Killer dolphins baffle marine experts New evidence has been compiled by marine scientists that prove the normally placid dolphin is capable of brutal attacks both on innocent fellow marine mammals and, more disturbingly, on its own kind. Film taken of gangs of dolphins repeatedly ramming baby porpoises, tossing them in the air and pursuing them to the death has solved a long-term mystery of what causes the death of so many of these harmless mammals - but has left animal experts baffled as to the motive. Another mystery is that the animal 'murders' have only been reported in two parts of the world - along Scotland's East Coast and in America off the beaches of Virginia, where even more alarmingly, the victims were scores of the dolphins' own young. The first clues to solving the riddle came in 1997 when, by coincidence, marine biologists in Virginia were finding young, dead dolphins with horrific internal injuries at the same time as young porpoises were washing up on Scotland's north-east coast with identical causes of death. The body count was growing in both locations. The two groups of biologists pooled information and, at first, it was believed the mammals had died through 'blast trauma'. In American cases, this was supposedly from exercises by the US Navy, and in Scotland from air guns used by oil rig technicians to detect undersea caverns. This theory was dismissed after further examination of the mammals' bodies revealed the injuries - broken ribs, imploding lungs, damaged livers and massive internal bleeding - could only have come from prolonged, focused attacks....
Lauer ‘On the Prowl for Victims’ in Environmental Crusade Be careful where you shop for groceries, for behind every canned soup display may be lurking "Today" show host Matt Lauer, ready to corner you on camera and demand to know whether you're using plastic, paper, or "environmentally-friendly" canvas bags. That's what Lauer did for a January 25 segment to wrap up the four-day "Today Goes Green" series, which showed the hosts carpooling to work (once), changing one light bulb in one of their homes, and canceling unwanted catalog subscriptions online. But for the grand finale, Lauer got in the face of the American grocery shopper in a segment filmed in a New York City Food Emporium. He pestered shoppers with tidbits about the environmental destruction caused by plastic and paper grocery bags. "I'm on the prowl for victims, converts in our growing movement," Lauer said shamelessly, as if bothering people while they're shopping is cute. "Do you have any idea how many plastic bags you accumulate in the average month?" he asked one unsuspecting female shopper....
‘Today’ Hosts’ Carpool Stunt Shows Dark Side of Carpooling Playing off the popularity of its "Ends of the Earth" jet-setting extravaganza in November, the "Today" show on January 22 kicked off a four-day series called "Today Goes Green" to encourage viewers to be more environmentally friendly. In a segment supposedly meant to encourage carpooling, Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry and Al Roker submitted to the degradation and humiliation that is a carpool - even if it is chauffeured. Vieira later admitted they carpooled only once, and Lauer never seemed too happy about it. And unfortunately for environmental types (and Lauer), the crew would have to carpool every work day for more than eight years to offset the estimated carbon footprint left by November's "Ends of the Earth" series, when hosts jetted to the far reaches of the earth to show the alleged effects of global warming. That series pumped an estimated 25 tons of carbon into the atmosphere....
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Alaska Oil Drilling Delay Could Cost $3 Trillion, Lawmaker Says The top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee said legislation to delay the sale of land in Alaska for oil and gas exploration would hinder the U.S. economy. In a letter to Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) late Tuesday, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) said he was "disappointed" by Markey's efforts to block oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and more recently in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) lease 193 along the Chukchi Sea. According to the letter, "OCS lease sale 193 is estimated to contain 15 billion barrels of oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, for a combined total of 27.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent. ANWR is estimated to hold another 10.4 billion barrels of oil, for a total of 38.2 billion barrels of oil. "This would almost double the total United States proven reserves of oil," it states. "Lease Sale 193 and ANWR represent nearly $3 trillion to the U.S. economy, if we choose to develop them." Young also noted in the letter that people in Markey's home state of Massachusetts have been hit hard by rising energy prices, noting that former Rep. Joe Kennedy has been working with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to get oil from Citgo to help heat homes in the United States. "ANWR and Lease Sale 193 contain 36,000 times as much energy as Citgo, Hugo Chavez and our former colleague are providing for the poor and displaced in America," he said....
National parks robbed of heritage Looting of fossils and archaeological artifacts from national parks - such as Native American pottery and Civil War relics - is increasing as demand for such items rises on the Internet and the world market, National Park Service officials say. Over the past decade, an average of 340 "significant" looting incidents have been reported annually at the 391 national parks, monuments, historic sites and battlefields - probably less than 25% of the actual number of thefts, says park service staff Ranger Greg Lawler. "The trends are up," he says. It's "a chronic problem that we simply have not even been able to get a grasp on," says Mark Gorman, chief ranger at South Dakota's Badlands National Park. Park service investigators search websites, and the FBI helps track looted items, some of which are sold to collectors in Europe and Asia. Prices are rising for some items, including Native American pottery and garments, says Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, manager of the FBI art theft program. The most coveted items can cost "in the tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars," she says. Thieves caught last year at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park sold a Confederate belt buckle for $3,300 and buttons for $200 each. The park service has 1,500 law enforcement rangers and 400 seasonal law enforcement rangers - one for about every 56,000 acres. "We really don't have enough manpower," Lawler says....Annual appropriations will start soon, so we will see the annual cry for more LEO's.
E.P.A. Chief Defends His Decision on California Defending his refusal to let California set limits on the greenhouse gas emissions of automobiles, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency insisted before a Senate committee Thursday that climate change posed no “compelling and extraordinary” risk to the state. Describing such change as “not unique to” and “not exclusive to California,” the agency’s administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, called it “a global problem requiring a global solution or, at least at a minimum, a national solution.” But internal agency documents cited by members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works listed climate change effects specific to California, including wildfires and species loss. Fifteen states have signed on to follow California’s lead in regulating automobile emissions, and the governors of three of them — Maryland, Pennsylvania and Vermont — testified before the committee Thursday that attacking the problem was essential for their residents and the world as a whole....
First BLM cattle seizures for trespassing Nevada since 2002 Federal agents seized more than 100 cattle and jailed a 66-year-old woman who owns some of them in the first U.S. criminal or civil enforcement action in five years against Nevada ranchers accused of trespassing livestock on public land. Bureau of Land Management rangers began impounding the cattle across a 10-mile stretch of the high desert rangeland of north central Nevada near Winnemucca on Monday. They said Inger Casey and Larry "Dudley" Hiibel had been grazing cattle on BLM land without a permit for more than three years and failed to comply with federal court orders this fall demanding they keep them off U.S. land. Long at odds with the BLM, the two ranchers -- and fellow advocates of state and private property rights -- maintain the U.S. government has no legal jurisdiction over rangeland in Nevada, although federal courts have ruled otherwise. "They are arresting people for doing nothing but trying to drive their cattle," Hiibel told The Associated Press. On Thursday, he was working with his daughter and brother in a snowstorm to try to move some of his remaining cattle off BLM land and onto a neighbor's field. "I'm behind about 150 cows in a blizzard with icicles on my whiskers," Hiibel said from near the Pershing-Humboldt county line about 165 miles northeast of Reno. "We're trying to get them out of the way of the BLM as a temporary thing. They didn't get them all." Casey, whose family has ranched there for 30 years, spent Monday night in the Washoe County jail in Reno on charges she assaulted rangers rounding up the cattle. Casey went before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert McQuaid on Tuesday on the criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office alleging she "knowingly did forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate and interfere" with BLM law officers.....She's lucky David Iglesias isn't the U.S. Attorney in Nevada. He kept NM rancher Kit Laney from being released on his own recognizance.
Park Service Deceiving World About Threats to Park Bison In 1995, the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, declared Yellowstone National Park as a World Heritage Site in Danger due to threats to park bison, water quality, cutthroat trout, inadequacy of park roads, overuse by tourists, and from mining activities beyond park borders. In 2003, Yellowstone was removed from the in “Danger” list because of “considerable efforts” made by the National Park Service to address the threats. Though the Committee felt the park was no longer in “danger,” it asked the National Park Service to provide progress reports on the original threats. Last month, the Yellowstone National Park released a draft of its fourth progress report. In it, the National Park Service trumpets the success of its 2000 Interagency Bison Management Plan describing it as a “carefully crafted consensus-based plan” that “has now been successfully implemented for seven years.” The National Park Service explains that the plan is “incremental” and that it “becomes more wildlife-friendly … with each incremental success achieved.” Such claims are not just inaccurate, they are blatantly deceptive intended only to placate the Committee while avoiding the truth. The Interagency Bison Management Plan has been an abject failure resulting in the unnecessary killing of nearly 2,100 bison since its inception. The bison are needlessly hazed and harassed, shot, and captured and slaughtered because approximately half of the herd have been exposed to Brucella abortus – the bacterium the causes brucellosis. To prevent the transmission of brucellosis from bison to cattle, bison who approach or cross Yellowstone’s northern and western boundaries are targeted for removal....Surely we should let the U. N. set management guidelines for our natural resources and surely a few bison are more important than the livestock industry in an entire state, don'tcha think?
Subsidies and High Crop Prices The boom in agricultural commodity prices has been good for many farmers and companies providing farm products. But other groups—including food producers and consumers—are feeling the negative effects of the boom in the form of higher prices. What especially irks some of them is their belief that these prices are not simply the inevitable product of the marketplace but rather the unintended consequence of several U.S. government policies. Even some farmers are unhappy. As grain prices rise, so does the price of livestock feed. As a result, beef, pork, poultry, and dairy farmers are incurring record-high feed costs. according to Cal Dooley, president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, about 40 percent of the cost of producing pork, for example, comes from feeding the livestock. That hits consumers, too: A May 2007 study by Iowa State University economists found that "the direct effect of higher feed costs is that U.S. food prices would increase by a minimum of 1.1 percent over baseline level." What's causing grocery bills to rise? Some blame policies that have made it especially profitable for farmers to divert their crops into corn for the production of ethanol. "The ethanol industry is hogging more and more of the corn supply, and that is squeezing ranchers and dairy farmers," says Daniel Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. The federal government gives preferential treatment to domestic, corn-based ethanol in the form of a 54-cent-per-gallon tax on imported ethanol, which largely affects Brazilian producers of ethanol from sugar cane. That tax comes on top of a 51-cent exemption from the federal excise tax on gasoline that goes to fuel mixed with ethanol. These subsidies raise the demand for domestic ethanol. That drives up the price of not only the corn used to produce the ethanol but also of wheat and soybeans, which farmers plant less of because they switch to corn. That, in turn, translates into a scarcer supply—and higher prices....Yes but what does the U.N. think? Thank goodness bison don't eat corn.
What Is the Real Deal With Biofuels? If you haven’t heard, biofuels are apparently the next big thing. And corn is the king of court. Given that the conversion to biofuels from oil has been going on for so many years without success, it would probably be better called the court jester. Can corn be used to create a fuel? Yes. Can that fuel be burned in automobiles, just like fossil fuels? Yes. Would the raw material for that fuel be considered as a "renewable" resource? Sure. Would the use of fuel from corn replace oil as a fuel in the US market? No. (More accurately, "Hell no!" Details below.)[...]Pimental has updated his calculations and published them as well. According to his 2005 paper, "Ethanol Production Using Corn…" we find: Energy outputs from ethanol produced using corn, switchgrass, and wood biomass were each less than the respective fossil energy inputs. The same was true for producing biodiesel using soybeans and sunflower, however, the energy cost for producing soybean biodiesel was only slightly negative compared with ethanol production. Findings in terms of energy outputs compared with the energy inputs were: * Ethanol production using corn grain required 29% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced. * Ethanol production using switchgrass required 50% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced. * Ethanol production using wood biomass required 57% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced. * Biodiesel production using soybean required 27% more fossil energy than the biodiesel fuel produced (Note, the energy yield from soy oil per hectare is far lower than the ethanol yield from corn). * Biodiesel production using sunflower required 118% more fossil energy than the biodiesel fuel produced....This guy better hide, from the U.N., from Bush, and from Congress. I mean, a 51-cent tax exemption for a fuel that uses more energy to produce than it produces in it's final form? Surely our illustrious leaders wouldn't implement such a dumb policy, would they?
Colo. Advocates Sue to Halt Gas Drilling Environmentalists are suing the federal government to prevent drilling on what they say is the last untouched area of the San Juan Basin in southwest Colorado. The lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday alleges new gas drilling in the foothills of the steep and rugged San Juan Mountains would cause landslides, water and air pollution and drive away wildlife in the area known as the HD Mountains. Named in the lawsuit are the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which gave two companies, Petrox Energy Corp. and Elm Ridge Resources Inc., the go-ahead in April to drill for coal-bed methane in the mountains. Environmentalists say there are plenty of gas wells already in the San Juan basin. Mark Pearson, executive director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, said there are about 25,000 gas-producing wells between Farmington, N.M., and Durango, and another 12,000 pending....
Clones on the range Eating, like sex, is both an act and an idea. It satisfies a physical need but also an emotional urge (think comfort food). That explains the furor unleashed last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It ruled that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is as safe to eat as that from conventionally bred animals. Scientific evidence suggests that's the right decision. But the immediate outcry was deafening. Food advocacy groups decried the decision. Within hours, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had called on producers to keep products from cloned animals, but not their offspring, off the market — at least for now. Human beings have been intervening to shape the production of crops and animals for the last 3,000 years. Cloning is just the latest method. Ranchers and dairy farmers long have used artificial insemination in breeding their animals. Today, they routinely use in vitro fertilization and embryo-transfer technology to breed more productive or hardier cows. But the 1997 birth of Dolly the sheep, the first cloned animal, raised both ethical and food-safety concerns. The ethical issues remain a source of contention, but the safety questions seem to have been adequately addressed by scientists in both the United States and Europe. Not only is there no difference between products from cloned and uncloned animals, researchers here and in Europe have said, but it also is not scientifically possible to tell them apart. That raises the possibility (some have said the probability) that the offspring of clones already have entered the food chain somewhere....
National parks robbed of heritage Looting of fossils and archaeological artifacts from national parks - such as Native American pottery and Civil War relics - is increasing as demand for such items rises on the Internet and the world market, National Park Service officials say. Over the past decade, an average of 340 "significant" looting incidents have been reported annually at the 391 national parks, monuments, historic sites and battlefields - probably less than 25% of the actual number of thefts, says park service staff Ranger Greg Lawler. "The trends are up," he says. It's "a chronic problem that we simply have not even been able to get a grasp on," says Mark Gorman, chief ranger at South Dakota's Badlands National Park. Park service investigators search websites, and the FBI helps track looted items, some of which are sold to collectors in Europe and Asia. Prices are rising for some items, including Native American pottery and garments, says Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, manager of the FBI art theft program. The most coveted items can cost "in the tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars," she says. Thieves caught last year at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park sold a Confederate belt buckle for $3,300 and buttons for $200 each. The park service has 1,500 law enforcement rangers and 400 seasonal law enforcement rangers - one for about every 56,000 acres. "We really don't have enough manpower," Lawler says....Annual appropriations will start soon, so we will see the annual cry for more LEO's.
E.P.A. Chief Defends His Decision on California Defending his refusal to let California set limits on the greenhouse gas emissions of automobiles, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency insisted before a Senate committee Thursday that climate change posed no “compelling and extraordinary” risk to the state. Describing such change as “not unique to” and “not exclusive to California,” the agency’s administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, called it “a global problem requiring a global solution or, at least at a minimum, a national solution.” But internal agency documents cited by members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works listed climate change effects specific to California, including wildfires and species loss. Fifteen states have signed on to follow California’s lead in regulating automobile emissions, and the governors of three of them — Maryland, Pennsylvania and Vermont — testified before the committee Thursday that attacking the problem was essential for their residents and the world as a whole....
First BLM cattle seizures for trespassing Nevada since 2002 Federal agents seized more than 100 cattle and jailed a 66-year-old woman who owns some of them in the first U.S. criminal or civil enforcement action in five years against Nevada ranchers accused of trespassing livestock on public land. Bureau of Land Management rangers began impounding the cattle across a 10-mile stretch of the high desert rangeland of north central Nevada near Winnemucca on Monday. They said Inger Casey and Larry "Dudley" Hiibel had been grazing cattle on BLM land without a permit for more than three years and failed to comply with federal court orders this fall demanding they keep them off U.S. land. Long at odds with the BLM, the two ranchers -- and fellow advocates of state and private property rights -- maintain the U.S. government has no legal jurisdiction over rangeland in Nevada, although federal courts have ruled otherwise. "They are arresting people for doing nothing but trying to drive their cattle," Hiibel told The Associated Press. On Thursday, he was working with his daughter and brother in a snowstorm to try to move some of his remaining cattle off BLM land and onto a neighbor's field. "I'm behind about 150 cows in a blizzard with icicles on my whiskers," Hiibel said from near the Pershing-Humboldt county line about 165 miles northeast of Reno. "We're trying to get them out of the way of the BLM as a temporary thing. They didn't get them all." Casey, whose family has ranched there for 30 years, spent Monday night in the Washoe County jail in Reno on charges she assaulted rangers rounding up the cattle. Casey went before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert McQuaid on Tuesday on the criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office alleging she "knowingly did forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate and interfere" with BLM law officers.....She's lucky David Iglesias isn't the U.S. Attorney in Nevada. He kept NM rancher Kit Laney from being released on his own recognizance.
Park Service Deceiving World About Threats to Park Bison In 1995, the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, declared Yellowstone National Park as a World Heritage Site in Danger due to threats to park bison, water quality, cutthroat trout, inadequacy of park roads, overuse by tourists, and from mining activities beyond park borders. In 2003, Yellowstone was removed from the in “Danger” list because of “considerable efforts” made by the National Park Service to address the threats. Though the Committee felt the park was no longer in “danger,” it asked the National Park Service to provide progress reports on the original threats. Last month, the Yellowstone National Park released a draft of its fourth progress report. In it, the National Park Service trumpets the success of its 2000 Interagency Bison Management Plan describing it as a “carefully crafted consensus-based plan” that “has now been successfully implemented for seven years.” The National Park Service explains that the plan is “incremental” and that it “becomes more wildlife-friendly … with each incremental success achieved.” Such claims are not just inaccurate, they are blatantly deceptive intended only to placate the Committee while avoiding the truth. The Interagency Bison Management Plan has been an abject failure resulting in the unnecessary killing of nearly 2,100 bison since its inception. The bison are needlessly hazed and harassed, shot, and captured and slaughtered because approximately half of the herd have been exposed to Brucella abortus – the bacterium the causes brucellosis. To prevent the transmission of brucellosis from bison to cattle, bison who approach or cross Yellowstone’s northern and western boundaries are targeted for removal....Surely we should let the U. N. set management guidelines for our natural resources and surely a few bison are more important than the livestock industry in an entire state, don'tcha think?
Subsidies and High Crop Prices The boom in agricultural commodity prices has been good for many farmers and companies providing farm products. But other groups—including food producers and consumers—are feeling the negative effects of the boom in the form of higher prices. What especially irks some of them is their belief that these prices are not simply the inevitable product of the marketplace but rather the unintended consequence of several U.S. government policies. Even some farmers are unhappy. As grain prices rise, so does the price of livestock feed. As a result, beef, pork, poultry, and dairy farmers are incurring record-high feed costs. according to Cal Dooley, president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, about 40 percent of the cost of producing pork, for example, comes from feeding the livestock. That hits consumers, too: A May 2007 study by Iowa State University economists found that "the direct effect of higher feed costs is that U.S. food prices would increase by a minimum of 1.1 percent over baseline level." What's causing grocery bills to rise? Some blame policies that have made it especially profitable for farmers to divert their crops into corn for the production of ethanol. "The ethanol industry is hogging more and more of the corn supply, and that is squeezing ranchers and dairy farmers," says Daniel Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. The federal government gives preferential treatment to domestic, corn-based ethanol in the form of a 54-cent-per-gallon tax on imported ethanol, which largely affects Brazilian producers of ethanol from sugar cane. That tax comes on top of a 51-cent exemption from the federal excise tax on gasoline that goes to fuel mixed with ethanol. These subsidies raise the demand for domestic ethanol. That drives up the price of not only the corn used to produce the ethanol but also of wheat and soybeans, which farmers plant less of because they switch to corn. That, in turn, translates into a scarcer supply—and higher prices....Yes but what does the U.N. think? Thank goodness bison don't eat corn.
What Is the Real Deal With Biofuels? If you haven’t heard, biofuels are apparently the next big thing. And corn is the king of court. Given that the conversion to biofuels from oil has been going on for so many years without success, it would probably be better called the court jester. Can corn be used to create a fuel? Yes. Can that fuel be burned in automobiles, just like fossil fuels? Yes. Would the raw material for that fuel be considered as a "renewable" resource? Sure. Would the use of fuel from corn replace oil as a fuel in the US market? No. (More accurately, "Hell no!" Details below.)[...]Pimental has updated his calculations and published them as well. According to his 2005 paper, "Ethanol Production Using Corn…" we find: Energy outputs from ethanol produced using corn, switchgrass, and wood biomass were each less than the respective fossil energy inputs. The same was true for producing biodiesel using soybeans and sunflower, however, the energy cost for producing soybean biodiesel was only slightly negative compared with ethanol production. Findings in terms of energy outputs compared with the energy inputs were: * Ethanol production using corn grain required 29% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced. * Ethanol production using switchgrass required 50% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced. * Ethanol production using wood biomass required 57% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced. * Biodiesel production using soybean required 27% more fossil energy than the biodiesel fuel produced (Note, the energy yield from soy oil per hectare is far lower than the ethanol yield from corn). * Biodiesel production using sunflower required 118% more fossil energy than the biodiesel fuel produced....This guy better hide, from the U.N., from Bush, and from Congress. I mean, a 51-cent tax exemption for a fuel that uses more energy to produce than it produces in it's final form? Surely our illustrious leaders wouldn't implement such a dumb policy, would they?
Colo. Advocates Sue to Halt Gas Drilling Environmentalists are suing the federal government to prevent drilling on what they say is the last untouched area of the San Juan Basin in southwest Colorado. The lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday alleges new gas drilling in the foothills of the steep and rugged San Juan Mountains would cause landslides, water and air pollution and drive away wildlife in the area known as the HD Mountains. Named in the lawsuit are the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which gave two companies, Petrox Energy Corp. and Elm Ridge Resources Inc., the go-ahead in April to drill for coal-bed methane in the mountains. Environmentalists say there are plenty of gas wells already in the San Juan basin. Mark Pearson, executive director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, said there are about 25,000 gas-producing wells between Farmington, N.M., and Durango, and another 12,000 pending....
Clones on the range Eating, like sex, is both an act and an idea. It satisfies a physical need but also an emotional urge (think comfort food). That explains the furor unleashed last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It ruled that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is as safe to eat as that from conventionally bred animals. Scientific evidence suggests that's the right decision. But the immediate outcry was deafening. Food advocacy groups decried the decision. Within hours, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had called on producers to keep products from cloned animals, but not their offspring, off the market — at least for now. Human beings have been intervening to shape the production of crops and animals for the last 3,000 years. Cloning is just the latest method. Ranchers and dairy farmers long have used artificial insemination in breeding their animals. Today, they routinely use in vitro fertilization and embryo-transfer technology to breed more productive or hardier cows. But the 1997 birth of Dolly the sheep, the first cloned animal, raised both ethical and food-safety concerns. The ethical issues remain a source of contention, but the safety questions seem to have been adequately addressed by scientists in both the United States and Europe. Not only is there no difference between products from cloned and uncloned animals, researchers here and in Europe have said, but it also is not scientifically possible to tell them apart. That raises the possibility (some have said the probability) that the offspring of clones already have entered the food chain somewhere....
FLE
Mexico nabs suspect in killing of border agent Mexican authorities said Wednesday they have arrested a man for the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was run over by a suspected smuggler's vehicle. Agent Luis Aguilar, 32, was placing spike strips in the path of two vehicles believed to have illegally entered the United States from Mexico on Saturday when one of the vehicles struck and killed him, authorities in Arizona said. Mexican federal and state police arrested Jesus Navarro Montes on Tuesday in the northern state of Sonora for the killing, according to a joint statement distributed Wednesday by Mexico's federal Attorney General's office and Public Safety Department. Authorities believe Navarro left Mexicali in Baja California and was headed for the U.S. in a Hummer carrying drugs on Saturday, the statement said....
Judge rejects Patriot Act challenge A federal judge rejected a former sailor's claim Thursday that the government illegally intercepted phone calls and obtained e-mails it is using against him in a terrorism-support case. Hassan Abu-Jihaad's attorneys had claimed elements of the USA Patriot Act used to obtain the evidence were unconstitutional, and cited a ruling by a federal judge in Oregon striking down key portions of the law. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kravitz, however, said he disagreed with that ruling, and noted that other courts have found that the law does not infringe on constitutional rights. The 31-year-old Phoenix man's attorneys argued that the Patriot Act allows authorities to conduct searches and electronic surveillance under relaxed standards and secret procedures even if the primary purpose is to gather evidence of domestic criminal activity. Kravitz, however, wrote that the balance the Patriot Act strikes "between an individual's important interest in privacy and the government's legitimate need to obtain foreign intelligence information remains reasonable and one that complies with the Fourth Amendment," which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. Kravitz said the law remains focused on foreign intelligence gathering, but defines a foreign power to include groups engaged in international terrorism. He said the law still has numerous safeguards, including the need for an independent judicial officer to approve surveillance....
Woman falsely convicted in drug case tries to rebuild life A woman wrongly convicted by the federal government with help from a drug informant who lied served 16 months in prison before she was released with no home to return to and a 3-year-old daughter who didn't recognize her. Defense attorneys say a street-smart but dishonest informant and a federal agent working without oversight manipulated the system to convict Geneva France and dozens of others. ``They stole the truth,'' France said. ``I don't think I'll ever trust people again. It's too hard. I don't know how a human being with a heart could stand up there and lie about another person. They stole part of my life.'' France, 25, was convicted of being a drug courier — a conviction that prosecutors now acknowledge was built on lies. A judge released her in May. Her case was part of an extensive operation to stem the flow of drugs in Mansfield. Federal prosecutors in Cleveland charged her and 25 others from Mansfield in 2005, based on the work of informant Jerrell Bray and Drug Enforcement Administration agent Lee Lucas. Twenty-one people were convicted. U.S. Attorney Greg White has admitted that there are major problems with the case. Federal prosecutors were expected to ask a judge Tuesday or Wednesday to throw out the convictions of 15 men imprisoned in the same tainted investigation, including the case against a man serving 30 years in prison....
Mexico nabs suspect in killing of border agent Mexican authorities said Wednesday they have arrested a man for the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was run over by a suspected smuggler's vehicle. Agent Luis Aguilar, 32, was placing spike strips in the path of two vehicles believed to have illegally entered the United States from Mexico on Saturday when one of the vehicles struck and killed him, authorities in Arizona said. Mexican federal and state police arrested Jesus Navarro Montes on Tuesday in the northern state of Sonora for the killing, according to a joint statement distributed Wednesday by Mexico's federal Attorney General's office and Public Safety Department. Authorities believe Navarro left Mexicali in Baja California and was headed for the U.S. in a Hummer carrying drugs on Saturday, the statement said....
Judge rejects Patriot Act challenge A federal judge rejected a former sailor's claim Thursday that the government illegally intercepted phone calls and obtained e-mails it is using against him in a terrorism-support case. Hassan Abu-Jihaad's attorneys had claimed elements of the USA Patriot Act used to obtain the evidence were unconstitutional, and cited a ruling by a federal judge in Oregon striking down key portions of the law. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kravitz, however, said he disagreed with that ruling, and noted that other courts have found that the law does not infringe on constitutional rights. The 31-year-old Phoenix man's attorneys argued that the Patriot Act allows authorities to conduct searches and electronic surveillance under relaxed standards and secret procedures even if the primary purpose is to gather evidence of domestic criminal activity. Kravitz, however, wrote that the balance the Patriot Act strikes "between an individual's important interest in privacy and the government's legitimate need to obtain foreign intelligence information remains reasonable and one that complies with the Fourth Amendment," which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. Kravitz said the law remains focused on foreign intelligence gathering, but defines a foreign power to include groups engaged in international terrorism. He said the law still has numerous safeguards, including the need for an independent judicial officer to approve surveillance....
Woman falsely convicted in drug case tries to rebuild life A woman wrongly convicted by the federal government with help from a drug informant who lied served 16 months in prison before she was released with no home to return to and a 3-year-old daughter who didn't recognize her. Defense attorneys say a street-smart but dishonest informant and a federal agent working without oversight manipulated the system to convict Geneva France and dozens of others. ``They stole the truth,'' France said. ``I don't think I'll ever trust people again. It's too hard. I don't know how a human being with a heart could stand up there and lie about another person. They stole part of my life.'' France, 25, was convicted of being a drug courier — a conviction that prosecutors now acknowledge was built on lies. A judge released her in May. Her case was part of an extensive operation to stem the flow of drugs in Mansfield. Federal prosecutors in Cleveland charged her and 25 others from Mansfield in 2005, based on the work of informant Jerrell Bray and Drug Enforcement Administration agent Lee Lucas. Twenty-one people were convicted. U.S. Attorney Greg White has admitted that there are major problems with the case. Federal prosecutors were expected to ask a judge Tuesday or Wednesday to throw out the convictions of 15 men imprisoned in the same tainted investigation, including the case against a man serving 30 years in prison....
Drought Could Force Nuke-Plant Shutdowns Nuclear reactors across the Southeast could be forced to throttle back or temporarily shut down later this year because drought is drying up the rivers and lakes that supply power plants with the awesome amounts of cooling water they need to operate. Utility officials say such shutdowns probably wouldn't result in blackouts. But they could lead to shockingly higher electric bills for millions of Southerners, because the region's utilities may be forced to buy expensive replacement power from other energy companies. Already, there has been one brief, drought-related shutdown, at a reactor in Alabama over the summer. An Associated Press analysis of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors found that 24 are in areas experiencing the most severe levels of drought. All but two are built on the shores of lakes and rivers and rely on submerged intake pipes to draw billions of gallons of water for use in cooling and condensing steam after it has turned the plants' turbines....
EPA expected to lose Calif emissions suit: documents The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency figured it would lose a lawsuit filed by California if the agency turned down the state's request to toughen vehicle emissions standards to fight global warming, according to documents released on Wednesday. The suit the documents envisioned was filed on January 2, after the agency rejected a petition by California seeking a waiver from federal law to impose more stringent standards for greenhouse gas emissions from cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles. Fifteen other states were poised to follow California's lead, if the waiver had been approved. In EPA briefing documents released by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the agency listed the likely impact of granting or denying a waiver. The documents accurately predicted what would happen next if the EPA rejected the waiver: The agency would face an "almost certain lawsuit by California." The EPA also said it was "likely to lose (the) suit." The federal appeals court in San Francisco has yet to issue a ruling....
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Global Warming Teach-In Coming to Campuses Nationwide On Jan. 31, the environmental advocacy group Focus the Nation will hold a teach-in on more than 1,000 college campuses nationwide to discuss solutions for global warming. The event is based on the premise that scientific debate about the existence of global warming is "over." Many critics, however, say the teach-in is an attempt to end debate and advance "draconian" public policies. In an interview with Cybercast News Service, Alex Tinker, public relations director for Focus the Nation, said the idea behind the teach-in model is inclusion: It "engages students across all disciplines on a campus, not just the usual suspects who would come to a special environmentally oriented event, so that you can actually reach an audience big enough to reach that critical mass to get real legislation passed in Washington." The teach-in, as defined by Focus the Nation's Web site, "is a day when an entire school turns its attention to a single issue -- when faculty, students, and staff put aside business as usual, and focus the full weight of campus engagement on one topic."....
FLE
The Federal Government’s Brief in the D.C. Gun Ban Case: A Glass That Is More Than Half Full Although some thoughtful lovers of liberty have lamented the half-empty aspects of the U.S. Solicitor General's recently-filed brief in the D.C. gun ban case (District of Columbia v. Heller), the portion that is full is legally far more significant in securing Second Amendment rights in the arena that counts most: the Supreme Court. On careful analysis, the brief's departures from sound principle are internally inconsistent and otherwise not particularly effective. Americans should recognize the importance of the government's concessions to individual liberty and ignore its predictable, bureaucratic attempt to defend existing federal laws. That is what the High Court is most likely to do. It is no minor event when the national government clearly and forcefully admits to the highest court in the land that Americans enjoy a constitutional right that has been hotly debated for years, especially when that constitutional right is a limit on the government's own power. That is what the Department of Justice's chief litigator did in a brief filed last week in the Supreme Court case testing the constitutionality of the Washington, D.C., gun ban....
Justice for gun owners Martin Luther King Jr. put it best: "A right delayed is a right denied." The lesson appears to have been lost on the Department of Justice and Solicitor General Paul D. Clement in the amicus curiae brief submitted recently for the government in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, which challenges the city's 31-year-old handgun ban, a horrible gun law that has had its day in court and lost. In a transparent exercise of political pandering, Clement and his colleagues named on the brief have strenuously, and correctly, argued that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right, yet they insist that every restrictive gun law currently on the books should stand. They want this case sent back to the lower courts for further consideration. Translation: Legal sleight of hand is being used to make the Second Amendment a right "in name only." And Clement appears to suggest that the longer the Supreme Court can put off deciding whether a restrictive gun law violates that important civil right, the better. It is gratifying that the government properly holds the Second Amendment to be protective of an individual right, but that gratification is greatly diminished by the argument that this case requires further review. That would be a great injustice, and as King once noted, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." By Clement's logic, the high court should have ruled that women have abortion rights, but they would be forever waiting to exercise those rights while their cases would be remanded back down the legal chain for further consideration. By Clement's logic, segregation laws would still be under lower court review, and Rosa Parks would still be sitting in the back of the bus....
The Second Amendment a second class right? The brief presented by the Solicitor General makes some valid points upon which Second Amendment supporters can agree. The brief states the administration's opinion that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, and that laws restricting that right should be subject to "strict scrutiny" – meaning that legislators must weigh the proposed benefit of the law carefully before infringing on a Constitutionally guaranteed right. Additionally, the brief expresses the opinion that the District of Columbia's strict gun ban should be overturned. So far, so good. The Solicitor General's brief also takes a bizarre turn. While the Solicitor General calls for "strict scrutiny" for gun laws in general, he calls on the Supreme Court to apply only "intermediate scrutiny" as it determines Heller vs. DC. The Solicitor General also argues that the Second Amendment is not a "fundamental" right. So what the Solicitor General seems to be saying is that, well, sure, the Second Amendment calls for individual rights, and those rights should be afforded "strict scrutiny" most of the time, but the administration does not believe that gun rights are "fundamental" rights, and so, therefore, Your Honor, you don't need to be too strict in your decision-making process in this case. In fact, we don't think you should really decide this case, but you should send it back down to the Circuit Court for more study, and while they are at it, tell them they only need to use "intermediate scrutiny". In essence, the Solicitor General is saying that our Second Amendment rights are second-class rights that don't rise to the level of "fundamental" rights as do really important rights such as the First Amendment, or the Fourth and Fifth Amendments....
The Federal Government’s Brief in the D.C. Gun Ban Case: A Glass That Is More Than Half Full Although some thoughtful lovers of liberty have lamented the half-empty aspects of the U.S. Solicitor General's recently-filed brief in the D.C. gun ban case (District of Columbia v. Heller), the portion that is full is legally far more significant in securing Second Amendment rights in the arena that counts most: the Supreme Court. On careful analysis, the brief's departures from sound principle are internally inconsistent and otherwise not particularly effective. Americans should recognize the importance of the government's concessions to individual liberty and ignore its predictable, bureaucratic attempt to defend existing federal laws. That is what the High Court is most likely to do. It is no minor event when the national government clearly and forcefully admits to the highest court in the land that Americans enjoy a constitutional right that has been hotly debated for years, especially when that constitutional right is a limit on the government's own power. That is what the Department of Justice's chief litigator did in a brief filed last week in the Supreme Court case testing the constitutionality of the Washington, D.C., gun ban....
Justice for gun owners Martin Luther King Jr. put it best: "A right delayed is a right denied." The lesson appears to have been lost on the Department of Justice and Solicitor General Paul D. Clement in the amicus curiae brief submitted recently for the government in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, which challenges the city's 31-year-old handgun ban, a horrible gun law that has had its day in court and lost. In a transparent exercise of political pandering, Clement and his colleagues named on the brief have strenuously, and correctly, argued that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right, yet they insist that every restrictive gun law currently on the books should stand. They want this case sent back to the lower courts for further consideration. Translation: Legal sleight of hand is being used to make the Second Amendment a right "in name only." And Clement appears to suggest that the longer the Supreme Court can put off deciding whether a restrictive gun law violates that important civil right, the better. It is gratifying that the government properly holds the Second Amendment to be protective of an individual right, but that gratification is greatly diminished by the argument that this case requires further review. That would be a great injustice, and as King once noted, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." By Clement's logic, the high court should have ruled that women have abortion rights, but they would be forever waiting to exercise those rights while their cases would be remanded back down the legal chain for further consideration. By Clement's logic, segregation laws would still be under lower court review, and Rosa Parks would still be sitting in the back of the bus....
The Second Amendment a second class right? The brief presented by the Solicitor General makes some valid points upon which Second Amendment supporters can agree. The brief states the administration's opinion that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, and that laws restricting that right should be subject to "strict scrutiny" – meaning that legislators must weigh the proposed benefit of the law carefully before infringing on a Constitutionally guaranteed right. Additionally, the brief expresses the opinion that the District of Columbia's strict gun ban should be overturned. So far, so good. The Solicitor General's brief also takes a bizarre turn. While the Solicitor General calls for "strict scrutiny" for gun laws in general, he calls on the Supreme Court to apply only "intermediate scrutiny" as it determines Heller vs. DC. The Solicitor General also argues that the Second Amendment is not a "fundamental" right. So what the Solicitor General seems to be saying is that, well, sure, the Second Amendment calls for individual rights, and those rights should be afforded "strict scrutiny" most of the time, but the administration does not believe that gun rights are "fundamental" rights, and so, therefore, Your Honor, you don't need to be too strict in your decision-making process in this case. In fact, we don't think you should really decide this case, but you should send it back down to the Circuit Court for more study, and while they are at it, tell them they only need to use "intermediate scrutiny". In essence, the Solicitor General is saying that our Second Amendment rights are second-class rights that don't rise to the level of "fundamental" rights as do really important rights such as the First Amendment, or the Fourth and Fifth Amendments....
Wilderness plan closes trails to bikes Many of the area's skilled mountain bikers are concerned about a proposal that would ban them from some of their most-prized local trails, including a segment of the Colorado Trail. The proposal is part of a draft plan by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service to guide management of 2.4 million acres of public lands in Southwest Colorado. The plan recommends classifying 55,000 acres as new wilderness, including 51,000 acres west of Hermosa Creek. The designation would overlay the Colorado Trail along the Indian Trail Ridge segment, which lies between Kennebec Pass and the intersection with the Highline Loop Trail. Several other popular trails would be affected, including Corral Draw and Clear Creek. Some mountain bikers are calling the proposal extreme. "There's 500,000 ways to preserve it other than by banning bicyclists," mountain biker Gardner Catsman said. The Colorado Trail, a 500-mile route from outside Denver to Durango, is "a premier, world-class, long-distance" trail for mountain bikers, according to the trail's Web site, with the strenuous 75-mile segment from Molas Pass to Durango being especially revered among the sport's elite....
Blowin' in the Wind If you thought the 2008 presidential race was shattering all records for windy rhetoric, it's nothing compared to the political eco-rhetoric being spun to US taxpayers -- to get them to cough up billions of dollars to fuel a renewable wind power industry boom sensible investors won't touch with a turbine's rotor blade. At present, the growth of the wind power industry in the US lags behind that in Europe. While Denmark and Germany pioneered wind power growth in Europe, Britain is about to steal the world lead. The UK wants to develop an unprecedented 33 gigawatts of wind power, mostly offshore, that will, literally, change the face of Britain. 7,000 wind turbines -- one every half-mile around the entire coastline -- are to be built in a bid to install power capacity that theoretically would be enough for all 25 million homes by 2020. Wind power sounds a great European success story -- one to be echoed in the US, it seems, as 2008 is set to see wind power developments shatter records for the fourth consecutive year. However, a closer look at the European "success" story reveals that all is not quite as it seems. Wind seems to be blowing in the mind of the politically correct and those on the recent environmentalist bandwagon but the cost is going to be huge, no companies will plunge into it without massive government subsidies and, if actually built, power reliability will take a nosedive....
Interior under pressure to delay Alaska drilling rights sale The Interior Department says it has no plans to delay the Feb. 6 lease sale for oil drilling rights in Alaska's Chukchi Sea, despite growing concerns from department scientists, environmentalists and lawmakers that energy development could be devastating to polar bears and other wildlife there. Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service announced earlier that it would not meet its deadline this month for making a decision on whether to designate polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. That means the lease sale next month likely would occur before any decision on the bear's' status is made, jeopardizing the government's ability to protect it. It is widely expected that the polar bear will be listed. The U.S. Geological Survey reported in September 2007 that new research suggests that at the current rate of sea ice melting, more than two-thirds of the world's polar bear population would be lost by the middle of the century, and cautioned that this was a conservative estimate. At a recent hearing of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., told Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, the Interior agency responsible for offshore leasing, that the agency's decision to go ahead with the lease sale was "negligent in the extreme." Also at the hearing, committee chairman Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., introduced legislation that would compel the administration to delay the sale until the polar bear status was resolved. Contributing to skepticism about Interior's ability to balance wildlife interests with those of energy developers, the environmental watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility last week released a series of e-mail exchanges among employees at Interior's Minerals Management Service in December 2005, when the agency was in the process of developing the environmental impact statement upon which the lease sale is based....
Measure would ban horse slaughter Buried deep within the government spending bill Congress passed last month is a provision that effectively bans horse slaughter in the United States. The measure bars the U.S. Department of Agriculture from collecting fees to pay for horse meat inspections, without which slaughter can't legally continue. But if Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky has his way, it won't be the last legislative effort to end a practice he and others consider inhumane. Whitfield, R-1st District, and others are sponsoring legislation that would ban the transport, sale, purchase or donation of horses to be slaughtered for human consumption. The idea would be to permanently prohibit the practice nationwide and also prevent horses from being taken to other countries for slaughter. Whitfield said the legislation represents a final step that needs to be taken because horses are being transported eventually to be slaughtered beyond the U.S. border. "The problem now is that people are moving more of the horses to Mexico, where the slaughter process is even worse than it was in the U.S," he said. With the closing of U.S. slaughterhouses, some equine groups are expressing concerns about a glut of unwanted horses as the cost of caring for them increases. According to the USDA, more than 100,000 horses were slaughtered in the United States in 2006 -- primarily for dinner tables in Asia and Europe....
USDA amends regulations on imports from BSE minimal-risk countries USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has amended its regulations for the importation of animals and animal products, removing several restrictions regarding animal identification and ruminant-materials processing from regions that present a minimal risk of introducing bovine spongiform encephalopathy into the United States. This amended rule makes final several minor changes from a proposed rule published in the Aug. 9, 2006, Federal Register. Under this amended rule, APHIS is allowing: ---The unique individual identification of animals by means other than ear tags, provided the APHIS administrator has approved the manner of identification for the type of animal intended for importation and the identification is traceable to the premises of origin of the animal ---The importation of hide-derived — in addition to bone-derived — gelatin for any use, provided certain conditions are met; and non-ruminant material that is processed in BSE minimal-risk regions to be processed in facilities that also process material derived from ruminants from the minimal-risk region. APHIS said it is updating this rule to remove these restrictions because they provide no additional safeguards against the introduction of BSE into the United States....
Blowin' in the Wind If you thought the 2008 presidential race was shattering all records for windy rhetoric, it's nothing compared to the political eco-rhetoric being spun to US taxpayers -- to get them to cough up billions of dollars to fuel a renewable wind power industry boom sensible investors won't touch with a turbine's rotor blade. At present, the growth of the wind power industry in the US lags behind that in Europe. While Denmark and Germany pioneered wind power growth in Europe, Britain is about to steal the world lead. The UK wants to develop an unprecedented 33 gigawatts of wind power, mostly offshore, that will, literally, change the face of Britain. 7,000 wind turbines -- one every half-mile around the entire coastline -- are to be built in a bid to install power capacity that theoretically would be enough for all 25 million homes by 2020. Wind power sounds a great European success story -- one to be echoed in the US, it seems, as 2008 is set to see wind power developments shatter records for the fourth consecutive year. However, a closer look at the European "success" story reveals that all is not quite as it seems. Wind seems to be blowing in the mind of the politically correct and those on the recent environmentalist bandwagon but the cost is going to be huge, no companies will plunge into it without massive government subsidies and, if actually built, power reliability will take a nosedive....
Interior under pressure to delay Alaska drilling rights sale The Interior Department says it has no plans to delay the Feb. 6 lease sale for oil drilling rights in Alaska's Chukchi Sea, despite growing concerns from department scientists, environmentalists and lawmakers that energy development could be devastating to polar bears and other wildlife there. Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service announced earlier that it would not meet its deadline this month for making a decision on whether to designate polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. That means the lease sale next month likely would occur before any decision on the bear's' status is made, jeopardizing the government's ability to protect it. It is widely expected that the polar bear will be listed. The U.S. Geological Survey reported in September 2007 that new research suggests that at the current rate of sea ice melting, more than two-thirds of the world's polar bear population would be lost by the middle of the century, and cautioned that this was a conservative estimate. At a recent hearing of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., told Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, the Interior agency responsible for offshore leasing, that the agency's decision to go ahead with the lease sale was "negligent in the extreme." Also at the hearing, committee chairman Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., introduced legislation that would compel the administration to delay the sale until the polar bear status was resolved. Contributing to skepticism about Interior's ability to balance wildlife interests with those of energy developers, the environmental watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility last week released a series of e-mail exchanges among employees at Interior's Minerals Management Service in December 2005, when the agency was in the process of developing the environmental impact statement upon which the lease sale is based....
Measure would ban horse slaughter Buried deep within the government spending bill Congress passed last month is a provision that effectively bans horse slaughter in the United States. The measure bars the U.S. Department of Agriculture from collecting fees to pay for horse meat inspections, without which slaughter can't legally continue. But if Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky has his way, it won't be the last legislative effort to end a practice he and others consider inhumane. Whitfield, R-1st District, and others are sponsoring legislation that would ban the transport, sale, purchase or donation of horses to be slaughtered for human consumption. The idea would be to permanently prohibit the practice nationwide and also prevent horses from being taken to other countries for slaughter. Whitfield said the legislation represents a final step that needs to be taken because horses are being transported eventually to be slaughtered beyond the U.S. border. "The problem now is that people are moving more of the horses to Mexico, where the slaughter process is even worse than it was in the U.S," he said. With the closing of U.S. slaughterhouses, some equine groups are expressing concerns about a glut of unwanted horses as the cost of caring for them increases. According to the USDA, more than 100,000 horses were slaughtered in the United States in 2006 -- primarily for dinner tables in Asia and Europe....
USDA amends regulations on imports from BSE minimal-risk countries USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has amended its regulations for the importation of animals and animal products, removing several restrictions regarding animal identification and ruminant-materials processing from regions that present a minimal risk of introducing bovine spongiform encephalopathy into the United States. This amended rule makes final several minor changes from a proposed rule published in the Aug. 9, 2006, Federal Register. Under this amended rule, APHIS is allowing: ---The unique individual identification of animals by means other than ear tags, provided the APHIS administrator has approved the manner of identification for the type of animal intended for importation and the identification is traceable to the premises of origin of the animal ---The importation of hide-derived — in addition to bone-derived — gelatin for any use, provided certain conditions are met; and non-ruminant material that is processed in BSE minimal-risk regions to be processed in facilities that also process material derived from ruminants from the minimal-risk region. APHIS said it is updating this rule to remove these restrictions because they provide no additional safeguards against the introduction of BSE into the United States....
BLM Implements Impound to End Cattle Trespass (BLM News Release) Federal Magistrate Robert A. McQuaid ordered Inger Casey and Larry Hiibel to remove their unauthorized livestock from public lands southwest of Winnemucca last fall or the cattle would be impounded by the Bureau of Land Management. The cattle were not removed and the impoundment began yesterday. The Court issued its rulings on Hiibel August 16, 2007, and gave him five days to remove his livestock from public lands. He ruled on Inger Casey September 27, 2007, and gave her 15 days to remove their livestock. The BLM gave Hiibel almost five additional months and Casey almost four months to comply with the Court Orders. “BLM does not impound livestock without first giving the owners many opportunities to remove their animals,” said Gail Givens, BLM Winnemucca Field Manager. “In this instance, efforts to effect voluntary removal have gone on for many years.” During the past four to five years the BLM issued numerous warnings and trespass notices to Casey and Hiibel. After all efforts failed, BLM issued criminal citations to Casey in August 2006 and Hiibel in April 2007. The impoundment will continue as long as necessary to remove the cattle. Impounded animals will be transported to holding facilities where their owners will have the first right to claim them upon payment of past fines and impoundment fees. If the cattle are not claimed and the fees paid within seven days, the livestock will be auctioned to recoup the fees. The vast majority of our ranchers strive to be good stewards of the public rangelands,” added Givens. “Casey and Hiibel are cheating those operators who follow the rules and pay their fees.”
Without Proof, an Ivory-Billed Boom Goes Bust It has been almost three years since a research team, led by Cornell University and the Nature Conservancy, announced the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the Big Woods — a 550,000-acre tract of bottomland hardwood forest. Researchers have also reported spotting an ivory-billed woodpecker in a northwest Florida swamp. The large, yellow-eyed bird had not been conclusively seen in the United States since around the end of World War II, and some scientists have questioned whether the more recent reports of sightings are legitimate. Nevertheless, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended spending $27 million on recovery efforts for the woodpecker. The patch of Arkansas bayou where the researchers said they spotted the bird is in the heart of Monroe County. Once an agricultural and manufacturing center, the county is now one of the poorest places in Arkansas. For its roughly 10,000 residents, the reported rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker fired hopes of an economic turnaround not seen since the soybean boom of the 1970s. After the sighting was announced, local economies seemed to benefit for a while as scientists, bird-watchers and news media outlets from around the world flocked to Brinkley and to the other communities in the patchwork quilt of fragmented forest and farmland that surrounds the Big Woods. “People came from everywhere,” said Gene DePriest, who still has an ivory-billed cheeseburger, salad and dessert on the menu of his barbecue restaurant in Brinkley. “I sold over $20,000 worth of T-shirts in six months.” Lately, though, the ivory-billed boom has pretty much been a bust, especially since researchers and bird-watchers have, so far, failed to take a definitive picture of the woodpecker. A blurry video clip released when the rediscovery was announced failed to convince many ornithologists of the animal’s existence. There have since been plenty of purported sightings, but still no picture....
Politicians Power Up With 'Green-Collar' Workers When Hal Jordan, the fictional playboy test pilot, was given a power ring from a dying spaceman, thus making him the Green Lantern of Sector 2814 (Earth), he joined an elite military institution called the Green Lantern Corps -- a group dedicated to preserving order in the universe while sporting distinctive green attire. Now, thanks largely to Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and others, they've been joined by a new emerald power: the "green-collar" worker. "We need to make sure that we start jump-starting the jobs in this country again," Clinton said during Monday's Democratic presidential debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C. "That's why I want to put money into clean-energy jobs, green-collar jobs." Later, when speaking of his plans of an economic stimulus during his presidency, Edwards said what he had "proposed for green-collar jobs will create jobs within 30 or so days, so we will have an immediate impact on the economy and stimulate the economy." This wasn't the first time either Clinton or Edwards has touted such jobs. In various speeches on the campaign trail, Clinton has used green-collar to describe the employment that'll be created in the wake of job losses in manufacturing and other sectors....
Power Switch From light bulbs to clothes washers, the energy law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in December will change many of the appliances in the average American home. The incandescent light bulb, invented two centuries ago and perfected and popularized by Thomas Edison in the late 1800s, will become a thing of the past by the middle of the next decade. The look of the future? The curvaceous compact fluorescent bulbs that recently have become popular and other bulbs featuring light-emitting diodes or other advanced technologies. The energy law will also bring about important but less noticeable changes in the way clothes washers, dishwashers, boilers and dehumidifiers use energy and water. The goal is to reduce U.S. electricity use, a major source of greenhouse gases that scientists say contribute to global climate change....
Court case a threat to farmers, ranchers Conservation. In Colorado, no word holds more power. We hear and obey appeals to conserve our water, our natural resources, our Western heritage. And yet, in Telluride, conservation now means that agricultural land can be taken without regard for the owner's rights. The land of the farmer and rancher members of the Colorado Farm Bureau has long served as natural open space throughout Colorado. Should the Colorado Supreme Court issue an unfavorable ruling in 2008, agricultural land is at significant risk of being publicly expropriated. The San Miguel Valley Corp. has owned land near Telluride for decades. To date, the current owner has only used the land for agriculture. The property is known as the Valley Floor and sits at the entrance to Telluride. It is beautiful and revered by the citizens of Telluride. But it is not in Telluride, nor does Telluride own any part of it. Yet the wealthy residents of Telluride believe the property should be theirs - and that it should be taken from its current owner to be used as Telluride wishes. Should landowners be forced to give up property under Colorado's eminent domain law for open-space purposes, regardless of their desire to sell? The Colorado legislature has already said no. In 2004, the General Assembly, concerned about abuses of eminent domain power in Colorado, passed a statute restricting the ability of home-rule towns to condemn property outside their boundaries for parks, recreation or open space. The law makes Telluride's taking of the Valley Floor illegal. But a San Miguel County judge declared the statute unconstitutional and the condemnation was allowed to proceed....
Cougar Plan Challenged In Court A group of ranchers and wildlife advocates are suing the state over its plan to kill cougars. A lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon to stop the federal government from killing up to two thousand cougars across the state. One local rancher says that not all angles have been examined and that the cougars are a self-limiting population. Michael Moss is a goat dairy farmer in the Rogue Valley and says that he is behind the lawsuit. "The fact of the matter is, these goats spend everyday from six thirty in the morning until the sun goes down, out roaming the farm right on the edge of BLM land and we've never lost a goat to cougar predation." Moss says landowners can change small things in their behavior so cougars and not encouraged. He suggests bringing in pets at night, not leaving food out on the porch and locking up farm animals...Yes sir, it's real simple. All you sheep and goat ranchers just gather all your livestock each night and make sure they are "locked up". Bring in that stock dog and make sure it's "locked up". Bring in all the mutton, lamb and high priced dog food you've been leaving on the porch and make sure it's "locked up". According to Mr. Moss, the night belongs to the cougars. You only control your property half the time. 'Course, another option would be to "lock up" dumb ass goat farmers.
Texas: Still Number One, Baby For the third consecutive year, Texas was the nation's leader in the amount of wind capacity added to the electric grid. Nearly $3 Billion worth of wind-powered electric generators were installed in Texas during 2007, growing the state's total wind capacity by 59%. Texas' 1,618 megawatts (MW) of new wind power installations were more than twice as much as were added in any other state during this record-shattering year for the U.S. wind industry. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reports that 4,356 MW of the nation's 16,818 MW is currently operating in Texas. The state's cumulative wind generating capacity – representing 26% of all wind power installed in the nation – will produce as much electricity as is used by 1 million Texas homes. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), there were 3,064 MW of signed commitments made during 2007 to build new wind power plants – a level that is greater than for any other type of new power plant. ERCOT is currently developing plans and cost estimates for new transmission lines that could support much higher levels of wind power in the future as part of the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) process, which is expected to be finalized during 2008. Previous studies by ERCOT suggest that the wind on the drawing board combined with that now operating in Texas could reduce wholesale power costs by more than $1 billion per year while reducing statewide power plant emissions by as much as 5%....
Sayonara cyanide: Poison land mines should be banned They're hollow, spring-loaded land mines, 6-inch-long aluminum cylinders with a lethal dose of sodium cyanide inside. Partially buried, topped with a trigger, covered by cotton impregnated with liquid bait, you'll find them around ranches and farms, on public and private lands, in at least 15 states. When a coyote or fox or pet dog tugs at the device, it unleashes a lethal dose of poison into their mouths, which mixes with saliva to form a gas that causes convulsions, then paralysis, and finally death. The government calls them M-44s. They're part of the arsenal employed by the federal Wildlife Services agency in a long-running, futile attempt to control coyotes and other predators that prey on livestock and poultry. But the devices are indiscriminate killers. The government spends about $10 million a year, and jeopardizes the health and welfare of the public, in order to protect livestock and poultry from predators. A better use of the money would be to compensate ranchers for losses, and teach them to reduce predation by using guard dogs, night penning, fencing and other proven techniques....Yes sir, it's real simple....
Active volcano under ice Although it has not erupted for more than 2000 years, heat from the geologically active Hudson Mountains Subglacial Volcano helps explain why nearby Pine Island Glacier shrinks by more than a kilometre every year, British scientists claim. The discovery follows reports last week that Antarctica's ice cap is melting faster than previously believed. According to those findings, the greatest loss was from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Peninsula. Together, they lost nearly 200billion tonnes of ice in 2006 alone. Glaciologists Hugh Corr and David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge claim the discovery of the first known subglacial volcanic eruption promises to improve predictions of future sea-level rise caused by the melting of the WAIS. "We believe this was the biggest eruption in Antarctica during the last 10,000 years," Dr Corr said. "It blew a substantial hole in the ice sheet and generated a plume of ash and gas that rose around 12km." The team identified a large layer of volcanic ash in the ice. Additional evidence for the eruption came from ice cores collected across the continent....
Little progress made in clearing Ore. slide or determining cause Railroad and government officials say it's too soon to tell what caused the landslide that buried train tracks outside of Oakridge, choking off one of Oregon's major passenger and freight routes. A broad section of hillside slumped down Saturday morning, obliterating 3,000 feet of Union Pacific-track under a snowy mound of mud and trees more than 20 feet deep. Part of the slide began in an area clear-cut in 1993 and replanted in 1995, said Willamette National Forest spokesman Judy McHugh, though most of slide occurred on Forest Service land that had not been thinned. Geologists had yet to visit the site, hampering any discussion of the slide's cause, she said. Meanwhile, railroad crews were still trying to get their hands around clearing the slide. The tracks are the main connection between Eugene and California for both Union Pacific and Amtrak. Fifteen trains, carrying 33 million gross tons of freight, use the track daily....
Enviromental group praises roadless policies The Wilderness Society celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Roadless Area Conservation policy Tuesday, hailing the rule's resiliency in spite of what it sees as the Bush administration's assaults and touting the areas as essential to Americans looking to escape encroaching development. "When people come to Idaho, it's to experience what our nation was like before it got developed and roaded," said Holly Endersby, an Idaho hunter, angler, horse packer and grandmother. "These opportunities only exist because of the protection that roadless areas provide. I hope my grandchildren will get to travel in wild country like I have." Endersby participated in a teleconference headed by Mike Dombeck, who was Forest Service chief when the rule was enacted. Dombeck said only 3 percent of the land in the United States is more than 17,000 feet from the nearest road and that open space in the nation is being gobbled up at the rate of 10,000 acres a day. Rather than to continue to fight the roadless rule, Dombeck said, "It's time to look to the future. It's time to focus our energies on other areas."....
Number of drilling rigs declines in 2007 For the first time in years, Wyoming saw a decline in drilling for oil, natural gas and coalbed methane last year. Don Likwartz, supervisor of the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, blamed the downturn on a lack of space in the pipelines, drillers coming up against environmental restrictions and the lack of new permits to drill on federal land. In 2007, Wyoming averaged 73 rigs a month that were actively drilling for oil and natural gas, down from an average of 99 in 2006. The 73 rigs were the fewest since 2003 when 54 were drilling on average per month. Most of the drilling activity last year was in the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline areas of southwest Wyoming, Likwartz said. Coalbed methane drilling rigs, which are counted separately from the rigs drilling for oil and deeper natural gas, declined from an average of 47 a month in 2006 to 35 in 2007 - the lowest since the state began tracking methane drilling in 1999. Some weeks in 2007 there were no rigs drilling for methane in Wyoming. Likwartz said drilling for oil and deep gas was hampered mainly by a lack of space in pipelines to ship the products....
Opposition reacts to losing forest planners A conservation group is blasting a proposal that could remove scientists and planners from National Forests, including the Bridger-Teton, in favor of consolidated “eco-based service centers” run by private corporations. The restructuring could eliminate thousands of planning and science jobs on National Forests across the country, effectively placing planning efforts governed by the National Environmental Policy Act under private control. Bridger-Teton officials have critiqued proposal, saying the plan isn’t clear and could cause a disconnect between the planning process and the implementation of initiatives on the forest. Congress has effectively choked off funding for the restructuring for this fiscal year, but it could be revived next fall. Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell has stated she supports the effort, but is expected to release a clarifying statement later this week. The proposal is based on a feasibility study by a private firm called Management Analysis, Inc....
Bison range talks make some progress Two sides involved in a bitter dispute over the last 2 1/2 years are ready to move forward with negotiations that could again put them working side by side at the National Bison Range. Lead negotiators for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said two days of meetings in Missoula last week went a long way toward re-establishing their trust in one another. A joint news release stressed that the Bison Range, often called the crown jewel of the national wildlife refuge system, would remain a national refuge administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under any new annual funding agreement between the two governments. Opponents of tribal involvement at the range, most notably Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, fear it could be the first step in the weakening or dismantling of the refuge system. "It is important to note that the emerging partnership between the Service and CSKT is a government-to-government relationship and is not a move toward privatization of the National Wildlife Refuge System," said the release, issued by Rob McDonald of the tribes and Matt Kales of the Fish and Wildlife Service. The release said "significant progress" was made in establishing the framework for negotiating a new funding agreement....
Mines are being reopened as gold fever sweeps state Gold fever is sweeping Arizona. Mining companies are scouring the earth, looking for new deposits and working to reopen venerable mines, some with histories that date to territorial days. With the yellow metal selling for just under $900 per ounce, more weekend gold diggers are heading for the hills with pans, picks and metal detectors. Prospecting outfitter Promack Treasure Hunting in Apache Junction has seen its business triple in the past year, and membership in the Superstition Mountain Treasure Hunters gold-panning club has grown to 400 from 70 in the same period. Club leaders say members can return from a weekend of prospecting with $1,000 or more in gold. Demand has pushed up the price of gold as much as 45 percent in the past 12 months and brought a dozen or so mainly Canadian mining companies into the state. While the state is known as one of the world's top copper-producing regions, it also has a gold-mining legacy....
Mining claims soar on Colo. public lands Colorado's mining rush is in full swing. But this time, it's not gold. It's rich deposits of uranium, molybdenum and other hardrock minerals that are luring miners to try their luck in the state's semi- arid public lands as world demand skyrockets. For instance, after decades on hiatus, thousands of prospectors are back on the Western Slope staking claims, eager to tap the area's uranium reserves. The price of uranium, used as raw material inside nuclear reactors, has doubled in recent years as developing nations embrace nuclear energy to power their economies. Uranium claims on Colorado's federal lands, mostly in Montrose and Mesa counties, hit a whopping 10,730 in 2007 from as few as 120 in 2003 and 2,725 in 2005, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Overall, new mineral claims on Colorado's public lands have jumped 239 percent since 2003....
Police seek suspect in Black Bear Diner robbery A man who robbed the Black Bear Diner in northeast Bend Friday night may have fled the area in a waiting vehicle, police said after a search by officers, a police dog, deputies, State troopers, and a U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement officer failed to turn up any sign of the suspect. Shortly before 10 p.m. on January 18, Bend Police were called to the popular restaurant at 1465 NE Third Street to the report of a robbery. A female employee told officers that a man of unknown age, possibly Hispanic, entered the diner, demanded money then fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, Sgt. Tom Pine reported. No weapons were displayed and no one was injured in the robbery....The next time you see the Forest Service claim they don't have the budget or the personnel to police Federal lands, ask them how come they are investigating diner robberies.
Pneumonia strikes bighorn sheep Two more dead Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep were found in the Elkhorn Mountains on Monday, raising the total to at least 10 that have died from pneumonia and prompting concerns about a potential die off of the herd. "In the worst-case scenario, based on similar situations throughout the West, we could see what's called an all-age die off, " Tom Carlsen, a wildlife biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said Tuesday. "That's because we're seeing adult sheep die as well as younger ones. It can kill almost all of the population. This wouldn't be the first die-off in Montana." Last month, eight bighorn sheep reportedly died in Colorado from pneumonia; New Mexico had an outbreak in 2006. "These are things we as professional biologists and scientists spend a lifetime looking at those, and we don't know what causes them to contract this," Carlsen said. There have been studies done "with wild and domestic sheep together, and almost without exception, when wild sheep and domestic sheep come together, the wild sheep die from pneumonia."....
Aerial hunt clash goes underground For the next week, Alaska wolves are the stars of an underground advertising campaign in the Washington, D.C., subway. The $4,500 campaign promotes federal legislation that would end aerial hunting of wolves, a practice that has been used in Alaska to help improve populations of moose and caribou. The ads are sponsored by the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife, which has used its political-action arm to run commercials in Alaska targeting Republican U.S. Rep. Don Young for his record on environmental and renewable energy issues. For its subway campaign, Defenders picked the Capitol South Metro Station, a strategic location that sees an average of 6,000 commuters each day -- and not just Capitol Hill staffers. Many tourists pass through the stop on their way to visit the Capitol and congressional offices. The ads feature some photos of cuddly wolves as well as a gruesome image of a wolf carcass hanging on the wing of an airplane. They urge support for the federal legislation, sponsored by longtime Young adversary, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.....
Ranchers battle meat imports Ranchers from across the country are heading to Capitol Hill this week to push back on the Bush administration’s plans to import meat from Argentina despite concerns over foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed a rule in early 2007 to allow into the country imports of meat, primarily mutton and lamb, from Argentina’s southern region of Patagonia. But U.S. cattlemen, citing past cases of infection, worry that the South American nation might bring in contaminated meat and spread the dreaded disease to American herds, decimating the industry. “If we don’t get an answer from USDA, we are going to get Congress to nip this thing in the bud,” said Jess Peterson, director of government affairs for the United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA). A highly contagious airborne disease that can travel in either fresh or frozen meat, FMD produces lesions in the mouths and hooves of livestock, such as sheep and cattle. Animals can be vaccinated in preparation for a potential outbreak, but once infected, they generally have to be killed and their carcasses burned. Entire herds can be taken out by the disease, resulting in billions of dollars of lost revenue. If the rule is finalized, the USDA expects an average of 13.2 million pounds of sheep meat per year to arrive in the U.S., according to the Argentine government. That would result in a price decline in the U.S. of about 10 cents per pound of lamb and mutton — overall, an annual $17.7 million loss affecting U.S. sheep ranchers....
Court case a threat to farmers, ranchers Conservation. In Colorado, no word holds more power. We hear and obey appeals to conserve our water, our natural resources, our Western heritage. And yet, in Telluride, conservation now means that agricultural land can be taken without regard for the owner's rights. The land of the farmer and rancher members of the Colorado Farm Bureau has long served as natural open space throughout Colorado. Should the Colorado Supreme Court issue an unfavorable ruling in 2008, agricultural land is at significant risk of being publicly expropriated. The San Miguel Valley Corp. has owned land near Telluride for decades. To date, the current owner has only used the land for agriculture. The property is known as the Valley Floor and sits at the entrance to Telluride. It is beautiful and revered by the citizens of Telluride. But it is not in Telluride, nor does Telluride own any part of it. Yet the wealthy residents of Telluride believe the property should be theirs - and that it should be taken from its current owner to be used as Telluride wishes. Should landowners be forced to give up property under Colorado's eminent domain law for open-space purposes, regardless of their desire to sell? The Colorado legislature has already said no. In 2004, the General Assembly, concerned about abuses of eminent domain power in Colorado, passed a statute restricting the ability of home-rule towns to condemn property outside their boundaries for parks, recreation or open space. The law makes Telluride's taking of the Valley Floor illegal. But a San Miguel County judge declared the statute unconstitutional and the condemnation was allowed to proceed....
Cougar Plan Challenged In Court A group of ranchers and wildlife advocates are suing the state over its plan to kill cougars. A lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon to stop the federal government from killing up to two thousand cougars across the state. One local rancher says that not all angles have been examined and that the cougars are a self-limiting population. Michael Moss is a goat dairy farmer in the Rogue Valley and says that he is behind the lawsuit. "The fact of the matter is, these goats spend everyday from six thirty in the morning until the sun goes down, out roaming the farm right on the edge of BLM land and we've never lost a goat to cougar predation." Moss says landowners can change small things in their behavior so cougars and not encouraged. He suggests bringing in pets at night, not leaving food out on the porch and locking up farm animals...Yes sir, it's real simple. All you sheep and goat ranchers just gather all your livestock each night and make sure they are "locked up". Bring in that stock dog and make sure it's "locked up". Bring in all the mutton, lamb and high priced dog food you've been leaving on the porch and make sure it's "locked up". According to Mr. Moss, the night belongs to the cougars. You only control your property half the time. 'Course, another option would be to "lock up" dumb ass goat farmers.
Texas: Still Number One, Baby For the third consecutive year, Texas was the nation's leader in the amount of wind capacity added to the electric grid. Nearly $3 Billion worth of wind-powered electric generators were installed in Texas during 2007, growing the state's total wind capacity by 59%. Texas' 1,618 megawatts (MW) of new wind power installations were more than twice as much as were added in any other state during this record-shattering year for the U.S. wind industry. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reports that 4,356 MW of the nation's 16,818 MW is currently operating in Texas. The state's cumulative wind generating capacity – representing 26% of all wind power installed in the nation – will produce as much electricity as is used by 1 million Texas homes. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), there were 3,064 MW of signed commitments made during 2007 to build new wind power plants – a level that is greater than for any other type of new power plant. ERCOT is currently developing plans and cost estimates for new transmission lines that could support much higher levels of wind power in the future as part of the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) process, which is expected to be finalized during 2008. Previous studies by ERCOT suggest that the wind on the drawing board combined with that now operating in Texas could reduce wholesale power costs by more than $1 billion per year while reducing statewide power plant emissions by as much as 5%....
Sayonara cyanide: Poison land mines should be banned They're hollow, spring-loaded land mines, 6-inch-long aluminum cylinders with a lethal dose of sodium cyanide inside. Partially buried, topped with a trigger, covered by cotton impregnated with liquid bait, you'll find them around ranches and farms, on public and private lands, in at least 15 states. When a coyote or fox or pet dog tugs at the device, it unleashes a lethal dose of poison into their mouths, which mixes with saliva to form a gas that causes convulsions, then paralysis, and finally death. The government calls them M-44s. They're part of the arsenal employed by the federal Wildlife Services agency in a long-running, futile attempt to control coyotes and other predators that prey on livestock and poultry. But the devices are indiscriminate killers. The government spends about $10 million a year, and jeopardizes the health and welfare of the public, in order to protect livestock and poultry from predators. A better use of the money would be to compensate ranchers for losses, and teach them to reduce predation by using guard dogs, night penning, fencing and other proven techniques....Yes sir, it's real simple....
Active volcano under ice Although it has not erupted for more than 2000 years, heat from the geologically active Hudson Mountains Subglacial Volcano helps explain why nearby Pine Island Glacier shrinks by more than a kilometre every year, British scientists claim. The discovery follows reports last week that Antarctica's ice cap is melting faster than previously believed. According to those findings, the greatest loss was from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Peninsula. Together, they lost nearly 200billion tonnes of ice in 2006 alone. Glaciologists Hugh Corr and David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge claim the discovery of the first known subglacial volcanic eruption promises to improve predictions of future sea-level rise caused by the melting of the WAIS. "We believe this was the biggest eruption in Antarctica during the last 10,000 years," Dr Corr said. "It blew a substantial hole in the ice sheet and generated a plume of ash and gas that rose around 12km." The team identified a large layer of volcanic ash in the ice. Additional evidence for the eruption came from ice cores collected across the continent....
Little progress made in clearing Ore. slide or determining cause Railroad and government officials say it's too soon to tell what caused the landslide that buried train tracks outside of Oakridge, choking off one of Oregon's major passenger and freight routes. A broad section of hillside slumped down Saturday morning, obliterating 3,000 feet of Union Pacific-track under a snowy mound of mud and trees more than 20 feet deep. Part of the slide began in an area clear-cut in 1993 and replanted in 1995, said Willamette National Forest spokesman Judy McHugh, though most of slide occurred on Forest Service land that had not been thinned. Geologists had yet to visit the site, hampering any discussion of the slide's cause, she said. Meanwhile, railroad crews were still trying to get their hands around clearing the slide. The tracks are the main connection between Eugene and California for both Union Pacific and Amtrak. Fifteen trains, carrying 33 million gross tons of freight, use the track daily....
Enviromental group praises roadless policies The Wilderness Society celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Roadless Area Conservation policy Tuesday, hailing the rule's resiliency in spite of what it sees as the Bush administration's assaults and touting the areas as essential to Americans looking to escape encroaching development. "When people come to Idaho, it's to experience what our nation was like before it got developed and roaded," said Holly Endersby, an Idaho hunter, angler, horse packer and grandmother. "These opportunities only exist because of the protection that roadless areas provide. I hope my grandchildren will get to travel in wild country like I have." Endersby participated in a teleconference headed by Mike Dombeck, who was Forest Service chief when the rule was enacted. Dombeck said only 3 percent of the land in the United States is more than 17,000 feet from the nearest road and that open space in the nation is being gobbled up at the rate of 10,000 acres a day. Rather than to continue to fight the roadless rule, Dombeck said, "It's time to look to the future. It's time to focus our energies on other areas."....
Number of drilling rigs declines in 2007 For the first time in years, Wyoming saw a decline in drilling for oil, natural gas and coalbed methane last year. Don Likwartz, supervisor of the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, blamed the downturn on a lack of space in the pipelines, drillers coming up against environmental restrictions and the lack of new permits to drill on federal land. In 2007, Wyoming averaged 73 rigs a month that were actively drilling for oil and natural gas, down from an average of 99 in 2006. The 73 rigs were the fewest since 2003 when 54 were drilling on average per month. Most of the drilling activity last year was in the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline areas of southwest Wyoming, Likwartz said. Coalbed methane drilling rigs, which are counted separately from the rigs drilling for oil and deeper natural gas, declined from an average of 47 a month in 2006 to 35 in 2007 - the lowest since the state began tracking methane drilling in 1999. Some weeks in 2007 there were no rigs drilling for methane in Wyoming. Likwartz said drilling for oil and deep gas was hampered mainly by a lack of space in pipelines to ship the products....
Opposition reacts to losing forest planners A conservation group is blasting a proposal that could remove scientists and planners from National Forests, including the Bridger-Teton, in favor of consolidated “eco-based service centers” run by private corporations. The restructuring could eliminate thousands of planning and science jobs on National Forests across the country, effectively placing planning efforts governed by the National Environmental Policy Act under private control. Bridger-Teton officials have critiqued proposal, saying the plan isn’t clear and could cause a disconnect between the planning process and the implementation of initiatives on the forest. Congress has effectively choked off funding for the restructuring for this fiscal year, but it could be revived next fall. Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell has stated she supports the effort, but is expected to release a clarifying statement later this week. The proposal is based on a feasibility study by a private firm called Management Analysis, Inc....
Bison range talks make some progress Two sides involved in a bitter dispute over the last 2 1/2 years are ready to move forward with negotiations that could again put them working side by side at the National Bison Range. Lead negotiators for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said two days of meetings in Missoula last week went a long way toward re-establishing their trust in one another. A joint news release stressed that the Bison Range, often called the crown jewel of the national wildlife refuge system, would remain a national refuge administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under any new annual funding agreement between the two governments. Opponents of tribal involvement at the range, most notably Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, fear it could be the first step in the weakening or dismantling of the refuge system. "It is important to note that the emerging partnership between the Service and CSKT is a government-to-government relationship and is not a move toward privatization of the National Wildlife Refuge System," said the release, issued by Rob McDonald of the tribes and Matt Kales of the Fish and Wildlife Service. The release said "significant progress" was made in establishing the framework for negotiating a new funding agreement....
Mines are being reopened as gold fever sweeps state Gold fever is sweeping Arizona. Mining companies are scouring the earth, looking for new deposits and working to reopen venerable mines, some with histories that date to territorial days. With the yellow metal selling for just under $900 per ounce, more weekend gold diggers are heading for the hills with pans, picks and metal detectors. Prospecting outfitter Promack Treasure Hunting in Apache Junction has seen its business triple in the past year, and membership in the Superstition Mountain Treasure Hunters gold-panning club has grown to 400 from 70 in the same period. Club leaders say members can return from a weekend of prospecting with $1,000 or more in gold. Demand has pushed up the price of gold as much as 45 percent in the past 12 months and brought a dozen or so mainly Canadian mining companies into the state. While the state is known as one of the world's top copper-producing regions, it also has a gold-mining legacy....
Mining claims soar on Colo. public lands Colorado's mining rush is in full swing. But this time, it's not gold. It's rich deposits of uranium, molybdenum and other hardrock minerals that are luring miners to try their luck in the state's semi- arid public lands as world demand skyrockets. For instance, after decades on hiatus, thousands of prospectors are back on the Western Slope staking claims, eager to tap the area's uranium reserves. The price of uranium, used as raw material inside nuclear reactors, has doubled in recent years as developing nations embrace nuclear energy to power their economies. Uranium claims on Colorado's federal lands, mostly in Montrose and Mesa counties, hit a whopping 10,730 in 2007 from as few as 120 in 2003 and 2,725 in 2005, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Overall, new mineral claims on Colorado's public lands have jumped 239 percent since 2003....
Police seek suspect in Black Bear Diner robbery A man who robbed the Black Bear Diner in northeast Bend Friday night may have fled the area in a waiting vehicle, police said after a search by officers, a police dog, deputies, State troopers, and a U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement officer failed to turn up any sign of the suspect. Shortly before 10 p.m. on January 18, Bend Police were called to the popular restaurant at 1465 NE Third Street to the report of a robbery. A female employee told officers that a man of unknown age, possibly Hispanic, entered the diner, demanded money then fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, Sgt. Tom Pine reported. No weapons were displayed and no one was injured in the robbery....The next time you see the Forest Service claim they don't have the budget or the personnel to police Federal lands, ask them how come they are investigating diner robberies.
Pneumonia strikes bighorn sheep Two more dead Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep were found in the Elkhorn Mountains on Monday, raising the total to at least 10 that have died from pneumonia and prompting concerns about a potential die off of the herd. "In the worst-case scenario, based on similar situations throughout the West, we could see what's called an all-age die off, " Tom Carlsen, a wildlife biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said Tuesday. "That's because we're seeing adult sheep die as well as younger ones. It can kill almost all of the population. This wouldn't be the first die-off in Montana." Last month, eight bighorn sheep reportedly died in Colorado from pneumonia; New Mexico had an outbreak in 2006. "These are things we as professional biologists and scientists spend a lifetime looking at those, and we don't know what causes them to contract this," Carlsen said. There have been studies done "with wild and domestic sheep together, and almost without exception, when wild sheep and domestic sheep come together, the wild sheep die from pneumonia."....
Aerial hunt clash goes underground For the next week, Alaska wolves are the stars of an underground advertising campaign in the Washington, D.C., subway. The $4,500 campaign promotes federal legislation that would end aerial hunting of wolves, a practice that has been used in Alaska to help improve populations of moose and caribou. The ads are sponsored by the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife, which has used its political-action arm to run commercials in Alaska targeting Republican U.S. Rep. Don Young for his record on environmental and renewable energy issues. For its subway campaign, Defenders picked the Capitol South Metro Station, a strategic location that sees an average of 6,000 commuters each day -- and not just Capitol Hill staffers. Many tourists pass through the stop on their way to visit the Capitol and congressional offices. The ads feature some photos of cuddly wolves as well as a gruesome image of a wolf carcass hanging on the wing of an airplane. They urge support for the federal legislation, sponsored by longtime Young adversary, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.....
Ranchers battle meat imports Ranchers from across the country are heading to Capitol Hill this week to push back on the Bush administration’s plans to import meat from Argentina despite concerns over foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed a rule in early 2007 to allow into the country imports of meat, primarily mutton and lamb, from Argentina’s southern region of Patagonia. But U.S. cattlemen, citing past cases of infection, worry that the South American nation might bring in contaminated meat and spread the dreaded disease to American herds, decimating the industry. “If we don’t get an answer from USDA, we are going to get Congress to nip this thing in the bud,” said Jess Peterson, director of government affairs for the United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA). A highly contagious airborne disease that can travel in either fresh or frozen meat, FMD produces lesions in the mouths and hooves of livestock, such as sheep and cattle. Animals can be vaccinated in preparation for a potential outbreak, but once infected, they generally have to be killed and their carcasses burned. Entire herds can be taken out by the disease, resulting in billions of dollars of lost revenue. If the rule is finalized, the USDA expects an average of 13.2 million pounds of sheep meat per year to arrive in the U.S., according to the Argentine government. That would result in a price decline in the U.S. of about 10 cents per pound of lamb and mutton — overall, an annual $17.7 million loss affecting U.S. sheep ranchers....
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Bill Delays Oil Exploration for Polar Bear Listing Environmentalists welcomed a bill introduced by a House Democrat last week that would delay the sale of land in Alaska for oil exploration. Environmentalists believe the Interior Department wants to avoid classifying the polar bear as an endangered species until the land -- which is polar bear habitat -- is sold. "The only thing keeping pace with the melting of the sea ice is the breakneck speed with which the Department of the Interior is rushing to approve oil and gas activities in polar bear habitat," said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate, Air and Energy Program, a liberal organization. Rep. Ed Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, last Thursday introduced a bill that would require the Interior Department to delay the sale of oil drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea (Sale 193) -- currently scheduled for Feb. 6 -- until it makes a decision on the polar bear. According to Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, "the Chukchi Sea Planning Area could hold 15 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas ... thus providing potentially significant future production of oil and gas from Northern Alaska."....
States take on global warming As proposals to cap greenhouse gas emissions stall in Congress, more than half the states are moving aggressively to combat the pollution that causes global warming. This year, eight states are scheduled to release plans to slash emissions of heat-trapping gases; several are likely to recommend specific reduction targets, say state officials and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Seventeen states already have such targets. States are deploying an array of strategies to reduce pollution. Among them: capping carbon dioxide emissions of power plants or vehicles and promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy. California and 15 other states sued the Bush administration this month over its decision to bar them from imposing stricter car emissions limits than those in the federal energy law. Two federal court decisions in the past year have said states have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles....
Land-protection programs gain favor in Idaho Idahoans who protect their land from urban growth could pay less on their income taxes under a bill expected to be introduced this legislative session. The proposed Idaho Ranch, Farm and Forest Protection Act would set allow about $3 million in tax credits for land owners who agree to not develop their properties for 30 years. The program would also allow property owners to sell the credits for cash. Some question how lawmakers will offset the multimillion-dollar loss in state income taxes, but supporters say it's a small price to pay for protecting Idaho's iconic expanses - and that taxpayers are willing to foot the bill. Almost two-thirds of Idaho voters would pay $20 a year to fund tax incentives that go toward protecting natural areas, according to a poll conducted statewide by Moore Information in November. Most respondents, 83 percent, supported an incentive program regardless of funding. Land conservation is becoming more popular in Idaho, the fourth fastest growing state in the nation, as urban areas increasingly creep into farmland, forests and range....
SAVING the RANCH With real estate developers offering to buy his 725-acre Sierra Valley ranch, Russell Turner chose quite a different real estate decision. Aided by the Pacific Forest Trust and the Truckee-based Sierra Business Council, Turner signed an easement that assures no homes will sprout up on the hay farm and cattle ranch his family has owned for over 150 years. Conservation easement signings like the one that recently paid the Turner family $4 million have become an increasingly popular option for Sierra Valley ranchers that have little money in the bank, but are sitting on suddenly lucrative tracts of land. Non-profits like the Pacific Forest Trust and Sierra Business Council have teamed up to offer the easements to assure that the open land and ranching heritage of the Sierra Valley are not splintered apart by rapid real estate development....
Predator Poison Under Review Dennis Slaugh and his brother were riding all-terrain vehicles when they noticed what looked like a survey stake, marking federal land in Utah's rugged Cowboy Canyon. Curious, Slaugh touched the stake, and it exploded, spewing a cloud of sodium cyanide in his face and chest. Slaugh, 65, said he suffers long-term health effects from the 2003 incident. He has difficulty breathing, vomits almost daily and can no longer work driving heavy equipment because he is too weak. The cyanide device, called an M-44, is one of two poisons used by the federal government to kill coyotes and other wild animals that threaten sheep and other livestock. M-44 and sodium fluoroacetate, more commonly known as Compound 1080, are distributed by the Wildlife Services agency, an arm of the Agriculture Department. The poisons killed more than 14,000 wild animals in 2006, including coyotes, foxes and wolves, the agency reported. The Agriculture Department says the devices are a relatively humane way to kill predatory animals, adding that because the poison is contained in specific delivery devices, the risk to non-target animals is reduced....
Elk, deer causing big damage to haystacks With the colder weather, area farmers are getting hit hard with a significant number of deer and elk coming to the valley to find food and this has left the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources personnel hopping to keep up with the demands to protect crops. One of the hardest hit areas this year have been farmers and ranchers on the west side of the Green River in Jensen. According to Wildlife Resource Biologist Charlie Greenwood, this is an ongoing problem, but made much worse this year with the colder weather. “On the other side of the river we have a herd of elk totaling about 200 that are harbored there,” explained Greenwood. “When they are out of feed, they cross the river and come over to the Thackers, Snows, Chews and others in the area to find feed.” Greenwood explained this problem happens each year and they have tried to reduce the number of “resident agriculture elk” in that herd, but it is a growing herd....
Man survives 4 days trapped under ATV A paramedic used to saving the lives of others found himself having to eat rotten meat and fend off snarling animals to ensure his own survival in rough Alberta bush country. Ken Hildebrand of Fort McMurray was riding his all-terrain vehicle as he collected animal traps north of the Livingstone Gap, about 130 kilometres southwest of Calgary, on Jan. 8 when the quad rolled after hitting a rock and trapped him underneath. Mr. Hildebrand, who has a weak leg due to polio, ended up face down on the snowy ground with his machine pinning his strong leg. “He was stuck there for four days and three nights — almost 96 hours straight,” said Troy Linderman, director of Crowsnest Pass emergency medical services. Mr. Hildebrand kept himself alive — albeit sick — by eating the rotting meat of the animals he had collected. He faced constant harassment from coyotes who were growling and fighting each other just feet away, but was able to keep them at bay by constantly blowing a whistle he had with him. Mr. Hildebrand, who works teaching first aid and heavy equipment at Keyano College in Fort McMurray, said he still has property in the Crowsnest Pass and was there seeing if he could help ranchers with problem wolves preying on cattle....
Annual organic farming conference slated for Feb. 29 in Albuquerque Organic farming is growing in New Mexico. The 175 state-certified organic farms and ranches have estimated annual gross sales of $30 million. To keep the farmers and producers abreast of the latest information in their field the annual New Mexico Organic Farming Conference has provided sessions in key topics for the past 19 years. New Mexico Department of Agriculture Secretary Dr. I. Miley Gonzalez will welcome the farmers and producers to the 2008 New Mexico Organic Farming Conference being held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 29 and March 1, at the Marriott Albuquerque Pyramid Hotel, 5151 San Francisco Road NE, at Paseo del Norte and Interstate 25. Gonzalez, a long-time supporter of organic farming, has worked to extend support to family-scale farmers in New Mexico as they face challenges ranging from water availability to finding appropriate markets. The conference is organized by New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension Service, the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission and Farm to Table, a non-profit education organization....
Fire Destroys Barn, Killing 43 Horses Over the weekend, an Atoka County rancher suffered an incredible loss. His barn caught fire, killing 43 horses. On Monday, family and friends gathered at his ranch to help him clean up, while investigators try to figure out what started the blaze. The Willis family has raised and trained race horses for over two decades. They say they've fallen on tough times before, but nothing like this. "I woke up and I could hear crackling and horses kicking, and I just knew." Donna Willis has just got to bed Saturday night when the sounds of the fire woke her up. She called 911, and then her family. Her sons rushed to the barn, to try and free the horses. "It just went up so fast. There was so much smoke in there. It just overtook the horses." When the fire department arrived, most of the barn was wrapped in flames....
The History Of Cattle Brands Cattle brands still play an important role in identifying an animal's owner in Texas cattle ranching. The practice of branding is ancient. Some Egyptian tomb paintings at least 4,000 years old depict scenes of roundups and cattle branding, and biblical evidence suggests that Jacob the herdsman branded his stock. Burning an identifying mark into the hide of an animal was, until the invention of the tattoo, the only method of marking that lasted the life of the animal. The practice of branding came to the New World with the Spaniards, who brought the first cattle to New Spain. When Hernán Cortés experimented with cattle breeding during the late sixteenth century in the valley of Mexicalzimgo, south of modern Toluca, Mexico, he branded his cattle. His brand, three Latin crosses, may have been the first brand used in the Western Hemisphere. As cattle raising grew, in 1537 the crown ordered the establishment of a stockmen's organization called Mesta throughout New Spain. Each cattle owner had to have a different brand, and each brand had to be registered in what undoubtedly was the first brand book in the Western Hemisphere, kept at Mexico City. Soon after the Spaniards moved north into Texas and cattle raising developed on a large scale during the middle eighteenth century, the crown ordered the branding of all cattle. The early Spanish brands in Texas were more generally pictographs than letters. The Spaniards chose their brands to represent beautiful sentiments in beautiful ways. Most of the early Spanish brands found in the Bexar and Nacogdoches archivesqqv are pictographs made with curlicues and pendants. A cattle raiser would compose his own brand. When his first son acquired cattle, a curlicue or pendant was added to the father's brand, and as other sons acquired their own cattle, additional curlicues or pendants were added to what became the family brand. Only a few Spanish brands found in the Bexar and Nacogdoches archives are made of letters. Many early Anglo-American Texas ranchers were unable to interpret the brands used under the Spanish and Mexican regimes. Texans often referred to them as "dog irons" or "quién sabes" (quién sabe?="who knows?") since they could not be read. Most of the early brands of Texans, by contrast, were made of initials and could be read with ease. Richard H. Chisholm owned perhaps the first recorded brand, registered in Gonzales County in 1832....
States take on global warming As proposals to cap greenhouse gas emissions stall in Congress, more than half the states are moving aggressively to combat the pollution that causes global warming. This year, eight states are scheduled to release plans to slash emissions of heat-trapping gases; several are likely to recommend specific reduction targets, say state officials and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Seventeen states already have such targets. States are deploying an array of strategies to reduce pollution. Among them: capping carbon dioxide emissions of power plants or vehicles and promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy. California and 15 other states sued the Bush administration this month over its decision to bar them from imposing stricter car emissions limits than those in the federal energy law. Two federal court decisions in the past year have said states have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles....
Land-protection programs gain favor in Idaho Idahoans who protect their land from urban growth could pay less on their income taxes under a bill expected to be introduced this legislative session. The proposed Idaho Ranch, Farm and Forest Protection Act would set allow about $3 million in tax credits for land owners who agree to not develop their properties for 30 years. The program would also allow property owners to sell the credits for cash. Some question how lawmakers will offset the multimillion-dollar loss in state income taxes, but supporters say it's a small price to pay for protecting Idaho's iconic expanses - and that taxpayers are willing to foot the bill. Almost two-thirds of Idaho voters would pay $20 a year to fund tax incentives that go toward protecting natural areas, according to a poll conducted statewide by Moore Information in November. Most respondents, 83 percent, supported an incentive program regardless of funding. Land conservation is becoming more popular in Idaho, the fourth fastest growing state in the nation, as urban areas increasingly creep into farmland, forests and range....
SAVING the RANCH With real estate developers offering to buy his 725-acre Sierra Valley ranch, Russell Turner chose quite a different real estate decision. Aided by the Pacific Forest Trust and the Truckee-based Sierra Business Council, Turner signed an easement that assures no homes will sprout up on the hay farm and cattle ranch his family has owned for over 150 years. Conservation easement signings like the one that recently paid the Turner family $4 million have become an increasingly popular option for Sierra Valley ranchers that have little money in the bank, but are sitting on suddenly lucrative tracts of land. Non-profits like the Pacific Forest Trust and Sierra Business Council have teamed up to offer the easements to assure that the open land and ranching heritage of the Sierra Valley are not splintered apart by rapid real estate development....
Predator Poison Under Review Dennis Slaugh and his brother were riding all-terrain vehicles when they noticed what looked like a survey stake, marking federal land in Utah's rugged Cowboy Canyon. Curious, Slaugh touched the stake, and it exploded, spewing a cloud of sodium cyanide in his face and chest. Slaugh, 65, said he suffers long-term health effects from the 2003 incident. He has difficulty breathing, vomits almost daily and can no longer work driving heavy equipment because he is too weak. The cyanide device, called an M-44, is one of two poisons used by the federal government to kill coyotes and other wild animals that threaten sheep and other livestock. M-44 and sodium fluoroacetate, more commonly known as Compound 1080, are distributed by the Wildlife Services agency, an arm of the Agriculture Department. The poisons killed more than 14,000 wild animals in 2006, including coyotes, foxes and wolves, the agency reported. The Agriculture Department says the devices are a relatively humane way to kill predatory animals, adding that because the poison is contained in specific delivery devices, the risk to non-target animals is reduced....
Elk, deer causing big damage to haystacks With the colder weather, area farmers are getting hit hard with a significant number of deer and elk coming to the valley to find food and this has left the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources personnel hopping to keep up with the demands to protect crops. One of the hardest hit areas this year have been farmers and ranchers on the west side of the Green River in Jensen. According to Wildlife Resource Biologist Charlie Greenwood, this is an ongoing problem, but made much worse this year with the colder weather. “On the other side of the river we have a herd of elk totaling about 200 that are harbored there,” explained Greenwood. “When they are out of feed, they cross the river and come over to the Thackers, Snows, Chews and others in the area to find feed.” Greenwood explained this problem happens each year and they have tried to reduce the number of “resident agriculture elk” in that herd, but it is a growing herd....
Man survives 4 days trapped under ATV A paramedic used to saving the lives of others found himself having to eat rotten meat and fend off snarling animals to ensure his own survival in rough Alberta bush country. Ken Hildebrand of Fort McMurray was riding his all-terrain vehicle as he collected animal traps north of the Livingstone Gap, about 130 kilometres southwest of Calgary, on Jan. 8 when the quad rolled after hitting a rock and trapped him underneath. Mr. Hildebrand, who has a weak leg due to polio, ended up face down on the snowy ground with his machine pinning his strong leg. “He was stuck there for four days and three nights — almost 96 hours straight,” said Troy Linderman, director of Crowsnest Pass emergency medical services. Mr. Hildebrand kept himself alive — albeit sick — by eating the rotting meat of the animals he had collected. He faced constant harassment from coyotes who were growling and fighting each other just feet away, but was able to keep them at bay by constantly blowing a whistle he had with him. Mr. Hildebrand, who works teaching first aid and heavy equipment at Keyano College in Fort McMurray, said he still has property in the Crowsnest Pass and was there seeing if he could help ranchers with problem wolves preying on cattle....
Annual organic farming conference slated for Feb. 29 in Albuquerque Organic farming is growing in New Mexico. The 175 state-certified organic farms and ranches have estimated annual gross sales of $30 million. To keep the farmers and producers abreast of the latest information in their field the annual New Mexico Organic Farming Conference has provided sessions in key topics for the past 19 years. New Mexico Department of Agriculture Secretary Dr. I. Miley Gonzalez will welcome the farmers and producers to the 2008 New Mexico Organic Farming Conference being held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 29 and March 1, at the Marriott Albuquerque Pyramid Hotel, 5151 San Francisco Road NE, at Paseo del Norte and Interstate 25. Gonzalez, a long-time supporter of organic farming, has worked to extend support to family-scale farmers in New Mexico as they face challenges ranging from water availability to finding appropriate markets. The conference is organized by New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension Service, the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission and Farm to Table, a non-profit education organization....
Fire Destroys Barn, Killing 43 Horses Over the weekend, an Atoka County rancher suffered an incredible loss. His barn caught fire, killing 43 horses. On Monday, family and friends gathered at his ranch to help him clean up, while investigators try to figure out what started the blaze. The Willis family has raised and trained race horses for over two decades. They say they've fallen on tough times before, but nothing like this. "I woke up and I could hear crackling and horses kicking, and I just knew." Donna Willis has just got to bed Saturday night when the sounds of the fire woke her up. She called 911, and then her family. Her sons rushed to the barn, to try and free the horses. "It just went up so fast. There was so much smoke in there. It just overtook the horses." When the fire department arrived, most of the barn was wrapped in flames....
The History Of Cattle Brands Cattle brands still play an important role in identifying an animal's owner in Texas cattle ranching. The practice of branding is ancient. Some Egyptian tomb paintings at least 4,000 years old depict scenes of roundups and cattle branding, and biblical evidence suggests that Jacob the herdsman branded his stock. Burning an identifying mark into the hide of an animal was, until the invention of the tattoo, the only method of marking that lasted the life of the animal. The practice of branding came to the New World with the Spaniards, who brought the first cattle to New Spain. When Hernán Cortés experimented with cattle breeding during the late sixteenth century in the valley of Mexicalzimgo, south of modern Toluca, Mexico, he branded his cattle. His brand, three Latin crosses, may have been the first brand used in the Western Hemisphere. As cattle raising grew, in 1537 the crown ordered the establishment of a stockmen's organization called Mesta throughout New Spain. Each cattle owner had to have a different brand, and each brand had to be registered in what undoubtedly was the first brand book in the Western Hemisphere, kept at Mexico City. Soon after the Spaniards moved north into Texas and cattle raising developed on a large scale during the middle eighteenth century, the crown ordered the branding of all cattle. The early Spanish brands in Texas were more generally pictographs than letters. The Spaniards chose their brands to represent beautiful sentiments in beautiful ways. Most of the early Spanish brands found in the Bexar and Nacogdoches archivesqqv are pictographs made with curlicues and pendants. A cattle raiser would compose his own brand. When his first son acquired cattle, a curlicue or pendant was added to the father's brand, and as other sons acquired their own cattle, additional curlicues or pendants were added to what became the family brand. Only a few Spanish brands found in the Bexar and Nacogdoches archives are made of letters. Many early Anglo-American Texas ranchers were unable to interpret the brands used under the Spanish and Mexican regimes. Texans often referred to them as "dog irons" or "quién sabes" (quién sabe?="who knows?") since they could not be read. Most of the early brands of Texans, by contrast, were made of initials and could be read with ease. Richard H. Chisholm owned perhaps the first recorded brand, registered in Gonzales County in 1832....
FLE
Agent's death highlights attacks on Border Patrol The off-road enthusiasts were revving their dune buggies and all-terrain vehicles Saturday morning when a brown Hummer suddenly cut into the campground. The man at the wheel, a suspected drug smuggler, was heading to Mexico, fast. U.S. Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar, the only person in the way, threw a spike strip in front of the car. The Hummer sped up. "It looked like the man swerved and hit the agent intentionally," said one witness. Aguilar, struck by the Hummer going an estimated 55 mph, died within minutes. On Sunday, officials released more details about the attack in the Imperial Sand Dunes recreation area, which came amid a surge in assaults against federal agents in many areas along the border in recent months. U.S. authorities said the suspect drove over the dunes back to Mexico along with another vehicle. The FBI, which is handling the investigation, said Mexican authorities are assisting in the probe. Aguilar, 32, a six-year veteran, was part of an anti-smuggling team patrolling the scenic landscape of sand dunes and trailer-dotted campgrounds in southeast California. On weekends, when the dunes fill with riders, Mexican smugglers slip across the open border, trying to blend in with the other off-road vehicles....
U.S. faces 'grave threat' in drug fight Mexican military efforts to crush heavily armed drug-smuggling operations in five cities along the U.S.-Mexico border pose a "grave threat" to U.S. authorities and a half-million Americans in the area, according to former U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service officials. "What we face is more of a challenge than law enforcement can be expected to cope with," said Kent Lundgren, chairman of the 800-member National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO). "The best solution is for the U.S. military to assume armed positions along the border ... and use whatever force is necessary to control the border zone." On Jan. 12, Mexican Brig. Gen. Rigoberto Garcia Cortez said the Mexican military and other personnel had surrounded five border cities in the lower Rio Grande Valley — Matamoros, Reynosa, Rio Bravo, Miguel Aleman and Nuevo Laredo — in response to gunfights between Mexican police, military forces and heavily armed drug smugglers. Gen. Garcia told reporters last week his soldiers were encircling the targeted cities and were "organized to fight all criminal activity." He said it would take time, but the drug smugglers "will not be able to handle the government and the army. ... We are fighting for the security of the nation and its people.". Mr. Lundgren said NAFBPO, whose membership includes eight former chiefs of the Border Patrol and 14 former INS district directors, thinks the next step for the Mexican military will be to begin closing the "noose on the gangs," but the targeted cities "abut the Rio Grande River, the international boundary and Mexican forces must stop there."....
ID Rules To Change For Canada Crossings Defying Congress, the Department of Homeland Security is pushing to tighten identification requirements at U.S. land borders starting Jan. 31, when it no longer will allow Americans or Canadians to enter the country by presenting a driver's license or declaring their citizenship. The change is expected to worsen travel delays and backups along the U.S.-Canada border, which recorded 72 million crossings in 2007. The U.S.-Mexico border is even busier, with 226 million crossings, but noncitizens already need extra documentation to enter the United States there. The shift at the northern border comes despite legislation approved by Congress last month that bars DHS from implementing a post-Sept. 11 regulation that requires all travelers entering the United States to present a passport or similar secure form of identification and proof of citizenship. That rule, passed in 2004 and set to take effect this month, was delayed until June 2009. In pressing ahead, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff restated his belief that failure to act will lead to "another 9/11 Commission" investigating a future attack by foreign intruders....
Airports to inspect ID cards with black lights The newest tool at airport security checkpoints is 3 inches long and costs only a few dollars: a handheld black light. Airport screeners are starting to use them this month to examine driver's licenses and other passenger ID cards presented at checkpoints to spot forgeries or tampering. Passengers with suspicious documents can be questioned by police or immigration agents. Black lights will help screeners inspect the ID cards by illuminating holograms, typically of government seals, that are found in licenses and passports. Screeners also are getting magnifying glasses that highlight tiny inscriptions found in borders of passports and other IDs. About 2,100 of each are going to the nation's 800 airport checkpoints. The closer scrutiny of passenger IDs is the latest Transportation Security Administration effort to check passengers more thoroughly than simply having them walk through metal detectors. In the past six months, the agency has been taking over the checking of passenger IDs and boarding passes at airport checkpoints. For years, security guards hired by airlines have done that....
Agent's death highlights attacks on Border Patrol The off-road enthusiasts were revving their dune buggies and all-terrain vehicles Saturday morning when a brown Hummer suddenly cut into the campground. The man at the wheel, a suspected drug smuggler, was heading to Mexico, fast. U.S. Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar, the only person in the way, threw a spike strip in front of the car. The Hummer sped up. "It looked like the man swerved and hit the agent intentionally," said one witness. Aguilar, struck by the Hummer going an estimated 55 mph, died within minutes. On Sunday, officials released more details about the attack in the Imperial Sand Dunes recreation area, which came amid a surge in assaults against federal agents in many areas along the border in recent months. U.S. authorities said the suspect drove over the dunes back to Mexico along with another vehicle. The FBI, which is handling the investigation, said Mexican authorities are assisting in the probe. Aguilar, 32, a six-year veteran, was part of an anti-smuggling team patrolling the scenic landscape of sand dunes and trailer-dotted campgrounds in southeast California. On weekends, when the dunes fill with riders, Mexican smugglers slip across the open border, trying to blend in with the other off-road vehicles....
U.S. faces 'grave threat' in drug fight Mexican military efforts to crush heavily armed drug-smuggling operations in five cities along the U.S.-Mexico border pose a "grave threat" to U.S. authorities and a half-million Americans in the area, according to former U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service officials. "What we face is more of a challenge than law enforcement can be expected to cope with," said Kent Lundgren, chairman of the 800-member National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO). "The best solution is for the U.S. military to assume armed positions along the border ... and use whatever force is necessary to control the border zone." On Jan. 12, Mexican Brig. Gen. Rigoberto Garcia Cortez said the Mexican military and other personnel had surrounded five border cities in the lower Rio Grande Valley — Matamoros, Reynosa, Rio Bravo, Miguel Aleman and Nuevo Laredo — in response to gunfights between Mexican police, military forces and heavily armed drug smugglers. Gen. Garcia told reporters last week his soldiers were encircling the targeted cities and were "organized to fight all criminal activity." He said it would take time, but the drug smugglers "will not be able to handle the government and the army. ... We are fighting for the security of the nation and its people.". Mr. Lundgren said NAFBPO, whose membership includes eight former chiefs of the Border Patrol and 14 former INS district directors, thinks the next step for the Mexican military will be to begin closing the "noose on the gangs," but the targeted cities "abut the Rio Grande River, the international boundary and Mexican forces must stop there."....
ID Rules To Change For Canada Crossings Defying Congress, the Department of Homeland Security is pushing to tighten identification requirements at U.S. land borders starting Jan. 31, when it no longer will allow Americans or Canadians to enter the country by presenting a driver's license or declaring their citizenship. The change is expected to worsen travel delays and backups along the U.S.-Canada border, which recorded 72 million crossings in 2007. The U.S.-Mexico border is even busier, with 226 million crossings, but noncitizens already need extra documentation to enter the United States there. The shift at the northern border comes despite legislation approved by Congress last month that bars DHS from implementing a post-Sept. 11 regulation that requires all travelers entering the United States to present a passport or similar secure form of identification and proof of citizenship. That rule, passed in 2004 and set to take effect this month, was delayed until June 2009. In pressing ahead, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff restated his belief that failure to act will lead to "another 9/11 Commission" investigating a future attack by foreign intruders....
Airports to inspect ID cards with black lights The newest tool at airport security checkpoints is 3 inches long and costs only a few dollars: a handheld black light. Airport screeners are starting to use them this month to examine driver's licenses and other passenger ID cards presented at checkpoints to spot forgeries or tampering. Passengers with suspicious documents can be questioned by police or immigration agents. Black lights will help screeners inspect the ID cards by illuminating holograms, typically of government seals, that are found in licenses and passports. Screeners also are getting magnifying glasses that highlight tiny inscriptions found in borders of passports and other IDs. About 2,100 of each are going to the nation's 800 airport checkpoints. The closer scrutiny of passenger IDs is the latest Transportation Security Administration effort to check passengers more thoroughly than simply having them walk through metal detectors. In the past six months, the agency has been taking over the checking of passenger IDs and boarding passes at airport checkpoints. For years, security guards hired by airlines have done that....
Monday, January 21, 2008
PARK SERVICE EMPLOYEE & WILDERNESS
The People For Preserving Our Western Heritage website received the following email today. I purposely deleted the "gentleman's" email address.
From: VinCorsello@
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 3:02 PM
To: jdenning@fastwave.biz
Subject: Your website
I went on your website and was reading about what your group has to say.Your group is full of shit. I am a park ranger with the national park service and what I would like to know is where you get this crap from.From what I can see is that your group is just another NEO-CON all for me and none for you group.Somewhere along the way is lots of money involved and or large tax breaks for you and this group.I also suspect wealthy land owners who think they can do what ever the hell they want.Just to let you know that most people out west suport wilderness designation.I am sure your gonna say that this is not true,but believe me that it is.Even in New Mexico there are more people for than people against.Its bullshit that groups like this claim to represent all land owners but the fact is they are only out for there own best interest.Its all about money and thats the bottom line.Money the root of all evil.
Have a great day and keep up the good work of spreading this bullshit.I am sure the there is alot of fools who believe this crap.
Viiny C.
P,S. I am not a Lib or Conservitve (I am more in the middle),I am tired of all this propaganda from both sides.
First, Vin, I would like to compliment you on your command of the English language and your calm and reasonable discussion of the issues. Clearly the Park Service has reached out and hired an outstanding intellect.
You are correct in that most polls show the general public supports wilderness "even in New Mexico." That is true up until the point the ramifications of wilderness designations are explained to them. When it is understood that no mechanized or motorized vehicles are allowed (you can't even ride a bicycle in a wilderness area)...the support drops off. When they realize a wilderness designation discriminates against campers, sportsmen, other recreationists, ranchers and the handicapped community...the support drops off. When they see that law enforcement has no or limited access...the support drops way off (especially in areas along the border with Mexico, which is what PFPOWH is dealing with).
If you really read the proposed legislation you would know their proposal protects the land from development and all forms of mineral leasing and mining. I've worked with these folks and they've authored an alternative to wilderness which preserves our natural resources while still allowing access by the general public. Or, as their logo states, "Preserving land FOR the people not FROM the people." Is it that FOR which bothers you so much?
Your email reeks with animosity towards private landowners, money and people who do "what ever the hell they want." Sounds to me like your problem is with America. Why are you so jealous of the success of others?
PFPOWH is not a 501(c)3, nor are there any salaried staff or officers. Everything has been accomplished by volunteers, and damn them, they all own property, earn money and are freedom-loving.
You say you are in the "middle" politically. I don't think so. The only thing you are in the "middle" of is a certain substance you mentioned several times in your email.
The People For Preserving Our Western Heritage website received the following email today. I purposely deleted the "gentleman's" email address.
From: VinCorsello@
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 3:02 PM
To: jdenning@fastwave.biz
Subject: Your website
I went on your website and was reading about what your group has to say.Your group is full of shit. I am a park ranger with the national park service and what I would like to know is where you get this crap from.From what I can see is that your group is just another NEO-CON all for me and none for you group.Somewhere along the way is lots of money involved and or large tax breaks for you and this group.I also suspect wealthy land owners who think they can do what ever the hell they want.Just to let you know that most people out west suport wilderness designation.I am sure your gonna say that this is not true,but believe me that it is.Even in New Mexico there are more people for than people against.Its bullshit that groups like this claim to represent all land owners but the fact is they are only out for there own best interest.Its all about money and thats the bottom line.Money the root of all evil.
Have a great day and keep up the good work of spreading this bullshit.I am sure the there is alot of fools who believe this crap.
Viiny C.
P,S. I am not a Lib or Conservitve (I am more in the middle),I am tired of all this propaganda from both sides.
First, Vin, I would like to compliment you on your command of the English language and your calm and reasonable discussion of the issues. Clearly the Park Service has reached out and hired an outstanding intellect.
You are correct in that most polls show the general public supports wilderness "even in New Mexico." That is true up until the point the ramifications of wilderness designations are explained to them. When it is understood that no mechanized or motorized vehicles are allowed (you can't even ride a bicycle in a wilderness area)...the support drops off. When they realize a wilderness designation discriminates against campers, sportsmen, other recreationists, ranchers and the handicapped community...the support drops off. When they see that law enforcement has no or limited access...the support drops way off (especially in areas along the border with Mexico, which is what PFPOWH is dealing with).
If you really read the proposed legislation you would know their proposal protects the land from development and all forms of mineral leasing and mining. I've worked with these folks and they've authored an alternative to wilderness which preserves our natural resources while still allowing access by the general public. Or, as their logo states, "Preserving land FOR the people not FROM the people." Is it that FOR which bothers you so much?
Your email reeks with animosity towards private landowners, money and people who do "what ever the hell they want." Sounds to me like your problem is with America. Why are you so jealous of the success of others?
PFPOWH is not a 501(c)3, nor are there any salaried staff or officers. Everything has been accomplished by volunteers, and damn them, they all own property, earn money and are freedom-loving.
You say you are in the "middle" politically. I don't think so. The only thing you are in the "middle" of is a certain substance you mentioned several times in your email.
CAFE Rule Will Add $900 to $10,000 to Cost of Car The new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards - set by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in the new energy bill - will require vehicles to get 35 miles per gallon by the year 2020 and will add somewhere between $900 and $10,000 to the cost of buying a car, dependent upon which expert is consulted. That cost, high or low, will boost the average price of a new car, which will be passed onto consumers, according to carmakers and independent analysts. The Comerica Automotive Affordability Index says that the average cost of a passenger car today is $27, 958. If CAFE standards add $900 to the price of a car, it will raise the average car price to $28,858; but if the CAFE regulations cost closer to $10,000 to implement, the average price could go up to $37,958. Bob Lutz, vice chairman at General Motors, predicts the highest increase per vehicle -between $4,000 and $10,000 - with the average about $6,000....
Antarctic volcanoes identified as a possible culprit in glacier melting Another factor might be contributing to the thinning of some of the Antarctica's glaciers: volcanoes. In an article published Sunday on the Web site of the journal Nature Geoscience, Hugh Corr and David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey report the identification of a layer of volcanic ash and glass shards frozen within an ice sheet in western Antarctica. "This is the first time we have seen a volcano beneath the ice sheet punch a hole through the ice sheet" in Antarctica, Vaughan said. Volcanic heat could still be melting ice to water and contributing to thinning and speeding up of the Pine Island glacier, which passes nearby, but Vaughan said he doubted that it could be affecting other glaciers in western Antarctica, which have also thinned in recent years. Most glaciologists, including Vaughan, say that warmer ocean water is the primary cause of thinning....
Wolves in delisting cross hairs Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing to remove the species from federal protection in the Northern Rockies, marking a watershed moment for one of history's most studied and controversial predators. Although the so-called delisting is expected to start in late March, the future of the northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf remains uncertain. Conservation groups plan to file lawsuits against the delisting, while Montana, Idaho and Wyoming prepare to assume full management of wolves within their borders, including possible wolf hunts this fall. Rather than settling the wolf debate, the delisting promises to renew it. “Wolves and wolf management have nothing to do with reality,” said Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “The whole thing is about symbolism and rhetoric and the BS flying around from all sides instead of focusing on the science.”....
Massive ranch will be protected San Felipe Ranch, the largest privately owned property in Santa Clara County and a rustic, personal retreat for Silicon Valley pioneers Bill Hewlett and David Packard for more than four decades, will forever be protected from development under a landmark deal to be announced Monday. The nine adult children of Hewlett and Packard will still own the property but have donated the development rights - worth about $40 million - to the sprawling 10-mile-long ranch in the foothills east of San Jose to the Nature Conservancy, a non-profit land trust in San Francisco. The gift ranks as one of the largest private environmental gifts in California history. "This property is an amazing place. It meant a whole lot to our parents," said Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. "We just felt it was a great opportunity for our generation to ensure the place stays in a natural state for the future."....
Energy policy carves up Wyoming I knew it was not a terribly smart idea to drive straight into the face of a blizzard, but I had a mission. I wanted to see the scars on Buck Brannaman's land -- the ones that made the famous horse whisperer vote for a Democrat for the first time in 20 years. The next morning, I finally reached Buck's ranch 11 miles out of Sheridan to see Jack's point illustrated. Over a ridge beyond Buck's house and horse barn, a pristine meadow rolls out toward the Bighorn Mountains -- only now, with 11 abandoned well sites and a road scraped into the land, it's not so pristine. The joke, of course, was that all that snow I drove through had covered the damage, so I couldn't actually see it. But Mary Brannaman, Buck's wife, had plenty of pictures she shot as evidence during the five angry years she and Buck fought with the methane company while being treated like annoying squatters on their own property. As in much of the West, title to the land doesn't necessarily give a landowner rights to the minerals underground. In Wyoming and elsewhere, ranchers must often share their wide-open spaces with extracting operators who aren't always polite company. Most ranchers put up with it because they can't afford to oppose powerful corporations who have buddies in the state capital. Buck is an exception. His horse-training technique helped inspire the novel "The Horse Whisperer," and he was Robert Redford's adviser and stunt double for the movie version of the tale. As a young cowboy, he eked out a living doing rope tricks and riding rough stock at rodeos. Now, he conducts horsemanship clinics on more than one continent. His success gave him the means to fight Paxton Resources LLC all the way to the Wyoming Supreme Court, where, in 2004, the court let stand a local jury's award of $810,887 in damages to the Brannamans....
Carnivores released into wild 'fail and die' Most carnivores bred in captivity and released back into the wild fail to cope and die, according to a study published on Monday. Researchers are calling for a complete rethink of such reintroductions before others are carried out, including the suggested release of animals such as the lynx, wildcat and wolf into Scotland. The study looked at reintroductions involving such carnivores as lynx, Amur tiger, cheetah, brown bear and otter, and found only one in three captive-bred animals released into their natural habitat survived. Most of the deaths were caused by human activities, suggested the captive-bred animals were too trusting of humans, and some starved to death because they did not know how to hunt. Kirsten Jule, lead author of the paper, said: "Animals in captivity do not usually have the natural behaviours needed for success in the wild. Their lack of hunting skills and their lack of fear towards humans are major disadvantages." The scientists from Exeter University looked at 45 reintroductions, involving 17 carnivore species. It found that over half the animals were killed by humans, generally in shootings and car accidents. The study, published online in the journal Biological Conservation, also found captive animals were more susceptible to starvation and disease than their wild counterparts and less able to form successful social groups....
Wolf tracks found in RMNP Dr. Dave Augeri crouched close to the snow Thursday, his eyes trained on a track left in the powder less than 24 hours earlier. A smile broke his concentration, and he said, “Looks like we got lucky.” The wildlife biologist from the Denver Zoo had found his first evidence of a possible wild wolf in the national park — about six weeks after park volunteers reported spotting a wolf and park staffers found similar tracks. At first glance, the researcher said the print was too large to be that of a coyote and had the telltale signs of a large canine: toes, pad and claws. After discussing his observations and sharing photos with another expert, Dr. Richard Reading, Augeri said both men confirmed the print belongs to a wolf or a wolf-dog hybrid. Augeri and his research assistant, Stephanie Graham, battled wind gusts up to 32 mph and temperatures as cold as 23 below zero Thursday to check cameras placed to capture predator activity and to look for tracks off the paths. Augeri’s cameras have been in the park for more than a year to study the patterns and connections of predators to their prey. But it wasn’t until after the possible wolf sighting Dec. 4 that his team placed five cameras in areas strategically chosen to capture images of the possible wolf....
The New American Gentry The word "gentrification" conjures up images of once-poor urban neighborhoods invaded by cappuccino bars and million-dollar condos. Now, broad swaths of rural America -- from New England to the Rocky Mountain West -- are being gussied up, too. Affluent retirees and other high-income types have descended on these remote areas, creating new demand for amenities like interior-design stores, spas and organic markets. For many communities, it's the biggest change since the interstate highway system came barreling through in the 1960s and 1970s. With the Internet allowing people to work from almost anywhere, the distinction between first and second homes has become blurred. Many people are buying retirement property while they're still employed. Millions of soon-to-retire baby boomers, say demographers, will propel this trend for years to come. Such change can create social tensions, as longtime residents are either driven away because they can no longer afford housing or are forced to adapt to new careers. The impact of rural gentrification is playing out in this lakeside town, situated roughly 100 miles from Boise in Valley County. For decades it's been home to ranchers, farmers and timber workers. It has also served as a weekend retreat for residents throughout the state who flocked to Payette Lake for summer fishing and boating. Today, Valley County is attracting newcomers from as far away as New York and Sydney....
In the past 30 years, bovines get beefier Anyone struggling to stuff postholiday thighs into preholiday pants can take comfort in one thing: Humans aren't the only species weighing more these days. Cattle are getting bigger too. Between 1970 and 2006, the average weight of the cattle walking around our nation's plains and our city's National Western Stock Show has ballooned 23 percent, from 1,035 pounds to 1,275 pounds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. During the same time, the average dressed weight — the carcass product — from each animal has gone up 25 percent, from 624 pounds to 781 pounds. Bigger cattle, of course, mean bigger steaks. The average rib-eye steak, for example, was about 11 square inches in 1970. It's more like 16 square inches today, said Keith E. Belk, Colorado State University professor of animal sciences....
Corn prices wallop cattlemen in wallet Corn is hot these days and that means big problems for Colorado's ranchers. Strides made in ethanol production and a global demand for corn have pushed prices to record highs of nearly $5 a bushel. That's been great news for corn growers, but Colorado Livestock Association chief executive Bill Hammerick said it is the biggest factor hurting ranchers' profits. "Ranchers have always known when corn prices rise, cattle prices fall," said Jeff Olson, a cattle rancher from Haigler, Neb., attending the National Western Stock Show. "But ranchers are just losing now. Why would a corn farmer risk selling some of his crop for feed when it's guaranteed much more money as a cash crop?" Corn is the most common feed used for livestock, and increased demand has about doubled the price of corn-gluten feed, from $70 a ton in 2002 to $134.17 in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hammerick said ethanol production is the chief industry siphoning corn from ranchers....
Boy, 6, meets cowboy bent on living his faith Six-year-old Reese Lory found his hero during Sunday's worship service at the National Western Stock Show. A few days before, Reese was just another kid eating with his family in a Country Buffet. Then he looked up and saw Grant Adkisson, big, broad-shouldered, wearing his cowboy hat. Hailing from more than a century of Colorado ranchers, Adkisson had that long, steady look that seems to be burned into a cowboy's DNA. Reese, a city kid from Aurora, had never seen anything like it. "Mom," he asked, "Can I go up and talk to him?" Maria Lory, who is divorced and glad when her boy can meet honorable men as mentors, said yes. Shyly, Reese walked up and said hello. Immediately, Maria Lory marveled, the cowboy- stranger crouched down to Reese's level and started to chat. And that's how, on Sunday, Reese Lory and his family ended up in the last place they ever expected - in a crowd of several hundred worshipers led by Adkisson, who is director of the national Fellowship of Christian Cowboys....
19th century hothead worked both sides of the law One of the most feared men in 19th century Los Angeles wore a badge. Both his temper and his trigger finger were notoriously quick, and, after a business partner he had defrauded shot him to death, hundreds attended his funeral but few mourned him. Joseph Franklin Dye was a lawman, oilman and rancher who dispensed his own form of justice in 1870 by killing his boss, City Marshal William Warren. But that was hardly Dye's only brush with the wrong side of the law, according to newspaper accounts and a recently published book. Born in Kentucky in 1831 as one of 16 children in a family that later settled in Texas, Dye began his life of violence in his 20s. According to William B. Secrest's 2007 book, "California Badmen," Dye left the family farm at age 22 and worked throughout the Southwest for several years as a miner and mule-team driver. He shot a man, wounding him in the neck during a fight over a card game. Secrest's research put Dye in California during the Civil War, when the state was a hotbed of Confederate sympathizers. "Everything points to him joining a gang of killers and robbers called the Mason-Henry gang," Secrest said in a recent interview. After the war, Dye was hired as a special deputy in El Monte, tracking down thieves as far away as Salt Lake City. In 1867, impressed with Dye's tracking and shooting skills, Los Angeles City Marshal Warren, a former Union soldier serving in a job equivalent to today's chief of police, hired Dye to patrol Chinatown, where gambling halls, saloons and bordellos flourished....
Antarctic volcanoes identified as a possible culprit in glacier melting Another factor might be contributing to the thinning of some of the Antarctica's glaciers: volcanoes. In an article published Sunday on the Web site of the journal Nature Geoscience, Hugh Corr and David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey report the identification of a layer of volcanic ash and glass shards frozen within an ice sheet in western Antarctica. "This is the first time we have seen a volcano beneath the ice sheet punch a hole through the ice sheet" in Antarctica, Vaughan said. Volcanic heat could still be melting ice to water and contributing to thinning and speeding up of the Pine Island glacier, which passes nearby, but Vaughan said he doubted that it could be affecting other glaciers in western Antarctica, which have also thinned in recent years. Most glaciologists, including Vaughan, say that warmer ocean water is the primary cause of thinning....
Wolves in delisting cross hairs Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing to remove the species from federal protection in the Northern Rockies, marking a watershed moment for one of history's most studied and controversial predators. Although the so-called delisting is expected to start in late March, the future of the northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf remains uncertain. Conservation groups plan to file lawsuits against the delisting, while Montana, Idaho and Wyoming prepare to assume full management of wolves within their borders, including possible wolf hunts this fall. Rather than settling the wolf debate, the delisting promises to renew it. “Wolves and wolf management have nothing to do with reality,” said Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “The whole thing is about symbolism and rhetoric and the BS flying around from all sides instead of focusing on the science.”....
Massive ranch will be protected San Felipe Ranch, the largest privately owned property in Santa Clara County and a rustic, personal retreat for Silicon Valley pioneers Bill Hewlett and David Packard for more than four decades, will forever be protected from development under a landmark deal to be announced Monday. The nine adult children of Hewlett and Packard will still own the property but have donated the development rights - worth about $40 million - to the sprawling 10-mile-long ranch in the foothills east of San Jose to the Nature Conservancy, a non-profit land trust in San Francisco. The gift ranks as one of the largest private environmental gifts in California history. "This property is an amazing place. It meant a whole lot to our parents," said Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. "We just felt it was a great opportunity for our generation to ensure the place stays in a natural state for the future."....
Energy policy carves up Wyoming I knew it was not a terribly smart idea to drive straight into the face of a blizzard, but I had a mission. I wanted to see the scars on Buck Brannaman's land -- the ones that made the famous horse whisperer vote for a Democrat for the first time in 20 years. The next morning, I finally reached Buck's ranch 11 miles out of Sheridan to see Jack's point illustrated. Over a ridge beyond Buck's house and horse barn, a pristine meadow rolls out toward the Bighorn Mountains -- only now, with 11 abandoned well sites and a road scraped into the land, it's not so pristine. The joke, of course, was that all that snow I drove through had covered the damage, so I couldn't actually see it. But Mary Brannaman, Buck's wife, had plenty of pictures she shot as evidence during the five angry years she and Buck fought with the methane company while being treated like annoying squatters on their own property. As in much of the West, title to the land doesn't necessarily give a landowner rights to the minerals underground. In Wyoming and elsewhere, ranchers must often share their wide-open spaces with extracting operators who aren't always polite company. Most ranchers put up with it because they can't afford to oppose powerful corporations who have buddies in the state capital. Buck is an exception. His horse-training technique helped inspire the novel "The Horse Whisperer," and he was Robert Redford's adviser and stunt double for the movie version of the tale. As a young cowboy, he eked out a living doing rope tricks and riding rough stock at rodeos. Now, he conducts horsemanship clinics on more than one continent. His success gave him the means to fight Paxton Resources LLC all the way to the Wyoming Supreme Court, where, in 2004, the court let stand a local jury's award of $810,887 in damages to the Brannamans....
Carnivores released into wild 'fail and die' Most carnivores bred in captivity and released back into the wild fail to cope and die, according to a study published on Monday. Researchers are calling for a complete rethink of such reintroductions before others are carried out, including the suggested release of animals such as the lynx, wildcat and wolf into Scotland. The study looked at reintroductions involving such carnivores as lynx, Amur tiger, cheetah, brown bear and otter, and found only one in three captive-bred animals released into their natural habitat survived. Most of the deaths were caused by human activities, suggested the captive-bred animals were too trusting of humans, and some starved to death because they did not know how to hunt. Kirsten Jule, lead author of the paper, said: "Animals in captivity do not usually have the natural behaviours needed for success in the wild. Their lack of hunting skills and their lack of fear towards humans are major disadvantages." The scientists from Exeter University looked at 45 reintroductions, involving 17 carnivore species. It found that over half the animals were killed by humans, generally in shootings and car accidents. The study, published online in the journal Biological Conservation, also found captive animals were more susceptible to starvation and disease than their wild counterparts and less able to form successful social groups....
Wolf tracks found in RMNP Dr. Dave Augeri crouched close to the snow Thursday, his eyes trained on a track left in the powder less than 24 hours earlier. A smile broke his concentration, and he said, “Looks like we got lucky.” The wildlife biologist from the Denver Zoo had found his first evidence of a possible wild wolf in the national park — about six weeks after park volunteers reported spotting a wolf and park staffers found similar tracks. At first glance, the researcher said the print was too large to be that of a coyote and had the telltale signs of a large canine: toes, pad and claws. After discussing his observations and sharing photos with another expert, Dr. Richard Reading, Augeri said both men confirmed the print belongs to a wolf or a wolf-dog hybrid. Augeri and his research assistant, Stephanie Graham, battled wind gusts up to 32 mph and temperatures as cold as 23 below zero Thursday to check cameras placed to capture predator activity and to look for tracks off the paths. Augeri’s cameras have been in the park for more than a year to study the patterns and connections of predators to their prey. But it wasn’t until after the possible wolf sighting Dec. 4 that his team placed five cameras in areas strategically chosen to capture images of the possible wolf....
The New American Gentry The word "gentrification" conjures up images of once-poor urban neighborhoods invaded by cappuccino bars and million-dollar condos. Now, broad swaths of rural America -- from New England to the Rocky Mountain West -- are being gussied up, too. Affluent retirees and other high-income types have descended on these remote areas, creating new demand for amenities like interior-design stores, spas and organic markets. For many communities, it's the biggest change since the interstate highway system came barreling through in the 1960s and 1970s. With the Internet allowing people to work from almost anywhere, the distinction between first and second homes has become blurred. Many people are buying retirement property while they're still employed. Millions of soon-to-retire baby boomers, say demographers, will propel this trend for years to come. Such change can create social tensions, as longtime residents are either driven away because they can no longer afford housing or are forced to adapt to new careers. The impact of rural gentrification is playing out in this lakeside town, situated roughly 100 miles from Boise in Valley County. For decades it's been home to ranchers, farmers and timber workers. It has also served as a weekend retreat for residents throughout the state who flocked to Payette Lake for summer fishing and boating. Today, Valley County is attracting newcomers from as far away as New York and Sydney....
In the past 30 years, bovines get beefier Anyone struggling to stuff postholiday thighs into preholiday pants can take comfort in one thing: Humans aren't the only species weighing more these days. Cattle are getting bigger too. Between 1970 and 2006, the average weight of the cattle walking around our nation's plains and our city's National Western Stock Show has ballooned 23 percent, from 1,035 pounds to 1,275 pounds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. During the same time, the average dressed weight — the carcass product — from each animal has gone up 25 percent, from 624 pounds to 781 pounds. Bigger cattle, of course, mean bigger steaks. The average rib-eye steak, for example, was about 11 square inches in 1970. It's more like 16 square inches today, said Keith E. Belk, Colorado State University professor of animal sciences....
Corn prices wallop cattlemen in wallet Corn is hot these days and that means big problems for Colorado's ranchers. Strides made in ethanol production and a global demand for corn have pushed prices to record highs of nearly $5 a bushel. That's been great news for corn growers, but Colorado Livestock Association chief executive Bill Hammerick said it is the biggest factor hurting ranchers' profits. "Ranchers have always known when corn prices rise, cattle prices fall," said Jeff Olson, a cattle rancher from Haigler, Neb., attending the National Western Stock Show. "But ranchers are just losing now. Why would a corn farmer risk selling some of his crop for feed when it's guaranteed much more money as a cash crop?" Corn is the most common feed used for livestock, and increased demand has about doubled the price of corn-gluten feed, from $70 a ton in 2002 to $134.17 in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hammerick said ethanol production is the chief industry siphoning corn from ranchers....
Boy, 6, meets cowboy bent on living his faith Six-year-old Reese Lory found his hero during Sunday's worship service at the National Western Stock Show. A few days before, Reese was just another kid eating with his family in a Country Buffet. Then he looked up and saw Grant Adkisson, big, broad-shouldered, wearing his cowboy hat. Hailing from more than a century of Colorado ranchers, Adkisson had that long, steady look that seems to be burned into a cowboy's DNA. Reese, a city kid from Aurora, had never seen anything like it. "Mom," he asked, "Can I go up and talk to him?" Maria Lory, who is divorced and glad when her boy can meet honorable men as mentors, said yes. Shyly, Reese walked up and said hello. Immediately, Maria Lory marveled, the cowboy- stranger crouched down to Reese's level and started to chat. And that's how, on Sunday, Reese Lory and his family ended up in the last place they ever expected - in a crowd of several hundred worshipers led by Adkisson, who is director of the national Fellowship of Christian Cowboys....
19th century hothead worked both sides of the law One of the most feared men in 19th century Los Angeles wore a badge. Both his temper and his trigger finger were notoriously quick, and, after a business partner he had defrauded shot him to death, hundreds attended his funeral but few mourned him. Joseph Franklin Dye was a lawman, oilman and rancher who dispensed his own form of justice in 1870 by killing his boss, City Marshal William Warren. But that was hardly Dye's only brush with the wrong side of the law, according to newspaper accounts and a recently published book. Born in Kentucky in 1831 as one of 16 children in a family that later settled in Texas, Dye began his life of violence in his 20s. According to William B. Secrest's 2007 book, "California Badmen," Dye left the family farm at age 22 and worked throughout the Southwest for several years as a miner and mule-team driver. He shot a man, wounding him in the neck during a fight over a card game. Secrest's research put Dye in California during the Civil War, when the state was a hotbed of Confederate sympathizers. "Everything points to him joining a gang of killers and robbers called the Mason-Henry gang," Secrest said in a recent interview. After the war, Dye was hired as a special deputy in El Monte, tracking down thieves as far away as Salt Lake City. In 1867, impressed with Dye's tracking and shooting skills, Los Angeles City Marshal Warren, a former Union soldier serving in a job equivalent to today's chief of police, hired Dye to patrol Chinatown, where gambling halls, saloons and bordellos flourished....
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