wetlands as of 2004, the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service reported Thursday. It found a net gain of 191,800 acres of wetlands since the last report in 1997. Bush administration officials cast the report as evidence that the nation has turned a corner on years of wetlands losses. State wetland managers and advocacy groups for hunting, recreation and environmental causes all called the report misleading. The Fish and Wildlife Service reported a gain of 715,300 acres of shallow-water wetlands - mainly artificial varieties of ponds - which offset a continued loss of 523,500 acres of marshes, swamps, and other more traditional and natural wetlands that are the so-called nurseries of life....
Hearing opens on water plan for Nevada lobbyist-developer Nevada's state engineer opens hearings Tuesday on contested plans for water that lobbyist-turned-developer Harvey Whittemore needs for a huge project, 60 miles north of Las Vegas, that eventually could include 50,000 homes and 10 golf courses. State Engineer Hugh Ricci has scheduled three days for a review of applications by Lincoln County and the Vidler Water Co. to pump 14,000 acre-feet of water a year from Kane Valley to supply the big Coyote Springs development. Whittemore says he already has water rights available for the first 5,000 homes. The additional water would allow for continued growth of the development, which could include condominiums and hotels in addition to individual homes. Vidler attorney Steve Hartman said the firm would be comfortable if Ricci approves 5,000 acre-feet and then orders a prolonged test to see if there are any adverse effects on the 28-mile-long Kane Valley. The plan has generated protests from the federal government, which claims the pumping would harm the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and threaten some endangered species, including a small fish known as the Moapa dace and the Southwestern willow flycatcher, a small bird....
Column: Gale's Greatest Hits Five years ago, the Interior Department, which oversees one-quarter of the nation's land, 9,000 employees and nine federal agencies, appeared to have turned a corner. Outgoing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had just pulled off a remarkable conservation offensive, getting his boss, Bill Clinton, to create and expand more than a dozen national monuments in the West. The monuments capped the Babbitt team's many efforts, from trying to reform the 1872 Mining Law to implementing habitat protection plans for imperiled species living in the path of growth. So thoroughly had Babbitt pushed conservation that when Gale Norton, a former attorney general from Colorado, took over the reins in 2001, several pundits predicted that she would have a difficult time dismantling a "reborn" Interior Department. But that's not how things worked out....
Staying down on the farm Over the past quarter-century, Arizona farmers and ranchers have sold an average of 1,320 acres a day. Houses and shops have replaced almost one-third of the state's farmland. But as more farmers sell their land to developers, a handful of die-hards are turning to agritourism, also known as agritainment, to preserve their farms and their way of life. "We are losing our farmers, our locally grown food and the knowledge of how fertile this region was before the houses came," said Katie Decker, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Agriculture, which charts the state's ongoing loss of farmland. Agritourism, which combines agriculture and tourism by providing the public with a farming experience, also gives farmers who want to keep plowing a way to fight off developers....
Johanns releases farm program wish list March is among thousands who have given wish lists to the Agriculture Department as it prepares for an overhaul of farm programs next year. Many talked in person to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns during a nationwide series of forums. On Wednesday, Johanns issued an exhaustive summary of the comments, more than 4,000 in all. Comments and summaries are available on the department's Web site, http://www.usda.gov. The department did not say which issues were most talked about. But a Washington-based group, the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, reviewed transcripts of the forums earlier this year and said that 40 percent of those who spoke mentioned conservation. Next comes a series of analysis papers on different issues. Johanns said he will decide what to ask Congress for later, likely early next year....
We’re Thinking About Tomorrow Susie Morales lives west of Nogales in a remote canyon crisscrossed by smuggling trails. From her kitchen door, she can look out and sees burreros — drug mules — backpacking marijuana into the country. They're close enough to wink at her. Her house has been broken into many times, and she had to protect it — it looks like a fort, with security doors, window bars, and an expensive alarm system. At suppertime, when her husband is outside talking to passing illegals, she keeps a rifle on the table while she cooks. As maddening as that insecurity is, what bothers Susie most is that she can no longer live the way she was raised. For generations on this border, residents have shown generosity and kindness to passersby. But rampant drug-running and illegal immigration have driven a stake through the heart of that way of life. The invasion has brutalized border country, and for Susie, who is fifth generation, that means making the heart-breaking decision to stop offering food and water to illegals. They come in hordes now, and the danger has grown too great. "I can't describe how upsetting it is to have to change who I am," says Susie. "Why, after 50 years, should I have to face this moral conflict?" In Cochise County, rancher John Ladd fights to keep what he owns. With 10 1/2 miles of land abutting the Mexican line, he watches the border war every day through his living room window. In the early 2000s, the Border Patrol averaged 350 arrests every 24 hours on his property, including 700 in a single night....
Thursday, March 30, 2006
First Commercially Cloned Mare Born
Scientists and veterinarians today (March 30) announced the birth of the first commercially cloned mare, created from the cells of champion cutting horse Royal Blue Boon. The filly, Royal Blue Boon Too, was carried to term by a recipient mare and was born on Feb. 19 at Royal Vista Southwest Farms in Purcell, Okla. Royal Blue Boon Too is one of several cloned foals that have been born in 2006--cloned foals have been born at Texas A&M University this spring. The first equine clones were born in 2003; mules in Idaho came first, followed by a filly in Italy. In 2005, the first commercially cloned horse was born, created from the genetic material of a champion endurance gelding. Registered Quarter Horse Royal Blue Boon is the all-time leading producer of cutting horses in the world. She earned $381,764 in her career, and her progeny have earned more than $2.5 million. The mare is 26 years old--long past her performance and breeding career--so her owner made the decision to have the mare cloned so that her genetic material could be preserved. Two companies, ViaGen and Encore Genetics, partnered on the project, and have continued to offer the opportunity to commercially clone horses. To produce a clone, a veterinarian takes a small tissue biopsy from the donor horse. He ships the cells to Viagen, whose scientists grow the cells in culture before performing nuclear transfer, where they take DNA from the donor cells and insert it into enucleated eggs (eggs from which the genetic material has been removed). The resulting embryos are grown in an incubator for several days, then a veterinarian places the embryos into recipient females as he would with any embryo transfer. Polejaeva assures that even though 26-year-old cells were used in Royal Blue Boon's cloning procedure, the genetic age of the clone is that of a foal. "During the cloning process, the age of the cell is reset, and therefore the life span of the animal will be the same as the genetic potential of that animal," she said....
First Two Commercially Cloned U.S. Horses Thriving
Livestock cloning company ViaGen, Inc. is partnering with equine marketing firm Encore Genetics to create the first commercial horse cloning operation in the country. Today the companies launched the new entity with announcements about the births of two famous horse clones and news of other pregnancies. The legendary cutting horse Royal Blue Boon, a registered American Quarter Horse, became the first mare to be commercially cloned when a foal was born to a recipient mare on Royal Vista Southwest farms in Purcell, Okla., on Feb. 19, 2006. The foal was born healthy and continues to thrive on the farm where she was born. She was joined soon after by a clone of the mare Tap O Lena, born at the same farm on March 9, 2006. Two clones of the famous mare Bet Yer Blue Boons are expected to be born any day. Including the foals announced today, seven clones of famous horses will be born this year. Many other pregnant ViaGen/Encore mares are due next year. The companies have also gene banked over 75 champion horses from multiple breeds and disciplines. "From the time I transferred the embryo into the recipient mare, these pregnancies were normal in every way and the births followed suit," said Dr. Jim Bailey, DVM and manager of Royal Vista Southwest, a breeding technology center in the heart of Oklahoma horse country. "The resulting foals were born normally and immediately stood to nurse. They bonded well with the recipient mares and continue to grow and play in the sun."....
Co. Produces Clones From Cutting Horses
A company that offers horse owners exact duplicates of their animals says it has successfully cloned two top-earning horses. ViaGen Inc. announced Thursday that two mares had delivered clones of top cutting horses, which are trained to help separate individual animals from cattle herds. The foals, born at a ranch near Purcell, were doing well, according to the Austin, Texas-based company. The first cloned horse was born in 2003 in Italy. In 2005, Texas A&M University created the first cloned horse in the United States. Elaine Hall of Weatherford, Texas, owns one of the horses that was cloned and said the foal is the image of its mother. "I can already see so many similarities from the original horse, a certain look about the eyes," she said....
Cloned horses latest move for controversial field
The company that cloned the first horse to be sold commercially said on Thursday it plans to market 22 similar animals before 2008, marking another step forward for the controversial technology. ViaGen Inc., based in Austin, Texas, said the mare was born on February 19 in Oklahoma, and predicted it would one day produce 100 cloned horses a year, each fetching about $150,000. The company‘s announcement comes three years after the first cloned horse was created by Italian scientists in 2003. A cloned calf can sell for as much as $82,000, compared to an average calf that costs less than $1,000. Even cloned horses carry a lofty price tag and The Jockey Club, which monitors thoroughbreds, does not allow cloned animals to race....
Thanks to Ol' Tick for the tip on this story.
Scientists and veterinarians today (March 30) announced the birth of the first commercially cloned mare, created from the cells of champion cutting horse Royal Blue Boon. The filly, Royal Blue Boon Too, was carried to term by a recipient mare and was born on Feb. 19 at Royal Vista Southwest Farms in Purcell, Okla. Royal Blue Boon Too is one of several cloned foals that have been born in 2006--cloned foals have been born at Texas A&M University this spring. The first equine clones were born in 2003; mules in Idaho came first, followed by a filly in Italy. In 2005, the first commercially cloned horse was born, created from the genetic material of a champion endurance gelding. Registered Quarter Horse Royal Blue Boon is the all-time leading producer of cutting horses in the world. She earned $381,764 in her career, and her progeny have earned more than $2.5 million. The mare is 26 years old--long past her performance and breeding career--so her owner made the decision to have the mare cloned so that her genetic material could be preserved. Two companies, ViaGen and Encore Genetics, partnered on the project, and have continued to offer the opportunity to commercially clone horses. To produce a clone, a veterinarian takes a small tissue biopsy from the donor horse. He ships the cells to Viagen, whose scientists grow the cells in culture before performing nuclear transfer, where they take DNA from the donor cells and insert it into enucleated eggs (eggs from which the genetic material has been removed). The resulting embryos are grown in an incubator for several days, then a veterinarian places the embryos into recipient females as he would with any embryo transfer. Polejaeva assures that even though 26-year-old cells were used in Royal Blue Boon's cloning procedure, the genetic age of the clone is that of a foal. "During the cloning process, the age of the cell is reset, and therefore the life span of the animal will be the same as the genetic potential of that animal," she said....
First Two Commercially Cloned U.S. Horses Thriving
Livestock cloning company ViaGen, Inc. is partnering with equine marketing firm Encore Genetics to create the first commercial horse cloning operation in the country. Today the companies launched the new entity with announcements about the births of two famous horse clones and news of other pregnancies. The legendary cutting horse Royal Blue Boon, a registered American Quarter Horse, became the first mare to be commercially cloned when a foal was born to a recipient mare on Royal Vista Southwest farms in Purcell, Okla., on Feb. 19, 2006. The foal was born healthy and continues to thrive on the farm where she was born. She was joined soon after by a clone of the mare Tap O Lena, born at the same farm on March 9, 2006. Two clones of the famous mare Bet Yer Blue Boons are expected to be born any day. Including the foals announced today, seven clones of famous horses will be born this year. Many other pregnant ViaGen/Encore mares are due next year. The companies have also gene banked over 75 champion horses from multiple breeds and disciplines. "From the time I transferred the embryo into the recipient mare, these pregnancies were normal in every way and the births followed suit," said Dr. Jim Bailey, DVM and manager of Royal Vista Southwest, a breeding technology center in the heart of Oklahoma horse country. "The resulting foals were born normally and immediately stood to nurse. They bonded well with the recipient mares and continue to grow and play in the sun."....
Co. Produces Clones From Cutting Horses
A company that offers horse owners exact duplicates of their animals says it has successfully cloned two top-earning horses. ViaGen Inc. announced Thursday that two mares had delivered clones of top cutting horses, which are trained to help separate individual animals from cattle herds. The foals, born at a ranch near Purcell, were doing well, according to the Austin, Texas-based company. The first cloned horse was born in 2003 in Italy. In 2005, Texas A&M University created the first cloned horse in the United States. Elaine Hall of Weatherford, Texas, owns one of the horses that was cloned and said the foal is the image of its mother. "I can already see so many similarities from the original horse, a certain look about the eyes," she said....
Cloned horses latest move for controversial field
The company that cloned the first horse to be sold commercially said on Thursday it plans to market 22 similar animals before 2008, marking another step forward for the controversial technology. ViaGen Inc., based in Austin, Texas, said the mare was born on February 19 in Oklahoma, and predicted it would one day produce 100 cloned horses a year, each fetching about $150,000. The company‘s announcement comes three years after the first cloned horse was created by Italian scientists in 2003. A cloned calf can sell for as much as $82,000, compared to an average calf that costs less than $1,000. Even cloned horses carry a lofty price tag and The Jockey Club, which monitors thoroughbreds, does not allow cloned animals to race....
Thanks to Ol' Tick for the tip on this story.
NEWS ROUNDUP
A Montana Wolf Mystery & the Fury it Breeds The creature, whatever it is, came out of Montana's own McCone County, wandering from the rough breaks of Timber Creek, just south of the Big Dry Arm of Fort Peck Reservoir, and the CM Russell Wildlife Refuge. Where it had wandered before that, Canada or North Dakota, nobody knows. Since December, it has struck six herds of sheep belonging to stockmen in McCone and Garfield Counties, killing 36 ewes, and injuring 71, many of which will succumb to their wounds. It leaves a track like a small wolf, or a dog, or a wolf-hybrid, but its killing habits are inefficient, nothing like the surgical lethality of a wolf taking meat from a herd of domestic sheep. Coyotes, those that survive here in the gauntlet of traps and aerial gunnery and cyanide "getters," kill a lot of sheep every year, but nothing like this. This creature is a traveler, and it is not always alone, though its companion leaves a smaller track still, adding to the mystery. Where it has stopped to kill, over an area of more than a hundred square miles, it has created a fury, one that is not entirely directed at the creature itself (the stockmen here know full well how to handle that problem) but at the federal and state governments, at complex regulations imposed to protect an animal that they despise, and at a far-away society that seems to have lost all respect for them and their constant struggle to remain self-reliant, solvent, and on the land....
Judge faults Bush call to ease logging restrictions A Bush administration decision to ease logging restrictions under the Northwest Forest Plan was arbitrary and should be invalidated, a federal judge has found. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler made the recommendation this week in a report to U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez, who will consider it and make a final ruling. The Bush administration dropped wording from the forest plan in March 2004 that required certain projects to be evaluated for how they would affect their watershed before they could be approved. Theiler said officials were required to give a rational basis for the wording change and explain why the change would not harm protected salmon, but didn't. The change at issue concerned a section of the plan called the Aquatic Conservation Strategy, and it is one of several ways the Bush administration has eased logging requirements in the Northwest. A federal judge in Seattle has already struck down the administration's decision to stop requiring agencies to look for endangered species before logging or mining, and several states are suing over its move to open roadless national forest lands to mining, logging, road-building and other development....
C-130s stage at Kirtland AFB to answer the firefighting call The rancher fearing for his livestock or the people living in developed areas along the boundary of a fire probably don't realize the massive effort and the number of personnel supporting the C-130 they see dropping salvation from the sky, but cooperation among military members and civilians can save acres and lives when wildfires occur. Two military C-130s equipped with the Modular Airborne Firefighting System arrived on Kirtland late March 16 and were placed on standby at the air tanker base operated by the Cibola National Forest. MAFFS is a modular unit designed to be inserted into a C-130 to drop up to 2,700 gallons of fire retardant or water. If a fire escalates to the point where they're needed, they can be loaded and ready to fly in about two hours, said ANG Lt. Col. Rick Gibson, MAFFS liaison for the ANG....
Officials to review k-rat habitat The diminutive furry creature that has held up some development and mining in communities along the Santa Ana River and other streams will get another look from wildlife officials to see how much land it needs to survive. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will examine whether the endangered San Bernardino kangaroo rat really needs 33,295 acres in San Bernardino and Riverside counties to survive and recover. In a settlement to a lawsuit reached last week, the service has agreed to re-examine the "critical habitat" designations for five species, including the kangaroo rat and the Quino checkerspot butterfly in Riverside and San Diego counties. The deal concluded Friday does not require any changes to the designations; it only requires the service to do a more rigorous analysis of the economic effects of the critical habitat designation and any new research related to where the creature may live. "Most likely this will result in more limited habitat designations," said M. Reed Hopper, an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, a property-rights group that brought the suit against the Fish and Wildlife Service....
U.S. Acts to Help Wild Salmon in Klamath River Federal wildlife agencies demanded Wednesday that the Klamath River's imperiled wild salmon be given a way to pass four towering hydroelectric dams that for nearly a century have blocked the waterway's upper spawning grounds. The owner of the dams, PacifiCorp of Portland, Ore., could face a costly decision: Should it spend up to $175 million to erect very long fish ladders, or should it abandon the dams and undertake the nation's largest removal project? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service and other federal wildlife agencies presented their demands in response to PacifiCorp's application to renew its operating license for the dams. The structures — combined with diversions for irrigation, polluted runoff from ranching, logging and other factors — have caused Klamath fish populations to plummet. Salmon runs have fallen so low in the last three years that federal regulators next week will decide whether to recommend that the annual fishing season be canceled. PacifiCorp, owned by billionaire financial guru Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has in recent years agreed to demolish three other hydroelectric dams, including a 150-foot-tall concrete structure on the White Salmon River in southwest Washington....
Joint efforts revive species once nearly gone Two Wyoming species, the Wyoming toad and the black-footed ferret, are on their way back from the brink of extinction, thanks largely to captive breeding programs that have helped boost populations. People involved in the recovery efforts say the Endangered Species Act -- and the often-maligned monitoring and regulation that go with it -- is responsible for identifying problems with those species and helping scientists with their recovery. "I think if it hadn't been for the ESA, the Wyoming toad would probably be gone today," said Jeff Ettling, curator of amphibians and reptiles for the St. Louis Zoo, where the Wyoming toad has been a favorite of schoolchildren for more than a decade. "If they hadn't brought that last remnant population from Wyoming, we would just be reading about Wyoming toads now."....Nice, objective article by the AP. Surely they are not trying to influence legislation pending in Congress.
For Their Eyes Only It's tough to be a Texas blind salamander. Not only are you ugly, slithery, and totally blind, but you are also endangered. As rapid urbanization degrades the salamander's underwater habitat – primarily caves southwest of Austin, near San Marcos – many individuals venture out of their increasingly murky homes in search of food and cleaner water. All too frequently, however, only death and digestion await. Unused to full-light environments, the blind salamanders are quickly snatched up by predators; and even if they manage to hide from voracious hunters, the sunlight fries their delicate vestigial eye-spots. All that could change thanks to a new program by Texas Wildlife & Parks. The program, called Operation SHADE (Salamanders Helped by Awesome and Dramatic Eyewear) is an ambitious effort to fit the entire known population of Texas blind salamanders with designer-made dark lenses over their eye-spots. TWP believes the devices, called Amphibi-Lens, will help the creatures survive and thrive in strange, new environments. "The Amphibi-Lens will help the salamanders go incognito," said TWP spokesman Rusty McNeil. "Behind the large, dark, stylish frames, their customary predators will be unable to recognize them, and therefore will leave them alone."....Not quite April Fool's Day, but this has to be a joke. Go check out the picture.
More help for steelhead Federal officials Wednesday proposed to extend the protections of the Endangered Species Act to the Puget Sound region's stocks of steelhead, one of the most sought-after game fish in North America. The law already can be used to restrict building and drinking-water withdrawals to protect chinook salmon. In addition to extending those limits farther up into Puget Sound-area watersheds, the plan could curtail or even end fishing for the fabled steelhead around here. One of the Puget Sound area's most battered runs of steelhead spawns in the Cedar River, a source of Seattle's drinking water. Although some think the additional protections proposed Wednesday could spell trouble for that drinking-water supply, city officials say they could help the steelhead without reducing Seattleites' water supplies....
Groups sue agency over falcon habitat A coalition of environmentalists has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, alleging the agency ignored the group's petition to designate critical habitat for the endangered northern aplomado falcon in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. Forest Guardians, the Chihuahuan Desert Conservation Alliance and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed their complaint Monday in federal court in Santa Fe, saying they filed the petition in September 2002 and that federal law requires the agency to act within a year. The coalition asked a federal judge to declare that Fish and Wildlife violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to make a determination on critical habitat and to order the agency to make a decision. Vicki Fox, a spokeswoman for Fish and Wildlife in Albuquerque, said Tuesday the agency does not comment on litigation. However, in similar cases elsewhere the agency has maintained that a lack of money and the number of petitions allows it to respond only to cases backed by a court order....
New Study Challenges Claims That States are Better Than Feds Recovering Endangered Species The federal endangered species program is as good as or better at removing species from legal protection as a result of recovery efforts than similar programs operated by states, finds a new study by World Wildlife Fund. Congress is considering dramatic changes to the act. The principle champions for changing the act have long argued that the federal law is a failure since few species protected by the statute have recovered to a point where they have been removed from legal protection, or "delisted." "This study shows that just passing the buck to the states isn't likely to solve the endangered species problem," said Ginette Hemley, vice president for species conservation at World Wildlife Fund. "Restoring endangered species is difficult no matter who's doing it. There are no quick fixes, and weakening the Endangered Species Act certainly isn't one of them." Hemley added that both state and federal endangered species conservation agencies are improving the status of endangered species and that critics have underestimated the difficulty of the task and oversimplified the job of evaluating progress....
Cattlemen focus on the border The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association ended its annual convention Wednesday determined to see a two-pronged approach to immigration reform and nervous about the impacts of the ongoing drought. Matt Brockman, the association's executive vice president, said the 13,600-member organization supports measures that increase border security, but also endorses an effective temporary worker program that addresses the ranching industry's labor needs. The association, which held a four-day annual convention in San Antonio this week, passed a resolution reaffirming support of the temporary guest worker program that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas has proposed. It would require workers in the country illegally to return to their home countries, obtain required documentation and establish legal work status that allows them to return to the U.S....
A Montana Wolf Mystery & the Fury it Breeds The creature, whatever it is, came out of Montana's own McCone County, wandering from the rough breaks of Timber Creek, just south of the Big Dry Arm of Fort Peck Reservoir, and the CM Russell Wildlife Refuge. Where it had wandered before that, Canada or North Dakota, nobody knows. Since December, it has struck six herds of sheep belonging to stockmen in McCone and Garfield Counties, killing 36 ewes, and injuring 71, many of which will succumb to their wounds. It leaves a track like a small wolf, or a dog, or a wolf-hybrid, but its killing habits are inefficient, nothing like the surgical lethality of a wolf taking meat from a herd of domestic sheep. Coyotes, those that survive here in the gauntlet of traps and aerial gunnery and cyanide "getters," kill a lot of sheep every year, but nothing like this. This creature is a traveler, and it is not always alone, though its companion leaves a smaller track still, adding to the mystery. Where it has stopped to kill, over an area of more than a hundred square miles, it has created a fury, one that is not entirely directed at the creature itself (the stockmen here know full well how to handle that problem) but at the federal and state governments, at complex regulations imposed to protect an animal that they despise, and at a far-away society that seems to have lost all respect for them and their constant struggle to remain self-reliant, solvent, and on the land....
Judge faults Bush call to ease logging restrictions A Bush administration decision to ease logging restrictions under the Northwest Forest Plan was arbitrary and should be invalidated, a federal judge has found. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler made the recommendation this week in a report to U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez, who will consider it and make a final ruling. The Bush administration dropped wording from the forest plan in March 2004 that required certain projects to be evaluated for how they would affect their watershed before they could be approved. Theiler said officials were required to give a rational basis for the wording change and explain why the change would not harm protected salmon, but didn't. The change at issue concerned a section of the plan called the Aquatic Conservation Strategy, and it is one of several ways the Bush administration has eased logging requirements in the Northwest. A federal judge in Seattle has already struck down the administration's decision to stop requiring agencies to look for endangered species before logging or mining, and several states are suing over its move to open roadless national forest lands to mining, logging, road-building and other development....
C-130s stage at Kirtland AFB to answer the firefighting call The rancher fearing for his livestock or the people living in developed areas along the boundary of a fire probably don't realize the massive effort and the number of personnel supporting the C-130 they see dropping salvation from the sky, but cooperation among military members and civilians can save acres and lives when wildfires occur. Two military C-130s equipped with the Modular Airborne Firefighting System arrived on Kirtland late March 16 and were placed on standby at the air tanker base operated by the Cibola National Forest. MAFFS is a modular unit designed to be inserted into a C-130 to drop up to 2,700 gallons of fire retardant or water. If a fire escalates to the point where they're needed, they can be loaded and ready to fly in about two hours, said ANG Lt. Col. Rick Gibson, MAFFS liaison for the ANG....
Officials to review k-rat habitat The diminutive furry creature that has held up some development and mining in communities along the Santa Ana River and other streams will get another look from wildlife officials to see how much land it needs to survive. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will examine whether the endangered San Bernardino kangaroo rat really needs 33,295 acres in San Bernardino and Riverside counties to survive and recover. In a settlement to a lawsuit reached last week, the service has agreed to re-examine the "critical habitat" designations for five species, including the kangaroo rat and the Quino checkerspot butterfly in Riverside and San Diego counties. The deal concluded Friday does not require any changes to the designations; it only requires the service to do a more rigorous analysis of the economic effects of the critical habitat designation and any new research related to where the creature may live. "Most likely this will result in more limited habitat designations," said M. Reed Hopper, an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, a property-rights group that brought the suit against the Fish and Wildlife Service....
U.S. Acts to Help Wild Salmon in Klamath River Federal wildlife agencies demanded Wednesday that the Klamath River's imperiled wild salmon be given a way to pass four towering hydroelectric dams that for nearly a century have blocked the waterway's upper spawning grounds. The owner of the dams, PacifiCorp of Portland, Ore., could face a costly decision: Should it spend up to $175 million to erect very long fish ladders, or should it abandon the dams and undertake the nation's largest removal project? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service and other federal wildlife agencies presented their demands in response to PacifiCorp's application to renew its operating license for the dams. The structures — combined with diversions for irrigation, polluted runoff from ranching, logging and other factors — have caused Klamath fish populations to plummet. Salmon runs have fallen so low in the last three years that federal regulators next week will decide whether to recommend that the annual fishing season be canceled. PacifiCorp, owned by billionaire financial guru Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has in recent years agreed to demolish three other hydroelectric dams, including a 150-foot-tall concrete structure on the White Salmon River in southwest Washington....
Joint efforts revive species once nearly gone Two Wyoming species, the Wyoming toad and the black-footed ferret, are on their way back from the brink of extinction, thanks largely to captive breeding programs that have helped boost populations. People involved in the recovery efforts say the Endangered Species Act -- and the often-maligned monitoring and regulation that go with it -- is responsible for identifying problems with those species and helping scientists with their recovery. "I think if it hadn't been for the ESA, the Wyoming toad would probably be gone today," said Jeff Ettling, curator of amphibians and reptiles for the St. Louis Zoo, where the Wyoming toad has been a favorite of schoolchildren for more than a decade. "If they hadn't brought that last remnant population from Wyoming, we would just be reading about Wyoming toads now."....Nice, objective article by the AP. Surely they are not trying to influence legislation pending in Congress.
For Their Eyes Only It's tough to be a Texas blind salamander. Not only are you ugly, slithery, and totally blind, but you are also endangered. As rapid urbanization degrades the salamander's underwater habitat – primarily caves southwest of Austin, near San Marcos – many individuals venture out of their increasingly murky homes in search of food and cleaner water. All too frequently, however, only death and digestion await. Unused to full-light environments, the blind salamanders are quickly snatched up by predators; and even if they manage to hide from voracious hunters, the sunlight fries their delicate vestigial eye-spots. All that could change thanks to a new program by Texas Wildlife & Parks. The program, called Operation SHADE (Salamanders Helped by Awesome and Dramatic Eyewear) is an ambitious effort to fit the entire known population of Texas blind salamanders with designer-made dark lenses over their eye-spots. TWP believes the devices, called Amphibi-Lens, will help the creatures survive and thrive in strange, new environments. "The Amphibi-Lens will help the salamanders go incognito," said TWP spokesman Rusty McNeil. "Behind the large, dark, stylish frames, their customary predators will be unable to recognize them, and therefore will leave them alone."....Not quite April Fool's Day, but this has to be a joke. Go check out the picture.
More help for steelhead Federal officials Wednesday proposed to extend the protections of the Endangered Species Act to the Puget Sound region's stocks of steelhead, one of the most sought-after game fish in North America. The law already can be used to restrict building and drinking-water withdrawals to protect chinook salmon. In addition to extending those limits farther up into Puget Sound-area watersheds, the plan could curtail or even end fishing for the fabled steelhead around here. One of the Puget Sound area's most battered runs of steelhead spawns in the Cedar River, a source of Seattle's drinking water. Although some think the additional protections proposed Wednesday could spell trouble for that drinking-water supply, city officials say they could help the steelhead without reducing Seattleites' water supplies....
Groups sue agency over falcon habitat A coalition of environmentalists has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, alleging the agency ignored the group's petition to designate critical habitat for the endangered northern aplomado falcon in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. Forest Guardians, the Chihuahuan Desert Conservation Alliance and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed their complaint Monday in federal court in Santa Fe, saying they filed the petition in September 2002 and that federal law requires the agency to act within a year. The coalition asked a federal judge to declare that Fish and Wildlife violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to make a determination on critical habitat and to order the agency to make a decision. Vicki Fox, a spokeswoman for Fish and Wildlife in Albuquerque, said Tuesday the agency does not comment on litigation. However, in similar cases elsewhere the agency has maintained that a lack of money and the number of petitions allows it to respond only to cases backed by a court order....
New Study Challenges Claims That States are Better Than Feds Recovering Endangered Species The federal endangered species program is as good as or better at removing species from legal protection as a result of recovery efforts than similar programs operated by states, finds a new study by World Wildlife Fund. Congress is considering dramatic changes to the act. The principle champions for changing the act have long argued that the federal law is a failure since few species protected by the statute have recovered to a point where they have been removed from legal protection, or "delisted." "This study shows that just passing the buck to the states isn't likely to solve the endangered species problem," said Ginette Hemley, vice president for species conservation at World Wildlife Fund. "Restoring endangered species is difficult no matter who's doing it. There are no quick fixes, and weakening the Endangered Species Act certainly isn't one of them." Hemley added that both state and federal endangered species conservation agencies are improving the status of endangered species and that critics have underestimated the difficulty of the task and oversimplified the job of evaluating progress....
Cattlemen focus on the border The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association ended its annual convention Wednesday determined to see a two-pronged approach to immigration reform and nervous about the impacts of the ongoing drought. Matt Brockman, the association's executive vice president, said the 13,600-member organization supports measures that increase border security, but also endorses an effective temporary worker program that addresses the ranching industry's labor needs. The association, which held a four-day annual convention in San Antonio this week, passed a resolution reaffirming support of the temporary guest worker program that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas has proposed. It would require workers in the country illegally to return to their home countries, obtain required documentation and establish legal work status that allows them to return to the U.S....
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
Forest Service looks beyond timber sales for dollars The lure of money is shaping the nation's 155 national forests: more advertising, more fees, more roads to draw timber sales and lumber mill jobs. The Bush administration also wants to sell more than 300,000 acres of national forests and other public land to help pay for rural schools in 41 states. The land sales, ranging from less than an acre to more than 1,000 acres, are expected to generate $800 million and would be the largest sale of forest land in decades. The Forest Service also hopes to raise money by allowing corporate advertisers to put up logos and banners at ski resorts, marinas or other buildings as well at events such as races, competitions and festivals held in national forests. The agency, part of the Agriculture Department, is also planning to conduct more frequent appraisals of 14,500 private cabins allowed in national forests the past 90 years, mainly in California, Oregon and Washington. Environmentalists are alarmed....
National Forest sale would be buyers' boon It could all be yours, for a price, under President's Bush's plan to sell an estimated 175,000 acres of National Forest land in Missouri and 34 other states to sustain a fund for rural schools and roads. The idea has drawn the wrath of everyone from conservationists to Missouri Republican members of Congress who say the state would get a paltry return for the sale. But the proposal promises to be hugely popular with one particular group - buyers. Rural property is in high demand in states such as Missouri, where up to 21,566 acres of Mark Twain National Forest could be put on the block. Real estate agents and landowners said the forest land would go quickly - and for a high price. "Land is just snapped up in a heartbeat around here unless they've got an incredible price on it," said Clete Baxter, a real estate agent who recently quickly sold 10 acres for $5,499 an acre near one of the Mark Twain parcels southeast of Columbia that could be for sale. U.S. Forest Service officials said they have heard from people who want the land - commonly in 40-acre parcels or more - for hunting, farming, residential or investment purposes. Adjoining landowners also want it, they said....
Bikers beware: Officials cracking down on illegal mountain bike use A mountain bike ride on the wrong side of the Blue Mountain Recreation Area could end up being a bit pricey. The U. S. Forest Service announced in an open letter last week that it will immediately begin enforcing a horse- and hiker-only rule on all trails north of Blue Mountain Road in the recreation area. “We have counted on signing, voluntary compliance and peer pressure to enforce this rule,” said Missoula District Ranger Maggie Pittman in the letter. “Unfortunately, these methods don't seem to be working. “The signs have been removed and vandalized, and the trail is being used by mountain bikers,” she said. Bikers caught illegally riding there could now end up paying a $150 fine, plus a $25 processing fee. The Blue Mountain National Recreation Trail has been designated a horse and hiker trail since its inception in the 1970s....
New Rules Rein In Off-Road Riders Spurred by homeowners tired of the noise, dust and environmental destruction, Riverside County on Tuesday approved a crackdown on off-road vehicle use on private property, and neighboring San Bernardino County may soon adopt its own restrictions. The off-roading limits have slowly gained political support in the fast-growing counties, where housing developments are encroaching on once-remote deserts and mountains that are popular destinations for Southern California dirt-bikers and other all-terrain-vehicle enthusiasts. The restrictions in Riverside County, which the Board of Supervisors approved 4 to 1, follow two years of protracted debate and will limit riding times and the number of vehicles residents can ride on their property. Supervisors also approved strict new noise limits, although they apply as much to garage bands as they do to dune buggies....
Road policy crosses public lands A new federal policy addressing ownership of thousands of miles of roads crisscrossing public land includes rights of way in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who’s leaving office, has directed her agencies to apply a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling nationwide when deciding whether local governments or individuals have valid claims to roadways across federal land. The policy is producing warnings of more conflicts, lawsuits, and trails in national parks and wilderness morphing into motorways. Some roads are present in the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, said Sellar-Baker, who added that those avenues are typically used as in-holdings for people who want legal access to their private property. At the core of the conflict is an 1866 mining law, known as Revised Statute 2477, that allowed local governments to claim rights of way across federal land. When the law was repealed in 1976, Congress allowed states and counties to keep using traditional highways. Left unresolved were disagreements over whether thousands of miles of dirt paths and trails qualify as roads. In 1997, Congress, wrangling over changes to the law, imposed a moratorium on approval of claims. That left places like Moffat County in northwestern Colorado with no recourse when federal agencies closed roads traveled since the 1880s by ranchers and others, said Jeff Comstock, the county’s natural resources director....
Drought spurs fears of active wildfire season A persistent drought, coupled with unseasonably high temperatures and gusty winds, have led to a record number of wildfires this year, and weather and fire officials say conditions are ripe for more activity this spring. From January 1 through March 22, more than 17,000 wildfires have been reported, with 1.5 million-plus acres burned across the country, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The number of fires eclipses the five-year average of slightly more than 11,000 fires for the same period. The acreage burned this year is triple the 549,866 acres of 2000, the previous high in the last six years. Weather and fire officials said they fear what has occurred in Texas and Oklahoma, where the greatest damage has been reported so far this year, could be a preview of what is possible for wide swaths of the Southwest and Great Plains over the next few months....
Condor nest spotted in Big Sur The first California condor nest seen in a century in Monterey County was spotted by a wildlife biologist Monday in a hollow redwood tree on the Big Sur Coast. The discovery is an important milestone in the effort to reintroduce condors into the wild, said Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society. The society has been releasing condors raised in captivity on the Big Sur Coast since 1996 and at Pinnacles National Monument since 2004. The nesting pair was seen and photographed by Wildlife Society condor biologist Joseph Brandt after he saw the birds had apparently taken up housekeeping in the redwood tree. The condors were identified as a 9-year-old male, Condor 167, and an 8-year-old female, Condor 190....
Judge tosses suit seeking to halt pig kills on Santa Cruz Island A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to stop the killing of thousands of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island as part of an effort to protect endangered island foxes. U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian said he disagrees with a Santa Barbara County businessman's claim that the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy, which co-own the island, rushed to eradicate the animals before developing an environmental plan. “The policy and scientific question of how to restore Santa Cruz Island has existed for years, as the number of Santa Cruz Island foxes declined ... and rare and endemic plant species on the Island began disappearing,” Tevrizian said in a ruling released on Tuesday. Both organizations have said that the pigs, which were introduced by ranchers in the 1850s, are destroying the island – part of the Channel Islands National Park – by causing erosion, uprooting native plants and helping spread invasive species....
Beaver dams may slow runoff State and federal officials, trying to keep more water in Cassia County, are considering bringing in some natural experts: beavers. "Beaver do better work than the Corps of Engineers," Mike Todd, regional wildlife habitat biologist with the Magic Valley Region of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, told the South Idaho Press. Water from snow melt tends to flow quickly through the southeast Idaho county, so fast that it doesn't have a chance to filter down to the aquifer or form pools that would remain through the dry summer months. "If you have a riparian system that needs to be repaired, beaver will bring back some stability," Todd said. "When drainages dry up, places with beaver ponds have water still available." Along with Todd, representatives of the U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Mid-Snake Resource Conservation and Development Area, and other local soil and water conservation districts are discussing whether to transplant beavers to public land in the county....
Decades later, Leopold's outdoor wisdom still rings true Aldo Leopold's seminal work "A Sand County Almanac" is required reading for conservationists. It should be required reading for anyone who spends much time in the outdoors. I long have contended hunters and fishermen have more in common with environmentalists than either group believes. Books such as this represent a sort of middle ground of appreciation for the land. One oversized, coffee table edition of "A Sand County Almanac" (which is never out of print though it was written more than 50 years ago), is beautifully illustrated with full-page color photographs and contains an introduction by noted conservationist Kenneth Brower. He suggests that if there are "sacred texts - literary cornerstones" for environmentalists, this is one of them. Leopold (1887-1948) worked for the U.S. Forest Service, was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and was a noted conservationist. The Aldo Leopold Foundation is located in Baraboo, Wis., and there is a Leopold Education Project in St. Paul, Minn. He is not forgotten....
Lead poisoning in cattle threatens rancher's future A single can of paint in Don Koster's pasture could put the Ottawa County rancher out of business. Twenty-seven head of cattle belonging to Koster have died from lead poisoning in the past two weeks. Koster said he wasn't aware of the rusting paint can when he bought the pasture 10 years ago and didn't discover it until cattle began turning up dead earlier this month. "It's flat devastating," said Koster, who had 250 head in that pasture and must test them all at $15 each. "It could have happened to anybody." Officials say the blood tests will reveal which cattle, if any, have high levels of lead in their system. Those carrying too much lead won't be slaughtered for meat, so there is no risk to consumers. "The owner is doing the right thing by looking at the animals' blood level to ensure they do not show abnormal levels of lead," said Fred Oehme, a veterinary toxicologist at Kansas State University. "Normal cattle carry lead. It's a matter of dose." Lead poisoning is relatively uncommon in cattle, said Russell Van Meter, a veterinarian at Sunflower Veterinary Services in Minneapolis, Kan....
Roy Moore challenges tracking of mad cow Former Chief Justice Roy Moore, whose fight to put a Ten Commandments monument in the state courthouse led to his ouster, is challenging state and federal officials on another issue — tracking livestock to deter mad cow disease. Moore opposes such tracking, saying it represents unprecedented government intrusion into the right to own animals. He says an identification system — first for cattle and then for all types of livestock — is "more identifiable with communism than free enterprise." But with the third confirmed case of mad cow disease in the United States turning up recently in Alabama, critics say Moore is embarrassing the state while trying to run as a political outsider against Republican Gov. Bob Riley in the GOP's June 6 primary. Moore, whose anti-tracking position is shared by others nationally, finds the timing of Alabama's first mad cow case curious. It was announced as a bill moved through the Legislature to implement an animal identification system consistent with any developed by federal agriculture officials....
Ranchers file lawsuit against the packers A class action lawsuit was filed by several ranchers that claim United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials were not qualified enough to write an accurate market report on cattle prices. Some of the largest meatpackers in the nation want the report excluded from a federal trial that begins this week in South Dakota. Ranchers have said that meatpackers took advantage of the new mandatory price reporting law in 2001 to artificially lower prices for live cattle. Kansas feedlot operator Mike Callicrate says the USDA’s price reporting was flawed, but that doesn’t account for the 40 million dollars that he claims packers stole from cattle producers. “Our view of the law is it doesn’t matter if the packers knew or didn’t know or whether the USDA was messing up or not. The packers made money unfairly off of misreporting information and they should repay the producers,” said Callicrate in an interview with a South Dakota farm braodcaster. Callicrate believes the case is narrow and it shows the power of the big packers....
Cattle Producers Will Work Together to Remedy Supreme Court’s Pickett Decision Independent cattle producers across the United States were dealt a temporary setback Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court (Court) denied plaintiffs in the Pickett v Tyson Fresh Meats case the opportunity to appeal a lower court’s decision in favor of major meatpackers. “Recently, 36 cattle-producer groups – including R-CALF – asked the Supreme Court to review this case, and we believe this decision by the Court could profoundly undermine the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 (PSA),” said Randy Stevenson, a Wyoming feedlot operator who co-chairs R-CALF USA’s Marketing Committee. “While R-CALF is disappointed with this development, we’re not unprepared. Stevenson said both the executive and judicial branches of government have come up short in response to producer concerns about PSA. “It’s long past time to legislatively address this failure,” he continued. “Monday’s Court decision has reinvigorated producers around the country, and we will work together to pursue a legislative remedy that will clarify what Congress intended when it passed the Act back in 1921. “We especially want the Packers and Stockyards Act to be interpreted literally – to mean the same thing it did in 1921,” urged Stevenson. “Our industry must aggressively work together to accomplish this effort....
Forest Service looks beyond timber sales for dollars The lure of money is shaping the nation's 155 national forests: more advertising, more fees, more roads to draw timber sales and lumber mill jobs. The Bush administration also wants to sell more than 300,000 acres of national forests and other public land to help pay for rural schools in 41 states. The land sales, ranging from less than an acre to more than 1,000 acres, are expected to generate $800 million and would be the largest sale of forest land in decades. The Forest Service also hopes to raise money by allowing corporate advertisers to put up logos and banners at ski resorts, marinas or other buildings as well at events such as races, competitions and festivals held in national forests. The agency, part of the Agriculture Department, is also planning to conduct more frequent appraisals of 14,500 private cabins allowed in national forests the past 90 years, mainly in California, Oregon and Washington. Environmentalists are alarmed....
National Forest sale would be buyers' boon It could all be yours, for a price, under President's Bush's plan to sell an estimated 175,000 acres of National Forest land in Missouri and 34 other states to sustain a fund for rural schools and roads. The idea has drawn the wrath of everyone from conservationists to Missouri Republican members of Congress who say the state would get a paltry return for the sale. But the proposal promises to be hugely popular with one particular group - buyers. Rural property is in high demand in states such as Missouri, where up to 21,566 acres of Mark Twain National Forest could be put on the block. Real estate agents and landowners said the forest land would go quickly - and for a high price. "Land is just snapped up in a heartbeat around here unless they've got an incredible price on it," said Clete Baxter, a real estate agent who recently quickly sold 10 acres for $5,499 an acre near one of the Mark Twain parcels southeast of Columbia that could be for sale. U.S. Forest Service officials said they have heard from people who want the land - commonly in 40-acre parcels or more - for hunting, farming, residential or investment purposes. Adjoining landowners also want it, they said....
Bikers beware: Officials cracking down on illegal mountain bike use A mountain bike ride on the wrong side of the Blue Mountain Recreation Area could end up being a bit pricey. The U. S. Forest Service announced in an open letter last week that it will immediately begin enforcing a horse- and hiker-only rule on all trails north of Blue Mountain Road in the recreation area. “We have counted on signing, voluntary compliance and peer pressure to enforce this rule,” said Missoula District Ranger Maggie Pittman in the letter. “Unfortunately, these methods don't seem to be working. “The signs have been removed and vandalized, and the trail is being used by mountain bikers,” she said. Bikers caught illegally riding there could now end up paying a $150 fine, plus a $25 processing fee. The Blue Mountain National Recreation Trail has been designated a horse and hiker trail since its inception in the 1970s....
New Rules Rein In Off-Road Riders Spurred by homeowners tired of the noise, dust and environmental destruction, Riverside County on Tuesday approved a crackdown on off-road vehicle use on private property, and neighboring San Bernardino County may soon adopt its own restrictions. The off-roading limits have slowly gained political support in the fast-growing counties, where housing developments are encroaching on once-remote deserts and mountains that are popular destinations for Southern California dirt-bikers and other all-terrain-vehicle enthusiasts. The restrictions in Riverside County, which the Board of Supervisors approved 4 to 1, follow two years of protracted debate and will limit riding times and the number of vehicles residents can ride on their property. Supervisors also approved strict new noise limits, although they apply as much to garage bands as they do to dune buggies....
Road policy crosses public lands A new federal policy addressing ownership of thousands of miles of roads crisscrossing public land includes rights of way in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who’s leaving office, has directed her agencies to apply a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling nationwide when deciding whether local governments or individuals have valid claims to roadways across federal land. The policy is producing warnings of more conflicts, lawsuits, and trails in national parks and wilderness morphing into motorways. Some roads are present in the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, said Sellar-Baker, who added that those avenues are typically used as in-holdings for people who want legal access to their private property. At the core of the conflict is an 1866 mining law, known as Revised Statute 2477, that allowed local governments to claim rights of way across federal land. When the law was repealed in 1976, Congress allowed states and counties to keep using traditional highways. Left unresolved were disagreements over whether thousands of miles of dirt paths and trails qualify as roads. In 1997, Congress, wrangling over changes to the law, imposed a moratorium on approval of claims. That left places like Moffat County in northwestern Colorado with no recourse when federal agencies closed roads traveled since the 1880s by ranchers and others, said Jeff Comstock, the county’s natural resources director....
Drought spurs fears of active wildfire season A persistent drought, coupled with unseasonably high temperatures and gusty winds, have led to a record number of wildfires this year, and weather and fire officials say conditions are ripe for more activity this spring. From January 1 through March 22, more than 17,000 wildfires have been reported, with 1.5 million-plus acres burned across the country, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The number of fires eclipses the five-year average of slightly more than 11,000 fires for the same period. The acreage burned this year is triple the 549,866 acres of 2000, the previous high in the last six years. Weather and fire officials said they fear what has occurred in Texas and Oklahoma, where the greatest damage has been reported so far this year, could be a preview of what is possible for wide swaths of the Southwest and Great Plains over the next few months....
Condor nest spotted in Big Sur The first California condor nest seen in a century in Monterey County was spotted by a wildlife biologist Monday in a hollow redwood tree on the Big Sur Coast. The discovery is an important milestone in the effort to reintroduce condors into the wild, said Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society. The society has been releasing condors raised in captivity on the Big Sur Coast since 1996 and at Pinnacles National Monument since 2004. The nesting pair was seen and photographed by Wildlife Society condor biologist Joseph Brandt after he saw the birds had apparently taken up housekeeping in the redwood tree. The condors were identified as a 9-year-old male, Condor 167, and an 8-year-old female, Condor 190....
Judge tosses suit seeking to halt pig kills on Santa Cruz Island A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to stop the killing of thousands of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island as part of an effort to protect endangered island foxes. U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian said he disagrees with a Santa Barbara County businessman's claim that the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy, which co-own the island, rushed to eradicate the animals before developing an environmental plan. “The policy and scientific question of how to restore Santa Cruz Island has existed for years, as the number of Santa Cruz Island foxes declined ... and rare and endemic plant species on the Island began disappearing,” Tevrizian said in a ruling released on Tuesday. Both organizations have said that the pigs, which were introduced by ranchers in the 1850s, are destroying the island – part of the Channel Islands National Park – by causing erosion, uprooting native plants and helping spread invasive species....
Beaver dams may slow runoff State and federal officials, trying to keep more water in Cassia County, are considering bringing in some natural experts: beavers. "Beaver do better work than the Corps of Engineers," Mike Todd, regional wildlife habitat biologist with the Magic Valley Region of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, told the South Idaho Press. Water from snow melt tends to flow quickly through the southeast Idaho county, so fast that it doesn't have a chance to filter down to the aquifer or form pools that would remain through the dry summer months. "If you have a riparian system that needs to be repaired, beaver will bring back some stability," Todd said. "When drainages dry up, places with beaver ponds have water still available." Along with Todd, representatives of the U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Mid-Snake Resource Conservation and Development Area, and other local soil and water conservation districts are discussing whether to transplant beavers to public land in the county....
Decades later, Leopold's outdoor wisdom still rings true Aldo Leopold's seminal work "A Sand County Almanac" is required reading for conservationists. It should be required reading for anyone who spends much time in the outdoors. I long have contended hunters and fishermen have more in common with environmentalists than either group believes. Books such as this represent a sort of middle ground of appreciation for the land. One oversized, coffee table edition of "A Sand County Almanac" (which is never out of print though it was written more than 50 years ago), is beautifully illustrated with full-page color photographs and contains an introduction by noted conservationist Kenneth Brower. He suggests that if there are "sacred texts - literary cornerstones" for environmentalists, this is one of them. Leopold (1887-1948) worked for the U.S. Forest Service, was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and was a noted conservationist. The Aldo Leopold Foundation is located in Baraboo, Wis., and there is a Leopold Education Project in St. Paul, Minn. He is not forgotten....
Lead poisoning in cattle threatens rancher's future A single can of paint in Don Koster's pasture could put the Ottawa County rancher out of business. Twenty-seven head of cattle belonging to Koster have died from lead poisoning in the past two weeks. Koster said he wasn't aware of the rusting paint can when he bought the pasture 10 years ago and didn't discover it until cattle began turning up dead earlier this month. "It's flat devastating," said Koster, who had 250 head in that pasture and must test them all at $15 each. "It could have happened to anybody." Officials say the blood tests will reveal which cattle, if any, have high levels of lead in their system. Those carrying too much lead won't be slaughtered for meat, so there is no risk to consumers. "The owner is doing the right thing by looking at the animals' blood level to ensure they do not show abnormal levels of lead," said Fred Oehme, a veterinary toxicologist at Kansas State University. "Normal cattle carry lead. It's a matter of dose." Lead poisoning is relatively uncommon in cattle, said Russell Van Meter, a veterinarian at Sunflower Veterinary Services in Minneapolis, Kan....
Roy Moore challenges tracking of mad cow Former Chief Justice Roy Moore, whose fight to put a Ten Commandments monument in the state courthouse led to his ouster, is challenging state and federal officials on another issue — tracking livestock to deter mad cow disease. Moore opposes such tracking, saying it represents unprecedented government intrusion into the right to own animals. He says an identification system — first for cattle and then for all types of livestock — is "more identifiable with communism than free enterprise." But with the third confirmed case of mad cow disease in the United States turning up recently in Alabama, critics say Moore is embarrassing the state while trying to run as a political outsider against Republican Gov. Bob Riley in the GOP's June 6 primary. Moore, whose anti-tracking position is shared by others nationally, finds the timing of Alabama's first mad cow case curious. It was announced as a bill moved through the Legislature to implement an animal identification system consistent with any developed by federal agriculture officials....
Ranchers file lawsuit against the packers A class action lawsuit was filed by several ranchers that claim United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials were not qualified enough to write an accurate market report on cattle prices. Some of the largest meatpackers in the nation want the report excluded from a federal trial that begins this week in South Dakota. Ranchers have said that meatpackers took advantage of the new mandatory price reporting law in 2001 to artificially lower prices for live cattle. Kansas feedlot operator Mike Callicrate says the USDA’s price reporting was flawed, but that doesn’t account for the 40 million dollars that he claims packers stole from cattle producers. “Our view of the law is it doesn’t matter if the packers knew or didn’t know or whether the USDA was messing up or not. The packers made money unfairly off of misreporting information and they should repay the producers,” said Callicrate in an interview with a South Dakota farm braodcaster. Callicrate believes the case is narrow and it shows the power of the big packers....
Cattle Producers Will Work Together to Remedy Supreme Court’s Pickett Decision Independent cattle producers across the United States were dealt a temporary setback Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court (Court) denied plaintiffs in the Pickett v Tyson Fresh Meats case the opportunity to appeal a lower court’s decision in favor of major meatpackers. “Recently, 36 cattle-producer groups – including R-CALF – asked the Supreme Court to review this case, and we believe this decision by the Court could profoundly undermine the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 (PSA),” said Randy Stevenson, a Wyoming feedlot operator who co-chairs R-CALF USA’s Marketing Committee. “While R-CALF is disappointed with this development, we’re not unprepared. Stevenson said both the executive and judicial branches of government have come up short in response to producer concerns about PSA. “It’s long past time to legislatively address this failure,” he continued. “Monday’s Court decision has reinvigorated producers around the country, and we will work together to pursue a legislative remedy that will clarify what Congress intended when it passed the Act back in 1921. “We especially want the Packers and Stockyards Act to be interpreted literally – to mean the same thing it did in 1921,” urged Stevenson. “Our industry must aggressively work together to accomplish this effort....
FLE
Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement
When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers. The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates. Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it ''a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a ''signing statement," an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law. In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ''impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties." Bush wrote: ''The executive branch shall construe the provisions . . . that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch . . . in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information ..." The statement represented the latest in a string of high-profile instances in which Bush has cited his constitutional authority to bypass a law....
Two lawmakers demand Bush obey laws
Two senior Democratic House members yesterday demanded that President Bush withdraw his assertion that he can ignore portions of the USA Patriot Act calling on him to provide periodic reports to Congress on how new law-enforcement tactics are being used. Representatives Jane Harman of California and John Conyers of Michigan -- the ranking Democrats on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, respectively -- sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking that Bush follow the law. ''We ask that the administration immediately rescind this statement and abide by the law," the lawmakers wrote. ''Many members who supported the final law did so based upon the guarantee of additional reporting and oversight. The administration cannot, after the fact, unilaterally repeal provisions of the law implementing such oversight." After some lawmakers raised concerns that the Patriot Act may pose a threat to civil liberties, Congress added a series of new oversight provisions to it. The law requires the Justice Department to keep track of how the FBI is using its expanded powers to monitor suspects and seize papers during counterterrorism investigations. The law required the administration to give Congress that information by certain dates. But after Bush signed the Patriot Act reauthorization on March 9, he issued a signing statement -- an official document in which a president lays out his understanding of the law -- asserting that he had the authority to withhold the information from Congress if he decided that disclosing it would interfere with foreign relations, national security, or executive branch operations. The signing statement, which went largely unnoted until The Boston Globe wrote about it last week, echoed a similar dispute three months ago when Congress passed a bill outlawing the torture of any detainee in US custody. Bush signed the antitorture law, but he also issued a statement asserting that he had the power, as commander in chief, to bypass the law if he decided that using aggressive interrogation techniques was necessary to protect national security. While previous presidents occasionally issued signing statements, Bush has done so more often, legal scholars say. The Bush White House has issued more than 100 signing statements that called into question more than 500 provisions of new laws....
FBI on trial, too, alongside Moussaoui
But after federal prosecutors finished laying out their case this week, even those who strongly supported an aggressive prosecution may wonder whether the trial has shed as much light on Moussaoui's culpability as it has on the missteps and mistakes by U.S. law enforcement agencies. The testimony of two prosecution witnesses, in particular, has brought renewed and unwelcome attention to how the FBI dealt with early warning signs. The government presentation, which ended Thursday, did not go smoothly. First, the prosecution nearly collapsed after the disclosure that a federal transportation lawyer working with the prosecutors had improperly coached aviation witnesses. Under cross-examination by Edward MacMahon, a court-appointed lawyer for Moussaoui, Samit acknowledged that after the attacks, he had written strongly worded reports saying his superiors had improperly blocked his attempts to investigate Moussaoui. He added that he was convinced that Moussaoui was a terrorist involved in an imminent hijacking plot. That senior FBI officials drag- ged their feet on investigating Moussaoui was not new. But it had never been presented as vividly as a reluctant Samit was obliged to do under cross-examination. He offered a devastating comment from a supervisor who said pressing too hard to obtain a warrant for Moussaoui would hurt his career. Samit also wrote that his superiors did not act because they were guilty of "criminal negligence" and were gambling that Moussaoui had little to offer. Samit was followed to the witness stand by Michael Rolince, a retired FBI counterterrorism supervisor who similarly recited a list of actions that the bureau could have taken if Moussaoui had told them about al Qaeda plans to take over planes with knives and fly into buildings. But when MacMahon began reading from a document detailing many suspicions about Moussaoui's intentions, Rolince interrupted, "Can I ask what document that's coming from?" MacMahon obliged, noting that it was an urgent memorandum written by Samit on Aug. 18, 2001, hoping to attract the attention of headquarters. Rolince had inadvertently underlined that the agent's suspicions had never risen to his attention....
Moussaoui's Guilt: Less Profound Than the FBI's Own Negligence?
FBI Special Agent Harry Samit's testimony yesterday at the Zacarias Moussaoui trial adds just one more piece of evidence to a growing list of incidents showing what Samit himself labeled "criminal negligence." Samit warned FBI headquarters on August 21, 2001, that Moussaoui wanted to hijack a plane "for the purpose of seizing control of the aircraft." Shortly thereafter he learned from French intelligence that Moussaoui had been a recruiter for a Chechyna group with ties to Osama bin Laden. Higher ups in the FBI blocked his efforts to get a search warrant, and edited out of his reports any reference to the French. Samit's testimony is but one of a growing list of incidents involving FBI's failure to take action on information it had received warning of an attack, while at the same time deliberately downplaying the possibilities of an attack. According to Bureau translators, agents learned in April that bin Laden was planning an attack involving hijacked airliners. Why this didn't sound the alarm, nobody knows. The matter disappeared into the bureaucracy. The role of the Bureau in muzzling Sibel Edmonds, the interpreter who tried to blow the whistle on the Bureau's translation operations pertaining to 9-11, is well known. The FBI and Justice Department fought to prevent Edmonds from giving public testimony and so far the courts have backed them up. The most startling occurrence involves the FBI's inability to detect the presence of the two hijackers who flew into Los Angles in 2000, and lived openly in San Diego. They socialized around town and even rented an apartment from the FBI's key informant in the Muslim community there....If the American public ever gets the entire truth on the events leading up to 911, we will most likely find that the problem wasn't the lack of a Patriot Act, but the incompetence and political correctness of our Federal officials.
Testers Slip Radioactive Materials Over Borders
Undercover Congressional investigators successfully smuggled into the United States enough radioactive material to make two dirty bombs, even after it set off alarms on radiation detectors installed at border checkpoints, a new report says. The test, conducted in December by the Government Accountability Office, demonstrated the mixed progress by the Department of Homeland Security, among other federal agencies, in trying to prevent terrorists from smuggling radioactive material into the United States. Nationally, at a cost so far of about $286 million, about 60 percent of all containerized commercial goods entering the United States by truck or ship and 77 percent of all private cars are now screened for radioactive material. But flaws in the inspection procedures and limitations with the equipment mean that nuclear materials may still be able to be sent illegally into the country through seaports or land borders, the study found. And because the program for installing radiation detectors is far behind schedule, many border crossing points, including many seaports, still have no detection equipment, the report says. In the test case, undercover investigators bought a small amount of radioactive material, most likely cesium. Then on Dec. 15, they drove across the border at undisclosed locations from Canada and Mexico, intentionally picking spots where the detection equipment had been installed. The alarms went off in both locations, and the investigators were pulled aside for questioning. In both cases, they showed the agents from the Customs and Border Protection agency forged import licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, based on an image of the real document they found on the Internet....
DOJ: NSA Could've Monitored Lawyers' Calls
The National Security Agency could have legally monitored ordinarily confidential communications between doctors and patients or attorneys and their clients, the Justice Department said Friday of its controversial warrantless surveillance program. Responding to questions from Congress, the department also said that it sees no prohibition to using information collected under the NSA's program in court. Because collecting foreign intelligence information without a warrant does not violate the Fourth Amendment and because the Terrorist Surveillance Program is lawful, there appears to be no legal barrier against introducing this evidence in a criminal prosecution," the department said in responses to questions from lawmakers released Friday evening. The department said that considerations, including whether classified information could be disclosed, must be weighed. In classified court filings, the Justice Department has responded to questions about whether information from the government's warrantless surveillance program was used to prosecute terror suspects. Defense attorneys are hoping to use that information to challenge the cases against their clients. Since the program was disclosed in December, some skeptical lawmakers have investigated the Bush administration's legal footing, raising questions including whether the program could capture doctor-patient and attorney-client communications. Such communications normally receive special legal protections. "Although the program does not specifically target the communications of attorneys or physicians, calls involving such persons would not be categorically excluded from interception," the department said....
At court, a terror case rife with tough issues
The case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver in Afghanistan, has the potential to become one of the most important US Supreme Court decisions of this generation. It will test the scope of presidential power in the war on terror. It may clarify how detained Al Qaeda suspects are treated by the US. More broadly, it challenges the justices to further define the balance of power among the three branches of government during times of national emergency. But before the high court takes up those weighty issues of constitutional law, it must decide a more basic question: whether it has jurisdiction to hear the case. If the justices decide the case is not yet ripe for their review, Mr. Hamdan's appeal ends there, at least for the time being. That is the unusual posture surrounding the Hamdan case on the eve of oral arguments Tuesday - litigation so multilayered that the high court has taken the unusual step of allotting 90 minutes for oral arguments, a half hour more than usual....
Terrorist Surveillance Act Introduced in Senate
A bill recently introduced in the Senate would legalize warrantless wiretapping at the President's discretion. Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) introduced the bill, popularly named the Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006, on March 16, 2006. The bill was co-sponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). According to a press release by Senator DeWine, the bill would allow the President to authorize wiretapping on international communications by American citizens suspected of being affiliated with a terrorist organization. All the President has to have is probable cause and a belief that surveillance of the individual is necessary to protect national security. The provisions in this bill are sweeping. The President alone can determine what American citizens are potential threats to national security. There is no authorization under this bill from Congress or a court. The bill would allow the President to conduct surveillance for up to 45 days without a warrant, after which the President can reauthorize surveillance under one of two instances. The President must either obtain a warrant after compiling enough evidence to do so through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court or the Attorney General must certify, under oath, when the President doesn’t have sufficient evidence for a warrant that continued surveillance is necessary. This bill would allow the President to conduct warrantless wiretapping in order to obtain the necessary evidence to get a warrant. This bill would allow unheard of Executive Power in conducting surveillance on Americans. Essentially, as long as the Attorney General accepts the decisions of the President, surveillance of Americans could go on indefinitely. These are the safeguards advocated by the sponsors of this bill....
The Letter of the Law
In the dark days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a small group of lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department began meeting to debate a number of novel legal strategies to help prevent another attack. Soon after, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to begin conducting electronic eavesdropping on terrorism suspects in the United States, including American citizens, without court approval. Meeting in the FBI's state-of-the-art command center in the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the lawyers talked with senior FBI officials about using the same legal authority to conduct physical searches of homes and businesses of terrorism suspects--also without court approval, one current and one former government official tell U.S. News. "There was a fair amount of discussion at Justice on the warrantless physical search issue," says a former senior FBI official. "Discussions about--if [the searches] happened--where would the information go, and would it taint cases." FBI Director Robert Mueller was alarmed by the proposal, the two officials said, and pushed back hard against it. "Mueller was personally very concerned," one official says, "not only because of the blowback issue but also because of the legal and constitutional questions raised by warrantless physical searches." FBI spokesman John Miller said none of the FBI's senior staff are aware of any such discussions and added that the bureau has not conducted "physical searches of any location without consent or a judicial order."....
Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement
When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers. The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates. Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it ''a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a ''signing statement," an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law. In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ''impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties." Bush wrote: ''The executive branch shall construe the provisions . . . that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch . . . in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information ..." The statement represented the latest in a string of high-profile instances in which Bush has cited his constitutional authority to bypass a law....
Two lawmakers demand Bush obey laws
Two senior Democratic House members yesterday demanded that President Bush withdraw his assertion that he can ignore portions of the USA Patriot Act calling on him to provide periodic reports to Congress on how new law-enforcement tactics are being used. Representatives Jane Harman of California and John Conyers of Michigan -- the ranking Democrats on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, respectively -- sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking that Bush follow the law. ''We ask that the administration immediately rescind this statement and abide by the law," the lawmakers wrote. ''Many members who supported the final law did so based upon the guarantee of additional reporting and oversight. The administration cannot, after the fact, unilaterally repeal provisions of the law implementing such oversight." After some lawmakers raised concerns that the Patriot Act may pose a threat to civil liberties, Congress added a series of new oversight provisions to it. The law requires the Justice Department to keep track of how the FBI is using its expanded powers to monitor suspects and seize papers during counterterrorism investigations. The law required the administration to give Congress that information by certain dates. But after Bush signed the Patriot Act reauthorization on March 9, he issued a signing statement -- an official document in which a president lays out his understanding of the law -- asserting that he had the authority to withhold the information from Congress if he decided that disclosing it would interfere with foreign relations, national security, or executive branch operations. The signing statement, which went largely unnoted until The Boston Globe wrote about it last week, echoed a similar dispute three months ago when Congress passed a bill outlawing the torture of any detainee in US custody. Bush signed the antitorture law, but he also issued a statement asserting that he had the power, as commander in chief, to bypass the law if he decided that using aggressive interrogation techniques was necessary to protect national security. While previous presidents occasionally issued signing statements, Bush has done so more often, legal scholars say. The Bush White House has issued more than 100 signing statements that called into question more than 500 provisions of new laws....
FBI on trial, too, alongside Moussaoui
But after federal prosecutors finished laying out their case this week, even those who strongly supported an aggressive prosecution may wonder whether the trial has shed as much light on Moussaoui's culpability as it has on the missteps and mistakes by U.S. law enforcement agencies. The testimony of two prosecution witnesses, in particular, has brought renewed and unwelcome attention to how the FBI dealt with early warning signs. The government presentation, which ended Thursday, did not go smoothly. First, the prosecution nearly collapsed after the disclosure that a federal transportation lawyer working with the prosecutors had improperly coached aviation witnesses. Under cross-examination by Edward MacMahon, a court-appointed lawyer for Moussaoui, Samit acknowledged that after the attacks, he had written strongly worded reports saying his superiors had improperly blocked his attempts to investigate Moussaoui. He added that he was convinced that Moussaoui was a terrorist involved in an imminent hijacking plot. That senior FBI officials drag- ged their feet on investigating Moussaoui was not new. But it had never been presented as vividly as a reluctant Samit was obliged to do under cross-examination. He offered a devastating comment from a supervisor who said pressing too hard to obtain a warrant for Moussaoui would hurt his career. Samit also wrote that his superiors did not act because they were guilty of "criminal negligence" and were gambling that Moussaoui had little to offer. Samit was followed to the witness stand by Michael Rolince, a retired FBI counterterrorism supervisor who similarly recited a list of actions that the bureau could have taken if Moussaoui had told them about al Qaeda plans to take over planes with knives and fly into buildings. But when MacMahon began reading from a document detailing many suspicions about Moussaoui's intentions, Rolince interrupted, "Can I ask what document that's coming from?" MacMahon obliged, noting that it was an urgent memorandum written by Samit on Aug. 18, 2001, hoping to attract the attention of headquarters. Rolince had inadvertently underlined that the agent's suspicions had never risen to his attention....
Moussaoui's Guilt: Less Profound Than the FBI's Own Negligence?
FBI Special Agent Harry Samit's testimony yesterday at the Zacarias Moussaoui trial adds just one more piece of evidence to a growing list of incidents showing what Samit himself labeled "criminal negligence." Samit warned FBI headquarters on August 21, 2001, that Moussaoui wanted to hijack a plane "for the purpose of seizing control of the aircraft." Shortly thereafter he learned from French intelligence that Moussaoui had been a recruiter for a Chechyna group with ties to Osama bin Laden. Higher ups in the FBI blocked his efforts to get a search warrant, and edited out of his reports any reference to the French. Samit's testimony is but one of a growing list of incidents involving FBI's failure to take action on information it had received warning of an attack, while at the same time deliberately downplaying the possibilities of an attack. According to Bureau translators, agents learned in April that bin Laden was planning an attack involving hijacked airliners. Why this didn't sound the alarm, nobody knows. The matter disappeared into the bureaucracy. The role of the Bureau in muzzling Sibel Edmonds, the interpreter who tried to blow the whistle on the Bureau's translation operations pertaining to 9-11, is well known. The FBI and Justice Department fought to prevent Edmonds from giving public testimony and so far the courts have backed them up. The most startling occurrence involves the FBI's inability to detect the presence of the two hijackers who flew into Los Angles in 2000, and lived openly in San Diego. They socialized around town and even rented an apartment from the FBI's key informant in the Muslim community there....If the American public ever gets the entire truth on the events leading up to 911, we will most likely find that the problem wasn't the lack of a Patriot Act, but the incompetence and political correctness of our Federal officials.
Testers Slip Radioactive Materials Over Borders
Undercover Congressional investigators successfully smuggled into the United States enough radioactive material to make two dirty bombs, even after it set off alarms on radiation detectors installed at border checkpoints, a new report says. The test, conducted in December by the Government Accountability Office, demonstrated the mixed progress by the Department of Homeland Security, among other federal agencies, in trying to prevent terrorists from smuggling radioactive material into the United States. Nationally, at a cost so far of about $286 million, about 60 percent of all containerized commercial goods entering the United States by truck or ship and 77 percent of all private cars are now screened for radioactive material. But flaws in the inspection procedures and limitations with the equipment mean that nuclear materials may still be able to be sent illegally into the country through seaports or land borders, the study found. And because the program for installing radiation detectors is far behind schedule, many border crossing points, including many seaports, still have no detection equipment, the report says. In the test case, undercover investigators bought a small amount of radioactive material, most likely cesium. Then on Dec. 15, they drove across the border at undisclosed locations from Canada and Mexico, intentionally picking spots where the detection equipment had been installed. The alarms went off in both locations, and the investigators were pulled aside for questioning. In both cases, they showed the agents from the Customs and Border Protection agency forged import licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, based on an image of the real document they found on the Internet....
DOJ: NSA Could've Monitored Lawyers' Calls
The National Security Agency could have legally monitored ordinarily confidential communications between doctors and patients or attorneys and their clients, the Justice Department said Friday of its controversial warrantless surveillance program. Responding to questions from Congress, the department also said that it sees no prohibition to using information collected under the NSA's program in court. Because collecting foreign intelligence information without a warrant does not violate the Fourth Amendment and because the Terrorist Surveillance Program is lawful, there appears to be no legal barrier against introducing this evidence in a criminal prosecution," the department said in responses to questions from lawmakers released Friday evening. The department said that considerations, including whether classified information could be disclosed, must be weighed. In classified court filings, the Justice Department has responded to questions about whether information from the government's warrantless surveillance program was used to prosecute terror suspects. Defense attorneys are hoping to use that information to challenge the cases against their clients. Since the program was disclosed in December, some skeptical lawmakers have investigated the Bush administration's legal footing, raising questions including whether the program could capture doctor-patient and attorney-client communications. Such communications normally receive special legal protections. "Although the program does not specifically target the communications of attorneys or physicians, calls involving such persons would not be categorically excluded from interception," the department said....
At court, a terror case rife with tough issues
The case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver in Afghanistan, has the potential to become one of the most important US Supreme Court decisions of this generation. It will test the scope of presidential power in the war on terror. It may clarify how detained Al Qaeda suspects are treated by the US. More broadly, it challenges the justices to further define the balance of power among the three branches of government during times of national emergency. But before the high court takes up those weighty issues of constitutional law, it must decide a more basic question: whether it has jurisdiction to hear the case. If the justices decide the case is not yet ripe for their review, Mr. Hamdan's appeal ends there, at least for the time being. That is the unusual posture surrounding the Hamdan case on the eve of oral arguments Tuesday - litigation so multilayered that the high court has taken the unusual step of allotting 90 minutes for oral arguments, a half hour more than usual....
Terrorist Surveillance Act Introduced in Senate
A bill recently introduced in the Senate would legalize warrantless wiretapping at the President's discretion. Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) introduced the bill, popularly named the Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006, on March 16, 2006. The bill was co-sponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). According to a press release by Senator DeWine, the bill would allow the President to authorize wiretapping on international communications by American citizens suspected of being affiliated with a terrorist organization. All the President has to have is probable cause and a belief that surveillance of the individual is necessary to protect national security. The provisions in this bill are sweeping. The President alone can determine what American citizens are potential threats to national security. There is no authorization under this bill from Congress or a court. The bill would allow the President to conduct surveillance for up to 45 days without a warrant, after which the President can reauthorize surveillance under one of two instances. The President must either obtain a warrant after compiling enough evidence to do so through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court or the Attorney General must certify, under oath, when the President doesn’t have sufficient evidence for a warrant that continued surveillance is necessary. This bill would allow the President to conduct warrantless wiretapping in order to obtain the necessary evidence to get a warrant. This bill would allow unheard of Executive Power in conducting surveillance on Americans. Essentially, as long as the Attorney General accepts the decisions of the President, surveillance of Americans could go on indefinitely. These are the safeguards advocated by the sponsors of this bill....
The Letter of the Law
In the dark days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a small group of lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department began meeting to debate a number of novel legal strategies to help prevent another attack. Soon after, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to begin conducting electronic eavesdropping on terrorism suspects in the United States, including American citizens, without court approval. Meeting in the FBI's state-of-the-art command center in the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the lawyers talked with senior FBI officials about using the same legal authority to conduct physical searches of homes and businesses of terrorism suspects--also without court approval, one current and one former government official tell U.S. News. "There was a fair amount of discussion at Justice on the warrantless physical search issue," says a former senior FBI official. "Discussions about--if [the searches] happened--where would the information go, and would it taint cases." FBI Director Robert Mueller was alarmed by the proposal, the two officials said, and pushed back hard against it. "Mueller was personally very concerned," one official says, "not only because of the blowback issue but also because of the legal and constitutional questions raised by warrantless physical searches." FBI spokesman John Miller said none of the FBI's senior staff are aware of any such discussions and added that the bureau has not conducted "physical searches of any location without consent or a judicial order."....
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
UN: Don't Let Mining Privatize Traditional Lands A United Nations racial discrimination committee has urged the U.S. government to stop actions being taken against the Western Shoshone Nation, whose traditional territories include the Battle Mountain/Eureka Trend and the Carlin Trend in Northeastern Nevada. In a recent decision, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) called upon the U.S. government to "freeze any plan to privatize Western Shoshone ancestral lands for transfer to multinational extractive industries and energy developers." CERD also recommended that government agencies "pay particular attention to the right to health and the cultural rights of the Western Shoshone people, which may be infringed upon by activities threatening their environment and/or disregarding the spiritual and cultural significance they give to their ancestral lands." Crescent Valley rancher Carrie Dann, a longtime advocate of Western Shoshone land rights outlined in the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863, is a leader of a group of Western Shoshone members that has asked Cortez Gold Mines to stop exploration drilling and other heavy equipment activities until they have obtained the consent of indigenous people. The complaint filed with CERD has been critical of exploration and mining at Horse Canyon and Mount Tenabo....
Judge Rules for Fish in Klamath River Dispute A federal judge delivered a stinging defeat Monday to the Bush administration over its decision to reduce flows on the Klamath River, which has been blamed for devastating fish kills and putting the commercial salmon season in jeopardy. U.S. District Judge Saundra B. Armstrong of Oakland ordered the administration's Bureau of Reclamation to return more water to the river in dry years to help ensure that the endangered coho salmon doesn't slide into extinction in the Klamath. Armstrong also ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to produce a biological study that would yield a more equitable distribution of water between the imperiled fish and family farmers in the Klamath Basin, which straddles the Oregon-California border. "The fish won on all counts," said Steve Pedery of the Oregon Natural Resources Council. The decision by Armstrong could hurt farmers most during drought years, when the river lacks enough water to go around. Kristen Boyles, an Earthjustice attorney who fought the case for a coalition of environmentalists, fishermen and Native American tribes, said that during dry years up to 43% more water would remain in the river to ensure the coho's survival....
Bush Administration Sued to Protect Arizona Bald Eagles The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agencies failed to respond to a petition to list the Southwestern desert nesting bald eagle as an endangered Distinct Population Segment under the Endangered Species Act. The agencies are required by law to respond to petitions within 90 days and to provide a final determination within one year. The Center and Maricopa Audubon submitted the petition on October 6, 2004. The desert nesting bald eagle is a non-migrating resident of the Southwest. They have a limited range. Most live in Arizona. They are isolated behaviorally, biologically and ecologically from other bald eagles. They breed earlier in the season and do not interbreed with bald eagles that nest elsewhere. "The administration has chosen not to protect this distinct population,” said Dr. Robin Silver, Board Chair of the Center for Biological Diversity....
GOP green group backs Pombo rival Republicans for Environmental Protection has endorsed former Rep. Pete McCloskey (R-Calif.) for the GOP nomination in California’s 11th Congressional District instead of the Republican incumbent, Rep. Richard Pombo. In a statement, the organization endorsed McCloskey, co-author of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, because he “has a distinguished record of working to safeguard the environment and supporting traditional Republican values.” The organization did not support Pombo, who, according to the organization, has “worked to dismantle landmark environmental laws.” McCloskey served in Congress from December 1967 until January 1983 and unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1972....
NOAA accused of hiding truth about global warming Hurricanes are getting worse because of global warming. Kerry Emanuel, a veteran climate researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, made that assertion to a roomful of University of Rhode Island scientists a few months ago. He also charged the federal government's top science agency with ignoring the growing research making that link. Instead of telling the public the truth, he said, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials are insisting that hurricanes are worse because of a natural cycle. Emanuel's comments made little impact at the time. But during the last three months, his comments and those of other scientists have become like hurricanes _ more frequent and more severe. Finally, they are reaching the public. James E. Hansen, the top climate scientist at NASA, was quoted in The New York Times in January as saying he had been threatened with "dire consequences" by some NASA political appointees if he continued to call for limits on emissions of gases linked to global warming....
"Improve the ESA by Protecting Private Property Rights" Say Panelists at Capitol Hill Briefing on the Endangered Species Act At a standing room-only briefing on Capitol Hill today, several leading policy organizations advised that strong property rights protections should be included in any Endangered Species Act reform effort. The lunch briefing was sponsored by The National Center for Public Policy Research and the Capital Research Center. Pointing out that over 99 percent of the species listed as endangered or threatened under the ESA have failed to recover, and the devastation the Act has inflicted on private property owners, regional economies and public works projects, panelists at the event stressed that protecting property rights would not only bring relief to American landowners, but would also better protect species. "While the Endangered Species Act has failed miserably at saving rare plants and animals, it has excelled in making life miserable for many in the human population," said Peyton Knight, director of environmental and regulatory affairs for the National Center, and a panelist....
Audubon Society Names America's 10 Most Endangered Birds The ivory-billed woodpecker and the California condor top the list of America's 10 most endangered birds issued today by the National Audubon Society. The 100 year old conservation group says it is reporting on the survival of the nation's rarest bird species to show how heavily they depend upon the Endangered Species Act, which itself is now endangered. The other birds on the most endangered list are the whooping crane, Gunnison sage-grouse, Kirtland's warbler, piping plover, Florida scrub-jay, ashy storm-petrel, golden-cheeked warbler, and Kittlitz's murrelet. These 10 most endangered bird species face a range of threats such as development pressures, invasive species, and global warming, Audubon says....
N.M., Colorado try to restore rare toad to Rockies Rescue missions have been mounted in New Mexico and Colorado to save the boreal toad, which researchers say is being killed off by an invasive fungus that might have originated in Africa. "We certainly feel that the situation with the chytrid fungus is of great importance, not only for (the boreal toad) but for amphibians in general," said Leland Pierce, terrestrial species recovery plan coordinator for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. The fungus apparently infects amphibian skin, causing it to thicken, scientists said. The condition interferes with the boreal toad's ability to absorb water and might affect the ionic balance of the animal's bloodstream, Pierce said. The toad once thrived in the southern Rocky Mountains, but it hasn't been seen in New Mexico since 1993. Colorado has two viable populations....
Bennett aims to end longtime land feud Former real estate developer James Doyle is hoping an end could be in sight for his 16-year fight with the federal government over tens of millions of dollars he claims he is owed for land that was included in a preserve for endangered desert tortoises. A public-lands proposal rolled out this week by Utah Sen. Bob Bennett includes language that would allow the Bureau of Land Management to sell off surplus land, with the proceeds dedicated to buying lands like Doyle's where the use has been restricted. Bennett's spokeswoman said the Republican senator sees the proposal as "a fulfillment of an existing obligation." Doyle owns about 1,550 acres of land that he bought in 1990. He hoped to subdivide it and turn a tidy profit, but that fell apart when the desert tortoise was designated an endangered species. Doyle's land later was included in a 66,000-acre Red Cliffs Desert Tortoise Reserve. There has been an understanding that Doyle should be compensated for his land, but the two sides are miles apart on how much it is worth....
Should we change the law? Change the landmark law? The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 as a response to concern by Congress that various species of fish, wildlife and plants in the country had been rendered extinct and others depleted to the point of being in danger of, or threatened with, extinction. The act has been reauthorized eight times, and significant amendments were enacted in 1978, 1982 and 1988. In September 2005, the U.S. House approved broad changes to the law by passing the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act. The bill's chief sponsor was House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif. In December, a group of mainly Western senators, including Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., introduced out of committee the Collaboration of the Recovery of Endangered Species Act, which would also reform the Endangered Species Act. Here's a look at the original act and the major differences in the provisions of the two reform bills....
New Mexico aims to save ancient footprints Some Las Cruces-area residents are pushing for protection for thousands of ancient fossil footprints discovered 15 years ago by an amateur geologist. "If the site isn't protected, our fear is it will be lost due to mining, looting and weather," said Keith Whelpley of Las Cruces, chairman of the Paleozoic Trackways Foundation, which was formed recently to push to protect the 290 million-year-old site in the Robledo Mountains. The site changed what scientists know about the area, said Spencer Lucas, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque. "The Robledo Mountains are the scientific Rosetta Stone of our understanding of Paleozoic footprints," said Lucas, who was first shown the tracks in the early 1990s. Before their discovery, researchers overestimated the number of animals at the time because they had only isolated tracks. The same animal made different tracks running and walking, but scientists assumed the prints were from different animals, Lucas said. The site also includes insect tracks, "animals that we don't even know existed without the tracks," he said....
Gas industry may crowd Bookcliffs The natural-gas industry has its eye on the desert north of Interstate 70 and south of the Bookcliffs as the next place for drilling. Officials with the Bureau of Land Management announced Monday that 45,721 acres in Mesa County, the majority just north of Grand Junction, will be auctioned in a May oil and gas lease sale. “It’s happening on this side of the Bookcliffs,” said Mel Lloyd, spokeswoman for the BLM’s Grand Junction Field Office. “A few acres might go up on the slopes of the Bookcliffs, but the majority of the parcels are located on the valley floor.” Some of the nominated acres in Mesa County are split estate, meaning a private entity owns the surface rights while another entity owns the subsurface mineral rights. In this case, that other entity is the federal government. Lloyd said approximately 2,000 acres of the parcels nominated in Mesa County for the May sale were split-estate situations. That means landowners in the Grand Valley could, unknowingly, be on the auction block. The BLM does not notify landowners when the minerals beneath their property are up for lease....
Land prices plunge 47 percent in fourth quarter The unthinkable has happened. Las Vegas Valley land sale prices dropped 47 percent in the fourth quarter. No, the sky isn't falling. But the real estate market may be undergoing a period of stabilization. "The escalations reported during the past 18 months were clearly unsustainable," said Brian Gordon, principal of Applied Analysis, a Las Vegas business advisory firm. "The economics of land pricing, escalating development costs and modest increases in interest rates will not allow for average land valuation to reach well beyond the recent peak, at least not in the near term." There were 4,494 acres of land sold in the fourth quarter, or 60 percent more than the previous quarter, with average sale prices of $376,200 per acre or $8.64 per square foot. It marks a 47 percent price drop from the third quarter and a 28 percent decrease from the fourth quarter of 2004. The dramatic price depreciation is because of a higher volume of transactions in the central/east and north submarkets as opposed to the resort corridor. A U.S. Bureau of Land Management auction also helped to skew sale prices. The federal agency sold 3,002 acres of land in the fourth quarter for $799.3 million, or about $266,256 per acre. It's 62.4 percent below third-quarter sale prices of $708,000 per acre....
Land bill gives solutions New federal legislation revealed in St. George on Wednesday by Republican Sen. Bob Bennett and Democrat Rep. Jim Matheson showed that a mutual concern for imminent growth, tempered with an amicable sensitivity to preservation and conservation, could be quelled by drafting a comprehensive, bipartisan land management plan for Washington County - the fifth fastest growing county in the United States. The Washington County Growth & Conservation Act of 2006 is a working document modeled after similar bills authored by Sens. Harry Reid (D) and John Ensign (R) for Lincoln and Clark counties in Nevada. It is the first of its kind in Utah and has been in the works for 20 months with representatives from the Washington County Land Use Planning Process and Working Group, first assembled under former Gov. Olene Walker's administration, and members from the conservation and recreation community. A few highlights of the legislation include: # Designation of 170 miles of Virgin River in Zion National Park as a Wild and Scenic River, the first in Utah history. # Addition of 219,299 acres of land to National Wilderness Preservation System including 123,743 acres of National Park Service land within Zion National Park, 92,914 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land and 2,642 acres of Forest Service land. # Transfer of "non-environmental sensitive" public land into private ownership, which in turn, can yield profits toward the state education trust fund, county fire protection and flood control, water infrastructure, among other various priorities....
Reviving ghost town Mike Riddle grew up in Texas, but he fell hard for a piece of Arizona the first time he saw the remains of this century-old mining town cupped by the Harcuvar and Buckskin mountains that form the Butler Valley. The mystery is how George Mitchell and a buckboard of miners conquered 30 miles of scrub desert to reach the copper claim Mitchell staked in 1905. The corrugated road gets rocky again just when it promises to smooth out. This is countryside made not for wooden wagons but for steel four-wheel-drives that can dig in their claws and spit out billows of dust that cover the rear window with a brown curtain. The reward at the end of the trail is a panorama layered in smoky gray and black velvet with a streak of purple. "It's just a beautiful place," Riddle says. Riddle has been coming to Swansea - pronounced SWAN-zee and named for a city in Mitchell's native Wales - for a decade. As an amateur archaeologist and volunteer with the Bureau of Land Management, he is helping to preserve the architectural bones of a mining town that once boasted a population of almost 1,000 people and 30 buildings, then expired in the 1930s....
Bid to contest Kenedy estate denied A judge ruled Monday against a Corpus Christi man who wanted to contest the estate of a wealthy rancher he believes was his grandfather. "This court affirmatively believes in the finality of judgment," state District Judge Manuel Banales said, deciding in favor of two charitable organizations that control the Kenedy Ranch, which has assets estimated at up to $1 billion. Ray Fernandez, who believes his mother, Ann Fernandez, was the illegitimate daughter and sole heir of South Texas rancher John Kenedy, is waiting for the state Supreme Court to decide whether he can exhume Kenedy's body. Banales' ruling defeats Fernandez's attempt in probate court in Austin to reopen the Kenedy estate, but Fernandez says he will appeal. Kenedy was said to be sterile because of a childhood illness. Lawyers for the two charitable trusts that control the estate each filed a motion to block Fernandez, who is the Nueces County medical examiner....
Cattlemen lose appeal of $1.28 billion verdict in Tyson suit The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider reinstating a $1.28 billion judgment returned by an Alabama jury in a price-fixing lawsuit filed by cattle producers against Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. Ruling without comment, the justices declined to review a decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld a lower court ruling that threw out a jury's verdict against the Arkansas-based Tyson. Cattlemen claimed the company used contracts with a few large cattle producers to manipulate prices, a charge Tyson denied. Tyson Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Tyson said the court's action would let producers sell cattle through contract arrangements with meatpackers if they wish to do so instead of going to the cash market. "This means U.S. cattle producers will continue to have the freedom to market cattle the way they want," Tyson said in a statement. "It also proves our livestock buying practices are proper." A Kansas rancher who was involved in the lawsuit, Mike Callicrate, said the Supreme Court's action granted a green light to packing companies that want to "chickenize" the beef industry by putting constant pressure on producers to cut costs and accept lower profits....
Law of the West 3-20: "That's a lot of Horse ..." The other day in the mail I got a notice from the planning folks in the county. Another landowner is planning to subdivide their property. Soon, my view of pastures will include new suburban homes on 2 1/2 acre lots. It won’t take long until my little boarding stable is totally surrounded by soccer moms and privacy fences. It’s not that I don’t mind the new neighbors, but I am always a tad fearful that they may not understand what it means to live next to a horse boarding and breeding operation. Sights, sounds and smells that are taken for granted and accepted in an agricultural setting can be extremely annoying to the folks who just purchased their $400,000 suburban dream home. While we accept the smell of horse manure and a few flies here and there, the newcomers may not be as accommodating. Not to mention, little Tommy and Sally’s questions after they happen to observe Easy Joe getting friendly with some of his new gals. Fortunately, Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming each have Right to Farm laws, which are designed to protect agricultural operations. In Wyoming, the law is clear. A farm or ranch can not be a nuisance if it uses generally accepted agricultural management practices and it would not have been a nuisance prior to the change in the use of the adjacent lands. Both Colorado and Nebraska have similar statutes on their books. Colorado’s is found at Section 35-3.5-102. Many local communities have also adopted county resolutions or ordinances that protect the right to farm. However, a “Right to Farm” law does not prevent a lawsuit from being filed against an operation a new neighbor finds offensive nor does it afford the farmer or rancher a free hand to conduct operations. Proper and constitutionally written laws merely afford the farmer or rancher another defense against the suit. The question, in many right to farm cases, will center on whether or not the farmer is using “generally accepted agricultural management practices.”....
It's All Trew: Reflecting on traditional meat processing Today’s refrigerators and freezers make meat preservation a snap, and the well-stocked grocery store shelves in supermarkets provide an endless choice of meat grades and cuts. It hasn’t always been that way. Among my childhood memories, I recall hog-butchering days when the neighbors gathered to help each other in processing the winter’s supply of meat. We slaughtered the animals and cut the various sections into the forms needed for curing and cooking. Shoulders and hams were cured and wrapped in butcher paper. With no refrigeration, the Trews used a large wooden box about the size of a big cedar chest, located out in a tin bunkhouse. We ground smaller pieces into sausage, seasoned it to each family’s taste, cooked it well-done then placed it carefully into a large crock. When a layer was filled, we poured hot lard over the meat for preservation....
UN: Don't Let Mining Privatize Traditional Lands A United Nations racial discrimination committee has urged the U.S. government to stop actions being taken against the Western Shoshone Nation, whose traditional territories include the Battle Mountain/Eureka Trend and the Carlin Trend in Northeastern Nevada. In a recent decision, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) called upon the U.S. government to "freeze any plan to privatize Western Shoshone ancestral lands for transfer to multinational extractive industries and energy developers." CERD also recommended that government agencies "pay particular attention to the right to health and the cultural rights of the Western Shoshone people, which may be infringed upon by activities threatening their environment and/or disregarding the spiritual and cultural significance they give to their ancestral lands." Crescent Valley rancher Carrie Dann, a longtime advocate of Western Shoshone land rights outlined in the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863, is a leader of a group of Western Shoshone members that has asked Cortez Gold Mines to stop exploration drilling and other heavy equipment activities until they have obtained the consent of indigenous people. The complaint filed with CERD has been critical of exploration and mining at Horse Canyon and Mount Tenabo....
Judge Rules for Fish in Klamath River Dispute A federal judge delivered a stinging defeat Monday to the Bush administration over its decision to reduce flows on the Klamath River, which has been blamed for devastating fish kills and putting the commercial salmon season in jeopardy. U.S. District Judge Saundra B. Armstrong of Oakland ordered the administration's Bureau of Reclamation to return more water to the river in dry years to help ensure that the endangered coho salmon doesn't slide into extinction in the Klamath. Armstrong also ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to produce a biological study that would yield a more equitable distribution of water between the imperiled fish and family farmers in the Klamath Basin, which straddles the Oregon-California border. "The fish won on all counts," said Steve Pedery of the Oregon Natural Resources Council. The decision by Armstrong could hurt farmers most during drought years, when the river lacks enough water to go around. Kristen Boyles, an Earthjustice attorney who fought the case for a coalition of environmentalists, fishermen and Native American tribes, said that during dry years up to 43% more water would remain in the river to ensure the coho's survival....
Bush Administration Sued to Protect Arizona Bald Eagles The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agencies failed to respond to a petition to list the Southwestern desert nesting bald eagle as an endangered Distinct Population Segment under the Endangered Species Act. The agencies are required by law to respond to petitions within 90 days and to provide a final determination within one year. The Center and Maricopa Audubon submitted the petition on October 6, 2004. The desert nesting bald eagle is a non-migrating resident of the Southwest. They have a limited range. Most live in Arizona. They are isolated behaviorally, biologically and ecologically from other bald eagles. They breed earlier in the season and do not interbreed with bald eagles that nest elsewhere. "The administration has chosen not to protect this distinct population,” said Dr. Robin Silver, Board Chair of the Center for Biological Diversity....
GOP green group backs Pombo rival Republicans for Environmental Protection has endorsed former Rep. Pete McCloskey (R-Calif.) for the GOP nomination in California’s 11th Congressional District instead of the Republican incumbent, Rep. Richard Pombo. In a statement, the organization endorsed McCloskey, co-author of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, because he “has a distinguished record of working to safeguard the environment and supporting traditional Republican values.” The organization did not support Pombo, who, according to the organization, has “worked to dismantle landmark environmental laws.” McCloskey served in Congress from December 1967 until January 1983 and unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1972....
NOAA accused of hiding truth about global warming Hurricanes are getting worse because of global warming. Kerry Emanuel, a veteran climate researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, made that assertion to a roomful of University of Rhode Island scientists a few months ago. He also charged the federal government's top science agency with ignoring the growing research making that link. Instead of telling the public the truth, he said, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials are insisting that hurricanes are worse because of a natural cycle. Emanuel's comments made little impact at the time. But during the last three months, his comments and those of other scientists have become like hurricanes _ more frequent and more severe. Finally, they are reaching the public. James E. Hansen, the top climate scientist at NASA, was quoted in The New York Times in January as saying he had been threatened with "dire consequences" by some NASA political appointees if he continued to call for limits on emissions of gases linked to global warming....
"Improve the ESA by Protecting Private Property Rights" Say Panelists at Capitol Hill Briefing on the Endangered Species Act At a standing room-only briefing on Capitol Hill today, several leading policy organizations advised that strong property rights protections should be included in any Endangered Species Act reform effort. The lunch briefing was sponsored by The National Center for Public Policy Research and the Capital Research Center. Pointing out that over 99 percent of the species listed as endangered or threatened under the ESA have failed to recover, and the devastation the Act has inflicted on private property owners, regional economies and public works projects, panelists at the event stressed that protecting property rights would not only bring relief to American landowners, but would also better protect species. "While the Endangered Species Act has failed miserably at saving rare plants and animals, it has excelled in making life miserable for many in the human population," said Peyton Knight, director of environmental and regulatory affairs for the National Center, and a panelist....
Audubon Society Names America's 10 Most Endangered Birds The ivory-billed woodpecker and the California condor top the list of America's 10 most endangered birds issued today by the National Audubon Society. The 100 year old conservation group says it is reporting on the survival of the nation's rarest bird species to show how heavily they depend upon the Endangered Species Act, which itself is now endangered. The other birds on the most endangered list are the whooping crane, Gunnison sage-grouse, Kirtland's warbler, piping plover, Florida scrub-jay, ashy storm-petrel, golden-cheeked warbler, and Kittlitz's murrelet. These 10 most endangered bird species face a range of threats such as development pressures, invasive species, and global warming, Audubon says....
N.M., Colorado try to restore rare toad to Rockies Rescue missions have been mounted in New Mexico and Colorado to save the boreal toad, which researchers say is being killed off by an invasive fungus that might have originated in Africa. "We certainly feel that the situation with the chytrid fungus is of great importance, not only for (the boreal toad) but for amphibians in general," said Leland Pierce, terrestrial species recovery plan coordinator for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. The fungus apparently infects amphibian skin, causing it to thicken, scientists said. The condition interferes with the boreal toad's ability to absorb water and might affect the ionic balance of the animal's bloodstream, Pierce said. The toad once thrived in the southern Rocky Mountains, but it hasn't been seen in New Mexico since 1993. Colorado has two viable populations....
Bennett aims to end longtime land feud Former real estate developer James Doyle is hoping an end could be in sight for his 16-year fight with the federal government over tens of millions of dollars he claims he is owed for land that was included in a preserve for endangered desert tortoises. A public-lands proposal rolled out this week by Utah Sen. Bob Bennett includes language that would allow the Bureau of Land Management to sell off surplus land, with the proceeds dedicated to buying lands like Doyle's where the use has been restricted. Bennett's spokeswoman said the Republican senator sees the proposal as "a fulfillment of an existing obligation." Doyle owns about 1,550 acres of land that he bought in 1990. He hoped to subdivide it and turn a tidy profit, but that fell apart when the desert tortoise was designated an endangered species. Doyle's land later was included in a 66,000-acre Red Cliffs Desert Tortoise Reserve. There has been an understanding that Doyle should be compensated for his land, but the two sides are miles apart on how much it is worth....
Should we change the law? Change the landmark law? The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 as a response to concern by Congress that various species of fish, wildlife and plants in the country had been rendered extinct and others depleted to the point of being in danger of, or threatened with, extinction. The act has been reauthorized eight times, and significant amendments were enacted in 1978, 1982 and 1988. In September 2005, the U.S. House approved broad changes to the law by passing the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act. The bill's chief sponsor was House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif. In December, a group of mainly Western senators, including Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., introduced out of committee the Collaboration of the Recovery of Endangered Species Act, which would also reform the Endangered Species Act. Here's a look at the original act and the major differences in the provisions of the two reform bills....
New Mexico aims to save ancient footprints Some Las Cruces-area residents are pushing for protection for thousands of ancient fossil footprints discovered 15 years ago by an amateur geologist. "If the site isn't protected, our fear is it will be lost due to mining, looting and weather," said Keith Whelpley of Las Cruces, chairman of the Paleozoic Trackways Foundation, which was formed recently to push to protect the 290 million-year-old site in the Robledo Mountains. The site changed what scientists know about the area, said Spencer Lucas, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque. "The Robledo Mountains are the scientific Rosetta Stone of our understanding of Paleozoic footprints," said Lucas, who was first shown the tracks in the early 1990s. Before their discovery, researchers overestimated the number of animals at the time because they had only isolated tracks. The same animal made different tracks running and walking, but scientists assumed the prints were from different animals, Lucas said. The site also includes insect tracks, "animals that we don't even know existed without the tracks," he said....
Gas industry may crowd Bookcliffs The natural-gas industry has its eye on the desert north of Interstate 70 and south of the Bookcliffs as the next place for drilling. Officials with the Bureau of Land Management announced Monday that 45,721 acres in Mesa County, the majority just north of Grand Junction, will be auctioned in a May oil and gas lease sale. “It’s happening on this side of the Bookcliffs,” said Mel Lloyd, spokeswoman for the BLM’s Grand Junction Field Office. “A few acres might go up on the slopes of the Bookcliffs, but the majority of the parcels are located on the valley floor.” Some of the nominated acres in Mesa County are split estate, meaning a private entity owns the surface rights while another entity owns the subsurface mineral rights. In this case, that other entity is the federal government. Lloyd said approximately 2,000 acres of the parcels nominated in Mesa County for the May sale were split-estate situations. That means landowners in the Grand Valley could, unknowingly, be on the auction block. The BLM does not notify landowners when the minerals beneath their property are up for lease....
Land prices plunge 47 percent in fourth quarter The unthinkable has happened. Las Vegas Valley land sale prices dropped 47 percent in the fourth quarter. No, the sky isn't falling. But the real estate market may be undergoing a period of stabilization. "The escalations reported during the past 18 months were clearly unsustainable," said Brian Gordon, principal of Applied Analysis, a Las Vegas business advisory firm. "The economics of land pricing, escalating development costs and modest increases in interest rates will not allow for average land valuation to reach well beyond the recent peak, at least not in the near term." There were 4,494 acres of land sold in the fourth quarter, or 60 percent more than the previous quarter, with average sale prices of $376,200 per acre or $8.64 per square foot. It marks a 47 percent price drop from the third quarter and a 28 percent decrease from the fourth quarter of 2004. The dramatic price depreciation is because of a higher volume of transactions in the central/east and north submarkets as opposed to the resort corridor. A U.S. Bureau of Land Management auction also helped to skew sale prices. The federal agency sold 3,002 acres of land in the fourth quarter for $799.3 million, or about $266,256 per acre. It's 62.4 percent below third-quarter sale prices of $708,000 per acre....
Land bill gives solutions New federal legislation revealed in St. George on Wednesday by Republican Sen. Bob Bennett and Democrat Rep. Jim Matheson showed that a mutual concern for imminent growth, tempered with an amicable sensitivity to preservation and conservation, could be quelled by drafting a comprehensive, bipartisan land management plan for Washington County - the fifth fastest growing county in the United States. The Washington County Growth & Conservation Act of 2006 is a working document modeled after similar bills authored by Sens. Harry Reid (D) and John Ensign (R) for Lincoln and Clark counties in Nevada. It is the first of its kind in Utah and has been in the works for 20 months with representatives from the Washington County Land Use Planning Process and Working Group, first assembled under former Gov. Olene Walker's administration, and members from the conservation and recreation community. A few highlights of the legislation include: # Designation of 170 miles of Virgin River in Zion National Park as a Wild and Scenic River, the first in Utah history. # Addition of 219,299 acres of land to National Wilderness Preservation System including 123,743 acres of National Park Service land within Zion National Park, 92,914 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land and 2,642 acres of Forest Service land. # Transfer of "non-environmental sensitive" public land into private ownership, which in turn, can yield profits toward the state education trust fund, county fire protection and flood control, water infrastructure, among other various priorities....
Reviving ghost town Mike Riddle grew up in Texas, but he fell hard for a piece of Arizona the first time he saw the remains of this century-old mining town cupped by the Harcuvar and Buckskin mountains that form the Butler Valley. The mystery is how George Mitchell and a buckboard of miners conquered 30 miles of scrub desert to reach the copper claim Mitchell staked in 1905. The corrugated road gets rocky again just when it promises to smooth out. This is countryside made not for wooden wagons but for steel four-wheel-drives that can dig in their claws and spit out billows of dust that cover the rear window with a brown curtain. The reward at the end of the trail is a panorama layered in smoky gray and black velvet with a streak of purple. "It's just a beautiful place," Riddle says. Riddle has been coming to Swansea - pronounced SWAN-zee and named for a city in Mitchell's native Wales - for a decade. As an amateur archaeologist and volunteer with the Bureau of Land Management, he is helping to preserve the architectural bones of a mining town that once boasted a population of almost 1,000 people and 30 buildings, then expired in the 1930s....
Bid to contest Kenedy estate denied A judge ruled Monday against a Corpus Christi man who wanted to contest the estate of a wealthy rancher he believes was his grandfather. "This court affirmatively believes in the finality of judgment," state District Judge Manuel Banales said, deciding in favor of two charitable organizations that control the Kenedy Ranch, which has assets estimated at up to $1 billion. Ray Fernandez, who believes his mother, Ann Fernandez, was the illegitimate daughter and sole heir of South Texas rancher John Kenedy, is waiting for the state Supreme Court to decide whether he can exhume Kenedy's body. Banales' ruling defeats Fernandez's attempt in probate court in Austin to reopen the Kenedy estate, but Fernandez says he will appeal. Kenedy was said to be sterile because of a childhood illness. Lawyers for the two charitable trusts that control the estate each filed a motion to block Fernandez, who is the Nueces County medical examiner....
Cattlemen lose appeal of $1.28 billion verdict in Tyson suit The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider reinstating a $1.28 billion judgment returned by an Alabama jury in a price-fixing lawsuit filed by cattle producers against Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. Ruling without comment, the justices declined to review a decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld a lower court ruling that threw out a jury's verdict against the Arkansas-based Tyson. Cattlemen claimed the company used contracts with a few large cattle producers to manipulate prices, a charge Tyson denied. Tyson Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Tyson said the court's action would let producers sell cattle through contract arrangements with meatpackers if they wish to do so instead of going to the cash market. "This means U.S. cattle producers will continue to have the freedom to market cattle the way they want," Tyson said in a statement. "It also proves our livestock buying practices are proper." A Kansas rancher who was involved in the lawsuit, Mike Callicrate, said the Supreme Court's action granted a green light to packing companies that want to "chickenize" the beef industry by putting constant pressure on producers to cut costs and accept lower profits....
Law of the West 3-20: "That's a lot of Horse ..." The other day in the mail I got a notice from the planning folks in the county. Another landowner is planning to subdivide their property. Soon, my view of pastures will include new suburban homes on 2 1/2 acre lots. It won’t take long until my little boarding stable is totally surrounded by soccer moms and privacy fences. It’s not that I don’t mind the new neighbors, but I am always a tad fearful that they may not understand what it means to live next to a horse boarding and breeding operation. Sights, sounds and smells that are taken for granted and accepted in an agricultural setting can be extremely annoying to the folks who just purchased their $400,000 suburban dream home. While we accept the smell of horse manure and a few flies here and there, the newcomers may not be as accommodating. Not to mention, little Tommy and Sally’s questions after they happen to observe Easy Joe getting friendly with some of his new gals. Fortunately, Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming each have Right to Farm laws, which are designed to protect agricultural operations. In Wyoming, the law is clear. A farm or ranch can not be a nuisance if it uses generally accepted agricultural management practices and it would not have been a nuisance prior to the change in the use of the adjacent lands. Both Colorado and Nebraska have similar statutes on their books. Colorado’s is found at Section 35-3.5-102. Many local communities have also adopted county resolutions or ordinances that protect the right to farm. However, a “Right to Farm” law does not prevent a lawsuit from being filed against an operation a new neighbor finds offensive nor does it afford the farmer or rancher a free hand to conduct operations. Proper and constitutionally written laws merely afford the farmer or rancher another defense against the suit. The question, in many right to farm cases, will center on whether or not the farmer is using “generally accepted agricultural management practices.”....
It's All Trew: Reflecting on traditional meat processing Today’s refrigerators and freezers make meat preservation a snap, and the well-stocked grocery store shelves in supermarkets provide an endless choice of meat grades and cuts. It hasn’t always been that way. Among my childhood memories, I recall hog-butchering days when the neighbors gathered to help each other in processing the winter’s supply of meat. We slaughtered the animals and cut the various sections into the forms needed for curing and cooking. Shoulders and hams were cured and wrapped in butcher paper. With no refrigeration, the Trews used a large wooden box about the size of a big cedar chest, located out in a tin bunkhouse. We ground smaller pieces into sausage, seasoned it to each family’s taste, cooked it well-done then placed it carefully into a large crock. When a layer was filled, we poured hot lard over the meat for preservation....
Monday, March 27, 2006
GAO
Indian Irrigation Projects: Numerous Issues Need to Be Addressed to Improve Project Management and Financial Sustainability. GAO-06-314, February 24.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt/?GAO-06-314
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06314high.pdf
Rural Economic Development: More Assurance Is Needed That Grant Funding Information Is Accurately Reported. GAO-06-294, February 24.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-294
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06294high.pdf
Related Product:
Rural Economic Development: Database on Federal Economic Development Funding. GAO-06-436SP, February 24. [Internet only] http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-436SP
Indian Irrigation Projects: Numerous Issues Need to Be Addressed to Improve Project Management and Financial Sustainability. GAO-06-314, February 24.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt/?GAO-06-314
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06314high.pdf
Rural Economic Development: More Assurance Is Needed That Grant Funding Information Is Accurately Reported. GAO-06-294, February 24.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-294
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06294high.pdf
Related Product:
Rural Economic Development: Database on Federal Economic Development Funding. GAO-06-436SP, February 24. [Internet only] http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-436SP
NEWS ROUNDUP
Biology and politics Bob and Jean Harshbarger have long enjoyed watching wildlife on their 29,000-acre ranch near Newcastle. From owls to mule deer to prairie dogs, the Harshbargers work to keep wildlife populations healthy, along with a healthy cattle operation. For about six years, in fact, the couple who run the ranch that has been in Jean Harshbarger's family for 80 years have been working with a variety of state and federal agencies to establish a "candidate conservation agreement" for their prairie dog population. Should the animal be listed under the Endangered Species Act, the Harshbargers want to keep managing cattle and prairie dogs in a way that protects both, without strident regulations from the federal government. The move by the Harshbargers, which has cost them about $30,000 so far, is precisely the idea driving reforms of the historic Endangered Species Act. Reforms of the landmark 1973 law have been passed in the U.S. House and are awaiting action by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee....
Living with the Endangered Species Act For Mary Thoman and the Thoman Ranch on the Green River north of Green River, the Endangered Species Act has "had a pretty profound effect." It started about seven years ago, when a female wolf arrived and "crippled 29 lambs and scattered them through our allotment in the Gros Ventre," Thoman said. "That was our first encounter with the wolf. We were pretty unprepared for the kind of damage she could do." Thoman has been ranching in the area for 30 years and has had experience with coyote losses. But those losses, she said, have been surpassed by the impact of grizzly bears and wolves. Her ranch averages $30,000 to $50,000 in losses each year through lost animals, Thoman said. The Endangered Species Act has "totally changed the dynamics of living in the mountains," as her ranch has had to double the manpower on grazing allotments, take more frequent trips to check on the herds, and carry pepper spray. As for proposed changes to the law, Thoman would like to see less bureaucracy....
Who pays for wolves once they are delisted? Since it first declared gray wolves in need of protection, the federal government has footed the bill to help rebuild the predator's population in the Northern Rockies. But with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now declaring wolves recovered and eager to hand off full management to the three states involved, the question becomes: Who will pay to manage the predators then? It's not an easy question. ''It hasn't been worked out,'' said Eric Keszler, a spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. ''Obviously, it's going to be an expensive thing to do. I don't know where the money is going to come from.'' In over 30 years, just 10 species recovered by the agency have successfully come off the endangered species list, according to the agency's Michelle Morgan. Of those, the agency paid only for surveys of peregrine falcons, under a post-delisting monitoring plan for the raptor. ''Right now we don't have any precedent other than that,'' she said....
Congressman faces fight over species act Rep. Richard Pombo has never gotten over being outfoxed by the endangered San Joaquin kit fox. The rancher and chairman of the House Resources Committee is closer than ever to his goal of rewriting the Endangered Species Act to expand property rights - his mission ever since the obscure fox species blocked development of a neighboring town 25 years ago. The prospect of long-fought success has made Pombo a target in the November election. The conservative Republican has abandoned the cowboy hat in his official congressional photo and is looking a little more worldly as he confronts a changing electorate in his district. Seeking his eighth term, Pombo, 45, faces a primary challenge on June 6 from a moderate Republican who helped write the landmark species protections. Democrats see a glimmer of hope of capturing the seat; environmentalists say his defeat would be the best thing that could happen in November....
Forum focuses on split estate rules Entrusting handshake deals and enacting more regulation were among the suggestions landowners voiced Friday in Casper about how to avoid conflicts involving split estate. Split estate is a division of land ownership in which landowners control everything on the surface but underlying minerals belong to the federal government. The federal government auctions off those rights for companies to develop. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has been hosting a series of public meetings on split estate, including one in Casper on Friday. The agency is weighing how to approach the issue in the face of increasing mineral development in the West. Some landowners who took part in the session called for more federal regulations to protect their property. Others asked that the BLM adopt parts of Wyoming's split estate law. Still others said there were too many laws on the books already....
Montana rule hits Wyo industry Montana dealt a potential blow to Wyoming industry on Thursday in an ongoing turf battle about how to manage water produced from coal-bed methane wells in the Powder River Basin. The Montana Board of Environmental Review accepted a proposed rule change to block any degradation of water quality in Montana streams. The rule is aimed at cleaning up water discharges from coal-bed methane wells. Although the board rejected a mandate to re-inject the produced water, the bottom-line impact in Wyoming could be that producers here would have to spend more money to treat and regulate the water produced from coal-bed methane wells on this side of the state line. By placing a non-degradation standard on the rivers, the rule essentially extends upstream into Wyoming, where the industry is already struggling to keep millions of barrels of production water out of the rivers. The industry is feeling pressure within Wyoming's borders, too. To keep the water out of the Montana-bound rivers, producers here are carving hundreds of new holding reservoirs and washing the water through upland ephemeral drainages. That has caused headaches for many ranchers here because the large number of reservoirs are cutting into their pastures, and the discharges are washing out their low-lying grazing lands....
Norton fires back Interior Secretary Gale Norton, criticized by environmentalists as pushing the Bush administration's pro-development agenda during her five-year tenure, said Friday that she remains proud of her efforts to build consensus on a range of issues. In an interview with The Associated Press, Norton, who is stepping down March 31 for personal reasons, said the department has worked with hunters, anglers, farmers and ranchers on protecting wetlands and endangered species. A report released by her office Thursday said Interior provided $2.1 billion in grants since 2002 to states, landowners and groups to preserve wildlife habitat and save species. “We started out with the idea of cooperative conservation and that the federal government could work best as partners with local citizens. We put our money where our mouth is and increased grant programs that had those goals,” Norton said. Norton said her department has increased funding for inspections and monitoring to ensure that companies are responsible. She said Interior is forming a new advisory council to study wildlife issues, including the impacts of energy development....
No Charges in Cougar's Shooting A Rancho Santa Margarita man who shot a mountain lion in his backyard will not be charged because he acted in self-defense, prosecutors said Friday. Bill Hill, 52, a former Stanton police officer, was taking out the trash early Jan. 17 when his wife saw the animal and screamed. Hill went to his car to retrieve a 9-millimeter pistol and went into the backyard. He saw the 90-pound cougar crouching on a slope 30 feet away. Fearing the animal would attack, Hill fired two shots. Authorities killed the animal 90 minutes later as it lay in a nearby ravine. It is illegal to shoot mountain lions, which are a protected species. Exceptions are granted if a cougar attacks pets or livestock, or in cases of self-defense. State Department of Fish and Game officials had recommended a misdemeanor charge be filed against Hill, a private investigator....
Cliff dwellers leave wonders Most national parks protect natural wonders -- mountains, forests, canyons. Mesa Verde was the first national park created to preserve man-made wonders -- ancient cliff dwellings made from sandstone and perched on ledges at elevations of 7,000 feet. This intricate architecture, dating from the 12th century, is as awesome to behold today as it was when cowboys and ranchers first saw it. Two men looking for lost cattle, Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason, came upon the most spectacular site, the 150-room Cliff Palace, in 1888. Mesa Verde National Park was established 18 years later. The park's centennial is being observed this year with festivals, lectures and access to sites that have been closed to the public....
Editorial: Greens scramble to buy -- and log -- forests A third of the U.S. land mass remains forested today -- the same proportion as in 1907 and fully 71 percent as much land as was forested before settlement by the Europeans. That's a lot, though only 57 percent of that land remains in private hands, much of it in large tracts held by timber companies. That means governments have already pulled 43 percent of the forests off the tax rolls. Nature cultists have been in the habit of condemning timber companies for "raping Mother Nature." But in a curiously poetic turn of events, the greens are now realizing the lumber companies can actually do something with far greater potential to threaten undisturbed wildlife habitat: sell their land for homes and resorts. As competition from cheap imported lumber, soaring land prices and pressure from Wall Street for earnings prompt timber companies to sell, there's a virtual land rush under way, The Washington Post reports, with many conservation groups scrambling to raise money to buy some of the tracts. But to pay the property taxes on them, some have found that they have only one option: Cut trees and sell timber....
Gov, forests reach roadless accord In an apparent effort to protect roadless areas, Gov. Dave Freudenthal and the U.S. Forest Service have agreed not to approve any new oil and gas and mineral leases in roadless areas in two national forests. The agreement, announced Thursday, affects the Bridger-Teton and Shoshone national forests only until new forest plans -- which are under way -- are completed. But exactly what this means for lands set for lease sale is unclear. Randy Karstaedt, regional director of physical resources for the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Region, which covers the Shoshone, said there are only two parcels the forest has forwarded to the Bureau of Land Management for lease sale. One of those parcels, covering 1,000 acres, has a small pocket -- about 100 acres -- that is categorized as roadless. Karstaedt said whether those acres will be left in the lease sale is "being kicked around right now." The agreement only gives forest managers direction between now and completion of forest plans -- estimated in 2008....
Appeals court halts logging in forest area scorched by wildfire A federal appeals court on Friday ordered a temporary halt to logging in two sections of the Eldorado National Forest east of Sacramento that were damaged by wildfires in 2004. A lower court in August denied a request by two environmental organizations to immediately end the logging, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Earth Island Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity are likely to eventually win their lawsuit. Allowing logging to continue could cause too much damage to the forests while the lawsuit proceeds, the San Francisco-based appeals court ruled. Many of the trees killed in the fires already have been cut by the contractor, Sierra Pacific Industries, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes said....
TIME cover story on global warming No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us. It certainly looked that way last week as the atmospheric bomb that was Cyclone Larry--a Category 5 storm with wind bursts that reached 180 m.p.h.--exploded through northeastern Australia. It certainly looked that way last year as curtains of fire and dust turned the skies of Indonesia orange, thanks to drought-fueled blazes sweeping the island nation. It certainly looks that way as sections of ice the size of small states calve from the disintegrating Arctic and Antarctic. And it certainly looks that way as the sodden wreckage of New Orleans continues to molder, while the waters of the Atlantic gather themselves for a new hurricane season just two months away. Disasters have always been with us and surely always will be. But when they hit this hard and come this fast--when the emergency becomes commonplace--something has gone grievously wrong. That something is global warming....
RNA Interference Knocks Down Prion Genes in Livestock Researchers have demonstrated that they can nearly eliminate production of infectious prion proteins in livestock by using an innovative approach based on RNA interference (RNAi). The technique could enable scientists to genetically engineer livestock that are resistant to prion-caused diseases such as mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). A similar strategy might be used to protect animals against influenza or foot-and-mouth disease. “Although careful monitoring of animal health and appropriate safety precautions are a current approach to containing such diseases, there is theoretical potential for creating genetically engineered strains of animals with a natural resistance to numerous diseases. However, genetic methods for altering livestock have thus far been lacking,” write the authors in an article published on March 20, 2006, in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Unlike bacteria and viruses, prions consist only of aberrant proteins that misfold themselves into forms that can induce misfolding of normal molecules. In mammalian prion infections, these abnormal, insoluble proteins trigger protein clumping that can kill brain cells. In humans, clumping causes fatal brain-destroying human diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and kuru, and in animals it causes BSE and scrapie. The new study extends the use of RNAi beyond mice to larger animals for the first time. The researchers say that the success of the technique suggests that manipulating genes with RNAi in plants and livestock may be an important alternative to traditional breeding or genetic engineering techniques to enhance production of meat, dairy, or fiber products. Current techniques can be costly, inefficient, and time-consuming....
Scientists Engineer Pigs with Heart-Healthy Meat In 2004, scientists created mice that transformed unhealthy omega-6 fatty acids into beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. They did this by transplanting a gene from the roundworm C. elegans into mice and thus raised the possibility of genetically engineering livestock with higher levels of the good fat. Now a team of researchers has realized that vision, creating several healthy pigs with meat rich in omega-3s. Yifan Dai of the University of Pittsburgh and his colleagues first transferred the roundworm gene--fat-1--to pig fetal cells. Randy Prather of the University of Missouri and his collaborators then cloned those cells and transferred them into 14 pig mothers. Twelve pigs were subsequently born and six of them tested positive for the gene and its ability to synthesize omega-3 fatty acids. The research opens the possibility of a new model organism for human heart health, and the distant prospect of incorporating such a gene into humans....
Get blown away by windmill museum in Lubbock The “most comprehensive collection of historic windmills in the world” awaits visitors at the American Wind Power Center in Lubbock, according to the center’s Web site. Coy Harris, the center’s executive director, said 92 windmills dating back to the 1870’s are housed inside a large building on the property and 50 windmills stand on property outside the building. “We have every model of windmill made by the Aeromotor Windmill Company on the ground outside,” Harris said. “They date back to the 1890’s. The windmills inside the building are too rare to place outside.” The windmills at the center range in size from 26 inches tall to 25 feet in height. A giant contemporary wind turbine is also on site which is visible from all over Lubbock....
Cowboy turned rodeo clown retired to Valley Center After a career as a working cowboy, steer wrestler and rodeo clown, Edgar Wright settled here in the 1950s on his ranch near Hillview Road. On his 83rd birthday, in 1972, he gave an interview to The Sentinel, a newspaper that served Valley Center at the time. He talked of his life as a representative cowboy, and later as a rodeo performer. “A representative cowboy,” Wright told The Sentinel, “was one whom an owner of several thousand cattle could trust to literally represent him and his interest in taking care of his cattle.” Wright was born in Illinois in 1889. He grew up with horses. When he contracted tuberculosis as a child, he was sent to Wyoming for a cure. As his health improved, he was able to live out his dream of working as a cowboy on ranches in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana and Colorado....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Cowboys make for easy writing fodder I like vegetarians. I like organic farmers, I like mule people, purebred breeders, heelers, bankers, equine practitioners, county agents, BLMers, cat lovers and cowboy poets. I pick on them all, of course, because they all, at one time or another, hold their hand up in front of their face and dare me, "Bet ya can't hit my hand before I move it." But some would say the most frequent subject of my poems and stories is cowboys. They're right. Unfortunately, it's like shooting myself in the foot. I've probably written 100 stories about cowboys getting bucked off, run over, bit, kicked, stomped, throwed, butted, drug and keg hauled, for every one story about some wacko environmentalist or animal rights lunatic. I get an e-mail attack for carrying my dog in the back of the pickup on a TV show, a critical letter because I imply that farmed salmon is as good for your heart as wild salmon, indignant retorts from people who take themselves quite seriously. But cowboys, they just say....
Biology and politics Bob and Jean Harshbarger have long enjoyed watching wildlife on their 29,000-acre ranch near Newcastle. From owls to mule deer to prairie dogs, the Harshbargers work to keep wildlife populations healthy, along with a healthy cattle operation. For about six years, in fact, the couple who run the ranch that has been in Jean Harshbarger's family for 80 years have been working with a variety of state and federal agencies to establish a "candidate conservation agreement" for their prairie dog population. Should the animal be listed under the Endangered Species Act, the Harshbargers want to keep managing cattle and prairie dogs in a way that protects both, without strident regulations from the federal government. The move by the Harshbargers, which has cost them about $30,000 so far, is precisely the idea driving reforms of the historic Endangered Species Act. Reforms of the landmark 1973 law have been passed in the U.S. House and are awaiting action by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee....
Living with the Endangered Species Act For Mary Thoman and the Thoman Ranch on the Green River north of Green River, the Endangered Species Act has "had a pretty profound effect." It started about seven years ago, when a female wolf arrived and "crippled 29 lambs and scattered them through our allotment in the Gros Ventre," Thoman said. "That was our first encounter with the wolf. We were pretty unprepared for the kind of damage she could do." Thoman has been ranching in the area for 30 years and has had experience with coyote losses. But those losses, she said, have been surpassed by the impact of grizzly bears and wolves. Her ranch averages $30,000 to $50,000 in losses each year through lost animals, Thoman said. The Endangered Species Act has "totally changed the dynamics of living in the mountains," as her ranch has had to double the manpower on grazing allotments, take more frequent trips to check on the herds, and carry pepper spray. As for proposed changes to the law, Thoman would like to see less bureaucracy....
Who pays for wolves once they are delisted? Since it first declared gray wolves in need of protection, the federal government has footed the bill to help rebuild the predator's population in the Northern Rockies. But with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now declaring wolves recovered and eager to hand off full management to the three states involved, the question becomes: Who will pay to manage the predators then? It's not an easy question. ''It hasn't been worked out,'' said Eric Keszler, a spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. ''Obviously, it's going to be an expensive thing to do. I don't know where the money is going to come from.'' In over 30 years, just 10 species recovered by the agency have successfully come off the endangered species list, according to the agency's Michelle Morgan. Of those, the agency paid only for surveys of peregrine falcons, under a post-delisting monitoring plan for the raptor. ''Right now we don't have any precedent other than that,'' she said....
Congressman faces fight over species act Rep. Richard Pombo has never gotten over being outfoxed by the endangered San Joaquin kit fox. The rancher and chairman of the House Resources Committee is closer than ever to his goal of rewriting the Endangered Species Act to expand property rights - his mission ever since the obscure fox species blocked development of a neighboring town 25 years ago. The prospect of long-fought success has made Pombo a target in the November election. The conservative Republican has abandoned the cowboy hat in his official congressional photo and is looking a little more worldly as he confronts a changing electorate in his district. Seeking his eighth term, Pombo, 45, faces a primary challenge on June 6 from a moderate Republican who helped write the landmark species protections. Democrats see a glimmer of hope of capturing the seat; environmentalists say his defeat would be the best thing that could happen in November....
Forum focuses on split estate rules Entrusting handshake deals and enacting more regulation were among the suggestions landowners voiced Friday in Casper about how to avoid conflicts involving split estate. Split estate is a division of land ownership in which landowners control everything on the surface but underlying minerals belong to the federal government. The federal government auctions off those rights for companies to develop. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has been hosting a series of public meetings on split estate, including one in Casper on Friday. The agency is weighing how to approach the issue in the face of increasing mineral development in the West. Some landowners who took part in the session called for more federal regulations to protect their property. Others asked that the BLM adopt parts of Wyoming's split estate law. Still others said there were too many laws on the books already....
Montana rule hits Wyo industry Montana dealt a potential blow to Wyoming industry on Thursday in an ongoing turf battle about how to manage water produced from coal-bed methane wells in the Powder River Basin. The Montana Board of Environmental Review accepted a proposed rule change to block any degradation of water quality in Montana streams. The rule is aimed at cleaning up water discharges from coal-bed methane wells. Although the board rejected a mandate to re-inject the produced water, the bottom-line impact in Wyoming could be that producers here would have to spend more money to treat and regulate the water produced from coal-bed methane wells on this side of the state line. By placing a non-degradation standard on the rivers, the rule essentially extends upstream into Wyoming, where the industry is already struggling to keep millions of barrels of production water out of the rivers. The industry is feeling pressure within Wyoming's borders, too. To keep the water out of the Montana-bound rivers, producers here are carving hundreds of new holding reservoirs and washing the water through upland ephemeral drainages. That has caused headaches for many ranchers here because the large number of reservoirs are cutting into their pastures, and the discharges are washing out their low-lying grazing lands....
Norton fires back Interior Secretary Gale Norton, criticized by environmentalists as pushing the Bush administration's pro-development agenda during her five-year tenure, said Friday that she remains proud of her efforts to build consensus on a range of issues. In an interview with The Associated Press, Norton, who is stepping down March 31 for personal reasons, said the department has worked with hunters, anglers, farmers and ranchers on protecting wetlands and endangered species. A report released by her office Thursday said Interior provided $2.1 billion in grants since 2002 to states, landowners and groups to preserve wildlife habitat and save species. “We started out with the idea of cooperative conservation and that the federal government could work best as partners with local citizens. We put our money where our mouth is and increased grant programs that had those goals,” Norton said. Norton said her department has increased funding for inspections and monitoring to ensure that companies are responsible. She said Interior is forming a new advisory council to study wildlife issues, including the impacts of energy development....
No Charges in Cougar's Shooting A Rancho Santa Margarita man who shot a mountain lion in his backyard will not be charged because he acted in self-defense, prosecutors said Friday. Bill Hill, 52, a former Stanton police officer, was taking out the trash early Jan. 17 when his wife saw the animal and screamed. Hill went to his car to retrieve a 9-millimeter pistol and went into the backyard. He saw the 90-pound cougar crouching on a slope 30 feet away. Fearing the animal would attack, Hill fired two shots. Authorities killed the animal 90 minutes later as it lay in a nearby ravine. It is illegal to shoot mountain lions, which are a protected species. Exceptions are granted if a cougar attacks pets or livestock, or in cases of self-defense. State Department of Fish and Game officials had recommended a misdemeanor charge be filed against Hill, a private investigator....
Cliff dwellers leave wonders Most national parks protect natural wonders -- mountains, forests, canyons. Mesa Verde was the first national park created to preserve man-made wonders -- ancient cliff dwellings made from sandstone and perched on ledges at elevations of 7,000 feet. This intricate architecture, dating from the 12th century, is as awesome to behold today as it was when cowboys and ranchers first saw it. Two men looking for lost cattle, Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason, came upon the most spectacular site, the 150-room Cliff Palace, in 1888. Mesa Verde National Park was established 18 years later. The park's centennial is being observed this year with festivals, lectures and access to sites that have been closed to the public....
Editorial: Greens scramble to buy -- and log -- forests A third of the U.S. land mass remains forested today -- the same proportion as in 1907 and fully 71 percent as much land as was forested before settlement by the Europeans. That's a lot, though only 57 percent of that land remains in private hands, much of it in large tracts held by timber companies. That means governments have already pulled 43 percent of the forests off the tax rolls. Nature cultists have been in the habit of condemning timber companies for "raping Mother Nature." But in a curiously poetic turn of events, the greens are now realizing the lumber companies can actually do something with far greater potential to threaten undisturbed wildlife habitat: sell their land for homes and resorts. As competition from cheap imported lumber, soaring land prices and pressure from Wall Street for earnings prompt timber companies to sell, there's a virtual land rush under way, The Washington Post reports, with many conservation groups scrambling to raise money to buy some of the tracts. But to pay the property taxes on them, some have found that they have only one option: Cut trees and sell timber....
Gov, forests reach roadless accord In an apparent effort to protect roadless areas, Gov. Dave Freudenthal and the U.S. Forest Service have agreed not to approve any new oil and gas and mineral leases in roadless areas in two national forests. The agreement, announced Thursday, affects the Bridger-Teton and Shoshone national forests only until new forest plans -- which are under way -- are completed. But exactly what this means for lands set for lease sale is unclear. Randy Karstaedt, regional director of physical resources for the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Region, which covers the Shoshone, said there are only two parcels the forest has forwarded to the Bureau of Land Management for lease sale. One of those parcels, covering 1,000 acres, has a small pocket -- about 100 acres -- that is categorized as roadless. Karstaedt said whether those acres will be left in the lease sale is "being kicked around right now." The agreement only gives forest managers direction between now and completion of forest plans -- estimated in 2008....
Appeals court halts logging in forest area scorched by wildfire A federal appeals court on Friday ordered a temporary halt to logging in two sections of the Eldorado National Forest east of Sacramento that were damaged by wildfires in 2004. A lower court in August denied a request by two environmental organizations to immediately end the logging, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Earth Island Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity are likely to eventually win their lawsuit. Allowing logging to continue could cause too much damage to the forests while the lawsuit proceeds, the San Francisco-based appeals court ruled. Many of the trees killed in the fires already have been cut by the contractor, Sierra Pacific Industries, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes said....
TIME cover story on global warming No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us. It certainly looked that way last week as the atmospheric bomb that was Cyclone Larry--a Category 5 storm with wind bursts that reached 180 m.p.h.--exploded through northeastern Australia. It certainly looked that way last year as curtains of fire and dust turned the skies of Indonesia orange, thanks to drought-fueled blazes sweeping the island nation. It certainly looks that way as sections of ice the size of small states calve from the disintegrating Arctic and Antarctic. And it certainly looks that way as the sodden wreckage of New Orleans continues to molder, while the waters of the Atlantic gather themselves for a new hurricane season just two months away. Disasters have always been with us and surely always will be. But when they hit this hard and come this fast--when the emergency becomes commonplace--something has gone grievously wrong. That something is global warming....
RNA Interference Knocks Down Prion Genes in Livestock Researchers have demonstrated that they can nearly eliminate production of infectious prion proteins in livestock by using an innovative approach based on RNA interference (RNAi). The technique could enable scientists to genetically engineer livestock that are resistant to prion-caused diseases such as mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). A similar strategy might be used to protect animals against influenza or foot-and-mouth disease. “Although careful monitoring of animal health and appropriate safety precautions are a current approach to containing such diseases, there is theoretical potential for creating genetically engineered strains of animals with a natural resistance to numerous diseases. However, genetic methods for altering livestock have thus far been lacking,” write the authors in an article published on March 20, 2006, in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Unlike bacteria and viruses, prions consist only of aberrant proteins that misfold themselves into forms that can induce misfolding of normal molecules. In mammalian prion infections, these abnormal, insoluble proteins trigger protein clumping that can kill brain cells. In humans, clumping causes fatal brain-destroying human diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and kuru, and in animals it causes BSE and scrapie. The new study extends the use of RNAi beyond mice to larger animals for the first time. The researchers say that the success of the technique suggests that manipulating genes with RNAi in plants and livestock may be an important alternative to traditional breeding or genetic engineering techniques to enhance production of meat, dairy, or fiber products. Current techniques can be costly, inefficient, and time-consuming....
Scientists Engineer Pigs with Heart-Healthy Meat In 2004, scientists created mice that transformed unhealthy omega-6 fatty acids into beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. They did this by transplanting a gene from the roundworm C. elegans into mice and thus raised the possibility of genetically engineering livestock with higher levels of the good fat. Now a team of researchers has realized that vision, creating several healthy pigs with meat rich in omega-3s. Yifan Dai of the University of Pittsburgh and his colleagues first transferred the roundworm gene--fat-1--to pig fetal cells. Randy Prather of the University of Missouri and his collaborators then cloned those cells and transferred them into 14 pig mothers. Twelve pigs were subsequently born and six of them tested positive for the gene and its ability to synthesize omega-3 fatty acids. The research opens the possibility of a new model organism for human heart health, and the distant prospect of incorporating such a gene into humans....
Get blown away by windmill museum in Lubbock The “most comprehensive collection of historic windmills in the world” awaits visitors at the American Wind Power Center in Lubbock, according to the center’s Web site. Coy Harris, the center’s executive director, said 92 windmills dating back to the 1870’s are housed inside a large building on the property and 50 windmills stand on property outside the building. “We have every model of windmill made by the Aeromotor Windmill Company on the ground outside,” Harris said. “They date back to the 1890’s. The windmills inside the building are too rare to place outside.” The windmills at the center range in size from 26 inches tall to 25 feet in height. A giant contemporary wind turbine is also on site which is visible from all over Lubbock....
Cowboy turned rodeo clown retired to Valley Center After a career as a working cowboy, steer wrestler and rodeo clown, Edgar Wright settled here in the 1950s on his ranch near Hillview Road. On his 83rd birthday, in 1972, he gave an interview to The Sentinel, a newspaper that served Valley Center at the time. He talked of his life as a representative cowboy, and later as a rodeo performer. “A representative cowboy,” Wright told The Sentinel, “was one whom an owner of several thousand cattle could trust to literally represent him and his interest in taking care of his cattle.” Wright was born in Illinois in 1889. He grew up with horses. When he contracted tuberculosis as a child, he was sent to Wyoming for a cure. As his health improved, he was able to live out his dream of working as a cowboy on ranches in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana and Colorado....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Cowboys make for easy writing fodder I like vegetarians. I like organic farmers, I like mule people, purebred breeders, heelers, bankers, equine practitioners, county agents, BLMers, cat lovers and cowboy poets. I pick on them all, of course, because they all, at one time or another, hold their hand up in front of their face and dare me, "Bet ya can't hit my hand before I move it." But some would say the most frequent subject of my poems and stories is cowboys. They're right. Unfortunately, it's like shooting myself in the foot. I've probably written 100 stories about cowboys getting bucked off, run over, bit, kicked, stomped, throwed, butted, drug and keg hauled, for every one story about some wacko environmentalist or animal rights lunatic. I get an e-mail attack for carrying my dog in the back of the pickup on a TV show, a critical letter because I imply that farmed salmon is as good for your heart as wild salmon, indignant retorts from people who take themselves quite seriously. But cowboys, they just say....
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