Wednesday, July 07, 2004

NEWS ROUNDUP

D.C. judge denies venue change A Washington, D.C., judge has rejected a request that a lawsuit led by Montanans for Multiple Use against the Flathead National Forest be moved to a federal court in Montana. Environmental groups that have intervened in the case wanted it moved to Missoula. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Roberts rejected that request on Friday....
Edwards Praised by Sierra Club for Environmental Leadership John Edwards is a leader on protecting Americans' health and safety. In a 2003 Earth Day release Edwards stated, "our country needs real leadership on many critical issues: safeguarding the water our children drink, preserving our national parks and forests, and achieving energy independence while addressing dangerous climate changes are just a few." In the Senate, Edwards has built a strong record on these and other environmental issues....
Rainbows celebrate 'Interdependence Day' Members of the Rainbow Family gathered Sunday in the South Warner Mountains in the Modoc National Forest for its annual communion while the rest of the nation celebrated Independence Day. "We look at this as our day of interdependence," said a 30-something who has taken the name Aviathar, but goes by Vee. "We recognize how dependent we are on each other." Forest Service officials put the gathering's attendance at approximately 16,000 people, admitting the estimate was probably low....
Environmentalists rally in Medford against Biscuit salvage About 200 people rallied Tuesday in Medford to call on the US Forest Service to drop salvage logging plans for the Biscuit fire. Jasmine Minbashian of the Northwest Old Growth Campaign says the plan to log burned timber was a trojan horse for outdated ideas of how to deal with forests and fire....
Forest Service releases plan for historic OTO dude ranch The Forest Service wants to keep the historic OTO dude ranch near Yellowstone National Park a low-key place and protect the buildings. The plan for Montana's first dude ranch became formal with release of an environmental assessment subject to public comment until Aug. 1. The OTO became public property 14 years ago, and Gallatin National Forest officials have been trying to figure out what to do with it....
Decade after Storm King tragedy, families gather to pay tribute Parents and children of the 14 firefighters killed when a wildfire exploded and trapped them on Storm King mountain 10 years ago returned to the site of the tragedy today to remember their loved ones. "It's kind of bittersweet, but it's nice to see the other families," said Kathy Brinkley, whose son Levi died in the fire....
Corps agrees to BPA's summer dam spill plan A federal plan that continues to protect Columbia Basin fish while reducing summer spill at four Columbia and Snake river dams was given the go-ahead Tuesday by Brig. Gen. William T. Grisoli, Northwestern Division Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps decision cites a favorable findings letter issued by NOAA Fisheries that concludes the proposed spill and flow modifications meet the needs of affected fish listed under the Endangered Species Act....
Western Governors Say Wait on Sage Grouse Listing Eleven western governors have asked federal authorities not to grant a special protected status to the greater sage grouse -- a move that could threaten oil and gas drilling in the Rocky Mountains -- until local groups finish studying the issue, officials said on Tuesday. The governors in a letter to the service said local communities were already taking steps to protect the sage grouse and that 64 local groups had been formed to study the problem. "In the West, we are witnessing an unprecedented conservation effort," the governors said in their letter....
Editorial: Stop grousing, Norton, about protecting bird The Rio Grande has its silvery minnow. The Pacific Northwest has its spotted owl. And now the Western prairie - including New Mexico - might have its sage grouse. Last month, during the Western Governors' Association meeting in Santa Fe, Interior Secretary Gale Norton warned the bird's numbers have dwindled to a point the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's hand is being forced - again. It might need to protect the once-abundant game bird under federal law, specifically the Endangered Species Act. Oh, my!....
Salamander expected to nix Calif. project Concerns over the California tiger salamander and its habitat may delay a housing project at Fort Ord, Calif., the Monterey Herald reported Tuesday. The project, a 1,400-unit housing facility on a Monterey County controlled part of the former military base, was supposed to break ground next spring....
Editorial: We're losing Missouri water wars For heaven's sake, somebody please buy President Bush a new pair of glasses. His myopic view of Missouri River water management has all the earmarks of a nearsighted man on his way to total blindness due to politics. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently made a big deal out of creating 1,200 acres of shallow-water habitat for the endangered pallid sturgeon on the Missouri River in Nebraska. That was pretty much all that was demanded by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, of Minneapolis, as he put his legal rubber stamp on the status quo of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' management plan for the Missouri River....
Coalition plans suit over wolves A coalition of 27 associations and counties from Wyoming and elsewhere plans to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its handling of wolves and its refusal to approve Wyoming's proposed wolf management plan. The group, calling itself the "Wolf Coalition," sent a notice of intent to file civil suit to the Fish and Wildlife Service last week, saying that a lawsuit would be filed in 60 days for violations of the Endangered Species Act. The group says the federal government has not met its obligations in properly handling wolves and their effects since they were reintroduced to the northern Rocky Mountains in 1995 and 1996. Wolves have "severely damaged" livestock and wildlife populations along with local agriculture businesses, the coalition says. The group says the wolf population has far exceeded original goals and Wyoming should not be forced to allow them to spread across the state....
Bison Range agreement unveiled The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on Tuesday released details of their long-anticipated agreement on management of the National Bison Range at Moiese. The first year of the agreement calls for tribal management of some maintenance, educational and visitor-service activities. About eight to 10 maintenance employees will be affected and come under tribal management in fiscal year 2005. Subsequent annual agreements could expand tribal authority....
Lethal order issued for male Mexican gray wolf Fish and Wildlife Service officials authorized the killing of a male Mexican gray wolf that has killed at least five cattle since late March. Victoria Fox, a communications officer for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said wolf M574 committed three confirmed livestock depredations on the San Carlos Apache Reservation with his mate, F797. Since then, Fish and Wildlife Service officials issued a lethal take order for M574 and captured F797. Fox said the take order is only the third issued since the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Project's inception in 1998....
Editorial: Whipping boys for past mistakes A decision by the federal government and state of Utah to sue the Boy Scouts of America for $14 million to recover the costs of fighting a 2002 wildfire that members of one troop are suspected of inadvertently setting smells suspiciously like scapegoating to us. It's not necessarily out of line for the government to hold people responsible for malicious or criminally negligent actions that result in wildfires. And the Boy Scouts, no doubt, make a tempting target for example-making, given their high national profile and deep pockets. But if we really want to get serious about holding people accountable for the precarious, disease- and fire-prone state of our national forests, the search for likely culprits leads right back to the government's door....
Greenpeace boat docks in Portland The Arctic Sunrise, a former Norwegian sealing ship, docked Friday near the Morrison Bridge in Portland, the only stop in the contiguous United States on the boat's trip to Alaska later this month. The boat was open for tours Sunday and Monday, with a slated departure time of early afternoon today. Greenpeace workers planned the stop as part of the organization's project to draw attention to logging on public land, including possible logging in areas burned in 2002 by the 500,000-acre Biscuit fire in Southern Oregon. A rally at noon today will further highlight the group's concerns....
Hahn Moves to Preserve Owens Valley Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn called Tuesday for the creation of a land conservancy that would ban any future development on 500 square miles of the Owens River Valley in the eastern Sierra Nevada — the same land the city secretly acquired a century ago in order to obtain the water rights. Under the mayor's proposal to "preserve 320,000 acres of natural beauty in the Owens Valley," the city would retain the water rights but establish a conservation easement that would ensure that the area remained in a natural state, probably open to the same general uses — fishing, hunting, hiking and grazing by local ranchers — that are currently permitted....
Housing project starts water fight along the San Joaquin A developer building on the banks of the San Joaquin River intends to use decades-old contracts originally given to farmers to siphon river water into a new housing development, drawing opposition - and lawsuits - from an unlikely coalition of farm interests, environmentalists and government agencies. "We never dreamed that they would be able to use riparian rights to build subdivisions," said Bud Rank, 82, a retired farmer who was born and raised on the banks of the San Joaquin....
Report sounds alarm on wilderness Lawmakers are working to permanently protect a big chunk of mountainous terrain in eastern Snohomish County, but environmentalists are worried that effort might fail. That's why environmentalists listed the proposed Wild Sky Wilderness north of Index and Skykomish in a national report that describes a dozen natural "treasures in trouble." The report, compiled by the campaign, extols the natural beauty of 12 places from Virginia to Alaska, where groups or lawmakers are trying to create new wildernesses....Go here to see the report...
Texas legal drama unfolds This weekend, if Corpus Christi Medical Examiner Ray Fernandez has his way, a couple dozen lawyers, medical experts and reporters will congregate at a small cemetery here to watch the exhumation of a famous Texas rancher — perhaps the initial step in opening a Pandora's box of Texas history. Mr. Fernandez, 44, on behalf of his mother, Ann, has sued one of Texas' wealthiest foundations, claiming that its namesake, John G. Kenedy, was the father of Mr. Fernandez's mother, the love child of a maid in the Kenedy household. Mr. Kenedy, grandson of one of the co-founders of the famed King Ranch just a few miles south of here and owner of La Parra, a 400,000-acre spread that once was the second largest in the state, died in 1948....
It's All Trew: Frugality way of life for pioneer families One frugal practice was never throwing anything away. People collected bits of string, tied them together, rolled them into a ball and stored them behind a trivet hanging on the wall. All wrapping paper was ironed flat with a hot iron and stored on a shelf in the pantry. Paper sacks were folded carefully and stored. Excess paper, such as old mail, was rolled into a tube, tied with twine and used as kindling to start a fire. Clothing was hemmed up, let out, cuffs turned up or down, holes patched in knees or the legs cut off, collars turned around and sewed back on again. When the clothing was completely used up, it was cut apart for quilt scraps or into long strips for floor-mop heads....

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

IRS Toughens Scrutiny of Land Gifts

The Internal Revenue Service announced yesterday that it is cracking down on improper tax deductions taken by people who give real estate and cash to environmental groups, warning that taxpayers could face penalties and charities could lose their tax-exempt status.

The IRS is specifically targeting gifts of "conservation easements" -- deed restrictions that limit some types of real estate development. The easements have become the environmental movement's key tool for preserving fragile ecosystems and millions of acres of open space.

The IRS is focusing on easements that have questionable public benefit or have been manipulated to generate inflated deductions.

"We've uncovered numerous instances where the tax benefits of preserving open spaces and historic buildings have been twisted for inappropriate individual benefit," IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a statement. "Taxpayers who want to game the system and the charities that assist them will be called to account."

The IRS warned that it intends to levy penalties on charity executives and board members who collect or knowingly help secure improper deductions claimed in connection with such transactions.

The announcement did not name individual taxpayers or charities. It comes as the IRS is conducting a major audit of the Arlington-based Nature Conservancy, the world's largest environmental organization....
Man refuses state's millions to keep swampy Florida home

"It ain't been an easy life, but I love it. I really do. This is my home," said Hardy, a 68-year-old former Navy SEAL. "I couldn't trade it for nowhere else. It's irreplaceable."

But Hardy's 160 acres sit in the path of what is perhaps the nation's most ambitious environmental project ever, a 30-year effort to restore the natural water flow to the Everglades.

For years, state officials have quietly negotiated with Hardy to come up with a price for a piece of land that many consider worthless — and one man considers priceless. He has adamantly refused, even as the offers have doubled and tripled into the millions of dollars....
WESTERN STATES WATER, ISSUE NO. 1572

ENVIRONMENT/LITIGATION
In Re: American Rivers and Idaho Rivers United

On June 22, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) must formally respond to a petition from environmental groups asking the agency to formally consult with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) over hydropower operations affecting threatened and endangered salmon in the Snake River Basin. Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) section 7, all federal agencies are required to consult with either the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or NOAA Fisheries when an agency action may affect a listed species or its critical habitat. In 1997, American Rivers and Idaho Rivers United filed a petition with FERC requesting consultation on dam operations in Hells Canyon. The groups wrote they would pursue relief if they received no response within 30 days.

When FERC failed to act, the groups filed for a “rehearing” with the agency, but FERC denied the request for a rehearing, noting “because there has been no order from which to seek rehearing, the rehearing request is premature and must be rejected.” On appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. Citing precedent, the Ninth Circuit held: “Mere inaction by the FERC cannot be transmuted by petitioners into an order rejecting their petition. Administrative action is not reviewable as an order ‘unless and until [it] imposes an obligation, denies a right, or fixes some legal relationship as a consummation of the administrative process.’” Following the failed appeal, the environmental groups repeatedly requested FERC to either grant the 1997 petition and initiate section 7 consultation, or deny the petition. The groups then sought a writ of mandamus from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit compelling formal action. The court granted the writ.

FERC defended its inaction, claiming that it had no duty to respond to a petition for agency action merely because a party requests it. The court ruled that pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act, the agency was bound to respond to the petition. The three-judge panel wrote: “We are not concerned here with what answer FERC might ultimately give...rather, we are reviewing its failure to give them any answer for more than six years.... There is no per se rule as to how long is too long to wait for agency action, but a reasonable time for agency action is typically counted in weeks or months, not years. This court has stated generally that a reasonable time for an agency decision could encompass months, occasionally a year or two, but not several years or a decade. FERC’s six year plus delay is nothing less than egregious.” The court ordered FERC to formally respond to the petition within 45 days.

American Rivers and Idaho Rivers United, applauded the decision. “The court has told FERC in very strong terms that it can’t avoid its responsibilities to protect endangered species by sticking its head in the sand,” said Connie Kelleher of American Rivers.
NEWS ROUNDUP

Firm to create habitat after spill A Pepco oil spill in Maryland is enabling federal officials to preserve more grassland in northeastern South Dakota. "Instead of requiring the oil company to just pay a bunch of money, they are required to restore habitat," Valerie Fellows of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Chesapeake Bay office in Annapolis, Md., said....
Beavers rebound, strengthen habitat Beavers are by no means scarce in Portland and many other North American cities, rebounding from centuries of trapping for their once-coveted pelts. The official state animal of Oregon has become a frustrating nuisance in the eyes of some property owners and city maintenance crews, with its habit of devouring prized landscaping and building unexpected lakes....
Herseth tour churns up questions about Casey ranch sale The on-again, off-again expansion plan for Wind Cave National Park took an interesting turn Monday on the wheels of an all-terrain vehicle driven by U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth. Although the park expansion seemed to spin out four weeks ago when members of the Casey family of Rapid City confirmed they had tentatively accepted a private purchase offer for their ranch — a stunning piece of pasture, forest and craggy canyons that would form the bulk of the park's 5,675-acre expansion — Herseth's visit to the ranch suggested the deal might not be done....
Teton County is No. 1 public playground Because of its wealth of high-quality public lands, Teton County has been ranked the top recreation area in the nation. The ranking as the No. 1 public playground came from Colorado College's 2004 "State of the Rockies Report Card." "Jackson, Wyo., located within Teton County, may be the supreme location for recreation in the United States," the report states. "Positioned as a gateway to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park, and at the base of the world-renowned Jackson Hole ski resort, it is difficult to imagine a better place for the outdoor enthusiast or second-home owner."....
Lives lost, lessons learned The small mistakes, oversights, misjudgments and petty turf battles piled up for four days, unnoticed or ignored. They came together in one confused, terrifying moment at 4:11 p.m. July 6, 1994. At that minute, investigators later determined, 12 young firefighters who had been cutting a fire line high on Storm King Mountain near Glenwood Springs realized they couldn’t outrun a wall of smoke and flame that unexpectedly had blown up the hillside at them, fanned by 45-mph winds, and all 12 died....
Anger, bitterness still resonate with firefighter’s parents The fire line is still visible, cut in subtle arcs across the western flank of the mountain. It is kept alive by volunteers who trim the shiny, green oak brush to honor those who dug it. It is kept alive by death. It is a line smokejumper Don Mackey and others decided to build downhill on a steep slope that fateful day 10 years ago. It was a decision, in the eyes of some, made by someone who was overly aggressive....
Survivors forever changed by fire The embers of the Storm King Fire still burn inside the 35 people who escaped its wrath. Some took the red-hot pain and turned it into their passions, their careers. Others tried to smother the coals of remembrance, but they still glow, reminding them of the fire’s fury. The way they dealt with the aftermath of the fire determined their identities 10 years later....
Column: Keeping public lands open In the two centuries since Lewis wrote those words, much has transformed our country. Tiny outposts grew into great cities, and Indian trails became modern highways linking every corner of our nation. Yet today, the "visionary enchantment" Lewis experienced still beckons millions of Americans who take to the outdoors to enjoy the wonders of great open spaces. That's why it troubles us that access to many of the nation's public lands is being closed to recreational activity. Our organization, Americans for Responsible Recreational Access (ARRA), was founded because of a growing concern about the alarming number of closures....
Climbers support temporary ban at Cave Rock An advocacy group for climbers is urging its members to temporarily refrain from scaling Cave Rock at Lake Tahoe through the summer while its lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service is pending. The Forest Service had asked The Access Fund to support a voluntary climbing closure during July and August “to protect the area during this high use time of the summer,” according to a statement issued by the Forest Service....
Column: The cougar problem is more manageable than we think The mountain lion attack on a woman hiking in Sequoia National Forest last week makes it clear that California wildlife policy must change: What we need, to solve the cougar problem, is predator managers (i.e., hunters or trappers) to achieve a balance between predator and natural prey -- not human prey. Many environmentalists acknowledge that California is losing its mule deer. The fact is we are losing all deer, mule and blacktail, as well as bighorn sheep, kit foxes and wild turkeys. The reason for these losses is no predator management -- not people, as most biologists want you to believe, encroaching on habitat....
Lake Powell's low level threatens power supply Plummeting water levels in Lake Powell have drastically slashed electricity generation at the reservoir's Glen Canyon Dam, forcing power authorities to cut deliveries to utilities from the Colorado Front Range to Provo, Utah. Federal officials fear that $100 million worth of hydropower generated annually by Lake Powell could dry up completely by 2009 if dam managers continue releasing water at pre-drought rates....
The globalization of thirst It's a story about control. Not over oil or land, but over water. Who needs it? Who owns it? How much will it cost? The PBS Point of View documentary "Thirst" dives into the world's next global currency. Filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman slash between Bolivia, India and California, examining the increasing privatization of the precious resource....
City: 50-year Jicarilla lease vital to tapping Rio Grande A plan by the city of Santa Fe to lease water rights from the Jicarilla Apache Tribe is essential to the community’s efforts to divert water directly from the Rio Grande, officials said Friday. The proposed lease calls for the city to pay the tribe $1.5 million a year for 3,000 acre feet of water — about one-fifth of the city’s current water usage. The price will fluctuate in the future depending on market conditions....
Dreams turn to dust: Drought, neglect bury a community in sand Successive years of severe drought wiped out the vegetation on the unoccupied -- and upwind -- portion of their Escalante Valley Ranchos subdivision. The neighborhood has become a wasteland of fine gray sand. With wind a constant phenomenon in this part of the state, the sand and dust have been assaulting Welsch and his two dozen neighbors for more than two months. It is a small-scale dustbowl, and someday it could spread across the Escalante Valley if farmers now cultivating thousands of acres of alfalfa and grain here go out of business or lose their water rights....
Vesicular stomatitis detected at three more sites Horses on a total of nine sites in Texas and four premises in New Mexico are known to be infected with vesicular stomatitis, announced officials with the Texas Animal Health Commission. Vesicular stomatitis is a painful blistering disease of livestock, such as horses, sheep, swine and deer. The viral disease appears spontaneously and sporadically in the southwestern U.S. and is thought to be transmitted by sand flies and black flies. The cases this spring are the first to be confirmed since l998....
Summer with sheep It's the ideal lifestyle for a mountain man. Living out of a tent, cooking on a wood-burning stove, all alone except for a horse, a dog and 1,300 sheep. For Peruvian Aldo Quiñones Inga, it's a job. This summer, Quiñones Inga will make a living tending ewes and lambs in the Weminuche Wilderness. Taking care of sheep can be a nomadic existence. In order to provide them with enough food to fatten them up for selling season, the Brown family herds them high into the mountains....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: PETA says angling is cruel, barbaric Trout Unlimited, an organized group of fly fishermen, takes up the defense of fishing by citing studies that show a behavioral response to noxious stimuli is separate from the psychological experience of pain. If I could give my advice to the TU lawyers, trying to use scientific evidence in a debate with PETA is like trying to potty train a duck. Rule to live by: Don't treat lunatics like reasonable people....

Monday, July 05, 2004

NEWS ROUNDUP

Editorial: Lessons learned from Storm King Mountain Ten years ago, a raging wall of flame and smoke killed 14 brave federal firefighters near Glenwood Springs. Bosses at the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies say that they've absorbed the safety lessons from the Storm King Mountain tragedy and made important changes. But have they? On paper, the decision-making process has become clearer and more focused on protecting the lives of the men and women who battle wild infernos in the nation's forests and on other public lands....
Survivors look back, a decade after Storm King disaster By July 6, 1994, decades of wildfire suppression had forced firefighters to learn how fire behaves in rough terrain with thick vegetation acting as seemingly endless fuel. They had hours of training learning how to avoid getting into trouble where a fire shelter, a lightweight, silver metallic tent, might be needed. Yet 12 of 18 warning signs taught to all firefighters were either ignored or not recognized on Storm King, investigators found. Eight of 10 standard orders issued to ensure safety were not followed. The flames came so quickly that only one of the victims had time to crawl inside a fire shelter to no avail. What happened here that day?....
Ski-area sale triggers boom in Crested Butte In their first six months of ownership of Crested Butte Mountain, the couple have quietly studied the mountain, only recently announcing $6.5 million in improvements for next season. But homeowners, developers and real estate speculators are moving aggressively in their shadow....
Firefighters see impending disaster in woodland homes In California and Oregon, it's an old story: Flaming winds whip through the hills, decimating million-dollar dream homes, panicking communities and leaving dozens of people displaced. But in Western Washington, suburbanites are slowly waking up to the fact that their planned developments tucked into the foothills of Cascade timber forests look like potential disasters to firefighters....
Thompson's resolution focuses on wilderness dams access Adequate motorized access to repair, maintain or even replace the wilderness dams in Ravalli County should have been provided in the language of the Wilderness Act of 1964, and since it wasn't federal lawmakers should change it now, said Ravalli County Commissioner, Alan Thompson. "Technically (wilderness dams) should have been grandfathered because before the wilderness existed there was a need in our valley for irrigation water and without the dams being constructed obviously this valley would look a lot different than it does now," said Thompson. In two weeks, a resolution Thompson wrote for the National Association of Counties will come up for a vote at their annual convention....
Nevada, California in line to get air tankers returning to duty Two of five firefighting air tankers cleared to return to service after being grounded over safety concerns are headed for Nevada and California, federal officials said Saturday. The planes are expected to be stationed out of Battle Mountain, located about 220 miles northeast of Reno, and Lancaster, Calif., Bureau of Land Management officials said. "With only five of the tankers initially going back to service, it was a tough decision on where to station them," said BLM spokeswoman Jo Simpson in Reno....
Counterculture 'Rainbow Family' gathers in California forest to promote world peace This year's annual peace gathering got off to a bad start when one participant was jailed for allegedly beating another nearly to death with a shovel for driving too fast through a campground. But that was an aberration for an event where violations generally involve recreational drugs, occasional nudity or an unleashed dog, said participants and law enforcement officials, who have had 30 years of uneasy relations around the country. On Sunday, the high point of the July 1-7 conclave, more than 16,000 self-described hippies from at least 40 states and eight nations were expected to hold hands in a circle, silently praying for world peace from dawn until noon....
Cabin owners' rebuilding plans left to a lottery In an unprecedented move, forest officials plan to use a lottery system to determine which cabin owners who lost their homes in the 2002 Curve and Williams fires will be allowed to rebuild.
Dozens of cabin owners will have their names picked from a hat to find out which 10 can erect cabins on lots predetermined by the U.S. Forest Service. Forest officials devised the system after concluding they have only 10 or 12 lots available; the other lots are not developable because they are in riparian areas or flood plains, forest officials said....
Endangered Species Act's Protections Are Trimmed The Bush administration has succeeded in reshaping the Endangered Species Act in ways that have sharply limited the impact of the 30-year-old law aimed at protecting the nation's most vulnerable plants and animals, according to environmentalists and some independent analysts. The Bush initiatives, which have ranged from recalculating the economic costs of protecting critical habitats to limiting the number of species added to the protected list, reflect a policy shift that Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton calls the "New Environmentalism."....
Boy Scouts sell lemonade at $250 a glass A Boy Scout troop tried to put a dent in a potential $14 million judgment Friday by selling lemonade — at $250 a glass. The federal and state governments earlier this week sued the Boy Scouts of America to recover costs of the 2002 East Fork fire, allegedly started by Utah Scouts....
Wolves back in Washington? Howl, yes Wolves are about to return to Washington after decades of absence, and federal regulators have begun drafting a plan for their arrival -- addressing what to do when the howling canids scare people or threaten other animals. "It's a good thing to be prepared for that," said Doug Zimmer, information specialist for the Western Washington office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service....
Researchers work to reduce wolf conflicts Removing a few problem wolves from a pack can dampen that pack's taste for livestock, at least in the short term, according to research presented during a recent public meeting. Liz Bradley, a postgraduate researcher, studied wolf and livestock conflicts and found, in part, that wolves generally kill livestock in areas of elk populations. She also said wolf packs that kill cattle have a high probability of killing again. Of packs where some wolves were removed after livestock attacks, 68 percent of packs killed again....
In North Dakota, Pelicans Leave A Breeding Ground for Mystery Yet this year, that perch's vista is instead one of baffling desolation, a plain of baby chick carcasses and hundreds of never-to-hatch eggs simply left behind for the snacking pleasure of hungry coyotes and gulls. In a quirky and unprecedented natural mystery, the world's largest breeding colony for the birds is eerily vacant. The more than 30,000 pelicans that usually spend the summer procreating at Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in central North Dakota returned in their usual droves in April from their winter residence on the Gulf Coast, but then they suddenly dispersed in May after starting an apparently normal breeding season. Nobody knows for sure why....
Fallon tribe seeks protection of prehistoric sites The Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe is pushing for a higher level of federal protection for three prehistoric sites in Churchill County. The tribe wants the Bureau of Land Management to designate the Sand Mountain Recreation Area, Grimes Point Archaeological Area and Stillwater Mountains as areas of critical environmental concern. If the request is granted, the agency would have to create a separate management plan for each....
West Nile virus poses dangers to wildlife Efforts to prevent the spread of West Nile Virus in California shouldn’t ignore the state’s wildlife, including majestic raptors and endangered sheep in the Coachella Valley and statewide, according to one authority. Walter Boyce, director of the Wildlife Health Center at the University of California, Davis, called on West Nile watchers statewide to be alert to the dangers the disease poses to animals, particularly some species of rare birds....
Column: Economic success, ingenuity a recipe for a better environment Simon's work led many other scientists and statisticians to examine environmental claims more critically. Some environmentalists eventually broke with the movement. They saw that the world was not collapsing - that our quality of life is getting better, not worse; that the creation of wealth and technology supports environmental quality, not undercuts it; and that the relationship between man and his environment is less a Darwinian battle than a mutually beneficial interaction powered by human ingenuity. The relationship between environmental quality and economic success breeds ongoing improvement. Quantitatively, we know not only that higher levels of income promote environmental quality but also that the improvement in quality is better than a 1-to-1 ratio. That is, if income rises 10 percent, the demand for environmental quality rises more than 10 percent....
In Montana, Gas Drilling Hits a Rare Roadblock This search, which affects about 60 million American homes that heat with gas, has a guiding rule: If companies can lease land, they can drill it. The rule has proved inviolable, even though the companies' newest drilling technique -- called coal-bed methane extraction -- has often enraged environmentalists and local ranchers by lowering water tables, souring streams with salt and scarring wild lands with wastewater pits and screaming gas compressors. One county in the West has had the temerity and the wherewithal to break the rule of lease it and drill. Not one gas well has been drilled here in Gallatin County, where the Old West ranch culture has been replaced by the recreating ways of the New West bourgeoisie. Affluent, well-educated newcomers from the East and West coasts have bought up and taken over this western Montana county in the past 15 years, turning it into a place where people go outside not to work the land, but to play on it....
Challis ranchers, farmers seem to like proposal Simpson has worked on the plan for more than three years, crafting a package that offers benefits to most of the groups that have fought over the future of the region for more than 30 years. For example, ranchers who give up grazing permits would be paid and motorcyclists would retain most of the trails they use, including a trail that runs through the heart of the Boulder-White Cloud Wilderness. Simpson has proposed transferring more than 1,000 acres of federal land to Custer County, which it could sell to pay for services and economic development....
Column: Wyo. says "no" to more wells The announcement this June that Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal opposed new oil and gas leases in the Upper Green River Valley startled both conservation groups and the oil industry. After all, Wyoming is one of the few states fortunate enough not to face a budget crisis right now, and it's because of oil and gas royalties. Yet, in the state's fastest-growing county of Sublette, even pro-development locals were having second thoughts about one more gas field....
Federal officials open up 1,500 miles of desert to off-roaders The Bureau of Land Management substantially increased the amount of public land open to off-road vehicles in Riverside and San Bernardino counties by approving 1,500 miles of roads in the Mojave Desert. The decision made Friday affects 1.3 million acres in the Mojave Desert and covers a large portion of critical habitat for the endangered desert tortoise. But officials said they made efforts to avoid sensitive areas....
Column: BLM must grapple with an ORV plan after court decision The Supreme Court overruled the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals last month and concluded that conservationists could not use a specific provision of a federal law to force the Bureau of Land Management to protect sensitive public lands, including Wilderness Study Areas, from off-road vehicles. A 1,000-fold increase in ORV use in Utah since the late 1980s had left a wide path of scars, water pollution, soil erosion, cross-country trails, trampled vegetation and teeth-rattling noise that the BLM had ignored for years. Before we filed the lawsuit, the BLM's own ORV expert could not tell us how much BLM land was protected from ORVs (turns out it was a paltry 6 percent); and not a single BLM field office had mapped an ORV trail system, or had a current environmental study of ORV impacts....
Stevens inserts $15,000-an-acre offer in military bill U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens recently slipped $2.5 million into the annual military spending bill to buy 160 acres on the North Slope that belong to Jacob Adams, the president of the powerful Arctic Slope Regional Corp., and two of his siblings. A paragraph Stevens wrote into the Defense Department appropriation bill in June said the Air Force will pay the Adams family in exchange for the land and "in consideration of its unauthorized use and contamination." The $2.5 million cost comes to more than $15,000 per acre....
Editorial: Renew Emerald Mountain effort Two years ago, local activists and government officials came together to preserve Emerald Mountain, a broad, velvety escarpment that rises behind Steamboat Springs. The deal hasn't been completed, though, because of bureaucratic footdragging. The vision and muscle of Interior Secretary Gale Norton is needed to unsnarl the logjam. In 2002, the land board and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management agreed to attempt a property swap. The pact looked like a win-win-win deal for the community, state and federal government. The BLM identified 106 isolated and hard-to-manage federal properties, most of them inaccessible to the public. The bureau planned to sell those parcels to adjacent private landowners and then, using the proceeds, buy Emerald Mountain. That plan would ensure that Emerald would remain open space....
Fort Belknap grazing rates soar After six years of crippling drought and the most brutal winter in 110 years, Doney and other Fort Belknap Reservation ranchers face a 51 percent increase in grazing fees on reservation land. He estimates the increase will cost him $25,000 this year. With the increase, Fort Belknap ranchers pay the highest grazing rate on any reservation in Montana or Wyoming. And they pay more than the average fee for state-owned land, federal Bureau of Land Management property in Montana and private land in the Treasure State....
Deep in drought It’s a drought that’s drying forests in Idaho, killing crops in Wyoming and spreading wildfires in New Mexico. Experts say it may be the West’s worst drought in 500 years, surpassing the Dust Bowl years in places like the Colorado River basin. “There’s really no clear indication when this thing is going to end,” said Don Wilhite, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb.. “It looks like it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.” Some states are now in their sixth year of drought, Nevada is in its fifth. In Southern Nevada, the situation is dire....
Preserving Iosepa's Heritage Hoopiiaina's ancestors were among the first Mormon Polynesian settlers who colonized the area 60 miles west of Salt Lake City in 1889. At its peak, Iosepa (pronounced Yo-seppa) had nearly 300 residents; now what remains is a cemetery. Hoopiiaina, 45, president of the Iosepa Historical Association, travels to Iosepa at least 12 times a year, often spending at least three days every visit....
Marking massacre site shifts direction The little-known massacre occurred in May 1887 at the mouth of Deep Creek where it flows into the Snake River on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon in Wallowa County. The Chinese miners were ambushed by a gang of seven rustlers and schoolboys. The killings still stir deep feelings in Wallowa County, where several of the killers were from well-known families....

Sunday, July 04, 2004

OPINION/COMMENTARY

RONALD REAGAN, SAGEBRUSH REBEL, REST IN PEACE

"I am," former Governor Ronald Reagan proudly proclaimed in 1980, "a Sagebrush Rebel." Reagan's common cause with westerners besieged by a host of federal agencies came as no surprise. Forty-four percent of California, which Reagan governed for eight years, is managed by those agencies; thus, he saw hubris, hyperbole, and humor whenever a federal employee declared, "I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help you."

When Ronald Reagan was sworn in, he became the first president since the birth of the modern environmental movement a decade before to have seen, first hand, the impact of excessive federal environmental regulation on the ability: of state governments to perform their constitutional functions; of local governments to sustain healthy economies; and of private citizens to use their own property. Moreover, Reagan thought that the nation might have other, more important priorities such as repealing confiscatory tax rates, restoring the nation's moribund military, and reviving America's crippled economy.

Professional environmental groups pitched a fit! After all, they had been in their ascendancy since the heady days of the first Earth Day in 1970....

The Costs of Sprawl Reconsidered: What the Data Really Show

Over the past several years there has emerged in the United States an influential political movement whose purpose is to severely limit, or even prohibit, further suburbanization. This "anti-sprawl" movement has received much attention and has been successful in implementing its restrictive land-use policies in some areas. Much of the justification for the current campaign against the low-density (sprawling) urban development that Americans and Western Europeans1 prefer is based upon assumptions that it is more costly than the more dense development of central cities.

Variously described as "smart growth," "growth management," or "New Urbanism," the movement would force people to live at higher densities, in multi-family units, townhouses, or clustered single-family developments--while placing significant restrictions on the expansion of suburban commercial development

The rationales offered for limiting suburban housing choices are many, various, and of questionable validity....

Russia's Kyoto Decision Still up in the Air

On May 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced to the world that, in order to gain European Union (EU) backing for Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), he would "speed up movement towards ratification of the Kyoto Protocol."

Many have interpreted this to mean the internal debate in Russia over what to do about Kyoto is over. The Boston Globe, for example, headlined its news story, "Putin promises to ratify Kyoto treaty." But others have been far more cautious in their assessment of Putin's remarks.

Putin's words must be parsed carefully if we are to understand what has happened. He said, "The EU has met us half way in talks over the WTO, and that cannot but affect positively our position on the Kyoto Protocol. We will speed up Russia's movement toward the Kyoto Protocol's ratification."

Yet he also said two other things that have not been as widely reported. As the Los Angeles Times was careful to point out, "Putin stopped short of pledging a positive vote on ratification, cautioning that his government still had concerns about the 'obligations' imposed by the treaty. He also said it was still 'not 100% certain' parliament would endorse the Kyoto treaty."....

McCain Vows New Vote on Climate Change Bill

S. 139 does not have the votes to be passed out of the Environment and Public Works Committee, yet McCain secured a vote for it on the Senate floor last October 30, when a weaker version of the bill was defeated 43 to 55. McCain had forced Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) to schedule the vote on S. 139 in exchange for McCain's agreement to allow the Domenici energy bill to be replaced by the Daschle energy bill from the previous Congress. That switch required unanimous consent under Senate rules.

Rumors are circulating on Capitol Hill that McCain plans to force a new vote by using the same tactics if his party leadership requires his vote on some key procedural matter this summer. It is also rumored that Senator John F. Kerry (D-Massachusetts) is urging his 10 Democratic colleagues who voted no on S. 139 last October to switch their votes and thereby pass the bill. It is surmised by some Senate staff that the Kerry Presidential campaign believes this outcome would help Kerry and hurt President George W. Bush in the election....

EPA's Make-Work Project

According to EPA administrator Mike Leavitt, reducing fine particulate matter is "the single most important action we can take to make our air healthier." Leavitt's proclamation accompanied EPA's determination that 243 counties, home to 100 million people, are likely to be designated in November as Clean Air Act "non-attainment" areas for fine particulate matter (PM2.5).

Environmentalists have used EPA's announcement as an opportunity to create the impression that PM2.5 levels are high and that nothing is being done to clean them up. For example, in a Reuters story on the EPA announcement, Vicki Patton of Environmental Defense declared "EPA needs to take swift action to cut the dangerous pollution from power plant smokestacks or millions of Americans will be left gasping for clean air."....
MAD COW DISEASE

French mad cow disease cases went undetected

By Kim Willsher in Paris


A mad cow disease epidemic in France went completely undetected and led to almost 50,000 severely infected animals entering the food chain, according to a shocking report by French government researchers.

More than 300,000 cows contracted BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in the past 13 years, 300 times more than the number of officially recorded cases, say researchers at France's official Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm).

Their report reveals that while blustering French politicians blamed Britain for the emergence of the disease - and attempted to create a cordon sanitaire by banning imports of British beef - they failed to adopt measures to prevent a hidden epidemic at home.

Only in June 1996 was potentially dangerous bovine offal banned in France, almost seven years after Britain. Just four years ago, as France ignored a European Union ruling that British beef was safe again, infected cattle were still entering the food chain, the researchers say.

Their disturbing findings are contained in a report, The Unrecognised French BSE Epidemic, published in the international scientific review Veterinary Research.

Their report came as Paris officials revealed the death of a 55-year-old Frenchman believed to have suffered from variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (vCJD), the human form of BSE. If confirmed, the death would bring to seven the number of confirmed French victims of the disease.

"We estimate that 301,200 cows in France were infected by BSE between 1980 and June 2000," conclude the authors of the report, Virginie Supervie and Dominique Costagliola. "There is uncertainty about estimates of the number of cases in the early 1980s, but the level of animals infected climbed between 1987 and 1990 and dropped from then until 1992.

"Furthermore, 47,300 animals at an advanced stage of the disease entered into the food chain before 1996, and 1,500 between July 1996 and June 2000." According to previous official figures there were just 103 confirmed cases of the disease between 1991 and 2000, during which period the government relied on farmers and veterinarians to report animals with BSE.

Since 2000, when controls were tightened, a further 820 cases have been confirmed, according to figures published last month, bringing the total to 923 over the past 13 years - a tiny fraction of the total estimated in the new report.

The report's authors drew on data about BSE cases in cattle and facts about the spread of the disease to calculate the likely true extent of the BSE epidemic in France. Dominique Costagliola said: "The French authorities have known for some time that the official statistics were not a true reflection of the epidemic." British cattle feed containing the rendered carcasses of other animals - alleged to have caused the disease - was sold in France until 1989. That was three years after the first case of BSE was discovered in Britain, where farmers were required to report all cattle showing symptoms. In 1989 Britain banned the use of animal protein in cattle food, outlawed bovine offal in human food and introduced a mass slaughter plan under which entire herds of an animal showing symptoms of BSE were destroyed.

France banned the suspect cattle feed the following year and required farmers and vets to report animals suspected of having the disease. Its first reported case was in 1991. The discovery of an apparent link between BSE and its human equivalent, vCJD, was made in 1996 and led to a worldwide ban on British beef. The ban was lifted by the EU 1999 but illegally maintained by France until 2002. Yet it was not until 2001 that France introduced compulsory tests for BSE in cows, older than 24 months, sent for slaughter.

The report's authors conclude that the disease was prevalent in French herds during the 1980s, but that the epidemic went completely unnoticed. "Only the second wave, after 1990, was observed," they write.

The editors of Veterinary Research were so disturbed when they received the report that they asked three independent scientists to evaluate its findings. All three concurred that the basis for the calculations was correct.

Joelle Charley-Poulain, a joint editor of the magazine, said: "I was very perturbed when I first read the article. I was worried that these figures would alarm the public, which is why we had them checked out by three specialists."

In Britain, where there are estimated to have been four million BSE infected cows compared with 200,000 officially reported cases, researchers have long claimed that France underestimated the number of contaminated cattle.

Saturday, July 03, 2004

NEWS ROUNDUP

5 air tankers to be restored to firefighting service Five large air tankers that had been grounded over safety concerns will be back fighting fires Monday, after their private operator demonstrated they are safe to fly, federal officials said Friday. The five planes, P-3 Orions owned by California-based Aero Union Corp., were among 33 planes grounded in May because officials had no way to tell if they were safe....
Rainbow family's latrines worry tribe Participants of the Rainbow Family Gathering are digging latrines by the hundreds on the Modoc National Forest, and thereby raising the ire of the Fort Bidwell Paiute Indian Tribe. The tribe based in northeastern Modoc County called on the Forest Service to remove the Rainbow Gathering to protect archaeological resources, and faulted the agency for issuing a permit for the gathering. "We don't question their right to assemble. We protest their right to dig up cultural artifacts," said Ken Williams, tribal administrator....
ALASKAN WILDFIRES CONSUME MORE THAN ONE-MILLION ACRES A pall of smoke the size of Texas continues to blanket most of Alaska, as several dozen wildfires continue to burn out of control. More than a million acres have burned in the state. There are currently 61 active fires in the state, mostly in the eastern interior, and in an area starting roughly 20 miles north and east of the city of Fairbanks. Of the 61 fires, 51 are uncontained, according to the NOAA National Weather Service....
Feds reply water can't meet tribal requests Federal water managers said there is not enough water in the Klamath Basin to release extra for diseased fish in the Klamath River as tribes downstream had requested. Upwards of 80 percent of young salmon collected in some parts of the river this year have been infected with often lethal parasites, said Gary Stacey of the California Department of Fish and Game. The parasites are native to the river system, but the outbreak this year seems severe, he said....
Column: Dropping the species requirements from the Northwest Forest Plan T he undersecretaries of the U.S. Interior and Agriculture Departments recently signed off on a plan to eliminate the survey and management requirements originally included in the Northwest Forest Plan. That decision has stirred us to respond. We make two points at the outset. First, we are all on record as favoring a policy of no further harvest of old-growth forests and old trees from public lands included within the Northwest Forest Plan. Second, we support the decision to drop the survey and management requirements. The forest plan was intended to evolve following principles of adaptive management. If the plan did not achieve its objectives, it was to be modified....
Choteau man receives $2,000 fine for killing grizzly The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has fined Lew Clark of Choteau $2,000 for killing a grizzly bear. Grizzly bears are listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. After a four-month investigation, Fish and Wildlife Service special agents identified Clark as the person who killed the bear. Clark admitted to shooting and killing the bear in the spring of 2000. After killing the sow grizzly, Clark removed and destroyed the radio collar from the bear's neck. Clark returned to the scene of the killing in 2002 and disposed of the bear's skull in a remote location, according to the USFWS, but he has agreed to cooperate with authorities in locating and retrieving the skull....
$13.2 million land deal finalized Conservation groups, Palm Desert and the Coachella Valley Association of Governments pulled together $13.2 million to buy nearly 5,000 acres on the northern edge of the valley, about half the land once tagged for a mini-city south of Joshua Tree National Park, it was announced Thursday. "This means the Coachella Valley will never be wall-to-wall urban sprawl," said Bill Havert, executive director of the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy. The group contributed $6.5 million from Prop. 40 funds, a parks bond passed by voters in 2002....
Bear attacks federal wildlife agent A federal wildlife agent, called to dispatch a bear that had attacked and killed a West Slope rancher's sheep, was injured Thursday by the bear but recovered to shoot the animal dead. Todd Malmsbury, spokesman for the state Division of Wildlife, had few details about the encounter, other than to say the agent's injuries were not life-threatening.
State offers help on prairie dogs The state will step in to pay for emergency control of prairie dogs on some private land in western South Dakota, Gov. Mike Rounds said Friday. The governor said he is authorizing the use of state money to treat 10,500 acres of private land that adjoins federal land where prairie dogs live, dig holes and eat vegetation. "Let's face it, the federal government hasn't been a good neighbor in regards to the management of prairie dogs on their land," Rounds said in a statement....
Environmentalists, Government Spar Over Drilling Plan In a federal courtroom Friday attorneys for several environmental groups criticized the B-L-M's plan to allow 26-thousand new wells on federal land in the Powder River Basin. But government attorneys stood by the plan, saying a three-and-half-year study was exhaustive and covered all the salient issues. The Western Organization of Resource Councils and the American Lands Alliance want more study on better ways to protect sage grouse and prairie dogs, and to prevent a significant draw-down of ranchers' well water....
Trespassing charges dropped A U.S. District Court judge dismissed on Wednesday charges of trespassing and littering against a federal wolf biologist and a private contractor who were found on private property near Cody. Judge Alan Johnson dismissed the case orally from the bench in Cheyenne. He heard from both sides for just less than two hours, and said he "labored" over the decision....
Climber's body reburied in snow The body of Gary Cole, a Wyoming man who died 35 years ago of altitude sickness on Mount McKinley, was buried in a quiet ceremony. The body was lowered into a snowy grave at about midday Thursday near the outer edge of a glacial basin at 14,200 feet below the West Buttress route. The ceremony was attended by mountaineering rangers and National Park Service volunteers. Rangers dug a grave 12 feet into the snow, said Daryl Miller, South District ranger of Denali National Park....
Sierra Club Lodge Focus of Yosemite Tug of War But the three days of centennial events have come to carry significance far beyond the lodge's reach, drawing renewed attention to a political struggle between the liberal Sierra Club and one of its staunchest conservative critics in Congress, Representative George P. Radanovich of California. Mr. Radanovich, a Republican who grew up near Yosemite and represents the farming district that borders it, has written legislation that would require that the lodge be removed from the park. Mr. Radanovich says it is only fair to strip the Sierra Club of its "special use" since the club pushed for provisions in a plan by the National Park Service that would reduce camping and vehicle use in the Yosemite Valley, the most visited part of the park....
DA opposes new BLM authority Churchill County's District Attorney is asking the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to take another look at its proposal for new rules in Nevada, or drop the idea altogether. "That would be my preference, that they pull it completely," said District Attorney Arthur Mallory. The BLM's Nevada office asked the U.S. Department of Interior earlier this year to add supplementary rules regarding drugs and alcohol to the list of laws bureau rangers can enforce. As a federal agency, the scope of BLM law enforcement officials is limited to federal statutes. Underage drinking, drinking under the influence of drugs or alcohol and possession of drug paraphernalia are all state and local crimes, not federal, and the BLM can only report such activities to local authorities....
Funding sought for Blackfoot Valley deal Sen. Conrad Burns has included $18.3 million in an Interior Appropriations subcommittee bill that may help bolster the ongoing effort to buy Plum Creek Timber land in the Blackfoot River Valley. The money is earmarked for use by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, to purchase lands adjacent to existing federal properties in those areas. It's part of a recent complicated, three-part land deal involving the timber company, the non-profit Nature Conservancy and the Blackfoot Challenge, a group of private landowners, public agencies, and conservation groups that reside or work in the 1.5 million acre Blackfoot watershed....
BLM plans land swap with Phelps After 10 years of studies, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced Friday a massive land swap with copper producer Phelps Dodge Corp., which should let the company open a mine near Safford. The federal government would receive about 3,900 acres throughout the state in exchange for 16,300 acres the company would add to its existing 20,000-acre planned open- pit mine site. Phoenix-based Phelps Dodge would get four times more land because its property has a higher value, according to both parties....
BLM to increase wild horse spending Congress late last week approved part of a Bureau of Land Management request to shuffle funds within its budget to increase spending on wild horse management. The leaders of the House and Senate appropriation committees gave the agency permission to immediately transfer $7.6 million from other programs to wild horse and burro controls. The agency said the extra money will enable work to start soon on program reforms. Approval came a day after the House passed a bill that will boost wild horse spending starting in October....
BLM announces new mining claim fees The Bureau of Land Management has announced that it has had to increase mining claim fees, which, by law, must be adjusted for inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index. The fee increase takes effect on September 1, but the notice about the fee increase had to be made on or before July 1. "This is the first mining fee revision since August 1993 and reflects a 25 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index since that time," said Bob Anderson, deputy assistant director for Minerals, Realty and Resource Protection with the BLM's office in Washington, D.C....
Home of Champions Rodeo marks 75 years of competition in Red Lodge The images seem to leap off the walls. There's Bill Greenough, high atop a bucking bronc, the dust kicked up for the horse's airborne hooves. Nearby are pictures of Greenough and some of his siblings - sisters Marge Alice, along with brother Turk - standing tall against the chutes, all three world champions during their careers. And usually standing with them is the family patriarch, "Pack Saddle'' Ben Greenough. Another picture shows Turk Greenough, a study of concentration, as he tries to control his difficult ride. On the same wall, more rodeo history comes to life....
Rodeo on the menu The history of the rodeo is alive and well and on display at the Ranchman's Restaurant, which has been home to the professional rodeo cowboy since 1972. More than 90 Canadian and world champion trophy saddles hung from the rafters -- each one filled with memories -- act as a tribute to the spirit of the rodeo. From steer wrestling to bull-riding saddles, each one is a testament to the cowboys who risked their lives in a showdown of man versus beast. Saddles from rodeo greats Rod Hay and Mel Coleman, Harold Mandeville, Tuff Hedeman and many others act as a reminder that rodeo isn't just a sport, it's a way of life....
Banjo dodged demons, rodeo bulls "Once this feisty gal named Moose gave me a 36-year-old horse named Old Red when I was ranchin' near Steamboat Springs. He was special, that crippled geezer -- the last wild mustang from the Red Rocks, Colorado, wilderness area. He lived on my place till he died at 46, the oldest horse I ever heard of. "I'll never forget the day he passed on. He was flat-blind, senile, no teeth and couldn't hear. Red was in perfect health otherwise. "The day he died that horse walked up on my front porch -- horses don't do that to my knowledge -- and he pawed the floor. Then he trotted absent-minded up the drive like he'd lost his way. After a spell Old Red turned around and walked down to the hay pile behind the house, laid down and went to sleep."....
NANA's RAID — APACHES IN SOCORRO COUNTY A band of Mimbreno Apache considered their home to be what is today Socorro, Catron and Sierra Counties. They lived and hunted in the San Mateo Mountains, the Black Range and parts of the Gila. They called themselves Tcihene, the Red Paint People. The Mexicans and Anglos began calling them the Warm Springs Apache after their fondness for the warm springs at Ojo Caliente, west of Monticello. They lived in the thousands of square miles of this country in virtual obscurity until the early 1800s. It was then that the growing numbers of Mexican settlers and Anglo miners were seen as encroachment onto their land. This triggered many raids, killing the settlers and miners, in an attempt to purge the country of the foreign invaders....

Friday, July 02, 2004

MAD COW DISEASE

U.S. rules out mad cow disease in 2nd cow

Mad cow disease has been ruled out in another animal, the government said Friday, the second time this week that follow-up testing proved negative for a possible second case of the brain-wasting illness in the United States.

The Agriculture Department made the announcement at the start of the July Fourth weekend, trying to ease consumer anxiety at a time when Americans traditionally fire up their grills and cook hamburgers, hot dogs and other meats.

USDA gave no additional information about either animal, except to say that their meat did not enter either the human or animal food chain. Both were subjected to more definitive testing after initial screenings for infection were inconclusive....

Human Error Likely Caused Mad Cow Scare

The first inconclusive test for mad cow disease was most likely caused by human error and not by the test used in the government's newly deployed rapid screening test, said a senior executive with the test's manufacturer.

"What we are seeing right now is likely to be technician error," Brad Crutchfield, vice president of California-based Bio-Rad Laboratories, told Reuters in an interview late Thursday.

Using Bio-Rad's rapid tests, U.S. officials over the past week reported two inconclusive results that could not rule out bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in suspect animals.

Crutchfield said Bio-Rad's tests are extremely sensitive and can produce false results if the brain samples are prepared improperly.

"Given the sensitivity of our test, we have a sample preparation test that has to be performed correctly," he said. "If for some reason that is not done correctly, there could be leftover protein that could lead to an inconclusive (result)."

Crutchfield anticipated fewer inconclusive test results as state and federal officials gain experience in conducting the test. Worldwide, an estimated 1 in 300,000 inconclusive Bio-Rad test results last year was a false positive, he said....

LMA Executive Committee Criticizes USDA

Citing its devastating impact on livestock producers, the cash and futures market, Livestock Marketing Association’s executive committee has sharply criticized the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s policy of announcing inconclusive test results for mad cow disease.

“There is no justification for USDA’s current policy, considering what it’s done to America’s livestock producers,” said LMA President Randy Patterson. “And this is not a food safety issue – USDA policy keeps the meat from suspect animals from going into the human food supply. It is inexcusable that test results that haven’t been confirmed are allowed to affect the market so negatively.”

Patterson pointed out that as of July 1, inconclusive results on two animals have been widely reported. “Immediately after these announcements, the livestock futures market and the cash market have taken terrific beatings....

What's Eating the Chickens?

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is believed to cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), the fatal human equivalent of mad cow disease. The human strain of the disease has been traced to trying to use the word encephalopathy in a sentence.

Although the disease has never been found in U.S. cattle, fears have created one more thing to whine and fret about. There has been a serious drop in the consumption of steaks and hamburgers, reeking havoc on summer cook-outs and bar-b-ques. Most recently, there was the quarantine of 1,353 cattle from various Islamic countries at Guantanamo, Cuba where hooded cows can be seen escorted to and from their open air pens. With its serious consequences for humans, caution and care, but not chop steak, are in order.

Today, however, scientists have confirmed their darkest fears. In tests conducted in both the U.S and Europe, another major global source of food may be unavailable for human consumption. Scientists have labeled this new strain of disease Urinarious Officious Poultryous (UOP) or in layman’s terms, “Pissed Off Chicken.”....

Thursday, July 01, 2004

NEWS ROUNDUP

Bush Plan Opens More Forests to Logging Governors would have to petition the federal government to block road-building in remote areas of national forests under a Bush administration proposal to boost logging. Forest Service spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevitch stressed that the proposal was preliminary, but called it an accurate statement of the administration's intentions. Officials had said last year they would develop a plan to allow governors to seek exemptions from the roadless rule. The latest plan turns that on its head by making governors petition the Agriculture Department if they want to maintain restrictions on timbering in their state. "The roadless rule is struck down nationwide," Valetkevitch said, referring to a 2003 ruling by a federal judge in Wyoming. "We are trying to create a rule that will pass legal muster."....
The activist strikes back Earth First! environmental activist Rebecca Kay Smith has filed a civil suit against several Forest Service and law enforcement officials, hoping to reverse the courtroom roles of her trial last January, at which she and fellow activist Joel Wyatt were found guilty of four misdemeanors from their month-long tree-sit protest of the Bitterroot’s Big Bull timber sale. During the protest, Smith’s food and water supply was allegedly cut down from tree branches via cherry-picker and taken from her directly when Missoula County Deputy Sheriff David Ball punctured containers holding drinking water....
American alleged eco-terrorist says he wants to be Canadian refugee One of the FBI's most wanted fugitives said Wednesday he wants to be a refugee in Canada and that a decision by Canadian officials on whether he can apply for such status is expected within days. Tre Arrow is wanted for his alleged role in the 2001 firebombing of logging and cement trucks in the U.S. state of Oregon. The FBI claims he is associated with the eco-terrorist group Earth Liberation Front(ELF). Obtaining refugee status would prevent Canadian authorities from extraditing him to the United States....
Ranch added to public lands will provide outdoors access Sen. Craig Thomas on Wednesday helped commemorate public acquisition of an 11,000-acre ranch at the base of the Big Horns and its access to blue-ribbon trout streams and prime hunting grounds. "Devil's Canyon Ranch is truly a hunter and fisherman's paradise that contains extraordinary archaeological sites and critical non-game habitat," Thomas said. "In the process we have also ensured public access to adjacent BLM and Forest Service lands. I am extremely pleased that the public will have access to this natural treasure.".... Seems like everything the government acquires is a "national treasure".
County commissioner fined for shooting wolf Valley County Commissioner Phil Davis has been fined for letting one of his ranch hands kill a wolf as it was moving through a herd of cattle five weeks ago. Davis paid $1,500 to satisfy charges that ranch hand Jerry Ussery shot the wolf on May 24, that both he and Ussery illegally moved the animal and that he failed to report the incident. The penalty could have been up to $100,000 and a year in jail for killing a wolf protected under the Endangered Species Act....
Groups have doubts about future snowmobile season With snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park once again in limbo, at least one person knows how the winter will operate: it won't. Mike Perikly, president of Flagg Ranch Resort at the southern gate to the park, said if the Park Service doesn't know whether snowmobiles will be allowed this winter by September, he isn't going to staff anyone or prepare for a winter season. "There is no way we can hire people, and we have to begin some winterizing," Perikly said. "We should have placed an order for snowmobiles already and we haven't, and we aren't going to."....
Judge declines to step aside in Yellowstone snowmobile controversy A federal district court on Wednesday rejected an effort by the National Park Service to hand over a case concerning whether snowmobiles should be allowed in Yellowstone to a federal district court in Cheyenne. The park service and the International Snowmobile Manufacturers had asked the appeals court in Washington to hand the case over to the federal court in Cheyenne because the two courts had issued contradictory rulings on whether snowmobiles should be permitted in the park....
Federal CBM case begins today A few dozen men will drill five new coalbed methane gas wells today in northeast Wyoming. A hundred or so will toil to construct pipelines, and hundreds more will work to maintain this multi-million-dollar-per-day industry that is expected to grow beyond 50,000 wells. And at the same time, about a half-dozen lawyers will enter the Joseph C. O'Mahoney Federal Center building in Cheyenne today to argue to suspend the work....
Agency: Marines didn't pay $10 million bill for 2002 Sierra fire A $10 million bill sent to the Marine Corps to cover the costs of fighting a 22,750-acre Sierra Nevada wildlife two years ago remains unpaid, the U.S. Forest Service confirmed Thursday. "The Forest Service is still trying to collect $10 million from the Marines," Reno-based agency spokeswoman Christy Kalkowski said. Lt. Nathan Braden, of the Marines' public affairs staff at Camp Pendleton, Calif., that handles media queries about the Pickel Meadows mountain warfare training base, said he wasn't aware of the bill for the fire....
Bear kills sled dog Rather than leave his prize lead dog, Mandy, in Tanana for the summer with his four other sled dogs, Martin Scharf decided to bring her to Fairbanks so he could look after her. But when a bear attacked the dog in Scharf's yard near 4.5 Mile Chena Hot Springs Road early Wednesday morning, there wasn't much he could do. "I just heard the dog barking, then she started yelping," Scharf said of his 9-year-old leader....
Tribes say Range Creek decisions exclude them Archaeologists quietly spent the past two years exploring a remarkable and secret community of Fremont Indian sites in eastern Utah's Range Creek. Now, some American Indian groups say they were too quiet and secret. Melvin Brewster, tribal historic preservation officer for the Goshute Skull Valley Band, said regional American Indian groups have had no say in the exploration of Range Creek. Many Western American Indian groups consider the Fremont to be their ancestors....
Deputies seize Greenpeace gear Greenpeace said Wednesday that the seizure of a truckload of camping gear by sheriff's deputies investigating two anti-logging protests is an attack against free speech and will not stop continuing protests against cutting down old growth forests. ``The forest rescue station was a symbol of free speech,'' said Greenpeace campaigner Ginger Cassady. ``It gives the public a voice in opposition to timber sales. Now it's like they're taking that right away from us.''....
COURT RULES PARK SERVICE VIOLATES WILDERNESS ACT The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has slammed the door on the National Park Service's motorized sightseeing tours through the Cumberland Island Wilderness. The three judge panel ruled that the motorized tours violated both the Wilderness Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The court wrote, "The language of the…Wilderness Act demonstrate[s] that Congress has unambiguously prohibited the Park Service from offering motorized transportation to park visitors through the wilderness area." "This is one of the most important rulings in the 40-year history of the Wilderness Act," stated George Nickas, Executive Director of Wilderness Watch. "....
Montana agency warns water holders of summer shutoffs The state has sent letters to some 600 junior water rights holders alerting them that they may be asked to stop drawing water this summer to protect fish in Montana rivers. "It's hard to imagine a situation that's any more grim,'' said Bill Schenk, in-stream flow specialist for the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Park's Fisheries Division. "In spite of the recent rains, we're going to be in rough shape as far as stream flows go.'' The state holds water rights to maintain in-stream flow for fish on many streams in the Missouri and Yellowstone river basins, as well as 12 blue-ribbon trout streams....
NEWS ROUNDUP

Wagon train carries on tradition of Old West Thousands of people are heading for Greeley this week for the Rocky Mountain Stampede. Most travel by car or pickup truck. But a few are using a more rustic form of transportation -- a wagon train. The wagon train is on the final leg of a two-week long journey. With their canvas tops gleaming in the sunlight like sails, it's easy to see why the pioneers called their wagons "prairie schooners." Before the railroads were built, this was how settlers came to the West....
Clown Livens Rodeos, and That's No Bull An aspiring bronc buster and bull rider back in the 1970s, Dave Copher learned a tough lesson about making a living as a rodeo cowboy. "I found out real quick that when you show up for a rodeo and don't win, you don't get paid," said Copher, an Edgewood resident. "When you show up dressed in a clown suit, running from bulls and telling jokes, you always get paid." That's how Copher found his true passion— fighting bulls adorned in colorful garb and face paint. In common speak, he became a rodeo clown. He has spent the past 25 years in that line of work, the last eight as a barrel man....
Special needs kids get taste of rodeo life Chris Balkcom, a 15-year-old Prescott High School student, spent an hour as a cowboy Wednesday, skillfully twirling a lasso over his head and looping it around the horns of a bull. “Last time I did so good,” Chris told volunteer Mark Trouten of Chino Valley. “I hope I do good again.” Horses with HEART (Hands-on Equine Assisted Riding Therapy), a Dewey organization that provides special needs children with horse-riding therapy, puts on the Happy Hearts Rodeo as part of Prescott Frontier Days each year....
State of Wyoming, Texas group settle trademark dispute A two-year showdown between the state of Wyoming and a Texas charity over rights to the bucking horse-and-rider logo has been resolved. The two sides this week signed a settlement agreement allowing Texas Stampede Incorporated limited use of the rodeo symbol. Texas Stampede, which stages concerts and rodeos to benefit children at two Dallas hospitals, has been using a bucking-bronc-and-rider since the group's inception in 2001. Wyoming claims it has featured the logo since 1918....
An ‘Exceptionally’ Good Time The eighth annual Exceptional Rodeo took place at this weekend's Redwood Acres Fair and Rodeo. The special-needs rodeo for people of all ages began in 1996 with about 10 participants. This year’s event had 130 registered cowboys and cowgirls. A few last-minute registrations brought the total number of participants to more than 150. Rodeo organizer Patti Prior said she could not have been more thrilled with the crowd....
Private Property May Become Preserved
(Don't Believe This Headline)

Residents of King County, Wash., will only be able to build on 10 percent of their land, according to a new law being considered by the county government, which, if enacted, will be the most restrictive land use law in the nation.

Known as the 65-10 Rule (search), it calls for landowners to set aside 65 percent of their property and keep it in its natural, vegetative state. According to the rule, nothing can be built on this land, and if a tree is cut down, for example, it must be replanted. Building anything is out of the question.

Most of the residents who will be directly affected by the regulations — those who own property in the rural areas of the country — are fuming. They see the new regulations as a land grab and a violation of their property rights.

"My take is it's stealing — out and out stealing," said county resident Marshall Brenden. "They're taking 65 percent of your land that you fought for years to pay for, paid mortgages on and now you can't use it."

But supporters and environmentalists say personal property rights do not trump the rights of a larger community to save the eco-system....
MAD COW DISEASE

Up to 100 more mad cow cases expected

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Wednesday a cow that initially tested positive for mad cow disease has come back negative on follow-up testing, but a food industry consultant told United Press International he estimates there could be more than 100 cases of the deadly disorder in the country's herds.

About half of the cases will go undetected and passed on for human consumption, Robert LaBudde, president of Least Cost Formulation Ltd., a food industry consultancy in Virginia Beach, Va., told UPI.

LaBudde, who has served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thinks there will be many more infected cows detected.

"There is no question that we will be seeing a dozen or more -- possibly 100 or more -- cases of BSE-positive cattle in our national herd," said LaBudde, whose clients include the meat industry.

LaBudde said he bases his prediction on the one positive case detected so far, compared to the number of downers, or at-risk animals, in U.S. herds -- which amounts to about 250,000 by his calculations. That would yield about 68 cases among the at-risk cows, he wrote in a recent article published in Food Safety magazine. In Europe, the number of cases among seemingly healthy animals has been about half that seen in the at-risk cows. So in the U.S. that would yield 34 additional cases, for a total of 102.

Only about half the cases will be detected, however, because many animals will not show any symptoms, LaBudde said. This is based on the experience in Europe, where half the animals that test positive have no outward symptoms of infection, he added....

Gov. Johanns Applauds BSE Testing; Questions Release of Inconclusive

Gov. Mike Johanns learned yesterday afternoon that the results of the first inconclusive bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) test have been confirmed as negative for the disease.

"I commend the USDA for stepping up testing as part of the effort to restore our beef export markets," Gov. Johanns said. "This testing coupled with the additional safety measures reinforce what I already know and American consumers understand ­ that our beef supply is safe."

"With that said, I will also tell you that I am concerned about the market impact of public notification of inconclusive results. I believe there should be immediate public notification in the event that test results are positive for BSE, but I question the wisdom in causing a negative ripple effect of concern over inconclusive results."....

USDA to be open with mad cow results

The Agriculture Department is defending its decision to release results of preliminary tests that raise concern about a possible mad cow disease infection when the initial findings may well be wrong.

The announcement last Friday that a cow carcass had not passed a preliminary screening test for mad cow caused concern on commodity markets, worried consumers and angered some farmers. Assurances by the government that the initial screening was only designed to trigger more sophisticated tests did little to ease the anxiety.

Friday's disclosure raised questions about why the department had decided to announce anything at all, since the initial screening is known to cast a wide net that is bound to include "false positives" that are later discounted.

"USDA wants to be very transparent with this issue," said John Clifford, deputy administrator of the department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the USDA's chief veterinarian.

He acknowledged in a conference call with reporters Wednesday that there had been "a lot of discussion" on whether to make public the initial screening results. But, he added, "we realized that information like that may be leaked. And we want to be very open and transparent, and that's why the decision was made to release this type of information."....

Japan May Relax Mad Cow Tests; Move Might Restart Beef Imports

Japan may relax domestic testing procedures for mad cow disease, a government official said in Tokyo. Such a move might hasten resumption of beef imports from the U.S.

``Japan still requires the U.S. assure the safety of beef before resuming imports,'' said Kenji Sakurai, a ministry of agriculture official involved in bilateral talks on the issue. ``But we are reviewing domestic testing procedures, and depending on what we decide, requirements may change.''....
NEWS ROUNDUP

Groups sue to stop grazing near Yellowstone Three environmental groups have filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service, hoping to stop cattle grazing on 48,000 acres of high-elevation meadows west of Yellowstone National Park. Filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula, the lawsuit objects to 11 grazing allotments in the southern Gravelly Mountains on the grounds that they pose a risk to migrating grizzly bears, moose, elk, deer and antelope - and have already eliminated sage grouse. "The Forest Service has been converting the sagebrush-grassland habitat in Antelope Basin to grazing pasture since the 1960s by spraying herbicides and burning," said Sara Johnson of the Native Ecosystems Council....
Bush campaign criticizes Kerry's opposition to forest policy Sen. John Kerry's criticism of increasing logging in national forests to ease wildfire threats shows how badly his brand of environmentalism is out of step with most Westerners, the Bush-Cheney campaign said Wednesday. Kerry's campaign countered that the Bush administration's forest policy is aimed more at bolstering timber industry profits than protecting communities from fires....
Forest health The House Resources Committee held a hearing on House Resolution 3102, authored by congressman Steve Pearce. The bill seeks to address rangeland health and grazing on Forest Service lands. HR 3102 would require the secretary of agriculture to enter into cooperative agreements with the Southwestern region land grant universities — New Mexico State, Northern Arizona and the University of Arizona — to conduct studies required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 on Forest Service lands in Arizona and New Mexico....
Danger for off-roaders in the Burro Mountains Driving all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles in the Burro Mountains has become more dangerous because of hazards someone is putting on trails. Off-roaders in the Gila National Forest southwest of Silver City recently have encountered nails, wires and large rocks "strategically placed" in an apparent attempt to injure people, according to Dave Donaldson, owner of Copper Country ATV & Cycle of Silver City. "These are ecoterrorists," he said. "They're basically trying to kill somebody."....
In protest, Rainbow folks to get naked Rainbow Family members unhappy with the Forest Service's ban on nudity at the remote gathering site in the South Warner Mountains plan to reveal their frustrations with a "nude-in." The Modoc National Forest has banned nudity at the gathering, called the "Rainbow Gathering of the Living Light." As of this morning, Forest Service officials conservatively estimated more than 3,500 people are at the gathering site, with license plates from 32 states and participants from Israel, Canada, Costa Rica and Austria. From 8,000 to 20,000 people are expected, with the peak numbers likely by Sunday....
Greenpeace ship visiting to 'liberate U.S. forests' WHO: The Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise, her crew, members of the Greenpeace Forest Campaign, and local experts on the Biscuit salvage sale and proposed new regional protected areas. WHAT: Free public tours of the Arctic Sunrise. Visitors will have an opportunity to meet the crew of the ship as well as Greenpeace forest campaigners who have been on the frontline protecting national forests around the country, including most recently in Oregon. Visitors will see compelling visual tours of this country’s endangered forests, including images from Greenpeace’s exploration of Alaska’s rainforest last year....
Wildlife consultant to draft wolf plan Members of an advisory group trying to write a Utah wolf management plan have made little progress in six previous meetings. After another morning of disagreement Tuesday, Utah's Wolf Working Group decided to allow a Wyoming wildlife consultant to come up with a basic outline. Then the 13-member volunteer panel of academics, hunters, wolf advocates, farmers, ranchers and county government officials will form smaller groups to attempt to reach consensus on a plan....
COMMISSIONERS QUESTION WILDERNESS EXPANSION PLAN The U.S. Forest Service's rationale to add 64,000 acres to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness was a hot topic during a meeting Friday organized by Curry County Commissioner Marlyn Schafer. Schafer said she was concerned that by expanding the wilderness area it would hinder the Forest Service from fighting future fires there because of federal restrictions placed on land designated a wilderness....
Lawmakers seek details on Biscuit wilderness proposal Nearly a month after the Bush administration announced plans for new federal wilderness within the area burned by the massive 2002 Biscuit fire in Oregon, officials have released few details. No legislation has been submitted to Congress, nor have maps or detailed descriptions of the areas being targeted been distributed, beyond a general summary of 64,000 acres near the existing Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area in southwestern Oregon. Two Democratic members of Congress say it's time for the administration to put forward the details....
Thune proposes adding to buffer in prairie dog plan U.S. Senate candidate John Thune has proposed a one-mile buffer zone on federal grasslands to keep prairie dogs from encroaching onto private rangeland. The Republican said Tuesday he would renew his efforts to amend the federal Endangered Species Act and to oppose the listing of prairie dogs as a threatened species. But a more urgent issue is preventing prairie dogs from spreading onto private land, he said. If elected, Thune said he would work with the U.S. Forest Service to establish a one-mile prairie dog buffer zone on federal land that borders private rangeland....
USFS rejects Chugach wilderness appeal The U.S. Forest Service denied appeals from a coalition of groups unhappy with the plan for Alaska's Chugach National Forest, the country's second-largest national forest. The coalition appealed the 2002 Chugach land management plan, which is a blueprint on how the federal agency administers the 5.5 million-acre forest that flanks Anchorage. They challenged the plan, which guides management for roughly the next 15 years, on a number of fronts. Among their gripes were that the plan allows snowmachines and helicopters in too many areas of the forest and does not adequately protect Kenai Peninsula brown bears....
Saving the silence at Waldo Lake Three years ago, the U.S. Forest Service tried to make silence the law of the lake, forbidding any gasoline engines from operating on Waldo's pristine waters. Boaters protested, and the agency withdrew the plan to make changes. Although the Forest Service still would prefer to prohibit gas-powered boats on the lake, it has a new plan with a compromise option: Restrict the use of older, noisier boat engines, but allow the cleanest gas engines on the lake for part of the summer. The proposal also includes provisions to curb damage from lakefront camping....
Big Hole River flows increasing The water level in the Big Hole River is beginning to climb as more irrigators shut off their ditches as part of a unique federal program that pays them not to water their fields. As of Tuesday morning, a measuring station at Wisdom showed a flow of 159 cubic feet per second, up more than five-fold from a 30 cfs flow last Friday. Rains helped -- other rivers in the region also climbed over the weekend. But the Big Hole took a big spike on Sunday and Monday when ranchers started closing more headgates....
USDA Announces $26M Wetlands Project Persistent flooding of their corn and soybean fields led Robert and Verneel Noerrlinger to return 535 acres to wetlands. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is urging other landowners along the Missouri River in Nebraska to consider doing the same. This week, the Noerrlingers' property was the site chosen by the USDA to announce a project that makes $26 million available through 2007 to restore 18,200 acres of wetlands along the river from Ponca to Rulo, some 200 miles running the entire length of the state....
Bison Range agreement reached The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes said Wednesday they have accepted a proposal for the tribal government to assume significant management responsibilities for the 18,000-acre National Bison Range in Moiese. They also would gain control of specific other federal properties now administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the Flathead Reservation. The new agreement could take effect as early as Jan. 1, 2005....
New deadline set for snowmobile rules A federal judge in Washington has given the National Park Service until early- to mid-November at the latest to set the rules for snowmobiling in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled Wednesday that the Bush Administration must have a winter use plan in place for the parks no later than 30 days before trail grooming starts. Typically, grooming starts in early- to mid-December....
Climbers Find Frozen Body on Mt. McKinley Climbers poking around a high-elevation camp on Mount McKinley discovered a human foot sticking out of the snow. Rangers dug out the frozen corpse of a man who died 35 years ago. Park Service spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin said the body was that of Gary Cole, 32, of Cody, Wyo., who died of acute mountain sickness June 19, 1969. Identification was made by his wedding band and a watch with a calendar dated June 1969, the Park Service said....
Yosemite Land Grant Signed 140 Years Ago Yosemite National Park is marking the 140th anniversary of the signing of the Yosemite Land Grant. On June 30, 1864, the United States granted the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove to the state of California through this piece of legislation. The Yosemite Land Grant was signed by President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. It was the first time land was preserved for its scenic values and for public benefit. This one act is the basis for the later concept of the national park and state park systems....
Archaeologist's dream Archaeologists took reporters into an ancient world Wednesday that has remained secret for half a century. They viewed half a dozen unspoiled villages of ancient Fremont Indians that lie half-buried along 12 miles of pretty little stream in a canyon cutting through the Book Cliff Mountains. When Utah State Archaeologist Kevin Jones first saw it two years ago, he felt like the luckiest archaeologist alive....
High court ruling could end dispute over use of wild lands A Supreme Court ruling last week could end eight years of litigation over seven Montana wilderness study areas. On June 21, the court returned a lawsuit filed by the Montana Wilderness Association against the Forest Service over management of the state's wilderness study areas to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The environmental group had argued that the Forest Service had failed to maintain the wilderness character of the areas by allowing increased motorized use....
Wild fight: Battle for wilderness designations still undecided after decades of debate For 27 years, about 1 million acres of Montana wildlands have been locked in a legal "Twilight Zone." Clifton Merritt helped bolt the door, but he never imagined Montana would lose the key. It was in 1977 that Sen. Lee Metcalf, D-Mont., pushed legislation through Congress to create the Montana Wilderness Study Act. The act protected 10 Montana roadless areas, maintaining each area's "wilderness characteristics" as they existed then. At the time, Merritt was field director for The Wilderness Society....
Nine-Mile drilling plans concern judge, but so does threat of delay A federal judge said Monday that he is concerned that natural gas exploration could damage American Indian artifacts near Utah's Nine-Mile Canyon, but expressed misgivings about forcing delays in the project. By some estimates, there are 66 billion cubic feet of natural gas beneath the canyon and surrounding plateaus, and Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. has been given a go-ahead from the Interior Department to search for it. But the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and other environmental groups which sued over the decision argued that any exploration could damage relics that are so abundant that the area has been referred to as an "outdoor museum."....
Elite fire team back 10 years after tragedy The Prineville, Ore., Hotshots, the elite firefighters whose ranks were shattered 10 years ago in the fatal Storm King fire, are back in Glenwood Springs. But they're not fighting a fire. At least not yet. Instead, the 20-person crew was hard at work Monday on nearby Lookout Mountain, thinning trees and brush as part of a fuel-reduction project. Steven Hall, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said the Upper Colorado Basin's severe fire danger called for stationing a Hotshot crew to respond quickly to new fires, and with the 10-year anniversary of the Storm King tragedy coming up next week, "They were appropriate."....
Western Shoshone claim bill sails through Congress A bill calling for the release of money awarded to the Western Shoshone people 27 years ago sailed through Congress last week and is now only a presidential signature away from becoming official. The Indian Claims Commission awarded $26 million to the Western Shoshone in 1977 for lands lost to settlers and the U.S. government in the 19th Century. Congress funded it two years later and since then the money has sat in trust, accruing interest. The money's distribution has been blocked by a group of Western Shoshones led by northern Nevada ranchers Mary and Carrie Dann, who say the Shoshone people should get their land returned rather than monetary compensation....
Interstate Stream Commission releases water purchase contracts The New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission is releasing contracts to purchase land and water rights along the Pecos River. The contracts are part of the state’s multimillion-dollar program to retire water rights along the river to increase required flows into Texas. The commission has received more than 160 bids from landowners offering to sell more than 27,000 acres of land and water rights....
Resources Committee to hold ESA Hearing on The Klamath Project House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA) announced today that the Committee will hold a field hearing in Klamath Falls, Oregon on the Endangered Species Act. The hearing, to be held at 9:00 a.m. on July 17 at the Ross Reglund Theatre in downtown Klamath Falls, will cover the Endangered Species Act's impact on the Klamath Project, one of the nation's oldest federal irrigation projects. The Klamath Project was the subject of international coverage in 2001 when Endangered Species Act regulations protecting sucker fish and coho salmon forced the bulk of the project to virtually shut down its water delivery system for almost the entire growing season. Local business leaders estimate that the termination of water deliveries in 2001 inflicted $200 million worth of economic damage on the Klamath Basin community....