Note to readers

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When it's a choice between the National Finals Rodeo and blogging, blogging comes in second.

Obama's ag secretary prospects emerging from mainstream

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There are those in the larger world of agriculture who believe that one of President-elect Barack Obama's most important appointments is secretary of agriculture. Some activists see the choice as one that should echo the change theme sounded by the Obama campaign, and would move agriculture in a whole new direction, first tackling issues like subsidies, organics and food safety. Given the list of candidates for the top U.S. ag job, it appears that the Obama team is looking for experienced people who know how to work in Washington. On Thursday, though, word in the Washington Post was that three candidates were leading the pack: Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, former U.S. Representative Charles Stenholm (D-TX) and Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture and a dairy farmer. Other names still appear to be in the hopper, according to Washington sources, including U.S. Representatives Sanford Bishop (D-GA), who headed Obama's Georgia campaign, and John Salazar (D-CO), a farmer-rancher....

Hispanic caucus wants John Salazar in ag job

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The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is lobbying for the selection of Colorado's Rep. John Salazar to be the next agriculture secretary. Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., chairman of the 21-member group, said Thursday that the caucus sent a letter to Barack Obama's transition team backing Salazar last week. He said he's also urged members to follow up by calling members of the team, including former Denver mayor Federico Pena, to make their pitch for Salazar. The potato farmer and rancher from Manassa in the San Luis Valley won re-election to a third term last month.

Obama & USDA

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On the campaign trail, President-elect Barack Obama said his administration would help small family farms, end childhood hunger and upgrade roads and bridges in rural areas. His commitment to the rural and impoverished parts of America helped secure critical victories for him in Midwestern Corn Belt states, such as Iowa and Minnesota, and has heightened expectations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as Obama prepares to appoint an agriculture secretary to oversee wide-ranging efforts. In cash-strapped times, the challenges of mounting new initiatives are daunting. And the USDA is still battling long-running problems: subsidy programs that give huge sums to ineligible, millionaire farmers; a food inspection system that puts Americans at risk for food-borne illnesses; and nutrition programs that fail to identify more than 30 percent of Americans who live in poverty and are at risk of hunger every month. Many of the problems that Obama wants to tackle have been controversial for several decades. Improper payment of crop subsidies -- intended to help struggling family farmers -- is a prime example. Last week, a report by the Government Accountability Office asserted that the USDA continued to give federal subsidies to ineligible, wealthy farmers despite a series of congressional reforms. Between 2003 and 2006, more than 2,700 farmers who were earning more than the cutoff of $2.5 million annually continued to receive subsidies. Unwarranted payments totaled $49 million....

Judge orders full review of Duke's Cliffside unit

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A federal judge ordered Duke Energy Corp. on Tuesday to undergo a full environmental assessment of a coal-fired generator under construction in western North Carolina, giving the company 60 days to comply with regulations initially ignored by the Bush administration. The federal judge allowed Duke to continue building its Cliffside unit but dismissed the company's argument that it doesn't need a full assessment to ensure it is using the best-available technology. U.S. District Court Judge Lacy Thornburg wrote that ongoing construction without the review could result in "emissions capable of causing serious health problems, or the shut down of construction and/or in costly retrofitting that would result in unnecessary rate increases." Environmental groups, which led the lawsuit, hailed the decision and said it could serve as precedent to alter the building plans of perhaps a dozen U.S. power plants that began construction during a three-year period. "This is the cleanest, purest legal victory we could have," said John Walke, director of the clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is part of the lawsuit...

Environmentalists want new wolf recovery plan Environmentalists say the federal government's current plan for re-establishing the Mexican gray wolf in the wild is outdated and legally invalid, and petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday to revise it. "We're managing a very imperiled population of wolves based on planning that's over 20 years old and didn't imagine actual recovery goals — the threshold at which we can say we've done enough and we can take the animal off the (endangered species) list," said Rob Edward, director of carnivore recovery for WildEarth Guardians in Denver. The current recovery plan was completed in 1982 — 16 years before any wolves were released into the wild in the Southwest. It focused heavily on captive breeding and said little about how to manage wolves in the wild or the process of developing a viable wild population, said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity in Pinos Altos. The center, WildEarth Guardians and the Rewilding Institute petitioned Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall for clear goals and deadlines for delisting the species with attention to the wolves' genetic pool. Amendments to the Endangered Species Act in 1988 established standards for recovery plans that were not met in the 1982 Mexican wolf plan, the groups said....

Environmentally minded cowboys run a green ranch in Arizona Mr. Heyneman is the ranch manager at the Kane and Two Miles Ranches, which cover 850,000 acres of mostly public land on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The ranches are a partnership between the Grand Canyon Trust and the Conservation Fund, which together spent $4.5 million for the land as an investment in conservation. But the parcels came with a controversial catch: cows. Yet here, the cattle have gone green. Or, if you prefer, the conservationists have gone cowboy. It’s an unlikely partnership between ranchers and environmentalists, two groups usually on opposite sides of the fence. Then again, those fences don’t usually come in 3,000-foot-high red rock. The project isn’t about nourishing cattle with ecofriendly feed or building wooden instead of barbed-wire fences. These cowboy-conservationists aren’t that kind of green. What they are doing, instead, is asking whether cattle ranching can be successful and environmental. Actually, this may be the more revolutionary question. Environmental groups have been buying up land in the West to control the 80-year-old grazing permits it comes with. The idea is to retire the permits, and with them, the cows. That, eco-activists hope, will save the land. The Trust didn’t have that option. If it retired its permits, Heyneman says, the government would just reallocate them. So if it wanted to preserve a quintessential American vista, it had to get in the cattle business. What began as an environmental initiative therefore became a ranching operation that defies the conventions of two sciences: ecology and economics....

Truckee Carson Irrigation District indicted A federal grand jury indicted the Truckee Carson Irrigation District and four of its employees on Wednesday for allegedly falsifying records to secure additional water supplies from the U.S. government. The four indicted include David Overvold, 58, project manager for the irrigation district based in Fallon, and Lyman McConnell, 64, the district's lawyer. They and two others are charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, falsification of records, false claims and false statements. If convicted, they could face 20 years or more in prison. McGregor Scott, U.S. attorney for eastern California, said the four allegedly were part of a scheme to inflate data from 2000 through 2005 regarding the efficiency of the district's water deliveries so as to secure additional water credits from the bureau to boost supplies primarily for Nevada farmers and ranchers. Under a contract with the Bureau of Reclamation, the district operates the irrigation system in northern Nevada's Newlands Project created more than a century ago. As part of a water efficiency incentive policy adopted in 1988, the bureau agreed to provide credits to the district that would allow it to boost its share of water supplies from area dams and reservoirs owned by the bureau....

Parks Pick-Me-Up? As our National Parks emerge from eight years of pinched budgets, drooping morale and dreadful political appointees, conservationists hope for a turnaround with the Obama administration--even amidst economically turbulent times. "We recognize there's a zone of opportunity with the transition, with new leadership in the White House, the Department of Interior and in Congress," says David Nimkin, Southwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. "But there are also profound financial constraints. So our message and our focus must change accordingly." The change? Trying to steer economic-stimulus efforts toward the parks, through back-to-work and service programs. It also means highlighting these preserves as sound investments in tough times, given the vital tourism revenue they generate for surrounding communities....

Alaska is battleground for Endangered Species Act At the Resource Development Council’s annual conference in Anchorage, Denby Lloyd, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, projected a large map of the state on an overhead screen. One at a time, swathes of red marking the habitat of Cook Inlet beluga whales, Steller’s sea lions, spectacled eiders, polar bears, Kittletz’s murrelet, bowhead whales, Aleutian shield fern, Lynn Canal herring and other species protected by the Endangered Species Act were layered on top of one another, encroaching further and further in on Alaska’s familiar coastline until all but a small bubble in the Interior remained. “God,” uttered a man seated at a linen-covered table close to the podium, audibly sucking in his breath. “I guess I was impressed when I saw these graphs,” said Lloyd. “It appears that the ESA will blanket Alaska’s coastline, with potential to smother human activities.” In a session entitled “The Endangered Species Act: Should Alaska’s Natural Resource Economy be Listed as Endangered?” state, environmental and industry officials weighed in on the impact that new ESA regulations would shape Alaska’s future in resource development. It was perhaps appropriate that what loomed largest in the panel discussion was the Arctic’s most massive land-based predator, the polar bear....

Despite deaths, grizzly population grows The number of grizzly bear deaths in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem increased markedly this year, but the population still continued to grow. According to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, an estimated 80 grizzlies died in the Yellowstone area in 2008. In 2007, 49 grizzlies died. The numbers of grizzly deaths are estimated from known, probable, estimated unknown and unreported deaths from a variety of causes, according to Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team figures. Despite the deaths, the grizzly population in the ecosystem increased an estimated 4 percent this year. In 2007, there were an estimated 571 grizzlies. In 2008, the number increased to an estimated 596 grizzlies. Based on those figures, the population will double in 20 years, said Chuck Schwartz, Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team leader in Bozeman, Mont....

Obama Teams Are Scrutinizing Federal Agencies Wearing yellow badges and traveling in groups of 10 or more, agency review teams for President-elect Barack Obama have swarmed into dozens of government offices, from the Pentagon to the National Council on Disability. A typical approach has been playing out at the Environmental Protection Agency, where the Obama team is led by Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and Robert Sussman, a former Clinton official and now a lawyer and fellow at the Center for American Progress. Both are considered front-runners for senior administration jobs (Jackson as EPA administrator, Sussman as a top EPA deputy). On a recent Monday, the pair arrived at an 11 a.m. EPA senior staff meeting. Both had worked at the agency under President Bill Clinton, so they fit in easily, fully acquainted with the acronym-laden lingo. Their team's questions have been specific, trained on a handful of issues, according to employees and other sources interviewed. A top concern is climate change, an issue they want to address with several EPA program initiatives. They also are asking how much money the enforcement divisions need to go after polluters. The team also has focused on drinking-water standards, asking about how to reduce children's and mothers' exposure to perchlorate, a chemical in rocket fuel that is leaching into groundwater near military bases. Jackson, Sussman and their team members hope to interview 100 staffers before filing their report, but they will do so with agreed-upon "rules of engagement," as the EPA's lawyers call them....

Grijalva for Interior Secretary Now that President-elect Barack Obama has put together his administration's economic, foreign-policy and national-security teams, the transition process comes to the interesting part. How about Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva as Secretary of the Interior? Grijalva is reportedly under serious consideration for the post that far more important than the attention usually accorded it by a neglectful media would suggest. As a westerner, he fits what would appear to be the first requirement: 15 of the past 16 Interior secretaries have come from the region where the federal government is a major land owner. But there is a lot more to Grijalva than his region. The five-term congressman currently chairs the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. And he has been a genuine activist in that position, challenging giveaways to agribusiness and big ranchers who have taking advantage of ridiculously cheap grazing permits on federal lands in the west and exploring the role that oil and gas development on federal property has played in the decline of hunting habitats in the west. And when it comes to voting in the House, the congressman from the Tuscon area has been a steady defender of environmental interests -- his lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters is 95 percent positive....

Ranchers using plan to help endangered species Federal officials have approved a habitat conservation plan that will let a group of southwestern ranchers improve and maintain their lands while helping several species considered threatened or endangered. The plan will enable ranchers affiliated with the Malpai Borderlands Group in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico to continue using their lands for cattle-raising activities while providing long-range benefit to plant, fish and animal species that are threatened or endangered. And it will let them address endangered species issues in a more efficient way than on a project-by-project basis, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services spokesman Jeff Humphrey. ``It's so hard not to be reactive when you're a landowner when it involves endangered species,'' said Bill McDonald, chairman of the Malpai group, which includes more than 20 of about 30 ranching families spread across 828,000 acres in the two states. Their plan, finally approved in October, is designed to let ranchers improve grasslands and watersheds and enable them to manage their ranching functions. Fish and Wildlife has issued a permit that allows Malpai members to ``take,'' or kill, a threatened or endangered species if it is incidental to their lawful operations and if the taking will not jeopardize the population's survival....

Judge scales back ruling on roadless nat'l forests A federal magistrate judge ruled Tuesday that a Clinton-era ban against new road construction and development on millions of acres of national forest would apply only to 10 western states. Two years ago, Judge Elizabeth Laporte invalidated a 2005 Bush administration rule that overturned the 2001 "Roadless Rule," which protected 58.5 million acres of federal land in about 40 states. But in August, a federal judge in Wyoming invalidated President Bill Clinton's Roadless Rule, leading the Bush administration to request that the two judges modify their conflicting rulings. In response, Laporte reduced the geographic scope of her 2006 ruling. The move is only a temporary fix. Federal appeals courts in San Francisco and Denver are expected to rule on the case next year, and road construction rules also could change under President-elect Barack Obama's administration....

States blast feds' sheep rule The Bush administration is attempting to usurp wildlife management authority from Western states through an end-of-term, under-the-radar move on bighorn sheep, state officials and wildlife advocates charge. Without consulting or even notifying any state agencies, the U.S. Forest Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service have drafted an agreement that would, in effect, take jurisdiction over the transplantation of bighorn sheep on national forests. That's according to documents provided to the Star-Tribune by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the state of Wyoming. Although the federal action was drafted sometime in September, regional wildlife agencies didn't find out about it until the third week in November, state officials said. According to the written agreement itself, it was created out of concern for the declining bighorn sheep population in the West. But critics say the real reason for the move is to protect domestic sheep producers, at the expense of bighorns. In a letter sent Monday to USDA Undersecretaries Mark Rey and Bruce Knight, the wildlife agencies' association condemned the agreement for being "drafted without input from any state wildlife agency, whose statutory authority to manage resident wildlife is clearly established." As written, the action "contravenes existing law and policy, is unworkable in day-to-day management of the states' wildlife resources and produces a host of undesirable (and perhaps unintended) consequences," the letter contends. Member agencies of the group know of no law or regulation providing the Forest Service with the authority to require disease testing of bighorn sheep or any other native resident wildlife, the group argues....

West Slope pushing BLM on health study Western Slope communities are pressing the federal Bureau of Land Management to add a comprehensive health study of oil and gas drilling to its environmental assessment for managing public lands. The request is in response to worries voiced repeatedly by residents as oil and gas development grows in the region. "What we need is adequate data to know how things are changing and where change is coming from," said Keith Lambert, the mayor of Rifle and one of those asking for the assessment. The request comes after a string of health studies released this year found no immediate health risk — but raised questions. Outside the Front Range, volatile organic pollution from oil and gas operations is projected to rise to 69 percent of all sources in 2010, up from 35 percent in 2005, according to a state Air Pollution Control Division analysis. The question is whether those emissions will have, either locally or regionally, health effects....

Solar thermal projects gather steam -- and opposition Just up the road, past pump jacks bobbing in California's storied oil patch, look sharp and you'll catch a glimpse of the state's energy future. Rows of gigantic mirrors covering an area bigger than two football fields have sprouted alongside almond groves near California 99. This is a power plant that uses the sun's heat to produce electricity for thousands of homes. Owned by Palo Alto-based Ausra Inc., it's the first so-called solar thermal facility to open in California in nearly two decades. It's part of a drive to build clean electricity generation using the sun, wind and other renewable sources with an urgency not seen since the days of environmentalist Gov. Jerry Brown. Add President-elect Barack Obama's stated intention to push for more renewable power and you've got the equivalent of a green land rush. At least 80 large solar projects are on the drawing board in California, more than in any other place in the country. The scale of some is unrivaled on the planet. One facility planned for the Mojave Desert is projected to take up a land mass the size of Inglewood....

Government backs off plan to drill in Utah canyons A section of whitewater rapids tucked between high cliffs, little changed since explorer John Wesley Powell boated through in 1896, and a canyon decorated with thousands of ancient rock art panels have been pulled off the auction block by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. For the second time in a week, the bureau announced late Tuesday that it was pulling auction parcels from an expanded oil-and-gas leasing program in Utah. The latest tracts include land inside Nine Mile Canyon and Desolation Canyon on the Green River. The bureau didn't say why it was pulling the lease tracts, but the prospect of drilling near Utah's scenic treasures brought condemnation from conservation groups. Together with previous deferrals, the BLM has pulled nearly 100,000 acres from an auction set for Dec. 19, leaving more than 276,000 acres up for bid....

Activists sue to shut down Delta pumps Reaching back to the laws of ancient Rome, environmentalists sued Monday to cut off Delta water operations and dramatically shake up the long-term balance between economic and environmental needs in the region. If it succeeds, the lawsuit would shift the focus from the worsening conflict between individual species of fish and the amount of water pumped out of the Delta to a comprehensive attempt to balance competing interests. "The only things that are already protected are already endangered," said Michael Jackson, a lawyer for the environmental groups. "But what's happening is the whole bottom is falling out of the ecosystem. You cannot list everything (as an endangered species) and you can't protect species by species." By invoking the public trust doctrine, a legal concept that dates to the Roman Empire, the environmental groups seek to force regulators to consider the environment, recreation, aesthetics and other values to be passed to future generations in the Delta much more rigorously. The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the California Water Impact Network and retired federal biologist Felix Smith, seeks to stop water deliveries from the Delta until the massive state and federal pumping stations near Tracy come into compliance with laws that the environmentalists say are being broken....

New Trade Case Welcomed As Cattle Producers Lose Over One Million Dollars Per Day The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) fully supports the announcement today that the Government of Canada is requesting consultations with the United States, pursuant to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement, concerning the U.S.’ implementation of mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) regulations for meat products. CCA President, Brad Wildeman stated, “We have been working with the federal government to prepare a possible trade challenge for some time now. We congratulate federal Agriculture Minister, Gerry Ritz, and Stockwell Day, Minister of International Trade for initiating this process to stand up for Canadian cattle producers. This is the first formal step that must be undertaken before a trade dispute settlement panel can be established under WTO rules.”....

How’s this for a job? So, you think you’ve got a big job, keeping down the weeds in your yard? Meet Mike Berry of Whitewater, Colo., who operates Remote Weeds, a weed spraying business that takes him into the far reaches of the remote wilderness on almost a daily basis throughout the summer months. At the beckoned call of the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Park Service, oil companies, and private landowners, Berry has covered thousands of acres in Colorado and surrounding states in an effort to wipe out the plague of noxious weeds invading the West. He’s worked as far north as the Tetons, west into Utah, and was leaving to work the site of the Hayman fire over by Woodland Park, when he hung around long enough to be interviewed. Although he sometimes carries out his duties on a 4-wheeler or with a truck-mounted sprayer, he prefers to be horseback, even though it’s more work, and most jobs find him mounted on his trusty saddle horse, Red, and leading a molly mule by the name of – you guessed it – Molly! This outfit takes the place of five or six people with backpack sprayers, and it’s quicker and more economical for the agency or person footing the bill. Molly’s Decker pack saddle is loaded with four spray tanks, each holding five gallons of chemical containing a water-soluble blue dye, which allows Berry to see where he’s been and not miss any places and not waste time or chemical by overlapping his 30-foot swaths. Also in the mule’s pack is a 12-volt battery. Attached to his wrist Berry wears a small remote control that operates the spray nozzle, so he can turn it off and on at will. One advantage of the battery-powered remote control is that the spray is not under pressure, as it might be with a CO2 system, which some folks use....

Green card holders will be fingerprinted and photographed at U.S. borders

The Bush Administration has issued final rules, which will become effective two days before Barack Obama's inauguration, that will require millions of "Lawful Permanent Residents" -- non-citizens who hold green cards and are allowed to live in the U.S. -- to be fingerprinted and have their faces photographed by DHS whenever they return from abroad at a U.S. airport or land border entry point. The new rules will treat lawful permanent residents (LPRs) more like visiting foreign nationals, who currently are required to submit their fingerprints and facial photos under the US-VISIT program, than U.S. citizens, who are not required to be fingerprinted or photographed. Approximately 4.4 million lawful permanent residents – as well as 33 million U.S. citizens – arrive at U.S. airports and seaports each year, according to DHS....

When the Warmest in History Isn't In that spirit, many papers (including The Chronicle) have reported on a UC San Diego science historian who reviewed 928 abstracts of peer-reviewed articles on global warming published between 1993 and 2003, and concluded, "Remarkably, none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position." Over 10 years, not one study challenged the orthodoxy -- does that sound right to you? If that were true, it would strongly suggest that, despite conflicting evidence in this wide and changing world, no scientist dares challenge the politically correct position on the issue. No wonder, David Bellamy -- an Australian botanist who was involved in some 400 TV productions, only to see his TV career go south after he questioned global warming orthodoxy -- wrote in The Australian last week, "It's not even science anymore; it's anti-science." Bellamy notes that official data show that "in every year since 1998, world temperatures have been getting colder, and in 2002 Arctic ice actually increased." Exhibit B: Richard S. Lindzen, the MIT Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, recently wrote, "There has been no warming since 1997 and no statistically significant warming since 1995." Such findings rarely are reported, even as, Marc Morano, communications director for the Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee told me, "Scientists keep coming out of the woodwork" to challenge the so-called consensus. "It's almost like a bandwagon effect." The Global Warming Petition Project urges Washington to reject the Kyoto international global warming pact as there is "no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate." So far, The Politico reports, more than 31,000 scientists have signed it....

Criminalizing Carbon A British jurist wants to form an international court for the environment with the power to punish states and businesses. Will fossil fuels soon become controlled substances? The United Nations Climate Change Conference kicked off in Poznan, Poland, on Monday with representatives from around the world working to negotiate the framework for a successor to the failed Kyoto Protocol. Stephen Hockman, the former head of the British Bar Council and a deputy High Court judge, has an idea why Kyoto failed to reach its emission goals and has proposed a remedy: creating a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The new court would have the ability to sanction and perhaps even punish those who violate or fail to obey climate change treaties such as Kyoto. It's tempting to dismiss this as the pipe dream of a barrister who also supports bringing Shariah law to Britain. But the idea of enforcing greenhouse gas reductions through legal means has been voiced by others and could easily snowball into widespread acceptance....

Drought deepens strain on a dwindling Colorado The drought gripping Utah, Southern California and the rest of the Southwest this century shows no sign of ending. Scientists see it as a permanent condition that, despite year-to-year weather variations, will deepen as temperatures rise, snows dwindle, soils bake and fires burn. That's grim news for all of us in the West, perhaps most especially for the 10 million residents along the northern stretch of the Colorado River -- Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming and Colorado -- whose water rights are newer, and therefore junior, to those in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. Making matters worse, the Colorado -- the 1,450-mile-long lifeline that sustains more than 30 million souls and 3.5 million acres of farmland in seven states, 34 tribal nations and Mexico -- is in decline, scientists warn. Even so, demand for the Colorado's water echoes from city leaders, industry giants, oil drillers, farmers, fishers, ranchers, boaters, bikers and hikers -- along with silent pleas from wildlife and the ecosystem. Trend analyses by federal scientists, probably conservative, predict the population dependent on the river will reach at least 38 million during the coming decade....

Plague spurs prairie dog die-off in grasslands An outbreak of the plague is killing off the black-tailed prairie dogs on the Comanche National Grassland in southeast Colorado, in a dramatic die-off that has raised concerns for the future of the species in one of its richest habitats. The U.S. Forest Service, which runs the 443,750-acre grassland, said Monday that prairie dog colonies decreased from 16,000 acres in 2005 to just 3,607 this year. The plague occurs regularly among prairie dogs throughout their range, spreads quickly through colonies, and can infect pets and humans that come into contact with them, the agency said. The news comes at a time of scrutiny on the small, plains rodent. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to determine, possibly as soon as today, whether the prairie dog should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. Conservation groups, who sued to try to get the agency to reverse an earlier decision not to protect the prairie dog, say the Comanche population was one of the largest and best-documented in the state, and the die-offs indicate the species needs the federal protection....

Confession tossed for Forest Service coercion tactics Agents with the U.S. Forest Service broke an accused Cherokee National Forest arsonist's spirit to glean a confession too tainted to be used against him, a judge ruled Monday. In a massive 65-page ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton painstakingly painted the line between investigative creativity and police coercion. He then opined that forestry agents employing what has been dubbed by defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs as the "Save Jane" ruse stepped over it in the case of alleged firebug John Wesley Irons. "The court finds that in this case law enforcement took their ruse too far," Guyton ruled. In his ruling, Guyton tossed out as evidence against Irons his alleged confession to setting hundreds of fires in the Coker Creek community in Monroe County and surrounding Cherokee National Forest. In so doing, he backed Isaacs' assertion Irons rattled off an involuntary confession to protect the women he loved - his estranged wife and U.S. Forest Service Agent Jane Wright. Irons allegedly told forestry agents his compulsion to set fires began when he was a teenager. Now 61, Irons allegedly admitted torching woods using candles and setting ablaze structures including the home of a U.S. Forest Service agent who was inside with his family at the time. But Guyton questioned just how "voluntary" that statement was given that it was gleaned when a "distraught" Irons lay handcuffed beside Wright, also handcuffed as part of a fake arrest, and murmured words of "unrequited" love, unaware he was being tricked into believing his confession would set her free....

Lawyers call for international court for the environment A former chairman of the Bar Council is calling for an international court for the environment to punish states that fail to protect wildlife and prevent climate change. Stephen Hockman QC is proposing a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be the supreme legal authority on issues regarding the environment. The first role of the new body would be to enforce international agreements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions set to be agreed next year. But the court would also fine countries or companies that fail to protect endangered species or degrade the natural environment and enforce the "right to a healthy environment". Mr Hockman, a deputy High Court judge, said that the threat of climate change means it is more important than ever for the law to protect the environment. The UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland this month is set to begin negotiations that will lead to a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen next year. Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has agreed the concept of an international court will be taken into account when considering how to make these international agreements on climate change binding....

‘America is Back’ as a Leader on Climate Change, Sen. Kerry Says After eight years of resisting cap-and-trade proposals as offered in the Kyoto Protocol, for instance, America is back as a leader on the issue of climate change and will press ahead with policy changes that address environmental and economic challenges that are now interlinked, according to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) Kerry, the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made those comments in speaking with reporters during a conference call Tuesday. The call was organized to address an upcoming climate change conference (Dec. 1-12) in Poznan, Poland. With scientific evidence weighing in favor of the idea that global warming is man made, it is imperative for the global community to shift away from dependence on fossil fuels and to a green economy as a matter of survival, Kerry said. The PolandClimate Change Conference should be viewed as a “steeping stone” to help set up a framework for future discussions and is not meant as a substantive negotiation session, said Kerry. The December meetings will instead lay the groundwork for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark where a treaty could be produced, he said....

The recession's here. Let's tax carbon! The first hundred days of any presidency rarely go off as planned, but, for now, Barack Obama seems to know what's at the top of his to-do list. In late October, he told Time's Joe Klein that "a new energy economy" would "be my number-one priority when I get into office." But then, as if to cut off a lurking objection, Obama quickly tacked on a qualifier: "assuming, obviously, that we have done enough to just stabilize the immediate economic situation." The caveat seemed to nod at a nascent conventional wisdom: Now that the United States is staring down the barrel of a nasty recession, many Washington types wonder if Obama will have to tear up that to-do list and rein in his ambitious climate and energy proposals. True, not all of Obama's green ideas are controversial: You can't pick up a newspaper op-ed page these days without seeing yet another economist argue that government spending on clean energy and eco-friendly infrastructure could provide the Keynesian boost necessary to haul the economy out of its mire. But the linchpin of Obama's energy platform wasn't new spending; it was an economy- wide cap on carbon-dioxide emissions, in which a decreasing number of tradeable pollution permits would be auctioned off each year, so as to ratchet down greenhouse gases and help avert drastic global warming. Energy experts tend to agree that it's not enough for the government to fund alternative-energy sources; the only way to usher in the "new energy economy" Obama envisions is to make it costlier to burn fossil fuels. But that's the catch: Since Obama's cap-and-trade proposal would essentially act as a tax and increase the price of oil, gas, and coal, he downplayed this aspect of his plan on the trail--and it's the one idea that now looks most vulnerable. The queasiness is understandable. On the surface, it really doesn't sound like a hot idea to impose broad new regulations on a struggling economy. In this case, though, the fear is misguided. Global warming is urgent enough that the next administration will need to go all-out on the issue, passing not just a green stimulus package but especially a cap on carbon. And, not only is the recession a poor excuse to hold back, it may even be all the more reason to act....

The True Costs of EPA Global Warming Regulation Legislation designed to address global warming failed in Congress this year, largely due to concerns about its high costs and adverse impact on an already weakening economy. The congressional debate will likely resume in 2009, as legislators try again to bal­ance the environmental and economic considerations on this complex issue. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), pursuant to a 2007 Supreme Court decision, has initiated steps toward bypassing the legislative process and regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. The EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) is nothing less than the most costly, compli­cated, and unworkable regulatory scheme ever pro­posed. Under ANPR, nearly every product, business, and building that uses fossil fuels could face require­ments that border on the impossible. The overall cost of this agenda would likely exceed that of the legisla­tion rejected by Congress, reaching well into the tril­lions of dollars while destroying millions of jobs in the manufacturing sector.[1] The ANPR is clearly not in the best interests of Americans, and the EPA should not proceed to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and final rule based upon it....

Ocean currents can power the world, say scientists A revolutionary device that can harness energy from slow-moving rivers and ocean currents could provide enough power for the entire world, scientists claim. The technology can generate electricity in water flowing at a rate of less than one knot - about one mile an hour - meaning it could operate on most waterways and sea beds around the globe. Existing technologies which use water power, relying on the action of waves, tides or faster currents created by dams, are far more limited in where they can be used, and also cause greater obstructions when they are built in rivers or the sea. Turbines and water mills need an average current of five or six knots to operate efficiently, while most of the earth's currents are slower than three knots. The new device, which has been inspired by the way fish swim, consists of a system of cylinders positioned horizontal to the water flow and attached to springs. As water flows past, the cylinder creates vortices, which push and pull the cylinder up and down. The mechanical energy in the vibrations is then converted into electricity....

EPA, Interior Dept. Chiefs Will Be Busy Erasing Bush's Mark Few federal agencies are expected to undergo as radical a transformation under President-elect Barack Obama as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department, which have been at the epicenter of many of the Bush administration's most intense scientific and environmental controversies. The agencies have different mandates -- the EPA holds sway over air and water pollution, while Interior administers the nation's vast federal land holdings as well as the Endangered Species Act -- but both deal with some of the country's most pressing environmental concerns, such as climate change. And over the past eight years, many career employees and rank-and-file scientists have clashed with Bush appointees over a number of those of issues, including whether the federal government should allow California to regulate tailpipe emissions from automobiles and how best to prevent imperiled species from disappearing altogether. In June 2007, Obama told reporters in Reno, Nev., that he would not hesitate to reverse many of the environmental policies Bush has enacted by executive order. "I think the slow chipping away against clean air and clean water has been deeply disturbing," Obama added. "Much of it hasn't gone through Congress. It was done by fiat. That is something that can be changed by an administration, in part by reinvigorating the EPA, which has been demoralized." Global warming policies are expected to mark one of the sharpest breaks between the Obama and the Bush administrations....

Group seeks Pickens' wife's help to save rangeland Conservationists are looking to the wife of Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens to help push for federal reforms that they say will help thousands of wild horses and save rangeland in the West. Madeleine Pickens recently announced plans to create a refuge for wild horses. She came up with the idea after hearing that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management was considering euthanizing some of the animals to control the herds and protect the range. WildEarth Guardians wants to take Pickens' plan further by proposing a solution the group believes would resolve public land grazing conflicts that have resulted in the horses needing a home. WildEarth Guardians is advocating congressional legislation that would allow ranchers who have grazing permits on federal public land to relinquish the permits in exchange for compensation. The idea is that livestock would be removed from the allotment, leaving a refuge for wild horses and other native animals and plants. Mark Salvo, director of WildEarth Guardians' campaign to protect the West's sagebrush landscape, said he believes voluntary grazing permit buyouts are catching on with ranchers....

U.S. Moves Ahead on Oil, Gas Leases on Public Land Over the last four fiscal years, a Washington Post analysis of Bureau of Land Management records shows, the government has dramatically accelerated the pace of awarding oil and gas drilling permits on federal land. The total for the period is nearly triple the number issued in the corresponding years under former President Clinton, and the number of new wells sunk on federal land is more than double Clinton's record over the comparable period. In the latest skirmish, the bureau announced Tuesday that it will proceed with most of a proposed sale of oil and gas leases on nearly 500 square miles of public land in eastern Utah, which had sparked protests from environmental advocates and National Park Service officials. Opponents fear the drilling activity will damage air quality in several nearby popular national parks. The lease sales, due to take place next month, could pose a challenge for the incoming Obama administration, which will have to decide shortly after taking office whether to honor the contracts, seek to undo the leases or pay millions in taxpayer dollars to buy them back....

BLM backs off plan to issue drilling permits in Utah's redrock country Drilling leases on the road to Dinosaur National Monument and on lands visible from Utah's iconic Delicate Arch and near Canyonlands National Park are off the block. In the face of intense opposition from the National Park Service, members of Congress and a top official from President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management backed down Tuesday from its plan to sell oil and gas leases near national parks and wilderness-quality areas in Utah on Dec. 19. The BLM also promised to consult with the Park Service on any future changes to environmental protections built into long-range plans for lands near the parks, said Mike Snyder, director of NPS' Intermountain region....

Man convicted in eagle deaths grateful for pardon Leslie Owen Collier was surrounded by cattle at a livestock auction when his cell phone rang. It was the White House. Twelve years after pleading guilty to federal charges in the deaths of three bald eagles, Collier learned his name was cleared: He was pardoned by President George W. Bush. "I guess I was humbled is the best way to say it — I never thought it would happen," Collier, 50, said in a phone interview this week. "It was emotional. I almost came to tears, really." The 1995 incident that changed the life of the farmer from the Charleston area of southeastern Missouri began when he noticed an increasing number of wild turkeys, which were believed to have died away. "I got it in my head that if I eliminated some of the coyotes it would give the turkeys a jump-start," on their comeback, Collier said. So he put out hamburger meat laced with the pesticide Furadan in an effort to kill the coyotes. It worked; seven coyotes died. The problem occurred when the eagles fed on the coyotes' carcasses. They died, too. So did a red-tailed hawk and a great horned owl, among other animals. The birds are federally protected and killing them is illegal. Collier said the crime became a felony when the second eagle died. He pleaded guilty in late 1995 and received two years of probation. While he didn't go to jail, the conviction was hard on Collier. He was ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution. As a convicted felon, the longtime hunter had to give up his guns....

Unhappiness After Stream in Montana Is Open to All A group of landowners, including several wealthy out-of-staters, are none too happy that their exclusive use of a scenic trout-rich stream in the Bitterroot Valley is coming to an end. The Montana Supreme Court ruled here recently that the 16-mile-long stream, Mitchell Slough, is open to the public and that the landowners are not entitled to fence it off as part of their private sanctuaries. Montana law is firm in allowing the public access to streams and rivers that flow through private land, up to the high-water mark. The law states that fishermen can walk in a stream or along the bank up to the high-water mark if they enter the waterway from public land like a bridge. They may not cross or walk on private land above the mark without permission. In this case, though, two dozen landowners — including the rock singer Huey Lewis and Charles R. Schwab, founder of the brokerage firm that bears his name — argued that irrigation diversions had so thoroughly altered Mitchell Slough that it was no longer a natural waterway and that therefore the stream access law should not apply. To reinforce that belief, they began calling it Mitchell Ditch. But in a unanimous ruling, the State Supreme Court here ruled that in spite of the changes, the slough was still a “natural perennial flowing stream” and public access was warranted....

Wilderness creation opposed Counties in the Bighorn Basin say preserving the Western way of life is their top priority. The county commissions of Park, Big Horn, Washakie and Hot Springs counties recently submitted 22 pages of comments to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management outlining their vision of how federal land should be managed in the future. "There is concern our Western culture is being destroyed or detrimentally changed," the counties said. The four county commissions submitted remarks together. They were compiled by Ecosystem Research Group, a Missoula, Mont., environmental consulting firm. The counties' comments emphasize the importance of grazing in the basin. If grazing is reduced, "the highest value of these lands ... is to sell to developers and 'hobby' ranchers," they wrote. The commissions also came out against designating any federal lands as wilderness in the basin. Wilderness areas typically are remote, undeveloped and largely roadless. Motorized travel is usually prohibited in an area once Congress designates it as wilderness. "Millions of acres in the west are designated as wilderness," the counties wrote. "We oppose designating any of the lands within the (planning area) as wilderness." The BLM is studying 12 areas as potential wilderness sites. The agency places restrictions on those study areas and the commissions asked that the federal government return those areas to general management....

Mining claim occupancy rules are about to change After growing frustrated with their inability to move illegal squatters off federal forest land because regulations were unclear, the U.S. Forest Service has put teeth into the laws that regulate residential occupancy on mining claims. The changes, which take effect nationally on Dec. 8, also revise the definition of an operating plan for miners. The revisions clarify that a criminal citation can be issued for illegal occupancy, said Bob Fujimoto, group leader for minerals and geology for agency's Region 6 which includes Oregon and Washington. "When we went down the civil side (of enforcement), it would take years before we would get very far with a case," he said. "When we use a criminal citation, the process is much shorter." The revised residential occupancy regulations spell out what constitutes residency through construction, reconstruction, improvement, maintenance and use or presence of a temporary or permanent structure....

Study causes shift in wolverine management Wolverine researchers in Greater Yellowstone say protecting overlaps between the region’s three populations is crucial to ensuring the species’ long term survival. Greater Yellowstone wolverines consist of three so-called “metapopulations,” one in northern Montana, one in central Idaho and one in northwest Wyoming, according to Bryan Aber, a carnivore biologist with Idaho Fish and Game, U.S. Forest Service, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Maintaining connections between these metapopulations is difficult because wolverines rely on high elevation terrain, exist in extremely low densities and maintain huge home ranges. Female wolverines average a 155-square-mile home range, while males average a 460-square-mile home range. “The overlap of those three populations is critical in ensuring genetic transfer,” Aber said. “Because they exist at such low densities, the area where these three metapopulations overlap is extremely important.”....

The spotted owl disappearing act Across their entire range in Washington, Oregon, Northern California and British Columbia, there are thought to be fewer than 5,000 northern spotted owls left. In the dense forests of the Olympic Peninsula last year, spotted owls were found in 19 of the 54 sites they had once populated. Their numbers have declined by a third since the 1990s, when old-growth logging across the Pacific Northwest came to a virtual halt in an effort to protect their habitat. The declines have been so persistent -- averaging 4% a year -- that a growing number of scientists have come to think the most immediate culprit is not logging but the aggressive barred owl, which has crept into the West Coast forests from Canada over the last few decades. Bigger, more fertile and with an appetite less finicky than its threatened cousin, the barred owl has taken over in forest after forest, experts say -- claiming spotted owls' nests in the warmer, lower elevations. Now, as the spotted owl continues to decline, the federal government is taking what many conservationists say is the worst step possible: reopening more of the bird's forests to logging. In what is likely to be one of the final environmental battles of the Bush administration, 18 environmental groups filed motions in federal court last week to block a massive remapping of federal lands in the Pacific Northwest. Proposals by the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service, which officials hope to have in place by the end of the year, would open up for logging large tracts that had been set aside as breathing space for the owls -- nearly 1.8 million acres....

Killing two pintails with one shot is illegal If you'd shot two pintails with one shot, the consequences of this error would differ depending on how you handled the situation. Mike Carion, assistant chief at the state Department of Fish and Game, said here's what you might expect: If you'd picked them both up and put them in your bag and the warden found that you had two in possession, you may be cited for having an overlimit. If you didn't tell the warden you had two and failed to reveal both birds to the game warden when asked, you might additionally be cited for failing to show the extra duck when asked. If you'd left the other bird in the pond, buried it or hid it, you could have been cited for an overlimit and wanton waste of game. The best way to avoid any of these consequences in the future would be to not shoot when the birds are so close that you don't have a clear shot and be able to identify what you're shooting before pulling the trigger....In California, you can't kill two birds with one stone.

Feds hurt Wyoming's efforts to settle wolf issue The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had an opportunity recently to make real progress on the seemingly unending wolf de-listing issue - and they blinked. Instead of a careful response to litigation triggered by earlier efforts to remove wolves from Endangered Species Act protections, the agency is pushing for a careless new plan in a rushed process designed to fail. Instead of addressing genetic-diversity concerns by enhancing natural dispersal, the USFWS is proposing to set a dangerous precedent by using expensive, heavy-handed methods that include trucking wolves from state to state, artificial insemination and pup-swapping. Instead of helping Wyoming shore up the deficiencies in its management plan, the agency is telling us to fend for ourselves.They doom us to many more years of court haggling on an issue that already has exhausted us all. In short, instead of taking Wyoming a step forward, the Fish & Wildlife Service is attempting to knock us three steps backward....

Feds not complying with act passed 18 years ago I recently asked a spokesperson for the nation’s largest public power company about thousands of American Indian bones and funeral objects in the federal corporation’s possession. The Tennessee Valley Authority spokesperson seemed to think I was pulling his leg when I told him the TVA had bones belonging to more than 8,000 individual Indians and nearly 21,000 funeral objects. The bones and items were removed from Native archeological and burial sites as part of the TVA’s economic development project spanning seven states. “Where do we keep them?” said John Moulton, TVA’s senior news bureau manager. “Do we have them buried somewhere?” He said he’s worked with the TVA for 22 years and never heard such a story. The TVA’s bone collection is part of a recently released report that outlines enforcement and oversight problems among federal agencies charged to abide by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, a law passed 18 years ago in November. The “Federal Agency Implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act” report concludes government agencies have “no apparent enforcement mechanisms or incentives” to comply with NAGPRA. Today, agencies like the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and TVA have more than 118,000 human remains in their possession. The bones are stockpiled on shelves at universities and museums across the country. After making an inquiry, the TVA spokesman learned the power company stores most Indian remains at the University of Tennessee and the University of Alabama....Imagine that, federal agencies not complying with federal law. What are the consequences to these agencies for noncompliance? What would be the consequences to you or I?

County demands seat at table with federal agencies The Jefferson County Commission flexed its political muscles, Tuesday, unanimously passing a resolution seeking an equal voice with federal agencies on planning activities within the county. The county commission is sending a letter to federal and state agencies asserting the county’s legal standing and requesting coordination with all federal and state agencies with jurisdiction over lands in Jefferson County. Public lands comprise about 70 percent of the county’s land mass. “We have good relationships with most federal agencies,” said County Attorney Mathew Johnson. “But we’re not treated equally. We’re treated as subordinates.” The latest issue that brought this to a head, Johnson said following the meeting, is the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Forest Travel Plan. But the major impetus was a Forest Service plan in the Clancy-Unionville area several years ago that closed some roads, he said. Disputes over these road closures led to county efforts in 2005 and 2006 to seek legal jurisdiction over all rights-of-way in the county. At that time, the county claimed legal authority under a provision of the 1866 Mining Law. Butte Bureau of Land Management Field Manager Rick Hotaling said he had not yet been informed of the resolution. Another issue is that county commissioners are required under Montana’s sunshine laws to make public documents they receive. But under the federal agencies rules, committee members can’t share internal planning documents, Hotaling said, because these change from week to week. Circulating early drafts to the public would just cause confusion, he said....Thanks for not confusing the public by giving them timely information. Knowing what changes were made, and when and by whom would be oh so confusing. Just keep the poor bastards in the dark.

Animal rights activists seek export-for-slaughter ban as number of US horses sent abroad rises In about 30 minutes, Barnes bought 25 so-called "killer horses." Their new owner would subject them to what animal rights groups say is a growing type of abuse: trucking them nearly 700 miles to Canada for slaughter, circumventing a U.S. ban on the practice. Much of the meat is eventually exported to countries in Europe and Asia for human consumption. Stacy Segal, a horse specialist at the Humane Society of the United States, and other animal rights activists want a ban on exporting U.S. horses for slaughter abroad. "They're jammed onto trailers with no regard for breed, size, age, temperament or sex and get no feed or rest," Segal said. Last year, when state-imposed bans closed the last three U.S. horse slaughterhouses, a record 78,000 horses were exported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics compiled by the Humane Society. That's a 138 percent increase from 2006. Statistics show that 76,100 horses have been slaughtered in Canada and Mexico so far this year. But the actual figure is likely higher because Canada hasn't yet reported two months' worth of slaughter numbers. Barnes and others acknowledge that the long trip is stressful on the animals, but they blame animal rights activists who successfully pushed for all U.S. horse slaughterhouses to shut down. They say the increased exportation of horses is better than the alternative: horses being neglected and abused by owners who don't want them or can't afford to take care of them....

A World of a Different Color HORSES AT WORK: Harnessing Power in Industrial America By Ann Norton Greene. Once upon a time, America derived most of its power from a natural, renewable resource that was roughly as efficient as an automobile engine but did not pollute the air with nitrogen dioxide or suspended particulate matter or carcinogenic hydrocarbons. This power source was versatile. Hooked up to the right devices, it could thresh wheat or saw wood. It was also highly portable — in fact, it propelled itself — and could move either along railroad tracks or independently of them. Each unit came with a useful, nonthreatening amount of programmable memory preinstalled, including software that prompted forgetful users once it had learned a routine, and each possessed a character so distinctive that most users gave theirs a name. As a bonus feature, the power source neighed. But in the fall of 1872, almost all these power units, better known as horses, came down with the flu, and America faced an energy crisis. In what became known as the Great Epizootic, horse influenza spread from Ontario down the East Coast of the United States, across the South and into the West, eventually reaching as far as California and Nicaragua. Forty-eight hours after it hit Boston, seven out of every eight of the city’s horses were feverish and coughing. In “Horses at Work,” Ann Norton Greene describes Philadelphia at a standstill: “Streetcar companies suspended service; undelivered freight accumulated at wharves and railroad depots; consumers lacked milk, ice and groceries; saloons lacked beer; work halted at construction sites, brickyards and factories; and city governments curtailed fire protection and garbage collection.”....

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

.The Christmas letter not to write

Julie Carter

The weenie dog in the tutu leisurely leaning back on a sofa pillow did it for me.

Over-the-top Christmas greetings have gone, literally, to the dogs, cats, horses and even a parakeet.

I know it is the season and all that, but geeez Louise, have people gotten that desperate for a life to share? In reading some of them, I wonder why they haven't died of boredom.

It is my belief that a Christmas letter is intended to catch the reader up on the year's highlights, provided there are some, in the life of the sender.

Somehow that has gotten to be such a chore that there are now tutorials on how to write a proper Christmas letter.

These lessons come with tips, suggestions and the inference that bragging isn't really acceptable.

We've all gotten at least one like this:

Sara, 8, has the lead in our community play, Aaron, 10, was recently voted the most gifted and talented child in school and now that Emily is 3, she's started reading. Between ferrying the kids around to school, church and extracurricular activities, Beth gave birth to our fourth child in September. He's already beginning to crawl! Howard has been promoted to CEO of the World. We took three vacations last year to tropical paradises (see photos).

There is no doubt in my mind that the budding Rhodes Scholars and Julliard graduates are in all honesty, just average kids leaving their underwear on the bathroom floor every time they shower, never flushing the toilet and whining when they have to unload the dishwasher.

Mentioning births, deaths, marriages and relocations are quite important, but not if that involves only the pets and not the people.

My favorites are the ones that provide a laugh while the writer laughs at himself:

Tom here! Wow, 2008 has shaped up to be one of those years for the Shoemaker family. So much has happened that it's hard to know where to begin. First, there was that business with the IRS; then the trial, wherein a co-worker's husband accused me of adultery, followed by my third arrest for DUI. And all that happened before June!!

Finding a way to bring interest to a "quiet" life isn't easy, but sharing the lackluster does nothing to quicken the holiday heart of the receiver.

If your story leaves you flat, it won't look any better to the reader on the other end. Make no apologies, just don't write it. Perhaps a Hallmark card is your best bet to "send your very best."

Know when to quit. If someone hasn't sent you a Christmas greeting for three years, take them off your list.

You can tell yourself they are too busy to write, but who are you fooling? They are wondering how long before you take the hint.

Now don't get me wrong, and you will, but here it is. I love my pets. You love your pets. However, you aren't required to love mine any more than I will love yours, most of whom I have never met.

Honestly folks, and I say this at the risk of not hearing from many of you ever again, that Chihuahua has no idea why you dressed him up in that stupid Santa suit for a photo.

Keeping that in mind, if I ever start writing Christmas letters that are signed with the name of my pets, paw prints included, and in the body of the letter, I discuss their annual veterinary needs and issues, just shoot me.

If I talk about the highlight of my year’s work as being the installation of new ceiling fans and how good the new tin looks on the old trailer house, just shoot me.

There is a reason my Christmas letters are mostly family photos. Those, indeed, are worth a thousand words and none of them a lie. We really are hillbillies!

Julie hasn't yet created her 2008 Christmas letter that will contain shameless self-promotion of her new book, Cowboys -You Gotta Love 'em, found through her Web site at www.julie-carter.com.

Buyer beware - seller, too
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Julie Carter

The holiday season, shopping frenzies, sales galore and all that goes with that. The crowds begin to swarm the retail outlets for the bargain of the century, but let me caution you about regular-looking cowboy types, wearing worn, tattered clothing, who are out to make a good deal.

Jess was an honest man, but he had been in the cattle business a long time. Long enough to know that when you go trading, a man needed every advantage he could get. That accounted for his apparel when he left the ranch.

Today's objective was to trade a saddle he didn't use for one that suited both him and his horse a little better. Both were big old boys. He also had in mind to look at a new horse trailer while he was in town.

The Western store, more than city block long, stocked everything from bling T-shirts to horse trailers. This prestigious place carried quality inventory and took pride in their customer service.

Jess walked in and, as luck would have it, the owner was standing by the front counter. Not a rookie at wheeling and dealing, the owner, under usual circumstances, would have immediately recalled an intervening commitment when he saw Jess coming.

However, this particular day, he was somewhat tethered to the spot by his own knee-high kid hanging to his leg.

"Need to swap you a wonderful saddle that I just cannot use for one that wouldn't be anywhere near this good, but would fit me," Jess said as he put forth the saddle he'd carried in the door.

The storeowner got a gleam in his eye, thinking today might just be the day he could make a good deal with Jess. "Let's see this old saddle you got."

Jess allowed that it wasn't really an old saddle - it was one he had won, but he just hadn't used because it was a little small.

"Well, we can't really sell trophy saddles," said the storeowner, "nobody wants something they didn't win themselves."

"Got that figured out," Jess said. "Took that burden off you. I would let your saddle man back there swap out the fenders on this new wonderful saddle for the fenders on one of your new saddles here in the store. Wouldn't cost you any boot or anything."

The light went on in the owner's head. This wasn't going to be any easy trade. His inventory in the story included top-shelf, expensive saddles. While he was figuring his next move, his kid pulled on his leg. "Daddy, I'm ready to go home."

The trade banter went on awhile, and they were getting pretty close to the finish when Jess threw in the comment that he needed a bunch of things from the other side of the store.

This was where the hats, boots and high-dollar clothes, tack and trailer accessories were displayed. The owner looked Jess over, noted that his hat was showing some "experience," and his boots had duct tape holding them together.

With that added information and the fact his kid now needed to go to the bathroom, he came down another hundred dollars on the trade.

They continued jarring a little longer and finally the storeowner set his heels.

Jess then pulled out his ace. He was also planning to look at a new trailer that day. The owner caved and offered a figure that Jess already had determined.

They shook hands and while they were walking up to the counter to write up it up, the owner asked him, "Now, what was it you needed from the other side of the store?"

"Two feed buckets and a pooper scooper," Jess replied.

"That's it?" blurted out the merchant. "I thought you were going to get a new hat, new boots and a trailer."

Knowing he'd been had, the owner wobbled on off, suddenly needing to take his kid home. The girls behind the counter wrote up the ticket and Jess told them, "Now, don't you all forget me in case I lose this ticket. I'll be back in a little bit to pick up my saddle when they get the fenders swapped."

The girls laughingly assured him no one in the store would forget him. In the meantime, Jess went on down the road and bought a two-horse-slant aluminum trailer from the competition.

He still had on his trading apparel, but that's another story.

‘I’m Shocked, Shocked To Discover Land Use Going On Here’

Vin Suprynowicz

Once you’ve passed through the entrance gate to one of America’s magnificent national parks or monuments, what do you see?

Nothin’.

In most cases, mile upon mile of nothin’.

The sweeping grandeur of the Grand Canyon is not visible from any common entrance point to the national park of that name. Expect to drive several miles before you see the first signs directing you to various hotels and overlooks. (Entering from the north, LOTS of miles.)

Florida’s Everglades area the same way. Yes, the historic wetlands have been shrunken by unwise water projects further north, but many a child has gazed out upon the sweep of mostly dry grasslands after passing the “now entering” sign, asking, “Where’s the swamp? Where’s the gators?”

The traveler does not come upon these scenic wonders immediately, because those who planned these vast impoundments understood the concept of a “buffer zone.” With few exceptions, the scenic vistas are surrounded by five to 10 miles – or more – of empty space. This was done so that those enjoying the scenery would not have to gaze upon carnivals and trailer parks and used car graveyards teetering at the edge of Bryce Canyon or Yosemite Falls.

Outside the parks and monuments, the federal government may control even vaster acreage. But those lands are turned over to the U.S. Bureau of land Management, which has a different mission, seeing that those less sensitive lands are used in ways that benefit the nation.

Yet listen now to the green extremists, complaining that mining or tree-cutting or grazing is “allowed, only one valley away” or “once ridge line away” from a national park or monument.

On Nov. 4, the BLM announced that on Dec. 19 they will auction off the rights to drill for oil or gas on more than 50,000 acres of BLM land close to or adjoining three national parks in Utah: Arches, Dinosaur, and Canyonlands.

“This is a fire sale,” shrills Stephen Bloch, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, “the Bush administration’s last great gift to the oil and gas industry.”

“We find it shocking and disturbing,” says Cordell Troy, chief National Park Service administrator in Utah. “That’s 40 tracts within four miles of these parks.”

Read it again. Four miles outside the parks’ existing buffer zones.

Franklin Seal, spokesman for the environmental group Wildland CPR, contends “If you’re standing at Delicate Arch, like thousands of people do every year, and you’re looking through the arch, you could see drill pads on the hillside behind it. That’s how ridiculous this proposed lease sale is.”

See people earning an honest wage, working to heat our homes and fill our gas tanks … by using binoculars, perhaps?

In an era when economically struggling Americans actually celebrate when gasoline prices fall below three dollars a gallon – when this nation needs to develop all its domestic resources to reduce its dependence on foreign oil – there’s nothing “silly” about creating wealth and real jobs by allowing entrepreneurs to risk their own capital developing our own resources.

If the borders of the Arches National Park were not properly drawn to create an adequate buffer, it’s odd no one noticed this before. In such specific cases, the BLM might certainly compromise on a parcel or two.

But these protests are like complaining someone “almost broke” the 65 mph speed limit by driving 63 mph, or that they “almost violated” the drinking age by serving beer to a 23-year-old.

“I’m puzzled the park Service has been as upset as they are,” Selma Sierra, BLM director for the state of Utah, tells The Associated Press. “There are already many parcels leased around the parks.”

Details, details. What does that matter, when there’s serious posturing to be done?

Soon we’ll be hearing about unsightly land uses “within a hundred miles of a national park!” Since many national parks sit in closer proximity to each other than that, here in the West, such an “exclusionary zone” would bar millions of acres of deserts scrub from any productive use.

Which, one begins to suspect, is precisely what the green extreme has in mind.

Vin Suprynowicz [send him mail] is assistant editorial page editor of the daily Las Vegas Review-Journal and author of The Black Arrow.

A Turkey

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Ramirez