NEWS ROUNDUP

Clinton, Bloomberg host climate summit A global summit of leaders including former President Clinton convenes here this week to exchange ideas on addressing the threat of global warming. Mayors and governors of more than 30 localities from Colombia to South Korea, along with executives from a number of international companies, will join Clinton and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit that begins Monday. It is the second such gathering; the first was held in 2005 in London, drawing representatives of 18 cities. The theory behind the conference is that cities must play a major role in reversing climate change, since they contribute 80 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions even though they cover less than 1 percent of the Earth's surface....
Intelligence chief OK's global warming study Stepping into the middle of a partisan debate on Capitol Hill, the nation's top intelligence official has endorsed a comprehensive study by spy agencies about the impact of global warming on national security. In a letter written last week to the House Intelligence Committee, Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, said it was "entirely appropriate" that the intelligence community prepare an assessment of the "geopolitical and security implications of global climate change." The question of whether the country's spy agencies, already burdened by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the global hunt for members of Al Qaeda, ought to investigate the security implications of global warming has been debated in Congress for several weeks. A provision requiring a national intelligence estimate on climate change was in the 2008 intelligence authorization bill that the House passed Friday. The amount of the authorization is classified but it is believed to be about $48 billion, which would be the largest intelligence authorization ever considered by Congress. Republicans had tried to defeat the provision on the national intelligence estimate, saying that intelligence resources were too precious to be used to study the impact of climate change....
Climate change to force mass migration A billion people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts. The report, which is based on latest UN population and climate change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, south Asia and the Middle East. According to the development charity, the world faces its largest movement of people forced from their homes. "Forced migration is now the most urgent threat facing poor nations," said John Davison, the report's lead author. "Climate change is the great, frightening unknown in this equation." About 155 million people are known to be displaced now by conflict, natural disaster and development projects. This figure could be augmented by as many as 850 million, as more people are expected to be affected by water shortages, sea level crises, deteriorating pasture land, conflicts and famine, the report says....
Murdoch: I'm proud to be green n one of the most unexpected conversions since Saul of Tarsus hit the road to Damascus, Rupert Murdoch is turning into a green campaigner. He is making the whole of his worldwide operations carbon neutral and setting out to "educate and engage" his readers and viewers about global warming. He believes his companies' "global reach" presents "an unprecedented opportunity to raise awareness and to stimulate action around the world". A former sceptic who confesses to having been "somewhat wary of the warming debate", he laid on his first global webcast for all his employees on Wednesday to tell them that he was "changing the DNA of our business". He added that he had started with himself, buying a hybrid car. Mr Murdoch's conversion, which may surprise employees like Jeremy Clarkson, was heavily influenced by his son James - who took BSkyB carbon neutral a year ago this week - as well as by Tony Blair and former US vice-president Al Gore. All three attended his annual meeting for senior executives in Pebble Beach, California, last year where he was convinced to take the lead on the issue. The world's most prominent media tycoon is being hailed by environmentalists as the most important of a chain of high-profile new recruits to the battle to control climate change, including Sir Richard Branson and Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco....
Federal Loans for Coal Plants Clash With Carbon Cuts A Depression-era program to bring electricity to rural areas is using taxpayer money to provide billions of dollars in low-interest loans to build coal plants even as Congress seeks ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions. That government support is a major force behind the rush to coal plants, which spew carbon dioxide that scientists blame for global warming. The beneficiaries of the government's largesse -- the nation's rural electric cooperatives -- plan to spend $35 billion to build conventional coal plants over the next 10 years, enough to offset all state and federal efforts to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over that time. The Office of Management and Budget wants to end loans for new power plants and limit loans for transmission projects in the most remote rural areas. But the powerful National Rural Electric Cooperative Association deployed 3,000 members on Capitol Hill last week to push Congress to keep the program intact, arguing that the loans for new coal plants are needed to keep electricity cheap and reliable in rural areas. Environmentalists have also targeted the program. They say it removes any pressure for the rural co-ops to promote energy efficiency or aggressively tap renewable resources. Rural co-ops rely on coal for 80 percent of their electricity, compared with 50 percent for the rest of the country, and electricity demand at rural co-ops is growing at twice the national rate....
Column - Wildlife, oil development coexist in West A few years ago, land users breathed a sigh of relief when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the decision not to list the greater sage grouse as an endangered species. However, this decision could be short-lived as anti-multiple-use organizations file lawsuits and courts come closer to requiring the FWS to restart the listing process. From the mineral leaseholder to the subcontractors to the rancher or hunter, every aspect of land use would be drastically affected with a listing of the bird. Many opposition groups would have folks believe that we can have only development or healthy wildlife populations and development will lead to extinction. However, those of us on the ground know wildlife, agriculture and responsible development do coexist. Along with the FWS decision not to list the bird, many actions support the fact of a stable sage grouse population. The state of Montana increased the hunting bag limit, and Wyoming recently considered a proposal to lengthen the hunting season. Wyoming Game and Fish data shows the population has increased the last two years in the Powder River Basin. While range-wide sage grouse populations have decreased over the past two decades, today's grouse numbers in areas of oil and gas development mirror the population trends seen in undeveloped areas....
To south, Montana sees cautionary tale on energy Drive a couple of hours south of here into Wyoming and you enter the heart of America's domestic energy rush - a landscape where natural gas wells are as ubiquitous as cattle and the economy is growing faster than a prairie stream swollen by melting spring snows. But as Montana officials gaze across the 400-mile border separating the two states, they see something else: once-pristine wildlife habitat carved by roads, underground aquifers being pumped dry so companies can reach vast reserves of gas, and schools and police scrambling to keep up with rising demands. "Oil and gas development is happening really fast across the West. In Montana, we don't want to get run over by that," said T.O. Smith, energy coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "When we look at Wyoming, we don't want to do development in Montana if we're going to see the same fish and wildlife declines they're seeing." In a series of recent executive decisions, legislative actions and rules adopted by state agencies, Montana has laid out its terms for the energy development poised to sweep into the state. The common thread that runs through those policies can be summed up in one phrase: Not like Wyoming....
Senators, congressman fight to recover "useable" water Across the West, "useable" water is one of the most valuable natural resources, and also one of the scarcest. Each day, more than two million gallons of useable groundwater are wasted, turned into what is known as "produced water," after becoming contaminated beyond use as it is brought to the surface during oil and gas drilling or coal bed methane extraction. However, United States Senator Ken Salazar has taken the lead in the Senate on a bipartisan solution that could allow the recovery and use of many gallons of "produced" water every day. Yesterday, along with Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, Senate Energy Committee Ranking Member Pete Domenici, R-NM, and Senator Craig Thomas, R-WY, Senator Salazar introduced the "More Water, More Energy, Less Waste Act of 2007." The bill initiates a feasibility study on recovering the "produced water" and a grant program to test technologies that would convert it to "useable" water. It is the Senate companion to H.R. 902 which passed unanimously in the U.S. House on March 19, 2007. H.R. 902 is sponsored by Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs. The study provision of the bill would direct the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Director of the Bureau of Land Management to evaluate the feasibility of recovering and cleaning "produced water" for use in irrigation and other purposes, all while protecting and conserving the water quality and natural surroundings. It also requires those agencies to study ways to increase the efficiency of energy production by reducing the quantity of produced water that must be treated or reinjected....
Editorial - House right to offer Piñon requirements The House Armed Services Committee has approved a plan that will give ranchers and local officials in southeastern Colorado some leverage in their fight to prevent the U.S. Army from acquiring 418,000 acres to expand its existing Piñon Canyon Maneuver site. Rep. Mark Udall is the only Coloradan on the committee, and he added numerous restrictions to the upcoming 2008 defense budget. They prohibit the Army from acquiring any land for the expansion until it meets several requirements, including: A full environmental impact statement that includes analyses of alternative sites or a smaller expansion. Exploring options other than buying land, such as land leasing or easements. Providing property owners the right to seek third-party arbitration, whose costs would be assumed by the Army. A commitment to public access to cultural and historic areas within the site, which includes Picket Wire Canyon, home to thousands of dinosaur tracks, prehistoric Indian pictographs, and portions of the Santa Fe Trail. A guarantee of access for livestock grazing within the site. The Post has repeatedly expressed concern that the expansion could damage the fragile Comanche National Grasslands and otherwise harm southeastern Colorado. In our view, the new restrictions, if rigorously enforced, offer significant safeguards....
Thousands of miles of trouble Some 20 years ago, when gear jammers were high balling out of the Cascades with loads of old-growth timber and jake-breaking around curves, the U.S. Forest Service built 22,000 miles of logging roads in Washington state. Along with salmon, orcas, Lewis and Clark, and Mount St. Helens, those roads are part of the lore of the Northwest and a reminder of a way of life that has mostly disappeared. But that legacy of timber country is now creating problems. With the timber harvest on federal lands a trickle of what it was during the peak of the late 1980s, Washington state officials say the logging roads are deteriorating because of Forest Service neglect. And those deteriorating roads threaten to undo efforts to restore salmon runs, particularly in the rivers and streams flowing into Puget Sound. The state has asked Congress to provide $300 million over the next 10 years to maintain or remove the Forest Service roads. And though lawmakers are sympathetic, the federal budget is tight. Nationwide, there are roughly 380,000 miles of roads in the national forests. The Forest Service estimates there is a $4 billion maintenance backlog on the roads....
Smokejumpers: Challenge of smokejumper work begins above blazes Smokejumpers say they are just like any other wildland firefighters -- the only difference is how they get to the fire. What a difference it is. Like all firefighters, smokejumpers have to be ready to roll within minutes of the first alarm. But they don't rush to climb aboard a fire truck. They slide into Kevlar jumpsuits, hoist parachutes onto their backs and pile into a turboprop plane waiting on the tarmac outside their base just north of the Redding Municipal Airport. "The whole point is to get a fire when it's small," said Josh Mathiesen, operations captain at the California Smokejumper base in Redding, which serves the entire state and, at times, the nation. Smokejumpers are the first, and sometimes only, firefighters on the scene of many backcountry fires around the north state. Fire managers credit them with squelching fires before they have a chance to spread....
Spraying poses possible risks The U.S. Forest Service says while it is exploring the idea of spraying areas of the Lincoln National Forest infested with tree-damaging insects, it believes any spraying "may have little success in slowing the spread of infestation." In any case, no large-scale spraying will take place right away, according to a news release issued by the Lincoln. "The effects of spraying would have to be evaluated for potential impacts to domestic water supplies and to big game hunters during the fall hunts, when the treatment would take place," the Lincoln news release stated. In addition, "spraying may also kill beneficial insects and could impact sensitive species such as the checkered spot buttery that is known to inhabit the defoliated area," the news release stated. The Lincoln says based on an over-flight conducted April 27, the total area affected by the caterpillar of a species of geometrid moth is 12,433 acres. Forest Service officials expect to undertake an evaluation on June 1 regarding the current infestation....What are the risks of not spraying? Will they analyze that too?
Ranchers want feds to reduce prairie dog damage Two years after state and federal officials first took steps to control a vast prairie dog colony just south of Badlands National Park, neighboring ranchers are fuming. The damage to public and private grazing land is just getting worse, they say. Charles Kruse, who has cut his cattle herd in half because of a lingering drought and the continuing prairie dog invasion, grows agitated as he looks at miles of land covered with mostly bare dirt, prairie dogs and the mounds that crown their burrows. "It's like a moonscape out there, but this should be the greenest, nicest part of the year," Kruse said on a warm spring day....
Border patrol to travel horseback Wild horses. Drug smugglers. Prison inmates. Wranglers. Federal agents. All are converging on the northern border as part of “Noble Mustang,” a new program that will patrol Montana's boundary with Canada using native horse power. The unlikely partnership begins with the Bureau of Land Management's wild horse and burro program, which takes mustangs off public lands for sale to private owners. The animals are known for their strength, intelligence, endurance, sure-footedness - and also for the challenge they present to trainers. Enter prison inmates from Canon City, Colo. “The BLM began cooperating with the Department of Corrections there in 1986,” said agent Danielle Suarez, public information officer for the U.S. Border Patrol's Spokane Sector. The Border Patrol recently adopted eight wild horses to patrol that sector, which includes northwestern Montana....
A New Twist on the Private Residence Club Model - Cows Shell Valley is a tiny hamlet nestled in the foothills of the spectacular Bighorn Mountains in picturesque Shell Wyoming, population 50. Here, nature remains unspoiled and the traditions of the Old West continue uninterrupted. Tradition, honor and the cowboy code are fundamental to the foundation of life here in the West. Now this legacy that has lived on at the Flitner Ranch for over five generations can become part of your family’s history, thanks to the Hideout Private Residence Club. This unique business model combines several of the best features of Private Residence communities and destination clubs. But what you may ask are these elusive definitions? Simply put, a Private Residence Club membership is a form of fractional ownership, the fastest growing segment in real estate and frequently described as “luxury home ownership without the hassles”. A destination club in contrast, is a membership to a collection of resort destinations that provide the owner with luxury accommodations at each destination. The Hideout Private Residence Club is a non equity membership offering an experiential adventure through the use of our 300,000 acre working cattle and upscale guest ranch. The Hideout features luxurious accommodations, unparalleled recreation, a preservation trust and a conservation platform. As fourth generation ranchers, the Flitner family is passionate that the magnificence of The Shell Valley remains intact forever. After watching other areas of the West fall victim to indiscriminate commercial development, David and Paula Flitner have made a commitment to preserve The Shell Valley as a living treasure of the American West and are actively seeking 88 members who want to share in this vision....
Cattle Producers Offered Incentives To Enroll In Verification Program North Dakota cattle producers have some new reasons to enroll in a program that verifies the age and source of the animals they sell. Some meat packing plants are paying a premium of $25 to $30 per head for cattle that are age and source verified, according to Karl Hoppe, Extension Service area livestock specialist at North Dakota State University's Carrington Research Extension Center. Also, major beef-buying companies, such as McDonald's and Wal-Mart, are starting to require verification of the source of the meat they buy. The Japanese market reopening to U.S. beef is increasing the demand for age and source verification as well. Age and source verification programs allow agricultural producers to assure customers they are providing consistent, high-quality products. "Now is the time for producers to get enrolled in a verification program for next year's sales," Hoppe says....
Brand loyalty: Infusion of state funding keeps livestock ID program afloat Ranchers Stan and Lilly Hovendick were surprised a few years back to get a $460 check in the mail for the sale of a heifer that had gone missing a year earlier. After mixing with another rancher's cattle, the heifer had been sold at a Denver livestock auction. The profits diverted back to the Hovendicks, whose brand was on the animal. Another time, the Hovendicks' neighbors returned a $2,500 bull that had wandered 30 miles on the open range to join their herd. “If we didn’t have a brand on him, we never would have got him back,” said Lilly Hovendick, who ranches with her husband near Lander. Cases like these offer strong evidence to livestock owners that the age-old practice of branding livestock is alive and well in Wyoming. Brands provide proof of ownership and help identify cattle, horses and sheep in a sea of similar-looking animals on the open range or at the sale barn. Despite the continuing popularity of brands, the state agency that oversees them has fallen on hard financial times. The livestock industry blames the drought for the crunch: Parched rangeland has driven down herd numbers across the state over the last half-dozen years. The subsequent 30 percent reduction of brand inspection fee revenue, the chief source of money for the brand program, has drained more than $1 million from the annual budget. The state has stepped in to help, but problems remain....
Iron men Each time Joe Hunter answered the phone at the Torrington Livestock Markets, he had to tell the caller that he was all right -- it was just a cold that had stolen his voice. “To tell you the truth,” Hunter whispered to one of them, “I don’t feel all that well.” But there was no time to baby a cold. Several hundred head of cattle had just traded hands at the state’s largest livestock market, and Hunter, a supervisor with the state brand office, was busy filling out paperwork. Mentioned in state statute 27 times, Wyoming’s 60 full-time and 38 part-time brand inspectors are a critical part of the state livestock industry. Part cowboy, part bookkeeper, brand inspectors are the state’s chief defense against theft and missing livestock. Most are also career agriculturists with a lifetime of knowledge about the industry and the ranching communities where they live. Lately, the state and federal governments are demanding more of inspectors. Their work is increasingly moving into the realms of disease tracking, animal identification and even homeland security....
Wyo history intertwines with brands Perhaps the most impressive document in Wyoming's century-plus-long history of livestock branding rests in a wooden chest of drawers in the office of the Wyoming Livestock Board. The leather-bound, hand-lettered volume is tattered and water stained, but it contains the first known collection of brands compiled in the state. The one-of-a-kind volume was published in 1899, a full decade before the state took control of brand management from the counties in 1909. The history of livestock brands in Wyoming is colorful and touched by violence. Brands were at the center of the dispute that sparked the Johnson County War in the late 19th century, and they remain a critical element of the state's livestock industry. The world history of livestock brands is even older and more colorful, dating back at least 4,000 years. Artwork on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs depicts livestock brands as early as 2,000 B.C., according to history from the Livestock Board....
Longtime brands denote family legacies When L.G. Phelps bought ranchland near Meeteetse in the early 1900s, he also bought the cattle brand that went with it. The brand, an oval with three prongs jutting from the top, looked something like a king's crown, and that's what he called it. More than a century later, the Crown brand is still in use by Phelps' great-granddaughter, Lili Turnell, and her husband, Jack Turnell. “There's a lot of history that goes with it and pride as it's been passed down through the years,” said Lili Turnell, who ranches on the original land near Meeteetse. A handful of Wyoming brands is still in use a century or more after they were first registered in the state. Many, including the Crown brand and the well-known Pitchfork brand, which Phelps also owned, have been passed down from family member to family member. In addition to their function as a tool of the livestock trade, family brands can be heirlooms, points of pride, pieces of history and symbols that define ranchers and the land....
‘Big George’ of the Trinity packs quite a bite Steve Barclay and Sam Lovell first spotted the big alligator about eight years ago as they navigated their small flatbottom boat along a remote stretch of the Trinity River in Leon County. They knew right away the beast was something special. With its jet-black hide and knob-riddled head, the 'gator was noticeably different from all the others they had seen through the years. Perhaps the most distinguishing trait was its sheer size. The alligator had a weight problem, a serious one. "He was big from the first time we saw him -- much bigger than all the others," Barclay said. "Each time we saw him after that there was rarely a question as to whether it was him or not. He was that much different than all the rest." The man he was, some suspect Big George may have even treated himself to a side of beef every now and then. "It's scary, but it happens," Barclay said. "There was a rancher who lost several yearling calves on the Trinity River last year." Barclay said the rancher was fairly certain his calves were killed by alligators after he found three of the decaying carcasses, along with a beaver, tucked away in a wood drift that had washed up at the edge of a backwater slough....
Ritual of the West The morning sun had risen well above the horizon by the time the last pickup truck and horse trailer pulled up to the main ranch house. The earth, damp from three days of rain, released the fragrance of wet manure and straw into the air, and everyone was at ease on the unseasonably warm April morning. Some of the young men pinched “dips” of chewing tobacco into their lips and prepared quietly for the work, while the older men eased themselves into their saddles and joked that their horses seemed to be growing taller. The rancher, Jim Woolington, moved a piece of farm machinery that was blocking a gate, and then stopped to scoop up his 2-year-old great-granddaughter, Makayla Woolington, who had escaped the ranch house wearing only her pajamas. “She likes to see what’s going on,” Woolington explained. As they have since about 1935, friends and neighbors of the Woolington family gathered at the Woolington Ranch near Burns to brand the new crop of calves. Part social event, part hard work, the seasonal branding continues to be a rite of spring on many of Wyoming’s roughly 9,000 farms and ranches....