Feds file trespass complaint against Nevada ranchers
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Renewing a decades-long feud over grazing and property rights on public lands in the West, the federal government has filed civil trespass charges against the estate of late Nevada rancher Wayne Hage, his son, and another cattleman.
The complaint filed by Justice Department lawyers this week claims Hage - who came to epitomize Nevada's Sagebrush Rebellion before his death last year - his son, Wayne N. Hage, and Goldfield rancher Ben Colvin have repeatedly defied the government by grazing cattle without permits the last three years on land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
It further alleges the Hages unlawfully "leased" lands owned by the government to other ranchers for livestock grazing.
The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to prevent further illegal grazing.
"This has been a long-term case," said BLM spokeswoman JoLynn Worley in Reno.
Neither Colvin nor members of the Hage family could be reached for comment.
But a lawyer who represents the Hage estate in the elder Hage's long-running case in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over property rights, said the issues raised are not new.
"These are the same issues pending before the claims court for a decision," said San Francisco attorney Lyman "Ladd" Bedford.
Hage, who died last year at age 69, filed a claim in the early 1990s against the government seeking $28 million after he rejected a Forest Service offer to buy his ranch for half of what he paid for it.
The agency also confiscated more than 100 of his cattle and suspended his grazing permits on parts of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, saying overgrazing was causing ecological damage on the high-desert range.
Hage argued water rights that came with the Pine Creek ranch when he bought it for about $2 million in 1978 carry with them the right to the associated forage.
"If you don't have the water rights, you don't have a ranch," he said during a hearing in 2004.
In 2002, U.S. Claims Court Judge Loren Smith in Washington, D.C. ruled that Hage had a right to let his cattle use the water and forage on at least some of the federal land where he held a federal grazing permit north of Tonopah, in central Nevada.
Yet to be decided is whether the government's action constituted an illegal "taking" under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
Colvin, like the Hages, also has tangled with the federal agents over livestock grazing. In 2001, the BLM seized and auctioned 62 of his cattle, saying he was trespassing on federal land and owed the government $73,000 in back fines and fees.
He filed against the government in the federal claims court two years later, seeking $30 million in compensation.
Worley said the BLM has no plans to impound cattle in the latest dispute because of a new state law that specifies when the state brand inspector can issue ownership certificates needed to transfer livestock.
The court action, she said, "is pretty much the avenue we're forced to take because we're not able to get a brand clearance certificate if we were to go impound."
The article doesn't mention that before the state law was passed the Feds attempted to impound their cattle but were stopped by the local Sheriff.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Warning on beef as E. coli sickens 6 Federal inspectors are warning consumers to check the ground beef in freezers because six people in Washington have been sickened by ground beef contaminated with E. coli bacteria. A federal consumer alert was issued Thursday after investigators tracked the illnesses, along with two others in Oregon, during late July and early August to a single strain of E. coli 0157: H7 bacteria in ground beef produced by Oregon-based Interstate Meats. In Washington, one child and five adults from King, Island and Clallam counties were sickened. Two of them were hospitalized but have recovered. The products subject to the alert, ordered by the U.S. Food Safety Inspection Service, were sold under the brand name, "Northwest Finest,"....
Thursday, August 30, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
United States Sues to Stop Illegal Grazing on Federal Lands The Justice Department today sued two ranchers and the estate of a third rancher for trespassing on federal lands in Nevada. The ranchers are alleged to have repeatedly grazed livestock without federal permits despite repeated trespass notices from the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. The civil complaint filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada accuses ranchers Wayne N. Hage, Benjamin J. Colvin, and the estate of E. Wayne Hage of intentionally grazing cattle on multiple occasions on federally managed lands in Esmeralda and Nye Counties. In addition, the defendants are accused of receiving monetary compensation for unlawfully "leasing" lands owned by the United States to other ranchers for grazing purposes, despite having no property interest in these lands. On 38 different occasions since 2004, BLM and Forest Service officers observed cattle owned by Colvin and the Hages unlawfully grazing on federal property. Since then BLM and the Forest Service have sent multiple notices to the defendants notifying them of their unauthorized use of federal land. The defendants have returned each of those notices to BLM and the Forest Service and contended that the federal government has no authority to regulate federal property. In addition, the defendants have refused to pay for their unauthorized use of federal property....
Trying to Connect the Dinner Plate to Climate Change EVER since “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore has been the darling of environmentalists, but that movie hardly endeared him to the animal rights folks. According to them, the most inconvenient truth of all is that raising animals for meat contributes more to global warming than all the sport utility vehicles combined. The biggest animal rights groups do not always overlap in their missions, but now they have coalesced around a message that eating meat is worse for the environment than driving. They and smaller groups have started advertising campaigns that try to equate vegetarianism with curbing greenhouse gases. Some backlash against this position is inevitable, the groups acknowledge, but they do have scientific ammunition. In late November, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report stating that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. When that report came out, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other groups expected their environmental counterparts to immediately hop on the “Go Veggie!” bandwagon, but that did not happen. “Environmentalists are still pointing their fingers at Hummers and S.U.V.’s when they should be pointing at the dinner plate,” said Matt A. Prescott, manager of vegan campaigns for PETA. So the animal rights groups are mobilizing on their own. PETA is outfitting a Hummer with a driver in a chicken suit and a vinyl banner proclaiming meat as the top cause of global warming. It will send the vehicle to the start of the climate forum the White House is sponsoring in Washington on Sept. 27, “and to headquarters of environmental groups, if they don’t start shaping up,” Mr. Prescott warned....
Property Tax Flood The second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina arrived yesterday, with the White House disclosing that U.S. taxpayers have chipped in no less than $127 billion (including $13 billion in tax relief) to rebuild the Gulf region. That's more than the GDP of most nations. But we thought we'd draw attention to a little-discussed issue in New Orleans that may well determine how many residents ever return to their homes--to wit, rising property taxes due to cleaner government, of all things. Property taxes in the city are suddenly rising by hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of dollars above what they were last year. As the Times-Picayune reported three years ago, the city's system of assessing property values through seven different tax assessment offices allowed city officials to play favorites. The homes of longtime residents were assessed below homes that were recently sold. The proof was in the tax rolls: Neighbors with similar homes often paid very different amounts in property taxes. Following the Times-Picayune's series, the state ordered New Orleans to re-assess property values throughout the city, and voters in one of the seven districts elected reformer Nancy Marshall to be their tax assessor. Ms. Marshall has since taken the lead in assessing homes at their fair market value--no more special favors. The new tax assessments started coming out in late July, and, lo, they are up an average 55% across the city. In Ms. Marshall's district they are up 68%.....
Lawsuit ties up plan for coal plant near Great Falls Construction of a coal-fired power plant near Great Falls will be delayed pending resolution of a lawsuit that challenged the project's $650 million federal loan request, the project's general manager said Wednesday. The setback for the Highwood Generating Station, a 250-megawatt facility that would be the largest coal plant built in Montana in two decades, follows action by three Montana cities to reject the power it would provide. The city of Great Falls, with a 15 percent stake in the plant, had attempted to solicit Missoula, Bozeman and Helena as future Highwood customers. But elected officials from the three cities recently rejected the offers following complaints from residents and environmental groups opposed to greenhouse gas-producing coal plants. "There was quite a bit of reaction from the public saying, 'Let's please look at other alternatives,' " said Missoula city spokeswoman Ginny Merriam. Across the country, plans to build new coal plants have encountered opposition in recent months because of their potential to exacerbate global warming. A lawsuit filed in July by three environmental groups sought to scuttle the U.S. Department of Agriculture loan program that would finance construction of Highwood and at least six other plants nationwide....
Grazing ruling changes landscape The Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge near Colville won't be reopened to widespread cattle grazing after a ruling last week by U.S. District Judge Edward Shea of the Tri-Cities. Local officials and ranchers have decried the decision as a blow to the region's economy and an example of federal heavy-handedness. Environmentalists, however, say the ruling is a rare victory for wildlife in the livestock-dominated West. "At some point you have to have the courage to stand up and say this is a national wildlife refuge," said Don Tryon, with Friends of Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge, one of two conservation organizations involved in the lawsuit. "Cows are harmful to native fish and plants. It doesn't matter what kind of phony science you cook up." Although the land was set aside as a national wildlife refuge nearly 70 years ago, ranchers had been grazing cattle in the region's grass-filled river valleys from the time settlers first arrived in northeast Washington. Beginning in 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began phasing out grazing on the refuge in an effort to protect native species, including ground-nesting birds and trout streams....
Rancher, gas company may fight in court As the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 27 horses more than three weeks ago remain a mystery, both sides in the case appear to be digging in for a legal battle. Northwest Pipeline, the company that discovered a 1/8-inch hole in its underground pipeline on the Benjamin Bartlett ranch near Malta, has maintained the gas leak could not have been responsible for killing the horses, which died at roughly the same time. Northwest spokeswoman Michele Swaner said gas transported in the pipeline is not toxic and is only lethal in enclosed spaces because it displaces oxygen. Meanwhile, Cameron Tuckett, the owner of the horses, has retained attorney Richard Greenwood to pursue his legal options in the matter. Monday, Greenwood said he and Wallace Ward of Burley Veterinary Hospital had not thoroughly discussed the results of tests on the animals' corpses. But, he said he believed preliminary analysis was not conclusive....
Property rights become privileges Anyone who has grown up on a farm or ranch hears this maxim: "Take care of the land, and the land will take care of you." A farmer or rancher who doesn't take care of the soil will soon find that the soil won't produce enough to make ends meet. But you don't need to be a farmer or rancher to understand the importance of private property rights. What's more, property isn't simply a piece of land or a home. Property is anything you own - your clothes, your car, your business. For most, our possessions come from how we choose to utilize our own unique time, skills and labor, and are selected to meet our specific needs. Moreover, because our possessions are our own, we take care to maximize their use. Public and private lands illustrate well the stewardship incentives of genuine ownership. Theoretically, we all own parks, open space, forests and such. Yet without paid employees to keep them clean and safe, our public lands would be overgrown, littered with garbage, and overrun by "owners" who enjoy them too much. By contrast, most private property owners regularly tend to their property. Even owners who never plan to produce anything from their land often invest time and money to improve its appearance. Once you've made a piece of property your own, for someone to take it from you by force is nothing less than theft - not just theft of your property, but of the time and hard work that you exchanged to purchase it. Who would do such a thing? Too often, the answer is our government....
Comeback trail for native fish State wildlife officials have bolstered their efforts to keep native trout off the Endangered Species List by planting fish in the remote Book Cliffs roadless area of eastern Utah. More than 4,000 Colorado River cutthroat trout have been released in the headwaters of West Willow, Pioche and She Canyon Creeks on the Tavaputs Plateau. Biologists hope to release as many as 10,000 more fingerling cutthroat trout in the coming weeks. "This was an opportunity to provide anglers with a very unique opportunity and help prevent a listing at the same time," said Walt Donaldson, aquatics chief for the Division of Wildlife Resources. "To restore and help conserve a species heading in the wrong direction is always a positive." The Book Cliffs roadless area cutthroat program started in the early 1990s when biologists collected trout already in the creeks - cutthroat, rainbow and brook trout placed there illegally - to see if any were pure strain Colorado River cutthroat....
Forest won't examine impacts of feeding on elk People hoping to see a phase-out of northwest Wyoming's elk feedgrounds aren't satisfied with the scope of analysis being undertaken by Bridger-Teton National Forest officials. When conducting their environmental review of state-run elk feedgrounds on forest lands, they will consider only issues under their purview -- namely, habitat and water considerations, and structure permits. Not under their jurisdiction is the impact of feeding on elk and other ungulate populations, they say. Instead, those decisions are up to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department -- an agency that has long supported feeding programs. That rub concerned some who were hoping the U.S. Forest Service would consider a gradual reduction in the feeding program. Some asked whether the agency had already made up its mind to allow the feeding program to continue. Forest Service officials repeatedly said they had not....
Let's not make areas too restricted Sportsmen and others who appreciate wildlife and wild lands should oppose creating yet another wilderness in the Tumacácori Highlands. Only careless thinking or lack of familiarity with existing Forest Service policies could allow anyone to believe a wilderness designation is really about preventing urban sprawl, all-terrain vehicle abuse, power lines, development of National Forest lands or proliferation of forest roads. These issues can be better addressed through other means that would yield fewer unintended consequences. The principal effect of a wilderness designation will be obstruction of activities designed to restore and maintain wildlife populations and forest health. Whether a specific area will benefit from wilderness status depends on the threats facing that area. The principal threat to the Tumacácori Highlands is the flood of smugglers and illegal immigrants. Literally tons of discarded clothing, backpacks, drinking containers and other refuse have left much of this formerly pristine area looking like a public dump. The best protection in the short term would be a reduction in illegal border traffic and a massive cleanup of the mess. In the longer term, land and wildlife agencies will need to fight fires, carry out controlled burns and conduct research and wildlife-management activities. But restrictions designed to guarantee wilderness connoisseurs that their visits are free of all human sights and sounds make restoration activities more difficult and costly to perform....
Canadian Cattlemen buoyed by decision RANCHERS are anticipating that the U.S. border could reopen fully to Canadian cattle as early as the fall after their arch-rivals were dealt a bitter blow by a U.S. appeals court this week. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday gave the go-ahead to continued Canadian beef and cattle imports, tossing aside a demand from a Montana-based producer group that had sought to impose a ban because of concerns about mad cow disease. The news cheered Canadian cattle producers, who have lost billions of dollars because of slumping prices and reduced marketing options since the BSE crisis hit in 2003. "We're pretty happy about the announcement... It's definitely a really positive thing for the Canadian cattle industry," said Martin Unrau, president of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association. Now, the industry is turning its attention to a White House group that is said to be putting the finishing touches on a new regulation that would open the border to Canadian cattle over 30 months of age for the first time in more than four years. "We know what all the steps in the process are, and we're very near the end of the process," said John Masswohl, director of government and international relations with the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. The White House group has had the final draft of the new rule -- referred to in the industry as Rule 2 -- since Aug. 2, Masswohl said in an interview from Ottawa Wednesday. "If past practice is any indicator, we think we're pretty close (to the rule being published by the United States Department of Agriculture)," he said, noting that a few years ago, when the border was partially reopened to Canadian cattle, it took the same White House group five weeks to give that regulation its stamp of approval. The new rule would take effect 60 days after it was published. "We might be within a three-month window (of the border being fully open to older cattle and breeding stock) right now," Masswohl said....
Peruvian man herding sheep near Madison River Toninho Monago Toribio shaded his eyes from the afternoon sun as he looked over at least a thousand head of sheep sleeping along the bank of the Madison River. "If they don't move by 2 or 2:30 p.m., I'm going to push them back a little bit to advance back to camp," the 28-year-old Peruvian said, wiping sweat from his tanned face on another 95-degree day. When the sheep emerged from their slumber mid-afternoon, Toninho slowly walked up behind the herd. He waved and clapped at his two border collies, Bull and Misty, instructing them to push the sheep back toward camp, about a half-mile away. "All I do is move my sheep, check my sheep and watch my sheep," he said. "Pretty much, we go to work early and come home at dark." Toninho lives among a herd of about 1,300 sheep all summer, moving them along a 14-mile stretch of Bureau of Land Management land on the rims above the Madison River, in the foothills of the mountains. His job is to protect the sheep from predators such as coyotes or wolves, make sure they're grazing in the appropriate areas and occasionally give them a vaccine if they're sick. The around-the-clock job doesn't allow him to date women, go to movies, restaurants or bars like other young men his age. He never sees anyone other than his boss, Riley Wilson of Wooley Weed Eaters, although his two sheepherding border collies, Misty and Bull, follow him everywhere. Wilson brings him food, water and magazines every few days. He then tows Toninho's trailer further down the river so the herder can keep up with the sheep as they move in pursuit of fresh grass and knapweed....
Sweethearts of the rodeo Cooking supper every night for the crew, hauling horses, bulls, chutes, gates, hay and grain, juggling saddles, stirrups and bridles -- you collect a lot of living in 30-plus years. And when you've been married nearly twice that long, you live a lot of collecting, too. Those two milestones will converge this weekend at the Ellensburg Rodeo when Frank and Charlot Beard celebrate 34 years in the rodeo business and 60 years of marriage. This is the year that the Beards, whose Beard Rodeo Co. has supplied stock -- bucking horses and bulls -- for rodeos since 1973, are retiring from the business. Year after year, the Beards consistently brought stock to what they call the Big 4 rodeos, in Ellensburg, Pendleton, Lewiston and Walla Walla. As well as a sentimental favorite, Toppenish, where Frank was raised. In fact, Frank's bloodline of horse people harks back to his grandfather, John Beard, who twice drove 100 head of horses from Toppenish to Arkansas during World War I. Frank started riding in rodeos when he was 16. It was a proverbial school of hard knocks for what would become his future business....
United States Sues to Stop Illegal Grazing on Federal Lands The Justice Department today sued two ranchers and the estate of a third rancher for trespassing on federal lands in Nevada. The ranchers are alleged to have repeatedly grazed livestock without federal permits despite repeated trespass notices from the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. The civil complaint filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada accuses ranchers Wayne N. Hage, Benjamin J. Colvin, and the estate of E. Wayne Hage of intentionally grazing cattle on multiple occasions on federally managed lands in Esmeralda and Nye Counties. In addition, the defendants are accused of receiving monetary compensation for unlawfully "leasing" lands owned by the United States to other ranchers for grazing purposes, despite having no property interest in these lands. On 38 different occasions since 2004, BLM and Forest Service officers observed cattle owned by Colvin and the Hages unlawfully grazing on federal property. Since then BLM and the Forest Service have sent multiple notices to the defendants notifying them of their unauthorized use of federal land. The defendants have returned each of those notices to BLM and the Forest Service and contended that the federal government has no authority to regulate federal property. In addition, the defendants have refused to pay for their unauthorized use of federal property....
Trying to Connect the Dinner Plate to Climate Change EVER since “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore has been the darling of environmentalists, but that movie hardly endeared him to the animal rights folks. According to them, the most inconvenient truth of all is that raising animals for meat contributes more to global warming than all the sport utility vehicles combined. The biggest animal rights groups do not always overlap in their missions, but now they have coalesced around a message that eating meat is worse for the environment than driving. They and smaller groups have started advertising campaigns that try to equate vegetarianism with curbing greenhouse gases. Some backlash against this position is inevitable, the groups acknowledge, but they do have scientific ammunition. In late November, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report stating that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. When that report came out, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other groups expected their environmental counterparts to immediately hop on the “Go Veggie!” bandwagon, but that did not happen. “Environmentalists are still pointing their fingers at Hummers and S.U.V.’s when they should be pointing at the dinner plate,” said Matt A. Prescott, manager of vegan campaigns for PETA. So the animal rights groups are mobilizing on their own. PETA is outfitting a Hummer with a driver in a chicken suit and a vinyl banner proclaiming meat as the top cause of global warming. It will send the vehicle to the start of the climate forum the White House is sponsoring in Washington on Sept. 27, “and to headquarters of environmental groups, if they don’t start shaping up,” Mr. Prescott warned....
Property Tax Flood The second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina arrived yesterday, with the White House disclosing that U.S. taxpayers have chipped in no less than $127 billion (including $13 billion in tax relief) to rebuild the Gulf region. That's more than the GDP of most nations. But we thought we'd draw attention to a little-discussed issue in New Orleans that may well determine how many residents ever return to their homes--to wit, rising property taxes due to cleaner government, of all things. Property taxes in the city are suddenly rising by hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of dollars above what they were last year. As the Times-Picayune reported three years ago, the city's system of assessing property values through seven different tax assessment offices allowed city officials to play favorites. The homes of longtime residents were assessed below homes that were recently sold. The proof was in the tax rolls: Neighbors with similar homes often paid very different amounts in property taxes. Following the Times-Picayune's series, the state ordered New Orleans to re-assess property values throughout the city, and voters in one of the seven districts elected reformer Nancy Marshall to be their tax assessor. Ms. Marshall has since taken the lead in assessing homes at their fair market value--no more special favors. The new tax assessments started coming out in late July, and, lo, they are up an average 55% across the city. In Ms. Marshall's district they are up 68%.....
Lawsuit ties up plan for coal plant near Great Falls Construction of a coal-fired power plant near Great Falls will be delayed pending resolution of a lawsuit that challenged the project's $650 million federal loan request, the project's general manager said Wednesday. The setback for the Highwood Generating Station, a 250-megawatt facility that would be the largest coal plant built in Montana in two decades, follows action by three Montana cities to reject the power it would provide. The city of Great Falls, with a 15 percent stake in the plant, had attempted to solicit Missoula, Bozeman and Helena as future Highwood customers. But elected officials from the three cities recently rejected the offers following complaints from residents and environmental groups opposed to greenhouse gas-producing coal plants. "There was quite a bit of reaction from the public saying, 'Let's please look at other alternatives,' " said Missoula city spokeswoman Ginny Merriam. Across the country, plans to build new coal plants have encountered opposition in recent months because of their potential to exacerbate global warming. A lawsuit filed in July by three environmental groups sought to scuttle the U.S. Department of Agriculture loan program that would finance construction of Highwood and at least six other plants nationwide....
Grazing ruling changes landscape The Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge near Colville won't be reopened to widespread cattle grazing after a ruling last week by U.S. District Judge Edward Shea of the Tri-Cities. Local officials and ranchers have decried the decision as a blow to the region's economy and an example of federal heavy-handedness. Environmentalists, however, say the ruling is a rare victory for wildlife in the livestock-dominated West. "At some point you have to have the courage to stand up and say this is a national wildlife refuge," said Don Tryon, with Friends of Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge, one of two conservation organizations involved in the lawsuit. "Cows are harmful to native fish and plants. It doesn't matter what kind of phony science you cook up." Although the land was set aside as a national wildlife refuge nearly 70 years ago, ranchers had been grazing cattle in the region's grass-filled river valleys from the time settlers first arrived in northeast Washington. Beginning in 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began phasing out grazing on the refuge in an effort to protect native species, including ground-nesting birds and trout streams....
Rancher, gas company may fight in court As the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 27 horses more than three weeks ago remain a mystery, both sides in the case appear to be digging in for a legal battle. Northwest Pipeline, the company that discovered a 1/8-inch hole in its underground pipeline on the Benjamin Bartlett ranch near Malta, has maintained the gas leak could not have been responsible for killing the horses, which died at roughly the same time. Northwest spokeswoman Michele Swaner said gas transported in the pipeline is not toxic and is only lethal in enclosed spaces because it displaces oxygen. Meanwhile, Cameron Tuckett, the owner of the horses, has retained attorney Richard Greenwood to pursue his legal options in the matter. Monday, Greenwood said he and Wallace Ward of Burley Veterinary Hospital had not thoroughly discussed the results of tests on the animals' corpses. But, he said he believed preliminary analysis was not conclusive....
Property rights become privileges Anyone who has grown up on a farm or ranch hears this maxim: "Take care of the land, and the land will take care of you." A farmer or rancher who doesn't take care of the soil will soon find that the soil won't produce enough to make ends meet. But you don't need to be a farmer or rancher to understand the importance of private property rights. What's more, property isn't simply a piece of land or a home. Property is anything you own - your clothes, your car, your business. For most, our possessions come from how we choose to utilize our own unique time, skills and labor, and are selected to meet our specific needs. Moreover, because our possessions are our own, we take care to maximize their use. Public and private lands illustrate well the stewardship incentives of genuine ownership. Theoretically, we all own parks, open space, forests and such. Yet without paid employees to keep them clean and safe, our public lands would be overgrown, littered with garbage, and overrun by "owners" who enjoy them too much. By contrast, most private property owners regularly tend to their property. Even owners who never plan to produce anything from their land often invest time and money to improve its appearance. Once you've made a piece of property your own, for someone to take it from you by force is nothing less than theft - not just theft of your property, but of the time and hard work that you exchanged to purchase it. Who would do such a thing? Too often, the answer is our government....
Comeback trail for native fish State wildlife officials have bolstered their efforts to keep native trout off the Endangered Species List by planting fish in the remote Book Cliffs roadless area of eastern Utah. More than 4,000 Colorado River cutthroat trout have been released in the headwaters of West Willow, Pioche and She Canyon Creeks on the Tavaputs Plateau. Biologists hope to release as many as 10,000 more fingerling cutthroat trout in the coming weeks. "This was an opportunity to provide anglers with a very unique opportunity and help prevent a listing at the same time," said Walt Donaldson, aquatics chief for the Division of Wildlife Resources. "To restore and help conserve a species heading in the wrong direction is always a positive." The Book Cliffs roadless area cutthroat program started in the early 1990s when biologists collected trout already in the creeks - cutthroat, rainbow and brook trout placed there illegally - to see if any were pure strain Colorado River cutthroat....
Forest won't examine impacts of feeding on elk People hoping to see a phase-out of northwest Wyoming's elk feedgrounds aren't satisfied with the scope of analysis being undertaken by Bridger-Teton National Forest officials. When conducting their environmental review of state-run elk feedgrounds on forest lands, they will consider only issues under their purview -- namely, habitat and water considerations, and structure permits. Not under their jurisdiction is the impact of feeding on elk and other ungulate populations, they say. Instead, those decisions are up to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department -- an agency that has long supported feeding programs. That rub concerned some who were hoping the U.S. Forest Service would consider a gradual reduction in the feeding program. Some asked whether the agency had already made up its mind to allow the feeding program to continue. Forest Service officials repeatedly said they had not....
Let's not make areas too restricted Sportsmen and others who appreciate wildlife and wild lands should oppose creating yet another wilderness in the Tumacácori Highlands. Only careless thinking or lack of familiarity with existing Forest Service policies could allow anyone to believe a wilderness designation is really about preventing urban sprawl, all-terrain vehicle abuse, power lines, development of National Forest lands or proliferation of forest roads. These issues can be better addressed through other means that would yield fewer unintended consequences. The principal effect of a wilderness designation will be obstruction of activities designed to restore and maintain wildlife populations and forest health. Whether a specific area will benefit from wilderness status depends on the threats facing that area. The principal threat to the Tumacácori Highlands is the flood of smugglers and illegal immigrants. Literally tons of discarded clothing, backpacks, drinking containers and other refuse have left much of this formerly pristine area looking like a public dump. The best protection in the short term would be a reduction in illegal border traffic and a massive cleanup of the mess. In the longer term, land and wildlife agencies will need to fight fires, carry out controlled burns and conduct research and wildlife-management activities. But restrictions designed to guarantee wilderness connoisseurs that their visits are free of all human sights and sounds make restoration activities more difficult and costly to perform....
Canadian Cattlemen buoyed by decision RANCHERS are anticipating that the U.S. border could reopen fully to Canadian cattle as early as the fall after their arch-rivals were dealt a bitter blow by a U.S. appeals court this week. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday gave the go-ahead to continued Canadian beef and cattle imports, tossing aside a demand from a Montana-based producer group that had sought to impose a ban because of concerns about mad cow disease. The news cheered Canadian cattle producers, who have lost billions of dollars because of slumping prices and reduced marketing options since the BSE crisis hit in 2003. "We're pretty happy about the announcement... It's definitely a really positive thing for the Canadian cattle industry," said Martin Unrau, president of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association. Now, the industry is turning its attention to a White House group that is said to be putting the finishing touches on a new regulation that would open the border to Canadian cattle over 30 months of age for the first time in more than four years. "We know what all the steps in the process are, and we're very near the end of the process," said John Masswohl, director of government and international relations with the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. The White House group has had the final draft of the new rule -- referred to in the industry as Rule 2 -- since Aug. 2, Masswohl said in an interview from Ottawa Wednesday. "If past practice is any indicator, we think we're pretty close (to the rule being published by the United States Department of Agriculture)," he said, noting that a few years ago, when the border was partially reopened to Canadian cattle, it took the same White House group five weeks to give that regulation its stamp of approval. The new rule would take effect 60 days after it was published. "We might be within a three-month window (of the border being fully open to older cattle and breeding stock) right now," Masswohl said....
Peruvian man herding sheep near Madison River Toninho Monago Toribio shaded his eyes from the afternoon sun as he looked over at least a thousand head of sheep sleeping along the bank of the Madison River. "If they don't move by 2 or 2:30 p.m., I'm going to push them back a little bit to advance back to camp," the 28-year-old Peruvian said, wiping sweat from his tanned face on another 95-degree day. When the sheep emerged from their slumber mid-afternoon, Toninho slowly walked up behind the herd. He waved and clapped at his two border collies, Bull and Misty, instructing them to push the sheep back toward camp, about a half-mile away. "All I do is move my sheep, check my sheep and watch my sheep," he said. "Pretty much, we go to work early and come home at dark." Toninho lives among a herd of about 1,300 sheep all summer, moving them along a 14-mile stretch of Bureau of Land Management land on the rims above the Madison River, in the foothills of the mountains. His job is to protect the sheep from predators such as coyotes or wolves, make sure they're grazing in the appropriate areas and occasionally give them a vaccine if they're sick. The around-the-clock job doesn't allow him to date women, go to movies, restaurants or bars like other young men his age. He never sees anyone other than his boss, Riley Wilson of Wooley Weed Eaters, although his two sheepherding border collies, Misty and Bull, follow him everywhere. Wilson brings him food, water and magazines every few days. He then tows Toninho's trailer further down the river so the herder can keep up with the sheep as they move in pursuit of fresh grass and knapweed....
Sweethearts of the rodeo Cooking supper every night for the crew, hauling horses, bulls, chutes, gates, hay and grain, juggling saddles, stirrups and bridles -- you collect a lot of living in 30-plus years. And when you've been married nearly twice that long, you live a lot of collecting, too. Those two milestones will converge this weekend at the Ellensburg Rodeo when Frank and Charlot Beard celebrate 34 years in the rodeo business and 60 years of marriage. This is the year that the Beards, whose Beard Rodeo Co. has supplied stock -- bucking horses and bulls -- for rodeos since 1973, are retiring from the business. Year after year, the Beards consistently brought stock to what they call the Big 4 rodeos, in Ellensburg, Pendleton, Lewiston and Walla Walla. As well as a sentimental favorite, Toppenish, where Frank was raised. In fact, Frank's bloodline of horse people harks back to his grandfather, John Beard, who twice drove 100 head of horses from Toppenish to Arkansas during World War I. Frank started riding in rodeos when he was 16. It was a proverbial school of hard knocks for what would become his future business....
Not 1 More Acre!
PO Box 137
Kim, Colorado 81049
www.pinoncanyon.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Colorado Senators Pushing Misguided, Destructive Piñon Canyon Plan
Sen. Allard Shows True Colors - and His Contempt for the People
For immediate release
August 29, 2007
For more information or to arrange
interviews, contact: Jean Aguerre, 719-252-5145
Hugh Lamberton, 303-748-9099
KIM, Colorado (Wednesday, August 29): Colorado Senator Wayne Allard's latest efforts to enable the Pentagon's plan to massively expand the 238,000-acre Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site demonstrates his commitment to the health and wealth of military contractors and his contempt for the will of the people, opponents of the expansion plan said today.
President of the Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition Lon Robertson said Sen. Allard's idea of placing a limited moratorium on the use of eminent domain for "up to five years" provided no protection whatsoever for the communities of southeastern Colorado.
"Sen. Allard - who has avoided meeting affected ranchers and residents on this issue - is guaranteeing that the black cloud that's been hanging over the region for two years is here to stay for five more years," Mr. Robertson said. "That will effectively kill the land market in the Piñon Canyon area and is obviously designed to make sure the Pentagon gets its way. It's a cynical proposal that reveals Allard's true colors and his contempt for the people's clear desire that the expansion plan be stopped."
"Sen. Allard is doing everything he can to use our tax dollars to take out generational ranching families, the sustainable agriculture economy of southeastern Colorado and its contribution to America's food security - as well as the last intact shortgrass prairie in the Great Plains."
"So now we know where Sen. Allard stands, it makes you wonder about his statement that he and Sen. Salazar are 'working together'. We'll see whether Sen. Salazar takes a stand to support 'we the people' or goes along with Allard's approach of 'me and my pocketbook'."
Sen. Salazar today attended a pro-expansion event in Colorado Springs organized by his own office and the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce....
PO Box 137
Kim, Colorado 81049
www.pinoncanyon.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Colorado Senators Pushing Misguided, Destructive Piñon Canyon Plan
Sen. Allard Shows True Colors - and His Contempt for the People
For immediate release
August 29, 2007
For more information or to arrange
interviews, contact: Jean Aguerre, 719-252-5145
Hugh Lamberton, 303-748-9099
KIM, Colorado (Wednesday, August 29): Colorado Senator Wayne Allard's latest efforts to enable the Pentagon's plan to massively expand the 238,000-acre Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site demonstrates his commitment to the health and wealth of military contractors and his contempt for the will of the people, opponents of the expansion plan said today.
President of the Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition Lon Robertson said Sen. Allard's idea of placing a limited moratorium on the use of eminent domain for "up to five years" provided no protection whatsoever for the communities of southeastern Colorado.
"Sen. Allard - who has avoided meeting affected ranchers and residents on this issue - is guaranteeing that the black cloud that's been hanging over the region for two years is here to stay for five more years," Mr. Robertson said. "That will effectively kill the land market in the Piñon Canyon area and is obviously designed to make sure the Pentagon gets its way. It's a cynical proposal that reveals Allard's true colors and his contempt for the people's clear desire that the expansion plan be stopped."
"Sen. Allard is doing everything he can to use our tax dollars to take out generational ranching families, the sustainable agriculture economy of southeastern Colorado and its contribution to America's food security - as well as the last intact shortgrass prairie in the Great Plains."
"So now we know where Sen. Allard stands, it makes you wonder about his statement that he and Sen. Salazar are 'working together'. We'll see whether Sen. Salazar takes a stand to support 'we the people' or goes along with Allard's approach of 'me and my pocketbook'."
Sen. Salazar today attended a pro-expansion event in Colorado Springs organized by his own office and the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce....
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
NASA drone aids Zaca firefighting efforts Firefighters battling the stubborn Zaca fire got an assist last week from a high-flying unmanned aircraft, NASA and Ventura County officials said Friday. NASA's Ikhana, a Predator B drone adapted for civil missions, flew over the wide-ranging fire zone once in the morning and again in the afternoon of Aug. 16, 2007 to map where the flames were heading. The fire, which has consumed more than 235,000 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, is 83% contained. Incident commanders said they hoped to have full containment by Sept. 7. Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper called the NASA drone a "great tool," because its sophisticated instruments captured images unseen by conventional aircraft. "It provided intelligence as to where the front was," Roper said in a fire update Friday to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. "Otherwise we would have been blinded by the smoke." Ikhana collected data on Zaca and three other wildfires while flying more than 1,200 miles over 10 hours, according to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base....
Fighting fire like a regular military ground, air war The exasperating, foot-by-foot battle to snuff out the Castle Rock fire comes close to replicating a genuine military ground war against a stubborn, human enemy. Forest Service ground firefighters are the infantry. Earth-moving tractors are armored units. Large and small aircraft and helicopters "bombing" flames and clearing the way for ground troops is the air force. The inscrutable, unpredictable enemy is the Castle Rock inferno sweeping through valley woodlands. Most apparent to residents is the air war: Fixed-wing aircraft zooming low over the flaming terrain to unload water and chemical retardant, while helicopters hover over ponds sucking up more loads of water to shower on flaming woodlands too difficult for fixed wing aircraft to reach....
Wildfires in the West: Myths and Realities One of the frequently repeated “truths” is that fires are more “destructive” than in the past due to fire suppression. By putting out fires, we are told, we have contributed to higher fuel loads in our woodlands that is the cause of the large blazes we seem to be experiencing around the West. But like any scientific fact, the more we know, the more we understand how little we really understand. While fuels are important to any blaze, the latest research is suggesting that weather/climatic conditions rather than fuels drive large blazes. In other words, you can have all the fuel in the world, but if it’s not dry enough, you won’t get a large blaze. On the other hand if you have severe drought, combined with low humidity and high winds, almost any fuel loading will burn and burn well. Despite all the rhetoric about “historic” fire seasons, including several years where more than 7-8 million acres burned, the total acreage burned today is actually quite low by historic standards. As recently as the 1930s Dust Bowl drought years, more than 39 million acres burned annually in the US. And long term research going back thousands of years suggests that the past 50-70 years may be real anomalies in terms of acreage burned as well as fire severity. It may be that the limited fire activity between the 1930s and 1990s was more a reflection of moister climatic conditions than due to any effective fire suppression....
1924 was the summer of endless fires Forest fires have always been a part of the Sierra Nevada. Climate change and man’s hand on the land have changed the nature of fire in the forests. The late 1800s up to the 1920s was a time of wetter winters and cooler summers, and forests that still had many low-intensity fires. The turning point came in the 1920s when drought struck the West. In the Truckee-Tahoe area, dense new-growth forests, now containing more white fir than pine, had grown after extensive logging of the 1800s and could now fuel hotter, larger fires. The winter of 1923-24 was a very dry one with no more than three feet of snow on Donner Summit in early March. March and April had deep powder storms that stacked up snow on the Sierra Crest, but had little moisture for the Truckee River Basin. These storms did not leave a flake for Reno, which went six months without any precipitation. The early 1920s saw a startling increase in large wildfires in California, including large ones on the west slope of the Sierra that destroyed whole watersheds of old growth forests. The year 1923 was one of fire terror in the Coastal Ranges. Fire raged through neighborhoods of Oakland and Berkeley, burning hundreds of homes. All up and down California dry forests and ranges went up in smoke and flames....
Vail creating barrier against wildfire As the color red has grown in the forest, so have Saundra Spaeh’s worries. Her home, near West Vail, is just two doors down from the forest, where as much as 90 percent of lodgepole pines are dead or dying. The mountain pine beetle epidemic has hit her neighborhood hard. Whether it’s a lightning strike or a barbecue sparking a blaze, Spaeh says she understands the risk of a destructive forest fire. So she’s grateful that town, county and the U.S. Forest Service are cooperating to create a layer of “defensible space” — a 200-to-300-foot barrier — that aims to stop the spread of a fire, either from the forest into the neighborhood or vice versa. Trees are being removed on almost 200 acres of land around Vail. Much of that work will happen this fall, and workers are already clearing a landing spot for a helicopter, which will haul out felled trees. Above Intermountain and Matterhorn in West Vail, crews will cut about 8,000 trees, starting in the next couple of weeks....
Product Could Heal Soil After Fires The millions of acres scorched by wildfires and left susceptible to mudslides can be shored up by spreading inexpensive granules that a company says will keep barren soil in place when the rainy season arrives. U.S. Forest Service scientists have been testing Encap LLC's product that bonds the clay inside soil to form a "net" to help vegetation recover. Called PAM-12, it's a synthetic chemical that looks like salt and is wrapped in recycled paper. Soil scientists have found few other ways to control large-scale erosion after a fire aside from straw, which absorbs and retains moisture like mulch but doesn't actually strengthen soil. "The concept of using soil itself to prevent erosion and establish new plant life, it's exciting," said Mike Krysiak, Encap's president and chief officer. Already this year, nearly 7 million acres have burned across the country, and about 40 fires of at least 500 acres each were raging this week, most in Montana and Idaho....
A swimming success: Recovery efforts help bring back trout Apache trout, found nowhere else in the world except the streams and lakes of eastern Arizona's high country, were the first native fish to be placed on the federal Endangered Species List. Now, thanks to the diligent work of Apache tribal fisheries' personnel and a host of other players in a cooperative effort, these yellow-gold fish may become the first to be removed from that list. The White Mountain Apache Tribe recognized more than 60 years ago that the only remaining pure populations of Apache trout lived in just a few streams on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. In 1955, all reservation streams thought to contain pure populations were closed to sport fishing and a federal, state and tribal recovery effort began. ''Initial conservation efforts were not enough,'' according to Bob David, U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist and a project leader at the National Fish Hatchery Complex in Whiteriver. ''Apache trout were categorized as 'endangered' and became federally protected in 1973. And stayed endangered for a couple of years until stocking of hatchery-reared fingerlings resumed, recovery hopes brightened, and they were upgraded to the 'threatened' category.'' They've stayed ''threatened'' for a couple of decades while recovery efforts continued, but complete restoration of the species is now close at hand....
Hearing set for plan to pump rural Nevada water to Las Vegas Decisions Tuesday by Nevada's state water engineer could mean less debate during a two-week-long hearing in February on a plan to pump billions of gallons of water from three rural valleys to booming Las Vegas. But even though issues to be discussed during the Feb. 4-15 proceedings will be limited, groups and individuals protesting the plan will be able to argue some key points - that relevant information wasn't made public and that more planning and studies are needed. And anything left out in an effort to streamline the hearings won't be "to the detriment of the (water) resource," Jason King, a deputy state water engineer, said during a conference held to plan for the hearing on the Southern Nevada Water Authority application. State Engineer Tracy Taylor dropped other issues from the proceedings because they had been discussed in detail in previous applications by SNWA for water from other rural Nevada valleys. The no-debate items include SNWA's justifying of the need to import water and its argument that it has implemented adequate conservation plans in the Las Vegas area. Taylor also won't allow any arguments that Las Vegas is big enough and that growth controls should be established....
Volunteers fight ATV bad image First there was Paul. Then there was Gary. And now, there's Dean. Since the time Rough Country Four Wheelers began volunteering in the Medicine Bow National Forest, they have retired two Forest Service employees in addition to keeping miles of road and trail open. Their third, Dean Lebeda, has been with them for about 15 years. He says the group's work has been instrumental for places like the Muddy Creek Road as well as other areas. Like many agencies, underfunding and understaffing makes it hard for Forest Service employees to keep up. Volunteers have helped ease that burden. "The Muddy Creek Road probably wouldn't be open without the work the Rough Country Club has done," he says....
Off-road Enthusiasts Hit the Highway with Protest You couldn't miss them: protesters perched on the Highway 50 overcrossings sending a message that they want to save access to off-road vehicle trails. Off-road riders are worried the government will block access to a big chunk of roads and trails in the Eldorado National Forest by early next year. "I drive motorcycles and quads. My whole family does," said protester Dennis Maloney. "They've threatened to close, right now, over half the trails and roads that we use and have access in the forest."....
The Fight to Save the Rocky Mountains In order to halt the ruination of these untamed places, a concerted effort among the citizens of Colorado must lead the way for the effort to have any real, lasting impact. Colorado Wild, an environmental outfit that focuses its energies on fighting ski hill expansions, has taken the helm and has had more success than the Vail arsonists in fighting the purveyors of unbridled expansion. Right now the group, along with Friends of Wolf Creek, are hoping to stop the construction of a 10,000 person village in the middle of the San Juan Mountains, one of the snowiest regions of Colorado. The investor for the project is Texas billionaire Billy Joe "Red" McCombs who owns the Minnesota Vikings and co-founded Clear Channel Communications. In 2005 Forbes rated McCombs one of the 400 richest Americans. The "Village at Wolf Creek" is to be constructed just below the Continental Divide, where the mighty rivers of the West divide and race to their respective homes. McCombs' vision, not unlike that of Pete Seibert and Earl Eaton who built the township near Vail, is sustained by greed and a rampant disregard for the wild. Like most capitalists, McCombs is in it for the money and status. Nothing more. Right now the fight over the blueprints for Village at Wolf Creek still remain in the courts....
Appeals court upholds Cave Rock climbing ban The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the U.S. Forest Service-imposed ban on climbing Lake Tahoe's Cave Rock. The rock formation between Glenbrook and Zephyr Cove has long been regarded as sacred by the Washoe Tribe. But its history also includes being part of the original settlers' road around the lake - first as a trestle around the rock and now in the form of two tunnels blasted through the rock as a route for Highway 50. And since the late 1980s, recreational rock climbers have considered Cave Rock one of the nation's premier climbing sites. The lawsuit by Boulder, Colo.-based The Access Fund, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting recreational climbing areas, charged Forest Supervisor Maribeth Gustafson "abruptly and unexpectedly" banned climbing in November 2002. She made the ban permanent in 2004, citing both the historic and cultural value of the rock in the eyes of Washoe tribal members. The Access Fund said the ban is unconstitutional because it gives a religious group exclusive control over public property....
NOAA Helps Small Towns Remove Obsolete Dams An excavator breached a dam on Oregon's Calapooia River Monday at Brownsville, a small town about 20 miles north of Eugene. Soon the dam will be gone and federally listed threatened salmon will be able to swim upstream to their historic spawning grounds once more. This historic dam removal is the first project to be completed under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's new Open Rivers Initiative, which provides funding and technical expertise for community-driven, small dam and river barrier removals. Under the initiative, NOAA will work with communities to remove up to 50 obsolete dams and rundown culverts across the nation each year. These projects will begin to repair river systems and also eliminate dangerous conditions that are prevalent at outdated structures....
Burning Man's icon goes up in flames, 4 days prematurely A San Francisco man was arrested on felony arson charges today after the 40-foot-tall "Man" statue whose torching is the annual highlight of the Burning Man festival in Nevada went up in flames four days early, authorities said. Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco, was booked into the Pershing County Jail in Nevada on the arson charge and misdemeanor possession of fireworks, Sheriff Ron Skinner said. Festival organizers, meanwhile, pondered the smoldering remains of the Man and promised to rebuild the big guy in time for Saturday's regularly scheduled burn in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno. Some 40,000 people are expected to gather in the desert by this weekend for Burning Man, and Thompson said about 15,000 revelers are already at the festival site. Many were on the playa early this morning watching the lunar eclipse when the fire ignited at 2:58 a.m., according to Burning Man organizers....
Feds reconsidering prairie dogs' unprotected status The federal government will reconsider a contested decision not to place the Gunnison's prairie dog on the endangered-species list, officials announced Tuesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened a public-comment period, seeking new information on the prairie dogs, which are found only in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. "We're just asking everybody if you've got any information regarding prairie-dog distribution, about threats to the prairie dogs - anything," said Diane Katzenberger, spokeswoman for the agency. The move comes after the environmental group Forest Guardians and 73 other plaintiffs reached a settlement last month in their suit over the agency's decision not to put the prairie dogs on the endangered-species list. "The Gunnison's prairie dog desperately needs federal protection if it is to be spared from extinction," prairie-dog biologist Con Slobodchikoff said in a statement after the settlement. The Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged that the prairie-dog population has declined by 97 percent because of poisoning and shooting, sylvatic plague and habitat destruction....
Endangered-species suit planned An environmental organization served notice Tuesday that it intends to sue a federal agency over 55 endangered species in 28 states and seek restoration of 8.7 million acres of protected habitat. The suit includes two birds found in Western Washington: the marbled murrelet and the Western snowy plover. The Center for Biological Diversity said its formal notice of intent to sue the Interior Department is the starting point for the largest legal action in the history of the 34-year-old Endangered Species Act. The action accuses the federal government of illegally removing one animal from the endangered-species list, refusing to put three animals on the list and proposing to downgrade or remove protection from seven others. In addition, it contends that the government's actions stripped protection from 8.7 million acres of critical habitat for a range of plant and animal species from Texas to Washington state. The Tucson-based center claims that Bush administration appointees made the decision based on politics and not science....
Officials say island is on way to recovery after 5,036 pigs killed Thousands of wild pigs on Santa Cruz Island that destroyed plants and dug up Chumash archaeological sites over the years have been killed in one of the largest pig eradication projects in the world. Officials announced Tuesday that 5,036 pigs were systematically killed in a $5 million, two-year effort to restore the island to its natural state. "This is a huge milestone," said Kate Faulkner, chief of natural resources for Channel Islands National Park, which co-owns Santa Cruz Island with The Nature Conservancy. More than 150 years ago, farmers ferried pigs to the area as they tried to eke out an existence on California's largest island. Over the years, the pigs escaped from their pens, bred with non-native wild boars and settled into a life of rooting through the vast grasslands for acorns and grubs hidden underneath an array of plants — some found nowhere else on earth....Almost $1,000 per pig? That's a "huge milestone" alright.
A $27 Million Plan For Ivory Billed Woodpecker As inconclusive but tantalizing evidence has mounted that the elusive ivory billed woodpecker still lives in the southeastern swamps, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed its first-ever recovery plan for the endangered species. It was listed as endangered 40 years ago, and was even then widely believed to be extinct. That changed when a Cornell University team published an account of seeing the bird in 2004 — prompting an aggressive annual search for evidence that the bird still lives. The plan calls for $27 million, primarily to continue looking for the bird and to understand where and how it lives so that appropriate conservation efforts can be planned. No conclusive evidence has emerged that the bird exists, but a growing number of anecdotal sightings by experienced birders have provided enough evidence that the effort is worthwhile, according to the recovery plan. The dearth of information about the bird, however, prevents the production of a more detailed recovery plan, the likes of which are produced for other endangered species....
Horse killed by wolves A Department of Natural Resources wolf expert confirmed Wednesday that a horse found dead in Kimball earlier this month was killed by wolves. Adrian Wydeven, of Park Falls, a DNR mammalian ecologist, said the death was listed as a "probable wolf kill." Investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services conducted an examination at the scene and an autopsy on the horse was later performed, he noted. The animal, owned by Gene Milewski of Ironwood, had been a top racing horse at one time. It was about 20 years old. Milewski raced horses at the Gogebic County Fair in Ironwood for many years. Wydeven said the owner of the property where the horse was killed has been issued a wolf kill shooting permit and a federal trapper is working that area....
U.S. appeals court OKs Canada beef imports A U.S. appeals court gave the green light on Tuesday to continued Canadian beef and cattle imports, rejecting a rancher group's effort to impose a ban amid mad cow disease concerns. The Montana-based Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF) argued that live Canadian cattle posed a risk of mad cow disease to the U.S. cattle herd and should be banned. "Having reviewed the merits of this case, we conclude that the agency considered the relevant factors and articulated a rational connection between the facts found and its decision to designate Canada a minimal-risk country," Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall wrote for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "R-CALF's extra-record evidence has failed to convince us that the agency's review was unauthorized, incomplete, or otherwise improper," Judge Hall wrote. The decision went point by point through R-CALF's arguments but found fault in them. "The agency -- at the time it made its decision -- properly relied on studies from both the World Organization for Animal Health and the Harvard Center on Risk Analysis finding that feed bans were the most effective way to prevent the spread of BSE," the court wrote. "It bears repeating that the agency did not assume 100 percent effectiveness of its measures."....
Copper thefts hit farms hard, rising metal prices fuel surge Twice this spring, metal thieves trespassed onto Gary Barton's walnut ranches in the Central Valley, yanked out the copper connecting his irrigation pumps to the power poles, and drove off with thousands of dollars worth of scrap metal. In all, Barton says he's had to spend more than $10,000 repairing and replacing the copper wiring for the seven vandalized pumps. And he considers himself fortunate—other farmers have lost entire crops and had to shell out much more to stay in business. Metal thefts have been on the rise as prices have skyrocketed, and copper thefts are hitting farmers in California and throughout the country particularly hard. Commonly used in electrical wiring, and included in motors for pumps and tractors and other farm machinery, copper is everywhere in agricultural operations and is an increasingly juicy target for thieves, selling for around $3.50 a pound, a more than 400 percent increase from 2001, fueled in part by demand from a building boom in China....
NASA drone aids Zaca firefighting efforts Firefighters battling the stubborn Zaca fire got an assist last week from a high-flying unmanned aircraft, NASA and Ventura County officials said Friday. NASA's Ikhana, a Predator B drone adapted for civil missions, flew over the wide-ranging fire zone once in the morning and again in the afternoon of Aug. 16, 2007 to map where the flames were heading. The fire, which has consumed more than 235,000 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, is 83% contained. Incident commanders said they hoped to have full containment by Sept. 7. Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper called the NASA drone a "great tool," because its sophisticated instruments captured images unseen by conventional aircraft. "It provided intelligence as to where the front was," Roper said in a fire update Friday to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. "Otherwise we would have been blinded by the smoke." Ikhana collected data on Zaca and three other wildfires while flying more than 1,200 miles over 10 hours, according to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base....
Fighting fire like a regular military ground, air war The exasperating, foot-by-foot battle to snuff out the Castle Rock fire comes close to replicating a genuine military ground war against a stubborn, human enemy. Forest Service ground firefighters are the infantry. Earth-moving tractors are armored units. Large and small aircraft and helicopters "bombing" flames and clearing the way for ground troops is the air force. The inscrutable, unpredictable enemy is the Castle Rock inferno sweeping through valley woodlands. Most apparent to residents is the air war: Fixed-wing aircraft zooming low over the flaming terrain to unload water and chemical retardant, while helicopters hover over ponds sucking up more loads of water to shower on flaming woodlands too difficult for fixed wing aircraft to reach....
Wildfires in the West: Myths and Realities One of the frequently repeated “truths” is that fires are more “destructive” than in the past due to fire suppression. By putting out fires, we are told, we have contributed to higher fuel loads in our woodlands that is the cause of the large blazes we seem to be experiencing around the West. But like any scientific fact, the more we know, the more we understand how little we really understand. While fuels are important to any blaze, the latest research is suggesting that weather/climatic conditions rather than fuels drive large blazes. In other words, you can have all the fuel in the world, but if it’s not dry enough, you won’t get a large blaze. On the other hand if you have severe drought, combined with low humidity and high winds, almost any fuel loading will burn and burn well. Despite all the rhetoric about “historic” fire seasons, including several years where more than 7-8 million acres burned, the total acreage burned today is actually quite low by historic standards. As recently as the 1930s Dust Bowl drought years, more than 39 million acres burned annually in the US. And long term research going back thousands of years suggests that the past 50-70 years may be real anomalies in terms of acreage burned as well as fire severity. It may be that the limited fire activity between the 1930s and 1990s was more a reflection of moister climatic conditions than due to any effective fire suppression....
1924 was the summer of endless fires Forest fires have always been a part of the Sierra Nevada. Climate change and man’s hand on the land have changed the nature of fire in the forests. The late 1800s up to the 1920s was a time of wetter winters and cooler summers, and forests that still had many low-intensity fires. The turning point came in the 1920s when drought struck the West. In the Truckee-Tahoe area, dense new-growth forests, now containing more white fir than pine, had grown after extensive logging of the 1800s and could now fuel hotter, larger fires. The winter of 1923-24 was a very dry one with no more than three feet of snow on Donner Summit in early March. March and April had deep powder storms that stacked up snow on the Sierra Crest, but had little moisture for the Truckee River Basin. These storms did not leave a flake for Reno, which went six months without any precipitation. The early 1920s saw a startling increase in large wildfires in California, including large ones on the west slope of the Sierra that destroyed whole watersheds of old growth forests. The year 1923 was one of fire terror in the Coastal Ranges. Fire raged through neighborhoods of Oakland and Berkeley, burning hundreds of homes. All up and down California dry forests and ranges went up in smoke and flames....
Vail creating barrier against wildfire As the color red has grown in the forest, so have Saundra Spaeh’s worries. Her home, near West Vail, is just two doors down from the forest, where as much as 90 percent of lodgepole pines are dead or dying. The mountain pine beetle epidemic has hit her neighborhood hard. Whether it’s a lightning strike or a barbecue sparking a blaze, Spaeh says she understands the risk of a destructive forest fire. So she’s grateful that town, county and the U.S. Forest Service are cooperating to create a layer of “defensible space” — a 200-to-300-foot barrier — that aims to stop the spread of a fire, either from the forest into the neighborhood or vice versa. Trees are being removed on almost 200 acres of land around Vail. Much of that work will happen this fall, and workers are already clearing a landing spot for a helicopter, which will haul out felled trees. Above Intermountain and Matterhorn in West Vail, crews will cut about 8,000 trees, starting in the next couple of weeks....
Product Could Heal Soil After Fires The millions of acres scorched by wildfires and left susceptible to mudslides can be shored up by spreading inexpensive granules that a company says will keep barren soil in place when the rainy season arrives. U.S. Forest Service scientists have been testing Encap LLC's product that bonds the clay inside soil to form a "net" to help vegetation recover. Called PAM-12, it's a synthetic chemical that looks like salt and is wrapped in recycled paper. Soil scientists have found few other ways to control large-scale erosion after a fire aside from straw, which absorbs and retains moisture like mulch but doesn't actually strengthen soil. "The concept of using soil itself to prevent erosion and establish new plant life, it's exciting," said Mike Krysiak, Encap's president and chief officer. Already this year, nearly 7 million acres have burned across the country, and about 40 fires of at least 500 acres each were raging this week, most in Montana and Idaho....
A swimming success: Recovery efforts help bring back trout Apache trout, found nowhere else in the world except the streams and lakes of eastern Arizona's high country, were the first native fish to be placed on the federal Endangered Species List. Now, thanks to the diligent work of Apache tribal fisheries' personnel and a host of other players in a cooperative effort, these yellow-gold fish may become the first to be removed from that list. The White Mountain Apache Tribe recognized more than 60 years ago that the only remaining pure populations of Apache trout lived in just a few streams on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. In 1955, all reservation streams thought to contain pure populations were closed to sport fishing and a federal, state and tribal recovery effort began. ''Initial conservation efforts were not enough,'' according to Bob David, U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist and a project leader at the National Fish Hatchery Complex in Whiteriver. ''Apache trout were categorized as 'endangered' and became federally protected in 1973. And stayed endangered for a couple of years until stocking of hatchery-reared fingerlings resumed, recovery hopes brightened, and they were upgraded to the 'threatened' category.'' They've stayed ''threatened'' for a couple of decades while recovery efforts continued, but complete restoration of the species is now close at hand....
Hearing set for plan to pump rural Nevada water to Las Vegas Decisions Tuesday by Nevada's state water engineer could mean less debate during a two-week-long hearing in February on a plan to pump billions of gallons of water from three rural valleys to booming Las Vegas. But even though issues to be discussed during the Feb. 4-15 proceedings will be limited, groups and individuals protesting the plan will be able to argue some key points - that relevant information wasn't made public and that more planning and studies are needed. And anything left out in an effort to streamline the hearings won't be "to the detriment of the (water) resource," Jason King, a deputy state water engineer, said during a conference held to plan for the hearing on the Southern Nevada Water Authority application. State Engineer Tracy Taylor dropped other issues from the proceedings because they had been discussed in detail in previous applications by SNWA for water from other rural Nevada valleys. The no-debate items include SNWA's justifying of the need to import water and its argument that it has implemented adequate conservation plans in the Las Vegas area. Taylor also won't allow any arguments that Las Vegas is big enough and that growth controls should be established....
Volunteers fight ATV bad image First there was Paul. Then there was Gary. And now, there's Dean. Since the time Rough Country Four Wheelers began volunteering in the Medicine Bow National Forest, they have retired two Forest Service employees in addition to keeping miles of road and trail open. Their third, Dean Lebeda, has been with them for about 15 years. He says the group's work has been instrumental for places like the Muddy Creek Road as well as other areas. Like many agencies, underfunding and understaffing makes it hard for Forest Service employees to keep up. Volunteers have helped ease that burden. "The Muddy Creek Road probably wouldn't be open without the work the Rough Country Club has done," he says....
Off-road Enthusiasts Hit the Highway with Protest You couldn't miss them: protesters perched on the Highway 50 overcrossings sending a message that they want to save access to off-road vehicle trails. Off-road riders are worried the government will block access to a big chunk of roads and trails in the Eldorado National Forest by early next year. "I drive motorcycles and quads. My whole family does," said protester Dennis Maloney. "They've threatened to close, right now, over half the trails and roads that we use and have access in the forest."....
The Fight to Save the Rocky Mountains In order to halt the ruination of these untamed places, a concerted effort among the citizens of Colorado must lead the way for the effort to have any real, lasting impact. Colorado Wild, an environmental outfit that focuses its energies on fighting ski hill expansions, has taken the helm and has had more success than the Vail arsonists in fighting the purveyors of unbridled expansion. Right now the group, along with Friends of Wolf Creek, are hoping to stop the construction of a 10,000 person village in the middle of the San Juan Mountains, one of the snowiest regions of Colorado. The investor for the project is Texas billionaire Billy Joe "Red" McCombs who owns the Minnesota Vikings and co-founded Clear Channel Communications. In 2005 Forbes rated McCombs one of the 400 richest Americans. The "Village at Wolf Creek" is to be constructed just below the Continental Divide, where the mighty rivers of the West divide and race to their respective homes. McCombs' vision, not unlike that of Pete Seibert and Earl Eaton who built the township near Vail, is sustained by greed and a rampant disregard for the wild. Like most capitalists, McCombs is in it for the money and status. Nothing more. Right now the fight over the blueprints for Village at Wolf Creek still remain in the courts....
Appeals court upholds Cave Rock climbing ban The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the U.S. Forest Service-imposed ban on climbing Lake Tahoe's Cave Rock. The rock formation between Glenbrook and Zephyr Cove has long been regarded as sacred by the Washoe Tribe. But its history also includes being part of the original settlers' road around the lake - first as a trestle around the rock and now in the form of two tunnels blasted through the rock as a route for Highway 50. And since the late 1980s, recreational rock climbers have considered Cave Rock one of the nation's premier climbing sites. The lawsuit by Boulder, Colo.-based The Access Fund, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting recreational climbing areas, charged Forest Supervisor Maribeth Gustafson "abruptly and unexpectedly" banned climbing in November 2002. She made the ban permanent in 2004, citing both the historic and cultural value of the rock in the eyes of Washoe tribal members. The Access Fund said the ban is unconstitutional because it gives a religious group exclusive control over public property....
NOAA Helps Small Towns Remove Obsolete Dams An excavator breached a dam on Oregon's Calapooia River Monday at Brownsville, a small town about 20 miles north of Eugene. Soon the dam will be gone and federally listed threatened salmon will be able to swim upstream to their historic spawning grounds once more. This historic dam removal is the first project to be completed under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's new Open Rivers Initiative, which provides funding and technical expertise for community-driven, small dam and river barrier removals. Under the initiative, NOAA will work with communities to remove up to 50 obsolete dams and rundown culverts across the nation each year. These projects will begin to repair river systems and also eliminate dangerous conditions that are prevalent at outdated structures....
Burning Man's icon goes up in flames, 4 days prematurely A San Francisco man was arrested on felony arson charges today after the 40-foot-tall "Man" statue whose torching is the annual highlight of the Burning Man festival in Nevada went up in flames four days early, authorities said. Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco, was booked into the Pershing County Jail in Nevada on the arson charge and misdemeanor possession of fireworks, Sheriff Ron Skinner said. Festival organizers, meanwhile, pondered the smoldering remains of the Man and promised to rebuild the big guy in time for Saturday's regularly scheduled burn in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno. Some 40,000 people are expected to gather in the desert by this weekend for Burning Man, and Thompson said about 15,000 revelers are already at the festival site. Many were on the playa early this morning watching the lunar eclipse when the fire ignited at 2:58 a.m., according to Burning Man organizers....
Feds reconsidering prairie dogs' unprotected status The federal government will reconsider a contested decision not to place the Gunnison's prairie dog on the endangered-species list, officials announced Tuesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened a public-comment period, seeking new information on the prairie dogs, which are found only in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. "We're just asking everybody if you've got any information regarding prairie-dog distribution, about threats to the prairie dogs - anything," said Diane Katzenberger, spokeswoman for the agency. The move comes after the environmental group Forest Guardians and 73 other plaintiffs reached a settlement last month in their suit over the agency's decision not to put the prairie dogs on the endangered-species list. "The Gunnison's prairie dog desperately needs federal protection if it is to be spared from extinction," prairie-dog biologist Con Slobodchikoff said in a statement after the settlement. The Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged that the prairie-dog population has declined by 97 percent because of poisoning and shooting, sylvatic plague and habitat destruction....
Endangered-species suit planned An environmental organization served notice Tuesday that it intends to sue a federal agency over 55 endangered species in 28 states and seek restoration of 8.7 million acres of protected habitat. The suit includes two birds found in Western Washington: the marbled murrelet and the Western snowy plover. The Center for Biological Diversity said its formal notice of intent to sue the Interior Department is the starting point for the largest legal action in the history of the 34-year-old Endangered Species Act. The action accuses the federal government of illegally removing one animal from the endangered-species list, refusing to put three animals on the list and proposing to downgrade or remove protection from seven others. In addition, it contends that the government's actions stripped protection from 8.7 million acres of critical habitat for a range of plant and animal species from Texas to Washington state. The Tucson-based center claims that Bush administration appointees made the decision based on politics and not science....
Officials say island is on way to recovery after 5,036 pigs killed Thousands of wild pigs on Santa Cruz Island that destroyed plants and dug up Chumash archaeological sites over the years have been killed in one of the largest pig eradication projects in the world. Officials announced Tuesday that 5,036 pigs were systematically killed in a $5 million, two-year effort to restore the island to its natural state. "This is a huge milestone," said Kate Faulkner, chief of natural resources for Channel Islands National Park, which co-owns Santa Cruz Island with The Nature Conservancy. More than 150 years ago, farmers ferried pigs to the area as they tried to eke out an existence on California's largest island. Over the years, the pigs escaped from their pens, bred with non-native wild boars and settled into a life of rooting through the vast grasslands for acorns and grubs hidden underneath an array of plants — some found nowhere else on earth....Almost $1,000 per pig? That's a "huge milestone" alright.
A $27 Million Plan For Ivory Billed Woodpecker As inconclusive but tantalizing evidence has mounted that the elusive ivory billed woodpecker still lives in the southeastern swamps, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed its first-ever recovery plan for the endangered species. It was listed as endangered 40 years ago, and was even then widely believed to be extinct. That changed when a Cornell University team published an account of seeing the bird in 2004 — prompting an aggressive annual search for evidence that the bird still lives. The plan calls for $27 million, primarily to continue looking for the bird and to understand where and how it lives so that appropriate conservation efforts can be planned. No conclusive evidence has emerged that the bird exists, but a growing number of anecdotal sightings by experienced birders have provided enough evidence that the effort is worthwhile, according to the recovery plan. The dearth of information about the bird, however, prevents the production of a more detailed recovery plan, the likes of which are produced for other endangered species....
Horse killed by wolves A Department of Natural Resources wolf expert confirmed Wednesday that a horse found dead in Kimball earlier this month was killed by wolves. Adrian Wydeven, of Park Falls, a DNR mammalian ecologist, said the death was listed as a "probable wolf kill." Investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services conducted an examination at the scene and an autopsy on the horse was later performed, he noted. The animal, owned by Gene Milewski of Ironwood, had been a top racing horse at one time. It was about 20 years old. Milewski raced horses at the Gogebic County Fair in Ironwood for many years. Wydeven said the owner of the property where the horse was killed has been issued a wolf kill shooting permit and a federal trapper is working that area....
U.S. appeals court OKs Canada beef imports A U.S. appeals court gave the green light on Tuesday to continued Canadian beef and cattle imports, rejecting a rancher group's effort to impose a ban amid mad cow disease concerns. The Montana-based Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF) argued that live Canadian cattle posed a risk of mad cow disease to the U.S. cattle herd and should be banned. "Having reviewed the merits of this case, we conclude that the agency considered the relevant factors and articulated a rational connection between the facts found and its decision to designate Canada a minimal-risk country," Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall wrote for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "R-CALF's extra-record evidence has failed to convince us that the agency's review was unauthorized, incomplete, or otherwise improper," Judge Hall wrote. The decision went point by point through R-CALF's arguments but found fault in them. "The agency -- at the time it made its decision -- properly relied on studies from both the World Organization for Animal Health and the Harvard Center on Risk Analysis finding that feed bans were the most effective way to prevent the spread of BSE," the court wrote. "It bears repeating that the agency did not assume 100 percent effectiveness of its measures."....
Copper thefts hit farms hard, rising metal prices fuel surge Twice this spring, metal thieves trespassed onto Gary Barton's walnut ranches in the Central Valley, yanked out the copper connecting his irrigation pumps to the power poles, and drove off with thousands of dollars worth of scrap metal. In all, Barton says he's had to spend more than $10,000 repairing and replacing the copper wiring for the seven vandalized pumps. And he considers himself fortunate—other farmers have lost entire crops and had to shell out much more to stay in business. Metal thefts have been on the rise as prices have skyrocketed, and copper thefts are hitting farmers in California and throughout the country particularly hard. Commonly used in electrical wiring, and included in motors for pumps and tractors and other farm machinery, copper is everywhere in agricultural operations and is an increasingly juicy target for thieves, selling for around $3.50 a pound, a more than 400 percent increase from 2001, fueled in part by demand from a building boom in China....
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
A vote for expanding Piñon Sen. Wayne Allard slid slightly off the fence Monday, saying he would support the Army’s plans to buy more than 650 square miles of ranch land in southeast Colorado to expand a training area. But Allard, a Republican whose voice is key in deciding whether Army plans move forward, left a large obstacle in the Defense Department’s path, saying it should get acreage to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site only from those who want to sell. “I’m not willing to pick a fight with my House colleagues, yet,” Allard said during a news conference Monday at Fort Carson. “But we do want people to move forward.” The fight Allard alluded to is brewing over a measure pushed by Reps. John Salazar, D-Colo., and Marilyn Musgrave., R-Colo., that would block Army spending on expansion planning. That measure has passed the House and could come up for Senate consideration in early September....
State says elk herd is bigger than thought A northwest Colorado elk herd is two to three times larger than originally believed, state wildlife officials say. The Bears Ears herd is now estimated at 23,000 to 45,000, state Division of Wildlife officials said. Previous estimates put the herd at 11,000 to 15,000 animals. The new count is based on a spring survey of elk herd ranges using three helicopters and one airplane. "We used a grid system to count the elk on the ground," DOW wildlife biologist Darby Finley said. "We flew over 1,754 miles of winter range and counted 4,119 elk." Some northwest Colorado landowners had complained for years that the DOW elk estimates were faulty. "There's way too many elk in some places," rancher John Smith said. "They move into these meadows too early and rub out the growth. They kill the edible brush."....
River ruckus Congress recognized the unique features of the lower river in 1986 when it passed the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act. The act, signed by President Reagan, also designated a 7.7-mile stretch of the White Salmon from BZ Corner to just above Northwestern Lake as a national scenic river that would remain forever free-flowing and buffered by a corridor protecting it from development. The scenic stretch lies upstream from Condit Dam, which is scheduled for demolition next year. The designation was unique for another reason: All 1,874 acres in the protected river corridor were in private ownership. The principal landowner was, and remains, SDS Lumber Co., which owns 725 acres in the protected corridor. SDS initially agreed to exchange that land with the Forest Service for timber land outside the boundary. Last year, SDS logged a key area along Spring Creek, a tributary within the scenic area corridor that had been designated in the management plan for a nature trail and picnic area....
Researcher pins blame for grouse on drought An environmental researcher said Monday that drought "is the big driver" when measuring detrimental effects on sage grouse populations. Renee Taylor, of Taylor Environmental Consulting in Casper, Wyo., spoke during a presentation to the Montana Petroleum Association's annual meeting in Billings. She listed conclusions of her examination of seven study areas across Wyoming where oil and gas development has occurred over the past 30 to 40 years. She is preparing a professional research paper that should be completed in six weeks and will be made available for critical analysis and peer review, she said. Taylor said sage grouse have maintained their breeding grounds, called leks, over time in existing oil and gas fields. Despite loss of habitat, intense activity and drought, the average number of sage grouse males is basically the same now as in 1970, she said....
Interior Dept. official says action must be taken on sage grouse The federal government must take immediate action to conserve shrinking sage grouse populations _ even as questions remain over the cause of the bird's decline, an Interior Department official said Monday. In recent months, the Interior Department tightened oversight of some new oil and gas activity in Wyoming and Montana in a bid to slow development in areas with high numbers of sage grouse. That came despite questions raised by industry representatives who argue evidence linking sage grouse declines to drilling are inconclusive. Julie Jacobson, deputy assistant secretary for minerals management at the Interior Department, said a lawsuit hanging over the agency has forced it to act before the bird can again become a candidate for the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2005 rejected a petition to have the bird listed as threatened or endangered. A lawsuit pending before a federal judge in Idaho seeks to force the government to reconsider....
Unofficial race big success - maybe Officially, there were no winners or losers at the unofficial Gore Canyon whitewater festival that might or might not have taken place 10 days ago at the Bureau of Land Management's Pumphouse Recreation Area. Like the sound of one hand clapping or a tree falling in the forest with no one around, it was impossible to determine whether the annual celebration of the classic Class V stretch of the Colorado River south of Kremmling took place this summer, even though it obviously did. From the land management vantage point, the non-permitted, non-event went off without a hitch. Or didn't, depending on your semantic perspective. In the absence of a legal permit necessary to conduct an official river race or group gathering, BLM rangers were present in full force at the river put-in and takeout, enforcing federal codes prohibiting an organized race through Gore Canyon on a par with the semi-organized races that have taken place on the third Saturday of August for nearly 20 years now....
Battling to save a unique species They saved starving pioneers. They were fed to refugees. They were even used to pay Mormon tithing and Salt Lake City public-works employees. "In a way," historian D. Robert Carter said, "the June suckers from Utah Lake helped build Salt Lake City." On Monday, Utah officials made the latest installment on repaying that debt. Department of Natural Resources workers introduced the first of 43,000 hatchery-bred suckers at Utah Lake State Park as part of a recovery plan to pull the species back from the brink of extinction. But Reed Harris, recovery-program director, said there is more to this effort. "We're not talking about saving fish," he said, "but saving an ecosystem."....
Kempthorne Wins 2007 Rubber Dodo Award The Center for Biological Diversity presented Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne with the first annual Rubber Dodo Award on Friday. Since his confirmation as secretary of interior on May 26, 2006, Kempthorne has not placed a single plant or animal on the federal endangered species list. The last listing (12 Hawaiian picture-wing flies) occurred on May 9, 2006 - 472 days ago. The previous recordholder was James Watt, who listed no species for 376 days between 1981 and 1982. Watt's refusal to list species resulted in a 1982 congressional amendment to the Endangered Species Act, which established firm timelines for listing species and litigation consequences for violating the deadlines. Kempthorne's refusal prompted Ed Markey (D-MA) to introduce H.R. 3459, the "Transparent Reporting Under ESA Listing Act," on August 4, 2007. It would amend the Endangered Species Act to require the secretary to explain the scientific basis of decisions to deny Endangered Species Act protections to imperiled plants and animals....
Activists take aim at lead bullets Lead bullets are the target of those working to save the endangered California condor. State lawmakers and wildlife authorities are on separate paths that could produce a ban on hunters using lead bullets in the condor's range, mostly along the coast from Santa Barbara to Big Sur. “Lead ammunition is probably the No. 1 factor impeding the recovery of the condor,” said Allison Alberts, director of conservation and research for the San Diego Zoological Society. Powerful forces have lined up to block a ban. Hunting and gun-rights advocates say a better course would be to expand voluntary measures to protect condors. They warn that the lead alternative – vastly more expensive copper – has not proven to be safer. They also fear cuts to wildlife programs funded by hunting-related taxes and economic losses in rural communities if large numbers drop out of the sport....
Removal from list was right decision The decision to remove Everglades National Park from the United Nations' list of endangered world heritage sites recognizes and applauds the unprecedented efforts and continuing commitment of South Florida's community, the State of Florida and the federal government to save this world-class ecosystem. Some have misinterpreted the criteria used by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee and the administration's support for removing the park from the list. The committee's decision does not in any way signal a lessening of our commitment or an end to the Everglades restoration efforts. This administration wholeheartedly supports the ongoing national initiative to comprehensively restore and preserve the River of Grass and its vital ecosystem. To date, the United States and State of Florida have spent about $7.1 billion for projects designed to improve water quality, increase water supplies, recover threatened and endangered species and restore natural habitat. The Government Accountability Office reports that of the 222 separate Everglades restoration projects that it estimates will cost at least $19.7 billion over the next decades, 43 have been completed, 107 are underway and 26 are in design or planning phases. The remaining 46 projects, to be launched in coming years, will complete the current restoration plan....
Tribe must haul own water Ethel Whitehair ran out of water again over the weekend, emptied every bucket and pot, drained the barrels lined up outside her front door. The community well was closed until Monday. Water from a well at a nearby windmill could supply the sheep, but it was untreated and made Whitehair's skin itch. At another windmill down the road, vandals had torn the cover off the storage tank. Deep inside, a car battery steeped in the soupy dregs, the surface stirred by the bloated bodies of three dead crows. So Whitehair waited, as she had so often during her 87 years on Arizona's Navajo Reservation. She waited for her children to come and haul water from the good well. She waited for someone to end an unthinkable water crisis. It is a wait shared by nearly 80,000 others who must haul water to meet basic needs. They live far from a water pipeline, and their communities barely have enough water to sustain what few lines exist....
Activist ices plans to paint global warming line around US city amid complaints A global-warming activist has withdrawn a proposal to paint blue lines across a swath of the city depicting the level the ocean could rise to if Greenland's ice sheets keep melting. The project, known as "lightblueline," had attracted criticism from some residents who feared their properties would lose value if they were located on the wrong side of the predicted flood zone. "If you're below the line, there's a stigma," resident Jerry Beaver told The Los Angeles Times for its Sunday edition. Beaver is a real estate developer who owns property that would be deluged if sea levels rise 23 feet (7 meters) - a scenario predicted by some scientists if Greenland's ice continues to thaw. Bruce Caron, the activist behind the project, disputed residents' concerns the line would have impacted property values....
With coal production, cleaner skies could mean more landfills As U.S. coal-fired power plants work to create cleaner skies, they will likely fill up landfills with millions more tons of potentially harmful ash. More than one-third of the ash generated at the hundreds of coal-fired plants in the U.S. is now recycled - mixed with cement to build highways or used to stabilize embankments, among other things. But in a process being used increasingly across America, chemicals are injected into plants' emissions to capture airborne pollutants. That, in turn, changes the composition of the ash and cuts its usefulness. It cannot be used in cement, for example, because the interaction of the chemicals may keep the concrete from hardening. That ash has to go somewhere - so it usually ends up in landfills, along with the rest of the unusable waste....
Idaho wildfires cost feds millions Idaho is taking a large chunk of this year's national firefighting budget, and wildfire managers say some of the communities they are defending have done little to protect themselves. The federal government has spent an estimated $125 million to fight large wildfires in Idaho this summer, 12.5 percent of the $1 billion spent so far nationwide, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Fire managers say much of that money goes to equipment and firefighters who increasingly find themselves hosing down homes ahead of flames rather than battling wildfires head on. "The bottom line is you've turned these firefighters, these highly trained and experienced firefighters ... into a very expensive maintenance crew," said Jim Smalley, manager of Firewise, a national program that educates homeowners on how to protect their property from wildfires....
Ski resort battles blaze with snow machines The Wood River Valley continues to fight the 33,000-acre Castle Rock Fire by any means available: garden hoses, sprinklers and hand-dug barriers. Sunday, they brought out the snow machines. As the fire advanced toward Bald Mountain, the region's most popular skiing site, the Sun Valley Resort started the machines to protect the mountain and several structures at its summit from embers pushed by high winds. Officials turned on the chairlift when flames began to lick its seats. "The winds are pushing that fire to the east," said fire information officer Bob Beanblossom. "But we've got structure protection in place."....
Horses Killed By Train On Bridge Near Reno Two horseback riders escaped injury but their mounts were killed when they were struck by a Union Pacific train on a bridge west of Reno, authorities said. The unidentified riders were crossing the Truckee River on a railroad bridge when kayakers in the river told them of the oncoming train. The riders dismounted and jumped to safety but were unable to get the horses off the bridge, the Washoe County sheriff's office said. Sheriff's Sgt. Harry Dixon said the horses were owned by a local rancher who had allowed a volunteer caregiver to exercise the animals. He said case would be forwarded to Union Pacific Railroad police, who were considering trespassing charges against the riders.
UFO incident has a life of its own Roswell, N. M., home of a famous UFO incident in 1947 that officially was attributed to a radar experiment, is home to a yearly UFO festival and numerous other activities. But Southwest Nebraska was the site of a similar incident more than a half-century earlier -- the first recorded "UFO crash" in modern history. In case you're not familiar with the Dundy County incident of June 6, 1884, as reported the next day in the Nebraska State Journal, here are the highlights: It seems rancher John W. Ellis, three of his cowboys and several others were rounding up cattle when "they heard a terrific rushing, roaring sound overhead and, looking up, saw what appeared to be a blazing meteor of immense size falling at an an angle to the earth. A moment later, it struck the ground out of sight over the bank. Scrambling up the steep hill, they saw the object bounding along half a mile away and disappear in another draw." Galloping to the scene, they found scorched grass for yards around, and dazzling light so bright that it burned the face of one of the cowboys, singed his hair and blinded him, at least temporarily. After the object cooled somewhat the next day, a party including E.W. Rawlins, a brand inspector, reported finding scattered machinery including what looked like the blade of a propeller screw that looked like brass but was extremely light in weight; as well as a fragment of a wheel with a milled rim....
A vote for expanding Piñon Sen. Wayne Allard slid slightly off the fence Monday, saying he would support the Army’s plans to buy more than 650 square miles of ranch land in southeast Colorado to expand a training area. But Allard, a Republican whose voice is key in deciding whether Army plans move forward, left a large obstacle in the Defense Department’s path, saying it should get acreage to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site only from those who want to sell. “I’m not willing to pick a fight with my House colleagues, yet,” Allard said during a news conference Monday at Fort Carson. “But we do want people to move forward.” The fight Allard alluded to is brewing over a measure pushed by Reps. John Salazar, D-Colo., and Marilyn Musgrave., R-Colo., that would block Army spending on expansion planning. That measure has passed the House and could come up for Senate consideration in early September....
State says elk herd is bigger than thought A northwest Colorado elk herd is two to three times larger than originally believed, state wildlife officials say. The Bears Ears herd is now estimated at 23,000 to 45,000, state Division of Wildlife officials said. Previous estimates put the herd at 11,000 to 15,000 animals. The new count is based on a spring survey of elk herd ranges using three helicopters and one airplane. "We used a grid system to count the elk on the ground," DOW wildlife biologist Darby Finley said. "We flew over 1,754 miles of winter range and counted 4,119 elk." Some northwest Colorado landowners had complained for years that the DOW elk estimates were faulty. "There's way too many elk in some places," rancher John Smith said. "They move into these meadows too early and rub out the growth. They kill the edible brush."....
River ruckus Congress recognized the unique features of the lower river in 1986 when it passed the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act. The act, signed by President Reagan, also designated a 7.7-mile stretch of the White Salmon from BZ Corner to just above Northwestern Lake as a national scenic river that would remain forever free-flowing and buffered by a corridor protecting it from development. The scenic stretch lies upstream from Condit Dam, which is scheduled for demolition next year. The designation was unique for another reason: All 1,874 acres in the protected river corridor were in private ownership. The principal landowner was, and remains, SDS Lumber Co., which owns 725 acres in the protected corridor. SDS initially agreed to exchange that land with the Forest Service for timber land outside the boundary. Last year, SDS logged a key area along Spring Creek, a tributary within the scenic area corridor that had been designated in the management plan for a nature trail and picnic area....
Researcher pins blame for grouse on drought An environmental researcher said Monday that drought "is the big driver" when measuring detrimental effects on sage grouse populations. Renee Taylor, of Taylor Environmental Consulting in Casper, Wyo., spoke during a presentation to the Montana Petroleum Association's annual meeting in Billings. She listed conclusions of her examination of seven study areas across Wyoming where oil and gas development has occurred over the past 30 to 40 years. She is preparing a professional research paper that should be completed in six weeks and will be made available for critical analysis and peer review, she said. Taylor said sage grouse have maintained their breeding grounds, called leks, over time in existing oil and gas fields. Despite loss of habitat, intense activity and drought, the average number of sage grouse males is basically the same now as in 1970, she said....
Interior Dept. official says action must be taken on sage grouse The federal government must take immediate action to conserve shrinking sage grouse populations _ even as questions remain over the cause of the bird's decline, an Interior Department official said Monday. In recent months, the Interior Department tightened oversight of some new oil and gas activity in Wyoming and Montana in a bid to slow development in areas with high numbers of sage grouse. That came despite questions raised by industry representatives who argue evidence linking sage grouse declines to drilling are inconclusive. Julie Jacobson, deputy assistant secretary for minerals management at the Interior Department, said a lawsuit hanging over the agency has forced it to act before the bird can again become a candidate for the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2005 rejected a petition to have the bird listed as threatened or endangered. A lawsuit pending before a federal judge in Idaho seeks to force the government to reconsider....
Unofficial race big success - maybe Officially, there were no winners or losers at the unofficial Gore Canyon whitewater festival that might or might not have taken place 10 days ago at the Bureau of Land Management's Pumphouse Recreation Area. Like the sound of one hand clapping or a tree falling in the forest with no one around, it was impossible to determine whether the annual celebration of the classic Class V stretch of the Colorado River south of Kremmling took place this summer, even though it obviously did. From the land management vantage point, the non-permitted, non-event went off without a hitch. Or didn't, depending on your semantic perspective. In the absence of a legal permit necessary to conduct an official river race or group gathering, BLM rangers were present in full force at the river put-in and takeout, enforcing federal codes prohibiting an organized race through Gore Canyon on a par with the semi-organized races that have taken place on the third Saturday of August for nearly 20 years now....
Battling to save a unique species They saved starving pioneers. They were fed to refugees. They were even used to pay Mormon tithing and Salt Lake City public-works employees. "In a way," historian D. Robert Carter said, "the June suckers from Utah Lake helped build Salt Lake City." On Monday, Utah officials made the latest installment on repaying that debt. Department of Natural Resources workers introduced the first of 43,000 hatchery-bred suckers at Utah Lake State Park as part of a recovery plan to pull the species back from the brink of extinction. But Reed Harris, recovery-program director, said there is more to this effort. "We're not talking about saving fish," he said, "but saving an ecosystem."....
Kempthorne Wins 2007 Rubber Dodo Award The Center for Biological Diversity presented Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne with the first annual Rubber Dodo Award on Friday. Since his confirmation as secretary of interior on May 26, 2006, Kempthorne has not placed a single plant or animal on the federal endangered species list. The last listing (12 Hawaiian picture-wing flies) occurred on May 9, 2006 - 472 days ago. The previous recordholder was James Watt, who listed no species for 376 days between 1981 and 1982. Watt's refusal to list species resulted in a 1982 congressional amendment to the Endangered Species Act, which established firm timelines for listing species and litigation consequences for violating the deadlines. Kempthorne's refusal prompted Ed Markey (D-MA) to introduce H.R. 3459, the "Transparent Reporting Under ESA Listing Act," on August 4, 2007. It would amend the Endangered Species Act to require the secretary to explain the scientific basis of decisions to deny Endangered Species Act protections to imperiled plants and animals....
Activists take aim at lead bullets Lead bullets are the target of those working to save the endangered California condor. State lawmakers and wildlife authorities are on separate paths that could produce a ban on hunters using lead bullets in the condor's range, mostly along the coast from Santa Barbara to Big Sur. “Lead ammunition is probably the No. 1 factor impeding the recovery of the condor,” said Allison Alberts, director of conservation and research for the San Diego Zoological Society. Powerful forces have lined up to block a ban. Hunting and gun-rights advocates say a better course would be to expand voluntary measures to protect condors. They warn that the lead alternative – vastly more expensive copper – has not proven to be safer. They also fear cuts to wildlife programs funded by hunting-related taxes and economic losses in rural communities if large numbers drop out of the sport....
Removal from list was right decision The decision to remove Everglades National Park from the United Nations' list of endangered world heritage sites recognizes and applauds the unprecedented efforts and continuing commitment of South Florida's community, the State of Florida and the federal government to save this world-class ecosystem. Some have misinterpreted the criteria used by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee and the administration's support for removing the park from the list. The committee's decision does not in any way signal a lessening of our commitment or an end to the Everglades restoration efforts. This administration wholeheartedly supports the ongoing national initiative to comprehensively restore and preserve the River of Grass and its vital ecosystem. To date, the United States and State of Florida have spent about $7.1 billion for projects designed to improve water quality, increase water supplies, recover threatened and endangered species and restore natural habitat. The Government Accountability Office reports that of the 222 separate Everglades restoration projects that it estimates will cost at least $19.7 billion over the next decades, 43 have been completed, 107 are underway and 26 are in design or planning phases. The remaining 46 projects, to be launched in coming years, will complete the current restoration plan....
Tribe must haul own water Ethel Whitehair ran out of water again over the weekend, emptied every bucket and pot, drained the barrels lined up outside her front door. The community well was closed until Monday. Water from a well at a nearby windmill could supply the sheep, but it was untreated and made Whitehair's skin itch. At another windmill down the road, vandals had torn the cover off the storage tank. Deep inside, a car battery steeped in the soupy dregs, the surface stirred by the bloated bodies of three dead crows. So Whitehair waited, as she had so often during her 87 years on Arizona's Navajo Reservation. She waited for her children to come and haul water from the good well. She waited for someone to end an unthinkable water crisis. It is a wait shared by nearly 80,000 others who must haul water to meet basic needs. They live far from a water pipeline, and their communities barely have enough water to sustain what few lines exist....
Activist ices plans to paint global warming line around US city amid complaints A global-warming activist has withdrawn a proposal to paint blue lines across a swath of the city depicting the level the ocean could rise to if Greenland's ice sheets keep melting. The project, known as "lightblueline," had attracted criticism from some residents who feared their properties would lose value if they were located on the wrong side of the predicted flood zone. "If you're below the line, there's a stigma," resident Jerry Beaver told The Los Angeles Times for its Sunday edition. Beaver is a real estate developer who owns property that would be deluged if sea levels rise 23 feet (7 meters) - a scenario predicted by some scientists if Greenland's ice continues to thaw. Bruce Caron, the activist behind the project, disputed residents' concerns the line would have impacted property values....
With coal production, cleaner skies could mean more landfills As U.S. coal-fired power plants work to create cleaner skies, they will likely fill up landfills with millions more tons of potentially harmful ash. More than one-third of the ash generated at the hundreds of coal-fired plants in the U.S. is now recycled - mixed with cement to build highways or used to stabilize embankments, among other things. But in a process being used increasingly across America, chemicals are injected into plants' emissions to capture airborne pollutants. That, in turn, changes the composition of the ash and cuts its usefulness. It cannot be used in cement, for example, because the interaction of the chemicals may keep the concrete from hardening. That ash has to go somewhere - so it usually ends up in landfills, along with the rest of the unusable waste....
Idaho wildfires cost feds millions Idaho is taking a large chunk of this year's national firefighting budget, and wildfire managers say some of the communities they are defending have done little to protect themselves. The federal government has spent an estimated $125 million to fight large wildfires in Idaho this summer, 12.5 percent of the $1 billion spent so far nationwide, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Fire managers say much of that money goes to equipment and firefighters who increasingly find themselves hosing down homes ahead of flames rather than battling wildfires head on. "The bottom line is you've turned these firefighters, these highly trained and experienced firefighters ... into a very expensive maintenance crew," said Jim Smalley, manager of Firewise, a national program that educates homeowners on how to protect their property from wildfires....
Ski resort battles blaze with snow machines The Wood River Valley continues to fight the 33,000-acre Castle Rock Fire by any means available: garden hoses, sprinklers and hand-dug barriers. Sunday, they brought out the snow machines. As the fire advanced toward Bald Mountain, the region's most popular skiing site, the Sun Valley Resort started the machines to protect the mountain and several structures at its summit from embers pushed by high winds. Officials turned on the chairlift when flames began to lick its seats. "The winds are pushing that fire to the east," said fire information officer Bob Beanblossom. "But we've got structure protection in place."....
Horses Killed By Train On Bridge Near Reno Two horseback riders escaped injury but their mounts were killed when they were struck by a Union Pacific train on a bridge west of Reno, authorities said. The unidentified riders were crossing the Truckee River on a railroad bridge when kayakers in the river told them of the oncoming train. The riders dismounted and jumped to safety but were unable to get the horses off the bridge, the Washoe County sheriff's office said. Sheriff's Sgt. Harry Dixon said the horses were owned by a local rancher who had allowed a volunteer caregiver to exercise the animals. He said case would be forwarded to Union Pacific Railroad police, who were considering trespassing charges against the riders.
UFO incident has a life of its own Roswell, N. M., home of a famous UFO incident in 1947 that officially was attributed to a radar experiment, is home to a yearly UFO festival and numerous other activities. But Southwest Nebraska was the site of a similar incident more than a half-century earlier -- the first recorded "UFO crash" in modern history. In case you're not familiar with the Dundy County incident of June 6, 1884, as reported the next day in the Nebraska State Journal, here are the highlights: It seems rancher John W. Ellis, three of his cowboys and several others were rounding up cattle when "they heard a terrific rushing, roaring sound overhead and, looking up, saw what appeared to be a blazing meteor of immense size falling at an an angle to the earth. A moment later, it struck the ground out of sight over the bank. Scrambling up the steep hill, they saw the object bounding along half a mile away and disappear in another draw." Galloping to the scene, they found scorched grass for yards around, and dazzling light so bright that it burned the face of one of the cowboys, singed his hair and blinded him, at least temporarily. After the object cooled somewhat the next day, a party including E.W. Rawlins, a brand inspector, reported finding scattered machinery including what looked like the blade of a propeller screw that looked like brass but was extremely light in weight; as well as a fragment of a wheel with a milled rim....
Monday, August 27, 2007
DONA ANA WILDERNESS
Wilderness — gain or loss?
Wilderness. The word conjures up images of solitude, mountains, lakes, rivers, streams and trees. The ideal of wilderness has a broad appeal. In almost every public discussion on wilderness, the idea of protecting land for our grandchildren is raised. This appeal tugs at our hearts and emotions, but it is irresponsible to make crucial decisions based solely on feelings. Wilderness designation and open space are not the same thing. Over 107 million acres have already been federally designated as wilderness. Legislated prohibitions in the Wilderness Act include "no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, no landing of aircraft, no other forms of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation within any such area," among numerous other restrictions and limitations intended to protect the designated areas. Things as harmless as motorized wheelchairs and mountain bikes are excluded. The restrictions imposed by a wilderness designation are what give many groups and individuals great pause, as they try to understand the scope of implications and impacts. The ranching community does have an agenda. Every acre proposed for wilderness designation lies within an active working ranch, and they want to be able to continue ranching in the areas where they currently ranch. Ranchers fully support open space. They would be a bit foolish not to, because without open space, ranching cannot exist....
Wilderness — gain or loss?
Wilderness. The word conjures up images of solitude, mountains, lakes, rivers, streams and trees. The ideal of wilderness has a broad appeal. In almost every public discussion on wilderness, the idea of protecting land for our grandchildren is raised. This appeal tugs at our hearts and emotions, but it is irresponsible to make crucial decisions based solely on feelings. Wilderness designation and open space are not the same thing. Over 107 million acres have already been federally designated as wilderness. Legislated prohibitions in the Wilderness Act include "no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, no landing of aircraft, no other forms of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation within any such area," among numerous other restrictions and limitations intended to protect the designated areas. Things as harmless as motorized wheelchairs and mountain bikes are excluded. The restrictions imposed by a wilderness designation are what give many groups and individuals great pause, as they try to understand the scope of implications and impacts. The ranching community does have an agenda. Every acre proposed for wilderness designation lies within an active working ranch, and they want to be able to continue ranching in the areas where they currently ranch. Ranchers fully support open space. They would be a bit foolish not to, because without open space, ranching cannot exist....
Gonzales to Spend More Time Eavesdropping on His Family
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned today, effective immediately, telling reporters that he wanted to spend more time eavesdropping on his family. Mr. Gonzales, a champion of domestic surveillance and warrantless wiretaps while in office, said he was “totally stoked” about turning his prying eyes on his own family. “Domestic surveillance begins at home,” Mr. Gonzales said at a White House press conference. “That means nobody in my family is above suspicion, not even the little ones,” an apparent reference to Mr. Gonzales’ children. Standing by Mr. Gonzales’ side, President George W. Bush praised his former Attorney General, singling out his “courage” for ramping up his domestic spying program on his own family....
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned today, effective immediately, telling reporters that he wanted to spend more time eavesdropping on his family. Mr. Gonzales, a champion of domestic surveillance and warrantless wiretaps while in office, said he was “totally stoked” about turning his prying eyes on his own family. “Domestic surveillance begins at home,” Mr. Gonzales said at a White House press conference. “That means nobody in my family is above suspicion, not even the little ones,” an apparent reference to Mr. Gonzales’ children. Standing by Mr. Gonzales’ side, President George W. Bush praised his former Attorney General, singling out his “courage” for ramping up his domestic spying program on his own family....
DONA ANA WILDERNESS
For those interested in the Dona Ana Wilderness issues, or for wilderness in general, be sure and checkout the People For Preserving Our Western Heritage website. Lots of good info.
For those interested in the Dona Ana Wilderness issues, or for wilderness in general, be sure and checkout the People For Preserving Our Western Heritage website. Lots of good info.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Panel looks at detail of species law A panel formed to look into how to preserve and improve sage grouse numbers and habitat in Wyoming is looking at a provision of the Endangered Species Act that may help maintain agricultural activity and oil and gas development if the sage grouse gains federal protection. The focus is on voluntary conservation efforts that qualify under the "candidate conservation agreements with assurances" provision. Essentially, private landowners who take on practices that conserve and increase sage grouse and sage grouse habitat are allowed to continue their normal operations if the bird is listed, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If those normal operations carried out under a conservation agreement result in the death of one or more sage grouse, it would not result in a violation of the Endangered Species Act. Gov. Dave Freudenthal wants to establish a conservation agreement with assurances for the entire state, said Ryan Lance, the governor's chief of staff. Lance said the idea is to convince private landowners to voluntarily enroll in the statewide agreement. If the sage grouse becomes listed, then energy developers, whether on private or federal lands, could agree to those same conservation practices....
Judge upholds elk feeding A federal judge ruled Friday against several environmental groups in their attempt to stop Wyoming's program of testing elk for brucellosis and killing those with the disease. U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson also denied the groups' request to order an environmental study of a dozen feedgrounds the state operates to help elk survive the harsh winters. Tim Preso, the attorney for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said the organizations were still studying the ruling and no decision had been made on whether to appeal. "This ruling doesn't change the fact that the elk feeding in Wyoming is creating a serious disease problem and none of the federal or state agencies are addressing it," Preso said in a telephone interview Friday. But Johnson said he could not find any legal grounds to support the requests sought in the lawsuit. "None of the agencies' actions were arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, or without observance required by law," he wrote in the 66-page opinion....
Forest officials curb ATVs The U.S. Forest Service has begun imposing travel restrictions on ATVs and other off-road vehicles nationally, ending their long-standing permission to go almost anywhere. The move marks the end of the principle that forest lands are "open unless designated closed" to motor vehicles and instead establishes that they are "closed unless designated open." "People would say, 'Well, look, there's a two-track there, and it's been there for a long time,"' said Paul Cruz, recreation staff officer for the Arapahoe National Forest. "That won't work anymore. Now, the burden is on the user to have a ... map and to follow it." That means that off-road vehicles are allowed only on trails marked on new travel maps being drawn up for each national forest - in some cases excluding popular existing routes. The growing popularity of off-road vehicles has proved to be a difficult trend to control for land managers, who say the growing network of illegal trails created by wayward motor vehicles is among their biggest problems. By 2003, there were 14,000 miles of such "user-created" trails in the national forests....
'Right stuff' mentality may be a factor in wildfire deaths When five forest firefighters died in Southern California last year, investigators blamed risky decisions by managers. But the U.S. Forest Service has commissioned a study to find out if the gung-ho culture of wildland firefighters is also to blame. Firefighters, like astronauts, can share feelings of invincibility, a "right stuff" mentality that is dangerous, said University of Idaho researcher Chuck Harris, who is leading the study. "Rather than question authority, they plug ahead and believe they can beat the fire," Harris said. Some of the deadliest fires -- such as Storm King in 1994 in Colorado, which killed 14 firefighters, and the Thirtymile Fire in 2001 in Washington, which killed four -- have focused attention on the role of leadership in such situations, Harris said. The Forest Service asks its crews to fight fires and take risks, but also to focus on safety first, Harris said. That's a contradictory message....
Thinned forests slow spread of pine beetles Thinning ponderosa pines in the Black Hills is helping to slow an epidemic of mountain pine beetles, Forest Service officials say. "We know thinning is a good way to keep our forests green and healthy," Black Hills National Forest Supervisor Craig Bobzien said. Logging, non-commercial thinning and prescribed burns in dense stands of ponderosas give individual trees better access to water and nutrients, Forest Service natural resources officer Dave Thom said. Larger, healthier trees are better able to reject bug attacks. "Like humans, if they're malnourished, dehydrated and crowded they're more subject to illness," Thom said. Recent Forest Service aerial photographs show patches of reddish-brown trees killed by beetles in dense stands of timber, next to logged and thinned timber where there are no red "bug trees."....
Lawmaker says USFS hesitated in fighting fire, asks why A state legislator wants congressional follow-up on claims that a helicopter available to drop water on a wildfire north of here did not do so because the U.S. Forest Service wanted to let the fire burn. The blaze that began in July and continues to burn in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness and Beartooth Wildlife Management Area has blackened more than 43,000 acres, or about 67 square miles, and is nearing containment. Sen. Greg Barkus, R-Kalispell, has asked Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to investigate the response to the Meriwether fire. Baucus spokeswoman Sara Kuban said the senator's staff will do so. Barkus said a state helicopter with a bucket to drop water on the fire was ready to fly after the fire was detected July 21, but at the request of the Forest Service the chopper did not head to the blaze. Helena National Forest Supervisor Kevin Riordan said he is comfortable with the response....
Federal mine claim holders to face new challenges Pending in Congress as we speak is legislation that, if it becomes law, will make exploration and mining on (BLM) public domain and U.S. Forest Service lands so difficult that it will be impossible for anyone to mine on them in the future. The legislation I speak of is H.R. 2262, now pending before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. This bill was introduced by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. Rahall has been seeking to “reform” the mining law of 1872 for decades, and now he has the votes to do it. Alaska’s Congressman Don Young has been quoted as saying that he lacks the votes to amend or block this bill in the House; Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, is alleged to have said that he doesn’t have 41 votes to stop it in the Senate; and it is not at all clear that the White House would veto such a bill, especially if the votes to override are there....
Air study delays drilling plan Concerns about the cumulative impact of energy development have prompted federal officials to take a closer look at the potential effects of roughly 3,000 new gas wells on air quality in northwest Colorado. The move follows issues raised by the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver and could bolster a push by conservation groups in Wyoming for more analysis of oil and gas wells there. The Bureau of Land Management is working with the EPA on an air-quality study as part of the review of development plans for federal land in the Little Snake resource area in Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt counties. The study likely will delay oil and gas drilling in the area because it will push back release of the final plan, originally expected in November....
Prairie dog numbers grow Sharon Lovitt knows she has prairie dogs on her ranch. A town, or population, of the animals covering about 640 acres has been there as long as she can remember. But now that town has grown into well over 1,000 acres, she said, since the drought took hold. “They’ve never expanded like they are now,” she said. Neighbors from the far reaches of Converse County echoed her concerns over rapidly growing colonies and the ensuing ecological damage the prairie dogs wreak. Together, they’ve formed the Converse County Prairie Dog Working Group, and within that, the Pine Ridge Pilot Project, to find an ecological balance -- and a way to live with the prairie dogs. The groups come under the auspices of the Southeast Wyoming Resource Conservation and Development Council, an entity composed of representatives of the governments of Converse, Platte, Albany, Laramie and Goshen counties. Grant Stumbaugh, a Natural Resources and Conservation Service employee in Wheatland, provides guidance and support to the council. “We’ve got about a 30 percent increase in prairie dog populations in the last four years (in Converse County),” Stumbaugh said. “A lot of that is attributed to the drought. As natural resource managers and people who care about the land, we strongly believe there needs to be an ecological balance. With a 30 percent increase in prairie dog populations, we feel that ecological balance is no longer there.”....
Getting inside bears' brains George Stevenson's brain appeared to be sweating, glistening on a bright red plastic picnic plate there in the heat of the day. It was big as a big man's fist, and all around it, on other picnic plates, were slivers of other brains, like so many thin-sliced neural hors d'oeuvres. Some looked like spreading river deltas, carved deep with winding channels. One looked just like an elk hoof, stuffed tight with morel mushrooms. With them on the table was a bone-white grizzly bear skull, top lopped to show inside, where Stevenson's juicy brown brain used to be. And beside that was a fully furred grizzly head, guillotined with eyes closed, ears perked up, sharp teeth curving over soft black lips. These are the grisly tools Dr. Stevenson needs for his presentation: "Grizzly Bear Brain, Central Nervous System Structures." "These bears are amazing creatures," Stevenson said. "I believe they have the most impressive olfactory system of any animal on the planet. Their nose is the very best."....
Burning Man festival begins tomorrow Protecting the environment is this year's theme for the 22nd annual Burning Man counterculture arts festival in the Black Rock Desert. In addition to solar panels powering the pavilion at the base of the man, Burners will also be able to view demonstrations of things such as bicycles with generators and gasification machines that eat trash and produce flammable gas. More than 45,000 participants are expected to converge on a 5-square-mile patch of the desert for the festival that begins Monday. Their sprawling encampment will rise up along makeshift streets staked out on the playa and arrayed in a half-moon pattern before a central, looming statue of a man, who is set on fire in wild celebration on the next-to-last night of the festival. The event ends Sept. 3....
Roundup in the Great Divide If all goes well, nearly 500 wild horses will be rounded up and removed from the range east of here, according to the Bureau of Land Management. A contract crew has been working to round up the excess horses, which are run into a trap, sorted into pens, loaded into tractor-trailers, and trucked 40 miles to the BLM horse corrals at Rock Springs, where they will later be available for adoption. The wild horses are being removed from the Great Divide Basin herd management area, a huge expanse of checkerboard land ownership north of Interstate 80, where the federal agency has determined the appropriate management level is 415 to 600 horses. With the current population estimate of more than 1,000, the herd is nearly double the level prescribed by land managers, so excess horses must be removed to achieve ecological balance, they say. An environmental assessment for the horse removal plan noted that the population has exceeded the range capacity to sustain wild horse use over the long term. About 400 horses were removed last year, but the population continues to grow....
‘Split estates’ may pit surface-rights owners against mineral-rights owners The cliché “sitting on a gold mine” might not ring true to its positive tone. Gold is just one of the many minerals in Montana that sits below the surface — sometimes deep below — and is sought after for a variety of reasons. The importance of these raw products, whether they’re gold, sapphires, oil or other natural resources, is so powerful that the right to go after them can usurp private homeowners’ rights. That’s becoming an issue in the West with gas and oil exploration, due to the number of so-called “split estates” in which a person may own the surface rights to something, but someone else buys the mineral rights. And as the price of gold, uranium and other minerals climbs, the conflicts between surface-rights owners and mineral-rights owners may also rise. “A mineral estate is the dominant estate on a split estate,” said Steve Welch, administrator for the planning and compliance division of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. “If you don’t own the mineral rights on a split estate and there’s something down there, you’re likely to see someone come in there and get it.” Split estates are fairly common in the West, being established in the early 1900s, but their roots go back to the founding of the nation....
Nevada senator urges probe in wild horse deaths Nevada Sen. Harry Reid is calling on U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to conduct a "full and thorough investigation" into the nitrate contamination deaths of 71 wild horses in July at the Tonopah Test Range. "There are strong concerns in southern Nevada that these deaths are the result of serious negligence in the management of the test range and the wild horse herds in the area," Reid wrote in a letter sent Friday to the secretary. "In light of this unfortunate event, I believe that this is also an appropriate time to take a close look at the land and wildlife management practices used on the larger Nellis Air Force Range," Reid, the Senate majority leader, suggested. The horses' carcasses were found at a watering hole about a mile from the Tonopah Test Range airfield, about 210 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A former Air Force tech sergeant told the Las Vegas Review-Journal earlier this week that when he worked at the airfield in the 1990s deicing compounds high in nitrogen routinely ran off the runway into the desert. The watering hole is on land restricted from public access....
Ruminants to the rescue A goat’s appetite for almost anything has put them in hot demand by private land owners and government agencies who want an alternative to chemicals for weed control. This summer, the ruminants cleared lands for Woodland, Rocklin, Nevada City, Nevada County and Nevada Irrigation District. “I’m so busy right now,” said Brad Fowler, a Penn Valley resident who owns The Goat Works. Fowler, who started with 150 goats two years ago, has now teamed up with a Woodland rancher. The team collectively dispatches 2,000 animals to clear lands from the foothills to Yolo County. Goats are a sustainable alternative to traditional herbicide sprays that can leach into watersheds or to heavy equipment that compacts soils....
Grasshoppers add to Eastern Oregon farming woes Eastern Oregon ranchers and farmers, already hobbled by drought and hay shortages, have a new addition to their list of woes: grasshoppers. Cory Parsons, livestock extension agent for Baker and Union counties, says what the drought missed the grasshoppers are getting, and calls it the area's worst infestation in years. Typically, he says, grasshoppers stay in the rangelands, but wildfires and drought have made rangeland forage scarce in many areas, and grasshoppers are finding food where they can, including alfalfa fields. They are less visible in sagebrush and on rangeland, but they're being noticed now. They also are eating lawns, gardens, leaves from fruit trees and pine needles. This year, the grasshopper infestation covers more than 270,000 acres in Union and Baker counties, with as many as 75 grasshoppers per square yard in the worst places....
Ranchers: Checkoff should support USA beef Recently, Terry Stokes, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Michael Kelsey, the CEO of the Nebraska Cattlemen, toured the state trying to drum up support for a 100-percent increase in the Beef Checkoff. At every stop and press opportunity, they claimed that any such increase would be driven by producers, who would then have a chance to ratify it with a vote. Well, Mr. Stokes and Mr. Kelsey, let’s take a look at how 8,000 beef producers voted in a recent survey conducted by the Gallup organization under the direction of the USDA and the Livestock Marketing Association: · Only 5.7 percent said the Checkoff should be increased; 91 percent of the respondents said it should remain at $1 (per head) or be decreased. · 92 percent said Checkoff dollars should be used to promote products from cattle specifically born and raised in the U. S. Under current rules beef can only be promoted as a generic product, with no regard to its origin. · 82.5 percent wanted a mandated periodic referendum. * 66 percent would like to see changes made in the contracting process. So it would seem the “producers” have a much different agenda in mind when it comes to managing their Checkoff contributions....
Government cowboys patrol Rio Grande to protect cattle from resurgent ticks hey're gun-toting, government cowboys who follow an unforgiving and treacherous 500-mile route along the Texas-Mexico border, their .357 Magnums, lariats and machetes well in hand. These cowboys aren't after the wave of drug smugglers or illegal immigrants who cross the border daily: They're inspectors on the lookout for border-crossing, blood-sucking parasites that feed on the region's cattle and deer – small black ticks, or garrapatas. The fever tick was all but stricken from the U.S. more than 50 years ago, after wreaking havoc on the state's beef industry. But experts warn that they are back and stronger than ever after developing a resistance to pesticides that had been used effectively for decades. And left uncontrolled, the parasites could result in losses to the beef industry of up to $1 billion a year, the experts warn. They spread a debilitating disease that destroys red blood cells. Enter the 61-person Fever Tick Force, a group of modern-day cowboys funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture who patrol a thin quarantine line along the Rio Grande....
Quality in the fibers Back when Moffat County wool was considered by some to be the king of crops in Colorado, buyers would come to the growers in Northwest Colorado and negotiate a price for their fleece. Rancher John Wellman hopes a recent resurgence of natural fibers in the clothing industry will make wool buyers appreciate the quality of the product coming from his ranch. “Wool is an excellent insulator,” he said. “It can absorb 75 percent of its weight in water without feeling wet.” The Corriedale herd on Wellman’s ranch south of Hamilton produces quality wool that is highly sought after by wool buyers. The Wellman Ranch, on the Moffat and Rio Blanco county line, began when John’s great-grandfather, Harrison Wilber Wellman, purchased the D.D. Ferguson Ranch in 1912. The elder Wellman had already filed on a nearby Milk Creek homestead, but the Ferguson ranch came up for sale and he acquired the property....
Old notebook unearths a tale that needs telling I mentioned in columns after Shoulders' death in June that the 16-time Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion was one of the greatest storytellers I had ever met. So obviously I couldn't fit all the great stories he shared with me in the story I wrote in 2000. Shoulders was a worker — whether as a cowboy, a stock contractor, a rancher or a pitchman — whatever. Even when I saw him sitting in the stands, he was promoting or supporting bull riding or a rodeo. "I'm not a very good tourist,” he said in that interview. And he backed that up with story after story related to working. Here's one of those stories of the pitchman at work. Shoulders would sometimes take "Buford T,” a Brahma bull weighing about 1,900 pounds, to promotional events for Miller Lite beer. This included taking the bull inside some crowded night spots. "I'd say, ‘Excuse us,' and people would turn around kind of mad that I was being pushy,” he said. "But when they saw Buford, it was like a parting of the sea. They'd be on the pool tables or under the pool tables. We instantly had room. Buford thought he was a person.”....
Piece by piece, Hopalong Cassidy memorabilia sold A Texas antiquer went home from the Prairie Rose bankruptcy auction on Friday with a gun-toting girl's bicycle from the 1950s and a slew of other memorabilia from the Hopalong Cassidy Cowboy Museum. The small lamps that Harry King bought for $600 each and the mechanized horse named Sandy destined for one of his grandchildren were among thousands of pieces sold from the museum's collection and scattered to the winds. That's why some people were happy to hear that a local guy had picked up the prize of the Hopalong auction: a 1949 Chevrolet panel truck that had been owned by William Boyd, the actor who played Hoppy, which Tommy Devlin snagged for his dad. The truck will be part of the family's classic-car collection in Andover, he said. It features a picture of Hoppy on the side with his horse, Topper, his gun in his hand and the words "Hopalong Cassidy" and "Hi Kids!" written on it in white rope. Horns sit on the roof....
Actors, ranchers hail Western glory Actor Clint Walker believes the Western is a way Americans can connect with their heritage. "It helps us understand the pioneer spirit and that of the miners, loggers and others who helped develop the backbone of this country," Walker said Saturday in this southwest Utah community used for decades as a backdrop for countless movies. The actor, who in the 1950s and 1960s appeared in a slew of Westerns and on the hit television series "Cheyenne," was here to sign autographs and talk to fans attending the ninth annual Western Legends Roundup. The event ended Saturday. Several thousand people descended on Kanab for the festival held to celebrate Western heritage and honor the moviemaking history of the city and the actors who for several decades beginning in the 1920s stayed in town while shooting movies in the surrounding redrock desert....
Wagons Ho! Dressed in bonnets and cowboy hats, dozens of modern-day pioneers set out Thursday on a nine-day journey from the east side of Sonora Pass to Twain Harte. The Historic Sonora Pass Wagon Train, celebrating its 10th anniversary ride, aims to reenact the wagon train crossing originally accomplished by the Clark-Skidmore expedition in 1852. Although taking a different route than the original pioneers, the wagon train will travel roughly 75 miles. "We want our grandkids to learn the history of Tuolumne County," said Willy Evans, a Twain Harte resident and creator of the initial wagon train event in 1997. "The main purpose is to educate the kids about Tuolumne County's history. They study California history, but not enough Tuolumne County history. I want them to be proud of where they live."....
It’s The Pitts: The Walking Of The Cows People in agriculture are always being urged by our government, who want a cheap food policy, to develop other sources of income on our farms and ranches. They insist the way to save small town America is through tourism. But not every urbanite is going to want to spend their vacation touring this country’s tallest grain elevators or visiting collections of rusted old farm implements. But I think I have come up with something that rubberneckers and sightseers will flock to our small towns to see. You’ve no doubt heard of Pamplona’s running of the bulls? Ever since Ernest Hemingway brought the event to the world’s attention millions of tourists have flocked to Pamplona to try and kill themselves for no apparent reason or cause. Believe it or not, the running of the bulls is a religious festival, which in retrospect seems fitting because the idiots who run with the bulls surely must say a lot of prayers. Pamplona is the historic capital of Basque country and every July the residents celebrate the San Fermin Festival by partying nonstop for over a week. The running of the bulls actually began in 1852 when the drovers who brought the bulls to the Plaza de Toros through the narrow streets of Pamplona for that night’s bullfight started running with them. Then some crazy tourists thought it looked like fun to be gored and run over by bulls and so they joined the chase. And the rest is medical history. Now here’s what I’ve been thinking. My initial idea was that prior to the NFR in Las Vegas the rodeo stock for that night’s performance would be run down the Vegas strip to the Thomas and Mack Arena. But I gave up on that idea because the rodeo animals are far too valuable and I don’t think the bus people would leave their slot machines to run with the bulls and risk losing the nickels and quarters in their buckets. Besides, Vegas doesn’t need the money and small town America does. We don’t have bullfight arenas but we do have auction markets and I thought that instead of trucking our culls to auction, once a year ranchers could drive them down Main Street to their local auction yard. Because no rancher wants to get hit by a bullock in the buttocks we’d make a few changes. Instead of running with the bulls we’d walk with the cows. That way there’d be far fewer fatalities. And less shrink!....
Panel looks at detail of species law A panel formed to look into how to preserve and improve sage grouse numbers and habitat in Wyoming is looking at a provision of the Endangered Species Act that may help maintain agricultural activity and oil and gas development if the sage grouse gains federal protection. The focus is on voluntary conservation efforts that qualify under the "candidate conservation agreements with assurances" provision. Essentially, private landowners who take on practices that conserve and increase sage grouse and sage grouse habitat are allowed to continue their normal operations if the bird is listed, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If those normal operations carried out under a conservation agreement result in the death of one or more sage grouse, it would not result in a violation of the Endangered Species Act. Gov. Dave Freudenthal wants to establish a conservation agreement with assurances for the entire state, said Ryan Lance, the governor's chief of staff. Lance said the idea is to convince private landowners to voluntarily enroll in the statewide agreement. If the sage grouse becomes listed, then energy developers, whether on private or federal lands, could agree to those same conservation practices....
Judge upholds elk feeding A federal judge ruled Friday against several environmental groups in their attempt to stop Wyoming's program of testing elk for brucellosis and killing those with the disease. U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson also denied the groups' request to order an environmental study of a dozen feedgrounds the state operates to help elk survive the harsh winters. Tim Preso, the attorney for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said the organizations were still studying the ruling and no decision had been made on whether to appeal. "This ruling doesn't change the fact that the elk feeding in Wyoming is creating a serious disease problem and none of the federal or state agencies are addressing it," Preso said in a telephone interview Friday. But Johnson said he could not find any legal grounds to support the requests sought in the lawsuit. "None of the agencies' actions were arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, or without observance required by law," he wrote in the 66-page opinion....
Forest officials curb ATVs The U.S. Forest Service has begun imposing travel restrictions on ATVs and other off-road vehicles nationally, ending their long-standing permission to go almost anywhere. The move marks the end of the principle that forest lands are "open unless designated closed" to motor vehicles and instead establishes that they are "closed unless designated open." "People would say, 'Well, look, there's a two-track there, and it's been there for a long time,"' said Paul Cruz, recreation staff officer for the Arapahoe National Forest. "That won't work anymore. Now, the burden is on the user to have a ... map and to follow it." That means that off-road vehicles are allowed only on trails marked on new travel maps being drawn up for each national forest - in some cases excluding popular existing routes. The growing popularity of off-road vehicles has proved to be a difficult trend to control for land managers, who say the growing network of illegal trails created by wayward motor vehicles is among their biggest problems. By 2003, there were 14,000 miles of such "user-created" trails in the national forests....
'Right stuff' mentality may be a factor in wildfire deaths When five forest firefighters died in Southern California last year, investigators blamed risky decisions by managers. But the U.S. Forest Service has commissioned a study to find out if the gung-ho culture of wildland firefighters is also to blame. Firefighters, like astronauts, can share feelings of invincibility, a "right stuff" mentality that is dangerous, said University of Idaho researcher Chuck Harris, who is leading the study. "Rather than question authority, they plug ahead and believe they can beat the fire," Harris said. Some of the deadliest fires -- such as Storm King in 1994 in Colorado, which killed 14 firefighters, and the Thirtymile Fire in 2001 in Washington, which killed four -- have focused attention on the role of leadership in such situations, Harris said. The Forest Service asks its crews to fight fires and take risks, but also to focus on safety first, Harris said. That's a contradictory message....
Thinned forests slow spread of pine beetles Thinning ponderosa pines in the Black Hills is helping to slow an epidemic of mountain pine beetles, Forest Service officials say. "We know thinning is a good way to keep our forests green and healthy," Black Hills National Forest Supervisor Craig Bobzien said. Logging, non-commercial thinning and prescribed burns in dense stands of ponderosas give individual trees better access to water and nutrients, Forest Service natural resources officer Dave Thom said. Larger, healthier trees are better able to reject bug attacks. "Like humans, if they're malnourished, dehydrated and crowded they're more subject to illness," Thom said. Recent Forest Service aerial photographs show patches of reddish-brown trees killed by beetles in dense stands of timber, next to logged and thinned timber where there are no red "bug trees."....
Lawmaker says USFS hesitated in fighting fire, asks why A state legislator wants congressional follow-up on claims that a helicopter available to drop water on a wildfire north of here did not do so because the U.S. Forest Service wanted to let the fire burn. The blaze that began in July and continues to burn in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness and Beartooth Wildlife Management Area has blackened more than 43,000 acres, or about 67 square miles, and is nearing containment. Sen. Greg Barkus, R-Kalispell, has asked Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to investigate the response to the Meriwether fire. Baucus spokeswoman Sara Kuban said the senator's staff will do so. Barkus said a state helicopter with a bucket to drop water on the fire was ready to fly after the fire was detected July 21, but at the request of the Forest Service the chopper did not head to the blaze. Helena National Forest Supervisor Kevin Riordan said he is comfortable with the response....
Federal mine claim holders to face new challenges Pending in Congress as we speak is legislation that, if it becomes law, will make exploration and mining on (BLM) public domain and U.S. Forest Service lands so difficult that it will be impossible for anyone to mine on them in the future. The legislation I speak of is H.R. 2262, now pending before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. This bill was introduced by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. Rahall has been seeking to “reform” the mining law of 1872 for decades, and now he has the votes to do it. Alaska’s Congressman Don Young has been quoted as saying that he lacks the votes to amend or block this bill in the House; Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, is alleged to have said that he doesn’t have 41 votes to stop it in the Senate; and it is not at all clear that the White House would veto such a bill, especially if the votes to override are there....
Air study delays drilling plan Concerns about the cumulative impact of energy development have prompted federal officials to take a closer look at the potential effects of roughly 3,000 new gas wells on air quality in northwest Colorado. The move follows issues raised by the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver and could bolster a push by conservation groups in Wyoming for more analysis of oil and gas wells there. The Bureau of Land Management is working with the EPA on an air-quality study as part of the review of development plans for federal land in the Little Snake resource area in Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt counties. The study likely will delay oil and gas drilling in the area because it will push back release of the final plan, originally expected in November....
Prairie dog numbers grow Sharon Lovitt knows she has prairie dogs on her ranch. A town, or population, of the animals covering about 640 acres has been there as long as she can remember. But now that town has grown into well over 1,000 acres, she said, since the drought took hold. “They’ve never expanded like they are now,” she said. Neighbors from the far reaches of Converse County echoed her concerns over rapidly growing colonies and the ensuing ecological damage the prairie dogs wreak. Together, they’ve formed the Converse County Prairie Dog Working Group, and within that, the Pine Ridge Pilot Project, to find an ecological balance -- and a way to live with the prairie dogs. The groups come under the auspices of the Southeast Wyoming Resource Conservation and Development Council, an entity composed of representatives of the governments of Converse, Platte, Albany, Laramie and Goshen counties. Grant Stumbaugh, a Natural Resources and Conservation Service employee in Wheatland, provides guidance and support to the council. “We’ve got about a 30 percent increase in prairie dog populations in the last four years (in Converse County),” Stumbaugh said. “A lot of that is attributed to the drought. As natural resource managers and people who care about the land, we strongly believe there needs to be an ecological balance. With a 30 percent increase in prairie dog populations, we feel that ecological balance is no longer there.”....
Getting inside bears' brains George Stevenson's brain appeared to be sweating, glistening on a bright red plastic picnic plate there in the heat of the day. It was big as a big man's fist, and all around it, on other picnic plates, were slivers of other brains, like so many thin-sliced neural hors d'oeuvres. Some looked like spreading river deltas, carved deep with winding channels. One looked just like an elk hoof, stuffed tight with morel mushrooms. With them on the table was a bone-white grizzly bear skull, top lopped to show inside, where Stevenson's juicy brown brain used to be. And beside that was a fully furred grizzly head, guillotined with eyes closed, ears perked up, sharp teeth curving over soft black lips. These are the grisly tools Dr. Stevenson needs for his presentation: "Grizzly Bear Brain, Central Nervous System Structures." "These bears are amazing creatures," Stevenson said. "I believe they have the most impressive olfactory system of any animal on the planet. Their nose is the very best."....
Burning Man festival begins tomorrow Protecting the environment is this year's theme for the 22nd annual Burning Man counterculture arts festival in the Black Rock Desert. In addition to solar panels powering the pavilion at the base of the man, Burners will also be able to view demonstrations of things such as bicycles with generators and gasification machines that eat trash and produce flammable gas. More than 45,000 participants are expected to converge on a 5-square-mile patch of the desert for the festival that begins Monday. Their sprawling encampment will rise up along makeshift streets staked out on the playa and arrayed in a half-moon pattern before a central, looming statue of a man, who is set on fire in wild celebration on the next-to-last night of the festival. The event ends Sept. 3....
Roundup in the Great Divide If all goes well, nearly 500 wild horses will be rounded up and removed from the range east of here, according to the Bureau of Land Management. A contract crew has been working to round up the excess horses, which are run into a trap, sorted into pens, loaded into tractor-trailers, and trucked 40 miles to the BLM horse corrals at Rock Springs, where they will later be available for adoption. The wild horses are being removed from the Great Divide Basin herd management area, a huge expanse of checkerboard land ownership north of Interstate 80, where the federal agency has determined the appropriate management level is 415 to 600 horses. With the current population estimate of more than 1,000, the herd is nearly double the level prescribed by land managers, so excess horses must be removed to achieve ecological balance, they say. An environmental assessment for the horse removal plan noted that the population has exceeded the range capacity to sustain wild horse use over the long term. About 400 horses were removed last year, but the population continues to grow....
‘Split estates’ may pit surface-rights owners against mineral-rights owners The cliché “sitting on a gold mine” might not ring true to its positive tone. Gold is just one of the many minerals in Montana that sits below the surface — sometimes deep below — and is sought after for a variety of reasons. The importance of these raw products, whether they’re gold, sapphires, oil or other natural resources, is so powerful that the right to go after them can usurp private homeowners’ rights. That’s becoming an issue in the West with gas and oil exploration, due to the number of so-called “split estates” in which a person may own the surface rights to something, but someone else buys the mineral rights. And as the price of gold, uranium and other minerals climbs, the conflicts between surface-rights owners and mineral-rights owners may also rise. “A mineral estate is the dominant estate on a split estate,” said Steve Welch, administrator for the planning and compliance division of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. “If you don’t own the mineral rights on a split estate and there’s something down there, you’re likely to see someone come in there and get it.” Split estates are fairly common in the West, being established in the early 1900s, but their roots go back to the founding of the nation....
Nevada senator urges probe in wild horse deaths Nevada Sen. Harry Reid is calling on U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to conduct a "full and thorough investigation" into the nitrate contamination deaths of 71 wild horses in July at the Tonopah Test Range. "There are strong concerns in southern Nevada that these deaths are the result of serious negligence in the management of the test range and the wild horse herds in the area," Reid wrote in a letter sent Friday to the secretary. "In light of this unfortunate event, I believe that this is also an appropriate time to take a close look at the land and wildlife management practices used on the larger Nellis Air Force Range," Reid, the Senate majority leader, suggested. The horses' carcasses were found at a watering hole about a mile from the Tonopah Test Range airfield, about 210 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A former Air Force tech sergeant told the Las Vegas Review-Journal earlier this week that when he worked at the airfield in the 1990s deicing compounds high in nitrogen routinely ran off the runway into the desert. The watering hole is on land restricted from public access....
Ruminants to the rescue A goat’s appetite for almost anything has put them in hot demand by private land owners and government agencies who want an alternative to chemicals for weed control. This summer, the ruminants cleared lands for Woodland, Rocklin, Nevada City, Nevada County and Nevada Irrigation District. “I’m so busy right now,” said Brad Fowler, a Penn Valley resident who owns The Goat Works. Fowler, who started with 150 goats two years ago, has now teamed up with a Woodland rancher. The team collectively dispatches 2,000 animals to clear lands from the foothills to Yolo County. Goats are a sustainable alternative to traditional herbicide sprays that can leach into watersheds or to heavy equipment that compacts soils....
Grasshoppers add to Eastern Oregon farming woes Eastern Oregon ranchers and farmers, already hobbled by drought and hay shortages, have a new addition to their list of woes: grasshoppers. Cory Parsons, livestock extension agent for Baker and Union counties, says what the drought missed the grasshoppers are getting, and calls it the area's worst infestation in years. Typically, he says, grasshoppers stay in the rangelands, but wildfires and drought have made rangeland forage scarce in many areas, and grasshoppers are finding food where they can, including alfalfa fields. They are less visible in sagebrush and on rangeland, but they're being noticed now. They also are eating lawns, gardens, leaves from fruit trees and pine needles. This year, the grasshopper infestation covers more than 270,000 acres in Union and Baker counties, with as many as 75 grasshoppers per square yard in the worst places....
Ranchers: Checkoff should support USA beef Recently, Terry Stokes, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Michael Kelsey, the CEO of the Nebraska Cattlemen, toured the state trying to drum up support for a 100-percent increase in the Beef Checkoff. At every stop and press opportunity, they claimed that any such increase would be driven by producers, who would then have a chance to ratify it with a vote. Well, Mr. Stokes and Mr. Kelsey, let’s take a look at how 8,000 beef producers voted in a recent survey conducted by the Gallup organization under the direction of the USDA and the Livestock Marketing Association: · Only 5.7 percent said the Checkoff should be increased; 91 percent of the respondents said it should remain at $1 (per head) or be decreased. · 92 percent said Checkoff dollars should be used to promote products from cattle specifically born and raised in the U. S. Under current rules beef can only be promoted as a generic product, with no regard to its origin. · 82.5 percent wanted a mandated periodic referendum. * 66 percent would like to see changes made in the contracting process. So it would seem the “producers” have a much different agenda in mind when it comes to managing their Checkoff contributions....
Government cowboys patrol Rio Grande to protect cattle from resurgent ticks hey're gun-toting, government cowboys who follow an unforgiving and treacherous 500-mile route along the Texas-Mexico border, their .357 Magnums, lariats and machetes well in hand. These cowboys aren't after the wave of drug smugglers or illegal immigrants who cross the border daily: They're inspectors on the lookout for border-crossing, blood-sucking parasites that feed on the region's cattle and deer – small black ticks, or garrapatas. The fever tick was all but stricken from the U.S. more than 50 years ago, after wreaking havoc on the state's beef industry. But experts warn that they are back and stronger than ever after developing a resistance to pesticides that had been used effectively for decades. And left uncontrolled, the parasites could result in losses to the beef industry of up to $1 billion a year, the experts warn. They spread a debilitating disease that destroys red blood cells. Enter the 61-person Fever Tick Force, a group of modern-day cowboys funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture who patrol a thin quarantine line along the Rio Grande....
Quality in the fibers Back when Moffat County wool was considered by some to be the king of crops in Colorado, buyers would come to the growers in Northwest Colorado and negotiate a price for their fleece. Rancher John Wellman hopes a recent resurgence of natural fibers in the clothing industry will make wool buyers appreciate the quality of the product coming from his ranch. “Wool is an excellent insulator,” he said. “It can absorb 75 percent of its weight in water without feeling wet.” The Corriedale herd on Wellman’s ranch south of Hamilton produces quality wool that is highly sought after by wool buyers. The Wellman Ranch, on the Moffat and Rio Blanco county line, began when John’s great-grandfather, Harrison Wilber Wellman, purchased the D.D. Ferguson Ranch in 1912. The elder Wellman had already filed on a nearby Milk Creek homestead, but the Ferguson ranch came up for sale and he acquired the property....
Old notebook unearths a tale that needs telling I mentioned in columns after Shoulders' death in June that the 16-time Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion was one of the greatest storytellers I had ever met. So obviously I couldn't fit all the great stories he shared with me in the story I wrote in 2000. Shoulders was a worker — whether as a cowboy, a stock contractor, a rancher or a pitchman — whatever. Even when I saw him sitting in the stands, he was promoting or supporting bull riding or a rodeo. "I'm not a very good tourist,” he said in that interview. And he backed that up with story after story related to working. Here's one of those stories of the pitchman at work. Shoulders would sometimes take "Buford T,” a Brahma bull weighing about 1,900 pounds, to promotional events for Miller Lite beer. This included taking the bull inside some crowded night spots. "I'd say, ‘Excuse us,' and people would turn around kind of mad that I was being pushy,” he said. "But when they saw Buford, it was like a parting of the sea. They'd be on the pool tables or under the pool tables. We instantly had room. Buford thought he was a person.”....
Piece by piece, Hopalong Cassidy memorabilia sold A Texas antiquer went home from the Prairie Rose bankruptcy auction on Friday with a gun-toting girl's bicycle from the 1950s and a slew of other memorabilia from the Hopalong Cassidy Cowboy Museum. The small lamps that Harry King bought for $600 each and the mechanized horse named Sandy destined for one of his grandchildren were among thousands of pieces sold from the museum's collection and scattered to the winds. That's why some people were happy to hear that a local guy had picked up the prize of the Hopalong auction: a 1949 Chevrolet panel truck that had been owned by William Boyd, the actor who played Hoppy, which Tommy Devlin snagged for his dad. The truck will be part of the family's classic-car collection in Andover, he said. It features a picture of Hoppy on the side with his horse, Topper, his gun in his hand and the words "Hopalong Cassidy" and "Hi Kids!" written on it in white rope. Horns sit on the roof....
Actors, ranchers hail Western glory Actor Clint Walker believes the Western is a way Americans can connect with their heritage. "It helps us understand the pioneer spirit and that of the miners, loggers and others who helped develop the backbone of this country," Walker said Saturday in this southwest Utah community used for decades as a backdrop for countless movies. The actor, who in the 1950s and 1960s appeared in a slew of Westerns and on the hit television series "Cheyenne," was here to sign autographs and talk to fans attending the ninth annual Western Legends Roundup. The event ended Saturday. Several thousand people descended on Kanab for the festival held to celebrate Western heritage and honor the moviemaking history of the city and the actors who for several decades beginning in the 1920s stayed in town while shooting movies in the surrounding redrock desert....
Wagons Ho! Dressed in bonnets and cowboy hats, dozens of modern-day pioneers set out Thursday on a nine-day journey from the east side of Sonora Pass to Twain Harte. The Historic Sonora Pass Wagon Train, celebrating its 10th anniversary ride, aims to reenact the wagon train crossing originally accomplished by the Clark-Skidmore expedition in 1852. Although taking a different route than the original pioneers, the wagon train will travel roughly 75 miles. "We want our grandkids to learn the history of Tuolumne County," said Willy Evans, a Twain Harte resident and creator of the initial wagon train event in 1997. "The main purpose is to educate the kids about Tuolumne County's history. They study California history, but not enough Tuolumne County history. I want them to be proud of where they live."....
It’s The Pitts: The Walking Of The Cows People in agriculture are always being urged by our government, who want a cheap food policy, to develop other sources of income on our farms and ranches. They insist the way to save small town America is through tourism. But not every urbanite is going to want to spend their vacation touring this country’s tallest grain elevators or visiting collections of rusted old farm implements. But I think I have come up with something that rubberneckers and sightseers will flock to our small towns to see. You’ve no doubt heard of Pamplona’s running of the bulls? Ever since Ernest Hemingway brought the event to the world’s attention millions of tourists have flocked to Pamplona to try and kill themselves for no apparent reason or cause. Believe it or not, the running of the bulls is a religious festival, which in retrospect seems fitting because the idiots who run with the bulls surely must say a lot of prayers. Pamplona is the historic capital of Basque country and every July the residents celebrate the San Fermin Festival by partying nonstop for over a week. The running of the bulls actually began in 1852 when the drovers who brought the bulls to the Plaza de Toros through the narrow streets of Pamplona for that night’s bullfight started running with them. Then some crazy tourists thought it looked like fun to be gored and run over by bulls and so they joined the chase. And the rest is medical history. Now here’s what I’ve been thinking. My initial idea was that prior to the NFR in Las Vegas the rodeo stock for that night’s performance would be run down the Vegas strip to the Thomas and Mack Arena. But I gave up on that idea because the rodeo animals are far too valuable and I don’t think the bus people would leave their slot machines to run with the bulls and risk losing the nickels and quarters in their buckets. Besides, Vegas doesn’t need the money and small town America does. We don’t have bullfight arenas but we do have auction markets and I thought that instead of trucking our culls to auction, once a year ranchers could drive them down Main Street to their local auction yard. Because no rancher wants to get hit by a bullock in the buttocks we’d make a few changes. Instead of running with the bulls we’d walk with the cows. That way there’d be far fewer fatalities. And less shrink!....
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