The Westerner

Mexican wolf encounters on the increase

2012-01-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

Earlier today I posted Crystal Diamond's account and pictures of her wolf encounter.

Laura Schneberger at Wolf Crossing has an excellent piece on this and other wolf encounters. Here are some excerpts:

With the onset of the 2012 breeding season sightings, close encounters and home encounters have created a difficult situation for managers of the Mexican wolf program and they are not getting much slack from local governments and citizens. In December the program issued it’s first lethal control order after a female wolf with a long track record of livestock depredations and human habitation was found circling a private home at regular intervals where small children were exposed to her close presence. The same wolf had birthed a litter of hybrid pups the prior spring and FWS are still on the lookout for the one Mexican wolf hybrid that got away. They haven’t found it presumably it will add to the genetic mix that is the rare Mexican wolf. The remarkable thing about this control action is the fact that despite dozens of human safety encounters since the beginning of the program many of which involved their attraction to children, this was the first time the agency admitted lethal control was warranted for human safety reasons...

Crystal Diamond has suffered an unbelievable amount of slander in the local news media simply because she is in proximity of the expanding Mexican wolf population. The activists who have repeatedly attempted to destroy her credibility and reputation have deliberately avoided the factual reports on the situation that are available to them. Instead they choose to blame and attack a mom over the death of a problem habituated aggressive wolf. The message is that this wolf was special, this wolf was presumably more special than Crystal’s small children and their safety and their freedom to exercise their rights on their own land at at their own home. This wolf is not special. Genetically this wolf was redundant to the population of Mexican wolves, which include over 400 in captivity...

Crystal’s Wolf Encounter

2012-01-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday January 28, 2012

I was traveling east on Hwy 59 with my 2 young daughters in the car when my oldest, who frequently gets carsick, demanded a quick roadside stop. I pulled over just east of Poverty Creek and removed her from the vehicle. We walked around for several minutes so Cayden could get some fresh air after being sick on the shoulder of the road. The drivers door and back door were wide open. My 2 year old daughter, Reece, remained in the car crying hysterically to be removed from her car seat. After about a 5-6 minute stop, I loaded Cayden back in the car. I then walked around the back of the vehicle & towards my door when I saw a wolf standing in the middle of the road within 20 feet of my open car door. I ran to jump in my car & shut the door. The wolf, who had been standing still then walked up to the drivers side of my vehicle and stood a moment. Reece was still crying loudly. Using the camera feature on my phone I was able to capture several photos of the fearless behavior of this uncollared wolf. He'd pace in front of my vehicle from one side to the other, again and again. After watching each other for about 6-7 long minutes, the wolf seemed to tire of us and began to trot off to the south. As soon as I'd put the car in gear & move forward a few feet- it would quickly stop & curiously trot back to the car (the 2nd time he walked off, noticed movement, then returns to the road was captured on video recording). The standoff had now lasted roughly 12-15 minutes. Needing to get on my way, I slowly drove off. Leaving him sitting on the roadside shoulder, exactly where my 3 year old daughter had been sick just minutes before. This is the 2nd time in just over one month that a wolf has come within feet of my children.

Crystal Runyan Diamond
Beaverhead Ranch

Look at the size of that wolf!

Slow going for Mexican gray wolf recovery

2012-01-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

The Mexican gray wolf population in the Southwest is hanging on, but continues to struggle partly because not enough wolves are being released from captivity, according to conservation advocates who would like to see federal biologists do more to recover the species. For the first time since 2006, the overall population grew, from 42 to 50. The government did not remove any wolves from the wild in 2010, but released just one wolf, captured in 2009, back into the wild. Mexican wolves, the smallest genetically distinct subspecies of the North American gray wolf, were eradicated from their native territory in in the U.S. by 1970. Recovery efforts started with an endangered species listing in 1976. The species was saved from extinction when the last five wild wolves were captured in Mexico to start a captive breeding program. The first captive-bred wolves were released back into the wild in 1998. The wolf population in the Southwest is designated as experimental and nonessential, which give wildlife managers more flexibility to address livestock depredations. According to the 2010 annual report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the 2010 end-of-year count confirmed 23 radio-collared wolves (16 adults, 4 subadults, and 3 pups). The population consisted of 10 packs (4 in Arizona, 6 in New Mexico). Twenty-seven uncollared wolves, including uncollared singles and groups, were documented throughout 2010. Seven packs produced wild-conceived, wild-born litters. This is the ninth consecutive year wild- born Mexican wolves bred and raised pups in the wild. According to the agency, 91 percent of the radio-collared individuals and 96 percent of all documented wolves were wild-born...more

New diet may keep wolves off cattle

2012-01-30T11:52:00.000-07:00

Wildlife managers are running out of options when it comes to helping Mexican gray wolves overcome hurdles that have thwarted reintroduction into their historic range in the Southwest. Harassment and rubber bullets haven't worked, so they're trying something new — a food therapy that has the potential to make the wolves queasy enough to never want anything to do with cattle again. As in people, the memories associated with eating a bad meal are rooted in the brain stem, triggered any time associated sights and smells pulse their way through the nervous system. Wildlife managers are trying to tap into that physiological response in the wolves, hoping that feeding them beef laced with an odorless and tasteless medication will make them ill enough to kill their appetite for livestock. Cattle depredations throughout southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona have served as an Achilles' heel for the federal government's efforts to return the wolves. Conditioned taste aversion — the technical term for what amounts to a simple reaction — is not a silver bullet for boosting the recovery of the Mexican wolf, but some biologists see it as one of few options remaining for getting the program back on track after nearly 14 years of stumbling...more

Wolves: The view from the ranch

2012-01-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

The protection of Oregon's heritage could perhaps be one of the best descriptions of those who are working in the Oregon livestock industry. Day after day, ranchers are working out on the land, raising their animals to produce a quality project. Preserving the land is part of that work – as the land is their livelihood. Not unlike it was for the first settlers in this state. Conservation, sustainability and protection of the land and the wildlife that count on it for food and water have been constant values for Oregon ranchers. When we look at issues that can have a significant impact on the makeup of our economy, our environment, even our way of life, it is important for Oregonians to consider the spirit that has driven this state. We understand that the best ideas for a problem come from those who are most involved. Local solutions that come from the individuals who best understand the many facets of a community, an area, or region can result in reasonable, fair and effective answers to some of our most difficult issues we face daily. Since the re-introduction of the Canadian Gray Wolf in the US, there has been millions spent to define management practices at the state and local levels. Yet, with all of that investment, we have not realized solutions that can provide responsible, professional, science-based management of the wolf population. The population of wolves overall has risen far beyond the levels that were planned for – and lack of locally based management plans have caused conflict and unnecessary spending of landowner, state and federal dollars – all over the United States...more

Great Lakes: Wolves no longer on protected list

2012-01-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

It became official on Friday — gray wolves are no longer protected under the Endangered Species Act and returned to management of the Great Lakes states. Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, announced Friday morning that gray wolf populations in the Great Lakes region have recovered and that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) would publish a final rule in the Federal Register. It will remove wolves in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and in portions of adjoining states from the list of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants...more

Fierce sheepdogs raise worries

2012-01-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

Turkish sheepdogs prized for their fierceness are raising concerns that they may be a little too tough for the southwest Colorado communities where ranchers are using them. The Akbash dogs weigh up to 120 pounds and are especially aggressive toward animals near the sheep they guard. That can include hikers and backcountry visitors — and some people are concerned that they are scaring away tourists. "We've had a lot of heat over these dogs," said Mayor Terry Kerwin. Hikers and bicyclists in the Little Molas Lake area have reported that the sheepdogs intimidate them. The dogs snarl and, according to some reports, chase them. A number of ranchers graze sheep, under guard of herders and dogs, on public lands in the summer and fall. "We cut our loss to predators by 60 to 70 percent when we introduced dogs," said Republican state Rep. J. Paul Brown of Ignacio. He said he has been around sheep for 40 years. AP

Ranch to rope rays for solar power

2012-01-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

A new solar project on the Bar VK Ranch, south of Silver City, will save rancher Gerald "Billy" Billings, $130 a month, plus gives him an additional $130 a month for the electricity it produces. With the help of funding from USDA Rural Development, Billings had a 42-panel solar panel array built that produces enough electricity to run a submersible pump that supplies water to roughly 18 stock tanks to help water his 200 head of cattle, plus the deer and antelope that wander across the ranch, and helps irrigate trees on the ranch. The project cost $60,522, but Bar VK received a $15,130 grant from the Rural Energy for America Program to help offset the cost, plus Billings said he received a 30 percent grant from the IRS, and will receive an additional 10 percent tax credit from the state. Add that to the rebates Billings gets from PNM by selling back extra power to them, and the project is expected to pay for itself in five years. "It still sounds too good to be true," Billings said Friday...more

California adopts “clean car” rules

2012-01-30T11:45:00.000-07:00

California air regulators passed sweeping emission standards Friday that will require one in seven of the new cars sold in the state in 2025 be an electric or other zero-emission vehicle. The policy adopted unanimously by the California Air Resources Board mandates a 75 percent reduction in smog-forming pollutants by 2025, and a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from today’s standards. Supporters said there are health and global political implications with the new policy. The action was a clear effort to influence other states and Washington as automakers worked with the board and federal regulators on the greenhouse gas rules in an effort to create one national standard for those pollutants. Companies including Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC, General Motors Co., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. and others submitted testimony Thursday in support of the new standards. Car dealers, however, expressed concern that the state is overestimating the demand for such vehicles...more

A bankrupt state doing its part to bankrupt the nation.

A big bet on electric vehicle manufacturing goes bust

2012-01-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

For politicians betting on electric vehicles to drive job growth, the view from inside Think City's plant here is their worst nightmare: 100 unfinished vehicles lined up with no word on whether they will be completed. Only two years ago, the tiny Think cars (two can fit in a regular parking space) were expected to bring more than 400 jobs to this ailing city and a lifeline to suppliers who once made parts for gas-guzzling recreational vehicles. "We've said we're out to make Indiana the electric vehicle state. It's beginning to look like the state capital will be Elkhart County," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in January 2010 in announcing government incentives used to attract Think to his state. Instead, the Hoosier State's big bet has been a bust. The plant is devoid of activity; there are just two employees. A Russian investor who recently purchased Think's bankrupt parent in Norway has been silent about its future. A government-backed Indianapolis battery maker that was to supply Think wrote off a $73-million investment in the car company and Thursday declared bankruptcy. Two unrelated electric truck makers Indiana planned to nurture have yet to get off the ground...more

Drought Crisis Leads To Increased Hay Prices

2012-01-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

Cerillos Horse Shelter Sees More Horses Abandoned By Owners Wildfires and drought are to blame for regional hay prices skyrocketing, and it's leaving many horse owners in crisis mode as they said they struggle to feed their animals. "When you're feeding animals and the cost of feed goes up, starvation increases dramatically," said Jennifer Rios, the Horse Shelter's executive director. Rios said some owners are doing the unthinkable and abandoning their horses altogether. "Too often, (owners) are opening the gate -- and that means abandoned horses across the state," Rios said. It takes $50,000 a year to feed dozens of horses at the Horse Shelter in Cerillos, and Rios said because the cost of hay has almost doubled, it left more animals in need. Last year, the price of a hay bale ran about $7, now Rios said it's almost $12. "It's going to get worse before it gets better," Rios said. The challenge with the hay crisis is a horse like Isabow eats about a third of a bale per day, and with the increase, Rios said that's about a $100 a month. Rios said the impact of the hay situation isn't just impacting horses, it's also affecting cattle ranchers...more

Yosemite plan means fewer hikers on Half Dome

2012-01-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

There was a time not long ago when a climb to the top of Yosemite National Park's Half Dome was a solitary trek attempted by only the most daring adventurers. Over the past decade, however, the route has been inundated with up to 1,200 nature lovers a day seeking to experience the iconic mountain that is stamped on the California quarter, stitched on a line of outdoor clothing and painted on the side of the park's vehicles. Now officials want to permanently limit access to the granite monolith, frustrating both hikers who journey there for a transcendent experience and advocates who say the plan doesn't go far enough to protect a place in a federally designated wilderness area. "At the end of the day, if the visitors and users of wilderness aren't willing to make sacrifices to preserve the wilderness character of these areas, then we just won't have wilderness. We'll have some Disney-fied version of it," said George Nickas, executive director of Wilderness Watch. "If people want solitude in Yosemite, there's another 12,000 square miles to do that," counters hiker Pat Townsley, a Bay Area resident who has been to the top nine times...more

House Republican Says ‘Three Is A Trend’ in Another Stimulus-Funded Green Company Bankruptcy

2012-01-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

The third federally subsidized green energy company to declare bankruptcy seems to indicate a pattern, said Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. “One bankruptcy may be a fluke, two could be coincidence, but three is a trend,” Stearns said in a written statement. “Our investigation continues, and we are working to ensure taxpayers never are never again stuck paying hundreds of millions of dollars because of the administration’s risky bets.” Ener1, which makes batteries for electric vehicles, announced Thursday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company had been awarded a $118.5 million from the Energy Department through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus...more

The great northern migration -- of U.S. cattle

2012-01-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

For more than a century, through a dozen dry spells when lakes disappeared and the land died, thousands of cows from the Swenson Land & Cattle Co have roamed the fields of Texas. Yet the drought currently ravaging the southern Plains has done what the Dust Bowl could not: chased them off this land and driven them more than 600 miles north to Nebraska. Now, as the worst drought in a century stretches into its second year, these ranchers and many of their peers are herding their animals in record numbers to the Cornhusker State and other points north, in search of grazing land that is not parched - a shift that is fueling a dramatic economic and cultural reshaping of the U.S. livestock industry. "If we're going to survive, we have to go north," says Dennis Braden, general manager of Swenson Land & Cattle Co in Stamford, Texas, about 170 miles west of Dallas. "We have to go." While some Texas ranchers hang on, selling off their stock at an unprecedented pace that has reduced America's cattle herd to the smallest in 60 years, many are carving new homesteads out of some of the richest grassland in North America, a bid for survival that falls somewhere between surrender and hope...more

Arizona history: The Hashknife outfit, from rogues to riders

2012-01-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

The Hashknife cowboys actually worked for the Aztec Land and Cattle Co., a New York investment firm. They rode the high desert of northern Arizona when most of the region was untamed, and they became a wellspring of tall tales. Peel back the veneer of violence, cattle rustling and range disputes, and in many cases the real villains were drought, falling cattle prices and a convoluted public-lands policy. The initial Aztec shareholders didn't know a lot about the cattle business. But livestock was considered a good investment in 1884, the year the company formed, Robert Carlock writes in his 1994 book, "The Hashknife." One board member, Edward Kinsley, had seen Arizona from the window of a train, state historian Marshall Trimble said. "As he looked out, there was virgin grass out there," Trimble said. "The grass was stirrup high, and he thought you could feed half the nation on the grass that was growing here." Aztec bought 1 million acres at 50 cents an acre from the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, which had acquired the land as a gift from Congress. To promote investment, the government gave railroads 40 sections of public land for every mile of track they laid. A section is 640 acres. "On paper, the Atlantic and Pacific became the largest private landowner in Arizona history," Thomas Sheridan writes in "Arizona, a History." Once Aztec had its land, it bought about 32,000 head from Continental Land & Cattle Co., a Texas outfit that marked its cattle with a brand that resembled the type of knife cowboy cooks used to cut vegetables -- the hash knife...more

DuBois Honored by the Western Swing Guild

2012-01-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you wonder if anybody notices what you're trying to do. Well, in this case somebody did.

Thank you to The Western Swing Guild. You can check out their website here and while you're there sign up for their newsletter. You Facebookers can find them here.

Song Of The Day #761

2012-01-30T10:44:00.001-07:00

It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio and here is Bill Boyd & His Cowboy Ramblers with their recording of Thousand Mile Blues.

The tune was recorded on Jan. 27, 1935 in San Antonio, Texas. The artists on the recording are: Bill Boyd, vocals and guitar; Walter Kirkes, banjo; Jim Boyd, vocals and base; Audrey Davis, fiddle; and Slomie Creel, piano.

Thanks again to the Western Swing Guild and needless to say, this will be a Western Swing Week at Ranch Radio.

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

2012-01-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

Jack-of-all-trades, master of none

by Julie Carter

You’ve known a few. You might even be one. One of those guys who can do a whole lot of things with a little skill, but not any one thing that has put your name up in lights or made you hit the Fortune 500 list.

It’s more or less a general rule that most ranch cowboys today, out of necessity, are fairly capable with a hammer and saw, and a horseshoeing rasp.

When some mechanic skills are required, he can operate a crescent wrench, pliers, and maybe even figure the right sequence for a socket set. The proverbial jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

And while there seems to still be a good number of cowboys around, those that get to make their living at that trade are fewer and fewer.

Ole “Jack” makes the rent by being a housing contractor. Actually, he sort of makes the rent and is sort of a contractor.

Here a while back, he accepted a week-long job down in the deep tick-picking pine tree part of East Texas.

He was scheduled to be there on a Sunday evening to attend a mandated government safety meeting prior to the project start up. Jack, like most contractors in the trades, is totally incapable of referring to the men from OSHA without calling them those “safety ________s”. [expletive deleted]

Keeping his priorities in line, he spent all Sunday morning until sometime past noon at a roping plying his skills with that tool of choice. Afterward, he still had to drive the two and half hours back home, drop off his rig and horses and pick up his crew.

After everyone and everything was in its place, he and the crew proceeded to make the four-hour drive to the project, arriving about ten minutes before the safety meeting started.

Sure didn’t want to get there too early. It’s not like this isn’t something the entire lot of them didn’t need.

A few months prior, one of the hands had fallen off the roof while working on a house. That tumble resulted in a broken ankle.

Another one of these handy guys was taking apart a two-story scaffolding after a job finished up so that he could load the sections onto a trailer. However, he began his dismantling project on the ground level section.

After they had fished him out from underneath all of the scaffolding pieces that came crashing down on him after the top section lost its foundational pieces, they dusted him off and of course, asked the obvious.

“What in the tarnation [expletive substituted] were you doing?”

His sincere reply indicated that he felt it was too high up there to be taking it apart from the top. Hopefully this topic would be covered in the meeting. This is where you say, “You can’t fix stupid.”

Jack, however, is not a whole lot better in the safety department. Just last week he karate chopped a piece of tin, and was sporting some fresh skin glue that was holding his finger together.

Fortunately, the job startup had been postponed because of the delayed arrival of some equipment, buying Jack some healing time.

That OHSA dude was going to earn his pay on this one.

Julie can be reach for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com

Landscape of Change

2012-01-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

Dearth of Journalism

Landscape of Change

The Protection of the Innocent

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

The border conflict that has arisen has proven to be a very divisive affair. The process has played out across a wide swath of territory, but the stewards of truth, the Press, have been missing in action in their responsibility to extract the truth.

Except for the last two years of the conflict, most American media failed to engage in substantive reporting. Even when Obama traveled to El Paso last year and gave the speech at the Chamizal criticizing those who refused to accept his administration’s position that the border was safer now than a generation ago, the prevailing message was repeated. ‘Those who claim the border is a dangerous place are simply fear mongers and have a political motive’.

The irony of the moment was that directly behind the president was Juarez where 110,000 homes stand vacant and fully 40% of the businesses are gone. Only FOX and the internet sources of news consistently rejected the rhetoric and pressed for a more accurate assessment of the problem.

The Pulitzer lost

At the 2010 Apache (Arizona) public meeting hosted by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a dozen news outlets were present. Reporters prowled the grounds talking to a few people.

The reason the meeting was called, the horrific incident that took rancher Rob Krentz’ life, remains a complex international affair that seems to have little hope for resolution. From the view of locals, little to nothing came from the event, and, in fact, even the much ballyhooed Forward Operating Base (FOB) so much in the discussion is now set to be built where the local effort objected.

The Krentz affair has become a microcosm of the border problem. From every viewpoint, it appears the American public, who has duties, responsibilities, and investments on the border, are nothing more than a necessary evil of which the federal government must contend.

The truth, though, continues to be revealed. A civil conflict approaching the scope of Viet Nam rages. Even the whites of Mexican President Calderon’s eyes are starting to show as he grasps the fact that the cartel power will substantively impact his country’s upcoming elections.

A huge, international story has been neglected and minimized. A valid, significant Pulitzer prize … has been missed.

Ugly American Actions

Without surprise, it has been revealed the DOJ will not stand by the letter of insistence of its absence of knowledge in the Fast and Furious Debacle, the unfathomable scheme allowing military weaponry to be smuggled into Mexican cartel hands.

The report comes on the heels of the growing awareness of a parallel deal run by the same bureaucrats who appear to have supported and co-opted the laundering of cartel monies. Of course, the feds are denying any such complicity, but such denial is growing wearisome.

Their track record has simply become too checkered to be taken seriously. Americans who stand in the hail of the border storm have long lost any expectation the federal actions will be structured on the behalf of their well being. On the contrary, there always seems to be a political agenda that takes precedence.

The Realizations

The absence of responsible press assistance can be arrayed with clarity in several 2011 developments. The most horrendous will be the lip service given to the plight of innocent Mexicans who have been the victims of the drug war. Those stories will find their way into the outlets on starts and stops, but will likely not get too much play until the human and animal right activists develop a profitable niche for their nonprofit activities. The press will then likely find cause to press the stories of the cartel war atrocities on a regular and expanding basis.

It is interesting to array the events that were revealed and developed by Americans who face the border without a safety net. A recent example was the GAO disclosure of the Arizona wildfires started by illegals. The truth of that matter was known from the onset by local citizens.

Even the Forest Service initially verified the facts, but the matter was discounted and then muzzled by the State Department who determined international relations were more important than truth. Americans who knew the truth were rewarded by suggestions they were spreading unfair accusations.

The death of Brian Terry prompted the ultimate disclosure of Fast and Furious, but it was American gun store owners who began to worry about their own well being that opened the door to reveal the truth. Thank goodness, civil servants within ATF came forward and verified the facts. The whole world now knows of the federal actions that were denied with resolute vigor. Like the truth of the fires, those denials have been disclosed for what they were.

The expansion of the drug war, though, is being dissected into even more incremental revelations. Perhaps the most significant part of the puzzle has been the disclosure of those conditions that allowed the development of the trade routes that allowed the delivery of drugs and human contraband into the United States.

Citizen versus State created Ethos

The smuggling corridors are central to the entire conflict. Without those trade routes, the drug business would not have grown into the dangerous industry it is. It wasn’t the government who revealed what and why such smuggling routes were so detrimental to the security of the nation. It was New Mexicans at risk who methodically attempted to describe reasonable logic to sway Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to modify his legislative insistence for more border wilderness.

Private Americans finally described the characteristics of the corridors that allowed for expansion and control of the smuggling trade. It was from their work that each and every non-urban corridor can now be described and predicted. It wasn’t their senator who had the moral obligation to ensure their safety and limit any likelihood that their stance was legitimate.

Likewise, it wasn’t the prevailing press, and a huge question must be asked. What is the structural evolution in the science of journalism that has occurred to create a separate value system, a distinct set of standards, and a common belief system that is dismissive of individual sovereignty?

The problem is Universal

The same question is being asked around the world. In the UK, the BBC is finally being taken to task by a number of respected authorities. Their disenchantment on the reliability of that press is being built around the absence of objectivity surrounding the ‘Race to all things Green’, but their most basic question is legitimate, timely, and universal.

“If we believe in a free country and a free press, why do we have a state (and politically driven and sponsored) broadcasting system?”

We are asking the same question.

The collective reporting on the drug war in Mexico and the implications of its expansion by border smuggling corridors on the American border is a moral and journalistic failure. It is a contradiction of words over actions and philosophy rather than objectivity. Until the last two years, it had been a regional skirmish of inconvenience. It had been controlled and manipulated by voices that had nothing to lose.

Journalistic Science

Scientific journalist, David Whitehouse, is one of the voices starting to rise above the tide. In recent writings, he has started asking his colleagues where the moral authority in their work has gone. He is saying things that make sense to those of us who have started bypassing the traditional source of news because we have lost confidence in it.

“Science journalism is not about taking sides,” Mr. Whitehouse remarks. “It’s about asking serious questions and acting as a legitimate proxy to those who cannot ask the questions.”

Good journalism must ferret out and reveal the true measure of the evidence. It cannot simply defer to the guidance of prevailing movements.

“Least of all,” Whitehouse concludes, “can they (journalist of public trust) look to movements for guidance any more than a teacher should ask a first grader how she should be taught to read.”

The War

Meanwhile, the war in Mexico rages. It rages because the drug cartels continue to grow their business through lucrative trade routes that are protected and expanded by the actions of our government . . . actions that have been implicitly sanctioned and condoned by the press.

The real problem now facing this country is what to do with Mexico. That government cannot fix itself. If the cartels are successful in swaying their 2012 elections, the problem is no longer a police action. It is what unprotected Americans on our border have been saying . . . it is past time to seek impartiality and make sure the border is protected . . . the principles of journalism and science have betrayed us for too long.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Border Americans are learning a great lesson. If they cannot trust their leaders . . . they must trust themselves.”

The Pipeline to Nowhere

2012-01-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

From the recent decision to block construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline to Solyndra-like 'green energy' initiatives, CFIF"s Renee Giachino discusses the Obama Administration"s failed energy policies.

Climategate 2.0: New E-Mails Rock The Global Warming Debate

2012-01-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

A new batch of 5,000 emails among scientists central to the assertion that humans are causing a global warming crisis were anonymously released to the public yesterday, igniting a new firestorm of controversy nearly two years to the day after similar emails ignited the Climategate scandal. Three themes are emerging from the newly released emails: (1) prominent scientists central to the global warming debate are taking measures to conceal rather than disseminate underlying data and discussions; (2) these scientists view global warming as a political “cause” rather than a balanced scientific inquiry and (3) many of these scientists frankly admit to each other that much of the science is weak and dependent on deliberate manipulation of facts and data. Regarding scientific transparency, a defining characteristic of science is the open sharing of scientific data, theories and procedures so that independent parties, and especially skeptics of a particular theory or hypothesis, can replicate and validate asserted experiments or observations. Emails between Climategate scientists, however, show a concerted effort to hide rather than disseminate underlying evidence and procedures. The new emails also reveal the scientists’ attempts to politicize the debate and advance predetermined outcomes. “The trick may be to decide on the main message and use that to guid[e] what’s included and what is left out” of IPCC reports, writes Jonathan Overpeck, coordinating lead author for the IPCC’s most recent climate assessment. “I have been talking w/ folks in the states about finding an investigative journalist to investigate and expose” skeptical scientist Steve McIntyre, Mann writes in another newly released email...more

Energy Tax Breaks Proposed, Despite Waning Support for Subsidies

2012-01-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

Assisted by technological innovation and years of subsidies, the cost of wind and solar power has fallen sharply — so much so that the two industries say that they can sometimes deliver cleaner electricity at prices competitive with power made from fossil fuels. At the same time, wind and solar companies are telling Congress that they cannot be truly competitive and keep creating jobs without a few more years of government support. Their efforts received a boost on Thursday from President Obama, who called for a package of tax credits for renewable power as part of a broader energy plan that he outlined while on a campaign swing through Nevada and Colorado. But the lobbying by the wind and solar industries comes at a time when there is little enthusiasm for alternative-energy subsidies in Washington. Overall concerns about the deficit are making lawmakers more skeptical about any new tax breaks for business in general. And taxpayer losses of more than half a billion dollars on Solyndra, a bankrupt maker of solar modules that defaulted on a federal loan, has tarnished the image of renewable power in particular...more

A Unanimous Privacy Victory in U.S. v. Jones

2012-01-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

In U.S. v. Jones, the Supreme Court has held that attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and then using the device to monitor the vehicle's movements constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. What does this case mean for broader privacy protections under the Fourth Amendment? The Cato Institute's Jim Harper and Julian Sanchez assess the ruling.

Song Of The Day #760

2012-01-29T10:42:00.001-07:00

Ranch Radio's Gospel tune this Sunday morning is Little Black Train by the bluegrass group IIIrd Thyme Out.

The tune is on their 12 track CD Grandpa's Mandolin.

Hispanic leaders call for protection of public lands

2012-01-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

Hispanic leaders from throughout the state have banded together to call for congressional leaders to enact federal legislation to protect public lands in southern New Mexico, such as the Organs; the Robledo Mountains, near Radium Springs; the Potrillo Mountains, and Sierra de las Uvas. Twenty-nine Hispanic leaders, including former governor Jerry Apodaca and former state Attorney General Patricia Madrid - both Las Cruces natives - have signed and sent a letter to Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, New Mexico Democrats, and Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., to support the proposed Dona Ana County Conservation and Protection Act, introduced into the U.S. Senate last year...more

You can view the letter here.

The first thing you will notice is nowhere in the letter do they endorse or call on anyone "to support the proposed Dona Ana County Conservation and Protection Act." The act is not mentioned. Instead they call for the lands to be "protected", which can be done in several ways without designating them as wilderness.

The Hispano Chamber of Commerce de Las Cruces is listed twice as a signor of the letter. Once by John Munoz, as President, and again as the organization in general. They have also endorsed the Bingaman bill which would designate 232,000 acres of Wilderness on or near our border. One must continue to wonder why they take this position.

Government surveys demonstrate that only 3% of those visiting Wilderness areas are Hispanic and the most recent research finds that counties with the Wilderness designation had lower per capita income, lower total payroll, and lower total tax receipts than was the case before the designation was made. So again one must ask: Why does the Hispano Chamber support a land designation that is minimally used by the Hispanic population and that has a negative economic impact on our community?

Juarez Cartel threatens to kill “one officer daily”

2012-01-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, banners could be seen all over Ciudad Juarez touting the fact that several prosecutors and police officers have been murdered throughout the city in the last month. The banners also directly accused Juarez Police Chief Julian Leyzaola of corruption and conspiring with the Sinaloa Cartel. The banners also threatened the life of Chief Leyzaola as well as those of his officers. The banners read: “This is for Leyzaola. If you continue supporting the imitators and only arrest our people we will kill one officer daily so that the citizens will know how corrupt you are.” “Leyzaola = a criminal with a badge. Sincerely, Nuevo Cartel de Juarez”...more

Zetas ‘hitman’ trial details assassination cell activity in U.S. and Mexico

2012-01-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

A federal grand jury in Laredo, TX, convicted a Zetas-linked “hitman” on a raft of conspiracy, racketeering and weapons charges on Jan. 25, after hearing testimony that outlined activities of the gang’s vicious assassination cells on both sides of the southern border. During Castillo-Chavez’ trial, said the FBI, jurors heard testimony from several Zeta hitmen who committed murders in Laredo, TX, as well as Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and Monterrey, and Nuevo Leon, in Mexico. In addition, said the agency, several defendants who testified as witnesses for the government detailed cocaine and marijuana trafficking from Mexico to Dallas, Texas, and New York City. Further testimony outlined murders and attempted murders committed by “sicario” (assassin) cells in Laredo between June 2005 and April 2006. The United States also presented telephone interceptions which described in detail the gruesome murders and disposal of the bodies of two U.S. citizens kidnapped and killed in Nuevo Laredo, said the agency...more

Mexico's Murderous Drug War Spills Over U.S. Border

2012-01-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

Eighteen months ago, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer was excoriated for warning of spillover from Mexico's war reaching our soil. Well, beheadings are becoming common now. Yet that war is still ignored. Leading the charge in the summer of 2010, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank blasted Republican Gov. Brewer for claiming that Arizona's "law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert either buried or just lying out there that have been beheaded." Brewer did admit she was in error at the time, but that's not what really interested Milbank and his fellow media minions. Just one problem, though. Brewer may have jumped the gun months ago, but cartel beheadings have become a reality in Arizona — and are now jumping to other states. Four months after the Arizona governor spoke, the first grisly cartel beheading occurred — in Arizona. Martin Alejandro Cota-Monroy's body was found Oct. 10, 2010 in Chandler, in what police believed had been a revenge attack for stealing cartel drugs. A year later and 600 miles north in Oklahoma, the victim was not a person involved in the drug trade, but a 19-year-old human trafficking victim, Carina Saunders, who was killed by suspected cartel members to frighten another teenager into joining the cartel. Three months later, in Tucson, another headless body was found on a desolate stretch of road. What's seen here is the very swift regularization of crime that, until recently, was thought to be Mexico's problem. Just Friday, the Mexican government reported that the 2,276 war-related deaths in Mexico's Chihuahua state alone topped all civilian deaths in Afghanistan in the first 11 months of 2011 (2,177). A civilian in the state of Chihuahua had a nine times greater chance of being killed than an Afghan...more

Killing field was training ground used by Zetas

2012-01-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

A Zetas hit man on Wednesday offered a peek into the slaughter that took place in the small Mexican town of San Fernando, where the remains of 200 bodies were unearthed last year, testifying how new cartel recruits were trained to kill there. “They would show new recruits how to kill,” testified Wenceslao Tovar, 26, an admitted Zetas sicario, or hit man. “They would give them a machete. If not, they'd give them a sledge hammer and they'd tell them to kill the people they had tied up.” Those who successfully completed the training were treated to a party that included a raffle with winners getting watches, vehicles and cash, Tovar said. Those who couldn't kill were made halcones, the Spanish word for “hawks,” used to describe cartel lookouts, he said. Tovar's testimony came in the trial of Gerardo Castillo Chavez, a 25-year-old from Mexico, on charges that he took part in killings and assaults in 2006 as part of a drug conspiracy. But testimony in the first day of trail went far beyond Castillo Chavez's alleged involvement with the Zetas...more

Arizona strikes back: State investigates feds over gun-running

2012-01-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

Arizona's state legislature will open its own investigation into the Obama administration's disgraced gun-running program, known as "Fast and Furious," the speaker of the state House said Friday. Speaker Andy Tobin created the committee, and charged it with looking at whether the program broke any state laws — raising the possibility of state penalties against those responsible for the operation. Mr. Tobin will announce the committee's jurisdiction at a press conference in Phoenix on Monday. The committee is charged with looking into the facts about the program, what impact it had on Arizona and whether any of the state's laws were broken. A report is due back by March 30...more

Mexican Cartels Moving Drugs in Armored Vehicles

2012-01-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Mexican drug cartels are using improvised armored vehicles known as "monsters" to protect their narcotics shipments from rival gangs, a military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity told Efe. The officer is assigned to the 8th Military Zone based in the northeastern border state of Tamaulipas, where troops have seized around 110 armored cars, including more than 20 monsters that evoke scenes from the 1979 film "Mad Max." Most are heavy trucks that were equipped with armor at clandestine workshops, mostly located in Tamaulipas. Some of the vehicles can carry 12 gunmen, the officer said. Soldiers dismantled one workshop in the Tamaulipas town of Camargo in a June 2011 operation, seizing two armored vehicles and nearly three-dozen more - including 23 tractor-trailers and other heavy trucks - that had not yet been plated. One monster seized last year weighed more than 30 tons because it was covered in thick steel plates and further reinforced with railroad tracks. The officer said troops also confiscated a cargo van dubbed the "pope-mobile" that had an elevated cabin similar to the "room" in the Roman Catholic pontiff's vehicle, although the Mexican van was secured with metal plating instead of bullet-proof glass...more

The Westerner's Radio Theater #019

2012-01-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

This Saturday we bring you 10-2-4 Ranch Time from March 10, 1944. Don't forget to buy those War Bonds and to have your Dr. Pepper at 10, 2 and 4

Albuquerque firefighter, southern NM pecan growers caught up in federal drug trafficking busts

2012-01-28T09:22:00.000-07:00

Federal authorities said Friday they’ve taken down two major drug trafficking and money laundering operations in different parts of New Mexico, one involving an Albuquerque firefighter and the other southern New Mexico pecan growers. Agents have seized caches of drugs, cars, cash, guns and even a tractor from a pecan growing operation near the New Mexico-Texas border. In one case, 15 men living in the Albuquerque area were named in a 29-count federal indictment that was announced Friday by U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales. Prosecutors said those arrested included Steve Chavez, 32, a seven-year veteran of the Albuquerque Fire Department. In the other case, authorities arrested nine people, including the owners of a southern New Mexico pecan farm, in connection with a trafficking and money laundering ring that involved cocaine and heroin. Prosecutors said the owners and operators of Pettit Farms and Nursery in Anthony, N.M., and their two sons were among those arrested Thursday. They were identified as Oscar Portillo Sr., his wife Sandra Portillo and sons Matthew Portillo and Oscar Portillo Jr. According to a 24-count indictment, the farm was used as a place to store and sell drugs. A team of federal, state and local law enforcement officers arrested the defendants Thursday and executed four search warrants, including one at the farm and three others at residences in El Paso, Texas. Federal prosecutors said the Portillos allegedly sold drugs to an undercover agent on five separate occasions. The indictment claims the couple asked the undercover agent to pay for the drugs with money orders which they subsequently cashed and deposited into bank accounts in the name of the farm. The agent was provided with invoices asserting that the agent had purchased pecan trees...more

President Obama leaves event promoting clean energy in a motorcade of 22 fossil-fueled vehicles

2012-01-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

On January 26, 2012, President Obama visited a Las Vegas UPS plant. Stimulus subsidy for said UPS plant to purchase natural-gas-powered trucks: 5.6 million dollars. Stimulus subsidy for North Las Vegas green energy plant that laid off 200 workers yesterday: 5.9 million dollars. Using taxpayer dollars to leave an event promoting clean-energy vehicles in a motorcade of twenty-two fossil-fueled vehicles: Priceless...more

Here's a video of the departing motorcade:

http://youtu.be/oB1ZxyhO9p0

Wolves to be considered for culling elk herds

2012-01-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

An examination of wolf reintroduction to the San Luis Valley didn't come at the prompting of federal wildlife officials. But they'll still have to take a look at it, thanks to public comment last year urging the idea be considered as a means of controlling elk herds on the Baca National Wildlife Refuge, where elk have taken a heavy toll on the cottonwoods and willows lining stream banks. "Right now, it's a question. You have a lot of elk, a lot of people would say you need a large predator," said Laurie Shannon, a planning team leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We may not move forward with it, but right now it's on the table." The mention of wolves takes up only one sentence in a 13-page document laying out the potential management strategies for the Alamosa, Baca and Monte Vista national wildlife refuges. Steve Russell said the move would be bad for livestock producers. "I would like it kicked out regardless of how we merge alternatives," he said. Paul Robertson oversees the Nature Conservancy's Medano-Zapata Ranch, which neighbors the Baca. ‘‘I don't think ‘C’ is a politically wise decision,’’ he said of the alternative that included the mention of wolves...more

This will certainly add fuel to the fire that the USFWS will declare all of NM and southern Colo. as habitat for the wolf.

Bear Canyon skirmishes unresolved

2012-01-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

Governmental skirmishes in Bear Canyon over an obliterated road and an ensuing new trail has been ongoing for about five years and the issue still remains unresolved. Gallatin National Forest Supervisor Mary Erickson and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Director Mary Sexton sent the county a Jan. 4 letter seeking a solution to the issue. In 2006, the Forest Service “obliterated” the road and replaced it with a trail, the county has said. The trail runs through state land before entering federal ground and took the place of what the county says was its road. The state Department of Environmental Quality had called for the removal of a portion of the road, which the agency identified as a main cause of sediments entering Bear Creek. County officials have argued the feds had no legal right to remove the road, Chief Deputy County Attorney Chris Gray has said. The county has fielded numerous complaints that the new trail is too steep and too narrow for cross-country skiing, motorized use and moving cattle to summer pasture. The feds, the state and the county entered an agreement in May 2010 that called for meeting seven points that included the state granting an easement to U.S. Forest Service who would maintain the trail. The Forest Service would in turn grant an easement to the county for the entire trail to the Park County line as long as the county abandoned any “legal statues of any prior county road in Bear Canyon.” The feds and the state gave the county a Jan. 20 deadline to reply. In a Jan. 20 letter, the county basically said, thanks for calling, but no thanks...more

Arizona: Forest Service grazing plan deemed illegal

2012-01-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

As so many times before, a federal court has overturned a U.S. Forest Service grazing permit because federal land managers violated the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The court ruling at least temporarily blocks cattle grazing on 42,000 acres in the Fossil Creek watershed on the Coconino National Forest in central Arizona. The drainage is a stronghold for threatened Chiricahua leopard frogs. Download a copy of the ruling here. The Forest Service has made great efforts to help with the recovery of the frogs elsewhere in Arizona. The permit holder, J.P. Morgan-Chase & Co., which maintains interests in the historic Ward Ranch of Rimrock, Ariz., reintroduced about 290 cows in September 2009. The court ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to adequately consider the potential effects of cattle grazing on the threatened species when it issued a “biological opinion” authorizing the grazing plan. The court also ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to adequately quantify the amount of incidental “take,” or harm, to the leopard frog, and failed to analyze the effect of the approved plan on the frog’s chances of recovery — all violations of the Endangered Species Act. “The court’s ruling is significant because it will help protect the last known population of Chiricahua leopard frogs on the Red Rock Ranger District,” said Todd Tucci, a senior attorney at Advocates for the West who argued the case on behalf of the Center. The court also ruled that the Forest Service violated NEPA by using inaccurate information to assess grazing impacts. Even though the Forest Service documented unsatisfactory, impaired or inherently unstable soil conditions across 96 percent of the allotment, rangers authorized the grazing...more

Couple challenges federal assault charges

2012-01-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

A Roundup couple say they have been wrongfully charged with assaulting a federal officer during a family hunting trip. Bill and Tammie McCutcheon were arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Billings and pleaded not guilty to two counts each of assault on a federal officer for an incident Nov. 26 in the Little Belt Mountains. In a criminal indictment, federal prosecutors allege that Bill McCutcheon assaulted the officer with a weapon and that both McCutcheons "forcefully assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated and interfered" with the officer. The charges against Bill McCutcheon carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, Tammie McCutcheon could face up to eight years in prison and a $100,000 fine. A trial date will be set later. The criminal indictment filed against the McCutcheons contains no details of the incident that resulted in the charges, but a complaint filed by U.S. Forest Service Officer Shawn Tripp after the incident provides his official account of the run-in with the McCutcheons. In an interview with The Billings Gazette before their court appearance, the couple said they encountered an overly aggressive officer who they allege sexually assaulted Tammie McCutcheon and nearly started a gunfight. The couple said that despite the criminal charges, they are considering a lawsuit alleging that the officer violated their civil rights. "I want the government to be held responsible for putting people in positions of responsibility who abuse it," Tammie McCutcheon said. "I'm charged for assaulting a federal officer, and he's the one who was laying on top of me."...more

Oil and water still don't mix

2012-01-27T09:38:00.000-07:00

"You can't believe the flood of money that's pouring into San Antonio!" That's Steve talking, a close friend and an accountant with his finger on the financial pulse of the nation's seventh largest city. At a time when many other communities are struggling to make ends meet, the Alamo City is flush. The source of this new pelf lies a couple of hours to its south, down I-35 and US 281, deep in the brush country of south Texas. To be more precise, its origins lie 8,000 feet below the rolling coastal plain, in the gas-and-oil deposits locked in the Eagle Ford Shale formation; this seam runs beneath more 20 counties that stretch from the Rio Grande Valley north and east into central Texas. To tap those resources, major energy companies (and smaller ones, too), are offering upwards of seven-figures for an annual lease, eye-popping dollars for hardscrabble ranchers who in the past have had to take a second or third job just to hold on to their lands, let alone maintain their livestock operations. To that kind of payday, Steve observed, "not many are saying no."...more

Conservation groups challenge watershed plan for third time

2012-01-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Conservation groups on Tuesday challenged a proposed thinning and prescribed-burn project in forests south of Bozeman that aims to protect the city’s drinking water. It’s the group’s third time challenging the proposal. “Simply stated, the agency’s proposal breaks a number of laws and this time around is no different,” said Michael Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. The Gallatin National Forest’s plan, called the Bozeman Municipal Watershed project, calls for burning, harvesting and thinning 4,800 acres in the Hyalite and Bozeman Creek drainages. Those drainages supply more than 80 percent of the Bozeman community’s water, and thinning efforts there are intended to reduce the extent of any potential wildfires. A severe wildfire could put so much sediment and ash in the creeks that the treatment plant couldn’t handle it and would have to shut down, according to Marna Daley, forest spokeswoman...more

Forest policy affects acequias

2012-01-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

Northern New Mexico's Acequia del Llano de San Juan Nepomuceno is the kind of place where sweeping federal policy changes get up close and personal. It's the kind of place Paula Garcia, executive director of the New Mexico Acequia Association and president of the Mora Land Grant, will be thinking about as she reads the new federal forest management rules unveiled Thursday by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The rules are intended to govern the management of 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands, establishing a new blueprint to guide everything from logging to recreation and renewable energy development. Garcia wants to know if the rules will help or hinder traditional communities with ties to the national forests dating back centuries. "More environmental regulations can mean more red tape for traditional communities," she said. "That's what creates a lot of tension. Even though the rules are well intentioned, that's what creates hardship on the ground." The Acequia del Llano de San Juan, which is older than the U.S. Forest Service, brings water to about 100 families. But when ditch commissioners from Llano de San Juan and four other ditches in the area needed to make repairs in 2009, they ended up in a tiff with Carson National Forest officials. Portions of the ditches and their diversion structures are on Carson National Forest land. Garcia claims the Forest Service wanted the commissioners to get a special use permit, something never previously requested. The process was time-consuming, stalled much-needed repairs and, Garcia believes, was unwarranted...more

Hunting animals to save them?

2012-01-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

You don't have to go to Africa to hunt exotic animals. In fact, Texas may have more of some endangered exotics than live in the wild. That's because breeding them is a billion dollar business in Texas, where over 100 species roam large ranches and can be hunted for sport. The hunters and the ranchers they pay to hunt the trophy animals say the money generated by hunting these animals is helping to save them. They claim only 10 percent of any species can be killed annually. But to animal rights people fighting to shut them down, they're nothing more than slaughter houses. Lara Logan reports on this little known practice on "60 Minutes" Sunday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. ET/PT. It all began decades ago, when ranchers took in surplus animals, some endangered in the wild, from zoos. Now there are more than 250,000 exotics living on ranches, mostly in Texas, in a business that supports 14,000 jobs. "That's why these animals thrive...because of that value they have to the hunting community," says Charly Seale, a rancher and executive director of the Exotic Wildlife Association in Texas. Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, an international animal rights organization, believes such rationale is "ludicrous. I think it's immoral," she tells Logan. "They are saying it's an act of conservation and that's lunacy," says Feral, who would rather them not exist in Texas than thrive on a ranch there purely as prey for sportsmen. "I don't think you create a life to shoot it."...more

Great Lakes farmers eager to be allowed to shoot attacking wolves

2012-01-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

John Koski is itching to pick up his rifle after losing dozens of cows to hungry wolves on his farm in Michigan's Upper Peninsula -- and it appears he'll soon get his chance. A legal shield that has protected gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region for nearly four decades will disappear today when the animal leaves the federal endangered species list. With that milestone, a primal struggle that was waged in this rugged backcountry for more than a century will resume, although in a more restrained fashion. "It's about time," said Koski, 67, one of many ranchers eager to begin shooting wolves that prey on livestock. Likewise, hunters are pushing for the chance to stalk a foe legendary for its cunning that has long been off-limits. "There has to be a hunt. We're just saturated with wolves here," said Al Clemens, who already pursues coyotes in the Upper Peninsula backwoods. But opponents of killing wolves for sport promise a stiff fight before state agencies...more

Deer runs into student in Pa. Junior High School

2012-01-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

Students and parents watched at dismissal time Wednesday as a doe ran through the main doors of Red Lion Area Junior High School and collided with an eighth-grade student, knocking them both to the ground. The eighth-grader got up and hurried outside while Principal Kevin Peters and teacher Nate Resh trapped the deer in the foyer and got other students out of harms way. The student, who collided with the deer, was taken to a hospital as a precaution, Peters said. He had reported that his foot was sore, Supt. Scott Deisley said.
"We’re incredibly lucky it was not more serious with so many students being there," Peters said. Dismissal had been well underway by the time the deer had arrived around 2:45 p.m. The school buses had already left the campus, and about 150 students who walk home or are picked up by parents remained. The father of the victim saw the deer hit a fence near third base on the softball field, Peters said. It then ran across the parking lot and entered the main doors, running into the son who was walking out...more

Cattle Herd Drop to 1958 Low Boosting Cost for McDonald’s, Tyson

2012-01-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

The cattle herd in the U.S. may be the smallest since 1958, when McDonald’s Corp. had just 79 hamburger restaurants, signaling tighter beef supplies and higher costs for companies including Tyson Foods Inc. Ranchers held 91.24 million head of cattle as of Jan. 1, down 1.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. That would be the smallest since Dwight Eisenhower was president. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is set to release its herd report at 3 p.m. in Washington. A record drought in Texas last year and rising feed costs prompted ranchers to cull herds, even as beef exports surged from the U.S., the world’s largest producer. Cattle futures are up 15 percent since the end of June, reaching a record seven times this month, and the Livestock Marketing Information Center says retail-beef prices that reached an all-time high on an annual basis in 2011 will keep rising through next year...more

Song Of The Day #759

2012-01-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

Ranch Radio closes out this week of Rockabilly with the Carl Perkins classic Honey Don't.

Expo, Downs ordered to clean manure

2012-01-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

Expo New Mexico and the downs at Albuquerque are being ordered to clean up massive mounds of manure. The Environmental Protection Agency claims animal waste on the grounds is getting into the Rio Grande. "It’s like having a horse in your backyard,” Julia C De Baca said. "That you never clean that crap up." Neighbors are complaining about the smell coming from the state fairgrounds, the extremely high piles of manure and swarms of flies. The complaints prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to get involved. They ordered an inspection this past November. The inspection found that during heavy rains some of that manure was making its way into storm drains, which lead right to the Rio Grande. The report says between 2007 and 2011, it happened 18 times. That animal waste can contain everything from nitrogen and phosphorus to dangerous bacteria like coliform...more

Obama-backed electric car battery-maker files for bankruptcy

2012-01-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

An Indiana-based energy-storage company, whose subsidiary received a $118.5 million stimulus grant from the Energy Department, filed for bankruptcy Thursday. Ener1 is asking a federal bankruptcy court in New York to approve a plan to restructure the company’s debt and infuse $81 million in equity funding. The Energy Department in 2009 approved a $118.5 million stimulus grant for EnerDel, a subsidiary of the company that develops lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. The grant was part of a broader program aimed at promoting the development of electric-vehicle battery technology. EnerDel had received support from Republicans, including more than $4 million in Defense Department research grants under the George W. Bush administration. Ener1’s decision to file for bankruptcy will likely draw the attention of House Republicans, who are investigating the bankruptcy of Solyndra, the solar panel maker that received a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee in 2009...more

Robert J. Samuelson: Rejecting the Keystone pipeline is an act of insanity

2012-01-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn’t often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won’t even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it. All it tells us is that Obama is so obsessed with his reelection that, through some sort of political calculus, he believes that placating his environmental supporters will improve his chances. Aside from the political and public relations victory, environmentalists won’t get much. Stopping the pipeline won’t halt the development of tar sands, to which the Canadian government is committed; therefore, there will be little effect on global-warming emissions. Indeed, Obama’s decision might add to them. If Canada builds a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific for export to Asia, moving all that oil across the ocean by tanker will create extra emissions. There will also be the risk of added spills. Now consider how Obama’s decision hurts the United States. For starters, it insults and antagonizes a strong ally; getting future Canadian cooperation on other issues will be harder. Next, it threatens a large source of relatively secure oil that, combined with new discoveries in the United States, could reduce (though not eliminate) our dependence on insecure foreign oil. Finally, Obama’s decision forgoes all the project’s jobs...more

Samuelson then tells us there are three things to remember on this issue:

First, we’re going to use lots of oil for a long time. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that U.S. oil consumption will increase 4 percent between 2009 and 2035. The increase occurs despite highly optimistic assumptions about vehicle fuel efficiency and bio-fuels. But a larger population (390 million in 2035 versus 308 million in 2009) and more driving per vehicle offset savings. The more oil we produce domestically and import from neighbors, the more we’re insulated from dramatic interruptions of global supplies. After the United States, Canada is the most dependable source of oil — or was, until Obama’s decision. Second, barring major technological breakthroughs, emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, will rise for similar reasons. The EIA projects that America’s CO2 emissions will increase by 16 percent from 2009 to 2035. (The EIA is updating its projections, but the main trends aren’t likely to change dramatically.) Stopping Canadian tar-sands development, were that possible, wouldn’t affect these emissions. Finally, even if — as Keystone critics argue — some Canadian oil were refined in the United States and then exported, this would be a good thing. The exports would probably go mostly to Latin America. They would keep well-paid industrial jobs (yes, refining) in the United States and reduce our trade deficit in oil, which exceeded $300 billion in 2011.

Cartoon

2012-01-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

US to unveil new forest rules

2012-01-26T09:20:00.002-07:00

The Obama administration says new rules to manage nearly 200 million acres of national forests will protect watersheds and wildlife while promoting uses ranging from recreation to logging. The new rules, to replace guidelines thrown out by a federal court in 2009, are set to be released Thursday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. A summary was obtained by The Associated Press. Vilsack said in an interview that the rules reflect more than 300,000 comments received since a draft plan was released last year. The new rules strengthen a requirement that decisions be based on the best available science and recognize that forests are used for a variety of purposes, Vilsack said. "I think it's a solid rule and done in a collaborative, open and transparent way," he said. The guidelines, known as a forest planning rule, will encourage forest restoration and watershed protection while creating opportunities for the timber industry and those who use the forest for recreation, he said. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said the guidelines would allow land management plans for individual forests to be completed more quickly and at a lower cost than under current rules, which date to the Reagan administration. Several attempts to revise the 1982 planning rule have been thrown out by federal courts in the past decade. Most recently a Bush administration plan was struck down in 2009. Environmentalists had fought the rule, saying it rolled back key forest protections...more

Timber industry files lawsuit against murrelet designation

2012-01-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

The American Forest Resource Council (AFRC) brought suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) claiming the agency violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) when it designated millions of acres of forest land in Washington, Oregon and California as critical habitat for the marbled murrelet. “There is nothing straight forward in how the FWS requires federal forest managers to deal with this bird,” said Tom Partin, President of AFRC. “Because humans almost never see the bird, the FWS seems to think it can throw a net over millions of acres of federal timber land that not only aren’t being used by the bird, but don’t even have the characteristics it is looking for when it flies inland to lay its eggs. Someone has to speak up about this violation of the limits of the ESA.” The ESA requires that critical habitat be limited to areas occupied by the species at the time of listing. Under an exception, land not occupied at the time of listing may be designated as critical habitat only if they are essential to the survival of the species. Much of the land FWS has classified as critical habitat doesn’t have the large trees the murrelet is believed to use. When the FWS designated all Late Successional Reserves (LSRs) on federal land as murrelet critical habitat, it did so assuming those areas would develop into nesting habitat over the next 400 years. “There is nothing in the law that allows the FWS to tie up currently unsuitable land hoping it turns into habitat that will support an endangered species,” said Partin. “That’s like the government denying you a building permit because it hopes someday your neighborhood will become a city park.”...more

Local activists head to D.C. to push for Fort Ord National Monument.

2012-01-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

With more than 60 public agencies and a dozen-plus citizens’ groups claiming a stake in the former Fort Ord, consensus on how to manage it is as rare as the black legless lizard. So the solidarity in a push to designate up to 14,650 acres as a national monument is something of a shocker; stakeholders from Fort Ord Reuse Authority to the Sierra Club are asking the feds to protect the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Ford Ord acreage in perpetuity.  Next week, local activists Henrietta Stern of FORT Friends and Gordon Smith of Keep Fort Ord Wild are hoping to find as much agreement among the many federal agencies with a hand in the designation. At the invitation of the Conservation Lands Foundation, Stern and Smith are headed to Washington, D.C., from Jan. 30-Feb. 2. “The issue is making sure people understand why the public land needs to be protected,” foundation spokeswoman Meghan Kissell says. ..more

Not much of a story, but does allow for another picture of the BLM'er in her pink hat. Hurry, hurry to have this area managed by a federal Pink Panther.

Keystone Kops energy policy

2012-01-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama had barely cleared his throat when he outlined his vision for an American “future where we’re in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren’t so tied to unstable parts of the world.” Just days before, he had delivered a crippling blow to his own plan. Mr. Obama’s decision to kill the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, is one more example of his administration’s ongoing war on fossil fuels - and the most recent example of how the president promises the exact opposite of what he is delivering. What better way to sever our dependence on those “unstable parts of the world” than to switch a major portion of our oil imports from dictatorships to a stable democratic neighbor, starting now? Instead, the administration continues to squander taxpayer funds on “green energy” debacles such as Solyndra and the entire renewables/electric-car agenda - which, even in Mr. Obama’s plan, will only yield significant benefits in the far future...more

EDITORIAL: Drawing a pipeline in the sand

2012-01-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

Washington watchers weren’t so much surprised by the White House’s decision on the pipeline as they were by the suddenness of the Jan. 18 announcement. Just one day earlier, the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness had called for an “all-in approach” to energy production, including increased oil- and gas-drilling and construction of distribution pipelines. Mr. Obama’s subsequent rejection of Keystone XL apparently was intended to put to rest any notion that a large-scale conventional-energy project would be built while he occupies the White House. There is little Republicans can do to change Mr. Obama’s no to a yes. Still, ample opportunities exist to expose his order for what it is: a payoff to left-wing supporters who style themselves as environmentalists. They’re banking on the White House to shield their expensive and pointless windmill and solar-energy projects from the competition of affordable fossil fuels like oil. As author Peter Schweizer detailed in his recent best-seller, “Throw Them All Out,” 80 percent of $20.5 billion in Energy Department loans went to Mr. Obama’s top donors...more

LISTEN: Justice Alito Fired Up in Case Pitting Property Owners Against EPA

2012-01-26T09:12:00.001-07:00

Justice Samuel Alito seemed none too pleased last week with the government’s argument in a case pitting property owners against the Environmental Protection Agency. Listen to this heated exchange with the government lawyer:

video platform video management video solutions video player

Listen to the entire oral argument by going here.

Genetically-engineered salmon caught in tangled regulatory net

2012-01-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

A Senate hearing placed a spotlight on the regulatory tangle surrounding the approval process for genetically-engineered salmon. Potentially the country’s first GE animal for human consumption, the salmon have raised a host of worries among critics including the impact on the environment should they escape fish farms. However, what came to the fore during the mid-December hearing was the complicated morass of government approval, oversight, and trade when dealing with the GE fish. Other GE animals are surely being developed and the current approval process outlined during the hearing seems ill-equipped to deal with the new technology. Questions to the expert panel from the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard mostly came from the chairman, Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, and Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe. Both have large salmon industries in their states and Begich has introduced S.1717, which would ban interstate commerce of genetically engineered salmon...more

With winter underway, battle over bison management rages on

2012-01-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Each winter when snow drives bison out of Yellowstone National Park, conservationists, ranchers and others disagree over how the wild animals should be managed. This year will likely be just as tense as several controversial issues surrounding bison unfold. Efforts to allow bison on land outside the park — throughout the Gardiner Basin and on two reservations in northern Montana — face litigation from local groups that fear the spread of an animal disease and threats to private property. If bison are allowed on those state and tribal lands, it would symbolize growing tolerance for the animals. A mild winter so far has enabled bison to mostly stay inside the park, but once they leave, it remains unclear how they’ll be managed. They could be left to roam, hazed, fenced, shot or sent to slaughter. The bison create controversy when they move onto Montana lands because some may carry the disease brucellosis, which causes pregnant animals to miscarry. Ranchers fear the sickness could spread to cattle. There are also concerns about bison damaging property or creating public safety issues...more

Agriculture mission continues for former Miss America

2012-01-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

Though her reign as Miss America may have ended, Teresa Scanlan is continuing her mission to advocate for agriculture. KTIC Radio reports that Scanlan broke the mold when she was crowned Miss America in 2011. A native of Nebraska, she embraced her agriculture background and established partnerships with several agriculture organizations during her reign, including The Hand That Feeds U.S., U.S. Cattlemen's Association and Real Farmers, Real Food. While traveling across the country, Scanlan noticed a massive disconnect geographically. By taking the role of non-traditional spokesperson for agriculture, Scanlan set out to bridge the gap between urban and rural America. Scanlan’s agriculture mission also impacts the pageant that first propelled her into the national spotlight. As a result of Scanlan’s agriculture advocacy, more state title holders have stepped forward to support their state’s farmers and ranchers. In an article written for FoxNews, Scanlan pointed out the importance of agriculture producers...more

Fewer Cows’ Hides May Bear the Mark of Home

2012-01-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

In the half-light of a winter evening in Morgan Hill, a tawny calf skittered across the pasture after its mother, a Lazy T brand visible on its right hip. To rancher Janet Burback, the brand is a matter of pride and tradition. It is also a matter of necessity. When a cow strays or falls into the hands of rustlers - still a significant threat - it is the brand she counts on to bring the animal home. Like other ranchers in California and other Western states, Burback looks with suspicion on a federal plan to institute an identification system for cattle that emphasizes numbered ear tags rather than brands as the official markers of a cow's identity. Ranchers worry that the regulation, in the final phase of revision, represents a first step toward ending branding, a method they regard as the most visible, permanent and reliable way of identifying who owns which cow. Aware that it is treading on delicate territory, the Department of Agriculture has included an exception in the rule, allowing brands to be used as unofficial identification in trade between states that agree to accept the method. Fourteen states have brand inspection laws, most of them in the West and Southwest. Yet many ranchers remain deeply skeptical. The department received close to 1,600 comments on the proposed regulation, many of them negative. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has given qualified support to the proposal but said it would also like some parts clarified, and the inclusion of branding as an official identification method. Opposition is especially strong among ranchers in California and other Western states. Although the Agriculture Department has said it will initially provide metal ear tags at no cost — the electronic versions cost $2 to $4 apiece — many ranchers believe the program will prove more costly than federal officials have predicted. And they are leery of federal intrusion into their business practices. “It all comes down to a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., behind a desk making the rules and deciding what’s best for you as a rancher and you as a ranching family, and that’s what people distrust,” said Kevin Kester, president of the California Cattlemen’s Association. The association, Mr. Kester said, opposes the rule in its current form and has written to the Agriculture Department asking for revisions, including greater recognition of branding and raising the age at which cattle must be tagged...more

Song Of The Day #758

2012-01-26T09:01:00.001-07:00

Ranch Radio will continue with Rockabilly Week. Elvis the Pelvis, along with Carl Perkins, got this genre started. Here's Mr. Presley and That's Alright.

Now Playing: The Sustainability Con

2012-01-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

Although the issue of "sustainability" has been around a while, recently it has grown in popularity and influence. The way it's happening follows an all too familiar pattern. There are several common ingredients in how the left enlarges its control over our lives. The first is the selection of some aspect of reality -- global warming, carbon footprints, population growth, inequality, diversity, for example. The second element involves designating the selected aspect of reality as a crisis. The third step is to explain that the only way to avoid Armageddon is by reducing everyone's freedom and by giving more centralized power and control to those who understand the magnitude of the crisis. The rest of us are told that our freedoms are a luxury we simply can no longer afford. Another common element of the process is defining the crisis as ambiguously as possible. Ordinarily, a desirable characteristic of a definition is that it draws a bright line between what is included and what isn't. Clarity, however, is contrary to the objectives of the crusaders -- in regard to defining the problem, the slipperier the better. For example, climate change (or climate disruption) beats global warming. Global warming is too quantifiable in comparison to climate change. No one is quite sure what "climate change" is or isn't or how it can be measured. Sustainability is even more ambiguous than climate change and thus has more sustainability as a ruse...more

Not to worry. The Academic Palaces are educating your children about "sustainability". The article continues:

At Arizona State University you can get a B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in sustainability. ASU has an entire "School of Sustainability." The school's website offers several answers to the question, "What is sustainability?" Here are four of the answers they offer:

"Sustainability is a concept with as much transformative potential as justice, liberty, and equality."
Michael Crow
President
Arizona State University

"Sustainability is larger than one person, one company, or one country. Its scope, scale and importance demand unprecedented and swift solutions to environmental protection and other complex problems."
Julie Ann Wrigley
President
Julie Ann Wrigley Foundation

"Sustainability is living in harmony with our social and natural environment, based on a sense of justice and equity.
"Sander van der Leeuw
Dean
School of Sustainability

"Sustainability is a process that engages every discipline to provide dynamic solutions to complex problems."
Brian McCollow
Student
School of Sustainability

Now you know what sustainability is and how your taxes are being spent. Feel better?

NM Hispanic ranchers send letter to Obama

2012-01-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

A group of northern New Mexico ranchers is reaching out to the White House over the alleged mistreatment of Hispanics by the U.S. Forest Service. The president of the Northern New Mexico Stockman's Association, Carlos Salazar, fired off a letter to the White House on Tuesday. Salazar says ranchers and farmers in the area have been loyal Democrats in the past but are "bailing out" on the Obama administration due to the negative economic impacts its policies are having on those who depend on New Mexico's forests for their livelihoods. The letter comes a day after ranchers and Rio Arriba County announced they were suing the Forest Service over a reduction in grazing opportunities on two allotments in the Carson National Forest. They claim an institutional bias against Hispanics exists within the agency. AP

Committee hears bills to open public lands to shooting

2012-01-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

Federal officials are eyeing shooting restrictions on more than a million acres of public land, half of which are in Arizona, said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Mesa, who wants to block the restrictions. Flake’s measure was one of two Arizona shooting bills – along with Rep. Trent Frank’s proposal to transfer 315 acres of federal land in Mohave County to the state for use as a shooting range – taken up Tuesday by a House Natural Resources subcommittee. The National Rifle Association testified in support of both bills, saying their passage is important to protecting the Second Amendment. “You have to be able to exercise your rights,” said Susan Recce, NRA director of conservation, wildlife and natural resources. “If you don’t have places where you can practice your right, then it is a limited right.” Recce said the Bureau of Land Management’s actions show a bias against recreational shooting, a claim that BLM officials at the hearing denied. Flake’s bill, HR 3440, would limit BLM’s ability to close national monuments to recreational shooting to six months. The bill has 30 cosponsors, including Franks, R-Glendale, and Arizona Reps. Paul Gosar, R-Flagstaff, and David Schweikert, R-Scottsdale...more

Report: Removing Klamath dams would help fish, provide jobs, cost millions

2012-01-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

The ambitious proposal to remove four Klamath River dams would add jobs and aid fish, a new federal report asserts, but the idea still leaves California lawmakers badly divided. As they approach a make-or-break decision on whether to recommend the dam removal, U.S. Interior Department officials on Tuesday touted anticipated benefits that include improved salmon habitat and 1,400 construction jobs during the year it would take to remove the hydroelectric dams. Long-term Klamath Basin restoration efforts would add an estimated 4,600 jobs, the report says. But the dam removals would also cost somewhere between $238 million and $493 million, potentially increase flooding risks and cut electricity production, the new Interior Department compilation shows. The new report pegs the most probable dam-removal cost at $291.6 million. "The science and analyses presented in these reports are vital to making an informed and sound decision on the Klamath River dam removal," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. Salazar must decide by March 31 whether to recommend the long-debated removal of the four dams near the Oregon border. Three of the dams are in California's northernmost Siskiyou County...more

Pinon Canyon - Group slams Army

2012-01-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

Southern Colorado ranchers and critics of the proposed expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site said Monday that the Army is now trying to take over Southeastern Colorado through the "back door." The Army released a draft environmental assessment Jan. 18 that states there would be no significant impact on the maneuver site from adding a new 113-helicopter Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Carson and conducting training missions at Pinon Canyon northeast of town. But members of Not 1 More Acre! are disputing the Army's plan. Fort Carson has long been preparing for the new aviation brigade and was required to do an environmental impact study on the potential damage to the 238,000-acre maneuver site. "We all agree that this is a terrible abuse of public disclosure law. They are actually saying this configuration will have no significant impact at Pinon Canyon?" said Jean Aguerre, president of Not 1 More Acre! prior to the meeting. Aguerre called the assessment half-baked and said that more traffic at Pinon Canyon would cause detrimental, mind-blowing damage to the grasslands. During the meeting, Las Animas County Commissioner Gary Hill read a letter to Army officials asking them to conduct a full environmental impact study, which would be more in-depth. "An EA (environmental assessment) is just a shortcut and doesn't address everything, in our opinion," Hill said. Lon Robertson, of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, agreed that the study is not complete. "Once again it's the nose of the cantaloupe. The military is not doing anything to win support or show that they can be trusted," Robertson said. Robertson said, some of the facts in the new study simply were not true...more

Woman Claims Neighbor’s Energy Efficient Windows Are Melting Her Toyota Prius

2012-01-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

A SoCal woman says the energy efficient window installed in a neighbor’s condominium is melting the plastic components on cars parked in her carport. Heather Patron of Studio City was dealing with a mystery regarding her Toyota Prius. “The side view mirrors were melting,” says Patron. “Anything that was plastic on the car was melting.” Toyota told Patron nothing was wrong with the car. After having the mirrors replaced, she noticed the mirrors on the car parked next to hers were also melting. Patron then observed a powerful beam of light that was reflecting off the window of a next door condominium, casting a concentrated beam over her carport. CBS2’s Randy Paige placed a thermometer in the pathway of the beam on a partially cloudy day. The temperature registered over 120 degrees in less than five minutes...more

This is too good to be true...but it apparently is. There is a video news report at the link provided.

Federal dollars funding conservation easements in Montana

2012-01-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

For the first time ever, a well-established federal program is helping to fund new conservation easements in the Bitterroot Valley. The Federal Farm and Ranchlands Protection Program invested $6.5 million in conservation easements across Montana last year. Three of those were in the Bitterroot Valley. The Severson and Sunset Bench ranches in the Burnt Fork area east of Stevensville and the Downey family property up Willow Creek each qualified for funding under the federal program. "We're excited to see this program as a viable source for voluntary agricultural land conservation in the Bitterroot," said Gavin Ricklefs, executive director of the Bitter Root Land Trust. "It fits really well in the Bitterroot. It's nice to see those dollars coming here." The program focuses on conserving high-quality agricultural lands through conservation easements. The federal money is used to match other funding sources to pay for the easements. The program was established in the 2002 federal Farm Bill...more

What they don't own they still want to control. There are land trusts who operate without federal or state money so this is one area Congress should look to cut.

Court Overturns 42,000-acre Grazing Plan Threatening Arizona's Fossil Creek, Endangered Species

2012-01-25T09:34:00.001-07:00

Citing violations of the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, a federal district court judge on Monday overturned a U.S. Forest Service decision allowing cattle grazing across a 42,000-acre area of the Fossil Creek watershed on the Coconino National Forest in central Arizona. “Fossil Creek is one of the Southwest’s most important river reaches,” said Taylor McKinnon, with the Center for Biological Diversity in Flagstaff. “The court’s ruling is a victory for this beautiful creek, its diverse array of native species and the public investments that have been made to recover them.” The ruling holds that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to adequately consider the potential effects of cattle grazing on the endangered Chiricahua leopard frog when it issued a “biological opinion” authorizing the grazing plan. The court also ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to adequately quantify the amount of incidental “take,” or harm, to the leopard frog, and failed to analyze the effect of the approved plan on the frog’s chances of recovery — all violations of the Endangered Species Act. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the court ruled that the Forest Service had relied on inaccurate information in its environmental assessment concerning the impacts of grazing on soils in the Fossil Creek watershed. Specifically, the agency made an incorrect assumption that a two-thirds ground-cover objective would be effective across the entire allotment, when in fact it would not. The permit holder, J.P. Morgan-Chase & Co., which maintains interests in the historic Ward Ranch of Rimrock, Ariz., reintroduced about 290 cows in September 2009...Press Release

Can the Cowman and the Panther Coexist?

2012-01-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

Ranchers in south Florida have long been accustomed to losing calves to coyotes, buzzards, even alligators. They may have to steel themselves for another predator: the Florida panther. Until very recently, the endangered cats were no threat to Florida cattle. The panther nearly went extinct in the 1970s, when as few as 20 cats remained in the wild. But since a project in the 1990s introduced eight female panthers from Texas that successfully mated with local cats, there are now as many as 160 adult cats in south Florida, said Dave Onorato, a researcher with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The program also introduced much-needed genetic variation into the inbred population. The first reports of panther depredation (the technical term for cattle loss to panthers) emerged in 2010. Among the first to notice something amiss was Liesa Priddy, a rancher who noticed that more calves than usual were missing at JB Ranch, which she owns and operates in Immokalee, a town in southwest Florida. Before long, ranch workers found a few dead calves with bite marks resembling those of a panther. Similar reports followed at other ranches, but there was little proof to back up these claims. Researchers from the University of Florida began a study in late 2011 to find out what was going on, placing nearly 400 ear tags on calves at two ranches near Immokalee. The tags send out a special radio signal after several hours without movement — a sign that something may be wrong. Caitlin Jacobs, a graduate student, checks on the calves four times a week, seeking out those that radio transmissions suggest are not moving and then recording any fatalities...more

Utah officials grant use of water for nuclear plant

2012-01-25T09:28:00.000-07:00

Critics of a proposed nuclear power plant near Emery County's Green River say the state dodged its only real chance to say no to the deal and instead waffled by granting water rights necessary for its operation. "It is devastating news," said Matt Pacenza, HEAL Utah's policy director, reacting to Utah State Engineer Kent Jones' Friday decision to grant water rights for the Blue Castle project. "This was the only opportunity for a Utah official to weigh in on the wisdom of building nuclear reactors on the Green River, and unfortunately he made the wrong decision." Under state law, applications for water rights must be approved if it can be demonstrated to the state engineer that a number of factors have been met, including if the water is available from the source, existing rights won't be impaired and if the project is financially feasible. Those requirements were met, Jones said, and criticism was weighed during an evaluation process that took more than two years. The water — 53,600 acre-feet per year — is owned by Kane County and San Juan County water conservancy districts, which have proposed leasing the water to Blue Castle Holdings for use at the two-unit nuclear power plant...more

BLM approves Dubois wildcat spot

2012-01-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

The US Bureau of Land Management’s Lander, Wyo., field office said that a finding of no significant impact (FONSI) and decision record have been signed for a proposed oil and gas exploratory well and associated facilities 10 miles north of Dubois, Wyo. Hudson Group LLC proposed to drill the Scott-2 well, in 28-43n-107w, Fremont County, on an existing lease on surface land administered by the US Forest Service’s Shoshone National Forest and mineral estate administered by BLM, the US Department of the Interior agency said on Jan. 24. The USFS has approved Hudson’s surface use operating plan, and the producer’s mitigation measures have been incorporated into Hudson’s application for a drilling permit, BLM noted. The well is in the Wind River basin. link

Everything about this is great, except Wyoming spells DuBois wrong.

Sacramentos suffer from bark beetles

2012-01-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

Bark beetles have "drastically affected" pine trees on approximately 65,000 forested acres around the Sacramento Mountains. Property owners and others around the region were told of the bark beetle outbreak that ramped up last year and were provided with ways to deal with the infestation during an informational meeting Tuesday afternoon. "What's happening is natural but out of proportion," Andrew Graves, a entomologist with the USDA Forest Service's regional Forest Health section, told the audience of nearly 100 people. "We're seeing dead trees. Mostly where we're seeing the dead trees is on the tops of the hillsides and on the south-facing slopes, the really drought prone areas. It makes me think it's really linked into the drought." Entomologists annually fly the state looking for tree mortality. The current conditions around the Sacramento Mountains are without boundaries, involving federal, state, tribal and private areas. Stressed trees have become a favorite for bark beetles. Graves said there are a dozen or so different bark beetles in the area that have attacked Ponderosa pines...more

Domestic terror attack on cattle feeding operation chilling

2012-01-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

The January terrorist attack on 14 trucks and trailers at Harris Feeding Co. near Coalinga, Calif., drew quick and unequivocal condemnation from many fronts. Bill Donald, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, condemned the alleged attack, saying, “This extremist behavior goes above mere activism and the freedom of speech. These criminals are threatening lives and causing substantial economic harm.” Animal Liberation Front (ALF) did not admit directly to torching the trucks, but said “containers of an accelerant were placed beneath a row of 14 trucks with four digital timers used to light four of the containers and kerosene-soaked rope carrying the fire to the other 10 … We were extremely pleased to see that all 14 trucks ‘were a total loss.’” ALF is listed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a domestic terrorist organization. Several of the FBI’s most wanted domestic terrorists are believed to be affiliated with ALF. The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and ATF are investigating the Harris terror attack. Harris Ranch’s feedlot holds about 100,000 head of cattle on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Harris also operates a large farming operation along with a world famous Thoroughbred horse operation. John Harris, one of the most respected agriculturists in the nation, responded to the attack by saying he was “gratified by the support and concern we have received from the public and the outrage this attack has created. We must live in a society that is safe for all, and no one can tolerate violence such as this. ALF and similar terrorist groups pose a real threat, and I am confident that the many law enforcement agencies working on this case will bring them to justice soon.” However, it is interesting to note not one so-called “environmental/consumer watchdog” group condemned the attack. Not a peep out of the likes of the Organic Trade Association or the Center for Food Safety. They are free with propaganda news releases, but say nothing about a radical environmental peer group that commits a violent felony to publicize its anti-society values...more

Terrorist activity has no place in US agriculture

2012-01-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

One reward of ranch life in rural Montana is that after a hard-days' work, I get to fall asleep listening to the bawl of mama cows near the house. I imagine farmers and ranchers across the nation can relate to that calming sound. While there are many sounds that come from farms and ranches, one thing we don't expect to hear is the sound of our farm equipment exploding outside our windows. Unfortunately, for the men and women who make their home at or near the Harris Ranch feedyard in Fresno County, Calif., that is no longer a foreign sound. Early in the morning of Jan. 8, 2012, they were awakened to the sound of 14 cattle trucks exploding and burning near the feed yard. I thank God that no person and no animals were injured in this senseless act. But make no mistake - this was a horrific act of terrorism against a fellow agricultural producer. Whoever is responsible - be it an individual or a group of people - they must be brought to justice and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Opening Christmas presents or celebrating birthdays is often put on hold until after our animals are fed, watered and cared for - that's a fact for my family and for many others as well. That is why I was extremely alarmed to learn that animal rights extremists are taking credit for the Harris Ranch attack. How can anyone who claims to care about the health and safety of animals commit such an act that could very easily have harmed or killed many animals?...more

To keep ‘em coming, dude ranches add mainstream amenities to Old West-style fun

2012-01-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

Cowboys. Horses. Guns. Booze. And tennis? When it comes to dude ranches, hosts are adopting John Wayne’s, “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do,” and are offering options unheard of just a few years ago in order to attract guests. Dude ranches still have horses and wranglers, and an aura of the Old West. But today, many also offer extras like conference centers, spas, zip lines, paintball, ATV rides, naturalists, kids’ clubs and rock walls. “Fifteen years ago you probably wouldn’t have found a swimming pool at a dude ranch, or very seldom. Now they all have swimming pools,” said Colleen Hodson, executive director of the Dude Ranchers’ Association, based in Cody, Wyo. “At least half — probably more like three-quarters — are adding new activities and amenities every year.” Dude ranches date back to the late 1800s, according to the association, which was established in 1926 at a meeting that included ranchers, railroad officials and National Park representatives. Today, the association represents about 100 ranches west of the Mississippi in the United States and Canada. There are also unaffiliated ranches, as well as some in the East. Originally, dude ranch stays were intended to immerse guests in a ranch experience, and would require at least a weeklong stay...more

Song Of The Day #757

2012-01-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

Secretary Salazar has withdrawn right at a million acres from uranium mining. So we'll have a little rockabilly this morning on Ranch Radio. Warren Smith wouldn't be happy with the Secretary as he hunts for that Uranium Rock.

Lawmakers aim to wrest control of Colorado's public lands from federal goverment

2012-01-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

A Northern Colorado lawmaker has a message for the federal government: Get your hands off our Fourteeners. Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, said Monday he plans to sponsor a bill that will require the state to wrest control of most of Colorado’s Fourteeners and more than 23 million acres of federal public land across the state, including most of Roosevelt National Forest west of Fort Collins and most of Colorado’s BLM and U.S. Forest Service land. The state would either sell the land off to private individuals or manage it itself. He said he envisions the bill excluding all national parks and monuments, including those on BLM land. “When is enough enough for the amount of land that the state owns or the federal government owns?” he said, adding that the federal government hasn’t been taking care of the land. “Quite frankly, they allow noxious weeds, they don’t manage the land the way they need to be managing it,” he said, citing restrictions on timber harvesting in national forests. Sonnenberg, who said he is working on the bill with Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, and Sen. Mark Scheffel, R-Parker, is following the lead of Republican Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory, who is proposing legislation in that state to use a provision in Utah’s enabling act to attempt to force the federal government to cede control of millions acres of federal land there, excluding national parks. Utah’s enabling act designates the federal government as a “trustee” of federal land in Utah. Ivory proposes for the state to reclaim public land from its Washington, D.C., caretakers, giving the government a December 31, 2014 deadline to hand over public land to the state, the Logan, Utah, Herald Journal reported Jan. 14...more

Alaska lawmakers, protesting federal encroachment, propose takeover of Central Park

2012-01-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

Some Alaska lawmakers, hoping to make a point about federal encroachment on state rights, are urging the federal government take over Central Park and designate it as a wilderness area. Rep. Kyle Johansen, the lead sponsor of HJR31, says such a takeover would never happen. But he wanted an extreme example to make a point about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and its being off limits to development. State leaders, including a Democratic member of Alaska's congressional delegation, have pushed for opening ANWR's coastal plain to oil and gas development. Legislation is currently pending in Congress to open ANWR to drilling as a way to spur domestic energy production. According to the resolution, the plain takes up about 8 percent of ANWR and Central Park about 6 percent of Manhattan. AP

Federal lawsuit targeting Forest Service alleges bias against Hispanic ranchers

2012-01-24T09:06:00.000-07:00

A group of ranchers and one county said Monday that they are suing the U.S. Forest Service over its decision to limit grazing on historic land grant areas in northern New Mexico. The group of Hispanic ranchers and Rio Arriba County officials contend the agency is trying to push them from land that has been ranched by their families for centuries. They say at stake is a piece of Hispanic culture and the economic viability of several northern New Mexico communities that depend on access to surrounding lands for everything from grazing to fire wood. "Without the ability to access and utilize natural resources, our communities are drying up. We're not economically sustainable. We're losing our customs and our culture," said David Sanchez of the Northern New Mexico Stockman's Association. The lawsuit centers on a 2010 decision by El Rito District Ranger Diana Trujillo to cut grazing by nearly one-fifth on the Jarita Mesa and Alamosa grazing allotments, which are part of an area recognized by the federal government for special treatment aimed at benefiting land grant heirs...more

EPA hunting bullfrogs with shotgun in Sackett case

2012-01-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

The EPA has 17,000 full time employees and approximately an $8.4 billion budget. It also has a fondness for hunting bullfrogs with a shotgun. Case in point: Mike and Chantell Sackett began building on "waterfront" property at Priest Lake, Idaho, in 2007. Their lot was less than a single acre (.63), bordered by other residential properties, and 500 feet from the water. As they were laying gravel and grading the property, EPA officials arrived, claimed they were acting on an anonymous tip, and declared the location a “wetland without a federal permit.” Essentially, EPA issued a compliance order directing the Sacketts to restore the site to its previous condition. The order demanded they “remove all fill, replace any lost vegetation, and monitor the fenced-off site for three years,” or else face “great cost” and a “threat of civil fines of tens of thousands of dollars per day, as well as possible criminal penalties.” The fines in the Sackett case ranged up to $37,500 per day. For average Americans, EPA compliance orders carry the weight of law because options are, well, extremely limited. The lucky recipients of a compliance order basically have two choices: (1) They can obey the EPA and comply. In the Sackett case, the cost of cleanup and restoration would have exceeded the $23,000 they had originally paid for the property. (2) The other choice is to force the EPA’s hand and wait for a suit. This option comes with a kicker for the property owner — the daily EPA fine meter ticks on until the court date comes. If the landowners choose door No. 2, the EPA can bleed them dry: little bit of paperwork, little dab of lawyering, little incident of lost files, little spot of miscommunication — and bang, presto, the court date finally arrives after a mountain of fines have stacked up. Lovely. (The Sacketts currently owe the EPA close to $40 million.)...more

Oil rig arrives off Havana; drilling 70 miles from Keys

2012-01-24T09:04:00.001-07:00

An offshore oil drilling operation has begun less than 90 miles from the coast of Key West. The Scarabeo 9 giant, semi-submersible rig finished its months-long trek from China and is now visible from the shores of Havana, Cuba, according to Jorge Piñon, visiting research fellow at the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University. It arrived in the Florida Straits late last week. Safety inspectors with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Interior gave the $750 million platform a passing grade earlier this month in Trinidad and Tobago. It set sail for Cuba for the final leg of its journey on Jan. 11. Drilling is expected to get under way immediately by Spanish energy company Repsol. The exploration operation will occur about 70 miles from the Keys, Piñon said. Repsol is paying Eni S.p.A., the Italian company that owns the rig, $511,000 every day its workers are aboard the vessel. Repsol is the first of several international companies that will use the Scarabeo 9 to look for oil in the Florida Straits, where the U.S. Geological Survey estimates about five billion barrels of oil sit under the ocean floor. The Cuban government thinks the amount is much higher — around 20 billion barrels...more

What Will Evolve From America's Summit on National Parks?

2012-01-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

A two-day conference designed to explore the future of national parks in America draws a wide range of speakers. There's the obvious -- National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis -- and the not-quite-so-obvious -- Alan Latourelle, the chief executive officer of Parks Canada. By the time America's Summit on National Parks winds down Thursday afternoon, the roughly 350 attendees will also have heard from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar; former NPS Directors Fran Mainella, Mary Bomar, and Robert Stanton; Carlos Alcazar, the president and CEO of the Hispanic Communications Network; Angelou Ezello, executive director of the Greening Youth Foundation; Sally Jewell, the president and CEO of REI; John Podesta, the chair and counselor of the Center for American Progress; and Milton Chen, senior fellow and executive director emeritus of the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Many others will lend their voices to the mix in a variety of ways, from experts on branding the parks in the eyes of prospective toursists, and interactive gaming experts, to even high school students. Not only educational, the speakers could be provocative in some eyes as well. Should gaming experts be seen as consultants to the National Park Service? What can Parks Canada's CEO, who is grappling with issues similar to those in the U.S. -- stagnant if not declining visitation, budget woes -- offer his cross-border colleagues? Why is someone from The Walt Disney Co. on the agenda? But, with the National Park Service turning 100 just four years from now, a little provocative conversation could be a very good thing...more

Supreme Court rules warrant needed for GPS tracking

2012-01-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

In a major decision on privacy in the digital age, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that police need a warrant before attaching a GPS device to a person's car. The ruling, which marked the justices' first-ever review of GPS tracking, was unanimous. The justices divided, however, on how the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures applies to such high-tech tracking. The case, which during November oral arguments prompted justices' references to George Orwell's futuristic novel 1984, ensures that police cannot use the Global Positioning System to continuously track a suspect before presenting sufficient grounds and obtaining a warrant from a judge. Monday's decision specifically applies when police install a GPS tracking device on a person's car, but five justices suggested in concurring statements that a warrant might similarly be needed for prolonged surveillance through smartphones or other devices with GPS capabilities...more

BLM seeks help mediating OHV flap at Johns Peak

2012-01-24T08:57:00.000-07:00

After decades of wrangling with controversy over off-highway-vehicle use on Timber Mountain/Johns Peak, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has brought in outside help. Since 1995, the agency's Medford District has been developing a management plan for the area but has been stymied by the seemingly opposing concerns of OHV enthusiasts, horse riders, hikers, environmentalists and private property owners. The BLM recently retained the Institute for Conflict Management Inc. through Portland State University's Oregon Consensus Program to smooth the way for conflict resolution. John Gerritsma, BLM field manager for the Ashland Resource Area and the one who initiated the conflict-resolution effort, believes there is enough common ground to plant the seeds of collaboration...more

Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration...

Group sues over herbicide use on federal land

2012-01-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

An environmental group claims the federal government should have reduced grazing instead of relying solely on herbicides to battle invasive weeds in an Oregon national forest. The group has asked a federal judge to block a herbicide spraying project on more than 20,000 acres of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, which was finalized by the U.S. Forest Service in 2010. The League of Wilderness Defenders-Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project challenged the project in federal court, claiming it unlawfully failed to analyze the impact of increased herbicide use on fish. The Forest Service counters that the group is overly restrictive in its understanding of regulations aimed at protecting aquatic species. Under the environmental group's interpretation of the rules, the agency would be unable to take on any restoration project with even the slightest effect on fish, said Jason Hill, an attorney for the agency. "Plaintiffs are trying to argue that you should have absolutely zero impact," he said. "It would basically bar the agency from doing anything. You could never get to the point of zero impact." During oral arguments on Jan. 23, the environmentalists requested that U.S. District Judge Michael Simon halt the herbicide project and order the agency to reconsider the plan. The agency should have evaluated ways to deter the spread of invasive weeds, such as excluding livestock from parts of the national forest, said Tom Buchele, an attorney for the group...more

Song Of The Day #756

2012-01-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

Ranch Radio brings you Benny Martin's recording of Me And My Fiddle.

The tune is on his Benny Martin's Greatest Sounds.

Home, Home … on Less Range

2012-01-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

Estimates of how much California rangeland (yellow) could be lost to climate change by 2100. Among the other landscapes illustrated are conifer forests (green), desert shrub (light brown), woody shrub growth (pink), oak woodlands (purple) and hardwood forests (blue).

To see how thoroughly the concept of ecosystem services — the economic analysis of the natural world’s intersection with human endeavors — is embedded in climate change research, check out this forecast from a group led by researchers at Duke University and the Environmental Defense Fund. It examines the future of cattle ranching, an industry that is bound up with America’s self-image, thanks to Hollywood, pulp novels and Cormac McCarthy, through the lens of a climate-changed California landscape. It concludes that, whether the state’s climate becomes warmer and wetter or warmer and drier, it will be more expensive to raise cattle because there will be less forage to sustain the animals. Significant amounts of forage — nature’s free “service” to the cattlemen — will either be dessicated (under the warmer and drier projection) as the arid conditions in southeastern California inch northward or will be replaced by less-digestible scrub and brush (under the warmer and wetter projection), the study projects. The loss will cost California ranchers tens of millions of dollars annually if it is warmer and wetter over the next 60 years or so, and $123 million to $209 million a year if it is warmer and drier, the article suggests. In coming decades, “there will be fewer places to graze cattle and cattle grazing lands will be less productive,” said Linwood Pendleton, one of the study’s lead authors, an ecosystems services specialist at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “And because we’ve built up cities and highways around them, there’s nowhere to move to.”...more

Biodiversity Crisis Is Worse Than Climate Change, Experts Say

2012-01-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

Biodiversity is declining rapidly throughout the world. The challenges of conserving the world's species are perhaps even larger than mitigating the negative effects of global climate change. Dealing with the biodiversity crisis requires political will and needs to be based on a solid scientific knowledge if we are to ensure a safe future for the planet. This is the main conclusion from scientists from University of Copenhagen, after 100 researchers and policy experts from EU countries were gathered this week at the University of Copenhagen to discuss how to organise the future UN Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IPBES -- an equivalent to the UN panel on climate change (IPCC). Species extinction and the degradation of ecosystems are proceeding rapidly and the pace is accelerating. The world is losing species at a rate that is 100 to 1000 times faster than the natural extinction rate. Mass extinctions of species have occurred five times previously in the history of the world -- last time was 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs and many other species disappeared. Previous periods of mass extinction and ecosystem change were driven by global changes in climate and in atmospheric chemistry, impacts by asteroids and volcanism. Now we are in the 6th mass extinction event, which is a result of a competition for resources between one species on the planet -- humans -- and all others. The process towards extinction is mainly caused by habitat degradation, whose effect on biodiversity is worsened by the ongoing human-induced climate change. "The biodiversity crisis -- i.e. the rapid loss of species and the rapid degradation of ecosystems -- is probably a greater threat than global climate change to the stability and prosperous future of humankind on Earth. There is a need for scientists, politicians and government authorities to closely collaborate if we are to solve this crisis. This makes the need to establish IPBES very urgent, which may happen at a UN meeting in Panama City in April," says professor Carsten Rahbek, Director for the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, University of Copenhagen...more

Global warming alone wasn't getting the job done, so...

Obama to drop nomination for wildlife-and-parks post

2012-01-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

President Obama will abandon the nomination of Rebecca Wodder as assistant secretary for the Interior Department's park and wildlife programs, ending a tumultuous six-month battle with Senate lawmakers. Wodder, who was nominated last June to replace Tom Strickland as the assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, was asked to remain with Interior as a senior adviser to Secretary Ken Salazar to oversee conservation issues and the president's Great Outdoors initiative. Rachel Jacobson will continue to serve as acting assistant secretary until the president picks a new nominee, Interior said. Confirmation will be more difficult in an election year. "As a result of the prolonged nomination process, Rebecca Wodder has asked the president that she not be re-nominated," Interior spokesman Adam Fetcher said. The decision comes weeks after the Senate returned the Wodder nomination to the White House (E&E Daily, Dec. 19, 2011). Wodder, who served as CEO of the conservation group American Rivers, was strongly opposed by several Republicans and at least one Democrat over her past statements on hydraulic fracturing, mountaintop-removal coal mining, Clean Water Act regulations and the removal of dams in the Pacific Northwest. Her nomination passed the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on a party-line vote last month, but it was unable to gain unanimous Democratic support in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which shares jurisdiction over her post...more

All Sides Suspicious of OSM/BLM Consolidation Plan

2012-01-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Department of the Interior has proposed consolidating the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Many have expressed surprise and suspicion about the plan. The BLM is much larger, concentrated in the West and leases public land for mining, grazing and drilling. The smaller OSM regulates surface coal mines and has more offices in the East. Aimee Erickson is the executive director of the national coalfield community group, Citizens Coal Council. She says she is afraid the already weak and smaller agency could see its mission watered down to nothing. "If the OSM's ability to enforce and do oversight is diminished, we can't afford that in the coal fields." One argument for consolidation is that OSM is much better at reclaiming abandoned mine lands, using funds from a per-ton fee on coal. Jason Bostic, vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, says his constituents do not want to see the reclamation fund used to clean up BLM's backlog of abandoned non-coal mines...more

Picking ranchers' brains, from Colorado to Mongolia

2012-01-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

As a college student in the mid-1980s, Maria Fernandez-Gimenez worked as a seasonal interpreter for the National Park Service. That’s when she was first exposed to the great Western debate over public-lands ranching. She soon became familiar with environmentalists’ gripes about grazing impacts, but realized she knew nothing about the ranchers’ point of view. So she went to work on a distant cousin’s ranch in northwestern Colorado, where she spent the summer sleeping in a hayloft. She went on to study the traditional ecological knowledge of Western ranchers –– the information and experiences that guide how individual livestock growers and communities work the land and manage local resources. Most of the researchers in her field focus on indigenous cultures; Fernandez-Gimenez was one of the first to concentrate on ranchers in the West, whose ecological knowledge and practices risk being lost as rangelands are transformed by development and environmental change. In addition to working in rural towns and Native American communities around the West, she’s studied nomadic pastoralists in Mongolia and, most recently, Spanish sheepherders in the Aragonese Pyrenees. Now a Colorado State University professor, Fernandez-Gimenez recently shared her unique perspective on ranchers’ global habits with High Country News...more

Rancher blogs of home on the range

2012-01-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

Debbie Lyons-Blythe describes the genesis of her blog as a “BOOM” moment. She had been considering ways to tell people about what she does as a Flint Hills rancher. The White City rancher and mother of five was talking with a relative at a family function, and the talk turned to hormones in milk and antibiotics in beef. Lyons-Blythe explained to a concerned relative that no milk is hormone-free and all beef is tested to make sure that there is no antibiotic residue in it. “If she was just one generation away from the farm and has all of these questions and concerns, then how can I expect everybody else to understand it?” Lyons-Blythe asked. “That was my epiphany moment.”Seeing it as her duty, she started her blog “Life on a Kansas Cattle Ranch,” http://kansascattleranch.blogspot.com...more

This lady is certainly active, and consider this idea:

She is now involved in an adopt-a-rancher program with two second-grade classrooms, one in Kansas and one out of state. The students write her letters, and she responds with emails that include math problems and other tasks that they are learning. “I can do most all of the topics that teachers are teaching and help reinforce that, plus give them a little bit of insight into what I do out here. And they love it,” Lyons-Blythe said. “I Skyped one classroom, and that was so much fun. The kids were crazy, excited and had lots of good questions. In everything I do, I’m looking for a way to tell people about what I do.”

Arizona's ranchers are the genuine article

2012-01-23T08:27:00.000-07:00

The honesty and integrity that define ranchers is illustrated clearly by Cochise County rancher Frank Krentz in the photograph hanging at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. His look is simple, yet definitive: white Western hat with a pressed Wrangler shirt and working blue jeans. His gaze conveys a sense of purpose, a sense of knowing what it means to understand the land and how to understand and treat animals. Actually, if you look closely at any of the 100 photographs of Arizona ranchers on display at the airport, you'll find those same admirable traits. And they're all genuine. They're real Arizonans whose families have been ranching in the state since at least statehood and are part of an exhibition called "100 Years 100 Ranchers." The expressions, settings and characters are endearing...more

The Murder of Gila County’s First Sheriff

2012-01-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

In 1885, ranchers in Texas were going broke because the bottom dropped out of the market for sheep, wool and cattle. Among those selling out was cattleman Jesse Ellison. He brought his remaining herd to Arizona in hopes of starting over, and with him was fellow rancher Glenn Reynolds, who had thrown his small herd of cattle in with the Ellisons’. Reynolds returned to Texas the next year for a second herd on behalf of his brothers. Upon reaching Holbrook, he was joined by his wife of 10 years, “Gustie,” and their four children, two sons and two daughters. The Ellison and Reynolds families established their ranching claims in the Rim Country. Just as the Reynolds family was settling down, the Pleasant Valley War broke out, and no one felt safe as sheep and cattle ranchers ambushed one another. Glenn Reynolds determined to take his family to a more secure location, and moved to Globe.[1] In 1889, Gila County was expanded by the 15th Territorial Legislature to include the northern areas that had been Yavapai County. At this reorganization of the county, Glenn Reynolds ran for sheriff, and with the help of Rim Country ranchers like Jesse Ellison, he won. In his favor was the fact that he had held the office of sheriff for one year in Throckmorton County, Texas. He had been in office only a few months when the 35-year-old family man was murdered while transporting a group of Apaches by stagecoach to the territorial prison in Yuma...more

Song Of The Day #755

2012-01-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio and here is Aaron Watson performing Something With A Swing To It.

The tune is available on his 14 track Shutupanddance on Sonnet records.

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

2012-01-22T09:17:00.001-07:00

Tales of a horse sale

by Julie Carter

Horse sale stories beget more stories. Over the centuries, the time –honored tradition of “horse trading” has changed only in the price tag.

One cowboy summed up the industry. “Last year I bought a horse at the Spring Horse Sale for $900 and sold it at a December sale for $500 and never looked back. I finally got a set of shoes on him before the sale. It took two of us and a lot of drugs. We even gave the horse some. The outlaw never learned to neck rein but I did get the buck out of him long enough to sell him. He sure was purty though!”

I personally bought one of those really “purty” ones that was represented as a “little cinchy once in a while.” It wasn’t long before I realized I owned a horse that needed a shot of drugs before you could saddle him up. He only flipped upside down when you pulled the cinch too tight or too fast and sometimes he waited until you were sitting the saddle.

Another was the nearsighted barrel racing horse. He could and would turn like a rat in a barrel but the problem was he would do it about ten feet in front of the barrel. Now that’s a scary ride.

Then there was the big, very pretty palomino that was the answer to a dream. It had rained a foot in the Panhandle, something that rarely happens. So when the cowgirl went to look at the horse, he was standing knee deep in mud.

She fell in love with him at first sight, wrote the check and trudged him through the mud to the trailer to take him home. On dry ground she could see he was about as pigeon-toed as he could be and still walk.

Tales of a horse sale

Since it didn’t rain again for a long time, it took her awhile to find him a new home. It was the first time a horse had been bought from a trader and it would take another trader to get rid of him.

The most honest reply I got when asking folks about the horse they should not have bought was, “Really, almost every horse I ever bought I shouldn’t have.”

The horse market seems to bear both ends of the dollar spectrum and has buyers that fit the bill for both.

One time a regular cow-trailing, colt-riding Panhandle cowboy got mixed up with a bunch of big-bucks horse people and ended up on a plane to Dallas to a big dispersal sale for a name-brand horse breeder.

A limo met the plane and hauled the prospective buyers to the sale where the cowboy toured the barn of sale horses with the troop.

He spotted a truly outstanding 2-year-old bay stallion and he decided that colt would be a perfect fit for him. He tells his wife, “This one would make a nice gelding. I'm gonna make somebody pay for that horse. I'll get him for $1,500 or let him go and we'll get him started this summer."

The sale started, everybody moved into the barn, took seats and held up their buyer number cards. The cowboy was on high alert for the bay colt and was not going to be outbid. He already was making plans to fly home to get his rig to come back and pick up the colt.

The bidding started at $10,000 and the first bid out was $15,000. He may not have been outclassed but he sure was outbid.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com

Cow Country and Energy

2012-01-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

Oh, Canada

Cow Country and Energy

Smokin’ Joe and his brother, Smokin’ Joe

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

If we were wealthy, we would stay home in New Mexico through the fall works and shipping time until early winter, live in the cow country of the California Central Coast from then until the grass turns golden, and then head north to Alberta for the summer. For those who know what I mean …you might agree.

Cow Country is Cow Country

The early morning flights I took out of San Francisco were filled with awe. They didn’t have anything to do with the city itself, nor would they have been viewed similarly by another traveler, but I was always breathless looking across the Bay.

The feeling was always the same, especially if it was spring. Looking out through that soft air to the Oakland Hills conjured up what it must have been when ‘a thousand cows and more’ dotted that expanse. God created nothing more beautiful than California in the spring.

The feeling reoccurred when we saw Canada. The first trips were into British Columbia to visit David Lane at Summerland. He ran the great apple program at Agriculture Canada. How beautiful that grass was!

We thought we had seen the best until we saw Alberta. It started at the Calgary airport with a greeter welcoming visitors to the Stampede. He was standing on some hay roping an occasional traveler as he or she exited the concourse. He and I made eye contact and I directed his attention to a fellow who surely didn’t live around cows.

The cowboy threw the most beautiful little hoolihan and caught that fellow in mid stride. To our surprise, the guy freaked out flipping around like he was trying to get away from a grizzly bear. He was terrified! He left there pointing and jabbering. We could only imagine what he was saying!

We were still laughing when we stepped out into the sun only to stop in our tracks. There it was … Alberta summer grass.

The Stampede

Perhaps the most patriotic ‘American’ event we ever witnessed took place over the next two days. It even culminated in a spectacular Fourth of July celebration!

We felt at home. Big American (North American!) diesel pickups, gooseneck trailers, cow people, cowboys, good horses, and in every direction from the city was that grass. We felt it in Airdrie, Cochrane, Turner Valley and up to Banff.

We didn’t feel like foreigners at all. We were all grass people … of the West.

Smokin’ Joe emerges

The first time we saw Joe Lucas rope in person was that performance at Calgary. He was riding that little bay horse that surely had more heart than he was big. All cool and collected he backed quietly into the box. He carried Smokin’ Joe to one of his two Stampede victories. They shared that victory.

We saw all the stuff that is purely Alberta. The Mountie horse team with those maple leaves somehow teased onto their horses’ hips, free style bronc riding, the chuck wagon races, the Heritage Museum at Cochrane, the beauty of Banff, and the allure of Lake Louise.

It was at the latter that one of my favorite rooms in the entire world was found. There is no better place anywhere to drink Glenlivet than looking out over the lake at the lounge at Lake Louise.

Smokin’ Joe II emerges

Few people are aware that very important discussions have begun in Canada. The public hearings are pursuing the likelihood of pumping the Alberta tar sand to the British Columbia coast at Kitima for export to the Pacific Rim.

The Obama decision to render the Keystone Pipeline an environmental victory has not set well with the Canadian government. We have been led to believe Canadians are content to sit there and let the President flaunt his ideology unchallenged. We need to think again.

There is a new generation of politicos in Ottawa, and they are displaying spine that their American neighbors only wish they had. In an open letter to the public, Canadian Natural Resources Minister, Joe Oliver, has served notice this game is now managed for Canada’s best interests.

While we assume we must endure the continuing Obama juggernaut, the Canucks are amazed the American citizenry has allowed the environmental movement to seize control of the Keystone process. There is also an annoyance that a polarized, emasculated American Congress has allowed it to happen.

“Canada will not allow environmental and other radical groups to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda,” Minister Oliver has written.

Finally, and thankfully … a new Smokin’ Joe has arrived!

A welcome war

Never before has a Canadian challenged the lock on the environment wielded by Big Green in the manner of Jack Oliver. He and his counterparts appear to have no intention of being patient with Obama in the Keystone process.

It appears the heretofore taboo suggestion of naming names has also been thrown out. The first barrage takes aim at funded radical efforts from the States. Pushed by the press to name what foreign money is flowing into Canada to fight the pipeline, Minister Oliver provided two names … The Tides Organization and the Hewlett Packard Foundation.

He also divulged a partial list of the “jet set” Hollywood crowd who is pushing the issue. Among his list were Robert Redford, James Cameron, Daryl Hannah, and Leonardo DiCaprio “all whom have lent their personas to various movements aimed at shutting down portions of the Canadian economy”.

Big Green is not used to being called out. They have enjoyed mutual exclusivity in the past by having their efforts always couched in sacred environmentalism while being exempt from any suggestion of economy wreckage. It makes them nervous.

Minister Oliver is dealing with one of the tactics of the foreign funded attacks. Big Green has demanded podium space at the hearings for 4000 speakers which adds up to 200 testimony days. How is the Canadian government going to handle it?

“This is a federal jurisdiction and so we can either through regulation or legislation deal with these issues,” Oliver continued. “There are some $500 billion of projects in the works. We can’t take them for granted.”

Other fronts

Meanwhile, the green vision of Valhalla is showing signs of cracks on all horizons. The Japanese company JOGMEC has discovered a deposit of frozen methane hydrate that could provide the entirety of Japan energy requirements for … 300 years.

This product joins the cavalcade of shale and tar oils along with emerging technologies of existing fuels that continues to shatter the expectation that skyrocketing oil prices will push the world toward renewable energy.

Methane hydrate has traditionally been a nuisance in oil drilling, but new technologies are changing that. The Norwegian oil company, STATOIL, has announced that the product must be reclassified as a fuel. They believe its time has come as a source of natural gas. The frozen product occurs in huge deep water deposits around the world.

STATOIL has also offered an estimate of the abundance of the product. It potentially contains more energy than the world’s reserves of coal, oil, and gas … combined!

The facade

Who believes that Big Green will support Renewables even if they were viable? Any person who has witnessed the big scale wind farms invariably walks away with a different attitude.

Who thinks for a moment that when the technology advances to the point that somebody is making profits that the frenzy for Renewables will remain gushy? When the open land of the West is invaded by heavy equipment and the land is stripped of fauna and flora for mirrors and more windmills, will Big Green have their cheerleaders out on the sidelines cheering?

To make Renewables work, profits that equal or exceed oil will have to be achieved. If that happens, the fight over sensitive habitat will take a new direction. Endangered species are already poised to cover every square mile of federal land. Just wait for the bull dozers to arrive!

The Truth

I prefer grass covered hills dotted with cattle alongside a robust harvest of subterranean fuel … real fuel that spews forth real BTUs. Is my view archaic?

Standing there in the San Francisco Airport visualizing what those hills must have been like when Henry Miller first saw them lies at the core of my argument. I have nothing against the Americans who live and exist in those expanding neighborhoods, but I’ll suggest something. Which is truly more environmentally friendly . . . those hills covered with a thousand and more cows …or all that humanity?

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher. “I read an account of a Texan. He had ridden out into a California spring and didn’t return on time. When he arrived, he was asked about his tardiness. It was the grass he said. He had to ride to yet one more valley to see if it was all real.”

Environmentalism and the Leisure Class

2012-01-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

This week President Obama handed down what may prove to be one of the most fateful decisions of his entire administration when he rejected the plan to build the Keystone XL Pipeline carrying oil from the tar sands of Canada to the refineries of Houston. The decision did not win him one new vote but was crucial in protecting his environmental flank. The movie stars and Sierra Club contributors were getting restless and had drawn the line in the sand. In turning down Keystone, however, the President has uncovered an ugly little secret that has always lurked beneath the surface of environmentalism. Its basic appeal is to the affluent. Despite all the professions of being "liberal" and "against big business," environmentalism's main appeal is that it promises to slow the progress of industrial progress. People who are already comfortable with the present state of affairs -- who are established in the environment, so to speak -- are happy to go along with this. It is not that they have any greater insight into the mysteries and workings of nature. They are happier with the way things are. In fact, environmentalism works to their advantage. The main danger to the affluent is not that they will be denied from improving their estate but that too many other people will achieve what they already have. As the Forest Service used to say, the person who built his mountain cabin last year is an environmentalist. The person who wants to build one this year is a developer. Environmentalism has spent three decades trying to hide this simple truth. How can environmentalists be motivated by self-interest when they are anti-business? Doesn't that align them with the working classes? Well, not quite. You can be anti-business as a union member trying to claim higher wages but you can also be anti-business as a member of the aristocracy who believes "trade" and "commercialism" are crass and not attuned to the higher things in life. Environmentalism is born from the latter, not the former. It has spent decades trying to pretend it has common cause with the working people. With the defeat of the Keystone Pipeline, this is no longer possible. Too many blue-collar and middle-class jobs have been sacrificed on the altar of carbon emissions and global warming...more

The Secret Document That Transformed China

2012-01-22T09:01:00.001-07:00

In 1978, the farmers in a small Chinese village called Xiaogang gathered in a mud hut to sign a secret contract. They thought it might get them executed. Instead, it wound up transforming China's economy in ways that are still reverberating today. The contract was so risky — and such a big deal — because it was created at the height of communism in China. Everyone worked on the village's collective farm; there was no personal property. "Back then, even one straw belonged to the group," says Yen Jingchang, who was a farmer in Xiaogang in 1978. "No one owned anything." At one meeting with communist party officials, a farmer asked: "What about the teeth in my head? Do I own those?" Answer: No. Your teeth belong to the collective. So, in the winter of 1978, after another terrible harvest, they came up with an idea: Rather than farm as a collective, each family would get to farm its own plot of land. If a family grew a lot of food, that family could keep some of the harvest. This is an old idea, of course. But in communist China of 1978, it was so dangerous that the farmers had to gather in secret to discuss it...more

A lesson learned 350 years earlier by our own Pilgrim Colony:

One of the more familiar incidents in American history, at least within conservative circles, is the disastrous experiment with a common storehouse in the Pilgrim colony in 1621-23. Governor Bradford describes in some detail in his history of the colony how young men refused to work in the common fields in order to lay up produce for a common storehouse, only to see all goods divided equally among families. Upon petition of the planters, the Governor and his council decided to follow their advice: assign families their personal plots of farm land (according to family size) and abolish the common storehouse. Immediately, men and women returned to the harvest fields. What is less known about this incident is how the little colony ever made such a disastrous decision in the first place. The fact of the matter is that the colonists had never wanted to inaugurate a system of totally common property. The group of British "adventurers" that had supplied the Pilgrim exiles in Holland with traveling money and capital had insisted that the colony be made a part of the joint-stock company. The assets of the colony therefore were the assets of the company, headquartered in Britain, and the agricultural products were to be shared equally among company members, both colonial and British. Governor Bradford was the chief agent of the company in New England; hence, he was compelled to impose the common storehouse system...