NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest truce affects skiing, snowmobiles A new U.S. Forest Service plan, described by some as a model for compromise when it comes to conflicting winter sports in the Sierra just south of Lake Tahoe, could end 15 years of rancorous debate and courtroom battles. The proposal, which provides segregated areas for motorized and nonmotorized sports across a rugged swath of forested terrain in Alpine County, Calif., is the result of two years of discussions between backcountry skiers and snowmobilers. Onetime opponents express satisfaction with the plan. "We healed some old wounds, and everyone came away with a good feeling," says Rob Levy, who represented snowmobile riders during lengthy negotiations....
Guest editorial: Can we save the forests? The Sequoia Forests contain within them the oldest, most magnificent living things on earth. Massive, stately trees have withstood ravages of time and nature since before Christ. But sadly, they cannot survive hazardous conditions created by human ignorance, indifference and ineptitude. Resulting present-day catastrophic fires burn with such intense heat that even the redwoods cannot survive. California is suffering the same massive forest fires as in Montana and throughout the Northwest. Well intentioned people mouth the words, save the “old growth,” while they create fire-prone conditions that threaten entire forests including old growth and the most “ancient” of trees. Management by neglect has been Forest Service policy for too long. Loggers were able to perform selective tree removal leaving a variety of ages, sizes and species to provide healthy, well-balanced forests. Without timber harvest, forests became overgrown and starving for nutrients and water. Weakened trees became bug-infested, dead, dying and fire-prone with resulting fuels build-up. Huge escalation of fire fighting budgets leave little for fire prevention or forest restoration. Top level Forest Service management administered the phase-out of logging while assuring citizens that recreation and tourism would replace the timber industry. However, hikers, campers, horseback riders, and hunting and fishing have proven incapable of financing forest maintenance, fuels reduction and Forest Service agency operation....
Forest, off-road groups seek trails for vehicles New Mexico's national forest managers and off-road vehicle enthusiasts are looking for ways for people to enjoy a ride through the wilderness without compromising its beauty. Cibola National Forest and Santa Fe National Forest, in cooperation with the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council, are meeting this week in Albuquerque as part of a nationwide effort to designate areas where motorized vehicles can roam. The four-day event starts today at the Hilton Albuquerque, 1901 University Blvd. N.E., and continues through Sunday. Mary Bean, forest management team leader for Cibola National Forest, said the growth in use of all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles and other off-highway vehicles in the forests in recent years poses a threat to New Mexico's wildlife. "We have not really had the trail system to support that use," she said. "When you bring a much larger vehicle on that surface, you're at risk of damaging both soil and vegetation." Cibola and the other national forests have been directed by the head of the U.S. Forest Service to designate areas where motorized use is appropriate....
Goal: Expose kids to great outdoors Recreational and outdoor groups, as well as U.S. Forest Service officials, are set to meet today in Golden to talk about getting children more involved in outdoor recreation. The meeting is the first in a series of national forums on the future of outdoor recreation. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the rate of overweight children ages 6 to 11 has more than doubled in the past 20 years to 18.8 percent. Every year people 16 and older have fewer recreational outings, according to the Outdoor Industry Foundation. "We are seeing a large portion of our youth being attracted to screens - television screens, computer screens, video-game screens," said Derrick Crandall, president of the American Recreation Coalition. "We are looking to reinvigorate youth about the outdoors. We are going to try to make outdoor recreation hot for kids," Crandall said. The forums aim to generate discussions among national leaders in the outdoor-recreation world to find a way to connect with the younger generation, he said....
Bird rules send some drillers home Several drilling rigs stacked up this week, and coal-bed methane workers were sent home, causing some hard feelings. "We were drilling like crazy there for a while, and I couldn't get a day off. Now I can't work," said Kevin Skaggs, who came to Wyoming from Michigan a year ago to work in the coal-bed methane fields. Additional stipulations to protect raptors and sage grouse reactivated in February and March, bungling drilling operations on some federal lease areas in the Powder River Basin, particularly around the Iberlin ranch, according to those in the industry. Skaggs, who delivers water to drilling locations, said he was headed to a drilling location on Monday when he was told to turn around and head back to town....
Pulling more power from oil fields A new geothermal project at the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center near Casper will use the hot water brought up during oil field production to generate commercial electricity for use at the site, a private company announced. The news came at a Capitol Hill briefing on the potential for geothermal resources to provide a significant share of the country’s energy needs. Nevada-based Ormat Technologie, Inc. and the U.S. Department of Energy will jointly carry out the project, the company said. Ormat will supply the power unit at its own expense, while the department will install and operate it for a year. Ormat, a publicly traded company, and the department will share the total cost of the test project. Ormat will chip in about two-thirds of the $1 million total investment, it said....
N.J. Dem grills park chief on snowmobiles On the 135th anniversary of the founding of Yellowstone National Park, a Democratic representative from New Jersey grilled National Park Service Director Mary Bomar Thursday about the ongoing controversy regarding snowmobiling in the park. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., complained to Bomar that the Park Service is now in the midst of its fourth Yellowstone winter-use plan, all of which have come to the same conclusion: that the environmentally preferred option is to phase out the use of snowmobiles in favor of snowcoaches. “You keep on doing the same studies, and the results all come out the same,” said Holt, noting that the Park Service has spent $10 million on the scientific research underpinning the winter-use plans. Bomar acknowledged the high degree of controversy, since the phase-out of snowmobiles was first required in the closing days of the Clinton administration in 2001. Three Park Service studies have concluded that replacing snowmobile use in Yellowstone with the more environmentally friendly snowcoach access would best preserve “the unique historic, cultural, and natural resources associated with the parks” (Yellowstone and Grand Teton) and yield “the least impacts to air quality, water quality and natural soundscapes.” However, following conflicting federal court rulings on the snowmobile issue, the Bush administration ordered a fourth study -- which will be available for public comment beginning this month....
Bison numbers creep up Biologists have counted 1,059 bison in the Jackson herd, an increase of 111 animals over 2006 numbers. The count is conducted at the same time each year and looks at animals on the National Elk Refuge, Grand Teton National Park and adjacent Bridger-Teton National Forest. A total of 974 bison were on elk refuge feedlines, with 85 away from feedlines. Bison numbers may be reduced by more than half if a final proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is adopted. That plan, a decade in the making, outlines management for elk and bison in the Jackson area....
Canyon ride means detour to jail Three California cyclists on an international ride to promote environmentalism have been sentenced to jail and banned from national parks after admitting they ran afoul of a rule designed to protect the environment by riding through the Grand Canyon. The cyclists were tracked down in Tucson after National Park Service rangers discovered pictures and a journal on the trio's Web site, www.ridingthespine.com. Bikes are prohibited on hiking trails. Sean Monterastelli, 23; David Yost, 24; and Jacob Thompson, 24, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff. They received 48 hours in jail, a five-year ban from national parks, fines and probation. Thompson said the three have delayed their trip for a few weeks while they work in Flagstaff to pay off the fines. "They really did throw the book at us," he said....
Yellowstone's Power Shapes the Land between Eruptions A 17-year University of Utah study of ground movements shows that the power of the huge volcanic hotspot beneath Yellowstone National Park is much greater than previously thought during times when the giant volcano is slumbering. The $2.3 million study, which used Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to measure horizontal and vertical motions of Earth's crust from 1987 to 2004, found that the gigantic underground plume of molten rock known as the Yellowstone hotspot exerts itself forcefully even when it isn't triggering eruptions and earthquakes....
Two oil giants plunge into the wind business Two of the world's leading oil producers have almost overnight joined some of the biggest players in wind power in the United States, accelerating a trend of large corporations investing in the rapidly growing alternative-energy field. As global warming and clean fuels have gained more attention, Shell Oil Co. and BP have accumulated impressive credentials. Shell is one of the nation's top five generators of wind power, while BP's Alternative Energy group -- launched 16 months ago -- aims to develop projects that produce 550 megawatts of electricity this year, one-sixth of the projected US wind energy output in 2007. "Shell and BP see wind as an increasingly important part of the energy industry. They are looking to continue to grow," said Randall Swisher , executive director of the American Wind Energy Association , a Washington-based industry group. "They want to look for new opportunities, and wind is clearly in their sights." The oil companies bring enormous cash reserves, years of experience in large projects, and a can-do spirit to an alternative-fuels industry that has largely been driven by speculators, small developers, and utilities. Though environmentalists largely praise the interests of the two oil giants, they harbor suspicions of whether the energy giants are adding renewable sources to their portfolios as a way to enhance their reputations with consumers rather than to combat global warming....
The Point Man for Bush's Green Push When Energy Dept. Secretary Samuel Bodman and Assistant Secretary Alexander "Andy" Karsner first talked about plans to invest government money in something called "cellulosic" ethanol, they were enthusiastic. Most ethanol is made from corn, but cellulosic technology uses less-valuable resources, such as switchgrass or garbage. But they thought the original proposal, for $160 million, was too modest. So on Feb. 28, Bodman and Karsner unveiled plans to invest up to $385 million in cellulosic, more than double the original ante. "Ultimately, success in producing inexpensive cellulosic ethanol could be a key to eliminating our nation's addiction to oil," said Bodman. Such an announcement could hardly be imagined several years ago. From supporting drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to disputing the science on global warming, President George W. Bush and his Administration did little to gain the confidence of environmentalists and the alternative energy industry. And while the Administration's stance on key environmental issues remains little changed, the President and his appointees at the Energy Dept. have been increasingly vocal about the need to support alternative energy....
Hollywood's Big Ho-Hum Having recently written about the politicization of various awards, I decided to sit in on Sunday night's Academy Awards just to verify that my criticism was justified. All I can say to those who wrote to me vociferously denying the politicization of awards such as the Oscars is that one would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to recoil from the orgy of liberal self-congratulation on display. As predicted, former Vice-President Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth won the award for Best Documentary. All political messages aside, the documentary itself (which I forced myself to sit through for the purposes of an article) had no filmmaking merit whatsoever and this award was an insult to all those documentarians that actually try to produce quality work. But the Oscar was indeed all about politics, as Gore's not-so-hilarious jokes about running for president in 2008 indicated. It was patronage awarding at its best. Religion of a sort also played a part. The belief in man-made catastrophic global warming, or what Gore kept dubbing the "climate crisis," (any bad weather will do, as in this year's extremely cold winter) is the new secular religion and Gore its preacher....
Scientist calls for alliance between science and religion Saving the earth is within humanity's reach. "The technology exists, the cost is not high, and the benefits are beyond calculation," said Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist Edward O. Wilson. Wilson called for a partnership between the religious and scientific communities to save the environment during his lecture at Kingsbury Hall on Wednesday night. "Religion and science are the two most powerful social forces in the world today, especially in the United States," said Wilson, a professor emeritus of entomology at Harvard University. Wilson said that an alliance is necessary to stop climate change, deforestation, pollution, overpopulation and related problems that amount to a major threat to the future of the planet. Although he is a self-described "secular humanist," Wilson said he has no problem reaching out to religious leaders. He criticized other scientists' hostility toward people of faith as being counterproductive to the environmentalist movement....
How much water flows? Who knows? Who's using how much of Oregon's most essential natural resource? Nobody really knows. Of the thousands of individuals and groups with state water rights, only about 8 percent are required to measure and report their actual water use. And at least 230,000 Oregonians with wells for home or agricultural use don't have to file for a water right. That makes it difficult for the state to figure out how to meet its growing water needs, said Rep. Jackie Dingfelder, a Portland Democrat and chairman of the House Committee on Energy and the Environment. The 8 percent of Oregon water users who meter and report their water consumption include many large users, such as municipal water systems, who together hold about 46 percent of the state's water rights, according to the state Water Resources Department....
Dairy owner says Colorado becoming non ag friendly Growers aren’t the only people distressed from the loss of their water rights. Norm Dinis, owner of Empire Dairy near Wiggins, said he may have to relocate his operation if local farmers can’t produce enough feed for his cattle. “If everyone keeps selling their water, and they only have (dryland) farm ground to grow crops for me, I guess I’ll have to leave Colorado eventually if that’s the direction that as a state we’re going,” Dinis said. “I would be forced to. You can’t afford to stay in a state that is not ag friendly, and Colorado is becoming a state that is non ag friendly.” The state recently issued a cease and desist order for many well owners along the South Platte River. And because many farmers in the area lost the well water they previously used to irrigate their crops, they won’t be able to produce and sell as much feed to ranchers....
Hair-raising experience Animas Valley sheep man Tom Talley has turned to a pair of ovine breeds that have hair instead of wool and are raised for meat in order to avoid shearing and what for several years has been a volatile wool market. "The hair sheep is a relatively new thing, but there are advantages to them," Talley said Tuesday as he and a guard llama watched black-faced Dorper and white Katahdin lambs eat hay. "They produce protein on any forage, even weeds, and their meat has a milder taste." "I want to build the flock to several hundred," Talley said. "They're easy to raise and there's no need to finish them on grain - although some ranchers do. "Also you don't have to shear them because they drop their coat in the spring," Talley said. "The hair blows away in the wind."....
Horse and rider going long way Stephanie DuRoss of Queen Creek has covered nearly 5,000 miles of trails on horseback. An endurance rider for 19 years, DuRoss, 33, and her horse, an Arabian gelding named Hadji, have logged half of those miles on trails all over the country. "I've had a phenomenal year with him (each of) the last two years," said DuRoss of the gelding she purchased for $1,500 from a rancher six years ago. Little did she know how well this former hunting mount would do as an endurance horse. DuRoss and Hadji were recognized for their most recent achievements at the American Endurance Ride Conference in Nevada last week, taking three national and four regional awards. The horse and rider team was among three in the nation to receive a gold medal for the completion of a series that included five multiday rides that covered 155 to 250 miles each....
Finding the Inner Cowgirl Last fall, when Montana horsewoman Tammy Pate told me about a combined yoga and horsemanship clinic that she and friend Janice Baxter planned in mid-October at The Home Ranch in Clark, Colorado, I was somewhat skeptical. My doubts weren't prompted by the clinic's horsemanship aspect or Tammy's riding skills. A fine horsewoman, she and husband Curt are successful clinicians, trainers and ranchers. But horsemanship and yoga? What's a cowgirl yogini? She can be a lot of things, but the bottom line is that she incorporates yoga into her riding program, or vice versa, as Tammy's friend and fellow yoga instructor, Janice, did at The Home Ranch. A yogini might be a mature horsewoman who is trying to remain limber despite the inevitable toll that aging takes on a person's suppleness, or she might be a ranch wife curious about yoga and wishing to hone her riding skills, as well. Or, a cowgirl yogini might be a novice horsewoman determined to use all the tools at her disposal, including yoga, to become a better rider....