NEWS ROUNDUP

Guardsmen come to Colo. ranchers' rescue As a column of National Guard trucks rolled up to Billy Jack Hawkins' home on the plains, the 57-year-old rancher stomped his boots in the snow and marveled at the blizzard it had taken the troops more than four hours to dig through. "It's a bad one," the bearded Hawkins said of the snowstorm that buried his ranch and his only way back to town - 20 miles up the road - for six days. "We were locked in. No way out." Hundreds of National Guard members this week joined local and state officials spread across southeastern Colorado hunting for stranded ranchers and their multibillion-dollar herds of cattle. Helicopters delivered hundreds of bales of hay across the Oklahoma Panhandle, Kansas and Colorado's rangeland, while ranchers in smaller copters landed near frozen streams and broke up the ice with sledgehammers so their livestock could drink. Tens of thousands of cattle were caught in the blizzard that dumped up to 3 feet of snow a week ago in eastern Colorado and the Kansas and Nebraska plains....
Defense attorney blasts charges against fire crew boss His voice was barely audible in the small courtroom as Ellreese Daniels -- believed to be the first federal firefighter to face criminal charges for getting his crew trapped in a deadly forest fire -- made his initial appearance Thursday in federal court. The 46-year-old Daniels quietly answered the magistrate's questions regarding the manslaughter charges filed against him and then left the federal courthouse in Spokane. Outside the building, he stood silently beside his public defender as she blasted prosecutors for singling out Daniels for criminal charges involving the Thirtymile Fire near Winthrop that claimed the lives of four firefighters, all from Central Washington. n a telephone interview after Thursday's hearing, the mother of one of the killed firefighters said the criminal case was the beginning of accountability for the Forest Service. Kathie FitzPatrick of Yakima, who noted her daughter Karen was the youngest professional firefighter to be killed on the job in the United States, said she has no problem with Daniels being the only one to face charges in the Thirtymile Fire. "I agree that he's not the only person, but he certainly was at a pivotal point and could have directed them to safety, even in those last moments, and he didn't," FitzPatrick said. "If they are going to pinch somebody, that's a good place to start."....
2nd huge suit filed over use of Indian money Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will be forced in 2007 to balance two major class action lawsuits, one involving billions of dollars owed to a half-million American Indian landowners, and now a trust-fund suit that includes more than 250 tribes. The Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit law firm in Boulder, Colo., announced Wednesday the latest class action filing in federal district court in Washington, D.C. The tribal trust-fund suit seeks full and complete accountings from the Interior Department on tribal accounts worth an estimated $200 billion. "This lawsuit is a reflection of a huge historical problem with the federal government's mismanagement of tribal trust accounts," said Nez Perce Tribal Chairwoman Rebecca Miles. "We have tried to work with the agencies and we have tried to work with Congress. Our hope now is with the courts. We are pleased to step forward with NARF in leading this fight for Indian justice." For the Interior Department, the new suit nearly mirrors the decade-old Elouise Cobell lawsuit, which seeks a historical accounting of the individual trust fund money accounts managed by the department. Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the Cobell suit consumed the majority of her time in office....
Yellowstone wolves can wander far The identification of a sheep-killing predator in Eastern Montana is still unknown, but wolf biologists say it wouldn't be unusual for a wolf from the Yellowstone National Park ecosystem to wander that far. The latest evidence: A Yellowstone wolf that wandered more than 300 miles from home last spring before getting hit by a vehicle just east of Sturgis, S.D. DNA testing confirmed that the wolf came from the Yellowstone area, according to preliminary results last summer and a final report issued in late December. Similar genetic testing is being conducted on the animal that was shot Nov. 2 in Garfield County. The predator, blamed for killing more than 100 sheep over several months, was initially thought to be a wolf until federal agents shot it and examined it closely. The animal's reddish coat, along with its relatively good teeth and claws, raised doubts about whether it was one of the 1,200 or so wolves living in and around Yellowstone. DNA tests on the animal at University of California-Los Angeles and the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., should shed light on its origins....
Defenders of Wildlife Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Wolf Compensation Program Over the last 20 years, Defenders of Wildlife has paid livestock owners in the northern Rockies nearly $700,000 from The Bailey Wildlife Foundation Wolf Compensation Trust, the first privately funded program to reimburse 100 percent of the market value of verified livestock losses to wolves. Defenders initiated the program to help reduce the economic impact of wolf reintroduction on local ranchers, despite the fact that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) reports that less than 1 percent of all livestock mortalities in the northern Rockies have been caused by wolves. Reports issued by the National Agricultural Statistics Service show that significantly more livestock are lost to disease, birthing problems, injuries, theft and other predators than wolves. From 1987 through 2006, Defenders paid livestock owners for more than 650 cattle, approximately 1,645 sheep (including mature unborn lambs and deaths from injuries), 35 livestock guarding and herding dogs, 10 goats, 10 horses, six llamas, an alpaca, a donkey and a mule. These numbers also include "probable" losses, for which Defenders pays 50 percent of the market value....
New Motion Filed to Stop BLM's Wild Horse Round Up The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest service started rounding up wild horses and burros from the Spring Mountains Wednesday. The government says it's necessary because there are too many animals and not enough food. Already 125 wild burros have been captured, but animal activists hope to put a stop to the roundup. Late Thursday afternoon, lawyers for wild horse advocates asked a federal judge to put an end to the current roundup. A similar request was rejected by Federal Court Judge Kent Dawson last week. Lawyer John Cereso filed documents around 4 p.m. Thursday, which ask for an emergency injunction to prevent the roundup from moving forward....
Supreme Court to vote Friday on Lolo post-burn case A coalition of forest industry groups joined Mineral County in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the Lolo post-burn case. If they do not, the groups say, the nine-state region served by the Ninth Circuit court could face “analysis paralysis” for years to come. The justices are expected to vote Friday on whether to take on the case. Their decision will be announced Monday Jan. 8 at 10 a.m. Eastern time. The forest industry groups enhanced Mineral County’s case by pointing out that the Ninth Circuit Court decision is contrary to Supreme Court precedents and in conflict with rulings of nine other circuits. The problem is the Ninth Circuit, the brief suggested, and its “increasingly aberrant NEPA jurisprudence.” Between 2002 and 2006, the Forest Service won 35 of 37 NEPA or NFMA cases in the lower courts. The Ninth Circuit reversed 20 of those 35 cases, ruling against the Forest Service in every instance. Yet during the same period, the same agency, operating from the same laws, prevailed in 16 of 23 appeals in other circuits. “In both absolute numbers and proportions of adverse rulings against the Forest Service, the Ninth Circuit is in a different legal universe than the rest of the country,” the brief concludes. The Supreme Court itself unanimously reversed all five Ninth Circuit cases involving NEPA. It also reversed six of seven other Ninth Circuit environmental decisions, four unanimously, the brief pointed out....
Interagency Web site to manage natural resources Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are leading an effort to develop an interagency Web portal that will help the nation’s natural resource managers and others get better information about how people’s behavior and actions affect environments. NOAA’s Coastal Services Center -- which is based in Charleston, S.C., and provides technology, services and information to coastal resource managers -- is spearheading development of HumanDimensions.gov (HD). The portal is intended to provide case studies, policies and legislation, methodologies, agency-specific information, a calendar of events and an online forum that will focus on the application of social science to natural resource management. According to the HD.gov portal, which currently only provides scant information about the project, there is a wide variety of social science information as it relates to natural resource management on the Internet, but the information is redundant and incomplete....
Editorial - Protect Waldo's purity Unique natural treasures impose upon their custodians unique responsibilities. For that reason, the extreme purity of Waldo Lake requires that the Willamette National Forest take extreme care to protect against degradation. Errors should be on the side of caution; close calls should be decided in the lake's favor. After nearly 10 years of discussion and study, boats with gas-powered engines should be banned from Waldo Lake. Waldo Lake, located 20 miles east of Oakridge, is the headwaters of the North Fork of the Willamette River. It is among the clearest lakes in the world - geologically akin to Lake Tahoe and chemically like Crater Lake, but more pure than either. The Atlas of Oregon Lakes describes Waldo's clarity as "closely similar to that of rainwater in a pristine envi- ronment." The greatest threat to Waldo Lake's purity comes from human intrusion, which accelerated by a factor of 10 with the construction of a paved road in 1969. The road made Waldo Lake readily accessible from Eugene and other Willamette Valley communities. While people create more problems for the lake than the boats they bring with them, the precautionary principle - do nothing that can't be undone - argues for a policy recognizing that oil and water don't mix....
Lynx shooting lands Van Buren man in jail for 21 days A Van Buren man who said that his shooting of a lynx was a case of mistaken identity was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to 21 days in jail for possessing a federally protected threatened species. Ricky Learnard, 41, pleaded guilty to the charge, just prior to sentencing. Learnard told U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk that he had been hunting for grouse near his home in late November 2005 when he shot at what he thought was a bobcat. "We were inadvertently stalking the same prey," Learnard said of himself and the lynx. "It was three feet from us, crouched down in tall grass. When it leapt toward the grouse, I shot it in the air. When I went over to look at it and saw its large paws, I knew it was a lynx ... Once I knew it was a lynx I did things I shouldn’t have." The investigation that led to Learnard’s court appearance began on Jan. 12, 2006, when Kevin L. Fortin, 57, of Van Buren was stopped at the Hamlin border crossing with 30 pelts in the back of his truck. One pelt labeled "bobcat" was a lynx, according to court documents....
Editorial - When polar bears are political pawns Normally, when parties settle a lawsuit, each side makes some concessions. Which is why it's puzzling, to say the least, that the Bush administration asked for so little when it abandoned a legal fight with environmental groups over the role of the Endangered Species Act in protecting polar bears. The bears are already protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. That law prevents anyone from attempting to "harass, hunt, capture or kill" polar bears and other animals covered by the act, such as porpoises and manatees. It also severely limits the importation and sale of trophies or other products from the covered species. Nor is the bear population in alarming decline - if it is in decline at all. And developers obviously aren't building subdivisions across the tundra and threatening bear habitat. So what's going on? Placing the bears under the jurisdiction of the species act would give environmentalists added legal leverage to target the construction of U.S. power plants anywhere in the country that use fossil fuels and emit greenhouse gases that arguably might contribute to the melting of the polar icecaps. The goal would be to get regulators and courts to impose an energy diet on the nation without the input of elected lawmakers and without any assurance that the economically crippling policy would boost polar bear populations....
Cloud seeding plan for range stirs fears A proposed cloud seeding experiment in the Wind River Range that officials say could help solve water shortages is ill-advised according to conservation groups who worry about the project’s proximity to the Bridger Wilderness. The experiment, which would be conducted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, is designed to determine how well the technology works to produce more snowfall. Researchers would use 12 generators strategically placed in the Bridger-Teton National Forest near the Wind River Range in addition to five generators that are currently in place on private and state lands. The Bridger-Teton expects to start the public-involvement process on the project this month. The five-year study could open the door for a permanent cloud seeding operation that officials say would help agriculture, fisheries, hydropower, municipal water supplies and other forms of water use. Researchers finished a similar experiment in the Star Valley area in the fall of 2006. Conservation groups oppose the study, which they say could affect animal and plant ecosystems as well as deprive downwind locations of much needed precipitation. They also question whether the Wilderness Act, which protects the Wind River Range as a place to be preserved in its “natural condition,” would allow cloud seeding....
Reclamation Bureau Changes Grounds for Firing E-Mailing Biologist In an unusual move, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has withdrawn a proposed termination of a biologist for being "subversive" and revealing "administratively controlled information" in sending e-mails to environmentalists and other agencies. Instead, the agency has substituted a new letter proposing dismissal on the grounds of causing "embarrassment" and putting the agency in a "negative light," according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The renewed effort to fire the biologist for reporting violations of law and improprieties sets up a new test for federal whistleblower laws. Pending a final agency decision, Charles (Rex) Wahl, a GS-12 Environmental Specialist, remains on paid administrative leave, as he has been since mid-September. In October, Reclamation also dismissed Wahl's wife Cherie from a temporary clerk-typist position. The agency action concerns seven e-mails Wahl sent to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), Army Corps and an environmental group between February and May 2006. In each message, Wahl alerted the recipients as to potential problems in filings made and reports compiled by Reclamation. Originally, the agency had cited 11 e-mails from Wahl, including one to his ex-wife who now works at FWS, discussing a video of wetlands in the Colorado River region....
Water ruling stands The government has chosen not to appeal a federal judge's September ruling throwing out an agreement governing the amount of water flowing in the Gunnison River through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The Interior Department had filed notice it might appeal the ruling by U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer, but withdrew the notice last week, clearing the way for work to determine how much water the river needs through the canyon to satisfy the needs of wildlife and human uses. Brimmer in September said a 2003 agreement forcing the Black Canyon National Park to give up its 1933 water right to the river without public involvement was "nonsensical." He overturned the plan, which set a minimum flow of 300 cubic feet per second....
It’s The Pitts: Watered Stock A long time ago I heard an unsubstantiated rumor that there was once a cowboy who went to town and did not drink. I never did believe it. I do have first hand knowledge though of a set of calves that went to town and wouldn’t drink. Many years ago I was out back, in the pens, at an auction market looking at some cows I was thinking of buying during a special cow sale later in the day. While walking around in my usual vacant stupor I came across a most unusual sight: In a big pen holding a set of drouthed-out desert calves someone had dug a ditch and let the water trough overflow so that the water would run down that ditch. Being of a curious nature, I asked the auction owner what was going on with the new river. He explained that three days prior a consignor had sent him a set of calves to sell that came from the high desert of northern Arizona. They had just been taken off the cow so naturally they came off the truck bawling, looking for their mothers and practically cut in two by the long journey. The auction owner had three days to get them presentable but after a couple hours he noticed that, although they were eating the good hay he provided, they weren’t filling up....