Ad Attacks Palin On Alaska Wolf Culling The new attack ad by Defenders of Wildlife is graphic, visceral and disturbing. It's critical of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin for her support of a controversial predator control policy in Alaska that targets wolves. The ad states: The more voters hear about Sarah Palin, the less there is to like. As Alaska governor, Sarah Palin actively promotes the vicious aerial killing of wolves. With no chance to escape, riddled with gunshots, it's a brutal death. The basic claim is true. Palin continued the policies of her predecessor in the governor's office that allowed aerial shooting of wolves for purposes of predator control. Here's how it works. If the Alaska Department of Fish and Game determines that moose and caribou populations are being overly preyed upon by wolves, in areas where people rely on those herds for food, the state can issue permits for private pilots to go out and shoot wolves from small airplanes. State wildlife officials acknowledge there's no fair chase involved. The wolf typically doesn't have much chance of escape once it's been targeted from the sky. Nevertheless, the state considers aerial culling an important tool for protecting the viability of the game herds for human subsistence....

Tax Earmarks, Pork and Other Bailout Bill Horrors The most egregious, most frightening aspect of this bill is its hidden attack on every aspect of our economy under the cover of anti-carbon measures contained in what is essentially an energy bill tacked on to the bailout -- an energy bill which would not pass Congress were it to come up for a vote. Section 117 of the bailout bill calls for this: “The Secretary of the Treasury shall enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to undertake a comprehensive review of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to identify the types of and specific tax provisions that have the largest effects on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions and to estimate the magnitude of those effects.” So the radical environmentalists’ path to a ‘carbon trading’ system -- which both Sens. Obama and McCain favor -- would be cleared of underbrush so that our economy could be strangled with the European system as soon as possible. If you own a power plant, a steel factory, a dairy farm, or an airline company, or maybe even just a car, this is a large caliber weapon aimed directly at you. It’s the predicate to taxing carbon emissions...The bill doubles the subsidy for biodiesel production from 50 cents per gallon to $1.00 per gallon. Doesn’t the Senate realize that we can’t save the world by burning our food? Did they not remember the huge increase in food prices over the past two years due in large part to these subsidies diverting food and feed crops into our gas tanks? The energy provisions in the bailout also include darlings of the environmental left: tax credits for “small wind property,” “geothermal heat pump systems,” and “electricity produced from marine renewables.” While tax breaks for alternative energy aren’t necessarily objectionable, the inclusion of them in this bill removes incentive for Democrats to cooperate on a comprehensive energy bill which would include drilling for oil and gas or developing clean coal or nuclear power sources. The effect of this bill, then, will be to keep us from developing efficient large-scale energy sources. Small wind properties will not lower prices at the pump....

PIGGY POLS IN HOG HEAVEN WITH PORK-PACKED PACT Here, little piggies! Congressional deal-brookers yesterday slopped a mess of pork into the $700 billion financial rescue bill passed by the Senate last night - including a tax break for makers of kids' wooden arrows - in a bid to lure reluctant lawmakers into voting for the package. Stuffed into the 451- page bill are more than $1.7 billion worth of targeted tax breaks to be doled out for a sty full of eyebrow-raising purposes over the next decade. "This is how Washington works," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington research group. "A big pot of pork is their recipe for final passage." The special provisions include tax breaks for: * Manufacturers of kids' wooden arrows - $6 million. * Puerto Rican and Virgin Is- lands rum producers - $192 million. * Wool research. * Auto-racing tracks - $128 million. * Corporations operating in American Samoa - $33 million. * Small- to medium-budget film and television productions - $10 million. Another measure inserted into the bill appears to be a bald-faced bid aimed at winning the support of Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who voted against the original version when it went down in flames in the House on Monday. That provision - a $223 million package of tax benefits for fishermen and others whose livelihoods suffered as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill - has been the subject of fervent lobbying by Alaska's congressional delegation....

Senate bailout bill includes timber payments A financial rescue plan approved by the Senate includes a plan to extend a program that pays rural counties hurt by federal logging cutbacks. Senators inserted the timber provision as one of several sweeteners to attract more votes for the bailout bill, which was defeated Monday in the House. The Senate version of the bill also includes billions of dollars in tax breaks, as well as an increase in the limit on federal bank deposit insurance. In the West, the timber provision was a welcome addition. Lawmakers have long been seeking a way to renew the program, which provides hundreds of millions of dollars to Oregon, Idaho and other states, mostly in the West, that once depended on federal timber sales to pay for schools, libraries and other services in rural areas. The law, officially titled the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act but commonly known as "county payments," helps pay for schools and services in 700 counties in 39 states. The program expired Tuesday with the end of the fiscal year. The Senate approved a bill last week that would have renewed it for four years, but the House removed the provision two days later, citing objections from the White House. The Bush administration later issued a statement saying it supports renewal of the timber program, although officials said it should be phased out. The Senate bill would reauthorize the timber program for four years at a cost of $3.3 billion....

Senate adds tax incentives to bailout bill U.S. senators on Wednesday modified a Wall Street bailout plan by adding tax breaks for solar, wind and other renewable energy to appease representatives in the House who had defeated the original plan Monday. The modified plan extends the renewable energy production tax credit and the solar energy and fuel cell investment tax credit for eight years. It also expands the residential energy-efficient property credit to include small wind equipment and geothermal heat pumps. The bill provides tax incentives for carbon capture, energy-efficient buildings and the purchase of plug-in hybrid vehicles. House Republican leaders said the new elements in the plan would appeal to their rank-and- file....

Cougar attack recounted for game commission Bogged down in public comment, the New Mexico State Game Commission listened to opinions about a single issue all afternoon. The item was on the adoption of amendments to a bear and cougar rule. During the comment period Charlotte Salazar stood with her 5-year-old son Jose Salazar Jr. "My son was attacked," Charlotte said. As the Salazar family walked a well-used path on May 17 in the Sandia Mountains above Albuquerque, the boy ran ahead a little bit, she said. "A mountain lion jumped out of a bush, jumped on him and started clawing his body," she said. "He was grabbed by the head and dragged 300 feet down a hillside." The boy's father, Jose Salazar, dove after the child and lion. Damaging his ankle and breaking his thumb, Jose reached the lion and child and was able to grab the boy as the animal ran away. "He had his scalp ripped back and puncture wounds were all over his back and neck," Charlotte said. In response to a board member's earlier comment that it had not been proven the incident was caused by a mountain lion, Charlotte said they pulled fur from the child's clothing and saliva from his shoe. The DNA tests showed a 95 percent chance the animal actually was a mountain lion. Charlotte said the commission should not limit year-round cougar hunting and should focus on reducing the number of animals as there are too many in the state....

Stevens’s trial hangs by a thread Sen. Ted Stevens’s (R-Alaska) criminal case hung by a thread Thursday when an angry federal judge said the government had violated rules on handling critical evidence. In the most dramatic day in the week-old trial, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan erupted at the Justice Department for waiting until just before midnight Wednesday to disclose FBI notes discussing Stevens’s intent to pay for gifts that are at the center of his criminal trial. Sullivan said he had lost confidence in the government’s ability to prosecute the case and ordered all exculpatory evidence, unedited FBI notes and grand jury testimony turned over immediately to the defense team before Monday’s status hearing. “How does the court have any confidence that the Public Integrity Office has any integrity?” Sullivan said, referring to the division at the Justice Department that is prosecuting the case. Sullivan rejected a defense motion to declare a mistrial and to dismiss the case against the Alaska Republican, who faces felony charges. But he instructed the jury that the government erred in its obligations to submit evidence to the defense. He said the new evidence could still be used in the trial, and offered the defense the chance to make a new opening statement. The trial may resume Monday, but that depends on the outcome of the new status hearing scheduled by Sullivan....

Minnows Using Fish Channel A channel built to help fish find their way around the Albuquerque metro area's new water supply dam appears to be working, officials said during a tour of the site Monday. The dam, on the Rio Grande near Albuquerque's northern border, is one piece of a $385 million water system scheduled to be turned on in December to provide a new source of drinking water for the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County metro area. Officials from the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service toured the dam Monday to look at the fish structure and discuss its operation. The dam has been in place and tested for two years, and fish surveys have shown that the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow is using the dam's fish channel, according to John Stomp, the water utility's project manager....

State fights Desert Rock The state of New Mexico filed a brief with the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Appeals Board appealing the air permit granted July 31 to Desert Rock Power Plant. The appeals board can remand the permit if it agrees with the state's arguments. "The EAB can and should send this permit back to the EPA with an order to re-evaluate specific issues that we have outlined in our brief," Attorney General Gary King said. "The EPA has a legal obligation to give New Mexicans the full protections afforded to them under the Clean Air Act." Slated for eventual construction near Burnham on the Navajo Nation, the plant is being paid for by Sithe Global, LLC and will be operated by Diné Power Authority. It is supported by Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. and the Navajo Tribal Council....

Heller tells CPA wilderness should be designated sparingly "In the future, I will only engage in development of lands bills at the invitation and request of local officials." That was part of a response by Nevada Congressman Dean Heller (R) to a questionnaire sent by the Coalition for Public Access (CPA), the public advocacy group formed this year in Lyon and Mineral Counties to successfully battle suggested lands bill and wilderness proposals and thereby keep the state's lands open for multiple use. The CPA mailed separate questionnaires for a variety of elected offices and required a returned receipt in each case to track receipt and participation. This is the first of several stories leading up to the November General Election as the organization presents those responses for voter consideration. The CPA chose not to endorse any candidate but to try to educate the public via this process. The questions actually asked in the CPA election campaign questionnaire were as follows....

Battle over Village at Wolf Creek">Battle over Village at Wolf Creek Here we go again. For nearly a decade, the battle over the Village at Wolf Creek has been waged between the Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture and virtually everyone else. To this point, millions have been spent attempting to have McCombs" "Premier Mountain Recreational Village in the World" approved. After repeated setbacks and losses in court, Red McCombs and Bob Honts have again applied for access permits, the first of the many approvals necessary to build their village. It is crystal clear from their last attempt at this that the vast majority of people in Colorado, and the nation don't want to see a "village" of 10,000 people perched at the top of Wolf Creek Pass. No mitigation measures could ever make up for the permanent destruction to wildlife habitat, high alpine wetlands, and the magnificent natural beauty of the area....

USFS: Biking similar to hiking, horses The U.S. Forest Service recently issued an agency memo that could ease restrictions on mountain biking in national forests. Written by Deputy Chief Joel Holtrop, the memo "clearly defines mountain biking as similar to hiking and equestrian use, and activity to be managed separately from motorized travel," according to the International Mountain Biking Association. Previous studies have shown similar impact among hikers and mountain bikers and both user groups share many common objectives. Jim Bedwell, the Forest Service director for recreation, heritage and volunteers, made the announcement at the IMBA World Summit in Park City, Utah, adding that the document has been distributed to agency staff both regionally and locally....

Rainbow hippie pleads not guilty to shovel attack A 24-year-old man who prosecutors say smashed another man’s head with a shovel during a July gathering of the Rainbow Family of peace-preaching hippies in Boulder pleaded not guilty to assault and menacing charges on Thursday. Sheriff’s deputies responded at about 6:30 p.m. on July 15 on to a report that a fight had broken out among a group of a dozen people camping in the area. When deputies arrived, witnesses reported that one man, a Nederland resident in his 30s, was hit in the back of the head multiple times with a shovel. The victim was airlifted to a Denver hospital....

The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008 passes House Judiciary Committee The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act (H.R. 6598), a bill that would criminalize the sale and transportation of horses for the purposes of slaughter, was approved and recommended to the House of Representatives by the House Judiciary Committee on September 23. The bill passed by a voice vote. The bill must still be passed by the House and Senate before it can become law, but it’s re-energized the issue of horse slaughter in this country. While there are currently no equine slaughter facilities in the United States, thousands of American horses are exported for slaughter to Mexico and Canada each year. H.R. 6598 would make horse transport to these countries for slaughter illegal. The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), a non-profit group that supports passage of The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, has publicly commended the bill’s sponsors--Committee Chairman John Conyers, lead cosponsor Representative Dan Burton and Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott--for their “swift shepherding” of the legislation through the Judiciary Committee....

NM game director's hunting license revoked The head of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department has had his hunting rights temporarily taken away. The Game Commission voted Thursday to revoke director Bruce Thompson's hunting license for two years. Thompson was accused of shooting a deer on private land during a hunt in southeastern New Mexico last November. It's illegal to hunt on private property in New Mexico without permission from the landowner. Thompson has said he believed he was on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land, based on coordinates entered in his global positioning system unit. Thompson was convicted earlier this year of unlawful hunting and illegal possession of a deer. He was ordered to serve 182 days of unsupervised probation and pay fines as a result of his no contest plea to the charges.

Reporter dug for the truth at mining camp As soon as George Smalley hopped off the train in the small Arizona town in 1899, he sensed greed as thick as the dust. Though the investigative reporter knew what to expect at this shady mining camp, he had no idea that before the day ended, he would be lucky to escape with his life. Word of the Spenazuma Mine in the eastern Arizona Territory spread rapidly along the East Coast, where residents had purchased tens of thousands of dollars worth of shares. These investors were told of riches beyond compare, where veins of gold and silver ran thick through Gila Valley. Not far away was tiny Geronimo, which owed its recent population boost to Richard C. "Doc" Flower, a slick-talking yet refined gentleman who made his initial fortune selling tonics that cured everything from hair loss to failing kidneys - until the federal government forced him to stop. This time Doc's cure-all was gold and silver. He even carried with him a gold-flecked stone as proof. But the only thing piling up faster than Doc's claims was the money spent on Spenazuma stock....

Chuck Connors' "Rifleman" still owns the rerun ranch Fifty years after its September 1958 premiere on ABC, "The Rifleman," starring Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford, goes on and on. Of the dozens of Westerns that populated the TV landscape in the late 1950s, the genre's heyday, few continue in continuous reruns today. "The Rifleman" starred baseball- player-turned actor Connors as widowed rancher Lucas McCain, who was raising his only child, Mark, in the New Mexico Territory in the late 1870s. He often helped his friend Micah (Paul Fix), the sheriff of the nearby town of North Fork, keep the peace. If the 6-foot-6 McCain wasn't intimidating enough to rabble rousers, his expertise with a trick-lever Winchester 1892 saddle ring carbine was the convincer. Indeed, the rifle was the show's gimmick. "A prop man at Paramount Studios devised the screw in the trigger guard that allowed the gun to fire each time it was levered," Gardner said. "We made five copies." Every week, "The Rifleman" began with a tracking shot of Connors walking North Fork's main street toward an off-camera foe, shooting a dozen blasts with the Winchester's butt braced at waist level. While firing away and littering the dirt street with spent shell casings, he doesn't miss a step or blink.

NM judge rules on Mexican gray wolf ordinance A federal judge has dismissed environmentalists' concerns over a western New Mexico county's ordinance regarding endangered Mexican gray wolves, saying the county amended the measure to remove provisions that would have allowed it to immediately trap or remove wolves from the wild. WildEarth Guardians had sued Catron County in U.S. District Court in Santa Fe, alleging that an ordinance passed last year by the county violated the federal Endangered Species Act and was invalid. U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez issued a ruling Tuesday that said the group's claims were moot since the county had amended the ordinance to remove provisions that authorized county officials to take action against wolves that were deemed to be threats to people. However, Vazquez did not rule on WildEarth Guardians' claim that the county commission allegedly violated federal law when it targeted a pair of wolves for trapping last year. WildEarth Guardians sees the ruling as a partial victory. WildEarth Guardians sees the ruling as a partial victory. "What the court did was provide much needed clarity that the current law in Catron County does not authorize unilateral wolf removals," Melissa Hailey, an attorney for WildEarth Guardians, said Wednesday. ...

Funding bill to provide emergency cash to U.S. Forest Service The stopgap measure includes $500 million in emergency spending to cover unexpected U.S. Forest Service firefighting costs, $250 million for hazardous fuels management and $25 million to boost firefighter retention efforts. "We were facing devastating cuts to maintenance, services and even fire prevention in some areas," Inland Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, said in a statement announcing the new funds. "Congress and the President have responded with this emergency funding increase to ensure that we do not create an even worse fire threat in the future." The $500 million, signed just before the close of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30, eliminates the need throughout the U.S. Forest Service for cutbacks, Lewis spokesman Jim Specht said Wednesday. The House and Senate passed the bill last week....

4 wolves killed after 2nd attack Four wolves have been killed and efforts to kill a fifth are under way after it was confirmed that the Hog Heaven Pack was responsible for a second attack on livestock in the last week. Two wolves were killed last week, and a federal trapper shot two wolves from a helicopter Tuesday morning in an area not far from Brown’s Meadow west of Kalispell, said Kent Laudon, regional wolf management specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The hunt continued for an additional wolf in the pack, which is believed to have a minimum of 10 wolves based on a recent aerial observation. Last year, the pack was responsible for two livestock depredation incidents, prompting Wildlife Services to kill one of the wolves....

Data show bears not so harmless Between 1900 and 2003, there were 52 recorded deaths in North America due to black bears, 50 due to brown and grizzly bears, and five due to polar bears. This information comes from "Fatal Black Bear Attacks" and "Fatal Brown Bear Attacks," Southeastern Outdoors, July 14, 2006; "Grizzly Bear Related Fatalities," Glacier National Park Press Kit, National Park Service, July 14, 2006; and Kerry A. Gunther, "Bear Caused Human Injuries and Deaths in Yellowstone National Park," Bearman's Yellowstone Outdoor Adventures. This is the most recent data that is the most reliable and complete, but does not necessarily include all fatal attacks that have occurred in North America. There have been 23 fatal black bear attacks between 1991 and 2008. There have been seven fatal black bear attacks in North America since 2005....

Trees fly through the skies of Deadwood A huge habitat restoration project is underway in the town of Deadwood along Highway 36. Helicopters are transporting almost 500 conifers from nearby Forest Service land to 14 miles of streams. "We're concerned with not removing habitat for spotted owls so we choose trees with less structure and smaller branches," said fisheries biologist Paul Burns. "We know that birds and other animals won't be using those." Over the next 10 or 15 years the logs will provide spawning grounds and refuge for four different kinds of salmon and other aquatic species. "The stream flow scours and creates pools and the gravel drops out upstream and downstream for spawning habitat," said stream habitat biologist Jason Kirchner. Salmon should benefit from the work....Gotta love that headline.

Pine Beetles Changing Rocky Mountain Air Quality, Weather When pine bark beetles kill trees, scientists believe they may also alter local weather patterns and air quality. For the next four years researchers will study forests from southern Wyoming to northern New Mexico to determine the precise relationship between the beetles, the trees they kill and the atmosphere. A new international field project, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, is exploring how trees killed by the beetles influence rainfall, temperatures, smog and other aspects of the atmosphere. "Forests help control the atmosphere, and there's a big difference between the impacts of a living forest and a dead forest," says NCAR scientist Alex Guenther, a principal investigator on the project. "With a dead forest, we may get different rainfall patterns, for example." Preliminary computer modeling suggests that beetle kill can lead to temporary temperature increases of between two and four degrees Fahrenheit. This is partly because of a lack of foliage to reflect the Sun's heat back into space. Beetle kill stimulates trees to release more particles and chemicals into the atmosphere as they try to fight off the insects, Guenther says. This worsens air quality, at least initially, by increasing levels of ground-level ozone and particulate matter....

County payments stalled in House as close of session looms Despite an overwhelming 93-2 vote in the U.S. Senate last Tuesday evening in support of federal forest payments, the fate of the "safety net" was very much in doubt in the U.S. House of Representatives. County payments was excluded from the House bills because the White House threatened to veto any legislation reauthorizing Secure Rural Schools and requiring mandatory payment in lieu of taxes (PILT). The PILT program compensates states for loss of tax revenue from Federal lands. Full funding of PILT would also provide increased funding for counties in Oregon and around the country that lose tax revenues due to the presence of Federal lands in the state. "This is extraordinarily disappointing to me, and devastating to counties in Southwest Oregon," DeFazio said. "It is outrageous that the President is willing to borrow $465 million for foreign aid, the majority of which is going to the Republic of Georgia and $700 billion to bail out his Wall Street buddies but, he is turning his back on schools, law enforcement, and other vital public services in rural communities," DeFazio continued. Besides the President's promise of a veto, it also appears that DeFazio came out on the short end of some "horse trading" with Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. Rangel pulled federal forest payments from the tax extenders package. Apparently, Rangel wanted a provision for certain New York City transportation projects included in the package. His staff told members of the National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition that if the money for those projects is included, he will restore federal forest payments....A lame duck President who has an approval rating of 27% threatens a veto and the Dem's cave? I don't think so. Looks more like two Dem's fighting over the goodies has screwed the counties.

Tree Power Could Save Forests From Fires Tree power might sound like a hippie battle cry, but scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have literally tapped into the tiny electrical current carried in trees and created a company, Voltree, to capitalize on it as a power source. "People have known about this phenomena for many years and have tried to explain it by various exotic mechanisms," said Andreas Mershin, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT who is involved in the research. "But the cause of it is a simple pH difference between the tree and the soil," said Chris Love, a senior in chemistry at MIT and Vice President of Voltree. Working with the U.S. Forest Service, Voltree has created cheap sensors that use tree power to monitor temperature and humidity conditions inside forests. The goal is to give forest managers and firefighters better tools to predict and monitor fires....

Conservation summit: overdue debate It's a notion whose time has come, this Colorado Conservation Summit that begins Monday at Keystone Conference Center. Of course, it also might be presumed a decade overdue, but such is the nature of America's current infatuation with management by crisis. In any case, this diverse gathering represents our state's determination to join a movement that may offer outdoorsmen a last, best hope to protect wildlife habitat so important both to our sporting interests and to what we cherish as the Colorado way of life. This flirtation between hunter/fishers and environmentalists, an off- and-on affair, at last has progressed to the hand-holding stage. Where it develops from here, at least in this neck of the woods, depends a great deal on the bonding that occurs next week. At the root of the initiative is the recognition, finally, that those who pursue fish and game have so much more in common with conservationists than separates them. It's an awareness born of hard lessons, bitter defeats and the reality that if something isn't done soon, many things very precious will be lost....

Gold Butte land bill too limiting There was a time when the great thing about living in Southern Nevada was its wide-open spaces, most of it on public land. One could travel in just about any direction and find someplace new and interesting to visit or someplace new and inviting to hunt. Living in the growing city was made tolerable because you always could get away from the crowds by taking a drive into the desert on one of many roads that miners, ranchers and wandering explorers left behind long ago. But that's no longer the case. With the Bureau of Land Management's no off-pavement travel closure surrounding the Las Vegas Valley for miles in every direction, the Lake Mead National Recreation Area to the east, the Sloan Canyon Conservation Area to the south, the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area to the west and the Desert Wildlife Refuge and Nellis Bombing Range to the north, Southern Nevadans have been hemmed in like cattle with political fences on all sides. Some days I feel like a calf with his head stuck between strands of barbed wire looking for somewhere else to be. Now, with the help of U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, things could get worse. On Friday, Berkley introduced H.R. 1732, a piece of legislation that if passed would create the Gold Butte Conservation Area: more than 565 square miles of rules, regulations and travel closures. Included in the legislation is language that would create another 13 new wilderness areas totaling more than 220,300 acres. More than 91,000 acres of that wilderness would fall within the Lake Mead NRA, where public access to the lake's shoreline already significantly is limited to anyone who does not own a boat....

Huntsman rips into off-trail ORV use Off-road vehicles that stray from trails are doing immense damage to the state, said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who has directed state officers to begin cracking down. "It's an abomination, it's an embarrassment," the governor said Wednesday during a meeting with The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board. Huntsman said that he recently visited the area around Moab with David Bonderman, a prominent venture capitalist and major financier for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, to see the damage done by illegal off-road travel. "I wanted to get a sense of what the concern was, and it became a concern to me," he said. So Huntsman - who rides dirt bikes, but sticks to the track - said he has begun a two-part effort to reduce the damage, using enforcement and encouragement. First, he has asked the Department of Natural Resources to step up enforcement on state land. "You penalize them. . . . You give them tickets, you charge them, you fine them, which is what we're going to be doing through DNR," he said....

One-year ban on oil shale regulations expires Time has run out on a congressional ban on issuing final regulations for oil shale development in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The one-year moratorium on issuing the regulations expired Tuesday and efforts to extend it have failed. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved a plan to open nearly 2 million acres of public land to development and is expected to issue final oil shale regulations later this year. The agency has said it could be several years before commercial development occurs and that more in-depth analyses will be done as specific projects are approved. The shale in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming is thought to contain 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The catch is the technology to squeeze the oil out of the rock is still experimental and commercial production is likely at least a decade off....

Yellowstone National Park speeds up action on snow machines In an about-face, officials at Yellowstone National Park said Wednesday that they would quickly craft a plan to allow snowmobiles and snow coaches into the park in time for the winter season. After a federal judge ruled two weeks ago that Yellowstone's snowmobile-use proposal was unacceptable because it would put the health of visitors and animals at risk, park officials said they would not be able to hammer out a new plan before the season starts Dec. 15. The impasse had threatened to shut down much of Yellowstone's winter operations for the first time in decades. On Monday, park Supt. Suzanne Lewis told a business group in Cody, Wyo., that it was possible that only snowshoers and cross-country skiers would be allowed into Yellowstone. But on Wednesday, park spokesman Al Nash said that an environmental assessment allowing for the use of snow machines would be ready by early next month, followed by a 15-day comment period....

Tribe, groups vow to sue to guard rare fish The Confederated Tribe of Goshutes and two conservation organizations filed notice Wednesday that they plan to sue the Interior Department for not responding to a petition to put a rare Utah fish on the federal list of threatened or endangered species. The least chub, a small minnow found only in Utah's Bonneville Basin, now lives in just six fragile wild populations, three in the Snake Valley. Along with the tribe, the Great Basin chapter of Trout Unlimited and Wild Utah Project claim the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plans to tap Snake Valley groundwater to feed Las Vegas growth threatens the least chub's survival. The groups filed their petition to protect the fish in June 2007. Under the Endangered Species Act, federal officials should have responded with a finding of whether the petition's claims were sufficient to warrant further consideration within 90 days. A decision on whether to list the fish then should have come within a year....

The Cuban Diet The global warming scare isn't about the environment as much as it is about smothering capitalism and forcing Americans to change their lifestyles. A report out of Great Britain confirms this. Basing its recommendation on the theory that the greenhouse gases emitted by meat and dairy production are principal contributors to global warming, the Food Climate Research Network, operating out of the University of Surrey, strongly suggests that meat and milk consumption in developed countries be rationed. This nonsense emanating from an institute of supposedly higher learning is alarmingly similar to the madness spouted by Rajendra Pachauri, the vegetarian chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who wants people to "give up meat for one day (a week) initially, and decrease it from there." The limit prescribed by the British group is four ounces of meat every other day and one liter of milk, "just about enough for cereal in the morning" — or 100 grams of cheese — each week. Americans currently consume roughly 10 ounces of meat a day and drink a little more than 1.5 liters of milk per week. Each of us eats more than 270 grams of cheese on a weekly basis. Fearmongers who want to ration meat and milk would force the world to eat like residents of communist Cuba, where food is rationed by a malevolent regime that has institutionalized scarcity. In that workers' paradise, the average ration of meat — if available and including fish — is two ounces per day. Milk is distributed only to children under 7, and each Cuban gets 12 eggs per month. It wasn't hard to see this coming. The forces that want to scare the world about global warming wish to dictate how the rest of us live, from the homes we live in to the automobiles we drive and, now, to the food we eat. They want people to believe that they have only the public interest at heart, but in reality their goal is to set themselves up as autocrats who can shape the world so that it suits their tastes....And now the Australians have entered the frey, saying eat kangaroo meat be cause kangaroos emit fewer greenhouse gases. It's what's for dinner, mate.

County Unveils Oil and Gas Ordinance Santa Fe County's draft oil and gas ordinance doesn't stop drilling cold, but it proposes hefty requirements before companies could sink a well and start pumping. Among other restrictions in the 126-page document released Tuesday, companies can only use fresh water for fracturing rock to draw out oil or gas. Brine and chemicals typically used in that process would be banned. The draft ordinance also requires companies to prove they have an assured 50-year water supply for any drilling project. Santa Fe County commissioners Tuesday approved publishing the ordinance, beginning a formal public-hearing process. The county will hold two public hearings on the ordinance before the County Development Review Committee and at least two more hearings before the county commissioners, according to Stephen Ulibarri, the county's public-information officer. The ordinance also would require companies to help pay the cost, estimated at $61 million, for upgrading roads, hiring more deputies and increasing fire protection, according to attorney Robert H. Freilich of Miller Barondess, who helped prepare the ordinance. Oil and gas development elsewhere in the West has increased the burden on local governments to provide fire and emergency services, he said....

Tester backs bill for beef promotion Tester hopes to force a change in beef marketing through a bill dubbed the Beef Checkoff Modernization Act. Beef Checkoff is a promotion and research program funded through a $1-per-head tax on cattle as well as a per-pound tax on imported beef. The program has had its critics in cattle country, in part because ranchers have wanted the option of periodically voting on whether or not to continue the Beef Checkoff. Also, contracts for promotions have been awarded to beef groups in existence when the Checkoff program was first created. Other groups have been created since then and some cattlemen argue that younger beef groups should be considered for Checkoff contracts. Specifically, Tester’s proposal would: • Require that at least 30 percent of Beef Checkoff money be used to promote U.S. beef. The program currently brings in more than $80 million a year for research and promotions. • Allow cattle producers to hold a referendum every seven years or sooner if petitioned, to change Beef Checkoff. The first vote would be in 2010. Future program changes, including fee increases, would have to be voted on by referendum and approved by a majority of producers. • Allow the creation of an importer’s qualified beef council to promote non-domestic beef. Importers currently pay a per-pound fee into the Beef Checkoff promotion to offset beef research and promotion. • Not increase Checkoff fees or tap the general public for taxpayer support....The bill is S.3404.

Farmer Mac's Amber Waves Of Pain The agricultural sector swept in and bailed out its own Wednesday at a time when farmers are feeling the impact of the credit crunch. Federal Agricultural Mortgage, the rural cousin of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced a $65.0 million capital infusion from a group of banks on Wednesday. Federal Agricultural Mortgage, which is also known as Farmer Mac and was created by the U.S. government as a secondary market for agricultural real estate and rural housing mortgage loans, saw its shares soar 65.6%, or $2.69, to $6.79, on Wednesday, but that will be cold comfort to investors who paid more than $30 for it in August. The shares held up well until last month, when the Treasury took control of Fannie Mae, in which Farmer Mac held preferred shares. The Farm Credit System, which is a federally chartered network of borrower-owned lending institutions, purchased $60.0 million in preferred stock of Farmer Mac. In addition $5.0 million of Farmer Mac senior cumulative perpetual preferred stock has been purchased by Zions Bancorporation of Salt Lake City....

Bigfoot lore alive in Estacada area While hiking along the snowy banks of the Clackamas River late one January afternoon in 1969, Millie Kiggins of Estacada, her husband and their friend Art Schneider found something that would thrust the Kigginses and the quiet wilderness surrounding Estacada into an international spotlight. “We went to look at a Forest Service cabin up above Squaw Lake on the way to Cold Springs about 20 miles from Estacada,” Kiggins said. “They were going to sell them, and we wanted to look at them. We started out late, and we were in about three feet of snow. There was a gate, and we couldn’t get through. So we started to walk, and it looked like somebody had already gotten through, because there were tracks in the snow.” They noticed the large size of the tracks and their depth. “They were 18 inches deep”, she said. “Whatever had made them was heavy, because ours were a couple inches deep. It had to have been walking on two feet…and its stride was 67 inches.” The path of the tracks was in an unusually straight line, too straight to be man-made footprints, she said....

Feds, Wyoming weigh workable wolf options So what happens next with endangered wolves in the Northern Rockies? If U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, Mont., remands the case back to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as expected, the Bush administration has several options. Wyoming is also weighing its options, including suing the federal government for not delisting wolves. The environmental groups who are the victors are waiting for the agency to make the next move and waiting for a new administration that might be supportive of their goals of placing a higher floor on the number of wolves that must be protected in the region. Start with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Justice. The Bush administration first proposed delisting wolves in Idaho, Montana, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and northern Utah, leaving out Wyoming. Only when it could get Wyoming to say it wouldn’t allow hunters to kill so many wolves and it would expand the recovery area did the administration include that recalcitrant state in delisting. To go back to that route, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s biologists will have to show that there is genetic mixing between the wolves in Idaho and Montana and the wolves in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and Wyoming. A new study is expected out soon that insiders say will show there already has been mixing. What about Wyoming? Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg recently wrote to state lawmakers saying the state’s options include filing a lawsuit, leaving management to the federal government or writing a new wolf management plan....

Decision to protect wolves upsets wildlife officials Bob Johnson recently shot and killed a gray wolf attacking his herd of beef cattle at his Rusk County farm. Over a period of several weeks, seven other wolves were trapped and killed on Johnson's property north of Ingram. It would be a federal crime if Johnson shot one today, according to a ruling Monday by a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C. The judge ruled an estimated 4,000 wolves in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan should return to the endangered species list. The decision is not sitting well with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials, who said Tuesday they may appeal the ruling. "Can property owners still shoot wolves attacking livestock? The answer is no," said Jason Holm of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Minnesota. "They must now contact DNR or wildlife service officials for assistance."....

Like polar bear, wolverine is threatened by global warming, Montana lawsuit claims Charging that politics have trumped science, conservationists are challenging the federal government’s refusal to provide wolverines with Endangered Species Act protections. Decisions regarding sensitive species, he said, “are supposed to be based on science, not politics.” Preso serves as counsel at Earthjustice, and is representing a coalition of 10 environmental groups in a lawsuit on behalf of the wolverine. On Tuesday, he filed the action in Missoula’s U.S. District Court. According to Preso, plaintiffs have unearthed documents showing that federal officials overruled biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including scientists who had concluded wolverines are “warranted” for protections. The Bush administration, plaintiffs charge, meddled with the science in order to avoid a second Endangered Species Act listing related to climate change. (In May, the polar bear was listed as threatened, largely due to habitat loss resulting from a warming planet.) Wolverines, the groups allege, are likewise at risk from climate change because the animals depend on areas that remain snowbound well into spring, when females dig snow dens to give birth....You just knew it was coming. Thank you "Courageous" Kempthorne.

Feds propose listing 48 Hawaiian species at once The federal government took a new, ecosystem-based approach to the endangered species list on Tuesday, proposing an all-at-once addition of 48 species, including plants, two birds and a fly, that live only on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The action by the Interior Department would designate about 43 square miles as critical habitat for all the species rather than considering each species' habitat separately, which has been the practice for three decades. Officials said considering the species all at once should save time and resources and would help the whole ecosystem. The same approach is planned to help protect rare species on Oahu, the Big Island and Maui over the next several years, and it could be considered for the Arctic, big river systems of the Southwest and areas of the mountain West, according to department officials.... Kempthorne is quoted as saying this will benefit the entire ecosystem. It's coming our way folks.

Federal Scientists: Flood Insurance Program is Pushing Salmon and Orcas to Extinction Scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service ( "NMFS" ) today issued a long-awaited regulatory finding that the National Flood Insurance Program is pushing orcas and several runs of salmon towards extinction, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The National Flood Insurance Program is implemented by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The document, known as a biological opinion, is all but certain to trigger significant improvements in the development codes applicable in cities and counties across Puget Sound to help reduce risks to people and wildlife. Without implementing the changes called for by NMFS, these cities and counties could lose eligibility for federal flood insurance. NMFS issued the biological opinion pursuant to a federal court decision in 2004. In National Wildlife Federation v. National Marine Fisheries Service, Judge Thomas Zilly of the federal district court in Seattle found that FEMA's flood insurance program encouraged floodplain development and harmed salmon already threatened with extinction. He ordered FEMA to consult with NMFS to ensure compliance with the Endangered Species Act, and the document issued today is the result of that process....So you have one federal program doing damage to another federal program and something must be done. Not exactly the approach they use when a federal program damages a private program.

USFS to offer deer permits The U.S. Forest Service is offering a limited number of permits to hunt antlerless deer during the general season Nov. 1, 2008 through Jan. 4, 2009. Youth participating in the general season public hunts by special permit must apply for "youth only permits" if they are between the ages of 8 and 16 at the time of application. The words "youth only permit" must be on the application, along with applicant's 2008-2009 hunting license number and specific hunting area. Hunters are selected by random drawing and only one application per person will be accepted. A drawing will be held in mid-October to select a limited number of permits. Only those chosen will be notified. Permit availability, areas of issuance and application instructions can be obtained from the Forest Supervisor's office in Lufkin....I know things always seem different in Texas, but the USFS issuing hunting permits? Can one of you readers explain this?

Uranium exploration near Grand Canyon sparks battle with Bush administration In the fight to protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining and exploration, one battle is over, but another has just begun. Last week, three environmental groups – the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Grand Canyon Trust – announced they had reached a settlement with VANE Minerals, a U.K.-based minerals exploration firm that had previously received approval from the Forest Service to drill 39 exploratory holes in search of uranium deposits in the Kaibab National Forest, which borders both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon. ssentially, VANE is back at square one. If they still want to drill some holes, they will have to go through much more rigorous environmental review than it had previously faced....

Oil drilling hits a preservation snag A Denver energy company's plan to drill more than 800 natural-gas wells in eastern Utah's relic-rich Nine Mile Canyon is in trouble with a top federal historical preservation agency. In letters sent this week to Bureau of Land Management officials in Washington and Salt Lake City, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation questions whether the BLM adequately evaluated potential damage from the drilling project on ancient art and archaeological sites. The agency's involvement likely will slow the project and buttresses claims from tribal and conservation groups that Bill Barrett Corp.'s big-rig traffic along canyon's dirt roads will destroy some of the West's most stunning ancient American Indian rock art. "This is welcome news," said Jerry Spangler, of the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance. "It's pretty tough to ignore the advisory council when they get involved." The advisory council acts as a kind of appeals agency that can step in and require a federal agency to reconsider its historical-preservation actions....

Report: Everglades in decline as restoration lags A multibillion-dollar effort to restore Florida's Everglades has made little progress amid funding shortfalls, bureaucratic red tape and disagreements, according to a congressionally mandated report that warns the vast wetland is in peril. The National Research Council, in findings Monday, warned that degradation of the Everglades could become irreversible if action isn't taken quickly. "The Everglades ecosystem is continuing to decline. It's our estimate that we're losing the battle to save this thing," said William Graf, the report's committee chairman and head of the department of geography at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. The South Florida Water Management District, which oversees restoration for the state, said in a statement that it agrees with the report's findings "that restoration progress is hampered by limited federal funding and a complex and lengthy federal planning process."....

HipChicas.com Targets Tween Latinas with Eco-Friendly Virtual World Hip Venture Co. is the latest company to enter the crowded virtual worlds market for kids, tweens and teens (KT&T) with the imminent launch of HipChicas.com. But what separates this Flash-based virtual community from some of its competitors is its focus on socially conscious, young Latinas, and its "eco-friendly" stance, differentiators that analysts say may help it stand out from the pack. The world is modeled after real locations in North and South America, including cities like Miami and New York, as well as habitats like the Everglades and the Amazon. Girls learn that their actions directly affect the environment through games and challenges. Adding plants and cleaning up a habitat, for example, will cause a native endangered species to flourish. According to Lazaro Fuentes, founder and CEO of Hip Venture Co., the creative team spent about a year figuring out how to help girls understand the connection between their everyday activities and the environment without being "preachy."....

Meat must be rationed to four portions a week, says report on climate change People will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns. The report, by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of Surrey, also says total food consumption should be reduced, especially "low nutritional value" treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates. It urges people to return to habits their mothers or grandmothers would have been familiar with: buying locally in-season products, cooking in bulk and in pots with lids or pressure cookers, avoiding waste and walking to the shops - alongside more modern tips such as using the microwave and internet shopping. The report goes much further than any previous advice after mounting concern about the impact of the livestock industry on greenhouse gases and rising food prices. It follows a four-year study of the impact of food on climate change and is thought to be the most thorough study of its kind....

New Sustainable Ag Classes Begin, With New Major on the Way A growing student interest in sustainable food and farming systems that are good for people and the environment has led to new classes and development of a new major at UC Davis. Sustainable food and agricultural systems that integrate environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic fairness are becoming universally recognized as the direction society must go, according to UC Davis researchers implementing the new major. Starting this year, new freshman-level courses in food systems and sustainable agriculture and an upper-division course in agroecology, the study of the ecology of the entire food system, will be offered....

Farmer Mac Officials Discuss Strategies to Stabilize Firm Top directors and officials from Farmer Mac, the government-chartered organization that provides funding for agricultural loans across the U.S., met late Tuesday in Washington to discuss ways to stabilize the company. Farmer Mac faces heavy losses due to its holdings of tens of millions of dollars worth of investments that have rapidly lost value, including preferred stock of its cousin, Fannie Mae, which was seized by the government earlier this month, and Lehman Brother Holdings Inc., the collapsed investment bank. The company's options include raising capital by issuing new stock or selling assets. If the company can't raise capital, its regulator, the Farm Credit Administration, could downgrade its rating, the first time this has happened in its history. That could hurt banks that hold equity stakes in the company and could also curb its ability to make new loans. Farmer Mac, which is formally called the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., was created by Congress in 1988. The company buys mortgages and other loans that banks make to farmers and ranchers in rural America. Farmer Mac then repackages the loans into asset-backed securities. That business model has come under pressure this year as credit markets have seized up....

PUBLIC HEARING ON SANTA CLARA COUNTY PROPOSED RODEO ORDINANCE

To: California Rodeo Proponents
From: Cindy Schonholtz, PRCA Animal Welfare
Date: September 30, 2008
RE: Action needed in Santa Clara County

What/When: The Santa Clara County Animal Advisory Commission will hold a public hearing regarding the adoption of an ordinance to restrict the use of animals in circuses and rodeos in unincorporated Santa Clara County and on County owned property. It is important we get as many rodeo proponents who live in Santa Clara County to contact their commissioner, submit comments and attend the hearing if possible. Additionally, those in adjacent counties may want to weigh in and attend the hearing.

Santa Clara County Animal Advisory Commission Public Hearing

When: October 9, 2008 at 6:30pm
Where: Gilroy Senior Center, 7371 Hanna Street, Gilroy, CA 95020
Ph: (408) 846-0414

I will be attending; you may contact me on the cell at 719-440-7255 when you arrive if you are able to attend.

There is not a draft ordinance at this time, but we have heard that Commissioner McHugh is recommending, “to prohibit cruel training devices utilized in circuses and rodeos county-wide. These restrictions would prohibit bull hooks or any similar device; chaining of elephants; electric prods or shocking devices; whips, bucking straps or flanks; spurs — sharp or dull; fixed rowels; hot shots; and cattle prods used on animals in rodeos or circuses. In addition, the restrictions would prohibit a person from deliberately tripping, wrestling, tripping or by any other means causing an animal used in the rodeo to fall to the ground in any event.” If McHugh gets his recommendations in the draft ordinance it would ban steer wrestling and roping in rodeos if passed.

This is what we know will be in the ordinance:
Ban steer tailing, require the attendance of a veterinarian at rodeo events, and include a definition of rodeo as “a performance featuring competition between persons that includes one or more of the following events: bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, or team roping;”

THIS WOULD REQUIRE A VETERINARIAN AT ALL TEAM ROPINGS, PRACTICES OF STEER WRESTLING, ETC.

There are also provisions regarding circuses that will be included in the ordinance.

WHO TO CONTACT:
by mail: Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, Animal Care Commission
Address 70 West Hedding St.
San Jose, CA 95110

by Fax: 408-298-8460 Attention: Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors And Animal Advisory Committee

Sent to the Animal Advisory Committee in care of the clerk of the Board, email to: public.comments@cob.sccgov.org

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS EMAIL AND PHONE CONTACT INFORMATION:

Don Gage (408) 299-5010 don.gage@bos.sscgov.org (Chair of Committee)
Blanca Alvarado (408) 299-5020 blanca.alvarado@bos.sccgov.org
Pete McHugh (408) 299-5030 peter.mchugh@bos.sccgov.org (supports a complete ban on circuses and rodeos, term is over in November, will not be running again)
Ken Yeager (408) 299-5040 ken.yeager@bos.sccgov.org
Liz Kniss (408) 299-5050 liz.kniss@bos.sccgov.org

SAMPLE LETTER

Please personalize your letters so they don’t appear to be form letters, but following are some points to consider when writing.

Dear Supervisor ______________________:

I have recently learned that the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is considering legislation to regulate the use of animals in rodeos in circuses in Santa Clara County in unincorporated Santa Clara County as well as on County owned property.

We urge you to revisit your definition of rodeo to more closely mirror state law that states a rodeo includes three or more events and considers only commercial events that charge admission. By changing the definition as recommended, this would require a veterinarian on-site for any practice, team roping, small jackpot or other event held on county owned property or private property in unincorporated Santa Clara County. I would anticipate that after a study of the number of large animal veterinarians in the County, you would find this provision nearly impossible to achieve if more than one event is taking place at a particular time and would possibly create a situation where large animals not taking part in rodeo events could have compromised care if veterinarians are required to attend small, non-commercial events.

Rodeos sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) have 60 rules that provide for the proper care and handling of the livestock. The rules require a veterinarian on-site during all competitions and these veterinarians consistently report the livestock is healthy and well-suited to the competition. These veterinarians also assist the PRCA in conducting surveys of the livestock to document the low rate of injury to the animals. This rate of injury through the years has consistently been around five hundredths of one percent. A survey currently being conducted at 2008 PRCA sanctioned events shows that out of 107 rodeo performances and 44 sections of slack, 24 animals were injured, a very low rate of .0005.

We ask that you consider the truth as documented by veterinarians who are experts and consider allowing your constituents to choose their form of entertainment. Please do not let an animal extremist’s agenda of ending all use of animals to dictate policy in your county and take away the rights of cattle ranchers and rodeo enthusiasts to practice and compete in rodeo events on their property as well as County owned property supported by their tax dollars. We ask that you subscribe to animal welfare philosophies as we do – that we have the right to interact with animals in entertainment, industry, sport and recreation but along with that right comes the responsibility to provide proper care.

Please consider fully the issues and reach out to those in your county who are lawfully conducting equestrian and rodeo events on their private property that are already affording proper care and handling for the livestock involved.

Sincerely,

GAO

Climate Change: Federal Actions Will Greatly Affect the Viability of Carbon Capture and Storage As a Key Mitigation Option. GAO-08-1080, September 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-1080

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d081080high.pdf

Coastal Zone Management: Measuring Program's Effectiveness Continues to Be a Challenge. GAO-08-1045, September 12.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-1045

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d081045high.pdf

Mobile phones to track carbon footprint Keeping track of your carbon footprint could become as simple as slipping a mobile phone in your pocket: a London-based start-up company has developed software for mobile phones that uses global positioning satellites to work out automatically whether you are walking, driving or flying and then calculate your impact on the environment. Carbon Diem's inventors claim that, by using GPS to measure the speed and pattern of movement, their algorithm can identify the mode of transport being used. It can therefore calculate the amount of carbon dioxide that a journey has emitted into the atmosphere – without any need for input from the traveller. The system's inventor, Andreas Zachariah, a graduate student of the Royal College of Art in London and chief executive of the Carbon Hero company, said that Carbon Diem is the world's first automated carbon calculator. Because it keeps a constantly updated diary of a person's carbon emissions, Zachariah said that a user can easily track their environmental impact and, if they choose, modify their behaviour to lower-carbon alternatives....

Wildfires force $400M in cuts at Forest Service The cost of fighting summer wildfires in California and the West has forced U.S. Forest Service officials to slash more than $400 million in spending, causing closures of some campgrounds and limiting access to some forests. While the number of fires and acreage involved is down, the amount spent to contain those fires is up. That's because the cost of fighting fires varies depending on where the fires are burning, said Forest Service spokeswoman Donna Drelick. The Forest Service cut $200 million in 2006 and $100 million in 2007 to cover wildfire costs, the agency's budget documents show. Forest Service administrators say the reductions will have a broad impact across the country....

No end in sight for the roadless debate President Bill Clinton sought to end the debate over 58 million acres of roadless national forests with a rule published in the last days of his administration. But because he issued his rule in the face of the outright anger of some Western governors and with little pretext of engaging his opponents, the roadless issue - after nearly eight years - is still no closer to political resolution. On July 14, U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer of Cheyenne, Wyo., struck down the roadless rule, scolding the former president for trying to stuff his decision down the throats of loggers, miners and other Westerners. It was at least the fifth time courts have ruled on the roadless rule since it was approved, and the second time Brimmer himself has tossed it out. His decision, certain to be appealed, means the next president will have to address an issue that today's hard economic times had more or less resolved. What continues is the values clash over how we manage our least-developed national forests. One possible path to a new consensus has been blazed by the state of Idaho. With Trout Unlimited, the Idaho Conservation League and the Intermountain Forest Industry Association standing in support behind them, Idaho Lt. Gov. Jim Risch and U.S. Department of Agriculture Assistant Secretary Mark Rey unveiled a roadless rule only for Idaho on Aug. 29....

Agency dismisses protests of Roan drilling; leases issued The Interior Department on Monday dismissed nearly 15,000 protests submitted by groups and individuals against drilling on the Roan Plateau and the same day issued oil and gas leases on the western Colorado landmark to energy companies. The leases covering nearly 55,000 acres had been auctioned off by the Bureau of Land Management, an arm of the Interior Department, on Aug. 14. But the leases couldn't be issued to the winning companies until the protests had been resolved, the agency said. By dismissing the protests, the BLM also has cleared the way for Colorado to pocket $56 million, or 49 percent of the $113.5 million raised from the lease sale - an onshore record in BLM's history....

Suit targets Roan drilling The federal government issued $114 million in oil and gas leases on the Roan Plateau on Monday, and within hours, a legal challenge was filed by environmental groups. The sale was the largest onshore revenue producer ever for the federal Bureau of Land Management. The request for an injunction to bar issuing the leases was filed by Earthjustice and Western Resource Advocates. The two nonprofit environmental law groups are seeking an expedited hearing on their motion. The lawsuit contends the BLM did not follow the National Environmental Policy Act in selling the leases. "We are trying to get BLM to reconsider its drill-everything approach," said Mike Freeman, an Earthjustice attorney....

BLM rebuilds agency The Bureau of Land Management plans to restructure its agency to put more authority in local regions rather than in state offices. The change, approved last year, is expected to transition during the next two years, said John Husband, field manager for the BLM Little Snake Field Office in Craig. It should not affect the general public, he added. For instance, a landowner who wants to talk about grazing on BLM land still would speak with officials in Craig. The only difference, Hus­band said, is that if landowners wanted to appeal the Craig office’s decision, they would take their cases to district office in Grand Junction rather than to Denver, where the state office is located. The federal agency’s decision reverses one made in 1999, when district offices were removed to “flatten the layers and eliminate (bureaucratic) layers,” Husband said. The new structure comes with the risk of adding bureaucratic layers, but it shouldn’t become burdensome or take much authority away from Craig, he added....So Clinton streamlined the agency, and Bush is building back the bureaucracy.

Old growth Sierra junipers felled amid warming debate Moments after he saw the centuries-old junipers on the ground, Glenn Fair felt sick to his stomach. A 60-year-old fishing guide from rural Lassen County, Fair has nothing against thinning forests to protect them from fire and disease. But the barren, dusty swath of stumps and downed junipers logged from public land last year and the adjacent house-high pile of wood chips was not that kind of cut. Not only were trees mowed down across nearly 300 acres, they were leveled under a banner of ecological restoration, energy independence and climate-friendly power. It was portrayed as a win-win by the federal government, which was paying for the removal to undo the legacy of poor land management. But to Fair, burning old-growth junipers in a wood-fired power plant to battle global warming just doesn't make sense....

Thought-provoking film documentary to be shown in Helena Filmmaker Todd Darling pokes holes in the idea that environmental deregulation is good for the average person in a new environmental documentary called "A Snowmobile for George." Darling, 56, is a Los Angeles filmmaker who also has worked in television, including as the director of the popular MTV reality TV series, "Laguna Beach." "The film is the personal stories of people," Darling said. "It's not some college professor telling you to eat your vegetables." Darling said he began the film in 2004, and finished it last year. He logged more than 8,000 miles driving across the country for the project. A "range war" between ranchers and oil-companies in Wyoming is one of the stories highlighted. The battle, according to the film, began "when political appointees in the Interior Department suppressed clean water rules for natural gas drilling."....

Ethanol, Pitting Ranchers against Farmers? In a country where Corn is King, you would assume that rural ranchers and farmers in our countries corn belt would vote for a president who is Pro Ethanol. After all, most ethanol is made from corn and the U.S. Government is paying farmers to grow it. But a growing number of cattle and pig ranchers are seeing the increased price of corn, drive them out of business. Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, opposes the Renewable Fuel Standard and Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, supports it. Two farmers from Ohio, offered their perspective on how the presidential candidates’ stances will influence their votes in the Nov. 4 election. Tim Blair, who has spent 33 years raising hogs, will be voting for Sen. McCain. Tim predicts he’ll be out of business by year’s end, and said “I’ve basically spent my life savings the past 14 months hoping it would get better.” Speaking of the growing feed prices that are making his hog operation unprofitable, he continued by adding, “I’m losing money because of the government’s policy.” Tom Becker, a 600 acre corn farmer, sees things a different way, and will of course be voting for Sen. Obama. “Ethanol is one of the big things that down the road is going to help farmers more than (Sen. John) McCain’s ideas,” he said....

Stokes resigns as CEO of NCBA Terry Stokes, chief executive officer of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), announced today he will resign from his position following the 2009 Cattle Industry Convention, January 31, 2009. Stokes said representing cattlemen and championing their cause has been the greatest honor and the most fulfilling job of his career, but he explained it also is all-consuming. He said he is looking forward to spending time with his family and exploring new opportunities. Stokes joined NCBA 12 years ago, in 1996, as chief financial officer. He was appointed CEO in 2002. During his tenure as CEO, NCBA grew revenues 41 percent. Membership grew more than 17 percent in the past three years....

Spam, Still the Mystery Meat, Escapes New U.S. Food-Label Rules U.S. rules requiring meat and fresh produce to be labeled by national origin are falling short of lawmakers' aims, leaving shoppers in the dark about where mixed vegetables, steaks and Spam come from, some lawmakers say. Six years after being adopted by Congress, country-of-origin labeling takes effect today. Concern about unsafe imports from China and Canada helped overcome food industry efforts to delay the measures. They will cost companies $2.5 billion in the first year, with retailers spending more to market beef, pork and lamb, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. Industry groups say expenses will be even higher. Some lawmakers and consumer advocates say loopholes will let meatpackers blur the distinction between foreign and domestic meat. Mixed vegetables are exempt from the requirements, as are processed foods ranging from roasted peanuts to Spam, the canned luncheon meat made by Hormel Foods Corp. More regulations may be needed, the lawmakers say. Country-of-origin labeling, or COOL, is a longtime goal of U.S. farmers and ranchers convinced that identifying imported food may encourage manufacturers to use more U.S. product....

New Mexico's Peppers Pride Seeks Record 17th Win oe Allen’s Peppers Pride has entered a six-furlong allowance race at Zia Park on Saturday afternoon in her attempt to set the record for consecutive wins. The Joel Marr-trained Peppers Pride has won each of her 16 career wins and shares the record for consecutive wins with Triple Crown winner Citation, two-time Horse of the Year Cigar, Santa Anita Derby winner Mister Frisky and the Louisiana-bred sprinter Hallowed Dreams. “She’s doing well,” said Marr. “She hasn’t raced since April, but has had two works.” The daughter of Desert God won the Foutz Distaff Handicap at SunRay Park on April 26. She has remained in training since that win in Marr’s stable. Peppers Pride was scheduled to make her record attempt on two occasions this summer at Ruidoso Downs. She was slated to run in the Lincoln Handicap on July 27 but that racing card was cancelled after the remnants of Hurricane Dolly damaged Ruidoso Downs. The Lincoln Handicap was rescheduled for August 31, Peppers Pride was entered and then Marr elected to scratch her due to an off track. She has only raced on fast racing surfaces....

Man attacked by mountain lion at Taos Ski Valley A Taos man is recovering after a mountain lion attack Friday at Taos Ski Valley. The Taos News reports that Adam Wheat, 29, was hiking in the area when the attack occurred. He drove himself to his business in town and then asked his employee, Tony Knief, to take him to a hospital. "I guess he was hiking and he heard this hissing and he turned around and it scratched his chest pretty bad," Knief told the newspaper. "He drove to Jack Wrap It and came in asked me to take him to the hospital. I thought he was joking at first but then I saw he had these scratches in him." Knief added that Wheat also hit his head in the encounter.

Judge may 'sanction' government in Stevens case Sen. Ted Stevens's lawyers have a chance to weaken the case against him as a federal judge will consider sanctioning sanctioning government prosecutors over their handling of a key witness. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia said Monday he was "disturbed" that the government allowed Rocky Williams to return to Alaska without the court's permission and without consulting defense attorneys, who also subpoenaed the witness to testify in the case. Sullivan said arranging Williams's travel back to Alaska raised the appearance of impropriety. "I’m going to sanction if appropriate — I’m just not going to drop that issue," Sullivan said, without specifying the sanctions he had in mind. The case hinges on whether Stevens (R-Alaska) concealed gifts and home renovations from Veco Corp., a now-defunct oil-services company. Williams, a former Veco employee, oversaw the extensive home renovations at the senator's Alaska home. Williams, who left Washington to deal with an unspecified health issue, later told defense attorneys that he did not spend as much time at Stevens's home as has been alleged in court. "I’m concerned that a subpoenaed witness ... was advised to leave the District of Columbia, and assisted in leaving the District of Columbia by the government for reasons not fully explored by defense counsel and the court," Sullivan said....

Delisting endangers wolves It began near here in this high-altitude chaparral. No sooner were gray wolves delisted in March than sportsmen in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming began locking and loading. Wyoming officials declared 90% of the state a "free-fire zone." Hunters from around the state flocked to rural Sublette County to bag a wolf. Rancher Merrill Dana, 57, saw the results right away. Hunters aboard snowmobiles chased wolves across the early spring snow on his sprawling ranch. "The first morning it was opened up, they killed three up here," he said. "Trespassers. We didn't even know they were up here until we heard the snow machines." Dana said he has been offered as much as $2,500 for permission to hunt wolves on his land. He refused. As with many ranchers here, there is no love lost between Dana and wolves. He was mad the interlopers hadn't asked permission to hunt. "I wanted people I know to get them," said Dana, who was among a hunting party that eventually killed a 110-pound male. Through the early summer, an average of a wolf a day was being killed across the region. In all, at least 130 animals died since the delisting, or nearly 10% of the wolf population in the northern Rockies. Then, on July 21, a federal judge stopped the hunt. Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service capitulated and began the process to relist wolves....

Group wants wolves in Colo. An environmental group wants to see wolves back in Colorado. WildEarth Guardians of Sante Fe, N.M., has filed papers with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calling for wolf reintroduction in four Colorado areas. After being exterminated throughout the West decades ago, wolves have been reintroduced to Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. WildEarth Guardians believes Colorado should come next. The group argues that wolves would help thin overpopulated elk herds, which would then lead to more young aspen trees. "We believe that the Southern Rockies needs wolves, and wolves definitely need the Southern Rockies," said Rob Edward, carnivore recovery director for WildEarth Guardians, which also has offices in Denver and Phoenix. Edward told the Aspen Daily News that while solitary wolves from the north and from New Mexico wander into Colorado, no sustainable wolf population is believed to have re-established itself within the state. The group's proposal identifies four Colorado areas for wolf reintroduction -- the Flat Tops north of Glenwood Springs, the Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison national forests near Pitkin County's western border, the San Juan Mountains and Weminuche Wilderness in southwestern Colorado, and southern Colorado's Vermejo Park Ranch and Carson National Forest....

Colorado Environmental Film Festival Aims To Educate If you're passionate about the environment and love watching films, check out the third Annual Colorado Environmental Film Festival, running from Oct. 2 to Oct. 5 at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden. 7NEWS Chief Meteorologist Mike Nelson will kick off the festival at 6 p.m. on Thursday, followed by four films: "The Story of Stuff", a look at the underside of America's production and consumption; "Opposing Chums", follows the world series of birding; and two short films, "Once Upon A Tide" and "Recycle." The festival will also include a mix of films showing audiences where oil comes from and explaining where old televisions, computers or cell phones end up. Two noteworthy films showing in the festival focus on the impact of oil and gas drilling on Colorado's landscape and the livelihoods of landowners. In all, 22 films will be shown during the four-day event....

Camp Sherman Residents Vent Fire Frustrations With smoke still looming over the treetops in Camp Sherman, the Forest Service found themselves in the hot seat Sunday morning at a public meeting at the Camp Sherman Community Hall. "Were the winds on Thursday forecasted?" "Was someone there watching?" "When you're done with a controlled burn, do they truly work all that well?" The questions are born from frustration. The Wizard Fire, burning five hundred acres just three miles north of Camp Sherman was started by the Forest Service as a controlled burn before getting away and burning up Green Ridge. On Sunday morning more than three hundred people were fighting the fire, the cost already topping $600,000. All for a fire, the Forest Service started to reduce the risk of future fires. "It seems to me there's just a strategic flaw in this whole thing." "I don't care how thick your manual is there on all of these things, the first chapter should be common sense." The meeting came to an emotional peak when one resident stood up and made a demand of Sister's Forest Ranger Bill Anthony. "Is the forest service planning offering a public apology for this mistake. I'm hearing a lot of justification and a lot of explanation but I'm not hearing an apology."....

Congress Approves $910 million in Emergency Fire Funding The Supplemental Appropriations Bill approved today by the Senate includes $910 million in emergency federal fire funding sought by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The bill, approved earlier in the week by the House of Representatives, now goes to the White House to await the President's signature. Senator Feinstein, Chairman of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, has pushed throughout the year for more funding to meet the threat of an unusually active, deadly fire season that has threatened to deplete America's federal firefighting assets. So far this year, wildfires in California burned more than 1.2 million acres and led to 13 firefighter deaths....

Wildlife refuge will shrink The national wildlife refuge at Pathfinder Reservoir is going to shrink by more than 10,000 acres, according to a federal plan that was approved Sept. 18 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Despite objections from the Audubon Society and others, Fish and Wildlife Service planners said a land transfer is needed so popular recreational uses can continue at most of the reservoir and to consolidate the federal migratory bird refuge into one contiguous area of land. The 1997 National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act required each of the country's national wildlife refuges to publish a 15-year "comprehensive conservation plan" by 2012 that outlines management objectives and assesses whether certain recreational uses are compatible with the refuge system's mission to manage for migratory birds. The agency began working on a plan for Pathfinder in 2006 and published its final draft this year. This month the agency found "no significant impact" in the environmental assessment of the plan, which is expected to publish as a final version by the end of the year. The plan calls for about 65 percent of the refuge's lands to transfer to the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, reducing the size of the refuge from 16,806 acres to 5,990 acres....

Marines Still Looking Into Possible Land Acquisition Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC) located in Twentynine Palms, CA recently submitted a withdrawal application to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to essentially put a hold on 422,000 acres while it studies those areas for possible acquisition into the base. Uses that are currently allowed in the area will continue, but no new uses or projects will be permitted. A large portion of the Johnson Valley OHV area is located in that study area. Besides taking public comment, the purpose of these meetings is to help people understand both the proposed action and the decision making process. Johnson Valley OHV area is approximately 189,000 acres and is located in the high desert of California, just east of Los Angeles. The area is a Mecca for off-road recreation and is home to many events including off-road racing and competitive rock crawling....

Civil case over Idaho grazing can advance In 2006, a Washington state businessman and environmentalist was the high bidder on six Idaho grazing leases. Now the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says Gordon Younger can proceed with his federal civil rights lawsuit against Idaho officials, who awarded the leases instead to ranchers who offered less money in a competitive auction. Younger is a Seattle packaging business owner and head of Lazy Y Ranch Ltd.. He's a contributor to the Western Watersheds Project, a group seeking to end grazing on public land in the Rocky Mountains on grounds it damages the environment. Western Watersheds Project has long challenged the Land Board in court to secure competitive state grazing leases. With the federal appeals court decision, the case now moves toward a trial.

Taking a Human Approach to Conservation For 11 college students living and studying in the Swan Valley for eight weeks, conservation is more than just science and fieldwork. It involves a lot of socializing: chatting with the locals and immersing themselves in the community. It’s called cooperative conservation. The students are part of a field-semester program called Landscape and Livelihood, which is administered by Northwest Connections and accredited through the University of Montana. They earn 15 credits and the program runs from Sept. 1 to Oct. 29. The goal is to instill in the students a deep-rooted knowledge of the area’s geographical and cultural history by exposing them to a diverse cross section of people and opinions within a rural community. This helps them to better understand the problems facing interdependent ecosystems, and the dynamic relationships created by mix-use lands, including corporate timber, public multiple-use, wilderness and private residential. It’s a complex issue to take on: incorporating cooperative conservation, sustainability and policy, while maintaining a dialogue with the rural community and involving the local people as part of the solution. Throughout the semester, students work alongside biologists, loggers, ranchers, outfitters and homeowners, taking a hands-on approach to examine how rural communities tie back in to their own lives. These are wildlife biologists and natural resource managers in the making....