NEWS ROUNDUP

State legislators await wolf proposal from feds The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it's close to submitting a formal proposal to the state of Wyoming intended to resolve the dispute over management of wolves in the state. Some legislators, however, say they have concerns about the informal proposals they have heard from the federal agency, including its call to designate a permanent area in northwestern Wyoming in which wolves would be managed as trophy game animals. Gov. Dave Freudenthal encouraged lawmakers in his State of the State address on Wednesday to keep alive placeholder bills in both legislative houses so the state will be ready to act when it receives a formal federal proposal. "I'm not in a position today to say that there will be a bill recommended to you this session," Freudenthal said. "But I would ask that as we move through the session that you keep some vehicles alive in the event that we are able to reach an agreement, that we are able to respond to a most vexatious issue for the state."....
Wyo seeks wolf assurances Wyoming officials are seeking assurances from the federal government that delisting of wolves will be prompt, and that the state will be able to limit damage to livestock and wildlife before then, as they eye a possible compromise on wolf management. The state sent a letter Monday outlining more than 43 questions to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Mitch King. They ask if the government will reduce wolf packs to about 15 packs required after delisting, if the government will fund the state's wolf management, and if the government will compensate for livestock losses. All this comes after King met with state officials in mid-December to discuss a possible compromise that would allow Wyoming to move toward removing the gray wolf from federal protection. The state is rushing to get answers in order to draft bills reflecting the proposed compromise in the current legislative session. King said Wednesday the federal government will likely not compensate for livestock losses, and will likely not reduce wolf packs. He said his agency has crafted a formal response to Wyoming's letter, and it is in the nation's capital for final approval....
Idaho Governor Calls for Gray Wolf Kill Idaho's governor said Thursday he will support public hunts to kill all but 100 of the state's gray wolves after the federal government strips them of protection under the Endangered Species Act. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter told The Associated Press that he wants hunters to kill about 550 gray wolves. That would leave about 100 wolves, or 10 packs, according to a population estimate by state wildlife officials. The 100 surviving wolves would be the minimum before the animals could again be considered endangered. "I'm prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself," Otter said earlier Thursday during a rally of about 300 hunters. Otter complained that wolves are rapidly killing elk and other animals essential to Idaho's multimillion-dollar hunting industry. The hunters, many wearing camouflage clothing and blaze-orange caps, applauded wildly during his comments....
Ag groups seek energy payback The Wyoming Stock Growers and Wyoming Wool Growers associations are asking that ranchers who lose grazing areas to energy development be compensated and that the grazing areas be reclaimed properly. The two groups sent a joint resolution to the Bureau of Land Management last month. Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Stock Growers, said the resolution is aimed at helping ranchers who graze stock in the Atlantic Rim area southwest of Rawlins. Increased coalbed methane development is planned for the area next summer. "The concern about Atlantic Rim is what really drove this policy," Magagna said. The BLM is proposing to allow drilling of 2,000 natural gas wells on some 270,000 acres of federal, state and private land south of Rawlins. The BLM's study of the development says roads, facilities, damage to forage and weed invasion could result in the loss of 20,000 animal-unit months over the life of the project. An animal-unit month is a measurement of the food necessary to sustain one cow and one calf for a month....
Utah, Nevada groundwater negotiations picking up Negotiations between Utah and Nevada over how to divide groundwater resources in the Snake Valley along the state line have slowed to a crawl in recent months. But things could be picking up again soon. Michael Styler, director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, told a gathering of water officials Tuesday that Nevada appears poised to resume discussions again now that new Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons has decided to leave the state's negotiating team in place. In addition, Styler noted that hearings assessing the Southern Nevada Water Authority's initial application to tap groundwater in neighboring Spring Valley have wrapped up and a decision by the state engineer is due shortly. That should, he said, spur the pace of negotiations, which "slowed considerably during the Spring Valley hearings. In fact, we about lost contact with them." Utah and Nevada must reach an agreement over the sharing of Snake Valley water before the authority's proposal to pump up to 50,000 acre-feet annually from the Nevada side of the basin can go forward. The proposal is part of a massive plan to ship the groundwater via a 200-mile pipeline network to Las Vegas....
Fire lawsuit settlement costs $400,00 A Thorp couple caught in the deadly Thirtymile forest fire received $400,000 to end their lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service, a federal spokeswoman confirmed Thursday. Bruce and Paula Hagemeyer, the two campers overtaken by flames in the 2001 fire that killed four Central Washington firefighters, had declined to release the dollar amount when their attorney announced the settlement last week. Bruce Hagemeyer said Thursday afternoon that he and his wife were satisfied with the resolution of the case, given the uncertainties inherent in progressing toward a trial. "We just consider that what we did was part of the bigger picture to bring some attention that major changes are needed in the Forest Service. Maybe it will put enough pressure on them to make a difference," Hagemeyer said. The government drew the money from an account set aside for court judgments, said Jean McNeil, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Boise, Idaho, which handled the lawsuit. The couple had said they weren't driven by financial motivations, but wanted to help improve safety for firefighters and improve accountability for the Forest Service....Horse puckey. If they really wanted to teach the FS a lesson, they would have put them on trial, subpoenaed documents, reports, etc. and made them testify under oath. Instead, the taxpayers are out $400,000 and the FS has admitted nothing.
Park snowmobile plan fought County and state officials in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana want the federal government to drop a proposed permanent ban on unguided snowmobile trips in Yellowstone National Parks. Commenting on a National Park Service winter-use plan for the parks, the counties and states also asked the service to keep open Yellowstone's eastern entrance near Cody, Wyo. The comments - from the governors of Wyoming and Idaho and officials in Park and Teton counties in Wyoming and Gallatin County, Mont. - represent the first swipe at a new park-management plan expected to be finalized by next winter. That document is the latest to emerge from a decadelong attempt to rein in winter activity, particularly snowmobiles, at Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Parkway, which connects the two parks....
Wyoming Senate endorses proposal on state land A bill that would remove the word "public" in references to state land in Wyoming law won preliminary approval in the Senate on Thursday on a voice vote. "Many in our state would believe (state lands) are treated and managed the same as federal land, and they are not," said Sen. Wayne Johnson, R-Cheyenne. The Office of State Lands and Investments and the Board of Land Commissioners requested the bill, Johnson said, to help emphasize the distinction. Most Wyoming state lands are open to the public, but not for the full range of uses permitted on public lands managed by the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management or U.S. Forest Service. On state lands open to the public, recreational uses like hunting, fishing and hiking are permitted, but camping and starting campfires are not. Intrusions onto public land by "mud boggers" who go in with motorized vehicles and tear through muddy land, and by campers and others have caused damage to state lands. The Senate bill doesn't change any existing public access to or use of state lands, Johnson emphasized....
Deaths in Yellowstone ruled murder-suicide The mysterious deaths of an Arizona man and his 13-year-old son in Yellowstone National Park in 2005 have been classified as murder-suicide. National Park Service investigators believe that Drew Webster Speedie, 50, a computer software designer, pushed his son, Brent, off a bridge 200 feet above the Gardner River and then jumped to his death. Investigators will never know for sure what happened on the Gardner Bridge the morning of Sept. 16, but several factors - physical evidence, the position of the bodies and information about Drew Speedie - allowed park officials to classify the deaths as murder-suicide and close the case. "There's enough evidence to lead us to one conclusion," said Brian Smith, special agent in charge for the intermountain region, who led the investigation....
What Happens Next? Outdoor News Predictions for 2007 I predict the following will be the biggest stories of 2007--and what will or will not happen in the coming year. # Brother Wolf will still be the Top Dog in 2007 and continue as the top outdoor story. In fact, the multi-headed controversy growing out of the 1995 restoration project will be so pervasive in the news that even wolf fans might get tired of it and go back to reading the comics. # And I'll really go out on a limb and predict that the wolf population will continue to grow in 2007. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will push hard for delisting. Idaho and Wyoming will propose aggressive reductions in wolf numbers. EarthJustice will sue both states and the feds over delisting and control plans. And at the end of year nothing will have happened except that we'll have more wolves. # Thanks to the above-mentioned gridlock, especially in Wyoming, the wolf population will expand into at least one other state--Colorado, South Dakota, Utah or Oregon--and become an endangered species there, prolonging the wolf controversy for another generation or two....
Habitat restoration daunting after fires Efforts to restore vast stretches of Nevada landscape charred during last summer's destructive fire season are well under way, but officials say the scale of the task is daunting. With more than 1.3 million acres burned in 2006, resources to restore land critical for wildlife and to prevent the takeover of invasive plants are severely limited. "We're treating those areas where we see the greatest need and the greatest potential for success," said Dave Pulliam, habitat bureau chief for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. Efforts are focused on wildlife habitat lost during last summer's fires, mostly in Elko County, where roughly 1 million acres, or more than 1,500 square miles, burned. Restoration efforts are being coordinated by several agencies, including the Department of Wildlife, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service....
Coal production surges Although total U.S. coal consumption declined by 1.2 percent in 2006, Wyoming coal production spiked by more than 10 percent due to a rush to replenish stockpiles of Powder River Basin coal at electric utilities. Wyoming coal mines shipped about 446.1 million tons of coal in 2006, according to a Casper Star-Tribune survey and data from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. That's a 42.7 million-ton increase over production in 2005 and an unusual high-water mark for the industry. Back-to-back derailments on the Powder River Basin's main triple-track rail line in 2005 choked deliveries that year and spurred BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad to launch a massive effort to expand export capacity out of the region. "The biggest reason (for the 10 percent increase in 2006) is better railroad capacity. 2005 should have been a bigger year, if not for the derailment problems," said Marion Loomis, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association....
Major piece of O.C. land set aside as nature reserve About 32,000 acres of oak-studded woodlands in South County, including land that is home to endangered species such as the gnatcatcher and the arroyo toad, will be set aside as a nature reserve, federal wildlife authorities announced Thursday. Environmental officials have worked for more than a dozen years to preserve the foothills east of Mission Viejo, San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente, cities that have had high growth in recent years. "It serves as a blueprint to help guide the landowners for the most appropriate places to develop while identifying key preservation areas," said Jane Hendron, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman. The deal would allow several major construction projects to move forward on land adjacent to the reserve, including a controversial plan to build as many as 14,000 homes on the brushland south of Mission Viejo. The reserve would include land deeded by the county and Rancho Mission Viejo, which is planning the housing development. It would be the second major chunk of undeveloped acreage in Orange County to be preserved....
Boy's find fills gap in horse evolution A startling discovery by a young Californian boy has helped fill a key gap in the evolution of the horse. Gavin Sutter, aged eight, from Auburn, found the prehistoric bones of a horse dating back 15 million years. Crucially, the remains he found were of a three-toed horse. Horses are known to have evolved from small five-toed animals into the horses we know today, which have only one toe, and the tiny boney remnants of two others. Gavin's find fills a crucial gap in the evolutionary path of the horse, as it evolved from a five-toed to effectively a single-toed animal....
Second possible route for Yucca Mountain rail line to get study The government has set aside a 130-mile stretch of land through central Nevada so the Energy Department can study whether it wants to use it to build a rail line to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, officials said. The federal Bureau of Land Management withdrew the mile-wide corridor from Hawthorne to Goldfield from public use and withdrew an additional 107 square miles of property along portions of a previously designated study route from Caliente to the Yucca Mountain site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The moves became official with a Wednesday posting in the Federal Register in Washington, D.C. Setting aside 140,000 acres along the so-called 130-mile Mina corridor means no new mining or property claims can be made, said Dennis Samuelson, a BLM realty specialist in Reno. It forbids the government from selling or trading the land. Grazing and other public access are not restricted. The land withdrawals will allow the Energy Department to conduct environmental studies of the rail routes to the proposed national nuclear repository....
'Cowboy U' heads to Colorado, but it feels like we've been here before So when I heard that "Cowboy U," one of the reality shows on Country Music Television, was coming to Colorado to film the series' sixth season, I hollered, "Yee-haw!" — inside my head, at least. Shot in the mountains west of Pikes Peak, I figured this show would compete favorably with last season's curious Hawaii location. Turns out I was wrong — mostly because this year's show is just more of the same. In this season's opening episode, we're re-introduced to a pair of professional cowboys, "Cowboy U" hosts Rocco Wachman and Judd Leffew, as they head to Lake George's M Lazy C Ranch to meet their eight new recruits. Each is a self-described city slicker. The four male and four female contestants roll off the hay-bale truck with their piles of luggage, healthy physiques and fancy city duds. Rocco makes his usual Bad Cop entrance atop a stunning spotted horse. Judd jumps on and off a bull with a bright Good Cop smile....
Jake Barnes: Back in the saddle after difficult injury Jake Barnes grew up wanting to be a cowboy. Both sets of his grandparents were ranchers in New Mexico. His dad was a cowboy (roper, to be exact), and he was named after his great-uncle Jake McClure. There was never any doubt he’d grow up doing the same thing. Born in Huntsville, Texas, Barnes grew up in Bloomfield, N.M., and was 20 years old when he began competing professionally in 1980. Considered a professional cowboy, this lifestyle is all Barnes has ever known. He has never held another job. On tap to win his eighth world team roping title in 2005, tragedy struck in the fifth round when Barnes lost the thumb on his roping hand and was sidelined from further competition. Two months after what was considered a “major injury,” Barnes began roping again. But he was only at 60 percent. He suffered a shoulder injury that was far more troublesome than this thumb injury and endured much therapy and frustration, both physically and mentally....
Homesteader's letters from the Wild West Because it's January, and because the holidays are over, and - oh, just because it's the season for the traditional "winter doldrums" to set in, I'd like to introduce you to a woman who has become a good friend of mine over this past year. Her name is Elinore Pruitt Stewart. She passed away in 1933, but she has beguiled many an hour for me with her honest, gritty-yet-glowing accounts of her life as an early 1900s homesteader in the then-unsettled territory of Wyoming. Although she was born in Arkansas, Elinore (I like to think we're on a first-name basis) was not unfamiliar with the vicissitudes of life in the Wild West. She had been raised in what was then called "Oklahoma Indian Territory," and her formal schooling had ended rather unceremoniously when her grade school teacher was hanged by a lynch mob. She also had the task, at the age of 14, of raising her eight brothers and sisters after the death of their parents. After getting a job with the burgeoning western railroads, she married, had a child, was widowed (or divorced; accounts differ), and moved to Denver, where she worked as a housekeeper. While there, she got the idea to forsake the poverty, grime and overcrowding of big-city life (sound familiar?) and try for her own homestead....