NEWS ROUNDUP

Ranchers recruiting help to block Pinon Canyon plan Ranchers hoping to block the Army's expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site came here Tuesday night hoping to add the Colorado Springs chapter of the Sierra Club as allies in their campaign. Armed with a Power Point presentation that details what they believe the Army ultimately wants in the future - a 2.5 million-acre training area that essentially covers the southeastern corner of the state - the group's spokesmen said they were waging a public relations fight to stop the expansion. "We think we have a pretty good chance to stop this if we can get enough people involved," rancher Lon Robertson, who heads the opposition group, told about a dozen Sierra Club members. The environmental group was a good audience for the message because the PCMS opponents brought with them photos of the famous dinosaur tracks that are found in the Purgatory River rocks, slides of ancient pictographs that dot the rock walls of the region and scenic views of the red-rock canyons that cut through what seems to be flat land from a distance....
Man not guilty by insanity in '99 ranger shooting A 37-year-old man yesterday was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting death of a U.S. Park Service ranger on the Big Island in December 1999, federal prosecutors said. Eugene Frederick Boyce III, who has been hospitalized at various federal prison hospital facilities since the shooting, was turned over to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons by federal judge Susan Oki Mollway. Boyce was tried for killing Park Service Ranger Steve Makuakane-Jarrell at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park. The ranger was investigating a visiting woman's complaint about aggressive behavior by Boyce's dogs. During a struggle that ensued, Boyce gained control of the ranger's gun and shot Makuakane-Jarrell twice from close range....
Park to limit howitzer use during winter Controlled avalanches along Yellowstone National Park's Sylvan Pass will be triggered more from helicopters this year than by shooting the aging 105mm howitzer on the hill. Park officials for years have been looking to reduce their reliance on the howitzer because it's unsafe for employees and has a long record of shooting duds that could later detonate. "If this was an easy problem to be solved, it would've been solved a decade ago," said Steve Swanke, Yellowstone's acting health and safety manager, who has been involved with the avalanche issue for years. "It's far from that." For the past two years, the park has contracted with a Bozeman company for up to 10 helicopter missions over Sylvan Pass to drop explosives and set off avalanches to prevent buildup of snow that falls unexpectedly on visitors or workers. The howitzer has been used periodically. The helicopter will be used again this winter, but the howitzer will only be used in "extremely limited cases," Swanke said, such as in bad weather when the helicopter can't fly and there's an emergency....
Group opposes trapping measure A decade-old ban on trapping wildlife in Colorado is being undermined by a new state regulation allowing box traps to capture pine martens and mink, according to a wildlife advocacy group suing to overturn the decision. Wendy Keefover-Ring of Boulder-based Sinapu said her group on Tuesday updated their lawsuit filed in August in Denver District Court. The update establishes the groups' argument against the July 13 decision by the Colorado Wildlife Commission. It wasn't clear by the close of business whether the lawsuit had been filed. The commission, which oversees the state Division of Wildlife, approved a request from the Colorado Trappers Association to use box traps to catch martens and mink. The panel rejected allowing the trapping of seven other animals, including swift fox and gray fox. Keefover-Ring said the commission's action violates a 1996 voter-approved constitutional ban on leg-hold traps, traps that kill instantly, snares and poison....
Rule dampens use of firefighting jet Federal rules are preventing the takeoff of a major advance in firefighting -- a jetliner modified to unleash enough flame retardant to coat a 3/4-mile-long stretch of ground in a single pass. The DC-10 jumbo jet first flew this fire season. Streaking several hundred feet overhead, the jet's belly opens and a torrent of pink liquid cascades earthward, creating a 100-foot-wide fire line. Those spectacular drops helped halt fires threatening state land in California and Washington. But its virtual prohibition from federal land, including the national forests, means it cannot be dispatched over vast swaths of the West -- 33 million acres in California alone, an area the size of Arkansas. The reason for that no-fly zone: The plane hasn't passed a U.S. Forest Service safety check. Federal officials say they're not sure when it will because they've not received important performance data from the plane's private owners. "What a horror story to see fires burning out of control and knowing that the aircraft aren't available," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, who has criticized the Forest Service for not using larger air tankers....
Quenching the roaring monster:A short history of air fire control John Robertson, retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and now employed by the Oklahoma Agriculture Department, relates some high points of using aircraft for fire control. 1915 -- In Wisconsin, first use of aircraft to detect fires. 1930 -- Spokane, Wash., first attempt to drop water on fires. Wooden beer kegs were kicked out the door of a low-flying plane. Some of the keg drops wreaked damage. 1947 -- David Godwin, "Rocky the Ranger," toyed with dropping water out of a B-29 bomber. 1953 -- In Palm Springs, Calif., "Project Firestop" employed the first free-fall of water from planes to control the spread of wildfires. 1955 -- The "Borate Bombers" using B-26 planes began using borate in fire drops to starve fires of oxygen and fuel....
Forest Service fireman dies in Oregon jail A U.S. Forest Service firefighter living in Tell City before his arrest in Oregon on kidnapping and attempted rape charges was found dead Monday in a jail cell in Pendleton, Ore. Investigators believe Thomas Francis Humiston Jr., 31, intentionally hung himself in the Umatilla County Jail. He was found hanging by a noose fashioned from a bed sheet around 6 a.m. According to the Umatilla County District Attorney's office, Humiston was alone in the cell and had been checked by jail staff less than an hour earlier. No foul play is suspected, a release from District Attorney Christopher Brauer stated. Humiston had been assigned to the Forest Service's firefighting company in Tell City for about a year and was living at 847 Sixth St. He was arrested Aug. 21 in Pendleton for allegedly attacking two women: an employee of a motel where he was staying and, a night later, another woman staying at a neighboring motel....
Utah off-road group vows to fight closure of government land An off-road group plans to defy federal authorities Saturday by toppling a barricade and motoring along a southern Utah dirt road that was closed by the government three years ago. Go ahead and ticket us, say the all-terrain vehicle riders, who are angry over the closing of public lands, most recently around Factory Butte, a monolith that towers over the San Rafael desert and harbors pockets of protected cacti. They plan to shove aside a 10-foot barricade at the old Hidden Splendor uranium mine, where a mining road drops into spectacular Muddy River canyon. The Bureau of Land Management will be ready _ even if rangers have to drive 2 1/2 hours to write tickets. Richard Beardall, president of Americans with Disabilities Access Alliance, is looking for a crowd of off-roaders to drive a few hundred yards to the river and back. They'll move the buck-and-pole barricade back into place after the protest, then accept citations that could run $300 apiece, an event others plan to videotape....
Vast federal land swap collapses An eight-year effort to swap nearly 50,000 acres in northeast Oregon between the U.S. Forest Service and private landowners collapsed Thursday when the U.S. Forest Service said the trade no longer served the public interest. The $41 million trade -- known as the Blue Mountain Land Exchange -- would have been the largest Forest Service land swap in Oregon and Washington. It was designed to consolidate the government's landholdings and seize riverfront property while offering its fragmented hard-to-manage parcels -- some of them prime old-growth timberlands -- to private parties that could log them. The failure cost the Forest Service at least $1.4 million and a private real estate company $1 million, according to private and federal estimates. Blame went to escalating land prices, declining lumber values and frustration by landowners with how long the deals were taking....
CID district manager announces resignation to accept Arizona job Carlsbad Irrigation District Manager Tom Davis has announced he will be leaving the CID mid December to head the Yuma County Water Users Association in Yuma, Ariz. Davis has held the position of CID manager for the past 20 years. "We are in shock," said CID Board Chairman Bill Ahrens, speaking on behalf of the board. "He is one of those irreplaceable people. There are not many people out there like Tom who are so well versed in water issues in our state. I'm happy for him that he has found something bigger and better, but I don't know what the board will do to find a replacement for Tom. I'm sort of walking around in shock. I've tried not to think about the day when he would leave. I had hoped it would be after I got off the board." In the state's water community, Davis has been a high-stakes player. He is respected across the country for his knowledge in water issues and the role he has played in New Mexico's battle with Texas over Pecos River waters. He also serves on the New Mexico Water Trust Board....
Grain stockpiles at lowest for 25 years The world’s stockpiles of wheat are at their lowest level in more than a quarter century, according to the US Department of Agriculture, which on Thursday slashed its forecasts for global wheat and corn production. The lower forecasts were largely attributable to the severe drought in Australia, where the forecast for this year’s wheat crop was cut by 8.5m tons to 11m. That is less than half of the 24m produced last year, of which about 17m went to exports. As a result of the low Australian crop, AWB, the country’s main wheat exporter, said it would suspend exports from the country’s east coast due to the poor crop and review its export requirements. To add to the global supply concerns, Ukraine has introduced licences and quotas on its wheat exports, effectively bringing shipments to a standstill. This has already halted Ukrainian wheat shipments of 50,000 tonnes to India. The USDA also lowered wheat output for China, Brazil and the European Union. Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade reached a new 10-year high of $5.51 a bushel before the release of the USDA report, which represented a rise of 18 per cent since last Friday....
No-frills Colorado ranch puts its guests to work The first sound a city slicker hears at 5:30 a.m. at Chico Basin Ranch is ... nothing. No television. No traffic whizzing by. Then, a thousand sounds. Insects dance. Birds sing. Cattle bleat. A horse sighs. The wind howls a long way off, as it gathers force across the prairie like a wave. Only 35 miles southeast of Colorado Springs, this ranch resides between the city and the Old West. Chico Basin, an 87,000-acre working ranch, opens its gates to visitors who come to play cowboy, to meet the mythical West, to ride horses and to earn calluses. In the Holmes Bunkhouse, guests Brian Wyka and his 12-year-old daughter, Lauren, of Sarasota, Fla., begin to stir. Once a family home, it now hosts visitors from all over the world. "I'm here for my daughter," Wyka says. "If you're a wimp or a pampered princess, it probably isn't the thing to do."....
It’s The Pitts: Sins Of The Cowboy I thought such discrimination was illegal these days but I see ads like this all the time. I think some ranchers are being a bit unreasonable in trying to find a competent person who can do things that not one hundredth of one percent of the people in the world can do, like pull a calf or break a horse. And on top of that they want them to be saints. Some owners are even more persnickety: they don’t want any smokers or cowboy poets either. And they want these angels for less than minimum wage! Whenever I read a help wanted ad like that it reminds me of some down-on-their-luck cowboys I met one night at the Pow Wow in Tucumcari. They’d been deeply engaged in one of the cowboy sins for hours when they told me the tale of a green cowboy who blew in from Arizona along with the tumbleweeds and landed himself a job on one of the big spreads in the Land of Enchantment. Only his job wasn’t all that enchanting. He was expected to live in an old line-camp for 12 months a year where he was lonelier than a preacher on pay day. The nearest town, if you could call it that, was two hours away and civilization was another world away. The young cowboy had grown up on a ranch so he had the necessary cowboy skills but he was not what you’d call worldly. Truth be told, he was greener than a 400 pound drouthed out yearling. For weeks at a time his only interaction with people was when he’d be out riding fence and run into the grizzled old timer who lived in the adjoining cow camp. He was a contrary codger whose legs were warped, along with his outlook on life. One day the old geezer rode up to the young man’s cabin on a lathered horse. “The cow boss is making the rounds,” he told the young cowboy. “You’d best bury any whiskey along with any other bad habits you got. There’s no drinking or gambling allowed on this outfit.”....

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH!!

For the fearful, this Friday has their number

This is not a good day for paraskevidekatriaphobics -- those who fear Friday the 13th. It's double-13 Friday. All the numbers in the numerical notation -- 10/13/2006 -- add up to 13 as well, giving great pause to the superstitious. The phenomenon hasn't happened in 476 years, said Heinrich Hemme, a physicist at Germany's University of Aachen who crunched the numbers to find that the double-whammy last occurred Jan. 13, 1520. "Pure chance," the good professor told the press yesterday. But it's not exactly TGIF for the 21 million Americans who fear the day. Some may not travel or even get out of bed, said Donald Dossey, a North Carolina psychologist who coined the term "paraskevidekatriaphobia" 20 years ago. He estimates that the nation is out $900 million in lost productivity because of Friday the 13th sick-outs. "It's just ingrained in our culture -- one of those collective, unconscious fears stretching back about 2,800 years," Mr. Dossey said....