NEWS ROUNDUP

Kansas cougars? True, says wildlife exec In rural Kansas, nothing starts a wild conversation faster than asking whether anybody has seen wild mountain lions lately. Kansans get crazy about this; it's part of our state mythology. On Tuesday, in an e-mail sent to journalists statewide, Ron Klataske, the executive director of Audubon of Kansas, claimed he has proven that the cats are back. "This shows what a lot of people have seen for years," Klataske said. On his Web site, he posted photographs, shot in 2006 from 200 yards away, of an indistinct-looking creature climbing a Flint Hills ridge; he also posted photos of plaster casts he took from the same area. The casts appear to show a footprint 4 inches wide. The photos were shot by out-of-state guests, he said. He won't say who, or where, though he admits that the photo shows what looks like the steep, treeless Flint Hills near his office in Manhattan. Klataske is well-known as a vigorous advocate for wildlife and conservation. He is sure that this is proof of what hundreds of Kansans have said for years: that a major predator again lurks in shelter belts and cedar groves, stalking deer, watching us....
The next battleground After a short hike, the small group of men and women finally find what they're looking for: a pot of muddy water boiling at the edge of an eroding bank. Chubs, a border collie, is keenly interested in the small ducks bobbing in the mud pot. The people are interested in the bubbling pond itself -- one of a number of methane gas seeps in the area that have intensified in recent years. Some believe the seeps were stimulated by recent coal-bed methane pilot projects, which involve pumping water from the coal aquifer to relieve the hydrostatic pressure that holds the gas in place. But what concerns these people most is the potential wildlife impact of drilling 2,000 new oil and gas wells. The Bureau of Land Management recently approved the Atlantic Rim environmental impact statement record of decision. The agency proudly underscored several compromises that industry rarely concedes. The original scope of the drilling was reduced by 20 percent, for example. Reclamation must occur quickly to maintain a surface disturbance footprint no larger than 7,600 acres at any one time. Yet with those measures, and dozens of other common stipulations regarding wildlife and wildlife habitat, the Atlantic Rim development will still affect wildlife, according to BLM officials. And the impact is serious. The estimated 1,000 miles of new road and 1,000 miles of new pipeline associated with the development area will transform this hunter's paradise "to an industrial setting," according to the BLM....
Global Warming: Man-Made or Natural? IN THE PAST few years there has been increasing concern about global climate change on the part of the media, politicians, and the public. It has been stimulated by the idea that human activities may influence global climate adversely and that therefore corrective action is required on the part of governments. Recent evidence suggests that this concern is misplaced. Human activities are not influencing the global climate in a perceptible way. Climate will continue to change, as it always has in the past, warming and cooling on different time scales and for different reasons, regardless of human action. I would also argue that—should it occur—a modest warming would be on the whole beneficial. This is not to say that we don’t face a serious problem. But the problem is political. Because of the mistaken idea that governments can and must do something about climate, pressures are building that have the potential of distorting energy policies in a way that will severely damage national economies, decrease standards of living, and increase poverty. This misdirection of resources will adversely affect human health and welfare in industrialized nations, and even more in developing nations. Thus it could well lead to increased social tensions within nations and conflict between them....
Pinon Canyon expansion will be debated in Senate this week Colorado's senators will decide this week whether to back a provision in a House-passed military spending bill that aims to block the Army's expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. The Senate is expected to spend most of the week on the bill, which funds construction for the military and Veterans Affairs. It includes $500 millions in projects for Colorado. Colorado Reps. John Salazar, a Democrat, and Marilyn Musgrave, a Republican, inserted wording the bill to stop the Army from spending any money next year on its plans to expand the 368-square-mile maneuver site in southeast Colorado to about 1,000. Both the state's senators are signaling that they might propose a compromise rather than backing the House approach, but it's still unclear what they are planning to do. Republican Sen. Wayne Allard hopes a "win-win situation" can be reached, his spokesman Steve Wymer said Tuesday. Ken Salazar, a Democrat, also wants to find "a way forward," said his spokeswoman Stephanie Valencia....
Editorial - A unified stand RECENTLY, SEN. Wayne Allard sent a letter to Army Secretary Pete Geren urging the Army to adopt a temporary moratorium on the use of eminent domain in the planned 414,000-acre expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. And Sen. Ken Salazar has told Colorado Springs business leaders he agrees with his Colorado colleague. He actually has the controlling vote over the Pinon Canyon expansion because Sen. Allard already has said he does not support any delays in the Army’s acquisition process, which could begin next year with an environmental study. What we’d like to see is for both senators to join Reps. John Salazar and Marilyn Musgrave in support of a moratorium on funding the process so that more details about the Army’s intentions can be learned. Because of arcane legal considerations, the Army was close-lipped for months, and facts were hard to ascertain. By holding up the Army’s plans, that would give Southeastern Colorado leverage to exact an iron-clad agreement with the Pentagon to not only hold the economy of the region harmless but to enhance it. If great areas of Southeastern Colorado are taken out of ranching, the communities in the area would be hard-hit. What we’re calling for here is balance between the Army’s future training needs and the very livelihoods of the people living in the region....
Invading pike face new round of poisonings A popular fishing lake northwest of Reno was closed to the public Tuesday as officials make another attempt to rid it of a voracious, invasive fish. As soon as next week and a decade after its previous, highly controversial poisoning of Lake Davis, California Department of Fish and Game workers again plan to use chemicals to try to kill thousands of northern pike. With 550 personnel expected to converge at the lake, it's the largest operation ever undertaken by the agency and costs up to $16 million, spokesman Steve Martarano said. "That's how seriously we are taking this," Martarano said. U.S. Forest Service officials closed the lake, shorelines, tributaries, campgrounds, boat launches and facilities within the Lake Davis Recreation Area. The closure will remain in effect for weeks, until the last traces of the chemical rotenone disappear, said Alice Carlton, supervisor of Plumas National Forest. Initial treatment will target Lake Davis' streams and tributaries. Rotenone will be dumped into the lake later in the month, Martarano said. The effort comes 10 years after the state's last attempt to eradicate pike from the popular trout lake. In 1997, a similar project resulted in widespread protests and was unsuccessful, with pike showing up in the lake two years later....
Fall webworms attack Mayhill As if the Lincoln National Forest has not had enough pressure from defoliating insects in the recent past, another species has emerged, evident from Mayhill to the Otero-Chaves county line on U.S. Highway 82. The culprit in this case, while very similar in its infestation behavior to the Western tent caterpillar, malacosoma californicum, is the fall webworm, hyphantria cunea. Constructing large silk-like "tents" for protection during their larval stage from predators such as birds, the insect can literally festoon trees to the point where they appear to have been flocked. "The webworm is a defoliator," said Terry Rogers, U.S. Forest Service entomologist for the New Mexico zone. "But it is not as devastating of a defoliator as the looper or spruce bud worm. The damage the webworm does is, for the most part, aesthetic damage along the sides of roads and highways." The webworm attacks a wide variety of hardwoods including willow, alder, cottonwood, ash, chokecherry, madrone, apple, cherry, aspen and birch....
No More Privies, So Hikers Add a Carry-Along The highest outhouse in the continental United States is no more. High-altitude sanitation is too hazardous a business. Helicopters no longer make regular journeys up the steep-walled canyons in tricky winds while rangers in hazmat suits wait below to tie 250-pound bags or barrels of waste onto a long line dangling below the aircraft. So from the granite immensity of Mount Whitney in California to Mount Rainier in Washington to Zion National Park in Utah, a new wilderness ethic is beginning to take hold: You can take it with you. In fact, you must. The privy, which sat about 14,494 feet above sea level, and two other outhouses here in the Inyo National Forest — the last on the trail — have been removed within the last year. The 19,000 or so hikers who pick up Forest Service permits each year to hike the Whitney Trail are given double-sealed sanitation kits and told how to use them — just as they are told how to keep their food from the bears along the way, and how to find shelter when lightning storms rake the ridges. The kits — the most popular model is known as a Wagbag — are becoming a fixture of camping gear. On high western trails, Wagbag is now as familiar a term as gorp (a high-energy mix of nuts, seeds, dry fruit and chocolate) or switchback (a hairpin turn in the trail)....
Transplant procedure: Scientists, company moving wetland to save it What if there were an ancient vernal pool that supports rare species of salamanders and freshwater shrimp? What if the industry that owns the site did not realize its land contained the vernal pool with its rare eco-community, and had plans to expand operations into the very area of the vernal pool? What if two scientists decided to try to save the vernal pool by transplanting it to an area out of the expansion’s path? And what if their idea won not only the blessing of the industry, but also its assistance in making the transplant happen? That’s what has been unfolding in Piney River....
BLM purchases of Western land parcels The Bureau of Land Management announced Tuesday on their new outlook on a special land conservation fund. According to BLM, nearly three other federal land-management agencies are in the process of obtaining 19 parcels of land in seven Western states with $18 million from a special land conservation fund. Congress established this fund in 2000 and it gives an organization the opportunity to buy private “inholdings” or acres of land managed by BLM, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. The deputy interior secretary said the $18 million would be used for extraordinary natural, scenic, recreational and historic purposes. Experts said BLM’s purchases of the land would help promote conservation while helping efficient and effective public lands management....
Water-cut challenge A FEDERAL JUDGE'S decision to severely cut back water pumping from the Delta presents a historic choice for California. Either the state builds large new reservoirs or it loses a significant portion of its agriculture. Federal environmental law forced U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger to order a reduction of about 1 million acre-feet of water being pumped from the Delta to save smelt from extinction. That's enough water to supply 2 million households. The water cutbacks come after a May decision by Wanger that the federal projects that supply water to farms and 25 million Californians were violating the Endangered Species Act. A month earlier, a California judge ruled that the state Department of Water Resources had failed to get a state permit required by the state's endangered species law. As a result of the cutbacks, which could be as many as 2 million acre-feet under some conditions, San Joaquin Valley farms will be forced to idle hundreds of thousands of acres of productive land, probably in the next growing season. Also hit hard will be the Zone 7 Water Agency, which supplies water to 200,000 people in Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton. Much of the district's water comes from the state water project, which pumps supplies out of the Delta....
Editorial: A judge's landmark ruling roils Delta waters For years, anyone watching the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has known that a smack-down was looming over endangered smelt. These tiny fish, a bellwether for the ecosystem, have declined over the last decade while water exports from the Delta have been rising. The Endangered Species Act gives judges wide latitude in curtailing government operations that prompt the extinction of a species. And while the smelt and other Delta fish appear to face a variety of threats -- including invasive species, water pollution and loss of habitat -- it's hard for a judge to overlook the impact posed by the massive state and federal pumps that move water through the Delta. That day of judgment has now arrived. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger issued a landmark ruling that could significantly reduce the 1.9 trillion gallons of water pumped annually through the Delta, largely to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. Although Wanger didn't go as far as environmental groups had hoped in restoring flows to the estuary, he issued an order that could fundamentally alter the day-to-day transport of water in California and the ways it is contracted to irrigators and other water users. It's hard to overstate the impact of this ruling. For the first time, the most crucial valve in California's plumbing apparatus has fallen under control of the federal courts. Moreover, this takeover isn't the work of some activist judge. Wanger in the past has issued decisions favorable to irrigators....
State Senate OKs bill on lead ammunition The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill to prohibit deer hunters from using lead ammunition in areas where California condors roam. The action means that, after the Assembly restates its approval within a few days, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will have to decide whether a law is needed to protect the endangered condor from the growing risk of lead poisoning. "It's a great day," said Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, who has fought for three years to pass a condor-protection bill. The measure would require hunters to use bullets made of copper or some other nontoxic material. Conservationists, backed by the principal manufacturer of copper ammunition, say that nonlead bullets perform just as well and are available in sufficient supply to meet the demands of California hunters. The measure is opposed by hunting and firearms groups, which argue that copper ammunition is more expensive and not available for every caliber of rifle used by deer hunters....
Lawsuit attacks lack of habitat Northern El Paso County, home to the threatened Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, was improperly left off a list of the mouse’s critical habitat, a conservation group says. The Center for Biological Diversity has announced plans to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over decisions affecting 55 threatened and endangered species, including the tiny mouse that lives only along streams on the Front Range of Colorado and Wyoming. The shy, nocturnal rodent, which has a long tail and a dark stripe down the middle of its back, can leap 18 inches into the air. Its habitat has been decimated by development on the Front Range, and it was declared threatened in 1998. At issue is the agency’s 2003 decision to cut the proposed critical habitat area from 57,446 acres to 31,222. In El Paso County, 3,110 acres to the north, east and south of the Air Force Academy were removed from the final listing. Another 12,545 acres in Douglas County were also removed. Much of the would-be protected area in northern El Paso County is near Interstate 25 and ripe for development....
Farming Park Avenue: Farm Subsidies from Manhattan to Montana In early August, Mike Johanns, Secretary of Agriculture, spoke to Nashville farmers and ranchers about the 2007 Farm Bill, which regulates government expenditures for food and farm programs ranging from school lunch funding to farm subsidies. The bill is voted on every five years and is currently in the Senate where it will likely be reviewed in September. After commiserating about the drought and insidious grasshoppers, Johanns discussed proposed changes to subsidies in the Farm Bill and how those will affect farmers and ranchers in this country. According to Johanns, the USDA proposed that if farmers make an annual adjusted gross income of $200,000 or more, producers would “graduate” from receiving the Title I cash subsidies. Even that stipulation would only affect 38,000 farmers. By comparison, he argued that the House version of the Farm Bill, passed in July, will only affect 7,000 people because it will not graduate farmers unless they make $1 million annually. For Johanns this system is inequitable and to highlight the misuse of farm subsidies in the United States, the Secretary turned to a map of Manhattan, the New York City borough in the most densely populated county in the United States where land sells for $1,500 a square foot. Each red dot on the map represents a farm subsidy payment made under the 2002 farm bill with the largest circles representing quarter of a million dollar payments....