NEWS ROUNDUP

How Green Was My Election? Fist-pumping, chest-thumping, and hallelujahs abounded yesterday at a press conference of top environmental strategists responding to the results of the Tuesday elections, which ushered in a Democratic Congress after 12 years of near-total GOP control. "Let me be clear: The environment won last night!" Sierra Club Political Director Cathy Duvall exclaimed. "Voters elected a greener U.S. House, a greener U.S. Senate, greener U.S. governors, and they gave a green light to a new energy future." Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, told Muckraker, "This is the first election I can remember in U.S. history that has put such a specific focus on a top-priority environmental issue, which this year has been a clean-energy future." But some political analysts believe environmentalists are going overboard with their optimistic claims of political relevance. "I really don't think that energy or the environment played a defining role in this election," Amy Walter, a senior editor with the Cook Political Report, told Muckraker. "It was ultimately a referendum on the president, the president's party, and the president's war. It was a vote against the status quo rather than a vote for certain future goals. Does it mean that Democrats gave us a convincing blueprint for what they want to do with energy? No. Does it mean voters were saying we see a bright future in clean energy? No." Ana Unruh Cohen of the Center for American Progress also thinks "it's a stretch to pin this election directly on environmental issues."....
Democratic Congress Expected to Right Environmental Wrongs The House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, another important environmental post has been chaired by Congressman Greg Walden. He is considered "second only to Pombo in his anti-environmental record," by Bark-Out.org, an Oregon based forest conservation group. Over the past six years, the Forest Service has removed requirements for analyzing the environmental impacts of logging and restricted public participation in the management of public forests. Walden is a supporter of fire salvage logging conducted by the U.S. Forest Service. But environmentalists such as Bark-Out say salvagers take old-growth trees in areas that could recover if allowed to regenerate naturally, and at a financial loss to the taxpayers. Walden will be replaced as subcommittee chair by Congressman Thomas Udall of New Mexico, who has earned a 95 percent pro-environment rating by the League of Conservation Voters. He has voted to yes to preserve Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge instead of drilling it, no to deauthorizing "critical habitat" for endangered species, and no on speeding up approval of forest thinning projects....
The New - Blue? - West Who would have guessed the Senate’s balance of power would come down to a cliffhanger in a GOP stronghold like Montana? But there was Democrat Jon Tester squeezing past stalwart Conrad Burns and erasing Republicans’ lock on power. In conservative Colorado, Democrat Bill Ritter grabbed the governor’s mansion, trouncing Rep. Bob Beauprez, a one-time sure bet, as Democrats added to their statehouse lead, too. In Wyoming and New Mexico, Democratic governors easily glided back into office. And throughout the West, Democrats engaged in squeakers they didn’t always win, but they gave chase to Republicans in territory usually considered safely red. Their growing strength comes as the party weighs Denver against New York for its 2008 convention. Western Democrats hope for a Mile-High fete, not just to highlight their muscle, but to focus attention on Western issues often overlooked. Western Democrats clearly benefited from the anti-GOP tide that swept the country, but some observers believe they may have also been riding a wave of their own....
Boxer Pledges Shift on Global Warming Sen. Barbara Boxer on Thursday promised major policy shifts on global warming, air quality and toxic-waste cleanup as she prepares to lead the U.S. Senate's environmental committee. ``Time is running out, and we need to move forward on this,'' Boxer said of global warming during a conference call with reporters. ``The states are beginning to take steps, and we need to take steps as well.'' Boxer's elevation to chairwoman of the Senate Environmental Public Works Committee comes as Democrats return to power in the Senate. It also marks a dramatic shift in ideology for the panel. The California Democrat is one of the Senate's most liberal members and replaces one of its most conservative, Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Inhofe had blocked bills seeking to cut the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, calling the issue ``the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people.''....
Defeated Az open space measure may rise again Key supporters of a ballot measure to set aside more than 1,000 square miles of state trust land as open space while moving to increase funding for public schools said Thursday they won't give up despite defeat at the polls. After years of effort that have yet to bear fruit, leaders of the Proposition 106 campaign said they didn't immediately know what course they'll take next, but that their concerns still need to be addressed. "We're as committed as ever," said Patrick Graham, Nature Conservancy state director and the campaign's chairman. "We're going to have to go back. We need state trust land reform. We need preservation of open space," agreed John Wright, president of the Arizona Education Association. Proposition 106, which voters narrowly rejected in Tuesday's general election, would have amended the Arizona Constitution to set aside 694,000 acres of the state's 9.3 million acres of trust land for preservation as open space. It also would have given the state new leeway to form partnerships with developers and created a new, appointed board to oversee the state's administration of trust land....
North Dakota's mountain lion season ends after fifth lion killed near New Salem North Dakota’s second experimental mountain lion season closed Thursday morning after a New Salem-area rancher killed the fifth cat on the outskirts of town. Dave Wolding, who ranches west of town and works at the New Salem Veterinary Clinic, shot the cat in a culvert near the clinic on the north side of New Salem. The male cougar was between 3 and 4 years old, weighed 110 pounds and was 86½ inches from its nose to the tip of its tail, said Dorothy Fecske, the furbearer biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department who did a preliminary examination Thursday. A New Salem resident, Dusty Kunkel, saw the cat run across the road near the clinic and called Wolding, who was at work and had a shotgun in his vehicle. “We went out there and thought we better call the game warden and the cops,” Wolding said. “It was pretty close to town, not in town but close enough.”....
Nature Conservancy buys Centennial Valley Ranch The Staudenmeyer family of Dillon, Montana, has sold its 11,500-acre Murphy Creek Ranch in Montana’s Centennial Valley to The Nature Conservancy of Montana. "This deal is huge," says the Conservancy’s Tim Swanson, "not only because the ranch is within one of the most significant natural landscapes in Montana, but because of the richness of the ranchland itself." The purchase is part of an on-going effort to preserve this remote valley’s ranching history and rich wildlife habitat. So far, the Conservancy, area landowners and government agencies have used conservation easements and land acquisition to protect around 38,000 acres of private land in the valley. "This purchase guarantees that this ranch and the surrounding working landscape will retain its rural wildlife-rich character that hasn’t changed much in centuries," added Swanson, southwest Montana program director for the Conservancy. The ranch borders the 45,000-acre Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge to the south....
Ninth Circuit Reverses Lower Court Ruling, Halts Development on 10,000-Year-Old Sacred Site at Medicine Lake The Pit River Tribe won a major victory in their long-term struggle to protect a sacred site near Medicine Lake in Northeastern California from energy development this week, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court ruling and rejected renewed energy leases made by the federal government to a private company. The Pit River Tribe is plaintiff along with the Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense and the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center. The group is represented by the Stanford Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School. In an opinion issued by Judge J. Clifford Wallace, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service unlawfully failed to consult with the Pit River Tribe and undertake appropriate environmental review before deciding to execute energy leases in 1998 to a private company on this 10,000-year-old sacred landscape. The leases had granted Calpine Corporation rights to develop geothermal power near Fourmile Hill in the Medicine Lake Highlands, about 30 miles northeast of Mount Shasta in northern California. The Ninth Circuit's decision reverses a 2004 adverse decision from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, and orders the lower court to enter summary judgment in favor of the Pit River Tribe on all issues on appeal....
Seattle firm's GPS scavenger-hunt game stirs controversy Using a handheld Global Positioning System device, the two had hiked miles to Excelsior Pass to find the hidden loot as part of a global scavenger hunt run by Seattle-based Geocaching.com. Players post coordinates on the Web site telling where they have hidden objects and challenge others to find the "caches" using GPS devices. The adventure game, called "geocaching," started six years ago in the Pacific Northwest and now counts more than 328,000 caches in 222 countries, the Web site says. The activity pushes people outdoors, although some parkland managers say they worry about its impact on sites ranging from sensitive forestlands to historic cemeteries. But geocaching bothers those who say satellites and computer screens interfere with the outdoors experience. The race to find caches sacrifices the slower pace needed to appreciate nature, said Scott Silver, director of Wild Wilderness, a nonprofit group in Bend. Custodians for public lands in the Pacific Northwest wrestle with how to accommodate both sides. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management proposed closing the 32,000-acre Badlands to geocachers in 2003, then yielded after enthusiasts complained. Recreation manager Greg Currie says the bureau may revisit the issue....
Conservationists to challenge rejection of lynx protection zone Wildlife advocates say they plan to challenge the federal government's decision to reject the designation of more than 10,000 square miles in Maine's North Woods as critical habitat for Canada lynx. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that the potential benefits of the added regulation would be outweighed by the risk of alienating timber companies and other landowners who would be subject to more federal oversight, a biologist with the agency said Wednesday. "Our concern is maintaining these relationships with these landowners," said Lori Nordstrom. "We were concerned that the landowners would not work with us -- allow researchers on their land or provide funding (for scientists) or cooperate with ongoing lynx research." After a lawsuit by wildlife protection groups, the lynx was listed in 2000 as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. As part of the status, the Fish and Wildlife Service was required to determine critical habitat for the forest-dwelling cat, with an eye to places with piles of woody debris for dens and populations of snowshoe hares as prey. Northern Maine is home to the only breeding population of Canada lynx in the eastern U.S., and conservationists say the federal decision imperils its survival. Some say they'll fight the rule in Congress and in the courts....
Buzz in West Texas Is About Jeff Bezos And His Launch Site When Ronald Stasny, the owner of a 30,000-acre ranch straddling Culberson and Hudspeth counties here got a call from a Seattle lawyer in mid-2003 expressing interest in buying his property, he said no. But the attorney, Elizabeth Korrell, was persistent. She called him every month, Mr. Stasny says. Eventually he became curious about the identity of the prospective buyer, for whom money seemed to be no object. Ms. Korrell didn't say who her client was or why he wanted the land. Mr. Stasny learned that two ranches adjacent to his were also talking to an anonymous buyer. And by early 2004, the offer to Mr. Stasny had become so rich -- he won't say how rich -- that he agreed to sell. Within a few months, three other adjoining ranches were also snapped up. In January last year, Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com, spoke to a newspaper here and cleared up the mystery. He said that he had purchased land in Culberson and Hudspeth counties, 25 miles north of this tiny West Texas town east of El Paso. Mr. Bezos's purpose: to build a launch pad for his fledgling commercial space venture, Blue Origin LLC, which will offer suborbital trips to space. Mr. Bezos is "clearly a man ahead of his time," says Mr. Stasny. Over the past three years, Mr. Bezos, 42 years old, has put together about 290,000 acres of land for his space project....
2 Colorado Moose Test Positive For Chronic Wasting Disease Chronic wasting disease has been confirmed in two bull moose killed legally in northern Colorado, the Colorado Division of Wildlife said Thursday. A total of three moose have tested positive for the fatal brain-wasting disease since 2002, out of 528 tested. The moose in the latest cases were killed in October near Glendevey. One was from the same herd as the first moose in Colorado to test positive for chronic wasting, wildlife officials said. Tests became mandatory in 2003 to help Division of Wildlife biologists monitor the disease, which has been found in wild deer and elk in 10 states and two Canadian provinces....
US Prepares To Confront S Korea Again On Beef Trade The U.S. is preparing to confront South Korea once again over ambiguities in the county's import restrictions on U.S. beef that are stunting trade, according to U.S. government officials. Richard Crowder, chief agriculture negotiator for the U.S. Trade Representative, said Wednesday a U.S. delegation will travel to Seoul "in the next several weeks." The goal, he told Dow Jones Newswires after a Wednesday meeting with U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, is to allow U.S. beef exports to flourish. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC is so far the only U.S. packer that has risked sending beef to South Korea since the country eased its ban on Sept. 8. The company sent nine tons of beef to South Korea and is still waiting to see if it passes inspection. South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Lee Tae-sik said Tuesday he expects the Creekstone shipment to go through inspection without any problems, though he did agree that there are still beef trade issues that need to be resolved between the countries....
Brazil Oct Beef Exports Up 56% To 164,329 Tons Brazil's October fresh beef exports rose 56% to 164,329 metric tons in carcass equivalent weight, the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association, or Abiec, said Thursday. Between January and October, Brazil shipped 1,467,931 tons of fresh beef to world markets, up 5% from the same period last year. Hong Kong became the No. 1 export destination for Brazilian fresh beef in October, rising 39% to 3,298 tons, carcass equivalent. Russia was No. 2 at 1,669 tons. Between January and October, Russia was the No. 1 importer of Brazilian beef. Brazil sold 324,206 tons to Russia over the period, down 13% from the same period last year due to a beef embargo because of foot-and-mouth disease in the Mato Grosso do Sul and Parana states. Egypt is Brazil's No. 2 beef market on the year, importing 258,500 tons of fresh beef over the January through October period, up 41.8% from the same period last year. Income from October fresh beef exports more than doubled to $320 million....
How one of today’s toughest cowboys got his start A fella could travel around in a mighty big circle from Ed Solomon’s hometown of Havre, Mont., and it would be pretty difficult to find anyone that has even casually followed the sport of rodeo that didn’t know him. Ed’s reputation as a cowboy, first rate horse hand, and one of rodeo’s world class pickup men is legendary. That old boy’s from the old school, that’s for sure ... a ranch raised cowboy’s cowboy. He grew up in the saddle, and was punchin’ cows before he really had walkin’ and talkin’ mastered. (I’m not sure he ever did figure out those last two little details.) If he’s not just about the toughest hand I’ve ever known, then I’m not too sure who would get that designation. How many cowboys have you ever seen not only mounted and pickin’ up at a rodeo with a full body cast and a busted neck, but doin’ a heck of a job of it? The rodeo cowboys of today are without a doubt some of the best athletes in the world, but most of them didn’t have the opportunity to learn to be a hand the way that Ed did. There are lots of guys that call themselves cowboys that couldn’t even drag his saddle to the barn....
Working cowboys gather for championship rodeo They wear the same uniforms, act as stewards of the grasslands and live by a code of honor and tradition. They're cowboys and cowgirls who have traveled from ranches across the United States to convene at the 11th annual World Championship Ranch Rodeo at the Amarillo Civic Center. "This is the real deal. These are real cowboys and cowgirls who make their living working and living on ranches," said Randy Whipple, president of the Working Ranch Cowboy Association. "They get up at the crack of dawn each day and work the land and tend to the cattle. Audiences get to see legendary ranchers showcasing the necessary skills practiced every day on ranches." The rodeo began Thursday and runs through Sunday. Events at the WCRR include the best cowboys who mount ranch horses and show how things are done back at the ranch. Such events include ranch bronc riding, team doctoring, team penning, wild cow milking and cow branding....