MEXICAN WOLF
Catron County Sheriff’s Department
Sheriff Shawn Ménages
P.O. Box 467
Reserve, N.M. 87830
Press Release
July 12, 2007
The Catron County Sheriff’s department is finalizing the investigation into the allegation that a USDA Wildlife Services Officer pointed a firearm at a New Mexico Game and Fish employee while in the field on July 5, 2007.
The incident now under investigation occurred after the USFWS issued a lethal take order July 3, 2007, on a Mexican Grey wolf. Three wildlife services officers were in the field on July 5, 2007, serving the lethal take order when Angela Dassow, a NMDGF employee, was instructed by a Supervisor to drive to the location and contact the three officers to stop the order.
According to Ms. Dassow’s statement she arrived to discover four unattended vehicles and left a hand written note on one of the windshields and drove away. Soon thereafter, Dassow returned and walked into the area to locate the three USDA Wildlife Services Officers. Upon making contact, she was informed that the order had been carried through without any knowledge of a change. According to Dassow one of the men retrieved a rifle and pointed it toward her and said she didn’t have a right to be there. When asked if she was in fear for her life, Dassow stated, “I did not think he would shoot me; since I was only there to deliver a message.” As of 4:30 p.m. Law Enforcement had not been contacted. It was then, approximately five hours after the alleged incident had occurred, that Deputy Snyder discovered an unattended car crashed into the right of way fence of state road 12 in Apache Creek. Nearly one hour later Snyder was contacted and told that the driver was Angela Dassow and that she was at her nearby residence. Snyder, along with an Arizona Game and Fish biologist arrived to find Ms. Dassow lying on the floor in her house. They learned that she had punched a window out of her residence to gain access since the key would not work. Consequently, she sustained cuts that caused her to be transported to an Arizona hospital for treatment. While awaiting the ambulance, Dassow said she was in her car and traveling out of town for a few days, when she decided to return for something that she had forgotten. Upon arriving to the turn-off, she was traveling too fast and crashed into the right of way fence. Dassow had to be reminded by the Arizona Game and Fish Officer to report the alleged aggravated assault to Deputy Snyder from earlier in the day.
During the alleged incident also present, in addition to the three Wildlife Services Officers, was Mike Miller, a Ranch employee. According to all four men, there was never a firearm handled around Dassow nor were there any threats made. Instead, they alleged that Dassow was out of control, was screaming at them, became very upset when she learned of the wolf being shot, and at one point stated "you killed my wolf.” They also stated Ms. Dassow took possession of the grey wolf and carried it towards her Department issued truck, stopping at one point under a tree and was crying while holding and petting the dead wolf. They stated she declined assistance from Wildlife Services to transport the wolf, placed it into her Department truck and left.
Once completed the case will be forwarded to the Seventh Judicial District Attorney’s office for review.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Friday, July 13, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Lawmakers Propose Cap on Emissions The nation can begin to address the risks of climate change while avoiding harm to the economy, senators said Wednesday in unveiling anti-pollution legislation. The bill would establish a mandatory cap on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, refineries and industrial plants but allow companies to trade emission credits and avoid making emissions cuts if the costs become too high. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., one of the bill's chief sponsors, called it a "strong and balanced approach ... while protecting the American economy." It also includes incentives aimed at spurring other nations such as China to address climate change. The bill is one of five that are being considered in the Senate to tackle global warming. It is expected to be the one most closely embraced by industry, including companies that would be most affected. Joining Bingaman at a news conference Wednesday to announce the legislation were executives of some of the country's biggest coal-burning utilities and unions representing autoworkers and coal miners....
Political Liquor's Economic Hangover Just Beginning From pre-school to planning funerals, green is in. Very in. But green policies and decisions need to be based on more than a vague desire to save the planet. The principles of the natural sciences and economics must play an essential role -- a part of policy-making that often eludes politicians. The latest examples are the federal government's efforts to reduce the United States's dependence on imported oil (now more than 60 percent) by shifting a big share of the nation's largest crop, corn, to the production of ethanol for fueling automobiles. Good goal, bad policy. In fact, in the short- and medium-term, ethanol can do little to reduce the vast amount of oil that is imported, and the ethanol policy will have widespread and profound ripple effects on other commodity markets. Corn farmers and ethanol refiners are ecstatic about the ethanol boom, of course, and are enjoying the windfall of artificially enhanced demand. But it is already proving to be an expensive and dangerous experiment for the rest of us. The U.S. Senate is debating new legislation that would further expand corn ethanol production. A 2005 law already mandates production of 7.5 billion gallons by 2012, about 5 percent of the projected gasoline use at that time. These biofuel goals are propped up by a generous federal subsidy -- via tax credits -- of 51 cents a gallon for blending ethanol into gasoline, and a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on most imported ethanol, to keep out cheap imports from Brazil. This latest bill is a prime example of the government's throwing good money after a bad idea, of ignoring science and economics in favor of politics, and of disdain for free markets....
Clearing the Air Of former Bush officials, Christine Todd Whitman would seem to be the most difficult to cast as a White House puppet. During her tenure as Environmental Protection Agency director from 2001 to 2003, Whitman looked askance at the Bush line on global warming. It became clear early on, says one ex-administration official, that there were "Whitman people" at EPA who repeatedly sparred with "Bush people" elsewhere in the administration. Yet the former New Jersey governor, a famously moderate-to-liberal Republican, faced a rabid grilling the week before last by House Democrats, who believe the government lied about post-9/11 air quality in Lower Manhattan in order to expedite the reopening of Wall Street. Growing visibly angry at times, and sighing resignedly at others, Whitman denied the allegations, which gained currency among Democrats after an August 2003 report by the EPA inspector general on the agency's response to the World Trade Center collapse....
Fla. Gov Champions Environmentalism Republican Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday opened a two-day summit on preventing climate change, launching him into a leadership role on an issue that Democrats have so far championed more vocally. Crist opened his "Serve to Preserve" event with a promise that Florida will lower carbon dioxide emissions and make use of alternative energy sources. Crist said the flat peninsular state has much to lose should ocean levels rise and a lot to gain if it takes a lead in developing renewable energy technologies. Crist will be joined Friday by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, another Republican who has pushed environmental causes. Crist will also sign executive orders that will require utilities to lower carbon dioxide emissions and force state agencies to conserve energy and use biofuels when possible....
Why the Army and its local boosters are losing the Pinon Canyon battle For all its infighting, backbiting and rancor, the U.S. House of Representatives last month experienced a surprising moment of overwhelming unity. Unfortunately for Colorado Springs military boosters, Rep. Doug Lamborn wasn't in on the bipartisan backslapping. Rather, the freshman Republican was on the losing end as southeast Colorado ranchers claimed yet another victory in their effort to kill Fort Carson's expansion plans at Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, east of Walsenburg and about 100 miles south of Colorado Springs. Lamborn, whose 5th Congressional District includes Fort Carson, watched in vain as 383 of his colleagues voted to prevent the upcoming year's military construction budget from being used for "any action that is related to or promotes the expansion" of the post's 235,000-acre training ground. Specifically cut was funding for environmental and economic analysis — a key step to the Army's ambition of expanding by some 418,000 acres into cattle country rife with environmental, historical and scientific wonders. It's not a killer. The Senate still has to agree with House appropriators in a coming committee vote. Even if the Senate is on board, there's always next year....
Editorial - The senators' chance In the next few weeks, the Army's plans to nearly triple the size of its training facility at Piñon Canyon in southeastern Colorado will face a key legislative test. And we hope that by then, Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar will reject the proposal. The test will come in the form of a military construction bill that will be before the Senate. In the House version, an amendment was added by 3rd District Rep. John Salazar and 4th District Rep. Marilyn Musgrave that would deny the Army any funding to proceed on the project in the next fiscal year. That includes money to conduct scheduled environmental reviews on the targeted area. If the final version of the construction bill does not include the Salazar- Musgrave amendment, the Army will be able to move forward. Yet so far, neither Colorado senator has shown any interest in championing the House amendment. To this point, Allard and Ken Salazar have not come out for or against the plan. They've mainly said that they a) oppose the use of eminent domain to acquire land for the 414,000-acre addition and b) insist that the expansion be a "winner" for the region's economy. If the senators mean what they say about eminent domain, for example, it's difficult to imagine how the Army could comply. How could it occupy an area more than four times the size of the city of Denver without condemning private property, when many farmers and ranchers in the affected region have already vowed they'll never willingly sell? Gov. Bill Ritter has signed a bill stating that Colorado opposes any such project that seizes private land. The senators should follow his lead, and the wishes of the local constituents, by formally announcing their opposition to the expansion....
BLM nominee finds wide support at Senate committee hearing James Caswell, nominated to head the Bureau of Land Management, won praise from senators of both parties Thursday as he pledged to maintain an even-handed balance between development and conservation of public lands. Western senators raised numerous energy and public lands issues with Caswell and other nominees to key energy and mining positions, all of whom had a joint hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "I passionately believe in multiple-use management and conservation of our public resources with a commitment to balance, cooperation, collaboration and sharing," Caswell testified. "In my view, achievement of this commitment requires scientific information, and listening to, learning about, and collaborating with the owners of our public lands, the American people." Caswell, a Vietnam veteran, has 40 years' experience as a resource manager, beginning with the BLM and ending with the Forest Service, including heading the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho and Montana. He spent the past six years in the Idaho governor's office as administrator for Office of Species Conservation. He worked on the wolf and Yellowstone grizzly bear management plans in the state. "Both of those issues were politically and emotionally charged," he said....
No violations by BLM officer found An investigation found no violations of agency policy and procedures last year when a handcuffed man in the custody of a Bureau of Land Management law enforcement officer shot himself while in the officer's patrol vehicle. Keith Allers, the BLM deputy director of law enforcement in Washington, D.C., described the June 7, 2006, incident at a BLM shooting range north of Billings as an "extremely unfortunate incident," but he said an internal investigation showed the officer was not in the wrong. Nathan Kelley had been arrested on a probation violation after the officer found him and another man drinking beer and shooting handguns. Kelley was in the back seat of the patrol car with his hands cuffed behind his back when he was able to get control of one of the guns and shoot himself in the head. Kelley, 25, survived the wound and later pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced Wednesday to 34 months in federal prison. BLM officials have not changed their arrest policies or procedures as a result of the incident, Allers said. Instead, the agency has warned its officers to be "ultrasensitive" in similar situations, he said. "We're very confident that our procedures are sound," Allers said.... This doesn't make sense to me. How does a person with his hands handcuffed behind his back shoot himself in the head? If a handcuffed person in Federal custody can obtain a weapon and shoot himself, and the BLM claims their procedures are sound, then the officer must be at fault. Conversely, if the officer is not at fault, then the procedures cannot be adequate.
Study: Wolves barely affect elk, aspens A University of Wyoming professor has concluded that wolves don't cause elk to vary their behavior enough to allow aspen stands to recover, contradicting in some ways earlier studies indicating an "ecology of fear" had taken root in the big-game animals. Matt Kauffman, a professor of zoology and physiology, undertook a three-year study that concluded this year. He, along with Yellowstone National Park biologist Doug Smith and researchers from the University of Montana and Alberta, analyzed 700 elk kill sites over 10 years in the northern range of Yellowstone. His research showed that the predation risk is driven more strongly by habitat features than distribution of wolf packs. Elk are more likely to be killed in open meadows than in forested areas with slopes. The research also concluded that elk do not adjust their willingness to forage based on areas that are riskier for predation. Instead, elk will forage where food is available, particularly in later months in the winter when there is less food....
Denver Water is still paying for blazes long since quenched Denver Water is still paying a hefty price for the Hayman Fire of 2002 and the Buffalo Creek Fire of 1996. The problem is sediment. When there isn't enough ground cover, soil erodes, and the shedding brown has created a budgetary black hole for Denver Water. Traps designed to stop the soil from pouring through Goose and Turkey creeks into Cheesman Reservoir are catching more soil this year than ever. The annual $300,000 budgeted to clean the traps won't cover the job this year, Kevin Keefe, who supervises reservoir operations for the utility, said this spring. In the fall of 2005, the utility cleaned 28,000 cubic yards from the trap at Turkey Creek. Last fall, the amount rose to 60,000, and it took Denver Water more than 1,100 truckloads to haul all the sediment away....
Elkhorn Mountains ranch in public hands The entire 5,548-acre Iron Mask Ranch in the Elkhorn Mountains near Townsend is now in public ownership. On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management announced the transfer of the final 2,472 acres from The Conservation Fund to the federal agency. It’s the end of a five-year effort to keep what the BLM and others call “critical winter range” for elk and bighorn sheep out of the hands of developers. “Thanks to our partners in this effort — The Conservation Fund, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Montana’s congressional delegation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation — this important acquisition is now a reality,” said Rick Hotaling, BLM field manager in Butte. “BLM is pleased to have played a role in facilitating this acquisition for the public.” The Conservation Fund had partnered with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation almost five years ago to purchase the property with the intent of selling it to the BLM....
Bear bites Cruces camper A man camping near the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in southwestern New Mexico was bitten by a bear Thursday morning, marking the second run-in between a camper and a bear in the state this week. The New Mexico Game and Fish Department said the camper in the latest incident, Bill Thorp of Las Cruces, was treated at a hospital here for a bite to his buttocks. Thorp was camping in the Grapevine Campground about 40 miles north of Silver City when he heard something outside his tent. He got up and shut the tent's flap and was lying down inside when the bear bit him through the tent. By the time he got out of the tent, the animal was gone. He then drove to Silver City, where he was treated at about 4 a.m....
State's TB-free cattle status at risk New Mexico has 60 days to prove a tuberculosis outbreak in a Curry County dairy is isolated and won’t spread, or the federal government will yank the rest of the state's TB-free cattle status. Such a move would be a big hardship for beef and dairy cow operations across the state, according to the state veterinarian and Northern New Mexico cattlemen, costing an estimated $4 million to $6 million just for testing. "This is the first time in two years new TB cases were found, which creates some serious issues for the state," said Dr. Dave Fly, the state veterinarian. "Losing the TB-free status would be a huge, huge hit for the livestock industry." Fly said TB is an industrywide problem. "We have two serious investigations under way in two other states with possible cases of TB in beef cattle that trace back to (New Mexico)," Fly said. "This is not just a dairy issue."....
Ranchers accept deal for lost herd Livestock officials next week will destroy almost 600 cows and calves from a herd infected with brucellosis after the owners of the animals reluctantly agreed Thursday to accept $475,000 in compensation. The deal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture came less than eight hours before a deadline set by the Montana Department of Livestock. The agency planned to forcibly condemn and slaughter the herd in Bridger beginning Friday morning if a deal had not been reached. The destruction of the animals is required by the USDA to preserve the state's brucellosis-free status. Jim and Sandy Morgan, who own most of the Bridger herd, turned down two previous USDA offers as insufficient. The Morgans said the latest offer, while about $15,000 more than one earlier proposal, still came up $100,000 short of their true losses. The USDA does not compensate for lost potential - namely the difference between what the calves in the herd are worth now, versus what they would be worth if they were fattened up and sold in the fall as the Morgans once planned. Also left uncompensated is the incalculable loss of a livestock line carefully tended by the family for three generations. "Sandy's grandpa started this line of cows in the 1920s," Jim Morgan said. Scheduled for slaughter are 284 calves, 289 cows, 16 bulls and one steer the Morgans raised for beef for the family....
Ted Turner snags up more Nebraska land The 100-year tenure of the McMurtrey Family at a pioneer ranch in Cherry County ended June 26 with a public referee auction at Valentine. R.E. "Ted" Turner purchased the property by offering the highest bid. Turner bought the 26,332 deeded acres for nearly $10 million. The exact amount was $9,584,848, or $364 dollars per acre. The opening bid was $290 per acre. It was the largest ranch land auction ever held in Cherry County, according to Eric Scott, Cherry county attorney. The auction was ordered by the Cherry County District Court. Erba "Hub" McMurtrey built his ranch starting with Kinkaid homesteads with three McMurtrey Brothers in 1908. Ranch acreage increased with multiple buys from settlers and neighboring ranchers. "My father was a pioneer of the country," said Mary Alice McMurtrey Williams, during a visit at her town home just after the auction. Some of the big hills on the north range were bought for “$2 per acre." The ranch headquarters was moved to the present site along the meadows of Boardman Creek in 1925, when McMurtrey Williams was three years old....
Parade marshal shares wealth of rodeo memories Brown has many memories from his years on the Stampede board — and one of the most vivid ones involved Western cowboy singing star Gene Autry. Here’s how it goes: Autry was the first star when the new arena was built in 1950 and came back to perform in 1952. He was in the area during Stampede time in 1954 and stopped by the rodeo to visit. Jimmy Wakely was the singing star that year. Autry was back behind the chutes drinking whiskey and visiting with the cowboys when Wakely said, “Our good friend Gene Autry is here tonight behind the chutes and, in a little while, I’m going to ask him to come out and get on a horse and take an introduction.” Someone told Brown to take Autry aside and get some black coffee in him and Brown complied. Autry said to Brown, “Wakely knows better than that. You don’t introduce anyone without letting him know ahead of time.” “When Gene went out into the arena to get on a horse, he made a skip to do a jump mount into the stirrup, missed and fell flat on his face,” Brown recalled. “He got back up, got on and made a quick circle around the arena and rode out. I don’t think he even waved. He was embarrassed and as mad as a hornet.”....
Lawmakers Propose Cap on Emissions The nation can begin to address the risks of climate change while avoiding harm to the economy, senators said Wednesday in unveiling anti-pollution legislation. The bill would establish a mandatory cap on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, refineries and industrial plants but allow companies to trade emission credits and avoid making emissions cuts if the costs become too high. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., one of the bill's chief sponsors, called it a "strong and balanced approach ... while protecting the American economy." It also includes incentives aimed at spurring other nations such as China to address climate change. The bill is one of five that are being considered in the Senate to tackle global warming. It is expected to be the one most closely embraced by industry, including companies that would be most affected. Joining Bingaman at a news conference Wednesday to announce the legislation were executives of some of the country's biggest coal-burning utilities and unions representing autoworkers and coal miners....
Political Liquor's Economic Hangover Just Beginning From pre-school to planning funerals, green is in. Very in. But green policies and decisions need to be based on more than a vague desire to save the planet. The principles of the natural sciences and economics must play an essential role -- a part of policy-making that often eludes politicians. The latest examples are the federal government's efforts to reduce the United States's dependence on imported oil (now more than 60 percent) by shifting a big share of the nation's largest crop, corn, to the production of ethanol for fueling automobiles. Good goal, bad policy. In fact, in the short- and medium-term, ethanol can do little to reduce the vast amount of oil that is imported, and the ethanol policy will have widespread and profound ripple effects on other commodity markets. Corn farmers and ethanol refiners are ecstatic about the ethanol boom, of course, and are enjoying the windfall of artificially enhanced demand. But it is already proving to be an expensive and dangerous experiment for the rest of us. The U.S. Senate is debating new legislation that would further expand corn ethanol production. A 2005 law already mandates production of 7.5 billion gallons by 2012, about 5 percent of the projected gasoline use at that time. These biofuel goals are propped up by a generous federal subsidy -- via tax credits -- of 51 cents a gallon for blending ethanol into gasoline, and a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on most imported ethanol, to keep out cheap imports from Brazil. This latest bill is a prime example of the government's throwing good money after a bad idea, of ignoring science and economics in favor of politics, and of disdain for free markets....
Clearing the Air Of former Bush officials, Christine Todd Whitman would seem to be the most difficult to cast as a White House puppet. During her tenure as Environmental Protection Agency director from 2001 to 2003, Whitman looked askance at the Bush line on global warming. It became clear early on, says one ex-administration official, that there were "Whitman people" at EPA who repeatedly sparred with "Bush people" elsewhere in the administration. Yet the former New Jersey governor, a famously moderate-to-liberal Republican, faced a rabid grilling the week before last by House Democrats, who believe the government lied about post-9/11 air quality in Lower Manhattan in order to expedite the reopening of Wall Street. Growing visibly angry at times, and sighing resignedly at others, Whitman denied the allegations, which gained currency among Democrats after an August 2003 report by the EPA inspector general on the agency's response to the World Trade Center collapse....
Fla. Gov Champions Environmentalism Republican Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday opened a two-day summit on preventing climate change, launching him into a leadership role on an issue that Democrats have so far championed more vocally. Crist opened his "Serve to Preserve" event with a promise that Florida will lower carbon dioxide emissions and make use of alternative energy sources. Crist said the flat peninsular state has much to lose should ocean levels rise and a lot to gain if it takes a lead in developing renewable energy technologies. Crist will be joined Friday by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, another Republican who has pushed environmental causes. Crist will also sign executive orders that will require utilities to lower carbon dioxide emissions and force state agencies to conserve energy and use biofuels when possible....
Why the Army and its local boosters are losing the Pinon Canyon battle For all its infighting, backbiting and rancor, the U.S. House of Representatives last month experienced a surprising moment of overwhelming unity. Unfortunately for Colorado Springs military boosters, Rep. Doug Lamborn wasn't in on the bipartisan backslapping. Rather, the freshman Republican was on the losing end as southeast Colorado ranchers claimed yet another victory in their effort to kill Fort Carson's expansion plans at Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, east of Walsenburg and about 100 miles south of Colorado Springs. Lamborn, whose 5th Congressional District includes Fort Carson, watched in vain as 383 of his colleagues voted to prevent the upcoming year's military construction budget from being used for "any action that is related to or promotes the expansion" of the post's 235,000-acre training ground. Specifically cut was funding for environmental and economic analysis — a key step to the Army's ambition of expanding by some 418,000 acres into cattle country rife with environmental, historical and scientific wonders. It's not a killer. The Senate still has to agree with House appropriators in a coming committee vote. Even if the Senate is on board, there's always next year....
Editorial - The senators' chance In the next few weeks, the Army's plans to nearly triple the size of its training facility at Piñon Canyon in southeastern Colorado will face a key legislative test. And we hope that by then, Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar will reject the proposal. The test will come in the form of a military construction bill that will be before the Senate. In the House version, an amendment was added by 3rd District Rep. John Salazar and 4th District Rep. Marilyn Musgrave that would deny the Army any funding to proceed on the project in the next fiscal year. That includes money to conduct scheduled environmental reviews on the targeted area. If the final version of the construction bill does not include the Salazar- Musgrave amendment, the Army will be able to move forward. Yet so far, neither Colorado senator has shown any interest in championing the House amendment. To this point, Allard and Ken Salazar have not come out for or against the plan. They've mainly said that they a) oppose the use of eminent domain to acquire land for the 414,000-acre addition and b) insist that the expansion be a "winner" for the region's economy. If the senators mean what they say about eminent domain, for example, it's difficult to imagine how the Army could comply. How could it occupy an area more than four times the size of the city of Denver without condemning private property, when many farmers and ranchers in the affected region have already vowed they'll never willingly sell? Gov. Bill Ritter has signed a bill stating that Colorado opposes any such project that seizes private land. The senators should follow his lead, and the wishes of the local constituents, by formally announcing their opposition to the expansion....
BLM nominee finds wide support at Senate committee hearing James Caswell, nominated to head the Bureau of Land Management, won praise from senators of both parties Thursday as he pledged to maintain an even-handed balance between development and conservation of public lands. Western senators raised numerous energy and public lands issues with Caswell and other nominees to key energy and mining positions, all of whom had a joint hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "I passionately believe in multiple-use management and conservation of our public resources with a commitment to balance, cooperation, collaboration and sharing," Caswell testified. "In my view, achievement of this commitment requires scientific information, and listening to, learning about, and collaborating with the owners of our public lands, the American people." Caswell, a Vietnam veteran, has 40 years' experience as a resource manager, beginning with the BLM and ending with the Forest Service, including heading the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho and Montana. He spent the past six years in the Idaho governor's office as administrator for Office of Species Conservation. He worked on the wolf and Yellowstone grizzly bear management plans in the state. "Both of those issues were politically and emotionally charged," he said....
No violations by BLM officer found An investigation found no violations of agency policy and procedures last year when a handcuffed man in the custody of a Bureau of Land Management law enforcement officer shot himself while in the officer's patrol vehicle. Keith Allers, the BLM deputy director of law enforcement in Washington, D.C., described the June 7, 2006, incident at a BLM shooting range north of Billings as an "extremely unfortunate incident," but he said an internal investigation showed the officer was not in the wrong. Nathan Kelley had been arrested on a probation violation after the officer found him and another man drinking beer and shooting handguns. Kelley was in the back seat of the patrol car with his hands cuffed behind his back when he was able to get control of one of the guns and shoot himself in the head. Kelley, 25, survived the wound and later pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced Wednesday to 34 months in federal prison. BLM officials have not changed their arrest policies or procedures as a result of the incident, Allers said. Instead, the agency has warned its officers to be "ultrasensitive" in similar situations, he said. "We're very confident that our procedures are sound," Allers said.... This doesn't make sense to me. How does a person with his hands handcuffed behind his back shoot himself in the head? If a handcuffed person in Federal custody can obtain a weapon and shoot himself, and the BLM claims their procedures are sound, then the officer must be at fault. Conversely, if the officer is not at fault, then the procedures cannot be adequate.
Study: Wolves barely affect elk, aspens A University of Wyoming professor has concluded that wolves don't cause elk to vary their behavior enough to allow aspen stands to recover, contradicting in some ways earlier studies indicating an "ecology of fear" had taken root in the big-game animals. Matt Kauffman, a professor of zoology and physiology, undertook a three-year study that concluded this year. He, along with Yellowstone National Park biologist Doug Smith and researchers from the University of Montana and Alberta, analyzed 700 elk kill sites over 10 years in the northern range of Yellowstone. His research showed that the predation risk is driven more strongly by habitat features than distribution of wolf packs. Elk are more likely to be killed in open meadows than in forested areas with slopes. The research also concluded that elk do not adjust their willingness to forage based on areas that are riskier for predation. Instead, elk will forage where food is available, particularly in later months in the winter when there is less food....
Denver Water is still paying for blazes long since quenched Denver Water is still paying a hefty price for the Hayman Fire of 2002 and the Buffalo Creek Fire of 1996. The problem is sediment. When there isn't enough ground cover, soil erodes, and the shedding brown has created a budgetary black hole for Denver Water. Traps designed to stop the soil from pouring through Goose and Turkey creeks into Cheesman Reservoir are catching more soil this year than ever. The annual $300,000 budgeted to clean the traps won't cover the job this year, Kevin Keefe, who supervises reservoir operations for the utility, said this spring. In the fall of 2005, the utility cleaned 28,000 cubic yards from the trap at Turkey Creek. Last fall, the amount rose to 60,000, and it took Denver Water more than 1,100 truckloads to haul all the sediment away....
Elkhorn Mountains ranch in public hands The entire 5,548-acre Iron Mask Ranch in the Elkhorn Mountains near Townsend is now in public ownership. On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management announced the transfer of the final 2,472 acres from The Conservation Fund to the federal agency. It’s the end of a five-year effort to keep what the BLM and others call “critical winter range” for elk and bighorn sheep out of the hands of developers. “Thanks to our partners in this effort — The Conservation Fund, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Montana’s congressional delegation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation — this important acquisition is now a reality,” said Rick Hotaling, BLM field manager in Butte. “BLM is pleased to have played a role in facilitating this acquisition for the public.” The Conservation Fund had partnered with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation almost five years ago to purchase the property with the intent of selling it to the BLM....
Bear bites Cruces camper A man camping near the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in southwestern New Mexico was bitten by a bear Thursday morning, marking the second run-in between a camper and a bear in the state this week. The New Mexico Game and Fish Department said the camper in the latest incident, Bill Thorp of Las Cruces, was treated at a hospital here for a bite to his buttocks. Thorp was camping in the Grapevine Campground about 40 miles north of Silver City when he heard something outside his tent. He got up and shut the tent's flap and was lying down inside when the bear bit him through the tent. By the time he got out of the tent, the animal was gone. He then drove to Silver City, where he was treated at about 4 a.m....
State's TB-free cattle status at risk New Mexico has 60 days to prove a tuberculosis outbreak in a Curry County dairy is isolated and won’t spread, or the federal government will yank the rest of the state's TB-free cattle status. Such a move would be a big hardship for beef and dairy cow operations across the state, according to the state veterinarian and Northern New Mexico cattlemen, costing an estimated $4 million to $6 million just for testing. "This is the first time in two years new TB cases were found, which creates some serious issues for the state," said Dr. Dave Fly, the state veterinarian. "Losing the TB-free status would be a huge, huge hit for the livestock industry." Fly said TB is an industrywide problem. "We have two serious investigations under way in two other states with possible cases of TB in beef cattle that trace back to (New Mexico)," Fly said. "This is not just a dairy issue."....
Ranchers accept deal for lost herd Livestock officials next week will destroy almost 600 cows and calves from a herd infected with brucellosis after the owners of the animals reluctantly agreed Thursday to accept $475,000 in compensation. The deal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture came less than eight hours before a deadline set by the Montana Department of Livestock. The agency planned to forcibly condemn and slaughter the herd in Bridger beginning Friday morning if a deal had not been reached. The destruction of the animals is required by the USDA to preserve the state's brucellosis-free status. Jim and Sandy Morgan, who own most of the Bridger herd, turned down two previous USDA offers as insufficient. The Morgans said the latest offer, while about $15,000 more than one earlier proposal, still came up $100,000 short of their true losses. The USDA does not compensate for lost potential - namely the difference between what the calves in the herd are worth now, versus what they would be worth if they were fattened up and sold in the fall as the Morgans once planned. Also left uncompensated is the incalculable loss of a livestock line carefully tended by the family for three generations. "Sandy's grandpa started this line of cows in the 1920s," Jim Morgan said. Scheduled for slaughter are 284 calves, 289 cows, 16 bulls and one steer the Morgans raised for beef for the family....
Ted Turner snags up more Nebraska land The 100-year tenure of the McMurtrey Family at a pioneer ranch in Cherry County ended June 26 with a public referee auction at Valentine. R.E. "Ted" Turner purchased the property by offering the highest bid. Turner bought the 26,332 deeded acres for nearly $10 million. The exact amount was $9,584,848, or $364 dollars per acre. The opening bid was $290 per acre. It was the largest ranch land auction ever held in Cherry County, according to Eric Scott, Cherry county attorney. The auction was ordered by the Cherry County District Court. Erba "Hub" McMurtrey built his ranch starting with Kinkaid homesteads with three McMurtrey Brothers in 1908. Ranch acreage increased with multiple buys from settlers and neighboring ranchers. "My father was a pioneer of the country," said Mary Alice McMurtrey Williams, during a visit at her town home just after the auction. Some of the big hills on the north range were bought for “$2 per acre." The ranch headquarters was moved to the present site along the meadows of Boardman Creek in 1925, when McMurtrey Williams was three years old....
Parade marshal shares wealth of rodeo memories Brown has many memories from his years on the Stampede board — and one of the most vivid ones involved Western cowboy singing star Gene Autry. Here’s how it goes: Autry was the first star when the new arena was built in 1950 and came back to perform in 1952. He was in the area during Stampede time in 1954 and stopped by the rodeo to visit. Jimmy Wakely was the singing star that year. Autry was back behind the chutes drinking whiskey and visiting with the cowboys when Wakely said, “Our good friend Gene Autry is here tonight behind the chutes and, in a little while, I’m going to ask him to come out and get on a horse and take an introduction.” Someone told Brown to take Autry aside and get some black coffee in him and Brown complied. Autry said to Brown, “Wakely knows better than that. You don’t introduce anyone without letting him know ahead of time.” “When Gene went out into the arena to get on a horse, he made a skip to do a jump mount into the stirrup, missed and fell flat on his face,” Brown recalled. “He got back up, got on and made a quick circle around the arena and rode out. I don’t think he even waved. He was embarrassed and as mad as a hornet.”....
FLE
FBI databases on Americans being sifted to identify risks posed by possible terrorists The FBI is gathering and sorting information about Americans to help search for potential terrorists, insurance cheats and crooked pharmacists, according to a government report. Records about identity thefts, real estate transactions, motor vehicle accidents and complaints about Internet drug companies are being searched for common threads to aid law enforcement officials, the Justice Department said in a report to Congress on the agency's data-mining practices that was obtained Tuesday. In addition, the report disclosed government plans to build a new database to assess the risk posed by people identified as potential or suspected terrorists. The chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the Justice Department said the database was "ripe for abuse." The American Civil Liberties Union immediately derided the quality of the information that could be used to score someone as a terror threat. The report, sent to Congress this week, marked the department's first public detailing of six of its data-mining tools, which look for patterns to catch criminals. The disclosure was required by lawmakers when they renewed the USA Patriot Act in 2005. It comes as the Justice Department faces sharp criticism from Congress and civil liberties advocates for violating peoples' privacy rights in terror and spy investigations....
Senate hearing to probe Ramos-Compean prosecution Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein will preside over a Senate judiciary committee hearing examining the prosecution of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. As WND reported, Feinstein believes the agents' 11- and 12-year sentences for their actions in the shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler were excessive. "I strongly believe that the sentences in this case are too extreme, given the criminal nature of the defendant and his possession of large quantities of drugs," Feinstein said in a statement earlier this year. "These men were given sentences that some individuals who are convicted of murder wouldn't receive." Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., is asking a House committee also to examine the case. The congressman wants to look at the involvement of the Mexican government in the decision to prosecute the agents and Texas Deputy Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez. Sutton also prosecuted Hernandez, who was convicted of violating the civil rights of two illegal aliens injured from shell fragments that struck them as the officer shot at the tires of a van in which they escaped from a routine traffic stop. The van driver had tried to run over Hernandez....
In sting, agents buy material for 'dirty bomb' Undercover congressional investigators posing as West Virginia businessmen obtained a license with almost no scrutiny from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that let them buy enough radioactive material from U.S. suppliers to build a "dirty bomb," a new government report says. The investigators obtained the license within 28 days from officials at the NRC, the report by the Government Accountability Office says. NRC officials approved the request with a minimal background check that included no face-to-face interview or visit to the purported company to ensure it existed and complied with safety rules. Using a post-office box at Mail Boxes Etc., a telephone and a fax machine, the undercover men from the GAO obtained the license "without ever leaving their desks," the report says. After counterfeiting copies of the license, the GAO undercover agents ordered portable moisture-density gauges, which contain radioactive americium-241 and cesium-137 and are commonly used at construction sites to analyze soil, water and pavement. The investigators ordered 45 gauges - enough to build a bomb with sufficient radioactive material to qualify as a level-3 threat on the International Atomic Energy Agency's scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the most hazardous....
Military Files Left Unprotected Online Detailed schematics of a military detainee holding facility in southern Iraq. Geographical surveys and aerial photographs of two military airfields outside Baghdad. Plans for a new fuel farm at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The military calls it "need-to-know" information that would pose a direct threat to U.S. troops if it were to fall into the hands of terrorists. It's material so sensitive that officials refused to release the documents when asked. But it's already out there, posted carelessly to file servers by government agencies and contractors, accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. In a survey of servers run by agencies or companies involved with the military and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Associated Press found dozens of documents that officials refused to release when asked directly, citing troop security....
N.J. senator proposes toy gun ban A New Jersey senator wants to make it illegal to sell or give to anyone under age 18 toy guns that look so realistic they can be mistaken for a real firearm. "The margin between a child's stupid mistake and a tragic ending is far too thin," said Sen. Nicholas Scutari. Scutari, D-Union, introduced the proposal in late June and plans to push it when the Legislature reconvenes late this year. He said the bill stems from an incident in a Union Township where four students were suspended after bringing a cap gun to school. "We need to stress to our children that guns are not toys, but deadly weapons which should always be regarded with extreme caution and handled with respect," Scutari said. "Restricting access to imitation firearms will help to drive that point home." Gun rights advocates plan to fight the bill. "It misses the mark because it demonizes toys instead of criminal behavior," said Scott Bach, president of the New Jersey Association of Rifle and Pistol Clubs, which is the National Rifle Association's New Jersey organization. If the measure is enacted, New Jersey would join several states that have restricted access to realistic toy guns to minors....
FBI databases on Americans being sifted to identify risks posed by possible terrorists The FBI is gathering and sorting information about Americans to help search for potential terrorists, insurance cheats and crooked pharmacists, according to a government report. Records about identity thefts, real estate transactions, motor vehicle accidents and complaints about Internet drug companies are being searched for common threads to aid law enforcement officials, the Justice Department said in a report to Congress on the agency's data-mining practices that was obtained Tuesday. In addition, the report disclosed government plans to build a new database to assess the risk posed by people identified as potential or suspected terrorists. The chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the Justice Department said the database was "ripe for abuse." The American Civil Liberties Union immediately derided the quality of the information that could be used to score someone as a terror threat. The report, sent to Congress this week, marked the department's first public detailing of six of its data-mining tools, which look for patterns to catch criminals. The disclosure was required by lawmakers when they renewed the USA Patriot Act in 2005. It comes as the Justice Department faces sharp criticism from Congress and civil liberties advocates for violating peoples' privacy rights in terror and spy investigations....
Senate hearing to probe Ramos-Compean prosecution Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein will preside over a Senate judiciary committee hearing examining the prosecution of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. As WND reported, Feinstein believes the agents' 11- and 12-year sentences for their actions in the shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler were excessive. "I strongly believe that the sentences in this case are too extreme, given the criminal nature of the defendant and his possession of large quantities of drugs," Feinstein said in a statement earlier this year. "These men were given sentences that some individuals who are convicted of murder wouldn't receive." Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., is asking a House committee also to examine the case. The congressman wants to look at the involvement of the Mexican government in the decision to prosecute the agents and Texas Deputy Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez. Sutton also prosecuted Hernandez, who was convicted of violating the civil rights of two illegal aliens injured from shell fragments that struck them as the officer shot at the tires of a van in which they escaped from a routine traffic stop. The van driver had tried to run over Hernandez....
In sting, agents buy material for 'dirty bomb' Undercover congressional investigators posing as West Virginia businessmen obtained a license with almost no scrutiny from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that let them buy enough radioactive material from U.S. suppliers to build a "dirty bomb," a new government report says. The investigators obtained the license within 28 days from officials at the NRC, the report by the Government Accountability Office says. NRC officials approved the request with a minimal background check that included no face-to-face interview or visit to the purported company to ensure it existed and complied with safety rules. Using a post-office box at Mail Boxes Etc., a telephone and a fax machine, the undercover men from the GAO obtained the license "without ever leaving their desks," the report says. After counterfeiting copies of the license, the GAO undercover agents ordered portable moisture-density gauges, which contain radioactive americium-241 and cesium-137 and are commonly used at construction sites to analyze soil, water and pavement. The investigators ordered 45 gauges - enough to build a bomb with sufficient radioactive material to qualify as a level-3 threat on the International Atomic Energy Agency's scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the most hazardous....
Military Files Left Unprotected Online Detailed schematics of a military detainee holding facility in southern Iraq. Geographical surveys and aerial photographs of two military airfields outside Baghdad. Plans for a new fuel farm at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The military calls it "need-to-know" information that would pose a direct threat to U.S. troops if it were to fall into the hands of terrorists. It's material so sensitive that officials refused to release the documents when asked. But it's already out there, posted carelessly to file servers by government agencies and contractors, accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. In a survey of servers run by agencies or companies involved with the military and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Associated Press found dozens of documents that officials refused to release when asked directly, citing troop security....
N.J. senator proposes toy gun ban A New Jersey senator wants to make it illegal to sell or give to anyone under age 18 toy guns that look so realistic they can be mistaken for a real firearm. "The margin between a child's stupid mistake and a tragic ending is far too thin," said Sen. Nicholas Scutari. Scutari, D-Union, introduced the proposal in late June and plans to push it when the Legislature reconvenes late this year. He said the bill stems from an incident in a Union Township where four students were suspended after bringing a cap gun to school. "We need to stress to our children that guns are not toys, but deadly weapons which should always be regarded with extreme caution and handled with respect," Scutari said. "Restricting access to imitation firearms will help to drive that point home." Gun rights advocates plan to fight the bill. "It misses the mark because it demonizes toys instead of criminal behavior," said Scott Bach, president of the New Jersey Association of Rifle and Pistol Clubs, which is the National Rifle Association's New Jersey organization. If the measure is enacted, New Jersey would join several states that have restricted access to realistic toy guns to minors....
Thursday, July 12, 2007
MEXICAN WOLF
Biologist Reports Threat at Wolf Shooting
A former state Game and Fish Department biologist says a federal employee leveled a rifle at her and told her she had "no business" being around when she tried to halt the recent shooting of a problem wolf in Catron County. Angela Dassow, who encountered three Wildlife Service employees and a ranch hand at the scene, said in an interview with the Journal that Game and Fish "sent me out to let them know that the lethal removal order was not valid and there was a problem with it, and they weren't supposed to kill her that day." She arrived after the female Mexican gray wolf had been killed. Ranch hand Mike Miller disputed Dassow's claim that she was threatened. He is a cowboy who works on the Adobe Ranch where the wolf was killed on July 5 and was present during the encounter. "Nobody pointed a gun at her," Miller told the Journal on Wednesday. Miller said Dassow was "off in la-la land" after she saw the already-dead female wolf on the ground. Dassow, a 26-year-old biologist who left her job after the incident, talked about the incident as she drove home to Wisconsin on Wednesday. One of the Wildlife Service employees "walked up to the front of his truck and picked up his rifle and pointed it at me and said I had no business being there," Dassow said in the telephone interview. "If he just simply wanted to tell me I didn't have the right to be there, he could have just told me. He didn't need to pick up a gun. It wasn't like I had a gun." Miller said, "Nobody did nothing to her ... The rifles were laying against a fence."....
Biologist Reports Threat at Wolf Shooting
A former state Game and Fish Department biologist says a federal employee leveled a rifle at her and told her she had "no business" being around when she tried to halt the recent shooting of a problem wolf in Catron County. Angela Dassow, who encountered three Wildlife Service employees and a ranch hand at the scene, said in an interview with the Journal that Game and Fish "sent me out to let them know that the lethal removal order was not valid and there was a problem with it, and they weren't supposed to kill her that day." She arrived after the female Mexican gray wolf had been killed. Ranch hand Mike Miller disputed Dassow's claim that she was threatened. He is a cowboy who works on the Adobe Ranch where the wolf was killed on July 5 and was present during the encounter. "Nobody pointed a gun at her," Miller told the Journal on Wednesday. Miller said Dassow was "off in la-la land" after she saw the already-dead female wolf on the ground. Dassow, a 26-year-old biologist who left her job after the incident, talked about the incident as she drove home to Wisconsin on Wednesday. One of the Wildlife Service employees "walked up to the front of his truck and picked up his rifle and pointed it at me and said I had no business being there," Dassow said in the telephone interview. "If he just simply wanted to tell me I didn't have the right to be there, he could have just told me. He didn't need to pick up a gun. It wasn't like I had a gun." Miller said, "Nobody did nothing to her ... The rifles were laying against a fence."....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Hungry bears break into homes in Red Lodge, causing big mess Gladys Clark is thinking she ought to get herself a slingshot so she'll be ready the next time a bear comes for breakfast. At 91, Clark concedes she'll have to practice, but she was handy with one when she was an Eastern Montana ranch girl riding the range. Sunday morning, Clark pulled open the sliding glass door on her log home on Rock Creek in Red Lodge to let in some fresh air and went upstairs to get ready for the day. When she came downstairs, a large black bear was standing with its paws on her counter and rummaging through the kitchen cupboards. "Let me put it this way: I was startled," she said. So she screamed, "What are you doing in my kitchen? Get out of here!" "I screamed and I kept screaming at him, and he looked back at me over his shoulder and then walked around the little kitchen table and out the door," she said. The night before, downstream on Rock Creek, a bear helped itself to the contents of Janis Frank's cupboards after breaking through a storm door to get inside. Luckily, Frank, 80, was outside on the front porch when the bear let himself in. When she ran around back and saw the mangled door, she figured it was a bear and ran to a neighbor's house to call 911. With a game warden's help, the bear was evicted, but not before it ransacked Frank's kitchen....
Ranchers face big losses of cattle, grazing land The temperature was 140 degrees in the sun and the ground was still smoldering Sunday when firefighters first allowed rancher Lee Yardley back into charred grazing land to survey the damage done to his cattle herd by the Milford Flat Fire. “About 95 percent of my herd’s grass feed was destroyed up there,” said Yardley as he stood in a field of black ash. “And I still don’t even know how many head I’ve lost.” The fire has burned more than 334,000 acres across central Utah since Friday, and much of the land is open range leased by ranchers for cattle grazing. Yardley, a fifth-generation cattle rancher who runs a 1,000-acre ranch with his brother Joe in Sulphurdale, had much of his herd scattered when the fire overran firefighters Saturday and burned the land while his cattle grazed. Some cows wandered back to the ranch, some were found miles away and badly burned, and others didn’t make it at all, he said during another outing Wednesday to locate his cows. The Yardleys’ uncle, Mike Yardley, a cattle rancher near Milford, where the fire started, had his herds hit the hardest, Lee Yardley said. His uncle’s herd of 600 cattle was grazing in Rock Corral Canyon when the fire “came down on top of them” and killed most of them. But, he added, he had found six of his uncle’s cows wandering 50 miles from their home Tuesday....
Energy firm agrees to protect birds Yates Petroleum Corp. has agreed to evaluate its power line facilities in Wyoming and New Mexico and make modifications to prevent bird deaths. The action is part of a settlement agreement involving Yates, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The case stems from the discovery of four dead eagles found near power lines owned by Yates at its coalbed methane facilities in the Powder River Basin. As part of the settlement Yates paid $10,000 in penalties, half of which will go to the Murie Audubon State Rehabilitation Fund. "Yates is pleased with the agreement and anxious to work with (the Fish and Wildlife Service) and the Murie Fund to protect our nation's birds," said Lisa Norton, environmental manager for Yates. In addition to facility upgrades, Yates has agreed to develop a comprehensive avian protection plan, ongoing monitoring and employee training regarding raptor and migratory bird protection. So far, Yates has spent $25,000 in facility upgrades, according to the company....
Finding common ground on land use in West The Sopris Foundation will hold a conference on "Innovative Ideas for a New West" Friday through Sunday at the Wilma Theater. Missoula is not the only midsize city in the West experiencing unprecedented changes in land use. In fact, its struggles are typical of the challenges facing many other communities. And that's what makes it the perfect place for the Sopris Foundation's annual conference examining regional land-use issues, said Piper Foster, manager of the Aspen, Colo.-based organization. The Sopris Foundation was seeded 14 years ago by Colorado rancher Kate McBride Puckett and her father, John McBride, a developer who was involved in the creation of Vail and Snowmass ski resorts. One of its primary goals is to help communities like Missoula gain access to innovative ideas, Foster said, and the yearly conference has become an increasingly popular way of meeting that goal....
Endangered Species Act misused at times With utmost respect for endangered and threatened species — including three dozen snails, two fuzzy lichens and the Singapore roundleaf horseshoe bat — it seems we might have strayed slightly off the healthy-planet path. ESA requires staggering investments in time and effort and money to save bugs and bushes often in countries that cannot provide electricity and running water to most of their citizens. But never mind world politics. Another unfortunate consequence of the well-intended ESA is its use as a weapon against legitimate and beneficial land use. One of the reasons so many species face extinction today is that our fast-growing population continues to mow and plow and build on once-uninhabitable (at least by people) habitat. As the world's dominant species, that's what we do. Protecting fragile ecosystems is fast becoming the priority it should be here and abroad, but ESA has been marched out frivolously in some cases to prevent change without just cause. A rancher out west lost everything after environmentalists filed documents to stop improvements to his ranch (and thus his family's lifestyle) because the construction threatened an ESA-protected mouse — which was proved later, after a lengthy and costly court battle, didn't exist on the property....
Judge deems Lower Owens River healthy The long legal battle stemming from Los Angeles' diversion of the Lower Owens River nearly a century ago took a historic turn Wednesday as an Inyo County judge declared the waterway restored. "I can now officially declare that the Lower Owens River is a river," Superior Court Judge Lee Cooper said at a hearing. Cooper also approved an agreement and order lifting the $5,000-a-day fine he imposed on Los Angeles in September 2005, to compel the city's Department of Water and Power to restore a 62-mile stretch of the river. The new pact, negotiated by Los Angeles with environmental groups and government agencies that had pressed the city to rehabilitate the river, will halt penalties that amounted to $3.3 million. Los Angeles still faces possible sanctions if it fails to maintain the required flow of water and monitoring of the river. It also faces other lawsuits filed by environmentalists....
Desert enemy No. 1: Buffelgrass University of Arizona researchers are preparing their first concerted attack against buffelgrass, an invading species that threatens to forever change this part of the Sonoran Desert. The search-and-destroy mission begins Aug. 2 at the Santa Rita Experimental Range east of Sahuarita, followed a couple of weeks later by an assault on thick stands of the tough, hard-to-kill plant on Tumamoc Hill, on Tucson's West Side. Buffelgrass, brought to this area decades ago from Africa as a possible source of erosion control and cattle forage, has spread like wildfire, crowding out native vegetation and creating a severe fire hazard. That makes it more than just an environmental issue — it's now a public-safety concern, said Travis Bean, a principal research specialist at the UA Desert Laboratory and buffelgrass expert. "Life and property, by far, are our priority, number-one concerns," Bean said. Experts say buffelgrass infestation in Central and Southern Arizona is doubling each year....
Ritter: Epidemic can't be stopped Gov. Bill Ritter said Wednesday that the pine beetle epidemic that has killed nearly half of the state's lodgepole pine trees will have an "impact for generations to come" and will change the look of Colorado's forests. After getting a look at stands of dead trees from the air, Ritter said the outbreak is part of a natural cycle that has been encouraged by the drought, milder winters and the fact there are so many clusters of the same type and age of tree that are attractive to the beetles. He said the epidemic can't be stopped, only managed to reduce the risk of wildfires. That will change the look of Colorado's forests as more pine trees die and are replaced with new ones. Ritter praised ski resorts for working to keep the bugs at bay by spraying insecticide on trees along their borders....
Senators:millions for Tahoe Basin unspent Nevada’s two senators complained Wednesday that millions of dollars they secured for the Lake Tahoe Basin in the past couple of years have gone unspent. “We worked hard to get this money,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “We expected this money to be spent.” Reid’s comments follow a devastating wildfire in the region, which burned about 3,100 acres and destroyed more than 200 homes in recent weeks. He and Sen. John Ensign, a Republican, met with U.S. Forest Service head Gail Kimbell at the Capitol on Wednesday to talk about ways they can help prevent another devastating fire in the Lake Tahoe area. More than $30 million has been set aside for the Lake Tahoe Basin from public land sale revenues in Nevada since 2005, according to Reid. The Forest Service has spent $12.5 million of that funding, according to Kent Connaughton, assistant deputy chief of the Forest Service....
Off-road groups want in on debate Off-roading groups are concerned that they could be left out of the discussion on how to prevent motorized vehicle damage to public lands. In late June, a group of 13 former rangers and public land managers calling themselves the Rangers for Responsible Recreation identified reckless off-roading as the No. 1 problem facing public lands across the U.S. The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is supporting the ranger group, continued its national campaign on Tuesday when it released figures on criminal activity on lands under the protection of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management or the BLM between 2004 and 2007. Across California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, BLM records showed about 6,600 off-road violations for hit-and-run and other driving offenses, and about twice as many incidents of driving under the influence for off-roaders as compared to automobiles, according to a press release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility or PEER. In interviews Tuesday, representatives of the national Off-Road Business Association and BlueRibbon Coalition said they support law enforcement cracking down on irresponsible riders who give the sport a bad name, but they also feel scapegoated....
Utah plans to join the Wild and Scenic Rivers System For almost 40 years, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has been protecting beautiful rivers in states across the West – except two. Utah and Nevada have yet to place any rivers on the Wild and Scenic list, which was started in 1968 to protect outstanding rivers from development. For Utah, however, that could change within the year. The Bureau of Land Management in Utah recently identified 30 river segments that are eligible for designation; another 118 are still being considered. The eligible segments include stretches of the Green River, Nine Mile Creek and Bitter Creek. Unlike Utah, however, Nevada has no plans to nominate any rivers. “I suppose the main reason is that Nevada is a very arid state and we don’t have many rivers,” says Dante Pistone of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. Across the nation, 11,409 segments of about 165 different rivers qualify as wild and scenic. About 70 percent of them are located in the West. Some of the best known include California’s Big Sur River, one of the longest coastal streams, which is lined with towering redwoods, and the Deschutes River in Oregon, which offers excellent whitewater rafting and a remarkable steelhead and native rainbow trout fishery....
Al Gore And NBC: Birds Of A Feather Politics: Was what Al Gore called "the largest global entertainment event in all of human history" also the largest in-kind political contribution? And where's the Fairness Doctrine when you need it? Considering that here in the U.S. the Peacock Network's three-hour Gore infomercial on global warming lost out in the ratings to "Cops" and "America's Funniest Home Videos," Gore's claim may be open to question. Live Earth, in fact, may have been America's funniest home video. Ever. But thanks in large part to the 75 hours of free airtime that NBC gave Gore on its various stations, starting with NBC and including CNBC, Bravo, the Sundance channel, Universal HD and Telemundo, Gore may now be the 800-pound gorilla this political season. Gore insists he's not running for president. Yet, as we have wondered before, why would a man who insists that global warming is the biggest threat to mankind, bigger than nuclear terror, not want control of the reins of a major world polluter and chief resister to Kyoto? Dan Harrison, an NBC corporate senior vice president, called the Gore effort "an initiative we believe in" -- the "we" presumably including corporate parent General Electric. (NYSE:GE) Yet he insisted: "I don't think climate change is a political issue." NBC and GE have other interests in hyping climate change. Let's not forget GE is the parent of NBC and stands to make a wad of cash from selling alternative energy products from wind turbines to solar panels to those compact fluorescent bulbs containing mercury....
Army says opponents have all of its Pinon documents Fort Carson says it has given a group opposing expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site all documents it has that the group has sued to get. An attorney for the group, Not One More Acre!, said Wednesday he is in the process of determining whether the group is satisfied that the Army has turned over all of the documents sought. "We hope to know by next week whether we can resolve the case (the lawsuit to obtain documents)," the attorney, Stephen Harris of Colorado Springs, said. The group sued the Army in February, seeking a court order to compel the Army to provide a variety of documents believed to be related to the controversial proposed expansion of the training site. The proposed expansion covers large parts of Southeastern Colorado and faces strong opposition from farmers and ranchers who own land and other property in the area....
Fight To Save Local Gym Enters Round 2 The National City councilmembers will consider a recommendation to renew its authority to take over private land for economic redevelopment, also known as eminent domain. The city's eminent domain authority expires next month. The city wants to redevelop its downtown area, specifically along National City Boulevard. One property standing in the way of that opportunity, according to the city, is the Community Youth Athletic Center. The gym's owners said at-risk youth have been going to the gym for five years to box, play and even do their homework. "This was literally a gun store. And what goes on in here at the 'house of respect' now is we teach kids how to live without using guns. That sounds like redevelopment to me," said Patrick Russell of the CYAC. But there are plans for private developers to build a high-rise condominium complex with office and retail space. Attorney Dana Berliner of the Institute For Justice told NBC 7/39, "Why is it that the gym owes it to the city to move their location, close their gym down for months, in order to make it more convenient for them to build condos here? If somebody wants to build condos, you can build them on whatever land they can buy."....
Judge halts hearing on DM&E A circuit judge has stopped a planned a three-day hearing on eminent domain for the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad's proposed train project to ship Wyoming coal. The hearing was to have begun Tuesday in Pierre. But Circuit Judge James Anderson ordered the South Dakota Transportation Commission to stop the hearing. Anderson also ordered the commission and the state Department of Transportation to appear at a hearing July 24 to show why the eminent-domain case should be allowed to proceed. The route of the new track would cross some western South Dakota ranches and other land owned by people who don't want to sell. Former Gov. Bill Janklow, a lawyer for several landowners, filed court documents arguing that the commission's procedure for hearing eminent-domain cases did not follow state law....
Editorial - California's asset grab IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE a more naked misuse of governmental power than California's sustained grab of assets it conveniently labels unclaimed property. For years, the state has been hunting for bank accounts, safe deposit boxes and other assets that it believes have been forgotten, then scooping up the proceeds and using them to balance its budget. Are those assets genuinely unclaimed? The truth is that the government does hardly anything to find out. In fact, it does just the opposite. It hires accountants and auditors who sift bank and real estate records looking for pots of gold and then take a commission on what the government seizes. Back in the 1980s, the government took over property only after it had made considerable efforts to track down the owners. It pored through public records and placed newspaper ads listing names and the accounts it believed to be abandoned. But that had the unwelcome effect of working, so every time the government found an owner, it denied itself the chance to steal the property. The solution? Stop looking so hard. The budget for the so-called locator unit was cut, and the government stopped running detailed public notices. The money then flowed more readily, and to date, California has seized well over $1 billion. It's pretty clear that the government did not exactly break a sweat in searching for some of the owners. A quick trip through the state controller's website Monday showed assets unclaimed by Antonio Villaraigosa, Willie Mays, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt — to name a handful of California's more recognizable figures. These people can't be difficult to track down. Mays is being honored at baseball's All-Star Game in San Francisco tonight; perhaps the state could have him paged....
NM Senator calls for border ranch support U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman today said he is pleased that the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection will incorporate cattle fencing as part of their efforts to rebuild vehicle barriers along the New Mexico-Mexico border. In late June, Bingaman called on CBP to act quickly to replace a new vehicle barrier along the border that was unintentionally erected by the U.S. government on the Mexican side of the border. Bingaman also called on CBP to integrate a cattle component as part of the rebuilding process. The misplaced barrier is located about 17 miles west of Columbus. In a letter to Bingaman, CBP formally announced that they have begun the process of dismantling the 1.5 miles of existing vehicle barrier that was constructed on the Mexican side of the border and are simultaneously constructing new barrier on the U.S. side. Temporary fencing will be erected during the rebuilding process to ensure the border remains secure. The addition of a cattle component to the vehicle barrier is one of the key recommendations made by the Southwest New Mexico Border Security Task Force. Bingaman created the Border Task Force 2003....
Ranchers, officials trying to negotiate price of cattle tainted by brucellosis The Montana Board of Livestock issued an order Wednesday to slaughter a herd of quarantined cattle near Bridger if the owners and federal government cannot agree soon on a price for the animals. Seven cows from the ranch tested positive for brucellosis in May, and Montana could lose its coveted brucellosis-free status if the 600 or so cattle aren't slaughtered within 60 days of that discovery - or by July 17. Board members pushed up that deadline during a conference call, saying the state's billion-dollar livestock industry depends on a speedy resolution. Under the order, state officials will begin arranging for the herd's slaughter if no written agreement is reached by ranchers Jim and Sandy Morgan and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service by midnight Friday. The Morgans would be compensated but not under the more expensive deal they have been seeking. "I'm totally sympathetic to (the herd owners), but we have to think about the rest of the state," board member Jan French said. "There are a lot of people with herds in Montana that this would affect." The Morgans called Wednesday's order unfair and said they felt "steamrolled by the state." "We're willing to do everything we can to help the state out," Jim Morgan said. "We would like a little help in return."....
Cowboy era lives on at 60-year-old steak house t’s a bizarre juxtaposition. Think urban neighborhood, and then visualize a nine-acre lot sporting a tiny old house with burlap sacks for curtains and a door from an old Yuma jail. Next to it, put Li’l Abner’s Steakhouse. That’s what you’ll find in the Continental Reserve neighborhood on Silverbell Road in Marana. “I used to tell people the way you find Abner’s is to get on Silverbell and drive until you find a building and smell mesquite,” said owner David Hoffman. “Now, I tell them to drive until they reach a bare spot.” The steak house turns 60 this year and stands as a reminder of the old ranching days from which today’s urban Marana sprang. In 1947, Larry and Duchess Lewis built Li’l Abner’s as a hangout for cowboy ranchers on land that in the 1860s served as a stage stop for Butterfield Express. Because he was an optician and she was a Hollywood dancer, the couple decided on an eyeglasses shop and a bar. “I like to say they would sell glasses to the cowboys after they’d had a couple of drinks,” Hoffman said. “When they woke up, they could see better.”....
Hungry bears break into homes in Red Lodge, causing big mess Gladys Clark is thinking she ought to get herself a slingshot so she'll be ready the next time a bear comes for breakfast. At 91, Clark concedes she'll have to practice, but she was handy with one when she was an Eastern Montana ranch girl riding the range. Sunday morning, Clark pulled open the sliding glass door on her log home on Rock Creek in Red Lodge to let in some fresh air and went upstairs to get ready for the day. When she came downstairs, a large black bear was standing with its paws on her counter and rummaging through the kitchen cupboards. "Let me put it this way: I was startled," she said. So she screamed, "What are you doing in my kitchen? Get out of here!" "I screamed and I kept screaming at him, and he looked back at me over his shoulder and then walked around the little kitchen table and out the door," she said. The night before, downstream on Rock Creek, a bear helped itself to the contents of Janis Frank's cupboards after breaking through a storm door to get inside. Luckily, Frank, 80, was outside on the front porch when the bear let himself in. When she ran around back and saw the mangled door, she figured it was a bear and ran to a neighbor's house to call 911. With a game warden's help, the bear was evicted, but not before it ransacked Frank's kitchen....
Ranchers face big losses of cattle, grazing land The temperature was 140 degrees in the sun and the ground was still smoldering Sunday when firefighters first allowed rancher Lee Yardley back into charred grazing land to survey the damage done to his cattle herd by the Milford Flat Fire. “About 95 percent of my herd’s grass feed was destroyed up there,” said Yardley as he stood in a field of black ash. “And I still don’t even know how many head I’ve lost.” The fire has burned more than 334,000 acres across central Utah since Friday, and much of the land is open range leased by ranchers for cattle grazing. Yardley, a fifth-generation cattle rancher who runs a 1,000-acre ranch with his brother Joe in Sulphurdale, had much of his herd scattered when the fire overran firefighters Saturday and burned the land while his cattle grazed. Some cows wandered back to the ranch, some were found miles away and badly burned, and others didn’t make it at all, he said during another outing Wednesday to locate his cows. The Yardleys’ uncle, Mike Yardley, a cattle rancher near Milford, where the fire started, had his herds hit the hardest, Lee Yardley said. His uncle’s herd of 600 cattle was grazing in Rock Corral Canyon when the fire “came down on top of them” and killed most of them. But, he added, he had found six of his uncle’s cows wandering 50 miles from their home Tuesday....
Energy firm agrees to protect birds Yates Petroleum Corp. has agreed to evaluate its power line facilities in Wyoming and New Mexico and make modifications to prevent bird deaths. The action is part of a settlement agreement involving Yates, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The case stems from the discovery of four dead eagles found near power lines owned by Yates at its coalbed methane facilities in the Powder River Basin. As part of the settlement Yates paid $10,000 in penalties, half of which will go to the Murie Audubon State Rehabilitation Fund. "Yates is pleased with the agreement and anxious to work with (the Fish and Wildlife Service) and the Murie Fund to protect our nation's birds," said Lisa Norton, environmental manager for Yates. In addition to facility upgrades, Yates has agreed to develop a comprehensive avian protection plan, ongoing monitoring and employee training regarding raptor and migratory bird protection. So far, Yates has spent $25,000 in facility upgrades, according to the company....
Finding common ground on land use in West The Sopris Foundation will hold a conference on "Innovative Ideas for a New West" Friday through Sunday at the Wilma Theater. Missoula is not the only midsize city in the West experiencing unprecedented changes in land use. In fact, its struggles are typical of the challenges facing many other communities. And that's what makes it the perfect place for the Sopris Foundation's annual conference examining regional land-use issues, said Piper Foster, manager of the Aspen, Colo.-based organization. The Sopris Foundation was seeded 14 years ago by Colorado rancher Kate McBride Puckett and her father, John McBride, a developer who was involved in the creation of Vail and Snowmass ski resorts. One of its primary goals is to help communities like Missoula gain access to innovative ideas, Foster said, and the yearly conference has become an increasingly popular way of meeting that goal....
Endangered Species Act misused at times With utmost respect for endangered and threatened species — including three dozen snails, two fuzzy lichens and the Singapore roundleaf horseshoe bat — it seems we might have strayed slightly off the healthy-planet path. ESA requires staggering investments in time and effort and money to save bugs and bushes often in countries that cannot provide electricity and running water to most of their citizens. But never mind world politics. Another unfortunate consequence of the well-intended ESA is its use as a weapon against legitimate and beneficial land use. One of the reasons so many species face extinction today is that our fast-growing population continues to mow and plow and build on once-uninhabitable (at least by people) habitat. As the world's dominant species, that's what we do. Protecting fragile ecosystems is fast becoming the priority it should be here and abroad, but ESA has been marched out frivolously in some cases to prevent change without just cause. A rancher out west lost everything after environmentalists filed documents to stop improvements to his ranch (and thus his family's lifestyle) because the construction threatened an ESA-protected mouse — which was proved later, after a lengthy and costly court battle, didn't exist on the property....
Judge deems Lower Owens River healthy The long legal battle stemming from Los Angeles' diversion of the Lower Owens River nearly a century ago took a historic turn Wednesday as an Inyo County judge declared the waterway restored. "I can now officially declare that the Lower Owens River is a river," Superior Court Judge Lee Cooper said at a hearing. Cooper also approved an agreement and order lifting the $5,000-a-day fine he imposed on Los Angeles in September 2005, to compel the city's Department of Water and Power to restore a 62-mile stretch of the river. The new pact, negotiated by Los Angeles with environmental groups and government agencies that had pressed the city to rehabilitate the river, will halt penalties that amounted to $3.3 million. Los Angeles still faces possible sanctions if it fails to maintain the required flow of water and monitoring of the river. It also faces other lawsuits filed by environmentalists....
Desert enemy No. 1: Buffelgrass University of Arizona researchers are preparing their first concerted attack against buffelgrass, an invading species that threatens to forever change this part of the Sonoran Desert. The search-and-destroy mission begins Aug. 2 at the Santa Rita Experimental Range east of Sahuarita, followed a couple of weeks later by an assault on thick stands of the tough, hard-to-kill plant on Tumamoc Hill, on Tucson's West Side. Buffelgrass, brought to this area decades ago from Africa as a possible source of erosion control and cattle forage, has spread like wildfire, crowding out native vegetation and creating a severe fire hazard. That makes it more than just an environmental issue — it's now a public-safety concern, said Travis Bean, a principal research specialist at the UA Desert Laboratory and buffelgrass expert. "Life and property, by far, are our priority, number-one concerns," Bean said. Experts say buffelgrass infestation in Central and Southern Arizona is doubling each year....
Ritter: Epidemic can't be stopped Gov. Bill Ritter said Wednesday that the pine beetle epidemic that has killed nearly half of the state's lodgepole pine trees will have an "impact for generations to come" and will change the look of Colorado's forests. After getting a look at stands of dead trees from the air, Ritter said the outbreak is part of a natural cycle that has been encouraged by the drought, milder winters and the fact there are so many clusters of the same type and age of tree that are attractive to the beetles. He said the epidemic can't be stopped, only managed to reduce the risk of wildfires. That will change the look of Colorado's forests as more pine trees die and are replaced with new ones. Ritter praised ski resorts for working to keep the bugs at bay by spraying insecticide on trees along their borders....
Senators:millions for Tahoe Basin unspent Nevada’s two senators complained Wednesday that millions of dollars they secured for the Lake Tahoe Basin in the past couple of years have gone unspent. “We worked hard to get this money,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “We expected this money to be spent.” Reid’s comments follow a devastating wildfire in the region, which burned about 3,100 acres and destroyed more than 200 homes in recent weeks. He and Sen. John Ensign, a Republican, met with U.S. Forest Service head Gail Kimbell at the Capitol on Wednesday to talk about ways they can help prevent another devastating fire in the Lake Tahoe area. More than $30 million has been set aside for the Lake Tahoe Basin from public land sale revenues in Nevada since 2005, according to Reid. The Forest Service has spent $12.5 million of that funding, according to Kent Connaughton, assistant deputy chief of the Forest Service....
Off-road groups want in on debate Off-roading groups are concerned that they could be left out of the discussion on how to prevent motorized vehicle damage to public lands. In late June, a group of 13 former rangers and public land managers calling themselves the Rangers for Responsible Recreation identified reckless off-roading as the No. 1 problem facing public lands across the U.S. The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is supporting the ranger group, continued its national campaign on Tuesday when it released figures on criminal activity on lands under the protection of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management or the BLM between 2004 and 2007. Across California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, BLM records showed about 6,600 off-road violations for hit-and-run and other driving offenses, and about twice as many incidents of driving under the influence for off-roaders as compared to automobiles, according to a press release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility or PEER. In interviews Tuesday, representatives of the national Off-Road Business Association and BlueRibbon Coalition said they support law enforcement cracking down on irresponsible riders who give the sport a bad name, but they also feel scapegoated....
Utah plans to join the Wild and Scenic Rivers System For almost 40 years, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has been protecting beautiful rivers in states across the West – except two. Utah and Nevada have yet to place any rivers on the Wild and Scenic list, which was started in 1968 to protect outstanding rivers from development. For Utah, however, that could change within the year. The Bureau of Land Management in Utah recently identified 30 river segments that are eligible for designation; another 118 are still being considered. The eligible segments include stretches of the Green River, Nine Mile Creek and Bitter Creek. Unlike Utah, however, Nevada has no plans to nominate any rivers. “I suppose the main reason is that Nevada is a very arid state and we don’t have many rivers,” says Dante Pistone of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. Across the nation, 11,409 segments of about 165 different rivers qualify as wild and scenic. About 70 percent of them are located in the West. Some of the best known include California’s Big Sur River, one of the longest coastal streams, which is lined with towering redwoods, and the Deschutes River in Oregon, which offers excellent whitewater rafting and a remarkable steelhead and native rainbow trout fishery....
Al Gore And NBC: Birds Of A Feather Politics: Was what Al Gore called "the largest global entertainment event in all of human history" also the largest in-kind political contribution? And where's the Fairness Doctrine when you need it? Considering that here in the U.S. the Peacock Network's three-hour Gore infomercial on global warming lost out in the ratings to "Cops" and "America's Funniest Home Videos," Gore's claim may be open to question. Live Earth, in fact, may have been America's funniest home video. Ever. But thanks in large part to the 75 hours of free airtime that NBC gave Gore on its various stations, starting with NBC and including CNBC, Bravo, the Sundance channel, Universal HD and Telemundo, Gore may now be the 800-pound gorilla this political season. Gore insists he's not running for president. Yet, as we have wondered before, why would a man who insists that global warming is the biggest threat to mankind, bigger than nuclear terror, not want control of the reins of a major world polluter and chief resister to Kyoto? Dan Harrison, an NBC corporate senior vice president, called the Gore effort "an initiative we believe in" -- the "we" presumably including corporate parent General Electric. (NYSE:GE) Yet he insisted: "I don't think climate change is a political issue." NBC and GE have other interests in hyping climate change. Let's not forget GE is the parent of NBC and stands to make a wad of cash from selling alternative energy products from wind turbines to solar panels to those compact fluorescent bulbs containing mercury....
Army says opponents have all of its Pinon documents Fort Carson says it has given a group opposing expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site all documents it has that the group has sued to get. An attorney for the group, Not One More Acre!, said Wednesday he is in the process of determining whether the group is satisfied that the Army has turned over all of the documents sought. "We hope to know by next week whether we can resolve the case (the lawsuit to obtain documents)," the attorney, Stephen Harris of Colorado Springs, said. The group sued the Army in February, seeking a court order to compel the Army to provide a variety of documents believed to be related to the controversial proposed expansion of the training site. The proposed expansion covers large parts of Southeastern Colorado and faces strong opposition from farmers and ranchers who own land and other property in the area....
Fight To Save Local Gym Enters Round 2 The National City councilmembers will consider a recommendation to renew its authority to take over private land for economic redevelopment, also known as eminent domain. The city's eminent domain authority expires next month. The city wants to redevelop its downtown area, specifically along National City Boulevard. One property standing in the way of that opportunity, according to the city, is the Community Youth Athletic Center. The gym's owners said at-risk youth have been going to the gym for five years to box, play and even do their homework. "This was literally a gun store. And what goes on in here at the 'house of respect' now is we teach kids how to live without using guns. That sounds like redevelopment to me," said Patrick Russell of the CYAC. But there are plans for private developers to build a high-rise condominium complex with office and retail space. Attorney Dana Berliner of the Institute For Justice told NBC 7/39, "Why is it that the gym owes it to the city to move their location, close their gym down for months, in order to make it more convenient for them to build condos here? If somebody wants to build condos, you can build them on whatever land they can buy."....
Judge halts hearing on DM&E A circuit judge has stopped a planned a three-day hearing on eminent domain for the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad's proposed train project to ship Wyoming coal. The hearing was to have begun Tuesday in Pierre. But Circuit Judge James Anderson ordered the South Dakota Transportation Commission to stop the hearing. Anderson also ordered the commission and the state Department of Transportation to appear at a hearing July 24 to show why the eminent-domain case should be allowed to proceed. The route of the new track would cross some western South Dakota ranches and other land owned by people who don't want to sell. Former Gov. Bill Janklow, a lawyer for several landowners, filed court documents arguing that the commission's procedure for hearing eminent-domain cases did not follow state law....
Editorial - California's asset grab IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE a more naked misuse of governmental power than California's sustained grab of assets it conveniently labels unclaimed property. For years, the state has been hunting for bank accounts, safe deposit boxes and other assets that it believes have been forgotten, then scooping up the proceeds and using them to balance its budget. Are those assets genuinely unclaimed? The truth is that the government does hardly anything to find out. In fact, it does just the opposite. It hires accountants and auditors who sift bank and real estate records looking for pots of gold and then take a commission on what the government seizes. Back in the 1980s, the government took over property only after it had made considerable efforts to track down the owners. It pored through public records and placed newspaper ads listing names and the accounts it believed to be abandoned. But that had the unwelcome effect of working, so every time the government found an owner, it denied itself the chance to steal the property. The solution? Stop looking so hard. The budget for the so-called locator unit was cut, and the government stopped running detailed public notices. The money then flowed more readily, and to date, California has seized well over $1 billion. It's pretty clear that the government did not exactly break a sweat in searching for some of the owners. A quick trip through the state controller's website Monday showed assets unclaimed by Antonio Villaraigosa, Willie Mays, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt — to name a handful of California's more recognizable figures. These people can't be difficult to track down. Mays is being honored at baseball's All-Star Game in San Francisco tonight; perhaps the state could have him paged....
NM Senator calls for border ranch support U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman today said he is pleased that the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection will incorporate cattle fencing as part of their efforts to rebuild vehicle barriers along the New Mexico-Mexico border. In late June, Bingaman called on CBP to act quickly to replace a new vehicle barrier along the border that was unintentionally erected by the U.S. government on the Mexican side of the border. Bingaman also called on CBP to integrate a cattle component as part of the rebuilding process. The misplaced barrier is located about 17 miles west of Columbus. In a letter to Bingaman, CBP formally announced that they have begun the process of dismantling the 1.5 miles of existing vehicle barrier that was constructed on the Mexican side of the border and are simultaneously constructing new barrier on the U.S. side. Temporary fencing will be erected during the rebuilding process to ensure the border remains secure. The addition of a cattle component to the vehicle barrier is one of the key recommendations made by the Southwest New Mexico Border Security Task Force. Bingaman created the Border Task Force 2003....
Ranchers, officials trying to negotiate price of cattle tainted by brucellosis The Montana Board of Livestock issued an order Wednesday to slaughter a herd of quarantined cattle near Bridger if the owners and federal government cannot agree soon on a price for the animals. Seven cows from the ranch tested positive for brucellosis in May, and Montana could lose its coveted brucellosis-free status if the 600 or so cattle aren't slaughtered within 60 days of that discovery - or by July 17. Board members pushed up that deadline during a conference call, saying the state's billion-dollar livestock industry depends on a speedy resolution. Under the order, state officials will begin arranging for the herd's slaughter if no written agreement is reached by ranchers Jim and Sandy Morgan and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service by midnight Friday. The Morgans would be compensated but not under the more expensive deal they have been seeking. "I'm totally sympathetic to (the herd owners), but we have to think about the rest of the state," board member Jan French said. "There are a lot of people with herds in Montana that this would affect." The Morgans called Wednesday's order unfair and said they felt "steamrolled by the state." "We're willing to do everything we can to help the state out," Jim Morgan said. "We would like a little help in return."....
Cowboy era lives on at 60-year-old steak house t’s a bizarre juxtaposition. Think urban neighborhood, and then visualize a nine-acre lot sporting a tiny old house with burlap sacks for curtains and a door from an old Yuma jail. Next to it, put Li’l Abner’s Steakhouse. That’s what you’ll find in the Continental Reserve neighborhood on Silverbell Road in Marana. “I used to tell people the way you find Abner’s is to get on Silverbell and drive until you find a building and smell mesquite,” said owner David Hoffman. “Now, I tell them to drive until they reach a bare spot.” The steak house turns 60 this year and stands as a reminder of the old ranching days from which today’s urban Marana sprang. In 1947, Larry and Duchess Lewis built Li’l Abner’s as a hangout for cowboy ranchers on land that in the 1860s served as a stage stop for Butterfield Express. Because he was an optician and she was a Hollywood dancer, the couple decided on an eyeglasses shop and a bar. “I like to say they would sell glasses to the cowboys after they’d had a couple of drinks,” Hoffman said. “When they woke up, they could see better.”....
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
In Australia, a Drought Spurs a Radical Remedy(Subscription)
....The drought's severity and impact are spurring Australia, the world's driest inhabited continent, to tackle a problem that also is starting to afflict more populous countries: how to survive with less water. Australian leaders spent decades building reservoir systems to try to turn vast expanses of marginal cropland in its harsh interior into an agricultural mecca. But recent years have brought record drought -- and predictions that climate changes from global warming could make Australia's interior even drier. That has the government looking to change course, while farmers protest that the droughts haven't gotten worse -- only the politics surrounding them. In the U.S., farmers and policy makers squabble over how to keep dwindling water resources like the Ogallala Aquifer from disappearing. In China, Beijing is struggling to keep the Yellow River -- known as the cradle of Chinese civilization -- from drying out. The Australian government's proposal to preserve its Murray-Darling river basin is one of the most far-reaching anywhere. It calls for taking over management of water rights from the local jurisdictions that share the basin, something akin to Washington taking over the Mississippi River. The government proposes buying out farmers from areas with too little water, and upgrading irrigation systems to reduce waste from leaching channels or leaking pipes. In all, the budget is $8.6 billion , a significant sum in a nation of only 20 million people. ....James Kahl doesn't doubt officials handed out too many water entitlements over the years, but he doesn't think the federal government will necessarily manage water any better. He says his family's first 20 years on the farm were unusually wet, and now, the area is probably coming to the end of a 20-year dry period. Driving across his property in a white SUV, he points out areas where huge floods swept across the farm's black fields in past years. Bureaucrats may ignore such cycles, he says, and simply push to drive farmers out. "There are people who really think we shouldn't make anything off these rivers," Mr. Kahl said one recent afternoon as white cockatoos squawked around him and emus gathered on his empty fields. They'd like "to let it all go back to kangaroos and wild pigs, and then the world will be a happy place."....
....The drought's severity and impact are spurring Australia, the world's driest inhabited continent, to tackle a problem that also is starting to afflict more populous countries: how to survive with less water. Australian leaders spent decades building reservoir systems to try to turn vast expanses of marginal cropland in its harsh interior into an agricultural mecca. But recent years have brought record drought -- and predictions that climate changes from global warming could make Australia's interior even drier. That has the government looking to change course, while farmers protest that the droughts haven't gotten worse -- only the politics surrounding them. In the U.S., farmers and policy makers squabble over how to keep dwindling water resources like the Ogallala Aquifer from disappearing. In China, Beijing is struggling to keep the Yellow River -- known as the cradle of Chinese civilization -- from drying out. The Australian government's proposal to preserve its Murray-Darling river basin is one of the most far-reaching anywhere. It calls for taking over management of water rights from the local jurisdictions that share the basin, something akin to Washington taking over the Mississippi River. The government proposes buying out farmers from areas with too little water, and upgrading irrigation systems to reduce waste from leaching channels or leaking pipes. In all, the budget is $8.6 billion , a significant sum in a nation of only 20 million people. ....James Kahl doesn't doubt officials handed out too many water entitlements over the years, but he doesn't think the federal government will necessarily manage water any better. He says his family's first 20 years on the farm were unusually wet, and now, the area is probably coming to the end of a 20-year dry period. Driving across his property in a white SUV, he points out areas where huge floods swept across the farm's black fields in past years. Bureaucrats may ignore such cycles, he says, and simply push to drive farmers out. "There are people who really think we shouldn't make anything off these rivers," Mr. Kahl said one recent afternoon as white cockatoos squawked around him and emus gathered on his empty fields. They'd like "to let it all go back to kangaroos and wild pigs, and then the world will be a happy place."....
MEXICAN WOLF
For Immediate Release: July 9, 2007
For more information Contact: Laura Schneberger 505-772-5753
Wolf Removal Shrouded with Misinformation, Hysteria and Hyperbole.
The Mexican wolf program has long been a bone of contention between ranchers, who are caught between the packs and federal agencies administering the program.
Last week New Mexico ranchers learned that that Governor Bill Richardson is now advocating that cattle killing wolf packs remain on the ground. The New Mexico Governor has demanded that the federal government abandon the current method of dealing with habituated, problem wolves known as Standard Operating Procedure 13, Control of Mexican wolves. SOP 13 allows federal officials to remove or shoot any wolf or wolves that have been confirmed to have been involved in 3 livestock kills in a one year period.
Governor Richardson, says area rancher Laura Schneberger, can not possibly have the whole story.
“The Governors involvement came about after the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish decided not to cooperate in the removal of one wolf,” says Schneberger. “It takes a day to issue a lethal removal order after the third strike on a wolf pack. It appears that NMDG&F stonewalled the decision. Nearly a week after the last kill, the removal order was issued and it was not without their input into the decision-making.”
The mysterious circumstances surrounding the lethal control removal of the wolf are currently being investigated by the New Mexico State police and the Catron County Sheriff’s Department.
A Witness at the scene shortly after the shooting of the wolf described a female employee of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish arriving at the scene and becoming overwrought and verbally abusive to federal officers in the field upon learning the wolf had been shot. Recent media reports describe an armed confrontation that allegedly took place between program cooperators.
“We support Wildlife Services officers completely and have never had any problems with their professional demeanor. However, we have been concerned for some time over the caliber of people that the state agencies are hiring for this program,” says Schneberger. “If a person cannot understand the rules of the program and the reasons behind the policies it operates under, or is too emotional to deal with the deaths of animals that are bound to occur in these types of situations, they should be working in an ice cream parlor instead of interning for a program that is full of death. The NMDG&F should understand by now that our ranching and outfitter neighbors need competent, people that can be trusted in a crisis, not someone who falls apart and makes up stories when the agenda is interrupted.”
The wolf in question was AF-924 of the Durango pack, at the time of her removal she was the center of a controversy between federal agents and Catron County. In the weeks prior to her death, the county issued its own removal order for the animal. Catron County officials had placed humane traps in areas frequented by the wolf.
Federal agents with the wolf program attempted to acquire a restraining order to stop the county from removing the animal. Two weeks into the trapping effort, the agents still had not been able to procure that order, the reason why is unknown to the county. However, once the wolves killed another cow and calf, Catron County re-called its trapper and SOP 13 was initiated by federal officials in charge of the program.
“The use of this wolf in the program was just cruel stupidity on the part of the wolf team.” says Schneberger. They knew she was an accomplished stock killer, they released her in the Wilderness but within two weeks she moved right back to the same place she killed on before her removal last year. The agencies knew that all she had to do to meet the requirements for lethal control was to kill one more time. It was all entirely too predictable.”
It is not known whether a necropsy on the wolf is planned but the manager of the Adobe Ranch where the livestock kills have been taking place says he hopes they examine the wolf, so the issue of the pups can be laid to rest. “She was dry that is for sure, if that wolf had pups in a den somewhere, nobody ever saw them. All they have to do is look at her and see that she wasn’t producing milk for pups,” says Gene Whetten.”
The Aspen pack wolves have also localized on a nearby ranch and are confirmed to be raising pups. This pack is also preying on privately owned livestock to feed those pups and have already been confirmed to have killed three yearlings in the past month on the Diamond Ranch with no removal order issued for those killings.
If the New Mexico Governor does not change his support to stop control of livestock killing wolves, the Aspen pack and other problem wolves will be allowed to kill cattle indefinitely and area ranchers are dreading this possibility.
Laura's weblog is Wolf Crossing.
For Immediate Release: July 9, 2007
For more information Contact: Laura Schneberger 505-772-5753
Wolf Removal Shrouded with Misinformation, Hysteria and Hyperbole.
The Mexican wolf program has long been a bone of contention between ranchers, who are caught between the packs and federal agencies administering the program.
Last week New Mexico ranchers learned that that Governor Bill Richardson is now advocating that cattle killing wolf packs remain on the ground. The New Mexico Governor has demanded that the federal government abandon the current method of dealing with habituated, problem wolves known as Standard Operating Procedure 13, Control of Mexican wolves. SOP 13 allows federal officials to remove or shoot any wolf or wolves that have been confirmed to have been involved in 3 livestock kills in a one year period.
Governor Richardson, says area rancher Laura Schneberger, can not possibly have the whole story.
“The Governors involvement came about after the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish decided not to cooperate in the removal of one wolf,” says Schneberger. “It takes a day to issue a lethal removal order after the third strike on a wolf pack. It appears that NMDG&F stonewalled the decision. Nearly a week after the last kill, the removal order was issued and it was not without their input into the decision-making.”
The mysterious circumstances surrounding the lethal control removal of the wolf are currently being investigated by the New Mexico State police and the Catron County Sheriff’s Department.
A Witness at the scene shortly after the shooting of the wolf described a female employee of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish arriving at the scene and becoming overwrought and verbally abusive to federal officers in the field upon learning the wolf had been shot. Recent media reports describe an armed confrontation that allegedly took place between program cooperators.
“We support Wildlife Services officers completely and have never had any problems with their professional demeanor. However, we have been concerned for some time over the caliber of people that the state agencies are hiring for this program,” says Schneberger. “If a person cannot understand the rules of the program and the reasons behind the policies it operates under, or is too emotional to deal with the deaths of animals that are bound to occur in these types of situations, they should be working in an ice cream parlor instead of interning for a program that is full of death. The NMDG&F should understand by now that our ranching and outfitter neighbors need competent, people that can be trusted in a crisis, not someone who falls apart and makes up stories when the agenda is interrupted.”
The wolf in question was AF-924 of the Durango pack, at the time of her removal she was the center of a controversy between federal agents and Catron County. In the weeks prior to her death, the county issued its own removal order for the animal. Catron County officials had placed humane traps in areas frequented by the wolf.
Federal agents with the wolf program attempted to acquire a restraining order to stop the county from removing the animal. Two weeks into the trapping effort, the agents still had not been able to procure that order, the reason why is unknown to the county. However, once the wolves killed another cow and calf, Catron County re-called its trapper and SOP 13 was initiated by federal officials in charge of the program.
“The use of this wolf in the program was just cruel stupidity on the part of the wolf team.” says Schneberger. They knew she was an accomplished stock killer, they released her in the Wilderness but within two weeks she moved right back to the same place she killed on before her removal last year. The agencies knew that all she had to do to meet the requirements for lethal control was to kill one more time. It was all entirely too predictable.”
It is not known whether a necropsy on the wolf is planned but the manager of the Adobe Ranch where the livestock kills have been taking place says he hopes they examine the wolf, so the issue of the pups can be laid to rest. “She was dry that is for sure, if that wolf had pups in a den somewhere, nobody ever saw them. All they have to do is look at her and see that she wasn’t producing milk for pups,” says Gene Whetten.”
The Aspen pack wolves have also localized on a nearby ranch and are confirmed to be raising pups. This pack is also preying on privately owned livestock to feed those pups and have already been confirmed to have killed three yearlings in the past month on the Diamond Ranch with no removal order issued for those killings.
If the New Mexico Governor does not change his support to stop control of livestock killing wolves, the Aspen pack and other problem wolves will be allowed to kill cattle indefinitely and area ranchers are dreading this possibility.
Laura's weblog is Wolf Crossing.
MEXICAN WOLF
Byron Delk, President
Mesilla Valley Sportsman’s Alliance
5493 Verbenia
Las Cruces, NM 88007
Governor Bill Richardson
Office of the Governor
Old Santa Fe Trail Room 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Dear Governor Richardson,
My name is Byron Delk. My family ranches in Grant County as well as farms several thousand acres up and down the Mesilla Valley. We also have private property in the Elk Springs area of the Gila National Forest.
I am the President of the Mesilla Valley Sportsman’s Alliance, a group of hunting enthusiasts from the Mesilla Valley in Southern New Mexico. Our membership includes people from all walks of life. Many of our members come from reputation farming families in the Mesilla Valley as well as reputation ranching families in all of New Mexico, and many members are just one generation removed from these lifestyles.
We appreciate your help with the water issues the farmers in the Mesilla Valley are facing. We also recognize your contributions to the ranching industry in New Mexico, specifically this last winter in northeast New Mexico where many head of livestock were rescued and saved due to your actions.
Governor Richardson, now we are in desperate need of your help in the Gila National Forest. We feel the Mexican Gray Wolf Reintroduction Program has been and continues to be very mis-managed. Studies show that many children are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. These kids are witnessing wolf-related encounters that no adult should even have to witness.
Our Elk herd is being decimated at a very high rate in certain units, especially 16C. We know that the wolves are killing a huge number of elk calves today. Ranchers and outfitters are slowly going out if business because of these habituated wolves.
Please, Governor Richardson, we need you to see the truth about the actual impacts these wolves are having on the people who have to live and work in the Gila. We are certain you are only being presented one side of the story.
Please contact Caren Cowan, Executive Director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and let her put you in touch with someone who can guide you to the truth.
Thank You,
Byron Delk, President
Mesilla Valley Sportsman's Alliance
cc: Members of the New Mexico State Game Commission
Congressman Steve Pearce
Catron County Commission
Gila Livestock Growers Association
Caren Cowan, Executive Director, New Mexico Cattle Growers Association
Arizona/New Mexico Coalition of Counties
Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, Southwest Regional Director, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
Byron Delk, President
Mesilla Valley Sportsman’s Alliance
5493 Verbenia
Las Cruces, NM 88007
Governor Bill Richardson
Office of the Governor
Old Santa Fe Trail Room 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Dear Governor Richardson,
My name is Byron Delk. My family ranches in Grant County as well as farms several thousand acres up and down the Mesilla Valley. We also have private property in the Elk Springs area of the Gila National Forest.
I am the President of the Mesilla Valley Sportsman’s Alliance, a group of hunting enthusiasts from the Mesilla Valley in Southern New Mexico. Our membership includes people from all walks of life. Many of our members come from reputation farming families in the Mesilla Valley as well as reputation ranching families in all of New Mexico, and many members are just one generation removed from these lifestyles.
We appreciate your help with the water issues the farmers in the Mesilla Valley are facing. We also recognize your contributions to the ranching industry in New Mexico, specifically this last winter in northeast New Mexico where many head of livestock were rescued and saved due to your actions.
Governor Richardson, now we are in desperate need of your help in the Gila National Forest. We feel the Mexican Gray Wolf Reintroduction Program has been and continues to be very mis-managed. Studies show that many children are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. These kids are witnessing wolf-related encounters that no adult should even have to witness.
Our Elk herd is being decimated at a very high rate in certain units, especially 16C. We know that the wolves are killing a huge number of elk calves today. Ranchers and outfitters are slowly going out if business because of these habituated wolves.
Please, Governor Richardson, we need you to see the truth about the actual impacts these wolves are having on the people who have to live and work in the Gila. We are certain you are only being presented one side of the story.
Please contact Caren Cowan, Executive Director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and let her put you in touch with someone who can guide you to the truth.
Thank You,
Byron Delk, President
Mesilla Valley Sportsman's Alliance
cc: Members of the New Mexico State Game Commission
Congressman Steve Pearce
Catron County Commission
Gila Livestock Growers Association
Caren Cowan, Executive Director, New Mexico Cattle Growers Association
Arizona/New Mexico Coalition of Counties
Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, Southwest Regional Director, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
NEWS ROUNDUP
Wolves blamed for calves' deaths A Big Hole Valley rancher was issued a shoot-on-sight permit after wildlife officials confirmed a wolf killed a calf on his property last week and probably caused the death of another. State wildlife officials confirmed this week that one calf on the west side of the valley was killed by wolves and said a second calf that was found dead was also likely the victim of wolves. Wolves in the Miner Lake pack are suspected to have been involved in the incident. Officials issued a shoot-on-sight permit to the Big Hole Valley landowner, whose name was not released, and have authorized a federal trapper to kill the uncollared alpha male wolf of the pack because he is suspected of committing the attacks, state wildlife biologist Liz Bradley said in a telephone interview. "We're trying to just remove the one animal, which is the alpha male," she told the Montana Standard newspaper in Butte....
Pressure to Kill Wolves Mounting Across the Western USA Twelve years after reintroducing gray wolves to the Northern Rockies, the federal government has announced a plan that allows many of these same wolves and their offspring to be killed. Farther south, New Mexico Governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson Friday called for revision of state and federal wolf operating procedures after an endangered Mexican gray wolf was killed last week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The government wants to remove the wolves from the endangered species list in late 2007 or early 2008, a move that conservation groups oppose. The new proposal allows wolves in the Northern Rockies to be killed before they are formally delisted. "The government wants to treat wolves like vermin instead of an endangered species," said Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC. "It's trying to reverse one of the most successful wildlife recovery programs in U.S. history."....
Range wary Rancher Carey Hurd stands on a northern Nevada hillside and hangs his head. What was thousands of acres of prime grazing land Friday is now tar-black soot, and the burned bodies of his livestock litter the bizarre, smoldering landscape. Each one of these cattle, maybe a half-dozen within view, is worth at least $1,000. Hurd's livestock fell victim to the Highway 93 Complex Fire, a blaze that began with a lightning strike Friday afternoon and has escalated into an 80,000-acre disaster requiring the presence of the nation's top incident teams. The fire is yet to threaten many homes, but for Hurd and other ranchers that graze their cattle on Bureau of Land Management pastures and private property, the blaze is endangering their livelihoods. As many as 15 Magic Valley ranchers with grazing rights in northern Nevada have rushed to the fire in hopes of saving their cattle. Over the weekend, hundreds of livestock became trapped in a canyon, surrounded by flames. Ranchers worked on horseback and on ATVs, sometimes hardly stopping to sleep, to shepherd their animals from harm's way....
Finding Hope in the New Climate For a hint of the future of life on the plains, take a look at the shortgrass steppe, and a species of grass called blue grama. I’ve lately been saying that blue grama could be credited as the grass that won the West. This grass has a wide distribution -- all the way from the southern Canadian plains to central Mexico. According to researchers who’ve studied this grass in long-term projects, blue grama has been in decline. The documented decline has been enough to create some nervousness about the future of the western cattle industry. So, what’s behind its downhill trend? Blue grama is a C4 grass, which automatically raises the question of whether it’s documented decline stems from nothing more that rising concentrations of CO2. However, this C4 grass is something of a rarity for not being put at competitive disadvantage under elevated CO2 levels. So something else is afoot here. In a word, it’s heat. Some years ago, Science published an article by Colorado State University researchers who tested an hypothesis that warmer overnight temperatures were behind blue grama’s decline. Their hypothesis was supported by the evidence. But the researchers subsequently tested an alternative hypothesis – that longer growing seasons were behind the decline. The evidence supported the second hypothesis too. Support for both hypotheses doesn’t mean that each is competitive with the other. Instead, the warmer overnight temps and longer growing seasons share their origins in rising temperatures, and Colorado State’s scientists have calculated that blue grama declines by 30 percent per each degree C of warming....
Allard: Bigger Pinon Canyon financial boon for the region Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said the Army's planned expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site could mean an economic benefit of $500 million or more to the Pikes Peak region. However, he acknowledged there is little benefit being offered to Las Animas County ranchers should they have to sell their land to provide the 414,000 additional acres being targeted. "I think the cities of Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Canon City need to get together and decide if they want this economic development," Allard said Tuesday after reviewing the Army's brief response to several questions he had given Army Secretary Pete Geren last month. Allard declined to say whether he would support or remove an amendment to the 2008 military construction appropriations bill that would ban any expenditure on the expansion next year. The amendment was put in the House bill last month by Colorado Reps. Marilyn Musgrave and John Salazar. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Allard will have considerable influence on whether that amendment stays in a final bill....
Cheatgrass gets the better of reseeding efforts The cheatgrass that has fueled wildfires throughout Utah can grow back fast on the blackened rangelands, again becoming the propellant for many more blazes in the future. "It's amazing just how flammable cheatgrass is," said Bert Hart, a natural resource specialist with the Bureau of Land Management. "If you lit the same amount of cheatgrass and gasoline, it'd be hard to say which one would burn the fastest." Four fires are actively burning in Utah with varying degrees of containment, including the 311,000-acre Milford Flat fire in Beaver and Millard counties. Five others have been fully contained. Together, they have charred more than 415,000 acres. The cheatgrass scourge will not end when fires are extinguished. Winds will kick up exposed soil into dust storms, and rains can bring floods. Reseeding efforts to stop erosion and bring back native plants will be difficult - and there likely isn't near enough seed. Similar efforts failed in 1996 after the South Twin Peaks fire, which charred 28,000 acres near Interstate 15 in Millard and Beaver counties, Hart said. It was cheatgrass that flourished in the reseeded zone - the same area where the biggest wildfire in state history continues to burn....
Guard closes ranges, investigates fire The Montana National Guard has closed its three firing ranges in Montana until an investigation into the fire that began at Fort Harrison and scorched 550 acres on Monday is completed. The blaze began when machine-gun rounds were fired at the Fort Harrison weapons training range. National Guard Public Affairs Specialist Dan Bushnell said investigators will review standard operating procedures and in-place safety precautions. "We've got some work to do. We've got to get to the bottom of this so it doesn't happen again," he said. In addition to Fort Harrison, the Guard has ranges at Limestone Hills west of Townsend and Waco, which is east of Billings. It is not uncommon to have fires during training, Bushnell said. Officials look at risk factors including wind and heat every day the range is active and didn't see anything that seemed unsafe Monday. The extreme wind gusts were not in the forecast, he said....
Cabin with a view: Landowner, USFS spar over access Katherine Wikstrom wants to build a little cabin at the top of Confederate Gulch where she can create watercolors of the scenery, and she’d also like to share the fabulous overview of Canyon Ferry Reservoir with the general public. But Wikstrom, a philosophical firecracker in her early 70s, needs the blessing of the U.S. Forest Service to drive across its property to get to the old mining claims she owns on a plateau up Jimmy’s Gulch. While federal agency officials agree they have to allow reasonable access to Wikstrom, it doesn’t necessarily want to open that portion of the national forest to the general public, so it’s asking Wikstrom to install a locked gate that would limit motorized use. That bothers Wikstrom. “If somebody wants to go up the road and look for a couple of (gold) nuggets, then fine,” Wikstrom said. “I really don’t like gates because they obstruct regular people, who might like to go on top of the plateau and walk around at the top of Confederate Gulch. I would really like people to have access.” An old road, which is in fairly good shape, already leads to Wikstrom’s five mining claims. But the Forest Service closed the road in 1989 for big game security, to reduce the spread of noxious weeds and to reduce soil erosion....
3 counties saying no to river designations As the U.S. Forest Service considers which of its river segments should receive congressional protection, the Mountainland Association of Governments has sent a clear message for its area: none of them. At a recent MAG executive council meeting, local officials representing Summit, Wasatch and Utah counties voted unanimously to send a letter to the Forest Service requesting that none of the 21 proposed river segments in their areas be submitted to Congress for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic River System. Most of the segments are already included in a National Wilderness Preservation System, so the council agreed the streams are already sufficiently protected. Adding another designation to the streams would only increase the need for resources to maintain the areas, the letter says. The Forest Service started examining which river segments could be included in the Wild and Scenic River System about a year ago, but public comments on the proposed segments were gathered at a series of public meetings in May. During that time, the executive council of MAG, which is made up of mayors and county leaders from the three counties, expressed concern about the possibility of having some of the rivers in their area receive the designation. Currently, Utah doesn't have any rivers included in the system....
Feds favor culling elk herd near St. Helens he U.S. Forest Service is proposing limited elk hunts in three areas around Mount St. Helens to control the size of the herd. According to Tom Mulder, manager of the Mount St. Helens National Monument, the proposal would allow a limited number of Washington State master hunter program graduates to harvest elk with special permits. The permits would be issued by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in coordination with the Forest Service. The three areas, which are within the boundaries of the Loowit game management unit, could be open for hunting by the fall of 2008. The number of permits that would be issued has not been determined. A critic of the state's elk management practices near the volcano called the move a good first step toward reducing winter kill and keeping the herd healthier. "It is wise for them to allow hunting in the area," said state Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama....
Governors back blue ribbon fire task force On Friday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his intention to take a closer look at wildfire prevention in the Lake Tahoe Basin, with the formation of a California-Nevada Joint Blue Ribbon Task Force. The task force will undertake a "comprehensive review of land management practices associated with conditions that contributed to the devastating Angora fire," according to a press release from the Governor's office. Gibbons was not immediately available for comment on Monday, although Brent Boynton, a spokesman for his office, said the task force is in its infancy and members are being chosen this week. Membership will focus on those with fire management expertise and is likely to include local fire officials, according to Boynton. While neither of the governors' offices would spell out the agencies baring the brunt of the review, California Senator Dave Cox cast a wide net in a June 29 letter, urging the governors to create the task force. "There is a very strong feeling among residents of the Lake Tahoe Basin that over the years all levels of government have failed to properly manage the forest lands and reduce the threats of catastrophic wildfires. Many feel that the requirements and regulations that have been put in place by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) and the U.S. Forest Service have made the process of creating defensible space both cumbersome and costly," Cox wrote in the letter. "Further, I frequently hear from constituents who gladly abide by the 100 foot defensible space requirement, but are frustrated by the fact that adjoining lands owned by the California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC), California State Parks and the federal government do not meet the same requirements."....
Supervisors ask feds to clear lands As fire consumed 66,000 acres in California Tuesday, it dominated much of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors' meeting. The board pleaded in a letter to the Bureau of Land Management to reduce wood fuels on 17,000 acres of its property in Nevada County to help defend the county from flames. "The citizens see all this furor over fires and wonder why BLM can't clean up their own properties - or at least allow the public to get on the land and do it," Supervisor Hank Weston said. "While our citizens are required by the state of California to clear fire fuels at least 100 feet from their residences, they do not see BLM complying with these same regulations," Weston wrote in the board-approved letter. "In many cases, BLM parcels that are choked with flammable vegetation lie less than 100 feet from residential neighborhoods located in the outlying areas." The BLM lands are scattered throughout the county, but much of it is located in the South Yuba and Bear River watersheds....
Kane, Garfield to appeal ruling on road ownership Less than two weeks after a federal judge rejected Kane and Garfield counties' claims on roads in a national monument, the two county commissions have decided to appeal the ruling. Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw said the commissions decided on the move during a closed-session conference call Monday, believing the ruling's requirement to take each road claim to court separately is too great a burden. Habbeshaw said the counties' attorney will file a notice of the impending appeal this week. The appeal would argue U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins' June 29 opinion goes against case law and congressional intent on how to determine ownership of the roads that crosshatch the 1.8 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the commissioner said. Jenkins dismissed the lawsuit, ruling Kane and Garfield counties can't autonomously claim ownership of roads or expect the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to do so for them. That's because the BLM doesn't have the power to make binding decisions on road ownership, the ruling said. Further, until the counties prove ownership under legally required "quiet title" action, the lawsuit is premature, the judge said. Jenkins' ruling reiterated an earlier federal appeals court decision that, based on Utah law, each claim had to be judged in court after a county claimed title to a road....
Regulatory 'loophole' could drive cattle herds to U.S. for slaughter Canadian ranchers who want to avoid the cost and hassle of the government's new rules to stamp out mad cow disease can send their young cattle across the U.S. border. The animals can be slaughtered under laxer American rules, then shipped back into Canada and sold as steak, ribs and hamburgers -- as long as the animal's high-risk tissues, known as specified risk materials, or SRM, are left behind in the U.S., Canadian officials say. "If they take it down there and have it slaughtered and want to bring it back cut and wrapped (as meat), no problem, just as long as it comes back without the SRM," says Freeman Libby, national director of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's feed ban task force. The agency has no objection to such cross-border traffic, Libby says, even though it highlights a gap between mad-cow rules in Canada and the U.S. The gap widens Thursday when Canada's "enhanced" feed ban goes into force. The ban requires the removal and disposal of tissues that can harbour infectious proteins, called prions, that cause mad cow disease. The Americans continue to allow the risky cattle tissues to be used, along with other slaughter waste, in chicken and pet food as well as fertilizers. While Libby doesn't see a problem with the mismatched policies in Canada and the U.S., others do....
Bovine TB concerns Richardson Members of the state’s congressional delegation and Gov. Bill Richardson are concerned that federal agriculture officials appear poised to change New Mexico’s status as a bovine tuberculosis-free state since some dairy cattle in Curry County have tested positive for the disease. All dairies and ranchers in New Mexico would have to test their cattle for TB if the state’s status is lowered from a TB-free state, and the delegation and the governor believe that would violate federal regulations. “A downgrade of New Mexico’s status could cost our producers more than $4 million per year,” the delegation said Tuesday in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns. “We urge you to adhere to the existing regulations and maintain New Mexico’s current TB status.” New Mexico officials pointed out that the infected cattle in Curry County are located at two neighboring facilities and are under common ownership and supervision, meaning the animals should be considered a single herd under federal regulations. Under those same regulations, the governor and the delegation maintain that if the herd is destroyed and an investigation is conducted within 90 days, the state can retain its TB-free status....
New Mexico ranchers battle range caterpillars Ranchers in northeastern New Mexico want to get the upper hand on a native spiky caterpillar that has a voracious appetite. The range caterpillars began hatching earlier this month in parts of Colfax, Union, Mora and San Miguel counties. Some ranchers have embarked on a campaign to keep the caterpillars at bay with crop-dusters, pickup trucks outfitted with foggers and insecticide. They've already sprayed 108,000 acres and have at least 40,000 acres more to go. Union County extension agent David Graham says ranchers are hopeful the pre-emptive strike will keep the caterpillars from devouring pastures. Ranchers live with range caterpillars but usually to a much smaller degree. Graham classifies the latest invasion as "the worst case we've had in ten years."....
Wolves blamed for calves' deaths A Big Hole Valley rancher was issued a shoot-on-sight permit after wildlife officials confirmed a wolf killed a calf on his property last week and probably caused the death of another. State wildlife officials confirmed this week that one calf on the west side of the valley was killed by wolves and said a second calf that was found dead was also likely the victim of wolves. Wolves in the Miner Lake pack are suspected to have been involved in the incident. Officials issued a shoot-on-sight permit to the Big Hole Valley landowner, whose name was not released, and have authorized a federal trapper to kill the uncollared alpha male wolf of the pack because he is suspected of committing the attacks, state wildlife biologist Liz Bradley said in a telephone interview. "We're trying to just remove the one animal, which is the alpha male," she told the Montana Standard newspaper in Butte....
Pressure to Kill Wolves Mounting Across the Western USA Twelve years after reintroducing gray wolves to the Northern Rockies, the federal government has announced a plan that allows many of these same wolves and their offspring to be killed. Farther south, New Mexico Governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson Friday called for revision of state and federal wolf operating procedures after an endangered Mexican gray wolf was killed last week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The government wants to remove the wolves from the endangered species list in late 2007 or early 2008, a move that conservation groups oppose. The new proposal allows wolves in the Northern Rockies to be killed before they are formally delisted. "The government wants to treat wolves like vermin instead of an endangered species," said Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC. "It's trying to reverse one of the most successful wildlife recovery programs in U.S. history."....
Range wary Rancher Carey Hurd stands on a northern Nevada hillside and hangs his head. What was thousands of acres of prime grazing land Friday is now tar-black soot, and the burned bodies of his livestock litter the bizarre, smoldering landscape. Each one of these cattle, maybe a half-dozen within view, is worth at least $1,000. Hurd's livestock fell victim to the Highway 93 Complex Fire, a blaze that began with a lightning strike Friday afternoon and has escalated into an 80,000-acre disaster requiring the presence of the nation's top incident teams. The fire is yet to threaten many homes, but for Hurd and other ranchers that graze their cattle on Bureau of Land Management pastures and private property, the blaze is endangering their livelihoods. As many as 15 Magic Valley ranchers with grazing rights in northern Nevada have rushed to the fire in hopes of saving their cattle. Over the weekend, hundreds of livestock became trapped in a canyon, surrounded by flames. Ranchers worked on horseback and on ATVs, sometimes hardly stopping to sleep, to shepherd their animals from harm's way....
Finding Hope in the New Climate For a hint of the future of life on the plains, take a look at the shortgrass steppe, and a species of grass called blue grama. I’ve lately been saying that blue grama could be credited as the grass that won the West. This grass has a wide distribution -- all the way from the southern Canadian plains to central Mexico. According to researchers who’ve studied this grass in long-term projects, blue grama has been in decline. The documented decline has been enough to create some nervousness about the future of the western cattle industry. So, what’s behind its downhill trend? Blue grama is a C4 grass, which automatically raises the question of whether it’s documented decline stems from nothing more that rising concentrations of CO2. However, this C4 grass is something of a rarity for not being put at competitive disadvantage under elevated CO2 levels. So something else is afoot here. In a word, it’s heat. Some years ago, Science published an article by Colorado State University researchers who tested an hypothesis that warmer overnight temperatures were behind blue grama’s decline. Their hypothesis was supported by the evidence. But the researchers subsequently tested an alternative hypothesis – that longer growing seasons were behind the decline. The evidence supported the second hypothesis too. Support for both hypotheses doesn’t mean that each is competitive with the other. Instead, the warmer overnight temps and longer growing seasons share their origins in rising temperatures, and Colorado State’s scientists have calculated that blue grama declines by 30 percent per each degree C of warming....
Allard: Bigger Pinon Canyon financial boon for the region Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said the Army's planned expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site could mean an economic benefit of $500 million or more to the Pikes Peak region. However, he acknowledged there is little benefit being offered to Las Animas County ranchers should they have to sell their land to provide the 414,000 additional acres being targeted. "I think the cities of Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Canon City need to get together and decide if they want this economic development," Allard said Tuesday after reviewing the Army's brief response to several questions he had given Army Secretary Pete Geren last month. Allard declined to say whether he would support or remove an amendment to the 2008 military construction appropriations bill that would ban any expenditure on the expansion next year. The amendment was put in the House bill last month by Colorado Reps. Marilyn Musgrave and John Salazar. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Allard will have considerable influence on whether that amendment stays in a final bill....
Cheatgrass gets the better of reseeding efforts The cheatgrass that has fueled wildfires throughout Utah can grow back fast on the blackened rangelands, again becoming the propellant for many more blazes in the future. "It's amazing just how flammable cheatgrass is," said Bert Hart, a natural resource specialist with the Bureau of Land Management. "If you lit the same amount of cheatgrass and gasoline, it'd be hard to say which one would burn the fastest." Four fires are actively burning in Utah with varying degrees of containment, including the 311,000-acre Milford Flat fire in Beaver and Millard counties. Five others have been fully contained. Together, they have charred more than 415,000 acres. The cheatgrass scourge will not end when fires are extinguished. Winds will kick up exposed soil into dust storms, and rains can bring floods. Reseeding efforts to stop erosion and bring back native plants will be difficult - and there likely isn't near enough seed. Similar efforts failed in 1996 after the South Twin Peaks fire, which charred 28,000 acres near Interstate 15 in Millard and Beaver counties, Hart said. It was cheatgrass that flourished in the reseeded zone - the same area where the biggest wildfire in state history continues to burn....
Guard closes ranges, investigates fire The Montana National Guard has closed its three firing ranges in Montana until an investigation into the fire that began at Fort Harrison and scorched 550 acres on Monday is completed. The blaze began when machine-gun rounds were fired at the Fort Harrison weapons training range. National Guard Public Affairs Specialist Dan Bushnell said investigators will review standard operating procedures and in-place safety precautions. "We've got some work to do. We've got to get to the bottom of this so it doesn't happen again," he said. In addition to Fort Harrison, the Guard has ranges at Limestone Hills west of Townsend and Waco, which is east of Billings. It is not uncommon to have fires during training, Bushnell said. Officials look at risk factors including wind and heat every day the range is active and didn't see anything that seemed unsafe Monday. The extreme wind gusts were not in the forecast, he said....
Cabin with a view: Landowner, USFS spar over access Katherine Wikstrom wants to build a little cabin at the top of Confederate Gulch where she can create watercolors of the scenery, and she’d also like to share the fabulous overview of Canyon Ferry Reservoir with the general public. But Wikstrom, a philosophical firecracker in her early 70s, needs the blessing of the U.S. Forest Service to drive across its property to get to the old mining claims she owns on a plateau up Jimmy’s Gulch. While federal agency officials agree they have to allow reasonable access to Wikstrom, it doesn’t necessarily want to open that portion of the national forest to the general public, so it’s asking Wikstrom to install a locked gate that would limit motorized use. That bothers Wikstrom. “If somebody wants to go up the road and look for a couple of (gold) nuggets, then fine,” Wikstrom said. “I really don’t like gates because they obstruct regular people, who might like to go on top of the plateau and walk around at the top of Confederate Gulch. I would really like people to have access.” An old road, which is in fairly good shape, already leads to Wikstrom’s five mining claims. But the Forest Service closed the road in 1989 for big game security, to reduce the spread of noxious weeds and to reduce soil erosion....
3 counties saying no to river designations As the U.S. Forest Service considers which of its river segments should receive congressional protection, the Mountainland Association of Governments has sent a clear message for its area: none of them. At a recent MAG executive council meeting, local officials representing Summit, Wasatch and Utah counties voted unanimously to send a letter to the Forest Service requesting that none of the 21 proposed river segments in their areas be submitted to Congress for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic River System. Most of the segments are already included in a National Wilderness Preservation System, so the council agreed the streams are already sufficiently protected. Adding another designation to the streams would only increase the need for resources to maintain the areas, the letter says. The Forest Service started examining which river segments could be included in the Wild and Scenic River System about a year ago, but public comments on the proposed segments were gathered at a series of public meetings in May. During that time, the executive council of MAG, which is made up of mayors and county leaders from the three counties, expressed concern about the possibility of having some of the rivers in their area receive the designation. Currently, Utah doesn't have any rivers included in the system....
Feds favor culling elk herd near St. Helens he U.S. Forest Service is proposing limited elk hunts in three areas around Mount St. Helens to control the size of the herd. According to Tom Mulder, manager of the Mount St. Helens National Monument, the proposal would allow a limited number of Washington State master hunter program graduates to harvest elk with special permits. The permits would be issued by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in coordination with the Forest Service. The three areas, which are within the boundaries of the Loowit game management unit, could be open for hunting by the fall of 2008. The number of permits that would be issued has not been determined. A critic of the state's elk management practices near the volcano called the move a good first step toward reducing winter kill and keeping the herd healthier. "It is wise for them to allow hunting in the area," said state Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama....
Governors back blue ribbon fire task force On Friday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his intention to take a closer look at wildfire prevention in the Lake Tahoe Basin, with the formation of a California-Nevada Joint Blue Ribbon Task Force. The task force will undertake a "comprehensive review of land management practices associated with conditions that contributed to the devastating Angora fire," according to a press release from the Governor's office. Gibbons was not immediately available for comment on Monday, although Brent Boynton, a spokesman for his office, said the task force is in its infancy and members are being chosen this week. Membership will focus on those with fire management expertise and is likely to include local fire officials, according to Boynton. While neither of the governors' offices would spell out the agencies baring the brunt of the review, California Senator Dave Cox cast a wide net in a June 29 letter, urging the governors to create the task force. "There is a very strong feeling among residents of the Lake Tahoe Basin that over the years all levels of government have failed to properly manage the forest lands and reduce the threats of catastrophic wildfires. Many feel that the requirements and regulations that have been put in place by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) and the U.S. Forest Service have made the process of creating defensible space both cumbersome and costly," Cox wrote in the letter. "Further, I frequently hear from constituents who gladly abide by the 100 foot defensible space requirement, but are frustrated by the fact that adjoining lands owned by the California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC), California State Parks and the federal government do not meet the same requirements."....
Supervisors ask feds to clear lands As fire consumed 66,000 acres in California Tuesday, it dominated much of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors' meeting. The board pleaded in a letter to the Bureau of Land Management to reduce wood fuels on 17,000 acres of its property in Nevada County to help defend the county from flames. "The citizens see all this furor over fires and wonder why BLM can't clean up their own properties - or at least allow the public to get on the land and do it," Supervisor Hank Weston said. "While our citizens are required by the state of California to clear fire fuels at least 100 feet from their residences, they do not see BLM complying with these same regulations," Weston wrote in the board-approved letter. "In many cases, BLM parcels that are choked with flammable vegetation lie less than 100 feet from residential neighborhoods located in the outlying areas." The BLM lands are scattered throughout the county, but much of it is located in the South Yuba and Bear River watersheds....
Kane, Garfield to appeal ruling on road ownership Less than two weeks after a federal judge rejected Kane and Garfield counties' claims on roads in a national monument, the two county commissions have decided to appeal the ruling. Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw said the commissions decided on the move during a closed-session conference call Monday, believing the ruling's requirement to take each road claim to court separately is too great a burden. Habbeshaw said the counties' attorney will file a notice of the impending appeal this week. The appeal would argue U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins' June 29 opinion goes against case law and congressional intent on how to determine ownership of the roads that crosshatch the 1.8 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the commissioner said. Jenkins dismissed the lawsuit, ruling Kane and Garfield counties can't autonomously claim ownership of roads or expect the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to do so for them. That's because the BLM doesn't have the power to make binding decisions on road ownership, the ruling said. Further, until the counties prove ownership under legally required "quiet title" action, the lawsuit is premature, the judge said. Jenkins' ruling reiterated an earlier federal appeals court decision that, based on Utah law, each claim had to be judged in court after a county claimed title to a road....
Regulatory 'loophole' could drive cattle herds to U.S. for slaughter Canadian ranchers who want to avoid the cost and hassle of the government's new rules to stamp out mad cow disease can send their young cattle across the U.S. border. The animals can be slaughtered under laxer American rules, then shipped back into Canada and sold as steak, ribs and hamburgers -- as long as the animal's high-risk tissues, known as specified risk materials, or SRM, are left behind in the U.S., Canadian officials say. "If they take it down there and have it slaughtered and want to bring it back cut and wrapped (as meat), no problem, just as long as it comes back without the SRM," says Freeman Libby, national director of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's feed ban task force. The agency has no objection to such cross-border traffic, Libby says, even though it highlights a gap between mad-cow rules in Canada and the U.S. The gap widens Thursday when Canada's "enhanced" feed ban goes into force. The ban requires the removal and disposal of tissues that can harbour infectious proteins, called prions, that cause mad cow disease. The Americans continue to allow the risky cattle tissues to be used, along with other slaughter waste, in chicken and pet food as well as fertilizers. While Libby doesn't see a problem with the mismatched policies in Canada and the U.S., others do....
Bovine TB concerns Richardson Members of the state’s congressional delegation and Gov. Bill Richardson are concerned that federal agriculture officials appear poised to change New Mexico’s status as a bovine tuberculosis-free state since some dairy cattle in Curry County have tested positive for the disease. All dairies and ranchers in New Mexico would have to test their cattle for TB if the state’s status is lowered from a TB-free state, and the delegation and the governor believe that would violate federal regulations. “A downgrade of New Mexico’s status could cost our producers more than $4 million per year,” the delegation said Tuesday in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns. “We urge you to adhere to the existing regulations and maintain New Mexico’s current TB status.” New Mexico officials pointed out that the infected cattle in Curry County are located at two neighboring facilities and are under common ownership and supervision, meaning the animals should be considered a single herd under federal regulations. Under those same regulations, the governor and the delegation maintain that if the herd is destroyed and an investigation is conducted within 90 days, the state can retain its TB-free status....
New Mexico ranchers battle range caterpillars Ranchers in northeastern New Mexico want to get the upper hand on a native spiky caterpillar that has a voracious appetite. The range caterpillars began hatching earlier this month in parts of Colfax, Union, Mora and San Miguel counties. Some ranchers have embarked on a campaign to keep the caterpillars at bay with crop-dusters, pickup trucks outfitted with foggers and insecticide. They've already sprayed 108,000 acres and have at least 40,000 acres more to go. Union County extension agent David Graham says ranchers are hopeful the pre-emptive strike will keep the caterpillars from devouring pastures. Ranchers live with range caterpillars but usually to a much smaller degree. Graham classifies the latest invasion as "the worst case we've had in ten years."....
FLE
Judges OK warrantless monitoring of Web use Federal agents do not need a search warrant to monitor a suspect's computer use and determine the e-mail addresses and Web pages the suspect is contacting, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. In a drug case from San Diego County, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco likened computer surveillance to the "pen register" devices that officers use to pinpoint the phone numbers a suspect dials, without listening to the phone calls themselves. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of pen registers in 1979, saying callers have no right to conceal from the government the numbers they communicate electronically to the phone companies that carry their calls. Federal law requires court approval for a pen register. But because it is not considered a search, authorities do not need a search warrant, which would require them to show that the surveillance is likely to produce evidence of a crime. They also do not need a wiretap order, which would require them to show that less intrusive methods of surveillance have failed or would be futile. In Friday's ruling, the court said computer users should know that they lose privacy protections with e-mail and Web site addresses when they are communicated to the company whose equipment carries the messages....
Feds use key logger to thwart PGP, Hushmail A recent court case provides a rare glimpse into how some federal agents deal with encryption: by breaking into a suspect's home or office, implanting keystroke-logging software, and spying on what happens from afar. An agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration persuaded a federal judge to authorize him to sneak into an Escondido, Calif., office believed to be a front for manufacturing the drug MDMA, or Ecstasy. The DEA received permission to copy the hard drives' contents and inject a keystroke logger into the computers. That was necessary, according to DEA Agent Greg Coffey, because the suspects were using PGP and the encrypted Web e-mail service Hushmail.com. Coffey asserted that the DEA needed "real-time and meaningful access" to "monitor the keystrokes" for PGP and Hushmail passphrases. The aggressive surveillance techniques employed by the DEA were part of a case that resulted in a ruling on Friday by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which primarily dealt with Internet surveillance through a wiretap conducted on a PacBell (now AT&T) business DSL line used by the defendants. Note there's no evidence the DEA used the FBI's keystroke logger known as Magic Lantern, which reportedly can be installed remotely by taking advantage of operating system vulnerabilities without having agents physically break into an office....
Fort Dix Prosecutors Seek Anonymous Jury Federal prosecutors have asked that an anonymous jury be impaneled for the trial of six men accused of plotting to attack soldiers on Fort Dix. In a motion filed Monday, the U.S. attorney's office said potential jurors might fear for their safety because of the nature of the charges and the international publicity around the case. The request could be discussed at a meeting Friday before U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler. Attorney Rocco Cipparone, who represents Mohamad Shnewer, told the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill for Tuesday's editions that he opposes an anonymous jury, fearing it would only fuel the perception that the defendants are dangerous....
New York City Plans 'Ring of Steel' The city that never sleeps is about to get many more unblinking eyes. According to a report in Monday's New York Times, New York City is setting up a web of surveillance cameras, remote-controlled roadblocks, and license-reading technology throughout lower Manhattan, which includes Wall Street. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the Times that the project is "very critical to the economic lifeblood of this nation." The new security Relevant Products/Services measures, he said, will make the city "less vulnerable." When completed, the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative will have 3,000 public and private security cameras below Canal Street, as well as a center for police and private security officials. About 2,000 of the cameras will be owned by downtown businesses. The entire initiative is projected to be completed by 2010, with 100 cameras being operational before the end of this year. There will be cameras in fixed locations, in addition to mobile ones in cars and helicopters. The information will be transmitted live. According to the Times, the police have not yet decided if they will use face-recognition technology, but they will be able to read license plates. Some observers questioned the efficiency of the cameras, as well as the privacy issues they raise. The New York Civil Liberties Union has said that the program is being implemented without any public input, and that there are no safeguards for how the images are used or made accessible. Others, such as the conservative Heritage Foundation, noted that there is little evidence security cameras actually deter terrorism....
Judges OK warrantless monitoring of Web use Federal agents do not need a search warrant to monitor a suspect's computer use and determine the e-mail addresses and Web pages the suspect is contacting, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. In a drug case from San Diego County, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco likened computer surveillance to the "pen register" devices that officers use to pinpoint the phone numbers a suspect dials, without listening to the phone calls themselves. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of pen registers in 1979, saying callers have no right to conceal from the government the numbers they communicate electronically to the phone companies that carry their calls. Federal law requires court approval for a pen register. But because it is not considered a search, authorities do not need a search warrant, which would require them to show that the surveillance is likely to produce evidence of a crime. They also do not need a wiretap order, which would require them to show that less intrusive methods of surveillance have failed or would be futile. In Friday's ruling, the court said computer users should know that they lose privacy protections with e-mail and Web site addresses when they are communicated to the company whose equipment carries the messages....
Feds use key logger to thwart PGP, Hushmail A recent court case provides a rare glimpse into how some federal agents deal with encryption: by breaking into a suspect's home or office, implanting keystroke-logging software, and spying on what happens from afar. An agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration persuaded a federal judge to authorize him to sneak into an Escondido, Calif., office believed to be a front for manufacturing the drug MDMA, or Ecstasy. The DEA received permission to copy the hard drives' contents and inject a keystroke logger into the computers. That was necessary, according to DEA Agent Greg Coffey, because the suspects were using PGP and the encrypted Web e-mail service Hushmail.com. Coffey asserted that the DEA needed "real-time and meaningful access" to "monitor the keystrokes" for PGP and Hushmail passphrases. The aggressive surveillance techniques employed by the DEA were part of a case that resulted in a ruling on Friday by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which primarily dealt with Internet surveillance through a wiretap conducted on a PacBell (now AT&T) business DSL line used by the defendants. Note there's no evidence the DEA used the FBI's keystroke logger known as Magic Lantern, which reportedly can be installed remotely by taking advantage of operating system vulnerabilities without having agents physically break into an office....
Fort Dix Prosecutors Seek Anonymous Jury Federal prosecutors have asked that an anonymous jury be impaneled for the trial of six men accused of plotting to attack soldiers on Fort Dix. In a motion filed Monday, the U.S. attorney's office said potential jurors might fear for their safety because of the nature of the charges and the international publicity around the case. The request could be discussed at a meeting Friday before U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler. Attorney Rocco Cipparone, who represents Mohamad Shnewer, told the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill for Tuesday's editions that he opposes an anonymous jury, fearing it would only fuel the perception that the defendants are dangerous....
New York City Plans 'Ring of Steel' The city that never sleeps is about to get many more unblinking eyes. According to a report in Monday's New York Times, New York City is setting up a web of surveillance cameras, remote-controlled roadblocks, and license-reading technology throughout lower Manhattan, which includes Wall Street. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the Times that the project is "very critical to the economic lifeblood of this nation." The new security Relevant Products/Services measures, he said, will make the city "less vulnerable." When completed, the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative will have 3,000 public and private security cameras below Canal Street, as well as a center for police and private security officials. About 2,000 of the cameras will be owned by downtown businesses. The entire initiative is projected to be completed by 2010, with 100 cameras being operational before the end of this year. There will be cameras in fixed locations, in addition to mobile ones in cars and helicopters. The information will be transmitted live. According to the Times, the police have not yet decided if they will use face-recognition technology, but they will be able to read license plates. Some observers questioned the efficiency of the cameras, as well as the privacy issues they raise. The New York Civil Liberties Union has said that the program is being implemented without any public input, and that there are no safeguards for how the images are used or made accessible. Others, such as the conservative Heritage Foundation, noted that there is little evidence security cameras actually deter terrorism....
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Losses drag on long after fire dies Wildfires in Utah's rural counties are blackening rangeland grasses and killing cattle in what could become an agricultural disaster. Rodney Johnson of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that reports are still coming in, but "it's a no-brainer" that damage could be extensive for ranchers and farmers in central Utah, where the biggest wildfire in state history has charred more than 300,000 acres. Farmers and ranchers in Beaver and Millard counties in central Utah and those living in Duchesne and Uintah counties to the northeast are worried there'll be little or no rangeland where their cattle can graze, forcing them to sell off their herds or come up with cash to buy feed from hundreds of miles away. David Roberts, president of the local Utah Farm Bureau in Beaver County, said as many as 150 head of cattle may have been killed. Two days ago, firefighters allowed ranchers to go into hot spots to open gates for trapped livestock, he said, but later kept them from the rapidly shifting flames. Rancher Floyd Yardley doesn't know how many cattle he may have lost on Beaver County's Mineral Range, but he has been told that 32 burnt carcasses were found in one location. "Every one you lose is just like throwing a $1,000 bill out the window," Yardley said. "Maybe it'll do some families under."....
Perry announces bioenergy plan Texas' strategy for developing alternative fuel sources will focus on using nonfood products for energy production so that the effort is not in conflict with the state's multibillion-dollar cattle industry, Gov. Rick Perry said Monday. Biofuels, such as ethanol, are made from corn and other agricultural products. But the state's ranchers use these same food items to feed their cattle. "Feed lots, which we are the No. 1 feed cattle producing state in the nation, are not happy campers when they see corn going to fuel production. So finding the balance is what this is really all about," Perry said during a news conference detailing the state's bioenergy strategy. "We don't want to be put in the place of having to decide whether we are going to feed cattle or fuel vehicles." Perry said Texas will focus on creating biofuels through cellulosic feedstock such as switchgrass, a hardy prairie grass, and wood chips and corn stems....
Judge hears grouse debate Environmentalists urged a federal judge Monday to reverse a 2005 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruling that kept the sage grouse off the endangered species list, arguing the agency's decision ignored science and was tainted by political meddling. For decades, populations of the chicken-sized bird that once thrived across more than 150 million acres of Western sagebrush in 13 states and Canada have been in decline. The case could have broad implications for all kinds of activities on public lands across the West. Conservationists and biologists say threats to the bird's habitat from urban growth, oil and gas drilling, ecosystem degradation caused by wildfire, road building and West Nile virus have reduced its present population to a fraction of its historic numbers, estimated by some at more than 1 million in the early 1800s. Despite those declines, Fish and Wildlife ruled against granting the highly prized game bird endangered species status, a decision that pleased energy companies and ranchers who feared federal protections would crimp oil and gas projects in states including Wyoming and Montana and restrict grazing from Washington to Colorado....
Bear activity leads to closure Two black bears with a taste for human food have led the Forest Service to close the Mussigbrod campground and trail head in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest about 15 miles northwest of here. The area will be closed for at least a week until it's clear the bears have left the area, forest officials said Sunday. Officials say one large bear and another believed to be a 2-year-old cub have raided several campsites. In one recent incident, a bear tore open a screen door on a trailer, entered and took a container of cookies while the trailer's campers slept nearby. Also recently, the bears were found in the bed of a pickup truck, eating food from a cooler. When campers tried to chase the bears away, the larger one stood its ground for a time.
Feds seeking looser rules on wolf kills The federal government is proposing new rules to make it easier to kill wolves that are affecting elk populations and have been seen attacking dogs, horses and other stock animals. "It's time to start treating them like resident game animals, like mountain lions and black bears," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The rules were published in the Federal Register on Friday and are open for public comment until early August. There are about 1,300 wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Earlier this year, federal officials proposed taking them off the endangered species list. One of the rules published Friday allows the public to comment again on the delisting proposal, which now includes a management plan from Wyoming that would allow wolves in much of the state to be treated as predators and killed without regulation. The other rules loosen the language that governs when wolves can be killed....
Groups decry federal wolf plan The Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club and other groups say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is bowing to political pressure in proposing to make it easier for states in the northern Rocky Mountains to kill wolves to protect other wildlife and domesticated animals. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesmen and state officials, however, say the existing rule governing when states can kill wolves sets an impossibly high standard. They say politics has nothing to do with the proposed change. The Fish and Wildlife Service last week published notice in the Federal Register saying it intends to allow Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to kill wolves if they can show the animals are a major cause of elk and deer herds failing to meet state or tribal management goals....
Wolf changes insufficient, Wyo official says Proposed federal rule changes don't go far enough in giving the state the ability to kill wolves preying on other wildlife, Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank said Monday. In particular, Crank noted that the proposed rule would require that proposals from state game managers wanting to kill wolves would have to be peer-reviewed by outside scientists. He said it would be more efficient to allow states to start killing wolves when the number of calves in an elk herd in areas populated by wolves fall below critical levels. "When you have a huge overpopulation of a very efficient predator like that, it's going to have an effect on your other wildlife populations," Crank said. Terry Cleveland, director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said last week that elk populations in three areas of the state are experiencing significant impacts due to wolf predation. The proposed rules would remain in effect only until the federal government turns over wolf management to the states by ending wolf protection under the Endangered Species Act. Federal officials say that could happen as soon as next year and are holding public hearings on their proposal to end federal oversight. However, conservation groups have threatened to sue over the proposal to end federal wolf protection in the states. If they do, having the new rule in effect could allow the states to kill wolves while litigation over ending federal protection drags on, as many predict it will....
Feds try new fire strategies With an intense fire season under way, the U.S. Forest Service has been employing some new tools and strategies to fight wildfires in the West, said Marc Rounsaville, the agency's deputy director for fire and aviation management. In a wide-ranging interview Monday, Rounsaville said indications show the fire season is running two to three weeks ahead of schedule in some parts of the West. Across the country both the number of fires and acres burned are rapidly outpacing the 10-year averages of those measures, he said. "We had over 1,000 fires the last four days, burned several hundred thousand acres, a number of structures damaged or lost and several incidents including the one civilian fatality up in South Dakota," he said. Lately Forest Service officials have talked about implementing a policy of "appropriate management response," or AMR, to give them more flexibility in firefighting decisions....
BLM aims to fix boundary problem A long-standing boundary line error between the Bureau of Land Management and a Sublette County sheep grower looks to be close to resolution. At issue was whether much of the John and Joy Erramouspe ranch buildings were built on federal or private property. As it turned out, improved surveys said half of the old farmhouse and other larger structures were built on BLM land. “This is BLM’s attempt to resolve a long-standing boundary issue,” said Steven Hall, public affairs director for the Wyoming BLM in Cheyenne. As detailed in the Federal Register Monday, the BLM wants to sell 40 acres to the Erramouspes at $160 an acre or $6,400 total, “for the appraised fair market value - to resolve an unintentional unauthorized use of public lands.” Hall said the original farmhouse was constructed by previous owners in the late 1800s, under the Homestead Act and before federal lands were clearly defined. According to the Federal Register notice, the unauthorized occupancy involves an access road, two residences, and various ranch-related structures including a garage, grain silos and fence on the public land....
Mountain biking going downhill A decade ago last weekend, Gary DeFrange started his job as general manager of the Winter Park ski area with the cooing melodies of the short-lived Lillith Fair. Ten years later, he was eyeing an army of gladiators on downhill mountain bikes, front-flipping and tail-whipping over 35-foot step-downs and double jumps. "We've come so far," DeFrange said as the first Crankworx downhill mountain biking contest in the Lower 48 got underway at his Grand County hill. "It amazes me to think of all those (ski) mountains that took downhill off their trails. I really think this is the future of mountain bike racing." While some ski resorts were banning the speeding aerialists from their trails, Crankworx put British Columbia's Whistler ski area on the North American map for the downhill tribe, a growing niche in the knobby-tired world that blends motocross and BMX in a high-speed, higher-flying, crowd-pleasing twist on traditional singletrack riding. Intrawest Corp., which owns Whistler and operates Winter Park, brought its Crankworx team to Colorado last month to begin sculpting a course for the best in the growing realm of gravity-fueled mountain biking. Knowing that downhill has fueled a summertime frenzy at Whistler, Winter Park is working with the Forest Service to design 20 downhill trails in the next five years with features for trickster free- riding and mach-speed racing to augment its already vibrant singletrack scene....
BLM Gets OK for New North Slope Drilling The Bureau of Land Management could go ahead with plans to allow drilling in a sensitive area near Teshekpuk Lake on the North Slope, an agency spokeswoman said. The BLM added to its environmental impact assessment of drilling in the area and that information is now being reviewed, said spokeswoman Sharon Wilson. The results of the review should be completed soon, she said. The review is the latest development in the fight between federal land managers in favor of oil and gas drilling and environmental and Native groups wanting to keep the area closed because of its importance to migratory birds and caribou. The land in question covers roughly 400,000 acres and lies to the north and east of Teshekpuk Lake. It sits within the 4.6-million acre northeast planning area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska....
Passing of an era? Its adobe walls have withstood the desert climate and visits from weary travelers and prospectors for more than 80 years. But Rancho Dos Palmas may not survive the Bureau of Land Management's plans to demolish it if supporting organizations cannot prove the building is structurally sound - or come up with the money to make it so. The Friends of Dos Palmas, with the support of Desert Alliance for Community Empowerment and Coachella Valley Community Trails Alliance, are working to preserve what they call "a link to the desert's rich past." "It would be absolutely terrible to lose one of the last remaining adobes in the area," said Jennie Kelly, chair of the North Shore Community Council and a Friend of Dos Palmas. Connected to the Dos Palmas Oasis in North Shore, the ranch house once served as a stopover for stagecoaches and, in subsequent decades, Hollywood stars. It now stands unoccupied on lands designated by the Bureau of Land Management as a wildlife refuge....
Critics say species list is endangered The bald eagle may be soaring back from near-extinction, but hundreds of other imperiled species are foundering, as the federal agency charged with protecting them has sunk into legal, bureaucratic and political turmoil. In the last six years, the Bush administration has added fewer species to the endangered list than any other since the law was enacted in 1973. The slowdown has resulted in a waiting list of 279 candidates that are near extinction, according to government scientists, from California's Yosemite toad to Puerto Rico's elfin-woods warbler. Beyond the reluctance to list new species, a bottleneck is weakening efforts to save those already listed. Some 200 of the 1,326 officially endangered species are close to expiring, according to environmental groups, in part because funds have been cut for their recovery. "It's wonderful the bald eagle is recovering — one of the most charismatic and best funded species ever," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, a former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who now works for Defenders of Wildlife, an advocacy group. "But what's happening with the other species? This administration has starved the endangered species' budget. It has dismantled and demoralized its staff." Bryan Arroyo, acting assistant director of endangered species for the Fish and Wildlife Service, acknowledges a 30% vacancy rate in the program's staff, and the fact that the agency's top position has been left unfilled for more than a year....
Pupfish make big ripple to survive It's 110 degrees, hardly a heat wave for Death Valley. And in a small, bathtub-warm pool below a steep, rocky incline, small fish appear to be at play, darting and chasing each other through patches of algae. These are Devils Hole pupfish and, aside from the strangeness of finding fish in the middle of North America's harshest desert, they're about as remarkable to the naked eye as a fat tadpole. But this particular fish species is revered for helping galvanize public opinion and government efforts to save endangered species. The fish was the focus of a 1976 Supreme Court ruling that became a cornerstone of Western water policy. Today, the Devils Hole pupfish population has dwindled to 38, confirmed by government divers in their spring count, and the fish has become the object of intense study by federal agencies and private groups to stave off extinction. It also figures in broader research to map a vast aquifer under Nevada and parts of Idaho and Utah and to determine how that groundwater is to be allocated in a fast-growing region that includes Las Vegas....
Democrats’ climate clash heads to floor The intensifying battle between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a powerful committee chairman may lead to a global-warming showdown on the House floor later this month. The outcome of an anticipated vote on energy legislation before the August recess could determine whether Pelosi will control the debate over a more comprehensive and controversial climate change bill this fall. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Pelosi have been publicly at odds on climate change since the beginning of the Congress. And there have been clear indications recently that the tension between the two high-profile lawmakers is escalating. As Dingell lobbed fresh insults in an interview late last week at the global warming panel that Pelosi created, Democratic leaders were discussing how to structure the time and format of the energy bill debate, according to Democratic aides and lobbyists familiar with the discussions....
Move to cut methane emissions by changing cows' diet Burping cows and sheep are being targeted by UK scientists to help bring down Britain's soaring levels of greenhouse gas pollution. Experts at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth say the diet of farmed animals can be changed to make them produce less methane, a more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide. Farmed ruminant animals are thought to be responsible for up to a quarter of "man-made" methane emissions worldwide though, contrary to common belief, most gas emerges from their front, not rear, ends. Mike Abberton, a scientist at the institute, said farmers could help tackle climate change by growing grass varieties bred to have high sugar levels, white clover and birdsfoot trefoil, a leafy legume, for their animals to eat. The altered diet changes the way that bacteria in the stomachs of the animals break down plant material into waste gas, he said....
Six-toed Hemingway cats can stay, city says City officials have sided with Ernest Hemingway's former home and its celebrated six-toed felines in its cat fight with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Patches, a descendant of Ernest Hemingway's six-toed cats, is on the prowl in Key West, Florida. The Key West City Commission exempted the home from a city law prohibiting more than four domestic animals per household. About 50 cats live there. The house has been locked in a dispute with the USDA, which claims the museum is an "exhibitor" of cats and needs a special license, a claim the home disputes. The new ordinance reads in part, "The cats reside on the property just as the cats did in the time of Hemingway himself. They are not on exhibition in the manner of circus animals. ... The City Commission finds that family of polydactyl Hemingway cats are indeed animals of historic, social and tourism significance." It also states that the cats are "an integral part of the history and ambiance of the Hemingway House." A USDA spokesman did not return messages left late Sunday. The cats are descendants of a six-toed cat given as a gift to the writer in 1935. All carry the gene for six toes, though not all display the trait.
Jury still pondering fight over fortune Jurors wrapped up their fourth day of deliberations Monday in the trial over the estate of King Ranch heir B.K. Johnson without reaching a verdict. They've got a lot to do after three months of testimony and more than 800 exhibits. Known as B, Johnson died of cancer at 71 in 2001. His children and grandchildren are suing his widow, Laura McAllister Johnson, over his last will. B left his estimated $60 million estate in trust to Johnson; he left his daughters and his son's widow his collection of vintage firearms, valued at about $75,000. The children sued in 2003, contending Johnson and B's advisers took advantage of a rich, emotionally needy, alcohol-enfeebled man 20 years Johnson's senior. Plaintiffs are daughters Sarah Johnson Pitt and Cecilia Johnson McMurrey, daughter-in-law Cecilia Johnson Hager, and the eight children among them. Beneath the years of distrust and resentment between the parties is the question of whether the rancher was competent when he made out his last will. Both sides presented plenty of arguments that he was or was not, sometimes using the same documents as evidence....
Five Questions: Lifelong rancher receives Roundup award The Shelton family has been ranching in the Panhandle for more than a century, and Jack Shelton has done his share to keep the family business running. Cowboy Roundup USA recently named Shelton rancher of the year. According to the nomination letter from cattleman Monty Johnson, Shelton has made the Bravo Ranch, once part of the historic XIT Ranch, "one of the largest and best operated ranches in the Panhandle." On Shelton's office wall is a flyer from the late 1800s that touted the Bravo as a place Midwesterners should consider moving to. "The Best of the Best of the Great Panhandle Country of Texas," is its headline. The ranch is about 45 miles southwest of Dalhart, close to New Mexico on the Oldham-Hartley county line - "a long way from anywhere," Shelton said. Q: What kind of operation is it? A: It's kind of a mix, depending on somebody's idea of the market. Usually, we have a mix of feeders, stockers and cows, and we have interests in feedlots near Dumas. Malcom, my oldest son, is the manager now....
It's All Trew: Carbon helped Panhandle live No, it was not really a mountain range, just smoke from the carbon black plants down at Borger. At that time, the oil business was a total mystery as there was not a single oil or gas well in sight. Carbon black looks like soot from a lamp chimney. It's produced by controlled combustion of both natural gas and some grades of crude oil. The product is used mostly in auto tire manufacture, but it is also contained in pigments, inks and some paints. The first Texas Panhandle carbon black plant was built in 1926 in Hutchinson County near Borger. Another came to Pampa in 1928. By 1937, there were 33 plants in the Panhandle, producing 82 percent of the nation's output....
It’s The Pitts: Ranch Dressing According to trendsetters I’m back in fashion. Or at least my jeans are. I have been fashionable now twice in my life. The first time was during the hippy era when everyone looked like they’d just survived a nuclear blast in their tattered clothing. And it appears that I’m “IN” once again as leading fashionistas have declared that jeans are now sensible and stylish for work, play and dressy occasions. Whatever those are. Because I am a blue jeans expert and a man of exquisite taste I’ve agreed to answer your clothes questions so that you too can be cool and fashionable like me. Dear Clotheshorse, What do you think of the low-riding, baggy jeans that are so popular with today’s teens? Not much. Today’s youth lower their cars and their jeans to dangerous levels. The exposed-underwear-look is not one I’d recommend for obese males or anyone who blushes easily. The knee length jeans that teenagers are wearing are reminiscent of the “pedal pushers” worn by women that were last popular in 1944. Dear Clotheshorse, Italian designer jeans are popular but I have an unusual body type. Instead of an hourglass I’m shaped more like a pair. The Italian jeans I looked at were tight fitting and were selling for an absurd figure. Should I splurge on a pair? Please don’t. Skintight Italian jeans shouldn’t be worn by anyone with an absurd figure. Just spill some spaghetti on your Wranglers and tell everyone they’re Italian....
Losses drag on long after fire dies Wildfires in Utah's rural counties are blackening rangeland grasses and killing cattle in what could become an agricultural disaster. Rodney Johnson of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that reports are still coming in, but "it's a no-brainer" that damage could be extensive for ranchers and farmers in central Utah, where the biggest wildfire in state history has charred more than 300,000 acres. Farmers and ranchers in Beaver and Millard counties in central Utah and those living in Duchesne and Uintah counties to the northeast are worried there'll be little or no rangeland where their cattle can graze, forcing them to sell off their herds or come up with cash to buy feed from hundreds of miles away. David Roberts, president of the local Utah Farm Bureau in Beaver County, said as many as 150 head of cattle may have been killed. Two days ago, firefighters allowed ranchers to go into hot spots to open gates for trapped livestock, he said, but later kept them from the rapidly shifting flames. Rancher Floyd Yardley doesn't know how many cattle he may have lost on Beaver County's Mineral Range, but he has been told that 32 burnt carcasses were found in one location. "Every one you lose is just like throwing a $1,000 bill out the window," Yardley said. "Maybe it'll do some families under."....
Perry announces bioenergy plan Texas' strategy for developing alternative fuel sources will focus on using nonfood products for energy production so that the effort is not in conflict with the state's multibillion-dollar cattle industry, Gov. Rick Perry said Monday. Biofuels, such as ethanol, are made from corn and other agricultural products. But the state's ranchers use these same food items to feed their cattle. "Feed lots, which we are the No. 1 feed cattle producing state in the nation, are not happy campers when they see corn going to fuel production. So finding the balance is what this is really all about," Perry said during a news conference detailing the state's bioenergy strategy. "We don't want to be put in the place of having to decide whether we are going to feed cattle or fuel vehicles." Perry said Texas will focus on creating biofuels through cellulosic feedstock such as switchgrass, a hardy prairie grass, and wood chips and corn stems....
Judge hears grouse debate Environmentalists urged a federal judge Monday to reverse a 2005 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruling that kept the sage grouse off the endangered species list, arguing the agency's decision ignored science and was tainted by political meddling. For decades, populations of the chicken-sized bird that once thrived across more than 150 million acres of Western sagebrush in 13 states and Canada have been in decline. The case could have broad implications for all kinds of activities on public lands across the West. Conservationists and biologists say threats to the bird's habitat from urban growth, oil and gas drilling, ecosystem degradation caused by wildfire, road building and West Nile virus have reduced its present population to a fraction of its historic numbers, estimated by some at more than 1 million in the early 1800s. Despite those declines, Fish and Wildlife ruled against granting the highly prized game bird endangered species status, a decision that pleased energy companies and ranchers who feared federal protections would crimp oil and gas projects in states including Wyoming and Montana and restrict grazing from Washington to Colorado....
Bear activity leads to closure Two black bears with a taste for human food have led the Forest Service to close the Mussigbrod campground and trail head in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest about 15 miles northwest of here. The area will be closed for at least a week until it's clear the bears have left the area, forest officials said Sunday. Officials say one large bear and another believed to be a 2-year-old cub have raided several campsites. In one recent incident, a bear tore open a screen door on a trailer, entered and took a container of cookies while the trailer's campers slept nearby. Also recently, the bears were found in the bed of a pickup truck, eating food from a cooler. When campers tried to chase the bears away, the larger one stood its ground for a time.
Feds seeking looser rules on wolf kills The federal government is proposing new rules to make it easier to kill wolves that are affecting elk populations and have been seen attacking dogs, horses and other stock animals. "It's time to start treating them like resident game animals, like mountain lions and black bears," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The rules were published in the Federal Register on Friday and are open for public comment until early August. There are about 1,300 wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Earlier this year, federal officials proposed taking them off the endangered species list. One of the rules published Friday allows the public to comment again on the delisting proposal, which now includes a management plan from Wyoming that would allow wolves in much of the state to be treated as predators and killed without regulation. The other rules loosen the language that governs when wolves can be killed....
Groups decry federal wolf plan The Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club and other groups say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is bowing to political pressure in proposing to make it easier for states in the northern Rocky Mountains to kill wolves to protect other wildlife and domesticated animals. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesmen and state officials, however, say the existing rule governing when states can kill wolves sets an impossibly high standard. They say politics has nothing to do with the proposed change. The Fish and Wildlife Service last week published notice in the Federal Register saying it intends to allow Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to kill wolves if they can show the animals are a major cause of elk and deer herds failing to meet state or tribal management goals....
Wolf changes insufficient, Wyo official says Proposed federal rule changes don't go far enough in giving the state the ability to kill wolves preying on other wildlife, Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank said Monday. In particular, Crank noted that the proposed rule would require that proposals from state game managers wanting to kill wolves would have to be peer-reviewed by outside scientists. He said it would be more efficient to allow states to start killing wolves when the number of calves in an elk herd in areas populated by wolves fall below critical levels. "When you have a huge overpopulation of a very efficient predator like that, it's going to have an effect on your other wildlife populations," Crank said. Terry Cleveland, director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said last week that elk populations in three areas of the state are experiencing significant impacts due to wolf predation. The proposed rules would remain in effect only until the federal government turns over wolf management to the states by ending wolf protection under the Endangered Species Act. Federal officials say that could happen as soon as next year and are holding public hearings on their proposal to end federal oversight. However, conservation groups have threatened to sue over the proposal to end federal wolf protection in the states. If they do, having the new rule in effect could allow the states to kill wolves while litigation over ending federal protection drags on, as many predict it will....
Feds try new fire strategies With an intense fire season under way, the U.S. Forest Service has been employing some new tools and strategies to fight wildfires in the West, said Marc Rounsaville, the agency's deputy director for fire and aviation management. In a wide-ranging interview Monday, Rounsaville said indications show the fire season is running two to three weeks ahead of schedule in some parts of the West. Across the country both the number of fires and acres burned are rapidly outpacing the 10-year averages of those measures, he said. "We had over 1,000 fires the last four days, burned several hundred thousand acres, a number of structures damaged or lost and several incidents including the one civilian fatality up in South Dakota," he said. Lately Forest Service officials have talked about implementing a policy of "appropriate management response," or AMR, to give them more flexibility in firefighting decisions....
BLM aims to fix boundary problem A long-standing boundary line error between the Bureau of Land Management and a Sublette County sheep grower looks to be close to resolution. At issue was whether much of the John and Joy Erramouspe ranch buildings were built on federal or private property. As it turned out, improved surveys said half of the old farmhouse and other larger structures were built on BLM land. “This is BLM’s attempt to resolve a long-standing boundary issue,” said Steven Hall, public affairs director for the Wyoming BLM in Cheyenne. As detailed in the Federal Register Monday, the BLM wants to sell 40 acres to the Erramouspes at $160 an acre or $6,400 total, “for the appraised fair market value - to resolve an unintentional unauthorized use of public lands.” Hall said the original farmhouse was constructed by previous owners in the late 1800s, under the Homestead Act and before federal lands were clearly defined. According to the Federal Register notice, the unauthorized occupancy involves an access road, two residences, and various ranch-related structures including a garage, grain silos and fence on the public land....
Mountain biking going downhill A decade ago last weekend, Gary DeFrange started his job as general manager of the Winter Park ski area with the cooing melodies of the short-lived Lillith Fair. Ten years later, he was eyeing an army of gladiators on downhill mountain bikes, front-flipping and tail-whipping over 35-foot step-downs and double jumps. "We've come so far," DeFrange said as the first Crankworx downhill mountain biking contest in the Lower 48 got underway at his Grand County hill. "It amazes me to think of all those (ski) mountains that took downhill off their trails. I really think this is the future of mountain bike racing." While some ski resorts were banning the speeding aerialists from their trails, Crankworx put British Columbia's Whistler ski area on the North American map for the downhill tribe, a growing niche in the knobby-tired world that blends motocross and BMX in a high-speed, higher-flying, crowd-pleasing twist on traditional singletrack riding. Intrawest Corp., which owns Whistler and operates Winter Park, brought its Crankworx team to Colorado last month to begin sculpting a course for the best in the growing realm of gravity-fueled mountain biking. Knowing that downhill has fueled a summertime frenzy at Whistler, Winter Park is working with the Forest Service to design 20 downhill trails in the next five years with features for trickster free- riding and mach-speed racing to augment its already vibrant singletrack scene....
BLM Gets OK for New North Slope Drilling The Bureau of Land Management could go ahead with plans to allow drilling in a sensitive area near Teshekpuk Lake on the North Slope, an agency spokeswoman said. The BLM added to its environmental impact assessment of drilling in the area and that information is now being reviewed, said spokeswoman Sharon Wilson. The results of the review should be completed soon, she said. The review is the latest development in the fight between federal land managers in favor of oil and gas drilling and environmental and Native groups wanting to keep the area closed because of its importance to migratory birds and caribou. The land in question covers roughly 400,000 acres and lies to the north and east of Teshekpuk Lake. It sits within the 4.6-million acre northeast planning area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska....
Passing of an era? Its adobe walls have withstood the desert climate and visits from weary travelers and prospectors for more than 80 years. But Rancho Dos Palmas may not survive the Bureau of Land Management's plans to demolish it if supporting organizations cannot prove the building is structurally sound - or come up with the money to make it so. The Friends of Dos Palmas, with the support of Desert Alliance for Community Empowerment and Coachella Valley Community Trails Alliance, are working to preserve what they call "a link to the desert's rich past." "It would be absolutely terrible to lose one of the last remaining adobes in the area," said Jennie Kelly, chair of the North Shore Community Council and a Friend of Dos Palmas. Connected to the Dos Palmas Oasis in North Shore, the ranch house once served as a stopover for stagecoaches and, in subsequent decades, Hollywood stars. It now stands unoccupied on lands designated by the Bureau of Land Management as a wildlife refuge....
Critics say species list is endangered The bald eagle may be soaring back from near-extinction, but hundreds of other imperiled species are foundering, as the federal agency charged with protecting them has sunk into legal, bureaucratic and political turmoil. In the last six years, the Bush administration has added fewer species to the endangered list than any other since the law was enacted in 1973. The slowdown has resulted in a waiting list of 279 candidates that are near extinction, according to government scientists, from California's Yosemite toad to Puerto Rico's elfin-woods warbler. Beyond the reluctance to list new species, a bottleneck is weakening efforts to save those already listed. Some 200 of the 1,326 officially endangered species are close to expiring, according to environmental groups, in part because funds have been cut for their recovery. "It's wonderful the bald eagle is recovering — one of the most charismatic and best funded species ever," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, a former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who now works for Defenders of Wildlife, an advocacy group. "But what's happening with the other species? This administration has starved the endangered species' budget. It has dismantled and demoralized its staff." Bryan Arroyo, acting assistant director of endangered species for the Fish and Wildlife Service, acknowledges a 30% vacancy rate in the program's staff, and the fact that the agency's top position has been left unfilled for more than a year....
Pupfish make big ripple to survive It's 110 degrees, hardly a heat wave for Death Valley. And in a small, bathtub-warm pool below a steep, rocky incline, small fish appear to be at play, darting and chasing each other through patches of algae. These are Devils Hole pupfish and, aside from the strangeness of finding fish in the middle of North America's harshest desert, they're about as remarkable to the naked eye as a fat tadpole. But this particular fish species is revered for helping galvanize public opinion and government efforts to save endangered species. The fish was the focus of a 1976 Supreme Court ruling that became a cornerstone of Western water policy. Today, the Devils Hole pupfish population has dwindled to 38, confirmed by government divers in their spring count, and the fish has become the object of intense study by federal agencies and private groups to stave off extinction. It also figures in broader research to map a vast aquifer under Nevada and parts of Idaho and Utah and to determine how that groundwater is to be allocated in a fast-growing region that includes Las Vegas....
Democrats’ climate clash heads to floor The intensifying battle between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a powerful committee chairman may lead to a global-warming showdown on the House floor later this month. The outcome of an anticipated vote on energy legislation before the August recess could determine whether Pelosi will control the debate over a more comprehensive and controversial climate change bill this fall. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Pelosi have been publicly at odds on climate change since the beginning of the Congress. And there have been clear indications recently that the tension between the two high-profile lawmakers is escalating. As Dingell lobbed fresh insults in an interview late last week at the global warming panel that Pelosi created, Democratic leaders were discussing how to structure the time and format of the energy bill debate, according to Democratic aides and lobbyists familiar with the discussions....
Move to cut methane emissions by changing cows' diet Burping cows and sheep are being targeted by UK scientists to help bring down Britain's soaring levels of greenhouse gas pollution. Experts at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth say the diet of farmed animals can be changed to make them produce less methane, a more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide. Farmed ruminant animals are thought to be responsible for up to a quarter of "man-made" methane emissions worldwide though, contrary to common belief, most gas emerges from their front, not rear, ends. Mike Abberton, a scientist at the institute, said farmers could help tackle climate change by growing grass varieties bred to have high sugar levels, white clover and birdsfoot trefoil, a leafy legume, for their animals to eat. The altered diet changes the way that bacteria in the stomachs of the animals break down plant material into waste gas, he said....
Six-toed Hemingway cats can stay, city says City officials have sided with Ernest Hemingway's former home and its celebrated six-toed felines in its cat fight with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Patches, a descendant of Ernest Hemingway's six-toed cats, is on the prowl in Key West, Florida. The Key West City Commission exempted the home from a city law prohibiting more than four domestic animals per household. About 50 cats live there. The house has been locked in a dispute with the USDA, which claims the museum is an "exhibitor" of cats and needs a special license, a claim the home disputes. The new ordinance reads in part, "The cats reside on the property just as the cats did in the time of Hemingway himself. They are not on exhibition in the manner of circus animals. ... The City Commission finds that family of polydactyl Hemingway cats are indeed animals of historic, social and tourism significance." It also states that the cats are "an integral part of the history and ambiance of the Hemingway House." A USDA spokesman did not return messages left late Sunday. The cats are descendants of a six-toed cat given as a gift to the writer in 1935. All carry the gene for six toes, though not all display the trait.
Jury still pondering fight over fortune Jurors wrapped up their fourth day of deliberations Monday in the trial over the estate of King Ranch heir B.K. Johnson without reaching a verdict. They've got a lot to do after three months of testimony and more than 800 exhibits. Known as B, Johnson died of cancer at 71 in 2001. His children and grandchildren are suing his widow, Laura McAllister Johnson, over his last will. B left his estimated $60 million estate in trust to Johnson; he left his daughters and his son's widow his collection of vintage firearms, valued at about $75,000. The children sued in 2003, contending Johnson and B's advisers took advantage of a rich, emotionally needy, alcohol-enfeebled man 20 years Johnson's senior. Plaintiffs are daughters Sarah Johnson Pitt and Cecilia Johnson McMurrey, daughter-in-law Cecilia Johnson Hager, and the eight children among them. Beneath the years of distrust and resentment between the parties is the question of whether the rancher was competent when he made out his last will. Both sides presented plenty of arguments that he was or was not, sometimes using the same documents as evidence....
Five Questions: Lifelong rancher receives Roundup award The Shelton family has been ranching in the Panhandle for more than a century, and Jack Shelton has done his share to keep the family business running. Cowboy Roundup USA recently named Shelton rancher of the year. According to the nomination letter from cattleman Monty Johnson, Shelton has made the Bravo Ranch, once part of the historic XIT Ranch, "one of the largest and best operated ranches in the Panhandle." On Shelton's office wall is a flyer from the late 1800s that touted the Bravo as a place Midwesterners should consider moving to. "The Best of the Best of the Great Panhandle Country of Texas," is its headline. The ranch is about 45 miles southwest of Dalhart, close to New Mexico on the Oldham-Hartley county line - "a long way from anywhere," Shelton said. Q: What kind of operation is it? A: It's kind of a mix, depending on somebody's idea of the market. Usually, we have a mix of feeders, stockers and cows, and we have interests in feedlots near Dumas. Malcom, my oldest son, is the manager now....
It's All Trew: Carbon helped Panhandle live No, it was not really a mountain range, just smoke from the carbon black plants down at Borger. At that time, the oil business was a total mystery as there was not a single oil or gas well in sight. Carbon black looks like soot from a lamp chimney. It's produced by controlled combustion of both natural gas and some grades of crude oil. The product is used mostly in auto tire manufacture, but it is also contained in pigments, inks and some paints. The first Texas Panhandle carbon black plant was built in 1926 in Hutchinson County near Borger. Another came to Pampa in 1928. By 1937, there were 33 plants in the Panhandle, producing 82 percent of the nation's output....
It’s The Pitts: Ranch Dressing According to trendsetters I’m back in fashion. Or at least my jeans are. I have been fashionable now twice in my life. The first time was during the hippy era when everyone looked like they’d just survived a nuclear blast in their tattered clothing. And it appears that I’m “IN” once again as leading fashionistas have declared that jeans are now sensible and stylish for work, play and dressy occasions. Whatever those are. Because I am a blue jeans expert and a man of exquisite taste I’ve agreed to answer your clothes questions so that you too can be cool and fashionable like me. Dear Clotheshorse, What do you think of the low-riding, baggy jeans that are so popular with today’s teens? Not much. Today’s youth lower their cars and their jeans to dangerous levels. The exposed-underwear-look is not one I’d recommend for obese males or anyone who blushes easily. The knee length jeans that teenagers are wearing are reminiscent of the “pedal pushers” worn by women that were last popular in 1944. Dear Clotheshorse, Italian designer jeans are popular but I have an unusual body type. Instead of an hourglass I’m shaped more like a pair. The Italian jeans I looked at were tight fitting and were selling for an absurd figure. Should I splurge on a pair? Please don’t. Skintight Italian jeans shouldn’t be worn by anyone with an absurd figure. Just spill some spaghetti on your Wranglers and tell everyone they’re Italian....
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