NEWS ROUNDUP

Idaho official named to lead Bureau of Land Management President Bush said Wednesday he is nominating James Caswell, a veteran public land official in Idaho, as director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management. Caswell, 61, who currently heads Idaho's Office of Species Conservation, would replace Kathleen Clarke, who resigned in February. Jim Hughes has served as acting director since then. The appointment requires Senate approval. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a former Idaho governor and senator, praised Caswell's selection. "I've known Jim Caswell personally and admire his 'can do' attitude, pragmatic leadership style and outstanding management skills," Kempthorne said in a statement. "His proven expertise in coordinating endangered species programs on public lands and his ability to build strong, effective partnerships make him well-qualified for this position." Under Caswell's leadership, the Office of Species Conservation won the Idaho Legislature's approval for two politically charged issues: a wolf management plan and a Yellowstone grizzly bear management plan. Before taking his current job, Caswell spent 33 years in various positions with the BLM, Bonneville Power Administration and the U.S. Forest Service....
U.S. to study protection for Alaska loon A petition seeking Endangered Species Act protection for a rare loon that breeds in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve has been accepted for review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Conservationists hope an eventual listing of the yellow-billed loon will curb petroleum development in the 23-million acre reserve that covers much of Alaska's western North Slope. The petition was filed three years ago by the Center for Biological Diversity, the National Resource Defense Council, Pacific Environment and other U.S. and Russian scientific and conservation organizations. The Fish and Wildlife Service said it will publish its determination Wednesday in the Federal Register that the yellow-billed loon may merit protections. The finding requires the agency to solicit public comment, carry out a status review of the species, and if merited, issue a proposed rule to protect the loons later this year....
Who killed the honeybees? The buzz about the alarming disappearance of bees has been all about people food. Honeybees pollinate one-third of the fruits, nuts and vegetables that end up in our homey kitchen baskets. If the tireless apian workers didn't fly from one flower to the next, depositing pollen grains so that fruit trees can bloom, America could well be asking where its next meal would come from. Last fall, the nation's beekeepers watched in horror as more than a quarter of their 2.4 million colonies collapsed, killing billions of nature's little fertilizers. But as a Salon round table discussion with bee experts revealed, the mass exodus of bees to the great hive in the sky forebodes a bigger story. The faltering dance between honeybees and trees is symptomatic of industrial disease. As the scientists outlined some of the biological agents behind "colony collapse disorder," and dismissed the ones that are not -- sorry, friends, the Rapture is out -- they sketched a picture of how we are forever altering the planet's delicate web of life. The scientists constituted a fascinating foursome, each with his own point of view. Jeffery Pettis, research leader of the USDA's honeybee lab, told us the current collapse is one of the worst in history. Eric Mussen, of the Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California at Davis, maintained that it may only be cyclical. Wayne Esaias, of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, an amateur beekeeper, outlined his compelling views about the impact of climate change on bees. And John McDonald, a biologist, beekeeper and gentleman farmer in rural Pennsylvania, reminded us, if at times sardonically, of the poetry in agriculture....
300 bison headed to slaughter house State and federal agencies this week will begin capturing and slaughtering up to 300 bison, including 100 calves, that have entered Montana from Yellowstone National Park. Ranchers packed a crowded meeting of the state Board of Livestock on Tuesday and generally supported the plan as critical to protect their industry. However, a spokeswoman for the Buffalo Field Campaign vowed that her group would let Americans know through a media campaign about Montana's slaughter of the bison “moms and babies.” Acting State Veterinarian Jeanne Rankin unveiled the bison plan at the emergency meeting of the state Board of Livestock after reporting that repeated efforts to haze the bison back into the park had failed this spring. Livestock Board members present all endorsed Rankin's plan as a means to help Montana preserve its brucellosis-free status, which is critical for the state's $2.5 billion cattle industry. However, it was Rankin's decision alone to make as state veterinarian....
Column - Dam the Salmon(sub) Al Gore has been hectoring Americans to pare back their lifestyles to fight global warming. But if Mr. Gore wants us to rethink our priorities in the face of this mother of all environmental threats, surely he has convinced his fellow greens to rethink theirs, right? Wrong. If their opposition to the Klamath hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest is any indication, the greens, it appears, are just as unwilling to sacrifice their pet causes as a Texas rancher is to sacrifice his pickup truck. If anything, the radicalization of the environmental movement is the bigger obstacle to addressing global warming than the allegedly gluttonous American way of life. Once regarded as the symbol of national greatness, hydroelectric dams have now fallen into disrepute for many legitimate reasons. They are enormously expensive undertakings that would never have taken off but for hefty government subsidies. Worse, they typically involve changing the natural course of rivers, causing painful disruptions for towns and tribes. But tearing down the Klamath dams, the last of which was completed in 1962, will do more harm than good at this stage. These dams provide cheap, renewable energy to 70,000 homes in Oregon and California. Replacing this energy with natural gas -- the cleanest fossil-fuel source -- would still pump 473,000 tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. This is roughly equal to the annual emissions of 102,000 cars. Given this alternative, one would think that environmentalists would form a human shield around the dams to protect them. Instead, they have been fighting tooth-and-nail to tear them down because the dams stand in the way of migrating salmon. Environmentalists don't even let many states, including California, count hydro as renewable....
Easement prevents homes, but drilling still a threat A massive conservation easement on a scenic area near Carbondale will protect against residential development, but it can't fully guard against oil and gas drilling, according to Pitkin County Open Space Director Dale Will. A natural gas wellpad is temporary, he said, "but once something's covered with houses, that's it." Last week, Pitkin County officially purchased the $10 million conservation easement on Jerome Park, a 4,773-acre swath of open ranchland, from an association of local ranchers that don't hold the property's subsurface mineral rights. Those rights are divided into 1,751 shares scattered between at least 30 people in and out of state, according to extensive records kept by Ed Grange, a lifelong local. Grange and other descendants of the original ranchers who bought Jerome Park in the 1940s hold many of those shares. If they chose to sell, it could potentially open the area to energy companies. "Sometimes you have to protect properties one step at a time," Will said of the purchase....
Mineral rights complicate conservation easements Wrangling with rogue mineral rights is old hat for many land trusts in the West. Most private landowners in the mineral-rich region simply don't own their subsurface rights because a previous owner held onto them, or because the federal government never let go of them, according to Martha Cochran, executive director of Carbondale-based Aspen Valley Land Trust. The situation is commonly known as "split estate." Cochran said 80 to 90 percent of the properties AVLT looks at for potential easements are split estates, be they in Marble, Carbondale or unincorporated Garfield County. In order for landowners with split estates to officially conserve their property with associated tax benefits, she explained, they must demonstrate that their property does not have accessible, economically viable mineral resources that could be developed through permanently destructive activities such as strip or shaft mining. But "the IRS considers oil and gas temporary and reclaimable," Cochran said. That's one reason why AVLT made sure to acquire mineral rights for a conservation easement on a 45-acre parcel of riparian habitat near Carbondale where there was significant potential for a gravel pit, but it "doesn't bother" with subsurface rights for properties where oil and gas development is possible or likely....
Oil Industry Fights House Energy Bill A trade group representing independent oil producers on Wednesday lambasted a controversial U.S. House proposal it says would make it harder for oil and natural gas companies to drill on federal lands. By making it more difficult for companies to obtain drilling permits, the bill would threaten output and only worsen the country's tight energy supply-demand balance, said the Independent Petroleum Association of America. Rahall's "Energy Policy Reform and Revitalization Act of 2007" would repeal 2005 energy laws that streamline the drilling permitting process in the Intermountain West, require any oil or gas the government receives as payment for energy development on federal lands to go towards the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and promote clean coal technologies. It also would impose a $10-per-acre fee on non-producing federal onshore oil, gas and coal leases. The money would go towards repairing land damage caused by drilling. The goal, Rahall said, is to reform energy policies so that they ensure that energy development is done in a responsible way, protect fish and wildlife, address climate change and advance alternative energy strategies. "In the rush to drill, other American values are being placed on the chopping block," Rahall said during a hearing on his legislation held last week. "We have heard from ranchers whose families have been on the same land for generations but who are being forced to sell off their cattle and close shop, driven off their own land by drilling rigs."....
Thomas supports Range lease ban Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., plans to introduce legislation perhaps as soon as next month that would block future energy leasing in the Wyoming Range, a spokesman says. Cameron Hardy, spokesman for Thomas in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday that workers on the senator's staff are meeting with energy company officials in Wyoming this week about the legislation. Thomas believes a bill to block further leasing in the area, in far western Wyoming, would not encounter significant opposition, Hardy said. The senator has expressed support for limiting development there for years. Thomas' legislation would not address current leases in the mountain range, Hardy said. He said the bill would leave open the possibility that the state government or conservation groups could try to buy out existing energy company leases to retire them....
Oil and gas lease buyback proposed The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission has endorsed an unusual proposal to buy back oil and gas leases in the Wyoming Range. Some 150,000 acres of the 750,000-acre Wyoming Range in the western part of the state were leased between the 1960s and 2003 for oil and gas drilling. Another 44,700 that were leased or eyed for leasing in 2005 and 2006 have had a stay placed on them as a result of protests. Locals, conservationists and sportsmen have objected to drilling in the range, known for its moose habitat and trout fishing. Though it has been drilled in the past, the area is poised to see more of that in the near future. The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission sent a letter on May 23 to Mark Rye, undersecretary of Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It supported legislation to permit undeveloped oil and gas leases in the range to be voluntarily sold or donated by energy companies and permanently retired....
Proposed mining regs draw howls As small-time prospectors gear up for gold dredging season, a new set of proposed U.S. Forest Service regulations is being widely panned. The proposed rules give new teeth to "operating plans" required by the Forest Service, providing powers to criminally prosecute those who violate said plans, rather than seeking remedies in civil court. The Proposed Rule for Criminal Citation to Mineral Operators for Unauthorized Occupancy and Use of National Forest System Lands and Facilities, as it's called, takes particular aim at those who illegally squat on forest land while looking for gold or who stay beyond the time allowed on their mining claim. The proposed rules have been faulted on a number of fronts. Some local prospectors say the time limits imposed by the Forest Service through forest managers themselves are unfair and leave prospectors little time to establish or work a claim — and make improvements to the land, as required by federal mining laws. In much of the Stanislaus National Forest, a person can work a claim up to 21 days per calendar year. In some areas, the limit is seven days. "A working claim is a working claim and it takes time," said Robert "I-Bar Bob" Eastbach, a member of the Lost Dutchman's Mining Association, an organization for mining enthusiasts which owns a camp on the south bank of the Middle Fork Stanislaus River, in an area called Italian Bar....
Arson defendant spared `terrorist' label A radical environmentalist from Canada was sentenced Tuesday to more than three years in federal prison after a judge suggested that he consider taking a class on the United States system of democracy. Darren Todd Thurston, 37, was the fourth of 10 Operation Backfire defendants to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Eugene - and the first to avoid being labeled a "terrorist" under federal terrorism law. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of arson in connection with damage done to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse Facility in Litchfield, Calif., on Oct. 15, 2001. His sentence includes paying restitution of $122,497. In the 11 years leading up to that crime, Thurston enjoyed "virtual stardom" in radical activist circles for his communiques and publications, including two editions of "The Final Nail: Destroying the Fur Industry - A Guided Tour," Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer said. The publication, posted on the Internet, identified the location of fur ranches and provided instructions on how to create incendiary devices, Peifer said. As recently as 2003, Thurston manufactured an explosive known as HGMD in Portland and then conducted a demonstration test in Redway, Calif., for the benefit of a representative of the Zapatista guerrilla movement in Mexico, Peifer said....
Wolstein defends Flats effort, denies intentional decline Developer Scott Wolstein said his family poured more than $10 million into Flats east bank entertainment, only to see businesses fail as the one-time national draw floundered in a wave of cut-rate beer and underage drinking. Testifying in court Friday, Wolstein rejected charges that his company let riverfront properties slide into blight, dragging down values of land that he wanted to acquire for a $230 million redevelopment. Wolstein, at times defiant and testy, fielded 3½ hours of questions before Cuyahoga County Probate Judge John E. Corrigan. The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is suing to take 12 parcels north of the Main Avenue Bridge by eminent domain, in support of a Wolstein-led plan to build housing and shops to revive the moribund district....
Copper, cattle working together on tailings Copper and cattle, two of Arizona's bedrock five-Cs industries, are working together at Phelps Dodge Miami to to solve what used to be a serious problem. Old-timers can remember when the dry slopes of the massive tailings dams would blow up a dust storm on windy days. And when it rained, the fine sandy material would wash into creek beds, causing siltation problems. It wasn't against the law back then but local residents complained about the dust. And eventually, various governmental entities became concerned about both the dust and the siltation. Mining companies tried to address the problem in various ways. Sixty years ago,Miami Copper Company spread wood chips on the slope of the big tailings dam near Miami. The wood chips helped keep the dust down a little, but quickly washed away when it rained. In other places, crushed slag was used to hold down the finely ground material, and once, they put up snow fences to try to keep it from drifting. Nothing worked very well. In 1989 the company began to address the problem in another unique way: they covered the tailings dams with earth, then began grazing cows on them. Patterned after a holistic land management system developed by Rhodesian ecologist, Allan Savory, the process takes the land through a life cycle. The whole eco-system is considered, and grazing cattle on the land is an important part of the cycle. The Phelps Dodge tailings reclamation project is recognized world wide and has received many awards. Jones said they have given tours for, among others, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Arizona Game and Fish, the Arizona State Mine Inspector, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and universities from all over the world. “The cows are the secret,” Jones said. “You can't stabilize these slopes mechanically, cows do it best. They change it from a verticle texture to a horizontal texture.”....
Lincoln officials say many trees will recover from bugs Lincoln National Forest officials have been assessing damage caused by insects and a fungus that have infested trees, as well as the possible fire hazards left by the damage. Forest Supervisor Lou Woltering said fire danger currently is moderate. No campgrounds or other areas are closed and no fire restrictions are in effect "because the threat is not there," he said. Southern Lincoln County residents expressed concern earlier this month that pinons around their communities are turning brown. Forest officias have said the discoloration appears to be connected to a fungus _ known as "needle-cast" _ that has invaded Ruidoso Downs, Weed, Mayhill, High Rolls and Nogal. They say most of the trees are expected to recover but likely will have thin crowns for a year or two. Woltering said the Lincoln has no plans to spray against insects. He said Otero County Administrator Martin Moore told him about half the people the county had heard from oppose spraying. In March, the Otero County Commission declared a disaster and a state of emergency for the Lincoln National Forest because of insects. Woltering said the Forest Service doesn't believe the current situation warrants declaring an emergency because there's no significant threat of fire....
A predator hot spot The Upper Green River Cattle Association in northwest Wyoming loses livestock to predation by wolves and grizzly bears, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. “We’ve been in existence since 1917,” said Albert Sommers, president of the association, “and we’ve always hired (range) riders to work with our cattle.” Riders, just like the cowboys of yore, have a number of chores: fixing fence, moving cattle around the allotments, setting out salt blocks and doctoring sick or injured cattle. “They also count the dead and pick up the pieces,” Sommers said. The Upper Green River Cattle Allotment, near Pinedale in Sublette County, is the largest U.S. Forest Service allotment in the nation, which permits grazing for 7,565 cattle and 27 horses on about 130,000 acres. The grazing permits are held by the 16 members of the Upper Green River Cattle Association. The association had 50 confirmed predator kills last year and 40 the year before -- confirmed by state and federal biologists. Yet association members strongly believe there are even more losses due to wolf and grizzly bear predation. Their analysis estimates that they’ve been compensated for 45 percent of the calves killed by grizzly bears and 16 percent of the calves killed by wolves on the allotment....
Calling a truce Most every Wyoming rancher has a common set of tools used in the business of raising livestock. A ranch pickup is likely to hold pliers, a hammer, wire for repairing fences, syringes for calf inoculations, a can of nails, rope and chains, a salt block, maybe a bale or two of hay, and a rifle in a window rack for shooting coyotes and other "varmints." It is this last “tool” that you simply won’t find in vehicles used by Stacey Scott, a Natrona County rancher. It isn’t because he doesn’t have predators; he does, and they include coyotes, foxes, mountain lions, bobcats, badgers, mink and various raptors. The most numerous, big mammalian predator in the area is the coyote, but Scott doesn’t shoot coyotes. He hasn’t lost more than one or two calves to coyote predation in 30 years. “We don’t have any (predator losses),” he said. Without the stress of being hunted and trapped, coyotes will develop stable territories and populations without much movement in and out of their home areas, Scott said. The rancher said there is a direct correlation, a “cause and effect,” between pressures put on coyotes by ranchers, and how coyotes respond. Scott said most of his neighboring ranchers try “to shoot every coyote they see.”....
Coyote Ugly The camera tracks right across a field covered in tall grass. It follows the quick movements of a small animal, whose silhouette slips from behind the grass. A small doglike form comes into focus. The coyote’s pointy ears shift. It takes a couple of wary steps. A moment later, it is blown away—a cloudy burst of dust and hair, then nothing. This short video on the Rocky Mountain Varmint Hunter Website, rmvh.com, is just one in a line of “varmint safari” videos. According to the Website, these films are the work of two Salt Lake City-based “hardcore varmint-hunting fanatics.” The long understood status quo is that coyotes are varmints. Today, while state and federal agencies kill coyotes to keep deer populations robust for hunters and to protect livestock, coyote hunting has become big business. Rocky Mountain Varmint Hunters is helping to fuel that industry. While coyote hunting associations, clubs and competitions spring up across the country, the rationale for the pastime is seen by some as a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem. Others just call it a blood sport. “Now, every manufacturer has a varmint line,” says Janet Hansen, the CEO of the Varmint Hunter’s Association, based in South Dakota. “Our guys shoot more often and spend more money. It’s a huge revenue source for these manufacturers.” Not only have sales of hunting gear increased, she says, but a tourist industry has grown up around varmint hunting....
Cow shootings anger ranchers in West Marin Another North Bay heifer has been found shot to death, bringing to four the number of cows killed this year. Officials say a necropsy of a 600-pound heifer found dead on a Petaluma ranch Saturday will determine whether the shooting is related to three other cow shootings on the Marin-Sonoma border since February. Marin Humane Society Capt. Cindy Machado said the shooting appears to fit the pattern of shootings on Marin's Chileno Valley ranches, where an Angus cow and two calves were shot in February and March. The dead Petulama heifer was found about 50 feet off the road in a pasture near 5765 Roblar Road by owner Nick Bursio. The animal had a 1-inch-diameter wound near its heart....
Cowboys Were Her Weakness: John Clayton’s The Cowboy Girl Caroline Lockhart, born in 1871, was a pioneering female journalist, a world traveler, a promoter of Buffalo Bill’s legend and legacy, one of the founders of the Cody, Wyoming Stampede rodeo, a novelist, a newspaper publisher and editor, and a Wyoming rancher. But until reading John Clayton’s fine biography, The Cowboy Girl: The Life of Caroline Lockhart, I’d never heard of her, and chances are that many others haven’t either--she doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry, for example. Lockhart, in Clayton’s balanced, non-judgmental telling, is often difficult to love but always larger-than-life, and The Cowboy Girl is a striking portrait of a Western woman who lived on her own terms throughout her long, extraordinary life....
'Buffalo' is tale of an unlikely pet In the new book "A Buffalo in the House" by R.D. Rosen, you'll read about one couple's experiences with an unlikely pet, and the way it buffaloed its way into their hearts. In the late 1800s, when Indian-white relations were far from friendly and buffalo were being hunted to near-extinction, Texas rancher Charles Goodnight and his wife, Mary Ann, hand-raised two buffalo calves and eventually grew them into a herd. Friendly with the Taos Pueblo Indians, Goodnight later gave several animals to the New Mexico natives so the tribe would have access to precious buffalo tallow. Three generations after Goodnight's death in 1929, his gift was nearly forgotten. But Charles' generosity wasn't forgotten by his great-great-niece, artist Veryl Goodnight. Veryl knew about her ancestors and wanted to honor them through sculpture. But since Veryl worked with living models, she needed a buffalo calf. She and her husband, Roger Brooks, spread the word to ranchers that an orphaned buffalo was needed in New Mexico. Enter Charlie, as the couple called him. Left behind after a herd migration, Charlie was less than a week old when Veryl and Roger flew to Idaho to claim him....