NEWS ROUNDUP

Creature Feeds Conspiracies, Controversy, Part II In Eastern Montana, permits had been issued and a plan formed to take care of a wandering creature, wolf or not, that had killed 36 sheep and injured some 71 more. But the level of frustration in the prairie communities continued to build, further feeding a divide between two cultures -- one rooted to the land the animal was wandering, and the other filled with regulations designed to protect the animal. Some of the first questions about how to deal with the stock-killer concerned the CM Russell Wildlife Refuge. Among the least popular of the federal government's many, many unpopular endeavors in the region, the CM Russell's one million acres (including the vast acreage of the surface of Fort Peck Reservoir) has been a flash point since it was set aside as a "game range" in 1936, following the general exodus of human population from the region in the wake of the Dust Bowl years. Among the extremely hardy agricultural people who did not leave, who stayed on, year after year, building larger and larger holdings in order to survive, there is ongoing suspicion that the Refuge, which has been the site of prairie dog town recovery (an idea that disgusts many ranchers who have battled the rodents for decades) is also the secret site of wolf re-introductions. Such secret re-introductions, it is theorized, will have the conspiratorial effect of bringing down even more federal regulations on ranching operations and have the wolves killing stock that will help to ease ranchers into the financial abyss. That event will force the sale of private property and begin the creation of the Big Open, or the even more despised notion of the Buffalo Commons, a huge, unpeopled, wildlife reserve, running through the parts of the Great Plains states that have suffered big declines in agriculture and population since the 1920's....
Desert water more precious than gold Water has been called "the essential element" and nowhere was and still is that more true than Tooele County. When you think of the water resources of Tooele County, you may say as Sir Richard Burton did in 1860 "Water, Water, everywhere and not a drop to drink." Millions and millions of gallons of water cover vast tracts of the county in Great Salt Lake and out in the Great Salt Lake Desert. Unfortunately, this water is useless except for the heavy metals, salt and brine shrimp extracted from it in mass quantities each year. This is not the complete story of water in the county, however, as there are several significant sources, several of which remain untapped. It was said back in the Old West that the only thing more valuable than gold was water. If you were a cattle rancher or a farmer, your spread could only grow as far as your water resources and the conditions of the range would allow. Water has been utilized by the people of the county in many interesting ways since the first settlers eked out their first season at the mouth of Settlement Canyon. The first obvious use was for culinary purposes and the second was irrigation. But after that, the pioneers put the water resources of the county to work in all kinds of interesting ways. Saw mills were constructed on Settlement Canyon Creek and near the Benson Grist Mill in the early 1850s. The power of water was utilized to mill the lumber that built the early settlers' homes, churches, barns and other buildings. Water power was also used to grind the wheat into flour that was brought to the mill....
Rancher lifestyle endures In Rush Valley father Johnson and his family continue a lifestyle generations old & growing hay and raising cattle. Johnson, 64, says to him the lifestyle is priceless & worth far more than any profit he could make through selling his water rights. As suburbanization encroaches culturally and physically, the Johnsons could make a a bundle to sell out. The water used to grow just one acre of alfalfa can serve as many as five suburban homes. Darrell's father Orson is in his 80s. Father and son & one at the age of retirement and one well past it & drive their tractor together around the farm, work and talk. Sons and grandsons work on the farm and help out. Family members have sometimes worked jobs in town in order to make ends meet. Johnson combined his passion with practical necessity for about ten years when he worked for a bank in Salt Lake loaning money to ranchers. He was willing to do what was needed to preserve the rural lifestyle they love. Another generation down Darrell sees future ranchers. "I've got a 4-year old grandson helping me all morning and you can bet he's going to want to stay out here and do this," Johnson said. "This little guy knows as much about cows as I do. It's a good life....
Irrigators wrestle with water ruling Klamath Reclamation Project irrigators huddled Tuesday to decide their next step after a federal judge required accelerated implementation of a Klamath River management plan. U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong's decision Monday put the river's water allocation plan into effect immediately rather than over the next five years. If flows drop to levels that threaten coho salmon, water could be withheld from irrigators. Most local irrigators agree that's not likely to happen this summer because of the significant snowpack in the mountains. As of Monday, the Klamath Basin's snowpack was 163 percent of average - compared with one-third of average a year ago. Oregon has the West's best overall snowpack with 136 percent of average. Despite that, the president of Klamath Water Users Association expressed frustration with the scope of Armstrong's ruling. Steve Kandra said the Klamath Project is only a small part of the Klamath River system, but was hit with accelerated phases of river management because that's all the judge could legally affect....
National director says agency improving work relationship with oil and gas industry The national director for the Bureau of Land Management told oil and gas producers in Eddy County Thursday that the agency's goal is to work smarter, more efficiently and cooperatively with the oil and gas industry. She said that the Carlsbad Field Office is one of several pilot offices in the Western states that will be implementing the new initiatives, which have a goal of decreasing processing times for applications for oil and gas drilling and inspections of oil and gas wells. The pilot offices have three years to demonstrate their effectiveness. At the end of the third year, the BLM will have to report to Congress, said Alan Kesterke, who heads the BLM national energy policy liaison Energy Act implementation team. Dale Hall, national director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who accompanied Clarke from Washington, said pilot offices like Carlsbad BLM office are the key to doing business in a new way. He said part of the pilot office program is to staff the local BLM office with a biologist from Fish and Wildlife and another person from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. In essence, it will be a one-stop office for the oil and gas industry. The Local BLM office is also in the process of hiring 23 more people....
Manmade Ponds Help Preserve Wetlands More people building ponds for golf courses and subdivisions or to retain stormwater and wastewater helped create the nation's first net gain in wetlands in a half-century of government record-keeping. About 5 percent of the contiguous United States, or almost 108 million acres, was covered with wetlands as of 2004, the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service reported Thursday. It found a net gain of 191,800 acres of wetlands since the last report in 1997. Bush administration officials cast the report as evidence that the nation has turned a corner on years of wetlands losses. State wetland managers and advocacy groups for hunting, recreation and environmental causes all called the report misleading. The Fish and Wildlife Service reported a gain of 715,300 acres of shallow-water wetlands - mainly artificial varieties of ponds - which offset a continued loss of 523,500 acres of marshes, swamps, and other more traditional and natural wetlands that are the so-called nurseries of life....
Hearing opens on water plan for Nevada lobbyist-developer Nevada's state engineer opens hearings Tuesday on contested plans for water that lobbyist-turned-developer Harvey Whittemore needs for a huge project, 60 miles north of Las Vegas, that eventually could include 50,000 homes and 10 golf courses. State Engineer Hugh Ricci has scheduled three days for a review of applications by Lincoln County and the Vidler Water Co. to pump 14,000 acre-feet of water a year from Kane Valley to supply the big Coyote Springs development. Whittemore says he already has water rights available for the first 5,000 homes. The additional water would allow for continued growth of the development, which could include condominiums and hotels in addition to individual homes. Vidler attorney Steve Hartman said the firm would be comfortable if Ricci approves 5,000 acre-feet and then orders a prolonged test to see if there are any adverse effects on the 28-mile-long Kane Valley. The plan has generated protests from the federal government, which claims the pumping would harm the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and threaten some endangered species, including a small fish known as the Moapa dace and the Southwestern willow flycatcher, a small bird....
Column: Gale's Greatest Hits Five years ago, the Interior Department, which oversees one-quarter of the nation's land, 9,000 employees and nine federal agencies, appeared to have turned a corner. Outgoing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had just pulled off a remarkable conservation offensive, getting his boss, Bill Clinton, to create and expand more than a dozen national monuments in the West. The monuments capped the Babbitt team's many efforts, from trying to reform the 1872 Mining Law to implementing habitat protection plans for imperiled species living in the path of growth. So thoroughly had Babbitt pushed conservation that when Gale Norton, a former attorney general from Colorado, took over the reins in 2001, several pundits predicted that she would have a difficult time dismantling a "reborn" Interior Department. But that's not how things worked out....
Staying down on the farm Over the past quarter-century, Arizona farmers and ranchers have sold an average of 1,320 acres a day. Houses and shops have replaced almost one-third of the state's farmland. But as more farmers sell their land to developers, a handful of die-hards are turning to agritourism, also known as agritainment, to preserve their farms and their way of life. "We are losing our farmers, our locally grown food and the knowledge of how fertile this region was before the houses came," said Katie Decker, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Agriculture, which charts the state's ongoing loss of farmland. Agritourism, which combines agriculture and tourism by providing the public with a farming experience, also gives farmers who want to keep plowing a way to fight off developers....
Johanns releases farm program wish list March is among thousands who have given wish lists to the Agriculture Department as it prepares for an overhaul of farm programs next year. Many talked in person to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns during a nationwide series of forums. On Wednesday, Johanns issued an exhaustive summary of the comments, more than 4,000 in all. Comments and summaries are available on the department's Web site, http://www.usda.gov. The department did not say which issues were most talked about. But a Washington-based group, the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, reviewed transcripts of the forums earlier this year and said that 40 percent of those who spoke mentioned conservation. Next comes a series of analysis papers on different issues. Johanns said he will decide what to ask Congress for later, likely early next year....
We’re Thinking About Tomorrow Susie Morales lives west of Nogales in a remote canyon crisscrossed by smuggling trails. From her kitchen door, she can look out and sees burreros — drug mules — backpacking marijuana into the country. They're close enough to wink at her. Her house has been broken into many times, and she had to protect it — it looks like a fort, with security doors, window bars, and an expensive alarm system. At suppertime, when her husband is outside talking to passing illegals, she keeps a rifle on the table while she cooks. As maddening as that insecurity is, what bothers Susie most is that she can no longer live the way she was raised. For generations on this border, residents have shown generosity and kindness to passersby. But rampant drug-running and illegal immigration have driven a stake through the heart of that way of life. The invasion has brutalized border country, and for Susie, who is fifth generation, that means making the heart-breaking decision to stop offering food and water to illegals. They come in hordes now, and the danger has grown too great. "I can't describe how upsetting it is to have to change who I am," says Susie. "Why, after 50 years, should I have to face this moral conflict?" In Cochise County, rancher John Ladd fights to keep what he owns. With 10 1/2 miles of land abutting the Mexican line, he watches the border war every day through his living room window. In the early 2000s, the Border Patrol averaged 350 arrests every 24 hours on his property, including 700 in a single night....