NEWS ROUNDUP


Ranchers: Protect property rights Property owners should not bear the cost of the country's energy corridors, a Weston County rancher said Tuesday morning. Nancy Darnell of Weston County, who has two pipelines, a transmission line and a proposed railroad line on her ranch, said condemnation action is not economic development. She was one of a parade of ranchers from throughout the state who testified before the House Agriculture, Public Lands and Water Resources Committee Tuesday morning on House Bill 124, a measure that would change the state's eminent domain law. In general, the ranchers want more protection of their rights as landowners when industry comes looking for easements for a pipeline, for example. Many of the people testifying said they support the bill, crafted by a coalition of agriculture and industry representatives, with some amendments. Several ranchers, including Randy Dunn of Laramie, called for a requirement in the law that companies pay landowners annual rental fees rather than only a lump-sum settlement. Dunn has six pipelines and two overhead transmission lines on his ranch, which was cut in half by construction of Interstate 80....
Panel rules against landowner The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has ruled against a Park County landowner who sought to force an energy company to pay a higher bond for drilling on his land. The ruling Tuesday rejected arguments by Heart Mountain landowner Jim Dager that Windsor Energy should post a $416,000 surety bond to cover the loss of value of nearly 1,000 acres surrounding planned gas-drilling operations. The commission instead approved a proposal by Windsor to post a $13,000 bond, covering the loss of value of only the 10 acres of Dager's land that will be occupied by a well pad and disturbed by company operations. "We're happy with the decision," said Jeff Dahlberg, chief operations officer for Windsor. "It's what we expected. Anything else would have been very discouraging." Dager had argued changes to Wyoming's split-estate laws required that landowners be compensated when oil and gas operations impact land beyond the immediate footprint of roads or equipment sites. Dager said he purchased the land for its scenery, wildlife and privacy, all of which would be affected by gas operations, not just the 10 acres occupied by Windsor buildings and equipment....
Groups sue over coalbed water permits A water-rights dispute over water produced by coalbed methane drilling has landed in state District Court. The Northern Plains Resource Council and the Tongue River Water Users' Association on Tuesday sued a state agency and a gas developer, alleging their state constitutional rights are being violated. The groups also claim a state hearings examiner erred in a recent decision on an application for water rights. The suit, filed in Helena, named as defendants the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation as well as Fidelity Exploration and Production Co., a subsidiary of MDU Resources Inc. Fidelity is seeking two permits to market water produced by coalbed methane drilling for beneficial uses, including irrigation on a ranch it owns in Wyoming, dust suppression at a Montana coal mine, livestock and wildlife watering and its industrial operations. Northern Plains, the Tongue River group and several ranchers in southeastern Montana have objected to Fidelity's permit applications, saying they would harm their senior water rights in ground and surface waters and would violate the Montana Constitution....
State must regulate CBM water, council told The major losers in coal-bed methane development are the off-site landowners who live downstream from the end of the discharge water pipes, a University of Wyoming professor said Wednesday. Roger Coupal, associate professor of agriculture and applied sciences, said the state could apply a small discharge fee against industry that could be used to pay for administration and mitigation for the off-site landowners for damage to their property. It was one of several alternatives offered by Coupal, who testified Wednesday at a Wyoming Environmental Quality Council public hearing. The hearing, which packed the Cheyenne City Council chambers, stems from a petition from the Powder River Basin Resource Council calling for state regulation of coal-bed methane discharge water....
Feds won't kill excess wolves Federal wildlife officials will not eliminate excess wolf packs in Wyoming after formal delisting is proposed later this month. That notice came in response to a list of questions from state officials about a new federal wolf management plan introduced at a high-profile meeting last month in Cheyenne. State officials, including Gov. Dave Freudenthal, received the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service letter at the end of the business day Wednesday and did not have any comment on the seven-page document. State lawmakers considering changes to Wyoming’s wolf laws have said the federal response could play a significant role in that debate. A chief concern from the state is how to handle the excess packs between federal approval of a Wyoming wolf management plan and actual removal of federal protection for the animals. Wyoming is currently home to about 23 wolf packs outside Yellowstone National Park, 16 more than required under federal wolf recovery guidelines....
Scabies increasingly affecting elk The number of elk in the Yellowstone National Park region infected with scabies, a skin infestation caused by mites, is up this year, state wildlife officials say. The disease can be fatal - especially when an animal's health has been weakened for other reasons, such as old age or disease. Scabies also can cause animals to lose all their hair, said Jim Miller, a Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks game warden. "I've seen a lot of them that look naked," he said. "Just a little fuzz on them." The mites that cause scabies live at the base of host hairs and pierce the skin with their mouths. This causes inflammation, hair loss and an "oozing matter which hardens into a scab and ultimately a dark crust," according to FWP information distributed this winter to Gardiner-area hunters. The type of scabies infecting elk is not a threat to humans. Meat from infected elk isn't as tender as meat from healthy elk, park biologist Travis Wyman said....
Minerals director under fire over leases Minerals Management Service Director Johnnie Burton is under fire over when she knew about problems with oil and gas drilling leases that may cost the government billions of dollars, with a key Republican suggesting Wednesday that she may need to resign. The Interior Department's inspector general has investigated whether Burton, a former Wyoming state official, knew about the leasing errors earlier than she first told Congress. In September, Burton testified before a House committee that she first learned about the issue in late 2005 or early 2006. But the inspector general's report, due to be released at a Senate hearing today, will say that e-mails show she was told about it in early 2004. At issue are oil and gas drilling leases signed in 1998 and 1999 during the Clinton administration. A clause triggering royalty payments if energy prices rose over a certain amount was left out of those leases, costing the government potentially as much as $10 billion if not corrected....
Column - You Can Always Blame Coyote Poor Coyote. He gets blamed for everything. The Crow say Coyote created the world. The Wasco say Coyote left two grizzly bears and two wolves in the sky to form the Big Dipper. The Colville say Coyote dug a hole in the Cascade Mountains to create the Columbia River Several tribes claim that Coyote brought the world fire, like Prometheus. Coyote’s most popular role in tribal stories is as Trickster, the rebel against authority, the breaker of taboos. He is the sacred clown, buffoon, lecher, poacher, cheater. He’s also very crafty at destroying his enemies. So Coyote was at it again last week, making the town of Baker, Montana and the organizers of an annual coyote hunt look foolish with his antics. Billed as a tourist attraction, organizer Jerrid Geving also wrapped the event in the rural flag when he offered the hunt up as an effort predator control: “they do a lot of damage to livestock."....
Klamath commissioners split on tribe forestland question The question of whether ownership of the Fremont-Winema National Forest should be transferred to the Klamath Tribes has split Klamath County commissioners. A vote to schedule a Feb. 6 hearing on the potential transfer was the latest development in a debate over ownership of public lands. Commissioners Al Switzer and Bill Brown voted for the public hearing while Chairman John Elliott voted against it. “I question whether a public hearing like this does anything positive for our community,” Elliott said. But tribal officials say they need the land to become self-sufficient economically. The Klamath Basin Alliance submitted 1,100 signatures in December against the transfer of public lands. The organization opposes the transfer of ownership of any part of the forest from the federal government to the Klamath Tribes, which are seeking to recreate the reservation they had before losing federal recognition in 1961. The tribes regained recognition in 1986....
Horse sanctuary draws scrutiny State and federal officials say they're looking into allegations of animal cruelty on a private Albany County ranch that touted itself as a refuge for wild horses taken from public range. While a state Bureau of Land Management official said Wednesday a team of veterinarians is scheduled to visit the ranch Monday to assess the condition of more than 300 horses, the state BLM wild horse program leader said his assessment is that the horses are not being mistreated. "I do not think this is any form of neglect or cruelty," said Alan Shepherd, the horse program leader who visited the ranch less than a month ago. "I have seen a lot of wild horses in the wild, and when I saw these horses, I wouldn't say they're in bad shape." But Bryan Broderson, a Laramie real estate agent who grew up around horses, said the animals on the Sheep Mountain Ranch in the Centennial Valley are obviously in poor condition.....
Salamander dilemma: split or lump? A decision by a California Superior Court judge last week brought a simmering biological and legal debate back into public view: To split or to lump? San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Peter Busch effectively ruled that the California Department of Fish and Game can't automatically de-list one species of salamander just because its close relative might not need state protection. The California Fish and Game Commission has to take up the matter of whether the Scott Bar salamander -- a species once thought to be the same as the Siskiyou Mountains salamander -- might itself be on the edge, Busch ruled. Environmental groups who sued over the department's efforts to take the Siskiyou Mountains salamander off the endangered species list are worried that Scott Bar salamanders may be too few in number and inhabit too small a range to withstand logging pressure. Skeptics wonder if modern genetic techniques might create a Pandora's Box, overwhelming agencies charged to consider protection of numerous new rare species....
Snowmobilers fight wilderness proposal Most of the people who stop by Kevin Phillips' snowmobile rental shop, Mountain Mayhem, want to rent the machines to frolic in the steep terrain at nearby Mount Jefferson. But business owners like Phillips and snowmobile enthusiasts are fearing the worst over a proposal by the U.S. Forest Service to close the area to motorized vehicles. Phillips estimates that 85 percent of his customers want to ride snowmobiles there. "If they close Mount Jefferson, I'll be done renting," Phillips said. U.S. Forest Service officials have been working for several years to revise their forest plan for Montana's Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. Mount Jefferson sits on the Idaho-Montana line. The popular snowmobiling area in question is north of the border in Montana, but the easiest winter access is through Idaho's Fremont County. After gathering public comments, the agency came up with five proposals, with the preferred option calling for a wilderness designation for the mountain. Opponents have ramped up their efforts to fight the proposal. U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, sent a letter to the Forest Service last month asking it to alter its initial plans and keep the area open to snowmobiles....
Feds: Boy Scouts should pay for fire The government is asking a judge to declare Boy Scouts responsible for a fire that burned 14,200 acres and cost millions to control in 2002. If the judge agrees, the Great Salt Lake Council could be faced with reimbursing the government. Scouts who were working on wilderness survival badges caused the fire that consumed 22 square miles of federal, state and private land in the Uinta Mountains in northeastern Utah, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Overby said. A U.S. Forest Service investigator pinpointed the fire to an area where some Scouts had stayed overnight, Overby told U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell....
Weather Channel Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics The Weather Channel’s most prominent climatologist is advocating that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming. This latest call to silence skeptics follows a year (2006) in which skeptics were compared to "Holocaust Deniers" and Nuremberg-style war crimes trials were advocated by several climate alarmists. The Weather Channel’s (TWC) Heidi Cullen, who hosts the weekly global warming program "The Climate Code," is advocating that the American Meteorological Society (AMS) revoke their "Seal of Approval" for any television weatherman who expresses skepticism that human activity is creating a climate catastrophe. "If a meteorologist can't speak to the fundamental science of climate change, then maybe the AMS shouldn't give them a Seal of Approval. Clearly, the AMS doesn't agree that global warming can be blamed on cyclical weather patterns," Cullen wrote in her December 21 weblog on the Weather Channel Website....
Pelosi May Create Global Warming Panel House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, intent on putting global warming atop the Democratic agenda, is shaking up traditional committee fiefdoms dominated by some of Congress' oldest and most powerful members. She's moving to create a special committee to recommend legislation for cutting greenhouse gases, most likely to be chaired by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a Democratic leadership aide said Wednesday. Markey has advocated raising mileage standards for cars, trucks and SUVs and is one of the House's biggest critics of oil companies and U.S. automakers. Pelosi has discussed the proposal with at least two Democratic committee chairmen: fellow Californian Henry Waxman of Oversight and Government Reform, and West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall, who heads the Natural Resources panel. Pelosi intends to announce the move this week, said the leadership aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because not all of the details have been worked out. The move, to some degree, would sidestep two of the House's most powerful Democratic committee bosses, in shaping what's expected to be at least a yearlong debate on global warming....
Group Calls for Competition Title in Farm Bill The next Farm Bill should contain its first Competition Title to ensure fairness of competition in livestock markets, according to the Western Organization of Resource Councils. WORC Livestock Committee Chair Mabel Dobbs says only four companies control cattle, hog and poultry markets, making them uncompetitive and unfair for producers. "These companies use secret deals and captive supplies to lower the price paid to family farmers and ranchers – a cost that WORC estimates at $1 billion or more a year," Dobbs says. The reforms backed by WORC and other groups include: * Ending packer control of livestock markets by setting limits on packer ownership of livestock and having firm, negotiated prices for captive supply contracts. * Ensuring fair poultry contracts and markets through fairness standards for contracts and bargaining rights for contract farmers. * Keeping producers and consumers better informed through improved Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting and implementation of Country-of-Origin Labeling....
MCA, Schweitzer propose statewide natural beef program The Montana Cattlemen’s Association (MCA) and the State of Montana has proposed a marketing program targeting the natural beef market and adding value to Montana’s feeder calves. The contemplated program has been envisioned with the State of Montana to create the market and resulting demand through Gov. Brian Schweitzer's economic development team. MCA is suggesting that the product line be developed around the following definitions: 1. Montana Certified Natural Beef shall be a program administered through the Montana State Department of Agriculture and the Board of Livestock and will require at least one inspection at the ranch of origin of the cattle to assure compliance, including the required record keeping protocol. The state would maintain a list of certified ranches or ranchers and make that available to purchasers of the cattle or beef. 2. The origin of the cattle must be Montana. The beef must be from cattle born, raised and fed in the State of Montana. 3. The cattle must be raised in an environmentally prudent manner consistent with Montana's best grazing standards and raised pursuant to Beef Quality Assurance or similar guidelines. 4. The cattle shall be raised with no sub-therapeutic antibiotics, synthetic hormones, or synthetic growth promotants....
VeriPrime Certified Traceable Food Provides Cornerstone of Food Safety VeriPrime, a member-owned federation of cooperatives including producers, processors and retailers, announced today that it will introduce the VeriPrime Traceability Assurance System (VTAS), to provide safer and Certified Traceable food products to American consumers. Certified Traceable food products are tracked from “farm to fork” to ensure accountability throughout the food chain. Food retailers electing to offer consumers Certified Traceable products can immediately start the process to begin delivering Certified Traceable foods to consumers. The VTAS was introduced as a new industry best practice for farmers, ranchers, food processors and retailers. VTAS is the nation’s first and only feed and food chain traceability program via an accredited USDA certifying body. Certified Traceable food will be identified by a VeriPrime seal of approval (or label). “For the first time consumers can be assured at a glance that the food they are purchasing is traceable to its source,” said Dr. Scott Crain, DVM, CEO of VeriPrime. “Certified Traceable food is the first and best step to safer food. Although America’s food supply is one of the safest in the world, VeriPrime Certified Traceable food will make our food safer from farm to fork.” “The need for food traceability is clear. One in four Americans suffers from foodborne illnesses and nearly 5,000 die every year from the food they eat,” explained Dr. Crain. “Traceability is the cornerstone of food safety and the VTAS, as the prerequisite for all other food safety programs, ensures that everyone is accountable along each step of the food chain.”....
'Letters from a Bounty Hunter' is 'more than a shoot-em up' The greatest compliment an author can enjoy is not how many books are sold, but rather how often a book is passed from person to person. This is exactly what is happening with the very first novel published by Newport resident Jim Kennison, as family, friends and strangers eagerly share the colorful - inside and out - book with others. "I'm really quite satisfied with the way things are going," Kennison says of "Letters from a Bounty Hunter." Just published by Outskirts Press, "Letters from a Bounty Hunter" is a western fiction that is being promoted alongside books by such heavyweights as Larry McMurtry, Jack London and Louis L'Amour through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. And the story is getting rave reviews. "As a working rancher, I don't have a lot of time to just sit and read. This book has short, action-packed chapters that let me finish a whole chapter when I'm able to take a break. It's a fine story that both my wife and I enjoyed very much," one reader wrote. Another review says, "As promised, this book does indeed offer action, adventure, education and romance. Each character, whether hero or villain, is well-developed ... Unlike many western novels, 'Bounty Hunter' is more than a shoot-em up. There is also a tender side of the story that will appeal to both men and women."....
Column - Pickup Truck Takes Its Place in Rural American Culture Here in Montana, a working truck is the equivalent of a doctor's black bag, stuffed with every little thing that you need to do your job. One of my former high school teachers, a bird hunter with a set of famous Brittany spaniels, has dog kennels built into his bed. And most fishing guides I know tow their boats along behind, the beds filled with waders and rods and oars. If it's warm enough, a lot of us give our old black labs a ride. There are ranchers with rifles in the back window and snips of bailing wire on the dashboard. Passing each other on the county road, you wave a few fingers off the steering wheel. "The day is going pretty well, thanks." At the corner cafe, you pass the time with your forearms on the tailgate, catching up on what Ron and the family have been up to since the last time you saw them....
Shootin' the Bull With Bullfighters So what? So the bullfighters who risk their lives over 100 times a weekend for the cowboys on the Professional Bull Riders tour are tougher than a hospital steak. And, yeah, they make an NFL middle linebacker look like Richard Simmons. And, true, they may be the bravest, most underpaid athletes in America. I don't give a cow chip. They're the worst damn interviews this side of the Kentucky Derby winner. I spent a day at Madison Square Garden with three of the bullfighters who save fallen cowboys from getting gored or crushed on the PBR tour. I even got into the arena with them, wore the pads and the outfit and everything. Yet every time I'd ask anything, it would get real quiet. One time this cowboy who'd already made his eight seconds was hanging on by a cuticle as the bull kept wildly spinning. So bullfighter Shorty Gorham, 28, cupped his hand over the bull's eye. "Why'd you do that?" I asked. "Cuz it works," he said. Spit....
The Curse of Rancho Los Feliz They say it’s cursed. Griffith Park – all of it. But if there is a pox on the park that Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith set aside, then City Councilman Tom LaBonge ought to heed the warnings of the past. The city is in the midst of redesigning some of the park right about now, and LaBonge is neck-deep in it, perhaps to manifest the latest iteration of a scourge and hex that first appeared around the time Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Yes, in 1863, according to legend (and a bit of recorded history), local rancher Don Antonio Feliz, who owned the 8,000-acre rancho, succumbed to smallpox. In his wake, a legacy dispute ensued over the signing of his will. While his niece, Dona Petranilla, was sent away to protect her from the pox, it seems one of Don Feliz’s associates, Don Antonio Coronel, bamboozled her out of the estate that would someday become Griffith Park itself. Dona Petranilla did not, however, go quietly....