NEWS ROUNDUP

Were Castro Valley Ranchers Targeted By Ecoterrorists? Ranchers in rural Castro Valley awoke this weekend to graffiti on horse trailers, a street sign and a for sale sign touting the 'ALF' -- the renegade Animal Liberation Front. Rancher Jim Grimes said the Alameda County Sheriff's Department and FBI were investigating whether or not the graffiti was actually the work of the eco-terrorist group. "We don't mistreat animals -- people wouldn't stand for that," said Grimes who boards horses. "I've been around animals all my life and you don't get anywhere with them by mistreating them…It either was kids who had nothing better to do or this outfit ought to move on." Graffiti was spray painted on one of Grimes horse trailers, a nearby street sign and a for sale sign on a nearby ranch. While the messages on Grimes property were simply the initials "Alf" the ranch for sale sign had an ominous "Burn It" painted on it. The FBI has intensified its efforts to curtail and arrest ALF members since January when 11 people were indicted in a series of arsons in five Western states....
Book Review: Collateral Damage Another sentimental wolf story? No. It's a wolf story intellectuals and activists of all persuasions ought to study. Michael J. Robinson's Predatory Bureaucracy. Extermination of Wolves and the Transformation of the West is a closely documented examination of human and animal encounters on this continent. From its double entendre title and the cover featuring a black wolf's relentless stare to the last index entry, we are given a meticulous account of one federal bureau's predator killing mission, a mission that embedded itself in the culture and mythology of wide open spaces west of the 100th meridian. From its very first days the Office of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy, later known as the Biological Survey, now the Fish and Wildlife Service, was caught in its own trap. One jaw serving the predator (bad animals) extermination mission and building close political relations with cattlemen and sheepmen; the other jaw, with a smaller share of the budget, devoted to study, using good science, the biology of birds and mammals. These scientists, a diverse and picturesque bunch, ranged from the Arctic to Mexican border lands. Eventually, they rebelled against the good animal/bad animal paradigm. By the time they had, oh so very slowly, learned from their own studies that extermination was a clumsy, dangerous policy, they found themselves up against a formidable alliance, the intimate collaboration between federal and state officials and economic power brokers. The book studies a braided flow of history where wolves and coyotes, cougars and prairie dogs, grizzlies and eagles and a host of other creatures including us humans, build, together and forever intertwined, western history. Predatory Bureaucracy moves through layers: political, economic, geographic, biological, mythological. This doesn't happen often enough, in the fields of nature and environmental writings....
National park proposes shooting elk to shrink herd The elk that thrill visitors with statuesque poses and haunting, bugle-like mating calls in Rocky Mountain National Park have become so numerous that park officials want hundreds of them shot and suggest wolves could help keep the herds in check. The recommended alternative in a draft elk management plan released Monday doesn’t suggest releasing wolves in the park 70 miles northwest of Denver. Still, park officials said wolves would best meet environmental objectives and do the least damage. ‘‘This is a 20-year plan and a lot can happen in 20 years. Wolves may come in on their own,’’ park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said. There are between 2,200 and 3,000 elk roaming the park and the animals are frequent visitors to the adjacent town of Estes Park. The preferred alternative in the draft plan calls for park employees or contractors to shoot between 200 to 700 elk over four years and between 25 to 150 elk annually for the next 16 years. The goal is a population of 1,200 to 1,700 elk. Park officials say the solution must begin now because the herds are becoming a nuisance — to visitors who often sit in traffic as the animals cross the park’s winding mountain roads and to area’s flora. The elk chew up willows and aspen so important to other species, including songbirds and beavers. Predators such as wolves and grizzly bears would force the elk to move around more and lead to some culling. But they haven’t been in the park for years, and a ban on hunting in national parks has resulted in big herds....
Bush, environmentalists reach impasse on legislation Saturday was Earth Day, a time every year when Americans celebrate the environment and debate changes in the way to protect it. Yet on Earth Day 2006, the real news may have been what hasn't changed. Despite relentless rhetoric from environmentalists and industry that the Bush administration has shifted the balance from tight regulation toward a more business-friendly approach, in reality, the president and his supporters have been unable to significantly rewrite America's landmark environmental laws, even though Republicans have controlled all branches of government for more than five years. Neither side plays it up. But environmentalists have blocked the president's most far-reaching efforts in the Senate, in court and with public opinion. They can't get anything passed, but not much has gotten past them, experts say. "We're at a stalemate. It's like two male rams battling each other," said Sheldon Kamieniecki, a professor of political science at the University of Southern California. "It's gridlock on the environment."....
Oregon State University Researchers Examine Effect Of Livestock On Native Ecosystems Oregon State University researchers will spend four years investigating the effect of cattle on soils, plants, invertebrates and ground-nesting birds in the Zumwalt Prairie, one of the largest and last native prairies in the Pacific Northwest. Funded by a USDA National Research Initiative grant for $450,000, the OSU researchers will test different cattle stocking rates across about 1,600 acres of land in The Nature Conservancy's Zumwalt Prairie Preserve. Using four fenced blocks, each divided into four 100-acre pastures, they will analyze high, medium, low and zero stocking rates. They will look at how cattle affect the availability of resources for other organisms, how habitat for wildlife communities change as stocking rates change and the effect grazing has on vulnerability and predation of ground-nesting birds in the area. The researchers will also evaluate at which stocking rates the cattle are most successful. Due to population declines, the grassland birds that live among the Zumwalt's native bunch grass - the primary forage for cattle in the area - are of national conservation concern. These birds include horned larks, western meadowlarks and savannah sparrows....
Column: Grazing rights essential to protect livestock industry Tom Wharton's questioning of Kane County officials' understanding of free enterprise exposes a lack of understanding and bias. As the Grand Canyon Trust has moved to mothball historic livestock grazing rights guaranteed by the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act, local officials rightfully challenged the trust's "grazing retirement" agenda. The foundation principle Congress mandated in Taylor grazing is "safeguarding of livestock grazing rights." A legal challenge came after local Bureau of Land Management employees ignored federal law requiring grazing rights be allocated to legitimate ranching interests with private base property, water rights and livestock. Ranchers' applications were passed over by the BLM in favor of the Grand Canyon Trust with no land, no water and no livestock. Does violation of federal law complement free enterprise? Wharton's warped view of free enterprise allows tax-sheltered, anti-grazing environmental groups, using tax-deductible donations from across America to compete in Kane County against hard-working, tax-paying ranchers contributing to local schools, law enforcement and roads while creating jobs and new wealth. It's ironic that, in trying to gain broader appeal and soft-selling its controversial development of urban open spaces, Wal-Mart donated $1 million to buy out the Kane and Two Mile ranches. Historically, Kane Ranch with permits for 1,200 mother cows, annually contributed over $1 million to the local economy, paid taxes and provided jobs. The trust, upon acquisition of the ranch, said "we're going to run as few cows as we possibly can."....
UM Faculty Members Rally For Endangered Species Act Three University of Montana faculty members held a press conference in front of University Hall today, to rally support for the embattled Endangered Species Act. They drew a sparse crowd on a warm, rather-be-playing-frisbee Friday, but their message was clear: The ESA has been successful in rehabilitating many species, and can save more if it remains intact. Economist John Duffield presented probably the most interesting perspective on the value of the act – Duffield has been surveying the economics of wolf recovery in Yellowstone National Park since the reintroduction program began, and considers the grey wolf an example of how the ESA can be a boon for the economy as well as animals. Duffield said the money wolves bring to the park far outweighs the costs of lost livestock and hunting permits. “Wolves are what economists call a public good, millions of people can come and see them. Cattle and sheep, those are private goods,” Duffield said. He said 94 percent of Yellowstone visitors surveyed listed wildlife viewing as their main reason for coming. Grizzlies are still king (55 percent of visitors said they came to see the big bears specifically) but wolves are now the number-two attraction....
U.S. Forest Service sued over plans to cut fire risks Two environmental groups sued the U.S. Forest Service on Monday to stop its plans to reduce the risk of wildfire southwest of Big Timber. The Gallatin National Forest project, involving about 2,500 acres along the narrow corridor of the Boulder River, is meant to reduce the intensity of wildfires and the risk of anyone getting hurt if a fire starts. "The whole idea is to buy time to get people out," said Bill Avey, Gallatin district ranger in Big Timber. The contract is scheduled to be awarded in the coming months so work can begin in the winter. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit in federal court in Missoula opposing the project. The lawsuit names as defendants the Forest Service, Regional Forester Abigail Kimbell and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In the suit, the groups say the project violates federal laws and that proposals to log trees, apply herbicides and build temporary roads pose dangers to people and wildlife, including grizzly bears, Yellowstone cutthroat trout, wolverine and lynx. The groups also said the work would also create a barrier for wildlife in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness on both sides of the canyon....
Timber, conservation groups reach deal on Beaverhead-Deerlodge Forest plan Saying they're tired of the decades of fighting that's stalled everything from timber sales to new wilderness designations, a group of timber industry leaders and conservationists on Monday unveiled their vision for the future management of Montana's largest national forest. The accord - which they negotiated over the past four months - would create a stable supply of timber for local mills, set aside additional acreage for recommended wilderness and help fund projects that would benefit wildlife and fisheries on the 3.3-million-acre Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. The plan calls for setting aside 573,000 acres for proposed wilderness and designating 713,000 acres of land as suitable timber base. Both figures mark substantial increases over what's now proposed in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge draft land use plan. Members of three different conservation groups and two representatives of Montana's timber industry called the plan a “balanced proposal” that would protect both the resource and local economies at a press conference held at Sun Mountain Lumber in Deer Lodge....
Governor to take petition route in roadless dispute Gov. Ted Kulongoski says he will ask the Bush administration to restore safeguards for nearly 2 million acres of roadless national forests in Oregon. The Clinton administration prohibited logging and road building on 58.5 million acres nationally, but the Bush administration later abandoned that protection amid legal challenges. The Bush administration established a roadless policy requiring governors to submit petitions outlining the roadless, undeveloped forest lands they want to see protected. Kulongoski supported the original Clinton protections and took several steps to restore full safeguards for the roadless lands. He has joined a lawsuit with other Western states that seeks to reinstate the Clinton protections. But he said he would also submit the petition under the process created by the Bush administration, even though he disagrees with the administration's actions. "These lands are part of every Oregonian's natural heritage," Kulongoski said in a statement....
Working with energy firms a challenge As counties scramble to handle natural-gas development within their borders, questions about what activities can and cannot be regulated yield different responses from around Colorado. “The dilemma for counties is that the oil and gas industry is specifically exempted from a lot of our regulatory authority,” said Randy Russell, senior long-range planner for Garfield County. “Counties are fairly limited on what they can demand.” The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the agency charged with the encouragement of resource exploitation in the state, has regulatory power over the majority of oil and gas-related activities. Mesa County officials have begun working on an energy master plan for Plateau Valley, the area most immediately affected by drilling, to help guide where and how the activities take place. “We’re in the infancy stage of gathering together the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, energy producers, gatherers and processors,” said Mesa County Commissioner Craig Meis. “We’re sharing the values we hold dear here in this county, like our view sheds and wildlife corridors.” Meis said the county was working on putting together a map of the area around Collbran, Mesa and Molina, establishing places that were “most appropriate” for certain types of development, such as pipelines, compressor stations and new roads....
Martin grad's future pivots on eco-terror case A former Martin County High School athlete — the face of environmental virtue to some and a symbol of domestic terrorism to others — expects to find out today whether he will be moved from a Canadian jail cell to the United States, where he faces a sentence that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. Tre Arrow, born Michael Scarpitti, has spent his 31st and 32nd birthdays in a Canadian prison since being arrested in March 2004 for walking out of a Victoria, British Columbia, hardware store with a pair of bolt cutters at his side. Arrow was found guilty of the theft and received one day in jail, but he remains incarcerated more than two years later as U.S. prosecutors attempt to convict him for allegedly blowing up four cement and logging trucks in an act of ecoterrorism. A Canadian court ruled in July that Arrow should be extradited, but the former congressional candidate appealed. "I am an innocent man being targeted, framed and persecuted not because I am guilty of arson, but because I am an activist," Arrow wrote in his appeal letter. "Under the guise of national security, economic gain, and the 'war on terror,' nonviolent activists like myself... are considered a serious threat to the status quo and are being treated like communists during the Cold War." The appeal letter is being considered by Canadian Justice Minister Vic Toews, who could issue a ruling today....
Clearcutting can be helpful, panelists say A conservation group campaigning to end timber clearcutting on national forests convened a panel to air differing views on the issue Friday, and got what it asked for. “It isn’t yes or no about clearcutting,” said Reg Rothwell of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s biological service. “It’s a matter of degree and of the nature of the cut.” Because of public and congressional opposition to allowing wildfires to burn, Rothwell said, “there is some utility to clearcutting.” He said some tree species, such as most aspens, do not regenerate by seed but by “catastrophic removal ... and that’s what fires do; what sustained aspens historically was fire.” "Clearcuts are probably the only decent substitute that we have right now” for the wildfires that once burned unchecked in the country’s forests and created open areas for grazing within the surrounding woods, said Rick Straw, a biologist with the Game and Fish Department. Straw said “the department isn’t seeing any ill effects at this time” from the practice. Straw said deer and elk still seemed to be doing well and bear and mountain lion populations had stayed level or increased.
It's All Trew: Being in hot water actually a luxury Today, we take hot water for granted, but not so long ago, plenty of hot water was considered a luxury. Memories about hot water, or the lack of it, crossed my mind. Some go way back to a teakettle sitting on the back of our kitchen stove, which was the only hot water we had available. At various times in the Trew house, we used a blue spatter porcelain, a white porcelain and an aluminum teakettle to heat water. The aluminum kettle was best because when you banged on the sides to knock the calcium deposits loose, porcelain vessels often chipped, causing rusty holes to appear. Down at the Parcell Ranch on the Canadian River, where mostly men (and little boys) hung out batching, we used two porcelain coffee pots. The light gray was for coffee and the big blue was for hot water. Our wood cook stove had a hot water reservoir but at some time it had frozen solid and cracked the tank, rendering it unusable. As long as I can remember, on bath nights we filled the galvanized milk buckets with water heating on either a wood, coal, kerosene or butane stove. Because of the expense, we had butane for the refrigerator and kitchen cook stove but used other fuels to heat our house. Later we acquired a butane tank, allowing us to install a floor furnace and hot water heater....