U.S. Database Exposed Social Security Numbers
The Agriculture Department for years publicly listed Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of people who received financial aid from two of its agencies, raising concerns about identity theft and other privacy violations. Officials at the department and at the Census Bureau, which maintains the database where the personal information was listed, were evidently unaware that it contained Social Security numbers. The problem was reported to the government last week by a farmer in Illinois who stumbled across the data on the Internet. “I was bored and typed the name of my farm into Google to see what was out there,” said Marsha Bergmeier, president of Mohr Family Farms in Fairmount, Ill. The first link in the results was to the Web site of Ms. Bergmeier’s farm. The second was to a site that Ms. Bergmeier had not heard of, FedSpending.org, which has a searchable listing of federal government expenditures. It uses information from the government database. Ms. Bergmeier said she was able to identify almost 30,000 records in the database that contained Social Security numbers. “I was stunned,” she said. “The numbers were right there in plain view in this database that anyone can access.” While there is no evidence that the information has been used improperly, officials at the Agriculture Department and the Census Bureau removed the numbers from the census Web site last week. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy rights group, said the improper disclosures might have violated the Federal Privacy Act, which restricts the release of such personal information. “Federal agencies are under strict obligations to limit the use of Social Security numbers as an identifier,” Mr. Rotenberg said. “It doesn’t look like that’s what happened in this case.” The Department of Energy, the Navy, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service also suffered data breaches last year where personal information was lost or stolen....
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Army seeks more Pinon Canyon acreage The Army has no "long term" plans to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site beyond the 418,000 additional acres the Defense Department is seeking currently, officials told a Senate subcommittee Thursday. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., questioned Keith Eastin, assistant Army secretary, about the need to expand the Pinon Canyon training site during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. While asking Eastin to justify why the Army wants to add more acreage to the 238,000-acre training site, Allard also pressed whether the Pentagon has plans for an even larger expansion in the future. At a town meeting in Pueblo on Tuesday, Fort Carson officials acknowledged their initial planning looked at expanding Pinon Canyon by 1.4 million acres. On Feb. 14, the Defense Department authorized the Army to pursue an expansion of 418,000 acres. "In the very long term, we have no plans to expand past the 418,000 acres we need," Eastin told Allard. Lon Robertson, president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, said ranchers appreciate Allard asking the Army to justify the expansion, but said landowners in the region have no confidence in the Pentagon's promises not to alter their future plans. "They've already broken their pledge from the 1980s, when Pinon Canyon was first established, that they wouldn't seek additional land," Robertson said. "Historically, the Army's promises aren't anything you can hang your hat on."....
Cody hearing on delisting draws passionate views As the federal government wraps up plans to remove most of the region's wolves from the endangered-species list, the final public hearing on the proposal featured passionate opinions on all sides of the issue. Approximately 600 people attended the hearing at the Cody Auditorium, with about 250 on hand earlier for a presentation and question-and-answer session by Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While previous discussions about delisting wolves in Wyoming have focused largely on conflicts with ranchers, many of those from Cody who spoke were sportsmen who said elk populations were suffering from excessive wolf predation. Others, including many representing conservation groups, said elk are at or above target numbers for most areas in the state, and that wolves serve a vital role in moving elk herds out of sensitive habitat areas like river bottoms. Hearing officer Lesley Travers, a consultant from Casper hired to manage the event, struggled at times to control the crowd. Many applauded comments favoring Wyoming's wolf management plan, and jeered those who said wolves had little effect on elk herds....
EPA questions OK'ing use of coalbed water Federal regulators have warned the Schweitzer administration of possible Clean Water Act violations in a legislative measure to allow the storage of coalbed methane water in hundreds of small reservoirs used by livestock and wildlife. The bill would give companies a way to dispose of some of the billions of gallons of poor-quality water produced during coalbed methane production. Southeast Montana ranchers desperate for water after years of drought would be able to use the reservoirs to water their cattle or to benefit wildlife. But that water - pumped from underground aquifers by companies trying to access the methane, or natural gas, found in coal seams - contains high amounts of sodium and other salts that can kill crops and damage soil if it is used to irrigate land. The water is considered generally acceptable for animals, which have a higher salt tolerance. Montana law restricts the pumping of coalbed methane water into streams, rivers and the channels that drain into them. Senate Bill 407, sponsored by Keith Bales, R-Otter, would strip some of those restrictions from farm and ranch "impoundments" - small reservoirs often used as stock ponds. Because water from impoundments can seep into other water bodies or overflow after heavy rain or snow, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency say the measure could lead to violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The EPA can override Bales' proposal if it does not meet provisions of the act....
West's forest-health funds cut While snow has been an ally against wildfires this year, the federal government is not so kind, Gov. Bill Ritter said Thursday. Forest officials want to cut $4.3 million from the $230 million spent last year on forest health in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota. "Losing that ($4.3 million) erodes our ability to add land for management," the governor told reporters after he was briefed on fire conditions by state and federal officials. Colorado's congressional delegation sent a letter to U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell asking to restore the money. The Forest Service "shouldn't balance its books by putting Colorado at risk," Sen. Ken Salazar said in a statement. Last year Colorado saw 3,294 fires that burned 202,000 acres - 1,200 more fires and three times the acreage of 2005....
Feds help some in Az avoid arrests If you have not paid that littering citation you received on last month's camping trip, May 1 is your lucky day. On and before May 1, the federal government will allow those with outstanding federal misdemeanor warrants to come forward and settle their fines through a new program, Safe Surrender Day. It includes those with warrants for arrests for misdemeanor violations, said U.S. Attorney Daniel Knauss at a news conference Thursday. Safe Surrender Day "helps people come clean and avoid arrests," Knauss said. Federal misdemeanor offenses include crimes such as vandalism, littering, underage consumption of alcohol and disorderly conduct, the U.S. Forest Service said. After May 1, officials from the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will track down those with unsettled citations and warrants and arrest them, said David Gonzales, U.S. marshal for Arizona. "Those who don't settle their fines and warrants can expect the U.S. marshal's task force to come knocking on their door," Gonzales said. "This service is for those individuals who are tired of looking over their backs when they see a policeman or a badge."....
Hiker to start 3,100-mile walk next Thursday National treasures take many forms, but a rewarding way to experience is hiking the Continental Divide Trail. Offering rugged terrains, variable weather conditions, threat of wildfires and water scarcity, the 3,100 mile trail has been referred to as "uncharted, wild and incomplete." The newest hiker to grab the challenge is Mat Matson, a former district governor of Rotary International. Matson, who has established a four-day base camp at Pancho Villa State Park, will begin the border-to-border hike from the bootheel area on April 26. "I will be hiking from Mexico to Canada on the Continental Divide Trail with a select team of youth and fellow Rotarians," Matson said. "We want to raise awareness of the significance of the trail and the importance of instilling conservation values in the next generation of stewards of our public lands." In addition to publicizing trail completion and protection, Mat and his team will be soliciting donations along the way to fund Youth Corp. members, who spend 10 weeks each summer working on the CDT. And last month, the New Mexico Legislature passed a House Memorial supporting completion of the CDT, making New Mexico the first of the five CDT states to formally support the trail. "The Continental Divide Trail will help promote tourism and support rural economies throughout New Mexico," said Gov. Bill Richardson....
Column - National forest budgets battered How to get attention to the problem? A worthy suggestion is to erect stocks outside the Darrington Ranger Station, into which would be placed Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey, the former timber lobbyist who oversees the Forest Service. Arriving to pay for their permits, recreationists could pelt Mr. Rey with cabbages. On the way home, they could ply him with pictures of the washed-out White Chuck River road. The total staffing of the U.S. Forest Service has been halved in the last decade. The Bush administration proposes to cut "Smokey Bear's" budget by $64.3 million in the next fiscal year, and cut an additional 2,100 jobs. Other agencies, which manage far more land, are getting the shaft. A total of 225 jobs at national wildlife refuges were cut between 2004 and 2006. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will eliminate 248 more jobs in the next two years, under administration budget proposals....
Lawsuit challenges protection for salmon across West Property rights advocates, farm groups and development interests asked a federal judge Wednesday to lift Endangered Species Act protections from all threatened and endangered salmon across the West, arguing that the government failed to count fish spawned in hatcheries. The federal government and conservation groups countered that the Endangered Species Act requires consideration of the best available science, which clearly indicates that depending on fish raised in hatcheries to boost salmon numbers will, over the long run, harm fish that spawn naturally in rivers. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan gave no indication when he might rule on the case, or how he might rule. Pacific Legal Foundation, a property rights public interest law firm based in Sacramento, Calif., brought the lawsuit on behalf of the Building Industry Association of Washington, the Coalition for Idaho Water, farm bureaus in Idaho and Washington, the California State Grange and others. The lawsuit builds on Hogan's 2001 ruling that NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency in charge of restoring dwindling salmon populations, violated the Endangered Species Act when it put wild and hatchery fish in the same group, known as an evolutionarily significant unit, or ESU, but then protected only the wild fish. The ruling led to lifting threatened species status for the Oregon coastal coho. The plaintiffs want the court to lift threatened and endangered species listings for all 16 protected populations of salmon in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and California....
Endangered listing proposed for Alaska belugas The National Marine Fisheries Service proposed on Thursday listing beluga whales that swim in Alaska's Cook Inlet as endangered due to a sharp decline in their population. The federal agency proposed the endangered listing -- a status granted to populations considered in imminent threat of extinction -- for beluga whales. The population of the small white whales is down to an estimated 302 from about 1,300 in the 1970s, according to the Fisheries Service. An agency study estimated that the population has a 26 percent chance of extinction within 100 years. The agency will have a year to make its final decision about listing the belugas as endangered, said Fisheries spokeswoman Sheela McLean. Environmentalists who have been seeking Endangered Species Act protections hailed the proposal for listing the Cook Inlet belugas, whose swimming patterns off the Anchorage coastline make them a favorite among tourists and local residents....
An Inconvenient Tooth: Food Is Major Contributor to Climate Change April 17, 2007 – Global warming activists have a new ally in their fight to save the planet—lunch. It turns out that food (and all the energy it takes to make it) is one of the largest human activities contributing to global warming. The average American creates 2.8 tons of CO2 emissions each year by eating—even more than the 2.2 tons each person generates by driving, according to recent research (Echel and Martin, 2006). Beginning on Earth Day, 2007, Bon Appétit Management Company—the nation's pioneer in "greening" food service, is launching a national campaign to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions and help their guests do the same. With 400 cafés in corporations, universities and specialty venues nationwide—including Yahoo!, Oberlin College and the Seattle Art Museum—Bon Appétit will encourage chefs and diners to think about how their food choices could help ease the climate crisis....
Texans crowd list of largest landowners It comes as no surprise — given Texans' penchant for bragging — that 12 of the nation's 100 largest private landowners hail from South or Central Texas. Forty of the 100 big ranch families highlighted in a new Dallas-based magazine, the Land Report, have most or all their lands in the Lone Star State. The common denominator among Texas' great spreads is beef, said Kaare Remme, manager of the 45th-ranked McCoy Remme Ranches of West Texas. Remme's partner is brother-in-law Brian McCoy, CEO of the San Marcos-based McCoy Building Supply lumber and hardware stores. "A third of the beef in the nation comes out of Texas," Remme said. "Livestock production is a big deal." The fabled King Ranch heirs rank first in the state and fifth in the nation with 851,642 acres. Briscoe Ranch Inc., owned by two-time Texas Gov. Dolph Briscoe Jr. of Uvalde, ranks 12th in the nation for its size, but like the King Ranch is among the top 10 range cattle operations. The heirs of Alice Kleberg East rank 17th with lands she kept after splitting her wealth from the rest of the King Ranch dynasty. Still, the top dog in a new poll isn't a Texan. CNN founder and former Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner leads the rest with 2 million acres that are mostly dedicated to bison....
Almost 40 years later, Earth Day resonates anew At the age of 37, Earth Day has reached a certain level of maturity within the environmental movement — a movement now picking up major steam as citizens are beginning to take global warming seriously. Earth Day was first celebrated April 22, 1970, and founded by Democratic Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and Republican Congressman Paul Norton “Pete” McCloskey Jr., now a resident of Woodside. The event was established in a turbulent era, swirling with anger over the Vietnam War and galvanized by Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” revealing the effects of pesticides on the environment. Letters were sent to college student-body presidents, encouraging students to celebrate the new environmental holiday. “In 1970, the word ‘environmentalist’ was attributed to little old ladies and kooks,” McCloskey said. “The idea was to get kids involved to bring pressure on their parents and others.” McCloskey and Nelson’s plan worked. Not only was the first Earth Day a hit, but those same students rallied against 12 senators they called “the dirty dozen,” and within weeks seven of those senators — most of them anti-environment — had been voted out of Congress. Suddenly, fellow members of Congress began coming to McCloskey, asking him how they could pay more attention to the environment. By 1973, Congress established or amended three major pieces of environmental legislation: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act....
AFT Says: It's a Critical Time to Match Agriculture's Commitment to Conservation "The farm bill's voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs are the largest environmental programs in the federal budget. They are critical to cleaner water, improved air quality, expanded wildlife habitat and protected land for future generations," said Ralph Grossi, American Farmland Trust (AFT) president in testimony before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy and Research. Grossi had four messages for the committee: -- Increase funding for conservation programs to match producers willingness to implement conservation practices; -- Leverage taxpayer resources by offering a new cooperative conservation loan guarantee program to stimulate dramatically more stewardship; -- Increase the effectiveness of programs by encouraging cooperative approaches to address resource concerns; and -- Improve farm and ranch land protection programs to reduce the loss of this irreplaceable, strategic resource. Working farm and ranch land comprises half the land in America. "Farmers are ready and willing to do more to protect the environment. Yet when they apply for federal cost-share programs, there is only enough money available to fund one-out-of-four applications....
Cattle poisoning leads to dispute between families In a rare indictment in this deep-rooted ranching community, Karnes County authorities recently charged one of the area's most prominent farmers with poisoning the cattle of a neighboring rancher. Michael Janysek, 46, is accused of spreading poison-laced planting corn in a cattle pasture along County Road 355 two years ago, killing at least four head of cattle and numerous other wild animals that inadvertently ate the kernels, according to court documents. The Texas Rangers investigated the deaths and obtained a grand jury indictment against Janysek earlier this month for criminal mischief, a state jail felony. Janysek, who pleaded not guilty last week, is free on a personal recognizance bond. The Texas Rangers investigated the cattle deaths after a local veterinarian found traces of the highly toxic pesticide "temik" in corn recovered from the site where the dead cattle were found March 10, 2005. "It's our assumption that he was trying to kill wild hogs," said Texas Ranger Marrie Aldridge....
Cowboy poetry has positive affect on students April is National Poetry Month and April 15-21 marks the sixth annual Cowboy Poetry Week. This recognition was implemented through a unanimous resolution passed in the United States Senate in April 2003, and is reaffirmed each year through gubernatorial proclamations and special activities across the West and beyond. This year, at the urging of Montana cowboy poets represented by D. W. Groethe of Bainville, Mont., Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer joined governors of many other states in officially saluting Cowboy Poetry Week, noting the importance of “public awareness to this form of art and its value to the people of Montana.” “I am pleased to recognize Cowboy Poetry Week in the state of Montana,” Schweitzer said. “Cowboy poetry has a rich history in Montana and has been an active part of schools and communities in Montana.” In Casey’s opinion, introducing students to cowboy poetry is seriously important. “I believe in our roots and heritage,” he said. “We all need to stand up and protect the traditions and legacies we've inherited, and I've got a story to tell. I want to be an image for kids to look up to, and hopefully instill in them this same love of country and customs I know and respect. Without our heritage, our children lose focus. Without our children's focus, we lose our world.”....
'Getting away with murder' Like all lawyers, Bill Neal knows some good stories. Now that he's retired, he's telling them. "Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier: Notorious Killings and Celebrated Trials" (Texas Tech University Press) is the title of his book. A "cavalier attitude toward violence" marked Texas in earlier days, Neal said, listing a string of wars and their effects - the Texas Revolution to the Indian Wars and Reconstruction - as contributing influences on society. That's not to mention the influx of post-Civil War outlaws. "Killings, they just weren't that big a deal," he said. "Convictions were more the exception than the rule." Horse thieves fell into a different category. "If you stole a horse, you were mighty lucky if you got past the first cottonwood tree - much less made it to the courthouse," Neal said. Not that the courthouse was necessarily a place of justice. Some miscarriages thereof are topics for chapters in the book - like the time the flamboyant Temple Houston (son of Sam Houston) managed to achieve a mistrial by firing his pistol into the jury, effectively causing the sequestered jurors to mix and mingle with the spectators as they cleared the courthouse and ran for their lives. The pistol was loaded with blanks, but "the judge wasn't amused," Neal said. The judge scolded Houston but had to grant the request for a mistrial. Houston got a jury more to his liking for the next trial. His cowboy client, who allegedly had shot and killed a prominent rancher, got an acquittal....
Army seeks more Pinon Canyon acreage The Army has no "long term" plans to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site beyond the 418,000 additional acres the Defense Department is seeking currently, officials told a Senate subcommittee Thursday. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., questioned Keith Eastin, assistant Army secretary, about the need to expand the Pinon Canyon training site during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. While asking Eastin to justify why the Army wants to add more acreage to the 238,000-acre training site, Allard also pressed whether the Pentagon has plans for an even larger expansion in the future. At a town meeting in Pueblo on Tuesday, Fort Carson officials acknowledged their initial planning looked at expanding Pinon Canyon by 1.4 million acres. On Feb. 14, the Defense Department authorized the Army to pursue an expansion of 418,000 acres. "In the very long term, we have no plans to expand past the 418,000 acres we need," Eastin told Allard. Lon Robertson, president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, said ranchers appreciate Allard asking the Army to justify the expansion, but said landowners in the region have no confidence in the Pentagon's promises not to alter their future plans. "They've already broken their pledge from the 1980s, when Pinon Canyon was first established, that they wouldn't seek additional land," Robertson said. "Historically, the Army's promises aren't anything you can hang your hat on."....
Cody hearing on delisting draws passionate views As the federal government wraps up plans to remove most of the region's wolves from the endangered-species list, the final public hearing on the proposal featured passionate opinions on all sides of the issue. Approximately 600 people attended the hearing at the Cody Auditorium, with about 250 on hand earlier for a presentation and question-and-answer session by Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While previous discussions about delisting wolves in Wyoming have focused largely on conflicts with ranchers, many of those from Cody who spoke were sportsmen who said elk populations were suffering from excessive wolf predation. Others, including many representing conservation groups, said elk are at or above target numbers for most areas in the state, and that wolves serve a vital role in moving elk herds out of sensitive habitat areas like river bottoms. Hearing officer Lesley Travers, a consultant from Casper hired to manage the event, struggled at times to control the crowd. Many applauded comments favoring Wyoming's wolf management plan, and jeered those who said wolves had little effect on elk herds....
EPA questions OK'ing use of coalbed water Federal regulators have warned the Schweitzer administration of possible Clean Water Act violations in a legislative measure to allow the storage of coalbed methane water in hundreds of small reservoirs used by livestock and wildlife. The bill would give companies a way to dispose of some of the billions of gallons of poor-quality water produced during coalbed methane production. Southeast Montana ranchers desperate for water after years of drought would be able to use the reservoirs to water their cattle or to benefit wildlife. But that water - pumped from underground aquifers by companies trying to access the methane, or natural gas, found in coal seams - contains high amounts of sodium and other salts that can kill crops and damage soil if it is used to irrigate land. The water is considered generally acceptable for animals, which have a higher salt tolerance. Montana law restricts the pumping of coalbed methane water into streams, rivers and the channels that drain into them. Senate Bill 407, sponsored by Keith Bales, R-Otter, would strip some of those restrictions from farm and ranch "impoundments" - small reservoirs often used as stock ponds. Because water from impoundments can seep into other water bodies or overflow after heavy rain or snow, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency say the measure could lead to violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The EPA can override Bales' proposal if it does not meet provisions of the act....
West's forest-health funds cut While snow has been an ally against wildfires this year, the federal government is not so kind, Gov. Bill Ritter said Thursday. Forest officials want to cut $4.3 million from the $230 million spent last year on forest health in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota. "Losing that ($4.3 million) erodes our ability to add land for management," the governor told reporters after he was briefed on fire conditions by state and federal officials. Colorado's congressional delegation sent a letter to U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell asking to restore the money. The Forest Service "shouldn't balance its books by putting Colorado at risk," Sen. Ken Salazar said in a statement. Last year Colorado saw 3,294 fires that burned 202,000 acres - 1,200 more fires and three times the acreage of 2005....
Feds help some in Az avoid arrests If you have not paid that littering citation you received on last month's camping trip, May 1 is your lucky day. On and before May 1, the federal government will allow those with outstanding federal misdemeanor warrants to come forward and settle their fines through a new program, Safe Surrender Day. It includes those with warrants for arrests for misdemeanor violations, said U.S. Attorney Daniel Knauss at a news conference Thursday. Safe Surrender Day "helps people come clean and avoid arrests," Knauss said. Federal misdemeanor offenses include crimes such as vandalism, littering, underage consumption of alcohol and disorderly conduct, the U.S. Forest Service said. After May 1, officials from the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will track down those with unsettled citations and warrants and arrest them, said David Gonzales, U.S. marshal for Arizona. "Those who don't settle their fines and warrants can expect the U.S. marshal's task force to come knocking on their door," Gonzales said. "This service is for those individuals who are tired of looking over their backs when they see a policeman or a badge."....
Hiker to start 3,100-mile walk next Thursday National treasures take many forms, but a rewarding way to experience is hiking the Continental Divide Trail. Offering rugged terrains, variable weather conditions, threat of wildfires and water scarcity, the 3,100 mile trail has been referred to as "uncharted, wild and incomplete." The newest hiker to grab the challenge is Mat Matson, a former district governor of Rotary International. Matson, who has established a four-day base camp at Pancho Villa State Park, will begin the border-to-border hike from the bootheel area on April 26. "I will be hiking from Mexico to Canada on the Continental Divide Trail with a select team of youth and fellow Rotarians," Matson said. "We want to raise awareness of the significance of the trail and the importance of instilling conservation values in the next generation of stewards of our public lands." In addition to publicizing trail completion and protection, Mat and his team will be soliciting donations along the way to fund Youth Corp. members, who spend 10 weeks each summer working on the CDT. And last month, the New Mexico Legislature passed a House Memorial supporting completion of the CDT, making New Mexico the first of the five CDT states to formally support the trail. "The Continental Divide Trail will help promote tourism and support rural economies throughout New Mexico," said Gov. Bill Richardson....
Column - National forest budgets battered How to get attention to the problem? A worthy suggestion is to erect stocks outside the Darrington Ranger Station, into which would be placed Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey, the former timber lobbyist who oversees the Forest Service. Arriving to pay for their permits, recreationists could pelt Mr. Rey with cabbages. On the way home, they could ply him with pictures of the washed-out White Chuck River road. The total staffing of the U.S. Forest Service has been halved in the last decade. The Bush administration proposes to cut "Smokey Bear's" budget by $64.3 million in the next fiscal year, and cut an additional 2,100 jobs. Other agencies, which manage far more land, are getting the shaft. A total of 225 jobs at national wildlife refuges were cut between 2004 and 2006. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will eliminate 248 more jobs in the next two years, under administration budget proposals....
Lawsuit challenges protection for salmon across West Property rights advocates, farm groups and development interests asked a federal judge Wednesday to lift Endangered Species Act protections from all threatened and endangered salmon across the West, arguing that the government failed to count fish spawned in hatcheries. The federal government and conservation groups countered that the Endangered Species Act requires consideration of the best available science, which clearly indicates that depending on fish raised in hatcheries to boost salmon numbers will, over the long run, harm fish that spawn naturally in rivers. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan gave no indication when he might rule on the case, or how he might rule. Pacific Legal Foundation, a property rights public interest law firm based in Sacramento, Calif., brought the lawsuit on behalf of the Building Industry Association of Washington, the Coalition for Idaho Water, farm bureaus in Idaho and Washington, the California State Grange and others. The lawsuit builds on Hogan's 2001 ruling that NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency in charge of restoring dwindling salmon populations, violated the Endangered Species Act when it put wild and hatchery fish in the same group, known as an evolutionarily significant unit, or ESU, but then protected only the wild fish. The ruling led to lifting threatened species status for the Oregon coastal coho. The plaintiffs want the court to lift threatened and endangered species listings for all 16 protected populations of salmon in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and California....
Endangered listing proposed for Alaska belugas The National Marine Fisheries Service proposed on Thursday listing beluga whales that swim in Alaska's Cook Inlet as endangered due to a sharp decline in their population. The federal agency proposed the endangered listing -- a status granted to populations considered in imminent threat of extinction -- for beluga whales. The population of the small white whales is down to an estimated 302 from about 1,300 in the 1970s, according to the Fisheries Service. An agency study estimated that the population has a 26 percent chance of extinction within 100 years. The agency will have a year to make its final decision about listing the belugas as endangered, said Fisheries spokeswoman Sheela McLean. Environmentalists who have been seeking Endangered Species Act protections hailed the proposal for listing the Cook Inlet belugas, whose swimming patterns off the Anchorage coastline make them a favorite among tourists and local residents....
An Inconvenient Tooth: Food Is Major Contributor to Climate Change April 17, 2007 – Global warming activists have a new ally in their fight to save the planet—lunch. It turns out that food (and all the energy it takes to make it) is one of the largest human activities contributing to global warming. The average American creates 2.8 tons of CO2 emissions each year by eating—even more than the 2.2 tons each person generates by driving, according to recent research (Echel and Martin, 2006). Beginning on Earth Day, 2007, Bon Appétit Management Company—the nation's pioneer in "greening" food service, is launching a national campaign to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions and help their guests do the same. With 400 cafés in corporations, universities and specialty venues nationwide—including Yahoo!, Oberlin College and the Seattle Art Museum—Bon Appétit will encourage chefs and diners to think about how their food choices could help ease the climate crisis....
Texans crowd list of largest landowners It comes as no surprise — given Texans' penchant for bragging — that 12 of the nation's 100 largest private landowners hail from South or Central Texas. Forty of the 100 big ranch families highlighted in a new Dallas-based magazine, the Land Report, have most or all their lands in the Lone Star State. The common denominator among Texas' great spreads is beef, said Kaare Remme, manager of the 45th-ranked McCoy Remme Ranches of West Texas. Remme's partner is brother-in-law Brian McCoy, CEO of the San Marcos-based McCoy Building Supply lumber and hardware stores. "A third of the beef in the nation comes out of Texas," Remme said. "Livestock production is a big deal." The fabled King Ranch heirs rank first in the state and fifth in the nation with 851,642 acres. Briscoe Ranch Inc., owned by two-time Texas Gov. Dolph Briscoe Jr. of Uvalde, ranks 12th in the nation for its size, but like the King Ranch is among the top 10 range cattle operations. The heirs of Alice Kleberg East rank 17th with lands she kept after splitting her wealth from the rest of the King Ranch dynasty. Still, the top dog in a new poll isn't a Texan. CNN founder and former Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner leads the rest with 2 million acres that are mostly dedicated to bison....
Almost 40 years later, Earth Day resonates anew At the age of 37, Earth Day has reached a certain level of maturity within the environmental movement — a movement now picking up major steam as citizens are beginning to take global warming seriously. Earth Day was first celebrated April 22, 1970, and founded by Democratic Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and Republican Congressman Paul Norton “Pete” McCloskey Jr., now a resident of Woodside. The event was established in a turbulent era, swirling with anger over the Vietnam War and galvanized by Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” revealing the effects of pesticides on the environment. Letters were sent to college student-body presidents, encouraging students to celebrate the new environmental holiday. “In 1970, the word ‘environmentalist’ was attributed to little old ladies and kooks,” McCloskey said. “The idea was to get kids involved to bring pressure on their parents and others.” McCloskey and Nelson’s plan worked. Not only was the first Earth Day a hit, but those same students rallied against 12 senators they called “the dirty dozen,” and within weeks seven of those senators — most of them anti-environment — had been voted out of Congress. Suddenly, fellow members of Congress began coming to McCloskey, asking him how they could pay more attention to the environment. By 1973, Congress established or amended three major pieces of environmental legislation: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act....
AFT Says: It's a Critical Time to Match Agriculture's Commitment to Conservation "The farm bill's voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs are the largest environmental programs in the federal budget. They are critical to cleaner water, improved air quality, expanded wildlife habitat and protected land for future generations," said Ralph Grossi, American Farmland Trust (AFT) president in testimony before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy and Research. Grossi had four messages for the committee: -- Increase funding for conservation programs to match producers willingness to implement conservation practices; -- Leverage taxpayer resources by offering a new cooperative conservation loan guarantee program to stimulate dramatically more stewardship; -- Increase the effectiveness of programs by encouraging cooperative approaches to address resource concerns; and -- Improve farm and ranch land protection programs to reduce the loss of this irreplaceable, strategic resource. Working farm and ranch land comprises half the land in America. "Farmers are ready and willing to do more to protect the environment. Yet when they apply for federal cost-share programs, there is only enough money available to fund one-out-of-four applications....
Cattle poisoning leads to dispute between families In a rare indictment in this deep-rooted ranching community, Karnes County authorities recently charged one of the area's most prominent farmers with poisoning the cattle of a neighboring rancher. Michael Janysek, 46, is accused of spreading poison-laced planting corn in a cattle pasture along County Road 355 two years ago, killing at least four head of cattle and numerous other wild animals that inadvertently ate the kernels, according to court documents. The Texas Rangers investigated the deaths and obtained a grand jury indictment against Janysek earlier this month for criminal mischief, a state jail felony. Janysek, who pleaded not guilty last week, is free on a personal recognizance bond. The Texas Rangers investigated the cattle deaths after a local veterinarian found traces of the highly toxic pesticide "temik" in corn recovered from the site where the dead cattle were found March 10, 2005. "It's our assumption that he was trying to kill wild hogs," said Texas Ranger Marrie Aldridge....
Cowboy poetry has positive affect on students April is National Poetry Month and April 15-21 marks the sixth annual Cowboy Poetry Week. This recognition was implemented through a unanimous resolution passed in the United States Senate in April 2003, and is reaffirmed each year through gubernatorial proclamations and special activities across the West and beyond. This year, at the urging of Montana cowboy poets represented by D. W. Groethe of Bainville, Mont., Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer joined governors of many other states in officially saluting Cowboy Poetry Week, noting the importance of “public awareness to this form of art and its value to the people of Montana.” “I am pleased to recognize Cowboy Poetry Week in the state of Montana,” Schweitzer said. “Cowboy poetry has a rich history in Montana and has been an active part of schools and communities in Montana.” In Casey’s opinion, introducing students to cowboy poetry is seriously important. “I believe in our roots and heritage,” he said. “We all need to stand up and protect the traditions and legacies we've inherited, and I've got a story to tell. I want to be an image for kids to look up to, and hopefully instill in them this same love of country and customs I know and respect. Without our heritage, our children lose focus. Without our children's focus, we lose our world.”....
'Getting away with murder' Like all lawyers, Bill Neal knows some good stories. Now that he's retired, he's telling them. "Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier: Notorious Killings and Celebrated Trials" (Texas Tech University Press) is the title of his book. A "cavalier attitude toward violence" marked Texas in earlier days, Neal said, listing a string of wars and their effects - the Texas Revolution to the Indian Wars and Reconstruction - as contributing influences on society. That's not to mention the influx of post-Civil War outlaws. "Killings, they just weren't that big a deal," he said. "Convictions were more the exception than the rule." Horse thieves fell into a different category. "If you stole a horse, you were mighty lucky if you got past the first cottonwood tree - much less made it to the courthouse," Neal said. Not that the courthouse was necessarily a place of justice. Some miscarriages thereof are topics for chapters in the book - like the time the flamboyant Temple Houston (son of Sam Houston) managed to achieve a mistrial by firing his pistol into the jury, effectively causing the sequestered jurors to mix and mingle with the spectators as they cleared the courthouse and ran for their lives. The pistol was loaded with blanks, but "the judge wasn't amused," Neal said. The judge scolded Houston but had to grant the request for a mistrial. Houston got a jury more to his liking for the next trial. His cowboy client, who allegedly had shot and killed a prominent rancher, got an acquittal....
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Ranchers, farmers blast Army plan Nearly 200 ranchers, farmers and supporters filled a conference room here Tuesday, sending a resounding message to Army brass that they will fight the Army's attempt to take their lands for an expansion of its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad. A meeting to brief businesspeople on Fort Carson's addition of 8,000 to 10,000 troops in the next three years and the effects of that growth was overshadowed by the fort's pending proposal to triple the size of its maneuver site in southeastern Colorado. "I want to know what in the heck they're going to do and when the heck they're going to do it," said Judy Benevidez, who lives near the current maneuver site in Model. "This shows me the lack of concern the Army has, because they will not give us any information," she said. "They have all this business stuff taken care of, but they don't have enough information to give to the farmers. And that is wrong."....
Vegas can take Spring Valley water In a decision that could have eventual repercussions for Utah, Nevada's state engineer has determined that Las Vegas water authorities are entitled to roughly half the groundwater they have requested for a proposed pipeline project that would ship water from the eastern part of the state to southern Nevada. Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor issued a 56-page decision this week authorizing the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) to take up to 40,000 acre-feet of water annually from Spring Valley, located west of Great Basin National Park, for a 10-year period. An acre-foot is typically the amount of water a family of four consumes in a year. If it is determined there are minimal or no impacts from such a withdrawal, the state will authorize the withdrawal of an additional 20,000 acre-feet annually, bringing the total yearly take to 60,000 acre-feet. The SNWA's permit application requested a withdrawal of 91,000 acre-feet annually. Utah water officials say they don't expect the decision, outwardly anyway, to affect negotiations between the states over how groundwater in neighboring Snake Valley, located east of Spring Valley along the state line, will be shared. Such an agreement is necessary before the SNWA can pursue groundwater in Snake Valley - the next phase of its pipeline project....
Fossil from a forest that gave Earth its breath of fresh air A fossil tree with its roots and leaves still attached has provided a tantalising glimpse of what the Earth’s first forests looked like long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Wattieza trees covered vast swaths 385 million years ago, before even amphibians managed to clamber on to land, and had such an impact that they helped to change the planet’s atmosphere. They were the monsters of their age and are thought not only to have changed the face of the planet but also to have altered even the chemical composition of the atmosphere. The plant, which grew to at least 26 feet (8m) in height and probably to more than 40 feet, looked similar to a tree fern with a long, bare trunk that was crowned at the top with branches and leaves. Millions of the Wattieza trees would have covered the ground in coastal and other lowland regions of the planet 140 million years before the first dinosaurs....
Wyo. flock to be killed, tested after scrapie found Somewhere near Moorcroft, in an unincorporated area of northeastern Wyoming, a livestock owner will hand over his entire flock of sheep next week to the federal government for a mass execution. The rancher knows what will happen: his herd of roughly 300 sheep will be transported live out of state and taken to a slaughter plant where they will be euthanized, their brains and lymph node tissue harvested for testing. He'll lose his herd because he owned the first U.S. sheep to test positive for a rare strain of scrapie _ a disease found in sheep and goats that's similar to mad cow disease in cattle and chronic wasting disease in sheep and elk. Still, state statute prohibits officials from releasing the rancher's identity, and attempts by The Associated Press to reach him were unsuccessful. Scrapie itself is rare in the United States. Out of more than 115,000 animals tested since 2003, only 300 have tested positive; federal officials hope to eliminate scrapie from U.S. herds by the end of 2010. But the Wyoming rancher's case is even more rare: Fewer than 300 cases worldwide have been recorded of the "Nor98-like" strain of scrapie, so-named because it was first diagnosed in Norway in 1998. "This is very unusual," Larry Cooper, regional spokesman in Fort Collins, Colo., for Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, said of the first discovery of a Nor98-like strain of scrapie in the U.S. "It doesn't indicate that we're going to have mass outbreaks of this particular strain, it just indicates that one of these animals from Europe ended up in our system." There are no known human health risks associated with scrapie....
Dope tries to rope deer I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that since they congregated at my cattle feeder and did not seem to fear when we were there. A bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not four feet away. It shouldn't be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it to transport it home. I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, who had seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. I only had to wait for 20 minutes before three deer showed up. I picked one out, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it. It took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and received an education....
Vegas can take Spring Valley water In a decision that could have eventual repercussions for Utah, Nevada's state engineer has determined that Las Vegas water authorities are entitled to roughly half the groundwater they have requested for a proposed pipeline project that would ship water from the eastern part of the state to southern Nevada. Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor issued a 56-page decision this week authorizing the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) to take up to 40,000 acre-feet of water annually from Spring Valley, located west of Great Basin National Park, for a 10-year period. An acre-foot is typically the amount of water a family of four consumes in a year. If it is determined there are minimal or no impacts from such a withdrawal, the state will authorize the withdrawal of an additional 20,000 acre-feet annually, bringing the total yearly take to 60,000 acre-feet. The SNWA's permit application requested a withdrawal of 91,000 acre-feet annually. Utah water officials say they don't expect the decision, outwardly anyway, to affect negotiations between the states over how groundwater in neighboring Snake Valley, located east of Spring Valley along the state line, will be shared. Such an agreement is necessary before the SNWA can pursue groundwater in Snake Valley - the next phase of its pipeline project....
Fossil from a forest that gave Earth its breath of fresh air A fossil tree with its roots and leaves still attached has provided a tantalising glimpse of what the Earth’s first forests looked like long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Wattieza trees covered vast swaths 385 million years ago, before even amphibians managed to clamber on to land, and had such an impact that they helped to change the planet’s atmosphere. They were the monsters of their age and are thought not only to have changed the face of the planet but also to have altered even the chemical composition of the atmosphere. The plant, which grew to at least 26 feet (8m) in height and probably to more than 40 feet, looked similar to a tree fern with a long, bare trunk that was crowned at the top with branches and leaves. Millions of the Wattieza trees would have covered the ground in coastal and other lowland regions of the planet 140 million years before the first dinosaurs....
Wyo. flock to be killed, tested after scrapie found Somewhere near Moorcroft, in an unincorporated area of northeastern Wyoming, a livestock owner will hand over his entire flock of sheep next week to the federal government for a mass execution. The rancher knows what will happen: his herd of roughly 300 sheep will be transported live out of state and taken to a slaughter plant where they will be euthanized, their brains and lymph node tissue harvested for testing. He'll lose his herd because he owned the first U.S. sheep to test positive for a rare strain of scrapie _ a disease found in sheep and goats that's similar to mad cow disease in cattle and chronic wasting disease in sheep and elk. Still, state statute prohibits officials from releasing the rancher's identity, and attempts by The Associated Press to reach him were unsuccessful. Scrapie itself is rare in the United States. Out of more than 115,000 animals tested since 2003, only 300 have tested positive; federal officials hope to eliminate scrapie from U.S. herds by the end of 2010. But the Wyoming rancher's case is even more rare: Fewer than 300 cases worldwide have been recorded of the "Nor98-like" strain of scrapie, so-named because it was first diagnosed in Norway in 1998. "This is very unusual," Larry Cooper, regional spokesman in Fort Collins, Colo., for Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, said of the first discovery of a Nor98-like strain of scrapie in the U.S. "It doesn't indicate that we're going to have mass outbreaks of this particular strain, it just indicates that one of these animals from Europe ended up in our system." There are no known human health risks associated with scrapie....
Dope tries to rope deer I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that since they congregated at my cattle feeder and did not seem to fear when we were there. A bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not four feet away. It shouldn't be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it to transport it home. I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, who had seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. I only had to wait for 20 minutes before three deer showed up. I picked one out, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it. It took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and received an education....
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Colo. Senate supports rancher-backed bill on Pinon Canyon Republican and Democratic senators on Tuesday united behind a bill backed by opponents of the proposed expansion of the Army's Pinon Canyon maneuver site. As ranchers and students watched from seats that rim the chamber, senators gave initial backing to the measure (House Bill 1069). It tells the Army that it can't use eminent domain to acquire another 418,000 acres - or 653 square miles - to nearly triple the size of Pinon Canyon. It must undergo another vote, as early as Wednesday, before it could be sent to Gov. Bill Ritter. Sen. Ken Kester, R-Las Animas, said many of the families who live in the proposed expansion area have lived there for generations and have survived everything from the Dust Bowl to a blizzard that caused 10 foot drifts this winter. "We want the nation to know we support our military and we will continue to support our military with food," he said. Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, unsuccessfully tried to delay implementation of the bill for five years, saying the Army needed more time to complete environmental studies to decide whether to acquire more land. Ultimately, he said the area's ranchers might have to give up their land to provide the training that will give soldiers a "fighting chance" in battle....
Judge bars public funds to promote private grazing suits A judge has ordered two southern Utah counties to stop using public funds to help private ranchers fight grazing restrictions. Sixth District Judge David Mower's decision specifically addresses disputes over grazing permits on the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Mower granted an injunction last week requested by the Grand Canyon Trust to prevent Kane and Garfield counties from continuing to drain money from a state defense fund to cover the legal expenses of area ranchers. These ranchers sued in U.S. District Court for Utah to be awarded permits, alleging that the grazing program by Grand Canyon Trust hurt the counties economically and culturally. The county has been using public funds to pay legal expenses in the federal lawsuit. The counties later were dropped from the suit, a move upheld by a federal appeals court. Now, with Mower's injunction in state court, the ranchers will have to pay their own way to continue their federal suit....
Missouri rancher shoots escaped wolf from Branson-area park The Missouri Department of Conservation says an Ozarks cattle rancher shot and killed the male wolf of a breeding pair that escaped from a Branson-area exotic animal park two months ago. The Missouri resident told a conservation agent that he saw the wolf chasing his cattle and shot it last Thursday. The department says it won't file charges and it also won't identify the man because the agency says he has done nothing wrong and promptly notified officials. The male wolf and a pregnant female escaped from Predator World in February, shortly after arriving at the park. There have been no reported sightings of the female.
Car kills protected wolf near Fort Shaw What authorities believe was an adult wolf has been hit and killed by a car on Highway 200 about a mile west of Fort Shaw. The accident on Friday came as federal officials were trying to determine whether Montana currently has enough wolves to take them off the Endangered Species List. "There was an adult female wolf that by outward appearances was a wild gray wolf that was hit by a car," said Carolyn Sime, the statewide wolf coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. "The protocol is that all wolves that die in Montana must go to a lab until a necropsy determines the cause of death," Sime said. "At this point, we believe it was a vehicle striking it, but we won't know until then." Bruce Auchly, information officer for Fish, Wildlife & Parks in Great Falls, said game warden Dave Holland of Fort Shaw found the animal on routine patrol and picked up the carcass, which weighed about 80 pounds....
Mountain lion sighted in subdivision south of Butte State wildlife officials are asking parents to pick up and deliver their children from a bus stop on Janney Road after a mountain lion followed a 10-year-old boy from the stop on Friday. “We don’t know if it was following him on purpose or if he was just doing what a mountain lion does,” said Coy Kline, warden sergeant for the Butte area with the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Janney Road is south of Highway 2 in the area of Terra Verde Heights, in south Butte. Kline said the lion followed the boy after he got off the bus around 3:45 p.m. The boy thought the lion was a dog and was unconcerned, but a woman driving by saw the cat and insisted the boy get into her car. She drove the boy home, Kline said, but officials have been unable to talk with her to gather more details. The lion did not attack the boy. Kline said that parents should be aware of the cat sighting in that area....
What will the Legacy Project’s legacy be? It's a water-dependent spread of summer green: a rolling expanse of alfalfa, malt barley and other crops tucked near the meandering sensibilities of Silver Creek. The 1,500-acre spread is owned by Bellevue Triangle farmer Robert Gardner, a wiry Wood River Valley native who was among Blaine County farmers initially concerned by the Wood River Legacy Project, a law signed by Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter in March. The law will enable Wood River water rights holders to leave water in-stream rather than be required to use them, but it is questionable whether there's enough water to go around to begin with. For Gardner, however, the evolution of the bill from its original form to what was eventually signed into law was also an evolution of his support—or lack thereof. The original version, he said, appeared to favor conservation interests at the expense of farmers and ranchers in the Triangle....
Ex-BLM official raps oil, gas focus A former Bureau of Land Management state director testified Tuesday that energy development has become the predominant use of public lands wherever oil and gas resources exist and that BLM policies facilitate development to the near exclusion of other priorities. But a Republican congressman derided her testimony as inaccurate during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the implementation of the on-shore gas and oil drilling provisions of the 2005 Energy Policy Act. Ann Morgan, who served as a BLM state director between 1994 and 2002, including five years in Colorado, said the BLM has moved to an "extreme pace" of development over the past six or seven years. She is now vice president of public lands for The Wilderness Society. Morgan said the BLM routinely waives permit conditions that protect wildlife and habitat, inadequately funds inspection and enforcement, cannot meet commitments to monitor wildlife and air-quality impacts and opens more sensitive lands to leasing. She said the agency estimates that over 1 million acres will be disturbed by currently planned new oil and gas development. But Rep. Stevan Pearce, R-N.M., said much of Morgan's testimony was exaggerated. He said her assertion that oil and gas has become the predominant use on public lands is "just plain wrong." He said the BLM manages 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate, of which 6 percent are currently under lease for oil and gas development. He said 1.8 percent of the lands have active oil and gas production, calling that a "little bitty sliver" of the total. He also disagreed with her statement that the administration has a "rush to lease policy." Pearce said the number of new leases issued under the current administration is substantially lower than under the Clinton administration....
EPA, DEQ rap Anticline plan Two agencies charged with protecting the environment are asking the Bureau of Land Management to do more for the Pinedale Anticline to ensure natural resources are protected in light of growing natural gas development. The Environmental Protection Agency and Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality both asked the BLM to tighten the reins on development in their official comments on the Pinedale Anticline supplemental draft environmental impact statement. That document calls for a significant increase in energy activity in the area. EPA told the BLM it had not gone far enough to identify a "range of alternatives," while the DEQ called for more requirements that gas operators protect air quality as development progresses. Robert Roberts, EPA regional administrator, said in a 19-page letter to BLM Wyoming State Director Bob Bennett that EPA has three "primary areas" of concern: that an insufficient range of alternatives was analyzed, and harm to air quality and wildlife....
Study projects effects of forest management in Oregon's Coast Range One of the challenges of managing forests is deciding among management practices, particularly when the landscape effects these practices will have are not fully known. Since 1995, Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station scientists and their colleagues from Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Forestry have been conducting research that provides managers with a better idea of the effects—both intended and unintended—that forest management practices can have on landscapes. Findings from this research were published recently in a series of six invited papers in Ecological Applications, a peer-reviewed journal of the Ecological Society of America. "This research is one of the first and most integrated studies of the ‘big picture’ of forest management across ownerships anywhere in the world," said Gordon Reeves, a coauthor on several of the invited papers and one of the Station’s lead investigators with the research project, known as the Coastal Landscape Analysis and Modeling Study (CLAMS)....
Forest Service, state agree on water compact After 15 years of long, sometimes contentious negotiations, the U.S. Forest Service and the state of Montana have signed an agreement to address federal reserved water rights on national forest lands. Gov. Brian Schweitzer, U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey and U.S. Assistant Attorney General Ryan Nelson signed the negotiated federal reserved water rights compact Tuesday afternoon on a table parked within earshot of Rattlesnake Creek. All three agreed the compact marked a win for both Montana and the country. Federal reserved water rights are created when federal lands are set aside for a specific purpose, such as national forests, national parks, or fish and wildlife refuges. While it was intended that enough water be reserved to meet the purposes for which the federal lands were designated, those rights still have to be negotiated with the state. “We can all agree that there's nothing more important in the Rocky Mountains than water,” Schweitzer told the group of about 30 who gathered for the signing ceremony. “It's also difficult to know who actually owns that water.” This agreement proves that the federal government and states can put together an agreement without litigation, Schweitzer said....
Creation of Wild Sky Wilderness Area finally wins approval in U.S. House The House unanimously approved the Wild Sky Wilderness Area on Tuesday, moving the popular 106,577- acre project to the brink of reality after five years of frustrating detours. By clearing the House, the first new wilderness area in Washington state in 23 years is virtually assured of final passage, lawmakers and supporters said. The Senate, which will consider the bill in the coming months, has passed the bill three times, only to see it fail each time in the House. "The journey has been long, but I've been patient," said Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who sponsored the bill and whose district includes most of the property. "I think this is a good example of how things actually happen in Congress. I'm very pleased, to say the least." With work finished in the House, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she would press to bring the bill to the Senate floor. Murray introduced a bill identical to Larsen's in the Senate....
Gallatin Forest sued over travel plan The Gallatin National Forest is being hit with a pair of conflicting federal lawsuits over a recently-approved travel plan that restricts where snowmobiles, bicycles and ATVs can operate within the 1.8 million acre forest. On Tuesday, the public access group Citizens for Balanced Use announced it was filing a lawsuit asserting forest administrators unfairly restricted motorized and mechanized recreation on more than 320,000 acres and along hundreds of miles of trails. A second lawsuit, filed March 28 in U.S. District Court in Missoula by two preservation groups _ the Montana Wilderness Association and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition _ charges the new restrictions did not go far enough. That suit contends the Forest Service should have adhered to a proposal to deny snowmobile access to 18,000 acres within the Hyalite/Porcupine/Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area....
Ranch tour part of Earth Day celebration The first Earth Day celebration with Nebraska Cattlemen and the Sand County Foundation will be Sunday and includes a tour of the Wilson Ranch north of Lakeside. The Wilson Ranch was named the 2006 Leopold Conservation Award recipient for its conservation practices and economic viability. The Wilson Ranch, owned by brothers Blaine and Bryan Wilson, and their wives Charlie and Debbie, is a fifth-generation ranch consisting of more than 15,000 acres and 1,100 head of cattle. The Wilsons began crossbreeding their cattle in the late 1970s, leading to the development of a genetic program based on quality. The Wilsons’ conservation efforts include development of a wildlife pasture with windbreaks and drip systems used solely for habitat protection. They developed a wetland area that has seen the return of several bird species. The family also stocks fish and works to keep the deer population controlled....
Damage by hogs to crops estimated at $52M in Texas It’s been estimated feral hogs roam at least 90 percent of Texas’ 254 counties, and each year those wild porkers cause $52 million damage to Texas agriculture. That’s only agriculture; it doesn’t include other damage, including the social costs. “We don’t measure the cost in terms of vehicle and hog crashes and the human injuries,” said Dr. Billy Higginbotham, professor of wildlife and fisheries at Texas A&M University’s extension campus in Overton, Texas. “We’ve had a number of deaths attributed to vehicle-hog crashes. But just to agriculture the damage is estimated at $52 million a year, and landowners are spending about $7 million a year correcting the damage caused or on (feral hog) control efforts.” However, not everyone wants to get rid of feral hogs. “Many people make income from leasing feral hog (hunting) rights,” Higginbotham said. Perhaps the best-known is Maurice Chambers of Sabinal, Texas, a town that calls itself the “Wild Boar Capitol of the World.” For those so inclined, Sabinal also home to the “World Championship Wild Hog-Catching” contest, where participants catch feral hogs by hand. Chambers offers archery hunts for wild hogs, which on his Web site (www.chambershunts.org) is called the “Poor Man’s Grizzly.” There also is a small commercial market for wild hogs, Higginbotham said. “There are three processors in this state that purchase feral hogs that have been captured alive and they process that hog and the cuts of meat show up in high-end restaurants on the east and west coasts as European wild boar,” Higginbotham said....
Cattlemen Urge Congress To Retain Choices In Cattle Marketing America’s cattle producers say the government should help grow the U.S. beef industry and not limit or remove choices in the marketing of cattle. This message was at the heart of testimony given today by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). The House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry held a hearing today on Market Structure of the Livestock Industry. NCBA President and North Carolina cattle producer John Queen told the subcommittee, “When it comes to market structure and competition issues, NCBA’s position is simple – we ask that the government not tell us how we can or cannot market our cattle.” Queen pointed to the recently released Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) Livestock and Meat Marketing study which concluded that alternative marketing arrangements (AMAs) such as forward contracts, production contracts, packer ownership or custom feeding have provided benefits to some producers without harming the competitiveness of the marketplace. “The report states that the leading reasons ranchers participate in AMAs are the ability to buy or sell higher quality cattle, improve supply chain management, and obtain better prices,” says Queen. “The study concludes that restrictions on AMAs would cause a decrease in the supply of cattle, quality of beef, and feeder cattle prices.” Queen described how producers can better control their profit margin with forward contracting. “If the price doesn’t fit their needs, they can walk away and find another buyer,” says Queen. “Being a ‘price maker’ rather than a ‘price taker’ puts ranchers in control of their business.”....
FB: Livestock Market Oversight Must Change Competitive livestock markets and a transparent agricultural marketplace are vital to sustaining the livelihoods of U.S. farmers and ranchers, the American Farm Bureau Federation told Congress today. “Consolidation and concentration within the agricultural sector could have adverse economic impacts on U.S. farmers and ranchers,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman in testimony presented to a subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee. “It is important that markets be accessible to all producers and that they offer competitive prices.” The landscape has changed tremendously for crop and livestock producers in recent decades, both in terms of input costs and in how they market their finished livestock, grain and fiber, according to AFBF. Stallman cited trends that illustrate this, including the share of steer and heifer slaughter for the four largest beef packers increasing from 36 percent to 80 percent from 1980 to 2004 and the share of hog slaughter for the four largest packers increasing from 32 percent to 64 percent from 1985 to 2004. He also noted that four companies currently control 50 percent of the market for broilers, while the three largest soybean processors control more than 70 percent of that market....
Group Asks USDA About Adequacy of Bovine Tuberculosis Mitigation Measures On Monday, R-CALF USA sent a formal letter to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns requesting an explanation from the agency on three items related to bovine tuberculosis: 1) why the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has not taken more decisive action to protect our U.S. cattle herds from a known source of Bovine TB; 2) whether USDA is following even minimal international standards established by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) for preventing the spread of Bovine TB; and, 3) whether USDA has specific plans to begin providing the U.S. cattle industry with needed protection against this disease. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) administers USDA’s Bovine Tuberculosis Eradication Program. Bovine TB is a contagious disease that can affect most mammals, including humans. The detection of this disease in the U.S. results in significant financial losses to affected U.S. cattle herds, as well as to all cattle herds residing in an affected state, principally due to the imposition of animal-movement restrictions. Several states – including Texas, California, New Mexico, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota and Colorado – have detected Bovine TB within their borders in recent years. “R-CALF’s Animal Health Committee was recently informed about testimony presented to Congress by USDA’s Inspector General Phyllis Fong in March, in which Inspector General Fong indicated that APHIS is hampered by weaknesses in the oversight of the program that make it difficult for the agency to timely detect and eradicate this disease,” said R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian who chairs the organization’s animal health committee....
Argentina suffers beef shortage due to price controls Argentina - a country famous for its abundant cattle - is suffering a shortage of beef, as retailers can't find suppliers willing to sell their products at the prices imposed by the government in its effort to control inflation. Local media attributed these shortages, also seen for some dairy products, partly to heavy demand and recent flooding in northern Argentina. But a trip to supermarkets in Buenos Aires tells another story. A branch of Jumbo, a super market chain owned by Chile's Cencosud SA, in Buenos Aires' Palermo neighborhood, put out placards this week apologizing to its clients for the shortage of some beef cuts, blaming a lack of supply at the prices suggested by government price controllers. Meanwhile, the meat counter at a locally owned Coto supermarket chain store in the Barrio Norte district had a similar tale and sign blaming price accords. Coto was also missing some dairy products, a clerk said....
ATVs putting horses out to pasture At dawn, John Lacey and four hired hands head out on horseback from the Fish Creek Corral to perform one of the American West's most venerable pastoral rites: corralling a herd of bellowing steers scattered across thousands of hardpan acres. Lacey, a rail-thin third-generation rancher, leads the way atop Notch, the sure-footed 10-year-old mare he prefers for such chaotic chores. Over his 68 years, he has relied on a succession of horses chosen for their good looks, athletic ability and plain old cow sense. But the modern world is closing in on Notch and the ways of the Old West. On the farthest reaches of the range, in a cloud of dust and grit, two ranch hands ride a pair of weather-beaten all-terrain vehicles. The ATVs buzz the desolate landscape like motorized mosquitoes, coaxing the farthest flung of the 2,600 head of cattle toward home. As the horsemen handle the main herd, the ATV drivers chase down strays, clutching their cowboy hats against the wind and the rough ride....
Christian Cowboys Draw Upon Their Faith so Overcome Great Odds in Movie "BULLRIDER" The movie "BULLRIDER" by Off The Pier Productions passionately documents the athleticism, camaraderie, courage and heart of the men and the bulls who challenge one another each year in the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Built Ford Tough world championship series. But the movie's crossover appeal to the Christian marketplace is gaining fast momentum because the stars of the movie, the bull riders themselves, openly discuss their faith as an integral part of their success. "BULLRIDER" is as much about living life as it is about the rough and tumble world of extreme sports, according to producer Maureen Holmes, president of Off The Pier Productions. "You don't have to be a cowboy, or a sports enthusiast to be moved and inspired by this film to grow closer to God. The movie's biggest fans are often those who knew nothing about the world of professional bull riding and found themselves so inspired by the riders." Released in selected theaters across the country in 2006, "BULLRIDER", now on DVD, is a reflection of the grit demonstrated by the PBR cowboys - it is making a strong comeback - this time, however, it's among those of faith. Throughout the movie, the professional riders unabashedly point to their strong faith in Jesus Christ that encourages them during difficult times, protects them from serious injury, and gives them love for one another in a fiercely competitive environment. These professional athletes literally face serious injury or even death each time they attempt to ride the storm for eight seconds of a bull's fury. These very same struggles, defeats and victories are found in everyday life, maybe not as intense, but certainly, as important. The riders show by example how they conquer fear and insecurity by expressing their faith openly....
Colo. Senate supports rancher-backed bill on Pinon Canyon Republican and Democratic senators on Tuesday united behind a bill backed by opponents of the proposed expansion of the Army's Pinon Canyon maneuver site. As ranchers and students watched from seats that rim the chamber, senators gave initial backing to the measure (House Bill 1069). It tells the Army that it can't use eminent domain to acquire another 418,000 acres - or 653 square miles - to nearly triple the size of Pinon Canyon. It must undergo another vote, as early as Wednesday, before it could be sent to Gov. Bill Ritter. Sen. Ken Kester, R-Las Animas, said many of the families who live in the proposed expansion area have lived there for generations and have survived everything from the Dust Bowl to a blizzard that caused 10 foot drifts this winter. "We want the nation to know we support our military and we will continue to support our military with food," he said. Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, unsuccessfully tried to delay implementation of the bill for five years, saying the Army needed more time to complete environmental studies to decide whether to acquire more land. Ultimately, he said the area's ranchers might have to give up their land to provide the training that will give soldiers a "fighting chance" in battle....
Judge bars public funds to promote private grazing suits A judge has ordered two southern Utah counties to stop using public funds to help private ranchers fight grazing restrictions. Sixth District Judge David Mower's decision specifically addresses disputes over grazing permits on the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Mower granted an injunction last week requested by the Grand Canyon Trust to prevent Kane and Garfield counties from continuing to drain money from a state defense fund to cover the legal expenses of area ranchers. These ranchers sued in U.S. District Court for Utah to be awarded permits, alleging that the grazing program by Grand Canyon Trust hurt the counties economically and culturally. The county has been using public funds to pay legal expenses in the federal lawsuit. The counties later were dropped from the suit, a move upheld by a federal appeals court. Now, with Mower's injunction in state court, the ranchers will have to pay their own way to continue their federal suit....
Missouri rancher shoots escaped wolf from Branson-area park The Missouri Department of Conservation says an Ozarks cattle rancher shot and killed the male wolf of a breeding pair that escaped from a Branson-area exotic animal park two months ago. The Missouri resident told a conservation agent that he saw the wolf chasing his cattle and shot it last Thursday. The department says it won't file charges and it also won't identify the man because the agency says he has done nothing wrong and promptly notified officials. The male wolf and a pregnant female escaped from Predator World in February, shortly after arriving at the park. There have been no reported sightings of the female.
Car kills protected wolf near Fort Shaw What authorities believe was an adult wolf has been hit and killed by a car on Highway 200 about a mile west of Fort Shaw. The accident on Friday came as federal officials were trying to determine whether Montana currently has enough wolves to take them off the Endangered Species List. "There was an adult female wolf that by outward appearances was a wild gray wolf that was hit by a car," said Carolyn Sime, the statewide wolf coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. "The protocol is that all wolves that die in Montana must go to a lab until a necropsy determines the cause of death," Sime said. "At this point, we believe it was a vehicle striking it, but we won't know until then." Bruce Auchly, information officer for Fish, Wildlife & Parks in Great Falls, said game warden Dave Holland of Fort Shaw found the animal on routine patrol and picked up the carcass, which weighed about 80 pounds....
Mountain lion sighted in subdivision south of Butte State wildlife officials are asking parents to pick up and deliver their children from a bus stop on Janney Road after a mountain lion followed a 10-year-old boy from the stop on Friday. “We don’t know if it was following him on purpose or if he was just doing what a mountain lion does,” said Coy Kline, warden sergeant for the Butte area with the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Janney Road is south of Highway 2 in the area of Terra Verde Heights, in south Butte. Kline said the lion followed the boy after he got off the bus around 3:45 p.m. The boy thought the lion was a dog and was unconcerned, but a woman driving by saw the cat and insisted the boy get into her car. She drove the boy home, Kline said, but officials have been unable to talk with her to gather more details. The lion did not attack the boy. Kline said that parents should be aware of the cat sighting in that area....
What will the Legacy Project’s legacy be? It's a water-dependent spread of summer green: a rolling expanse of alfalfa, malt barley and other crops tucked near the meandering sensibilities of Silver Creek. The 1,500-acre spread is owned by Bellevue Triangle farmer Robert Gardner, a wiry Wood River Valley native who was among Blaine County farmers initially concerned by the Wood River Legacy Project, a law signed by Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter in March. The law will enable Wood River water rights holders to leave water in-stream rather than be required to use them, but it is questionable whether there's enough water to go around to begin with. For Gardner, however, the evolution of the bill from its original form to what was eventually signed into law was also an evolution of his support—or lack thereof. The original version, he said, appeared to favor conservation interests at the expense of farmers and ranchers in the Triangle....
Ex-BLM official raps oil, gas focus A former Bureau of Land Management state director testified Tuesday that energy development has become the predominant use of public lands wherever oil and gas resources exist and that BLM policies facilitate development to the near exclusion of other priorities. But a Republican congressman derided her testimony as inaccurate during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the implementation of the on-shore gas and oil drilling provisions of the 2005 Energy Policy Act. Ann Morgan, who served as a BLM state director between 1994 and 2002, including five years in Colorado, said the BLM has moved to an "extreme pace" of development over the past six or seven years. She is now vice president of public lands for The Wilderness Society. Morgan said the BLM routinely waives permit conditions that protect wildlife and habitat, inadequately funds inspection and enforcement, cannot meet commitments to monitor wildlife and air-quality impacts and opens more sensitive lands to leasing. She said the agency estimates that over 1 million acres will be disturbed by currently planned new oil and gas development. But Rep. Stevan Pearce, R-N.M., said much of Morgan's testimony was exaggerated. He said her assertion that oil and gas has become the predominant use on public lands is "just plain wrong." He said the BLM manages 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate, of which 6 percent are currently under lease for oil and gas development. He said 1.8 percent of the lands have active oil and gas production, calling that a "little bitty sliver" of the total. He also disagreed with her statement that the administration has a "rush to lease policy." Pearce said the number of new leases issued under the current administration is substantially lower than under the Clinton administration....
EPA, DEQ rap Anticline plan Two agencies charged with protecting the environment are asking the Bureau of Land Management to do more for the Pinedale Anticline to ensure natural resources are protected in light of growing natural gas development. The Environmental Protection Agency and Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality both asked the BLM to tighten the reins on development in their official comments on the Pinedale Anticline supplemental draft environmental impact statement. That document calls for a significant increase in energy activity in the area. EPA told the BLM it had not gone far enough to identify a "range of alternatives," while the DEQ called for more requirements that gas operators protect air quality as development progresses. Robert Roberts, EPA regional administrator, said in a 19-page letter to BLM Wyoming State Director Bob Bennett that EPA has three "primary areas" of concern: that an insufficient range of alternatives was analyzed, and harm to air quality and wildlife....
Study projects effects of forest management in Oregon's Coast Range One of the challenges of managing forests is deciding among management practices, particularly when the landscape effects these practices will have are not fully known. Since 1995, Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station scientists and their colleagues from Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Forestry have been conducting research that provides managers with a better idea of the effects—both intended and unintended—that forest management practices can have on landscapes. Findings from this research were published recently in a series of six invited papers in Ecological Applications, a peer-reviewed journal of the Ecological Society of America. "This research is one of the first and most integrated studies of the ‘big picture’ of forest management across ownerships anywhere in the world," said Gordon Reeves, a coauthor on several of the invited papers and one of the Station’s lead investigators with the research project, known as the Coastal Landscape Analysis and Modeling Study (CLAMS)....
Forest Service, state agree on water compact After 15 years of long, sometimes contentious negotiations, the U.S. Forest Service and the state of Montana have signed an agreement to address federal reserved water rights on national forest lands. Gov. Brian Schweitzer, U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey and U.S. Assistant Attorney General Ryan Nelson signed the negotiated federal reserved water rights compact Tuesday afternoon on a table parked within earshot of Rattlesnake Creek. All three agreed the compact marked a win for both Montana and the country. Federal reserved water rights are created when federal lands are set aside for a specific purpose, such as national forests, national parks, or fish and wildlife refuges. While it was intended that enough water be reserved to meet the purposes for which the federal lands were designated, those rights still have to be negotiated with the state. “We can all agree that there's nothing more important in the Rocky Mountains than water,” Schweitzer told the group of about 30 who gathered for the signing ceremony. “It's also difficult to know who actually owns that water.” This agreement proves that the federal government and states can put together an agreement without litigation, Schweitzer said....
Creation of Wild Sky Wilderness Area finally wins approval in U.S. House The House unanimously approved the Wild Sky Wilderness Area on Tuesday, moving the popular 106,577- acre project to the brink of reality after five years of frustrating detours. By clearing the House, the first new wilderness area in Washington state in 23 years is virtually assured of final passage, lawmakers and supporters said. The Senate, which will consider the bill in the coming months, has passed the bill three times, only to see it fail each time in the House. "The journey has been long, but I've been patient," said Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who sponsored the bill and whose district includes most of the property. "I think this is a good example of how things actually happen in Congress. I'm very pleased, to say the least." With work finished in the House, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she would press to bring the bill to the Senate floor. Murray introduced a bill identical to Larsen's in the Senate....
Gallatin Forest sued over travel plan The Gallatin National Forest is being hit with a pair of conflicting federal lawsuits over a recently-approved travel plan that restricts where snowmobiles, bicycles and ATVs can operate within the 1.8 million acre forest. On Tuesday, the public access group Citizens for Balanced Use announced it was filing a lawsuit asserting forest administrators unfairly restricted motorized and mechanized recreation on more than 320,000 acres and along hundreds of miles of trails. A second lawsuit, filed March 28 in U.S. District Court in Missoula by two preservation groups _ the Montana Wilderness Association and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition _ charges the new restrictions did not go far enough. That suit contends the Forest Service should have adhered to a proposal to deny snowmobile access to 18,000 acres within the Hyalite/Porcupine/Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area....
Ranch tour part of Earth Day celebration The first Earth Day celebration with Nebraska Cattlemen and the Sand County Foundation will be Sunday and includes a tour of the Wilson Ranch north of Lakeside. The Wilson Ranch was named the 2006 Leopold Conservation Award recipient for its conservation practices and economic viability. The Wilson Ranch, owned by brothers Blaine and Bryan Wilson, and their wives Charlie and Debbie, is a fifth-generation ranch consisting of more than 15,000 acres and 1,100 head of cattle. The Wilsons began crossbreeding their cattle in the late 1970s, leading to the development of a genetic program based on quality. The Wilsons’ conservation efforts include development of a wildlife pasture with windbreaks and drip systems used solely for habitat protection. They developed a wetland area that has seen the return of several bird species. The family also stocks fish and works to keep the deer population controlled....
Damage by hogs to crops estimated at $52M in Texas It’s been estimated feral hogs roam at least 90 percent of Texas’ 254 counties, and each year those wild porkers cause $52 million damage to Texas agriculture. That’s only agriculture; it doesn’t include other damage, including the social costs. “We don’t measure the cost in terms of vehicle and hog crashes and the human injuries,” said Dr. Billy Higginbotham, professor of wildlife and fisheries at Texas A&M University’s extension campus in Overton, Texas. “We’ve had a number of deaths attributed to vehicle-hog crashes. But just to agriculture the damage is estimated at $52 million a year, and landowners are spending about $7 million a year correcting the damage caused or on (feral hog) control efforts.” However, not everyone wants to get rid of feral hogs. “Many people make income from leasing feral hog (hunting) rights,” Higginbotham said. Perhaps the best-known is Maurice Chambers of Sabinal, Texas, a town that calls itself the “Wild Boar Capitol of the World.” For those so inclined, Sabinal also home to the “World Championship Wild Hog-Catching” contest, where participants catch feral hogs by hand. Chambers offers archery hunts for wild hogs, which on his Web site (www.chambershunts.org) is called the “Poor Man’s Grizzly.” There also is a small commercial market for wild hogs, Higginbotham said. “There are three processors in this state that purchase feral hogs that have been captured alive and they process that hog and the cuts of meat show up in high-end restaurants on the east and west coasts as European wild boar,” Higginbotham said....
Cattlemen Urge Congress To Retain Choices In Cattle Marketing America’s cattle producers say the government should help grow the U.S. beef industry and not limit or remove choices in the marketing of cattle. This message was at the heart of testimony given today by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). The House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry held a hearing today on Market Structure of the Livestock Industry. NCBA President and North Carolina cattle producer John Queen told the subcommittee, “When it comes to market structure and competition issues, NCBA’s position is simple – we ask that the government not tell us how we can or cannot market our cattle.” Queen pointed to the recently released Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) Livestock and Meat Marketing study which concluded that alternative marketing arrangements (AMAs) such as forward contracts, production contracts, packer ownership or custom feeding have provided benefits to some producers without harming the competitiveness of the marketplace. “The report states that the leading reasons ranchers participate in AMAs are the ability to buy or sell higher quality cattle, improve supply chain management, and obtain better prices,” says Queen. “The study concludes that restrictions on AMAs would cause a decrease in the supply of cattle, quality of beef, and feeder cattle prices.” Queen described how producers can better control their profit margin with forward contracting. “If the price doesn’t fit their needs, they can walk away and find another buyer,” says Queen. “Being a ‘price maker’ rather than a ‘price taker’ puts ranchers in control of their business.”....
FB: Livestock Market Oversight Must Change Competitive livestock markets and a transparent agricultural marketplace are vital to sustaining the livelihoods of U.S. farmers and ranchers, the American Farm Bureau Federation told Congress today. “Consolidation and concentration within the agricultural sector could have adverse economic impacts on U.S. farmers and ranchers,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman in testimony presented to a subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee. “It is important that markets be accessible to all producers and that they offer competitive prices.” The landscape has changed tremendously for crop and livestock producers in recent decades, both in terms of input costs and in how they market their finished livestock, grain and fiber, according to AFBF. Stallman cited trends that illustrate this, including the share of steer and heifer slaughter for the four largest beef packers increasing from 36 percent to 80 percent from 1980 to 2004 and the share of hog slaughter for the four largest packers increasing from 32 percent to 64 percent from 1985 to 2004. He also noted that four companies currently control 50 percent of the market for broilers, while the three largest soybean processors control more than 70 percent of that market....
Group Asks USDA About Adequacy of Bovine Tuberculosis Mitigation Measures On Monday, R-CALF USA sent a formal letter to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns requesting an explanation from the agency on three items related to bovine tuberculosis: 1) why the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has not taken more decisive action to protect our U.S. cattle herds from a known source of Bovine TB; 2) whether USDA is following even minimal international standards established by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) for preventing the spread of Bovine TB; and, 3) whether USDA has specific plans to begin providing the U.S. cattle industry with needed protection against this disease. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) administers USDA’s Bovine Tuberculosis Eradication Program. Bovine TB is a contagious disease that can affect most mammals, including humans. The detection of this disease in the U.S. results in significant financial losses to affected U.S. cattle herds, as well as to all cattle herds residing in an affected state, principally due to the imposition of animal-movement restrictions. Several states – including Texas, California, New Mexico, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota and Colorado – have detected Bovine TB within their borders in recent years. “R-CALF’s Animal Health Committee was recently informed about testimony presented to Congress by USDA’s Inspector General Phyllis Fong in March, in which Inspector General Fong indicated that APHIS is hampered by weaknesses in the oversight of the program that make it difficult for the agency to timely detect and eradicate this disease,” said R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian who chairs the organization’s animal health committee....
Argentina suffers beef shortage due to price controls Argentina - a country famous for its abundant cattle - is suffering a shortage of beef, as retailers can't find suppliers willing to sell their products at the prices imposed by the government in its effort to control inflation. Local media attributed these shortages, also seen for some dairy products, partly to heavy demand and recent flooding in northern Argentina. But a trip to supermarkets in Buenos Aires tells another story. A branch of Jumbo, a super market chain owned by Chile's Cencosud SA, in Buenos Aires' Palermo neighborhood, put out placards this week apologizing to its clients for the shortage of some beef cuts, blaming a lack of supply at the prices suggested by government price controllers. Meanwhile, the meat counter at a locally owned Coto supermarket chain store in the Barrio Norte district had a similar tale and sign blaming price accords. Coto was also missing some dairy products, a clerk said....
ATVs putting horses out to pasture At dawn, John Lacey and four hired hands head out on horseback from the Fish Creek Corral to perform one of the American West's most venerable pastoral rites: corralling a herd of bellowing steers scattered across thousands of hardpan acres. Lacey, a rail-thin third-generation rancher, leads the way atop Notch, the sure-footed 10-year-old mare he prefers for such chaotic chores. Over his 68 years, he has relied on a succession of horses chosen for their good looks, athletic ability and plain old cow sense. But the modern world is closing in on Notch and the ways of the Old West. On the farthest reaches of the range, in a cloud of dust and grit, two ranch hands ride a pair of weather-beaten all-terrain vehicles. The ATVs buzz the desolate landscape like motorized mosquitoes, coaxing the farthest flung of the 2,600 head of cattle toward home. As the horsemen handle the main herd, the ATV drivers chase down strays, clutching their cowboy hats against the wind and the rough ride....
Christian Cowboys Draw Upon Their Faith so Overcome Great Odds in Movie "BULLRIDER" The movie "BULLRIDER" by Off The Pier Productions passionately documents the athleticism, camaraderie, courage and heart of the men and the bulls who challenge one another each year in the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Built Ford Tough world championship series. But the movie's crossover appeal to the Christian marketplace is gaining fast momentum because the stars of the movie, the bull riders themselves, openly discuss their faith as an integral part of their success. "BULLRIDER" is as much about living life as it is about the rough and tumble world of extreme sports, according to producer Maureen Holmes, president of Off The Pier Productions. "You don't have to be a cowboy, or a sports enthusiast to be moved and inspired by this film to grow closer to God. The movie's biggest fans are often those who knew nothing about the world of professional bull riding and found themselves so inspired by the riders." Released in selected theaters across the country in 2006, "BULLRIDER", now on DVD, is a reflection of the grit demonstrated by the PBR cowboys - it is making a strong comeback - this time, however, it's among those of faith. Throughout the movie, the professional riders unabashedly point to their strong faith in Jesus Christ that encourages them during difficult times, protects them from serious injury, and gives them love for one another in a fiercely competitive environment. These professional athletes literally face serious injury or even death each time they attempt to ride the storm for eight seconds of a bull's fury. These very same struggles, defeats and victories are found in everyday life, maybe not as intense, but certainly, as important. The riders show by example how they conquer fear and insecurity by expressing their faith openly....
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Ranches in Western U.S. Shifting From Grazers to Greens Ten years ago, Heidi Redd feared that her ranching days were over. For 30 years she had been running cattle on the Dugout Ranch in southeastern Utah, first with her husband, Robert, and then by herself after the couple's divorce in the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, however, Redd was under pressure by family members to sell the 5,200-acre (2,100-hectare) property, which sits near Canyonlands National Park. Hoping to keep the ranch intact, Redd approached the Nature Conservancy (TNC), the environmental nonprofit, which buys ecologically significant property and preserves it. The ranch was a prime candidate for TNC ownership. The property includes rights to 250,000 acres (100,000 hectares) of federal grazing land, some of which has never been grazed. Redd was looking for more than just a buy-sell arrangement, however. "I was hoping they would purchase the land and allow me to continue ranching there," she said. TNC agreed to Redd's plan, and this year marks the tenth anniversary of the partnership between the long-time rancher and the nonprofit. TNC opted to continue with ranch operations and to use the property as a research lab, allowing scientists to work with Redd to determine the best grazing rotation for a desert climate....
Is the Endangered Species Act in Danger? Arizona's growing pains come before the Supreme Court this week in consolidated cases that pit against each other two of the country's most powerful environmental protections: the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. If the Bush administration has its way, states will have more control over how they manage their natural resources, but that will come at some expense to federal safeguards for jeopardized wildlife. Critics charge that the White House is actually trying to undercut the wide-ranging Endangered Species Act. For its part, the White House says the act is inconsistently applied and in need of reform-reform that could be brought about by a victory before the high court. Green light. The crux of the cases-National Association of Homebuilders v. Defenders of Wildlife and Defenders of Wildlife v. Environmental Protection Agency-goes back to 2002, when the federal government gave Arizona the right to issue its own water discharge permits for housing developments under the Clean Water Act-as it has done in many other states. But before handing over that power, the EPA, according to Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, consulted with another agency-in this case, the Fish and Wildlife Service-on whether the action would threaten listed species. The service raised alarms but, in an unusual move, approved the transfer anyway, arguing that Arizona was entitled to the permitting power because it met all the requirements of the Clean Water Act. The final call was made by the EPA, which gave Arizona the green light on water permits, environmentalists claim, without regard to their impact on wildlife as directed by the Endangered Species Act. To some, the whole thing smelled fishy. In other instances, environmentalists say, the EPA and other agencies had worked to minimize damage to habitat while still giving states permitting power. "This time, they drew hard lines," says Patrick Parenteau, an environmental law professor at Vermont Law School. He believes "something happened behind closed doors" to limit the federal role in state and local development. Defenders of Wildlife sued. In court, the EPA argued that simply by consulting with the Fish and Wildlife Service, it had met its legal requirements under the Endangered Species Act. But the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit disagreed, arguing the EPA had shirked its duty to wildlife. Hostage. The EPA is expected to argue before the Supreme Court that Section 7 shouldn't apply at all. The EPA and the National Association of Homebuilders, a party to the suit, argue that states must be granted permitting rights under the Clean Water Act if they meet all the requirements, none of which involves measuring impacts on endangered species. Duane Desiderio, a lawyer for the association, says it's wrong to hold every federal statute hostage to the Endangered Species Act. The EPA declined to comment, but in its legal petition argues "there is no dispute" Arizona met the criteria for the Clean Water Act and therefore should get its permits....
Court hears endangered species cases that could slow Az building The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a pair of Arizona cases that could lead to tougher requirements for how federal agencies weigh the environmental effects of their policies. The specific issue before justices is whether the Environmental Protection Agency should have consulted more closely with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials when it gave Arizona's Department of Environmental Quality the power to issue permits for a housing development in the state's southern desert. Depending on how the court rules, the outcome could resonate far outside Arizona. The federal government says complying with endangered species laws before entering into agreements with states would be impossible. Housing developers say if they lose, it could mean construction delays of up to six months on new projects, and raise the cost of a new house by $5,000 to $10,000. Environmental activists say the government needs to be sure endangered species aren't at risk from policy decisions that may seem unrelated at first....
Ferrets have ranchers worried Ranchers near Wind Cave National Park are worried that the re-introduction of endangered black-footed ferrets into the park could complicate their lives, despite assurances that agriculture operations on nearby private land nearby will not be affected. Randy Schroth, who ranches near the west boundary of the 28,000-acre park, said Monday he was skeptical of assurances by park officials that the presence of ferrets wouldn’t interfere with private ranch operations — including the poisoning of prairie dogs — adjoining or near the park. “They’re claiming we’re covered,” Schroth said. “But I’m wondering. If you’re out poisoning and it might kill one of them little buggers, you’re in the harm of things. They’re still an endangered species.” Wind Cave acting superintendent Tom Farrell announced last week that the National Park Service had approved an experimental ferret re-introduction project that could release 20-25 black-footed ferrets each year for three to five years. Farrell said provisions of an experimental permit issued under the Endangered Species Act would assure that private property owners outside the park were not affected....
Wolves prey on cattle while ranchers huff and puff One day after selling his cattle, hay and farm machinery, Mike Kasten Sr. visited with his good friend, John Eischeid, in the office of Tri-County Livestock Auction Inc. Still sporting his cowboy hat and boots, Kasten pulled up a chair and explained why he decided to sell. Last June, he said he was getting his two grandsons off to summer school classes when he noticed trouble in a pasture close to his house. "The cows were up close, calving," he recalled, "and there were three timber wolves, two of them working the cow. One calf took off running toward the brush, and I ran to get my .243. "When I got back, they were by another cow that had just calved that morning, and they were trying to get her." Kasten said the adult female wolf ran off, but he managed to shoot two young males. He notified the local authorities, who in turn summoned a DNR official and trapper from the USDA office in Grand Rapids. By midwinter, Kasten said he had lost several more calves to wolves, but he had no carcasses to prove his damages. He said it is common knowledge that wolves can tear carcasses to pieces, dragging them away to their den....
Wolf delisting must protect elk, cattle While the head of a statewide sportsmen's group may not detest wolves, he's quite concerned about their impact on big game. “I'm not a wolf-hater, but I don't like what they're doing to the herds,” said Joe Tilden of Cody. He's president of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and hopes there's a big turnout for the Thursday meeting about removing wolves from Endangered Species Act protection. State Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, also has strong feelings about wolves. “I made myself clear with the legislation,” he said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is hosting the meeting, needs to delist the wolf and turn over their management to the state, Childers said. The agency also needs to set the wolf-zone line at the Shoshone Forest boundary west of Cody, not at WYO 120. The statute gives the governor the flexibility to move the line, “if that's what it takes to delist,” he added. After delisting, the Game and Fish Department will have that power. Both Childers and Tilden cited a G&F study about a low cow-calf ratio for elk in Sunlight Basin and the relocation of elk to Heart Mountain where the ratio is healthy. “Why's that? Generally we think it's wolves,” Childers said....
Two wolves shot near Sun Valley U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services has shot two male wolves suspected of killing up to four cattle south of Sun Valley. The wolves were shot by Wildlife Services' agents from a fixed-wing aircraft Friday morning as the animals were harassing cattle at a ranch near Carey. A third wolf , a female, was killed by a rancher near Picabo about five weeks ago. Officials say this is perhaps the first time wolves have been shot by wildlife agents in south-central Idaho. "This is the first year we've had any problems in that area," said Steve Nadeau, state wolf coordinator with Wildlife Services. "It's very unusual." All three wolves are believed to be responsible for a cattle killing spree in the Wood River Valley over the past eight weeks. On March 19, a rancher near Picabo shot and killed the female wolf after it brought down at least one of his cattle. A day or two later, more wolves were spotted near the ranch. Then on April 7 and 8, at least three cattle were killed, supposedly by wolves, near a ranch about 15 miles north of Carey. Agents were dispatched to find and kill the wolves....
Wolf impasse persists Issues of timing appear to be the biggest remaining obstacle toward a wolf management deal between Wyoming and the federal government. It also appears that those timing issues may be insurmountable. That means more litigation between the parties and continued federal control of wolves in northwest Wyoming. Federal officials Monday said Wyoming must submit a new wolf management plan by May 1 to meet administrative and legal requirements to allow removal of federal protection of wolves by February 2008 -- the deadline contained in a new state law giving Gov. Dave Freudenthal authority to negotiate the boundaries of a permanent wolf management area in northwest Wyoming to meet federal approval. But the governor says that under the law approved by the Legislature during its recent session, Wyoming can't adopt a new wolf management plan until the federal government changes its rules to allow killing of wolves to protect big game animals before delisting. Federal officials have begun the process of amending the rules to allow such wolf control, but the changes aren't expected to be finalized until next year. As a result of the impasse, federal officials said Monday they're prepared to remove protection for northern Rocky Mountain wolves in all but northwest Wyoming....
Agency sets wolf plan deadline The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it's prepared to leave Wyoming behind as it drafts regulations spelling out how the wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains will be removed from federal protection under the Threatened and Endangered Species Act. Mitch King, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wrote to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Monday saying that if the state can't submit a new wolf management plan by May 1, the federal agency won't be able to include the state in its ongoing rulemaking aimed at removing wolves from federal protections by next February. That would leave only Montana and Idaho in the process. "Let me again stress this is not our preferred option," King wrote to Freudenthal. "However, we still intend to complete the delisting of all the significant portions of the range with adequate regulatory mechanisms by February 2008, with or without Wyoming's inclusion."....
Where will they sue? The lawyer for eight environmental groups fighting to maintain federal protection for grizzly bears said he'll carefully consider the options before deciding where to file an expected lawsuit. “I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't do that,” said Douglas Honnold, an attorney for Earthjustice in Bozeman, Mont. Gov. Dave Freudenthal last week asked Honnold in a letter to take the “honorable action” and file the lawsuit in federal court in Wyoming, where about 90 percent of the greater Yellowstone area's estimated 500-600 bears live. Freudenthal urged Honnold not to “forum shop” for a sympathetic court in another state, a practice that has been widely criticized by Westerners in past federal land and wildlife disputes. “Having a distant forum render a decision on a matter of such great import to Wyoming and its people will only foster further cynicism regarding the (Endangered Species Act) and judicial review of decisions made under the ESA,” Freudenthal wrote in the two-page letter....
Lawsuit claims gray wolf should remain on endangered species list Three animal advocacy groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday over its decision to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, says the gray wolf essentially remains endangered in the three states, and it demands that the Fish and Wildlife Service be prevented from implementing its "delisting" plan. The lawsuit was filed by The Humane Society of the United States, Help Our Wolves Live, and the Animal Protection Institute. "The agencies' decision to strip wolves of all federal protection is biologically reckless and contrary to the requirements of the Endangered Species Act," Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president of litigation for the Humane Society, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. In March, federal officials removed the gray wolves from its endangered list and handed over management of the population to state and tribal governments. In Minnesota, the state Department of Natural Resources assigned three conservation officers to managing the wolf population and planned to hire a new wolf specialist, said Mike DonCarlos, the department's wildlife research and policy manager....
States seek OK to kill sea lions So far, California sea lions have been winning their contest for survival with the Washington and Oregon salmon heading upstream to spawn. That may be about to change. Washington, Oregon and Idaho are asking Congress for permission to kill more than 80 sea lions a year to protect the salmon they feast on. Since federal rules gave sea lions greater protection in the 1970s, the population of these salmon predators has grown as more gentle efforts have failed to scare them away from their favorite meal. Sea lions on the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam have been blasted with rubber buckshot, chased by boats, harassed by firecrackers and rockets and subjected to noise from underwater speakers. Both species have potent allies. Backing the salmon are the three Northwest states, American Indian tribes and four of the region's members of Congress. Backing the sea lions is the 10 million-member Humane Society of the United States....
Russia To Make Polar Bear Hunting Legal The Russian government is set to allow residents in the town of Vankarem to legally hunt polar bears that have been moving into the region. In response to the increasing number of polar bears traveling into the eastern Russian region due to the changing climate, officials are set to permit legal hunting of the animals for the first time in more than 50 years, the New York Times said Monday. "The normal life space for the polar bears is shrinking," Pacific Scientific Research and Fisheries Center biologist Anatoly A. Kochnev said. "They come in search of food on the shore, and the main sources of food are where people live." The move comes as other nations have begun classifying polar bears as an endangered species....
Federal government defends decision not to list Oregon coho The federal government on Monday defended its decision to leave Oregon coastal coho salmon off the threatened species list and let the state of Oregon oversee voluntary efforts to restore its numbers. U.S. Justice Department lawyer Paul Lall argued in U.S. District Court that judges must defer to NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency in charge of salmon restoration, which had weighed competing scientific evidence and made a "close call." But Trout Unlimited and other conservation groups countered that NOAA Fisheries failed to use the best available science, and in the face of uncertainty should have decided to protect the fish. "If there are uncertainties, the agency cannot throw up its hands," said Patti Goldman, an attorney from Earthjustice representing the conservation groups. "It cannot refuse to act." Once a fish is listed as threatened, the government has to come down on the side of protecting the fish when there's a question about whether a given action might harm its populations, Lall said....
Grizzly Bear Trapped and Killed The Idaho Department of Fish and Game says the 400-pound bear was caught in a cable snare about 100 yards from the home of Timothy Henderson, the man who was hospitalized. Henderson has since returned home and will recover from multiple bite and claw wounds. He was attacked last week when he went outside his home looking for his dog, only to find a grizzly charging straight at him. Fish and Game says the bear was likely protecting a dead moose carcus in the area, but says killing it was the right decision. Steve Schmidt, Idaho Fish and Game: "That was a joint decision by the Teton County Sheriff's Office and Idaho Fish and Game in addition to public safety issues of officers on the scene, the bear was lunging at them at the end of a cable snare, their safety was paramount."....
Habitat Credit Trading Offers Conservation Incentives The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service, and Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies are partnering to evaluate endangered species habitat credit trading. Directors from each group signed an agreement Friday agreeing to explore ways to coordinate programs and activities to assist habitat credit trading markets as way to increase the conservation of endangered or at-risk species habitat. "Habitat credit trading is a great way to restore, protect and promote conservation of lands that are home to endangered species," says NRCS Chief Arlan Lancaster. "We all benefit from healthy ecosystems. Allowing landowners to earn additional revenue for their conservation efforts is the future of sound environmental stewardship." Habitat credit banks act much like a savings account but instead of money, credits are earned for land preservation of the habitat. The credits can then be sold to land use industries or others, who are required to mitigate the loss of habitat by the Endangered Species Act and other laws that restrict or prohibit development....
Turning off the flow Millions of Californians would lose at least a portion of their water supply and 750,000 acres of productive Central Valley farmland would dry up if the state cannot satisfy an Alameda County judge. Late last month, Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch gave the California Department of Water Resources 60 days to comply with the California Endangered Species Act or shut down a pumping plant that diverts millions of acre-feet of water to thirsty Southern California. The Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant and its related facilities near Tracy push delta water through the California Aqueduct, a man-made canal that cuts a swath through western Stanislaus County. Water flowing down the aqueduct has transformed California's once dry and barren interior into an agribusiness powerhouse that pumps an estimated $300 billion into the state's economy. Shutting off the pumps would have a potentially devastating effect on the state's economy. Officials at the Department of Water Resources say they won't let that happen....
Biologists stumped by southern Oregon fish kill After more than a week of chasing tips, the Oregon State Police and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife have been unable to identify the toxic substance that killed dozens of fish here earlier this month. The dead fish that turned up in lower Griffin Creek included wild coho salmon, a species classified as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Authorities said that means the fish kill could be a federal crime. Also discovered among the fish were red-sided shiners, which are a non-native species, and juvenile wild steelhead, most of which were about 4 inches long. David Haight, a fish biologist with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the gills of the dead fish were inspected to look for burning associated with chemicals. The fish, however, were too decomposed to reveal any clues, Haight said. "So far, we haven't found anything that seemed like it could have caused the fish kill," Haight said....
Vegas water-pumping plan approved A request to pump billions of gallons of groundwater to booming Las Vegas from a valley near the Nevada-Utah line was cut to less than half the amount in a plan approved Monday by the state's engineer. The pipes will be shut off if existing wells and other existing water rights in Spring Valley suffer during Southern Nevada Water Authority's pumping the next 10 years, state Engineer Tracy Taylor said. A recent drought cycle has cut heavily into southern Nevada's share of Colorado River water, prompting the city to look elsewhere for water. Utah officials, ranchers, conservationists and even the Mormon Church objected to Las Vegas' request to pump water from their areas. Susan Land of the Great Basin Water Network, which had opposed the original pumping request, termed the decision "a victory of sorts" and questioned whether the massive project to pipe water more than 200 miles south to Las Vegas remained financially feasible....
Public forum on Otero Mesa drilling later this week The Otero Mesa, a large expanse of wild lands southeast of Alamogordo, may have some oil and gas underneath it. It may also have one of the largest untapped fresh water aquifers in the state as well. Both gas drillers and municipalities are vying to tap into one or the other. Because of the issues involved, a public forum has been scheduled for later this week, noted Nathan Newcomer from the New Mexico Wildlife Association. Newcomer said the public is invited to the forum at the Elks Lodge on Hamilton Friday at 6 p.m. He said five people will speak on the possible dangers of gas drilling in the area. Tweety Blancett, a rancher from Aztec, will talk about what happened when oil and gas companies began to drill on her ranch and the consequences that resulted from that. Newcomer said Blancett's water was contaminated and some of her livestock perished....
Warming Predicted to Take Severe Toll on U.S Climate change will exact a major cost on North America's timber industry and could drive as much as 40 percent of its plant and animal species to extinction in a matter of decades, according to a new report from an international panel. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which released its summary report on global warming's overall impact earlier this month, provided a more detailed assessment yesterday of the effects on North America. The report, written and edited by dozens of scientists, looks at how global warming has begun to transform the continent and how it is likely to affect it in the future. The 67-page report, which examines everything from freshwater ecosystems to tourism, said North America has suffered severe environmental and economic damage because of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, heat waves and forest fires. Without "increased investments in countermeasures," the authors wrote that they are at least 90 percent sure that "hot temperatures and extreme weather are likely to cause increased adverse health impacts from heat-related mortality, pollution, storm-related fatalities and injuries, and infectious diseases."....
Map software pinpoints environment hotspots Web connoisseurs have grown accustomed to going online and getting an aerial view of their neighborhoods, or even their houses, using software like Google Earth. Now they can look at the same world and get a subterranean view. A sophisticated new breed of mapping software on the Web is allowing users to pinpoint toxic hot spots and hazardous sites beneath the ground using a wealth of new information and mashed-up existing technology. Those developments have opened up business opportunities for consulting firms and new ways for government and advocacy organizations to inform the public about hazardous, environmentally dangerous sites. Take Locus Technologies in Mountain View, which, using Google Earth's satellite imagery, has created an online program that pinpoints problem sites throughout the country, including the infamous Superfund sites designated as super-toxic by the Environmental Protection Agency....
The grass-fed is greener Inside the only boucherie in town is a meat case full of chuck roasts, flank steaks, New York strips. But what they're really selling in the rustic Burgundy Boucherie is a story. It's an old story, actually, one about a Texas ranching family that raises cattle on rolling, green hills of native grasses, never uses pesticides, hormones or grain, and sells their meat to people they know on a first-name basis. Jon and Wendy Taggart tell it best. "It's not new," Wendy Taggart said. "It's the way ranching was done years ago." A few years back, they climbed out on an agricultural limb, gambling that people would pay extra for organic, 100-percent grass-fed beef bought directly from their store in Grandview, about 35 miles south of Fort Worth. They struck at a time when many Americans were growing more interested in all-natural products and more concerned with problems in mass-produced meat. That interest keeps growing, and not just in the expected places such as New England and California. The Dallas-Fort Worth area is considered the second-strongest market in Texas for environmentally friendly foods....
Animal protections pass Colo. House Dog owners whose animals attack or kill someone's pet could face criminal charges under a proposal advanced today by the House. The legislation - aimed at putting more teeth into animal-cruelty laws - also would make bestiality a crime and force animal abusers to submit DNA samples for a criminal database. After an objection from ranchers, lawmakers struck a provision that would have banned dogs from riding unrestrained in the back of pickup trucks. They also eliminated a proposal to add rabbits and ferrets to the list of domestic animals protected under the law. "A special thank you from my dog, Buzz, who loves to chase rabbits," said House Minority Leader Mike May of Parker. "He says, 'Woof-woof.' " Rep. Debbie Stafford, R-Aurora, said district attorneys asked her to run the bill because Colorado law isn't tough enough on animal abusers....
No health threats found at Stevens County dairy farm An investigation into the deaths of as many as 60 cows at a Stevens County dairy found no health threats to people or other animals, state Veterinarian Leonard Eldridge said Monday. Eldridge and representatives of other state and federal agencies visited the farm in Addy, about 75 miles north of Spokane, in early March after receiving reports of 50-60 dead cattle. A detailed investigation found no serious animal diseases or toxic contamination of the animals' feed. But the probe did not find what caused the animals' deaths. "During this investigation, we have found no threat to the health of people or other animals," Eldridge said in a news release. "We have not been able to identify a common cause of death of these animals. Frankly, we may never know specifically what killed the animals that died before the start of this investigation." Concerns about possible heavy metals contamination of the animals' feed caused the dairy owner to stop shipping milk off the farm in December 2006....
GeneThera in Preliminary Talks for Mad Cow Testing GeneThera, Inc. (OTCBB: GTHA) announced today it has begun preliminary talks with ranchers to test their cattle for the Mad Cow disease. Commenting on the talks Dr. Tony Milici stated, "These preliminary talks are an important first step to establish our commercial platform once private companies will be allowed to test for Mad Cow disease in the US. We believe that allowing private companies to test for Mad Cow will have a very positive impact on the US beef industry domestically and internationally." The USDA has previously not allowed private companies to test their cattle for Mad Cow. However, a federal judge ruled that the federal government must allow meatpackers to test their animals for Mad Cow Disease. The judge put his order on hold until the government can appeal. If the government does not appeal by June 1, 2007, he stated the ruling would take effect....
Feed store owner, 88, still behind counter Sybil Brown has a simple ambition these days. It makes her day to get in her old pickup and drive the two blocks to work every morning in the store she has been a part of since World War II. Sybil is 88, and she has been working in Brown’s Feed Store in Honey Grove since she and her husband, Curtis, built it in the early 1940s. Curtis died more than two decades ago, but Sybil continues to run the store much as she did years ago. In fact, Sybil’s attachment to the store goes back even before she and her husband built it. The lumber was originally in an old barn on her family’s farm. She inherited the farm, and when the couple decided to go into the feed business, they tore down the barn on the old family place and built the store in Honey Grove. The feed store once was a thriving business, with farmers and ranchers coming from across the area to purchase feed ground fresh at the store every day. “Farmers brought their crops to us by the trailer loads,” she said. “We took grain and hay and ground it into feed for them.”....
It's All Trew: Airing out laundry memories Washing dirty laundry is and always has been a dreaded chore. The larger the family, the more dreaded the chore, especially if you had to build a fire under a large iron pot, whittle lye soap shavings into the pot and agitate the brew with a poke stick until the clothes were clean. Then came the wringing out and placing on the clothesline. Probably not many are alive today who helped in this effort. Once kitchens became equipped with kerosene, propane or natural gas cook stoves, most women acquired a big copper boiler with a lid, which sat over two burners for heating. In place of the poke stick, various inventions made doing laundry a little easier, though the old rub-board was still kept busy. The invention of flat irons with detachable handles improved the chore of ironing. A major improvement in washing clothes came with the introduction of the Maytag MultiMotor Swinging Wringer Washing Machine. It had a wooden tank made like an ice cream freezer bucket and owners knew to keep a little water in the tank at all times so the stakes would not dry out and leak water. Miracle of miracles, the device had a small gasoline motor for power. The direction booklet gave directions of how to mix the oil and gasoline for the motor and said to keep your oil squirt-can handy because there were 23 places to lubricate. "Always oil machine before using each time and do not use too much oil but apply often."....
Ranches in Western U.S. Shifting From Grazers to Greens Ten years ago, Heidi Redd feared that her ranching days were over. For 30 years she had been running cattle on the Dugout Ranch in southeastern Utah, first with her husband, Robert, and then by herself after the couple's divorce in the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, however, Redd was under pressure by family members to sell the 5,200-acre (2,100-hectare) property, which sits near Canyonlands National Park. Hoping to keep the ranch intact, Redd approached the Nature Conservancy (TNC), the environmental nonprofit, which buys ecologically significant property and preserves it. The ranch was a prime candidate for TNC ownership. The property includes rights to 250,000 acres (100,000 hectares) of federal grazing land, some of which has never been grazed. Redd was looking for more than just a buy-sell arrangement, however. "I was hoping they would purchase the land and allow me to continue ranching there," she said. TNC agreed to Redd's plan, and this year marks the tenth anniversary of the partnership between the long-time rancher and the nonprofit. TNC opted to continue with ranch operations and to use the property as a research lab, allowing scientists to work with Redd to determine the best grazing rotation for a desert climate....
Is the Endangered Species Act in Danger? Arizona's growing pains come before the Supreme Court this week in consolidated cases that pit against each other two of the country's most powerful environmental protections: the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. If the Bush administration has its way, states will have more control over how they manage their natural resources, but that will come at some expense to federal safeguards for jeopardized wildlife. Critics charge that the White House is actually trying to undercut the wide-ranging Endangered Species Act. For its part, the White House says the act is inconsistently applied and in need of reform-reform that could be brought about by a victory before the high court. Green light. The crux of the cases-National Association of Homebuilders v. Defenders of Wildlife and Defenders of Wildlife v. Environmental Protection Agency-goes back to 2002, when the federal government gave Arizona the right to issue its own water discharge permits for housing developments under the Clean Water Act-as it has done in many other states. But before handing over that power, the EPA, according to Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, consulted with another agency-in this case, the Fish and Wildlife Service-on whether the action would threaten listed species. The service raised alarms but, in an unusual move, approved the transfer anyway, arguing that Arizona was entitled to the permitting power because it met all the requirements of the Clean Water Act. The final call was made by the EPA, which gave Arizona the green light on water permits, environmentalists claim, without regard to their impact on wildlife as directed by the Endangered Species Act. To some, the whole thing smelled fishy. In other instances, environmentalists say, the EPA and other agencies had worked to minimize damage to habitat while still giving states permitting power. "This time, they drew hard lines," says Patrick Parenteau, an environmental law professor at Vermont Law School. He believes "something happened behind closed doors" to limit the federal role in state and local development. Defenders of Wildlife sued. In court, the EPA argued that simply by consulting with the Fish and Wildlife Service, it had met its legal requirements under the Endangered Species Act. But the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit disagreed, arguing the EPA had shirked its duty to wildlife. Hostage. The EPA is expected to argue before the Supreme Court that Section 7 shouldn't apply at all. The EPA and the National Association of Homebuilders, a party to the suit, argue that states must be granted permitting rights under the Clean Water Act if they meet all the requirements, none of which involves measuring impacts on endangered species. Duane Desiderio, a lawyer for the association, says it's wrong to hold every federal statute hostage to the Endangered Species Act. The EPA declined to comment, but in its legal petition argues "there is no dispute" Arizona met the criteria for the Clean Water Act and therefore should get its permits....
Court hears endangered species cases that could slow Az building The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a pair of Arizona cases that could lead to tougher requirements for how federal agencies weigh the environmental effects of their policies. The specific issue before justices is whether the Environmental Protection Agency should have consulted more closely with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials when it gave Arizona's Department of Environmental Quality the power to issue permits for a housing development in the state's southern desert. Depending on how the court rules, the outcome could resonate far outside Arizona. The federal government says complying with endangered species laws before entering into agreements with states would be impossible. Housing developers say if they lose, it could mean construction delays of up to six months on new projects, and raise the cost of a new house by $5,000 to $10,000. Environmental activists say the government needs to be sure endangered species aren't at risk from policy decisions that may seem unrelated at first....
Ferrets have ranchers worried Ranchers near Wind Cave National Park are worried that the re-introduction of endangered black-footed ferrets into the park could complicate their lives, despite assurances that agriculture operations on nearby private land nearby will not be affected. Randy Schroth, who ranches near the west boundary of the 28,000-acre park, said Monday he was skeptical of assurances by park officials that the presence of ferrets wouldn’t interfere with private ranch operations — including the poisoning of prairie dogs — adjoining or near the park. “They’re claiming we’re covered,” Schroth said. “But I’m wondering. If you’re out poisoning and it might kill one of them little buggers, you’re in the harm of things. They’re still an endangered species.” Wind Cave acting superintendent Tom Farrell announced last week that the National Park Service had approved an experimental ferret re-introduction project that could release 20-25 black-footed ferrets each year for three to five years. Farrell said provisions of an experimental permit issued under the Endangered Species Act would assure that private property owners outside the park were not affected....
Wolves prey on cattle while ranchers huff and puff One day after selling his cattle, hay and farm machinery, Mike Kasten Sr. visited with his good friend, John Eischeid, in the office of Tri-County Livestock Auction Inc. Still sporting his cowboy hat and boots, Kasten pulled up a chair and explained why he decided to sell. Last June, he said he was getting his two grandsons off to summer school classes when he noticed trouble in a pasture close to his house. "The cows were up close, calving," he recalled, "and there were three timber wolves, two of them working the cow. One calf took off running toward the brush, and I ran to get my .243. "When I got back, they were by another cow that had just calved that morning, and they were trying to get her." Kasten said the adult female wolf ran off, but he managed to shoot two young males. He notified the local authorities, who in turn summoned a DNR official and trapper from the USDA office in Grand Rapids. By midwinter, Kasten said he had lost several more calves to wolves, but he had no carcasses to prove his damages. He said it is common knowledge that wolves can tear carcasses to pieces, dragging them away to their den....
Wolf delisting must protect elk, cattle While the head of a statewide sportsmen's group may not detest wolves, he's quite concerned about their impact on big game. “I'm not a wolf-hater, but I don't like what they're doing to the herds,” said Joe Tilden of Cody. He's president of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and hopes there's a big turnout for the Thursday meeting about removing wolves from Endangered Species Act protection. State Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, also has strong feelings about wolves. “I made myself clear with the legislation,” he said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is hosting the meeting, needs to delist the wolf and turn over their management to the state, Childers said. The agency also needs to set the wolf-zone line at the Shoshone Forest boundary west of Cody, not at WYO 120. The statute gives the governor the flexibility to move the line, “if that's what it takes to delist,” he added. After delisting, the Game and Fish Department will have that power. Both Childers and Tilden cited a G&F study about a low cow-calf ratio for elk in Sunlight Basin and the relocation of elk to Heart Mountain where the ratio is healthy. “Why's that? Generally we think it's wolves,” Childers said....
Two wolves shot near Sun Valley U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services has shot two male wolves suspected of killing up to four cattle south of Sun Valley. The wolves were shot by Wildlife Services' agents from a fixed-wing aircraft Friday morning as the animals were harassing cattle at a ranch near Carey. A third wolf , a female, was killed by a rancher near Picabo about five weeks ago. Officials say this is perhaps the first time wolves have been shot by wildlife agents in south-central Idaho. "This is the first year we've had any problems in that area," said Steve Nadeau, state wolf coordinator with Wildlife Services. "It's very unusual." All three wolves are believed to be responsible for a cattle killing spree in the Wood River Valley over the past eight weeks. On March 19, a rancher near Picabo shot and killed the female wolf after it brought down at least one of his cattle. A day or two later, more wolves were spotted near the ranch. Then on April 7 and 8, at least three cattle were killed, supposedly by wolves, near a ranch about 15 miles north of Carey. Agents were dispatched to find and kill the wolves....
Wolf impasse persists Issues of timing appear to be the biggest remaining obstacle toward a wolf management deal between Wyoming and the federal government. It also appears that those timing issues may be insurmountable. That means more litigation between the parties and continued federal control of wolves in northwest Wyoming. Federal officials Monday said Wyoming must submit a new wolf management plan by May 1 to meet administrative and legal requirements to allow removal of federal protection of wolves by February 2008 -- the deadline contained in a new state law giving Gov. Dave Freudenthal authority to negotiate the boundaries of a permanent wolf management area in northwest Wyoming to meet federal approval. But the governor says that under the law approved by the Legislature during its recent session, Wyoming can't adopt a new wolf management plan until the federal government changes its rules to allow killing of wolves to protect big game animals before delisting. Federal officials have begun the process of amending the rules to allow such wolf control, but the changes aren't expected to be finalized until next year. As a result of the impasse, federal officials said Monday they're prepared to remove protection for northern Rocky Mountain wolves in all but northwest Wyoming....
Agency sets wolf plan deadline The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it's prepared to leave Wyoming behind as it drafts regulations spelling out how the wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains will be removed from federal protection under the Threatened and Endangered Species Act. Mitch King, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wrote to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Monday saying that if the state can't submit a new wolf management plan by May 1, the federal agency won't be able to include the state in its ongoing rulemaking aimed at removing wolves from federal protections by next February. That would leave only Montana and Idaho in the process. "Let me again stress this is not our preferred option," King wrote to Freudenthal. "However, we still intend to complete the delisting of all the significant portions of the range with adequate regulatory mechanisms by February 2008, with or without Wyoming's inclusion."....
Where will they sue? The lawyer for eight environmental groups fighting to maintain federal protection for grizzly bears said he'll carefully consider the options before deciding where to file an expected lawsuit. “I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't do that,” said Douglas Honnold, an attorney for Earthjustice in Bozeman, Mont. Gov. Dave Freudenthal last week asked Honnold in a letter to take the “honorable action” and file the lawsuit in federal court in Wyoming, where about 90 percent of the greater Yellowstone area's estimated 500-600 bears live. Freudenthal urged Honnold not to “forum shop” for a sympathetic court in another state, a practice that has been widely criticized by Westerners in past federal land and wildlife disputes. “Having a distant forum render a decision on a matter of such great import to Wyoming and its people will only foster further cynicism regarding the (Endangered Species Act) and judicial review of decisions made under the ESA,” Freudenthal wrote in the two-page letter....
Lawsuit claims gray wolf should remain on endangered species list Three animal advocacy groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday over its decision to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, says the gray wolf essentially remains endangered in the three states, and it demands that the Fish and Wildlife Service be prevented from implementing its "delisting" plan. The lawsuit was filed by The Humane Society of the United States, Help Our Wolves Live, and the Animal Protection Institute. "The agencies' decision to strip wolves of all federal protection is biologically reckless and contrary to the requirements of the Endangered Species Act," Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president of litigation for the Humane Society, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. In March, federal officials removed the gray wolves from its endangered list and handed over management of the population to state and tribal governments. In Minnesota, the state Department of Natural Resources assigned three conservation officers to managing the wolf population and planned to hire a new wolf specialist, said Mike DonCarlos, the department's wildlife research and policy manager....
States seek OK to kill sea lions So far, California sea lions have been winning their contest for survival with the Washington and Oregon salmon heading upstream to spawn. That may be about to change. Washington, Oregon and Idaho are asking Congress for permission to kill more than 80 sea lions a year to protect the salmon they feast on. Since federal rules gave sea lions greater protection in the 1970s, the population of these salmon predators has grown as more gentle efforts have failed to scare them away from their favorite meal. Sea lions on the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam have been blasted with rubber buckshot, chased by boats, harassed by firecrackers and rockets and subjected to noise from underwater speakers. Both species have potent allies. Backing the salmon are the three Northwest states, American Indian tribes and four of the region's members of Congress. Backing the sea lions is the 10 million-member Humane Society of the United States....
Russia To Make Polar Bear Hunting Legal The Russian government is set to allow residents in the town of Vankarem to legally hunt polar bears that have been moving into the region. In response to the increasing number of polar bears traveling into the eastern Russian region due to the changing climate, officials are set to permit legal hunting of the animals for the first time in more than 50 years, the New York Times said Monday. "The normal life space for the polar bears is shrinking," Pacific Scientific Research and Fisheries Center biologist Anatoly A. Kochnev said. "They come in search of food on the shore, and the main sources of food are where people live." The move comes as other nations have begun classifying polar bears as an endangered species....
Federal government defends decision not to list Oregon coho The federal government on Monday defended its decision to leave Oregon coastal coho salmon off the threatened species list and let the state of Oregon oversee voluntary efforts to restore its numbers. U.S. Justice Department lawyer Paul Lall argued in U.S. District Court that judges must defer to NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency in charge of salmon restoration, which had weighed competing scientific evidence and made a "close call." But Trout Unlimited and other conservation groups countered that NOAA Fisheries failed to use the best available science, and in the face of uncertainty should have decided to protect the fish. "If there are uncertainties, the agency cannot throw up its hands," said Patti Goldman, an attorney from Earthjustice representing the conservation groups. "It cannot refuse to act." Once a fish is listed as threatened, the government has to come down on the side of protecting the fish when there's a question about whether a given action might harm its populations, Lall said....
Grizzly Bear Trapped and Killed The Idaho Department of Fish and Game says the 400-pound bear was caught in a cable snare about 100 yards from the home of Timothy Henderson, the man who was hospitalized. Henderson has since returned home and will recover from multiple bite and claw wounds. He was attacked last week when he went outside his home looking for his dog, only to find a grizzly charging straight at him. Fish and Game says the bear was likely protecting a dead moose carcus in the area, but says killing it was the right decision. Steve Schmidt, Idaho Fish and Game: "That was a joint decision by the Teton County Sheriff's Office and Idaho Fish and Game in addition to public safety issues of officers on the scene, the bear was lunging at them at the end of a cable snare, their safety was paramount."....
Habitat Credit Trading Offers Conservation Incentives The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service, and Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies are partnering to evaluate endangered species habitat credit trading. Directors from each group signed an agreement Friday agreeing to explore ways to coordinate programs and activities to assist habitat credit trading markets as way to increase the conservation of endangered or at-risk species habitat. "Habitat credit trading is a great way to restore, protect and promote conservation of lands that are home to endangered species," says NRCS Chief Arlan Lancaster. "We all benefit from healthy ecosystems. Allowing landowners to earn additional revenue for their conservation efforts is the future of sound environmental stewardship." Habitat credit banks act much like a savings account but instead of money, credits are earned for land preservation of the habitat. The credits can then be sold to land use industries or others, who are required to mitigate the loss of habitat by the Endangered Species Act and other laws that restrict or prohibit development....
Turning off the flow Millions of Californians would lose at least a portion of their water supply and 750,000 acres of productive Central Valley farmland would dry up if the state cannot satisfy an Alameda County judge. Late last month, Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch gave the California Department of Water Resources 60 days to comply with the California Endangered Species Act or shut down a pumping plant that diverts millions of acre-feet of water to thirsty Southern California. The Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant and its related facilities near Tracy push delta water through the California Aqueduct, a man-made canal that cuts a swath through western Stanislaus County. Water flowing down the aqueduct has transformed California's once dry and barren interior into an agribusiness powerhouse that pumps an estimated $300 billion into the state's economy. Shutting off the pumps would have a potentially devastating effect on the state's economy. Officials at the Department of Water Resources say they won't let that happen....
Biologists stumped by southern Oregon fish kill After more than a week of chasing tips, the Oregon State Police and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife have been unable to identify the toxic substance that killed dozens of fish here earlier this month. The dead fish that turned up in lower Griffin Creek included wild coho salmon, a species classified as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Authorities said that means the fish kill could be a federal crime. Also discovered among the fish were red-sided shiners, which are a non-native species, and juvenile wild steelhead, most of which were about 4 inches long. David Haight, a fish biologist with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the gills of the dead fish were inspected to look for burning associated with chemicals. The fish, however, were too decomposed to reveal any clues, Haight said. "So far, we haven't found anything that seemed like it could have caused the fish kill," Haight said....
Vegas water-pumping plan approved A request to pump billions of gallons of groundwater to booming Las Vegas from a valley near the Nevada-Utah line was cut to less than half the amount in a plan approved Monday by the state's engineer. The pipes will be shut off if existing wells and other existing water rights in Spring Valley suffer during Southern Nevada Water Authority's pumping the next 10 years, state Engineer Tracy Taylor said. A recent drought cycle has cut heavily into southern Nevada's share of Colorado River water, prompting the city to look elsewhere for water. Utah officials, ranchers, conservationists and even the Mormon Church objected to Las Vegas' request to pump water from their areas. Susan Land of the Great Basin Water Network, which had opposed the original pumping request, termed the decision "a victory of sorts" and questioned whether the massive project to pipe water more than 200 miles south to Las Vegas remained financially feasible....
Public forum on Otero Mesa drilling later this week The Otero Mesa, a large expanse of wild lands southeast of Alamogordo, may have some oil and gas underneath it. It may also have one of the largest untapped fresh water aquifers in the state as well. Both gas drillers and municipalities are vying to tap into one or the other. Because of the issues involved, a public forum has been scheduled for later this week, noted Nathan Newcomer from the New Mexico Wildlife Association. Newcomer said the public is invited to the forum at the Elks Lodge on Hamilton Friday at 6 p.m. He said five people will speak on the possible dangers of gas drilling in the area. Tweety Blancett, a rancher from Aztec, will talk about what happened when oil and gas companies began to drill on her ranch and the consequences that resulted from that. Newcomer said Blancett's water was contaminated and some of her livestock perished....
Warming Predicted to Take Severe Toll on U.S Climate change will exact a major cost on North America's timber industry and could drive as much as 40 percent of its plant and animal species to extinction in a matter of decades, according to a new report from an international panel. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which released its summary report on global warming's overall impact earlier this month, provided a more detailed assessment yesterday of the effects on North America. The report, written and edited by dozens of scientists, looks at how global warming has begun to transform the continent and how it is likely to affect it in the future. The 67-page report, which examines everything from freshwater ecosystems to tourism, said North America has suffered severe environmental and economic damage because of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, heat waves and forest fires. Without "increased investments in countermeasures," the authors wrote that they are at least 90 percent sure that "hot temperatures and extreme weather are likely to cause increased adverse health impacts from heat-related mortality, pollution, storm-related fatalities and injuries, and infectious diseases."....
Map software pinpoints environment hotspots Web connoisseurs have grown accustomed to going online and getting an aerial view of their neighborhoods, or even their houses, using software like Google Earth. Now they can look at the same world and get a subterranean view. A sophisticated new breed of mapping software on the Web is allowing users to pinpoint toxic hot spots and hazardous sites beneath the ground using a wealth of new information and mashed-up existing technology. Those developments have opened up business opportunities for consulting firms and new ways for government and advocacy organizations to inform the public about hazardous, environmentally dangerous sites. Take Locus Technologies in Mountain View, which, using Google Earth's satellite imagery, has created an online program that pinpoints problem sites throughout the country, including the infamous Superfund sites designated as super-toxic by the Environmental Protection Agency....
The grass-fed is greener Inside the only boucherie in town is a meat case full of chuck roasts, flank steaks, New York strips. But what they're really selling in the rustic Burgundy Boucherie is a story. It's an old story, actually, one about a Texas ranching family that raises cattle on rolling, green hills of native grasses, never uses pesticides, hormones or grain, and sells their meat to people they know on a first-name basis. Jon and Wendy Taggart tell it best. "It's not new," Wendy Taggart said. "It's the way ranching was done years ago." A few years back, they climbed out on an agricultural limb, gambling that people would pay extra for organic, 100-percent grass-fed beef bought directly from their store in Grandview, about 35 miles south of Fort Worth. They struck at a time when many Americans were growing more interested in all-natural products and more concerned with problems in mass-produced meat. That interest keeps growing, and not just in the expected places such as New England and California. The Dallas-Fort Worth area is considered the second-strongest market in Texas for environmentally friendly foods....
Animal protections pass Colo. House Dog owners whose animals attack or kill someone's pet could face criminal charges under a proposal advanced today by the House. The legislation - aimed at putting more teeth into animal-cruelty laws - also would make bestiality a crime and force animal abusers to submit DNA samples for a criminal database. After an objection from ranchers, lawmakers struck a provision that would have banned dogs from riding unrestrained in the back of pickup trucks. They also eliminated a proposal to add rabbits and ferrets to the list of domestic animals protected under the law. "A special thank you from my dog, Buzz, who loves to chase rabbits," said House Minority Leader Mike May of Parker. "He says, 'Woof-woof.' " Rep. Debbie Stafford, R-Aurora, said district attorneys asked her to run the bill because Colorado law isn't tough enough on animal abusers....
No health threats found at Stevens County dairy farm An investigation into the deaths of as many as 60 cows at a Stevens County dairy found no health threats to people or other animals, state Veterinarian Leonard Eldridge said Monday. Eldridge and representatives of other state and federal agencies visited the farm in Addy, about 75 miles north of Spokane, in early March after receiving reports of 50-60 dead cattle. A detailed investigation found no serious animal diseases or toxic contamination of the animals' feed. But the probe did not find what caused the animals' deaths. "During this investigation, we have found no threat to the health of people or other animals," Eldridge said in a news release. "We have not been able to identify a common cause of death of these animals. Frankly, we may never know specifically what killed the animals that died before the start of this investigation." Concerns about possible heavy metals contamination of the animals' feed caused the dairy owner to stop shipping milk off the farm in December 2006....
GeneThera in Preliminary Talks for Mad Cow Testing GeneThera, Inc. (OTCBB: GTHA) announced today it has begun preliminary talks with ranchers to test their cattle for the Mad Cow disease. Commenting on the talks Dr. Tony Milici stated, "These preliminary talks are an important first step to establish our commercial platform once private companies will be allowed to test for Mad Cow disease in the US. We believe that allowing private companies to test for Mad Cow will have a very positive impact on the US beef industry domestically and internationally." The USDA has previously not allowed private companies to test their cattle for Mad Cow. However, a federal judge ruled that the federal government must allow meatpackers to test their animals for Mad Cow Disease. The judge put his order on hold until the government can appeal. If the government does not appeal by June 1, 2007, he stated the ruling would take effect....
Feed store owner, 88, still behind counter Sybil Brown has a simple ambition these days. It makes her day to get in her old pickup and drive the two blocks to work every morning in the store she has been a part of since World War II. Sybil is 88, and she has been working in Brown’s Feed Store in Honey Grove since she and her husband, Curtis, built it in the early 1940s. Curtis died more than two decades ago, but Sybil continues to run the store much as she did years ago. In fact, Sybil’s attachment to the store goes back even before she and her husband built it. The lumber was originally in an old barn on her family’s farm. She inherited the farm, and when the couple decided to go into the feed business, they tore down the barn on the old family place and built the store in Honey Grove. The feed store once was a thriving business, with farmers and ranchers coming from across the area to purchase feed ground fresh at the store every day. “Farmers brought their crops to us by the trailer loads,” she said. “We took grain and hay and ground it into feed for them.”....
It's All Trew: Airing out laundry memories Washing dirty laundry is and always has been a dreaded chore. The larger the family, the more dreaded the chore, especially if you had to build a fire under a large iron pot, whittle lye soap shavings into the pot and agitate the brew with a poke stick until the clothes were clean. Then came the wringing out and placing on the clothesline. Probably not many are alive today who helped in this effort. Once kitchens became equipped with kerosene, propane or natural gas cook stoves, most women acquired a big copper boiler with a lid, which sat over two burners for heating. In place of the poke stick, various inventions made doing laundry a little easier, though the old rub-board was still kept busy. The invention of flat irons with detachable handles improved the chore of ironing. A major improvement in washing clothes came with the introduction of the Maytag MultiMotor Swinging Wringer Washing Machine. It had a wooden tank made like an ice cream freezer bucket and owners knew to keep a little water in the tank at all times so the stakes would not dry out and leak water. Miracle of miracles, the device had a small gasoline motor for power. The direction booklet gave directions of how to mix the oil and gasoline for the motor and said to keep your oil squirt-can handy because there were 23 places to lubricate. "Always oil machine before using each time and do not use too much oil but apply often."....
Monday, April 16, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Army Hasn't Ruled Out Pinon Canyon Condemnations Sen. Wayne Allard says the Army has told him it prefers to buy land from willing sellers to expand its Pinon Canyon training site in southeastern Colorado, but it has not ruled out condemnations. Some farmers and ranchers are opposed to the expansion and fear they will be forced to sell their land, which is located along the historic Santa Fe Trail. Steve Wymer, Allard's spokesman, said others in the area are open to selling their land. Te Legislature is debating a bill that would bar the Army from using state eminent domain law to require landowners to sell, but even its backers admit the measure would be more symbolic. Wymer said the Army has long said that forcing landowners to sell "would be a last resort." Rancher Lon Robertson, the leader of a group opposing the expansion, said there are always some ranches for sale in the area but the majority of landowners don't want to sell. He the latest Army statement is nothing new....
Public: Slow Pinedale area gas development No one who spoke during four open houses hosted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said they backed the agency's plan for energy development in the Pinedale area. The BLM's preferred alternative is to allow a mixture of oil and gas development while making some areas off limits to drilling and related activity. But those who spoke at open houses in Rock Springs, Jackson, Pinedale and Marbleton said they want the agency to slow development and do more to protect wildlife and natural resources. The biggest turnout was in Pinedale, where a crowd spent several hours speaking about the proposed development plan, which remain open for public comment until May 18....
Coal-bed methane water appeals on rise Appeals of coal-bed methane water discharge permits are on the rise, complicating gas development in the Powder River Basin. Coal-bed methane wells extract natural gas by pumping water off underground coal seams. Oftentimes the groundwater is useful for ranchers in arid northeast Wyoming, but other times the water can flood low-lying grazing areas. Terri Lorenzon, director of the state Environmental Quality Council, thinks the shifting areas of the coal-bed methane play may have something to do with the increase in permit appeals. "These discharges are where they impact people more and more," she said. The state Department of Environmental Quality also has noticed an increase in appeals. John Wagner, a water quality supervisor for the agency, said 11 appeals are pending. "We're getting appeals from both sides, environmental and industry," he said. "It's just that coal-bed methane is very controversial, and there seems to be an unwillingness to compromise on both sides."....
Cooperative range monitoring fosters trust in western Wyoming Western Wyoming ranchers who hold permits to graze livestock on federal lands say their relationship with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management has gone from contentious to cooperative. This new sense of goodwill, according to the ranchers, stems from a monitoring program spearheaded by the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service. Livestock producers and personnel from the two federal agencies voluntarily participate. "We get along better with the USFS since we started the cooperative permittee monitoring. We also have a lot more knowledge about the range resource and how to care for it," said Wayne Jensen, who raises cattle near Boulder. "That's allowing us to keep our cattle up there longer, and they are in better shape when they come out." Another Boulder-area rancher, Joel Bousman, said, "Since we started the joint monitoring programs, our working relationship with the Forest Service and BLM improved dramatically." Bousman, president of the Silver Creek Grazing Association, added, "With the help of UW CES, we got out on the grazing allotments and started monitoring based on sound science using quantitative, long-term trend data, not someone's opinion."....
Prairie chickens making comeback The lesser prairie chicken was once prolific across the shortgrass prairies of the Great Plains. The birds were often the only meat on a pioneer family’s table in hard times, which never seemed to go away for the plains sodbuster. Experts say the birds nearly met their demise, not from hunting, but from loss of habitat during the 20th century. Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service includes the species as eligible for listing through the Endangered Species Act. Landowners and several groups working to protect the lesser prairie chicken won a major battle in the last year when the New Mexico Game Commission recommended they not be included on the state’s endangered species list. “It would limit what we do out here because then everything we do would be federally regulated,” said Tish McDaniel, The Nature Conservancy’s Southern Shortgrass Prairie project coordinator. “We don’t want it to become listed because that’s a statement right there that we’re losing.” McDaniel said the key to saving and improving prairie chicken habitat lies with landowners, who ranch on most of the prime land for the birds. She tries to match federal and state programs and other conservation sources to a cattleman’s goals for his land. She said at the same time she’s winning valuable habitat for prairie chickens....
Ranchers get creative with wolves Barbed wire used to be the only thing keeping Emma Ellison's cows from the Baker Mountain wolf pack. This spring, there's a stiffer line of defense: electrified wire draped with red strips of flagging. "It you touch your nose on it, it'll get your attention," said Brian Finnan, Ellison's friend and neighbor who helps keep an eye on the place. The fencing went up last month around a 40-acre pasture as an experiment to see how well it works at keeping hungry wolves from cows and calves. Wolves are suspected of killing a few cows on the ranch two years ago, but it was never officially confirmed. Still, the mere presence of wolves nearby was enough to give the electrified fencing and flagging a try. The strips of red material -- called fladry -- exploit a quirk in wolves' personality that steers them away from new, unfamiliar objects. The 7,000 volts pulsing through the wires, in a souped-up version called "turbo-fladry," add a body-jarring jolt to those bold enough to test it....
Interior probe clears BLM The Department of Interior's chief investigator found no wrongdoing in private discussions Bureau of Land Management officials held with promoters of oil and gas development in Utah. "We found no evidence to substantiate that BLM officials engaged in any behavior that could be characterized as improper dealings for the purpose of promoting local economic interests at the expense of wilderness protections," said Inspector General Earl Devaney. Devaney released his finding in an April 4 letter to U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., sponsor of Utah's 9.5 million-acre Red Rock Wilderness Act, a bill held up in Congress for years. Hinchey had asked Devaney to look into an e-mail written by a lobbyist who gave an account of a private meeting in Vernal last summer when, the lobbyist said, BLM officials promised to fix bureaucratic problems holding up oil and gas development on public lands. The federal government owns 64 percent of the land in Utah. In the e-mail leaked by wilderness groups, Robert Weidner, a lobbyist for rural Utah counties, said the Bush administration was "on the same page" with oil and gas interests....
Wildlife conflicts grow After eight years working Wyoming's booming energy fields, truck driver Eric Ransom suddenly finds his future threatened by an unlikely nemesis: a chicken-sized brown bird with a penchant for colorful courtship rituals and an aversion to heavy equipment. Ransom delivers water, gravel and other materials to the sprawling coal-bed methane fields east of Buffalo. In the past, when one company hit a slow period, he jumped easily to another that needed more drivers. No longer. As the methane, or natural gas, is tapped out beneath the flat rangeland of eastern Wyoming, energy companies are migrating west and into richer habitat along the Powder River, where protected birds such as the sage grouse live. Federal rules mandate months-long prohibitions on drilling near sage grouse breeding grounds, leaving contractors like Ransom scrambling to find work. The industry slowdown goes beyond that one bird population, and reflects a broader shift taking place in the debate over domestic energy development. It comes amid new evidence that some wildlife populations are on the decline after almost a decade of intense exploration....
Company faces unusual well problem, too much water Coal bed methane development developers usually face the problem of getting enough water into the ground to get the gas out. EnCana Oil and Gas USA is facing the opposite problem, forcing it to shut 24 coal bed methane wells east of Mamm Creek. There's too much water. "It's one of the things that's going to make us not an economical venture anymore," EnCana land negotiator Greg Ryan told the Daily Sentinel last week during an energy and environment symposium at Western State College. The wells are producing between 300 and 3,000 barrels daily, compared with normal water production of up to 15 barrels. "We can't de-water the coals because we don't know what to do with the water," Ryan said. Treating the water has failed, as has evaporating it. The mineral- and saline-laden water is too dirty. Company spokesman Wendy Wiedenbeck said the company is still working on treating the water or re-injecting it below ground....
Group buys gas leases on Rocky Front Trout Unlimited has bought leases for natural-gas drilling on 4,900 acres of the Rocky Mountain Front, and the conservation group said it will seek to have the leases retired for good. Trout Unlimited announced the purchase Thursday, less than a year after the organization accepted Front leases from Questar Corp. The company donated several petroleum leases, which Trout Unlimited said would be returned to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for retirement. The latest leases were bought from Donald Epperson, a private energy investor from Helena, and are on two tracts of land. Trout Unlimited spokesman Chris Hunt said that under terms of the deal, the purchase price would not be disclosed. The lease transfer allows the land to be used for the benefit of hunters and anglers, Hunt said. "This is land that really isn't appropriate for oil and gas drilling in the first place, so to see these leases given to TU, and to know they'll be retired and never drilled is really satisfying," he said....
Tribe pulls out of water negotiations Two years of water compact negotiations between the Blackfeet Tribe and the state of Montana went into a tailspin on Thursday after tribal council members said they had been blindsided and then declared a negotiation session over. Tribal leaders were disturbed after learning the state had pushed a $140 million authorization through a U.S. Senate committee to build a water diversion project within the Blackfeet Reservation borders without the tribe's consent or knowledge. "We want this issue cleared up before we go any further," said Blackfeet Chief Earl Old Person during an ardent speech in which he stood before the negotiation team members. "It's not in our favor. We were not notified. We need to be part of this. ... We need to know how this is going to affect our people." Tribal attorney Jeannie Whiteing reminded commission members that the tribe has repeatedly sought to have its federal reserved water rights quantified before money was set aside to rebuild the St. Mary water diversion project. Tribal members said they only recently learned of the $140 million authorization, which they called a betrayal....
Eberts Ranch deal to close The U.S. Forest Service plans to complete the purchase of the 5,200-acre Eberts Ranch on April 25. That will close the $5.3 million purchase and fold the ranch into the Forest Service's management on the Little Missouri National Grasslands. By April 26, the entire ranch will be available for such activities as hiking, bird watching and any seasonal hunting. The Forest Service had purchased 1,900 acres of the Eberts Ranch in September, and this month's deal will be to acquire the remaining 3,300. The Eberts family has been trying to sell the ranch for public conservation for nearly four years, first to the National Park Service and then to North Dakota as a first-ever state preserve. When the preserve failed for lack of legislative funding in 2005, the Forest Service stepped forward....
Judge allows logging dead trees A U.S. district judge has lifted an injunction on logging beetle-killed trees on 2,600 acres in and around the Basin Creek watershed south of here. 0.U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy of Missoula issued the order Tuesday, saying a U.S. Forest Service analysis showed the project would not significantly impact soils. Three environmental groups vowed to appeal the case Thursday. "The project is a bad idea," said Jeff Juel of the Wild West Institute, formerly the Ecology Center, in Missoula. "We're committed to following our legal options to bring some good management to the area." The Ecology Center, the Native Ecosystems Council and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies sued the Forest Service over its Basin Creek Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project in 2005. The groups said they oppose the project because it included clear-cutting 1,100 acres and building 14 miles of new roads. Juel said he also believes that claims that the dead trees create a fire hazard are greatly exaggerated....
Blair and Merkel lean on Bush to join battle against climate change President George Bush is coming under unprecedented pressure from Tony Blair and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to agree to tough new international measures to stop global warming accelerating out of control. The measures are contained in a strongly worded draft communiqué for June's G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany - obtained by The Independent on Sunday - which warns that "tackling climate change is an imperative, not a choice". It adds that if "resolute and concerted international action" is not "urgently" taken, global warming will become "largely unmanageable". The United States and Canada are resisting key elements of the draft, but Mrs Merkel is determined not to water it down. She is backed by the Prime Minister, who is ringing Mr Bush weekly to try to persuade him to change his position. The draft warns that "global warming caused largely by human activities is accelerating" and that it "will seriously damage our common natural environment and severely weaken [the] global economy, with implications for international security"....
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well. The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives....
Dozens of nilgai antelope killed to stop tick spread South Texas ranchers brought nilgai antelope from a California zoo decades ago, when it became fashionable to stock their sprawling acreage with exotic quarry. These days the species native to India and Pakistan are not so much a rarity in South Texas as a nuisance. For cattle ranchers they are a possible nemesis, threatening to spread a deadly tick to their herds. Federal wildlife officials say they are competing with native Rio Grande Valley species for food and trampling the brush they are trying so hard to preserve. The fast-running, 600-pound antelope have wandered all around the region, where at least one picked up a kind of fever tick from Mexico that once nearly wiped out American cattle. The ticks spread among the population and threaten the cattle. Federal officials said they had no choice but to hire a "helicopter and gunner" last week to slaughter them. Thirty-seven were killed during the two-day hunt on a portion of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge that runs along the border....
Rancher says pipes were radioactive A member of one of Texas' oldest ranching families has locked horns with an oil company in a bizarre dispute involving pet rhinos, steel pipe and allegations of radiation poisoning and a corporate vendetta. Rancher Jimmy McAllen, the 10th generation of his family to work the 70,000-acre ranch in South Texas, says that the old pipe he used to build a corral for two African black rhinoceroses in the mid-1990s proved to be loaded with radioactive material. He blames the radiation for the mysterious 1995 death of one of his rhinos. And he says he suspects it caused the rare form of cancer that cost him his lower right leg in 2005. Moreover, he says the Forest Oil Co. - which holds a lease to drill for gas on his property and gave him the old pipe for the corral and other projects around the ranch - deliberately poisoned his land in retaliation for a dispute the two sides had over gas payments....
Baseball flips lid, tosses out wool cap It didn’t stand a chance, utterly alone as it was, with vanquished woolen sportswear littering the playing fields all around it: football jerseys, hockey sweaters, ski jackets, golf pants and the like. Each had long ago succumbed to a tide of manmade textiles boasting superlative stretchiness, stain resistance, insulation, water repellence — innovations that spawned revolutions in sports fashion and fabric terminology alike. (Doubtful that Honus Wagner ever pondered the ‘‘breatheability’’ and ‘‘wicking’’ abilities of his famously rumpled lid.) So it shouldn’t have surprised anyone this winter when Major League Baseball quietly announced it was tossing the wool cap for good. New Era Cap Co., the Buffalo, N.Y.-based manufacturer of baseball’s signature vestment for decades, declared that a new polyester-blend model would debut on opening day. From a business perspective, the immediate impact of the change may only be felt by New Era’s wool suppliers; the larger consequence for wool producers comes in the form of perception. ‘‘It’s significant in the visibility that it’s had,’’ said Rita Samuelson, marketing director for the American Wool Council, a nonprofit association representing U.S. sheep ranchers. ‘‘It was one of the last places in sports where wool was used, and so many people are now hearing that wool is being replaced by high-performance fiber. Samuelson knows of at least one wool producer in Canada that may have to shutter its mill with the decreased demand....
Proposed Texas Body Farm Draws Criticism Plans by Texas State University to create a forensic field laboratory in San Marcos, Texas, have drawn strong opposition from area residents. San Marcos residents allege the facility, which would be used to study the decomposition of human corpses, would draw unwanted attention from area wildlife and possibly contaminate regional rivers, the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman said Saturday. Area rancher Harrell Tietjen also said residents were not informed early enough by the college about the creation of the site, which would be the largest of its type in the nation. "When I went to the school up here, it was a place of higher education," he said. "But I think you've gotten so high, you've fallen off." A university spokesman said the site would likely never keep more than 10 bodies at one time and they would be screened for communicable diseases....
Ranchers find increased profits with natural beef Wyoming ranchers are increasingly marketing natural beef - meaning cattle raised on family ranches instead of corporate feedlots - and happy customers around the country are eating it up. "I'm a little guy raising 80 head," said John Sutherland, a Laramie County rancher whose family came to Wyoming in the 1860s. "We're too small to really compete with the big guys, so we need a niche market." Sutherland's family is among a growing number of Wyoming ranchers who are turning to marketing natural beef. The Sutherlands entered the natural beef market two years ago and last year sold 16 of the 74 cattle they raised as natural beef. The USDA regulates the term "natural beef," which means beef raised without the use of hormones or antibiotics. The meat can't contain artificial ingredients and must be minimally processed. It took Sutherland's daughter about 40 hours to fill out the necessary federal paperwork to earn the right to use the term "natural."....
B.'s widow defends herself Already portrayed as a calculating gold digger who manipulated a man mentally crippled by years of alcohol abuse, the widow of South Texas multimillionaire B.K. Johnson took the stand Friday to defend her late husband's will from his children and grandchildren. Accusations of backstabbing and money-grubbing flew inside the packed courtroom, as lawyers asked Laura McAllister Johnson whether she had referred to her stepdaughters as "vile" and "not smart," with children who were "horrible." Yes, she said, indeed she had. Tensions ran high Friday inside Probate Court 1, where the inheritance battle over the King Ranch scion's millions finished its third week. Johnson, a descendent of King Ranch founder Richard King, died in 2001, leaving an estate estimated at more than $40 million — but not to his children. The trial is expected to last up to three months. During the daylong testimony, the lawyer representing the daughters, daughter-in-law and grandchildren of the rancher and businessman known simply as "B." painted Laura Johnson as one who began attending his estate planning meetings even before they married in 1996....
Enid had its outlaws and its tales Nelson Ellsworth Wyatt was a bad guy. He probably was the most written-about bad guy who robbed and killed in the Enid area in the days right after the greatest land run of them all on Sept. 16, 1893. Nelson Ellsworth Wyatt, also was known as Zip Wyatt and Dick Yeager. Nothing is known about Wyatt’s background. He probably made his living stealing horses and selling them, or committing a robbery now and then to support himself. But he was a brawler, too, as well as a killer. He broke out of jail twice at Guthrie; he was involved in a brawl at Mulhall; and he and some friends killed a Kansas sheriff and two settlers who got in their way en route to a hideout. So Wyatt, who might look like a John Wayne-type character with his blue eyes, auburn hair, lean appearance and his Texas drawl, was not one of the nice guys. People, who visited his cell in the Enid jail in August 1895 said he didn’t look like a bad guy, and opined he was not as bad as he was made out to be. There are plenty of stories to the contrary....
Trip to Nevada City takes you back to 1860s You've got to love the place. It has character; it has history; it has local heroes – and it had bad guys. Nevada City, Mont., offers noncommercialized, preserved Old West history at its best. At first, it's a little confusing. This Nevada City is not in the state of Nevada. It was a town of several hundred people whose homes and businesses were leveled in the quest for gold. Yet, there are more than 100 mostly preserved and some restored buildings on the town site. Nevada City was one of a series of towns built along Alder Gulch in what was then Montana Territory. The rush for gold in the 1860s created a demand for mining supplies and services, so a string of towns was mostly thrown together. Other towns along the gulch were Junction City, Adobetown, Central City, Union City, Summit and Virginia City, housing a total population of around 7,000. There was gold – and lots of it. That is where the bad guys come in. These guys were really bad. It is estimated they were responsible for 102 murders and stole $250,000 in gold. They called themselves "The Innocents." One of the bad-guy leaders, Henry Plummer, was elected sheriff. Nevada City was a stronghold for Plummer and his gang. Enter the good guys. In 1863, the townsfolk had had enough and put together a vigilante group called "The Stranglers," who took their name seriously. During 1863, they hanged 23 of the robbers and murderers and ran the rest out of town....
Army Hasn't Ruled Out Pinon Canyon Condemnations Sen. Wayne Allard says the Army has told him it prefers to buy land from willing sellers to expand its Pinon Canyon training site in southeastern Colorado, but it has not ruled out condemnations. Some farmers and ranchers are opposed to the expansion and fear they will be forced to sell their land, which is located along the historic Santa Fe Trail. Steve Wymer, Allard's spokesman, said others in the area are open to selling their land. Te Legislature is debating a bill that would bar the Army from using state eminent domain law to require landowners to sell, but even its backers admit the measure would be more symbolic. Wymer said the Army has long said that forcing landowners to sell "would be a last resort." Rancher Lon Robertson, the leader of a group opposing the expansion, said there are always some ranches for sale in the area but the majority of landowners don't want to sell. He the latest Army statement is nothing new....
Public: Slow Pinedale area gas development No one who spoke during four open houses hosted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said they backed the agency's plan for energy development in the Pinedale area. The BLM's preferred alternative is to allow a mixture of oil and gas development while making some areas off limits to drilling and related activity. But those who spoke at open houses in Rock Springs, Jackson, Pinedale and Marbleton said they want the agency to slow development and do more to protect wildlife and natural resources. The biggest turnout was in Pinedale, where a crowd spent several hours speaking about the proposed development plan, which remain open for public comment until May 18....
Coal-bed methane water appeals on rise Appeals of coal-bed methane water discharge permits are on the rise, complicating gas development in the Powder River Basin. Coal-bed methane wells extract natural gas by pumping water off underground coal seams. Oftentimes the groundwater is useful for ranchers in arid northeast Wyoming, but other times the water can flood low-lying grazing areas. Terri Lorenzon, director of the state Environmental Quality Council, thinks the shifting areas of the coal-bed methane play may have something to do with the increase in permit appeals. "These discharges are where they impact people more and more," she said. The state Department of Environmental Quality also has noticed an increase in appeals. John Wagner, a water quality supervisor for the agency, said 11 appeals are pending. "We're getting appeals from both sides, environmental and industry," he said. "It's just that coal-bed methane is very controversial, and there seems to be an unwillingness to compromise on both sides."....
Cooperative range monitoring fosters trust in western Wyoming Western Wyoming ranchers who hold permits to graze livestock on federal lands say their relationship with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management has gone from contentious to cooperative. This new sense of goodwill, according to the ranchers, stems from a monitoring program spearheaded by the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service. Livestock producers and personnel from the two federal agencies voluntarily participate. "We get along better with the USFS since we started the cooperative permittee monitoring. We also have a lot more knowledge about the range resource and how to care for it," said Wayne Jensen, who raises cattle near Boulder. "That's allowing us to keep our cattle up there longer, and they are in better shape when they come out." Another Boulder-area rancher, Joel Bousman, said, "Since we started the joint monitoring programs, our working relationship with the Forest Service and BLM improved dramatically." Bousman, president of the Silver Creek Grazing Association, added, "With the help of UW CES, we got out on the grazing allotments and started monitoring based on sound science using quantitative, long-term trend data, not someone's opinion."....
Prairie chickens making comeback The lesser prairie chicken was once prolific across the shortgrass prairies of the Great Plains. The birds were often the only meat on a pioneer family’s table in hard times, which never seemed to go away for the plains sodbuster. Experts say the birds nearly met their demise, not from hunting, but from loss of habitat during the 20th century. Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service includes the species as eligible for listing through the Endangered Species Act. Landowners and several groups working to protect the lesser prairie chicken won a major battle in the last year when the New Mexico Game Commission recommended they not be included on the state’s endangered species list. “It would limit what we do out here because then everything we do would be federally regulated,” said Tish McDaniel, The Nature Conservancy’s Southern Shortgrass Prairie project coordinator. “We don’t want it to become listed because that’s a statement right there that we’re losing.” McDaniel said the key to saving and improving prairie chicken habitat lies with landowners, who ranch on most of the prime land for the birds. She tries to match federal and state programs and other conservation sources to a cattleman’s goals for his land. She said at the same time she’s winning valuable habitat for prairie chickens....
Ranchers get creative with wolves Barbed wire used to be the only thing keeping Emma Ellison's cows from the Baker Mountain wolf pack. This spring, there's a stiffer line of defense: electrified wire draped with red strips of flagging. "It you touch your nose on it, it'll get your attention," said Brian Finnan, Ellison's friend and neighbor who helps keep an eye on the place. The fencing went up last month around a 40-acre pasture as an experiment to see how well it works at keeping hungry wolves from cows and calves. Wolves are suspected of killing a few cows on the ranch two years ago, but it was never officially confirmed. Still, the mere presence of wolves nearby was enough to give the electrified fencing and flagging a try. The strips of red material -- called fladry -- exploit a quirk in wolves' personality that steers them away from new, unfamiliar objects. The 7,000 volts pulsing through the wires, in a souped-up version called "turbo-fladry," add a body-jarring jolt to those bold enough to test it....
Interior probe clears BLM The Department of Interior's chief investigator found no wrongdoing in private discussions Bureau of Land Management officials held with promoters of oil and gas development in Utah. "We found no evidence to substantiate that BLM officials engaged in any behavior that could be characterized as improper dealings for the purpose of promoting local economic interests at the expense of wilderness protections," said Inspector General Earl Devaney. Devaney released his finding in an April 4 letter to U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., sponsor of Utah's 9.5 million-acre Red Rock Wilderness Act, a bill held up in Congress for years. Hinchey had asked Devaney to look into an e-mail written by a lobbyist who gave an account of a private meeting in Vernal last summer when, the lobbyist said, BLM officials promised to fix bureaucratic problems holding up oil and gas development on public lands. The federal government owns 64 percent of the land in Utah. In the e-mail leaked by wilderness groups, Robert Weidner, a lobbyist for rural Utah counties, said the Bush administration was "on the same page" with oil and gas interests....
Wildlife conflicts grow After eight years working Wyoming's booming energy fields, truck driver Eric Ransom suddenly finds his future threatened by an unlikely nemesis: a chicken-sized brown bird with a penchant for colorful courtship rituals and an aversion to heavy equipment. Ransom delivers water, gravel and other materials to the sprawling coal-bed methane fields east of Buffalo. In the past, when one company hit a slow period, he jumped easily to another that needed more drivers. No longer. As the methane, or natural gas, is tapped out beneath the flat rangeland of eastern Wyoming, energy companies are migrating west and into richer habitat along the Powder River, where protected birds such as the sage grouse live. Federal rules mandate months-long prohibitions on drilling near sage grouse breeding grounds, leaving contractors like Ransom scrambling to find work. The industry slowdown goes beyond that one bird population, and reflects a broader shift taking place in the debate over domestic energy development. It comes amid new evidence that some wildlife populations are on the decline after almost a decade of intense exploration....
Company faces unusual well problem, too much water Coal bed methane development developers usually face the problem of getting enough water into the ground to get the gas out. EnCana Oil and Gas USA is facing the opposite problem, forcing it to shut 24 coal bed methane wells east of Mamm Creek. There's too much water. "It's one of the things that's going to make us not an economical venture anymore," EnCana land negotiator Greg Ryan told the Daily Sentinel last week during an energy and environment symposium at Western State College. The wells are producing between 300 and 3,000 barrels daily, compared with normal water production of up to 15 barrels. "We can't de-water the coals because we don't know what to do with the water," Ryan said. Treating the water has failed, as has evaporating it. The mineral- and saline-laden water is too dirty. Company spokesman Wendy Wiedenbeck said the company is still working on treating the water or re-injecting it below ground....
Group buys gas leases on Rocky Front Trout Unlimited has bought leases for natural-gas drilling on 4,900 acres of the Rocky Mountain Front, and the conservation group said it will seek to have the leases retired for good. Trout Unlimited announced the purchase Thursday, less than a year after the organization accepted Front leases from Questar Corp. The company donated several petroleum leases, which Trout Unlimited said would be returned to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for retirement. The latest leases were bought from Donald Epperson, a private energy investor from Helena, and are on two tracts of land. Trout Unlimited spokesman Chris Hunt said that under terms of the deal, the purchase price would not be disclosed. The lease transfer allows the land to be used for the benefit of hunters and anglers, Hunt said. "This is land that really isn't appropriate for oil and gas drilling in the first place, so to see these leases given to TU, and to know they'll be retired and never drilled is really satisfying," he said....
Tribe pulls out of water negotiations Two years of water compact negotiations between the Blackfeet Tribe and the state of Montana went into a tailspin on Thursday after tribal council members said they had been blindsided and then declared a negotiation session over. Tribal leaders were disturbed after learning the state had pushed a $140 million authorization through a U.S. Senate committee to build a water diversion project within the Blackfeet Reservation borders without the tribe's consent or knowledge. "We want this issue cleared up before we go any further," said Blackfeet Chief Earl Old Person during an ardent speech in which he stood before the negotiation team members. "It's not in our favor. We were not notified. We need to be part of this. ... We need to know how this is going to affect our people." Tribal attorney Jeannie Whiteing reminded commission members that the tribe has repeatedly sought to have its federal reserved water rights quantified before money was set aside to rebuild the St. Mary water diversion project. Tribal members said they only recently learned of the $140 million authorization, which they called a betrayal....
Eberts Ranch deal to close The U.S. Forest Service plans to complete the purchase of the 5,200-acre Eberts Ranch on April 25. That will close the $5.3 million purchase and fold the ranch into the Forest Service's management on the Little Missouri National Grasslands. By April 26, the entire ranch will be available for such activities as hiking, bird watching and any seasonal hunting. The Forest Service had purchased 1,900 acres of the Eberts Ranch in September, and this month's deal will be to acquire the remaining 3,300. The Eberts family has been trying to sell the ranch for public conservation for nearly four years, first to the National Park Service and then to North Dakota as a first-ever state preserve. When the preserve failed for lack of legislative funding in 2005, the Forest Service stepped forward....
Judge allows logging dead trees A U.S. district judge has lifted an injunction on logging beetle-killed trees on 2,600 acres in and around the Basin Creek watershed south of here. 0.U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy of Missoula issued the order Tuesday, saying a U.S. Forest Service analysis showed the project would not significantly impact soils. Three environmental groups vowed to appeal the case Thursday. "The project is a bad idea," said Jeff Juel of the Wild West Institute, formerly the Ecology Center, in Missoula. "We're committed to following our legal options to bring some good management to the area." The Ecology Center, the Native Ecosystems Council and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies sued the Forest Service over its Basin Creek Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project in 2005. The groups said they oppose the project because it included clear-cutting 1,100 acres and building 14 miles of new roads. Juel said he also believes that claims that the dead trees create a fire hazard are greatly exaggerated....
Blair and Merkel lean on Bush to join battle against climate change President George Bush is coming under unprecedented pressure from Tony Blair and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to agree to tough new international measures to stop global warming accelerating out of control. The measures are contained in a strongly worded draft communiqué for June's G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany - obtained by The Independent on Sunday - which warns that "tackling climate change is an imperative, not a choice". It adds that if "resolute and concerted international action" is not "urgently" taken, global warming will become "largely unmanageable". The United States and Canada are resisting key elements of the draft, but Mrs Merkel is determined not to water it down. She is backed by the Prime Minister, who is ringing Mr Bush weekly to try to persuade him to change his position. The draft warns that "global warming caused largely by human activities is accelerating" and that it "will seriously damage our common natural environment and severely weaken [the] global economy, with implications for international security"....
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well. The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives....
Dozens of nilgai antelope killed to stop tick spread South Texas ranchers brought nilgai antelope from a California zoo decades ago, when it became fashionable to stock their sprawling acreage with exotic quarry. These days the species native to India and Pakistan are not so much a rarity in South Texas as a nuisance. For cattle ranchers they are a possible nemesis, threatening to spread a deadly tick to their herds. Federal wildlife officials say they are competing with native Rio Grande Valley species for food and trampling the brush they are trying so hard to preserve. The fast-running, 600-pound antelope have wandered all around the region, where at least one picked up a kind of fever tick from Mexico that once nearly wiped out American cattle. The ticks spread among the population and threaten the cattle. Federal officials said they had no choice but to hire a "helicopter and gunner" last week to slaughter them. Thirty-seven were killed during the two-day hunt on a portion of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge that runs along the border....
Rancher says pipes were radioactive A member of one of Texas' oldest ranching families has locked horns with an oil company in a bizarre dispute involving pet rhinos, steel pipe and allegations of radiation poisoning and a corporate vendetta. Rancher Jimmy McAllen, the 10th generation of his family to work the 70,000-acre ranch in South Texas, says that the old pipe he used to build a corral for two African black rhinoceroses in the mid-1990s proved to be loaded with radioactive material. He blames the radiation for the mysterious 1995 death of one of his rhinos. And he says he suspects it caused the rare form of cancer that cost him his lower right leg in 2005. Moreover, he says the Forest Oil Co. - which holds a lease to drill for gas on his property and gave him the old pipe for the corral and other projects around the ranch - deliberately poisoned his land in retaliation for a dispute the two sides had over gas payments....
Baseball flips lid, tosses out wool cap It didn’t stand a chance, utterly alone as it was, with vanquished woolen sportswear littering the playing fields all around it: football jerseys, hockey sweaters, ski jackets, golf pants and the like. Each had long ago succumbed to a tide of manmade textiles boasting superlative stretchiness, stain resistance, insulation, water repellence — innovations that spawned revolutions in sports fashion and fabric terminology alike. (Doubtful that Honus Wagner ever pondered the ‘‘breatheability’’ and ‘‘wicking’’ abilities of his famously rumpled lid.) So it shouldn’t have surprised anyone this winter when Major League Baseball quietly announced it was tossing the wool cap for good. New Era Cap Co., the Buffalo, N.Y.-based manufacturer of baseball’s signature vestment for decades, declared that a new polyester-blend model would debut on opening day. From a business perspective, the immediate impact of the change may only be felt by New Era’s wool suppliers; the larger consequence for wool producers comes in the form of perception. ‘‘It’s significant in the visibility that it’s had,’’ said Rita Samuelson, marketing director for the American Wool Council, a nonprofit association representing U.S. sheep ranchers. ‘‘It was one of the last places in sports where wool was used, and so many people are now hearing that wool is being replaced by high-performance fiber. Samuelson knows of at least one wool producer in Canada that may have to shutter its mill with the decreased demand....
Proposed Texas Body Farm Draws Criticism Plans by Texas State University to create a forensic field laboratory in San Marcos, Texas, have drawn strong opposition from area residents. San Marcos residents allege the facility, which would be used to study the decomposition of human corpses, would draw unwanted attention from area wildlife and possibly contaminate regional rivers, the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman said Saturday. Area rancher Harrell Tietjen also said residents were not informed early enough by the college about the creation of the site, which would be the largest of its type in the nation. "When I went to the school up here, it was a place of higher education," he said. "But I think you've gotten so high, you've fallen off." A university spokesman said the site would likely never keep more than 10 bodies at one time and they would be screened for communicable diseases....
Ranchers find increased profits with natural beef Wyoming ranchers are increasingly marketing natural beef - meaning cattle raised on family ranches instead of corporate feedlots - and happy customers around the country are eating it up. "I'm a little guy raising 80 head," said John Sutherland, a Laramie County rancher whose family came to Wyoming in the 1860s. "We're too small to really compete with the big guys, so we need a niche market." Sutherland's family is among a growing number of Wyoming ranchers who are turning to marketing natural beef. The Sutherlands entered the natural beef market two years ago and last year sold 16 of the 74 cattle they raised as natural beef. The USDA regulates the term "natural beef," which means beef raised without the use of hormones or antibiotics. The meat can't contain artificial ingredients and must be minimally processed. It took Sutherland's daughter about 40 hours to fill out the necessary federal paperwork to earn the right to use the term "natural."....
B.'s widow defends herself Already portrayed as a calculating gold digger who manipulated a man mentally crippled by years of alcohol abuse, the widow of South Texas multimillionaire B.K. Johnson took the stand Friday to defend her late husband's will from his children and grandchildren. Accusations of backstabbing and money-grubbing flew inside the packed courtroom, as lawyers asked Laura McAllister Johnson whether she had referred to her stepdaughters as "vile" and "not smart," with children who were "horrible." Yes, she said, indeed she had. Tensions ran high Friday inside Probate Court 1, where the inheritance battle over the King Ranch scion's millions finished its third week. Johnson, a descendent of King Ranch founder Richard King, died in 2001, leaving an estate estimated at more than $40 million — but not to his children. The trial is expected to last up to three months. During the daylong testimony, the lawyer representing the daughters, daughter-in-law and grandchildren of the rancher and businessman known simply as "B." painted Laura Johnson as one who began attending his estate planning meetings even before they married in 1996....
Enid had its outlaws and its tales Nelson Ellsworth Wyatt was a bad guy. He probably was the most written-about bad guy who robbed and killed in the Enid area in the days right after the greatest land run of them all on Sept. 16, 1893. Nelson Ellsworth Wyatt, also was known as Zip Wyatt and Dick Yeager. Nothing is known about Wyatt’s background. He probably made his living stealing horses and selling them, or committing a robbery now and then to support himself. But he was a brawler, too, as well as a killer. He broke out of jail twice at Guthrie; he was involved in a brawl at Mulhall; and he and some friends killed a Kansas sheriff and two settlers who got in their way en route to a hideout. So Wyatt, who might look like a John Wayne-type character with his blue eyes, auburn hair, lean appearance and his Texas drawl, was not one of the nice guys. People, who visited his cell in the Enid jail in August 1895 said he didn’t look like a bad guy, and opined he was not as bad as he was made out to be. There are plenty of stories to the contrary....
Trip to Nevada City takes you back to 1860s You've got to love the place. It has character; it has history; it has local heroes – and it had bad guys. Nevada City, Mont., offers noncommercialized, preserved Old West history at its best. At first, it's a little confusing. This Nevada City is not in the state of Nevada. It was a town of several hundred people whose homes and businesses were leveled in the quest for gold. Yet, there are more than 100 mostly preserved and some restored buildings on the town site. Nevada City was one of a series of towns built along Alder Gulch in what was then Montana Territory. The rush for gold in the 1860s created a demand for mining supplies and services, so a string of towns was mostly thrown together. Other towns along the gulch were Junction City, Adobetown, Central City, Union City, Summit and Virginia City, housing a total population of around 7,000. There was gold – and lots of it. That is where the bad guys come in. These guys were really bad. It is estimated they were responsible for 102 murders and stole $250,000 in gold. They called themselves "The Innocents." One of the bad-guy leaders, Henry Plummer, was elected sheriff. Nevada City was a stronghold for Plummer and his gang. Enter the good guys. In 1863, the townsfolk had had enough and put together a vigilante group called "The Stranglers," who took their name seriously. During 1863, they hanged 23 of the robbers and murderers and ran the rest out of town....
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