NEWS ROUNDUP

Western states united to bypass Bush on climate Five Western U.S. states have formed the latest regional pact to bypass the Bush administration to cut emissions linked to global warming through market mechanisms. The Western Regional Climate Action Initiative requires Oregon, California, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona to develop a regional target in six months for reducing greenhouse emissions according to statements from the states' governors. During the next 18 months, the states will devise a market-based plan, such as a load-based cap-and-trade program, to reach the target. They also have agreed to participate in a multi-state registry to track and manage greenhouse gas emissions in their region. The regional agreement "shows the power of the states to lead our nation" and "sets the stage for a regional cap-and-trade program, which will provide a powerful framework for developing a national cap and trade program," Schwarzenegger said in a statement....
Environmentalists hail takeover plan for Texas utility The board of Texas' largest electric utility last night tentatively approved a record $45 billion takeover bid by two private equity firms in a deal hailed by environmentalists as a major turning point in the battle against global warming. The prospective owners of the TXU Corp. have told environmental groups that they would cancel eight of 11 coal plants proposed by the company and also back national legislation for mandatory reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to climate change. TXU was expected today to formally announce the buyout, according to people familiar with the deal. The sale, which needs shareholder approval, would be the largest leveraged buyout in US corporate history....
Blizzard's scars cut across Plains In the mud on the side of Baca County Road WW, in one of the few bare spots in an otherwise snow-smothered prairie, lies the carcass of Steve McEndree's wife's favorite cow. Jamie McEndree playfully named the auburn Hereford "Bad Horn Day," for the curious way one of its horns curled up and one down. Steve wanted to sell the old cow a year ago, but Jamie asked him not to. Last week, nearly two months after a blizzard dropped 4 feet of snow on the McEndree's ranch, Bad Horn Day lay down in that spot along Road WW and died, worn out from fighting the snow, fighting the cold and fighting the hunger. "It's part of life," says Steve McEndree, a third-generation rancher in Baca County. "But you don't like it." Another dead cow. One of at least 46 cows and calves that McEndree has lost since the December blizzard. One of an estimated 10,000 that have died in southeastern Colorado as a result of the storm. Their carcasses are reminders that the blizzard's wrath didn't end when the storms faded months ago and likely won't end even when the snow that still lies on the ground a foot deep finally melts away....
Wyo. Senate trims wolf management area The state Senate voted Monday to reject the federal government's proposed boundary for a permanent wolf management area in the northwest corner of Wyoming. By a vote of 16-13, the Senate amended a wolf management bill to exclude most private land from a permanent management area in which wolves would be managed as trophy game animals. Outside that area, they would be managed as predators that could be shot on sight. Mitch King, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, said Monday that his agency has explained repeatedly to state officials that the original management area must be included in any state wolf management plan or his agency will reject it....
Prairie dogs' dark side comes to light in political fight The world's expert on lust, violence and cannibalism among prairie dogs uses a slide in his lectures that sums up a lifetime of research. Several of the squirrel-size creatures are shown perched on their hind legs: cute, cute, cute, cute, cute. But then, next to each fuzzy head, John Hoogland has written something darker he has seen happen in a prairie dog "town." "Promiscuity, kidnapping, pedophilia, murder, infanticide," it says. Not so cute. "Studying prairie dogs is like watching little people," he says. "Whatever we do, they do as well, and usually more often." Hoogland, 58, a professor at the University of Maryland, has spent 34 years unraveling the daily routines of the burrowing rodent. It has always been interesting work: These towns can make Melrose Place look like Sesame Street....
Bounty on coyotes aims to ease predation Wolves seem to get all the attention in Wyoming. But while the debate about wolf management is ongoing, another predator sails under the radar. Coyotes roam the countryside in the shadow of their larger cousins. The Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and Cody Country Outfitters and Guides groups saw a problem and took steps to address it. “Coyotes are a big problem that goes unnoticed,” SFW spokesman Lou Cicco said. “They kill small animals and pets and we wanted to help stop that.” Four years ago the two groups began a bounty program for hunters who shoot coyotes. We began working together and created a fund to pay for freshly killed coyotes,” Cicco said. “We pay the bounties until we run out of money for the year.” This year the program started Feb. 1 and already more than 100 coyotes have been brought in....
Is Bigfoot Living In The Forest Above Marysville? The couple recorded their discovery with photographs and returned to take more pictures. Joining the Padigos now was Scot Woodland, a Nevada County search and rescue team member and a certified expert tracker. Scot says he's got an open mind but when he first saw the tracks he figured here's another hoax. "The closer I got and looked at the prints, the more I could see the detail and the movement in the foot. As a tracker you see how things move the weight and all that stuff. The complexity of the footprint made me go whoa!” he says. What really impressed Scot was the force of the Bigfoot print which rippled the ground around it. Scot's footprint next to it hardly moved the earth. “If it's a hoax, somebody really did a good job, if it's not, then there's a big creature that lives among us," says Woodland. All the prints appear to be from one animal walking slowly but with a stride twice that of a human. “We measured from heel of the left foot to heel of left foot, 56 inches," says Scott. The footprint was gigantic. It was seven-and-a-half inches wide. The tape measure shows the impression is nearly double the length of an adult human foot....
Man donates historic ranch to Nature Conservancy Groundwater in Aravaipa Creek will be protected from pumping because of the donation of the historic Cobra Ranch to The Nature Conservancy in Arizona. Dan Bates, a Tucson artist and owner of the El Corral and Pinnacle Peak restaurants, donated the ranch in honor of his mother, Mary Bates, who co-owned the ranch with her son for 25 years. Cobra Ranch includes 1,250 private acres and 10,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service grazing leases adjacent to Aravaipa Canyon Preserve. With the Bates donation of private acreage and public land grazing leases, the preserve will protect 53,000 acres of land. Preserve Manager Mark Haberstich said everyone at the preserve was pleased with the donation. “It has been a property that’s been important to us,” Haberstich said. “It sits over the aquifer that supplies water to Aravaipa Creek, and if it had been subdivided and wells were allowed to be drilled, it would have dried up the creek.”....
Permit sought for carbon dioxide pipeline Devon Gas Services LP is proposing to revitalize an aging oil field in central Wyoming by using carbon dioxide to recover more oil, federal officials said. As part of the project, Devon is seeking Bureau of Land Management permission to construct a 47-mile-long pipeline to move carbon dioxide gas from southwest Wyoming to the Beaver Creek field in Fremont County, according to BLM officials. The carbon dioxide gas would come from the ExxonMobil Shute Creek-LaBarge gas processing plant and Bairoil metering facility. Carbon dioxide is a form of enhanced oil recovery that improves the flow of oil from a reservoir that has already reached peak production by conventional means. Carbon dioxide, in liquid form, mixes with unrecovered oil and pushes it to production wells. The carbon dioxide can then be separated from the oil and reused, or stored in the oil reservoir so that it is not released into the atmosphere....
Delta environmental water crisis looms An environmental crisis could disrupt water supplies throughout California for the first time since the early 1990s, threatening to end the long cease-fire in the state's water wars. A dry winter, devastated fish populations and recent scientific research together could force state water officials to cut Delta water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities. Already this year, water managers and environmental regulators are forecasting the possibility that much more water than is available will be needed to protect fish and prevent pushing Delta smelt closer to extinction. "We'll consider just about everything in terms of how we get through this," said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources. "Making water available in an uncompensated manner, these things are controversial." Not since a drought in the early 1990s — a period when some of the Delta's salmon and smelt populations were added to the lists of threatened and endangered species — have water supplies been so threatened because of the needs of Delta fish....
Thinning study leads to first cougar kills The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has begun killing cougars in Jackson County as part of its study into whether curbing cougar numbers can improve public safety and reduce livestock loss. An ODFW technician Tuesday killed the first two of the 24 cougars that will be removed here as part of this study, which is outlined in the state's new cougar plan that has been widely criticized by animal-rights activists. Dan Jenkins, from the ODFW's Roseburg office, trapped the cougars on a Lake Creek area ranch and shot them, said Mark Vargas, the ODFW's Rogue District wildlife biologist in Central Point. They were young "sub-adults," a male and a female, which were taken to the department's Roseburg office late Tuesday, Vargas said....
Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing. In 24 states throughout the country, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation’s most profitable. “I have never seen anything like it,” Mr. Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. “Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.” The sudden mysterious losses are highlighting the critical link that honeybees play in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables across the country. Beekeepers have fought regional bee crises before, but this is the first national affliction. Now, in a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why. Researchers say the bees are presumably dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold....
Cow gives birth to triplets Farmer/rancher Bryan Wagner suspected something was unusual when a 5-year-old cow in his herd of about 200 went into labor. It seemed to be having trouble, so Wagner decided to assist. He delivered one calf and discovered there was another in the womb. That's not unusual. Of the 50 or so cows that have calved so far on the Wagner farm, five have given birth to twins. After delivering the second calf, Wagner realized a third one was ready to face the world, too. That's unusual. Veterinarians say the chance of a cow having triplets is anywhere from one in 75,000 to one in 105,000, according to an Internet search on the topic of triplet calves. And the chance of all three thriving is even less likely, these sources reported. Wagner delivered the third calf, too, after turning it around so it came normally - head and front feet first. It was positioned backward in the womb, he said. This is the second time one of Wagner's cows has delivered triplets; the first set came in 1998....
CNFR releases 2007 dates The 58th annual College National Finals Rodeo will be June 10-16 in Casper, Wyo. National titles in saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, team roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping and goat tying will be up for grabs. The top three students in each event, and the top two men's and women's teams from the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association's 11 regions will qualify for the CNFR. Students will compete for more than $200,000 in scholarships from the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company. Ticket prices range from $6-$16, and season passes are also available....
Two for Trevor Four-time all-around world champion Trevor Brazile is a big fan of the Tucson Rodeo and rightfully so. Brazile (Decatur, Texas) captured his second consecutive tie-down roping average title at the 82nd annual La Fiesta de los Vaqueros in front of a packed house of 11,000 on Sunday afternoon. Brazile, 30, entered the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Round with over a half a second lead in the average on two and knew a good solid run would be enough to defend his title in Tucson. "The calf I had today, they were 14.7 on yesterday and that wasn't what I wanted to hear when I showed up today," Brazile said. "I knew I had a pretty good cushion so I just went out and made as good of a run as I could." Brazile turned in an 11.1-second run today, which didn't win the round but was enough to secure the title over Doug Pharr (Victoria, Texas). Brazile's final time was 30.6 seconds on three head, while Pharr finished with a total time of 31.3....
San Angel-Ohl Five-time and reigning world champion tie-down roper Cody Ohl entered the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Round at the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo knowing if he made a businessman's run, he would win the average title an overall prize totaling more than $6,000. Ohl (Hico, Texas) stopped the clock in 9.3 seconds to finish with a four-head total of 34.1 seconds, capturing the average title. His closest competitors were Scott Kormos, who finished second in 35.2 seconds, and Jerome Schneeberger was third with a 35.3. Schneeberger (Ponca City, Okla.) won the Tour Round, stopping the clock in 8.0 seconds. Ohl left the Concho Valley with $10,041 in earnings, while Kormos added $8,644 to his season total and Schneeberger cashed in for $8,740. The San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo marked the fifth stop on the 2007 Wrangler ProRodeo Tour. This year's Wrangler ProRodeo Tour consists of 21 rodeos from January to August. Contestants will choose 15 out of the 21 rodeos to count toward their official Tour Rodeo count and will compete for money this year versus points as in years past....
Floyd Lee was an old-school rancher Traveling our state's byways and back country over the past 50 years, I've been fortunate to meet a number of memorable New Mexicans who maintained a strong link to the past. One of those was Floyd W. Lee of San Mateo, rancher and for 12 years a New Mexico state senator. Albuquerque-born in 1895, Floyd was an engineering student at The University of New Mexico when the U.S. entered World War I. Joining up, he saw service in Europe with the New Mexico Field Artillery. Returning home after peace was won, Lee went to work for the Fernandez Co.'s vast ranch located near the village of San Mateo, northwest of Grants. This sprawling sheep and cattle operation got its start as a Spanish land grant ceded to Bartolomé Fernandez in 1767. It was acquired from his heirs in the late 1860s by Indian campaigner Col. Manuel Antonio Chaves. Lee worked his way up from cowhand and bronc-buster to become general manager of the ranch, and then through stock acquisitions, he became the owner in 1938. The property had more than 500 miles of boundary and cross fences....
A Wild and Woolly Affair Boy, are we a country with too much free time on our hands. Or should I say, what do a retired tennis pro, PETA, two research scientists and a herd of gay sheep have to do with each other? Plenty, according to the Toronto Star. The paper reports that two researchers - Charles Roselli of Oregon Health and Science University and Fred Stormshak of Oregon State University - have been studying why eight percent of rams prefer to court other rams rather than ewes (not that there's anything wrong with that). The study had been proceeding quietly until fate intervened. You see, two university football players (you're getting ahead of me here) were pulled over for speeding. They'd been drinking. They had, in the bed of their truck, something they'd swiped from the research center - a gay ram. Once a story like that hit the wires, containing it was impossible. Pretty soon, people were asking questions about the research. Then animal rights activists, gay-rights advocates and left-leaning bloggers raised a great hue and cry ("ewe" and cry?) Former tennis star Martina Navratilova kicked off the frenzy. She wrote a letter to both universities demanding they pull the study's funding. She said the research was "homophobic and cruel." She said the money would be better spent promoting acceptance of all sexual preferences. PETA had urged her to write the letter. PETA urged 14,000 other people to voice their complaints, too, and some of them protested and called the researchers Nazis....