Tuesday, May 31, 2005

CHANGES AT THE WESTERNER

Check in tomorrow for some announced changes in The Westerner, both in format and content.

===
NEWS

'Competitive Sourcing' Memo Causes a Little Stir at the Forest Service So this month the U.S. Forest Service created a small stir when an "informational update" created the impression that OMB was putting the strong arm on the Forest Service's parent, the Agriculture Department. The Forest Service memo said OMB had told Agriculture "that it's previous 'Yellow' rating in competitive sourcing on the . . . scorecard will be changed to 'Red.' . . . It was stated that this was due to the lack of competitions, and primarily in the Forest Service." The memo noted that "OMB has never been satisfied with the lack of competitions in the Forest Service." The memo also seemed to raise the old quota issue (using federal jargon for measuring full-time employees, or FTEs). But it also reiterated that the Forest Service has its own game plan....
Watchdog to monitor Forest Service pesticide An environmental group is putting pressure on the U.S. Forest Service to follow environmental laws after a top regional official raised questions about pesticide use on forests throughout New Mexico and Arizona. Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics charges in a letter to Southwestern Regional Forester Harv Forsgren that public documents reviewed by the group "indicate a history of shortcomings" when it comes to training workers and complying with the National Environmental Protection Act. "I think the Southwestern Region has some pesticide cowboys who are somewhat caviler about how they use these poisons," said FSEEE executive director Andy Stahl. "For them to jump through the process hoops, they don't think that's all that important. For them to get the job done is more important."....
Last sawlogs running through Eureka mill Mill manager and co-owner Jim Hurst said the remaining logs on deck will be run through the mill by the end of next week, and he is planning a ceremony of sorts for the last log to be processed. In January, Hurst announced plans to shut down the mill because of lost confidence in the ability of the U.S. Forest Service to maintain a steady timber supply on the Kootenai National Forest, which surrounds Eureka. Last month, Hurst said there was some potential for a hardwoods manufacturing company based in Kentucky to purchase the Eureka mill for processing wood products destined for Japanese markets. But that possibility evaporated in the following weeks....
Forest Service becomes more fire friendly The last 100 years have witnessed many shifts in the way the public and Forest Service view the management of fire and timber production in the forests. Today, the agency has a more fire friendly approach than it once did -- an approach based partially on declining timber sales in the forests. "We -- meaning the profession -- have learned a lot about fire ecology," said Ed Fournier, a retired Sawtooth National Forest supervisor. The Forest Service now evaluates whether a fire will cause damage or whether it will thin overgrown areas, said Scott Nannenga, Minidoka District Ranger. "We now have a policy where we can let natural fires burn," he said....
Washed-out fire roads are invitation to disaster THE U.S. Forest Service has its work cut out for it: More than 2 million acres of forest in Southern California is inaccessible by fire engine. And the summer fire season is just around the corner. For example, in the nearby San Bernardino National Forest, one of the most heavily damaged in the southland, nearly 60 percent to 70 percent of existing fire roads have been washed out by the winter's record rains -- or made impassable by boulders and fallen trees....
Divided road It's a big dispute for such a small road. "It's not really about the road," says Richard Hatfield, project manager for the U.S. Forest Service. "It's about two groups that have very different ideas on public lands management, and this is the place that they've both drawn lines in the sand." Two years ago, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service — which each have jurisdiction over sections of the road — closed the route because of pressure from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Since then, four-wheel-drive enthusiasts led by the High Desert Multiple Use Coalition have fought to reopen the seldom-used road....
Forest Service May Sell Some Staff Facilities Wrestling with a long inadequate maintenance budget and facing the prospect of more funding cuts, the U.S. Forest Service is proposing to sell a fifth or more of its staff buildings across the country, including hundreds in California. A Bush administration plan would allow the Forest Service to go into the real estate business, auctioning staff facilities and the land they sit on to raise cash for upkeep and the construction of new buildings. Ranger stations, warehouses, residences and remote work centers could be sold under the program, which must be approved by Congress. Under the heading "Hot Sales!" a government website this spring showcased several Forest Service properties auctioned under a pilot program. Among them were two unused houses in Sierra Madre sold by the Angeles National Forest in Southern California for nearly $1.7 million...."unused houses", what the hell is that???
Editorial: Plan should not allow wholesale killing of wolves Utah's final management plan was shaped by public comment given to five regional advisory councils whose recommendations will be considered by the Wolf Working Group and the state Division of Wildlife Resources. The ultimate blueprint must provide protection to the wolves and also to ranchers whose livestock may be affected by wolf predation. The interests of neither should be protected at the expense of the other. All five regional councils have supported the right of ranchers to shoot wolves they see attacking or threatening their animals on private land or on public property where they graze. However, that provision must not be interpreted as absolute authority to shoot wolves on sight....
Fishermen calling for an improved salmon recovery On a recent foggy evening near the mouth of the Columbia River, fisherman Jim Wells was joined by just four other boats, a far cry from the crowds seen during the heyday of commercial salmon fishing. A drastic decline from the promising spring chinook returns of the past five years has commercial, tribal and sport fishermen alike criticizing recovery efforts for endangered and threatened salmon. Some blame poor ocean conditions for the lower returns, while others point to farmers' irrigation for reducing river flows. All fault the hydropower system, proving once again that the fish-vs.-dams debate is far from settled....
How can Idaho hike its salmon numbers?: Dams are a concern for many state anglers Last week, a letter signed by more than 1,100 Northwestern businessmen - including nearly a dozen from Pocatello - was distributed in Washington D.C. It implores lawmakers to do more to help the recovery efforts of wild salmon and steelhead in the Snake and Columbia River basins. The two-page letter asserts that the new Federal Salmon Plan represents a step in the wrong direction and says the economies of many towns in Idaho, Washington and Oregon will plummet if changes aren't instituted. "It's calling attention from all these business people ... that Congress really needs to take a look at this," Boller said. But recent legislation proposed by Congressman C.L. "Butch" Otter seeks to not only maintain the eight dams on the lower Snake River, but also to look into increasing Idaho's water storage capacity....
Wolves teach experts about global warming Gray wolves could emerge as a "canary in the coal mine" of global warming by suggesting how climate change will affect species around the world, researchers say. "We're not so much looking at wolves as a predator but as an indicator," says environmental scientist Christopher Wilmers of the University of California-Berkeley. At Yellowstone National Park, for example, winters have grown more than a week shorter since 1948, Wilmers and Wayne Getz of South Africa's University of Pretoria report in a study in April's PloS Biology journal. But wolf packs appear to ease the effects of shorter winters on the food chain, Wilmers says....
Column: Endangered priorities The problem is that instead of using the rankings to prioritize, the FWS has assigned "high" to "moderately high" rankings for nearly all of the species on the list. With such an indiscriminate ranking system, it is no wonder FWS claims it needs more money; it has no reliable mechanism for allocating funds to their best use. In spite of the inadequate priority system, FWS still managed to spend $153 million in recovery funds from fiscal 2000 through 2003. About 95 percent of the funding focused on the 1,147 species of "high" to "moderately high" priority. Spending 95 percent of recovery funding on 92 percent of the most imperiled species sounds proportionate, but these aggregates are as flighty as the ivory-billed woodpecker. When you compare the ranking and funding list together - something FWS does not do - you discover that none of the 20 species which received the most funding were of the highest priority. In fact, the species receiving the second most recovery funding - the bull trout - was ranked as a "9" on a priority scale of 1 to 18. The "threatened" bull trout received about four times more funding than the "endangered" black-footed ferret despite the ferret's score of a "2" on the scale....
Salamander deal paves way for developers New homes and businesses planned for southwest Santa Rosa that have been snarled for nearly three years by protections for an imperiled salamander could be built as soon as next year if a draft plan to protect the animal and make room for growth is put into effect. The plan to protect the California tiger salamander represents a significant breakthrough in the protracted struggle to save the animal without stopping housing construction in the county's largest city. It would allow salamander habitat in Santa Rosa and other cities to be destroyed so long as wildlands are set aside for the animal in outlying rural areas....
Utah officials struggle to finish wolf plan But if Hatch saw a wolf attacking one of his cows or calves, under the law about all he could do would be stand and watch. Hatch is hoping a new state plan for wolf management will allow ranchers to take immediate action to protect livestock. It's one of many sticking points the Wolf Working Group ran into as it drafted the plan. It's also one of many suggested revisions to the draft released in April. Ranchers want the right to shoot first -- on private and public land -- and explain it later if livestock is attacked. Big game hunters and guides don't want the wolves to reduce the population of trophy elk and deer and threaten the economy of a big industry in the state. And environmentalists want to make sure the wolves remain adequately protected. It's a contentious issue, but one the state wants to settle before wolves make their way further into Utah than border areas....
Flaming Gorge releases blamed for farm flooding Over the angry objections of farmers and county officials, the Bureau of Reclamation has begun experimental high flow releases at Flaming Gorge Dam that are intended to improve habitat for trout and endangered native fish species in the Green River. McKee says farmers have been forced to pull their pumps from fields along the river, and alfalfa and other crop stands are being destroyed by the high water. He said the high flows will create mosquito problems, including possible West Nile virus infestations, and a breakout of noxious weeds. McKee said the county might go after the bureau for losses suffered by farmers. "There's always legal recourse, and we're considering legal recourse," he said. The county officials said the Bureau of Reclamation has ignored their pleas to reduce the flows....
Church attempts religious balance at Martin's Cove Most people who visit Martin's Cove in southwestern Natrona County are interested in learning the Mormon history surrounding the tragic winter of 1856. But some visitors to the cove, which sits on public land owned by the Bureau of Land Management and is leased to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, want to visit the site for its historic and natural beauty and avoid any religious messages. For ElDean Holliday, director of Mormon handcart sites in Wyoming and chief caretaker of Martin's Cove, this poses a unique problem for the church: How can the church provide a strong, religious and moral experience for followers interested in the spiritual history of a site considered sacred while at the same time provide a secular experience for nonfollowers?....
Who should wrangle Utah's wild horse herds? Running free across the vast, desolate lands of the Great Basin and beyond, wild horses conjure up images of the old, iconic West. They also provoke a visceral response - both among those who seek to protect them and those who consider them a nuisance. Now, a prominent legislator is suggesting that the state get into the business of overseeing wild horse herds in Utah. Unhappy with what he calls perennial under-counts of Utah's wild horse population by the Bureau of Land Management, Sen. Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch, says the state could do a better job of managing the herds. Hatch is considering making a proposal to the BLM to allow Utah to do just that. "I believe we could do it better and I don't think I'm alone," says Hatch, a businessman and rancher. "The [BLM] has a commitment to manage for certain populations in certain areas. Regardless of the excuse, it hasn't happened. In many instances, the wild horses have greatly exceeded their range and gone into areas they're not supposed to."....
Oil shale deposits generate new buzz as energy source The massive oil shale deposits have been called Saudi Arabia in the Rocky Mountains, and billed as the solution to the nation's energy woes. But those who lived through the oil shale boom in the 1970s and its collapse in the early 1980s are tempering their optimism with a dose of caution. "This isn't our first rodeo," said Uintah County Commissioner Jim Abegglen. "We're excited about it, but we're realists." The United States is consuming about 19 million barrels of oil daily and, with a growing dependence on imported oil and prices hovering at an economy-stunting $50, Congress is assembling an incentives package to try to resurrect interest in the industry that extracts oil from the rock. "It's a different world today," said Sen. Orrin Hatch. "Last time we weren't as far along on the science and ability to develop the resource . . . and the costs were overwhelming."....
Editorial: Oil, gas development stir up rights issues Across the West, an artifact of the 19th century is igniting disputes between landowners and oil and gas companies. As Uncle Sam sold land to settlers, it often retained the mineral rights. Today, there are many thousands of square miles between the Great Plains and West Coast where the surface of the land is owned by ranchers or other private individuals but the mineral rights belong to the federal government or have been leased to oil and gas companies. Conflicts over how the minerals get developed have become more frequent with the Bush administration's full-court press on energy development. In Colorado, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management tried to auction natural gas leases without telling surface owners that rights to minerals under their properties were up for grabs. In Wyoming, ranchers complain that coal-bed methane development has dumped saltwater in previously fresh streams and lakes, leaving the water unfit for humans or livestock. State governments have responded unevenly. Wyoming this year adopted stronger surface owner protections but Colorado rejected a similar effort. Since federal agencies are responsible for the leases, a federal solution seems logical....
Divided over drilling A legal issue known as "split estate" divides landowners who own just the surface rights from those who own the now-lucrative minerals under the surface. In Garfield County, 72 percent of drilling permits in 2000-04 were issued for sites where one owner controls both mineral rights and surface rights, and 28 percent were issued for split estates. Courts traditionally have ruled that mineral rights are superior to surface rights. Owners of surface rights can negotiate payments and agreements for the use of their land, but they often say` the payments are paltry and that the oil and gas companies deal with them in an abrupt take-it-or-leave-it style. The holder of mineral rights is privileged to use as much of the surface as is reasonably necessary to extract the minerals. The common-law thinking is essentially pragmatic; otherwise, the owner of the mineral rights would be denied access to the resources he owns. But, in this competition between ownership rights, the Colorado Constitution also provides that private property cannot be taken or damaged "without just compensation."....
Wilderness Site May See Oil Drilling Tucked away in the 96-page emergency military spending bill signed by President Bush this month are four paragraphs that give energy companies the right to explore for oil and gas inside a sprawling national park. The amendment written by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) codifies Mississippi's claim to mineral rights under federal lands and allows drilling for natural gas under the Gulf Islands National Seashore — a thin necklace of barrier islands that drapes the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. As a preliminary step to drilling, the rider permits seismic testing, which involves detonating sound-wave explosions to locate oil and gas deposits in the park. Two of the five Mississippi islands are wilderness areas, and the environs are home to federally protected fish and birds, a large array of sea turtles and the gulf's largest concentration of bottlenose dolphins. The legislation marks the first time the federal government has sanctioned seismic exploration on national park property designated as wilderness — which carries with it the highest level of protection....
'He's either loved or reviled' As the Bush administration pushes ever harder for more oil and gas drilling in Colorado and the West, a lone government worker in Denver is pushing back. Weston Wilson, a longtime scientist for the Environmental Protection Agency's regional office downtown, went public last fall with criticism of an EPA study that gave the go-ahead to a drilling technique that some think poses a risk to groundwater. He's remained outspoken since, quoted by national media and championed by environmental groups as a courageous bureaucrat bucking his political bosses. In March, his whistle-blowing led the EPA's inspector general to open an investigation....
Trophy deer lands man in hot water The sun was heading toward the horizon on the plains of southwestern Oklahoma when hunter Michael Crossland decided to see if any deer were lurking around a tree-lined creek bottom. What the 25-year-old farmer and rancher didn't bargain for was a legal dispute over what is expected to be the largest whitetail deer ever killed in Oklahoma - a monster buck with a 31-point set of antlers worth thousands of dollars. Crossland said that on Nov. 23 he was with the landowner's hired hand, who went to retrieve a four-wheeler and gave Crossland his rifle in case he spotted any big deer. "I walked around the bend on the west side of the creek," Crossland said. "First I saw a doe, and then I saw the buck come around." After quickly loading the rifle, Crossland lined up the large animal in his scope from about 70 yards away and dropped it with one shot. "I didn't know he was that big until he fell," Crossland said. "He fell and he rolled his head, and that's when I said, 'Oh my gosh.'" But as word quickly spread about the huge deer taken in Tillman County, problems started to mount for Crossland....
It's All Trew: WPA aided America's health Records show that more than 35,000 men and women were trained in carpentry to construct toilets, septic tanks and lay clay drainage lines for the public. Those in need merely went to the WPA office, signed a request, paid $5 for materials. If you were broke, you signed another form and the government would pay the money needed. It was not a loan to be repaid. Between 1933 and 1945, federally trained carpenters built 2,309,239 sanitary privies in America. Not only did the public benefit from improved hygiene and comfort, the carpenters earned weekly paychecks for their labor. The greatest benefit of all, sanitary, fly-proof outhouses placed on improved locations halted the killer epidemics....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Grandpa passes on wisdom of the aged Grandpas have a special job and have since days of yore/To teach his children's children things his parents might ignore. Like how to spit and whistle, carve initials on a tree/The value of an empty can and why some things aren't free. Why dogs get stuck, how birds can fly, why Grandma's always right/And how to tie a square knot and the time to stand and fight. And, if Grandpa's a cowboy and the kid is so inclined/The horn of wisdom empties out to fill his little mind....

===

Monday, May 30, 2005

Three calves test positive for BSE

Three young calves on a Welsh farm have tested positive for BSE in what is believed to be the first cluster of infections discovered for almost a decade. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed that experts were trying to establish whether the cows, from an unidentified farm in the Dyfed area, had become infected by the same route, possibly through feed imported from abroad. The cows are aged between 36 and 43 months. The first case was identified more than two months ago and the two others were confirmed at the end of last week. A Defra spokesman could not confirm reports that it is the first time three cases born after 1996 have been linked to one farm and that the three-year-old cow is the first BSE case born as late as 2002 in Europe....

===
NEWS

Investing in Green The recent rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought to have gone extinct, was a rare bit of good news in an otherwise gloomy time for conservationists. Like everyone, ecologist Gretchen Daily at Stanford University was thrilled—"this bird is a legend in my life"—but it also confirmed her belief that efforts to preserve endangered species are "doomed to failure" unless conservationists embrace free-market capitalism. Specifically, she thinks that we should view an ecosystem not as vacant land for development, but as a capital asset that must not be squandered, even if that means compensating landowners for keeping forests green. Daily, director of Stanford's tropical research program at the Center for Conservation Biology, talked with NEWSWEEK's Fred Guterl. Excerpts....
Nothing to write home about After spending the last three weeks flying above the Dakotas at low levels, a pilot-biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says there's generally less water on the landscape than last year. How that affects waterfowl production remains to be seen. "Quite possibly, South Dakota was as dry as I've seen it since the early 1990s," said John Solberg, pilot-biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Bismarck. "Overall, I'd say North Dakota was fair - some areas poor, some areas good. I've seen it worse, but I've seen it a whole lot better, too." Solberg, who wrapped up the survey Thursday, has been flying the Dakotas since May 4 as part of the annual North American spring waterfowl survey, a massive effort in which U.S. and Canadian biologists team up to sample waterfowl and habitat conditions across Canada and the northern United States. Managers across North America's four waterfowl flyways use the results from the survey to set fall hunting seasons. This year marks the survey's 50th anniversary....
Column: Agriculture collides with environment One that comes to mind occurred this winter in San Bernardino County along the remote Mojave River. The river, which is underground most years, rose to the surface with a vengeance during the heavy rains. Roaring out of the northern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains, it filled the above-ground channel quickly as it coursed its way toward Soda Lake near the high desert community of Baker. Between the open channel of the upper river and the broad lower channel was a stretch near Oro Grande that had not been cleared for years. Occupants of land bordering the clogged section had repeatedly requested clearing, only to be told by county officials that environmental restrictions to protect various endangered critters of one kind or another made it impossible to undertake the task. The water overflowed the channel, causing millions of dollars of needless damage to dairies, dairymen and their animals, and other agricultural operations adjacent to the channel. And, as one dairyman put it, "Any endangered species that might have been along the river are either dead or flushed miles away from here."....
Proposal outlines park brucellosis eradication A proposed agreement between the federal government and the three states surrounding Yellowstone National Park would focus more efforts on trying to eliminate brucellosis from elk and bison herds. If implemented, wildlife advocates say, it could mean a big shift in strategy. Currently, most work aims at "controlling" the disease to keep cattle from getting it. That usually means keeping possibly infected elk and bison away from cattle. Switching the emphasis to disease eradication in wildlife, as a draft memorandum of understanding calls for, could mean an awful lot of dead elk and bison. Disease eradication work so far has consisted largely of a "test and slaughter" program in which animals that test positive for the disease are killed and others are held in quarantine facilities and repeatedly tested until proven negative, a process that takes years....
Gibbons eyes more land money for schools Money from Nevada land sales would go to education, wildfire prevention, noxious weed control, sage grouse protection and other natural resource programs under a bill being drafted by U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno. Gibbons said he’s working on the proposal in an effort to head off the Bush administration’s plan to take land sale revenues to close the budget deficit. Gibbons said funds also could be spent on routine operations of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies in Nevada....
Fate of wild horses to be considered in U.S. Senate Moved by the news that 41 wild horses sold by the federal government had ended up at an Illinois slaughterhouse, a majority of the House voted this month to ban future sales. Supporters of the ban hope the public's love affair with these vestiges of the American West is enough to get the Senate to follow the House's lead. But some lawmakers see the issue differently. "In Nevada, horses do not always look beautiful like the horse that we see in 'Black Beauty.' That is because we cannot manage 20,000 horses on land which does not look like Kentucky, does not look like West Virginia," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. "These horses get starved, they are weakened, they become diseased." Sen. Conrad Burns, a Montana Republican, said there is a need to manage wild horse populations, which ranchers say compete with their cattle for grazing on public lands. Other lawmakers cite the $20million-a-year cost for the care and feeding of older horses that are unlikely to be adopted....
Rural Oregonians fear bill is threat to their water rights For most city dwellers, a water meter keeps track of every gallon that comes out of a garden hose or shower head. But not so for their country cousins — mainly agricultural irrigators but also rural homeowners with wells — many of whom are holders of water rights. But with pressure on limited water resources rising in the high desert and elsewhere, the Legislature is considering what proponents call a "baby step" toward a measurement system that might stretch the state's over-appropriated water supply. The state Senate last week passed a bill that would enact a voluntary statewide tracking system overseen by the state's Water Resources Department. It is pending in the House....
World's mayors seek to fight global warming, make cities greener Mayors from some of the world's biggest cities are gathering here this week to forge a set of international guidelines for sustainable urban living - billed as a municipal version of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming that the United States never ratified. The Urban Environmental Accords, to be signed at the United Nations World Environment Day Conference, is the latest example of cities seeking to tackle climate change despite reluctance from their national governments. "We cannot afford to wait for the state or federal government to do the job. There are too many excuses going around, particularly in this country," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. "Increasingly, the world will look at mayors to become the stewards of the environment since the vast majority of the pollution comes from cities."....
Experts: Petroleum may be nearing peak Could the petroleum joyride -- cheap, abundant oil that has sent the global economy whizzing along with the pedal to the metal and the AC blasting for decades -- be coming to an end? Some observers of the oil industry think so. They predict that this year, maybe next -- almost certainly by the end of the decade -- the world's oil production, having grown exuberantly for more than a century, will peak and begin to decline. And then it really will be all downhill. The price of oil will increase drastically. Major oil-consuming countries will experience crippling inflation, unemployment and economic instability. Princeton University geologist Kenneth S. Deffeyes predicts "a permanent state of oil shortage." According to these experts, it will take a decade or more before conservation measures and new technologies can bridge the gap between supply and demand, and even then the situation will be touch and go....The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!
Fish conservationists angle for dam breaching A federal court ruling rejecting the Bush administration's latest effort to balance Columbia Basin salmon recovery against hydroelectric dams has fish conservationists pressing anew for breaching four dams on the lower Snake River. ``What the law requires is an honest analysis of how we configure the hydro system so we can get salmon back in our rivers,'' said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation. ``What all the scientists tell us is such an honest analysis would call for breaching the lower four Snake River dams.'' But with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress dead set against breaching the dams, the idea remains a long way from going anywhere....
Environmentalists slam leaked G8 statement The environmental group Friends of the Earth has criticised a leaked draft statement for the upcoming G8 summit for failing to set specific targets or timetables to reduce greenhouse gases from the highly industrialised countries. "The alarm bells on climate change are ringing, but the world's richest nations aren't listening," Catherine Pearce, Friends of the Earth International's climate campaigner, said in a statement Friday. The British government, which is hosting the summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, from July 6-8, played down the significance of the 14-page document, posted on the Internet Wednesday by a British environmentalist. A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said the document was an old draft....
As Columbia flows, so does region The water sometimes seems quiet and calm at the mouth of the Columbia River, offering no hint of its turbulent history or the deep emotions it provokes in the Pacific Northwest. From its headwaters in British Columbia's Selkirk Mountains, the river weaves through a tapestry of mountains, desert sagebrush and steep canyons to the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, it is the cord that ties the region together. It nourishes communities and crops, wildlife and fish. It provides a treasure of irrigation, transportation and electricity. For native peoples and the millions of white settlers who followed, it's a spiritual and recreational jewel to be cherished and enjoyed....
Water rights applications unanswered Anyone getting in line now may have an even longer wait. In late December, the Bureau of Reclamation quietly notified the state that it was staking a claim to all unappropriated water in the Columbia and its tributaries that may be needed to fill a proposed reservoir. It was a move that once might have invoked fury in the West, home of the adage that whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over. Sweeping claims to natural resources by the federal government have historically met stiff resistance and scorn. Just four years ago, federal marshals were called in to guard irrigation gates during a revolt by farmers' supporters in Klamath Falls after the government shut off irrigation to ensure water for protected fish during a drought. However, the government's more recent claim went largely unnoticed. Nobody is sure if the residents of Eastern Washington simply didn't hear about it, don't believe the reservoir will ever be built, or just don't care after years of frustration....

===
NEWS

Old Plains ranching, farming traditions disappearing Tom McNeil is the kind of American little boys and grown-up men, movie stars and even presidents dream of being: tall and weather-beaten, spare with words, wearing a hat and boots that clearly are tools instead of ornaments. McNeil is a real cowboy in Loup County in central Nebraska, one of the disappearing ranchers and farmers of the northern Great Plains. He’s a man riding reluctantly, sadly into the sunset of a civilization that once was seen as among the great achievements of the American nation. It’s a place where we get much of our food. And it’s a place where we’ve gotten many of our best people. Now, isolation, harsh weather, more and more food imports, the ever-increasing size of farms and ranches and the economic and social pull of large population centers threaten to turn this vast region in the middle of the United States into a mostly empty Outback....
Kansas town reflects plains' past, present future The roiling sky above this northwest Kansas town one April afternoon was a fitting symbol of the battle Oberlin is waging against the natural, social and economic forces that are emptying it and many other towns in the Northern and Central Great Plains. Gripped by a three-year drought and dependent on surrounding wheat farms, Oberlin residents watched hopefully as the dark clouds of a rain-laden thunderstorm moved in from the southwest. But it soon became clear that the rain so clearly visible in the distance was evaporating before hitting the parched ground. Mayor Kenneth Shobe watched and just shook his head. In many ways, this area in far northwestern Kansas reflects the past, present and future of the Northern and Central Plains, once a promised land for optimistic farmers, now struggling to staunch population hemorrhage and facing a bleak future....
A good yarn: Wool prices dip to record lows, but sheep ranchers find a way to stay in business Broadus sheep rancher Rebecca McEuen saw the beginning of the end in 1997. The population of sheep in the state had been dropping for decades and the price of wool was headed for an all-time low. By 1998, fleece was bringing about $1.80 per sheep and it cost $2 to sheer the sheep. "It was time to change the old way of ranching," said McEuen, who with her mother and husband, Dennis, have been raising sheep in the Broadus area for more than 20 years. McEuen's mother introduced the American Cormo breed to the area when the family moved there in 1978 from Southern California and they weren't ready to give up on sheep yet. The McEuens, along with a rancher friend, Charlotte Carlat, decided first to expand their natural wool yarn business. During the winter of 1998-1999, they spent more hours than they could count cleaning 800 pounds of wool, tugging small sticks and mud and burrs and who knows what else out of the raw wool by hand. "Our fingers got real sore," she said....
Unsettling times: Few folks in the big open Calvin Thomas, a rancher who came in to the Sand Springs Store for a 5-gallon jug of drinking water, is on his second cup of coffee as he tells how it used to be in Sand Springs. "At one time Sand Springs was pretty big," he says. "It was runner-up for county seat." That honor eventually went to Jordan, 20 miles east on Highway 200. Jordan is losing population, too, but with about 350 people it's by far the largest town in Garfield County. Sand Springs reached a population peak of about 50, Calvin says, but now the only full-time resident is Daisy Dutton, who owns the store. "They used to have a sign," Calvin says: "End of the world, 12 miles. Jordan, 14." It might not be the end of the world, but it does feel like the middle of nowhere. Garfield County takes in 4,668 square miles, but with a population of only 1,279 at the time of the 2000 census, it had 0.27 people per square mile. That gave Garfield the lowest population density in Montana and very nearly the lowest in the continental United States....
Weekend cowboys Clinging to their saddle horns, the inexperienced riders fought to stay astride their horses as they plunged into a rocky ravine where eight stray cows hid in the brush. The heifers initially ignored their shouts and then grudgingly shuffled up a steep hill to join the rest of the herd for the drive to greener pastures. For three days over a recent weekend, a group of city dwellers rounded up strays and herded cattle, paying $700 each to work like the cowhands they'd watched on the silver screen. These "City Slicker"-style roundups at the Varian family's V6 Ranch in Monterey County help pay the bills and ensure the 20,000-acre spread remains open space for future generations....
Rancher of the Year to be honored Saturday There are seven nominees and one of them will be recognized Saturday at the Cowboy Roundup USA as Rancher of the Year. Everything around Amarillo was once ranch country, said Quien Stapleton, Cowboy Roundup USA president. Ranching is the heritage of the Texas Panhandle. Stapleton said his organization figures the Coors Ranch Rodeo next week is the perfect time to recognize a Rancher of the Year. Sponsored by Duncan & Boyd Jewelers and KGNC Radio, the Rancher of the Year will be named at the Saturday night performance of the Coors Ranch Rodeo in the Amarillo National Center, Stapleton said....

===

Sunday, May 29, 2005

NEWS

Survey: Canyon visitors firmly grounded Those who drive to the Grand Canyon are keen on clean air, conservation and geology, but not so fond of riding all-terrain vehicles there, gambling in general or taking helicopter tours, a recent Northern Arizona University survey shows. These conservation-minded tourists stay longer, spend more -- $1,131 on average per group -- and care about the environment more than other vacationers, the Travel Industry Association of America said. Whether they also will care to visit a glitzy theme park proposed for a 1,000-acre site near Williams 60 miles south of Grand Canyon Village is another question. "They really fit the pattern of what the travel industry has called geotourists," said Cheryl Cothran, director of the yearlong tourism survey from NAU's Hospitality Research and Resource Center....
Only who can prevent fires? The money that aided Duryea's group came from the National Fire Plan, an August 2000 directive to provide more money for fire fighting and reducing risky fire conditions in and around the nation's forests. Critics say the National Fire Plan isn't providing enough money for projects like Windcliff and that funding similar private programs could cut the rising costs for fire suppression and hazardous fuels treatment on public lands. The U.S. Forest Service has spent more than $1 billion fighting fires in three of the past five years. It's especially puzzling given that 85 percent of the nation's land most at-risk for fire is state, local or private, critics say. A report released this spring by the Wilderness Society said that an average of 7.8 percent of the nation's wildland fire funding has gone toward state and local assistance since 2001....
Rising prices bring oil boom to Utah County In the high, open county of southeastern Utah County, a Denver-based company is getting ready to sink an exploratory well nearly 13,000 feet into the geologic fold of ancient sandstone. High prices and a substantial strike in Sevier County have sparked interest and brought oil and gas exploration to Utah County. "Higher oil price has spurred a lot of interest in oil companies getting out on the ground," said Jim Springer of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining. Denver-based Ansbro Petroleum Co. has a freshly approved permit to drill a well in the southeastern part of the county. It is one of more than 100 such permits approved by the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining this month. As of Friday afternoon, 606 drilling permits for oil and gas wells have been issued -- 207 in April -- in Utah this year. Most of them were in Uintah County. The permit approval pace already has outstripped activity last year, when by the end of May, 424 permits had been issued....
Agencies working together on restoration Reclamation of abandoned oil and gas field sites has been a contentious issue with federal and state land and conservation agencies for many years. But the tide is turning. The oil and gas industry is now working with the agencies on restoration efforts, federal and state agency officials said. A new federal pilot program — the Environmental Quality Improvement Program — is being implemented, and the industry has expressed a willingness to participate. The program is geared toward improving the habitat of the endangered lesser prairie chicken and the sand dune lizard, which is being considered for the endangered species list. Last week, Marathon Oil Company donated $40,000 to the New Mexico Association of Conservation Districts to support the non-profit organization’s efforts to help the Bureau of Land Management implement the program in Eddy and Lea counties....

===
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

Influencing tomorrow with a bible and a rope

By Julie Carter

Every now and then I get a glimpse of a bright promising future by looking at the youth of today.

Hold your moans and groans. Put away the mental images you just reviewed of tattooed, long haired, earring-in-their nose youth with their bottom clothing riding low and their top clothing riding high.

The youth I speak of are home grown in places not always visible to the world.

I’ve been happy to be part of several programs that continually endear me to their ability to grow good kids. Youth rodeo, FFA and 4-H guide young people from ages 5-19 through solid steps to adulthood with self esteem building techniques that are time proven.

Last week I was invited to an event that swelled that hope for the future.

Every Thursday night the Capitan High School rodeo team meets to practice at a private home and arena tucked away in the hills north of Capitan.

Along with the high school rodeo hands were youngsters of every age. They all spent a couple hours practicing their assorted roping events, barrel racing and some good old fun- jumping on the trampoline.

The sun was setting, it was warm with no wind, and kids-having-fun laughter could be heard from all directions.

There were parents everywhere--some loading cattle in the chute, giving instruction, tuning on a horse or just visiting with each other. The atmosphere was casual, relaxed and very friendly. But that weekly gathering is more than just spending time in the arena with a rope.

Some people from the church had brought over a huge grill on a trailer and were cooking up ribs, sausage and brisket with all the trimmings to feed the hungry kids and their parents when practice was over. They did this just because they wanted to, it was a gift.

While the crowd of about 40 filled their plates, ate and talked, the mechanical roping machines were lined up with kids playing with ropes.

These were good kids spending quality time with parents who were taking an interest in where they were and what they were doing.

It is a common thread I see throughout the 4-H, FFA and youth rodeo experience that makes me believe the long hours, long miles and expense is worth every penny invested.

After dinner, bales of hay and a few odds and ends of chairs were lined up in the runway of the barn for short bible message. To the sounds of horses stirring in the stalls on either side, praise music was accompanied by a guitar followed by reverent prayer.

A story about using your life to become a bible story concluded the evening. It ended right where it always should—giving thanks to the source of our blessings.

The entire evening underlined the fact that we are not blessed by chance but are blessed by choice.

I would not presume to say that if a youngster does not take part in one of the aforementioned youth activities that he or she won’t amount to anything.

I am saying that if they do, their chances for success in this life are measurably multiplied.

Influence is a powerful tool and on this night a very positive influence was present in abundance. You couldn’t have hidden from it.

Thank you Chris and Sheila Williams-- for sharing your home and your life touching influence with so many. I was honored to be only one.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net

© Julie Carter 2005

I welcome submissions for this feature of The Westerner.

===
OPINION/COMMENTARY

UTAH TRAIL GROUPS FIGHT PARK SERVICE CLOSURE OF ROAD

The closure of a recreational road by the National Park Service (NPS) violates the will of Congress that the road be kept open to the public, several recreational groups asserted during oral argument today in Utah federal district court in Salt Lake City. Therefore, argued the groups, the court should invalidate the NPS’s recent decision to close Salt Creek Road in Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah. Today’s oral argument is only the latest legal action after nearly ten years of litigation involving the NPS and an environmental group concerning Salt Creek Road, which accesses Angel Arch. “The attempt by the National Park Service to ‘cook the books’ in this endless battle failed because there is still no evidence that the environment will be harmed by keeping this road open,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation, which represents the recreational groups seeking to keep Salt Creek Road open. “In August 2000, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit delivered a harsh rebuke to the National Park Service for illegally closing the road and for reversing its position on appeal, yet the National Park Service and its lawyers have arrogantly refused to do what the law mandates that they do, which is to keep the road open for the public.”....

===
OPINION/COMMENTARY

Another Wetlands Horror Story

Charles Johnson, a 73-year-old Korean war veteran, lives with his wife in rural Carver, Massachusetts, where the Johnson family has farmed cranberries for nearly 100 years. In the 1990s, the United States filed a civil action against Mr. Johnson, his wife, his son, and their business, claiming they discharged into wetlands and other “waters of the United States” without a permit in violation of the Clean Water Act. Mr. Johnson insists that all of his farm work was done in areas where there have long been cranberry bogs and permits are not needed. According to PLF’s analysis, the federal government has no legal authority over the Johnsons’ property. That’s because the plain language of the Clean Water Act and the Constitution limit federal regulatory power to “navigable waters” only, such as a river or lake that can be used for shipping or other commerce, and wetlands immediately adjacent to such waters. This clear limitation was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court in its 2001 decision in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. United States (SWANCC). In Mr. Johnson’s case, none of the three areas targeted by the government are within 20 miles of navigable waters. On the contrary, all of the properties are adjacent to nonnavigable ditches and streams connected to other nonnavigable waters that eventually connect to the navigable Weweantic River. Using these tenuous connections, the federal government has subjected Mr. Johnson and his family to relentless prosecution. After spending more than $1 million to defend his family and farm against this government land grab, Mr. Johnson was eventually forced to represent himself because he could no longer afford attorneys. As a result, he was unable to effectively oppose the government’s case against him at the trial level. In January, a District Court judge found for the Environmental Protection Agency, ordering the family to pay a $75,000 fine and to “restore” 25 acres of their property that the government declared “wetlands.” The EPA estimates the restoration will cost them $1.1 million! PLF has stepped in to represent the Johnson family, without charge, in their appeal to the United States First Circuit Court of Appeals. The government’s lawyers do not dispute that Mr. Johnson’s properties are merely adjacent to nonnavigable waters, but contend they are still subject to federal regulation because of their eventual connection to the Weweantic River. According to their argument, the government has jurisdiction whenever, theoretically, one molecule of water from a nonnavigable wetland could reach a navigable water. The government has been pushing this “any hydrological connection” theory ever since the Supreme Court harshly rebuked its earlier “glancing duck” theory that jurisdiction can be based in a high flying bird’s attraction to a small mud puddle....

===
OPINION/COMMENTARY

THE REAL ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS

In "The Real Environmental Crisis: Why Poverty, Not Affluence, Is the Environment’s Number One Enemy," Jack Hollander hopes to teach environmentalists that the key to protecting Planet Earth both locally and globally lies in understanding that wealthier nations and peoples improve environmental quality rather than degrade it. This runs contrary to the rhetoric of many environmental organizations.

Where Hollander really brings some fresh air to the “wealthier is healthier” front is on the subject of energy policy:

* The developed world employs cleaner fuels, such as oil and natural gas, while the poor are stuck with dirty-burning fuels such as wood, coal and animal dung.
* Wind power and direct solar energy make more sense for the developing world since they do not require the large capital investments for transmission and distribution required with fossil fuels and fossil-fueled electrical power.
* The environmental benefits of nuclear power could be great, but certain forms of nuclear power create a risk of providing material for terrorist-type activities; therefore, nuclear is simply not viable for the developing world.

While Hollander is correct in much of his approach and theory, he is not ambitious enough in identifying how to make the poor rich, says reviewer J. Bishop Grewell. Furthermore, says Grewell, Hollander struggles with how much government development assistance can do and how much progress must simply come from within the poorer nations. The tangible need to do something, anything, seems to prevent him from asking whether doing something might be worse than doing nothing, says Grewell.

Source: J. Bishop Grewell, Book Review, A Better Earth, April 2005; based upon Jack M. Hollander, “The Real Environmental Crisis: Why Poverty, Not Affluence, Is the Environment’s Number One Enemy,” University of California Press, 2003.

For text: http://www.abetterearth.org/article.php/1035.html

===
OPINION/COMMENTARY

The Shrinking of the Greens: An environmental movement that shuns the right is bound to fail.

One might think that environmentalists in a conservative country would seek conservative support. Indeed, one might think that environmentalists could recognize natural allies in those who find pleasure and fulfillment in pursuit of wild animals in their habitat, or who have become convinced that God commands them to protect the full abundance of His creation, or who believe that their great country's uncurbed appetite for energy puts it at risk in a dangerous world. By contrast, there is no reason to think--and none is offered--why people of color, feminists, gays, or peace advocates--let alone union members--should be more environmentalist than the public at large. Yet reaching out to hunters and fishers, evangelical Christians, or "geo-green" conservatives is barely mentioned in this debate. Evidently support from those who might have endorsed the war in Iraq, or might oppose gay marriage, or, it seems, might not have voted enthusiastically for Howard Dean will not be welcome in addressing "the greatest calamity in modern history." Certainly cheap shots against "environmental extremists" have long characterized the rhetoric of conservative publicists and politicians. But a mature political judgment should look beyond the cheap shots on all sides to assess, and make use of, the more fundamental forces at work. It should also examine the widespread distrust of environmentalists among outdoorsmen and evangelicals with no apparent reason for striking poses on this issue. If, as may well be true, the goal of this debate is not to revitalize environmental protection as such, but to invest its appeal in a generic revival of "progressive" politics, then these criticisms are beside the point. But to the extent that protecting the environment is still a goal of the environmental movement, one may hope that as the reassessment continues, it will include a deeper look in the mirror....

===
OPINION/COMMENTARY

Cruise Control

What increases overall socio-economic welfare, improves economic competitiveness reduces environmental damage? Obviously, state control and taxes. Or at least that is the answer the OECD, EU transport ministers and even the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) promote. With growing concern about the environment and the so called "greenhouse effect", efforts are under way to reduce transportation by taxing it more. Thus, many countries are seriously considering introducing surveillance tools and road pricing systems based on Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology that will trace cars and tax their drivers and one day maybe - if the technology allows - even decide where and at what speed the vehicle goes if it allows it to move at all. In the US, the NTSB is requiring electronic data recorders in all new cars manufactured in the country, and the Department of Transportation sponsors works on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The EU has since 2000 tested the ITS in several cities in Europe under the PRoGRESS (Pricing Road Use for Greater Responsibility, Efficiency and Sustainability in Cities) program and hopes Galileo satellites will advance the project....

===
OPINION/COMMENTARY

General Rent Seeker

The CEO of GE recently committed the company to "define the cutting edge in cleaner power and environmental technology" through increased R&D spending. He also pledged significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 and doubling the revenue earned by cleaner technologies to $20 billion by 2010. A commitment to improved environmental stewardship is commendable but hardly dramatic. Many companies have already raised the bar for their environmental standards. Some are using their actions to shape their image with the public. The motivation for GE's initiative is not completely clear. However, for a company of GE's stature it is fair to ask, why didn't you do this earlier and do it with shareholders instead of politicians and the media? The setting and timing justify a little skepticism. Since we live in a world where images drive perceptions, it is prudent to apply the Reagan maxim of "trust but verify". The GE announcement went beyond just a stronger commitment to environmental improvement. By raising the specter of climate change, GE's CEO called for legislation with clear milestones for greenhouse gas reductions, a cap and trade program (which means mandated limits on energy use to reduce emissions) and a government program to fund technologies. It is ironic that GE's founder and first great innovator, Thomas Edison, did not need government regulations and subsidies to create a market for the light bulb....

===
OPINION/COMMENTARY

Consumer Group: Get PETA Out Of Schools

El Paso, TX – This morning, Terrace Hill Middle School joined the long list of schools targeted by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). With its school campaigns, PETA targets children as young as six years old for indoctrination with violent and graphic propaganda. The $25 million animal rights group targets kids at every age level, sidestepping parents and school authorities to lure young and impressionable children into radical activism. PETA targets kids using graphic comic books, age-specific websites, grotesque toys, schoolyard demonstrations, and e-mail alerts sent directly to small children. All of these efforts are exposed in a report by the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), titled “Your Kids, PETA’s Pawns.” Psychologists and school officials have denounced PETA’s propaganda tactics. “Some of the graphics and some of the messages are very, very disturbing – especially to younger kids,” says Dr. Jeffrey Dolgan, chief of psychology at Children’s Hospital in Denver. “Children become the unwitting victims of some campaigns, which are, in fact, harmful because they prey on children’s fears, and they prey on children’s vulnerabilities, and they prey on children’s anxieties.” PETA’s 2003 annual report boasts of reaching more than 2.3 million children and teachers using a variety of reckless tactics....

===
OPINION/COMMENTARY

Hate the SUV, but don't shoot the driver

Also, I drive an SUV and figure I need all the help I can get. I am keenly aware that some people don't just hate SUVs, they hate SUV drivers. From the looks I get in certain neighborhoods, I may as well be wearing a mink coat and gnawing on a veal chop. Moreover, for the past couple of years, I've been tracking the spread of Irrational SUV Hostility (ISUVH) and have collected a folder of news stories involving the maligned vehicle. Invariably when an SUV driver is involved in an accident, the story focuses on the SUV. As though sedans, station wagons and especially hybrids never make mistakes. Here's a headline from the Boston Globe (February 2004): "Teacher dies after SUV strikes her in driveway." The subhead lets us know that the former husband is to face murder charges. Ah. So an embittered husband runs down his wife, but the SUV did it. Would a BMW have killed her any less? I'm just asking. Here's the Alameda Times-Star (September 2003): "Swerving SUV kills 92-year-old woman." If we read the story, we learn that the woman was killed when the SUV was sideswiped by another car, forcing the SUV onto the sidewalk. And what was the make of the swerving car? We never learn. Doesn't matter. What's significant is that the SUV killed the poor woman. Here's a CBS Internet headline from November 2004: "Man dies in SUV accident on Long Island." You'd think the SUV picked the man out of a herd and iced him. In reality, the man crashed his Ford Explorer into a cement barrier after sliding on a rain-slicked road. Presumably, he'd still be alive today if he'd been driving a more popular vehicle. Just one more, this one from an NBC affiliate in Philadelphia in February: "Police say out-of-control SUV killed blind woman." Not only do SUVs consume more gasoline than is morally defensible, but they run down old ladies, murder spouses and blind women, and will kill their own drivers in bad weather. If you insist on owning one anyway, the L.A. Sheriff's Department is ready to change your mind. (That's a joke.) All may change soon as auto manufacturers are turning SUVs into the coolest hybrids ever. Lexus has debuted a luxury SUV with low CO2 emissions and great mileage, and others are riding their bumpers. All those SUV haters out there soon will have to find a new demon to despise - and I have utter faith - but I don't expect to clip many news stories that begin: "Hybrid runs down elderly, blind woman." Or, "Ten deputies stop hybrid in hail of bullets."....

===

Saturday, May 28, 2005

NEWS ROUNDUP

Column: When the wolf is at the door It takes an idealist to think livestock, hunting, academic and ecology groups could agree about what to do when wolves move into Utah. The legendary predator creates a visceral reaction. To ranchers and hunters, that reaction is strongly negative. Most view wolves as a threat to sheep, livestock and big game. Ecologists and wildlife enthusiasts see the big predator as not only a symbol of wilderness, but, at the top of the food chain, as a necessary component of a functioning ecosystem....
Ranchers reach easement deal A conservation easement signed by two ranchers will restrict development on their 6,300-acre property in the Big Hole Valley. In the agreement with The Nature Conservancy, John and Gail Dooling forego the right to subdivide their land but retain the right to continue current ranch operations. The agreement is binding on any future owners of the ranch. "This valley is one of the few that is still wide open, with very little development," John Dooling said. "I'd like this valley to stay in agriculture and wish other ranchers here would sign conservation easements to make sure we keep the valley like it is."....
Coyotes are a menace for local ranchers and farmers They’re cunning. They’re clever. And they’re everywhere. The critters in question are the coyote — and area hunters revere them as some of the smartest varmints they have ever met. Coyote are can also be cunning in the way they capture their prey, he said. “They know when an animal is at its weakest point,” Tivis said, pointing out coyotes will attack young cattle on the back of their leg, ripping out their hamstrings. No longer able to stand, the crippled calves collapse in a heap. Tivis also said he has seen coyotes snatch the calf from a cow giving birth. “One coyote will distract the mother,” he said, “while another one snatches the calf.” A carnivorous animal not much bigger than most family dogs, the coyote is one of the most adaptable yet hated animals in the Southwest....
Whistleblower files complaint, claims Forest Service retribution The U.S. Forest Service has suspended a top regional official who recently complained that some of the agency's managers ignored rules and environmental laws in spraying pesticides and weed-killing chemicals on forests in the Southwest. Doug Parker, pesticide coordinator and assistant director of forestry and forest health for the agency's Southwestern Region, is accused of failing to follow a direct order to train and certify employees each month in the use of pesticides. Parker, who has worked for the agency for nearly 38 years, also is accused of failing to submit one monthly progress report on the training. Deputy Regional Forester Lucia Turner spelled out the reasons for the 10-day suspension in a letter sent to Parker on Thursday....
Hotshots cut to restore meadows Today, there are meadows where yesterday there were none, thanks to the Sierra Hotshots. The 20-person U.S. Forest Service firefighting crew cut a wide swath through the pines Friday, and there wasn't a blaze anywhere to fight. Instead of battling fires, the hotshots were fighting the growth of pine trees - using chain saws to carve out clearings in Black Hills National Forest about 10 miles southwest of Spearfish. Forest Service officials believe the clearings - once a common part of the forest ecosystem that has been lost in many areas to encroaching pine growth - will benefit wildlife and allow aspen and other vegetation to flourish. They will also create safety zones that might save the lives of firefighters in the future....
Wyoming opal rush causes headaches for federal land managers The scattershot markers of different sizes and colors stand out among the sagebrush with nothing more than a lonely, sauntering wild horse as far as the eye can see. The markers are monuments to a 21st century rush of prospectors. They descended on this remote, hilly area in south-central Wyoming last March with grand hopes and dreams of striking it rich by finding a precious gemstone called opal. The rush caught federal officials off guard, resulted in a bureaucratic paper jam that has delayed actual mining and prompted authorities to take measures to protect an endangered flower from being trampled....
Ranchers alarmed by brucellosis in elk The upper Madison Valley is the state of Montana's hot spot for brucellosis in elk, state officials told a group of ranchers here Thursday. But despite a spike in the infection rate that showed up in Madison Valley elk based on random sampling, officials said a much larger sample is needed to discern whether the disease is spreading among elk. "We don't want to be pushing any panic buttons," Montana State Veterinarian Tom Linfield told a skeptical crowd of about 60 people, mostly area ranchers. "But we are facing a risk of infection from elk-cattle interaction."....
SUMMARY OF 21ST MEETING OF THE CITES ANIMALS COMMITTEE The 21st meeting of the Animals Committee (AC-21) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) convened from 20-25 May 2005, in Geneva, Switzerland. On 20 and 21 May, a joint session with the 15th session of CITES Plants Committee (PC-15) was held. The Animals Committee (AC) discussed 23 agenda items on issues including: the implementation of the Strategic Vision until 2007 and the establishment of priorities; the review of trade in animal species included in the Appendices and significant trade in Appendix II species; transport of live animals; and trade in sea cucumbers, sharks and great apes. The joint session addressed issues of common interest to both Committees, including: the Strategic Vision and Plan until 2013; the review of Scientific Committees and regional communication; the study of production systems for specimens of CITES-listed species; and the Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines for the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)....
Editorial: The Path to Splendor The mission of the National Park Service has been inherently contradictory since its establishment by Congress in 1916: to conserve federal lands while maximizing public enjoyment of them. This has frustrated both those who want the parks pristine and those who want comfortable lodging and other amenities — to say nothing of the park managers who try to satisfy these competing interests. An immediate case in point is the much-heralded, and somewhat maligned, approach to the base of 2,425-foot Yosemite Falls in Yosemite National Park. Here's the conflict in microcosm: How to make the falls pleasantly accessible to more than 1 million visitors each year without trashing the natural setting....
Column: One Man's Meat Is Another Man's Money I yield to no man in my appreciation for beef, so I don't need the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board to tell me what's for dinner. If I were completely unconcerned about cholesterol, beef might be for breakfast and lunch too. I'm not the only one who finds the ads unhelpful. Some of the ranchers who are forced to pay for them, through a government-imposed annual assessment of $1 per head of cattle, complain that generic beef promotion undermines their attempts to distinguish their products from the other guy's. If consumers believe, as the ads imply, that all beef is pretty much the same, they are not likely to specifically look for, say, grass-fed beef, Angus beef, or Hereford beef. These dissenters argue that forcing them to subsidize messages with which they disagree violates their constitutional right to freedom of speech, which includes the right to remain silent....
California cattle truck restrictions impact ranchers A California vehicle code limiting the types of livestock trucks that can move cattle out of Humboldt County is forcing ranchers into a legislative battle during the busy shipping season. A local exemption allows semi-trailers up to 70 feet long on narrow portions of area highways. But a clause in the vehicle code states 65- to 70-foot trucks need 40 feet from the kingpin to the rear axle, which livestock trucks don’t have. The 70-foot trucks are the standardized method of hauling cattle. “That clause effectively negates our 70-foot exemption,” said Humboldt Auction Yard owner and rancher Lee Mora in a phone interview from his Fortuna, Calif., office. “Those are the only trucks available to us.” Buyers from outside the state buy 90 percent of the cattle raised in Humboldt County. The buyers demand the larger trucks that give cattle more room to lie down, which is better for their health, said Mora....
The Horse Hugger MATT Farley does not look like a touchy-feely guy. Standing 6 feet 1, weighing 240 pounds and packing a tin of chewing tobacco in his back pocket, the horse trainer looks like a cross between a linebacker and a cowboy. But his approach to animals is hardly macho. "Oh, he loves the rubbin'," said Farley as he used a stick-and-string device to massage the underbelly of a paint horse named Mike. "Rub, rub, rub." A few moments later, Farley lay peacefully on Mike's back, giving the huge animal the weight of his body. Farley and his wife, April Schneider, are the owners of Park Pacifica Stables, a 120-acre ranch in a valley east of Linda Mar. Both grew up with horses, but Farley, son of a Gold Country rancher, learned the "old school" approach to training horses....
Coverage Of Dutch-Oven Event To Air In July The Food Network has announced the premier showing of the Great Plains Bison-tennial Dutch Oven Cook-off on the "All-American Festivals" show. The premier is scheduled for Monday, July 25. The Food Network/Food TV is broadcast on cable and satellite stations throughout the world. Check your local cable company listing for the Food Network's channel listing. The Great Plains Bison-tennial Dutch Oven Cook-off features historic cooking and recipes prepared in Dutch ovens that could have been enjoyed by travelers visiting the Great Plains more than 200 years ago. Bison is the featured entree because the buffalo was the primary source of food for our ancestors. Today's bison rancher raises the same high quality product that was enjoyed so many years ago. July is National Bison Month and this is a perfect opportunity for you to enjoy the unique way of preparing bison and the great recipes by our Cook-off contestants. For more information about 2005's Great Plains Bison-tennial Dutch Oven Cook-off log on to: www.dutchovencookoff.com....
Living like an outlaw It was a wind-burned, tired and saddle-sore bunch that rode into the De Baca County Fairgrounds after seven days and 125 miles on the Billy the Kid Trail. Twenty-five riders, ages 15 to 70, set out from Lincoln on April 28 to follow, as best they could, the trail the Kid took when he shot his way out of jail in Lincoln in 1881 and rode hellbent for leather to his eventual doom in Fort Sumner. Now, on May 4, they were at the end of their ride. Waiting for them in the shade of the fairground barn were 80 fourth-graders from Capitan and Fort Sumner, cheering the riders as if they were movie cowboy heroes or the cavalry come to the rescue. The kids, following a curriculum created by Coda Omness, curator of education at the Hubbard Museum of the American West in Ruidoso Downs, had been studying the ride - everything from the physiology of a horse, to the geography of the trail, to how much stuff could be carried horseback....

===

Friday, May 27, 2005

Rodeo great Linderman dies

Former rodeo great Walt Linderman passed away Wednesday at the age of 69 at St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings. Linderman was part of the famed Linderman rodeo family of Red Lodge. Older brothers Bill and Bud Linderman were former PRCA world champions. Walt Linderman was a nine-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier in steer wrestling. He was second three times - 1966, 1970 and 1971 - in the final world standings. Linderman won the NFR steer wrestling aggregate title, the second-most coveted buckle in professional rodeo, in 1967. Linderman was also known for his famed steer wrestling horse, Scott. Purchased for $1,600, Scott won more than $2 million dollars in earnings for cowboys who rode the large chestnut gelding. Scott carried Harley May to a steer wrestling title in 1965 and Jack Roddy to world championships in 1966 and 1968. Following his retirement from professional rodeo, Linderman worked 20 years for the Montana State Highway Department out of White Sulphur Springs. He and wife moved back to Billings five years ago. Born in Billings to John and Margaret Linderman, Walt Linderman had four brothers and one sister. He embarked on his rodeo career immediately after graduating from Belfry High School. Linderman won steer wrestling titles at most of the major rodeos, including Cheyenne Frontier Days, the Calgary Stampede and the Pendleton Round-Up. Linderman is survived by his wife of 52 years Dorothy (Nauman), daughter Vickie (Curt) Brass of Billings and son Jay (Chrissy) Linderman of Savery, Wyo. Funeral services for Linderman will be Sunday, May 29 at 2 p.m. at Smith-Olcott Funeral Chapel in Red Lodge....

===
Yukon the Polar Bear Has 'Breath Surgery'

Yukon the polar bear underwent surgery that zookeepers hope will clear the air. The 16-year-old polar bear got an infected tooth pulled Thursday at Seneca Park Zoo. A team of veterinarians used a small hammer and chisel to remove it. The 805-pound bear was the perfect patient. He remained still on a large examination table, sighing occasionally during the hour-long procedure, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported Friday. Of course, he was sedated. The doctors linked the tooth to Yukon's bad breath. "You can just enter his den and you can smell it," said Dr. Jeff Wyatt, the zoo's director of Animal Health and Conservation. "It's kinda funky." Wyatt, who performed the surgery, said Yukon's tooth problem is actually quite common in older bears....

===
Energy Package Clears Senate Committee

A Senate panel reached bipartisan agreement on energy legislation yesterday, after years of failing to craft a measure that had broad support. Supporters said the legislation would help ease high prices by encouraging the development of more energy. The bill provides incentives for construction of nuclear plants, renewable energy facilities, and plants that burn coal using technology that spews fewer pollutants than traditional plants. It also seeks more oil and natural gas development on federal land. The Senate bill lacks a number of controversial provisions included in energy legislation approved by the House last month -- setting the stage for difficult negotiations when the two bills go to a House-Senate conference committee. The House legislation calls for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; the Senate version does not. Both chambers have approved budget resolutions that anticipate revenue from drilling in the refuge, and lawmakers must approve additional legislation before drilling can occur. The Senate bill contains some measures that opponents said would be likely to face debate when the full Senate considers it -- including a provision to give federal regulators authority over states on locating liquefied natural gas terminals....

===
NEWS ROUNDUP

Government Shirked Its Duty to Wild Fish, a Judge Rules A federal judge in Oregon ruled Thursday that the Bush administration had arbitrarily limited and skewed its analysis of the harm that 14 federal dams cause to endangered Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead. As a result, Judge James A. Redden of Federal District Court ruled, the administration had shirked its duty to ensure that government actions were not likely to jeopardize the survival of the species. The ruling came in a challenge by environmentalists, fishing groups and Indian tribes to the administration's determination that the harm the hydropower dams were posing to the young salmon and steelhead could be remedied over the next 10 years by $6 billion in improvements to the dams, including spillways designed to get the fish through safely. The ruling sends the issue back to the National Marine Fisheries Service for the third time. It also paves the way for the judge to rule on other pending requests by the same groups that the fish have a greater claim than they have had on limited water resources, especially when the Army Corps of Engineers manages the rate of flow this summer during the annual out-migration of year-old fish....
Island pigs slaughter protested at Norton event in Santa Barbara About two-dozen demonstrators greeted Interior Secretary Gale Norton with signs Thursday calling for an end to the slaughter of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands National Park. The National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy, which co-own the island, have hired a professional hunter to kill the pigs as part of its effort to protect endangered island foxes. Parks officials say the pigs attract nonnative golden eagles to the island that then also prey on the dwindling fox population. There are fewer than 100 foxes left on the island today. Norton was visiting Santa Barbara for the dedication of the city's Spanish colonial courthouse as a national historic landmark. She did not address the demonstrators during her prepared remarks, which were met with a few jeers....
Forest Service reactivates tankers The Forest Service will reinstate a fleet of 25 heavy tankers and other large aircraft to join hundreds of smaller planes and helicopters in combatting what is expected to be another tough wildfire season this summer. Officials said Thursday that despite some recent safety concerns, they have contracted to use nine P2V tankers and seven former Navy P-3 Orion turboprops to fight wildfires across the West. The large fixed-wing aircraft can drop up to 3,000 gallons of chemical fire retardant on blazes. In addition, an old Douglas DC-7 propeller-driven airliner, retrofitted with fire monitoring equipment, will be used to gather data on wildfires. Eight of the military's enormous C-130 transport planes, each outfitted with firefighting gear, also are being made available for use....
Study: Aspen declines in West Stands of white-barked aspens across the West are facing a similar fate. Decades of fire suppression have left the sensitive trees unable to compete in forests overcrowded with pine and fir trees and shrubs. Historically, frequent, low-intensity fires burned away trees and brush and encouraged new growth in aspen populations, which sprout from a massive, fire-resilient root system, Mueller said. The tree is known for its distinctive bark and fluttering leaves and valued as prime elk, deer and bird habitat. Without fire or other disturbances, the massive, interconnected root systems that link entire stands of aspens put all their energy into the larger trees, which emit a hormone that suppresses new sprouts. Those trees, which have little tolerance for competition, are slowly being overrun by conifers and shrubs. The root systems, which can live and produce trees for thousands of years, are shrinking....
U.S. judge throws out Columbia dams plan A federal judge yesterday rejected the Bush administration's $6 billion plan to improve the Columbia Basin hydroelectric dam system, saying it violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect threatened and endangered salmon. Noting that federal law puts salmon "on an equal footing with power production," U.S. District Judge James Redden in Portland ruled in favor of a challenge by environmentalists, Indian tribes and fishermen to a NOAA Fisheries plan for balancing dams against salmon. That plan, called a biological opinion, contended that $6 billion in improvements to the dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers and other measures would eliminate threats to the future survival of threatened and endangered salmon....
Interior chief pans Hetch Hetchy plan The nation's top natural resources official cast a cup of cold, mountain water Wednesday on an ambitious proposal to tear out a century-old dam and restore Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. "We have not closed any doors on anything, but what I see is a scarcity of water throughout the West," said Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Norton made the remarks during a brief question-and-answer session with reporters after speaking here to the Commonwealth Club of California....
Part of Alaska's Denali Closed After Bear Attack Rangers have temporarily closed a popular section of Denali National Park and Preserve after a grizzly bear attacked a hiker earlier this week, officials said on Thursday. The hiker, Joanne Saunders of Poquoson, Virginia, suffered cuts, bruises and a broken nose on Monday when the bear grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her onto the ground, the Park Service said. Saunders was treated and released from a Fairbanks hospital. The attack, which lasted just a few seconds before the bear fled into the brush, occurred when Saunders and her husband were standing on a rock outcropping to get a better view while hiking in an off-trail area with heavy brush and poor visibility, officials said....
Land swap proposed Utah's Republican Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch are wading into the shark-infested Colorado River — or at least they are wading into the land politics of southeastern Utah. And the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is praising the move. Both senators introduced legislation Thursday calling for an exchange of state School Trust lands in the Moab area for an equal amount of land somewhere else that can be developed. The trust "currently owns some of the most spectacular lands in America, located along the Colorado River in southeastern Utah," Bennett said. The legislation will trade those lands "into federal ownership and for the benefit of future generations." According to Bennett, the state would give up roughly 40,000 acres along the Colorado River corridor to better protect views of Arches National Park, the famous Kokopelli and Slickrock bicycle trails, wilderness study areas and Westwater Canyon, one of the world's premier whitewater rafting destinations....
Sportsmen and Conservation Groups Act to Save Otero Mesa From Giveaway to Big Industry Sportsmen and Conservation groups, represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit today in federal district court in Albuquerque seeking to save New Mexico’s Otero Mesa from the onslaught of oil and gas development. The conservation groups’ lawsuit supports a similar legal challenge filed in April by the state of New Mexico. Today’s suit claims the federal government failed to disclose the true effects of the oil and gas development on water resources, wildlife, and archaeological sites, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The suit also contends that the development plan fails to protect wildlife and plants in the most environmentally sensitive areas. On April 22, New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid filed suit on behalf of New Mexico against the federal Bureau of Land Management in federal district court in Santa Fe. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson has repeatedly asked the federal government to consider state interests and scale back the oil and gas development plans at Otero Mesa. The New Mexico lawsuit says that BLM violated federal laws by refusing to consider state interests when it adopted its aggressive oil and gas development scheme....
Land swap pushed for new mine Arizona lawmakers introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday that would help pave the way for a new underground copper mine near Superior. Versions of the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2005 were introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jon Kyl and in the House by Rep. Rick Renzi. The act would convey 3,155 acres of federal lands to Resolution Copper Co. and the town of Superior in exchange for 4,814 environmentally sensitive acres owned or controlled by Resolution Copper. Resolution's holdings include 3,073 acres along the lower San Pedro River in Pinal County, the 1,030-acre Appleton Ranch in Santa Cruz County and smaller sites near Superior and north of Phoenix....
Irvine Ranch Land Reserve Trust Launched with $20 Million Vowing to create a "new standard" for conservation stewardship and outdoor recreation, Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren today announced creation of the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve Trust covering 50,000 acres on the Irvine Ranch. The Reserve stretches from the mountains to the sea in central Orange County and covers more than 145 square miles. Speaking in Irvine Regional Park to 200 invited environmentalists, city, county, state and federal officials, Reserve landowners, and outdoor and environmental advocates, Bren said the Bren Foundation would make a $20 million gift to the Trust to support enhanced conservation and recreation on the Reserve. The non-profit organization will encourage far-reaching and cooperative efforts among more than 30 public entities involved with the Reserve....
Norton has harsh words for enviros, critical habitat lawsuits Escalating the rhetoric over congressional efforts to rewrite the Endangered Species Act, Interior Secretary Gale Norton accused environmentalists yesterday of focusing on litigation and fundraising at the expense of conservation and species recovery. "It certainly is far easier -- and more lucrative -- for some organizations to put out a press release or file a lawsuit than it is to restore a wetland or eradicate invasive weeds," Norton told a gathering of hunters and conservationists in Washington. "I am concerned about the polarization and politicizing of conservation. Instead of cooperation and consensus, we often see conflict," Norton said in an address to the American Wildlife Conservation Partners Conference. "This conflict frequently is spurred more by the desire to do fundraising than out of genuine concern for the resource."...
Brucellosis eradication debated for Yellowstone ecosystem A proposal to eradicate brucellosis from the greater Yellowstone ecosystem has raised concern from conservationists and praise from ranchers. Conservationists say they worry the proposal signals a shift toward more aggressive tactics to combat the disease that would treat wildlife like livestock. Cattle ranchers say a more aggressive approach is long overdue. At a meeting of the Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee on Wednesday, a new "memorandum of understanding" to guide the group was proposed that includes language to eliminate the disease that causes cattle to abort. The current agreement only calls for developing plans to eradicate the disease. Rob Hendry of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association said the committee has been talking about getting rid of brucellosis in Yellowstone for the last 10 years without much progress....
Legends of Jim Hathaway One of the most notorious cases during his eight years as constable in Nogales was the Mother Modie incident. On Oct. 19, 1925, the townsfolk of Nogales were horrified to learn of a terrible crime committed against one of their most beloved citizens. Gertrude "Mother" Modie ran a lodging house in town. She was known as a soft touch because she would never turn anyone away from her door if they needed a place to stay. She was well known and loved by every rancher, prospector, homesteader and cowboy on both sides of the border. Constable Jim Hathaway got the call early in the morning and hurried to the rooming house where he found Mother Modie lying in a pool of blood, dangerously near death. The 72-year-old woman had been beaten, slashed with a knife. The odor of charred flesh in the room led to the grisly discovery that her hands and feet had been brutally burned....

===

Thursday, May 26, 2005

MAD COW DISEASE

World Health Body Backs Beef Trade From BSE Countries The World Organization of Animal Health said countries with mad-cow disease should be allowed to export certain cuts of beef, allowing for a lifting of bans on U.S. and European Union meat. Red-muscle meat without bones is safe if the animal isn't suspected of having the brain-wasting disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, Alex Thiermann, an official from the organization, said at a press conference in Paris today. The body is responsible for setting animal health standards. ``It applies to all countries in all categories of risk,'' said Thiermann, who heads the unit governing animal health trade. ``I would hope that the bans would be minimized.'' The change, from previous rules allowing beef to be banned after just one case of mad-cow disease is found, may help the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Beef exports in all three nations plunged after the illness was diagnosed in their herds. World Trade Organization rules state that standards set at the 167-nation animal-health group must be followed unless scientific evidence is produced to justify otherwise. ``Many of the bans as they exist today are not based on'' the organization's standards, Thiermann said. For the first year, only meat from cattle younger than 30 months will benefit from the new rule. The age limit will be reconsidered next year....
Statement By Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns Regarding The OIE'S Adoption Of Changes To The International Animal Health Code Chapter On BSE "I applaud the leadership of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in modernizing the international approach to the safe trade of beef products by updating the BSE guidelines to reflect current science. "The United States and several other countries have advocated for guidelines that reflect science, the low risk associated with BSE, and the effectiveness of risk mitigation measures. I applaud the OIE for developing guidelines that incorporate all such factors. The international standard for to BSE is now based on the same information that has guided the United States' current practices and the proposed minimal risk rule. "Among other items, the OIE has now officially recognized additions to the list of non-risk products-most significantly to include boneless beef that can be traded without regard to a country's BSE status. "The OIE has also adopted a new, streamlined system for classifying countries according to relative risk for BSE in a manner that reflects the steps they have implemented to manage and reduce that risk....
Economic impact of BSE still playing out, says economist Two years after the North American beef industry was rocked by BSE's arrival, the economic impact continues to play out, University of Nebraska-Lincoln specialists say. The discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in a cow in Canada in May 2003 led the US to shut down imports of Canadian cattle. Seven months later, a BSE case was discovered in Washington state, which led to a loss of most US beef export markets. Different sectors of the US beef industry have been affected very differently by the discoveries of mad cow disease. US meatpackers that rely on Canadian imports to meet their processing capacity have been hard hit. A Kansas State University estimate is that 5,000 American meatpackers lost their jobs in the last two years as Canadian imports dried up. Some US cow-calf producers may see Canada's woes as helping their situation. In the short term, that may be so, but the long-term outlook is less certain, said Dillon Feuz, UNL agriculture marketing specialist at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center at Scottsbluff. The bottom line, Feuz said, is that all sectors in the beef industry are best served by a robust, open trade environment. From 1998 to 2002, the last full year before BSE was discovered on this continent, open trade benefitted the U.S. economy significantly, as the nation annually imported $3.7 billion in cattle, beef and byproducts and exported $5.1 billion. That's a $1.4 billion annual trade balance in the black....
First Technology to Remove Prions that Cause vCJD From Blood Launched The risk of receiving blood contaminated with variant Cruetzfeldt-Jakob (vCJD) prions may no longer be a concern for the thousands of people who require a transfusion. Pall Corporation (NYSE: PLL) announced today the Council of Europe (CE) marking of its Leukotrap® Affinity Prion Reduction Filter System. It is the first and only technology that removes infectious prions that may be the causative agent of vCJD from red cells, the most commonly transfused blood component. Variant CJD, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, is the human form of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), also known as Mad Cow Disease. The CE mark means the new prion reduction filter meets pan-European essential requirements for safety of medical devices. "The availability of our prion reduction filter is a seminal event heralding a new era in blood safety," says Eric Krasnoff, Chairman and CEO of Pall Corporation. "We are working very closely with health authorities, starting with the nations hardest hit by vCJD, to help protect the safety of the blood supply and prevent the spread of this insidious disease."....
Agents of brain-wasting disease observed Scientists for the first time have watched agents of brain-wasting diseases, called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), as they invade a nerve cell and then travel along wire-like circuits to points of contact with other cells. These findings will help scientists better understand TSE diseases and may lead to ways to prevent or minimize their effects. TSE, or prion, diseases include scrapie in sheep and goats; chronic wasting disease in deer and elk; mad cow disease in cattle; and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in humans." These findings offer intriguing leads toward developing therapies to stop the spread of TSE and possibly other degenerative brain diseases," says NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. "Potentially, it may be possible to block the pathways that prions use to invade cells, their exit to other cells or their replication within the cells."....

===