NEWS ROUNDUP

Nevada’s Family Ranches Go the Way of the Old West In Nevada, the fastest-growing state in the country, family ranches — veritable symbols of the Old West — are disappearing. “We are losing our culture,” said Devere Dressler, 55, a fifth-generation rancher whose family has sold off all but 150 acres here in the Carson Valley in northern Nevada, home to some of the state’s oldest ranches and some of the newest mansions. Once, the Dresslers owned 20,000 acres, but economic realities clashed with romantic ideals, and family members have sold most of the land, including large chunks for a housing development called, with a bit of paradox, Gardnerville Ranchos. Steve White, hanging on to a nearly 100-year-old 150-acre dairy farm in sight of trophy homes sprouting in the surrounding fields, scoffs at the changing valley. They are nice people, Mr. White concludes of the newcomers, many of them retirees, commuters from Carson City and Reno, and casino workers and ski enthusiasts from Lake Tahoe, just over the other side of the Sierra Nevada that loom above the landscape. These “ranchettes,” he said as if describing a new weed, “are all around us now.” All over the West, city and suburb have seeped into farmland and desert, answering a demand for housing, jobs and business in settings befitting a Bierstadt painting while also raising qualms about taming the roughness that makes the region so attractive. Those same dynamics are playing out here in the Carson Valley, only more so. Aside from losing a way of life, the loss of ranching has raised questions statewide, particularly in the northern reaches where the working ranches predominate, over the pace of development and whether there will be enough water and other resources to sustain it....
Pombo race is the fight of his career Only a few months ago, most savvy political analysts had concluded that beating seven-term Republican Congressman Richard Pombo in his comfortable Northern California district was Jerry McNerney's impossible dream. The little-known Democrat McNerney, they said, may as well have been tilting at the wind turbines in Altamont Pass, which separates the solidly liberal San Francisco Bay Area from the largely conservative exurban ranchland that is Pombo's stronghold. But charges of political corruption and environmental mismanagement against Pombo, the powerful chairman of the House Resources Committee, would not go away. Hundreds of political volunteers and environmental activists poured into the district from the Bay Area to work for McNerney, 55, a soft-spoken mathematics PhD and expert on alternative energy. As Tuesday's election approaches, California's 11th Congressional District is highly competitive, the most likely of the state's 53 congressional seats to change hands Tuesday....
First lady defends Pombo's record The Republican chairman of the House Resources Committee, who has faced of wave of attack ads from national conservation groups, is an "enthusiastic steward" of the environment and a friend of wildlife, first lady Laura Bush told GOP supporters Friday. The first lady defended the environmental record of seven-term U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, seeking to give him a boost in his unexpectedly tight re-election campaign. Environmental groups have spent heavily to defeat the California congressman, angered by what they say are anti-environmental policies he has championed as the committee's chairman. Appearing with Pombo at a campaign rally, Bush told supporters that the congressman has led efforts to promote alternative fuels and reform the Endangered Species Act. She said the act has created barriers to repairing the aging levees that crisscross Pombo's district, which stretches from the agricultural plains of the Central Valley to eastern San Francisco Bay area suburbs. "Congressman Pombo is an enthusiastic steward of our country's natural resources," Bush said in Pleasanton, about 40 miles east of San Francisco. "Because of his leadership, wildlife, property and people will be protected from dangerous flooding."....
'Alias' actress Jennifer Garner joins campaign to oust Pombo The fiercely competitive race for the 11th Congressional District seat got a jolt of star power Saturday as actress Jennifer Garner headlined an environmental rally dedicated to ousting Republican Rep. Richard Pombo. Garner said the battle between Pombo and Democrat Jerry McNerney was "a fight bigger than the 11th district." "This is a fight for our land and natural heritage," the "Alias" star told a crowd of about 300 gathered in a downtown park, many of them waving "McNerney for Congress" signs. The rally in Pleasanton, about 45 miles east of San Francisco, was organized by the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. It is one of several national environmental groups that spent more than $1 million combined to run television ads attacking Pombo's record....
State officially added to mountain lion expansion map In August 2006, the nationally recognized Cougar Network announced that it was, for the first time, including the North Dakota Badlands region into its “big picture” map of the known mountain lion range in the United States. The decision was made based on North Dakota Game and Fish Department data confirming that breeding mountain lions have recolonized that area of the state. The Cougar Network is a nonprofit research organization whose board of directors includes some of the most-experienced research biologists in the United States. According to the Network’s mission statement, “.....we are especially interested in the phenomenon of expanding cougar populations into their former habitat.” For the past 100 years, the known mountain lion range in the United States has been west of the prairie states. In recent years, however, biologists differ as to the reasons why mountain lions have been making a fairly rapid comeback. Many knowledgeable mountain lion researchers believe that recolonization of the lions’ former range is well under way....
Operation Indian Country Editors' note: During the World War II era, the federal government condemned and leased hundreds of thousands of Indian acres for military use, much of it never returned to Indian hands. In this series, Indian Country Today spoke with Native people affected by the takings, many of whom served their country in wartime, lost their land to the government, and still harbor strong feelings on the matter. Indian time is slow. But in Washington they have a well-kept secret: the father of Indian time is ''government time.'' Today, much of the Indian estate taken when World War II veterans were still in their teens remains unsafe, unusable, unreturned or simply unremembered. The Navajo have fared better with lands at Fort Wingate depot, albeit 70 years down the road. Soon to be divided between the Navajo and Zuni, some 20,000 acres are at stake. ''We're not going backwards, so there's no need for opening these areas for range land use,'' said Charlie Davis, a Navajo rancher in the Wingate area. He'd like to see a veterans' hospital and nursing home on depot land. ''It shouldn't be something we fight on,'' he urged. ''It's something we should all have access to,'' including veterans of all colors and creeds. ''It's about more than who owns what.'' Annie Yazzie, who herded sheep on Wingate land long ago, agreed. ''Who am I to say I want that land returned to me where we're a growing community here, and we're crowded? How is that going to help the larger population by stating, 'This is where I was born. This is where I lived?''' Uranium mining north of Church Rock has contaminated land with high radon levels, including a flat where the Navajo wanted to build a large housing project. As a result, the Church Rock chapter covets former depot land for housing, provided it can be fully decontaminated. Yazzie is worried by relatives who want portions of her family's old land once the depot is handed over, a sentiment echoed by other families concerned that the rush for land may sabotage larger tribal efforts....
Hole in the dike? When a reservoir containing coal-bed methane water leaked in Sheridan County, it caused contaminated water to resurface on a hillside below. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality issued a notice of violation to the company responsible because it was considered an illegal, or unpermitted discharge of water. But when that same leak traveled down to another reservoir which in turn leaked and saturated an alfalfa field below it, the DEQ could do nothing about the damage. The water didn't resurface this time, but remained in the subsurface. Technically, it was not an illegal surface discharge in the eyes of DEQ. In another well-known case, rancher Kenny Claybaugh has watched the culmination of multiple upstream coal-bed methane water discharges transform a productive bottomland meadow on his property into a lake. This continues to happen year after year as DEQ and the state engineer continue to explain that neither is legally responsible for either preventing or rectifying the situation. "We just permitted another discharge that is showing up on Claybaugh's property because we could only look at water quality. ... But that's not the problem. It's the water quantity," DEQ water quality administrator John Wagner told members of a special legislative task force on Thursday. Several members of the Coalbed Natural Gas Water Use Task Force agreed that it may take a change in the law to fill this apparent regulatory hole that exists between DEQ and the state engineer's office....
California officials propose California Endangered Species Act Exemption for Klamath River In the Klamath River Basin these days environmental news is dominated by talk about dam removal and, occasionally, new restrictions on fishing. But now another issue is poised to compete for the headlines. The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) announced late last month that it plans to give a hundred or so farmers and alfalfa ranchers in Siskiyou County just south of the Oregon border an exemption from the California Endangered Species Act. Released without fanfare, the announcement caused barely a ripple in the regional media. But below the surface a virtual tsunami may be forming. Ever since Klamath River Coho were listed as “threatened”, Fish and Game officials have been meeting behind closed doors with Scott and Shasta River irrigation interests. The irrigators are concerned because their dams, diversions and irrigation pumps have regularly killed thousands of salmon and steelhead. They want to be protected from prosecution for killing Coho while continuing irrigation practices which virtually dry up Scott and Shasta rivers and streams in drought years. Klamath River Basin Tribes, conservation and fishing groups have been nervous about the closed door meetings. As downstream interests, they asked to be included in the talks only to be rebuffed by CDFG and the irrigators. Now the reasons for the secret meetings are beginning to come to light. While the actual Endangered Species Act exemption – technical known as an “Take Permit” - has not been released pending review by irrigator and state lawyers, preliminary environmental documents indicate that, while ranchers and growers will exclude fish from irrigation ditches, they will be allowed to continue dewatering the Scott and Shasta Rivers. If fish need water, the environmental documents indicate, the irrigators will consider renting water to CDFG on an annual basis. In return the CDFG will continue to have access to river sections that pass through private ranches and alfalfa fields – something that some ranchers have denied to CDFG since the Coho were listed as threatened....
Elk preserves elicit criticism from hunters, wildlife managers A self-described "mountain man" with a beauty queen daughter has no problem with hunters shooting trophy elk fenced in on his 168-acre ranch. But the outside world crashed in on Rex Rammell recently when a bear dug a hole that breached that fence, allowing what he estimates as about 100 of his 160 elk to escape his private hunting farm in August, the largest such breakout in state memory. Suddenly Rammell, who casts himself as an American West iconoclast whose forebears were homesteaders in the 1800s, was at the center of a regional tempest about the ethics of elk hunting preserves. Idaho Gov. James Risch ordered a special hunt to kill the escaped elk, angering Rammell, who's now charged with obstructing a game officer and poking a participating citizen hunter in the eye. The hunt officially ended last week. So emotional is the issue that the governors of three states tied to Yellowstone National Park, including Idaho, condemned Rammell and his shooting ranch, which is legal in Idaho and is among a growing number of 14 statewide, including one planned by former Denver Bronco Rulon Jones outside Idaho Falls. What triggered an outrage evocative of the old Wild West was concern that a large domestic herd would spread disease to Yellowstone's wild elk just 8 miles away during the rut. Like the buffalo that once blanketed the country, elk suffered near-extermination in the 1800s, but now they number about 1 million and are regarded as a national heritage, conservationists said. Rammell says the state has no right to kill his elk because they're private property, classified like livestock. He adds that he is a veterinarian who has ensured that his domestic elk are disease-free, posing no danger to Yellowstone's animals....
Column - Water war is worth fighting Every day I thank God that I live in the most geographically diverse and breathtakingly beautiful state in the nation. For that reason, I am going to fight like hell alongside those who oppose the Las Vegas water grab. Here's why: We live in the arid West. In fact, we Utahns live in the second driest state in the nation behind Nevada. Although I'm a native Westerner, for all of my life - more than 50 years - I've gone about my pursuit of happiness paying scant attention to the laws of aridity. But the proposed Las Vegas project to build a 285-mile, $2 billion pipeline to pull ground water from aquifers in six basins - part of which lie under Utah lands - to quench the seemingly quenchless thirst of Las Vegas residents jolts me out of my ignorant bliss. Here are the simple facts: We cannot live without water nor can we create water or increase our water supply. In Utah we add one person to our population about every six seconds while our average precipitation remains stubbornly low, and many of the nation's aquifers, which, by the way, pay no attention to state borders, have been steadily declining. You run the numbers....
Agents kill wolf thought to have killed 120 sheep Federal agents have shot a wolf believed responsible for killing about 120 sheep in attacks on ranches in Garfield, McCone and Dawson counties since December 2005. The 106-pound wolf was shot Thursday morning on private land between Jordan and Circle, apparently ending a series of attacks that had area livestock owners on edge for months. There was frequent speculation among wildlife agents and ranchers that the elusive predator was either a wolf or wolf hybrid. Some thought there was more than one animal attacking the sheep. "We do think it was a single animal and this chapter is closed," said Carolyn Sime, head of Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks' wolf program. Meanwhile, in Park County, two wolves were shot on Oct. 25 following a confirmation that a calf had been killed by the wolves on a cattle ranch about 10 miles south of Livingston, Sime said. On Wednesday, a landowner in Garfield County reported large canid tracks in deep snow on his property, Sime said. Even though there had been no confirmed reports of wolf attacks for months, USDA Wildlife Services was authorized to search for the animal and kill it. Crews in the air spotted the wolf Thursday morning and shot it....
Idaho game commissioners frustrated over delays Idaho Fish and Game Commissioners continue to express frustration at the federal government’s refusal to quickly remove wolves from endangered species status. ‘‘There is some real frustration,’’ said commission chairman Cameron Wheeler of Ririe. ‘‘The problem is we have responsibility with no authority.’’ At the commission’s meeting in Lewiston on Thursday the group pressed state wildlife biologists to work within the framework of federal rules to thin wolves in areas where elk herds are lagging, The Lewiston Tribune reported. Commissioners said that wolf populations continue to grow by 20 percent each year. They complained of the state’s stalled attempt to get permission to kill wolves in the Lolo Hunting Zone near the Montana border. They directed the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to update and resubmit their request to kill 43 wolves in the Lolo mountains, while also aggressively pushing the federal government to remove wolves from endangered species protection. Commissioner Tony McDermott of Sagle wants to push federal regulators. ‘‘I think it’s time we take some drastic measures as a state,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m tired of not finding any elk in the Lolo.’’....
Grasslands aren't just for raising cattle, researcher says The study of unique grasslands has taken Linda Kennedy from the High Plains of north central Kansas to sky islands of southeast Arizona. While she's spent plenty of time on native grasses that have been grazed by cattle and other livestock for hundreds of years, Kennedy now spends much of her time in work to correct the burdens on grasses that livestock have placed. As the director of the National Audubon Society's Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch, Kennedy has a different perspective about the impact cattle have on a different part of the nation. Kennedy offered her thoughts at a recent master class to rangeland biology students at Fort Hays State University as part of her receiving an alumni achievement award during this year's homecoming festivities. The Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch is an 8,000-acre sanctuary and research facility in southeastern Arizona. The ranch is a treasure trove of information for researchers as a contrast to, say, prairie grasslands. Kennedy said it is a "naïve" ecosystem because it does not have the historic use by large hooved animals that grasslands such as those grazed upon by bison has....
Inquiry brings some anxiety A U.S. Forest Service employee has asked to have an attorney present before answering investigators' questions involving the deaths of five Forest Service firefighters in last month's Esperanza Fire. Anxiety over answering questions may spring from a 2003 fire in Idaho that killed two firefighters and resulted in an incident commander being held criminally liable, investigators said. The incident commander lost his job and was placed on federal probation for 18 months. The commander in Idaho was found liable after an investigation by the office of the inspector general in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service. That same office is now investigating Forest Service employees' actions in the Esperanza Fire. Joe Duran, of the National Federation of Federal Employees, the union that represents all federal employees, said he does not know the identity of the employee in connection with the current fire. Dick Mangan, president of the International Association of Wildland Fire, an association of wildland fire professionals, said the inspector general's involvement has brought a distrust in the investigative process. "Now what we've done is say, 'We think you robbed a bank. Tell us how you did it. But you're still going to go to jail if you cooperate.' " The Esperanza Fire is the only other investigation conducted by the inspector general's office after a 2002 law required the office to investigate fire service deaths caused by fires....
Official says car linked to suspect found near other arsons A car linked to a man charged with setting a wildfire that killed five firefighters was spotted near at least 10 other arsons, according to an official involved in the investigation. Word of the potential connection came Friday as the first funerals were held for members of the five-man U.S. Forest Service crew that was overtaken Oct. 26 as the blaze roared through the San Jacinto Mountains, 90 miles east of Los Angeles. Cameras secretly placed atop utility poles in remote areas captured details of a car registered to a man who said he had sold it to Raymond Lee Oyler months ago, said the official, who requested anonymity because the case was continuing. The official said detectives then began investigating Oyler for a string of arsons and found evidence linking him to last week's deadly fire. The cameras did not catch Oyler setting that fire, the official said. Oyler has been charged with murder and arson. Although prosecutors described the evidence against him as overwhelming, they have not provided many details of the case....
Debate rages over status for Dominguez Canyon Riddell, a volunteer with the Western Colorado Congress who lives in Montrose, said he’s a passionate advocate of permanent protection of Dominguez and nearby canyons, maybe as wilderness, maybe as a national conservation area. That’s a kick in the chaps to others, like gold prospector Marlin Littlefield, who says any sort of protection for public land around Dominguez Canyon is a violation of his rights because it might mean prospecting and off-road vehicles may be banned from there. Dominguez Canyon has been a wilderness study area for nearly two decades. “If they turn that into a national conservation area, it’s as bad, if not worse, than a wilderness area,” said Littlefield, of Crawford. “You can’t pick up a rock and look at it.” That’s important to Littlefield, because he pans for gold along the Gunnison River, and he said he’s afraid the government will ban him from using his motorized suction dredge....
Environmental group call for release of oil shale details An environmental group is accusing the Bureau of Land Management of refusing to release information on proposed oil shale projects in Colorado. Western Resource Advocates said it has sent a letter to Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett protesting the decision not to release comments received on the BLM’s environmental review of three projects proposed in northwestern Colorado. “I think the BLM is trying to avoid scrutiny of the actions that it is proposing until it’s too late,” said Bob Randall, staff attorney for the Boulder-based group. The BLM was expected to issue final decisions on the oil shale research and development leases by the end of October. BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington in Washington said Friday a decision is expected soon and added that the agency will respond to Western Resource Advocates’ Freedom of Information request by the Nov. 8 deadline....
Three lions killed on season’s third day Three more mountain lions n one male, one female and another of which the sex had not been confirmed by news deadline n were killed Friday, according to South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks officials. The three kills on the third day of the 2006 Black Hills mountain lion season brought the season total to four. One was killed Wednesday on the opening day, and none was killed Thursday. GF&P regional supervisor Mike Kintigh, who confirmed Friday’s kills, said he was surprised. “Yeah, things are happening a little faster than I thought they would right now,” he said Friday evening. “I was anticipating a lion or so today. But to have three come in today surprises me a little.” He could only confirm the sex of two of the cats -- a male and a female. The sex of the third cat was unknown, as it hadn’t been brought into the GF&P regional office by news deadline. The Black Hills season will end either Dec. 31 or when eight females or 25 total lions are shot. Depending on the sex of the third cat, at least two of the allotted eight females have been killed....
Environmental coalition digs in at Tejon Ranch Developers of the largest chunk of privately owned wild lands remaining in Southern California and representatives from the nation's most powerful environmental groups gathered at a special summit last spring to consider a deal. Under it, environmentalists would forgo legal challenges if the proposed 23,000-home Centennial development on Tejon Ranch were reconfigured to more than double the amount of land set aside for a preserve. The May 19 meeting was supposed to have produced agreement on a tangle of thorny issues at the center of the negotiations. It failed. Tejon Ranch Co. rejected the proposal, opting to continue working with officials in Los Angeles and Kern counties on plans for Centennial and two other developments on the 270,000-acre ranch. The company wants to develop houses, resorts, industrial parks and golf courses on 5% of the property and set aside 100,000 acres of backcountry as a natural preserve, creating the biggest conservation area carved from private land in California. There are no specific plans for the rest of the ranch land....
Court Invalidates U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Exclusion of Nearly 900,000 Acres of Vernal Pool Critical Habitat Yesterday, Federal District Court Judge William B. Shubb issued a major ruling overturning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) decision to omit 900,000 acres in 11 counties from its 2005 final rule designating critical habitat for 15 imperiled vernal pool plants and animals. Vernal pools are seasonal wetlands found throughout California. Judge Shubb also rejected industry's attempt to overturn the protections for more than 800,000 acres that FWS did protect as critical habitat. The court agreed with the six conservation organizations involved in the case that FWS failed to look at whether its decision to eliminate critical habitat protections for vernal pool grasslands in Butte, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Monterey, Placer, Sacramento, Shasta, Solano, Stanislaus, and Tehama counties affected the future recovery of the vernal pool species. In sending FWS back to the drawing board, Judge Shubb accepted the central argument of the conservation organizations that in excluding vernal pool critical habitat within 11 California counties, FWS continued its long history of failing to consider the essential importance of such designation to the ultimate recovery of the vernal pool species....
New Approach to Protect Private Property Rights Landowners from across the country will be meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, November 10-11, 2006, to learn brand new techniques to protect their private property rights. Hosted by three national property rights organizations, the two-day event will offer courses that teach individual citizens strategies to fight their local battles one by one. Today, citizens realize the issues that threaten their liberty and property rights, are no longer something they only read about in the newspapers. They are personally affected by zoning, park expansions, transportation corridors, endangered species, smart growth (sustainability) issues, wetland restrictions, conservation easements, access restrictions, grazing limitations, and hundreds of other regulatory schemes. “It’s the landowners who have learned how to organize and fight strategically that have had the greatest successes at protecting their land and communities from federal, state and local anti-private property measures,” stated Margaret Byfield, executive director of Stewards of the Range, the main sponsor of the meeting. “The key is teaching people how to re-think their issues and give them the tools to fight their specific battles.” That’s what the “Unite to Fight” conference is all about – winning locally. Fred Kelly Grant has been teaching these strategies for over 10 years and has been tremendously successful. A former prosecutor, who brought down organized crime figures in Baltimore, Maryland, and one of the most ingenious land-use consultants in the West, will be teaching landowners his secrets on how to win locally....
OSU, OHSU study of 'male-oriented' rams gains high-profile foe The tale of Oregon's gay sheep experiment just grew stranger. On Thursday, tennis great Martina Navratilova sent letters asking the presidents of OSU and OHSU to end what she calls "homophobic and cruel experiments." "Many gays and lesbians," she wrote, "stand to be deeply offended by the social implications of these tests." For years, researchers at Oregon State University and Oregon Health & Science University searched in relative obscurity for biological differences that might distinguish rams who mount ewes from rams who mount rams. Roughly 5 percent to 8 percent of rams are "male-oriented," say the researchers, who avoid the term "gay" as being too human-focused. The research results include a 2002 finding that a part of the brain in ram-oriented rams is different than in other rams. Researcher Charles Roselli is now leading a follow-up study to explore those differences, partly by changing hormone levels in pregnant sheep to see if that affects the eventual brain development and partner preference of unborn rams....
'Wool women' plan Wyoming mill Although they laughingly refer to themselves as “domesticated hippies” looking for fun ways to turn their creativity into something lucrative, Valerie Spanos and Karen Hostetler are not to be taken lightly. They are on the verge of establishing a woolen mill in Buffalo, a mill which will take Wyoming’s raw wool and convert it into marketable products. Their first goal was to find a mill that would take a raw fleece and make it into marketable products, such as baby sweaters, socks, quilt batting and yarn. They bought a bale of wool from Peter John Camino, a local sheep rancher, only to discover the nearest mill was in Canada. About nine months later, their order arrived in Buffalo: quilt batting, two queen size comforters and skeins of all-natural yarn. “It was the softest, most beautiful yarn you ever saw, soft enough for a baby blanket,” Hostetler said. “We marketed it right here in Buffalo and everyone loved it.” Thus, the Mountain Meadow Wool Company was born. Another bale of raw wool was soon on its way to Canada, but because it took so long to get anything back, Spanos and Hostetler decided to investigate starting a mill of their own....
A look at the historic Carlsbad Irrigation District building, then and now In 1890, the county seat was changed from Seven Rivers to Eddy by a vote of 331 to 81, the prairie grass was so high hay could be cut from it and the first election was held in the new county of Eddy on Nov. 4 of that year. The town of Eddy was on the move. It was also the year a new building was built on the corner of Fox and Canal streets that was home to the Pecos Irrigation and Investment Company, the precursor to the Carlsbad Irrigation District. Today, 116 years later, the building continues to be home to the Carlsbad Irrigation District, but sadly, it is in need of repair and restoration if it is to continue to be a historic landmark. The building was placed on the National Historic Register in 1965. To save the building, located on the city's main thoroughfare, it will take thousands of dollars, which CID officials say the agency does not have....
Girl lassoes dream The Christmas list of Sheridan Lintz may be short this year, because she already received the best present ever. The 8-year-old, who has loved horses since she was a tiny tot, recently won a horse of her own in a national essay contest. The pretty filly, a sorrel quarter horse, is aptly named Dream. "I always wished for a horse at Christmas, Easter and birthdays," Sheridan said. "I got my Christmas wish early, after a lot of hard work." Sheridan, the daughter of Eric and Jenni Lintz of north Fort Collins, is a home-schooled third-grader. She won second place in the contest, sponsored by a private organization called Kids 4 Horses. The theme of this year's essay contest was "How Horses Help Children and Adults with Disabilities." Sheridan had seen a TV broadcast about horses helping injured soldiers, so she went online and found that information for her essay. She also used the public library for research and conducted her first-ever interview. She cited her references at the end of her work. In the end, Sheridan's five-page essay (reprinted on page 16) was the longest paper she had ever written. Now, Sheridan could write another essay on a favorite saying of her dad's: "If you work really hard, it always pays off."....
Ranch culture branded into hides of Western ski areas A 6-foot-wide pair of painted circles mark the snow. In the center of each stands a woman clad in a cowboy hat and full-length duster. Ahead, coiled ropes hang from fence posts. Below, horses await with saddles at their sides. The competition is set to begin. A group of ProRodeo riders, fresh from Denver's National Western Stock Show, lines up at the head of a Steamboat run. Competing in pairs, the ski-riding cowboys will charge down the slope, barrel-racing through slalom gates and flying over a 4-foot berm, hoping not to crash like a bronco-bucked buckaroo. 'Pokes who reach the bottom will attempt to lasso the lass and saddle the horse, or at least keep from sliding under it. The finish line lies just beyond. "We really don't think about the risk when we get involved with something like this," says bull rider Justin Hathaway. "That's just the cowboy way." For more than three decades, Steamboat Springs has hosted the annual Cowboy Downhill competition, and in this northern Colorado community, a chaps-on-chairlifts event seems appropriate. After all, Steamboat's roots are ranching....
Christmas Valley rancher remembers career as cowboy stunt man Floyd Baze is a man of many alter egos. Over the years, he has worn wigs and pasted on beards while successfully passing himself off as Lee Marvin, William Holden, Jack Lord, Robert Preston and Neville Brand, among others. It's all been legal. For 25 years Baze was a Hollywood stunt man in Westerns, mostly doing horseback stunts deemed too dangerous for the stars. "To me it was all business," Baze said. "I don't think I'd call it glamor. I'd figure out the easiest, the best and the safest (way) for me and the horse." For the 72-year-old Baze, life on horseback in the movies was just a continuation of the life he's always lived. "When I was working in the pictures a guy asked me (about) the first time I ever rode a horse. I told him I couldn't remember," Baze said. Baze was born and raised in Eastern Washington's Yakima Valley, where his father, Dock, raised race horses — always at least 800. Baze was on horseback as a youngster, and riding in rodeos at age 13....
The charms of cowboy speak It's been a good two or three weeks, getting the fall cattle roundup done, and there's enough stories right there to fill a few columns, but the thought strikes me that, just as there is in every business, there's a certain way ranchers talk and think, a way that says who they are better than any name tag or public introduction could ever do. So, it's a thrill when I hear guys like lifelong valley rancher Bill Fender holler, "Where the hell you hidin'," in a big, booming voice, knowing he'll get on my case for being in the house in the first place. He's just topped 80 and is, of course, pleased to see me at home because he wants to visit a little, maybe impart a bit of knowledge my way, with any luck. "I saw those cows coming from a long ways off, along the ridge behind Mac's house up there in Section 36. You know where I mean? Hell yes, ya better. The long, afternoon sun reflected off their backs or I might not have seen them at all in that brush. Wouldn't you know, as I sat there waiting for them to hit the middle gate into our upper place - you know, the 240 - one of the purtiest sunsets I've ever witnessed came over the sky. You've seen 'em, I know you have. I should've gone over to the Hell's Hole to look for more cows, but it was a-getting dark and that damned sunset was enough to get me home, anyway." Over coffee with a good friend, I hear, "Isn't it a pisser? People who've never owned a cow in their lives cut through your property without permission and then try to tell you how to run your business 'cause they stepped in some cow shit. Not to mention the government, always pryin' its nose into what you're doin'. Seems like you catch hell from all sides, people wantin' to run you out of the business. It's not like we're gettin' rich at this game. It's a lot of damned work, and we're sure as hell not goofin' off."....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Curious cow learns lessons of flying This is the story of a curious cow who lived on Mr. Marvin's farm in the kingdom of Kansas. Her name was Yvonne. She was of Scottish and English heritage, but farmer Marv guessed that she had some Native American Pronghorn antelope in her lineage because everyone knows that antelopes are very curious. Farmer Marv had a large old-fashioned barn with a second-story hay mow, a high pitched roof and a rooster weather vane on the tallest peak. Yvonne was piddling around the barnyard one fine day doing her hooves, trying to find her cuticles and curling her switch. "How did that rooster get on top of the barn?" she wondered. "Well," said Peggy, her best hen friend, "I suppose he walked. He could not fly because the Poultry Protection League made it illegal for us to fly higher than a chicken wire fence." "Hmmm," said Curious Cow as she wandered into the barn, "Let's see." She walked between two old draft horse feed troughs, the milk cow stanchion, the rebuilt tractor and the sacks of protein supplement to a steep set of wooden stairs....