NEWS ROUNDUP


Private lands needed for wildlife habitat Animals generally don't respond to those pesky boundaries placed by human society - they pretty much move among private, state, federal and tribal lands across Wyoming. But ask a wildlife biologist, rancher or farmer, and they'll all say the same thing: Private lands play a big role with Wyoming's wildlife, mostly by providing seasonal range for big game. A recent University of Wyoming-sponsored report, "Open Spaces Initiative," showed that private lands are crucial to herd size and viability for Wyoming's six major big-game species - elk, moose, antelope, bighorn sheep, mule deer and white-tailed deer. "Clearly, something in the neighborhood of 70 percent of the wildlife in this state spend part or all of their time on private lands," said Bob Budd, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust board. "Development tends to break that landscape up, and when you do, that has an impact on a lot of species."....
Researchers study how thinning helps stand of old-growth trees About 75 years later, a forest researcher named Steve Arno found his way in among this island of old-growth trees. His mission was to chart the fire history and characteristics of the stand. Using tree rings as his guide, Arno determined that fire had been a frequent visitor to the site as far back as the 16th century - right through the mid-1880s. Between 1885 and the fire of 1919, not much happened. From 1919 on, fires were squelched and the stand began to change. In that 75-year span, the stand missed three or four fire cycles. Small trees that normally would have succumbed to the flames got a foothold. The stand started to fill in. By the time Arno came on the scene, there were between 500 and 600 trees on every acre. Other than the ancient larch and ponderosa pine, most of the newcomers were shade-tolerant species such as Douglas and grand fir. Competition was fierce for water and nutrients. In many cases, the old-growth trees were suffering. On top of that, the potential for fire was tremendous in the thickly stocked stand....
'Cut carbon emissions now or face economic calamity later' A STARK warning of the economic costs and damage to the world that could result from global warming will be set out today in a report to be submitted to the Government. Sir Nicholas Stern, the former chief economist at the World Bank, will advise that the costs of confronting climate change are far outweighed by those of failing to act in time. His 700-word report forecasts floods, famine, mass movement of people and the destruction of species if the Earth’s temperature continues to rise. Gordon Brown, who commissioned the report, will accept its main recommendation for a global carbon-trading scheme to enforce limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The Chancellor will also announce that Al Gore, the former US Vice-President, is to advise him on environmental policy. Sir Nicholas’s report, hailed as the most comprehensive study of the economics of climate change yet, makes the case for early action to avoid a calamitous recession later. Acting now to cut carbon emissions would cost 1 per cent of global GDP a year; by doing nothing, the costs at the time would be a minimum of 5 per cent and as high as 20 per cent of GDP a year, he concludes....
Column - Wolves, cowboys and the truth John Wayne, the most iconic cowboy of our time, once said, "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." Wise words, indeed. When it comes to wolves, the cowboys running Wyoming's government apparently believe the wisdom of yesterday is best gained by acting as if it still is yesterday - or, more precisely, that it is 1906, not 2006. Recently, Wyoming sued the federal government over the government's rejection of Wyoming's plan to allow unregulated killing of wolves outside of the state's two national parks. Notably, the federal government still protects wolves as an endangered species, meaning that the territory outside of the national parks is integral to wolf recovery. Undeterred by such legal logic, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal clicked his spurs together and said of the decision to sue, "We'd been kicked around the barroom enough, and now it's time to fight back." Unfortunately, Wyoming's tantrum drags the taxpaying public into a frivolous and prohibitively expensive legal quagmire where nobody but the lawyers survive - and to what end? Well, Wyoming officials insist that their wolf management plan will protect wolves (granting them safe haven inside the national parks) while also protecting the state's livestock industry, by allowing anyone with a gun to kill wolves that roam into other areas of the state. The state's livestock lobby insists that anything less would allow wolves to eat them out of house and home. Moreover, they contend that coyotes, mountain lions and bears already threaten to drive ranchers out of business in the Cowboy State. In the spirit of learning from yesterday, it's worth looking at some of the evidence that supports (or refutes) the fear of wild carnivores that grips Wyoming's cowboy caucus. Particularly useful is data gathered by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) regarding livestock killed by various wild carnivores. For cattle, data from 2005 indicate that wild carnivores and dogs killed 0.18 percent of the nation's cows, while 4 percent were lost to other causes including disease, birthing problems, weather and theft. Notably, of the cattle lost to wild carnivores in 2005, wolves killed only 0.02 percent....
Turf wars in Idaho's wilderness Wolf researcher Jim Akenson is riding a mule on an icy mountain trail in central Idaho when he comes upon a dead cougar. Suddenly, a pack of wolves materializes and begins howling. For one terrifying moment, the 48-year-old biologist thinks his startled mules are going to stampede and carry him off a 200-foot cliff into Big Creek. "We could not turn around," says Akenson, describing that tense winter episode four years ago in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. "It is the most precarious condition you can imagine, with wolves howling around you." The crisis ends quickly. Akenson's saddle mule, Daisy, gives the carcass an indifferent sniff, steps over it and proceeds down the trail. Cricket and Rocky, his pack mules, follow, paying the wolves no heed. Akenson shrugs it off as part of life in the Idaho wilderness. "There are circumstances when you could be in trouble with wolves," he muses. "But I think they are very rare." Akenson and his biologist wife, Holly, 48, are in the ninth year of a University of Idaho-sponsored research project on wolf and cougar interaction. They live and work at the Taylor Ranch Field Station, deep inside the largest block of contiguous wilderness in the lower 48 states....
Nebraska gov to sign Platte deal Gov. Dave Heineman on Friday said he will sign a three-state agreement that could improve and protect one of Nebraska's most vital resources, the Platte River, but that groundwater irrigators say might eventually cripple portions of the rural economy. "It provides regulatory certainty; it protects our state's farmers and ranchers from potential federal actions that could be detrimental," Heineman said about his decision to sign the Platte River Cooperative Agreement. He said he possibly spent more time on the issue than any other since becoming governor. "This is a difficult decision," he said. "There's no question the state is divided." Besides Nebraska, the cooperative agreement includes Wyoming, Colorado and the U.S. Department of Interior. Colorado Gov. Bill Owens signed the agreement Friday and Wyoming is expected to sign. The river recovery plan called for in the agreement includes acquiring land for wildlife habitat in Nebraska and increasing river flows at key times. It will cost about $317 million, with $157 million coming from the Interior Department and the rest from the three states in cash, land and water. Federal dollars have not yet received final approval....
With Hands and Hounds, Stalking Feral Hogs in Texas On a moonless October night, with the Milky Way staining the West Texas sky, a burly man in overalls turned off the engine of his mud-caked white Toyota truck. Yelps from coyotes and an owl’s hoot occasionally broke the silence. Then, from an open field, Bob Richardson heard the noise he had been awaiting. Four of his short-haired scent hounds, which had been released earlier, began to bark from the darkness. Mr. Richardson jumped out of the truck and freed a black pit bull from a cage on the truck’s flatbed. He chased after his pit bull into the darkness toward the barking hounds. He tripped in a wet ditch but kept running through the milo stalks. When he got to the baying dogs, the light on his miner’s hat revealed that the pit bull, trained for just this purpose, had clamped onto the face of a feral hog. As he had done thousands of times before, Mr. Richardson, 58, pounced on the snorting beast and tied its feet together, immobilizing it. Within minutes, he had loaded the animal barehanded into a cage. A lot of people in rural Texas catch wild hogs, which can grow to several hundred pounds, and Mr. Richardson traps them like most others. But there is sometimes a twist to Mr. Richardson’s hunts — he spends a few nights a week cruising the dirt roads of Stonewall County, a place with more hogs than people, to run down the wild animals using only his dogs and his bare hands. “It’s for fun,” he said. It has also become lucrative as Europeans and an increasing number of Americans clamor for wild boar. Mr. Richardson said he made $28,000 last year selling live feral hogs....
Profit in the Pumpkin Patch Two semitruck loads of pumpkins recently traveled from a Canyonville farm to Southern California. Those pumpkins likely ended up at a produce vendor’s stand. From there, to a family’s home. Eventually, many will probably be carved with a funky face, stuffed with a candle and put on a windowsill or porch for display leading up to Halloween. More than 150,000 pounds of pumpkins came from Mary’s Garden in Canyonville. Owner Mary Laurance sells pumpkins wholesale. She gets 10 cents a pound, on average. “It is a pretty good business,” she said. “This year, I just had an exceptionally good crop of pumpkins.” Laurance has been growing and selling pumpkins for 15 years. While she grows “everything,” she said pumpkins are the winter’s top seller....
Column - Give me a home where the buffalo roam Who would not want a home where the buffalo roam? In Southern Missouri, we are home to a great variety of family ranches and many value-added livestock operations. These ranches are part of our history and our heritage, and they are also an important part of our economy. When the federal government suggested a national animal identification system, I was skeptical. When they actually put forth a plan to make the system mandatory, I was disappointed. And when I discovered what that plan would do to our Southern Missouri ranching operations, I was furious. The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed a national animal identification system (NAIS) that would require ranches to register their premises, tag their animals, and regularly report the movement of their animals to a government agency. Worse, if one of these animals were to get sick, at any point in the journey from field to sale barn to stockyard to slaughter, the trace-back mechanisms in this program would point a finger at the rancher, regardless of what happened in between. The monetary burdens of the mandatory program, and the liability for sick animals, would undoubtedly fall at the feet of the rancher, who is sure to assume the costs of implementing the NAIS. Those costs would be passed along each level in the supply chain, reflected only when the rancher sells his or her cattle and when the consumer goes to the supermarket to buy a steak. The middlemen look to get off scot-free. Finally, USDA proposed that this program be made mandatory by 2009, meaning every rancher in America would be forced to comply with these rules. At that point I, and the ranchers I represent, have had enough. I introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to stop the mandatory NAIS, and our U.S. Senator from Missouri, Jim Talent, introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Rather than crush our ranchers beneath the wheel of big government, I want a sound, but completely voluntary program to let ranchers who wish to track their cattle do so....
Old cattle crime rears its head again Some of the nation's largest beef-producing states are fighting a resurgence in a centuries-old crime: cattle rustling. The thefts, including one high-profile case involving the ranch of baseball legend Nolan Ryan, are directly related to the rising cost of beef, said Larry Gray, enforcement chief with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA). The TSCRA, which draws its members from Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, reported $6.2 million in livestock thefts — mostly cattle — in 2005, up from $4 million in 2004. In the past three to four years, John McBride, a spokesman for the Livestock Marketing Association, said cattle prices have approached all-time highs. "As the cattle industry has escalated, so have the number of thefts," said Joyce English, vice president of the association's Livestock Board of Trade. "Everything follows the money." Last fall, a flurry of calls from more than a dozen victims, including the foreman of Ryan's Texas ranch, reported 17 cows and 14 calves were missing. A couple of weeks later, an additional 16 calves were stolen from Ryan's spread. The reports led two investigators with the TSCRA to charge a 27-year-old suspect with running an old-time rustling enterprise valued at more than $250,000 after being in operation a little less than a year. Gray said the suspect allegedly used the livestock, most of which was branded, to bolster his own herd and sold off the calves as they were born. The break in the case came, Gray said, when one of the stolen animals was brought for sale....
Paying homage to heritage When John B. Dawson bought several homestead sites in 1903 and formed the Dawson ranch east of Hayden, he surely appreciated the beauty of the Yampa River Valley, lush with cottonwood trees lining the river and wildlife roaming the grass valley floor. The Dawson Ranch, purchased by Farrington Carpenter and known as the Carpenter Ranch since 1945, is just one of the ranches of this region that Northwest Colorado Cultural Heritage and Tourism is promoting as a local gem for tourists to explore. "This place is going to be here from now on," said Geoff Blakeslee, project director for the Nature Conservancy, which purchased the ranch in 1996. "This barn was built in 1903 out of cottonwood trees from near the river." A tour of Routt County ranches was conducted Saturday for the Cultural Heritage Tourism quarterly workshop. Thirty-five members toured the Carpenter Ranch, Morgan Bottom, and the Delaney Ranch to experience a small fraction of what the organization hopes will draw tourists to Northwest Colorado....
The bucking starts here — Drummond breeding business raises bulls for rodeo circuit On the east end of town, you could drive across the tracks and under a gate post framed by the silhouettes of two vertical bucking bulls — And under most radars in this home of World Famous Bullshippers. ‘‘Most of the ranchers know what we’re doing because we’re in the cattle business,’’ Rod Conat said as he slogged through a bull pen behind the C&G Rodeo Livestock arena. ‘‘But as far as the majority of the people in town, you ask them what we’re doing over here, they’d say, ‘I don’t really know.’’’ The region is long known for its Hereford and Angus cattle, and for the railroad docks where those animals are loaded and sent off to become choice prime ribs and steak. Now Conat, his wife, Bonnie, and partner Steven Graveley of Helmville are quietly building a breeding business that puts Drummond on the map for a different kind of bull — the one that bucks. Sequestered in a pen apart from the 100 or so bulls on the muddy grounds are Spitfire, Aces High and Zipper Twister. The Conats and Graveley, who’ve hauled bulls some 60,000 miles this year to faraway stops on the Professional Bull Riders tour, are gearing up to take the three to Las Vegas next week....
New Show Aims To Find Match For Bachelor Farmer Move over Eva Gabor. Your Green Acres rerun days as city-girl-turned-farmer's-wife appear to be numbered. On Sunday, farmers and ranchers from around Texas came for the first of four open casting calls across the country for a new reality show from the producers of "American Idol" and "The Price is Right." In "The Farmer Wants a Wife," city girls and others will vie for a chance to become a farmer's wife. Micah Keeney didn't come in a cowboy hat or boots from nearby Shallowater, preferring his typical "comfy" farmer look. He lives alone in a small, old farmhouse on his more than 3,700 acres of cotton, cattle and hay. Though he doesn't date, the 24-year-old blond said he thought he'd come see if he could find a single woman willing to come live on the land with him. The show will air next year on one of the four major networks, said Billy Kemp, the head of casting for Fremantle Media....