NEWS ROUNDUP

National preserve management draws fire The Valles Caldera is singular, too, in another way. Purchased six years ago for $101 million by the federal government, the 89,000-acre former cattle ranch -- with its meadows, pine forests, hot springs, streams, volcanic domes and huge elk herds -- is managed not by a federal agency, but by a board of trustees appointed largely by the president. The board's daunting task: protect the land's natural and cultural resources, provide recreational opportunities, operate it as a working ranch, and be financially self-sufficient by 2015. It's an experiment in the way public lands are managed -- only the Presidio in San Francisco, the military base-turned-park, has a similar governance -- and one that is now under fire from the same conservation groups that urged the government to buy the land in the first place. The Valles Caldera Coalition accuses the nine-member board of poor management, of dragging its feet on crucial long-term planning, and of being unresponsive to a public hungering for input and access. The coalition says an event on a Saturday in late August was "the tip of the mismanagement iceberg." The Valles Caldera was opened to the general public for a first-ever, free drive-through. More than 3,700 visitors in 1,400-plus vehicles clogged the preserve's narrow, muddy roads, and hundreds more vehicles were shut out when the overwhelming traffic problems forced organizers to close the gate early. The trust "could not properly design a relatively simple drive-through event," the coalition complained in a recent letter to U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. Critics also say the board isn't allowing its professional staff enough leeway. Former New Mexico Land Commissioner Ray Powell quit as the trust's executive director in 2005 -- after less than a year on the job -- saying it wasn't a policy-making position....
Cougar attacks livestock near White Swan Yakama tribal authorities are asking the public to report any cougar sightings following a suspected attack on livestock last week in the White Swan area. A tribal wildlife expert Monday confirmed a rancher's report that a horse was killed and another mauled sometime Wednesday night in a pasture off Hawk Road. The rancher, Steven Gardner, said he discovered the dead horse on Thanksgiving morning. Gardner said the horse, a 2-year-old filly named Major Sugar Fix, was part of a herd of 13 horses. He said the way the filly died suggested a large predator was responsible. The filly's skull was crushed, he said, and the abdomen torn open. An older mare also was injured. The attack was a first for Gardner, who has lived in the area for 60 years and raises registered quarter horses as well as cattle....
Earthshakers: the Top 100 Green Campaigners of All Time From the woman who raised the alarm over the profligate use of pesticides to the doctor who discovered that chimney sweeps in 18th century London were dying because of their exposure to soot, the government's Environment Agency has named the scientists, campaigners, writers, economists and naturalists who, in its view, have done the most to save the planet. To help celebrate its tenth anniversary, a panel of experts listed its 100 greatest eco-heroes of all time. And it does mean all time: St Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) is there, as is Siddartha Gautama Buddha, who died in 483BC. Top of the list is Rachel Carson, a US scientist whose 1962 book, Silent Spring, is credited by many with kick-starting the modern environmental movement. Her account of the damage caused by the unrestrained industrial use of pesticides provoked controversy and fury in equal measures. Barbara Young, the Environment Agency's chief executive, said: "She started many of us off on the road to environmental protection." At number two is the maverick economist EF Schumacher, a German national rescued from an internment camp in the English countryside by John Keynes, who went on to achieve worldwide fame with his green-tinged economic vision....
Will Surprise Canyon remain off limits to off-road drivers? Five years after it was temporarily closed to off-road enthusiasts who winched their vehicles up its limestone waterfalls, a coveted canyon on Death Valley National Park's western edge has been reclaimed by nature's hand. Thick willow groves have erased nearly all traces of the washed-out road that once pointed extreme sportsmen to the ruins of a onetime silver boom town. Bighorn sheep appear with greater frequency, conservationists note, and the endangered Inyo California towhee has returned. But the battle for Surprise Canyon, home of the longest year-round stream in the Panamint Range, has revved up a notch: More than 100 four-wheel-drive aficionados determined to see their prized run reopened have filed a lawsuit in federal court that is being closely watched throughout the West. The claim relies on a Civil War-era mining law that allowed counties and states to lay routes over federal land. Although the statute, known as RS 2477, was repealed three decades ago, routes established before then were allowed under a grandfather clause. A gravel toll road in Surprise Canyon that fell into public hands before succumbing to flooding is such a route, the lawsuit contends. Since the Surprise Canyon suit was filed in late August, Inyo and San Bernardino counties have filed separate RS 2477 federal court claims that assert local control over 18 other routes. Six environmental groups are seeking to intervene in the Surprise Canyon case, hoping to see the canyon permanently closed and to weigh in on the antiquated statute....
New BLM report may alter drilling debate Federal land managers will issue a long-awaited report today detailing how much of the country's onshore oil and gas are available for drilling -- data that could shape the debate over land-use restrictions on energy companies seeking access to prized reserves. The report comes three years after a study commissioned by a 2000 energy bill found that more than 80 percent of the reserves is already available for development. That assessment was popular with environmentalists, who use it to argue that the industry does not need special breaks to get access oil and gas under federal lands, some of it locked beneath pristine Rocky Mountain wild lands. But energy companies said the earlier study didn't tell the full story, and they lobbied for an updated tally, which was mandated by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Environmentalists and industry advocates expect the new inventory to show that energy companies face more restrictions than the Bureau of Land Management previously reported. The updated study examines a wider geographic area, including regions east of the Mississippi River and a northern Alaska basin that includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, said Matt Spangler, a BLM spokesman. Lawmakers have battled for 25 years over whether to tap vast oil reserves on the 19 million-acre Alaska refuge. The new study also considers the effect of conditions placed on drilling permits, such as restrictions on wintertime drilling to protect elk and deer....
Editorial - Drilling Utah: BLM too quick to sell oil, gas permits The Bureau of Land Management, taking its cue from the Bush administration's determination to pillage the West's open spaces to quench the nation's thirst for energy, has put 336,000 acres of Utah public land on the auction block for oil and gas drilling. Leases put up for bid last week on 256 parcels include areas that do not belong on any map of drilling sites. They are near the Golden Spike National Monument, outside Arches National Park and in the Book Cliffs on the West Tavaputs Plataeu - places with unique value because of their scenic and archaeological characteristics, their pristine air and history. The BLM has pulled back permits to drill inside Wilderness Inventory Areas, set aside by the Clinton administration for their worth to Americans as wilderness, but only because a court ruling forbade the sales. U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball ruled in August that the agency had ignored federal environmental laws and its own findings that those wilderness-quality lands deserve to be protected. Had the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance not sued over the WIAs, those lands, too, would have been opened to energy companies to build roads, operate heavy equipment and drill, despite the ill effects such development would have on wildlife, clean air and water, viewsheds and recreation. County and state officials have teamed up with BLM officials and the energy industry to expedite drilling throughout Utah and the West. More drilling permits than ever before are being sold, often without thorough environmental assessments....
Bioprospecting: Mining Our National Parks One Gene at a Time The National Park Service (NPS) is quietly taking public comment through Dec. 15 on a proposal to allow private companies to "bioprospect" in our national parks -- to commercially mine, not the mineral riches of a park, but the genetic resources of plants, animals, and microorganisms in territories specifically set aside for stewardship in the public trust. The proposal is contained in a Sept. 15, 2006, court-ordered Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), an outgrowth of a lawsuit over a similar 1997 proposal at Yellowstone National Park during the Clinton administration. Steady privatization has been under way at the Park Service for more than 20 years, but the requirement that the NPS actually study the effects of bioprospecting seemed to shelve this particular bad idea. And then, magically, seven years later, the EIS appears, laying out three options that would cover not just Yellowstone but all parks....
Escaped elk may be hybrid One elk that escaped from an Idaho game farm near the Wyoming border may be a red deer hybrid, according to preliminary test results. That elk tested positive as having red deer genetics in two of three tests, according to Idaho Department of Agriculture spokesman Wayne Hoffman. Genetic and disease test results for the other escaped domestic elk in have come back with negative results. Hoffman said what’s confusing is that the elk in question has paperwork in which it is certified as a pure-blood elk. “They both can’t be correct,” he said, referring to genetic test results and the certification that came from the state of Minnesota, by way of Colorado. Idaho agriculture and wildlife agency staff and hunters with permits for the region went gunning this fall for up to 160 domesticated elk that escaped in August from the Chief Joseph hunting preserve near Tetonia, not far from the Wyoming border and Yellowstone National Park. The widely voiced concern at that time was that the escaped game farm elk might spread disease or breed with wild elk, passing on undesirable genetic traits. Idaho Department of Fish and Game spokesman Niels Nokkentved said he’s been told that 36 of Rammell’s elk have been killed, with another 61 captured and in quarantine....
Tribe using beach access as leverage The small Quileute Indian reservation sits on a shoreline of storm-tossed driftwood and pebble beaches, with dramatic views of rock formations rising out of the Pacific Ocean. But the same ocean that crashes daily on these beaches could roll ashore and sweep away the tribe's lower village in a tsunami. That fear is stoking the fire under a long-simmering boundary battle between the Quileute Tribe and the National Park Service. The tribe has closed public access to one beach, and threatens to close another if members don't get additional land on higher ground. The tribe has offered a land swap – it will hand over eight acres of disputed land at Rialto Beach and reopen access to Second Beach if the park cedes – or buys for the tribe – enough land to more than double the size of the reservation. The reservation is bounded on one side by the ocean and three sides by Olympic National Park. The tribe wants to move its school, senior center, tribal offices and some housing to higher ground as well as expand its reservation to build more housing developments....
States seek OK to kill sea lions The states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho on Monday asked the federal government for permission to kill sea lions eating salmon and steelhead at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. "Lethal removal is a management method we prefer not to use, but one that may be necessary to restore balance to the Columbia River ecosystem where threatened and endangered stocks of salmon and steelhead are being preyed on by a healthy and growing population of California sea lions," Guy Norman, a regional director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in a statement. Fish and wildlife agencies from the three states joined to formally seek permission to use lethal force under terms of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The request does not include Stellar sea lions, which are protected by the Endangered Species Act. The request will be considered by a task force of state and federal agencies, tribes, scientists, and conservation and fishing groups in a review process that could take several years. Meanwhile, a bill is pending in Congress to quickly give permits to kill problem sea lions to the states and Indian tribes....
Freudenthal signs Platte River agreement Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Monday signed a three-state agreement that helps guide the use of Platte River water while protecting endangered species. "I've signed the agreement reluctantly," Freudenthal said in a statement. "There are no good choices in this area, but it seems to me that the only hope rests in the Platte River recovery program." Wyoming was the last of the three states to sign the Platte River Cooperative Agreement. The governors of Nebraska and Colorado had signed earlier. The plan is designed to help guide Platte River Basin entities in complying with the Endangered Species Act while retaining their access to federal water, land or funding. The goal is to improve the river and protect habitat for native birds and fish....
Lawyers: Deal changes water law A recent legal review of the multistate Platte River Recovery Implementation Program’s components indicates the pact could mean a departure from how Wyoming’s water law has been administered. The analysis, undertaken by Karen Budd Falen and Hertha Lund of the Budd-Falen Law Offices, said the program changes current water law from that of prior appropriation to one in which federally protected species in Nebraska would have the first right to Wyoming’s water. Budd Falen and Lund maintain that the program takes water from the historic prior appropriation system into a whole new realm -- one in which a three-state governance committee will oversee water issues, “giving away state control of Wyoming water.” According to the legal analysis, “The program changes the current water law of prior appropriation to one in which Endangered Species Act-listed species in Nebraska have the first right to Wyoming’s water.” The attorneys maintain that the program will become a mandate overlay on all state water issues....
Expect litigation, water user group says The state's decision to enter an agreement with Colorado and Nebraska over Platte River Basin water will almost certainly result in litigation, the spokesman for a Wyoming water users group said. Joe Glode, president of the Upper North Platte Water Users Association, said the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program offers no assurances that his members' water rights will be protected. The agreement, which is not yet final, requires Wyoming to guarantee 34,000 acre feet of space in Pathfinder Reservoir for downstream wildlife habitat in Nebraska. It allocates another 20,000 acre feet of space for discretionary use in Wyoming. Nebraska and Colorado also are contributing water and money to enhance habitat for the whooping crane, piping plover, least tern and pallid sturgeon in Nebraska. Glode is concerned that the water users he represents upstream from Pathfinder Reservoir will lose out in dry years because they have no place to store water. “You've created two new water rights in the state of Wyoming for which there's no additional water,” said Glode, who lives in Saratoga....
Fence plan alarms landowners Ranching magnate Bill Moody's vast holdings spread across three Texas counties and include 35 miles of frontage along the Rio Grande, where thousands of illegal immigrants and smugglers have crossed from Mexico into the USA. They have worn paths through Moody's pastures, cut his fences and stolen some of his cattle. From his perch on the front lines of the battle against illegal immigration, Moody would seem to be the type of person who would embrace the federal government's most provocative effort to stop illegals from entering this country: a plan to build 700 miles of fence along the 2,100-mile Southwest border, including Moody's land. Instead, Moody is a powerful voice in a growing alliance of border landowners and local law enforcement officials who oppose a fence. Most everyone here agrees that more border security is needed to curb illegal immigration. Ranchers such as Moody and Dob Cunningham, who has a 700-acre spread north of here with 2 miles of river frontage, say they often give Border Patrol agents access to their land to help the agents track down illegals. Like many ranchers and local law enforcement officers, Cunningham believes the U.S. government should focus on hiring more and better-trained Border Patrol agents rather than erecting the proposed double-walled barrier. He fears the fence would deny him access to the Rio Grande's waters that are a lifeline for his cattle and for the migrating wildlife sought by hunters who lease parts of his ranch. Cunningham also isn't happy about the possibility of having to give up a strip of his land along the river to the U.S. government for fence construction....
U.S. tries again to increase cattle imports from Canada The Agriculture Department is trying again to increase cattle and beef imports from Canada, reviving a plan that had stalled amid evidence that Canada's safeguards against mad cow disease were not working. The plan was on hold while authorities weighed the risk of importing older Canadian cattle, which carry a higher risk of having mad cow disease than younger animals. On Friday, the department quietly sent its plan back to the White House for final consideration. At issue is a ban on using cattle remains in cattle feed, the primary firewall against the spread of mad cow disease. The only known way for cattle to get the disease is by eating feed containing diseased cattle tissue, a practice largely outlawed in Canada and the United States in 1997. In July, Canada discovered an infected cow born in 2002, five years after the ban went into effect. The cow's age _ younger than previously infected animals _ suggests a shorter incubation period for the brain wasting disease, meaning it could have gotten a bigger dose of infection than other Canadian cases. Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials have maintained that the incubation period in the cow was still within a normal range of three to eight years. Canada's feed ban is even stricter than the feed ban in the U.S., which is under pressure from McDonald's and other food companies to strengthen its defenses. About 12 percent of the nation's beef is imported from other countries. Canada, accounting for nearly a quarter of those imports, shipped $1.2 billion worth of beef and veal to U.S. markets last year....
FDA readies cloning policy A pending decision by the Food and Drug Administration could allow the sale of meat and milk from cloned animals. It may solve a long-standing frustration for ranchers who can't now reproduce their best steers, but it doesn't mean you'll find a cloneburger any time soon at the local bar and grill. The FDA expects to release a draft of the new regulations by year's end. Repeated studies by the agency "show that the meat and milk from cattle clones and their offspring are as safe as that from conventionally bred animals," the FDA said. Despite those studies, some modern Luddite groups oppose any cloning of agricultural products. But farmers have actually practiced "reproductive cloning" for thousands of years by using cuttings from plants to grow genetically identical offspring. Strawberries and some grasses even clone themselves naturally by sending out runners. Only in recent years, however, has cloning technology reached the point where it can be used for cattle and other mammals. Still, at a price of about $20,000 per animal, cloning is far too expensive to be used to put food on your table. Instead, it will be used to reproduce breeding animals with highly desirable traits....
U.S. wheat industry plans legal attack on AWB The U.S. wheat industry is considering taking legal action against AWB Ltd. and its monopoly grip on Australia's wheat exports after an inquiry found that AWB had misled the United Nations over payments to secure wheat deals in Iraq. The Australian government inquiry, published on Monday, found that AWB broke United Nations oil-for-food sanctions against Iraq with the payment of $222 million in kickbacks to the government of Saddam Hussein between 1999 and 2003. U.S. Wheat Associates, which represents United States wheat exporters who have long complained that AWB's monopoly inhibits competition, said on Tuesday that AWB's subsidiary in the United States could be liable under U.S. law. "The funds that came from the oil-for-food programme moved through U.S. banks," Alan Tracy, president of U.S. Wheat Associates, told ABC radio. "There are a lot of connections here and possible violations of U.S. law." Mark Samson, the U.S. group's vice president for South Asia, told Reuters from Singapore that the U.S. wheat industry was concerned about AWB's utilisation of U.S. credit programmes....
On The Edge of Common Sense - Bear picture S ammi is one of those children for which parents have great expectations but a healthy dose of apprehension. In other words, her self-confidence was bound to get her into trouble now and then. As a 13-year-old ranch kid, she could rope and ride, do the chores, cook, read, shoot and take care of herself like most kids reared up in a country raisin.' The family was overnighting at one of the line camps on the forest. Sammi and her girlfriend had gone down to the creek to fish. She had been to the same camp many times and was aware of the wildlife precautions. Signs had been posted warning of bears in the area and her mother had reiterated the message to her. Knee-deep in the creek, the girls soon became absorbed in girl talk as they walked downstream, nonchalantly casting and reeling as they chattered like squirrels about boys, teachers, music, clothes, volleyball, boys, teachers, music, clothes, volleyball, boys, teachers, music, etc. Suddenly Sammi screamed! "Run!" she shouted. "There's a bear!"....