NEWS ROUNDUP

U.S. to pay $33,000 fine for fire The U.S. Forest Service has agreed to pay $33,000 in fines for causing a blaze in American Fork Canyon that burned nearly 8,000 acres. Utah Division of Air Quality officials say the settlement is intended to prevent a repeat of the Cascade Springs II fire in 2003 that filled the skies in three counties with dense smoke and burned nearly 8,000 acres instead of the intended 600. The settlement reached this month between the division and the Forest Service requires forest officials to buy two remote air-monitoring machines and provide additional training for its employees both on how to use the devices and on new, more intensive fire-setting procedures....
Conservationists, government reach deal in prairie dog poisoning The federal government will be able to poison prairie dogs in southwestern South Dakota next week after reaching a deal with conservationists Wednesday that they say helps protect the endangered black-footed ferret. A branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture agreed to distribute poison on only 5,000 acres instead of about 8,000 acres in the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. It includes the Conata Basin - an area where more than half of the 400 wild ferrets left in the country live....
Grand Jury Indicts Hunter in Calif. Fire A federal grand jury Wednesday indicted a hunter who allegedly started the largest wildfire in California history. Sergio Martinez, 34, was indicted on one count each of setting timber on fire and making a false statement to a federal officer. Each charge carries a maximum five years in prison. The 2003 blaze, called the Cedar fire, killed 15 people, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and charred 273,000 acres from the mountains east of San Diego into the nation's seventh-largest city....
Plane Crash Survivor Talks About Ordeal Jodee Hogg had survived the plane crash and a cold night on top of a mountain. She feared if she and her injured companion didn't start hiking, neither of them would survive a second night. Hogg, 23, and Matthew Ramige, 30, had been presumed dead when the small plane carrying them and two other U.S. Forest Service workers crashed Sept. 20 in the Great Bear-Bob Marshall Wilderness Area. With her twin sister and parents beside her, Hogg recalled how she and Ramige struggled to make their way off the mountain, convinced they could not wait to be rescued if they wanted to survive. Hogg, with a sprained foot and back, and Ramige, suffering a broken back and severe burns, hobbled to a highway where they eventually flagged down motorists. The distance was probably only three to five miles, but their travel time was 29 hours....
City a Forest Service hub The U.S. Forest Service plans to move up to 400 human resources jobs to Albuquerque as part of a push to centralize operations, agency officials said. The move, announced Tuesday, comes after the agency's decision in June to centralize 370 budget and accounting jobs in the city. The Forest Service will lease two buildings in the Journal Center for a budget and accounting center, officials said....
Enviro groups plan to appeal decision to allow gas drilling A decision by the Bureau of Land Management to uphold possible natural-gas drilling in the Thompson Creek area west of Carbondale has been appealed by a coalition of environmental groups, the town of Carbondale and Pitkin County. The environmental groups claim drilling would violate protections of roadless areas that are now in legal dispute. The Aspen-based Wilderness Workshop led the appeal of a protest denied by the BLM. The agency sold leases on three area parcels in May. The sale of those and many other leases were protested, but the BLM rejected the protests last month. That decision has been appealed to the Interior Board of Land Appeals in Washington, D.C., part of the Interior Department....
Editorial: Decision saves the Front - for now If the Rocky Mountain Front is worth saving today - and we believe it is - its value as a natural area will only increase over the years. This week's Interior Department decision reflects strong public support for preserving this 100-mile stretch of spectacular landscape and rich wildlife habitat south of Glacier National Park. There are places where it's economically feasible and environmentally responsible to drill for oil and gas. The Front isn't one of them....
Decision to pull protection for bull trout brings lawsuit threat Environmental groups say they will sue the federal government over its decision yesterday to remove critical habitat designation for the threatened bull trout in 90 percent of the Columbia and Klamath river basins. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Wild Swan contend the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bowed to political pressures in making the decision, which covers areas of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana....
Editorial: Not 780. Not Even One The Bush administration should give up its crusade to keep noisy, smelly snowmobiles running around Yellowstone National Park each winter's day. They don't belong, period. Not the 493 once proposed in the park. Not the 780 allowed by a federal judge in Wyoming. Not the 720 the National Park Service now proposes for the coming winter. Not one....
Editorial: Prehistoric wonders You could call it Triassic Park. Northeastern Arizona has spectacular fossils from the very dawn of the dinosaur age, a time 220 million years ago when the high desert was swampland. When 200-pound ancestors of frogs and salamanders lumbered along. And that's not all. The same area has pueblo ruins, tantalizing rock art, rainbow-colored badlands and critical wildlife area. But these archeological and natural wonders lie just outside of Petrified Forest National Park. They won't be protected unless we expand the park boundaries. Congress is finally poised to do it. On Monday, with overwhelming bipartisan agreement, the House of Representatives approved HR1630, a plan that would more than double the size of the national park, adding about 125,000 acres....
Winmill rules in favor of Western Watersheds Winmill disagreed with the BLM’s assertion that WWP hadn’t raised the right arguments during the assessment and that the case shouldn’t be in court. He said the group had asked for a total ban on grazing and BLM refused to consider it. He said an agency doesn’t have to consider all possible alternatives, but can’t define objectives in such narrow terms that only one alternative would accomplish agency goals. Without considering a range of options, Winmill said, the preferred alternative becomes a “foreordained formality.”....
Rec fees surpass grazing for first time in BLM history Recreation receipts brought in more money than grazing this year for the first time in the history of the Bureau of Land Management. For fiscal year 2004, the BLM collected $13.5 million in recreation receipts compared to $10 million for grazing. What's more, the agency estimates that 93 percent of its contacts with the pubic are now related to recreation. "We used to do recreation on the side," said Bob Ratcliffe, deputy manager of recreation and visitor services for the agency. In fact, the public would sometimes derisively refer to the BLM as the Bureau of Livestock and Mining. That's changing. With recreation gaining a higher profile, the agency has earned a new nickname - the Bureau of Leisure and Motorhomes. "Recreation is now on the same playing field as grazing and forestry," Ratcliffe said....
Wild horses won't be coming back The feral horses of Coyote Canyon, which captivated park visitors and horse lovers before being removed last year, will not be returning, a federal agency has decided. The Bureau of Land Management, responding to requests from equestrian groups and two state senators that the horses be taken back to the canyon, has determined the animals would be better off adopted....
Ballot measure ensures right to hunt Legislative wrangling turned the original language of House Bill 306, now known as ballot measure C-41, or the Montana Hunting & Fishing Heritage Amendment, into a simplified sentence that garnered majority support in both the Senate and House of Representatives. If passed, the Montana Constitution will add a new section that reads "Preservation of harvest heritage. The opportunity to harvest wild fish and wild game animals is a heritage that shall forever be preserved to the individual citizens of the state and does not create a right to trespass on private property or diminution of other private rights."....
Column: Candidates in Blaze Orange Ernest Hemingway said every writer needs a "shockproof B.S.-detector." My B.S.-detector has been getting a workout, as the presidential candidates have been hunting for votes this autumn. In particular, they are seeking the votes of the 47 million Americans who hunt and fish. In a race this tight, politicians see this as a bloc as valuable as soccer moms and NASCAR dads. George W. Bush shakes hands at Cabela's sporting goods store; John Kerry flaunts his wing-shooting skills at local skeet clubs. You would think each had that Looney Tune hunter Elmer Fudd as a running mate....
Conservationists, Stillwater make deal to preserve land The Stillwater Mining Co. has donated conservation easements on two ranch properties as part of a Good Neighbor Agreement between the mine and conservation groups, the parties announced Tuesday. Through the agreement, the mine has now donated conservation easements on six ranches totaling 2,990 acres in Stillwater and Sweet Grass counties. Francis R. McAllister, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, said, "Stillwater Mining Co. is pleased to contribute these two additional conservation easements as we continue to fulfill commitments made at a time when the mine was expanding its operations. The conservation easements ensure that these properties will continue to have the rural qualities and beauty we all enjoy.''....
No water, no ducks Add another threatened crop to the list of woes piling up in the San Luis Valley. This time it's the duck population that has withered in the midst of the greatest drought in recorded history. Hunters who turned out last weekend for what once was Colorado's premier waterfowl event instead found a nearly silent autumn. Consider this: Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, once the poster child for North American duck production, now holds, in the estimation of manager Mike Blenden, barely 15 percent of the population of four years ago....
Congress passes historic water deal for California President Bush is expected to sign a landmark $395 million measure that could accelerate water storage projects in California and rejuvenate a joint state-federal campaign to preserve the Sacramento Delta, an environmental treasure and irreplaceable drinking water source. The House gave final approval to the sweeping, six-year bill Wednesday, overcoming years of mistrust and feuding between agribusiness, environmentalists and cities over how to share California's scarce water supplies....
Eagle County Highland vs. flatland Today, officials in Vail's home county are negotiating what could become a landmark water project to benefit Eagle and metro residents while preserving the environment. They are working toward a landmark agreement to build what would become the largest cooperative water project in Colorado - Wolcott Reservoir. The project would transform a radical not-one-more-drop Western Slope county into a sort of demilitarized water zone. It could help keep a thriving resort county lush and moist, its wilderness areas intact, its future water supplies guaranteed. At the same time, Wolcott would bring some - not a lot, but some - new water to Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, among others....
Another watering hole on tap? As Colorado struggles through a fifth year of drought, utilities on both sides of the Continental Divide are zeroing in on the proposed Wolcott Reservoir in Eagle County. The Western Slope and the Front Range both need more stored water, utilities say, not just for people but for fish. Given the water battles that traditionally have pitted rural western Colorado against the urban metro area, water providers say their biggest challenges on Wolcott are building broad support and answering critical questions about how the reservoir would affect other headwater counties and water quality downstream....
Bridging our troubled waters Pick any Saturday, winter or summer, and 25,000 to 40,000 cars will head west on Interstate 70, ascending to holy ground - the Colorado River headwater counties. Locals in Eagle, Summit, Grand and Pitkin counties are counting on support from these urban pilgrims to help them avert looming water shortages. As powerful Front Range utilities reach for more mountain water to handle growth, the cash-strapped counties hope metro residents will balance the scales, making clear they value high-country streams as much as green lawns at home....
Cloud seeding to continue above Vail Mountain Cloud seeding will continue for the 28th year at Vail, where top resort execs have consistently said they believe the operations boost their precious powder totals. Seeding operations will also continue in other parts of the state, including the San Juans, said Larry Hjermstad of Durango-based Western Weather Consultants. But after spending $1.1 million on cloud seeding the last two years, Denver Water will hold off on the program this year, at least initially, Hjermstad said....
House OKs Aid for Farmers Hit by Drought After weeks of opposing a $3 billion drought package approved by the GOP-run Senate as too costly, House Republicans finally advanced their own $2.9 billion proposal and added it to the hurricane measure by voice vote. Though President Bush has not requested drought aid, the White House may prove reluctant to scuttle a package this close to the election that could help producers in Wisconsin and other Midwestern tossup states. Unlike the Senate measure - which would be financed by borrowing and making deficits higher - the House aid would be paid for by cutting a program that pays farmers to conserve their land....
Rancher has Wild West at hand He bumps along on his wagon across pristine desert, just a short mile from the Peralta Trails subdivision, the end of suburbia and the beginning of the washboard road that leads to Richardson's D-Spur Ranch. Richardson refuses to be hemmed in by urbanization. Instead, he's determined to create an Old West fantasy here. He offers daily horseback rides into the Superstition Mountains, chuck wagon cookouts, wilderness campouts and cattle drives with his Texas longhorns. Prices for a taste of the cowboy life range from $15.95 to $189.95....
Snakebite survivor recalls night encounter On the night of Aug. 4, Karen Gilligan, 50, was bitten by a rattlesnake while taking her dog for a walk around her house on 10 acres in Amargosa Valley. It was the beginning of a four-day ordeal that she said has been the most memorable of her life. It had been a typical day for Gilligan, who works as a cook at Sheri's Ranch brothel in southern Pahrump. She had returned home after work at 6 p.m., spent time with her dog, Holly, and worked at her computer. Around 8:20 p.m. she took Holly out for a walk. It would be the last walk of the evening for the dog and was just around her property, so Gilligan didn't think to change from her house flip-flops into hiking boots or anything sturdier. "That was a big mistake," she said looking back on the incident. She also failed to carry a flashlight. Another mistake, for it was past dark. "I didn't even see it," she said. "I have a feeling I might have stepped on it. It stuck to my foot. It got me in the left heel."....
Cutters follow cowboys' lead The National Cutting Horse Association, like the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, wants to showcase its stars. Both organizations want to put contestants on a stage where fans can more easily follow them. Last year, the NCHA launched the Western Horseman Cup, hoping to expand the exposure of its sport. The Cup champion will be determined at a final that will be fed from a three-tour system that includes specific aged events across the United States and Canada. Each show on the tour must have a minimum of $10,000 in added money....
Hooked on barbed wire? It is a simple reproduction of nature, yet considered to be an invention of genius requiring numerous patents. It connected points while disorienting people and animals. It is treacherous, yet considered a thing of beauty and is housed in museums. If you have not guessed what it is, these questions might give it away: What was rumored to be a northern plot to wipe out cattle, and was thought to be the work of the devil?....
Sheep were way of life in Pine River Valley Allison area rancher Richard Engler spent more time in a sheep camp tent than he did at home when he was growing up. He and wife Shirley described the old days (1930s to the 1950s) of sheep ranching in the Pine River Valley. “Everybody had sheep back in those days,” Richard said. “The Indians had thousands of sheep.” Richard’s dad, Paris Engler, raised sheep. “I started herding when I was eight years old,” Richard said. That meant spending spring, summer and fall with a Mexican herder in the sheep camp. “I was just home in the winter,” he said....
New Mexico hotel echoes with legends The door to room No. 18 at the St. James Hotel is padlocked and never rented out. T.J. Wright, a 19th century gunslinger, crawled inside the room and died after winning the hotel in a poker game and getting shot in the back as he left the table. But the tale of Wright's demise is just one of many colorful stories in the 132-year-old hotel's past....
Wimpy Chupacabras not good for creature's legend Some things are better off left as legend. Take for example this alleged Chupacabras thing that was gunned down on a ranch in Elmendorf, Texas recently. A farmer shot a small, still species-undefined creature, there because is was suspected of eating his chickens. If you're not familiar with the legend of the Chupacabra, it is a vampire-like creature that supposedly was going around sucking the blood out of goats and other livestock. It supposedly was a wicked-looking creature with red eyes, a sucking tongue, webbed wings and a bad disposition. Remarkably elusive and blood thirsty, it supposedly has pilfered the countryside of Texas and Mexico for many years. If you saw the photo of the gunned down chupacabras that was in daily papers recently, you know it was a disappointment....