NEWS ROUNDUP

BREAK IN CATTLE POACHING CASE There has been a break in the cattle poaching case in Madison County. After years of what seemed random poaching of cattle east of Rexburg, sheriff's deputies say they have a good lead on who might be responsible and need your help. Aaron Kunz reports on what gave them their new lead in this case. Over the last few years, many ranchers started patrolling their land, and today a rancher believes he saw the man responsible for killing yet another cow. Chief Deputy Ryan Kaufman is looking at the carcass in the most recent killing, a cow shot Monday morning has given them the best lead they've had since starting this investigation. Chief Dep. Ryan Kaufman, Madison County Sheriff's Office: "The vehicle that we have the description given to us by the hunter is an older 80s to 90's grey Jeep Cherokee. The gentleman driving it was described as a older Hispanic male, round face with a goatee and shorter black hair." There have been dozens of cows killed, most shot from the road by poachers in Madison County. Each killing is a felony offense, because each cow is worth around two thousand dollars....
Hearing tomorrow on Navy land plan The Navy wants to double the size of a training area in the backcountry where air crews and special-operations forces practice how to survive when trapped behind enemy lines. The Navy's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape – SERE – school uses 6,158 acres in and near the Cleveland National Forest covered mostly with shrubs and light forest, said Steve Fiebing, a Coronado Naval Base spokesman. Under the proposal, the Pentagon would return about 1,700 acres to the forest service but add about 8,000 acres south and west of the existing school, Fiebing said. The new site would grow to 12,544 acres. He said no new roads or buildings are planned. Nearly all the land would be left as a wilderness, where troops would practice basic survival, navigation and reconnaissance skills....
Critics decry U.S. failure to replant burned tracts On one side of the property line, a new forest is taking root _ a glassy-green sea of waist-high pine planted by a timber company after a massive wildfire swept through six years ago. On the other side, on public land managed by the Lassen National Forest, dense mats of brush cling to a landscape dominated by charred dead trees, some standing, others not. "Nobody on the Lassen is proud of that land line," said Duane Nelson, who manages reforestation for the Forest Service in California. "We actually refer to it as our wall of shame." Reforestation _ the planting and natural regeneration of trees _ is the most critical part of forest management. But across the West, vast parcels of Forest Service land scorched by increasingly catastrophic wildfires have not been replanted. The consequences may linger for centuries. Imagine a Sierra Nevada that yields not gin-clear snowmelt but coffee-colored torrents from eroding canyons. Imagine shrub fields that stretch for miles, so dense that even birds and backpackers avoid them. That is the future Doug Leisz _ a former associate chief for the Forest Service _ envisions unless the agency replants more quickly....
Use roads or close them? A management plan for roads in the Medicine Bow/Routt National Forest, scheduled for release next month, will call for almost 100 miles of unauthorized roads to be approved for motorcycle and all-terrain vehicle use. Clint Kyhl, Laramie District ranger, said the plan would not affect some 785 miles of authorized roads in the forest. However, it would put about 100 miles out of the 265 miles of unauthorized roads to use. "We have a variety of unauthorized roads we needed to decide to use or close," Kyhl said. "(And) we have zero miles of motorized trail in the district right now. We want to provide that opportunity as well, and use some of these roads to do it." Rick Woodard, an ATV rider from Cheyenne, said he was glad to hear about the plan. "That's great that they're actually starting to make an attempt to get some trails opened up," he said. "Because right now, throughout the whole state, there are only a few trails you can go on. And the only other places you can ride are in national forests on regular vehicle roads."....
The Post-Burning Question: Log It or Leave It? Three government SUVs guarded a road to nowhere. Nearby, a middle-age couple camping out in a trailer manned a round-the-clock checkpoint next to a locked gate, on the watch for environmental protesters. A few miles beyond, the drone of chain saws rose from a deep ravine while a hovering helicopter plucked blackened logs from the floor of the burned forest and carried them to the nearest road. Begun in August, the logging is the first in the country on nearly 60 million acres of remote national forest protected by a Clinton administration decree that was set aside last year by the Bush administration. The operation was too far along to be stopped by a Sept. 19 federal court order reinstating the Clinton edict. Ever since a huge 2002 fire called Biscuit swept across the outback of southwest Oregon, burning a swath of forest the size of Orange County, this prized landscape has been at the forefront of conflict over Bush administration forest policies dealing with roadless backcountry and wildfire. One of the most contentious issues is whether government should leave a forest alone after it has burned, letting the trees decay to nurture a gradual rebirth, as conservationists advocate; or log the commercially valuable dead timber and replant, as the Bush administration desires....
Forest's old uranium mine undergoes testing Radioactive testing is now under way at an abandoned high-country uranium mine on the Stanislaus National Forest. For the past three days, contractors from Placer County have been taking soil samples from one of three waste piles at the former Juniper Uranium Mine. While the mine was active between 1956 and 1966, it produced about 500 tons of uranium ore. The 33-acre mine site is just west of Sardine Meadow at an elevation of 8,500 feet. Twenty years after the mine closed, the U.S. Forest Service took it over. Public access to the mine site was blocked in June 2003 after tests showed that erosion had elevated the radioactive exposure. Next to the 175-foot-deep mining pit are three waste piles of rock and dirt totaling 45,000 cubic yards. Each pile has a different level of radioactivity. The third pile, the one being tested, has the least because it was the original top layer of soil when the mine was dug, said Stanislaus National Forest spokesman Jerry Snyder. The Forest Service plans to put the most radioactive of the material back in the mine first. Once covered, plants and trees will be planted to make the mine area blend in and help prevent erosion....
Bush OKs wilderness protection The remote "Lost Coast" of Humboldt County, a salmon-rich river in Mendocino County and a rare cedar forest in Napa County will receive new protections under a law signed by President Bush on Tuesday, the largest federal wilderness protection measure in California in 12 years. The bill designates 273,000 acres for wilderness protections, an area 10 times the size of San Francisco. The lands affected are owned by the federal government, and are managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Now however, commercial logging, mining and motor vehicle use will be banned. "After more than five years of hard work and tremendous support from hundreds of environmentalists, outdoor enthusiasts, businesses and government officials, this beautiful and unique land has received the highest protection the law allows," said U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, the author of the bill....
BLM will cite defiant ATV rider Richard Beardall is getting exactly what he wanted: a trespassing ticket from federal land managers for ignoring the rules and riding his ATV on a closed road in the San Rafael Swell. Beardall, three other ATV riders and a Jeep, moved a 10-foot barricade near an old uranium mine and made a half-mile roundtrip along the access road to the Muddy River on Saturday. The Bureau of Land Management closed the area to recreational vehicles in 1993 due to riparian damage, said Price, Utah-based BLM manager Roger Bankert. Beardall, president of the Americans with Disabilities Access Alliance knows that, but he and others are angry over the closing of public lands, Bankert said. "He wants the ticket to go to court and challenge the closure," said Bankert, who is in his fourth week on the job....
Supervisors move to save desert plan San Bernardino County supervisors announced Tuesday that they voted in closed session to join in defending a desert wildlife habitat-conservation plan from an environmental lawsuit. If the U.S. District Court in San Francisco allows the county to participate in the suit, San Bernardino County would have the right to argue in front of the court and participate in any future settlement talks on the West Mojave Plan. Stopping the suit is critical to allowing road maintenance, public-safety access and waste disposal in areas covered by the plan, said Robin Cochran, a deputy county counsel. The West Mojave Plan is the largest habitat conservation plan in the nation, regulating activities on 3.3 million acres. In return for some parts of the desert being reserved as critical wildlife habitat, the plan reduces environmental restrictions in less sensitive areas. San Bernardino County was a lead agency in the plan's design. Approved in March, the plan failed to protect the desert tortoise and several plant species, several environmental organizations have argued. In a suit filed in August, the Center for Biological Diversity alleged the plan illegally permitted disastrous amounts of off-highway-vehicle use and asked for an injunction barring the federal Bureau of Land Management from "issuing any permit, approval, or other action" for any activity that would adversely affect the desert tortoise or three plant species....
BLM expects an appeal on Over the River decision Whichever way the Bureau of Land Management rules on the Over the River project, the issue will likely end up in appeals court, BLM Field Manager Roy Masinton told Chaffee County Commissioners Monday. Masinton, delivering a report on BLM issues affecting Chaffee County during a work session in Salida, said both the artists and the opposition group are prepared to appeal if the BLM decision doesn't go their way. "I anticipate, no matter what decision is made, we'll go to court on it," Masinton said. Artists Christo and Jeane Claude are attempting to gain approval to stretch fabric over the Arkansas River in sections from Salida to Cañon City in a public art display. A group centered in Howard called Rags Over the Arkansas River is leading the opposition....
Conservation Groups Defend California's Right to Regulate Gold Mining Today, Sierra Club and Earthworks, represented by Earthjustice and the Western Mining Action Project, filed a submission opposing the Canadian gold mining company Glamis Gold's efforts to use an international trade panel to force the United States to pay $50 million for mining restrictions that protect the environment and Native American cultural resources. "This is about a foreign-owned company using a NAFTA trade panel to bully the state of California and the United States into letting them destroy public lands," said Margrete Strand Rangnes, with Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program. "This case should be a wake-up call to the Bush administration as it negotiates new trade agreements." The trade panel, created under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), is considering the case involving a series of open pit gold mines in the California desert roughly 45 miles northeast of El Centro, California. The land is sacred to the Quechan Indians, a Colorado River Indian tribe living near the California-Arizona border. The Canadian mining company filed a proposed plan of operations with the federal Bureau of Land Management to mine 1,600 acres in 1994. In 2001, Clinton Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt refused to approve Glamis's mining plan because it would have destroyed the sacred tribal lands. California later passed a law requiring open pit mines to be refilled after mining was completed, a process the company argues is too expensive to make the mine profitable....
Bill Fighting Mine Not Intended to Pass Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon may have introduced a bill aimed at crippling a planned cement mine in Soledad Canyon several months ago, but he never intended to see it passed this year, a spokesman said. Introduced late last spring by McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, the "Soledad Canyon Mine Leases Adjustment Act" would cancel the Cemex Inc.'s leases - providing the company with other mining options instead - and prohibit the federal Bureau of Land Management from re-leasing the land except at historic extraction levels of about 300,000 tons per year. Since 1999, Santa Clarita has been locked in a legal battle over the Mexican cement giant's proposed 20-year mine, which - starting in 2008 - would extract some 69-million tons of sand and gravel from the mine in Soledad Canyon, about one mile from some Canyon Country housing tracts. The city owns the unincorporated county property, but the company has been granted federal mining permits. The intention was never to see the bill passed this year, McKeon spokesman Scott Wilk said. Rather, it was introduced this year "to see what kind of red flags it may have generated" among the members of Congress....
Gas firm positive about meeting standards EnCana Oil and Gas USA, the main natural gas producer on Wyoming's Jonah Field, says it's confident it can comply with new, more stringent federal air quality regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency last month tightened its regulation of "PM 2.5s," meaning particles that are 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter. Officials say such small particles cause health problems and are a component of smog. Previous federal air quality regulations enacted in 1997 allowed emissions of up to 65 micrograms per cubic meter of PM 2.5s in a 24-hour period. The new EPA standards reduce the allowable amount to 35 micrograms per cubic meter. According to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the maximum concentration of PM 2.5s during the operation of the Jonah Field project would be 44 micrograms per cubic meter. During the early stages of development, the agency predicts that emissions from the field would be 49.2 micrograms per cubic meter. Combined with other emissions, the total maximum would be 69.2 per 24-hour period - nearly double the maximum acceptable level under the new standard....
DeGette, 14 groups protest BLM plans for Roan Plateau A management plan for western Colorado's Roan Plateau promoted by state and federal officials as balancing demands for energy with protecting the environment drew protests Monday from Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and 14 conservation, hunting and fishing groups. The formal protests filed with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will be considered as the agency finalizes the decision on managing the 73,602 acres of federal land on and around the plateau. The plateau, which straddles Garfield and Rio Blanco counties, is rich in natural gas and oil shale. It's also home to a variety of wildlife - elk, deer, mountain lions, peregrine falcons, bears and rare, native Colorado trout. Several area communities, hunters, anglers and environmentalists have urged the BLM to keep drilling off the top of the plateau....
New blood for the breed Big eyes, Big ears, Big teeth. Five Mexican gray wolf pups are coming to Heritage Park Zoo. Executive Director Kim Disney said Sunday afternoon that the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan designated Heritage Park Zoo as a "premier designation for wolves" in the survival program. "I am thrilled to announce that we have been awarded five young pups from Columbus, Ohio. The pups are about 1 year old. Hopefully, we can keep them comfortable and introduce them into the breeding pool. The pups are some of the most genetically pure Mexican gray wolves in the country," Disney said. Mexican gray wolves are among the most endangered mammals in the world. They are smaller than their cousins, the gray wolf. Currently, about 300 Mexican gray wolves exist in captive programs and experts believe only 37 exist in the wild....
Pombo keeps species act in his scope Tracy Republican Richard Pombo took office vowing to change the Endangered Species Act. In the 14 years since, he has delivered speeches, staged events and written bills. He has enjoyed perfect positions to pursue his signature issue, including, for the past four years, chairmanship of the House Resources Committee while his party has controlled the House and Senate. The Endangered Species Act, though, remains unchanged since the day Pombo took office in January 1993. The same 22,300 words in the U.S. Code are intact. Which raises the fundamental election-year question: What does failing to revise the Endangered Species Act say about Pombo's legislative skills? The answer is complicated, in part because the question can validly be asked in another way: Why is it so hard to change this 1973 law, when so many people want it updated? "It's the sacred cow," Pombo said. "It is the big environmental law; that takes precedence over everything."....
Model San Diego Multiple Species Plan Doesn't Conserve Rarest Species In a precedent-setting ruling, a federal judge has agreed with conservationists' contentions that a San Diego regional habitat conservation plan does not do enough to protect endangered and threatened species that depend on a type of wetland that has nearly vanished from southern California. Late on Friday October 13, District Court Judge Rudi Brewster, a Reagan appointee, released a 61-page opinion halting damage to wetlands in undeveloped areas within the city of San Diego. The ruling criticizes the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Plan for its failure to conserve seven imperiled vernal pool wetland species including two fairy shrimp and five plants. The ruling also rejects a related lawsuit by developers and sends the plan back to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the agency to try again....
Looking Back: Sage Grouse Studies (1942)-Predation and the Sage Grouse: A Sage Grouse Nesting Study The Wyoming Game & Fish Department has been publishing their magazine, Wyoming Wildlife, monthly since 1935. The early editions offer interesting insight into wildlife issues faced by managers and biologists over the years in Wyoming. We found a copy of several Wyoming Wildlife issues from 1942. Below is a reprint of an article entitled “Predation and the Sage Grouse: Sage Grouse Nesting Study” written by Warren J. Allred, Wyoming Pittman-Robertson Range Specialist. Many of the same issues and concerns mentioned in this article studying sage grouse nesting in the Big Piney area more than 65 years ago are similar to what are being discussed today....
Hispanics Show Growing Clout in Environmental Debate Maria Valdez didn’t consider herself an environmentalist when she pressed this city east of Los Angeles to buy land ringed with factories and railroad tracks for a new neighborhood park. The trash lot is now on its way to becoming a green oasis with a butterfly sanctuary and community garden _ and Valdez is undergoing a transformation of her own. Next month she will be sworn in as president of the El Monte chapter of Mujeres de la Tierra, a two-year-old environmental group that caters to Hispanic immigrants and translates as “Women of the Earth.” “When you get involved and you know that you could make it happen, it feels good,” said Valdez, a stay-at-home mother of six. “I’m interested in the water, the air _ for our kids.” Spurred by high rates of asthma and lead poisoning among their children, Hispanic immigrants such as Valdez, a U.S. citizen who left Mexico as a child, are embracing green values like never before _ on their own terms. Hispanic activists and politicians talk openly about building a unique green movement that distances itself from mainstream environmental groups, even as those organizations hope to tap into newfound Hispanic political clout....
Walk-In to the Western Slope One of the state’s most popular hunter access programs is expanding to the Western Slope. The Colorado Division of Wildlife’s Walk-In Access program, which pays farmers and ranchers to open private land to public hunters, this year offers participants more than 200,000 acres along the eastern plains to hunt pheasants and scaled quail, starting on the season opener, Nov. 1. Now, a sister program targeted on goose hunting is about to open in western Colorado
Despite an initial hesitation by landowners in signing up for the program, local DOW officials said a handful of farms have agreed to allow waterfowl hunters on their property once the season begins Nov. 1....
No more cows: Giacomini sells the herd About 250 head of cattle from Rich and Darlene Giacomini’s dairy in Point Reyes Station were loaded onto semi trucks last Wednesday morning, then driven to their new owners at Tavares Dairy in Merced. On early Thursday morning, the trucks were back to continue the operation. Five hundred fifty acres of the prosperous dairy ranch was sold to the Park Service in 2000 for $4.5 million. Under the terms of the sale, the Giacomini family held on to several properties at the ranch’s periphery. The lease allows operations to continue until March 2007, said National Park Spokesman John Dell’Osso. At that time, the park hopes to begin restoring the pastures to tidal marshland. “As an organization that is trying to help preserve agriculture as a viable industry in West Marin, we’re sorry to see the dairy close,” said Robert Berner, Executive Director of Marin Agriculture Land Trust. “The dairy has been one of the most productive in the county. “Part of the historic identity of the town is being lost and there is something to regret about that,” said Berner....
Conservation partners protect critical block of South Dakota breeding grounds More than 10,300 acres of South Dakota native prairie grasslands and wetlands have been permanently protected with a nearly $3 million grant. This is thanks to the efforts of a broad coalition of conservation partners including Ducks Unlimited (DU), the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the North American Wetland Conservation Act (NAWCA) and 13 private landowners in central South Dakota. DU received a grant from NFWF that provided a springboard to purchase grassland easements on native prairie grassland and wetland complexes that supply critical breeding habitat for a diversity of grassland birds including waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors and songbirds. The native prairie and wetlands of Hand County have long been recognized as a prime breeding area for a diversity of bird species but, unfortunately, these populations are increasingly threatened by conversion of the grassland to cropland....
Land-use measure tackles 'eminent domain' debate When the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, said last year that a city could force people to sell their property so that the government could turn it over to another private owner, activists and legislators across the country cried foul. More than two dozen states moved to enact laws prohibiting such use of the government's condemnation powers, but bills introduced in the California Legislature failed last spring. On Nov. 7, California voters will have a chance to restrict such government actions when they decide on Proposition 90. But Proposition 90 does not just address the court's landmark decision on ``eminent domain,'' the type of reform that even opponents of the ballot measure concede has popular appeal. Proposition 90 -- which largely has been financed by a New York real estate magnate and libertarian activist -- also contains a broad restriction on the ability of local and state agencies to enact regulations on the use of property, including common zoning rules that might have wide community acceptance....
Water fees prod action from farmers In a state where water disputes often have played out like old Sunday morning Westerns, Kevin Taylor is one of those who tries to keep the peace. Taylor, a government "water cop," enforces court-decreed water rights under the state watermaster program. But his job and the program itself may be in for big changes as farmers and ranchers faced with the prospect of soaring water-use fees fight to wrest control from the state and put it in the hands of individual counties. "I'm not against people looking to save money, but I'm not sure if they realize how complicated this can be," said Taylor, a watermaster in Northern California. "When you regulate water, you are taking food off a man's table and clothes off his kids' backs." The effort is a response to one of several recent attempts by the state Department of Water Resources to create revenue through consumer-financed programs....
USDA and EPA Ink Deal on Water Quality USDA Natural Resources and Environment Under Secretary Mark Rey and Benjamin Grumbles, Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water, signed a partnership agreement Friday to establish and promote water quality credit trading markets through cooperative conservation. The agreement features a pilot project within the Chesapeake Bay basin to showcase the effectiveness of environmental markets. "Water quality credit trading is a flexible, cost-effective approach for implementing conservation practices that reduce runoff, help producers meet water quality standards, and pursue water quality improvement goals in watersheds," Rey said. "We believe that voluntary, incentive based approaches are the most effective way to achieve sound resource management and conservation on private lands." "Trading for upgrading water quality is the wave of the future," said Grumbles. "We are committed to giving good stewards credit and partnering with agriculture to accelerate restoration and protection. This agreement is a big step forward." Water quality credit trading uses a market-based approach that offers incentives to farmers and ranchers who implement conservation practices that improve water quality. While reducing pollution, they can earn credits they can trade with industrial or municipal facilities that are required by the Clean Water Act and other laws to reduce the amounts of pollution in wastewater....
Time to cash in? Over the years, Wyoming's agricultural industry has proven to be at least resilient in the face of increasing development pressures. Agriculture continues to be the third-leading industry in Wyoming, generating $1.5 billion annually in economic revenue. Because agriculture is the dominant private land use in Wyoming -- controlling more than 95 percent of the private land in the state -- much of the concern about maintaining open spaces focuses on private ranchlands and farms. Those lands often include bottom lands along rivers and other important areas for wildlife habitat, especially during winter. The future of a vast majority of the state's open spaces will depend to a large extent on the retention of agricultural land in Wyoming. But more and more, agricultural land is being subdivided and developed. Escalating land values and marginal returns from agricultural endeavors are making it harder for ranchers and farmers to operate. And many ranchers are facing retirement but find it difficult to pass their ranches down within the family. It took Preston, for example, about 15 years to pay off the inheritance tax when he assumed ownership of the ranch....
Eastern ranchers feel pinch, too People once looking to live in city centers for the amenities are now looking for a more rural experience, and living 30 miles away from towns is more appealing. That far-away land was once a haven for ranchers, but now is a haven for homeowners, too. Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust executive director Glenn Pauley noted that just in the past year, 13,000 acres within unincorporated Laramie County have been bought and sold in 35-plus-acre tracts. By contrast, just over 9,000 acres were split up and sold between 1995 and 2004. And a recent University of Wyoming study found that more than 145,000 acres of ranchlands in Sublette County and more than 218,000 acres of ranchlands in Fremont County changed hands between 1990 and 2001. Since beginning his work as director of the wildlife trust fund board a year ago, Budd has traveled to all corners of the state. He has been helping evaluate requests for funding from the new state trust fund, intended to protect and improve habitat for wildlife -- much of it on private ranchland. While vast expanses of sagebrush still cover most of the state, Budd said he also has noticed significant residential development in many areas. There's "overflow" from South Dakota's Black Hills in the northeast corner, from Colorado in the southeast. Areas around Casper, Cody, Lander, Dubois and Pinedale are also seeing major growth....
Canadian farmer launches mad cow class action lawsuit A Quebec farmer asked a court for permission to launch a class action suit against the Canadian Government and an Australian feed producer, saying their negligence sparked a recent mad cow crisis in Canada. If approved, the case would be the first in Canada since a case of mad cow disease was discovered in Canada in May 2003, prompting more than 30 countries to ban Canadian beef imports. It could also lead to similar lawsuits across the country. Rancher Donald Berneche said in court documents that embargoes on Canadian beef cost him about $C100,000 ($A116.4). Some 20,000 Quebec farmers likely to be represented in the suit could claim as much as $C20 billion ($A23.29 billion). Mr Berneche blames Canada's agriculture ministry and Ridley, which makes animal feed from bone meal and brain meal in North America and is a subsidiary of Australia's Ridley, for "their inaction and their negligence". He laments that Canadian authorities waited until August 1997 to ban brain or spinal tissue from other cattle or ruminant animals in feed, while several European countries took this step in the early 1990s. For its part, Ridley continued to sell feed that contained brain or spinal tissue in Canada until August 1997, even though in Australia, the parent company conformed to stricter feed production practices as of May 1996....
FDA may OK meat from clones The government said Tuesday it is moving closer to approving meat and milk from cloned animals, drawing protests from consumer groups. The Bush administration is currently reviewing Food and Drug Administration plans to regulate cloned animals and food derived from them, the agency said in a statement. A draft of the plans should be released by the end of the year, FDA said. The agency has "studies that show that the meat and milk from cattle clones and their offspring are as safe as that from conventionally bred animals," the FDA statement said. The biotech industry says cloning lets breeders do what they've always done: select the best animals from the herd for reproduction....
Amarillo artisan honored for saddle craftsmanship The sweet smell of leather permeates Bob Marrs' Amarillo garage, an artisan's workshop packed with fond memories, great stories and the well-worn tools of a dedicated craftsman's trade. For decades, Marrs has handcrafted saddles for cowhands, world champion steer ropers Shoat Webster and Tuffy Thompson, country-western singer Randy Travis and "Hank the Cowdog" author John Erickson. He even did bridle work for famed Western actor Ben Johnson. Sandra Herl, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Western Artists, an organization dedicated to preserving and promoting Western heritage, said Marrs' legendary saddles earned him the academy's Don King Lifetime Saddlemaker Award last month. "I've been making saddles over 50 years," he said. "It was really a surprise to me because I had no idea. It was an honor for them to do that." The academy honored Marrs at its 11th annual Will Rogers Awards and handed him its trademark figurine, a white statue of Oklahoma's adored humorist. It was Marrs' second academy award. He won the academy's annual saddlemaker award in 1996....
It's all Trew: Fires have some quirks Since the range fires of March, most everyone in the burned areas have spent a lot of time hauling off burned fences and other charred items. At the Trew Ranch, we have carried the “essence of smoke” odor in our nostrils, hair and clothes everywhere we go. Those driving the blackened ranges have to service the air cleaners on their vehicles and equipment to remove the particles of blowing sand and embers. Others old enough recall the dirty days of the Dust Bowl when howling winds brought dark clouds of dust from dawn to dusk. Those dark clouds, like the heavy smoke of the range fires, reminded all that the end could be near. In looking back and visiting with neighbors, we find there are many quirks of circumstance happening during the raging firestorm. While some homes and many outbuildings were destroyed totally, nine homes of neighbors in the exact path of the fire were spared. One home totally surrounded by cedar trees and heavy brush was spared, yet our shop and gallery with only one lonely cedar tree at the front caught fire and burned to the ground....