The Westerner

Calgary Stampede rodeo ‘should be stopped,’ Bob Barker says after Price is Right contestant wins trip to event

2012-02-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

Retired Price is Right host Bob Barker is speaking out against the Calgary Stampede after a contestant on Wednesday’s episode won a trip to the event. The prize, valued at $25,329, included airfare to Calgary, five days at a hotel with car rental, two days at the Stampede, tickets to the rodeo and chuckwagon races, six pairs of leather boots and a Toyota Tacoma truck. Mr. Barker was anything but thrilled by the win. “I’m concerned about the Calgary Stampede’s history of animals dying and animals being abused on a regular basis, not unlike every rodeo here in the U.S. They’re all cruel,” he said from his home in Los Angeles. “They don’t represent the glory of the Old West, or the glory of the Canadian West, they are just cruel and unsavoury forms of entertainment that should be stopped altogether.” Mr. Barker, who retired from the show in 2007, said he first became concerned about the direction of The Price is Right when the show gave away tickets to SeaWorld in Florida last month. He said he called the executive producer to complain, but never got a call back. When Mr. Barker headed the longtime program beloved by canny consumers, “we didn’t do anything that could be described as harmful for animals. We didn’t have fur coats on the show, we didn’t give away leather on the show. We didn’t give away anything objectionable, we were very careful.”...more

Proposed plans released to create a "Yellowstone" of the Southern Rockies

2012-02-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

From: Big Game Forever <ryandbenson@msn.com>

Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 1:26 PM
Subject: Proposed plans released to create a "Yellowstone" of the Southern Rockies

Folks,

I am sending you the official plan from the federal government to place wolves in the Southern Rockies. Every sportsman in America needs to see this plan. These plans will spread wolves into 97.5% of all elk in America.

Here is what they are doing: Baca National Wildlife refuge in Southern Colorado will have wolves transplanted in 2012 if portions of this plan are implemented. Baca is much, much smaller than Yellowstone. It is only 70 Miles from Northern New Mexico. It is only 250 Miles from Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. Wolves can travel that far in less than a week.

Yellowstone National Park was used to introduce wolves to the Northern Rockies. Without your help, history will repeat itself this year in the Southern Rockies.

See the official plan for yourself at the link below (look on page 8, bottom of the first column where they mention the introduction of wolves in Colorado's Baca National Wildlife Refuge).

http://capwiz.com/biggameforever/utr/1/EESPRHIPEL/LDRJRHIPMG/7872667246

Here is how you can help stop these plans:

(1) Spread the word: Send this email to 10 friends and ask them to forward this email to more friends.

(2) Join the Fight: If you haven't already, sign the online petition to stop these wolf expansion plans at http://capwiz.com/biggameforever/utr/1/EESPRHIPEL/HJDPRHIPMH/7872667246

(3) Take Action: It only takes 30 seconds to send a message to your representatives in Congress to stop these plans. Simply go to http://capwiz.com/biggameforever/utr/1/EESPRHIPEL/HTZSRHIPMI/7872667246 and click the “Take Action” button to send a message in support of two bills in Congress, S. 249 and H.R. 509, the Big Game and Livestock Protection Act. Without S. 249 and H.R. 509, it will be very difficult to slow down these plans to expand wolves throughout 97.5% of all elk in America.

Without a very substantial outcry from sportsmen and livestock owners, wolves will very likely be placed in Colorado this year. While attempts have been made to dismiss the use of wolves as "not the preferred alternative," now that they are an official part of the plan, we are one very small step away from having wolves introduced into Baca National Widlife Refuge. We can't leave this to chance.

Over 10,000 messages have already been sent to Congress to stop the plans to put wolves in the Baca, but we need many, many more. Especially from the 600,0000 hunters in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

We need all need to join the fight to stop this from happening. Remember, Idaho's elk harvest has been cut in half by wolves. Wolves have been a huge burden for livestock producers. Without substantial changes to the underlying statutes, it is a bad idea to spread these failed policies to the Southern Rockies.

Here are some news articles about these plans for wolves in Colorado.

http://capwiz.com/biggameforever/utr/1/EESPRHIPEL/HUATRHIPMJ/7872667246

http://capwiz.com/biggameforever/utr/1/EESPRHIPEL/LNKNRHIPMK/7872667246

http://capwiz.com/biggameforever/utr/1/EESPRHIPEL/IUNIRHIPML/7872667246

http://capwiz.com/biggameforever/utr/1/EESPRHIPEL/NLAFRHIPMM/7872667246

http://capwiz.com/biggameforever/utr/1/EESPRHIPEL/JMORRHIPMN/7872667246

We are continuing to research this developing story. We will keep you apprised as developments arise.

Thanks for your willingness to join the fight to protect our ranching and outdoor heritage.

--
Ryan Benson
http://capwiz.com/biggameforever/utr/1/EESPRHIPEL/LWQDRHIPMO/7872667246
ryandbenson@msn.com

Big Game Forever, LLC | 314 West Broadway #200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101

Cibola National Forest Among First Selected to Implement New FS Planning Rule

2012-02-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Forest Service today announced eight national forests that will be the first to revise their land management plans using a new National Forest System Planning Rule, after it is finalized in the months ahead. The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest in Idaho, the Chugach National Forest in Alaska, the Cibola National Forest in New Mexico, El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico and California’s Inyo, Sequoia and Sierra National Forests will begin revising their plans shortly after a final rule is selected. This announcement follows Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s news last week of the agency’s intended course of action for finalizing a planning rule, included as the “preferred alternative” in the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule. “These forests will demonstrate straight out of the gate what we’ve been talking about in terms of collaboration,” said U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. “People will see that under a new rule, public engagement increases and process decreases, all while provide stronger protections for our lands and water.”...more

Environmental groups propose plan to replace federal forest payments to Oregon counties

2012-02-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

A coalition of environmental groups, hoping to head off congressional action they believe would increase unsustainable logging, propose a three-prong approach for replacing federal forest payments to hard-hit Oregon counties. The groups called Wednesday for "shared responsibility" in solving the severe budget problems facing 18 rural Oregon counties that are among those that lost federal payments last year. They said the state, federal government and the counties themselves could each provide a third of the estimated $110 million needed annually to sustain services: The state would increase the harvest tax assessed to private forest owners to $9.21 per 1,000 board feet from $3.21, and disperse revenue to the counties. Federal management of 2.6 million acres of what's known as the O&C forestland would be transferred from the Bureau of Land Management to the U.S. Forest Service, with savings from the consolidation going to the counties. County voters would be asked to approve property tax increases. Many counties now have extremely low tax rates and collect much less than is allowed under state property tax limitations. The proposal is an alternative to bipartisan legislation expected soon from Democratic Reps. Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader, and Republican Rep. Greg Walden. Details haven't been outlined, but the Oregon congressmen propose dividing the O&C forestland into two trusts. Half would be preserved and half would be managed for timber production and county revenue...more

Raise taxes on industry, raise taxes on private property and change management to an even more bureaucratic agency - what a great way to create economic development.

Bill would make it easier to kill Oregon wolves

2012-02-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

Frustrated that a judge has blocked a state kill order against two members of Oregon's first wolf pack, the Oregon Cattlemen's Association is pushing legislation to boost the state's authority over the predators. Conservation groups that sued the state to stop the kill order say the rancher bill is an effort to circumvent their lawsuit and the state Endangered Species Act, which association's legislative chairman denies. Bill Hoyt, of the Cattlemen Association, said the group would rather the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, not judges, make decisions about wolves. "It is intended to make clear what ODFW has the power to do under what has been agreed upon in the Oregon wolf plan," said Hoyt, a Cottage Grove cattle rancher and past president of the association. He added that the association wants to get some conservation groups on board, because without them the bill is unlikely to pass. Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity said by providing a loophole for killing wolves, the bill would create a precedent for getting around state protection for any species that gets in the way of logging, ranching, or development...more

Wolves in Wyoming: A call for state control

2012-02-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

The Wyoming rancher was unmistakable, what with the wool cap, work-tattered Carhart dungarees and mud-scuffed boots. He sat, arms folded tight against his chest, as Cat Urbigkit discussed the wolf in Western history and culture. And when it came time for him to speak, it took every ounce of self-restraint not to lose his cool veneer. He told the audience about how wolves had preyed on his great-grandfather’s cattle, and how his family had helped eradicate the wolf from the state. Urbigkit, an award-winning author and photographer who lives on a working sheep ranch near Pinedale, thanked him for his honesty. She’s the author of “Yellowstone Wolves: A Chronicle of the Animal, the People and the Politics” and creator of the blog, “Wolf Watch.” Wolves, Urbigkit reiterated, are a hot-button issue in Wyoming, ever since their controversial reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s. They have proliferated, so much so that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that there are now some 300 wolves in Wyoming, and 1,600 in the region. Time, and federal protection, has given the wolf the strength to survive – and the time has come to delist the wolf from the Endangered Species List. That would allow the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to classify the wolf as a trophy game animal in northwest Wyoming, then manage their numbers as a predator outside the proposed hunting season of Oct. 15 to the end of February...more

Legislature kills prairie dog bill

2012-02-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

A group of riled-up ranchers, who were hoping the Legislature would let them sue the state over prairie dogs, went home disappointed Wednesday. Ranchers like Charles Kruse of Interior and Gary Williams of Wall said they have suffered property damage, lost income and extra expenses by prairie dog incursions on their property - incursions they say the state is legally bound to control. But when they filed a lawsuit to collect damages from the state for failing to do so, the South Dakota Supreme Court threw it out on the grounds of "sovereign immunity," the protection a state has from being sued without its consent. Having failed in the courts, the ranchers joined with Rep. Lance Russell, R-Hot Springs, to solve their problem in the Legislature. House Bill 1168 would have waived the state's sovereign immunity for cases where the state has failed to control a nuisance species. "The only way we can ... in the future, make sure that the state government performs its duties that we've given them as a Legislature is to provide for these public nuisance actions on the part of individuals that are harmed," Russell said...more

CME Group Establishes $100M Fund to Provide Additional Protection for Family Farmers and Ranchers

2012-02-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

CME Group today announced that it will establish a $100 million fund designed to provide further protection of customer segregated funds for U.S. family farmers and ranchers who hedge their business in CME Group futures markets. In light of the recent MF Global failure, in which a clearing firm violated CFTC regulations and misused customer monies that should have been kept segregated, CME Group is adding this extra security measure to protect the country's food producers who are using CME Group futures markets to hedge their crops and livestock that feed the world. Under the Family Farmer and Rancher Protection Fund, expected to be in effect by March 1, 2012, farmers and ranchers using CME Group products will be eligible for up to $25,000 per account in the case of losses resulting from the future insolvency of a clearing member or other market participant. Farming and ranching cooperatives also will be eligible for up to $100,000 per cooperative. If losses in a future failure total more than $100 million, participants will be eligible for a pro-rata share of the fund, up to $100 million. This new fund is expected to be backed by an insurance policy and will not be available retroactively...more

Colombia Drug Lords Rustling Cattle

2012-02-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

Latin America’s oldest guerrilla group’s penchant for cattle rustling is robbing Colombian ranchers of the benefits of the highest U.S.-traded futures prices since the 1960s. The cash-strapped Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is selling livestock at below-market prices after a military crackdown on cocaine production made the fighters “desperate for financing,” Juan Manuel Santos, the nation’s president, said last month. The group, known as FARC, may be Colombia’s biggest cattle owner, according to a ranchers federation. “They can sell at substantially lower prices since the cattle is stolen,” said Diego Ochoa, head of research at brokerage Cia. de Profesionales de Bolsa SA, which manages a livestock fund in Bogota. “They get a profit. For the legal producers and the legal middlemen, prices deteriorate.” Stolen cattle can be sold at a discount of 20 percent to 30 percent, weighing on domestic cattle prices, Ochoa said. Those prices slipped 8.8 percent from June 15 to Jan. 24, according to weekly figures provided by the Bogota-based Colombian Mercantile Exchange...more

Reies Lopez Tijerina to make rare appearance for land grant speech

2012-02-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

Reies Lopez Tijerina, a controversial figure from the Chicano Movement, is scheduled to make a rare appearance at one of many events honoring the anniversary of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signing.
The 85-year-old Tijerina is slated to speak Thursday at the New Mexico Statehouse Rotunda. Other events are planned include one organized by ranchers who are suing the U.S. Forest Service over its decision to limit grazing on historic land grant areas in northern New Mexico. In 1967, Tijerina and armed followers raided a Rio Arriba County courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, N.M. to attempt a citizen's arrest of then-District Attorney Alfonso Sanchez over the land grant issue. The raiders shot and wounded a state police officer and jailer, beat a deputy and took a sheriff and reporter hostage. AP

Stamp honours iconic Alberta cowboy John Ware

2012-02-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

Canada Post is recognizing an iconic cowboy and pioneer rancher John Ware with a commemorative stamp. It’s one of two stamps issued to celebrate Black History Month. The other one is a tribute to Viola Desmond, a civil rights beacon in Nova Scotia. “(John Ware’s) name has come up several times,” said Joy Parks, a researcher with Canada Post. “When we delved into the story a little bit more, and found the connection to the Stampede, it was just the perfect year to do this with the centennial this year.” Ware was born into slavery in South Carolina circa 1845, working cotton fields as a child. He was freed following the American Civil War and eventually made his way to the foothills of Alberta in 1882. He established a ranch and started competing as a steer wrestler, winning the event at the 1893 Calgary Fair. Ware helped pioneer rodeo techniques that would become staples of the Stampede. When he died in 1905, Ware’s funeral was one of the biggest Calgary had ever seen. Significantly, the stamp of Ware, designed by Victoria-based artist Lara Minja, contains an image of the deed to his land. “He hadn’t been a free man for very long, and to own land as a free man is definitely a milestone in his life,” Parks said...more

Song Of The Day #764

2012-02-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

Ranch Radio's Western Swing Week continues with Cliff Bruner's Texas Wanderers performing Can't Nobody Truck Like Me.

The tune was recorded in San Antonio on Feb. 5, 1937 and was released as Decca 5337. Band members for this session were: Cliff Bruner, fiddle; Dick McBride, vocals and guitar; Randall Raley, vocals and guitar; Joe Thames, banjo; Leo Raley, vocals and mandolin; Russell Bryant, base; Fred Calhoun, piano

Here's another one dedicated to the Crayola Cowboy who really appreciates songs of this "type".

New report released by GOP lawmakers suggests top Justice officials had extensive knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious

2012-02-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

Top Department of Justice officials had extensive knowledge of and involvement in Operation Fast and Furious, claims a new report released Thursday, hours before Attorney General Eric Holder's scheduled testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The report released by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, top lawmakers investigating the botched gunrunning operation, claims Justice Department officials in Washington and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were involved in the coordination in the early stages of the operation. ustice headquarters "had much greater knowledge of, and involvement in, Fast and Furious than it has previously acknowledged," the memo reads. The memo, which contradicts claims by the Justice Department, is based upon interviews, documents and emails involving key players of the operation run by the ATF. The operation allowed some 2,000 weapons cross the border into Mexico and into the hands of cartel members. Two of the weapons linked to the program were found at the murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010 as well as other crime scenes in Mexico. Emails released show that Kenneth Melson, former acting director of the ATF, contacted Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and told him that his organization wanted to take a "different approach" to seizing guns going to Mexico. Breuer responded that it was a "terrific idea" and the department assigned a prosecutor from its Criminal Division to work with the ATF in early 2010...more

U.S. to Pay $1 Million in Fees for Fighting Enviro Groups

2012-02-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

More than $1 million in attorneys' fees will go to six environmental groups that made the government rethink an extensive network of routes through the West Mojave desert for off-road vehicles. The groups - made up of the Alliance for Responsible Recreation, the Wilderness Society, Friends of Juniper Flats, Western San Bernardino Landowners Association, California Native Plant Society and Community Off-Road Vehicles Watch - claimed the project would threaten the habitats of the desert tortoise and the Lane-Mountain milk vetch, an endangered local plant. In September 2009, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston found the U.S. Bureau of Land Management violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Federal Land Policy and Management Act by failing to place the routes specifically to minimize environmental damage. She awarded attorneys' fees of $1,003,155 to the groups on Monday, finding most of their fee requests reasonable. Illston did not buy the bureau's "overstaffing" argument, which claimed the alliance had "eight attorneys at three different law firms" working on the case...more

Park Service ranger zaps off-leash dog walker with shock weapon

2012-02-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

A Montara man walking two lapdogs off leash was hit with an electric-shock gun by a National Park Service ranger after allegedly giving a false name and trying to walk away, authorities said Monday. The ranger, who wasn't identified, asked Hesterberg to remain at the scene, Levitt said. He tried several times to leave, and finally the ranger "pursued him a little bit and she did deploy her" electric-shock weapon, Levitt said. "That did stop him." Witnesses said the use of a stun gun and the arrest seemed excessive for someone walking two small dogs off leash. "It was really scary," said Michelle Babcock, who said she had seen the incident as she and her husband were walking their two border collies. "I just felt so bad for him." Babcock said Hesterberg had repeatedly asked the ranger why he was being detained. She didn't answer him, Babcock said. "He just tried to walk away. She never gave him a reason," Babcock said. The ranger shot Hesterberg in the back with her shock weapon as he walked off, Babcock said. "We were like in disbelief," she said. "It didn't make any sense." Rancho Corral de Tierra has long been an off-leash walking spot for local dog owners. In December, the area became part of the national park system, which requires that all dogs be on a leash, Levitt said...more

So what do you think of this? It's unbelievable to me. Next you will be zapped by a drone for unleashed dogs.

$5.1 million refuge watering system helps delay elk, bison supplemental feeding

2012-02-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

Forage produced from a new sprinkler system is likely spreading out elk and delaying the start of supplemental feeding on the National Elk Refuge, officials say. Last summer was the first year staff used the $5.1 million system, which, when fully operational, will increase irrigation from 900 to 4,300 acres. During field sampling Thursday, National Elk Refuge and Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologists found forage that’s still available for elk to eat, despite recent heavy snowfall...more

A sprinkler system for elk? And they can't balance the budget.

Group plans to sue over Whitefish Jesus statue - video

2012-02-01T09:30:00.003-07:00

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) announced in a press release Tuesday that their group will be suing the U.S. Forest Service over what they believe to be an unconstitutional presence of a statue of Jesus Christ on Whitefish Mountain Resort. The FFRF states it has prepared a legal complaint and plans to file it in Montana federal court soon. This reaction comes after Flathead National Forest Supervisor Chip Weber announced that he was reauthorizing a special use permit for the Knights of Columbus so that the statue can stay for the next decade. "I understand the statue has been a long-standing object in the community since 1955, and I recognize that the statue is important to the community for its historical heritage based on its association with the early development of the ski area on Big Mountain." Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president says that the FFRF will not let this slide...more

video removed

Lawsuit to target Over the River

2012-02-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

As Fremont County commissioners take testimony today on the temporary-use permit for Christo's Over the River project, University of Denver law students will be filing a suit in an attempt to block the grand scale art project. The New-York based artist Christo has gotten initial permission to suspend 5.9 miles of silvery, translucent fabric panels above the Arkansas River in eight different segments of a 42-mile stretch between Canon City and Salida in August 2014. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management gave the project a green light after a lengthy Environmental Impact Statement process. Christo still is required to obtain temporary use permits from both Fremont and Chaffee counties. Also on Wednesday, students in the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law will file a lawsuit in federal court in an attempt to block Over the River. The suit will be filed on behalf of the grass roots, volunteer organization Rags Over the Arkansas River, which opposes the project...more

An Administration’s Green Fiascos Pile Up

2012-02-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

The Obama administration has spent three years and billions of tax dollars in efforts to jump start a “green energy” industry in the United States. The president says that “sustainable,” clean energy sources are the wave of the future, vital to America’s future security and the well-being of the entire planet. And yet, after all this time and all that money, all the administration has to show for those efforts are a series of spectacular failures that would make a less arrogant leader blush. The Solyndra fiasco is the highest-profile of the president’s many green failures, but it’s hardly the only one. Barely a week goes by but that we learn of yet another government-funded “clean energy” boondoggle. Let’s consider a few examples. Late last year, Beacon Power Company filed for bankruptcy protection. Beacon had previously received a $39 million government-guaranteed loan in order to fund research aimed at producing energy storage devices on an industrial scale. These kinds of “super batteries” are necessary solely to cover for the deficiencies and unreliability of solar and wind power. Last Thursday, Ener1 Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection. Ener1 develops lithium storage batteries for electric cars manufactured by a company called Think Holdings, AS, which in turn has a manufacturing company located in Elkhart, Indiana. Ener1 received over $130 million in stimulus funds, and a $480 million loan from the Energy Department, promising to deliver 1,400 jobs to Indiana, while Think Holdings would generate a further 415 jobs. To date, Enre1 has created 275 jobs, while Think Holdings is down to 2 people who guard a plant at which about 100 electric vehicles – most of them unfinished – sit idly in storage. A year ago, Vice President Joe Biden hailed Ener1 as one of “100 Recovery Act projects changing America.” “A year and a half ago, this administration made a judgment,” he said at the time. “We decided it’s not sufficient to create new jobs—we have to create whole new industries.” Unfortunately for Ener1, the free market did not share the Vice President’s enthusiasm...more

Clean-energy hostages

2012-02-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

“Let the fossil fuels go, or the wind industry gets it in the wallet.” That’s the threat congressional Republicans need to convey to their colleagues across the aisle to stop the Obama war against fossil fuels. Despite President Obama’s effort in his State of the Union address to position himself as favoring an “all of the above” approach to domestic energy production, the reality of the past three years has been quite to the contrary. After failing to crush the coal industry with the ill-fated Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, Mr. Obama has since loosed his regulatory agencies, especially the thuggish Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA is on the verge of proposing its greenhouse gas emission rules for power plants - the “cap” part of cap-and-trade - despite ongoing litigation over their legality. One concern is that the rules as implemented will block the construction of new coal-fired power plants - the very same sort of power that safely provides about 45 percent of U.S. electricity. And those existing plants are in danger, too. Not only has the EPA issued its expensive anti-coal Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and Mercury Air Toxics Standard - part of the suite of regulations known as the “EPA train wreck” that pose a threat to electricity reliability - the president has also sicced the Department of Interior and Mine Safety Administration on the coal industry to interfere with underground mining...more

Conservationists call for action on mining claim markers that have killed Nevada wildlife

2012-02-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

Saying pipes used to mark mining claims in Nevada and across the West could be killing birds by the millions, conservationists are demanding federal land managers take action. The American Bird Conservancy recently wrote Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey and U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell asking the federal government to eliminate the threat posed by uncapped metal or PVC claim marker pipes that become deathtraps for birds. “We’ve got a serious bird mortality issue out there,” conservancy spokesman Robert Johns said. “There is no organized, concerted approach to dealing with this problem. That’s what we’re asking the BLM and Forest Service to do.” It’s a problem that’s been recognized for years and one which poses threats not only to birds but lizards, small mammals and insects as well, Nevada BLM officials and biologists with the Nevada Department of Wildlife agree. A change in state law provides some flexibility to deal with the issue, but its sheer scope poses a major challenge, officials said. Uncapped pipes appear to be an ideal nesting spot for birds but once they enter, birds can’t fly out or climb free. Death of dehydration or starvation in Nevada’s desert climate quickly follows, with victims including mountain bluebirds, starlings and woodpeckers, among others...more

Angry Landowners Fight Eminent Domain in Pa. Gas Field

2012-02-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

When federal regulators approved a 39-mile natural gas pipeline through northern Pennsylvania's pristine Endless Mountains, they cited the operator's assurances that it would make sparing use of eminent domain as it negotiated with more than 150 property owners along the pipeline's route. Yet a few days after winning approval for its $250 million MARC 1 pipeline in the heart of the giant Marcellus Shale gas field, the company began condemnation proceedings against nearly half of the landowners — undercutting part of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval rationale and angering landowners. Some of the landowners are now fighting the company in court, complaining that Central New York Oil and Gas Company LLC steamrolled them by refusing to negotiate in good faith on monetary compensation and the pipeline's location. Their attorneys say CNYOG has skirted Pennsylvania's eminent domain rules...more

Forest Service rules deemed ‘unworkable’

2012-02-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

The Public Lands Council (PLC), the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) and the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) said the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Forest Service ignored concerns of industry and members of Congress, disregarded federal statute and defied logic in its preferred alternative forest planning rule, which according to a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement released by USDA on Jan. 26, 2012, will be issued as the final rule in 30 days. Margaret Soulen Hinson, ASI president and Idaho producer, said ASI, PLC and NCBA are extremely disappointed that the Forest Service opted to retain the requirement to "maintain viable populations of species of conservation concern" in the preferred alternative forest plan. She said the term "maintain viable population" does not appear in federal statute and has already proven a problem under the current planning rule, as it is ill-defined and nearly impossible to achieve. Soulen Hinson said there is no scientific consensus on what level of any given population is "viable" or how it is to be managed and added that the new rule expands the provision beyond vertebrates to all species, including fungus and moss. NCBA President and Montana cattleman Bill Donald said many aspects of the draft rule, which NCBA, PLC and ASI found unworkable and commented on, are still included in the preferred alternative planning rule. He added that the creation of a new category of protected species, completely unrelated to Endangered Species Act called "species of conservation concern" and determined at the whim of the regional forester, will negatively impact the livestock industry's ability to access forest lands to raise healthy animals. Donald said the modified alternative is in ways worse than the draft rule. "It seems that the Forest Service is intent on locking-up the forest system and locking-out ranchers from land that we have responsibly managed for decades," Donald said...more

2012 grazing fee remains same as last year

2012-02-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

The Federal grazing fee for 2012 will be $1.35 per animal unit month for public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management and $1.35 per head month for lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The 2012 fee is the same as last year’s...more

Mountain lions killed after killing puppy and goats

2012-02-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

There have been several mountain lion sightings in Indian Valley recently, causing some concern among ranchers and residents alike. A mountain lion was taken under depredation permit Monday, Jan. 23, after it killed a border collie puppy over the weekend in Genesee, and another two lions were killed Wednesday, Jan. 25. The puppy was taken right off a well-lit porch at the home of Brian and Heather Kingdon early Saturday evening, with adult dogs around and the owners inside watching television. Another lion that killed goats on a neighboring ranch was still being pursued, according to local Department of Fish and Game (DFG) Warden Kyle Kroll. Van Probst, well known for his lion tracking abilities and work with landowners and local game wardens, killed the lions. “I think there’s two yearlings and a female,” Probst said of the first three lions seen in the Genesee area. He thinks maybe the lion’s offspring have been recently forced out on their own and know where the easy prey is...more

Cattle Shipped Out of Texas in Record Numbers During Historic Drought

2012-02-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

Texas breeding cattle chased the rain in 2011 to plains states such as Nebraska, South Dakota and Kansas -- even all the way to Florida -- tripling the amount shipped out of state the year before. That 150,000 head left this stricken country is only the latest metric by which to judge the huge toll the drought has taken on ranchers. "Because of the drought, so many people in Texas were forced to sell off their cows because they couldn't afford to feed them and there's no grass," Texas A&M livestock economist Dr. David Anderson tells Unfair Park. Coupled with the cattle sent streaming into stockyards and slaughterhouses, the export of breeding cattle had the effect of causing the greatest reduction in the state herd since the Great Depression. In total, we're looking at the smallest herd Texas has seen in half a century. And despite the winter rains, ranchers are still selling off breeding cows -- the engine of the Texas cow-calf operation -- at a steady clip. "The number of beef cows going to slaughter is still at a fairly high level in this region," Anderson says. For ranchers who can hold on, the depleted stock means higher calf prices at market, he adds. But for those looking to replenish their herd with replacement heifers, the buy-in will be high...more

Arizona cattlemen offering $1,500 reward for info in steer's recent killing

2012-02-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

A cattlemen's group is offering a cash reward in hopes of finding whoever is responsible for shooting and butchering a steer in southeastern Arizona earlier this month in what could be the latest in a string of livestock killings. The Southern Arizona Cattlemen's Protective Association says it is willing to pay up to $1,500 for information leading to a felony conviction in the case. The association says the steer was killed about 11 miles southeast of Patagonia off of a Forest Service road.
The group says the killing is similar to various other livestock killings on various ranches between Sahuarita and Nogales in the last several months. AP

Song Of The Day #763

2012-02-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

Western Swing Week continues on Ranch Radio this morning with the Tune Wranglers recording of Texas Sand.

The tune was recorded in San Antonio on February 28, 1936. Band members were: Ed "Buster" Coward, vocals and guitar; Joe Barnes, vocals and banjo; Harrell Williams, vocals and base; Tom Dickey, fiddle; Edward Whitley, piano.

Sixteen Concerned Scientists - No Need to Panic About Global Warming

2012-01-31T09:06:00.000-07:00

A candidate for public office in any contemporary democracy may have to consider what, if anything, to do about "global warming." Candidates should understand that the oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true. In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed. In September, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: "I did not renew [my membership] because I cannot live with the [APS policy] statement: 'The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth's physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.' In the APS it is OK to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?" In spite of a multidecade international campaign to enforce the message that increasing amounts of the "pollutant" carbon dioxide will destroy civilization, large numbers of scientists, many very prominent, share the opinions of Dr. Giaever. And the number of scientific "heretics" is growing with each passing year. The reason is a collection of stubborn scientific facts...more

New Data Could Renew Global Warming Debate

2012-01-31T09:04:00.000-07:00

The release in England last week of temperature data suggesting the earth has been cooling off over the past 15 years is bound to set off a new debate over global warming, according to a report Sunday in the Daily Mail. According to the London newspaper, the data released by Britain’s Met Office and the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit indicates that instead of facing rising temperatures the world may be headed for a “mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.” The Mail reported the data, which was collected over time from 30,000 measuring stations, indicates the warming trend may have actually ended in 1997 and is now headed in the opposite direction...more

Global Warming Activists Seek to Purge Unfriendly TV Weathermen

2012-01-31T09:03:00.000-07:00

Concerned that too many “deniers” are in the meteorology business, global warming activists this month launched a campaign to recruit local weathermen to hop aboard the alarmism bandwagon and expose those who are not fully convinced that the world is facing man-made doom. The Forecast the Facts campaign — led by 350.org, the League of Conservation Voters and the Citizen Engagement Lab — is pushing for more of a focus on global warming in weather forecasts, and is highlighting the many meteorologists who do not share their beliefs. “Our goal is nothing short of changing how the entire profession of meteorology tackles the issue of climate change,” the group explains on their website. “We’ll empower everyday people to make sure meteorologists understand that their viewers are counting on them to get this story right, and that those who continue to shirk their professional responsibility will be held accountable.”...more

Senator wants accounting of groups reimbursed for suing government

2012-01-31T09:02:00.000-07:00

Scrutiny of the Equal Access to Justice Act went bipartisan on Monday when Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., submitted a bill calling for a complete accounting of how much the fund pays people and groups that successfully sue the federal government. Last summer, House Republicans proposed their own EAJA overhaul, which would limit who can request reimbursements and also tracks the money paid out. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., supported that measure. In an interview on Monday, Tester said EAJA has been blamed for funding environmentalist lawsuits without looking at the full picture of the fund's uses. "Especially with Social Security and the Veterans Administration, we just don't have a lot of facts out there about how the money is being utilized," Tester said. "We don't know how it's impacting agency budgets. I thought it would be a good idea to get more information before we take steps to reform it." The Equal Access to Justice Act became law in 1980 under President Jimmy Carter and was permanently funded in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan. Under a paperwork reduction reform by President Bill Clinton in 1995, annual accounting of EAJA spending lapsed and was never reinstated. The result was that each agency handled its own requests and paid them out of its individual budget. Some agencies keep close track of the spending. A single call to the U.S. Forest Service Region 1 headquarters in Missoula produced a report of $1,984,981 in EAJA payments between 2000 and 2010. But calls to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were referred to the U.S. Department of Justice, whose spokesman said he couldn't find an accounting. While many environmental groups have received EAJA payments after defeating government agencies in court, the fund has also been used by business owners to challenge Occupational Safety and Health Administration decisions, veterans seeking benefits from Veterans Affairs, and security firms suing the Citizenship and Immigration Services...more

U.S. Forest Service streamlines appeal process; critics object

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

What's the difference between an appeal and an objection? When dealing with the U.S. Forest Service, it determines whether your complaint gets dealt with on paper or face-to-face. A recent change in Forest Service decisionmaking requires project opponents to argue their points much earlier in the process. Proponents of the change expect better, faster decisions on logging sales, special use permits and other activities on national forests. Agency sparring partners fear it limits people's ability to block bad decisions. "Frankly, we think it's going to be a huge improvement," said Keith Olson of the Montana Logging Association. "In order for somebody to become a litigant, they have to have involvement in the project. They can't come in at the 11th hour and throw a monkey wrench in the works." "I think it's kind of screwy," said Arlene Montgomery of Friends of the Wild Swan, an organization that's frequently tangled with the Forest Service. "The normal process is they scope a project, release an environmental assessment, you comment on that, they make changes. Then they issue a decision and you can appeal the decision...more

Environmental group to lawmakers: 'Don't drill and drive'

2012-01-31T08:59:00.000-07:00

An environmental group is criticizing the House Republican plan to tie a new federal highway bill to increased offshore oil drilling. The New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said in a memo to reporters Monday that its message to lawmakers this week could be compressed to one sentence: "Don't drill and drive." GOP leaders in the House are planning to use revenue from increased offshore oil drilling to pay for their version of a new surface transportation bill that would last four years and cost $260 billion. Transportation advocates have sought a long-term reauthorization of highway and transit programs, which currently expire on March 31, but the NRDC said it should not come like this. The NRDC praised the Senate's plan to pass a two-year budget for highway programs that relies on more traditional sources of funding such as the highway gas tax as "bi-partisan."...more

Custer Battlefield Museum Files Lawsuit Against the United States In U.S. Federal Court of Claims

2012-01-31T08:57:00.001-07:00

After years of harassment, false allegations, and wrongful persecution, Christopher Kortlander, founding director of the Custer Battlefield Museum, and the businesses he operates at Garryowen, Montana, have filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit in the U.S. Federal Court of Claims in Washington DC against the United States (1:11-cv-00601-MBH Kortlander et al v. USA). The lawsuit was filed in response to the actions of various law enforcement agents of the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of the Interior, and the United States. Kortlander states that the purpose of the suit is to recover from the damages caused by years of malicious prosecution by the many federal agencies involved in two raids on his businesses and private residence. Even worse than the recently publicized federal harassment of Gibson Guitar Corp., Kortlander alleges that numerous federal agents from several agencies conducted an unremitting witch hunt against him, dating back to 1996. At that time, Kortlander dated the ex-wife of a BLM Special Agent who used his federal law enforcement authority to spy on the comings and goings of his ex-wife and Kortlander. Following Kortlander's report of harassment, the agent was reassigned out of the BLM and his law enforcement undercover team was disbanded. Since then, Kortlander says he has been targeted by federal law enforcement agents, with the intent of destroying his reputation as a dealer in historical artifacts, and forcing him to close the businesses he owns and operates in Garryowen, Montana, which includes the Custer Battlefield Museum that he founded in 1995. Said Kortlander, "Despite repeated raids on my home and my businesses, and the destruction of my personal reputation, I had done nothing wrong, and no criminal charges were ever filed against me," although, Kortlander says, the threat of impending multiple federal felony indictments were held over his head for nearly five years. "I'm still trying to force the government to return all the seized items," he added. "I'm not the only person this has happened to," Kortlander continued. "For every case like mine that is mentioned in the media, there are many more that never get noticed. Federal agents can and have destroyed the lives of many law-abiding citizens. If you run afoul of the administration bureaucracy, you can be targeted for financial ruin and public humiliation without the benefit of the Constitutional protections which a defendant enjoys when a case is filed for prosecution in the judicial branch of government. I'm determined to bring this misuse of federal power and taxpayer dollars into the light of day."...Press Release

Ex-foes aim for common ground on Idaho forests

2012-01-31T08:56:00.000-07:00

The easy work for former adversaries in the Idaho timber wars was to start talking and develop trust. Now those environmentalists, foresters and loggers are testing the strong relationships they’ve forged in collaborative efforts state-wide. The Idaho Forest Restoration Partnership is tackling the hard issues about how much timber can be cut and thinned to restore healthy forests, and how that will be paid for. “So much of it comes down to what we are leaving behind,” said Jonathan Oppenheimer, senior associate for the Idaho Conservation League. “More and more, we’re having these discussions.” The collaborators are in Boise this week for two days of conferences aimed at finding common ground on thinning or cutting the forests of North Idaho. There is consensus among environmentalists and industry foresters that thinning the ponderosa pine-dominated forests makes them healthier, more resilient and more resistant to large-scale fires. Ponderosa pines make up most of the forests around Boise. There is less agreement about the stands of trees that grow in the wetter, higher elevations — “mixed severity forests” — that make up most of North Idaho. But forest science is beginning to suggest that these large areas of mixed-severity forests can, and perhaps should, be cut...more

Killer sheepdogs and five other top terrors of the backcountry

2012-01-31T08:50:00.001-07:00

Anyone thinking about abandoning the safety and comfort of the big city for a trip to Colorado's savage backcountry, take heed. Not only might you be braving the caprices of nature and the hardships of an untamed wilderness, but you could also encounter a particularly fierce breed of sheepdog. According to this horrific account in the Durango Herald, the dreaded Akbash sheepdog from Turkey might even bark at you. The aggressive dogs, which are increasingly being used on Forest Service lands and elsewhere on the Western Slope, apparently do a damn good job of protecting their flocks from predators. But they've managed to alarm some hikers and mountain bikers, leading officials in Silverton to fret about their impact on the tourist trade. Mind you, there have been no accounts of people actually being mauled by these ferocious canines. The Forest Service doesn't even have any official complaints. But hikers and bicyclists have felt "intimidated" by their presence: "The dogs snarl and, according to some reports, chase them." Not exactly the same as being chased by a bear, a mountain lion, or one of the other predators the dogs are keeping at bay, but still. You can see how scary they are in this actual Forest Service photo of an Akbash...more

Mr. Prendergast then lists and discusses the five other top terrors of the back country, starting with #5, rocks and #4, trees and so on. Hilarious stuff.

Don't Blame School Food For Obesity

2012-01-31T08:49:00.000-07:00

Don't blame the on-campus sale of snacks for making kids fat. So says a study of 19,000 middle-schoolers. Shouldn't it be clear by now that good health starts at home? It's time to chill out about the Cheetos, if these or similar guilty pleasures are being sold at your kids school. It's not that they're nutritious. It's just that they're not the dangerous fat bombs that many dietary activists have made them out to be. And another thing: Don't expect school to teach your children how to eat. That's up to you, Mom and Dad. A newly published study by researchers at Penn State, using data on 19,450 children from fifth to eighth grade, found no link between weight gain and the availability of so-called "competitive foods." That label covers food such as soft drinks, candy bars and chips sold in vending machines or snack bars and not required to meet federal nutrition guidelines for school meals — in short, junk food. Most middle schools covered in the study sell it, often to raise money for athletics and other student activities. It's also a fat target for those who blame the food industry — rather than the choices people make with regard to diet and exercise — for the nation's obesity epidemic...more

Folklorist’s Global Jukebox Goes Digital

2012-01-31T08:47:00.000-07:00

Alan Lomax 1942

The folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax was a prodigious collector of traditional music from all over the world and a tireless missionary for that cause. Long before the Internet existed, he envisioned a “global jukebox” to disseminate and analyze the material he had gathered during decades of fieldwork. A decade after his death technology has finally caught up to Lomax’s imagination. Just as he dreamed, his vast archive — some 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, 5,000 photographs and piles of manuscripts, much of it tucked away in forgotten or inaccessible corners — is being digitized so that the collection can be accessed online. About 17,000 music tracks will be available for free streaming by the end of February, and later some of that music may be for sale as CDs or digital downloads. Starting in the mid-1930s, when he made his first field recordings in the South, Lomax was the foremost music folklorist in the United States. He was the first to record Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie, and much of what Americans have learned about folk and traditional music stems from his efforts, which were also directly responsible for the folk music and skiffle booms in the United States and Britain that shaped the pop-music revolution of the 1960s and beyond. Lomax worked both in academic and popular circles, and increased awareness of traditional music by doing radio and television programs, organizing concerts and festivals, and writing books, articles and essays prodigiously. At a time when there was a strict divide between high and low in American culture, and Afro-American and hillbilly music were especially scorned, Lomax argued that such vernacular styles were America’s greatest contribution to music...more

Song Of The Day #762

2012-01-31T08:32:00.000-07:00

Ranch Radio's Western Swing Week brings you one of my favorites: Little Betty Brown by Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies.

The tune was recorded in Chicago on Jan. 28, 1935. Band members are: Milton Brown, vocals; Derwood Brown, vocals and guitar; Ocie Stockard, vocals and banjo; Bob Dunn, steel guitar; Wanna Coffman, base; Cecil Brower, fiddle.

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