NEWS ROUNDUP

Big Timber rancher shoots wolf A Big Timber area ranch manager shot and killed a 2-year old wolf on private property December 30. The wolf was reportedly chasing livestock. Federal rules in effect in most of southwestern Montana allow landowners or their employees to harass or kill a wolf that is seen actively attacking, chasing, or harassing livestock. “Clear guidance is provided by the rule which states that the wolf must be actively chasing or attacking livestock. This is the most effective way to target problem animals,” said Carolyn Sime, FWP's wolf program coordinator. By taking action during an actual depredation event, efforts are focused on the offending animal at the right time and the right place, she said. “Because gray wolves in Montana are still listed under the Endangered Species Act, interim federal regulations apply throughout Montana. In addition, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement officers lead all wolf mortality investigations,” Sime said. Under the 10j rule, which offers Montana more wolf management authority and flexibility, anyone who shoots or kills a wolf must report the incident within 24 hours. In addition, evidence of the actual wolf attack, or evidence that an attack was imminent, must be available for state and federal investigators to inspect....
Health officials investigating salt water spill Health officials are investigating a salt water spill from a pipeline leak in an oil drilling operation near here. One rancher worries that the spill threatens his pregnant cows. Mark Bohrer, a petroleum engineer for the state, said the leak occurred in a pipeline that delivered salt water, a waste product from oil drilling, to an injection well for disposal underground. The spill was southwest of Alexander near Charbonneau Creek, in McKenzie County. The salt water flowed over the ground to a dry drainage ditch and then into a dry stock dam, where it overflowed into a beaver dam, Bohrer said. The water eventually overflowed into Charbonneau Creek, which flows into the Yellowstone River. State and company officials are investigating how far downstream and to what degree the contamination exists. The drilling company, Zenergy, discovered the leak Jan 4, and immediately stopped the leak and began recovering the salt water, officials said....
Frog protection plan debated Since the 1920s, Michael Fischer's family has raised cattle on 240 acres near Valley Springs. Rarely, if ever, has it had to worry about frogs. Until now. Fischer and about 50 more Calaveras County residents and ranchers gathered yesterday at a forum in San Andreas to debate a plan that would mark up to 4,450 of acres in the Valley Springs area as critical habitat for the endangered California red-legged frog. The plan is part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's statewide effort to designate more than 700,000 acres of land in 23 counties as frog habitat....
Environmentalists want alternatives for killing weeds A plan by the U.S. Forest Service to use herbicides and other methods to kill weeds in the Santa Fe and Carson national forests has drawn fire from a coalition of environmentalists. The agency's Invasive Plant Control Project would incorporate herbicides as well as nontoxic methods to target more than 7,300 acres of nonnative plant populations over the next decade. Environmentalists acknowledge the importance of controlling weeds that push out native plants, increase erosion and degrade wildlife habitat, but they say herbicides pose health risks. "We all agree that invasive species are not great for the ecosystem and may need to be treated," said Joanie Berde, volunteer coordinator for Carson Forest Watch. "But there's so many alternatives that don't involve herbicide use."....
Court clears the way for upgrades, snow making at Snowbowl A federal judge's ruling Wednesday cleared the way for facility upgrades at the Arizona Snowbowl ski area, including snowmaking equipment. The ruling upheld an earlier Coconino National Forest decision to authorize the upgrades and allow for the artificial snowmaking from reclaimed wastewater. The treated effluent would arrive via pipeline from Flagstaff. Snowbowl officials claim the snowmaking equipment is necessary to ensure the ski area's survival. U.S. Forest Service officials said they would review the ruling over the next few days to determine steps toward implementing the project. There was no immediate reaction from several American Indian tribes and conservation groups who sought to bar the start of construction on the expansion project....
Decision delayed for use of copters to track wolves The U.S. Forest Service has put off a decision on Idaho's request to land helicopters in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness to attach radio collars on wolves, a delay that could prompt state wildlife managers to try to capture the animals in traps. Idaho officials, who only last week took over management responsibilities of the packs reintroduced into the state in 1995 by the federal government, said the Forest Service deferral announced Tuesday likely triggers a lengthy environmental impact examination. And by the time the study is completed, it will be harder for state officials to know how many wolves are roaming the rugged 2.4 million acres of wilderness in the middle of the state. "It really is an unfortunate turn of events," said Jim Caswell, administrator of the state's Office of Species Conservation. "It doesn't take away our ability to manage wolves, but it does make counting noses, determining den sites and keeping up with trends in the wilderness area more complicated."....
Groups file suit against heli-skiing A coalition of conservation groups and two individuals this week filed suit to stop Bridger-Teton National Forest officials from allowing helicopter skiing tours in a wilderness study area. The groups filed the complaint after the U.S. Forest Service in June decided to allow High Mountain Heli-Skiing of Jackson to offer one helicopter tour per day in the Palisades wilderness study area. The area spans the Idaho-Wyoming border south of Jackson, and spans the Bridger-Teton and Caribou-Targhee national forests. The company's permit expands to other areas in the Snake River Range and allows 1,200 skier days (one skier on one day). The company often uses the Palisades area because of its exceptional terrain and easy access. A day of helicopter skiing may entail several runs. Jon Shick, owner of High Mountain Heli, said in a statement the groups are trying to shut down heli-skiing....
Lion seen in Incline Village Wildlife officials here expressed surprise there have been recent mountain lion sightings in the North Shore area. At least three Incline Village residents have reported mountain lion sightings since November. "I was getting ready to close the drapes on the bay window, just at twilight, and I realized that there was a large animal down below me," said Jan Dyer, who lives above the Championship Golf Course. "I realized, that is not a coyote." Dyer said she was able to watch the mountain lion in her yard for about three minutes from her second-story window. "It left paw prints all over my yard (which) lasted for several weeks at my house. When it trotted off it headed into the village," Dyer said. Barbara Frederic, Dyer's neighbor, said she has seen evidence of the lion in her yard three times since Dec. 1....
Park grizzly delisting could be complicated by forest rule changes Bush administration changes to U.S. Forest Service rules last year may complicate efforts to remove the Yellowstone grizzly bear from the endangered species list. Part of the larger process of delisting the grizzly bear has been amending forest management plans for national forests around Yellowstone National Park. Those changes are intended, among other things, to protect habitat in those forests as the grizzly population continues to move and expand. But in early 2005, some of the Forest Service’s overall planning regulations changed, cutting out ’’standards’’ - which could be binding and enforceable - and replacing them with softer terms such as ’’desired conditions,’’ ’’objectives’’ and ’’guidelines.’’ Some worry the change may leave too much wiggle room and not enough assurances that the grizzly bear protections will be put in place....
Sweeping change reshapes Arctic The hunter rose each day last summer from his bunk in a condemned wildlife lab, down the hall from where Inupiat villagers carve whale meat on a band saw. He slipped on hip waders and a furry white parka, slung a rifle over his shoulders and trudged onto the Arctic tundra. Through icy fog beneath a never-setting summer sun, Eric Seykora set out to earn the nickname given him by Barrow scientists: "The Fox Killer." Arctic foxes had been eating the eggs of rare ducks because their usual supper, tiny, mouselike lemmings, were dwindling from the drying tundra. So the government flew this former South Dakota hunting guide 330 miles north of the Arctic Circle and paid him to spend his summer shooting foxes. Ecological change is so scrambling Alaska's Arctic that the government has hired gunslingers to recapture some balance....
Interior to allow NPR-A drilling The Interior Department on Wednesday announced it will open hundreds of thousands of acres of wildlife-rich North Slope tundra to oil and gas drillers. The land is just north of giant Teshekpuk Lake in the northeast corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, an Indiana-sized tract set aside in 1923 for its oil potential. The lake region is noted for some of the world's largest congregations of migratory geese, as well as caribou and other wildlife. But it also might harbor huge deposits of oil and gas. Naturalists fought hard to head off Wednesday's decision, which they say dismantles a long policy of government protection for the land....
Surge seen in oil, gas drilling A Bush administration program to accelerate the rezoning of public lands for energy development is expected to lead to more than 50,000 new wells in the West, according to an environmental group's study set for release today. About 43,000 of the new wells would be in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, while fewer than 500 would be located on the Roan Plateau in Colorado, where earlier drilling proposals have faced strong opposition. There's no timetable for when the new wells might come online. The planning documents only make the new drilling sites possible, but the sites would be in addition to the nearly 70,000 wells already on federally owned lands. All the wells were accelerated under an initiative in which Bureau of Land Management administrators selected 21 resource-management plans already underway to be reclassified as "time-sensitive plans." Of those 21 plans, 11 involved oil and gas drilling. BLM administrators also ordered that environmental protections in those areas be applied in the "least restrictive" manner. About half of these plans are still in development, but once approved by the BLM, a resource-management plan cannot be appealed to another government agency, although they are sometimes challenged in court. Individual projects, however, are subject to environmental review. The 11 time-sensitive plans that include oil and gas development call for a total of 76,810 wells, which is more than three times the 24,145 wells that were expected to be drilled prior to the document revisions....
Off-road enthusiasts seek to reverse ban A coalition of Utah off-road enthusiasts seeking to reverse a Bureau of Land Management ban on motorized vehicles over hundreds of thousands of acres in Box Elder and Grand counties took their case before a federal appeals court Wednesday. The Utah Shared Access Alliance (USA-ALL) sued the BLM in 2001, claiming that the agency closed off 250,000 acres near Moab and 189,000 acres around the Grouse Creek Mountains to off-highway vehicle (OHV) use without conducting public hearings and a required environmental analysis. The group is asking the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a decision by U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins of Salt Lake City, who dismissed the group's lawsuit against the BLM in December 2004. In his decision, Jenkins ruled that the BLM had taken the mandated "hard look" at the environmental impacts before issuing the closures....
Road accord near; greens leery Utah and the Interior Department are close to finalizing an agreement that would provide counties increased flexibility - too much flexibility, critics say - to do maintenance and repairs on back roads that run across federal land, a state official said Tuesday. Under the proposed deal, counties would be allowed to perform "emergency" repairs to roads without permission from the Bureau of Land Management, and could proceed with road maintenance regardless of federal approval if the BLM fails to meet a strict deadline for responding to the counties' request. "This isn't about ownership of a road or changing a road. This is a working tool that will allow us to do necessary maintenance and repairs," Lynn Stevens, director of the state's Public Lands Coordination Office, said Tuesday. But environmental groups, which obtained several drafts of the agreement, say the maintenance pact could open federal lands to a new wave of road building that would devastate delicate natural resources and wilderness areas....
Warming Tied To Extinction Of Frog Species Rising temperatures are responsible for pushing dozens of frog species over the brink of extinction in the past three decades, according to findings being reported today by a team of Latin American and U.S. scientists. The study, published in the journal Nature, provides compelling evidence that climate change has already helped wipe out a slew of species and could spur more extinctions and the spread of diseases worldwide. It also helps solve the international mystery of why amphibians around the globe have been vanishing from their usual habitats over the past quarter-century -- as many as 112 species have disappeared since 1980. Scientists have speculated that rising temperatures and changing weather patterns could endanger the survival of many species, but the new study documents for the first time a direct correlation between global warming and the disappearance of around 65 amphibian species in Central and South America....
Drought resurges A year after storm-swollen rivers filled reservoirs and sent water gushing down the lower Salt and Gila rivers for the first time in decades, Arizona is drying up again. The state's mountains are virtually bare, with snowpack conditions worse than they were at the same time in 2002, a year that set records as one of the driest in five centuries. Warm weather is sucking moisture from forests and ranges, ratcheting up the risk of wildfire. Rural areas are bracing for water shortages by early summer if rains don't come. What the experts don't know yet is if winter is just late - very, very late - or if last year was a wet blip on a long-term drought entering its 11th year. But if winter is late, it will have a lot of catching up to do: January and February typically bring much of the snow needed to refill reservoirs and keep rivers and forests healthy. The culprit so far is a stubborn weather pattern that steers every storm north of Arizona. The Salt and Verde rivers' watersheds received just 0.14 of an inch of rain in November and December, and none has fallen in Phoenix since Oct. 18....
Ag Producers Struggling “Extremely tough.” Those are the words that Bill Botard, Gillespie County Agriculture Extension Agent, used yesterday to describe the drought conditions that continue to plague ag producers in the Fredericksburg area at the start of a new year. “Our hay stocks are dwindling; our stock tank water levels are dwindling,” he said, “and we’re not in very good shape with our small grains or our domestic livestock.” While rainfall amounts have varied around Gillespie County over the past five months, Fredericksburg’s situation is indicative of the overall situation. The city’s official rain gauge at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park has measured only 4.12 inches of moisture since the end of August -- falling 6.18 inches short of the 10.30 inches that are normally measured here during the September-mid-January period....
Texas Cattle Ranchers Hobbled by Drought, Fires Texas rancher Pete Bonds would like to add cattle to his 7,000-head herd but the lack of grazing and the lack of water prevent it. A drought in Texas and Oklahoma, one of the worst in nearly 100 years, has dried up creeks and ponds, depleted pastures, and fueled wildfires that have burned precious hay and grass. The conditions have ranchers selling off breeding stock at a time when they should be expanding herds. Current prices have been profitable for nearly every level of the cattle industry, and during profitable times producers normally expand. "We just don't have the grass to expand," said Bonds during a telephone interview this week....
Alaskan volcano erupts, sends ash plume skyward A volcano on an uninhabited Alaskan island erupted early Wednesday, spewing an ash plume about 5 miles into the sky. Meteorologists said the ash from Augustine Volcano was expected to steer clear of the state's most populous city, Anchorage, nearly 200 miles to the northeast. "Fortunately, it's not going to Anchorage this time," said Bob Hopkins, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service office in Anchorage. Two early-morning explosions indicated an eruption at the volcano, said geologist Jennifer Adleman of the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Satellite images and radar later confirmed the eruption, Hopkins said....
More Cows Found Shot More dead cows have been found in Tooele County, and the reward is going up for information about whoever it was that shot them. A massacre of cows took place near the town of Vernon sometime shortly after Christmas. The offer of a reward has prompted numerous tips but, so far, no arrests. Seven dead ones, that was Dick Johnson's count a few days ago. His cows were shot just after Christmas by trespassers with a high-powered rifle. Last weekend, Johnson found two more. Dick Johnson, Rancher: "Must have been wounded enough that they just wandered off by themselves and died in the sagebrush." Then they found a tenth, with ghastly wounds, which they took to the vet. Dick Johnson: "This cow had suffered for a week and was still alive, and he had to put it down." The perpetrators shot the lock off a gate, probably at night. They apparently drove through the herd, shooting Black Anguses. All the shot cows were pregnant....
Denver parades its heritage It was high noon in the Mile High City when 5-year-old Anna Hawley had her first showdown with a real Texas longhorn. "They're coming. They're coming," the girl shouted as cowboys on horseback drove a couple of dozen longhorns down 17th Street through the heart of Denver's financial district Tuesday to kick off the 100th National Western Stock Show's parade. "Hi, cows. Hi, cows," chimed in 3-year-old Aliera Visconti, riding high on the shoulders of her father, Damon Visconti. "This is her first exposure to the West," the Denver dad said. "I wanted her to capture just a little bit of what it used to be like." The cavalcade of precision equestrian teams, collie-herded sheep and the parade grand marshal, former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, riding atop a red stagecoach, drew whoops and hollers from the crowd....
Enid has had its share of bad guys In the center of the west wall of the Marquis James room in the Public Library of Enid and Garfield County there is a large photo of a dying man. He is lying on his back, on a bed, looking at the camera. His hair is shaggy, he has a full beard and the bedclothes look disheveled. There is no cover on the pillow beneath his head. In the background can be seen what looks like the corner of a window that has bars on it. The man in the photo was Nelson Ellsworth Wyatt, also known as “Zip” Wyatt, also known as Dick Yeager. Wyatt, was an early-day Enid badman. He was described as being tall, with red hair and blue eyes. They said he rolled his own Bull Durham cigarettes in brown paper, and like many of the infamous bad guys of that time he was described as uneducated, and angry. One of the main occupations of the bad guys in the Cherokee Outlet, especially before the 1893 race for land, was rustling horses....
Saddle Bronc world champ enjoying the ride The people of South Dakota have a deep appreciation for their own who compete in pro rodeo and a number of local fans recently got to show their appreciation for newly crowned world saddle bronc champ Jeffery Willert. Willert, a Belvidere native, took the title at this year's Wrangler National Finals Rodeo held in Las Vegas. This marked the third straight year Willert had qualified for the finals, but the 23-year-old had no idea he'd be wearing the gold buckle signifying the championship so soon. He managed to beat out his idol, Billy Etbauer, for the prize. "It's really been unbelievable," said Willert, who talked to anybody who approached him at a recent ceremony in Rapid City. "There's been a lot of parties and I've shaken a lot of hands. I'm really loving it." Willert claimed his first world title while winning a record $278,169 for the year. Approximately $118,630 came from his showing at the National Finals Rodeo....