NEWS ROUNDUP

Private land conservation booms in US Look out development sprawl, the land trusts are coming. Each year the US loses about 2 million acres of open space, farms, and forest to development. But now the tables are turning. Rather than see local green space and rugged outdoor areas gobbled up by strip malls or subdivisions, private land owners are increasingly preserving it. Out on the east fork of New Mexico's Gila River, the endangered Gila trout is getting help from adjacent landowners who are setting aside 48,000 acres in several land trusts to protect its habitat by preventing development. At the same time, on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, 206 properties totaling more than 38,000 acres of fragile estuary habitat for migratory birds and marine life, like the short nose sturgeon, have been permanently set aside using legal tools like land trusts and conservation easements. It's all part of a huge new boom in conservation of private lands in which landowners voluntarily give up rights to develop their land - often in return for tax breaks, but also to save rugged landscapes they love. Private land set aside for conservation grew 54 percent from 24 million acres to 37 million acres- an area larger than New England - between 2000 and 2005, according to a recent study by the Land Trust Alliance, a Washington-based umbrella group of local, state, and national land conservation groups....
Tiniest of 'towns' fall to sprawl On the edge of a landscape where buffalo used to roam and deer and antelope still play, another native of the Great Plains is digging in. Black-tailed prairie dogs are trying to expand their "towns" of underground burrows. Years of chronic drought have forced colonies of the rodents to seek more food and better habitat. But spreading suburbs often block the way. The result is conflict over whether to kill the pudgy invaders or to relocate them back to the prairie. The 15-inch-long diggers are cuddly cuties to animal lovers, but ranchers and developers view them as disease-bearing pests. The prairie dog also is vital to the survival of America's native grassland ecosystems. The endangered black-footed ferret lives in its burrows and preys solely on the rodent. Scores of other species, from the swift fox and burrowing owl to spiders, rattlesnakes and hawks, rely on prairie dogs for food, shelter or habitat. Colorado's growing metropolitan corridor east of the Rockies was once habitat for millions of prairie dogs. Now it is home to 2.5 million people. So when prairie dogs venture from remaining colonies, they usually trespass into subdivisions, parks and schools, office parks and vacant land meant for new homes and shopping centers....
Bush signs Valle Vidal bill President Bush has signed into law a measure that will protect the environmentally fragile Valle Vidal in northern New Mexico from energy and mineral development. The president signed the measure on Tuesday banning energy or mineral development on the 101,794 acres that make up the Carson National Forest's Valle Vidal Unit. There currently are no oil and gas leases or producing wells on the Valle Vidal. El Paso Exploration and Production Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Houston-based El Paso Corp., asked the national forest administrators in 2002 to open 40 percent of the area for coal-bed methane production. The new law scuttles the drilling proposal and prevents energy companies from leasing in the Valle Vidal in the future....
Taking Lumps over Coal Environmentalists protesting the pollution potential of industrial plants — electric generating stations, cement kilns, whatever — aren’t that unusual these days. So when several Texas environmental groups looked at what they believed could be the tremendous negative impact of a passel of new coal-burning plants that TXU and other Texas utilities are proposing to build, they figured something more than press releases and protest signs was needed. And 11 of them went on a hunger strike. Texas mayors and business groups usually don’t go in for hunger strikes — or for that matter, any kind of public stands against utility plant construction. But the TXU plan to build eight new coal-fired plants, in addition to another three proposed earlier, all within smogging distance of the already hazy Metroplex, brought them up short. In North Texas, where local governments are working hard to bring their region into compliance with air quality standards and avoid EPA sanctions, the plan to add tons more pollutants to their air sounded like a serious problem. So they formed a coalition to also oppose the plan. In fact, those fighting the coal plants now go far beyond the patchouli and granola crowd, to include chambers of commerce, legislators, and ranchers....
Judge: Gov't Broke Law in Grizzly Case The federal government broke the law by not addressing flaws in a study it relied on in allowing maintenance of roads in grizzly bear habitat in parts of Montana, Idaho and Washington, a judge ruled Wednesday. The U.S. Forest Service must conduct a new environmental study because it violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which required them to acknowledge that the research was questioned, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled. Five organizations sued the government in 2004, challenging some decisions by the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service that allow thousands of miles of roads to be maintained in the Kootenai, Lolo, Idaho Panhandle and Colville national forests. The groups contend that about 80 grizzly bears in the area already struggle to survive and that the roads contribute to poaching and mistaken killings. Grizzlies have been under federal protection since 1975....
Judge allows tailored forest management U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula has rejected claims in a lawsuit challenging a forest-management project that followed the 2001 Moose Fire. Molloy’s long-awaited ruling, signed Tuesday, upheld the Flathead National Forest’s use of “site-specific amendments” to road-management standards aimed at securing habitat for grizzly bears. Forest planner Rob Carlin said the ruling is an encouraging success for the forest, because the Flathead has used similar site-specific variances to forest-plan standards on other projects that also face legal challenges. “We’ve been awaiting his decision because we have been following with similar actions on subsequent projects,” Carlin said....
Their old flame: lookout towers For volunteers signing up for lookout duty, fire season begins mid-May in a stale Pasadena classroom sandwiched between a Pilates studio and law offices. They are truck drivers, software consultants, retirees and construction contractors. For two days, they pore through training manuals and brochures produced by the Forest Service, which spends about $2,000 a year on the supplies and maintenance of the towers. Their charge — the 650,000-acre Angeles National Forest — is a mountain range nearly the size of Rhode Island, with dense chaparral in the lowlands and pine and fir groves near the peaks. It forms a boat-shaped buffer between the Mojave Desert and the nation's second most populous metropolis. Lookout towers in Southern California have been around since the late 1800s. During World War II, they served as posts for spotters, who scanned the skies for enemy planes, but by the 1980s many had either burned down or were dismantled. In states such as Washington and Colorado, the Forest Service still employs lookout personnel, but across the country the number of towers has dwindled greatly. About 70 years ago there were 8,000; today there are 2,000. In Southern California, there are no more than 18; only two remain in the Angeles National Forest. Nationwide, volunteers put in hundreds of hours each year on these isolated peaks, refusing to let the remaining towers become anachronisms like the firehouse Dalmatian....
Company proposes tram over Ketchikan forest A company that has built trams in tropical rain forests is considering Ketchikan for a tram in a temperate rain forest. "We like rain forests," said Josef Preschel, chief operating officer of Rain Forest Aerial Trams. "We have operations in tropical rain forests and we think it's an interesting idea to develop our company to temperate rain forests." The company has proposed building a tram from Herring Cove to Fawn Mountain, a distance 200 feet short of a mile. A car would carry eight passengers and a tour guide explaining the history of the area. The proposed tram would start in Rainforest Adventure property south of the city and travel through U.S. Forest Service land to the top of Fawn Mountain, Preschel said. "The view from up there is gorgeous," Dalton said....
Editorial - Cabin permit ordeals could have been avoided There are no shortage of important issues facing the Stanislaus National Forest. Yet forest staff members have found time not only to make almost microscopic inspections of hundreds of cabins at Pinecrest and in summer home tracts, but to offend, irritate and frustrate numerous cabin owners in the process. At issue are U.S. Forest Service permits for 745 cabins, most on the forest's Summit Ranger District. The 20-year permits expire at the end of 2008, and a forest team for more than two years has been inspecting the cabins in minute, almost excruciating detail and documenting its findings with photos. Then the other shoe falls: Cabin owners are sent "compliance letters" detailing changes that must be made if the permits are to be renewed. This is what has steamed the owners, often members of families that have enjoyed the cabins for generations: The letters, they say, typically tick off a series of changes that are illogical, inconsistent, expensive or all three. Owners have been asked to replace screen doors, line driveways with rock, plow under flowerbeds, paint metal stovepipes, remove handicapped ramps, reduce the size of fire rings, repaint walls and more. What's most frustrating for permittees, however, is a complete lack of communication on the Forest Service's part: Calls go unanswered, explanations are not given and dialogue is nonexistent. The agency's compliance letters instead stand as non-negotiable edicts....
46 percent of Wisconsin land covered by trees A ride in the country shows homes popping up like mushrooms all over. It makes you wonder how it can be possible for Wisconsin to currently have 16 million acres of public and private forests which account for 46 percent of the state’s land area. All this, according to a recently completed inventory of the make-up, productivity and health of Wisconsin’s entire forest resource. According to Paul DeLong, Wisconsin’s chief forester and head of the Wisconsin DNR Department of Forestry, these numbers, which have held steady since the last survey in 1996, indicate the state now has more forestland than at any time since the first forest inventory in 1936. In addition, he notes the inventory found tree growth continues to outpace removals due to harvests. This is the sixth time in state history that federal and state foresters have completed a full census of both public and private forests, which is known as the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA)....
Green Vs. 'Green' Local eco-watchdogs fear an upcoming report could lead to more logging of the Mount Hood National Forest and several other public forests. The U.S. Forest Service is studying how close its management practices at six sites, including the 1.1-million-acre acre Mount Hood National Forest and two other public forests in Oregon, come to meeting independent 'green' certification standards. Those green standards are ordinarily sought by owners of private forestland to demonstrate their environmental bona fides. The Forest Service says the goal of its study isn't to have the public forests green-certified. Instead, the Forest Service says it wants to know how closely its current forest management practices come to meeting the green standards. But enviros worry that the assessment of Mount Hood, the coastal Siuslaw National Forest, and Lakeview Federal Stewardship Unit on the Fremont-Winema National Forest in eastern Oregon could ultimately open public forests to more logging under the guise of environmental friendliness....
Mining claims jump in Wyo Soaring metal prices and renewed interest in nuclear power around the world are driving a massive claims rush in the American West, including Wyoming. Some 19,485 metal claims have been staked in recent years in the Cowboy State, most of which are for uranium, according to a new report released this week. A three-month investigation conducted by the Environmental Working Group revealed that mining claims registered with the Bureau of Land Management increased from 220,265 at the end of 2002 to 324,551 in September 2006, a 47 percent increase. Nevada had almost 90,000 new claims, more than any other state, and a 55 percent increase from 2002. Wyoming's 19,485 claims were second and represented a 97 percent increase. The Environmental Working Group said its review covered gold, silver, copper and uranium claims. The organization said uranium mining interests are some of the largest claimholders in Wyoming and six other states -- Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota and Utah. No uranium interests were among the largest Western claimholders when the group last analyzed mining records, in 2004....
Agency now says gate on forest road was never locked A gate on a logging road that a San Francisco man drove down before getting lost and dying of exposure was never locked and was not broken open by vandals as was first thought, authorities said Wednesday. James Kim, 35, was found dead in a mountain creek Dec. 6, two days after his wife and the couple's two daughters were rescued from the car, which had gotten stuck in the snow. The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) previously said that the gate to the logging path off Bear Camp Road should have been locked since Nov. 1 but that someone broke the lock and left the gate open. The bureau reversed itself Wednesday. "We can find no evidence it was ever locked, nor was it vandalized," said Jody Weil, director of public affairs for the BLM's Oregon office in Portland. "What had happened is that our engineer and supervisor had asked his folks to close it and assumed it had gotten done, and it had not gotten locked." Bureau staff members who went to lock the gate could not confirm whether anyone had gone down that road recently, and they did not want to lock anyone in, Weil said....
Tribe, ranch owner amid road-paving battle The bone-rattling 20 miles of washboard dirt road through Joshua tree forests near the end of a 2½-hour trip from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon West gives any tourist pause about continuing the journey. And that stretch of road, just west of the Hualapais' emerging tourist attraction, is at the heart of a legal battle between the tribe and dude-ranch owner Nigel Turner, whose ranch borders part of the road. Without a paved road all the way from U.S. Highway 93 to Grand Canyon West, tribal officials say they will never attract the kind of numbers to make the tourist spot a destination for the masses. And, if the road is paved, Turner says it will destroy the ambiance of his ranch, designed for tourists to get away from it all. The dispute between the tribe and Turner has caught attention of the upper levels of the federal Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, officials from which attended a meeting at Grand Canyon West last week to try to negotiate a settlement. The road-paving project is expected to cost more than $25 million....
Wisconsin DNR: Nine wolves shot and killed during deer hunt Nine wolves were killed during this fall’s deer hunt in Wisconsin, almost double the number of previous seasons and a likely reflection of growing frustration among people who don’t like the animals, the state’s wolf management coordinator said Wednesday. “I suspect some were intentional. I don’t believe that all nine were accidental,” said Adrian Wydeven of the Department of Natural Resources. He also said it’s very likely other wolves were shot and killed but the carcasses haven’t been found. Four of the wolves found had radio collars, and hunters discovered the other five. “Alarming is not the term for it,” Wydeven said. “But it is of concern that we are seeing increased illegal killing occurring.” Decades of bounty hunting wiped out wolves in Wisconsin by the 1950s. But they have migrated back from Minnesota since they were put on the federal endangered species list in the 1970s, and more than 500 now live in northern and central Wisconsin. Some critics believe the DNR’s count of 500 wolves is too low and say the animals are causing problems that have eroded public support for their protection. Last year, wolves killed or injured livestock on 25 farms — triple the number from four years ago. The same number of farms reported livestock losses this year, plus 25 dogs — mostly hounds used to hunt bears, bobcats or coyotes — have been killed, Wydeven said....
Colton nears fly trade-off After 13 years of struggles, the city is close to resolving one of its most vexing problems. City and federal officials are working out details of a plan that would allow development to occur while protecting habitat for the federally endangered Delhi Sands flower-loving fly. "We are as close as we have ever been to the city being able to develop its economy while the fly is conserved," said Assistant City Manager Mark Nuaimi. "I think that's good news for property owners and the environmental community." Since it was declared an endangered species in 1993, the 1.5-inch-long fly has cost the city about $175 million in lost economic development opportunities, officials say. Much of the land in west Colton near Arrowhead Regional Medical Center is habitat for the endangered insect, severely hampering development prospects in the area. "The fly has been a big detriment," Councilman David Toro said. "It's basically had us handcuffed, and we can't do anything with that land."....
Column - Interior Department disregarding science in decisions Political appointees in Washington keep gambling with Colorado's wildlife. Several Colorado wildlife species have been denied Endangered Species Act protection by a Department of Interior that routinely disregards good science to fit its agenda. Our wildlife suffers, private landowners bear a bigger burden to conserve these animals and conscientious government biologists become demoralized and resign when their input is suppressed. Coloradans and Americans deserve better. In adopting the Endangered Species Act, Congress said plainly that protection must be based solely on the best available science. But you wouldn't know that from the Interior Department's behavior, especially in Colorado. Consider the boreal toad. Even the most pristine Colorado mountain lakes haven't spared it from a disease sickening amphibians worldwide. By 1990, toads had disappeared from 83 percent of their historical sites in Colorado, and now only two viable populations remain. Last year, the Interior department refused to protect the toad under the act, claiming ambiguous genetics. The main genetic researcher was stunned: "Based on multiple data sets including genetics, I would say they are a different species," Anna Goebel said in 2005. Gunnison sage grouse scientists also were shocked this spring when Interior officials abruptly decided the grouse were doing fine....
Enviros sue feds over prairie dog ruling Environmental groups are challenging the federal government's decision not to protect the Gunnison's prairie dog under the Endangered Species Act, saying the finding was ordered by a Bush administration appointee based on "junk science." The animal is native to central and northern New Mexico and parts of Colorado, Arizona and Utah. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in February it would not conduct an in-depth review toward listing the animal as threatened or endangered. Wednesday's lawsuit alleges agency biologists were ordered by Julie MacDonald, a civil engineer without training in biology, to reverse their original finding that the listing should be considered. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne....
New publishing rules restrict scientists The Bush administration is clamping down on scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, the latest agency subjected to controls on research that might go against official policy. New rules require screening of all facts and interpretations by agency scientists who study everything from caribou mating to global warming. The rules apply to all scientific papers and other public documents, even minor reports or prepared talks, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Top officials at the Interior Department's scientific arm say the rules only standardize what scientists must do to ensure the quality of their work and give a heads-up to the agency's public relations staff. "This is not about stifling or suppressing our science, or politicizing our science in any way," Barbara Wainman, the agency's director of communications, said Wednesday. "I don't have approval authority. What it was designed to do is to improve our product flow." The new requirements state that the USGS's communications office must be "alerted about information products containing high-visibility topics or topics of a policy-sensitive nature."....
Study bolsters protecting Western jumping mouse A tiny mouse vying for survival in the Rocky Mountains may have gained an upper hand over Western developers. Scientists hired to review contradictory evidence for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded the Preble's meadow jumping mouse is a unique subspecies, limited to parts of the states of Colorado and Wyoming. The study by the Oregon-based Sustainable Ecosystems Institute, obtained Sunday by The Associated Press, would help justify keeping the 3-inch (7.62 centimeters) mouse protected under the Endangered Species Act. The mouse, which uses its 6 inch (15.2 centimeters) tail and strong hind legs to jump a foot and a half in the air(46 centimeters), inhabits grasslands that include prime real estate along Colorado's fast-growing Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Fish and Wildlife is expected to decide by early August whether the mouse should stay on the endangered species list. The decision affects nearly 31,000 acres (12,545 hectares) designated as critical habitat to help the mouse recover....
Language Aimed at Protecting Endangered Species Soon to Appear on Pesticide Labels Product labels for pesticides the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believes may affect federally listed threatened and endangered species or their critical habitat will soon contain generic language referring pest management professionals (PMPs) and other pesticide applicators to an EPA Web site or toll-free number to obtain geographically specific Endangered Species Protection Bulletins that will contain enforceable use limitations. Bulletins will be county or parish specific. The initiative, the Endangered Species Protection Program (ESPP), requires PMPs and other applicators to, when directed by the label, visit the EPA website or call the toll free number to see if the county Bulletin contains information relevant to their use. Even if the information contained in the county Bulletin is not relevant to the intended use of the pesticide, PMPs and other applicators must still copy or download the county Bulletin. Bulletins will be good for six months, at which time applicators will need to revisit the Web site (or call the toll free number) to again obtain the county Bulletin. EPA has stated that pesticides bearing label directions only for use indoors, and where the applied product remains indoors, will not be subject to ESPP....
Pit bulls decimate sheep flock at Delta College An early December pit bull attack on a flock of sheep at San Joaquin Delta College's Manteca Farm left more than half of the animals injured or dead. Of 60 ewes and lambs used in the college's animal science programs, 34 were injured. Eight later died. Animals that sustained the most severe head and neck injuries had to be immediately destroyed. Others died naturally, and some bred ewes later aborted. The loss - which may total as much as $4,000 if the animals' future productivity is considered - is being treated by faculty and students as an educational experience in predator management and animal care. At about 7 a.m. on Dec. 1, students who were feeding animals at the farm at 5298 Brunswick Road discovered two pit bulls attacking sheep in a fenced pasture. An unidentified student took a rifle from a gun safe at the farm and shot one pit bull, which wore no tags that would link the dog with an owner. The other pit bull ran away....
Court nixes Neb. corporate farm ban A federal appeals court Wednesday declared Nebraska's 25-year-old corporate farming ban unconstitutional, dealing it a potentially crippling blow. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the ban, considered the toughest of its kind in the country, violated interstate commerce. "This ruling by the 8th Circuit has effectively put Nebraska's farms and ranches on a level playing field, with the same opportunities as those in other states," said attorney David Bracht, who helped build the plaintiffs' case. The ban is a constitutional amendment passed by Nebraska voters in 1982. It generally prohibits corporations and certain other business entities from owning farmland or engaging in agricultural activity, although there are numerous exceptions. Its defenders fear that without it, Nebraska agriculture could be infiltrated by out-of-state corporate interests at the expense of family farms. The court challenge stemmed from a lawsuit filed by ranchers who argued that the ban prevented them from setting up corporations to keep their operations within their family or from combining resources with neighbors to control costs. In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a decision declaring South Dakota's ban on corporate farming unconstitutional. That ruling, also from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said South Dakota's Amendment E was unconstitutional because it interfered with interstate commerce....
It’s The Pitts: Background Check If people’s stomachs continue to become more sensitive here’s what a typical restaurant menu might look like in a few years. Appetizers: Buffalo Wings- No buffalo were harmed in the making of this dish. Mountain Oysters- Guaranteed to include no factory-farmed oysters. Breakfast: Eggs- These eggs were produced according to compassionate standards and have been certified by the NBA, NFL, NAACP and NASCAR to come from cage-free, organically raised, free-roaming chickens from a stable home environment. Ham- The pork was produced by a Duroc sow, Identification number 35459834625. (We have no idea where your busboy came from.) The sow, who everyone affectionately referred to as Sally, led a long and healthy life, died of natural causes and was harvested in a somber, stress-free, non-denominational environment....