NEWS ROUNDUP

EU demands cows change their diets BARMY Euro MPs are demanding new laws to stop cows and sheep PARPING. Their call came after the UN said livestock emissions were a bigger threat to the planet than transport. The MEPs have asked the European Commission to “look again at the livestock question in direct connection with global warming”. The official EU declaration demands changes to animals’ diets, to capture gas emissions and recycle manure. They warned: “The livestock sector presents the greatest threat to the planet.” The proposal will be looked at by the 27 member states. The UN says livestock farming generates 18 per cent of greenhouse gases while transport accounts for 14 per cent....
Bangkok hosts key climate summit A major climate change conference which will spell out what needs to be done to combat global warming has got under way in the Thai capital Bangkok. It is the third such summit this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It aims to be the key guide to climate change technology and economics. A final draft seen by the BBC will say nations can protect the climate, but only if they make policies to halt the global growth in emissions by 2030. The draft refers to stabilising emissions between 450 and 550 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere....
Rancher uses easements in land fight Bob Patterson knows that it will take more than a conservation easement to stop the Army from taking his ranch south of Kim. He’s convinced, however, that such easements are a powerful tool for protecting agricultural land in Southeastern Colorado. “I don’t know if I’ll go up or down, but whichever way I go, I want to be looking at a ranch with cattle on it,” he joked last week at a seminar on conservation easements. About 75 people - a mix of real estate agents, landowners, bankers, appraisers and public officials - attended the seminar sponsored by the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, the Colorado Ag Land Trust, the Nature Conservancy and Community Banks of Colorado. Patterson was a sort of pioneer for conservation easements in the region, working on protecting the 20,000-acre spread he and his wife Bunny bought in the 1960s. Along with his children, he worked for four years with the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust to donate a conservation easement in 2001. A member of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association board, Patterson has helped fight the expansion of Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, which could aim for his property, “depending on which direction they’d go.”....
Colorado may say no to Fort Carson expansion Colorado, a state that has long been friendly toward the military, is poised to try to stop the Army from using eminent domain to vastly expand a troop training ground on the southeastern Plains. At the urging of ranchers who live near Fort Carson’s Pinon Canyon maneuver site, state lawmakers approved a bill that withdraws Colorado’s “consent” for the federal government to acquire more land for Pinon Canyon. The measure is now on the desk of Gov. Bill Ritter. Spokesman Evan Dryer wouldn’t comment Friday on whether Ritter will sign it but said the governor has “very serious concerns about the use of eminent domain” for the expansion. While military bases have faced closure elsewhere, Colorado Springs’ Fort Carson is adding 10,000 soldiers and will be home to 25,000 troops by 2009. It will also be a training site for National Guard units from around the West. The post has sent over 13,000 soldiers to Iraq, many on multiple tours, and many of the new soldiers arriving from Fort Hood have served in Iraq....
Yellowstone grizzlies ‘recovered’ One of the most pristine expanses of wilderness in the lower 48 states grew even wilder over the last two decades, with the resurgence of grizzly bears across 9 million acres in and around Yellowstone National Park. Starting today, those grizzlies will be cut loose from protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. The move is being hailed by the Bush administration as a landmark in the drive to protect the bears’ vast habitat. But a lawsuit to reverse the administration’s ruling already is being drafted, illustrating that the bitter fight over grizzlies — and the wild lands they roam — is far from over. The preservation groups behind the pending legal challenge claim the administration is delisting grizzlies as part of its agenda to expand logging, oil and gas exploration and grazing on Western lands. They also argue the administration is ignoring new perils for grizzlies, in global warming and the boom in vacation home construction that is sweeping across the West. Federal wildlife officials and some conservation groups say the litigation could throw a cloud over the entire endangered species program, obscuring one of the program’s rare success stories....
Views differ on warming's effect on grizzlies Yellowstone grizzlies need a lot of fuel. At its hungriest, one might consume 20,000 calories a day - the rough equivalent of snarfing 1½ Big Macs every hour. But for the 500 or so grizzlies that live in and around Yellowstone National Park, the Earth's warming climate may change what's on the menu. All four of the most important food groups for the bears - whitebark pine nuts, moths, cutthroat trout and winter-killed elk and bison - could potentially be affected by global warming. The difficulty, though, is predicting how. That will be one of the central questions looking forward as Yellowstone grizzly bears today are removed from the endangered-species list. Federal bear biologists who proposed delisting say grizzlies are highly adaptable and that managers will keep an eye on the bears and do what they can to make sure they can survive. Climate change or no, though, grizzlies have found ways to survive again and again in unstable environments, bear officials said. Their omnivorous tastes run from bugs and roots to meat, garbage and nearly everything in between....
Benzene surfaces Benzene has been found in water wells in two Sublette County natural gas fields. Federal land managers say the benzene probably came from trucks used to siphon water out of the wells. They say there is no threat to human health or livestock. Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said benzene was found in four industrial water supply wells on the Jonah Field and on the Pinedale Anticline last August and September. Benzene is a hydrocarbon that can cause human health problems if ingested. There has been no drinking water contaminated," said Rey Adame, public affairs officer for the BLM. "There is no threat to human health or livestock. There are no threats to people working in the field. I don't want to create a panic with this, because it's not." A local conservation district tested the wells last summer, Adame said. The contamination was reported to BLM in January. Adame said he didn't know why there was a delay in reporting it. John Wagner, water quality administrator for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, said he didn't think operators would fined because the matter is still under investigation....
Colo. withdraws objection to water rights stipulations Nearly two weeks after filing objections to an agreement reached between Upper Gunnison Basin water users and the federal government in 2003, the state’s attorney general has filed a motion to withdraw it. “It was done because a number of parties in the Gunnison River Basin made it very clear they felt the filing of those objections would prevent further negotiation,” said Alexandra Davis, First Assistant Attorney General for the water rights unit. The agreement in question regards stipulations protecting the water rights of ranchers and other users from the government’s reserved water right for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Davis said the motion was filed to allow the state to withdraw its objection with “leave of the court to file them again later.” Frank Kugel said he believes there was “a broad base of support” for those who filed the stipulations and they felt the state had not lived up to its original commitment when it filed the objections. The state was closely involved with and provided input to those stipulations when they were filed, he said....
Well crackdown intensifies in Summit Kent Gloor wasn’t exactly happy when he recently received a letter telling him that state officials may revoke his well permit and curtail his use of water. “The tone of the letter was a little direct,” said the Breckenridge Heights property owner. “I’m sure there will be some homeowners who will be pretty upset.” Gloor referred to several hundred residents and property owners targeted by the continued crackdown on unauthorized well-water use. At issue are state laws that limit well water use to indoor, domestic purposes for certain types of wells. The general idea is, if you use groundwater to irrigate a lawn or wash a car, at least a portion of that water doesn’t make it back into surface streams. In effect, that water is lost to a potential downstream user with senior water rights. The problem has grown as more well users get hooked up to sewer systems, resulting in an even greater net loss to groundwater flows. “If you’re using water outside the conditions of your permit, you’re using someone else’s water,” said state water commissioner Scott Hummer. “The water that trickles down the mountain and fills the fissures in the rock where the well is goes down into a stream, where a rancher or a municipality may have senior rights to that water.”....
The big, dirty list When you think of water pollution, you might picture industrial waste, chemicals, sewage or some type of toxic sludge pouring out of an old rusty pipe into a river. That's the kind of water pollution you'll typically find in the Eastern United States. It's usually easy to detect and to stop: There's the sludge, there's the pipe it's pouring out of that should be turned off, and there's the offender who should be fined. But in New Mexico and other Western states, it's a very different story. Almost all water pollution in the West comes from the activities of animals and people. The sources are difficult to identify, even harder to stop, and almost impossible to issue fines for to the responsible parties. Contamination from these so-called nonpoint sources are often subtle and cumulative, taking place over many years. The pollution caused by nonpoint sources often has multiple origins and offenders, and takes much, much longer to clean up....
Elk foundation buys timber, grazing land The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has purchased 367 acres of timber and grazing land in the southern Bitterroot Valley and transferred the property to the state. The property, which sold for $688,000, supports some 1,000 wintering elk, the foundation said. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation will wind up with the property after a swap with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for other land in the Bitterroot. "We're going to be celebrating this one. It was a real accomplishment made possible by a lot of great people," said Mike Mueller, senior lands program manager for the elk foundation. The property, on Lyman Creek northeast of Sula, is surrounded by the Sula State Forest on three sides. U.S. Forest Service land borders it on the east....
Closure of 2,450 miles of trails proposed Tahoe National Forest is proposing to close 2,450 miles of unauthorized off-highway-vehicle trails that have been used for years to halt problems such as erosion and impacts on wildlife. In turn, 50 miles of so-called OHV trails not previously in the forest's inventory will be added to a developing designated route system. The crackdown is part of a nationwide effort that began three years ago to identify motorized roads and trails on federal lands and control unmanaged riding. Unmanaged recreation from OHVs is one of the "four key threats facing the nation's forests and grasslands," according to a report by the U.S. Forest Service. "This kind of damage is just not acceptable," said Phil Horning, forest landscape architect with the Tahoe National Forest....
A new way to beautify canyons? Future upgrades to Providence Canyon could lie in the pocketbooks of city residents. That’s if a first-of-its-kind arrangement between the city, U.S. Forest Service and its nonprofit arm is approved by councilmembers. Under a proposal floated by Logan District Ranger Rob Cruz, Providence homeowners would be given the option to tack $1 on to their monthly utility bills. The money would be funneled into an interest-bearing account maintained by the National Forest Foundation until city and Forest Service officials come up with a project worthy of the money that’s donated. “We’ve never tried it anywhere in the country before this program. We’re on the cutting edge here,” Cruz said. “If it works out well, we want to take it to other places and see if other communities would like to jump in.” The funds could help pay for the construction of restrooms in the canyon, shutting off illegal ATV trails, fencing off the city’s water source or additional patrols by law enforcement at night....
Park fee hikes questioned A four-year program to increase national parks entrance fees and make them more uniform could discourage many Americans from visiting their national parks — especially parks that are close to home, some parks boosters say. The federal government's move in January to replace the National Park Service's $50 annual pass with a new $80 multi-agency pass is also drawing fire. The National Parks Conservation Association, a non-partisan group that lobbies on behalf of national parks, recently called on Congress to allow the park service to bring back the less expensive pass, which allowed free entry to the 145 parks that charge fees. Another 246 national park sites do not have entrance fees. The new America the Beautiful Pass can be used at about 2,000 recreation sites operated by the park service, the U.S. Forest Service and several other federal agencies. Meanwhile, the number of visitors to the national parks has been falling....
Many views on wild lands
Heritage farmers reap riches money can't buy It's easy to understand what lured Lorenz F. Bading back to work the rolling pastures northeast of New Braunfels that have been in his family since 1852. It's in his voice as he gently prods one of his Red Limousin cattle out from in front of his range vehicle or quietly recalls the days long ago when he helped make sorghum cane into molasses on a mule-driven press, parts of which still stand near the home where he was born in 1916. Bading, Wood and their families are part of a group of 81 families recognized by the Texas Department of Agriculture for keeping Texas land in farming or ranching for at least 150 years. Another 4,100 Texas farmers and ranchers have been honored in the state's Family Land Heritage Program since it began in 1974 for keeping land in agricultural production for at least 100 years. And five families, all in Jim Hogg or Starr counties of the Rio Grande Valley, have stayed active in agriculture for 200 years or more, going back to the Spanish land grants of the 18th century....