NEWS ROUNDUP

Utah fighting the laws of the land It's a small gesture of defiance — a narrow metal bridge that allows off-road vehicles illegal access to this archeologically rich canyon. But the modest structure, built by San Juan County officials on U.S. government land, is a symbol of the widespread local resistance to federal authority across much of southern Utah's magnificent countryside. Historically, people in the rural West have challenged federal jurisdiction, claiming ownership over rights of way, livestock management and water use. But nowhere is the modern-day defiance more determined, better organized or more well-funded than in Utah, where millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent fighting federal authority, and where the state government is helping to pay the tab, much of it, critics say, without oversight. For the last decade the Utah Legislature and two state agencies have been funneling money to southern Utah counties to bankroll legal challenges to federal jurisdiction. Most recently, a state representative persuaded the Legislature to provide $100,000 to help finance a lawsuit by ranchers and two counties seeking to expand cattle grazing in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. n addition, the Constitutional Defense Council, established to protect state and county interests on federal land, has paid out more than $10 million, much of it to assist southern counties in legal battles against the BLM and the National Park Service. The 2-year-old Public Lands Policy Coordination Office last year offered each county in Utah $10,000 to fight for rights of way across federal land and is funding a $1-million study on the economic impact of large federal holdings in the state....
Pipeline project underway A pipeline from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to Colorado's Front Range is past the proposal stage and the project is moving forward, project developer Aaron Million said Wednesday. "The Green River runs above average 25 to 30 percent of the time when Colorado's rivers are running below average," said Million of Fort Collins. "Water taken out of the reservoir would be charged to Colorado. It would benefit agriculture that is getting decimated on the Front Range." His words came during the Yampa/White Basin roundtable at the Holiday Inn of Craig. Flaming Gorge Reservoir straddles the Wyoming/Utah border, just east of where the two states and Colorado come together. The plan entails sending 165,000 acre-feet of water annually to eastern Colorado via a pipeline running through southern Wyoming with pumps powered by natural gas turbines along the route. The project will be privately financed and carries a three-to-five year timeline for completion. Million noted that Flaming Gorge Reservoir is larger than all the reservoirs in Colorado combined, and Colorado is allowed access to water as the Green River flows through the northwest part of the state, in an area with nearly no consumptive use....
What lies beneath What began as a small gas seep nearly a year ago has morphed into several larger ground disturbances in two different areas of the eastern Red Desert. These odd-looking features along Wild Cow Creek near the confluence of Deep Gulch and Cow Creek are methane springs, with hot water and gas spurting from underneath the earth, according to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. The "mud pots" have appeared as the nearby Atlantic Rim area is being developed for coal-bed methane production by Double Eagle Petroleum Company and Anadarko Petroleum. They are similar in appearance to mud pots that have appeared in Yellowstone National Park, and their presence has surprised long-time residents of the area. Savery rancher Pat O’Toole described one of the features as 30 feet wide with gas and water spurting a foot high. When standing nearby if you “just ... close your eyes and listen, it’s graphic,” O’Toole said. “These things are rolling and boiling,” Little Snake River Conservation District Supervisor Larry Hicks said....
'Drilled full of holes?' Phyllis Boye has one of the best views in Wyoming. Perched atop a ridge, where she has lived since 1980, Boye, nearly 80, can look out to 30 head of deer in her yard in the morning, or the majesty of the Wyoming Range in the near distance. "I just love everything about it," Boye (pronounced Boy-ay), said. "I love the scenery, I love the animals up there. Basically I really love Wyoming and I hate to see it drilled full of holes." It is her neighborhood around the Hoback Ranches that's now being eyed for energy development. An energy company out of Houston has applied to drill three exploratory wells from a single pad just on the other side of Picnic Ridge in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The ridge sits right next to Boye's home. It's a new wrinkle in the ongoing push and pull between land managers who are processing more and more drilling permits in areas more and more sensitive to wildlife -- and now, in Hoback Ranches -- to people. There are about 140 homes in Hoback Ranches. Most who live there are seasonal, summer-time residents. For year-round residents like Boye, winter access is generally by snowmobile....
Lawsuit targets Interior official In the middle of the debate over the future of the Gunnison Sage-grouse is Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald. MacDonald oversees the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's operations, including Endangered Species Act reviews. A lawsuit by nine environmental groups and San Miguel County contends the Bush administration - through MacDonald - made a political, not scientific, decision to keep the Gunnison grouse off the endangered-species list. "MacDonald reached out and interfered with the biologically based decisions by staff in Colorado," said Amy Atwood, attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center. MacDonald appears to have been involved in the process based on some of the 500 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service documents obtained by the environmental group Sagebrush Sea Campaign. A July 2005 e-mail shows that after a call from a governor's office, MacDonald made inquiries about the grouse. In December 2005, handwritten notes by an FWS Colorado supervisor indicated that it was decided Washington would handle the first draft of the findings. An April 2006 e-mail states that "JM" asked for an electronic copy of the decision to "do some editing." Environmental groups say their opposition to MacDonald has been bolstered by an investigation by the Department of Interior's Inspector General....
Rare bird fights for survival Morning sun crested over the Fossil Ridge Wilderness, illuminating dozens of Gunnison Sage-grouse performing their age-old breast-puffing mating ritual - what some call a dance on the edge of extinction. The birds strut, fight and strike Kabuki-like poses in a rite as wild and natural as the sagebrush around them. But even on this remote and vacant land, the wild birds have not escaped the impacts of humans. Grouse habitat has been destroyed, the bird's population cut, and its future is being litigated and regulated. "A single species becomes a symbol for a much larger issue about the degradation of land," said Jessica Young, a biology professor at Western State College in Gunnison. The Gunnison grouse is one of the country's most endangered birds, according to the Audubon Society and the World Conservation Union. Yet after the grouse's six years as a candidate for federal protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2006 removed it from consideration for the endangered-species list. The decision relieved ranchers and outraged conservationists. Faced with federal regulation of the land, Gunnison ranchers and local officials a decade ago began a homegrown effort to protect the grouse. More than $11 million in public funds has been spent to preserve 17,000 acres and enhance the bird's habitat....
N. Ariz. off-roaders fear a near-ban Coconino National Forest officials are considering closing almost all off-road trails used by motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles by September 2009. The near-ban is part of a national proposal designed to cut back on motorized cross-country travel in national forests, and it could be modified once existing trails are mapped, U.S. Forest Service officials told riding groups. A briefing for nearly 200 motorbike and ATV enthusiasts at a Flagstaff motorcycle shop last Wednesday brought a swift reaction from riders, who complained that closing the forest to off-road use and then selectively reopening some trails would leave them without a recreation spot. "They see a legitimate problem, but their management is, 'Close it,' " said Keith Greenwalt, a member of the Coconino Trail Riders group. The Trail Riders have been asking for multiuse trails that include dirt bikes and ATVs for the last 30 years to eliminate damage from cross-country travel, Greenwalt said. Scars across the land tarnish the image of responsible riders, he said....
Forest Service rule prohibits over-snow traffic in ski town A new Forest Service rule has angered residents of Alta who say their winter travel will be too restricted. Homeowners in Alta rely on Snowcats, snowmobiles and skis to reach their homes during winter because many roads are unpaved. The Forest Service rule would ban so-called over-snow vehicle travel between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily during ski season. The rule is meant to boost skier safety at Alta Ski Area. About 21 homes would be affected. The Forest Service says the travel ban has been in place since 1982. It's just never been enforced. But residents say when the resort expanded in 1981 they were promised that it would not impede access to their homes....
2 off-roader events win BLM approval Federal land managers this week approved permits for a pair of off-highway vehicle events in San Juan County's Arch Canyon, the current hotspot in the ongoing debate over motorized versus non-motorized activities in Utah's backcountry. But the Bureau of Land Management, in approving the OHV event permits, spurned a draft environmental assessment that called for up to eight such events yearly. The first event, a Jeep jamboree, is scheduled for this weekend. Sandy Meyers, field manager of the BLM's Monticello Field Office, said Friday that scaling back the proposal was largely done in a bid to bring opposing factions to the table to discuss the future of motorized uses in the canyon. "We could have approved eight events; it probably wouldn't have any more impact than two events given how closely these things are guided and monitored. But we're trying to get some consensus as far as a general management plan goes," Meyers said....
Bill would create new wilderness Conservationists say U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer's plan to designate 2.4 million acres of California mountains as wilderness ---- including areas in San Diego and Riverside counties ---- would preserve a back-country treasure for future generations. But off-road enthusiasts say Boxer's new wilderness bill would lock up that treasure forever so that only a privileged few could use it. California already has one of the nation's most extensive wilderness systems, one that covers more than 14 million acres or 13 percent of its sun-splashed lands. But Meg Grossglass, a spokeswoman for the Bakersfield-based Off-Road Business Association who resides in the French Valley community near Temecula, said enough land has been preserved already, and the bill would have the effect of putting a padlock on places people would otherwise visit. That, she said, is because many prefer not to recreate on foot or horseback, the only permitted methods of travel in most wilderness areas....
CO poisoning linked to Lake Powell deaths An invisible killer stalked the waters of Lake Powell for years, causing nearly half of the "drownings" reported there. But they were not simple drownings. They were part of a mystery that saw excellent swimmers unexpectedly sink and die, sometimes after just moments in the water. Their real killer was carbon monoxide (CO) from the exhaust of engines and houseboat generators, sometimes found in concentrations so high behind boats that lethal amounts could be inhaled literally in seconds, making victims fall unconscious and drown or die from CO poisoning itself. Stubborn detective work identified the problem and made initially reluctant agencies act to correct boat design. But continuing work begun at Lake Powell suggests carbon monoxide still may be an unrecognized mass killer nationwide. "There could be as many as 250 boat-related drownings per year (nationally) that are carbon monoxide poisoning first," says Jane McCammon, one of the scientists who identified the problem. "But that is a big guess," she adds, saying other areas often do not test for carbon monoxide poisoning in blood of "drowning" victims as doctors at Lake Powell have learned to do. So she extrapolates from work at Powell and by tracking a growing list of accidental drownings nationwide that show signs of CO poisoning....
Cattle get reflective ear tags to prevent collisions Cattle grazing on the open range along State Route 95 in San Juan County are sporting new ear tags. Made from the same material as road signs, the tags are designed to prevent motorists from hitting cows at night. Rancher Sandy Johnson, who has grazing permits along State Route 95, said he lost about 10 cows in a year to collisions with cars but has not lost any since November, when he began putting the tags on his cattle. Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Rick Eldredge, who polices San Juan County, said he came up with the idea five or six years ago and delivered some to a rancher a with range between Bluff and Montezuma Creek. He began delivering new batches to Johnson last year after a series of accidents with his herd, which numbers about 350. Many of the vehicles striking cows are thought to have been crammed with undocumented immigrants. “We'd just find an abandoned van, a dead cow and no one around,” Eldredge said....
FDA Was Aware of Dangers To Food The Food and Drug Administration has known for years about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter plant and on California spinach farms that led to disease outbreaks that killed three people, sickened hundreds, and forced one of the biggest product recalls in U.S. history, documents and interviews show. Overwhelmed by huge growth in the number of food processors and imports, however, the agency took only limited steps to address the problems and relied on producers to police themselves, according to agency documents. Congressional critics and consumer advocates said both episodes show that the agency is incapable of adequately protecting the safety of the food supply. FDA officials conceded that the agency's system needs to be overhauled to meet today's demands, but contended that the agency could not have done anything to prevent either contamination episode. Last week, the FDA notified California state health officials that hogs on a farm in the state had likely eaten feed laced with melamine, an industrial chemical blamed for the deaths of dozens of pets in recent weeks. Officials are trying to determine whether the chemical's presence in the hogs represents a threat to humans....
New Book Tells a Horsewoman's True Story of the Curly Horse of America Nevada's Mystery Horse by Carol L. Erickson investigates a real 21st century mystery--the origins of curly-haired horses, a breed which managed to survive against incredible odds. Most people have never seen a curly-haired horse, and their origins remain a complete mystery. Yet fourth generation rancher Carol L. Erickson fell in love with these strange curly-haired horses the moment she saw a photo of them. Nevada's Mystery Horse is her gripping account of how one very special woman came to champion a very exotic breed, and how careful breeding saved them from extinction. Erickson journeys back to the 1930s to describe how these mesmerizing animals were initially destroyed because ranchers believed they were sick. Originally, less than 300 of these creatures were alive, but because of increased interest and the formation of a curly-haired horse registry, they are now 3000 strong and growing. This is a fascinating story for anyone who loves horses, cares about preservation, or just loves a galloping good mystery. Told with warmth, wit and a keen love of animals, Nevada's Mystery Horse is a winner to be enjoyed by all....
Museum in north Texas trying to preserve collection of 500-plus hats For more than 50 years, Nat Fleming's western wear store didn't just sell cowboy hats — it became a shrine to them. The hundreds of worn hats nailed to the wooden rafters actually were a tribute to his customers — the ranch hands, wealthy oil investors and businessmen who gave him their old hats when they bought new ones. He even had one from Gene Autry, although it was stored in a glass case and on loan from the collector who owned it. But Fleming, 85, closed the Cow Lot when he retired late last year in this North Texas city. Now the Museum of North Texas History wants to preserve the 511-hat collection and has raised about a third of the $40,000 needed to build the display room. Some, like the white hat owned by Fleming's wife, look pristine. A Kansas game warden's straw hat also appears new. Others are a bit worn, the gray or tan felt brims stained brown from sweat, dirt and oil off the farmers' and workers' hands so many decades ago. "I'm so proud of every one we got in because everybody that came in the store had a different one," Fleming said. Soon after Fleming opened his store in 1952, his brother gave him a dark brown 10-gallon hat with a bullet hole in the back brim. So Fleming decided to hang it on the wall, never anticipating the trend he would start....
Cowboys, Lassos and Spurs: Photographing the Old West The New Mexico Photography Field School, New Mexico's Premier Photography Workshops, Is pleased to announce "Ranchers, Ramblers & Renegades: Portraits of the Old West", July 8-14, 2007. During this workshop participants will be photographing people who make their living ranching, training horses, raising cattle — these individuals aren't models “pretending” to be Ranchers, Ramblers and Renegades — they're the real deal. Because The Field School has established personal relationships with the owners of ranches and haciendas where we will be photographing, participants will be able to have unique experiences unavailable to “tourists” at the best times of the day. The workshop will focus on environmental portraiture and understanding how to make great images utilizing the quality and direction of natural light. Participants will also gain experience in using reflectors and translucent panels to enhance the quality of their photography. There will also be frequent feedback sessions so participants can receive constructive comments about their work....