NEWS ROUNDUP

37 Endangered Tortoises Move to N.M. Deep in burrows in southern New Mexico, the only genetically pure bolson tortoises in the United States are waiting out the winter. Thirty-seven of the endangered creatures, the largest tortoises found in North America at up to 18 inches long, came to New Mexico this year from a ranch in Arizona. Most are at Ted Turner's Armendaris Ranch near Truth or Consequences. "We work to recover endangered species on all our properties in the United States," ranch manager Tom Waddell said. "It's just another one on the list, but it is exciting and fun." Turner's ranches in New Mexico also are home to endangered Mexican gray wolves, black-footed ferrets and aplomado falcons. The bolson tortoises are believed to have been in the Southwest for thousands of years but were discovered by scientists only in the late 1950s in Mexico. "They're kind of prehistoric," Waddell said. "It's kind of like finding a dinosaur." There are 26 adult tortoises in a pair of 8-acre pens at the Armendaris and four tortoises at the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park in Carlsbad. And additional seven young tortoises that hatched this summer are at Turner's Ladder Ranch, also near T or C. Bolson tortoises once were found in New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma, as well as in Mexico. The only ones left in the wild now are a small population in the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico....
Column - Losing to the Greens "I've never seen industry so deathly afraid of the current politics surrounding climate change policy," a Bush administration environmental official told me. With good reason. As Democrats take control of Congress, once-firm opposition to the green lobby's campaign of imposing carbon emission controls is weak. Panicky captains of industry have themselves largely to blame for failing to respond to the environmentalists' well-financed propaganda operation. One government official says "industry appears utterly helpless and utterly clueless as to how to respond." But the Bush administration itself is a house divided, with support for greens and severe carbon regulation inside the Department of Energy rampant, reaching up to the secretary himself. None of this necessarily means climate change will become law during the next two years, with President Bush wielding his veto pen if any bill escapes the Senate's gridlock. Rep. John Dingell of Detroit, reassuming chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee after a dozen years' absence, will try to protect the automotive industry from Draconian regulation. But over the long term, industry is losing to the greens....
After Long Struggle, Whooping Crane Population Hits Milestone One of the most beloved groups of winter Texans is back, in the largest number in a century and with a record 45 youngsters in tow, including an even rarer seven pairs of twins. They flew 2,400 miles from Canada's Northwest Territories and can be seen munching on blue crabs and bright red-orange wolfberries among the marshes of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The whooping crane, the tallest bird in North America, whose numbers dwindled to fewer than 20 in 1941, is not only back from the brink of extinction but also thriving -- a comeback story, federal wildlife officials say, that illustrates how a coordinated conservation effort can save a species....
Schwarzenegger Remakes Himself as Environmentalist Arnold Schwarzenegger is not the type of guy you would necessarily associate with tree hugging. When he bought a Hummer in the early 1990s, it kicked off a nationwide craze for the gas-guzzling behemoths. His lighter-fluid-dowsed action flicks and protein-packed chest bespoke more of American excess than environmentalism, more violence than vegan. But as governor of California, Schwarzenegger has engaged in a savvy makeover, befitting a Hollywood star. He retooled one of his four Hummers to run on alternative fuels and is quickly fashioning himself into one of the most aggressively pro-environment governors in a state known for leading the nation on that issue. This year he signed the nation's first environmental law of its kind, committing the state to lowering its greenhouse gas production to 1990 levels by 2020 and setting up an international program that provides manufacturers with incentives to lower carbon emissions, which is supposed to begin by 2012. He has vowed to fight any attempt to drill for oil off California's coast. And now Schwarzenegger, a Republican, wants to use his star power to turn global warming into an issue in the 2008 presidential election. "There is a whole new movement because of the change of people sent to Washington," Schwarzenegger said in an interview this week, referring to the Democratic Party's impending takeover of Congress. "We want to put the spotlight on this issue in America. It has to become a debate in the presidential election. It has to become an issue."....
Disappearing world: Global warming claims tropical island Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true. As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities. Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented....
Polar Bears Proposed for U.S. Endangered Species List The U.S. government today proposed listing polar bears as threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act because the animals' sea ice habitat is melting. "Polar bears are one of nature's ultimate survivors," Department of the Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne told reporters today at a press conference. "They are able to live and thrive in one of the world's harshest environments. But there's concern that their habitat may literally be melting." The Endangered Species Act requires federal agencies to ensure that all activities the government approves will not harm listed species or their habitats. Environmental groups quickly connected the announcement with scientific evidence that climate change is melting the iconic bear's Arctic habitat, causing the animals to go hungry and give birth less often....
Tour shows participants why environmentalists value Red Desert Gay, like many in the group, fears the peace of Wyoming's isolated ecosystems if the Red Desert is opened to natural gas development, a move currently being mulled over by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The proposed action would result in at least 255 gas wells in the scenic Jack Morrow Hills within the Red Desert in south central Wyoming, according to the watchdog group Friends of the Red Desert, which co-sponsored the Nov. 11 tour. Hundreds more wells could go in throughout the 8-million-acre Red Desert, group officials said. The Red Desert is home to petroglyphs and other American Indian artifacts, outlaw trails (the area was once used as a hideout for Butch Cassidy), and herds of wild horses, elk and antelope. Friends of the Red Desert currently is pushing for a National Conservation Area-status for the northern portion of the desert, which includes the Jack Morrow Hills. In all, about 650,000 acres would be set aside. The group said such designation would protect the area from mineral development, ensuring its wildlife and culturally and geographically significant sites would remain intact....
Editorial - It's the Forest Service, not fire department An audit completed late last month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General hammers the Forest Service for burning money in the way it fights forest fires. Although auditors conclude the agency wastes money through poor cost containment and by fighting fires that might actually do more good than harm by thinning overgrown forests, much of the high cost of firefighting comes from protecting private property, not the national forests. Indeed, depending on the degree of development, between 50 percent and 95 percent of the cost of firefighting may be attributable to protecting homes and other structures on private property, the auditors found. That's not altogether surprising to anyone here in Montana or elsewhere in the West, where every summer we see the Forest Service pulling out all the stops to protect lives and structures - small armies of men and women on the ground, helicopters and bombers aloft, huge fleets of vehicles and a massive organization providing logistical support. When smoke's rising, virtually no one questions expenditures aimed at protecting private property - unless it's to complain they're insufficient. Obviously, people and their property need protection from fire. The question is whether that should be the Forest Service's job. Moreover, we should also consider whether all of us might do more to protect ourselves from forest fires, most of all by making better decisions about where and how we develop property. People who are smart enough not to build in flood plains and avalanche chutes and steep, slide-prone hillsides are all too willing to build their houses in densely forested settings where wildfire is more dependably predictable than floods, avalanches and mudslides....
Simpson still pushing for Idaho wilderness bill U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson says he will take a picture of every acre of public land that his Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill would transfer to Custer County to convince Democrats in Congress that the federal government is not giving away pristine national forest. "This is sagebrush desert," Simpson, R-Idaho, told the Idaho Falls Post-Register. Simpson said some House Democrats, including the incoming chairman of the influential House Resources Committee, Nick Rahall of West Virginia, have been persuaded by "all the bull that's going on" to oppose the wilderness bill. Last year, opponents of Simpson's Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act bought advertisements depicting the 3,600 acres to be transferred as pristine wilderness rather than harsh desert terrain. With Democrats taking control of the House and Senate, Simpson will have to sway a new set of congressional leaders. Some Democrats, including Rahall, have pledged to defeat the bill because of provisions that would give public land to Custer County and other localities in exchange for 312,000 acres of new wilderness in the surrounding Boulder-White Cloud Mountains. If the land exchange were eliminated, the entire bill likely would fail, said Rick Johnson, executive director of the Idaho Conservation League....
Ag chief accepts Idaho roadless plan Idaho's proposed management plan for 9.3 million acres of federal roadless areas within national forests was accepted by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns on Friday and now will move forward in the process of becoming a federal rule. The procedural action came a day after the Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory Committee recommended Johanns accept the petition submitted by Idaho Gov. Jim Risch. The plan Risch put forward last month limits development of 3.1 million acres — even more than protections in a 2001 Clinton administration rule. The plan would allow temporary road-building on another 5.5 million acres, only to the extent that it had already been allowed by Clinton officials to boost forest health. Another 500,000 acres would be opened to logging and road building....
Ranchers point to coyote predation Sportsmen blame a lack of harvestable deer in southeastern North Dakota on coyotes at the same time area ranchers report seeing coyotes close to their homes and blame them for herd predation. One area rancher even switched livestock varieties after losing about 10 percent of his lambs to coyotes. While wildlife experts say coyote numbers are not necessarily increasing in this area, ranchers aren't too sure about this revelation. Tam Griepentrog had a cow calving early a few years ago. He knew the calf wouldn’t make it and watched the cow struggle to birth her calf. The cow was in a bad spot in the pasture so he chose to move her closer to the yard. By the time he got to his cow, coyotes had eaten the dead calf’s ear and tongue, while the calf was still in the cow. It is a common occurrence to see coyotes in the middle of his pasture looking for an opportunity at a newborn calf. The laboring cow is too busy pushing a calf to worry about coyotes, but the rest of the cows chase the predators off, usually, Griepentrog said....
FDA Set to OK Food From Cloned Animals The government has decided that food from cloned animals is safe to eat and does not require special labeling. The Food and Drug Administration planned to brief industry groups in advance of an announcement Thursday morning. The FDA indicated it would approve cloned livestock in a scientific journal article published online earlier this month. Consumer groups say labels are a must, because surveys have shown people to be uncomfortable with the idea of cloned livestock. However, FDA concluded that cloned animals are "virtually indistinguishable" from conventional livestock and that no identification is needed to judge their safety for the food supply....
Rancher's 15 minutes of fame, a decade later If Oakdale rancher Bill Fogarty wonders what he looked like 10 years ago, he needs only to drop by the local RadioShack store. When you enter the store, there's a display for Cingular, a cellular phone company. The photo in the display is of a 40-something cowboy standing in front of a horse and holding the reins. That cowboy is Fogarty. What makes this interesting is that the 40-something cowboy is now a 50-something cowboy. The photo was taken a decade ago, yet is now on Cingular displays throughout the state. Fogarty stands out clearly. The horse is mostly blocked by other elements of the display. Here's the back story: About 10 years ago, a photography crew came to Oakdale looking for someone to help them do a photo shoot with a Western theme. They somehow met Lynn Ferreira, who is Fogarty's cousin, who put them in contact with Fogarty. He is a rancher whose great-grandfather homesteaded the family ranch east of Oakdale in 1873, according to Fogarty's sister, Janet Medina....
Capitol's last cowboys ride on Politics is a lot like ranching. It's just the art of herding people instead of cattle. Throughout its 94-year history, Arizona has had so many rancher politicians (more than 120 in all) that, at one point, critics took to calling the state's government the "Cowboy Legislature." But like so much of the state's rural roots, that era is coming to an end. Sen. Jake Flake and his lifelong friend Rep. Jack Brown, with a combined 22 years in elected office, are the last active ranchers in the Arizona Legislature. Just as Arizona has drifted away from the "Five C's" emblazoned on the state seal (cattle, cotton, copper, citrus and climate) to more of a service, manufacturing and knowledge economy, political power long ago shifted to the urban areas surrounding Phoenix and Tucson. "These guys are a symbol of the Old West that many of us want to hold on to," Arizona historian Jack August said. "They represent a way of life that all of us want to keep in our hopes and dreams. A part of our intellectual warehouse as Arizonans includes a guy on a horse rounding up cattle in the fall." As ranchers leave the Legislature, Arizona loses ties to its rural roots Much of Arizona's political zeitgeist, from a barebones state government and local control of schools to fierce protection of private property, water and gun rights, is rooted in its cowboy past....
Saddle Saga Someone has said, "the institution is the shadow of the man." The Visalia Stock Saddle Company is the progressive living shadow of three men of three generations: Dave E. Walker, its founder, Edmund Walker Weeks, his nephew and successor, and Leland B. Bergen, the latter's stepson and present owner and manager. In this series of "Saddle Saga," we would seek to bring to you tales of events and men of the three periods of the cattle business which coincide with the seventy-year era already served by the Visalia Stock Saddle Company. From 1519, when Cortez brought with him to Mexico the Spanish saddles-not so very different from those used by the knights in medieval Europe-not a single improvement of note was made to add to the comfort or practicability of saddles until in 1868 when there came into an obscure harness and saddlery shop in Hornitos, near Visalia, California, one of these crude saddles for repair. These old Mexican-type saddles were cumbersome atrocities in most cases, and could be almost depended upon to cause sores on the horses' backs. The tree itself was really little more than a wooden frame, rawhide covered, while over all was thrown the loose-fitting leather cover called the mochilla. The stirrup leathers had no fenders or rasderos, so of necessity the rider wore leather leggings to protect himself. For 350 years then the knights of the American cattle range, from Mexico north, endured this discomfort until the day Ricardo Mattley determined to improve upon the Mexican saddle brought to his humble shop for repair....
It's All Trew: 'Old-time sayings' pique readers' interests On a regular basis I receive responses about my columns and questions about old-time sayings and terms. Some are familiar and others I have never heard before. Here are a few samples that I found interesting. The term "give them the whole nine yards" was explained recently. It seems in WWI, the old water-cooled machine guns fired bullets attached to a belt unfolding from an ammo box holding 27 feet of loaded belting. Since twenty-seven feet is nine yards, when the enemy attacked they said, "Give them the whole nine-yards." My article about "kissing-kin" being distant kin on which you could legally practice your kissing skills generated several responses. Some believe you can be kissing kin and not be blood related. Others said a "kissing cousin" was far enough removed from being kin that marriage to them was permitted. For example, a seventh cousin might be fair prey....
It’s The Pitts: In Truck Years You can’t talk for ten minutes with a rancher without him comparing the cost of calves and cars. “I can remember when it only took twenty calves to buy a new pickup. Now it takes a hundred,” or so they’ll say. My response is that fellow ought to either buy a cheaper truck or a better bull. We haven’t made near the improvement in our calves as Detroit has with trucks. They are highly polished, tough, slick, bold and formidable. And that’s just the salesman... you should see the trucks. Three doors or four, short bed or long, bucket seats and back seats. And enough toys to please the most discriminating grown-up child. If we had made as much improvement with our cattle the last twenty years as they have with pickups our calves would dress and deliver themselves. In a moment of weakness I actually considered buying a new truck. My cowboy carriage was made in 1985 but in dog years that’s 147 years old! (It’s a well known fact that dogs and ranch trucks age seven years for every human year.) My old truck burns more oil than it does gas and when I asked the wrecker if the truck was worth anything to haul away he wanted to know how much gas was in the tank. I guess at three bucks a gallon it makes a big difference in the blue book price for a truck as old as mine....