NEWS ROUNDUP

Proposal to send drones over Idaho raises hackles A U.S. government agency is considering using unmanned surveillance planes, or drones, to help oversee remote areas of eastern Idaho, raising concerns in a region deeply wary of outside interference. Officials the Bureau of Land Management office responsible for most of eastern Idaho may initially buy one hand-launched drone for an estimated $15,000 to help keep track of the vast, thinly populated area. They said the unpiloted aircraft, with a wingspan of about 4 feet, would monitor vegetation and streams in areas used largely for grazing and recreation and there were no immediate plans to use them for law enforcement. But with Americans already concerned over increased government surveillance under President George W. Bush's war against terrorism, the mere suggestion of a camera-equipped plane over public areas sparked controversy in this intensively independent region. "It would be like the environmentalists sneaking up on you," said Wayne Butts, a member of the County Commission in Custer County, where 96 percent of the land is publicly owned. "They may be taking pictures of a plant or two, but where does it stop? Do we have to grab our pitchforks and our guns?" Conservationists applauded the idea, saying there should be greater oversight of federal grazing and other leases. "More supervision to ensure the terms and conditions of permits to use public lands is always a good idea," said Jon Marvel, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, an environmental group that focuses on federally managed lands in California, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Terrance Booth, a rangeland scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Wyoming, said remote controlled planes already fly above New Mexico and Maryland for similar purposes....We can't secure the border but by God we can monitor every blade of grass on these ranches. Instead, let's put camera's in every Federal building and monitor the activity of these Federal employees. We'll have plenty of tape for "America's Funniest Video's".
Embattled fire crew boss cited for drugs A former U.S. Forest Service crew boss was cited for possession of marijuana hours after he appeared in federal court in Spokane on involuntary manslaughter charges in the deaths of four firefighters, the Washington State Patrol said. The citation issued Thursday to Ellreese Daniels may have violated conditions a judge set for his release pending trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Hopkins said Tuesday. Scott Morse, chief federal probation officer for Eastern Washington, said he could not comment on an ongoing pretrial case. The issue could surface during a previously scheduled court hearing Jan. 30. Daniels, 46, of East Wenatchee, was a passenger in a car pulled over Thursday on Interstate 90 west of Moses Lake, the patrol said in a release issued Monday. He was cited for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia....
Bush Lifts Oil-Drill Ban in Alaska's Bristol Bay The Bush administration yesterday moved to boost U.S. oil and gas supplies by lifting a long-standing moratorium on drilling in Alaska's Bristol Bay, as OPEC accelerated plans to reduce supplies in order to prop up sagging crude prices. Days before the House is expected to roll back oil industry tax breaks, the Bush administration also decided to boost royalty rates by a third for ultra-deep-water oil and gas drilling. The action eliminates extra incentives that had been given to offset some of the high costs of operating in those offshore areas. The Interior Department said the change would generate an additional $4.5 billion over 20 years. In Washington, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced that the administration would open 5.6 million acres in Alaska's North Aleutian Basin for oil and gas development. Congress first barred drilling in Bristol Bay in 1989 after the huge Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill damaged Alaska's coast. Congress lifted the ban in 2003 at the urging of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). But a moratorium President Bill Clinton declared on drilling in the area in 1998 remained in effect, so it took Bush's action yesterday to open it to development. Bush also lifted a presidential moratorium on part of the Gulf of Mexico that Congress opened for drilling in December....
Four Appeals Court Choices Dropped From Consideration President George W. Bush, bowing to the Senate's new Democratic majority, dropped efforts to win confirmation of four appeals court nominees who generated partisan opposition. Bush won't resubmit the nominations of Terrence W. Boyle, Defense Department counsel William J. Haynes II and William G. Myers III to seats on federal appeals courts, said White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore. A fourth nominee who also sparked controversy, Michael Wallace, withdrew last month from consideration for a seat on the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Myers, 51, a mining and ranching lobbyist nominated in 2003 to the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit, was accused by environmentalists of promoting corporate interests over enforcement of federal conservation laws when he was the Interior Department's solicitor....
Gas Wells Exempt From Needed Water Regulations Without water, rancher Melvin Barnes said his registered Brangus Cattle operation would close. In the last 30 years, the water level in his well has dropped 30 feet, about a foot a year. “That tells me the western part of Parker County is in a water crisis,” Barnes said as he surveyed his water well. “You know, I think we're going to have to go to some type of regulation.” Regulation is exactly what Parker County Commissioners discussed in a public meeting Tuesday in Weatherford. County leaders think if they don't regulate water use, the state will. The catch is that gas well drillers are exempt from water conservation districts. Gas wells dot the landscape in Parker County. Drillers can use 6 million gallons of water in the “fracking” process of extracting gas from the ground. Rancher Wade Davidson listened intently at a recent public meeting. He owns a 10 acre hay farm northwest of Weatherford. In the last two years of the drought, Davidson said his hay production has dropped by more than 60 percent. He pointed to 3 gas wells within a mile of his property....
Bill aims to give voice to landowners Much of the hunting in Montana takes place on private land, so it is essential that a landowner's voice be part of the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission, a legislator said Tuesday in trying to change requirements for one of its seats. Sen. Keith Bales, R-Otter, is the chief backer of a bill to require at least one of the commission's five members be actively engaged in livestock breeding and management, derive most of his or her income from that work and have an ownership stake in at least 1,280 acres. Current law requires that at least one member of the commission, which sets hunting regulations, "be experienced in the breeding and management of domestic livestock." Bales, a cattle rancher, said in an interview that the need for the bill became evident two years ago when Gov. Brian Schweitzer appointed Billings attorney Shane Colton to the commission post requiring livestock involvement. That was done on the strength of Colton's relatively brief stint on an in-law's ranch, Bales said....
Learn more from those who know, about wolves Bill stated that he lived in rural upper Michigan and has hunted the area for whitetail deer since he was a child and was always successful. Since wolves have moved into the area, the whitetail population has been devastated. He also recounted that several weeks ago, a man (unarmed) had ventured into the woods to exercise his four dogs. All of the dogs had been killed by wolves. The most chilling part of our conversation was when he told me that his wife, who had been a cross-country skier for years, had given up her sport for fear of her life. They also would not let their small children or dogs outside unless he was present. He always carries a gun. Unfortunately, this could be the scenario in the future that many of our residents will face in eastern Washington. Not a pretty picture, for sure....
Cutthroat trout to be stocked near Durango When early settlers moved through the West, some brought live fish along with them to stock waterways for future food, supplanting native fish along the way. Their intentions were good, Forest Service fisheries biologist Dave Gerhardt said, but the introduction of brook, rainbow and brown trout overtook the habitat of the native Colorado River cutthroat trout and decimated its ranks in the San Juan mountains. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are trying to reverse that trend by building a fish barrier on Hermosa Creek west of Durango that eventually will lead to the reintroduction of Colorado River cutthroat trout....
Tree sitter lawsuit dismissed A federal magistrate has dismissed a civil lawsuit filed against law enforcement officers by a Wild Rockies Earth First! activist. The lawsuit, which alleged a variety of civil rights violations, was filed by Rebecca Kay Smith, one of two activists who camped out in trees scheduled to be cut down in 2002 on the Bitterroot National Forest as part of the Bitterroot Burned Area Recovery plan. Smith, who was 22 at the time, was arrested after a month of tree-sitting and eventually convicted in federal court of a handful of misdemeanors, including camping too long on national forest land and resisting arrest. In 2003, she was sentenced to three years on probation and spent 30 days in a prerelease center in Butte. Smith has now completed the terms of her probation, but during that time she also filed suit against two law enforcement officers - Dale Brandeberry of the Bitterroot National Forest and a Missoula County sheriff's deputy, Dave Ball. Smith claimed the officers violated her civil rights primarily by using excessive force in dealing with her, but also deprived her of her First Amendment rights and unreasonably seized her property....
A Victory For Species Dependent on Old-Growth Habitat Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court provided good news to wildlife species dependent on old-growth forest habitat by refusing to accept the timber industry's appeal of a 9th Circuit ruling in a case (Ecology Center vs. Austin) questioning how much scientific review is necessary for industrial logging projects in national forests. Back in 2002 the Ecology Center - now called the WildWest Institute - challenged the Lolo National Forest's Lolo Post-Burn logging project, claiming the 4,600 acre logging project would result in the loss of valuable wildlife habitat created by the fires that burned in the Lolo National Forest in 2000. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the conservation organizing saying the Forest Service provided scant evidence to prove the agency's claim that logging in old-growth forests would benefit wildlife. Rather, the 9th Circuit said it was unclear whether the proposed logging would benefit old-growth dependent species like the northern goshawk and pileated woodpecker. The Court also said the Forest Service should have conducted soil tests in the actual proposed logging areas to determine if soil quality would be affected, indicating that the agency's method of testing similar soil types in other non-logging areas was not enough. “The timber industry petitioners wrongly claimed that the National Forest Management Act does not impose a 'mandate to maintain wildlife viability' on the Forest Service,” explained Jeff Juel, WildWest Institute's Ecosystem Defense Director....
Canadian pleads guilty to sabotage A Canadian eco-saboteur pleaded guilty Monday to his role in the Earth Liberation Front firebombing of a federal wild horse corral five years ago in northeastern California. Darren Thurston acknowledged before U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Portland that he sneaked into the United States in October 2001 to take part in the front's first major act of eco-sabotage after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The defendant acknowledged a series of covert actions that ended in the destruction of a barn and 250 tons of hay at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's wild horse and burro corral near Litchfield, Calif. The sabotage was nothing new for the 36-year-old activist. In the early 1990s in Alberta, he was convicted of setting fire to fish trucks and stealing 29 cats destined for medical experiments, according to news accounts. In 1998, Thurston and a close friend, David Barbarash, were charged with mailing letters booby-trapped with razors to hunting guides and fur industry officials. But the charges later were dropped when police refused to disclose their informants....
County tries development-rights buy as a new tactic for state land preservation Voters rejected revisions in state trust land law. And competing with developers at auction can be a losing proposition. So Pima County is trying a new approach to preserving state trust land. It's trying to buy the development rights to two parcels, one southwest of Tucson near the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge and the other in Davidson Canyon, where Arizona Portland Cement is seeking permission to mine state trust land. Buying development rights means the county would control the ability to put buildings on state trust land, preventing any development on the sites. But the State Land Department still would own the land and still could draw revenue from grazing leases or utility easements. State law allows the sale of development rights, provided the Land Department still has a way to make money from the land....
Study: Pinedale wells would hurt wildlife Additional oil and gas wells on the Pinedale Anticline would create barriers to wildlife and fragment habitat, according to an environmental impact statement released in December. The Bureau of Land Management is proposing 4,399 new wells on 12,278 acres and allowing winter drilling in crucial big game habitat. The BLM’s plan came in tandem with a mule deer study, focusing on the northern half of the Pinedale Anticline, that shows a 46 percent decline in the mule deer population since drilling began in the area. This year, the herd’s population numbers held steady after four years of decline. According to the supplemental environmental impact statement, the project would likely “create additional barriers to wildlife movements with increased fragmentation ... within former contiguous habitats.” The document states that big game would continue to be “adversely affected” by the construction of wells and the direct loss of habitat, including crucial winter range....
Chavez Trail to find new life It would seem that major place names and roads should remain the same over time, but they don't. Most Verde Valley residents probably never heard of the Chavez Road or for that matter, Antelope Springs (Flagstaff), Del Rio Springs (Prescott), the San Francisco River (Verde), Salinas River (Salt) or Sunset Crossing (Winslow). Those names and places are all part of the pioneering of the Verde Valley. The Forest Service has been surveying a section of the old Chavez Trail. Once complete, the historic trail that also has pre-historic significance will be identified with stone cairns and described as a contemporary trail with cultural and historic significance. Bill Stafford of the Red Rock Ranger District says, "This is the most historic wagon road in the Verde Valley and actually all the way from Winslow area to Prescott. This is the real McCoy. This is the one that is the old timer."....
Big game outlast blizzard's blow When a Colorado Division of Wildlife plane finally landed toward dusk Tuesday after a day-long survey of storm-ravaged southeast Colorado, it brought back more good news than bad. With a few exceptions, big game animals appear to have survived the epic New Year's blizzard better than officials expected. "Antelope have made their way to higher ridges where the snow was blown off," said Dan Prenzlow, director of DOW's Southeast Region. "They're in as good a spot as they can be." Lamar-area biologist Trent Verquer, who spent the day airborne and passed his observations along to Prenzlow, saw groups of dead pronghorn near Pritchett, but not large numbers....
The Democrats' Best Shot at Reform In 1996, a newly Republican Congress ended welfare as we knew it. In doing so, the Republicans improved a New Deal program that had become archaic, counterproductive, and dependency-forming. They also improved the public's image of Republicans. By defining the GOP as a party of ideas rather than interests, they burnished its reformist credentials and helped propel George W. Bush to the White House. Fast-forward a decade. Once again, Congress has changed hands. Once again, the new majority needs to signal that it stands for more than business as usual. Once again, an archaic, counterproductive, and dependency-inducing New Deal program is ripe for reform. Once again, a consensus has emerged on the general direction for reform. This time, the opportunity is to end farm welfare as we know it. In 2007, agricultural subsidies come up for reauthorization. Numbingly complex and arcane, farm bills have traditionally been of interest mainly to the agriculture lobbyists and farm-region legislators who wrote them in the Capitol's back rooms. In 2007, however, all Democratic lawmakers, not just the farm groupies, would be well advised to pay attention....
First cattle rustling charges in decades The Sulphur Springs Valley in Cochise County is a pastoral world where neighbors still wave to one another and doors stay unlocked. Renowned for its birding and marked by alfalfa farms and orchards, the valley, about 90 minutes southeast of Tucson, represents the spirit of the American West. But this throwback to Arizona's frontier needed 21st century DNA technology to crack the county's first charge of cattle rustling in at least 40 years. Late last month, rancher Larry Hubbard was charged with five felony and one misdemeanor counts of rustling after four of a neighbors' calves and a cow were found on his property. Four of neighboring rancher Doug Kuhn's cattle had wandered onto Hubbard's property some time before. Although Hubbard eventually called Kuhn to return three cows, he neglected to mention, or return, four calves that had been born in the interim, or a fourth cow that was pregnant. When Hubbard denied the calves came from Kuhn's cattle, court-ordered DNA testing showed otherwise....
Murder Charge Dropped in Rancher's Death Charges against a man accused in the slaying of a Grant County rancher have been dismissed. James Michael Snyder, 36, had been charged with murder and tampering with evidence in the death of John Edwards, 62, whose body was found Dec. 30, 2005, on a forest road near his pickup truck. The District Attorney's Office on Monday dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning they could be refiled later. ''The reason this is being done is the investigation is still ongoing. We still have a material witness that has not been located,'' said Deputy District Attorney George Zsoka. Snyder's girlfriend, Tammy Patrick, has been missing since shortly after the killing. Sheriff' deputies went to arrest Patrick the same day Snyder was arrested in early January 2006, but she had disappeared....
Herd of chilled spectators braves drifts for parade Sun-splashed viewing spaces along 17th Street in downtown Denver were at a premium Tuesday, packed with spectators as cowboys, cowgirls and livestock marched in a chilly National Western Stock Show & Rodeo parade. Dirty, weeks-old snow piled along curbsides didn't deter parade goers, many of whom flocked downtown with children in tow. "I'm going to the parade. I'm going to ride a cow," announced 3-year-old Devin Nieto, who was bundled in warm clothing and strapped into a stroller. Devin's mother, Lindsay Nieto of Thornton, said the toddler is a National Western veteran, having attended his first stock show when he was just a week old. Nineteen-year-old Anni Graefe of Black Forest, Germany, attended her first stock show parade Tuesday dressed in Western boots, bluejeans, a cowboy hat and a flashy Western shirt - worn under a warm down vest and jacket. Graefe, who is visiting relatives in Denver, snapped photographs with a digital camera and was "wowed" by the flashy costumes on some of the cowgirls....
Hannah ‘Wrangles’ a Wish Come True An extraordinary little girl from Louisville recently enjoyed an exciting dream come true thanks to Kids Wish Network, an organization in Florida that grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses. 11-year-old Hannah, who suffers from a severe seizure disorder, had the time of her life on her special trip to Coffee Creek Ranch in beautiful California! Hannah's adventure out West began soon after her mother, Andrea, learned about Kids Wish Network from a close relative. She began the application process with the charity in hopes that her brave daughter would qualify for a wish. Hannah had been through a lot in her young life and Andrea wanted her to have something fun to look forward to. A huge animal lover, Hannah is especially fond of horses and loves to ride whenever she can - it's also great therapy for her! So it was no surprise when, after Hannah was approved for a wish with Kids Wish Network, that she decided what she wanted most of all was to visit a dude ranch and ride with some real cowboys!....