Thursday, September 07, 2006

House Votes to Prohibit the Slaughtering of Horses for Food

The House voted to ban slaughtering horses for meat, a decision that would halt the export of the animals to dinner plates abroad. The chamber voted 263-146 to approve legislation barring anyone from sending horses to American or foreign slaughterhouses that process the animals for human consumption in Europe and Asia. The legislation's supporters said it would shut down a grim trade unworthy of an animal many Americans consider a companion and icon of the American West. ``Horses are part of our identity and heritage,'' said Representative Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat. ``Yet the merchants of slaughter will have us believe that is fine and dandy to slaughter our horses for the sole purpose, the sole purpose, of sending their flesh overseas to support some warped demand among foreign diners for horse meat.'' The proposal's critics, which include the Department of Agriculture, said the slaughterhouses provide an affordable, humane and regulated way of disposing of unwanted horses. The vote sends the measure to the Senate, where lawmakers haven't said whether they will take up the legislation....
Wolf that attacked 6 tests negative for rabies A lone black wolf that attacked six people, including several young children, in a provincial park over the long weekend has tested negative for rabies, the Algoma Health Unit said Wednesday. The remains of the wolf, which has been blamed for several separate attacks Monday at the popular Katherine's Cove beach on Lake Superior, was tested for rabies and other diseases after it was shot by park staff. The wolf had suffered a broken clavicle and tooth when it was shot following the attacks, which may explain its abnormal behaviour, said health unit inspector Bob Frattini. “Wolves work in packs and not individually, and it was probably ostracized,” Mr. Frattini said. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency plans to conduct further testing on the wolf's body to try and find other possible causes for the attacks, which left several families injured and badly shaken....
Farmers vs. the Wolves - Wisconsin The Grey Wolf population continues to grow in Wisconsin. That's good news for the wolves but bad news for farmers where new packs have been forming at the edge of the northern forest and closer to farm areas in Douglas and Bayfield Counties. According to the DNR's Adrian Wydeven, the wolves are killing farm animals. Four farms hit this month alone. That's about the same as last year but last year the DNR had permission to kill problem wolves. This year a federal judge ruled they can't kill any more after an animal rights group claimed it violated the Endangered Species Act. Farmers have to resort to trap and release, flashing lights, noisemakers and other things that will scare off the wolves. Wydeven says it al helps but is not very effective. The Grey Wolf may come off the endangered list in 2007 well before the judge's ruling can be successfully appealed.
Wolf Attacks Trigger DNR Warning for Bear Hunters - Wisconsin During the Bear-Dog Training Season, which was in July and August, 13 of the dogs were killed by wolves. Now DNR wardens are pointing out warning areas, including parts of Sawyer, Rusk, and Taylor counties. "On occasion, bears will enter a rendezvous area where the wolves have pups and frequently, wolves will kill the dogs," said Dave Weitz of the Department of Natural Resources. Wardens say it doesn't seem to make a bit of difference what breed the dog is, and that it's virtually always a bear hunting dog that falls victim to the wolves. A hunter from Durand has seen four dogs lost among his hunting group in a day, and says bear dogs are at risk no matter where they are for the hunt. "Personally, in the next couple years, I think you'll see a human get killed by them," said Corey Delong. "If it was up to me, I'd eliminate the problem by shooting some of them." Right now, a court decision has left Wisconsin wolves in a federally endangered status, so the D.N.R can't control them until they're de-listed, and that's expected to happen late this year or into next....
Wolf kills of hunting dogs up markedly - Wisconsin It's a given that hunting dogs might get hurt in pursuit of a bear. Three hundred pounds of cornered prey is nothing to mess with. But now, Wisconsin's hunt-by-hound tradition is colliding with a recent population growth of another wild animal: wolves. And they are taking a toll. As federally protected pack populations expand in established hunting areas, fatal run-ins between wild wolves and domestic dogs are increasing. In the 1980s, there was one reported wolf attack on a hunting dog. In the '90s, there were 24. This decade, there have been 71. Hunters are getting fed up. "When there was 100 wolves in the state, we didn't have much of a problem with depredation," said David Withers of Bayfield. "Now there's 500 wolves, and they're everywhere, and they're causing problems." This year, the state licensed more than 4,000 people to hunt bears — by baiting or with hounds — during the September to October season. Thirteen wolf attacks have occurred already this year and took place during a two-month summer training period, when dogs can chase bears, but hunters can't shoot....
CASE SUMMARY

OUACHITA WATCH LEAGUE V. JACOBS
11th Circuit

Holding that majority of plaintiffs' claims, that U.S. Forest Service's changes to certain forest plans failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, were not ripe for review is reversed as construction of ripeness doctrine used does not apply in NEPA suits.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/11th/0514461p.pdf
NEWS ROUNDUP

U.S. Oil Reserves Get a Big Boost An oil discovery by Chevron Corp. has bolstered prospects that petroleum companies will be able to tap giant reserves that lie far beneath the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Oil analysts and company executives said newly released test results from a well 175 miles off the coast of Louisiana indicate that the oil industry will be able to recover well more than 3 billion barrels, and perhaps as much as 15 billion barrels, of oil from a geological area known as the lower tertiary trend, making it the biggest addition to U.S. petroleum reserves in decades. The upper end of the estimate could boost U.S. reserves by 50 percent. "This looks to be the biggest discovery in the United States in a generation, really since the discovery of Prudhoe Bay 38 years ago," said Daniel Yergin, chairman of the consulting firm Cambridge Energy Research Associates Inc. "There's been a lot of anticipation about what's called the Wilcox formation, and this is the validation of the theory and of the technology," he said, using another name for the area of the Gulf. Cambridge Energy forecasts that the deep-water area of the Gulf of Mexico will produce 800,000 barrels of oil a day within seven years and account for 11 percent of U.S. oil production. That would not solve the world's energy problem or eliminate U.S. reliance on oil imports, but it would help stabilize U.S. oil production, which has been declining, and cover some of the world's rising demand for petroleum. Prudhoe Bay, in northern Alaska, produced about 1.5 million barrels a day at its peak....
Environmentalists win round against U.S. Forest Service The federal appeals court in Atlanta ruled Tuesday the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations have a dog in the fight against the U.S. Forest Service concerning policy changes that deal with logging and road building in national forests. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the environmental groups have standing in the suit and that a U.S. district judge must hear their arguments in the 5-year-old case. The Sierra Club had argued that the Forest Service had changed its policies concerning environmental impact surveys after logging in national forests in North Georgia was stopped by the courts in 1999. Before the change in policy, the Forest Service was required to analyze the effect of each logging and road building project on "proposed, endangered, threatened and sensitive species or PETS." After the change, Forest Service officials argued they didn't necessarily have to perform an analysis on each project if they believe they can protect a species without one. They argued they could rely on existing data to make decisions. The suit relates to the Southern Region, an area with 12.6 million acres in 13 states....
Male Bass Across Region Found to Be Bearing Eggs Abnormally developed fish, possessing both male and female characteristics, have been discovered in the Potomac River in the District and in tributaries across the region, federal scientists say -- raising alarms that the river is tainted by pollution that drives hormone systems haywire. The fish, smallmouth and largemouth bass, are naturally males but for some reason are developing immature eggs inside their sex organs. Their discovery at such widely spread sites, including one just upstream from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, seems to show that the Potomac's problem with "intersex" fish extends far beyond the West Virginia stream where they were first found in 2003. The cause of the abnormalities is unknown, but scientists suspect a class of waterborne contaminants that can confuse animals' growth and reproductive systems. These pollutants are poorly understood, however, leaving many observers with questions about what the problems in fish mean for the Potomac and the millions of people who take their tap water from it....
Wolf Attacks Five People If you were confronted by a wolf would you turn and run? The Ministry of Natural Resources says that's actually the worst thing you could do. The Ministry is stressing the importance of animal safety to local residents and research scientist Brent Patterson listed several tips that could get you out of a dangerous situation with a wolf. Patterson says the idea that wolves are more afraid of us then we are of them is not always the case. He says the top things you should do when in close contact with a wolf is make lots of noise and make eye contact. He says people should never turn and run away from a wolf because there is a good chance the animal will chase you. He says wolf attacks are not very common, however all animals are unpredictable. Park officials shot and killed a wolf that attacked five people in a provincial park near Wawa on the holiday weekend. They do not know what prompted the lone wolf to attack. The wolf struck in Katherine's Cove, a popular tourist spot on Lake Superior along the Trans Canada highway. None of the victims were seriously injured, but they were taken to a hospital in Wawa for treatment. The animal's carcass will be examined in Sault Ste. Marie.
When a wolf strikes, it's no picnic Brenda Wright says she and her two children had just eaten their turkey sandwiches and settled onto their beach towels when the horror began. Her son, Casey, 12, noticed a black, doglike animal running across the Northern Ontario beach where the family was enjoying the last day of summer vacation. In a sudden and unrelenting attack, the animal ripped into Casey's buttock, tore his mother's hands and leg, and bloodied his 14-year-old sister's scalp, lunging after the family of six as they fled screaming into Lake Superior. "I was trying to fight him off and he grabbed my finger. I thought he pulled it off. ... Honest to God, it looks like hamburger meat," Wright said Tuesday from her mother's home in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Wright's family was not the only one to face the wolf. The attacks by one Canis lupus ended with the animal dead and several people, including a 3-year-old girl, bloodied, torn and terrified. For Jerry and Rachel Talbot, it started at around 4 p.m. The Wawa, Ontario, couple, on their way to a wedding with granddaughters Leah, 3, and Madison, 5, pulled off the highway for a quick swim at a popular day picnic area in Lake Superior Provincial Park. According to park staff, more than a dozen others were enjoying the end of the Labor Day weekend at Katherine's Cove when the Talbot family wandered onto the beach and began to remove their shoes. Jerry Talbot noticed a black animal chasing a girl across the sand. Too slow for the girl, the animal veered off and grabbed a slower, smaller target: Leah....
Montana Firefighters Battling With Bees Firefighters battling a wildfire that has blackened nearly 290 square miles and burned 26 homes faced a new challenge, authorities said Wednesday: bees. The blaze that started with lightning on Aug. 22 has forced hundreds to evacuate. After being grounded by smoke for a day, firefighting helicopters returned to work Wednesday, pouring water on the fire that was 45 percent contained. Bee stings among firefighters have surged to as many as 50 a day, information officer Joan Dickerson said. Some of those stung required medical attention. "We've had a couple of our leaders taken to the hospital," she said, but added that she had no explanation for the surge in stings....
Feds plan pine beetle attack After getting a look at insect-infested forests in the Rockies, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and other federal officials unveiled a plan Tuesday to make it easier for all levels of government to more quickly attack the bark-beetle epidemic in the West. The plan, which the Bush administration plans to send to Congress this week, would change the way the federal government approves and administers contracts so that logging and other work to fight wildfire threats and tree-killing bugs can be carried out more easily across various government jurisdictions. "If we don't find a way to work better together on these boundaries, we're all going to pay the price in the long run," Bosworth said in a news conference in a state building across the street from the Colorado Capitol. Bosworth referred to a flight he, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey and Interior Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett took earlier in the day over central and northern Colorado. He said wide swaths of beetle-infested forests stand out as splotches of brown and rust-colored dying trees....
Pot farms ravaging park land The discovery of 22,740 marijuana plants growing in and around Point Reyes National Seashore last week wasn't only the biggest pot seizure ever made in Marin County. It was an environmental mess that will take several months and tens of thousands of dollars to clean up. The crops seized on the steep hillsides overlooking Highway 1 were planted by sophisticated growers who cleared vegetation, terraced land, drew water from streams through miles of irrigation hoses and doused acres of land with hundreds of pounds of fertilizer and pesticides. Such operations are turning up in greater numbers within state and national parks throughout California. Federal officials estimate the state produces half of all the marijuana seized on public lands nationwide....
Editorial - Will Sequoias survive? An especially disturbing target is the Sequoia National Monument, created in 2000 by President Bill Clinton. The monument -- next to the national park of the same name -- hosts half of the surviving big trees. Some are 3,000 years old and 30 feet around. The monument designation was intended to safeguard these rough-barked skyscrapers and the surrounding forests. Incredibly, the Bush team has picked apart wording in the monument designation to produce an excuse for timber cuts. The argument is that forest health requires clearing small trees up to 30 inches in diameter to remove fire hazards. In reality, though, this plan is plain-and-simple logging. Yes, small trees that pose a fire danger will be removed, but doing so includes cutting trees up to 300 years old. The timber business in the south Sierra is all but through -- only one major mill remains -- so why continue it with plans that could harm the last stands of sequoias? Fortunately, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco halted the federal plan. He called the tree-cutting arguments "decidedly incomprehensible,'' mainly because the federal agency neglected required scientific studies. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and environmental groups challenged the plan last year....Isn't it interesting that the Feds would push hard for timber harvesting in national monuments, while at the same time they are eliminating livestock grazing from national monuments. One has to wonder why the Bush administration is so supportive of industry -- except for livestock grazing.
Forest Service promoted man who lit major fire On a breezy, hot September day in Utah in the midst of the 2003 drought, Forest Service District Ranger Bill Ott started a million-dollar-plus fire. He was the burn boss on a prescribed burn meant to clear out scrub oak brush on 600 acres. But Ott also lit the fire in an area that wasn't supposed to burn at all, according to a review of the fire, interviews and published reports. The flames took off. They quickly consumed nearly 8,000 acres of the Uinta National Forest. The Cascade II fire filled the skies of Salt Lake City with a thick blanket of smoke. More than 500 firefighters and a dozen aircraft assaulted the flames. Since then, Ott has been promoted to assistant director of fire operations for the Rocky Mountain region of the Forest Service. That makes him second in command for fires in a five-state region. Ott's current boss, regional forester Rick Cables in Denver, said he did not know of Ott's role in the Cascade II fire when he was promoted....And yet, still some wonder why so many folks have lost faith in the Forest Service to manage anything, much less millions of acres.
'Innovative' Roan plan to be released today Bureau of Land Management officials are slated to unveil what they're calling an "innovative" final plan for managing the controversial Roan Plateau today, two years after a draft plan called for opening up the vast mesa north of Rifle to drilling for natural gas. Observers expect the final plan to do the same, worrying environmentalists, outfitters and several nearby communities who have sought to keep wells off the top of the plateau. Representatives of the gas industry have called on opening the area to drilling, eyeing what they believe to be a vast supply of natural gas deep below. "It would surprise me to see it go any other way," said Rifle Mayor Keith Lambert, whose town joined every other community in Garfield County to oppose drilling on top of the plateau. Details of the plan will be released at a 10:30 a.m. press conference in Battlement Mesa, near the western flank of the plateau. BLM officials have signaled that the final plan could look quite different from the draft plan, including a number of changes suggested by state wildlife officials who feared the draft plan would endanger wildlife....
Biologist Accused of Destroying Plants To prosecutors, Robert "Roy" van de Hoek is a vandal with pruning shears. To supporters of native California shrubs and trees, he's a martyr. Once again, he's in court. The Los Angeles City Attorney's office says the former park supervisor cut down non-native plants in one of the largest coastal wetlands in Southern California, killing a ficus tree and myoporum shrubs. He is facing six misdemeanor charges that include injuring vegetation without permission. Each count could bring jail time and thousands of dollars in fines. Van de Hoek arrived for an arraignment last week looking ill at ease in a borrowed navy blazer that hung limply on his gangly frame. He also brought attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr., famous for defending Michael Jackson against molestation charges brought by what he cast as overzealous prosecutors....
Survey finds high number of blue butterflies A survey showing higher-than-expected numbers of a unique Nevada butterfly has revived a debate over whether it needs protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Some experts now conclude the listing of the Sand Mountain blue butterfly may not be necessary. But conservationists say the listing is the only way to save the butterfly from extinction. It's only found at Sand Mountain near Fallon, whose huge sand dunes are popular among off-road vehicle enthusiasts. Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to conduct a year-long review of whether the butterfly should be protected under the Endangered Species Act....
Washington County Endorses Controversial Land Sale ST. GEORGE County commissioners endorsed a proposed land deal that would nearly double the size of this fast-growing city by auctioning nearly 38 square miles of federal land to private developers. Commissioners signed a resolution Tuesday, supporting the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006, a bill sponsored by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. “We consider it an extremely important piece of legislation ... for our future,” said Jim Eardley, chairman of the Washington County Commission. The bill offers wilderness protection for 343 square miles, although half of that already is protected inside Zion National Park and many other areas already are managed by federal agencies as potential wilderness. The bill also would expand a preserve for the threatened desert tortoise....
Biologists are seeking answers As natural-gas development makes a steady march across the Powder River Basin northwest of here, sage grouse are suffering, and now there's data to prove it. Preliminary results from a doctoral thesis by Brett Walker of the University of Montana show that sage grouse abandon breeding grounds that are near natural-gas wells and pumping stations and flock to leks that are outside the edges of development. "Inside the natural-gas fields, sage grouse leks are 25 percent of what they were (before development)," Walker said last week to a roomful of professional wildlife managers and biologists. Walker's research project was one of many discussed at a meeting of The Wildlife Society on the University of Wyoming campus. Walker's research, which he conducts with fellow graduate students Kevin Doherty and Dave Naugle, focuses on the Powder River Basin that stretches from north central Wyoming into Montana. Their preliminary findings show that the outlook for sage grouse there is grim unless researchers and industry can find alternative methods of gas extraction that disturb the habitat less than current techniques. Between 1989 and 2005, the overall population of sage grouse dropped 84 percent, Walker said....
Counties Can't Unilaterally Seize Control Over National Park Trails, Federal Court Rules A federal court has ruled that Utah counties do not own routes within national parks, national monuments and wilderness study areas merely because they say so. In 2005, Kane County Utah adopted an ordinance that opened hundreds of miles of routes to dirt bikes, all terrain vehicles and other off-highway vehicles (OHVs). In so doing, the county claimed as its own every hiking trail within county borders in Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. The county ordinance also opened to OHVs scores of routes within the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that the federal Bureau of Land Management had closed in order to protect fragile desert landscapes from the scarring and disturbance that can accompanying OHV use. The August 24 ruling was a victory for The Wilderness Society and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, represented by Earthjustice attorneys as well as former Earthjustice attorney Robert Wiygul and attorneys at SUWA. The Wilderness Society and SUWA sued the county for violating the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause which says U.S laws take precedence over conflicting local ordinances on federal land. Kane County tried to get the case tossed out of court, in part, on the grounds that the county already owned rights-of-way to the routes under an arcane 1866 law known as R.S. 2477. But federal district court Judge Tena Campbell, ruled that the county's mere claim of ownership of rights-of-way was meaningless unless backed up with proof that the routes meet the test set out in the 19th Century law, something Kane County has so far refused to offer....
Local oil and gas production A balancing act Area oil and gas producers, legislators, environmentalists and residents agree the industry must protect the environment as it drills new wells. But their opinions about what regulations are necessary and how they affect business differ. Micky O'Hare owns Maralex Resources Inc., which drills and operates wells in Colorado and New Mexico. He said the U.S. energy crisis could be solved within five years if the government backed off on its regulations and allowed the industry to develop the country's resources. He added the oil and gas industry has made a strong effort to minimize its environmental impacts and does not need a watchdog on its shoulders. But many say that state enforcement, while good, is not the problem. Jeremy Vesbach, director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, said the federal government needs to do more to protect the land. Instead, he said it's created exemptions that increase drilling and ignore environmental damages that harm ground and surface water....
Probe launched into public lands management The Interior Department's inspector general has launched an investigation into environmentalists' complaints that the Bureau of Land Management promised to rig oil and gas leasing to benefit Utah counties and oil companies. Inspector General Earl Devaney notified Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., that he had opened an inquiry in a letter sent last week. Hinchey had requested the investigation based on a memo from Robert Weidner, a lobbyist for several Utah counties, to his county officials expressing enthusiasm for the interim Utah BLM director's promise to work to "reduce restrictions on access to public land." The July 18 meeting was attended by BLM Deputy Director Jim Hughes, interim BLM State Director Henri Bisson, county officials and representatives from each of the 10 major oil and gas companies operating in Utah. Bisson has since been replaced as Utah state director by former BLM chief of staff Selma Sierra. Hinchey and several environmental groups complained the BLM was making commitments in closed-door meetings to - as Weidner put it - "fix" resource management plans....
Whistleblower Vindicated in Federal Law Judge Decision A federal administrative law judge has ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) illegally fired one of its employees for blowing the whistle on environmental and worker safety hazards at an abandoned Nevada copper mine. Earle Dixon, who was hired by BLM in October 2003 to manage the cleanup of hazardous materials at the Anaconda Mine near Yerington, Nev., filed a complaint with the Department of Labor after BLM dismissed him on Oct. 5, 2004. When an OSHA regional administrator determined BLM had legitimate business reasons for firing Dixon, Dixon filed an appeal with the Department of Labor's Office of Administrative Law Judges. Dixon argued that BLM terminated him because he voiced concerns that the Anaconda Mine cleanup efforts were not being conducted in compliance with environmental laws such as the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Dixon also claimed that he clashed with BLM and other parties involved in the mine cleanup because Dixon believed BLM safety and health policies were being ignored, putting workers at risk of exposure to radiological hazards. Administrative Law Judge Richard Malamphy, who presided over a 3-day hearing in February in Reno, Nev., ruled Aug. 31 that BLM fired Dixon in retaliation for his whistleblowing activities. Malamphy ordered BLM to award Dixon back pay as well as $10,000 in moving expenses. The judge also ordered BLM to provide Dixon "a favorable or at least a neutral job reference."....
Burning Man flames out without major incidents Thousands of celebrants danced, hugged and cheered as the annual Burning Man counterculture festival climaxed with the traditional torching of its namesake object on the northern Nevada desert. Accompanied by a spectacular fireworks show, the 40-foot-tall wooden figure known as "The Man" went up in flames Saturday night and tumbled to the Black Rock Desert, 110 miles north of Reno. The eclectic art festival was to end its weeklong run Monday after the burning of more artwork Sunday night, including the "Belgian Waffle," the "`Temple of Lights" and the "Temple of Hope." Organizers bill the festival as "an annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance." "I like the idea of temporary art," Marissa Long-Peak, 23, of Portland, Ore., told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "There is something a lot more unique about destroying something you create." No major problems were reported by authorities. The crowd peaked at 39,100 at midnight Friday, up 6.6 percent over last year, said Jamie Thompson, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The event is held on public land managed by the agency....
Fans of Jedediah Smith to hold Fall Rendezvous Fans of 19th-century trapper and explorer Jedediah Smith will converge in Redding this weekend to celebrate his 1828 trek across what would become southwest Shasta County. The Sacramento-based Jedediah Smith Society will hold its annual Fall Rendezvous Friday through Sunday. The public is invited to an hourlong presentation on the frontier fur trade by Yreka author Alex Miller at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Shasta College Museum, near the campus' south entrance. Miller wrote the two-volume "Chronology of the American Fur Trade." For more information, call 225-4754. The Jedediah Smith Society has 220 members, said its executive director Haworth Clover, 73, a Sacramento historian and author. He expects about 30 members to attend the Redding rendezvous, a word used in the 19th century to describe remote gatherings of trappers -- and sometimes Indians -- where furs were traded, supplies procured, liquor consumed and games played....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Airplanes becoming akin to cattle trucks We were sitting in the Los Angeles airport waiting for a flight, just watching the local fauna when Will observed the striking similarities between airports and feedlots. We were in a seating area, confined in a controllable number; penned, one might say. Once our area was full, another group was started. Some pens were calm. Others had bullers, crypt orchids, cell phone shouters, whiners or unruly children, which kept their lot stirred up and trying to jump the fence. On a signal from the gate attendant, the group was pushed into a crowding pen and sorted into smaller bunches to be loaded in the front deck, the belly and the tail and pushed down an alley, up the loading chute and into the airplane. "It's all about turnover," Will said....

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

RODEO ACTION NEEDED TODAY

From: Linda Burdick
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 12:23 PM
To: Friends of Rodeo Contacts
Subject: Rodeo Action Needed TODAY


Your input is needed NOW! Please take a moment to read the alert below and follow the directions -- you can and will make a difference, so do it! This is, as Sheila says, "your last chance"! And, pass this alert on to everyone and anyone who will get involved, but you must do it TODAY! -- Thanks in advance, Linda

----- Original Message -----
From: Longhorn Rodeo
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 8:54 AM
Subject: Fwd: Rodeo Action Needed TODAY


LAST CHANCE.

Your congressman is voting tomorrow on the Horse Protection Act to prohibit the slaughter of equines for human consumption and for other purposes.

Please register a NO vote at his Washington office at this link:

http://capwiz.com/naiatrust/issues/alert/?alertid=8888026&type=ML

It is quick and easy to send a message. By putting in your name and address, the message automatically goes to the correct legislator. You can compose your own message or click on suggested paragraphs, but be brief. They have heard all the arguments. All he or she needs to know is you want a NO vote on HR 503.

Many congressman have signed on in support of this bill. Animal rights organizations are pushing hard for passage (I received a telephone call from HSUS wanting to patch me through to my congressman's office to ask for his support.)

If you are wavering on this issue, please go to the link above and read the reasons why it is not a good bill. Please do it today. Pass this message on to anyone who will follow through. If you have already asked your congressman to vote No, do it one more time.

Thank you.

Sheila Lehrke
IPRA Animal Issues Coordinator

Please pass this on to interested parties:

Action Needed on proposed federal bills to prohibit horse slaughter:

H.R.503
Title: To amend the Horse Protection Act to prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Sweeney, John E. [NY-20] (introduced 2/1/2005)
Cosponsors over 100

S 1915
To amend the Horse Protection Act to prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen. Ensign of NV, cosponsors (15)

H.R. 503 Update:

Hearings were held in July in the House Ag Committee and in a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill was discharged without a vote from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Energy & Commerce Chairman Joe Barton spoke out against the bill and subcommittee Chair Cliff Stearns was very evenhanded in his talk of the bill and the problems with it.

Nearly all of the members of the House Ag Committee Chaired by Rep. Robert Goodlatte were opposed to the bill and voted to report the bill out UNFAVORABLY in a vote of 37 - 3. All members either spoke adamantly against the bill or did not speak. Amendments were also added to the bill proposing the government reimburse horse owners who were going to sell their horse for processing and that the federal government be financially responsible for the unwanted horses. It is widely held that the amendments will be pulled by the rules committee before a floor vote is held, but at least the committee sent a message.

THE WHEELS ARE TURNING TO GET THIS BILL TO THE FLOOR FOR A VOTE RIGHT AFTER LABOR DAY; therefore, IMMEDIATE ACTION IS NEEDED.

Action Needed:

1. CALL, EMAIL, FAX, AND MEET WITH YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPS. This is the only way to make a difference at this time. Every individual who has concerns about this bill must speak up NOW or it will be too late. In depth information has already been provided to legislators; all you need to do is let them know you oppose the bills.

They will be on break in August, an excellent time to contact their district office or drop by and express your opinion.

2. See if your Rep. or Senator is a cosponsor. Go to www.thomas.gov and put in HR 503 and click on bill summary/status and cosponsors. If they are a cosponsor, ask them to reconsider. If they are not a sponsor, thank them and ask them to not cosponsor and to vote No on the bill.

3. Spread the word. Grassroots is the only way to win this, and the other side has been more effective to date on grassroots.

This is a very easy way to contact your legislator. It takes all the effort out of composing a message:

To send an email go to the National Animal Interest Alliance's Capwiz and follow the easy instructions. By putting in your address, the proper people are contacted. You may select any of their suggested comments or compose your own message, or combine your message with points on the site.
House expected to vote this week on horse-slaughter ban

Reconvening this week after a month away, the House of Representatives faces a list of issues, including immigration and the budget. Its first priority will be horses. The House is expected to vote on just one bill this week: legislation that would ban the butchering of horses for human consumption. The visceral issue pits animal- rights activists, horse racing associations and celebrities, including Willie Nelson and Bo Derek, against the agricultural industry, the largest veterinarian association and many equine groups. Each side argues it's concerned about the most humane way to treat the icon of the American West. The vote is expected to be close, with more than 200 lawmakers already signing on in support of the ban, and both sides close to claiming victory. "We're very optimistic about what our prospects are going to be," said Brent Dolen, spokesman for Rep. Edward Whitfield, R-Ky., sponsor of the bill. "We're cautiously optimistic we're going to defeat the legislation," said meat-industry lobbyist Charles Stenholm, a former Texas congressman who heads the coalition fighting the measure....
The Westerner will return tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

GAO

Nuclear Waste: DOE's Efforts to Protect the Columbia River from Contamination Could Be Further Strengthened. GAO-06-1018, August 28.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-1018

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d061018high.pdf
NEWS ROUNDUP

Montana wildfire still spreading An enormous wildfire that has prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people continued to spread Monday, though winds didn't kick up as much as firefighters had feared, a Forest Service official said. "We're still working on this thing on all fronts," said Dixie Dees, a fire information officer. The fire, in south-central Montana, has burned 26 homes and is classified as the nation's No. 1 firefighting priority. It has spread across 180,000 acres, or more than 280 square miles, since lightning sparked it on Aug. 22. It was only about 20 percent contained, authorities said. The fire is not following the typical pattern: growing more active in the afternoon, then calming as darkness falls, Dies said. "We'll probably have an active fire until midnight or so before it quiets down," she said. About 265 homes were evacuated in just a few hours Sunday night on the western flank of the fast-moving blaze, said Kelly O'Connell, Sweetgrass County disaster and emergency services coordinator. Fire officials feared that wind and higher temperatures this week would create extreme fire conditions....
Dalidio takes property fight on the road For more than a decade, Ernie Dalidio and his ranch west of town have been bywords in and around San Luis Obispo, and the rancher’s development proposals have dominated the city’s politics for most of the 21st century. Now Dalidio, through an initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot, is taking his shopping center proposal on the road. He is asking voters throughout the county, from San Miguel to Nipomo, from Shandon to Oceano, to take a stand on his proposed shopping center, known as the Dalidio Ranch initiative and labeled Measure J on the ballot. But why should voters countywide care? For Dalidio’s chief spokesman, that one is easy: They should care because Ernie Dalidio has gotten a raw deal over the years. "I don’t think it’s about shopping," says Dave Cox of Barnett Cox & Associates, Dalidio’s public relations firm. "It’s about what’s fair and not fair," Cox said. "It’s about right and wrong. That’s the bottom line." Cox notes that Dalidio has been trying for 17 years to put some sort of shopping center on his property south of Madonna Road and west of Highway 101....
Coaxing oil from huge U.S. shale deposits Underneath the high, scrub-covered rangeland of northwest Colorado is the world's biggest oil field. Getting the oil out of the ground, however, is one of the world's biggest headaches. The area's deposits of oil shale are believed to be larger than all the oil reserves of the Middle East. But past attempts to get at this oil locked in tarry rock have cost billions of dollars and raised the prospect of strip-mining large areas of the Rocky Mountain West. Now, as the federal government makes another push to develop oil shale, Shell and other companies say they have developed techniques that may extract this treasure with much less environmental impact. Shell's project is stunningly complex. Instead of strip-mining the rock and then processing it, Shell plans to superheat huge underground areas for several years, gradually percolating oil out of the stone and pumping it to the surface. Years of testing still lie ahead. Shell's heating process risks polluting local water supplies, and the enormous amounts of electricity needed would require construction of the West's largest power plants. But even opponents say the new technology might just succeed....
Rule delisting wolves in Idaho, Montana imminent? A rule to lift federal Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves in most of Idaho and Montana but not Wyoming could be made public by winter, state and federal officials say. The ruling would help clear the way for controlled hunts of the predators that have thrived in the northern Rocky Mountains since their 1995 reintroduction. Wyoming, unlike Montana and Idaho, hasn't won approval for its management plan. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't agree its plan is adequate to keep wolves from going extinct again. Under the ESA, all three states normally would have to have such plans, before protections are lifted. Still, there's concern Wyoming's plan will be tied up in court for years. As a result, the U.S. Interior Department, led by Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, is "seriously considering" alternatives suggested last year by Kempthorne while he was Idaho governor, and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, "that would reward states that are doing good jobs at management and have plans in place," said Ed Bangs, Fish and Wildlife's gray wolf recovery coordinator in Helena, Mont....
Wild horses, gentler men: Inmates break horses, learn about selves Mike Buchanan can look into the eyes of a horse and tell what's in a man's soul. Was the man abused or was he the abuser? Did he betray the trust of a young child with his sexual urges or did he betray himself through drug addiction? On this day, standing in the August-baked dust, he begins to read the men who line the fence of a round pen. His tool is a wild horse that bolts into the ring, its eyes wide with the unknown, its entire frame girded for possible danger. Buchanan, a weathered horseman and rancher of 37-plus years, falls silent and lets the horse do the talking. The animal canters the ring's perimeter, eyeing each of the nine convicts as it passes. When the horse finally "settles" on an inmate, it pauses in front of Roy Davis, letting out a snort, twitching its ears. "He'll pick out the most aggressive of the bunch," Buchanan whispers. "He'll stop right in front of 'em and say, 'Bring it on."'....
Rancher donates 10,000 acres for conservation easement In a major boost to preservation of the pristine tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and The Nature Conservancy on Friday announced the donation of a conservation easement encompassing 10,000 acres. The donation from Bill and Maggie Haw is part of an ongoing effort to put 70,000 acres of the prairie into conservation easements within three years. The donation Friday brings conservation easements to date in the Flint Hills to 15,000 acres, said Alan Pollom, state director of The Nature Conservancy. Four other unnamed landowners have also contributed. Another donation of 1,760 acres is expected in two or three months, he said. The group has concentrated its efforts to preserving views along the Kansas Turnpike from south Emporia to Cassoday, Pollom said....
Capt. Clark's signature restored on possibly 4 occasions Beneath the signature of William Clark etched into the sandstone at Pompeys Pillar National Monument, an interpretive sign explains the significance of the artifact. It reads: "The ground on which Clark stood has weathered away but his signature has not. Because of this remaining physical evidence, the site is one of the few places along the entire Lewis and Clark Trail where you can be assured of standing in the footsteps of William Clark and other members of the Expedition." No one is likely to challenge the second part of that statement, since Clark wrote in his journal on July 25, 1806, that he carved his name and date on the "remarkable rock." The first sentence, however, is not entirely true. Capt. Clark's signature is clear and easily legible now, but only because it has been restored and deepened - or possibly re-created - on at least two occasions, and possibly three or four....
Texas Farms and Ranches Done In by Mean Drought
The effects of a long, stubborn drought are everywhere here: in the parched, wasted fields and the bony cows nosing the dirt for nonexistent grass; in the cracks splitting stone-hard earth and the worried faces of farmers running out of savings, and options. "It's sad when you see what's going on all around you," said Windy Watkins, a feed-store manager. "This has been the lives of so many for so long, and now it's gone. It's heartbreaking." Canton, a rural cattle- and sweet-potato-producing area 60 miles east of Dallas, is hardly alone in its misery. From Florida to Arizona and north through the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin, drought has wiped out summer crops and forced ranchers to sell cattle they can no longer afford to feed. Crop and livestock losses have reached a record $4.1 billion in Texas alone this year, nearly double the $2.1-billion mark set in 1998, according to Texas Cooperative Extension economists. The projected loss for rural businesses that provide equipment and services to Texas farmers and ranchers is an additional $3.9 billion. "It's as bad as it gets," said Texas A&M University agronomist Travis Miller....
Ranchers decry grass-fed beef rule plan
Meat-eaters usually assume a grass-fed steak came from cattle contentedly grazing for most of their lives on lush pastures, not crowded into feedlots. If the government has its way, the grass-fed label could be used to sell beef that didn't roam the range and ate more than just grass. The Agriculture Department has proposed a standard for grass-fed meat that doesn't say animals need pasture and that broadly defines grass to include things like leftovers from harvested crops. Critics say the proposal is so loose that it would let more conventional ranchers slap a grass-fed label on their beef, too. "In the eye of the consumer, grass-fed is tied to open pasture-raised animals, not confinement or feedlot animals," said Patricia Whisnant, a Missouri rancher who heads the American Grassfed Association. "In the consumer's eye, you're going to lose the integrity of what the term 'grass-fed' means."....
It's All Trew: Retired teacher has a lifetime of memories Like the battery-powered rabbit on TV, Aunt Lois Wilkinson Aldrich of Capitan, N.M., just keeps going. At age 97, she has outlived her siblings, a husband and most of her old friends. As a lifetime schoolteacher, she was teaching third-generation students when she finally retired. Though moving at a slower pace now, her mind is sharp, she knows and remembers almost everyone in the Capitan area and she is still an active member in the Lincoln County Republican Women, serving as chaplain of her chapter. Her father worked on a threshing crew, following the harvests through Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. He married the daughter of a South Dakota customer and started his large family. They made the Oklahoma Land Run, settling on property near Alva, Okla....

Sunday, September 03, 2006

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

Rains of Confidence

by Larry Gabriel

A recent headline read, "Rural Confidence Hits Four Year Low." The story was based on a bank's annual survey of Australian farmers. It concluded that drought and rising input costs caused farmers to lose "confidence" that next year will be better.

Among the farmers surveyed, 57 percent expected conditions to get worse in the next 12 months due to drought.

Even though Australia's farmers are on the other side of world and the other side of the equator, they often suffer long-term drought the same time we do. Their drought has been ongoing for the last six years in some areas, just like the drought in the Western United States.

In reading that story, it occurred to me that massive media coverage of drought and its threat to our future may be a greater threat than the drought itself. Discouraging words have an effect.

A farmer or rancher without confidence (I prefer to call it faith) is in deep trouble. Farmers and ranchers depend on a production system that is largely subject to all the whims of nature, whether it be fire, flood, wind or drought. Almost all our products can be lost to nature at any moment, leaving us only with that old familiar saying, "There is always next year."

Maybe that is why farming and ranching are not viewed as ordinary businesses. Maybe no sensible businessman could stand to live with the risks we face. The risk of enormous loss faced every year for the potential of a small or modest profit margin is not the most desirable business model. Yet almost every farmer and rancher does just that.

Isn't it amazing how a little rain can improve attitudes, build confidence, restore faith and press our plans for "next year," even if this one was a disaster? That is an unmeasured value of rain.

August rains came too late for many crops in South Dakota, but those rains restore us as much as they restore the vegetation on which we depend for our livelihoods and on which the nation depends for its food. They were too late for the wheat crop, but just in time for the wheat farmer's faith in the next crop.

It rained a little on the drought area of Queensland a couple of weeks ago, and the news story about the above survey said widespread winter rains in New South Wales improved the confidence of farmers in that state. News of those rains yields some hope of something similar to follow in the middle of America.

Crops and grass cannot grow without adequate water. They need a certain amount of it at the right times to produce. Everyone recognizes that, but few notice the people's need for rain.

For the people of the land, every rain is a blessing that nourishes our belief that things will improve. Rain gives us the faith to invest in next year.

The loss of faith is far more dangerous than drought. When our faith is watered, we believe all will be well, if not now, next year.

Mr. Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture


Code of the West rules needed

By: Julie Carter

The West has long been a frontier to those seeking a romanticized version of it or simply the quiet solitude away from the noise of industrial civilization.

Ours is a nation of immigrants - people who have never been content to stay in one place but always wanting to see what is "over there."

The frontier has been the line separating civilization from wilderness. For hundreds of years in America it has been a fluid line, moving westward as men sought open spaces and new horizons.

In the 19th century, people who were willing to take a chance on the unknown moved to a vast, unsettled land that beckoned to the daring and called to the hardy, courageous folks of pioneer stock.

The call of the wild is the same in the 21st century but comes with new kinds of issues that catch these new pioneers by surprise. That newly purchased 20-acre piece of paradise requires owners to realize they aren't in the suburbs any more.

Poor roads, wildlife damage, water shortages, high utility costs and the threat of wildfires are just a few major items on the list for these new pioneers.

Many city dwellers move into the country and expect to get the same local government services they received in town.

They want the solitude of living in the country but they also want 911 to respond in three minutes to a residence 25 minutes from the nearest emergency station.

It is such a common issue in rural communities across the West that many communities have compiled information into publications to be distributed to prospective property owners.

Some of these booklets are titled "Code of the West" in reference to the Code of the West novel by Zane Grey. The original unwritten code - based on integrity, self-reliance and accountability - guided the men and women who moved into the region during the westward expansion.

Most of the today's "code books" cover water rights, split estates and open range. Many explain why dogs can't run wild and why rural residents often have to haul their own garbage. They warn that roads might not get plowed, cell phone service could be iffy, and emergency response time longer. They also address accepting "ag-related annoyances" that existed long before they moved in.

One example is the 52-page booklet from Sweet Grass County, Montana offering information on everything from fire prevention to noxious weeds to billboards. It gives suggestions for preserving viewsheds and designing homes compatible with the rural landscape.

County commissions and a long list of agencies continue to address complaints and demands from these new pioneers who, one issue at a time, try to turn the West into the East under the guise of their rights as taxpayers.

Those that were already in the West before the new pioneers arrived fight to keep the simple basic lives they led before the onslaught of subdivisions and the pandemic growth of golf courses.

It is America and subject to ongoing change, even in the West.

And those ag-related annoyances? They are someone's livelihood that undoubtedly have become disturbed by the un-ag-related annoyances that just moved a double wide home into the pasture next door.

A "Code of the West" booklet might be the answer for those willing to accept the changes. But for most, I suggest making the covers something tasty and edible. At least they'll find some use for it.

© Julie Carter 2006
OPINION/COMMENTARY


California Focus: Another enviro-scare campaign

Is water vapor is a "pollutant"? Yes, according to the California Climate Action Team Report. Prepared in support of pending state "global warming" legislation, it recommends 45 emission-reduction measures intended to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions toward 1990 levels by 2020. Amazingly, the report fails to tell us the predicted reduction in future temperatures if 1990-level emissions are achieved. So we have done that analysis here. If California were to achieve the carbon-dioxide reductions, the predicted decline in world temperatures in the year 2100 would be thirteen one-thousandths of a degree Celsius. If the entire U.S. were to achieve those reductions, the decline would be sixteen one-hundredths of a degree Celsius. The figure for the 34 most-developed economies would be one-third of one degree Celsius. If we add China, the figure is forty-five one-hundredths of a degree Celsius. Such changes are far too small to matter. The global-warming horror stories in the CCAT report – flooding, fires, heat waves, drought, insects – truly are biblical, but its proposals never would be approved for such tiny effects. Moreover, the CCAT free-lunch claim that the regulations would impose no economic costs is preposterous. The real question is: What does the science actually tell us? A paper published in the journal Science last summer showed that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is losing mass, while the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (three times as large) is gaining mass. Another paper published in Science last fall reported that the ongoing trend for the Greenland ice sheet is an increase of 5.4 centimeter per year, almost all of which is at elevations above 5000 feet. Other research yields different findings because there is great uncertainty about new measurement techniques. But there is no dispute that Greenland was warmer in the 1930s than it is today and was much warmer 1,000 years ago....


'Renewable' Electricity: Creating Jobs and Destroying Wealth


Twenty states have set standards that require utilities to obtain some of their power from "renewable" resources like windmills and solar panels. California wants 20% renewable power by 2017 and New York 24% by 2013. California will succeed by conveniently defining hydroelectric dams as renewable. New York's less inclusive definition gives it 0.2% renewable capacity today. Texas is ahead of schedule in getting to 2,000 megawatts (2% of capacity) by 2009. Ask most people about renewables and you will probably hear about solar power and fuel cells. In reality renewables generate only 2.2% of America's electricity. Thirty years of work on solar power and it still produces only 1% of that 2.2%. California has geothermal resources and Maine has wood chips, but almost everywhere else renewables mean windmills, helped along by substantial federal subsidies. Of course, even if renewables are expensive they might reduce some of the global warming caused by CO2 emitted by fossil-fuel powerplants. There are uncertainties about whether warming will really be bad (think longer growing seasons) but let's assume it actually will get several degrees hotter (choose your own figure). The nations that signed the Kyoto Protocols on global warming agreed to cut their emissions over the future. If each of them made the sacrifices of full compliance (the betting is that few will even come close), the world would end up only a tenth of a degree cooler. And if that big an effort gets no results, state and local government policies can only be empty gestures. Economic activity will shift away from them toward other areas or nations -- remember that China and India are exempt from the agreement....


Katrina Anniversary Highlights Need To End Destructive Subsidies To Coastal Development

As the nation remembers the tragedy of Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, an expert with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) suggests government should heed the lessons of Katrina and end destructive subsidies to coastal development. "What could have been merely a very bad weather event turned into a catastrophic human tragedy due to unwise development," said H. Sterling Burnett, senior fellow with the NCPA. "The government should not foster, let alone finance, development in environmentally-sensitive, highly disaster-prone areas. Yet government is subsidizing, and therefore encouraging, building on coastal wetlands and beaches." Burnett noted that the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' flood control and beach restoration projects subsidize and encourage coastal development by shifting the cost of insurance and physical protection against floods from property owners to taxpayers. From 1928 through 2001, the Corps spent $123 billion (adjusted for inflation) on flood control projects nationwide....


U.S. SUPREME COURT SHOULD ORDER EPA: OBEY SUPERFUND RULES

The U.S. Supreme Court should agree to determine if a federal appellate court violated the national Superfund law when it upheld a multimillion dollar assessment against a company, a public interest law firm urged in a friend of the court brief filed today. Mountain States Legal Foundation, which has appeared often at the Court, advised the Court that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit undermined the clearly express intent of Congress when it ruled in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding Superfund operations in Libby, Montana, as a result of actions by W.R. Grace & Company and its predecessors in the mining, processing, and use of a product later discovered to be hazardous. “When Congress wrote Superfund, it made a distinction between ‘removal’ actions that prevent imminent harm and ‘remedial’ actions and allowed responsible parties to dispute EPA’s action to prevent the EPA from writing itself a blank check,” said William Perry Pendley, president and chief legal officer of Mountain States Legal Foundation. “Given media stories of the waste and abuse perpetrated by FEMA in response to Hurricane Katrina, it makes sense to demand that bureaucrats obey the law and only receive repayment for expenses that are legal, legitimate, and justified.” From the 1920s until 1990, W.R. Grace & Co. and its predecessors mined and processed vermiculite—a mineral containing a type of asbestos called tremolite—at a mine seven miles northeast of Libby, Montana. Processed ore was trucked to screening plants and expansion/export plants from which materials were exported nationwide. Vermiculite was also available for Grace’s employees to take home for their personal use, and Grace donated vermiculite to the local schools. In 1990, Grace ended its Libby operations. In 1999, the EPA began a Superfund investigation, which led to various, massive cleanup and removal efforts. In March 2001, the United States filed suit against Grace for reimbursement of the EPA’s recovery costs. In August 2003, the Montana federal district court ordered Grace to pay $54.53 million, including $11.32 million in indirect costs. On appeal, Grace acknowledged that it was obligated financially for “removal” but was not obligated for “remedial” action or total cleanup because the EPA did not obey required federal safeguards. In December 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected Grace’s appeal....


LESSONS FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA: PUBLIC FOREST MANAGEMENT

Although the forests of British Columbia, Canada, are 96 percent government-owned, the management of the forests is far more market-driven than in the U.S. Forest Service, according to a new report by Alison Berry, a research fellow with the Property and Environment Research Center.

For example:

* The government of the province transfers management responsibilities for most of its forests to the private sector through long-term agreements called tenures, some of which extend for 25 years or more.
* Some of these tenures resemble private property, and provide incentives for reforestation, investment in silviculture and environmental protection.

This experience with secure, long-term tenures offers valuable lessons for the United States, says Berry.

"It would be unnecessary to adopt the British Columbia tenure system as it exists," she explains, "but the United States could use the timber tenure system as a model for creating a more flexible timber program that addresses multiple resources such as recreation." Berry notes that the U.S. Forest Service suffers detrimental effects from its short-term timber sales program. Her new paper also includes case studies illustrating how some British Columbia tenures operate.

Source: Alison Berry, "Lessons from British Columbia: Public Forest Management," Property and Environment Research Center, August 2006.

For text:

http://www.perc.org/perc.php?id=815

For study text:

http://www.perc.org/pdf/pl5.pdf

Friday, September 01, 2006

NEWS ROUNDUP

Idaho rancher suspects wolves after 158 sheep go missing An Idaho rancher said 34 lambs and ewes were killed by wolves and he's missing another 124 sheep he fears also fell victim to the predators. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has authorized federal trappers to shoot two wolves. They're part of a new pack that may be establishing itself in a rugged, mountainous area of spruce and red fir just southeast of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. Rancher Ron Shirts, a 39-year-old Weiser resident, says he began finding dead sheep from his flock of 2,500 starting August 26th. He says, "the killing had to have gone on for a long time."....
Burning Man Turns 20 TWENTY YEARS AGO, a pair of San Francisco bohemians, Larry Harvey and Jerry James, burned a handmade wooden effigy on San Francisco's Baker Beach. That simple gesture, through word of mouth, attracted more participants in following years, and by 1990 the crowds pushed it off the beach and out to the Nevada desert. It developed into a seasonal settlement of 40,000 or so, known as Black Rock City. For one week each year, Burning Man becomes the most quintessentially American city in America. The city, dedicated loosely to art, community and general post-Merry Prankster high jinks, gets built, lived in, and then disappears the week before Labor Day in the Black Rock Desert playa, a dry lake bed 100 miles from the nearest "real" city, Reno. The week of fun ends each year with a giant bonfire of an elaborate, 40-foot-tall wooden man, in a ceremony that means whatever you want it to. Burning Man is like a theme park, but where the customers build the rides. It's like an arts festival, but with no plaques telling you what anything is or who built it. It's like a giant party, but held in a godforsaken wasteland no rational person would ever otherwise choose to be....
Sheriff: Death of man at Burning Man apparently natural causes
A man collapsed and died apparently of natural causes on Tuesday at the Burning Man counterculture festival in the desert about 100 miles north of Reno, authorities said Thursday. The man in his late 30s or early 40s was from out of state. He's been identified but his name has not been released pending notification of family, Pershing County Sheriff Ron Skinner said. "At this time, we believe he died of natural causes," Skinner said. He said the death remains under investigation. Medics responded when the man collapsed at a camp site during daylight on Tuesday but could not resuscitate him and he was pronounced dead at the scene, said JoLynn Worley, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which manages the land that is home to the festival....
Litigation dropped before they go to trial A lawsuit filed in 2005 by a Lincoln County couple who accused U.S. Forest Service officials of negligence after their home burned, is scheduled to be dismissed with prejudice. Albert and Loretta Sanchez sued a year ago after their home was destroyed by The Lookout Fire ignited on the Cibola National Forest at the northern border of the county on May 21, 2004. They valued the ranch house at $338,070. The suit claimed at the time of the incident, the fire danger level was extreme, but the agency failed to properly man a fire lookout in the area or to call in the proper firefighting resources. In a joint motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, the couple and U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, representing the Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture, asked that the suit be dismissed with prejudice....
Mont. wildfire grows; destroys 20 houses A wildfire has burned 20 houses and 15 other buildings and continued to spread in southern Montana, officials said Thursday. The wildfire was about 156,000 acres, or about 244 square miles. Fire officials had issued evacuation orders for about 500 homes in Stillwater and Sweet Grass counties. Two private bridges across the Stillwater River also were destroyed. Authorities said they didn't know when people would be able to return to their homes. Numerous risks remained, including downed power lines and burned trees that could fall at any time. "I know you want to get into your homes," said Stillwater County Undersheriff Woody Claunch. "I want you there, too. But it's my responsibility to keep you safe." Officials were bringing in the National Guard to staff road blocks....
Neglected Vows Cited at BLM The Bureau of Land Management has neglected its public commitments to monitor and limit harm to wildlife and air quality from natural gas drilling in western Wyoming, according to an internal BLM assessment. In the Pinedale, Wyo., field office of the BLM, which oversees one of the most productive and profitable gas fields on public land in the West, there is often "no evaluation, analysis or compiling" of data tracking the environmental consequences of drilling, according to the document, which was written in May and which BLM officials confirm is genuine. The BLM in Pinedale has failed for six years to honor its commitments to track pollution that affects air quality and lake acidification in nearby wilderness areas, the document says. In the years that the agency was not tracking emissions, the level of nitrous oxides in the Pinedale area exceeded limits that the BLM had publicly agreed might have an "adverse impact" on air quality, according to the internal assessment. Nitrous oxides, from gas-field engine exhaust and the burning of waste gas, are a primary cause of the ground-level ozone that has reduced air quality in the high sage plains of western Wyoming, a region that until recently had one of the most pristine airsheds in the West....
US regulators propose new pipeline safety rules U.S. pipeline regulators on Thursday proposed new rules aimed at preventing the kind of runaway corrosion that plagued pipelines at the huge Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska, which are now exempt from oversight. Current U.S. pipeline regulations do not include the 22-mile (35.4 km) line operated by BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) that leaked oil onto the Arctic tundra, spurring a shutdown of about half the capacity of the 400,000 barrel-per-day field, the nation's biggest. That's because low-stress lines like BP's Prudhoe Bay network -- ones that run at less than 20 percent of their rated capacity and are sited away from population centers -- are deemed to be less risky than high-pressure lines. The new proposal would bring new federal oversight over about 1,283 miles (2,064 km) of such lines, including BP's (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) Prudhoe Bay lines. That's about 19 percent of the 6,722 miles (10,816 km) of low-stress lines on the U.S. pipeline network....
TXU plans to build nuclear plants Electric utility TXU Corp. said Thursday it plans to build nuclear reactors at up to three sites to meet growing electricity demand in Texas beginning late in the next decade, an indication that nuclear energy could undergo a revival in the United States. The company said it expects to submit applications to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2008 to build and operate the plants, which would likely begin operating between 2015 and 2020. TXU said nuclear power is currently more costly than other fuels, but it believes it can shave 30 to 40 percent off capital costs as nuclear technology improves. By applying to the NRC before the end of 2008, TXU expects to get $6 billion in tax credits, nuclear risk insurance and federal loan guarantees approved by Congress in last year's energy law. The company estimated it would cost $50 million to $150 million to prepare the applications. Chairman and Chief Executive C. John Wilder said nuclear reactors could provide lower-priced, low-emissions sources of power that would reduce Texas' reliance on natural gas....
Texas mayors form group to fight new coal units Mayors from 17 Texas cities, citing poor air quality across the state, vowed on Thursday to fight construction of more than a dozen coal-fired power plants unless regulators consider all options that could lead to cleaner air. The group, Texas Cities for Clean Air Coalition, which includes mayors from Houston and Dallas, said it planned to intervene in the coal-plant permitting process and named law firm Susman Godfrey LLP of Houston to lead the fight. The primary target is TXU Corp., which wants to build 11 coal units at nine existing power-plant sites while promising to reduce overall air emissions by 20 percent. State regulators need to examine all available methods to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon and mercury, Houston Mayor Bill White said at a press conference at city hall....
EPA Official Promises Guidelines to Define Wetlands The Bush administration is preparing instructions for regulators puzzling over which wetlands are covered by federal clean water law, a top Environmental Protection Agency official said Wednesday. But the EPA hasn't decided whether to issue a comprehensive regulation on the issue in the wake of a confusing U.S. Supreme Court ruling in two Michigan wetlands cases, said Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for water. "Our overarching goal is to continue to protect wetlands under the Clean Water Act to the maximum extent allowable since the decision," Grumbles told The Associated Press in an interview. "Which tools are the best to use is a policy decision we haven't made yet." The high court took up the Michigan cases in hopes of settling a long-running debate concerning federal jurisdiction over wetlands. But the June 19 decision muddied the waters further. The justices split three ways, with none of their five written opinions drawing majority support. Several urged Congress or federal agencies to deal with the issue, saying they were best suited to handle its complexities. Courts have agreed the Clean Water Act requires permits to degrade wetlands alongside navigable waterways such as lakes and rivers. The question is whether the law also applies to tributaries of those waters and their adjacent wetlands — and if so, how far upstream....
Oil fuels environmentalists' hopes Renewed worries about offshore oil drilling and effluent dumping off the Central California coast are reviving hopes of extending the southern boundary of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to protect waters off San Luis Obispo County. Environmentalists, working with the Chamber of Commerce, hope to generate enough enthusiasm for the idea to persuade the county board of supervisors this fall to seek congressional action adding more than 40 miles of coastline to the existing sanctuary. If enacted, it would mean that the sanctuary would extend more than 300 miles from Marin to Point Sal State Park, covering over a third of the state’s coastline. Marine sanctuaries are off limits to oil and gas development and dumping but not commercial and sport fishing. A marine sanctuary off the San Luis Obispo coast has been under consideration virtually since the Monterey Bay sanctuary was created in 1992. It has not had the political support to move ahead....
New Report Warns Against Expansive New Regulation of 'Invasive Species' Calls by some federal lawmakers to add burdensome new regulations to quarantine, to control or to kill so-called 'invasive species' are of dubious environmental value and represent a real threat to property owners, says a new report released by The National Center for Public Policy Research. According to Dana Joel Gattuso, senior fellow at the National Center and author of the study, efforts on Capitol Hill to regulate non-native species -- plants or animals that are considered by some to be alien to a particular ecosystem -- is based more on "emotion rather than science.” Gattuso argues that adding new invasive species regulations would be a disaster for sound scientific practices and would require massive expansion of government regulatory control on land. The study, "Invasive Species: Animal, Vegetable or Political?," argues that most non-native species are not an environmental calamity but, in fact, adapt to their surroundings and are even useful for ecosystems, the environment, human health and industry. "In spite of the fact that most non-native species are harmless, lawmakers are reacting to hype and exaggerations," writes Gattuso. "[T]here is no scientific evidence of actual global extinction caused by a non-native species. Nor do exotic species threaten species 'richness' or 'biodiversity.'"....go here to view the study.
Canadian BSE Case May Indicate Testing Regimes Are Missing Infections The 50-month-old dairy cow dairy cow found on a farm in Alberta evidently showed prion development months earlier than could have been expected, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency report on its investigation of the case. "The staining pattern from the confirmatory IHC tests supported the notion that this animal seemed to have been detected at an earlier stage of BSE incubation," the report states. "Had the animal succumbed to BSE and not to an unrelated disease, it may have been some time before BSE symptoms would have been noted." USDA and other experts have contended that prion formation dangerous to humans takes place only shortly before the onset of BSE symptoms, and USDA has concentrated until very recently on animals exhibiting symptoms of BSE and elderly cattle most likely to have the disease. Bill Bullard, chief executive of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, charges that the discovery upsets the apple cart of traditional scientific thinking about the disease. "The revelation that a rapid BSE test can detect infected animals up to eight months before the animal would have fit the criteria for targeted testing is not only new news, but groundbreaking news," he said in a statement....
A step back in time With a "Heeup" and a "Ho," the four-horse team dug hooves into the ground, strained against the squeaking harnesses and pulled the rack of hay to the top of the stacker, dropping the hay into the wire-framed cage. For a history group from Chugwater, Wyo., a trip to Don Licking's ranch north of North Platte became a trip back in time. Licking uses his Belgian draft horses to feed and hay his cattle, cut his hay and stack it, and on Thursday, he hosted a demonstration for 30 people who wanted to see how the equipment worked....
Kodiak a cow town? In the summer of 1951 Alaska was still a territory, and in Kodiak, where the city government’s budget was $120,000, gravel streets were the norm and grocers, cannery mess halls and the Navy base at Womens Bay all relied on local ranchers for beef. That summer, rancher Tom Nelson announced he would host Kodiak’s first rodeo on his spread at Kalsin Bay. The event was held the first Sunday of August and billed as the first rodeo in Alaska. “John Gibbons ran it, and he was one hell of a cowboy,” 89-year-old Norman Sutliff recalled. “It was a regulation-sized rodeo grounds with a squeeze chute and a gate. We put it all up in one day.”....