NEWS ROUNDUP

Logan County files lawsuit in effort to poison prairie dogs A judge could decide on Groundhog Day whether to force some western Kansas ranchers to move their cattle so Logan County officials can poison prairie dogs. County commissioners filed a lawsuit Jan. 10 in Logan County District Court against ranchers and landowners who have fought their efforts to eradicate prairie dogs. The county says it has received complaints from numerous residents about the prairie dogs, which farmers and ranchers say destroy pastures and fields by digging holes and tunneling. They also say the rodents compete with cattle for grass to forage. Some people who oppose the county's eradication attempts support a federal effort to reintroduce the endangered black-footed ferret to the area. Prairie dogs are a main food source for the ferrets. A hearing on the county's request for a temporary injunction forcing the ranchers and landowners to remove the cattle from any lands while the county applies rodenticide is scheduled for Feb. 2, which is Groundhog Day. Prairie dogs, like groundhogs, are members of the squirrel family....
B-T Forest dismisses worries about tram Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s new tram could hurt bighorn sheep habitat in Grand Teton National Park, according to state and federal agencies. But those concerns were dismissed by Bridger-Teton National Forest officials in a decision released last week approving the tram and excluding the project from National Environmental Policy Act review. The new tram, slated for completion in late 2008, will carry a maximum of 100 passengers, or 650 passengers per hour, nearly double the capacity of the former tram. Resort officials say the new tram will be built in roughly the same location as the old one. Both the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Grand Teton National Park said in comments to the Forest Service about the new tram that an increase in backcountry traffic could harm a small population of bighorn sheep in Granite Canyon....
California Dept. of Fish & Game to re-poison Lake Davis The California Department of Fish and Game announced Tuesday, Jan. 23. that it plans to apply a liquid form of rotenone to Lake Davis and its tributaries after Labor Day in another effort to eliminate northern pike. The plan calls for using CFF Legumine, according to the department's Steve Martarano. “We’ve been pleased with the alliance working with the steering committee and residents,” said Martarano. He said the agency feels this option is the “most safe and effective” for ridding the lake of pike. “We looked at everything feasible,” said Martarano. The poison will be applied at a lake level of 45,000 to 48,000 acre-feet. Martarano said there would be “virtually no recreational downtime.” Since 2000, $21 million has been spent on pike eradication efforts, according to Martarano. Fish and Game has a full-time team of 35 employees working on the pike effort....
Babbitt trying to aid proposed private-federal land swap Former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is joining an effort to save a threatened 160-acre parcel that Saguaro National Park wants for expansion. Babbitt and a real estate investor have taken out an option from the owners that keeps what's known as the Bloom property from being sold for development for 30 days. Babbitt's goal is to have the parcel traded to the federal government for inclusion in the park. The property, which lies just south of the Sweetwater Trail in Saguaro Park West, would be part of a proposed private-federal land swap that has been in the works for three years. As the exchange now stands, some 2,400 acres of private land on the Empirita Ranch near the Pima-Cochise county line would be traded to the feds for inclusion in the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. In return, landowner Don Diamond would get more than 1,200 acres of Bureau of Land Management-owned land near Corona de Tucson....
BLM: Vets say horses are OK The “vast majority” of the wild horses on the Sheep Mountain Ranch west of Laramie “are in very good condition, considering the weather conditions and the age of the horses,” a Bureau of Land Management official reported Tuesday following a Monday inspection. BLM wild horse program manager Alan Shepherd said Wyoming State Veterinarian Duane Oldham and veterinarian Al Kane of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Fort Collins, Colo., on Monday saw well over 200 of the estimated 350 former wild horses on the ranch. The two veterinarians will release a report in a couple of days, Shepherd said. The veterinarians made their inspection following citizen complaints in recent weeks that some of the horses looked to be in poor shape. The officials who toured the ranch Monday disagreed. “Everybody who went on the tour Monday is comfortable with what they saw,” Shepherd said. “The horses are being fed hay in two or three locations, and they have open ridges where they can graze. They seem to be moving around well and feeding good. They’re not lethargic like a starving horse would be.”....
County resists OHV limits Another confrontation is brewing in southern Utah between local county officials and the federal Bureau of Land Management. Apparently angered by the BLM's recent emergency order restricting off-highway vehicle travel in the popular Factory Butte area, Wayne County commissioners have proposed an amendment to the county's general plan that would essentially flout the BLM's new rules by once again allowing cross-country OHV use in the region, located just east of Capitol Reef National Park. "Open, cross-country OHV recreation is a firmly established recreational activity and an important cultural value for a large segment of the citizens of Wayne County," said a draft of the "Factory Butte Cross Country OHV Special Recreation Management Area" proposal, a copy of which was obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune. The county's intent, the draft continued, "is to preserve the open and unrestricted nature of cross-country travel that existed historically in the Factory Butte area." Wayne County officials were mum on their proposal Tuesday....
Interior official: Blame errors on many Federal Minerals Management Service Director Johnnie Burton should have taken action when she first heard of billion-dollar errors with oil and gas drilling leases, but career staffers deserve most of the blame for the problems, the Interior Department's inspector general said Tuesday. "It's a mess, and anybody in a leadership position is at some level responsible for a mess that occurs on their watch, but this particular mess started before Johnnie Burton was in office, and she was not well served by career staff that were involved," Inspector General Earl Devaney said in an exclusive interview. "My critique of her is that when she did hear about it in 2004, she didn't take a more overt action on it," he said. "But that doesn't mean I've lost faith in her honesty and integrity." Deep-water leases signed in 1998 and 1999 during the Clinton administration omitted a clause triggering royalty payments if energy prices rose over a certain amount. Officials say they raised the matter with Burton in early 2004, although she does not remember being told until late 2005 or early 2006, the inspector general found. The error has already cost the government about $1 billion in revenue and if not fixed could cost $10 billion....
The domain debate Some members of agriculture industry groups say what's being represented as a "coalition" compromise eminent domain bill is a misrepresentation. The members of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, Wyoming Wool Growers Association and Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation say the bill headed to the House floor this morning has been stripped to its original form, which does not contain several key changes that agriculture interests have asked for. "Our executive director says he supports this bill that just left the House Agriculture Committee, yet not one thing that the groups have asked for is in this bill," said Taylor Haynes, who is a member of the stock grower and wool grower organizations. Eminent domain involves the taking of private land deemed necessary for the public good, such as a public-works project or energy development....
Environmental groups, developers to cooperate to protect Gallatin After years of wrangling, environmental groups seeking state protection for the Gallatin River have decided to work with developers to protect the Gallatin river while still preserving property rights. American Wildlands has decided to suspend its pursuit of an "Outstanding Resource Water" designation for a 38-mile stretch of the river between Yellowstone National Park and its confluence with Spanish Creek. "We're putting it on hold right now to give everybody a little more breathing room," said Sean Regnerus of American Wildlands, the group that led efforts for the special status. Developers has strongly opposed the designation, saying it infringed on property rights. American Wildlands, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Trout Unlimited and developers James Taylor and Bill Simkins have signed a memorandum of understanding that calls on them, and others in the Big Sky community, to identify within six months "the alternatives that offers the most cost effective and environmentally protective means of addressing Gallatin River water quality." They say they'll have a conceptual plan put together within 18 months....
Navy exempt in sonar ban The Navy has been given a two-year exemption from provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act that will allow it to use mid-frequency sonar and a new sensor that uses small explosive charges during major training exercises and on established ranges and operating areas. These areas don't include Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, said Navy Lt. Ryan Perry of the Office of Naval Information at the Pentagon. "We don't exercise there," he said. "The Navy has worked closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on our long-term compliance strategy, and the national defense exemption is an agreed-upon part of the strategy," said Navy Rear Adm. James Symonds, director of environmental readiness. The Natural Resources Defense Council filed suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in the fall of 2005 to stop the Navy's sonar exercises, contending that numerous mass whale strandings and deaths of whales have been associated with sonar use in areas that include Hawaii, Washington state, North Carolina and the Bahamas. The organization believes the exemption invoked by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, who previously served as Secretary of the Navy, is a ploy to place the Navy above the law and avoid the suit, said Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Cara Horowitz. Conservationists argue that the Navy is also operating in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the federal Endangered Species Act....
Pregnant polar bears use land for dens More pregnant polar bears in Alaska are digging snow dens on land instead of sea ice, according to a federal study, and researchers say deteriorating sea ice due to climate warming is the likely reason. From 1985 to 1994, 62 percent of the female polar bears studied dug dens in snow on sea ice. From 1998 to 2004, just 37 percent gave birth on sea ice. The rest instead dug snow dens on land, according to the study by three U.S. Geological Survey researchers. Bears that continued to den on ice moved east in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's northern coast, away from ice that was thinner or unstable. "We hypothesized that the sea ice changes may have reduced the availability or degraded the quality of offshore denning habits and altered the spatial distribution of denning," said wildlife biologist Anthony Fischbach, lead author of the study. "In recent years, Arctic pack ice has formed progressively later, melted earlier, and lost much of its older and thicker multiyear component."....
Attendance, revenue falling at Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park has long been known as a place with stunning waterfalls, dramatic rock formations and frustrating weekend crowds. But all that is changing. The waterfalls and rocks are still there. A lot of the people aren't. Fewer people visited Yosemite last year than at any time in the past 16 years, according to park attendance statistics made public this week. The trend has been under way for a decade — and nobody knows exactly why, although park officials point to busy families, video games and a series of natural disasters. With 3.36 million visitors in 2006, Yosemite drew nearly 20 percent fewer people than its peak in attendance 10 years ago, despite the state adding 5 million people — equivalent to the populations of Chicago and Houston — in that span. "The traffic is less. I'm not seeing the backups that we used to see," said Scott Gediman, a ranger who has worked in Yosemite since 1996. "You don't see crowds of people as much." Reasons for the decline have been difficult to pinpoint, but park officials and business leaders from neighboring counties have plenty of theories....
Road plans come to fork A National Park Service study has found that a long-debated road through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park would not put the park in violation of air quality standards. Park Service officials say they are still not sure which alternative to pursue. "All it means is all the decisions are still possible," said Smokies spokesman Bob Miller. Because poor air quality in the Smokies sometimes triggers health alerts, projects must meet federal standards. But the National Park Service study found that although the road would increase the volume of emissions in the future, cleaner vehicles will keep down pollutants. Opponents said the road would harm one of the wildest areas in the Eastern United States. An environmental impact statement released by the park service last year estimated that finishing the road could cost up to $600 million. The so-called "Road to Nowhere" would replace a state highway flooded by construction of Fontana Dam in the 1940s and was part of a 1943 agreement between North Carolina and the federal government. Only seven miles of the proposed 42 miles were built before high costs and environmental concerns halted work in 1972....
PETA foes salivate at cruelty trial All around this struggling farm town, chicken houses stand in the fields as a testament to the way many here earn their living -- raising, slaughtering and processing chickens. It is an unlikely locale for an unlikely criminal case. Today, two employees of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a radical animal-rights group that opposes meat-eating, are on trial for the strangest of charges: killing animals. PETA is based in Norfolk, Va., but its work has international scope. The group, which raises more than $25 million a year from 1.6 million supporters, opposes any human use of animals, whether for food, fashion or research. In the more than two decades since its founding, it has become a major threat to medical researchers, meatpackers, fur sellers and others. Now, two of its employees stand accused of tossing garbage bags full of euthanized cats and dogs into a Dumpster behind a Piggly Wiggly in Hertford County, 130 miles northeast of Raleigh. Adria J. Hinkle and Andrew B. Cook, both of whom work in PETA's Norfolk office, are charged with 21 counts each of animal cruelty, a felony that can carry prison time, along with littering and obtaining property by false pretenses....
On Snowbound Plains, Grim Fight to Save Calves The temperature outside was 10 degrees and falling as calf No. 207, just one hour old, lay on the floor of the warming shed, wheezing and fighting for life. Born underweight and premature to a cow stressed by successive blizzards and brutal cold over the last month here in southeast Colorado, the baby Black Angus might yet live if it could clear its lungs of fluid and get to its feet by morning. If not, No. 207 would take its place in the dead pile, the grim place in the barn on the Butler ranch where many of the 25 or so calves already lost this winter lay frozen and twisted. Calving season on the High Plains will be harder and more costly than any year in at least a decade, ranchers and agricultural officials say. More than 3,000 adult animals have been confirmed dead so far in Colorado alone, and ranchers say many more remain uncounted, buried under drifts four feet to six feet deep. Thousands of other farm and ranch animals across the state remain unaccounted for....
Seoul Wants to Keep Beef Off FTA Table A senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said Tuesday that the beef issue between South Korea and the United States will not be handled by the bilateral high-level talks. The issue about whether to allow import of U.S. beef with ``bone fragments’’ may be settled down through discussions among quarantine experts, a ministry director general told The Korea Times. ``It is no use holding meetings between high-level government officials in connection with the free trade agreement (FTA) talks,’’ he said. The high-ranking officials include trade ministers and chief FTA negotiators. His remarks came after Wendy Cutler, assistant U.S. Trade Representative and chief U.S. negotiator for an FTA with Korea, told reporters on Monday (local time) in Washington, D.C. that a successful FTA would not be possible unless the beef issue is solved....
Immigration Reform for Agriculture Workers Bill Reintroduced in Congress A bill that would create immigration reform specifically for agriculture workers was reintroduced in Congress by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho. The "Agriculture Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2007," known as the AgJobs bill, would amend the current application process and replace it with an expedited process to hire foreign workers in the H-2A category, which is where agricultural workers in the horse industry fall. The AgJobs bill would also create a pilot "blue card" program for undocumented agriculture workers, giving them the opportunity to demonstrate previous employment in American agriculture and achieve temporary legal resident status. "The issue of comprehensive immigration and guest worker reform is very important to all segments of the horse industry," said Jay Hickey, president of the American Horse Council (AHC). "Horse breeders, ranchers and farms depend on seasonal foreign workers to fill labor demands not met by American workers. This bill would solve a lot of the problems our industry has in employing legal foreign workers." This AgJobs bill is the same bill that the Senate passed in the last Congress as part of the comprehensive immigration reform bill....
Farm bill must balance land needs, Harkin says A federal conservation program that pays farmers to leave cropland idle drew bipartisan support Saturday in Des Moines from two congressional leaders who will help form agriculture policy. U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., and U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., chairmen of the Senate and House agriculture committees, said critics who want to cut back the Conservation Reserve Program will have a fight on their hands. The CRP was first included in the 1985 farm bill. It pays landowners about $1.8 billion a year to take land out of production in favor of grass, trees or other soil-conserving practices. There are 36.7 million acres in the CRP, an area slightly larger than the state of Iowa. Critics say the program should be cut back so more land can be used to grow corn for ethanol production. They also say it hurts young farmers because it removes land from the rental market and cuts income for farm supply businesses....
Carson's tale one of Manifest Destiny Sitting in the spare, chilly front room of the house that Kit Carson bought for his 14-year-old bride, writer Hampton Sides pondered the complexity of one of the American West's most famous frontiersmen. At once hero and villain, Carson was, by all accounts, modest and kindly - and a cold-blooded killer. He couldn't read or write, but was fluent in Spanish and French and spoke multiple Indian languages. He lived among Indians for his whole life and twice was married Indian women, yet he led the United States military's brutal scorched- earth campaign against the Navajos. He was a devoted husband and father but was rarely around this three-room adobe home - now a museum - that he bought for Josefa Jaramillo when she became his third wife, in 1843. "There's a lot of moral ambiguity in his life story. . . . Trying to reconcile the different parts of his personality was very frustrating for me," said Sides, author of the recently published Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West....
It's All Trew: Tough to predict a hard winter Each year as fall arrives, especially after a couple of cold mornings, the conversation at the Alanreed coffee shop turns to predicting just how bad the weather will be in the upcoming winter. Though we all know it's a long time until winter proper and many hot days could still occur, somehow thoughts turn to fall and cold weather. Predicting Panhandle of Texas weather is a safe occupation because no matter the facts, anyone can be right or wrong and not be held responsible, otherwise the weathermen on TV or radio could not hold a steady job. One old reliable indicator of weather to come is, "The moss on the north side of the trees is thicker so it's gonna be a hard winter." This was not true at the ranch this year as the range fires burned both the moss and many trees to the ground. Someone is always seeing "wollie-worms" acting up and start predicting a bad winter. No one really challenges the statement as it is impossible to know what a wollie-worm has on its mind. If a tourist or another innocent is listening, the gang goes into its routine of telling how the length and thickness of the cows' and horses' hair predicts a hard winter coming. Eventually, the statement will be made, "When the hair is longer on the north side of an animal than the south, it means a hard winter is on the way."....