NEWS ROUNDUP

Udall puts limits on Army plans for Pinon Canyon Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., jumped into the controversy over the Army's plan to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site by attaching a ban on the use of eminent domain, plus a list of restrictive requirements on any future expansion, to the Pentagon's 2008 budget authorization bill Wednesday night. Udall put the Pinon Canyon amendment on the budget authorization bill during a full-committee meeting. His amendment comes on the heels of Gov. Bill Ritter signing legislation earlier this month to deny state approval for the Army to use eminent domain to expand the 238,000-acre training site southwest of La Junta. Still, Udall's amendment would have the effect of restricting how the Army could expand the training site. He has also asked the full committee for a hearing on the proposed expansion. Saying the full committee is not prepared to block the expansion at this time, Udall said his amendment sends the Army a warning that Congress expects any expansion to protect the regional economy and environment. The amendment, however, was criticized by the coalition of ranchers and others opposed to the expansion because it authorizes the Army's planning to go forward, even with restrictions. Lon Robertson, president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, said Udall was engaging in "double speak" by setting out limits on what is still an authorization bill for the Army's expansion plans. He said Ritter and the General Assembly have made it clear they oppose the expansion. "What part of 'no' doesn't Mark Udall understand?" Robertson said in a statement....
Conservationists: Thune plays politics with ferrets Efforts in South Dakota to restore the black-footed ferret have provoked two possible lawsuits and pulled Sen. John Thune into a national debate over political influence on endangered species biology. In April, Thune helped delay ferret reintroduction at Wind Cave National Park by writing to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. And last year, Thune pushed the U.S. Forest Service to consider poisoning more prairie dogs at a successful reintroduction site in the Conata Basin, south of Wall. Black-footed ferrets do not bother ranchers directly, but they eat almost nothing but prairie dogs. That ties the very rare predator to the fate of its abundant, controversial prey. "What's more important, ferrets or people?" said Rick Fox of Hermosa, summing up the position of West River ranchers, most of whom see prairie dogs as a blight on their cattle range. Fox is president of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, which is considering a lawsuit to stop the Wind Cave reintroduction. The debate has flared up just as new evidence emerges of political tampering with biological findings elsewhere in the U.S. Some conservationists say Thune has improperly used his influence, but Thune said he is simply advocating for his constituents....
Groups ask for suspension of wolf control policy More than two dozen conservation groups have asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to suspend a policy that they say is undermining the endangered Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program in New Mexico and Arizona. The policy in question sets guidelines for dealing with wolves that prey on livestock. After three confirmed depredations in a certain period, officials with the reintroduction program can permanently remove a wolf from the wild, either by capturing it or using lethal means. "This wolf-destroying policy is a pox on the lobo," Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity said Wednesday. "But unlike parvovirus or distemper, (the policy) is a bureaucratic affliction." The conservation groups say the wolf control policy _ known as SOP 13 _ doesn't take into account the wolf's genetic value, its social relationship with other pack members, its reproductive status or other factors. In a letter sent Wednesday to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the groups argue that enforcement of the policy threatens to eliminate at least two wolf packs currently in the wild. The letter asks that the policy be temporarily suspended until the agency has more than 100 wolves, including 18 breeding pairs, in the wild....Go here(pdf) to read the letter.
Cow Slaughtering Wolf Pack Squats On Private Land - No Wilderness in Sight fter leaving the wilderness more than a week ago the Durango wolf pack continues to travel on and near private land. In our last update of the Killer Mexican Wolf Durango Pack, it was clear that US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), AZ Game and Fish and NM Department of Game and Fish members working on the wolf program were NOT providing local residents information as to the Durango Pack locations. The official statement, was that they could not get signals on the Durango Mexican wolves in the area. Sometimes people were told by wolf Management personnel, that the Durango wolves are more than 10 miles away. Yet the flight reports pin point these wolves again, in and around private land. This flight report puts these wolves only 7 miles from the cow calf kill on 4/30/2007. This location could be on the private land at Bear Springs and large pieces of private land are only 1.2 miles to the west. This latest flight location is only 7.5 mile trot from the last sighting on a day earlier. A short stroll for a wolf....
Forest Service closes most roads on Eberts Ranch For now, there's only one road for driving around the newest public land in North Dakota. The U.S. Forest Service, which completed its purchase of the 5,200-acre Eberts Ranch north of Medora last month, has closed off all but the main Billings County road until further notice. A series of other scoria roads, mainly to service oil wells on the ranch land, will be posted prohibiting motorized travel. Access on those roads and the ranch acres by foot, bicycle and horse and for permitted uses like grazing and oil service, will be allowed. Forest Service supervisor Dave Pieper said the restrictions are for public safety and to protect the area. The restrictions will remain in place until the Forest Service develops a plan to manage the ranch. It plans to hold public meetings to get citizen ideas for using the property, which consists of Badlands pasture acreage, the Eberts ranch headquarters buildings and frontage along the Little Missouri River. The ranch is crossed by the agency's popular Maah Daah Hey Trail....
Editorial - Public roadless lands in limbo Gov. Bill Ritter's heart is in the right place on protecting Colorado's 4.1 million acres of roadless public forests. But for the moment - and it could be a very long moment - he's little more than a bystander in the lengthy battle over 59 million roadless acres nationwide. Last month Ritter wrote to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, requesting some tightening up of a roadless area protection plan sent to Washington last November by then-Gov. Bill Owens. Owens' proposal basically incorporated the recommendations of the broad-based Colorado Roadless Area Review Task Force, which sought protection of most roadless national forest lands. It was a sound process, based on extensive study and public comment. The USDA oversees the Forest Service and Ritter asked for some improvements in the plan, including additional road restrictions in some western Colorado coal-mining areas, guaranteed involvement in the process for state agencies and, most importantly, a guarantee that roadless areas would be protected while government review was underway. Ritter's plan has been criticized by some environmental groups, but it is basically sound. The Owens and Ritter proposals followed the direction of a 2005 federal policy that gave individual states the responsibility to develop roadless plans for federal review. But, that process is on ice because of federal court action....
Bison advocate charged with felony A member of a bison advocacy group was charged Thursday with felony criminal endangerment after an incident during a hazing effort north of West Yellowstone on Highway 191. The arrests shattered several years of cooperation between law enforcement and the advocacy group, which is committed to documenting government treatment of bison outside Yellowstone Park. Members of the group and a Montana Highway Patrol official gave different accounts of the incident. A spokeswoman for the Buffalo Field Campaign said Peter Bogusko pleaded not guilty to the felony charge and a misdemeanor charge of obstructing during an initial court appearance Thursday in Gallatin County. Efforts were being made Thursday afternoon to post a $3,000 bond set in the case, said Stephany Seay, the spokeswoman. Bogusko and fellow BFC member Dan Brister were arrested about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday as state and federal officials were pushing about 300 bison back into Yellowstone Park. Brister, a longtime member of the advocacy group, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and obstructing an officer....
Editorial - BLM appears to ignore the rules it doesn't like A plan to allow a mining lease near Mount St. Helens has us steaming like a volcano. In March, the Bureau of Land Management issued a preliminary hardrock mineral lease to Idaho General Mines for land on the northeastern edge of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The lease, which can't be finalized until Monday, when a two-month public comment period ends, would give Idaho General Mines the right to apply for permits to begin mining. The 217-acre site was purchased by the U.S. Forest Service with the intent of preserving the Green River. Sen. Maria Cantwell has called on the BLM to reconsider its plans. In a letter to BLM Acting Director Jim Hughes, Cantwell noted that the Forest Service purchased the land using Land and Water Conservation Funds, which are appropriated by Congress for conservation and recreation purposes. Apparently the BLM doesn't understand that mining doesn't fall under either of those categories. The BLM's lack of respect for citizens, the land and the law is beyond arrogance. That it ignores its own environmental assessment appears par for the course....
New bill seeks royalties from mineral mines A key House chairman introduced legislation Thursday to overhaul the 1872 mining law and require companies to pay an 8 percent royalty on gold, uranium and other minerals taken from public lands. The CEO of Tiffany & Co. joined two lawmakers in announcing the legislation, which has the support of a coalition of taxpayer groups, conservationists and sportsmen. Proponents say they have the best chance in more than a decade to push through a bill, which they hope to do by next year. The National Mining Association expressed willingness to work on reforms but objected to some parts of the bill. The group said royalties may not be the best way to ensure a fair return to taxpayers. A key Republican also raised concerns over jobs. The legislation would overhaul the General Mining Law of 1872. House Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., the bill's main sponsor, noted that Custer's Last Stand was still four years away when the original legislation passed. "It is far past the time for responsible reform of the Jurassic Park of all federal laws," he said....
ORV scars being erased It's been an uphill battle — literally — but after three years of hard work, the U.S. Forest Service is starting to see progress in repairing the hills above Pleasant Grove and Lindon. There, the scars left by rampant, illegal off-road vehicle use in the Dry Canyon trail area of the Uinta Forest are slowly being erased and replaced with erosion blankets and freshly sprouted native grasses. The fading dirt tracks — which previously sprawled 13 miles across the mountainside — and the efforts to restore the area are the result of a collaborative effort among volunteers, the Uinta National Forest, neighboring cities, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and other governmental agencies. It's taken boulders, barricades and at least $200,000 to have an impact on this ground, and the battle is not over yet, says Pam Gardner, Pleasant Grove District Ranger. "I think a lot of (people who illegally ride off-road with their vehicles) don't realize the impacts they have," Gardner said. "A lot of people think (the vegetation) will grow right back, but this is a really fragile environment, and it's not very resilient to impacts. The scars just open the door for weeds."....
Residents sound off on forest rules A work session held by the U.S. Forest Service Thursday in Alamogordo to gather public input on proposed changes to its motor vehicle use policy turned occasionally nasty Thursday. Several people in attendance loudly admonished Forest Service personnel, accusing them of poor management that has led to a high fire danger in the Sacramento Mountains. "What are you doing about the forest that is dying and has been dying for years?" asked Gwinna Reese, referring to insect infestations in the Lincoln National Forest that are believed to have increased the fire danger. Attendees also accused the Forest Service of having already made their decision about road closures and camping restrictions, and the work session amounted to a humoring of the crowd. "Go to a table and talk to anyone you want," said Reese. "It doesn't matter." Joseph Garcia of the Forest Service denied that the issue has already been decided. Jacqueline Buchanan, deputy forest supervisor, said public input was required by federal law. Some went as far as to blame the current problems facing the wooded areas around Cloudcroft and Timberon on the meddling of "tree huggers," liberals and other assorted environmentalists who insist on saving the Mexican spotted owl at the expense of those who live in the forest and their rights as citizens....
Houses sprouting in the hot zone he last time the kindling hills over this Southern California boomtown burned they stoked a fire so hot it raged for more than a week and incinerated nearly 1,000 homes. Now they're ready to burn again. "It could happen this year," says Tom O'Keefe, a chief in California's state fire department. "It will burn again. We just don't know when." That certainty hasn't stopped houses from sprouting along the slopes that rise above Highland and other towns around San Bernardino and Riverside, Calif. Nowhere has the West's migration to areas beset by frequent wildfires been more rapid. Misty McWaters-Agrawal says she at first resisted looking at houses in the San Bernardino foothills, in part because of the area's wildfire reputation. But in November, she moved with her husband to a new house on a steep Highland hillside. In the end, she says, the neighborhood's affordability and its twinkling nighttime views of the Los Angeles suburbs won out. "It still freaks me out," she says of the potential danger, "but it's worth the trade-off."....
Environmental film fest debuts in Boise Documentaries are more popular than ever, and films with nature and environmental themes have helped spur the boom. Just look at Al Gore's global warming opus "An Inconvenient Truth," which won two Oscars earlier this year, including best documentary. The environmental film genre even has its own international festival, Planet in Focus. In addition to the annual festival in Toronto, Planet in Focus tours films and offers them to groups for special events. On Saturday, six short films from the festival, along with three additional environmental movies, will be screened during the Land Trust of the Treasure Valley's first annual Planet in Focus Film Festival. Originally screened between 2004 and 2006, the Planet in Focus films include a rare showdown between a spider and a bee, a look at the rise of organic farming in California and a post-apocalyptic animated allegory about the resilience of nature....
Rural Land Institute works for the family A relatively new non-profit with a small staff is creating programs it hopes will help sustain family-scale farms and ranches in the Northern Plains and Northern Rockies. Backers of the Bozeman-based Rural Landscape Institute are especially high on a new informational DVD called "Path to Eden." With commentary by former NBC anchor and Montana property owner Tom Brokaw, it offers new out-of-state landowners advice on the challenges, responsibilities and opportunities of rural land ownership, including being good neighbors. Among other promising ideas in the works: putting together a college curriculum of the more varied skills that today's ranch managers must know, and creating an agri-tourism Web site and resource center to help working farmers and ranchers connect with tourists who want to spend a few days working as real producers. Friends Bill Cook and Bill Bryan began working together informally in 1972 on issues involving the plight of small farmers and ranchers in the West. Cook owns ranches near Belgrade and in California and Arizona, while Bryan is involved in agri-tourism and founded Off the Beaten Path, which specializes in custom trips to the Rocky Mountain West....
Climate change will bring scorching summers, NASA scientists say NASA scientists predict average summer temperatures in the eastern United States will rise as much as five degrees Celsius by the 2080s as a result of global warming from rising amounts of greenhouse gases. The study's climate model predicts temperatures in the region higher than those predicted by global models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said temperatures would rise between two and 3.5 degrees C in the same region by 2100. This difference in predicted temperature is in large part because the NASA model takes into account the variation of rainfall in the region, said lead author Barry Lynn of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies....
Bush and Democrats in Accord on Trade Deals The Bush administration reached agreement on Thursday with the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and other Democrats to attach environmental and worker protections in several pending trade accords, clearing the way for early passage of some pacts and improving prospects for others. The unusual agreement, which came after weeks of negotiations, would guarantee workers the right to organize, ban child labor and prohibit forced labor in trading-partner countries. It would also require trading partners to enforce environmental laws already on their books and comply with several international environmental agreements. While the understanding was a victory for Democrats, it also represented a shrewd compromise by the White House. The agreement is the first major bipartisan economic deal to emerge since Democrats took control of Congress in January. It has immediate importance for four countries — Colombia, Panama, Peru and South Korea — that are seeking to enter into trade pacts with the United States. But officials in Washington predicted that the agreement’s effect would go beyond those countries and could be a template for all trade deals, including a possible worldwide accord....
Johanns Outlines 2007 Farm Bill Proposals to Expand, Improve Trade Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today described the Administration's farm bill proposals regarding international trade, pointing out that the trade provisions complement the entire farm bill package. "During the Farm Bill Forums many participants voiced concern about interests from other parts of the world attempting to set our farm policy. We believe that the proposals we have put forward will put American agriculture on a more competitive footing for years to come," Johanns told the World Agricultural Forum. "The proposed changes to our commodity programs reduce trade distorting support. These initiatives stand on their own merits but they will also put U.S. producers in a more secure position under international trade rules," he said. The Administration's proposals for trade would increase funding for the Market Access Program; target funds to boost international markets for specialty crops; increase the U.S. presence within international trade standard-setting organizations; provide additional tools to respond to unfair trade practices and strengthen our efforts to revitalize the agricultural sectors in fragile regions. In addition, they would also give us new flexibility when delivering international food aid in emergencies by providing the authority to use up to 25 percent of Public Law 480 (P.L. 480) Title II funds to make cash purchases of food near the site of a food crisis....
Senators want halt to ag program cuts U.S. negotiators should refrain from trading more cuts in domestic farm programs for a Doha Round agreement that offers little increased market access for U.S. agricultural products, a majority of the U.S. Senate says. The Bush administration is on record opposing such a move, but reports say the subject has arisen again as the U.S. Trade Representative tried to help revive the stalled World Trade Organization talks. The reports prompted a bipartisan group of 58 senators to sign a letter urging the White House to reject such a proposal. “We cannot support a deal that directly reduces new farm income through steep cuts in farm programs in return for minimal market access gains whose effect on farm gate receipts would be speculative at the best,” according to the April 16 letter, written by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. Disagreements over market access, one of the three “pillars” of the Doha negotiations, led to the suspension of the Round in Geneva, Switzerland, last summer. Administration officials had proposed a 60-percent reduction in U.S. farm subsidies, but the European Union and India refused to make more than token reductions in trade barriers....
No Danger From Young Cows Infected With BSE, Japanese Claim Japanese experts have concluded that their tests failed to demonstrate that young cows infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy posed any danger to humans, according to what Kyodo News called "informed sources." Representing Japan's Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, the team injected 11 mice with brain fluid extracted from two young BSE-infected cows in Japan and discovered that the rodents had not developed the disease up to 927 days after the injection, the sources said. The 21- and 23-month-old cows were found to have been infected with BSE in 2003, prompting Tokyo to limit imports of U.S. beef to meat from cattle younger than 21 months old. With these results, Japanese officials apparently are bracing for pressure from the United States to raise the age limit to 30 months of age, a threshold already deemed safe by the World Organization for Animal Health and adopted by many nations....
For Tooele ranchers, roundup is chance to reaffirm connections to the past But it's pretty easy to block all that out and focus on the sounds of meadowlarks mixing with the sounds of lowing cattle. You can look across the field, up toward Deseret Peak, and see maybe 15 or 20 guys on horseback tending the herd. From a distance, they look just like any cowboys you've seen in the old Westerns. When it's time to get moving, a few "Hi-yees" echo in the air, and the herd begins to amble on down the length of the field to the pens. A few of the animals take off in different directions and must be chased down, but for the most part, the herd moves on to the cadence of anxious mamas calling to their calves and the yells of the cowboys. It is spring roundup time on the Clegg family ranch. They are continuing a tradition that has existed in these parts for more than a century and in this family for several generations. You don't want to romanticize it too much, because it is obviously hot, dusty, hard work. Yet, it is hard not to see those connections to the past, to see in these modern-day, real-life cowboys a larger-than-life element. For the Cleggs, spring roundup is when the cattle that have wintered on the Grantsville Soil Conservation District on the other side of the valley are gathered up and brought in so calves can be branded, ear-marked, vaccinated, castrated or otherwise taken care of, and then the herd can be moved onto the summer range — some locally, some in Wyoming....
Quanah Parker made tribe’s transition ‘on his terms’ Quanah Parker was the last Chief of the Comanche Indians. He never lost a battle with the white man. The life of Quanah Parker is the story of a remarkable man who made the transition from Indian life to that of the white man but on his own terms. He was the son of Comanche Chief Pete Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker. His mother was white and taken captive as a child of nine in 1836 when Comanches raided a settlement calleda Parker’s Fort in east central Texas. In time she accepted the Indian’s way of life and became the wife of Chief Nocona as a teenager. Soon she gave birth to a boy who was named Quanah after the fragrance of flowers. He was the first of three children she bore. Exactly when Quanah was born is unknown, but it was between 1845 and 1852. He grew into a strong man and capable warrior. In the early 1860s, however, Texas Rangers rode into the Indian’s camp on the Pease River innorthwest Texas, while the Indian men were away. Cynthia Ann Parker and her daughter Prairie Flower were taken to Fort Cooper....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Green groups dismayed as flights soar to record high Aviation growth is soaring to an all-time high, raising the prospect of a huge increase in the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. For the first time, more than 2.5 million commercial flights will be made around the world in a single month, with 2.51 million scheduled for May, says the flight information company OAG. This beats the previous record of 2.49 million flights last August. The figure marks year-on-year global growth in flight numbers of 5 per cent, which translates as an extra 114,000 flights and 17.7 million extra passenger seats compared with May last year. The growth rate, green campaigners said yesterday, would considerably outstrip any improvements the airlines could make in engine fuel efficiency or traffic management to bring down emissions. Aviation is the fastest-growing source of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, and also the origin of other greenhouse gases including nitrous oxide and water vapour....
Climate change threatens California water supply California's tallest mountain range, the Sierra Nevada, may lose nearly all its snowpack by the end of the century, threatening a water crisis in the nation's most populous state, a leading scientist and Nobel laureate said. California could lose 30 percent to 70 percent of the snowpack to the ills of greenhouse gases and global warming, Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the 1997 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, told Reuters. A "bad scenario" of atmospheric carbon could mean the loss of 70 percent to 93 percent, Chu said in an interview, citing published climate models. California depends on the snowpack to generate hydroelectricity, help irrigate the biggest agricultural economy in the United States, fill reservoirs, and support wildlife and recreation on the state's rivers. "I think that's a much more serious problem than the gradually rising sea level, unless Greenland just completely melts," Chu said. "This is a huge water supply concern for California and the Southwest."....
Climate change issue heats Capitol Hill Global warming was impossible to avoid on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, with a trio of hearings on the consequences or cures for climate change and another on the related question of endangered wildlife. But even as the climate change issue spurred debate among U.S. lawmakers, a demographer said that while Americans take this matter seriously, they are lukewarm about taking any tough action to control it. "It's real, it's serious -- impressions of that are certainly growing," said Karlyn Bowman, who watches polling data at the pro-business American Enterprise Institute. "But in terms of what people are willing to do: They're willing to do things that are easy ... It just isn't a top-tier issue." Global warming has been a top-tier issue in Congress since Democratic leaders took over in January, including members of a new committee dedicated to energy independence and climate change....
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to Consider Major Global Warming Lawsuit On Monday, May 14th, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will consider the Center for Biological Diversity’s challenge to the Bush administration’s national fuel-economy standards for SUVs and pickup trucks. The lawsuit asserts that the government violated the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by ignoring greenhouse gas emissions and global warming when setting the fuel-economy standards for model year 2008-2011 SUVs and pickup trucks. The transportation sector is responsible for nearly one-third of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and the vehicles in question in this case will produce approximately 2.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide over their lifetimes. This vast amount of pollution is nearly six times the entire annual emissions of the State of California, which emits approximately 471 million metric tons each year. Carbon dioxide is a leading contributor to global warming, which threatens climatic and biological stability worldwide. The case, Center for Biological Diversity v. National Highway Traffic Administration, No. 06-71891, will be considered by Senior Circuit Judge Betty Binns Fletcher, Circuit Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, and Sixth Circuit Senior Judge Eugene E. Siler; the hearing is expected to last about an hour and will occur during the Court’s 9:00 am session on Monday, May 14th, at the U.S. Court of Appeals, 95 Seventh Street, San Francisco. The case is consolidated with similar challenges by California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, District of Columbia, and the City of New York, and four other public interest groups, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen, and Environmental Defense....
Piñon Canyon and The National Interest It takes some trying to get Environment Colorado, the conservative Independence Institute, and the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association all lined up against you. But if anybody can do it, it’s the Pentagon, which seems these days to specialize in stirring up multi-party opposition in local populations. Defying the U.S. Army’s stated intent to expand the Piñon Canyon Training Area, in southeast Colorado, the Colorado legislature this week passed and Gov. Ritter signed a bill forbidding the military from condemning additional land in the area. The Army has reportedly been eyeing another seeking 418,000 added acres surrounding Ft. Carson’s current training range at Piñon Canyon (nearly tripling the existing 235,896 acres to), and is said to be after an even huger swathe covering 2.3 million acres in the next two decades – “ the ENTIRE Southeast corner of the state of Colorado,” one agitated opponent stated on the Piñon Canyon Expansion OppositionCoalition Web site. Whether Colorado can actually prevent the federales from buying or condemning the additional land is doubtful. Several big ranches could be affected, or wiped off the map, as a result. This messy dispute might be seen by outsiders as Local Cowheads vs. Land-Grubbin’ Federals, Chapter 172, except that it involves a couple of much, much larger issues: federalism and the Endless War....
DA will seek death penalty in fire case District Attorney Rod Pacheco announced Wednesday that his office will seek the death penalty for the man accused of setting a wildfire last October that killed five firefighters. Pacheco said he decided to pursue death against Raymond Lee Oyler after meeting with relatives of the U.S. Forest Service firefighters and with law-enforcement investigators. Factors including Oyler's past criminal record also influenced his decision. "I considered what I personally considered to be an incredible and callous disregard to the safety of the firefighters who would respond to the fires over a period of time," Pacheco said. "He expressed on numerous occasions that he wanted to burn the mountain down." Oyler's attorney, Mark McDonald. said Wednesday that his defense has always been prepared for the likelihood the Riverside County district attorney would seek the death penalty....
Tieton Canyon: The hinge between forest and desert At first glance, it's the history of a million years that makes Tieton Canyon so captivating. It was about that long ago when the mantle for the canyon's dramatic landscape was laid down, issuing forth from a volcano near the crest of the Cascades and oozing almost 50 miles to where now spreads the city of Yakima. Geologists say it was the longest known andesite magma flow on Earth, and today it is manifested in many impressive shapes of basalt: vertical towers, horizontal ribs, twisted columns, wavy forms and pillow shapes. These provide aeries for golden eagles, spires for rock climbers, prime habitat for bighorn sheep, a scenic setting for hikers and campers and a dramatic backdrop for stunning spring wildflower displays. You now are assured of experiencing much of it in its natural state, unfettered by development, thanks to a four-year effort to preserve and add 10,000 acres of private land to the state's Oak Creek Wildlife Area....
Pombo back in land-use battles After nearly two decades as an elected official, Tracy's Richard Pombo has come full circle: The former Republican congressman entered politics as a fighter for private property rights, and now that he's off Capitol Hill, Pombo's latest venture thrusts him right back into the land-use wars he so enjoys. On Wednesday, Pombo took the reins of the Partnership for America, a national organization funded by utilities, mining, logging, oil, natural gas and coal companies and agricultural and hunting rights groups. Its goal is an overhaul of the federal Endangered Species Act and increased domestic energy production. The Partnership for America coordinates the efforts of the kind of folks Pombo used to be: local activists facing local versions of national problems, such as the Endangered Species Act's "critical habitat" program, which even many Democrats say needs reform. "I spent 14 years in Congress fighting for what I believe in and doing what I knew was right," Pombo said. "But the fight is far from over....
Data-tinkering review vowed A top Interior Department official said Wednesday that her agency would review instances of manipulation of scientific reports on endangered species by Julie MacDonald, the former deputy assistant secretary overseeing the agency's program. But Deputy Secretary P. Lynn Scarlett did not say the review would be exhaustive, and her pledge to conduct the review came well into a hearing before the House Resources Committee and after several efforts to brush aside the question. The muted response bolstered the view of critics that the Interior Department won't comprehensively review MacDonald's work despite conclusions by the department's inspector general that she broke federal rules by behaving abusively toward government scientists and revising reports to help developers and agricultural interests. Despite Miller's heated questioning about what the department planned to do as a result of MacDonald's alteration of documents, Scarlett merely affirmed the agency's commitment to use the best science available in making determinations. Only after the questioning persisted did Scarlett pledge that the agency would work to correct instances where scientific conclusions were altered. "Where there is scientific manipulation, we want to correct that," she said. "We will explore where those instances are, and address them." After prolonged discussions of MacDonald's role in decisions on the northern spotted owl, whose endangered status has sharply reduced logging in Pacific Northwest forests, Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., said Scarlett should resign because of her "stunning lack of awareness."....
Congressman Wants to Release Wolves in Central Park? In what we can only imagine was a poorly considered joke, Rep. Stevan Pearce (R-New Mexico) said on Wednesday he hoped the Department of Fish and Wildlife would release Mexican gray wolves in Central Park and Washington, D.C. "I think we should bring them here and turn them loose on the [national] mall," Pearce said during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on whether the Bush administration has meddled with science related to the Endangered Species Act. Pearce who hails from Hobbs on the eastern side of New Mexico was railing about the wolves that, since 1998, have been released on the western border of his state in an attempt to restore a species hunted to near extinction. Some county officials in New Mexico have asked federal authorities to remove the wolves, which can attack livestock. Fish and Wildlife denied the request yesterday. Pearce described a recent attack on a horse, saying the wolves devoured the animal like "piranhas." Soon, he implied, they might hunger for human flesh. Nothing is more attractive to a wolf than the sound of a crying baby, Pearce said. It would only be fair to visit the same fanged fears on the people of New York City and Washington, D.C....
It’s Time to Rethink the Endangered Species Act Do you think that the Army Corps of Engineers should stop rebuilding the flood control levees of New Orleans if these massive earthworks threaten the habitat of an endangered beetle or butterfly? A federal law, passed in 1973, says that the answer to this question must be "yes." It's called the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In this law, Congress said that preserving endangered species of plants and animals is the highest priority of the federal government. Since there can be only one highest priority, the beetle or butterfly comes first (New Orleans second). The ESA commands all federal agencies to take no action which is "likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species or threatened species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of habitat of such species." These words have teeth, as was shown in the famous case of the snail darter versus the Tellico dam. The snail darter is a fish, about three and one-half inches long, one of 173 recognized species of darters in North America. This species was discovered in 1973 by a University of Tennessee ichthyologist, David Etner, who was snorkeling in the Little Tennessee River. Etner told a bystander that he had found "the fish that will stop the Tellico dam." He was right. The case reached the United States Supreme Court under the name Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill. There was no doubt that the dam, then 98% complete after an expenditure of more than $100 million, would destroy the habitat of the snail darter. Money doesn't matter, said the Supreme Court, because the language of the ESA does not allow any priority higher than saving the species. This illustrates the first problem of the ESA. It fails to acknowledge that, in the real world of politics and government, priorities must be weighed one against another. The second problem of the ESA is that it treats all endangered species as equally deserving of protection. Again, this is a failure to set priorities....
Cutthroat losing out to lake trout in Yellowstone Native Yellowstone cutthroat trout are losing their fight for survival in the heart of Yellowstone National Park. Non-native lake trout patrolling Yellowstone Lake are eating so deeply into the population that biologists last year found just 471 cutthroats at a spot where there were more than 70,000 in the 1970s. The downward spiral has been particularly noticeable at that spot - Clear Creek on the eastern edge of Yellowstone Lake - over the last several years. After biologists counted 6,613 cutthroats in 2002, the number dropped to 3,432 in 2003, 1,438 in 2004, 917 in 2005 and 471 last spring, according to numbers released Wednesday. They are the lowest numbers since record keeping began in 1945....
Bush Administration Sets All-time Record for Denying Protection to Endangered Species: Zero New Listings in Past Year Today marks exactly one year since the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service last protected any new U.S. species under the Endangered Species Act. Fittingly, on this same day, the House Natural Resources Committee is holding important oversight hearings on implementation of the Endangered Species Act by a recalcitrant Bush administration. The last time the agency went an entire year without protecting a single species was in 1981, when the infamous James Watt was Secretary of Interior. There are currently 279 highly imperiled species that are designated as candidates for listing as threatened or endangered and that face potential extinction. The Center’s report documents administration interference in two other key aspects of the Endangered Species Act: designation of critical habitat and development of species recovery plans. According to the report, interference by Bush political appointees, such as discredited former Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald, has led to the reduction of as much as 90 percent of all critical habitats designated under the administration and to widespread tampering with the scientific conclusions of recovery plans for the Apache trout, Northern spotted owl and West Virginia flying squirrel, among others....Go here to view the report.
Editorials: Humans first Given the choice of giving water to thirsty Southern Californians or the San Bernardino kangaroo rat, we'll choose the Californians. The Center for Biological Diversity wants the Santa Ana River to be free flowing to save the endangered species along the river. Fine, except for a couple of things: First, the river has never been “free flowing” as we usually think of a river. It has had periods when it was a mile wide, but most of the time it is a dry stream bed with little or no water most of the year. With construction of the Seven Oaks Dam, the opportunity came, not only to prevent flooding, but to preserve and use water stored behind the dam. So local water agencies applied for water rights behind the dam, planning to use good mountain water to replace water imported from Northern California and the Colorado River, both of which reach the Inland Empire much less pure than the Santa Ana River water. Second, the Center for Biological Diversity apparently has not seen the river and seems to have little information, except that provided by those paid exorbitant sums to find scarce plants and animals. If those species still exist, then it will not matter much whether the water is diverted; they already have survived the ups and downs of the river....
Arizona First State To Prohibit Mandatory Animal Identification Arizona became the first state in the nation to prohibit mandatory participation in a National Animal Identification System. State Senator Karen Johnson, who sponsored the bill, said, "We are delighted that the legislature and the governor recognize the dangers of allowing government to force people to register their premises, tag every one of their livestock animals, and then report to the government every time their animals move off their premises." The brief but powerful addition to the Arizona statutes says: "The Director, Department, or any other officer, agency or instrumentality of this state shall not mandate or force participation in the National Animal Identification System." At least a dozen other states (http://libertyark.org/action.shtml) are considering legislation to block efforts by both state and federal government to require livestock animal owners to participate in the NAIS. "Livestock owners see the NAIS as an intrusion into private property rights, which will cost animal owners a lot of money and time, and will have virtually no effect in preventing animal disease or improving food safety," says Judith McGeary, member of the Steering Committee of the Liberty Ark Coalition....
USCA Supports Efforts To Clarify Market Competition Laws The success of cattle producers depends on open, fair and competitive livestock markets. That is why the United States Cattlemen's Association (USCA) is pleased to support the efforts of Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) to increase competition in the agricultural marketplace and protect producers from anti-competitive practices by enhancing market transparency. “It is encouraging to see competition legislation introduced in the House,” says USCA Marketing Committee Chairman and Region VIII Director Allan Sents. “This bill, The Competitive and Fair Agricultural Markets Act of 2007, and its companion on the Senate side (S. 622) will provide the cattle industry with several critical market reforms.” “The interpretation of current law has been completely muddled by court and administrative rulings. This bill clarifies the law and instructs the Secretary of Agriculture to define terms in the Packers and Stockyards Act. Clarification will enhance producer protections and allow for more balanced enforcement of current law.”“If passed, the Boswell bill (H.R. 2135) will eliminate a defense based on arguments of competitive injury,” says Sents. “A significant part of the defense in the Pickett v. Tyson case was the notion that an action is justified if a competitor is doing it, regardless of whether the action is right or wrong.” The legislation will also improve rulemaking by requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to write regulations defining the term “unreasonable preference” under the Packers and Stockyards Act. Lastly, the Boswell bill will create an Office of Special Counsel for Competition Matters within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)....
WSJ: US Immigration Overhaul May Hit Farms As immigration overhaul teeters in the Senate, the White House and lawmakers are back facing the issue that started the whole debate: the treatment of undocumented immigrant farm workers. More than any other interests, Western growers and the United Farm Workers were early to put aside their differences and close ranks behind legislation that promised the industry a stable labor force and field workers a chance to begin to move toward citizenship. Dubbed AgJOBS, the bill has steadily gained bipartisan support in Congress over the past six years as a pilot program of sorts for larger immigration reform. Under AgJOBS, illegal-immigrant farm workers who have cleared criminal checks would first get blue-card visas to establish temporary residency. Tomove up the next step to permanent residency, a worker would have to stay in agriculture, working at least 150 work days annually for three years, or 100 work days annually for five. But with President Bush wanting a more comprehensive approach appealing to conservatives, workers are being asked to make concessions to help AgJOBS conform with the legislation being negotiated in the Senate. At the heart of the debate is the question of how far the government should go to accept individuals who entered the country illegally but are otherwise law-abiding workers important to the economy....
Time for Taxpayers to Sing the Blues Blue corn isn’t subsidized like white and yellow corn, and that’s just not right. Or so say the blue corn growers. Cindy Skrzycki’s “Regulators” column in the Washington Post today is the sort of thing that ought to make you a libertarian. So many lawyers writing so many regulations, with clauses and sub-clauses. And it’s all nonsense. So here’s the problem: Under the regulatory system that determines which crops qualify for inclusion in Department of Agriculture support programs, blue corn is an orphan. According to the department rulebook, it isn’t even considered corn because it’s not yellow or white, the only versions of the food that are eligible for federal agricultural loans and crop payments. This means that farmers who grow blue corn, which is made into the blue-corn tortilla chips that many of us love to dip into a nice salsa, aren’t growing “real” corn, so they don’t qualify for loan or other support programs, according to the government. Now you might think this is no big deal since blue corn sells for about twice what white and yellow corn do. But the growers feel hurt and victimized and, you know, invisibilized. They want to be an official government-recognized crop. And, you know, get the loans and subsidies. Like popcorn got in 2003....

U.S., MEXICAN OFFICIALS DISCUSS TRADE ISSUES IN CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE

The United States and Mexico today held the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-Mexico Consultative Committee on Agriculture (CCA), following renewal of the bilateral forum by the two governments in March 2007. Mark E. Keenum, Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Ambassador Richard T. Crowder, Chief Agricultural Trade Negotiator of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, led the U.S. delegation. Under Secretary Beatriz Leycegui of the Ministry of the Economy (Economia) and Under Secretary Francisco Lopez Tostado of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries, and Food Supply (SAGARPA) led the delegation from Mexico. "The United States and Mexico held constructive, wide-ranging discussions today on a host of critical issues facing our agricultural sectors. Key among them is full implementation of the remaining provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 2008," said Keenum. "The agricultural trade teams of both countries will remain in close contact over the coming months to maintain momentum on outstanding issues," said Crowder. "We remain confident that through continued cooperation and dialogue, we can successfully reach full implementation of NAFTA on Jan. 1, 2008, to the benefit of both our agricultural sectors."....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Ecology concerns lead county meeting Otero County plans to hold a series of public hearings on an ordinance the county commission says will address the various ecological issues that have come to the forefront regarding the Lincoln National Forest. In addition to insect infestations, ranchers and farmers are calling for compensation for forage and crops lost to roaming elk herds. The commission passed a resolution backing the requests for compensation at its meeting Tuesday and said the proposed ordinance will give the county the means to deal with this and other issues. The commission heard again from Charles Walker, a rancher near Cloudcroft, who said the growing number of elk are reducing the forage on public lands that the ranchers are paying for. Walker noted elk were introduced into the forest in 1967, when the Mescalero Apache started a herd on the reservation. He said Forest Service officials gave ranchers an undertaking that their animal unit months (AUM) which is what they pay for to graze their cattle on public land would not be reduced because of the presence of elk. However, the elk herds have grown to the point where they graze down the allotments before ranchers can get their cattle to them. Walker noted that state law stipulates that if a rancher contacts the Game and Fish Department requesting action, and none is taken, the rancher has the right to shoot the elks. "We're not wanting to kill off all the elk, or get rid of them," Walker said. That is why they are requesting compensation....
Snake River cutthroat competes well with Tetons The grandest view in American angling hasn't changed since Jack Dennis was a boy, but the fishing next to it has. Remarkably, it has improved. "There used to be 900 fish per mile back then. Now it's close to 2,000," Dennis said of the official Wyoming Game and Fish survey. That's not just any fish. This is the Snake River cutthroat, a trout so beautiful it should swim in an aquarium - or at least the river that flows past the Teton Mountains. Fine-spotted beauties that seem to have leaped from an artist's easel, and the nation's most spectacular mountain range. It's a match made in heaven, or at least northwest Wyoming - pretty much the same. Now casting his way into his seventh decade, Dennis grew up in Jackson, where his Jack Dennis Sports has been a fishing fixture as long as anyone can remember. What Dennis remembers is a time when the river below Grand Teton National Park rambled freely, before wealthy newcomers built rock dikes to protect trophy homes from the river's wanderings. "We went from 35 spring creeks to 12 in less than 10 years," he said of a time when the Snake River lost much of its spawning potential. "But now many of them have been restored. Some of the ranchers deserve a lot of credit for spending their own money to get them working again."....
31 states launch climate initiative Montana and Wyoming on Tuesday joined 29 other states in a large-scale program to track pollutants linked to global warming. The newly formed Climate Registry is being touted as the largest multistate effort to address climate change. "It's yet another example of states taking the initiative in the absence of federal leadership at this point," Richard Opper, head of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, said Tuesday. The voluntary registry, expected to be operational by next January, will measure, track and verify greenhouse gas emissions as a key first step in reducing those pollutants, organizers said. John Corra, head of Wyoming's Department of Environmental Quality, said his state's participation not only helps ensure that accurate data is collected but also helps put Wyoming - the largest energy producer in the country - at the table as talks continue about voluntary and mandatory reduction of greenhouse gases. "Certainly it seems like there's significant momentum building at the federal level for some sort of action to be taken," Corra said. "We would rather be inside the tent when that occurs." The Climate Registry will be a voluntary program for corporations, states, cities and others to report emissions of greenhouse gases. The registry provides credible, standardized reporting system that will be important for shaping future policy decisions, organizers said....
Cubin - Don't shut winter tourist business out of Sylvan Pass Every once in a while, we confront a situation that makes us sit down and ponder the loss of something we depend on dearly. It's not an easy thing to do. It can be painful and emotionally charged. Right now, the citizens of Cody and the surrounding communities in northwest Wyoming are being forced to consider losing their east entrance winter access to Yellowstone National Park. As the folks at the National Park Service are quickly learning, however, folks in Wyoming aren't about to take this lying down. Folks in Cody Country have been plenty mad about the National Park Service's preferred alternative of closing Yellowstone's east entrance to motorized vehicles during winter months. And rightfully so. The proposal, recommended as part of the NPS's draft environmental impact statement, is absolutely unacceptable. Closing Sylvan Pass could cripple small business owners and devastate the area's tourism-based economy. Choking off a route that annually ushers in a predictable flow of tourists would be a crushing blow to Cody, Powell and other surrounding communities....
Column - How best to manage wolves in Wyoming Having participated in the wolf endangered species delisting hearing in Cody on April 19, and having spent the rest of that evening talking with other participants, I heard this message loud and clear: Wyoming citizens love their wildlife but fear wolves and don't trust the federal government. In addition, most of the people I spoke with agreed that wolves are here to stay, and that we'd better find a way to live with them and each other. Because the wolf issue is so controversial, and regardless of the decision the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service makes regarding delisting, it's apparent that it may be years before Wyoming can manage its wolves. I suggest that we take this time to cool off and create a reasonable, scientifically defensible, fair and workable plan, and ask our state legislators to write a new law to accommodate it. Please let me share some wolf management thoughts. Wolves should have trophy game status throughout the state, and be managed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. This is the only way we can really know where they are and how many we have. The state should be divided into three or four management zones with wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem receiving the greatest protection. Those farther out would have less protection, and wolves in the remainder of the state would have the least protection. There should be mandatory and immediate reporting of any wolf deaths caused by humans....
Writers on the Range: Bring back the balance on our BLM lands Federal land managers have a difficult job, but it's made particularly tough when direction comes from Washington, D.C., to put oil and gas development ahead of all else. In the late 1990s, when I was Colorado director of the Bureau of Land Management, balancing conservation and development was the main part of my work. I learned firsthand that it is possible to have a vibrant oil and gas program and at the same time protect our wildlife, air, water, and places to hunt, fish, recreate and enjoy wilderness. Back then, managers had the flexibility to avoid leasing in sensitive lands that were roadless or of wilderness quality. Today, it seems, those are the very places targeted. Oil and gas development in itself is not the problem. The problem is that over the past six years, oil and gas development has become the predominant use wherever those resources might exist. The BLM by law is supposed to be a "multiple-use" agency, and while oil and gas may be an important natural resource, so are those now taking a back seat - from wildlife and fisheries to recreation and cultural history. The BLM's rush-to-drill policy is predicated on the false notion that restrictions impede energy development....
Coalition proposes environmentally responsible forest management A diverse coalition that began quietly meeting in a southwestern Oregon living room two years ago hopes to silence the war of words in local forests. At least when it comes to the little trees. Members of the Southern Oregon Small Diameter Stewardship Collaborative, including timber industry representatives, environmental activists and federal agency employees, have reached consensus on an approach to remove more small-diameter trees from unnaturally dense forests in the region. They will make a presentation to the Jackson County Board of Commissioners today. Basically, the group will present the board with its strategic plan, which includes how it intends to work together in the coming years. Organizers are working with representatives of the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to identify land for a project that will allow thinning on at least 10,000 acres....
Looking for lupine in non-critical habitat places Bill Moore cradled the flowering stalk of a Kincaid’s lupine in his hands last Thursday and took note of the threatened species’ petals, leaves and keel. “There’s all kinds of things that say, ‘This is Kincaid,’” said Moore, a tree farm manager for Seneca Jones Timber Co. A few weeks prior, Moore didn’t know the difference between Kincaid’s lupine and Pyrola secunda. But that was before U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials in Roseburg gave Moore and two other timber managers a free seminar on identifying Kincaid’s lupine, listed as a threatened plant in 2000 under the Endangered Species Act. Now the timber managers look for Kincaid’s lupine on land and near roads, rather than drive past it, oblivious to its delicate living situation. Their alertness is due to a voluntary agreement between three timber companies, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, to protect and propagate the threatened species....
Message to the Forest Service: Proceed With Caution The Center for Biological Diversity has sent the Forest Service a letter letting the agency know that it is being monitored for violations of a recent court order. The court decision stated that the 2005 Forest Planning regulations were illegal and prohibited the Forest Service from implementing them. The Center’s letter tells the agency’s southwestern forester not to proceed, in letter or in spirit, under these now-invalid rules. The Center was party to the lawsuit that overturned the 2005 planning rules and wants the Forest Service to revert to the 1982 regulations, which include full environmental reviews and specific standards and guidelines regarding forest protection, motorized route densities, grazing utilization, and wildlife habitat. Though there was room for improvement even in the 1982 regulations, they were far better than the new rules, which would have resulted in vague and general forest plans lacking clear management direction. “The 2005 rules were explicitly designed to remove firm management standards that limit extractive use,” said Greta Anderson, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Our national forests were set aside to protect wildlife habitat, watershed health, air quality, and a sense of open space. The 2005 rules ignored this prioritization, so the courts sent the agency back to the drawing board.” While the Forest Service scrambles to try to fix the industry-friendly regulations, there is apparently some confusion within the agency regarding which rules to plan under....Go here(pdf) to view the letter.
Eco-arsonist Paul fights 'terrorism' label Greensprings resident Jonathan Paul and federal prosecutors are squaring off in court filings over whether Paul's role in burning a Redmond meat-packing plant in 1997 on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front was arson or terrorism. At the heart of the debate is whether the burning of the Cavel West plant and the overall ALF/Earth Liberation Front conspiracy were meant to be retaliation against, or coercion of, the government or the public. In new court filings, federal prosecutors claim that the arson was to intimidate the Bureau of Land Management into disbanding its program of rounding up and selling wild horses off BLM lands. And Cavel West was targeted as the largest purchasers of those horses, whose meat was sold for human consumption and pet food, court papers claim. "Although the government was not a direct victim, it was nonetheless a federal crime of terrorism because of the offenders' motivation," prosecutors claim in the Government's Sentencing Memorandum filed Friday in federal court....
Report: Grouse data skewed A high-ranking Interior Department official who reportedly tinkered with scientific documents, allegedly to prevent Endangered Species Act protection for several species including the greater sage grouse, will get scrutinized by Washington lawmakers today. Witnesses before the House Natural Resources Committee will testify that Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald used intimidation and manipulation to change scientific documents on species such as the greater sage grouse, the white-tailed prairie dog, Gunnison sage grouse, Gunnison’s prairie dog, the California Tiger Salamander, the southwestern willow flycatcher, the Kootenai sturgeon and the Delta smelt fish. As for the sage grouse study, MacDonald made roughly 370 comments and deletions to 47 pages of the documents, most of which cast doubt or eliminate information that would indicate problems with sage grouse across the West, according to the report. The former deputy assistant secretary also added paragraphs of information that scientists say is erroneous. By one official’s estimate, “87 percent of Julie’s comments or edits either create an error or inconsistency in the synthesis document or are simply her opinion.”....
Valley growth fuels farmers' land use concerns With the state's population growing rapidly and developers responding with new housing subdivisions and commercial centers, farmers and ranchers are feeling the squeeze, particularly in the Central Valley. Cities and counties are scrambling to provide schools, roads, hospitals and public safety services--and they're looking for tax dollars to help. In some of California's most productive farm counties these pressures translate into continuous erosion of the agricultural land base, misuse of land preservation programs like the Williamson Act and conservation easements, and ever-dwindling water supplies. California Department of Conservation statistics show that between 2002 and 2004, Fresno County lost 11 agricultural acres a day. Kern County lost 9 a day, Merced 4, Stanislaus 8, San Joaquin 5 and San Diego 10. Kings and Imperial both lost the equivalent of 6 acres a day during that period....
Stopping U.S. Turtles from Going to China Globalization has brought Americans tech support from India, Chinese-made Christmas lights, T-shirts from Bangladesh and those inexpensive Aussie wines, but U.S. conservationists are sounding the alarm that global trade is a two way street that threatens American wildlife — thanks to rising economic tides in Asia and the fast and easy import-export routes between China and the U.S. Turtles — except for the occasional slow road-crosser — are not on most Americans' radar. But the Asian appetite for turtles, whose meat and body parts are believed to hold a variety of medicinal and life-enhancing qualities, is creating a global market for U.S. turtles and tortoises. During the Great Depression, Americans living near the country's wetlands harvested high protein turtle meat, sometimes so aggressively that it threatened local species. In the early 1930s thousands of pounds of terrapin were harvested in Maryland, but by 1937 the yield had fallen to just 537 pounds, according to Peter Paul van Dijk, director of the tortoise and freshwater turtle biodiversity program at Virginia-based Conservation International (CI). Turtle meat is still eaten in parts of rural America and there is a growing domestic market in urban Asian-American communities. The meat also has found its way onto high-dollar menus at fashionable wild game restaurants across the country. But ever since China opened up its economy in 1989, conservationists have become alarmed at that country's insatiable appetite for turtle meat....
Commission Proposal Would Devastate Farmer-Ownership and the Competitiveness of US Agriculture Immediately following a hearing by the House Judiciary Committee Task Force on Antitrust, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) outlined the destructive consequences for American agriculture that would result from the Antitrust Modernization Commission's report. If undertaken by the Congress, these recommendations would devastate the ability of America's farmers and ranchers to control their destiny in the marketplace. "Farmer cooperatives offer the best opportunity for America to realize the farmer-focused ideal of an enduring, competitive agricultural industry," said NCFC President Jean-Mari Peltier. "Unfortunately, the Commission's recommendations would cripple the ability of farmers and ranchers to cooperatively market their products or form new cooperatives to compete in a rapidly consolidating marketplace dominated by a few, very large buyers." In testimony before the Task Force, Commission Chair Deborah Garza outlined further the commission's recommendations that all antitrust immunities and exemptions be reviewed, severely limited, and terminated after a set period of time. This would also include the Capper-Volstead Act, which gives limited antitrust immunity to farmers and ranchers forming cooperatives....
Missouri House Approves Agriculture Bill The legislation also would prohibit voluntary enrollment in the national animal registry, a national database, without the Legislature's approval. Many farmers and ranchers have bucked against the registry, citing privacy concerns. The database would require cows, pigs and chickens be registered to help limit disease outbreaks. Currently, it is a voluntary program but some farmers worry that states or the federal government could use participation in the program as a requirement for selling animal products. State Rep. Charlie Schlottach, a Republican, said Missouri's farmers and ranchers oppose the program. "We do not want to have a mandated animal ID in the state of Missouri," he said. "They have spoken emphatically. There is no wiggle room."....
Horses To March On State Capitol To Fight Anti-Processing Law More than 200 horses are expected to converge on Springfield, Ill., on Tuesday morning as part of a rally protesting an anti-horse processing bill slated to be considered by Illinois legislators. The rally is being organized by agricultural advocate and radio personality Trent Loos with support from the Horsemen's Council of Illinois. "A ban on horse harvesting will undoubtedly create unwanted horse problems," Loos said in a news release. "But beyond that, it is a violation of the personal property rights of farmers and ranchers." DeKalb, Ill.-based Cavel International, the nation's last operating horse slaughterhouse, recently received permission from a federal appeals court to temporarily continue processing horses while a lower court's ruling that stopped federal inspection of horses — effectively shutting Cavel down — is under consideration for appeal....

CATRON COUNTY WOLF ORDINANCE

AMENDED CATRON COUNTY ORDINANCE NO. 001-2007

AN ORDINANCE SETTING FORTH WOLF-HUMAN INCIDENT EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE MEASURES

WHEREAS, on February 15, 2006, the Catron County Commission passed Resolution No. 33-2006, Declaration of Catron County State of Economic and Agricultural Emergency, and

WHEREAS, on January 24, 2007, the Catron County Commission passed Resolution 036-2007, Emergency Wolf-human Incident Protective Measures, and

WHEREAS, the purpose of the following is to amend Catron County Ordinance No. 001-2007; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) final rule implementing the introduction of the experimental wolf population allows Mexican Gray Wolves (“wolf”) to be “taken” in certain instances. See 63 F.R. 1752, 1759; and

WHEREAS, the FWS, joined by the New Mexico Game and Fish Commission, Arizona Game and Fish Department, APHIS, the U.S. Forest Service, and others, in a document called Mexican Wolf Encounter Safety Tips, states that “if in imminent danger, do what is necessary to protect yourself, your family, or the lives of others;” and

WHEREAS, NMSA 1978, § 4-37-1 provides the power to the county to make and publish ordinances to provide for the health and safety of its inhabitants, and

WHEREAS, NMSA 1978, § 4-37-2 provides that county ordinances are effective within the boundaries of the county, including privately owned land or land owned by the United States; and

WHEREAS, the Catron County Commission finds and determines that the re-introduction and existence of the wolf within the boundaries of Catron County, New Mexico, is injurious, detrimental and damaging to the County and its inhabitants; and, human interactions with problem wolves have increased within the last twelve months; and, this increase may result in “imminent danger to individuals, families and the lives of others” within the County.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT ORDAINED BY THE GOVERNING BODY OF CATRON COUNTY, NEW MEXICO:

SECTION 1. Procedures are hereby established for the “take” of problem wolves which present imminent danger to humans, including children or other defenseless persons, domestic animals and/or livestock; and

SECTION 2. Procedures are also established for demanding removal of problem wolves that are habitually causing physical or psychological effects on humans.

SECTION 3. The Catron County Commission, and/or the Catron County Wolf Interaction Investigator (hereinafter referred to as “CWII”) shall petition the FWS for an incidental take statement or to be an authorized person or for a special management plan, to authorize the “take” of wolves.

SECTION 4. Acting either pursuant to FWS authorization, Section 1 or Section 2 of this ordinance, the CWII shall assume the following actions:....

U.S. Agency: Wolf Stays in Catron

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has refused Catron County's demand to remove a recently released endangered Mexican gray wolf. Catron County commissioners in February adopted an ordinance that challenges federal authority over management of the endangered wolf recovery program. The ordinance asserts the county's right to trap and remove wolves deemed accustomed to humans or which "have a high probability of causing physical and/or psychological damage to children or other defenseless persons." That removal standard is lower than one applied by federal officials. Commissioners in an emergency meeting April 26 passed a resolution demanding that Fish and Wildlife remove a pregnant female wolf they said is accustomed to humans and is a threat. The Fish and Wildlife Service does not plan to remove the wolf. It responded to the county's demand letter with a warning on May 3, spokeswoman Victoria Fox said Monday. "We've emphasized that any action taken that would affect the Mexican wolf population that isn't authorized under federal law will constitute a violation that will subject the entity or individual to the full prosecutorial power of the U.S. government," Fox said....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Guardians Of the Range On a golden morning in the hills of western Yolo County, Scott and Casey Stone sort cattle for shipment to summer pasture. The brothers, on horseback, silently weave through the noisy herd. With practiced eyes, they match cows with their calves before the truck arrives. All around them is their 7,500-acre family ranch, a picture-perfect slice of a California landscape that is increasingly at risk. Open space like this -- rolling hills, ancient oak trees, flower-filled meadows -- defines the state's scenery and supports a huge share of its wildlife. It is also the rallying cry for an unlikely coalition bent on keeping rangeland away from developers eager to satisfy demand for housing. "There's been a lot of really nice ranches in California that over the years have been purchased and subdivided," said Scott Stone, 50. "We don't want to do that. We're trying to do ecologically friendly, sustainable ranching that benefits both us and the watershed and wildlife." That's why the Stone brothers and their father, Hank, in 2005 preserved rangeland by selling development rights on their ranch. It's why they support the California Rangeland Conservation Coalition, which aims to protect about 13 million acres of oak woodland and grazing land between Redding and Bakersfield. Taking on such a task shouldn't be a big deal for the coalition. After all, it's already achieved the unthinkable: getting environmentalists and cattle ranchers to work together....
Brave New West: Something Entirely Different Rural Americans live in small towns, and the core of their economies has always been extractive—ranching, mining, and timber. To deny that the extractive industries have wreaked stunning and long-term destruction upon the Western landscape and its ecology is absurd. Urban Americans want to eliminate these industries or at least curtail them to a large extent. They believe that the amenities economy is a clean and viable alternative to ranching, mining, and timber. Urban environmentalists are convinced it can allow the rural West to prosper and prevail, without further degradation to the resource. To deny that this kind of transformation of the rural West has bleak and destructive consequences of its own is equally absurd. The amenities economy is just another extractive industry, and it should be regarded by environmentalists with the same concern. What is the unvarnished truth about both sides of this debate? From where I’m standing, it’s this. Think of this list as a primer, the barely scratched contentious surface. Most Old Westerners oppose wilderness because they believe it will limit their access to public lands. Sometimes their physical abuse of the land itself is dramatic and the damage is long term. But Old Westerners understand one key component of wilderness far better than their adversaries. They understand solitude, quiet, serenity, the emptiness of the rural West. They like the emptiness. New Westerners are individually more sensitive to the resource but are terrified of solitude. They’ll walk around cryptobiotic crust, but leave them alone in the canyons without a cell phone and a group of companions and they’d be lost, both physically and metaphysically....
Forest Service Purchases Elkhorn Ranch in North Dakota Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced that the USDA Forest Service has purchased a 5,200 acre parcel-which houses the historically significant and natural resource rich Elkhorn Ranch in western North Dakota. The Elkhorn Ranch-located in the Badlands of western North Dakota-was the site where President Theodore Roosevelt operated a ranch in the 1880s. The ranch, purchased for $4.8 million from a private owner, becomes part of the Little Missouri National Grasslands. The Forest Service will honor existing legal rights and valid permits. Traditional uses such as livestock grazing, oil and gas development, and hunting will continue. It is the intent of the Forest Service to convey a like number of acres to the private sector to continue the same balance of federal lands in North Dakota....Well, what do you know, "no net loss of private land" in North Dakota. Wish they would adopt this policy in other states. It will be interesting to see if and how the Forest Service transfers land to the private sector. We'll keep a watch on this for you.
Jon Kyl: Arizona National Scenic Trail Act I am pleased to join my fellow Arizona Senator John McCain in introducing the Arizona National Scenic Trail Act. This bill would amend the National Trails System Act to designate the Arizona Trail as a national scenic trail. In 1968, the U.S. Congress established the National Trails System to promote the preservation of historical resources and outdoor areas. National scenic and historic trails may be designated only by an act of Congress. Senator McCain and I have been working on Arizona Trail legislation since 2003. Previous forms of the bill focused on conducting a feasibility study to determine whether the trail is physically possible and financially feasible. In the meantime, the Arizona Trail Association and its state and federal partners have continued to develop the trail with national designation in mind, so I don’t believe a feasibility study is now required. In fact, much of the Arizona Trail already exists, extending over 800 continuous miles from the Mexican border to Utah. Clearly the trail is “physically possible.” It is also “financially feasible,” since it does not require a single land acquisition, and commitments already exist to manage the trail and complete the remaining few miles of trail construction....
Water agency appeals pumping ruling The state Department of Water Resources announced late Monday it was dropping efforts to get an endorsement of the flawed federal permits that allow giant pumps near Tracy to pull water out of the Delta. Instead, the agency Monday appealed a court order to comply with the state's endangered species law by mid-June and embarked on a lengthy process that is not expected to produce a legal permit before next April. The announcement amounts to a rebuff to the district court judge who ordered the agency to comply with the California Endangered Species Act and an acknowledgment of the impossible situation that the water agency finds itself in. For years, the agency has failed to obtain a state permit to kill protected fish such as Delta smelt and some salmon runs. The fish are killed when the massive pumps pull trillions of gallons of water a year out of the ecologically sensitive waterway for use on Central Valley farms and for 25 million Californians from the East Bay down to Southern California. Now, with a 60-day clock running down to get either permits from state regulators or a regulatory endorsement of federal endangered species permits, the agency has found that it cannot do either....
Puget Sound steelhead declared "threatened" First it was Puget Sound chinook and the bull trout. Then the resident orcas. Now Puget Sound steelhead have won a spot on a list no creature would want — the federal Endangered Species List. The announcement yesterday by the federal National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that wild Puget Sound and Hood Canal steelhead are "threatened" has been expected for more than a year. Nonetheless, it underscores the growing sense that something has gone haywire with Puget Sound's ecosystem. "What this is telling us is that the ecosystem from its headwaters to saltwater needs to be restored," said Rob Masonis, of the environmental group American Rivers. It also marks a setback for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, which had tried to head off a listing by arguing it already was working to revive the species....
Editorial - Inheriting The Wind The Senate may vote this month to require that 15% of domestic energy production come from alternative sources by 2020. Welcome to the People's Republic of America. The Senate Energy Committee has sent to the full Senate legislation effectively nationalizing the energy sector of the economy by mandating increased alternative energy use in the private sector. It further requires that 10% of federal power purchases be from "green" energy sources by 2010. We have nothing against alternative energy sources. We just don't believe government should be picking winners and losers in the economy. We are in an energy pickle precisely because government has been meddling in the market, restricting construction of new refineries and pipelines, blocking oil and gas development in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf and requiring the use of boutique fuels of questionable effectiveness. New technologies take off when they are practical, cost-efficient and beneficial — qualities that can't yet be ascribed to so-called "renewable" energy like wind and solar power. The fact is that after more than 30 years and billions of dollars of government subsidies, neither wind nor solar power is economically competitive....
Bush official's meddling could backfire, benefit prairie dog protection Gunnison's prairie dog, which is common in New Mexico, could win a second chance at legal protection because of meddling by a Bush administration official with the endangered-species list. The meddling could strengthen the arguments of Forest Guardians and other groups that are asking a federal judge to order the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take a second look at protecting the prairie dog. The outcome of the case could affect development and ranching practices throughout the state, as well as force Albuquerque International Sunport officials to obtain approval from Fish and Wildlife the next time they want to use poison to eradicate the animals - as was done with a colony near a runway this spring. The environmental groups got involved after recent revelations that a political appointee at the Department of Interior told Fish and Wildlife scientists not to consider the animal for endangered-species protection during an initial review last year....
Fields of conflict in the Klamath Under the rolling cloud-scape of the Klamath Basin, a curious rite of spring is underway. Migratory birds are flocking to the basin's necklace of federal wildlife refuges straddling Oregon and California — one of the most important stops on the Pacific Flyway. As usual, the geese, mallards and terns are sharing the sanctuaries with tractors. Agriculture fields have elbowed onto what once were marshes and shallow inland seas, shrinking the basin's wetlands by nearly 80%. Environmentalists have long fought to stop that farming, saying the refuges belong to the birds. But now, activists say, farmers in the Klamath Basin appear poised to cement their presence on the refuges, the basin's most productive farmland. Farmers are gaining an edge in closed-door settlement talks over the fate of four dams on the Klamath River, which meanders across two states before pouring into the Pacific Ocean north of Eureka, Calif. Environmentalists universally support dam removal, which would let endangered salmon reach upriver spawning grounds blocked for nearly a century. Activists with a pair of Oregon-based groups, however, fear that a looming compromise backed by the Bush administration will come at an unacceptable cost: an agreement to forever allow farming in the refuges....
Protecting a rare cactus: Shiprock to consider Navajo Nation's first preserve Arnold Clifford swung out an arm and pointed, hardly pausing as he walked across the cracked yellow earth. "There's one," the geobotany consultant said, revealing a previously invisible gray-green cactus. Smaller than a half-submerged golf ball, the rare Mesa Verde cactus bubbled out of the soil, crowned by a few reddish-brown oval seed pods. "You have to get the eye for them," said Clifford, who's spent more than 10 years studying the plants. He's not exaggerating — a 10-inch wide, 10-inch high specimen is considered mammoth. This month, members of the Shiprock Chapter will consider forming the first plant or wildlife preserve on the Navajo Nation for the cacti. The 13,000 protected acres would diffuse the conflict between development and preservation on the reservation's largest city....
Higher fees planned for one-third of national parks Entrance fees are due to rise at many national parks over the next three summers, though a public outcry over specific increases could cause the government to reconsider. A few increases have already taken effect. Through 2009, the National Park Service plans to phase in higher rates for annual park passes and fees paid per vehicle or person at about 130 of the 390 parks, monuments and other areas the agency manages. The government does not collect any fees at the other two-thirds of sites in the park system. The Park Service, which has planned the increases for some time, did not publicize the higher fees through its headquarters in Washington, leaving that job to site managers, agency spokesman David Barna said Sunday....
Floods and drought: Lloyd's assesses climate change Lloyd's of London, the world's oldest insurer, offered a gloomy forecast of floods, droughts and disastrous storms over the next 50 years in a recently published report on impending climate changes. "These things are fact, not hypothesis," said Wendy Baker, the president of Lloyd's America in an interview on Monday. "You don't have to be a believer in global warming to recognize the climate is changing. The industry has to get ready for the changes that are coming." In a report on catastrophe trends Lloyd's is disseminating to the insurance industry, a bevy of British climate experts, including Sir David King, chief scientist to the British government, warn of increased flooding in coastal areas and a rapid rise in sea level as ice caps melt in Greenland and Antarctica. Northern European coastal levels could rise more than a meter (3 feet) in a few decades, particularly if the Gulf Stream currents change, the report says....
Drought a drain on flora, fauna Around this time each year, thousands make the pilgrimage to the Antelope Valley to see California poppies shining in the fields around Anne Aldrich's Lancaster home. "There are fields of orange, just like in 'The Wizard of Oz' when you first spot the Emerald City," Aldrich said. But not in 2007, as Southern California is poised to experience its driest year on record. The effects of the prolonged dryness can be seen and felt all around. Seasonal ponds are cracked dry, leaving no haven for some frog eggs or fairy shrimp to hatch. Some flower-dependent butterflies are staying dormant for another season. Plants aren't bearing berries; some oak trees aren't sprouting acorns. Bees are behaving strangely. The problem is apparent in Ventura County, where ranchers are selling their cattle early or thinking about moving them to other states. Ranchers' lands, starved of rainwater, have not grown the natural grasses key to feeding cattle through the spring and summer. John Harvey, a Ventura County ranch owner for 30 years, said he will have to sell half his herd of 350 mother cows by summer. "This is the worst year I can ever remember," said Harvey, president of the Ventura County Cattlemen's Assn....
Red fire ants facing killer virus Imported red fire ants have plagued farmers, ranchers and others for decades. Now the reviled pests are facing a bug of their own. The virus caught the attention of U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers in Florida in 2002. The agency is now seeking commercial partners to develop the virus into a pesticide to control fire ants. With no natural predators to keep them in check, fire ants have spread across the U.S., where their numbers are now 10 times greater than in their native South America. They thrive in open sunny areas such as cropland, pastures, and urban lawns, and they like moisture. Fire ants have been detected in 13 states, covering 320 million acres, and are spreading northward. The pest has been found as far north as Virginia and along parts of the California coastline. That‘s why researchers believe the virus has potential as a viable biopesticide to control fire ants, known to scientists as Solenopsis invicta. Integrating the virus into ant baits could offer a tool to the pest-control industry, agricultural producers and harvesters, consumers and others for whom fire ants are a persistent problem....
GeneThera To Expand Mad Cow Testing To Foreign Markets GeneThera, Inc. (OTCBB: GTHA) announced today it is expanding its marketing program for its Mad Cow testing kit to include foreign markets. The marketing campaign is being designed to build brand awareness with the ranchers and slaughterhouses around the world. Japan and some European countries test 100% of the cattle that are slaughtered. All of the current tests in these countries are done after the cattle have been slaughtered. GeneThera's test, however, is tested on live cattle which would save slaughterhouses considerable time and money by identifying the sick cattle prior to slaughter. Additionally, it will allow ranchers to segregate cattle that are infected from healthy cattle. The ability to test on live cattle will provide GeneThera a clear advantage against other testing methods. Dr. Tony Milici, CEO of GeneThera, stated, "We will continue to work on our live animal testing program of Mad Cow Disease in foreign countries particularly in Europe where GeneThera has a greater market opportunity due to the large number of tests being done."....
Rancher gets rounded up in war game Even when it's play acting, a glitch can turn a simulated war scenario into a chillingly real drama. Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Coolidge, commanding one of two M-1 "Abrams" tanks on a simulated Iraqi dirt road at the Army base, had ordered soldiers to be alert for anything suspicious in an expanse of cow pastures and rolling hills leading to the mock village of "Karabila." His convoy halted because of a suspected improvised explosive device on the roadside. Suddenly, across an adjacent field, a herd of cattle broke into a run, suggesting that a sniper could be hidden among some trees. Then a red pickup, loaded with assorted boxes and hay bales, emerged from a field and began to drive away. Cpl. Christopher Ashworth, commander of a tank near the truck, radioed that he was in pursuit but believed the vehicle was not part of the exercise. "Negative. Negative," Sgt. Coolidge responded. "Until we know what it's up to, it is not out of play. So stop saying he's out of play." As a two-time Iraq veteran, he regarded the scenario as bearing too many signs of insurgent activity....
It's All Trew: Fascinated by food facts Ketchup, as we know it today, originated in the 17th century and was called "ke-tsiap." Over time the name evolved into catchup, then ketchup as New Englanders began adding tomatoes to the recipe, which also changed the color to a rich red. The most recognized name in American ketchup history is Henry J. Heinz, who began bottling his recipe in 1876. The product was so successful many imitations followed. Because of copyright restrictions, other brands had to be spelled differently. Included are Catsup, Catchup, Katsup, Catsip, Cotsup, Kotchup, Kitsip, Catsoup, Katshoup, Katsock, Cackchop, Comchop, Cotpock, Kotpock, Katpuck, Kutchpack and Catchpuck. Ketchup is so tasty and nutritious it is included as a vegetable on government approved school lunch menus. Now, I challenge readers to read and repeat the various ketchup names above as fast as possible. Don't lose your false teeth. How many of you know that "pinto" in pinto beans is a Spanish word meaning "painted." Some pinto bean afficionados claim God paints each bean different. Amazingly, as each bean cooks, it changes into a beautiful red-rust color. These spotted, painted beans originated from common beans with the Latin name of Phase Ius Vulgaris originating in Peru and scattered all over the world by traders. As a small boy I remember my mother "counting beans." Only after a few years in school did I learn she was not counting but searching for small rocks to cull....