NEWS ROUNDUP

U.S. Rebuffs Germany on Greenhouse Gas Cuts The United States has rejected Germany’s proposal for deep long-term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, setting the stage for a battle that will pit President Bush against his European allies at next month’s meeting of the world’s richest countries. In unusually harsh language, Bush administration negotiators took issue with the German draft of the communiqué for the meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized nations, complaining that the proposal “crosses multiple red lines in terms of what we simply cannot agree to.” “We have tried to tread lightly, but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position,” the American response said. Germany, backed by Britain and now Japan, has proposed cutting global greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who will be the host of the meeting in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm next month, has been pushing hard to get the Group of 8 to take significant action on climate change. It had been a foregone conclusion that the Western European members of the Group of 8 — Germany, Italy, France and Britain — would back the reductions. But on Thursday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan threw his lot in with the Europeans, and proposed cutting carbon emissions as part of a new framework to replace the Kyoto Protocol, whose mandatory caps on gases end in 2012....
Pelosi: Climate Change Is a Reality House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday she led a congressional delegation to Greenland, where lawmakers saw "firsthand evidence that climate change is a reality," and she hoped the Bush administration would consider a new path on the issue. After meeting with German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Pelosi praised Berlin for its leadership on the issue. Her trip comes ahead of next week's Group of Eight summit and a climate change meeting next month involving the leading industrialized nations and during a time of increased debate over what should succeed the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international treaty that caps the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted from power plants and factories in industrialized countries. It expires in 2012. President Bush rejected that accord, saying it would harm the U.S. economy and unfair excludes developing countries like China and India from its obligations. Pelosi, who strongly disagrees with that decision and many other of Bush's environmental policies, said Friday she said she wants to work with the administration rather than provoke it. Pelosi said she hoped Bush would be open to considering a "different way" in the future....
Berkeley sets tough course for its residents to follow In Berkeley's green future, there will be no incandescent lightbulbs, Wedgewood stoves or gas-powered water heaters. The only sounds will be the whir of bicycles and the purr of hybrid cars -- and possibly curses from residents being forced to upgrade all their kitchen appliances. Six months after Berkeley voters overwhelmingly passed Measure G, a mandate to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, the city is laying out a long-term road map for residents, business and industry. It includes everything from solar panels at the Pacific Steel foundry to composted table scraps. While San Francisco, Oakland and other local governments in the Bay Area have approved policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Berkeley is the first to begin spelling out how people would be expected to reduce their carbon footprints. Some measures will be popular and easy, like a car-share vehicle on every block and free bus passes. But others will be bitter pills, such as strict and costly requirements that homes have new high-efficiency appliances, solar-powered water heaters, insulation in the walls and other energy savers....
Drought Allows Florida to Clean Bottom of Lake Okeechobee The severe drought in South Florida had an upside for state water management officials who took advantage of the low water levels in Lake Okeechobee and began giving the lake bed a good cleaning. At an almost record low of 9.2 feet, the lake’s water level exposed areas where oozy and polluted muck sediment containing decomposed organic matter had accumulated, covering most of the lake bed at depths of more than a foot. Officials from the South Florida Water Management District brought in bulldozers and dump trucks to several sites around the lake on Thursday to scrape the muck and expose the natural bottom in an effort to promote the regrowth of submerged aquatic vegetation and shoreline marshes, which had been suffering since the active 2004 hurricane season. The hurricanes that hit the state in 2004 and 2005 stirred up the muck, keeping sunlight from plants and lowering water clarity in the 730-square-mile lake. In just one site, water management officials expect to take about three months to dredge out 500,000 cubic yards of muck from 800 acres of lake bed....
Veteran firefighters say they set unauthorized blazes Three veterans of fighting wildfires in the West say they set scores of unauthorized blazes on public lands during their decades of service. Their revelations come as retired Forest Service commander Van Bateman awaits sentencing June 4 after he pleaded guilty to setting timber on fire without authorization. The Federal Emergency Management Agency singled out Bateman as a hero for his work in New York City after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Bateman's sentence could range from probation to two years in prison. Firefighters sometimes set fires to burn out undergrowth in overgrown forest areas. The intent is to reduce the amount of fuel for fires. Bateman and his fellow firefighters admitted they sometimes bypassed required procedures. "I would be shocked if there's anybody who's spent their career in forest management who hasn't done this," Bateman said. "I was doing my job." The three wildfire veterans, all of whom are friends and former colleagues of Bateman, concurred. Charlie Denton, a 43-year employee of the Forest Service who retired in 2000 as fire operations chief for Arizona and New Mexico, said he set dozens of fires without approval. "It was with the intent of doing something good," he said. "I bet I could get a list of 200 people" who did the same. Larry Humphrey, who retired in 2004 as a fire management supervisor and Type 1 incident commander with the Bureau of Land Management, said it is common to set small blazes and avoid paperwork and procedures required for prescribed burns. "If you had to bend the rules a little, you bent the rules," he said. A Type 1 incident commander is responsible for the largest fires and national catastrophes. There are 14 such commanders in the nation. Jim Paxon, who spent 34 years in the Forest Service before retiring in 2003 and who works as a TV news consultant, said, "I've done exactly that. I can't tell you how many times."....
Why firefighter set forests ablaze remains unclear On June 23, 2004, a 55-year-old man stopped his pickup truck along a dirt road near a mud bog nestled in Ponderosa pines 45 miles south of Flagstaff. It was not unusual for Van Bateman, fire management officer for the Mogollon Ranger District, to be out in the woods, especially during wildfire season. But on this date, the U.S. Forest Service boss did something peculiar: After hiking down a short trail, he picked up a handful of dry pine needles, ignited them and placed them next to a dead oak tree. "It smoldered," Bateman later told investigators. "I just thought after I lit it, I thought, 'Hell, we'll just have a lightning fire here today for the boys to do something.' I knew the fire was going to grow and not go out." That statement, and the act it describes, ended the career of a federal employee who spent more than three decades protecting the West's wild lands. It also bewildered friends and colleagues who knew Bateman as a conscientious firefighter. In fact, he had become a near legend in the world of smoke jumpers and disaster-planning experts....
Desert pupfish in hot water The last place anyone would expect to find fish is Devil's Hole, a chasm in the middle of the Mojave Desert where a 100-degree day is mild and the only thing bigger than the rocky expanse of desert is the sky above it. But nature is nothing if not amazing -- as good an explanation as any of how the Devil's Hole pupfish has survived in the bottomless geothermal pool that gave the fish its name. It is tiny, just an inch long, yet few species loom so large in the history of American environmentalism. The Devil's Hole pupfish is one of the rarest animals in the world. The seemingly endless effort to save it laid the foundation for the Endangered Species Act and shaped Western water policy a generation ago with a landmark Supreme Court ruling. But after 20,000 years in the desert, the fish teeters on the edge of extinction. No more than 42 remain in Devil's Hole. The Devil's Hole pupfish has been the beneficiary of one of the most aggressive campaigns ever to preserve a species, an effort every bit as intense as those to save the bald eagle and California condor. The Endangered Species Act requires nothing less. But saving the pupfish is more than a legal obligation for the biologists and bureaucrats involved....
Wily coyotes invade Florida, stalk animals A band of sneaky, savage, bloodthirsty hunters has migrated from the western United States to the woods, farms and prairies of Florida. They've been observed prowling residential yards in the Panhandle, killing cattle in Central Florida and staring ominously at passersby in Everglades National Park. The marauders are coyotes, and so far, there's no stopping them. Some problems they cause: killing domestic pets; harassing livestock and wild game such as turkey and deer; and digging up buried sea turtle nests on beaches. Everglades National Park biologist Skip Snow reported an increase in coyote sightings in the park this year....
Rancher shoots wolf near Leadore A rancher in Leadore shot and killed a wolf after finding 6 of his lambs had been killed. Officials with Idaho Fish and Game say federal workers confirmed that the lambs had been killed by wolves. The rancher shot the wolf May 16th after finding it amidst his herd. Wolves are also suspected to have killed livestock and pets in the central Idaho towns of Ellis and Pinehurst. A calf was killed in Ellis and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game authorized the killing of 3 wolves there. However, those wolves haven't been found or killed yet. Three pet dogs were killed a few miles east of Pinehurst. The dogs' owner shot at three wolves in the area, but none of them were hit. Wolves are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, but ranchers are allowed to shoot wolves if the animals are seek attacking livestock or dogs.
Untamed river may get wilder One of the Sierra Nevada's wildest rivers should get even wilder but remain accessible to visitors, according to a group that has been studying the Clavey River for the past seven years. The long-awaited list of suggestions from the Clavey River Ecosystem Project includes everything from removing several small dams and expanding habitat on the 47-mile river for native yellow-legged frogs to preventing damage to the river from activities such as camping and motorized off-highway vehicle recreation. The project represents a diverse group of interests, including environmentalists, scientists and dirt bikers. Conspicuously absent from the report are detailed suggestions on how to manage grazing, one of the most controversial activities in the area because of its potential to damage upland meadows. The plan will be refined over the next nine months before the project submits its final plan to Stanislaus National Forest policymakers and others involved in caring for the river. State and federal dollars, including a $775,000 grant from the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, funded much of the work. The final list of proposed projects - and estimates of how much they will cost - will be done in February....
State striving to 'rehabilitate' watersheds This is rugged country, where sagebrush and juniper trees dominate a landscape that's marked by rolling hills, a couple of homes and one-lane roads. State wildlife officials are spending millions of dollars to preserve watersheds and rehabilitate native habitat in areas like this across Utah. So far, about 400,000 acres statewide have been treated and improved. The aim is to help keep endangered species, such as the sage grouse, off of the endangered-species list, improve watersheds and restore habitat. Utah's efforts have been recognized by other states, which are now following its lead with similar restoration projects. At first glance, the land here appears dry and unproductive. But state and federal officials, local cattle ranchers and conservationists say the dusty land is a top watershed area, and critical habitat for animals. They're working in several areas in the region to improve the land through a program known as the Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative. The initiative is managed by the Utah Department of Natural Resources and Utah Partners for Conservation and Development (UPCD), which has members from more than 15 state and federal agencies. Close to $11 million has been spent on the Utah land restoration since the program's creation, and at least 920 projects have been completed or are under way, said Rory Reynolds, Watershed Program Director with the natural-resources department. The projects range from tearing out swaths of juniper that have invaded sagebrush habitat to removing highly flammable and non-native cheat grass. This helps to stop soil erosion, create wildlife habitat, improve grazing conditions and ensure that runoff doesn't evaporate, said Reynolds....
Saga of the spotted owl not over yet For the past year, Dominick DellaSala has been part of a 12-member team charged with creating a recovery plan for the northern spotted owl. Now a draft of the recovery plan has been released to the public, and he has become one of that plan’s most outspoken critics. Option 1 of the draft plan includes a map of forests that would be reserved for spotted owl habitat. “In many cases those locations are overlaid on the current reserve system in the Northwest Forest Plan,” Jewett says, referring to the comprehensive forest management plan that has stood in for specific owl protections since 1994. Option 2 of the draft plan, on the other hand, gives decision-making power to forest managers – meaning, for the most part, the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service. It provides guidelines they would have to follow to set aside reserves for spotted owls. “They would have more flexibility in deciding where those areas are going to be as they go through the process of revising their forest management plans,” Jewett says. The inclusion of two options in a draft wildlife recovery plan is unprecedented....
Editorial - Yes, they're terrorists Lawyers for the people who pled guilty and are now being sentenced for a crime spree that included the 1998 Vail Mountain arson naturally argue that their clients are not terrorists, no indeed. "KEVIN TUBBS IS NOT A TERRORIST," Tubbs' lawyer wrote in melodramatic fashion in a court brief (the capital letters were his). The given reason: Tubbs' violence was motivated by a love for animals and an "overwhelming feeling of despair." Tubbs, a supporter of the Earth Liberation Front, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Eugene, Ore., to more than 12 years in prison. Chelsea Gerlach's attorney argued that Gerlach's name didn't belong on a list of terrorists that included Timothy McVeigh, among others. She and William Rodgers, another member of the ELF cell that called itself the Family, carried out the Vail attack, but they didn't intend it to kill or hurt anyone - as if the fact that other terrorists are worse is some kind of excuse. Gerlach's sentence, handed down Friday, is for nine years. A third defendant, Stanislaus Meyerhoff, received 13 years at his sentencing Wednesday. The difficulty with these arguments is that the legal definition of the federal crime of terrorism does concern motive, but not in the way these criminals mean. Terrorism is "an offense that is calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct; and is a violation of several different offense categories, among which is arson." Members of the Family have entered guilty pleas in more than 20 attacks carried out from 1995 to 2001 that caused more than $40 million in property damage in five states. Targets included both private property and facilities belonging to government agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management....
Lumber market in flux: Downturn in new housing partly responsible for industry slump The situation looks bleak now, but Montana's lumber mills are accustomed to tough times. Theirs is a business that swings between high and low, so they've stopped being surprised when the low times come back around. That doesn't make it any easier to bear when business is down, though - especially when it's been down for so long. Across Montana, lumber mills are talking curtailments and closures, and making sober announcements to their employees. They are laying off hundreds of loyal, longtime workers, many of whom have known no other career. This month, Stimson Lumber Co. announced that 133 workers would lose their jobs in Bonner when the company permanently closes its plywood plant in July, leaving only a stud mill at the site with fewer than 120 workers. Stimson laid off nearly as many people just two years ago, then dropped 43 more workers from Bonner late last year. It has also carved an additional 17 jobs from its finger-joiner plant in Libby. But Stimson is not alone in its troubles. Lumber companies across the nation are closing mills, and plywood plants in particular have been shuttering operations in response to burgeoning competition from a product called oriented strand board, or OSB. The health of the nation's lumber mills is heavily tied to the building industry, to competition from foreign producers and to log supply and prices, among other market pressures. According to the National Association of Realtors, new housing starts slid 12 percent through 2006 and are expected to drop an additional 15 percent by the end of 2007, to about 1.5 million units....
Plan for firefighting air tankers delayed A plan to modernize the nation's aging, depleted fleet of large firefighting tankers - promised this spring - apparently won't be completed in time for the looming wildfire season. And that has two Colorado congressmen asking questions. "I didn't want to presume that it's not forthcoming, but I would have expected some update before the last week of May and the fire season is soon upon us," said Rep. Mark Udall, of Boulder. He and fellow Democratic Rep. John Salazar, of Manassa, drafted a letter last week to Mark Rey, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's undersecretary for natural resources and environment. Their question: Where do things stand? Rey told Udall and Salazar a year ago they could expect a plan for modernizing and replenishing the fleet by this spring. But Joe Walsh, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, now says that a study of the system won't be finished for months, at the earliest....
Report: Wildfire brings policy questions A blaze that killed five federal firefighters last year has emboldened those who question the cost of saving the ever expanding number of homes on the fringe of wilderness. However, the deaths also were blamed on social and political pressures and decisions to put homes before the safety of firefighters, according to a report from the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection and the U.S. Forest Service. "We are not going to die for property," said Tom Harbour, national director of fire and aviation management for the Forest Service. "It‘s time for homeowners to take responsibility for the protection of their homes." Firefighters‘ attitudes also are an issue in protecting homes. "One of the standard fire orders states: ‘Fight the fire aggressively having provided for safety first,‘" said Peter Leschak, a 26-year firefighter and a commander for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources‘ Division of Forestry. "There has been an argument recently to change that because we don‘t need to encourage firefighters to be more aggressive — half the time we‘re holding them back." The Forest Service spends 44 percent of its budget on wildfire suppression annually, he said, and much of that work means protecting homes where suburbs collide with wilderness....
Forest Service says no permit necessary for cloud seeding The US Forest Service says the state of Wyoming can attempt to increase snowfall by seeding clouds over federal wilderness areas without federal environmental analysis. Environmentalists say the agency is trying to sidestep laws and its own regulations. Erin O'Connor is a Forest Service spokeswoman. She says Wyoming's proposal doesn't require review under the National Environmental Policy Act because the state does not intend to set foot on federal lands. The state is funding a 9- million study that involves spraying the air above the Medicine Bow, Sierra Madre and Wind River ranges with silver iodide by using aircraft and ground-based generators on state or private land. Environmentalists say the Forest Service decision doesn't comply with the federal Wilderness Act or the Forest Service's manuals. They say the agency manual that spells out how to manage wilderness areas prohibits long-term projects to try to change the weather....
Dinos' might in army sights Last winter's snow has the cactus sprouting brilliant blooms in the Picket Wire Canyonlands as snakes, scorpions and tarantulas scurry for cover on the sun- bleached earth of the Comanche National Grassland. The landscape of southeast Colorado also crawls with history, but time may be running out on public access to the past as Fort Carson considers acquiring the land for war training. This secluded valley is home to one of North America's richest dinosaurs finds - more than 1,300 individual tracks; 35 sites have yielded bones. "The great thing about this site is that it's here to see, and it's free for the public," said U.S. Forest Service paleontologist Bruce Schumacher, leaning against a rock after wading across the Purgatoire River - the River of Lost Souls, as French explorers first called it. Schumacher planted his bare feet near the beachball-sized tracks of a brontosaurus left 150 million years ago. "The history here is just layered on itself," he said. But every map proffered by the Army has included Picket Wire Canyonlands in the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. Colorado's congressional delegation is fighting the expansion because it would uproot families and communities in this historic Old West region. An older history is here too....
Column - Fees have become a public lands shakedown Scarcely anyone objected in 1996, when Congress authorized the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to charge the public new or increased fees for accessing its own land to fish, hunt, boat, drive, park, camp or walk. After all, it was going to be an experiment - a three-year pilot program. Hence the name: "Fee Demonstration." But when it comes to federal revenue, intermittent streams have a way of becoming perennial. Fee demo was extended in 2001, and again in 2004, when it was expanded into the Recreation Enhancement Act. RAT, for short, enabled the agencies to charge even more. The system places federal land managers in the business of attracting crowds, and it may motivate them to ignore the needs of fish and wildlife. Recreation becomes a business. The big beneficiary of these access fees has been the motorized recreation industry to which they've provided standing and representation. Sponsoring Fee Demo through a cost-share partnership with the Forest Service was the powerful American Recreation Coalition, whose membership is comprised mainly of manufacturers of all-terrain vehicles, motorized trail bikes, jet skis and recreation vehicles. And joining the coalition in lobbying aggressively for both Fee Demo and RAT have been the National Off Highway Vehicle Coalition, the National Snowmobile Manufacturers Association and consumers of all things motorized who band together as the Blue Ribbon Coalition....
Loss of herd to brucellosis test leaves couple reeling Leaning slightly against a gusty, chilled north wind, Jim and Sandy Morgan surveyed their ranch south of Bridger. The heavy-seeded grass was tall enough to wave in the wind. Reservoirs that were ringed with caked mud last summer were now brimming with spring rainwater. Plump Black Angus cows munched clover, calves in tow. The Morgans' 7-month-old son, Jake, snoozed inside the house on his grandma's lap. Jim grinned tightly and quipped, "I guess we won just the wrong lottery." The Morgans spent 10 days in early May gathering and matching cows to their rightful calves and riding a full day with six relatives to trail 300 cows to summer pasture. They had just finished when Brent Thompson, the Billings-based veterinarian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), called on May 11. A cow from their herd had tested positive for brucellosis. Disbelief was Sandy Morgan's reaction. "It's just a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, and we didn't understand all the ramifications," she said. "We didn't understand that the whole herd could be eliminated because of one cow." They had to saddle up and spend four more days gathering their cattle from the rugged hills and moving them down to the home ranch for testing....
Kill or be killed The "padrone" whistles and waves at his two sheepherders in the distance, calling them over for a short chat. The two Chilean riders, Benito and Hector, saunter over on magnificent steeds, trailed by their equally magnificent Great Pyrenees sheepdogs. A herd of several hundred Rambouillet lambs and ewes grazes nearby, the animals recently shorn of their wool. The two herders have worked for the padrone, or boss, for more than a decade, and it's a pleasant, casual conversation. In rapid fire Spanish, they answer a series of quick questions, smile and nod at the visitors, and slowly make their way back to the herds. "Coyotes killed two ewes near the Little Colorado/Black Rock area just the other day," the padrone translates. "So far, Hector and Benito have killed about 90 coyotes this trip. The dogs have killed two." It's a bright spring day on the Alkali Flats near the Green River in central Sweetwater County. The padrone, lifetime Kemmerer rancher Truman Julian, is out checking on one of his many two-man camps....
Identifying the killers Ask any ranchers, trappers or sheepherders, and they'll pretty much agree that actually witnessing a predator kill livestock is rare. So when a lamb or calf carcass is found, it's important to identify the killing culprit so that appropriate management actions can be taken to prevent further losses. But how does a wildlife investigator determine if it was a coyote, wolf, fox, bobcat or perhaps even a human that killed the animal? A careful examination of the dead animal and the kill site can most times identify the offending predator, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services officials. "Every situation is different when you start the investigation side (of predator control)," said Rod Merrell, assistant district supervisor for Wildlife Services in Wyoming. "In a way, it's a bit like the television show CSI (Crime Scene Investigation)," Merrell said on a recent outing to a sheepherder's camp in Sweetwater County. "You've got to determine what's been killed, what killed it, what kind of predators live in this area that could have possibly done it, a whole lot of different things to work out," he said. "Identify the problem, identify the culprit, then remove him as humanely as possible. That's it in a nutshell." Accurately determining whether predation occurred and, if so, by what species, requires a considerable amount of knowledge and experience....
Discouraging words: Local ranching fades Cattle rancher Jon Rowley tips back the brim of his cowboy hat with a dusty, gloved hand and squints at the Arivaca sky. It's noon, and scattered gray clouds threaten to douse the Santa Lucia Ranch, where he has been rounding up calves since dawn. But the rain holds off, and before sundown Rowley, 64, and his "cowgrampses," as he affectionately calls them, will get 20 or so calves roped, branded, castrated, bug sprayed and dosed with selenium to help fight off a drought-related deficiency. This month Rowley, his wife, two ranch hands and a farmer neighbor will process about 270 calves - half the number the ranch supported before our current drought. In August they will ride across the 39,706 acres they lease from the county, state and federal governments to round up the cattle again to ship them to market. It's the kind of gritty work that puts calluses on your hands, dust in the back of your throat and beef on your table....
It's All Trew: Can you please pass the salt? Let's examine some of the reasons salt is important in history as well. Salt was taxed as far back as the 20th century B.C. in China and was one of the prime movers of national economies and the cause of wars. During the Roman Empire period, the main reason for building the famous cobblestone highways was to enable the caravans to haul salt to the Roman cities. Roman soldiers were partially paid wages with salt, and the word "salary" is still used today. The phrase "worth one's salt," meaning you have earned your wages, also came from this era. Salt played a part in the location and success of many large cities. Timbuktu and Liverpool were places where salt was traded. Salt both created and destroyed empires. The salt mines of Poland led to a vast kingdom only to be destroyed by the Germans developing a sea-salt process that could be processed more cheaply. Venice won success over Genoa in a salt war only to lose again when Columbus discovered America, which had plentiful salt supplies....
Coombs recalls early mining days in Nye Co. The residents of Tonopah and the surrounding area will celebrate Jim Butler Days May 25-28. The annual Memorial Day celebration is the biggest event sponsored by the community and is named in honor of the man who is credited with the discovery of the fabulous deposit of silver and gold that led to the town's creation in 1900. The development of Tonopah, of course, was a seminal event in the history of Nevada -- indeed, in Western America. As I have previously noted, it ushered in the last great flowering of the Old West in the United States. The activity Tonopah generated quickly led to the founding of Goldfield (1902), Rhyolite (1904), Manhattan (1905), Round Mountain (1906), and a long list of smaller boom towns not rooted deeply enough in the desert to long survive the teeth of time, to borrow a phrase from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietszche. Jim Butler was a Belmont rancher and former Nye County district attorney at the time of his Tonopah discovery in May 1900. Jim's wife was Belle, whom he had earlier married after a shootout in Tybo, in which Jim is said to have killed Belle's husband....
A disappearing trail in the West There is an aura that the modern rancher, modern cowboy, if you will, exemplifies — the almost-lost identity of our past, galloping through visions that we try so hard in our dreams and fantasies to hang onto, even if for just a little bit. Ranchers are today what ranchers have always been, sophisticated men of the West who give a sensual and artistic bent to the scenes that we conjure up in our minds. Stetsons creased with care and covered in dust, faded blue jeans tucked into the brightly colored tops of cowboy boots, wild rags tied under chins, rustling in the wind, and all assortment of vests, gloves, spurs and chaps adding the finishing touches to the workaday costume of the tall in the saddle, proud cowboy. These men, like the one with whom I batted ranching philosophy around, are rooted in unflinching traditions and are at uncompromising ease with their roles. They are the guardians of a world from our past, the American West of mythic proportions. It is ironic, if you think about it, that today’s cowboy, the reality of the cattle rancher’s West, is also yesterday’s cowboy, the mythical cattleman of the same American West. We talked horses, some good ones we’ve had, and as we reminisced, the retired cow dog, Tip, circled the truck and remembered, perhaps, the many reluctant cows he’d put through the corral gate, just a short throw from the front of the truck. And as we talked, somberness colored the tone, for the rancher realized, I think, that to unburden himself of the land he had nurtured so faithfully over the years was a sign of letting go, the taking of a tentative step into an unknown world where the answers are even fewer and further apart....
On John Wayne's 100th birthday, we remember the grit A few years ago, Albuquerque's Boyd Magers found himself in a bind while compiling an all-time list of top Western stars for Western Clippings, his magazine about cowboy movies and TV shows. "I kept going back and forth between (singing cowboys) Gene Autry and Roy Rogers for Nos. 2 and 3," Magers said during a phone interview this week. "But there was no question about No. 1. That was John Wayne." Magers said Wayne throws his tall shadow worldwide. "You mention him in Japan and people know him instantly," he said. "It's hard to say why. It's an almost undefinable thing, a kind of chemistry on the screen. "But to me, he epitomizes that manly let's-take-care-of-business attitude that doesn't seem to exist anymore. And the sense that's there's a right and a wrong and no in between." Wayne - Oscar-winning actor, mythic hero, American icon and one tough hombre - was born Marion Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, 100 years ago today. He doesn't look his age. A Harris Poll done this year lists him as the third most popular movie star behind Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks. Not bad for someone who died of stomach cancer in 1979. But legends are not good about lying still....


US on Mad Cow: Don't Test All Cattle The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease. The Agriculture Department tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows. Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too. The Agriculture Department regulates the test and argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry. A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn't have the authority to restrict it. The ruling was to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal _ effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge plays out....