NEWS ROUNDUP
Rapid rise in global warming is forecast The oceans are losing the capacity to soak up rising man-made carbon emissions, which is increasing the rate of global warming by up to 30 per cent, scientists said yesterday. Researchers have found that the Southern Ocean is absorbing an ever-decreasing proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The excess carbon, which cannot be absorbed by the oceans, will remain in the atmosphere and accelerate global warming, they said. The reduced ability to absorb carbon is thought to be a result of high winds acting on ocean currents bringing deeper waters that already contain high levels of carbon to the surface. The higher winds are themselves believed to have been caused by climate change due to a combination of changes in the ozone layer and carbon emissions. The scientists from countries including Britain, France and Germany, said their findings marked the first time that one of the world’s natural “carbon sinks” had been shown to be weakened by Man’s own actions....
West Nile killing off beloved U.S. birds: study The West Nile Virus is taking a worse-than-expected toll on some favorite birds in North America such as robins and chickadees, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. They studied 20 North American birds and found declines in seven species from four families as a result of the virus, which lives in birds and other animals and can be transmitted by mosquitoes to humans. The impact was especially strong among the American crow population, which has been cut by 45 percent since West Nile first appeared in the United States in 1999. "Seven out of 20 is a substantial number," said A. Marm Kilpatrick, senior research scientist for the Consortium for Conservation Medicine at the Wildlife Trust, whose work appears in journal Nature this week. Kilpatrick and colleagues analyzed 26 years of survey data on 20 bird species to evaluate the impact of West Nile. Besides the American crow, robin, Carolina and black-capped chickadee, and blue jay, other significantly impacted birds were tufted titmice, eastern bluebirds and house wrens....
Feds spend $10M on park winter studies The cost of resolving the controversy over snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park continues to mount. About $10 million has been spent on the issue by the National Park Service since the mid-1990s. With several more steps left -- along with the prospect of more litigation -- the price tag can only grow. More than 5,000 pages of plans and studies have been produced, according to John Sacklin, part of Yellowstone's team of planners working on the issue. That doesn't include more than 90,000 pages of related documents. The issue has also generated more public comments than any other controversy in the national park system. About 731,000 comments have been submitted since the mid-1990s, including about 357,000 for a draft supplemental environmental impact statement in 2002. Sacklin said he wouldn't speculate what final cost of the controversy will be. Some of the money to study and analyze the issue has come out of Yellowstone's day-to-day budget, but funding has also come out of the budget at Park Service headquarters in Washington, D.C....
BLM to sell leases near earth-art project The pressure to develop oil and gas in Utah is bumping up against the Sun Tunnels, a globally significant land art installation in Box Elder County. On Monday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management likely will sell a 1,280-acre parcel of desert next to Nancy Holt's 43 acres near Lucin despite the artist's objections that any drilling equipment would interfere with a series of tunnels she built to make art of sunshine. Sun Tunnels has no protective historic or cultural status. But even if the 31-year-old installation were on some special list, the adjacent parcel likely still would have been part of the regular May lease sale, said the state's historic preservation chief. "Historic properties are not protected, they are only taken into consideration" when considering lease sales, said Utah State Historic Preservation Officer Wilson Martin. "The impacts, in fact, can be adverse." The BLM on Thursday said it had consulted with Martin's office when it made its official "no historic properties affected" determination. Martin said he and the BLM, which has sole control over interpreting federal law governing lease sales, agreed that a well on the land could be positioned so it wouldn't bother visitors to Holt's art....
BLM ends gun ban proposal at preserve The Bureau of Land Management has dumped a plan to expand a rifle-and-pistol ban at a bird preserve, a rule that was originally meant to protect National Guard soldiers who train at the site. Lawmakers had been pressuring the BLM to end the plan for the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, saying that expanding it could actually exacerbate conflicts by concentrating shooters close to where the Guard trains. The proposal for the 490,000-acre area came after reports that sport shooters who come out to blast ground squirrels on the raptor preserve were also taking potshots at soldiers and tanks. "Any time a federal government agency decides to curtail access to public lands, we have a concern that those decisions aren't made arbitrarily," said Wayne Hoffman, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Wayne Sali, a Republican gun-rights advocate who intervened and met with National Guard leaders. The Snake River preserve accommodates one of the world's largest nesting populations of raptors — as well as gun-toting off-road vehicle enthusiasts. National Guard soldiers have used a portion of the site for their war games since the 1950s....
Pombo bows out of politics Former local Rep. Richard Pombo has ditched politics for a less-hectic life with his wife and children on their rural Tracy ranch. The passionate battler for the rights of landowners was left shell-shocked by millions of dollars worth of attack advertisements purchased against him in recent years by environmentalists and other activists. Those groups helped topple the House’s most powerful environmental lawmaker in the November election, when Pombo lost to Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton. “I’m done,” the former House Resources Committee chairman said during a 2½-hour interview Wednesday. “It’s not worth it. What my kids had to go through. What my parents had to go through. Listening to … every crackpot conspiracy theory that came out there about how I was doing all this stuff to benefit myself and benefit my family. I’m done. “I didn’t like the politics. I didn’t like talking to the media. I liked the policy. That’s what I liked, and that’s what I wanted to do,” he said....
Trust Fund for Grizzlies, Wolves Weighed Grizzly bear and gray wolf populations in parts of the Northern Rockies are considered stable enough by the government to survive without Endangered Species Act protection. But the animals could get a trust fund to shield them from hard times. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spends about $6 million a year managing grizzly bears and wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. With grizzlies in and around Yellowstone National Park recently taken off the threatened species list and gray wolves expected to come off the endangered list within the next year, that spending likely will drop as the agency turns its resources to other imperiled species. Yet run-ins between the carnivores and humans _ and scientific research to ensure the animals' populations don't backslide _ mean expenses will keep stacking up on the area's 1,300 wolves and more than 500 Yellowstone grizzlies. To cover those costs, state and federal officials are considering creating a trust to dole out financial aid to state wildlife agencies assuming oversight of the animals. The trust could eventually total tens of millions of dollars, possibly up to $100 million, according to officials drafting plans for the fund. The 5 percent to 7 percent annual interest on the principle would cover costs to hire wildlife biologists, buy radio collars used to track bear and wolf movements and other expenses....
Bureaucrats Overrule Scientists on Desert Nesting Bald Eagle Delisting Government memos obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity under the Freedom of Information Act show that highly placed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bureaucrats overruled agency scientists who concluded that the desert-nesting bald eagle should remain on the endangered species list. The scientists were ordered to fabricate analyses to support politically determined decisions and ignore scientific information contradicting the bureaucrat’s decision. “There is no end to endangered species scandals in the Bush administration,” said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Science and scientists are being suppressed everywhere you look. It’s outrageous.” The memos indicate direct political intervention by Ren Lohoefener, assistant director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Benjamin Tuttle, director of the Southwest Regional Office, as well as possible indirect intervention by Julie MacDonald, the former Assistant Deputy Secretary of Interior who recently resigned in a hail of endangered species scandals. The Center has requested that U.S. Attorney for Arizona Criminal Division Chief Ann Harwood investigate the violations. The Arizona Republic reported today that Harwood has forwarded the complaint to an investigative agency....
Environmental groups sue Navy over sonar use The Navy's use of high-intensity, active sonar in training exercises around the Hawaiian Islands will harm whales and other marine mammals, say five environmental groups that are suing to stop the practice. The lawsuit seeks to "stop the Navy from doing its sonar exercises until it complies with environmental laws they are violating," said Paul Achitoff, the Earthjustice attorney representing the Ocean Mammal Institute, the Animal Welfare Institute, KAHEA (the Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance), the Center for Biological Diversity and the Surfrider Foundation. The lawsuit filed in federal court yesterday also cites the National Marine Fisheries Service for inadequately assessing the Navy's plans to be sure its actions do not harm endangered marine life....
Lawsuit: ATVs chew up park trails All-terrain vehicle riders in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park have created huge, rutted mud holes stretching several miles along some of the most scenic land in the United States, according to conservation groups. The Wilderness Society, the Alaska Center for the Environment and the National Parks Conservation Association filed a lawsuit last summer to protect the more than 13 million-acre park from recreational ATV users. A settlement announced Tuesday requires that the Park Service prepare an environmental impact statement evaluating the impacts of the off-road machines on nine trails in the park. About 300 permits for recreational ATV users are issued each year. The lawsuit says nearly anyone can get a permit, with typically more than half of them being issued to people living in or near Alaska's two largest cities. The settlement allows six of the nine trails to remain open to permitted recreational ATV use while the EIS is being done. The other three most damaged trails -- the Copper Lake, Tanada Lake and Suslota Lake trails -- will be closed until the fall when the ground freezes to at least 6 inches, enough to support the weight of the machines....
Nation, Desert Rock accord paves way for legal emissions agreement The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency and the Desert Rock Energy Company moved closer to formalizing an agreement to reduce emissions at the proposed coal-fired power plant beyond that required by the Clean Air Act. The involved parties signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday that Stephen B. Etsitty, director of the Navajo Nation EPA, said marks the beginning of a relationship whereby the emissions reductions can be enforced. Though not binding, the memorandum should lead to a legal agreement. "This will help us develop the right enforcement mechanisms by which we will then agree between the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency and Desert Rock on how we would enforce the voluntary reductions they're willing to make," he said. Houston-based energy developer Sithe Global partnered with the Diné Power Authority, a Navajo Nation enterprise, to form the Desert Rock Energy Company. They want to build a 1,500-megawatt power plant near Burnham, the third in Northwest New Mexico. It would cost $3 billion to build and upon completion create 400 jobs at the plant and associated coal mine....
Attacked by a grizzly Six days before, on Aug. 25, 2005, Johan, 43, and his daughter Jenna, 18, had been hiking in Glacier National Park. She had just graduated from high school in Escondido, Calif. They had surprised a grizzly bear and its two cubs on the trail to Grinnell Glacier. Trying to flee, they had fallen nearly 70 feet down a rocky cliff. The bear followed. For 15 minutes, it attacked them savagely, especially Johan, who stood between it and Jenna. Shivering, cold and in shock, they spent nearly six hours on a mountainside as the National Park Service worked to rescue them by helicopter. At Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Kalispell, Mont., the first place he was treated, doctors were amazed he had survived. His mauling was the worst they had ever seen. He had no scalp. From his hairline to the base of his neck, the bear had torn off everything. There were teeth marks in the cranium. A muscle was detached from his right eye. He had broken ribs. His body was pockmarked with deep lacerations and puncture wounds. When a bear attacks defensively, it behaves like a nipping dog. The bites are quick, deep and incessant. But in fighting to shield Jenna, Johan had enraged the bear so that each bite became a shake, extending some puncture wounds into longer, ragged gashes. The teeth stopped only at the bone....
PitCo close to major conservation deal near Carbondale More than 4,700 private acres of rolling sageland and pasture that encompass the Spring Gulch Nordic ski area southwest of Carbondale will soon be permanently conserved as open space, according to Pitkin County officials and local ranchers. "In terms of acreage, it's the largest land conservation deal that we've ever done and I would guess the largest we'll be able to do in one transaction," said Pitkin County Open Space Director Dale Will. The deal itself is old news, he said, but it's finally set to close in the next month or so, possibly with a new twist. In 1998, Pitkin County put $500,000 down and signed a contract with a 10-year "fuse" for a conservation easement on the scenic parcel, known as Jerome Park, with a coalition of longtime local cattle ranchers (including the late Bob Perry) who own the property under the umbrella of the North Thompson Four Mile Mineral and Land Corporation. That deal, which would close for $6.9 million in county funds and state grant money, allows 14 home sites on the massive swath of private land, which stretches six miles from the Sunlight Ski Area to Thompson Creek. The new version of the deal would eliminate 10 of those home sites, leaving only one in Jerome Park proper and the rest clustered near Colorado Rocky Mountain School on the west edge of Carbondale, in exchange for $3 million more and 13 transferable development rights....
Cattlemen Urge Passage Of H.R. 926, STOPP Act Of 2007 Congress is acting to remedy a situation caused by a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave government bodies authority to condemn or convert property if commercial development of the property can yield a higher economic value. In the case of Kelo v. the City of New London, the Supreme Court’s ruling upheld the authority of state and local governments to use eminent domain to seize private property for commercial economic development purposes. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) has staunchly supported efforts in Congress to rectify the situation. NCBA urges passage of H.R. 926, the “Strengthening the Ownership of Private Property Act of 2007,” also known as the “STOPP Act.” The bill, reintroduced in the 110th Congress by Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (D-S.D.), is scheduled for consideration today in the House Ag Committee. “The court decision is deeply troubling to anybody who believes in civil liberties and limited government,” says Colin Woodall, NCBA’s executive director of legislative affairs. “What happens when the government decides that a local community needs a strip mall more then it needs the farms and ranches that currently occupy the land?” Ranches that exist in areas where development and tourism have swelled in recent years are most vulnerable. But NCBA insists the issue must be resolved at the federal level simply on principle. “The Fifth Amendment was written to protect Americans from this type of action,” says Woodall. “It says ‘private property shall not be taken for public use, without just compensation.’ But how do you compensate a farmer or rancher when you take away the land their family has worked on for their entire life?”....
State court rules bovines have right of passage If you have any doubt that the Wild West is still alive in Arizona, a new court ruling could change that. In a unanimous decision, the state Court of Appeals concluded that if you hit a bull or a cow crossing the road, it's pretty much your fault. Put another way, cattle are presumed to have the right of way. Charles B. "Doc'' Lane, lobbyist for the Arizona Cattle Growers Association, said the ruling should come as no surprise. Lane said all land in Arizona is presumed to be "open range." In essence, that means the owners of cattle don't need to fence them in. More to the point, if you don't want cattle on your property, you have to fence them out. So a homeowner who doesn't want a neighbor's cattle chewing on the flowers is responsible for building the fence. And, as in this case, it means that unless a fence is built along the road, drivers have to watch for what might wander into their path....
Modern day ranchers say it takes more a lasso and a horse to be a real cowboy There ain’t no more real cowboys. That’s what Jimmy Long will tell you. Kids coming up these days want to ride horses and coral cattle all day. They want the lassos and the lazy days of watching the stock graze. But a real cattleman’s life is less romantic, says the head cowboy of the Immokalee Ranch Partnership in Collier County. Long hours. Manual labor. A sense of tradition. These were the qualities of yesterday’s generation of ranchers. Even though Jimmy laments the passing of what he calls true cowboys, he seems every bit the part. The ranch, owned and operated by the Barron Collier Company, was established in 1951 and covers 70,000 acres. The property serves as a breeding ground for cattle and place for them to mature before they are shipped off to feed lots throughout the United States, where they eventually become "what’s for dinner." Jimmy tends to the needs of the 6,000 to 8,000 head of the Brahman cattle that range the property before they are taken away....
Movies screened in Tempe for 100-plus years The first exhibition of movies on a regular basis began in a truly air-conditioned setting - outdoors. That meant hot, sultry summer nights and chilly winter evenings made a night out at the movies an ordeal. But let's start at the beginning. The renowned Edison Laboratories created motion pictures, called Kinetoscopes. The first public exhibitions were in 1893 in Chicago at the World's Columbian Exposition. Initially the short films were exhibited in nickelodeons, arcades, at events and temporary venues. Pittsburgh is recognized as the home of America's first movie theater, opened in 1905. But Tempe was right behind. Jerry Reynolds, in his fascinating 1982 book called The Golden Days of Theaters in Phoenix, says Tempe's first movies were shown in 1905 when William Goodwin, a local businessman/rancher, started an open-air theater called the Airdome. At 26 E. Fifth St., the walled space accommodated 250. Until 1909, when Goodwin debuted his Opera House directly across the street, the Airdome with its midnight showings was the place to be on a Saturday night. Goodwin's two-story Opera House made Tempe movie-going a year-round experience. A veritable palace, the Opera House, complete with a stage house and fly-loft, featured a marquee and loges and sat 467 theatergoers on a sloped floor....
Buffalo Bill papers project gears up More than a century ago, Buffalo Bill Cody took Wyoming to the world with his Wild West show. His trick-roping cowboys, stern-faced Indian chiefs and exotic animal displays made Cody a top celebrity in East Coast cities and European capitals alike. With his ever-present hat and distinctive goatee, Cody hobnobbed with kings and presidents as one of the best known U.S. citizens of his day. Now Wyoming itself is gearing up to scour the world for all traces of the showman's correspondence and papers to compile the definitive historical reference work on its most famous ambassador. "I truly believe that Buffalo Bill was an epic character in Wyoming's history, especially northwest Wyoming, and America's history," said Rep. Colin Simpson, R-Cody. Simpson pushed through legislation this spring to put up $300,000 in state money to kick off the Buffalo Bill papers project....
Friday, May 18, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Senate Defeats Climate Change Measure The Senate, after one of its first full debates on global warming, on Tuesday defeated a proposal requiring the Army Corps of Engineers to consider the impact of climate change in designing water resources projects. The vote was 51-42 in favor of the amendment to a water projects bill, falling nine short of the 60 votes needed to approve it under the rules set for the debate. But sponsors of the proposal, led by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said it was significant that the Senate was finally facing the issue head-on. It was the first time in this session of Congress that climate change had reached a vote on the Senate floor, Kerry said. "We're making a statement here in the Senate to finally, once and for all, recognize the reality of what is happening with respect to climate change." Climate change is real, he said, "and it must be factored into our public policy in almost everything we do." The proposal would have directed the Army Corps, in drawing up future projects, to use the best available climate science to account for climate change on storms and floods....
Clinton Unveils $5 Billion Green Makeover for Cities Former President Bill Clinton today announced the creation of a $5 billion global effort to fight global warming by retrofitting existing buildings with more energy efficient products, thereby reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. A project of the Clinton Climate Initiative, the program brings together four of the world's largest energy service companies, five of the world's largest banks, and 15 of the world's largest cities to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings. President Clinton announced the Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit now underway in New York. Mayors from across the United States and around the world are at the summit to strategize on climate change issues. "Climate change is a global problem that requires local action," said Clinton. "The businesses, banks and cities partnering with my foundation are addressing the issue of global warming because it's the right thing to do, but also because it's good for their bottom line."....
Lost whales head upriver in California, sparking concern Two lost humpback whales continued their odyssey up a busy delta river channel Wednesday as hundreds of onlookers watched with a mix of amusement and concern. The mother and calf, they learned Wednesday, apparently suffered wounds inflicted by a boat propeller. Scientists said the injuries came after the pair entered the Sacramento River Delta on Sunday. Rescue workers also announced an ambitious plan beginning today to coax the rare whales back toward the open ocean. The strategy will use a series of underwater sounds — pipe-banging noises prodding the whales from behind, with recordings of feeding humpbacks played in front to lure them southward. That plan worked in 1985 when rescuers saved an errant humpback whale named Humphrey, ending the creature's much-publicized 26-day wanderings up and down the delta....
County, feds at odds over pregnant wolf Catron County Manager Bill Aymar says officials only want to prevent problems by asking the federal government to remove a pregnant Mexican gray wolf released on the county's border after it killed two cows elsewhere. But Victoria Fox, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman, says the agency has no reason to remove the wolf. The dispute over the animal - designated F924 - began as soon as she was released April 25 in southwestern New Mexico. The next day, the county demanded it be removed as an "imminent danger." Fish and Wildlife rejected the demand last week. The county has threatened to invoke an ordinance, passed in February, that claims the right to remove wolves that are accustomed to humans or have a high probability of harming children or other defenseless people, physically or psychologically. Fish and Wildlife officials say the Endangered Species Act supersedes a county ordinance, and they warn that unauthorized action against the wolf would result in federal prosecution....
Land protection move troubles feds Eagle County values its undeveloped public land, but protecting that land from development may make it less valuable, federal officials warn. The Board of County Commissioners has voted to create a "resource preservation zone" in the county, which will limit development on any federal land sold or exchanged in unincorporated Eagle County. The new rules limit residential development to one dwelling unit per 80 acres, and would require county approval for any purpose that may hurt the scenic quality or open character of the property. The regulations affect U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land. The rules go into effect only if the land is sold or exchanged, which both agencies say they usually do to raise money or to obtain land that could be better used for recreation. Typically, those parcels are isolated and don't benefit the public much, said David Boyd, spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management. "The lands we are looking at aren't parts of someone's favorite hiking trail," said Sally Spaulding, White River National Forest District spokeswoman. "It's not prime recreation land that we are trying to get rid of." Limiting the possibility of any future development on those parcels could make the land less valuable, and, in essence, make it more difficult or less profitable for federal agencies to sell or exchange, Spaulding said....As if the Feds don't take actions every day which devalues private property.
Horseback plan faces bumpy ride Local mountain bikers are geared up to fight a proposed horseback riding operation at Buttermilk this summer, if the horses are to set foot on Government Trail. Aspen Wilderness Outfitters, displaced from its traditional stomping ground at Snowmass by Base Village construction, is seeking a temporary commercial-use permit to run its horseback riding operation at Buttermilk from June through September. The Aspen Cycling Club is among those that responded by Wednesday's deadline for comments on the application. While the club doesn't object to horses at Buttermilk, members say use of Government Trail by horses is incompatible with mountain biking and hiking on the coveted singletrack. The trail crosses the face of Buttermilk and extends beyond the ski area boundary at West Buttermilk, linking up with Snowmass Ski Area to the west. Jon Hardin, owner of Aspen Wilderness Outfitters, said he's seeking a place to run his operation during Base Village construction and considers Buttermilk a logical choice, given its proximity to both Aspen and Snowmass Village. Last year, he moved the operation to Two Creeks at Snowmass but called that area "pretty constrained."....
Slash and Burn Looking toward the foothills from his office on the Colorado State University campus, Tony Cheng can see the forest for the fuelwood. Here and throughout the West, fire-prone forests could cause a rough summer, and this year’s Larimer County fire assessment gives reason for alarm: Within a 1.3 million-acre planning area consisting of private, county, state and federal lands, 48 percent is either “high” or “very high” fire hazard this summer. Mountain bark beetles, while still a relatively minor concern in Northern Colorado compared to other parts of the state, are 10 times greater from last year. Beetle infestations kill trees by the hundreds and greatly increase fire risk. Cheng’s research hints that, despite planning efforts, fire managers may not be doing enough to prevent a catastrophic wildfire. Cheng is finishing a study that reviews community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs), and his initial findings cast some doubts about their effectiveness. Created through President Bush’s Healthy Forests Restoration Act in 2003, the plans give responsibility to local, regional and state entities to identify projects that thin forests and reduce fire risks. “It’s been a good forum and a good tool, and it’s gotten local leadership moving on fire prevention,” says Boyd Lebeda, district forester for the Colorado State Forest Service. But, Lebeda adds, some plans are just a couple of pages with few details....
Cattle-free acreage in Greensprings survives challenge A Jackson County Circuit Court judge has rejected a rancher's attempt to overturn a cattle-free zone created last year on 4,400 private acres. Judge Mark Schiveley stated in an opinion handed down last week that Jennifer Walt and other ranchers will have to abide by a Jackson County Board of Commissioners decision last August to annex more than 100 properties along Highway 66 into the Greensprings Livestock District, originally created in 1974. "I think our hope is (Walt) will respond with goodwill and control the range that her cattle roam on," said Doug Frank, who owns about 220 acres that are now in the district. A livestock district, according to Oregon law, places the burden on cattle ranchers to keep their animals out of the designated land. The 100 properties previously fell under open-range law, which places the burden on landowners to keep cattle out....
Border officials outraged over fence contract proposal Texas border officials lashed out at the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday after learning of a call for bids on an up to $250 million contract to build border fencing in Laredo. The Texas Border Coalition, a group of border officials and business people, said they discovered the request for proposals on their own and were not told of it by Customs and Border Protection officials who are supposed to be keeping them in the loop on any fence plans along the Texas-Mexico border. The map, obtained by The Associated Press, took many of the officials by surprise because they thought they had an agreement with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to have input on where fencing was built. After heated meetings with state officials and Texas' U.S. senators, the Homeland Security Department issued letters to local officials saying the map was only a starting point and nothing was final. Many of the officials oppose the fence saying it will cut off cattle ranchers and cotton farmers from the Rio Grande and hurt relations with Mexico....
Fiesta de San Ysidro San Ysidro is a favorite religious figure with a population that has sometimes relied on milagros to eke a living from farming and ranching in a challenging land. So the patron saint of ranchers was a logical choice as a namesake for one of the region's most popular family festivals, La Fiesta de San Ysidro, which will celebrate its eighth year Saturday at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces. "The fiesta is the museum's way of paying tribute to the state's farming traditions," said museum spokesman Craig Massey. Fiesta highlights include entertainment, lectures, demonstrations, food treats and activities for kids....
Senate Defeats Climate Change Measure The Senate, after one of its first full debates on global warming, on Tuesday defeated a proposal requiring the Army Corps of Engineers to consider the impact of climate change in designing water resources projects. The vote was 51-42 in favor of the amendment to a water projects bill, falling nine short of the 60 votes needed to approve it under the rules set for the debate. But sponsors of the proposal, led by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said it was significant that the Senate was finally facing the issue head-on. It was the first time in this session of Congress that climate change had reached a vote on the Senate floor, Kerry said. "We're making a statement here in the Senate to finally, once and for all, recognize the reality of what is happening with respect to climate change." Climate change is real, he said, "and it must be factored into our public policy in almost everything we do." The proposal would have directed the Army Corps, in drawing up future projects, to use the best available climate science to account for climate change on storms and floods....
Clinton Unveils $5 Billion Green Makeover for Cities Former President Bill Clinton today announced the creation of a $5 billion global effort to fight global warming by retrofitting existing buildings with more energy efficient products, thereby reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. A project of the Clinton Climate Initiative, the program brings together four of the world's largest energy service companies, five of the world's largest banks, and 15 of the world's largest cities to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings. President Clinton announced the Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit now underway in New York. Mayors from across the United States and around the world are at the summit to strategize on climate change issues. "Climate change is a global problem that requires local action," said Clinton. "The businesses, banks and cities partnering with my foundation are addressing the issue of global warming because it's the right thing to do, but also because it's good for their bottom line."....
Lost whales head upriver in California, sparking concern Two lost humpback whales continued their odyssey up a busy delta river channel Wednesday as hundreds of onlookers watched with a mix of amusement and concern. The mother and calf, they learned Wednesday, apparently suffered wounds inflicted by a boat propeller. Scientists said the injuries came after the pair entered the Sacramento River Delta on Sunday. Rescue workers also announced an ambitious plan beginning today to coax the rare whales back toward the open ocean. The strategy will use a series of underwater sounds — pipe-banging noises prodding the whales from behind, with recordings of feeding humpbacks played in front to lure them southward. That plan worked in 1985 when rescuers saved an errant humpback whale named Humphrey, ending the creature's much-publicized 26-day wanderings up and down the delta....
County, feds at odds over pregnant wolf Catron County Manager Bill Aymar says officials only want to prevent problems by asking the federal government to remove a pregnant Mexican gray wolf released on the county's border after it killed two cows elsewhere. But Victoria Fox, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman, says the agency has no reason to remove the wolf. The dispute over the animal - designated F924 - began as soon as she was released April 25 in southwestern New Mexico. The next day, the county demanded it be removed as an "imminent danger." Fish and Wildlife rejected the demand last week. The county has threatened to invoke an ordinance, passed in February, that claims the right to remove wolves that are accustomed to humans or have a high probability of harming children or other defenseless people, physically or psychologically. Fish and Wildlife officials say the Endangered Species Act supersedes a county ordinance, and they warn that unauthorized action against the wolf would result in federal prosecution....
Land protection move troubles feds Eagle County values its undeveloped public land, but protecting that land from development may make it less valuable, federal officials warn. The Board of County Commissioners has voted to create a "resource preservation zone" in the county, which will limit development on any federal land sold or exchanged in unincorporated Eagle County. The new rules limit residential development to one dwelling unit per 80 acres, and would require county approval for any purpose that may hurt the scenic quality or open character of the property. The regulations affect U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land. The rules go into effect only if the land is sold or exchanged, which both agencies say they usually do to raise money or to obtain land that could be better used for recreation. Typically, those parcels are isolated and don't benefit the public much, said David Boyd, spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management. "The lands we are looking at aren't parts of someone's favorite hiking trail," said Sally Spaulding, White River National Forest District spokeswoman. "It's not prime recreation land that we are trying to get rid of." Limiting the possibility of any future development on those parcels could make the land less valuable, and, in essence, make it more difficult or less profitable for federal agencies to sell or exchange, Spaulding said....As if the Feds don't take actions every day which devalues private property.
Horseback plan faces bumpy ride Local mountain bikers are geared up to fight a proposed horseback riding operation at Buttermilk this summer, if the horses are to set foot on Government Trail. Aspen Wilderness Outfitters, displaced from its traditional stomping ground at Snowmass by Base Village construction, is seeking a temporary commercial-use permit to run its horseback riding operation at Buttermilk from June through September. The Aspen Cycling Club is among those that responded by Wednesday's deadline for comments on the application. While the club doesn't object to horses at Buttermilk, members say use of Government Trail by horses is incompatible with mountain biking and hiking on the coveted singletrack. The trail crosses the face of Buttermilk and extends beyond the ski area boundary at West Buttermilk, linking up with Snowmass Ski Area to the west. Jon Hardin, owner of Aspen Wilderness Outfitters, said he's seeking a place to run his operation during Base Village construction and considers Buttermilk a logical choice, given its proximity to both Aspen and Snowmass Village. Last year, he moved the operation to Two Creeks at Snowmass but called that area "pretty constrained."....
Slash and Burn Looking toward the foothills from his office on the Colorado State University campus, Tony Cheng can see the forest for the fuelwood. Here and throughout the West, fire-prone forests could cause a rough summer, and this year’s Larimer County fire assessment gives reason for alarm: Within a 1.3 million-acre planning area consisting of private, county, state and federal lands, 48 percent is either “high” or “very high” fire hazard this summer. Mountain bark beetles, while still a relatively minor concern in Northern Colorado compared to other parts of the state, are 10 times greater from last year. Beetle infestations kill trees by the hundreds and greatly increase fire risk. Cheng’s research hints that, despite planning efforts, fire managers may not be doing enough to prevent a catastrophic wildfire. Cheng is finishing a study that reviews community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs), and his initial findings cast some doubts about their effectiveness. Created through President Bush’s Healthy Forests Restoration Act in 2003, the plans give responsibility to local, regional and state entities to identify projects that thin forests and reduce fire risks. “It’s been a good forum and a good tool, and it’s gotten local leadership moving on fire prevention,” says Boyd Lebeda, district forester for the Colorado State Forest Service. But, Lebeda adds, some plans are just a couple of pages with few details....
Cattle-free acreage in Greensprings survives challenge A Jackson County Circuit Court judge has rejected a rancher's attempt to overturn a cattle-free zone created last year on 4,400 private acres. Judge Mark Schiveley stated in an opinion handed down last week that Jennifer Walt and other ranchers will have to abide by a Jackson County Board of Commissioners decision last August to annex more than 100 properties along Highway 66 into the Greensprings Livestock District, originally created in 1974. "I think our hope is (Walt) will respond with goodwill and control the range that her cattle roam on," said Doug Frank, who owns about 220 acres that are now in the district. A livestock district, according to Oregon law, places the burden on cattle ranchers to keep their animals out of the designated land. The 100 properties previously fell under open-range law, which places the burden on landowners to keep cattle out....
Border officials outraged over fence contract proposal Texas border officials lashed out at the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday after learning of a call for bids on an up to $250 million contract to build border fencing in Laredo. The Texas Border Coalition, a group of border officials and business people, said they discovered the request for proposals on their own and were not told of it by Customs and Border Protection officials who are supposed to be keeping them in the loop on any fence plans along the Texas-Mexico border. The map, obtained by The Associated Press, took many of the officials by surprise because they thought they had an agreement with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to have input on where fencing was built. After heated meetings with state officials and Texas' U.S. senators, the Homeland Security Department issued letters to local officials saying the map was only a starting point and nothing was final. Many of the officials oppose the fence saying it will cut off cattle ranchers and cotton farmers from the Rio Grande and hurt relations with Mexico....
Fiesta de San Ysidro San Ysidro is a favorite religious figure with a population that has sometimes relied on milagros to eke a living from farming and ranching in a challenging land. So the patron saint of ranchers was a logical choice as a namesake for one of the region's most popular family festivals, La Fiesta de San Ysidro, which will celebrate its eighth year Saturday at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces. "The fiesta is the museum's way of paying tribute to the state's farming traditions," said museum spokesman Craig Massey. Fiesta highlights include entertainment, lectures, demonstrations, food treats and activities for kids....
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Changing course? The Bush administration needs to change its thinking about oil and gas development on public lands and alter its land use planning to protect wildlife habitat as drilling increases, the No. 2 Interior official says. "We need to think differently," Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett said when asked by reporters last week about energy development on federal lands. She said a new administration program called the Healthy Lands Initiative has begun to address concerns raised by wildlife and sporting groups about protecting habitat. But an environmental group said conservationists have been raising the issues for years and the program comes as "too little, too late." Scarlett said, "It's not going to be one of those overnight initiatives in which we fix everything at once, because we've got a train part way down the tracks, and we have to sort of along the way do a course adjustment, and that's what the initiative is about." The program is partly about money but largely about better land use planning tools that take into account the entire landscape rather than individual projects, she added....
Mayors address global warming at summit City leaders from around the world declared at an environmental summit Tuesday that they can no longer wait for national governments to reverse global warming and instead must find solutions on their own. Mayors from Seoul to Sao Paulo and Albuquerque to Addis Ababa gathered at the summit, hosted by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former President Bill Clinton, to exchange ideas on how their cities have gone green. "We cannot sit around and watch our environment deteriorate and put this world in jeopardy," Bloomberg said. "The public wants action, and if you have a void, the mayors are going to fill that void." Mayors and local leaders from more than 30 cities kicked off the conference, known as the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, which first met in 2005 in London. Clinton did not attend Tuesday but was expected to be there Wednesday. "It is in cities that the battle to tackle climate change will be won or lost," London Mayor Ken Livingstone said. The meeting comes at a time when many countries are struggling to address global and national standards for carbon reduction. This week, U.N. delegates are meeting in Germany to gear up for December negotiations on a new set of international rules for controlling greenhouse gas emissions. The new accord would succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012....
Greenpeace Builds Replica of Noah's Ark Environmental activists are building a replica of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat—where the biblical vessel is said to have landed after the great flood—in an appeal for action on global warming, Greenpeace said Wednesday. Turkish and German volunteer carpenters are making the wooden ship on the mountain in eastern Turkey, bordering Iran. The ark will be revealed in a ceremony on May 31, a day after Greenpeace activists climb the mountain and call on world leaders to take action to tackle climate change, Greenpeace said. "Climate change is real, it's happening now and unless world leaders take urgent, decisive and far-reaching action, the next decades will see human misery on a scale not experienced in modern times," said Greenpeace activist Hilal Atici. "Those leaders have a mandate from the people ... to massively cut greenhouse gas emissions and to do it now."....
'Five Years Left To Save The Planet' Our planet is just five years away from climate change catastrophe - but can still be saved, according to a new report. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warns governments have until 2012 to "plant the seeds of change" and make positive moves to limit carbon emissions. If they fail to do so, the WWF's Vision For 2050 warns "generations to come will have to live with the compromises and hardships caused by their inability to act". "We have a small window of time in which we can plant the seeds of change, and that is the next five years," James Leape, from the WWF, said. "We cannot afford to waste them. This is not something that governments can put off until the future."....
California-Sized Area of Ice Melts in Antarctica Warm temperatures melted an area of western Antarctica that adds up to the size of California in January 2005, scientists report. Satellite data collected by the scientists between July 1999 and July 2005 showed clear signs that melting had occurred in multiple distinct regions, including far inland and at high latitudes and elevations, where melt had been considered unlikely. "Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent past with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula," said Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "But now large regions are showing the first signs of the impacts of warming as interpreted by this satellite analysis." Changes in the ice mass of Antarctica, Earth's largest freshwater reservoir, are important to understanding global sea level rise. Large amounts of Antarctic freshwater flowing into the ocean also could affect ocean salinity, currents and global climate....
Range Expansion When the atmosphere's CO2 concentration is experimentally increased, the vast majority of earth's plants lose less water to the atmosphere via transpiration, but they produce more biomass, the latter of which phenomena is generally more strongly expressed in woody perennial species than it is in annual herbaceous plants. As a result of increases in the air's CO2 content, therefore, earth's bushes, shrubs and trees would be expected to grow better and expand their ranges more than non-woody species would be expected to do. Simultaneously, increases in atmospheric CO2 often make plants of all types actually prefer warmer temperatures (Idso and Idso, 1994), causing both woody and non-woody plants to grow more vigorously and expand their ranges during periods of global warming. In this summary, we review some of the evidence for, and the consequences of, these phenomena, focusing on what has been learned in North America, concentrating on the southwestern sector of the United States....
Forest Service opens wilderness to mining The U.S. Forest Service will allow a Montrose family to operate a gold mine within the Uncompahgre Wilderness Area on the Uncompahgre National Forest east of Ouray. Charlie Richmond, supervisor of the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, announced Tuesday the agency will allow Robert and Marjorie Miller of Montrose to mine for gold on a 20-acre, unpatented mining claim at the Robin Redbreast Gold Mine near the Middle Fork of the Cimarron River. The Millers’ 1938 mining claim predates the 1964 Wilderness Act, giving the couple a right to mine within the wilderness under a 19th century mining law. “It’s a very small mining operation,” said Charlie Ponchak, the Millers’ geologist. “We’re going to use mules and a helicopter” to haul supplies and waste rock in and out of the wilderness area. He said the Millers plan to use “old mining methods,” including split shooting and hand sorting. Toxic waste rock will be hauled away, leaving only benign waste rock behind....
Snake River headwaters proposal gets boost A world-class fly fisherman and federal officials came out Tuesday in support of a bill to designate the Snake River headwaters in northwest Wyoming and some tributaries as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. "I've been almost everywhere in the world there's rivers; this is one of the last great places left and it needs to be protected," testified Jack Dennis, coach of Fly Fishing Team USA and honorary chairman of Campaign for the Snake Headwaters. Interior and Agriculture department officials also boosted the bill at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource's subcommittee on national parks. The designation would prevent dams from being built but would preserve public access and allow fishing and rafting. The next step for the bill is a committee session to examine its specific language, which could come as early as next week, a committee spokesman said. The bill would then move on to the full Senate....
NM Court upholds commission authority over water quality The New Mexico Court of Appeals has rejected a challenge to a state Water Quality Control Commission ruling that all of New Mexico's waters fall under federal water quality standards. The commission decided in 2005 that state's streams, rivers and lakes fell under the federal Clean Water Act, regardless of how the federal government defined the waters. Mining and oil and gas interests, homebuilders and ranchers challenged the action, alleging it could let New Mexico adopt rules that are more stringent than federal ones. The state, however, contended the rules let it protect waters that had been protected before a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court case. The Court of Appeals, in its 17-page ruling, outlined the federal government's expansion of clean water rules to various waters over the years and said the state's regulations fell within those definitions. The New Mexico Mining Association, New Mexico Home Builders Association, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, New Mexico Wool Growers Inc., Chino Mines Co. and Phelps Dodge Tyrone Inc. appealed the regulations....
New round of petroleum leasing draws protests The state wildlife agency and conservation group Trout Unlimited are expanding their push to slow the federal sale of petroleum leases in areas of Montana they say are environmentally sensitive. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks wants the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to delay its May 30 sale of leases for five parcels in the vicinity of the Beaverhead River, and Trout Unlimited is demanding delay of two sales there. The fish habitat is sensitive and greater environmental analysis is needed, the state and the nonprofit group say. Both protested the government's March sale of oil and gas leases in Montana, protests the BLM has yet to decide. BLM spokesman Greg Albright of Billings said the bureau's response this time around will be the same as before: The auction will take place but any leases sold will not be issued, and money paid for them will be held in escrow pending a formal response to the protests. "Our legal folks are going over our responses," Albright said. T.O Smith, wildlife and energy coordinator for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said the BLM should not move ahead with another lease sale until the earlier protests are resolved....
Conservancy joins mitigation effort A conservation group has been commissioned to help land managers and industry determine what might be needed to help wildlife habitat in Wyoming's energy fields. The Nature Conservancy, whose Wyoming headquarters are in Lander, is looking to help people think about ways to lessen harm to wildlife before drilling projects begin. The group also is working to assess what types of projects might work to boost habitat surrounding energy fields, according to Joe Kiesecker, a lead scientist for the conservancy in Wyoming. The group received a grant from BP America Production Co. of about $150,000 to assess what can be done to help natural resources. Kiesecker said the conservancy recommends a so-called "hierarchy of behaviors," which begins at "avoid," then moves to "minimize," "reclaim" and, finally, "offset." He said the group is trying to "get out in front of oil and gas development and say, 'Here's a field that could be offset, but here's where offsets could not be used as a tool.'"....
Editorial - Lawmakers right to seek data on salmon recovery Taxpayers and ratepayers have spent more than $6 billion over the past 25 years on salmon recovery in the Northwest. The Bush administration predicts that another $6 billion will be needed over 10 years, according to its 2004 plan. Not once have the feds reached their original annual target of preserving 63,500 fish. But has the effort still been worth it? That's what many members of Congress, including U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., want to find out. They also want to discern the economic implications of breaching the earthen portions of the four Lower Snake River dams, which have served as a political lightning rod for the past decade. Their bill can't quantify the emotions invested in this controversy, but it could provide the independent information needed to move past the duel of data points, which always confuses the issue. Many studies have been conducted, and, predictably, cost estimates have ranged wildly depending on which group was doing the counting. For instance, a coalition of environmentalists and fishing groups estimates that breaching the four dams could produce $4 billion to $24.4 billion in new tourism money over 20 years. However, the Bonneville Power Administration says that projection underestimates the amount of money it would take to replace the electricity those dams are capable of producing, which they put at $400 million to $500 million per year....
100 Success Stories for Endangered Species Day 2007 For a second year, the U.S. Senate declared an Endangered Species Day on May 18, 2007, to “encourage the people of the United States to become educated about, and aware of, threats to species, success stories in species recovery, and the opportunity to promote species conservation worldwide.” To help celebrate and educate, the Center for Biological Diversity has created a website (www.esasuccess.org) detailing the conservation efforts that caused the populations of 100 endangered species in every U.S. state and territory to soar. “From key deer and green sea turtles in Florida, to grizzly bears and wolves in Montana, sea otters and blue butterflies in California, and short-nose sturgeon and roseate terns in New York, the Endangered Species Act has not only saved hundreds of species from extinction,” said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity, “but also put them on the road to recovery. The Endangered Species Act is one of America’s most successful conservation laws.” The web site features a handy interactive map that allows viewers to click on their region and see a picture, population trend graph and short description of multiple species from that region. Detailed species accounts are also available for those wanting more information....
Bald eagles in Wyoming soar to 185 pairs The number of bald eagles in Wyoming has grown to 185 breeding pairs, a population recovery that has exceeded expectations from ornithologists who predicted much lower recovery rates when the birds were first granted federal protection in 1967. The bald eagle population is soaring nationally, as well, with the number of breeding pairs in the lower 48 states climbing from a low in 1963 of 417 to more than 9,700 today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday. The population recovery offers evidence to some scientists that federal protection of the birds under the Endangered Species Act should be lifted. "They're not facing extinction, and they are not threatened with moving into the endangered classification," said Bob Oakleaf, who oversees nongame species for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. "So we might as well reserve that act and the money and heartache and conflict that goes with it to the species that need it."....
Rattlesnake bites Super Wal-Mart plan The proposed construction of a nearly 100,000 square foot Wal-Mart building, and three office buildings in Carlyle has encountered an obstacle familiar to Clinton County development - the presence of the endangered Eastern Massasauga snake. According to Carlyle Mayor Van Johnson, Wal-Mart has been working with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources on a conservation plan. "Wal-Mart has developed a conservation plan to present to the IDNR," Johnson said. "Now we're waiting to see if that plan is acceptable to to IDNR." Assessments have shown that the southern boundary of the project's footprint is within the foraging and hibernating range of two endangered snakes, the Massasauga or "pygmy rattlesnake, and the Kirtland's snake. In light of the assessments, the DNR is concerned about increased road deaths of both snake species as a result of the project, and the potential to fragment the snakes' populations....
No respect for Wyo? The Wyoming House speaker said Monday he's not surprised to see apparent gridlock between the state and federal governments over wolf management. Roy Cohee, R-Casper, said he believes some federal officials have no respect for the state. "It basically says that, 'We the federal government, living out here in Washington, D.C., have such little regard for the management abilities for the state of Wyoming and its agency, that we've determined the compromise that you've given us to be invalid,"' Cohee said. He was referring to a state law enacted this spring by the Legislature that gives the governor the authority to negotiate with federal officials to determine the ultimate boundaries of a permanent wolf management area in which wolves would be managed by the state as trophy game animals. Outside the area, they would be treated as predators to be shot on sight. Wolves would be protected in Yellowstone National Park and adjoining wilderness areas. But Wyoming's new wolf management law specifies that it doesn't go into effect until the federal protections are removed from wolves and won't go into effect until the state's pending lawsuit over its original wolf management plan is resolved....
Bison get final push into Yellowstone; laggards face slaughter Wildlife officials made a last push Tuesday to get bison back into Yellowstone National Park before they face possible slaughter if caught outside park boundaries. Over the past several weeks, hundreds of bison have been hazed from an area around West Yellowstone, Mont., and back into the park by state and federal wildlife agents using horses, helicopters and trucks. Many of the animals turned around and left the park again at night or when the hazing let up. But beginning Wednesday, bison found outside Yellowstone can be rounded up and shipped to slaughter, under a plan state officials say is needed to prevent the spread of disease to livestock. Some Yellowstone bison carry brucellosis, which causes infected cows to abort their offspring. State and federal officials planned a conference call Wednesday to decide if slaughtering will begin immediately or if hazing will be extended....
A Leap for All Life: World’s Leading Scientists Announce Creation of “Encyclopedia of Life” Many of the world’s leading scientific institutions today announced the launch of the Encyclopedia of Life, an unprecedented global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants, and other forms of life on Earth. For the first time in the history of the planet, scientists, students, and citizens will have multi-media access to all known living species, even those that have just been discovered. The Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library joined together to initiate the project, bringing together species and software experts from across the world. The Missouri Botanical Garden has become a full partner, and discussions are taking place this week with leaders of the new Atlas of Living Australia. The Encyclopedia today also announced the initial membership of its Institutional Council, which spans the globe, and whose members will play key roles in realizing this immense project. An international advisory board of distinguished individuals will also help guide the Encyclopedia. The effort is spurred by a $10 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and $2.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and will ultimately serve as a global beacon for biodiversity and conservation. “The Encyclopedia of Life will provide valuable biodiversity and conservation information to anyone, anywhere, at any time,” said Dr. James Edwards, currently Executive Secretary of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility who today was officially named Executive Director of the Encyclopedia of Life....
They turn preservation into profit As a child, Carl Palmer watched as development quickly transformed his south Florida neighborhood. The mangrove forests he once explored went through an extreme makeover, giving way to cul-de-sacs and fancy houses. That experience had such a profound impact on Palmer that he focused his career on conservation. Shortly after graduating with an MBA from Stanford, Palmer and classmate Robert Keith, decided to launch Beartooth Capital Partners, a development company that invests in ecologically important ranch lands. Their aim is to produce profits while also generating real conservation results. "The scale of environmental problems is so huge, and I wanted to find a way to make a bigger difference," Palmer says. Across the globe, environmental entrepreneurs, called "enviropreneurs," are finding ways to create profitable business ventures that also provide environmental benefits. "An enviropreneur is a person who finds creative or insightful ways to turn environmental problems into assets," says Bobby McCormick, a professor of economics at Clemson University. An enviropreneur "seeks to find ways, as a business person might, to either make money where others see trash, or to use markets, property rights and cunning to solve an environmental mess."....
Changing course? The Bush administration needs to change its thinking about oil and gas development on public lands and alter its land use planning to protect wildlife habitat as drilling increases, the No. 2 Interior official says. "We need to think differently," Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett said when asked by reporters last week about energy development on federal lands. She said a new administration program called the Healthy Lands Initiative has begun to address concerns raised by wildlife and sporting groups about protecting habitat. But an environmental group said conservationists have been raising the issues for years and the program comes as "too little, too late." Scarlett said, "It's not going to be one of those overnight initiatives in which we fix everything at once, because we've got a train part way down the tracks, and we have to sort of along the way do a course adjustment, and that's what the initiative is about." The program is partly about money but largely about better land use planning tools that take into account the entire landscape rather than individual projects, she added....
Mayors address global warming at summit City leaders from around the world declared at an environmental summit Tuesday that they can no longer wait for national governments to reverse global warming and instead must find solutions on their own. Mayors from Seoul to Sao Paulo and Albuquerque to Addis Ababa gathered at the summit, hosted by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former President Bill Clinton, to exchange ideas on how their cities have gone green. "We cannot sit around and watch our environment deteriorate and put this world in jeopardy," Bloomberg said. "The public wants action, and if you have a void, the mayors are going to fill that void." Mayors and local leaders from more than 30 cities kicked off the conference, known as the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, which first met in 2005 in London. Clinton did not attend Tuesday but was expected to be there Wednesday. "It is in cities that the battle to tackle climate change will be won or lost," London Mayor Ken Livingstone said. The meeting comes at a time when many countries are struggling to address global and national standards for carbon reduction. This week, U.N. delegates are meeting in Germany to gear up for December negotiations on a new set of international rules for controlling greenhouse gas emissions. The new accord would succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012....
Greenpeace Builds Replica of Noah's Ark Environmental activists are building a replica of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat—where the biblical vessel is said to have landed after the great flood—in an appeal for action on global warming, Greenpeace said Wednesday. Turkish and German volunteer carpenters are making the wooden ship on the mountain in eastern Turkey, bordering Iran. The ark will be revealed in a ceremony on May 31, a day after Greenpeace activists climb the mountain and call on world leaders to take action to tackle climate change, Greenpeace said. "Climate change is real, it's happening now and unless world leaders take urgent, decisive and far-reaching action, the next decades will see human misery on a scale not experienced in modern times," said Greenpeace activist Hilal Atici. "Those leaders have a mandate from the people ... to massively cut greenhouse gas emissions and to do it now."....
'Five Years Left To Save The Planet' Our planet is just five years away from climate change catastrophe - but can still be saved, according to a new report. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warns governments have until 2012 to "plant the seeds of change" and make positive moves to limit carbon emissions. If they fail to do so, the WWF's Vision For 2050 warns "generations to come will have to live with the compromises and hardships caused by their inability to act". "We have a small window of time in which we can plant the seeds of change, and that is the next five years," James Leape, from the WWF, said. "We cannot afford to waste them. This is not something that governments can put off until the future."....
California-Sized Area of Ice Melts in Antarctica Warm temperatures melted an area of western Antarctica that adds up to the size of California in January 2005, scientists report. Satellite data collected by the scientists between July 1999 and July 2005 showed clear signs that melting had occurred in multiple distinct regions, including far inland and at high latitudes and elevations, where melt had been considered unlikely. "Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent past with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula," said Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "But now large regions are showing the first signs of the impacts of warming as interpreted by this satellite analysis." Changes in the ice mass of Antarctica, Earth's largest freshwater reservoir, are important to understanding global sea level rise. Large amounts of Antarctic freshwater flowing into the ocean also could affect ocean salinity, currents and global climate....
Range Expansion When the atmosphere's CO2 concentration is experimentally increased, the vast majority of earth's plants lose less water to the atmosphere via transpiration, but they produce more biomass, the latter of which phenomena is generally more strongly expressed in woody perennial species than it is in annual herbaceous plants. As a result of increases in the air's CO2 content, therefore, earth's bushes, shrubs and trees would be expected to grow better and expand their ranges more than non-woody species would be expected to do. Simultaneously, increases in atmospheric CO2 often make plants of all types actually prefer warmer temperatures (Idso and Idso, 1994), causing both woody and non-woody plants to grow more vigorously and expand their ranges during periods of global warming. In this summary, we review some of the evidence for, and the consequences of, these phenomena, focusing on what has been learned in North America, concentrating on the southwestern sector of the United States....
Forest Service opens wilderness to mining The U.S. Forest Service will allow a Montrose family to operate a gold mine within the Uncompahgre Wilderness Area on the Uncompahgre National Forest east of Ouray. Charlie Richmond, supervisor of the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, announced Tuesday the agency will allow Robert and Marjorie Miller of Montrose to mine for gold on a 20-acre, unpatented mining claim at the Robin Redbreast Gold Mine near the Middle Fork of the Cimarron River. The Millers’ 1938 mining claim predates the 1964 Wilderness Act, giving the couple a right to mine within the wilderness under a 19th century mining law. “It’s a very small mining operation,” said Charlie Ponchak, the Millers’ geologist. “We’re going to use mules and a helicopter” to haul supplies and waste rock in and out of the wilderness area. He said the Millers plan to use “old mining methods,” including split shooting and hand sorting. Toxic waste rock will be hauled away, leaving only benign waste rock behind....
Snake River headwaters proposal gets boost A world-class fly fisherman and federal officials came out Tuesday in support of a bill to designate the Snake River headwaters in northwest Wyoming and some tributaries as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. "I've been almost everywhere in the world there's rivers; this is one of the last great places left and it needs to be protected," testified Jack Dennis, coach of Fly Fishing Team USA and honorary chairman of Campaign for the Snake Headwaters. Interior and Agriculture department officials also boosted the bill at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource's subcommittee on national parks. The designation would prevent dams from being built but would preserve public access and allow fishing and rafting. The next step for the bill is a committee session to examine its specific language, which could come as early as next week, a committee spokesman said. The bill would then move on to the full Senate....
NM Court upholds commission authority over water quality The New Mexico Court of Appeals has rejected a challenge to a state Water Quality Control Commission ruling that all of New Mexico's waters fall under federal water quality standards. The commission decided in 2005 that state's streams, rivers and lakes fell under the federal Clean Water Act, regardless of how the federal government defined the waters. Mining and oil and gas interests, homebuilders and ranchers challenged the action, alleging it could let New Mexico adopt rules that are more stringent than federal ones. The state, however, contended the rules let it protect waters that had been protected before a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court case. The Court of Appeals, in its 17-page ruling, outlined the federal government's expansion of clean water rules to various waters over the years and said the state's regulations fell within those definitions. The New Mexico Mining Association, New Mexico Home Builders Association, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, New Mexico Wool Growers Inc., Chino Mines Co. and Phelps Dodge Tyrone Inc. appealed the regulations....
New round of petroleum leasing draws protests The state wildlife agency and conservation group Trout Unlimited are expanding their push to slow the federal sale of petroleum leases in areas of Montana they say are environmentally sensitive. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks wants the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to delay its May 30 sale of leases for five parcels in the vicinity of the Beaverhead River, and Trout Unlimited is demanding delay of two sales there. The fish habitat is sensitive and greater environmental analysis is needed, the state and the nonprofit group say. Both protested the government's March sale of oil and gas leases in Montana, protests the BLM has yet to decide. BLM spokesman Greg Albright of Billings said the bureau's response this time around will be the same as before: The auction will take place but any leases sold will not be issued, and money paid for them will be held in escrow pending a formal response to the protests. "Our legal folks are going over our responses," Albright said. T.O Smith, wildlife and energy coordinator for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said the BLM should not move ahead with another lease sale until the earlier protests are resolved....
Conservancy joins mitigation effort A conservation group has been commissioned to help land managers and industry determine what might be needed to help wildlife habitat in Wyoming's energy fields. The Nature Conservancy, whose Wyoming headquarters are in Lander, is looking to help people think about ways to lessen harm to wildlife before drilling projects begin. The group also is working to assess what types of projects might work to boost habitat surrounding energy fields, according to Joe Kiesecker, a lead scientist for the conservancy in Wyoming. The group received a grant from BP America Production Co. of about $150,000 to assess what can be done to help natural resources. Kiesecker said the conservancy recommends a so-called "hierarchy of behaviors," which begins at "avoid," then moves to "minimize," "reclaim" and, finally, "offset." He said the group is trying to "get out in front of oil and gas development and say, 'Here's a field that could be offset, but here's where offsets could not be used as a tool.'"....
Editorial - Lawmakers right to seek data on salmon recovery Taxpayers and ratepayers have spent more than $6 billion over the past 25 years on salmon recovery in the Northwest. The Bush administration predicts that another $6 billion will be needed over 10 years, according to its 2004 plan. Not once have the feds reached their original annual target of preserving 63,500 fish. But has the effort still been worth it? That's what many members of Congress, including U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., want to find out. They also want to discern the economic implications of breaching the earthen portions of the four Lower Snake River dams, which have served as a political lightning rod for the past decade. Their bill can't quantify the emotions invested in this controversy, but it could provide the independent information needed to move past the duel of data points, which always confuses the issue. Many studies have been conducted, and, predictably, cost estimates have ranged wildly depending on which group was doing the counting. For instance, a coalition of environmentalists and fishing groups estimates that breaching the four dams could produce $4 billion to $24.4 billion in new tourism money over 20 years. However, the Bonneville Power Administration says that projection underestimates the amount of money it would take to replace the electricity those dams are capable of producing, which they put at $400 million to $500 million per year....
100 Success Stories for Endangered Species Day 2007 For a second year, the U.S. Senate declared an Endangered Species Day on May 18, 2007, to “encourage the people of the United States to become educated about, and aware of, threats to species, success stories in species recovery, and the opportunity to promote species conservation worldwide.” To help celebrate and educate, the Center for Biological Diversity has created a website (www.esasuccess.org) detailing the conservation efforts that caused the populations of 100 endangered species in every U.S. state and territory to soar. “From key deer and green sea turtles in Florida, to grizzly bears and wolves in Montana, sea otters and blue butterflies in California, and short-nose sturgeon and roseate terns in New York, the Endangered Species Act has not only saved hundreds of species from extinction,” said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity, “but also put them on the road to recovery. The Endangered Species Act is one of America’s most successful conservation laws.” The web site features a handy interactive map that allows viewers to click on their region and see a picture, population trend graph and short description of multiple species from that region. Detailed species accounts are also available for those wanting more information....
Bald eagles in Wyoming soar to 185 pairs The number of bald eagles in Wyoming has grown to 185 breeding pairs, a population recovery that has exceeded expectations from ornithologists who predicted much lower recovery rates when the birds were first granted federal protection in 1967. The bald eagle population is soaring nationally, as well, with the number of breeding pairs in the lower 48 states climbing from a low in 1963 of 417 to more than 9,700 today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday. The population recovery offers evidence to some scientists that federal protection of the birds under the Endangered Species Act should be lifted. "They're not facing extinction, and they are not threatened with moving into the endangered classification," said Bob Oakleaf, who oversees nongame species for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. "So we might as well reserve that act and the money and heartache and conflict that goes with it to the species that need it."....
Rattlesnake bites Super Wal-Mart plan The proposed construction of a nearly 100,000 square foot Wal-Mart building, and three office buildings in Carlyle has encountered an obstacle familiar to Clinton County development - the presence of the endangered Eastern Massasauga snake. According to Carlyle Mayor Van Johnson, Wal-Mart has been working with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources on a conservation plan. "Wal-Mart has developed a conservation plan to present to the IDNR," Johnson said. "Now we're waiting to see if that plan is acceptable to to IDNR." Assessments have shown that the southern boundary of the project's footprint is within the foraging and hibernating range of two endangered snakes, the Massasauga or "pygmy rattlesnake, and the Kirtland's snake. In light of the assessments, the DNR is concerned about increased road deaths of both snake species as a result of the project, and the potential to fragment the snakes' populations....
No respect for Wyo? The Wyoming House speaker said Monday he's not surprised to see apparent gridlock between the state and federal governments over wolf management. Roy Cohee, R-Casper, said he believes some federal officials have no respect for the state. "It basically says that, 'We the federal government, living out here in Washington, D.C., have such little regard for the management abilities for the state of Wyoming and its agency, that we've determined the compromise that you've given us to be invalid,"' Cohee said. He was referring to a state law enacted this spring by the Legislature that gives the governor the authority to negotiate with federal officials to determine the ultimate boundaries of a permanent wolf management area in which wolves would be managed by the state as trophy game animals. Outside the area, they would be treated as predators to be shot on sight. Wolves would be protected in Yellowstone National Park and adjoining wilderness areas. But Wyoming's new wolf management law specifies that it doesn't go into effect until the federal protections are removed from wolves and won't go into effect until the state's pending lawsuit over its original wolf management plan is resolved....
Bison get final push into Yellowstone; laggards face slaughter Wildlife officials made a last push Tuesday to get bison back into Yellowstone National Park before they face possible slaughter if caught outside park boundaries. Over the past several weeks, hundreds of bison have been hazed from an area around West Yellowstone, Mont., and back into the park by state and federal wildlife agents using horses, helicopters and trucks. Many of the animals turned around and left the park again at night or when the hazing let up. But beginning Wednesday, bison found outside Yellowstone can be rounded up and shipped to slaughter, under a plan state officials say is needed to prevent the spread of disease to livestock. Some Yellowstone bison carry brucellosis, which causes infected cows to abort their offspring. State and federal officials planned a conference call Wednesday to decide if slaughtering will begin immediately or if hazing will be extended....
A Leap for All Life: World’s Leading Scientists Announce Creation of “Encyclopedia of Life” Many of the world’s leading scientific institutions today announced the launch of the Encyclopedia of Life, an unprecedented global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants, and other forms of life on Earth. For the first time in the history of the planet, scientists, students, and citizens will have multi-media access to all known living species, even those that have just been discovered. The Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library joined together to initiate the project, bringing together species and software experts from across the world. The Missouri Botanical Garden has become a full partner, and discussions are taking place this week with leaders of the new Atlas of Living Australia. The Encyclopedia today also announced the initial membership of its Institutional Council, which spans the globe, and whose members will play key roles in realizing this immense project. An international advisory board of distinguished individuals will also help guide the Encyclopedia. The effort is spurred by a $10 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and $2.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and will ultimately serve as a global beacon for biodiversity and conservation. “The Encyclopedia of Life will provide valuable biodiversity and conservation information to anyone, anywhere, at any time,” said Dr. James Edwards, currently Executive Secretary of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility who today was officially named Executive Director of the Encyclopedia of Life....
They turn preservation into profit As a child, Carl Palmer watched as development quickly transformed his south Florida neighborhood. The mangrove forests he once explored went through an extreme makeover, giving way to cul-de-sacs and fancy houses. That experience had such a profound impact on Palmer that he focused his career on conservation. Shortly after graduating with an MBA from Stanford, Palmer and classmate Robert Keith, decided to launch Beartooth Capital Partners, a development company that invests in ecologically important ranch lands. Their aim is to produce profits while also generating real conservation results. "The scale of environmental problems is so huge, and I wanted to find a way to make a bigger difference," Palmer says. Across the globe, environmental entrepreneurs, called "enviropreneurs," are finding ways to create profitable business ventures that also provide environmental benefits. "An enviropreneur is a person who finds creative or insightful ways to turn environmental problems into assets," says Bobby McCormick, a professor of economics at Clemson University. An enviropreneur "seeks to find ways, as a business person might, to either make money where others see trash, or to use markets, property rights and cunning to solve an environmental mess."....
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming The accelerating destruction of the rainforests that form a precious cooling band around the Earth's equator, is now being recognised as one of the main causes of climate change. Carbon emissions from deforestation far outstrip damage caused by planes and automobiles and factories. The rampant slashing and burning of tropical forests is second only to the energy sector as a source of greenhouses gases according to report published today by the Oxford-based Global Canopy Programme, an alliance of leading rainforest scientists. Figures from the GCP, summarising the latest findings from the United Nations, and building on estimates contained in the Stern Report, show deforestation accounts for up to 25 per cent of global emissions of heat-trapping gases, while transport and industry account for 14 per cent each; and aviation makes up only 3 per cent of the total. "Tropical forests are the elephant in the living room of climate change," said Andrew Mitchell, the head of the GCP. Scientists say one days' deforestation is equivalent to the carbon footprint of eight million people flying to New York. Reducing those catastrophic emissions can be achieved most quickly and most cheaply by halting the destruction in Brazil, Indonesia, the Congo and elsewhere....
Global Warming Goes Corporate Scapegoated, tired, and cornered by the global-warming witch-hunt, automakers this spring became the first U.S. industry to back a national cap-and-trade program for carbon — but, in doing so, opened a dangerous new chapter in environmental regulation that could have serious consequences to the nation’s economic health. An April 26 board meeting here of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM), the chief lobbying group for America’s nine major automakers, cemented the industry’s strategy as it enters a period of crucial hearings before Senate and House committees on climate change. In a bow to Al Gore — the Cotton Mather of the climate mob — Ford CEO Alan Mulally declared that the climate debate “has passed. I firmly believe we are at an inflection point in the world's history as it relates to climate change and energy security.” Mulally couched his stance as customer-driven, predicting that it is “going to be one of the most important considerations to the customers that buy our product.” But Ford’s own consumer marketing finds climate change well down buyers’ list of concerns. In fact, what is driving the industry’s embrace of climate change is a political consideration: the new Democratic Congress. With a zealous Democratic leadership hell-bent on fast-tracking climate legislation, auto companies have abandoned any hope of influencing the global-warming debate and are scrambling to get ahead of the regulatory parade. The auto industry has judged that we are in a new phase of the climate game: an internecine fight pitting industry against industry in an attempt to turn climate legislation to their advantage....
Is Global Warming a Sin? n a couple of hundred years historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the tenth century as the Christian millennium approached. Then as now, the doomsters identified human sinfulness as the propulsive factor in the planet’s rapid downward slide. Then as now, a buoyant market throve on fear. The Roman Catholic Church sold indulgences like checks. The sinners established a line of credit against bad behavior and could go on sinning. Today a world market in “carbon credits” is in formation. Those whose “carbon footprint” is small can sell their surplus carbon credits to others less virtuous than themselves. The modern trade is as fantastical as the medieval one. There is still zero empirical evidence that anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide is making any measurable contribution to the world’s present warming trend. The greenhouse fearmongers rely on unverified, crudely oversimplified models to finger mankind’s sinful contribution--and carbon trafficking, just like the old indulgences, is powered by guilt, credulity, cynicism and greed. Now imagine two lines on a piece of graph paper. The first rises to a crest, then slopes sharply down, levels off and rises slowly once more. The other has no undulations. It rises in a smooth, slow arc. The first, wavy line is the worldwide CO2 tonnage produced by humans burning coal, oil and natural gas. It starts in 1928, at 1.1 gigatons (i.e., 1.1 billion metric tons), and peaks in 1929 at 1.17 gigatons. The world, led by its mightiest power, plummets into the Great Depression and by 1932 human CO2 production has fallen to 0.88 gigatons a year, a 30 percent drop. Then, in 1933, the line climbs slowly again, up to 0.9 gigatons. And the other line, the one ascending so evenly? That’s the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, parts per million (ppm) by volume, moving in 1928 from just under 306, hitting 306 in 1929, 307 in 1932 and on up. Boom and bust, the line heads up steadily. These days it’s at 380. The two lines on that graph proclaim that a whopping 30 percent cut in man-made CO2 emissions didn’t even cause a 1 ppm drop in the atmosphere’s CO2. It is thus impossible to assert that the increase in atmospheric CO2 stems from people burning fossil fuels....
Bush Calls For Cuts In Vehicle Emissions With gasoline prices spiraling to record highs last week and a recent Supreme Court ruling requiring executive action to restrict global warming gases, President Bush yesterday ordered four federal agencies to draw up regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks by the end of his administration. But Democrats, environmentalists and some energy experts said the president was simply delaying measures that he has the power to impose now. During a brief event in the White House Rose Garden, Bush said he was asking for rules to "cut gasoline consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles." The regulations, he said, should be consistent with his previously announced plan to reduce projected gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next decade. "We're taking action by taking the first steps toward rules that will make our economy stronger, our environment cleaner and our nation more secure," Bush said. Critics responded that the president's announcement fell short of what was needed at a time when gasoline prices are soaring, the U.S. automobile industry is in turmoil and Congress is trying to raise fuel efficiency standards for the first time in a generation....
On the Web, an Advanced Carbon Calculator for Personal Use A new Internet tool to help individuals and communities curb their role in adding global-warming carbon emissions will be announced today at a conference in New York of mayors from around the world, said a person who built the Web technology. Many environmental groups offer simple carbon calculators on the Web, which allow people to figure the carbon dioxide production from daily routines like driving a car or lighting a house. “But this is serious software, serious quantitative methods and social networking technology brought to the green world,” said Ron Dembo, the chief executive of Zerofootprint, a nonprofit group that provides information and services to combat global warming. On the interactive climate site, people will be able to enter data, see the carbon effect and how their carbon footprint compares with averages in their city and in cities worldwide. They will also be able to do what-if simulations, to see how changes in their activities affect carbon emissions. The anonymous data will be collected for analysis by climate change scientists and others....
Congressmen: No leases for Roan Plateau Cut the money flowing to the Bureau of Land Management to lease the Roan Plateau for energy development, and buy more time for conservationists to save the plateau from bulldozers and drilling rigs. That’s what Reps. John Salazar and Mark Udall, D-Colo., on May 9, asked a congressional subcommittee to do as part of a 2008 Interior appropriations bill. The congressmen requested that the committee include in its bill a BLM funding limitation to preclude mineral leasing on the Roan Plateau. BLM spokesman David Boyd said it would cost the agency about $125,000 to lease the entire plateau. Leasing on the plateau may be imminent because of a plan that would open the area to oil and gas development. That plan could be approved at any time. If Udall and Salazar’s request is granted, it would cut off money to the BLM for leasing the Roan between October 2007 and October 2008, giving Congress and conservationists “a one-year breather” to try to find a way to protect the Roan Plateau, Salazar spokeswoman Tara Trujillo said....
U.S. drops oil development plan for remote Alaska The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Monday dropped plans to allow development of remote federal land in northern Alaska because the oil and gas industry has little interest in exploring the highly inaccessible region. The 9.2-million acre (3.7 million hectare) area is far west of the much-debated Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The land the BLM has decided is too desolate to develop is part of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve but is not part of the ANWR. Development of ANWR has stalled in the U.S. Congress. "We did not have a lot of push from industry or anything like that," said Sharon Wilson, a BLM spokeswoman in Alaska. The area is distant from any roads, existing pipelines or oil fields. It is all inland, and while in northern Alaska, it is in the southern portion of the National Petroleum Reserve and does not touch the Arctic Ocean. Other portions of the National Petroleum Reserve -- which have about 23 million acres in all -- nearer to Arctic are more accessible and have been developed....
A Bad Day For HSUS's "Humane Wayne" We almost feel sorry for Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) president Wayne Pacelle. Yesterday's animal-welfare hearing in a U.S. House Agriculture subcommittee was anything but the love-fest he may have expected. First of all, we were there -- testifying on the same panel, telling members of Congress and the media about HSUS's hidden agenda. Then an immigrant foie gras farmer stole the show with his heart-rending account of being pushed around by animal-rights extremists. Finally, a Virginia Congressman declared in front of a packed hearing room that a key part of Pacelle's own testimony was flatly "false." Not a good day on the Hill for a man who says his group "has committed itself to political activity as never before." We made the most of our opportunity to address the nation's lawmakers, advising: "When the topic of discussion is how to make livestock farming better, the complaints of radical vegans should be seen for what they are: an attempt to dismantle animal agriculture, not improve it ... Encouraging the input of people who want to crush you is a strange way of seeking sensible reform." Our hats are off to Salvadoran duck farmer Guillermo Gonzales, who told Congress that animal activists "trespass, damage our property, steal our animals, and sometimes do much worse." HSUS and other groups, he said, are trying "to drive us off our land and out of business ... Acting in the name of 'animal welfare,' some seem to have forgotten the welfare of human farmers."....
It's All Trew: When the lights came on Once upon a time, there was a tremendous difference between living in the city and living in the country. Though most small towns and all cities had electric power by 1935, country people were still without electric power. Almost all new appliances were out of reach in the country. Rural women still used wash tubs, iron pots and rub-boards to wash clothes, while urban women were using washing machines and hot water heaters. In city kitchens, ovens heated with the flip of a switch, while wood-burning stoves still dominated farms. Town students finished homework under bright light, while country students held their lessons up close to kerosene lamps. Running water and flushing toilets were the norm in town, while country people still carried water and used outhouses. Without refrigeration, country people had to eat a chicken the same day it was butchered, while all types of food could be kept fresh in refrigerators in town. There was a big difference in food costs and preservation in the country or in town. While city folks progressed at a brisk pace, life for country people seemed to stand still....
Lots of thunder and lightning going on here, so I'm posting what I have so far.
Update - Shutting down because of weather
Global Warming Goes Corporate Scapegoated, tired, and cornered by the global-warming witch-hunt, automakers this spring became the first U.S. industry to back a national cap-and-trade program for carbon — but, in doing so, opened a dangerous new chapter in environmental regulation that could have serious consequences to the nation’s economic health. An April 26 board meeting here of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM), the chief lobbying group for America’s nine major automakers, cemented the industry’s strategy as it enters a period of crucial hearings before Senate and House committees on climate change. In a bow to Al Gore — the Cotton Mather of the climate mob — Ford CEO Alan Mulally declared that the climate debate “has passed. I firmly believe we are at an inflection point in the world's history as it relates to climate change and energy security.” Mulally couched his stance as customer-driven, predicting that it is “going to be one of the most important considerations to the customers that buy our product.” But Ford’s own consumer marketing finds climate change well down buyers’ list of concerns. In fact, what is driving the industry’s embrace of climate change is a political consideration: the new Democratic Congress. With a zealous Democratic leadership hell-bent on fast-tracking climate legislation, auto companies have abandoned any hope of influencing the global-warming debate and are scrambling to get ahead of the regulatory parade. The auto industry has judged that we are in a new phase of the climate game: an internecine fight pitting industry against industry in an attempt to turn climate legislation to their advantage....
Is Global Warming a Sin? n a couple of hundred years historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the tenth century as the Christian millennium approached. Then as now, the doomsters identified human sinfulness as the propulsive factor in the planet’s rapid downward slide. Then as now, a buoyant market throve on fear. The Roman Catholic Church sold indulgences like checks. The sinners established a line of credit against bad behavior and could go on sinning. Today a world market in “carbon credits” is in formation. Those whose “carbon footprint” is small can sell their surplus carbon credits to others less virtuous than themselves. The modern trade is as fantastical as the medieval one. There is still zero empirical evidence that anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide is making any measurable contribution to the world’s present warming trend. The greenhouse fearmongers rely on unverified, crudely oversimplified models to finger mankind’s sinful contribution--and carbon trafficking, just like the old indulgences, is powered by guilt, credulity, cynicism and greed. Now imagine two lines on a piece of graph paper. The first rises to a crest, then slopes sharply down, levels off and rises slowly once more. The other has no undulations. It rises in a smooth, slow arc. The first, wavy line is the worldwide CO2 tonnage produced by humans burning coal, oil and natural gas. It starts in 1928, at 1.1 gigatons (i.e., 1.1 billion metric tons), and peaks in 1929 at 1.17 gigatons. The world, led by its mightiest power, plummets into the Great Depression and by 1932 human CO2 production has fallen to 0.88 gigatons a year, a 30 percent drop. Then, in 1933, the line climbs slowly again, up to 0.9 gigatons. And the other line, the one ascending so evenly? That’s the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, parts per million (ppm) by volume, moving in 1928 from just under 306, hitting 306 in 1929, 307 in 1932 and on up. Boom and bust, the line heads up steadily. These days it’s at 380. The two lines on that graph proclaim that a whopping 30 percent cut in man-made CO2 emissions didn’t even cause a 1 ppm drop in the atmosphere’s CO2. It is thus impossible to assert that the increase in atmospheric CO2 stems from people burning fossil fuels....
Bush Calls For Cuts In Vehicle Emissions With gasoline prices spiraling to record highs last week and a recent Supreme Court ruling requiring executive action to restrict global warming gases, President Bush yesterday ordered four federal agencies to draw up regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks by the end of his administration. But Democrats, environmentalists and some energy experts said the president was simply delaying measures that he has the power to impose now. During a brief event in the White House Rose Garden, Bush said he was asking for rules to "cut gasoline consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles." The regulations, he said, should be consistent with his previously announced plan to reduce projected gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next decade. "We're taking action by taking the first steps toward rules that will make our economy stronger, our environment cleaner and our nation more secure," Bush said. Critics responded that the president's announcement fell short of what was needed at a time when gasoline prices are soaring, the U.S. automobile industry is in turmoil and Congress is trying to raise fuel efficiency standards for the first time in a generation....
On the Web, an Advanced Carbon Calculator for Personal Use A new Internet tool to help individuals and communities curb their role in adding global-warming carbon emissions will be announced today at a conference in New York of mayors from around the world, said a person who built the Web technology. Many environmental groups offer simple carbon calculators on the Web, which allow people to figure the carbon dioxide production from daily routines like driving a car or lighting a house. “But this is serious software, serious quantitative methods and social networking technology brought to the green world,” said Ron Dembo, the chief executive of Zerofootprint, a nonprofit group that provides information and services to combat global warming. On the interactive climate site, people will be able to enter data, see the carbon effect and how their carbon footprint compares with averages in their city and in cities worldwide. They will also be able to do what-if simulations, to see how changes in their activities affect carbon emissions. The anonymous data will be collected for analysis by climate change scientists and others....
Congressmen: No leases for Roan Plateau Cut the money flowing to the Bureau of Land Management to lease the Roan Plateau for energy development, and buy more time for conservationists to save the plateau from bulldozers and drilling rigs. That’s what Reps. John Salazar and Mark Udall, D-Colo., on May 9, asked a congressional subcommittee to do as part of a 2008 Interior appropriations bill. The congressmen requested that the committee include in its bill a BLM funding limitation to preclude mineral leasing on the Roan Plateau. BLM spokesman David Boyd said it would cost the agency about $125,000 to lease the entire plateau. Leasing on the plateau may be imminent because of a plan that would open the area to oil and gas development. That plan could be approved at any time. If Udall and Salazar’s request is granted, it would cut off money to the BLM for leasing the Roan between October 2007 and October 2008, giving Congress and conservationists “a one-year breather” to try to find a way to protect the Roan Plateau, Salazar spokeswoman Tara Trujillo said....
U.S. drops oil development plan for remote Alaska The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Monday dropped plans to allow development of remote federal land in northern Alaska because the oil and gas industry has little interest in exploring the highly inaccessible region. The 9.2-million acre (3.7 million hectare) area is far west of the much-debated Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The land the BLM has decided is too desolate to develop is part of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve but is not part of the ANWR. Development of ANWR has stalled in the U.S. Congress. "We did not have a lot of push from industry or anything like that," said Sharon Wilson, a BLM spokeswoman in Alaska. The area is distant from any roads, existing pipelines or oil fields. It is all inland, and while in northern Alaska, it is in the southern portion of the National Petroleum Reserve and does not touch the Arctic Ocean. Other portions of the National Petroleum Reserve -- which have about 23 million acres in all -- nearer to Arctic are more accessible and have been developed....
A Bad Day For HSUS's "Humane Wayne" We almost feel sorry for Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) president Wayne Pacelle. Yesterday's animal-welfare hearing in a U.S. House Agriculture subcommittee was anything but the love-fest he may have expected. First of all, we were there -- testifying on the same panel, telling members of Congress and the media about HSUS's hidden agenda. Then an immigrant foie gras farmer stole the show with his heart-rending account of being pushed around by animal-rights extremists. Finally, a Virginia Congressman declared in front of a packed hearing room that a key part of Pacelle's own testimony was flatly "false." Not a good day on the Hill for a man who says his group "has committed itself to political activity as never before." We made the most of our opportunity to address the nation's lawmakers, advising: "When the topic of discussion is how to make livestock farming better, the complaints of radical vegans should be seen for what they are: an attempt to dismantle animal agriculture, not improve it ... Encouraging the input of people who want to crush you is a strange way of seeking sensible reform." Our hats are off to Salvadoran duck farmer Guillermo Gonzales, who told Congress that animal activists "trespass, damage our property, steal our animals, and sometimes do much worse." HSUS and other groups, he said, are trying "to drive us off our land and out of business ... Acting in the name of 'animal welfare,' some seem to have forgotten the welfare of human farmers."....
It's All Trew: When the lights came on Once upon a time, there was a tremendous difference between living in the city and living in the country. Though most small towns and all cities had electric power by 1935, country people were still without electric power. Almost all new appliances were out of reach in the country. Rural women still used wash tubs, iron pots and rub-boards to wash clothes, while urban women were using washing machines and hot water heaters. In city kitchens, ovens heated with the flip of a switch, while wood-burning stoves still dominated farms. Town students finished homework under bright light, while country students held their lessons up close to kerosene lamps. Running water and flushing toilets were the norm in town, while country people still carried water and used outhouses. Without refrigeration, country people had to eat a chicken the same day it was butchered, while all types of food could be kept fresh in refrigerators in town. There was a big difference in food costs and preservation in the country or in town. While city folks progressed at a brisk pace, life for country people seemed to stand still....
Lots of thunder and lightning going on here, so I'm posting what I have so far.
Update - Shutting down because of weather
Gabriel rides into the sunset
Just stand at the top of the hill and look down the gravel lane. It’s easy to see why Larry Gabriel is so happy to be home. The lane detaches itself from a dusty stretch of the Grindstone Line Road and curls down through short grass prairie in a casual descent to Ash Creek. It drifts left, then right, then left again, slipping through a scattering of black-baldy cattle and a couple of practical ranch buildings before it runs past the trailer of hired hand and rodeo star J.J. Elshere and on to the sturdy, single-story home where Gabriel lives with his wife, Charlotte. Along the way, meadowlarks yodel from fence posts. A hawk wheels darkly in the partly cloudy sky above. And off to the northwest, where Haakon County shows the best of itself in an expansive roll of pasture, a thunderstorm shapes itself into the shadowy profile of a mountain range. It is out of that great breadth of greening grass and roiling sky that Larry Gabriel emerges a few minutes later, looking much like the cowboy he is and little like the legislative leader and agriculture secretary he was. Gabriel ended almost 31 years of public service when he retired March 26 from his agriculture post in the cabinet of Gov. Mike Rounds. That world of politics and policy seems already lost in the past as the 60-year-old rancher lopes smoothly down from a grassy ridge on a mixed-breed horse named Cocoa. With an easy turn of the wrist and slight tilt in the saddle, Gabriel reins the horse into a corral above the creek. He dismounts quickly, offers a firm right hand and nods knowingly as a visitor compliments the landscape. “I’m sure we’re biased,” he says with a grin. “But we think we live in the most beautiful place on earth.” It’s hard to argue, especially on a day with the end of calving in sight and the sweet scent of rain in the air. Those hopeful realities seem to lighten Gabriel’s step as he ties up his horse and saunters down toward the house for a brief, midday interview. “I’ve got a heifer out there that’s getting pretty close,” he says, side-stepping a muddy, creek-bottom pool left by a recent 2-inch rain. “I’ve got an hour or so. Then I should get back.” Getting back to the grass and cattle of northwest Haakon County has been a life-long pattern for Gabriel, a man who treasures his geographic isolation but gave it up regularly to answer the public-service call. His retirement from state government in March left many wondering what Gabriel’s next public-service role would be. But he’s not wondering. “That’s the easiest question to answer,” Gabriel says, tapping a hand on the 100-year-old oak table in his dining room. “After eight years as a county commissioner, 16 years in the state Legislature and six years and 11 months as ag secretary, I think I’ve done my tour of duty to the public sector. Now I’m much more interested in the private sector.” Others will look back, however, at a career that saw him rise in the legislative power structure to become Republican leader in the House and then agriculture secretary for governors Bill Janklow and Mike Rounds....But he’d rather look forward than back these days. And there’s plenty to see in the years ahead. Gabriel ranches with his son, Jeff — like his dad, a former rodeo bronc rider who couldn’t leave the ranch for good. “Jeff was real good,” Gabriel said of his son’s involvement in rodeo. “It was hard for him to give it up. I wasn’t so good, so it was easier for me to quit.” Jeff lives two miles away with his wife, Heather, and their children Sage, Cedar and Ember and a fourth child on the way. Grandpa Gabriel hopes to help introduce them to the ways of the horse and the wild lands of the ranch. Gabriel’s daughter, Mindy Metzger, lives in Brookings, where her husband, Lloyd, works in research at South Dakota State University. And their children, Gabrielle and Carissa, make regular trips to the home ranch. Larry Gabriel plans to be there for those visits, and for those more frequent can’t-miss moments with his other grandchildren on the ranch. He doesn’t expect meetings and public obligations to interfere. “I’ve been to enough meetings,” he said. “There was one in town the other night I probably should have gone to, but I didn’t.” Cooper, who retired as GF&P secretary in January, said Gabriel earned the right to some personal isolation after all his years in the public spotlight. “At heart, he’s a cowboy, a guy who loves the land and being outdoors,” Cooper said. “After being in Pierre all those years and doing battle with people, he gets to live in more human terms — holding his grandkids, having a cup of coffee with his wife, getting on his horse and heading out into the grass.” Gabriel is also getting a good night’s sleep again, after years when the peaceful slumber was often slow to come. “I never knew what stress was, or thought about it. But I guess I was more a victim of it than I realized,” he said. “Now, by the time my head hits the pillow and I roll over once, I’m sound asleep. I feel good. Better than I have in years.” He’s home again, after all, and this time it’s for good.
Many of you may remember Larry and his column which was posted here on Saturday nights. I served as the New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture for 16 years, and had to deal with a lot of politicians and gubernatorial appointees in other states over the years. But not Larry. As the article shows, he was for real. It was damn nice to have someone besides myself wearing a cowboy hat to those meetings. Larry called me before his retirement was made public, and it was clear we had a mutual admiration society going on. If those grandkids listen to Larry, they'll have a leg up on the competition.
Just stand at the top of the hill and look down the gravel lane. It’s easy to see why Larry Gabriel is so happy to be home. The lane detaches itself from a dusty stretch of the Grindstone Line Road and curls down through short grass prairie in a casual descent to Ash Creek. It drifts left, then right, then left again, slipping through a scattering of black-baldy cattle and a couple of practical ranch buildings before it runs past the trailer of hired hand and rodeo star J.J. Elshere and on to the sturdy, single-story home where Gabriel lives with his wife, Charlotte. Along the way, meadowlarks yodel from fence posts. A hawk wheels darkly in the partly cloudy sky above. And off to the northwest, where Haakon County shows the best of itself in an expansive roll of pasture, a thunderstorm shapes itself into the shadowy profile of a mountain range. It is out of that great breadth of greening grass and roiling sky that Larry Gabriel emerges a few minutes later, looking much like the cowboy he is and little like the legislative leader and agriculture secretary he was. Gabriel ended almost 31 years of public service when he retired March 26 from his agriculture post in the cabinet of Gov. Mike Rounds. That world of politics and policy seems already lost in the past as the 60-year-old rancher lopes smoothly down from a grassy ridge on a mixed-breed horse named Cocoa. With an easy turn of the wrist and slight tilt in the saddle, Gabriel reins the horse into a corral above the creek. He dismounts quickly, offers a firm right hand and nods knowingly as a visitor compliments the landscape. “I’m sure we’re biased,” he says with a grin. “But we think we live in the most beautiful place on earth.” It’s hard to argue, especially on a day with the end of calving in sight and the sweet scent of rain in the air. Those hopeful realities seem to lighten Gabriel’s step as he ties up his horse and saunters down toward the house for a brief, midday interview. “I’ve got a heifer out there that’s getting pretty close,” he says, side-stepping a muddy, creek-bottom pool left by a recent 2-inch rain. “I’ve got an hour or so. Then I should get back.” Getting back to the grass and cattle of northwest Haakon County has been a life-long pattern for Gabriel, a man who treasures his geographic isolation but gave it up regularly to answer the public-service call. His retirement from state government in March left many wondering what Gabriel’s next public-service role would be. But he’s not wondering. “That’s the easiest question to answer,” Gabriel says, tapping a hand on the 100-year-old oak table in his dining room. “After eight years as a county commissioner, 16 years in the state Legislature and six years and 11 months as ag secretary, I think I’ve done my tour of duty to the public sector. Now I’m much more interested in the private sector.” Others will look back, however, at a career that saw him rise in the legislative power structure to become Republican leader in the House and then agriculture secretary for governors Bill Janklow and Mike Rounds....But he’d rather look forward than back these days. And there’s plenty to see in the years ahead. Gabriel ranches with his son, Jeff — like his dad, a former rodeo bronc rider who couldn’t leave the ranch for good. “Jeff was real good,” Gabriel said of his son’s involvement in rodeo. “It was hard for him to give it up. I wasn’t so good, so it was easier for me to quit.” Jeff lives two miles away with his wife, Heather, and their children Sage, Cedar and Ember and a fourth child on the way. Grandpa Gabriel hopes to help introduce them to the ways of the horse and the wild lands of the ranch. Gabriel’s daughter, Mindy Metzger, lives in Brookings, where her husband, Lloyd, works in research at South Dakota State University. And their children, Gabrielle and Carissa, make regular trips to the home ranch. Larry Gabriel plans to be there for those visits, and for those more frequent can’t-miss moments with his other grandchildren on the ranch. He doesn’t expect meetings and public obligations to interfere. “I’ve been to enough meetings,” he said. “There was one in town the other night I probably should have gone to, but I didn’t.” Cooper, who retired as GF&P secretary in January, said Gabriel earned the right to some personal isolation after all his years in the public spotlight. “At heart, he’s a cowboy, a guy who loves the land and being outdoors,” Cooper said. “After being in Pierre all those years and doing battle with people, he gets to live in more human terms — holding his grandkids, having a cup of coffee with his wife, getting on his horse and heading out into the grass.” Gabriel is also getting a good night’s sleep again, after years when the peaceful slumber was often slow to come. “I never knew what stress was, or thought about it. But I guess I was more a victim of it than I realized,” he said. “Now, by the time my head hits the pillow and I roll over once, I’m sound asleep. I feel good. Better than I have in years.” He’s home again, after all, and this time it’s for good.
Many of you may remember Larry and his column which was posted here on Saturday nights. I served as the New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture for 16 years, and had to deal with a lot of politicians and gubernatorial appointees in other states over the years. But not Larry. As the article shows, he was for real. It was damn nice to have someone besides myself wearing a cowboy hat to those meetings. Larry called me before his retirement was made public, and it was clear we had a mutual admiration society going on. If those grandkids listen to Larry, they'll have a leg up on the competition.
Monday, May 14, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Clinton, Bloomberg host climate summit A global summit of leaders including former President Clinton convenes here this week to exchange ideas on addressing the threat of global warming. Mayors and governors of more than 30 localities from Colombia to South Korea, along with executives from a number of international companies, will join Clinton and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit that begins Monday. It is the second such gathering; the first was held in 2005 in London, drawing representatives of 18 cities. The theory behind the conference is that cities must play a major role in reversing climate change, since they contribute 80 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions even though they cover less than 1 percent of the Earth's surface....
Intelligence chief OK's global warming study Stepping into the middle of a partisan debate on Capitol Hill, the nation's top intelligence official has endorsed a comprehensive study by spy agencies about the impact of global warming on national security. In a letter written last week to the House Intelligence Committee, Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, said it was "entirely appropriate" that the intelligence community prepare an assessment of the "geopolitical and security implications of global climate change." The question of whether the country's spy agencies, already burdened by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the global hunt for members of Al Qaeda, ought to investigate the security implications of global warming has been debated in Congress for several weeks. A provision requiring a national intelligence estimate on climate change was in the 2008 intelligence authorization bill that the House passed Friday. The amount of the authorization is classified but it is believed to be about $48 billion, which would be the largest intelligence authorization ever considered by Congress. Republicans had tried to defeat the provision on the national intelligence estimate, saying that intelligence resources were too precious to be used to study the impact of climate change....
Climate change to force mass migration A billion people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts. The report, which is based on latest UN population and climate change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, south Asia and the Middle East. According to the development charity, the world faces its largest movement of people forced from their homes. "Forced migration is now the most urgent threat facing poor nations," said John Davison, the report's lead author. "Climate change is the great, frightening unknown in this equation." About 155 million people are known to be displaced now by conflict, natural disaster and development projects. This figure could be augmented by as many as 850 million, as more people are expected to be affected by water shortages, sea level crises, deteriorating pasture land, conflicts and famine, the report says....
Murdoch: I'm proud to be green n one of the most unexpected conversions since Saul of Tarsus hit the road to Damascus, Rupert Murdoch is turning into a green campaigner. He is making the whole of his worldwide operations carbon neutral and setting out to "educate and engage" his readers and viewers about global warming. He believes his companies' "global reach" presents "an unprecedented opportunity to raise awareness and to stimulate action around the world". A former sceptic who confesses to having been "somewhat wary of the warming debate", he laid on his first global webcast for all his employees on Wednesday to tell them that he was "changing the DNA of our business". He added that he had started with himself, buying a hybrid car. Mr Murdoch's conversion, which may surprise employees like Jeremy Clarkson, was heavily influenced by his son James - who took BSkyB carbon neutral a year ago this week - as well as by Tony Blair and former US vice-president Al Gore. All three attended his annual meeting for senior executives in Pebble Beach, California, last year where he was convinced to take the lead on the issue. The world's most prominent media tycoon is being hailed by environmentalists as the most important of a chain of high-profile new recruits to the battle to control climate change, including Sir Richard Branson and Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco....
Federal Loans for Coal Plants Clash With Carbon Cuts A Depression-era program to bring electricity to rural areas is using taxpayer money to provide billions of dollars in low-interest loans to build coal plants even as Congress seeks ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions. That government support is a major force behind the rush to coal plants, which spew carbon dioxide that scientists blame for global warming. The beneficiaries of the government's largesse -- the nation's rural electric cooperatives -- plan to spend $35 billion to build conventional coal plants over the next 10 years, enough to offset all state and federal efforts to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over that time. The Office of Management and Budget wants to end loans for new power plants and limit loans for transmission projects in the most remote rural areas. But the powerful National Rural Electric Cooperative Association deployed 3,000 members on Capitol Hill last week to push Congress to keep the program intact, arguing that the loans for new coal plants are needed to keep electricity cheap and reliable in rural areas. Environmentalists have also targeted the program. They say it removes any pressure for the rural co-ops to promote energy efficiency or aggressively tap renewable resources. Rural co-ops rely on coal for 80 percent of their electricity, compared with 50 percent for the rest of the country, and electricity demand at rural co-ops is growing at twice the national rate....
Column - Wildlife, oil development coexist in West A few years ago, land users breathed a sigh of relief when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the decision not to list the greater sage grouse as an endangered species. However, this decision could be short-lived as anti-multiple-use organizations file lawsuits and courts come closer to requiring the FWS to restart the listing process. From the mineral leaseholder to the subcontractors to the rancher or hunter, every aspect of land use would be drastically affected with a listing of the bird. Many opposition groups would have folks believe that we can have only development or healthy wildlife populations and development will lead to extinction. However, those of us on the ground know wildlife, agriculture and responsible development do coexist. Along with the FWS decision not to list the bird, many actions support the fact of a stable sage grouse population. The state of Montana increased the hunting bag limit, and Wyoming recently considered a proposal to lengthen the hunting season. Wyoming Game and Fish data shows the population has increased the last two years in the Powder River Basin. While range-wide sage grouse populations have decreased over the past two decades, today's grouse numbers in areas of oil and gas development mirror the population trends seen in undeveloped areas....
To south, Montana sees cautionary tale on energy Drive a couple of hours south of here into Wyoming and you enter the heart of America's domestic energy rush - a landscape where natural gas wells are as ubiquitous as cattle and the economy is growing faster than a prairie stream swollen by melting spring snows. But as Montana officials gaze across the 400-mile border separating the two states, they see something else: once-pristine wildlife habitat carved by roads, underground aquifers being pumped dry so companies can reach vast reserves of gas, and schools and police scrambling to keep up with rising demands. "Oil and gas development is happening really fast across the West. In Montana, we don't want to get run over by that," said T.O. Smith, energy coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "When we look at Wyoming, we don't want to do development in Montana if we're going to see the same fish and wildlife declines they're seeing." In a series of recent executive decisions, legislative actions and rules adopted by state agencies, Montana has laid out its terms for the energy development poised to sweep into the state. The common thread that runs through those policies can be summed up in one phrase: Not like Wyoming....
Senators, congressman fight to recover "useable" water Across the West, "useable" water is one of the most valuable natural resources, and also one of the scarcest. Each day, more than two million gallons of useable groundwater are wasted, turned into what is known as "produced water," after becoming contaminated beyond use as it is brought to the surface during oil and gas drilling or coal bed methane extraction. However, United States Senator Ken Salazar has taken the lead in the Senate on a bipartisan solution that could allow the recovery and use of many gallons of "produced" water every day. Yesterday, along with Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, Senate Energy Committee Ranking Member Pete Domenici, R-NM, and Senator Craig Thomas, R-WY, Senator Salazar introduced the "More Water, More Energy, Less Waste Act of 2007." The bill initiates a feasibility study on recovering the "produced water" and a grant program to test technologies that would convert it to "useable" water. It is the Senate companion to H.R. 902 which passed unanimously in the U.S. House on March 19, 2007. H.R. 902 is sponsored by Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs. The study provision of the bill would direct the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Director of the Bureau of Land Management to evaluate the feasibility of recovering and cleaning "produced water" for use in irrigation and other purposes, all while protecting and conserving the water quality and natural surroundings. It also requires those agencies to study ways to increase the efficiency of energy production by reducing the quantity of produced water that must be treated or reinjected....
Editorial - House right to offer Piñon requirements The House Armed Services Committee has approved a plan that will give ranchers and local officials in southeastern Colorado some leverage in their fight to prevent the U.S. Army from acquiring 418,000 acres to expand its existing Piñon Canyon Maneuver site. Rep. Mark Udall is the only Coloradan on the committee, and he added numerous restrictions to the upcoming 2008 defense budget. They prohibit the Army from acquiring any land for the expansion until it meets several requirements, including: A full environmental impact statement that includes analyses of alternative sites or a smaller expansion. Exploring options other than buying land, such as land leasing or easements. Providing property owners the right to seek third-party arbitration, whose costs would be assumed by the Army. A commitment to public access to cultural and historic areas within the site, which includes Picket Wire Canyon, home to thousands of dinosaur tracks, prehistoric Indian pictographs, and portions of the Santa Fe Trail. A guarantee of access for livestock grazing within the site. The Post has repeatedly expressed concern that the expansion could damage the fragile Comanche National Grasslands and otherwise harm southeastern Colorado. In our view, the new restrictions, if rigorously enforced, offer significant safeguards....
Thousands of miles of trouble Some 20 years ago, when gear jammers were high balling out of the Cascades with loads of old-growth timber and jake-breaking around curves, the U.S. Forest Service built 22,000 miles of logging roads in Washington state. Along with salmon, orcas, Lewis and Clark, and Mount St. Helens, those roads are part of the lore of the Northwest and a reminder of a way of life that has mostly disappeared. But that legacy of timber country is now creating problems. With the timber harvest on federal lands a trickle of what it was during the peak of the late 1980s, Washington state officials say the logging roads are deteriorating because of Forest Service neglect. And those deteriorating roads threaten to undo efforts to restore salmon runs, particularly in the rivers and streams flowing into Puget Sound. The state has asked Congress to provide $300 million over the next 10 years to maintain or remove the Forest Service roads. And though lawmakers are sympathetic, the federal budget is tight. Nationwide, there are roughly 380,000 miles of roads in the national forests. The Forest Service estimates there is a $4 billion maintenance backlog on the roads....
Smokejumpers: Challenge of smokejumper work begins above blazes Smokejumpers say they are just like any other wildland firefighters -- the only difference is how they get to the fire. What a difference it is. Like all firefighters, smokejumpers have to be ready to roll within minutes of the first alarm. But they don't rush to climb aboard a fire truck. They slide into Kevlar jumpsuits, hoist parachutes onto their backs and pile into a turboprop plane waiting on the tarmac outside their base just north of the Redding Municipal Airport. "The whole point is to get a fire when it's small," said Josh Mathiesen, operations captain at the California Smokejumper base in Redding, which serves the entire state and, at times, the nation. Smokejumpers are the first, and sometimes only, firefighters on the scene of many backcountry fires around the north state. Fire managers credit them with squelching fires before they have a chance to spread....
Spraying poses possible risks The U.S. Forest Service says while it is exploring the idea of spraying areas of the Lincoln National Forest infested with tree-damaging insects, it believes any spraying "may have little success in slowing the spread of infestation." In any case, no large-scale spraying will take place right away, according to a news release issued by the Lincoln. "The effects of spraying would have to be evaluated for potential impacts to domestic water supplies and to big game hunters during the fall hunts, when the treatment would take place," the Lincoln news release stated. In addition, "spraying may also kill beneficial insects and could impact sensitive species such as the checkered spot buttery that is known to inhabit the defoliated area," the news release stated. The Lincoln says based on an over-flight conducted April 27, the total area affected by the caterpillar of a species of geometrid moth is 12,433 acres. Forest Service officials expect to undertake an evaluation on June 1 regarding the current infestation....What are the risks of not spraying? Will they analyze that too?
Ranchers want feds to reduce prairie dog damage Two years after state and federal officials first took steps to control a vast prairie dog colony just south of Badlands National Park, neighboring ranchers are fuming. The damage to public and private grazing land is just getting worse, they say. Charles Kruse, who has cut his cattle herd in half because of a lingering drought and the continuing prairie dog invasion, grows agitated as he looks at miles of land covered with mostly bare dirt, prairie dogs and the mounds that crown their burrows. "It's like a moonscape out there, but this should be the greenest, nicest part of the year," Kruse said on a warm spring day....
Border patrol to travel horseback Wild horses. Drug smugglers. Prison inmates. Wranglers. Federal agents. All are converging on the northern border as part of “Noble Mustang,” a new program that will patrol Montana's boundary with Canada using native horse power. The unlikely partnership begins with the Bureau of Land Management's wild horse and burro program, which takes mustangs off public lands for sale to private owners. The animals are known for their strength, intelligence, endurance, sure-footedness - and also for the challenge they present to trainers. Enter prison inmates from Canon City, Colo. “The BLM began cooperating with the Department of Corrections there in 1986,” said agent Danielle Suarez, public information officer for the U.S. Border Patrol's Spokane Sector. The Border Patrol recently adopted eight wild horses to patrol that sector, which includes northwestern Montana....
A New Twist on the Private Residence Club Model - Cows Shell Valley is a tiny hamlet nestled in the foothills of the spectacular Bighorn Mountains in picturesque Shell Wyoming, population 50. Here, nature remains unspoiled and the traditions of the Old West continue uninterrupted. Tradition, honor and the cowboy code are fundamental to the foundation of life here in the West. Now this legacy that has lived on at the Flitner Ranch for over five generations can become part of your family’s history, thanks to the Hideout Private Residence Club. This unique business model combines several of the best features of Private Residence communities and destination clubs. But what you may ask are these elusive definitions? Simply put, a Private Residence Club membership is a form of fractional ownership, the fastest growing segment in real estate and frequently described as “luxury home ownership without the hassles”. A destination club in contrast, is a membership to a collection of resort destinations that provide the owner with luxury accommodations at each destination. The Hideout Private Residence Club is a non equity membership offering an experiential adventure through the use of our 300,000 acre working cattle and upscale guest ranch. The Hideout features luxurious accommodations, unparalleled recreation, a preservation trust and a conservation platform. As fourth generation ranchers, the Flitner family is passionate that the magnificence of The Shell Valley remains intact forever. After watching other areas of the West fall victim to indiscriminate commercial development, David and Paula Flitner have made a commitment to preserve The Shell Valley as a living treasure of the American West and are actively seeking 88 members who want to share in this vision....
Cattle Producers Offered Incentives To Enroll In Verification Program North Dakota cattle producers have some new reasons to enroll in a program that verifies the age and source of the animals they sell. Some meat packing plants are paying a premium of $25 to $30 per head for cattle that are age and source verified, according to Karl Hoppe, Extension Service area livestock specialist at North Dakota State University's Carrington Research Extension Center. Also, major beef-buying companies, such as McDonald's and Wal-Mart, are starting to require verification of the source of the meat they buy. The Japanese market reopening to U.S. beef is increasing the demand for age and source verification as well. Age and source verification programs allow agricultural producers to assure customers they are providing consistent, high-quality products. "Now is the time for producers to get enrolled in a verification program for next year's sales," Hoppe says....
Brand loyalty: Infusion of state funding keeps livestock ID program afloat Ranchers Stan and Lilly Hovendick were surprised a few years back to get a $460 check in the mail for the sale of a heifer that had gone missing a year earlier. After mixing with another rancher's cattle, the heifer had been sold at a Denver livestock auction. The profits diverted back to the Hovendicks, whose brand was on the animal. Another time, the Hovendicks' neighbors returned a $2,500 bull that had wandered 30 miles on the open range to join their herd. “If we didn’t have a brand on him, we never would have got him back,” said Lilly Hovendick, who ranches with her husband near Lander. Cases like these offer strong evidence to livestock owners that the age-old practice of branding livestock is alive and well in Wyoming. Brands provide proof of ownership and help identify cattle, horses and sheep in a sea of similar-looking animals on the open range or at the sale barn. Despite the continuing popularity of brands, the state agency that oversees them has fallen on hard financial times. The livestock industry blames the drought for the crunch: Parched rangeland has driven down herd numbers across the state over the last half-dozen years. The subsequent 30 percent reduction of brand inspection fee revenue, the chief source of money for the brand program, has drained more than $1 million from the annual budget. The state has stepped in to help, but problems remain....
Iron men Each time Joe Hunter answered the phone at the Torrington Livestock Markets, he had to tell the caller that he was all right -- it was just a cold that had stolen his voice. “To tell you the truth,” Hunter whispered to one of them, “I don’t feel all that well.” But there was no time to baby a cold. Several hundred head of cattle had just traded hands at the state’s largest livestock market, and Hunter, a supervisor with the state brand office, was busy filling out paperwork. Mentioned in state statute 27 times, Wyoming’s 60 full-time and 38 part-time brand inspectors are a critical part of the state livestock industry. Part cowboy, part bookkeeper, brand inspectors are the state’s chief defense against theft and missing livestock. Most are also career agriculturists with a lifetime of knowledge about the industry and the ranching communities where they live. Lately, the state and federal governments are demanding more of inspectors. Their work is increasingly moving into the realms of disease tracking, animal identification and even homeland security....
Wyo history intertwines with brands Perhaps the most impressive document in Wyoming's century-plus-long history of livestock branding rests in a wooden chest of drawers in the office of the Wyoming Livestock Board. The leather-bound, hand-lettered volume is tattered and water stained, but it contains the first known collection of brands compiled in the state. The one-of-a-kind volume was published in 1899, a full decade before the state took control of brand management from the counties in 1909. The history of livestock brands in Wyoming is colorful and touched by violence. Brands were at the center of the dispute that sparked the Johnson County War in the late 19th century, and they remain a critical element of the state's livestock industry. The world history of livestock brands is even older and more colorful, dating back at least 4,000 years. Artwork on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs depicts livestock brands as early as 2,000 B.C., according to history from the Livestock Board....
Longtime brands denote family legacies When L.G. Phelps bought ranchland near Meeteetse in the early 1900s, he also bought the cattle brand that went with it. The brand, an oval with three prongs jutting from the top, looked something like a king's crown, and that's what he called it. More than a century later, the Crown brand is still in use by Phelps' great-granddaughter, Lili Turnell, and her husband, Jack Turnell. “There's a lot of history that goes with it and pride as it's been passed down through the years,” said Lili Turnell, who ranches on the original land near Meeteetse. A handful of Wyoming brands is still in use a century or more after they were first registered in the state. Many, including the Crown brand and the well-known Pitchfork brand, which Phelps also owned, have been passed down from family member to family member. In addition to their function as a tool of the livestock trade, family brands can be heirlooms, points of pride, pieces of history and symbols that define ranchers and the land....
‘Big George’ of the Trinity packs quite a bite Steve Barclay and Sam Lovell first spotted the big alligator about eight years ago as they navigated their small flatbottom boat along a remote stretch of the Trinity River in Leon County. They knew right away the beast was something special. With its jet-black hide and knob-riddled head, the 'gator was noticeably different from all the others they had seen through the years. Perhaps the most distinguishing trait was its sheer size. The alligator had a weight problem, a serious one. "He was big from the first time we saw him -- much bigger than all the others," Barclay said. "Each time we saw him after that there was rarely a question as to whether it was him or not. He was that much different than all the rest." The man he was, some suspect Big George may have even treated himself to a side of beef every now and then. "It's scary, but it happens," Barclay said. "There was a rancher who lost several yearling calves on the Trinity River last year." Barclay said the rancher was fairly certain his calves were killed by alligators after he found three of the decaying carcasses, along with a beaver, tucked away in a wood drift that had washed up at the edge of a backwater slough....
Ritual of the West The morning sun had risen well above the horizon by the time the last pickup truck and horse trailer pulled up to the main ranch house. The earth, damp from three days of rain, released the fragrance of wet manure and straw into the air, and everyone was at ease on the unseasonably warm April morning. Some of the young men pinched “dips” of chewing tobacco into their lips and prepared quietly for the work, while the older men eased themselves into their saddles and joked that their horses seemed to be growing taller. The rancher, Jim Woolington, moved a piece of farm machinery that was blocking a gate, and then stopped to scoop up his 2-year-old great-granddaughter, Makayla Woolington, who had escaped the ranch house wearing only her pajamas. “She likes to see what’s going on,” Woolington explained. As they have since about 1935, friends and neighbors of the Woolington family gathered at the Woolington Ranch near Burns to brand the new crop of calves. Part social event, part hard work, the seasonal branding continues to be a rite of spring on many of Wyoming’s roughly 9,000 farms and ranches....
Clinton, Bloomberg host climate summit A global summit of leaders including former President Clinton convenes here this week to exchange ideas on addressing the threat of global warming. Mayors and governors of more than 30 localities from Colombia to South Korea, along with executives from a number of international companies, will join Clinton and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit that begins Monday. It is the second such gathering; the first was held in 2005 in London, drawing representatives of 18 cities. The theory behind the conference is that cities must play a major role in reversing climate change, since they contribute 80 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions even though they cover less than 1 percent of the Earth's surface....
Intelligence chief OK's global warming study Stepping into the middle of a partisan debate on Capitol Hill, the nation's top intelligence official has endorsed a comprehensive study by spy agencies about the impact of global warming on national security. In a letter written last week to the House Intelligence Committee, Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, said it was "entirely appropriate" that the intelligence community prepare an assessment of the "geopolitical and security implications of global climate change." The question of whether the country's spy agencies, already burdened by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the global hunt for members of Al Qaeda, ought to investigate the security implications of global warming has been debated in Congress for several weeks. A provision requiring a national intelligence estimate on climate change was in the 2008 intelligence authorization bill that the House passed Friday. The amount of the authorization is classified but it is believed to be about $48 billion, which would be the largest intelligence authorization ever considered by Congress. Republicans had tried to defeat the provision on the national intelligence estimate, saying that intelligence resources were too precious to be used to study the impact of climate change....
Climate change to force mass migration A billion people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts. The report, which is based on latest UN population and climate change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, south Asia and the Middle East. According to the development charity, the world faces its largest movement of people forced from their homes. "Forced migration is now the most urgent threat facing poor nations," said John Davison, the report's lead author. "Climate change is the great, frightening unknown in this equation." About 155 million people are known to be displaced now by conflict, natural disaster and development projects. This figure could be augmented by as many as 850 million, as more people are expected to be affected by water shortages, sea level crises, deteriorating pasture land, conflicts and famine, the report says....
Murdoch: I'm proud to be green n one of the most unexpected conversions since Saul of Tarsus hit the road to Damascus, Rupert Murdoch is turning into a green campaigner. He is making the whole of his worldwide operations carbon neutral and setting out to "educate and engage" his readers and viewers about global warming. He believes his companies' "global reach" presents "an unprecedented opportunity to raise awareness and to stimulate action around the world". A former sceptic who confesses to having been "somewhat wary of the warming debate", he laid on his first global webcast for all his employees on Wednesday to tell them that he was "changing the DNA of our business". He added that he had started with himself, buying a hybrid car. Mr Murdoch's conversion, which may surprise employees like Jeremy Clarkson, was heavily influenced by his son James - who took BSkyB carbon neutral a year ago this week - as well as by Tony Blair and former US vice-president Al Gore. All three attended his annual meeting for senior executives in Pebble Beach, California, last year where he was convinced to take the lead on the issue. The world's most prominent media tycoon is being hailed by environmentalists as the most important of a chain of high-profile new recruits to the battle to control climate change, including Sir Richard Branson and Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco....
Federal Loans for Coal Plants Clash With Carbon Cuts A Depression-era program to bring electricity to rural areas is using taxpayer money to provide billions of dollars in low-interest loans to build coal plants even as Congress seeks ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions. That government support is a major force behind the rush to coal plants, which spew carbon dioxide that scientists blame for global warming. The beneficiaries of the government's largesse -- the nation's rural electric cooperatives -- plan to spend $35 billion to build conventional coal plants over the next 10 years, enough to offset all state and federal efforts to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over that time. The Office of Management and Budget wants to end loans for new power plants and limit loans for transmission projects in the most remote rural areas. But the powerful National Rural Electric Cooperative Association deployed 3,000 members on Capitol Hill last week to push Congress to keep the program intact, arguing that the loans for new coal plants are needed to keep electricity cheap and reliable in rural areas. Environmentalists have also targeted the program. They say it removes any pressure for the rural co-ops to promote energy efficiency or aggressively tap renewable resources. Rural co-ops rely on coal for 80 percent of their electricity, compared with 50 percent for the rest of the country, and electricity demand at rural co-ops is growing at twice the national rate....
Column - Wildlife, oil development coexist in West A few years ago, land users breathed a sigh of relief when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the decision not to list the greater sage grouse as an endangered species. However, this decision could be short-lived as anti-multiple-use organizations file lawsuits and courts come closer to requiring the FWS to restart the listing process. From the mineral leaseholder to the subcontractors to the rancher or hunter, every aspect of land use would be drastically affected with a listing of the bird. Many opposition groups would have folks believe that we can have only development or healthy wildlife populations and development will lead to extinction. However, those of us on the ground know wildlife, agriculture and responsible development do coexist. Along with the FWS decision not to list the bird, many actions support the fact of a stable sage grouse population. The state of Montana increased the hunting bag limit, and Wyoming recently considered a proposal to lengthen the hunting season. Wyoming Game and Fish data shows the population has increased the last two years in the Powder River Basin. While range-wide sage grouse populations have decreased over the past two decades, today's grouse numbers in areas of oil and gas development mirror the population trends seen in undeveloped areas....
To south, Montana sees cautionary tale on energy Drive a couple of hours south of here into Wyoming and you enter the heart of America's domestic energy rush - a landscape where natural gas wells are as ubiquitous as cattle and the economy is growing faster than a prairie stream swollen by melting spring snows. But as Montana officials gaze across the 400-mile border separating the two states, they see something else: once-pristine wildlife habitat carved by roads, underground aquifers being pumped dry so companies can reach vast reserves of gas, and schools and police scrambling to keep up with rising demands. "Oil and gas development is happening really fast across the West. In Montana, we don't want to get run over by that," said T.O. Smith, energy coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "When we look at Wyoming, we don't want to do development in Montana if we're going to see the same fish and wildlife declines they're seeing." In a series of recent executive decisions, legislative actions and rules adopted by state agencies, Montana has laid out its terms for the energy development poised to sweep into the state. The common thread that runs through those policies can be summed up in one phrase: Not like Wyoming....
Senators, congressman fight to recover "useable" water Across the West, "useable" water is one of the most valuable natural resources, and also one of the scarcest. Each day, more than two million gallons of useable groundwater are wasted, turned into what is known as "produced water," after becoming contaminated beyond use as it is brought to the surface during oil and gas drilling or coal bed methane extraction. However, United States Senator Ken Salazar has taken the lead in the Senate on a bipartisan solution that could allow the recovery and use of many gallons of "produced" water every day. Yesterday, along with Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, Senate Energy Committee Ranking Member Pete Domenici, R-NM, and Senator Craig Thomas, R-WY, Senator Salazar introduced the "More Water, More Energy, Less Waste Act of 2007." The bill initiates a feasibility study on recovering the "produced water" and a grant program to test technologies that would convert it to "useable" water. It is the Senate companion to H.R. 902 which passed unanimously in the U.S. House on March 19, 2007. H.R. 902 is sponsored by Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs. The study provision of the bill would direct the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Director of the Bureau of Land Management to evaluate the feasibility of recovering and cleaning "produced water" for use in irrigation and other purposes, all while protecting and conserving the water quality and natural surroundings. It also requires those agencies to study ways to increase the efficiency of energy production by reducing the quantity of produced water that must be treated or reinjected....
Editorial - House right to offer Piñon requirements The House Armed Services Committee has approved a plan that will give ranchers and local officials in southeastern Colorado some leverage in their fight to prevent the U.S. Army from acquiring 418,000 acres to expand its existing Piñon Canyon Maneuver site. Rep. Mark Udall is the only Coloradan on the committee, and he added numerous restrictions to the upcoming 2008 defense budget. They prohibit the Army from acquiring any land for the expansion until it meets several requirements, including: A full environmental impact statement that includes analyses of alternative sites or a smaller expansion. Exploring options other than buying land, such as land leasing or easements. Providing property owners the right to seek third-party arbitration, whose costs would be assumed by the Army. A commitment to public access to cultural and historic areas within the site, which includes Picket Wire Canyon, home to thousands of dinosaur tracks, prehistoric Indian pictographs, and portions of the Santa Fe Trail. A guarantee of access for livestock grazing within the site. The Post has repeatedly expressed concern that the expansion could damage the fragile Comanche National Grasslands and otherwise harm southeastern Colorado. In our view, the new restrictions, if rigorously enforced, offer significant safeguards....
Thousands of miles of trouble Some 20 years ago, when gear jammers were high balling out of the Cascades with loads of old-growth timber and jake-breaking around curves, the U.S. Forest Service built 22,000 miles of logging roads in Washington state. Along with salmon, orcas, Lewis and Clark, and Mount St. Helens, those roads are part of the lore of the Northwest and a reminder of a way of life that has mostly disappeared. But that legacy of timber country is now creating problems. With the timber harvest on federal lands a trickle of what it was during the peak of the late 1980s, Washington state officials say the logging roads are deteriorating because of Forest Service neglect. And those deteriorating roads threaten to undo efforts to restore salmon runs, particularly in the rivers and streams flowing into Puget Sound. The state has asked Congress to provide $300 million over the next 10 years to maintain or remove the Forest Service roads. And though lawmakers are sympathetic, the federal budget is tight. Nationwide, there are roughly 380,000 miles of roads in the national forests. The Forest Service estimates there is a $4 billion maintenance backlog on the roads....
Smokejumpers: Challenge of smokejumper work begins above blazes Smokejumpers say they are just like any other wildland firefighters -- the only difference is how they get to the fire. What a difference it is. Like all firefighters, smokejumpers have to be ready to roll within minutes of the first alarm. But they don't rush to climb aboard a fire truck. They slide into Kevlar jumpsuits, hoist parachutes onto their backs and pile into a turboprop plane waiting on the tarmac outside their base just north of the Redding Municipal Airport. "The whole point is to get a fire when it's small," said Josh Mathiesen, operations captain at the California Smokejumper base in Redding, which serves the entire state and, at times, the nation. Smokejumpers are the first, and sometimes only, firefighters on the scene of many backcountry fires around the north state. Fire managers credit them with squelching fires before they have a chance to spread....
Spraying poses possible risks The U.S. Forest Service says while it is exploring the idea of spraying areas of the Lincoln National Forest infested with tree-damaging insects, it believes any spraying "may have little success in slowing the spread of infestation." In any case, no large-scale spraying will take place right away, according to a news release issued by the Lincoln. "The effects of spraying would have to be evaluated for potential impacts to domestic water supplies and to big game hunters during the fall hunts, when the treatment would take place," the Lincoln news release stated. In addition, "spraying may also kill beneficial insects and could impact sensitive species such as the checkered spot buttery that is known to inhabit the defoliated area," the news release stated. The Lincoln says based on an over-flight conducted April 27, the total area affected by the caterpillar of a species of geometrid moth is 12,433 acres. Forest Service officials expect to undertake an evaluation on June 1 regarding the current infestation....What are the risks of not spraying? Will they analyze that too?
Ranchers want feds to reduce prairie dog damage Two years after state and federal officials first took steps to control a vast prairie dog colony just south of Badlands National Park, neighboring ranchers are fuming. The damage to public and private grazing land is just getting worse, they say. Charles Kruse, who has cut his cattle herd in half because of a lingering drought and the continuing prairie dog invasion, grows agitated as he looks at miles of land covered with mostly bare dirt, prairie dogs and the mounds that crown their burrows. "It's like a moonscape out there, but this should be the greenest, nicest part of the year," Kruse said on a warm spring day....
Border patrol to travel horseback Wild horses. Drug smugglers. Prison inmates. Wranglers. Federal agents. All are converging on the northern border as part of “Noble Mustang,” a new program that will patrol Montana's boundary with Canada using native horse power. The unlikely partnership begins with the Bureau of Land Management's wild horse and burro program, which takes mustangs off public lands for sale to private owners. The animals are known for their strength, intelligence, endurance, sure-footedness - and also for the challenge they present to trainers. Enter prison inmates from Canon City, Colo. “The BLM began cooperating with the Department of Corrections there in 1986,” said agent Danielle Suarez, public information officer for the U.S. Border Patrol's Spokane Sector. The Border Patrol recently adopted eight wild horses to patrol that sector, which includes northwestern Montana....
A New Twist on the Private Residence Club Model - Cows Shell Valley is a tiny hamlet nestled in the foothills of the spectacular Bighorn Mountains in picturesque Shell Wyoming, population 50. Here, nature remains unspoiled and the traditions of the Old West continue uninterrupted. Tradition, honor and the cowboy code are fundamental to the foundation of life here in the West. Now this legacy that has lived on at the Flitner Ranch for over five generations can become part of your family’s history, thanks to the Hideout Private Residence Club. This unique business model combines several of the best features of Private Residence communities and destination clubs. But what you may ask are these elusive definitions? Simply put, a Private Residence Club membership is a form of fractional ownership, the fastest growing segment in real estate and frequently described as “luxury home ownership without the hassles”. A destination club in contrast, is a membership to a collection of resort destinations that provide the owner with luxury accommodations at each destination. The Hideout Private Residence Club is a non equity membership offering an experiential adventure through the use of our 300,000 acre working cattle and upscale guest ranch. The Hideout features luxurious accommodations, unparalleled recreation, a preservation trust and a conservation platform. As fourth generation ranchers, the Flitner family is passionate that the magnificence of The Shell Valley remains intact forever. After watching other areas of the West fall victim to indiscriminate commercial development, David and Paula Flitner have made a commitment to preserve The Shell Valley as a living treasure of the American West and are actively seeking 88 members who want to share in this vision....
Cattle Producers Offered Incentives To Enroll In Verification Program North Dakota cattle producers have some new reasons to enroll in a program that verifies the age and source of the animals they sell. Some meat packing plants are paying a premium of $25 to $30 per head for cattle that are age and source verified, according to Karl Hoppe, Extension Service area livestock specialist at North Dakota State University's Carrington Research Extension Center. Also, major beef-buying companies, such as McDonald's and Wal-Mart, are starting to require verification of the source of the meat they buy. The Japanese market reopening to U.S. beef is increasing the demand for age and source verification as well. Age and source verification programs allow agricultural producers to assure customers they are providing consistent, high-quality products. "Now is the time for producers to get enrolled in a verification program for next year's sales," Hoppe says....
Brand loyalty: Infusion of state funding keeps livestock ID program afloat Ranchers Stan and Lilly Hovendick were surprised a few years back to get a $460 check in the mail for the sale of a heifer that had gone missing a year earlier. After mixing with another rancher's cattle, the heifer had been sold at a Denver livestock auction. The profits diverted back to the Hovendicks, whose brand was on the animal. Another time, the Hovendicks' neighbors returned a $2,500 bull that had wandered 30 miles on the open range to join their herd. “If we didn’t have a brand on him, we never would have got him back,” said Lilly Hovendick, who ranches with her husband near Lander. Cases like these offer strong evidence to livestock owners that the age-old practice of branding livestock is alive and well in Wyoming. Brands provide proof of ownership and help identify cattle, horses and sheep in a sea of similar-looking animals on the open range or at the sale barn. Despite the continuing popularity of brands, the state agency that oversees them has fallen on hard financial times. The livestock industry blames the drought for the crunch: Parched rangeland has driven down herd numbers across the state over the last half-dozen years. The subsequent 30 percent reduction of brand inspection fee revenue, the chief source of money for the brand program, has drained more than $1 million from the annual budget. The state has stepped in to help, but problems remain....
Iron men Each time Joe Hunter answered the phone at the Torrington Livestock Markets, he had to tell the caller that he was all right -- it was just a cold that had stolen his voice. “To tell you the truth,” Hunter whispered to one of them, “I don’t feel all that well.” But there was no time to baby a cold. Several hundred head of cattle had just traded hands at the state’s largest livestock market, and Hunter, a supervisor with the state brand office, was busy filling out paperwork. Mentioned in state statute 27 times, Wyoming’s 60 full-time and 38 part-time brand inspectors are a critical part of the state livestock industry. Part cowboy, part bookkeeper, brand inspectors are the state’s chief defense against theft and missing livestock. Most are also career agriculturists with a lifetime of knowledge about the industry and the ranching communities where they live. Lately, the state and federal governments are demanding more of inspectors. Their work is increasingly moving into the realms of disease tracking, animal identification and even homeland security....
Wyo history intertwines with brands Perhaps the most impressive document in Wyoming's century-plus-long history of livestock branding rests in a wooden chest of drawers in the office of the Wyoming Livestock Board. The leather-bound, hand-lettered volume is tattered and water stained, but it contains the first known collection of brands compiled in the state. The one-of-a-kind volume was published in 1899, a full decade before the state took control of brand management from the counties in 1909. The history of livestock brands in Wyoming is colorful and touched by violence. Brands were at the center of the dispute that sparked the Johnson County War in the late 19th century, and they remain a critical element of the state's livestock industry. The world history of livestock brands is even older and more colorful, dating back at least 4,000 years. Artwork on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs depicts livestock brands as early as 2,000 B.C., according to history from the Livestock Board....
Longtime brands denote family legacies When L.G. Phelps bought ranchland near Meeteetse in the early 1900s, he also bought the cattle brand that went with it. The brand, an oval with three prongs jutting from the top, looked something like a king's crown, and that's what he called it. More than a century later, the Crown brand is still in use by Phelps' great-granddaughter, Lili Turnell, and her husband, Jack Turnell. “There's a lot of history that goes with it and pride as it's been passed down through the years,” said Lili Turnell, who ranches on the original land near Meeteetse. A handful of Wyoming brands is still in use a century or more after they were first registered in the state. Many, including the Crown brand and the well-known Pitchfork brand, which Phelps also owned, have been passed down from family member to family member. In addition to their function as a tool of the livestock trade, family brands can be heirlooms, points of pride, pieces of history and symbols that define ranchers and the land....
‘Big George’ of the Trinity packs quite a bite Steve Barclay and Sam Lovell first spotted the big alligator about eight years ago as they navigated their small flatbottom boat along a remote stretch of the Trinity River in Leon County. They knew right away the beast was something special. With its jet-black hide and knob-riddled head, the 'gator was noticeably different from all the others they had seen through the years. Perhaps the most distinguishing trait was its sheer size. The alligator had a weight problem, a serious one. "He was big from the first time we saw him -- much bigger than all the others," Barclay said. "Each time we saw him after that there was rarely a question as to whether it was him or not. He was that much different than all the rest." The man he was, some suspect Big George may have even treated himself to a side of beef every now and then. "It's scary, but it happens," Barclay said. "There was a rancher who lost several yearling calves on the Trinity River last year." Barclay said the rancher was fairly certain his calves were killed by alligators after he found three of the decaying carcasses, along with a beaver, tucked away in a wood drift that had washed up at the edge of a backwater slough....
Ritual of the West The morning sun had risen well above the horizon by the time the last pickup truck and horse trailer pulled up to the main ranch house. The earth, damp from three days of rain, released the fragrance of wet manure and straw into the air, and everyone was at ease on the unseasonably warm April morning. Some of the young men pinched “dips” of chewing tobacco into their lips and prepared quietly for the work, while the older men eased themselves into their saddles and joked that their horses seemed to be growing taller. The rancher, Jim Woolington, moved a piece of farm machinery that was blocking a gate, and then stopped to scoop up his 2-year-old great-granddaughter, Makayla Woolington, who had escaped the ranch house wearing only her pajamas. “She likes to see what’s going on,” Woolington explained. As they have since about 1935, friends and neighbors of the Woolington family gathered at the Woolington Ranch near Burns to brand the new crop of calves. Part social event, part hard work, the seasonal branding continues to be a rite of spring on many of Wyoming’s roughly 9,000 farms and ranches....
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