NEWS ROUNDUP

Wolves killing sheep, cattle by the dozens near Council Sheep and cattle ranchers in the Council area say wolves have killed dozens of sheep and several cattle. These ranchers say its been going on for a while now and they fear wolves could put them out of business. Alvin Yantis' family has ranched in Council for more than a century. He has about 180 head of cattle that graze on 50,000 acres of Council Mountain. But a pack of wolves have killed several of his cows and nine calves. A neighboring sheep rancher, Ron Shurtz, has had more than 100 sheep killed. Yantis says if it continues, wolves could wipe them all out of business. “So, we're looking at this winter if they come in and they, you know, they got into Ronnie's sheep and killed over 100 head in one night. If they do that to your cows, you're out of business in one night,” said Yantis. This morning he takes us to an unusual sight - a herd of 50 to 60 elk are grazing just outside of town. Normally they would be up in the hills, but Yantis says wolves on Council Mountain are keeping them away....
Case against arson-murder suspect called `overwhelming' A 36-year-old auto mechanic from Beaumont was charged Thursday with arson and five counts of murder for allegedly setting last week's Esperanza fire, which killed five U.S. Forest Service firefighters and destroyed 34 homes in a remote mountain area of Riverside County. Convicted felon Raymond Lee Oyler has been in custody since Tuesday, when authorities arrested him on suspicion of setting two smaller blazes in June and announced that he was a "person of interest" in the fatal arson fire. If convicted, Oyler could face the death penalty. Authorities provided little information about what led them to Oyler. Prosecutors said they found "a consistency" to the string of fires set in the San Gorgonio Pass from early June through October....
Defense fund started for commanders A federal firefighters group has started a legal defense fund to protect the rights of fire commanders likely to be questioned in several investigations into the deaths of five U.S. Forest Service firefighters in the Esperanza Fire. Casey Judd, business manager for the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association, said the advocacy group is advising firefighters to avoid answering questions in the federal inquiry. "It's not a question of wrongdoing" by any firefighters during the Esperanza Fire, Judd said. "We want to make sure that each of them is able to exercise their constitutional rights." Judd said a federal law passed after the fatal July 2001 Thirtymile Fire in Washington exposes fire commanders to criminal prosecution. It directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture's inspector general to investigate how and why firefighters died. In addition to the USDA inspector general, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the Esperanza Fire because federal employees died on the job. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection also has a joint internal inquiry with the U.S. Forest Service....
The Power of Fire For those who live in or near areas heavily susceptible to burning, it is devastating, destructively menacing, but as natural as the wind, rain or clouds. In fact, the cyclical process, which for Southern California once included naturally caused fires every 20 to 50 years, has been so slowed and subverted by humanity that the perilous danger of fire has grown exponentially. Non-native grasses originally dropped off the boots of Spanish explorers have thrived, crowding out indigenous vegetation and creating new cycles of fire and re-growth that further constrict native plants and exacerbate the danger of fire. For the past 100 years, fire suppression has been the norm in forestry; only recently have controlled burns and natural fire progression become recognized as the best way to manage the resources of public forest lands. Many of the nation's forests are congested with excess growth, which for more than a century has allowed incredible amounts of combustible fuel to accumulate....
Judge asked to undo Bush's forest rules Environmentalists asked a federal judge Wednesday to overturn the Bush administration's rules for managing the country's 155 national forests, arguing that the regulations illegally weaken protections for wilderness and wildlife. Lawyers for the environmentalists told U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton that the rules do not include the safeguards for endangered wildlife and forests that federal law requires. The rules allowed forest management plans to be revised without environmental studies and repealed a requirement for forests to maintain "viable" populations of native wildlife. They also argued that the administration failed to study adequately the environmental impact of changing forest management practices and did not give the public enough opportunity to comment on the revisions....
Jousting about windmills A gathering of people in Jacksboro on Monday might go down in the books as an early skirmish in a looming battle that could pit neighbor against neighbor and play out in courtrooms across the region. The issue is wind. International companies are scouting the plains and hills, looking for places to put towering turbines to harness the power of wind and convert it into electricity. Several area communities have called town hall meetings to discuss the implications. Some landowners embrace the giants as an alternative to dwindling oil supplies - and a source of new revenue from land leases. Others oppose them as noisy, ugly behemoths that will decrease the value of the land rather than decrease dependence on fossil fuel. Dan Stephenson is one Jack County rancher who fears the coming of the windmills....
Collision course? Wyoming remains embroiled in multiple legal and philosophical discussions about what are the true beneficial uses of water produced in association with coal-bed methane -- one of Wyoming's main economic engines. Two state entities are involved in coming up with answers to the question, but there's some disagreement about whether they are working with or against each other. The Coalbed Natural Gas Water Use Task Force, formed in February, is a 15-member board of legislators, industry and agriculture representatives. The group meets today in Douglas to discuss, among other things, the beneficial uses of coal-bed methane water. At the same time, the state Environmental Quality Council is considering the same question. The citizen-appointee council, which regularly reviews the rules and regulations of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, is proceeding with a rules that could more sharply define "beneficial use" as it applies to DEQ's authority over coal-bed methane water management....
Numbers Boost Sought for Prairie Chicken Panhandle rancher Jim Bill Anderson has for years been helping to keep the rare lesser prairie chicken from a federal wildlife watch list. Now he's hoping other Texans follow his lead after the signing Thursday in Austin of an agreement between officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The agreement calls for participating landowners to control brush, manage grazing and conduct planned burns to build and maintain the bird's habitat of low shrub and grasslands. That natural landscape has shrunk through various land uses. "We have the habitat they like and maintain it, and they flourish," said Anderson, who opens up some of his thousands of acres to bird-watchers each year. "I'm glad they're doing it." Landowners who have a wildlife management plan in place already or are willing to develop one can join the conservation effort. They also would avoid further restrictions if the lesser prairie chicken moves from candidate status to threatened or endangered on the federal Endangered Species List....
Public blasts Army plans to expand training site Ranchers, high school students and biologists Wednesday condemned the Army's plans to expand operations at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeastern Colorado. Sam Johnson, an ecologist from Colorado Springs, said the study claimed that there was no baseline data available on the land, vegetation and wildlife, so no impact could be estimated. "There are 300 species of plants, 250 species of birds, not to mention invertebrates," he said. "It's like saying I'm going to hit the motherboard of a computer with a hammer and it will still work." "This is a prelude to the expansion," said Kennie German, of Model. "When they started the maneuver site, they said they would never use live fire. We're getting used to getting lied to."....
National Wildlife Refuge Funding Cut By 10 Percent The Bush administration has ordered a 10 percent across-the-board cutback in funding for the National Wildlife Refuge System, leaving dozens of refuges without any assigned staff, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER. The Refuge System, a part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will see declining budgets through 2011 under the Bush plan, despite significant increases in the number of refuges, visitors and an array of other costs, according to PEER, a national association of government employees in natural resources agencies. PEER says that since Congress has yet to act on the Fish and Wildlife Service budget for FY 2007, the Bush administration is implementing the cuts without waiting for Congressional approval. Each of the seven Fish and Wildlife Service regional offices across the country is now planning to absorb the budget cuts....
Conservationists to sue U.S. over status of Ariz. bald eagles Arizona conservationists will go another round with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concerning Arizona bald eagles and whether they deserve special protection under the Endangered Species Act. This time the fight may go to the federal courts. The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society filed a notice of intent to sue Fish and Wildlife on Thursday for rejecting a petition by the conservationists to list desert nesting bald eagles - most live in Arizona - as a "distinct population segment." The classification would qualify Arizona eagles for endangered-species protection if bald eagles lose it nationally, as expected. In August, Fish and Wildlife denied the petition, ruling that threats to the desert eagle, such as the impact of Arizona's population boom and declining rivers, couldn't be scientifically assessed and that desert eagles aren't distinct, despite their thicker eggshells, earlier breeding season and smaller size....
Bush Appointee Said to Reject Advice on Endangered Species A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has rejected staff scientists' recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act at least six times in the past three years, documents show. In addition, staff complaints that their scientific findings were frequently overruled or disparaged at the behest of landowners or industry have led the agency's inspector general to look into the role of Julie MacDonald, who has been deputy assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks since 2004, in decisions on protecting endangered species. The documents show that MacDonald has repeatedly refused to go along with staff reports concluding that species such as the white-tailed prairie dog and the Gunnison sage grouse are at risk of extinction. Career officials and scientists urged the department to identify the species as either threatened or endangered. Overall, President Bush's appointees have added far fewer species to the protected list than did the administrations of either Bill Clinton or George H.W. Bush, according to the advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity. As of now, the administration has listed 56 species under the Endangered Species Act, for a rate of about 10 a year. Under Clinton, officials listed 512 species, or 64 a year, and under George H.W. Bush, the department listed 234, or 59 a year....
Environmentalists Attack Richard Pombo One of the few real conservative heroes in the current Congress, Rep. Richard Pombo of California, is in danger of being defeated for re-election because of an all-out assault by left-wing environmental groups and the moneyed elite who support environmental zealotry. Polls now show him tied with the Democratic opponent he defeated in 2004 by 61% to 38%. It's not just the anti-Republican wave that threatens Pombo. The big environmental pressure groups have made him their top, almost their only, target. Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund opened a fully staffed office in his Northern California district (which includes farming areas in the San Joaquin Valley south of Sacramento and outlying suburbs east of San Francisco Bay) last spring. By the end of September, they had already spent more than half-a-million dollars and planned to spend hundreds of thousands more before Election Day. Americans for Conservation, a 527 independent expenditure committee set up earlier this year and controlled by Defenders of Wildlife, reported in its most recent filing that it had made media buys of $500,000, all of it aimed at defeating Pombo. The group lists only eight donors, who include an heir to the Getty Oil fortune, an heir to the Hewlett-Packard computer fortune, and an investment partner of the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.)....
Overzealous enforcement does the law no favors Perhaps nothing is more infuriating to Americans than the unreasonable enforcement of reasonable laws, particularly laws dealing with protection of the environment. Just ask Cuong Ly of Freeport or Johanna Tutone of Camden, a couple of otherwise law-abiding restaurateurs who have felt the full force of the law, one for displaying exotic fish and the other an old stuffed bird in their respective establishments. Their stories have been widely reported nationally -- even internationally -- because of the perception of unnecessarily narrow interpretation and ham-fisted enforcement of the laws they broke. The aims of laws in question are perfectly defensible. It was the manner of enforcement -- and perhaps the way the stories were reported -- that attracted a negative public reaction. Much was made last summer of the fact that state fish and wildlife wardens were armed when they showed up at the China Rose, Ly's restaurant, to remove 10 large koi from a tank in the lobby where they had been quietly entertaining customers for 15 years. It didn't help that Ly complained to reporters that the incident brought back unpleasant memories of his earlier life under communist rule....
Cow Pies Power Ethanol Future Cows’ farts have long been a contributor to global warming; now their manure could be part of the solution. Two biofuel companies this week announced they are building ethanol plants powered by cow manure. Panda Ethanol on Wednesday said its plant, near Muleshoe, Texas, will produce 100 million gallons per year once it’s completed in about 18 months. E3 Biofuels said Monday it is building a 25-million-gallon ethanol refinery in Mead, Nebraska that will begin production in December. How to extract energy from poop? The facility will gasify more than 1 billion pounds of the stuff each year, generating steam used to fuel the ethanol-manufacturing process. The Muleshoe plant will be Panda’s fourth cow-pie-powered ethanol project, and will be tied with the company’s Hereford, Texas plant as the largest biomass-fueled ethanol plant in the United States, according to a press statement. It will also be one of the most fuel-efficient ethanol refineries in the nation, the company said....
Supercow and pigs that glow at night - an average day on the GM farm Channel 4 is to unveil a shocking menagerie of genetically modified animals in a new show revealing the frightening leaps technology has taken. Among the bizarre engineered creatures from around the world is a giant cow, three times the size of ordinary cattle, reared without fat to produce gallons of milk. But the so-called Belgian Blue - pictured here - is perhaps the least disturbing of the creatures to be shown in the three-part series Channel 4 Farm this winter. There are also glow-inthedark pigs and goats which produce spider's silk. TV scientist Olivia Judson and journalist Giles Coren travel the world to visit the places where these animals are now being reared....