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....