Cowboys and pot-bellied pigs are a bad mix
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

I bet you thought this was going to be a New Year's Eve party report.

With that same title, it could be, but it's not. It really is about pigs, real pigs, and in this case, a couple of the pet pot-bellied variety.

Good cow horses will stand for a lot of things that would make the run-of-mill-backyard-variety equine lose their mind, jump upside down and get you hurt.

Rock had calmly avoided rattlesnakes, pheasants flying under his belly, bulls charging him and deer blowing out of the brush nearly on top of him.

He even put up with pilgrims in pink spandex pants petting him and children rolling under his feet. However, a pot-bellied pig did him in.

New to the area, the cowgirl and her cowboy had gone to help some neighbors gather cattle. As one does when one is at someone else's outfit, she got her instructions and began trailing cattle back to headquarters.

Following a little bunch of cattle that was headed to the main herd, she and Rock seemed to have things under control until out of nowhere a flock of sheep came on the run right through the middle of the cattle.

Rock pinned his ears and squatted back on his hindquarters but held his own against the white, hopping invaders without ever swapping ends and making a run for it. The worst was yet to come.

After the cattle had been re-gathered with the requisite amount of cussing, the corral sorting work was done and the waiting semi-trucks were loaded.

The horses were tied to the corral fence when the crew sauntered toward the house for lunch.

About halfway through the meal, the cowboys noted all their horses were in a dead run out across the pasture.

The first job was to capture them and then try to figure out what had set them off.

Next to the fence where all the broken bridle reins were hanging sat a fat, happy very ugly pot-bellied pig.

Horses snorted and shied from the fence and the pig looked them over inquisitively, hoping for a little more action out of them.

In this same part of the world, a rancher woke one morning to silence.

Not a good sign when he had, just the day before, weaned five pens full of calves that should be bawling their heads off for their mamas.

He raced to the corrals to find all but one pen of calves completely gone. Adios, por allá, missing! Gates torn down, fences laid over.

What he also found was a pair of pot-bellied pigs that had wandered a few miles to create such havoc. They'd taken up residence and seemed to think they were right where they belonged.

Those hogs left a lasting impression on the cattle, the horses and the cowboy.

He returned the pets to their home but once they had discovered the trail to so much fun, they made the trip often. Kind of like relatives that show up uninvited, stay too long and don't know they are not welcome.

For years after the event, the cowboy's horses snorted, shied and acted like there were unseen monsters in that set of corrals.

One of the pigs relocated when their owner did while one of them went MIA and is now listed with the rancher "cold-case" files.

The moral of the story goes with the saying that "good fences make good neighbors." It's a dangerous world out there. Keep your pigs at home.

Visit Julie on her website at julie-carter.com

When Government Plans, It Usually Fails

by Randal O'Toole

After more than 30 years of reviewing government plans, including forest plans, park plans, watershed plans, wildlife plans, energy plans, urban plans and transportation plans, I've concluded that government planning almost always does more harm than good.

Most government plans are so full of fabrications and unsupportable assumptions that they aren't worth the paper they are printed on, much less the millions of tax dollars spent to have them written. Federal, state and local governments should repeal planning laws and shut down planning offices.

Everybody plans. But private plans are flexible, and we happily change them when new information arises. In contrast, special-interest groups ensure that the government plans benefiting them do not change -- no matter how costly. Like any other organization, government agencies need to plan their budgets and short-term projects. But they fail when they write comprehensive plans (which try to account for all side effects), long-range plans or plans that attempt to control other people's land and resources. Many plans try to do all three.

Comprehensive plans fail because forests, watersheds and cities are simply too complicated for anyone to understand. Chaos science reveals that very tiny differences in initial conditions can lead to huge differences in outcomes -- that's why mega-projects such as Boston's Big Dig go so far over budget.

Long-range plans fail because planners have no better insight into the future than anyone else, so their plans will be as wrong as their predictions are.

Planning for other people's land and resources fails because planners will not pay the costs they impose on other people, so they have no incentive to find the best answers.

Most of the nation's 32,000 professional planners graduated from schools that are closely affiliated with colleges of architecture, giving them an undue faith in design. This means many plans put enormous efforts into trying to control urban design while they neglect other tools that could solve social problems at a much lower cost. For example, planners propose to reduce automotive air pollution by increasing population densities to reduce driving. Yet the nation's densest urban area, Los Angeles, has only 8 percent less commuting by auto than the least dense areas. Meanwhile, technological improvements over the past 40 years, which planners often ignore, have reduced the pollution caused by some cars by 99 percent.

Some of the worst plans today are so-called growth management plans prepared by states and metropolitan areas. They try to control who gets to develop their land and exactly what those developments should look like, including their population densities and mixtures of residential, retail, commercial and other uses. About a dozen states require or encourage urban areas to write such plans. Those states have some of the nation's least-affordable housing, while most states and regions that haven't written such plans mostly have very affordable housing. The reason is simple: Planning limits the supply of new housing, which drives up the price of all housing.

In states with growth management laws, median housing prices in 2006 were typically four to eight times median family incomes. In most states without such laws, median home prices are only two to three times median family incomes. Few people realize that the recent housing bubble, which affected mainly regions with growth management planning, was caused by planners trying to socially engineer cities. Yet it has done little to protect open space, reduce driving or do any of the other things promised.

Politicians use government planning to allocate scarce resources on a large scale. Instead, they should make sure that markets - based on prices, incentives and property rights -- work. Variably priced toll roads have helped reduce congestion. Pollution markets do far more to clean the air than exhortations to drive less. Giving people freedom to use their property, and ensuring only that their use does not harm others, will keep housing affordable.

Unlike planners, markets can cope with complexity. Futures markets cushion the results of unexpected changes. Markets do not preclude government ownership, but the best-managed government programs are funded out of user fees that effectively make government managers act like private owners. Rather than passing the buck by turning sticky problems over to government planners, policymakers should make sure markets give people what they want.

FLE

Attorney For D.C. in Gun Ban Case Fired Acting D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has fired the city lawyer who had been preparing to defend the District's longtime ban on handguns before the Supreme Court this spring, a move that some city officials fear could harm the case. Alan B. Morrison, who has argued 20 cases before the high court, was asked to leave his post as special counsel by the end of this week. Morrison had been hired by then-Attorney General Linda Singer and put in charge of arguing the handgun case. Singer resigned two weeks ago. Nickles declined to elaborate on his decision, but Morrison suggested in an interview that he was fired as part of a feud between Nickles and Singer. The case is one of the most important in the city's history, and the court's ruling could have a national impact, legal experts have said....
Dellinger to head D.C. team in handgun case A former acting U.S. solicitor general who is now with a private law firm has been named to defend the District's handgun ban in the U.S. Supreme Court. Walter Dellinger was chosen Thursday by acting D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles. Dellinger was already a member of the legal team working on the handgun case under D.C. special counsel Alan Morrison, who was fired by Nickles last week. Nickles says Dellinger helped Morrison write the brief and will be able to assume the lead role without difficulty....
Judge postpones trial for lawsuit over guns seized after Katrina A federal judge has agreed to postpone a trial for a lawsuit that the National Rifle Association filed against city officials for seizing hundreds of guns in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Last week, NRA attorneys said the lobbying group needs more time to search for hundreds of gun owners whose firearms were confiscated by New Orleans police following the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier agreed Friday to reschedule a Feb. 19 trial for the case. A new trial date is expected to be picked during a telephone conference with the judge later this month. The NRA and Second Amendment Foundation, a Bellevue, Wash.-based advocacy group, sued New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley over the city's seizure of more than 1,000 guns that weren't part of any criminal investigation after Katrina....
Elderly use canes for self-defence A martial arts expert has set up special walking stick self-defence classes for pensioners. Kevin Garwood, 58, of Gorleston, near Great Yarmouth, is showing them how to use their walking sticks to be more confident. And his lessons have already paid off after an old woman fought off two muggers, reports the Daily Mail. Mr Garwood currently teaches three walking stick self-defence classes a week and aims to start more sessions this year. Pupils practice sets of movements and learn simple strangleholds, arm locks and throws, using their walking sticks....Will they ban canes next?

Earth to Newt (subscription) Have you heard the one about the politician and the zookeeper? Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, and Terry L. Maple, former president and CEO of Zoo Atlanta, currently with the Palm Beach Zoo, have written a manifesto aimed at restoring the earth through cooperation, entrepreneurship, technology, and partnerships between and among governments, business corporations, and private philanthropy. A Contract with the Earth opens with an appreciative foreword by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, followed by a passionate preface by the speaker himself. Gingrich states that he and Maple share an environmental philosophy which is derived "from an enduring respect for wildlife in all its splendid diversity. We are personally diminished by the loss of each and every species or essential habitat that cannot resist extinction." He is concerned that "our failure to resolve serious environmental challenges will compromise the lives of our children and our grandchildren." Gingrich's love for wildlife, like that of Theodore Roosevelt and the former conservative senator from New York James L. Buckley (brother of William F.), is personal and deeply rooted. The speaker is a staunch defender of the Endangered Species Act, "an excellent example of the value of civility, consultation, and collaboration," and he believes that recent changes in the implementation of the law "have produced good results, a function of shared values and democratic ideals." Gingrich and Maple argue that the Endangered Species Act may be "America's best environmental success story"--a claim which will certainly get them a few emails from conservative bloggers....Some of you may remember how Gingrich killed the Domenici grazing bill, a bill which had passed the Senate and attempted to override Secretary Babbit's Rangeland Reform. Now we know why he killed it. The Bushies also left Rangeland Reform essentially intact. I wonder why.

Conservationists Want Probe into Reports of Wolf Baiting Conservation groups want the Interior secretary to order an investigation by the inspector general into allegations that a Mexican gray wolf was baited into killing a cow so the wolf in turn could be killed. Representatives of 15 conservationist and environmental groups, in a letter dated Thursday to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, said an investigation should be launched into the possibility the wolf was killed through abuse of government-provided telemetry radio receivers and by ranchers taking advantage of a rule that requires removal of any wolf that kills three head of livestock within a year. Kempthorne's office could not immediately comment until officials had seen the letter. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been looking into a December report in High Country News _ an online, independent biweekly news magazine _ that quoted an employee of Adobe-Slash Ranch in Catron County, Mike Miller, as saying, ``We would sacrifice a calf to get a third strike.'' The article alleged ranch hands branded cattle near the wolf's den. Miller denied the allegations in the article, written by contributing editor John Dougherty. High Country News editor Jonathan Thompson said the magazine stands by its story. The conservation groups also asked for an investigation by law enforcement, with prosecution if warranted....
The Next Great Hunt On a cold, sunny day on the treeless plains of north-central Montana, hunters close in on their prey. Several bison and their calves watch nervously as a pickup truck slowly circles them, a rifle pointed out of the passenger window. A shot rings out, and a few minutes later, a young bison calf plops down on the ground, grunting and squirming. The hunting party—a team of biologists—moves in, warily eyeing the larger bison, eager to get a blood sample and move away from the agitated creatures. Once they fill a giant plastic syringe, they give the calf a shot, and it stands up on wobbly legs and staggers back to the herd. Welcome to the American Prairie Foundation preserve, the front lines of the efforts to save America’s bison and restore a large swath of the North American Great Plains. The bison is often heralded as the nation’s first and greatest conservation victory—in the last century the population grew from fewer than 1,000 to half a million—but the story is not that simple....
Forest Service backs off from Meeker Ranch demolition Black Hills National Forest Supervisor Craig Bobzien is suspending plans to demolish decaying buildings at the old Meeker Ranch near Custer pending discussions with artist Jon Crane and others who want to save the place. Bobzien said Thursday that he plans to meet with Crane sometime in April, after the artist and his wife, Gail, return from a winter on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. The Cranes are driving to Mexico now in a four-wheel-drive mobile home. Bobzien and other Black Hills National Forest officials had planned to demolish all but the original cabin at the ranch, located about four miles northeast of Custer. A house built later and other decrepit buildings on the ranch site, as well as a cistern, pose hazards for the public, Bobzien said. But Crane believes the buildings can and should be saved. He hopes to paint a series of watercolors of the place and dedicate a percentage of sales to its preservation. Crane said Thursday by cell phone from New Mexico that he was encouraged by Bobzien's decision. Crane wants to clear up some confusion about the wishes of the last private owner of the Meeker Ranch, Ina Davis. Davis sold the 278-acre ranch to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which then sold it to the U.S. Forest Service....
Road, Trails Protection Pact to Be Signed Soon Two documents currently being finalized will empower multiple agencies in the Ouray County area to preserve access to public roads and trails, dating back to when the county was created in 1877. The first document is a Memorandum of Understanding that will create a “partnership” between public land managers, members of the recreation community – including motorized and non-motorized users, and Ouray County public officials. Members of the various organizations are uniting in a unique effort to identify and codify which public roads and trails merit future protections from private encroachments. The purpose of the agreement is to “preserve and protect” trails “at risk of disappearing,” and with that historic public access into perpetuity. The Memorandum of Understanding provides for “acquisition of necessary easements” from private landowners, negotiation, reciprocal easements as may be acquired by the county through its development processes, and the United States Forest Service through “any appropriate regulations permitting land trades.”....
States prepare for wolf hunts With gray wolves in the Northern Rockies poised to come off the endangered species list in the coming weeks, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are moving ahead with plans to begin hunts as early as this fall. It's still unclear, though, how the states will use the hunts to manage the population in the long term and how many people will plunk down the money for a tag. "It's certainly uncharted territory for Montana, at least in recent times," said Quentin Kujala, management bureau chief for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wildlife division. There are more than 1,500 wolves in the Northern Rockies, but hunting and other measures will likely keep the population between 880 and 1,250 after delisting, according to Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Federal officials said wolves in the three states are recovered and ready to come off the endangered species list. The delisting rule is expected to be published around Feb. 20 and take effect 30 days later. The decision will mean that Montana, Wyoming and Idaho officials will take over management. A key part of all three states' plans is instituting a hunt....
FWP seeks comments on grizzly resolution The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission is seeking public comment on a draft resolution that urges federal wildlife biologists to finish their status review of grizzly bears by the end of 2008. The measure also calls for Congress to provide complete funding for grizzly conservation efforts and for removing the bears from the Endangered Species List in the Lower 48 states. The agency estimates it will cost $1.6 million this year to manage the grizzly population. The commission wants grizzlies removed from federal protection. It tentatively adopted the resolution Dec. 20 and is taking public comments until Feb 1. The FWP is pushing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to fulfill its commitment to finish its analysis of grizzly bear populations in Montana, Idaho and Washington. The FWP commission wants all grizzlies in the state removed from the endangered list, not just those in the greater Yellowstone area....
Wildlife department looking into cattle killings State wildlife officers are looking for those involved in the recent shootings of 2 dozen cattle and a llama in northeastern Oklahoma. Captain Jeff Brown with the state Wildlife Department says it appears someone is driving around and shooting the animals just for meanness. Most of the shootings have been in the Chelsea area east of Oologah Lake and the latest occurred Christmas night when three cows and the llama were shot. Brown says it's often difficult to see if a dead cow has been shot because the hide closes over the bullet hole. He says any rancher who finds a dead cow should report it to authorities to determine if the animal was shot.
Argentinean Beef Industry Shrinks, Ranch Lands Decline By 10 Percent Despite Argentineans' love for beef, farms are switching to other crops caused by rising grain prices and beef export limits. Rather than raise herds, Argentinean farmers are slowly switching to planting wheat and other lucrative crops resulting to a 10 percent drop in ranch lands. Pablo Adreani, economic analyst of AgriPAC Consultores, said since 2005, 18.3 million acres (7.4 million hectares) have been converted to grain farms. The domestic market has been flooded with local beef as a result of an export cap placed by former Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner to contain inflation. The export limit caused the decline of Argentina's beef exports causing it to fall from number one until the 1950s to fourth in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rankings, behind Brazil, Australia and India. By 2008, Argentina will likely slip to fifth place behind Canada....
Tough lives of ranchers captured For every Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight, storied, wealthy Western cattlemen, there are a hundred "Red" Howells, maybe a thousand, with their small, hardscrabble outfits going from OK to bust, drought to glut. In "A Red Howell Fit" (Raging Brook Press, $20), Beth Smith Aycock and Jorga Riggenbach have created a historical novel based on the life of "a quintessential Southwest rancher, Lewis 'Red' Howell." Howell, who was born in Texas in 1886 and died in Arizona in the 1970s, ranched in West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Not a perfect human but a likable one, and eventually his bad luck overwhelmed the good. Aycock and Riggenbach paint an unsentimental picture of the hard, unpredictable lives that early ranchers lived.

Ranching still has a place on our public lands I found a recent photograph that shows three people in cowboy gear – I’m the one pouring coffee from a thermos into beat-up cups. We’d all just gotten down from our horses, and the guys are leaning on a pickup truck marked U.S. Forest Service. Here’s the surprise: We’re all laughing. I’m a rancher, and the picture was taken the day I accompanied two range technicians while they did annual monitoring work on our cattle-grazing permit in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. Usually, that’s about as much fun as going to the dentist. I dread the ordeal, mainly because it usually includes a scolding from the federal grass cops about “Things Gone Wrong,” subtitled “Cows Eat Grass.” In recent years the government’s answer to any problem has been “fewer cattle, fewer days on national forest lands.” This can make it hard for a rancher to make a living. That day last summer, as the photo shows, it was sunny and warm, I had a good horse to ride in beautiful country, and the range conservationists were good company. I hadn’t met them before, but we visited easily as we stepped through the hoops of walking, counting, recording. After all, it’s not rocket science, measuring blades of grass. We’d been short of rain in Wyoming, and it was a relief to agree that the grass would be ready for our cattle when they completed their climb to these high ranges. Usually, the day carries tension and finger-pointing, but to my surprise, these guys avoided that approach. They were more interested in the country around us and its history, asking questions about the original boundaries and previous permittees, landmarks and trails....

A Nation of Dim Bulbs On December 19, President Bush signed an energy bill that will, among many, many other things, force you to buy a new kind of light bulb. He did this because environmental enthusiasts don't like the light bulbs you're using now. He and they reason, therefore, that you shouldn't be allowed to have them. So now you can't. Ordinary consumers may be surprised, once they understand what's happened. They probably haven't known that the traditional incandescent light bulb, that happy little globe shining so innocently from the lamp in the corner, has been a scourge of environmentalists for many years. With their stern and unrelenting moralism, the warriors of Greenpeace have even branded lightbulb manufacturers "climate criminals" for making incandescents, which are, they say, a "silent killer."... American environmental groups have long called for an outright national ban on the old-fashioned bulbs. But then they came to the realization, as a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council told the New York Times this spring, that such a ban might "anger consumers." "We've given up a sound bite, 'ban the incandescent,'" the spokesman said. Instead the groups joined with the Bush administration this year in advocating a steady increase in federally mandated efficiency standards for light bulbs. The effect of the tightened standards is to make it illegal to manufacture or sell the inefficient incandescent bulb by 2014. So it's not a ban, see. It's just higher standards. Which have the same effect as a ban--a slow-motion ban that's not really a ban. Not surprisingly, in long, self-congratulatory remarks at the bill signing last week, Bush neglected to mention that he and Congress have just done away with the incandescent light bulb. Maybe most of us won't notice until he's back in Crawford... Other people, however, perhaps a very large number, will prefer the old, pre-Bush bulbs. Their reasons have less to do with the wonderfulness of the incandescent and their disdain for environmentalists than with the inconveniences of the CFL. The new bulbs are particularly vulnerable to extremes of temperature, for example; you won't want to use them in your garage in winter. CFLs are also 25 percent longer in size than the average incandescent. This makes them unsuitable for all kinds of lighting fixtures--particularly chandeliers and other ceiling lights--which will have to be either discarded or reconfigured, at considerable expense, after the Bush ban goes into effect. You can't use most CFLs with dimmer switches, either; ditto timers. Newer models that can be dimmed and are adaptable to timers will require you to buy new CFL-compatible dimmers and timers. The quality of the light given off by CFLs is quite different from what we're used to from incandescents. The old bulb concentrates its light through a small surface area. CFLs don't shine in beams; they glow all the way around, diffusing their illumination. They're terrible reading lights. Many people find fluorescent light itself to be harsh and unpleasant. Moreover--in a variation of the old joke about the restaurant that serves awful food and, even worse, serves it in such small portions--a CFL bulb can take two to three minutes to reach its full illumination after being turned on. And once it's fully aglow, according to Department of Energy guidelines, you need to leave it on for at least 15 minutes. In a typically chipper, pro-ban article last week, U.S. News and World Report explained why: "Turning a CFL on and off frequently shortens its life." Odd, isn't it--an energy-saving device that you're not supposed to turn off?....

Klamath farmers face continuing water questions Tulelake grower Sid Staunton, who has farmed in the Klamath Basin for the past 35 years and who was personally impacted by the water shut-off of 2001, said he would rather not experience it again. Now, with the 2008 growing season fast approaching, he and other farmers are worried about the development of new federal biological opinions that will guide water deliveries and impact the region's agriculture for the next 10 years. "During the water shut-off of 2001 we gave up production on over 60 percent of our farm base. We had to buy water, install a well, we implement a lot of different measures to survive," said Staunton, who grows potatoes, onions, wheat, peppermint and alfalfa. "For me to sit and hope for a big winter so I get to farm again, that is pretty idiotic when I've got to make investments to stay modern in today's current agriculture." The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently released a final biological assessment, which evaluates the potential effects of the proposed operation of the bureau's Klamath Water Project on listed species under the Endangered Species Act....
A road forward on roadless issue The notice last week in the Federal Register was a milestone for roadless policy in Colorado. Three pages of small type summarized years of debate over how the state would manage roadless national Forest Service lands. It also defined a path forward, setting a timeframe for an environmental analysis and creation of specific rules. As a national policy on the same issue is caught up in court challenges, Colorado is moving along with its own policy, one that was created by a bipartisan task force with significant public input. While we understand the criticism of some environmentalists who would prefer stricter rules, we think the Colorado approach is a sound, homegrown plan for managing approximately 4 million acres of national forest land. The state-generated plan would ban development of most of Colorado's roadless forest land. The plan allows exceptions for ski areas, and when a temporary road is needed to fight forest fires, to use federal mineral leases and to extract coal via federal leases from certain national forest land in western Colorado....
BLM imposes $4,000 drilling permit fee The Bureau of Land Management has begun charging a $4,000 processing fee for each new oil and gas drilling permit application, the agency announced on Wednesday. The directive to charge for the permits, which are known as an application for permit to drill (APD), was inserted into a $555-billion spending bill that President Bush signed on Dec. 26. Before the change, the BLM did not charge for processing APDs, according to the agency. The money generated by the fees “is not new revenue, but rather a reimbursement to the U.S. Treasury for the estimated cost of processing new APDs” for the agency’s 2008 fiscal year, according to the BLM. The fees became effective the day Bush signed the spending bill. “To carry out this congressional directive, the BLM has developed interim guidelines for its field office regarding the collection and handling of the new fees,” a statement released by the BLM said. “Final guidance will be developed over the next several weeks.”....Amazing. Bill signed on 12/26 and implemented on Jan 2. Anyone ever see BLM move so fast? They can sure move fast when it comes to sucking money out of the private sector.
BLM manager arrested in child abuse case The field manager of the Bureau of Land Management's Kanab office has been arrested by Kanab police and charged in two separate cases of child sexual abuse. Rex Lee Smart, 60, is facing charges in one case of sodomy upon a child, attempted rape of a child, child kidnapping and three counts of aggravated sexual assault, all of which are first-degree felonies. He also faces two counts of sexual abuse of a child, which are second-degree felonies. In the other case, Smart is charged with child kidnapping, sodomy upon a child, and three counts of aggravated sexual abuse, all first-degree felonies. He was booked into the Kane County Jail on Friday and later bailed out on $125,000 bail, according to jail officials....
Study of bear hair will reveal genetic diversity of Yellowstone grizzlies Locks of hair from more than 400 grizzly bears are stored at Montana State University, waiting to tell the tale of genetic diversity in the Yellowstone Ecosystem. Ranging from pale blond to almost black, the hair is filed in a chest freezer where the temperature is -77.8 degrees. Some of the tufts are almost 25 years old. The hair will head to Canada in a few months to be analysed at Wildlife Genetics International in Nelson, British Columbia, said Chuck Schwartz, head of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team based at MSU. The team is monitoring the genetic diversity of the Yellowstone grizzlies over time and wants to know when new DNA appears. The team will also compare the Yellowstone bears with those in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem where a similar study has been done. Field crews from a variety of federal and state agencies plucked the hair the study team is storing, Schwartz continued. Each lock came from somewhere off the bears’ shoulders, but the way it was collected varied....I sure wish they would hurry. I've been concerned about bear diversity for oh so long. But, due to drastic cuts in the Forest Service budget, we've been woefully short of bear hair pluckers.
DOI budget takes bite from states' revenue shares US oil and gas producing states will lose nearly $43 million of their shares of revenues from federal oil and gas production within their borders under a provision of the Department of Interior's fiscal 2008 budget. President George W. Bush signed DOI's budget into law on Dec. 26 as part of the omnibus budget bill approved by Congress earlier that week. Known as net receipts sharing, the provision attempts to charge states for part of the federal government's oil and gas royalties program's administrative costs. It effectively will reduce each state's share of federal oil and gas revenues to 48% from 50%. Then-Rep. Sidney R. Yates (D-Ill.) first proposed the assessment in 1991 when he chaired the US House's Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. Congress included it in DOI's annual budget until 2000 when producing states, through the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission and their governors and congressional delegations, convinced federal lawmakers to repeal it....Surely some of that $43 million can be spent to hire fully-trained and certified bear hair pluckers.
Surge in Off-Roading Stirs Dust and Debate in West In the San Juan National Forest here, an iron rod gate is the last barrier to the Weminuche Wilderness, a mountain redoubt above 10,000 feet where wheels are not allowed. But the gate has been knocked down repeatedly, shot at and generally disregarded. Miles beyond it, a two-track trail has been punched into the wilderness by errant all-terrain-vehicle riders who have insisted on going their own way, on-trail or off. From Colorado’s forests to Utah’s sandstone canyons and the evergreen mountains of Montana, federally owned lands are rapidly being transformed into the new playgrounds — and battlegrounds — of the American West. Outdoor enthusiasts are flocking in record numbers to lesser-known forests, deserts and mountains, where the rules of use have been lax and enforcement infrequent. The federal government has been struggling to come up with plans to accommodate the growing numbers of off-highway vehicles — mostly with proposed maps directing them toward designated trails — but all-terrain-vehicle users have started formidable lobbying campaigns when favorite trails have been left off the maps....
Mouse doesn’t deserve spot on protection list One might interpret the sparse turnout at last month’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service meeting on the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse as a sign of indifference and acquiescence. Or one might take it as a sign of resignation and silent protest — evidence that most citizens by now recognize the agency will do everything in its power to keep the animal on the endangered species list, no matter what contradictory evidence or arguments are made. It might also have had something to do with the meeting being scheduled for 4 o’clock in the afternoon on a Monday in the midst of the holiday season — a time when normal people are working, commuting, greeting returning school kids, Christmas shopping and leading busy lives. If it’s a choice between going to happy hour and sitting through another seemingly pointless act in this charade, most people quite wisely would choose the former. Unless a Preble’s mouse has infiltrated their homes and is gnawing away at the base of the Christmas tree, most people have higher priorities than attending another dog-and-pony show. Of course those who support the agency’s decision to keep the mouse listed in Colorado showed up. What else do professional agitators and advocates have to do? This isn’t just an interest of theirs: It’s their mission in life. They’ve turned their obsessions into a vocation. Most of the rest of us, even if we care, are sprinting to stay two steps ahead of the tax collector, so USFWS bio-crats can hold meetings and pretend to listen, but go on regulating as if this creature is on the brink of extinction. It obviously isn’t on the brink of extinction, judging from the agency’s proposal to lift federal protections in Wyoming but keep them in place in Colorado. One dubious subspecies has thus spawned two more: the Colorado Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and the Wyoming Preble’s meadow jumping mouse....
It's all Trew: Chisholm Trail was preferred path There were many reasons why the Chisholm Trail became the path for millions of cattle bound for Kansas railheads. First, it followed almost a straight line from San Antonio, Texas, to Abilene, Kan. Second, the famous path was almost level the entire distance with waves of abundant grasses for grazing. Third, the trail crossed ten major rivers, eight major creeks and a multitude of smaller creeks, assuring good water supply each day of a trail drive. The original trail began at Wichita, Kan., and ended at Counsel Grove, Okla. The Cattle Drive Era extended the old trail on south to Del Rio on the Rio Grande River and north to the rail yards at Abilene. The approximately 1,500-mile journey required four months of driving a herd if no problems arose. Very few drives were made without problems of some kind or another. There were two famous men named Chisholm. John Chisholm was a famous rancher operating in far west Texas and New Mexico, and was an associate of Charles Goodnight and Charles Loving who drove many trail herds north during the era. Jesse Chisholm, 1806-1868, established the Chisholm Trail yet was not a rancher and never drove trail herd cattle. He was an Indian trader, Army scout, guide and interpreter for both Indians and whites....

Blowin’ in the wind In sun-seared West Texas, oil and gas producers have driven the regional economy since the mid-1920s. Now there’s a new player in town—electricity-generating wind turbines. The turbines are sprouting by the hundreds on the low mesas that dot the desert landscape. Wind turbines came to the small West Texas town of McCamey with the millennium. Construction began in 2000, and the first machines came on line in 2001. Florida Power and Light (FPL) now runs 688 area turbines. “There are three things you’re going to have to find,” says Neil James, production manager for the FPL wind operations around McCamey. “That’s the wind, the transmission lines and the land. The McCamey area is very abundant in those three things.” McCamey, population 1,600, has always been blessed with petroleum resources, but the oil business boom-and-bust cycles have taken their toll. Oil production in Upton County dropped almost 25 percent from 1972 (when it was 12.5 million barrels) to 1999 (9.4 million barrels). Wind power has restored McCamey’s economy. It now bills itself as the “Wind Energy Capital of Texas.” “It was dying there for a little bit,” admits Alicia Sanchez, who heads McCamey’s economic development office. “Now taxes have increased 30 percent from 2004 to 2007. All we can see is positive.” Texans apparently agree. An FPL-commissioned study released earlier this year said 93 percent support further development of wind energy in the state. Texas’ other historic industry, ranching, loves the turbines. Rancher Ernest Woodward said he can’t imagine any harm coming to his livestock from nearby turbines. For some ranchers, wind turbines bring with them an economic incentive that oil and gas does not. “Wind power is a surface activity,” Doehn says. “With oil and gas the minerals are underneath, and a lot of ranchers don’t own the mineral rights. Many of them sold off the minerals in order to get enough money to retain the surface rights when times were tough.”....

A Divide as Wolves Rebound in a Changing West Sheltered for many years by federal species protection law, the gray wolves of the West are about to step out onto the high wire of life in the real world, when their status as endangered animals formally comes to an end early this year. The so-called delisting is scheduled to begin in late March, almost five years later than federal wildlife managers first proposed, mainly because of human tussles here in Wyoming over the politics of managing the wolves. Now changes during that time are likely to make the transition even more complicated. As the federal government and the State of Wyoming sparred in court over whether Wyoming’s hard-edged management plan was really a recipe for wolf eradication, as some critics said, the wolf population soared. (The reworked plan was approved by the federal government in November.) During that period, many parts of the human West were changing, too. Where unsentimental rancher attitudes — that wolves were unwelcome predators, threatening the cattle economy — once prevailed, thousands of newcomers have moved in, buying up homesteads as rural retreats, especially near Yellowstone National Park, where the wolves began their recovery in 1995 and from which they have spread far and wide. The result is that there are far more wolves to manage today than there once would have been five years ago — which could mean, biologists say, more killing of wolves just to keep the population in check. And that blood-letting might not be quite as popular as it once was....

FLE

Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry For months, the Bush administration has waged a high-profile campaign, including personal lobbying by President Bush and closed-door briefings by top officials, to persuade Congress to pass legislation protecting companies from lawsuits for aiding the National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping program. But the battle is really about something much bigger. At stake is the federal government’s extensive but uneasy partnership with industry to conduct a wide range of secret surveillance operations in fighting terrorism and crime. The N.S.A.’s reliance on telecommunications companies is broader and deeper than ever before, according to government and industry officials, yet that alliance is strained by legal worries and the fear of public exposure. To detect narcotics trafficking, for example, the government has been collecting the phone records of thousands of Americans and others inside the United States who call people in Latin America, according to several government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the program remains classified. But in 2004, one major phone carrier balked at turning over its customers’ records. Worried about possible privacy violations or public relations problems, company executives declined to help the operation, which has not been previously disclosed. In a separate N.S.A. project, executives at a Denver phone carrier, Qwest, refused in early 2001 to give the agency access to their most localized communications switches, which primarily carry domestic calls, according to people aware of the request, which has not been previously reported. They say the arrangement could have permitted neighborhood-by-neighborhood surveillance of phone traffic without a court order, which alarmed them....
AT&T engineer says Bush Administration sought to implement domestic spying within two weeks of taking office Nearly 1,300 words into Sunday's New York Times article revealing new details of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, the lawyer for an AT&T engineer alleges that "within two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.” In a New Jersey federal court case, the engineer claims that AT&T sought to create a phone center that would give the NSA access to "all the global phone and e-mail traffic that ran through" a New Jersey network hub. The former AT&T employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Times said he took part in several discussions with agency officials about the plan. "The officials, he said, discussed ways to duplicate the Bedminster system in Maryland so the agency “could listen in” with unfettered access to communications that it believed had intelligence value and store them for later review," Times reporters Eric Lichtblau, James Risen and Scott Shane wrote. "There was no discussion of limiting the monitoring to international communications, he said."....
Individual privacy under threat in Europe and U.S., report says Individual privacy is under threat in the United States and across the European Union as governments introduce sweeping surveillance and information-gathering measures in the name of security and controlling borders, an international rights group has said in a report. Greece, Romania and Canada had the best privacy records of 47 countries surveyed by Privacy International, which is based in London. Malaysia, Russia and China were ranked worst. Both Britain and the United States fell into the lowest-performing group of "endemic surveillance societies." "The general trend is that privacy is being extinguished in country after country," said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International. "Even those countries where we expected ongoing strong privacy protection, like Germany and Canada, are sinking into the mire." In the United States, the administration of President George W. Bush has come under fire from civil liberties groups for its domestic wiretapping program, which allows monitoring, without a warrant, of international phone calls and e-mail messages involving people suspected of having terrorist links. "The last five years has seen a litany of surveillance initiatives," Davies said. He said little had changed since the Democrats took control of Congress a year ago....
Police in thought pursuit The Pope had his Index of Forbidden Books. Japan had its Thought Police against subversive or dangerous ideologies. And the United States Congress and President Bush have learned nothing from those examples. Congress is perched to enact the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 20007 (Act)," probably the greatest assault on free speech and association in the United States since the 1938 creation of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Sponsored by Rep. Jane Harman, California Democrat, the bill passed the House of Representatives on Oct. 23 by a 404-6 vote under a rule suspension that curtailed debate. To borrow from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, the First Amendment should not distract Congress from doing important business. The Senate companion bill (S. 1959), sponsored by Susan Collins, Maine Republican, has encountered little opposition. Especially in an election year, senators crave every opportunity to appear tough on terrorism. Few if any care about or understand either freedom of expression or the Thought Police dangers of S. 1959. Former President John Quincy Adams presciently lamented: "Democracy has no forefathers, it looks to no posterity, it is swallowed up in the present and thinks of nothing but itself." Denuded of euphemisms and code words, the Act aims to identify and stigmatize persons and groups who hold thoughts the government decrees correlate with homegrown terrorism, for example, opposition to the Patriot Act or the suspension of the Great Writ of habeas corpus. The Act will inexorably culminate in a government listing of homegrown terrorists or terrorist organizations without due process; a complementary listing of books, videos, or ideas that ostensibly further "violent radicalization;" and a blacklisting of persons who have intersected with either list. Political discourse will be chilled and needed challenges to conventional wisdom will flag. There are no better examples of sinister congressional folly....
FBI Dusts Off Famous Case of D.B. Cooper Skyjacking The FBI says it has released new information it hopes will jog someone's memory and help them determine who the legendary skyjacker Dan Cooper, who bailed out of a commercial jet over southwest Washington in 1971, really was. The man calling himself Dan Cooper, also known as D.B. Cooper, boarded a jet in Portland for Seattle the night of Nov, 24, 1971 and commandeered it, claiming he had dynamite. In Seattle he demanded and got $200,000 and four parachutes and demanded to be flown to Mexico. Shortly before reaching the Oregon border, it is believed, he jumped with two of the chutes, one of which was a trainer and sewn shut. Agents say they are almost certain he didn't survive. "Diving into the wilderness without a plan, without the right equipment, in such terrible conditions, he probably never even got his chute open," Seattle-based agent Larry Carr said. Carr is taking a new look at the decades-old mystery. On Monday the FBI posted pictures they say are probably closer to what Cooper looked like. "Who was Cooper? Did he survive the jump? We're providing new information and pictures and asking for your help in solving the case," the FBI said in a statement on Monday....

Ranch Of The Week: Major Cattle Company The Major Cattle company horse program began back in the 1930's with Mike's grandfather, Malcomb Major. The ranch was north of Magdalena, New Mexico, and it all began with calvary remount studs. In the 1950's Mike's dad, Buddy Major, bought a Leo and Hardtwist stud to up grade the horse herd for the nine ranches he had put together in New Mexico and Colorado. Buddy ran a lot of his horses on the track and had some of the best cow and rope horses around. By the late 1970's Mike was breaking most all of the colts, but desired to raise his own herd. Mike tried to buy a handful of fillies that he thought were the best of the bunch, but his dad wouldn't sell them to him. The only way Mike was going to get those mares was to break and ride five mules Buddy had purchased. Mike really didn't want to break those five mules, with all the good colts they had around, but it was the only chance he had to get Buddy to trade him for the mares. Mike really wanted the fillies, and he finally did get them, But says now, "You couldn't give me a mule today even if it had a thousand dollar bill tied to it's neck." These were the first brood mares in Mikes mare band. The first stud Mike owned was a black horse named Leovada Chick, with Leo and Three chicks breeding. In 1982 Mike ventured out on his own starting his horse operation in Vequita, New Mexico. Here Mike traded for another horse, a Mito Bars, and Sugar Bars stud. In 1989 another purchase was made, a gray stud named Joys Double Feature, Smoky. He had Beduino, Rebel Cause, and Truckle Feature breeding. Smoky was an outstanding rope and cow horse, anything you wanted from him he would give you everything he had. He was an excellent stallion with a lot of speed and cow, who won several ranch rodeos, and ropings. Several of Smokey's fillies are still in the brood mare band today being crossed on the cow breed studs. In 1990 he purchased the Flying A ranch in Fowler, Colorado, where he currently still lives. The ranch got it's name from the previous owners, Gene Autry, and Harry Knight. This is where there rodeo company was ran. In 2000 Mike and Holly were married, and it didn't take long for Mike to realize that she was just as crazy about good horses as he is. Owning, and riding several good Doc O' Dynamite horses previously Mike and Holly made there next purchase in Montana at John Scott's dispersal sale. Smart Whiskey Doc, and Dynamite Bravo Doc were purchased. Then in 2001 Mike and Holly went to the Forth Worth futurity where they purchased a Playgun colt, and a Playgun mare. At the next sale Mike was watching the horses warm up, he looked around, and dang if Holly hadn’t just bought another stud, a Doc's Stylish Oak. Still wanting a Smart Little Lena stud for there horse program; in 2003 Mike and Holly went to Virginia where they purchased Love a Little Devil, an own son of Smart Little Lena and out of a Colonel Freckles mare. Although some of their mares still trace back to some of the first horses raised by the major cattle company, 70 years ago, Mike and Holly have purchased several more cow bred mares, and continue to upgrade the horse program. They have tried to bring some of the best blood lines into this part of the country that you can get. Mike and Holly are very excited to get the crosses with these studs, and think that the colts have the ability and mind to go in any direction a performance horse could go. The hope is that people who buy colts from us, or breed to our stallions are as happy with the horses as we are, and come back again. Although the horses are a huge part of the ranch, the ranch is still a working cattle ranch. Mike and Holly work hard running a large cattle operation of yearlings every year on the Flying A Ranch, and a large cow calf operation on the Rio Puerco in Belen, New Mexico. Like the horses, the cattle have always been a main part of all the ranches. In the future they believe, anyone seeing an animal with the stik horse brand will know the quality and care that stands behind the mark.

Wolf Attack So, yesterday a friend an I took our families out sliding and ended up having a little more excitement than we had anticipated. There we were having a good time......Rod was towing 3 of the kids (2 four yr olds and a 3 yr old) on a tobogan behind the quad, at the bottom of the hill. I was in the Argo with my 3 month old at the other end of the hill. Rods wife was warming up in the truck with there 2 yr old and my wife was at the top of the hill with our dog...........we had no idea that all hell was about to break loose......... Two wolves appear out of nowere............and they are heading toward the "bait" dragging behind the quad.... at first I had no idea what was up, but I heard my wife start yelling. I look up at her and see the dog break out of her arms and start running like mad, diagonally down the hill toward the truck (the direction Rod was heading with the kids). Rod sees the wolves coming, just as he is getting close to the truck, he speeds up a little, but can't go too hard for fear that one of the kids might fall off. As he gets to the truck the wolves are about 20 feet from the kids, on the tobogan. Rod bolts back toward the kids, just as my dog "Shadow" intercepts the lead wolf. Teeth flash and the battle is started............Rods wife leaps from the truck and starts throwing kids inside, as Rod grabs a shovel from the back of the truck, smashing the shovel blade off as he goes to help the dog. Second wolf has joined the fight, and although Shadow is a very heafty 120lbs+ Rotty Cross, he is not faring all too well. The wolves break off as Rod gets close, but they are not afraid, they circle around and stay about 50 feet out of reach....Click on the title to read the whole post and see photos. Hat tip to Wolf Crossing