Saturday, September 28, 2013

Chairman Hastings Statement on Obama Administration's Proposed Habitat Designation of the Canada Lynx

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 26, 2013 - House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement regarding U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s proposal to designate over 26 million acres of habitat in six states for the Canada Lynx, which has been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA):

The Obama Administration’s proposed designation of more than 26 million acres of habitat in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, and Maine for the Canada Lynx could have huge economic impacts on public recreation, forest management, mining, snowmobiling, energy development, and other economic activities. While the Administration cannot even define how many lynx there are or what the number of decline has been, they are pressing ahead to re-issue a habitat designation that will significantly affect portions of six states, and reduce access for a host of activities.  It’s concerning that the massive proposal does not include an accurate or updated economic impact analyses, and will create potential regulatory uncertainty for those areas affected.

“This proposed designation is another example of how the ESA is being driven by settlements and litigation over science and actual data. The Canada Lynx was one of hundreds of species included in a settlement agreement between the Department of the Interior and litigious environmental organizations. Closed-door negotiations with special interest lawyers whose fees are being subsidized by American taxpayers are not how these decisions should be made, and set a dangerous precedent that will have 
widespread impacts on job creation, access to public lands, and use of private property.”






Friday, September 27, 2013

Big Bird Loses Healthcare Under Obamacare Rules

Millions of Americans are losing their work-provided healthcare insurance plans all across the country as the costs, fees, and fines of Obamacare become clear. Now, even Big Bird of Sesame Street fame has lost his healthcare insurance thanks to the President's take over of the healthcare system. Some may recall that during the 2012 presidential election, the progressive media accused GOP nominee Mitt Romney of wanting to "kill Big Bird" when he came out in opposition to funding public broadcasting services like PBS and NPR. Now, only months after the election, Obamacare is about to "kill Big Bird" in Pennsylvania. One of The Keystone State's biggest tourist attractions is Sesame Place, a Sesame Street-themed amusement park just northeast of Philadelphia. First opened in 1980, Sesame Place employs about 1,650 people both full and part-time and brings in upwards to $75 million in economic activity to Pennsylvania's Bucks County. However, Sesame Place parent company SeaWorld has announced that it will cut hours for part-time employees, likely to keep them under the 30-hour threshold set down in Obama’s healthcare law. SeaWorld will also cease offering company-based healthcare plans for part-time workers. "This law is hurting real people in my district and around the country," Representative Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) wrote in a letter to the Obama administration. Philly Inquirer writer Julie Zauzmer reports that SeaWorld has confirmed that it has cut part-time worker's hours from 32 hours a week to 28. This will keep employees under the new Obamacare limit of what makes a "full-time worker."...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1112

I dedicate this song to all the DC Deep Thinkers: Roy Acuff - Stuckup Blues.  The number was recorded in Chicago on April 29, 1941 and released as Okeh 6300.

http://youtu.be/__A2dgWzN9w

Editorial: Agency should revisit arbitrary grazing ban

The U.S. Forest Service’s decision to run 21 ranchers off their federal grazing allotments in the Mountainair Ranger District is arbitrary and needless flexing of regulatory muscle.

Many of the ranchers’ families have held the grazing leases for generations. The Forest Service, too, has a long history. It was established in 1905 and its mission is to manage and preserve public lands in national forests and grasslands for the greater good of the citizenry. And that is as it should be. The Forest Service over the years has worked with ranchers, universities and other land managers to monitor rangeland health and sustainability. 

However, the abrupt – and unappealable – decision three months ago appears to be one-sided and poorly thought out. 

The Forest Service excuse is drought, a condition in which 75 percent of New Mexico remains. But to hear ranchers like Richard Spencer tell it, there is grass. Others say they have been practicing good management, such as leaving parts of their allotments ungrazed so the range can restore itself. Plus, they point out, recent rains are revitalizing the forage, and other users of public lands have been allowed back into the forests.

The order, issued in June, suspended all grazing in the ranger district after July 30 for at least a year after the range returns to average or above annual precipitation that produces “adequate seed in key grasses and forbs.” Only then would grazing be allowed to return gradually on a case-by-case basis. The order notes it could take a few years for ranchers to get back to their maximum permitted number of livestock. Meanwhile, the Forest Service says ranchers are required to maintain water systems and improvements on the allotments for the benefit of wildlife. 

And continue their monthly lease payments. 

If you ever needed an example of a federal bureaucracy completely unplugged from the reality of being able to run a ranch or business, this would be it. It essentially says, “we are kicking you out of the house indefinitely, but you still need to pay rent and upkeep. How you do that is your problem.” 

Ranchers say the loss of use of their grazing allotments will create financial hardships, but it will also impact commerce in rural towns and revenues for school districts and local governments. They want the order withdrawn and an advisory panel created so they can have some say in future grazing lease decisions. 

The Forest Service is right to try to protect the public’s resources. But its decisions not only should be based on good science and applicable government regulations, but should include the input of those who will be directly affected, including allotment holders and local governments. 

Like it or not, the U.S. government permits grazing on some of its lands. That’s the law. The Forest Service should reconsider the blanket ban and work with ranchers and rangeland experts to come up with an acceptable plan. 

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.

For the background on this, see my post here

 

Congressman Pearce working on grazing dispute agreement

Recent actions and a flurry of communications among those involved in the dispute over grazing leases in the Cibola National Forest could be a signal that some kind of agreement or compromise is in the works.

Eric Layer, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., said this week the congressman is working closely with ranchers in New Mexico and the U.S. Forest Service in Washington, D.C., and expects to make an important announcement in the near future, perhaps a week or two. 

“We’re working on it from every possible angle,” Layer said. 

Also this week, a rancher whose cattle were ordered removed from their Manzano Mountains grazing land by the Forest Service this past summer, met with the federal agency’s range management specialist who reinspected the grazing site. 

The dispute can be attributed to a single source: the drought. However, a more nuanced consideration would include how its impact on federal grazing land is interpreted. 

In June, Mountainair District Ranger Karen Lessard ordered 21 ranches to remove livestock from grazing land allotments in the Manzano Mountains, because of “severe drought conditions that for a third straight year continue to limit livestock forage and plant recovery.” The eviction notice took effect on July 30 and was to last at least a year “following the return of average or above average annual precipitation that produces seed in grasses and (other plants).” 

The New Mexico Cattle Growers and individual ranchers called the action arbitrary, unnecessary and economically punitive. Last month, they began circulating a resolution objecting to the “arbitrary non-scientific blanket removal order” to various governmental agencies, including the Torrance County Commission, which adopted it unanimously. The Lincoln County Commission has also approved the resolution, as has the East Torrance, Edgewood and Upper Hondo soil and water conservation districts. It is now under consideration by the board of the Claunch-Pinto Soil and Water Conservation District in Mountainair. 

Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Doth agreed that the Forest Service’s “arbitrary and capricious action should be reviewed, using science and fact.” The blanket removal of all cattle from the grazing land significantly escalates the threat of a grass fire, he said. 

Now there's commie hornets - Giant hornets are killing dozens in China and eating bees across Europe.

A plague of hornets, each the size of a human thumb, have descended on Shaanxi province this summer—at least 28 have been stung to death (link in Chinese), while another 419 have been injured, according to a local news report from China Radio Network (CRN), via the New York Times’ Chris Buckley. The death toll from hornet attacks in Ankang city is more than twice the annual average between 2002 and 2005, say the Ankang police, as the Guardian reports. A local doctor said hospitalizations due to hornet attacks have risen steadily over the years (link in Chinese). Why the uptick? The population of Asian giant hornets (vespa mandarinia), as they’re known, has surged largely because of climate change, says the Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Department (link in Chinese). The average winter temperature in Ankang rose 1.10 ℃ in the span of a few years alone, allowing more hornets to survive the winter. And it’s not just China; rising temperatures are behind the spread of another deadly Chinese hornets species, vespa velutina, in South Korea and Europe.The chief prey of the Chinese hornet? Honeybees. As global warming makes more of the world hospitable to Chinese hornets, more honeybees are dying in the beepocalypse. Areas in Europe where they’re likeliest to invade “hold among the highest densities of bee-hives in Europe,” according to recent research

Those poor French honeybees.  They are so dumb they are letting these commie hornets get the best of them.  Not the Japanese honeybees.  They circle the wagons and burn those commie hornets to death.  Kind of a Jap back burn, if you get my drift.  If you don't, here's a more scientific explanation:

Japanese honey bees have figured out how to fight back, by cooking hornets. After surrounding a hornet in a spherical formation, Japanese honey bees engage their flight muscles, raising their collective temperature beyond what hornets can withstand. European honey bees lack this skill. That’s why bee populations in France, where Chinese hornets arrived via a Chinese pottery shipment in 2005, have already taken a hit. Since then, Chinese hornets have spread at a pace of up to 100 km (62 miles) a year. Within the last three years, they’ve invaded Spain, Portugal and Belgium; soon they’ll arrive in Italy and the UK, says the European Environment Agency. 

European honey bees lack this skill

What skill?  They can't make a "spherical formation"?  They can't "engage their flight muscles"?  They can't do both at the same time?  No, the lesson learned hear is socialist honeybees are dumber than capitalist honeybees, and they end up being consumed by commie hornets.




Grizzly bear sightings in Montana prompt warnings for residents, hunters

Photo courtesy of Melissa Mattingly
Two separate grizzly bear sightings near the Sun River west of Great Falls have state wildlife officials urging homeowners to put away food attractants and hunters to carry bear spray. A grizzly ran by the home of Mark and Suzanne Mattingly about a mile southeast of Fort Shaw and 23 miles west of Great Falls at about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. “That’s the most exciting thing that’s happened here in 25 years,” Mark Mattingly said. “We’ve been here that long. We’ve had antelope in the yard and a couple of deer but never a grizzly bear.” The bear chased the family’s dog, a mutt named Ebony, toward the porch, Mattingly said. Both the dog and bear were running full speed when Suzanne Mattingly, Mark Mattingly’s wife, opened the door and yelled, which prompted the bear to veer off toward the side of the house. The grizzly then took off toward the Sun River and ran north. Mike Madel, Fish, Wildlife and Parks grizzly bear management specialist, said the sighting of the bear near Fort Shaw was the farthest east on the Sun River a grizzly bear has been confirmed. The Sun River pours out of the Rocky Mountain Front, joining the Missouri River in Great Falls. It’s also the closest a grizzly has been to Great Falls in recent history, he said. “Obviously bears were right in and around Great Falls historically,” he said. In a separate sighting Sunday, a bow hunter in a tree stand spotted a pair of subadult grizzlies about a mile east of Simms near the Sun River. Simms is 30 miles west of Great Falls. The bears have not caused any conflicts, Madel said, adding this summer and fall has been one of the lowest bear conflict years on record. “It’s directly related to the super abundance of natural bear foods in particular chokecherry and thorny buffalo bear,” he said...more

Greenpeace to appeal jailing of its activists

Environmental group Greenpeace said Friday it will appeal against the rulings of a Russian court that led to the jailing of its activists for a protest near an oil platform in the Arctic. On Thursday, the court in the city of Murmansk jailed 22 members of the Greenpeace team who were protesting near the platform last week. Greenpeace said in a statement Friday that it will appeal and is seeking the crew's immediate release. Among those jailed are a Russian news photographer and the ship's U.S. captain. Eight more were detained for three days pending a new hearing. No charges have been brought against anyone in the group. The Russian Coast Guard disrupted an attempt by the activists on Sept. 18 to scale the oil platform. Russian authorities seized Greenpeace's ship next day and towed it with the crew aboard to Murmansk...more

Hikers Actions Lead To Preservation

An ancient basket found on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands near Socorro, New Mexico, has recently been dated and preserved. In January 2009, a group of hikers discovered a partially buried basket tucked under a rock overhang on BLM lands in northwest Socorro County. Carol Chamberland, one of the hikers, and also a BLM volunteer and member of the Site Stewards Program, advised the others that they should report the find to the BLM. The BLM’s Socorro Field Office responded swiftly to form a team of two archaeologists and a law enforcement special agent. Hiker Larry Flinn led them to the remote site, where the team discovered that the basket still had its contents, whitish crystals that appeared to be salt. The basket was carefully supported, removed, and packaged for transport. The basket was taken to the conservation laboratory at the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe. A preliminary analysis was done, and the basket was painstakingly preserved. The style is a common one, and not unique to any particular time period or culture, so its age was initially unknown. Newly released results indicate that the basket dates between A.D. 690 and A.D. 970, earlier than suspected, making it even more rare, and its preservation even more remarkable. It has been confirmed that the contents of the basket are salt, although tests are still underway to try to determine the source...more

My guess is that after 12 centuries or so the tequila and limes were undetectable.  

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1111

Been thinking a lot of the industry stalwarts we've lost over the last several years.  This tune is in honor of them and all the guidance they provided me personally.

Sons of the Pioneers - He's Gone Up The Trail  Recorded in Chicago in January of 1941.

http://youtu.be/RpTIeY1n4-M

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Rainbow Family gathering costs U.S. Forest Service $573,000 overall

Despite making only two arrests at the Rainbow Family gathering near Jackson this summer, the U.S. Forest Service spent nearly $400,000 on law enforcement and more than $500,000 overall. Along with an expenditure of $395,540 for law enforcement, the Forest Service spent $177,821 on the administration side of managing the event. The total cost for the U.S. Forest Service relating to the Rainbow gathering was $573,361. The gathering near Saginaw Creek in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest about 10 miles southwest of Jackson drew about 10,000 people. It officially ran from June 21-July 7, but Rainbow members were in the area for about a month. About 20,000 Rainbow people had gathered at the same site in 2000. In an email to The Montana Standard, Tim Walther, assistant special agent in charge of law enforcement for the Forest Service, wrote that the size and complexity of the Rainbow gathering exceeded the capacity of local Forest Service law enforcement personnel. He said that officers had to be brought in from around the country, which increased over time, travel, and lodging expenses. He also said the Forest Service had to be prepared for a crowd much larger than the 10,000 people that came this year, based on the amount of people who attended the 2000 gathering...more

Reagan’s other battle: With environmental extremists!

In February 2011, Human Events recalled President Ronald Reagan’s top ten achievements, from winning the Cold War, through restoring the economy, revitalizing the Republican Party and the conservative movement, envisioning the Strategic Defense Initiative, to reforming taxes, and taking on the unions. One aspect of his presidency, however, was missing. Reagan biographer Paul Kengor labeled it, the “forgotten Reagan war—not with the Soviets but environmental extremists.”

Reagan’s bold approach to the Soviet Union (“[W]e win and they lose.”), “flabbergasted” Richard V. Allen, Reagan’s first National Security Adviser: “I’d worked for Nixon and Goldwater and many others, and I’d heard a lot about Kissinger’s policy of détente and about the need to ‘manage the Cold War,’ but never did I hear a leading politician put the goal so starkly.” Similarly, Reagan rejected calls by those who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations to continue what “environmental extremists”—Reagan’s term, as was “modern-day Luddites”—dubbed “a bi-partisan consensus on environmental issues.” Reagan knew much more was at stake than whether America developed the energy and mineral resources beneath the third of the country and the billion acres of Outer Continental Shelf owned by the federal government in order to restore the economy and resist Russian aggression.

A fervent conservationist and an environmentalist himself, Reagan believed in being a good steward, but above all, he believed in people, who are, as Reagan put it, “ecology too.” Reagan knew that, from its beginnings, the conservation movement held human beings at its center.  Whether the issue was the need to sustain humans by the wise use (conservation) of nature’s bounty, or the necessity to restore humans—emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually—by setting aside (preservation) a portion of God’s great creation, the focus was always on human beings.

In the 1960s and 1970s, to Reagan’s great dismay, environmental groups no longer put people at the center. For them, people were part of the biota, no greater and often worse than all other living things.  Not only was mankind on a par with the flora and the fauna, all the terrible things that had happened, were happening, and might happen were mankind’s fault.  In fact, the worst was yet to come because human beings had drained the world of its resources.  Unless they adapted to lives of government-managed scarcity and sacrifice, only pain and privation lay ahead. Mankind’s faith in ingenuity and belief in technology were infantile.  Even then, it might be futile!

Reagan would have none of this gloom and doom; he depicted the stark contrast between his vision of the future and that of President Jimmy Carter. Reagan adhered to what one social scientist called the “human exemptionalism paradigm,” in which “human technological ingenuity can continue infinitely to improve the human situation.” Carter and the environmental groups embraced a neo-Malthusian “ecological paradigm,” which posits environmental limits on economic growth. It was much more, however. Reagan saw a battle between two competing systems of government:  between big and powerful New Deal-style government run by progressives and technocrats, like Carter, and a limited government that emphasized individual and economic freedom.

By battling environmental extremists, Reagan deprived them of the aura of inevitability, invincibility, and infallibility with which they had been cloaked for over two decades. Environmentalists had become a high priesthood; they were the oracles elected officials approached with reverence and awe to obtain their approval. Reagan denied them their moral high ground. When they said they spoke for the planet and the needs of all living things not human, he responded that he spoke for the dream of the American people and for unborn generations to be free and prosperous. Reagan countered the radical environmental movement’s religious mysticism with his own deep religious faith, which insists on the preeminence of human life. With his sensible approach to natural resources and environmental policies, he exposed the childishness of radical environmentalists, who are incapable of being satisfied, always demand their own way, and, like the tyrants they are, never bring anything to the negotiating table—not even their good will or a sense of fair play. As one scholar expressed it, Reagan changed the debate on these issues from “an ecological/preservationist perspective to a human-centered/ development orientation.” That was a “revolutionary change.”

In a curious twist of history, what allowed environmental extremists to get their way after Reagan was the economic recovery for which he was responsible. Reagan’s successor could be “the environmental president,” another president could accede to every demand made by radical environmental groups, another could permit foreign policy concerns to distract his attention from domestic policy, and yet another could “go green” with no discernible harm to the economy or the American people.

Because America is today much as it was in 1980, Reagan’s common sense policies could not come soon enough.

Mr. Pendley, an attorney, is president of Mountain States Legal Foundation in Denver and author of Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle With Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today (Regnery, 2013).

26 Million Acres of Protected Critical Habitat Proposed for Canada Lynx in Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Washington and Wyoming

In response to two lawsuits, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has again proposed protected critical habitat for the Canada lynx. The proposed 26.6 million acres spread across six states expands a 2009 designation, including additional areas in northeastern Maine and northwestern Wyoming. “Like many animals, Canada lynx need quiet places free of disturbance from snowmobiles and other human activities to survive, so we’re thrilled the Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed expanding their critical habitat,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These unique cats need every acre of the critical habitat designated and more if they are to avoid extinction in the United States.”  The new designation responds to court challenges from the Wyoming and Washington State Snowmobile Associations and conservation groups. The snowmobilers had sought to nullify critical habitat, but instead the court ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to redo aspects of its economic analysis. Three conservation groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice and Conservation Northwest — intervened in that suit to ensure continued protection of lynx habitat. Separately, the Sierra Club and Alliance for the Wild Rockies challenged the designation for not encompassing a sufficient area. The rare wildcat’s population has been reduced by trapping and habitat loss, and critical habitat designation is essential to its survival and recovery. The designation requires that federal agencies ensure their actions will not adversely modify or destroy the lynx’s critical habitat, including by building and maintaining trails for snowmobilers. Today’s proposal would increase the 2009 designation, which included 24,960,000 acres, by a total of 1,630,000 acres, including the new areas in Maine and Wyoming. The Service, however, also said today it is considering excluding 1,225,600 acres on tribal, state and private lands based on management of these lands...more  

New Study Shows Steep Decline of Lesser Prairie Chicken Populations

Lesser prairie chicken population numbers dropped by more than 50 percent over the past year, according to a study released today. The finding raises questions about the adequacy of voluntary conservation measures proposed today for the rare grouse in a final rangewide conservation plan intended to preclude the need for Endangered Species Act protections. “Drought and habitat destruction are devastating the small remaining populations of this magnificent grassland bird,” said Jay Lininger with the Center for Biological Diversity.  “Voluntary measures are too little, too late, and will not get traction fast enough to prevent extinction. These vanishing birds need the protection that only the Endangered Species Act can provide if they’re going to survive.” The study, by Western EcoSystems Technology Inc. of Laramie, Wyo., estimates the total population size at 17,616 individuals in 2013, more than a 50 percent drop from the 2012 estimate of 34,440 birds. The study also estimated there to be 2,036 occupied breeding areas (known as leks) in 2013 — a decline of more than 30 percent from the 2012 estimate of 2,930 leks. Prairie chicken habitat has declined overall by as much as 92 percent, according to federal scientists, and threats from habitat loss and fragmentation will increase with proposed energy developments, agricultural conversions and other land uses anticipated under the new rangewide conservation plan. Only 71 patches of habitat as large as 25,000 acres — the area required for effective chicken strongholds — exist within the entire five-state occupied range. The conservation plan announced today sets a 10-year population goal of 67,000 prairie chickens range-wide. However, it would designate “focal areas” of habitat that are less than half the size required to maintain breeding populations. The total acreage of the focal areas is less than 35 percent of the bird’s currently occupied habitat and only 6 percent of the historical range of the species...more

Colorado pol unapologetic in hoping floods wiped out endangered mice

Larimer County Commissioner Steve Johnson was called out by a constituent for saying he hopes the recent devastating floods killed off an endangered species of mouse so that the mountainous task of rebuilding roads wiped out by raging waters would be unimpeded by governmental red tape. Johnson’s response to his constituent’s complaint? “No apologies.” The short-lived tiff is buried in more important matters in Johnson’s county email inbox, which is accessible to the public online. Amid notices of evacuation operations, reports about flooding damage and messages of support for the work of emergency personnel is an irate letter from constituent Connie Gray.  Gray wrote that she was “appalled” that Johnson made a flippant comment about some mice during a meeting held to assess damage to county roads. Recently flooding destroyed many canyon highways, leaving residents in mountainous communities stranded and cut off from critical supplies. During the meeting, county road engineers noted that the U.S. Forest Service had held up culvert improvements on one highway earlier in the year, demanding that the work be done in a way that wouldn’t be disruptive to some Preble’s Meadow jumping mice that lived in the vicinity. The mice are protected under the Endangered Species Act. “I hope all the mice drowned,” Johnson is quoted as saying in the Loveland Reporter Herald...more

9th Circuit Revisits Sea Lion 'Kill List'

Animal-rights groups urged the 9th Circuit on Friday to halt a plan to trap and kill California sea lions that feed on protected fish species near the Bonneville Dam, asking the court, "When does it end? When does the killing stop?" Ralph Henry, a lawyer with the Humane Society of the United States, said the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) had invoked a "narrow exception to kill sea lions," but could not point to the specific conditions needed for it to end. This is the second time the issue has been raised in the 9th Circuit; the same three judges on Friday's panel vacated a similar federal authorization three years ago.     Oregon, Washington and Idaho first asked the NMFS in 2006 for permission to "take" California sea lions that eat salmon and steelhead just below the dam, which acts as a bottleneck to fish migrating upstream in the Columbia River. The request was part of an effort to protect threatened or endangered populations of salmon and steelhead. But California sea lions are also protected. The Marine Mammals Protection Act bans the taking of all marine mammals, unless individual animals "are having a significant impact on the decline or recovery" of threatened or endangered species. Another species of sea lion, the Steller sea lion, also feeds at the dam but is off limits because it's protected by both the Marine Mammals Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. In 2008 the states were permitted to kill up to 85 California sea lions per year, but the 9th Circuit vacated that authorization in 2010. The federal appeals court said NMFS failed to explain why sea lions posed a greater threat to endangered fish than commercial fisheries and hydroelectric power plants...more

Genetic modification proposed to save endangered species

Genetic modification of animals so that they can deal with changing climate and habitats may be the only way to save some of the most endangered species from becoming extinct, according to biologists who want to start a debate on how to stem species loss.  Biologist Michael Thomas said conservationists needed to debate what he and his colleagues called “facilitated adaptation”, which involved rescuing populations or species by introducing gene variants that allow them to survive in changing temperatures or different ecological niches. “Even the most conservative estimates predict that 15–40% of living species will be effectively extinct by 2050 as a result of climate change, habitat loss and other consequences of human activities,” wrote Thomas, of Idaho State University in Pocatello, and his colleagues in a comment article for the journal Nature. This could happen in several ways. Animals from a threatened population could be hybridised with individuals from the same species that were better adapted to a new environment. Or, if scientists could identify the genes that made one population more suited to an environment than another, they could insert those genes directly into the less-suited populations or individuals. The most extreme (and most likely controversial) idea proposed by Thomas is to take genes from a well-adapted species and insert them into the genomes of endangered individuals from completely different species...more

New Agreement Will Speed Federal Protection for Boreal Toads

The Center for Biological Diversity reached a settlement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service late Monday giving the agency four years to consider Endangered Species Act protection for boreal toads in the southern Rocky Mountains, Utah, southern Idaho and northeastern Nevada. This unique population of toads is in steep decline due to a deadly fungal disease and habitat destruction.  “This agreement will move these boreal toads toward the protection they desperately need to avoid extinction,” said Center attorney and biologist Collette Adkins Giese. “In the southern Rockies boreal toads have been waiting nearly two decades for Endangered Species Act protection — protection that’s needed to address the drastic decline of these animals and the forces destroying their habitat.” Once common, boreal toads now exist in less than 1 percent of their historic breeding areas in the southern Rockies, where a globally occurring amphibian disease known as chytrid fungus has wiped out most remaining populations. The only remaining large population in the southern Rockies is in Colorado. Boreal toads have been nearly extirpated in southern Wyoming and were likely extirpated in New Mexico prior to a recent reintroduction effort...more

The exploits of Beartooth mountain man E.E. Van Dyke

Van Dyke was born during the Civil War, the youngest of four brothers in a Dutch-populated town along the west bank of the Hudson River. But his wanderings would take him far from that lush green environment into the Rocky Mountains and along the way etch his name in the early history of Cooke City, Yellowstone National Park and Red Lodge. In history, as in life, there are inconsistencies. According to his own hand-written biographical note on file in the Parmly Billings Library, Van Dyke made his way into Montana from Mandan, N.D., in 1880. But an account of Red Lodge’s history — “Red Lodge: Saga of a Western Area,” written by Shirley Zupan and Harry J. Owens — places him in Montana in 1876. Zupan and Owens’ account seems more likely. If so, he may have made it as far as North Dakota by train. In 1873 the Northern Pacific Railway had just arrived in Bismarck, N.D. To the south was Fort Abraham Lincoln, from which Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer would depart in 1876 to meet his demise at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Zupan and Owens say Van Dyke arrived in Gardiner by boating up the Yellowstone River. His handwritten account notes that he passed through Glendive, Miles City, Coulson (which would become Billings) and into what he called the Clarks Fork Mining District, now known as Cooke City.It was while working odd jobs in the Cooke City area that Van Dyke would first step into the history books. According to Zupan and Owens, Van Dyke hurried ahead of the Nez Perce Indians as they traveled through the country with the U.S. Cavalry in hot pursuit during their 1877 flight from Idaho to Canada. Van Dyke was able to warn the residents of Cooke City that the Indians were approaching so that they could move anything valuable and hide in the surrounding woods. The Nez Perce reportedly burned some of the mining structures in town. In 1883, Van Dyke’s father, a contractor named Earl, paid a visit to his son in Cooke City. Together they are said to have marked out the first trail from Cooke City over the Beartooth Mountains and down to Red Lodge. This was only about a year after the U.S. government had signed a treaty with the Crow Indians that allowed settlers to work the rich coal veins found in the Red Lodge area. The route over the Beartooths became known as the Van Dyke Trail. It would serve him well in future years as he ventured into the prospecting, hunting, trapping and guiding business in the region...more

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Electricity Becoming Third World Luxury In Green Germany

Electricity should flow like a river in developed nations. It's a basic good that ought to always be available in whatever quantities consumers will pay for. But in Germany, it's now something else: a luxury item.

This isn't failure of the market. It's a failure of the country's green energy agenda called Energiewende, or energy revolution or transformation.

Germany's goal is to end its reliance on nuclear energy by 2022. The plan is to replace the lost nuclear power with wind, solar and other renewables, and to have these sources provide 80% of the country's energy by 2050. So far, the effort has flopped.

"German consumers already pay the highest electricity prices in Europe," Der Spiegel reported earlier this month. "But because the government is failing to get the costs of its new energy policy under control, rising prices are already on the horizon. Electricity is becoming a luxury good in Germany, and one of the country's most important future-oriented projects is acutely at risk."

Talk about turning back the clock.

Der Spiegel reports that German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier is asking his countrymen to live as if they are trapped in a backward Third World economy that can't keep the lights on. He has put together a list of energy-saving tips that surely makes the average German think he's living in Uganda rather than Europe.
Sounding a lot like Jimmy Carter, Altmaier suggests consumers avoid preheating ovens, fuzz their television pictures (because poor picture quality requires less energy), cook with lids on the pots and live with refrigerators that don't keep perishable items quite so cool. Sounds like East Germany all over again.

Wild hogs terrorizing DeKalb County neighborhood (Are these the commie pigs?)

Tavares Dennis and his buddies went hog hunting Wednesday looking for a family of four hams on the lamb. "What we are trying to do is get the hogs rounded up in one area because they are spread out. If we can get them in a concentrated area we can bring the dogs in and we can catch the hogs," said Dennis. Wednesday morning a homeowner used their cell phone to record video of a hog eating dog food left in the front yard of a home. Dennis said he has just the right bait. "Right now we are going to mix a component of molasses, dog food and corn. We are going to dig holes so they can root up and get them saturated in one area and then we can release the dogs and our dogs won't be all over the neighborhood," Dennis said. Homeowners said the hogs have been terrorizing the area for weeks, going through people's trash and even charging kids. CBS Atlanta was there Wednesday when one of the animals showed up...more

Here's the CBS video report


NWS: Storms pushed NM out of 'extreme drought'

Much of New Mexico remains beset by drought, but the recent heavy rains brought some relief — especially in the driest areas. The National Weather Service said Tuesday that 75 percent of the state remains under moderate to severe drought conditions, and New Mexico is still behind a 36-month average for rain. "It' a lot better than where we were," said Shawn Bennett of the Weather Service in Albuquerque. Despite the persistent dry conditions, the record rains dramatically transformed the drought picture in New Mexico, particularly in areas that were experiencing "exceptional" drought — one the worst drought categories — before the monsoon season, Bennett said. According to maps from the U.S. Drought Monitor, all areas of exceptional drought and much of the extreme drought in the state disappeared from August to September. Those rains and changing drought conditions helped restore once-dry rivers and fill some reservoirs to capacity, said Raymond Abeyta of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. That should help farmers for next season, he said. Elephant Butte, the Rio Grande's largest water storage reservoir, for example, gained more than 50,000 acre feet of water in the storms. The reservoir holds 2 million acre feet of water and rose from 4.4 percent to 5.9 percent full. In fact, the Pecos River especially benefited from the storms, and the Carlsbad Irrigation District announced it was releasing water to Texas. Pecos reservoir storage for area farmers went from 11 percent full to 92 percent in less than two weeks. "It's amazing," Abeyta said. "Now we're trying to make room."...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1110

One of my Mom's favorites, Jimmie Davis - She Left A Runnin' Like A Sewing Machine.  Recorded in Charlotte on May 27, 1931 and released as Victor 23587. In the studio with him were Oscar Bergen Riley-g, Edward M. Quinn-g and Ed Schaffer-sg. Davis was twice elected Governor of Louisiana which is reflected in the last two photos.

Mom, did you ever think that almost 16 years later to the day that you would have such a handsome, intelligent, talented and loving son?

http://youtu.be/ACu3AKYr9WU

Capitalist pigs become Commie pigs - Smithfield shareholders OK sale to Chinese company

Shareholders of Smithfield Foods Inc. — parent company of Utah’s massive Circle Four Farms hog operation in Milford — approved on Tuesday a plan to sell the world’s largest pork producer and processor to a Chinese company. The Smithfield, Va.-based company said more than 96 percent of the votes cast during a special meeting in Richmond were in favor of Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd.’s $34 per share offer, or $4.72 billion in cash. The deal, which is expected to close Thursday, will be the largest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm, valued at about $7.1 billion including debt. Its sale to Hong Kong-based Shuanghui comes at a time of serious food safety problems in China, some of which have involved Shuanghui, which owns food and logistics enterprises and is the largest shareholder of China’s biggest meat processor. "We will cease to be the company you saw in the past," Smithfield’s CEO Larry Pope told shareholders. "This does not mean the company goes away, the company just enters into a new phase and a new era of its life."...more

Be careful, the next time you order a ham sandwich with mayo, you may get a sandwich and a picture of Mao Tse-tung.  

Will the National Pork Producers Council become the Hog Workers of the World? 

Will pork chops become pork chop chops?

When they say red chili and pork they will really mean red.

Personally, I don't think this will work.  Why?  Because the commies will limit the sows to one pig per litter.

My final comment is 上帝幫助我們   Curious?  Paste it in Google translate.


 

Don't Let the Endangered Species Act Destroy Our Economy

Radical environmentalists have used the Endangered Species Act (ESA) effectively for decades to push a far-leftwing agenda.  It has become one of the most destructive tools to infringe on private property rights.  The ESA has the power and authority to stall or completely stop businesses and industry from growing - power which they have used to the detriment of our local business.

You feel its impact everyday -- higher costs at the fuel pump, home utility bills, and even the price of groceries.   When business and industry don't grow, neither does the economy.  For citizens and taxpayers, the ESA has become a nightmare.

Radical groups such as Wild Earth Guardians, Earth Justice, and The Center for Biological Diversity are using the ESA to push their extreme agenda of limiting human activity in rural areas because we are a threat... to wolves.  

The federal government tried to introduce wolves into populated areas (where they don't belong) and have lost control of the population - all on the taxpayers' dime. 

But what can you do?  
 Register Now
Join us on Wednesday, October 2nd for a free lunch and screening of our documentary Wolves in Government Clothing, followed by a panel discussion on the consequences of misguided wolf policies, the ESA and why wolves don't belong in California.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service is holding a public comment hearing in Sacramento on the same evening.  Armed with the facts, we will attend the public hearing and take a stand against radical environmentalists who want to use the ESA to force wolves into our state.  For citizens and taxpayers the ESA has become a nightmare.  The ESA is locking up our land, and the government is locking up our lives.

Location: Clarion Inn & Conference Center 1401 Arden Way, Sacramento, CA, 95815
12:00-12:30pm Luncheon
12:30-1:30pm Film screening 'Wolves in Government Clothing'
1:30-3:00pm Panel: The Consequences of Artificial Wolf Introduction
3:00-4:00pm Panel: Reforming the Endangered Species Act 6:00-8:30pm
USFWS Hearing on Delisting of the Gray Wolf

If we don't control predators in government and the wild -- they will control us.
 Register Today!

HT: Liberty and Property Rights Coalition

Eagle vs Deer: Rare Images Caught on Camera

A camera trap in the forest of the Russian Far East captured rare and surprising images of a golden eagle attacking a young sika deer. Golden eagles are not known to attack deer, but the image of the bird latched on to the deer's back and bringing it down to the snowy ground is as clear as it is puzzling. The eagle's attack was successful, researchers later found the deer's carcass a few yards away from the camera trap. "I've been assessing deer causes of death in Russia for 18 years -- this is the first time I've seen anything like this," said Linda Kerley of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), who found the images so compelling that she co-authored a paper on the attack in the Journal of Raptor Research. But Jonathan Slaght of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Kerely's study co-author, said golden eagles have a well-documented history of eyebrow-raising predation attempts. "The scientific literature is full of references to golden eagle attacks on different animals from around the world, from things as small as rabbits -- their regular prey -- to coyote and deer, and even one record in 2004 of an eagle taking a brown bear cub," Slaght said...more

In a series of three images over the course of just seconds, a camera trap in the Russian Far East photographed a golden eagle attacking a sika deer.
(Photo:Linda Kerley, Zoological Society of London (ZSL))

(Photo:Linda Kerley, Zoological Society of London (ZSL))

(Photo:Linda Kerley, Zoological Society of London (ZSL))

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

NMSU men’s rodeo takes first place in fall season opener, ranked first in region



The New Mexico State University rodeo team started the fall 2013 season off strong when the men’s team took home numerous individual wins. The men’s team also placed first in the region, after the season opener held in Tsaile, Ariz.

“NMSU Rodeo did well all around, bringing home multiple championships,” said Jim Brown, NMSU rodeo coach. “I am pleased with this year’s team and feel we will be at the top of our game in many events.”

During the two-day rodeo, NMSU held top spots in bareback riding, breakaway roping, tie-down roping, saddlebroncs, steer wrestling, bull riding, barrel racing and team roping.

The men did well both days in bareback riding; Trenten Montero took home first place overall. Justin Harrell took first and second place in saddlebroncs over the weekend.

In steer wrestling, Tyke Kipp took first place and Ethan Shelley took third on the first day and on the second day, Shelley took first and Colt Capurro took home second. Shelley took home first place overall.

The men also did well in team roping, Cody Mirabal and Reno Eddy both took second place and on the second day Pacen Marez and Trey Blackmore took first, Omar Ramirez and Ty Anderson took home second. Marez and Blackmore ranked second overall.

Other wins for the men include Channing Moore who place fourth overall in bull riding, and Ty Anderson who took second overall in tie-down roping.

The women also did well over the weekend and held all the top spots in breakaway. Bailey Bates took first, Brandi Pfeifer took second and Nicole Sweazea took third and forth on the first day. Olivia Train took home first place on the second day and ranked third overall. Jenna Suazo placed third in barrel racing on the first day.

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1109

Flatt & Scruggs - Pain In My Heart  Recorded in Tampa on October 20, 1950 and released in 1951 as Mercury 6317.  Lester Flatt vocals & guitar, Earl Scruggs banjo, Benny Sims fiddle, Jody Rainwater base and Curley Seckler vocals and mandolin.


http://youtu.be/meazeajPSP0

Recent rain helps NM cattle ranchers

The state has seen the damage and destruction left by recent flooding. Now, a rancher shows how parts of New Mexico are seeing greener pastures that are ultimately helping businesses. Just a few months ago, News 13 reported how the devastating drought was hurting local ranchers and farmers, but things are looking up. It's a sight New Mexico ranchers haven't seen in a while: Cattle grazing in green pastures. The landscape is drastically different than just a few months ago. "You don't ever want to cuss the rain, I mean, you know everybody prayed for rain and we got it, so you don't want to be knocking down the rain cause we can dang sure use it," said Martin Abeita, Comanche Ranch Manager. Abeita says although recent downpours washed out roads at his ranch in Socorro and Valencia counties, his cattle lived through it and they're now reaping the benefits. "The whole ranch has done tremendously well under this rainfall that we've had," said Abeita. "Things are really looking up for us as far as our feed here. We've had to supplement all the way up until July." Back in May, hundreds of cattle, much more than usual, were being sold off at auction in Belen. Many of them were very thin and young...more

The KASA video report is here.

Petition: Let NM Manage Our Own Lands!

Let NM Manage Our Own Lands

Please sign our petition and stop the mismanagement of New Mexico's beautiful lands by the federal government! New Mexico should manage our own lands and keep all the royalties generated by them. Right now, Uncle Sam holds title to 40% of the land mass of our state and we receive less than half of the $1 billion in royalties they generate. It's money that can improve education, create jobs and keep New Mexicans in charge of our own economic destiny! Let's get it back!

You can sign the American's for Prosperity petition by going here.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Goat thief uses duct tape to keep'em quiet; $10,000 worth of goats stolen

More than 20 goats were stolen from a Hawaii farm, and the owner says the thieves used duct tape to keep the animals from making noise. KHON-TV reports the 23 purebred goats were taken from a farm in Kahuku, on Oahu's North Shore, sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning. Keal Pontin says the thieves left behind other goats at his family's farm with ropes around their necks and duct tape over their muzzles. Pontin says the experience likely was traumatic for the friendly animals. The theft included both bucks and pregnant nannies due to give birth this week. The missing goats are valued at about $10,000. Police are investigating, and the farm is offering a reward for information leading to the goats' return or the arrest of the thieves. AP

EPA Admits Greenhouse Gas Rule Will Do Little to Curb Emissions

EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas emission regulation on new power plants will have a “negligible” environmental effect according to the agency’s own analysis.
Case Western Reserve Law School professor Jonathan Adler found this paragraph tucked away in EPA’s Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) [emphasis mine]:
The EPA anticipates that the proposed EGU New Source GHG Standards will result in negligible CO2 emission changes, energy impacts, quantified benefits, costs, and economic impacts by 2022. Accordingly, the EPA also does not anticipate this rule will have any impacts on the price of electricity, employment or labor markets, or the US economy.
Yet EPA administrator Gina McCarthy touts this rule as an “important step” to fight “carbon pollution.”
If this proposed regulation will have little effect, why press for it? The answer is because it will improve the prospects of Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) technology, according to EPA.
Wait, didn’t EPA administrator McCarthy tell the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week that CCS is already “feasible.” She has more confidence in the technology than her agency. The RIA states that because “CCS technologies have had limited application to date,” the proposed regulation would “incentivize innovation” leading to performance improvement and cost reductions...more

Another reason to support shutdown - Government Shutdown Would Paralyze The EPA, Administrator Says

Unless lawmakers reach a resolution to stop a government shutdown before next week, the Environmental Protection Agency will have to cut down to a skeleton crew, the agency's chief said Monday. "It will mean that EPA effectively shuts down, with only the core group of individuals who are there in case of an emergency," said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy at a breakfast event with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. "If there's no budget, EPA can't pay employees. So the vast majority of people at EPA won't be working." The agency employs 17,000 individuals. McCarthy said the agency devised plans for how to deal with a shutdown the last time it was an imminent threat, in 2011...more