NEWS ROUNDUP

Federal Land Management Agencies Release Joint Strategy For Reducing Fuels On Land At Risk To Catastrophic Wildfire The U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture today released a new joint strategy for addressing hazardous fuels to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires on more than 180 million acres of public forests, woodlands and rangelands. Many of today's forests have unprecedented levels of flammable materials, including underbrush, needles and leaves. Trees in tightly-packed forests are also smaller, weaker, and more susceptible to insects and diseases. These forests form huge reservoirs of fuel awaiting ignition, and pose an even more significant threat when drought is a factor. Removing hazardous fuels, either through prescribed burning or mechanical treatments, make them unavailable for fire's inevitable appearance. For example, firefighters were able to contain this year's February wildfire in Arizona because it burned into an area that had been treated to reduce hazardous fuels. The 60-page report, Protecting People and Natural Resources: A Cohesive Fuels Treatment Strategy ( www.fireplan.gov), outlines a coordinated approach to fuels treatment adopted by the five major federal land management agencies: DOI's Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service; and USDA's Forest Service....
Falls Creek case not an isolated one The issue over access at Falls Creek is being replicated at private forest inholdings throughout the West, and is likely to continue as long as homeowners seek isolated lots, officials say. More and more frequently, homeowners moving into the forest expect access to their home or subdivision through a Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management road, said Ann Bond, public affairs officer with the San Juan National Forest. But unpaved Forest Service roads that now lead to private properties were not built for heavy traffic or winter snowplowing, she said, and it is not appropriate for federal land agencies to use taxpayer dollars to provide access to private property. Cindy Hockelberg, lands forester with the Columbine Ranger District, said the Forest Service is increasing efforts to educate prospective homeowners on the realities of living in remote areas....
Editorial: Finally, a habitat even a frog can live with WE may never know how much wood a woodchuck can chuck, but we do know that the red-legged frog will be making do with far less critical habitat in California. But that may not be such a bad thing. At one point during a 10-year bureaucratic and legal battle, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated more than 4.1 million acres as critical habitat for the frogs. That 2001 fabrication would have created a barrier to further development in almost all of the greater Bay Area. But this month, Fish and Wildlife decided to impose restrictions on 450,000 acres in 20 counties that biologists consider critical to the frogs' survival and recovery. The restrictions take place only when public money is being spent on a project and if an Army Corps of Engineers permit is required. The restrictions also mean Fish and Wildlife will work cooperatively — rather than adversarially — with ranchers and landowners to help preserve habitat in private hands rather than imposing sanctions. Without addressing the particulars of where the frogs dwell and what areas are most vital for their survival, this designation seems much better than those that went before, especially the one in 2001....
Wildlife group steps up to safeguard pygmy owlThe cactus ferruginous pygmy owl is on the verge of losing its status as an endangered species. The removal from the endangered species list is scheduled to take place May 15, unless the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision is overruled in court. Fewer than 20 of the tiny owls are known to live in Arizona, most of them in an area northwest of Tucson. The delisting decision followed a lawsuit by the home-building industry that wants to develop the area. Jamie Rappaport Clark, a vice president with the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife who visited Arizona last week, said the battle is not over. Clark, former head of the Fish and Wildlife Service, says Defenders and other groups have taken the next step in challenging the decision....
Citing oil, gas lease sales, environmental groups sue BLM Three environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management, claiming an oil and gas lease sale in 2004 violated federal protections. The action was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, based in Salt Lake City; Natural Resources Defense Council, based in New York; and The Wilderness Society, based in Washington, D.C. Defendants are the Interior Department, the BLM and acting Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett. It challenges the leasing of 28 parcels among 219 leased at the time. The 28, largely in eastern Utah, amount to 35,000 acres. The environmentalists argue, ''In its hurry to lease public lands, the BLM has ignored important environmental and cultural laws requiring it to 'look before it leaps,' and to fully evaluate, analyze and disclose the impacts'' of leasing and development. The 28 leases were issued in September 2004 ''without adequate environmental analysis, without cultural review and consultation, and without appropriate protective lease applications.'' Between 1996 and 1999, the BLM compiled new information and concluded that many of these sites possess wilderness characteristics, meaning they were in natural condition with little or no evidence of the presence of man, and offered ''outstanding opportunities for solitude and for primitive and unconfined recreation'' in the terms of the Wilderness Act....
Drilling for gas threatens popular Fruita bike trails Cyclists who make regular pilgrimages from the Roaring Fork Valley to Fruita's popular mountain bike trails might be in a for a surprise in the near future. Fruita's diverse network of singletrack trails offer everything from gentle, rolling hills to steep plunges that make even the most grizzled veterans pucker up. But riders of all levels could get more than they bargained for if hazards like drilling rigs and flare pits pop up in the North Fruita Desert. The potential exists because the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will offer gas leases on thousands of acres of federal land north of Grand Junction and Fruita in a May 11 auction. The revelation of the gas lease sale in early April sparked disbelief and "outrage" among cycling clubs, according to Chris Herrman, president of the Grand Junction-based Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association. The group builds trails and works on cycling issues, often with the BLM. Herrman said the gas drilling threat is difficult to understand because the BLM recently concluded a four-year planning process which dedicated a portion of the North Fruita Desert to mountain biking....
Working in the wilderness Sales of public lands and restricted access to it is becoming more frequent, but one organization is working hard at keeping wilderness trails open and preserving and protecting America's back country. The Middle Rio Grande Chapter of the Back Country Horsemen Association was founded in 1997 by members of the Pecos chapter. There are seven active chapters across the state that are dedicated to preserving the back country wilderness. In New Mexico alone, there are more than 200 chapter members and 16,000-plus members nationwide. The Back Country Horsemen work with the United States Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and other agencies that work towards maintaining the trails on government lands, while at the same time enjoying the natural beauty of the land....
Anti-nuclear-waste rallies held in state Capitol and cyberspace Two rallies - one in a state office building and another in cyberspace - gathered together largely left-leaning environmentalists and largely right-leaning politicians Friday against nuclear-waste storage in Utah's Skull Valley. Nancy Marshall of Murray, holding a lunchtime sandwich in a state Capitol auditorium, was one of the few ordinary Utahns who came out for the latest opposition pep talk. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch and U.S. Reps. Chris Cannon and Jim Matheson exhorted the audience of about 100 to tell the federal Bureau of Land Management why the storage site should be denied a crucial permit. And Marshall took the message to heart, snatching pre-addressed anti-waste form letters to distribute at her office and among her neighbors. “I'm just a citizen,” she said. “I do not want this nuclear waste in my state. It threatens my family, my children and their children. It threatens my neighborhood and my city.”....
New national park fees stun wildlife documentary filmmakers Wildlife photographers and documentary filmmakers say a new fee schedule for commercial filming in Yellowstone and other national parks could put them out of business. "It won't just be the filmmakers and photographers affected by this, it'll be the whole country," said Jeff Hogan, a documentary filmmaker in Jackson, Wyo., who has shot wildlife programs for National Geographic and the BBC. "People will have less exposure to these beautiful places and exciting animal behaviors," he said. "There will be less opportunity for people to learn about wildlife." The interim fees, scheduled to go into effect May 15, would charge filmmakers at least $150 per day for filming in the park. They now pay just $200 per year, plus fees for any park services or assistance they require. Bob Landis, an Emmy-winning filmmaker for his 2004 documentary "Wolf Pack," said the National Park Service probably needs to charge filmmakers more for filming than it currently does, but not as much as the new fee structure. Under the new schedule, Landis -- who said he shoots at least 300 days a year in Yellowstone -- would have to pay at least $45,000 a year....
Judge awards $4M to owners of razed tower After years of legal wrangling, a federal judge has ordered the National Park Service to pay $4 million to the owners of an observation tower that once stood near Gettysburg National Military Park. The federal government took the land by eminent domain in 2000 and demolished the steel structure as part of a campaign to restore the area to the way it looked during the Civil War. "This is a tremendous relief for me, I don't even care about the money anymore," said landowner Hans Engrenn, 77, of New Oxford. "My wife and I could have had a lot of fun with that money 10 years ago. Now, we don't even buy green bananas." U.S. District Judge Sylvia Rambo set the award at about $4,035,000 in a ruling in April, after an appeals court ordered her to reconsider her previous $6.6 million ruling. Government lawyers once argued the tower and its souvenir store were worth only $2.5 million....
RTI renews national park deal, pockets $2.3M RTI International has landed a five-year, $2.3 million contract extension with the U.S. National Park Service to analyze air samples for pollution in the nation's parks. Under the terms of the contract, RTI researchers will scrutinize air samples from a nationwide network of monitoring devices for chloride and for sulphur and nitrogen compounds. Those chemicals and compounds could indicate the presence of acid in the atmosphere in more than 150 U.S. national parks and wilderness areas. RTI scientists will also monitor the air for harmful ozone levels that damage vegetation and ecosystems and can trigger a variety of health problems in humans. The air monitoring project is part of the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments program, an ongoing effort to protect and enhance park resources....
Cameras spotlight water issue Removing four Klamath River dams would do the most to restore salmon populations to their traditional numbers, a California tribal official said Thursday. Leaf Hillman, vice chairman of the Karuk Tribal Council, added that fish hatcheries also have hurt salmon. Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, appeared with Hillman. The two agreed on many issues related to boosting salmon numbers on the Klamath River - a departure from more adversarial stances taken by irrigators and Native Americans in the past. Addington said the Klamath Water Users Association could support dam removal if irrigators were promised three things in return. He said farmers need a dependable supply of water each year, they need affordable electrical power to run irrigation pumps, and they need to be protected from harmful sanctions if another endangered species - salmon - was reintroduced to the Upper Klamath Basin....
Pack Animals Rescued After Slipping Off Trail Los Angeles County firefighters pulled two donkeys, a mule and a horse to safety Saturday after their pack train slid off a trail and down an 80-foot embankment the night before. Rescuers brought in a helicopter to hoist the sedated horse, which had suffered cuts and facial fractures and was too weak to walk out on its own, to a road near the Chantry Flats campground, Fire Capt. Mark Savage said. The U.S. Forest Service and a Sierra Madre search and rescue team participated in the effort. At 5 p.m. Friday, the pack train was returning from bringing supplies to 80 cabins tucked about two miles back from the road when one of the animals slipped off the trail, dragging the others with it. They were attached to one another by a rope, Savage said....
USDA Wants To Slash `Mad Cow' Surveillance Funding The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to slash spending on its controversial "mad cow" disease-surveillance program, declaring that the disease is very rare in the U.S. The USDA said Friday that the results of screening brain samples from 696,000 U.S. cattle since June 2004 show that the brain-wasting disease infects fewer than one in a million adult cattle in the U.S. Based on statistical models used by the agency, the number of infected adult cattle could range from a single animal to 24 across the entire country. The government has been spending about $1 million weekly to screen high-risk cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which can trigger a fatal neurological disease in people who eat products from infected cattle. While three infected cows have been found in the U.S. since December 2003, the human form of the disease has never been tied to the consumption of U.S. beef. In a press conference, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said "there's little justification for continuing surveillance at this level" if the USDA's calculations are confirmed by independent experts. While many consumer advocates agree that the incidence of "mad cow" disease is low in U.S. livestock, the government's calculation - and plans to scale back testing -nonetheless sparked criticism....
Genome technology heads to the table Max Rothschild has been trying to "build" a better pig for almost 30 years, since he took a job cleaning up after the hogs at his alma mater, the University of California, Davis. He's now a renowned swine scientist who has traded the dirty pigpens of his undergraduate days for a glistening Iowa State University laboratory dedicated to producing tastier chops, safer pork and healthier pigs. Rothschild is part of a national collaboration that earlier this year received a $10 million federal grant to map pig genes. Researchers from the University of Illinois-led project promise it will help take the guesswork out of breeding. The idea is to find and exploit the genetic variations of the best pigs, which Rothschild and like-minded agricultural researchers say will radically change the industry. Already, chicken and cow genomes — complete genetic maps of each species — have been published, and race horse breeders have applied to the National Human Genome Research Institute for a grant to run an equine DNA sequence. Most animal genetic sequences are now done with the support of the institute because of its expertise, and comparing animal genomes to the human genome helps with medical research....
Destructive fires can't burn Panhandle spirit The Texas Forest Service reported that there have been 11,353 wildland fires in Texas that burned an estimated 1.5 million acres so far this year. The federal government reports that, since the first of the year, there have been 32,934 wildland fires nationwide that consumed around 2.2 million acres. Texas alone can claim the dubious distinction of being home to about one-third of all the fires in the country. What's more, 71 percent of all the acres burned in the United States are in Texas. And around half of all the acres burned so far this year, nationwide, are right here in the Panhandle. Were it not for the heroic efforts of volunteer fire departments and firefighters from throughout the region and state, that figure could easily have been much higher. Estimates vary, and it will be awhile yet before we have final figures on the total loss associated with the large fires that burned recently in the Panhandle area. But most likely, cattle losses will be somewhere around 5,000 head. The estimated value of the cattle lost in the Panhandle fires is $4 million....
The Cowboy ­ an endangered species The cowboy is one of America's most cherished and mythical figures. He symbolizes the mystique of the American west, a caricature of frontier courage, independence, and rugged masculinity. The iconical cowboy brings to mind, horses, cattle, the howl of a coyote, and wide-open spaces, the cowboy riding off into the sunset. In the west all these things are still alive and well but sadly the cowboy may be riding off into the sunset for good. Once cowboy poet and humorist Baxter Black was asked: What made you decide to become a cowboy? He replied: You either are one, or you aren't, You never have to decide. Recently the media has glamorized the West for a lot of other things besides the western culture. Our mountains and valleys have left indelible impressions on our minds from movies since the days of John Ford, but the last couple of decades magazines like Outside, Skiing, Backpacker, Flyfisherman, and Men’s Journal have romanticized western living for many of its other offerings and has fueled an influx of newcomers who often find fault with the cowboy culture they find there....
'Rattlesnake Rob' time travels to 1867 If you had the chance to travel back in time, knowing that all the luxuries you are accustomed to today wouldn't be available, would you do it? One man did. Rob Wright, a Belen High School graduate, jumped at the chance to go back 139 years, to 1867, and live as a real life cowboy on a Texas ranch. The new PBS reality show, Texas Ranch House, takes men and women from all walks of life out of the 21st century and places them on a ranch in Texas where they have to live and work as folks did shortly after the Civil War. The chosen ones were assigned a job and, for eight weeks, their goal was to run the ranch and make a profit. Wright said being able to participate in the show made for the fulfillment of a lifetime dream. "As a kid, I always dreamed of having my own ranch," he said. "Being on the show just reinforced my respect for farmers, ranchers and cowboys."....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Lebkuchens: The all-purpose snack food Every Christmas, as regular as an insulin shot, we receive one of my favorite annual gifts. Sixteen square feet of Lebkuchens. My mother-in-law manufactures these unusual cookies in her garage - or possibly in her metallurgy studio. I've never asked about the recipe or the cooking directions. I assume she uses a cement mixer, pours the sticky dough out on the driveway to dry. It thickens in the sun, then is rolled flat by the kids next door. Once it has hardened it can be lifted like a sheet of plywood and allowed to age like fine wine, silage or Chinese 1,000-year eggs. Since she has no cellar, the sheets of dough are stacked like lumber behind the shop under a blue tarp. Time goes by. It is a secret how long the dough is allowed to molder, compress, steep, cure, condense and heal but I have seen newspapers stuck to the bottom with President Nixon's picture. I saw the initials BB carved in one like you would put your handprint in cement. I guessed it was Buffalo Bill's....