NEWS ROUNDUP

Protestors want Sabino Canyon cougars to survive Halt the hunt. That’s what protestors yelled out Wednesday in an effort to stop the killing of mountain lions in Sabino Canyon. A decision that protestors, even Arizona's governor, say was made too quickly with no public input. Signs, banners and voices covered the sidewalk in front of Tucson's federal building downtown. Demonstrators say they’re outraged that the U.S. Forest Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department are moving ahead with their plan to kill the mountain lions in Sabino Canyon.... Napolitano displeased decision to kill cougars made without her, public input Gov. Janet Napolitano is upset the decision to shoot Sabino Canyon's mountain lions was made without input from the public or her office. "While I agree that public safety is paramount, I'm disturbed by the decision - by the U.S. Forest Service and Arizona Game & Fish - to kill cougars in Sabino Canyon," Napolitano said in a prepared statement Thursday. "For several months, my office has been aware of the sightings and some heightened concern about mountain lions, yet the decision to shoot was apparently made abruptly within the last few days with little public input or exploration of other options.".... Forest service backs off snowmobile bridge After settling a lawsuit with a local environmental group, Flathead National Forest has backed off on plans to allow a snowmobiling bridge in the Lost Johnny Basin west of Hungry Horse Reservoir. The Swan View Coalition sued the Forest Service in January, contending the Hungry Horse Ranger District wrongfully approved a special use permit for a portable bridge that allowed snowmobilers to conveniently reach the upper Lost Johnny Basin in the spring. A settlement approved by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy on Tuesday requires the bridge to be blocked or removed by March 15. Keith Hammer, chairman of the coalition, contended that Amendment 19 to the Flathead Forest Plan bans snowmobiling in the basin after March 15 to provide habitat security for grizzly bears emerging from their dens.... Grizzly bears flourishing in Yellowstone The grizzly bear, on the edge of extinction in the lower 48 states just 25 years ago, is recolonizing its habitat south of Yellowstone National Park for the first time in a hundred years, a study has found. The study, by Denver Zoo biologist Sanjay Byare and several other bear biologists, concluded southern expansion from Yellowstone by grizzlies now is doubling every 20 years. In the early 1980s, a study of the grizzly population in the greater Yellowstone area found fewer than 200 bears, and projected that the bear could be extinct by the 2000. Instead, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team estimated there now are a minimum of 500 bears in the ecosystem -- probably more -- and the population is healthy and expanding at the rate of about 4 percent per year. "It is a tremendous success story," Steve Thomas, the Sierra Club's regional director of the Northern Plains region, told United Press International. Thomas added, however, the area designated as the "core habitat" for the bear should be increased before wildlife officials consider removing the animal from the Endangered Species List. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to propose removing the bear from the list by the end of this year.... Forest Service hired PR firm to promote increased logging The U.S. Forest Service paid a San Francisco public relations firm $90,000 to develop a campaign to generate public support for its plan to triple logging in the 11 national forests of the Sierra Nevada, according to documents released yesterday. The plan for the PR campaign included a confidentiality clause, suggesting that revealing its existence could be misinterpreted by the public. The Forest Service signed a contract with the firm in December. It told the Associated Press in January there was no cost breakdown for a promotional effort. The Forest Service also did not disclose the contract in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by an environmental group.... Groups Move to Block Regulations That Cut Wildlife Experts out of the Loop When Assessing Impact of Forest Fire Plans New regulations issued by the Bush Administration seriously and unnecessarily undermine a cornerstone provision of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to a coalition of conservation organizations that today announced their intention to have the rules overturned in court. The ESA requires that every federal agency consult with federal wildlife agencies, including the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), to ensure that they avoid any action which is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered or threatened species. Under the Administration's new regulations, the Forest Service and other federal agencies would no longer be required to consult with the FWS on thousands of logging, road building and other activities the Administration labels as fire prevention. Groups expressed concern that the forest fire rules allow the Forest Service to designate virtually any project as a fire prevention activity, opening the door to hundreds, perhaps thousands of projects harmful to endangered wildlife, in particular the lynx, which makes it home in the Rockies.... Editorial: Measure progress in acres, not dollars It is more than a little ironic, of course, to hear environmentalists who fought hard to block passage of the Healthy Forests legislation now complain that the administration isn't going all-out to accomplish the work they opposed. Our inclination, however, is to focus more on results than on the dollar figures. Montanans should be as concerned as anyone over the ability of the U.S. Forest Service to fulfill the goals set forth in the Healthy Forests law. While we maintain that proponents of the measure overstated the government's ability to dramatically reduce wildfire dangers, there's no question that many of our forests are overgrown and will benefit from some enlightened logging and thinning.... Groups set ESA deadline Federal officials will have until October to respond to a petition seeking Endangered Species Act protection for the white-tailed prairie dog under an agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and conservationists. A coalition of conservation groups reached a settlement with the Service this week that will give the agency until Oct. 31 to make a preliminary finding on the group's petition. The coalition in 2002 petitioned the Service to list the white-tailed prairie dog as threatened or endangered in accordance with ESA requirements. When issued in October, the preliminary 90-day finding will be more than two years late.... Some Pacific Swordfish Fishing Banned The federal government banned commercial fishing for swordfish in a large swath of the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, in a move to protect endangered sea turtles that were being killed or injured by the hooks. The new rules, released by the National Marine Fisheries Service, prohibit longline fishing for swordfish in the Pacific between the West Coast and Hawaii. The ban, scheduled to take effect April 12, will affect about two dozen fishing boats based in California, Oregon and Washington. Recreational fishing is not affected.... Conservationists, ranchers disagree over grazing in the West Conservationists and ranchers are butting heads over a Bush administration plan to ease regulations that dictate how, when and where livestock can graze on public lands in the West. Sportsmen, environmentalists and retired Bureau of Land Management employees say the proposed changes would make it harder for the federal government to protect drought-stricken public lands in the West from overgrazing. But ranchers and the Bush administration say changes are needed to improve the way the grazing program is managed and to help ranchers stay in business.... Montana attorney general seeks high court ruling on Missouri River feud Attorney General Mike McGrath wants the U.S. Supreme Court to help settle the ongoing dispute over managing the Missouri River. McGrath filed a "friend of the court" brief Wednesday, asking the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a lawsuit brought by North Dakota and South Dakota. The lawsuit contends the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' management of the river illegally favors downstream states. By giving higher priority to barge traffic on stretches of the river in such states as Nebraska and Missouri, the corps is releasing too much water from upstream reservoirs in Montana and the Dakotas and harming fish, wildlife and recreation, McGrath said.... In Alaska, Rancher Is Offered Park Access As long as there's snow on the ground and ice in the creek, the Alaskan who calls himself Papa Pilgrim can drive a bulldozer nine times in the next 13 months across the largest national park in the United States, according to the National Park Service. By granting a temporary access permit to Pilgrim, whose real name is Robert Allan Hale, the Park Service moved on Thursday to resolve a dispute that has become a cause célèbre among land-rights activists. The government's offer, however, will be rejected, according to Pilgrim's lawyer, Russell C. Brooks of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which champions land rights. "This is what the park has tried to offer all along, and it is not adequate," Brooks said. By coincidence, just as the Park Service was offering a permit to the Pilgrims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit announced on Thursday that it will hear Pilgrim's appeal on a lawsuit demanding greater park access.... BLM moves to strengthen agencies' roles Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke said the agency is moving to strengthen the role of local, state and tribal agencies in developing land use plans for the public lands under the BLM's jurisdiction. Clarke said the agency is proposing to modify its regulations to formally recognize and define the standing local, state, tribal and federal entities of government may be granted as "Cooperating Agencies" in the planning process.... Enviros sue BLM over rangeland health rules The Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) and Western Watersheds Project have sued the Bureau of Land Management, alleging that the agency has failed to comply with rangeland health regulations in the Louse Canyon Geographic Management Area in southeast Oregon. The lawsuit, filed Monday, alleges that the BLM illegally withheld action to change management in the Louse Canyon Area. The BLM's own regulations, the Fundamentals of Rangeland Health (FRH), require livestock management changes before the next grazing season when livestock are determined to be the cause of failure.... Four-wheelers tread legal ground on trails Attorneys for off-road-vehicle groups asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to allow them to sue the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to open a proposed wilderness area in southern New Mexico to their machines. The Southwest Four Wheel Drive Association and the Las Cruces Four Wheel Drive Club are asking the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a lower court's dismissal of their 2000 lawsuit challenging the closure of most of the trails in the Robledo Mountains....