NEWS ROUNDUP

No 'Global Warming' on List of Anticipated Threats American adults asked to anticipate "major threats to the United States in the next five years" picked a variety of worrisome scenarios -- but "global warming" wasn't among them. According to the Harris Poll, more than half of adults (55 percent) think it is extremely or very likely that a large number of illegal immigrants coming into this country will be a threat in the next five years. The Harris Poll noted that Republicans were much more likely than Democrats to see large-scale illegal immigration as an extremely or very likely threat. Fifty-two percent of adults (more Democrats than Republicans) believe that a significant loss of jobs to foreign countries is an extremely or very likely threat. Forty-three percent of adults believe it is extremely or very likely that a significant natural disaster will destroy parts of a major city in the next five years; 40 percent worried about U.S. energy needs exceeding supplies; and 35 percent mentioned a trade imbalance leading to foreign ownership of the nation's debt and property....
Giuliani 'Definitely' Believes in Global Warming Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, insisting he is "100 percent committed" to running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, wooed Silicon Valley's tech leaders Monday -- saying he "definitely'' believes in global warming, praising Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for being a "progressive'' leader on the environment and calling for immigration policies that welcome "people who make contributions" to America's economy. The former New York mayor, in his informal address to the Churchill Club, strode before the audience with no notes and a microphone, tackled issues that ranged from a defense of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war and the war on terror to the challenges of the global economy. But he also took positions on the environment and immigration which -- while posing potential problems with conservative Republicans on the right -- are likely to endear him to the moderate high-tech crowd courted by candidates on both sides as a potential source of big campaign dollars. "I do believe there's global warming, yes,'' said Giuliani, in response to reporters' questions following his talk to the Churchill Club. "The big question has always been how much of it is happening because of natural climate changes and how much of it is happening because of human intervention.''....
Upcoming forum will examine agriculture and the global climate The 2007 Colorado Agricultural Outlook Forum will focus on the facts, effects and policies associated with global climate change. The forum will provide opportunities for agriculturalists to examine how evolving climates can affect agriculture. The forum, "From Colorado to the Clouds: Agriculture and a Changing Global Climate," will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21, at the Double Tree Hotel, 3203 Quebec St. in Denver. The annual forum is sponsored by Colorado State University, the Colorado Department of Agriculture and the Colorado Agricultural Rural Leadership graduates. State and national experts will present facts about climate change and engage in question-and-answer sessions with the audience. Opportunities for agriculture to curb the emission of greenhouse gasses and farm policies related to climate change also will be discussed. Speakers include Naomi Pena of the PEW Center for Global Climate Change; Bill Hohenstein of the USDA-Office of the Chief Economist; John Sheehan, a senior strategic analyst at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden; and Colorado State University professors Bill Cotton, Dennis Ojima and Keith Paustian....
HOUSE HEARING ON 'WARMING OF THE PLANET' CANCELED AFTER ICE STORM The Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality hearing scheduled for Wednesday, February 14, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building has been postponed due to inclement weather. The hearing is entitled “Climate Change: Are Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Human Activities Contributing to a Warming of the Planet?” The hearing will be rescheduled to a date and time to be announced later....
Light Truck Owners Unite Against Misguided CO2 Law Farmers, ranchers, small businesses, contractors, boaters, campers, RV owners and families are among the millions of light truck owners in California who will be adversely affected by a new law unless it is overturned, according to new advertisements by the SUV Owners of America (SUVOA), the first of which will be placed in the Wednesday, February 14 editions of the Sacramento, Modesto and Fresno Bee newspapers. SUVOA Communications Director Ron DeFore said, "Our goal is to alert California consumers before it's too late. Like many laws passed with swell- sounding intentions and no public debate, years down the road there will be a great reckoning when the price tag and other consequences are felt. Hang on to your wallet because this one is going to cost you big time." Known as AB 1493 when California passed it in 2002, the law is currently scheduled to take affect in model year 2009, just 18 months from now. If it is not repealed or overturned in the courts, the law will force higher prices for pick-ups, SUVs, vans and other light trucks, and it will most likely reduce their safety, utility, and towing and hauling capacity....
Double take I THINK we need another Roger Sherman. You know, Roger Sherman? The Connecticut patriot? Signer of the Declaration of Independence, delegate to the Constitutional Convention and all-around nice guy? That Roger Sherman? Sigh. I’ll grant you, Roger’s not exactly box-office these days. For most Americans anymore, a New England patriot is somebody who didn’t quite make the Super Bowl this year. And I guarantee you, this one won’t be winning any rushing titles. But we can still use him. Or at least his ideas. Anything, really, that can find the right balance between Kansas cities and Kansas counties. It’s an old battle that never really dies. Back when the frontier was being settled, the legendary fight was between the farmer and the rancher. Now it has evolved to the rural and the urban, the county resident and the city-dweller. When they cooperate, they’re unbeatable. But when they clash, everyone knows it. There’s been a lot of clashing lately....
Ranchers, politicians celebrate water victory Ranchers, lawmakers, county commissioners and the lieutenant governor celebrated Monday, following the Legislature's unopposed passage of a resolution about the Utah-Nevada groundwater issue. HJR1 passed the Senate by 26-0, three not voting, and the House by 73-2, two not voting. The measure concerns plans by the Las Vegas Water District to pump underground water from two aquifers and send it to the Las Vegas area. One of these is in Snake Valley, whose water is both in eastern Nevada and western Utah. The Snake Valley project would use about 27,000 acre-feet of water, which worries ranchers and conservationists concerning the impact on resources in both states. The resolution calls on Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. to consider the consequences of the project, involve the citizens in any agreement with Nevada and "refrain from entering into the ... agreement with Nevada until scientific studies have been completed." Cecil Garland, a rancher from Callao, Juab County, who has headed opposition to the project, said the western desert region does not have a surplus of water — "we have a deficit." Drought and use of the aquifer already are impacting the land, he said. Meanwhile, the resolution — with its call for involvement by local residents in decision-making — sets a precedent for future decisions, he said....
U.S. doesn't hold federal rangeland water rights: Idaho SC Private ranchers who have been grazing livestock on federal rangeland prior to the passage of a U.S. grazing act hold instream water rights, the Idaho Supreme Court recently ruled. In the case of Joyce Livestock Co. vs. the United States of America (No. 39576) the Supreme Court affirmed a district court ruling that Joyce Livestock staked its water rights claim by grazing livestock beginning in 1898. This predates the federal government's Taylor Grazing Act in 1934. "Joyce Livestock's predecessors obtained water rights on federal land for stock watering simply by applying the water to a beneficial use through watering their livestock in the springs, creeks, and rivers on the range they used for forage," the Supreme Court ruled. The Supreme Court also agreed with the district court's denial of water rights to the federal government "based upon appropriations by those it permitted to use the rangeland after enactment of the Taylor Grazing Act."....
New Forest Service chief gets rough treatment in Congress New Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell received a less than gracious welcome Tuesday as she appeared before Congress for the first time as chief. Defending the president's spending request for the next budget year, Kimbell came under fire from all sides. "This is a rough and, in my view, a very unworkable budget," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., chairman of the House Interior Appropriations subcommittee. "I feel sorry for you, having to support this 'let's pretend' budget," added Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Kimbell, the first woman to head the Forest Service, began her new post Feb. 5, the same day President Bush announced a budget request that cuts Forest Service spending by 2 percent and eliminates more than 2,100 jobs in the budget year that starts in October. Bush's $4.1 billion budget request for the 2008 fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 represents a 1.6 percent cut from estimated spending for the current year, and is down nearly 4 percent from fiscal year 2006. Even so, the plan would boost spending to fight forest fires by 23 percent to $911 million, a recognition that firefighting costs have topped $1 billion in four of the past seven years....
Tribes want to expand 1873 pact When the Ute Indians were forced from large portions of western Colorado to smaller reservations in the 1870s, one of the key documents was the Brunot Treaty of 1873. This treaty, the result of negotiation between the famed Ute Chief Ouray and Felix Brunot, opened the mineral-rich San Juan Mountains to European settlers while giving tribal members perpetual hunting rights in a large rectangle of southwestern Colorado encompassing nearly 4 million square acres. Although the hunting has in the past been primarily deer and elk, the two tribes in November asked the Colorado Wildlife Commission to renegotiate their hunting operations to include bighorn sheep, mountain goats and moose. According to the treaty, which gives the tribes the right to hunt “as long as the grass grows,” the tribes don’t need the wildlife commission’s permission to expand their hunting activities, said Tony Gurzick, assistant Southwest Regional manager for the Colorado Division of Wildlife in Durango. “Congress never declared the Brunot Treaty of 1873 was void,” Gurzick said. “And courts have in the past ruled if Congress never overturned or negated treaties, the rights still are applicable today. As far as the Division of Wildlife is concerned, the Ute Mountain Utes and the Southern Ute Indian tribes have off-reservation hunting rights.”....
Indicted fire crew boss misses court date in marijuana case A U.S. Forest Service fire crew boss charged with manslaughter failed to appear in court for arraignment on a marijuana charge and is being sought on an arrest warrant, officials said. Grant County District Court Commissioner Douglas K. Earl issued the warrant Monday after Ellreese Daniels, 46, of Leavenworth, missed his court date. Daniels is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and seven counts of lying to investigators about his role in the Thirtymile Fire in July 2001, when four firefighters were trapped by the flames and died in the Okanogan National Forest. Daniels appeared Jan. 4 before a U.S. magistrate in Spokane in that case and was released on his own recognizance. Later that day the car in which he was riding was stopped by a state trooper on Interstate 90 near Moses Lake, and he was charged with possession of marijuana and having an open container of alcohol....
Proposal to Sell Public Lands Provides Good Test of Ownership Ideal, Says NCPA Is the Bush administration proposal to sell U.S. Forest Service land a good idea, or would it be a case of sacrificing the environment for money? Contrary to what some critics charge, the idea offers a "win-win" for both the government and the environment, according to a scholar with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA). "This is a baby step, but a good one," said NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. "It would provide good test cases for extending the ownership society ideal to natural resources without posing a threat to the environment." Burnett noted that government has poorly managed the public's natural resources as it struggles to balance public land uses, such as logging and recreation, with preservation of lands in their original state. As a result, public lands have been degraded and the wildlife that depends on them destroyed. For instance, logging and the roads built in national forests to access timber have often been environmentally destructive. Alternatively, the Forest Service has also tried the "let-nature-take-its- course" approach by designating roadless areas and limiting logging. But the forests' health has continued to decline because they are overcrowded with too many living, dying and dead trees....
Groups Sue to Protect Marine Mammals Two conservation groups sued the federal government Tuesday claiming marine mammal regulators are not doing enough to protect polar bears and walruses against the combined threat of oil and gas exploration and global warming. The groups say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not fully consider the effects of global warming, such as diminished sea ice, as it wrote regulations allowing for incidental harassment of polar bears and walruses by the industry in the Beaufort Sea and nearby coastal areas. Polar bears depend on sea ice for their main prey, ringed seals and bearded seals. Beaufort Sea females use coastal land or sea ice for digging snow caves to give birth....
Both sides cry wolf Abortion. Death penalty. Wolf. The words have nothing in common except their ability to conjure polemical phrases and strong emotions – much stronger than issues such as taxes that may have a greater impact on many people’s lives. In Wyoming, wolf management has been a divisive issue that currently has state and federal leaders locked in an impasse. The issue and the controversy it elicits raise questions about what is driving the debate. Have Wyoming’s leaders lost sight of the goal – creating a reasonable state plan for managing the reintroduced predators – and instead favor taking defiant stances that garner votes but rarely resolve problems? Or is the federal government unwilling to accept a plan, backed by lawmakers and the governor, that puts a Wyoming interest – protecting wildlife such as elk – ahead of protecting what many see as deadly predators?....
Canada lynx shot to death A radio-collared Canada lynx was found shot to death north of Seeley Lake in early February, and authorities want to track down the shooter. Rick Branzell, special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the cat was an adult male that was collared last summer. It was removed Feb. 3. A reward of up to $1,000 is available for information leading to finding the person or people involved in the shooting. Montana supports the healthiest lynx population in the lower 48 states, but it was still one of 16 states to place the animal on the endangered species list in 2000, according to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Web site. “Despite the fact that Montana's lynx population is well distributed and at good numbers, the lynx was listed based on its status throughout the northern portion of the U.S., not on a state-by-state basis,” said Brian Giddings, furbearer coordinator for FWP. Trapping or shooting a lynx is a federal offense and carries a fine of up to $100,000 and/or one year in jail....
Sharing of Bison Range Management Breaks Down An effort to have two Indian tribes assist government officials in operating a federal wildlife refuge that is surrounded by their reservation has collapsed amid accusations of racism, harassment, intimidation and poor performance. But top federal officials say they are determined to resurrect it. The plan for the tribes and the government to jointly run the National Bison Range in western Montana, just north of Missoula, had long been viewed as unworkable by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Interior branch that manages wildlife refuges. But top Interior Department officials say that despite the objections, they are committed to transferring some responsibility for the range from the wildlife service to a tribal government. “There’s a shared sense of mission between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the tribes,” said Shane Wolf, a department spokesman. Representative Denny Rehberg, Republican of Montana, asked the Government Accountability Office and the House Resources Committee in late January to investigate the disagreement and the problems plaguing the range. Among them is whether political appointees at the Interior Department pressured the wildlife service into the pact. The department’s inspector general and its Office of Equal Opportunity are also investigating....Does anybody really believe the USFWS would share management or delegate authority to anyone if they weren't "pressured" to do so? If political appointees can't seek to change federal agencies, why do we have elections?
Finding love no longer like a needle in a haystack Just over a year ago, Jerry Miller had an idea. He thought American farmers needed a break, and we're not talking subsidies here. He thought they needed spouses, partners, mates. At least those who didn't already have one. So he launched FarmersOnly.com. Today the website has 50,000 members, and Miller takes credit for at least 20 marriages in less than 12 months. Not bad for a novice matchmaker. Miller says the site has become the place for "farmers, ranchers and down-to-earth people who relate to the agricultural lifestyle" to meet their match. Instead of asking members about their astrological signs, Miller matches folks by animal preference. Alpacas. Horses. Cattle. Chickens. Goats. Sheep....

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