NMSU HAS FOUR NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!
The College National Finals Rodeo was just completed this evening in Casper, Wyoming, and NMSU has four national champions and the Women's Team placed second in the nation, just 38 points out of first place.
The National Champions from NMSU are:
Wyatt Althoff - All Around Cowboy
Johnny Salvo - Tie Down Roping
Bailey Gow - Barrel Racing
Megan Corey - Goat Tying
I'll have more details later.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
NM Game Chief Pleads No Contest To Hunting Violations State Department of Game and Fish director Bruce Thompson pleaded no contest Friday to a combined charge of unlawful hunting and illegal possession in connection with a Lincoln County deer hunting incident last year. Thompson was fined $500 and sentenced to 182 days of unsupervised probation. Thompson, who earlier had pleaded not guilty, changed his plea Friday just hours before a scheduled bench trial with 12th Judicial District Division III Judge Karen Parsons in Carrizozo, District Attorney Scot Key said. Thompson originally faced two charges in connection with the November deer hunting incident: a charge in magistrate court for shooting a deer on private land without the owner's permission; and a charge in state District Court of illegal hunting/illegal possession. He received separate sentences from the two courts. The two 182-day probation periods will run concurrently, Key said, which means his probation could end in August. The charges stemmed from a Nov. 17 hunt in Lincoln County during which Thompson, who had a valid deer hunting license, shot a deer on the privately owned Diamond T Ranch. It is illegal to hunt on private property in New Mexico without written permission from the landowner, and Thompson had not received permission to hunt on the Diamond T....
Friday, June 20, 2008
Ecoterrorist Sentenced to Six Years A California woman convicted in an ecoterrorism attack at the University of Washington has been sentenced to six years in prison and to pay $6 million in restitution. A Seattle television station, KIRO, reported that the woman, Briana Waters of Berkeley, had asked for mercy because she has a 3-year-old daughter. Prosecutors had recommended a 10-year sentence. Ms. Waters, 32, was sentenced in Federal District Court in Tacoma after being convicted of arson on March 6. She was a student at Evergreen State College in 2001 when she acted as a lookout as others set fire to the Center for Urban Horticulture. The Earth Liberation Front, a loosely organized radical environmental group that has been linked to acts of ecoterrorism in the Northwest, claimed responsibility because it believed, mistakenly, that a researcher was genetically modifying poplar trees. The blaze, which destroyed the plant research center, was one of at least 17 fires set from 1996 to 2001 by the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. In all, more than a dozen people were arrested; four suspects remain at large....
The politics of intimidation In his essay “The latest trend in name-calling” (HCN, June 9, 2008) Ed Quillen has again given us food for thought as well as entertaining observations. Ed identifies use of the word “Eco-terrorists” by both environmentalists and their opponents with emergence of the Bush Administration’s “global war on terror” after 9/11. But in fact use of the term by opponents of the Environmental Movement emerged much earlier. I should know; I have been labeled an “eco-terrorist” many times over the past fifteen years or so by those who oppose my work as a forest and river activist. I first began hearing the term “eco-terrorist” used to describe environmentalists in the early 1990s – in the middle of the struggle over the Northern Spotted Owl and the Ancient Forests of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest....
Wyden proposes forest restoration and old growth protection Sen. Ron Wyden has drafted a bill designed to stop the long-standing battles over forests in Oregon by prohibiting the logging of old growth, providing a steady stream of timber and restoring the health of stands in danger from wildfire and insects. The Oregon Democrat hopes to file the bill this year, with the ultimate goal of getting a nationwide discussion of forest policy going that will capture the interest of the new president taking office next year. "For the sake of our environment, economy and our way of life, we must come together to pursue a concerted, new focus on sustainable forestry management that will create thousands of new jobs and restore the health of our forests," Wyden said in a statement. "The only way to produce this kind of change is put new ideas forward, seek common ground, and break away from the old politics that led us to this dysfunctional and dangerous situation." The Wyden bill is intended to turn the focus of the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management from timber production to forest restoration, said Josh Kardon, Wyden's chief of staff. But even with a focus on restoration, preliminary estimates are that the bill would significantly boost timber production from federal lands, Johnson said. The bill divides forests into those that are dry, primarily on the east side of the Cascades, and those that are moist, primarily on the west side of the Cascades. In moist forests, stands and individual trees older than 120 years would be off-limits to logging. In dry forests, trees older than 150 years could not be cut, but younger trees in those stands would be logged to reduce fire danger, improve forest health, and promote fish and wildlife habitat....
BLM plans geothermal meetings as West's energy hunger grows Federal land managers will hold meetings in 11 Western states and Alaska next month on a plan to accelerate development of geothermal resources to help supply the region's rapacious appetite for energy. The 13 scheduled meetings start July 8 in Anchorage and conclude July 30 in Sacramento, with a session planned for Boise on July 21. As part of its 2005 energy plan, Congress gave marching orders to federal agencies to take stock of the region's geothermal resources. Among other things, land managers at the meetings will discuss efforts to identify Western public lands with geothermal potential and open them to development....
U.S. Forest Service cuts grazing on National Grasslands The U.S. Forest Service manages grasses in the National Grasslands. They communicate with the grazing associations in their region to work out contract agreements and manage for grass conditions. This year, Forest Service district ranger Ron Jablonski, who manages the Medora district in southwestern North Dakota, decided the drought had significantly affected grass growth in the district. He decided grazing needed to be cut 30 percent across the board in National Grasslands in Slope and Billings counties. Jerry Lambourn, a cow-calf operator 18 miles north of Rhame, said he was “surprised” when the Little Missouri Grazing Association received a fax telling them about the 30 percent cuts. His federal grassland pastures are in a region that received good moisture from the spring snowstorm in South Dakota. In fact, his pastures had received “just short of 5 inches” and were green when he attended the annual meeting at the grazing association. The fax arrived at the meeting during a break when no one was in the office. The ranchers returned and found the fax. “I was surprised because we have had a lot of moisture this spring,” Lambourn said. Pope thought the timing of the fax was unusual because U.S. Forest Service personnel were coming in person that afternoon to give a talk at the meeting anyway. “The Forest Service did not come out and check the allotments with us before they decided on this 30 percent across-the-board cut,” Pope said. “With 5 inches of rain, it's not needed.”....
Study: Removing biomass from forests does no harm and prevents fires Things are changing in the woods. In the past, loggers would cut down trees, and take the trunks to the sawmills and pulp mills, and leave the tree tops and branches on the ground to rot and feed the soil, to support the next generation of trees. About a year and a half ago, the Iron Range cities of Virginia and Hibbing built a boiler that would burn wood to produce electricity. Since then, loggers have been chipping up some of the tops and branches and hauling the chips to the boiler. Don Arnosti was one of many environmentalists who worried about how much of that biomass could be removed from the woods without harming the forest. He was also aware of another problem: the branches, and even young trees, provide fuel for forest fires. "When you have high volumes of this material, you can have large catastrophic fires like we've experienced twice in the last couple of years," says Arnosti, a forestry expert with the non-profit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis who organized the study. Arnosti recruited some university researchers, loggers, and officials from the Superior National Forest. They set up a series of nine experimental biomass harvests....
U.S. set to track environment The White House has directed four agencies to develop yardsticks for charting changes in the amount and quality of the nation's water. Clay Johnson, a deputy director of the White House budget office, said Tuesday that various indicators will be used to evaluate whether environmental policies and programs are working. The water benchmarks will not be released until 2009, according to administration officials. That will be too late to evaluate the effectiveness of the Bush administration's environmental policies. The Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Forest Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were directed to develop the indicators.
New Mexico 4-Wheelers - 50 Years Of Trail Riding 1958-2008 It's been an exciting 50-year ride for the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based New Mexico 4-Wheelers (NM4W). Incorporated in 1958, the original club name was Albuquerque Jeep Herders. However, the club was never restricted to Jeeps, and the name, New Mexico 4-Wheelers, was adopted in 1976. Regardless of name, the club has always been committed to fun, safe, responsible, and family-oriented off-highway adventure. Twenty people attended the first Albuquerque Jeep Herders meeting held on August 6, 1958. The newspaper notice invited "all owners of vehicles with 4WD or rough-road capabilities." One of the first club runs was to the Mt. Taylor area of the Cibola National Forest, 70 miles west of Albuquerque. It was September 1958, and four vehicles participated: a CJ-3, CJ-5, and two Willys Station Wagons. The off-highway section was a Forest Service road that wound up the mountains through pine forests and open meadows and ended at the La Mosca Peak fire lookout (elevation 11,038 feet). Those carburetors must have been well-tuned!....
State stops aerial pesticide spraying over neighborhoods In a victory for thousands of Northern California residents, state officials Thursday announced they will no longer aerially spray urban areas with chemicals to fight the invasive light brown apple moth. Instead, planes will spray pheromone CheckMate LBAM-F over agricultural or undeveloped areas only, according to state Department of Food and Agriculture Director A.G. Kawamura. The decision follows months of protests and lawsuits from residents of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, and around California, after airplanes sprayed parts of the two counties with the chemicals last year. "We want to move away from the tools of the past," said A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the state's Department of Food and Agriculture. "Our focus right now is, let's all work together to eradicate this pest." The Monterey Bay counties originally were slated to be sprayed again with CheckMate LBAM-F this summer, along with others in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. The chemical pheromone mimics the smell of female moths and distracts the males from mating. Judges in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, as well as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, stalled those plans last month until environmental reviews and health tests wrapped up. Now, though, the state's plan to aerially spray neighborhoods to fight the apple moth has been tossed....
Thoroughbred industry in Congressional hot seat Lawmakers examining the health and safety of thoroughbred racehorses on Thursday advocated for a centralized governing authority that would regulate the sport, as critics of the racing industry called for congressional intervention to create that body. "We're looking for Arnold Schwarzenegger's upper body and then we go to Don Knotts' legs and knees," said Jess Jackson, owner of Curlin, the 2007 Horse of the Year. "We don't need all of the inbreeding we have. I go to Argentina to buy horses; I go to Germany to buy horses because they have stronger bones and better knees. We need a league and a commissioner. We need action, please. Congress, help." The hearing by a House consumer protection subcommittee came less than two months after the post-race death of filly Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby, an event that created a public outcry and a sense of urgency for reform from inside and outside the sport. Critics want a body that would regulate the industry, rather than leaving the ability to enforce rules and penalties to each of the 38 states where thoroughbred racing is permitted. "They are like fiefdoms, and they each have their Nero-like CEOs," Arthur Hancock, a longtime thoroughbred owner and breeder, told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection. "We are too fragmented and too diverse. . . . Only a federal racing commission or commissioner can save us from ourselves." The meeting, called by Reps. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.), the panel's chairman, and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), also examined breeding practices, the safety of various track surfaces and the use of steroids....
The politics of intimidation In his essay “The latest trend in name-calling” (HCN, June 9, 2008) Ed Quillen has again given us food for thought as well as entertaining observations. Ed identifies use of the word “Eco-terrorists” by both environmentalists and their opponents with emergence of the Bush Administration’s “global war on terror” after 9/11. But in fact use of the term by opponents of the Environmental Movement emerged much earlier. I should know; I have been labeled an “eco-terrorist” many times over the past fifteen years or so by those who oppose my work as a forest and river activist. I first began hearing the term “eco-terrorist” used to describe environmentalists in the early 1990s – in the middle of the struggle over the Northern Spotted Owl and the Ancient Forests of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest....
Wyden proposes forest restoration and old growth protection Sen. Ron Wyden has drafted a bill designed to stop the long-standing battles over forests in Oregon by prohibiting the logging of old growth, providing a steady stream of timber and restoring the health of stands in danger from wildfire and insects. The Oregon Democrat hopes to file the bill this year, with the ultimate goal of getting a nationwide discussion of forest policy going that will capture the interest of the new president taking office next year. "For the sake of our environment, economy and our way of life, we must come together to pursue a concerted, new focus on sustainable forestry management that will create thousands of new jobs and restore the health of our forests," Wyden said in a statement. "The only way to produce this kind of change is put new ideas forward, seek common ground, and break away from the old politics that led us to this dysfunctional and dangerous situation." The Wyden bill is intended to turn the focus of the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management from timber production to forest restoration, said Josh Kardon, Wyden's chief of staff. But even with a focus on restoration, preliminary estimates are that the bill would significantly boost timber production from federal lands, Johnson said. The bill divides forests into those that are dry, primarily on the east side of the Cascades, and those that are moist, primarily on the west side of the Cascades. In moist forests, stands and individual trees older than 120 years would be off-limits to logging. In dry forests, trees older than 150 years could not be cut, but younger trees in those stands would be logged to reduce fire danger, improve forest health, and promote fish and wildlife habitat....
BLM plans geothermal meetings as West's energy hunger grows Federal land managers will hold meetings in 11 Western states and Alaska next month on a plan to accelerate development of geothermal resources to help supply the region's rapacious appetite for energy. The 13 scheduled meetings start July 8 in Anchorage and conclude July 30 in Sacramento, with a session planned for Boise on July 21. As part of its 2005 energy plan, Congress gave marching orders to federal agencies to take stock of the region's geothermal resources. Among other things, land managers at the meetings will discuss efforts to identify Western public lands with geothermal potential and open them to development....
U.S. Forest Service cuts grazing on National Grasslands The U.S. Forest Service manages grasses in the National Grasslands. They communicate with the grazing associations in their region to work out contract agreements and manage for grass conditions. This year, Forest Service district ranger Ron Jablonski, who manages the Medora district in southwestern North Dakota, decided the drought had significantly affected grass growth in the district. He decided grazing needed to be cut 30 percent across the board in National Grasslands in Slope and Billings counties. Jerry Lambourn, a cow-calf operator 18 miles north of Rhame, said he was “surprised” when the Little Missouri Grazing Association received a fax telling them about the 30 percent cuts. His federal grassland pastures are in a region that received good moisture from the spring snowstorm in South Dakota. In fact, his pastures had received “just short of 5 inches” and were green when he attended the annual meeting at the grazing association. The fax arrived at the meeting during a break when no one was in the office. The ranchers returned and found the fax. “I was surprised because we have had a lot of moisture this spring,” Lambourn said. Pope thought the timing of the fax was unusual because U.S. Forest Service personnel were coming in person that afternoon to give a talk at the meeting anyway. “The Forest Service did not come out and check the allotments with us before they decided on this 30 percent across-the-board cut,” Pope said. “With 5 inches of rain, it's not needed.”....
Study: Removing biomass from forests does no harm and prevents fires Things are changing in the woods. In the past, loggers would cut down trees, and take the trunks to the sawmills and pulp mills, and leave the tree tops and branches on the ground to rot and feed the soil, to support the next generation of trees. About a year and a half ago, the Iron Range cities of Virginia and Hibbing built a boiler that would burn wood to produce electricity. Since then, loggers have been chipping up some of the tops and branches and hauling the chips to the boiler. Don Arnosti was one of many environmentalists who worried about how much of that biomass could be removed from the woods without harming the forest. He was also aware of another problem: the branches, and even young trees, provide fuel for forest fires. "When you have high volumes of this material, you can have large catastrophic fires like we've experienced twice in the last couple of years," says Arnosti, a forestry expert with the non-profit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis who organized the study. Arnosti recruited some university researchers, loggers, and officials from the Superior National Forest. They set up a series of nine experimental biomass harvests....
U.S. set to track environment The White House has directed four agencies to develop yardsticks for charting changes in the amount and quality of the nation's water. Clay Johnson, a deputy director of the White House budget office, said Tuesday that various indicators will be used to evaluate whether environmental policies and programs are working. The water benchmarks will not be released until 2009, according to administration officials. That will be too late to evaluate the effectiveness of the Bush administration's environmental policies. The Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Forest Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were directed to develop the indicators.
New Mexico 4-Wheelers - 50 Years Of Trail Riding 1958-2008 It's been an exciting 50-year ride for the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based New Mexico 4-Wheelers (NM4W). Incorporated in 1958, the original club name was Albuquerque Jeep Herders. However, the club was never restricted to Jeeps, and the name, New Mexico 4-Wheelers, was adopted in 1976. Regardless of name, the club has always been committed to fun, safe, responsible, and family-oriented off-highway adventure. Twenty people attended the first Albuquerque Jeep Herders meeting held on August 6, 1958. The newspaper notice invited "all owners of vehicles with 4WD or rough-road capabilities." One of the first club runs was to the Mt. Taylor area of the Cibola National Forest, 70 miles west of Albuquerque. It was September 1958, and four vehicles participated: a CJ-3, CJ-5, and two Willys Station Wagons. The off-highway section was a Forest Service road that wound up the mountains through pine forests and open meadows and ended at the La Mosca Peak fire lookout (elevation 11,038 feet). Those carburetors must have been well-tuned!....
State stops aerial pesticide spraying over neighborhoods In a victory for thousands of Northern California residents, state officials Thursday announced they will no longer aerially spray urban areas with chemicals to fight the invasive light brown apple moth. Instead, planes will spray pheromone CheckMate LBAM-F over agricultural or undeveloped areas only, according to state Department of Food and Agriculture Director A.G. Kawamura. The decision follows months of protests and lawsuits from residents of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, and around California, after airplanes sprayed parts of the two counties with the chemicals last year. "We want to move away from the tools of the past," said A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the state's Department of Food and Agriculture. "Our focus right now is, let's all work together to eradicate this pest." The Monterey Bay counties originally were slated to be sprayed again with CheckMate LBAM-F this summer, along with others in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. The chemical pheromone mimics the smell of female moths and distracts the males from mating. Judges in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, as well as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, stalled those plans last month until environmental reviews and health tests wrapped up. Now, though, the state's plan to aerially spray neighborhoods to fight the apple moth has been tossed....
Thoroughbred industry in Congressional hot seat Lawmakers examining the health and safety of thoroughbred racehorses on Thursday advocated for a centralized governing authority that would regulate the sport, as critics of the racing industry called for congressional intervention to create that body. "We're looking for Arnold Schwarzenegger's upper body and then we go to Don Knotts' legs and knees," said Jess Jackson, owner of Curlin, the 2007 Horse of the Year. "We don't need all of the inbreeding we have. I go to Argentina to buy horses; I go to Germany to buy horses because they have stronger bones and better knees. We need a league and a commissioner. We need action, please. Congress, help." The hearing by a House consumer protection subcommittee came less than two months after the post-race death of filly Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby, an event that created a public outcry and a sense of urgency for reform from inside and outside the sport. Critics want a body that would regulate the industry, rather than leaving the ability to enforce rules and penalties to each of the 38 states where thoroughbred racing is permitted. "They are like fiefdoms, and they each have their Nero-like CEOs," Arthur Hancock, a longtime thoroughbred owner and breeder, told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection. "We are too fragmented and too diverse. . . . Only a federal racing commission or commissioner can save us from ourselves." The meeting, called by Reps. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.), the panel's chairman, and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), also examined breeding practices, the safety of various track surfaces and the use of steroids....
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Anxiety Grows in West Over Firefighting Efforts As fire season arrives in the West, there are growing doubts about the region’s ability to attack the kind of sweeping blazes that devastated parts of California last year. The cost of fuel in fire trucks, a scramble to hire new firefighters and new budget constraints have sowed anxiety as a persistent drought worsens in California and elsewhere, even as heavy rains cause flooding in other parts of the country. Here in San Diego County, where eight people died in two big fires last year, a long-recommended regional county fire department has still not been created, and the San Diego city fire chief has warned that a number of homes built ever closer into wild lands face peril in another major blaze. On Wednesday, the union representing federal firefighters testified before Congress that nearly a third of the federal fire engines in California are unavailable because of staffing shortfalls. Many firefighters have retired or moved to higher-paying jobs, said Casey Judd, the union’s business manager. Over all, the United States Forest Service and other agencies “are not as prepared for the wildfire season as the agencies would like us to blindly believe,” Mr. Judd said in an interview....
U.S. Forest Service's wildfire readiness debated on Capitol Hill Bush administration officials clashed with lawmakers and federal firefighter groups Wednesday over whether the nation is ready for the wildfire season now under way. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, reiterated his stance that the agency is prepared. He made his assurances during testimony before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at a hearing to assess the nation's firefighting readiness. Officials from a pair of employee organizations, though, testified that long-standing morale problems, staffing shortages and insufficient resources could hamper federal firefighting efforts. The groups want higher pay for federal firefighters to keep them from leaving. Already this year, some 29,000 wildfires have scorched more than 1.5 million acres, primarily in Florida and Texas, according to joint testimony presented by Rey and James Cason, associate deputy secretary for the Interior Department. But as the season wears on, the bulk of the danger is expected to shift to California and other parts of the West, they said....
Judge Gives a Victory to Tree Sitters in Berkeley Oaks A group of protesters who have occupied a stand of coastal oaks at the University of California, Berkeley, for 19 months claimed victory on Wednesday when a Superior Court judge ruled that a university project on the site must be temporarily delayed to address lingering concerns about the project. The ruling by Judge Barbara J. Miller came at the culmination of a tense standoff between protesters and the police. Doug Buckwald, the founder of Save the Oaks at the Stadium, said, “Because of the work of lots and lots of people in the community, in the city and in the trees, we have protected this grove.” The university wants to cut the trees, adjacent to the football stadium, to build a $123 million athletic center. Three groups, including the City of Berkeley, have sued the university over its plans, which would also include a seismic retrofit on the 1923 stadium, which sits on the Hayward fault....
Project seeks peace among sheep and wolves Working collaboratively in the upper Wood River Valley, a group of local residents with diverse views on the Western wolf issue are proving that people can sometimes set aside their differences for a bigger cause. Set to begin just days from now is an innovative project that seeks to promote harmony between wild gray wolves and the domestic sheep bands that graze thousands of acres across the remote upper valley. Out of the eyesight of most local residents, the first of many sheep bands will be let onto federal lands managed by the Sawtooth National Forest on Friday, June 20. Their release, less than 10 miles northwest of Ketchum near the mouth of Oregon Gulch, will put in motion a plan that has taken numerous private meetings and a whole lot of goodwill to develop. The project will require herders working for three local sheep producers to work closely with a trio of field assistants hired by Defenders of Wildlife, a national, non-profit conservation group that works with ranchers operating in the West's wolf-occupied areas....
High energy prices upset balance in U.S. West The log cabins and dirt roads on Jeanie Alderson's isolated ranch suggest little has changed since her great-great aunt and uncle first came to the rolling hills of southeastern Montana 120 years ago. Yet with energy prices at record highs, she fears that interest in long-dormant rights to develop oil and gas resources underneath her land could badly upset the natural beauty and balance of the rugged American West. "No one in 1916 or 1909 had any concept of strip mining or coalbed methane pumping out, and the devastation," Alderson said. "When you start pumping out groundwater, we think, 'Uh oh, there goes my livelihood.'" Divided ownership of land above and below ground -- known as split estates -- has deep roots in the American West, where the federal government offered cheap land to settlers and railroad companies but often kept subsurface rights.
Today, the government manages 700 million acres (280 million hectares) of mineral rights. On 58 million of those acres, mostly in the West, others own the rights to the surface....
New supervisor at Lincoln National Forest Southwestern Regional Forester Corbin Newman announced that Jacqueline "Jacque" Buchanan is now Forest Supervisor of the Lincoln National Forest headquartered in Alamogordo. She had served as deputy forest supervisor and has been acting forest supervisor since the retirement of former Lincoln National Forest Supervisor, S. E. "Lou" Woltering, who retired in April. Buchanan has more than 20 years experience with several agencies in the U.S. Department of Agriculture including the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, Farmers Home Administration, Farm Service Agency, as well as the U.S. Forest Service. "Jacque has demonstrated that she works well with people from all walks of life, in addition to her skills in natural resources management," Newman said. "She did a good job as Glenwood District Ranger on the Gila National Forest before moving to the Lincoln National Forest, and she will do a good job as Lincoln Forest Supervisor."....
Bills would expand Oregon wilderness and salmon protection Members of Oregon's congressional delegation introduced legislation Wednesday to expand wilderness around Mount Hood, protect tributaries of the Rogue River, and enlarge the boundaries of the Oregon Caves National Monument. Speaking from Washington, D.C., Democratic sponsors of the House bills said they would protect valuable parts of Oregon's landscape for future generations to enjoy, as well as salmon habitat at a time when populations have been crashing, and raise the profile of the tiny Oregon Caves National Monument. Steve Pedery of Oregon Wild, a conservation group, said with Democrats controlling the House and Senate, President Bush interested in greening up his legacy, and sponsors taking great pains to enlist broad support, the bills should face easier passage than past efforts. "There is not a lot of conflict out there over Mount Hood wilderness," he said. "There is the realization that the Mount Hood National Forest is a different place. The primary economic value of the Mount Hood to Oregon is recreation. I think there is a growing recognition of that, even by the timber industry." Sen. Ron Wyden said he was confident that the Senate version of the Mount Hood wilderness bill would overcome procedural obstacles thrown up in the past by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., because it will be sent to the floor with other bills holding broad support. The Mount Hood bill would create 130,000 acres of new wilderness areas, give wild and scenic river protections to 80 miles of rivers, and designate 34,550 acres as national recreation areas on the Mount Hood National Forest. It also provides for land exchanges between the U.S. Forest Service and a ski resort, the Port of Cascade Locks, and Clackamas County....
Bush administration defends recreation fees A proposal to abolish fees to hike, picnic or use toilets on federal public lands could cause the closing of thousands of recreation sites to the public if Congress approves it, the head of the U.S. Forest Service told a House panel Wednesday. Mark Rey told two subcommittees of the House Natural Resources Committee that nearly one-third of the Forest Service's 17,000 recreation sites could be jeopardized if Congress passes legislation introduced by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to abolish the fees. Baucus' bill would roll back recreation fees Congress first allowed under a temporary program in 1996 and then extended in late 2004 for another 10 years. The fees are collected from those who camp, hike, picnic, fish, hunt and launch boats on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Forest Service. The fees, which range from $2 per vehicle to get into a picnic area to $18 for an improved camp site, are used to address the agencies' growing maintenance backlog, Rey said, and are supported by 80 percent of public lands visitors, according to a University of Idaho study. The fees apply only in places that have picnic tables, improved parking, informational signs, trash cans, toilets and police patrols....
Rainbows may have conflict with scouts The Boy Scouts of America (BSA), with plans to have members in the Big Sandy area for a national public service project, could pose a problem for members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, who were looking at the same site as the location for this year’s annual Rainbow Gathering. “We’re hopeful that we can work something out that’s mutually acceptable to the Rainbows and to the Forest Service,” said Mark Rey, U.S. Under Secretary of Natural Resources and Environment, during a conference call with members of the Rainbow family on Monday. After unfavorable weather conditions brought about rumors of a cancelled Spring Council for the Rainbows, it was reported last week that those who attended the event had quickly chosen a location near Dutch Joe Guard Station on the Big Sandy River as the site of the this year’s annual Rainbow Gathering. “Right now we don’t have a confirmed spot,” said Rita Vollmer, the information officer of the forest service Incident Command Team that has been assigned to the gathering. “We’re just waiting to see how it all comes together … we’re not talking about it definitely being Big Sandy.”....
Court asked to halt drilling on major Wyoming gas field A conservation group asked a federal judge Wednesday to halt further drilling within a booming natural gas field in western Wyoming. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership claims the government has reneged on promises to shield deer, sage grouse and other wildlife from energy development in the Pinedale Anticline. The geologic formation an hour south of Jackson has an estimated 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas _ one of the largest reserves in the United States. About 1,000 wells have gone in so far, and a pending plan would allow 4,400 more over the next 60 years. The fast pace of development, coupled with the presence of large numbers of deer, grouse pronghorn and other game species, have made the area a signature battleground for the Bush administration's pro-energy policies. Federal and industry officials say rapid development of oil and gas fields across the West is critical to meet rising energy demands. Environmentalists say the drilling is moving too fast, leaving environmental devastation in its wake....
BLM plans emergency wild horse gatherings in Nevada The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced plans Wednesday to gather about 1,700 wild horses from the Nevada range, citing ongoing drought, dwindling forage and an over abundance of animals in three herd management areas. “There is very limited water available for the horses, very little food,” said Susie Stokke, BLM's Nevada wild horse and burro program manager. On the Nevada Wild Horse Range north of Las Vegas, Stokke said animals are traveling 5-10 miles a day to get food and water, causing some animals to become lame. “There just isn't any food left within a three-to-five mile radius of water sources,” she said. To round up the animals from that area, Stokke said traps will be set around the limited water supplies that are accessible by vehicle. "They're coming in in very large numbers to water,” she said. At times, hundreds of animals congregate at the sites, she said....
Ranchers: Brucellosis vaccine is failing Twenty years ago, it wasn’t unusual for wild elk to enter cattle feedlines on private ranches in western Wyoming as winter storms raged. Many ranchers were aware of the threat of transmission of the disease brucellosis, and voluntarily vaccinated their cattle with the Strain 19 vaccine to provide protection to their herds. In fact, they "bootlegged" Strain 19 into the country before it was legal for use here. But Strain 19 was problematic because it could cause "false positive" reactions in blood tests. Animals that tested positive for the disease would have to be slaughtered and their tissues cultured to determine if they actually harbored the disease. Just over a decade ago, federal animal health officials determined that a new cattle vaccine, RB51, was better than Strain 19. RB51 offered the same immunity level as Strain 19, but wouldn’t cause the false positives. The USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service banned the use of Strain 19, so the nation’s cattle industry began widespread use of RB51. Sublette County ranchers told animal health officials Tuesday evening in Pinedale that RB51 hasn’t lived up to its promises: It appears to provide short-term immunity, but unlike Strain 19, RB51’s protective effect appears to wear off in a few years -- something not even researchers knew about....
Farm Bill Is Approved President Bush vetoed the farm bill again on Wednesday, but Congress quickly reapproved the $290 billion bill. The bill, which Mr. Bush vetoed for the first time in May, had been resubmitted after a clerical error mistakenly dropped 34 pages from the first bill. To prevent legal challenges, Congress and Mr. Bush went through the cycle again. Mr. Bush re-vetoed the bill, and the House and Senate again voted to override. The Senate vote on Wednesday was 80 to 14, and the House vote was 317 to 109. Congress had overridden a veto by Mr. Bush on only one other bill, legislation authorizing $23 billion in water projects that was sent to the president in November....
U.S. Forest Service's wildfire readiness debated on Capitol Hill Bush administration officials clashed with lawmakers and federal firefighter groups Wednesday over whether the nation is ready for the wildfire season now under way. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, reiterated his stance that the agency is prepared. He made his assurances during testimony before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at a hearing to assess the nation's firefighting readiness. Officials from a pair of employee organizations, though, testified that long-standing morale problems, staffing shortages and insufficient resources could hamper federal firefighting efforts. The groups want higher pay for federal firefighters to keep them from leaving. Already this year, some 29,000 wildfires have scorched more than 1.5 million acres, primarily in Florida and Texas, according to joint testimony presented by Rey and James Cason, associate deputy secretary for the Interior Department. But as the season wears on, the bulk of the danger is expected to shift to California and other parts of the West, they said....
Judge Gives a Victory to Tree Sitters in Berkeley Oaks A group of protesters who have occupied a stand of coastal oaks at the University of California, Berkeley, for 19 months claimed victory on Wednesday when a Superior Court judge ruled that a university project on the site must be temporarily delayed to address lingering concerns about the project. The ruling by Judge Barbara J. Miller came at the culmination of a tense standoff between protesters and the police. Doug Buckwald, the founder of Save the Oaks at the Stadium, said, “Because of the work of lots and lots of people in the community, in the city and in the trees, we have protected this grove.” The university wants to cut the trees, adjacent to the football stadium, to build a $123 million athletic center. Three groups, including the City of Berkeley, have sued the university over its plans, which would also include a seismic retrofit on the 1923 stadium, which sits on the Hayward fault....
Project seeks peace among sheep and wolves Working collaboratively in the upper Wood River Valley, a group of local residents with diverse views on the Western wolf issue are proving that people can sometimes set aside their differences for a bigger cause. Set to begin just days from now is an innovative project that seeks to promote harmony between wild gray wolves and the domestic sheep bands that graze thousands of acres across the remote upper valley. Out of the eyesight of most local residents, the first of many sheep bands will be let onto federal lands managed by the Sawtooth National Forest on Friday, June 20. Their release, less than 10 miles northwest of Ketchum near the mouth of Oregon Gulch, will put in motion a plan that has taken numerous private meetings and a whole lot of goodwill to develop. The project will require herders working for three local sheep producers to work closely with a trio of field assistants hired by Defenders of Wildlife, a national, non-profit conservation group that works with ranchers operating in the West's wolf-occupied areas....
High energy prices upset balance in U.S. West The log cabins and dirt roads on Jeanie Alderson's isolated ranch suggest little has changed since her great-great aunt and uncle first came to the rolling hills of southeastern Montana 120 years ago. Yet with energy prices at record highs, she fears that interest in long-dormant rights to develop oil and gas resources underneath her land could badly upset the natural beauty and balance of the rugged American West. "No one in 1916 or 1909 had any concept of strip mining or coalbed methane pumping out, and the devastation," Alderson said. "When you start pumping out groundwater, we think, 'Uh oh, there goes my livelihood.'" Divided ownership of land above and below ground -- known as split estates -- has deep roots in the American West, where the federal government offered cheap land to settlers and railroad companies but often kept subsurface rights.
Today, the government manages 700 million acres (280 million hectares) of mineral rights. On 58 million of those acres, mostly in the West, others own the rights to the surface....
New supervisor at Lincoln National Forest Southwestern Regional Forester Corbin Newman announced that Jacqueline "Jacque" Buchanan is now Forest Supervisor of the Lincoln National Forest headquartered in Alamogordo. She had served as deputy forest supervisor and has been acting forest supervisor since the retirement of former Lincoln National Forest Supervisor, S. E. "Lou" Woltering, who retired in April. Buchanan has more than 20 years experience with several agencies in the U.S. Department of Agriculture including the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, Farmers Home Administration, Farm Service Agency, as well as the U.S. Forest Service. "Jacque has demonstrated that she works well with people from all walks of life, in addition to her skills in natural resources management," Newman said. "She did a good job as Glenwood District Ranger on the Gila National Forest before moving to the Lincoln National Forest, and she will do a good job as Lincoln Forest Supervisor."....
Bills would expand Oregon wilderness and salmon protection Members of Oregon's congressional delegation introduced legislation Wednesday to expand wilderness around Mount Hood, protect tributaries of the Rogue River, and enlarge the boundaries of the Oregon Caves National Monument. Speaking from Washington, D.C., Democratic sponsors of the House bills said they would protect valuable parts of Oregon's landscape for future generations to enjoy, as well as salmon habitat at a time when populations have been crashing, and raise the profile of the tiny Oregon Caves National Monument. Steve Pedery of Oregon Wild, a conservation group, said with Democrats controlling the House and Senate, President Bush interested in greening up his legacy, and sponsors taking great pains to enlist broad support, the bills should face easier passage than past efforts. "There is not a lot of conflict out there over Mount Hood wilderness," he said. "There is the realization that the Mount Hood National Forest is a different place. The primary economic value of the Mount Hood to Oregon is recreation. I think there is a growing recognition of that, even by the timber industry." Sen. Ron Wyden said he was confident that the Senate version of the Mount Hood wilderness bill would overcome procedural obstacles thrown up in the past by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., because it will be sent to the floor with other bills holding broad support. The Mount Hood bill would create 130,000 acres of new wilderness areas, give wild and scenic river protections to 80 miles of rivers, and designate 34,550 acres as national recreation areas on the Mount Hood National Forest. It also provides for land exchanges between the U.S. Forest Service and a ski resort, the Port of Cascade Locks, and Clackamas County....
Bush administration defends recreation fees A proposal to abolish fees to hike, picnic or use toilets on federal public lands could cause the closing of thousands of recreation sites to the public if Congress approves it, the head of the U.S. Forest Service told a House panel Wednesday. Mark Rey told two subcommittees of the House Natural Resources Committee that nearly one-third of the Forest Service's 17,000 recreation sites could be jeopardized if Congress passes legislation introduced by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to abolish the fees. Baucus' bill would roll back recreation fees Congress first allowed under a temporary program in 1996 and then extended in late 2004 for another 10 years. The fees are collected from those who camp, hike, picnic, fish, hunt and launch boats on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Forest Service. The fees, which range from $2 per vehicle to get into a picnic area to $18 for an improved camp site, are used to address the agencies' growing maintenance backlog, Rey said, and are supported by 80 percent of public lands visitors, according to a University of Idaho study. The fees apply only in places that have picnic tables, improved parking, informational signs, trash cans, toilets and police patrols....
Rainbows may have conflict with scouts The Boy Scouts of America (BSA), with plans to have members in the Big Sandy area for a national public service project, could pose a problem for members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, who were looking at the same site as the location for this year’s annual Rainbow Gathering. “We’re hopeful that we can work something out that’s mutually acceptable to the Rainbows and to the Forest Service,” said Mark Rey, U.S. Under Secretary of Natural Resources and Environment, during a conference call with members of the Rainbow family on Monday. After unfavorable weather conditions brought about rumors of a cancelled Spring Council for the Rainbows, it was reported last week that those who attended the event had quickly chosen a location near Dutch Joe Guard Station on the Big Sandy River as the site of the this year’s annual Rainbow Gathering. “Right now we don’t have a confirmed spot,” said Rita Vollmer, the information officer of the forest service Incident Command Team that has been assigned to the gathering. “We’re just waiting to see how it all comes together … we’re not talking about it definitely being Big Sandy.”....
Court asked to halt drilling on major Wyoming gas field A conservation group asked a federal judge Wednesday to halt further drilling within a booming natural gas field in western Wyoming. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership claims the government has reneged on promises to shield deer, sage grouse and other wildlife from energy development in the Pinedale Anticline. The geologic formation an hour south of Jackson has an estimated 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas _ one of the largest reserves in the United States. About 1,000 wells have gone in so far, and a pending plan would allow 4,400 more over the next 60 years. The fast pace of development, coupled with the presence of large numbers of deer, grouse pronghorn and other game species, have made the area a signature battleground for the Bush administration's pro-energy policies. Federal and industry officials say rapid development of oil and gas fields across the West is critical to meet rising energy demands. Environmentalists say the drilling is moving too fast, leaving environmental devastation in its wake....
BLM plans emergency wild horse gatherings in Nevada The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced plans Wednesday to gather about 1,700 wild horses from the Nevada range, citing ongoing drought, dwindling forage and an over abundance of animals in three herd management areas. “There is very limited water available for the horses, very little food,” said Susie Stokke, BLM's Nevada wild horse and burro program manager. On the Nevada Wild Horse Range north of Las Vegas, Stokke said animals are traveling 5-10 miles a day to get food and water, causing some animals to become lame. “There just isn't any food left within a three-to-five mile radius of water sources,” she said. To round up the animals from that area, Stokke said traps will be set around the limited water supplies that are accessible by vehicle. "They're coming in in very large numbers to water,” she said. At times, hundreds of animals congregate at the sites, she said....
Ranchers: Brucellosis vaccine is failing Twenty years ago, it wasn’t unusual for wild elk to enter cattle feedlines on private ranches in western Wyoming as winter storms raged. Many ranchers were aware of the threat of transmission of the disease brucellosis, and voluntarily vaccinated their cattle with the Strain 19 vaccine to provide protection to their herds. In fact, they "bootlegged" Strain 19 into the country before it was legal for use here. But Strain 19 was problematic because it could cause "false positive" reactions in blood tests. Animals that tested positive for the disease would have to be slaughtered and their tissues cultured to determine if they actually harbored the disease. Just over a decade ago, federal animal health officials determined that a new cattle vaccine, RB51, was better than Strain 19. RB51 offered the same immunity level as Strain 19, but wouldn’t cause the false positives. The USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service banned the use of Strain 19, so the nation’s cattle industry began widespread use of RB51. Sublette County ranchers told animal health officials Tuesday evening in Pinedale that RB51 hasn’t lived up to its promises: It appears to provide short-term immunity, but unlike Strain 19, RB51’s protective effect appears to wear off in a few years -- something not even researchers knew about....
Farm Bill Is Approved President Bush vetoed the farm bill again on Wednesday, but Congress quickly reapproved the $290 billion bill. The bill, which Mr. Bush vetoed for the first time in May, had been resubmitted after a clerical error mistakenly dropped 34 pages from the first bill. To prevent legal challenges, Congress and Mr. Bush went through the cycle again. Mr. Bush re-vetoed the bill, and the House and Senate again voted to override. The Senate vote on Wednesday was 80 to 14, and the House vote was 317 to 109. Congress had overridden a veto by Mr. Bush on only one other bill, legislation authorizing $23 billion in water projects that was sent to the president in November....
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
McCain calls for end to offshore drilling ban Republican presidential candidate John McCain, seeking to make amends with Texas energy producers who did not support him during the 2008 GOP primary season, said Monday that he wants to end a federal moratorium on offshore drilling and create "additional incentives" for states to approve new exploration ventures. "We must embark on a national mission to end our dependence on foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gases through the development of alternate energy sources," the Arizona senator said in Arlington, Va., before departing for Texas. McCain will provide details of his proposal in a major energy-policy address today at the Hilton Americas Hotel in downtown Houston. The Houston Chronicle has learned that his speech will describe a goal of energy self-sufficiency through a combination of aggressive domestic production and increased use of alternative energy sources. The presumed GOP presidential nominee will try to appeal to oil-state interests by pushing for more offshore drilling in states that approve such production. But he also will portray himself as an environmentally friendly Republican favoring significant increases in the development of such alternative energy sources as wind and nuclear power....
Federal officials prep for Rainbow Family gathering Federal officials are gearing up for this year's Rainbow Family gathering in Wyoming. U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management personnel began arriving in Riverton on Monday to prepare for this year's event, which takes place the first week of July. A Forest Service spokeswoman says the national incident management team includes officials who will work with Rainbow participants on logistical issues, as well as law enforcement officers. The team also includes resource officers who will work with festival-goers to ensure public lands aren't damaged. The spokeswoman says 300 to 500 participants have already set up camp in the Bridger-Teton National Forest near Pinedale. The "Rainbow Gathering of Living Light" is a weeklong camp-out that's been held on federal lands around the country each year since the early 1970s....
Forest Service plays with fire Wildfire season has begun in California, but Forest Service firefighters appear to be leaving for greener pastures. The attrition rate among the agency’s firefighters in Southern California is nearly 47 percent (compared to about 24 percent nationwide), according to a report presented by the agency to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Agriculture Subcommittee in April. As of late May, there were 380 firefighter vacancies statewide. The Forest Service maintains that recent attrition rates are no great departure from previous years and have no effect on the agency’s ability to fight fires, but not everyone is convinced. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has written several incendiary letters to the USDA and the Forest Service on the matter. Her most recent missive came the same week California was hit by 13 wildfires in a 72-hour period. Many of the firefighters are leaving for better paying jobs at the state and local level, according to firefighter advocates and the Forest Service itself. While the hourly rate is greater at the Forest Service than some state and local departments, at issue is so-called “portal to portal pay.” Firefighters for CAL Fire, California’s state fire department, are paid for the entire time they are out on a fire. Forest Service firefighters are taken off the clock even if they are still out in the field. As a result of these extra hours, a rank-and-file firefighter at the state agency earns $64,760 annually while the same employee in the Forest Service earns only $56,096....
Leasing atop Roan facing court battle Environmentalists said Monday they plan to sue the federal government to halt leasing of public land on the Roan Plateau for natural gas drilling. The move could upend plans by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to hold a lease sale of 55,186 acres of public land atop the Roan on Aug. 14, an auction expected to draw significant interest from energy companies. The action is the latest in a long series of moves and countermoves by those anxious to open up the towering landscape near Rifle for its enormous energy stores and those who want to preserve most of the plateau for its scenic grandeur and rich wildlife. Should environmentalists succeed in persuading a judge to put off any leasing, the lawsuit could push the debate into a new presidential administration, throwing fresh doubt on the Roan's future....
Utah announces 'major' dinosaur find by Illinois scientists A newly discovered batch of well-preserved dinosaur bones, petrified trees and even freshwater clams in southeastern Utah may provide fresh clues about life in the region some 150 million years ago. The Bureau of Land Management announced the find Monday, calling the quarry near Hanksville "a major dinosaur fossil discovery." Several weeks of excavation by a team from the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Ill., have revealed at least four long-necked sauropods, two carnivorous dinosaurs and possibly a stegosaurus, according to the BLM. Nearby, there are also animal burrows and petrified tree trunks six feet in diameter. It doesn't contain any new species -- at least not yet -- but offers the chance to learn more about the ecology of that time, said Scott Foss, a BLM paleontologist. The fossilized dinosaurs are from the same late Jurassic period of those at Dinosaur National Monument and the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry near Price....
Bush prepares parting shots The Bush administration is pressing in its waning months in office to implement a spate of rule and policy changes that could reshape the face of the West. The changes at the federal Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would open tracts to development while removing protections for land and species. "The Bush administration is trying to set the rules of the game in stone," said Sharon Bucci, public-lands director for the Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council. "They are trying to put their stamp and their management on public lands," Bucci said. Bush administration officials say that many of the initiatives have taken years to develop and have been scrutinized by the public. "The only thing the BLM is guilty of here is being late," said Celia Boddington, an agency spokeswoman. "Many of these changes were updates that are long overdue." Among other actions are: • The issuance of a new BLM handbook on implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which exempts some drilling, logging and mining activities from environmental review. • Revisions of the BLM's manual on threatened and endangered species that would remove state-designated species from protection on BLM land. Among the species losing protection in Colorado would be the kit fox and boreal toad. • An effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue by December its final rule on whether to protect the greater sage grouse — even though in a court settlement the agency had agreed to issue it in 2009. • The granting by the BLM of "categorical exemptions" created under the 2005 Energy Policy Act to spare drilling operations from environmental reviews in areas where drilling has already taken place....
Federal officials prep for Rainbow Family gathering Federal officials are gearing up for this year's Rainbow Family gathering in Wyoming. U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management personnel began arriving in Riverton on Monday to prepare for this year's event, which takes place the first week of July. A Forest Service spokeswoman says the national incident management team includes officials who will work with Rainbow participants on logistical issues, as well as law enforcement officers. The team also includes resource officers who will work with festival-goers to ensure public lands aren't damaged. The spokeswoman says 300 to 500 participants have already set up camp in the Bridger-Teton National Forest near Pinedale. The "Rainbow Gathering of Living Light" is a weeklong camp-out that's been held on federal lands around the country each year since the early 1970s....
Forest Service plays with fire Wildfire season has begun in California, but Forest Service firefighters appear to be leaving for greener pastures. The attrition rate among the agency’s firefighters in Southern California is nearly 47 percent (compared to about 24 percent nationwide), according to a report presented by the agency to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Agriculture Subcommittee in April. As of late May, there were 380 firefighter vacancies statewide. The Forest Service maintains that recent attrition rates are no great departure from previous years and have no effect on the agency’s ability to fight fires, but not everyone is convinced. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has written several incendiary letters to the USDA and the Forest Service on the matter. Her most recent missive came the same week California was hit by 13 wildfires in a 72-hour period. Many of the firefighters are leaving for better paying jobs at the state and local level, according to firefighter advocates and the Forest Service itself. While the hourly rate is greater at the Forest Service than some state and local departments, at issue is so-called “portal to portal pay.” Firefighters for CAL Fire, California’s state fire department, are paid for the entire time they are out on a fire. Forest Service firefighters are taken off the clock even if they are still out in the field. As a result of these extra hours, a rank-and-file firefighter at the state agency earns $64,760 annually while the same employee in the Forest Service earns only $56,096....
Leasing atop Roan facing court battle Environmentalists said Monday they plan to sue the federal government to halt leasing of public land on the Roan Plateau for natural gas drilling. The move could upend plans by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to hold a lease sale of 55,186 acres of public land atop the Roan on Aug. 14, an auction expected to draw significant interest from energy companies. The action is the latest in a long series of moves and countermoves by those anxious to open up the towering landscape near Rifle for its enormous energy stores and those who want to preserve most of the plateau for its scenic grandeur and rich wildlife. Should environmentalists succeed in persuading a judge to put off any leasing, the lawsuit could push the debate into a new presidential administration, throwing fresh doubt on the Roan's future....
Utah announces 'major' dinosaur find by Illinois scientists A newly discovered batch of well-preserved dinosaur bones, petrified trees and even freshwater clams in southeastern Utah may provide fresh clues about life in the region some 150 million years ago. The Bureau of Land Management announced the find Monday, calling the quarry near Hanksville "a major dinosaur fossil discovery." Several weeks of excavation by a team from the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Ill., have revealed at least four long-necked sauropods, two carnivorous dinosaurs and possibly a stegosaurus, according to the BLM. Nearby, there are also animal burrows and petrified tree trunks six feet in diameter. It doesn't contain any new species -- at least not yet -- but offers the chance to learn more about the ecology of that time, said Scott Foss, a BLM paleontologist. The fossilized dinosaurs are from the same late Jurassic period of those at Dinosaur National Monument and the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry near Price....
Bush prepares parting shots The Bush administration is pressing in its waning months in office to implement a spate of rule and policy changes that could reshape the face of the West. The changes at the federal Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would open tracts to development while removing protections for land and species. "The Bush administration is trying to set the rules of the game in stone," said Sharon Bucci, public-lands director for the Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council. "They are trying to put their stamp and their management on public lands," Bucci said. Bush administration officials say that many of the initiatives have taken years to develop and have been scrutinized by the public. "The only thing the BLM is guilty of here is being late," said Celia Boddington, an agency spokeswoman. "Many of these changes were updates that are long overdue." Among other actions are: • The issuance of a new BLM handbook on implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which exempts some drilling, logging and mining activities from environmental review. • Revisions of the BLM's manual on threatened and endangered species that would remove state-designated species from protection on BLM land. Among the species losing protection in Colorado would be the kit fox and boreal toad. • An effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue by December its final rule on whether to protect the greater sage grouse — even though in a court settlement the agency had agreed to issue it in 2009. • The granting by the BLM of "categorical exemptions" created under the 2005 Energy Policy Act to spare drilling operations from environmental reviews in areas where drilling has already taken place....
Monday, June 16, 2008
Congress Pushes to Keep Land Untamed With little fanfare, Congress has embarked on a push to protect as many as a dozen pristine areas this year in places ranging from the glacier-fed streams of the Wild Sky Wilderness here to West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest. By the end of the year, conservation experts predict, this drive could place as much as 2 million acres of unspoiled land under federal control, a total that rivals the wilderness acreage set aside by Congress over the previous five years. A confluence of factors is driving this wilderness renaissance: the shift in Congress from Republican to Democratic control; environmentalists' decision to take a more pragmatic approach in which they enlist local support for their proposals by making concessions to opposing interests; and some communities' recognition that intact ecosystems can often offer a greater economic payoff than extractive industries. "It may not seem like it on most issues, but in this one arena Congress is getting things across the goal line," said Mike Matz, executive director of the advocacy group Campaign for America's Wilderness. "Nobody gets everything they want, but by coming together, talking with age-old adversaries and seeking common ground, wilderness protection is finding Main Street support and becoming motherhood-and-apple-pie."...The administration has generally favored expanding wilderness acreage, letting Congress determine which areas should be protected and how. Part of this stems from the fact that nearly all of these bills have broad constituencies, which include local faith, business and hunting groups as well as GOP officeholders. And as Bush approaches the end of his second term, he is eyeing opportunities to leave his mark on the nation's landscape. In the first wilderness designation this year, the Wild Sky Wilderness became law in May. It set aside more than 106,000 acres of low-elevation, old-growth forest and jagged mountain peaks crisscrossed by streams that feature wild salmon and steelhead runs...Wilderness areas, which have the strictest level of federal protection, account for just over 107 million acres nationwide -- 4.8 percent of the nation's land mass, roughly half of it in Alaska. Federal law prohibits mechanized transport in wilderness areas, but they are open to such activities as hiking and fishing. In recent weeks the House has passed six wilderness bills, including Wild Sky, that would protect more than 500,000 acres. The Senate Energy and Resources Committee has approved another four wilderness bills and the panel could pass more, an effort that Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said was aimed at addressing "some pent-up demand for bills that had been in the works for most of the last decade."....
Estate owners sue Greenpeace for prediction A group of real estate developers and property owners in La Manga del Mar Menor - a spit of sandy, low-lying coastal land and Murcia's premier beach resort - are threatening to take Greenpeace to court over its graphic predictions of what global warming may do to the area, which they say have caused house prices to plummet. The lawsuit, which the plaintiffs plan to present unless Greenpeace agrees to an out of court settlement of almost EUR 30 million in damages, comes more than six months after La Manga featured prominently in a photo book published by the environmental organisation that was intended to shock Spain into action on climate change. Along with photos of a dried up Ebro River in Zaragoza and a desert in an area of Valencia now filled with lemon and orange groves, the book, Photoclima, shows digitally modified photos of La Manga submerged in water with only the tops of hotels, apartment blocks and palm trees emerging from the blue Mediterranean. Greenpeace says the book is a graphic portrayal of the conclusions of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has predicted that global warming will cause sea levels to rise around the world over the coming decades....
Global Warming Policies' Economic Chill Many Americans think that switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, buying environmentally friendly appliances and obeying a (100% recycled) bag of green living tips will be the extent of their contribution to curbing greenhouse gases. But the price tag to consumers could be a lot higher if some politicians have their way. In fact, U.S. households could expect a $2,900 annual hit to their family budget sooner than they think. That's just one figure causing concern as politicians race to address global warming. Therefore, it's worth noting that at the same time Americans are concerned about climate change, they are also very concerned about the sluggish economy and the impact it is having on the pocketbook. It is only fair, then, to view the two issues side by side. When cooler heads prevail, the reality is clear: There is weak public support for global-warming policies, which would end up costing the average family thousands of dollars. First, it's worth noting where Americans currently stand on global warming. According to Gallup, as much as 70% of the public during the late 1990s through 2000 said the environment should take priority over the economy. That number has dropped to just 49% this year....
Alaska Spending Millions to Relocate Villages Affected by Climate Change One of Alaska's most eroded villages is getting more than $3 million in state aid to help it relocate to higher ground as Alaska tries to cope with the effects of global warming. Tribal leaders in the tiny coastal community of Newtok will now be able to begin building a barge landing at their new site to bring in building materials and, wherever possible, existing structures from their storm-battered village nine miles to the north. The bulk of the $3.3 million, however, will go toward the design and possible partial construction of a road from the barge landing to a planned evacuation center. "It will boost the village site and speed up the relocation process," said tribal administrator Stanley Tom. The Yupik Eskimo community of 400 is among six remote villages tapped by the state for immediate attention because they are highly vulnerable to escalating erosion, storms and flooding linked to global warming. The state is investing nearly $13 million to protect the villages in the coming year....
Voters Waiting For Candidate Who Will Drill The recent spike in oil prices and unemployment is dramatically changing this presidential campaign — virtually overnight. The near $20 jump in oil to $140 a barrel, the unexpected half-point increase in the jobless rate to 5.5% (the biggest monthly increase in 20 years) and the resulting 400-point plunge in stocks has created a new campaign issue right before our eyes. Public worry No. 1 is now oil, jobs and the economy, with the inflationary woes of the U.S. dollar right underneath. The candidate who can connect with these issues will win in November. But so far neither Barack Obama nor John McCain is dealing with the new political reality. In fact, it's all about oil right now. The price has doubled over the past year, while the economy has slumped. But here's an eye-opener. Recent polling data from Gallup show that the percentage of voters blaming oil companies for skyrocketing gasoline prices has dropped from 34% to 20% over the past year. At the same time, support for more drilling in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas has increased to 57% from 41%. And the candidates remain blind to these shifts....
Ranchers: Fire proves canyon no place for Army Ranchers opposed to the Army's planned expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site say the wildfire that has blackened 42,000 acres of the training ground, plus private and state lands, is just a preview of the fire danger that would come from giving the Army more land and heavier weapons to use in the area northeast of Trinidad. "If this fire had broken out on private land, we'd have gotten on it sooner and knocked it down," said Lon Robertson, a Kim-area rancher and president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition. "Landowners down here know they have to work together to fight fire and they keep a closer eye on their land than the Army does." Robertson said the Army's plan to add another 414,000 acres to the training ground - plus have live artillery fire and other heavy weapons - will only increase the fire danger to surrounding landowners. "They use heavier weapons in training up at Fort Carson and look how often they have to suppress wildfires up there," he said. "We don't need that added danger down here."....
Putting Up The 'For Shale' Sign Exxon Mobil is selling its gas stations because there's no money in it. Meanwhile, two GOP congressmen do what John McCain should do — change their position on drilling in ANWR. Despite the pain at the pump for consumers, the retail side of the gasoline business isn't that profitable, if at all. Gas station owners have known this all along. Most now hope they get enough traffic at their stations to make money on auto repairs or food and drink sales. Exxon Mobil, proclaimed by the no-drill demagogues to be the poster child for gas gouging, recognizes this as well, deciding to unload its 800 company-owned stations and an additional 1,400 dealer-operated locations to distributors. Still, Democrats will say Exxon and its unindicted co-conspirators still make obscene profits. The fact is that American oil companies in 2007 had an 8.3% profit margin, compared with 8.9% for all U.S. manufacturing. The cigarette and beverage companies' profit margin was 19.1%. Drug companies made 18.4%. Nobody complains about profits made by politically connected ethanol producers such as Archer Daniels Midland. Since February 2006, the congressionally mandated use of heavily subsidized and energy-inefficient ethanol has caused the price of corn, wheat and soybeans to increase more than 200%. Isn't this price-gouging?....
Tribes get New Mexico mountain summit listed as protected A state committee has approved a proposal from five American Indian tribes to give central New Mexico's Mount Taylor temporary protection as a cultural property at a contentious meeting. The state Cultural Properties Review Committee voted 4-2 Saturday in Grants for an emergency listing of more than 422,000 acres surrounding the mountain's summit on the state Register of Cultural Properties. The Navajo Nation, the Acoma, Laguna and Zuni pueblos, and the Hopi tribe of Arizona asked the state to approve the listing for a mountain they consider sacred to protect it from an anticipated uranium mining boom, according to the nomination report. The listing lasts for a year, after which the committee is to determine if it should be listed permanently....
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, Especially When Your Neighbor is an Endangered Frog A Forest Service proposal to fence cattle out of a sensitive stretch of creek in the Klamath Basin to protect the Oregon spotted frog seems to have tentative support from both ranchers and environmentalists. Last month, conservation groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, and the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center sued, arguing that federal environmental laws require the Forest Service to halt grazing when it “results in loss of species viability or creates a significant trend toward federal listing.” The decision to build the fence responds to this suit. “This is welcome news for the Oregon spotted frog,” said Noah Greenwald, science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Once an abundant species throughout the Northwest, the frog now has so few remaining populations that every one counts.” On Wednesday, representatives of the Center for Biological Diversity and Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics toured Jack Creek along with the Forest Service and the local rancher who runs cows on the allotment. They were there to look over the Forest Service’s solution to the problem: A three-and-a-half-mile-long fence that will exclude cattle from the frog’s breeding grounds in Jack Creek, while allowing the rancher to continue to utilize 90 percent of the allotment for cattle grazing. The Forest Service is also planning additional steps to restore frog habitat, including reintroduction of beaver, which build dams and create pools necessary for the frogs to thrive, clearing encroaching saplings from meadows, and repairing damaged stream banks. In response to the fence proposal, the conservation groups have temporarily set aside their motion for a preliminary injunction against grazing. “I believe this is the first frog fence in the United States,” said James Johnston of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics....
At the Time, They Said He Was Crazy Back in the 1980s, it became an article of faith among well- meaning "environmentalists" that grazing cattle on arid Western lands serves to "destroy fragile ecosystems." Western ranchers presented evidence that desert plants developed in an ecosystem that needs large ungulate grazers to churn their seeds into the soil, to fertilize wetlands, to carry moisture into arid valleys and thus benefit tortoise populations - which is why more tortoises are found on grazed land than ungrazed. The ranchers argued that grazing prevents the buildup of excess tinder that can make range fires more frequent and severe, that game species profit from the ranchers' water improvements and efforts at predator control. The forces seeking to remove mankind from the land scoffed at such arguments. They canceled grazing "permits" left and right. The U.S. Forest Service ordered that Nevada rancher and private property rights advocate Wayne Hage, in one example, could use "only hand tools" to trim back trees clogging the canals that had brought water to his 125-year-old, 700,000-acre Pine Creek Ranch in central Nevada. In 1991, Wayne Hage sued. On Friday, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Loren A. Smith ruled Mr. Hage was right, and the Forest Service was wrong. The judge awarded more than $4.2 million to the plaintiffs, ruling the U.S. Forest Service committed an unconstitutional "taking" of his water rights during their decades-long dispute over livestock grazing. Judge Smith also ordered the government to pay back interest to the family of a man considered one of the leaders of the 1980s "Sagebrush Rebellion" - an additional $4.4 million. And the government is also ordered to pay the Hage family's legal costs - another $4 million....
Nevada rancher wins property rights award A federal judge has awarded more than $4.2 million to the estate of late Nevada rancher and private property rights advocate Wayne Hage, ruling that the U.S. Forest Service committed a constitutional "taking" of his water rights during a decades-long dispute over livestock grazing on federal land. Calling the conflict a "drama worthy of a tragic opera and heroic characters," U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Loren A. Smith also ordered the government to pay back interest to the family of one of the leaders of the so-called "Sagebrush Rebellion" during the 1980s. Hage's lawyer estimates the interest dating to 1991 to be an additional $4.4 million, which he said would make it the largest award ever in such a case. "It sends a pretty important message to the government that if you screw with a small ranching family and put them out of business, you have to pay big bucks," said Lyman "Ladd" Bedford, a San Francisco-based lawyer who has argued the case since Hage first filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service in 1991. Smith, based in Washington D.C., ruled that government restrictions severely reducing water flows to Hage's land "deprived them of the water they needed for irrigation, making the ranch unviable." However, Smith said the taking occurred when the Forest Service -- apparently motivated by "hostility" toward Hage -- made it impossible for him to maintain the irrigation ditches. Like in similar cases in the past, the judge said the cancellation of Hage's federal grazing permit as a result of overgrazing and trespassing did not in itself amount to a "taking" prohibited under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. That's because a grazing permit is "a license, not a contract or property interest," he said....
American Ranching Family Wins 17-Year Battle with the Federal Government An epic 17-year battle between an American ranching family and the federal government has ended in favor of the family. The estates of Wayne and Jean Hage can finally claim a Fifth Amendment precedent-setting property rights victory. Loren A. Smith, Senior Judge for the United States Court of Federal Claims issued his final opinion in Hage v. United States (Case No. 91-1470L), ending the decades-long battle by deciding that the federal government indeed took the private property rights of E. Wayne and Jean Hage and awarding them deserved compensation. The court ruled that the Hages owned the water rights, ditch rights of ways, and range improvements on the federal grazing allotments. The court made clear that the government has the right to authorize grazing, but does not have the right to prevent the plaintiff from accessing their water rights on federal lands. (Case #91-1470L, The Estate of E. Wayne Hage and the Estate of Jean N. Hage v. The United States, June 6, 2008.) "This decision is important to every American because it reaffirms our basic right to own property, whether you live in a major US city or rural America," commented Margaret Byfield, the Hage's third daughter and executive director of the Stewards of the Range organization which has supported the case since the beginning. Wayne and Jean Hage filed their takings case in 1991, claiming the U.S. Forest Service had denied their rights to graze their livestock on federal land and actively prevented them from accessing and maintaining their water rights. The family has endured 17 years of court hearings and trials, and has won at every level, including the final round. "This is clearly a victory for my parents, who never gave up," commented Ruth Agee, the second of the five Hage children. Wayne and Jean are both buried on the private meadows at Pine Creek Ranch, which will remain with the family. Pine Creek Ranch was established in 1865, and purchased by the Hage family in 1978. The private fee lands encompass 7,000 acres, but as the court points out, "To raise cattle economically in such an arid region, Plaintiffs depend upon access to large quantities of land, including federal land, and to the limited water supply." In 1979, one year after the family purchased the ranch trouble began with the Forest Service when the USFS allowed the release of non-indigenous elk on the Hage's Table Mountain allotment. The elk began competing with their cattle for forage and water. However, instead of controlling the elk, the Forest Service reduced and ultimately canceled the Hage's grazing permits. Years of harassment by the federal government followed, including over 70 "visits" from the Forest Service and 40 letters charging them with various violations, which many, the court noted, were "extremely minor infractions." The court further pointed out that the Forest Service made many unreasonable requirements. "In addition, the Forest Service insisted that Plaintiffs maintain their 1866 Act ditches with nothing other than hand tools." After the Forest Service canceled the remaining grazing permits in 1990, the family was forced to file their takings case known as Hage v. United States....
Court stops privacy for livestock database The Agriculture Department has suspended indefinitely the time until a database for its National Animal Identification System (NAIS) would become subject to Privacy Act safeguards. USDA had planned to make the records confidential effective June 9 but announced the postponement in the Federal Register June 10. The change was the result of a restraining order sought by freelance journalist Mary-Louise Zanoni against USDA in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On June 4, the court ordered the department to suspend its effective date for applying Privacy Act safeguards to the records system, Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer said in a notice dated June 6. The dispute concerns access to files containing the names of farmers, ranchers and livestock companies. Data about their premises, locations and livestock movements are stored in the National Premises Information Repository, which is the initial step toward NAIS....
Disease resurfaces in Wyo cattle Two cows in Sublette County likely have been infected with brucellosis, state officials said Thursday. The discovery, which comes less than two years since Wyoming's cattle industry was declared "brucellosis-free," raises the possibility that it could lose that status again -- if the disease is found in another cattle herd within two years. The positive blood tests have so far been isolated to two black Angus cows from the same herd near Daniel, officials said. Blood tests are not a fool-proof method for determining whether animals are infected with brucellosis, but blood samples from these particular cows were put through a battery of six diagnostic tests apiece, all of which produced "strong" positive reactions. That indicates a high probability the animals were indeed infected with the disease, said State Veterinarian Walt Cook. The cattle were slaughtered, and tissues from the animals are in the process of being analyzed at the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory in Laramie to confirm the blood tests, Cook said. It could take two weeks or more before the final results are available. Montana is expected to lose its brucellosis-free status in the coming days after a cow there tested positive for exposure to the bacterial disease, the second case in that state in just over a year....
Tex quits cows Most people in the White Mountains know him as "Tex." At 91, Tex Truelock is tough as a boot heel and sharp as a barbed wire fence. More than 60 years after he came to northeastern Arizona, he decided to get out of the cattle business for good. He summed up the reasons as only a Texas cattleman could: "Can't get help, there's no feed, costs have gone up, and the environmentalists." You could spend hours discussing the plight of cattlemen in the West, but that's about it. At noon on June 6 he told the photographer and me, "177 cows went out this morning." A mixture of grief and relief played on his face - grief to see the last of his mother cows go off in trucks, relief that the work was over. The "work" being a lifetime of roping, riding, branding, fence building, pulling wells, moving cattle, shipping cattle, repairing machinery, calving and doctoring, training colts, putting out salt and feed, chopping ice and all the other chores that make up the life of a rancher. That was in addition to working for wages to support a family. He looked at me, grinned and said, "I'm tired."....
Girls, Courtrooms and Heroes Stories where the good guys turn out to be bad guys, where the courtroom unearths corruption, where a town is forced to question its identity. They usually involve a girl who lives a little too fast with a father who exited early and an overworked and tired mother. They are girls who grow up fast and hard with bright smiles. In Ada, Oklahoma, it’s the story of the wrongly imprisoned Ron Williamson. A dead girl, a fallen baseball hero, dirty cops and an imprudent district attorney helped John Grisham hit the NY Times Bestseller List with An Innocent Man. Head north and a little west to Kalispell, Montana for the story of Dick Dasen, the seemingly altruistic businessman who fed the meth habits of young girls in exchange for sex. Turn straight down and east to Las Cruces, New Mexico to find the story of Cricket Coogler, most recently chronicled by Paula Moore in Cricket in the Web. Moore writes that Cricket was one of those girls. A waitress, a high school dropout, the daughter of a dead father and a hard-working mom, Cricket Coogler lived hard and fast for an seventeen year old girl in 1940s Las Cruces. She ran with political types from Santa Fe who were drawn to Las Cruces by the sparse and friendly law enforcement and the prolific illegal gambling. On March 31, 1949, the last night she was seen alive, she frequented no more than five bars in the company of three different men. Seventeen days later they found her body under a creosote bush in Mesquite, New Mexico....
'Pushed out' by bigger operation Doak Good had settled in comfortably in his rock and adobe house at Portales Springs, but his peaceful existence did not last long. In 1882 Jim Newman began bringing his cattle from Texas to Salt Lake and established the DZ Ranch near Arch, 11 miles east of Good’s place. The springs that fed Salt Lake only provided enough water to fill a few dirt troughs, so Newman’s cattle would drift over to the plentiful water at the lake, which was fed by the Portales Springs. Bad feelings developed and violence was bound to follow. After the fight with Gabe Henson, which he blamed on Newman, Good was afraid to stay by himself, and he picked up a transient boy about 14 years old to work for him. Old-time cowboy Col. Jack Potter had this to say about the new cowhand: “He was a hard-looking kid; had an old Stetson hat with the crown out, thrown away by some cowpuncher. He had long hair and it stuck out through the crown of the hat. He was dubbed by the cowboys as ‘Portales Bill,’ though I learned later his real name was McElmore.” Good gave him a few dogies or mavericks for his work, and it was commonly believed that he added to his herd by rustling other people’s cattle....
Single-horned beast appears A deer with a single horn in the center of its head -- much like the fabled, mythical unicorn -- has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park officials said Wednesday. ''This is fantasy becoming reality,'' Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato, told The Associated Press. ''The unicorn has always been a mythological animal.'' The 1-year-old Roe Deer -- nicknamed ''Unicorn'' -- was born in captivity in the research center's park in the Tuscan town of Prato, near Florence, Tozzi said. He is believed to have been born with a genetic flaw; his twin has two horns. Calling it the first time he has seen such a case, Tozzi said such anomalies among deer may have inspired the myth of the unicorn. The unicorn, a horse-like creature with magical healing powers, has appeared in legends and stories throughout history, from ancient and medieval texts to the adventures of Harry Potter. ''This shows that even in past times, there could have been animals with this anomaly,'' he said by telephone. ''It's not like they dreamed it up.'' Single-horned deer are rare but not unheard of -- but even more unusual is the central positioning of the horn, experts said....
Global Warming Policies' Economic Chill Many Americans think that switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, buying environmentally friendly appliances and obeying a (100% recycled) bag of green living tips will be the extent of their contribution to curbing greenhouse gases. But the price tag to consumers could be a lot higher if some politicians have their way. In fact, U.S. households could expect a $2,900 annual hit to their family budget sooner than they think. That's just one figure causing concern as politicians race to address global warming. Therefore, it's worth noting that at the same time Americans are concerned about climate change, they are also very concerned about the sluggish economy and the impact it is having on the pocketbook. It is only fair, then, to view the two issues side by side. When cooler heads prevail, the reality is clear: There is weak public support for global-warming policies, which would end up costing the average family thousands of dollars. First, it's worth noting where Americans currently stand on global warming. According to Gallup, as much as 70% of the public during the late 1990s through 2000 said the environment should take priority over the economy. That number has dropped to just 49% this year....
Alaska Spending Millions to Relocate Villages Affected by Climate Change One of Alaska's most eroded villages is getting more than $3 million in state aid to help it relocate to higher ground as Alaska tries to cope with the effects of global warming. Tribal leaders in the tiny coastal community of Newtok will now be able to begin building a barge landing at their new site to bring in building materials and, wherever possible, existing structures from their storm-battered village nine miles to the north. The bulk of the $3.3 million, however, will go toward the design and possible partial construction of a road from the barge landing to a planned evacuation center. "It will boost the village site and speed up the relocation process," said tribal administrator Stanley Tom. The Yupik Eskimo community of 400 is among six remote villages tapped by the state for immediate attention because they are highly vulnerable to escalating erosion, storms and flooding linked to global warming. The state is investing nearly $13 million to protect the villages in the coming year....
Voters Waiting For Candidate Who Will Drill The recent spike in oil prices and unemployment is dramatically changing this presidential campaign — virtually overnight. The near $20 jump in oil to $140 a barrel, the unexpected half-point increase in the jobless rate to 5.5% (the biggest monthly increase in 20 years) and the resulting 400-point plunge in stocks has created a new campaign issue right before our eyes. Public worry No. 1 is now oil, jobs and the economy, with the inflationary woes of the U.S. dollar right underneath. The candidate who can connect with these issues will win in November. But so far neither Barack Obama nor John McCain is dealing with the new political reality. In fact, it's all about oil right now. The price has doubled over the past year, while the economy has slumped. But here's an eye-opener. Recent polling data from Gallup show that the percentage of voters blaming oil companies for skyrocketing gasoline prices has dropped from 34% to 20% over the past year. At the same time, support for more drilling in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas has increased to 57% from 41%. And the candidates remain blind to these shifts....
Ranchers: Fire proves canyon no place for Army Ranchers opposed to the Army's planned expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site say the wildfire that has blackened 42,000 acres of the training ground, plus private and state lands, is just a preview of the fire danger that would come from giving the Army more land and heavier weapons to use in the area northeast of Trinidad. "If this fire had broken out on private land, we'd have gotten on it sooner and knocked it down," said Lon Robertson, a Kim-area rancher and president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition. "Landowners down here know they have to work together to fight fire and they keep a closer eye on their land than the Army does." Robertson said the Army's plan to add another 414,000 acres to the training ground - plus have live artillery fire and other heavy weapons - will only increase the fire danger to surrounding landowners. "They use heavier weapons in training up at Fort Carson and look how often they have to suppress wildfires up there," he said. "We don't need that added danger down here."....
Putting Up The 'For Shale' Sign Exxon Mobil is selling its gas stations because there's no money in it. Meanwhile, two GOP congressmen do what John McCain should do — change their position on drilling in ANWR. Despite the pain at the pump for consumers, the retail side of the gasoline business isn't that profitable, if at all. Gas station owners have known this all along. Most now hope they get enough traffic at their stations to make money on auto repairs or food and drink sales. Exxon Mobil, proclaimed by the no-drill demagogues to be the poster child for gas gouging, recognizes this as well, deciding to unload its 800 company-owned stations and an additional 1,400 dealer-operated locations to distributors. Still, Democrats will say Exxon and its unindicted co-conspirators still make obscene profits. The fact is that American oil companies in 2007 had an 8.3% profit margin, compared with 8.9% for all U.S. manufacturing. The cigarette and beverage companies' profit margin was 19.1%. Drug companies made 18.4%. Nobody complains about profits made by politically connected ethanol producers such as Archer Daniels Midland. Since February 2006, the congressionally mandated use of heavily subsidized and energy-inefficient ethanol has caused the price of corn, wheat and soybeans to increase more than 200%. Isn't this price-gouging?....
Tribes get New Mexico mountain summit listed as protected A state committee has approved a proposal from five American Indian tribes to give central New Mexico's Mount Taylor temporary protection as a cultural property at a contentious meeting. The state Cultural Properties Review Committee voted 4-2 Saturday in Grants for an emergency listing of more than 422,000 acres surrounding the mountain's summit on the state Register of Cultural Properties. The Navajo Nation, the Acoma, Laguna and Zuni pueblos, and the Hopi tribe of Arizona asked the state to approve the listing for a mountain they consider sacred to protect it from an anticipated uranium mining boom, according to the nomination report. The listing lasts for a year, after which the committee is to determine if it should be listed permanently....
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, Especially When Your Neighbor is an Endangered Frog A Forest Service proposal to fence cattle out of a sensitive stretch of creek in the Klamath Basin to protect the Oregon spotted frog seems to have tentative support from both ranchers and environmentalists. Last month, conservation groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, and the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center sued, arguing that federal environmental laws require the Forest Service to halt grazing when it “results in loss of species viability or creates a significant trend toward federal listing.” The decision to build the fence responds to this suit. “This is welcome news for the Oregon spotted frog,” said Noah Greenwald, science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Once an abundant species throughout the Northwest, the frog now has so few remaining populations that every one counts.” On Wednesday, representatives of the Center for Biological Diversity and Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics toured Jack Creek along with the Forest Service and the local rancher who runs cows on the allotment. They were there to look over the Forest Service’s solution to the problem: A three-and-a-half-mile-long fence that will exclude cattle from the frog’s breeding grounds in Jack Creek, while allowing the rancher to continue to utilize 90 percent of the allotment for cattle grazing. The Forest Service is also planning additional steps to restore frog habitat, including reintroduction of beaver, which build dams and create pools necessary for the frogs to thrive, clearing encroaching saplings from meadows, and repairing damaged stream banks. In response to the fence proposal, the conservation groups have temporarily set aside their motion for a preliminary injunction against grazing. “I believe this is the first frog fence in the United States,” said James Johnston of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics....
At the Time, They Said He Was Crazy Back in the 1980s, it became an article of faith among well- meaning "environmentalists" that grazing cattle on arid Western lands serves to "destroy fragile ecosystems." Western ranchers presented evidence that desert plants developed in an ecosystem that needs large ungulate grazers to churn their seeds into the soil, to fertilize wetlands, to carry moisture into arid valleys and thus benefit tortoise populations - which is why more tortoises are found on grazed land than ungrazed. The ranchers argued that grazing prevents the buildup of excess tinder that can make range fires more frequent and severe, that game species profit from the ranchers' water improvements and efforts at predator control. The forces seeking to remove mankind from the land scoffed at such arguments. They canceled grazing "permits" left and right. The U.S. Forest Service ordered that Nevada rancher and private property rights advocate Wayne Hage, in one example, could use "only hand tools" to trim back trees clogging the canals that had brought water to his 125-year-old, 700,000-acre Pine Creek Ranch in central Nevada. In 1991, Wayne Hage sued. On Friday, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Loren A. Smith ruled Mr. Hage was right, and the Forest Service was wrong. The judge awarded more than $4.2 million to the plaintiffs, ruling the U.S. Forest Service committed an unconstitutional "taking" of his water rights during their decades-long dispute over livestock grazing. Judge Smith also ordered the government to pay back interest to the family of a man considered one of the leaders of the 1980s "Sagebrush Rebellion" - an additional $4.4 million. And the government is also ordered to pay the Hage family's legal costs - another $4 million....
Nevada rancher wins property rights award A federal judge has awarded more than $4.2 million to the estate of late Nevada rancher and private property rights advocate Wayne Hage, ruling that the U.S. Forest Service committed a constitutional "taking" of his water rights during a decades-long dispute over livestock grazing on federal land. Calling the conflict a "drama worthy of a tragic opera and heroic characters," U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Loren A. Smith also ordered the government to pay back interest to the family of one of the leaders of the so-called "Sagebrush Rebellion" during the 1980s. Hage's lawyer estimates the interest dating to 1991 to be an additional $4.4 million, which he said would make it the largest award ever in such a case. "It sends a pretty important message to the government that if you screw with a small ranching family and put them out of business, you have to pay big bucks," said Lyman "Ladd" Bedford, a San Francisco-based lawyer who has argued the case since Hage first filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service in 1991. Smith, based in Washington D.C., ruled that government restrictions severely reducing water flows to Hage's land "deprived them of the water they needed for irrigation, making the ranch unviable." However, Smith said the taking occurred when the Forest Service -- apparently motivated by "hostility" toward Hage -- made it impossible for him to maintain the irrigation ditches. Like in similar cases in the past, the judge said the cancellation of Hage's federal grazing permit as a result of overgrazing and trespassing did not in itself amount to a "taking" prohibited under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. That's because a grazing permit is "a license, not a contract or property interest," he said....
American Ranching Family Wins 17-Year Battle with the Federal Government An epic 17-year battle between an American ranching family and the federal government has ended in favor of the family. The estates of Wayne and Jean Hage can finally claim a Fifth Amendment precedent-setting property rights victory. Loren A. Smith, Senior Judge for the United States Court of Federal Claims issued his final opinion in Hage v. United States (Case No. 91-1470L), ending the decades-long battle by deciding that the federal government indeed took the private property rights of E. Wayne and Jean Hage and awarding them deserved compensation. The court ruled that the Hages owned the water rights, ditch rights of ways, and range improvements on the federal grazing allotments. The court made clear that the government has the right to authorize grazing, but does not have the right to prevent the plaintiff from accessing their water rights on federal lands. (Case #91-1470L, The Estate of E. Wayne Hage and the Estate of Jean N. Hage v. The United States, June 6, 2008.) "This decision is important to every American because it reaffirms our basic right to own property, whether you live in a major US city or rural America," commented Margaret Byfield, the Hage's third daughter and executive director of the Stewards of the Range organization which has supported the case since the beginning. Wayne and Jean Hage filed their takings case in 1991, claiming the U.S. Forest Service had denied their rights to graze their livestock on federal land and actively prevented them from accessing and maintaining their water rights. The family has endured 17 years of court hearings and trials, and has won at every level, including the final round. "This is clearly a victory for my parents, who never gave up," commented Ruth Agee, the second of the five Hage children. Wayne and Jean are both buried on the private meadows at Pine Creek Ranch, which will remain with the family. Pine Creek Ranch was established in 1865, and purchased by the Hage family in 1978. The private fee lands encompass 7,000 acres, but as the court points out, "To raise cattle economically in such an arid region, Plaintiffs depend upon access to large quantities of land, including federal land, and to the limited water supply." In 1979, one year after the family purchased the ranch trouble began with the Forest Service when the USFS allowed the release of non-indigenous elk on the Hage's Table Mountain allotment. The elk began competing with their cattle for forage and water. However, instead of controlling the elk, the Forest Service reduced and ultimately canceled the Hage's grazing permits. Years of harassment by the federal government followed, including over 70 "visits" from the Forest Service and 40 letters charging them with various violations, which many, the court noted, were "extremely minor infractions." The court further pointed out that the Forest Service made many unreasonable requirements. "In addition, the Forest Service insisted that Plaintiffs maintain their 1866 Act ditches with nothing other than hand tools." After the Forest Service canceled the remaining grazing permits in 1990, the family was forced to file their takings case known as Hage v. United States....
Court stops privacy for livestock database The Agriculture Department has suspended indefinitely the time until a database for its National Animal Identification System (NAIS) would become subject to Privacy Act safeguards. USDA had planned to make the records confidential effective June 9 but announced the postponement in the Federal Register June 10. The change was the result of a restraining order sought by freelance journalist Mary-Louise Zanoni against USDA in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On June 4, the court ordered the department to suspend its effective date for applying Privacy Act safeguards to the records system, Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer said in a notice dated June 6. The dispute concerns access to files containing the names of farmers, ranchers and livestock companies. Data about their premises, locations and livestock movements are stored in the National Premises Information Repository, which is the initial step toward NAIS....
Disease resurfaces in Wyo cattle Two cows in Sublette County likely have been infected with brucellosis, state officials said Thursday. The discovery, which comes less than two years since Wyoming's cattle industry was declared "brucellosis-free," raises the possibility that it could lose that status again -- if the disease is found in another cattle herd within two years. The positive blood tests have so far been isolated to two black Angus cows from the same herd near Daniel, officials said. Blood tests are not a fool-proof method for determining whether animals are infected with brucellosis, but blood samples from these particular cows were put through a battery of six diagnostic tests apiece, all of which produced "strong" positive reactions. That indicates a high probability the animals were indeed infected with the disease, said State Veterinarian Walt Cook. The cattle were slaughtered, and tissues from the animals are in the process of being analyzed at the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory in Laramie to confirm the blood tests, Cook said. It could take two weeks or more before the final results are available. Montana is expected to lose its brucellosis-free status in the coming days after a cow there tested positive for exposure to the bacterial disease, the second case in that state in just over a year....
Tex quits cows Most people in the White Mountains know him as "Tex." At 91, Tex Truelock is tough as a boot heel and sharp as a barbed wire fence. More than 60 years after he came to northeastern Arizona, he decided to get out of the cattle business for good. He summed up the reasons as only a Texas cattleman could: "Can't get help, there's no feed, costs have gone up, and the environmentalists." You could spend hours discussing the plight of cattlemen in the West, but that's about it. At noon on June 6 he told the photographer and me, "177 cows went out this morning." A mixture of grief and relief played on his face - grief to see the last of his mother cows go off in trucks, relief that the work was over. The "work" being a lifetime of roping, riding, branding, fence building, pulling wells, moving cattle, shipping cattle, repairing machinery, calving and doctoring, training colts, putting out salt and feed, chopping ice and all the other chores that make up the life of a rancher. That was in addition to working for wages to support a family. He looked at me, grinned and said, "I'm tired."....
Girls, Courtrooms and Heroes Stories where the good guys turn out to be bad guys, where the courtroom unearths corruption, where a town is forced to question its identity. They usually involve a girl who lives a little too fast with a father who exited early and an overworked and tired mother. They are girls who grow up fast and hard with bright smiles. In Ada, Oklahoma, it’s the story of the wrongly imprisoned Ron Williamson. A dead girl, a fallen baseball hero, dirty cops and an imprudent district attorney helped John Grisham hit the NY Times Bestseller List with An Innocent Man. Head north and a little west to Kalispell, Montana for the story of Dick Dasen, the seemingly altruistic businessman who fed the meth habits of young girls in exchange for sex. Turn straight down and east to Las Cruces, New Mexico to find the story of Cricket Coogler, most recently chronicled by Paula Moore in Cricket in the Web. Moore writes that Cricket was one of those girls. A waitress, a high school dropout, the daughter of a dead father and a hard-working mom, Cricket Coogler lived hard and fast for an seventeen year old girl in 1940s Las Cruces. She ran with political types from Santa Fe who were drawn to Las Cruces by the sparse and friendly law enforcement and the prolific illegal gambling. On March 31, 1949, the last night she was seen alive, she frequented no more than five bars in the company of three different men. Seventeen days later they found her body under a creosote bush in Mesquite, New Mexico....
'Pushed out' by bigger operation Doak Good had settled in comfortably in his rock and adobe house at Portales Springs, but his peaceful existence did not last long. In 1882 Jim Newman began bringing his cattle from Texas to Salt Lake and established the DZ Ranch near Arch, 11 miles east of Good’s place. The springs that fed Salt Lake only provided enough water to fill a few dirt troughs, so Newman’s cattle would drift over to the plentiful water at the lake, which was fed by the Portales Springs. Bad feelings developed and violence was bound to follow. After the fight with Gabe Henson, which he blamed on Newman, Good was afraid to stay by himself, and he picked up a transient boy about 14 years old to work for him. Old-time cowboy Col. Jack Potter had this to say about the new cowhand: “He was a hard-looking kid; had an old Stetson hat with the crown out, thrown away by some cowpuncher. He had long hair and it stuck out through the crown of the hat. He was dubbed by the cowboys as ‘Portales Bill,’ though I learned later his real name was McElmore.” Good gave him a few dogies or mavericks for his work, and it was commonly believed that he added to his herd by rustling other people’s cattle....
Single-horned beast appears A deer with a single horn in the center of its head -- much like the fabled, mythical unicorn -- has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park officials said Wednesday. ''This is fantasy becoming reality,'' Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato, told The Associated Press. ''The unicorn has always been a mythological animal.'' The 1-year-old Roe Deer -- nicknamed ''Unicorn'' -- was born in captivity in the research center's park in the Tuscan town of Prato, near Florence, Tozzi said. He is believed to have been born with a genetic flaw; his twin has two horns. Calling it the first time he has seen such a case, Tozzi said such anomalies among deer may have inspired the myth of the unicorn. The unicorn, a horse-like creature with magical healing powers, has appeared in legends and stories throughout history, from ancient and medieval texts to the adventures of Harry Potter. ''This shows that even in past times, there could have been animals with this anomaly,'' he said by telephone. ''It's not like they dreamed it up.'' Single-horned deer are rare but not unheard of -- but even more unusual is the central positioning of the horn, experts said....
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