Tuesday, June 07, 2005

GAO REPORT

National Park Service: Revenues Could Increase by Charging Allowed Fees for Some Special Use Permits. GAO-05-410, May 6. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-410

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05410high.pdf

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NEWS

Cattle doing enviro-duty Cows, once considered a menace to the planet by environmentalists, are being credited with bringing back the wildflowers and native grasses at the 535-acre Bouverie Preserve in the Sonoma Valley. Cows simply do what cows do best: eat. They graze on the invasive non-native grasses so that native grasses and wildflowers can thrive. Cattle find non-native grasses like wild oats and rye grass more palatable than the native plants. Like kids, they eat the good stuff first. Grazing has helped native wildflowers such as meadowfoam and mule-eared sunflowers prosper at Bouverie. "Cows are a perfect management tool here. When you have highly productive coastal grasslands with strong competition from imported European grasses you need a herbivore to level the playing field," said biologist Daniel Gluesenkamp....
Board delays Montana CBM water restrictions A decision on whether the state should consider new restrictions on what can be done with water pumped from coal-bed methane wells will not be made until late July. The state Board of Environmental Review unanimously decided Friday to delay until its July 29 meeting any action on new regulations proposed by a coalition of conservation and ranching interests from southeastern Montana. Members said they wanted more time to study the proposal that surfaced just 2.5 weeks ago. The Northern Plains Resource Council, along with 15 other groups and ranchers, want requirements that water removed from the wells to be pumped back into the ground to replenish aquifers or, if that is not technically possible, to be treated before being discharged into rivers or streams for irrigation....
A water watchdog Dogged persistence and years devoted to the study of arcane, century-old water law have made Russell one of the most formidable environmental lawyers in the Northwest. Admirers consider her a "pit bull" fighting for the preservation of Oregon's beloved rivers. Detractors, who are in no short supply, say her legal exploits are overzealous and misguided, doing little to restore rivers while costing people jobs and opportunity. For better or worse, Russell and her scrappy little nonprofit are changing how Oregon uses its limited and all-important water....
Rancher weaves barbed wire into folk art It's amazing what you can do with a few miles of barbed wire -- besides build a fence, that is. Don Berry sculpted statutes of buffalo and bears out of material found on his property, mostly barbed wire. The folk art figures that are sentinels at the Berrys' ranch 20 miles north of Cheyenne on the Torrington highway include a bison, two bears and a bear cub. The sculptures represent about 700 hours of work and patience....
It's All Trew: Tagging vehicles has colorful history The idea of requiring automobile identification numbers originated in New York State in 1901. With a fee imposed, it became a license. The term tags originated in Michigan in 1905 when vehicle owners received small, aluminum, numbered discs the size of a silver dollar. A Vehicle Registration Act was adopted by the Texas Legislature on August 10, 1907. Cost was 50 cents with the vehicle owner responsible for constructing and installing the plate. Most license plates were made of leather with house numbers riveted to the surface....

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Monday, June 06, 2005

NEW ISSUE TO BE COVERED BY THE WESTERNER

Having been born into a family involved in law enforcement, I have always tended to side with and defend the law enforcement community on various issues. My involvement with the Kit Laney case and the abuses I witnessed have caused me to re-think that stand and left me with many questions about that case.

Some of the questions I have concerning the law enforcement angle of this case are the following:

1. Who made the decision to send 16 Forest Service Law Enforcement Officers into this small community to handle the gathering of livestock on one ranch? What was their rationale for sending this large contingent and were the helicopter and dogs really necessary for this operation?

2. Why did the head Forest Service law enforcement official for this area refuse to participate in the operation?

3. Under what legal authority did the Forest Service close non-Forest Service roads and either not allow or delay local citizens from entering their own property? Were these Forest Service personnel acting as employees or officers and when did Congress grant them general law enforcement authority? Congressman Steve Pearce wrote to the Inspector General of USDA requesting an investigation. In his request, Congressman Pearce noted “the fact that there have been numerous other complaints, including harassment of Laney relatives and other ranchers, questionable or illegal road closures and requirement of permits for individuals to enter private property adds to the perception that a concerted effort is being made to drive law abiding New Mexicans from their homes and livelihoods.” Is the IG following through on this investigation?

4. The Sheriff of Catron County issued a statement saying he would enforce state livestock laws. He was then visited by two FBI agents. Who requested the FBI “visit” with the Sheriff and what did they tell the Sheriff?

5. No sales barns in New Mexico would accept the Laney cattle. Did the FBI contact the sales barns and ask if they had been threatened by Mr. Laney and, if so, who requested the FBI do this?

6. My final question involves a person whom I’ve admired for several years, Mr. David Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney. Why was he so adamant in keeping Kit Laney in jail, and why did he fight so hard in so many instances to keep him from being released on his own recognizance?

In the general time frame of the Laney arrest, an Albuquerque man was arrested and charged for putting a steel wire across a public trail and causing injury to at least one person. Yet the U.S. attorney allowed him to be released. One can only conclude that if you are a threat to the general public, the U.S. Attorney will allow you to be released, but if you are a perceived threat solely to the Forest Service, he will fight tooth and nail to keep you behind bars.

My weblog has posted stories on two other events occurring in other jurisdictions since the Laney arrest. In one instance, a BLM Ranger was hit by a person driving an ATV, and in another, a person pulled a gun on a Park ranger. In both instances, the U.S. Attorneys allowed them to be released. I guess New Mexico’s U.S. Attorney believes spurs and reins are more dangerous than ATVs and guns.

It appears one of two things has occurred. Either Mr. Iglesias has turned on those New Mexicans who have supported his run for elected office and supported his appointment to his current position, or he has caved in to pressure from the Forest Service to make an example of Kit Laney. I can’t believe it’s the first scenario, and the second is certainly not an instance of dispensing “justice”.

In any event, it has become clear to me that people in the West must take an interest in Federal law enforcement. While my primary interest would be in the activities of personnel from EPA, USFS, BLM, USFWS, NPS, etc., I will cover all issues, actions, regulations and legislation impacting Federal law enforcement. These articles will be separated from the others with the heading FLE so they can be skipped over by those not interested. However, I hope you will join me in keeping tabs on these folks and the impact they may have on all Westerners.

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FLE

EPA's Ruby Ridge of the Blue Ridge In 2001, "60 Minutes" ran a report on the EPA CID. In traditional muckraking style, they chronicled the ordeals of Steve McNabb and a Massachusetts plant owner, Jim Knott, with a similar story. Knott’s wire manufacturing plant was raided at about the same time as American Carolina Stamping. Jim Knott was criminally indicted by the EPA CID for water ph levels emitted from his plant. However, during the trial an FBI forgery analyst testified that CID agents had falsified the incriminating documents. The federal judge ruled in Knott's favor. During the raid, McNabb, his wife, and his son were threatened with prison sentences. When McNabb demanded to use his tape recorder, agents pulled their weapons on him, handcuffed him, and stood him outside while they searched his office. They also searched Jay McNabb’s house, which is on the factory’s property, without a search warrant. McNabb later contested this in court, but a judge ruled that Steve McNabb’s belligerent behavior after he was denied the tape recorder gave agents sufficient cause to fear for their own personal safety....
Federal ID Act May Be Flawed A federal law designed to make it harder to assume someone else's identity may instead have the opposite effect, critics of the measure say. The Real ID Act, attached to a crucial bill for military spending and tsunami relief that was signed by President Bush on May 11, sets new rules for issuing driver's licenses and requires states to share electronic access to their records. The standards are intended to weed out impostors applying for licenses, in part by requiring state employees to check on the validity of birth certificates and other supporting documents. After states adopt the necessary changes, anyone applying for or renewing a license will get one reflecting the new standards. But once the law takes full effect three years from now, it will also give many more bureaucrats access to personal information on people nationwide. And it will add more data to each file — including digital copies of documents with birth and address information. To some industry experts and activists concerned about the fast-growing crime of identity theft, putting so much data before more eyes guarantees abuse at a time when people are increasingly concerned about who sees their personal information and how it gets used....
You've Been Drafted: Uncle Sam Wants You for the War on Drugs We alerted you last week to the bill, entitled "Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005" (H.R. 1528). We already told you about many of the terrible provisions in this legislation, but we are especially concerned about a section of the bill that turns every American into an agent of the state. Here's how it works: If you "witness" certain drug offenses taking place or "learn" that they took place you would have to report the offense to law enforcement within 24 hours and provide "full assistance" in the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of the people involved. Failure to do so would be a crime punishable by a mandatory two year prison sentence....

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NEWS

Into a new mineral paradigm The days of the kitchen-table handshake between the oil company and the rancher are over. Beginning July 1, a handshake is no good unless it's documented under Wyoming's new "Split Estates Procedures for Oil and Gas Operations" law. "Senate File 60 puts both sides in an environment where they have to document every communication," said Joe Icenogle, spokesman for Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. Icenogle spoke as a panelist in a split-estate forum here Friday at the CBM Education Fair. Under pressure from growing energy development across the state, Wyoming lawmakers earlier this year passed Senate File 60 -- the Legislature's third and successful attempt at a split-estate law. Its aim is to ensure reasonable notice and compensation to surface owners who don't own the minerals below their property, but host drilling and production activities on their surface. Landowners had argued they needed more leverage in striking reasonable "surface use" agreements with oil and gas companies because they can't refuse access to the mineral lessee under Wyoming statute. Now, the new law requires a good-faith attempt for both sides to strike a surface use agreement, and that it contain compensation for "loss of land value."....
Fish role eyed in coal-bed methane debate Ever since developers learned how to tap coal seams in the Powder River Basin for natural gas, they've struggled with what to do with the brackish groundwater that comes out first. A fish may be the answer. Water is being pumped from coal-bed methane wells in rural, northern Wyoming to John Woiwode's tilapia farm in an area where cattle roam. About 1,300 of the small, pink fish now delight in the water - flipping, flopping and pooping in it. It's the squiggles of poop that interest researchers like Woiwode, and whether that waste could help make the water into a more usable asset instead of a pollutant....
Colo. basks in region's oil-gas boom Federal oil and gas leasing revenues rose 22 percent for Colorado and three neighboring states to more than $1.1 billion in 2004, according to a U.S. Bureau of Land Management report. Colorado had the largest percentage jump in royalties, 41 percent, to $89 million, mainly due to increased drilling in the Piceance Basin in the western part of the state. Wyoming received more than $600 million in federal payments in 2004, New Mexico about $383 million and Utah about $73 million, according to the BLM report released in May....
Drilling ignites battle over Western paradise Near the entrance of a pristine national forest area called the Valle Vidal, or "valley of life," a Halliburton tanker truck rumbles past a huge crater among the sculpted sandstone cliffs, herds of elk and ponderosa pines. It's a blasted circle, two acres wide, around a pit of foul-smelling water, a heap of shattered stone and a hissing 20-foot-tall pump sucking methane gas from the earth. The truck contains yet another shipment of liquid nitrogen, which will be injected into the ground at extreme pressure to crack more rock and release more gas. This jarring intrusion of industry into wilderness is increasingly common on public lands across the West, evidence of the rising number of gas and oil drilling permits approved by the Bush administration. Six years ago, 1,639 such permits on federal land were approved. Last year, the administration granted more than three times that number, 6,052....
Living with grizzlies For Michelle Sauerwein, living in grizzly bear country has changed in the last five years. The Wapiti resident has seen bears trapped on her front lawn, and she spent at least four hours on her barn roof to avoid a grizzly sow with cubs. Sauerwein did this as her infant slept in the main house, with no supervision. "Everything is more complicated, to hold this balance of living in a happy medium with these bears," she said. Sauerwein, and about 15 other residents of Wapiti and rural Park County, all had similar messages to send to state legislators and county commissioners gathered here last week for a tour of grizzly bear country....
Anger Piqued Beneath a Peak Three years ago, avid hiker Jim Walters made his first 11-mile, lung-busting trek to the summit of Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states. "You see … azure blue water and snow … the play of the clouds and the distant mountains and forests," recalled the 59-year-old medical ethics professor from Claremont. "It is just spectacular." But now Walters, who describes himself as a longtime Sierra Club member and a dedicated conservationist, wants to develop a 74-acre luxury housing subdivision below the jagged gray 14,494-foot peak and amid the brown, boulder-strewn hills used for countless Hollywood movie shoots. Walters stands to make several million dollars from the venture, although he is making himself anathema to fellow environmentalists in the process. "I see myself as a tree hugger, but there are those who hug the trees more tightly than do I. And [they] do not want to see any development," he said....
Federal judge declines to stop timber sale near Lewis and Clark Trail A federal judge has refused to stop the Wendover Fire Salvage Project, a timber sale near the trail used by Lewis and Clark 200 years ago on their historic trek to the Pacific Ocean. A coalition of environmental groups filed suit in U.S. District Court last week, contending the Forest Service's plan failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal regulations and that the agency was cutting down healthy trees as well as those killed or damaged by fire. But Judge Edward Lodge ruled Friday that the Forest Service adequately reviewed the project before it began cutting the trees on 117 acres in the Clearwater National Forest in northern Idaho. He cited a memo the agency released in March after public comment hearings....
No end to this Rainbow After three months sitting in prison, barred from fresh air and the sun’s rays, Barry Adams prefers to hold his interview in a patch of sunshine in his backyard. He’s happy to be back in Missoula, to once again take on obligations like fixing the lawnmower and caring for his daughter. He was sprung May 20 from a federal prison in Seattle after serving 90 days and paying a $500 fine for “unauthorized use of National Forests systems land without authorization when such authorization is required.” The charge stems from the 2000 Rainbow Family of Living Light Gathering that drew 36,000 people to southwestern Montana’s Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. Adams, now 59, was accused of being a leader of the Rainbows after he applied for personal use of national forest land and attended the gathering after his application was denied. He explains that the feds insist Rainbows are an organized group, and there must be leaders, but that’s not how it works....
Wildflower on Development Site Prompts Criminal Investigation Opponents of a controversial housing project turned an endangered wild flower into a weapon to block construction on a site that borders a wetlands area, according to investigators with the state's Fish and Game department. Robert Evans, an opponent of the Laguna Vista housing development in Sebastopol reported finding specimens of the rare Sebastopol meadowfoam on the development site in April. Investigators determined that the 30 flowers did not grow on the site but had been transplanted. "The location of the plants, the type of clusters that were found, the fact that they were on sloping areas that normally this type of plant is not found on, gave us the first indication," Fish and Game's Troy Swauger told KCBS reporter Larry Chiaroni. "To find this on a development site at this point indicates to us that they have been transplanted. We're considering this a criminal act."....
Suit challenges fishing season cut A California-based legal foundation filed a lawsuit in Eugene Friday on behalf of two Oregon fishermen's associations, charging that the federal government broke the law when it cut the commercial fishing season for chinook salmon in half. The Pacific Legal Foundation alleged that the National Marine Fisheries Service wrongly distinguished between naturally spawning and hatchery chinook salmon and failed to consider the "severe economic and safety impacts" of a shortened trolling season on coastal fishing communities. A spokesman for the state's largest advocacy group for fishermen criticized the lawsuit, however, saying the shortened season is necessary to protect the struggling Klamath chinook, which intermingle "all up and down the coast."....
Visitor center to highlight Grand Staircase wildlife The birds and the bees and other wildlife, vegetation and even microscopic organisms are the theme of the newest visitor center connected with the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that opens to the public Saturday. Located in the tiny town of Escalante in southern Utah, the new facility - constructed with a liberal use of glass and jagged stones from the surrounding area - is dedicated to the biology and ecology of the monument spread over 1.9 million acres of rugged and isolated terrain in Garfield and Kane counties....
Democrats put Pombo on their list Democratic leaders, looking for districts they think they can win in 2006 to regain control of the House after a dozen years, are eyeing the seat of the lone Republican in the Democratic-dominated Bay Area -- powerful Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy. Pombo, a rancher first elected in 1992 whose district straddles the Altamont Pass, was one of 12 Republican House members targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee over the Memorial Day weekend with radio ads. Pombo, who chairs the House Resources Committee, is a strong GOP fund- raiser, based on his advocacy of property owners' rights and his criticism of the Endangered Species Act, which he calls a runaway train that values preservation of animal and vegetation species habitats over people....
Groups reach $134 million agreement for recovering salmon After three years, a group of residents, farmers, environmentalists, tribal members and government officials has agreed on a $134 million plan for helping salmon runs recover in the Snohomish River Basin. The 38-member Snohomish Basin Salmon Recovery Forum on Thursday unanimously adopted a plan aimed at restoring chinook salmon and bull trout populations. Both species are listed as threatened in the Puget Sound region under the Endangered Species Act. The idea of the Snohomish River plan is to improve specific habitats on the river's tributaries, on the main river, in the delta and along the shores of Possession Sound near the mouth of the river, Martha Neuman, a senior planner for Snohomish County, told The Herald of Everett. The group expects to raise the money needed through a variety of state, federal and other grant programs....
Complexity in Ecology and Conservation: Mathematical, Statistical, and Computational Challenges Creative approaches at the interface of ecology, statistics, mathematics, informatics, and computational science are essential for improving our understanding of complex ecological systems. For example, new information technologies, including powerful computers, spatially embedded sensor networks, and Semantic Web tools, are emerging as potentially revolutionary tools for studying ecological phenomena. These technologies can play an important role in developing and testing detailed models that describe real-world systems at multiple scales. Key challenges include choosing the appropriate level of model complexity necessary for understanding biological patterns across space and time, and applying this understanding to solve problems in conservation biology and resource management....
Bison ranch owners swap animal tales Pia opened doors and jumped on beds at the Red Canyon Ranch outside of Thermopolis. Then she gained 500 pounds. "We had moon-shaped hoof marks torn into the mattress," said Kathleen Gear of her "bottle baby" bison. Pia became imprinted with the Gears as a calf. Now, at more than 1,000 pounds, Pia still likes to be petted, even while nursing a calf of her own. Leggs - otherwise known as 'Earl the Girl' - is another imprint case. She had trouble walking after birth and couldn't nurse with her mother. Lyman rancher Rex Snyder bottle-fed the bison, and now he has the equivalent of a 900-pound puppy dog. "She runs alongside the pickup," Snyder said. "She follows me everywhere. She's been kicked out of the Marriott twice."....
Two American idols who put a little wild in the West Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the Beginnings of Superstardom in America; Larry McMurtry; Simon & Schuster: 246 pp., $26. Novelist, essayist and screenwriter McMurtry (author of "Lonesome Dove," "Terms of Endearment," "The Last Picture Show," "Streets of Laredo" and "Texasville," to name just a handful) is one of our ablest and most amiable chroniclers of the American West. As a shrewd observer of the American scene, he also takes a keen interest in the phenomenon of celebrity. So it's not surprising to find him in this book combining his two interests as he revisits and reconsiders what is known about the lives of these two early "superstars." The Colonel and Little Missie were certainly not a couple, and indeed don't even seem to have had an especially close professional relationship: The term that best seems to characterize their association would be mutual respect. Both had grown up poor — virtually destitute in her case; a more ordinary mix of hard times and better in his. Both had learned to kill game and sell meat to support themselves and their families....
Mariposa Wagon Train rides again The 30th anniversary of the Mariposa County Pioneer Wagon Train is set for June 8 through 11. Every second weekend in June for the past 29 years, men, women, children, mules and horses have headed out on a 32-mile adventure. The train begins near the south entrance to Yosemite National Park, proceeds over the Sierra Nevada and finally circles up at the Mariposa County Fairgrounds for an evening of cowboy poetry, dinner and dancing. The trek is open to mule- and horse-drawn vehicles, mounted riders and walkers, and period dress is encouraged....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: The long shot holds soft spot in our hearts But would I have cheered Giacomo down the home stretch? Would I have shredded my program in the excitement? Would I have felt that primal, goose-bumpy surge well up from deep inside as he crossed the finish line? Would I have experienced innocent, emotional, unprotected, unexpected joy for his success? Absolutely! "Unbelievable," I would repeat, over and over, as they gave ol' FIFTY to ONE the roses. And I'm just an innocent bystander!....

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Sunday, June 05, 2005

Ranchers giving up business, heritage

Linn Blancett has given a lot to ranching, including his right ring finger, lost in a steer-roping accident years ago. The 60-year-old's family has been raising cattle among the otherworldly sandstone canyons of the Animas River valley for six generations, stretching back to 1878, before New Mexico was a state. His great-great-grandfather was the first county commission chairman here. And Blancett has buried two sons in these arid hills. But now, he says, the growth of drilling is forcing him to move. "All these wells are putting me out of business," said Blancett, his blue eyes gazing up at a 20-foot-tall pump chugging amid the gnarled cedar and scrub oak on his ranch. More than 200 natural gas wells clutter the federal land where he has grazing rights...Ray Sanchez, environmental protection chief for the local Bureau of Land Management, said he has sympathy for the ranchers but also understands the need to drill. Sanchez said the gas companies have as much right - or more - than the ranchers to use the land, because they own the mineral rights underneath, while the ranchers enjoy only a "privilege" to graze their cattle there, Sanchez said..."The ranchers are operating on federal land, but they don't want to share that federal land with other uses, and that includes not only the oil and gas industry, but also recreational users, too," said Chad Calvert, a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of the Interior....

What wonderful DOI officials we have here. Someone should tell Mr. Sanchez that gas is a leasable, not a locatable mineral. So, the gas companies lease the minerals from BLM, just like the ranchers lease the forage. I would also like to know where Mr. Calvert got his knowledge of ranchers. The ones I've met over the last 30 plus years are very multiple use oriented and understand their rights and the rights of other users. They just want the mineral extraction conducted according to the law and the reg's, so that their livelihood is not destroyed as well as the resource they depend upon. You'd think someone who has worked for two US Senators from Wyoming would know this and not be so anti-rancher. But, I see he graduated from Georgetown University in DC---that's probably what screwed him up.

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Groups send notice of intent to sue Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Renegade Rancher

A coalition of groups led by Forest Guardians, today send a 60-day notice of intent to sue under the Endangered Species Act to the Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and two Arizona ranchers. After more than two years of allowing Abelardo and Dan Martinez to illegally graze cattle on Forest Service lands, the Forest Service finally cancelled his grazing permit last August and issued a notice to impound his cattle. However, despite the cancelled permit, the Martinez cattle are still grazing on National Forest land, continuing to damage the land, feeding for free on the Pleasant Valley grazing allotment, and trespassing onto the neighboring Hickey allotments. New Mexico Wildlife Federation, the Arizona Wildlife Federation and the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility joined Forest Guardians in the letter, which outlines how despite canceling the permit and “monitoring” the situation, the Forest Service has taken no action to actually remove the trespassing cattle or to take legal action against the ranchers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is also noticed in the letter as they were informed about the trespass cattle and resulting damage to the habitat of the federally threatened Chiricahua leopard frog, loach minnow, and spikedace, but have also failed to take any action against the owners of the livestock. Despite the order to remove their cattle from Forest Service lands, Abe and Dan Martinez have failed to remove their livestock months after being ordered to do so. On October 14, District Ranger Hayes issued a “Notice of Intent to Impound Unauthorized Livestock,” but to date the Forest Service has failed to take action on the notice. On October 18, 2004, the four conservation groups sent a letter to Ranger Hayes asking him to “present an expeditious and clear plan for remedying the severe damage that has occurred as a result of your inaction and the illegal grazing that has taken place over the last two years.” After patiently waiting six months for further action, the groups are now sending notice to push the agencies into taking action. In July, the groups may also file suit after the required 60-day waiting period....

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SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

Summer holidays—what do real people do?

By Julie Carter

Years ago when summer arrived with its major holidays on either end of it and the Fourth of July in the middle, never once did I plan for a picnic, a vacation or a backyard barbeque.

Summer meant rodeo season. It meant spending hours on the phone getting entered in the rodeos, thousands of miles of driving, and dragging in on Sunday night to be back to work on Monday. My rodeo friends and I often wondered what real people did on the Fourth of July.

While we were mucking around in the mud after a summer downpour at the rodeo grounds, washing off the barrel horse’s leg gear with nearest water hose and hoping it would dry before it was time to compete again, real people were no doubt sitting on a backyard deck eating grilled delicacies and laughing over memories of trips to Cancun.

That same water hose washed down children, dogs, horses and muddy boots. It usually was attached to a hydrant accessible only by mucking through a standing lake of water in the same corral the bucking bulls were penned. They watched you slip, slide and likely fall in your attempt to hurry just in case they were in a bad mood.

While we were driving all night from one night rodeo to get to another one that started in the afternoon on the other side of the state, real people were slumbering soundly in a their beds in a five star hotel anticipating the next day’s round of golf at a seaside resort.

While we spent the weekend trying to pass for civilized beings despite being rumpled, tired and nourished only by two-day old cold burritos from the cooler, real people planned massive food get-togethers with friends and relatives.

Get-togethers for the rodeo crowd were at the gas stations on the road to the next rodeo and perhaps some short conversation at the hamburger stand at the rodeo grounds.

Ranching offers about the same version of the holidays. It’s not uncommon to have a cattle working scheduled on a holiday because you know everyone will be available. The neighboring ranchers don’t vacation on holidays either.

My life after rodeo resembled rodeo life so much I didn’t ever get a chance to see how “normal” people live. I moved right from arena dirt to corral dirt and 5 a.m. starts –not to drive to a rodeo but to drive to the pasture.

Earlier this spring a friend of mine was so excited. She’d been invited to a “Wildflower Party.” She was completely charmed by the idea. The invitation said it was a “celebration of Texas’ bountiful and beautiful wildflower display and would include cocktails, dinner and dancing to a live band.”

What was most intriguing about the invitation was that it didn’t include instructions to bring a shod horse and be there by 5 a.m. for breakfast. She said she could only conclude that the hosts either had no faith in her cowboying abilities or had already shipped their cattle.

While I am sure there is a certain amount of romanticizing of reality when I think everyone spends their holidays sitting on a beach, sailing boats, or napping in the shade of a well manicured yard, I probably won’t ever really know.

I still look for some arena dirt, hot sun and miserable weather for my holidays. But now I use the event to pay me through the use of my pen and camera instead of me paying someone to spend 18 seconds in the spotlight.

For a look into rural America at its best, see a rodeo this summer. And remember, while they may not always look like it, rodeo cowboys are real people too.

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

© Julie Carter 2005

Do you know what I mean?

By Larry Gabriel

Normal people communicate with each other just fine without grammatical precision or elaborate definitions, but not all speakers are "normal".

It's getting more difficult to understand natural resource discussions partly because someone keeps changing the meaning of the words.

Do you know what I mean when I say, "roadless" or "pristine" or "biological diversity" or "healthy forest" or "sustainable farming" or "endemic" or "democracy"?

Maybe you do, but I assure it is not the same as what some other people mean when they use such terms. We can no longer find out what some words mean by looking in the dictionary.

When John Adams said, "Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. (John Adams, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814)" he was talking about direct rule by the people which was widely condemned because it was not a government of law.

When politicians say "democracy" today they usually mean a constitutional government of law run by elected officers chosen by citizens in open elections. In Adams' day that was a "republican form of government".

Many of these terms are infected with a large dose of "social justice" and subjectivity.

For example, "biological diversity" does not mean more things with different traits. It means more things that are of the kind the speaker wants.

A "healthy forest" need not produce more timber, more water, cleaner water, fewer fires or more recreational opportunity. It is one that "looks" the way the speaker wants.

A "sustainable farm" need not provide a decent living to its owners. It is one that uses resources in a manner that is "fair and just" to all people on the planet to the extent taxpayers can afford to subsidize its operations.

An "endemic species" is not one that has been there for a thousand years. It is one the speaker wants to be there and has a circle drawn on a map around its primary population center.

"Pristine" does not mean original and unchanged. It means an area where the roads and other improvements lack sufficient political clout to protect them from removal.

"Roadless" does not mean an area without roads. It means an area where roads can be closed and in which a "road" is not a road at all unless it is maintained by the federal landowner.

A "promise" spoken by a federal officer does not mean he will do it. It means if his boss approves and the policy does not change and there is money to be found and they are not diverted by a higher priority, the government will do that…maybe.

The last one is my "favorite", if you know what I mean.

Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture


I welcome submissions for this feature of The Westerner

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP’S MOTION TO INTERVENE MUST BE DENIED

Kathy Stupak-Thrall owns property on the northern edge of Crooked Lake in Gogebic County, Michigan. Under Michigan law, she has the legal right to use the entire surface of Crooked Lake so long as her use does not unreasonably interfere with the rights of other lakefront property owners. One of those owners is the U.S. Forest Service, which owns a majority of the remaining property that surrounds the wide and meandering lake. In 1987, Congress adopted the Michigan Wilderness Act in which it designated the Forest Service land, part of the Ottawa National Forest, as federal wilderness in accordance with the Wilderness Act of 1964. Both the 1964 statute and the 1987 statute protect “valid existing rights,” like those of Stupak-Thrall. Nonetheless, shortly after enactment of the Michigan Wilderness Act, the Forest Service adopted rules barring the landowners from using Crooked Lake. Ms. Stupak-Thrall’s first lawsuit, regarding her right to use sailboats, ended in a 7-7 ruling by the Sixth Circuit. Then, in March 1996, Ms. Stupak-Thrall sued the Forest Service when it sought to prevent her from using motorboats on Crooked Lake. In December 1997, the District Court held that the Forest Service could not restrict her use of her property, that is, the surface of Crooked Lake. The Forest Service immediately appealed to the Sixth Circuit; however, on April 27, 2005, the Forest Service filed a motion to dismiss its appeal....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

A New Paradigm for Federal Lands

But the similarities end there. Valles Caldera is something altogether different from a national park. It represents not only a fresh alternative to existing federal park and forest management, but a return to the original vision of national parks paying their own way. Whether that vision will be realized depends on how well VCNP responds to the marketbased framework created by Congress. Fed up with the amount of western land being consumed by the federal government and managed by inefficient bureaucracies, New Mexico senator Pete Domenici worked to ensure that this environmental purchase would not be business as usual. He had good reason for concern. As PERC has reported consistently, national park funding has increased over the years, but even so the National Park Service reports a $6 to $9 billion backlog of unfunded maintenance, acquisition, and resource management projects (Fretwell 2004). With most of their budgets coming from Congress, federal land managers traditionally work to satisfy the interests of politicians. They have little incentive to direct funding to its most appropriate uses, to find new sources of revenue, or to keep costs down to make ends meet....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

Eco-Terrorists Firebomb Washington Homes

Eco-terrorists affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) torched one suburban Seattle home and attempted to firebomb another in an April 13 night of terror, say federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives investigators. Nobody was hurt in the attacks, although police narrowly escaped harm when a firebomb planted in one of the homes failed to ignite. In the pre-dawn hours in Sammamish, a town of 33,000 people just east of Seattle, neighbors called police when they noticed a home on fire. On their way to the blaze, police noticed a second home that appeared to have signs of vandalism. While Eastside Fire & Rescue units arrived at the first blaze, police entered the second home. Inside, police found the gas had been turned on and an incendiary device had been planted and was poised to explode. Police officers deactivated the incendiary device before it could detonate. Outside, the arsonists had left a large white banner reading, “Where are all the trees? Burn, rapists, burn.” The banner was signed by ELF....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY


Utah Bans Eminent Domain Use by Redevelopment Agencies

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R) on March 17 signed into law Senate Bill 184, effectively preventing the exercise of eminent domain authority by redevelopment agencies, which otherwise had the power to transfer land from one private entity to another. Local governments may still use eminent domain for more traditionally defined and understood "public purposes." Utah appears to be the first state to take legislative action to curb the use of eminent domain by local governments. The use of eminent domain by local governments has grown over the past 30 years as cities have taken private property from one owner to give or sell to another private owner whose proposed use promises increased tax revenue or other economic benefits. The Michigan supreme court ended the practice there in July 2004 by reversing the infamous 1981 Poletown decision, which had allowed a Michigan city to remove more than a thousand private homeowners from land that was then given to General Motors. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a similar case brought by Susette Kelo against the New London Development Corporation, created by the city of New London, Connecticut. New London is trying to use its eminent domain power to take Kelo's home to give or sell to a private developer....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

EPA Approves Chemical Control of Aquatic Weeds

Local governments and private individuals should not be required to obtain a special environmental permit prior to applying chemicals to control invasive aquatic weeds and other pests, ruled the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a January 25 interpretive statement. The guidance, if adhered to by the courts, will eliminate confusion that ensued after a federal appellate court in 2001 ruled a local water agency violated federal law by failing to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit prior to applying a chemical to an irrigation canal for the purpose of controlling invasive aquatic weeds. Local governments have long used chemicals to control nuisance aquatic weeds and aquatic pests such as mosquito larvae. A small number of private individuals make similar aquatic chemical applications, but local governments, which care for most bodies of water, make the vast majority of chemical applications....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

PETA or Medical Research?

PETA flat-out opposes the use of animals in medical research, claiming that “Even animal research that is carried out for ‘medical purposes’ tends to be irrelevant to human health.” This claim is ridiculous. Not only has research with laboratory animals led to countless medical advances for people—including with respect to vaccines, drugs, smallpox, diabetes, heart disease, surgery, organ transplants and much more—but also for animals. “For years, there was basically one way to treat sick pets: Put them to sleep. But today they can live happy, long lives,” says the Foundation for Biomedical Research, an organization “dedicated to improving human and animal health by promoting public understanding and support for the humane and responsible use of animals in medical and scientific research.” The crusade by animal rights extremists against medical research stoops far below respectful, non-violent philosophical difference....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

GREENIE MELTDOWN

Environmentalists have discovered a nonpolluting renewable resource that they feel may be the only way to save the planet and meet the goals of the Kyoto Protocol: nuclear power.

Furthermore, it is the only technology ready to fill the gap and stop the carbon-dioxide loading, says Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog.

Echoing his sentiments is Sir David King, the British government’s chief scientific adviser. He expresses doubts that wind and solar power could do much to fill Britain's looming energy gap. “I would imagine that one further generation of nuclear power stations would be all that is required,” says King.

Nuclear power is already a major resource in many countries:

* France gets 77 percent of its energy from nuclear power; Belgium (58 percent), Sweden (45 percent), Switzerland (37 percent), Japan (31 percent), Spain (27 percent) and Britain (22 percent).
* China is planning to build 40 nuclear power plants in the next 15 years.
* And some countries are already reprocessing some of their spent fuel -- which retains 95 percent of its energy -- making nuclear power a “renewable resource.”

The irony is that the antinuclear hysteria of environmentalists has driven the United States to increase the use of fossil fuels that pollute the air and contribute to global warming. If we had simply built all the nuclear power plants that were in the pipeline at the time of the over-hyped Three Mile Island incident, we'd have reduced our current coal consumption by more than enough to satisfy the requirements of Kyoto, says Investor's Business Daily (IBD).

Moreover, after decades of heavy subsidies and quasi-religious support, renewable energy sources other than hydroelectric account for about a measly 1 percent of our electricity generation, says IBD.

Source: Editorial, “Greenie Meltdown,” Investor’s Business Daily, May 20, 2005.

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Friday, June 03, 2005

A honkin' problem for Oregon farmers Even Canada geese realized years ago Oregon's pastures are greener than California's. Hordes of geese over the past three decades quit migrating to California in winter, stopping in the Willamette Valley instead. Geese numbers ballooned from about 25,000 to perhaps 300,000 today -- more Canada geese of more varieties than anywhere else in the nation. It's a blessing for birdwatchers but a nightmare for farmers. The voracious birds mow grass as flat as putting greens and trample fields into mud. "They're worse than sheep," said Jim Donald, who figures geese do about $50,000 worth of damage on his Southwest Washington dairy farm each year. "Grass that you spend all winter trying to protect from them can be gone in a few hours." Two bills in the Oregon Legislature -- House Joint Memorial 5 and House Bill 2881 -- take aim at the gaggles. One demands the federal government reduce goose numbers and help farmers slow the damage. The other removes the Aleutian Canada goose from the state's list of endangered species, making it easier to chase and hunt the birds that swarm the coast in increasing numbers each spring. Both measures have passed the House and await action in the Senate....
Let's make sure there's water beyond methane As a rancher in southeastern Montana, my life depends on three things: good weather, healthy soils, and, most of all, a reliable supply of clean water. Like my neighbors, I never worried about my water 10 years ago, but now I worry about it constantly because of coalbed methane extraction south of us along Tongue River. I have visited with a hardworking couple in Wyoming who suffered near emotional breakdown when their water well dried up after the methane industry drained hundreds of feet of water from nearby aquifers. I have seen soil turned into a totally worthless salt flat, sterilized after the methane industry saturated it with salty methane water. We don't need these kinds of problems in Montana. Fortunately, there's another way. Coalbed methane can be extracted responsibly. Northern Plains Resource Council has advocated for alternative development practices to prevent problems in our state. I chair Northern Plains' Coal Bed Methane Task Force, and our biggest focus has always been to figure out ways to make sure our water is protected....
Stricter methane water rules sought A collection of conservation and ranching interests wants the state to impose new restrictions on how waste water from coalbed methane wells must be handled. Northern Plains Resource Council and 15 other groups or ranchers have proposed requiring water either be put back into the ground to replenish aquifers or, if that is not technically possible, be treated before being discharged into rivers or streams for use by irrigators. The goal is to ensure Montanans have "water beyond methane," and offers "the only solution to methane extraction that addresses the widespread drainage of groundwater sources relied upon by farmers, ranchers and rural communities throughout southeastern and south-central Montana," a petition filed with the state Department of Environmental Quality says. The request reflects findings of a study Northern Plains released nine months ago that said returning water into the ground or treating it are affordable options for the industry....
Otter, Patty Duke Pearce join push to raise money for North Idaho easements Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke Pearce and U.S. Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter, R-Idaho, are promoting an effort to raise $2 million in private money to help shield 80,000 acres of forest near northern Idaho's St. Joe River from most development. Pearce and Otter on Thursday were named to co-chair the St. Joe Conservation Initiative. They're trying to raise $400,000 by September, and another $1.55 million in donations by 2007, to buy conservation easements on timber land owned by wood-products company Potlatch Corp. The private money is needed to receive grants from the U.S. Forest Service's Forest Legacy program that easement proponents hope will total about $8 million....
Mining firm will buy Santa Ritas tract More than 2,700 acres in the Santa Rita Mountains that Pima County had been considering for preservation may now become a copper mine. Augusta Resource Corp., a Vancouver, British Columbia-based mining-exploration firm, announced Thursday that it had agreed to buy the 2,760 acres known as Rosemont Ranch for $20.8 million from local developer Triangle Ventures LLC. Triangle Ventures bought the property less than a year ago from Tucson-based mining company Asarco Inc. for $4.8 million....
BLM offers to investigate dangerous wire A federal agency offered Thursday to help investigate a strand of wire found last month stretched neck-high to a motorcycle rider across a path in the Pine Nut Mountains south of Gardnerville. There’s been no other reports of wires stretched across any other paths in Douglas County or on Northern Nevada Bureau of Land Management or Humboldt-Toyiabe National Forest Service lands, authorities said. “That kind of anarchy on the public land has not been uncommon in the past,” said BLM spokesman Mark Struble. “We occasionally find things like that in other places.” The BLM on Thursday offered a special agent to help Douglas County investigate, Struble said. The BLM is also stepping up its regular law enforcement patrols in response to the incident, he said....
Anticipated hordes of Lewis and Clark fans never materialized The hordes of Lewis and Clark fans expected to visit the Gates of the Mountains area along the Missouri River haven't materialized and plans to deal with them have "died a quiet death," officials said. So far, the millions of anticipated Lewis and Clark bicentennial tourists haven't shown up, and neither have the restrictions discussed in 2002 by federal and state officials for the popular, scenic "Gates" area northeast of Helena. Three years ago, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials were voicing concerns about the possible impacts of 10 million people heading to historic sites along the expedition's route....
Federal Court Upholds Key Healthy Forests Provision The U.S. Forest Service was not required to seek public comment and conduct an environmental review prior to approving the logging of 245 acres of beetle-infested forest in the Lolo National Forest, ruled the U.S. District Court of the District of Montana in an April 8 decision. In so ruling, the court approved one of the cornerstones of the Bush administration’s Healthy Forests Initiative, the “categorical exclusions” exemption. Under the Healthy Forests Initiative, the Forest Service is not required to undertake normal public comment and environmental review procedures in approving the logging of less than 250 acres of timber in dead or dying forests if such logging can be accomplished without building more than one-half mile of temporary roads. Only “extraordinary circumstances,” according to the initiative, would require the Forest Service to abide by normal comment-and-review procedures for such a small tract of land....
BLM has new weapon to unleash on fires The latest in wildland firefighting technology resembles a motorized caterpillar as it rolls up and down slopes steeper than 45 degrees. R.J. Johnson, a firefighter for the Bureau of Land Management, says the machine can "go where the typical fire engine can't." "It can carry more water to more fires and help keep down costs," Johnson added about the Wildland Ultra XT 6x6 Water Tender , which he drives. The engine's cab and suspension system is crafted in the Czech Republic and is customized by Indiana-based American Truck Co. Powered by a 425 horsepower, turbo-charged diesel engine, the six-wheel-drive vehicle can haul 2,890 gallons of water and 30 gallons of foam concentrate. BLM spokesman David Boyd says the 10-foot-tall monster truck is one of only three in the country; the other two are based in Oregon. It costs $318,000 - $100,000 more than a traditional fire engine - and can motor down a paved road at 70 mph....
Hemingway's house an endangered place(and apparently many BLM lands) For the first time, a site outside the United States -- novelist Ernest Hemingway's Cuban hideaway -- has won a place on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of the most endangered places. Hemingway spent more than 20 years at the home near Havana, where he wrote "The Old Man and the Sea." Time and the elements have severely damaged the hacienda, called Finca Vigia, or Lookout Farm. Also on the list of endangered places is the National Landscape Conservation System, 26 million acres of federal land in the West that the Bureau of Land Management controls. Mr. Moe said the agency does not have enough money to manage the lands, many of which have been damaged by off-road vehicles and vandalism....Go here to see the Trust's info on BLM land....
The Wilderness Society Commemorates Fifth Anniversary of Neglected Yet Promising National Landscape Conservation System Today The Wilderness Society launched an online campaign to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) a promising yet neglected fledgling land management system. The campaign website, http://ga1.org/campaign/nlcsanniv, encourages visitors to send a message to Interior Secretary Gale Norton urging her to make land conservation a priority for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency that manages all NLCS lands. Visitors can also learn more about this unique land management system that focuses on preserving entire sections of ecosystems and culturally important landscapes. “The National Landscape Conservation System is the most innovative American land system created in the last 50 years,” said The Wilderness Society President William H. Meadows. “But we're concerned that the Interior Department is missing the point. Rather than using the NLCS as it was intended - to truly conserve natural and cultural values by protecting large landscapes that encompass whole ecosystems and communities - the Interior Department is under funding the program and focusing on oil and gas drilling rather than conservation of our best Western lands."....Gee, does this look like an organized campaign?....
2 grizzlies found dead; reward offered A $2,500 reward is being offered in hopes of tracking down the people who killed two grizzly bears and left or dumped their carcasses on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in May, officials said Thursday. An adult female grizzly was found shot to death on May 12 north of St. Mary. Three days later, officials found a dead male grizzly along the Joe Show Road about two miles west of U.S. 89, its claws missing and its ears and lips cut off. Dan Carney, bear biologist on the reservation, said officials believe the ears and lips were removed to keep investigators from identifying the bear by a lip tattoo or ear tag, but biologists had implanted a microchip in the 500-pound bear and could still identify it. Officials sent the male bear's carcass to a state lab in Bozeman to determine exact cause of death....
Pesticide used to poison Idaho wolf The poison responsible for killing several Central Idaho dogs last summer has been determined to have illegally killed a wolf near Clear Creek, a tributary of Panther Creek in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area. The male wolf, called B-204 in wolf monitoring parlance, was equipped with a radio collar on June 27, 2004. At that time, biologists estimated the wolf to be between 1 and 2 years old. He was found to have been killed by ingesting meat laced with a gray, granular poison called Temik, which is a restricted pesticide commonly applied to potatoes. Use of this and other poisons is something a group called Predator Defense believes should be treated as terrorism. "We want to see this kind of misuse tried as a federal felony under a terrorism statute," said Brooks Fahy, the group's executive director....
Nevada quarter to feature mustangs The image of three galloping mustangs ran away from four other finalists by a comfortable margin to be the Nevada design on a series of commemorative quarters minted by the U.S. Treasury. Nevada residents chose from among five finalists during the past month. In a Thursday announcement at the Capitol, Treasurer Brian Krolicki said nearly 60,000 votes were cast. The “Morning in Nevada” design — featuring wild horses with the sun rising behind snow-capped mountains — collected 32 percent of the total. The design also includes sagebrush, the state flower....
Hearing set on Canadian cattle ban The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted the U.S. Department of Agriculture a hearing on its request to overturn U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull's March 2 preliminary injunction preventing Canadian live cattle from resuming entrance into the United States. The appellate court will also hear the request of the National Meat Association to intervene in the case and overturn the injunction. The order, signed by a three-judge panel, set the hearing for Seattle. It is scheduled for July 13, just two weeks before a hearing in Billings before Cebull on a petition by the Rancher-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America for a permanent injunction against the USDA's plan to reopen the border to Canadian cattle 30 months old or younger. The Seattle hearing will be on the questions of whether Cebull properly issued a preliminary injunction and if the National Meat Association, which represents small packers and meat processors, can intervene in the case....
Praising the Lord....The Cowboy Way Thousand Hills Cowboy Church, between Comfort and Kerrville, has no organ, no altar, and no stained-glass windows. Instead of chandlers, lighting comes from old kerosene lanterns wired for electricity. Antique saddles line the walls. Worshipers, who used to sit on hay bales until ants became a problem, now sit on Mexican blankets thrown over wooden benches inside the barn-church. Nearly two hundred area residents come every Sunday to hear Ron Moore preach on a stage in front of an Old West façade made with wood, windows, and rusty tin from a century-old ranch house. Beside him, sitting on a bale of hay, is his cowdog Will, who bows his head to pray on command....

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Thursday, June 02, 2005

Court says federal agency doing little for endangered sturgeon The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not doing enough to help the Kootenai River white sturgeon, a fish on a "slow train to extinction" as females age and reproduction idles, a federal judge says. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula set a Dec. 1 deadline for the agency to redraw the white sturgeon's "critical habitat," a protected area with the features necessary for survival of North America's largest freshwater fish. It has been on the federal endangered species list since 1994. The present critical habitat is an 11-mile stretch of the Kootenai River in Idaho with a sandy bottom. Under Molloy's order, Fish and Wildlife must extend the protected habitat to include river bottom rocky enough to support spawning by sturgeon, a fish that can weigh hundreds of pounds and live 80 years or longer....
Wolf Kills Dog in Munising The successful comeback of the grey wolf in the UP may have pleased DNR officials, but some residents in Munising are anything but thrilled. Ann Dolaskie says her 7 year old dachsund Teeka was killed by a wolf Tuesday night. "I heard a funny yip," she said. "Something bit her is what it sounded like so I ran back outside and she was in the mouth of a wolf. She had her in a choke hold by the neck." The wolf disappeared into the woods with the dog and hasn't been seen since....
Editorial: Best available science should not be limited It seems like every time you turn around these days, there is an assault on science in America. It's not good for the country, its people, its political system or its economy. The latest attack is right here in Albuquerque, where the Southwest Region director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has arbitrarily decided to limit the use of genetics in making official decisions on protecting endangered animals and plants. Fortunately, scientists and other Fish and Wildlife officials are not taking Director Dale Hall's anti-science, pro-development edict lying down. They are complaining - and well they should. So are environmental and conservation organizations, which at the first opportunity should challenge Hall's decision legally....
Can billionaire philanthropy save the earth? A few days ago, I was commiserating with a friend about the sad state of environmental affairs. We were talking about the infamous "death of environmentalism" paper and its call for the environmental movement to connect more to issues involving social justice. My opinion, I told my friend, is that it's not environmentalism that's dead. There's just no future in regular work. The future lies in capital, connections to it and then wielding that power. I concluded: "Billionaire philanthropy is the only thing that can save the earth." I thought my argument made sense. Our national and international economic systems increasingly support massive aggregations of wealth. And now, it is mainly by the benevolence of a small portion of all those millionaires and billionaires that most environmental organizations stay funded. Think Rockefeller, Hewlett-Packard, Ford and of course, Ted Turner. And now, Wal-Mart....

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EPA wants Milltown Dam removed Dismantling the aging dam built at the point where the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers meet in western Montana will be the easy part. It's dealing with the contaminated mud behind the dam -- enough to fill a freight train more than 500 miles long -- that poses the real challenge, officials say. The Environmental Protection Agency wants the Milltown Dam, located at the end of the nation's largest Superfund environmental cleanup site, to be taken down around late 2006. "That's if Mother Nature cooperates and things go as planned," said EPA project manager Russ Forba. "It's an active system, so you can't always predict." After years of campaigning, environmentalists view the sediment removal as a triumph. Skeptics, however, say disturbing the mud could introduce new problems....
Permit requirements could put a hitch in farming operations “Neither Congress nor EPA ever intended to subject the application of pesticides to the Clean Water Act’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit requirements,” said Ed Duskin, Southern Crop Production Association executive vice president. “Rather, all sources of exposure in the environment — including air and water — from either direct application, runoff or spray drift of pesticides have been effectively regulated by EPA under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).” But rulings by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has “muddied the waters” on CWA permits, leading House members to introduce legislation (H.R. 1749), which would spell out that pesticides applied in accordance with FIFRA meet the Clean Water Act policy established by Congress....
$12.5 million deal OK'd to bar drilling in state waters of gulf A $12.5 million deal that won approval Wednesday from Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet is designed to protect state-controlled waters from oil drilling and end decades of litigation. "It sends a very positive and powerful signal that offshore drilling, particularly in the near waters of our state, is taboo," Bush said. "That chapter in Florida's history is over." Coastal Petroleum, the company that owns the last offshore drilling leases that the state issued in the 1940s, will receive the money in exchange for dropping efforts to drill along the state's west coast. Barring a course reversal by the Legislature, that means oil rigs will be indefinitely banned from Florida waters that extend about 10 miles into the Gulf of Mexico....

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Air Quality: Much Worse on Paper Than in Reality No area outside California comes anywhere close to having "some of the worst air pollution in the nation." And yet a search through newspapers both large and small reveals that journalists and environmental activists have collectively put more than half the country into this category. This may be one of the few cases where a thousand words are worth much more than a picture. Here then is a partial inventory of air quality false alarms. Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reports, has "some of the worst air pollution in the nation."[3] Eighty miles north of Chicago is Milwaukee, which the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says has "some of the worst air pollution in the nation."[4] Toledo joins its Midwestern brethren with "some of the worst ozone pollution readings in the nation," according to the Toledo Blade.[5] Ditto for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which according to the Associated Press "has some of the most polluted air in the nation."[6] The Dallas-Fort Worth area has "some of the country's worst air," claims the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.[7] The Baltimore Sun says Baltimore has "some of the worst air pollution in the country" as well.[8] Houston? "[S]ome of the worst air pollution problems in the country," says United Press International.[9] The New York metropolitan area has "some of the country's dirtiest air," according to the Westchester Journal News.[10] Don't forget Atlanta, which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says has "some of the worst air pollution in the country," with agreement from the Associated Press as well.[11] Raleigh, North Carolina's News & Observer says it is not only Atlanta, but the entire Raleigh-Greensboro-Atlanta "megalopolis" that has "some of the worst air pollution in the country."[12]....
Scientists turn from brown to green chemistry A quiet revolution to discover more environmentally friendly products and processes is under way in one of society's most polluting industries. Called "green chemistry," the idea is to make chemicals using less toxic or environmentally benign feed stocks and to develop chemical manufacturing processes that take fewer steps and therefore use less energy, water and potentially harmful substances. While the idea has been around a long time, it has only begun to gather steam in recent years. Although not as widespread as industry and environmentalists would like, a new generation of chemists is gradually being introduced to the concept of green chemistry - as opposed to the old "brown chemistry" - in high schools and colleges across the country. The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation have been underwriting green chemistry research for the past decade, the fruits of which are beginning to be seen....
Experts Are Listening to Grand Canyon Mounted at about ear level on tripods, microphones are capturing the sound of quiet at the Grand Canyon. The four microphones are attached to sound level meters and computers that will later screen out all manmade sounds, such as the chatter of hikers, the rumble of cars and the buzz of sightseeing planes and helicopters. All that will be left will be the sounds of nature: the wind in the trees, the chirping of birds, for example. Park officials are doing this because they need to establish the natural decibel level at the Grand Canyon before policymakers can decide whether the current noise-reduction regulations governing flights over America's most breathtaking natural wonder are adequate. Although the listening devices are new, the effort to determine whether the park is as quiet as it should be goes back a generation....

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CHANGES AT THE WESTERNER

While serving as the NM Secretary of Agriculture, I was always wanting staff to keep me briefed on current issues, but I never received the kind of info I wanted. So, what you have been seeing at The Westerner is the kind of daily briefing I desired. Further, I have done my searches in the late evening and early morning, so that when you fired up your computer in the am you had THAT days news in front of you.

Although I retired in June of '03, Sweet Sharon has threatened to kick my crippled ass out of the house unless I bring in some more dinero. Since I still enjoy shelter and food, I accepted a new position in January. I'm finding I can't stay up all night searching for news and meet my new responsibilities, so some changes are in order.

The Westerner will now appear more like a regular blog, with me posting items as I find 'em, all hours of the day. I will still give you excerpts or a summary of the article, but they won't appear in one bunch and I won't be able to place the posts based on subject matter. As a result, some news items will appear earlier than before, while others won't be as timely. It will also mean you should check in more than once a day if you want to keep up with the happenings here.

Tomorrow, I will let you know about the additional subject matter to be covered by The Westerner.

If you have any complaints about the new approach, email me and I will give you Sweet Sharon's email and phone number....

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Judge reviewing Idaho salvage logging A federal district judge in Idaho is considering whether to halt a logging operation now under way within sight of the historic Lewis and Clark Trail on the Clearwater National Forest. In Boise on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge heard a request from several environmental groups and an Idaho couple that he temporarily stop a 177-acre logging project on Wendover Ridge in the Powell Ranger District. Lodge is expected to rule in the next few days. For a small timber sale, the Wendover Ridge project has generated considerable controversy, primarily because of its proximity to the trail traipsed by the famous explorers in 1805 and 1806. Although the trail doesn't bisect the timber sale, it does pass within a quarter-mile of the cuts, and at least one of the logging units is visible from the trail, which is expected to see heavy traffic during this summer's Lewis and Clark Bicentennial commemoration....
Managing a national forest's conflicts These aren't easy times to be a U.S. Forest Service ranger. Before Andrei Rykoff could leave for a field trip last week, an employee walked up and urged him to find a way to soothe slumping morale in the work force of the Clackamas River Ranger District. A series of federal budget cuts is forcing layoffs, leaving the survivors wondering who is next. This part of the Mount Hood National Forest had 150 full-time employees in the late 1970s compared with 35 today. The survivors also are stressed with multi-tasking -- performing two or three different functions to cover for the losses. Dealing with a shrinking work force is only one of many challenges for Rykoff, who manages the largest of four ranger districts in the national forest. About 40 percent of the forest's 1.1 million acres are in the Estacada-based district....
State offering funds for shooting ranges The state of Montana is offering $250,000, first-come, first-served, to governments or groups that want to build or improve shooting ranges. Up to $75,000 is available for each project, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced last week. Grant recipients must provide a 50 percent match for each grant, either with money or "in kind" donations, such as labor. Governments, school districts, private shooting clubs and nonprofit organizations are welcome to apply....
Salamander identified using DNA Modern-day biologists don't get this opportunity often, so when it comes, they're excited. This month, an article published in the scientific journal Herpetologica confirms the presence of a new animal - a species of salamander known as plethodon asupak, or the Scott Bar Salamander. The animal is found on rocky slopes, and as of now, has been identified on both sides of the Klamath River between Seiad Creek and Scott Bar Mountain. In the field, the new species of salamander looks very much like its cousin, the Siskiyou Mountain Salamander, according to a Klamath National Forest press release. It is only recognizable as a unique animal when the tools of DNA testing or very precise measurements by experienced field observers tease out the difference....
In-house wisdom, or White House meddling? The surprise, which forest planners say they only learned about last fall, two years into the process of rewriting the rules, came in the form of a corporate planning process called an "Environmental Management System" or "EMS." James Connaughton, head of the President's Council on Environmental Quality, has championed the EMS system as a way to streamline the environmental review and public participation required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). "This is a wholly new creature for the Forest Service." says Mike Anderson with The Wilderness Society. "It's going to push them into an unknown additional amount of analysis and paperwork, but there's no evident benefit for the public." Forest planners strike a more cheery tone, but acknowledge that they are wrestling with the new system. Margaret Hartzell, who heads the team that is revising forest plans for the Colville, Okanogan and Wenatchee national forests in northern Washington, explains that the EMS process is based on an international environmental standard called "ISO 14001." "The mantra is, 'plan, do ...'" She stops, starts again: "'Plan, do, check, act.'" She laughs. "I'm still struggling with this." "There's a learning curve for us," says Hartzell, but the new process is designed to save the agency time and allow it to be quicker on its feet. "The notion is that a forest would not go through a big revision effort every 10 to 15 years," she says. "Every year, you would update the forest plan if you need to. The changes would be smaller, but more often."....
New Mexico Officials Ask Congress To Transfer Land To Land Grant Heirs The State of New Mexico is facing the possibility of transferring millions of acres of federal land to land-grant heirs if Congress approves legislation reinstating the land grants. Arizona could face the same possibility if the legislation is passed. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and members of the New Mexico Legislature have asked Congress to transfer federal lands that are held by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to land grant heirs, who say that the land was unjustly taken from them. In 2003, the New Mexico Legislature passed a bill that made land grants eligible for state and federal funding. However, many of the land grant heirs do not want to be paid for the land, they want to own the land, a difficult prospect for the government to face....
Mormon church project delayed Plans for a Mormon chapel near Running Springs hit a major snag Wednesday when a judge ruled that the project requires extensive environmental analysis and revoked a county permit to proceed with construction. The Save Our Forest Association and several other environmental protection groups filed suit against the county in October after planning commissioners refused to require an environmental impact report for the 7.7-acre project along Highway 18. Instead, the commission decided the project was exempt from the comprehensive study and issued a permit to proceed with construction. The environmental groups claim the church project will spur urban growth in the mountains and threaten endangered species, including the Southern Rubber Boa snake and the San Bernardino flying squirrel....
Do today's kids have "nature-deficit disorder"? In the not-so-distant past, kids ruled the country's woods and valleys -- running in packs, building secret forts and treehouses, hunting frogs and fish, playing hide and seek behind tall grasses. But in the last 30 years, says journalist Richard Louv, children of the digital age have become increasingly alienated from the natural world -- with disastrous implications, not only for their physical fitness, but also for their long term mental and spiritual heath. In his new book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder," Louv argues that sensationalist media coverage and paranoid parents have literally "scared children straight out of the woods and fields," while promoting a litigious culture of fear that favors "safe" regimented sports over imaginative play. Well-meaning elementary school curriculums may teach students everything there is to know about the Amazon rainforest's endangered species, but do little to encourage kids' personal relationship with the world outside their own doors....
Alaskan Sea Otter Population Decline Accelerates The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to provide protections promised over one year ago for the world’s most endangered population of sea otters. Without these protections, scientists predict that these sea otters, found in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula, will become extinct. Responding to what government scientists have called “the most widespread and precipitous population decline in recorded history,” the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal administrative petition to protect the sea otters in October 2000 under the Endangered Species Act, America’s safety net for endangered fish, wildlife, and plants. However, one month later the Bush Administration came into power and has refused to process the petition according to the law ever since. Finally in 2004, and only after the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the Administration, a proposed rule to protect the sea otters was published and distributed for public review. Yet despite having a completed rule to protect these sea otters under the Endangered Species Act and a dedicated funding source to formally protect the sea otters, the Bush Administration has refused to finalize the protections scientists have indicated the sea otters desperately need, delaying implementation of these protections for over five years....
Counties, BLM ease tensions over monument signs The basic conflicts have not gone away. Nor will they any time soon. But it appears that a lengthy meeting Wednesday morning at the Utah Capitol complex has, at least for the moment, reduced tensions between Kane County and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in their escalating battle over rights-of-way issues in and around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. At the behest of Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, a group of BLM officials, Kane and Garfield County commissioners, and members of the Attorney General's staff met for 2 1/2 hours behind closed doors at the Governor's Office in a bid to get the two sides talking again....

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Residents Flee as Homes Fall in Calif. Landslide A landslide sent 17 multimillion-dollar houses crashing down a hill in Southern California early Wednesday as residents alarmed by the sound of walls and pipes coming apart rushed from their homes in their nightclothes. At least five people suffered minor injuries. About 1,000 people in 350 other homes in the Bluebird Canyon area were evacuated as a precaution. In addition to the 17 houses destroyed -- earlier reports said as many as 18 had been destroyed -- 11 were damaged and a street was wrecked when the earth gave way around daybreak in this Orange County community about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles....
Schwarzenegger Issues Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gases Speaking to hundreds of international leaders gathered here for the United Nations World Environment Day, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a plan to reduce California's contribution to gases that many scientists believe cause global warming. Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, outlined his ambitious goals on Wednesday in a three-tiered Environmental Action Plan intended to reduce California's greenhouse gas emissions in less than five years to less than the levels in 2000. The plan calls for the further reduction of emissions by 2020 to less than the levels produced in 1990, and for the reduction, by 2050, of emissions to 80 percent less than the levels in 1990. "I say the debate is over," Mr. Schwarzenegger told about 500 guests, including mayors from more than 70 cities from around the world invited to hear the announcement at City Hall. "We know the science. We see the threat, and we know the time for action is now."....
Betting The Farm On Free Trade Across the midwest, rural radio stations are airing ads that feature a famous quote from President Dwight D. Eisenhower: "Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield." The ads are sponsored by the National Farmers Union, a group representing family farms, and it's no secret that the Washington pencil-pusher being targeted is American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman. Even Stallman, who grew up on a 1,100-acre rice and cattle farm in Columbus, Tex., ruefully calls himself "a cell-phone farmer." But it's not his pinstripe suits or corner office overlooking the U.S. Capitol that get the goat of the NFU. It's the way Stallman is dividing farm country by leading the 5.6 million-member Farm Bureau, the nation's most powerful agricultural lobby, in a strong free-trade direction. Stallman favors low worldwide tariffs and a cut in government handouts, reasoning that large-scale, mechanized, and superefficient American farmers can export their way out of the commodity glut dogging the industry. That stance puts Stallman at the epicenter of a raging controversy over the future of American farming. Other voices representing small farmers and their struggling rural communities -- the NFU and the National Family Farm Coalition among them -- fear being crushed between giant U.S. agribusiness and tons of food from developing countries....
Myers Confirmation on Chopping Block In that now-famous, or perhaps infamous, compromise deal by 14 U.S. senators hoping to end a quarrel over judicial filibusters, the name of former Interior Department Solicitor General William Myers (search) was excluded from an agreement not to filibuster. For months, Republicans claimed to have the votes to confirm Myers to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals were it not for democratic filibusters. But now he remains in judicial limbo. Detractors say it is because he lacks the necessary Washington gravitas. The American Bar Association rated him "qualified," but supporters say that's too lukewarm. By far, the most resounding charge against Myers is that he's anti-environment. Opponents point to positions he took as a lobbyist, lawyer and as solicitor general for the Department of the Interior and accuse him of attacking laws protecting lands, water and endangered species....
Retail beef prices hit near record highs With grilling season in full swing, retail beef prices are near record highs, thanks to tight supplies, more demand and rising fuel costs. Retail prices for choice beef averaged $4.25 a pound in April, the latest period available from the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service. April's price was second only to November 2003, when beef prices rose to $4.32 a pound after Canadian imports were cut off due to a case of mad cow disease. June prices should drop slightly to a range of $4 to $4.10 because demand will ease as grilling season drops off and supplies will increase, said Ron Gustafson of the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service. Average beef prices have increased every year since 1999, climbing from $2.87 a pound that year to $4.06 a pound in 2004, according to the research service. Beef consumption has climbed 25 percent since 1998 to 27.6 billion pounds last year....
Farmers, new fishing group to work on water together The Klamath Water Users Association last week signed an agreement to cooperate with a newly formed fishing group that says it represents Pacific Coast commercial fishermen who use hook and line. In the agreement signed Friday between the water users and the Oregon Trollers Association, the groups say they will support salmon restoration efforts that provide water for both farmers and fishermen. They also agree to work at providing timely information to each other and educate each other, and to "avoid media statements and public policy positions that fuel conflict between our constituencies," according to a press release issued by the water users....
Wolves plan still lacking consensus Utah's wolf management plan has been kicked, poked and argued about from one end of the state to the other. Now it is in the hands of the Utah Wildlife Board. Following a sometimes heated series of regional meetings held earlier this month and one final gathering of the state's wolf task force on Tuesday, the board will get a plan that is mostly finished but continues to lack consensus on the most contentious issues. Most significant of the unresolved issues: protocol for the lethal control of wolves, levels of compensation for livestock killed by wolves and how to address the impacts of wolf predation on big game....

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Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Write-off on the Range He also points out three substantial, earth-tone, wooden houses, built in the folds of the land. These houses are not "skylined" on ridgetops, the way trophy homes are in less sensitive developments, he says. Instead, the view is mostly preserved. The conservation easements, he explains, have been an essential component in the investors’ "business plans." By donating the easements to the land trust, the investors have likely reaped millions of dollars in tax breaks, along with profits from selling high-priced lots. Similar weddings of conservation and business plans can be found throughout Madison County. One-fifth of the private land here is protected by conservation easements, a total of about 200,000 acres; the county may lead the West in that regard. Madison County remains rural, with only about 7,000 residents. But the landowners doing easement deals here include Atlanta-based billionaire Ted Turner; a billionaire Wal-Mart heiress and her husband, the owner of the Denver Nuggets; the CEO of the $100 billion AIM mutual funds; the founder of the $150 billion Oppenheimer mutual funds; the CEO of the Cox Enterprises multinational media empire; the family that built the Arm & Hammer Baking Soda conglomerate; a multimillionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur; and the owners of several exclusive ski-resort developments. As in much of the scenic West, land conservation here has become largely a rich man’s game. And the conservation easement system serves upscale landowners to such a degree that a growing number of people think it’s unfair....
Colorado tax credits make easements work for working people Colorado farmers Dorothy and Norman Kehmeier have raised more than $500,000 in cash, simply by donating conservation easements on about 200 acres of their land. And they’d like other landowners to hear about it. "It’s wonderful," Dorothy Kehmeier says. She’s referring to an innovative Colorado program that enables struggling ranchers and farmers to cash in on easements. The Colorado Legislature approved the program in 1999, and it’s been running since 2000. It gives state income tax credits to landowners who donate easements to land trusts. The credits are equal to the value of the easements, and landowners can sell their credits to wealthy people who can apply the credits to their own hefty tax bills. The tax credits are better than tax deductions because they reduce the buyer’s tax bills dollar for dollar....
Conservation Easement Statistics 1.1 billion Total private acres in United States/ 2 million Number of acres of "development sprawl" consuming landscapes per year/ 800,000 Number of acres of land protected by local and regional land trusts per year, either in new conservation easements or purchases/ 7 million Total acres covered by conservation easements held by local, regional and national land trusts/ 17,847 Numbers of easements held by local and regional trusts in 2003/ 2,500 Number of new easement deals made per year....
Desperation leads to preservation Given his druthers, Randy Rusk would rather raise cattle, bale hay and drink in the views from his Wet Mountain Valley ranch. But the potential breakup of his parent's 1,800-acre operation pushed a reluctant Rusk to the head of a campaign to preserve Colorado's vanishing rural landscapes. "It sure wasn't the intent at the start," said Rusk, 55. "I'd be content to stay here and be a cowpuncher - there's no doubt." But instead of losing the Rusk Hereford Ranch to the pincers of development and unfavorable economics, Rusk and several conservation partners have stitched together agreements with owners of 11,000 acres to bar development from much of the valley floor forever. About 4,000 acres are already under conservation easements; the rest of the deals are expected to be completed this year....

a tip of the hat to Headwaters News for the links

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