NEWS ROUNDUP

Court Rules for Coastal Landowner in Development Dispute Someday, Dennis Schneider might be able to enjoy a drop-dead view from his yet-to-be-built dream home on a Central Coast cliff-top perched above the ocean. At the same time, kayakers, surfers and all the ships at sea will have a drop-dead view of Schneider's 10,000-square-foot mansion — whether they want it or not. Less-than-pleasing views for passing sailors are no grounds for the California Coastal Commission this week to restrict seaside development, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday. "We believe that it is unreasonable to assume that the Legislature has ever sought to protect the occasional boater's views of the coastline at the expense of a coastal landowner," the 2nd District Court of Appeal wrote in a unanimous opinion. The ruling could affect stretches of California shoreline that are still relatively undeveloped, particularly along the Central Coast and in Northern California. An attorney for Schneider, a San Luis Obispo engineer, cast the decision Thursday as a victory for property owners seeking to exercise their rights and a defeat for Coastal Commission officials trying to arbitrarily clamp down on development. "The commission was attempting an outrageous power grab that would have put projects up and down the coast in jeopardy based on nothing more than the arbitrary aesthetic whims of commission staffers and members," said J. David Breemer, an attorney with the property-rights oriented Pacific Legal Foundation....
Editorial: Coastal craziness In a 1997 speech at a conference in Monterey, a radical environmentalist named Peter Douglas called for the U.S. Constitution to be amended to make courts the “arbiters” in what he called the “debate” over property owners' rights. It was just another day at the green pulpit for Douglas, who thinks government powers should be used to coerce individuals to “care with mind and heart for Gaia and all life she sustains.” Unfortunately, Douglas is in a position to use coercive powers in pursuit of his extremism. He is the longtime executive director of the California Coastal Commission, an institution whose hostility toward property rights makes the typical eminent domain-abusing redevelopment agency seem like pikers. Consider the case of San Luis Obispo engineer Dennis Schneider, who hoped to build his dream home on a cliff above the ocean in a remote area north of Cayucos. Incredibly by normal cognitive standards, typically by Coastal Commission standards, the agency blocked his plans on the grounds that the home would be such an aesthetic affront to passing kayakers, boaters and surfers that it would violate their rights. We are not making this up. Thankfully, on June 28, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said this was nonsense in a brisk 12-page decision that seemed perplexed at where the Coastal Commission comes up with stuff like this. The answer, of course: from the untethered imagination of its executive director....
U.S.: No critical habitat in Southwest for jaguar The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that it will not designate critical habitat for the endangered jaguar in the Southwest. U.S. habitat for the animal makes up less than 1 percent of the species' range and is not critical to conserve it, the agency said. Thus, it doesn't meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act for designating critical habitat. Jaguars are occasionally seen in southwestern New Mexico and Southeastern Arizona, but Fish and Wildlife officials believe those jaguars come from a population 130 miles south of the border in Mexico. "The service has determined there are no physical and biological features in the United States that meet the definition of critical habitat," said Benjamin Tuggle, acting director of the agency's Southwest region. The recovery of the species depends almost entirely on efforts in Mexico and Central and South America, the agency said. The jaguars were listed as endangered in the United States in 1997, but Fish and Wildlife determined that a critical-habitat designation was not prudent at the time. In 2003, the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife filed a complaint contending that finding violated the Endangered Species Act. The federal agency agreed to look at the issue again, which led to Wednesday's determination....
Development in South Dakota Prompts Unlikely Coalition: Christians, Indians, Ranchers(Subscription Required) Jay Allen expects to spend $3 million on his new development near this town of 6,400. The three-story, 22,500-square-foot barn will house six bars, a restaurant, stores and a stage. But his ambitions now rest on a hotly disputed beer license for which he paid just $250. Mr. Allen hopes his development, the Sturgis County Line, will attract many of the half-million bikers who come here each August for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. For now, though, it has attracted the opposition of an unlikely coalition: American Indians, white ranchers and Christian activists. The main problem, as they see it, is that the Sturgis County Line and another complex are being built about two miles from Bear Butte, which rises about 1,100 feet from the prairie surrounding it. For thousands of years, Bear Butte -- or Mato Paha in the language of the Lakota American Indian tribe -- is considered sacred ground by dozens of tribes who pray there and view it as "the womb of mother Earth." When Anne White Hat read about Mr. Allen's plans in a local newspaper, she was speechless. "We just couldn't believe someone would actually be so naïve to think they could do this, with total lack of respect and knowledge about native people," says Ms. White Hat, a Lakota. Christians see an opportunity to limit the spread of rowdy biker bars and strip clubs. Ranchers complain their cattle have contracted pneumonia after breathing copper-colored dust stirred up by bikers thundering across gravel roads....
A quest for cooler heads in Indian suit against US The lawsuit's name is innocuous enough. But Cobell v. Kempthorne carries 119 years of historical baggage, and its outcome could affect hundreds of thousands of people at a cost of billions of dollars. It's also thorny as a prickly pear, so contentious that a panel of federal jurists this week ruled that the case needs a different judge to oversee it. The dispute involves royalties due native Americans dating back to 1887. That's when Uncle Sam took control of some 11 million acres of tribal lands in the West as part of the federal policy of forced assimilation. The US was supposed to be paying into Indian trust accounts what now amounts to billions of dollars in revenues from oil, gas, timber, minerals, and grazing on those acres, then disbursing payments to native account holders. But the whole thing has been mismanaged, federal courts have declared several times since the case began in 1996, and the last three Interior secretaries have failed to fix it. Idahoan Dirk Kempthorne, who recently became Interior secretary, follows both Bruce Babbitt and Gale Norton as lead defendant. On the other side is Elouise Cobell of Browning, Mont., a member of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe, a rancher and banker, and a recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant for her work in economic development. She's the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit that bears her name. "The government has abused trust beneficiaries and has failed to fulfill the most basic trust responsibilities owed to us," she said this week....
Oil company notified of violation in salt water spill State officials say they have notified an oil company of possible fines for a ruptured pipeline that spilled nearly 1 million gallons of saltwater into Charbonneau Creek in northwestern North Dakota. The state Health Department and the Industrial Commission have given notices to Zenergy, Inc., of Tulsa, Okla. The company has until July 23 to reply, officials said. The salt water spill, discovered in early January, killed fish in the McKenzie County creek near Alexander, and forced ranchers to move their cattle. The director of the state Industrial Commission, Karlene Fine, said Zenergy faces up to $90,000 in fines. The commission regulates oil and gas production. The state Health Department's environmental chief, David Glatt, said the company also faces penalties for violating environmental laws. He said Zenergy and the department will negotiate fines and a settlement to ensure the state recovers its costs in the cleanup.The state costs total around $35,000 so far, Glatt said. Salt water is an oil production waste product that can kill plants and hurt animals. Oil companies pipe it underground to dispose of it....
Ranch sells for $47 million A 949-acre ranch south of Carbondale has sold for $47 million, one of the largest and most expensive land deals in Pitkin County history. The deal took roughly eight years to complete and includes hundreds of acres of open space, according to local real estate agent Joshua Saslove, who represented the sellers, Richard and Debbie Jelinek. The Crystal Island Ranch is bordered by the Crystal River, Prince Creek and Thomas Creek, Saslove said, and sits near the base of Mount Sopris. The U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management administer much of the land nearby. "The property abuts very large tracts of BLM land, and the only modern development on the property is a house and barn, a guest house and caretaker's quarters," said Saslove, a regional affiliate for Christie's auction house. "One of the messages we want people to hear is that the former owners are really thankful to everyone who participated in this unique land-use plan." The complex deal involved the Pitkin County Open Space and Trails program, the Conservation Fund, the Jelineks and the Aspen Valley Land Trust. The ranch once encompassed roughly 1,700 acres, but the land has been divided several ways, with some pieces sold to conservation organizations and others preserved with conservation easements. Overall, some 1,400 contiguous acres have been protected. The name of the buyer was not available Thursday afternoon, and Saslove would not reveal any names, saying the buyer wished to remain anonymous....
Easement will protect trout habitat A conservation easement may be placed along the Madison River on the Sun Ranch as part of an agreement that will protect 16 square miles of prime native trout habitat. On Thursday, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks commission authorized the department to start working on the project, and set aside $4.5 million from the state’s Habitat Montana program to help pay for the proposed easement purchase. Funded with hunter license fees, the Habitat Montana program seeks to preserve and restore important habitat for fish and wildlife and to make prime fishing and hunting areas accessible to the sporting public. FWP’s Wildlife Division Administrator Don Childress was excited by the news. He thanked both the non-profit conservation group Trust for Public Land and Sun Ranch owner Roger Lang of Bozeman for working on the deal....
Editorial: Agencies should prevent drilling to protect Strawberry The Strawberry Reservoir basin is a showcase for wetlands restoration and a trout fisherman's paradise. But, having survived decades of neglect and damage prior to its resurrection in the mid-'80s, the Strawberry Valley now could face an even greater threat from oil and gas drilling. Before-and-after photos of the Strawberry River Habitat Enhancement Project graphically show how an investment of $34 million in federal money and thousands of donated hours of labor have transformed the once-overgrazed basin of Strawberry River tributaries into one of the country's premier recreational fisheries. But sediment from new roads and the traffic that energy exploration would bring could contaminate the 10 streams flowing into the reservoir and seriously damage its fish population and the $20 million angling business they support. The 57,000 acres of blue-ribbon recreation land and watershed surrounding the reservoir should be protected from the wholesale exploration and drilling that federal land-management agencies seem bent on encouraging all over the West, including in roadless areas and prime hunting and fishing locations....
Sentencing Delayed In Hayman Fire Case A resentencing of a former U.S. Forest Service employee who admitted setting the largest wildfire in Colorado history has been delayed indefinitely, her public defender said Thursday. Terry Lynn Barton, 42, was sentenced on state charges to 12 years in prison in 2003, twice the typical term. But the Colorado Court of Appeals ordered a new sentencing, saying the judge in the case may have been biased because smoke from the 138,000-acre Hayman wildfire forced him to evacuate. The fire destroyed 133 homes. Fourth Judicial District Judge Thomas Kennedy ruled this year a jury could consider whether enough aggravating circumstances existed to justify the sentence. A hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday. Barton's public defender, Mark Walta said the Colorado Supreme Court agreed in May to review a similar sentencing situation from Montezuma County, and Barton's case has been put on hold pending the outcome of the Montezuma case....
Senate committee fires back in feud over Forest Service policy Certain logging projects and other smaller-scale U.S. Forest Service activities would be exempt from a long-held public comment and appeals process under a provision inserted into a spending bill and approved recently by a key Senate committee. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., added the amendment to a multi-agency budget measure that sailed through the Senate Appropriations Committee last month. No date has been set for a full vote in the Senate; spending bills before the House of Representatives do not contain the rider. The move to steer the new forest policy through Congress is the latest in a back-and-forth between environmentalists who demand public comment on timber, mining and other Forest Service projects — no matter the size — and defenders of the Bush administration's push to fast-track certain priorities, namely forest-thinning to combat wildfires. The Burns amendment would overturn a 2005 ruling by a U.S. district judge in California that thwarted Forest Service regulations written in 2003. That rule change would have repealed public comment on so-called "categorical exemptions" — smaller scale projects the Forest Service says do not require lengthy environmental analysis. For instance, the measure would allow bypassing public comment on proposed burn projects up to 4,500 acres and fuel-reduction logging projects up to 1,000 acres. The comment and appeals process lasts up to 90 days, and in some cases more. Environmentalists hailed the California ruling as a rebuke of the president's Healthy Forest Initiative, but are now grousing that Bush allies are again seeking to bypass the National Environmental Policy Act....
Scenic beachfront land to go public Eight years ago, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation led the effort to buy five miles of stunning beaches and rugged coastline along Santa Cruz County's north coast, saving it from development in the hope of establishing a new state park. Today, after years of studies and nagging budget problems that prevented California from accepting the gift, the beaches at Coast Dairies Ranch, a sprawling expanse of redwood forests, artichoke fields and rolling hills, finally transfer to public ownership. The deal ranks as the most significant addition of beaches to Northern California state parks in 31 years. The scenic ranch -- home to peregrine falcons, steelhead trout and mountain lions -- is believed to be the largest piece of private beachfront property along the California coast between Hearst Ranch at San Simeon and the Oregon border. ``It's a major milestone. It's the first step toward fulfilling the dream that Coast Dairies will be owned by the public and open to everyone,'' said Reed Holderman, executive director of the Trust for Public Land-California, a San Francisco conservation group that owns Coast Dairies....
Arizona cattlemen suing over spotted-owl habitat A California-based legal firm and Arizona cattlemen have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's designation of critical habitat for the Mexican spotted owl in four Western states. The Pacific Legal Foundation, acting on behalf of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association, contends that the Fish and Wildlife Service did not follow laws governing the Endangered Species Act in setting aside more than 8 million acres for the owl in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado. "Some of the areas that have been set aside by the regulators clearly don't have physical and biological features that are essential for the owl's conservation," said foundation attorney Damien Schiff. "Other areas are described in such vague terms that it's anyone's guess whether it's necessary to take them out of public use. "And in general, the regulators ignored their legal duty to consider and factor in the economic impact of the designation." Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said the agency was unable to comment on a pending lawsuit. But an attorney with the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity questioned the need for a lawsuit. Eric Ryberg said his group's successful 2001 challenge of the critical-habitat listing forced the agency to redraw boundaries. He wonders why the legal foundation and ranchers waited so long to respond to it....
Judge Protects Gila Chub on Agua Fria National Monument The Center for Biological Diversity applauded a decision today that protects the endangered Gila chub from the impacts of livestock grazing on the Agua Fria National Monument. The decision states that the Bureau of Land Management failed to consider the potential for harm to the Gila chub and its habitat when it issued a ten-year grazing permit, and that it also improperly proceeded with an outdated analysis from the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Agua Fria National Monument is approximately 71,000 acres and was established in 2000 by a presidential proclamation to protect the unique biological and cultural areas of this area, which is located 40 miles north of Phoenix. The diverse vegetative communities of the Monument provide habitat for numerous rare wildlife species, including the lowland leopard frog, Mexican garter snake, common black hawk, pronghorn, yellow-billed cuckoo and desert tortoise. The valuable riparian forests of the Monument were specifically highlighted in the presidential proclamation and their protection was given statutory priority. The order was issued by Administrative Law Judge James H. Heffernan, for the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Hearings and Appeals, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The order was granted in response to the Center for Biological Diversity’s appeal of the BLM’s November 2005 decision to approve a new livestock grazing permit without properly considering impacts to the natural and cultural resources in the area....
San Pedro River Railroad Purchase Offer Withdrawn The San Pedro River will not have hazardous materials transported along its banks, as the pending purchase offer for the adjacent railroad was withdrawn today. “This is truly a victory for the San Pedro River and the citizens of the county. Instead of being turned into a toxic corridor, the river banks can move forward as a rails-to-trails project,” said Michelle Harrington, Rivers Program Director for the Center for Biological Diversity. There has been little or no service on the railroad line for several years. The current owner, San Pedro Railroad Operating Company, LLC, planned to retire the 76.2 miles of rail between the border and Benson in Cochise County. Before the retirement was finalized, Sonora-Arizona International, LLC, offered to purchase the railroad and restart the line with plans to significantly expand operations within Arizona and into Mexico to the Port of Guaymas. The railroad runs along the banks of the San Pedro River through the Riparian National Conservation Area....
Drought forces more cattle sales More than 1,800 cattle were packed into the Kist Livestock sales barn on one day this week. "Some guys were bringing cows in by semi loads," rancher Bob Gangl said Wednesday. "The grass is gone everywhere. There's nothing for them to eat. It hasn't been this bad since the late '80s, and even then it wasn't as bad as it is now." Last year at the same time, 456 cattle were brought to Kist to be sold. The state has been under drought emergency since June, with moisture in the Bismarck area running more than 4 inches below normal. Most of the animals sold Wednesday would normally be held until fall when they weigh more, said Les Fleck, who runs the online auctions for Kist. Smaller calves were selling for $1.30 to $1.45 a pound, and yearlings - both heifers and steers - up to $1.20 a pound, said Diane Givan, a bookkeeper with Kist Livestock. But selling early was like giving away a paycheck, Fleck said. Ranchers can buy hay, but prices are high. Donald Janecek, a veterinarian from Linton who attended Wednesday's auction, said he paid $1,400 for hay that would have cost him $600 last year....
Chances fade for Barbaro's survival Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro has developed a serious hoof disease, and the veterinarian treating the 3-year-old colt yesterday called his chances of survival a "long shot." "His prognosis for his life and his comfort has significantly diminished," said Dean Richardson, the chief surgeon who has been treating Barbaro. "I'd be lying if I said it was anything but poor." Doctors operated on Barbaro Wednesday at the New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., leaving him with casts on both rear legs. They said Barbaro could be euthanized if he does not respond quickly to medication. "It could happen within 24 hours," Dr. Richardson said. "It's a long shot. I'm not going to sugarcoat this. As long as the horse is not suffering, we're going to continue to try and treat him. If we can keep him comfortable, it's worth the effort." Barbaro suffered major fractures to his right hind leg in the May 20 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. His recovery went smoothly until early this week, when he developed a severe case of laminitis in his left hind leg....

Canada Reports New Case of Mad Cow Disease

Canada on Thursday confirmed its second case of mad cow disease in as many weeks _ and seventh since 2003. Shipments of cattle to the United States were halted in 2003 after the first reported cases of mad cow in Canada. Trade in cows younger than 30 months resumed last July. The latest case was of a 50-month-old dairy cow from a farm in western Alberta, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would send an inspector to aid in the investigation into the death. Last week, Canadian officials another Albertan cow died of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, an extremely rare disease that can be fatal in humans. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said the deaths "raise questions that must be answered." "We need a thorough understanding of all the circumstances involved in this case to assure our consumes that Canada's regulatory system is effectively providing the utmost protections to consumers and livestock," Johanns said, adding he was dispatching a USDA expert to help with the investigation. The cow, part of a herd of 300 head of cattle on an Edmonton-area farm, was among 170 other cows that will now be tested for the disease. Those animals were born within a year of the diseased cow and are either on the same farm or have been sold to other farms. Canada implemented a feed ban in 1997 that prohibited the use of cattle parts in certain animal feeds. Last month, that ban was extended to include all types of animal feed, pet food and fertilizers, in an effort to help eliminate BSE from Canada's herd in the next decade. The latest case discovered means the four-year-old cow came into contact with BSE after the 1997 feed ban. Government officials said this is typical and that sporadic cases will continue to be found....

US Cattle Industry Group Wants USDA To Ban Canada Cattle, Beef

R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America Thursday called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to rescind its rule allowing Canadian cattle and beef to be imported into the U.S. The call came in the wake of an announcement by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirming bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, in a 50-month-old dairy cow. The latest case was the fourth BSE case for Canada this year and was the youngest Canadian animal yet. The cow was born well after 1997 when Canada implemented its ban on feeding ruminant-derived meat and bone meal back to ruminants. The cow also came from Alberta, where a large percentage of the cattle and beef products imported into the U.S. originate, a release from R-CALF USA said. "USDA must now acknowledge that the principal assumptions used to support its Final Rule (allowing those imports) are no longer valid and that much more needs to be done to mitigate the heightened BSE risks presented by Canadian beef and cattle," said R-CALF USA President Chuck Kiker. The reaction from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association was more muted. "Our position would be that we share the CFIA's desire to get a full accounting about how this cow might have been exposed to BSE, and we will be following the results of that investigation closely," said Joe Schuele, director of trade media for the NCBA. "We were pleased to see that they invited U.S. officials to participate in their investigation," Schuele said. Asked about news reports that the USDA is working on a rule that would allow beef product imports from cattle older than 30 months from countries regardless of the number of cases of BSE, Schuele said current NCBA policy only supports the current range of products. This policy approves cattle and products from cattle 30 months old and younger.

EVA Outbreak Reported in New Mexico

On June 26 the Office International des Epizooties (O.I.E.) Reference Laboratory for Equine Viral Arteritis (EVA) at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture's Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center, confirmed an outbreak of equine arteritis virus infection involving fetal losses among mares on a Quarter Horse breeding farm in New Mexico. This was based on the widespread prevalence of high antibody levels to the virus in both mares and stallions, plus virus isolation from the semen of two stallions. On the same day, the outbreak was reported to the New Mexico Livestock Board in Albuquerque, N.M., which is now investigating the potential for spread of the infection to other premises. The EVA Reference Laboratory is interested in receiving samples from suspected clinical cases of EVA or from animals very recently exposed to semen from either of the virus-shedding stallions. Veterinarians are requested to contact the Gluck Center at (859) 257-4757 before submitting samples....

Equine Viral Arteritis (EVA) The New Mexico Livestock Board is investigating an outbreak of EVA in the State of New Mexico that was reported on June 28, 2006. One Equine Breeding Farm has been placed under quarantine, other exposed farms are voluntarily limiting movement off their farms. Action has been taken to limit the spread of the disease. The New Mexico State Veterinarian, Dr. Steven England is working with the Gluck Equine Center in Kentucky and the equine industry in order to formulate plans to minimize the impact of this disease on producers in the State of New Mexico. Meetings and consultations are taking place with the New Mexico Racing Commission, State 4-H leaders, farm owners, sale barns and Equine Veterinarians. Daniel M. Manzanares, Executive Director of the New Mexico Livestock Board, Cliff Mascarenas Deputy Director and the Livestock Inspectors through out the state are ensuring that movement of horses both in state and out of state follow established procedures to minimize spread of this disease. Affected farms are working closely with the New Mexico Livestock Board to limit the spread of this disease....

Livestock Board quarantines Socorro County farm

The state Livestock Board has quarantined a Socorro County horse breeding farm after an outbreak of an equine virus. A state veterinarian, Dr. Dave Fly, says that action and voluntary quarantines by other farms appear to have contained the outbreak. He says there have been no reported cases of equine viral arteritis, or EVA, beyond the first exposed farms. EVA is an acute, contagious viral disease that affects horses. It can’t be spread to other domestic animals or humans. EVA is primarily an infection of the equine respiratory tract and causes abortions in pregnant mares. Fly says a number of mares have lost foals in the outbreak, while other horses have respiratory disease. No horses have died.

NEWS ROUNDUP

Landmark Stream Access Case Headed to the Montana Supreme Court What many thought would be inevitable has now come to fruition – the Mitchell Slough case is headed to the Montana Supreme Court. In a Wednesday press release, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Bitterroot River Protection Association announced plans to appeal the decision handed down by District Court Judge Ted Mizner in May that the Mitchell Slough was a ditch and not subject to public access. While the Mitchell Slough is a comparatively obscure waterway, the case has become an emotional and politically charged test case of the reach of Montana's Stream Access Law, which is coveted by sportsmen as one of the strongest such laws in the country but is seen by some landowners as an infringement of property rights. “The issue is way bigger than the Mitchell Slough and the Bitterroot,” Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer said Wednesday in explaining why he authorized the appeal. “The problem is that this opened a can of worms across Montana and we need to get this resolved.” The FWP appeal will be limited to the public access portion of the Mitchell Slough case. But the BRPA, which also sued over the 2003 decision by the Bitterroot Conservation District that the Mitchell was ditch, will file an appeal. The appeal will extend years of debate over the waterway, which has been deemed a ditch twice – once by Mizner and once by the Bitterroot Conservation District....
Feds May Let Salty Farmland Go Fallow Dry, brittle grass is all that pokes through earth that once grew tons of tomatoes, garlic and lettuce. Poor drainage has left land on the San Joaquin Valley's west side salty and worthless, a nightmare for farmers and the federal government, which provides irrigation water here. Over the years, numerous efforts to drain the poisoned land and salvage it for agriculture have failed. Now, the government is considering spending hundreds of millions of dollars to pay off farmers and get out of its obligation to irrigate the land _ effectively letting the 300,000-acre swath go fallow. That's the preferred alternative among the latest set of proposals from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Another calls for pumping the water out to sea, an idea opposed by officials in coastal cities. "It's a very complex issue. We've been trying to figure this out for a long time," said Jerry Robbins, a project manager with the reclamation bureau. Drainage problems on the land stretching along a 90-mile stretch from Los Banos to Kettleman City are caused by a natural layer of clay beneath the surface that keeps water from draining through. The small amounts of salt in the water builds up over time, leaving the fields unsuitable for crops....
Environmentalists and ranchers debate new grazing regulations Depending on whom you ask, federal grazing regulations announced Wednesday are either a roadblock to good management or a rollback from bad rules. The rules apply to 160 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land in the West, including Utah, and impact 15,000 livestock operators. According to Jim Catlin, director of the environmentalist Utah Wild Project, the Bureau of Land Management's new rules will prevent users of the public land from "applying these proven solutions to restoring rangelands," he said. But Brent Tanner, executive president of the Utah Cattlemen's Association, says the rules will "roll back some of the bad regulations" established by the administration of former President Bill Clinton. John Carter of the Western Watersheds Project, Utah office — a conservationist who is based in Mendon, Cache County — accused the BLM of abandoning any consideration of science in its grazing regulations. The agency has thrown out the 1995 rangeland reform rules, he said. Those Clinton-era rules contained important provisions "to protect ecological values, such as water quality and wildlife habitat," he said. But Tanner believes the regulations mean "good things for the state and for the land." Although some of their language could be improved, he said, "they will be a more workable set of regulations than we've been working under since the Clinton administration." The regulations create a more stable environment for the Utah agriculture industry, he added....
Land-use initiative on November ballot Santa Clara County voters this November will be asked to consider an open space land-use initiative that measure proponents say will support protection of 400,000 acres of rural county lands. If enacted, the measure will purportedly stave future rural land development including hill area lands bounding the city of Milpitas. Opponents of the measure say it violates basic private property rights with concern to farms, ranches and privately owned lands. The county's approval came after initiative supporters turned in 58,633 signatures to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. The campaign needed 36,040 signatures from county voters to qualify the initiative for the ballot. However, the land-use conservation initiative has drawn opposition from a coalition of realtor groups, ranching associations and property owners. The coalition, known as the Alliance for Housing and the Environment, includes the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, Silicon Valley Association of Realtors, Hillside Homeowners Association and the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors. "We are going to fight the plan," said Edwin Resuello, president of Santa Clara County Association of Realtors....
ICA Explains the Benefits of Grazing to the Idaho Land Board Idaho Cattle Association (ICA) President Mike Webster spoke before the Idaho Land Board today to explain the benefits of the Idaho Department of Land's grazing program to the state endowment, the economy, and the environment. ICA requested an audience with the Land Board after learning that Jon Marvel, a known anti-grazing extremist, was scheduled to speak at the meeting. Webster, a 4th generation rancher from Roberts, Idaho, has been directly involved with state grazing leases and has experienced first-hand the day to day management of these leases and their associated challenges and opportunities. Reflecting upon his experiences, Webster stated, "I have witnessed the system change from conducting business on a handshake to a meticulous, paperwork-heavy management system. As the process of managing grazing leases with the Department of Lands has evolved, one thing remains constant: ranchers are the most dependable and efficient caretakers for the millions of acres that the State of Idaho manages. Because of this, a continued, strong grazing program offers the greatest long-term stability to the endowment." Marvel's claims that, by administering grazing leases, the Land Board is ignoring its fiduciary responsibility to the endowment were soundly refuted by the Land Board members present. As Webster pointed out, "Livestock grazing leases provide a consistent source of revenue to the state. These leases are based on a renewable resource that replenishes itself annually." In his latest attempts to rid the land of cattle, Marvel has generated headlines recently stating that the state's grazing program is costing more than it earns. In response to this inaccurate and short-sighted claim, Webster stated that, "Even if all grazing leases were cancelled, the administrative costs would not decrease dollar for dollar. Excluding grazing would only increase the workload for the Department. Without ranchers to assist in cooperatively managing the state lands, the Department would be wholly accountable for controlling noxious weeds, maintaining fences and water developments, and would have to greatly increase their fire prevention efforts on 1.78 million acres."....
Forest killings are still rare, but crime is rising he Puget Sound region is blessed with an abundance of destinations where people can get close to nature and escape the urban environment. But even these places aren't immune from crime. Steve Costie, executive director of The Mountaineers, said car break-ins at trailheads are common, and he has feared inadvertently encountering a clandestine methamphetamine lab while hiking in the woods. The discovery this week of two women killed along a hiking trail off the Mountain Loop Highway in Snohomish County prompted Costie on Wednesday to advise people to consider hiking in groups. "There has never been a crime issue like this," Costie, who has been an avid hiker for nearly 30 years, said of the slayings. U.S. Forest Service Officer Mike Gardiner, who patrols the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest where the bodies were found, says he's never heard of another slaying in the sprawling forest. "This is a freak occurrence," Gardiner said. "The forest is a safe place."....
Editorial: A Clueless Policy on Roadless Areas TWO THINGS ABOUT Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's push against new roads in untouched areas of California's national forests: It was an environmentally sound decision for a state that reveres its wilderness areas. And it was a decision the governor shouldn't have had to make in the first place. The Bush administration, after initially vowing to barely tweak a Clinton-era ban on road building in almost 60 million acres of forest, instead ended up delegating too much authority to individual states. Roadless areas were potentially stripped of all protection, unless governors of individual states petitioned for protection of specific areas. Schwarzenegger was essentially forced into asking for preservation of the 4.4 million acres of roadless areas in California. A few other governors have done the same, though some are expected to call for opening vast new stretches of old-growth forest to timber, gas and other industries. What's important to keep in mind is that these are national — not state — forests. The U.S. Forest Service should be managing its lands, not outsourcing the job to state governors. Of course, federal officials should take local sensibilities into account in drawing up forest plans, but they're the ones who should be drawing up the plans, based on a consistent policy of managing the land for the national good....
Republican Conservationists Praise Schwarzenegger Roadless Petition Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), a national grassroots organization of citizens and elected officials, today praised Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for seeking protection of 4.4 million roadless national forest acres in California. "Governor Schwarzenegger has taken a critically important step for protecting wild forests that provide numerous benefits, including clean water, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities for California's growing population," REP President Martha Marks said. "If finalized, Governor Schwarzenegger's action will protect nearly 8 percent of all roadless national forest acreage nationwide." "The governor's petition to the federal government, if accepted, will be a significant conservation milestone that will benefit millions of Americans, in and outside of California," said Buddy Burke, acting president of REP's California chapter. "Roadless areas in California contain many natural treasures, including old-growth forests, salmon-spawning streams, waterfalls, oak woodlands, and grasslands. Protecting such important places is critical for maintaining California's high quality of life." Schwarzenegger is the fifth state governor, and the second Republican governor, to seek protection of roadless national forest lands. Protecting roadless lands makes both environmental and economic sense....
Energy corridor data a secret? The Moab and Monticello field offices of the Bureau of Land Management withheld from the public maps showing the specific location of potential alternative energy corridors throughout southeastern Utah, an environmental group has charged. That means members of the public who expressed written or verbal opinions on the proposed corridors laid out on a statewide map weren't fully informed by the end of the comment period, which was Tuesday, said Steve Bloch, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Worse, Bloch said, representatives from the energy industry were treated to a private preview of the detailed Moab map on May 18, more than seven weeks before the comment deadline. "It's not quite clear why industry gets [access] while the public doesn't have the opportunity," he said. "How many other such meetings are being held in the 11 Western states?" The BLM strongly denies any intent at secrecy....
Seismic testing starts along the Beartooth Front Drilling has begun along the Beartooth Front, in northwestern Wyoming, as part of a seismic testing program to determine the presence of oil and gas beneath the ground. Quantum Geophysical Inc., plans to drill between 2,500 to 2,600 holes, each 30 feet deep, at a cost of up to $5 million. The company plans to start setting off small explosives in the holes next month to measure the movement of sound waves through the ground. The testing is being performed for Windsor Wyoming LLC, an Oklahoma company that hopes to drill on both public and private land in the area. Monte Barker, compliance inspector with the U.S. Forest Service in Cody, said the seismic mapping can increase the chances of finding oil or gas by 70 percent. Barker said drilling started in the area July 1. He said blasting and recording is set to start Aug. 15 and will be completed by Oct. 10, before the start of hunting season. Don Ogaard, project manager with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said the seismic testing will cover 47 square miles near the town of Clark. Although environmental review has been completed for the testing program, he said more review would be required before wells and roads could be installed as a result of the test findings....
Forest Service reopens trail after apparent grizzly attack The U.S. Forest Service is reopening an eastern Idaho hiking trail, saying it's safe again after an apparent July 3rd grizzly attack. A 53-year-old man was bitten on his hip and shoulder, but wasn't hospitalized after the attack on the Targhee Creek Trail near the western border of Yellowstone National Park. Wildlife officials think the bear was a grizzly, but aren't 100 percent certain. Officials are cautioning hikers in the region to be on their guard. This is the second straight year of increased grizzly and black bear sightings that have accompanied more people in the region. Gregg Losinski says there are conflicts between people and deer and elk, too -- "but the ones that have claws and teeth are the ones people really key in on."
Renewable energy producers complain to Senate committee Federal officials vowed Tuesday to boost renewable energy production on federal lands in the West, but wind and geothermal industry officials criticized the administration for a lack of openness and support leading to delays in some of their projects. The Interior Department has a major role to play in the projected growth of domestic renewable energy consumption, Interior Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett testified. Consumption of renewable fuels will grow about 60 percent by 2025 and renewable energy will account for more than 10 percent of domestic energy production and 7 percent of consumption, she said at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Interior is working to increase wind, solar, geothermal and biomass energy production, she said. But at the hearing industry and environmental groups criticized a backlog of energy lease applications and lack of input on new regulations....
Weeds suspected in cattle death There is a strong suspicion that eight head of cattle died recently in the Steele area because they had eaten toxic plants they don't normally eat but resorted to in their drought-stricken pasture, according to a local veterinarian and a Kidder County extension agent. Troy Dutton, a veterinarian at the Steele Veterinarian Clinic, said their focus is on tansy ragwort, a toxic plant that's present in the pastures. Gwen Payne, a Kidder County extension agent, said material from the cattle has been sent to a lab for testing and the vet clinic is waiting for results. Dutton said they should get the results back in a week to 10 days, and he expected the extension service would issue a press release at that point. Dutton said he didn't want to release much information now to protect the confidentiality of the cattle owner. He said it's amazing to him that cattle are still producing and raising calves on what's out there, or rather, not out there....
City Slickers Learn Ranching Skills at 40th Annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival Dylan Biggs is no Hollywood cowboy. He says the movie version of ranchers on horseback roping frenzied cattle is not his style. “I am able to get the cattle to do what I want them to do without the use of force and fear, just by virtue of my position, my movement and my motion. It is a matter of being in the right place, at the right time in the right manner. And ultimately you have to take all that direction from the cattle.” Biggs practices what he calls low-stress livestock handling. He says it is simply good stockmanship. “Instead of having to run around chasing cattle, I can very calmly ask the cattle to get up, start walking exactly where I want them to go and they actually get there. So, it takes a lot less effort on my part.” Biggs demonstrates with a few gentle cows trucked in from a farm in nearby rural Maryland. The cows seem unfazed by the tourists in the bleachers or by Biggs who walks determinedly among them. “I want to teach them to start, speed up, slow down, turn left, turn right and stop, just by virtue of my movement and my position.” No need to prod or whip. Biggs says cows are not stupid animals. “Cattle learn very quickly. In anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, you can have a herd of 150 cattle …softened up and (you can) put them where you want them without any fuss.” ...

BLM Publishes New Grazing Regulations

The Bureau of Land Management today published in final form a new set of grazing regulations that will improve the agency’s management of public lands grazing. The final regulations, developed with extensive public input and supported by a detailed environmental analysis, recognize the economic and social benefits of public lands grazing, as well as its role in preserving open space and wildlife habitat in the rapidly growing West.

In announcing today’s action, BLM Director Kathleen Clarke said: “These new regulations are aimed at promoting more effective and efficient management of public lands grazing, which is a vital part of the history, economy, and social identity of Western rural communities.” The set of new regulations, collectively known as a final “rule,” appears in today’s Federal Register and will take effect in 30 days. Overall, the new rule seeks to improve the BLM’s working relationships with its grazing permit and lease holders; advance the BLM’s efforts in assessing and protecting rangelands; and enhance administrative efficiency.

The BLM proposed grazing regulation changes in the form of a proposed rule in December 2003. The agency followed up with a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and received more than 18,000 comments on the proposed rule and draft EIS during a public comment period that expired on March 2, 2004. The Bureau published its final EIS in June 2005, after which the agency announced that it would prepare an additional document (known as an addendum) to respond to comments that came in after the public comment deadline. The addendum was published on March 31, 2006.

Among other things, the final rule published today:

* authorizes the BLM and a grazing permittee or lessee (or other cooperating party) to share title to future range improvements;
* phases in grazing-use decreases (as well as increases) of more than 10 percent over a five-year period, consistent with existing law and in full recognition of the BLM’s authority to respond as necessary to drought, fire, and other resource conditions;
* promotes a consistent approach by BLM managers in considering and documenting the social, cultural, and economic effects of decisions that determine levels of authorized grazing use;
* removes a restriction that has limited temporary non-use of a grazing permit to three consecutive years;
* requires the use of existing or new monitoring data in cases where the BLM has found, based on its initial assessment, that a grazing allotment is failing to meet rangeland health standards;
* and allows up to 24 months – instead of prior to the start of the next grazing season – for the BLM to analyze and formulate an appropriate course of action in cases where grazing practices are at issue.

For more details on the provisions in the new grazing rule, see the accompanying Factsheet (36KB PDF) and Questions and Answers (45KB PDF).

The BLM manages more land – 261 million surface acres – than any other Federal agency. About 160 million acres of this land are authorized for grazing by more than 15,000 livestock operators. With a budget of about $1.8 billion, the BLM carries out a multiple-use mission, one that is aimed at sustaining the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.

Go here to read the new grazing regulations.


Group Sues to Prevent New Grazing Rules

A conservationist group is asking a federal court to block new grazing regulations that it contends would give ranchers more water rights and control over public lands. The Bureau of Land Management announced the final rules Wednesday, and they are to go into effect next month. First proposed in December 2003, the regulations would increase collaboration between the agency and ranchers whose livestock graze on 160 million acres of the nation's public lands. The rules would allow livestock owners to share costs and ownership of range improvements, for example, and would give some ranchers additional water rights. The rules would also lessen some public input on decisions affecting public rangelands to make the permitting process more efficient. "Under the new regulations, BLM is allowing ranchers to dictate terms of grazing while excluding the public," said Laird Lucas, lead attorney for the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project, the group filing the lawsuit in Boise's U.S. District Court. "The result will be widespread harm to fish and wildlife due to overgrazing." Bobby McEnaney, a legislative advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said his group and other organizations are planning to file an additional lawsuit to stop the rules from going into effect. Bureau of Land Management officials said the rules will improve the agency's working relationships with public-land ranchers and encourage more range improvements. "These new regulations are aimed at promoting more effective and efficient management of public-lands grazing, which is a vital part of the history, economy and social identity of Western rural communities," said BLM director Kathleen Clarke....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Schwarzenegger Acts to Guard State Wilderness Ending one of his remaining fights with environmentalists, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will ask the federal government today to protect 4.4 million acres of national forests from any new roads for timber, oil or gas exploration or other development. If approved, the Schwarzenegger plan would allay environmentalists' fears that national forest land in California would be opened to development, endangering fish and wildlife. The governor's request was in response to a controversial Bush administration rule that opened millions of "roadless" areas nationwide. "Having a Republican governor of a western state, with a large amount of roadless areas, stand up to protect all the areas sends an important signal to the rest of the country," said Sara Barth, California regional director of the Wilderness Society. Schwarzenegger is scheduled to unveil his plan today at a Capitol news conference. He is effectively embracing a Clinton administration ban on new roads and timber harvesting on national forest land that includes the increasingly crowded Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland forests in Southern California....
Bird count may take toll Just as rules ease for construction near America's symbol, the bald eagle, they soon could get tougher for those who build near Mexico's national bird. Brevard County commissioners decided Tuesday to move ahead with a $30,583 census of the crested caracara, which the federal government lists as "threatened." The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requested the survey and would cover the cost, but commissioners had to give the go ahead. The bird feasts on road kill, and sometimes itself becomes the casualty of cars. So federal biologists want a better handle on just how many of them live and die in Brevard and elsewhere. The survey could determine where developers can and can't build along the county's next development frontier: the vast cattle pastures surrounding the St. Johns River. And that's got builders a bit nervous this falcon-like bird could one day have scrub-jay-like consequences for construction....
Get The Lead Out A coalition of conservation and health organizations announced today they will sue the California Fish and Game Commission for continuing to allow the use of toxic lead ammunition that experts say is poisoning rare California condors. The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and Wishtoyo Foundation, along with representatives from the hunting community, served a 60-day notice of intent to sue the commission under the federal Endangered Species Act. “Lead poisoning from ammunition is the single greatest obstacle to the recovery of wild California condors,” said Jeff Miller with CBD. “California put the condor on the state quarter as a symbol of our natural heritage, but if we want condors to survive, we must stop poisoning their food supply.” The California condor is one of the most imperiled animals in the world. They were so close to extinction that in 1982, the last 22 wild birds were rounded up as part of a captive-breeding program. Of the 67 condors released back into Southern California between 1992 and 2002, 32 – nearly half – died or disappeared and are presumed dead. Scientists say poisoning from lead ammunition is likely responsible for many of the deaths....
Disney's conservation group gives $1.4M The Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund has awarded $1.4 million to nonprofit environmental groups and universities studying endangered species. The fund was created by The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) for the study and protection of the world's wildlife, The latest donations bring the group's total to more than $10 million in worldwide conservation projects among 450 projects in more than 68 countries. Eighty-two programs in 27 countries will benefit from the latest round of funding, which will address a variety of needs, including tracking collars for tigers and wolves, four-wheel-drive vehicles for reaching remote African areas and new wings for an ultralight aircraft used to lead migrating whooping cranes across the United States. Recipients were chosen from more than 240 applications, ranging from large national groups to small community efforts. Disney says each request for project funding is evaluated on specific criteria....
Canines have a nose for conservation Chilko gets the order, whispered in her ear. "Go find the turtle." She puts her nose to the ground and trots into the long grass. She stops, jerks to the side and lifts her nose above the Willamette Valley's purple and pink wildflowers, catching a whiff of something undetectable to even the most sensitive human. Then, she gallops in a circle and takes off across a grassy road, stops suddenly and sits. Next to the turtle. In a mere two minutes, this Belgian sheepdog tracked down the turtle, a football-sized red-eared slider that had traveled more than 145 feet in 10 minutes. It would have taken Chilko's owner, Dave Vesely, at least four times as long to find the camouflaged reptile. If he found it at all. It's the reason Chilko and other dogs nationwide are moving beyond their roles as man's best friend and officers' criminal-catching sidekick to biologists' new research partners. By harnessing the power of the canine nose, scientists are using dogs to find mammal scat, reptiles and plants -- a strategy that has proved to be many times more effective and efficient than humans working alone....
Bennett pushes Southern Utah land bill Sen. Bob Bennett introduced legislation in the Senate on Tuesday that would make sweeping changes in public lands in Utah's Washington County. Bennett, R-Utah, is co-sponsoring the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006 with Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who plans to introduce the legislation in the House of Representatives later this week. The bill calls for selling about 25,000 acres of "non-environmentally sensitive public land," which represents about 1.5 percent of lands in Washington County, Bennett said. The public lands designated for sale would be identified through a growth-planning process that is locally driven, according to the bill. The measure would also establish water, transportation and utility corridors, including a route for the Lake Powell Pipeline. The bill designates 165.5 miles of the Virgin River in and adjacent to Zion National Park under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the first such designation in Utah history. The legislation also would add 219,725 acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System, including 123,743 acres of National Park Service land within Zion National Park; 93,340 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land; and 2,642 acres of Forest Service land. This would increase the percentage of wilderness acreage in the county from 3.4 percent to 17.5 percent. The bill also would create the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area to provide long-term protection for the desert tortoise and recreational opportunities, according to Bennett....
Funds included in Senate bill for Badlands ranch An appropriations bill awaiting congressional action includes funding for the U.S. Forest Service to purchase a historic Badlands ranch western North Dakota, Sen. Byron Dorgan says. The ranch's owners say an appraisal has not yet been done and an asking price has not been set. Dorgan, D-N.D., said a total of $5 million could be available for the 5,298-acre ranch next to Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch site, where the former president ranched more than a century ago. The Blacktail Creek Ranch is owned by brothers Kenneth, Allan and Dennis Eberts and their families. The property is more commonly referred to as the Eberts Ranch. The family has been trying to sell the picturesque property for years to the state or the federal government for public use and preservation. Kenneth and Norma Eberts, who live at the ranch, said the family was not aware of the bill Dorgan announced Tuesday. They said it was premature to discuss a deal....
Ex-Firefighter Sentenced To Prison For Arson A former firefighter was sentenced to four months imprisonment and four months home confinement for setting fires that destroyed about 800 acres in the Los Padres National Forest, authorities said Tuesday. Craig Matthew Underwood, 32, who lives near Greenfield, was ordered Monday to pay $2.4 million to the government for the cost of extinguishing the blazes. He pleaded guilty to arson Feb. 13 in U.S. District Court. Underwood, a U.S. Forest Service firefighter, set three fires during the peak of California's 2004 fire season -- the Memorial Fire on July 28, the Slide Fire on Aug. 15 and Fred's Fire on Sept. 22, authorities said. The fires burned in the Arroyo Seco area of the national forest west of Greenfield, about 135 miles south of San Francisco in the Salinas Valley. No injuries were reported. Underwood was also barred from becoming a firefighter again.
Advocate: Give landowners seat In their haste to draw maps and broker power deals that would link Wyoming to electrical markets throughout the West, state energy officials so far have failed to bring private landowners to the table, according to a private property advocate. On Tuesday, the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority released maps of strategic electrical transmission corridors in Wyoming. Laurie Goodman of the Landowners Association of Wyoming, a political action committee, noted that the maps do not depict private lands. She said the mapping was done without asking for input from the private landowners who will likely host the facilities. "We own 47 percent of the land in this state. Our land is an integral part of how many of your projects will go forward, and we're not even treated as being a part of that," Goodman said. Goodman said she wants landowners, power developers and state officials to coordinate their efforts so that ambitions to increase Wyoming's electrical exports can be mutually beneficial....
Legislators rally to protect relics Troubled by vandalism and looting of archaeological sites on Western public land, some members of Congress are banding together to seek more resources to protect them. They're pointing to the recent vandalism of an ancient Indian rock-art site at McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area near Grand Junction and the looting of a large ancestral Puebloan settlement in southwestern Colorado's Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in January as examples of why more protection is needed. Both sites are administered by the federal Bureau of Land Management. "These are beautiful, special, magnificent places we cannot afford to lose," said Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz. "Congress has asked for more money for BLM, (but) we have not received the support from the administration." Grijalva is co-chairman of a congressional caucus formed recently to call attention to archaeological sites managed by the BLM as part of the National Landscape Conservation System, or NLCS. The bipartisan caucus has 15 members, including Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo....
Ruling cheers foes of Wyoming Range drilling The Interior Board of Land Appeals has issued a stay on oil and gas leasing on national forest land near the Wyoming Range, granting at least a temporary victory to environmentalists, Gov. Dave Freudenthal and others opposed to drilling in that area. Environmentalists were hopeful that Monday's decision covering 1,280 acres about 30 miles west of Pinedale would set a precedent and block oil and gas development on a much larger portion of Bridger-Teton National Forest. "But it's too early to tell," said Lisa McGee, an attorney with the Wyoming Outdoor Council. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees federal minerals leases on public land, in December auctioned off the right to develop the 1,280 acres, or two square miles. The Wyoming Outdoor Council, The Wilderness Society and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition protested the lease. The groups said the BLM didn't adequately consider how drilling could affect air quality and the rare Canada lynx. The Wyoming BLM rejected that protest, prompting the groups' appeal to the IBLA in Arlington, Va. The stay remains in effect while the appeal is considered. How long that might take is an open question. "In the past it has taken some years to decide an appeal," McGee said....
Rancher remains dedicated to the land Whether she is in a boardroom, serving as a legislative liaison in Santa Fe, sitting in her tractor cutting hay, working with cattle on her ranch or dealing with federal agencies on agriculture issues, Alisa Ogden exudes confidence. Ogden says that next to God and her family, a love of the land that has been in her family for more than 100 years is what she cherishes most, and she has worked hard to protect for future generations. Ogden recognizes that in her areas of interest both at the capitol and on the farm, she is known to push the envelope when she is passionate about an issue. She doesn't mind demonstrating that women in agriculture can hold their own when it comes to hot issues such as the endangered species act, the environment, and oil and gas drilling on agriculture lands. She said being a woman rancher and farmer is a natural progression for her. She comes from a long line of pioneering women in her family that includes Eddy County pioneering names of Ussery and Forehand. There have been many firsts in her life, and the latest being named president elect of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and the first women to hold the position in the association's long history. She will take office in December 2007....
Hsssss! Heat brings out rattlers Wanted dead or alive: the rattlesnake that sank its fangs into a Tulia man on June 25. Cody Favor, 28, was visiting his parents in Childress when he saw a 4-foot-long rattler slithering across the yard. Favor stepped off his parents' front porch to dispatch the snake by decapitation. "He pretty much stood back up and bit me on the left hand," Favor said. One fang pierced the webbing between his thumb and forefinger. Another fang scratched, but didn't pierce the skin. "It was kinda like somebody slapping you on the hand. It wasn't like a bee sting, but like pressure without anything going into you. It was like pressure and that was it. It was so fast. They hit and let go," Favor said. "I looked at my hand and seen that he bit me, and I told my wife, 'Well, we gotta go to the hospital.'" They loaded up the pickup and headed for the hospital in Childress where he was treated with antivenin and brought to Amarillo for further treatment. By then his arm was "about the size of my leg. It was enlarged about two times," Favor said....
Veterans say piece de resistance isn't what it used to be Success, which spoils things, has most surely changed the time-honored menu of the great Testicle Festival. "It's not the same anymore,'' moped Bob Zeier, a 75-year-old retired cattle rancher, sitting in the Ryegate Bar and Cafe and dragging on a Camel filter. "Not the same at all. A bull testicle is just not the same as a calf testicle.'' For 22 years, the town has hosted the Ryegate Testicle Festival each June to celebrate the fabled Rocky Mountain oyster, considered either a delicacy in these parts or something to sell to disbelieving tourists at $4.50 a plate. It's what's left over after a bull or a calf has gone in for life-altering surgery. In the 1980s, the festival was a homey affair. Everyone in town brought a potluck dish to the cafe and the nearby park to share, and the testicles were those freshly removed from young calves on nearby cattle ranches. "A fresh calf testicle tastes like lobster,'' said Zeier. "You never had anything like it.'' Word of the annual celebration and free meal got around. Pretty soon, folks started showing up from out of town. "You'd get freeloaders from Billings, just coming in for the meal and a laugh and going home without buying anything,'' said bartender and cook Phil Fisher. "We had to do something about it.'' Thane Russell, who took over ownership of the bar in the 1990s, decided the thing to do would be to start charging $7 for the meal, like they do at the five other testicle festivals in Montana -- testicle festivals being something of a going concern on the high range. But if you charge for the meal, you have to serve federally inspected beef, and fresh local calf testicles don't qualify....A familiar story - the Fed's have got'em by the balls.

Land Rights Network
American Land Rights Association
PO Box 400, Battle Ground, WA 98604
(360)687-3087 - Fax: (360)687-2973
Email: alra@governance.net
Web Address: http://www.landrights.org
Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE - Washington, DC 20003
(202)329-3574 - Fax: (202)543-7126
Email: landrightsnet@yahoo.com

Will John Tomke Take Your Land?

!!!!! ALERT — Liberal Republican John Tomke plans to seize or regulate millions of acres of private property using your tax dollars — !!!!!

*****Action Items Below

WARNING — Tomke is under consideration for nomination to a top level position in the Interior Department, which oversees the Endangered Species Act and Land Acquisition Funding. Tomke is presently Chairman of a very profitable “non-profit” outfit called Ducks Unlimited.

Once upon a time, Ducks Unlimited (DU) was a group of good old boy duck hunters who cooperated with landowners and government agencies to protect land over which ducks migrated.

However, under John Tomke’s rule as Chairman, DU has become radicalized, while still appearing to be “just a bunch of good ol’ boys” at first glance. DU has become extreme in its positions, attacking property rights and making demands for more land under federal government ownership and regulations.

PROBLEM. The largest source of income for DU has become re-selling, also known as “flipping,” land to government agencies. Not membership dues, not special fundraising events done by supporters, not magazine subscriptions or selling advertising, DU’s number one source of income is taking property out of private hands and profitably flipping it to government agencies. This earned DU $62 million dollars in 2005 alone. It is their biggest source of income, 32% of their total, according to the “National Fact Sheet” on their website. DU has become as much as anything a real estate agency working on behalf of the federal government.

RESULT. All the good work done by our allies in Congress and in the Administration for the past five years may be rolled back if Tomke is nominated for this position, called Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

For example, there is no question that Tomke will increase demands on Congress for land acquisition funding. This is a prime source of money for Ducks Unlimited, and John Tomke wants to stick his hand in the cookie jar and hand over cash to DU for profitable land deals.

Appropriations Committee member Congressman Charles Taylor has been a champion for property rights in Congress. Every year, Taylor has led efforts to cut back sharply on money appropriated to grab more land for federal agencies. This is tough work, because the pressure in Congress is always to spend, spend, spend.

Tomke will lead the charge in the opposite direction, and continue financing the cozy and very profitable relationship between environmental groups and many federal agencies.

Our budget deficit is big enough already without John Tomke busting the budget even further!!! And for what — to take private lands OUT of private hands!!!

*****ACTION ITEMS:

Let Congress and the Administration know that Liberal Republican John Tomke will roll back five years of progress on property rights. Tomke will reverse course and increase endangered species listings, increase funding for land acquisition, and attack court rulings that help property rights!

Also, if you know of a good person who is qualified for the position of Assistant Secretary for Fish Wildlife and Parks, recommend his or her name to us. If good people can be recommended to Interior Secretary Kempthorne, then maybe he will drop consideration of Liberal Republican John Tomke.

Help Kempthorne nominate a good property rights supporter instead, and continue in the tradition of former Assistant Secretary Craig Manson. Manson did an excellent job from 2001 to 2005 in promoting changes to the Endangered Species Act and cutting back on funding for land grabs. To reverse course now and roll back progress would be a terrible mistake.

-----1. Call or e-mail Brian Waidmann, who is Secretary Kempthorne’s Chief of Staff: Direct phone line: 202-208-5043. E-mail: brian_waidmann@ios.doi.gov

-----2. Call or e-mail Douglas Domenech,. He is Secretary Kempthorne’s White House Liaison (202) 208-5647. E-mail: doug_domenech@ios.doi.gov

-----3. Call Gary Smith. He is Secretary Kempthorne’s External and Intergovernmental Affairs Director at (202) 208-1923. E-mail: gary_smith@ios.doi.gov

-----4. Call, fax and e-mail the White House at (202) 456-1111, Fax: (202) 456-2461 or e-mail: comments@whitehouse.gov

-----5. Call, fax and e-mail Vice President Richard Cheney’ office at (202) 456-1111, Fax: (202) 456-2461 or e-mail: vice_president@whitehouse.gov

-----6. Call both your Senators to urge them to oppose John Tomke’s nomination.
Any Senator may be called at (202) 224-3121. This is especially important if your Senator is on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Here are the Members:

Republicans:

Pete Domenici (R-NM)
Larry Craig (R-ID)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Mel Martinez (R-FL)
James Talent (R-MO)
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
George Allen (R-VA)
Gordon Smith (R-OR)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)

Democrats:

Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Ken Salazar (D-CO)
Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

Please circulate this message as widely as possible.

FLE

Terrorist Loophole: Senate Bill Disarms Law Enforcement In the wake of the attacks, the Department of Justice announced the conclusion of a new Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion: state and local police officers do have the legal authority to arrest any deportable illegal alien. This announcement did not create any new authority—the police had possessed it all along. Rather, the announcement reminded local law enforcement agencies of the crucial role that they could, and should, play in the war against terrorism by making immigration arrests. The OLC opinion affirmed the conclusion of numerous U.S. Courts of Appeals that states have the inherent authority to assist the federal government by making immigration arrests. Moreover, Congress has never acted to displace, or “preempt,” this inherent authority. As the Tenth Circuit concluded in United States v. Santana-Garcia (2001), federal law “evinces a clear invitation from Congress for state and local agencies to participate in the process of enforcing federal immigration laws.” Police departments across the country responded to the lessons of 9/11 and the OLC opinion by exercising their inherent arrest authority with renewed determination. The number of calls to LESC by local police officers who had arrested illegal aliens nearly doubled, reaching 504,678 in FY 2005—or 1,383 calls per day, on average. Local police have become a crucial participant in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The Senate’s immigration reform proposal would change all of that. Section 240D would restrict local police to arresting aliens for criminal violations of immigration law only, not civil violations. The results would be disastrous. All of the hijackers who committed immigration violations committed civil violations. Under the bill, police officers would have no power to arrest such terrorists. Moreover, as a practical matter, CIRA would discourage police departments from playing any role in immigration enforcement....
National Guard slow to fill president's order at border The Bush administration said yesterday that 2,834 National Guard troops are on assignment to the U.S.-Mexico border, though most of them are still in transit or training and not actively helping support the U.S. Border Patrol. About 300 are part of the Joint Task Force headquarters, and another 912 are "forward deployed," meaning they are active in supporting the U.S. Border Patrol, the Guard said. The more than 1,600 remaining troops are still in training or transit. Although only one-third of the forces are forward-deployed, the administration said, that ratio will build gradually as other troops complete training. President Bush in May called for 6,000 National Guard troops to work on the border in a support role, conducting surveillance and helping build infrastructure such as vehicle barriers. The administration promised 2,500 troops by the end of June and 6,000 by August, to be stationed until more Border Patrol agents can be hired....
Corrupting Instead Of Protecting Our Borders The umbrella agency created by the Department of Homeland Security to protect the nation against terrorism has been plagued by serious corruption that includes numerous agents accepting bribes to smuggle drugs and illegal aliens into the country. After the 2001 terrorist attacks, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was established as the unified border agency by combining the inspectional and border forces of U.S. Customs, U.S. Immigration, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services and the U.S. Border Patrol. The idea was to create a powerful force that would protect America’s borders. Instead the agency has had a spate of corruption cases involving Border Protection agents and customs inspectors. In the latest incident, two former Border Patrol agents actually pleaded guilty in federal court to accepting bribes for helping smugglers transport illegal immigrants into the U.S. The veteran agents—Mario Alvarez and Samuel McLaren—worked at the El Centro station in California, just across the border from Mexicali. They admitted taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to smuggle Mexicans into the country, leaving federal prosecutors to say that “it doesn’t get much worse than that.” Ironically, the agents were assigned to a special program, created between the governments of Mexico and the U.S., in which smugglers are deported to Mexico and prosecuted. Instead, the U.S. agents busted the smugglers, often drove them in government vehicles to a store parking lot and demanded bribes in exchange for freeing them. Last month four other agents—two from the Border Patrol and two customs inspectors—were caught committing similar fraudulent acts. The two longtime customs inspectors were arrested and charged with bribery, conspiracy and other crimes for smuggling undocumented immigrants into the U.S....
Trashing the border Every time I go down to the Mexican border, I'm struck by a down and dirty realization: This beautiful land looks like a dump. Recently I was at a waist-high border vehicle barrier in a valley northeast of Tecate, Baja California. As far as the eye could see, strewn past barbed wire or collecting knee-deep in culverts, were water bottles, food wrappers, used paper products such as toilet paper and maxi pads, even felt shoe covers designed to obscure tracks. From California to Texas, illegal immigrants and drug runners leave such calling cards on their trek north. "This was a beautiful refuge 10 years ago," Mitch Ellis, manager of Arizona's Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, says. "Just stunning." Now, he says, it looks like a "war zone." The refuge shares just 5½ miles with the Mexican border but is a staging point near the Sasabe border crossing and is crisscrossed by highways that serve as pick-up routes. The sheer amount of foot and vehicle traffic — at least 200,000 to 300,000 crossers a year on the 118,000-acre refuge — makes endangered species conservation a losing battle. As National Guard troops have been dispatched to the border and lawmakers grapple with the specifics of immigration reform, a proposed southern wall has ignited contentious debate. But while the primary intention of a fence would be homeland security and immigration control, a welcome byproduct of such a wall might be softening the blow on the environment. Last year, 500 tons of trash was strewn across the Buenos Aires refuge, as well as human waste and about 100 abandoned vehicles. Wild animals are choking on plastic or getting tangled in trash, and crossers' campfires have sparked wildfires. Aerial photos, Ellis says, reveal a shocking web of 1,300 miles of illegal trails cut through the refuge....
Funding, agents urged for border With the Rio Grande as a backdrop, members of Congress heard disturbing testimony Friday about the dangers that federal and local law enforcement agencies face trying to control a seemingly endless flow of illegal immigrants and contraband across the river into the United States. The area's top U.S. Border Patrol agent and others testified they're still outmanned and outgunned by sophisticated smugglers, but increased personnel, advances in surveillance technology and stepped-up removal proceedings are leveling the battlefield. Still, officials pleaded for more federal funds to provide additional agents and equipment along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, 1,200 miles of which are in Texas. In the meantime, they acknowledged terrorists could cross the river laden with weapons, and a federal auditor testified he's proven how porous the northern and southern borders are by using bogus documents to import nuclear bomb-making materials. "The Customs and Border Protection inspectors never questioned the authenticity of the investigator's counterfeit bill of lading or the counterfeit NRC document authorizing them to receive, acquire, possess and transfer radioactive sources," the audit report said....
Restoring some order at border From Tommy Vick's back yard, the Rio Grande is a picture postcard of serenity as it cuts through steep limestone bluffs, sunlight catching on dark water. Until recently, it was more a battleground. For more years than anyone remembers, thieves regularly crossed from neighboring Mexico at will, ransacking Mr. Vick's Vega Verde Estates neighborhood, stealing whatever couldn't be tied down and darting back across the river before police could respond. Last November, thieves even made off with Mr. Vick's lawn tractor. "They tied it to a homemade raft and floated it across on inner tubes," he said. "A tractor! That was nearly the last straw." But officials say such crime in Texas' border counties is down dramatically this year because of initiatives that increased police presence fivefold in some areas. The lesson, they say, is simple. "It shows we can take back control of the border if we can saturate the area with law enforcement officers and create high visibility," said Val Verde County Sheriff D'Wayne Jernigan. "But for it to work, it's going to have to be permanent. We have to take on the whole border." Since December, when Gov. Rick Perry provided $10 million in state and federal grants to the 16 border sheriffs for a border security effort called Operation Linebacker, Sheriff Jernigan was able to increase patrols through overtime pay and newly hired deputies. Crime in the Vega Verde area began to tumble....
Judge Upholds F.B.I. Search of Lawmaker's Office While acknowledging the unprecedented nature of the F.B.I. search of Representative William J. Jefferson’s legislative offices, a federal judge ruled Monday that the seizure of records there was legal and did not violate the constitutional separation of powers between Congress and the executive branch. The search, the first of a Congressional office, touched off a firestorm on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers joined in bipartisan protests to the Bush administration over the Justice Department’s decision to seek evidence of bribery on legislative ground. President Bush personally intervened and ordered the seized documents temporarily sealed. The constitutional battle will not end with the decision Monday by Judge Thomas F. Hogan of Federal District Court. Mr. Jefferson’s lawyer, Robert F. Trout, quickly announced that he would appeal. And while Judge Hogan said the documents seized in an overnight raid May 20 and 21, including computer hard drives and boxes of records, could now be turned over to investigators, the defense is likely to seek a stay of that release. In a statement announcing the appeal, Mr. Trout said: “A bipartisan group of House leaders joined us in court to argue that these procedures were in direct violation of the speech or debate clause of the Constitution, which the framers specifically designed to protect legislators from intimidation” by other branches of government. The Justice Department and the House leadership have been negotiating over new procedures in case other search warrants for Congressional offices are sought by investigators. Mr. Jefferson is a Democrat, but wide-ranging corruption investigations have ensnared aides to several Republican congressmen this year. Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said the discussions “about harmonizing policies and procedures for possible future searches” would continue....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Property owners can sue state, court rules A New Mexico family can sue the state for "taking" their property without just compensation, the state Supreme Court has ruled. In a 3-2 ruling last month, the justices said the family of late Catron County rancher Richard Manning can pursue a $65 million claim that state agencies effectively took their property by enforcing mining decisions. Other states and the U.S. Attorney General's Office have been monitoring the case because it could set a precedent. Last month's ruling is the first detailed decision on the issue, the Albuquerque Journal reported Monday in a copyright story. The case is based on the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which bars the government from taking private property, either directly or through regulation, without justly compensating the owner. "The court's decision clearly goes against the federal trend of protecting states' sovereign immunity," Walz said. "It creates a new cause of constitutional action which we did not have before." The Pacific Legal Foundation, a Sacramento, Calif., group, filed a brief supporting the Mannings. J. David Breener, an attorney for the foundation, said other states likely will hesitate to make the argument that "we're the state and we're immune to the Constitution." Manning, a leader of a local control movement, had owned a mine and gold and silver ore processing mill on Gila National Forest land outside of Mogollon....Just wish Dick was still here to see the culminaiton of his efforts. He withstood many hardships to make this case possible. He spoke to many groups about the importance of this case, but I'm afraid not too many were really listening. Now we will all benefit from his courageous effort.
Game and Fish Department says mountain lion killed in Badlands A rancher killed a female mountain lion on his Badlands ranch after he found it fighting with his dogs, the state Game and Fish Department said Monday. Randy Kreil, chief of the Game and Fish wildlife division, said Kelly Hanna shot the mountain lion on Sunday. He said the cougar appeared to be a young female weighing about 80 pounds. Game warden Brent Schwan said in a statement that the rancher heard a commotion involving his dogs early Sunday, and found the lion in a tree about 50 yards from his house east of Watford City. The rancher went to get a rifle and came back to find the cougar on the ground in a fight with his dogs, and he then shot the lion, Schwan said. "State law specifically allows the killing of mountain lions to protect individuals or their property. The law also requires the Game and Fish Department must be notified, which the rancher did," the department's statement said....
Roadless debate a great divide It takes a four-hour horseback ride to get to Jeff Mead's favorite hunting grounds below Mamm Peak near Rifle, so the outfitter was understandably dismayed when a gas-exploration company built a road last year right through the remote part of the White River National Forest. "I've lost a lot of clients," Mead said. "Nobody wants to hunt where they're building roads and putting in gas rigs." When EnCana built the road - one that the company subsequently decided not to use, at least for the time being - Mead unwittingly found himself in the middle of a 30-year-old national debate over what kind of protections should be afforded to U.S. Forest Service roadless areas. In Colorado, which claims about 4.4 million acres of roadless areas in national forests, a statewide task force has wrapped up eight months of public hearings and will begin crafting a recommendation to Gov. Bill Owens and the federal government about how to manage land prized for both its natural state and its resource and recreation potential. Allied on one side - arguing to protect as much roadless terrain as possible - are environmental groups, hunters and anglers, backcountry hikers and campers, numerous governments and even a group of Aspen real estate agents. Aligned on the other - seeking no special protection for roadless areas or at least giving the Forest Service the ability to make local decisions based on demand - are users of all-terrain vehicles, utilities, timber interests and the oil-and-gas industry....
Where the Cattle Herds Roam, Ideally in Harmony With Their Neighbors Dale Veseth slowly drives a pickup over dirt tracks studded with small boulders, across a prairie that the word expansive does not begin to describe. The blanket of spring-green grass stretches 40 or 50 miles in every direction, and there is not a tree in sight. Birds are abundant, though. “That’s a long-billed curlew,” Mr. Veseth said, pointing to a large brown bird running along the ground with a long curled beak, “and look, a Western kingbird.” Mr. Veseth raises cattle. But in a sense, he and his neighbors also raise curlews, sage grouse, prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets and other species. They are part of a program run by the Nature Conservancy to create what are called grass banks, which give ranchers rights to graze land beyond their own, in return for commitments to conserve species like the ferrets and curlews on land they already own. Mr. Veseth hopes that by being part of the program he is doing well by doing good, conserving wildlife and assuring the future of his ranch out here on the mixed grass prairie of the Northern Plains. The grass bank is one of several ideas to change the way beef is raised on the Western range. This historic way of life is in trouble. Across the West ranchers are raising buffalo, selling specialty beef and challenging the power of the packinghouses in an effort to make ranching more profitable. The grass bank is an effort to save ranching and the prairie....
Predator proposal draws fire A Forest Service proposal to allow the use of helicopters, four-wheel vehicles and poisoned bait against predators in wilderness areas - a tweaking of existing policy, according to the agency in Washington - is an affront to the meaning of wilderness and the beginning of systematic slaughter of wildlife, say environmental and carnivore-protection groups. "It's a horrible, horrible idea," Wendy Keefover-Ring with Sinapu, a Boulder-based wildlife-advocacy group, said by telephone. "Wilderness is supposed to remain in a pristine state. These proposals take away the authority of the Forest Service to manage it." Cattlemen aren't overly concerned about coyotes and mountain lions, said Wayne Buck, president of the La Plata-Archuleta Cattlemen's Association. What they fear, Buck said, are wolves, which could find their way to Colorado from Wyoming and New Mexico. Peter Orwick, executive director of the American Sheep Industry Association, said the proposed Forest Service revisions would make predator control in wilderness more consistent with how it's carried out elsewhere. "Predator control is key to grazing," Orwick said. "If we don't do it, the losses would be very much higher." Don Fisher, the Forest Service's national wilderness program leader, said by telephone from Washington that the revisions are an effort to reconcile agency policy with a memorandum of understanding with the wildlife-services division of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The Forest Service and the APHIS are Department of Agriculture agencies. The inter-agency agreement was written in 1993 and renewed in 1998 and 2004. The revisions currently proposed would eliminate a provision requiring case-by-case approval of the regional forester for predator elimination and allow the use of aircraft and motorized vehicles in killing coyotes, mountain lions and bears. The use of pesticides would allow the introduction of poisoned bait in wilderness areas, environmentalists fear....
Northern jaguar migration may require binational cooperation The jaguar is a symbol of Mexican identity, venerated widely from the Maya civilization of the southeastern seaboard to the Huichol culture of the west central mountains. Now, in the past several years, northward migration of the endangered species into the United States has made it a potential emblem of binational conservation. Spottings of the big spotted cat in the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora and in their contiguous U.S. states of New Mexico and Arizona have focused attention on the scarcely two-year-old Northern Jaguar Project, its partner Naturalia, and their Los Pavos Jaguar Reserve, the first private conservation preserve in Sonora. This spring, New Mexico Game and Fish authorities announced a report of a jaguar sighted in the state’s southwestern county of Hidalgo. It was only the second time in this century that such an event has been noted, so scientists are seeing if it has anything to do with protection being provided at the refuge located across the international border. They fear recently stepped-up U.S. Border Patrol activities are disturbing the migration. About a month ago, government scientists proposed putting a tracking collar on at least one of the jaguars that appeared in the United States. But environmental groups argue the stress of capture would put the feline’s life at risk. Two out of three captures of jaguars for radio collar study in Sonora resulted in death, in 2002 and 2003....
Jack Ward Thomas: Sustaining forests A new age of forestry is needed in the United States. Recent dramatic declines in forest management have brought some undesirable consequences for forest health and wildlife. Public concerns over retention of biodiversity (such as compliance with the intent of the Endangered Species Act) have thrust concerns for wildlife front and center in forest management debates. Where those debates lead remains to be seen. A total preservationist approach to management — standing back and letting nature take its course — has become increasingly prevalent. While appealing on the surface, this is not tenable in the long-term because it will not protect forests, retain biodiversity and provide some wood products over time. A return to a totally economic-driven forestry is also not viable. Public reaction to past forest management practices, e.g. the visual impacts of clear-cutting, precludes harvesting at "economic maturity" from being the dominant factor in forest management decisions....
New study praised by backers of Rock Creek mine A new study finds cave-ins at the copper and silver mine here are no indication that collapses might occur at a disputed mining project proposed beneath the Cabinet Mountains wilderness. The report released last week is "great news for the environment and for advocates of responsible mining in Montana," said William Orchow, chief executive officer for Revett Minerals Inc., based in Spokane, Wash. The company operates the Troy mine and wants to develop the controversial Rock Creek copper and silver project beneath the Cabinet wilderness. Orchow said the study bolsters protective measures Revett intends to take in developing the Rock Creek mine. Kootenai National Forest officials had concluded Troy provided "an excellent analogy for the proposed Rock Creek mining method and risks of "subsidence," or cave-ins. When one was observed at Troy in May 2005, critics saw it as possible evidence of future problems at Rock Creek. When another cave-in occurred at Troy last March, critics suggested wilderness lakes could end up draining if the Rock Creek mine slumped....
Video game designer creates virtual forests Think of it as a video game for forestry buffs. Tim Holt, a senior research assistant at Oregon State's College of Forestry who also moonlights as a video game designer, is developing a "serious game" allowing scientists to "virtually" explore forests instead of having to travel to the actual locations. Serious games combine video game technology with real-life applications, such as training surgical nurses in simulated operating rooms or allowing firefighters to simulate disaster scenarios in safety. Holt is using data from the Landscape Ecology, Modeling, Mapping and Analysis project (LEMMA). It is a two-year project and is funded by 254,000 dollars in grant money from the Joint Fire Science Program of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management....
Prescribed fires help protect environment Summer thunder and lightning storms are bringing more than just rain and light shows to the sky. The increase in weather activity has started six wildfires in Utah since the first of the month. At least 500 lightning strikes have touched the ground since July 1, resulting in the Jacob, Baboon, Birthday, Ford, Cricket and Springs Fires last week. Hand crews, helicopters, engines and personnel successfully extinguished the fires. However, not all fires in Utah will be put out so quickly. Prescribed and "Wildland Fire Use" fires will be allowed to burn through some areas in the forest. Prescribed fires are planned for certain areas and started by fire crews. A Wildland Fire Use fire is started by lightning, but is allowed to play its natural role in the environment and burn. For example, the Engineer Canyon Wildland Fire Use fire was started June 29, 2006 by lightning and as of Friday, was burning under control in the Huntington Canyon area. Uinta National Forest officials recognize benefits that come from prescribed fires....
Most lodgepole pines likely to die Between 50 and 90 percent of Summit County’s lodgepole pines will probably succumb to the mountain pine beetle epidemic in the next few years, before the bugs eat themselves out of house and home, White River National Forest deputy supervisor Don Carroll said Thursday. The massive scope of the insect infestation was one of the key points repeated frequently during the regular Thursday meeting of the local pine beetle task force. Carroll and others suggested the general public still likely isn’t prepared for the imminent landscape-level changes in the region. The mortality rate cited by Carroll applies not just to Summit County, but to the entire 2.5 million-acre White River National Forest. Those predictions, of course, could be tempered by unpredictable factors, including weather....
Families demand changes for firefighters Karen FitzPatrick's favorite Bible verses still compete for space on her bedroom wall with inspirational quotations and photographs - posing with her prom date, goofy snapshots with family and friends. But a neatly folded flag and a firefighters' boots and helmet serve as a reminder of the fire that raged through a remote canyon in Okanogan National Forest five years ago Monday, killing the 18-year-old and three other trapped firefighters. In the years since the so-called Thirtymile fire, family members of the victims have repeatedly demanded policy changes at the U.S. Forest Service, from increasing training to removing the shroud of secrecy over disciplinary actions. An investigation found that fire bosses had broken all 10 of the agency's standard safety rules and ignored numerous signs of danger on the fire line that day, July 10, 2001. It wasn't the first time such rules had been broken and it wasn't the last - two more firefighters died in similar circumstances in the Cramer fire in remote Idaho in 2003. "The Forest Service is the Wild West. They are not accountable for anything," said Kathie FitzPatrick, Karen's mother, as she stood in the bedroom where the calendar hasn't moved from July 2001. "They can do anything they want. They have immunity."....
U.S. House OKs Park City land transfer A bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday would transfer more than 100 acres of federal land to Park City for more open space in the resort town. The bill, introduced by Congressman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, would switch ownership rights on two pieces of land, known as Gambel Oak and White Acre, from the Bureau of Land Management to Park City. Bishop estimates the measure will go before the Senate sometime in September, after Congress returns from its August recess. U.S. Senator Bob Bennett, R-Utah, will be the sponsor. "This bill does three good things," Bishop said. "It helps settle long-term concerns over the future of these lands, it preserves some important open space, and it gives control and access for these lands to those closest to it, the leaders and citizens of the city." Park City previously leased the property from the BLM for recreational purposes, such as hiking and biking. But city officials have been working on obtaining the land for over 20 years. Old mining claims on the property had created confusion, and some people had questioned whether the BLM should oversee land in an urban area....
Deputies break up rave party on BLM land in eastern Nevada Elko County sheriff's deputies say they were outnumbered over the weekend by a rave party on public land near the Utah line. There were 10 of them and 2,500-3,00 of the partygoers. It started with a traffic stop by Utah authorities that turned up a supply of the drug ecstasy and a map to the party zone 10 miles north of West Wendover. Elko County Sheriff Neil Harris said he had one deputy in the area and even with sending additional officers, all that could be done was to break up the party early Sunday. Officers said they passed 150-200 vehicles leaving the area and found another 300 when they arrived, along with a stage and a band....
Cannons both hailed and blasted CENTER - Boom. Followed in four seconds by . . . here it comes now . . . boom. Followed in another four seconds by the whistle and thud of another . . . three thousand, four thousand . . . boom. The concussions signal the start of hail season in the San Luis Valley. The reverberations follow blasts from hail cannons deployed around vegetable fields. The theory is that the vibrations from shock waves aimed into approaching storms will disrupt the formation of hailstones that could devastate the crops. The commercial vegetable grower stirred up bitter feelings this year with its application to renew its state permit to continue operating eight hail cannons. Noise pollution across the vast emptiness of the southern Colorado valley is only one part of the complaint about the hail cannons. More seriously, in a season of worsening drought, ranchers downwind from Southern Colorado Farms believe that the grower's use of sonic cannons to zap potential hail clouds is depriving them of desperately needed rain....
Cowboys finding bulls 'a little weak' Wanted: a bull as big, bad and ornery as the infamous Outlaw. At the 2006 Calgary Stampede, there's talk among cowboys that some bucking beasts they've come up against so far aren't "rank" enough for their liking. In short, none of the bulls at this year's rodeo has stepped up to replace the likes of Outlaw -- a steely-eyed, 816-kilogram brute who died in 2004. "We have the best cowboys in the world and we should have the best bulls in the world," said Scott Schiffner, a Strathmore-based professional bull rider. "I see a lot of bulls (in the rodeo circuit) that aren't here that could be." Indeed, it seems like faint praise when bull rider Greg Potter calls the animals here "good" and "decent." The Texas-based rider says he hasn't seen a rank bull so far, noting many of the riders on Saturday were able to hang on until the whistle. "The bulls were a little weak yesterday," he said of Saturday's roster. "Nothing's been outstanding yet." He added the best bulls may come out in the finals....
Trew: Wind chargers more than just a power source Ralph Bynum of Dumas wrote recalling his family's wind charger that sat on the roof of their home. If they could hear it hum, radio entertainment would be available that night provided by well-charged six-volt car batteries. If no hum, ho hum, go to bed early. While I was living at Perryton, a neighbor's wind charger blade was damaged, became unbalanced and jumped off the roof. Our wind charger stood on a wooden tower about 30 feet high with cross-braces just high enough that little boys couldn't climb this delightful challenge. Grandpa Trew's Wizard Wind Charger stood atop a 20-foot-high tower among some locust trees. The limbs had to be trimmed to allow the breeze to turn the propeller. He kept two six-volt car batteries in a wooden box at the base of the tower for power storage. Like Ralph in Dumas, if the wind blew, we had lights and radio. If not, we lit kerosene lamps, read a book and went to bed early. On Saturdays, we almost prayed for wind in order to hear the "Grand Old Opry" that night. The demise of wind chargers began in 1935 when President Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification Administration to oversee building power lines to rural localities. Funding came in 1936 with small co-ops borrowing cheap interest, long-term money for power-line construction. By the start of World War II in 1941, most rural communities had electrical power available....