FWS Signs Key Component of Lesser Prairie-Chicken Conservation Agreement

Washington, D.C. (March 3, 2014) – Friday evening, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) quietly signed the Range-wide Oil and Gas Industry Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken (CCAA), along with an accompanying environmental assessment. This agreement between USFWS, WAFWA, and the five range states allows private landowners who develop oil and gas on their lands to voluntarily enroll into the CCAA. Upon entering the CCAA, participants will pay mitigation fees when they perform certain actions that impact the lesser prairie-chicken or its habitat. These fees will then be used for conservation purposes.   

Western Caucus Chairman Steve Pearce and Western Caucus Member Randy Neugebauer responded to the announcement with the following statements:    

“I want to commend FWS for working with the five range states to approve the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Oil and Gas CCAA,” said Chairman Steve Pearce. “This decision will provide certainty for private landowners as they continue to exercise their rights to develop the resources on their lands. Listing the lesser prairie-chicken as endangered threatens the economic stability of our communities. Fortunately, conservation and development are not mutually exclusive goals. FWS must continue to work with the five range states to fully implement the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Range-Wide Conservation strategy, which they endorsed last October. This plan added over 1.5 million acres of habitat to millions of acres already enrolled through other FWS approved conservation programs. Energy, agriculture and other industries have proven that they will put in the effort to ensure that the species will survive, and preclude the need for an endangered or threatened listing. I look forward to working with FWS, WAFWA, the range states, and my colleagues in Washington to save the lesser prairie-chicken and the jobs our communities so desperately need.”

“I’m really pleased the Fish and Wildlife Service heeded our request to finalize the Range-wide Oil and Gas Industry Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken,” added Congressman Neugebauer. “This is an important step toward giving the range-wide conservation plan a chance to succeed, preventing a costly and unnecessary listing. Farmers, ranchers, energy companies, and landowners can work together with state wildlife agencies to preserve habitat and protect the Lesser Prairie Chicken, without federal intervention.”  

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BLM acquires more land for prairie chicken

The Bureau of Land Management and The Conservation Fund have protected 7,440 acres of land about 35 miles east of Roswell for key habitat for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken. The land is within a 58,000-acre Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) in Chaves County. “There are few things we do in our professional lives that are as critical and long-lasting as today’s acquisition for the prairie-chicken,” said Doug Burger, Pecos District Manager for the BLM. “The Conservation Fund was extremely helpful in working with the landowner to accomplish the acquisition and we want to express our deepest admiration and thanks for their efforts.” The Conservation Fund negotiated the purchase of the land. When the sale was finalized on March 3, the Fund sold it to the BLM, which received funding from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to complete the transaction. The LWCF funding was provided to the BLM with strong support from New Mexico Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall. “We’re especially pleased to partner with the BLM to protect one of the best strongholds for the lesser prairie-chicken in the nation,” said Mike Ford, director of the southwest office of The Conservation Fund. “Senators Bingaman and Udall championed this project in Congress and we greatly appreciate their support and commitment to preserving the state’s natural legacy.”...read more

COMMENT: Let's see, there is a document floating around Interior listing the Lesser Prairie Chicken Preserve as a potential National Monument; the head of the Southwest Region for the Conservation Fund is a former NM BLMer; and NM BLM gets allocated over a million bucks to add acreage to the preserve. I'd say we have a National Monument in the making.

Landowners in prairie chicken areas offered deal

The federal government is offering first-of-its-kind legal protections for landowners who implement conservation measures to protect the lesser prairie chicken's dwindling populations across five states. The prairie chicken is found in parts of Eastern Eddy County. The move is designed to ease the concerns of landowners, ranchers and the energy industry that they would no longer be able to operate in the bird's habitat if the prairie grouse is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The agreement could also serve as a model for other areas where industry and landowners could be impacted by a threatened or endangered animal. The deal is simple: Those who take steps to conserve and preserve habitat will receive a letter guaranteeing they will not be fined or prosecuted if lesser prairie chickens are found dead on their property. "As long as they continue to implement the ... conservation plan then they have nothing to fear from the Endangered Species Act or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service," Dan Ashe, the wildlife service's director, told The Associated Press. The wildlife service is expected to announce by March 30 whether to list the lesser prairie chicken as a federally protected threatened species, impacting the plains of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. The pending decision has prompted vocal opposition and sparked a broad state-run initiative designed to conserve areas in hopes of avoiding a federal listing for the bird. The federal offer is a unique agreement between the wildlife service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service. The agencies will have conservation practices outlined and agreements available in the coming weeks. To enter an agreement, landowners would have to undertake specific conservation measures, such as keeping the grasses long enough to hide nests, clearing brush and building ramps in cattle water troughs to ensure the birds don't drown. Grants could help cover the costs. The prairie grouse was once abundant in its five-state region, but its historical home of grasslands and prairies has been reduced by an estimated 84 percent as development converted habitat to other uses. When federal regulators first proposed in December 2012 to list the bird under the Endangered Species Act, there were fewer than 45,000, according to the wildlife service. A recent survey counted 18,000. Drought and loss of habitat are blamed for the decline...more

Don't know all the details, but doubt this a "first-of-its-kind" agreement.  It sounds like the Safe Harbor Agreement program of the USFWS; more specifically their Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances.  Those programs are limited to private landowners.

NEWS ROUNDUP

Westerners see poetic justice in saving snakehead For years, Alan Gardner has watched Easterners tie up land and scuttle development in the West by asking federal bureaucrats to put various rodents, predators and pests on the nation's endangered-species list. Now it's time for a little payback. Mr. Gardner is leading a band of 13 commissioners from Western counties who have filed to seek protection for a rare new species: the northern snakehead fish, also known as the "Frankenfish." In their application on behalf of the snakehead, the commissioners identify its habitat as a stretch of freshwater and land covering 68 million acres and cutting across 11 Eastern states and Washington, D.C. In the unlikely event that their petition is approved, the snakehead's hangouts would come under strict restrictions on building, transportation and recreation in the name of protecting the famous fish....
Engineers Redesign Roads to Save Moose At night on a dark country road, all that the headlights catch are the shadowy legs the size of tree trunks rising out of the pavement. Standing six feet at the shoulder, weighing up to 1,000 pounds, with massive antlers more than five feet across, moose tower over automobiles and have no fear of them. Increasingly the undisputed giants of the northern forest are tangling with traffic as they expand south. Massachusetts motorists hit 52 moose last year, a more than sixfold increase in four years. But now some traffic engineers around the country are experimenting with redesigning roads to accommodate wandering wildlife and using high tech laser and infrared devices, developed for space exploration and anti-missile systems, to warn motorists when a moose wanders into the road....
Professor protects critters If God's eye is on the sparrow, who's keeping tabs on the weasels? Kerry Foresman and Cory Clausen, that's who. Foresman, a University of Montana biology professor, and Clausen, who works for Roscoe Steel and Culvert Co. in Missoula, have patented a handy-dandy anti-roadkill device called the "critter crawl," a metal, mesh shelf that nestles inside a culvert, suspended above any flowing water. It allows furry little fauna such as fishers, martens, weasels, raccoons, skunks, porcupines, marmots — everything from the endangered lynx to the everyday puddy tat — to tiptoe under a highway, safe from the wrath of B.F. Goodrich....
Prairie chickens draw crowds More than 100 people flocked from as far as Massachusetts and as close as Clovis this weekend to attend the fourth annual High Plains Prairie Chicken Festival. The highlight of the weekend is the lesser prairie chicken’s mating ritual. Right before the springtime sunrise, male prairie chickens congregate on raised semi-clearings called “leks.” Here they puff their feathers, their pinnate and their bright red cheeks, as they spar, stomp and scratch to woo the female. The male’s mating “booming” cry can be heard up to a mile away....
All in the name of buffalo Justine Sanchez' maternal instinct fueled her desire to volunteer for the Buffalo Field Campaign. "As a mother, I felt like I have to raise my child to be a conscious human," she said this past week. "That's the only way we're going to be successful, to raise our children to look out for the buffalo." Sanchez, who lives in the mountains near Ward, Colo., started volunteering for the campaign four years ago after she grew frustrated reading about the capture and killing of Yellowstone National Park buffalo. These women, along with hundreds of other volunteers, are the reason the Buffalo Field Campaign is going strong. Now in its eighth year, the group wants to end what it sees as the unjustified slaughter of wildlife, all in the name of protecting cattle....
Devils Tower to keep name If God's eye is on the sparrow, who's keeping tabs on the weasels? Kerry Foresman and Cory Clausen, that's who. Foresman, a University of Montana biology professor, and Clausen, who works for Roscoe Steel and Culvert Co. in Missoula, have patented a handy-dandy anti-roadkill device called the "critter crawl," a metal, mesh shelf that nestles inside a culvert, suspended above any flowing water. It allows furry little fauna such as fishers, martens, weasels, raccoons, skunks, porcupines, marmots — everything from the endangered lynx to the everyday puddy tat — to tiptoe under a highway, safe from the wrath of B.F. Goodrich....
Lawsuit Pits Tribe Against U.S. and Endangered Bighorn Sheep Peninsular bighorn sheep have lived in this sun-drenched oasis and the parched mountains looming above as long as Native Americans have been here. It is an ancient relationship enshrined in the bighorn statue chained securely in front of the Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians' downtown administrative offices. But now, the tribe is suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking to withdraw special protection of 844,000 acres for the endangered sheep. Tribal officials contend that the "critical habitat" designation could cost them "hundreds of millions of dollars" in future development revenues — even though only 17,000 of the protected acres are on reservation land. An attorney for the tribe said that to challenge the habitat designation on the reservation land, the lawsuit had to target all 844,000 acres. The tribe, which owns half of downtown Palm Springs, says it has no immediate plans to develop the lands, but wants to preserve its right to do so....
Freedom beckons 6 lynx Finally, he went for it. Seconds later, the lynx had vanished, becoming Saturday the newest transplant to a state his species once called home. The $2.5 million lynx reintroduction program the Colorado Division of Wildlife began six years ago is reaching its apex and drawing to an end. Not only is this the last year wildlife officials intend to release large groups of the cats into the San Juan Mountains, but it’s also the first year they will have a real chance of telling whether the reintroduction effort is working. Kittens born in Colorado are old enough to breed, and if they do, it could mean the species is once again taking hold....
Dispute brewing over expansion plans at Little Bighorn Battlefield The current superintendent of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument near here is at odds with a former superintendent and a National Park Service historian over a proposal to expand the battlefield's museum and visitor center. Current Superintendent Darrell Cook said he is taking a ‘‘very preliminary'' look at adding an indoor interpretive space to the visitor center and expanding the onsite museum. But Robert M. Utley, the former chief historian of the National Park Service, which operates the national monument, said expanding the visitor center at its existing location ‘‘would likely inhibit, perhaps fatally,'' long-term plans to move the center off the site of the 1876 battle. In a letter to the Custer Battlefield Historical and Museum Association, Utley said it ‘‘is widely acknowledged'' that the National Park Service chose the wrong site in 1950 by building the museum at the battlefield site. ‘‘It is a major intrusion on the historic landscape and ought to be removed as soon as possible,'' he wrote....
Man rushes to preserve dino tracks Grand Junction resident Andre Delgalvis launched a race against time and the spring runoff to save what may be a significant find of dinosaur footprints at Lake Powell. Several years in a row of drought has drained Lake Powell to roughly one-third its capacity, the lowest it has been since it was filled in the 1960s. Historically low water levels at the lake have revealed hundreds — possibly thousands — of dinosaur tracks embedded in sandstone rocks that now rest on the shoreline, said Delgalvis. When the reservoir is full, the rock and footprints will be submerged. Delgalvis wants to save the dinosaur footprints before they’re inundated with water, covered again perhaps for decades....
Senate panel OKs bill for Mississippi drilling in Gulf Islands Seashore A U.S. Senate committee has approved a bill that would allow the state of Mississippi to explore, develop and produce oil and gas from beneath the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The bill, approved Wednesday by the Senate Appropriations Committee, also could prevent litigation between the National Park Service and the state of Mississippi over the rights to oil and gas under the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The committee is headed by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. The bill must pass the Senate and House before it could become law. More than 80 percent of Gulf Islands National Seashore is under water, except for the barrier islands. The seashore stretches 160 miles from Cat Island in Mississippi to the eastern tip of Santa Rosa Island in Florida....
"Fair balance" urged on Roan The federal government has seriously underestimated the impacts of its plan to drill for gas on western Colorado's Roan Plateau and should adopt more environmental protections to avoid a court fight, a coalition of local governments, businesses and environmentalists says. In comments submitted Friday to the Bureau of Land Management, the group urged the federal agency to adopt a competing proposal that would prohibit drilling from the plateau but allow directional wells to access gas beneath it. The coalition, which includes two counties, conservation groups and businesses, claims the BLM study is flawed because it looks at environmental impacts during only the first 20 years of a development cycle that will last much longer....
Gas bonanza shakes dust from Western towns Landscape painter Alfred Jacob Miller set up his easel on the shore of Fremont Lake 168 years ago and rendered one of the most famous romantic portraits ever made of the wild American West. Today, in the small ranching and tourist community that grew up around the venerated lake, motel rooms in Pinedale are sold out, but not from traditional tourists exploring the haunting Wind River range. The influx stems from an unprecedented invasion of oil-patch "roughnecks" creating a round-the-clock beehive of drilling rig crews, pipe layers, roadbuilders, and truck fleets. Indeed, tiny Pinedale represents ground zero in one of the biggest natural-gas booms in the postwar era. Driven by high energy prices and looser government regulations, it is transforming many of the small towns here along the rumpled spine of the Rockies — creating thousands of lucrative jobs, pouring money into local treasuries, and, as always happens with sudden growth, producing new problems ranging from traffic to drug use....
Column: ANWR is a start Sometimes we have to hand it to our greener friends, especially those in the Green Party. To express their horror about the recent Senate vote to open a teeny section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling, they raise the global warming specter. Specifically, the March 22 press release says, "Green Party members noted that new drilling not only threatened local lands and wildlife in Alaska, but also risked accelerating the advance of catastrophic global warming." Even if we grant all the globe's average annual warming of 0.017 degree Centigrade in the last 10 years was due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide -- and that's quite a concession -- the numbers on ANWR are a drop in the barrel. According to the Energy Information Administration, in that decade petroleum accounted for about 42 percent of the total human contribution of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. That would mean a total petroleum-related warming of about 0.007 degree yearly....
Sand and gravel plant in tight spot Sandia Aggregates may be about to lose it all in an unusual conflict that pits sand and gravel production against the protection of sensitive lands. The company, owned by Pabco Building Products LLC, will begin shutting down this month and will have to lay off at least half of its 20 employees. At the heart of the issue are location and time. Sandia's operations in northeast Clark County abut the Rainbow Gardens Area of Critical Environmental Concern. That site is a 37,620-acre parcel east of Frenchman's Mountain that received federal protected status in 1998, partly because it is a habitat for sensitive plants, such as the bearpaw poppy, and threatened animals, including the desert tortoise....
Column: Tree Huggers Finally Branch Out Some environmentalists are ready to pronounce their movement dead. As evidence they point to the relentless confidence with which President Bush and Republican majorities in Congress attack long-standing environmental goals, such as protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drillers. In truth, though, the environmental movement's vitality depends on how we define the movement. This is more than a linguistic exercise. Take global warming. The "environmentalism is dead" crowd contends that the big environmental groups have failed to get new federal laws passed limiting global-warming gases. The reason, they say, is the green groups' inability to link with labor and social movements and develop a broad coalition to take on such multifaceted issues as global warming. The environmentalists counter they have partners in their quest for energy efficiency. Both sides overlook a new dynamic that is revitalizing and redefining environmentalism: the development of locally and regionally based quality-of-life movements....
A testy case on access Asher's house sits on a low bluff above the John Day. For him, "steelheaders" has become an epithet, synonymous with the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, a group on the opposite side in a long-running dispute over who owns the banks along the Central Oregon river. On Tuesday, the State Land Board is expected to side with the steelhead group and assert the public's ownership over a 174-mile stretch of the John Day as it flows from near Spray into the Columbia River east of The Dalles. In the next several years, the state is set to do the same with at least six more rivers, starting next with the upper Rogue River. And if the experience around Spray is any indication, the other decisions will prove just as fraught with politics, lawsuits and enmity. "They way I see it, we're sort of a test case," Asher said. "Whatever is decided here will apply to the rest of the rivers in Oregon."....
Drought means less water for Klamath farmers Spring rain and snow have been too little, too late to avert irrigation cutbacks on the Klamath Reclamation Project, where farmers will have to tighten their belts to sustain threatened and endangered fish in a drought. The operations plan for the 2005 irrigation season released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation cuts back water for farmers by 15 percent on the bulk of the 180,000-acre project straddling the Oregon-California border on the east side of the Cascade Range. ``Since this is shaping up to be the third driest year on record, I am asking all Klamath Basin farmers, both on and off the reclamation project, to really tighten up on their water usage,'' said Dave Sabo, Reclamation's manager for the Klamath Project. Because of the drought, the amount mandated for fish is less than in wet years. A water bank set up to increase flows for fish has ramped up to 100,000 acre feet this year - about a third of what goes to irrigation. Farmers are being paid $7.6 million to leave 25,000 acres dry and divert wells. Nearby wildlife refuges are contributing 15,000 acre feet....
State prepares for water 'call' response Wyoming needs a plan to respond to a "compact call" on the Colorado River, should such a call ever happen, state officials say. Deputy State Engineer Harry LaBonde spoke with members of the Green River Basin Advisory Group here this week about the state's work on such a plan. The planning process focuses on the need for the upper basin states to provide water to the lower basin states under the Colorado River Compact, which was signed in 1922. With five years of drought, major storage accounts are low and could get lower. Wyoming's Green River is a tributary of the Colorado River....
Could Bull Riding Become the Next NASCAR? The wild sport of bull riding has always had its fans, but a group of cowboys wants more. They are trying to do for bull riding what NASCAR did for stock-car racing -- propel it into the big leagues. With high-tech shows and big-money promotions, bull-riding competitions have been filling arenas from California to the Carolinas and building a loyal TV audience of millions of fans. Bull riding advocates say the sport appeals to more than just cowboys. "You don't have to have a cowboy hat, you don't have to be from Wyoming, you don't have to have an agriculture background, it's just the sports fan," said Tuff Hedeman of the Professional Bull Riders Association....
Saddler's craft fits him well Saddler Doug Zinsitz is just about the last of his breed in this part of Texas. But once there was Don Atkinson in Ingram, Leonard Galvan on West Avenue in San Antonio and Don Atcheson in Kerrville. Before that, a rider could get a custom-made saddle in the now-defunct downtown Joske's department store. Even routine saddle-making jobs, once plentiful in Yoakum, are gradually being shifted to Mexico. Now, Doug's Saddlery on Main in Boerne is about the nearest place for locals to get a saddle featuring the leather and designs — called tooling — that they want. "It's a tough business to get into because it's hard to get schooled in this kind of work since you can't get the tools you need," said Zinsitz, 50....
Wild West Expo begins this week From 33 states and four foreign countries, western arena arts experts and fans will gather in Claremore April Wednesday through Sunday for the Will Rogers Wild West International Expo (public events start Thursday morning). If you have ever watched rope twirling, gun spinning or the latest Halle Berry movie, when she cracks a whip in each hand as “Catwoman,” and wondered “how’d they do that,” come to the Claremore Expo Center for the answer. Like explaining how a magic act really works, experts in western arena arts will conduct exhibitions, seminars and lessons and compete during the Will Rogers Wild West International Expo at the Claremore Expo Thursday through Sunday. The Wild West Expo, moving to Claremore after 16 years in Las Vegas, is co-sponsored by the Will Rogers Heritage Trust and Wild West Arts Club....
Trick roper will spin butterflies Charro-style trick riding will be one of the features at the 84th Red Bluff Round-up Rodeo April 15-17 at the Tehama District Fairground. One of the brightest young talents performing the classic charro-style trick roping; Tomas Garcilazo will present La Charreria. Garcilazo was born and raised in his family heritage in the most traditional and pure sport of Mexico La Charreria. He has been champion all around in this sport which is composed of seven different events called Charro Complete. Garcilazo has been traveling all around the world developing horsemanship and roping skills bringing to the United States a Mexican flavor of his tradition and culture....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Black gets nod, not the wave at rodeo parade It's not easy being Queen for a Day. The Tucson Rodeo Parade Committee, numbering in the thousands as far as I could see, chose me to be their grand marshal. I was humbled and excited! It was like being nominated Secretary of Commerce or having Reggie Jackson ask for my autograph. In the interest of public disclosure they informed me that I was not the first choice, which explained the wadded up checklist I found in the rodeo museum trash can. My name was at the bottom. The following names had been crossed out: Sam Elliott, Condie Rice, Martha Stewart, Fred Whitfield, Theodore Roosevelt, Howard Hughes, Lassie, an Elvis impersonator and Garfield. The committee explained I would have responsibilities other than simply riding in the parade. I imagined interviews with National Public Radio, Dan Rather, Rush Limbaugh, a TV spot with Larry King, ribbon cuttings at Hoover Dam, the Pro-Rodeo Hall of Fame, Chernobyl. Instead, it turned out I was required to bus tables after the volunteers' luncheon, detail the parade chairman's car, and hawk nachos and beer during the slack performances....

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NEWS ROUNDUP

Army Hasn't Ruled Out Pinon Canyon Condemnations Sen. Wayne Allard says the Army has told him it prefers to buy land from willing sellers to expand its Pinon Canyon training site in southeastern Colorado, but it has not ruled out condemnations. Some farmers and ranchers are opposed to the expansion and fear they will be forced to sell their land, which is located along the historic Santa Fe Trail. Steve Wymer, Allard's spokesman, said others in the area are open to selling their land. Te Legislature is debating a bill that would bar the Army from using state eminent domain law to require landowners to sell, but even its backers admit the measure would be more symbolic. Wymer said the Army has long said that forcing landowners to sell "would be a last resort." Rancher Lon Robertson, the leader of a group opposing the expansion, said there are always some ranches for sale in the area but the majority of landowners don't want to sell. He the latest Army statement is nothing new....
Public: Slow Pinedale area gas development No one who spoke during four open houses hosted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said they backed the agency's plan for energy development in the Pinedale area. The BLM's preferred alternative is to allow a mixture of oil and gas development while making some areas off limits to drilling and related activity. But those who spoke at open houses in Rock Springs, Jackson, Pinedale and Marbleton said they want the agency to slow development and do more to protect wildlife and natural resources. The biggest turnout was in Pinedale, where a crowd spent several hours speaking about the proposed development plan, which remain open for public comment until May 18....
Coal-bed methane water appeals on rise Appeals of coal-bed methane water discharge permits are on the rise, complicating gas development in the Powder River Basin. Coal-bed methane wells extract natural gas by pumping water off underground coal seams. Oftentimes the groundwater is useful for ranchers in arid northeast Wyoming, but other times the water can flood low-lying grazing areas. Terri Lorenzon, director of the state Environmental Quality Council, thinks the shifting areas of the coal-bed methane play may have something to do with the increase in permit appeals. "These discharges are where they impact people more and more," she said. The state Department of Environmental Quality also has noticed an increase in appeals. John Wagner, a water quality supervisor for the agency, said 11 appeals are pending. "We're getting appeals from both sides, environmental and industry," he said. "It's just that coal-bed methane is very controversial, and there seems to be an unwillingness to compromise on both sides."....
Cooperative range monitoring fosters trust in western Wyoming Western Wyoming ranchers who hold permits to graze livestock on federal lands say their relationship with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management has gone from contentious to cooperative. This new sense of goodwill, according to the ranchers, stems from a monitoring program spearheaded by the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service. Livestock producers and personnel from the two federal agencies voluntarily participate. "We get along better with the USFS since we started the cooperative permittee monitoring. We also have a lot more knowledge about the range resource and how to care for it," said Wayne Jensen, who raises cattle near Boulder. "That's allowing us to keep our cattle up there longer, and they are in better shape when they come out." Another Boulder-area rancher, Joel Bousman, said, "Since we started the joint monitoring programs, our working relationship with the Forest Service and BLM improved dramatically." Bousman, president of the Silver Creek Grazing Association, added, "With the help of UW CES, we got out on the grazing allotments and started monitoring based on sound science using quantitative, long-term trend data, not someone's opinion."....
Prairie chickens making comeback The lesser prairie chicken was once prolific across the shortgrass prairies of the Great Plains. The birds were often the only meat on a pioneer family’s table in hard times, which never seemed to go away for the plains sodbuster. Experts say the birds nearly met their demise, not from hunting, but from loss of habitat during the 20th century. Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service includes the species as eligible for listing through the Endangered Species Act. Landowners and several groups working to protect the lesser prairie chicken won a major battle in the last year when the New Mexico Game Commission recommended they not be included on the state’s endangered species list. “It would limit what we do out here because then everything we do would be federally regulated,” said Tish McDaniel, The Nature Conservancy’s Southern Shortgrass Prairie project coordinator. “We don’t want it to become listed because that’s a statement right there that we’re losing.” McDaniel said the key to saving and improving prairie chicken habitat lies with landowners, who ranch on most of the prime land for the birds. She tries to match federal and state programs and other conservation sources to a cattleman’s goals for his land. She said at the same time she’s winning valuable habitat for prairie chickens....
Ranchers get creative with wolves Barbed wire used to be the only thing keeping Emma Ellison's cows from the Baker Mountain wolf pack. This spring, there's a stiffer line of defense: electrified wire draped with red strips of flagging. "It you touch your nose on it, it'll get your attention," said Brian Finnan, Ellison's friend and neighbor who helps keep an eye on the place. The fencing went up last month around a 40-acre pasture as an experiment to see how well it works at keeping hungry wolves from cows and calves. Wolves are suspected of killing a few cows on the ranch two years ago, but it was never officially confirmed. Still, the mere presence of wolves nearby was enough to give the electrified fencing and flagging a try. The strips of red material -- called fladry -- exploit a quirk in wolves' personality that steers them away from new, unfamiliar objects. The 7,000 volts pulsing through the wires, in a souped-up version called "turbo-fladry," add a body-jarring jolt to those bold enough to test it....
Interior probe clears BLM The Department of Interior's chief investigator found no wrongdoing in private discussions Bureau of Land Management officials held with promoters of oil and gas development in Utah. "We found no evidence to substantiate that BLM officials engaged in any behavior that could be characterized as improper dealings for the purpose of promoting local economic interests at the expense of wilderness protections," said Inspector General Earl Devaney. Devaney released his finding in an April 4 letter to U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., sponsor of Utah's 9.5 million-acre Red Rock Wilderness Act, a bill held up in Congress for years. Hinchey had asked Devaney to look into an e-mail written by a lobbyist who gave an account of a private meeting in Vernal last summer when, the lobbyist said, BLM officials promised to fix bureaucratic problems holding up oil and gas development on public lands. The federal government owns 64 percent of the land in Utah. In the e-mail leaked by wilderness groups, Robert Weidner, a lobbyist for rural Utah counties, said the Bush administration was "on the same page" with oil and gas interests....
Wildlife conflicts grow After eight years working Wyoming's booming energy fields, truck driver Eric Ransom suddenly finds his future threatened by an unlikely nemesis: a chicken-sized brown bird with a penchant for colorful courtship rituals and an aversion to heavy equipment. Ransom delivers water, gravel and other materials to the sprawling coal-bed methane fields east of Buffalo. In the past, when one company hit a slow period, he jumped easily to another that needed more drivers. No longer. As the methane, or natural gas, is tapped out beneath the flat rangeland of eastern Wyoming, energy companies are migrating west and into richer habitat along the Powder River, where protected birds such as the sage grouse live. Federal rules mandate months-long prohibitions on drilling near sage grouse breeding grounds, leaving contractors like Ransom scrambling to find work. The industry slowdown goes beyond that one bird population, and reflects a broader shift taking place in the debate over domestic energy development. It comes amid new evidence that some wildlife populations are on the decline after almost a decade of intense exploration....
Company faces unusual well problem, too much water Coal bed methane development developers usually face the problem of getting enough water into the ground to get the gas out. EnCana Oil and Gas USA is facing the opposite problem, forcing it to shut 24 coal bed methane wells east of Mamm Creek. There's too much water. "It's one of the things that's going to make us not an economical venture anymore," EnCana land negotiator Greg Ryan told the Daily Sentinel last week during an energy and environment symposium at Western State College. The wells are producing between 300 and 3,000 barrels daily, compared with normal water production of up to 15 barrels. "We can't de-water the coals because we don't know what to do with the water," Ryan said. Treating the water has failed, as has evaporating it. The mineral- and saline-laden water is too dirty. Company spokesman Wendy Wiedenbeck said the company is still working on treating the water or re-injecting it below ground....
Group buys gas leases on Rocky Front Trout Unlimited has bought leases for natural-gas drilling on 4,900 acres of the Rocky Mountain Front, and the conservation group said it will seek to have the leases retired for good. Trout Unlimited announced the purchase Thursday, less than a year after the organization accepted Front leases from Questar Corp. The company donated several petroleum leases, which Trout Unlimited said would be returned to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for retirement. The latest leases were bought from Donald Epperson, a private energy investor from Helena, and are on two tracts of land. Trout Unlimited spokesman Chris Hunt said that under terms of the deal, the purchase price would not be disclosed. The lease transfer allows the land to be used for the benefit of hunters and anglers, Hunt said. "This is land that really isn't appropriate for oil and gas drilling in the first place, so to see these leases given to TU, and to know they'll be retired and never drilled is really satisfying," he said....
Tribe pulls out of water negotiations Two years of water compact negotiations between the Blackfeet Tribe and the state of Montana went into a tailspin on Thursday after tribal council members said they had been blindsided and then declared a negotiation session over. Tribal leaders were disturbed after learning the state had pushed a $140 million authorization through a U.S. Senate committee to build a water diversion project within the Blackfeet Reservation borders without the tribe's consent or knowledge. "We want this issue cleared up before we go any further," said Blackfeet Chief Earl Old Person during an ardent speech in which he stood before the negotiation team members. "It's not in our favor. We were not notified. We need to be part of this. ... We need to know how this is going to affect our people." Tribal attorney Jeannie Whiteing reminded commission members that the tribe has repeatedly sought to have its federal reserved water rights quantified before money was set aside to rebuild the St. Mary water diversion project. Tribal members said they only recently learned of the $140 million authorization, which they called a betrayal....
Eberts Ranch deal to close The U.S. Forest Service plans to complete the purchase of the 5,200-acre Eberts Ranch on April 25. That will close the $5.3 million purchase and fold the ranch into the Forest Service's management on the Little Missouri National Grasslands. By April 26, the entire ranch will be available for such activities as hiking, bird watching and any seasonal hunting. The Forest Service had purchased 1,900 acres of the Eberts Ranch in September, and this month's deal will be to acquire the remaining 3,300. The Eberts family has been trying to sell the ranch for public conservation for nearly four years, first to the National Park Service and then to North Dakota as a first-ever state preserve. When the preserve failed for lack of legislative funding in 2005, the Forest Service stepped forward....
Judge allows logging dead trees A U.S. district judge has lifted an injunction on logging beetle-killed trees on 2,600 acres in and around the Basin Creek watershed south of here. 0.U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy of Missoula issued the order Tuesday, saying a U.S. Forest Service analysis showed the project would not significantly impact soils. Three environmental groups vowed to appeal the case Thursday. "The project is a bad idea," said Jeff Juel of the Wild West Institute, formerly the Ecology Center, in Missoula. "We're committed to following our legal options to bring some good management to the area." The Ecology Center, the Native Ecosystems Council and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies sued the Forest Service over its Basin Creek Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project in 2005. The groups said they oppose the project because it included clear-cutting 1,100 acres and building 14 miles of new roads. Juel said he also believes that claims that the dead trees create a fire hazard are greatly exaggerated....
Blair and Merkel lean on Bush to join battle against climate change President George Bush is coming under unprecedented pressure from Tony Blair and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to agree to tough new international measures to stop global warming accelerating out of control. The measures are contained in a strongly worded draft communiqué for June's G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany - obtained by The Independent on Sunday - which warns that "tackling climate change is an imperative, not a choice". It adds that if "resolute and concerted international action" is not "urgently" taken, global warming will become "largely unmanageable". The United States and Canada are resisting key elements of the draft, but Mrs Merkel is determined not to water it down. She is backed by the Prime Minister, who is ringing Mr Bush weekly to try to persuade him to change his position. The draft warns that "global warming caused largely by human activities is accelerating" and that it "will seriously damage our common natural environment and severely weaken [the] global economy, with implications for international security"....
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well. The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives....
Dozens of nilgai antelope killed to stop tick spread South Texas ranchers brought nilgai antelope from a California zoo decades ago, when it became fashionable to stock their sprawling acreage with exotic quarry. These days the species native to India and Pakistan are not so much a rarity in South Texas as a nuisance. For cattle ranchers they are a possible nemesis, threatening to spread a deadly tick to their herds. Federal wildlife officials say they are competing with native Rio Grande Valley species for food and trampling the brush they are trying so hard to preserve. The fast-running, 600-pound antelope have wandered all around the region, where at least one picked up a kind of fever tick from Mexico that once nearly wiped out American cattle. The ticks spread among the population and threaten the cattle. Federal officials said they had no choice but to hire a "helicopter and gunner" last week to slaughter them. Thirty-seven were killed during the two-day hunt on a portion of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge that runs along the border....
Rancher says pipes were radioactive A member of one of Texas' oldest ranching families has locked horns with an oil company in a bizarre dispute involving pet rhinos, steel pipe and allegations of radiation poisoning and a corporate vendetta. Rancher Jimmy McAllen, the 10th generation of his family to work the 70,000-acre ranch in South Texas, says that the old pipe he used to build a corral for two African black rhinoceroses in the mid-1990s proved to be loaded with radioactive material. He blames the radiation for the mysterious 1995 death of one of his rhinos. And he says he suspects it caused the rare form of cancer that cost him his lower right leg in 2005. Moreover, he says the Forest Oil Co. - which holds a lease to drill for gas on his property and gave him the old pipe for the corral and other projects around the ranch - deliberately poisoned his land in retaliation for a dispute the two sides had over gas payments....
Baseball flips lid, tosses out wool cap It didn’t stand a chance, utterly alone as it was, with vanquished woolen sportswear littering the playing fields all around it: football jerseys, hockey sweaters, ski jackets, golf pants and the like. Each had long ago succumbed to a tide of manmade textiles boasting superlative stretchiness, stain resistance, insulation, water repellence — innovations that spawned revolutions in sports fashion and fabric terminology alike. (Doubtful that Honus Wagner ever pondered the ‘‘breatheability’’ and ‘‘wicking’’ abilities of his famously rumpled lid.) So it shouldn’t have surprised anyone this winter when Major League Baseball quietly announced it was tossing the wool cap for good. New Era Cap Co., the Buffalo, N.Y.-based manufacturer of baseball’s signature vestment for decades, declared that a new polyester-blend model would debut on opening day. From a business perspective, the immediate impact of the change may only be felt by New Era’s wool suppliers; the larger consequence for wool producers comes in the form of perception. ‘‘It’s significant in the visibility that it’s had,’’ said Rita Samuelson, marketing director for the American Wool Council, a nonprofit association representing U.S. sheep ranchers. ‘‘It was one of the last places in sports where wool was used, and so many people are now hearing that wool is being replaced by high-performance fiber. Samuelson knows of at least one wool producer in Canada that may have to shutter its mill with the decreased demand....
Proposed Texas Body Farm Draws Criticism Plans by Texas State University to create a forensic field laboratory in San Marcos, Texas, have drawn strong opposition from area residents. San Marcos residents allege the facility, which would be used to study the decomposition of human corpses, would draw unwanted attention from area wildlife and possibly contaminate regional rivers, the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman said Saturday. Area rancher Harrell Tietjen also said residents were not informed early enough by the college about the creation of the site, which would be the largest of its type in the nation. "When I went to the school up here, it was a place of higher education," he said. "But I think you've gotten so high, you've fallen off." A university spokesman said the site would likely never keep more than 10 bodies at one time and they would be screened for communicable diseases....
Ranchers find increased profits with natural beef Wyoming ranchers are increasingly marketing natural beef - meaning cattle raised on family ranches instead of corporate feedlots - and happy customers around the country are eating it up. "I'm a little guy raising 80 head," said John Sutherland, a Laramie County rancher whose family came to Wyoming in the 1860s. "We're too small to really compete with the big guys, so we need a niche market." Sutherland's family is among a growing number of Wyoming ranchers who are turning to marketing natural beef. The Sutherlands entered the natural beef market two years ago and last year sold 16 of the 74 cattle they raised as natural beef. The USDA regulates the term "natural beef," which means beef raised without the use of hormones or antibiotics. The meat can't contain artificial ingredients and must be minimally processed. It took Sutherland's daughter about 40 hours to fill out the necessary federal paperwork to earn the right to use the term "natural."....
B.'s widow defends herself Already portrayed as a calculating gold digger who manipulated a man mentally crippled by years of alcohol abuse, the widow of South Texas multimillionaire B.K. Johnson took the stand Friday to defend her late husband's will from his children and grandchildren. Accusations of backstabbing and money-grubbing flew inside the packed courtroom, as lawyers asked Laura McAllister Johnson whether she had referred to her stepdaughters as "vile" and "not smart," with children who were "horrible." Yes, she said, indeed she had. Tensions ran high Friday inside Probate Court 1, where the inheritance battle over the King Ranch scion's millions finished its third week. Johnson, a descendent of King Ranch founder Richard King, died in 2001, leaving an estate estimated at more than $40 million — but not to his children. The trial is expected to last up to three months. During the daylong testimony, the lawyer representing the daughters, daughter-in-law and grandchildren of the rancher and businessman known simply as "B." painted Laura Johnson as one who began attending his estate planning meetings even before they married in 1996....
Enid had its outlaws and its tales Nelson Ellsworth Wyatt was a bad guy. He probably was the most written-about bad guy who robbed and killed in the Enid area in the days right after the greatest land run of them all on Sept. 16, 1893. Nelson Ellsworth Wyatt, also was known as Zip Wyatt and Dick Yeager. Nothing is known about Wyatt’s background. He probably made his living stealing horses and selling them, or committing a robbery now and then to support himself. But he was a brawler, too, as well as a killer. He broke out of jail twice at Guthrie; he was involved in a brawl at Mulhall; and he and some friends killed a Kansas sheriff and two settlers who got in their way en route to a hideout. So Wyatt, who might look like a John Wayne-type character with his blue eyes, auburn hair, lean appearance and his Texas drawl, was not one of the nice guys. People, who visited his cell in the Enid jail in August 1895 said he didn’t look like a bad guy, and opined he was not as bad as he was made out to be. There are plenty of stories to the contrary....
Trip to Nevada City takes you back to 1860s You've got to love the place. It has character; it has history; it has local heroes – and it had bad guys. Nevada City, Mont., offers noncommercialized, preserved Old West history at its best. At first, it's a little confusing. This Nevada City is not in the state of Nevada. It was a town of several hundred people whose homes and businesses were leveled in the quest for gold. Yet, there are more than 100 mostly preserved and some restored buildings on the town site. Nevada City was one of a series of towns built along Alder Gulch in what was then Montana Territory. The rush for gold in the 1860s created a demand for mining supplies and services, so a string of towns was mostly thrown together. Other towns along the gulch were Junction City, Adobetown, Central City, Union City, Summit and Virginia City, housing a total population of around 7,000. There was gold – and lots of it. That is where the bad guys come in. These guys were really bad. It is estimated they were responsible for 102 murders and stole $250,000 in gold. They called themselves "The Innocents." One of the bad-guy leaders, Henry Plummer, was elected sheriff. Nevada City was a stronghold for Plummer and his gang. Enter the good guys. In 1863, the townsfolk had had enough and put together a vigilante group called "The Stranglers," who took their name seriously. During 1863, they hanged 23 of the robbers and murderers and ran the rest out of town....

Pentagon to lawmakers: Let Interior keep wildlife refuge (bill also delists lesser prairie chicken))

The Defense Department is asking lawmakers to strike language in the House defense authorization bill that would give the Air Force sole jurisdiction over almost half of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada, according to a Defense Department official. The Fish and Wildlife Service is the current manager of the refuge, while the military has secondary jurisdiction over 850,000 acres in the western half of the preserve that are used by the Air Force. The House version of the defense authorization bill would change that, transferring primary jurisdiction over the 850,000 acres to the Air Force. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell also sent a letter Friday to the House and Senate Armed Services committees currently in conference on the defense authorization bills, requesting that they clarify the language. In her letter, Jewell wrote that the refuge language would have "serious effects" on management, and "would give the Air Force authority to conduct any defense related activity in a majority of the refuge's 1.6 million acres." The letter also criticizes a number of other provisions in the House bill, including one that would prevent Interior from listing the greater sage grouse as endangered and others that would delist the lesser prairie chicken and American burrowing beetle...more

Internal DOI Document; Secret Plan To Create 14 Nat'l Monuments? $Billions For Land Acquisition

So you thought the creation of the NLCS was just so BLM could do a better job of managing special lands already under their control. That's how the program was sold. To better manage 27 million acres.

Well we all better think again. The document I'm about to describe provides for the BLM to have 14 new monuments on existing BLM land and acquire at the very least 2.6 million acres to add to the NLCS.

I am in possession of part of a DOI document marked "Internal Draft - NOT FOR RELEASE".

The part I have is pgs. 15-21, and includes Attachments 4,5 & 6. There is no date.

Attachment 4 is titled Prospective Conservation Designation: National Monument Designations under the Antiquities Act.

The Document then states:

Many nationally significant landscapes are worthy of inclusion in the NLCS. The areas listed below may be good candidates for National Monument designation under the Antiquities Act; however further evaluations should be completed prior to any final determination, including an assessment of public and Congressional support.

The document then lists the following 14 areas, with a paragraph description/justification for each:

San Rafael Swell, UT-- 75 by 40 mile giant dome

Montana's Northern Prairie, MT-- No acreage given (2.5 million acre cross boundary unit)

Lesser Prairie Chicken Preserve, NM-- 58,000 acres

Berryessa Snow Mountains, CA-- 500,000 acres

Heart of the Great Basin, NV-- no acreage given

Otero Mesa, NM-- 1.2 million acres

Northwest Sonoran Desert, AZ-- 500,000 acres

Owyhee Desert, OR/NV-- no acreage given

Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, CA (expansion)-- no acreage given

Vermillion Basin, CO

Bodie Hills, CA

The Modoc Plateau, CA

Cedar Mesa region, UT

San Juan Islands, WA

Attachment 5 of the document is titled Conservation Designations: Areas worthy of protection that are ineligible for Monument Designation and unlikely to receive legislative protection in the near term.

The three areas listed are:

Bristol Bay Region, AK
Teshekpuk Lake, AK
Red Desert, WY

Attachment 6 is titled Cost Estimates: High Priority Land-Rationalization Efforts.

The following projects are then listed, with a description section and a cost estimate section:

(i) Checkerboard Consolidation, NV OR CA WY UT-- $5 million/year for 10 years

(ii) Alpine Triangle, CO-- Acquire 25,000 acres-- $37.5 million

(iii) Upper Missouri River, MT-- Acquire 80,000 acres-- $24 million

(iv) Pioneer Range, ID-- Acquire 140,000 acres-- $1,000 to $20,000 per acre

(v) John Day River, OR-- No acreage given-- $67 million

(vi) Upper Green River Valley, WY-- Acquire 397,210 acres-- $2.3 billion

(vii) National Historic and Scenic Trails (multiple states)-- No acreage given-- $7 million/year for 10 years


So what is this document? I'm not sure. Clearly the sections I have were prepared by the BLM. Probably they are part of a larger document that was floated up to the Secretary listing potential conservation initiatives. But again, I just don't know, especially since there is no date.

Stay in touch. This should all see the light of day in the near future.

One final thought for now. How do you like that "Land-Rationalization" title? The checkerboard part indicates land exchanges, purchases and sales. But all the rest is pure, unadulterated land acquisition. "Rationalization" my ass.

NEWS ROUNDUP

Wisconsin to hunters: Kill wild pigs on sight State wildlife officials are encouraging hunters to report feral pig sightings or shoot them if they see them while pursuing other game. The wild pigs are exotic, non-native animals that threaten both the environment and agricultural operations, according to the Department of Natural Resources. "Free-roaming pigs can be found across a wide variety of habitats and are highly destructive because of the rooting they do in search of food," said Brad Koele, a wildlife biologist for the DNR. "They're also efficient predators preying on many species including white-tailed deer fawns and ground-nesting birds like grouse, woodcock, turkeys and songbirds." Wild pigs are known to carry a number of diseases worrisome to the domestic swine industry, including swine brucellosis, pseudorabies and leptospirosis, but infected pigs have not been documented in Wisconsin....
Wild Boar in Ohio Ohio’s hunters are encouraged to harvest any feral swine they encounter in the wild in order to limit the spread of this destructive wild animal species in the state. Wild boars feed most heavily at dawn and dusk, spending their days resting in dense vegetation or wallowing in mud holes. These nuisance animals may be legally harvested year-round by hunters with a valid Ohio hunting license or by landowners on their own property. During the deer gun and the statewide muzzleloader seasons, a valid Ohio deer permit is also required and hunters should use only the firearm legal for the season. Known in Ohio as “wild boars,” they also are also called free-ranging European wild boar, Russian wild boar, wild pigs, wild hogs, or razorbacks. These “eating machines” damage agricultural crops, degrade wildlife habitat and consume ground-nesting bird eggs, reptiles, amphibians, or just about anything else they come across, say state wildlife biologists. They also carry diseases that can infect domestic livestock, wildlife, and even people. At present, the two most significant diseases wild boars carry are Pseudorabies and swine brucellosis....
Europe Eyes 20 to 30 Percent Post-Kyoto Emission Cuts Laying the groundwork for a major climate change meeting next month where a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol will be discussed, the European Union plans to ask developed countries to agree to cut their "greenhouse gas" emissions by 20 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. And if a "fair and effective" global agreement is reached, then the E.U. will push for a 30 percent reduction, the president of the E.U.'s Executive Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said this week. Greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2) and others that many believe are affecting the climate. December's U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali will discuss a climate treaty for the period after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol's commitment period ends....
U.S. auto workers, allies charge GOP’s ‘Nissan bloc’ is driving energy bill talks Three GOP senators are driving behind-the-scenes negotiations on higher fuel efficiency standards because their support could hand Democratic leaders the key to passing a contentious energy bill before the end of the year, according to union and auto industry lobbyists. Unions and some auto industry lobbyists have dubbed Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Tennessee GOP Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker “the Nissan bloc” because Nissan has manufacturing plants in their states and the senators are backing the Japanese company’s positions in the complicated fight over imposing more stringent Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards on automakers. Critics of the Senate version of the energy bill, which would require each manufacturer’s vehicle fleet to average at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020, charge that the three are supporting tougher CAFE provisions because they would give Nissan a competitive advantage while potentially crippling an already ailing domestic auto industry....
Colorado Ranchers Angry Over Army Site Expansion Herman Moltrer returned from Vietnam to be a cattle rancher on the broad shortgrass prairie that stretches as far as the eye can see in southern Colorado. The rugged work earned him a living and a little something extra for his soul, but now he fears he may have to sell his land, at someone else's price. The U.S. Army wants 418,000 acres of private ranch land to triple the size of its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, a training area considered suitable -- some would say essential -- for preparing American warriors to do battle in the Middle East and Afghanistan. The 1,000-square-mile facility would be 15 times the size of the District. Several dozen ranchers and members of 15 county commissions that voted to oppose the project find themselves pitted against the Pentagon and Colorado business interests in a struggle over property rights, personal heritage and the contested priorities of national security. Amid countless conversations around Colorado dinner tables about the potential for an economic boom or a government betrayal, experts on the environment, archaeology and paleontology are registering their concerns that the land will suffer. Both chambers of Congress voted against funding further work next year, one skirmish in a fight not nearly over. Colorado may not be alone. Military planners foresee a need for 5 million more acres for training facilities by 2011....
Drought-Ravaged Town Trucks In Water As twilight falls over this Tennessee town, Mayor Tony Reames drives up a dusty dirt road to the community's towering water tank and begins his nightly ritual in front of a rusty metal valve. With a twist of the wrist, he releases the tank's meager water supply, and suddenly this sleepy town is alive with activity. Washing machines whir, kitchen sinks fill and showers run. About three hours later, Reames will return and reverse the process, cutting off water to the town's 145 residents. The severe drought tightening like a vise across the Southeast has threatened the water supply of cities large and small, sending politicians scrambling for solutions. But Orme, about 40 miles west of Chattanooga and 150 miles northwest of Atlanta, is a town where the worst-case scenario has already come to pass: The water has run out. The mighty waterfall that fed the mountain hamlet has been reduced to a trickle, and now the creek running through the center of town is dry....
Business big in fighting water crisis Urinals without water. Fountains without water. A waterfall without water. Dry is the goal as United Parcel Service Inc., Coca-Cola Co. and other top companies in the Atlanta area lead the rally to cut water use in response to the region's most extreme drought since at least the 1920s. Metropolitan Atlanta, which has added more new residents than any other U.S. city since 2000, may face limits on growth if the shortage persists, business officials said. And many worry that the water-saving efforts might not be enough to head off a near-term crisis. ''It is the No. 1 topic that businesses are concerned about,'' said John Somerhalder II, CEO of AGL Resources Inc., which provides natural gas in Atlanta. He also is vice chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce's environmental committee. UPS, the world's biggest package-delivery company, is following the lead of many businesses and facilities in the West and using urinals that drain without water. Coca-Cola turned off the fountain in front of its Atlanta headquarters and canceled planting of new flowers that would require watering, said spokeswoman Kirsten Witt....
Groups work to increase the number of conservation easements in the state A third of the plant species that exist in Montana grow on the Rocky Mountain Front because of its elevation and moisture variants. Grizzly bears still roam in the prairies, and wetlands still exist. That makes the Rocky Mountain Front pretty unique, said Dave Carr, the Nature Conservancy's Rocky Mountain Front program director. That's why the Nature Conservancy is making it a priority to preserve land on the Front. Meanwhile, the Montana Land Reliance is focusing on the Smith River, where the organization holds 46,000 acres in conservation easement, as well as a number of other river drainages. A conservation easement is a voluntary, legal agreement where a landowner sells or donates certain rights — typically the right to subdivide or develop the land — to a land trust or other conservation organization. The easements are tied to the land and last forever, regardless of sale or the land being passed on. About 100,000 acres on the Front are protected....
Forest Service ruled not liable for Cedar fire The U.S. Forest Service isn't responsible for the 2003 Cedar fire, a federal judge ruled this week. Fifteen people who lost houses when the 2003 wildfire swept through the Cleveland National Forest sued, saying the Forest Service had a 100-year-old policy of putting out naturally occurring fires to preserve the forest for public use. The result was unnaturally dense trees and brush, they said. Or, in other words, a recipe for an unholy firestorm. The homeowners allege their losses were a predictable result of Forest Service policies and that the government effectively “took” their property. But Judge John Wiese of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims disagreed, dismissing the case. In short, the judge said the Forest Service isn't responsible because a lost hunter caused the Cedar fire. The hunter, Sergio Martinez of West Covina, eventually pleaded guilty to setting the fire and was sentenced to six months of private confinement and 960 hours of community service. “Unless one is prepared to say that the hunter was acting as the government's agent, causation cannot be attributed to the government,” Wiese wrote....
Shrinking glaciers affect park's wildlife This summer, for the first time in Glacier National Park's 100-year history, Gem Glacier was entirely snow-free, a glistening sheet of bare ice sweating dark and blue under a relentless sun. Many miles away, a bubbling mountain stream turned to a trickle, fading finally, underground. It was one of many streambeds that dried up this year, and one of many more to come. "There's still water down there under the cobble," Dan Fagre said of that stream, "but it's not so good if you're a fish." Fagre, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, has been monitoring Glacier's glaciers for years, studying the many implications of retreating ice and snow. This summer's disappearing streams, he said, are but the latest signs of a rapidly changing climate driving an equally rapidly changing park system....
Glaciers grow on Mount Shasta Ever since Eric White first climbed to the top of 14,162-foot Mount Shasta 22 years ago, he has kept an eye on the mountain. He has watched its blanket of snow rise and fall with each passing season. And he has studied the changes on Shasta's seven glaciers. "One of the things I've really noticed is that some of the glaciers have moved a bit lower since I first saw them back in the '80s," said the 42-year-old lead climbing ranger and avalanche specialist for the U.S. Forest Service's Mount Shasta Ranger Station. What he has noticed is what appears to be a rare phenomenon of growing glaciers, an aberration in an era when many of the Earth's leading scientists report global warming is shrinking glaciers worldwide. Indeed, Mount Shasta's glaciers have continued to expand in the past half-century, according to a research paper published last year by Ian M. Howat, then a doctoral student in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Four other scientists assisted him in the project....
Fires not caused by climate, panel says The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming yesterday acknowledged that climate change is not responsible for California's devastating wildfires, but members of the committee nonetheless blamed President Bush, land development and the theoretical fallout of rising temperatures for an increase in national forest fires. "Not since Hurricane Katrina slammed the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts have so many suffered from extreme weather," said committee Chairman Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, evoking images of 2005's devastating hurricane. That storm damage, in part, has been attributed to climate change by the news media and many members of Congress. Mr. Markey quickly added, "Global warming does not cause an individual fire or hurricane, and global warming is not the cause of the California fires." California authorities have said that at least one of the fires was started by a child playing with matches. "Death and destruction aren't the only thing wildfires and hurricanes share in common. They are both now being used as poster children for global warming," said the committee's ranking Republican, F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin....
Running: Climate change will cause more severe wildfires A Montana professor testified Thursday that climate change will increase and intensify wildfires, while members of Congress and Forest Service officials grappled with how to pay for the increased costs of fire suppression. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimball and several experts at a House hearing agreed that changes in temperature and precipitation patterns from climate change will cause longer and more severe fire seasons in the West. Kimball already has taken $300 million in the agency’s 2009 budget away from other priorities to steer it toward firefighting, she said. Steven Running, an ecology professor at the University of Montana who recently shared the Nobel Peace Prize, testified that the only way to deal with the problem in the long run is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At a hearing of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, several witnesses noted that since 1986, the fire season in the West has grown 78 days longer. That’s a 20 to 30 percent increase, Running said, and roughly the same percentage increase can be expected over the next decades. Projections show that in a century, two or three times as much land in the West will burn each year as does today, said Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass....
BLM issues prairie chicken plan The Bureau of Land Management said Friday an amended management plan for the lesser prairie chicken will allow oil and gas development, grazing and off-road vehicles on federal land used by the birds but still will protect its population. The release of the proposed special status species management plan and final environmental impact statement starts a 30-day period for protests to the plan. The document also was sent to Gov. Bill Richardson for a 60-day review. Prairie chicken habitat covers parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Landowners and conservationists in New Mexico have been working to keep the bird from being listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. They won a major battle last year when the state Game Commission recommended not adding the bird to the state endangered species list....
Climbing's popularity comes at a cost Evidence of rock climbing's excesses are visible everywhere around the base of a popular summer ascent here. Dead pines lie decomposing on the eroded rock, their roots exposed by thousands of boot soles. The approach is marred by 40 separate trails braiding around the granite face. Then, there's the garbage. Last month, volunteers packed out 900 pounds of abandoned rope, snack wrappers and toilet paper strewn around some of Yosemite National Park's most cherished crags. Millions of Americans have developed a taste for rock climbing, a fad fueled by a proliferation of urban climbing gyms and glamorized by programs like America's Next Top Model, which recently showed its models hanging from climbing ropes. But as neophyte rock jocks head to national parks to test their skills in the great outdoors, some are unwittingly breaking the wilderness ethic governing the sport. Others are violating federal wilderness regulations by drilling into the bare rock face with power tools....
Tribes aim to hunt bison A pair of Idaho-based American Indian tribes want to hunt bison in parts of Montana and Wyoming near Yellowstone National Park. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes would become the third Indian group in modern times to exercise their 19th century treaty rights by sponsoring an off-reservation bison hunt. Tribal leaders have been in discussions with state officials about starting an annual hunt in Montana beginning with the winter of 2008-09. No harvest numbers have yet been revealed. The tribes also are seeking a federal permit to kill up to five bison annually from the National Elk Refuge near Jackson for ceremonial purposes. "It is important for the tribes to continue practicing, teaching and preserving our unique tribal way of life in our traditional hunting areas," tribal leaders said this week in a statement to The Associated Press. "The tribes have resided and hunted bison and other big game in these areas, since time immemorial."....
Rancher vs. land-locked neighbor In February, the Trabuccos expect to appear in Department Four of Nevada County Superior Court in a civil case filed by their neighbor, Ian Garfinkel. The case also involves the Nevada County Land Trust, which holds an agricultural easement of 760 acres on the Trabuccos' land. Garfinkel wants a road easement across the ranch to reach his own 160 adjacent but land-locked acres, where he said he also plans to graze cattle and use the land for family visits. Allowing Garfinkel to drive through the heart of the ranch to access his acreage would disrupt the cattle ranch's viability, the Trabuccos said. An agreement granting a road across the Trabuccos' land could violate their contract with the land trust. It also could set a precedent for the future conservation of other agricultural lands at a time when they are quickly disappearing across the state, Anna Trabucco said....
U.S. to boost testing of imported Canada meat Meat and poultry products being imported from Canada will be subjected to increased testing and inspection after an outbreak of E. coli in several U.S. states traced to beef from a Canadian company, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Saturday. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said it would increase testing for salmonella, listeria monocytogenes and E. coli O157:H7. The agency said it would require the products be held until testing shows they do not contain any of those pathogens. Canadian meat and poultry products will also receive increased levels of reinspection by FSIS officials to confirm they are eligible to enter the U.S. market. Those requirements will begin next week. The FSIS said it would also conduct an audit of Canada's food safety system. The audit will focus on plants that export beef to the United States....
Cargill recalls 1 million-plus pounds of beef The giant agribusiness company Cargill Inc. said Saturday it is recalling more than 1 million pounds of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria. The ground beef was produced between Oct. 8 and Oct. 11 at Cargill Meat Solutions' plant in Wyalusing, Pa. and distributed to retailers across the country. They include Giant, Shop Rite, Stop & Shop, Wegmans and Weis. Cargill learned the meat may be contaminated after the Agriculture Department found a problem with a sample of the beef produced on Oct. 8, the company said. The bacteria is E. coli 0157:H7. "No illnesses have been associated with this product," said John Keating, president of Cargill Regional Beef, said in a statement. "We are working closely with the USDA to remove this product from the marketplace."....
Brazile dominates first night of National Finals Steer Roping Trevor Brazile knew he needed a big first night at the $195,000 National Finals Steer Roping to have a chance at defending his world championship and wasn't about to let a little thing like competing on a new horse get in the way. Brazile won two of five rounds Friday night at the Lea County Event Center and cashed checks in all but one aboard Lobo, a horse he bought Thursday from Steve Wolf after his elite steer roping mount Roan Ranger pulled a muscle Wednesday, just as Brazile was about to load his trailer and drive here from his home in Decatur, Texas. Whatever misgivings Brazile may have had about taking his new mount into a noisy building for the first time, he took an aggressive approach in every round and finished the night with an event-best $18,750, a 10-second lead over Rocky Patterson in the average standings after five rounds and what seems to be a firm grasp on first place in the Crusher Rentals PRCA World Standings. Ahead of 18-time world champion Guy Allen by about $1,900 at the start of the night, Brazile enters Saturday's last five rounds of the NFSR with a lead of just more than $19,000....He won the title Saturday night.
The Professional Bull Riders Celebrate the Duke's Birthday On November 2, the Professional Bull Riders’ (PBR) will commemorate a special day in Western heritage. The 100th celebration of John Wayne’s birthday will be observed during the fifth round of the PBR’s 2007 Built Ford Tough World Finals presented by Wrangler. The salute to the Duke will include a presentation to his wife Pilar Wayne and his daughter Aissa Wayne Conrad. His granddaughter, Jennifer Wayne along with Jeremy Popof will sing “God Bless John Wayne” to complete the presentation. The top 45 bull riders will also salute one of the greatest actors in the history of films. “John Wayne is such a central figure of Western heritage,” said Randy Bernard, CEO of the PBR. “As the PBR continues to grow and reach all corners of the globe, I think it’s important to remember where we came from, and honoring the 100th celebration of the year John Wayne was born certainly does just that.”....
Unbridled history Wild horses roaming what’s now Theodore Roosevelt National Park have been linked for years to three of the area’s most noteworthy historic figures: Sitting Bull, the Marquis de Mores and Old Four Eyes himself. A trail of written accounts connects war ponies that were confiscated from Sitting Bull and his followers to horses used by ranchers during the open-range era around Medora, N.D. But the National Park Service has taken the position that airtight proof is lacking to officially acknowledge any ties. If the link were recognized, wild horse advocates say, it would force the park service to work actively to preserve an important historic legacy, and stop what they say is the systematic removal of descendant horses. The park’s horse herd, culled every few years in roundups to avoid overgrazing, is exempt from federal laws to protect horses from mistreatment. Years ago, horses were routinely sold for slaughter, including as food for zoo animals, and horse advocates say cavalier treatment continues, as evidenced by a helicopter crash during a roundup last month. That incident, which injured the pilot and a park biologist, remains under investigation. The roundup was the first on record without using horseback riders, horse advocates said. Now two noted historians – both former National Park Service officials – say compelling historic evidence shows that horses in the park are descended from Sitting Bull and his followers, and therefore should be carefully preserved as living history....
Pregnant heifer broke dragging records Charlie survived and is now a member of that elite group of cowmen who have run the O.B. Chain Marathon. “O.B. chain” for you readers who are poultry producers and might think this refers to manacles worn by Over the Border illegals or a delicate veterinary instrument used to spay heifers by Ovary Burglars, it is not. O.B. stands for Obstetrical. Obstetrics refers to pregnancy, labor and birth. During a calving … well, let me tell you Charlie’s story. He and his brother run a modest-sized cow ranch in the pretty rolling country north of Lewistown, Mont. It was a wet spring and the brothers were in the midst of calving outside. They had bought 100 bred heifers. They worked together during the day and took turns each night so the other could get some sleep. The night of the marathon, Charlie drove out through the calving pasture shining his headlights and spotlighting the group. An experienced hand in the calving can detect the subtle differences in a resting cow and one in the process of parturition. It is a developed skill....