NEWS ROUNDUP

Interior Official Quits Ahead of Hearing An Interior Department official accused of pressuring government scientists to make their research fit her policy goals has resigned. Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, submitted her resignation letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a department spokesman said Tuesday. MacDonald resigned a week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she violated the Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. MacDonald was recently rebuked by the department's inspector general, who told Congress in a report last month that she broke federal rules and should face punishment for leaking information about endangered species to private groups. Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery confirmed MacDonald's resignation but declined to comment further. Environmentalists cheered the departure of MacDonald, who they say tried to bully government scientists into altering their findings, often without scientific basis....
Corps Asked to Explain Pump Contract When the Army Corps of Engineers solicited bids for drainage pumps for New Orleans, it copied the specifications - typos and all - from the catalog of the manufacturer that ultimately won the $32 million contract, a review of documents by The Associated Press found. The pumps, supplied by Moving Water Industries Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Fla., and installed at canals before the start of the 2006 hurricane season, proved to be defective, as the AP reported in March. The matter is under investigation by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. In a letter dated April 13, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., called on the Corps to look into how the politically connected company got the post-Hurricane Katrina contract. MWI employed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President Bush's brother, to market its pumps during the 1980s, and top MWI officials have been major contributors to the Republican Party. While it may not be a violation of federal regulations to adopt a company's technical specifications, it is frowned on, especially for large jobs like the MWI contract, because it could give the impression the job was rigged for the benefit of a certain company, contractors familiar with Corps practices say....
EU-U.S. summit call for "urgent" climate action The European Union and the United States agreed on Monday that global warming is an "urgent" priority, and President George W. Bush conceded he must work to convince Russia of the need for a missile shield in Europe. At a joint news conference in the Rose Garden, the European side said it felt progress was made on the issue, despite an absence of concrete steps the EU and the United States can take together to address the problem. "I really welcome the fact that there was progress in this meeting," said Barroso. "We agree there's a threat, there's a very serious and global threat. We agree that there is a need to reduce emissions. We agree that we should work together." Bush, who critics charged was late to recognize climate change as a problem, made clear he felt any agreement between the United States and Europe would have a limited impact as long as developing countries like China are not included. "The United States could shut our economy and emit no greenhouse gases, and all it would take is for China in about 18 months to produce as much as we had been producing" to make up the difference, he said. But Merkel retorted that the developed world must lead the effort to reduce carbon emissions. "If the developed countries with the best technologies do nothing, then it will be very tough to convince the others. Without convincing the others, worldwide CO2 emissions won't go down," she said....
Albertans demand action on 'vile' well water When Fiona Lauridsen turns on her tap, the smelly water that flows out fizzes and burps. “The water coming out of my well is vile,” said Mrs. Lauridsen, who farms with her husband and family near Rosebud, Alta., a hamlet located about 100 kilometres east of Calgary. She and a small group of landowners and farmers travelled Tuesday to the Alberta Legislature to raise concerns about whether rampant oil and gas production around the country's fastest growing province may be poisoning their groundwater. The group, which is supported by the Alberta Liberals, is circulating a petition to urge the provincial and federal governments to act immediately. In Mrs. Lauridsen's case, she suspects that nearby coal-bed methane drilling – a source of natural gas – has led to her water problems. She said lab tests revealed high levels of methane....
Agents push bison back into park State and federal wildlife managers began hazing hundreds of bison back into Yellowstone National Park Tuesday ahead of a May 15 deadline, after which any bison outside the park likely will be sent to slaughter. For the first time in recent years, bison had been allowed to linger outside the park this spring, on U.S. Forest Service land about 10 miles north of West Yellowstone, Mont., said Melissa Frost with the Montana Department of Fish, Parks and Wildlife. Because they carry brucellosis, and ranchers are concerned it could be spread to cattle, the bison must be off that land and any private property outside the park so cattle can return to their summer ranges in the West Yellowstone Basin. "Any bison outside of the park after May 15 will likely be lethally removed," Frost said. State officials contend that when hazing the bison fails, they have no option but slaughter given the threat brucellosis poses to the cattle industry. Brucellosis causes cattle to abort. Widespread vaccination of bison is not considered feasible because of the potential cost and difficulty of vaccinating every bison....
Report: Drilling squeezes hunters, habitat Loss of wildlife habitat and fewer places for sportsmen to hunt in the West are blamed in a new report on Bush administration energy policies that spurred a boom in oil and gas drilling. Drilling on federal lands in five Western states doubled over the last decade, to more than 2,000 wells per year, according to the report to be released today by the Environmental Working Group and the National Wildlife Federation. That so-called "rush to drill" in Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Colorado and New Mexico is squeezing hunters off public land and destroying crucial habitat for species including antelope, mule deer, elk and sage grouse, the report says. The environmental groups' report was based on comparisons of state wildlife agency habitat maps with BLM oil and gas lease sales. Their analysis showed the agency has leased 23 million acres of mule deer habitat, 18 million acres of antelope habitat, 17 million acres of sage grouse habitat and 13 million acres of elk habitat....Go here to read the report.
Officials tout CO2 injection Government and company officials and scientists on Tuesday urged more federal attention and funding for new technologies to capture and store carbon dioxide when burning coal, keeping the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere. Witnesses at the joint hearing of two House Natural Resources subcommittees estimated that the technology could be in widespread commercial use in 10 to 15 years, but only if well funded and researched projects begin now. The technology would allow carbon dioxide to be captured and injected deep underground in geologic formations, where it would remain trapped. The issue is of great interest in Wyoming, the nation's leading coal producer. Carl Bauer, executive director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, said that at its most rapid development the technology would be available in a decade, with broader commercial use in 15 to 20 years. For the technology to have significant impact on reducing greenhouse gases, several hundred to several thousand carbon capture and storage facilities would need to be built around the world, he said....
Pinon bill ready for Governor's signature Gov. Bill Ritter will sign a measure Thursday aimed at making it more difficult for the U.S. Army to use its eminent domain powers to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site in Southeastern Colorado. The measure, HB1069, withdraws the state's permission for the Army to use eminent domain in expanding Pinon Canyon. No state has attempted this in the past. Introduced by Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, and Sen. Ken Kester, R-Las Animas, legislators hope the bill will force the Army to acquire land through easement agreements or outright purchases. The Army, which has said it plans to do that anyway, is looking to expand the 238,000-acre training site by as many as 418,000 acres. The governor will sign the measure at a bill-signing ceremony on the east steps of the state Capitol at 1:15 p.m. Thursday. Ranchers and other landowners from the area surrounding the site are expected to attend....
Letter - Expansion's costs In a recent Pueblo Chieftain, Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, is quoted by Charles Ashby in an article entitled, "Senate delivers Army a message." Sen. Morse stated, "Some of our citizens will pay a disproportionate cost to support our national defense. Some of our ranchers will pay that cost in having to sell their land. I’m not saying that is fair. It seems to me that patriotism is about accepting your cost even if it is disproportionate." How dare you make the Pinon Canyon expansion into a patriot vs. non-patriot fight! How dare you openly imply that we, the ranchers in SE Colorado, are not patriotic, because we want to keep our land! How dare you make us out to be un-American because we are not jumping at the opportunity to vacate our homes, our land and our lives and try to pick up the pieces somewhere else? According to Sen. Morse’s statement, if this is what patriotism is all about, then all of you in Colorado Springs and Pueblo should quit worrying about where the troops are going to live and where their kids are going to go to school. After all, you are all patriots, right? Then you will just give up your homes to the incoming troops and their families, quit your jobs so their spouses will have jobs and have your children vacate their school desks for their children. After all, " . . . patriotism is about accepting your cost even if it is disproportionate."....
Fears of eminent domain arising Officials say two words are striking fear in the hearts of Texas landowners who have been contacted in recent days about handing over their riverfront property for a massive border wall: eminent domain. That's the term for the government's power to condemn private land for public use, and some say it's being thrown around in South Texas, where federal authorities are actively planning to build more than 125 miles of fencing, officials say. "Right now, landowners are very, very reluctant to have this happen," said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo. Cuellar met with landowners last week in tiny Roma, in the Rio Grande Valley, where officials are eyeing numerous private tracts for the wall. He said officials with the Department of Homeland Security mentioned its condemnation authority "within the first 15 words" spoken to landowners in recent meetings in the district he represents. "Keep in mind we can take away your property through eminent domain," the officials said, according to Cuellar. State Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Democrat who represents Roma in the Legislature, said landowners in his district want Congress to halt the wall before their land is seized. But Border Patrol spokesman Xavier Rios said he is not aware of any current discussions about condemnation of private land for a border wall. He said that authorities are reaching out to private landowners and seeking their cooperation and that forceful condemnation "is not even being considered right now."....
Appeals court halts big timber sale A federal appeals court has halted a large timber sale on the eastern end of the Uinta Mountains, ruling that the U.S. Forest Service failed to follow federal environmental laws in approving the project. The 26-page decision handed down late Monday by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court ruling that had upheld the project and rejected a lawsuit filed by the Utah Environmental Congress and the High Uintas Primitive Council. The appeals court ruled that the Forest Service had failed to use the "best available science" in granting approval for the Trout Slope West project, which took in 18,500 acres in the Vernal Ranger District of the Ashley National Forest and had a projected yield of 9.2 million board feet of lumber. "We're thrilled to have yet another victory that halts logging on this tremendous scale in high-elevation old-growth forests," said Kevin Mueller, executive director of the Utah Environmental Congress. The court declined to rule on the other challenges in the lawsuit, including the impacts the project would have on water quality and the Colorado River cutthroat trout. But in ruling that the Forest Service had failed to use the best available science, the appeals court rejected the district court's approval of the timber project.
Forest drops tree-thinning proposal A Forest Service plan to thin trees on about 180 acres in the Crazy Mountains north of Big Timber has been withdrawn, following an appeal by the Native Ecosystems Council and WildWest Institute. The Big Timber Ranger District said Tuesday that the project proposed as a way to control the spread of bark beetles in Douglas fir will undergo a broader analysis, and a new decision may be issued this fall. The Big Timber Canyon Vegetation Treatment Project called for thinning Douglas fir, by helicopter. "Small forest health projects like this one have been done for years on national forests without significant impacts," but the Forest Service faces increasing court action as the agency goes about its work, and "we need to ensure our analysis can withstand that type of challenge," said Bill Avey, the district ranger. Jeff Juel of WildWest said the project was objectionable because part of it involved removing trees from an area of old-growth timber. "They were focusing on logging old growth, and it looked like a timber sale more than an actual (fire) fuel reduction. Getting those purposes mixed up is not a good idea."....
Column - Making the case for trees It is rare when the entire Colorado congressional delegation can find agreement on a matter of importance. So it was disappointing that there was so little notice recently when the delegation unanimously protested budget cuts by the U.S. Forest Service, cuts that threaten the health of Western forests, including those in Colorado. Yes, officials here are worried about the upcoming fire season and the damage already inflicted by the mountain pine beetle and a variety of other insects and diseases. There is a very good reason for these concerns. The Forest Service cut $4.3 million from the Rocky Mountain region's budget, one that had been already greatly reduced by an increase in forest fires. Under existing federal policy, there appears to be no cap on how much can be spent putting out fires. Any excess costs can be covered either with a supplemental appropriation or by borrowing (or stealing) from other programs. Last year, the total fire-suppression expense was over $1 billion, a record in what is already a bad decade. Those fire-suppression expenses are the price for past management failures, but they are also squeezing out programs for such things as timber sales and reforestation. In 2006, fire costs were 41 percent of the national budget. Next year, they will consume 44 percent of the total....
Workshops to study 'travel management' in Lincoln National Forest Public workshops covering Travel Management on the Lincoln National Forest will kick off at the Guadalupe Ranger District on May 3, followed by a session May 7 in Ruidoso. The Travel Management Rule was issued by U.S. Forest Service officials in November 2005. The new rule requires that each National Forest designate a system of roads, trails and areas that will be open to motorized travel. The Lincoln National Forest has a travel management policy in place since 1987 that identifies roads and trails open to motorized use. Public input from the workshops will be used to identify potential changes to the travel system that better protect natural and cultural resources, address user conflicts and secure sustainable opportunities for public enjoyment of national forests, Forest Service officials say. The end product of the designation process will be a Motor Vehicle Use Map that will be published showing a system of roads, trails and/or areas designated for motorized use. Any motorized use outside of the designated system will be prohibited....
Oklahoma Officials Arrest 29 In Drug Operation A push last week by Oklahoma law enforcement resulted in 29 arrests on drug-related offenses, as well as the seizure of various drugs and weapons. The District 16 Drug Task Force, which covers LeFlore and Latimer counties, participated in Operation Byrne Drugs 2 as part of a national week of stepped-up drug enforcement efforts, according to a news release from District Attorney Jeff Smith’s office. In a phone interview Monday, Smith said the District 16 task force had the most arrests last week of any of the 19 tasks forces in the state, as well as the largest amount of drugs, money and firearms confiscated. Agencies assisting the task force included the LeFlore and Latimer County sheriff’s departments, police departments from Poteau, Panama, Shady Point, Spiro, Pocola, Howe, Heavener and Arkoma, as well as the U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement, the Choctaw Nation Tribal Police and the Oklahoma National Guard Air Raid unit....Is this the same Forest Service that is always complaining about a shortage of law enforcement types to protect our Federal lands? If there really is such a shortage, why are they involved with drug raids on non-federal property?
Energy firms offer millions to improve wildlife habitat Three energy producers are offering to contribute $36 million to improve wildlife habitat and preserve wildlife migration routes around their gas drilling sites in the Pinedale Anticline in western Wyoming. The companies offered the money as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management crafts a plan based on their proposal to allow year-round drilling on parts of the anticline. Currently, gas development is restricted by seasonal closures to protect wildlife that spend the winter in the area and sage grouse that nest in the spring. Conservationists have voiced opposition to dropping the seasonal restrictions, saying year- round development would disturb wildlife even more than now and cause more air pollution, among other impacts. The $36 million offer from Questar Corp., Ultra Resources Inc., and Shell Exploration and Production Co. comes relatively late in the lengthy bureaucratic process for considering such proposals....
Conservation group, gas firm reach a compromise A conservation group that challenged a natural gas drilling plan that had received federal approval decided to try another way to protect a wilderness-quality area in the Uinta Basin: a phone call. On Monday, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance announced they had reached an agreement that would protect a citizen-proposed wilderness area near the White River while also assuring natural gas development in the vicinity would continue. Anadarko will proceed with planned infill development in the Natural Buttes natural gas field, while SUWA will have assurances that Anadarko won't pursue its Bonanza development north of the White River, about 40 miles south of Vernal. "This was a very sensible way to solve this amicably," said Anadarko's Houston-based spokesman John Christiansen. The dispute over the Bonanza development followed the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's February approval of the project based on an environmental assessment. SUWA appealed the decision to the state director of the BLM in Utah. Then, SUWA reached out....
Higher Wildfire risk in West, South The West and Southeast face an increased wildfire risk this year because of ongoing drought and an expected hotter than average summer, the National Interagency Fire Center reported Tuesday. The center identified broad swaths of those regions - including all of Florida - and central Alaska as having increased chances of catching fire. "One of the things that strikes me is the breadth of the fire season, stretching from Florida and Georgia all the way up to Alaska," said Rick Ochoa, national fire weather program manager at the center. The National Wildland Fire Outlook report predicts the wildfire danger for May through August. It is based on past and expected weather patterns combined with the predicted amount and dryness of fire fuels and their potential to ignite. This year's map looks similar to last year, said Tom Wordell, wildland fire analyst at the center. In 2006, a record 9.8 million acres burned, 2,300 buildings were destroyed, fire suppression costs totaled $1.4 billion, and 24 wildland firefighters died....
Nez Perce sign water rights deal A landmark $193 million-dollar water rights settlement to resolve claims by the Nez Perce Tribe in North Idaho has been signed nearly three years after it was negotiated. Federal, state and tribal officials signed the complex consent decree that was issued by Idaho's 5th District Court over the weekend, and it will be implemented after the terms are published in the Federal Register, probably in about three weeks, the Lewiston Tribune reported Tuesday. The Nez Perce agreed to drop most of their claims to water in the Snake River basin in exchange for about $83 million, 11,000 acres of land now managed by the Bureau of Land Management and salmon conservation measures, including requirements for water releases from dams to aid migrating fish. "The entire process was fraught with deep emotion for the Nez Perce people as we came to grips with the magnitude of the decision to try and settle our claim to the water in that area that our people have inhabited for thousands of years," Tribal Chairwoman Rebecca A. Miles said in a prepared release....
California Hotels Replace Bible With Gore's Book Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming. They'll also find the Gaia equipped with waterless urinals, solar lighting and recycled paper as it marches toward becoming California's first hotel certified as ``green,'' or benevolent to the environment. Similar features are found 35 miles south at San Francisco's Orchard Garden Hotel, which competes for customers with neighboring luxury hotels like the Ritz-Carlton and Fairmont. ``I'm not your traditional Birkenstocks and granola type of guy,'' said Stefan Muehle, general manager of the Orchard Garden, who said green measures are reducing energy costs as much as 25 percent a month. ``We're trying to dispel the myth that being green and being luxurious are mutually exclusive.'' The Gaia and Orchard are seeking to be the first hotels in California certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, which has authenticated 800 buildings across the U.S. and has about 6,000 in the process, including 30 hotels. San Francisco and other cities offer financial incentives to lessen water and energy use and reduce carbon dioxide emissions....
Ranchers worry as too-few April showers leave California dry After a dry winter that left the Central Valley's sheep and cattle with parched rangeland to graze, projections for summer water supplies are running as low as this year's rainfall. The forecasts spell trouble for California ranchers, who say they expect to lose millions in revenue this year after spending more to feed animals who may not grow as big as their owners want and therefore won't fetch premium prices when they are sold. Mike Blasingame, a fifth-generation rancher in the Fresno County foothills, said the unusually parched spring has left the calves he buys from throughout the country less natural grass to eat. He fattens them up during California's mild winters before selling them to large slaughterhouses in the Midwest. "My business is all about the gain," said Blasingame. "How much can they gain is if there's nothing out there for them to eat?" he said. With grass in short supply before the hot summer months, many ranchers supplement their livestock with hay, which becomes expensive and scarce when a whole region is dry at the same time....