NEWS ROUNDUP
Retailers, Consumers Hungry for Organic Beef
Organic beef producers, once distant outsiders in the $175 billion a year U.S. beef industry, are poised to grab a larger bite of the market this year. Sales of the specialty meat, from cattle that are not fed antibiotics, hormones or animal bi-products, are soaring, thanks to diet trends, the discovery of mad cow disease in Washington state last December and word of mouth. The surge has prompted many in the fledgling industry to boost production to meet growing demand from major U.S. grocers, such as Whole Foods Market Inc., which have been unable to obtain an adequate supply of organic beef to keep their shelves stocked....
Column: Where will we get our food? We take for granted that all we have to do is go to the grocery store or restaurant for food. We are spoiled. Anything we want to eat at any time is available and we tend to forget where the food actually comes from. Our bread and cereal comes from wheat, corn or grains. We eat fresh, frozen or canned fruits, vegetables and juices. Even pizza is a combination of grains, meats, vegetables. Some form of soybean is in many of our food items. Of course all dairy and meat items are produced on the land where the animals are fed grain and hay. The American public should understand that before conservation easements, wetlands, open space, green space, heritage preservation areas, parks, refuges, floodplains and all the other land preservation programs take over, we need to ask, "What will I eat when this land is no longer producing food?"....
Big Island cowgirl riding toward national finals Jaymie Loando has always been a natural rider, at ease in the saddle and unafraid. She is also comfortable in competition, emerging this year at age 15 at the top of the Hawai'i High School Rodeo Association. Now comes the real test, at the National High School Finals Rodeo next month in Gillette, Wyo. Loando's coach, teacher and aunt, Sabrina Matsumoto, remembers when Loando first began to compete as a rider in the keiki rodeo at age 3. It was a near-perfect fit....
Starr Country rancher goes from bullfighter to bull breeder Mexican matador Pepe Luis Vasquez left a lasting impression on Fred Renk. As a seminarian in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1952, Renk attended a bullfight in which Vasquez valiantly fought a bull for nearly two hours at the Plaza de Toros Esperanza. As the fight drew to an end, Vasquez waved his muleta, or cape, with his left hand and aimed a sword with his right....
American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame Class of 2005 Four individuals and two horses will be inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame during the 2005 American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Convention March 11-15 at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at Union Station in St. Louis, Mo. The American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame was established in 1975 to honor people and horses instrumental in the development of the breed and the AQHA. Induction into the Hall of Fame is one of the highest honors bestowed by AQHA. The six 2004 Hall of Fame inductees include:....
Summer heating up for rider Mortensen Dan Mortensen's summer of leisure has come to an abrupt end. For the next two months, the Billings cowboy is putting the pedal to the metal. During the winter rodeo season, Mortensen and his fiancée Darla Schierbaum - they plan to be married Oct. 29 in her hometown of Kansas City - took their time traveling from event to event. The ramble through the arenas paid off. Mortensen had one of his best winters ever, including consecutive saddle bronc victories at the Calgary winter rodeo and Austin, Texas....
Tight schedules leave cowboys little room for travel errors A clear difference between rodeo and mainstream sports is that rodeo competitors must strategically plan and budget their travel. Pro football and basketball players have no input in scheduling or paying their way to their games. That's taken care of by the corporate offices of the leagues and franchises. But in rodeo, even the sport's most gifted athletes have to account for their own travel expenses and plan their itineraries....
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
MAD COW DISEASE
U.S. Says Finds Negative Result to Mad Cow Test
A suspect animal tested negative for mad cow disease in a second round of testing, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday.
The additional tests were ordered after an inconclusive or possible positive test was found last Friday in an animal sent to slaughter.
"That particular result is negative for BSE (news - web sites) on confirmatory testing," John Clifford, the department's chief veterinarian, told reporters. BSE stands for the formal name of mad cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
The department has cautioned that its new rapid tests to detect the brain-wasting disease are likely to produce false positives.
The department refused to disclose any details about the animal's age, sex or location. "If we do have a positive animal, we would be releasing information on those," Clifford said.
Clifford noted that the department was still awaiting the results of a second round of testing for another animal that produced an "inconclusive" test on Tuesday.
"No matter how the result comes back, USDA remains confident of the safety of the U.S. food supply," he said.
As of Monday, the department reported 8,585 negative tests for animals sent to slaughter this month.
Japanese Review U.S. Mad Cow Precautions
A delegation of Japanese officials toured northern Colorado packing plants and feedlots this week to review precautions against mad cow disease.
Japan bought about $1.2 billion in U.S. beef annually until mad cow was discovered in a cow in Washington state in December, prompting Japan to suspend U.S. beef imports.
American government and industry officials are anxious to convince Japan that sufficient safeguards are in place to keep the disease out of the food supply.
The 14-member Japanese delegation was meeting with American scientists and officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Members of the Japanese group declined comment. USDA spokesman Ed Loyd said the two sides were discussing mad cow disease, but he declined to offer specifics....
2nd possible mad cow case found
The Agriculture Department late Tuesday received a second "inconclusive" preliminary test indicating a carcass showing signs of mad cow disease, but officials cautioned the test is so sensitive it does not mean another case has been found.
It's the second such discovery in five days as part of the government's rapid screening program. The only confirmed mad cow case in this country was discovered in Washington state last December, prompting more sophisticated screening programs.
Tissue samples from the cow in the latest case were being sent to the department's National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, so more conclusive tests can be run.
Federal officials emphasized the rapid screening tests - more than 7,000 have been conducted - are extremely sensitive and in themselves do not confirm a case of brain-wasting mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE....
U.S. Says Finds Negative Result to Mad Cow Test
A suspect animal tested negative for mad cow disease in a second round of testing, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday.
The additional tests were ordered after an inconclusive or possible positive test was found last Friday in an animal sent to slaughter.
"That particular result is negative for BSE (news - web sites) on confirmatory testing," John Clifford, the department's chief veterinarian, told reporters. BSE stands for the formal name of mad cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
The department has cautioned that its new rapid tests to detect the brain-wasting disease are likely to produce false positives.
The department refused to disclose any details about the animal's age, sex or location. "If we do have a positive animal, we would be releasing information on those," Clifford said.
Clifford noted that the department was still awaiting the results of a second round of testing for another animal that produced an "inconclusive" test on Tuesday.
"No matter how the result comes back, USDA remains confident of the safety of the U.S. food supply," he said.
As of Monday, the department reported 8,585 negative tests for animals sent to slaughter this month.
Japanese Review U.S. Mad Cow Precautions
A delegation of Japanese officials toured northern Colorado packing plants and feedlots this week to review precautions against mad cow disease.
Japan bought about $1.2 billion in U.S. beef annually until mad cow was discovered in a cow in Washington state in December, prompting Japan to suspend U.S. beef imports.
American government and industry officials are anxious to convince Japan that sufficient safeguards are in place to keep the disease out of the food supply.
The 14-member Japanese delegation was meeting with American scientists and officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Members of the Japanese group declined comment. USDA spokesman Ed Loyd said the two sides were discussing mad cow disease, but he declined to offer specifics....
2nd possible mad cow case found
The Agriculture Department late Tuesday received a second "inconclusive" preliminary test indicating a carcass showing signs of mad cow disease, but officials cautioned the test is so sensitive it does not mean another case has been found.
It's the second such discovery in five days as part of the government's rapid screening program. The only confirmed mad cow case in this country was discovered in Washington state last December, prompting more sophisticated screening programs.
Tissue samples from the cow in the latest case were being sent to the department's National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, so more conclusive tests can be run.
Federal officials emphasized the rapid screening tests - more than 7,000 have been conducted - are extremely sensitive and in themselves do not confirm a case of brain-wasting mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Boy Scouts sued for $14M over fire The federal government and the state of Utah sued the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday for nearly $14 million to recover the costs of a 2002 fire at a Scout camp. The lawsuit alleges that about 20 Boy Scouts ages 11 to 14 were left without adult supervision for a night outside an approved campground. Some of the boys built fires that were left to smolder and spread across more than 14,000 acres, the lawsuit says. U.S. Attorney for Utah Paul Warner said the complaint seeks $13.3 million for the federal costs of fighting the fire and reclamation of the charred land in the Uinta Mountains. The state is asking for more than $600,000 to cover its firefighting expenses....
Prairie Dogs Still Plague Ranchers They might look cute, but prairie dogs can take perfectly healthy grazing fields, and reduce them to dirt. Rancher, Monte Whitcher says, “Well, they keep stripping it and taking the grass off. When they first infest an area they chop all the grass down and keep it low and they eat the short grass and the grass roots.” To rancher's like Whitcher, the fight against prairie dogs is a daily struggle, but what is perhaps even more frustrating is the feeling of helplessness. “Since 1996 there hasn't been any control work done in our area, on the forest service, and the prairie dog towns are getting pretty sick.”....
Column: Remember, and celebrate, wilderness laws Celebrate! In this time of political polarization, Oregonians should take a pleasant moment to celebrate something quintessentially American: our successes in preserving Oregon's wilderness heritage. It was 20 years ago this month that President Ronald Reagan signed the Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984. That law was the product of bipartisan effort by our congressional delegation, backed by widespread citizen support and solid professional work by the U.S. Forest Service. And there is more to celebrate. On Sept. 3, the nation will mark the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the historic conservation law that made possible the permanent protection of wilderness by law....
Forest thinning appeals denied The Coconino National Forest rejected two appeals Monday filed by five environmental groups on a forest restoration project southwest of Flagstaff -- and one group does not anticipate a lawsuit because of another legal resolution. Coconino County Deputy Forest Supervisor Joe Stringer said he is upholding the Woody Ridge Forest Restoration Project, the third of 10 projects planned for the Flagstaff region in order to prevent the outbreak of catastrophic wildfire in the overgrown forest....
Large tankers missing as crews tackle flames Nearly two months after the nation's 33 largest firefighting air tankers were grounded because of safety concerns, wildfires like the one burning in rugged terrain seven miles southwest of Payson are being fought differently in Arizona and across the country. Firefighters say they have had to shift strategies since the air tankers were pulled from service on May 10, possibly for the entire wildfire season. Smaller aircraft, like Fletcher's single-engine, fixed-wing plane, are taking center stage in the battle to control wildfires....
Plan could lead to purchase of park About $35 million generated by a recent auction of federal land near Las Vegas would be used to purchase prime Lake Tahoe real estate under a proposal recommended by federal officials. Plans call for the U.S. Forest Service to use the money to purchase about 490 acres of the 548-acre Ponderosa Ranch amusement park in Incline Village. The Ponderosa Ranch, which opened in 1968, was based on the NBC show “Bonanza” that aired from 1950 to 1973. It concerned the exploits of the Cartwright family who lived on the fictional Ponderosa Ranch....
Battle lines on Yampa What has raised the 56-year-old Basalt resident's concern - along with that of many other northwest Colorado anglers - is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife-initiated program, accelerated this year, to remove as many sportfish as possible from a long stretch of the Yampa River inhabited by several species of endangered native fish. Officials fear these exotics eat young native fish and, in some cases, compete for habitat and food. Thus far, an electrofishing-transplant program joined this year by the Colorado Division of Wildlife has moved about 3,000 pike and bass from the river to various stillwater locations in the region. The ancestors of these sportfish escaped into the river years ago from Elkhead Reservoir, one of the places the recently captured fish are being returned....
School Might Move Because Of Endangered Bat An endangered bat found at a construction site for a new high school might force city officials to find another location for the school. The $44 million, 123-acre Lakeside High School construction project in Saybrook Township has been on hold since a survey by a private company hired by the school earlier this month found 16 bats near the property. Among the animals was a pregnant Indiana bat that is an endangered species. On Monday, officials from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers met with Superintendent William Licate and three school board members to discuss plans to try to work around the obstacle. At best, the $44 million construction project will be on hold for at least three months for a second survey....
Commissioner fined in wolf shooting A Valley County commissioner will pay a fine of $750 for his role in the shooting death of a wolf. Wolves are protected under the Endangered Species Act. A Valley County Commissioner has been fined for his role in the shooting death of a wolf near Cascade. The animal was found dead at Phil Davis’ ranch north of Cascade. Davis' hired hand Jerry Ussery was also fined $750. Ussery says he shot the wolf May 24 when he saw the predator running near cows and their calves....
Column: A Tale of Two Rivers The Russian River begins as a trickle in the pine-studded hills at the far end of Redwood Valley, a dozen or so miles north of Ukiah. It's not much to speak of, this narrow, meandering rivulet; in some places, it's possible to easily step across from one bank to the other. Fed by the creeks and culverts etched into the hillsides, the stream gradually gains breadth, if not depth, as it courses south, where just past the lumberyards of Ukiah, the main stem joins forces with its east fork, and the Russian River, at least as we commonly perceive it, begins. Picking up speed and volume, the thick band of olive-drab water winds through southern Mendocino County, farms and vineyards suckling its banks, and enters Sonoma County just north of Cloverdale....
Column: The Green Fever Subsides We all know that polls are just snapshots of a moment in time, taking the pulse of public opinion on some subject. A recent one by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, however, produced some encouraging news. Of 1,000 people polled, just over half said that while protecting the environment is important, it is more important to keep the economy growing. Despite their rhetoric, the environmentalists who keep the movement going with countless organizations, by lobbying the government, and with a constant propaganda program, care little about a healthy, growing, successful economy. They say they do, but so much of what passes for environmentalism is actually a constant attack on the most basic elements of the nation's economy....
Ruling upholds temporary protection for pygmy owl A federal judge has ruled that the pygmy owl will stay protected until at least late January while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determines if the owl's listing as an endangered species is scientifically valid. Monday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton is a victory for environmentalists, who have sought to protect the owl as a way of saving some of Pima County's forests from developers....
IBWC seeks land to further flood-control project The International Boundary and Water Commission will meet with landowners today to discuss purchasing their property as part of a plan to protect wildlife and control flooding along the Rio Grande. According to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report issued April 2002, the U.S. sector of the IBWC must implement vegetation management practices before a flood-control project begins in Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties. A biological opinion given in May 2003 by FWS also requires IBWC to acquire 108-foot wide conservation easements adjacent to the Rio Grande. The easements include a 75-foot wide cleared maintenance strip for flood control and a 33-foot wide conservation corridor for local wildlife, said Ernesto Reyes, a FWS biologist for ecological services....
Babbitt blasts feds for NPR-A proposals Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on Tuesday ripped federal officials over plans to possibly open protected land inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil drillers. Babbitt, who served during the Clinton presidency and now works as a private attorney, said in a Washington, D.C., news conference hosted by environmental groups that he closed acreage centering on giant Teshekpuk Lake for good, scientific reasons in 1998, and now the Bush administration is trying to undo some of those protections....
The Casper Star Tribune, the Billings Gazette and several other websites were down for maintenance. Will try to get those stories up tomorrow.
Boy Scouts sued for $14M over fire The federal government and the state of Utah sued the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday for nearly $14 million to recover the costs of a 2002 fire at a Scout camp. The lawsuit alleges that about 20 Boy Scouts ages 11 to 14 were left without adult supervision for a night outside an approved campground. Some of the boys built fires that were left to smolder and spread across more than 14,000 acres, the lawsuit says. U.S. Attorney for Utah Paul Warner said the complaint seeks $13.3 million for the federal costs of fighting the fire and reclamation of the charred land in the Uinta Mountains. The state is asking for more than $600,000 to cover its firefighting expenses....
Prairie Dogs Still Plague Ranchers They might look cute, but prairie dogs can take perfectly healthy grazing fields, and reduce them to dirt. Rancher, Monte Whitcher says, “Well, they keep stripping it and taking the grass off. When they first infest an area they chop all the grass down and keep it low and they eat the short grass and the grass roots.” To rancher's like Whitcher, the fight against prairie dogs is a daily struggle, but what is perhaps even more frustrating is the feeling of helplessness. “Since 1996 there hasn't been any control work done in our area, on the forest service, and the prairie dog towns are getting pretty sick.”....
Column: Remember, and celebrate, wilderness laws Celebrate! In this time of political polarization, Oregonians should take a pleasant moment to celebrate something quintessentially American: our successes in preserving Oregon's wilderness heritage. It was 20 years ago this month that President Ronald Reagan signed the Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984. That law was the product of bipartisan effort by our congressional delegation, backed by widespread citizen support and solid professional work by the U.S. Forest Service. And there is more to celebrate. On Sept. 3, the nation will mark the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the historic conservation law that made possible the permanent protection of wilderness by law....
Forest thinning appeals denied The Coconino National Forest rejected two appeals Monday filed by five environmental groups on a forest restoration project southwest of Flagstaff -- and one group does not anticipate a lawsuit because of another legal resolution. Coconino County Deputy Forest Supervisor Joe Stringer said he is upholding the Woody Ridge Forest Restoration Project, the third of 10 projects planned for the Flagstaff region in order to prevent the outbreak of catastrophic wildfire in the overgrown forest....
Large tankers missing as crews tackle flames Nearly two months after the nation's 33 largest firefighting air tankers were grounded because of safety concerns, wildfires like the one burning in rugged terrain seven miles southwest of Payson are being fought differently in Arizona and across the country. Firefighters say they have had to shift strategies since the air tankers were pulled from service on May 10, possibly for the entire wildfire season. Smaller aircraft, like Fletcher's single-engine, fixed-wing plane, are taking center stage in the battle to control wildfires....
Plan could lead to purchase of park About $35 million generated by a recent auction of federal land near Las Vegas would be used to purchase prime Lake Tahoe real estate under a proposal recommended by federal officials. Plans call for the U.S. Forest Service to use the money to purchase about 490 acres of the 548-acre Ponderosa Ranch amusement park in Incline Village. The Ponderosa Ranch, which opened in 1968, was based on the NBC show “Bonanza” that aired from 1950 to 1973. It concerned the exploits of the Cartwright family who lived on the fictional Ponderosa Ranch....
Battle lines on Yampa What has raised the 56-year-old Basalt resident's concern - along with that of many other northwest Colorado anglers - is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife-initiated program, accelerated this year, to remove as many sportfish as possible from a long stretch of the Yampa River inhabited by several species of endangered native fish. Officials fear these exotics eat young native fish and, in some cases, compete for habitat and food. Thus far, an electrofishing-transplant program joined this year by the Colorado Division of Wildlife has moved about 3,000 pike and bass from the river to various stillwater locations in the region. The ancestors of these sportfish escaped into the river years ago from Elkhead Reservoir, one of the places the recently captured fish are being returned....
School Might Move Because Of Endangered Bat An endangered bat found at a construction site for a new high school might force city officials to find another location for the school. The $44 million, 123-acre Lakeside High School construction project in Saybrook Township has been on hold since a survey by a private company hired by the school earlier this month found 16 bats near the property. Among the animals was a pregnant Indiana bat that is an endangered species. On Monday, officials from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers met with Superintendent William Licate and three school board members to discuss plans to try to work around the obstacle. At best, the $44 million construction project will be on hold for at least three months for a second survey....
Commissioner fined in wolf shooting A Valley County commissioner will pay a fine of $750 for his role in the shooting death of a wolf. Wolves are protected under the Endangered Species Act. A Valley County Commissioner has been fined for his role in the shooting death of a wolf near Cascade. The animal was found dead at Phil Davis’ ranch north of Cascade. Davis' hired hand Jerry Ussery was also fined $750. Ussery says he shot the wolf May 24 when he saw the predator running near cows and their calves....
Column: A Tale of Two Rivers The Russian River begins as a trickle in the pine-studded hills at the far end of Redwood Valley, a dozen or so miles north of Ukiah. It's not much to speak of, this narrow, meandering rivulet; in some places, it's possible to easily step across from one bank to the other. Fed by the creeks and culverts etched into the hillsides, the stream gradually gains breadth, if not depth, as it courses south, where just past the lumberyards of Ukiah, the main stem joins forces with its east fork, and the Russian River, at least as we commonly perceive it, begins. Picking up speed and volume, the thick band of olive-drab water winds through southern Mendocino County, farms and vineyards suckling its banks, and enters Sonoma County just north of Cloverdale....
Column: The Green Fever Subsides We all know that polls are just snapshots of a moment in time, taking the pulse of public opinion on some subject. A recent one by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, however, produced some encouraging news. Of 1,000 people polled, just over half said that while protecting the environment is important, it is more important to keep the economy growing. Despite their rhetoric, the environmentalists who keep the movement going with countless organizations, by lobbying the government, and with a constant propaganda program, care little about a healthy, growing, successful economy. They say they do, but so much of what passes for environmentalism is actually a constant attack on the most basic elements of the nation's economy....
Ruling upholds temporary protection for pygmy owl A federal judge has ruled that the pygmy owl will stay protected until at least late January while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determines if the owl's listing as an endangered species is scientifically valid. Monday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton is a victory for environmentalists, who have sought to protect the owl as a way of saving some of Pima County's forests from developers....
IBWC seeks land to further flood-control project The International Boundary and Water Commission will meet with landowners today to discuss purchasing their property as part of a plan to protect wildlife and control flooding along the Rio Grande. According to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report issued April 2002, the U.S. sector of the IBWC must implement vegetation management practices before a flood-control project begins in Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties. A biological opinion given in May 2003 by FWS also requires IBWC to acquire 108-foot wide conservation easements adjacent to the Rio Grande. The easements include a 75-foot wide cleared maintenance strip for flood control and a 33-foot wide conservation corridor for local wildlife, said Ernesto Reyes, a FWS biologist for ecological services....
Babbitt blasts feds for NPR-A proposals Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on Tuesday ripped federal officials over plans to possibly open protected land inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil drillers. Babbitt, who served during the Clinton presidency and now works as a private attorney, said in a Washington, D.C., news conference hosted by environmental groups that he closed acreage centering on giant Teshekpuk Lake for good, scientific reasons in 1998, and now the Bush administration is trying to undo some of those protections....
The Casper Star Tribune, the Billings Gazette and several other websites were down for maintenance. Will try to get those stories up tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
National Forests Fall Victim to Firefighting By 2000, forest fires had reached historic proportions. That year and 2002 rank as two of the worst wild land-fire seasons in 50 years. In 2002 alone, 88,458 fires burned roughly 7 million acres in states including New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado and Arizona, destroying more than 800 structures and killing 23 firefighters. Although the Forest Service has just begun to use its new powers under the act, the agency is pursuing a new forest fire strategy across the country. It estimates that 191 million acres of federal land, out of a total of 800 million, pose a fire risk. This sort of analysis has helped fuel the shift in federal policy in areas beyond the 20 million acres directly subject to the act, and it is alarming environmentalists who are trying to keep national forests off-limits to loggers....
Plan to purge fish released After more than three years in development, the state and the Bonneville Power Administration have rolled out a draft plan for purging non-native fish from 21 alpine lakes in the South Fork Flathead drainage. The state and BPA have released a draft environmental impact statement that lays out details for a project that will involve helicopters, single-engine air tankers and horse packing to deliver fish toxins to the lakes. the plan has been controversial since it was first proposed in 2001....
Forest Service May Use ISO 14001 Instead of Impact Statements The U.S. Forest Service could change a practice that dates back to the early 1980s and forego the environmental impact statement process in the plans required for each of its national forests and grasslands. Instead, the service would require that forest planners would use environmental management systems that conform to the ISO 14001 international EMS standard to address environmental issues and ensure compliance with laws, according to an upcoming article in The Environmental Forum. The article, published by the Environmental Law Institute, is written by the career Forest Service employee in charge of a rulemaking to replace the existing planning regulation....
Column: Risky Business of Fighting Wildfires The 2004 fire season has not yet truly begun in the West, and already three fire-fighting pilots have died in crashes. While investigations into the causes of the accidents are underway, the U.S. Forest Service finds itself crushed between a rock and a hot place. On May 11, with aerial tanker-training in full swing, top-ranking administrators in the Forest Service pulled the rug out from under the agency's tanker contractors and regional fire managers. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth declared all large tanker contracts null and void, leaving a gaping hole in the bag of tools needed to fight wildland fires. The impetus behind his decision was a horrifying video accompanied by a National Transportation Safety Board report on the catastrophic failure of wings on two aerial tankers that crashed in 2002. All crew members aboard the planes died....
Firefighters injured by lightning strike Four firefighters were hospitalized after lightning impacted the ground near the Noon Fire on Thursday afternoon. Forest Service Public Relations Officer Gail Aschenbrenner said Scott Gorman and Jeff Every, both members of the Dalton Interagency Hotshot Crew, were sent to the Mount Graham Regional Medical Center after lightning struck the ground near them. The crew is based in Southern California....
Noah's modern ark: The role of ART in conserving endangered species Killer whales, giant pandas, cheetahs and black-footed ferrets are just some of the endangered species that are benefiting from advances in reproductive technology, the 20th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology will hear tomorrow (Monday 28 June). But, whereas in humans the focus of assisted reproductive technology (ART) is on producing a baby, amongst wildlife conservationists the focus is on the much more basic aim of simply understanding the fundamentals of reproduction in different species....
2 climbers die in rock slides A rock slide that unleashed boulders "the size of trucks" killed a climber and injured two other hikers as they descended Mount McKinley, authorities said. It was one of two deadly rock slides in the United States over the weekend. In Alaska, four climbers were attached by rope at 13,000 feet when giant boulders began raining down on them Sunday. Two men suffered non-life-threatening injuries, while a fourth, a guide, was not injured....
Babbitt, Finley push park politics Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and former Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Mike Finley criticized the Bush administration's stewardship of the national parks on Monday.
"President Bush has broken his promise," said Babbitt, who served during the Clinton administration, during a conference call organized by the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry....
U.S. Park Police Chief Sues To End Limbo Status U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers wants to go back to work. To make that happen, she has filed a complaint before a federal civil service judge, seeking immediate reinstatement to her job, according to a complaint released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Chambers was placed on paid administrative leave in December, after publicly complaining about budget and staffing. National Park Service Deputy Director Don Murphy stripped Chambers of her badge, sidearm and law enforcement credentials. She was also ordered not to give any interviews....
All-Employee Memo to Counter the "Chambers Effect" Even as it seeks to remove its top law enforcement officer for speaking with the Washington Post, the National Park Service has issued an email to all its employees assuring them of their "absolute" right to report "wrongdoing or mismanagement," according to the memo released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)....
California's perilous mining legacy Such accidents underscore the hazardous legacy of some 47,000 abandoned mines throughout California, some dating to the Gold Rush of 1849, state and federal authorities say. Riverside and San Bernardino counties have an estimated 15,000 abandoned mines. The state has started identifying the most hazardous mines and gating, plugging or filling their entrances, but the task is only minimally funded and is expected to take decades to finish....
Editorial: 'Cultural resources' Due to five years of record drought, the level of Lake Mead has dropped 80 feet, bringing into shallow water or right up into view artifacts and ruins that have not been seen since the lake began to fill, decades ago. Sixty miles northeast of Las Vegas, building foundations in the town of St. Thomas -- swallowed by the growing lake in 1938 -- are now high and dry. As a result, there have already been incidents of looting and vandalism in some of the newly exposed areas, according to Rosie Pepito, cultural resources manager for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Relic hunters have been arrested amidst the ruined concrete foundations, according to recreation area archaeologist Steve Daron. "There's been a problem with people using metal detectors and digging stuff up," he says. So the Park Service is preparing a Submerged Cultural Resources Management Plan. What a bunch of bunk. Congress declared Lake Mead is a recreation area, not a protected archaeological site. The government had years to dig up and remove anything it wanted to preserve, 70 years ago -- and did so. If there is no longer any water over St. Thomas to allow swimming or boating, what form of "recreation" other than relic hunting do the rangers now submit it's good for? Druid solstice ceremonies?....
BLM worker’s mistake led to death of 7 horses Seven wild horses died in a remote Northeast Nevada enclosure because of a mistake by a Bureau of Land Management employee, an agency investigation found. In a statement released Monday, BLM officials said a worker failed to install proper gates that would have allowed the animals to leave a fenced weed treatment research area. Instead, the seven horses were trapped inside the enclosed area in May and died because of a lack of water....
White House help sought on N-dump In a letter, Private Fuel Storage Chairman John D. Parkyn asked the White House Task Force on Energy Policy Streamlining to force the Defense Department to complete a study on whether putting the nuclear waste near the sprawling Utah Test and Training Range might hinder the preparedness of the Air Force, which uses the range in Utah's west desert for combat practice. Until the congressionally mandated study is completed, the Interior Department cannot approve Private Fuel Storage's request to build a rail line across federal land to the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation, where the company plans to store 40,000 tons of radioactive waste from the nation's nuclear power plants....
Greenpeace vacates anti-logging camp, gets federal citation After two protests that temporarily blocked loggers from timber sales, Greenpeace dismantled the base camp for its southern Oregon campaign against old growth logging. The group also received a federal citation for staying too long on public lands. "Today is the last day of the rescue station, but it's just the beginning of our campaign in southern Oregon," Greenpeace campaigner Ginger Cassady told the Grants Pass Daily Courier on Monday....
Nevada leads U.S. in mercury release Nevada mines account for most of the mercury released into the environment in the United States, but the state no longer is No. 1 when it comes to the release of toxic substances, according to an Environmental Protection Agency report. Alaska moved into the No. 1 spot, bumping the Silver State to second after four straight years in which Nevada was first. Metal mining, which churns up to the surface the intrinsic toxic substances in soil and rock, perpetually puts Western states atop the list....
National Forests Fall Victim to Firefighting By 2000, forest fires had reached historic proportions. That year and 2002 rank as two of the worst wild land-fire seasons in 50 years. In 2002 alone, 88,458 fires burned roughly 7 million acres in states including New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado and Arizona, destroying more than 800 structures and killing 23 firefighters. Although the Forest Service has just begun to use its new powers under the act, the agency is pursuing a new forest fire strategy across the country. It estimates that 191 million acres of federal land, out of a total of 800 million, pose a fire risk. This sort of analysis has helped fuel the shift in federal policy in areas beyond the 20 million acres directly subject to the act, and it is alarming environmentalists who are trying to keep national forests off-limits to loggers....
Plan to purge fish released After more than three years in development, the state and the Bonneville Power Administration have rolled out a draft plan for purging non-native fish from 21 alpine lakes in the South Fork Flathead drainage. The state and BPA have released a draft environmental impact statement that lays out details for a project that will involve helicopters, single-engine air tankers and horse packing to deliver fish toxins to the lakes. the plan has been controversial since it was first proposed in 2001....
Forest Service May Use ISO 14001 Instead of Impact Statements The U.S. Forest Service could change a practice that dates back to the early 1980s and forego the environmental impact statement process in the plans required for each of its national forests and grasslands. Instead, the service would require that forest planners would use environmental management systems that conform to the ISO 14001 international EMS standard to address environmental issues and ensure compliance with laws, according to an upcoming article in The Environmental Forum. The article, published by the Environmental Law Institute, is written by the career Forest Service employee in charge of a rulemaking to replace the existing planning regulation....
Column: Risky Business of Fighting Wildfires The 2004 fire season has not yet truly begun in the West, and already three fire-fighting pilots have died in crashes. While investigations into the causes of the accidents are underway, the U.S. Forest Service finds itself crushed between a rock and a hot place. On May 11, with aerial tanker-training in full swing, top-ranking administrators in the Forest Service pulled the rug out from under the agency's tanker contractors and regional fire managers. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth declared all large tanker contracts null and void, leaving a gaping hole in the bag of tools needed to fight wildland fires. The impetus behind his decision was a horrifying video accompanied by a National Transportation Safety Board report on the catastrophic failure of wings on two aerial tankers that crashed in 2002. All crew members aboard the planes died....
Firefighters injured by lightning strike Four firefighters were hospitalized after lightning impacted the ground near the Noon Fire on Thursday afternoon. Forest Service Public Relations Officer Gail Aschenbrenner said Scott Gorman and Jeff Every, both members of the Dalton Interagency Hotshot Crew, were sent to the Mount Graham Regional Medical Center after lightning struck the ground near them. The crew is based in Southern California....
Noah's modern ark: The role of ART in conserving endangered species Killer whales, giant pandas, cheetahs and black-footed ferrets are just some of the endangered species that are benefiting from advances in reproductive technology, the 20th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology will hear tomorrow (Monday 28 June). But, whereas in humans the focus of assisted reproductive technology (ART) is on producing a baby, amongst wildlife conservationists the focus is on the much more basic aim of simply understanding the fundamentals of reproduction in different species....
2 climbers die in rock slides A rock slide that unleashed boulders "the size of trucks" killed a climber and injured two other hikers as they descended Mount McKinley, authorities said. It was one of two deadly rock slides in the United States over the weekend. In Alaska, four climbers were attached by rope at 13,000 feet when giant boulders began raining down on them Sunday. Two men suffered non-life-threatening injuries, while a fourth, a guide, was not injured....
Babbitt, Finley push park politics Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and former Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Mike Finley criticized the Bush administration's stewardship of the national parks on Monday.
"President Bush has broken his promise," said Babbitt, who served during the Clinton administration, during a conference call organized by the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry....
U.S. Park Police Chief Sues To End Limbo Status U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers wants to go back to work. To make that happen, she has filed a complaint before a federal civil service judge, seeking immediate reinstatement to her job, according to a complaint released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Chambers was placed on paid administrative leave in December, after publicly complaining about budget and staffing. National Park Service Deputy Director Don Murphy stripped Chambers of her badge, sidearm and law enforcement credentials. She was also ordered not to give any interviews....
All-Employee Memo to Counter the "Chambers Effect" Even as it seeks to remove its top law enforcement officer for speaking with the Washington Post, the National Park Service has issued an email to all its employees assuring them of their "absolute" right to report "wrongdoing or mismanagement," according to the memo released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)....
California's perilous mining legacy Such accidents underscore the hazardous legacy of some 47,000 abandoned mines throughout California, some dating to the Gold Rush of 1849, state and federal authorities say. Riverside and San Bernardino counties have an estimated 15,000 abandoned mines. The state has started identifying the most hazardous mines and gating, plugging or filling their entrances, but the task is only minimally funded and is expected to take decades to finish....
Editorial: 'Cultural resources' Due to five years of record drought, the level of Lake Mead has dropped 80 feet, bringing into shallow water or right up into view artifacts and ruins that have not been seen since the lake began to fill, decades ago. Sixty miles northeast of Las Vegas, building foundations in the town of St. Thomas -- swallowed by the growing lake in 1938 -- are now high and dry. As a result, there have already been incidents of looting and vandalism in some of the newly exposed areas, according to Rosie Pepito, cultural resources manager for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Relic hunters have been arrested amidst the ruined concrete foundations, according to recreation area archaeologist Steve Daron. "There's been a problem with people using metal detectors and digging stuff up," he says. So the Park Service is preparing a Submerged Cultural Resources Management Plan. What a bunch of bunk. Congress declared Lake Mead is a recreation area, not a protected archaeological site. The government had years to dig up and remove anything it wanted to preserve, 70 years ago -- and did so. If there is no longer any water over St. Thomas to allow swimming or boating, what form of "recreation" other than relic hunting do the rangers now submit it's good for? Druid solstice ceremonies?....
BLM worker’s mistake led to death of 7 horses Seven wild horses died in a remote Northeast Nevada enclosure because of a mistake by a Bureau of Land Management employee, an agency investigation found. In a statement released Monday, BLM officials said a worker failed to install proper gates that would have allowed the animals to leave a fenced weed treatment research area. Instead, the seven horses were trapped inside the enclosed area in May and died because of a lack of water....
White House help sought on N-dump In a letter, Private Fuel Storage Chairman John D. Parkyn asked the White House Task Force on Energy Policy Streamlining to force the Defense Department to complete a study on whether putting the nuclear waste near the sprawling Utah Test and Training Range might hinder the preparedness of the Air Force, which uses the range in Utah's west desert for combat practice. Until the congressionally mandated study is completed, the Interior Department cannot approve Private Fuel Storage's request to build a rail line across federal land to the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation, where the company plans to store 40,000 tons of radioactive waste from the nation's nuclear power plants....
Greenpeace vacates anti-logging camp, gets federal citation After two protests that temporarily blocked loggers from timber sales, Greenpeace dismantled the base camp for its southern Oregon campaign against old growth logging. The group also received a federal citation for staying too long on public lands. "Today is the last day of the rescue station, but it's just the beginning of our campaign in southern Oregon," Greenpeace campaigner Ginger Cassady told the Grants Pass Daily Courier on Monday....
Nevada leads U.S. in mercury release Nevada mines account for most of the mercury released into the environment in the United States, but the state no longer is No. 1 when it comes to the release of toxic substances, according to an Environmental Protection Agency report. Alaska moved into the No. 1 spot, bumping the Silver State to second after four straight years in which Nevada was first. Metal mining, which churns up to the surface the intrinsic toxic substances in soil and rock, perpetually puts Western states atop the list....
Monday, June 28, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Drought-stricken farmers cash in on wind Mixed in with the sound of meadowlarks, tractors and the hum of the wind on Colorado's southeastern plains is a low, steady beat: "whoop, whoop, whoop." It comes from a line of towering, pinwheel-like turbines that are producing electricity used across Colorado. The sound coming from a ridge south of this farming town has become a beckoning call for people struggling through a fifth year of crop-killing drought....
2 livestock brokers are behind bars Missouri cattle brokers George Young and Kathleen McConnell, who cost banks and investors $183 million in the largest cattle fraud in U.S. history, reported Monday to federal prisons in North Carolina and Illinois, even as they are appealing the lengths of their sentences. "It's been a long time coming," said Richard Fox of Broken Bow, Neb., who lost around $120,000 in the fraud. About 130 banks, individuals and businesses were victims....
Cattlemen appeal reversal in Tyson case Cattlemen who won a landmark price-fixing verdict against the nation's largest beef packer, only to have it thrown out by a federal judge, have filed an appeal claiming the judge wrongly substituted his judgment for the jury's. U.S. Senior District Judge Lyle Strom had said the cattlemen failed to show sufficient evidence to prove Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. used contracts with a select few beef producers to manipulate cattle market prices. Strom's order reversed the Feb. 17 verdict of a federal jury in Montgomery. But in their appeal, filed June 9, attorneys for the six cattlemen asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to find that the jury based its decision on a reasonable review of the evidence....
Corral your coolest buckaroo Does it take a 10-gallon hat and a pair of well-worn boots to make a cool cowboy? Does the coolest cowgirl need to be a champion barrel racer or equine expert? The Columbian is searching Clark County for the coolest cowboy and cowgirl, and we need your help in roping them in. Send us your nominations for the cowboy or cowgirl that fit that "coolest" image....
It's All Trew: Everybody and their dog tended chickens Women tend chickens, men work chickens much like working livestock. We worked chickens twice a year on the Trew place. Roundup was accomplished by not opening the chicken house door in the morning. Mother set up a card table just outside the door with all her chicken equipment in place. My brother and I entered the chicken house with a long wire hook in hand. We chose a hen, hooked and handed her to Dad outside. He held the hen on her back while Mother laid her fingers on the egg-laying-end of the chicken. A three-fingers-wide space on the pelvis meant the hen was laying eggs every day and was worth her weight in golden egg yolks. A green plastic ring was placed around her leg just above the foot identifying her as a keeper. Her feathers were dusted with an insect powder and she was released. Another hen was handed out. A two-finger-wide hen meant she laid only every other day or less. Her age and condition determined whether she was a keeper and a blue or red ring was placed on her leg. A one-finger-wide hen was not laying eggs and received a red ring meaning she was destined for a future pot of chicken and dumplings....
Drought-stricken farmers cash in on wind Mixed in with the sound of meadowlarks, tractors and the hum of the wind on Colorado's southeastern plains is a low, steady beat: "whoop, whoop, whoop." It comes from a line of towering, pinwheel-like turbines that are producing electricity used across Colorado. The sound coming from a ridge south of this farming town has become a beckoning call for people struggling through a fifth year of crop-killing drought....
2 livestock brokers are behind bars Missouri cattle brokers George Young and Kathleen McConnell, who cost banks and investors $183 million in the largest cattle fraud in U.S. history, reported Monday to federal prisons in North Carolina and Illinois, even as they are appealing the lengths of their sentences. "It's been a long time coming," said Richard Fox of Broken Bow, Neb., who lost around $120,000 in the fraud. About 130 banks, individuals and businesses were victims....
Cattlemen appeal reversal in Tyson case Cattlemen who won a landmark price-fixing verdict against the nation's largest beef packer, only to have it thrown out by a federal judge, have filed an appeal claiming the judge wrongly substituted his judgment for the jury's. U.S. Senior District Judge Lyle Strom had said the cattlemen failed to show sufficient evidence to prove Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. used contracts with a select few beef producers to manipulate cattle market prices. Strom's order reversed the Feb. 17 verdict of a federal jury in Montgomery. But in their appeal, filed June 9, attorneys for the six cattlemen asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to find that the jury based its decision on a reasonable review of the evidence....
Corral your coolest buckaroo Does it take a 10-gallon hat and a pair of well-worn boots to make a cool cowboy? Does the coolest cowgirl need to be a champion barrel racer or equine expert? The Columbian is searching Clark County for the coolest cowboy and cowgirl, and we need your help in roping them in. Send us your nominations for the cowboy or cowgirl that fit that "coolest" image....
It's All Trew: Everybody and their dog tended chickens Women tend chickens, men work chickens much like working livestock. We worked chickens twice a year on the Trew place. Roundup was accomplished by not opening the chicken house door in the morning. Mother set up a card table just outside the door with all her chicken equipment in place. My brother and I entered the chicken house with a long wire hook in hand. We chose a hen, hooked and handed her to Dad outside. He held the hen on her back while Mother laid her fingers on the egg-laying-end of the chicken. A three-fingers-wide space on the pelvis meant the hen was laying eggs every day and was worth her weight in golden egg yolks. A green plastic ring was placed around her leg just above the foot identifying her as a keeper. Her feathers were dusted with an insect powder and she was released. Another hen was handed out. A two-finger-wide hen meant she laid only every other day or less. Her age and condition determined whether she was a keeper and a blue or red ring was placed on her leg. A one-finger-wide hen was not laying eggs and received a red ring meaning she was destined for a future pot of chicken and dumplings....
Cattle Prices Plunge After Test Indicates Possible Mad Cow Case
Cattle futures in Chicago had their biggest decline in six months after the U.S. said a mad-cow screening test was positive and may indicate the second case of the disease since December. The test has yet to be confirmed.
The Department of Agriculture said Friday an animal tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, under an expanded screening program begun June 1. The carcass was sent to the department's National Veterinary Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for additional tests. Beef prices that plunged in December had recovered most of their losses during the past six months.
``The USDA has been warning us to expect as many as 30 or 40 false positives or inconclusives since May when they announced the expansion of testing for the disease,'' said Dave Weaber, director of research at the member-owned information agency Cattle-Fax in Denver. ``It all depends now on whether the additional tests are positive or negative, and we are trying to keep our people in a holding pattern.''
Cattle for August delivery fell 2.925 cents, or 3.3 percent, to 86.425 cents a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, after earlier dropping the exchange's 3-cent limit to 86.35 cents. It was the biggest one-day percentage decline since Dec. 31. Prices are up 25 percent from a year ago....
Cattle futures in Chicago had their biggest decline in six months after the U.S. said a mad-cow screening test was positive and may indicate the second case of the disease since December. The test has yet to be confirmed.
The Department of Agriculture said Friday an animal tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, under an expanded screening program begun June 1. The carcass was sent to the department's National Veterinary Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for additional tests. Beef prices that plunged in December had recovered most of their losses during the past six months.
``The USDA has been warning us to expect as many as 30 or 40 false positives or inconclusives since May when they announced the expansion of testing for the disease,'' said Dave Weaber, director of research at the member-owned information agency Cattle-Fax in Denver. ``It all depends now on whether the additional tests are positive or negative, and we are trying to keep our people in a holding pattern.''
Cattle for August delivery fell 2.925 cents, or 3.3 percent, to 86.425 cents a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, after earlier dropping the exchange's 3-cent limit to 86.35 cents. It was the biggest one-day percentage decline since Dec. 31. Prices are up 25 percent from a year ago....
U.S Keeps Nervous Eye on Exports Amid Mad Cow Concerns
U.S. agriculture officials on Monday labored to convince foreign buyers of American beef that the meat is safe to consume, despite Friday's announcement of an "inconclusive" test for mad cow disease that caused volatile trading in Chicago futures markets.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) scientists in Ames, Iowa, were conducting more detailed lab tests on brain tissue samples from a suspect head of cattle. If those tests are negative for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, USDA could announce the results as early as Tuesday, according to one USDA official.
But a positive finding could prompt USDA to do additional testing, delaying any announcement, according to a meat industry source who asked not to be identified....
U.S. agriculture officials on Monday labored to convince foreign buyers of American beef that the meat is safe to consume, despite Friday's announcement of an "inconclusive" test for mad cow disease that caused volatile trading in Chicago futures markets.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) scientists in Ames, Iowa, were conducting more detailed lab tests on brain tissue samples from a suspect head of cattle. If those tests are negative for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, USDA could announce the results as early as Tuesday, according to one USDA official.
But a positive finding could prompt USDA to do additional testing, delaying any announcement, according to a meat industry source who asked not to be identified....
USDA keeps tainted meat's destination secret
The recall of tainted meat products is surrounded by secrecy that protects the food industry at the expense of public health, critics say.
The Spokesman-Review filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the identities of more than 580 distributors, restaurants and grocery stores that received 19 tons of beef recalled after a Washington state cow tested positive for mad cow disease in December.
The information exists in government files. But the newspaper's request was denied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency cited exemptions protecting the trade secrets of private enterprise.
Where the meat was sold must be reconstructed from news reports and grocery store press releases, not from government documents.
Critics say more openness would protect public health by giving consumers the names of stores and restaurants that receive recalled meat and poultry. Consumers then could more easily determine whether they have purchased any recalled product.
As the system works today, government press releases on recalls describe the meat product, where it was processed and sometimes the states that received it, but no specific names of grocery stores or restaurants....
The recall of tainted meat products is surrounded by secrecy that protects the food industry at the expense of public health, critics say.
The Spokesman-Review filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the identities of more than 580 distributors, restaurants and grocery stores that received 19 tons of beef recalled after a Washington state cow tested positive for mad cow disease in December.
The information exists in government files. But the newspaper's request was denied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency cited exemptions protecting the trade secrets of private enterprise.
Where the meat was sold must be reconstructed from news reports and grocery store press releases, not from government documents.
Critics say more openness would protect public health by giving consumers the names of stores and restaurants that receive recalled meat and poultry. Consumers then could more easily determine whether they have purchased any recalled product.
As the system works today, government press releases on recalls describe the meat product, where it was processed and sometimes the states that received it, but no specific names of grocery stores or restaurants....
Agency lags on grazing permits
The U.S. Forest Service is backlogged with more than 6,000 grazing permit renewals that could take 17 years to complete at its current rate of processing, an official with the agency testified Wednesday during a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing.
By contrast, the Bureau of Land Management backlog will be erased in five years.
U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, urged the Forest Service to commit more resources to processing its vast backlog.
A Forest Service representative told the subcommittee Wednesday that the agency is processing grazing permits at a current rate of 368 per year.
“The department has testified previously before this subcommittee that the current decision-making procedures to authorize livestock grazing or other activities on rangelands administered by the Forest Service are inflexible, unwieldy, time-consuming and expensive,” said Tom Thompson, deputy chief of the National Forest System for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He said the agency is attempting to balance its legal obligations with service to the public and is exploring new qualitative rangeland analysis tools.
There are grazing allotments on nearly half of all National Forest System lands, approximately 90 million acres of land in 34 states, he said. The Forest Service administers approximately 8,800 allotments, with more than 9,000 livestock permits for grazing by cattle, horses, sheep and goats. About 99 percent of all permitted grazing is located in the West, with only about 1 percent occurring in the eastern forests....
The U.S. Forest Service is backlogged with more than 6,000 grazing permit renewals that could take 17 years to complete at its current rate of processing, an official with the agency testified Wednesday during a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing.
By contrast, the Bureau of Land Management backlog will be erased in five years.
U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, urged the Forest Service to commit more resources to processing its vast backlog.
A Forest Service representative told the subcommittee Wednesday that the agency is processing grazing permits at a current rate of 368 per year.
“The department has testified previously before this subcommittee that the current decision-making procedures to authorize livestock grazing or other activities on rangelands administered by the Forest Service are inflexible, unwieldy, time-consuming and expensive,” said Tom Thompson, deputy chief of the National Forest System for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He said the agency is attempting to balance its legal obligations with service to the public and is exploring new qualitative rangeland analysis tools.
There are grazing allotments on nearly half of all National Forest System lands, approximately 90 million acres of land in 34 states, he said. The Forest Service administers approximately 8,800 allotments, with more than 9,000 livestock permits for grazing by cattle, horses, sheep and goats. About 99 percent of all permitted grazing is located in the West, with only about 1 percent occurring in the eastern forests....
GAO REPORT
WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
Better Coordination of Data Collection
Efforts Needed to Support Key Decisions
Why GAO Did This Study
Reliable and complete data are needed to assess watersheds—areas that drain into a common body of water—and allocate limited cleanup resources. Historically, water officials have expressed concern about a lack of water data. At the same time, numerous organizations collect a variety of water data. To address a number of issues concerning the water data that various organization collect, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment asked GAO to determine (1) the key entities that collect water data, the types of data they collect, how they store the data, and how entities can access the data; and (2) the extent that water quality and water quantity data collection efforts are coordinated.
What GAO Recommends
To enhance and clearly define authority for coordinating the collection of water data nationwide, the Congress should consider formally designating a lead organization for this purpose. Among its responsibilities, the organization would (1) support the development and continued operation of regional and state monitoring councils, (2) coordinate the development of an Internetbased clearinghouse to convey what entities are collecting what types of data, and (3) coordinate development of clear guidance on metadata standards so that data users can integrate data from various sources.
What GAO Found
At least 15 federal agencies collect a wide variety of water quality data. Most notably, the U.S. Geological Survey operates several large water quality monitoring programs across the nation. States also play a key role in water quality data collection to fulfill their responsibilities under the Clean Water Act. In addition, numerous local watershed groups, volunteer monitoring groups, industries, and academic groups collect water quality data. In contrast, collection of water quantity data is more centralized, with three federal agencies collecting the majority of data available nationwide.
While GAO found notable exceptions, officials in almost all of the federal and state agencies contacted said that coordination of water quality data was falling short of its potential. As illustrated below, key barriers frequently identified as impeding better coordination of water quality data collection include (1) the significantly different purposes for which groups collect data, (2) inconsistencies in groups’ data collection protocols, (3) an unawareness by data collectors as to which entities collect what types of data, and (4) low priority for data coordination, as shown in a lack of support for councils that promote improved coordination. GAO concluded that designating a lead organization with sufficient authority and resources to coordinate data collection could help alleviate these problems and ensure that watershed managers have better information upon which to base critical decisions.
Data collectors strongly agree that coordinating water quantity data collection is considerably less problematic. Reasons include the fact that controversial water allocation decisions require accurate and complete water quantity data; that some of the technologies for measuring water quantity allow for immediate distribution of data; that water quantity data parameters are generally more consistent; and that coordination is simplified in that relatively fewer entities collect these data. Collectors of water quantity data generally agreed that an overall shortage of data was a more serious problem than a lack of coordination of the data that are collected.
WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
Better Coordination of Data Collection
Efforts Needed to Support Key Decisions
Why GAO Did This Study
Reliable and complete data are needed to assess watersheds—areas that drain into a common body of water—and allocate limited cleanup resources. Historically, water officials have expressed concern about a lack of water data. At the same time, numerous organizations collect a variety of water data. To address a number of issues concerning the water data that various organization collect, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment asked GAO to determine (1) the key entities that collect water data, the types of data they collect, how they store the data, and how entities can access the data; and (2) the extent that water quality and water quantity data collection efforts are coordinated.
What GAO Recommends
To enhance and clearly define authority for coordinating the collection of water data nationwide, the Congress should consider formally designating a lead organization for this purpose. Among its responsibilities, the organization would (1) support the development and continued operation of regional and state monitoring councils, (2) coordinate the development of an Internetbased clearinghouse to convey what entities are collecting what types of data, and (3) coordinate development of clear guidance on metadata standards so that data users can integrate data from various sources.
What GAO Found
At least 15 federal agencies collect a wide variety of water quality data. Most notably, the U.S. Geological Survey operates several large water quality monitoring programs across the nation. States also play a key role in water quality data collection to fulfill their responsibilities under the Clean Water Act. In addition, numerous local watershed groups, volunteer monitoring groups, industries, and academic groups collect water quality data. In contrast, collection of water quantity data is more centralized, with three federal agencies collecting the majority of data available nationwide.
While GAO found notable exceptions, officials in almost all of the federal and state agencies contacted said that coordination of water quality data was falling short of its potential. As illustrated below, key barriers frequently identified as impeding better coordination of water quality data collection include (1) the significantly different purposes for which groups collect data, (2) inconsistencies in groups’ data collection protocols, (3) an unawareness by data collectors as to which entities collect what types of data, and (4) low priority for data coordination, as shown in a lack of support for councils that promote improved coordination. GAO concluded that designating a lead organization with sufficient authority and resources to coordinate data collection could help alleviate these problems and ensure that watershed managers have better information upon which to base critical decisions.
Data collectors strongly agree that coordinating water quantity data collection is considerably less problematic. Reasons include the fact that controversial water allocation decisions require accurate and complete water quantity data; that some of the technologies for measuring water quantity allow for immediate distribution of data; that water quantity data parameters are generally more consistent; and that coordination is simplified in that relatively fewer entities collect these data. Collectors of water quantity data generally agreed that an overall shortage of data was a more serious problem than a lack of coordination of the data that are collected.
Sunday, June 27, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Woman Loses Right Eye In Mountain Lion Attack A 27-year-old Santa Monica woman who was attacked by a mountain lion while hiking in central California was transferred to UCLA Medical Center on Sunday, officials said. Shannon Parker suffered deep lacerations to her right thigh and injuries to both eyes during the attack Saturday, officials with the California Department of Fish and Game said. Parker lost her right eye and underwent reconstructive surgery Sunday morning, said Lt. Nathaniel Arnold of the Fish and Game department....
For Falcons as for People, Life in the Big City Has Its Risks as Well as Its Rewards While missionaries explained the Mormon faith and young brides posed for their wedding pictures in Temple Square, a group set apart by their bright orange vests had another mission entirely - witnessing and abetting one of the most basic coming-of-age rituals in nature. Two peregrine falcons are teaching their two fledglings to fly in the middle of Temple Square, the headquarters of the Mormon Church and the most popular tourist site in Salt Lake City, with a cadre of human volunteers keeping a daylight watch under the nest, prepared to act as a safety net. Peregrine falcons usually nest on high cliffs, but some make their homes on tall buildings and bridges in urban areas....
Candidates Take Aim At Sportsmen's Vote In the next few weeks, the Bush and Kerry camps will be rolling out their campaigns to win over what is often called the "hook and bullet" crowd. Numbering about 50 million strong and living in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Arkansas, the men and women who hunt and fish in this country have become significant players in the presidential campaign. These voters are attractive for a number of reasons. They tend to be politically active; 93 percent of registered hunters voted in the 2000 presidential election, according to a Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation survey conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide, well above the national average. Although they lean Republican -- 46 percent, according to the CSF -- nearly a third are independent and 18 percent are Democratic, leaving ample room for political appeals....
Editorial: Neglecting national parks THROUGH Republican and Democratic administrations, one part of the federal government that never stops growing is the National Park Service. In the past 10 years, more than 20 parks, historic sites, and monuments have been added to the system, including the World War II Memorial in Washington and a memorial for the Japanese-Americans in the West who were forced into camps during that war. Unfortunately, the operating budget for the park service has not kept pace. According to the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group, the service needs $600 million more annually, and that doesn't include a maintenance backlog of $5 billion....
Editorial: Quiet wilderness Snowmobiles are bigger than life in politics and the parks. With the recent rejection by the House of Representatives of a plan to ban their use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, it is useful to examine the symbolism and look at the real issue. Opponents of the ban make impassioned arguments about how the parks belong to everyone, which is true. They say the ban would unfairly restrict access to the parks, which is disingenuous....
Column: California throws down a global warming gauntlet If the Bush administration won't fight global warming, California will. By any means necessary. That's the message of the state's new proposed auto regulations, which would cut greenhouse gases emitted by passenger cars and trucks nearly 30 percent over the next decade. It's a message with bipartisan punch. The climate change plan, made available for public comment on June 14 by the Air Resources Board of the California Environmental Protection Agency, is the result of legislation signed into law by former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2002. But the current Republican governor, Hummer-driving Arnold Schwarzenegger, has also pledged to uphold the new rules and defend them in any potential court battles. The plan has outraged automakers and is setting up what could be another juicy showdown over the environment between the federal government and California....
Saving the farm or saving the stream But state water regulators say there aren’t enough farmers like Schmidt. Too often there are pesticides, sediment, agricultural nutrients or phosphates that flow from farmland into streams and to the ocean, polluting water and harming wildlife. Prompted by changes in state law, the Central Coast Water Quality Control Board is poised to set new sweeping regulations on farmers in the name of water quality. The rules, which will be considered next month, would require farmers to put more checks on agricultural runoff on irrigated lands from Santa Barbara County to southern San Mateo County....
Management Blamed For Depletion of Fish To hear National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials tell it, depleted fish stocks from Hawaii to New England are on the rebound. But environmentalists, academics and some lawmakers have a different view. They speak of fish populations that have experienced precipitous declines and are just now struggling to rebuild. They note that out of the 215 stocks the government tracks, one-third, or 76, are being fished faster than they can reproduce. The popular George's Bank cod in New England has sunk 77 percent since 1978, while the West Coast rockfish known as bocaccio has nearly vanished, declining 97 percent since the late 1960s. The debate over how best to manage and preserve America's fisheries has intensified in recent months. A series of independent commissions has called for reform, and last week two House Democrats introduced legislation that would change how the fishery management councils -- the eight groups that control U.S. waters in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific -- operate....
Column: The rising power of NGOs As these examples suggest, today’s information age has been marked by the growing role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on the international stage. This is not entirely new, but modern communications have led to a dramatic increase in scale, with the number of NGOs jumping from 6,000 to approximately 26,000 during the 1990s alone. Nor do numbers tell the whole story, because they represent only formally constituted organisations. Many NGOs claim to act as a ‘global conscience’, representing broad public interests beyond the purview of individual states. They develop new norms by directly pressing governments and businesses to change policies, and indirectly by altering public perceptions of what governments and firms should do. NGOs do not have coercive ‘hard’ power, but they often enjoy considerable ‘soft’ power — the ability to get the outcomes they want through attraction rather than compulsion. Because they attract followers, governments must take them into account both as allies and adversaries....
Judge dismisses motions against Navajo water settlement A state district judge has dismissed three motions filed against the proposed Navajo Nation water rights settlement. San Juan County resident Gary Horner filed the motions earlier this month to forbid the execution of the settlement and for a temporary restraining order against a settlement agreement between the Navajo Nation, the state, and the United States. Horner also filed a motion for an order declaring a confidentiality agreement void, referring to a secret meeting on the settlement held April 1 in Farmington. State District Judge Rozier Sanchez denied the motions Friday because Horner is not a party to the 30-year-old New Mexico State Engineer vs. the United States lawsuit....
Wolcott Reservoir forging ahead Now the proponents - who include Eagle County water users, members of the Denver Water Board, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy, the Colorado Water Conservancy District and the city of Aurora - want to proceed. They jointly funded a $100,000 study for the reservoir. The reservoir will hold between 50,000 acre-feet to 105,000 acre-feet of water and is expected to cost up to $320 million. It will be formed by a dam built immediately north of Interstate 70 and west of Highway 131 and will flood the valley north of the interstate where the 4-Eagle Ranch lies....
Crapo, Craig introduce legislation to implement water deal Idaho's two Republican senators have introduced a bill aimed to allow Congress to implement its part of the Idaho water rights settlement. The deal announced a month ago would resolve water rights claims of the Nez Perce Tribe while improving habitat and flows for salmon and assuring supplies for irrigators and others....
Making deals John Allen isn't betting on the benevolence of oil and gas companies to look after his land if he decides to lease it out for development. The cattle rancher of 30 years with a spread near Great Divide close to the Wyoming border likes his property the way it is. Yet, he'd be willing to strike a deal with some energy companies, if they can agree to uphold certain conditions. To make sure that happens, Allen doesn't talk to representatives of energy companies until his lawyers get involved....
Rattlesnake Roundup James White grabbed three prairie rattlesnakes by the tail, uncoiled them with a light shake and bit down on their tails. He swung the snakes as they dangled from his mouth, then dropped them to the ground. "Boy, they're hot today," the veteran snake handler from Texas said as he worked the snake pit. It was 91 degrees, the hottest day of the year so far in Sharon Springs. The rattlers weren't happy....
Ewe haven't seen a rodeo like this There is a time and place for everything and being named "the best hooker in Powder River" this weekend can get you a belt buckle. The two-day Powder River Sheepherders Fair today and Sunday should go a long ways towards naming the top sheep hooker, roper and lamb tier in Central Wyoming. Glenda Van Patten is an organizer of the event and something of a legend in the annuls of Sheepherder Days history. Van Patten is in her 21st year helping with the fair and is not above participating in the events. She has trophies or belt buckles from winning the cook-off, the overall sheepherder title and the over-40 roping title three times. The Powder River postmistress is so good, she actually defeated her own daughter, Tammy Sell, once in the roping event....
Set your watch to 1876 Perhaps you've been watching "Deadwood," the HBO series. Well, this town of 1,300 in the Black Hills is the genuine thing, where the real Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane hung out. Basking in its new celebrity — and with the series (filmed in Santa Clarita) renewed for 2005 — Deadwood is pumping up efforts to lure visitors, most recently by erecting a $150,000 block of Old West facades downtown, where most 1876-era buildings burned down long ago....
Bill Pickett The first black elected to the Cowboy Hall of Fame, Bill Pickett, was a perennial participant in the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo. The events in early rodeo -- saddle bronc riding, steer roping and team roping -- were easily staged, because they were demonstrations of skills involved in the regular routines of cattle ranching. Pickett is credited with introducing the sport of bulldogging, or steer wrestling, to rodeo. He fascinated audiences by pursuing his prey on horseback and wrestling it to the ground by biting down on the animal's upper lip. He had witnessed a 60-pound English bulldog performing the feat and practiced it himself. Hence the name, bulldogging, and hence the sport. The Wyoming Tribune had this to say about his 1904 appearance at Frontier Days: "The event par excellence of the celebration this year is the great feat of Will Pickett, a Negro who hails from Taylor, Texas." The paper described his technique and went on to say, "A trick perhaps, but one of the most startling and sensational exhibitions ever seen at a place where daring and thrilling feats are commonplace." The wonderment over Pickett's skills at the same event were echoed by the Denver Post and Harper's Weekly....
Woman Loses Right Eye In Mountain Lion Attack A 27-year-old Santa Monica woman who was attacked by a mountain lion while hiking in central California was transferred to UCLA Medical Center on Sunday, officials said. Shannon Parker suffered deep lacerations to her right thigh and injuries to both eyes during the attack Saturday, officials with the California Department of Fish and Game said. Parker lost her right eye and underwent reconstructive surgery Sunday morning, said Lt. Nathaniel Arnold of the Fish and Game department....
For Falcons as for People, Life in the Big City Has Its Risks as Well as Its Rewards While missionaries explained the Mormon faith and young brides posed for their wedding pictures in Temple Square, a group set apart by their bright orange vests had another mission entirely - witnessing and abetting one of the most basic coming-of-age rituals in nature. Two peregrine falcons are teaching their two fledglings to fly in the middle of Temple Square, the headquarters of the Mormon Church and the most popular tourist site in Salt Lake City, with a cadre of human volunteers keeping a daylight watch under the nest, prepared to act as a safety net. Peregrine falcons usually nest on high cliffs, but some make their homes on tall buildings and bridges in urban areas....
Candidates Take Aim At Sportsmen's Vote In the next few weeks, the Bush and Kerry camps will be rolling out their campaigns to win over what is often called the "hook and bullet" crowd. Numbering about 50 million strong and living in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Arkansas, the men and women who hunt and fish in this country have become significant players in the presidential campaign. These voters are attractive for a number of reasons. They tend to be politically active; 93 percent of registered hunters voted in the 2000 presidential election, according to a Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation survey conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide, well above the national average. Although they lean Republican -- 46 percent, according to the CSF -- nearly a third are independent and 18 percent are Democratic, leaving ample room for political appeals....
Editorial: Neglecting national parks THROUGH Republican and Democratic administrations, one part of the federal government that never stops growing is the National Park Service. In the past 10 years, more than 20 parks, historic sites, and monuments have been added to the system, including the World War II Memorial in Washington and a memorial for the Japanese-Americans in the West who were forced into camps during that war. Unfortunately, the operating budget for the park service has not kept pace. According to the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group, the service needs $600 million more annually, and that doesn't include a maintenance backlog of $5 billion....
Editorial: Quiet wilderness Snowmobiles are bigger than life in politics and the parks. With the recent rejection by the House of Representatives of a plan to ban their use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, it is useful to examine the symbolism and look at the real issue. Opponents of the ban make impassioned arguments about how the parks belong to everyone, which is true. They say the ban would unfairly restrict access to the parks, which is disingenuous....
Column: California throws down a global warming gauntlet If the Bush administration won't fight global warming, California will. By any means necessary. That's the message of the state's new proposed auto regulations, which would cut greenhouse gases emitted by passenger cars and trucks nearly 30 percent over the next decade. It's a message with bipartisan punch. The climate change plan, made available for public comment on June 14 by the Air Resources Board of the California Environmental Protection Agency, is the result of legislation signed into law by former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2002. But the current Republican governor, Hummer-driving Arnold Schwarzenegger, has also pledged to uphold the new rules and defend them in any potential court battles. The plan has outraged automakers and is setting up what could be another juicy showdown over the environment between the federal government and California....
Saving the farm or saving the stream But state water regulators say there aren’t enough farmers like Schmidt. Too often there are pesticides, sediment, agricultural nutrients or phosphates that flow from farmland into streams and to the ocean, polluting water and harming wildlife. Prompted by changes in state law, the Central Coast Water Quality Control Board is poised to set new sweeping regulations on farmers in the name of water quality. The rules, which will be considered next month, would require farmers to put more checks on agricultural runoff on irrigated lands from Santa Barbara County to southern San Mateo County....
Management Blamed For Depletion of Fish To hear National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials tell it, depleted fish stocks from Hawaii to New England are on the rebound. But environmentalists, academics and some lawmakers have a different view. They speak of fish populations that have experienced precipitous declines and are just now struggling to rebuild. They note that out of the 215 stocks the government tracks, one-third, or 76, are being fished faster than they can reproduce. The popular George's Bank cod in New England has sunk 77 percent since 1978, while the West Coast rockfish known as bocaccio has nearly vanished, declining 97 percent since the late 1960s. The debate over how best to manage and preserve America's fisheries has intensified in recent months. A series of independent commissions has called for reform, and last week two House Democrats introduced legislation that would change how the fishery management councils -- the eight groups that control U.S. waters in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific -- operate....
Column: The rising power of NGOs As these examples suggest, today’s information age has been marked by the growing role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on the international stage. This is not entirely new, but modern communications have led to a dramatic increase in scale, with the number of NGOs jumping from 6,000 to approximately 26,000 during the 1990s alone. Nor do numbers tell the whole story, because they represent only formally constituted organisations. Many NGOs claim to act as a ‘global conscience’, representing broad public interests beyond the purview of individual states. They develop new norms by directly pressing governments and businesses to change policies, and indirectly by altering public perceptions of what governments and firms should do. NGOs do not have coercive ‘hard’ power, but they often enjoy considerable ‘soft’ power — the ability to get the outcomes they want through attraction rather than compulsion. Because they attract followers, governments must take them into account both as allies and adversaries....
Judge dismisses motions against Navajo water settlement A state district judge has dismissed three motions filed against the proposed Navajo Nation water rights settlement. San Juan County resident Gary Horner filed the motions earlier this month to forbid the execution of the settlement and for a temporary restraining order against a settlement agreement between the Navajo Nation, the state, and the United States. Horner also filed a motion for an order declaring a confidentiality agreement void, referring to a secret meeting on the settlement held April 1 in Farmington. State District Judge Rozier Sanchez denied the motions Friday because Horner is not a party to the 30-year-old New Mexico State Engineer vs. the United States lawsuit....
Wolcott Reservoir forging ahead Now the proponents - who include Eagle County water users, members of the Denver Water Board, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy, the Colorado Water Conservancy District and the city of Aurora - want to proceed. They jointly funded a $100,000 study for the reservoir. The reservoir will hold between 50,000 acre-feet to 105,000 acre-feet of water and is expected to cost up to $320 million. It will be formed by a dam built immediately north of Interstate 70 and west of Highway 131 and will flood the valley north of the interstate where the 4-Eagle Ranch lies....
Crapo, Craig introduce legislation to implement water deal Idaho's two Republican senators have introduced a bill aimed to allow Congress to implement its part of the Idaho water rights settlement. The deal announced a month ago would resolve water rights claims of the Nez Perce Tribe while improving habitat and flows for salmon and assuring supplies for irrigators and others....
Making deals John Allen isn't betting on the benevolence of oil and gas companies to look after his land if he decides to lease it out for development. The cattle rancher of 30 years with a spread near Great Divide close to the Wyoming border likes his property the way it is. Yet, he'd be willing to strike a deal with some energy companies, if they can agree to uphold certain conditions. To make sure that happens, Allen doesn't talk to representatives of energy companies until his lawyers get involved....
Rattlesnake Roundup James White grabbed three prairie rattlesnakes by the tail, uncoiled them with a light shake and bit down on their tails. He swung the snakes as they dangled from his mouth, then dropped them to the ground. "Boy, they're hot today," the veteran snake handler from Texas said as he worked the snake pit. It was 91 degrees, the hottest day of the year so far in Sharon Springs. The rattlers weren't happy....
Ewe haven't seen a rodeo like this There is a time and place for everything and being named "the best hooker in Powder River" this weekend can get you a belt buckle. The two-day Powder River Sheepherders Fair today and Sunday should go a long ways towards naming the top sheep hooker, roper and lamb tier in Central Wyoming. Glenda Van Patten is an organizer of the event and something of a legend in the annuls of Sheepherder Days history. Van Patten is in her 21st year helping with the fair and is not above participating in the events. She has trophies or belt buckles from winning the cook-off, the overall sheepherder title and the over-40 roping title three times. The Powder River postmistress is so good, she actually defeated her own daughter, Tammy Sell, once in the roping event....
Set your watch to 1876 Perhaps you've been watching "Deadwood," the HBO series. Well, this town of 1,300 in the Black Hills is the genuine thing, where the real Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane hung out. Basking in its new celebrity — and with the series (filmed in Santa Clarita) renewed for 2005 — Deadwood is pumping up efforts to lure visitors, most recently by erecting a $150,000 block of Old West facades downtown, where most 1876-era buildings burned down long ago....
Bill Pickett The first black elected to the Cowboy Hall of Fame, Bill Pickett, was a perennial participant in the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo. The events in early rodeo -- saddle bronc riding, steer roping and team roping -- were easily staged, because they were demonstrations of skills involved in the regular routines of cattle ranching. Pickett is credited with introducing the sport of bulldogging, or steer wrestling, to rodeo. He fascinated audiences by pursuing his prey on horseback and wrestling it to the ground by biting down on the animal's upper lip. He had witnessed a 60-pound English bulldog performing the feat and practiced it himself. Hence the name, bulldogging, and hence the sport. The Wyoming Tribune had this to say about his 1904 appearance at Frontier Days: "The event par excellence of the celebration this year is the great feat of Will Pickett, a Negro who hails from Taylor, Texas." The paper described his technique and went on to say, "A trick perhaps, but one of the most startling and sensational exhibitions ever seen at a place where daring and thrilling feats are commonplace." The wonderment over Pickett's skills at the same event were echoed by the Denver Post and Harper's Weekly....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Mountain lion attacks hiker in California A woman was attacked by a mountain lion while hiking in central California, but was rescued when her friends stabbed the animal with a knife and threw rocks at it, officials said. Shannon Parker suffered deep lacerations to her right thigh and injuries to her eyes during Saturday's attack, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game. Parker, 27, of Santa Monica, was transferred to UCLA Medical Center, where she underwent reconstructive surgery Sunday morning, Martarano said....
Forest bomb rumors won’t die Eco-terrorists have placed PVC bombs with mercury- detonators in the lock cans of metal gates that block access to forest roads to all those without keys, the story goes. Reach into the metal bell-like covering for the gate’s lock and, boom, there goes your hand. And when a Washington state agency spokeswoman last week issued a warning about the bombs after saying a spate of such booby-trapped gates occurred around Medford, the gate bombs joined the Kentucky Fried rat as yet other bogus story the public won’t let go away. "It’s an urban myth, as far as we can determine," said Frank Mendizabal, a spokesman for Weyerhaeuser Co., whose Western Washington lands were among several where the bombs were rumored to have been found....
Land sale may fund ranch deal Revenue from a recent auction of federal land near Las Vegas is being recommended to buy about 490 acres on Lake Tahoe's North Shore that make up part of the famed Ponderosa Ranch. Federal executives meeting in Las Vegas last week recommended that $35 million generated from the auction be used by the U.S. Forest Service to purchase the land, according to Jeannie Stafford, Forest Service environmental improvement program coordinator. The recommendation still must be approved by Interior Secretary Gale Norton....
Even some hunters horrified by sudden attack by NRA president The National Rifle Association locked, loaded and fired its best shot at the Sierra Club this past week only to have the blast explode in its face. Given a chance for an alliance with the Sierra Club and other hunting and environmental organizations to fight for common-ground wildlife habitat issues, NRA President Kayne Robinson said the NRA would go it alone -- throwing in a nasty and false charge against the Clinton Administration that appeared designed to further smear the Sierra Club and inflame hunters....
New twist to Yavapai Ranch trade A leaked rough draft of a proposed addition to the U.S. Senate bill facilitating the Yavapai Ranch Land Exchange has been circulating through the Verde Valley just as Clarkdale's council has officially reversed the town's stance on the swap. What would basically amount to an add-on to the current legislation, the proposed Title II section of the bill authorizes a Verde River basin partnership. That partnership would be between federal, state and local agencies. The group would work to identify water resource planning and management objectives regarding water supplies in the Verde River basin. The current bill allows for an exchange of land between Yavapai Ranch and the Forest Service. About 21,000 acres of ranch land would be traded for various parcels of forest land throughout the state....
Back Country Horsemen help other outdoorsmen With a project planned nearly every week of the summer, the Back Country Horsemen prove their contention that they are a service organization - not a riding club. The group volunteers its time, manpower and equine labor to the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies each summer for many projects ranging from packing in supplies for wilderness crews to building bridges....
Adding to fires' risk The 2004 fire season has not yet truly begun in the Rocky Mountain West, and already three firefighting pilots have died in crashes. While investigations into the causes of the accidents are underway, the U.S. Forest Service finds itself crushed between a rock and a hot place. On May 11, with aerial tanker-training in full swing, top-ranking administrators in the Forest Service pulled the rug out from under the agency's tanker contractors and regional fire managers. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth declared all large tanker contracts null and void, leaving a gaping hole in the bag of tools needed to fight wildland fires. The impetus behind his decision was a horrifying video accompanied by a National Transportation Safety Board report on the catastrophic failure of wings on two aerial tankers that crashed in 2002. All crew members aboard the planes died. The tankers involved in the accidents were both owned by Hawkins and Powers of Wyoming, but safety board officials recommended against using any of the available U.S. fleet....
Famous frog's survival threatened When Mark Twain first published his classic story in 1865 about a jumping frog called Dan'l Webster from Calaveras County, locals had no trouble recognizing the hero as a California red-legged frog. Before the importation of the bullfrog, it was the largest of the frogs west of the Continental Divide, thriving across the state from San Francisco through the Central Valley and south to the tip of Baja California in Mexico. Gone from more than 70 percent of its historic range, the California red-legged frog now only exists in isolated pockets of wetlands and remote streams. Its population has been so decimated, the species was listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act in June 1996, and 4.1 million acres in California have been designated as critical habitat....
Needed thinning of forests creates glut With another fire season under way, crews in Southern California have stepped up efforts to reduce the fire danger on private and national forest land by cutting down thousands of trees killed by drought, fire and bark beetles. It's an enormous, expensive effort, but even so, officials are discovering that it's a relatively easy task compared with getting rid of the wood....
Cowboy-booted President is blamed as ranchers drive out Nevada's wild horses Nevada's wild horses have been celebrated in paintings, folk tales and Hollywood films such as The Misfits. Now, depending who you believe, they are either an endangered species or a menace to society. The Government's Bureau of Land Management has been rounding up thousands of horses and removing them. Officials say the horses are breeding unsustainably, and - amid the longest recorded drought in the West - taking food and water resources from the cattle herds....
Debate Swirls Around the Status of a Protected Mouse The Preble's meadow jumping mouse is a timorous nocturnal beast of the highland prairie, protected from human dominion in Colorado and Wyoming since 1998 by the Federal Endangered Species Act. Dr. Rob Roy Ramey II is a scientist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science who will tell anyone who asks, including Congress, that he thinks the trouble with Preble's is that they are not threatened with extinction at all. Not even a proper subspecies, he adds. Dr. Ramey believes that the mouse got on the protected list based on guesswork and outdated science, and that it is genetically identical to its cousin, the Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse, which hops in happy abundance in Montana and South Dakota. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service, spurred in part by his research, which it helped finance, is midway through a Preble's reassessment and is scheduled to make a recommendation about the creature's legal status by early next year....
Kerry for President Conference Call Monday with Babbitt, Former National Park Service Employees on Bush Neglect of National Parks On Monday, June 28, former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and former senior officials of the National Park Service will kick off a week of events to expose the Bush administration's failure to protect America's national parks. As American families plan for summer vacations and holiday weekends, America's National Parks are scaling back services, hours and staffing due to the broken promises of the Bush administration. Joining Babbitt on the call: David Hayes, former Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Interior; Jim Coleman, former Regional director of the National Park Service; Mike Finley, former Superintendent at Yellowstone National Park; and Rob Arnberger, former Superintendent at Grand Canyon National Park....
BLM strives to care for wilderness study areas As state director of the Bureau of Land Management in Utah, I was gratified to see the Supreme Court rule to curtail unnecessary litigation and unanimously reject the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance's off-road vehicle lawsuit. I was disappointed, however, as I read various follow-up media accounts and felt compelled to provide additional information and background. I have three main points I'd like to focus on: 1) The court's decision addressed a specific issue but still allows for legal challenge of agency decisions. 2) Our wilderness study areas (WSAs) are being appropriately managed and protected. 3) OHV management is a continuing challenge that BLM is actively addressing....
Mountain lion attacks hiker in California A woman was attacked by a mountain lion while hiking in central California, but was rescued when her friends stabbed the animal with a knife and threw rocks at it, officials said. Shannon Parker suffered deep lacerations to her right thigh and injuries to her eyes during Saturday's attack, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game. Parker, 27, of Santa Monica, was transferred to UCLA Medical Center, where she underwent reconstructive surgery Sunday morning, Martarano said....
Forest bomb rumors won’t die Eco-terrorists have placed PVC bombs with mercury- detonators in the lock cans of metal gates that block access to forest roads to all those without keys, the story goes. Reach into the metal bell-like covering for the gate’s lock and, boom, there goes your hand. And when a Washington state agency spokeswoman last week issued a warning about the bombs after saying a spate of such booby-trapped gates occurred around Medford, the gate bombs joined the Kentucky Fried rat as yet other bogus story the public won’t let go away. "It’s an urban myth, as far as we can determine," said Frank Mendizabal, a spokesman for Weyerhaeuser Co., whose Western Washington lands were among several where the bombs were rumored to have been found....
Land sale may fund ranch deal Revenue from a recent auction of federal land near Las Vegas is being recommended to buy about 490 acres on Lake Tahoe's North Shore that make up part of the famed Ponderosa Ranch. Federal executives meeting in Las Vegas last week recommended that $35 million generated from the auction be used by the U.S. Forest Service to purchase the land, according to Jeannie Stafford, Forest Service environmental improvement program coordinator. The recommendation still must be approved by Interior Secretary Gale Norton....
Even some hunters horrified by sudden attack by NRA president The National Rifle Association locked, loaded and fired its best shot at the Sierra Club this past week only to have the blast explode in its face. Given a chance for an alliance with the Sierra Club and other hunting and environmental organizations to fight for common-ground wildlife habitat issues, NRA President Kayne Robinson said the NRA would go it alone -- throwing in a nasty and false charge against the Clinton Administration that appeared designed to further smear the Sierra Club and inflame hunters....
New twist to Yavapai Ranch trade A leaked rough draft of a proposed addition to the U.S. Senate bill facilitating the Yavapai Ranch Land Exchange has been circulating through the Verde Valley just as Clarkdale's council has officially reversed the town's stance on the swap. What would basically amount to an add-on to the current legislation, the proposed Title II section of the bill authorizes a Verde River basin partnership. That partnership would be between federal, state and local agencies. The group would work to identify water resource planning and management objectives regarding water supplies in the Verde River basin. The current bill allows for an exchange of land between Yavapai Ranch and the Forest Service. About 21,000 acres of ranch land would be traded for various parcels of forest land throughout the state....
Back Country Horsemen help other outdoorsmen With a project planned nearly every week of the summer, the Back Country Horsemen prove their contention that they are a service organization - not a riding club. The group volunteers its time, manpower and equine labor to the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies each summer for many projects ranging from packing in supplies for wilderness crews to building bridges....
Adding to fires' risk The 2004 fire season has not yet truly begun in the Rocky Mountain West, and already three firefighting pilots have died in crashes. While investigations into the causes of the accidents are underway, the U.S. Forest Service finds itself crushed between a rock and a hot place. On May 11, with aerial tanker-training in full swing, top-ranking administrators in the Forest Service pulled the rug out from under the agency's tanker contractors and regional fire managers. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth declared all large tanker contracts null and void, leaving a gaping hole in the bag of tools needed to fight wildland fires. The impetus behind his decision was a horrifying video accompanied by a National Transportation Safety Board report on the catastrophic failure of wings on two aerial tankers that crashed in 2002. All crew members aboard the planes died. The tankers involved in the accidents were both owned by Hawkins and Powers of Wyoming, but safety board officials recommended against using any of the available U.S. fleet....
Famous frog's survival threatened When Mark Twain first published his classic story in 1865 about a jumping frog called Dan'l Webster from Calaveras County, locals had no trouble recognizing the hero as a California red-legged frog. Before the importation of the bullfrog, it was the largest of the frogs west of the Continental Divide, thriving across the state from San Francisco through the Central Valley and south to the tip of Baja California in Mexico. Gone from more than 70 percent of its historic range, the California red-legged frog now only exists in isolated pockets of wetlands and remote streams. Its population has been so decimated, the species was listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act in June 1996, and 4.1 million acres in California have been designated as critical habitat....
Needed thinning of forests creates glut With another fire season under way, crews in Southern California have stepped up efforts to reduce the fire danger on private and national forest land by cutting down thousands of trees killed by drought, fire and bark beetles. It's an enormous, expensive effort, but even so, officials are discovering that it's a relatively easy task compared with getting rid of the wood....
Cowboy-booted President is blamed as ranchers drive out Nevada's wild horses Nevada's wild horses have been celebrated in paintings, folk tales and Hollywood films such as The Misfits. Now, depending who you believe, they are either an endangered species or a menace to society. The Government's Bureau of Land Management has been rounding up thousands of horses and removing them. Officials say the horses are breeding unsustainably, and - amid the longest recorded drought in the West - taking food and water resources from the cattle herds....
Debate Swirls Around the Status of a Protected Mouse The Preble's meadow jumping mouse is a timorous nocturnal beast of the highland prairie, protected from human dominion in Colorado and Wyoming since 1998 by the Federal Endangered Species Act. Dr. Rob Roy Ramey II is a scientist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science who will tell anyone who asks, including Congress, that he thinks the trouble with Preble's is that they are not threatened with extinction at all. Not even a proper subspecies, he adds. Dr. Ramey believes that the mouse got on the protected list based on guesswork and outdated science, and that it is genetically identical to its cousin, the Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse, which hops in happy abundance in Montana and South Dakota. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service, spurred in part by his research, which it helped finance, is midway through a Preble's reassessment and is scheduled to make a recommendation about the creature's legal status by early next year....
Kerry for President Conference Call Monday with Babbitt, Former National Park Service Employees on Bush Neglect of National Parks On Monday, June 28, former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and former senior officials of the National Park Service will kick off a week of events to expose the Bush administration's failure to protect America's national parks. As American families plan for summer vacations and holiday weekends, America's National Parks are scaling back services, hours and staffing due to the broken promises of the Bush administration. Joining Babbitt on the call: David Hayes, former Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Interior; Jim Coleman, former Regional director of the National Park Service; Mike Finley, former Superintendent at Yellowstone National Park; and Rob Arnberger, former Superintendent at Grand Canyon National Park....
BLM strives to care for wilderness study areas As state director of the Bureau of Land Management in Utah, I was gratified to see the Supreme Court rule to curtail unnecessary litigation and unanimously reject the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance's off-road vehicle lawsuit. I was disappointed, however, as I read various follow-up media accounts and felt compelled to provide additional information and background. I have three main points I'd like to focus on: 1) The court's decision addressed a specific issue but still allows for legal challenge of agency decisions. 2) Our wilderness study areas (WSAs) are being appropriately managed and protected. 3) OHV management is a continuing challenge that BLM is actively addressing....
Revving up mad cow fight
A sticker on the door leading into the cramped laboratory where cattle brains get checked for mad cow disease cautions, "No street clothing. Gown and shoe covers required."
"Just a precaution," says Alex Ardans, the director of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System, as he opens the door to California's new mad cow testing lab. "BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) has never been known to travel by contact, but we're taking extra measures anyway."
The sticker has been on the door since June 1, when the lab at the University of California, Davis, became one of 12 regional facilities tapped by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to carry out an expanded mad cow testing program that will run for the next year to 18 months....
A sticker on the door leading into the cramped laboratory where cattle brains get checked for mad cow disease cautions, "No street clothing. Gown and shoe covers required."
"Just a precaution," says Alex Ardans, the director of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System, as he opens the door to California's new mad cow testing lab. "BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) has never been known to travel by contact, but we're taking extra measures anyway."
The sticker has been on the door since June 1, when the lab at the University of California, Davis, became one of 12 regional facilities tapped by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to carry out an expanded mad cow testing program that will run for the next year to 18 months....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Global Warming at the Pumps
Global warming may or may not be real, but Washington’s latest proposal to deal with it would sure get Americas drivers heated up. Not that there’s anything new about costly environmental regulations adding to the pain at the pump. Prices have hovered around $2.00 per gallon for a month now, and next to the high price of oil, these regulations are the biggest contributor. Federal rules have contributed to the nation’s inadequate refining capacity by discouraging expansions at existing facilities and preventing construction of new ones. The last refinery was built in 1976. Other measures have led to a hodgepodge of fuel specifications requiring more than a dozen different blends throughout the country. Overall, the federal regulatory costs may well exceed the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon. New rules, phased in this year, have brought this burden to an all-time high. ...
Meet the Organiks
With a customer mix that includes new-agey corporation haters, society dropouts, health-conscious trendy professionals and various eccentrics obsessive over their food purchases, it's no surprise that organic growers have been battling the Bush administration over how "organic" food is to be defined. Organic growers want to keep the standards that were set in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The administration wanted to allow exceptions.
The dispute is a big deal to the $13 billion industry and its dedicated customer base. But the dispute is all about marketing -- not health. Science tells us that conventionally grown foods are no less healthy than foods grown without synthetic substances.
"There are no palpable benefits to organically grown foods," says Dr. Henry Miller, a fellow at the Hoover Institution and former Food and Drug Administration official....
ACTIVISTS DEMANDS ARE TARGETING BANKS -- AND THE POOR ARE HURT
Environmental activists could be hurting Third World countries by pressuring banks not to loan money to development projects that will benefit the world’s poor, says Neil Hrab of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Banks caving in to the demands of environmental groups are doing little to improve the lives of the poor, says Hrab. Consequently, many foreign governments are perturbed over what they view as “foreign meddling” by activist groups:
---In 2002, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Friends of the Earth Network criticized Uganda’s government for proceeding with a dam project -- President Museveni insisted it would be built, with or without private companies.
---In 2001, Ecuador was targeted by NGOs to drop its plans for an oil and gas development, prompting Ecuador’s president to accuse NGOs of placing more importance on critters and trees than on jobs and food for his country’s citizens.
Indeed, Third World governments are becoming more outspoken in defending their projects, and some are looking at self-financing when banks refuse loans.
Hrab questions the effect that turning down such loans will have on banks, especially if developing countries view them as siding with anti-growth NGOs. Banks may wish to help preserve the environment, but should not do so at the risk of hurting the poor or jeopardizing their own reputations, he says.
Source: Neil Hrab, “No-Growthers’ ‘Green Line’ Shouldn’t Deter Bank Loans,” Investor’s Business Daily, June 17, 2004.
DEET VS. WEST NILE VIRUS
Worries about West Nile virus and other bug-borne diseases have raised new questions about the risks and benefits of insect repellent.
The biggest debate is whether to use the chemical known as DEET, found in many commercial insect repellents like Deep Woods OFF! or to turn to "natural" bug fighters like citronella or soybean oil. A "Fight the Bite" publicity campaign from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls for more people to use DEET to battle mosquitoes.
But while DEET does scare away mosquitoes, it scares many people too. Products with DEET -- which shows up as N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide on the label -- have been safely used since the 1940s, however:
---In nearly 60 years of use, there have been fewer than 50 cases of significant side effects attributable to DEET.
---Even in cases of accidental overexposure in children, 85 percent of cases resulted in no symptoms.
---A product with a 23.8 percent DEET concentration kept mosquitoes away for an average of 301.5 minutes.
---Oil of eucalyptus repelled bites for about 120.1 minutes, while a product with 10 percent citronella worked for only 19.7 minutes.
Fears about DEET have been fueled in the past by reports of neurological reactions like confusion or seizures, but those rare cases involved DEET products that were overused or applied to broken skin. The skin can absorb from 6 to 17 percent of the DEET from a mosquito-repellant, but the body will eliminate the chemicals within 12 to 24 hours.
Source: Tara Parker-Pope, “Backyard Dilemma: Which Is Worse—Using DEET or Possibility of West Nile?” Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2004.
Global Warming at the Pumps
Global warming may or may not be real, but Washington’s latest proposal to deal with it would sure get Americas drivers heated up. Not that there’s anything new about costly environmental regulations adding to the pain at the pump. Prices have hovered around $2.00 per gallon for a month now, and next to the high price of oil, these regulations are the biggest contributor. Federal rules have contributed to the nation’s inadequate refining capacity by discouraging expansions at existing facilities and preventing construction of new ones. The last refinery was built in 1976. Other measures have led to a hodgepodge of fuel specifications requiring more than a dozen different blends throughout the country. Overall, the federal regulatory costs may well exceed the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon. New rules, phased in this year, have brought this burden to an all-time high. ...
Meet the Organiks
With a customer mix that includes new-agey corporation haters, society dropouts, health-conscious trendy professionals and various eccentrics obsessive over their food purchases, it's no surprise that organic growers have been battling the Bush administration over how "organic" food is to be defined. Organic growers want to keep the standards that were set in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The administration wanted to allow exceptions.
The dispute is a big deal to the $13 billion industry and its dedicated customer base. But the dispute is all about marketing -- not health. Science tells us that conventionally grown foods are no less healthy than foods grown without synthetic substances.
"There are no palpable benefits to organically grown foods," says Dr. Henry Miller, a fellow at the Hoover Institution and former Food and Drug Administration official....
ACTIVISTS DEMANDS ARE TARGETING BANKS -- AND THE POOR ARE HURT
Environmental activists could be hurting Third World countries by pressuring banks not to loan money to development projects that will benefit the world’s poor, says Neil Hrab of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Banks caving in to the demands of environmental groups are doing little to improve the lives of the poor, says Hrab. Consequently, many foreign governments are perturbed over what they view as “foreign meddling” by activist groups:
---In 2002, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Friends of the Earth Network criticized Uganda’s government for proceeding with a dam project -- President Museveni insisted it would be built, with or without private companies.
---In 2001, Ecuador was targeted by NGOs to drop its plans for an oil and gas development, prompting Ecuador’s president to accuse NGOs of placing more importance on critters and trees than on jobs and food for his country’s citizens.
Indeed, Third World governments are becoming more outspoken in defending their projects, and some are looking at self-financing when banks refuse loans.
Hrab questions the effect that turning down such loans will have on banks, especially if developing countries view them as siding with anti-growth NGOs. Banks may wish to help preserve the environment, but should not do so at the risk of hurting the poor or jeopardizing their own reputations, he says.
Source: Neil Hrab, “No-Growthers’ ‘Green Line’ Shouldn’t Deter Bank Loans,” Investor’s Business Daily, June 17, 2004.
DEET VS. WEST NILE VIRUS
Worries about West Nile virus and other bug-borne diseases have raised new questions about the risks and benefits of insect repellent.
The biggest debate is whether to use the chemical known as DEET, found in many commercial insect repellents like Deep Woods OFF! or to turn to "natural" bug fighters like citronella or soybean oil. A "Fight the Bite" publicity campaign from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls for more people to use DEET to battle mosquitoes.
But while DEET does scare away mosquitoes, it scares many people too. Products with DEET -- which shows up as N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide on the label -- have been safely used since the 1940s, however:
---In nearly 60 years of use, there have been fewer than 50 cases of significant side effects attributable to DEET.
---Even in cases of accidental overexposure in children, 85 percent of cases resulted in no symptoms.
---A product with a 23.8 percent DEET concentration kept mosquitoes away for an average of 301.5 minutes.
---Oil of eucalyptus repelled bites for about 120.1 minutes, while a product with 10 percent citronella worked for only 19.7 minutes.
Fears about DEET have been fueled in the past by reports of neurological reactions like confusion or seizures, but those rare cases involved DEET products that were overused or applied to broken skin. The skin can absorb from 6 to 17 percent of the DEET from a mosquito-repellant, but the body will eliminate the chemicals within 12 to 24 hours.
Source: Tara Parker-Pope, “Backyard Dilemma: Which Is Worse—Using DEET or Possibility of West Nile?” Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2004.
Testimony of Robert J. Smith on On S. 2543, the National Heritage Partnership Act (pdf)
My name is R.J. Smith. I am adjunct environmental scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. CEI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and advocacy institute dedicated to the principles of private property, free enterprise, and limited government. I am also Director of the Center for Private Conservation, a nonprofit organization that documents and publicizes information on the history of private stewardship and conservation carried out by private landowners and private associations. And I am Director of Environmental Studies at former U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop’s Frontiers of Freedom Institute. I am also representing the concerns and interests of hundreds of property rights organizations, wise-use and multiple-use organizations, and small landowners who have been opposing such legislation for over a decade.
S. 2543, the National Heritage Partnership Act, represents an unfortunate shift to an even worse bill than previous such legislation. It goes beyond the rather informal efforts to bring federal recognition to the existing Heritage Areas and Heritage Corridors created by individual policy bills, to the creation of an organic act for the establishment of a National Heritage Area Program within the Department of the Interior and specifically the National Park Service. In effect, this bill will create an entirely new federal land management program....
My name is R.J. Smith. I am adjunct environmental scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. CEI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and advocacy institute dedicated to the principles of private property, free enterprise, and limited government. I am also Director of the Center for Private Conservation, a nonprofit organization that documents and publicizes information on the history of private stewardship and conservation carried out by private landowners and private associations. And I am Director of Environmental Studies at former U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop’s Frontiers of Freedom Institute. I am also representing the concerns and interests of hundreds of property rights organizations, wise-use and multiple-use organizations, and small landowners who have been opposing such legislation for over a decade.
S. 2543, the National Heritage Partnership Act, represents an unfortunate shift to an even worse bill than previous such legislation. It goes beyond the rather informal efforts to bring federal recognition to the existing Heritage Areas and Heritage Corridors created by individual policy bills, to the creation of an organic act for the establishment of a National Heritage Area Program within the Department of the Interior and specifically the National Park Service. In effect, this bill will create an entirely new federal land management program....
Saturday, June 26, 2004
GAO TESTIMONY, S. 2543(pdf)
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Comments on Provisions of S. 2543, a Bill to Establish a Federal Program and Criteria for National Heritage Areas
Provisions of S. 2543 would establish a systematic process for identifying and designating national heritage areas, addressing many of the concerns identified in GAO’s March 2004 testimony. At that time, GAO reported that no such systematic process exists, noting that the Congress has, in some instances, designated heritage areas before the Park Service has fully evaluated them. S. 2543 contains provisions that would require that a suitability study be completed and the Park Service determine the area meets certain criteria before the Congress designates a heritage area. While the bill defines heritage areas more specifically in terms of their national significance, the criteria outlined in S. 2543 will benefit from guidance that the Park Service has recently developed to guide the application of the criteria. This guidance will improve the designation process.
Provisions of S. 2543 would limit the amount of federal funds that can be provided to heritage areas through the Park Service’s budget. In March 2004, GAO testified that from fiscal years 1997 through 2002 about half of heritage areas’ funding came from the federal government. Specifically, for 22 of the 24 heritage areas where data were available, $156 million of the areas' $310 million in total funding came from the federal government. Of this, over $50 million came from Park Service funds dedicated for this purpose, $44 million from other Park Service programs, and about $61 million from 11 other federal sources. S. 2543 would restrict annual dedicated Park Service funding for heritage areas to $15 million. Individual areas may not receive more than $1 million in a given fiscal year and $10 million over 15 years.
Furthermore, S. 2543 includes provisions that could enhance the Park Service’s ability to hold heritage areas accountable for their use of federal funds. In this regard, S. 2543 (1) establishes a program that would provide the Park Service with the direction and funding needed to manage the agency's and the heritage areas’ activities; (2) establishes a schedule and criteria for reviewing and approving heritage areas’ management plans; (3) identifies criteria for use in reviewing areas' plans; (4) requires that the plans include information on, among other things, performance goals and the roles and functions of partners; and (5) requires areas to submit annual reports specifying, among other things, performance goals and accomplishments, expenses and income, and amounts and sources of funds. GAO has identified potential amendments to S. 2543 that would further enhance areas' accountability.
S. 2543 includes provisions that address some of the concerns GAO identified in March with regard to heritage areas' potential restrictions on property owners’ rights and land use. For example, S. 2543 allows property owners to refrain from participating in any planned project or activity within the heritage area. Furthermore, the bill does not require any owner to permit public access to property and does not alter any existing land use regulation, approved land use plan, or other regulatory authority.
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Comments on Provisions of S. 2543, a Bill to Establish a Federal Program and Criteria for National Heritage Areas
Provisions of S. 2543 would establish a systematic process for identifying and designating national heritage areas, addressing many of the concerns identified in GAO’s March 2004 testimony. At that time, GAO reported that no such systematic process exists, noting that the Congress has, in some instances, designated heritage areas before the Park Service has fully evaluated them. S. 2543 contains provisions that would require that a suitability study be completed and the Park Service determine the area meets certain criteria before the Congress designates a heritage area. While the bill defines heritage areas more specifically in terms of their national significance, the criteria outlined in S. 2543 will benefit from guidance that the Park Service has recently developed to guide the application of the criteria. This guidance will improve the designation process.
Provisions of S. 2543 would limit the amount of federal funds that can be provided to heritage areas through the Park Service’s budget. In March 2004, GAO testified that from fiscal years 1997 through 2002 about half of heritage areas’ funding came from the federal government. Specifically, for 22 of the 24 heritage areas where data were available, $156 million of the areas' $310 million in total funding came from the federal government. Of this, over $50 million came from Park Service funds dedicated for this purpose, $44 million from other Park Service programs, and about $61 million from 11 other federal sources. S. 2543 would restrict annual dedicated Park Service funding for heritage areas to $15 million. Individual areas may not receive more than $1 million in a given fiscal year and $10 million over 15 years.
Furthermore, S. 2543 includes provisions that could enhance the Park Service’s ability to hold heritage areas accountable for their use of federal funds. In this regard, S. 2543 (1) establishes a program that would provide the Park Service with the direction and funding needed to manage the agency's and the heritage areas’ activities; (2) establishes a schedule and criteria for reviewing and approving heritage areas’ management plans; (3) identifies criteria for use in reviewing areas' plans; (4) requires that the plans include information on, among other things, performance goals and the roles and functions of partners; and (5) requires areas to submit annual reports specifying, among other things, performance goals and accomplishments, expenses and income, and amounts and sources of funds. GAO has identified potential amendments to S. 2543 that would further enhance areas' accountability.
S. 2543 includes provisions that address some of the concerns GAO identified in March with regard to heritage areas' potential restrictions on property owners’ rights and land use. For example, S. 2543 allows property owners to refrain from participating in any planned project or activity within the heritage area. Furthermore, the bill does not require any owner to permit public access to property and does not alter any existing land use regulation, approved land use plan, or other regulatory authority.
Mad Cow Discovery Downplayed By Government, Industry
An initial test of one animal has failed to rule out mad cow disease, but people who eat U.S. beef should not be alarmed because the animal never entered the food chain, agriculture officials say.
The Agriculture Department said the result was "inconclusive" for the brain-wasting disease. The carcass was being sent to the USDA National Veterinary Laboratory in Ames, Iowa; results were expected in four days to seven days.
"No matter how the confirmatory testing comes back, USDA remains confident in the safety of the U.S. beef supply," John Clifford, deputy administrator of USDA veterinary services, said in announcing the finding late Friday. "This animal did not enter the human food chain or feed chain."
Clifford declined to identify the animal or its location until testing is complete. It is "very likely" final testing could turn up negative, he said.
Norman Schwartz, president of Bio-Rad Laboratories in Hercules, Calif., said the initial test was performed at one of his labs. "They are designed to catch everything. You are catching every possible suspicious sample," Schwartz said Saturday.
In the first case of mad cow discovered in the United States, a Holstein on a Washington state farm was found to have the disease in December, leading more than 50 countries to ban imports of U.S. beef. Japan and South Korea, two of the biggest export markets, have their bans in effect.
The department this month expanded national testing for the disease in response to that mad cow scare. More than 7,000 cattle have been tested under the program, which seeks to check about 220,000 animals over the next year to 18 months.
Agriculture officials and representatives of the U.S. beef cattle industry quickly sought to play down a potential threat to consumers.
"This is not at all unexpected," Clifford said. "Inconclusive results are a normal component of most screening tests, which are designed to be extremely sensitive so they will detect any sample that could possibly be positive."
At the American Meat Institute, a trade group, spokeswoman Janet Riley said: "Regardless of the test outcome, beef is safe because the infectious agent is not contained in beef and the tissues that can contain the infectious agent are removed, and do not enter the food supply. Consumers can continue to enjoy beef in safety."
Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF USA, a cattlemen's group, urged calm in the live cattle markets, which dropped 20 percent after U.S. officials reported the first mad cow case in December.
Mad cow disease, known also as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, eats holes in the brains of cattle. It sprang up in Britain in 1986 and spread through countries in Europe and Asia, prompting massive destruction of herds and devastating the European beef industry.
A form of mad cow disease can be contracted by humans if they eat infected beef or nerve tissue, and possibly through blood transfusions. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease, so far has killed 100 people in Britain and elsewhere, including a Florida woman this week who was believed to have contracted the disease in England.
The government last year conducted mad cow tests on tissues from 20,543 animals, virtually all of them cattle that could not stand or walk and had to be dragged to slaughter. After the December case, the government initially doubled the number of animals to be tested this year to 40,000.
With many foreign governments still reluctant to ease bans on U.S. beef, the testing program was expanded at a cost of $70 million to include as many as 220,000 slaughtered animals, following recommendations from an international scientific review panel. About 35 million cattle are slaughtered each year in the United States.
An initial test of one animal has failed to rule out mad cow disease, but people who eat U.S. beef should not be alarmed because the animal never entered the food chain, agriculture officials say.
The Agriculture Department said the result was "inconclusive" for the brain-wasting disease. The carcass was being sent to the USDA National Veterinary Laboratory in Ames, Iowa; results were expected in four days to seven days.
"No matter how the confirmatory testing comes back, USDA remains confident in the safety of the U.S. beef supply," John Clifford, deputy administrator of USDA veterinary services, said in announcing the finding late Friday. "This animal did not enter the human food chain or feed chain."
Clifford declined to identify the animal or its location until testing is complete. It is "very likely" final testing could turn up negative, he said.
Norman Schwartz, president of Bio-Rad Laboratories in Hercules, Calif., said the initial test was performed at one of his labs. "They are designed to catch everything. You are catching every possible suspicious sample," Schwartz said Saturday.
In the first case of mad cow discovered in the United States, a Holstein on a Washington state farm was found to have the disease in December, leading more than 50 countries to ban imports of U.S. beef. Japan and South Korea, two of the biggest export markets, have their bans in effect.
The department this month expanded national testing for the disease in response to that mad cow scare. More than 7,000 cattle have been tested under the program, which seeks to check about 220,000 animals over the next year to 18 months.
Agriculture officials and representatives of the U.S. beef cattle industry quickly sought to play down a potential threat to consumers.
"This is not at all unexpected," Clifford said. "Inconclusive results are a normal component of most screening tests, which are designed to be extremely sensitive so they will detect any sample that could possibly be positive."
At the American Meat Institute, a trade group, spokeswoman Janet Riley said: "Regardless of the test outcome, beef is safe because the infectious agent is not contained in beef and the tissues that can contain the infectious agent are removed, and do not enter the food supply. Consumers can continue to enjoy beef in safety."
Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF USA, a cattlemen's group, urged calm in the live cattle markets, which dropped 20 percent after U.S. officials reported the first mad cow case in December.
Mad cow disease, known also as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, eats holes in the brains of cattle. It sprang up in Britain in 1986 and spread through countries in Europe and Asia, prompting massive destruction of herds and devastating the European beef industry.
A form of mad cow disease can be contracted by humans if they eat infected beef or nerve tissue, and possibly through blood transfusions. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease, so far has killed 100 people in Britain and elsewhere, including a Florida woman this week who was believed to have contracted the disease in England.
The government last year conducted mad cow tests on tissues from 20,543 animals, virtually all of them cattle that could not stand or walk and had to be dragged to slaughter. After the December case, the government initially doubled the number of animals to be tested this year to 40,000.
With many foreign governments still reluctant to ease bans on U.S. beef, the testing program was expanded at a cost of $70 million to include as many as 220,000 slaughtered animals, following recommendations from an international scientific review panel. About 35 million cattle are slaughtered each year in the United States.
U.S. Awaits Conclusive Mad Cow Results
Government and beef industry officials urged consumers Saturday not to worry about the safety of meat as they await conclusive results of tests to determine whether the United States has a new case of mad cow disease.
State-level agriculture officials, meanwhile, wondered whether the animal detected in preliminary tests was from their areas. Until more exacting tests are done, the Agriculture Department would not identify the animal, the state it came from or the facility in which it was killed. The follow-up process could take four to seven days, the department said Friday.
A screening test designed to give rapid results had indicated the animal had mad cow, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. Such tests cannot confirm whether the animal truly had the brain-wasting disease, so the department labels the results inconclusive.
The more exacting tests were being done at the department's National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, which diagnosed in December the nation's only confirmed case of BSE, in a Washington state Holstein.
"The inconclusive result does not mean we have found another case of BSE in this country," Dr. John Clifford, deputy administrator of the department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said when he announced the preliminary finding. "Inconclusive results are a normal part of most screening tests."
The department remains confident in the safety of food in the United States, Clifford said. Meat from the animal did not enter the human food supply or livestock feed, he said. Keeping the carcass out of the supply chain is one of several federal safeguards against introduction of BSE into the food supply. These include rules that bar use of the most potentially at-risk cattle parts, such as brains and spinal cords.
People who eat products containing the protein can contract a rare but fatal disease similar to BSE, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
The new preliminary results announced Friday was done at an unidentified regional laboratory under an expanded BSE surveillance program. Under the expansion, the department was increasing testing by about tenfold, to more than 200,000 animals, over 12 to 18 months. The regional labs, run by states, began their work June 1, and Clifford said more than 7,000 cattle have been tested under the expanded system.
Officials in several states said they had received no word from the government that their states were involved in the new incident.
In Washington state, the deputy director of the state's agriculture department, Bill Brookreson, said Saturday he had heard nothing to indicate his state had a part in the new case. If it were involved, his agency probably would have been notified, "but there are no guarantees," he said.
The department has not notified Florida officials that the animal was from their state, said Liz Compton, a spokeswoman for Florida's agriculture department. Spokespeople for agriculture departments in Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Iowa and Wisconsin also said they had received no word that the animal was from their state.
Beef industry officials echoed the U.S. Agriculture Department in saying people can continue to eat beef safely.
The infectious agent for BSE is not in beef, and tissues that could contain the agent are not allowed in the food supply, said Janet Riley, a spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute, a trade group. The group's president and chief executive officer, Patrick Boyle, said the preliminary test result shows the government's food supply protections are working. He said he was planning to eat a steak.
The preliminary test results must be considered inconclusive while the more exact testing is under way, said Norman Schwartz, president of Bio-Rad Laboratories in Hercules, Calif., who said Bio-Rad's rapid test found the result that USDA announced Friday.
The screening effectively identifies tissue that could contain the BSE protein while not falsely identifying clean samples as contaminated, Schwartz said. The testing process is new, and errors might creep in if lab officials make mistakes, he said.
"It's just kind of our cautious nature to say we want to see the thing confirmed and make absolutely sure before we raise the red flag," Schwartz said.
Government and beef industry officials urged consumers Saturday not to worry about the safety of meat as they await conclusive results of tests to determine whether the United States has a new case of mad cow disease.
State-level agriculture officials, meanwhile, wondered whether the animal detected in preliminary tests was from their areas. Until more exacting tests are done, the Agriculture Department would not identify the animal, the state it came from or the facility in which it was killed. The follow-up process could take four to seven days, the department said Friday.
A screening test designed to give rapid results had indicated the animal had mad cow, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. Such tests cannot confirm whether the animal truly had the brain-wasting disease, so the department labels the results inconclusive.
The more exacting tests were being done at the department's National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, which diagnosed in December the nation's only confirmed case of BSE, in a Washington state Holstein.
"The inconclusive result does not mean we have found another case of BSE in this country," Dr. John Clifford, deputy administrator of the department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said when he announced the preliminary finding. "Inconclusive results are a normal part of most screening tests."
The department remains confident in the safety of food in the United States, Clifford said. Meat from the animal did not enter the human food supply or livestock feed, he said. Keeping the carcass out of the supply chain is one of several federal safeguards against introduction of BSE into the food supply. These include rules that bar use of the most potentially at-risk cattle parts, such as brains and spinal cords.
People who eat products containing the protein can contract a rare but fatal disease similar to BSE, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
The new preliminary results announced Friday was done at an unidentified regional laboratory under an expanded BSE surveillance program. Under the expansion, the department was increasing testing by about tenfold, to more than 200,000 animals, over 12 to 18 months. The regional labs, run by states, began their work June 1, and Clifford said more than 7,000 cattle have been tested under the expanded system.
Officials in several states said they had received no word from the government that their states were involved in the new incident.
In Washington state, the deputy director of the state's agriculture department, Bill Brookreson, said Saturday he had heard nothing to indicate his state had a part in the new case. If it were involved, his agency probably would have been notified, "but there are no guarantees," he said.
The department has not notified Florida officials that the animal was from their state, said Liz Compton, a spokeswoman for Florida's agriculture department. Spokespeople for agriculture departments in Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Iowa and Wisconsin also said they had received no word that the animal was from their state.
Beef industry officials echoed the U.S. Agriculture Department in saying people can continue to eat beef safely.
The infectious agent for BSE is not in beef, and tissues that could contain the agent are not allowed in the food supply, said Janet Riley, a spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute, a trade group. The group's president and chief executive officer, Patrick Boyle, said the preliminary test result shows the government's food supply protections are working. He said he was planning to eat a steak.
The preliminary test results must be considered inconclusive while the more exact testing is under way, said Norman Schwartz, president of Bio-Rad Laboratories in Hercules, Calif., who said Bio-Rad's rapid test found the result that USDA announced Friday.
The screening effectively identifies tissue that could contain the BSE protein while not falsely identifying clean samples as contaminated, Schwartz said. The testing process is new, and errors might creep in if lab officials make mistakes, he said.
"It's just kind of our cautious nature to say we want to see the thing confirmed and make absolutely sure before we raise the red flag," Schwartz said.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Congressman: Some large air tankers could be flying by July 4 The chairman of a House forest subcommittee said Friday the U.S. Forest Service could have the first group of decades-old heavy air tankers, grounded last month, under contract to fight fires by July 4. "We're making headway," Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said following a meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C., with representatives of the Forest Service, Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and the Bureau of Land Management. Walden said the Forest Service and FAA have given tanker contractors the criteria they must meet to have their planes certified as airworthy, and the first inspections could be completed by early July.... Group wants Feds to give up forests A group of Wisconsin legislators is proposing that management authority for the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest be turned over to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker's Task Force on Forestry issued a press release last week saying 25 legislators back the proposal. Rep. Donald Friske, R-Merrill, Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, and Rep. Mary Williams, R-Medford, sent a letter to the White House asking that management authority of the forest be transferred from the U.S. Forest Service to the DNR. The legislators are proposing a 25-year trial period pilot program for transferring management.... River runs through dam protester's life It has been 25 years since Sacramento native Mark Dubois chained himself to a rock in the Stanislaus River Canyon as officials closed the gates on New Melones Dam and allowed the reservoir to fill. He was ready to let the rising waters drown him if it would save the canyon, with its caves and prehistoric Indian sites and whitewater rapids, from being lost forever under the lake. The reservoir was eventually filled in 1982, but Dubois' stand caught the public's attention around the globe and did manage to stop the rising water for a time.... Lynx dens might mean cat's back For years, scientists weren't sure whether Canada lynx were still living in Minnesota or just passing through. But in the past couple of weeks, they've found two lynx dens, proof the state now has a breeding population of the federally threatened species. "It's a further indication that we do have females able to breed and successfully raise young,'' said Ron Moen, a biologist with the University of Minnesota-Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute, which is collaborating with the U.S. Forest Service on a lynx study effort.... Judge asks why 3 rare species aren't protected A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to explain what prevents it from listing rare species in four Western states as endangered or threatened. The ruling by Judge Ann Aiken in Portland, Ore., was hailed Friday by environmental groups as a victory in efforts to protect the Tahoe yellow cress plant, the southern Idaho ground squirrel and the sand dune lizard.... California Rancher Receives Excellence in Conservation Award The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) today presented its 2004 Excellence in Conservation Award to Michael J. Byrne, a California rancher. He was recognized during the NRCS Honors Awards ceremony at the USDA complex in Washington, D.C. "This year's Excellence in Conservation Award winner epitomizes the best in efforts to conserve, maintain and improve the environment and its natural resources on America's private working lands," said NRCS Chief Bruce Knight.... Watching endangered wildlife on the Net Conservationist Stephen Kress sees the big picture when it comes to putting live video of remote seabird colonies on the Internet. He hopes to build support for seabird restoration efforts from Maine to California by giving the birds a worldwide stage. Five years ago in Maine, the Audubon Society began streaming live video of puffins, loons and terns nesting on coastal islands onto the Internet for Project Puffin, which was principally a research tool.... Ranchers take less water from Big Hole, but levels still dropping Ranchers have reduced their take of upper Big Hole River irrigation water by 165 cubic feet per second, but the stream is still flowing at only 25 percent of that amount. Since the irrigation-reduction program began on Monday, the river's flow at a measuring station in Wisdom has dropped steadily, from 100 cfs on Sunday to 41 cfs Thursday. The flow rate is critical because it will help determine the survival of the fluvial arctic grayling, a rare fish that is the subject of a request for emergency listing under the Endangered Species Act.... Landlocked rainbow trout may get federal protection Federal regulators may grant landlocked rainbow trout behind Calaveras and San Antonio dams protection under the Endangered Species Act. Environmental groups working to restore historic runs of marine steelhead trout to Alameda Creek say the rainbows are descended from them. Genetic studies back up their case, they say. The rainbow trout may serve as breeding stock for restoring steelhead runs. But granting the fish federal protection also could create new regulatory headaches for ranchers and water agencies.... Tarahumara frogs reintroduced to Santa Ritas Once commonplace in Santa Cruz County, the Tarahumara frog disappeared from the area in the early 1980's, possibly due to heavy metal contamination from nearby mining. But Arizona Game & Fish officials say they plan to reintroduce about 400 Tarahumara frogs and tadpoles to the habitat in the Santa Rita Mountains Saturday. "They will be carried into the mountains in plastic bags and containers in biologists' backpacks," said Debbie Freeman, spokeswoman for Game & Fish. The frogs were collected as eggs in Mexico in 2000 and reared at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service facilities and at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in the Tucson Mountains.... Coal train derails A Union Pacific coal train derailed Thursday night on Orchard Mesa, spilling more than 400 tons of coal into a stretch of the Gunnison River listed as critical habitat for endangered fish. No one was injured in the 5:15 p.m. train wreck. Immediately upon hearing of the spill, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dispatched a boat to assess damage, said Grand Junction Fire Department Battalion Chief John Williams. That stretch of river is critical habitat for the Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker, both native endangered species, said Randy Hampton, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.... Editorial: Fixing Up the National Parks For the most part, the history of the National Park Service is a sad tale of an idealistic vision undermined by the government's neglect. Despite some bursts of growth and the public's enormous support for America's national parks, Washington has chronically failed to pay the bills. The parks' operating budgets have nearly always been too skimpy, and in recent years a substantial backlog of deferred maintenance has built up. Every now and then, a politician offers to do something about it. In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower began a successful 10-year campaign, called Mission 66, to spend a billion dollars upgrading services and facilities. And during the 2000 campaign, George Bush promised to do away with the maintenance backlog within five years. But what this administration is likely to be remembered for is telling us how big the problem is, not solving it.... Trekking examined on Mormon trail Increased use of the historic Oregon-Mormon Pioneer trail by people re-enacting the Mormon handcart trek is being studied for potential environmental and recreational effects. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began conducting "handcart treks" in Fremont County's portion of the trail in 1999 to give Mormon youth a sense of what their ancestors endured on their westward journey from Illinois to Utah in the 19th century. About 1,000 participated in 1999, and, by 2002, that number was 12,000, according to an environmental assessment from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.... Report: Nevada lands bill would help Reid friend Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid is co-sponsoring a bill that would benefit one of his close friends by removing a federal easement on the friend's property, making way for development on 10,750 acres, according to a newspaper report Friday. The move would help Reid friend Harvey Whittemore, a senior partner in a law firm that has employed all four of Reid's sons, move forward with plans to build 50,000 homes and 10 golf courses on land northeast of Las Vegas, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Times said that the land could be worth as much as $5 million, but that the bill defines "fair market value" based on a 1988 appraisal, bringing the cost to Whittemore down to about $160,000.... Site a treasure trove of artifacts from ancient Utah Around the year 1000, people now known as the Fremont Indians built villages in the unforgiving terrain of central Utah's Range Creek, likely chosen as a place easy to defend against potential invaders. Nearly a thousand years later -- long after the Indians abandoned their Book Cliffs homes -- rancher Waldo Wilcox showed his own passion for defense. He and his family spent nearly 50 years keeping artifact hunters and vandals away from the remains of the Fremont pit houses, granaries and pottery.... A small town with a big past Wind, sudden and rude, slams about unlatched gates in the aging shipping pens - empty now except for weeds and untamed dust devils dancing behind the weathered timbers. These days, quail and mockingbirds sing lonely serenades in the stockyards on the north side of this old cow town. But once, not all that long ago, the Magdalena shipping pens vibrated with the bellowing and bleating of livestock and the hooting and cussing of cowboys. Between 1885, when the pens were built, and 1971, when the rail line between here and Socorro was closed, hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep moved through this stockyard onto train cars bound for markets back east....
Congressman: Some large air tankers could be flying by July 4 The chairman of a House forest subcommittee said Friday the U.S. Forest Service could have the first group of decades-old heavy air tankers, grounded last month, under contract to fight fires by July 4. "We're making headway," Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said following a meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C., with representatives of the Forest Service, Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and the Bureau of Land Management. Walden said the Forest Service and FAA have given tanker contractors the criteria they must meet to have their planes certified as airworthy, and the first inspections could be completed by early July.... Group wants Feds to give up forests A group of Wisconsin legislators is proposing that management authority for the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest be turned over to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker's Task Force on Forestry issued a press release last week saying 25 legislators back the proposal. Rep. Donald Friske, R-Merrill, Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, and Rep. Mary Williams, R-Medford, sent a letter to the White House asking that management authority of the forest be transferred from the U.S. Forest Service to the DNR. The legislators are proposing a 25-year trial period pilot program for transferring management.... River runs through dam protester's life It has been 25 years since Sacramento native Mark Dubois chained himself to a rock in the Stanislaus River Canyon as officials closed the gates on New Melones Dam and allowed the reservoir to fill. He was ready to let the rising waters drown him if it would save the canyon, with its caves and prehistoric Indian sites and whitewater rapids, from being lost forever under the lake. The reservoir was eventually filled in 1982, but Dubois' stand caught the public's attention around the globe and did manage to stop the rising water for a time.... Lynx dens might mean cat's back For years, scientists weren't sure whether Canada lynx were still living in Minnesota or just passing through. But in the past couple of weeks, they've found two lynx dens, proof the state now has a breeding population of the federally threatened species. "It's a further indication that we do have females able to breed and successfully raise young,'' said Ron Moen, a biologist with the University of Minnesota-Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute, which is collaborating with the U.S. Forest Service on a lynx study effort.... Judge asks why 3 rare species aren't protected A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to explain what prevents it from listing rare species in four Western states as endangered or threatened. The ruling by Judge Ann Aiken in Portland, Ore., was hailed Friday by environmental groups as a victory in efforts to protect the Tahoe yellow cress plant, the southern Idaho ground squirrel and the sand dune lizard.... California Rancher Receives Excellence in Conservation Award The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) today presented its 2004 Excellence in Conservation Award to Michael J. Byrne, a California rancher. He was recognized during the NRCS Honors Awards ceremony at the USDA complex in Washington, D.C. "This year's Excellence in Conservation Award winner epitomizes the best in efforts to conserve, maintain and improve the environment and its natural resources on America's private working lands," said NRCS Chief Bruce Knight.... Watching endangered wildlife on the Net Conservationist Stephen Kress sees the big picture when it comes to putting live video of remote seabird colonies on the Internet. He hopes to build support for seabird restoration efforts from Maine to California by giving the birds a worldwide stage. Five years ago in Maine, the Audubon Society began streaming live video of puffins, loons and terns nesting on coastal islands onto the Internet for Project Puffin, which was principally a research tool.... Ranchers take less water from Big Hole, but levels still dropping Ranchers have reduced their take of upper Big Hole River irrigation water by 165 cubic feet per second, but the stream is still flowing at only 25 percent of that amount. Since the irrigation-reduction program began on Monday, the river's flow at a measuring station in Wisdom has dropped steadily, from 100 cfs on Sunday to 41 cfs Thursday. The flow rate is critical because it will help determine the survival of the fluvial arctic grayling, a rare fish that is the subject of a request for emergency listing under the Endangered Species Act.... Landlocked rainbow trout may get federal protection Federal regulators may grant landlocked rainbow trout behind Calaveras and San Antonio dams protection under the Endangered Species Act. Environmental groups working to restore historic runs of marine steelhead trout to Alameda Creek say the rainbows are descended from them. Genetic studies back up their case, they say. The rainbow trout may serve as breeding stock for restoring steelhead runs. But granting the fish federal protection also could create new regulatory headaches for ranchers and water agencies.... Tarahumara frogs reintroduced to Santa Ritas Once commonplace in Santa Cruz County, the Tarahumara frog disappeared from the area in the early 1980's, possibly due to heavy metal contamination from nearby mining. But Arizona Game & Fish officials say they plan to reintroduce about 400 Tarahumara frogs and tadpoles to the habitat in the Santa Rita Mountains Saturday. "They will be carried into the mountains in plastic bags and containers in biologists' backpacks," said Debbie Freeman, spokeswoman for Game & Fish. The frogs were collected as eggs in Mexico in 2000 and reared at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service facilities and at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in the Tucson Mountains.... Coal train derails A Union Pacific coal train derailed Thursday night on Orchard Mesa, spilling more than 400 tons of coal into a stretch of the Gunnison River listed as critical habitat for endangered fish. No one was injured in the 5:15 p.m. train wreck. Immediately upon hearing of the spill, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dispatched a boat to assess damage, said Grand Junction Fire Department Battalion Chief John Williams. That stretch of river is critical habitat for the Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker, both native endangered species, said Randy Hampton, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.... Editorial: Fixing Up the National Parks For the most part, the history of the National Park Service is a sad tale of an idealistic vision undermined by the government's neglect. Despite some bursts of growth and the public's enormous support for America's national parks, Washington has chronically failed to pay the bills. The parks' operating budgets have nearly always been too skimpy, and in recent years a substantial backlog of deferred maintenance has built up. Every now and then, a politician offers to do something about it. In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower began a successful 10-year campaign, called Mission 66, to spend a billion dollars upgrading services and facilities. And during the 2000 campaign, George Bush promised to do away with the maintenance backlog within five years. But what this administration is likely to be remembered for is telling us how big the problem is, not solving it.... Trekking examined on Mormon trail Increased use of the historic Oregon-Mormon Pioneer trail by people re-enacting the Mormon handcart trek is being studied for potential environmental and recreational effects. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began conducting "handcart treks" in Fremont County's portion of the trail in 1999 to give Mormon youth a sense of what their ancestors endured on their westward journey from Illinois to Utah in the 19th century. About 1,000 participated in 1999, and, by 2002, that number was 12,000, according to an environmental assessment from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.... Report: Nevada lands bill would help Reid friend Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid is co-sponsoring a bill that would benefit one of his close friends by removing a federal easement on the friend's property, making way for development on 10,750 acres, according to a newspaper report Friday. The move would help Reid friend Harvey Whittemore, a senior partner in a law firm that has employed all four of Reid's sons, move forward with plans to build 50,000 homes and 10 golf courses on land northeast of Las Vegas, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Times said that the land could be worth as much as $5 million, but that the bill defines "fair market value" based on a 1988 appraisal, bringing the cost to Whittemore down to about $160,000.... Site a treasure trove of artifacts from ancient Utah Around the year 1000, people now known as the Fremont Indians built villages in the unforgiving terrain of central Utah's Range Creek, likely chosen as a place easy to defend against potential invaders. Nearly a thousand years later -- long after the Indians abandoned their Book Cliffs homes -- rancher Waldo Wilcox showed his own passion for defense. He and his family spent nearly 50 years keeping artifact hunters and vandals away from the remains of the Fremont pit houses, granaries and pottery.... A small town with a big past Wind, sudden and rude, slams about unlatched gates in the aging shipping pens - empty now except for weeds and untamed dust devils dancing behind the weathered timbers. These days, quail and mockingbirds sing lonely serenades in the stockyards on the north side of this old cow town. But once, not all that long ago, the Magdalena shipping pens vibrated with the bellowing and bleating of livestock and the hooting and cussing of cowboys. Between 1885, when the pens were built, and 1971, when the rail line between here and Socorro was closed, hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep moved through this stockyard onto train cars bound for markets back east....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)