NEWS ROUNDUP

‘Roadless' advisory panel keeps working Despite a recent court ruling reinstating a 2001 rule that put millions of acres of national forest off limits to development, the Bush administration still supports an alternate - more permissive - rule established in 2005 and will work to defend it or remedy it to meet court approval, an official said Wednesday. And a federal advisory group set up to make recommendations under the 2005 rule decided Wednesday to continue its work and, in fact, to expand its scope somewhat. With numerous lawsuits pending on the roadless issue in different states, the administration will take a consistent approach in its response, said Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey. “We'll be telling the courts, whichever courts that we're appearing before, that we think the 2005 rule is a better approach, and we need to either defend it or remedy the flaws that (U.S. District Court Magistrate) Judge (Elizabeth) Laporte found in it,” Rey said. Rey made the comments to a meeting of the Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory Committee, whose members were trying to decide whether and how to proceed in light of the ruling. Rey encouraged the group to continue its work advising the department on state petitions on roadless areas, saying they could use a different authority rather than the 2005 rule to proceed....
Western oil, gas drilling will double, analysis says The number of producing oil and gas wells on Western public lands will double over the next 20 years, according to a new analysis of federal actions authorizing new drilling. In its new report "Too Wild To Drill," the Wilderness Society estimates 118,000 new wells will be drilled on public lands in Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado and Montana by 2026. Group officials say the estimate is conservative because it didn't include drilling plans still being crafted by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. "We are about to see gas drilling at a magnitude greater than anything we've ever experienced, and it threatens to forever damage many of our most treasured Western places," said William Meadows, president of the conservation group. Industry officials said the number of surface acres disturbed on federal lands by oil and gas development amounts to just a fraction of the total acreage. According to 2003 public-land statistics, less than 1 percent of the more than 261 million surface acres BLM manages is disturbed by oil and gas development....Go here to read the report.
Grassland to support, control prairie dog Pawnee National Grassland officials will allow up to more than eight times the amount of prairie dogs currently allowed on its land but will take measures to control them too, according to a decision released Wednesday. The Grassland will keep at least 200 acres, but allow up to 8,500 acres of prairie dog colonies, said Beth Humphrey, Grassland wildlife biologist. The number equals roughly 5 percent of the shortgrass prairie on the land and shouldn't affect the grazing land. That should help conserve not only the black-tailed prairie dogs but other important species, including burrowing owls, mountain plovers and ferruginous hawks. Both landowners and environmental groups weren't entirely happy with the decision. Some landowners said controlling the population might be difficult, given that the allowed amount is more than twice the number of acreage reached by the prairie dog population even at its peak a couple of years ago. Environmental groups said 200 acres was far too low....
Henderson moving to annex slice of south Las Vegas Strip The city of Henderson is moving to acquire a Las Vegas Strip address. After more than a year of negotiations with Clark County and the federal Bureau of Land Management, Nevada's second-largest city took a step Tuesday toward annexing almost 5.4 square miles of unincorporated land, including a three-quarter mile piece of south Las Vegas Boulevard. The Henderson City Council held a public hearing on the plan to add to the city some 3,455 acres now controlled by the federal government south of Saint Rose Parkway and east of Interstate 15. The area is more than 8 miles south of McCarran International Airport. The annexation could gain final City Council approval Nov. 6. It would mark the largest expansion of the 70-square-mile city since 2000, when it added 5,473 acres to its southwestern edge. Henderson had a population of about 175,000 at the time. It now has about 250,000 residents. Juan Palma, a federal Bureau of Land Management field manager, said Henderson agreed not to annex federal land that hasn't been identified for auction, and not to seek land within 800 feet of the existing I-15 right of way. Clark County wants to preserve that north-south swath of land as a transportation and utility corridor between Las Vegas and the site of a proposed Ivanpah regional airport south of Sloan....
Endangered Amphibian Species Leaps to a Minor Legal Victory A species of endangered amphibians, the Sierra Nevada Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog, leapt to a legal victory in a federal appeals court yesterday, but advocates for the frog warned that the advance could be short-lived. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Interior Department's decision to defer formally listing the frog as an endangered species. However, the three-judge panel left the door open for the agency to stall the listing again if it meets certain procedural requirements. "The decision itself was a victory for the frog, but it was decided on a fairly narrow, technical interpretation of the statute," the lawyer who argued against the government, Michael Sherwood, said. Mr. Sherwood, who works for an Oakland, Calif.-based environmental law group, Earthjustice, said the frog species lives only in high elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He said listing the frog as endangered could limit grazing or timber rights in the frog's habitat, but developers are not likely to be interested in the lands where the frog is found....
Las Vegas reaching for rural water Rancher Dean Baker picks his way through greasewood and sedge to a shallow dirt depression that was once a small pond fed by a natural spring. Both have been dry for years, casualties, he says, of pumping that draws underground water to the surface to irrigate fields and water livestock. Over a half-century, agriculture's needs have lowered the water table, Baker says, but it's nothing compared to what may be in store for this arid, sparsely populated, mile-high desert near the Utah border. The Southern Nevada Water Authority wants to pump vast quantities of groundwater from rural eastern Nevada valleys and pipe it 250 miles south to Las Vegas, the nation's fastest-growing major metro area, a tourist mecca with a limited water supply strained by population and prolonged drought. After hearings last month, a decision rests with State Engineer Tracy Taylor. More hearings on plans in other valleys are pending. The water authority aims to build a pipeline by 2015 and pump nearly 30 million gallons a year from 19 wells in Spring Valley alone. At stake, ranchers say, are livelihoods and a delicate ecological balance on a landscape cursed with, at most, 8 inches of rain and snow a year....
Farmers say "whoa" to powerline A Canadian company that proposes to construct a power line from Alberta to Great Falls through eastern Teton and Pondera counties is putting the cart before the horse, say farmers along the right of way. Montana Alberta Tie Ltd. of Calgary, Alta., sent letters on Sept. 21 to property owners along the proposed route stating that its agent, SNC Consulting, has the right under the state's eminent-domain law to enter their lands to survey for a 230-kilovolt power line. Helena attorney Harley Harris signed the letters. According to state law, the right of eminent domain may be exercised for electrical energy lines, but it is silent on whether a private company that would benefit four wind farms has the same rights as a public utility. The law states, "The use must be located in the manner that will be most compatible with the greatest public good and the least private injury. Š The state or its agents in charge of the public use may, after giving 30 days' written notice to the owners and persons in possession of the land, enter upon the land and make examination, surveys, and maps of the land." A growing number of landowners are irked at the way MATL has dealt with them since it announced the $80 million project last January. The landowners say the surveyors should be cited for trespassing....
Anatomy of a Wolf Attack "Wolves are not the most efficient killers," says Nadeau. What he means is that wolves are not the cleanest killers. Mountain lions or cougars have the reputation of killing with efficiency and, if there are such things in the high desert food chain, some mercy and grace. The big cats keep bloodshed to a minimum and they kill quickly. Wolves employ far sloppier methods in their hunts. A cow might take her last breath of air amid a scene of flattened brush, trampled ground, drag marks and smears of blood--lots of blood. Nadeau calls such scenes "struggle sites." These sites can stretch hundreds of yards--a seasoned crime scene investigator might call the scene "gruesome" and the cause of death "brutal." Deb Lord found Wolfy amid such a scene. But one thing about the site was very atypical: The calf was still alive. The Lords brought who would later be called Wolfy to a vet. That's when their 14 year-old daughter, Blas, insisted that she become the wounded calf's caregiver. Blas, an all-around athlete at Mountain Home High School who had to give up showing and raising her own farm animals because of the time-consuming responsibilities that come with prep sports, describes her nursing in very G-rated terms. She cleaned Wolfy's wounds and removed the dead flesh that had accumulated around bite until the injury healed. Wolfy accepted the treatment without agitation, because, as Blas recalls, the wound was surrounded by so much dead muscle that the calf couldn't feel the pain that would normally accompany scrubbing wounded flesh....
Ag wins, loses in water debate Agriculture and energy interests won significant and conflicting victories Wednesday morning before the Wyoming Water and Waste Advisory Board, which sends its recommendations to the state Environmental Quality Council for further action. Ag interests won a point when the board endorsed bottomland protection from damages caused by coal-bed methane water contamination. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality currently protects agricultural fields irrigated by artificial methods. Over industry protests, the board agreed to provide similar protection to naturally irrigated fields, also called bottomlands, from damage-causing salts carried in some coal-bed methane discharge water. Board member Joe Olson, an industry representative, said during the advisory board's meeting in Casper Wednesday that protecting bottomlands would be an excessive expansion of protected lands. He said many previously approved coal-bed methane permits wouldn't be granted had there been bottomland protections before. He also contended that coal-bed methane water benefits wildlife and livestock. This bottomland protection, however, would be limited to naturally irrigated lands at least 20 acres in size and 50 feet in width. DEQ officials argued that it would be too difficult to identify smaller bottomlands, but that smaller bottomlands can be identified through aerial, infrared photography. If landowners want protection for smaller bottomlands, said a DEQ official, that can be addressed in the permit-writing process, or on direct appeal to the EQC. Board member Bill Welles said many ranchers in the Powder River Basin have never used artificial irrigation, but are extremely dependent on forage grown in naturally irrigated bottomlands....
'Nobody's Horses' find home in book In the new book, "Nobody's Horses," by veterinarian Don Hoglund you'll read about how one man accepted responsibility, which reaffirmed his love for horses and for his chosen career. Well over a hundred years ago, many ranchers kept their horses on a free-range basis. The best horses were culled for work while the rest went back to the herd and eventually became untamed. Hoglund says nearly two million horses roamed western ranges in the 19th century. During World War II, the U.S. government "borrowed" lands in New Mexico for arms testing, and ranchers living on those lands were asked to leave. Some abandoned their livestock, and those animals joined wild herds. Eventually, the land became the White Sands Missile Range. It was fenced, with hundreds of wild horses inside. In 1994, a drought hit the area and 122 horses suffered gruesome and highly-published deaths. The government decided that the remaining horses needed to be moved or destroyed. Hoglund was called in to work with ranch hands, soldiers, and cowboys to move the horses to safety and adoption. Almost immediately, he became responsible for the steeds and the project....
Some say animal ID program threatens farmers, ranchers A federal program aimed at tracking livestock disease has some in the agricultural industry questioning everything from the cost of the program to the government's motive for creating the National Animal Identification System database. Judith McGeary, an Austin attorney and executive director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, disputes the claim that the main goal is to track and control disease. “NAIS does not address cause of disease; it does not address how disease is spread; and it does not address disease prevention or treatment,” said McGeary. “It does nothing to improve food safety; it plays on our fears of bioterrorism; it invades privacy; and its databases are not secure, and are a target for hackers.” McGeary also disputes NAIS claim that the program will not be expensive. “There has been no cost analysis,” said McGeary. “The costs will be higher for smaller farms and ranches because of economies of scale.” She gave examples of the costs for similar programs in other countries. For instance, in Australia the cost is about $37 to $40 per head; and, according to the British Parliamentary Report, the cost per animal is $69. According to McGeary, if and when compliance becomes mandatory, penalties for non-compliance will include fines of $1000 per day, risk of losing the business, and possible criminal charges....