NEWS ROUNDUP

Green donor or dirty money? Loch Wade fears his adopted hometown of Boulder is about to lose control of its destiny. Once just a bend in the breathtakingly beautiful road above Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, the fast-growing community is home to a $1.2 million Nature Conservancy project to protect the local watershed and preserve the community's ranching heritage. Some locals view the deal as a solution. But Wade worries that, with some funding for that project coming from the controversial nuclear waste company EnergySolutions, it is only a matter of time before locals find well-heeled outsiders writing future plans for their town. "The thing that concerns me is that The Nature Conservancy will be the proverbial 800-pound gorilla," said Wade, a shop owner, craftsman and summertime watermaster....
Oil, gas royalty fight rages across Colorado Royalty owners are feeling shortchanged by Colorado's multibillion-dollar energy industry. Years ago, landowners with mineral rights were grateful for any royalty fee they received from oil and gas drilling on their land. But as the energy giants cash in on the latest oil and gas boom and take bigger paychecks to the banks, royalty owners say they want a fairer portion of the windfall. They allege that companies make unlawful deductions from the royalty checks. For example, they say companies often deduct costs to gather or squeeze excess water from gas at wellheads when those expenses ought to be paid by the companies. The royalty owners also complain that companies charge higher interstate pipeline costs than in past years. Rising costs not only eat into royalty checks but also push up the price of gas paid by consumers. "Our No. 1 issue is that the price of natural gas at the wellhead and burner tip keep getting farther away from each other," said Jerry Simmons, executive director of the National Association of Royalty Owners. "Pipeline companies are adding fees that royalty owners don't see because of confidential contracts between oil and gas producers and those companies....
SNWA buys Spring Valley ranches and stock Folks in White Pine County will have to come up with a new insult. The Southern Nevada Water Authority can't be accused of being all hat and no cattle anymore. The wholesale water supplier for the Las Vegas Valley will soon own about $3.3 million worth of livestock as part of its latest acquisition in Spring Valley, the White Pine County watershed at the northern end of a proposed pipeline to Las Vegas. The authority board on Thursday, March 15, approved more than $43.5 million to purchase the 11,800-acre El Tejon ranch and the 1,560-acre Huntsman ranch. The two spreads about 250 miles north of Las Vegas come with 1,881 cattle and 4,290 sheep. It is the first livestock to be purchased by the water authority, which has paid almost $79 million for seven Spring Valley ranches over the past eight months. "You are now members of the National Cattlemen's Association and the Nevada Cattlemen's Association," Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy told board members after the vote....
Land management: A new rangeland recipe Does your rangeland look like it's about to become a dust bowl? Are the grasses sparse and stubby, greening up only for a few short weeks during the rainy season? If so, you might conclude your land has been overgrazed. The logical response would seem to be to pull livestock off the land and let it rest for a few years. But maybe the problem is that you just aren't running enough cattle. This is the counter-intuitive solution ranchers are likely to get from Holistic Management International. If the advice the Albuquerque-based group offers range managers around the world wasn't rooted in decades of practical application, it might seem mere wishful thinking. But land managers who have tried the approach say otherwise....
Colo. House opposes Pinon Canyon land seizure Even though they know they can't prevent it, the Colorado House voted Friday to send a message to the U.S. Army over its plans to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site in Southeast Colorado. Under a bill that received preliminary House approval, lawmakers voted to remove its consent to the "exclusive jurisdiction" right the federal government has under the U.S. Constitution on any of the 418,000 acres it wants to use to expand the training site. While no state has the constitutional authority to supercede the federal government's condemnation rights, the measure is intended to make it "less desirable" for the Army to acquire land that way, supporters of the bill said. "The bill simply follows the Constitution of the United States, which says that before the federal government can acquire any property in a state, consent must be given by that state," said Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, who introduced HB1069. "The Constitution guarantees us to the right to life, liberty and property."....
Hear the call of the wild Imagine the bumping bass you hear at a stoplight when a teenager behind the wheel wants to share thumping music with the world. Only this is in the darkness of a remote ridge some 3,200 feet above sea level in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest's upper Applegate River drainage. These low booms are the calls of a great gray owl coming from an mp3 player placed on the hood of a green U.S. Forest Service pickup truck parked on an old logging road by Scott Bodle, wildlife biologist for the Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District. "The calls act as a male challenge," Bodle explained. "We are trying to bring out their territorial aggression. We are trying to get them to come in....
Legal definition leaves mountain bikers out of wilderness areas From the Fourth of July Lake trail, mountain bikers catch some of the widest views of the comb-like peaks of the Boulder-White Cloud mountains, but only if they can take their eyes off the wrist-twisting shale as the trail cuts across the picturesque Alpine basin. So fat-tire aficionados were dismayed last year at the introduction in Congress of the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act, which would have barred mountain bikes from Fourth of July and 85 miles of other nearby singletrack. The bill passed in the House of Representatives but died with no action taken in the Senate. Still, it's a vexing paradox for the International Mountain Bike Association, whose mission largely is to preserve trails in wild areas across the country. Since the 1980s, the legal definition of wilderness has prohibited mechanized transportation such as snowmobiles, all terrain vehicles and - inexplicably to some - mountain bikes. So now, the association finds itself battling wilderness bills and tangling with conservationists in Idaho, California, Montana and the corridors of Congress....
Working to Diagnose Marine Animal Die-Off In the summer and fall of 2005, marine animals suddenly started dying off the southwest Florida coast, with scores of bottlenose dolphins, manatees and turtles washing up on shore. In October alone, 22 dolphins became stranded and died, compared with the usual monthly average of three. Hoping to unravel the mystery, nearly 50 researchers, part of the Working Group on Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events, commissioned a study of the deaths. After taking samples from 130 stranded dolphins, they concluded that red tide -- an algae bloom that creates a neurotoxin known as brevetoxin -- caused the massive die-off. In the 16 years since it was formed under the auspices of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the working group has investigated scores of similar events. It is detecting a rising number of die-offs -- at the moment the panel is handling eight such cases simultaneously, an unprecedented high that reflects the environmental pressures on marine mammals and the nation's increasingly broad scientific stranding network....
Kennard firefighter sentenced for arson United States Attorney Matthew D. Orwig announced today that a 33-year-old Kennard firefighter has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison for setting arson fires in the Eastern District of Texas. RYAN JAMES EFF was found guilty in November 2006 of setting three arson fires in the Davy Crockett National Forest. United States District Judge Ron Clark sentenced Eff to seven years in federal prison for each of the three fires. The sentences will run concurrently. Judge Clark also ordered Eff to pay $73,512.00 in restitution. Eff was immediately remanded into custody. According to information presented by prosecutors, Eff was employed as a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and assigned to perform firefighter duties in the federally owned Davy Crockett National Forest....
Laverty for AS/FWP The President intends to nominate R. Lyle Laverty, of Colorado, to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Commissioner of the United States Section of the Great Lakes Fishing Commission (Official of the United States Government). Mr. Laverty currently serves as Director of Colorado State Parks. Prior to this, he served as Associate Deputy Chief of the United States Forest Service. Earlier in his career, he served as Regional Forester of the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States Forest Service. Mr. Laverty received his bachelor's degree from Humboldt State University and his master's degree from George Mason University.
Drilling critics get D.C. hearing Congress is asking Westerners to talk about their efforts to protect wildlife and the interests of hunters and anglers in the face of the energy boom cascading through the Rockies from Montana to New Mexico. A Wyoming man is among seven people, including an energy company official, invited to speak Tuesday before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. The topic: Conflicts between sportsmen and energy developers on federal lands. "This hearing is planned as a forum for the folks who want to ensure that public lands continue to provide hunting and fishing opportunities for future generations," Rahall said in a written statement. That goal has united the "hook and bullet" crowd -- anglers and hunters -- with environmentalists who don't want to see energy development overwhelm public lands, which make up 30 percent or more of many Rocky Mountain states. The unlikely allies have rallied around such spots as the Wyoming Range in western Wyoming, the Roan Plateau in western Colorado and the Otero Mesa in southeastern New Mexico -- all considered significant sources of oil and gas as well as important wildlife habitat....
Fishing, hunting groups protest sale of Montana petroleum leases Some leading Montana conservation groups are protesting the planned sale of federal petroleum leases in the Beaverhead River corridor, a magnet for anglers. Montana Trout Unlimited, the Montana Wildlife Federation and others Friday sent the U.S. Bureau of Land Management a letter challenging the agency's auction set for this Tuesday in Billings. Lands covered by the leases total 27,000 acres. Anglers find the Beaverhead River extraordinarily appealing and do not spend time and money there "to fish amongst wells, pads, pipelines, heavy machinery, industrial noise and wastewater ponds," the groups wrote Gene Terland, state director of the BLM. Like the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which earlier sent the BLM a letter against the leasing, the groups say the federal agency did not assess adequately how drilling for oil and gas stands to affect fish and wildlife. The letter Friday follows a formal appeal filed by Montana Trout Unlimited....
County stonewalling conservation efforts For three years, San Bernardino County has quietly blocked nonprofit land conservancies from acquiring tax-defaulted desert land and giving it to federal preserves. Under state law, nonprofits and public entities can apply to redeem defaulted properties before they are sold at public auction. Instead of being considered by the board, however, the status of 90 parcels accounting for at least 2,500 acres remains pending. The de-facto policy was established around three years ago at the request of then-1st District Supervisor Bill Postmus and his chief of staff and successor, Brad Mitzelfelt. Although the Mojave Preserve is an asset to his district, Mitzelfelt said, it doesn't make sense to help conservancies expand it by removing property from county tax rolls. "Private property ownership, in really the most desirable parts of the desert, is a public benefit," he said. "Once we lose it, we'll never get it back."....
Road issue stalls subdivision in middle of woods A private property owner plans to put a 20-acre subdivision on four old mining claims covering about 70 acres in the middle of Bureau of Land Management property west of Clancy. Jack Frazier already has preliminary approval from the Jefferson County Commission for his subdivision, noted Mike Hoffman, assistant county planner and Joe Schmaus, Frazier’s consultant. The only thing blocking the subdivision is approval from the BLM to widen and flatten a logging road that leads to the parcel. The Sheep Mountain Road, which accesses the proposed subdivision, was created by the BLM for logging purposes. BLM officials say it’s about 14 feet wide, with grades of 15 to 20 percent....
Last building at Mustang Ranch destroyed The last remaining building on the grounds where the infamous Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada once stood has gone up in flames.
The 48-room, 20-thousand-square-foot structure has been destroyed as part of a training exercise for firefighters. The Mustang Ranch was Nevada's first legal brothel. But the government padlocked it in 1999 after years of tax problems. In 2003, the Bureau of Land Management auctioned off building for 86-hundred dollars to brothel owner Dennis Hof. He had hoped to use it as a museum but it was too expensive to move, so he donated it to the firefighters. The B-L-M plans to return the Mustang Ranch land to a natural state and use it for public access to the Truckee River....There are several comments I could make here, but I'll just leave it alone.
'Don't shoot at it; kill it' On his way to feed cattle on his ranch near Miller last spring, Jim McCann saw two critters with a wary reputation emerge from the brush. "These two idiots ran out of the brush and just looked at me," he said. "These two guys just stood there." He didn't hesitate. He fired his .357 Magnum and bagged two feral hogs. To any cattleman wanting to protect his herd, that's the only way to react, McCann said. "I highly encourage anyone out there, if they see one, kill it," he said. "Don't shoot at it; kill it." That's what state law allows and what the Missouri Department of Conservation has encouraged to decrease the spread of feral hogs, now estimated to number up to 10,000 in the state. A 2003 News-Leader story put the number at 5,000....
State kills 257 wild hogs, but eradication unlikely Aerial hunters approved by the state shot and killed 257 wild hogs in Kansas during a two-day hunt last week, but experts say the troublesome swine will continue to wreak havoc in the state. An estimated 2,000 feral hogs make Kansas home, while Missouri might have as many as 10,000. Nationally, feral swine are estimated to number 4 million and cause nearly $1 billion in damage. The hogs are blamed for stealing field crops, ruining wetlands and potentially spreading disease to livestock. And they have no natural predator, meaning they can reproduce with little or nothing to stop them. Although many hunters would like to go after the hogs, the state of Kansas has banned such hunting, hoping to take away the incentive for people to release the hogs into the wild. But landowners say they are still constantly asked by hunters for permission to hunt the hogs....
Crocodile fossil hunt is big fish story A walk into the high desert of Oregon has netted an amateur paleontologist a heck of a fish story, and perhaps some unexpected insight into a Native American totem animal. "That morning, what I saw was a skull weathered out of a hillside," says Andrew Bland of the North American Research Group (NARG), a hobbyists' group looking for fossils last year on a rancher's land in eastern Oregon's Crook County. "I followed it up the hillside and saw there was a lot of it. Then I got excited." Digging into the hillside over a day and a half, the team uncovered almost half of a six to eight-foot long crocodile, Thalattosuchia, which lived more than 160 million years ago during the Jurassic era. Remarkably, the croc had a fish tail, which along with the needle teeth found in the skull must have made it a swift predator at sea. Most intriguing, the fossil croc bears a striking resemblance to the totem animal of Native American tribes, the Kiowa, Sioux, Pomo of northern California and others, says Adrienne Mayor, a visiting scholar at Stanford University, author of Fossil Legends of the First Americans. A University of Oregon artist's depiction of the crocodile greatly resembles the Kiowa artist Silverhorn's 1891-94 sketch of a water monster with scales, a long narrow head with needle teeth and a forked fish-tail drawn to illustrate water serpent legends, Mayor says. The Pomo Indians described a fish-tailed, needle-toothed water monster called Bagil, as well....
Navajo Nation watches ID tracking technology take hold Maybe someone should tell Little Bo Peep. If she'd used the radio identification tags Navajo Nation cattle and sheep ranchers are required to put on their livestock, Peep might have been able to hold on to her sheep. "There are a lot of neat things we can do," said Scott Bender, a veterinarian with the Chinle, Ariz., Veterinary Clinic. The Navajo Nation is bringing technology into the lives of its ranchers, using it to assess herd health, ensure meat quality, find lost animals and locate farms in the rural reservation, where farms often lack addresses. Navajo ranchers are adopting the technology, though not without suspicion. "Opinions vary," said sheep rancher Alton Henderson, 40, of Crownpoint. "Some people feel like it's an invasion of privacy."....
Dwindling breed evokes memories of Montana's rich ranching history The son of bull royalty, Prince Domino IX lived and died on the Willow Creek Ranch at the base of the Highwood Mountains near Belt. Weighing more than a ton, his wide back and square body sat short to the ground — the epitome of the Hereford breed. His strong genes have since passed on to his more than 6 million descendants. "That's what a bull should look like," said Jack Hoover, whose father bought the bull for $5,000 in the 1920s. These days, few do. Once as much a part of Montana's landscape as the prairies it grazed, the Hereford has been replaced. Forty years ago, Montana Hereford breeders registered 23,000 calves a year. Today that's dropped to just 3,000. Driven by aggressive and clever marketing, Angus is king, and Montana is the capital of the kingdom. The state has five of the country's largest Angus breeders and claims more registered Angus cattle than any other state....
A View from the Past That little Agnes Fortier, the twelve year old daughter of Francois Fortier, a rancher living near Hazen, killed a full grown bobcat yesterday with a piece of firewood. The little girl entered the woodshed which was some distance from the house, to secure material for the kitchen stove, when the cat, attracted by the smell of mutton, hanging spitted from the beams, sprang upon her, lacerating her face and neck. Torn by the claws of the ferocious animal the child put up a game fight. Churchill County Eagle - March 14, 1907