Ethanol Craze Cools As Doubts Multiply(subscriotion) Little over a year ago, ethanol was winning the hearts and wallets of both Main Street and Wall Street, with promises of greater U.S. energy independence, fewer greenhouse gases and help for the farm economy. Today, the corn-based biofuel is under siege. In the span of one growing season, ethanol has gone from panacea to pariah in the eyes of some. The critics, which include industries hurt when the price of corn rises, blame ethanol for pushing up food prices, question its environmental bona fides and dispute how much it really helps reduce the need for oil. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that biofuels "offer a cure [for oil dependence] that is worse than the disease." A National Academy of Sciences study said corn-based ethanol could strain water supplies. The American Lung Association expressed concern about a form of air pollution from burning ethanol in gasoline. Political cartoonists have taken to skewering the fuel for raising the price of food to the world's poor. Last month, an outside expert advising the United Nations on the "right to food" labeled the use of food crops to make biofuels "a crime against humanity," although the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization later disowned the remark as "regrettable."....
Global Warming Blamed for Bad Ski Conditions The World Wildlife Foundation has enlisted two Gold Medalist skiers in its battle against global warming. Ted Ligety and Julia Mancuso say the sport they love is at risk - because "global warming has made skiing conditions progressively worse." "The seasons are getting shorter and there seems to be less snow on the slopes," Ligety said in a news release. "Without immediate action to halt global warming, we could lose the sport as we know it altogether. Scientists say we have less than 10 years to do something before it's too late." Mancuso said she can't believe how many race cancellations there have been because of mild temperatures. "If this trend continues, many of the slopes we love could be bare in the near future and scientists agree that man-made carbon emissions will be the cause." Both skiers are encouraging Americans to cut back on their carbon emissions....
BP to plead guilty to environmental crimes in Alaska pipeline case The Alaska subsidiary of London-based oil giant BP PLC is expected to plead guilty to an environmental crime on Thursday for a 200,000-gallon (757,060-liter) crude oil spill last year. Federal prosecutors have released new photos that further underscore BP Exploration Alaska Inc.'s failure to clean out the pipelines at Prudhoe Bay, the largest U.S. oil field. The company agreed last month to pay $20 million (€13.56 million) in fines related to the spill, the largest ever in the vast, oil-rich region of Arctic Alaska known as the North Slope. The settlement was one of several struck between the oil and gas giant and federal investigators in the resolution of probes across the United States. BP PLC agreed to pay another $353 million (€239.37 million) in fines and restitution over the manipulation of energy markets in the Midwest and violation of the Clean Air Act in a refinery explosion that killed 15 people in Texas. Four former BP employees connected to the propane price-fixing scheme were indicted by a federal grand jury in Chicago....
Calif. Man Admits Stabbing Sea Lion A fisherman pleaded guilty on Wednesday to stabbing a sea lion that apparently stole his bait. Hai Nguyen, 24, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of illegally taking and attempting to kill a marine mammal, admitting that he violated the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. Nguyen faces up to a year in prison and a fine of $20,000 at his March sentencing, prosecutors said. Nguyen was arrested in July in Newport Beach. Police said he was fishing off a pier when the sea lion apparently took the bait from his fishing line. Authorities said Nguyen then stabbed the sea lion with a steak knife. The animal was taken to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, where staff found the knife had pierced the sea lion's heart. It was later euthanized....
U.S. marks greenhouse gas decline The Bush administration reported a small drop in greenhouse gas emissions for the United States last year, the first decline since 2001, but the emissions still represented a sizable increase over the last decade and a half. The gases, including carbon dioxide, are widely blamed for global warming. The Energy Information Administration said that in 2006 the United States released 1.5% fewer tons than in 2005. The increase over 1990, which is used as a base year in international deliberations on long-range targets for gas reductions, was 15.1%. The White House drew attention to the decline on the eve of a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, to launch negotiations on a global treaty to reduce such emissions. President Bush said in a written statement that, when measured against economic growth, it demonstrated "the largest annual improvement since 1985."....
Environmental Magna Carta under siege Environmental assessment in the U.S. was enshrined in law for the first time when President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on January 1, 1970. Since then, however, the U.S. has slowly cast aside its role as a leader in the field of environmental assessments, as successive administrations have chipped away at the scope of NEPA, experts say. The cuts have reached a crescendo with President George W. Bush's administration, and proponents of these assessments worry that pressure to develop natural resources with little oversight of the consequences will lead to an unsustainable future for the U.S. With the help of Congress, the Bush Administration aims to waive all environmental laws to construct this Mexico border wall in the heart of sensitive desert habitats. NEPA was born shortly after the news coverage in 1969 of the Santa Barbara, Calif., oil spill and Ohio's Cuyahoga River on fire. The two events captured the public's attention and inspired Congress to create tough federal laws, says Bob Dreher, an attorney with Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group. The idea behind NEPA, also known as the Magna Carta of U.S. environmental policy, is simple: federal agencies should evaluate and disclose the environmental impacts of major projects before they are launched. The steps to whittle away NEPA's protections have been taken by Congress as well as by federal agencies that have issued rules, says Nick Yost, who served from 1977 to 1981 as general counsel at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), which administers NEPA....
Fish, Wildlife Service Proposing Changes to Wolf Program The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to change some of the rules for a program that began putting Mexican gray wolves back into the wild in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona nearly 10 years ago. Federal biologists began releasing wolves in 1998 to re-establish the species in part of its historic range after it had been hunted to the brink of extinction in the early 1900s. Ranchers have consistently complained about wolves killing their livestock, while conservationists have criticized the program's management _ specifically a policy that requires wolves to be removed if they're linked to three livestock killings. The federal agency has begun taking comments in a series of public meetings in New Mexico and Arizona about potential changes to the program. Since the first releases, the agency has removed 65 wolves permanently _ either by capturing them for permanent captivity or by killing them, said Dave Parsons, who oversaw the wolf recovery program from 1990 to 1999. He is now is carnivore conservation biologist for The Rewilding Institute. The wild population has been ``propped up by continued releases far beyond what we thought would be necessary,'' he said Wednesday. Proposed rule changes published in the Federal Register include....
Hunters find dino tracks in ATV area About 190 million years ago, a sharp-toothed and clawed carnivorous dinosaur about the size of a robin left a lasting impression on southern Utah. And those fossilized footprints - along with stone tracks of five other dino species, including three-toed crocodiles and a 35-foot-long, four-toed plant-munching prosauropod - have been discovered in a popular off-road-riding area in Kane County. The site, five miles southwest of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park on Bureau of Land Management property, was reported to a BLM worker by hunters about three weeks ago. Recognizing the significance of the prehistoric prints - thousands of them - officials quickly closed a football-field-sized area to ATVs. "Some people knew the tracks were out there, but we didn't," BLM spokesman Larry Crutchfield said. "But most people didn't even know they were riding over dinosaur tracks." Crutchfield said the BLM shut down the site after consulting with the county's natural-resources committee and area ATV clubs....
Broader study of the Klamath River Basin urged Wading anew into one of the West's fiercest water wars, a scientific panel from the National Research Council said this week that a more comprehensive study needs to be done on the problem-plagued Klamath River Basin. Past studies have focused only on the main river -- which has seen dams and water diversion hurt threatened salmon and suckerfish populations -- ignoring its many tributaries, the panel said in a report. "It's like trying to understand a tree by only examining its trunk and not assessing its branches," said William L. Graf, a University of South Carolina geography professor and chairman of the committee of 13 scientists assembled to study the river by the council, an arm of the National Academies in Washington. Graf said past research has been piecemeal and failed to grasp the "big picture" of the workings of the Klamath, which suffered a massive fish kill in 2002 that led to such low salmon returns by 2006 that a 700-mile swath of the Northern California and Oregon coast was largely closed to commercial fishing. To address the gap in scientific understanding, the committee recommended that researchers, government agencies and the various groups jousting over how to manage the Klamath work together with independent experts to produce a basin-wide plan for the ailing river. It should be free of politics while addressing land use and the effect of climate change, the panel said....
Report backs more water for Klamath A National Research Council report Wednesday supported more water being released down the Klamath River to protect salmon runs, siding with authors of a 2006 study that critics said the Bush administration tried to suppress. Environmentalists hailed the report as "a major victory." "The science that fish need water is becoming clearer than some people believe," said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. But the research council report also found fault with two recent Klamath River scientific studies, including the one from 2006, saying they examine in detail portions of the complex river system but miss the complete picture of why it's in such crisis. The new report by the research council, an arm of the National Academies of Science, is not likely to result in any immediate changes by the Bureau of Reclamation, which tried to downplay its significance. "There's nothing in here that provides compelling reasons to change our operations," said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken in Sacramento....
Friday, November 30, 2007
FLE
Bush administration forced to turn over spying documents by Friday A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to divulge documents related to immunizing telecommunications companies from lawsuits, saying they illegally opened their networks to the National Security Agency. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco gave the Office of the Director of National Intelligence until November 30 (Friday) to turn over documents relating to conversations it had with Congress and telecommunications carriers about how to rewrite wiretapping laws. The Electronic Frontier Foundation had filed this case to seek faster processing of a Freedom of Information Act request it filed, which could help buttress its ongoing lawsuit against AT&T. There are approximately 250 pages of unclassified material and 65 pages of classified material, which would be redacted, that the administration has identified but said could not be turned over until December 31. Note that Illston's order doesn't deal with the NSA's wiretapping program itself (how it works, what companies are involved, whether there really is a secret room at AT&T's 611 Folsom Street location). Instead the documents relate only to conversations and communications about retroactive immunity for companies like AT&T that are accused of violating the law. Note also that if AT&T and other telecommunications companies followed the law, no retroactive immunity is necessary. Because AT&T and the Bush administration are supporting such a legal shield, you can draw your own conclusions about what's really going on....
Intel centers losing anti-terror focus Local intelligence-sharing centers set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have had their anti-terrorism mission diluted by a focus on run-of-the-mill street crime and hazards such as hurricanes, a government report concludes. Of the 43 "fusion centers" already established, only two focus exclusively on preventing terrorism, the Government Accountability Office found in a national survey obtained by The Associated Press. Center directors complain they were hampered by lack of guidance from Washington and were flooded by often redundant information from multiple computer systems. Administration officials defended the centers and said encompassing all sorts of crimes in the intelligence dragnet is the best way to catch terrorists. The original idea was to coordinate resources, expertise and information of intelligence agencies so the country could detect and prevent terrorist acts. The concept has been widely embraced, particularly by the Sept. 11 commission, and the federal government has provided $130 million to help get them off the ground. But until recently, there were no guidelines for setting up the centers and as a result, the information shared and how it is used vary. Centers in Kansas and Rhode Island are the only two focused solely on counterterrorism. Other centers concentrate on all crimes, including drugs and gangs....
Leahy: Bush Not Involved in Firings A Senate chairman acknowledged explicitly on Thursday that President Bush was not involved in the firings of U.S. attorneys last winter and therefore ruled illegal the president's executive privilege claims protecting his chief of staff, John Bolten, and former adviser Karl Rove. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy directed Bolten, Rove, former political director Sara Taylor and her deputy, J. Scott Jennings, to comply "immediately" with their subpoenas for documents and information about the White House's role in the firings of U.S. attorneys. "I hereby rule that those claims are not legally valid to excuse current and former White House employees from appearing, testifying and producing documents related to this investigation," Leahy wrote. The ruling is a formality that clears the way for Leahy's panel to vote on whether to advance the citations to the full Senate....
TSA plan to gather more data protested A government proposal to start collecting birth dates and genders of people reserving airline flights is drawing protests from major airlines and travel agencies that say it would be invasive, confusing and "useless." The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) wants passengers to give the additional personal information — as well as their full names — so it can do more precise background checks that it says will result in fewer travelers being mistaken for terrorists. Travelers currently must provide only a last name and a first initial. Airlines say passengers will resist providing more details and that the process will be time-consuming. Asking a passenger's birth date and gender "would create a new level of complication for completing air reservations," United Airlines recently wrote to the TSA. "Seeking useless data carries an unacceptably high price tag." The Air Transport Association, a trade group of major U.S. airlines, the American Society of Travel Agents and Continental and Virgin airlines also opposed, in writing, the TSA asking for travelers' birth dates and genders. Opposition is not as strong for soliciting full names. TSA is seeking more personal information as part of a long-delayed plan to improve preflight background checks of the 700 million people who fly commercially each year in the USA....
Ramos, Compean charge 'overzealous' prosecution The appellant briefs filed on behalf of convicted Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean argue the case was "overzealously prosecuted by the government," thereby sending "a message to every law enforcement agent that if you shoot in the line of duty and cannot prove that you were justified in using deadly force – regardless of whether you were mistaken in your belief – you will be prosecuted and receive at least 10 years incarceration under 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c), stacked on top of other sentences." WND previously reported 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c) was written to increase the penalties when a violent criminal, such as a drug trafficker or a rapist, carries or uses a weapon during the commission of a crime. The appellants argue the law was never written to be applied to law enforcement officers who discharge their weapons within the scope of their official duties....
Bush administration forced to turn over spying documents by Friday A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to divulge documents related to immunizing telecommunications companies from lawsuits, saying they illegally opened their networks to the National Security Agency. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco gave the Office of the Director of National Intelligence until November 30 (Friday) to turn over documents relating to conversations it had with Congress and telecommunications carriers about how to rewrite wiretapping laws. The Electronic Frontier Foundation had filed this case to seek faster processing of a Freedom of Information Act request it filed, which could help buttress its ongoing lawsuit against AT&T. There are approximately 250 pages of unclassified material and 65 pages of classified material, which would be redacted, that the administration has identified but said could not be turned over until December 31. Note that Illston's order doesn't deal with the NSA's wiretapping program itself (how it works, what companies are involved, whether there really is a secret room at AT&T's 611 Folsom Street location). Instead the documents relate only to conversations and communications about retroactive immunity for companies like AT&T that are accused of violating the law. Note also that if AT&T and other telecommunications companies followed the law, no retroactive immunity is necessary. Because AT&T and the Bush administration are supporting such a legal shield, you can draw your own conclusions about what's really going on....
Intel centers losing anti-terror focus Local intelligence-sharing centers set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have had their anti-terrorism mission diluted by a focus on run-of-the-mill street crime and hazards such as hurricanes, a government report concludes. Of the 43 "fusion centers" already established, only two focus exclusively on preventing terrorism, the Government Accountability Office found in a national survey obtained by The Associated Press. Center directors complain they were hampered by lack of guidance from Washington and were flooded by often redundant information from multiple computer systems. Administration officials defended the centers and said encompassing all sorts of crimes in the intelligence dragnet is the best way to catch terrorists. The original idea was to coordinate resources, expertise and information of intelligence agencies so the country could detect and prevent terrorist acts. The concept has been widely embraced, particularly by the Sept. 11 commission, and the federal government has provided $130 million to help get them off the ground. But until recently, there were no guidelines for setting up the centers and as a result, the information shared and how it is used vary. Centers in Kansas and Rhode Island are the only two focused solely on counterterrorism. Other centers concentrate on all crimes, including drugs and gangs....
Leahy: Bush Not Involved in Firings A Senate chairman acknowledged explicitly on Thursday that President Bush was not involved in the firings of U.S. attorneys last winter and therefore ruled illegal the president's executive privilege claims protecting his chief of staff, John Bolten, and former adviser Karl Rove. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy directed Bolten, Rove, former political director Sara Taylor and her deputy, J. Scott Jennings, to comply "immediately" with their subpoenas for documents and information about the White House's role in the firings of U.S. attorneys. "I hereby rule that those claims are not legally valid to excuse current and former White House employees from appearing, testifying and producing documents related to this investigation," Leahy wrote. The ruling is a formality that clears the way for Leahy's panel to vote on whether to advance the citations to the full Senate....
TSA plan to gather more data protested A government proposal to start collecting birth dates and genders of people reserving airline flights is drawing protests from major airlines and travel agencies that say it would be invasive, confusing and "useless." The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) wants passengers to give the additional personal information — as well as their full names — so it can do more precise background checks that it says will result in fewer travelers being mistaken for terrorists. Travelers currently must provide only a last name and a first initial. Airlines say passengers will resist providing more details and that the process will be time-consuming. Asking a passenger's birth date and gender "would create a new level of complication for completing air reservations," United Airlines recently wrote to the TSA. "Seeking useless data carries an unacceptably high price tag." The Air Transport Association, a trade group of major U.S. airlines, the American Society of Travel Agents and Continental and Virgin airlines also opposed, in writing, the TSA asking for travelers' birth dates and genders. Opposition is not as strong for soliciting full names. TSA is seeking more personal information as part of a long-delayed plan to improve preflight background checks of the 700 million people who fly commercially each year in the USA....
Ramos, Compean charge 'overzealous' prosecution The appellant briefs filed on behalf of convicted Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean argue the case was "overzealously prosecuted by the government," thereby sending "a message to every law enforcement agent that if you shoot in the line of duty and cannot prove that you were justified in using deadly force – regardless of whether you were mistaken in your belief – you will be prosecuted and receive at least 10 years incarceration under 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c), stacked on top of other sentences." WND previously reported 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c) was written to increase the penalties when a violent criminal, such as a drug trafficker or a rapist, carries or uses a weapon during the commission of a crime. The appellants argue the law was never written to be applied to law enforcement officers who discharge their weapons within the scope of their official duties....
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Ted Turner's Land Purchases Questioned Ted Turner's men didn't flinch. As the price climbed past $8 million, $9 million, $9.5 million, they continued bidding at a rapid-fire pace. When the auction was over, they walked away with what they came for: 26,300 acres of prime ranch land, at a cost of nearly $10 million. "It hasn't taken long to find out he's serious," said Duane Kime, a rancher and Turner neighbor who was outbid by about $100,000 by the CNN founder. But what exactly is Turner serious about? The question gnaws at folks here and in other rural areas of the country where people once thought the billionaire just wanted to play cowboy. Turner has amassed 2 million acres over the past two decades to become the largest private landowner in the country. He owns large chunks of land in 11 states, with most of his holdings in New Mexico, Nebraska, Montana and South Dakota, and is restoring buffalo, cutthroat trout, wolves, black-footed ferrets and other flora and fauna that filled the Plains before the West was won. His front men say their boss doesn't have a secret agenda - he just wants to be a rancher. But each big buy only heightens the anxiety and gives rise to conspiracy theories, the most ominous of which hold that the swashbuckling Atlanta executive is bent on putting Nebraska ranchers and farmers out of business. "With him it's such a concern," said Cindy Weller, who lives on the family ranch near Mullen. "You don't know what his plan is and what he's going to do."....
Study: One-quarter of U.S. bird species at risk Almost all of Hawaii's non-migratory native birds are on a new watch list of the USA's most imperiled bird species. The list, released Wednesday by the National Audubon Society and American Bird Conservancy, includes about one-quarter of the more than 700 species that breed in the USA. The groups cited an array of human activities — habitat loss from urban sprawl and energy development, introduction and invasion of foreign animals and disease, and global warming — as key causes of declining numbers for 217 kinds of threatened and endangered birds. Ninety-eight species are regarded at "imminent risk of extinction," Audubon president John Flicker says. "The clock is ticking. Many will not survive unless we act to save them." The birds' home territories range from tropical forests in Florida to eastern woodlands to the sagebrush deserts of the interior West....
Species face tough road despite protections The Fish and Wildlife Service could have a hard time fulfilling its renewed vow to protect the California red-legged frog and other species. Lacking money and hobbled by lawsuits, agency officials don't know when they can complete new reviews of seven controversial endangered species decisions. The agency revealed this week it must review the red-legged frog and six other species because undue political interference tainted past decisions. "These are a top priority, but we are already working with a limited staff and limited resources, and facing a number of court-ordered deadlines," Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Valerie Fellows said Wednesday. The resulting delays further stimulate frustration that's already choking the Endangered Species Act like a weed. "We all would like some resolution to this," Calaveras County Supervisor Merita Galloway said Wednesday. "Everybody is in abeyance until something definitive is decided."....
Jury awards nearly $200,000 in Osage County case A Tulsa federal jury awarded nearly $200,000 on Wednesday to an Osage County landowner who alleged that three local oil and gas producers harmed his property. Don Quarles prevailed on his claims against Spess Oil Co., the Little River Energy Co. and the Yarhola Production Co. The jury decided that Spess should pay $100,000 in actual damages and $67,500 in punitive damages to Quarles. Jurors found that Spess acted in reckless disregard toward the rights of others, which prompted the punitive damages phase of the trial against the Cleveland, Okla., company. The jury ordered that Little River Energy Co. and Yarhola Production Co. each pay $15,000 in damages. Quarles’ attorney Gentner Drummond said after the verdict, it was a “bellwether day” for Osage County ranchers....
BLM head: State, feds should work together on energy The Bureau of Land Management and Colorado officials should work together to draft a coordinated plan for energy development across the state, the federal agency’s state director said Wednesday. Sally Wisely, the BLM’s Colorado state director for two years, said she has put the idea of a more coordinated approach to Harris Sherman, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and hopes to meet with him to discuss the idea. Sherman was unavailable for comment, but the department confirmed the BLM had made the overture. “We need a more statewide, strategic approach to energy,” Wisely said Wednesday in an interview with The Daily Sentinel editorial board. A big-picture look at energy development could yield benefits to the state and federal government, Wisely said, as the demand continues for natural gas from the Rocky Mountains....
Domestic Wolf Brings Headaches in Idaho Law enforcement officers in southwestern Idaho have been told by federal wildlife managers not to shoot a domesticated wolf that's been killing and maiming livestock for a month, for fear they might mistakenly kill one of the roughly 800 federally protected wild wolves that roam the state. The adult wolf, which weighs as much as 180 pounds, escaped Oct. 29 from its pen in Owyhee County on the southern bank of the Snake River. Virtually all federally protected wolves are in the Idaho mountains north of the river. Still, Sheriff Gary Aman said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials advised him to hold his fire, for now — in the rare event that one of the protected animals swam the waterway and has taken up residence in his remote region of sagebrush, rattlesnakes and just 11,000 people. "There could be a one-in-a-million possibility that this could be one of their other animals," Aman told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "It's maddening. This is a very, very aggressive, vicious animal. It's used to being around humans, it depends on humans for food and it's been out for almost a month."....
Project Noble Mustang With increased security stretching the limits and resources of government agencies nationwide, Lee Pinkerton, assistant chief patrol agent for the Spokane Sector, wanted to be sure his horse-patrol agents were equipped with hardy animals that could handle the unique demands of the 308 miles of border stretching from the Cascade Mountains to the Continental Divide. This spring, after years of leasing “domestic” horses from local contractors, Pinkerton enlisted some mustang replacements. For Pinkerton, the breed’s dense bone structure and natural resiliency made them a natural choice for miles of daily horseback patrols in the backcountry. “Nature has produced a horse adapted to the rugged places we need to go,” he explained. “They can get us into areas no other mode of transportation can, and they can do it stealthily.” To help put the program, dubbed Project Noble Mustang, in motion, the lifelong horseman joined forces with the Bureau of Land Management and the Colorado Department of Corrections. BLM manages wild horses and burros on government land. Most of this land is in the arid West, where the range’s grazing capacity requires careful monitoring. When wild horses and burros exceed the limits of their range, either in terms of forage or water, BLM officials gather the animals and offer some of them for public adoption to qualified individuals....
U.S. eases up on Canadian meat, poultry exports after problems at Alberta plant The U.S. Department of Agriculture is easing up on Canadian meat and poultry exports following problems at a now bankrupt Alberta meat-packing plant. The USDA imposed tighter exams and testing of the Canadian products on Nov. 9 over concerns that Rancher's Beef Ltd. was linked to the outbreak of a dangerous strain of E. coli that led to the second largest beef recall in U.S. history. Audits conducted by the USDA of Canadian meat plants this month have concluded that unsafe practices were limited to the Rancher's Beef Ltd. operation in Balzac, Alta., said USDA official William James. "The audits indicated the unsafe practices in Rancher's Beef were not employed by other establishments," James wrote Wednesday in a letter to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. "The increased testing has not revealed any problems with Canadian products exported to the United States. "The information from the audits and the increased testing have led us to make the decision to return to normal levels of product examinations and testing."....
From Cowboy To Competitor Making the leap into ranch-horse versatility competition has been a learning experience for Tripp Townsend and the ranch hands at Sandhill Cattle Company. But training their horses for competition has become a part of their everyday ranch routine. A decade ago, training horses for competition was the last thing on Tripp Townsend’s mind. The 36-year-old cowboy grew up riding horses in Texas and Colorado, on ranches that his father managed. The Townsends always considered their horses more than machines used to do a job, valuing good horsemanship skills and seeking ways to improve their horses’ abilities. But solid training information wasn’t as widespread as it is today, and few competitive opportunities existed for ranch horses. “My dad was a self-taught cowboy, horseman and cutting-horse trainer,” Tripp says of the elder Townsend, who passed away 13 years ago. “He showed cutting horses when he could, and he did well. We always tried to improve our horsemanship skills, but we never had the chance to learn from a professional cutting-horse trainer. Instead, we gradually learned on the job.” Tripp is now a third-generation rancher who owns and manages Sandhill Cattle Company, a small feedlot operation in Earth, Texas. There, he continues to hone his horsemanship skills with ranch work....
On the Ropes As modern technology and enviornmental regulations modify ranching in the Great Basin, the Spanish Ranch remains tied to its buckaroo traditions. Ira Wines stands in the middle of a rope corral,his big loop waiting for 58 frosty, wall-eyed geldings to settle in on the ropes. Will Neal has just wrangled the cavvy from its snow-coated pasture, and the horses’ nostrils blow steam that crystalizes in the sub-zero air. They know the drill, shuffling and slipping in the corral until each finds his spot around the perimeter—noses out and hindquarters pointed at Ira. The buckaroo boss’s tall frame helps him lift his houlihan loop high into the morning air, twirling it twice then tossing it over the ears of a leggy blaze-faced bay. The gelding initially bolts, then calmly walks toward the middle of the corral, ears perked as Will approaches with a halter. Ira catches two more, then he, Will and Eric Sligar saddle up and trot to a nearby pasture holding 560 yearlings in need of doctoring....
Study: One-quarter of U.S. bird species at risk Almost all of Hawaii's non-migratory native birds are on a new watch list of the USA's most imperiled bird species. The list, released Wednesday by the National Audubon Society and American Bird Conservancy, includes about one-quarter of the more than 700 species that breed in the USA. The groups cited an array of human activities — habitat loss from urban sprawl and energy development, introduction and invasion of foreign animals and disease, and global warming — as key causes of declining numbers for 217 kinds of threatened and endangered birds. Ninety-eight species are regarded at "imminent risk of extinction," Audubon president John Flicker says. "The clock is ticking. Many will not survive unless we act to save them." The birds' home territories range from tropical forests in Florida to eastern woodlands to the sagebrush deserts of the interior West....
Species face tough road despite protections The Fish and Wildlife Service could have a hard time fulfilling its renewed vow to protect the California red-legged frog and other species. Lacking money and hobbled by lawsuits, agency officials don't know when they can complete new reviews of seven controversial endangered species decisions. The agency revealed this week it must review the red-legged frog and six other species because undue political interference tainted past decisions. "These are a top priority, but we are already working with a limited staff and limited resources, and facing a number of court-ordered deadlines," Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Valerie Fellows said Wednesday. The resulting delays further stimulate frustration that's already choking the Endangered Species Act like a weed. "We all would like some resolution to this," Calaveras County Supervisor Merita Galloway said Wednesday. "Everybody is in abeyance until something definitive is decided."....
Jury awards nearly $200,000 in Osage County case A Tulsa federal jury awarded nearly $200,000 on Wednesday to an Osage County landowner who alleged that three local oil and gas producers harmed his property. Don Quarles prevailed on his claims against Spess Oil Co., the Little River Energy Co. and the Yarhola Production Co. The jury decided that Spess should pay $100,000 in actual damages and $67,500 in punitive damages to Quarles. Jurors found that Spess acted in reckless disregard toward the rights of others, which prompted the punitive damages phase of the trial against the Cleveland, Okla., company. The jury ordered that Little River Energy Co. and Yarhola Production Co. each pay $15,000 in damages. Quarles’ attorney Gentner Drummond said after the verdict, it was a “bellwether day” for Osage County ranchers....
BLM head: State, feds should work together on energy The Bureau of Land Management and Colorado officials should work together to draft a coordinated plan for energy development across the state, the federal agency’s state director said Wednesday. Sally Wisely, the BLM’s Colorado state director for two years, said she has put the idea of a more coordinated approach to Harris Sherman, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and hopes to meet with him to discuss the idea. Sherman was unavailable for comment, but the department confirmed the BLM had made the overture. “We need a more statewide, strategic approach to energy,” Wisely said Wednesday in an interview with The Daily Sentinel editorial board. A big-picture look at energy development could yield benefits to the state and federal government, Wisely said, as the demand continues for natural gas from the Rocky Mountains....
Domestic Wolf Brings Headaches in Idaho Law enforcement officers in southwestern Idaho have been told by federal wildlife managers not to shoot a domesticated wolf that's been killing and maiming livestock for a month, for fear they might mistakenly kill one of the roughly 800 federally protected wild wolves that roam the state. The adult wolf, which weighs as much as 180 pounds, escaped Oct. 29 from its pen in Owyhee County on the southern bank of the Snake River. Virtually all federally protected wolves are in the Idaho mountains north of the river. Still, Sheriff Gary Aman said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials advised him to hold his fire, for now — in the rare event that one of the protected animals swam the waterway and has taken up residence in his remote region of sagebrush, rattlesnakes and just 11,000 people. "There could be a one-in-a-million possibility that this could be one of their other animals," Aman told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "It's maddening. This is a very, very aggressive, vicious animal. It's used to being around humans, it depends on humans for food and it's been out for almost a month."....
Project Noble Mustang With increased security stretching the limits and resources of government agencies nationwide, Lee Pinkerton, assistant chief patrol agent for the Spokane Sector, wanted to be sure his horse-patrol agents were equipped with hardy animals that could handle the unique demands of the 308 miles of border stretching from the Cascade Mountains to the Continental Divide. This spring, after years of leasing “domestic” horses from local contractors, Pinkerton enlisted some mustang replacements. For Pinkerton, the breed’s dense bone structure and natural resiliency made them a natural choice for miles of daily horseback patrols in the backcountry. “Nature has produced a horse adapted to the rugged places we need to go,” he explained. “They can get us into areas no other mode of transportation can, and they can do it stealthily.” To help put the program, dubbed Project Noble Mustang, in motion, the lifelong horseman joined forces with the Bureau of Land Management and the Colorado Department of Corrections. BLM manages wild horses and burros on government land. Most of this land is in the arid West, where the range’s grazing capacity requires careful monitoring. When wild horses and burros exceed the limits of their range, either in terms of forage or water, BLM officials gather the animals and offer some of them for public adoption to qualified individuals....
U.S. eases up on Canadian meat, poultry exports after problems at Alberta plant The U.S. Department of Agriculture is easing up on Canadian meat and poultry exports following problems at a now bankrupt Alberta meat-packing plant. The USDA imposed tighter exams and testing of the Canadian products on Nov. 9 over concerns that Rancher's Beef Ltd. was linked to the outbreak of a dangerous strain of E. coli that led to the second largest beef recall in U.S. history. Audits conducted by the USDA of Canadian meat plants this month have concluded that unsafe practices were limited to the Rancher's Beef Ltd. operation in Balzac, Alta., said USDA official William James. "The audits indicated the unsafe practices in Rancher's Beef were not employed by other establishments," James wrote Wednesday in a letter to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. "The increased testing has not revealed any problems with Canadian products exported to the United States. "The information from the audits and the increased testing have led us to make the decision to return to normal levels of product examinations and testing."....
From Cowboy To Competitor Making the leap into ranch-horse versatility competition has been a learning experience for Tripp Townsend and the ranch hands at Sandhill Cattle Company. But training their horses for competition has become a part of their everyday ranch routine. A decade ago, training horses for competition was the last thing on Tripp Townsend’s mind. The 36-year-old cowboy grew up riding horses in Texas and Colorado, on ranches that his father managed. The Townsends always considered their horses more than machines used to do a job, valuing good horsemanship skills and seeking ways to improve their horses’ abilities. But solid training information wasn’t as widespread as it is today, and few competitive opportunities existed for ranch horses. “My dad was a self-taught cowboy, horseman and cutting-horse trainer,” Tripp says of the elder Townsend, who passed away 13 years ago. “He showed cutting horses when he could, and he did well. We always tried to improve our horsemanship skills, but we never had the chance to learn from a professional cutting-horse trainer. Instead, we gradually learned on the job.” Tripp is now a third-generation rancher who owns and manages Sandhill Cattle Company, a small feedlot operation in Earth, Texas. There, he continues to hone his horsemanship skills with ranch work....
On the Ropes As modern technology and enviornmental regulations modify ranching in the Great Basin, the Spanish Ranch remains tied to its buckaroo traditions. Ira Wines stands in the middle of a rope corral,his big loop waiting for 58 frosty, wall-eyed geldings to settle in on the ropes. Will Neal has just wrangled the cavvy from its snow-coated pasture, and the horses’ nostrils blow steam that crystalizes in the sub-zero air. They know the drill, shuffling and slipping in the corral until each finds his spot around the perimeter—noses out and hindquarters pointed at Ira. The buckaroo boss’s tall frame helps him lift his houlihan loop high into the morning air, twirling it twice then tossing it over the ears of a leggy blaze-faced bay. The gelding initially bolts, then calmly walks toward the middle of the corral, ears perked as Will approaches with a halter. Ira catches two more, then he, Will and Eric Sligar saddle up and trot to a nearby pasture holding 560 yearlings in need of doctoring....
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Reversal of Endangered Species Rulings The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday reversed seven rulings that denied endangered species increased protection, after an investigation found the actions were tainted by political pressure from a former senior Interior Department official. In a letter to Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., the agency acknowledged that the actions had been "inappropriately influenced" and that "revising the seven identified decisions is supported by scientific evidence and the proper legal standards." The wildlife agency said it will reconsider a petition to list as endangered the white-tailed prairie dog. The petition had been denied, but the agency said after its investigation "the Service believes this decision should be reconsidered." It also said it will examine the continued listing of the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, as well as a separate ruling that had been made concerning the mouse's critical habitat. The agency decision to take the mouse from under the protection of the Endangered Species Act was questioned after MacDonald's involvement became known. Four other cases being reconsidered involved declarations of critical habitat for the Canada lynx, the Hawaiian picture-wing fly, the Arroyo toad, and the California red-legged frog. The agency said it did not find any scientific evidence to warrant changes in another questioned critical habitat decision involving the Southwestern willow flycatcher, saying it was "scientifically supportable."....
Techno-Optimistic Environmentalism In their 2004 essay "The Death of Environmentalism," activists Michael Schellenberger and Ted Nordhaus famously declared, "We have become convinced that modern environmentalism, with all of its unexamined assumptions, outdated concepts and exhausted strategies, must die so that something new can live." What killed environmentalism? Man-made global warming. The pair argued that the problem of global warming is too big to be handled by green incrementalism. Switching to bioethanol and compact fluorescent lighting simply won't do. Something much bigger is needed. And they argued that modern environmentalism was not up to the task. They blamed environmentalism's political ineffectiveness on the fact that environmentalists were perceived as being little more than another special interest group. In addition, the two excoriated movement activists for their "failure to articulate an inspiring and positive vision." Environmentalists turned off possible supporters because they were invested in telling the public doom-and-gloom "I have a nightmare" stories rather than delivering "I have a dream" speeches. Schellenberger and Nordhaus have now launched an effort to expand the frame of political environmentalism to encompass core American values. Earlier this year the dynamic duo issued a new book, Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, in which they attempt to outline a positive vision for the future. Schellenberger and Nordhaus identify an emerging faultline that they argue will divide the environmentalist movement of the 21st century. On one side stand the traditional anti-immigration, anti-globalization, and anti-growth greens. One the other hopeful side, according to Nordhaus and Schellenberger, stand "those who believe that there is room enough for all of us to live secure and free lives. It will be pro-growth, progressive, and internationalist." Nordhaus and Schellenberger see this new positive environmentalism as embracing markets and technological innovation in order to create prosperity and protect the natural world....
"Hey Meaty, You're Making Me So Hot!" There's something about vegetarianism that co-opts other causes—animal welfare, health, yogic meditation. Everyone seems to want to have a side of philosophy with dinner these days. The hottest, newest cause to be assimilated into the vegetarian-anti-industrial complex is global warming. Environmentalists and vegetarians have long maintained excellent relations, but the dawning of broader awareness about fossil fuels expended in food production and the other environmental impacts of farming have brought the two causes into an extremely cosy relationship. Since the proportion of greenhouse emissions from transportation are similar to those produced by raising animals for food, the logic goes, having a burger undoes all the good of your virtuous bicycling, and not just around the waistline. Will asking the bike-riding green to give up steak at dinner parties help him spread the word? Why this strange desire to bring together the self-denying, ascetic streak in both vegetarianism and environmentalism? Why guilt and accusations instead of good cheer? As an antidote to Mills' cheeky but still depressing billboards and all that they represent, below is a list of a handful of the many promising possibilities for minimizing the methane output of cows in the works--including genetically altered bovines, better feeds for animals, and other technological solutions that can make possible a vast middle ground for those who like a steak, but would also like for there to be some ice left somewhere on Earth to chill the martini they're washing it down with....
As a drought grips Los Angeles, the city sends its 'Drought Busters' out to teach citizens to save water "Who ya gonna call?" The famous buzz phrase from the 1984 movie, "Ghostbusters" is being heard on the lips of Los Angeles water officials grappling with two of the driest years in the city's history. Their answer: "drought busters." The program, which helped cut water use by about 30 percent during a drought in the 1990s, comes as the entire state takes step to conserve water. A federal judge has told state water authorities to cut up to 30 percent of their usual deliveries, starting next month, to protect endangered fish. Last week, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California announced it was buying water from farmers in the state's Central Valley. San Diego has announced a similar deal with farmers in the Imperial Valley. Hundreds of farmers are idling fields, and manufacturers such as silicon-chip makers are rethinking water processes. And then there's Richard Crossley and his 15 colleagues. Each "water cop" drives a white Toyota Prius (complete with "Drought buster" logo) and wields a polite smile, handshake, and an armload of bulging information packets....
If delisted, wolves will be hunted again Wolves were hunted, trapped and poisoned to near-extinction almost a century ago in the West, so the federal government's plan to remove them from the endangered species list and allow them to be hunted once again has alarmed environmental groups. Yet experts say a return to hunting wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains will not be a repeat of what happened when Western pioneers feared wolves would kill their livestock and attack humans. People have a much different view of wolves now, hunting advocates say, and the animals would most likely be secondary targets for sportsmen already in the field in search of deer or elk. That's because wolves are relatively difficult to hunt and are not prized for meat, and only a small number of hunting tags would be available, experts said. "They've been hunted in Alaska and Canada forever, and there's not much interest," said Steve Nadeau, large carnivore manager of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which is creating a hunting plan for wolves. "People would rather look for caribou, and shoot a wolf if they see one," Nadeau said. The federal government is considering removing wolves from endangered species protection next year, turning management over to the states. In turn, the states are developing management plans that include hunting....
DeFazio encouraged, skeptical on predator poison ban Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio says he is encouraged but not overly optimistic as the Environmental Protection Agency takes a first step toward banning two poisons used to protect livestock from wild animals. The agency has called for public comment on a proposal to end the use of sodium cyanide and sodium fluoroacetate, commonly known as Compound 1080, on federal lands. The poisons are used to kill predators in the West, but DeFazio says they also end up killing endangered species and injuring humans. The poisons are primarily used to kill wolves and coyotes that threaten livestock and game. Sodium cyanide capsules are put in baited ejectors, while Compound 1080 is used in sheep and goat collars. DeFazio, a Democrat, has been trying for years to ban the two poisons. He called the EPA's Nov. 16 request for public comment a good sign, but said he was not confident the agency will follow through. The request for comment came in response to a petition by a coalition of conservation groups and public health organizations, which demand an end to use of the poisons. EPA is accepting comments through Jan. 15....
The Local Impacts of Global Climate Change West of Denver, and up state highway 40 from Empire, Grand County is the center of Colorado's pine beetle epidemic. The county's border is the Continental Divide, any further east and you're in Rocky Mountain National Park. Its 12,422 people are spread over 1,870 square miles. These residents – and their governments and businesses – form a microcosmic testing ground for how communities will respond to the changes that climate change is and will bring to the world's landscapes. When we think about climate change, we tend to think big. The blue-green earth of An Inconvenient Truth or the coal factories of China. The Whole Earth Catalog or Worldchanging. Thousands of scientists at work on a 2500 page report or Big Oil cabals stopping reform in its tracks. But, to borrow the old political adage, when it comes down to it, all climate change is local. I don't just mean its causes, but also its impacts....
Forest Service Weakens Wildlife Rules Behind Closed Doors Records obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity confirm that the U.S. Forest Service excluded wildlife agencies from the development of controversial new wildlife rules and ignored feedback from non-Forest Service biologists. “The Forest Service actively ignored criticisms from state biologists and unilaterally changed the rules behind closed doors,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. “It failed to disclose those criticisms in Freedom of Information Act requests.” Responding to two Freedom of Information Act requests by the Center, the Forest Service claims that it neither offered nor received feedback on draft copies of the rule from state and federal wildlife agencies. But records obtained through requests to Arizona’s Game and Fish Department contradict Forest Service claims. Those records show that state biologists repeatedly expressed concerns to the Forest Service over the new rules’ impact on wildlife. The new rules substantially change a 1996 rule governing forest management in all Arizona and New Mexico national forests — a rule that protects northern goshawks and their prey from logging. The previous rules, known as the Goshawk Guidelines, were developed in response to Center litigation and affect the vast majority of ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forest in the Southwest....
BLM Pushes Back Test Results on Poisoning of 71 Wild Horses The Nevada Bureau of Land Management is pushing back test results that might reveal why 71 horses died of nitrate poisoning on the Tonopah Test Range in July. The BLM now says they won't have test results from the water until April. Senator Harry Reid called for the investigation into what caused the high concentration of nitrates and is telling the BLM to get it done sooner. Eyewitness News had previously reported 61 horses were poisoned by de-icing fluid from a runway near the same spot in 1988. Though the test results are not yet back, the BLM is saying the military was not involved.
ATV enthusiasts fear sport is in jeopardy As more riders are discovering the thrills of zooming up and down hills in Lyon County and across Nevada, the number of dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles is increasingly at odds with those who see a threat to nature. The number of dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles nearly tripled across the country since 1993, a phenomenon critics and land managers said comes at increasing cost to a vulnerable landscape. Lyon County's hillsides are the perfect terrain for most ATV riders, but ragged tread scars criss-cross the hills, meadows are torn up by spinning tires and conflicts are increasing between those who enjoy motorized recreation and others who see it as a threat. Nature is under wheeled assault, experts said. "It shouldn't be like this," said Frank Machler, off-highway vehicle coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service's Carson Ranger District. "It's just invasive is what it is. It's destructive." By and large, Machler said, the majority of OHV riders stick to roads where the environmental damage from their sport is minimal. But some don't, and the resulting damage often is severe....
Taiwan Suspends Beef Imports From Cargill, Swift Plants The Taiwanese government on Sunday found bone chips in a shipment of JBS-Swift beef, but the Greeley, Colo.-based processor has not received confirmation from Taiwanese authorities that Taipei has suspended beef imports from the company, JBS-Swift spokesman Marco Sampaio told Meatingplace.com. Taiwan's health department on Sunday told Washington to improve its quality control after finding bone chips in a shipment of Swift beef at Keelung Harbor. The department said all shipments from the company have been suspended pending investigation, the Taipei Times reported. The health department noted, however, that the shipment contained no animal parts considered a high risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, adding there would be no need to remove U.S. beef from local stores. Taiwan accepts only boneless U.S. beef from animals younger than 30 months of age owing to BSE concerns. Taiwan imports 20 percent of its beef from the United States, according to the Taipei Times....
Lessons Abound on Animal Welfare Issue As the farm animal care debate ensues, the American Farm Bureau Federation thought it was time to check in with consumers to measure their opinions on the issue. In cooperation with Oklahoma State University, more than 1,000 individuals across the U.S. were contacted by telephone and asked questions about farm animal welfare. Containing almost 50 questions, the survey produced a wealth of information to better help the industry understand its customer. While there are many lessons to take away from the survey, three are particularly important for the livestock industry. The first lesson is that the public cares far more about human welfare and farmers than they do farm animals. As a social issue, the financial well-being of U.S. farmers was found to be twice as important as the well-being of farm animals. Human poverty, the U.S. health care system, and food safety were found to be more than five times more important than farm animal well-being. The second lesson is that consumers understand animal welfare is a result of their shopping decisions, in addition to farmer decisions. A majority of consumers believe their personal food choices have a large impact on the well-being of farm animals, and that if consumers desire higher animal welfare standards, food companies will provide it....
On the edge of common sense: Goats, old hens and Thanksgiving There is a farmer in Indiana who offers goats and sheep for sale. His marketing slogan is "You buy - you kill - you dress - you take home." When I heard about this retro sales pitch, I was reminded of my friend Sam. He was raising laying hens as part of his kids' 4-H project. One of his management problems involved the disposal of old hens. Campbell's Soup was a buyer, but they were not accessible to a producer of his small size. But, to his surprise, the local Hmongs, Vietnamese and Laotians discovered him and offered to buy his culls. Sam explained he didn't have a government approved slaughter facility. "Oh, no," they said, "Want to buy live chicken." The Southeast Asians were of a generation that preferred to butcher their own and knew how. The customers who inspired the Indiana farmer's unique market are American immigrants from the Middle East, Africa and Mexico, where goat meat is a regular part of their diet. They, too, for religious or freshness reasons, prefer to slaughter and dress their own food. These two localized instances remind us of how far we as a civilized nation have removed ourselves from the realities of life. The percentage of Americans and Canadians capable of converting meat from the hoof or feather to the table would probably be less than those who could fix a flat tire. Which helps explain the growth of animal rights hysterians and the lack of comprehension that a sacrifice is required for every chicken nugget, turkey sandwich, baked salmon, BBQ rib and double whopper that we eat....
Techno-Optimistic Environmentalism In their 2004 essay "The Death of Environmentalism," activists Michael Schellenberger and Ted Nordhaus famously declared, "We have become convinced that modern environmentalism, with all of its unexamined assumptions, outdated concepts and exhausted strategies, must die so that something new can live." What killed environmentalism? Man-made global warming. The pair argued that the problem of global warming is too big to be handled by green incrementalism. Switching to bioethanol and compact fluorescent lighting simply won't do. Something much bigger is needed. And they argued that modern environmentalism was not up to the task. They blamed environmentalism's political ineffectiveness on the fact that environmentalists were perceived as being little more than another special interest group. In addition, the two excoriated movement activists for their "failure to articulate an inspiring and positive vision." Environmentalists turned off possible supporters because they were invested in telling the public doom-and-gloom "I have a nightmare" stories rather than delivering "I have a dream" speeches. Schellenberger and Nordhaus have now launched an effort to expand the frame of political environmentalism to encompass core American values. Earlier this year the dynamic duo issued a new book, Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, in which they attempt to outline a positive vision for the future. Schellenberger and Nordhaus identify an emerging faultline that they argue will divide the environmentalist movement of the 21st century. On one side stand the traditional anti-immigration, anti-globalization, and anti-growth greens. One the other hopeful side, according to Nordhaus and Schellenberger, stand "those who believe that there is room enough for all of us to live secure and free lives. It will be pro-growth, progressive, and internationalist." Nordhaus and Schellenberger see this new positive environmentalism as embracing markets and technological innovation in order to create prosperity and protect the natural world....
"Hey Meaty, You're Making Me So Hot!" There's something about vegetarianism that co-opts other causes—animal welfare, health, yogic meditation. Everyone seems to want to have a side of philosophy with dinner these days. The hottest, newest cause to be assimilated into the vegetarian-anti-industrial complex is global warming. Environmentalists and vegetarians have long maintained excellent relations, but the dawning of broader awareness about fossil fuels expended in food production and the other environmental impacts of farming have brought the two causes into an extremely cosy relationship. Since the proportion of greenhouse emissions from transportation are similar to those produced by raising animals for food, the logic goes, having a burger undoes all the good of your virtuous bicycling, and not just around the waistline. Will asking the bike-riding green to give up steak at dinner parties help him spread the word? Why this strange desire to bring together the self-denying, ascetic streak in both vegetarianism and environmentalism? Why guilt and accusations instead of good cheer? As an antidote to Mills' cheeky but still depressing billboards and all that they represent, below is a list of a handful of the many promising possibilities for minimizing the methane output of cows in the works--including genetically altered bovines, better feeds for animals, and other technological solutions that can make possible a vast middle ground for those who like a steak, but would also like for there to be some ice left somewhere on Earth to chill the martini they're washing it down with....
As a drought grips Los Angeles, the city sends its 'Drought Busters' out to teach citizens to save water "Who ya gonna call?" The famous buzz phrase from the 1984 movie, "Ghostbusters" is being heard on the lips of Los Angeles water officials grappling with two of the driest years in the city's history. Their answer: "drought busters." The program, which helped cut water use by about 30 percent during a drought in the 1990s, comes as the entire state takes step to conserve water. A federal judge has told state water authorities to cut up to 30 percent of their usual deliveries, starting next month, to protect endangered fish. Last week, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California announced it was buying water from farmers in the state's Central Valley. San Diego has announced a similar deal with farmers in the Imperial Valley. Hundreds of farmers are idling fields, and manufacturers such as silicon-chip makers are rethinking water processes. And then there's Richard Crossley and his 15 colleagues. Each "water cop" drives a white Toyota Prius (complete with "Drought buster" logo) and wields a polite smile, handshake, and an armload of bulging information packets....
If delisted, wolves will be hunted again Wolves were hunted, trapped and poisoned to near-extinction almost a century ago in the West, so the federal government's plan to remove them from the endangered species list and allow them to be hunted once again has alarmed environmental groups. Yet experts say a return to hunting wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains will not be a repeat of what happened when Western pioneers feared wolves would kill their livestock and attack humans. People have a much different view of wolves now, hunting advocates say, and the animals would most likely be secondary targets for sportsmen already in the field in search of deer or elk. That's because wolves are relatively difficult to hunt and are not prized for meat, and only a small number of hunting tags would be available, experts said. "They've been hunted in Alaska and Canada forever, and there's not much interest," said Steve Nadeau, large carnivore manager of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which is creating a hunting plan for wolves. "People would rather look for caribou, and shoot a wolf if they see one," Nadeau said. The federal government is considering removing wolves from endangered species protection next year, turning management over to the states. In turn, the states are developing management plans that include hunting....
DeFazio encouraged, skeptical on predator poison ban Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio says he is encouraged but not overly optimistic as the Environmental Protection Agency takes a first step toward banning two poisons used to protect livestock from wild animals. The agency has called for public comment on a proposal to end the use of sodium cyanide and sodium fluoroacetate, commonly known as Compound 1080, on federal lands. The poisons are used to kill predators in the West, but DeFazio says they also end up killing endangered species and injuring humans. The poisons are primarily used to kill wolves and coyotes that threaten livestock and game. Sodium cyanide capsules are put in baited ejectors, while Compound 1080 is used in sheep and goat collars. DeFazio, a Democrat, has been trying for years to ban the two poisons. He called the EPA's Nov. 16 request for public comment a good sign, but said he was not confident the agency will follow through. The request for comment came in response to a petition by a coalition of conservation groups and public health organizations, which demand an end to use of the poisons. EPA is accepting comments through Jan. 15....
The Local Impacts of Global Climate Change West of Denver, and up state highway 40 from Empire, Grand County is the center of Colorado's pine beetle epidemic. The county's border is the Continental Divide, any further east and you're in Rocky Mountain National Park. Its 12,422 people are spread over 1,870 square miles. These residents – and their governments and businesses – form a microcosmic testing ground for how communities will respond to the changes that climate change is and will bring to the world's landscapes. When we think about climate change, we tend to think big. The blue-green earth of An Inconvenient Truth or the coal factories of China. The Whole Earth Catalog or Worldchanging. Thousands of scientists at work on a 2500 page report or Big Oil cabals stopping reform in its tracks. But, to borrow the old political adage, when it comes down to it, all climate change is local. I don't just mean its causes, but also its impacts....
Forest Service Weakens Wildlife Rules Behind Closed Doors Records obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity confirm that the U.S. Forest Service excluded wildlife agencies from the development of controversial new wildlife rules and ignored feedback from non-Forest Service biologists. “The Forest Service actively ignored criticisms from state biologists and unilaterally changed the rules behind closed doors,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. “It failed to disclose those criticisms in Freedom of Information Act requests.” Responding to two Freedom of Information Act requests by the Center, the Forest Service claims that it neither offered nor received feedback on draft copies of the rule from state and federal wildlife agencies. But records obtained through requests to Arizona’s Game and Fish Department contradict Forest Service claims. Those records show that state biologists repeatedly expressed concerns to the Forest Service over the new rules’ impact on wildlife. The new rules substantially change a 1996 rule governing forest management in all Arizona and New Mexico national forests — a rule that protects northern goshawks and their prey from logging. The previous rules, known as the Goshawk Guidelines, were developed in response to Center litigation and affect the vast majority of ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forest in the Southwest....
BLM Pushes Back Test Results on Poisoning of 71 Wild Horses The Nevada Bureau of Land Management is pushing back test results that might reveal why 71 horses died of nitrate poisoning on the Tonopah Test Range in July. The BLM now says they won't have test results from the water until April. Senator Harry Reid called for the investigation into what caused the high concentration of nitrates and is telling the BLM to get it done sooner. Eyewitness News had previously reported 61 horses were poisoned by de-icing fluid from a runway near the same spot in 1988. Though the test results are not yet back, the BLM is saying the military was not involved.
ATV enthusiasts fear sport is in jeopardy As more riders are discovering the thrills of zooming up and down hills in Lyon County and across Nevada, the number of dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles is increasingly at odds with those who see a threat to nature. The number of dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles nearly tripled across the country since 1993, a phenomenon critics and land managers said comes at increasing cost to a vulnerable landscape. Lyon County's hillsides are the perfect terrain for most ATV riders, but ragged tread scars criss-cross the hills, meadows are torn up by spinning tires and conflicts are increasing between those who enjoy motorized recreation and others who see it as a threat. Nature is under wheeled assault, experts said. "It shouldn't be like this," said Frank Machler, off-highway vehicle coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service's Carson Ranger District. "It's just invasive is what it is. It's destructive." By and large, Machler said, the majority of OHV riders stick to roads where the environmental damage from their sport is minimal. But some don't, and the resulting damage often is severe....
Taiwan Suspends Beef Imports From Cargill, Swift Plants The Taiwanese government on Sunday found bone chips in a shipment of JBS-Swift beef, but the Greeley, Colo.-based processor has not received confirmation from Taiwanese authorities that Taipei has suspended beef imports from the company, JBS-Swift spokesman Marco Sampaio told Meatingplace.com. Taiwan's health department on Sunday told Washington to improve its quality control after finding bone chips in a shipment of Swift beef at Keelung Harbor. The department said all shipments from the company have been suspended pending investigation, the Taipei Times reported. The health department noted, however, that the shipment contained no animal parts considered a high risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, adding there would be no need to remove U.S. beef from local stores. Taiwan accepts only boneless U.S. beef from animals younger than 30 months of age owing to BSE concerns. Taiwan imports 20 percent of its beef from the United States, according to the Taipei Times....
Lessons Abound on Animal Welfare Issue As the farm animal care debate ensues, the American Farm Bureau Federation thought it was time to check in with consumers to measure their opinions on the issue. In cooperation with Oklahoma State University, more than 1,000 individuals across the U.S. were contacted by telephone and asked questions about farm animal welfare. Containing almost 50 questions, the survey produced a wealth of information to better help the industry understand its customer. While there are many lessons to take away from the survey, three are particularly important for the livestock industry. The first lesson is that the public cares far more about human welfare and farmers than they do farm animals. As a social issue, the financial well-being of U.S. farmers was found to be twice as important as the well-being of farm animals. Human poverty, the U.S. health care system, and food safety were found to be more than five times more important than farm animal well-being. The second lesson is that consumers understand animal welfare is a result of their shopping decisions, in addition to farmer decisions. A majority of consumers believe their personal food choices have a large impact on the well-being of farm animals, and that if consumers desire higher animal welfare standards, food companies will provide it....
On the edge of common sense: Goats, old hens and Thanksgiving There is a farmer in Indiana who offers goats and sheep for sale. His marketing slogan is "You buy - you kill - you dress - you take home." When I heard about this retro sales pitch, I was reminded of my friend Sam. He was raising laying hens as part of his kids' 4-H project. One of his management problems involved the disposal of old hens. Campbell's Soup was a buyer, but they were not accessible to a producer of his small size. But, to his surprise, the local Hmongs, Vietnamese and Laotians discovered him and offered to buy his culls. Sam explained he didn't have a government approved slaughter facility. "Oh, no," they said, "Want to buy live chicken." The Southeast Asians were of a generation that preferred to butcher their own and knew how. The customers who inspired the Indiana farmer's unique market are American immigrants from the Middle East, Africa and Mexico, where goat meat is a regular part of their diet. They, too, for religious or freshness reasons, prefer to slaughter and dress their own food. These two localized instances remind us of how far we as a civilized nation have removed ourselves from the realities of life. The percentage of Americans and Canadians capable of converting meat from the hoof or feather to the table would probably be less than those who could fix a flat tire. Which helps explain the growth of animal rights hysterians and the lack of comprehension that a sacrifice is required for every chicken nugget, turkey sandwich, baked salmon, BBQ rib and double whopper that we eat....
FLE
Firefighter help on terrorism Firefighters in major cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as American icons and infringing on people's privacy. Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel don't need warrants to access hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, putting them in a position to spot behavior that could indicate terrorist activity or planning. But there are fears that they could lose the faith of a skeptical public by becoming the eyes of the government, looking for suspicious items such as building blueprints or bomb-making manuals or materials. When going to private residences, for example, they are told to be alert for a person who is hostile, uncooperative or expressing hate or discontent with the United States; unusual chemicals or other materials that seem out of place; ammunition, firearms or weapons boxes; surveillance equipment; still and video cameras; night-vision goggles; maps, photos, blueprints; police manuals, training manuals, flight manuals; and little or no furniture other than a bed or mattress. In Washington, the fire service made its first foray into the intelligence world about two years ago, and now D.C. Fire/EMS has access to the same terrorism-related intelligence as the police, said Larry Schultz, an assistant fire chief in charge of operations. D.C. firefighters and EMS providers are in 170,000 homes and businesses each year on routine calls, Schultz said....
`State secrets' doctrine draws scrutiny from Congress, courts In federal courts and on Capitol Hill, challenges are brewing to a key legal strategy President George W. Bush is using to protect a secret surveillance program that monitors phone calls and e-mails inside the United States. Under grilling from lawmakers and attack by lawsuits alleging Bush authorized the illegal wiretapping of Americans, the White House has invoked a legal defense known as the "state secrets" doctrine - a claim that the president has inherent and unchecked power to shield national security information from disclosure, either to plaintiffs in court or to congressional overseers. The principle was established a half-century ago when, ruling in a wrongful-death case brought by the widows of civilians killed in a military plane crash, the Supreme Court upheld the Air Force's refusal to provide an accident report to the plaintiffs. The government contended releasing the document would compromise information about a secret mission and intelligence equipment. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, believes the White House has gone too far in invoking state secrets to halt civil lawsuits....
Judge Cancels Feds Amazon Customer ID Request Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), newly unsealed court records show. The withdrawal came after a judge ruled the customers have a First Amendment right to keep their reading habits from the government. "The (subpoena's) chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America," U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker wrote in a June ruling. Seattle-based Amazon said in court documents it hopes Crocker's decision will make it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain records involving book purchases. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said Tuesday he doubted the ruling would hamper legitimate investigations. Crocker - who unsealed documents detailing the showdown against prosecutors' wishes - said he believed prosecutors were seeking the information for a legitimate purpose. But he said First Amendment concerns were justified and outweighed the subpoena's law enforcement purpose. "The subpoena is troubling because it permits the government to peek into the reading habits of specific individuals without their knowledge or permission," Crocker wrote. "It is an unsettling and un-American scenario to envision federal agents nosing through the reading lists of law-abiding citizens while hunting for evidence against somebody else."....
Terrorists target Army base — in Arizona Fort Huachuca, the nation's largest intelligence-training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility. Fort officials changed security measures after sources warned that possibly 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were to be smuggled into the U.S. through underground tunnels with high-powered weapons to attack the Arizona Army base, according to multiple confidential law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Times. "A portion of the operatives were in the United States, with the remainder not yet in the United States," according to one of the documents, an FBI advisory that was distributed to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, Customs and Border Protection and the Justice Department, among several other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. "The Afghanis and Iraqis shaved their beards so as not to appear to be Middle Easterners." According to the FBI advisory, each Middle Easterner paid Mexican drug lords $20,000 "or the equivalent in weapons" for the cartel's assistance in smuggling them and their weapons through tunnels along the border into the U.S. The weapons would be sent through tunnels that supposedly ended in Arizona and New Mexico, but the Islamist terrorists would be smuggled through Laredo, Texas, and reclaim the weapons later....
CSI: Mississippi In a remarkable capital murder case earlier this year, the Mississippi Supreme Court, by an 8-to-1 vote, tossed out the expert testimony of Steven Hayne. The defendant was Tyler Edmonds, a 13-year-old boy accused of killing his sister’s husband. Hayne, Mississippi’s quasi-official state medical examiner, had testified that the victim’s bullet wounds supported the prosecution’s theory that Edmonds and his sister had shot the man together, each putting a hand on the weapon and pulling the trigger at the same time. “I would favor that a second party be involved in that positioning of the weapon,” Hayne told the jury. “It would be consistent with two people involved. I can’t exclude one, but I think that would be less likely.” Testifying that you can tell from an autopsy how many hands were on the gun that fired a bullet is like saying you can tell the color of a killer’s eyes from a series of stab wounds. It’s absurd. The Mississippi Supreme Court said Hayne’s testimony was “scientifically unfounded” and should not have been admitted. Based on this and other errors, it ordered a new trial for Edmonds. But it wasn’t the doctor’s dubious claim that made the case unusual. It’s the fact that the court explicitly renounced his testimony. It was the first time that had happened to Hayne in hundreds of cases dating back nearly 20 years. By any sane standard, the decision was long overdue. Hayne’s career in court is an egregious example of what happens when the criminal justice system fails to adequately oversee expert testimony. He may be unusually careless, but he is not unique—not in Mississippi, and not in the United States. During the last two decades, there have been more than a dozen high-profile cases in which dubious forensic witnesses conned state and federal courts, sometimes for many years and in hundreds of cases. The most famous example is probably the West Virginia crime lab worker Fred Zain, who from 1979 to 1989 tainted so many trials with false testimony about blood, semen, and hair evidence that the state’s Supreme Court ordered a review of every case in which he’d ever testified. It turned out he had introduced deliberately falsified evidence in at least 134 cases....
Firefighter help on terrorism Firefighters in major cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as American icons and infringing on people's privacy. Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel don't need warrants to access hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, putting them in a position to spot behavior that could indicate terrorist activity or planning. But there are fears that they could lose the faith of a skeptical public by becoming the eyes of the government, looking for suspicious items such as building blueprints or bomb-making manuals or materials. When going to private residences, for example, they are told to be alert for a person who is hostile, uncooperative or expressing hate or discontent with the United States; unusual chemicals or other materials that seem out of place; ammunition, firearms or weapons boxes; surveillance equipment; still and video cameras; night-vision goggles; maps, photos, blueprints; police manuals, training manuals, flight manuals; and little or no furniture other than a bed or mattress. In Washington, the fire service made its first foray into the intelligence world about two years ago, and now D.C. Fire/EMS has access to the same terrorism-related intelligence as the police, said Larry Schultz, an assistant fire chief in charge of operations. D.C. firefighters and EMS providers are in 170,000 homes and businesses each year on routine calls, Schultz said....
`State secrets' doctrine draws scrutiny from Congress, courts In federal courts and on Capitol Hill, challenges are brewing to a key legal strategy President George W. Bush is using to protect a secret surveillance program that monitors phone calls and e-mails inside the United States. Under grilling from lawmakers and attack by lawsuits alleging Bush authorized the illegal wiretapping of Americans, the White House has invoked a legal defense known as the "state secrets" doctrine - a claim that the president has inherent and unchecked power to shield national security information from disclosure, either to plaintiffs in court or to congressional overseers. The principle was established a half-century ago when, ruling in a wrongful-death case brought by the widows of civilians killed in a military plane crash, the Supreme Court upheld the Air Force's refusal to provide an accident report to the plaintiffs. The government contended releasing the document would compromise information about a secret mission and intelligence equipment. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, believes the White House has gone too far in invoking state secrets to halt civil lawsuits....
Judge Cancels Feds Amazon Customer ID Request Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), newly unsealed court records show. The withdrawal came after a judge ruled the customers have a First Amendment right to keep their reading habits from the government. "The (subpoena's) chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America," U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker wrote in a June ruling. Seattle-based Amazon said in court documents it hopes Crocker's decision will make it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain records involving book purchases. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said Tuesday he doubted the ruling would hamper legitimate investigations. Crocker - who unsealed documents detailing the showdown against prosecutors' wishes - said he believed prosecutors were seeking the information for a legitimate purpose. But he said First Amendment concerns were justified and outweighed the subpoena's law enforcement purpose. "The subpoena is troubling because it permits the government to peek into the reading habits of specific individuals without their knowledge or permission," Crocker wrote. "It is an unsettling and un-American scenario to envision federal agents nosing through the reading lists of law-abiding citizens while hunting for evidence against somebody else."....
Terrorists target Army base — in Arizona Fort Huachuca, the nation's largest intelligence-training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility. Fort officials changed security measures after sources warned that possibly 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were to be smuggled into the U.S. through underground tunnels with high-powered weapons to attack the Arizona Army base, according to multiple confidential law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Times. "A portion of the operatives were in the United States, with the remainder not yet in the United States," according to one of the documents, an FBI advisory that was distributed to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, Customs and Border Protection and the Justice Department, among several other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. "The Afghanis and Iraqis shaved their beards so as not to appear to be Middle Easterners." According to the FBI advisory, each Middle Easterner paid Mexican drug lords $20,000 "or the equivalent in weapons" for the cartel's assistance in smuggling them and their weapons through tunnels along the border into the U.S. The weapons would be sent through tunnels that supposedly ended in Arizona and New Mexico, but the Islamist terrorists would be smuggled through Laredo, Texas, and reclaim the weapons later....
CSI: Mississippi In a remarkable capital murder case earlier this year, the Mississippi Supreme Court, by an 8-to-1 vote, tossed out the expert testimony of Steven Hayne. The defendant was Tyler Edmonds, a 13-year-old boy accused of killing his sister’s husband. Hayne, Mississippi’s quasi-official state medical examiner, had testified that the victim’s bullet wounds supported the prosecution’s theory that Edmonds and his sister had shot the man together, each putting a hand on the weapon and pulling the trigger at the same time. “I would favor that a second party be involved in that positioning of the weapon,” Hayne told the jury. “It would be consistent with two people involved. I can’t exclude one, but I think that would be less likely.” Testifying that you can tell from an autopsy how many hands were on the gun that fired a bullet is like saying you can tell the color of a killer’s eyes from a series of stab wounds. It’s absurd. The Mississippi Supreme Court said Hayne’s testimony was “scientifically unfounded” and should not have been admitted. Based on this and other errors, it ordered a new trial for Edmonds. But it wasn’t the doctor’s dubious claim that made the case unusual. It’s the fact that the court explicitly renounced his testimony. It was the first time that had happened to Hayne in hundreds of cases dating back nearly 20 years. By any sane standard, the decision was long overdue. Hayne’s career in court is an egregious example of what happens when the criminal justice system fails to adequately oversee expert testimony. He may be unusually careless, but he is not unique—not in Mississippi, and not in the United States. During the last two decades, there have been more than a dozen high-profile cases in which dubious forensic witnesses conned state and federal courts, sometimes for many years and in hundreds of cases. The most famous example is probably the West Virginia crime lab worker Fred Zain, who from 1979 to 1989 tainted so many trials with false testimony about blood, semen, and hair evidence that the state’s Supreme Court ordered a review of every case in which he’d ever testified. It turned out he had introduced deliberately falsified evidence in at least 134 cases....
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Dioxin contamination site downstream from Michigan chemical plant could be worst ever in US A dioxin find at the bottom of Michigan's Saginaw River could be the highest level of such contamination ever discovered in a U.S. river or lake, according to a federal scientist involved in cleanup efforts downstream from a Dow Chemical Co. plant. A crew testing the Saginaw and Tittabawassee rivers discovered the sample, which measured 1.6 million parts of dioxin per trillion of water, The Saginaw News and The Detroit News reported last week. That level is about 20 times higher than any other find recorded in the archives of the U.S. environmental agency. "There may be more surprises out there," said Milton Clark, a health and science expert for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "I'd be surprised if there's not more surprises out there." State guidelines require corrective action on contamination above 1,000 parts per trillion....
Mexico Funds Will Protect Butterflies President Felipe Calderon unveiled a sweeping plan Sunday to curb logging and protect millions of monarch butterflies that migrate to the mountains of central Mexico each winter, covering trees and bushes and attracting visitors from around the world. The plan will put $4.6 million toward additional equipment and advertising for the existing Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, covering a 124,000-acre swathe of trees and mountains that for thousands of years has served as the winter nesting ground to millions of orange- and black-winged monarch butterflies. Calderon said it would help boost tourism and support the economy in an impoverished area where illegal logging runs rampant. "It is possible to take care of the environment and at the same time promote development," the president said. The new initiative is part of ongoing efforts to protect the butterflies, which are a huge tourist attraction and the pride of Mexico....
Levee repair leads to Calif. fish kill State and federal officials said Monday they were investigating the death of thousands of game fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta after a federal agency drained the water around a protected island during a levee repair. Masses of fish could be seen floating in shallow water on Prospect Island, a 1,253-acre plot next to Sacramento's Deep Water Ship Channel that is administered by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The bureau stopped draining the remaining water behind the levee Monday and started removing the fish carcasses, spokesman Jeff McCracken said. The agency will add oxygen to the water in hopes of saving some of the remaining fish, he said. The bureau had no estimate on the number of fish killed. Bob McDarif, owner of Cliff's Marina near the delta town of Freeport, estimated the number in the tens of thousands. "It's like a disaster out there," he said....
Trees giving bizarre clues to climate change Suspended 20 stories in the air, Ken Bible looks down on the crown of a 500-year-old Douglas fir and ponders a mystery. It's not the obvious one: How does a man without superpowers hover above the treetops? That's easy. The University of Washington forest ecologist rose to his lofty perch in a metal gondola hoisted by a 285-foot-tall construction crane. The vantage point allows Bible to study the upper reaches of this old-growth forest, where a reproductive orgy is under way. "We've never seen anything like this here," he says, reaching over the edge of the open-air gondola to grasp a limb laden with cones. He counts at least 30. "Normally, a branch like this would have about three," he says. "Why so many this year? We really don't know."....
Ant decline may muddle Lake Tahoe A tiny insect appears to be linked to two big problems at one of the West's most famous lakes. The insect? The aerator ant. Various species range in length from a quarter of an inch to a half-inch and are black or brown. The problems? Clarity, which Lake Tahoe's water is losing, and wildfires, which are a growing threat in the area. Lake Tahoe, which straddles the California-Nevada line, is the country's largest Alpine lake. Its crystal waters are among the biggest attractions for the lake's 3 million annual visitors, according to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno, are studying aerator ants, and Dennis Murphy, a lead biologist in the research, said the role of the aerator ant reminds him "that we tend to overlook the little things that run the world."....
La Niña bringing a warmer, drier winter The few splatters of rain here and there this fall are testament to what may be a drier than normal winter, according to forecasters at the Climate Assessment for the Southwest, or CLIMAS, at The University of Arizona. The reason is the latest La Niña episode, a stretch of cooler than normal ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific. La Niña conditions usually portend dry conditions in the Southwest. This is prompting concerns of expanding and deepening drought conditions across both Arizona and New Mexico, according to the latest CLIMAS report. The report also covers changes in recent conditions, such as drought, temperatures, precipitation and area water supplies. There’s also a roundtable discussion of La Niña with several scientists, including Christopher Castro, an assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the UA, David Gutzler, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of New Mexico, Klaus Wolter, a meteorologist at the Climate Diagnostics Center in Boulder, Colo., and Gregg Garfin, deputy director of outreach at the UA Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, home to CLIMAS....Go here to view the report.
Low timber prices stifle plans to boost logging Bush administration plans to boost logging in Northwest national forests have collided with low timber prices blamed on the housing slump. The U.S. Forest Service is running short of money to draw up new timber sales. Government and industry officials say lumber prices are as low as they have been for years, down by about half from the peak in 2004. Thus the Forest Service earns far less for timber, meaning less money for future logging projects. "We didn't know this was going to happen," said Peggy Kain of the Forest Services regional office in Portland. "The market hasn't been this bad in a very long time." Some mills are cutting back production. "It's probably as bad as its ever been, maybe worse," said Kevin Binam, of the Western Wood Products Association. Without more federal funds, forest experts say, national forest logging will drop off again hampering efforts to thin crowded and flammable timber....
Public loses visitor center officials gain $1.75 million headquarters Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument staffers are about to move into a new, $1.75 million headquarters, just weeks after permanently closing the popular Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center. Monument managers decided to close Coldwater Ridge — which was the only year-round visitor center with a view of the Mount St. Helens crater — because of U.S. Forest Service budget cuts and $2 million in deferred maintenance to the building. Coldwater Ridge opened in 1993 and cost $11.5 million to build. But spending money on the new headquarters, in Amboy, is not the reason Coldwater Ridge closed, said Ron Freeman, acting supervisor of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, which runs the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The new, energy-efficient headquarters replaces a complex of aging modular trailers that have been used since the 1980 eruption that put Mount St. Helens on the map. "The new monument headquarters has been on our capital wish list for 20 years," Freeman said....
Imagine Mount St. Helens as a new national park There are rumblings around Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, but they have nothing to do with the flow of lava inside the crater. Instead, these rumblings are calls for the National Park Service — the agency that runs Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and Mount Rainier National Park, among others — to take over Mount St. Helens from the U.S. Forest Service. The Gifford Pinchot National Forest's recent decision to permanently close the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center — the only year-round visitor center with a clear view of the steaming crater — set off political shock waves. "Mount St. Helens is a national gem," said Sean Smith, northwest regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association. "The volcano deserves the recognition and increased visits that come with national park status."....
BLM wraps up horse roundups Federal wranglers gathered more than 850 wild horses this month in an expedited roundup in southwest Wyoming, according to Bureau of Land Management officials. The roundups from the adjacent Little Colorado and White Mountain wild horse herds on public rangelands in Sweetwater County aim to bring horse numbers down to the BLM's desired population levels, officials said. The roundups in the two herd management units, located north of Green River and west of Rock Springs, were postponed in October due to a shift in the BLM's funding priorities. But gathering operations were later rescheduled for this month after state officials blasted the BLM's controversial decision. "It went well ... it was good," Cindy Wertz, a spokeswoman for the BLM in Cheyenne, said Monday of the roundups. "We heard this morning that it had concluded successfully." Wertz said BLM wranglers captured 856 wild horses during the two-week effort in the Little Colorado and White Mountain herds. The BLM had set a goal of capturing around 725 wild horses during the operations, but mild weather conditions allowed the agency to capture 130 more animals than planned....
BLM's delicate timber dance Under the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Roseburg District has met only half of its timber sales target. The remaining timber sales -- 48 percent -- were held up in court. Largely presented to industry as regeneration harvests -- clear cuts -- those sales stalled, despite a 70-year-old mandate, the O&C Act, requiring the BLM to sell trees in wholesale fashion. Between 1995 and 2006, the district slowly began shifting from regeneration harvests to thinnings, avoiding lawsuits stemming from potential impacts to at-risk species. For fiscal year 2007, the Roseburg District sold only thinning projects. "That's kind of been our lifeblood ever since," said Steve Niles, forester of the BLM's Roseburg District. With an annual sales target of 45 million board feet of timber under the Northwest Forest Plan, the Roseburg District has sold an average of 25 million board feet since 1995....
Victims Testify in 'Pilgrim' Sentencing The man who called himself "Papa Pilgrim" wanted his children to be illiterate, isolated and obedient to his interpretation of the Bible, says the family who call themselves victims of his sexual and physical abuse. The family is now urging a judge to send the man, 66-year-old Robert Hale, to prison for a long time. Sentencing was set for Tuesday. Hale was convicted of sexually assaulting an adult daughter. His plea agreement calls for a sentence of about 14 years. Hale and his family first came to prominence in Alaska during a feud with the National Park Service. Family members used a bulldozer without permission to clear an abandoned mining road to get to their land. National land rights advocates rallied to their cause and stories featured their plight as a case of big government vs. simple God-fearing, music-loving, live-off-the-land folks. But that rustic image was a facade, Hale's wife testified Monday during a sentencing hearing. Fighting back tears, Kurina Rose Hale compared the family to a city — beautiful to outsiders but plagued on the inside by bad water and barren ground. Robert Hale ruled his family by fear and abuse, she said....
'Wolf' sighting triggers probe Sonya Droguett rolled her eyes when she heard a neighbor tell the tale of spotting a "wolf" in their Olympus Cove neighborhood. Droguett expects the same reaction when she tells her version of spotting the creature last week. While the animal could be a wolf that strayed from reintroduction efforts in Yellowstone National Park or from Idaho, wildlife experts agree it is most likely a hybrid between a wolf and a domestic dog. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) officials are investigating and have placed two motion-triggered cameras in the Olympus Cove neighborhood near the Neffs Canyon Trailhead. A first batch of film developed Monday night from the cameras revealed a variety of wildlife, including deer and a coyote, but nothing resembling a wolf. "Behavioral-wise it is not acting like a wild wolf," said Kevin Bunnell, DWR's mammals program coordinator....
Groups file lawsuit over arctic grayling ruling A group of conservationists wants the courts to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider its decision denying protection to the last remaining native river-dwelling population of arctic grayling in Montana. In April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service surprised many by deciding the fluvial (river-dwelling) population of arctic grayling in the Big Hole River wasn't genetically different enough from the more common lake-dwelling variety to be considered unique under the federal Endangered Species Act. The decision was a major change of direction. In 1994, the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded the Big Hole River's population of arctic grayling was disappearing and said the situation was dire enough to place the fish on the endangered species list. But other species were in worse shape, FWS officials said, so the grayling's listing was delayed. In 2004, the agency elevated the grayling's status to “high-priority candidate” for listing as its numbers continued to drop. Then, this year, agency officials reversed direction and denied the listing....
Shot from the hip deters bear's charge Fast. Furiously fast. Far faster than he could have imagined. “That bear was just there, all of a sudden, coming hard the whole time, right at me,” said Vic Workman. “If I hadn't had my rifle ready at my hip, he would've got me. “These people who think that they're safe with bear spray, I'm here to tell them it's a false sense of security. It's too fast. Way too fast.” Workman is a member of Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission, but on Sunday the longtime hunter became, for a few unforgettable seconds, the hunted. A grizzly bear charged from the brush at 30 feet. By 20 feet, Workman was shouting. At 10, shooting. “It was a total surprise,” he said. “I didn't want to shoot it. I love grizzly bears, and I feel very fortunate every time I see one out in the woods.” “I shot from the hip,” he said. “There was no way I had time to get the rifle up to my shoulder.” He hit the bear square in the chest, but “it's a big chest,” Workman said, and the bear kept coming, rushed by 5 feet to his side and blasted back into the brush. Shaken, Workman and Paine started digging around, investigating the area, trying to figure out what had happened. That's when he found the antler sticking up out of the dirt....
Nature Conservancy turning Panhandle ranch into chicken preserve The Nature Conservancy has purchased a 6,000-acre ranch in the South Plains to help protect the state's struggling population of lesser prairie chickens. The ranch about 40 miles southwest of Lubbock had been in the Fitzgerald family for more than 100 years. "It is such rugged, remote territory, there isn't much to do with it," said Melba Fitzgerald, 77, whose family has owned the ranch since 1904. "We never really did anything to it ... other than put up a few windmills." Texas Parks & Wildlife Department biologists have counted more than 300 lesser prairie chickens on the property. The bird has been a candidate for the federal Endangered Species List since 1998. State wildlife officials have been working to double the prairie chicken population in Texas, which is though to be less than 5,000. The chickens are found in 16 counties in the northeastern and southwestern corners of the Texas Panhandle....
It's All Trew: Patience a valuable lesson Of all the things I learned in my early life, I now believe that acquiring patience is appreciated most. As I meet and study my modern-day fellow man and woman, the attribute of patience is sometimes hard to find. Time and again in my early boyhood I heard, "Good things come to all who wait." Another saying was, "Have patience little jackass." My grandparents said, "That man has the patience of Job." Many of the war veterans said, "Hurry up and wait." I think my first lessons in patience came as a little boy when I was forced to wait for the second table after the grown-ups had finished. This usually came at wheat harvest time, cattle shipping or when the preacher came to dinner. I would go to my bedroom and wait so I didn't have to watch him eat my favorite piece of fried chicken. A second patience lesson came at church revivals when the sermons seemed to go on and on forever. The best part came when the preacher yelled and pounded the pulpit and all the old men said "Amen, A-A-Amen."....
Mexico Funds Will Protect Butterflies President Felipe Calderon unveiled a sweeping plan Sunday to curb logging and protect millions of monarch butterflies that migrate to the mountains of central Mexico each winter, covering trees and bushes and attracting visitors from around the world. The plan will put $4.6 million toward additional equipment and advertising for the existing Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, covering a 124,000-acre swathe of trees and mountains that for thousands of years has served as the winter nesting ground to millions of orange- and black-winged monarch butterflies. Calderon said it would help boost tourism and support the economy in an impoverished area where illegal logging runs rampant. "It is possible to take care of the environment and at the same time promote development," the president said. The new initiative is part of ongoing efforts to protect the butterflies, which are a huge tourist attraction and the pride of Mexico....
Levee repair leads to Calif. fish kill State and federal officials said Monday they were investigating the death of thousands of game fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta after a federal agency drained the water around a protected island during a levee repair. Masses of fish could be seen floating in shallow water on Prospect Island, a 1,253-acre plot next to Sacramento's Deep Water Ship Channel that is administered by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The bureau stopped draining the remaining water behind the levee Monday and started removing the fish carcasses, spokesman Jeff McCracken said. The agency will add oxygen to the water in hopes of saving some of the remaining fish, he said. The bureau had no estimate on the number of fish killed. Bob McDarif, owner of Cliff's Marina near the delta town of Freeport, estimated the number in the tens of thousands. "It's like a disaster out there," he said....
Trees giving bizarre clues to climate change Suspended 20 stories in the air, Ken Bible looks down on the crown of a 500-year-old Douglas fir and ponders a mystery. It's not the obvious one: How does a man without superpowers hover above the treetops? That's easy. The University of Washington forest ecologist rose to his lofty perch in a metal gondola hoisted by a 285-foot-tall construction crane. The vantage point allows Bible to study the upper reaches of this old-growth forest, where a reproductive orgy is under way. "We've never seen anything like this here," he says, reaching over the edge of the open-air gondola to grasp a limb laden with cones. He counts at least 30. "Normally, a branch like this would have about three," he says. "Why so many this year? We really don't know."....
Ant decline may muddle Lake Tahoe A tiny insect appears to be linked to two big problems at one of the West's most famous lakes. The insect? The aerator ant. Various species range in length from a quarter of an inch to a half-inch and are black or brown. The problems? Clarity, which Lake Tahoe's water is losing, and wildfires, which are a growing threat in the area. Lake Tahoe, which straddles the California-Nevada line, is the country's largest Alpine lake. Its crystal waters are among the biggest attractions for the lake's 3 million annual visitors, according to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno, are studying aerator ants, and Dennis Murphy, a lead biologist in the research, said the role of the aerator ant reminds him "that we tend to overlook the little things that run the world."....
La Niña bringing a warmer, drier winter The few splatters of rain here and there this fall are testament to what may be a drier than normal winter, according to forecasters at the Climate Assessment for the Southwest, or CLIMAS, at The University of Arizona. The reason is the latest La Niña episode, a stretch of cooler than normal ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific. La Niña conditions usually portend dry conditions in the Southwest. This is prompting concerns of expanding and deepening drought conditions across both Arizona and New Mexico, according to the latest CLIMAS report. The report also covers changes in recent conditions, such as drought, temperatures, precipitation and area water supplies. There’s also a roundtable discussion of La Niña with several scientists, including Christopher Castro, an assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the UA, David Gutzler, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of New Mexico, Klaus Wolter, a meteorologist at the Climate Diagnostics Center in Boulder, Colo., and Gregg Garfin, deputy director of outreach at the UA Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, home to CLIMAS....Go here to view the report.
Low timber prices stifle plans to boost logging Bush administration plans to boost logging in Northwest national forests have collided with low timber prices blamed on the housing slump. The U.S. Forest Service is running short of money to draw up new timber sales. Government and industry officials say lumber prices are as low as they have been for years, down by about half from the peak in 2004. Thus the Forest Service earns far less for timber, meaning less money for future logging projects. "We didn't know this was going to happen," said Peggy Kain of the Forest Services regional office in Portland. "The market hasn't been this bad in a very long time." Some mills are cutting back production. "It's probably as bad as its ever been, maybe worse," said Kevin Binam, of the Western Wood Products Association. Without more federal funds, forest experts say, national forest logging will drop off again hampering efforts to thin crowded and flammable timber....
Public loses visitor center officials gain $1.75 million headquarters Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument staffers are about to move into a new, $1.75 million headquarters, just weeks after permanently closing the popular Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center. Monument managers decided to close Coldwater Ridge — which was the only year-round visitor center with a view of the Mount St. Helens crater — because of U.S. Forest Service budget cuts and $2 million in deferred maintenance to the building. Coldwater Ridge opened in 1993 and cost $11.5 million to build. But spending money on the new headquarters, in Amboy, is not the reason Coldwater Ridge closed, said Ron Freeman, acting supervisor of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, which runs the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The new, energy-efficient headquarters replaces a complex of aging modular trailers that have been used since the 1980 eruption that put Mount St. Helens on the map. "The new monument headquarters has been on our capital wish list for 20 years," Freeman said....
Imagine Mount St. Helens as a new national park There are rumblings around Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, but they have nothing to do with the flow of lava inside the crater. Instead, these rumblings are calls for the National Park Service — the agency that runs Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and Mount Rainier National Park, among others — to take over Mount St. Helens from the U.S. Forest Service. The Gifford Pinchot National Forest's recent decision to permanently close the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center — the only year-round visitor center with a clear view of the steaming crater — set off political shock waves. "Mount St. Helens is a national gem," said Sean Smith, northwest regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association. "The volcano deserves the recognition and increased visits that come with national park status."....
BLM wraps up horse roundups Federal wranglers gathered more than 850 wild horses this month in an expedited roundup in southwest Wyoming, according to Bureau of Land Management officials. The roundups from the adjacent Little Colorado and White Mountain wild horse herds on public rangelands in Sweetwater County aim to bring horse numbers down to the BLM's desired population levels, officials said. The roundups in the two herd management units, located north of Green River and west of Rock Springs, were postponed in October due to a shift in the BLM's funding priorities. But gathering operations were later rescheduled for this month after state officials blasted the BLM's controversial decision. "It went well ... it was good," Cindy Wertz, a spokeswoman for the BLM in Cheyenne, said Monday of the roundups. "We heard this morning that it had concluded successfully." Wertz said BLM wranglers captured 856 wild horses during the two-week effort in the Little Colorado and White Mountain herds. The BLM had set a goal of capturing around 725 wild horses during the operations, but mild weather conditions allowed the agency to capture 130 more animals than planned....
BLM's delicate timber dance Under the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Roseburg District has met only half of its timber sales target. The remaining timber sales -- 48 percent -- were held up in court. Largely presented to industry as regeneration harvests -- clear cuts -- those sales stalled, despite a 70-year-old mandate, the O&C Act, requiring the BLM to sell trees in wholesale fashion. Between 1995 and 2006, the district slowly began shifting from regeneration harvests to thinnings, avoiding lawsuits stemming from potential impacts to at-risk species. For fiscal year 2007, the Roseburg District sold only thinning projects. "That's kind of been our lifeblood ever since," said Steve Niles, forester of the BLM's Roseburg District. With an annual sales target of 45 million board feet of timber under the Northwest Forest Plan, the Roseburg District has sold an average of 25 million board feet since 1995....
Victims Testify in 'Pilgrim' Sentencing The man who called himself "Papa Pilgrim" wanted his children to be illiterate, isolated and obedient to his interpretation of the Bible, says the family who call themselves victims of his sexual and physical abuse. The family is now urging a judge to send the man, 66-year-old Robert Hale, to prison for a long time. Sentencing was set for Tuesday. Hale was convicted of sexually assaulting an adult daughter. His plea agreement calls for a sentence of about 14 years. Hale and his family first came to prominence in Alaska during a feud with the National Park Service. Family members used a bulldozer without permission to clear an abandoned mining road to get to their land. National land rights advocates rallied to their cause and stories featured their plight as a case of big government vs. simple God-fearing, music-loving, live-off-the-land folks. But that rustic image was a facade, Hale's wife testified Monday during a sentencing hearing. Fighting back tears, Kurina Rose Hale compared the family to a city — beautiful to outsiders but plagued on the inside by bad water and barren ground. Robert Hale ruled his family by fear and abuse, she said....
'Wolf' sighting triggers probe Sonya Droguett rolled her eyes when she heard a neighbor tell the tale of spotting a "wolf" in their Olympus Cove neighborhood. Droguett expects the same reaction when she tells her version of spotting the creature last week. While the animal could be a wolf that strayed from reintroduction efforts in Yellowstone National Park or from Idaho, wildlife experts agree it is most likely a hybrid between a wolf and a domestic dog. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) officials are investigating and have placed two motion-triggered cameras in the Olympus Cove neighborhood near the Neffs Canyon Trailhead. A first batch of film developed Monday night from the cameras revealed a variety of wildlife, including deer and a coyote, but nothing resembling a wolf. "Behavioral-wise it is not acting like a wild wolf," said Kevin Bunnell, DWR's mammals program coordinator....
Groups file lawsuit over arctic grayling ruling A group of conservationists wants the courts to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider its decision denying protection to the last remaining native river-dwelling population of arctic grayling in Montana. In April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service surprised many by deciding the fluvial (river-dwelling) population of arctic grayling in the Big Hole River wasn't genetically different enough from the more common lake-dwelling variety to be considered unique under the federal Endangered Species Act. The decision was a major change of direction. In 1994, the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded the Big Hole River's population of arctic grayling was disappearing and said the situation was dire enough to place the fish on the endangered species list. But other species were in worse shape, FWS officials said, so the grayling's listing was delayed. In 2004, the agency elevated the grayling's status to “high-priority candidate” for listing as its numbers continued to drop. Then, this year, agency officials reversed direction and denied the listing....
Shot from the hip deters bear's charge Fast. Furiously fast. Far faster than he could have imagined. “That bear was just there, all of a sudden, coming hard the whole time, right at me,” said Vic Workman. “If I hadn't had my rifle ready at my hip, he would've got me. “These people who think that they're safe with bear spray, I'm here to tell them it's a false sense of security. It's too fast. Way too fast.” Workman is a member of Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission, but on Sunday the longtime hunter became, for a few unforgettable seconds, the hunted. A grizzly bear charged from the brush at 30 feet. By 20 feet, Workman was shouting. At 10, shooting. “It was a total surprise,” he said. “I didn't want to shoot it. I love grizzly bears, and I feel very fortunate every time I see one out in the woods.” “I shot from the hip,” he said. “There was no way I had time to get the rifle up to my shoulder.” He hit the bear square in the chest, but “it's a big chest,” Workman said, and the bear kept coming, rushed by 5 feet to his side and blasted back into the brush. Shaken, Workman and Paine started digging around, investigating the area, trying to figure out what had happened. That's when he found the antler sticking up out of the dirt....
Nature Conservancy turning Panhandle ranch into chicken preserve The Nature Conservancy has purchased a 6,000-acre ranch in the South Plains to help protect the state's struggling population of lesser prairie chickens. The ranch about 40 miles southwest of Lubbock had been in the Fitzgerald family for more than 100 years. "It is such rugged, remote territory, there isn't much to do with it," said Melba Fitzgerald, 77, whose family has owned the ranch since 1904. "We never really did anything to it ... other than put up a few windmills." Texas Parks & Wildlife Department biologists have counted more than 300 lesser prairie chickens on the property. The bird has been a candidate for the federal Endangered Species List since 1998. State wildlife officials have been working to double the prairie chicken population in Texas, which is though to be less than 5,000. The chickens are found in 16 counties in the northeastern and southwestern corners of the Texas Panhandle....
It's All Trew: Patience a valuable lesson Of all the things I learned in my early life, I now believe that acquiring patience is appreciated most. As I meet and study my modern-day fellow man and woman, the attribute of patience is sometimes hard to find. Time and again in my early boyhood I heard, "Good things come to all who wait." Another saying was, "Have patience little jackass." My grandparents said, "That man has the patience of Job." Many of the war veterans said, "Hurry up and wait." I think my first lessons in patience came as a little boy when I was forced to wait for the second table after the grown-ups had finished. This usually came at wheat harvest time, cattle shipping or when the preacher came to dinner. I would go to my bedroom and wait so I didn't have to watch him eat my favorite piece of fried chicken. A second patience lesson came at church revivals when the sermons seemed to go on and on forever. The best part came when the preacher yelled and pounded the pulpit and all the old men said "Amen, A-A-Amen."....
Monday, November 26, 2007
Alaska biologist certain wolves killed Canadian A Fairbanks wolf biologist testified at a recent Canadian coroner’s inquest in what has been declared North America’s first documented fatal attack by a wild, healthy wolf or wolves. Mark McNay testified in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, that he was certain that wolves killed Kenton Carnegie two years ago. McNay retired from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game three months ago. After three days of testimony, a six-person jury agreed with McNay. The testimony included photos and details of how Carnegie was killed and then eaten by a pack of four wolves at a remote mining camp in northern Saskatchewan. Humans have been killed by rabid and captive wolves in North America before. There also have been many documented cases of fatal wolf attacks in India. Carnegie, a 22-year-old engineering student from Ontario, was found dead on Nov. 8, 2005, at the Points North Landing supply depot. Co-workers found his mauled body — surrounded by wolf tracks in the snow — in the brush only about a half-mile from the camp....
Save Wolves from Senseless Slaughter! Adopt one for Christmas Give yourself or those special wildlife lovers in your life a howlin' good gift - and help protect America's wolves when you adopt a wolf! Adopt a Gray Wolf Family and you'll receive a big 17", super-cuddly plush wolf toy, a personalized Certificate of Adoption with an attractive 5"x7" wolf photo and a fact sheet full of great information about these magnificent animals. You can also choose to receive a Kids Wildlife Activities book for that special young person in your life. Once virtually eliminated from the lower 48 United States, wolves have made an incredible comeback since Defenders and others successfully fought for their re-introduction into Yellowstone National Park in 1995. But these and other wolves in America face a highly uncertain future, as plans are readied to remove vital protections and clear the way for the massacre of hundreds of wolves in the Greater Yellowstone area and the American Southwest....
Wolf Population Rebounds In Yellowstone The wolf may lose its place in the endangered species list. The Associated Press reported Friday that in just 12 years after the wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park after years of near-extinction, a sharp rise in the wolf population has been observed in the region. Wolf numbers increased 20 percent to 30 percent every year. Entire packs taken out to reduce livestock kills were quickly replaced by new packs. In 1995, 66 wolves were initially transplanted into Yellowstone from Canada. At present, an estimated 1,545 roam Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. As the wolf population grew, the number of livestock and other domestic animals killed by wolves spiked from 123 in 2000 to 330 in 2007. Wolves killed in retaliation by ranchers and federal wildlife agents soared seven times during the same period, from 20 to 146. If the wolf is delisted, hunters and trappers would be able to get permits to kill them. If the number of wolves drop lower than 450, hunting and trapping will be strictly controlled; 300 or lower, they'll be back in the endangered list....
The Bears Among Us No one can say for sure when things got out of hand — when relations between humans and black bears in the Canadian resort town of Whistler grew untenable for each side — but by the height of last summer’s tourist season, many of the bears that live around the densely developed, Swiss-style village in the mountains of British Columbia had apparently learned some new foraging techniques, and life for the humans took on an aspect of siege: Bears hitting the “bearproof” garbage bins along Highway 99; bears breaking into the loading bays and trash compactors behind the Hilton; bears discovering that snorting, jaw-snapping and bluff-charging golfers on the Whistler greens would cause those golfers to surrender their carts with their hands in the air. Beyond providing a setting of uncommon natural beauty, however, all this mingling of humankind and the wilderness seems to have produced something almost taxonomically unique: Wild bears so habituated to the presence of people that the biologists who have come here to study them say they’ve never seen anything like it — bears that lift the door handles of trucks to take possession of the cabs; bears that manage to snag the bait from a trap with one foot while holding the steel gate open with the other; bears that stroll munificently through the crowds at the Canada Day parade; bears in the pubs, the hotels, the day-care centers, the landfills, meat lockers, grease vents, underground parking garages. In Whistler, if a bear doesn’t get into something humans are guarding, it’s usually because too many other bears got there first....
Regulations flowing toward Yampa River Erin Light stands on the banks of the Yampa River knowing that this is one of the last places in the parched American West where you can take as much water as you like. But not for long. Even as the river flows rich and languid down from the Flat Tops Wilderness, the era of unimaginable plenty in this region is coming to an end. Light is the top water regulator on the Yampa, the first woman in Colorado history to oversee one of the state's vaunted rivers. It is a huge task. The Yampa is one of eight major river basins in Colorado that form a massive high-altitude headwaters, helping supply 19 other states, Mexico, and millions of people. Light's sprawling territory is a remote place where the river has flowed largely unfettered. Butch Cassidy once holed up here, and water users must often think of themselves as outlaws, too, holding out against a new demand by the state to regulate their river....
Ranchers, others work to rehab land When ranchers in the Thunder Basin grassland area drive the dusty red roads from pasture to pasture or from highway to home, they’re watching more than their cattle these days. The landowners who are part of the Thunder Basin Grassland Prairie Ecosystem Association are also keeping a sharp eye out for flora and fauna. They’re taking particularly careful notes in an almost 38,000-acre area where the association, with help from the state and others, is treating land with a mixture of fire, pesticides and native grass seeds to rehabilitate the ecosystem. The treatments are funded in part through the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Fund, an account established by the 2005 Legislature. The association has submitted a new application for $600,000 to treat more land, according to Betty Pellatz, rancher and association chairwoman. If approved, the dollars would help fund rehabilitation on about 37,000 acres -- the 15 percent of association lands deemed to be short of historical ecosystem conditions, Pellatz said. Restoring prairie health in those acres is part of a bigger plan to solidify "candidate conservation agreements with assurances" with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pellatz said. Under such agreements, private landowners who take on practices that conserve and increase habitat for particular species are allowed to continue their normal operations if the species are listed under the Endangered Species Act....
Dominguez legislation likely to come soon Legislation that would create the proposed Dominguez-Escalante Canyons National Conservation Area on the Uncompahgre Plateau is almost certain to be introduced in Congress in the next several months, according to staffers for Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. The legislation is “absolutely” in the offing for the first couple of months of 2008, Allard spokesman Steve Wymer said Friday. Allard’s staff has scheduled a series of meetings with local interest groups through December to gather local input about what the proposed national conservation area should look like. Legislation, Wymer said, will address as many local concerns about access to the Dominguez-Escalante area as possible. If the conservation is approved as proposed, it would encompass approximately 211,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management canyon country and rangeland east of the Uncompahgre National Forest and west of U.S. Highway 50 between Delta and Unaweep Canyon. The proposed conservation area’s main attractions are Big and Little Dominguez canyons, Escalante Canyon and the Gunnison River. The Dominguez canyons would be managed as wilderness, with all non-ranching-related motorized vehicles barred from entry. Much of the rest of the conservation area would remain open to off-road vehicles....
Lambs trained to consume toadflax Imagine a lamb at its first pasture potluck, and you'll see how Montana lambs are learning to eat a noxious weed called Dalmatian toadflax. The lamb nibbles on familiar grasses and weeds, then notices her mom and aunts loading up on a tall plant that's pretty enough to place in a vase. Emboldened by her elders, the lamb nibbles a yellow blossom and decides she likes it. She cleans her plate and returns again and again to the all-you-can-eat buffet until it's time to go home. That's the scenario Montana State University researchers are seeing after trucking ewes, lambs and goats to Montana pastures infested with Dalmatian toadflax, said Lisa Surber of the Montana Sheep Institute based at MSU. The lambs won't touch Dalmatian toadflax on their own, but they will if they see their mothers or goats eating it. And once they try it, they like it. Surber added, "Ultimately, we think we can be very successful in controlling the plant, this noxious weed, with sheep and goats or sheep that have been trained. It's a question of understanding that learning behavior a little bit more. Some herds are not successful, and we need to understand why."....
So What's So Bad About Corn? To say that corn is king around here is to come close to demoting it. In the last couple of weeks, the farmers of this state finished harvesting an astonishing 14 million acres of corn, which is more than a third of Iowa's surface. The yield: nearly 2 1/2 billion bushels. That's about 420 billion ears of corn, or about 225 trillion kernels. This mundane plant, once arguably dull as dirt, its name useful as an adjective ("corny") to describe something kind of lame and hillbillyish, has become improbably controversial. The gist of the criticism: So much corn, doing so many things, serving as both food and fuel, and backed by billions of dollars in government subsidies, has been bad for America and the rest of the world. Start with food prices. Corn and its derivatives are in thousands of items sold at a typical grocery store, and corn is trading on the market at about twice the price it was just a couple of years ago. There are ripple effects everywhere. More acres in corn mean fewer in soybeans, and so soybean prices are also up. Soybean extracts are all over the grocery store, too. Meanwhile, there are ethanol skeptics. They say production of ethanol has outpaced the infrastructure -- flex-fuel cars, for example -- for using it. A 51-cent-a-gallon federal subsidy to ethanol blenders helps keep the ethanol market commercially viable. Environmentalists decry the impact on soil, waterways and wildlife of so much acreage planted in vast tracts of a thirsty, fertilizer-hungry plant....
These farms' cash crop is bottled On the heels of the microbrewing boom, new microdistilleries are thriving in some unlikely places. And some of the latest and quirkiest entrants to the industry are in places like Kansas, Iowa and Indiana. Small, private distilleries are opening at a rate of 10 to 20 a year. There are about 100 across the country. Seth Fox, a cattle rancher down on his luck, had about $100 in his checking account when he decided to get a license to distill vodka. Taking advantage of generations of moonshining expertise in his family, Fox scraped together junked parts and started the High Plains liquor company on his farm in Atchison, Kan. "I'm the seventh generation to be in alcohol. Just the first to do it legally. Well, I had a million dollars in sales last year," he said. His bestseller, Most Wanted vodka, is in local liquor stores. His ultrapremium Fox vodka is served at some of the region's finest restaurants....
Tumbling cattle prices worry Arizona ranchers Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it's time to talk about, well, beef. Arizona ranchers have something to beef about all right. And some of that has to do with two other ingestibles: corn and water. "They have to cull deeper, which means they take cattle that they would keep that might be 8 years old and sell them and keep the younger ones," said C.B. "Doc" Lane of the Arizona Beef Council. "We have significantly thinned already," said Judy Prosser, whose 330,000-acre Bar-T-Bar Ranch on private, forest and state lands between Winslow and Happy Jack has been in her family since the 1920s, "and I think it's probably pretty widespread. "We're looking at liquidating all of our heifer calf crop, which we would normally keep replacements out of, because it's so dry and we're worried about the condition of the land - to not overuse the land." One factor in the equation is the price and availability of corn, once a staple feed stock. Now, its growing popularity for use in ethanol production has increased its price. Prosser said Arizona ranchers who give their cattle supplemental feed are seeing higher-than-normal hay prices, plus the freight charges, increased propane costs and the skyrocketing price of fuel for their vehicles....
New Jersey Company That Recalled Hamburger Meat Declares Bankruptcy The Topps Meat Company of Elizabeth, N.J., which nearly two months ago recalled 21.7 million pounds of hamburger meat, has declared bankruptcy, according to papers filed on Wednesday in federal bankruptcy court in Newark. In the filing, Topps said the “severe economic impact of the recall” forced it to cease operations. Topps shut its doors and laid off most of its employees on Oct. 5, a week after issuing one of the largest beef recalls ever. Federal and state health officials found at least three types of the O157:H7 strain of E. coli bacteria in the plant. At least 40 people in eight states were sickened by the contamination, which raised questions about the effectiveness of inspections by the federal Agriculture Department. The agency was also scrutinized for a delay of several weeks in requesting the recall after tests showed that meat sold by Topps was linked to illness from E. coli. Federal investigators said the company failed to require adequate testing of raw beef it had bought from domestic suppliers, and it sometimes mixed tested and untested meat in its grinding machines....
Cattle trade slowly adjusts after border opening When Sylvan Martens of Marten's Cattle Company near Spiritwood sold a Charolais-bred heifer in 2002, he never suspected it would take five years for the purchasers to collect their assets. The operation that purchased the Charolais is located in the United States, and the Canadian bovine spongiform encephalopathy crisis was just beginning. As a result of the United States border opening to older cattle on Monday, the opening day of the Canadian Western Agribition, Martens was finally able to provide the buyer with the mature animal and several of her offspring. When the American border opened to older Canadian cattle this week, it was marked with caution by some. R-CALF, a Montana-based protectionist ranchers' group, is attempting rally support in the U.S. and has various lawsuits seeking re-closure of the border. To foster cross-border communications between Canadian and U.S. cattle industries, a roundtable discussion was organized at Agribition by the Consul General of Canada in Denver and Minneapolis and the International Trade Office in Regina....
Save Wolves from Senseless Slaughter! Adopt one for Christmas Give yourself or those special wildlife lovers in your life a howlin' good gift - and help protect America's wolves when you adopt a wolf! Adopt a Gray Wolf Family and you'll receive a big 17", super-cuddly plush wolf toy, a personalized Certificate of Adoption with an attractive 5"x7" wolf photo and a fact sheet full of great information about these magnificent animals. You can also choose to receive a Kids Wildlife Activities book for that special young person in your life. Once virtually eliminated from the lower 48 United States, wolves have made an incredible comeback since Defenders and others successfully fought for their re-introduction into Yellowstone National Park in 1995. But these and other wolves in America face a highly uncertain future, as plans are readied to remove vital protections and clear the way for the massacre of hundreds of wolves in the Greater Yellowstone area and the American Southwest....
Wolf Population Rebounds In Yellowstone The wolf may lose its place in the endangered species list. The Associated Press reported Friday that in just 12 years after the wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park after years of near-extinction, a sharp rise in the wolf population has been observed in the region. Wolf numbers increased 20 percent to 30 percent every year. Entire packs taken out to reduce livestock kills were quickly replaced by new packs. In 1995, 66 wolves were initially transplanted into Yellowstone from Canada. At present, an estimated 1,545 roam Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. As the wolf population grew, the number of livestock and other domestic animals killed by wolves spiked from 123 in 2000 to 330 in 2007. Wolves killed in retaliation by ranchers and federal wildlife agents soared seven times during the same period, from 20 to 146. If the wolf is delisted, hunters and trappers would be able to get permits to kill them. If the number of wolves drop lower than 450, hunting and trapping will be strictly controlled; 300 or lower, they'll be back in the endangered list....
The Bears Among Us No one can say for sure when things got out of hand — when relations between humans and black bears in the Canadian resort town of Whistler grew untenable for each side — but by the height of last summer’s tourist season, many of the bears that live around the densely developed, Swiss-style village in the mountains of British Columbia had apparently learned some new foraging techniques, and life for the humans took on an aspect of siege: Bears hitting the “bearproof” garbage bins along Highway 99; bears breaking into the loading bays and trash compactors behind the Hilton; bears discovering that snorting, jaw-snapping and bluff-charging golfers on the Whistler greens would cause those golfers to surrender their carts with their hands in the air. Beyond providing a setting of uncommon natural beauty, however, all this mingling of humankind and the wilderness seems to have produced something almost taxonomically unique: Wild bears so habituated to the presence of people that the biologists who have come here to study them say they’ve never seen anything like it — bears that lift the door handles of trucks to take possession of the cabs; bears that manage to snag the bait from a trap with one foot while holding the steel gate open with the other; bears that stroll munificently through the crowds at the Canada Day parade; bears in the pubs, the hotels, the day-care centers, the landfills, meat lockers, grease vents, underground parking garages. In Whistler, if a bear doesn’t get into something humans are guarding, it’s usually because too many other bears got there first....
Regulations flowing toward Yampa River Erin Light stands on the banks of the Yampa River knowing that this is one of the last places in the parched American West where you can take as much water as you like. But not for long. Even as the river flows rich and languid down from the Flat Tops Wilderness, the era of unimaginable plenty in this region is coming to an end. Light is the top water regulator on the Yampa, the first woman in Colorado history to oversee one of the state's vaunted rivers. It is a huge task. The Yampa is one of eight major river basins in Colorado that form a massive high-altitude headwaters, helping supply 19 other states, Mexico, and millions of people. Light's sprawling territory is a remote place where the river has flowed largely unfettered. Butch Cassidy once holed up here, and water users must often think of themselves as outlaws, too, holding out against a new demand by the state to regulate their river....
Ranchers, others work to rehab land When ranchers in the Thunder Basin grassland area drive the dusty red roads from pasture to pasture or from highway to home, they’re watching more than their cattle these days. The landowners who are part of the Thunder Basin Grassland Prairie Ecosystem Association are also keeping a sharp eye out for flora and fauna. They’re taking particularly careful notes in an almost 38,000-acre area where the association, with help from the state and others, is treating land with a mixture of fire, pesticides and native grass seeds to rehabilitate the ecosystem. The treatments are funded in part through the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Fund, an account established by the 2005 Legislature. The association has submitted a new application for $600,000 to treat more land, according to Betty Pellatz, rancher and association chairwoman. If approved, the dollars would help fund rehabilitation on about 37,000 acres -- the 15 percent of association lands deemed to be short of historical ecosystem conditions, Pellatz said. Restoring prairie health in those acres is part of a bigger plan to solidify "candidate conservation agreements with assurances" with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pellatz said. Under such agreements, private landowners who take on practices that conserve and increase habitat for particular species are allowed to continue their normal operations if the species are listed under the Endangered Species Act....
Dominguez legislation likely to come soon Legislation that would create the proposed Dominguez-Escalante Canyons National Conservation Area on the Uncompahgre Plateau is almost certain to be introduced in Congress in the next several months, according to staffers for Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. The legislation is “absolutely” in the offing for the first couple of months of 2008, Allard spokesman Steve Wymer said Friday. Allard’s staff has scheduled a series of meetings with local interest groups through December to gather local input about what the proposed national conservation area should look like. Legislation, Wymer said, will address as many local concerns about access to the Dominguez-Escalante area as possible. If the conservation is approved as proposed, it would encompass approximately 211,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management canyon country and rangeland east of the Uncompahgre National Forest and west of U.S. Highway 50 between Delta and Unaweep Canyon. The proposed conservation area’s main attractions are Big and Little Dominguez canyons, Escalante Canyon and the Gunnison River. The Dominguez canyons would be managed as wilderness, with all non-ranching-related motorized vehicles barred from entry. Much of the rest of the conservation area would remain open to off-road vehicles....
Lambs trained to consume toadflax Imagine a lamb at its first pasture potluck, and you'll see how Montana lambs are learning to eat a noxious weed called Dalmatian toadflax. The lamb nibbles on familiar grasses and weeds, then notices her mom and aunts loading up on a tall plant that's pretty enough to place in a vase. Emboldened by her elders, the lamb nibbles a yellow blossom and decides she likes it. She cleans her plate and returns again and again to the all-you-can-eat buffet until it's time to go home. That's the scenario Montana State University researchers are seeing after trucking ewes, lambs and goats to Montana pastures infested with Dalmatian toadflax, said Lisa Surber of the Montana Sheep Institute based at MSU. The lambs won't touch Dalmatian toadflax on their own, but they will if they see their mothers or goats eating it. And once they try it, they like it. Surber added, "Ultimately, we think we can be very successful in controlling the plant, this noxious weed, with sheep and goats or sheep that have been trained. It's a question of understanding that learning behavior a little bit more. Some herds are not successful, and we need to understand why."....
So What's So Bad About Corn? To say that corn is king around here is to come close to demoting it. In the last couple of weeks, the farmers of this state finished harvesting an astonishing 14 million acres of corn, which is more than a third of Iowa's surface. The yield: nearly 2 1/2 billion bushels. That's about 420 billion ears of corn, or about 225 trillion kernels. This mundane plant, once arguably dull as dirt, its name useful as an adjective ("corny") to describe something kind of lame and hillbillyish, has become improbably controversial. The gist of the criticism: So much corn, doing so many things, serving as both food and fuel, and backed by billions of dollars in government subsidies, has been bad for America and the rest of the world. Start with food prices. Corn and its derivatives are in thousands of items sold at a typical grocery store, and corn is trading on the market at about twice the price it was just a couple of years ago. There are ripple effects everywhere. More acres in corn mean fewer in soybeans, and so soybean prices are also up. Soybean extracts are all over the grocery store, too. Meanwhile, there are ethanol skeptics. They say production of ethanol has outpaced the infrastructure -- flex-fuel cars, for example -- for using it. A 51-cent-a-gallon federal subsidy to ethanol blenders helps keep the ethanol market commercially viable. Environmentalists decry the impact on soil, waterways and wildlife of so much acreage planted in vast tracts of a thirsty, fertilizer-hungry plant....
These farms' cash crop is bottled On the heels of the microbrewing boom, new microdistilleries are thriving in some unlikely places. And some of the latest and quirkiest entrants to the industry are in places like Kansas, Iowa and Indiana. Small, private distilleries are opening at a rate of 10 to 20 a year. There are about 100 across the country. Seth Fox, a cattle rancher down on his luck, had about $100 in his checking account when he decided to get a license to distill vodka. Taking advantage of generations of moonshining expertise in his family, Fox scraped together junked parts and started the High Plains liquor company on his farm in Atchison, Kan. "I'm the seventh generation to be in alcohol. Just the first to do it legally. Well, I had a million dollars in sales last year," he said. His bestseller, Most Wanted vodka, is in local liquor stores. His ultrapremium Fox vodka is served at some of the region's finest restaurants....
Tumbling cattle prices worry Arizona ranchers Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it's time to talk about, well, beef. Arizona ranchers have something to beef about all right. And some of that has to do with two other ingestibles: corn and water. "They have to cull deeper, which means they take cattle that they would keep that might be 8 years old and sell them and keep the younger ones," said C.B. "Doc" Lane of the Arizona Beef Council. "We have significantly thinned already," said Judy Prosser, whose 330,000-acre Bar-T-Bar Ranch on private, forest and state lands between Winslow and Happy Jack has been in her family since the 1920s, "and I think it's probably pretty widespread. "We're looking at liquidating all of our heifer calf crop, which we would normally keep replacements out of, because it's so dry and we're worried about the condition of the land - to not overuse the land." One factor in the equation is the price and availability of corn, once a staple feed stock. Now, its growing popularity for use in ethanol production has increased its price. Prosser said Arizona ranchers who give their cattle supplemental feed are seeing higher-than-normal hay prices, plus the freight charges, increased propane costs and the skyrocketing price of fuel for their vehicles....
New Jersey Company That Recalled Hamburger Meat Declares Bankruptcy The Topps Meat Company of Elizabeth, N.J., which nearly two months ago recalled 21.7 million pounds of hamburger meat, has declared bankruptcy, according to papers filed on Wednesday in federal bankruptcy court in Newark. In the filing, Topps said the “severe economic impact of the recall” forced it to cease operations. Topps shut its doors and laid off most of its employees on Oct. 5, a week after issuing one of the largest beef recalls ever. Federal and state health officials found at least three types of the O157:H7 strain of E. coli bacteria in the plant. At least 40 people in eight states were sickened by the contamination, which raised questions about the effectiveness of inspections by the federal Agriculture Department. The agency was also scrutinized for a delay of several weeks in requesting the recall after tests showed that meat sold by Topps was linked to illness from E. coli. Federal investigators said the company failed to require adequate testing of raw beef it had bought from domestic suppliers, and it sometimes mixed tested and untested meat in its grinding machines....
Cattle trade slowly adjusts after border opening When Sylvan Martens of Marten's Cattle Company near Spiritwood sold a Charolais-bred heifer in 2002, he never suspected it would take five years for the purchasers to collect their assets. The operation that purchased the Charolais is located in the United States, and the Canadian bovine spongiform encephalopathy crisis was just beginning. As a result of the United States border opening to older cattle on Monday, the opening day of the Canadian Western Agribition, Martens was finally able to provide the buyer with the mature animal and several of her offspring. When the American border opened to older Canadian cattle this week, it was marked with caution by some. R-CALF, a Montana-based protectionist ranchers' group, is attempting rally support in the U.S. and has various lawsuits seeking re-closure of the border. To foster cross-border communications between Canadian and U.S. cattle industries, a roundtable discussion was organized at Agribition by the Consul General of Canada in Denver and Minneapolis and the International Trade Office in Regina....
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Contact: Laura Schneberger
575-772-5753
www.gilalivestockgrowers.org
www.wolfcrossing.org
admin@wolfcrossing.org
November 25, 2007
Wild Born Wolves Swept Under Rug by Program Managers
The Mexican wolf program may be in for a population boost during the winter counts this year despite removals attributed to livestock depredation.
Saturday November 24 a single two year old male wolf was trapped on the Adobe ranch in an area currently occupied by the Aspen pack. The Aspen pack is slated for removal due to a total of 10 cow and calf depredations since June and a horse kill that occurred some distance south of the Adobe in January. According to the FWS standard operating procedure 13, the wolves should have been removed after three kills.
According to Gene Whetten manager of the adobe ranch, the Aspen pack are on a spree kill on the Adobe ranch and have racked up 5 confirmed weaned calves since October and a further 2 that were deemed probable kills.
“The pack is so big that they pretty much clean up what they kill so fast that it is hard to find them so we are actually loosing a lot more than we are having confirmed,” says Whetten. “We are finding skeletons and the kill scene but they eat the skin and everything so it is hard to get enough for confirmation.”
So far only the alpha male has been removed for the kills, leaving the Alpha female, a yearling female and four pups to continue their depredations apparently unchecked.
“Because Aspen is leaving one carcass and killing a new calf each time, they are having a hard time trapping them. Yesterday one of the wild born wolves that has been on the ranch for over a year was caught in one of the traps set for the Aspen pack. I told them to leave me the good wolf, so it can mate up this year and get the Aspen pack off the place. So they took it to Arizona and are going to release it there.”
That release is scheduled to occur on the Four Drag ranch owned by Gary and Darcy Ely in Arizona sometime in the next few days. Fish and Wildlife Service are attempting to force a pair bond between the wild born wolf and the Rim pack alpha female.
“Our ranchers get blamed for everything wrong with this program, says Laura Schneberger President of the Gila Livestock Growers Association, the truth is if the agencies would do an adequate job this program would be in better shape. When my members report un-collared wolves on their places, these agencies don’t investigate and refuse to believe them. Instead of being rewarded for allowing this wild born wolf and who knows how many other wolves onto the Adobe ranch, these folks are being forced to live with a pack that is slaughtering their herds and teaching wild born wolves to prey on cattle. It is an unmitigated, disastrous and unfair situation”
The Adobe ranch has been Mexican wolf habitat since the early days of the program and in the past several years have had to implement wolf control on the ranch. In the past year, the ranch has had several confirmed wolf kills attributed to unknown wolves. According to Whetten, those kills were all concentrated on the western end of the ranch near the Durango pack territory, far from the territory occupied by the wild born, newly removed wolf. “We had this wolf doing nothing wrong for over a year and they moved it. You get so frustrated when you have to do all the extra work, loose the cattle anyway, you have no control over what is happening and they won’t follow their own rules.”
In an unrelated incident an un-collared wolf was documented at the Glenwood community center by the Catron county wolf interaction investigator, the same day the un-collared wolf was trapped on the Adobe ranch. Ranchers and area homeowners have documented up to 27 un-collared wolves in New Mexico in the past year with no investigations by wildlife managers occurring to confirm their presence.
575-772-5753
www.gilalivestockgrowers.org
www.wolfcrossing.org
admin@wolfcrossing.org
November 25, 2007
Wild Born Wolves Swept Under Rug by Program Managers
The Mexican wolf program may be in for a population boost during the winter counts this year despite removals attributed to livestock depredation.
Saturday November 24 a single two year old male wolf was trapped on the Adobe ranch in an area currently occupied by the Aspen pack. The Aspen pack is slated for removal due to a total of 10 cow and calf depredations since June and a horse kill that occurred some distance south of the Adobe in January. According to the FWS standard operating procedure 13, the wolves should have been removed after three kills.
According to Gene Whetten manager of the adobe ranch, the Aspen pack are on a spree kill on the Adobe ranch and have racked up 5 confirmed weaned calves since October and a further 2 that were deemed probable kills.
“The pack is so big that they pretty much clean up what they kill so fast that it is hard to find them so we are actually loosing a lot more than we are having confirmed,” says Whetten. “We are finding skeletons and the kill scene but they eat the skin and everything so it is hard to get enough for confirmation.”
So far only the alpha male has been removed for the kills, leaving the Alpha female, a yearling female and four pups to continue their depredations apparently unchecked.
“Because Aspen is leaving one carcass and killing a new calf each time, they are having a hard time trapping them. Yesterday one of the wild born wolves that has been on the ranch for over a year was caught in one of the traps set for the Aspen pack. I told them to leave me the good wolf, so it can mate up this year and get the Aspen pack off the place. So they took it to Arizona and are going to release it there.”
That release is scheduled to occur on the Four Drag ranch owned by Gary and Darcy Ely in Arizona sometime in the next few days. Fish and Wildlife Service are attempting to force a pair bond between the wild born wolf and the Rim pack alpha female.
“Our ranchers get blamed for everything wrong with this program, says Laura Schneberger President of the Gila Livestock Growers Association, the truth is if the agencies would do an adequate job this program would be in better shape. When my members report un-collared wolves on their places, these agencies don’t investigate and refuse to believe them. Instead of being rewarded for allowing this wild born wolf and who knows how many other wolves onto the Adobe ranch, these folks are being forced to live with a pack that is slaughtering their herds and teaching wild born wolves to prey on cattle. It is an unmitigated, disastrous and unfair situation”
The Adobe ranch has been Mexican wolf habitat since the early days of the program and in the past several years have had to implement wolf control on the ranch. In the past year, the ranch has had several confirmed wolf kills attributed to unknown wolves. According to Whetten, those kills were all concentrated on the western end of the ranch near the Durango pack territory, far from the territory occupied by the wild born, newly removed wolf. “We had this wolf doing nothing wrong for over a year and they moved it. You get so frustrated when you have to do all the extra work, loose the cattle anyway, you have no control over what is happening and they won’t follow their own rules.”
In an unrelated incident an un-collared wolf was documented at the Glenwood community center by the Catron county wolf interaction investigator, the same day the un-collared wolf was trapped on the Adobe ranch. Ranchers and area homeowners have documented up to 27 un-collared wolves in New Mexico in the past year with no investigations by wildlife managers occurring to confirm their presence.
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