Additional Bovine TB Found In New Mexico
Bovine tuberculosis (TB) has been diagnosed in a dairy cow in Eddy County and a connection with a TB positive animal in Colorado has been made with a beef herd in northeastern New Mexico, according to New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association (NMCGA) President Bill Sauble, Maxwell. “The disease is an animal disease and poses no human health risk,” he said. “But the costs associated with it can be devastating to cattlemen and dairymen.” There were two cases of bovine TB found in New Mexico in 2003 which resulted in the loss of the state’s TB Free status, he explained. Without that status, all breeding-age animals leaving the state must be tested. That testing requires running an animal through a chute twice in a three-day period with a veterinarian on hand, he continued. The testing alone costs $10 to $12 per head, with labor, feed and handling costs driving the total cost to as much as $25 per animal. Utilizing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 2000 TB Rule, the New Mexico Livestock Board (NMLB) was able to “regionalize” a small area in the eastern part of the state where producers must comply with the testing requirements, said Sauble, who also serves as NMLB vice chairman, while the rest of the state went back to the TB Free status. “This new case has the potential to take the whole state back the Accredited Modified Advanced status and triggering the need for testing statewide,” he explained. “The USDA’s TB rule provides only two (2) options for states to take when the disease is identified, and the agency is looking at eliminating one of them.” States may regionalize a zone with enhanced management and surveillance or they may depopulate the herd where the disease is diagnosed, he said. However, USDA is currently revising its’ TB rule to eliminate the regionalization option. The USDA has no funding for depopulation, so New Mexico may be left with no option but adding up to $3 million a year to the operating expenses of the beef and dairy industries in the state. Testing of both dairy and beef herds is ongoing and it will be up to 30 days before a final decision is made on whether or not the TB Free status will be lost, according to Sauble. The NMLB, NMCGA and other groups are working with the New Mexico Congressional delegation, Governor Bill Richardson and the Legislature to ensure the least possible impact on the state’s livestock industry.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Friday, March 02, 2007
WOLF ALERT
HUNTERS AND RECREATIONALISTS
URGENT AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Elk Hunters – find out what is happening to the elk population in the Gila National Forest as a direct result of the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Program.
Campers, Hikers, Horsebackers and Hunters learn what safety issues the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Program has created. Find out what you need to know when visiting the Gila National Forest.
Where: Elks Lodge No. 1119
3300 Elks Drive
Las Cruces, NM
When: 7:00 pm
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Joe Delk 644-3082-----Byron Delk 640-3185
HUNTERS AND RECREATIONALISTS
URGENT AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Elk Hunters – find out what is happening to the elk population in the Gila National Forest as a direct result of the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Program.
Campers, Hikers, Horsebackers and Hunters learn what safety issues the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Program has created. Find out what you need to know when visiting the Gila National Forest.
Where: Elks Lodge No. 1119
3300 Elks Drive
Las Cruces, NM
When: 7:00 pm
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Joe Delk 644-3082-----Byron Delk 640-3185
NEWS ROUNDUP
Forest truce affects skiing, snowmobiles A new U.S. Forest Service plan, described by some as a model for compromise when it comes to conflicting winter sports in the Sierra just south of Lake Tahoe, could end 15 years of rancorous debate and courtroom battles. The proposal, which provides segregated areas for motorized and nonmotorized sports across a rugged swath of forested terrain in Alpine County, Calif., is the result of two years of discussions between backcountry skiers and snowmobilers. Onetime opponents express satisfaction with the plan. "We healed some old wounds, and everyone came away with a good feeling," says Rob Levy, who represented snowmobile riders during lengthy negotiations....
Guest editorial: Can we save the forests? The Sequoia Forests contain within them the oldest, most magnificent living things on earth. Massive, stately trees have withstood ravages of time and nature since before Christ. But sadly, they cannot survive hazardous conditions created by human ignorance, indifference and ineptitude. Resulting present-day catastrophic fires burn with such intense heat that even the redwoods cannot survive. California is suffering the same massive forest fires as in Montana and throughout the Northwest. Well intentioned people mouth the words, save the “old growth,” while they create fire-prone conditions that threaten entire forests including old growth and the most “ancient” of trees. Management by neglect has been Forest Service policy for too long. Loggers were able to perform selective tree removal leaving a variety of ages, sizes and species to provide healthy, well-balanced forests. Without timber harvest, forests became overgrown and starving for nutrients and water. Weakened trees became bug-infested, dead, dying and fire-prone with resulting fuels build-up. Huge escalation of fire fighting budgets leave little for fire prevention or forest restoration. Top level Forest Service management administered the phase-out of logging while assuring citizens that recreation and tourism would replace the timber industry. However, hikers, campers, horseback riders, and hunting and fishing have proven incapable of financing forest maintenance, fuels reduction and Forest Service agency operation....
Forest, off-road groups seek trails for vehicles New Mexico's national forest managers and off-road vehicle enthusiasts are looking for ways for people to enjoy a ride through the wilderness without compromising its beauty. Cibola National Forest and Santa Fe National Forest, in cooperation with the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council, are meeting this week in Albuquerque as part of a nationwide effort to designate areas where motorized vehicles can roam. The four-day event starts today at the Hilton Albuquerque, 1901 University Blvd. N.E., and continues through Sunday. Mary Bean, forest management team leader for Cibola National Forest, said the growth in use of all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles and other off-highway vehicles in the forests in recent years poses a threat to New Mexico's wildlife. "We have not really had the trail system to support that use," she said. "When you bring a much larger vehicle on that surface, you're at risk of damaging both soil and vegetation." Cibola and the other national forests have been directed by the head of the U.S. Forest Service to designate areas where motorized use is appropriate....
Goal: Expose kids to great outdoors Recreational and outdoor groups, as well as U.S. Forest Service officials, are set to meet today in Golden to talk about getting children more involved in outdoor recreation. The meeting is the first in a series of national forums on the future of outdoor recreation. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the rate of overweight children ages 6 to 11 has more than doubled in the past 20 years to 18.8 percent. Every year people 16 and older have fewer recreational outings, according to the Outdoor Industry Foundation. "We are seeing a large portion of our youth being attracted to screens - television screens, computer screens, video-game screens," said Derrick Crandall, president of the American Recreation Coalition. "We are looking to reinvigorate youth about the outdoors. We are going to try to make outdoor recreation hot for kids," Crandall said. The forums aim to generate discussions among national leaders in the outdoor-recreation world to find a way to connect with the younger generation, he said....
Bird rules send some drillers home Several drilling rigs stacked up this week, and coal-bed methane workers were sent home, causing some hard feelings. "We were drilling like crazy there for a while, and I couldn't get a day off. Now I can't work," said Kevin Skaggs, who came to Wyoming from Michigan a year ago to work in the coal-bed methane fields. Additional stipulations to protect raptors and sage grouse reactivated in February and March, bungling drilling operations on some federal lease areas in the Powder River Basin, particularly around the Iberlin ranch, according to those in the industry. Skaggs, who delivers water to drilling locations, said he was headed to a drilling location on Monday when he was told to turn around and head back to town....
Pulling more power from oil fields A new geothermal project at the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center near Casper will use the hot water brought up during oil field production to generate commercial electricity for use at the site, a private company announced. The news came at a Capitol Hill briefing on the potential for geothermal resources to provide a significant share of the country’s energy needs. Nevada-based Ormat Technologie, Inc. and the U.S. Department of Energy will jointly carry out the project, the company said. Ormat will supply the power unit at its own expense, while the department will install and operate it for a year. Ormat, a publicly traded company, and the department will share the total cost of the test project. Ormat will chip in about two-thirds of the $1 million total investment, it said....
N.J. Dem grills park chief on snowmobiles On the 135th anniversary of the founding of Yellowstone National Park, a Democratic representative from New Jersey grilled National Park Service Director Mary Bomar Thursday about the ongoing controversy regarding snowmobiling in the park. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., complained to Bomar that the Park Service is now in the midst of its fourth Yellowstone winter-use plan, all of which have come to the same conclusion: that the environmentally preferred option is to phase out the use of snowmobiles in favor of snowcoaches. “You keep on doing the same studies, and the results all come out the same,” said Holt, noting that the Park Service has spent $10 million on the scientific research underpinning the winter-use plans. Bomar acknowledged the high degree of controversy, since the phase-out of snowmobiles was first required in the closing days of the Clinton administration in 2001. Three Park Service studies have concluded that replacing snowmobile use in Yellowstone with the more environmentally friendly snowcoach access would best preserve “the unique historic, cultural, and natural resources associated with the parks” (Yellowstone and Grand Teton) and yield “the least impacts to air quality, water quality and natural soundscapes.” However, following conflicting federal court rulings on the snowmobile issue, the Bush administration ordered a fourth study -- which will be available for public comment beginning this month....
Bison numbers creep up Biologists have counted 1,059 bison in the Jackson herd, an increase of 111 animals over 2006 numbers. The count is conducted at the same time each year and looks at animals on the National Elk Refuge, Grand Teton National Park and adjacent Bridger-Teton National Forest. A total of 974 bison were on elk refuge feedlines, with 85 away from feedlines. Bison numbers may be reduced by more than half if a final proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is adopted. That plan, a decade in the making, outlines management for elk and bison in the Jackson area....
Canyon ride means detour to jail Three California cyclists on an international ride to promote environmentalism have been sentenced to jail and banned from national parks after admitting they ran afoul of a rule designed to protect the environment by riding through the Grand Canyon. The cyclists were tracked down in Tucson after National Park Service rangers discovered pictures and a journal on the trio's Web site, www.ridingthespine.com. Bikes are prohibited on hiking trails. Sean Monterastelli, 23; David Yost, 24; and Jacob Thompson, 24, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff. They received 48 hours in jail, a five-year ban from national parks, fines and probation. Thompson said the three have delayed their trip for a few weeks while they work in Flagstaff to pay off the fines. "They really did throw the book at us," he said....
Yellowstone's Power Shapes the Land between Eruptions A 17-year University of Utah study of ground movements shows that the power of the huge volcanic hotspot beneath Yellowstone National Park is much greater than previously thought during times when the giant volcano is slumbering. The $2.3 million study, which used Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to measure horizontal and vertical motions of Earth's crust from 1987 to 2004, found that the gigantic underground plume of molten rock known as the Yellowstone hotspot exerts itself forcefully even when it isn't triggering eruptions and earthquakes....
Two oil giants plunge into the wind business Two of the world's leading oil producers have almost overnight joined some of the biggest players in wind power in the United States, accelerating a trend of large corporations investing in the rapidly growing alternative-energy field. As global warming and clean fuels have gained more attention, Shell Oil Co. and BP have accumulated impressive credentials. Shell is one of the nation's top five generators of wind power, while BP's Alternative Energy group -- launched 16 months ago -- aims to develop projects that produce 550 megawatts of electricity this year, one-sixth of the projected US wind energy output in 2007. "Shell and BP see wind as an increasingly important part of the energy industry. They are looking to continue to grow," said Randall Swisher , executive director of the American Wind Energy Association , a Washington-based industry group. "They want to look for new opportunities, and wind is clearly in their sights." The oil companies bring enormous cash reserves, years of experience in large projects, and a can-do spirit to an alternative-fuels industry that has largely been driven by speculators, small developers, and utilities. Though environmentalists largely praise the interests of the two oil giants, they harbor suspicions of whether the energy giants are adding renewable sources to their portfolios as a way to enhance their reputations with consumers rather than to combat global warming....
The Point Man for Bush's Green Push When Energy Dept. Secretary Samuel Bodman and Assistant Secretary Alexander "Andy" Karsner first talked about plans to invest government money in something called "cellulosic" ethanol, they were enthusiastic. Most ethanol is made from corn, but cellulosic technology uses less-valuable resources, such as switchgrass or garbage. But they thought the original proposal, for $160 million, was too modest. So on Feb. 28, Bodman and Karsner unveiled plans to invest up to $385 million in cellulosic, more than double the original ante. "Ultimately, success in producing inexpensive cellulosic ethanol could be a key to eliminating our nation's addiction to oil," said Bodman. Such an announcement could hardly be imagined several years ago. From supporting drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to disputing the science on global warming, President George W. Bush and his Administration did little to gain the confidence of environmentalists and the alternative energy industry. And while the Administration's stance on key environmental issues remains little changed, the President and his appointees at the Energy Dept. have been increasingly vocal about the need to support alternative energy....
Hollywood's Big Ho-Hum Having recently written about the politicization of various awards, I decided to sit in on Sunday night's Academy Awards just to verify that my criticism was justified. All I can say to those who wrote to me vociferously denying the politicization of awards such as the Oscars is that one would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to recoil from the orgy of liberal self-congratulation on display. As predicted, former Vice-President Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth won the award for Best Documentary. All political messages aside, the documentary itself (which I forced myself to sit through for the purposes of an article) had no filmmaking merit whatsoever and this award was an insult to all those documentarians that actually try to produce quality work. But the Oscar was indeed all about politics, as Gore's not-so-hilarious jokes about running for president in 2008 indicated. It was patronage awarding at its best. Religion of a sort also played a part. The belief in man-made catastrophic global warming, or what Gore kept dubbing the "climate crisis," (any bad weather will do, as in this year's extremely cold winter) is the new secular religion and Gore its preacher....
Scientist calls for alliance between science and religion Saving the earth is within humanity's reach. "The technology exists, the cost is not high, and the benefits are beyond calculation," said Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist Edward O. Wilson. Wilson called for a partnership between the religious and scientific communities to save the environment during his lecture at Kingsbury Hall on Wednesday night. "Religion and science are the two most powerful social forces in the world today, especially in the United States," said Wilson, a professor emeritus of entomology at Harvard University. Wilson said that an alliance is necessary to stop climate change, deforestation, pollution, overpopulation and related problems that amount to a major threat to the future of the planet. Although he is a self-described "secular humanist," Wilson said he has no problem reaching out to religious leaders. He criticized other scientists' hostility toward people of faith as being counterproductive to the environmentalist movement....
How much water flows? Who knows? Who's using how much of Oregon's most essential natural resource? Nobody really knows. Of the thousands of individuals and groups with state water rights, only about 8 percent are required to measure and report their actual water use. And at least 230,000 Oregonians with wells for home or agricultural use don't have to file for a water right. That makes it difficult for the state to figure out how to meet its growing water needs, said Rep. Jackie Dingfelder, a Portland Democrat and chairman of the House Committee on Energy and the Environment. The 8 percent of Oregon water users who meter and report their water consumption include many large users, such as municipal water systems, who together hold about 46 percent of the state's water rights, according to the state Water Resources Department....
Dairy owner says Colorado becoming non ag friendly Growers aren’t the only people distressed from the loss of their water rights. Norm Dinis, owner of Empire Dairy near Wiggins, said he may have to relocate his operation if local farmers can’t produce enough feed for his cattle. “If everyone keeps selling their water, and they only have (dryland) farm ground to grow crops for me, I guess I’ll have to leave Colorado eventually if that’s the direction that as a state we’re going,” Dinis said. “I would be forced to. You can’t afford to stay in a state that is not ag friendly, and Colorado is becoming a state that is non ag friendly.” The state recently issued a cease and desist order for many well owners along the South Platte River. And because many farmers in the area lost the well water they previously used to irrigate their crops, they won’t be able to produce and sell as much feed to ranchers....
Hair-raising experience Animas Valley sheep man Tom Talley has turned to a pair of ovine breeds that have hair instead of wool and are raised for meat in order to avoid shearing and what for several years has been a volatile wool market. "The hair sheep is a relatively new thing, but there are advantages to them," Talley said Tuesday as he and a guard llama watched black-faced Dorper and white Katahdin lambs eat hay. "They produce protein on any forage, even weeds, and their meat has a milder taste." "I want to build the flock to several hundred," Talley said. "They're easy to raise and there's no need to finish them on grain - although some ranchers do. "Also you don't have to shear them because they drop their coat in the spring," Talley said. "The hair blows away in the wind."....
Horse and rider going long way Stephanie DuRoss of Queen Creek has covered nearly 5,000 miles of trails on horseback. An endurance rider for 19 years, DuRoss, 33, and her horse, an Arabian gelding named Hadji, have logged half of those miles on trails all over the country. "I've had a phenomenal year with him (each of) the last two years," said DuRoss of the gelding she purchased for $1,500 from a rancher six years ago. Little did she know how well this former hunting mount would do as an endurance horse. DuRoss and Hadji were recognized for their most recent achievements at the American Endurance Ride Conference in Nevada last week, taking three national and four regional awards. The horse and rider team was among three in the nation to receive a gold medal for the completion of a series that included five multiday rides that covered 155 to 250 miles each....
Finding the Inner Cowgirl Last fall, when Montana horsewoman Tammy Pate told me about a combined yoga and horsemanship clinic that she and friend Janice Baxter planned in mid-October at The Home Ranch in Clark, Colorado, I was somewhat skeptical. My doubts weren't prompted by the clinic's horsemanship aspect or Tammy's riding skills. A fine horsewoman, she and husband Curt are successful clinicians, trainers and ranchers. But horsemanship and yoga? What's a cowgirl yogini? She can be a lot of things, but the bottom line is that she incorporates yoga into her riding program, or vice versa, as Tammy's friend and fellow yoga instructor, Janice, did at The Home Ranch. A yogini might be a mature horsewoman who is trying to remain limber despite the inevitable toll that aging takes on a person's suppleness, or she might be a ranch wife curious about yoga and wishing to hone her riding skills, as well. Or, a cowgirl yogini might be a novice horsewoman determined to use all the tools at her disposal, including yoga, to become a better rider....
Forest truce affects skiing, snowmobiles A new U.S. Forest Service plan, described by some as a model for compromise when it comes to conflicting winter sports in the Sierra just south of Lake Tahoe, could end 15 years of rancorous debate and courtroom battles. The proposal, which provides segregated areas for motorized and nonmotorized sports across a rugged swath of forested terrain in Alpine County, Calif., is the result of two years of discussions between backcountry skiers and snowmobilers. Onetime opponents express satisfaction with the plan. "We healed some old wounds, and everyone came away with a good feeling," says Rob Levy, who represented snowmobile riders during lengthy negotiations....
Guest editorial: Can we save the forests? The Sequoia Forests contain within them the oldest, most magnificent living things on earth. Massive, stately trees have withstood ravages of time and nature since before Christ. But sadly, they cannot survive hazardous conditions created by human ignorance, indifference and ineptitude. Resulting present-day catastrophic fires burn with such intense heat that even the redwoods cannot survive. California is suffering the same massive forest fires as in Montana and throughout the Northwest. Well intentioned people mouth the words, save the “old growth,” while they create fire-prone conditions that threaten entire forests including old growth and the most “ancient” of trees. Management by neglect has been Forest Service policy for too long. Loggers were able to perform selective tree removal leaving a variety of ages, sizes and species to provide healthy, well-balanced forests. Without timber harvest, forests became overgrown and starving for nutrients and water. Weakened trees became bug-infested, dead, dying and fire-prone with resulting fuels build-up. Huge escalation of fire fighting budgets leave little for fire prevention or forest restoration. Top level Forest Service management administered the phase-out of logging while assuring citizens that recreation and tourism would replace the timber industry. However, hikers, campers, horseback riders, and hunting and fishing have proven incapable of financing forest maintenance, fuels reduction and Forest Service agency operation....
Forest, off-road groups seek trails for vehicles New Mexico's national forest managers and off-road vehicle enthusiasts are looking for ways for people to enjoy a ride through the wilderness without compromising its beauty. Cibola National Forest and Santa Fe National Forest, in cooperation with the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council, are meeting this week in Albuquerque as part of a nationwide effort to designate areas where motorized vehicles can roam. The four-day event starts today at the Hilton Albuquerque, 1901 University Blvd. N.E., and continues through Sunday. Mary Bean, forest management team leader for Cibola National Forest, said the growth in use of all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles and other off-highway vehicles in the forests in recent years poses a threat to New Mexico's wildlife. "We have not really had the trail system to support that use," she said. "When you bring a much larger vehicle on that surface, you're at risk of damaging both soil and vegetation." Cibola and the other national forests have been directed by the head of the U.S. Forest Service to designate areas where motorized use is appropriate....
Goal: Expose kids to great outdoors Recreational and outdoor groups, as well as U.S. Forest Service officials, are set to meet today in Golden to talk about getting children more involved in outdoor recreation. The meeting is the first in a series of national forums on the future of outdoor recreation. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the rate of overweight children ages 6 to 11 has more than doubled in the past 20 years to 18.8 percent. Every year people 16 and older have fewer recreational outings, according to the Outdoor Industry Foundation. "We are seeing a large portion of our youth being attracted to screens - television screens, computer screens, video-game screens," said Derrick Crandall, president of the American Recreation Coalition. "We are looking to reinvigorate youth about the outdoors. We are going to try to make outdoor recreation hot for kids," Crandall said. The forums aim to generate discussions among national leaders in the outdoor-recreation world to find a way to connect with the younger generation, he said....
Bird rules send some drillers home Several drilling rigs stacked up this week, and coal-bed methane workers were sent home, causing some hard feelings. "We were drilling like crazy there for a while, and I couldn't get a day off. Now I can't work," said Kevin Skaggs, who came to Wyoming from Michigan a year ago to work in the coal-bed methane fields. Additional stipulations to protect raptors and sage grouse reactivated in February and March, bungling drilling operations on some federal lease areas in the Powder River Basin, particularly around the Iberlin ranch, according to those in the industry. Skaggs, who delivers water to drilling locations, said he was headed to a drilling location on Monday when he was told to turn around and head back to town....
Pulling more power from oil fields A new geothermal project at the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center near Casper will use the hot water brought up during oil field production to generate commercial electricity for use at the site, a private company announced. The news came at a Capitol Hill briefing on the potential for geothermal resources to provide a significant share of the country’s energy needs. Nevada-based Ormat Technologie, Inc. and the U.S. Department of Energy will jointly carry out the project, the company said. Ormat will supply the power unit at its own expense, while the department will install and operate it for a year. Ormat, a publicly traded company, and the department will share the total cost of the test project. Ormat will chip in about two-thirds of the $1 million total investment, it said....
N.J. Dem grills park chief on snowmobiles On the 135th anniversary of the founding of Yellowstone National Park, a Democratic representative from New Jersey grilled National Park Service Director Mary Bomar Thursday about the ongoing controversy regarding snowmobiling in the park. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., complained to Bomar that the Park Service is now in the midst of its fourth Yellowstone winter-use plan, all of which have come to the same conclusion: that the environmentally preferred option is to phase out the use of snowmobiles in favor of snowcoaches. “You keep on doing the same studies, and the results all come out the same,” said Holt, noting that the Park Service has spent $10 million on the scientific research underpinning the winter-use plans. Bomar acknowledged the high degree of controversy, since the phase-out of snowmobiles was first required in the closing days of the Clinton administration in 2001. Three Park Service studies have concluded that replacing snowmobile use in Yellowstone with the more environmentally friendly snowcoach access would best preserve “the unique historic, cultural, and natural resources associated with the parks” (Yellowstone and Grand Teton) and yield “the least impacts to air quality, water quality and natural soundscapes.” However, following conflicting federal court rulings on the snowmobile issue, the Bush administration ordered a fourth study -- which will be available for public comment beginning this month....
Bison numbers creep up Biologists have counted 1,059 bison in the Jackson herd, an increase of 111 animals over 2006 numbers. The count is conducted at the same time each year and looks at animals on the National Elk Refuge, Grand Teton National Park and adjacent Bridger-Teton National Forest. A total of 974 bison were on elk refuge feedlines, with 85 away from feedlines. Bison numbers may be reduced by more than half if a final proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is adopted. That plan, a decade in the making, outlines management for elk and bison in the Jackson area....
Canyon ride means detour to jail Three California cyclists on an international ride to promote environmentalism have been sentenced to jail and banned from national parks after admitting they ran afoul of a rule designed to protect the environment by riding through the Grand Canyon. The cyclists were tracked down in Tucson after National Park Service rangers discovered pictures and a journal on the trio's Web site, www.ridingthespine.com. Bikes are prohibited on hiking trails. Sean Monterastelli, 23; David Yost, 24; and Jacob Thompson, 24, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff. They received 48 hours in jail, a five-year ban from national parks, fines and probation. Thompson said the three have delayed their trip for a few weeks while they work in Flagstaff to pay off the fines. "They really did throw the book at us," he said....
Yellowstone's Power Shapes the Land between Eruptions A 17-year University of Utah study of ground movements shows that the power of the huge volcanic hotspot beneath Yellowstone National Park is much greater than previously thought during times when the giant volcano is slumbering. The $2.3 million study, which used Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to measure horizontal and vertical motions of Earth's crust from 1987 to 2004, found that the gigantic underground plume of molten rock known as the Yellowstone hotspot exerts itself forcefully even when it isn't triggering eruptions and earthquakes....
Two oil giants plunge into the wind business Two of the world's leading oil producers have almost overnight joined some of the biggest players in wind power in the United States, accelerating a trend of large corporations investing in the rapidly growing alternative-energy field. As global warming and clean fuels have gained more attention, Shell Oil Co. and BP have accumulated impressive credentials. Shell is one of the nation's top five generators of wind power, while BP's Alternative Energy group -- launched 16 months ago -- aims to develop projects that produce 550 megawatts of electricity this year, one-sixth of the projected US wind energy output in 2007. "Shell and BP see wind as an increasingly important part of the energy industry. They are looking to continue to grow," said Randall Swisher , executive director of the American Wind Energy Association , a Washington-based industry group. "They want to look for new opportunities, and wind is clearly in their sights." The oil companies bring enormous cash reserves, years of experience in large projects, and a can-do spirit to an alternative-fuels industry that has largely been driven by speculators, small developers, and utilities. Though environmentalists largely praise the interests of the two oil giants, they harbor suspicions of whether the energy giants are adding renewable sources to their portfolios as a way to enhance their reputations with consumers rather than to combat global warming....
The Point Man for Bush's Green Push When Energy Dept. Secretary Samuel Bodman and Assistant Secretary Alexander "Andy" Karsner first talked about plans to invest government money in something called "cellulosic" ethanol, they were enthusiastic. Most ethanol is made from corn, but cellulosic technology uses less-valuable resources, such as switchgrass or garbage. But they thought the original proposal, for $160 million, was too modest. So on Feb. 28, Bodman and Karsner unveiled plans to invest up to $385 million in cellulosic, more than double the original ante. "Ultimately, success in producing inexpensive cellulosic ethanol could be a key to eliminating our nation's addiction to oil," said Bodman. Such an announcement could hardly be imagined several years ago. From supporting drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to disputing the science on global warming, President George W. Bush and his Administration did little to gain the confidence of environmentalists and the alternative energy industry. And while the Administration's stance on key environmental issues remains little changed, the President and his appointees at the Energy Dept. have been increasingly vocal about the need to support alternative energy....
Hollywood's Big Ho-Hum Having recently written about the politicization of various awards, I decided to sit in on Sunday night's Academy Awards just to verify that my criticism was justified. All I can say to those who wrote to me vociferously denying the politicization of awards such as the Oscars is that one would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to recoil from the orgy of liberal self-congratulation on display. As predicted, former Vice-President Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth won the award for Best Documentary. All political messages aside, the documentary itself (which I forced myself to sit through for the purposes of an article) had no filmmaking merit whatsoever and this award was an insult to all those documentarians that actually try to produce quality work. But the Oscar was indeed all about politics, as Gore's not-so-hilarious jokes about running for president in 2008 indicated. It was patronage awarding at its best. Religion of a sort also played a part. The belief in man-made catastrophic global warming, or what Gore kept dubbing the "climate crisis," (any bad weather will do, as in this year's extremely cold winter) is the new secular religion and Gore its preacher....
Scientist calls for alliance between science and religion Saving the earth is within humanity's reach. "The technology exists, the cost is not high, and the benefits are beyond calculation," said Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist Edward O. Wilson. Wilson called for a partnership between the religious and scientific communities to save the environment during his lecture at Kingsbury Hall on Wednesday night. "Religion and science are the two most powerful social forces in the world today, especially in the United States," said Wilson, a professor emeritus of entomology at Harvard University. Wilson said that an alliance is necessary to stop climate change, deforestation, pollution, overpopulation and related problems that amount to a major threat to the future of the planet. Although he is a self-described "secular humanist," Wilson said he has no problem reaching out to religious leaders. He criticized other scientists' hostility toward people of faith as being counterproductive to the environmentalist movement....
How much water flows? Who knows? Who's using how much of Oregon's most essential natural resource? Nobody really knows. Of the thousands of individuals and groups with state water rights, only about 8 percent are required to measure and report their actual water use. And at least 230,000 Oregonians with wells for home or agricultural use don't have to file for a water right. That makes it difficult for the state to figure out how to meet its growing water needs, said Rep. Jackie Dingfelder, a Portland Democrat and chairman of the House Committee on Energy and the Environment. The 8 percent of Oregon water users who meter and report their water consumption include many large users, such as municipal water systems, who together hold about 46 percent of the state's water rights, according to the state Water Resources Department....
Dairy owner says Colorado becoming non ag friendly Growers aren’t the only people distressed from the loss of their water rights. Norm Dinis, owner of Empire Dairy near Wiggins, said he may have to relocate his operation if local farmers can’t produce enough feed for his cattle. “If everyone keeps selling their water, and they only have (dryland) farm ground to grow crops for me, I guess I’ll have to leave Colorado eventually if that’s the direction that as a state we’re going,” Dinis said. “I would be forced to. You can’t afford to stay in a state that is not ag friendly, and Colorado is becoming a state that is non ag friendly.” The state recently issued a cease and desist order for many well owners along the South Platte River. And because many farmers in the area lost the well water they previously used to irrigate their crops, they won’t be able to produce and sell as much feed to ranchers....
Hair-raising experience Animas Valley sheep man Tom Talley has turned to a pair of ovine breeds that have hair instead of wool and are raised for meat in order to avoid shearing and what for several years has been a volatile wool market. "The hair sheep is a relatively new thing, but there are advantages to them," Talley said Tuesday as he and a guard llama watched black-faced Dorper and white Katahdin lambs eat hay. "They produce protein on any forage, even weeds, and their meat has a milder taste." "I want to build the flock to several hundred," Talley said. "They're easy to raise and there's no need to finish them on grain - although some ranchers do. "Also you don't have to shear them because they drop their coat in the spring," Talley said. "The hair blows away in the wind."....
Horse and rider going long way Stephanie DuRoss of Queen Creek has covered nearly 5,000 miles of trails on horseback. An endurance rider for 19 years, DuRoss, 33, and her horse, an Arabian gelding named Hadji, have logged half of those miles on trails all over the country. "I've had a phenomenal year with him (each of) the last two years," said DuRoss of the gelding she purchased for $1,500 from a rancher six years ago. Little did she know how well this former hunting mount would do as an endurance horse. DuRoss and Hadji were recognized for their most recent achievements at the American Endurance Ride Conference in Nevada last week, taking three national and four regional awards. The horse and rider team was among three in the nation to receive a gold medal for the completion of a series that included five multiday rides that covered 155 to 250 miles each....
Finding the Inner Cowgirl Last fall, when Montana horsewoman Tammy Pate told me about a combined yoga and horsemanship clinic that she and friend Janice Baxter planned in mid-October at The Home Ranch in Clark, Colorado, I was somewhat skeptical. My doubts weren't prompted by the clinic's horsemanship aspect or Tammy's riding skills. A fine horsewoman, she and husband Curt are successful clinicians, trainers and ranchers. But horsemanship and yoga? What's a cowgirl yogini? She can be a lot of things, but the bottom line is that she incorporates yoga into her riding program, or vice versa, as Tammy's friend and fellow yoga instructor, Janice, did at The Home Ranch. A yogini might be a mature horsewoman who is trying to remain limber despite the inevitable toll that aging takes on a person's suppleness, or she might be a ranch wife curious about yoga and wishing to hone her riding skills, as well. Or, a cowgirl yogini might be a novice horsewoman determined to use all the tools at her disposal, including yoga, to become a better rider....
Thursday, March 01, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Bush's Ranch House 'Far More Eco-Friendly' Than Gore's George Bush may be a nemesis of the global green movement and Al Gore its hero, but the president's home is arguably far more environmentally-friendly than the home of the man he defeated in the 2000 election. Bush's "Western White House" in Crawford, Texas, has been praised as "an eco-friendly haven" while the former vice-president's home in Nashville, Tennessee was criticized this week for heavy power consumption. "In politics, people don't always practice what they preach," Marlo Lewis, Jr., a senior fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), told Cybercast News Service on Wednesday. "It's interesting that Bush seems to actually practice conservation, while Gore seems to want to buy his way out of his obligations," said Lewis, referring to the purchase of offsets for carbon emissions attributed to the high power use in Gore's 20-room mansion. An April 2001 article in USA Today described the president's 4,000-square-foot single-story limestone house in Crawford as an "eco-friendly haven." "Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into purifying tanks underground -- one tank for water from showers and bathroom sinks, which is so-called 'gray water,' and one tank for 'black water' from the kitchen sink and toilets," it said. "The purified water is funneled to the cistern with the rainwater." In addition, "the Bushes installed a geothermal heating and cooling system, which uses about 25 percent of the electricity that traditional heating and air-conditioning systems consume."....
Williams, Rehberg spar over Western economy Whether the drilling, mining and timber industries are losing importance as the West's economy shifts to include more high-tech, tourism and outdoors business sparked a largely partisan debate Wednesday at a congressional hearing where three Montana officials testified. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and former Rep. Pat Williams were scheduled as the first witness panel at the House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the “Evolving West.” But at the last minute, the committee added a witness panel made up of four Republican congressmen, including Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg. The four Republicans said federal government policies have overregulated and unreasonably restricted the extractive industries such as oil, gas, timber and mining. They also lamented litigation that delays natural resources decisions. Rehberg took issue with the stated purpose of the hearing: to focus on local efforts to combine sound resource conservation with robust economic development, and “to highlight the positive impact of these ongoing trends on the region.” He said the chasm between the old economy and the new economy has brought difficulties that must be addressed....
Defenders Of Wildlife Applauds Senators Crapo, Lincoln, Baucus, and Grassley Defenders of Wildlife hailed the introduction of The Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2007 as a significant step forward in protecting threatened and endangered species that reside on private land. The bill, sponsored by Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), as well as other Senators including Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Finance Committee, and Senator Charles Grassley (R- IA), Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, aims to make private landowners partners in conservation by providing $400 million a year in new tax credits, plus additional deductions and exclusions, for citizens who take steps to help endangered or threatened species on the properties they own. The bill has four major tax incentive components: habitat protection easement credits, habitat restoration tax credits, deductions and market mechanisms. Specifically the bill provides tax credits to landowners who place an easement on their property to further the recovery of threatened or endangered species. The size of the tax credit increases with the duration of the easement, with a permanent easement providing a credit equal to 100 percent of the difference between the value of the property before and after the establishment of the easement....
Drug charges dismissed against former fire boss Ellreese Daniels Charges of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia have been dismissed against a former U.S. Forest Service fire crew boss who was cited while on his way home from a federal arraignment on manslaughter charges. Ellreese Daniels, 46, of Lake Wenatchee, is charged in U.S. District Court in Spokane with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of four firefighters in the 2001 Thirtymile Fire. He is also charged with seven counts of making false statements. The unrelated marijuana and paraphernalia charges stemmed from a Jan. 4 incident when a Washington State Patrol trooper stopped the vehicle he was riding in on Interstate 90 and cited him for having an open container of beer, and for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia....
Conservation groups propose solution for expiring safety net Drafted mainly by Western Oregon conservation groups, including Roseburg-based Umpqua Watersheds, the Western Oregon Old-Growth Protection and Rural Investment Fund would draw $98 million annually for counties made up of Oregon & California timber lands until the fund is depleted. The proposal calls for transferring management of Bureau of Land Management lands in Western Oregon to the U.S. Forest Service and the creation of a one-time endowment for the support of education, public safety and other county programs. Conservation groups say the transfer will save approximately $50 million a year in federal funding by reducing land managerial duties in BLM offices. In the proposal they point to a 1985 Reagan administration study that found such a transfer would save $45 million to $64 million. The proposal goes on to say it “would be possible to achieve approximately 56 percent of the historic O&C counties’ funding level of $98 million annually, merely by the administrative savings that result (from) transferring Western Oregon BLM lands to the Forest Service.” The endowment will be created by the cost savings from the transfer and a one-time contribution of $300 million from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund....
Fee Flurry According to Wallace's backers, folks using undeveloped areas on the mountain are exempt from fees, as intended by Congress under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. Passed in 2004, the law allows the Forest Service only to charge for using areas with improvements, such as trash cans, picnic tables, restrooms or information kiosks. But a strict interpretation says fees can't be charged just for parking beside the road, as Wallace did. To get around those restrictions, the Coronado National Forest deemed the final 28 miles of roadway to Mount Lemmon--and a half-mile on each side--as a "High-Impact Recreation Area," or HIRA, and pronounced it a fee area. Critics charge that Congress created the federal Recreation Act specifically to bar the Forest Service from such fee-gathering tactics. But Wallace's case is even more specific: Assuming that HIRAs are here to stay, where within them can the Forest Service appropriately charge fees? So far, two legal decisions in this case are polar opposites. In September, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Pyle dismissed charges against Wallace, noting that the federal Recreation Act specifically prohibits fees for "road or trailside picnicking, camping at undeveloped sites, for using a trail or for trailside parking." But the Forest Service appealed, and Pyle's decision was reviewed by U.S. District Judge John Roll. Unlike Pyle, Roll deferred heavily to the Forest Service approach of morphing unimproved areas into HIRAs. Roll wrote that charging fees solely for areas with kiosks, potties and designated parking "would create tremendous enforcement problems for the Forest Service."....
Both sides claim victory in battle over caribou area Both snowmobilers and conservationists are claiming victories in the battle over snowmobiling in the caribou recovery zone in the Priest Lake area. A Feb. 26 final ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Robert H. Whaley gives snowmobilers access to most of the popular Trapper Burn area, yet protects a 4-kilometer-wide travel corridor for the endangered animals along the Priest River and Kootenai River watershed divide. Snowmobilers can travel from one drainage to another, over the divide, on Idaho Department of Lands property, where snowmobiling is allowed. The area will remain open until the end of this season, and likely through the next, until the U.S. Forest Service finishes evaluating winter access and interaction with endangered species and issues its Winter Travel Plan, said John Finney, a member of the Sandpoint Winter Riders. "We're relieved, because it could have been a much more onerous closure and we look forward to working with the Forest Service on the Winter Travel Plan, which is the long term solution to this situation," he said....
Old Spanish trail in the path of Spaceport's FAA licence The proximity of an historic Spanish Empire trading route to New Mexico's Spaceport America is set to delay major construction work, potentially putting back the 2010 start of the $1 million a year lease to be agreed with anchor tenant Virgin Galactic. The impact of spaceport operations on the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, which is a federally managed trail for public use, is an issue for the environmental assessment that New Mexico's Spaceport Authority has to complete with the Federal Aviation Administration to obtain its spaceport licence. Space tourism start-up Virgin Galactic has been planning to fly from Spaceport America from 2010. It would pay $1 million a year until 2015 under its spaceport lease. But construction work, which should have started this year, could be delayed to 2008 because the state's Spaceport Authority does not expect its licence from the FAA until the latter half of this year....
Federal official holds out hope for accord The regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday he was delighted that the Wyoming House adopted a bill that could lead to a new wolf management plan for the state. Mitch King said the bill would allow the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to negotiate an acceptable wolf management plan with his agency. He said his agency intends to have a final decision on its proposal to remove wolves form protection under the Endangered Species Act by next January, but said he couldn't predict whether legal challenges could delay that. Wyoming's lack of a wolf management plan acceptable to the federal government has prevented wolves from being removed from federal Endangered Species Act protection in Wyoming as well as in Montana and Idaho....
Water shortage possible Colorado River users will remain vulnerable to water shortages under any of the drought plans under review by the federal government, according to documents released Wednesday. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has begun evaluating four proposals to better manage drought on the Colorado, including one plan developed by the seven states with shares of the river and another proposed by environmental groups. Shortages are possible as early as 2010, the bureau's environmental-impact statement says. By 2026, the probability that the river won't meet demands increases to 35 percent. Arizona would be hit hardest by a shortage under rules that govern the river. The bureau will hear public comment on the proposals and choose one in December....
Ritter administration eyes oil and gas commission overhaul Gov. Bill Ritter's administration wants to add landowners, environmentalists and public health officials to the state's oil and gas regulatory commission, part of a sweeping overhaul that has the energy industry and other interest groups on edge. The plan, which Colorado Department of Natural Resources executive director Harris Sherman said he expects to propose to the legislature by the end of the week, calls for changes to both the mission and makeup of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which is currently dominated by industry representatives. The concept of expanding the commission to include the voices of other affected groups like landowners and environmentalists is generally favored by most non-energy interests and incorporates parts of the new Democratic governor's "Colorado Promise." But the broad nature of the plan is expected to ignite and highlight a number of contentious issues dealing with oil and gas regulation - from taxes to local control to the health impacts of drilling and private land owners rights....
Off-road proposal advances in Nev. Churchill County commissioners have thrown their support behind a nearly $1 million project in conjunction with state and federal agencies to build an off-road vehicle trail system at the Sand Mountain recreational area. The 600-foot tall, two-mile long sand dune on federal land east of Fallon along U.S. Highway 50 is home to a rare butterfly that conservationists say is threatened by increasing off- road traffic. The trail system is the main element of a conservation plan and agreement aimed at allowing off-road travel to continue while still protecting the Sand Mountain Blue Butterfly....
No. 1 milk company says 'no' to clones Milk from cloned cows is no longer welcome at the nation's biggest milk company. Although the government has approved meat and milk from cloned animals while it conducts further studies, Dean Foods Co. of Dallas said Thursday that its customers and consumers don't want milk from cloned animals. The $10 billion company owns Land O'Lakes and Horizon Organic, among dozens of other brands. "Numerous surveys have shown that Americans are not interested in buying dairy products that contain milk from cloned cows and Dean Foods is responding to the needs of our consumers," the company said in a statement. Federal scientists say there is virtually no difference between clones and conventional cows, pigs or goats. The Food and Drug Administration gave preliminary approval to meat and milk from cloned animals and could grant final approval by year's end. Smaller companies such as Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and Organic Valley previously have said they oppose milk from clones....
Cattle Feeding: Researchers ‘Sniff Out’ Emissions From Feedyards Setting up an air quality trailer in the midst of cattle pens at a feedlot will help measure gaseous emissions, said a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researcher. Dr. Ken Casey, Experiment Station air quality engineer in Amarillo, wants to measure ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions from feedyards. His research team is setting up two climate-controlled instrument trailers in different locations at a feedyard. The trailers will be equipped with two continuous emissions analyzers – one for ammonia, the other for hydrogen sulfide. Samples from above the trailer are drawn into a heated manifold inside the trailer, where the analyzers draw their sample, Casey said. This instrumentation allows measurement of both ammonia and hydrogen sulfide with a high degree of precision. Ammonia is an environmental pollutant associated with a number of undesirable issues that are both regional and extensive in nature, he said. Two federal acts – the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act and Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act – establish reportable levels of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and other emissions, Casey said. In recent years, the courts have applied this legislation to swine and poultry operations, which resulted in a heightened awareness of environmental concerns within the agriculture community, he said. To date, these acts have not been applied to cattle feedyards....
Producers Ask Johanns To Extend Canadian Imports Comment Period R-CALF USA sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns to formally request that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) extend the public comment period regarding the agency’s proposal to allow imports of Canadian cattle over 30 months (OTM) of age. The current deadline for comments is March 12 for APHIS-2006-0041: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE); Minimal-Risk Regions; Importation of Live Bovines and Products Derived from Bovines. R-CALF USA requested the deadline be extended for 60 days, or for 30 days, after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) releases the final epidemiological investigation concerning the latest Canadian BSE case confirmed on Feb. 7, whichever date is later. “News reports indicate this latest [Canadian BSE] case was born in 2000, years after the implementation of the Canadian feed ban, as well as after the March 1999 date that USDA has determined to be the date when the Canadian feed ban became fully implemented and effective in preventing the spread of BSE,” R-CALF USA’s letter states. “If indeed this latest BSE case is the fourth born after March 1999, it will raise serious questions about the proposed OTM Rule that allows cattle born after March 1999 to be imported into the U.S. from Canada.”....
Modern cattle ranchers still fighting an Old West problem: rustling After seven cows disappeared from a herd near Cushing last week, Jerry Williamson assumed they had wandered away — cattle stray often. He searched for them, calling and honking his truck horn, which usually brings cattle running for dinner, but they never came scuttling back. A livestock tracker surprised Williamson with what he assumed happened to his cows: Rustlers stole them. "I've lived here all my life. I trust people," Williamson said. "I just couldn't believe this happens." Cattle rustling sounds like a crime that ended with the open range in the late 1800s. The words evoke images of no-good thieves in black cowboy hats cutting barbed wire fences in the moonlight and roping a few head of cattle. But modern thieves use trucks and trailers, backing up to a roadside pasture and quickly making away with several animals. Modern cattle rustling may be a bigger problem than it was in the old West. In 2005, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Ranchers Association recovered 5,199 stolen cattle and investigated 1,100 cases of theft in Texas and Oklahoma, doubling the previous year's numbers. The new breed of rustlers received nationwide attention when baseball legend and rancher Nolan Ryan had 30 head of cattle stolen in the fall and recovered in December. Thieves can drive stolen cattle a few counties away and sell them at auction barns before law enforcement spreads the word....
Eat like a real cowboy — almost Samples of beef stew, sourdough biscuits and peach crisp aren't handed out until midafternoon weekdays at the Chuck Wagon, but cooks start preparing the food even before the park opens to the public at 9 a.m. When the stew begins bubbling about noon, Buck Reams sets a chunk of butter in each of a handful of round baking pans — the first ingredient for his peach cobbler. "We don't even measure anything," said Reams, one of the head cooks. "Just add some of this and some of that. When it looks right, bake it." For a Chuck Wagon cook, that means stoking a fire until it produces enough hot coals to line several Dutch ovens, or cast-iron cooking pots with flat lids. It's how they fix meals for ranchers out driving cattle. But at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, they're preparing food for many more people than usual. As many as 3,000 visitors sample the cookin' every day, drawn to the corral by the faint smell of boiling stew....
Bush's Ranch House 'Far More Eco-Friendly' Than Gore's George Bush may be a nemesis of the global green movement and Al Gore its hero, but the president's home is arguably far more environmentally-friendly than the home of the man he defeated in the 2000 election. Bush's "Western White House" in Crawford, Texas, has been praised as "an eco-friendly haven" while the former vice-president's home in Nashville, Tennessee was criticized this week for heavy power consumption. "In politics, people don't always practice what they preach," Marlo Lewis, Jr., a senior fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), told Cybercast News Service on Wednesday. "It's interesting that Bush seems to actually practice conservation, while Gore seems to want to buy his way out of his obligations," said Lewis, referring to the purchase of offsets for carbon emissions attributed to the high power use in Gore's 20-room mansion. An April 2001 article in USA Today described the president's 4,000-square-foot single-story limestone house in Crawford as an "eco-friendly haven." "Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into purifying tanks underground -- one tank for water from showers and bathroom sinks, which is so-called 'gray water,' and one tank for 'black water' from the kitchen sink and toilets," it said. "The purified water is funneled to the cistern with the rainwater." In addition, "the Bushes installed a geothermal heating and cooling system, which uses about 25 percent of the electricity that traditional heating and air-conditioning systems consume."....
Williams, Rehberg spar over Western economy Whether the drilling, mining and timber industries are losing importance as the West's economy shifts to include more high-tech, tourism and outdoors business sparked a largely partisan debate Wednesday at a congressional hearing where three Montana officials testified. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and former Rep. Pat Williams were scheduled as the first witness panel at the House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the “Evolving West.” But at the last minute, the committee added a witness panel made up of four Republican congressmen, including Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg. The four Republicans said federal government policies have overregulated and unreasonably restricted the extractive industries such as oil, gas, timber and mining. They also lamented litigation that delays natural resources decisions. Rehberg took issue with the stated purpose of the hearing: to focus on local efforts to combine sound resource conservation with robust economic development, and “to highlight the positive impact of these ongoing trends on the region.” He said the chasm between the old economy and the new economy has brought difficulties that must be addressed....
Defenders Of Wildlife Applauds Senators Crapo, Lincoln, Baucus, and Grassley Defenders of Wildlife hailed the introduction of The Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2007 as a significant step forward in protecting threatened and endangered species that reside on private land. The bill, sponsored by Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), as well as other Senators including Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Finance Committee, and Senator Charles Grassley (R- IA), Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, aims to make private landowners partners in conservation by providing $400 million a year in new tax credits, plus additional deductions and exclusions, for citizens who take steps to help endangered or threatened species on the properties they own. The bill has four major tax incentive components: habitat protection easement credits, habitat restoration tax credits, deductions and market mechanisms. Specifically the bill provides tax credits to landowners who place an easement on their property to further the recovery of threatened or endangered species. The size of the tax credit increases with the duration of the easement, with a permanent easement providing a credit equal to 100 percent of the difference between the value of the property before and after the establishment of the easement....
Drug charges dismissed against former fire boss Ellreese Daniels Charges of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia have been dismissed against a former U.S. Forest Service fire crew boss who was cited while on his way home from a federal arraignment on manslaughter charges. Ellreese Daniels, 46, of Lake Wenatchee, is charged in U.S. District Court in Spokane with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of four firefighters in the 2001 Thirtymile Fire. He is also charged with seven counts of making false statements. The unrelated marijuana and paraphernalia charges stemmed from a Jan. 4 incident when a Washington State Patrol trooper stopped the vehicle he was riding in on Interstate 90 and cited him for having an open container of beer, and for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia....
Conservation groups propose solution for expiring safety net Drafted mainly by Western Oregon conservation groups, including Roseburg-based Umpqua Watersheds, the Western Oregon Old-Growth Protection and Rural Investment Fund would draw $98 million annually for counties made up of Oregon & California timber lands until the fund is depleted. The proposal calls for transferring management of Bureau of Land Management lands in Western Oregon to the U.S. Forest Service and the creation of a one-time endowment for the support of education, public safety and other county programs. Conservation groups say the transfer will save approximately $50 million a year in federal funding by reducing land managerial duties in BLM offices. In the proposal they point to a 1985 Reagan administration study that found such a transfer would save $45 million to $64 million. The proposal goes on to say it “would be possible to achieve approximately 56 percent of the historic O&C counties’ funding level of $98 million annually, merely by the administrative savings that result (from) transferring Western Oregon BLM lands to the Forest Service.” The endowment will be created by the cost savings from the transfer and a one-time contribution of $300 million from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund....
Fee Flurry According to Wallace's backers, folks using undeveloped areas on the mountain are exempt from fees, as intended by Congress under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. Passed in 2004, the law allows the Forest Service only to charge for using areas with improvements, such as trash cans, picnic tables, restrooms or information kiosks. But a strict interpretation says fees can't be charged just for parking beside the road, as Wallace did. To get around those restrictions, the Coronado National Forest deemed the final 28 miles of roadway to Mount Lemmon--and a half-mile on each side--as a "High-Impact Recreation Area," or HIRA, and pronounced it a fee area. Critics charge that Congress created the federal Recreation Act specifically to bar the Forest Service from such fee-gathering tactics. But Wallace's case is even more specific: Assuming that HIRAs are here to stay, where within them can the Forest Service appropriately charge fees? So far, two legal decisions in this case are polar opposites. In September, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Pyle dismissed charges against Wallace, noting that the federal Recreation Act specifically prohibits fees for "road or trailside picnicking, camping at undeveloped sites, for using a trail or for trailside parking." But the Forest Service appealed, and Pyle's decision was reviewed by U.S. District Judge John Roll. Unlike Pyle, Roll deferred heavily to the Forest Service approach of morphing unimproved areas into HIRAs. Roll wrote that charging fees solely for areas with kiosks, potties and designated parking "would create tremendous enforcement problems for the Forest Service."....
Both sides claim victory in battle over caribou area Both snowmobilers and conservationists are claiming victories in the battle over snowmobiling in the caribou recovery zone in the Priest Lake area. A Feb. 26 final ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Robert H. Whaley gives snowmobilers access to most of the popular Trapper Burn area, yet protects a 4-kilometer-wide travel corridor for the endangered animals along the Priest River and Kootenai River watershed divide. Snowmobilers can travel from one drainage to another, over the divide, on Idaho Department of Lands property, where snowmobiling is allowed. The area will remain open until the end of this season, and likely through the next, until the U.S. Forest Service finishes evaluating winter access and interaction with endangered species and issues its Winter Travel Plan, said John Finney, a member of the Sandpoint Winter Riders. "We're relieved, because it could have been a much more onerous closure and we look forward to working with the Forest Service on the Winter Travel Plan, which is the long term solution to this situation," he said....
Old Spanish trail in the path of Spaceport's FAA licence The proximity of an historic Spanish Empire trading route to New Mexico's Spaceport America is set to delay major construction work, potentially putting back the 2010 start of the $1 million a year lease to be agreed with anchor tenant Virgin Galactic. The impact of spaceport operations on the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, which is a federally managed trail for public use, is an issue for the environmental assessment that New Mexico's Spaceport Authority has to complete with the Federal Aviation Administration to obtain its spaceport licence. Space tourism start-up Virgin Galactic has been planning to fly from Spaceport America from 2010. It would pay $1 million a year until 2015 under its spaceport lease. But construction work, which should have started this year, could be delayed to 2008 because the state's Spaceport Authority does not expect its licence from the FAA until the latter half of this year....
Federal official holds out hope for accord The regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday he was delighted that the Wyoming House adopted a bill that could lead to a new wolf management plan for the state. Mitch King said the bill would allow the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to negotiate an acceptable wolf management plan with his agency. He said his agency intends to have a final decision on its proposal to remove wolves form protection under the Endangered Species Act by next January, but said he couldn't predict whether legal challenges could delay that. Wyoming's lack of a wolf management plan acceptable to the federal government has prevented wolves from being removed from federal Endangered Species Act protection in Wyoming as well as in Montana and Idaho....
Water shortage possible Colorado River users will remain vulnerable to water shortages under any of the drought plans under review by the federal government, according to documents released Wednesday. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has begun evaluating four proposals to better manage drought on the Colorado, including one plan developed by the seven states with shares of the river and another proposed by environmental groups. Shortages are possible as early as 2010, the bureau's environmental-impact statement says. By 2026, the probability that the river won't meet demands increases to 35 percent. Arizona would be hit hardest by a shortage under rules that govern the river. The bureau will hear public comment on the proposals and choose one in December....
Ritter administration eyes oil and gas commission overhaul Gov. Bill Ritter's administration wants to add landowners, environmentalists and public health officials to the state's oil and gas regulatory commission, part of a sweeping overhaul that has the energy industry and other interest groups on edge. The plan, which Colorado Department of Natural Resources executive director Harris Sherman said he expects to propose to the legislature by the end of the week, calls for changes to both the mission and makeup of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which is currently dominated by industry representatives. The concept of expanding the commission to include the voices of other affected groups like landowners and environmentalists is generally favored by most non-energy interests and incorporates parts of the new Democratic governor's "Colorado Promise." But the broad nature of the plan is expected to ignite and highlight a number of contentious issues dealing with oil and gas regulation - from taxes to local control to the health impacts of drilling and private land owners rights....
Off-road proposal advances in Nev. Churchill County commissioners have thrown their support behind a nearly $1 million project in conjunction with state and federal agencies to build an off-road vehicle trail system at the Sand Mountain recreational area. The 600-foot tall, two-mile long sand dune on federal land east of Fallon along U.S. Highway 50 is home to a rare butterfly that conservationists say is threatened by increasing off- road traffic. The trail system is the main element of a conservation plan and agreement aimed at allowing off-road travel to continue while still protecting the Sand Mountain Blue Butterfly....
No. 1 milk company says 'no' to clones Milk from cloned cows is no longer welcome at the nation's biggest milk company. Although the government has approved meat and milk from cloned animals while it conducts further studies, Dean Foods Co. of Dallas said Thursday that its customers and consumers don't want milk from cloned animals. The $10 billion company owns Land O'Lakes and Horizon Organic, among dozens of other brands. "Numerous surveys have shown that Americans are not interested in buying dairy products that contain milk from cloned cows and Dean Foods is responding to the needs of our consumers," the company said in a statement. Federal scientists say there is virtually no difference between clones and conventional cows, pigs or goats. The Food and Drug Administration gave preliminary approval to meat and milk from cloned animals and could grant final approval by year's end. Smaller companies such as Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and Organic Valley previously have said they oppose milk from clones....
Cattle Feeding: Researchers ‘Sniff Out’ Emissions From Feedyards Setting up an air quality trailer in the midst of cattle pens at a feedlot will help measure gaseous emissions, said a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researcher. Dr. Ken Casey, Experiment Station air quality engineer in Amarillo, wants to measure ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions from feedyards. His research team is setting up two climate-controlled instrument trailers in different locations at a feedyard. The trailers will be equipped with two continuous emissions analyzers – one for ammonia, the other for hydrogen sulfide. Samples from above the trailer are drawn into a heated manifold inside the trailer, where the analyzers draw their sample, Casey said. This instrumentation allows measurement of both ammonia and hydrogen sulfide with a high degree of precision. Ammonia is an environmental pollutant associated with a number of undesirable issues that are both regional and extensive in nature, he said. Two federal acts – the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act and Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act – establish reportable levels of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and other emissions, Casey said. In recent years, the courts have applied this legislation to swine and poultry operations, which resulted in a heightened awareness of environmental concerns within the agriculture community, he said. To date, these acts have not been applied to cattle feedyards....
Producers Ask Johanns To Extend Canadian Imports Comment Period R-CALF USA sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns to formally request that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) extend the public comment period regarding the agency’s proposal to allow imports of Canadian cattle over 30 months (OTM) of age. The current deadline for comments is March 12 for APHIS-2006-0041: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE); Minimal-Risk Regions; Importation of Live Bovines and Products Derived from Bovines. R-CALF USA requested the deadline be extended for 60 days, or for 30 days, after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) releases the final epidemiological investigation concerning the latest Canadian BSE case confirmed on Feb. 7, whichever date is later. “News reports indicate this latest [Canadian BSE] case was born in 2000, years after the implementation of the Canadian feed ban, as well as after the March 1999 date that USDA has determined to be the date when the Canadian feed ban became fully implemented and effective in preventing the spread of BSE,” R-CALF USA’s letter states. “If indeed this latest BSE case is the fourth born after March 1999, it will raise serious questions about the proposed OTM Rule that allows cattle born after March 1999 to be imported into the U.S. from Canada.”....
Modern cattle ranchers still fighting an Old West problem: rustling After seven cows disappeared from a herd near Cushing last week, Jerry Williamson assumed they had wandered away — cattle stray often. He searched for them, calling and honking his truck horn, which usually brings cattle running for dinner, but they never came scuttling back. A livestock tracker surprised Williamson with what he assumed happened to his cows: Rustlers stole them. "I've lived here all my life. I trust people," Williamson said. "I just couldn't believe this happens." Cattle rustling sounds like a crime that ended with the open range in the late 1800s. The words evoke images of no-good thieves in black cowboy hats cutting barbed wire fences in the moonlight and roping a few head of cattle. But modern thieves use trucks and trailers, backing up to a roadside pasture and quickly making away with several animals. Modern cattle rustling may be a bigger problem than it was in the old West. In 2005, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Ranchers Association recovered 5,199 stolen cattle and investigated 1,100 cases of theft in Texas and Oklahoma, doubling the previous year's numbers. The new breed of rustlers received nationwide attention when baseball legend and rancher Nolan Ryan had 30 head of cattle stolen in the fall and recovered in December. Thieves can drive stolen cattle a few counties away and sell them at auction barns before law enforcement spreads the word....
Eat like a real cowboy — almost Samples of beef stew, sourdough biscuits and peach crisp aren't handed out until midafternoon weekdays at the Chuck Wagon, but cooks start preparing the food even before the park opens to the public at 9 a.m. When the stew begins bubbling about noon, Buck Reams sets a chunk of butter in each of a handful of round baking pans — the first ingredient for his peach cobbler. "We don't even measure anything," said Reams, one of the head cooks. "Just add some of this and some of that. When it looks right, bake it." For a Chuck Wagon cook, that means stoking a fire until it produces enough hot coals to line several Dutch ovens, or cast-iron cooking pots with flat lids. It's how they fix meals for ranchers out driving cattle. But at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, they're preparing food for many more people than usual. As many as 3,000 visitors sample the cookin' every day, drawn to the corral by the faint smell of boiling stew....
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
FLE
Border Agent Prosecutor Under Fire Over Drug Informer Case Critics of the federal prosecutor who brought the case against two U.S. Border Patrol agents for shooting a Mexican suspected drug smuggler are accusing him of hypocrisy. They point to his involvement in an earlier anti-narcotics operation in which a paid informer allegedly committed murder but was allowed to continue his undercover role. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton has said that law enforcement officials must be held to the same legal standards as everyone else. At issue is a case that has been dubbed the House of Death, after a house in the Mexican border town of Juarez where the bodies of 13 people allegedly tortured and killed by members of a drug cartel were found. An undercover informant for U.S. law enforcement agencies, Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, infiltrated the cartel and allegedly participated in at least one of the killings. Federal officials knew about his role in the first one, in August 2003, yet Sutton and others allowed him to continue as an informant for nearly six months, during which more murders took place. Ramirez's lawyer said he witnessed two murders and had knowledge of all of them. Federal officials say they did not know of the murders that occurred after the first one....
Cover-Up Alleged After Botched Cross-Border Operation A paid Mexican informer for the U.S. government who worked in an undercover operation targeting a major narcotics cartel allegedly went off the rails and was involved in more than a dozen murders. Amid allegations of a bungled investigation and an accompanying cover-up, at least one member of Congress is calling for hearings into the matter. Guillermo Ramirez Peyro is now fighting an attempt by the U.S. government to deport him and said he fears for his life at the hands of the cartel should he be sent back to Mexico. Statements from key players and documents before court shed light on a drama involving an out-of-control operative, dangerous druglords, crooked Mexican police, and a serious dispute between U.S. government agencies. Relatives of five people allegedly killed by the cartel in the Mexican town of Juarez - directly across the border from El Paso, Texas - have brought a wrongful death suit against the U.S. federal government. Should his appeal against deportation fail, Ramirez's removal from the country would rob the lawsuit's plaintiffs of a key witness. In the view of a retired top Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, that's exactly what is intended by those who are pushing for the former informer's deportation. "He would be the key witness," ex-agent Sandalio Gonzalez told Cybercast News Service. "What else could it be [but a cover-up]? They have protected him all the way. Now they want to get him killed."....
Records prompt call for new Ramos-Compean trial Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., plans to reveal today Drug Enforcement Agency investigative reports that confirm a previous WND story presenting evidence the drug smuggler given immunity to testify against border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean was involved in a second smuggling incident. The DEA documents and Department of Homeland Security investigative reports already presented by WND contradict the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, who repeatedly has insisted to the public that smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila was not a suspect under investigation in a second drug incident. Sutton gave Aldrete-Davila immunity to testify as the prosecution's chief witness regarding the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting incident on the Texas border that led to prison sentences for Ramos and Compean of 11 and 12 years respectively. In a statement released by his office, Rohrabacher said, "Upon review of these new documents, it is obvious that U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton knowingly presented a false picture of the drug smuggler in order to justify his ruthless prosecution of Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean." ....
ICE to train Maricopa deputies to enforce immigration law Federal immigration officials and the Maricopa County Sheriff's office signed an agreement Monday to allow trained deputies to enforce immigration laws. Under the agreement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will begin training 160 Maricopa County deputies Tuesday to be authorized to detain and arrest suspected illegal immigrants both in the county jail and on the streets. Deputies will go through a four-week course to learn about nationality and immigration laws in depth. The trained officers will have authority to determine whether someone is an illegal immigrant and will be able to designate that immigration removal proceedings begin. The action is permitted under federal immigration law. "It's the largest agreement of its kind," said ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack. The agreement that Sheriff Joe Arpaio signed makes Maricopa County's participation the largest one-time addition in the effort....
Investigators say suspected drug smuggler shot first A suspected drug smuggler who was shot and killed by a male Border Patrol agent Tuesday night south of Tubac fired at the agent first, investigators said Wednesday. At about 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Rock Corral Canyon south of the Aliso Springs area, five Border Patrol agents working in a Special Response Team spotted a group of five drug smugglers while doing surveillance in the area, said Lt. Raul Rodriguez, of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office. One of the drug smugglers spotted a Border Patrol agent and fired at him with a revolver, Rodriguez said. The male agent, whose name is being withheld, fired back, hitting the Mexican drug smuggler multiple times and killing him, he said. No one else, including the agents or smugglers, were injured. The identification and age of the victim hasn't been released. The Mexican Consulate has been notified, Rodriguez said....
Experts at Odds Over FISA Role In Terrorist Surveillance National security experts disagreed Friday over the role of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in monitoring possible terrorist activities. "Since time immemorial it is not just the power but the obligation of the commander in chief ... to gather any and all military intelligence about the enemy," Todd Gaziano, director of the conservative foundation's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies said during a discussion at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Gaziano argued that the National Security Agency's secret terrorist surveillance program, which was leaked to the New York Times in December 2005, is a vital information-gathering apparatus and falls within the powers granted to the president by the Constitution and by congressional authorization for use of force in the war on terrorism. The Bush administration in January announced that it was working with the FISA court to bring the program under its jurisdiction - a position the administration had previously opposed, citing its belief that the program was legal without the court's oversight. Mary DeRosa, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said during the discussion that while the 1978 FISA law is outdated, it is important for protecting civil liberties and promoting transparency. She said President Bush's agreement to bring the program under FISA supervision now illustrates that it is possible for the government to conduct its surveillance within the law. "It was at best an inconvenience," DeRosa said of the FISA requirement that the government obtain warrants before wiretapping phones under the program, "but it was not impossible, because if it's possible now it was possible earlier on."....
Border Agent Prosecutor Under Fire Over Drug Informer Case Critics of the federal prosecutor who brought the case against two U.S. Border Patrol agents for shooting a Mexican suspected drug smuggler are accusing him of hypocrisy. They point to his involvement in an earlier anti-narcotics operation in which a paid informer allegedly committed murder but was allowed to continue his undercover role. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton has said that law enforcement officials must be held to the same legal standards as everyone else. At issue is a case that has been dubbed the House of Death, after a house in the Mexican border town of Juarez where the bodies of 13 people allegedly tortured and killed by members of a drug cartel were found. An undercover informant for U.S. law enforcement agencies, Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, infiltrated the cartel and allegedly participated in at least one of the killings. Federal officials knew about his role in the first one, in August 2003, yet Sutton and others allowed him to continue as an informant for nearly six months, during which more murders took place. Ramirez's lawyer said he witnessed two murders and had knowledge of all of them. Federal officials say they did not know of the murders that occurred after the first one....
Cover-Up Alleged After Botched Cross-Border Operation A paid Mexican informer for the U.S. government who worked in an undercover operation targeting a major narcotics cartel allegedly went off the rails and was involved in more than a dozen murders. Amid allegations of a bungled investigation and an accompanying cover-up, at least one member of Congress is calling for hearings into the matter. Guillermo Ramirez Peyro is now fighting an attempt by the U.S. government to deport him and said he fears for his life at the hands of the cartel should he be sent back to Mexico. Statements from key players and documents before court shed light on a drama involving an out-of-control operative, dangerous druglords, crooked Mexican police, and a serious dispute between U.S. government agencies. Relatives of five people allegedly killed by the cartel in the Mexican town of Juarez - directly across the border from El Paso, Texas - have brought a wrongful death suit against the U.S. federal government. Should his appeal against deportation fail, Ramirez's removal from the country would rob the lawsuit's plaintiffs of a key witness. In the view of a retired top Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, that's exactly what is intended by those who are pushing for the former informer's deportation. "He would be the key witness," ex-agent Sandalio Gonzalez told Cybercast News Service. "What else could it be [but a cover-up]? They have protected him all the way. Now they want to get him killed."....
Records prompt call for new Ramos-Compean trial Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., plans to reveal today Drug Enforcement Agency investigative reports that confirm a previous WND story presenting evidence the drug smuggler given immunity to testify against border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean was involved in a second smuggling incident. The DEA documents and Department of Homeland Security investigative reports already presented by WND contradict the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, who repeatedly has insisted to the public that smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila was not a suspect under investigation in a second drug incident. Sutton gave Aldrete-Davila immunity to testify as the prosecution's chief witness regarding the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting incident on the Texas border that led to prison sentences for Ramos and Compean of 11 and 12 years respectively. In a statement released by his office, Rohrabacher said, "Upon review of these new documents, it is obvious that U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton knowingly presented a false picture of the drug smuggler in order to justify his ruthless prosecution of Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean." ....
ICE to train Maricopa deputies to enforce immigration law Federal immigration officials and the Maricopa County Sheriff's office signed an agreement Monday to allow trained deputies to enforce immigration laws. Under the agreement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will begin training 160 Maricopa County deputies Tuesday to be authorized to detain and arrest suspected illegal immigrants both in the county jail and on the streets. Deputies will go through a four-week course to learn about nationality and immigration laws in depth. The trained officers will have authority to determine whether someone is an illegal immigrant and will be able to designate that immigration removal proceedings begin. The action is permitted under federal immigration law. "It's the largest agreement of its kind," said ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack. The agreement that Sheriff Joe Arpaio signed makes Maricopa County's participation the largest one-time addition in the effort....
Investigators say suspected drug smuggler shot first A suspected drug smuggler who was shot and killed by a male Border Patrol agent Tuesday night south of Tubac fired at the agent first, investigators said Wednesday. At about 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Rock Corral Canyon south of the Aliso Springs area, five Border Patrol agents working in a Special Response Team spotted a group of five drug smugglers while doing surveillance in the area, said Lt. Raul Rodriguez, of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office. One of the drug smugglers spotted a Border Patrol agent and fired at him with a revolver, Rodriguez said. The male agent, whose name is being withheld, fired back, hitting the Mexican drug smuggler multiple times and killing him, he said. No one else, including the agents or smugglers, were injured. The identification and age of the victim hasn't been released. The Mexican Consulate has been notified, Rodriguez said....
Experts at Odds Over FISA Role In Terrorist Surveillance National security experts disagreed Friday over the role of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in monitoring possible terrorist activities. "Since time immemorial it is not just the power but the obligation of the commander in chief ... to gather any and all military intelligence about the enemy," Todd Gaziano, director of the conservative foundation's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies said during a discussion at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Gaziano argued that the National Security Agency's secret terrorist surveillance program, which was leaked to the New York Times in December 2005, is a vital information-gathering apparatus and falls within the powers granted to the president by the Constitution and by congressional authorization for use of force in the war on terrorism. The Bush administration in January announced that it was working with the FISA court to bring the program under its jurisdiction - a position the administration had previously opposed, citing its belief that the program was legal without the court's oversight. Mary DeRosa, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said during the discussion that while the 1978 FISA law is outdated, it is important for protecting civil liberties and promoting transparency. She said President Bush's agreement to bring the program under FISA supervision now illustrates that it is possible for the government to conduct its surveillance within the law. "It was at best an inconvenience," DeRosa said of the FISA requirement that the government obtain warrants before wiretapping phones under the program, "but it was not impossible, because if it's possible now it was possible earlier on."....
Supreme Court Gives Gore's Oscar to Bush
Just days after former Vice President Al Gore received an Academy Award for his global- warming documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” the Supreme Court handed Gore a stunning reversal, stripping him of his Oscar and awarding it to President George W. Bush instead. For Gore, who basked in the adulation of his Hollywood audience Sunday night, the high court’s decision to give his Oscar to President Bush was a cruel twist of fate, to say the least. But in a 5-4 decision handed down Tuesday morning, the justices made it clear that they had taken the unprecedented step of stripping Gore of his Oscar because President Bush deserved it more. “It is true that Al Gore has done a lot of talking about global warming,” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority. “But President Bush has actually helped create global warming.” In another setback for the former vice president, a group of scientists meeting in Oslo, Norway, today said that Gore was growing at an unsustainable rate. “The polar ice caps may be shrinking, but Al Gore is clearly expanding,” said Dr. Hiroshi Kyosuke of the University of Tokyo. The scientists concluded that if Gore continues to expand at his current rate, he could cause the earth to spin off its axis by 2010, sending it hurtling into the sun. “Here’s an inconvenient truth,” Dr. Kyosuke added. “Al’s got to stay away from those carbs.”Elsewhere, after foreigners received a record number of Academy Award nominations, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs proposed building a 12-foot-high fence around the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.
© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.
Just days after former Vice President Al Gore received an Academy Award for his global- warming documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” the Supreme Court handed Gore a stunning reversal, stripping him of his Oscar and awarding it to President George W. Bush instead. For Gore, who basked in the adulation of his Hollywood audience Sunday night, the high court’s decision to give his Oscar to President Bush was a cruel twist of fate, to say the least. But in a 5-4 decision handed down Tuesday morning, the justices made it clear that they had taken the unprecedented step of stripping Gore of his Oscar because President Bush deserved it more. “It is true that Al Gore has done a lot of talking about global warming,” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority. “But President Bush has actually helped create global warming.” In another setback for the former vice president, a group of scientists meeting in Oslo, Norway, today said that Gore was growing at an unsustainable rate. “The polar ice caps may be shrinking, but Al Gore is clearly expanding,” said Dr. Hiroshi Kyosuke of the University of Tokyo. The scientists concluded that if Gore continues to expand at his current rate, he could cause the earth to spin off its axis by 2010, sending it hurtling into the sun. “Here’s an inconvenient truth,” Dr. Kyosuke added. “Al’s got to stay away from those carbs.”Elsewhere, after foreigners received a record number of Academy Award nominations, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs proposed building a 12-foot-high fence around the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.
© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Couric handwringing over green backlash In her CBS blog, the day after the Oscars, anchorwoman Katie Couric frets that Hollywood's overwhelming embrace of Al Gore and the politics of global warming might prove to be a political setback with the hicks in the sticks. "But as the throngs of celebrities greeted Al Gore as a secular saint, I wondered if this might usher in a backlash against environmentalists," she speculated. "It wasn't too long ago, afterall, (sic) that environmentalists were decried as tree-huggers, and former President Bush rallied against them – trying to say it was the spotted owl against logging interests and jobs in the West." Couric also wonders out loud if the Academy Awards Best Documentary Oscar presentation to Gore for his "An Inconvenient Truth" might start the public thinking global warming is a "liberal" cause. "The Oscars may give Gore's critics ammunition to reject a school of thought that's been validated by countless scientists worldwide," she mused....
Gore's Oscars could spur action on climate The double Oscar win for "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore's expanded slide-show on global warming, could spur grassroots support for the fight against climate change, environmental advocates said on Monday. That's because a movie, especially one that many Americans have seen on home video, takes the issue beyond the realm of distant policymakers and puts it on a more personal footing, according to Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. "The funny thing about the Oscars is, they're very intimate -- people watch them in their living rooms," Pope said in a telephone interview. "Global warming has seemed abstract, distant, something 'for people who know more than I do.' "I think what (the Oscar victory) really does is it puts this issue into people's living rooms," he said. "While the climatology is really complicated, they're going to see that the solutions are pretty common-sense, and people will talk about them and get excited."....
Gray wolf's endangered listing gets fresh look The Fish and Wildlife Service yesterday started a series of hearings on whether to remove the Canadian gray wolf from the endangered species list, a proposal embraced by ranchers and decried by wildlife groups. The agency proposed the delisting last month after announcing that a wolf-recovery plan had surpassed all expectations. Reintroduced to the Northern Rockies in 1995, the wolves now number more than 1,200 in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The proposal was a relief to ranching and farming communities, where wolves have proved bad for business by preying on sheep, calves and other livestock. Wolf packs have attacked hunting and ranching dogs, prompting calls to loosen restrictions on shooting the predators. The wolf population has gotten so numerous that they're starting to spend time on private land, and they're killing more livestock," said John Thompson, spokesman for the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation. The recovery program has been especially successful in Idaho, home to more than 700 of the reintroduced wolves. Under the proposed delisting, the wolves would lose their protected status, and federal wildlife agencies would turn over control of their management to the states....
Colo. Lawmakers delay roadless resolution, groups lobby governor Lawmakers are giving Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter and his administration some time to decide how 4.1 million acres of roadless forest land in Colorado should be managed while several groups are lobbying officials on a plan endorsed by the former administration. Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction and Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, said they'll delay introducing a resolution asking Ritter to adopt the plan to give him and new state natural resources chief Harris Sherman time to talk to the groups. But the legislators want Ritter to leave intact the plan written by a task force and approved by Owens before he left office in January. Owens, a Republican who couldn't run again because of term limits, sent the petition seeking protection for most of the 4.1 million acres of forest land to federal officials. In 2005, Owens criticized a Clinton-era road-building ban on 58.5 million acres of forests nationwide as creating wilderness outside the congressional process....
Mark Rey, Public Lands Enemy No. 1? In October, recently retired Forest Service planner Richard Artley made a few headlines when he blew the whistle on his former employer’s secretive plan to close thousands of recreational facilities. Now, he’s blowing the whistle on the man behind it, his former boss, Mark Rey, who currently holds the position most people don’t know even exists. Officially, Mark Rey is called the Undersecretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources & Environment. Unofficially, he is often called much less complimentary names, but I won’t go into that here. Suffice to say, he is considered the enemy of those trying to protect our public lands from commercialization and privatization. Rey is President Bush’s handpicked controller of the Forest Service, and he has done and excellent job for his boss. In his position, he sets policy for our national forests, and is the person behind recent controversies such as....Go here to view Artley's open letter.
Hayman Firestarter May Get New Trial A woman who admitted starting the worst wildfire in Colorado's recorded history has appealed a judge's ruling that said prosecutors could withdraw from her plea agreement, possibly leading to a new trial -- and a longer prison term. Colorado's Supreme Court has ordered prosecutors to explain why they believe the ruling should stand. The appeal by the attorney for Terry Lynn Barton, filed last week, prompted Teller County District Judge Thomas Kennedy to reschedule a Monday hearing set to discuss the possibility of a new trial. Kennedy ruled Feb. 5 that Barton violated terms of her plea agreement when she appealed her 12-year prison sentence, opening the way for prosecutors to withdraw the agreement. Prosecutors have been deciding whether to ask for a new trial or a new sentencing hearing for Barton, who is serving a 6-year federal prison term for setting the June 2002 Hayman fire....
Gov calls for tighter wildlife protection The federal government is jeopardizing wildlife in the West by not assuring adequate reviews of some energy development, Gov. Dave Freudenthal told members of the Western Governors Association this week. On Tuesday in Washington, D.C., fellow Western governors agreed with Freudenthal and approved a resolution calling for an amendment to the federal Energy Policy Act. That amendment would strengthen environmental requirements to assure energy development is not harming big game habitat and migration corridors. The resolution was sponsored by Freudenthal, who argued a portion of the 2005 federal law allows certain lands to be excluded from environmental reviews, including some lands considered crucial to big game. According to the Bureau of Land Management, 1,361 permits to drill were approved under categorical exclusions in an eight-month period ending in September 2006, Freudenthal's office reported in a press release. Wyoming had the most with 596, followed by New Mexico with 538; Utah, 111; Colorado, 59; California, 37; Arizona, 18; and Eastern states, two....
Utah Developer Wants To Build Among Indian Ruins For more than 1,200 years the ancient Anasazi made their home here along the Utah-Arizona border. Now, a developer wants to set a modern-day subdivision among the ruins sites, clustering homes so they capitalize on rather than harm what remains of the ancient dwellings. St. George developer Milo McCowan wants to build 700 to 800 houses and town homes on 270 acres west of Kanab Creek. The area is in the process of being annexed into city of Kanab. But most important, McCowan said, is preserving and even encouraging more study of the area’s archaeological resources. “We are dedicating 20 acres in the project for long-term archaeological excavation and study, hopefully in partnership with a university,” McCowan said. “Amateur archaeologists could move here and live and assist with a significant dig in their own neighborhood.” The subdivision – named Chaco Canyon after the famous Anasazi ruins in New Mexico – would also include open spaces, trails, an amphitheater for the performing arts and a museum featuring the area’s artifacts, he said. The entrance road will wind between two ruin sites....
Matheson introduces land swap bill Congressman Jim Matheson introduced a bipartisan bill today proposing a land exchange between the Utah school trust land administration and the Bureau of Land Management. The Utah Recreational Land Exchange Act of 2007 authorizes the exchange of more than 40,000 acres of school trust lands for roughly the same number of acres of BLM land. The parcels of state trust land are scattered-in checkerboard fashion-amid the federal land, complicating each agency's management objectives. "This legislation received input from a broad and diverse group of stakeholders-public and private, urban and rural, industry, conservation, sportsmen and education," said Matheson. "The result is a proposal that is fair to the taxpayer, beneficial to Utah school children, mindful of hunting and other public access opportunities, and a better configuration for land managers to protect habitat, watershed and recreational values." Sen. Bob Bennett has introduced the companion Senate bill....
Study: Pygmy Owl Numbers Down in Mexico A university study shows the population of a tiny endangered owl in northern Mexico has declined by an estimated 26 percent over the last seven years, a finding that environmentalists said bolsters their arguments for greater protection for the bird in Arizona. Annual surveys by a scientist show the birds are continuing to decline in numbers, although there have been some years with rebounds, according to the University of Arizona study. "There's been some variation in there," Aaron Flesch, a senior research specialist in the university's School of Natural Resources, said Tuesday. The tiny bird's numbers increased in 2005 and were similar in 2006 in northern Sonora, but "overall the trend is negative." "Should this apparent decline continue, recovery strategies that rely on pygmy owls from northern Sonora and persistence of pygmy owls in the Sonoran Desert could be jeopardized," the report said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put the owl on the endangered species list in 1997 because of population declines in Arizona. But the agency withdrew it from the list last year after determining it was not a distinct subspecies and thus not worthy of protection....
Wolf supporters show up in force Opponents of removing wolves from the federal endangered species protection in Wyoming far outnumbered supporters of delisting wolves at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service public hearing on wolf management Tuesday. "The Endangered Species Act has been hugely successful in restoring the gray wolf and we want it to stay that way," Sierra Club regional spokesman Adam Rissien said at the hearing. Wolf advocate Emily Swift read an essay she wrote about family vacations in Yellowstone Park before urging the panel to rethink delisting wolves. "I believe this country should be thinking about future generations and I would like my children to be able to appreciate the wolves as I have," Swift said. The state and federal governments have been litigating over the issue of wolf management since the rejection of the state's first wolf management plan in 2004. The situation has so far prevented removing wolves from federal protections in Wyoming and also in Montana and Idaho. Recently the federal government has begun steps to turn over management to the other states and says it's prepared to continue to manage the animals in Wyoming alone if necessary....
Wyo. Senate: Let gov negotiate on wolves The Wyoming Senate on Tuesday approved a wolf management plan that calls for giving the governor's office authority to negotiate with the federal government over the boundaries of a permanent wolf area in the northwest corner of the state. If the House agrees today with the Senate position, at least the boundary provisions of the state's wolf management plan could meet with federal approval. On Monday, the Senate had voted to exclude most private land from a permanent management area in which wolves would be managed as trophy game animals. Outside that area, they would be managed as predators that could be shot on sight. Mitch King, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, on Monday had said that any reduction of the management area his agency had proposed last fall would be unacceptable. He said a reduction would lead to his agency rejecting a state wolf management plan. After the Senate vote Tuesday, King said it was critical for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Gov. Dave Freudenthal's office to have the latitude to negotiate a management plan that the federal agency can approve. He said he hadn't read the bill the Senate had approved, but said that based on his understanding of it, it would satisfy his agency's concerns over the boundary issue. "I think we're well on our way," King said. He said the ultimate result depended on whether the House votes to agree with the Senate proposal....
Russell Brooks, dead at 41: Property rights lawyer passionate about his work With a hearty laugh and a Southern lilt that made his oral arguments sing, Seattle-area lawyer Russell Brooks spearheaded the fight for property rights in the Northwest. After turning to law as a second career, Brooks became best known for winning a ruling that forced federal fisheries officials to reconsider virtually all Endangered Species Act protections for West Coast salmon. He also argued against a racial tiebreaking provision used by Seattle schools in a case currently being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. He died of a heart attack Sunday at the age of 41. After working as a computer programmer in Texas for about 10 years, Brooks, a Mississippi native, went to law school in California. There he interned at the Sacramento-based, Libertarian-leaning Pacific Legal Foundation, which later hired him and sent him north to revive its office in Bellevue....
Sage grouse not affected by recreation activity, group says A hunting season for Greater Sage Grouse in part of the Piceance Creek basin and a portion of the Roan Plateau was opposed by a working group developing a conservation strategy for the potentially endangered bird. At a Tuesday night meeting in Rifle, the group of local government, landowners and other interest groups decided they do not want to see hunting reinstated for the Greater Sage Grouse, which has been petitioned for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. The group also thought recreational activities over the several-hundred thousand acre area do not have many adverse impacts during key reproduction and brood-rearing seasons. The Colorado Division of Wildlife leads the effort to develop a conservation plan for the grouse in various regions, as well as a statewide plan, area Wildlife Conservation Biologist John Toolen. The effort is designed to help the current population of grouse in the region, estimated at between 1,200 to 1,500, reach healthier levels while dealing with impacts such as recreation and rampant energy development....
Interior Report Finds 'Wall' Between Field Staff, Leaders Communication. Trust. Leadership. A report by the Interior Department inspector general, released this month, provides a glimpse of how these issues can arise in agencies that have to manage a workforce spread across the country. The report, by Earl E. Devaney, Interior's inspector general, focused on the law enforcement office at the Fish and Wildlife Service. Devaney praised the office for "significant progress" in overhauling its operations since 2002, when the secretary of the interior called for improvements. But Devaney also found some problems in the law enforcement office, such as a "general mistrust of senior management" and a lack of communication between the headquarters and the field, "which has created a perception that there is a 'wall' between management and field personnel." For the review, Devaney's staff conducted more than 110 interviews, traveled to field offices and hired a consultant to survey the law enforcement staff. Of 369 employees asked to participate in the survey, 88 percent responded -- an indication, the report said, that the employees are highly committed to the Fish and Wildlife Service....
Committee tackles the ‘evolving West’ with few Westerners When the House Natural Resources Committee assembles today to discuss “The Evolving West,” there won’t be many Democratic members from the fast-evolving Rocky Mountain West there to hear it. Only two serve on the committee. Under Democratic leadership, the committee that sets policy for the public lands and energy of the West has changed from a bastion of pro-industry, conservative Westerners to a committee dominated by Pacific Coast lawmakers and Easterners. The transformation comes as Democratic political leaders look at Rocky Mountain states as the most fertile territory to pick up seats and electoral votes in 2008. That’s why they’ve scheduled an early primary in Nevada and are holding their convention in Denver. Republicans warn that Democrats could lose their momentum in the West if they don’t heed rural, Western concerns about the difficulties imposed by environmental restrictions. A Republican leadership aide took a harder line about the committee’s Democratic lineup, predicting that Democratic policies on resource issues will alienate voters. “These were strategic decisions made to facilitate a liberal agenda and insulate some Democrats from taking difficult votes on the issues,” the aide said....
Groups form fund to pilot agricultural water leasing program A new fund has been created by a coalition of conservation groups and municipal entities that will allow water to be leased from farmers and kept in the Rio Grande rather than being diverted for irrigation. The $250,000 Living River Fund was created by the city of Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and six conservation groups. It will be used to establish a pilot agricultural water-leasing program -- the first of its kind on the Rio Grande -- in an effort to provide sustained flows in the river and for the endangered species that depend on it. The fund organizers seek to identify farmers who would voluntarily participate in the water-leasing initiative and have contacted the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, which oversees water management on the Rio Grande from Cochiti Reservoir to Elephant Butte, to get that information out more widely. The Water Authority contributed $225,000 to the fund as part of a February 2005 agreement with conservation groups. The agreement settled a portion of an ongoing lawsuit between cities, farmers and conservation groups over the river and endangered species....
Allegations fly over Utah prairie dog decision Nicole Rosmarino, conservation director for Forest Guardians, believes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the wrong decision by denying the group's petition to upgrade the status of the Utah prairie dog. "There's no question that biologically the prairie dog is endangered," she said, "It warrants this upgraded status." Rosmarino said population numbers and threats warrant upgrading the threatened species to endangered, but she believes USFWS officials denied the petition to keep their management options open under the lesser status and caved to political pressure. Larry Crist, USFWS Utah Ecological Services field supervisor, said the decision was based on the best information available and the information provided in the petition....
Hoeven asks to let hunters kill elk North Dakota's governor took the position that qualified volunteers instead of paid sharpshooters should be allowed to kill elk in Theodore Roosevelt National Park to the highest level of the National Park Service on Monday. The state wants the park to let sportsmen and women participate in killing as many as 1,000 elk when the park begins an elk population reduction program starting in 2008. The park has said it can't allow any form of public hunting without congressional action, and Gov. John Hoeven asked Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorn to intervene. Hoeven said he got an assurance from the Interior secretary that he will look into the matter. Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor said she's already asked park officials to clarify whether qualified volunteers fit the definition of a sharpshooter....
Officials urge controlled hunt in parks Key Democratic lawmakers are pushing legislation to allow hunting to cull elk herds and control a deadly animal disease inside national parks visited by millions of tourists a year. Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado introduced the legislation in the House last week to allow hunting in the Rocky Mountain National Park in his state, and Sen. Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota will put forth a bill this week to allow hunting in his state's Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The lawmakers' plans are opposed by some who say hunting should be allowed on some federal lands but not in public parks. "Three million park visitors don't want to be ducking bullets," said one National Park Service official who asked to remain anonymous. "Hunting should be allowed in forests and wildlife refuges, not in parks populated by millions of visitors." The National Park Service says it can no longer rely on relocating herds to other states to control the population because it could spread chronic wasting disease -- a transmissible neurological condition afflicting deer and elk that is similar to mad cow disease in cattle and scrapie in sheep....
Elusive lynx leaves tracks in snow, but not much else In the parking lot of the Blackrock Ranger Station, photographer Andrew Weller grins and pulls a plastic bottle of bobcat urine from the back of his pickup truck. With any luck, a square of carpet drenched in the stuff will catch the attention of a Canada lynx, which will step through an infrared beam, triggering a remote camera up on Togwotee Pass. Weller and I are tagging along with a crew from Endeavor Wildlife Research to look for lynx tracks about a mile west of Togwotee Mountain Lodge. Earlier that day, one of the company’s co-founders, Jenny Burgharat, spotted some fresh tracks about 20 feet from the road. With skis and snowshoes, six of us will follow the tracks through dense lodgepole pine and Douglas fir, wherever they lead. Canada Lynx, it turns out, are curious cats. Foreign smells, sights, and sounds can elicit brash and even ridiculous behavior. According to Weller, wildlife photographers and biologists will sometimes hang old compact discs from tree limbs, where a lynx will bat at the flashing plastic-encased metal, just as a domestic kitten would assault a piece of string....
Climate Panel Recommends Global Temperature Ceiling, Carbon Tax A panel of scientists has presented the United Nations a detailed plan for combating climate change. VOA's correspondent at the U.N. Peter Heinlein reports the strategy involves reaching a global agreement on a temperature ceiling. A group of 18 scientists from 11 countries is calling on the international community to act quickly to prevent catastrophic climate change. In a report requested by the United Nations and partially paid for by the privately funded U.N. Foundation, the panel warns that any delay could lead to a dangerous rise in sea levels, increasingly turbulent weather, droughts and disease. The report was issued three weeks after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that global warming is real and caused in large part by human activity. But unlike the IPCC report, this latest document makes policy recommendations. Panel member John Holdren of Harvard University says the world must be mobilized immediately to avoid catastrophe....
RFK Jr. rips President Bush for environmental policy The crowd that nearly filled Virginia Tech's 3,000-seat Burruss Hall Auditorium to hear environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speak probably had an idea about what he thought of the Bush administration before he took the podium. Some of Kennedy's books were on sale in the auditorium lobby, including his most recent -- "Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy." But early on in a rambling speech Monday night that lasted more than an hour, the son of a 1960s Democratic icon made it clear that he wasn't critical of Bush because of his political affiliation. He was critical of him, he said, because Bush has implemented policies and circumvented the law in order to enrich his donors at the expense of thousands of lives and America's environmental future. "You can't talk honestly about the environment today ... without being critical of the president," he said....
Pro rodeo should listen to cowboys Imagine if he fought hard against proper representation on the board from what seem to be the only honest people in the sport, the athletes who drive their trucks from city to city, giving up their bodies, hoping to cash checks, but guaranteed nothing. Imagine if even his supporters on the board described him as ruthless and heavy-handed, prone to unleashing strings of profanities at anyone who questioned his tactics. Imagine if he called federal investigators "unadulterated punks" and oversaw an organization that admittedly was experiencing the most unrest from its rank and file in history. Imagine if Stern, with the feds closing in, finally pleaded guilty to obstructing justice, perjury and criminal contempt, crimes that could bring up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Ellerman did all of that. Yet the nine-member PRCA board refused to fire him. And when Ellerman finally resigned last week, instead of condemning Ellerman's rule, the board decided to send him away with a full year's salary of more than $200,000. The decision to pay Ellerman a year's salary ultimately was reversed after the decision created an uproar among rodeo cowboys, but clearly the PRCA has come to Houston and reached a crossroads. The board needs a total makeover. And it needs to listen to some good, old country logic. That is, give the cowboys more voices on the board....
PRCA leadership still solid The bad news at the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association: Commissioner Troy Ellerman resigned last week after pleading guilty to obstructing justice by leaking secret grand jury documents to two reporters who were covering the government's probe into steroids in sports. It's the famous BALCO case, and, sadly Ellerman was involved while working as a California lawyer before taking the PRCA's top job. The good news: The PRCA has an interim commissioner named Keith Martin who understands the direction that Ellerman and the board was going. The leadership improved formats and prize money for the sport's stars. They continually tweaked the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour, a series of designated sizable rodeos in cities such as San Antonio and Cheyenne, Wyo., shows that helped competitors qualify for the invitational Texas Stampede in Dallas in November. The lucrative Stampede is a mini-National Finals Rodeo. Martin, who also is executive director of the San Antonio Stock Show Rodeo, understands the importance of offering a higher-paying rodeo that features stars....
Positive Influence Forever Cowboys has found a way, it thinks, to mentor youths, be a positive influence in the community and help rodeo committees draw more fans and sell more hot dogs and soft drinks. The concept is "Youth Night," and it's been held at the SandHills Stock Show & Rodeo in Odessa, Texas, for more than 10 years. Forever Cowboys, a Christian service organization, hopes to take what has successfully been done in Odessa and duplicate it at six or more rodeos this year. "I think once this thing gets going, once rodeo committees and communities see what is happening and how it is affecting their youth in a positive way, I think there is going to be more and more who want to do something like this," said Kory Koontz, a 13-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier and member of Forever Cowboys. Youth Night at the Odessa rodeo started 14 years ago when a group of cowboys and their families decided to reach out to kids in a positive way through rodeo....
Bach in the saddle again The daily grind to stay at the top of any physically active sport can take its toll. At age 49, most professional athletes have long hung up their gloves, hats, helmets or ropes. Millsap resident Allen Bach – who in December won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association 2006 world championship for team roping-heeling – defies age and many other laws of physics and competition. “I’m busier now than ever in my life,” Bach said. He mentors youth through the organization Forever Cowboys, and is involved in management of Cactus Ropes (manufacturer of ropes and saddles) and Heel-o-matic, a company that makes dummy calves that allow ropers to practice “heeling” without having to use live cattle. Bach attributes his success in and out of the arena to, “God [putting] good people in my life.”....
Horse Prefers Painting to Racing Many people make money with the talent of their horses, some on the race track, others in the show arena, or the jumping fields, even the rodeo grounds, but this horse is different. This horse, Cholla, is an artist. A gorgeous copper colored Buckskin, Mustang/Quarter Horse with black mane and tail, standing 15.2 hands and weighing in at 1300 lbs. He has a dorsal stripe down his back complete with zebra like markings on his legs. He creates his art standing at his easel while holding a true artist' brush with his teeth, he mindfully directs his brush with fine and deliberate strokes creating the artistic essence that only a horse named Cholla can reveal. Only Cholla applies the paints to his art and no one moves the easel, or rotates the paper....
Couric handwringing over green backlash In her CBS blog, the day after the Oscars, anchorwoman Katie Couric frets that Hollywood's overwhelming embrace of Al Gore and the politics of global warming might prove to be a political setback with the hicks in the sticks. "But as the throngs of celebrities greeted Al Gore as a secular saint, I wondered if this might usher in a backlash against environmentalists," she speculated. "It wasn't too long ago, afterall, (sic) that environmentalists were decried as tree-huggers, and former President Bush rallied against them – trying to say it was the spotted owl against logging interests and jobs in the West." Couric also wonders out loud if the Academy Awards Best Documentary Oscar presentation to Gore for his "An Inconvenient Truth" might start the public thinking global warming is a "liberal" cause. "The Oscars may give Gore's critics ammunition to reject a school of thought that's been validated by countless scientists worldwide," she mused....
Gore's Oscars could spur action on climate The double Oscar win for "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore's expanded slide-show on global warming, could spur grassroots support for the fight against climate change, environmental advocates said on Monday. That's because a movie, especially one that many Americans have seen on home video, takes the issue beyond the realm of distant policymakers and puts it on a more personal footing, according to Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. "The funny thing about the Oscars is, they're very intimate -- people watch them in their living rooms," Pope said in a telephone interview. "Global warming has seemed abstract, distant, something 'for people who know more than I do.' "I think what (the Oscar victory) really does is it puts this issue into people's living rooms," he said. "While the climatology is really complicated, they're going to see that the solutions are pretty common-sense, and people will talk about them and get excited."....
Gray wolf's endangered listing gets fresh look The Fish and Wildlife Service yesterday started a series of hearings on whether to remove the Canadian gray wolf from the endangered species list, a proposal embraced by ranchers and decried by wildlife groups. The agency proposed the delisting last month after announcing that a wolf-recovery plan had surpassed all expectations. Reintroduced to the Northern Rockies in 1995, the wolves now number more than 1,200 in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The proposal was a relief to ranching and farming communities, where wolves have proved bad for business by preying on sheep, calves and other livestock. Wolf packs have attacked hunting and ranching dogs, prompting calls to loosen restrictions on shooting the predators. The wolf population has gotten so numerous that they're starting to spend time on private land, and they're killing more livestock," said John Thompson, spokesman for the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation. The recovery program has been especially successful in Idaho, home to more than 700 of the reintroduced wolves. Under the proposed delisting, the wolves would lose their protected status, and federal wildlife agencies would turn over control of their management to the states....
Colo. Lawmakers delay roadless resolution, groups lobby governor Lawmakers are giving Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter and his administration some time to decide how 4.1 million acres of roadless forest land in Colorado should be managed while several groups are lobbying officials on a plan endorsed by the former administration. Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction and Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, said they'll delay introducing a resolution asking Ritter to adopt the plan to give him and new state natural resources chief Harris Sherman time to talk to the groups. But the legislators want Ritter to leave intact the plan written by a task force and approved by Owens before he left office in January. Owens, a Republican who couldn't run again because of term limits, sent the petition seeking protection for most of the 4.1 million acres of forest land to federal officials. In 2005, Owens criticized a Clinton-era road-building ban on 58.5 million acres of forests nationwide as creating wilderness outside the congressional process....
Mark Rey, Public Lands Enemy No. 1? In October, recently retired Forest Service planner Richard Artley made a few headlines when he blew the whistle on his former employer’s secretive plan to close thousands of recreational facilities. Now, he’s blowing the whistle on the man behind it, his former boss, Mark Rey, who currently holds the position most people don’t know even exists. Officially, Mark Rey is called the Undersecretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources & Environment. Unofficially, he is often called much less complimentary names, but I won’t go into that here. Suffice to say, he is considered the enemy of those trying to protect our public lands from commercialization and privatization. Rey is President Bush’s handpicked controller of the Forest Service, and he has done and excellent job for his boss. In his position, he sets policy for our national forests, and is the person behind recent controversies such as....Go here to view Artley's open letter.
Hayman Firestarter May Get New Trial A woman who admitted starting the worst wildfire in Colorado's recorded history has appealed a judge's ruling that said prosecutors could withdraw from her plea agreement, possibly leading to a new trial -- and a longer prison term. Colorado's Supreme Court has ordered prosecutors to explain why they believe the ruling should stand. The appeal by the attorney for Terry Lynn Barton, filed last week, prompted Teller County District Judge Thomas Kennedy to reschedule a Monday hearing set to discuss the possibility of a new trial. Kennedy ruled Feb. 5 that Barton violated terms of her plea agreement when she appealed her 12-year prison sentence, opening the way for prosecutors to withdraw the agreement. Prosecutors have been deciding whether to ask for a new trial or a new sentencing hearing for Barton, who is serving a 6-year federal prison term for setting the June 2002 Hayman fire....
Gov calls for tighter wildlife protection The federal government is jeopardizing wildlife in the West by not assuring adequate reviews of some energy development, Gov. Dave Freudenthal told members of the Western Governors Association this week. On Tuesday in Washington, D.C., fellow Western governors agreed with Freudenthal and approved a resolution calling for an amendment to the federal Energy Policy Act. That amendment would strengthen environmental requirements to assure energy development is not harming big game habitat and migration corridors. The resolution was sponsored by Freudenthal, who argued a portion of the 2005 federal law allows certain lands to be excluded from environmental reviews, including some lands considered crucial to big game. According to the Bureau of Land Management, 1,361 permits to drill were approved under categorical exclusions in an eight-month period ending in September 2006, Freudenthal's office reported in a press release. Wyoming had the most with 596, followed by New Mexico with 538; Utah, 111; Colorado, 59; California, 37; Arizona, 18; and Eastern states, two....
Utah Developer Wants To Build Among Indian Ruins For more than 1,200 years the ancient Anasazi made their home here along the Utah-Arizona border. Now, a developer wants to set a modern-day subdivision among the ruins sites, clustering homes so they capitalize on rather than harm what remains of the ancient dwellings. St. George developer Milo McCowan wants to build 700 to 800 houses and town homes on 270 acres west of Kanab Creek. The area is in the process of being annexed into city of Kanab. But most important, McCowan said, is preserving and even encouraging more study of the area’s archaeological resources. “We are dedicating 20 acres in the project for long-term archaeological excavation and study, hopefully in partnership with a university,” McCowan said. “Amateur archaeologists could move here and live and assist with a significant dig in their own neighborhood.” The subdivision – named Chaco Canyon after the famous Anasazi ruins in New Mexico – would also include open spaces, trails, an amphitheater for the performing arts and a museum featuring the area’s artifacts, he said. The entrance road will wind between two ruin sites....
Matheson introduces land swap bill Congressman Jim Matheson introduced a bipartisan bill today proposing a land exchange between the Utah school trust land administration and the Bureau of Land Management. The Utah Recreational Land Exchange Act of 2007 authorizes the exchange of more than 40,000 acres of school trust lands for roughly the same number of acres of BLM land. The parcels of state trust land are scattered-in checkerboard fashion-amid the federal land, complicating each agency's management objectives. "This legislation received input from a broad and diverse group of stakeholders-public and private, urban and rural, industry, conservation, sportsmen and education," said Matheson. "The result is a proposal that is fair to the taxpayer, beneficial to Utah school children, mindful of hunting and other public access opportunities, and a better configuration for land managers to protect habitat, watershed and recreational values." Sen. Bob Bennett has introduced the companion Senate bill....
Study: Pygmy Owl Numbers Down in Mexico A university study shows the population of a tiny endangered owl in northern Mexico has declined by an estimated 26 percent over the last seven years, a finding that environmentalists said bolsters their arguments for greater protection for the bird in Arizona. Annual surveys by a scientist show the birds are continuing to decline in numbers, although there have been some years with rebounds, according to the University of Arizona study. "There's been some variation in there," Aaron Flesch, a senior research specialist in the university's School of Natural Resources, said Tuesday. The tiny bird's numbers increased in 2005 and were similar in 2006 in northern Sonora, but "overall the trend is negative." "Should this apparent decline continue, recovery strategies that rely on pygmy owls from northern Sonora and persistence of pygmy owls in the Sonoran Desert could be jeopardized," the report said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put the owl on the endangered species list in 1997 because of population declines in Arizona. But the agency withdrew it from the list last year after determining it was not a distinct subspecies and thus not worthy of protection....
Wolf supporters show up in force Opponents of removing wolves from the federal endangered species protection in Wyoming far outnumbered supporters of delisting wolves at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service public hearing on wolf management Tuesday. "The Endangered Species Act has been hugely successful in restoring the gray wolf and we want it to stay that way," Sierra Club regional spokesman Adam Rissien said at the hearing. Wolf advocate Emily Swift read an essay she wrote about family vacations in Yellowstone Park before urging the panel to rethink delisting wolves. "I believe this country should be thinking about future generations and I would like my children to be able to appreciate the wolves as I have," Swift said. The state and federal governments have been litigating over the issue of wolf management since the rejection of the state's first wolf management plan in 2004. The situation has so far prevented removing wolves from federal protections in Wyoming and also in Montana and Idaho. Recently the federal government has begun steps to turn over management to the other states and says it's prepared to continue to manage the animals in Wyoming alone if necessary....
Wyo. Senate: Let gov negotiate on wolves The Wyoming Senate on Tuesday approved a wolf management plan that calls for giving the governor's office authority to negotiate with the federal government over the boundaries of a permanent wolf area in the northwest corner of the state. If the House agrees today with the Senate position, at least the boundary provisions of the state's wolf management plan could meet with federal approval. On Monday, the Senate had voted to exclude most private land from a permanent management area in which wolves would be managed as trophy game animals. Outside that area, they would be managed as predators that could be shot on sight. Mitch King, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, on Monday had said that any reduction of the management area his agency had proposed last fall would be unacceptable. He said a reduction would lead to his agency rejecting a state wolf management plan. After the Senate vote Tuesday, King said it was critical for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Gov. Dave Freudenthal's office to have the latitude to negotiate a management plan that the federal agency can approve. He said he hadn't read the bill the Senate had approved, but said that based on his understanding of it, it would satisfy his agency's concerns over the boundary issue. "I think we're well on our way," King said. He said the ultimate result depended on whether the House votes to agree with the Senate proposal....
Russell Brooks, dead at 41: Property rights lawyer passionate about his work With a hearty laugh and a Southern lilt that made his oral arguments sing, Seattle-area lawyer Russell Brooks spearheaded the fight for property rights in the Northwest. After turning to law as a second career, Brooks became best known for winning a ruling that forced federal fisheries officials to reconsider virtually all Endangered Species Act protections for West Coast salmon. He also argued against a racial tiebreaking provision used by Seattle schools in a case currently being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. He died of a heart attack Sunday at the age of 41. After working as a computer programmer in Texas for about 10 years, Brooks, a Mississippi native, went to law school in California. There he interned at the Sacramento-based, Libertarian-leaning Pacific Legal Foundation, which later hired him and sent him north to revive its office in Bellevue....
Sage grouse not affected by recreation activity, group says A hunting season for Greater Sage Grouse in part of the Piceance Creek basin and a portion of the Roan Plateau was opposed by a working group developing a conservation strategy for the potentially endangered bird. At a Tuesday night meeting in Rifle, the group of local government, landowners and other interest groups decided they do not want to see hunting reinstated for the Greater Sage Grouse, which has been petitioned for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. The group also thought recreational activities over the several-hundred thousand acre area do not have many adverse impacts during key reproduction and brood-rearing seasons. The Colorado Division of Wildlife leads the effort to develop a conservation plan for the grouse in various regions, as well as a statewide plan, area Wildlife Conservation Biologist John Toolen. The effort is designed to help the current population of grouse in the region, estimated at between 1,200 to 1,500, reach healthier levels while dealing with impacts such as recreation and rampant energy development....
Interior Report Finds 'Wall' Between Field Staff, Leaders Communication. Trust. Leadership. A report by the Interior Department inspector general, released this month, provides a glimpse of how these issues can arise in agencies that have to manage a workforce spread across the country. The report, by Earl E. Devaney, Interior's inspector general, focused on the law enforcement office at the Fish and Wildlife Service. Devaney praised the office for "significant progress" in overhauling its operations since 2002, when the secretary of the interior called for improvements. But Devaney also found some problems in the law enforcement office, such as a "general mistrust of senior management" and a lack of communication between the headquarters and the field, "which has created a perception that there is a 'wall' between management and field personnel." For the review, Devaney's staff conducted more than 110 interviews, traveled to field offices and hired a consultant to survey the law enforcement staff. Of 369 employees asked to participate in the survey, 88 percent responded -- an indication, the report said, that the employees are highly committed to the Fish and Wildlife Service....
Committee tackles the ‘evolving West’ with few Westerners When the House Natural Resources Committee assembles today to discuss “The Evolving West,” there won’t be many Democratic members from the fast-evolving Rocky Mountain West there to hear it. Only two serve on the committee. Under Democratic leadership, the committee that sets policy for the public lands and energy of the West has changed from a bastion of pro-industry, conservative Westerners to a committee dominated by Pacific Coast lawmakers and Easterners. The transformation comes as Democratic political leaders look at Rocky Mountain states as the most fertile territory to pick up seats and electoral votes in 2008. That’s why they’ve scheduled an early primary in Nevada and are holding their convention in Denver. Republicans warn that Democrats could lose their momentum in the West if they don’t heed rural, Western concerns about the difficulties imposed by environmental restrictions. A Republican leadership aide took a harder line about the committee’s Democratic lineup, predicting that Democratic policies on resource issues will alienate voters. “These were strategic decisions made to facilitate a liberal agenda and insulate some Democrats from taking difficult votes on the issues,” the aide said....
Groups form fund to pilot agricultural water leasing program A new fund has been created by a coalition of conservation groups and municipal entities that will allow water to be leased from farmers and kept in the Rio Grande rather than being diverted for irrigation. The $250,000 Living River Fund was created by the city of Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and six conservation groups. It will be used to establish a pilot agricultural water-leasing program -- the first of its kind on the Rio Grande -- in an effort to provide sustained flows in the river and for the endangered species that depend on it. The fund organizers seek to identify farmers who would voluntarily participate in the water-leasing initiative and have contacted the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, which oversees water management on the Rio Grande from Cochiti Reservoir to Elephant Butte, to get that information out more widely. The Water Authority contributed $225,000 to the fund as part of a February 2005 agreement with conservation groups. The agreement settled a portion of an ongoing lawsuit between cities, farmers and conservation groups over the river and endangered species....
Allegations fly over Utah prairie dog decision Nicole Rosmarino, conservation director for Forest Guardians, believes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the wrong decision by denying the group's petition to upgrade the status of the Utah prairie dog. "There's no question that biologically the prairie dog is endangered," she said, "It warrants this upgraded status." Rosmarino said population numbers and threats warrant upgrading the threatened species to endangered, but she believes USFWS officials denied the petition to keep their management options open under the lesser status and caved to political pressure. Larry Crist, USFWS Utah Ecological Services field supervisor, said the decision was based on the best information available and the information provided in the petition....
Hoeven asks to let hunters kill elk North Dakota's governor took the position that qualified volunteers instead of paid sharpshooters should be allowed to kill elk in Theodore Roosevelt National Park to the highest level of the National Park Service on Monday. The state wants the park to let sportsmen and women participate in killing as many as 1,000 elk when the park begins an elk population reduction program starting in 2008. The park has said it can't allow any form of public hunting without congressional action, and Gov. John Hoeven asked Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorn to intervene. Hoeven said he got an assurance from the Interior secretary that he will look into the matter. Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor said she's already asked park officials to clarify whether qualified volunteers fit the definition of a sharpshooter....
Officials urge controlled hunt in parks Key Democratic lawmakers are pushing legislation to allow hunting to cull elk herds and control a deadly animal disease inside national parks visited by millions of tourists a year. Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado introduced the legislation in the House last week to allow hunting in the Rocky Mountain National Park in his state, and Sen. Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota will put forth a bill this week to allow hunting in his state's Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The lawmakers' plans are opposed by some who say hunting should be allowed on some federal lands but not in public parks. "Three million park visitors don't want to be ducking bullets," said one National Park Service official who asked to remain anonymous. "Hunting should be allowed in forests and wildlife refuges, not in parks populated by millions of visitors." The National Park Service says it can no longer rely on relocating herds to other states to control the population because it could spread chronic wasting disease -- a transmissible neurological condition afflicting deer and elk that is similar to mad cow disease in cattle and scrapie in sheep....
Elusive lynx leaves tracks in snow, but not much else In the parking lot of the Blackrock Ranger Station, photographer Andrew Weller grins and pulls a plastic bottle of bobcat urine from the back of his pickup truck. With any luck, a square of carpet drenched in the stuff will catch the attention of a Canada lynx, which will step through an infrared beam, triggering a remote camera up on Togwotee Pass. Weller and I are tagging along with a crew from Endeavor Wildlife Research to look for lynx tracks about a mile west of Togwotee Mountain Lodge. Earlier that day, one of the company’s co-founders, Jenny Burgharat, spotted some fresh tracks about 20 feet from the road. With skis and snowshoes, six of us will follow the tracks through dense lodgepole pine and Douglas fir, wherever they lead. Canada Lynx, it turns out, are curious cats. Foreign smells, sights, and sounds can elicit brash and even ridiculous behavior. According to Weller, wildlife photographers and biologists will sometimes hang old compact discs from tree limbs, where a lynx will bat at the flashing plastic-encased metal, just as a domestic kitten would assault a piece of string....
Climate Panel Recommends Global Temperature Ceiling, Carbon Tax A panel of scientists has presented the United Nations a detailed plan for combating climate change. VOA's correspondent at the U.N. Peter Heinlein reports the strategy involves reaching a global agreement on a temperature ceiling. A group of 18 scientists from 11 countries is calling on the international community to act quickly to prevent catastrophic climate change. In a report requested by the United Nations and partially paid for by the privately funded U.N. Foundation, the panel warns that any delay could lead to a dangerous rise in sea levels, increasingly turbulent weather, droughts and disease. The report was issued three weeks after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that global warming is real and caused in large part by human activity. But unlike the IPCC report, this latest document makes policy recommendations. Panel member John Holdren of Harvard University says the world must be mobilized immediately to avoid catastrophe....
RFK Jr. rips President Bush for environmental policy The crowd that nearly filled Virginia Tech's 3,000-seat Burruss Hall Auditorium to hear environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speak probably had an idea about what he thought of the Bush administration before he took the podium. Some of Kennedy's books were on sale in the auditorium lobby, including his most recent -- "Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy." But early on in a rambling speech Monday night that lasted more than an hour, the son of a 1960s Democratic icon made it clear that he wasn't critical of Bush because of his political affiliation. He was critical of him, he said, because Bush has implemented policies and circumvented the law in order to enrich his donors at the expense of thousands of lives and America's environmental future. "You can't talk honestly about the environment today ... without being critical of the president," he said....
Pro rodeo should listen to cowboys Imagine if he fought hard against proper representation on the board from what seem to be the only honest people in the sport, the athletes who drive their trucks from city to city, giving up their bodies, hoping to cash checks, but guaranteed nothing. Imagine if even his supporters on the board described him as ruthless and heavy-handed, prone to unleashing strings of profanities at anyone who questioned his tactics. Imagine if he called federal investigators "unadulterated punks" and oversaw an organization that admittedly was experiencing the most unrest from its rank and file in history. Imagine if Stern, with the feds closing in, finally pleaded guilty to obstructing justice, perjury and criminal contempt, crimes that could bring up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Ellerman did all of that. Yet the nine-member PRCA board refused to fire him. And when Ellerman finally resigned last week, instead of condemning Ellerman's rule, the board decided to send him away with a full year's salary of more than $200,000. The decision to pay Ellerman a year's salary ultimately was reversed after the decision created an uproar among rodeo cowboys, but clearly the PRCA has come to Houston and reached a crossroads. The board needs a total makeover. And it needs to listen to some good, old country logic. That is, give the cowboys more voices on the board....
PRCA leadership still solid The bad news at the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association: Commissioner Troy Ellerman resigned last week after pleading guilty to obstructing justice by leaking secret grand jury documents to two reporters who were covering the government's probe into steroids in sports. It's the famous BALCO case, and, sadly Ellerman was involved while working as a California lawyer before taking the PRCA's top job. The good news: The PRCA has an interim commissioner named Keith Martin who understands the direction that Ellerman and the board was going. The leadership improved formats and prize money for the sport's stars. They continually tweaked the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour, a series of designated sizable rodeos in cities such as San Antonio and Cheyenne, Wyo., shows that helped competitors qualify for the invitational Texas Stampede in Dallas in November. The lucrative Stampede is a mini-National Finals Rodeo. Martin, who also is executive director of the San Antonio Stock Show Rodeo, understands the importance of offering a higher-paying rodeo that features stars....
Positive Influence Forever Cowboys has found a way, it thinks, to mentor youths, be a positive influence in the community and help rodeo committees draw more fans and sell more hot dogs and soft drinks. The concept is "Youth Night," and it's been held at the SandHills Stock Show & Rodeo in Odessa, Texas, for more than 10 years. Forever Cowboys, a Christian service organization, hopes to take what has successfully been done in Odessa and duplicate it at six or more rodeos this year. "I think once this thing gets going, once rodeo committees and communities see what is happening and how it is affecting their youth in a positive way, I think there is going to be more and more who want to do something like this," said Kory Koontz, a 13-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier and member of Forever Cowboys. Youth Night at the Odessa rodeo started 14 years ago when a group of cowboys and their families decided to reach out to kids in a positive way through rodeo....
Bach in the saddle again The daily grind to stay at the top of any physically active sport can take its toll. At age 49, most professional athletes have long hung up their gloves, hats, helmets or ropes. Millsap resident Allen Bach – who in December won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association 2006 world championship for team roping-heeling – defies age and many other laws of physics and competition. “I’m busier now than ever in my life,” Bach said. He mentors youth through the organization Forever Cowboys, and is involved in management of Cactus Ropes (manufacturer of ropes and saddles) and Heel-o-matic, a company that makes dummy calves that allow ropers to practice “heeling” without having to use live cattle. Bach attributes his success in and out of the arena to, “God [putting] good people in my life.”....
Horse Prefers Painting to Racing Many people make money with the talent of their horses, some on the race track, others in the show arena, or the jumping fields, even the rodeo grounds, but this horse is different. This horse, Cholla, is an artist. A gorgeous copper colored Buckskin, Mustang/Quarter Horse with black mane and tail, standing 15.2 hands and weighing in at 1300 lbs. He has a dorsal stripe down his back complete with zebra like markings on his legs. He creates his art standing at his easel while holding a true artist' brush with his teeth, he mindfully directs his brush with fine and deliberate strokes creating the artistic essence that only a horse named Cholla can reveal. Only Cholla applies the paints to his art and no one moves the easel, or rotates the paper....
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Western states united to bypass Bush on climate Five Western U.S. states have formed the latest regional pact to bypass the Bush administration to cut emissions linked to global warming through market mechanisms. The Western Regional Climate Action Initiative requires Oregon, California, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona to develop a regional target in six months for reducing greenhouse emissions according to statements from the states' governors. During the next 18 months, the states will devise a market-based plan, such as a load-based cap-and-trade program, to reach the target. They also have agreed to participate in a multi-state registry to track and manage greenhouse gas emissions in their region. The regional agreement "shows the power of the states to lead our nation" and "sets the stage for a regional cap-and-trade program, which will provide a powerful framework for developing a national cap and trade program," Schwarzenegger said in a statement....
Environmentalists hail takeover plan for Texas utility The board of Texas' largest electric utility last night tentatively approved a record $45 billion takeover bid by two private equity firms in a deal hailed by environmentalists as a major turning point in the battle against global warming. The prospective owners of the TXU Corp. have told environmental groups that they would cancel eight of 11 coal plants proposed by the company and also back national legislation for mandatory reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to climate change. TXU was expected today to formally announce the buyout, according to people familiar with the deal. The sale, which needs shareholder approval, would be the largest leveraged buyout in US corporate history....
Blizzard's scars cut across Plains In the mud on the side of Baca County Road WW, in one of the few bare spots in an otherwise snow-smothered prairie, lies the carcass of Steve McEndree's wife's favorite cow. Jamie McEndree playfully named the auburn Hereford "Bad Horn Day," for the curious way one of its horns curled up and one down. Steve wanted to sell the old cow a year ago, but Jamie asked him not to. Last week, nearly two months after a blizzard dropped 4 feet of snow on the McEndree's ranch, Bad Horn Day lay down in that spot along Road WW and died, worn out from fighting the snow, fighting the cold and fighting the hunger. "It's part of life," says Steve McEndree, a third-generation rancher in Baca County. "But you don't like it." Another dead cow. One of at least 46 cows and calves that McEndree has lost since the December blizzard. One of an estimated 10,000 that have died in southeastern Colorado as a result of the storm. Their carcasses are reminders that the blizzard's wrath didn't end when the storms faded months ago and likely won't end even when the snow that still lies on the ground a foot deep finally melts away....
Wyo. Senate trims wolf management area The state Senate voted Monday to reject the federal government's proposed boundary for a permanent wolf management area in the northwest corner of Wyoming. By a vote of 16-13, the Senate amended a wolf management bill to exclude most private land from a permanent management area in which wolves would be managed as trophy game animals. Outside that area, they would be managed as predators that could be shot on sight. Mitch King, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, said Monday that his agency has explained repeatedly to state officials that the original management area must be included in any state wolf management plan or his agency will reject it....
Prairie dogs' dark side comes to light in political fight The world's expert on lust, violence and cannibalism among prairie dogs uses a slide in his lectures that sums up a lifetime of research. Several of the squirrel-size creatures are shown perched on their hind legs: cute, cute, cute, cute, cute. But then, next to each fuzzy head, John Hoogland has written something darker he has seen happen in a prairie dog "town." "Promiscuity, kidnapping, pedophilia, murder, infanticide," it says. Not so cute. "Studying prairie dogs is like watching little people," he says. "Whatever we do, they do as well, and usually more often." Hoogland, 58, a professor at the University of Maryland, has spent 34 years unraveling the daily routines of the burrowing rodent. It has always been interesting work: These towns can make Melrose Place look like Sesame Street....
Bounty on coyotes aims to ease predation Wolves seem to get all the attention in Wyoming. But while the debate about wolf management is ongoing, another predator sails under the radar. Coyotes roam the countryside in the shadow of their larger cousins. The Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and Cody Country Outfitters and Guides groups saw a problem and took steps to address it. “Coyotes are a big problem that goes unnoticed,” SFW spokesman Lou Cicco said. “They kill small animals and pets and we wanted to help stop that.” Four years ago the two groups began a bounty program for hunters who shoot coyotes. We began working together and created a fund to pay for freshly killed coyotes,” Cicco said. “We pay the bounties until we run out of money for the year.” This year the program started Feb. 1 and already more than 100 coyotes have been brought in....
Is Bigfoot Living In The Forest Above Marysville? The couple recorded their discovery with photographs and returned to take more pictures. Joining the Padigos now was Scot Woodland, a Nevada County search and rescue team member and a certified expert tracker. Scot says he's got an open mind but when he first saw the tracks he figured here's another hoax. "The closer I got and looked at the prints, the more I could see the detail and the movement in the foot. As a tracker you see how things move the weight and all that stuff. The complexity of the footprint made me go whoa!” he says. What really impressed Scot was the force of the Bigfoot print which rippled the ground around it. Scot's footprint next to it hardly moved the earth. “If it's a hoax, somebody really did a good job, if it's not, then there's a big creature that lives among us," says Woodland. All the prints appear to be from one animal walking slowly but with a stride twice that of a human. “We measured from heel of the left foot to heel of left foot, 56 inches," says Scott. The footprint was gigantic. It was seven-and-a-half inches wide. The tape measure shows the impression is nearly double the length of an adult human foot....
Man donates historic ranch to Nature Conservancy Groundwater in Aravaipa Creek will be protected from pumping because of the donation of the historic Cobra Ranch to The Nature Conservancy in Arizona. Dan Bates, a Tucson artist and owner of the El Corral and Pinnacle Peak restaurants, donated the ranch in honor of his mother, Mary Bates, who co-owned the ranch with her son for 25 years. Cobra Ranch includes 1,250 private acres and 10,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service grazing leases adjacent to Aravaipa Canyon Preserve. With the Bates donation of private acreage and public land grazing leases, the preserve will protect 53,000 acres of land. Preserve Manager Mark Haberstich said everyone at the preserve was pleased with the donation. “It has been a property that’s been important to us,” Haberstich said. “It sits over the aquifer that supplies water to Aravaipa Creek, and if it had been subdivided and wells were allowed to be drilled, it would have dried up the creek.”....
Permit sought for carbon dioxide pipeline Devon Gas Services LP is proposing to revitalize an aging oil field in central Wyoming by using carbon dioxide to recover more oil, federal officials said. As part of the project, Devon is seeking Bureau of Land Management permission to construct a 47-mile-long pipeline to move carbon dioxide gas from southwest Wyoming to the Beaver Creek field in Fremont County, according to BLM officials. The carbon dioxide gas would come from the ExxonMobil Shute Creek-LaBarge gas processing plant and Bairoil metering facility. Carbon dioxide is a form of enhanced oil recovery that improves the flow of oil from a reservoir that has already reached peak production by conventional means. Carbon dioxide, in liquid form, mixes with unrecovered oil and pushes it to production wells. The carbon dioxide can then be separated from the oil and reused, or stored in the oil reservoir so that it is not released into the atmosphere....
Delta environmental water crisis looms An environmental crisis could disrupt water supplies throughout California for the first time since the early 1990s, threatening to end the long cease-fire in the state's water wars. A dry winter, devastated fish populations and recent scientific research together could force state water officials to cut Delta water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities. Already this year, water managers and environmental regulators are forecasting the possibility that much more water than is available will be needed to protect fish and prevent pushing Delta smelt closer to extinction. "We'll consider just about everything in terms of how we get through this," said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources. "Making water available in an uncompensated manner, these things are controversial." Not since a drought in the early 1990s — a period when some of the Delta's salmon and smelt populations were added to the lists of threatened and endangered species — have water supplies been so threatened because of the needs of Delta fish....
Thinning study leads to first cougar kills The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has begun killing cougars in Jackson County as part of its study into whether curbing cougar numbers can improve public safety and reduce livestock loss. An ODFW technician Tuesday killed the first two of the 24 cougars that will be removed here as part of this study, which is outlined in the state's new cougar plan that has been widely criticized by animal-rights activists. Dan Jenkins, from the ODFW's Roseburg office, trapped the cougars on a Lake Creek area ranch and shot them, said Mark Vargas, the ODFW's Rogue District wildlife biologist in Central Point. They were young "sub-adults," a male and a female, which were taken to the department's Roseburg office late Tuesday, Vargas said....
Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing. In 24 states throughout the country, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation’s most profitable. “I have never seen anything like it,” Mr. Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. “Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.” The sudden mysterious losses are highlighting the critical link that honeybees play in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables across the country. Beekeepers have fought regional bee crises before, but this is the first national affliction. Now, in a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why. Researchers say the bees are presumably dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold....
Cow gives birth to triplets Farmer/rancher Bryan Wagner suspected something was unusual when a 5-year-old cow in his herd of about 200 went into labor. It seemed to be having trouble, so Wagner decided to assist. He delivered one calf and discovered there was another in the womb. That's not unusual. Of the 50 or so cows that have calved so far on the Wagner farm, five have given birth to twins. After delivering the second calf, Wagner realized a third one was ready to face the world, too. That's unusual. Veterinarians say the chance of a cow having triplets is anywhere from one in 75,000 to one in 105,000, according to an Internet search on the topic of triplet calves. And the chance of all three thriving is even less likely, these sources reported. Wagner delivered the third calf, too, after turning it around so it came normally - head and front feet first. It was positioned backward in the womb, he said. This is the second time one of Wagner's cows has delivered triplets; the first set came in 1998....
CNFR releases 2007 dates The 58th annual College National Finals Rodeo will be June 10-16 in Casper, Wyo. National titles in saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, team roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping and goat tying will be up for grabs. The top three students in each event, and the top two men's and women's teams from the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association's 11 regions will qualify for the CNFR. Students will compete for more than $200,000 in scholarships from the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company. Ticket prices range from $6-$16, and season passes are also available....
Two for Trevor Four-time all-around world champion Trevor Brazile is a big fan of the Tucson Rodeo and rightfully so. Brazile (Decatur, Texas) captured his second consecutive tie-down roping average title at the 82nd annual La Fiesta de los Vaqueros in front of a packed house of 11,000 on Sunday afternoon. Brazile, 30, entered the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Round with over a half a second lead in the average on two and knew a good solid run would be enough to defend his title in Tucson. "The calf I had today, they were 14.7 on yesterday and that wasn't what I wanted to hear when I showed up today," Brazile said. "I knew I had a pretty good cushion so I just went out and made as good of a run as I could." Brazile turned in an 11.1-second run today, which didn't win the round but was enough to secure the title over Doug Pharr (Victoria, Texas). Brazile's final time was 30.6 seconds on three head, while Pharr finished with a total time of 31.3....
San Angel-Ohl Five-time and reigning world champion tie-down roper Cody Ohl entered the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Round at the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo knowing if he made a businessman's run, he would win the average title an overall prize totaling more than $6,000. Ohl (Hico, Texas) stopped the clock in 9.3 seconds to finish with a four-head total of 34.1 seconds, capturing the average title. His closest competitors were Scott Kormos, who finished second in 35.2 seconds, and Jerome Schneeberger was third with a 35.3. Schneeberger (Ponca City, Okla.) won the Tour Round, stopping the clock in 8.0 seconds. Ohl left the Concho Valley with $10,041 in earnings, while Kormos added $8,644 to his season total and Schneeberger cashed in for $8,740. The San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo marked the fifth stop on the 2007 Wrangler ProRodeo Tour. This year's Wrangler ProRodeo Tour consists of 21 rodeos from January to August. Contestants will choose 15 out of the 21 rodeos to count toward their official Tour Rodeo count and will compete for money this year versus points as in years past....
Floyd Lee was an old-school rancher Traveling our state's byways and back country over the past 50 years, I've been fortunate to meet a number of memorable New Mexicans who maintained a strong link to the past. One of those was Floyd W. Lee of San Mateo, rancher and for 12 years a New Mexico state senator. Albuquerque-born in 1895, Floyd was an engineering student at The University of New Mexico when the U.S. entered World War I. Joining up, he saw service in Europe with the New Mexico Field Artillery. Returning home after peace was won, Lee went to work for the Fernandez Co.'s vast ranch located near the village of San Mateo, northwest of Grants. This sprawling sheep and cattle operation got its start as a Spanish land grant ceded to Bartolomé Fernandez in 1767. It was acquired from his heirs in the late 1860s by Indian campaigner Col. Manuel Antonio Chaves. Lee worked his way up from cowhand and bronc-buster to become general manager of the ranch, and then through stock acquisitions, he became the owner in 1938. The property had more than 500 miles of boundary and cross fences....
A Wild and Woolly Affair Boy, are we a country with too much free time on our hands. Or should I say, what do a retired tennis pro, PETA, two research scientists and a herd of gay sheep have to do with each other? Plenty, according to the Toronto Star. The paper reports that two researchers - Charles Roselli of Oregon Health and Science University and Fred Stormshak of Oregon State University - have been studying why eight percent of rams prefer to court other rams rather than ewes (not that there's anything wrong with that). The study had been proceeding quietly until fate intervened. You see, two university football players (you're getting ahead of me here) were pulled over for speeding. They'd been drinking. They had, in the bed of their truck, something they'd swiped from the research center - a gay ram. Once a story like that hit the wires, containing it was impossible. Pretty soon, people were asking questions about the research. Then animal rights activists, gay-rights advocates and left-leaning bloggers raised a great hue and cry ("ewe" and cry?) Former tennis star Martina Navratilova kicked off the frenzy. She wrote a letter to both universities demanding they pull the study's funding. She said the research was "homophobic and cruel." She said the money would be better spent promoting acceptance of all sexual preferences. PETA had urged her to write the letter. PETA urged 14,000 other people to voice their complaints, too, and some of them protested and called the researchers Nazis....
Western states united to bypass Bush on climate Five Western U.S. states have formed the latest regional pact to bypass the Bush administration to cut emissions linked to global warming through market mechanisms. The Western Regional Climate Action Initiative requires Oregon, California, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona to develop a regional target in six months for reducing greenhouse emissions according to statements from the states' governors. During the next 18 months, the states will devise a market-based plan, such as a load-based cap-and-trade program, to reach the target. They also have agreed to participate in a multi-state registry to track and manage greenhouse gas emissions in their region. The regional agreement "shows the power of the states to lead our nation" and "sets the stage for a regional cap-and-trade program, which will provide a powerful framework for developing a national cap and trade program," Schwarzenegger said in a statement....
Environmentalists hail takeover plan for Texas utility The board of Texas' largest electric utility last night tentatively approved a record $45 billion takeover bid by two private equity firms in a deal hailed by environmentalists as a major turning point in the battle against global warming. The prospective owners of the TXU Corp. have told environmental groups that they would cancel eight of 11 coal plants proposed by the company and also back national legislation for mandatory reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to climate change. TXU was expected today to formally announce the buyout, according to people familiar with the deal. The sale, which needs shareholder approval, would be the largest leveraged buyout in US corporate history....
Blizzard's scars cut across Plains In the mud on the side of Baca County Road WW, in one of the few bare spots in an otherwise snow-smothered prairie, lies the carcass of Steve McEndree's wife's favorite cow. Jamie McEndree playfully named the auburn Hereford "Bad Horn Day," for the curious way one of its horns curled up and one down. Steve wanted to sell the old cow a year ago, but Jamie asked him not to. Last week, nearly two months after a blizzard dropped 4 feet of snow on the McEndree's ranch, Bad Horn Day lay down in that spot along Road WW and died, worn out from fighting the snow, fighting the cold and fighting the hunger. "It's part of life," says Steve McEndree, a third-generation rancher in Baca County. "But you don't like it." Another dead cow. One of at least 46 cows and calves that McEndree has lost since the December blizzard. One of an estimated 10,000 that have died in southeastern Colorado as a result of the storm. Their carcasses are reminders that the blizzard's wrath didn't end when the storms faded months ago and likely won't end even when the snow that still lies on the ground a foot deep finally melts away....
Wyo. Senate trims wolf management area The state Senate voted Monday to reject the federal government's proposed boundary for a permanent wolf management area in the northwest corner of Wyoming. By a vote of 16-13, the Senate amended a wolf management bill to exclude most private land from a permanent management area in which wolves would be managed as trophy game animals. Outside that area, they would be managed as predators that could be shot on sight. Mitch King, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, said Monday that his agency has explained repeatedly to state officials that the original management area must be included in any state wolf management plan or his agency will reject it....
Prairie dogs' dark side comes to light in political fight The world's expert on lust, violence and cannibalism among prairie dogs uses a slide in his lectures that sums up a lifetime of research. Several of the squirrel-size creatures are shown perched on their hind legs: cute, cute, cute, cute, cute. But then, next to each fuzzy head, John Hoogland has written something darker he has seen happen in a prairie dog "town." "Promiscuity, kidnapping, pedophilia, murder, infanticide," it says. Not so cute. "Studying prairie dogs is like watching little people," he says. "Whatever we do, they do as well, and usually more often." Hoogland, 58, a professor at the University of Maryland, has spent 34 years unraveling the daily routines of the burrowing rodent. It has always been interesting work: These towns can make Melrose Place look like Sesame Street....
Bounty on coyotes aims to ease predation Wolves seem to get all the attention in Wyoming. But while the debate about wolf management is ongoing, another predator sails under the radar. Coyotes roam the countryside in the shadow of their larger cousins. The Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and Cody Country Outfitters and Guides groups saw a problem and took steps to address it. “Coyotes are a big problem that goes unnoticed,” SFW spokesman Lou Cicco said. “They kill small animals and pets and we wanted to help stop that.” Four years ago the two groups began a bounty program for hunters who shoot coyotes. We began working together and created a fund to pay for freshly killed coyotes,” Cicco said. “We pay the bounties until we run out of money for the year.” This year the program started Feb. 1 and already more than 100 coyotes have been brought in....
Is Bigfoot Living In The Forest Above Marysville? The couple recorded their discovery with photographs and returned to take more pictures. Joining the Padigos now was Scot Woodland, a Nevada County search and rescue team member and a certified expert tracker. Scot says he's got an open mind but when he first saw the tracks he figured here's another hoax. "The closer I got and looked at the prints, the more I could see the detail and the movement in the foot. As a tracker you see how things move the weight and all that stuff. The complexity of the footprint made me go whoa!” he says. What really impressed Scot was the force of the Bigfoot print which rippled the ground around it. Scot's footprint next to it hardly moved the earth. “If it's a hoax, somebody really did a good job, if it's not, then there's a big creature that lives among us," says Woodland. All the prints appear to be from one animal walking slowly but with a stride twice that of a human. “We measured from heel of the left foot to heel of left foot, 56 inches," says Scott. The footprint was gigantic. It was seven-and-a-half inches wide. The tape measure shows the impression is nearly double the length of an adult human foot....
Man donates historic ranch to Nature Conservancy Groundwater in Aravaipa Creek will be protected from pumping because of the donation of the historic Cobra Ranch to The Nature Conservancy in Arizona. Dan Bates, a Tucson artist and owner of the El Corral and Pinnacle Peak restaurants, donated the ranch in honor of his mother, Mary Bates, who co-owned the ranch with her son for 25 years. Cobra Ranch includes 1,250 private acres and 10,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service grazing leases adjacent to Aravaipa Canyon Preserve. With the Bates donation of private acreage and public land grazing leases, the preserve will protect 53,000 acres of land. Preserve Manager Mark Haberstich said everyone at the preserve was pleased with the donation. “It has been a property that’s been important to us,” Haberstich said. “It sits over the aquifer that supplies water to Aravaipa Creek, and if it had been subdivided and wells were allowed to be drilled, it would have dried up the creek.”....
Permit sought for carbon dioxide pipeline Devon Gas Services LP is proposing to revitalize an aging oil field in central Wyoming by using carbon dioxide to recover more oil, federal officials said. As part of the project, Devon is seeking Bureau of Land Management permission to construct a 47-mile-long pipeline to move carbon dioxide gas from southwest Wyoming to the Beaver Creek field in Fremont County, according to BLM officials. The carbon dioxide gas would come from the ExxonMobil Shute Creek-LaBarge gas processing plant and Bairoil metering facility. Carbon dioxide is a form of enhanced oil recovery that improves the flow of oil from a reservoir that has already reached peak production by conventional means. Carbon dioxide, in liquid form, mixes with unrecovered oil and pushes it to production wells. The carbon dioxide can then be separated from the oil and reused, or stored in the oil reservoir so that it is not released into the atmosphere....
Delta environmental water crisis looms An environmental crisis could disrupt water supplies throughout California for the first time since the early 1990s, threatening to end the long cease-fire in the state's water wars. A dry winter, devastated fish populations and recent scientific research together could force state water officials to cut Delta water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities. Already this year, water managers and environmental regulators are forecasting the possibility that much more water than is available will be needed to protect fish and prevent pushing Delta smelt closer to extinction. "We'll consider just about everything in terms of how we get through this," said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources. "Making water available in an uncompensated manner, these things are controversial." Not since a drought in the early 1990s — a period when some of the Delta's salmon and smelt populations were added to the lists of threatened and endangered species — have water supplies been so threatened because of the needs of Delta fish....
Thinning study leads to first cougar kills The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has begun killing cougars in Jackson County as part of its study into whether curbing cougar numbers can improve public safety and reduce livestock loss. An ODFW technician Tuesday killed the first two of the 24 cougars that will be removed here as part of this study, which is outlined in the state's new cougar plan that has been widely criticized by animal-rights activists. Dan Jenkins, from the ODFW's Roseburg office, trapped the cougars on a Lake Creek area ranch and shot them, said Mark Vargas, the ODFW's Rogue District wildlife biologist in Central Point. They were young "sub-adults," a male and a female, which were taken to the department's Roseburg office late Tuesday, Vargas said....
Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing. In 24 states throughout the country, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation’s most profitable. “I have never seen anything like it,” Mr. Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. “Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.” The sudden mysterious losses are highlighting the critical link that honeybees play in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables across the country. Beekeepers have fought regional bee crises before, but this is the first national affliction. Now, in a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why. Researchers say the bees are presumably dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold....
Cow gives birth to triplets Farmer/rancher Bryan Wagner suspected something was unusual when a 5-year-old cow in his herd of about 200 went into labor. It seemed to be having trouble, so Wagner decided to assist. He delivered one calf and discovered there was another in the womb. That's not unusual. Of the 50 or so cows that have calved so far on the Wagner farm, five have given birth to twins. After delivering the second calf, Wagner realized a third one was ready to face the world, too. That's unusual. Veterinarians say the chance of a cow having triplets is anywhere from one in 75,000 to one in 105,000, according to an Internet search on the topic of triplet calves. And the chance of all three thriving is even less likely, these sources reported. Wagner delivered the third calf, too, after turning it around so it came normally - head and front feet first. It was positioned backward in the womb, he said. This is the second time one of Wagner's cows has delivered triplets; the first set came in 1998....
CNFR releases 2007 dates The 58th annual College National Finals Rodeo will be June 10-16 in Casper, Wyo. National titles in saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, team roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping and goat tying will be up for grabs. The top three students in each event, and the top two men's and women's teams from the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association's 11 regions will qualify for the CNFR. Students will compete for more than $200,000 in scholarships from the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company. Ticket prices range from $6-$16, and season passes are also available....
Two for Trevor Four-time all-around world champion Trevor Brazile is a big fan of the Tucson Rodeo and rightfully so. Brazile (Decatur, Texas) captured his second consecutive tie-down roping average title at the 82nd annual La Fiesta de los Vaqueros in front of a packed house of 11,000 on Sunday afternoon. Brazile, 30, entered the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Round with over a half a second lead in the average on two and knew a good solid run would be enough to defend his title in Tucson. "The calf I had today, they were 14.7 on yesterday and that wasn't what I wanted to hear when I showed up today," Brazile said. "I knew I had a pretty good cushion so I just went out and made as good of a run as I could." Brazile turned in an 11.1-second run today, which didn't win the round but was enough to secure the title over Doug Pharr (Victoria, Texas). Brazile's final time was 30.6 seconds on three head, while Pharr finished with a total time of 31.3....
San Angel-Ohl Five-time and reigning world champion tie-down roper Cody Ohl entered the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Round at the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo knowing if he made a businessman's run, he would win the average title an overall prize totaling more than $6,000. Ohl (Hico, Texas) stopped the clock in 9.3 seconds to finish with a four-head total of 34.1 seconds, capturing the average title. His closest competitors were Scott Kormos, who finished second in 35.2 seconds, and Jerome Schneeberger was third with a 35.3. Schneeberger (Ponca City, Okla.) won the Tour Round, stopping the clock in 8.0 seconds. Ohl left the Concho Valley with $10,041 in earnings, while Kormos added $8,644 to his season total and Schneeberger cashed in for $8,740. The San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo marked the fifth stop on the 2007 Wrangler ProRodeo Tour. This year's Wrangler ProRodeo Tour consists of 21 rodeos from January to August. Contestants will choose 15 out of the 21 rodeos to count toward their official Tour Rodeo count and will compete for money this year versus points as in years past....
Floyd Lee was an old-school rancher Traveling our state's byways and back country over the past 50 years, I've been fortunate to meet a number of memorable New Mexicans who maintained a strong link to the past. One of those was Floyd W. Lee of San Mateo, rancher and for 12 years a New Mexico state senator. Albuquerque-born in 1895, Floyd was an engineering student at The University of New Mexico when the U.S. entered World War I. Joining up, he saw service in Europe with the New Mexico Field Artillery. Returning home after peace was won, Lee went to work for the Fernandez Co.'s vast ranch located near the village of San Mateo, northwest of Grants. This sprawling sheep and cattle operation got its start as a Spanish land grant ceded to Bartolomé Fernandez in 1767. It was acquired from his heirs in the late 1860s by Indian campaigner Col. Manuel Antonio Chaves. Lee worked his way up from cowhand and bronc-buster to become general manager of the ranch, and then through stock acquisitions, he became the owner in 1938. The property had more than 500 miles of boundary and cross fences....
A Wild and Woolly Affair Boy, are we a country with too much free time on our hands. Or should I say, what do a retired tennis pro, PETA, two research scientists and a herd of gay sheep have to do with each other? Plenty, according to the Toronto Star. The paper reports that two researchers - Charles Roselli of Oregon Health and Science University and Fred Stormshak of Oregon State University - have been studying why eight percent of rams prefer to court other rams rather than ewes (not that there's anything wrong with that). The study had been proceeding quietly until fate intervened. You see, two university football players (you're getting ahead of me here) were pulled over for speeding. They'd been drinking. They had, in the bed of their truck, something they'd swiped from the research center - a gay ram. Once a story like that hit the wires, containing it was impossible. Pretty soon, people were asking questions about the research. Then animal rights activists, gay-rights advocates and left-leaning bloggers raised a great hue and cry ("ewe" and cry?) Former tennis star Martina Navratilova kicked off the frenzy. She wrote a letter to both universities demanding they pull the study's funding. She said the research was "homophobic and cruel." She said the money would be better spent promoting acceptance of all sexual preferences. PETA had urged her to write the letter. PETA urged 14,000 other people to voice their complaints, too, and some of them protested and called the researchers Nazis....
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