NEWS ROUNDUP

Rapid rise in global warming is forecast The oceans are losing the capacity to soak up rising man-made carbon emissions, which is increasing the rate of global warming by up to 30 per cent, scientists said yesterday. Researchers have found that the Southern Ocean is absorbing an ever-decreasing proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The excess carbon, which cannot be absorbed by the oceans, will remain in the atmosphere and accelerate global warming, they said. The reduced ability to absorb carbon is thought to be a result of high winds acting on ocean currents bringing deeper waters that already contain high levels of carbon to the surface. The higher winds are themselves believed to have been caused by climate change due to a combination of changes in the ozone layer and carbon emissions. The scientists from countries including Britain, France and Germany, said their findings marked the first time that one of the world’s natural “carbon sinks” had been shown to be weakened by Man’s own actions....
West Nile killing off beloved U.S. birds: study The West Nile Virus is taking a worse-than-expected toll on some favorite birds in North America such as robins and chickadees, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. They studied 20 North American birds and found declines in seven species from four families as a result of the virus, which lives in birds and other animals and can be transmitted by mosquitoes to humans. The impact was especially strong among the American crow population, which has been cut by 45 percent since West Nile first appeared in the United States in 1999. "Seven out of 20 is a substantial number," said A. Marm Kilpatrick, senior research scientist for the Consortium for Conservation Medicine at the Wildlife Trust, whose work appears in journal Nature this week. Kilpatrick and colleagues analyzed 26 years of survey data on 20 bird species to evaluate the impact of West Nile. Besides the American crow, robin, Carolina and black-capped chickadee, and blue jay, other significantly impacted birds were tufted titmice, eastern bluebirds and house wrens....
Feds spend $10M on park winter studies The cost of resolving the controversy over snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park continues to mount. About $10 million has been spent on the issue by the National Park Service since the mid-1990s. With several more steps left -- along with the prospect of more litigation -- the price tag can only grow. More than 5,000 pages of plans and studies have been produced, according to John Sacklin, part of Yellowstone's team of planners working on the issue. That doesn't include more than 90,000 pages of related documents. The issue has also generated more public comments than any other controversy in the national park system. About 731,000 comments have been submitted since the mid-1990s, including about 357,000 for a draft supplemental environmental impact statement in 2002. Sacklin said he wouldn't speculate what final cost of the controversy will be. Some of the money to study and analyze the issue has come out of Yellowstone's day-to-day budget, but funding has also come out of the budget at Park Service headquarters in Washington, D.C....
BLM to sell leases near earth-art project The pressure to develop oil and gas in Utah is bumping up against the Sun Tunnels, a globally significant land art installation in Box Elder County. On Monday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management likely will sell a 1,280-acre parcel of desert next to Nancy Holt's 43 acres near Lucin despite the artist's objections that any drilling equipment would interfere with a series of tunnels she built to make art of sunshine. Sun Tunnels has no protective historic or cultural status. But even if the 31-year-old installation were on some special list, the adjacent parcel likely still would have been part of the regular May lease sale, said the state's historic preservation chief. "Historic properties are not protected, they are only taken into consideration" when considering lease sales, said Utah State Historic Preservation Officer Wilson Martin. "The impacts, in fact, can be adverse." The BLM on Thursday said it had consulted with Martin's office when it made its official "no historic properties affected" determination. Martin said he and the BLM, which has sole control over interpreting federal law governing lease sales, agreed that a well on the land could be positioned so it wouldn't bother visitors to Holt's art....
BLM ends gun ban proposal at preserve The Bureau of Land Management has dumped a plan to expand a rifle-and-pistol ban at a bird preserve, a rule that was originally meant to protect National Guard soldiers who train at the site. Lawmakers had been pressuring the BLM to end the plan for the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, saying that expanding it could actually exacerbate conflicts by concentrating shooters close to where the Guard trains. The proposal for the 490,000-acre area came after reports that sport shooters who come out to blast ground squirrels on the raptor preserve were also taking potshots at soldiers and tanks. "Any time a federal government agency decides to curtail access to public lands, we have a concern that those decisions aren't made arbitrarily," said Wayne Hoffman, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Wayne Sali, a Republican gun-rights advocate who intervened and met with National Guard leaders. The Snake River preserve accommodates one of the world's largest nesting populations of raptors — as well as gun-toting off-road vehicle enthusiasts. National Guard soldiers have used a portion of the site for their war games since the 1950s....
Pombo bows out of politics Former local Rep. Richard Pombo has ditched politics for a less-hectic life with his wife and children on their rural Tracy ranch. The passionate battler for the rights of landowners was left shell-shocked by millions of dollars worth of attack advertisements purchased against him in recent years by environmentalists and other activists. Those groups helped topple the House’s most powerful environmental lawmaker in the November election, when Pombo lost to Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton. “I’m done,” the former House Resources Committee chairman said during a 2½-hour interview Wednesday. “It’s not worth it. What my kids had to go through. What my parents had to go through. Listening to … every crackpot conspiracy theory that came out there about how I was doing all this stuff to benefit myself and benefit my family. I’m done. “I didn’t like the politics. I didn’t like talking to the media. I liked the policy. That’s what I liked, and that’s what I wanted to do,” he said....
Trust Fund for Grizzlies, Wolves Weighed Grizzly bear and gray wolf populations in parts of the Northern Rockies are considered stable enough by the government to survive without Endangered Species Act protection. But the animals could get a trust fund to shield them from hard times. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spends about $6 million a year managing grizzly bears and wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. With grizzlies in and around Yellowstone National Park recently taken off the threatened species list and gray wolves expected to come off the endangered list within the next year, that spending likely will drop as the agency turns its resources to other imperiled species. Yet run-ins between the carnivores and humans _ and scientific research to ensure the animals' populations don't backslide _ mean expenses will keep stacking up on the area's 1,300 wolves and more than 500 Yellowstone grizzlies. To cover those costs, state and federal officials are considering creating a trust to dole out financial aid to state wildlife agencies assuming oversight of the animals. The trust could eventually total tens of millions of dollars, possibly up to $100 million, according to officials drafting plans for the fund. The 5 percent to 7 percent annual interest on the principle would cover costs to hire wildlife biologists, buy radio collars used to track bear and wolf movements and other expenses....
Bureaucrats Overrule Scientists on Desert Nesting Bald Eagle Delisting Government memos obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity under the Freedom of Information Act show that highly placed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bureaucrats overruled agency scientists who concluded that the desert-nesting bald eagle should remain on the endangered species list. The scientists were ordered to fabricate analyses to support politically determined decisions and ignore scientific information contradicting the bureaucrat’s decision. “There is no end to endangered species scandals in the Bush administration,” said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Science and scientists are being suppressed everywhere you look. It’s outrageous.” The memos indicate direct political intervention by Ren Lohoefener, assistant director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Benjamin Tuttle, director of the Southwest Regional Office, as well as possible indirect intervention by Julie MacDonald, the former Assistant Deputy Secretary of Interior who recently resigned in a hail of endangered species scandals. The Center has requested that U.S. Attorney for Arizona Criminal Division Chief Ann Harwood investigate the violations. The Arizona Republic reported today that Harwood has forwarded the complaint to an investigative agency....
Environmental groups sue Navy over sonar use The Navy's use of high-intensity, active sonar in training exercises around the Hawaiian Islands will harm whales and other marine mammals, say five environmental groups that are suing to stop the practice. The lawsuit seeks to "stop the Navy from doing its sonar exercises until it complies with environmental laws they are violating," said Paul Achitoff, the Earthjustice attorney representing the Ocean Mammal Institute, the Animal Welfare Institute, KAHEA (the Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance), the Center for Biological Diversity and the Surfrider Foundation. The lawsuit filed in federal court yesterday also cites the National Marine Fisheries Service for inadequately assessing the Navy's plans to be sure its actions do not harm endangered marine life....
Lawsuit: ATVs chew up park trails All-terrain vehicle riders in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park have created huge, rutted mud holes stretching several miles along some of the most scenic land in the United States, according to conservation groups. The Wilderness Society, the Alaska Center for the Environment and the National Parks Conservation Association filed a lawsuit last summer to protect the more than 13 million-acre park from recreational ATV users. A settlement announced Tuesday requires that the Park Service prepare an environmental impact statement evaluating the impacts of the off-road machines on nine trails in the park. About 300 permits for recreational ATV users are issued each year. The lawsuit says nearly anyone can get a permit, with typically more than half of them being issued to people living in or near Alaska's two largest cities. The settlement allows six of the nine trails to remain open to permitted recreational ATV use while the EIS is being done. The other three most damaged trails -- the Copper Lake, Tanada Lake and Suslota Lake trails -- will be closed until the fall when the ground freezes to at least 6 inches, enough to support the weight of the machines....
Nation, Desert Rock accord paves way for legal emissions agreement The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency and the Desert Rock Energy Company moved closer to formalizing an agreement to reduce emissions at the proposed coal-fired power plant beyond that required by the Clean Air Act. The involved parties signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday that Stephen B. Etsitty, director of the Navajo Nation EPA, said marks the beginning of a relationship whereby the emissions reductions can be enforced. Though not binding, the memorandum should lead to a legal agreement. "This will help us develop the right enforcement mechanisms by which we will then agree between the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency and Desert Rock on how we would enforce the voluntary reductions they're willing to make," he said. Houston-based energy developer Sithe Global partnered with the Diné Power Authority, a Navajo Nation enterprise, to form the Desert Rock Energy Company. They want to build a 1,500-megawatt power plant near Burnham, the third in Northwest New Mexico. It would cost $3 billion to build and upon completion create 400 jobs at the plant and associated coal mine....
Attacked by a grizzly Six days before, on Aug. 25, 2005, Johan, 43, and his daughter Jenna, 18, had been hiking in Glacier National Park. She had just graduated from high school in Escondido, Calif. They had surprised a grizzly bear and its two cubs on the trail to Grinnell Glacier. Trying to flee, they had fallen nearly 70 feet down a rocky cliff. The bear followed. For 15 minutes, it attacked them savagely, especially Johan, who stood between it and Jenna. Shivering, cold and in shock, they spent nearly six hours on a mountainside as the National Park Service worked to rescue them by helicopter. At Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Kalispell, Mont., the first place he was treated, doctors were amazed he had survived. His mauling was the worst they had ever seen. He had no scalp. From his hairline to the base of his neck, the bear had torn off everything. There were teeth marks in the cranium. A muscle was detached from his right eye. He had broken ribs. His body was pockmarked with deep lacerations and puncture wounds. When a bear attacks defensively, it behaves like a nipping dog. The bites are quick, deep and incessant. But in fighting to shield Jenna, Johan had enraged the bear so that each bite became a shake, extending some puncture wounds into longer, ragged gashes. The teeth stopped only at the bone....
PitCo close to major conservation deal near Carbondale More than 4,700 private acres of rolling sageland and pasture that encompass the Spring Gulch Nordic ski area southwest of Carbondale will soon be permanently conserved as open space, according to Pitkin County officials and local ranchers. "In terms of acreage, it's the largest land conservation deal that we've ever done and I would guess the largest we'll be able to do in one transaction," said Pitkin County Open Space Director Dale Will. The deal itself is old news, he said, but it's finally set to close in the next month or so, possibly with a new twist. In 1998, Pitkin County put $500,000 down and signed a contract with a 10-year "fuse" for a conservation easement on the scenic parcel, known as Jerome Park, with a coalition of longtime local cattle ranchers (including the late Bob Perry) who own the property under the umbrella of the North Thompson Four Mile Mineral and Land Corporation. That deal, which would close for $6.9 million in county funds and state grant money, allows 14 home sites on the massive swath of private land, which stretches six miles from the Sunlight Ski Area to Thompson Creek. The new version of the deal would eliminate 10 of those home sites, leaving only one in Jerome Park proper and the rest clustered near Colorado Rocky Mountain School on the west edge of Carbondale, in exchange for $3 million more and 13 transferable development rights....
Cattlemen Urge Passage Of H.R. 926, STOPP Act Of 2007 Congress is acting to remedy a situation caused by a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave government bodies authority to condemn or convert property if commercial development of the property can yield a higher economic value. In the case of Kelo v. the City of New London, the Supreme Court’s ruling upheld the authority of state and local governments to use eminent domain to seize private property for commercial economic development purposes. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) has staunchly supported efforts in Congress to rectify the situation. NCBA urges passage of H.R. 926, the “Strengthening the Ownership of Private Property Act of 2007,” also known as the “STOPP Act.” The bill, reintroduced in the 110th Congress by Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (D-S.D.), is scheduled for consideration today in the House Ag Committee. “The court decision is deeply troubling to anybody who believes in civil liberties and limited government,” says Colin Woodall, NCBA’s executive director of legislative affairs. “What happens when the government decides that a local community needs a strip mall more then it needs the farms and ranches that currently occupy the land?” Ranches that exist in areas where development and tourism have swelled in recent years are most vulnerable. But NCBA insists the issue must be resolved at the federal level simply on principle. “The Fifth Amendment was written to protect Americans from this type of action,” says Woodall. “It says ‘private property shall not be taken for public use, without just compensation.’ But how do you compensate a farmer or rancher when you take away the land their family has worked on for their entire life?”....
State court rules bovines have right of passage If you have any doubt that the Wild West is still alive in Arizona, a new court ruling could change that. In a unanimous decision, the state Court of Appeals concluded that if you hit a bull or a cow crossing the road, it's pretty much your fault. Put another way, cattle are presumed to have the right of way. Charles B. "Doc'' Lane, lobbyist for the Arizona Cattle Growers Association, said the ruling should come as no surprise. Lane said all land in Arizona is presumed to be "open range." In essence, that means the owners of cattle don't need to fence them in. More to the point, if you don't want cattle on your property, you have to fence them out. So a homeowner who doesn't want a neighbor's cattle chewing on the flowers is responsible for building the fence. And, as in this case, it means that unless a fence is built along the road, drivers have to watch for what might wander into their path....
Modern day ranchers say it takes more a lasso and a horse to be a real cowboy There ain’t no more real cowboys. That’s what Jimmy Long will tell you. Kids coming up these days want to ride horses and coral cattle all day. They want the lassos and the lazy days of watching the stock graze. But a real cattleman’s life is less romantic, says the head cowboy of the Immokalee Ranch Partnership in Collier County. Long hours. Manual labor. A sense of tradition. These were the qualities of yesterday’s generation of ranchers. Even though Jimmy laments the passing of what he calls true cowboys, he seems every bit the part. The ranch, owned and operated by the Barron Collier Company, was established in 1951 and covers 70,000 acres. The property serves as a breeding ground for cattle and place for them to mature before they are shipped off to feed lots throughout the United States, where they eventually become "what’s for dinner." Jimmy tends to the needs of the 6,000 to 8,000 head of the Brahman cattle that range the property before they are taken away....
Movies screened in Tempe for 100-plus years The first exhibition of movies on a regular basis began in a truly air-conditioned setting - outdoors. That meant hot, sultry summer nights and chilly winter evenings made a night out at the movies an ordeal. But let's start at the beginning. The renowned Edison Laboratories created motion pictures, called Kinetoscopes. The first public exhibitions were in 1893 in Chicago at the World's Columbian Exposition. Initially the short films were exhibited in nickelodeons, arcades, at events and temporary venues. Pittsburgh is recognized as the home of America's first movie theater, opened in 1905. But Tempe was right behind. Jerry Reynolds, in his fascinating 1982 book called The Golden Days of Theaters in Phoenix, says Tempe's first movies were shown in 1905 when William Goodwin, a local businessman/rancher, started an open-air theater called the Airdome. At 26 E. Fifth St., the walled space accommodated 250. Until 1909, when Goodwin debuted his Opera House directly across the street, the Airdome with its midnight showings was the place to be on a Saturday night. Goodwin's two-story Opera House made Tempe movie-going a year-round experience. A veritable palace, the Opera House, complete with a stage house and fly-loft, featured a marquee and loges and sat 467 theatergoers on a sloped floor....
Buffalo Bill papers project gears up More than a century ago, Buffalo Bill Cody took Wyoming to the world with his Wild West show. His trick-roping cowboys, stern-faced Indian chiefs and exotic animal displays made Cody a top celebrity in East Coast cities and European capitals alike. With his ever-present hat and distinctive goatee, Cody hobnobbed with kings and presidents as one of the best known U.S. citizens of his day. Now Wyoming itself is gearing up to scour the world for all traces of the showman's correspondence and papers to compile the definitive historical reference work on its most famous ambassador. "I truly believe that Buffalo Bill was an epic character in Wyoming's history, especially northwest Wyoming, and America's history," said Rep. Colin Simpson, R-Cody. Simpson pushed through legislation this spring to put up $300,000 in state money to kick off the Buffalo Bill papers project....